For my honouredst and dearest, Persephone

Blog dedicated to my Goddess, Persephone. Gray | 19 | they/them | Visit my side @smallwiccawitch for Witchcraft- and Wicca-posts!

[magicalembers]

Wearable Spell Jars

Deity Jars

The idea of spell jars is no new concept, and this may be an idea done before, but I wanted to spread it out there for the new witchlings who would like to find another way to be with their deities!

Now why the loop in these jars? This is so you can wear the jar as a necklace, attach as a keychain, or hang up somewhere! These small jars are easy to hide for witches that are still in secret, and portable! I recommend wearing them when asking for a deity’s help, as well as when you are performing actions you want to dedicate to the deity! For example, when I am gardening, I would wear or keep close my Gaea jar to dedicate it to her. This can also be applied to spirit companions!

What you need

Miniature jar with metal loop in the cork (you can put in the metal loop yourself if need be)

Objects associated with the deity

Candle (optional)- color depends on the deity; if no candle, use hot glue to seal the jar

Incense/scented spray associated with the deity (optional)

Chain/cord/thick string to thread the loop

How to make the jars

While working on the jar, light a candle in honor of the deity you are making the jar for. If you can’t, that’s ok- incense or a spray works or you can even ignore this step. Pray to your deity to let them know what you are doing. These miniature jars can be found in craft stores, with the loop already in, in the jewelry-making section. If you have trouble finding them, you can stick a thicker wire in the cork of a miniature jar and use jewelry pliers to create the loop yourself! If you do so, I do recommend bending the other end to secure the wire in. Put the anything you associate your deity with into the jar. You can put little charms, miniature objects, herbs, gem chips, and so forth! I will list a few examples/recipes of my own. What’s important is that these are items that made you think of them- found or bought doesn’t matter. When you have finished putting in the objects, put on the cork and seal the jar with the candle wax from the candle you lit. If you were unable to light a candle, some hot glue will work just fine. Let the wax/glue cool. If you lit a candle, let it burn down with the jar placed near it. Thread the jar with some thick string, chain, or leather cord. There you go, all done!

Here are a few of my own recipes:

Aphrodite Jar

1 seashell

2 apple seeds

1 rose quartz bead/chip

2 myrrh pieces

2 small jasmine flowers

A pinch of lavender

Sealed with pink candle wax

Hestia Jar

Pinch of ash (mine came from a campfire I dedicated to her)

Pinch of lavender

Magic purple basil

2 dragon’s blood resin pieces

1 jasmine blossom

2 amethyst beads

1 garnet bead

Sealed with purple candle wax

Gaea Jar

1 rose quartz bead

1 green fluorite bead

1 sandalwood bead

2 pieces myrrh resin

Lavender pinch and sprig

Magic purple basil leaves

Pinch of dirt from my garden

Sealed with green candle wax

Note: Many ways to substitute. Any crystals or stones will do. I decided to represent nature in different forms: leaves, resin, wood, flower. You can also include a root of some sort. Gaea is nature all around us, so representing her in a bottle can be very diverse.

[upthewitchypunx]

You keep asking me how to befriend crows, so here is your answer.

First, you have to find the crows. If the crows don’t live there you probably won’t find them. Second, you must remember that while they are urban wildlife that have lived near humans for millennia, they are still wild life and are to be respected and not to be commanded or captured. Crows do not owe you anything. They don’t owe you friendship and they don’t owe you their secrets.

I live in Portland, Oregon. We have crows the same way some cities have pigeons, they are everywhere and I love them. Ian B and I had serious conversations 5 or 6 years ago when I first wanted to get to know the crows in our neighborhood about how smart they are and how I shouldn’t give them peanuts all the time because they would identify me and become demanding.

Crows love peanuts, unsalted and in the shell. They will also eat all sorts of scraps. I saw one dragged a discarded taco bell bag down the street. Cat or dog food is good good too. Here’s an article with the top 10 best and worst things to feed crows.

I first started feeding them on a specific corner half a block away so as to not use my house as a the base. I saw that they would hang out on power lines and I would jingle my keys or make a specific sound with my mouth and then leave the peanuts on the corner curb. Crows will notice patterns so I gave them a patters of sound and place to associate with the peanuts. Crows are incredibly bold and at times daring, but they are very wary of new things. Give them some time for them to associate you with the treats. Once they associate you with the peanuts they could become curious about you as a friendly human.

