Aislynn

Just another gay witch™ | Practicing Judaism | 29 | They/Them

[paganposting]

How I make sigils

sigil magic is pretty popular, and there are many ways to do it. this is how i design and use mine!

step 1) numbers

first step is choosing the number of sides the drawing will have, and therefore the centerpiece. today im making an elemental symbol to charge spells. in my tradition we have three elements, so my sigil should be three sided.

any three sided shape would work for me, but i felt drawn to something like this.

step 2) symbology

next i want to start adding easy symbols to represent the concept my sigil is based on. this means i need to represent land, sea, and sky.

here for sky i added some birds and suns. it's important that the shapes are simple to re-create later.

i keep drawing and try to make the shapes connect to each other in an aesthetically pleasing way.

for land i added some mountains, and to connect them i tried to blend the lines in as solar rays.

lastly i need to include the sea.

i put some large waves, also coming out of the suns.

step 3) sealing

now i just want to tie it all together. usually this means adding random squiggles to close off any "open ends" in the drawing. in this sigil there are two big gaps i want to close- right above the sun, and in between the ends of the waves.

my philosophy on this is that i want the energy to be flowing through the sigil continuously, not getting stuck in a gap.

step 4) preserving

finally i edit the photo to high contrast black and white, save it to a folder on my phone, and i can reference and draw the sigil whenever i need.

some other considerations while designing

- should the sigil be symmetrical or not?

- can you picture how energy moves through it?

- does the sigil have a simple enough design to be replicated in the future? should it be simplified?

let me know how this works for you!!!

[caninemotiff]

Give me household magic, give me spells crafted by grandmothers when they were learning how to live, passed down not from teaching but in that osmosis of children observing their mother everyday, give me simple charms made in the evenings and left on neighbours doors to keep gardens free of bugs and eaves from leaking, give me potions for cleaning or boiling or preserving, pantry potions every house has above the kitchen sink, give me words of power to call the cows down from the pastures and chase away foxes from the chickens and calm the horses when they frighten, give me household magic, small magic, family magic, it's not textbook, it's rough technique but it works and that's what matters

[spellgazed]

Astrology: Planets

The Sun:

Your Solar placement establishes what influence the Sun has on your personality, core, soul, livelihood, artistic taste, and character.

The Moon:

Your Lunar placement determines what influence The Moon has on your emotions, subconscious, secrets, habits, and instincts.

Mercury:

Your Mercury placement affects what influence Mercury has on your expression, education, intellect, communication, and exchange

Venus:

Your Venus placement establishes what influence Venus has on your romance, trust, romance, maternity, adoration, harmony, and beauty.

Mars:

Your Mars placement determines what influence Mars has on your rage, wrath, lust, love, passion, intensity, revolution, rapid flares, and motive.

Jupiter:

Your Jupiter placement affects what influence Jupiter has on your health, prosperity, profession, abundance, career, and achievements.

Saturn:

Your Saturn placement establishes what influence Saturn has on your motives, goals, aspirations, destiny, maturing, and responsibility.

Uranus:

Your Uranus placement determines what influence Uranus has on your imagination, development, growth, education, goal chasing.

Neptune:

Your Neptune placement affects what influence Neptune has on your dreams, creativity, aspirations, and possibly illusions.

Pluto:

Your Pluto placement establishes what influence Pluto has on your growth, development, chapters of life, beginnings, and endings.

[hopecoreclown]

i literally have two more pages in this journal and let me tell you im so pumped to be working in one that lies flat :00

[marigoldwitch]

Fire is not universally considered destructive in witchcraft.

Fire is not universally considered destructive in witchcraft.

Fire is not universally considered destructive in witchcraft.

Fire is not universally considered destructive in witchcraft.

[4clarity]

One expression of fire as creation is the wand suit in Tarot.

[marigoldwitch]

Yes 🖤 The 4 of wands is a great example. It can represent new beginnings and harmony.

Fire can cleanse and purify as well. It can be a symbol of warmth. In spells it is used to activate or send out energy.

A very common, and old practice, is the burning of ones intentions, wishes and desires.

[hexengeist666-deactivated202502]

Four poisonous plants ~ hemlock (Conium maculatum), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), opium lettuce (Lactuca virosa) and autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale).

