Gettin Crafty @witchyvibes - Tumblr Blog

i do think there’s something uniquely twisted about buying a crystal for the purposes of like, ~connecting to the earth~ or ~spreading good vibes~, without considering the environmental damage and human rights abuses potentially involved in mining it.

bewitched-moonlight

📚 Witch Study Tips 📚

🌪️ Start your study session by opening your windows wide open and getting fresh air on your face to clear out negative or distracting thoughts.

🔮 State a clear intention for the session, for instance “I have no doubts in my ability to succeed in my studies and to understand everything clearly”.

🕯️ Light a purple candle, which is associated with power, ambition, and focus, to get inspiration and energy from the flames.

💎 Set clear quartz crystal around your study space to bring clarity of mind and a deep focus state.

🍵 Drink matcha, peppermint, or green tea to increase focus and concentration while studying.

🎧 Listen to lo-fi playlists with spooky themes, such as this one (for witches) or that one (for ghosts).

✏️ Draw a productivity sigil on your notebook or add it digitally to your notes on your computer, if you don’t use actual paper. I like using this one.

🧘 Meditate at the end of your study session to absorb the knowledge and calm your thoughts before moving on to another topic.

🛌 Take breaks! Don’t forget to step out of your study space, stretch your muscles, take a walk outside, make a nap.

pinkieroy

Over the Garden Wall

Episode One: “The Old Grist Mill”

mentalhealth

@sa.liine

artenderfoot

Spirits of mushrooms😌✨

a-path-by-the-moon

tarotforintroverts-deactivated2

This is so fucking important!!

angelnumber27

Coprinellus disseminatus (Fairy ink cap)

Captured by the incredible Steve Axford

therestlesswitch

✨🌱Stinging Nettle🌱✨

✨Botanical Latin: Urtica dioica

✨Habitat: Waste spaces, moist soil

✨Growth Habit: Perennial, 6’+ tall at maturity. Flowers in mid-late summer

✨Parts Used: Leaves and tops most often. Roots and seeds can be used as well.

✨Harvesting: Always wear thick gloves and cover your skin! Young leaves and tops - harvest before the plant flowers. See ‘cautions’ below. Roots - in the fall, after most of the energy has returned to the root from the plant. This plant is abundant, but as it’s a perennial, remember to leave at least 75% of the plants to repopulate the area.

✨Energetics and Taste: Cool, dry, salty

Physical and Medicinal

✨Biochemical Constituents: chlorophyll, insoles (histamine, serotonin,) acetylcholine, silicic acid, vitamins C, B and A, silicon, calcium, magnesium, potassium, protein, fiber, iron.

✨Actions:

All parts - Alterative, whole body and liver tonic, (fresh leaves) anti-histamine, slightly diuretic, astringent, hemostatic, galactogogue, expectorant, nutrative.

Root - Anti-lithic, diuretic

✨Indications:

Leaves & Tops - arthritis, rheumatism, asthma, eczema, other skin eruptions, bleeding, low energy, stopped urine, urinary gravel, kidney and bladder infections, edema, enlarged prostate, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)

Freeze dried leaves: sinus infection. Proven effective, but must be freeze dried.

Seed: prostate and kidney disorders

Root: Prostate issues, urinary tract gravel/stones, stopped urination

✨Contraindications: Use in more restricted amounts when pregnant or breastfeeding, but it doesn’t have to be avoided all together. Don’t use with children under 2 years old. Use caution with children and the elderly. *

✨Medicinal Uses:

- One of the most popular herbs for nourishing herbal infusions. Rotate between nettles, oat straw, and linden for a good variety of nutrients.

- Good for the voice (folk-medicine, song of the sea)

- Relieve the sting by rubbing the juice of dock (rumex crispus) leaves on the sting. See folk traditions below.

- To aid in circulation and inflammation/joint issues like arthritis, sting the area (lightly) occasionally with nettles and let it sting, without using dock to relieve it.

- It’s popular in soups and as a potherb/cooked green. Once it’s cooked or dried, it loses its sting. I like to use it in any dish that I’d use spinach in.

- It has been used to slow postpartum bleeding.

✨Preparations and Dosage:

- Nourishing Herbal Infusion - One quart boiled water to one ounce of dried leaves/tops (or a little more by weight if using fresh leaves.) Steep in a mason jar with the lid on for at least 20 minutes, up to overnight. Strain and enjoy within 3-4 days of making it. Drink up to 1 quart/day but rotate between a few different herbs to get a variety of nutrients.

