what the fucK is a witch

I'm still figuring shit out

[daguerreotype-era]

apothecary bottles

[humblegrub]

spiderweb preservation DIY

(just make sure the resident has vacated first...)

[daguerreotype-era]

apothecary bottles

[breelandwalker]

I'm starting to question how much the "old" pagan costumes and festivities were indeed about fertility, sex, etc.

Ronald Hutton claims that there is no evidence in history that the maypole was saw as a phallic symbol, for example. And there are other possible meanings. But you usually just read in books as a matter of fact that it was a phalic representation and the dance around was about fertility etc

I recently read the witche's bible because I was curious about traditional wicca rituals and there is suuch a high focus on how every single costume or holiday was about fertility and sex that honestly it makes me wonder, how much it was indeed about those things and how much is just the interpretation of modern people like Gardner making it about those things

You're hitting the nail on the head without even realizing it, Anon.

SO much of what we think we know about "old pagan customs" comes from books written by Victorian-era occultists. And if there is one thing to be said about Victorian-era occultists, it was that they were horny as FUCK. (And the Edwardians weren't any better.)

These people went around rubber-stamping FERTILITY in big red letters on anything to do with goddesses or springtime or even the most passing reference to pregnancy, childbirth, midwifery, or babies. Literally any excuse for ritual nudity or a sacred orgy. And no, that is not satire. Or a euphemism.

The other thing that can be said about Victorian-era occultists is that quite a lot of them were history buffs and very prolific writers. (If you look at the roster of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and their regular guests, it reads like a Who's Who of the writers of fantastical fiction and poetry at the time.) So the result of that is a whole lot of literature about folklore and "ancient pagan customs" written by people who were filtering what little historical information they had at the time through the lens of their own opinions and those of their colleagues.

(It's worth noting that that "lens" often consisted quite heavily of free-associated ideas not supported by history or things they completely pulled out of their own asses. Leland's "Aradia" is a good example of the "Ancient Sacred Text Given To Me By A Real Witch Who Totally Exists And I Definitely Didn't Write This Myself And Make Up This Claim For Clout" genre.)

Quite unsurprisingly, a lot of these beliefs got absorbed into the roots of the modern witchcraft movement a few decades later, since those were the popular resources available at the time and the same generally-prevailing opinions and biases were still present. So this started WELL before Gardner and his coven were on the scene. They just picked up the thread.

And as we all know, once there's a generation or so of removal from the founding beliefs of a movement, people tend to take the older texts as gospel, regardless of how flawed they might be.

See Also: We Still Have To Talk About The Witch-Cult Hypothesis Because Margaret Murray Wrote The Encyclopedia Britannica Entry On Witchcraft And It Wasn't Updated Until The 1960s.

See Also: We Still Have To Explain The Difference Between Historical Fiction And The Historical Record Because Of The White Goddess And The Mists Of Avalon.

See Also: We Still Have To Talk About The Burning Times Myth Because Raymond Buckland Made That Stupid Fucking Documentary.

See Also: Why The Hell Is Anyone Still Recommending Silver Ravenwolf.

Anyway, the short answer is that yes, your impression is correct, and I'm glad you're reading Hutton and forming that practical context for the witchcraft/pagan literature and media that you encounter.

Keep honing that bullshit detector and best of luck!

[carvedsam]

performing an exorcism but i recite the lorem ipsum dolor sit amet placeholder text

[badpsychicadvice]

Reciting semi-accurate Cicero is NOT A BAD CHANT ACTUALLY. "Lorem ipsum" is cut down from the words "dolorem ipsum," which translates to "THE PAIN." The whole sentence that's from:

"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure."

It's about the same meaning as singing Linkin' Park lyrics.

[khangi]

What Native people say about the use of sage: you can use sage, but you cannot smudge as nothing you are doing (waving sage around) is actually smudging. Smudging is a ceremony and you are, we promise, not smudging. Please buy sage from either us, or someone who sources the sage from us. White sage may not be considered endangered by the US government but corperate sourcing is making it difficult for us to source sage for our own religious purposes. Let alone to sell it.

What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.

Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.

1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.

2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.

3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.

I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk ™

[mango-habanero-autism-deactivat]

What if I told you that “divine feminine energy” is in fact, not the opposite of hetero patriarchy, but is in fact an aspect of it?

[movedtohoneysoakedmoss-deactiva]

[honor-loyalty-sovereignty]

Pagan & Polytheist Survivors of Domestic Violence

This anonymous survey has two goals: 1. to gather general demographic data to see how and where domestic violence appears among pagans, polytheists, and magic-users; 2. to more accurately discern what needs are not being met by pagan/polytheist/magic-using survivors, which will shape the educational pursuits that Macha's Justice will offer to priests and clergy.

Under Macha’s Justice, I’m offering an anonymous survey for DV survivors who are pagan, polytheist, or faith-adjacent. If you meet those two criteria, I’d love to have your feedback to help shape MJ’s services, but no pressure! Please feel free to share this, too.

