Witchy Ember @witchyember - Tumblr Blog

I’ve been hyperfixated on Proto-Indo-European lately so it was very exciting for me to learn that Hestia likely gets her name from the PIE root *wes meaning to burn, which in turn may come from *h₂wes meaning to dwell, live, reside, stay, spend the night. While it's generally agreed that Hestia and Vesta are deities unique to Mediterranean Europe, this is possible evidence for hearth cult reverence dating back to the Neolithic period. It's theorized that early forms of temples were places with central hearths. Hestia is typically viewed as a goddess over the hearth of the home and family, but this connects her to being a symbol of society and community as well.

It's beautiful to think that Hestia has been with us since the dawn of humanity. I wonder if there was a root or origin somewhere in a Proto-World language that's been lost to us.

bodhi-devotee

i loooove digging into the proto-indo-european roots of deities

#hestia

wrathful-warhound

I know one!

Hera βοῶπις (cow-eyed)

Ty for your time

Hera Boōpis (cow-eyed)

#hera

templehyacinthus

Hestia

Hestia’s posture is impeccable.

She is neither tall nor short - and round in figure.

Her hips are wide - perfect for holding the children that she never birthed, but cares for anyway.

Her belly is round, from good food and a good family - and it bounces slightly when she laughs.

She has a mothers face, and a mothers hands, and auburn hair that falls in curls.

She wears dresses in muted oranges and reds, or browns - and her apron is off-white.

She hums when she cooks in the kitchen and grows her own herbs in the back garden.

She keeps a cleaning rag in her pocket, and always has a salve ready in case of scraped knees or burnt hands.

She does not yell, no - her honey brown eyes give a harsh enough stare to silence unruly children and self-indulgent adults.

Her doors are always open, to the forgotten and the lost - to the wandering and the wanting.

She always cooks enough for extra company and second helpings.

Her hearth is always burning, her love is never ending.

Hestia, Goddess of Hearth and Home,

Lead my way - and light my path. 🕯️

- Hestia’s Hearth; An original hymn

hestiasteacup

Thank you, Hestia, for the simple warmth of home.

Thank you for the quiet evenings chilling on the couch.

Thank you for the bliss of peacefully listening to music while doing chores on a Saturday morning.

Thank you for those moments of clarity that allow us to stay calm and make the kind decision, not the angry one.

Thank you for being the light to return to, even in the darkest of nights.

You bring kindness to life. You bring rest. You bring hope. And I shall do my best to share them with the world in your name 🧡

diana-thyme

Greek Gods 101: Hestia

Hestia is a goddess of the hearth and home. Excluding the universal offerings, some common offerings include:

Depictions of Fireplaces/Hearts

Tea

Kettles

Depictions of Pigs

Depictions of Fire

Baking Supplies

Cooking Supplies

Spices and Herbs

Homemade Food

For devotional acts, some activities that can be done for her include:

Cooking

Cleaning

Lighting a Fire

Keeping Up Family Traditions (Or Starting a New One)

Doing Home Repairs

Doing Home Renovations

Taking Care of Others

Practicing Simple or Slow Living

She is celebrated in multiple Athenian holidays:

Noumenia

Apatouria

Plerosia, maybe

Hekate’s Deipnon, maybe

Kallynteria and Plynteria, maybe

ts-witchy-archive

Hestia Devotional Activities

I was cleaning my room last night and found this list on a random piece of paper. I've been worshipping/working with Lady Hestia for roughly 2 years now so I have no idea when these ideas are from but I hope you enjoy!

Pick up rubbish in communal areas

Offer the first or last bites/portions of food your to her

Cooking/baking for yourself or others

Having a candle lit whenever possible (electric or real)

Alternatively, playing a video of a fire place. (This is my favourite)

Volunteering at or donating to homeless or DV shelters

Setting healthy boundaries with friends and family

Tea/Coffee magick is always a great devotional opportunity

Get involved with your local community in anyway possible.

Additionally, getting involved in politics! Advocating for policies you believe will better the community is absolutely in alignment with Hestia and her role in ancient Greece.

