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ITS ALL ABOUT INTENT

you can have done all the research you can have planned everything out you can have the best ingredients you can have done the perfect blessing you can know the spell off by heart

BUT IF YOU DON���T HOLD YOUR INTENT IN YOUR MIND’S EYE WHILE CASTING…. well… things are gonna get fucked up 

SO! Before casting anything - PAUSE to clear your mind, concentrate and FRAME your intent, then WORK your magic!

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🌛🏹 Hunter’s Moon ����🌜

what is the hunter’s moon?

🌛 it is the full moon of october, the last full moon before Samhain. the name of the moon references the transition of summer into autumn. with the approaching winter and in contrast to the harvest moon, it bids us to consider how we are at odds with nature rather than how we fit into it. 

what does that mean for witchcraft?

🏹  again survival based magic comes back into light, from money, home, and protection spells. it suggests an inward look at how one’s person fits into the grand scheme of nature and life. 

🌛  this is considered a good time to look for spiritual guides and omens. there is some consensus about the increase in spiritual activity and liminal spaces. based on each witch’s personal confidence in their skill, whether to protect against spirits, or to take this opportunity to communicate

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🎃 Samhain 🎃

On Samhain, also known as Halloween, the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. This allows for easier communication with spirits and improved divination. Samhain also celebrates the last harvest of the year and the beginning of the “darker half” of the calendar. Some people call it the witch’s new year.

Activities:

Eat an apple or drink apple cider.

Light incense or a candle.

Honor your ancestors and deceased love ones.

Take a bath.

Decorate your altar.

Carve a pumpkin.

Divination.

Spells for protection, honoring the dead, abundance, and clairvoyance.

Go trick-or-treating.

Make a besom.

Take a walk outside.

Collect fallen leaves and acorns.

Stones:

All black stones (obsidian, onyx, jet, etc.), clear quartz, amber, turquoise, smoky quartz, amethyst, beryl, fluorite, moonstone, lapis lazuli, bloodstone, peridot, and tiger’s eye.

Colors:

Orange, yellow, black, purple, silver, gold, and white. 

Symbols:

Fire, besoms, pumpkins, gourds, jack-o-lanterns, nuts (especially acorns), and apples.

Herbs: 

Mugwort, mandrake, cinnamon, sage, black pepper, hazel, rosemary, allspice, and catnip. 

Flowers: 

African violet, cactus, carnation, and dandelion.

Incense: 

Dragon’s blood, sandalwood, cinnamon, heliotrope, mint, nutmeg, myrrh, and patchouli. 

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

Tips on Getting Published, Part 1

At my university, I received a publishing mentor who taught me about authorship in today’s publishing industry. I realize a lot of people don’t have that opportunity, so I’m going to publish advice I’ve received from my mentor and my personal author journey.

OP note: I am NOT giving you writing advice, or advice on how to set up a writing routine. This post is meant to aid writers who already have that down and are eager for, but unsure of, publishing.

Create an Author Avatar.

DO NOT SKIP THIS PART. IT IS LITERALLY VITAL, YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

When people think of authors, they often think of the George Eliots and Emily Dickensons, the aloof, mysterious author who publishes from the shadows and is only heard of through their work. The reality is that you can no longer get published with this strategy today. I mean maybe you can, it’ll just be 10x harder. Sure, Anne Rice can afford to not use social media for her contact, but she can do that because she’s Anne Rice. Modern authors today are accessible, speak on TV and radio, attend writing conventions, perform spoken word, and run social media accounts, websites, blogs. You can easily find them. There’s a reason for this.

Contrary to popular belief, many publishers are constantly scouring the web and conventions for new authors. They will mainly publish authors who already have a following, and who are already established as legitimate authors. If they can’t FIND you, then they won’t KNOW ABOUT you, and you won’t get any offers. In fact, BOTH ME AND MY PUBLISHING MENTOR WERE OFFERED PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES OVER SOCIAL MEDIA. That’s right. She was offered a book deal on Instagram, and I was contacted by a publisher right here on Tumblr. 

So how do publishers weed through all the social media accounts and think, “I’m interested in learning about this person”? They know by the author avatar. An author avatar is the persona you display to your readership. It doesn’t have to be a completely different person than you are (in fact, most authors are basically just themselves), but it must be the aspect of your personality that you want your readers to think of when they think about you. It will be the part of you that publishers see when they’re considering giving you a deal.

These are tips on how to establish your author persona.

