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Binding Chalk

So, last night while I was traveling the realms I received instructions for how to make something called Binding Chalk. It’s a pretty easy recipe and it has tons of uses so I thought I’d pass it along to you guys.

Materials:

Plaster of Paris

Wood ash

Cedar dust (basically dried cedar that’s been put through a spice grinder)

Salt

Water

Chalk molds (Depending on the size/shape you want this’ll differ. You can use paper towel rolls, large straws, candy molds, egg cartons, etc.)

Tempura paint if you want to color your chalk

Follow the mixing instructions on your plaster of paris, adjusting the water content as you add your wood ash, cedar and salt to keep the consistency right. I would suggest making this in smaller batches and not adding too much ash, cedar or salt so your chalk doesn’t fall apart or get crumbly. If you’d like you can color it with a bit of paint.

Once mixed you need to prep your molds. If you’re using paper towel rolls or straws you’ll need to insert a tube of wax paper to keep the plaster from sticking to the cardboard and you’ll need to seal off one end of the tube with masking tape. I’m pretty picky about my chalk size so I like to take empty toilet tissue rolls and cut them down the length of one side. I can then re-roll them to a custom size and tape it in place. When your mold is ready you can spoon your chalk bater into a plastic baggie, snip a corner off and pipe it in.

Let it dry overnight, it can take anywhere from 8-24 hours to dry (possibly more if you use a thick mold). Once dry you can remove it from the mold and use it!

Binding chalk has a large range of uses. While the name suggests it’s primarily for binding it’s actually just an excellent medium for protection and energy repelling. It’s useful for…

Drawing circles to perform spells in

Drawing sigils

Protective lines (across doorways, window sills, property lines, etc)

Banishing spells

Holding spirits by containing them within a circle (I would not suggest this except in the most dire of times. Trapping a spirit is tricky, dangerous and often ethically questionable)

My ask box is always open if anyone has any questions or comments :)

strawberrycauldrons

Especially the bottom right corner!

breelandwalker

Fairy Tale Spells by Bree NicGarran

Fairy tales have always been with us. Apart from teaching moral lessons and practical cautions, they remain a source of wonder and inspiration that persists even in a modern age dominated by technology.

There is magic in these tales as well - spells and charms that aid the worthy and conquer obstacles, heal the ailing and bring wealth to the poor, thwart the wicked and exact terrible revenge, or grant someone their hearts' desire and make their dearest wishes come true.

I have created over a hundred such spells, inspired by the tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm and the folklore collected by Andrew Lang. One volume was published back in 2017 and another is forthcoming. If you're curious (and maybe a little bit daring), here are some previews of the spells to be found in the pages of The Sisters Grimmoire.

After all, who couldn’t use a bit of Happily Ever After?

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I

A Bellyful of Stones - A curse to punish the greedy.

Roughskin - To protect and disguise oneself from those who mean to harm you.

Table of Plenty - To obtain needed money or provisions.

The Red Flower - For removing enchantment.

The Sorrow Pot - To relieve your sorrows and bring justice for a grievance.

The Wall of Thorns - To protect one’s home and property.

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. II (forthcoming)

Make Sure You Lock Up - To set your household wards when you lock your front door.

The Ferryman's Curse - To curse another with the problems that plague your own life.

The Shining Web - To repel trouble from the home.

You can find more spells from The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I and potion and powder recipes from Pestlework by checking out the mid-month minisodes of Hex Positive, available on your favorite podcast platform.

All of my titles can be found on Amazon or ordered from the Willow Wings Witch Shop. (If you'd like to see them in your local witch shop, feel free to give the proprietor my contact information!)

If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar! 😊

proper-enrichment

Hey witch, here's a reminder: you don't have to show and tell every spell, ritual, or offering you do. Yes, it might look aesthetic, but you dont have to whip out your phone to snap a pic of it. Sometimes there is magic in the privacy of your craft.

crazycatsiren

Also a reminder: there are more of us who keep far more things private than things we share than you might think, and I know this might be a bit hard to believe in this day and age of social media.

breelandwalker

Also another reminder: your spell / offering / ritual / charm does not have to be instagram-worthy to be effective and you don't need to ask other witches whether it's good enough or done correctly. No one has to approve of it but you.

theoryofmagick

I'd also like to add that if you post your altars or spells in photo/video form, it's much easier for someone to reverse engineer your spellcraft. (This isn't a siren song to start getting paranoid, but it IS helpful to know if you're demonstrating spells/gathering intel on your enemies most foule/wondering why stuff keeps unraveling).

breelandwalker

Okay, this is something I've been meaning to address for a while, so this seems like an opportune time. (Not yelling at you, theoryofmagick, just making a point.)