- Dry plant material by weight - 9-30g

- Capsules - 2 “00” size filled with powdered herb, 3 times a day

- Tincture - 10-60 drops, 1-4 times a day

✨Cautions: Do not ingest the leaves or tops after the plant has flowered or else risk causing a UTI.

Magical and Traditional

✨Elements: Primary - 🔥Fire – Secondary - 🌱Earth

✨Planet: Mars, secondary Mercury

✨Other Correspondences:

-All Parts: protections, warding, voice, communication, bind a spell, bring courage, prevent being struck by lightning, notice the things that often go unseen, mindfulness.

-Roots: banishing, curse breaking, relieving pain

-The leaves and tops after the plant has flowered: causing pain, sending a curse back, banishing, make someone’s oversight/willful ignorance come back to bite them

✨Folk Traditions:

- To soothe the sting, find some dock which usually grows nearby (rumex crispus,) grab a handful and squeeze some juice out. As you rub the juice onto the nettle sting, recite:

Nettle out, Dock in // Dock remove the nettle sting Nettle, nettle, come out // Dock, go in!

✨Specific Uses:

- The infusion is grounding and very earth centred. I feel like It may be connected to my Mother Goddess of the lake lands in Ontario.

- Use fresh tops (either before or after flowering depending on your need) to sprinkle cleansing or banishing or curse breaking (etc) water or to waft smoke. Make sure to wear gloves, of course.

- Use the dried or cooked leaves/tops to ’take the sting’ out of something or someone.

*This page is by no means exhaustive or conclusive in any information, and is intended for educational purposes only. Always consult and herbalist and/or your healthcare professional before trying /any/ herb that is new to you.

✨✨✨These herbal monographs take hours of research and quite a few dollars worth of books and resources. Please help support me by contributing to any of these avenues: 🌱Patreon 🌱Request a Tarot Reading 🌱Buy me a coffee 🌱Donate to my education

More Posts in this Herbal Study Series: Calendula Marshmallow Cannabis Yarrow

References:

Healing with the Herbs of Life - Lesley Tierra Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health -Rosemary Gladstar Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs, of Eastern and Central North America, Third Edition - Steven Foster and James A. Duke Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, expanded and revised edition - Scott Cunningham The Witches’ Almanac 2018, Issue 37, The Magic of Plants - Article by Morven Westfield Planting for the Future - Rosemary Gladstar and Pamela Hirsch The Illustrated Herbiary - Maia Toll The Healing Herbs, The Ultimate Guide to the Curative Powers of Nature’s Medicines - Michael Castleman Alchemy of Herbs - Rosalee de la Forêt The Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook, A Home Manual - James Green

Images 1, 2, 3, 4

sweetd3lights

cottagelf

Growing mushrooms on a book about mushrooms!!

uraniaswrld

lesser-known hellenic deities that deserve more love

i might do a more in-depth analysis of some of these deities’ lores later but for now here’s a short lil list. these are all deities i’ve either worked with or would like to work with in the future, so if you notice i’m omitting some that’s probably why (or i just forgot lol).

1. Bia - goddess of force and power

2. Morpheus - god of dreams

3. Nyx - goddess of the night and darkness

4. Aether - god of the upper sky

5. Phoebe - goddess of radiance and brightness

6. Hypnos - god of sleep

7. Psyche - goddess of the soul

8. Tyche - goddess of fortune (more famous by her Roman name, Fortuna)

9. Anagke - goddess of destiny

10. Echidna - goddess of monsters

11. Kronos - god of time and (sometimes) chaos (not necessarily lesser-known, i just don’t know anyone who’s worked with him)

12. Peitho - goddess of seduction and persuasion

13. Dike - goddess of justice

14. Sphrosyne - goddess of self-control

15. Terpsichore - goddess of singing and dancing

thiscrookedcrown

Protection Wreaths (Spell Saturday #2)

Happy Spell Saturday!

Wreaths are fussy things aren’t they? I use to dislike them. They felt old, fussy, and traditional. I didn’t understand the point of them so I never had them around. Until I fell in love with a black feather wreath. The feathers were small, but soft, shiny, and elegant. I adored it and brought it home and hung it on my door immediately.