I have met several generations of these crows and they have brought me gifts of small trinkets. They hang out on the wall across from my house and they hang out on the power lines while I work in the yard. My indoor/outdoor cat is afraid of them, but the crows have learned to leave him alone. I’ve gone outside with JackieCat and scooped him up to show the crows that I can handle the cat.

I work about a mile from my house and when walk or ride my bike to work I know each different family of crows along the way. They all have distinct personalities and even variations in their calls. Some are more chatty or aggressive or playful. One of them will fly right next to me down the street when I ride my bike. With each generation the younger crows are taught that I am a friend and source of food. I love their goofy awkward “feed me” calls as they are learning how to be a crow. You can spot young crows because there is still a pink webbing where their beak meets and they will beg for food from parents or helpers because that was how they were fed in the nest.

 Listen to their calls and see if you can distinguish between alarm calls or friendly calls. Crows are also capable of mimicking sounds. They could mimic the sound you make. I’ve even heard one mimic a dog bark to a dog when it got too close to a peanut!

Watch the crows. see their family dynamics. The crows will also be watching you. Do not trick crows because they will remember.

[smallwiccawitch]

🌷Ostara Egg Offerings🌷

With Ostara approaching and the world literally having come to a stop, I decided I'd use the time to go forth and finally actually do something for this Sabbath - in this case, filled quail eggs, sealed with beewax!

Not only are they super fun to craft, they're also pretty easy to make and safe to leave out in the wild as offerings (as long as you fill them with things that are not harmful to fauna and flora, of course.) Here's what you need and how to make them:

🌷What you'll need🌷:

🔮Blown eggs (I used quail eggs since we have them in stock in the flower shop I work at, but you can use any egg of your choice!) Use as many as you see fit. I took 6, for My Lady, Persephone, as she ate 6 pomegranate seeds in the Underworld. If your deity/entity has a similar "special number", you might want to go with that!

🔮Herbs of your choice (I used lavender, chamomile, rosemary and green sage)

🔮Seeds/nuts (optional)

🔮Honey

🔮Beewax (preferably in sheet-form, but since it can be formed nicely when heated a little, it doesn't really matter!)

🔮A lighter

🌷What to do🌷:

🔮[Optional] Bless your ingredients and your workspace.

🔮Carefully fill the egg with the fillings of your choice - if you want to leave them out in nature, I advice you from keeping away from salt, anything that won't rot or is poisonous to wildlife and/or plants.

🔮Next, take a small piece of beewax - shape it into a small bowl that fits over the hole you filled your egg up through, like so:

🔮Put the tiny bowl over the hole like a little hat - adjust the curve of the wax so it fits neatly around the shell, like this:

🔮Take your lighter and carefully melt down the edges of the wax so it is adhered to the shell. Use your finger or the back of a spoon's handle to smoothen them down. (I sadly don't have a picture for that, since I needed both hands for this)

🔮Enjoy your cute Ostara offerings! I dedicated mine to My Lady, Persephone, since she is ascending from the Underworld tomorrow.

Remember to be safe, especially in times like these. Take care of yourself, those close to you, and if you have the means, those in need.

Fair winds!

~G.

[1-800-nymph]

Offerings & Devotions | Persephone 🌺🦇

Offerings | 🌰

Any kind of flowers/plants

Pomegranates or related items/foods

Bones, bones, bones! (Note: remember to honor the animal that once carried them)

Tarot cards/decks you associate with her

Nuts & seeds! I love giving her hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, and pumpkin seeds. (Note: do not eat food you offer to her!)

It can be as simple as offering Persephone small fruits like plums, peaches, guayabas, cherries, strawberries, and quenepas.

Anything to do with grains! Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits.

Anything mint related like food, a mint plant, or perfume or gum!

Jewelry! I plan on offering her a tiara/crown

Honey in general is a popular offering for her (any deity tbh)

Lemon-y foods

Poetry/Hymns

Candles that smell of flowers or fruits

Herbs, dried flowers/plants, fruit seeds/pits

Crystals that makes you think of her! Angel aura quartz, rose quartz, agate, & opalite screams her name to me!

Drink wise (pour the drink down the sink/outside once you’ve offered), honey & milk, coffee, hot chocolate, water.

Bat, ram, and deer related items/imagery

Devotions | 🍄

Raise some plants! Take care of plants! Sing to plants! Give all your love to plants!!!! Name them too. (‘: (grow some mint maybe!)

