Michigan Made Swag Bitch. @remakemistake - Tumblr Blog

Michigan Made Swag Bitch. turned 11 today!

#tumblr birthday #tumblr milestone

fuckyouimpurple

Lavender Lemonade

4 tbsps (¼ cup) culinary lavender*

2 cups boiling water

2/3 cup sugar

1 ½ cups fresh lemon juice (about 8 lemons)

2 cups cold water

* Culinary lavender is lavender harvested for the purposes of cooking/eating. Please don’t buy the perfumed air-freshening kind because that is going to be utterly gross. Steep the lavender in 2 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the lavender. Place the lavender tea and the sugar in a small saucepan and set over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves (you don’t have to put it over heat, but I do this because I’m impatient and want the sugar to dissolve faster and completely). Remove from heat and let cool to warm. Stir in the lemon juice. Stir in the cold water. Add more to taste. I prefer to keep mine on the concentrated side because I like to mix it with seltzer water when I serve it. Serve over ice. Makes about 6-8 cups depending on how dilute you want it.

yellowrose543

The Cottage at Descanso Gardens

The garden gazer on Flickr

themori-witch

Paganism 101: Dumb Suppers

With Samhain around the corner (click here for a post about Samhain), you may see the term “dumb supper” crop up in posts surrounding traditions and activities done at this time of heightened liminality (click here for a post about liminality).

What is a dumb supper?

In layman’s terms, a dumb supper is a meal that is held in silence with food reserved for invited spirits. This ceremony is mean to be a time of remembrance and connection to those you have lost. That’s the simplest version of it.

The term “dumb” simply refers to the silence that is observed during the meal, as no one shall speak, no phones shall ring and no external noises such as radios, televisions should be able to be heard. Essentially, a dumb supper should be done in total, utter silence.

How do you do a dumb supper?

There is no staunch set of rules for this, aside from the silence. A basic template to follow if you’re unsure or doing this for the first time, may be as follows:

Cleanse your space; empty of it any energy, even if it’s residual. You can do this by burning incense, spritzing or chanting - however you feel is best. If you want to, or are wont to do, cast your circle now.

When you set the table for the meal, set a place for every physical being in attendance, making sure you make it so that the head of the table is set for the spirits who will be joining the supper. You may want to set a place for every spirit you want to invite, but this isn’t always feasible. If you like, you can use tealight candles set around the plate to represent them.

There is no set colour scheme for this ceremony, but black is typical of the season and activity. You may want a black tablecloth or candles on the table itself.

If possible, use candles as a light source.

Upon entering the room in which the supper is being served, no one may speak.

Only once everyone’s food has been served - spirits included - may anyone begin to eat.

During the meal, you may want to speak to your spirit guests in your mind; tell them you think of them, remember memories, share laughter. You may want to simply think about them, if that is easier.

Once the meal is over, you may want to say goodbye (silently of course).

Only when everyone is finished eating may you all leave and exit the room in silence. Once you are out of the ceremony space, the silence can be broken.

Food, drink and menu choices:

The food you serve at your dumb supper is entirely up to you. You may want to incorporate some of the traditional Samhain foods, e.g., apples, game, cider, late Autumn vegetables, etc,. but remember that you may want to serve food that pleases the spirits you invite too.

What do you do at the end of the supper?

This depends on you and your traditions. If you’ve cast a circle, you will want to remove it and cleanse the area. When it comes to the food, there are a few things you can do to dispose of the food.

Some people choose to burn the meal afterwards - it is said that the smell of the burnt food can bring happiness to the spirits.

Some people will divide the meal out between the guests afterwards to make sure nothing goes to waste.

Some people simply bin it.

the-learning-ecclectic

Witchcraft for kids: How to fill a child's life with magic

If there's a child in your life that you want to introduce magic to, here are some small and simple ideas:

Enchanting their blanket and letting them know

Making wishes on dandelions

Using mythology as bed time stories

Painting sigils on their ceilings with glow in the dark paint (they get to see the sigil and actually see that it's charged and used as they sleep)

Tea parties

Pearl earrings for good luck, wisdom, and wealth

Knot magic applied in hairstyles

Celebrating the equinoxes and other celebrations

Creating a fairy garden

Putting a rosemary plant on their desk to help them remember what they studied

Teach them phases of the moon and their importance

Teach them florist things and geology

Take them to the beach

Let them decorate and keep an altar in their room

Give them some basic spell books

Put honey for sweetness and milk for strength in their baths or other herbs (just make sure it's safe for their skin and to be ingested)

Teach them basic palministry

Go feather hunting

Go foraging with them

Burn incense or get a diffuser for their room

Speak your chants, spells, and correspondences out loud

Make them a jar spell for peaceful sleep

Plant jasmine outside their window for health, happiness, and relaxation

Bake bread with them

Teach them to meditate and ground

Make them rose and honey tea when they feel lonely and sad

Have them keep a dream journal

Teach them how to read playing cards

Make them amulets for safety and love

Draw sigils on the tags in their clothes

Paint their nails a color to match what you want to bring into their life (ie blue for calm, red for love, white for peace, etc)

Use glow in the dark star stickers and recreate some constellations inside

Cleanse their room or teach them how to

When they have bad dreams, place some amethyst and salt under their pillow

Bring the color orange into their room to bring in energy and joy or blue to bring in calm and peace

Place an iron nail in the floor under their door and above their windows to keep out fae

Hand down your grimoires

Plant an oak tree in your yard to provide a place to play and also to bring strength into your home and as a place to worship deities associated with the tree

Teach them about curses and the like

Get them an authentic dream catcher

An opalite necklace for confidence

Shark tooth necklace for strength

Teach them to love and respect the Earth

There are so many more things you can do but this is just a basic list! Please share your favorite witchy things for children!!!