you know what really gets my goat?

el chupacabra

I’m sorry!? What?!

Whoa, chupacabra’s a millennial?

Don't let modernity take the magic out of your life. Allow yourself to see the world as a beautiful place, a place you belong in, one that you were made for.

witches who support modern medicine & scientific evidence 2024 ✨️🩺💉

witches who crochet: what is the most magical stitch to you? for me it's treble or half-double. the number three just works for magical uses for me personally.

what a great question. I hadn't thought about it. but I bet there could be some potential in the marguerite stitch. Six loops drawn into one. You could do the draw-together as the 7th action, I associate 7s with fate.

And, the 6 loops in each stitch could be six roads (n/s/e/w and above/below) so it could be used to draw in/gather up power or establish connection.

Wild because to me it’s just chaining or slips.

My magic is very no frills and I don’t have any strong number associations

Also, I love this convo.

The Chariot. Art by Adam Schmidt, from 78 Tarot Nautical: The New Wave.

@cloudselkie

OH NO THEY DID A SECOND DECK???

Honestly this is the best thing I've ever heard

For some reason a lot of people suddenly started asking about Well Men, so I made one of my messy info pictures for them.

This is literally all the info there is on Well Men as far as I know. Not a lot, but it gives you a lot of room for story ideas.

hey let's start spreading the reminder now that you cannot safely self-manage an abortion with herbal medicine or essential oils. natural abortifacients function by poisoning you; you wait for your body to realize you're dying and reject the pregnancy in order to conserve resources, and hope that happens before the rest of your organs shut down.

i think there will be an upsurge soon of unscrupulous and/or malicious actors preying on desperate pregnant people; do not help them kill people. don't spread recipes for herbal medicines or ingestible essential oil mixtures that purport to cause a pregnancy termination.

Witchy Self Care & Mindfulness🌻🌿

I don't know who (if anyone) needs to hear this, but witchcraft isn't sacred to every practitioner. It's not always filling some spiritual void they had, or becoming a huge part of their life and identity. It's not a religious experience for a lot of witches. Not everyone takes it super seriously at all times.

It can be a hobby. It can be a casual thing. It can be something fun they do every now and then.

Just because it's a certain thing for you, don't expect everyone else to feel exactly the same way.

TWO REBLOGS because I have something to say.

I don't have the spare brain folds to go into the depth I want to, but...

WITCHCRAFT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A LIFESTYLE

Witchcraft doesn't have to be super intense or deep or soooo serious all of the time.

It doesn't even need to be something you do all of the time.

People are out here like... how do I maintain structured practice? How do I find the energy to cast spells on a regular basis? What skills do I need to learn next?

What if... witchcraft wasn't a job.

What if we didn't need to train for it like boot camp.

What if witchcraft is an ornament in our hair, a lovely little gem we wear when we are desirous to do so.

What if you learn magic tricks to make your life easier, and various spiritual skills as part of self care, and that's all you need? What if you don't need to train like you're trying to get on an Olympics team? What if it's any other hobby you pick up and set aside when it pleases you to do so?

I am a person who needs witchcraft in order to fill a spiritual void. It's an extremely huge part of my life and identity.

And not even I take it seriously all the time. Exhibit A, my public persona is a chicken with sunglasses called Fool.

I know there is a culture out here where witchcraft is treated as an identity, as a responsibility, as something you must train in and work for.

Yes, I enjoy producing content for the people who want to get elbow-deep in this big ol mess we call The Craft. But I worry that people find blogs like mine and think all that shit is necessary.

It ain't necessary and there are probably a lot of people out there who could be having a beautiful time but chose to stop at square one and pick up fifty pounds of Witchblr baggage instead.

Do real polytheists say stuff like "oh my gods" or is that just a thing culturally christian writers made up by pluralizing their own phrase?

I say 'oh my gods' or 'for the love of the gods', 'gods damn it' etc.

Most often when I'm texting or something because I have more time to make the mental shift (because I'm in a Christian culture so it does require a conscious linguistic shift on my part) but it is beginning to leak into my verbal vernacular without me having to think about it.

