Why Be A Bitch When You Can Be A Witch

Native - INTP - Sagittarius - Ex-Pagan/Jew-In-Progress - He/e/one's - Bisexual - Two-Spirit - ♐☀️♋🌙♓⬆️ - Main Blog Is @thatwitchybitchandco

[creature-wizard]

"How can I be a witch/pagan without falling for conspiracy theories/New Age cult stuff?" starter kit

Posts & Articles

Check your conspiracy theory. Does any of it sound like this?

Check your conspiracy theory part two: double, double, boil and trouble.

QAnon is an old form of anti-Semitism in a new package, experts say

Some antisemitic dogwhistles to watch out for

Eugenicist and bioessentialist beliefs about magic

New Age beliefs that derive from racist pseudoscience

The New Age concept of ascension - what is it?

A quick intro to starseeds

Starseeds: Nazis in Space?

Reminder that the lizard alien conspiracy theory is antisemitism

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis is Racist and Harmful

The Truth About Atlantis

Why the Nazis were obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis

The Nazis' love affair with the occult

Occultism in Nazism

Red flag names in cult survivor resources/groups (all of them are far right conspiracy theorists/grifters)

The legacy of implanted Satanic abuse ‘memories’ is still causing damage today

Why Satanic Panic never really ended

Dangerous Therapy: The Story of Patricia Burgus and Multiple Personality Disorder

Remember a Previous Life? Maybe You Have a Bad Memory

A Case of Reincarnation - Reexamined

Crash and Burn: James Leininger Story Debunked

Debunking Myths About Easter/Ostara

Just How Pagan is Christmas, Really?

The Origins of the Christmas Tree

No, Santa Claus Is Not Inspired By Odin

Why Did The Patriarchal Greeks And Romans Worship Such Powerful Goddesses?

No, Athena Didn't Turn Medusa Into A Monster To Protect Her

Who Was the First God?

Were Ancient Civilizations Conservative Or Liberal?

How Misogyny, Homophobia, and Antisemitism Influence Transphobia

Podcasts & Videos

BS-Free Witchcraft

Angela's Symposium

ESOTERICA

ReligionForBreakfast

Weird Reads With Emily Louise

It's Probably (not!) Aliens

Conspirituality

Miniminuteman

Behind The Bastards

[stormwaterwitch]

Swear to god im not kidding you. I found some of my old pokemon collector magazines from back in the day and found this article in one of them! I figured id share for the rest of you poke-practitioners!

[stormwaterwitch]

@witchcraftway Pokemon Tarot is a thing!

[maeviuslynn]

Magical systems are a reflection of the mind of the people who created them. John Dee was a cryptographer. Aleister Crowley's fundamentalist background gives way to his usage of Elizabethan language. How we know and express the divine is confined by who we are.

[snaketomes-deactivated20231116]

I cannot believe I have to say this but you HAVE to learn about plants on a scientific level if you use herbs in spell crafting. It’s for SAFETY reasons. You CANNOT BURN CERTAIN HERBS and you cannot touch or consume certain herbs. You NEED to know this for every herb you use- it’s not a pick and choose thing you guys it’s SAFETY. ESPECIALLY to my chronically ill witches and practitioners like myself.

Please stop throwing herbs into a fire bc you saw some tiktok witch do it. PLEASE.

[aurorasmagic]

Underrated pagan/witch tip!

This tip is very much for honoring nature or nature/earth deities such as Gaia, Jorð etc.

Take a walk to appreciate nature and pick up trash! Mother earth is full of trash by ungrateful people that don't care about keeping our nature clean. It doesn't matter if it is a park, the streets, forest, mountains, beach, Mother earth is everywhere and she will see what a great job you do. It's a perfect, closet friendly, budget friendly way anyone can honor their nature deity or our earth.

[snaketomes-deactivated20231116]

White witches,

That overwhelming feeling you have when you read about something from a culture unfamiliar to you and you feeling “drawn” to it isn’t the deities or the herbs/sacred medicine of that practice/culture reaching out to you/you feeling drawn to use.

That feeling of being called, is your white entitlement. That overwhelming feeling to do it regardless of being told no? Yea, White entitlement.

You grasping at excuses for your appropriation and you getting hostile when you get called out for using that herb from a closed practice or your very sad attempts to make contact with a deity of a closed practice/religion. And it’s overwhelming too? White fragility.

Being anti racist is an inward and outward change. You look within, you check yourself on your conscious and subconscious biases. You work on your white entitlement and fragility and all the other nasty symptoms of white supremacy.

Then your change is visible outwardly, you look at things differently and you react differently.

[batu1997kristal]

[arcsigils2]

Acquired Overcoming - a sigil created to give strength in overcoming adversity, even if its hard, especially if its hard, for what is gained is undoubtedly incomparable in value.