Coloured engraving by J. Johnstone

[honeyalchemist]

Post Bound Grimoire Tutorial

Materials

4 pieces of heavy-weight chipboard

Assorted Scrapbook Paper

Mod Podge

A Ruler

A Box Cutter or Exacto Knife

Something to Evenly Apply Glue

3 1 ½" Screw Posts

3 ½" Screw Posts

Awl

First you need to cut all of the pieces of chipboard. Above I have all if the dimensions of what I did:

2 pieces of chipboard that are 11 ½" x 9 ¼"

4 pieces that are 11 1/8" x 1" for the posts

1 piece that is 11" x 8 ½"

1 piece that is 11 1/8" x 2" (it is marked 1 ½ and ½ but only one piece) for spine 1

1 piece that is 11 1/8" x ½" for spine 2

Next cover the three large pieces of chipboard with scrapbook paper of your choice. Be sure to fold over and glue down the excess.

Then, using strips (I used one that is 8" x 12" and another that is 4" x 12"), connect the pieces of chipboard with the spine pieces between them, with approximately 1/8" between each of the pieces. Fold over and glue down the excess again. Below is how the first two should look together.

Next fold pieces of scrapbook paper for the posts. I recommend starting from the middle and making a strip long enough for the spine, then use the post-chipboard pieces to fold on each side. They should look like the above.

(Forgot to take a picture!!!)

Using a 3 hole punch, punch the post-chipboard pieces.

Glue the post-chipboard pieces to the scrapbook paper and pierce holes through the paper using the awl. Ensure that the posts of the screw-posts are able to go through these holes.

Glue down the post mounts to their appropriate spots.

Apply some more scrapbook paper to cover up the chipboard and you’re done!

You can load the book with paper by unscrewing the screw posts and filling it similar to that of a binder.

[huzzahitsthedoctor]

“In Jewish thought, a sin is not an offense against God, an act of disobedience. A sin is a missed opportunity to act humanly. The verb to sin in Hebrew is also used in the sense of ‘missing the target.’ When God created us free to choose between good and bad, He also gave us the capacity to know when we had chosen wrongly”

— Harold Kushner, To Life!: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking

[the-darkest-of-lights]

Herbal cigarette recipes

Mix (ground) evenly then add as much of the mix as you like to your cigarette/ pipe/ 1 bat hitter. You can add tobacco or cannabis to any of these mixes. **tbsp=table spoon

* can be bad in high amounts / not for pregnant/ breastfeeding

-vision recipe 1 tbsp Golden seal 1 tbsp Passion flower 1 tbsp Dameana 1 tbsp scull cap 1 tbsp mugwort*

-meditation mix 1 tbsp mullen 1 tbsp mugwort 1 tbsp lavender 1 tbsp peppermint 1 tbsp lavender 1 tbsp mullien 1 tbsp osha root 1 tbsp damiana 2 tsp Devils Lettuce

-astral travel mix 1 tbsp coltsfoot 1 tbsp wild lettuce 1 tbsp mugwort* 1 tbsp damiana 1 tbsp Mullein

-stress reducer mix 1 tbsp Skullcap 1 tbsp Catnip 1 tbsp Chamomile 1 tbsp lavender

-Relieve cramps mix 1 tbsp Skullcap 1 tbsp Catnip 1 tbsp Chamomile 1 tbsp green tea

Visionary Herbs There are many visionary herbs that are safe to smoke. ~Coltsfoot (medicine: cold & cough / magic: hedgecrossing & spirit-sight), 
~;Spearmint (medicine: stimulant / magic: healing & psychic powers), ~Skullcap: medicine; calming , antispasmodic , relieve cramps, muscle pain from stress, good for insomnia Magical: love, fidelity,peace, used in spells of relaxation) ~Wild Lettuce (medicine: sedative magic: hedgecrossing), and ~mugwort (medicine: euphoric & stimulant / magic: hedgecrossing & necromancy). 
~damiana(Medicine Influences: Aperient, Antiseptic, Aphrodisiac, Aromatic, Bitter, Diuretic, Hormonal, Laxative, Nervine, Stimulant, Tonic. )(magical : burned to produce visions, promote psychic dreams). · ~Catnip adds a relaxing note to the smoking mixture. It is gentle and can be effective to take the edge off .magic: divination & psychic powers · ~Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) leaves are the classic herbal smoke. They quickly clear the bronchia, open the airways, and jump-start breathing during asthma attacks magic: hedgecrossing & necromancy), · ~ Mints: (peppermint, spearmint, horehound, catnip, etc.): either use as tea or smoke for menthol flavor; expectorant properties; reduces stress; helps withdrawal · ~ Licorice root: for flavor and expectorant properties; helps coughing. CAUTION: may increase blood pressure · ~Oregon Grape Root. A liver stimulant ~Goldenseal may help your body ( on the endangered list) Salicylate herbs, like Willow and Oak, can help with headaches. ~Green Tea aids in alleviating depression to soothing aches and pains. ~Chamomile aids in the relief of stress, indigestion, headaches, anxiety, and depression * don’t use if your allergic to ragweed ~ Lavender relaxation, pain relief (especially for headaches and muscle aches), anxiety relief, and a general sense well being Remember these are only herbal suggestions, NOT prescribed medicine, if you are already on medication, ask your doctor if it’s ok to use some of these herbs internally as some come can react with medication. Do not take too many sedative supplements at once & consult your doctor before internal use of any herbal supplements if you are pregnant. .