1. You ARE an author.

You are not an aspiring author, you’re not a young author, you’re not a beginner, novice, or future writer. You’re an author. Stop underestimating yourself. People will not take you seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously.

This concept may seem weird to writers, because we’re so used to the mindset of “One day I’ll be an author, but I’m not right now”. In addition, many people believe that you need to receive money for your work to be considered a published author. This actually isn’t true. Have you published work in a school newspaper? You’re published. Many publishers will count this, as it gives you the experience of submitting your work and going through an editing process. Have you self-published? You’re an author. Posted on a blog? Author. Written fan fiction on DeviantArt? Author. Have you traded your work with someone? Trading is really big in the self-publishing industry, so consider yourself an author. 

Change you Instagram or Twitter description, right now. You’re an author. Period.

2. Your genre needs to be more specific than the one you have in your head right now.

When people ask “What do you write?” they’re actually asking for not only your genre, but your sub-genre, your writing themes, and your intended audience. Publishers and fellow writers want to know ALL of these things.

Steven King doesn’t just write horror. He writes supernatural fiction horror and suspense psychological thrillers for adults. My publishing mentor Meliza Bañales marketed her book Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific as a queer chicana punk 90′s young adult feminist coming-of-age story. I shit you not, she included that many words.

It’s okay to write multiple genres, but you need to pinpoint EXACTLY what you write, who you write it for, and what kind of themes your story explores. This proves that your story will appeal to a wide, but specific range of audiences.

3. Choose a social media persona and stick with it.

Your persona is the part of you that you over-dramatize, in a sense, to your audience. It can be related to your genre, or not, but it should ideally appeal to your intended audience. For example, one of my friends and fellow writers wrote a ten-chapter Star Wars fan fiction, so she decided to emphasize her persona as the hopeless romantic nerd who’s in love with every character in the franchise. She now attends the Disney College Program, which has a 7% admittance rate, lower than most Ivy Leagues. If you think about it, that’s exactly the kind of person Disney wants: Someone so interested and bubbly about their work that they know everything about it and will talk about it all the time.

Here’s another example: Konstantinos, the author of Nocturnal Witchcraft, has a very specific gothic kind of aesthetic, which you can see not only from his website, but also his book covers. That style appeals to many people, including me, who picked up Gothic Grimoire because it caught my eye in a used bookstore.

If your current accounts are too personalized, or use a name you’d rather not have as your pen name, I recommend creating another account strictly for your author persona.

Social media is about showing off yourself. People will want to become friends with you. They’ll trust you, follow you, fall in love with you, and they’ll buy your writing because it’s your writing. That may be hard to imagine, but it’s true. 

5. Create an author resume.

Authors will oftentimes create special resumes that detail their experience as the author they want to be seen as. In this resume, only include the things that will help buffer you as an author. This will also help you update your author bio/cover letters.

For example, I work as a janitor right now. Though I might put that on my regular resume, that doesn’t appear very author-y based on what I write. However, I can include that I’ve worked in a spice and tea shop for five years. This proves that I have a basic knowledge of herbalism and natural health benefits, which is big in the new age publishing industry. 

You DO NOT have to include everything you write. I know a writer who runs a blog about taking care of dogs, and it has a solid following. However, that doesn’t relate to what she normally publishes, which are murder mysteries. So while she does run this blog, it doesn’t fit in with her regular author avatar, so she doesn’t include it in her resume or author bio. Speaking of which:

6. Master the author bio.

The author bio is the paragraph next to the author photo you see on the back of the book. It’s one of the first things readers look at when they pick up a work. So yes, it’s important. Author bios are included on books, magazines, blogs (yes, certain blogs publish people), anthologies, zines–pretty much any published work. These paragraphs should summarize your persona, your achievements, and your work in less than 100 words. You have to include an author bio for every single submission, so master it now.

The bio must include:

Past publications

Awards and achievements

A fun fact about you

Where you are now (usually where you live)

(OPTIONAL) What you’re working on right now

Your author bio will change over time as you find new things to update it with. That’s fine. But the format of an author bio will always remain the same. Here’s an example of one of mine:

Yunan Kirkbride is an author and zinester earning her BA in Writing at the University of California, San Diego. She has published online witchcraft lessons on M-School as well as the zine Death Witchcraft: Volume 1. A practicing witch for over ten years, she runs an advice blog on modern witchcraft and NeoPaganism, as well as her Etsy shop DeathWitchZines. Her nonfiction work focuses on the 21st-century witch and underground cultural societies. In her free time, you can find her buying pink bows for her hair or communicating with the dead. She lives in San Diego.

