Phenakistoscope Disk - France - c.1835

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@flora-and-found-things
Phenakistoscope Disk - France - c.1835
“I WILL pluck the yarrow fair, That more benign shall be my face, That more warm shall be my lips, That more chaste shall be my speech, Be my speech the beams of the sun, Be my lips the sap of the strawberry. May I be an isle in the sea, May I be a hill on the shore, May I be a star in waning of the moon, May I be a staff to the weak, Wound can I every man, Wound can no man me.”
—
THE YARROW
Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]
Athanasius Kircher, The Labyrinth from Turris Babel, 1679 Via: https://www.lashtal.com/forums/ancient-egypt/the-labyrinth-of-egypt-hall-of-records-etc/
Recipe for New Flesh
Reddening the Bones
The first step is to spend time with the spirit who is to be housed within the…
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Gonna chuck in my link for Blackening too.
This is really interesting, but provides no background, just recipe. Can any explain a bit further the purposes and reasons for this?
Reddening, Blackening…etc. are all methods for coloring bones. The coloration process, when ritualzied, is meant to give new life to them for the purposes of necromantic or other spirit-related work. Depending on how one finds or procures bones they’re often whitened/bleached. There is not a lot of “connection” to the former or future spirit to be housed in them.
It’s often spoken of in traditional Craft works, though (like many other things) little detail is given.
What about found bones? Obv you would need to clean them first. How do you clean them? (I’m on my phone so can’t check your page - so sorry if you’ve already answered this).
Reblogging for future reference.
Taxidermy websites are a great resource for cleaning bones.
We did a whole discussion and demonstration on reddening during the Witches’ Sabbat at Raven’s Knoll last summer, and will likely do it again this year. I’m also seriously considering doing a two part workshop/ritual on the subject of prepping bones for spirit housing (including reddening) at Kaleidoscope Gathering this year. Some things are best taught in person and hands on. Come to Ottawa/ Raven’s Knoll this summer!
Sounds great! I’m actually located in Australia though so it’s a bit far haha and I don’t know anyone who works with bones locally (only feathers of roadkill birds). I’ve been following MsGraveyardDirt (pardon if that url is not quite right) for a few years now and have sorta picked up on a few things but can’t tell if all the steps in her process are necessary or are ritually significant.
It’s mostly tendons I have a problem with. Everything else seems to be eaten by the time I find anything - although I’d love to start working with whole animals.
So many questions! X
Here’s a few good resources for bone prep. I’m partial to taxidermy books, for good professional advice. Which steps are ritualized kind of depends on you, and the critter you’re working with. I kinda ritualize the entire process.
http://www.aviandesigntaxidermy.com/savides2/HowToPrepare/go
http://www.wildnorthtaxidermy.com/taxidermy-preparation/ http://bone-lust.blogspot.ca/
http://boneshoppe.blogspot.ca/2011/07/cleaning-animal-skulls-basic-taxidermy.html
The Complete Guide to Small Game Taxidermy: How to Work with Squirrels, Varmints, and Predators by Todd Triplett
Home Book of Taxidermy and Tanning by Gerald Grantz
Hmmm maybe I should make a helpful links and books list on my website…
‘Imago and Spiritus’
“The concept that certain objects contain and emanate magical power, sometimes given the name Fetishism, is ancient and has assumed myriad forms. The image-making powers of sorcery, and its attendant set of rites, are also encompassed by this secular term. Veneration of such objects as divine, termed 'idolatry' in the Abrahamic religions, has variously been viewed as a sin, error, crime, abomination or heresy. In contrast, from the perspective ofthe practitioner of image-magic, the concepts regarded by outsiders as fetishism and idolatry are part of a greater complex of magical knowledge and practices which permits varied levels of engagement with spirituous power. Whether such wyrd-infused images emanate bane or blessing, it is their sacrality of origin and use, transcendent of external definition, which, in part, elevates their power.
Witchcraft, because of its syncretic nature, partakes of multiple infusions of traditional image-making lore, including not only sorcery and religious iconography, but also the sciences, astrology, medicine, craftsmanship, the fine arts and magical ontologies closely resembling totemism. However, because much of its magical images are used privately, and indeed are created for a limited set of viewers, they participate in a concentrated alembic of exposure wherein all who experience them do so principally in the context of magical practice and devotion. This intensity of private magical interaction provides a locus which enables the image to transcend its medium - and indeed that fetish known as 'icon' - and generates living numen. This is one essential distinction between images made by practicing sorcerers, and images made about them, from those outside their arena of magical operation.
