A Small Witchy and Magic(k)y Blog

With a side of Gender and LGBTQA+ issues.

[resoluteryshimmerings]

[thatneurodivergentpagan]

Blessed Be, for we are all magick

[breelandwalker]

How about instead of screencapping someone else's blog and reposting it, you just reblog the post.

Thank you,

The Author Of Said Post.

[reactionimagesdaily]

[reactionimagesdaily]

Oh, no. No. No, we are not doing this. 

Listen, IDK how seriously any stance I have on the matter is gonna be taken, because I am Funnee Reaction Images Guy, the gimmick blog on Tumblr. But with all sincerity, if you’re a terf in my notes, please go away. Feel free to block me if you have to, but I don’t want to engage with you, and I don’t want you to engage with me. This blog supports, and will always support, transgender people in any and all shape and form.

[polishbarnowl]

Reblog to let the terfs know you support the trans community!

[spitblossoms]

[papaya-inspiration]

[yourfavpunchesnazis]

you punch nazis!

(requested by anonymous)

[yourfavpunchesnazis]

[tnystrk-exe]

[somardani]

By Richard Pace

[cryptonature]

Moss is 300m yrs old.

Home on every continent.

No roots. No towering trunks,

yet it tasted the air before the first feather,

before shrews stirred the leaf litter.

When your mind hisses like a kettle,

look to your elder, to the green lessons

of soft, simple quiet beneath the sun.

[reading-runa]

❗️ ⚠️ 🔥 💸 🛠 💸 ❗️

- the good wizard

[normal-horoscopes]

So Etsy just banned the sale of "Spells, incantations, and enchanted objects" and the like.

Honestly I'm kinda on Etsy's side here. I feel like you shouldn't be allowed to sell metaphysical things for physical dollars. There's no way to ethically regulate the sale of spells and prayer.

If some megachurch had an Etsy store where the megapastor would pray for you in exchange for 5$, people would be rightly upset. I know thats not a perfect comparison, because a lot of e-witches are just broke college students trying to make a spooky buck, but the inability to regulate the sale of spells opens the door for an enormous amount of occult-flavored exploitation that becomes basically impossible to deal with on a case-by-case basis.

I feel like there should at the very least be some physical object you're selling, even if it's just an index card with some runes and string on it or whatever, you have to be selling something that has artistic value outside of the spell.

[normal-horoscopes]

Also hey, this isn't an act of oppression against neopagans.

[samwisethewitch]

You know, at this point I think it may be useful to talk about the difference between highly structured religions and high-demand religions, because I realize the terms sound very similar but have very different meanings, which may be confusing for newcomers.

Highly structured religions are exactly that – religions with a lot of internal structure. That structure may take the form of othrodoxy (authorized theory or practice) and/or orthopraxy (correct conduct or action). It may take the form of very formal, highly structured rituals – the Catholic mass is a good example of this type of formal ritual. It may even take the form of a system of authority, such as clergy. None of this is inherently good or bad, and many people find highly structured religions have a deep, positive effect on their lives.

There are several pagan religions that are highly structured, including Traditional Wicca/British Traditional Witchcraft, Thelema, and many forms of Hellenic, Roman, and Kemetic reconstruction. These are all beautiful and meaningful faiths that enrich the lives of their followers. High structure is simply one of many approaches to spirituality, and if that’s how you best connect to the divine, more power to you.

High-demand religions are a subset of high-demand groups, a.k.a. cults. These groups are about control, not structure. Members are asked to give unhealthy amounts of time, energy, and emotion to the group, until they lose touch with their individual identity and become lost in the group identity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) is a modern example of a high-demand religion. So are Jehovah’s Witnesses. So is the Church of Scientology. These groups destroy lives, eat people up, and destroy their senses of individuality and self-sovereignty. 

High-demand groups are not always religious, and the actual beliefs of the group are less important than the means used to control members. Some of the most dangerous cults in history have been non-religious – just ask anyone who lives in the United States and has experienced the Cult of Trump. High-demand groups usually do have some sort of shared beliefs, but those beliefs may be religious, political, social, or even fandom-based. 

High-demand religions may or may not employ some of the highly structured elements I mentioned earlier, but any belief system can be used as a cult recruitment tool, whether that system is highly-structured or not. Again, the markers of a high-demand group have less to do with belief and more to do with the way they treat members.