Author bios are usually in third person, although depending on the context, some publishers and bosses may want you to write them in first person. You can get creative with the tone here: make it funny, cheeky, whatever fits with your author avatar.

7. You are always working on something.

Even if you’re not. Literally, if people ask, just make something up. Ideally you should be writing as often as you can, but let’s be real, sometimes life gets in the way or we’re so focused on publishing nonsense that we haven’t worked in a while. 

Writers often change their work in the middle of writing it, so no one will blame you if you end up falling through. The only time this ISN’T the case is in writing author proposals. Proposals usually detail large products or books that you send in to a publisher or editor, and your project MUST MUST MUST stick to that proposal. This goes for every proposal except screenwriting, since those stories change multiple times before the film is even shot. But I will get to that in a later post.

Feel free to add, feel free to respond, especially with experiences of your own. I am not the know-all, end-all of publishing, but this is what I’ve been taught, and it’s transformed me from a writer to a published author making money off of her work within a couple months. If you have any other questions, ask me, email me, hit me up on Insta, whichever way you prefer. Happy writing!!! 

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

Ritual Purity in Hellenism

Ritual purity featured heavily in worship in ancient Greece, with water basins called perorrhanteria, established near the entrances to temples; and stoas found bearing inscriptions that command visitors to cleanse themselves before entering the sanctuary. The nature of ritual purity changed over time and location, as with most aspects of worship in ancient Greece, but the ritual act of purification remained an important one.

Keep reading

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Basic Spirit Work Advice:

Don’t give out the name that means the most to you, whether that’s your birth name or your nickname.

If an entity gives your their full name, don’t give that away to others. Use a nickname or a pseudonym to protect their privacy. 

If you have any feeling that there’s an unwanted or threatening entity in a space or your home, tell it to go away and show now fear. Do any kind of cleansing exercise that you use. Do not back down. Repeat and increase intensity if it doesn’t stop.

Don’t expect to hear voices, see entities, or get any kind of clear messages. It can take years of practice, and sometimes you just can’t. People on tumblr who share their experiences may be embellishing for clarity, and might receive messages in a less clear way than presented. 

If you have a specific, individualized method of protecting your spiritual area (especially with visualization), don’t share how you’ve made the wards or the specifics of them. It’s just good practice not to show your weaknesses.

The “color” of energy does not necessarily denote a specific universal meaning. I’m of the opinion that energy colors are filtered through your own established color system, so make sure you know what you believe - whether colors are linked to different elements, or alignments etc.

If you choose to bind an entity to an object, be aware that losing the object might change your relationship with the spirit in some way. I personally advise against binding spirits to things, given that they could easily be damaged or lost, but that’s your choice. 

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

Wacky Wizarding Wand Tutorial

So, some of you asked for a step-by-step of my wands, with pictures. I was hesitant at first, because the wands look terrible right up until the very last bit - but I figure, hey - the more people making amazing wands, the better. Makes me seem less weird if other people are doing it - amiright? Also,I didn’t use spell check, my bad!

Got that stuff? ….. I’ll wait. Just keep scrolling once you’re ready!

Woah man, I am allready so far ahead of you. Come on! Top gem is optional - but if you want one, start with that. All sorts of things can be wand toppers. I once butchered an expensive chandelier to get a single, medium, tear-drop shaped piece of glass that I liked. Use a marble. Use a weird coin. I find a lot of good toppers at dollar stores, for super cheap. Anyways - hot glue that in place, and build up around it with more layers. This part is important for even the non-gemmers (why are you even here, seriously…. get fancy). SO: the top of the wand is the largest part. You want your wand to end up shaped like an elongated carrot. Yeah, you read that right. Be careful with the glue - its damn hott. One little girl at a festival assumed I was attacked by a dragon while collecting wand supplies - because my hands were so blistered and shiny. Glue guns are serious business.

