help!

sooooooooooooooooo

A project I wanted to do for this year is to make a mini book of cycles. Like I love following the seasons and the wheel of the year but we as a community need to realize the wheel really makes sense in like.. the UK.. and dassit lol. Also it has deep celtic roots that can somewhat be celebrated secularly but its kind of half assing the tradition but anyway I wanted to make this collection focus on the many terrains of the US (maybe all of north America but I like to focus on here first), make it focus on bioregional animism and maybe even leave room in case someone would like to overlap their religion onto it, though it will mostly be secular and focusing on the earth. I am going to pour into research of almanacs, local animals, plants and foods, and seasonal harvests and I am mostly at this point looking for witches to make a database so I can start out with a network!

So I will deeply deeply appreciate if you are a:

and like mention in the tags or reblog with what you are! Thanks so much!

reblogging since I’ve updated some categories!

Santa Ana Winds Magical Uses

For any magic practitioners living in Southern California, you’re probably familiar with the Santa Ana Winds. If not, here’s some information.

- strong north-easterly winds that blow strongest in the canyons up to 60+ mph gusts, can cause accidents on freeways in canyons

- can whip tons of dust into the sky, obscuring visibility

- blow away humidity coming in from the coast and make for very dry and hot conditions, prime for wildfires

- sometimes called “devil’s breath” or “devil’s wind” because of the wildfires it starts and the fact that the wind is rumored to cause people to fell ill-tempered, cause crime rates to increase, and suicide rates to increase as well

So, for practitioners of wind and weather magic living in SoCal, these are prime cursing winds. I don’t have any curses in particular written since I’ve had no reason to use one, but if I were going to cast one with wind magic, I’d take advantage of the capabilities of this wind.

I can also see some less malevolent uses for these winds, such as obscuring yourself when you want to go unnoticed. Or it could perhaps be used to raise aggression if you’re not feeling it right before something where you’ll need a bit of bite to do well. (Although I’d caution against being too general with the winds or doing this during the high point of them because you might overshoot and cause some reprehensible effects.)

Off topic but sorta related. Didnt know they were called devil’s wind. I know a goetic demon named aim. Ars Goetia claims that he loves to set cities on fire. It told me that its the exiled angel of wild fires. I was so fucking pissed off at it last week since my trip home from lake tahoe took fucking long since i had the fastest route home ended up in a forest fire. He has a strong presence in california for various reasons. Thanks for posting this, i can definitely see the santa ana winds being connected to aim.

Ah!!! That makes a ton of sense! I’m not familiar with working with demons, but I can definitely see during the Santa Anas as a prime time to contact this demon!

Similarly, I could see it being a good time for contacting fire jotun if one is interested in working with them.

Really enjoyed reading this :) Intense heat does wonders for my chronic pain, so 95-105 degree weather rejuvenates me.  

Thank you!

And I definitely agree there! Just standing outside and stretching with the sore areas facing the sun on a moderately hot day is helpful. Or having a moment to lay down on the warm sand…  It’s definitely a godsend for pain.

Question on this topic; How do you feel about the forest? Like, in the same line of thinking that you look at the desert?

I can’t remember if I shared this or queued it, but doing so again just to be on the safe side. Being a desert dweller, sometimes I feel completely cut off from fertile things, from nature, but I need reminders that it’s not the case.

The desert is fertile. It’s just patient, waiting for the right moment. Many plants grow so slowly. A tiny yucca can be decades old because it relies solely on meager rainwater. Seeds wait years to germinate.

But it’s also vicious. Most plants coat themselves in thorns and spines, protecting them from hungry thieves. The rune of thurisaz reigns supreme here. Creosote poisons the ground around it in order to ensure it’s the only organism able to grow in the area. The animals in turn must evolve to nest in cactus needles. Birds precariously balance tiny nests within the deadly embrace of cactus arms. 

Almost no animals brave the heat of day. Only the desperate face the full savagery of the daytime sun. Rabbits rise with the sun and moon, hiding in the shadows of dawn and dusk. Coyotes cloak themselves in night and prowl the streets. The insects and reptiles are largely venomous. Small size means one needs either armor or poison to defend oneself. 

