Child of the Cedars

Plant and Art witch. Arab Witch. Queer as hell. A learning Hellenic Polytheist.

[bananonbinary]

I wish allistic people understood that infodumping about a special interest is a lot closer to baring your soul than sharing fun facts

[bananonbinary]

Like the information itself isnt the point, its the conduit through which im trying to communicate with you. Its a love language.

[quinintheclouds]

What neurotypicals think it is: “I’m gonna ramble about this one specific thing that you’re not even interested in.”

What it actually is: “this is a thing that makes me happy, and I want to share my happiness with you because I feel comfy around you and I love you”

[cyndigenous-deactivated20210204]

Anti-Indigenous things to quit saying/doing:

- Stop saying “off the reservation”. It’s a reference to the pass system that was in place restricting Native people from leaving without permission.

- Stop making “1/16th”, “great-great grandmother”, etc. jokes. All of these reference blood quantum, a system designed to “breed out the Natives”. Indigeneity isn’t defined by a percentage, fraction, etc. Quit policing Indigenous identities and quit joking about genocidal tactics.

- Stop calling things your “spirit animal”. You don’t have one. Only Indigenous people from specific nations have spirit animals.

- Stop making dreamcatchers. They are sacred Anishinaabe culture and are not cute trinkets, crafts, etc. Buy them from Anishinaabe artists.

- Stop buying those little cloth “teepees” for your kids/pets/whatever. Also stuff with tipi prints

- Quit referring to your “tribe”. Enough with the “bride tribe” nonsense and all the rest. Stop trivializing tribal affiliations.

- Don’t wear “war paint”. Don’t put a feather in your hair. Don’t dress up as Native people or characters.

- Stop referring to your meetings/side discussions/parties as a “pow wow”.

- Stop supporting sports teams that use racist terms and logos and caricatures of Indigenous people.

- Stop using white sage. It is sacred and overharvested. There are lots of types of sage you can use instead.

- Stop “smudging”. Smoke cleansing exists in many forms in many cultures, use that. Non-Natives can’t smudge.

- Stop tokenizing your Native friends, classmates, in-laws, half siblings, etc.

Please add more!

[wiisagi-maiingan]

- Stop treating Native spirits as generic monsters or cryptids, especially w*ndigoag and sk*nwalkers.

- Stop using imagery of skulls in Plains headdresses, especially as tattoos. This shouldn’t need to be explained.

[neechees]

Non-native but ESPECIALLY white witches/pagans stop trying to practice native religions/spirituality or trying to contact native spirits, leave our shit alone. They’re closed, period. The only time it’s okay for you to participate is when you’re invited by a native person, and your participation ends when that event is over, case closed.

[randomrav3ns]

- “You don’t *look* Indian” is wrong on numerous levels, among them the assumption that mainstream media’s stereotypical presentation of us is the way we somehow all must look. Stop saying any version of that. Your nearest midsize powwow will give you a full array of Native people with every phenotype you can imagine, from the ones who fit your narrow, stereotypical boundaries to the very pale, blue-eyed, blond grass dancer to the dark-skinned dancer with locs and her fancy shawl appliqued with African tribal patterns. If we’re Native, we look Native, period.

- “Native Americans believed…” As though 1) there was a monoculture and 2) Natives no longer exist/aren’t relevant in modern times and are relegated to history. We’re still here, and acting like we aren’t just helps perpetuate the genocidal tactic of deliberate invisibility. Also, we are not now, nor ever were, a monoculture, so a present-tense “Native Americans believe…” is also invalid.

- This was somewhat covered, but to be clear: “How much?” is not something for you to ask, especially not to people fighting a war of cultural attrition and erasure while trying to weave together the ragged threads of families and cultures and identities that were targeted and torn apart for centuries in an (ongoing) attempt to eliminate us.

[the-witch-of-egypt-deactivated2]

Witch craft 101: Making throwing bones.

Alright alright alright my witches!! Todays post is a basic way to make throwing bones for a rune set!! Fair warning this does take a couple days so ya gotta have patience.

Okay first thing ya wanna do is get yo self some bones (I used chicken bones) , a spoon to scoop them out and a pot of water!!

Then next yer gonna set that shit on high and wait for it to boil. And once it starts boiling your gonna put all of your bones that you collected into the pot and let them boil for an hour or so. This helps loosen the remaining meat as well as get rid of lingering bacteria.

Next after there done boiling your going to take them out and your going to gently scrape the rest of the remaining meat of the bones. It usually helps to get the majority of the meat off beforehand though.

Once you've removed the rest of the meat your going to soak them in a bowl with warm water and Dawn soap. The Dawn soap acts as a degreasing agent so that it removes the rest of the grease. And your going to soak them over night.

After you've soaked them over night your going to rinse off the bones and pat them dry and then you going to get a huge ass bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Pour just enough to cover the bones. Your going to soak the bones for several hours to achieve the shade of white you want them to look like.

After your done soaking the bones your going to rinse them off and let them dry for about 2 days. Once they're completely dry you can design them using whatever you'd like ( I used sharpie) and you can seal them using a Matte or Gloss varnish.

Enjoy your new casting bones!!!!

[coyote-696]

Boiling bones fucks them up terribly and those yellowed spots are going to leak grease. This is not a good method. Personally I like burying things but cold water maceration and placing carcasses on ant hills are popular options. Don't boil your bones and don't bleach them

[blaqmercury]

Totally right coyote-696. Never EVER use bleach on bones, a much safer and better alternative is to use peroxide (it won’t strip the calcium from the bone or compromise the structure of the bone).

[imaginarywitchcraft-deactivated]

”Make a plan that can happen without Magic. Then use Magic to make sure that it does.”

-- Jason Miller, "The Elements of Spellcrafting"

[finelythreadedsky]

the myth of persephone is about the trauma of the separation of mothers and daughters by marriage and this is the hill i will die on

[finelythreadedsky]

To be clear I’m not against retellings that reinterpret the relationship between Hades and Persephone and present it as consensual and healthy– I do think there’s something incredibly powerful about looking at a story that’s been passed down to us through millennia about a girl being kidnapped and raped and saying “no. No, that’s not the kind of story I want to hear, that’s not the kind of story I want to tell, and that’s certainly not the kind of story I want my daughters to grow up on.” (Although I think it’s disappointing that these are now the only sorts of Persephone retellings we get, and at this point it’s really not a particularly revolutionary take, given how often it’s been done.)

But I also think we do a great disservice to the women of the ancient world by not remembering how this story, in that form, mirrored their very real pain. I’ve been thinking recently about how we can tell that women participated in the formation of their culture’s folklore because women’s trauma is embedded in it. (In Greek terms, the stories of Leto and Alcmene very clearly come out of women’s traumatic experiences with childbirth, and there are elements of women’s traumatic experiences of sexual assault embedded in, for example, the stories of Daphne or Callisto or Artemis and Actaeon) And the story of Persephone comes out of women’s experiences of being permanently separated from their mothers and daughters at marriage. (See also this post from @gardenvarietycrime.​)

For an ancient woman sending her daughter off to be married, knowing that she will see her only rarely and that the odds of death in childbirth were high, Persephone meant something. For an ancient girl leaving her mother and her entire world for a man she may never have met knowing the same, Persephone meant something. I do think a lot of the conflation of death and marriage in the ancient world comes out of this: that a girl is dead to her mother and her family whether she leaves them to go to a husband’s house or the house of Hades. Maybe it’s a consolation to know that someone else has done this before you, to know that a goddess once lost her daughter and a goddess once lost her mother the same way you are losing yours. And that they survived it.

Essentially I think we need to remember that this myth (like all myths and all folklore) is not necessarily entirely the product of men, that women’s voices and women’s trauma remain embedded in it despite all of our written sources being men’s tellings of the story. And when we retell it we risk losing those voices if we are not careful and if we dismiss the myth as it survives today as solely men’s version of the story.

[chthonicpdx]

Mood of the day: grateful beyond words that I am loved so much and so well by so many gods.

[doesthendnlive]

https://www.facebook.com/Blackmagic.NewAgeSpa/

Black Magic in Wyandotte, Michigan appropriates Dreamcatchers and then react like this when called out by actual Native Americans. 

And the sermon in question was about Taoism, so what on earth does that have anything to do with dreamcatchers?

White Pagans / Wiccans / New Age shopowners, do better. 

[avery-nebulus]

Why are people always saying everything is appropriation these days? It’s getting pretty annoying. If you don’t like to do things, don’t do it, but don’t ruin it for the others. Another point to add is that it’s just normal to learn about different cultures when the people in your group are from different backgrounds…

[indigenousandangry]

@avery-nebulus When natives are talking about racism you could always shut the fuck up for a change.

[questionair]

Okay what the actual fuck. I am so tired of people claiming that practicing these things in a loving and respectful way is immoral. Especially since one person here said that this was passed to them by their great grandmother. They’re not even selling them, they’re just making them. White people are allowed to fucking make dream catchers.

[doesthendnlive]

We’re tired of you too. 

[fuckyeahasexual]

I’ve been told it’s both bi visibility day and the fall equinox which means bi witches, pagans and bi peeps who otherwise celebrate the season are super powered today

[takenbyabook]

yes you bet we are

[moon-gh0st]

Thank you, @ blimpeh on Twitter for this warning! ZERO TOLERANCE FOR TERFs and transphobes. Also don’t exclude male and non-binary witches! That’s not the witch way.

[witchinggerman]

I never give back ebooks I've bought on Amazon but I HAD to with that one. I couldn't bear having that dirt on my kindle and while I love supporting authors, some I sinply can't and won't support.

[fortitude-en-soleil]

Let Hestia hold your hand, child of fire, for She is the sparks and embers warming your heart in far-too-long winters.

Let Ares stretch your hand, child of flesh, for the battle you have to face lies within, and His anger energizes the soul with the fury of a thousand wounds.

Let Artemis guide your hand, moon-touched child, for Her aim is true and reveals the lights in unnecessary nights, so you can rely on true stars.

Let Hephaestus put His hands on your temples, child of the forge, for under His touch mists and clouds bend into clarity, a smithed sense of purpose, mind woven into self. 

Let Hera close Her hands around your throat, child of love, so that you can finally understand what air really is.

Let Poseidon‘s hands on your back, child of waves, for they are, like you, the living proof of the water’s focus and courage.

Let Athena’s hands on your eyes, child of war, for She knows that all scars will transmute, reshape, into golden weapons and mirrors, your true birthrights and heirlooms.

Let Aphrodite kiss you down there, child of pleasure, and help you embrace all your beauty, even that one you desperately want to hide, which is the best at her sight.

Let Apollo kiss your forehead, child of sun, and crown you with yourself, for you’re making Him so proud and blazing.

Let Hermes kiss your back, child of skies, for like Him, your wings don’t bound you to any home, except the liquid one housing the joys and winds of future lands.

Let Zeus kiss your lips, child of Gods, and dissolve in His love for all that is and ever will be, for you He loves you so much, with all your past, present and future storms.

Now let Demeter kiss your wrists, child of Hell, for it is over, and She wept for you when you were away, She wept in agony, but you came back now, and you’ve grown so much in the dark, enough to hold the seeds to all the others in your bare, bruised, beaten hands, but you have them now, so you can teach now, with this bare, bruised, beating heart.

[havencraft-deactivated20200917]

“Don’t Work with Death!”

“Don’t work with death, because then you invite it into your house.”

Death is already in my house. Death is everywhere. Death is what decays the plant matter that feeds my garden. Death is what feeds the herbs I use in my spells, for each grows from what died before it.

Death is what feeds my family - death of plants, the death of animals. I would not disrespect the spirits of that which feeds us by ignoring their sacrifice. 

Death is the veil between my ancestors and myself, keeping them at rest and then acting as the gate for them to step into their next life.

When I do hospice work and sit with someone who is accepting their approaching death, I don’t tell them death is something to fear or avoid. I tell them death is the friend that walked beside them, every step of their life, maintaining the balance of the world, and waiting for them with open arms, to escort them to rebirth. 

“Don’t work with death!” 

I would not ignore life’s partner, not for arrogance or fear or ignorance. When I go to my own, I want to greet death with respect, acceptance, and gratitude. 

[hgk477]

A guide on how to befriend the woods. You will not regret it

Do not sleep in the woods. Not yet. For now, just walk, smile, breathe in the air. You may play music if it makes you feel safer.

Bring food. If you find a very smooth stone, a large old stump, or the mossy ruins of what used to be manmade, those are all good places to leave a taste, a drink. Do not leave anything that will not decompose. If you do, come back to pick it back up, or don’t come back at all.

Pay no attention to her hair. She has been here longer than you, and she prefers you keep your hands to yourself. You may play music if it makes you feel safer, she doesn’t mind the noise. You are safe. You may continue or leave. There is patience here.

Come alone, or as alone as you can manage. Friends are welcome, but big groups simply pass through. Too many boots.

Drink plenty of water, and always bring a first-aid kit. A portable charger never hurts. Stay on the paths, they are there for a reason. You won’t see her unless you stray.

Come in the spring and the fall. These are the seasons of change, growth. It will work fastest that way.

Flowing water will be healing. Sit down for a while, let it flow over you. You don’t have to be off your phone, but at some point, you will be. This is okay and at some point you will be on it again. This is okay. Listen to the wind and the trees.

Letting down roots will not come easily, but if you let yourself, you won’t regret it. Feel the earth. Let it become a home.

Green may or not be your favorite color. It does not matter if it is not, but tell the trees so anyways. Tell the birds they are beautiful and tell the rabbits and squirrels they have nothing to fear from you. They will not change, but they hear you. It matters.

Do not be afraid to smile. There is so much joy here, always, ready to be felt, to be shared. Never ignore fear, but let it pass through you. Don’t let it bind you, not forever. You may now sleep here, if you wish. You are now a friend of the woods. This will stand for as long as you do not break it with purpose. Congratulations.

More guides

How to feel again

Nine things about being brought back from the dead

If you are a researcher or adventurer and want to share a guide, join our subreddit!

[rowanandrosemary]

divination 👏🏼 is 👏🏼 for 👏🏼 ADVICE 👏🏼

[constellations-and-energy]

You can change what you’re doing if you don’t like what the cards are saying!

[the-highwitch]

This! This is how I do readings, I give advice. Nothing is set in stone. You have the power of change on your side.

[everythingfox]

I will cast a spell to make you have a good day

  ∧＿ ∧　

（｡◕ ω ◕)｡)つ━☆・*。

　　                 　°。 *´¨)

　　　　　　　　　.· ´¸ .·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)

　　　　　　　　　　(¸.·´ (¸.·’* ☆

It is done

[everythingfox]

[blackthornwren]

To Kill or Harm an Enemy

Bury bottles or vials along a path where the victim will walk. When his foot touches the spot, he will become diseased.

To kill an enemy, say a mass for the dead in his name. This is especially effective when performed in a churchyard.

Prick a piece of leather nine times.

To injure an enemy wrap a washed human bone in cotton, along with something that belongs to him.

While reciting incantations, throw into a well a pin and a pebble on which the victim’s initials have been engraved. 

To bewitch an enemy to death: hang up a black toad by the heels and collect venom in an oyster shell and impregnate with it a piece of the victim’s soiled linen.

Weave hair of a victim into a bird’s nest to drive him mad. Or introduce the hair into a growing branch; as the wood covers it, he will become mad.

Consecrate nails, especially those from a coffin, using fumes of Saturn. Follow the footsteps of your intended victim and prick the shape of a cross in all you can. 

The Complete Book of Magic & Witchcraft, Kathryn Paulsen, pg. 116

[teawitch]

Rose Petal PSA

I see a lot of witches drying rose petals for floral arrangements or even making rose water from them. Please keep in mind that roses grown for florists are over treated with pesticides and fertilizers. Anything made from these petals isn’t safe to ingest. 

If you’re doing work that requires making a rose preparation for ingestion or topical application that will be absorbed into the skin, you’ll want to get rose petals from a shop that sells for these purposes. 

Or grow your own organically. Old fashioned varieties rather than the hybrid teas you see in flower arrangements are usually grown for these purposes because they grown more easily without intense treatments. 

[mythicalmodernity-blog]

THIS IS IMPORTANT Y’ALL. As a witch who worked at a florist, whenever I ‘cleaned’ the roses for sale (taking off excess leaves, slicing off thorns, etc), I would immediately wash my hands afterward. The chemicals were so bad I would feel immediate irritation and would have skin issues if I didn’t scrub clean every 30 minutes or so (I aimed for 1 wash after every 12). It’s especially worth noting that roses from florists are often (almost always) flown in from other countries where the laws about pesticides are a lot more lax. Originally we got ours from a grower in Colombia, which wasn’t too bad, but I believe we switched to Ecuador and holy moly I don’t know what the company we got it from used but it was strong. As in ‘The smell of the chemicals hit me like a wall as soon as I opened up the dozen, despite them having traveled all the way from Ecuador in a freezer’ strong. It was so bad I legitimately had worries about how handling the roses would effect my long term health, and gods above and below I felt for the workers over there that had to deal with these pesticides regularly and up close. Also, if you buy your own rose bush to use for ingestion purposes, DO NOT use the petals off of it for the first year UNLESS you got it from a organic nursery. Because most places do spray the roses with pesticides and fertilizers from seedling on up, and it will take a year for all that stuff to work it’s way out of the plant’s system. If you need rose petals to ingest ASAP, I would strongly suggest checking out tea shops. Many local or online sellers have rose teas that are lovely, and either have rose hips (which might not be as fancy as petals and have a more citrus-y flavor, but are the fruit borne from a rose and thus symbolic as all hell) or rose petals mixed in with their teas. This are absolutely edible, and are easily accessible to boot. Signed, a ex-florist and Rose Nerd.

[estellaj]

I really hope people see this because it is very important. Roses from the floral section are not intended for consumption. I have found whole rose buds at herb stores, Asian grocery stores (in cooking sections), and tea stores. I would highly suggest going to those places for roses. They may also sell tea with a high quantity of rose petals which you can use in place of pure roses. Another note: jasmine tea is not tea with dried jasmine. Most jasmine varieties are not edible and you can’t use dried jasmine in tea unless it is a variety specifically marketed as being edible (jasmine sambac aka Pikake)

[nyrwitch]

Reblogging this immediately because my most popular post is ‘How to dry rose petals the lazy way’ and I completely forgot to mention this.

[making-a-ru]

I just buy a bottle of Botanics Rose Water skin refreshing spritzer for my needs (not to ingest of course) It’s Rose Water, Organic, and $9 at Walgreens. It’s amazing 💖

[prismatic-bell]

Not a witch, just a tea lover.

This is where I get rose petals to put in my black teas. https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Organic-Flower-Petals-caffeine/dp/B074P6BFHH/ The gentleman who runs the place is super sweet and his teas are so good. I had the good fortune to encounter his teas through an Amazon review group before that gravy train ended, and I still buy them. (His genmaicha. UMMM. So good. It has popcorn in it. Who thinks of that?)Purchase edible roses and stay safe, kinderlach.

[kitchenwitchupinthisbitch]

And remember kiddos, there’s a difference between culinary, ornamental and cosmetic grade herbs and flowers.

[dansparce-deactivated20220916]

Like this is good info and all but what rich ass witches are going to a florist and buying bouquets of roses for their witchy rose needs? Talk about the 1%.

[teawitch]

Well, TBH, the post came about after I started seeing 17yo witches who were going to make rose water with roes they’d gathered after their school’s prom. Because witches will scavenge like hell.

[bayoread-deactivated20200607]

I think it’s important also to mention that if you snag a little something out of a farmer’s field, let’s say wheat or barley, it will have been sprayed with fungicide and pesticide.

Wash your hands, and don’t put things in your mouth.

[goblinblogging]

Hey Goblins, uh

Did you know, that you can make an AWESOME journal for your adventures ALL ON YOUR OWN from a cereal box and paper/scraps that you likely have at home/can get from friends or family/you may find around your environment?

They’re called Junk Journals and they’re my entire life.

Im gonna do my best to walk you through how to make one! First, get you a mini cereal box! I use boxes from those cool multipacks of cereal that you can find at Walmart!

And then cut it out so it looks like this! (I already had one cut, so I’m gonna use that)

That “nutrition facts” side is gone become your spine!

Next, find some paper to use to decorate your cover! I was lucky enough to be gifted a bunch of scrapbooking paper, so I’m gonna use that, but you can also use newspaper, paper from books/magazines, junk mail, napkins, paper towels (excellent texture), etc!

Go ahead and glue that paper to your box (to cover the cereal logo) and cut it out! It’ll look like this;

Next you need to find your pages! Again these can be anything! Junk mail, envelopes, receipts, food wrappers, magazine/book pages, scrapbook paper, computer paper, construction paper, ANYTHING. Just grab a whole bunch!

You’re gonna want to fold them in half and cut them to the size of one of the covers of your box, and layer other pages inside of it to make your signatures, like this!

Each signature should be about 7-10 pages. You don’t want them too thick, otherwise the inner pages start sticking out when folded in half. You’re gonna have a LOT of these signatures, as you wanna fill the area in the spine as best as possible. For this one I’m using 7 page signatures. Here’s a pic to show just how much paper you’ll need

Each of these signatures are 7 pages, 6 signatures have only filled about half of the spine, so I’ll need probably 6 more.

Next you gotta figure out how you want them in your journal. Personally, I like to sew them into the spine, but you can also keep them in the spine with rubber bands, so you can have removable pages! (Be weary that rubber bands may break over time! So you may want to always keep extra bands near it to replace in case one snaps. This is why I prefer sewing them in) I find it best to look up on YouTube how to sew in signatures, just because having someone walk you through it where you can see what they’re doing is easiest. If you can’t access YouTube, there’s plenty of text tutorials on how to sew in signatures online, or you can message me! I’m not gonna go too into detail, but here’s the jist;

Okay so I’m a forgetful gob and I hecken forgot to take pictures as I was going along kahshshshsh

But essentially, I sewed in the pattern similar to the one I drew. The dots are where the needle goes all the way through to the back. I also like to use rubber band as an extra mode of support but you can do one or the other. I also like both cuz I can tuck stuff in em between the pages. Since I didn’t take more pictures; I’d really recommend looking up a how-to on YouTube or w/e if my badly drawn diagram isn’t clear enough (heh sorry about that)

Next, I glue fabric to the spine. It spruces it up quite a lot and holds the rubber bands in place, plus it give more support to the spine since there’s gonna be a lot of strain on it.

Only 10 photos per post, so I gotta post this and reblog it with the rest.

[goblinblogging]

Here’s the journal with the fabric on the spine, I decided to go ahead and glue the excess to the rest of the cover too, cuz I liked how it looked ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next step?

DECORATE the pages! I haven’t decorated this one yet, but here’s some pages I have completed!

Have fun with it! Make tuck spots and hideaways. Add folders and envelopes and make tags and things that dangle. Decorate the covers and the spine and make it your own! Add things as you find them! Anything! Even candy wrappers! This is really the ultimate goblin journal!

I hope y’all enjoyed this mini tutorial =3

[spitfirewitch]

this is so cool!!!