In using the term witchcraft, I refer here not merely to the deeds ofwitches as imagined by the Christian Inquisitor or classic anthropologist literature , where such were defined purely as magical malefactors. Rather, in addition to the ideas accreted to the historical form of the maledictus, I speak of the art of the sorcerer, usually rural or marginal to society, who holds traffic with spirits and makes use of both healing and harming spells. This zone of definition penetrates many eras, and milieus, including juridical, heresiological, literary and artistic. Of greater import than all of these to our study are the actual practices exacted by these historical practitioners, which are preserved as archaeological remains - and in the teachings and practices of the modern inheritors of these magical traditions.
The modern occult embodiment of traditional witchcraft, itself a reclusive and tightly knit body of practitioners whose practices relate to those of the historical cunning-folk, is also an inheritor of a number of traditions of image-magic. Consisting of small groups preserving teachings of archaic rural magic, these traditions are taught orally, passed from master or mistress to apprentice, in a direct person-to-person means of initiatic transmission. Though rooted in the past, this corpus of magic adapts to the present, and is self conscious of an envisioned magical future. As an initiate of these traditions, this body of knowledge, in part, informs my understanding of these subjects as expressed in the present treatise.
Scholarly investigations of image-magic in witchcraft have focused largely upon figures used for malediction. This is often because of the tendency of many researchers to define witchcraft principally as malevolent sorcery. In addition many such images, as a consequence of their purpose, were fated to become part of the archaeological record, sealed in walls, thrown into wells and springs, and in humed under earth. The waxen image, seal inscribed parchment, and curse-mommet have all been the subject of scrutiny, and recur in varied permutations in historical manuals of witchcraft and grimoires. Many such images are deemed crude in their craftsmanship, at least by the standards of art history, contributing to their lay perception as objects of ignorance and superstition, or, at best, 'folk art'. The exemplar of the sheep's heart, pierced with hawthorn spines and nailed to a door as a spell to stop gossip, is a case in point.
Aesthetically, some lesser-known witchcraft images would seem to display precisely the opposite characteristics. One ofthe most striking objects of this kind on record, referenced in Ewen’s Witchcraft and Demonianism, comes from an illustrated parchment found in 1606 in the chest of a Hertfordshire witch. It bore a central image of a human heart, from which radiated "very curiously divided braunches, on which hung dangling things like ashen keys'', as well as delicately elaborated arterial termini detailing very specific portions of human anatomy. The owner of the parchment admit ted to its use for sending magic to cause bodily harm, much in the same manner as a thorn-pierced effigy. This example reveals a high degree of imaginal complexity in the origina tion ofwitch-imagery, and an almost scientific, or empirical, approach to cursing.
Enchanted Images of witchcraft praxis often serve a strictly sorcerous function, being vehicula of spell-craft and manifestation, as opposed to the veneration of a spirit or god, a dynamic more often present in religion. The large number of Mandrake charms extant in folk magic, where the natural or carved root is used as a fetish, bear witness to this. Mandrake sorcery may be considered a specialization of both image-magic and herbalism, historically found in witchcraft and cunning-folk practice, but also in alchemy and ceremonial magic. The pattern common to all is the Art of image magic, the Fetish serving as the embodiment of sorcerous desire, or as the manifest form of a familiar or Magistellus.
Cunning-folk traditions, and surviving cor pora of charming practice, have within their communities an advanced set of images and regalia which exemplify a confluence ofspirit veneration and magical utility. Many of these objects can be found conserved in such places as the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle Corn wall, and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. The Cornish charmer Cecil Williamson, whose training intersected some patterns of cunning folk practice, was an adept maker of magical images, and several of his talismanic seals, composed for the concentration of specific energies, still reside at the Museum. There is also a series of photographs taken of Williamson demonstrating the grave art of making a curse poppet.