Since then I’ve changed my mind. I still don’t tend to like many wreaths but I do find some beautiful and I even have one hanging on my wall right now made from vines from my garden and a twine.

Purpose: To create a magic wreath to protect the home.

Ingredients:

Base wreath form and any covering for the wreath form if necessary

Any protective plants such as the following: Peony, cinquefoil (five finger grass), fennel, garlic flowers, geranium, mugwort, parsley, hydrangea, roses, sunflowers, yarrow, rosemary, juniper, dill, bay laurel, angelica, Saint John’s wort, caraway, cumin, rowan, elder, ash, oak, purslane, rue

Iron nails, crystals, holey stones, bone and wood beads, feathers, fabric, and shells

Twine, ribbon, or wire

1. Select your wreath form and add any covering to it by wrapping or tying your covering around it.

2. Carefully arrange your base material in an aesthetically pleasing way. Depending on your design, your base material might be feathers, plants, wood, or whatever else. You should also consider adding other ingredients such as shells, iron nails, crystals, beads, stones and crystals, fabric, or whatever else to add to your design. As you tie, twist, or wrap the ingredients to your wreath, say the following:

With each element I add

I protect my home, my business, my loved ones, and my life

With each element I add

Protection from all who would wish harm to me

Be warned those who would do harm

You are not welcome here - be gone

I am protected so be gone

3. Once done, bless your wreath and dab it with holy or blessed water or protective oils/waters and hang it on your front door or walls.

Notes:

This is an art project so mix and match your ingredients to match your aesthetic, desire, and available ingredients.

Base form can be vines, a store-bought foam, cardboard, wicker, metal wreath form frame or even twist the plants into crown form. You can even use a thin pool noodle if you want! Rowan, elder, ash, and oak branches could make excellent forms. I like to use local vines from my garden to form my wreath frame.

Select any plants that you think of as protective. There are thousands upon thousands of plants that serve as protective guardians. Pick whatever works for you.

I like to use white cotton twine, leather straps, or red thread for my wreaths. Use whatever works best for you. Florist wire is certainly worth consideration if you’re working with especially large or tough materials.

Original post here. Happy casting!

magicianmew

An oldie, but a goodie: the Rowan cross

Today on my romps around London, I found a twig from a Rowan tree. A tree of so much magical potential that one of its many nicknames is, in fact, the Witch Tree.

How could I NOT do a spell with it?

So today, I did a little home warding charm called a Rowan cross, for warding the home from negative energy and ne’er-do-wells. This particular charm goes back a long way here in Britain – a few hundred years, at the best guess. I reckon you could also carry this with you while traveling, both to protect your things and to keep from getting lost – another use of the good ole’ Rowan tree.

Here she is, with instructions to follow:

For this, you need only two things

A twig at least 6 inches long, or 2 twigs of 3 inches or more, either from a Rowan tree or any other tree you associate with protection and the home.

Red thread, string, or yarn

(optional) Glue

You can do any sort of mood-setting ritual you like. Personally, I simply lit a while candle.

If you have one 6+ inch twig, cut it in half. Once you’ve got two little twigs to work with, decide whether you’d like to glue them in the middle to make a cross to help you get started. Personally, I didn’t bother. They stayed fine after my first couple rounds with the yarn.

Tie them together in the middle loosely with your yarn. Now, we wind the yarn!

So as not to make this stupidly linguistically awkward, I found a nice little diagram on how to do this if you’re unfamiliar with this pattern. Basically, you go over to the right side of the twig, under to the left side.

You can cover as much or as little of the twigs as you like. Personally, I just went until I felt it was done.

I tied the yarn around one of the rungs and passed it over the flame, asking it to protect my home.

Then you can hang it in front of a window, a door, whatever entrance you’d like to protect.

Ta-da! Thanks, Rowan tree.

a-pagan-path

now that i’ve begun working more with energy, i wanted to share my methods of casting circles! when i first started working with energy, it was really hard to find references for casting circles, especially ones not dealing with the traditional Wiccan god/goddess. here are some methods and uses of casting circles!

Why Cast a Circle?

the primary reason i cast circles is to protect me from outside energy influences. most people associate circles to protection from ‘malevolent’ spirits, however, it’s just a great barrier in general!

here are some following scenarios i cast circles:

divination- to protect me from energies that might influence my cards or my interpretation o the cards

spellwork- pretty self-explanatory. i cast circles to protect from energies i don’t want in my spells, or from potential spirit attraction.

meditation- again, for energy use and to also not be disturbed from anything spiritual.