[manifestationsofasort]

Things to put in your book of shadows

Of course, only put in your book of shadows/grimoire what you want. If you don't want to put certain subjects in your book then that's fine. It's your book, utilize it how you want. This is just a masterlist of ideas that I've put together. Feel free to add anything else to the list that I may have missed, because there's absolutely no way I included everything.

And for the love of all the gods, if you come across a closed entity or practice, don't try to work with the entity or practice if you're not already part of that group or tradition. You can research it but don't practice it.

+ A blessing and/or protection

+ A table of contents

+ About you:

Your current path

Your personal beliefs

Your spiritual journey

Favorite crystals/herbs/animals

Natal chart

Craft name

How you got into the craft

Astrology signs

Birthday correspondences (birth tarot card, birth stone, etc)

Goals (if you have any)

Anything other relating to your personal practice

+ Safety

Fire safety

What NOT to burn

Plants and oils that can be toxic to your pets

What crystals shouldn't be in water, sunlight, etc

Things that shouldn't be put out in nature (salt, glass, etc)

Potion safety

How to incorporate blood safely

+ Core concepts:

Intention and how it works

Directing energy

Protection

Banishing

Cleansing

Charging

Shielding

Grounding and centering

Visualization

Consencration/Blessing

Warding

Enchanting

Manifestation

+ Correspondence

Personal correspondence

Crystals and rocks

Herbs and spices

Food and drink

Colors

Metals

Number

Tarot card

Elemental (fire, water, air, earth)

Trees and woods

Flowers

Days

Months

Moon phases

Zodiac

Planets

Incense

Teas

Essential oils

Directions (north, south, east, west)

Animals

Local plants, animals, etc

Dream symbology

+ Different practices

Practices that are closed to you (some examples below)

Voodoo and Hoodoo **Closed**

Santeria and Brujeria **Closed**

Shamanism and native american practices **Closed**

Wicca and wiccan paths

Satanism, both theistic and non-theistic paths

+ Different types/practices of magick

Pop culture magick

Technology magick

Chaos magick

Green witchcraft

Lunar magick

Sea witchcraft

Kitchen magick

Ceremonial magick

Hedge witchcraft

Death witchcraft

Grey witchcraft

Eclectic witchcraft

Norse witchcraft

Hellenic witchcraft

Animism

+ Deities

The deity/deities you worship

Different pantheons (the main five are Celtic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Norse, all open)

Deities and pantheons that are closed to you

Common offerings

Their epithets

Their mythology

Their family

Deity worship vs deity work

Prayers and how to make your own

Deity communication guide

Devotional acts

Ways to get closer to them

+ Other spiritual entities

Angels

Ancestor work

Spirit guides

The fae

Demons

Familiars

House spirits, animal spirits and plant spirits

Other various folklore entities

Spirit etiquette

Cemetery etiquette

Setting boundaries with the spirits

Communication guide and etiquette

Grounding, banishing, protection and cleansing, aka: "Spirit work safety guide"

How they appear to you

Common offerings

Circle casting

+ Divination

Tarot cards

Oracle cards

Tarot and oracle spreads

Pendulum

Numerology

Scrying

Palmistry/palm reading

Tasseography (Tea leaf reading)

Rune stones

Shufflemancy (Shuffling of a playlist)

Dice divination

Bibliomancy (Randomly picking a phrase from a book)

Carromancy (Melted wax)

Pyromancy (Reading flames)

Psychic abilities

Astrology

Aura reading

Divination via playing cards

Lenormand 

Sacred geometry

Angel numbers

+ Other types of magick

Candle magick

Crystal magick

Herbalism/herbal magick

Glamour magick

Hexing

Jinxing

Cursing

Weather magick

Astral work

Shadow work

Energy work

Sigils

Art magick

Knot magick

Crystal grids

Color grids

Music magick

Charms, talismans and amulets

+ Spellwork

What makes a spell work

Basic spell structure

What NOT to do

Disposing of spell ingredients

Revitalizing long term spells

How to cast spells

What to put in spells (See correspondence)

Spell mediums- Jar spells, spoken spells, candle spells, sigils, etc

Spell timing

Setting up a ritual

Taglocks: What they are and how to use them

+ Holidays and Esbats

Yule

Imbolc

Ostara

Beltane

Litha

Lughnasadh/Lammas

Mabon

Samhain

The 12 full moons (Esbats)

How to celebrate

Deity specific holidays

+ Altars and tools

What they are

The different types and their uses (travel altar, working altar, deity altar, ancestor altar, etc)

What you can put on your altar

What you use your altars for

Common tools in witchcraft

How to use the tools

Food and drink

Common herbs in recipes

Sabbat recipes

Moon water: What it is and how to use it

Potion bases

Tea magick

How to get your herbs

Foraging

+ Mental health and self care

Bath magick

Affirmations

Burnout prevention

Aromatherapy

Stress management

Mental health coping mechanisms

+ History of witchcraft

+ Dream records

+ How to differentiate between the magickal and the mundane

+ Calendar of celestial events (Esbats, retrogrades, etc)

+ How to dry herbs and flowers

+ What chakras actually are and how they work within Hinduism

+ History and traditional uses of reiki

+ The witches' alphabet

+ The runic alphabet

+ Common witchcraft terms

+ Common symbols in witchcraft

+ Your own witch tips

+ Good witchcraft books and authors to avoid

+ Any online resources you utilize often

[papirene-royzn]

Amulet, Iran, ca. 1900.  

