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@oldsunshineysoulwitch
A coworker's child stopped them a morning before work this week to give them a small rock. Saying, "This is my best friend and he wants to go with you to work." At work she and I got talking and she stopped and said, "I don't know why, I feel like you need a best friend." And gave me the rock her son gave her.
This rock now travels with me in my pocket until it tells me to give him to someone else.
This is animism at its finest. Receiving awakened rocks from children that spoke them into being
The infamous I want peach cobbler in a week spell. Usually its for pie and usually it’s not put into practice. But I felt a need.
i want the directions to this spell
it sound slike it would come in handy
I’ve been WAITING»>
1. ) Candle [white] from 30 pack candles from walmart (cause they were cheap). You can use whatever candle you got.
2. ) Sharpie (but you can use a needle to push into the wax/carve into the wax, water, whatever you feel comfortable burning).
3. ) Wrote on the top of the candle first:
“I want peach cobbler.”
4. ) Around candle:
“This will happen in one week.”
5. ) On an ordinary piece of computer paper I wrote:
“I will get a piece of peach cobbler in seven days.”
3 times.
6. ) Folded that paper.
7. )Stuck under candle
8.) Lit candle.
8.a) accidentally laughed out my candle (blew it out with my breath) and had to relight it.
This is beautiful. XD
*breathes life into this post*
*reactivates peach cobblah spell*
This is for new foragers, like my coworker:
'Medicinal' does NOT mean 'good for you and safe to eat all the time'. A plant being 'medicinal' does NOT mean that eating it, without any idea of WHY and HOW it's considered medicinal, is a good idea. It is UNWISE to consume a plant that has a long history of use in a way that DOES NOT have a long history of use.
In addition to learning that a plant is edible, you need to learn how it is eaten, what part is eaten, when it's harvested, and how to harvest it sustainably and in a way that supports its continued existence (unless it's invasive). If people only eat the ripe berries as food, then don't eat unripe berries. Don't. Eat. Unripe. Berries. UNLESS! There's! precedent! For that plant!
I know there's this idea going around that Americans only eat sweet or salty things, and that we've eliminated bitter things from our diet, and we should thus be eating more bitter things. But! Bitter things are bitter for a reason, and sometimes that reason is poison! Some of them are medicinally useful at the correct dose, but! You need to know what that is! You need to be doing it on purpose! DO NOT! Assume that bitter means that it's good for you!
Yes! Foxgloves can be medicinal in the right dose but they're also really poisonous if you just eat them randomly. Willow bark has the compound that can be refined into aspirin but if you eat it it's really easy to give yourself ulcers. Also, you must get a foraging book that is specific to your local environment, poisonous lookalikes vary by region
Eliminated bitter things from our diets? Nonsense, what about coffee?
Anyways, yes. Medicinal plants are medicines. They have drug interactions and side effects. You can overdose. Modern pharmaceuticals are a good thing because you know exactly how much of the active ingredient you are consuming, and there is a lot of information on the safety.
Also, like any food, you can randomly have a sensitivity or an allergy to a plant you haven't eaten before, so maybe only eat a little the first time you eat it.
Also sometimes a plant HAS been used for medicine but no longer IS because it was tested and we found out something akin to "....oh no, it gives you cancer/liver failure/other fun stuff longterm". Even NON-MEDICINAL foragables can have that happen. There is a mushroom that people ate, until we tested it and found out that it has this weird compount that just kinda. chills there, except for when your body suddenly Notices it and attacks its own blood in an allergic response and kills you after x-th time you eat the mushroom. (real one, had to change the edibility rating in my second hand bought mushroom guide. check things periodically!!) (Paxillus involutus for those concerned. again, you can eat it many times with maybe only a slight stomach upset, then DIE the next time)
You might ask "how did we not know that!?!" Well, how would the folk knowledge connect "ate this thing for years/decades with no ill effect, suddenly died" with One plant/ mushroom that was a culprit? You can't, really.. Some medicinal plants also really are better avoided Now that you can get The Same Compound in a stadardised dose in a pill! No, natural is not better in this case, really. The concentration of the medicinal (often also poisonous) compound can vary greatly from plant to plant, depending on the enviroment, time of year, plant's age, and a bajillion other things. Don't risk it if there's literally the Same Thing, in very pecise same dose in each pill. Using the plant might have been better that nothing when these were the only options. We can remember the history without risking our health for no good reason when we have safer alternatives now
Yeah, that.
I honestly feel that the uses of medicinal plants are pretty narrow in a world where pharmaceutical drugs can be manufactured, because of all of these reasons
There is no hard boundary between "natural" and "unnatural," like, lots of medicines are the exact same compounds found in medicinal plants, except when it's manufactured you know exactly how much of the active ingredient you're ingesting.