Similarly, some modern traditional witch craft groups, drawing on the roots of their tra ditional cunning-folk practices, reckon the holed stone or 'hagstone' as a repository of feminine power, its central hollow having been formed by the forces ofnature and serving as a simulacrum of the lumen ofthe Goddess ofthe Sabbat. Likewise the witch regards the 'Stone God', an oblong stone naturally shaped like the membrum virile, as the telluric embodiment of phallic virtue, and used as a surrogate for the God during rites of sexual magic. Their respective magical uses encompass the power of the Holy Icon, but importantly also serve as the sexual surrogate during ecstatic rites where the witch 'mounts the gods'. In this transcendental state of carnal reverie, Object and Spirit are co-identified and the boundaries between their states ofidentity are effectively eradicated. The state of physical alienation thus generated by transposing the sexual act from the realm of the human-relational into the realm of 'Other' assists in incepting a magical consciousness ofpraeter-sexuality.
The Richel-Eldermanns Collection, an assemblage of ritual objects and drawings residing in the previously-mentioned Museum of Witchcraft, presents one ofthe most potent examples of image-magic in the modern European magical traditions. While clearly linked to the arcana ofthe sex-magic practices of the modern magical orders 0.T.O. and A:.A:., there is also a strong and persistent component of rural cunning-craft and witch-iconography which is grafted, in varying degrees, to complex ceremonial formulæ. Part of this collection is a series of skillfully-carved wooden hands and genitalia, some united with sigillic forms such as pentagrams to form enigmatic magical regalia. Given the uniquity of the images, as well as the detail with which they were produced, it is reasonable to surmise they were ritually-hallowed anatomical simulacra of initiates of the sexual magic order Ars Amatoria (of which Eldermanns was Magister) or, perhaps the more obscure M:.M:. The collection, when considered as a whole, is a sound exemplar of a unified iconography within a magical order, but one arising from diverse pathways of magical aesthesis via the hands of many different artists and practitioners.
Ritual veneration of images - or eidolatria - is challenging to document in historical witchcraft practice; many such images or figures are presumably concealed within cultic shrines, or as heirlooms in private collections. The so-called Hendy Head of Anglesey, a face carved of red sandstone in the manner of other ancient Celtic heads of the region, is in present times by cultic rites similar to some forms of image-veneration in traditional witchcraft. We may also consider the wandering head of Atho, a horned countenance carved of oak originally in the custodianship of English witchcraft practitioner Raymond Howard, since stolen. This large effigy, bearing some resemblance to the Dorset Ooser of Dorchester, is carved [in] a rustic and eldritch fashion evocative of the Janicot, the horned witches' god. Though it was later revealed the Atho head did not possess the antiquity. Howard initially claimed, the rites of its veneration, its curious symbolism, the magnetic folklore surrounding it, and its sudden disappearance present a fascinating example of twentieth-century image-magic in the Craft. More recently, witch-iconography present in Andrew Chumbley's grimoire Azoëtia utilizes several ancient magical visual grammars, notably the stele of the Near Eastern and Mayan religions of antiquity; images of the Witch-guardians or 'Passionate Retinue' in Chumbley's Dragon-Book of Essex most closely approximate polytheistic iconography.
While the ritual veneration of images is often associated with religion, its practice in witchcraft is often compounded with other magical techniques that classify it as sorcery, or, at the least as part of a cult of spirit-congress. In the witchcraft Traditions ofthe Cultus Sabbati, the figure of Cain is one example of such image veneration which may be publicly documented. However, if one puts aside the images and artifacts of modern witchcraft orders - even those capable demonstrating some degree of historical linkage with the cunning folk magic and popular sorcery prior to the twentieth century - the preponderance of evidence for magical images in association with magical images in association with witchcraft lies in their magical use, rather than in their veneration. This does not, however, negate their status as images of power.
Some years ago, whilst sojourning in the West Country, I was shown an imagic object of alleged cultic worship and witchcraft practice which, according to its present steward, had been used in this manner by fellow adepts of that tradition for ten generations. Indeed, the particulars of the item would place its manufacture in England, somewhere between the late sixteenth century and the early nineteenth century, a span of 150 years, and precisely the period from which some modern traditional witchcraft lineages in Britain claim descent. Upon examination, it was clear the object had been both ritually venerated and well cared for, but this no more proves its history as an image-artifact of witchcraft than any magical anecdote which cannot be independently confirmed. However, it was also evident that, whatever the facts of the idol's history truly were, there was no doubt of its owner's conviction in these matters, nor of its present power of imagic fascination.”
