witchy sideblog

ivy ☆ she/they ☆ 23 ☆ getting back into practicing witchcraft ☆ main is @nyxivy

[mhara-starling]

Exploring the land of Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

You might have heard the legend behind how the red dragon became the emblem of Wales. It is a fantastical story…one of a King desperately trying to build a castle, of royal advisors intent on sacrificing a child. A story of the young Merlin showing up said advisors, and revealing to the King that the reason his castle continues to fall is because of the presence of two dragons battling beneath the earth.

One dragon was red. The other white. The red represented the native Britons, the ancestors of the Welsh. The white represented invaders, those who came to these shores with aims of conquering the people and the land.

Despite the Red dragon being smaller, and seemingly weaker…every time it seemed defeated, it rose again and continued to fight.

This was a prophecy. A symbol that though our people, our culture, our language would always be under attack…we will rise again. We will persevere.

These photos are from when friends and I journeyed to the very place this story takes place.

Dinas Emrys, located in Eryri, North Wales.

What a stunning place. A powerful place. We climbed up steep hills, enjoyed the waterfalls, we were enchanted by the mossy landscape, and captivated by the very song of the mountains.

What an amazing and magical day. How fortunate we are to have such enchantment right on our doorstep.

[manafractal-deactivated20250906]

I can be very secretive about the things I’m most passionate about, .. connections, beliefs, feelings .. I hold it close in my heart or even suspended from my heart, in the psychic realms .. because I want to protect .. I don’t want the outside world to taint it through their witnessing ..

[will-o-the-witch]

A lot of "daily witchcraft" stuff just boils down to practicing basic mindfulness and self-awareness. That's not a bad thing. Like mysticism aside, yeah your little daily witchcraft practices are certainly going to yield good results if it's making you reflect on your emotions, identify your goals, analyze what food and drink you're putting in your body, ground yourself, and act with intention on a daily basis if you weren't doing it before.

[teashoesandhair]

Oh how I yearn for a simpler time, when a young man would simply give his paramour an intricately crafted wooden spoon to show his affection and ability to provide for their future family, especially if they ever ran out of spoons

[teashoesandhair]

It has come to my attention that not everyone knows what lovespoons are.

This is a lovespoon. They’re found in several cultures worldwide, particularly in Scandinavia, but most famously in Wales (that photo is a Welsh lovespoon) and, from at least the 17th century, they were given as gifts by a suitor to his intended lady. They’re supposed to be carved from one block of wood, and decorated with various symbols which have slightly nuanced meanings, all basically a variation on ‘you’re rad, want to get wed?’

Because marriage in poor, rural parts of Wales was often more akin to cohabitation at the time (i.e. you didn’t really have a big ol’ legal ceremony, you just sort of said ‘we’re married now’ and shacked up together) a lovespoon could act as a wedding ring of sorts; you’d put your goshdarn heart and soul into carving it and you’d give it to the dame you sought, and if she accepted the spoon, then you were essentially wed, or at least bound together in a meaningful way. It’s assumed that they were initially supposed to be at least somewhat functional, because people did in fact eat with wooden spoons back in the day, but they’re now purely decorative. And hoo boy, can they be decorative. These are some of the ones on display at St Fagans Museum:

Nowadays, they’re generally mass produced, and tend to look more like this:

Brings a whole new meaning to the sheer romance of spooning, doesn’t it?

[teashoesandhair]

It has also come to my attention that people keep reblogging this with the assumption that these are all Scandinavian lovespoons. They are not; these are all Welsh. Wales is not in Scandinavia. These are not Viking crafts!! I mentioned Scandinavia in the above post as an aside, but the rest of the info in the post above is specific to Wales.

In the interests of not hogging all the spoonfuls of joy, here is a Norwegian wedding spoon:

It’s super goddamn cool and I love it, but it is quite different to the Welsh lovespoon tradition, and I think it does both cultures a disservice to conflate them. For one thing, Norwegian wedding spoons were generally given by the groom to the bride on their wedding day or during the wedding ritual, and you’ll notice that the symbolism on the spoons is very different. For another thing, they generally consist of two spoons linked by a carved wooden chain, rather than one spoon with a carved handle. I don’t actually know if the groom would carve these himself or if they would be commissioned and made by a craftsman; either way, it’s too cool for school.