(Not sure if what you experienced was domestic violence? That’s okay. You can check out this page, “Is It Abuse?” and you can also fill out what you can of the survey if you’re still not entirely sure.)

[wyntercraft-deactivated20190812]

Apple: spirit work, offerings, love, healing, beauty, wisdom, harvest

Blueberry: protection, banishment, curses

Basil: protection, grounding, happiness, peace, money, love, luck

Black (general): strength, cleansing, rid of negativity, protection

Cornflower:  femininity, fae, acceptance, health, beauty, protection

Catmint:   healing, animal magic, relaxation, calmness, happiness, psychic ability, love, wishes, meditation

Cinnamon: safety, calmness, love, happiness, money, blessing, protection, healing

Cranberry: holidays, blood magic, spirit work

Clover: money, prosperity, luck, happiness, spirit work, fae, protection, healing

Chai Spice: love, money, luck, witchcraft, psychic ability

Chrysanthemum - healing, samhain, ancestral work

Chamomile - calmness, money, love, peace, cleansing, love, meditation

Dandelion: wishes, dreams, psychic ability, lunar magic

Elderberry: healing, protection, blessing, banishing, cursing, cleansing

Earl Grey: peace, happiness, relationships

Ginger: energy, speeding things along, passion, travel, healing

Ginseng: love, fertility, beauty, healing, strength

Green (general): healing, sexuality, energy, peace, witchcraft

Honeysuckle:  sexuality, fertility, love, luck, prosperity, sweetness

Herbal (general): peace, serenity, health

Kombucha (general): sexuality, health, luck

Lavender:  calmness, cleansing, love, happiness, fertility

Lilac: love, protection, fortune, new love, banishing

Lemon Balm: cleansing, confidence, overcoming challenges, relaxation

Lemongrass: psychic ability, divination, cleansing, communication, protection, love, luck, jobs

Lemon: cleansing, purification, protection, curse breaking

Lime: cleansing, protection, love

Lychee: love, self love, femininity, beauty

Mint: communication, energy, money, spirit work, cleansing

Mugwort: healing, divination, astral projection, dreams, psychic ability, cleansing, protection

Matcha: energy, alertness

Nettle: spirit work, protection, curse breaking

Oolong: love, difination, serenity, peace

Peppermint: healing, cleansing, sleep, love, money

Passion fruit: lust, love, passion

Pomegranate: offerings, blood magic, fertility, divination, spell work

Peach: fertility, love, happiness, spirit work

Rose (general):  love, beauty, attraction, fertility

Raspberry: love, dreams, health

Raspberry leaf: fertility, femininity, menstrual cycle, lunar magic, love, creativity, protection

Sage: cleansing, protection, spirit work, smoke cleansing, wisdom, wishes, funerals

White (general): happiness, lunar magic, protection, cleansing

Yarrow:  love, divination, dreams, psychic ability, marriage, courage, communication, focus

[underworldariel-deactivated2021]

Tarot Idea: Shuffle your deck. Take the cards from the very top and very bottom. The bottom is buried pain, whilst the top is divine advice.

[spellboundwitchcraft]

I wanted to give my friend a crystal to help me with his dysphoria. Do you have any advice?

Oof, dysphoria sucks. It’s nice of you for wanting to help him, though!

Here are some crystals that may be useful:

(Legal stuff: Don’t use crystals instead of seeing a doctor or getting proper care or help with something you’re going through. Kay? Cool.)

Amethyst: Protection, spirituality, peace, happiness

Aventurine: Mental strength, courage, independence, peace

Fluorite: Stability, balance, soothing, mental clarity, reduces fear

Labradorite: Connection to destiny, transformation, personal development

Moldavite: Helps along important changes in life, enhances other stones

Obsidian: Grounding, removes negativity, lessens depression

Rose Quartz: Self-love, inner warmth, calming, self-esteem, self-worth

Tourmalated Quartz: Helps with stress, anxiety, and depression

[orriculum]

Gender-Orientation Validation Spell 💜

a spell to help one feel valid in their identity concerning gender and orientation

💜 gather: orange peel, rose quartz, thyme, and thread

💜 make sure the thread represents the gender/orientation you’re validating

💜 you can use multiple threads and colors

💜 sprinkle thyme in the orange peel

💜 wrap the orange peel around the rose quartz

💜 bind with the threads. hold when you need that extra validation

[queerpagans]

Dispelling Dysphoria, by Cousinnick

Dispelling Dysphoria, one poppet at a time.

…

So, it was requested if we could find/make a spell to banish dysphoria. After fiddling around a bit I came up with one in the form of a Poppet ritual. So, here it goes.

Materials you will need:

–Material that is easy to mold/make and to destroy. Such as wax, cloth, bread, or paper. 

–Material that is less malleable and less likely to be destroyed. Such as clay. 

– Black Candle

– Red Candle

–Matches

– Bucket of water near by just in case

– Empty metal cooking pan lined with tin foil. 

– Tongs or hand protection, possibly even eye protection – safety first, lovelies. 

…

You will be making two poppets for this spell, one that is easy to disfigure, and another one that is not.

