The Sunlit Garden

Hi I’m Gem. I'm many things. I've been studying witchcraft and herbalism for almost two decades, and I'm also a published early career scientist focusing mainly on conservation and animal behaviour. Currently also studying the bardic arts on my path through Celtic paganism and druidry. I run a discord server for herb discussion, which you can join below. Join the Herb Club Discord Server here: https://discord.gg/QmmDRb5urk

[antarctic-arcanine]

If I ever share anything that was AI generated it is purely by accident. I hate that it's getting harder and harder to tell and it makes me want to never use the internet again. It definitely had its faults, but man I miss the internet of the 2000s so much.

[slewfootwitch]

𝔞𝔠𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔦𝔠 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔠𝔥𝔶 𝔱𝔢𝔵𝔱𝔰 𝔦 𝔲𝔰𝔢 (𝔦𝔫𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔞𝔰𝔰 𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔢𝔱 𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔡𝔢 𝔟𝔬𝔬𝔨𝔰)

[Alt Text for Screen Readers: "Academic Witchy Texts I Use (Instead of Mass Market Trade Books)"]

These are certainly not the only academic texts available for those looking to advance past mass-market trade books. This list is just a few of the books that I own and that I have found useful for my own practice. Some of these are specific to my own ancestral practice; some are more generally European.

Witchcraft in Europe , 400-1700: A Documentary History (Kors & Peters)

Witchcraft & Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages (Mitchell)

The Witchcraft Reader (Oldridge)

The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Levack)

Witch Craze: Terror & Fantasy in Baroque Germany (Roper)

Wicked Arts: Witchcraft & Magic Trials in Southern Sweden, 1635-1754 (Per Sorlin)

The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present (Hutton)

The Penguin Book of Witches (Howe)

Witchcraft in Russie & Ukraine, 1000-1900: A Sourcebook (Kivelson & Worobec)

The Witchcraft Sourcebook (Levack)

European Magic & Witchcraft: A Reader (Rampton)

Witchcraft Confessions &Accusations (Douglas)

Witchcraft & Sorcery (Marwick)

Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture & Belief (Berry & Hester)

Witches & Neighbors: The Social & Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (Briggs)

The Voices of Women in Witchcraft Trials: Northern Europe (Willumsen)

Premodern Beliefs & Witch Trials in a Swedish Province, 1669-1672 (Malmstedt)

Cunning-Folk & Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic (Wilby)

Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic (Stanmore)

Tidebast Och Vändelrot: Magical Representations in the Swedish Black Art Tradition (Johnson)

[firewindearthsea]

If you respond to someo excitedly sharing their Chanukah plans with the Jewish people they love by switching the conversation to discussing violence against Jews in detail even once that person asks you to stop because she doesn't want to hear detailed triggering info about people belonging to the same marginalised group as her beloved, you're being a fucking antisemite and also just bloody unkind.

If your only knowledge of a minority group regards violence against them, that says something about you and that something does not flatter your heart or your intellect.

[devilinthebutterchurn-deactivat]

I could mention so many books and scholarly articles on Low Country (Scottish) folk magic, but I don't want to overwhelm beginners or curious seekers. So I've written up a list of books that I personally recommend and no, none of them are New Age or Neo Pagan crap. Please note that some of the books mentioned on the list are rare and hard to come by (they'll likely be expensive too).

I haven't put links to the scholarly papers for copyright reasons, but if you type them on Google Scholar you hopefully should be able to find them.

Note: Pan-British books are included on the list as they do include some Scottish folk magic traditions. **BOOK LIST**

Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland - Joyce Miller (2004)

The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Shamanism and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Scotland: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland - Emma Wilby (2010)

Witchcraft and belief in Early Modern Scotland - Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller (2007)

Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic - Emma Wilby (2005)

Scottish Customs - Sheila Livingstone (1996)

Scottish Customs: From the Cradle to the Grave - Margaret Bennet (1992)

A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800 -  Elizabeth A Foyster, Christopher A. Whatley (2010)

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England - Keith Thomas (1971) **PAPER LIST**

Domestic Medicine in Early Modern Scotland, c. 1650 – c. 1750: Charlotte Holmes

Getting Shot of Elves: Healing, Witchcraft and Fairies in the Scottish Witchcraft Trials: Alaric Hall

Witch, Fairy and Folktale Narratives in the Trial of Bessie Dunlop: Lizanne Henderson

‘Detestable Slaves of the Devil’: Changing Ideas about Witchcraft in Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Lizanne Henderson

‘Devilische Wordis’: Speech as Evidence in Scotland’s Witch Trials, 1563-1736: Sierra Dye

" See ya na yon narrow road?": the search for Elfland in folklore of the Scottish border: M Howard (note: this paper has since disappeared off the internet and I have no way of finding it, despite being able to download it in 2024.)

