#beginner advice

[hillbillyoracle]

I’m working on some beginner materials to put out...eventually. But I think my advice is pretty much summed up with: 

give thanks/offerings to your ancestors - even if you didn’t like the ones you knew, I promise you’d like someone back there; doesn’t have to be daily but regularly and water counts

give thanks/offerings to the land - I don’t care where you are or if you like where you are, you’re only there because the land allows it; doesn’t have to be daily but regularly and water counts

pick a divination tool and use it - ideally pick 2; it’s very fashionable to study things in witchblr but expertise rests on a solid foundation of use; tarot, geomancy, dice, bibliomancy, and scrying are all great

pick a guiding philosophy/source of wisdom - a lot of paganism consists of practices which do not in of themselves guide how you should move through the world or make decisions; can be a philosophy, motto, or other religion

these are to me is what I’d consider the bare minimum but here’s the bonus round:

on each planet’s day, give thanks/offer to that planet - moon on monday, mars on tuesday, mercury on wednesday, jupiter on thursday, venus on friday, saturn on saturday, sun on sunday - water counts but they do love frankincense

track the moon - a lot of people are big into phases, I prefer tracking what sign she’s in; each month she will conjunct with every planet in the sky so tracking her a good way to stay aware of those influences

learn a method of cleansing self + space - fav instructions here; physical cleansing should always be a part of it if at all possible; smoke (incense, bound herbs), sound (clapping, snapping, singing, ringing), and energetic scraping are all good options

learn a method of warding self + space - go beyond visualization; witches bottle, salting, symbols of protection above a door, creating or appeasing a guarding spirit are all good options

learn a basic method of petition or spellcasting - a simple way to start is asking the spirits you’ve already been working with like your ancestors and the land and giving them a little extra back

decide on a small tradition for holidays - as you add in holidays, pick one small tradition to try to replicate next year; eating apples at Mabon, leaving an extra plate out at Samhain, lighting a candle on the stove for Imbolc, etc

doing these sorts of things for a year will honestly get you a lot further than most in my experience. these are a solid foundation from which to build in basically whatever direction you want. earnest practice beats passive theorizing and consumption any day. 

[rigelmejo]

If you do like looking up grammar points and explanations, then please consider checking out a grammar reference book for the language you are learning from a library (or elibrary or library app like Hoopla), or buying one (or finding a free pdf version of the one you want), or using a free website grammar reference (AllSetLearning Chinese Grammar Wiki is my go to for Chinese, and imabi, tae kim's guide, and Sabuki/Yobuki sites are my favorite for Japanese). Look up grammar that confuses you in those grammar references. If you have a textbook you're learning from, those usually also incoude short grammar explanations.

I mention this because I saw someone online mention using ChatGPT to explain grammar that confuses them. And well do whatever you like, but ChatGPT can give wrong answers. If you want to use a reference for grammar that had at least one human check for errors and accuracy? Check some existing grammar reference book/site/ebook written by humans.

[tara-stream]

So I have this really fucking big bundle of herbs that my dad got me from a native owned shop when he went to America, but I’m super scared to light it on fire, because I don’t really know if I’ll be able to put it out. Please drop me your knowledge on smoke sticks safety I’d be really grateful

[midnightbookshopconjures]

Sorry if these are odd questions btw I just would like assistance/input (I can’t find the word I wanna use there :( h) on what they may be considered, and potentially ways I can increase my abilities in astral/spirit/energy works to be able to keep tabs on my pocket world and sense my astral friends/family better, if you’ll help me here. Thank you in advance if you do, and regardless thank you for your time and help and other stuff you do :)

Please don’t worry one bit about asking questions here! We are here to help!!

Something that I’d recommend is to meditate each day. It doesn’t have to be for long but it should be at least 5-10 minutes whenever you can. Try and feel out your companions and pocket universe. Try to sense what is happening. You can always ask your servitor or companion to confirm or deny anything you sensed. Another thing you could do to try and become more in tune with a spirit is to place The Card Game with them. Where you pull cards from a deck and face them away from you. Your companion will try and tell you simple things first, like the color of the card. You’d keep doing this until you get about 95% accuracy with your companion before moving on to suit and eventually numbers. It’s a simple way to start out when it comes to full communication with spirits. You’ll learn to trust your (astral) ears more and more!

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Mod Angel

[mimzy-writing-online]

You do not need to be good at writing. You do not need a natural talent. You do not need an innate gift for story telling. You don’t need the best grammar, the perfect story structure, a good anything.

Sit down, write the first sentence you think of.

Even: this story will be about x and y and how they do a

Congrats, you just wrote the start of your story. What happens next?

X was at Location A, alone, until Y showed up.

What happened next? What did x think about y? What did y think about x? What was the first thing they said?

Your first story is allowed to suck. It’s allowed to be so terrible you cringe even looking at it. The thing you’re not allowed to do? Let the story die without at least one sentence written.

[stargazer-fit]

For those scared of going to the gym

I’ve talked with a couple of my friends who have been interested in started working out and I’ve noticed they all had some questions and worries about entering the gym!

Things such as ‘but won’t people stare because I’m so big/small’ and ‘But I don’t know what to work on’  Don’t stress it! I’ve decided to make this post to talk about what helped me when I just started going to the gym :)

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If you’re worried about people staring at you while you work out

- don’t worry! Most people will just take a quick glance and go back to whatever they were working on, people don’t actually care as much as we think they do

- Most people wear headphones at the gym and you could too! Turn on your favorite music and get in the zone!

- Often you yourself might find yourself having a look around, people tend to zone out during their breathers between sets or they might take note of exercises other people do so they can implement it in to their own program

(You should try it ngl, helped me a lot when I didn’t know what to work on or when I got stuck in a routine for months on end)

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Aren’t I too big/small to be at the gym, won’t people laugh at me?

- Absolutely not! No matter if you’re skinny, chubby or on the more heavy side, you can do whatever you want and that includes going to the gym! We all have to start somewhere

- People who work out a lot tend to be quite nice (From what I have noticed) I’ve never seen anyone make fun of another person at the gym and from what I hear from others this tends to be true in general, we’re all just happy to see you at the gym trying to become a better and healthier you!

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I can’t really concentrate when I’m at the gym/I’m not motivated

- I had this problem a LOT when I first started myself, it’s mostly about getting used to it and finding your own pace. Having a gym partner and listening to new songs motivated me a lot and got me more invested when at the gym.

- Set goals! Doesn’t have to be big ones and they don’t have to be very deep or inspiring either, you’re doing this for yourself after all. What do you want to achieve? is it a healthier life style or do you just want to look a certain way? There’s no wrong answers!

- Even if you aren’t motivated but still really want to go to the gym, do it anyways! Make a schedule and follow it for the nect 1-2 months, force yourself if you have to, that way it becomes a habit and from there on out you’ll just want to go naturally! (Works for most people from what I’ve heard, can’t guarantee it works 100% )

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Don’t think too much about it, it’ll come naturally if you keep doing it!

[wakfu-weekly]

btw, to any of you who are starting out in the game, I highly recommend that when you visit Amakna, you go to the mercenary post and check out the mercenary quests there. they are available from level 36 and up! They are fun and give good rewards :)