And lots of those compounds are REALLY toxic above a certain dose because. well. They Are Drugs.
Also, at least in my country (USA) supplements are regulated really poorly and sometimes don't even contain the thing they are supposed to be. I wouldn't fuck with any medicinal plants that I didn't grow or harvest myself or get directly from a person I trusted
The ultimate spell:
Just fucking talk to them.
I know we all have anxiety on this website and that's why we're here. But if you can't talk to a person, both casually and when there's a problem, you're just fucking things up in the long run for a relationship (of literally ANY sort) with them.
And yes, it does go both ways, they should be able to talk to you too.
Talk. To. Them.
You'll feel so much better afterwards.
And yes, it does go
both ways, they should be able
to talk to you too.
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
Also, I hope it doesn't come off as harsh - the Welcome to the First Person account.
I genuinely encourage people to do spellwork all the time. I also experiment with different kinds of spells. It's why my perspective tends to be a little more loosey goosey about what defines a spell. Is matches and a mirror and a chant and a stone a spell? Yeah. Yeah it is. But not to everyone.
But honestly, the only way we can really get good results about how spells are is if we talk about them. The blogging about spells in general, the thinking about types of spells, and the doing them. I totally appreciate the desire for a 'hard science' approach (I say that with some level of eye roll) - but for things where we are studying people and studying how people do things, why don't we lean on the "soft" science methodology.
Every single one of my blog posts on spellwork is a first person account. Every one that I reblog on someone else's is a third person or second person account where I am showing you things I saw from other people. And all of that matters.
Now I do recommend that people when starting spells do, luck, money, or protection spells.
But that's not always how people first come to spellwork. They come to it by way of finding "something" that is ailing them and look for spellwork to solve it.
So, that's why I say find a random one. Just know if it don't work - it could be hundreds of reasons including the spell sucks! One of which is some spells just hang around because they never can complete because the original conditions casted for have just disappeared. I have this one spell that's been following me for almost 14 years. :) I see it's touches every so often while it tries to solve for the casting I did. That's my personal account.
But if you think I'm lying for the clout - then it doesn't matter what I said in my personal account for how long a spell lasts, or what it's defined as, or how I got to it in the first place.
That's why I said Welcome to the First Person account. Do the spell, tell us how it went.
Join us liars. Maybe we will get somewhere with trying to make it study-able together.
if you blow out candle you BLOW AWAY the MAGIC and ur spell goes pllphfphphphhhhhhbbb into the wind and WON'T WORK
if you use a candle snuffer it will SMOOSH DOWN the MAGIC like u r throwing ur magic into the DIRT to FAIL and ur spell WONT WORK
if you pinch out a candle with ur fingers ur SQUISHING ur MAGIC like u sqursh a BUG and it will say WHY DID U DO THAT i thought we were FRIENDS and ur spell WONT WORK
if u let ur candle burn out all the way its like watching ur spell DWINDLE DOWN and DIE and ur magic will LOSE POWER and ur spell WONT WORK
if u use a fire extinguisher u are EXTINGUISHING the POWER of ur MAGIC and burying ur intent under ANTI-MAGIC FOAM and ur spell WON'T WORK
Invalid reason to take away someone's witch card: "I looked at the picture of your altar and the gods/my psychism revealed to me you are weak"
However that does not mean there is no good reason to lose your witch card. It's time for us all to stop putting on airs and be honest about why we are unworthy. This is a no-judgement zone, what have you done recently to lose your witch card? I'll start.
I ran out of jars and I'm not going to go out and buy new jars just for spells :/
the last time I practiced actual magic was 1989
I left an active spell in a bowl when I moved out of my parent’s house five years ago, just completely forgot I did it. It absolutely fizzled at some point when the water evaporated, but I only remembered it existed recently when my parents sent me the bowl in a box with some of my other things and there was the pulp of what was once paper crusted on the bottom. What kind of witch forgets about spells they’ve cast :(
What kind of witch forgets about spells they’ve cast :(
I'm still trying to figure out what spells I cast last week that are sitting on my shelf 😭
Woke up to some nonsense and some lies, and decided to sit and meditate with the Bear for a while.
Finding inner peace to begin my day.
One thing I've learned is that you can't control shit but yourself, and sometimes what's best is to simply sit and be. To find peace despite it all.
Thankful that I learned that lesson.
Look it’s me
On recognizing stealth & covert racism & white supremacy in witchcraft spaces:
I want to take a moment to talk about "stealth racism" and "stealth white supremacy" in the witchcraft community. First of all, I'll applaud a good chunk of the community for standing ten toes down against out loud, in your face racism in its various forms specific to the world of witchcraft. But there's a growing issue of "stealth racism," or covert racism, and we need to start talking about how it's presented in witchcraft online spaces and how it needs to be weeded out just as much as the overt racism should be.