—
Idolatry Restor’d:
Witchcraft and the Imaging of Power
Chapter 1: ‘Imago and Spiritus’
by Daniel A. Schulke
To cause a man impotence
What you’ll need; * A carrot, full sized * A knife or carving tool * Three pins or nails * Hemlock oil, flowers of hemlock could be substituted, as well as other Saturnian herbs. * A free Saturday On a saturday (day of Saturn), pick the hemlock plant, and if you order, only use the herb on a saturday. Hemlock is a poisonous plant, so take precautions, and is Saturnian in nature, being good for paralyzing and cursing. Communicate with the wight (spirit) of the plant to bless you, as Saturnian plants are powerful. Take the carrot and carve the targets name with a knife, and name the carrot after the target, referring to the carrot and speaking to it as if it was the person. Anoint the oil on the carrot, or lay the flowers upon the carrot and say this while driving the nails/pins into the carrot: So be your raging lust, wild and free But hampered your ability to sate yourself One for the blood running through your loins Two for the the desire that you need let out Third shall stop you from releasing yourself Then hide or bury the carrot somewhere, preferably the next morning.
Magical seals from Viridarium Umbris by Michael Schulke
Classical Language Learning Masterpost
I’m not studying any Greek or Roman this coming year (I sacrificed intro classical languages for gender & history), but I will be doing a Roman history module and engaging with the language is always useful. I know a few people who have been looking for Greek/Latin learning resources, which is how this list came about. It includes MOOCs, youtube videos and websites. Not really knowing much Latin or Greek I can’t vouch for them 100% but my googling skills are pretty on point, so they should be okay. Feel free to correct me or add to this.
Latin
Getting started on classical Latin
Duration 10 hours
Introductory level
This free course, Getting started on classical Latin, has been developed in response to requests from learners who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves. The course will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning Latin and will offer you the opportunity to put in some early practice.
Continuing classical Latin
Duration 4 hours
Intermediate level
This free course, Continuing classical Latin, gives you the opportunity to hear a discussion of the development of the Latin language.
FLVS Latin
As we build our Via Latina, we will travel back to ancient Rome. On our travels we learn about their culture, history and literature.
National Archives: Beginner’s Latin
Welcome to the beginners’ Latin tutorials. These lessons cover the type of Latin used in official documents written in England between 1086 and 1733. This can be quite different from classical Latin, as used by the Ancient Romans.
Learn Latin
Here are two dozen short lessons on learning Latin designed for “mountain men” (and women: montani montanaeque), engineers, philosophers, and anyone else looking for entertainment and with lots of free time by the campfire. My course is quite different from Peter Jones’ Learn Latin (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1997), but it is just as devoted to interesting you in Latin.
Learn Latin (Learn101)
I would like to welcome you to the Latin lessons. I’m here to help you learn Latin, by going step by step. All the lessons contain audio and are all offered for free.
The London Latin Course
170 videos
Learn Latin from the ground up. This is a serial course, structured to bring you to a high level of Latin fluency. The pace is slow and unhurried. This course is suitable for all ability levels. Restored Classical Pronunciation.
Latin Online
Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture.
Latin Excercises
Welcome to UVic’s practice exercises for Wheelock’s Latin (6th edition). There are 40 units comprising many hundreds of exercises to help you consolidate your progress in the classroom and with the textbook.
Ancient Greek
Introducing Ancient Greek
If you are starting to learn Ancient Greek, this site is for you! This site will help you prepare for a Beginner’s Ancient Greek course.
Classical Greek Online
Greek has been important in the intellectual life of western civilization, but not to the extent of Latin except for ecclesiastical matters. In years past, Latin was introduced in the first year of High School, followed by Greek in the third year.
Ancient Greek Online
This site was designed to be a learning environment for students as well as a reading room for scholars. The large print Greek is easy on the eyes. The Internet has returned us to the scrolling method of reading texts, which lends itself particularly well to the project at hand.
Teach Yourself Ancient Greek
The material presented here will be of use to anyone beginning ancient Greek, but is specifically designed to accompany our book.
