Storm Lanterns

Yesterday I posted about my storm lanterns, and someone pointed out to me that i’ve never really given an explanation of what these are, so I’m sharing this practice of mine with all of you.

When it storms, and I mean heavy cloud cover, thunder and lightening storms, I light a storm lantern. In common, mundane parlance, a storm or hurricane lantern is a lantern that burns fuel and has a tall glass chimney or covered glass case that keeps storm winds from blowing out the flame. In my practice it is a glass lamp or lantern or candle holder that I can place or hang in my window. There’s not much ceremony when I do it, but you can add some if you’d like. I personally love to use scented tea lights, but that’s just because I love scented tea lights. 

My purpose for doing this is threefold. First, it is to ask for protection for my home and everyone in it. Second, it is to offer the protection of my home to anything that might need it. It is a temporary offering of warmth and safety for anything that needs or wants it, as long as they contribute in whatever way that they can to the safety of my home, even if it’s just not starting trouble. Third, in my practice lightening and fire are comparable, so it offers me a focus for my spells. Essentially it’s the same energy, but tamed and brought into my home for a short time in a peaceful way. 

If this is something you’d like to work into your practice, please remember fire safety! I always make sure that my lanterns are covered and also I tie back my curtains so that they can’t catch fire, and I never fall asleep without putting the fire out or swapping an electric tea light into the lantern.

Since its summer, there’s a million of these, and I know you can get some at Ikea year round in the candle section. 

How to produce a drug free altered state of consciousness in 10 minutes

When one thinks about altered states of consciousness, psychedelic plants and other substances might be the first things which come to mind. Although these substances can be used in this manner, as well as for medicinal purposes (and more), such states can also be achieved through other means.

Meditation is one great example, and there is no shortage of studies explicating this phenomenon, or the subsequent changes in brain activity and in the nervous system which regular meditation produces. In fact, the effects of things like drugs, yoga, self-hypnosis, mutual hypnosis, meditation, and brainwave feedback have all been extensively explored by various scientists, researchers, psychologists (and more) from all over the world. Altered states of consciousness is definitely an interesting area of study.

Dr. Bruce Greyson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science at the University of Virginia and one of the ‘fathers’ of near-death studies, even urged the United Nations to take these matters more seriously. This is because increasing our knowledge of ‘alternative’ experiences and health practices is incredibly important; studying these phenomena sheds lights on new, unexplored areas of science, and tells us more about the nature of our reality. It is the job of science to examine these so-called ‘fringe’ topics.  

One of the latest bits of new research to emerge on the topic of altered states of consciousness comes from a psychologist in Italy. Giovanni Caputo, from the Univeristy of Urbino, has figured out how to induce a drug-free altered state.

The study was published in the journal Psychiatry Research. 

He produced this effect by asking 20 volunteers to sit and stare into each other’s eyes for 10 minutes straight. After doing so, participants started reporting strange “out of body” experiences alongside even stranger hallucinations. The volunteers were told very little about the purpose of the study, only that it had to do with a “meditative experience with eyes open.”

After 10 mintues, the volunteers were asked to complete questionnaires detailing what they experienced during and after the experiment.

“The participants in the eye-staring group said they’d had a compelling experience unlike anything they’d felt before,” Christian Jerrett writes for the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest.

So what exactly is going on here?

“On the dissociative states test, they gave the strongest ratings to items related to reduced colour intensity, sounds seeming quieter or louder than expected, becoming spaced out, and time seeming to drag on. On the strange-face questionnaire, 90 percent of the eye-staring group agreed that they’d seen some deformed facial traits, 75 percent said they’d seen a monster, 50 percent said they saw aspects of their own face in their partner’s face, and 15 percent said they’d seen a relative’s face.” – Christian Jarrett.

One explanation could be what’s called neural adaptation, which describes how our neurons can slow down and even completely stop their response to stimulation that is unchanging. This happens when you stare at anything – your perception changes until you blink or something within the scene changes. This explanation, however, only covers one aspect of what participant’s experience when they practice eye gazing.

I’ve heard of this. You can do this alone with a mirror, as well. The light must be dim, such as using only a candle for light source. Stare into your eyes in the mirror, a slight distance away, and after some time your face with begin to morph into things you’ve never seen before. Scary things, other people, angels, extraterrestrials - it’s a very interesting experience! Only takes about a minute to occur.

I know this because my twin and I discovered this when we were little kids. During childhood we shared a bed and when we couldn’t sleep we’d talk to each other in the dark. Needless to say we would have eye contact during this time, and subsequently this phenomenon would happen, and sometimes it would scare us. Sometimes we saw beautiful things in each other’s faces, but mostly ‘monsters.’ The face morphing can be rapid or slow, really depends. On what, I have no clue.

I don’t talk very much about tech-witchery here, but it’s one of the things that first drew me into witchcraft. So in that vein, here is a ‘USB magic wand’! Instead of carrying around a bag of witching stuff, it’s all here in one pocket-sized tool.

I chose to put images of crystals, candles, sigils and text files of prayers on my USB, but there are lots of possibilities! I imagine you could carry around an altar in your pocket if you were so inclined.

I’ve organised things into folders of ‘I’m using this’ and “I’m not using this’. So on a day I want to have the effects of rose quartz with me, for example, I’d place it in the “using this” folder. If I decide I don’t need it anymore, it would go in the “not using this” next time I plug it into a computer.

Hopefully the wand-USB can be helpful to others, too!

Witch Tip!

Silk is great for neutralizing other people’s energies! If you’re an empath and headed to an event you know could overwhelm yu a silk scarf or wrap could really help! Sleeping on a silk pillowcase can also help you detox from everything at the end of the day and it’s supposed to prevent wrinkles on your face and be good for your hair!