Allow yourself to rest (this is UPG but i've always found that she just wants you to take care of yourself more than anything).

Do a chore you've been putting off for a long time and dedicate it to her

Organise to hang out with some friends and/or family

Be kind to other AND YOURSELF!!

Veil or bind your hair!

Wear something red or orange (I normally opt for a red hair tie and bind my hair with it. 2 birds, 1 stone)

Make a devotional playlist for her

While we're on the topic of digital witchcraft, make a pinterest board or a mood board for her

Learn about kitchen witchery

the-purvashadha

I call upon the deathless deities, with power unparalleled and limitless might,

I call upon Radiant Hera, the protectress of women

I call upon Fair Aphrodite, the granter of victory

I call upon Mighty Athena, the fiercest warrior in the battlefield

I call upon Fierce Artemis, the protectress of girls

I call upon Hekate of limitless night, the subduer of subduers

I call upon Father Zeus, upholder of justice in all its forms

I call upon the almighty deities with glory divine and unmatched mercy

I call upon the almighty gods, upholder of order, truth and justice,

the greatest guides and fiercest protectors

Grant strength to my sisters who fight against their subduers.

Grant protection to all the protestors, loud and silent

Bless their hearts, minds and arms with courage

And grant them victory against their subduers and any cause rooted in injustice and misogyny

stratus-and-the-theoi

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 6

🦚Hera🦚

- go through family (blood or not blood doesn’t matter!) photos, or photo albums and reminisce

- listen to a devotional playlist for Her

- wear peacock colored clothes (can be as simple as s blue hair tie on your wrist or green socks)

- be kind to children

- if engaged or married (or hell even just in a relationship) spend some time with your partner even if it’s just sending funny memes to each other

- watch documentaries about any of her sacred animals (cows, cuckoos, lions, peacocks)

- learn about lion conservation efforts

- if you have kids or any younger siblings watch a movie or show with them

- learn about the importance of battered women’s shelters

- (maybe this is just the Wisconsinite in me but) enjoy some dairy products if your able

- watch documentaries about monarchies or various queens

⚒️Hephaestus⚒️

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- learn about volcanoes

- watch documentaries about labor movements and worker’s rights movements (my personal favorite is battle of Blair mountain)

- if able take a break and rest

- learn about disability rights movements

- learn about blacksmithing, carpentry, sculpting, etc.

- if you use a mobility aid: use it

- be kind to service workers

- if able support small businesses

- watch glass blowing videos (I used to live in Virginia and we took a field trip to Jamestown and watching the glass blowers was so cool I’ve been obsessed with it ever since)

- watch one of those fireplace videos if you can’t light a fire for whatever reason (and if you do have an actual fire going practicing fire safety is also a great way to honor Hephaestus)

- learn your rights as a worker these vary from place to place so look them up and brush up on them to ensure you’re not being screwed over in any capacity

dailywitchlings

Witchy *Free* PDF book list Masterpost

Hey lovely witches! I wanted to share some of my PDF witchy books I have on my computer. I know it’s hard to find these books and not everyone has money to buy them or easy access. I hope I can help someone with this <3

Most of the books are on my google drive library, you can click on the link and then download if you’d like to.

A Manual of Occultism, by Sepharial

Mastering Witchcraft, by Paul Huson

Natural Magic, by Pamela J.Ball

Pagan Spells, Author Unknown

Herbal Magick - Herbal enchantments, folclore and divination by Gerina Dunwich <3

Spell Crafts - Creating magical objects, by, Scott Cunningham and David Harrington <3

The Book of Power, by Idres Shah

The Complete book of Incense, Oils ad Brews, by Scott Cunningham

The Essential Skills of Magick - Benjamim Rowe

The Ultimate Book of Spells - Pamela J. Ball *my favorite spellbook*

50 of The Most Powerful Spells, by unknown author

Witchcraft Today, by Gerald Gardner

The Gardnerian Book of Shadows

The Basics of Magic, by K. Amber

8 Sabbaths of Witchcraft, by Mike Nichols

Witchcraft Today, by Gerald Gardner

Celtic Mythology and Religion, by Alexander Macbain

The Art and meaning of Magic, By Israel Regardie

An Introduction to the Study of Tarot, by Paul Foster Case

The Alchemy of Abundance, by Lisa McSherry

Encyclopedia of Acient Roman and Greek Mythology, by James Belton

Asgard and the Gods, by M. W. MacDowall,

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Spells by, Michael Johnstone