Sing her songs that you associate with her! Or hum the songs! I usually hum “Charon’s Crossing” by Beats Antique because it reminds me of her and I love the idea of Persephone and Kharon being buds.

Muse about your past lives with her (if you believe in the concept)! She is the goddess of reincarnation, so no doubt she’s seen you as many different humans/creatures and loves you all the same.

Celebrate Ostara and Imbolc wth her!

Also honor Persephone during Samhain as she returns to the underworld and Haides.

Walk barefoot in forests/fields (be careful tho of glass and stuff)

Contact some Nymphs and begin working with them since Persephone surrounded herself with them a lot! A UPG of mines is that Persephone is the matron of the elven & fae folk as well hehe

Preform bath rituals in her name. Add some flower petals for a nice touch and as an offering to her!

Ask if she wants to cast a spell with you! You both can work together to cast the spell and hang out. Don’t forget to thank her!

Visit a graveyard and clean up, maybe offer the dead some food like nuts, small cakes, fruits, etc. place out some coins too!

Contact her through bone divination! Or take some flowers and do the “they love me/they loves me not” form of divination with a yes/no question.

Read some poetry about her! There’s so many poetries written about her omehaidkeks so read them aloud to her. Also make one for her!

Make a playlist for her!

Set up a bird feeder outside during spring and summer!

Even simply studying her myths and who she is as a goddess is an act of devotion. So don’t overthink it! Do what feels right in regards of devotional acts towards her!

How to get closer | 🌱

Meditate upon her; channel your godphone and let her voice, touch, and thoughts embrace you. Listen to her & talk to her.

celebrate her associated sabbats with her in her honor. Pamper her and spoil her with lovely offerings (it doesn’t have to be expensive offerings! Give what you can, she will be happy no matter what it may be 🥰)

A lot of people who worship chthonic deities such as Persephone, practice spirit work as well. You don’t have to do this, but I see it as a form of becoming closer with her and understanding her more. I personally have not done this yet and probably won’t for awhile, but I think it would benefit the relationship.

If you are romantic with her (even if you aren’t romantic with her, these are very nice gestures), write love letters, bake her sweet treats with the intent of love and forming a stronger bond, leave a space open for her before you go to bed in case she would like to sleep beside you, ask her to accompany you every other day, muse about her.

Open yourself up to her. Show her your joy, sorrow, frustration, anger, etc. don’t hide them and do not be afraid to ask her for help. Tell her about your good or bad days, vent to her, ask for advice, show her every aspect of who you are. You do not have to be happy and serious all the time with her or any deity you devote to, darling.

[wyntercraft-deactivated20190812]

Apple: spirit work, offerings, love, healing, beauty, wisdom, harvest

Apricot: love, self love

Avocado: beauty, love, lust, fertility, spell work

Banana: wealth, luck, spirituality, religion, masculinity

Blueberry: protection, banishment, curses

Blackberry: protection, fertility, femininity, funerals, afterlife, moving on

Cantaloupe: spell work, protection, grounding, energy work

Cherry: lust, love, fertility

Clementine: childhood, dreams

Coconut: protection, cleansing, femininity

Cranberry: holidays, blood magic, spirit work

Date: fertility, luck, money

Dragon fruit: lust, passion, spell work

Durian: curses, cleansing, protection

Fig: happiness, divination, love

Grapefruit: cleansing

Grape: money, spell work, fertility, offerings

Guava: love, self love, lust

Honeydew: cleansing, energy, love

Jackfruit: divination, spell work, happiness

Kiwifruit: health, love, lust, happiness

Kumquat: luck, health, money

Lemon: cleansing, purification, protection, curse breaking

Lime: cleansing, protection, love

Lychee: love, self love, femininity, beauty

Mango: love, lust, fertility

Nectarine: love, self love, spell work

Orange: cleansing, protection, divination

Papaya: curse breaking, banishing, spirit work, love

Passion fruit: lust, love, passion

Peach: fertility, love, happiness, spirit work

Pear: offerings, happiness, luck, money, confidence

Persimmon: healing, love, luck, protection

Pineapple: protection, health, offerings, money, luck

Plantain: fertility, masculinity, lust, passion

Plum: love, healing, offerings

Pomegranate: offerings, blood magic, fertility, divination, spell work

Prune: cleansing, protection

Raspberry: love, dreams, health

Strawberry: love, wishes, dreams, happiness

Starfruit: lunar/solar magic, spell work, cleansing

Tangerine: solar magic, strength, energy work

Tomato: protection, cleansing, love, passion

Watermelon: healing, femininity, lust, love, spirit work, cleansing

[edgebug]

[halfyearrose]

not his devotee but this post radiates Apollo energy

[softlitstudent]

National Gallery East Wing

[feral-crow]

it makes me so mad that people aren’t taught that you can just... clone plants.