To converse with the Devil? Speech, sexuality, and witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: Sierra Dye

The Guid Neighbours: Fairy belief in Early Modern Scotland, 1500 - 1800: Lizanne Henderson

The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland: Emma Wilby.

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

some days just have to be bad ones, and that’s okay. they will pass, and there will be better ones.

[firewindearthsea]

Nothing gets your blood pumping in the morning quite like having a massive allergic reaction to the scent of the face scrub you've just rubbed all over your face

[isuggestdemonsummoning-deactiva]

The truth is that if you ever want to advance your practice you need to learn about a lot more than witchcraft. world religions, politics, history, and especially the history of persecution are great places to start. True power comes from knowing the world and how you fit into it. A lot of people only care about the magic part of witchcraft when the learning and researching part is wayyy more important.

You also need skills other than witchcraft. There's botany, since gathering your own plants for spells is an easy way to advance. Reading comprehension is extremely important, every witch should be able to read and understand books like the bible. You need to be skilled in at least one form of creation, wether its cooking, baking, drawing, writing, whittling, literally any skill were you make something. The Act of Creation is extremely powerful and spiritual, and you need to understand how to make something before you learn how to break it.

If you want to advance your craft, you have to advance yourself. Also, its impossible to advance in your craft or your life if your not being honest with yourself. Life is a preformance, but you need to preform only for yourself. You are your own audience, critic, and fan. I feel like there is a epidemic of people who only react to the world instead of acting in the world.

You are how the universe perceives itself, you actively change the universe with your mindset and perspective. I feel like we all have this learned helplessness that we need to follow the path that is expected of us, when Witchcraft is about being the harbinger of chaos. You need to quit listening to people, question literally everything from the politicans to the stars and to the god. The purpose of life is to control the self and by extension the world around you. How can you do that when you are being controlled by something else.

Everyone is always learning, and there is no shame in not being there yet. But, so much of modern witchcraft is so zoomed in that most people don't realize the power you are capable of.

[rosieandthemoon]

[firewindearthsea]

I'd like to invite you all to join me in watching the sun rise on the winter solstice.

It's something I do every year and it's a beautiful way of connecting with the world and welcoming the light back into our lives. .

Wherever you are in the world, get up a little earlier, come join me outside, and let's greet the sun together.

[crazycatsiren]

I love being a cottage witch.

I love being a folk healer.

I love being an herbalist.

I love being a wise woman.

I love traditional medicine.

I love modern medicine.

[millieisawriter]

theoretically speaking, if you had an argument with a victim complex friend and she cried to her almost 50 years old yet emotionally immature, psychic abilities mother, and the mother started cursing you (and now apparently your family) like genuinely putting curses on you and you physically feel it, what should you do? like do i just protect myself and send it back to the source orrrrr should i get creative??

[firewindearthsea]

It depends what you want to achieve and what your beliefs are about karma, the rule of three, reaping what you sow. You definitely need protections putting in place, and there's no harm in mirroring someone's curse at them, but that's not necessarily the best outcome for you or for them since it's not going to make them any less angry or emotionally immature.

There are ways to hurt people that also enable them to grow and become better, and that's the angle I like to take if when I do workings on others. If you curse her and she finds out, she may feel justified and curse you more. If you work on them both experiencing empathy, emotional growth or on having dreams where they see you as you truly are, you may be able to build something that's better.

You've said friend, is she still a friend? Do you want her to be a friend in the future? Do you care about her? Do you feel like you were at fault at all in the argument you had with her? The answers to these questions don't matter to me but they might be helpful in guiding you on how to move forward.

Depending on the answera to those, you may want the third option: to work on them forgetting you and just cutting ties.

[reasonsforhope]

20,000 Pounds of Trash Removed From Pacific Garbage Patch: ‘Holy mother of god. It worked!’

The man who won't rest until the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is cleaned up has successfully tested his system for doing so.

““The Great Pacific Garbage Patch can now be cleaned,” announced Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat, the wonderkid inventor who’s spent a decade inventing systems for waterborne litter collection.