Witches’ Bible by, Janet and Stewart Farrar

The Witch’s Master Grimoire, by Lady Sabrina

The meaning of Witchcraft, by Gerald Gardner

Aleister Crowley book collection (google drive)

Lid Off the Cauldron, by Patricia Crowther

A Grimoire for Modern Cunningfolk, by Peter Paddon

The A to Z of Dream Interpretation, by Pamela J. Ball

The Dream Oracle, by Pamela J. Ball

The Great Book of Spells, by Pamela J. Ball <3

The Techniques of Astral Projection, By Dr. Douglas M. Baker

The Opening of the Third Eye, By Dr. Douglas M. Baker

Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft, By Bailey Michael

The Goddess is in Details, by Deborah Blake <3

Circle, Coven and Grove, by Deborah Blake

A Witch’s Dozen, by Deborah Blake <3

Witchcraft on a Shoestring by Deborah Blake

Egyptian Magic, By Ernest Budge

Advanced Candle Magick, By Raymond Buckley

Amulets and Magic, By Budge Walli

Pen and Ink Witchcrafr , By Collin Calloway

Basic Sigil Magic, By Philip Cooper

The Occult Properties of Herbs , By W.B Crow

Shadow Work Guidebook, by Jessica Cross

Gemstone Sorcery, By Gerina Dunwich <3

Wicca A to Z By Gerina Dunwich

Every Witch Way By Ellen Dugan <3

Power Of The Witch By Laurie Cabot <3

The Spiral Dance By Starhawk <3

Spiritual Power - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Book of Shadows By, Phyllis Curott:

Witchcrafting By Phyllis Curott

Spells for the Solitary Witch By Eileen Holland

Wiccan Magick By Raven Grimassi

The Witch’s Familiar By Raven Grimassi

Magical Candle Crafting By Ember Grant

Magical Powder Recipes By Lady Gianne

Wicca For Beginners By Lisa Chamberlain

Scott Cunningham’s Books:

Divination for Beginners

Wicca in the Kitchen <3

Book of Shadows

Living Wicca

Crystal Gem and Metal Magick <3

Wicca

Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs

Magical Household, Rituals and spells for the home <3

D.J Conway’s Books:

Mystical Dragon

Norse Magic

Wicca, The Complete Craft

Falcon, Feather and Valkyrie Sword

Celtic Magic

Christopher Penczak’s Books

Gay Witchcraft - Christopher Penczak

The Living Temple of Witchcraft V. II- Christopher Penczak

The Gates of Witchcraft

The Living Temple of Witchcraft V.II

Mystic Foundation

The Outer Temple Of Witchcraft

The Inner Temple of Witchcraft

The Witch’s Shield

Cassandra Eason’s Books:

A Practical Guide of Witchcraft and Spells,

Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters and Animal Power Symbols

Candle Power

The Art of Pendulum

The Complete Guide to Psychic Development

Illes Judika’s Books:

Magic When You Need It - 150 Spells

Pure Magic

The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft

Ellwood Taylor’s Books:

Pop Culture Magic

The Pop Culture Grimoire

Multi-Media Magic

Manifesting Prosperity

For those of you who wish to see my full library on the drive, feel free to send me a message and I will send you the link!

HAVE FUN! :)

moonliqht19

Thought this would be important to pass around!

fieldofpapyrus

The inside of this Kemetic sun mini altar I'm making inside an altoids tin.

thats-howthelightgets-in

BETTER SHIT TO PUT IN YOUR GRIMOIRES THAN THE BASIC SHIT EVERYONE SAYS:

Maps! Maps! MAPS! If you're a death witch, get one for the cemeteries you visit and mark gravestones/areas you've practiced in! Garden witches! Map out your gardens! Green witches! Map where you find specific herbs in your area! Lunar witches! Mark the best spots to go look at the sky! Make a key! Take notes!