Witch tip

Keep a tiger eye crystal with yourself for better concentration. Keep one in the academinc books you dont like and you will be able to concentrate better on them. Especially useful during exams.

Star Water

The idea for this comes from this post! 

For me, stars represent power, protection, purity, illumination, enlightenment, guidance, and hope. With that being said, Star Water can be used for a variety of things. 

Ingredients:

Suggested uses: to anoint items, to cleanse or enchant items, to add to the bath, in spell jars and sachets, to simply represent the stars

warning: do not consume - glitter is not edible

nature pranks: get out there and turn some rocks upside down. ruffle up a trees leaves. show your bare butt to the wind. tell a lie to a bird

soapdeli:

This easy homemade exfoliating loofah soap tutorial makes a fun weekend project you can create with the kids for homemade Mother’s Day gifts! 

Exfoliating Loofah Soap Tutorial

© Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen

Ingredients:

30 oz. clear detergent free glycerin melt & pour soap base .9 oz. fragrance oil, of choice 20 drops orange liquid soap colorant 5 inch Luffa

Tools & Equipment:

Crafters Choice™ Basic Round Silicone Soap Mold digital scale bread knife Chef’s knife large Pyrex measuring cup utensil (for stirring) spray bottle with alcohol microwave

Instructions: 

Begin by using a bread knife to cut your loofah into slices approximately 1″ thick.

Place the loofah slices into each of the six cavities of your mold.

Now cut your soap base into square chunks using a Chef’s knife. Weigh out 30 oz. of soap and place in a large Pyrex measuring cup. Melt in the microwave just until all the soap has melted. Watch your soap carefully as it will bubble up and overflow if it gets too hot.

Weigh out the fragrance oil and stir into the melted soap base. Add 20 drops of the liquid melt and pour soap colorant and mix well.

Now pour the scented and colored soap base into each of the cavities of your mold. As the loofah absorbs some of the soap you’ll be able to go back and fill each cavity completely.

Allow the soap base to set up and harden completely, then carefully push each loofah soap out of the mold. Finally, wrap each soap in Foodservice Film then label as desired and gift!

For more homemade melt and pour soap recipes as well as handmade cold process soap recipes be sure to follow my DIY Bath & Body board on Pinterest. You can also find more great handmade gift ideas for mom that you can buy or DIY on my Homemade Mother’s Day Gift Ideas Pinterest board.

☆。* April 2016 Celestial Calendar  *・°☆.。

I made this for a friend but also some people were curious about the planetary movements this month into May so I did some research on major events and put this together in a spring pastelly aesthetic cause its spring why not.  I looked at several zodiac signs too but you should look up your own to see how these events might apply to you. So the subtext underneath the titles are more like suggestions. 

Keep reading

DIY ZODIAC COMPATIBILITY!

– what to know –

use your sun, moon, rising, venus, mars. if you do not know these, you can try here, here and here. If you do not know your/their time of birth, look at this, this, this, this, and this.

– what signs are in each element –

– what to check for compatibility –

– what is compatible/how many points they are –

now add them all up and see what you get out of 10

FOR EXAMPLE, aquarius sun/capricorn sun, scorpio moon/cancer moon, virgo rising/leo rising, leo venus/sagittarius venus, aries mars/pisces mars (ps genders don’t matter)

aquarius sun + leo rising = 1

scorpio moon + cancer moon = 2

virgo rising + capricorn sun = 1

leo venus + sagittarius venus = 2

aries mars + pisces mars = 1

all together = 7/10

HAVE FUN ♥

Witch Tip

Let your astrological placements help you in your craft!

For example, my moon is in Cancer. When doing emotional magick I often charge the spell with tears, incorporating water - for Cancer is a water sign, tears - commonly associated with the sign of Cancer, and emotions - the moon sign rules emotions.

For another example, if your Venus is in a fire sign try charging your love spells with fire (or whichever element the object of your affection’s Venus may be in!)

i need 2 nourish my body so when i die i can contribute maximum nutrients to the trees

The Evil Queen´s Magic Lair Spread

In villainy, it pays knowing how to mix potions. It is helpful brewing something akin to a spell, like a goblet full of a special conction to bewitch the mind or even a poisoned wishing apple. Truly, this is something everyone should want to learn and do.

Well, keep dreaming, because it will never happen in this post. I can´t mix a potion for s***, my brews tend to explode, and even if my life depended on it I would probably poisoned myself. Fortunately, Her Majesty Queen Grimhilde can offer us the next best thing, and that is using the cards to concoct various things to help us. 

Let´s follow Her Majesty´s Recipies, shall we?

Keep reading

M O O N G L Y P H S Use in spells concerning the moon. 
I often carve the glyphs into a spell candle when working with the moon. 
On my full moon ritual I used the glyphs for energy and the full moon.

It has taken me entirely too long to put up the next batch, but here they are! Three more New Witch Worksheets! The first set received a ton of positive feedback, so I plan on doing an entire series which will include:

All worksheets are designed to print on standard US paper (8.5 x 11), however, I have not testing printing myself, so please let me know if anything comes out wonky if you do decide to print these. 

Part One

made a new travel altar!

saw this box in walmart immediately thought “OH SHIT I CAN DO SOMETHING WITH THIS”

so i did.

it was a plain wooden box when i started. i added paint…

inserted my favorite pictures of the four gods i’m devoted to into the slots…

printed out a very small version of my prayer to the gods, gathered my stuff, glued some velcro on the lid to make it stay closed…

and wallah! a finished travel atlar. :)

it took me about two hours tops, so it’s pretty easy to do. it also looks damn cool. B)