After you squeeze and plap the glue from the gun, onto the stick - it resembles molten lava. So slowly spin and move around the chopstick in your hand, so that it doesn’t just run everywhere and create new islands on your flesh.When you notice the glue stop moving and attempting to drip - or you can see it start to change from translucent to white - dip your fingers in water, shake them of, and than very lightly run the wand on your fingers. NOW MAD DASH PICK UP THAT PENCIL I MENTIONED. You have the pencil right? WHAT?! THE PENCIL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART - IT WAS LITERALLY SPECIFIED IN MY SECOND SLIDE UP THERE. Is that your long lost fathers pencil, the last thing he gave you before vanishing into the fog, never to be seen again? Wow - that’s really dramatic,  you should write a book but also - DO NOT USE THAT PENCIL. It’s about to get covered in glue, lunatic!

Or in theory you should. I don’t actually know I come from a long line of crafters. My grandma owned a craft shop. I worked there for years as a child - because my family also has a long history of ignoring child labor laws.But I digress; I’ve been painting and sculpting things to look like wood since before I could wipe my own hiney….. I have zero information on how long it’s going to take you to get the technique down. You bought a whole pack of chop sticks, right?

You’ll notice as you pull the pencil through, you drag some glue with you - this is cool. Some of my favorite wands are the super swirly ones. I find that making wood patterns helps if you also make sound effects, like ‘woooo OOOOoooooo aaaaaaahhhhhHHHHHHWwwooooooooo’ - I am sure you know exactly what I mean.

Personally, I always figured that the wands in HP were plain wood because the ministry of magic outlawed fun. I mean - here’s this amazing stick that you bond with for life, and it’s just a stick? Nah wizbro - nah. The wand reflects your personality - and unless you are a stick in the mud, throw some pizazz in there! Put on that ritz! Trip the light fantago! (?). Whatever. Make it nice. Make it you. This is a permanent accessory for a wizard - so you know, dress it up. Doesn’t even have to be beads. I once rolled a chopstick (covered in hot glue) in a patch of moss….. just to see what it would look like. Looked earthy. Sold it for 10$.I sometimes use string and twine - why? Because I can. I once covered a glitter from top to bottom in wand! Wait…. whatever….

Seriously, don’t panic. You’ll be using three colors. Your base should be a mid-tone. The picture up there looks darker than it was. Don’t judge me.Anyways - shlap that on. Depending on the quality of the glue you purchased, you might have to do multiple coats - not all paint likes to stick to all glue. So, either pony up for expensive supplies, or deal with the extra work. It’s cathartic anyhow. It doesn’t even have to be wood colored. I once made a wand that looked like a sunset. I make lots of blue, water looking wands. I have a wand called Mitus Touched Me - that’s pure pink. Nah, it’s gold - I am just messing with you.

RIGHT. So if you didn’t horrendously mess up the glue part - look closely at your wand and you will notice that it’s bumpy as all heck. Immagine it as a landscape - and then paint the rivers and valleys BLACK!!! Or, whatever color is roughly 3 shades darker than your base color. Immediately blend that out with a dry paintbrush. What do you mean ‘how do blend?;- I know you watch those contouring videos on youtube. It’s like your face - apply, blend, repeat. Your brush should be so dry, that the act of blending nearly dry’s the paint. Right?It should be drier than a nuns hat thing on a hot day when it’s not raining.

No, it doesn’t look like wood yet. Please don’t have a panic attack - I can’t be responsible for that. Like, emotionally. Or legally. Don’t sue me.

Unless you did it wrong than I don’t know what to tell you. You probably have to paint the whole thing in your base color and try again. That’s another half hour of your life wasted on this stuff. Do you really need a wand that badly? I sell them for like 10$ - how much is your time worth, REALLY?!

MWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

It’s just a good idea all around, okay?

Now just do that 174 times, and you’ll be as good as me! I mean, I have invested hundreds of dollars into this hobby…. not including the cost of vendor booths at festivals and fairs all summer….. and I technically only charge enough to cover the cost of supplies plus like, 4$ an hour for my time. I mean, if I were actually charging what these cost to make at minimum wage, they’d be a minimum of 25$ each - and since my target market is 11 year olds who saved up their allowance….. I don’t think that price would fly!

I mean….

This is what I do for fun…..

move further, and further, in the descent of madness….

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial! If you craft a wacky wizarding wand,  submit some pictures and I’ll post them! <3 Thanks folks!

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

... sure, okay. Let's do this.

Money spell! Reblog to charge it with your intent; the more people see it, the more powerful it becomes. Magic should be fun!

