Witchery from the Lower Salish Sea

[themori-witch]

Dear Witches,

It’s okay if you don’t cast every single day. It’s okay if you don’t collect crystals, or work with spirits, or work with your astral self.

Just because you see other witches doing things, doesn’t mean you’re any less of a witch for not doing them. Your craft is your own and you should never feel that you must do things that you don’t like/agree with, or things that make you uncomfortable. You do not need to meet a certain criteria or fulfil anyone’s expectations but your own.

Of course I would always urge you to push yourself, but remember that there’s magick in the mundane too. Stir your drinks clockwise for positivity, sing in the shower and laugh out loud to charge your spaces.

No matter what, you are valid.

[quantum-natura]

Friendly Reminders

Not every witch is a pagan and not every pagan is a witch

Not every witch is a diviner and not every diviner is a witch

Not every witch is a Wiccan and not every Wiccan is a witch

Not every witch is a spirit worker and not every spirit worker is a witch

Witchcraft is an umbrella term that may include all or none of these paths and practices. All of these paths and practices are valid, with or without the incorporation of witchcraft. 

[bone-daddy-bomby-deactivated201]

Energy Modes:

Empath - Someone who tends to be hypersensitive to the emotions and emotional states of others. 

Discharger - The opposite of an empath, someone who affects the emotions and emotional states of others. 

Emotional Empath - One of the most common types of empaths who picks up the emotions of others around them and feel the effects of those emotions as if they were theirs. 

Physical Empath - Can pick up on the energy of other people’s bodies. They intuitively know what ails another person. 

Nature Empath - Sometimes called place or environmental empathy. Those with this ability have a fine attunement to the physical landscape, nature, the earth, or plants and trees. 

Intuitive Empath - One glance at someone can give them all kinds of insight into that person. They will immediately know if someone is lying to them because they can sense the intentions behind their words. 

Spirit Empath - An ordinary spirit worker can communicate and sometimes see spirits, but the spirit empath has a very strong sense of spirits’ emotions just like emotional empaths are with humans. 

Energy Vampire - Someone who needs to receive energy from an outside source on a regular basis (does not include sanguine vampires). There is a lot of misinformation about energy vampires, so please don’t make assumptions, 

Nature Vampire - An energy vampire who has a tendency to feed off of nature energies such as energy from the earth, landscapes, and environment.  

Energy Feeder - Anyone who does not require any energy from outside sources but may want it anyway and ask to receive it. They are not the same as energy vampires and do not accidentally or unconsciously feed on energy around them as untrained energy vampires might. 

Energy Sun️ - The exact opposite of an energy vampire, energy suns give off too much energy for them to handle and need to let it out somehow or ground their energy very often. They may want to become an energy donor! Sometimes they are known as power towers, batteries, or generators. 

Energy Chameleon - Energy chameleons have an energy core that is so thin or light that it takes in the energy of their surroundings at a much higher degree than normal. This can often result in having an external type of energy integrated beyond the surface level of their own energy - for instance, having demonic energy after hanging out in hell realms or fae energy after being around fae spirits (all to a much deeper extent than for non-chameleons). Energy chameleons may also find it easy to actively mimic others’ energies, even all the way down to their core. What differentiates it from empathy is that it’s a shift in one’s innate being. An empath can take in the feelings and energies of people around them but their whole energy body and energy systems won’t alter themselves to mimic those of others, which is what occurs in chameleons. Also, chameleonism doesn’t give a heightened ability to sense emotions or energies.(definition courtesy of @subterraneanroses)

Energy Mirror- Energy mirrors are like quintessential mirrors – their inner core is strong and stable, unchanging no matter who is with them or not. However, when other people look into them, the other person sees only themselves and not the mirror within. This can lead to a lot of confusion for the energy mirror as they’re told contradictory labels, depending upon who views them. Energy mirrors function as the in-between state between the common superficial mimicking that most people do in social situations, and the deeper core-changing mimicry of the energy chameleons. 

Enhancer - Someone who constantly draws in the energy around them and then uses an internal process that can be described as enhancing, intensifying, or amplifying the energy so that it increases and becomes more dense. This results in their natural energy output being more powerful than the energy they naturally took in. There are some similarities here to Energy Suns, but a key difference is that Enhancers use an external source of energy while Energy Suns produce extra energy internally. Enhancers may also be likely to be an Energy Feeder but they are not necessarily also Energy Vampires.  (definition courtesy of @space-squid-soup)

Converter - Someone with the ability to convert or transform energy from one type to another. For example, positive into negative or emotional energy into neutral energy. This ability can be innate or acquired.