[fuzzylizardman]

W h at

[feral-crow]

yeah!! it takes like, five minutes and costs nothing/next to nothing (depending on what plant it is). which is why im especially mad that literally no one talks about it except for like, exclusive gardening circles :/

each plant has different cloning techniques but here are the ones i remember;

basil/peppermint/tomato/most leafy greens with a stem; cut a piece off your main plant about the size of your hand. trim all the bottom leaves, cut stem diagonally, put in jar of water. when roots are about the size of the stem, plant in garden.

onion/garlic; the easiest. just leave whole onion or a garlic clove in a nice sunny area. eventually it will sprout. plant in garden.

pineapple; takes a long time. take spiky leafy part, trim off the bottom leaves, put in water about as deep as the leafless part. wait. a. long. time. (mine took two weeks to root.) when roots are big, plant in garden.

flowers, bushes, trees; get your hands on some rooting hormone (or willow tree branches). cut stems the same way as the leafy greens above, make sure to cut stems diagonally (greater chance of rooting.) dip in water, dip in rooting hormone, shake off excess, and place in water/dirt. these are pretty hard to get to root, especially if you don’t have rooting hormone. 

some plants won’t ever root because of gmos (some companies create sterile plants and when they’re cloned they just die off) but generally any plant you get at a garden store you can clone. 

[roguetatertot]

This is called propagation!!! And it’s awesome!!!

Water propagation comes with some caution tho! While it’s a great way to watch the roots grow and ensure it’s actually propagating, it can shock the plant to remove it from water and suddenly plant it in soil. Water contain no nutrients, so to go from surviving on no nutrients to an abundance of nutrients in soil can potentially shock the wee baby.

Also, unless the water is changed out every day or every other, the oxygen in the water gets used up. Make sure to replace the water often so there’s a constant supply of oxygen.

If you have a fish tank, that is an excellent place to propagate certain plants! The nutrients the fish leave in the water will help the plant thrive, and ensure less shock when transplanting in soil. Fish might nibble on the roots, but probably not enough to cause any issues. Pothos, philodendrons, and monstera adasonii (vining Swiss cheese) are good ones to propagate this way, as they like the humidity from the tank.

Soil propagation has its own downsides, such as not being able to see if the roots are growing, but you can give the cutting a gentle tug in a few weeks, and if it resists, it has roots!!

And with ANY propagation, there is basically a 50/50 chance it will take, no matter which method you use, no matter how careful and attentive you are to technique and care. So don’t be discouraged if your cutting never roots, or dies. Not all plants can be “cloned” either of these ways, as well. Some need grafting from another plant which fruits or flowers! Some can only grow from seeds. Some cuttings need to scab over before propagation.

So if there’s a plant you really love, just Google how to propagate, and then Google some more. And instead of trying to propagate just a single cutting, try a few at a time, just in case some fail.

Happy planting!!!!!

[rob-boss]

It’s true that it’s difficult to get trees/bushes to grow roots with this method, but there is a pretty cool technique to get around this! It’s called air layering and it won’t work for ALL trees but it does work for many.

What you do instead of cutting off an entire limb and hoping it will root is you select the portion of the tree you want to be your new tree, and at the bottom of it, scrape off all of the bark, at least an inch long. Then you need to put your root hormone around the top of the shaved portion on the space where the tree still has bark. After that you’ll need to pack the area you want the roots to grow with sphagnum moss and wrap it in a plastic bag to keep the moss in place.

Once you have roots growing (could take a couple weeks) you can remove the bag, and cut the limb at the dead barkless section. Now you’ve got a new tree that’s already producing sap and as thick as the limb you’ve chosen! WAY faster than waiting the YEARS it could take to grow a tree to that size from a seed or a sprout.

Planting the new tree in sphagnum moss is a good way to help it grow lots of new roots and make sure it stays healthy before transferring it to a different soil mix or into the ground.

You also want to make sure that you leave probably a couple inches between the part of the branch you shave the bark off of and the main trunk of the tree, because after you cut off the limb, the wood beneath it will die back a bit and you don’t want part of the trunk to start rotting.