Covert or stealth racism can present in different ways and can be harder to spot if you don't know what you're looking for. It's typically, though not always, carried out by people who are racist and just have always known how to tiptoe around that fact, or by people who have been openly racist in the past, gotten called out for it, and have come back with new names/usernames/looks, rebranded, and learned to keep the racism quiet so they won't get caught again. Recognizing racism and racist tropes when someone isn't hurling slurs, dog whistles, or known racist talking points can be tricky, but it's not impossible. Here are some specific signs I've noticed within public witchcraft forums and social media landscapes:
-They follow, interact with, or align themselves with racists. I was always raised to understand that you are the company you keep. If someone is following a blog or account that posts racist content, it means that the someone is okay with racism. If someone is okay with racism, it's because they are also racist. These two things are very important to remember, so pay attention to the blogs that people publicly interact with, pay attention to the posts they like, pay attention to the things they're willing to overlook, because you are only ever "okay with racism" and willing to follow a racist/not block a racist if you, too, are also a racist. People will try to what about, if, and, and but their way around that point, but it's because it's an uncomfortable truth that many people don't want to sit with. Quite simply, if racism isn't a hard red line for someone, it's because they agree on some level with the racism.
-They use different language when talking to/about people they perceive as white vs people they perceive as non-white. I've seen this a lot, especially on tumblr. If someone repeatedly gives people they perceive as white grace, treats them with kindness and patience, gives them the benefit of the doubt in the case of conflict while also repeatedly reacting aggressively toward and using violent, harmful, or hateful language toward/about people they perceive as being POC/racially ambiguous/racially "other", it's because that person is very likely racist. I remember seeing someone cross my recommendations every now and then (they have been blocked for ages now) that would repeatedly crash out on WOC, using the words dirty, trash/trashy, arrogant, petty, rude, sneaky, immature (all of which are charged words that perpetuate harmful, age-old stereotypes about WOC) against them and frequently accusing WOC of lacking emotional maturity, being backstabbers, being underhanded, wanting drama, never wanting conflict resolution, lacking morals, lacking manners, being conniving, and even working baneful magic on people behind their backs (that one is a timeless racist classic that has actually brought physical violence on POC, so I'm stunned that people still don't recognize this as an immediate red flag that someone is a racist). When you see someone using this kind of charged, harmful language in regard to POC, you need to take a step back and think. Is this a pattern? Does this user have a completely different way of communicating with/about white people than they do POC? Unfortunately, these kinds of racist red flags fly under the radar a lot, but if the pattern is there, it's time to pay attention to it and see it for what it is — a sign that this user could be racist.
-Publicly maligning and shaming POC: Covert racists will often publicly malign, shame, and/or disparage POC creators, personalities, business owners, organizations, etc. They may leave negative reviews, negative comments, or write "scathing" posts attacking POC businesses, accounts, work, communities, etc. These sorts of posts and reviews will often also include unfounded, unsubstantiated claims of harassment, bullying, or even complaints of having been called out for racist/white supremacist behavior or actions by said creators/business owners, and will usually focus on attacking the character of the POC individual and painting themselves as a victim more than anything else.
-They think they're entitled to closed practices. There is often a sense of entitlement among racists and white supremacists in the witchcraft community — entitlement to knowledge that comes from cultures outside of their own, entitlement to resources, entitlement to time, entitlement to community. They may make posts or comments complaining about "gatekeeping", expressing interest in learning about/accessing closed practices, expressing irritation with practitioners of closed practices for protecting their traditions. They may also post about such practices or openly state that closed practices aren't closed at all. This isn't always a sign that someone is definitely racist, but it's a sign that you should start looking at their interactions and behaviors for other tells.
-They often deny POC/minority authorship of practices/beliefs/traditions kept by POC/minority groups. This usually goes hand-in-hand with feeling entitled to closed practices. Denying POC authorship of practices, beliefs, and traditions is a timeless way of implying that POC/minority groups "aren't capable" of authoring such things. This can come in the form of out-and-out denying authorship (such as insisting a POC claim to something simply isn't true and it was created by *insert white European cultural group here* instead), by claiming that POC groups actually stole the practice/belief/tradition from *insert white European cultural group here*, or by claiming that the practice or belief is a "universal truth" and therefore can't be stolen, can't belong to anyone, can't have authorship, etc. This is very much based in white supremacy and supersessionism, and it's a very common sign of stealth/covert racism/white supremacy.