Like the Welsh variant, they’re either carved out of one piece of wood or the spoons are made from a separate piece and the chain is made from another, which is a feat of woodworking that I cannot even fathom, because look how intricate that chain is! Hoo boy!

I had to look these up, because I am Welsh and not Norwegian, but it seems that they may have formed part of the wedding ceremony in which the bride and groom ate their first meal as a married couple, which is so rad that I cannot cope.

[babbyygirrrl]

i need to sit by the ocean & disconnect from the world for like 3 day

[theweightofdivinity]

Dreams are the doorway to the personal underworld — a terrain carved of our landscapes, haunted by our characters, and stitched together with the echoes of our memories.

[fuckyeahchinesegarden]

blue sky and white clouds in ili by 刘知著

[16tinyfrogs]

healing angel

pov you have a savior complex

the grammar on this one almost killed me and it's a complete nightmare but i'm tired of looking at it lol

[odetokeons]

𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔬 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔦

Hannibal, 1x09 "Trou Normand" | Monolith by Gustav Vigeland | 28 Years Later (2025) dir. Danny Boyle

[midnightmurdershow]

Planet Earth II (2016) Episode 05 “Grasslands” Directed by Chadden Hunter

[1ightly]

wish i didn’t have neighbors so I could lay outside on the grass with my titties out like god intended

[reginageourge]

she's a hero. she should dump her west brit "friends" and become friends with me instead

[kutyozh]

[ID: a screenshot of a reddit post on r/AmItheAsshole by Background_Waltz_661 reading:

AITA for only speaking to people in Irish (gaelic)

I 19f speak Irish really well, I actually spoke it better than some of my teachers in school. The issue is I only spoke it with my grandparents and some people I know in the Gaeltachts. I never practice, and as irishmen its our duty to reclaim our heritage and speak our language. I decided from now on, I'll start every conversation with anyone I don't know in Irish. The issue is everyone assumes the other person doesn't know Irish and speaks English, or simply English will be easier. IF we never talk to strangers in Irish it'll continue to be a second language.

Whenever I go to the store or anywhere I start every conversation in Irish and sometimes people will speak back in Irish other times they just say in in English "I don't speak Irish well". My friends say this makes me really annoying when im with them and that I need to stop. They got pissed since i ordered my food at a restaurant in Irish when they talked to the same waiter in English.

My friends are annoyed sicne i speak to them in Irish when they don't speak it as well, I told them they have a duty to improve it. What do you guys think? /end ID]

[the-haiku-bot]

AITA for

only speaking to people

in Irish (gaelic)

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[imgoingforawalk-deactivated2025]

"I woke up. The moon is full, so I send my wishes to the universe", 2021

Sung Hwa Kim

[dogray]

northern hemisphere babes we made it to the longest night of the year. we made it. for the next 6 months, every day will give us a little more daylight than the last. let's go. take my hand. climb out of the darkness with me

[inthefallofasparrow]

southern hemisphere babes, they're stealing our fucking daylight!

[antiquedeuce]

My sweet memories 🍀

[zisurru]

“we need more weird art!” but not anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or alienated or challenged. “weird art” but i don’t want to consider the perspective of anyone i might have real irrevocable differences from. “weird art” but everything must be carefully couched in the language of white middle-class american sensibilities at all times. “weird art” but it has to be picked from a list of pre-established “weird” tropes that i recognize from carefully curated lists on letterboxd.

[mxmorbidmidnight]

Nazis will never be welcome in paganism. They have no space in our communities, we will have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to nazis. You have no right to the cultures, gods and religions you hijack to spread your disgusting ideologies. You will find no refuge or comraderie amongst pagans.

Reblog to let nazis know they’re not welcome here.

[nepzero]

nazis, transphobes, homophobes, bigots of any kind are never welcomed here.