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Actually useful shit to have as a witch

You really don't need all the fancy bullshit every tumblr influencer will ever tell you to use. Here's my countdown ofaxtually useful shit.

A pocket knife, preferably with a wood handle. Use that bitch for everything, enchant it, carve symbols in it. It will absolutely be your best friend.

A good bag or backpack with a couple of plastic or ziploc bags in it. If you ever run off into the woods to find minerals, bones, plants, etc. A set aside bag and some things to store your treasures in becomes a necessity.

Basic divinatory sets. You don't have to buy fancy shit, learn to divine with playing cards and dice, or learn geomancy, lithomancy, or rune casting with homemade sets. A tarot deck is nice, but it isn't necessary when you've got so many other divinatory aids available.

A nice sized chunk of scrap cloth. When you process dried plants or sort new ones, that shit can and will get everywhere. A scrap piece of muslin or linen can help contain all of that mess and make clean up way easier.

A stash of good rocks. Draw sigils or symbols on those babies and leave them in the garden, the windowsill,property boundaries, under the stoop, etc. You can never have too many good rocks.

A pendulum, for fucks sake. The cards are going to be vague as hell when you're trying to figure out yes or no questions, and using a candle to communicate with spirits is really fucking hard outside. If you can't afford one, find a nice chunk of pointy quartz and learn to macrame.

A workspace. Everyone talks about having big fancy altars, but no one mentions that you need a good surface to do all your work on.

Storage, so much storage. I'm not talking about mason jars and pill bottles, I'm talking about where you put all the things you put in those jars. Having a workspace with drawers is immeasurably helpful.

A broom and water source. You're going to be cleaning up after yourself a lot, it's helpful to have a jug of water and a broom that stays by your workspace.

A mode of cleansing. I make a salt concoction to scatter around my workspace on short notice and store it close by.

On that note: SOMETHING TO CANCEL SPELLS WITH. Eventually, something will go wrong. You'll want to end that spell immediately. Have something to do it with.

A strainer. If you don't have a blender, rub dried plants across it to get a powder. If you do have a blender, you can strain that powder with it. Either way, if you intend to powder shit, get a strainer.

Small trays. It makes drying flowers so much easier if you have a small metal surface to contain them with- then just stick those suckers in a southern window and let em go.

Yarn/string scraps. Having a box or drawer of scraps makes trying this up to dry easier and a bit less wasteful.

A stash of offerings for whatever you work with. Honey for fae, coins for graveyard gatekeepers, alcohol for ancestors, etc.

Protective talismans or charms. Once you're into all of this stuff, you'll likely stick your nose in something you shouldn't. Having basic protection with you or in your workspace is incredibly important. A key and hagstone with red string is simple and effective.

A lighter- so many people forget the most basic shit. You're going to want to light shit on fire if you're a witch.

And a last tip- if something is too hard for a mortar and pestle, a plastic bag and hammer works too.

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They say Venus takes many forms 🐚

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I 💖Aphrodite, do u?

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The Hermit - a Major Arcana tarot card illustrated by me and @vivtanner for the Sefirot Tarot

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Other witches and myself have, strangely and unfortunately, seen an uncomfortable increase in online “witchcraft academies” or schools, whatever they want to call themselves.

Young or new witches, I recommend that you do NOT give your money to these “witches”, do not even give your time to them even if they’re free, don’t trust them. There’s nothing wrong with learning from other witches, but this isn’t the way. This is a spirituality, a personal belief, and there’s FREE information at your fingertips everywhere. I’ve only been exploring witchcraft for three years and while I wouldn’t mind hearing opinions or personal experience from longer-time practicing witches, personally, I would NEVER invest myself in one of... these... “schools”.

This is just my opinion on them, though, something about them just irks me and makes me uncomfortable.

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Photography by Xuebing Du

Instagram: xuebing.du

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i want to shake those two little Victorian girl bitchs hands who faked the pictures of themselves playing with fairies and thank them for paving the way.

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Just ordered a bunch of larger shells to make some more of these bad boys! Should be ready to order within this next week. Thank you to everyone for supporting my creativity and my crafts! 🥺🤍

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the moon controlling the tides sounds like something out of a fantasy novel and yet…there she is…doing That…every day…

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I know some of you may be tired of reminders like this one, but I just really want to talk about this. Remember Aphrodite has a “dark” side too. Remember that Gods are not bound to fulfill our selfish human expectations of what “good” is supposed to be on a casual level, which often involves just our benefit. The Gods are good on a cosmic level. They are concerned with the progress of this universal mechanism we call existence, and they do not serve humanity (we serve them by helping with this task, being virtuous).

Now, I talk about Aphrodite mainly because I saw a tweet last night about her, and something on that post just got me thinking. Perhaps I had been focusing too much on her Loving, Creative, and soft sides. It terrifies me a bit to remember her epithets. Yes, Aphrodite is the Mother of Love, and she's a world spirit, a cosmic womb; she's a creator and gives birth to Life; but she's also Androphonos, the eater of men. She's Melainis, the dark one. She's Areia, war-like. She's Tumborukhos, the grave-digger. Aphrodite is also a goddess of trickery and illusion. She's heavily associated to Persephone, and in some ancient mystery schools Persephone was regarded as the saviour from Aphrodite's darker side. There is a part of her that belong to death, dirt, bloodshed, strife. There is a part of us, too, that responds to that nature of hers and of the other Gods, as well as a part of us that belongs to their goodness, and love, wisdom, light.

This does not mean they are ‘evil’. Please. Forget the very christian idea that God must be pure goodness. That's a deformed platonic premise. The goodness we see in God does not have to fulfill our human standards, I repeat. It's not your goodness. It's the universe’s goodness. Gods are enormous, and they've been alive literally since the begining of existence, even before our material universe emerged. We are so, so small, like ants; we don't even realise how small we are in comparison, how little power we have. We owe Them everything. How can existence be evil?

And because the Gods are the main cause of existence, then everything that exists, including the things that hurt us —and the ones that make us happy—, come from them. And that's fine. Because it's supposed to be that way.

So love them. Love them despite the dark things, the tricks, the illusions, the death. That's life itself, we live through them. It hurts us more to think that they must satisfy our own benefits and needs. Let them, and let us, be. We are whole.

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“Across space and time, water has been used by many cultures to purify, cleanse, and spiritually transform.”

— Annwyn Avalon, Water Witchcraft: Magic and Lore from the Celtic Tradition

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I have 28.5k followers and I’m using that fanbase to bring Minecraft back.

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Minecraft + Magic

I’ve been playing a lot of Minecraft recently and it’s really got me thinking on/about it being used as a sort of like an altar/e-shrine that one could use if they were still a hidden witch or even a beginner witch. When playing I know that most players enjoy building a home so I figured why not build a home with rooms of worship inside it? Each room would then be dedicated to a god/dess and then i would go out into the world looking for the devotional items or things that would symbolize that god/dess.  Inside the game there are many potential representations Torches - Candles Lava - Fire Element Rivers/Lakes/Waterfalls/Oceans - Water Element Dirt - Earth Element Feathers - Wind Element YOU CAN MAKE AN ENCHANTING TABLE WITH A FLOATING SPELL BOOK. YOU CAN BREW POTIONS TOO!

There’s so much potential for Magical workings in this game. Seriously guys go check it out or try it for yourselves~

I’ll try to take pictures of my house to show you what i mean, hopefully it’ll work… Anyways talk to me about it! What are your thoughts?

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“Rocks have been stirring… that’s when I like to be down here. The rocks speak very softly.”

– CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

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if my son is stealing pies off windowsills its because i taught him to do that bitch