Recipes for COMPONENTS! Write down how to make the mixtures you use in spells often- A special salt mixed with herbs and put under the moon, a mixture of oils for protection, the herb mixes sachets you keep making to add to sachets, whatever!

For green witches- press samples of stuff and glue them in! Go to an arboretum and ask for permission to take leaves to press, they'll usually let you take some- add them in with your notes about trees

Cool ways to make spells! I make spells in envelopes and on empty spools, what are some ways you do?

The local plants in your area and what they do. You're not going to be likely to find chrysanthemums to forage in Missouri, but you will find creeping charlie and prairie plants. What can you do with a thistle?

When you celebrate a sabbat, write down what you did and include samples! Ribbons from your Beltane altar, a pressed sample of your lemmas harvest, a scrap of your Yule decorations. Maybe do a spell and tape the remnants into your grimoire in a plastic baggie

Learn how to make an envelope out of paper just by folding it, how to string seeds, how to dry plants, how to macrame rocks and hang them from your window. Find those little witchy skills and write them down.

How to incorporate your hobby into your magic. Sigiling origami paper, weaving knot magick into your crochet, making blessed bookmarks, etc

Substitutes! Rosemary, rose and clear quartz are good for most things, but there are more substitutes to be used that are more powerful. Roanoke bells are good substitutes for bluebells, apparently.

Correspondences of odd things. Turns out different kinds of cats have different correspondences, huh.

Superstitions and such from where you're from.

For kitchen witches: easy to alter recipes. An egg noodle recipe that takes herbs really well, a simple bread recipe that can be dressed up for spells or rituals, how to make a good pie crust that you can sprinkle nutmeg in or whatever you desire.

Or: What foods go good with what herbs. You'll make a better apple pie (and get the benefits of apples, nutmeg, and cinnamon together!) If you know how your herbs taste together with your cooking. (Most kitchen witches know this stuff, but for a green witch who likes to make teas or a sea witch that likes to make soup, etc, this is important)

samwisethewitch

Why Your Spells Don’t Work

You set your intention. You had all the correct correspondences. You even timed your spell with the appropriate moon phase. And yet – no results. What gives?

Failed spells happen to the best of us, and for a variety of reasons. But a spell gone wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that magic isn’t real or that you’re bad at witchcraft. Magic is complicated, and there are a lot of reasons it might not behave the way you want it to. Here are some of the most common causes of ineffective spells:

1. Lack of real-world follow through

Magic is meant to be used as a tool to supplement your mundane efforts – not as a substitute for them. How can you expect your job hunting spell to bring in results if you aren’t applying for jobs?

Magic does not exist in a vacuum, and it can’t make something out of nothing. If a spell doesn’t bring you the desired result, make sure that your non-magical actions are aligned with what you are trying to manifest.

2. What you’re trying to manifest isn’t a realistic possibility

Wait, what? Isn’t magic supposed to be, well… magic? Shouldn’t you be able to ask for whatever you want and get it? Yes and no.

Magic is simply a way of directing energy. Magic can’t defy the natural laws of the universe. It can’t make something happen unless it was already a potential possibility.

If your intention is unrealistic for where you are right now, try splitting it up into a multi-step process. No spell is going to make you a billionaire overnight, but magic could help you get hired at a better paying job… and then get promoted… and then get offered a profitable side gig… etc. Starting small and working your way up is always going to produce stronger results, because you laid the foundation first.

3. Your intention was either too vague or too specific

Whether you use written petitions or spoken incantations, clearly stating your intention is an important part (maybe THE most important part) of any spell or ritual. A good intention is specific enough to get you the results you want, but open enough to let those results manifest naturally.

Let’s say you do a money spell, and your intention for the spell is simply, “I have more money.” If you find a penny on the ground the next day and pick it up, technically that is more money than you had before. A better alternative would be to use an intention like, “I have enough money to buy ___,” or “I have enough money for everything I need and want.”