It feels disrespectful to me to not envoke my own gods when exclaiming, which is why I originally started making the shift in my speech. I honestly could care less what the Christian god thinks or wish him to damn anything 🤷🏼‍♀️ but if you're someone who doesn't really think about things like that as a phrase and just uses them as a verbal exclamation (basically having the same verbal use as 'fuck' as opposed to what the words actually "mean") then I can absolutely understand why it seems silly to shift it.

I say it. It's something I've heard people say in the various pagan circles I've been in. It's not common, but it's not uncommon.

It sounds tacky until you ask yourself why it sounds tacky, and suddenly find yourself coming up with the narrative of "polytheism is childish compared to monotheism."

And then you gotta ask yourself who that narrative benefits.

That being said, I have yet to find a good replacement for the clamoring sound you get when shouting "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!"

I use "Thor's flaming balls!" It works quite well.

Witch tip: Be sure to distinguish which correspondences are social constructs (for example, associating roses with romance), and which are informed by nature (for example, associating the color red with life, because blood).

This isn't to say that social construct correspondences are bad or lesser - they aren't! But distinguishing between the two helps you develop a better sense of what you can play around with, and how.

Hot take of the day: there's no way to determine if you were "born a witch", regardless of your family history.

There isn't a witch gene. Witch isn't in the DNA. Beware of the ones out there who are trying to sell "hereditary witch" or "natural born witch" spiritual eugenics.

How a Birdbath Changed my Witchcraft

This is a personal story that I wanted to share in hopes that it could help other new witches. It's a long one, so buckle up.

I just saw a DNI for "evil intentions". nobody puts up a warding talisman anymore just a fucking DNI

Tbh, making a sigil to ward my blog sounds cool but I'd so make a sigil to redirect your negative energy to this super cool cursing rock right here

I once saw a blog that where the user had posted the evil eye emoji a bunch. (Also said user was charging ridiculous amounts of money for tarot readings, which makes me think the bad energies might've been coming from inside the house, in this case.)

Regarding the self-initiation of saying the lord's prayer three times backwards, the general consensus among people I've talked to is that it doesn't do shit for you if you were never baptized.

It doesn't work as a general initiation into witchcraft, because it's really more about breaking off any existing bonds to Christianity.

It's a terrible initiation into witchcraft, especially considering Christian cunning folk have been using the Bible and other icons like rosaries and the names of saints for like... Ever. And not in a "I am perverting these holy relics" way either.

Many folk magicians, especially in old European traditions, were priests and used prayer and magick together to tend their flocks. My own practice draws heavily from my roots in the hollers and hills of Appalachia and the Low Country, and I use Bible verses as incantations for spells all the time, especially spells to ward and break curses, or to offer protection (Psalms 109:17-19 is great for sending a curse back).

I can understand if one needs a psychosomatic action to show your break from a harmful or abusive past, but the idea that the Bible and witchcraft are inherently opposed, on a diametrical level, is something that really starts with Gardner in the 1900s, with the advent of Wicca

I feel like it's probably worth discussing the historical difference between folk magic and witchcraft, but I'm currently too sleepy to get out the references.

@breelandwalker any interest in taking up the mantle?

I did the backwards prayer thing to initiate, and I still work with psalms, verses, (occasionally) angels, and once in a blue moon even Mother Mary in my practice. It's not as if a sacrilegious initiation actually blocks people from being able to work with the Bible or Christianity.

I was baptized and did all the sacraments growing up but I just started practicing without that formal initiation. I don't interact with Christian influences (not saying there's anything wrong with doing so though) and I tend to take a "slipped away" view on it. I don't think Christian God has more claim on me because of passionless words I said as a youth than my current gods do who I interact with earnestly and often.

Yeah, neither do I. But I'm not really a big gods person lol.

I think the thing about this initiation is that if you had no real ties to Christianity it really just feels like going through the motions. Whereas if you were raised to be god fearing, it feels really subversive and kind of scary, and those are the people who actually get something out of doing it. What that "something" may be is up for interpretation.