Ancient Greek Grammar
103 videos
Including pronunciation tips. I haven’t personally watched this and there’s no real description, but it looks pretty comprehensive from what I can see.
Greek & Latin
Introducing the Classical world
Duration 20 hours
Intermediate level
How do we learn about the world of the ancient Romans and Greeks? This free course, Introducing the Classical world, will provide you with an insight into the Classical world by introducing you to the various sources of information used by scholars to draw together an image of this fascinating period of history.
Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin
Duration 12 hours
Intermediate level
The free course, Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin, gives a taste of what it is like to learn two ancient languages. It is for those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed.
Textkit
Textkit began in late 2001 as a project to develop free of charge downloads of Greek and Latin grammars, readers and answer keys. We offer a large library of over 180 of the very best Greek and Latin textbooks.
“A list of the shared characteristics that faeries of European nations almost always possess:
1) Spinning and weavings
2) Associated with megaliths
3) Beautiful, with hair flowing freely
4) Combing the hair with golden comb
5) Changeling children
6) Taking mortals away
7) Being taken away by mortals, sometimes by the theft of a skin or feathered garment
8) The circle dance-often with fairy ring, sometimes mushrooms. This feature is less discernible in the English-speaking material available from the Basque province where they are instead associated with "faerie holes" that are doorways in hedges. Though a closer analysis by a Basque speaker may yield different results.
9) Wearing white or green. If not in these colours they may be naked
10) Associated with forests, bodies of water, hollow hills or mountains
11) Shapeshifting, particularly into birds or possessing bird feet or wings. If not this then some oddity like a hollow back, or other abnormality will be found somewhere on their body
12) The liking for milk and clean houses
13) Usually nocturnal or associated with threshold times like twilight and dawn, in-between states
14) Closely associated with Fate and the ability to control the fortune of worthy humans
15) Honesty is valued, they may like True Thomas possess the "tongue that cannot lie"
16) Time is skewed and back to front once you enter Faerie
17) If you eat or speak there you must stay forever
18) Singing and Music
19) Elf-shot
20) Ambivalent moral character.
21) Sleeping near one of their trees, mounds or rivers is potentially dangerous
22) More females than males, female-appearing creatures often in charge
Here are some shared narrative features that come up frequently but are not quite so prevalent:
1) Importance of the faerie's true name
2) Small or changeable stature
3) Inverse emotional behaviour laughing/crying
4) A need of mortals for certain services involving birth, sex and death, especially in the Celtic and Basque regions
5) Things other than emotions held in reverse, such as gifts of gold are ashes, ashes can be gold.
6) Bells and processions of light such as carrying candles
7) Having an ointment that can make mortals see them but may blind those to whom they haven't given permission
8) Dislike of iron
9) Respond badly to being mimicked, mocked or watched without their knowledge
10) May own fairy cattle which are never dry of milk
11) May tell you not to look back when you leave their presence
12) May cause elf locks in horse's manes
13) May be associated with crossroads
14) A faerie garment may give you control over them”
Sounds of Infinity,
—by Lee Morgan
The Elder-Mother
The Elder Mother is an arboreal guardian figure in British, Germanic, and Scandinavian folklore, known by various names, such as the Danish Hyldemoer ("Elder Mother") and the Lincolnshire names Old Lady or Old Girl. She is known as the protector of the Elder Trees, as well as the one who guards the door to the Otherworld—realm of the Faerie and/or the Dead. As such, she is associated with some of the darker mysteries and magics, especially in relation to the cycles of life, death and rebirth. Until relatively recently in Scandinavia and the UK, it was widely believed that if one harvested wood from an Elder Tree without permission from the Elder Mother, they would suffer misfortune at her hands. In order to gain her consent, the wood-cutter was required to address the Elder Mother by chanting or singing a particular promise: "Old girl, give me some of thy wood and I will give thee some of mine when I grow into a tree." This simple vow refers to the potentiality for growth and renewal offered through death, as the decaying of the body gives way to the enrichment of the natural environment that serves as its final resting place. One such story of the Elder Mother's retribution recounts the mother of a sick child saying : “It were all along of my maister’s thick ‘ead. It were in this ‘ow't’ rocker comed off t'cradle, and he hadn’t no more gumption than to mak’ a new ‘un out on illerwood (elder wood) without axing the Old Lady’s leave, and in course she didn’t like that, and she came and pinched the wean that outrageous he were a’most black in t’ face; but I bashed un off, and putten an eshen on, and the wean is gallus as owt agin."