[madsiemoon]

🌱Some helpful tips to keep healthy house plants🌱

[in-her-broomcloset]

Witch Tip

Fill watercolor brushes with a light carrier oil and essential oils for portable enchantments or sigil work on your own skin. You can even add polished crystal chips as well!

[therestlesswitch]

Note that (many) essential oils will break down plastic, so an herbal infused carrier oil (literally just steep herbs in the oil for 1-6 weeks) will be much safter to both put on your skin and store in the waterbrush! 😁✨ I do love the idea though! Maybe I’ll use it with moon or sun water and floral essences 🤔✨

[in-her-broomcloset]

You added so much value to this post thank you

[therestlesswitch]

It’s such a great idea! ingenious! 😁 cant wait to try it!

[the-highwitch]

For you artist witches out there!

[moonlightacademy]

Gardens of the Witches

Already starting to plan this years garden so I thought I should do a post on Witch Gardens

Moonlight Garden

A garden that blooms in the moonlight, a great place to perform night time rituals, meditations, or to just take a midnight stroll. A garden that is full of magick even after the sun sets. 

Plants to add in your moonlight garden:

Moonflower: (Ipomoea alba) A nocturnal relative of the morning glory. Has fragrant flowers that open at dusk and close by dawn.    

Evening Primrose: (Oenothera biennis) Has beautiful, scented flowers that bloom only at dusk. 

Night Flox: (Zaluzianskya capensis) A sweetly fragranced flower that only unfurls its pinwheeled shaped flowers after dusk. 

Four O’Clock: (Mirabilis jalapa) Its scented flowers bloom at around 4:00pm (hence its name) and do not close up until morning. 

Queen of the Night: (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) A species of cactus whose flowers only open at night. Attracts moths and bats!!!

Night Blooming Jessamine: (Cestrum nocturnum) Strong, sweet scented star shaped flowers that only bloom at night. Attracts moths and bats!!! All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Angel’s Trumpet: (Brugmansia) Produces a strong scent on warm summer evenings. All parts are toxic, do not ingest!

Evening Stock: (Matthiola longipetala) Produces lots of small blossoms that produce a perfume described as a mix of vanilla, rose, spice, and cloves only after the sun sets.

Ever-Flowering Gladiolus: (Gladiolus tristis) Release a strong almond fragrance after dusk.  

Lilac: (Syringa vulgaris) Although has a perfume during the day, it is said to be a lot stronger after dark. 

Flowering Tobacco: (Nicotiana) Open in the late afternoon and have a fragrance that smells of jasmine. All parts are toxic if ingested!

Summer Snapdragon: (Angelonia angustifolia) Preferably in white, to reflect the moonlight. Has a scent apple-scented foliage. 

Silvermound: (Artemisia schmidtiana) Has thick foliage that will shimmer under the moonlight.

Jack Frost: (Brunnera macrophylla) Hdeart shaped leaves of silver and green, perfect to add more highlights of silver to your moon lit garden. 

Any plant that blooms after dark or has white, lavender, pale pink, pale yellow on it is a perfect addition to your moonlight garden. 

Things to add:

Stepping stones that have the phases of the moon.

Fairy lights

A place to sit

Candles

A small fountain to sing along with the insects and birds of the night

String charms and bells on tree branches for a soft jingling every time a gentle breeze passes. 

Herb Garden

For witches who need a more practical garden for uses of healing, tea crafting, drying, and growing plants used in their practices.

Plants to add to your herb garden:

Anise: Helps to ward of the evil eye, find happiness, and stimulates psychic abilities. 

Basil: Use for anything pertaining with love, exorcism, wealth, sympathy, and protection. Dispels confusion, fears & weakness. Drives off hostile spirits.

Bergamont: Corresponds with money and prosperity. Provides with protection from evil and illness, improves memory, stops interference, and promotes restful sleep.

Borage: Corresponds with courage and psychic powers. 

Cat Nip: Is sacred to the Goddess Bast. Brings forth beauty, happiness, good luck, and good spirits.

Chamomile: Corresponds with love, healing, and sleep. Is known to reduce stress.

Chervil: Brings a sense of the higher self, placing you in touch with your divine, immortal spirit.

Coriander: Corresponds with love, health, immortality, and protection.

Dill: Corresponds with money, protection, luck and lust. 