Painted carnelian cabachons were a feature of Iranian amulets in many different forms and texts. This amulet is most unusual in that it invokes the amuletic power of prominent women in Biblical literature.

[ta-chazei]

7 prophetesses amulet

[friend-crow]

So this looks like a good read. Text: after half a year of work, my academic zine on the history of antisemitism & appropriation in western occult movements is done 🖤 a 22-page PDF full of citations, illustrated with historic & public domain images, pay-what-you-want (or FREE!): https://ezrarose.itch.io/fyma-a-lesser-key

twitter thread

[maceofpentacles]

hey do you have these spiky guys lying around in your neighborhood?

they’re called sweet gum tree balls ((or witches burrs)) and they fall off of sweetgum trees that are native to eastern north america, the eastern mediterranean, and east/southeast asia!

these little guys can be used for witchcraft purposes in case you haven’t already guessed. they’re good for banishing negative energy, protection, making wards. etc. so next time you see some lying around outside grab em and use them in your practice!

[hagoftheholler]

Tip: to banish, throw a handful at your target as hard as you can

[coinandcandle]

Beginner witches: What is something you really want to know about but are too afraid to ask? Or perhaps you haven't thought to ask it?

This could be about the functions of an aspect of witchcraft, the use of items, the necessity of something in magic, etc.

I'll do my best to answer or send you resources and information (including blog posts from other witches/magic practitioners) to help you get your answers! Any posts with upg or opinion will be marked as such.

[halloweenherbivoreart-deactivat]

I updated my Yule tarot spread from last year. Feel free to tag me if you use this spread!

1. What needs my attention the most in the coming year?

2. What has pushed you forward this year?

3. What has held you back this year?

4. What gifts do you carry?

5. How can you best use those gifts?

6. A message of guidance from your deities/ancestors.

[cryptotheism]

I looked into kabbalah and the sephiroth a bit before coming across the opinion that goyim should not study kabbalah because it's a closed practice, and that the hermetic tree of life is a Christian bastardization of Jewish practices. I know you said you aren't Jewish, but as someone who's familiar with the subject matter, does that ring true to you?

Btw love your blog

I think that's partially a confusion in terms. "The Kabbalah" isn't one thing, it's more akin to a sub-field of Jewish mysticism than a single set of texts.

I'll put it this way. I've read books about Kabbalah, and listened to lecture series on the history of Jewish mysticism from Jewish esotericists. I have read a few translations of non-kabbalistic Jewish texts, largely out of historical and academic interest. I personally don't see anything wrong with that. At a certain point of engagement with the occult, I think it's actually irresponsible to be ignorant of the history of Jewish mysticism. I have no plans to practice it. It is one of the pillars supporting all of western occultism.

My real expertise as an occultist has always been the late medieval and high renaissance alchemists. I've done line-by-line close readings of Agrippa and Paracelsus. I've really gone tits deep into that little sliver of history, tried to plumb it for everything I can get out of it.

As I sit now, I would never dream of even attempting something like that for the Sefer Zohar. I could literally convert to Judaism and study for 10 years and I'm not sure I would even approach the historical, cultural, linguistic, and theological background necessary to really understand that text. I've studied the Zohar in the sense that I've heard Jewish theologians talk about it. But I feel like if I sat down with a translation, I would misunderstand it to the point of irresponsibility. Does that make sense?

[fortunechaos]

As a Jewish person I personally would say (and take this with a grain of salt, I'm not a rabbi, and also, two Jews three opinions etc. etc.) It's not that goyim shouldn't study kabbalah, it's that, very much in the way that C.T. described it, goyim can't study kabbalah. Literally as a Jewish person you're supposed to have studied the Torah for (iirc) thirty years before you can even begin to read and understand the Sefer Zohar.

Also there's a difference between, studying something and practicing it. You can learn about kabbalah as a non-jewish person but you SHOULDN'T attempt to practice it.

[will-o-the-witch]

Jewish Angel Work

I don't see a bunch of writing about angel work in general, and what I do find is often heavily Christianized! I wanted to talk about what angel work can look like from a Jewish perspective.