Bearing such an intimate connection to the Otherworld, Elder is widely considered one of the Faerie trees. In Denmark, it was said that if a person stood beneath an Elder tree, wearing a crown of Elder on May Eve, they would be able to commune with the Other Realm and see the Faerie and the spirits of the Dead. According to a similar, Scottish tradition, it was said that if you stood beneath an Elder on the eve of Samhain, you would be able to see the Elven Monarchs and their hosts of Elves. However, while the Elder is intimately linked to the Faerie Faiths, it is also closely connected to the lore of witches.
A different tale, from Northamptonshire, tells of a man who cut a switch from the branch of an Elder, only to see that the tree was oozing blood. Later that day, upon meeting the local witch, he notices that her arm is newly dressed with a bloody bandage.
Another story casts the Elder Mother, not only as an Arboreal Witch, but as the morally ambiguous heroine of the tale. She is credited in the tale with rescuing Britain from being conquered by a foreign king and his cavalry. This also serves as an origin myth for how the Rollright Stones, rest along the Oxfordshire / Warwickshire border, came to be. As the king and his knights made their way to Long Compton, they came across the witch, who told the king:
“Seven long strides thou shalt take,
And if Long Compton thou shalt see,
King of England thou shalt be."
The king went onwards though, saying:
"Stick, stock, stone
As King of England I shall be known."
However, when the King's made his seventh stride, a hill rose up before him, preventing him from seeing Long Compton. The witch spoke to the king and his men once again, saying:
"As Long Compton thou canst not see
King of England thou shalt not be.
Rise up stick and stand still stone
For King of England thou shalt be none;
Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be
And I myself an Eldern tree."
And so, the king and his knights were turned to stone and the witch turned herself into an Elder Tree.
Yet another tale, from Somerset, describes the Elder Mother as a malevolent witch who is seen by a farmer, in the form of an Elder Tree, milking his cows. The farmer shoots a silver bullet at the witch, but misses, and is forced back into his home. However, the old grandmother of the household is able to save them all by taking a burning ember from the hearth with a shovel, and throwing it at the Elder Tree, which burns to ashes.
art credit
Unbinding Spell (Knot-Magic)
Take a length of twine and make small simple knots around nine fingers, I avoided the ring finger because in my case it’s already bound. Alternatively for more oomph you could knot around each of your ankles, then your wrists, your big toes, your thumbs, and your head. Each time slip the knot off before tightening it completely around “nothing”. In the end you should have a length of twine with nine knots. (Do not lose this twine, it is a magical representation of you until you finish the spell and give it it’s purpose.) Take the twine with nine knots and recite this while one by one untying the knots: You have had me bound, Knotted up, but no longer Your fetters I have found My will has grown stronger I undo by nine, and bind your spell to this twine I unfasten by eight, I turn back your hate I unwind by seven, this weight gone my spirits leaven I untwist by six, I am on to your tricks I unbind by five, your magic shall not thrive I unmake by four, your craft harms me no more I unravel by three, your curse turned back to thee I unknot by two, your spell is through I untie by one, your work is undone - Take the unknotted twine and burn it.
A writeup on my most recent try on ABAXACATABAX charms:
I’m reuploading this with additions. I DO NOT intend this to be a How To post. I’m just wanting to share what I did as well as possible expansions since it’s a pertinent time.
Intended Use: Driving out (and protecting from) all sickness and illness for my immediate family members and I. Particularly to help fight against the virus going around. I feel that this charm can be very versatile in application, so I decided to test how it’d work for this situation.