All energy mode definitions are directly from members of The Energy Spiral Community.

[salishseawitch]

Ocean Waves Grounding Exercise

Close your eyes and imagine the ocean crashing against the beach. As you breathe in, the waves crest and crash against the sand/rocks. As you breathe out, the water recedes to begin the cycle again. Continue for ten slow breaths. Repeat as needed.

[salishseawitch]

FAQ is up!

Feel free to ask more questions, or suggest things to put in the FAQ!

I promise, more posts are coming soon, I’ve been ridiculously busy with work and life and stuff. Keep an eye out!

[silkensorceress]

What to do when you fell out with your practice

Because I sure as hell needed this post when I did.

1. Realize that it‘s okay. Accept that it happened. Forgive yourself for it.

Maybe life got in the way and you just didn‘t have the time or energy or possibility. Maybe something happened on your path that got you scared, frightened, panicked, or even disgusted so that you had to take a step back and retreat. Maybe your focus simply shifted. Maybe you got bored. Maybe everything just got overwhelming and you weren‘t able to juggle magick and the mundane at the same time. Maybe mental illness got in the way. No matter what the reason for your fall out was, accept that it happened, forgive yourself for it. Because it‘s okay, life happens in phases, and no matter the reason, how big or how small, it‘s part of your journey and totally fine. These things happen to the best of us, so don‘t blame yourself for it. It really is okay. Pinky promise.

2. Reconnect with your god(s) and/or non-physical friends, if needed.

If you‘re a spirit companion/have spirit friends like me or are devoted to a god or certain deity/ies, your time with them/devotion to them probably fell under the brick as well. If it did, reconnect. I promise chances are they‘ll understand. As I said, life happens, and they know that too. They probably saw what you were going through. Explain what happened to them, apologize, and move on, if they allow it. Just spend more time with them again, greet them good morning and wish them good night again, invite them to join you throughout your day again. I promise, any good relationship will hold, just show that you really are sorry and put in effort to show that you care again. I’m sure they missed you as well so it’s time to make up for the time you lost!

3. Don’t overwhelm and overestimate yourself.

Chances are the longer your fall-out was, the more your “psychic muscles” lost in strength. Your intuition may be a bit more out-of-tune, you may have more trouble hearing/seeing/feeling/sensing spirits and energies. Maybe you have more trouble programing things or adding energy to objects than before. That’s okay! It’s totally fine and normal, just don’t be surprised if it happens and know that with practice you’ll be back to old strength in no time! Until then, start small and work with what you have.

4. Start small, don’t rush it, one step at a time.

Start drawing a daily or weekly card again. Start carrying crystals with you again. Start laying them out under the moon to charge again. Do small rituals like maybe doing some bath magic before you rush head-first into a huge complicated thing again! Again, you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Also, you want to build a routine again to not risk falling out again. Some ideas on what to do when building your practice up again:

lay crystals, items, water, anything out under the moon/sun to charge 

talk to plants

draw a daily/weekly card

pick a crystal to carry with you throughout the day in the morning

say mantras in the morning

infuse your tea/coffee with intent

send out your energetic sensers when comfortable and at home. slowly but surely

meditate. 5 minutes in the evening, 5 minutes in the morning. at least.

go for a daily walk at a certain time 

look through your grimoire/bos if you have one. write in it again

doodle little sigils in your free time

and many, many more

5. If needed, make a schedule.

As I said, you may want to build a routine. If those work for you, make a daily or weekly plan. Look up transits and check when you have time, then create your own magical schedule. If need be, set some reminders on your phone. Just try to be disciplined about it for a while so that you get back into your practice smoothly!

6. Reinvent your craft.

You probably changed since you last practiced, or maybe there was a reason IN your practice that caused the fall-out. If so, identify what it was. Reflect on yourself, your practice, your life. How can you make everything run together more smoothly? Maybe you want to focus more on the mundane than the spiritual, and if so that’s totally fine. Adapt your practice in a way that fits and feels good, it’s all yours so feel free to do whatever you want! Maybe you want to shift the focus IN your practice, or maybe you want to stop doing something, maybe start doing something else (instead). 

(Optional) 7. Talk to others. 

Sometimes it is so, so hard to not feel incredibly bad and like you fucked yourself or your life or your relationships up when this happens (and not just in relation to magic but other things as well). Please know that you’re not alone on this and if your own up-lifting thoughts and words are not enough, seek validation outside. I promise that’s not a selfish or vain thing to do, it’s natural and human and you deserve to be told that you’re doing just fine. Go to a trusted friend, family member, maybe blogger, anyone. If you want, you can always come to me. Talk to someone about how things are going now, talk to them about the things you just did to make yourself feel good about doing this. 