With the malleable material, let’s use wax as an example, you will make yourself a body. Accentuate any specific items of the body that you feel is the root of your dysphoria. Make it clear that this poppet is the less desirable form of yourself that you feel does not reflect your inside. Scratch your name upon the poppet.

Next, with the more sturdier material such as clay, mold yourself a body. Scratch your name onto this poppet. Make this poppet reveal how you yourself feel on the inside. Make it resemble what body you feel matches who you are. 

Light the Black Candle, Black being the color that banishes negativity, that sucks it dry and spews it out, that absorbs all your fears and sadness and leaves you feeling less burdened and happier. 

Take the poppet that shows what you do not want to identify as (with tongs or oven mittens if you feel safer), and hold it over the flame, making sure that the flame hit’s the accented points in the body that you feel is the root of the dysphoria. 

As the parts of the body melt or burn away, say this verse.

“I will no longer feel your pain. I will no longer feel your offending burden. You do not represent me, I identify with you no longer. I will always find inner strength, and I will fight for my appearance to not grab a hold of me. Dysphoria, I command you leave my mind, my thoughts, my life. Relinquish your hold on me, I have no use for you. Be gone!”

Take the melted and burned poppet and let it cool on in the pan to discard of later, perhaps by soaking it in holy water or salted water. 

Light the red candle, red being the passion of victory, of the hardships of a battle won with vigor and strength. 

Take the “indestructible” poppet of clay, and lay it over the flame. See how it does not succumb to the flames heat, see how, though it might mar slightly, it stays whole and preserved. It will not be disfigured, the flame hardens it and makes it stronger. 

Say this verse,

“This is who I am, who I see myself as. I will not be vanquished nor engulfed by the violent fear and hopelessness that dysphoria brings me. Though I feel the pricks of pain from struggle and perseverance, the flames of dysphoria will not engulf me and burn me whole. I will withstand your beating, and rise from the ashes a beloved body entirely mine.”

Keep the marred Doll as a symbol of your triumph, and when you have intense feelings again of dysphoria that might surface, take out the poppet and burn it, and see how it remains whole, Like I know you will, because you are strong, you are wonderful, and you are a fighter. 

— Nick

[aroacepagans]

My hot tip for today is that sometimes you can do silly, spiritual pagan things because they’re fun and they don’t have to be particularly logical or relevant in any way. You don’t have to believe in everything 100% to do and enjoy things. 

Every Samhain my mother leaves a plate of food outside. She says that the ancestors come in the form of raccoons to eat it. When I was little I of course wholeheartedly believe this. Now I think we probably just have a lot of raccoons in the neighboorhood, but that understanding doesn’t detract from the tradition. Suspending my disbelief for just one night to think that the animals I see wandering about are visiting spirits makes Samhain a hell of a lot more spooky and mystical then it would be otherwise. I wouldn’t want to do it any other way.

We don’t touch the garden between Samhain and Yule. The explanation given for this is that anything left outside during this time is food for the fairies and taking it angers them. As I’ve gotten older and learned more about gardening I’ve realized that this is probably an explanation for why we need to let the soil rest, and I certainly don’t think picking a plant in early December is going to cause me any harm, but don’t pick the plants anyways. Leaving the garden alone during the cold months makes tending to the plants that much more enjoyable and special during the hot months, and if my reasoning for why I can’t harvest that very last squash of the fall is fairies then that’s my own business.

Sometimes when I go down to the beach I find strange or out of place things. My explanation for these things is always selkies. In the back of my mind, I’m always aware that there’s probably a much more logical and reasonable explanation for whatever I’m seeing but those reasons usually aren’t quite as interesting, so I say that it’s selkies. And that’s fun. I feel like there’s some unspoken rule that after a certain age you’re not allowed to try and believe the things you’ve imagined, no matter how inconsequential and silly those things are and honestly, that’s boring, I’m not a fan.

The point here is that not all of the things we do in the name of our spirituality and faith need to be serious or even well thought out. Clearly, if you’re doing a ritual or a spell that’s one thing, but there are other fun little ways to make your spirituality more magical and wondrous that are less about what’s actually happening and more about the suspension of disbelief. And those things are wonderful and fun, and they add a little bit of joy to your life.

I meet a lot of witches and pagans who take themselves and their practice very seriously, and well that’s fine to a certain extent I think it can sometimes make your spiritual beliefs feel like a chore. Letting yourself have fun this way can be a really good way to prevent that.         

[eroscestlavie]

i dont have a post to make folks i’m just here to share this pic of thor looking gay and radiating positive energies

[witchyfervidus]

Trying something new: daily self-care drawings, for anyone who might need them.

Today’s card is Eight of Pentacles. Keep in mind as you work hard to get through each day that we are always apprentices in our own lives. While the daily toil can feel monotonous and our journey toward good health rather sisyphean, the truth is that we have as much accomplishment behind us as we do unfinished work ahead of us. Allow yourself to recognize the efforts you have made, and are still making, to be well. These efforts do pay off.

Deck is The Homestuck Tarot!