Here are some of the warning signs of high-demand groups. If a group checks off all or most of these, stay far away:

The group has a living leader whose authority is beyond question, and whom members are expected to give unquestioning commitment

The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members, often through recruitment or missionary work

The group is preoccupied with making money, or demands money beyond the basic cost of running the group (tithing is a good example of this)

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or punished

Mind-numbing techniques such as meditation, trance, chanting, speaking in tongues, debilitating work routines, or lack of sleep are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leaders 

The leadership dictates how members should think, act, and feel, including controlling dress, behavior, language, and interactions with those outside the group.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leaders, and/or its members that makes them “above” others

The group has a black and white, us vs. them mentality

The group’s leaders are not accountable to any human authority

The group induces feelings of guilt or shame in members in order to better control them

Members are expected to limit contact with those outside the group, possibly even cutting ties with family and friends

Members are expected to give up personal goals such as education and career goals

Members are expected to devote an inordinate amount of time to the group

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully you get the idea of what these groups are like. Stay safe out there, y’all. 

Resources:

“Checklist of HDG Characteristics” from the Cult Awareness Network 

Steven Hassan’s BITE model at freedomofmind.com

“The Bite Model: QAnon Analysis” on freedomofmind.com

“1442: Was I Raised in a Cult or High-Demand Religion? A Self-Assement” on mormonstories.org

Recovering Agency by Luna Lindsey

[reading-runa]

Please. Wicca and Traditional Witchcraft are not the same thing. Don't just separate them with a slash like that.

[deactivated-blog]

Eliza here with yet another unpopular opinion!

It’s time to retire the phrase “eclectic witch.”

The term has no meaning, if it ever did. All modern witches are pretty much eclectic. Even someone in a straight-up Wiccan coven, Gardnerian or whatnot, could be seen as “eclectic” because Wicca draws from so many different sources.

I’m note even sure if, historically, there’ve been that many magical practitioners you couldn’t call eclectic, even without stretching the term too far. If someone says they’re an eclectic witch, well, it tells you absolutely nothing about what they practice or believe.

I realize other labels (“celestial witch,” “green witch,” “fire witch” etc) are controversial too, but they serve a greater conversational function by actually indicating a bit of what the person does or believes.

Just my two cents on this. I’m not saying I’d judge people for using the term, but it just doesn’t really say much, and I think we’d know each other better if we skipped it. Obviously, do/say what you want, but I just felt like sharing these thoughts!

[theoryofmagick]

I respect that opinion! However, I think that "eclectic witch" is still a helpful catch-all for folks who don't ascribe to a fixed path, even if that path has deviations. For instance, I'm practicing a path that takes heavily from tradcraft, the structure of Neo-Wicca and regular ol Wicca, and Western Esoterica, and my magical and religious philosophies are heavily intermingled but my magical theory takes heavily from Esoterica, and it's just too much to fit into a Tumblr bio without laying down the foundational pillars of my own practice to every rando who wanders along. (I love you, randos, I just feel like I oughtn't give a 5-minute speech on my magical beliefs when I could use the catch-all term). I also use it because I am p sure I will get my ass metaphysically kicked by several entities if I include everything in a tumblr bio.

I do know some initiated Wiccans who would balk at being called eclectic, but I think they're quite attached to the formality of BTW and their respective covens, specifically.

[reading-runa]

Surely be it "eclectic witch" or "generalist witch" the important word is witch.

If someone wants to stuff themselves into a box with a label then far be it for me to tell them what to do. But I've always felt that as witches we should be outside the boxes and the labels, moving among them as we see fit.

[theoryofmagick]

Hey Witchblr! Here's a fun question for you: What's the most unexpected result you've gotten from a spell you've cast?

[libraford]

I once did a money spell because I was broke and my grandma gifted me a small collection of foreign coins.

[handy-sigil-pop-spells]

Ooo tie between:

Did a good luck spell that worked for exactly 8 hours and then inexplicably without fail 1 Terribly unlucky thing would happen. I tried this spell 5 times just to confirm it. Highlight includes the time my phone jumped out of my pocket as I was getting off the bus and the case came off midair during the 3 foot drop and the whole phone screen shattered.

And:

Did a finding lost objects spell. Started staring at chair after me and 3 other people had searched all over the house for the missing object. I turn around do the spell, turn back and the object is sitting plain as day dead center in the middle of the chair. I showed it to my roommates who Lost their Mind about it. Most immediate gratification I’ve ever gotten from a spell.

