the horrible urge to get a witchy star tattoo on one's head like amaltheia from the last unicorn vs. my common sense. employability would... be a treat.
A bit of small magic I think is the power of will. I know people speak of intention and such, to make one's will known, but I find magic is strongest with willpower. The fight to survive, revenge, whatever it may be--that is one of the strongest powers behind a spell.
One of the most fun things in my magical practice currently is labels. I have always used witch because it is the label most come tinto magic, and while some of that still rings true, the more I delve into history and religion for magic the more I wonder if sorcerer is the better term. how do we define our magic? I don’t know but I am so excited for this new era of my magic
A witch/sorcerer/etc tip I can give as a car guy™️ is that you should cleanse your car, especially if you pick up detailing (which is cheap & easy to get into!) We carry a lot of baggage with us in our cars, and asking your vehicle—as they are spirits—if you can purge some of that baggage from them may help with your daily life. Besides, there are many fun car fresheners out there to help soothe the mood of the drive.
I do not think modern paganism is aware of how subtly influenced by Christianity it is. Why is Yuletide and Mayday so "similar" to Christmas and Easter in the eyes of pagans? Well, people want to keep celebrating these holidays. There's a reason every year pagans claim western holidays are pagan when they are not, and perhaps that's a bit due to not really wanting to leave those holidays.
Even things such as "mote it be" and "blessed be" are Christian in origin. This is not a bad thing, but considering how anti-Christian some pagans are, it is ironic.
#dragonis.txt#paganism#pagan#witchblr#witchcraft#witch#cultural christianity#It is obvious especially in neowicca#just replace a masculine christian god with a feminine one#and the horned god is jesus I suppose#I do not think this is a bad thing per say#simply observing. there is power in this I suppose#I am endeared to the concept of angels myself...
Strixcraft review: a terrible book for ancient magic
CW for blood, blood offerings, sex, sexual assault, coercive sex magic, and historical misinformation.
THIS IS A DIFFERENT SORT OF POST, and I love book reviews. Unfortunately, I chose a book that ended up being unenjoyable for my first review and a warning for others practicing pharmakeia. Today I will be reviewing a book by Oracle Hekataios, a self-proclaimed oracle and priest of Dionysus and Hekate, an initiate of traditional Alexandrian Wicca, and a leader of a formal temple. Reading that I probably should have dodged it. However I was curious if this could be of use for my own pharmakeia and devotion to Helios as a historically inspired magic deity. As always, opinions are my own, and feel free to disagree with my points. If I have misinterpreted something, I apologise in advance.
by the way, any new age/witchery book that talks about the "mystic maya/aztec/etc" calendars is racist. the maya calendar is sacred and has no business in paganism/witchcraft.
2023-2024 Brontoscopic Calendar
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[ID: An image of a black sky with lightning striking in the centre, with golden lights suggesting that it is in a city.]
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Content warning: The brontoscopic calendar refers to several possibly triggering events, such as death, disease, animal death, and abortion. The text also refers to common practices in the ancient world such as slavery, which we must acknowledge for the evil it is.
ACCREDITED TO TAGES, the brontoscopic calendar—a divinatory almanac of sorts—only survives within a Roman Byzantine translation of a Latin edition of an Etruscan calendar, said to have been recorded by Johannes Lydus (“John the Lydian”) in De ostentis (“On Portents”) from Justinian Constantinople. Etruria had many almamacs created by Rasenna’s people across its lifetime—but only one survives in full, which is this calendar.
The brontoscoptic calendar begins upon the first full moon in Cancer, which in 2023 is July 3rd/July 4th. Please note that the Etruscan day begins at noon, so ensure when using this that you keep it in mind—which I have indicated at the 12:00 mention of each day. For example, if it thundered on July 5th at 09:00, the message would be the one given on the fourth as the Etruscan day has not yet changed.
To use this calendar, if it thunders look for the day indicated and check the time of the event to ensure it is the proper day. Then look at the prediction and interpret from there. You may also check the 16 divisions of heaven to see which aiser sent the omen you have received. The calendar is very direct in what can happen, but with all divination, there is always more that could be understood and therefore avoided—or followed if favourable.
This year’s calendar is cut off as next year the full moon in Cancer is June 21st.
Any spirit of pagan provenance which had escaped wholesale assimilation into the Christian pantheon was officially defined as an a "evil spirit" by most contemporary theologians. In this context, any dealings with such spirits were theoretically a betrayal, or in other words, a "renunciation" of the true faith. Such a negative equation was intensified by the fact that fairies, on their part, were often considered hostile towards Christianity. An anecdote recorded in Scotland at the beginning of the eighteenth century describes how a brownie was displeased when his master read the Bible (Martin 1970, 392). Robert Kirk describes this fairy hostility in more detail, claiming that the fairies have:
no discernible Religion, Love, or Devotione towards God the Blessed Maker of all. They disappear whenever they hear his name invocked, or the name of Jesus... nor can they act ought at that time, after hearing of that Sacred Name (Sanderson 1976, 56).
Many early modern individuals must have been aware, to a greater or lesser degree, of these mutual hostilities, and if they wished to avail themselves of fairy powers they must have circumnavigated this problem in some way. Their solutions may not have differed greatly from those used in later centuries by people who believed in fairies. In the nineteenth century, for example, when at sea, fishermen on the Moray Firth:
would never mention such words as Church or manse or minister. Any utterance suggestive of the new faith would be displeasing to the ancient god of the ocean, and might bring disaster upon the boat (McPherson 1929, 70).
By their silence the fishermen were, for the duration of their journey, making a superficial show of putting aside their Christian allegiances in return for the protection and goodwill of the ancient god of the ocean. It is not difficult to imagine how, in a different century and different context, this and other types of diplomacy towards non Christian powers could have been interpreted as a direct renunciation of Christianity.
- The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland, Emma Wilby (2014).
On Salvia
— Bobby J. Ward, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, 1999. Pgs. 322-324
On Rhododendron & Azalea
— Bobby J. Ward, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, 1999. Pgs. 307-310
On Jasmine
— Bobby J. Ward, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, 1999. Pgs. 228-230.
On Snowdrop
— Bobby J. Ward, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, 1999. Pgs. 331-337.
On Pimpernel
— Bobby J. Ward, A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature, 1999. Pgs. 292-295.