The desert is full of life. Patient, stubborn, and clever life.

I made this Desert Wheel in honor of @witchery-ditchery-doc and @bitchybrujo to hopefully inspire an alternative way to get in touch with the seasons. What I love about the wheel of the year and nature/seasonal based practices is how adaptable they are and personally how they make me feel connected to the local nature around me. Once you are familiar with your environment and you understand the cycles of life, death, sowing, growing, harvesting and resting in your seasonal changes then basically you can create your own practices.

I’ve never leaved in the South West US desert so I might be very off with my suggestions, so just a disclaimer. I researched a lot on it, specifically on the Sonoran seasons and found this wonderful blog post about a witch that lives there and their struggles with the ‘traditional’ Celtic wheel of the year.  I would hope to maybe do a collaboration with you guys to make a new wheel if you are interested! 

Here’s some suggestions I have:

Keep reading

I'd like to add to this

I think maybe different regions should maybe come up with different names for their sabbats because though their practices can be similar, it will not be exactly the same. It's like how Beltane also has May Day, Walpurgisnacht and Samhain there is La Dias de los Muertos but they are not all the same thing and all come from different cultures.. Just saying how there are different seasons in different places, the wheel of the year can be reconstructed and celebrated in many ways and in place of traditional celebrations hailing from western Europe there should be celebrations that mirror that to fit other places on the same solstice/equinox/crossquarter but maybe under a different name since even the etymology of the sabbats have something to do with their practices. (Just a suggestion). Anyway I did refer to all of these by their seasonal equinox, solstices and crossquarters to make it more applicable. 

Also I realized the wheel here in the Sonoran Desert feels reversed seasonally as opposed to the northern temperate coastal weather. Summer is incredibly hot and so unbearable the land feels unable to bear life, much like midwinter in a temperate zone is unable to bear life, though the reason for our winter is that it's too unbearably cold. Also where as the Sonoran Desert autumn begins to grow life, the temperate zone’s autumn begins to die, and the Desert’s spring is a great time for harvesting where the Temperate spring is a great time to sow seeds. And winter is still cold there but it's chilly and allows for life to grow a little and be nurtured in the cool dark resting phase before returning to the hotter weather. It doesn't mean practicing pagans in the desert should flip their sabbats like the southern hemisphere does, especially because their sunlight patterns are that of the northern hemisphere, but take into account what happens locally and how they should apply it to their celebrations. Some sabbat practices I noticed when I was first suggesting them were completely flipped such as Imbolc and Lammas, where as Imbolc is a time of cleansing and preparing for spring, and Lammas is a time to reap what you sow, in the Sonoran desert, Feb 1st is a time for reaping what was sown in autumn and August 1st is around the time the summer thunderstorms come to cleanse in preparation for the sowing season. I do think however the rest of the sabbats could be celebrated similarly to how it's celebrated in a temperate four seasonal climate but the 'reverseness' of the seasons to the temperate seasons should be acknowledged as well.

However some practices I want to add to my original suggestions are:

Summer CrossQuarter:

As the rains return to nurture the earth, celebrate this sabbat by nurturing yourself. Take a cooling shower, collect rain water for spells, honor this day as a point of rebirth for the showers bring on enough sustenance after the overbearing dry heat to allow life to grow again. (I'm unsure if rainsticks is exclusive to one culture, but if not) celebrate musically with rainsticks and drums for thunder. Clean the house, wash the floors, make some floating storm clouds for decoration if you are feeling crafty. Enchant a bowl of water with wishes and good intentions for how you would like yourself to grow and progress and cast the spell by drinking it and feeling it fill and cool your body. 

Samhain/Nov 1st:

Like how the author in the witchvox article that I have linked has said: 'One day I was planning my Samhain ritual and was thinking deeply about harvest. I was clearing out the straggling weeds from my garden getting ready to plant my Winter crops. Although I was getting ready to plant, I was still trying to ‘make it fit’ the classic harvest-festival mold by trying to generate some pseudo-harvest activity in my life to celebrate according to the Eurocentric calendar.'