Recent tests on his Ocean Cleanup rig called System 002, invented to tackle the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic pollution, were a success, leading Slat to predict that most of the oceanic garbage patches could be removed by 2040.

Intersections of ocean currents have created the massive floating islands of plastic trash—five slow-moving whirlpools that pull litter from thousands of miles away into a single radius.

The largest one sits between California and Hawaii, and 27-year-old Slat has been designing and testing his systems out there, launching from San Francisco since 2013.

GNN has reported on his original design for the floating device, but his engineering team improved upon it. System 002, nicknamed “Jenny,” successfully netted 9,000 kilograms, or around 20,000 pounds in its first trial.

It’s carbon-neutral, able to capture microplastics as small as 1 millimeter in diameter, and was designed to pose absolutely no threat to wildlife thanks to its wide capture area, slow motion, alerts, and camera monitors that allow operators to spy any overly-curious marine life…

Slat estimates ten Jennies could clean half the garbage patch in five years, and if 10 Jennies were deployed to the five major ocean gyres, then 90% of all floating plastic could be removed by 2040.” -via Good News Network, 10/19/21

[spectroscopic-binary]

Recent update from this org: they’ve launched System 03 (in 2023) and have gone on over 100 expeditions and collected over 1 million pounds of trash! They also are working on cleaning up rivers :)

Oceans | The Ocean Cleanup

We are cleaning up ocean plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Learn more about the technology used and the cleanup progress here.

[ekaisser]

lowkey i’ve been subscribed to The Ocean Cleanup’s email list for like, 7 years now? 8?

they do really good work and their methods for preventing river plastic from entering the ocean are extraordinary. highly suggest looking into their barricade systems that are in place for areas with monsoon seasons; seeing literal tons of plastic get caught and removed before it can even enter the ocean and degrade into microplastics is super inspiring.

[fernthewhimsical]

Write your Witchcraft

The thing is, we change. We are not the same person we were five years ago. Hel, a lot of us are not even the same people we were last week. We change, and our beliefs, favourites, thoughts and the way we see ourselves changes with it. 

The same is true for our witchraft, religion and spiritual beliefs. This is why I have a list of question that I like to answer for myself every couple of years. I first started this when I came across a list of questions by Juniper from Walking the Hedge (site no longer in use) in 2008, yes, over ten years ago. Every few years I filled in the questions and looked back at the answers I gave before. Some never changed, some changed quite a lot. 

When our coven started a new lesson plan, I gave out the list of questions as well. We sealed our answers in envelopes and plan to fill them in again, once we finish our lessons. Then open the envelopes and look at the answers side by side. To see how we have changed. 

I looked at the list last week and found it actually lacking a bit. The questions were very deity- and spiritual based, so I was missing some more questions about my personality and witchcraft. So I decided to make my own list of questions! 

Since I wanted to make this more a weekly journaling/grimoire prompt for myself I put together 52 questions. These can be answered weekly (maybe every year) or you can work through the list in one go and repeat that every few years or so. 

Some notes on the wording: I consider myself both a witch and a pagan, but to keep it easier to read I only used wording like “witch” and “witchcraft”, they can however be substituted for “pagan”, “paganism” or even “my path”, should that fit you better. When I talk about “sacred space” this can both mean a ritual space like a temple or casting of a circle, but also just your home or outdoors witchy environment.

I’d love it if you would tag anything you feel comfortable with posting online with the tag #writeyourwitchcraft!

What draws me to witchcraft?

How do I see the divine?

What in witchcraft makes me happy?

Do I want to follow a path that has to do with a little nature, or a lot of nature?

What areas of witchcraft would I like to learn more about?

Where do my witchy talents lie?

What kind of deities, if any, do I want to honor?

How do I believe magic works?

Simple or elaborate spells/rituals? Why?

What are my views on cursing/hexing?

Do I want to practice something similar to my ancestors?

What are the basic morals and ethics I feel I should live by?

What in nature am I drawn to; the ocean, animals, the trees, etc?

Which (witchy) holidays, if any, would I like to celebrate and how?

How do I believe divination works?

Would I like to work with a group some of the time, all of the time or not at all?

Which aspects of witchcraft appeal to me most, which the least?

What do I believe happens to us when we die?

How do I see mythological creatures?

When do I feel most magical?

How much is witchcraft woven into my daily life; is this too much, too little or just enough?

What kind of witch do I feel I am?

Which texts/quotes best describe my current path?