💗 No matter what, it’s all good. I promise. These things just happen and there is no reason to blame yourself - please take good care of yourself and know that you come first - magic and everything else second.  I hope this was useful to some, I know it helped me as I’m just getting out of a fall-out, too. I hope you all have a magical day~! 💗

[blackbearmagic]

I’m not saying that the Atlantic won’t drown your ass. She absolutely will, if that is Her whim that day.

But at least She has the decency to downplay Her brutal might. 

To invite us in with warm sand beaches, bright sunlight, gentle breezes–as if to say to us “I am a powerful mistress, but not a cruel one.” To let us splash and dive in Her foam-capped waves and only occasionally dragging us under or smashing us against the shore.

Sure, She could kill you. Sure, She could kill you and make it so they never find your body. She could, She could, oh goodness me, She could. 

but She probably won’t

not in this moment, at least

and probably not in the next one

or the one after that

and probably not even in any of the moments that you are in Her waters.

Maybe She’ll never hurt you or even so much as scare you

but She always could

So enjoy your day at the beach. Play in Her waves. Bask on Her sand. The Atlantic is powerful. The Atlantic is loving.

And She almost definitely won’t fuck you up.

[blackbearmagic]

Right here! My post was a hasty response to it, hence why it’s so much shorter in comparison.

[captainoftheseaqueen]

You say the Pacific scares you,

That at least the Atlantic can play nice

For at least She invites you to her shore. 

Her edges are softer. Gold sand. Sunny skies. 

She sticks to you like a mother peppering her children with kisses

When they’ve come in from playing.

She cradles you, shelters you, and watches like a doting mother, 

and so you think that compared to Her, the Pacific is cruel.

But the Pacific has never pretended to be anything but what She is.

We know the danger in her waves long before we’ve reached the coast

We know She could crush us. We know Her waters are cold. We know that She is wild.

But tell me, is anyone, anything, that is deep in possession of soft edges? No.

You can not be eased into Her, and so She has the decency to warn you.

“If you can not handle my coast, you can not handle my depths,” says the Pacific from Her coast. For what are rough edges but the mark of a drop off? To find a yawning chasm below.

Not a single one of us has found the bottom yet. Not really. 

And perhaps we never will

But in looking, oh, in looking, we have been shown so much. There is never a journey into Her Depths that we have not learned something. That she has not taught us something marvelous.

So perhaps this is your mistake.

You look at the Pacific and you are scared, for She is not like your Mother.

Perhaps, not even an aunt

You see the jagged edges as unfriendly and perhaps a little cruel

You do not realize it is a warning. ‘Leave if you are not prepared’.

But you won’t be. Not fully. Not ever. But you can try.

You can try. And for a taste of the depths, it is worth it. For a glimpse of Her sights, it’s a pittance.

Because the Pacific is not our Mother.

She is our teacher.

And all she demands for her lessons is respect.

[salishseawitch]

Hello! And welcome!

I hail from the lower Salish Sea, also known as the Puget Sound, in Washington State. This blog will be dedicated to my pursuits in learning and collecting information on the local flora and fauna in regards to magic and witchcraft.

It looks a little bare right now, I know, but hopefully soon I’ll be filling this place to the brim with witchy things!

Coming soon to a dashboard near you: an FAQ! and a resources page!

[salishseawitch]

I don't really know much(anything) about astral, or how to shapeshift while traveling...I'm pretty clueless sorry:( sorry for bothering you

No, you're not bothering me at all. I understand the feeling of not knowing how to do anything. We all have to start somewhere.thetwistedrope and duskenpath both know a lot about the astral, if you want to pursue that path

[salishseawitch]

Thank you for the help! How would I go about doing the astral traveling one?

Well, first you'd have to be able to get to the astral, or at least be aware of it. There are a lot of guides here on tumblr for travel.As to how when you get there, I guess that would depend on where and who you are over there. Are you able to shapeshift yourself? Or do you need to ask someone for help? If you have to have help, be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS when dealing with other entities. You can never know with the astral.

[salishseawitch]

How do I become a mermaid, or how do I change into another creature?