(Gentiles may interact and enjoy, but understand that this is for educational purposes and not an invitation to appropriate! 🤍)

A Jewish-Specific Perspective

Judaism views angels in ways other traditions may not share! Some examples:

Angels aren't former humans. They are their own distinct beings just like demons, cows, land spirits and butterflies. People who pass away, even children, are not considered "angels returning home." These angels have specific forms and looks depending on the type, some more humanoid than others.

Angels don't have free will. This does not mean they are held hostage or can't have their own personalities, but their will is an extension of HaShem's Will, serving a specific role in making that Will manifest. Kind of like employees in a corporation doing their tasks!

They don't have names. Or at least, they don't have names we're supposed to know or ask for. They may be incomprehensible to humans, or maintaining a level of anonymity as to not distract from HaShem. Either way, asking for a name is often discouraged in traditional texts.

They AREN'T all here to help you. While it all serves a Divine Will and is therefore Good in the grand scheme of things, many angels serve completely neutral functions from a human perspective. Some could even be considered harmful to humans, the most prominent example being HaSatan. (Even still, HaSatan isn't seen as a true villain. He's just doing his job.)

Some of them are ONLY here to help you! Historical Rabbis were big on the concept of guardian angels. The Talmud says "Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'" (Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 10:6.) Every living creature, including you, has a guardian angel to help you along your path. Some translations say the angels hit the grass, and that's not the only story of angels smacking things, so that guidance isn't always gentle, but it's always in the right direction.

Types of Angel Work

Spirit guides. Like mentioned above, guardian angels can help encourage you to "Grow! Grow!" and keep you on a path in line with spiritual health and lovingkindness.

Communing with HaShem. Gd is extremely esoteric. Angels help us send and recieve messages in an easier-to-conceptualize way! Meditation and prayer can also play into this. Beyond every-day applications, angels can also appear unexpectedly with important messages.

Communicating with other spirits. As angels are often messengers, I also think it's helpful to call upon their aid when working with other spirits!

Working with angels of various functions. Modern day Rabbis often marry angelic theology with scientific phenomena, with angels overseeing the process. By that extent, we could ask those angels for help/guidance when relevant!

Protection. Psalm 91, often recited for protection, depicts HaShem commanding angels on your behalf to guard you in all ways. One bedtime prayer names the four archangels to surround us.

Shalom Aleichem is traditionally sung on Friday nights before Shabbat dinner. It invites angels of peace to basically come and hang out with us during shabbat, then to leave in peace once shabbat is over. Many arrangements also make a good lullaby.

Other Notes

Metatron (מֶטָטְרוֹן) is a specifically-Jewish angel who gets appropriated a lot in spiritual circles. He does not appear in the Tanakh, but is mentioned in the Talmud and largely fleshed out in kabbalistic literature! (Islamic literature does mention him by different name, ميططرون, Mitatrun/Mitatrush. Solidarity.)Lots of people recognize Lilith as closed, but the same attention hasn't been given to Metatron. He's a very complex and ambiguous figure worth a whole post of his own so I won't get into it here!

This post is by no means comprehensive! This is just a very "quick" overview of a very rich field of study.

Further Study

On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture-- Mika Ahuvia

A Gathering of Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and Literature-- Morris B. Margolies

Ascending Jacob's Ladder: Jewish Views of Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits-- Ronald H. Isaacs

[creature-wizard]

Ways To Be A Garbage Witch

Look everyone, in These Trying Times we can't always afford things so we gotta make do with what we got. So here's some hot tips to help you become a garbage witch:

Save and use apple seeds, orange seeds, peach pits, cherry pits, etc. to use in your spells.

Make a spirit board/pendulum board out of an empty cardboard box.

Make drawstring pouches out of old clothes.

Use bag strings for binding magic or use them in small drawstring bags.

Shoelaces and drawstrings from old pajamas or sweatpants are fine for knot magic or turning into drawstrings for pouches.

Save glass jars for spell jars.

Study carrion animals, animals that eat garbage, fungus, and the process of decomposition in general. Learn about the importance of biodiversity, and the hazards of oversterilization.

But also study proper sanitation methods, and be aware of biohazards. Don't go living in a house fulla mold or fish through people's garbage for... uhhh... ummm... taglocks. Don't store chicken bones so they'll rot.

If you have a compost bin, write anything you want to "decompose" out of your life on a banana peel. Put the banana peel in the bin.

Learn how to repair broken stuff. (But also learn what you really shouldn't repair for yourself - EG, microwaves - lest you meet with a horrible fate.)

Make charms/talismans by cutting out pictures of things that correspond with your intent and decoupaging them onto wood, chipboard, or layered cardboard.

Make paper mache diety art/statues out of newspaper.

Learn more about crafting with scraps, packaging materials, old magazines, etc. (There's many videos on YouTube!)