Lemon Balm: Corresponds with love, success, healing, and psychic/spiritual development. 

Marjoram: Used to cleanse, purify, and to dispel negative energy.  

Mint: Promotes energy, communication and vitality.

Oregano: Corresponds with joy, strength, vitality, and added energy 

Parsley: Calms and protects the home.

Rosemary: Protects, cleanses, purifies, and aids memory. 

Sage: Used for self purification and dealing with grief and loss.

Thyme: Attracts loyalty, affection, and the good opinion of others.

Things to add:

A place to dry herbs

A place to compost any herb scraps

Rocks

A place to leave offerings before you harvest

Bee Garden

Make yourself a sanctuary to watch bees frolic and thrive

Plants to add to your bee garden:

Bee balm

Lavender

Crocus

Snow Drop

Wildflowers/Any native species

Catmint

Borage

Anise hyssop

Heliotrope

Sunflower

Oregano

Yarrow

Coneflower

Black eyed susan

Asters

Goldenrod

Foxglove

Marigold

Pansies

Sweet peas

Nasturtiums

Things to add:

Bee houses

Bee waterers/bee baths

Bee feeders

A place for offerings to the bees

Some other ideas for your garden:

Hummingbird garden

Medicinal garden

A garden whose plants and decorations represent/correspond with your practice.

Butterfly Garden

Faerie Garden 

The options are endless! I hope this gives you some ideas for this years garden.

Happy planting!

==Moonlight Academy==

[wildwomanwitchery-deactivated20]

Pass this along to cleanse your blog.

And don’t forget to cleanse yourself.

[theladymorganlefay]

Herb Substitutions 🌿

****These are used as Suggestions****

Rosemary can be used in place of other herbs

Rose can be used in place of any other flower

Frankincense or Copal can replace gum resin

Sage in place of any mints

Tobacco in place of any poisonous herbs

Acacia substitute Gum Arabic

Aconitie substitute Tobacco

Arabic substitute gum ,gum mastic or frankincense

Allspice substitute cassia, cinnamon, cloves ,mace or nutmeg

Balm of gilded substitute rose buds or gum mastic

Belladonna substitute Tobacco

Benzoin substitute Gum Arabic or gum mastic

Camphor oil substitute Eucalyptus oil or lavender oil

Carnation substitute rose petals anointed with a few drops of cinnamon oil

Cassia substitute cinnamon

Castor beans substitute for a few drops of castor oil

Cedar substitute sandlewood

Cinquefoil substitute clover or trefoil

Citron substitute equal parts Orange & lemon peels

Clove substitute mace or nutmeg

Clover substitute cinquefoil

Copal substitute frankincense or cedar

Cowbane substitute tobacco

Cypress substitute juniper or pine needles

Deer tongue substitute tonka bean, woodruff or vanilla

Dittany substitute gum mastic

Dragons blood substitute equal parts frankincense and red sandlewood

Eucalyptus oil substitute camphor oil or lavender oil

Euphorbium substitute Tobacco

Frankincense substitute copal or pine resin

Grains of paradise substitute black pepper

Gum bumelia substitute copal, pine resin or dragons blood

Hellebore substitute tobacco or nettle

Hemlock substitute Tobacco

Hemp substitute nutmeg or damiana

Henbone substitute Tobacco

Hyssop substitute lavender

Ivy substitute cinquefoil

Jasmin substitute rose

Juniper substitute pine

Lavender substitute rose

Lemon Grass substitute lemon peel

Lemon verbena substitute Lemon grass or lemon peel

Mace substitute nutmeg

Mandrake substitute Tobacco

Mastic substitute gum, gum Arabic or Frankincense

Mint substitute sage

Mistletoe substitute mint or sage

Mugwort substitute wormwood

Neroli oil substitute orange oil

Nightshade substitute Tobacco

Nutmeg substitute mace or cinnamon

Oakmoss substitute patchouli

Orange substitute tangerine peel

Orange flower substitute orange peel

Patchouli substitute oakmoss

Peppermint substitute spearmint

Pepperwort substitute grain of paradise or black pepper

Pine substitute juniper

Pine resin substitute frankincense or copal

Red Sandlewood substitute sandlewood with a pinch of dragons blood

Rose substitute yarrow

Rose geranium substitute rose

Rue substitute rosemary with a pinch of black pepper

Saffron substitute orange peel

Sandalwood substitute cedar

Sarsaparilla substitute sassafras

Spearmint substitute peppermint

Star Anise substitute bay

Sulfur substitute tobacco, club moss or asafetida

Thyme substitute rosemary

Tobacco substitute bay

Tonka bean substitute deer tongue

Trefoil substitute cinquefoil

Valerian substitute asafetide

Vanilla substitute woodruff or deer tongue

Vetivert substitute calamus

Wolfsbane substitute tobacco

Wood aloe substitute sandalwood sprinkled with ambergris oil

Woodruff substitute deer tongue or vanilla

Wormwood substitute nutmeg

Yarrow substitute rose

Yew substitute Tobacco

[chironomy]