[theoryofmagick]

I love these! The chair one is particularly *chef's kiss*

[ei-len]

Super early in my witching. Did a spell to uncover hidden knowledge, thinking, oooh gonna find out about that cool occulty shit. Got unexpectedly let out of school early shortly thereafter due to something or other utterly dull (a short day for everyone, not just like me personally), and... walked in on my dad's secret girlfriend. Yes I mean like as in an affair.

[upthewitchypunx]

On a busy shopping evening around the winter holidays I was out shopping and wanted to grab a drink at a particular brewery. I knew the bar would be packed so I started doing this little hand signal spell to open up two seats at the bar. I had two seats in particular on my mind.

We get to the brewery and it is indeed packed, except for those two seats specifically. While the seats were indeed open, the space at the bar was not. There were two pint glasses with coasters over the top of the glass in the international sign of "I'll be right back" I can only guess my spell made two people have to pee and evacuate the seats. I guess I wasn't specific enough about the bar space too?

[hearthandhomewitchery]

My grandfather had to go in for some minor surgery, so I made him a charm to help him heal comfortably afterwards. I dropped it off a few days before he had to go in.

When he went in for a last scan before the surgery, the problem had completely healed itself and his surgery was canceled.

He kept it hanging on a lamp next to his chair for the rest of his life, just in case.

[phantomroyalty]

I’m not sure if this counts since it wasn’t intentional or a spell but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was reading alone at home when I learned about god phoning for the first time. I thought ‘That sounds cool, I should try it sometime!’. Then some some complete ass screamed the word banana directly into my right ear. I still don’t know who it was. I do have a hunch though...

[erincorvus]

I once had a journal that I really wanted to keep private, so I made a spell to keep it hidden. I hadn't really been specific, though, so I promptly lost it the next day, never to see it again. It's been years now, and I even moved since then, but I've never been able to find it.

[theoryofmagick]

These are all so fantastic! The journal one and brewery one are so classic

[reading-runa]

I thought something had been stolen from me (I, an idiot had left it in a hollow tree in the local woods) and hurled into a nearby pond covered with green algae. As that's where my pendulum had lead me. I wanted to be sure so I cast a spell to reveal to me the bottom of the pond.

Of course nothing happened.

But one summer long nationwide drought later the pond was bone dry. What I'd lost was nowhere to be seen. I later learned that it had been taken by someone with the name of Greene.

[sosuperawesome]

Witch and Wizard Hats

Costurero Real on Etsy

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Funky witch energy <3

[will-o-the-witch]

I was wondering why its a bad thing / so frowned upon to be Wicca or read Scott Cunningham? A lot of blogs I read, especially big names, seem to hate Scott Cunningham and Wicca, but its what i've always been drawn to. I'm trying to branch out and re-commit (since I'm an adult now, and not forced to abide by my parents' rules) but everywhere I turn it seems to be a negative?

So: there’s nothing inherently “bad” about being Wiccan, but certain elements of Wiccan culture/groups of Wiccans leave a bad taste in other people’s mouths. I know plenty of Wiccans who are wonderful people and don’t resemble what I’m about to describe, so this is NOT a case of all Wiccans. Just enough Wiccans that we have to talk about it.

I’m also not trying to attack anybody specific or shame people for being Wiccan, just highlighting concerns that non-Wiccans have so that people can understand it and be more aware of their own actions.

1. A lot of Wiccan belief is based in gender essentialism and hard, stereotyped binaries. There’s a lot of emphasis on the strong, agential Father and the nurturing, abundant Mother as well as their union. Especially with the Goddess, there’s a lot of emphasis on her role defined as “maiden, mother, crone,” which a lot of people feel defines women only as fertility vessels or their relationship to men. (There's also the idea of benevolent sexism at play, which romanticizes traditional subjugating roles for women in order to make them more complacent/rebel less.) This makes it very difficult for many women, LGBT people, and especially nonbinary people to practice or even feel welcome within the context of Wicca. Dianic Wicca is notoriously transphobic, and Gardner was a pretty avid homophobe as well.

2. Wiccans tend to dominate pagan and witch circles, and that doesn’t leave room for much else. It is HARD HARD HARD to find books on modern witchcraft that aren’t actually just books on Wicca in disguise, and Wiccan beliefs such as the threefold law are often raised against practitioners even if they aren’t Wiccan. Also, people tend to conflate Wiccan ideologies with all of Paganism and witchcraft so non-Wiccans have to constantly correct people. 