-They tend to paint POC as aggressors and/or make unfounded, unsubstantiated claims and accusations against them, such as claiming that they're being attacked, bullied, or harassed by POC, or (especially within the witchcraft community) that POC (this is more often geared toward WOC) are working magic against them/cursing them/hexing them/putting "the eye" on them, etc. This is a classic way to be racist, especially for white women — make an unfounded, unsubstantiated accusation against a POC, attempt to paint themselves as a victim, and rile hatred (and, yes, even violence) against the POC they've targeted. Accusations such as these will often come with no proof whatsoever, and, on tumblr, they also often come in the form of vague posting.
-They paint POC as a monolith. If someone has a tendency to lump POC creators online in with each other or to speak about/depict POC practitioners of witchcraft as a monolith based on their perceived race or ethnicity, this is a pretty good sign that racism is afoot. Racists tend to not see POC as individuals independent of one another. Instead, they see them as "those people," "people like that," "them," etc, and this is covert language that absolutely can be a sign of racist intentions and beliefs. When you see someone addressing POC/talking about POC and they're using this kind of language, it's time to start paying attention to the situation, because you may, indeed, be dealing with a racist, but sometimes the language isn't there to clue you in and you have to, instead, pay attention to patterns around how they talk about, view, or depict POC.
-"Rules for thee, not for me" mindset: Typically, perpetrators of this kind of racism will have expectations and rules for how they think POC should behave, should treat them, should communicate with them, should exist publicly even within that POC's own personal space, and these rules and expectations differ from those to which they hold themselves and other people they perceive as white. There are a lot of signs that this might be the case — calling out perceived "poor behavior" of POC but never doing the same for white people, calling out perceived "poor behavior" of POC while doing the exact same things they're calling someone else out for, frequently posting about how other people need to treat them while never extending that same treatment to POC, taking it upon themselves to comment about a POC creator in a snide or derogatory manner but never doing the same toward white creators, taking issue/making comments about "perceived poor" mannerisms, traits, language, social norms that they associate with POC.
These are just a few of the most common ways I've seen stealth/covert racism present in witchcraft spaces online, and I think it's very important that we as a community educate about these sorts of behaviors and what they can mean, what ideologies they may come from, and how they impact POC within the witchcraft community. This isn't a "call out" post or anything like that, merely a quick post aiming to highlight a growing problem within what should be safe, welcoming, and egalitarian spaces for witches, occultists, and practitioners of magical, mystical, and esoteric traditions and crafts.
If anyone has anything they think should be included here, please either reblog and add to this list or let me know and I'll add it to the original post.
The snap and break curse
Take a twig, a tree branch, or a rose stem, depending on what you see fit.
Wrap a taglock (a lock of hair, a picture, a piece of personal belonging) around the stick, secure it with twine, rubber band, zip tie, shoelace, your choice.
Recite an imprecatory psalm if you think it fits the situation.
Snap it in the middle and break it in half.
Bury it in your backyard. Stomp on it.
I bring a sort of folklorically consistent view of religion and magic vibe that people who are afraid of contradictions between known science and spirituality don't really like
One thing about me is that, when it comes to witchcraft, I am extremely comfortable with the knowledge that not everyone (and, in some cases, maybe no one) is going to have the same opinions I do. That's okay with me because I firmly believe that everyone's journey is personal and my journey is for me.
I try to reflect that in my blog by being careful to differentiate when something is generally addressed (to "one", "folks", "people" etc.) vs. when it is a personal reflection (focused on "I", "me", "my" etc.). No one should ever feel judged by or measured by an I/me/mine post because they're about my journey and not a reflection of anyone else's.
Science is a powerful tool, but scientism isn’t the same thing as science. Reducing everything to a single materialist lens doesn’t make a view more intelligent, it just makes it narrower. Human life clearly operates across physical, mental, social, and spiritual layers, and different traditions have developed different ways of understanding and working within those layers. Taking those frameworks seriously doesn’t threaten science or evidence; it just recognizes that no single method explains everything worth knowing. Intellectual rigor isn’t about flattening reality, it’s about letting multiple ways of understanding coexist without pretending one of them has a monopoly on truth.
please invent an imaginary friend to go to a museum with this winter please for the love of all things holy
please also remember that your imaginary friend is not a fucking deity and does not exist outside of your head... we have created enough fake gods in our history, we don't need anymore.
feed it with blood and devotion. court it with candles and incense. chant its name in the small hours of the night. Stephanie, the Goddess of Being Slightly Less Socially Anxious In Museums, is already stepping coltishly out of the sea foam and the dawn has never been so bright.
at this time of year you might be tempted to create new rules for yourself, if you do, make sure that they are designed to serve you, not to punish yourself for imperfection.
Your altar doesn’t have to look aesthetic. A chipped mug with flowers, a rock from your walk, or a photo that feels sacred to you is more powerful than anything in a witchy Pinterest board.