Using an intention that is too specific creates the opposite problem. Let’s say you want to manifest a scholarship to a specific school. You do a candle spell with the intention, “I have been chosen for the John Smith Scholarship at Jane Doe University.” But maybe the John Smith scholarship had already been awarded by the time you did your spell. Maybe there’s another scholarship at the same school that would be a better fit for you, or maybe you’re eligible for a grant that would make tuition more affordable. A better intention for your spell would be “I have enough financial aid to easily and affordably attend Jane Doe University.”

Magic always follows the path of least resistance, so you want to make sure that your intention is specific enough to give your magic a clear direction, but open enough to allow it some flexibility.

4. Lack of focus/concentration

We all know the struggle. You’ve been planning this ritual forever, and it’s finally the full moon, but you’ve got a really full schedule today. If you hurry, you can probably squeeze it into the thirty minute window between school and work, right?

If you say a few quick words and burn some incense before you head out the door in the morning, that totally counts as a spell, right?

Not so much. Rushed, lazy, and/or half-assed spells rarely, if ever, work. Spells revolve around the raising and direction of energy, and that requires two things: a clear intention (see above) and intense focus on that intention. If you don’t have the time/energy/mental capacity to focus, it’s best to take a break, have a self care day, and come back to your spell some other time.

5. You’re subconsciously blocking your own results OR you did a spell for someone else who isn’t open to it

I decided to lump these two together, because they’re different variations of the same issue.

Whenever you are doing magic on yourself, it’s important that your mindset is aligned with your intentions. You can do love spells all day long, but if deep down you don’t believe that you’re worthy of love, that belief is going to block your spells from working. This is why mindfulness, psychology, and self care are all such important parts of a successful witchcraft practice. It’s also why I recommend doing the mental work before you sit down to ritual.

If you did a spell on yourself, or are trying to manifest something for yourself, and it just isn’t working, I highly recommend setting some time aside for journaling and meditation and asking yourself 1.) if this is really what you want, and 2.) if you truly believe that you can have it.

The whole mindset thing gets even more tricky when you’re doing magic on behalf of another person, because their energy is also at work in the situation and could be at odds with yours. For example, if you do a spell to help a friend land a job, but that friend believes that they’re totally underqualified and could never get it, they probably won’t get the job even if you did everything “right” in your spell.

This should go without saying, but it is extremely unethical to use magic to mess around in someone else’s head. Even if you think you know what’s best for them, they need to be open to it. If someone is blocking the spells you do on their behalf, all you can do is try to be supportive and find other ways to help them out.

Other (Rare) Reasons for Failed Spells

If a spell goes wrong, it will almost always be for one of the above reasons. But maybe you did everything “right” – you did the mental work first, had a strong, realistic intention, put lots of focus into your spell, and followed through in real life – and you still aren’t seeing results. There are a couple of other things that could be blocking your spells, but they’re very uncommon so I’m not going to talk about them in as much detail. These may be things you want to look into if you really, genuinely can’t think of any other cause.

It’s possible that another witch has done magic that cancels out or blocks yours. This is not common, and it does NOT mean that someone has cursed you. It could be as simple as two witches unknowingly casting spells with opposite intentions, which end up cancelling each other out. (For example, maybe two different people both cast a spell to get the same job. Obviously, they can’t both get that job.) This is why it’s never a bad idea to incorporate a protective element into your spells to block outside interference.

There is a very, very remote possibility that someone has placed a curse on you specifically to block your magic. However – and I cannot stress this enough – this is VERY uncommon. If you were cursed you would know it, or at least know that something was very wrong in your life. If you feel like you have been cursed or hexed, I recommend looking into uncrossing spells, which are specifically designed to undo negative magic.

It’s also possible that a higher power is intervening. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a deity, although it certainly could be. Most witches believe in some form of fate or destiny, and it’s possible that your spell didn’t work because what you asked for is not in alignment with your destiny. In these situations, really the only thing you can do is surrender to the bigger picture.