(From Folk Witchcraft, Roger Horne)
Result Findings/Thoughts, My Procedure, Etc.:
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Keep reading
Cups of Fortune; Cups of Loss
Sometimes, I’m approached and asked to do something that witches and folk magicians have been doing for ages. I’m asked to glimpse into someone’s life, both past and future. I usually tell them the same thing; to come have tea with me. We sit and drink and chat. Sometimes in anticipation, they down their cup quickly. I look into it and see a story. I tell them a tale and they go on their way. Despite not being as popular these days, reading by tea leaves has been one of my favorite methods of divination for a long time. It’s old fashioned, quaint, and yet still deeply mystical. We think of little old women sipping on cups set atop saucers in a warm kitchen. We think of old wooden tables lined with thin lace fabric. We think of the prospects hidden among a bunch of wet leaves at the bottom of a cup. This is folk magic. I was taught to do it in a very simple way. For whomever you are to read, they will drink from the cup at least once. It’s better if they drink the whole cup, but it isn’t necessary. The drinking helps to bring messages. The person will think of what they wish to know as they sip. If it is a general glance over their life, they may relax and simply sip. The tea will be drunk until a shallow puddle of water and leaves lay at the bottom. At that point, they will swish their cup three times, lay the saucer above the cup, grip them together, and flip them quickly. The cup shall be left turned for several minutes until all water has drained away. After drying, the cup’s prospects are revealed. The reader will look across the cup, making out symbols and narratives. They will interpret them to their own views. No book or symbol dictionary will tell the tale better. Let the words spill out of your mouth like the tea from the cup. Let their fate come from you. Tell their tale. Sometimes, when the message isn’t clear, another form of divination can be paired with it. Making out signs from smoke, from flames, or water can help to clarify the fortune in the cup. Don’t be afraid to be honest. Some fates are bad. Some fates are tragic. These too have to spill from the mouth, or the person might be blindsided by something they might’ve avoided. Cups of losses can be of as much use as cups of fortune. There are many fates to be told at a kitchen table. A story of heartbreak and rage plays itself across the blue painted porcelain. A sordid tale of a mischievous love affair ensues in a terra cotta mug. A future of great wealth and gain spills itself over the saucer. A budding friendship blooms under a glass stein. Whether a cup of fortune or a cup of loss, will you drink a cup of fate?
Elder Berry Mead
Growing up my grandmother taught my cousins and I to forage in the woods by her house, we would mostly collect berries and some mushrooms, one thing that she always enjoyed making from our findings was Elder Berry Mead.
To make one gallon of mead, you need about a gallon bag full of elderberry clusters (do not use dried elderberry). Freeze the berries, and then thaw them; this makes stripping the stems off easier and also starts the process of breaking down the berries. Strip all the stems off from the berries and place the prepared berries in a medium stoneware crock. Take 2-3 pounds of honey and about three quarts of water, put them on a stove under low-medium heat (as high heat will strip certain enzymes from the honey), and stir until all the honey dissolves. Now add the water honey mix to the crock and stir. *This is when you can add some spices if you wish. The best spices for this are; orange peel, allspice berries, cinnamon chips, whole cloves or star anise. (I always think it is best to add them in later since you could easily overpower the entire batch) Wait until the mead is completely cool (usually overnight) and sprinkle wine yeast on top of the mixture and wait 15 minutes before stirring it all in. Now cover the stone crock with a linen cloth that is tied and rubber banded to both sides. (this is done to keep fruit flies out) Stir this mixture twice a day for ten days straight. After ten days filter and fill a clean GLASS gallon jug and fit with an airtight cap. Store the jug(s) in a place not to hot and not too cold for six months. If you have a basement put the jug(s) in a corner with a cloth over it. After six months, you will want to transfer the liquid from the jugs into wine bottles, and wait a year before drinking.
This mead is an appropriate offering for spirits, a very good offering for ancestors during Samhain, especially during dumb suppers, and good for works in divination. I very much enjoy this drink during the winter months As Always -Robin
Dreaming Folklore
A few selections of my favorite superstitions and pieces of folklore from the Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore and the Occult Sciences of the World. Volume 1. Cora Linn Daniels and C. M. Stevans.
Without further ado…
In Germany, the nightmare is believed to be a spectral being which places itself on the breast of the sleeping, depriving them of the power of utterance or motion. If one puts on inherited gloves and seizes it, he can hold it fast.
In Windham, Maine, as well as in other parts of our country, exists the belief that nightmare is caused by the nightmare man, a kind of evil spirit striving with one. It is prevented by placing a sharp knife under the pillow, and stuffing the key-hole with cotton.