Do I like research and gathering info, or do I like things handed to me?

Which things about witchcraft worry or scare me?

What is my favourite element?

How do I see gender (roles) in witchcraft?

Am I interested more in magic, or spirituality?

Do I like to be told how to do things, or would I rather figure it out on my own?

What rules, if any, do I live by when it comes to witchcraft and magic?

What do I gain from witchcraft and magic?

Formal or informal rituals/spells? Why?

What subject do I love to study?

What is my favourite type of magic; candle, sympathetic, sigils, etc?

What would my perfect witchy day be like?

Would I want to be dedicated/initiated?

Who do I honor (ex: deities, ancestors, myself, etc), and how do I, or would I like to, honor them?

How do I create a sacred/witchy space?

What do I believe is needed for a succesful spell/ritual?

Which cultures do I draw from in my witchcraft?

What is my learning style; books, websites, videos, more hands-on?

What, if anything, in my mundane life influences my witchcraft?

What are my hobbys, how do I (or can I) incorporate them in my witchcraft?

Where do my non-witchy talents lie, how do I (or can I) incorporate them in my witchcraft?

What would my dream witchy life look like? What steps can I take to work towards it?

What would my dream sacred space/witchy home look like? What steps can I take to work towards it?

What symbols correspond with me; runes, animals, flowers, gemstones, etc?

Am I an open and proud witch, or do I (need to) hide my craft?

What are my favourite witchy items/tools; divination tool, ritual tool, décor, clothing, etc?

What is holding me back in my craft?

What is my pre-spell/ritual routine?

What are my ultimate witchy goals and how can I work towards them?

[willowmoon-92]

I’m trying to write every day so these are good prompts for me to use. I need to reconnect with my path.

[firewindearthsea]

As a child, I desperately longed for a black cat, or a tortoiseshell cat, I could never decide.

As an adult, I now have one of each, and it's even better than I could have ever imagined

[witchescollection]

in criticism of #witchblr being predominantly beginner guides (of which i am a little guilty), here's a little thread of some more advanced witchcraft ideas i've picked up.

if you can't access any of these links lmk!

please reblog with your own! and add links or book recs if you have any.

the passage of time

learn chronokinesis (x)

different philosophical theories of time (x)

pagan ideas of time (x) and nature's time (x)

the spirituality of time (x)

critical understandings of myth

defining myth (x)

modern constructions of myth (x)

what happened to myth? (x)

modern media myth (x)

modern myths and design (x)

american myth and nationalism (x)

british myth and nationalism (x)

european non-classical myth (x)

criticisms of paganism

*these are a collection of criticisms that i found interesting, and worth reflecting on. contrary to what tumblr thinks, there are negatives for (neo)paganism, and blind spots. being aware of them is useful.

is it giving ancient pagans a bad name? (x)

is it a nature religion? (x)

is it theist? (x)

does it allow space for grooming and sexualisation? (x) *note, original essay is no longer accessible, but i think the comments do a decent job explaining.

is it authentic? (x)

is there a secret global neo-pagan movement? (x) *note, probably not, but this article still offers some interesting criticisms despite being a bit... kooky?

what even is paganism? (x)

[a-page-of-cups-tarot]

Girly pop.... you just gave me so much reading to do and I'm so glad. Some of this stuff has a lot to do with what I'm currently working on in my own practice too so this is perfect!

[wyrd-wyrm]

I don’t know who needs to hear this,

There was no universal Scandinavian religion, or Slavic, or Celtic.

They were multiple mini cultures with changing and differing views.

That’s why we have different beliefs on who was the ‘High God’ in the Norse myths and physical evidence that we have left. Tyr, Freyr, Odin; have all been the High God in different cultures. Because people didn’t collect under orthodox and shared religion in a pre Christian world the way they do now.

You can now make a more collective religion, but saying there was always one, is a mistake at best and pseudo history at worst.

[blumineck]

This isn’t a dig at any creators or educators who use Robin Hood to talk about history or connect to the past, but it bugs me when films or TV use Robin in a bland or uninteresting way when he has such potential!

Robin with a posh accent, or Robin as dispossessed nobility, or Robin as a supporter of a good king against a comically moustache-twirling villain all lack the edge of a folk hero from ballads sung by commoners about a man who stood up to the corrupt church and the law to fight for the poor. And that feels like a Robin that would have some things to say about now.

(I did a longer rant about this with a more context on Patreon if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts)