The Theory of Witchcraft

[normal-horoscopes]

A 4th century CE statue of Aphroditos. Her cock wards off evil spirits. Reblog to rid your blog of evil spirits.

[megalodonpussy]

[official-penis-posts]

Official Aphrodite’s Cock Post (It Wards Off Evil Spirits)

[fair-is-foul]

“Grimoires exist because of the desire to create a physical record of magical knowledge, reflecting concerns regarding the uncrontrollable and corruptible nature of the oral transmission of valuable secret or sacred information. This urge to provide a tangible magical archive dates right back to the ancient civilization of Babylonia in the second millennium BCE. But grimoires also exist because the very act of writing itself was imbued with occult of hidden power. ‘A book of magic is also a magical book,’ as one historian of the subject has observed.”

— Grimoires by Owen Davies (via secretworkings)

[songsparrowwitch]

🕯️Ways to Celebrate Imbolc 💐

Imbolc is celebrated on or around February first to welcome the earliest beginnings of spring.

🕯️Honor or welcome the sun by lighting a candle in your home (you can do a fake candle if you’re not allowed to light a real candle). If you really want to go all out, you can light every single fake and real candle in your house! 🕯️Get crafty! Make candles, Brighid’s Crosses, Brighid dolls, sun catchers, or start building a garden. Imbolc is a great time to plant seeds (unless it’s too cold outside; indoor gardens are always an option)! 🕯️Decorate your altar and/or home with crystals, flowers, stones, candles, images of the sun, or any other decor that celebrates the coming spring! 🕯️Divine your future! Get out your tarot cards, pendulum, dowsing rod, bones, or other divining tools and ask for advice or insight into the future. 🕯️Take care of yourself and your home! Do some spring cleaning and cleansing and take time for yourself. Take a bath, clean off your desk, do some easy cleaning or deep cleaning, whatever you prefer. This is a great time for cleansing and purification! 🕯️Cook and share with friends and family! Pies, cookies, bread, whatever you want. If you have the energy, you can cook a feast and celebrate with your loved ones, including deceased loved ones. 🕯️Visit a lake, stream, well, or another body of water. If you want to, dip a ribbon in the body of water and then hang it on a tree (remember to not litter; you could use a tree in your yard and later tie the ribbon off) to send a message of hope and healing! 🕯️Visit a park, lake, or forest and pick up litter. This is a great way to honor the coming of spring, but if it is too cold, you can always wait until it gets warmer! 🕯️Say goodbye to winter and start to welcome spring! You can do this through prayers, spells, thoughts, or actions. Meditation is one great way that you can do this! Cleansing, new beginnings, thriving, purification, and gratitude spells are also great ideas. 🕯️Honor Brighid if you wish to! You can make Brighid crosses or dolls, set a special place for Her on your altar or in your home, give Her a prayer or offering, or something else that honors Her during this special day.

[raven-conspiracy]

The Proper Collection of Graveyard Dirt

Graveyard dirt is essential to many spells and concoctions. However, you can’t just go grab some. At best, it won’t work, and at worst, you’ll have to deal with the ire of the spirits you stole from.

You may wish to choose your grave beforehand, or you can let the spirits guide you to the correct grave. 

If you choose your grave beforehand, do your research on the person who died and make sure that their life and death has something to do with your purpose. You aren’t just collecting dirt; you are offering to employ a spirit for your purposes.

You may wish to find the grave of a heroic soldier, police officer, or judge when you desire true justice, or your object is protection. If you desire terrible revenge, those who died violent deaths are usually the best to choose. If you are using your graveyard dirt for love (or protection), you can gather dirt from the grave of someone who loved you, or from an ancestor. And so on.

Before you enter the graveyard, pause and declare your intention to the spirits there, and tell them that you wish to treat them with honor and respect. Enter.

Find the grave of your choice. If it is dark, use a natural source of light.

Show your offerings to the intended spirit. Traditional offerings include silver-colored coins, tobacco, and liquor. If you knew the person and know specifically what they like, bring that. If you wish to be especially discreet, bring flowers to plant or bring a potted plant to place on the grave, and no one will think twice about you digging.

Tell the spirit what you need and why. Be brief, but don’t exclude important information that may convince the spirit to help you. Tell the spirit you will pay for the dirt and their help, and present the offerings. Ask them if they agree. Sit silently and wait for their permission.

When you have permission, thank them, and use a ritual knife to dig some dirt from their grave and put it in a bag. (if this is too difficult, you CAN consecrate a trowel, or use one you use in magical gardening.)

Don’t take sod. Once you’ve dug a small hole and emptied it, put your offerings into the hole as payment. If there was sod, replace it. If you were going to plant something here, plant it over the offerings.

Thank the spirit again and take your leave. Before leaving the graveyard, address the spirits again, thank them for letting you do your work, and ask that no one follow you. Spin around three times to confuse any spirits attempting to follow. Once you exit the graveyard, spin around three more times. Before entering your home, spin around three times again.

You now have an extremely powerful ingredient.

[thewitchystuff]

Imbolc Spell

°˖✧ Welcome Spring and wake up from the Winter rest ✧˖°

Imbolc is a time for cleansing and planning, knowing that spring and more energy is on its way ❁*✲ﾟ*

Go on a stroll in nature, it could be a park or some woods near your house and gather some small rocks or maybe some birch from there, think about the things that you want to accomplish in this year and know that they will come true if your intention is true <3

Focus on that and with it in mind go to make this little spell.

Put the rocks inside the jar which are the stepping stones for your goals, one for every big goal you have, then add 3 little seeds inside it, representing all the growth you are gonna make.

Then write in a piece of paper your intention, or maybe use a sygil to represent it or both.

Lit your candles (2 or more) around your jar and in this moment try to bring all your energy to the positive things that will come with spring.

Close the jar and put it in your altar as an intention for the upcoming months.

*In this imbolc time you can also clean your altar and set it for new intentions and take away what does not serve you anymore either by burning or proper discard.

**If you can, plant another 3 seeds outside or in pots, whichever is best for that particular plant

Above all enjoy this time, have a meal and relax, with your coven or solo❁*✲ﾟ*

[tarot-dreams]

[skepticaloccultist]

Wasp Swarm Spirit Conjure

“Thirteen wasp seeds at the ready, You sow them in the spring.

The faithless lies we tell the world, A glamour to hide our sting.

Thirteen oak galls hatching, In the sun of new moon days.

The wasp that hides inside of each, A spirit counsel it betrays.

Three sprigs of labdanum sweet, To comb the pharaoh’s beard.

Its scent will grant us control, Of that swarm, we will be feared.

A rusty iron nail as old as we, taken from a faithless rector’s door.

In the side of the mother tree We nail it, a binding of Babylon’s whore.”

[theladymorganlefay]

IG: moonandcactus

[fair-is-foul]

“Tomb necromancy is found also in Roman culture. A summary of the powers of the sorcerer Moeris in Virgil’s Eclogues includes the ability to call up souls from the bottoms of graves. A complex magical episode is described through the witnessing eyes of a statue of Priapus in Horace’s Satires. The scene, in which the witches Canidia and Sagana appear to conflate necromantic evocation and a spell of erotic attraction, takes place in the garden of Maecenes on the Esquiline, which had been built over a disused cemetery. The grand, tall, white tombs remained; the common trenches for the slaves and the poor had been plowed over, and until recently bleached bones had lain exposed. One could bring forth voices even from burnt ashes: in Horace’s Epodes, Canidia explicitly boasts the ability to raise the cremated dead, and according to Lucan, urns had groaned spontaneously as an omen of the disastrous civil war between Caesar and Pompey.”

— Daniel Ogden - Greek and Roman Necromancy (via blitzkriegwitchcraft)

[amariofthenight-deactivated2024]

Past Life Memories: How to tell Fake Vs Real

Ok so I wanted to take a second to talk about how to tell past life memories are real vs fake. There are many instances where past life memories can be fabricated or faked to a persons detrimaent. Unfortunately spirits messing with past life memories is not as uncommon as it should be. So I’ve complied how I determine fake vs real past life memories.

They will feel superficial. They just tell their story and that’s it. Sometimes the story will be painful and it will hurt but it will be superficial.

You can manipulate it. If you can move and make different things happen it’s imagination not a past life memory. Try to move around outside of the memory path. Try to sit and if your body doesn’t sit it’s a memory.

If it was planted by a spirit it will unravel and like flake off when you play it. It will have a set end and a set beginning and you can’t change the end and beginning. As you play the memory it will begin to unravel. It will feel like twine coming apart at the seams.

You’ll feel deep deep down in your soul that it’s not true. With past life memories our heart and souls remember. If you feel deep down that NO that didn’t happen I would take some time to discern if it’s reality or if someone could have messed with the memory.

Another thing with past life memories is they can bring up past trauma. If you have a memory of your death it can lead to a new fear you’ll have to work through. Fake memories aren’t deep enough to reach that soul trauma area. Or if they do it will feel different and less complex than a real past life memory.

Now, what to do when that really hard past life memory rears it’s head…

Play it through. Sit down and give yourself some time to just remember it. It’s painful; it’s hard and it’s hell. But if you are able to just let the memory come.

Talk about it. The best way to get rid of a nightmare is to tell it to someone it’s the same with past life memories and the pain. If you have a close friend tell them about it.

Remember it’s the past. You’ve sat and remembered it. You’ve felt it. Now it’s time to remember that it’s the past. You’re here in the present and it’s not your present reality anymore.

Get that comfy blanket and that self love tea and take a good long self love bath. Reaffirm your love for yourself. Get your mind off of it for a while and just let yourself be ok after the pain.

Later when it’s time (you’ll know) sit down and dissect it. Take away the pain by giving it truth. Letting it be in the past and just let yourself feel and remember but not hurt.

Past life work can be rewarding but it can also be painful please take care of yourselves.

[unauthorized-magic-deactivated2]

This thread is so good. 

[caledoniaseries]

THIS. ^^ 

As a folklorist, this kind of thing bothers the hell out of me. So much of what people think of as ancient is Victorian era or newer. Or just wildly inaccurate, really.

[onion-souls]

Another part of it is that much of what Victorians would view as planar communication or “channeling” was conceptually an altered state in ancient times.

Like the Greeks knew that the oracles at Delphi were huffing fumes. And that was cool. Faerie wasn’t a land or a race, but the altered, glamorous reality of the fae, the gentry who lived in the hills. It was overtly compared to intoxication. Djinn lived all around us, invisibility, raising their own cattle herds and going on hajj to Mecca.

The “other world” wasn’t another place, but another way, a demimonde, an invisible society within our own, or divine madness.

[tathrin]

“The less magical the world was believed to be, the more it became necessary to posit a division between us and the realms of wonder.”

“The idea of the mundane hadn’t been invented yet.”

[morrithal]

@spiritspodcast

[needsomeshelter]

The idea of the mundane hadn’t been invented yet.

[fair-is-foul]

“The male and female Witches gather in the circle. They come from all sides to surround the Devil, on the cross-roads, under the gallows. There is always a big celebration. They jump around and dance, drink and entertain themselves. One of them said that her late husband brought her there, because he was a Witch man. Others said that other Witches persuaded them to fall into the Devil’s arms. When someone wants join Witches for the first time, others must beat her with live snakes…”

— Balkan Traditional Witchcraft by Radomir Ristic (via sola-invinctus)

[6i]

it takes years to develop your craft. do not romanticize the idea of an ‘overnight success’. be a student. grow organically. get really good. hate your work. start over. find new ways to express the same ideas. the student becomes the master. your time will come.

[sorekbekarmi-deactivated2022051]

Claim Your Jewish Culture

Judaism is a religion and a people, and it's also a culture. When living within another dominant culture, it can be easy to assimilate, and hard to feel a connection to Judaism. If you aren't very religious or observant, if you're a patrilineal, a prospective or in-progress convert, or come from an assimilated family, that struggle can be even harder. I've seen a lot of asks on tumblr recently from people like this, who are looking for ways to explore what they feel is missing from their Jewish identities, so, this is a list of some ways to explore our heritage and grow in your Jewishness. Jews, please feel free to add more!

Start saying CE and BCE instead of AD and BC. Strip the outside Xtian influence from your personal reckoning of time.

Know the Hebrew date. You can use Hebcal to export the entire Jewish year, with your preferences for what holidays and how they are written, and import it directly to the calendar app you already use! You can even set your location to get candle lighting times.

Show solidarity with other groups. Eliminate slurs from your language. Learn about the situations of other minority groups and how to be an ally for them. Learn about the intersection of Jewish identity with queer or POC identities by listening to others share their experiences. Try to remove slurs and cultural appropriation from your life, with kindness and education.

Take ownership of mitzvot through education and practice. Start lighting Shabbat candles and doing Havdalah. Kiss the mezzuzah. Count the Omer. Light Chanukah candles. Observe minor fast days. Bring Judaism into your sense of time and space and home, because Judaism is not just the synagogue, and it's not just a religion: it's a way of living. ♡

Take ownership of oberservance, not all at once, but one thing at a time. If you've never kept a kosher home, learn to cook a kosher dish. If you've never been shomer Shabbat, try incorporating one aspect of rest into your Saturday. Don't be intimidated by all the dos and don'ts of Jewish law - just learn, try things one at a time, and see what feels meaningful for you.

Learn about and start living Jewish customs and rituals. Smash a glass at your wedding. Learn to make cholent. Sit shiva when you lose a loved one. Remember that even if your family never did these things before, Jewish ritual needs to be practiced in order to survive. By adopting more and more customs, you will help ensure their transmission to the next generation, and the continuance of our culture.

Stop swearing with "Jesus." Remove the power from the dominating Xtian culture by stripping it from your life. Learn to swear in Hebrew or Yiddish instead! It's more fun anyway.

Foster a Jewish relationship with food, even if your family never made them before. Get some cookbooks. Try baking and separating challah. Learn which brachot pretain to which food, and use them as a moment of gratitude.

Start a tzedaka practice. Maybe start giving around holidays. Consider donating to local charities. Give the extra dollar at the grocery store, or a friends fundraiser. Help those in need.

Study a Jewish language. Hebrew is awesome, and there are many Jewish tongues around the world, including Yiddish, Aramaic, Ladino, Juhuri, Judeo-Arabic, and many others. There's so many resources available online now, and even if you only learn some basic vocabulary or how to read the alefbet, you will feel more pride and ownership than before.

Learn about Jewish everyday vocabulary. Explore and incorporate phrases like yasher koach, kol hakavod, mensch, lashon hara, mitzvah, etc into your lexicon.

Learn about Jewish theology. You're probably familiar with the ideas of G-d, angels, demons, heaven and hell or the afterlife in general. Judaism often has a very different stance on these issues! Are all angels good? Is G-d male, or does G-d even have a body? Are all demons bad? Is Satan the enemy of G-d? Is magic always at odds with religion? Do bad people go to hell? Learn about the Jewish answers to these questions.

Learn about middot, gemilit hasadim, and tikkun olam. Make a difference in your community through volunteering, showing up when your friends need you, pursuing social justice, and being present and healing for those in need. Take pride in knowing these things are inherently Jewish, and that social justice is central to who we are.

Broaden your horizons for cultural artifacts. Drink in Jewish art, poetry, literature, and music. Learn about Sephardi love poetry, listen to Yemenite-Israeli singers or Mizrachi metal, hang up a Hebrew micography print, or watch some performances by Batsheva. Whatever type of art, music, or writing you already love, I guarantee you there is a Jewish artist contributing to that field. If not, maybe it will be you!

Learn about Jewish superstitions and customs. Learn about Jewish magic and folklore. Learn about Jewish history, in Israel and in the Diaspora. You probably already know lots of things about your country's history, or your dominant folk traditions - read up on your people's!

Learn about antisemitism and philosemitism. Learn about the history of interactions between Judaism and the Church. Learn about what antisemitic stereotypes are, why they exist, and why they matter today. Learn about why the Evangelical Church's obsession with Israel is unhealthy and wrongly motivated. Learn about Xtian theology regarding us: what is the difference between the Old Testament and the Tanakh? Why does the Xtian Bible call us the "synagogue of Satan?" What is replacement theology?