3. Eclectic Wicca (which I would argue most modern solitary practitioners tend to be in some capacity) has a big problem with respecting other groups. A lot of polytheists don’t love the way Wicca takes their gods, lays them out like a salad bar, and invites practitioners to take them out of their cultural context and treat them like tools. More concerning is when this same “everything is part of the same All, therefore I can touch it” attitude reaches into closed living cultures such as Native American religions, which gets very racist very quick. Gardnerian Wicca isn't stain-free either; Gardner took a lot from existing traditions and Golden Dawn, a parent of Wicca, heavily appropriates Kabbalah.

4. Wiccans are probably the biggest perpetrators of gatekeeping who "can" be a witch, particularly targeting cis men, masculine-aligned folks and trans women. They also tend to bash non-pagan religions and say they can't be witches and/or their magic is fake and doesn't work.

5. General spread of misinformation about Wicca being “an ancient religion,” “the burning times,” and other things to make Wicca seem like it’s been around for longer than it has, or that straight wealthy white practitioners are more oppressed than they are. Considering these actual executions were largely directed at Jews and people of color, it's insidious to capitalize on that and turn it back onto privileged modern white women.

Are these problems exclusive to only Wiccans? Of course not. Is this all Wiccans doing it? No. But it's enough that other Pagans tend to feel a bit drained and tread carefully around Wiccans they meet until we figure out if they’re that kind or not. 

As for Scott Cunningham, shrug. I’ve seen some critique that his stuff is a little dated and that he “Disneyfied” Wicca by making it seem all good all the time, but I’m not Wiccan so I can’t answer in detail. 

[theoryofmagick]

Adding on to this (cause it's good stuff):

As someone who uses certain Wiccan frameworks in their craft, the whole gender essentialist thing bugs me SO HARD as a trans* witch, because - if you're doing things right and following that paradigm - technically A NONBINARY PERSON, GENDERFLUID PERSON, or theoretically any trans person could, by all means, perform BOTH SIDES OF THE EQUATION. No need to be gender essentialist about it! There's simply no reason why, for example, a T4T couple couldn't perform the rites a cis-het couple could!

In addition, in my own paradigm, I fully believe the two-sided "you need both genders to perform a Rite" thing cishet WIccans talk about, is more of a matter of the gender than the sex. Like, it's super restrictive and silly to assume you can only channel one side of the Wiccan equation based on your sex. If the key to rites is the "combination of the divine female and divine male" (copy-pasted from Gardenerian wicca, please don't shout at me, haha), frankly I don't see why you can't combine them within yourself or have a fellow queer magical partner who fits the gaps you can't fit. Technically, a bigender person would be the ultimate practitioner by their laws.

Disclaimer: Not a Wiccan, just an eclectic with big magical theory interests.

[reading-runa]

What really pisses me off about Wicca is that it's a mispronunciation of the old Saxon word for a male witch. Which we now can't reclaim anyway because the correct pronunciation is now the name of a successful series of fantasy novels, computer games and a Netflix series staring Henry Cavill. But I am petty.

[sosuperawesome]

Pride Witch Hat Pins

Astral Jae Designs on Etsy

[reading-runa]

[hallow-witxh]

Okay, y'all - stop sending me DMs about healing magic and herbal remedies. It's great for some things! Sore throats, coughs, some aches and pains, headaches, trouble sleeping... for stuff like that, essential oils and teas are great! Eucalyptus for me is wonderful for a realizing shower after a really bad anxiety attack. But please, please, there is a difference between using honey to soothe a cough and claiming essential oils are going to replace antibiotics.

Witchcraft isn't going to heal your pneumonia, depression, or cancer.

Herbal teas are not going to stop your surgical incision from getting infected.

Witchy remedies arent going to make your tattoo heal faster than recommended aftercare.

Listen to your doctor, nurse, piercer, or artist.

Take your antibiotics, antidepressants, and prescriptions.

And stop telling people that tea and tonics are going to cure them. You are not their specialist!

This is a very pro-medicine blog! Take your medicine! Go to a clinic!

And for the last fucking time: honey tea is good for sore throats but medication is for step throat!

Witchcraft isn't going to magically heal you. It's just not. Some things are beyond the effect of spells and incantations.

If you don't agree, I don't have time for you. Block me. Or even better, comment, and I'll block you. I don't want your bullshit on my page. There are baby witches here who are learning and easily influenced and I will not have them influenced by the likes of you.

Baby witches: do not listen to those who think 100% of human ailments can be cured herbally and magically. That is false. Take care of yourself at all costs and don't listen to that. Listen to your specialists, doctors, and psychologists, especially if you have mental illnesses since those seem to be targeted most.

This has been a very frustrated and aggressive public service announcement.