[the-darkest-of-lights]

Available now!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheDarkestOfLights

This is a mini zine with all hand illustrated pages full of recipes and instructions for any beginner or pro to learn to make herbal cigarettes including recipes. This zine measuring 5.5 X 4.1 inches.

[glowing-and-dreaming-nblnb]

As far as witchcraft goes, I’m heavily against trying spells that straight up influence other people to fall in love with you, but I think protection spells for your significant other or spells to ensure your relationship is healthy + long lasting or spells to bring your significant other good luck/happiness/etc are cute as fuck and a lot healthier ways to bring witchcraft into your love life

[hurkhurkdurkburk-deactivated202]

“A basic theme in Judaism is that practical good deeds are more important than abstract spiritual enjoyment.”

— Rabbi Fred Davidow (via yidquotes)

[grateful-lemons]

The Witch and Her Altar

Hey everyone! I'm Lemon, thought I'd introduce the person behind my blog. I love cooking, I'm a medical science student in college, and I'm exploring what spirituality means to me and what it brings to my life.

Please feel free to say hi in a message or ask any time :)

[prismatic-bell]

I need answers. Are mermaids kosher? What did your rabbi say???

As per my rabbi, mermaids are NOT kosher, due to the following:

1) If mermaids are like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, then they have human intelligence and free will. This makes them human (whatever King Triton might have to say on the subject), and thus eating one is committing murder, which is against halacha. (She could convert to Judaism, though!)

2) If mermaids are like the original little mermaid, then they have intelligence (possibly of human levels), but no souls and thus no free will. This means they are not human, but they appear human, and thus eating one is in violation of lifnei iver, which means “before the blind” and comes from the verse “do not place a stumbling block before the blind.” In other words: someone seeing you eat the mermaid may assume the mermaid is human, and thus that eating human is okay, and thus they may commit murder to eat human, which is against halacha.

3) Mermaids that do not fit the “human top, fish bottom” tradition of mermaids may not possess fins and/or scales, thus marking them as not kosher.

Thus: Mermaids are not kosher.

[jewishpangolin]

Big Jewish Mood

[flo-nelja]

Wait, creatures with human intelligence but no souls are kosher?

[prismatic-bell]

Yes and no.

There are no known animal species that have human intelligence and meet the kosher requirements for their kind of animal. Dolphins and octopi don’t have fins and scales, rats aren’t kosher because they’re rodents, crows eat dead things and are predators. Pigs are being studied for the possibility of human intelligence, but pork is like...the one thing even gentiles know isn’t kosher. And monkeys and apes would fall under lifnei iver. I’m sure there’s another rule that applies, but off the top of my head I can already tell you they wouldn’t be kosher. (Koko the gorilla might even be a good starting point for an argument over whether gorillas have souls. She had human intelligence, memory retention, understood emotions, and acted of her own free will.)

With the understanding that I’m a believer in “G-d created science, so duh, of course His rules would match up scientifically, anyone who says science is the enemy of G-d doesn’t understand the actual text very well,” I’d say that running through these is a bit of proof to me that G-d is, indeed, watching over us. Or, since I’m a believer in “G-d is a computer programmer,” that we were programmed for it to be impossible to be 1) human-level intelligent and also 2) kosher.

[quezycoatl]

Elephants are the other near-human intelligence creatures. Are they kosher??? (I'm seriously just curious about this)

[prismatic-bell]

Nope. For a four-legged animal to be kosher, it must have hooves and chew cud. I’m not sure if elephants chew cud or not, but they don’t have hooves.