chthonic worship tip

In my experience, chthonic (underworld) gods really appreciate hearing “thank you.” (This includes Hades and Persephone as well as Hecate, Hermes in his psychopomp aspect, Hypnos, Thanatos, Morpheus, and others.) They all do incredibly dirty, difficult, and vitally important jobs and rarely get recognition for it.

Things you can thank them for:

Sheltering, protecting, and taking care of the dead

Treating everyone fairly, meting out divine justice to people who escaped it in life

Allowing us to extract precious metals and material resources from the earth (I usually pair this with a commitment to do what I can to be a responsible steward of the earth, and follow the principle of xenia rather than hoarding wealth)

Maintaining the boundaries between this world and the next, and allowing people to pass through when appropriate

Making new growth possible by clearing away that which is no longer useful (this can be both literal and metaphorical)

Guiding and looking after people who are going through grief, depression, or “dark nights of the soul,” enabling personal rebirth and transformation

Protecting and nourishing the roots of plants, making all plant life and agriculture possible

Things that come from or are sheltered in their world include: sleep, dreams, precious metals, plant life, reincarnated or newly incarnated souls, magic, purpose and destiny — and according to interpretation, vaccination, EMDR, anesthesia, X-rays and MRIs, mass social movements, psychology, shadow work**

Also, please do something nice for Charon. I’ve long thought of him as the patron of customer service workers who are frequently yelled at.

*sources: Greek Religion by Walter Burkert, Ancient Greek Cults by Jennifer Larson, The Greek Way of Death by Robert Garland – these three books are my go-to’s for info about the roles the chthonic gods and the underworld played in ancient Greek religion and culture. Add to this the underworld as metaphor in Jungian psychology and archetypes (I’m less well read in this area, but see also The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell)

**I once read a great series of essays on the rivers of the Underworld (which I can not find right now) that posited the principle of vaccination comes from the Styx. According to myth, Achilles was dipped in the river as a baby and this protected his body from injury — just as exposure to a dead pathogen grants our bodies protection from a live version of that same pathogen. Along these lines, things like anesthesia and EMDR would come from the Lethe and/or the Acheron, psychology and self-reflection from the Mnemosyne, and so on. And modern astrology understands Pluto (Hades) as a god of invisible forms of power, which makes him also the ruler of things like X-rays and MRIs, nuclear energy, mass movements, and lots of other things…

[potncoffee]

For all my royal witches.

[nature--magic-deactivated201812]

I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOR W E E K S

[slavicwitchling]

In preparation for spring

[smallwiccawitch]

🔮 A word about the law of attraction and manifestation 🔮

So... one of the possibly first magical things I ever learned, even as a child, was "self-fulfilling prophecy". You think about something a lot, you say "This and that is gonna happen", and it will happen. Blah blah.

While this may be correct to some extent (I'll elaborate on that "to some extent" in a second), I have seen and heard a lot of Witches worrying about negative thoughts caused by their mental health being in bad shape. That's why I would like to clarify something.

IN 🗣ORDER 🗣TO 🗣MANIFEST 🗣YOU🗣 NEED 🗣INTENT🗣🗣🗣

Nothing will manifest if you do not put conscious intent into it!!

Your negative thoughts and fears are not going to realise this way! That's not how the law of attraction works!

You!

Are!

Safe!

Fair winds!

~G.

[halfyearrose]

Speak after me.

My deity loves me. They know of my struggles, and they neither judge, nor blame me for them. They know I'm doing all I can.

My deity loves me. They know of my struggles, and they neither judge, nor blame me for them. They know I'm doing all I can.

My deity loves me. They know of my struggles, and they neither judge, nor blame me for them. They know I'm doing all I can.

My deity loves me. They know of my struggles, and they neither judge, nor blame me. They know I'm doing all I can.