Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Practicing
Chakras are part of closed practices. Find a different theory on energy centres and how they work. I have my own here but there are many more that exist.
Do your research. Question everything. Don’t follow Tumblr posts blindly. Do your research, make sure that research is credible. Some authors out there are shitty (Edred Thorsson for example). Some Etsy shop owners appropriate. Do your research.
Support minority businesses! Support local businesses!
The best basic herbs to have on hand are: sage, rosemary, cinnamon, thyme, lavender, sea salt.
For the love of the gods, please ward. The first time you ward, you will most likely sleep upwards of 10+ hours because it is draining as hell but WARD. Wards will keep you safe from entities that seek to harm you.
ALWAYS have a good banishing spell and a good return to sender spell on hand if you need it. Here is Part 1 of a good masterpost on protections and warding.
Always be a skeptic. Don’t just believe things blindly. Is a god telling you they’re an actual god? Question them. Do your research on that god. Always question.
DO NOT INGEST ESSENTIAL OILS. They’re meant to be applied topically with a carrier oil. Don’t ingest them.
Some herbs will interact with your medication if you’re on them. If you’re on medication and want to try herbal remedies, talk to your doctor to make sure that your herbal remedy won’t negatively interact with your medication.
Tarot cards don’t need to be gifted or stolen in order to work. That’s a myth. However, if you feel like you’d like your tarot decks to be gifted to you, do that. Whatever you’re comfortable with.
Your first tarot deck doesn’t have to be explicitly Raider Waite Smith. My first deck was a variation on the traditional RWS style and it allowed me to read tarot more intuitively.
There’s no shame in using a tarot guidebook. There’s 78 cards that’s a LOT to memorize. I haven’t memorized them all and I’ve been reading tarot for two years now. Take your time and don’t be embarrassed to read tarot from a guidebook. I do paid tarot readings and still use my guidebooks.
If you’re worried about wasting food as an offering, it’s okay to eat them. I do it. Many others do it. If you’re still wary about eating the food, if you have plant friends, you can just bury the offerings (especially relevant for chthonic worshippers).
The Theoi website is one of the best for information on Hellenism. Every thing written on that website is cited back to an Ancient Greek text, or even several.
PLEASE PRACTICE FIRE SAFETY. If you’re burning an object in a metal bowl, don’t touch the bowl afterwards. You may burn yourself. Have something to put out a fire on hand should something happen. Don’t burn hair. Crack a window so you don’t inhale smoke. Be safe with fire.
Personalize your spells! If you find a spell on tumblr that you wanna try but don’t have an ingredient, go with your instinct and research what it could be replaced with! Tumblr spells are guidelines and you can modify that shit to your heart’s content.
Not that I have very many followers, but you can ingest essential oils, you just have to make sure they are the right grade. Most oils will specify if they are aromatic, topical, ingestible, or all 3 😁
NO. STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION!!!!! Pyramid schemes like Doterra and Young Living WANT YOU TO BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN INGEST EOS BUT YOU CANT!!!! It will POISON you! Ffs
Please don’t fucking ingest oils.