Methods of Casting

1 - Invoking Elements

a very basic way, if not the go-to way, of casting is to place each of the four elements at each of the cardinal directions. Earth at the north, Air in the east, Fire at the south, and Water in the west.

fire

Candles (color them for intent if used in a spell! alternatively, electric tea lights work fine.)

here is a post about color associations for candles!

Anything symbolic of fire colors (red or warm-colored cloth, figures/statues,etc.)

water

moon/sun water (in a jar works really well, or in an open container if being used for blessing anything)

blessed water, or water related to whatever you’re working with (storm water, diluted essential oils, etc).

here is a good source of different kinds of water and how to cleanse them!

blue or purple colored items

earth

stones or crystals (this is what i love to use! just be wary that some stones are aligned with other elements. clear quartz is a go-to.)

salt

dirt (from your backyard or specific, such as hospital or graveyard. make sure to cleanse it.)

herbs (especially roots)

brown or black colored items

air

incense (different scents have uses as well!)

here is a post with scent correspondences!

steam

yellow or white colored items

alternatively, any of these could be replaced with a tarot card of the corresponding suit! (wands for fire, cups for water, pentacles for earth, and swords for air).

to close the circle, walk clockwise starting in the east (air) and complete a full walk around the circle. do this as many times as you feel needed to envision a complete circle! after your use for it is done, unwind it by walking the same number of times counter-clockwise.

note: if you live in the southern hemisphere, you may want to reverse fire and earth in your directions and walk counter-clockwise to close the circle, and clockwise to end it.

2 - Envisioning

this is a very, very simple way to cast a circle! if you have very little time, simply imagine a ring of light around your workspace. you could align color to purpose as well.

the only downsides to this method include the fact that it may not be as strong as a physical circle for beginners especially, as i have learned many times over as i find energy that i don’t want in the circle. on top of this, to make it very successful, you may have to keep this image in your head throughout your spell or energy work, which may distract or hurt your concentration.

however, like i said before, it’s very easy, discreet, and requires no clean up! with practice, it could be very easy to maintain.

3 - Salt Circle

by simply spreading salt in a circle clockwise (or counter-clockwise depending on your location), you can create a strong barrier. as you walk around, envision your purpose of protection and safety.

if you are working outside, do not use salt. it will kill plant life! instead, consider alternatives such as: egg shells, diluted salt water, crushed herbs, flower petals, etc.

if working inside, consider setting out foil, cloth, or a tarp for easy cleanup.

4 - Cleansing the Room Itself

if you find that you for some reason cannot cast a circle, or maybe are just starting out, consider cleansing the entire room instead!

some methods include:

smoke cleansing (NOT smudging. please do not call this action smudging unless it is part of YOUR culture.)

salt or protective mixture

dance/song

salt/water spray

incense and candles

for smoke cleansing, light your bundle and start facing eastward, spreading the smoke and asking for protection from either the corresponding element or any deities/spirits/etc. you worship. move clockwise or counterclockwise.

for salt or protection mixtures, simply place a small pile in each corner of the room or at the cardinal directions.

dance and song can celanse the room when accompanied with smoke especially.

the salt water spray can be used similar to the protection mixture – spray a little in each corner or at the cardinal directions.

incense and candles can be placed in corners, the directions, or just throughout the room to act as protective energy.

Final Notes

make sure to remove your circle after you’re done!! leaving it up isn’t safe and could be draining on your energy or health.

try not to leave the circle in the middle of your work, if it can be avoided. ive had to do it before and nothing bad happened, but sometimes it ocould break the circle, or bring unwanted energy or precense in.

do your absolute best to have all your materials in the circle before you cast it. bringing items that were not in the circle before could carry energy that you just do not want in your circle. i’ve messed up plenty spells because of it already. if it is really necessary, cleanse the item as thoroughly as you can (quickly if you need to), and enter the circle from the east.

if these methods don’t work right away, don’t worry! these take lots of practice. some easy ways to try casting daily include:

cast a circle before you meditate

cleanse your room before you do homework for a safe space to work

if you have a form of divination, cast a circle before drawing a daily reading (i do this in the morning to see how the day will go or seek advice for the day!).

good luck!