In Lancashire the peasants fancy that the nightmare comes in the form of a dog, and in order to frustrate its influence, they place their shoes under the bed, toes upward.
The ancients believed that a nail drawn from a sepulchre and placed on the threshold of the chamber door, would keep away nightmare.
An incantation to prevent nightmare is a “spell song,” of which the Shetlanders have no end. This especial spell-song has been almost an inaccessible treasure and several authors of note have done their best to procure the whole of it, only two lines having been secured for many years, but fortunately it is now obtained, and is probably one of the oldest “spell-songs” of any nation. It runs as follows:
“Arthur Knight He rade a’ night, Wi’ open swird An’ candle light. He sought da mare, He fan da mare, He bund da mare, Wi’ her ain hair! An’ made da mare To swear! ‘At she would never Bide a’ night Whar ever she heard O’ Arthur Knight.”
A charm against nightmares:
“St. George, St. George, our lady’s knight, He walked by day and he walked by night Until such time as he she found; He she beat and he she bound Until her troth she to him plight, She would not come to him that night.”
A New England correspondent writes: “Now, when you go to bed, you just smell your stockings when you take ‘em off. That’s all you’ve got to do, and you won’t hev no more nightmare, I’ll warrant you.”
If a person slept with a Bible under his head, it would prevent the witches from troubling him and giving him bad dreams. (Ohio)
It was believed in ancient times that the evil following horrid dreams might be averted by telling them to the sun.
If you have bad dreams, go to bed with a steel thimble on your finger.
If you are afraid you will dream of some bug-bear you have in mind say to yourself, “I will dream of that tonight.” Then you will not dream.
If you are awakened by fearful dreams, make the sign of the cross on your breast, and it will put the midnight terrors to flight.
Burn hazelnuts and do up the ashes in packages. These placed under the pillow will insure happy dreams.
Young men place a hard black root under their pillows in midsummer, so that they may dream of themselves, and thus prognosticate their fortunes.
An amulet allied to dreaming is made by taking twigs or bits of small boughs from an oak tree (in England, mountain ash). Bind two of these so as to make a cross, or lay them across one another on the table, or stand by your bed, and repeat, before going to sleep:
“It is not oak which here I place, But good fortune by its grace, May it never pass away, But ever in my dwelling stay.”
Tie a true-lover’s knot of shavings and place it under the pillow. You will dream of your lover, even it, at that time, he is unknown to you. (Newfoundland.)
If you awake from a sweet dream and you wish to dream it over again, turn your head where your heels ought to be, and falling asleep you will dream it again. (Russia.)
When you sleep for the first time in a house, count the beams, and your dreams will come true.
If you dream any dream three times, particularly as regards water, traveling, or any particular business, heed the providential warning.
Whatever you dream the first 12 nights in January, will represent, symbolically or literally, the events that will happen to you during the 12 respective months of the year. So if you keep a record of those dreams, you will have a clear warning of what will happen.
Incorporating natural cordage into witchcraft
Natural cordage is easy, quick, and an amazing component to make. It can easily add a boost to any spell requiring string or rope.
What you shall do:
1: Grab two plant fibers and twist the one on top away from you.
2: Fold the the top fiber on top of the bottom fiber, therefore bringing the bottom fiber to the top.
3: Do the same with the bottom fiber, now on top, and continue to do this repetitive gesture until the desired length of cordage is made.
Cordage and uses:
Thistle: For this one, you want to grab the thistle plant, and remove the leaves and fruit. Be careful, as those are pretty spiky. Wear gloves if needed. Then, you want to grab a blunt object and hit the stem hard enough for the fibers to start separating, but not hard enough for them to break. Thistle can be used for binding, or to put up a spiky ward.
Nettle: Same method as above. Use this one for any curses, or hexes you want to perform.
Grass: Pretty self explanatory, grab the grass blades and twist them into a string. Grass can be used for spirit work, especially sweetgrass, or to make witch’s ladders.
Dogbane: Harvest the plant after its seed pods have developped. You want to scrape the outer bark off and then start gently pressing the plant until it starts seperating. At this point you may want to roll it betweem you palms and get the fibers out. Dogbane can be used for spirit work, protection, or keeping someone or something at bay.