Learn about Jewish symbolism. What is the history of the hamsa, or the Magen David? What colors are associated with Judaism and certain holidays? What foods, stones, fruits and plants, have special symbolic meaning?

Please remember that Judaism is a community! The absolute best way to engage in Jewish life is to be a part of a community, and this list is not a replacement for that. If you're interested in deepening your connection to Judaism or Jewish culture, talk to a Rabbi, look for classes at your local JCC or synagogue, or attend services and holiday events. If you're a prospective convert or otherwise unsure about your Jewish status, remember that education is never cultural appropriation! It's always okay to learn and educate yourself. If you have questions about what (and when and how) it's appropriate for you to practice Judaism, feel free to reach out to a local Rabbi, who will almost certainly be able to give you guidance and resources!

💙🔯💙

[serpentandstang-deactivated2021]

Concerning the Use & Symbolism of Nails

By Martin Duffy, Three Hands Press

‘Within the witch’s craft many apparently mundane objects are considered to have both magical and mystical virtue, one example being the humble nail. Although some, on basis of morphology, ascribe to nails a phallic virtue, they also have a fixative power, i.e. the ability to bind one thing to another, for good or bane. Nails also partake in no small measure of the powers ascribed to their material, which is normally iron, that heavenly metal linked in the occult mind with blood and the virtues of redness.

When a thing is brought into contact with another it makes an alligation. The basis of alligation is that all things created, whether by the hands of man or nature, are bestowed by the Soul of the World with virtue, which is harnessed by bringing the virtuous object into contact with people/places/objects. Included in this is the binding of two things together in alligation by a nail, so that one might influence the other.

The thing or power being fixed by the nail to person, place or object can be manifold; even celestial powers corresponding to the time at which the nail was struck into its medium can be bound into workings. Herein we understand the basis of hammering various amulets into the lintel above the threshold, such as the apotropaic images of the sun, open hand or ubiquitous horseshoe.

Contrary to popular belief, nails are as protective as the horseshoes they affix. Indeed, Pliny the Elder advised hammering three iron nails, not horseshoes, into the threshold’s lintel to protect the home, likewise Paul Huson in Mastering Witchcraft advocated driving three iron coffin nails into the door, one above and two below in triangular formation. Similarly, protective enclosures are fashioned by striking nails into their four corners and wandering spirits are stopped by hammering nails into their coffins, whilst Romans averted plague and misfortune by driving nails into house walls. Thus is it axiomatic that the number of nails found within a horseshoe affects its potency, the more nails the greater the luck, although some hold true to the custom of fixing the shoe with three nails by means of three blows, alluding to the kinship betwixt nails and the number three.

Horseshoe nails have long been held to possess an array of powers, e.g. the crooked horseshoe nails hung as amulets about the necks of Irish children, and the horseshoe nails driven into the hearth by Teutonic peoples to draw back stolen property. Traditional witch Robert Cochrane recounted that “a horseshoe nail dipped in spring water was considered a prime remedy to use against the ‘little people’ when they grew bothersome”, which relies also on the well-known enmity betwixt the Fair Folk & iron.’ …

‘The most familiar witch tradition concerning nails is their use to pierce the witch’s manikin with benevolent or malevolent intent, yet there is equal tradition in using blackthorn spines, which like nails have an innate warding virtue. Thorns are often used alongside or in place of nails in the magical arts, e.g. in the famed witch-bottle or being tied into the end of the curse cord in place of a rusty nail. We might thus consider them as ‘wooden nails’ fashioned by the green hand of the Faerie Smith, to which Schulke alludes in Viridarium Umbris when he says, “the Thorn is both punitive & binding, the Holy Nail of the Greenwood executing the grim sentence of Crucifixion at once harnessing the forces of binding & torment”; it is in the crucifixion that we discover the nail’s apotheosis.’ 

Read more.

[lafioras-deactivated20170624]

love can really save people, and i’m not talking about romantic love. i’m talking about platonic, wholesome, unselfish love that demands nothing in return other than that person’s safety, happiness, and well-being. love for the sake of love. i think this kind of love is wonderful.

[artisticlog-deactivated20231213]

What a beautiful and handy little guide! 💗😍🔮