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Weaving protection wards

*warning: more advanced energy work skill required*

How it works:

Different strands of intent must be woven together to create a barrier.  The different strands can be similar to house rules.  Here are some examples of possible strands:

Spirits who interact with me or people I know will have good intentions 

Spirits will not seek to cause harm

Spirits don’t invite others without permission

Spirits will not lie about their identity 

No spirit is allowed to interfere with my magic workings, unless it is to protect myself or another member of my household, including my spirit household.

And other things like this.  The more strands you have, the stronger your wards are.  Also, be specific in your wording.  The more vague these intents are, the looser your wards are and the easier it is for something to slip through.  

The best and most efficient way to create a web is to start with broad statements, and adding specific strands as you continue - this ward is ongoing, and while it takes little to maintain, you’ll always be finding loopholes in your phrasing and adding things.

How to make one:

Make a list of your strands.  You can write it down or not, but I like to keep track just so I can go through it every once in a while and see if I notice any loopholes.

Find a charging source.  Natural energies (the sun, moon, wind, ocean, etc), man made (electricity, friction (from people walking, cars moving, etc), or whatever you can think of.  You don’t want to only use yourself because it will drain your energy quickly and you might only get one strand at a time, and you won’t be able to hold it for long.

Pick your most important most important strand and focus on spinning it into a thread.  It can be a guitar string, some twine, or whatever you want it to be, it just has to be flexible and relatively strong.  I always like to see mine as spider silk, small but powerful wherever it is.  Imagine and visualize your words compressing into that string and make it as strong as possible.

Continue with your next strand.

And then the next.

Decide how you want to weave your ward, I like to use a spider’s web to go along with the spider silk

Start creating your web when you have at least three strands, and focus on weaving together those intents.  Focus on how they work together to protect you/whatever you are protecting. 

Weave your web

Focus on how you want to maintain the wards (look at step 2)

Repeat steps 4 and 8 as often as you like

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Drunk Divination: Am I ever going to start drinking, or am I just going to think about it like it might happen some day, even though I've been of age for a while?

nine of wands. it’ll happen, but you’re gonna wait until it seems like a good moment, because you know what’s good for you

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HOW TO MAKE SIGILS

write the word or phrase you want to embody

erase vowels

erase duplicate letters

break down to simple shapes

this is just me liking to organize

rearrange until it feels right!!

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Harmless and easy “Leave me alone” Spell

What you’ll need

Pen

Paper

How

Write the persons full name of whom you want to leave you alone on some paper then draw a circle around it. Then fold it up as tight as you can, put it in the furthest corner of the freezer and forget about it.  This is probably the first spell I ever cast and I remember finding the paper and being like “Oh I remember that person… Oh it worked!”. 

It’s truly wonderful to be a witch.

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Bad Penny

Here’s a fun little jinx I used to cast a lot.

You Need:

~ A penny

Hold the penny in your left hand. Get angry. Whatever makes you angry, think of it now. Make a fist around the penny and hold it up to your mouth. When you’re good and angry, start swearing at the penny, calling it nasty names, telling it ugly things. Go on as long as you like. (This is a great way to vent!)

When you’re done, say, “Pass it on.”

Drop the penny in the house of someone who’s annoyed you, use it to pay at a business that’s done you wrong, give it to someone you want to inconvenience, sow discord in the world for the lulz, go nuts. I used to charge ‘em by the handful and scatter them downtown when I was partially homeless and hated everyone and everything.

Notes:

As some of you may have realized, you can use this as a way to cleanse! If you don’t want to weaponize the penny, say “Hold that for me” when you’re done charging, and dispose of it safely or cleanse the penny.

Do not keep the penny. Just do not. I once cursed a penny, dropped it so it landed in my shoe by accident, and had a stunningly shitty day. It takes ten seconds to cast if you have a penny and you’re already angry. Storing them up just means they go to work on you. So if you want to carry ammo, just keep uncharged pennies on you and charge them as needed.

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

Salts - Magikal Properties

Whether it is black salt, sea salt, pink salt or just plain old. Salt has a long history of use in rituals, purification, blessings and magical protection. Salt is created and thrives in the Ocean  (or the Womb of the Goddess) It is the taste of Earth in the waters of life. salt is a amazing and versatile natural source for cleansing, and  is a must have for anyone.

Regular Sea Salt - sea salt is overall very common, easy to obtain and affordable. It can be bought in either course chunks or fine like sand. White salt is associated with purification, purity, protection and blessings. 