This is not as big a problem as social media makes it out to be. Posting pics of your spells or your workspace or talking about your castings gives people an idea of how your craft works, sure, but as to "reverse engineering" or "undoing" your spells....no.

It's certainly possible to counter people's spellwork or bind it or actively work against their aims, but this is not something that random strangers on the internet are looking to do in any kind of significant numbers. And even if they did, to what possible end? How would they even know it worked? How would the caster even know anything happened? Spells aren't going to work even close to 100% of the time anyway.

Also, how stupid would someone have to be to think it would be fun to go around testing another witch's magical defenses just to see if they bite? (Spoiler Alert: Very. The answer is Very Stupid.)

So somebody knows how you did a magical thing - so what? Learning how other people cast spells and perform rituals is an important part of magical education. Encouraging this kind of Do Everything In Secret attitude IS encouraging unnecessary paranoia. And I know where the idea is coming from - it's more leftover anxiety from the Satanic Panic that's made it's way to TikTok and become another community meme.

And let's even entertain the idea for a second. Let's say you DO have a witchy nemesis who's looking to undo or interfere with every spell you cast. Put up a reflecting ward that counters their efforts and turn their spells back on them. Problem solved.

It's fine to keep things back and not display every aspect of your craft, especially if doing so too often may lead to anxiety about your own practices or an inability to do anything without somebody's approval. But there's no need to tell people, especially newer witches, that it's because somebody might use their social media posts to harm them with their own magic.

theoryofmagick

^^^ Reblogging because Bree makes a good point and I genuinely didn't want to cause anyone to get paranoid with sharing their craft! It's something I've been thinking about for a bit (I know I personally lean more towards the "secrecy" side because of how my own craft developed) and I think this post is a nuanced look at the realities of the sitch!

Dude

He’s just up there

Story time about something similar, actually!

I’m a pilot, and thus like 85% of my friends are ALSO pilots and one of them is just this delightful older guy that named Bruce. Bruce is a man of simple pleasures, he likes mediocre bbq and to take his vintage J3 Piper Cub out like, every other week just to have the old girl not look so sad in the hangar. We also live about 30NM south of an air base and, according to him, there was a squad of fighter planes out and they wanted some guys to go up in their planes for intercept practice (with pay, obviously) so the guys could get real time practice looking for unfamiliar aircraft.

Bruce, a man who doesn’t need it but wants to say he flew with some fighter jets, takes them up on their offer and takes the old girl up for them. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with a J3, this thing is slow as shit. Like, horrendously slow. And there was a decent headwind that day blowing in off the coast and Bruce gets the brilliant idea that he’s going to do something they can’t. So Bruce turns that old cub into the wind and just flies slow enough that he’s genuinely flying BACKWARDS and the next thing he knows are these three jets screaming past him, wings wobbling something fierce as they’re all about to stall, and the pilots yelling over the radio like “How are you DOING THAT”

He likes to say he owned the air force something awful that day.

fearlessjones

If I hear a weird story, guaranteed it’s some guy named Bruce.

bapouro

she can enter my home through song

musicforadarkenedtheatre-deacti

who

bapouro

mari lwyd the welsh christmas horse skull!!

muirin007

I was reading about the Wild Hunt and how apparently, Odin Allfather was a typical father in that he refused to ask for directions during his annual Yule ride through the night sky, and instead of turning his fun, flying sleigh around or taking a slightly different route, he’d just plow on through the same route he always took, regardless of who or what was in his way.

And if your house or land WAS in his way, he STILL wouldn’t reroute. He’d just burn the house down instead.

Which is THE funniest thing I have read in years. And it just got funnier when I pictured the whole thing turning into a buddy road trip with Loki and Odin and Sleipnir, and voila, a wild comic appeared.

(File those two kids under unimpressed.jpg.)