Hmmm. Well, nonny, I don't really deal with shapeshifting of that nature. I will tell you that you cannot physically on this plane become another creature. Believe me, if it were possible, I'd have done it already. But I can give you some ideas.You can mentally shapeshift, where you take on the mindset of the animal or creature. Or you can shapeshift on the astral, if you travel, through magic or some other means. Other ideas could be glamour spells, a charm to "be as a mermaid" (whatever aspects you want to incorporate into yourself), or just calling yourself a mermaid.Followers, any other ideas?

[salishseawitch]

Magical Uses of Seaweeds and Kelps

First, a little info. Seaweeds and kelps are not actually plants: they are algae! Despite their appearance, they are all algae. There are very few true underwater plants, one of them being eelgrass, which will also be covered here for simplicity's sake. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list by any means, as there are hundreds of seaweed and kelp species in the Puget Sound alone. This is merely a short compilation of the species I see most often.

BROWN SEAWEEDS Sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) – love, sweetening, seeking

Sugar kelp gets its name from the presence of sugar alcohols, which give it a sweet flavor (yes, it is edible!). As such, this kelp would be useful in love spells (be they romantic or platonic) and for the sweetening of a situation. Sea urchins are also able to find these by the alcohols this kelp excretes, so this kelp would also be useful as a component in a spell for seeking lost items.

Bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkaena) – banishing, shadow work, personal growth

Also known as bullwhip kelp, I associate this kelp with banishing. Because it really does look like a whip, and can be used as one by a talented individual, I picture cracking a whip to dissipate an issue. This kelp also grows nearly six inches a day, so this kelp would also be good for shadow work and personal growth magic.

Giant kelp (Macrocystis integrifolia) – protection

Herring will lay their eggs in this kelp, so it is only logical that they kelp would be good for protections.

Pacific rockweed (Fucus gardneri) – fertility

This kelp has a strange way of reproducing. When the tide goes out, the bladders of this kelp release their gametes (their reproductive cells, the sperm and eggs), and then when the tide returns, the sperm find the eggs for fertilization.

Little rockweed (Pelvetiopsis limitata) – exposure (perhaps of lies, or as a curse)

This kelp is actually almost never underwater because it lives so high in the intertidal. This kelp could easily be used in a spell to expose lies and deceit, or in a curse to make the victim always feel exposed and vulnerable.

RED SEAWEEDS Turkish towel (Chondracanthus corymbiferus) – binding

This seaweed produces a compound that is used as a binding agent in many things, from food to ink.

Iridescent seaweed (Mazzaella splendens) – glamors

When hit by sunlight, especially when underwater, this seaweed explodes into a vibrant rainbow of color. Easily something that can be used in glamour spells.

Sea sacs (Halosaccion glandiforme) – energy, accepting change

When the tide comes up over this seaweed, the bladders on the ends of its fronds fill with seawater. When the tide goes back out, the sacs slowly release the water to keep wet. They also change color slowly as they mature.

GREEN SEAWEEDS Maiden hair sea lettuce (Ulva intestinalisi) – beauty and glamors

As indicated by the name, this seaweed resembles hair upon close inspection. No need for luscious flowing locks to use this seaweed in a beauty or glamour spell, though!

Common sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca) – abundance, endurance

If you walk along a beach in Washington, you will almost certainly see mountains of this seaweed. It is easily the most common seaweed in the intertidal, owing to its incredible hardiness. It can endure a wide range of temperatures, and long periods out of water.

GRASSES Surfgrass (Phyllospadix sp.) and Common eelgrass (Zostera sp.) - prosperity

Many animals, both aquatic and land-based, rely on these grasses for a food source. Even humans, particularly the Salish and Haida tribes, ate these grasses both fresh and dried in the cold winters. However, these grasses are threatened by trawling and erosion, so collection of live specimens is highly discouraged.

source: The Beachcomber’s Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest (revised edition) by J. Duane Sept

[salishseawitch]

for topics, maybe different kinds of divination we can do in relation to sea witchery. like stone divination, etc... (:

ooo good idea friend! I’ll add it to the list, thank you <3

[salishseawitch]

I have several topics lined up in my drafts, but I wanted your input, lovely followers~

What kinds of things would you like to see here? What are you most curious about? Any specific topics you want me to cover?

[salishseawitch]

Hello! And welcome!

I hail from the lower Salish Sea, also known as the Puget Sound, in Washington State. This blog will be dedicated to my pursuits in learning and collecting information on the local flora and fauna in regards to magic and witchcraft.

It looks a little bare right now, I know, but hopefully soon I’ll be filling this place to the brim with witchy things!

Coming soon to a dashboard near you: an FAQ! and a resources page!