  Used in consecration

Placed in water to cleanse it

Purification, cleansing and removal or negative energies,

Can be placed around areas to protect them

Commonly used in circles

Used in Curses

Can be made into salt scrubs 

Celtic Sea Salt- is a “moist” unrefined sea salt that is usually found on the coastal areas of France. It has a gorgeous light grey, almost light purple color; it is harvested from the clay found in salt flats. This salt has similar properties to regular sea salt however because it is a much more natural and pure salt its properties are enhanced especially protective and cleansing. It also tastes amazing and is filled with vital minerals, I also find that since it is moist it clumps together nicely making it easy to work with and shape.

Used in consecration

Purification, cleansing and removal of negative energies,

protective spells 

blessings

curses

soothing

great for cooking 

medicinal 

perfect in bath scrubs 

Black Salt- black salt is as the title says black or very dark in color. It is commonly available at magic shops, and is also very easy to make. Not to be confused with black lava salt or kala namak salts used in fine cuisine.RITUAL BLACK SALT IS NOT FOR CONSUMPTION!!!. This salt is easily the most protective of the four as it is great at Nullifying or returning negative energy.

protective

Banishing

fire energy,

can be used for darker earthly Elementals & Deities,

the Crone or Triple Goddesses

working  with the dark moon

Warding, uncrossings, and binding work

can be spread around doorways & windows to keep out evil

Himalayan Pink Salt- is a pure, hand mined salt that is from the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.  It is harvested from ancient sea salt deposits, it thought to be one of the highest quality and purest salts available. The salt ranges in hues from white to various shades of pink,  and even deep reds; this is the result of the salts high iron and mineralcontent. This salt has the most soothing and loving energizes of the salts and can be used for bringing about love. 

promoting love and friendship

promoting positive energizes 

Healing

cleansing 

spell bags 

baths or scrubs 

If working with salt keep in mind that it is a natural dessicating agent meaning it sucks all the water so if your working with it outside and are sprinkling it on the ground it will kill your grass and destroy the surrounding soil making it inhabitable for plants and such. 

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I was at our local bakery recently and came across a loaf of bread quaintly branded as a “Peasant Loaf”. It was selling for over $6—the irony of this was not lost on me. 

In retaliation I have decided to post what I actually think of as a peasant loaf, but with the luxury of finely ground modern flour which is less likely to break your teeth because actual peasant loaf bread is like chewing rocks unless you’re soaking it in soup or stew. 

This is a very simple loaf, it requires no special tools and is a fairly forgiving dough for beginners to work with. Also it has the added bonus of looking like an expensive artisan loaf, but costs literal pennies to make once you invest in the basic ingredients.

So what do you need?

Ingredients:

Plain flour (or wholewheat if you prefer)

One sachet of active dry yeast.

Salt.

Water.

Tools:

Bowl

Mug

Prep and bake time total: 2 hours 45 minutes.

Yep, that’s it. You’ll notice that there’s no quantities listed up there, and that’s because you’ll be using the mug to measure everything. This helps to make sure your quantities are consistent, and means that so long as you have a mug and your ingredients, you can make bread. Heck you don’t even need a bowl, it just makes clean up easier.

Again I had Elusive Tumblr Dad help me take the photos so be warned this is going to be fairly image heavy under the cut :D

Step One: Gather your stuff.

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A LESSON IN THE ARCANE: BASICS AND SAFTEY

The most important thing to remember when working with anything preternatural is Trust Your Gut. Magic is a science of instinct and association. Your eyes and ears are rarely used, navigate by what feels right.

BASIC CONCEPTS TO REMEMBER

1 - The older something is the more attuned it is. For example if a mage has a choice between working with a three year old tarot deck and a thirty year old deck, the older one will always produce better results.

2 - Natural materials are the best mediums for energy. Found wood, stone, feathers, twine. The less people who have touched it the better. I have generally found fallen Elkhorn to be the best readily available material. No human Ivory. You know why.

3 - You work in terms of sunrises. A sunrise is powerful unraveling force, most lesser enchantments will only last one or two sunrises before they have to be rebuilt. This can be designed around but requires extra time and energy.

PROTECT YA NECK

Your eraser is running water. Running water grounds most energies. Always have a bucket nearby.

If you are trying to talk to something, cover your face and be polite. Never say your full name.

Silver for the curses, lead for the spectral, iron for the fae, fire for anything that burns, faith for the demonic (a cross only works for a Christian, a star of david for a Jew, etc)

Magic is a study of balance. All comes at a price.

[elidark-at-dawn-blog]

Just a helpful little reminder!