I realized how another holiday local to the desert area though further south, in Mexico, La Dias de los Muertos is also about honoring the dead and ancestors but plants such as freshly grown flowers are used as decoration in this holiday. From what I've researched in this area of the desert, things begin to grow so their Autumn cross quarter is a lot like our Spring cross quarter. When celebrating Samhain in the sonoran desert one could honor their dead by planting new seeds and decorating their altar, home, and shrines dedicated to their past loved ones with seasonal blooms and flowers to represent life after death and also how the decay of the physical form returns to the earth and becomes flowers/ takes on new life. Also you could decorate with butterflies such as The Painted Lady which could be seen in this time of year. I noticed with images from La Dias de los Muertos they decorate with seasonal flowers that are in season during my local (temperate northeast) mid spring (Beltane) celebration such as Roses and Peonies (which just goes back to my theory/feeling that seasonally everything in this area of the desert feels reversed from my local temperate area). Also it is custom in many cultures with holidays that honor their dead loved ones to visit the cemetery and leave offerings so it would be a nice practice to leave seasonal blooms on your loved ones graves.

Winter Solstice:

Just adding to the growth and growing crystals part. I originally said how growing crystals for this day could be super festive. Crystals are formed when minerals in a solution in high heat begin to cool slowly. One thing I noticed about this desert area is that a lot of things are able to grow in the winter since the earth has cooled down from the unbearable heat. Growing crystals can represent the growth of nature and of course food that happens in winter. It can even represent the growth of the self much like in a way if we have a lot going on and overwork (overheat) ourselves and the moment we get to cool down and take a break we can self reflect and understand how to grow and progress from there. Also crystals sometimes can look cool and icy and I know it does not snow so much over there but it can give a christmas-like feel without representing iciness/frost that might not always be native to this area, but instead something that can apply more to the local nature in a metaphorical way. 

Winter CrossQuarter:

Just adding that desert mistletoe is blooming and it smells sweet and is the welcomer of spring in the desert. It would be great to decorate the altar and home with. It also attracts bees and when the berries form, it brings the birds. Imbolc is a sabbat that honors the budding of the earth so this can apply here where the budding of mistletoe attracts spring-like creatures.

Spring CrossQuarter/Beltane:

This sabbat marks the end of Spring and looks towards the midsummer drought. It's much like how samhain in a temperate climate is a season where plants begin to change color and die and everything is dying and becoming colder yet here everything is getting hotter and dryer. Beltane is also a fire festival so here fire can be applied that the sun is heating up the earth. Light a bonfire, if you like flamethrowing or know people who can do it, fire dancing is cool. Decorate or wear faded colors. This can represent the ghostly spirits that will be closer to our world now the veil is thin or the intensity of the sun due to the foresummer drought bleaching and drying the earth.

I found this Almanac that’s organized by the seasonal moons of the Tohono O’odham months, it's old but informational.

I made this Desert Wheel in honor of @witchery-ditchery-doc and @bitchybrujo to hopefully inspire an alternative way to get in touch with the seasons. What I love about the wheel of the year and nature/seasonal based practices is how adaptable they are and personally how they make me feel connected to the local nature around me. Once you are familiar with your environment and you understand the cycles of life, death, sowing, growing, harvesting and resting in your seasonal changes then basically you can create your own practices.

I’ve never leaved in the South West US desert so I might be very off with my suggestions, so just a disclaimer. I researched a lot on it, specifically on the Sonoran seasons and found this wonderful blog post about a witch that lives there and their struggles with the ‘traditional’ Celtic wheel of the year.  I would hope to maybe do a collaboration with you guys to make a new wheel if you are interested! 

Here’s some suggestions I have:

Keep reading

Ok just to add after talking with both people: The summer monsoons that happen from July to August only occurs in the Sonoran Desert, AZ area. In southern California they do not see rain until early Winter which is from November to December. 

Hopefully they will add more to this lol