[instructor144]

As someone who’s read the OT twice (not from a devotional perspective, but as someone who finds the world’s various religious texts fascinating) the one thing that leapt out at me  during my readings is how so many of the constraints in the Torah -- which a lot of people just write off as one people’s set of peculiar little taboos -- actually make sense from a hygienic/health perspective. From dietary practices to concepts of “purification” and “unclean,” the Jews had a lot of practices that, whatever their origin, kept them healthy. It’s a fact that for most of Europe’s history, when the surrounding gentile populations were dropping like flies, Europe’s various Jewish enclaves had a massively lower incidence of those various ills and plagues. To the point that it was not uncommon for the gentile population to blame the Jews for their ills: “We’re being smitten by this pestilence, and yet those Jews aren’t getting sick! They must be doing this to us!” It’s almost like whoever it was that conjured up the various constraints somehow knew that they would keep the people alive and healthy in a world where they were surrounded by populations who did not practice those sound hygienic measures.

[prismatic-bell]

YEP.

Even some of the ones that seem ridiculous by modern standards, like “anything a menstruating woman sits on is unclean.” There were no pads or tampons. You bet your ass it was unclean. Whatever rudimentary menstruation containment they’d come up with at that point, it likely leaked and/or easily disarranged itself. You know what you get in a desert climate, living in a tent, with the smell of fresh blood? Predators. like, forget the whole “blood carries disease” (and it did, blood parasites were so common at the time that the Egyptians considered bleeding from the anus normal), you can’t get to the Promised Land if you died of acute wolves. So how to make the items ritually clean and usable again? Fucking wash them. That’s it. They had to be washed.

Or like the “don’t mix fibers of two kinds.” I saw an incredible discussion here on Tumblr about that. Basically, the fibers that were available to the Israelites were linen (lightweight fabric, good for hot weather) and wool (heavy, good for cold weather and rain). Do you know what happens when you try to mix these? You get an unusable mess that will not contain the properties of either fabric. It’s a disaster--a waste of time, labor, and fiber. And if you try to full the fabric (which means a process by which you clean, thicken, and strengthen natural fabrics), the fibers won’t full the same. It’s just bad all around.

Or even, “every seventh year, let your land lie fallow and don’t grow anything.” You know what happens in that year? All the old stalks, leaves, etc. fucking rot. They, in modern lingo, compost. They refresh the soil. They keep you from stripping all the nutrients, so you can continue to grow things. And you can continue to drop as much cowshit as you want on that field to make it nice and fertilize-y during that year. You just can’t grow anything. By the time you come back to planting you’re going to have a nutrient-rich field that’s absolutely raring to provide you with high-quality produce.

This is one of my big beefs with the Orthodox. Ask an Orthodox person about halacha and they’ll say “it doesn’t matter if it lines up with science, G-d said it therefore we do it.” And I’m like . . . one, that’s completely contradictory to the teaching of Torah (which demands you question), and two, the point is, isn’t it fucking fascinating how G-d’s instruction book is scientifically sound. Like we were being, I don’t know, taken care of.

[feitanswife]

This, thematically, reminds me of the seawater in the concrete recipe thing.

It’s not that historical people didn’t know why things worked, a lot of the times they probably did.

It’s not that they honestly believed “every seven years we have to not farm this area cause that’s what this book says” they were most likely thinking “every seven years we have to not farm this land cause it helps the crops grow much better the rest of the time, which is why it was important enough to write down in the first place”

But they didn’t write that down cause why would anyone think there was another reason? Of course people aren’t going to think that we only do these things because this specific important book says to! That’s ridiculous!

Just like not specifying using seawater in your concrete recipe. Why would you use any other sort of water?

...or using chicken eggs as the standard egg in recipes. When was the last time you saw a recipe specify chicken eggs? It’s assumed, and having to specify seems ridiculous, in what world would we as a species forget that chicken eggs were the most commonly eaten eggs?

....In what world would we forget about how wool and linen work?

[lostinthewoodskhi-deactivated20]

I tried working with my pendulum for the first time today and I connected to it easier than I thought! The answers all came very quickly, maybe because I was only checking the basics, what „Yes“ and what „No“ means etc. I noticed that as soon as I wandered away with my thoughts the pendulum wouldn’t do much, but since I could focus most of the time it was totally okay!

What are your experiences with pendulums? I would love to learn more!

[thatwitchnessa-deactivated20210]

I can never have too many of these.

[glumshoe]

dandelions deserve more respect than they get

you say “weeds” I say “widespread non-native edible plant and early-blooming pollinator resource that is not considered invasive because it behaves politely and does not cause deleterious ecological consequences”

[mettic]

The dandelions aren’t gonna fuck you bro

[glumshoe]

they have and they will