hearthwitchhome

[hearthwitchhome]

Any good grimoire or witchcraft book should have at least a little bit of shit that makes you cringe. You don't get to learn about magic without the cringe factor.

Something something the difference between medicine and poison is dosage...

[hearthwitchhome]

one of the most infuriating things about becoming an adult is when you realize that it actually is 10x easier to solve problems by making a phone call vs literally any other communication method

[hearthwitchhome]

cottagecore but in an anti-capitalist living off the land, growing my own food with my queer partner kinda way and not the terf tradwife conservative kinda way

[hearthwitchhome]

In case no one told you growing up

Bras last longer if you let them air dry. Don’t put them in the dryer.

If you have a problem with frizzy hair, don’t dry your hair with a towel. It makes the frizzies worse. (I recently read an article that said to use a t-shirt? I brush mine out and let it air dry.)

Whites wash best in hot water. Everything else can be in cold - save on your electricity bill.

You can kill 99.9% of germs in a sponge by putting it in the dishwasher for a cycle or by microwaving it for 2 min (be sure to make the sponge damp before microwaving and to put a cup half full of water in with it and please DO NOT squeeze the sponge until it has cooled off)

Airing out your room/house and letting sunlight in every so often can decrease the number of household pests like silverfish and ants.

Black underwear is best during your period as stains are less likely to be visible.

To save money, put aside 10% of each paycheck into a savings account. It’ll add up.

Unless your hair has something on/in it (like grease or mud or something), using conditioner first can actually be the better choice. The conditioner holds in the good oils that help you hair look sleek and beautiful, which shampoo would otherwise wash away.

Speaking of shampoo - if you have long hair, washing just the bits that touch your scalp is generally enough. The rest of your hair gets cleaned with just the run off from your scalp.

If you put a tampon in and it’s uncomfortable/you can feel it, you didn’t do it quite right. A properly placed tampon is virtually unnoticeable by the wearer.

Apply deodorant/antiperspirant a couple hours in advance of when you need it. This gives the product the chance to block your sweat glands. Using deodorant just before going somewhere where you’ll sweat (this means walking outside for people in high humidity places) results in your sweat washing the deodorant off and starkly limiting its usefulness.

After running the dryer, use the dryer sheet from that load to brush out the lint catch - it gets everything off in a fraction of the time it’ll take you to get it clean with your bare hands. Paper towels also work well.

Wash your face everyday, or as often as possible. Forget which brand of cleanser is best. Just washing your face everyday will guarantee you clearer skin. And do you best not to pop pimples, as tempting as the urge may be.

Fold laundry asap after taking it from the dryer to avoid wrinkles. This may seem obvious for dress shirts and silly for things like t-shirts, but you’ll notice the difference even then once your shirts stop looking like unfolded paper balls.

[hearthwitchhome]

My Witchcraft Journey

When I was first learning about witchcraft at the age of 10 I thought that Wicca and having a coven was everything!

I unfortunately had no real guidance or mentors so I had dropped studying until I was 18. Even then I was on and off studying it and wasn’t taught a lot of basic practices because I didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t until I was in my early 20’s did it finally click and I tried to learn about spirituality more as I realised that Wicca wasn’t the right path for me.

I still believed that I needed a mentor to guide me and then life kept getting in my way so once again, I dropped my study. At 24 I managed to finally get more serious about my studies. I started learning shadow work and doing prompts, I was reading more, and I managed to heal my inner child through this! 💕

When I was almost 25 I had both of my hips and knees collapse on me. This was what the universe had been warning me would happen when I kept pulling The Tower, The Hanged Man, and pretty much every other card card which means “stop and rest!”. 🌙

A couple of months later my partner got me a new tarot deck for our 5th anniversary. I had been wanting a new deck because I could never connect with the deck I had completely. Through this I was able to fully immerse myself into my studies and into healing. 🌸

I had stopped caring about finding a mentor, about having a group to work with, and just focused on myself and my path. I was healing because I wanted to become my authentic self. It was then I realised that the solitary path was right for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love doing group meditation nights and working with others! I just don’t need that all of the time and I appreciate the times I do get to be in a group setting. I have made some amazing friends who are also spiritually inclined, and I managed to inspire my partner to finally start his own path into Occultism! 🥰

I find that the solitary path isn’t that lonely for me. I love having my own practice that’s special to me, and I love sharing my stories and experiences with those who understand witchcraft!

Fast forward to 2024 and my hips and knees are starting to get better through physiotherapy, I’ve become a lot more confident in my practice, and I’ve started to become a person that I love being. 🥰

A year and a half later and here I am! Things have gotten a little easier but of course, I still slip up sometimes. I’ve been studying my path consistently, I can see the improvement with my skills and confidence, and I was able to start this blog!

I still struggle sometimes but I keep trying and keep restarting when I realise I slipped up. ✨

That’s what healing through witchcraft is for me. It’s about being kind to yourself, having small low effort daily rituals to help you through the hard days, and bringing more love and happiness into your life.

[hearthwitchhome]

My Magickal Home

We're starting to settle into our new home and everything is basically completely set up - except for my Altar. The piece of furniture it used to be housed in is too large for the room I wanted it in, so it had to be repurposed elsewhere. (Although now it actually serves its intended purpose - it's a secretary desk that is currently being used for bills, mail, and packing supplies.)

Because of this transition, all my witchy supplies are just sitting in the plastic tote I moved them in, which makes me kind of sad. But at the same time, I lived with most of my supplies packed away in storage for a year, and I didn't have a space to work in at all during that time. I had a bare bones setup and was still able to practice a little bit.

During the year when most of my supplies were in storage, I was living with my family. I had a little display shelf with some witchy stuff and a desk drawer with a few tools. I mostly relied on Tarot reading and journaling during this time and didn't do much spellwork. Obviously, the most difficult part was being a Hearth Witch living in someone else's home. It felt like part of my practice was missing. Funny enough, even without my Altar set up in my current home, I feel like my practice is still whole, because my whole home is my sacred space.

My kitchen is where I prepare spells and food (although my husband does most of the cooking 😋). I perform cleansing rituals every time I clean. When I prepare my coffee, I infuse it with intention. I have a beautiful space to meditate and do my daily Tarot readings. My office is like a shrine to creativity and commerce for my business. I have witchy artwork all throughout the house, and Deity statues in their appropriate homes.

Although I don't have one single space to display all my witchy items, my home is still sacred and Magickal. Having to divide everything up has made me confront the whole idea of what you "need" on an altar. When you first begin your witchcraft journey, so many people emphasize the fact that all you need is your intention, and the rest is just a bonus. That point has really made itself known to me during this period of time.

I have tons of beautiful tools and adornments, but they are not as important to my practice as I am. If I'm not participating in the magick, it ends up just being stuff. And the funny thing is, the less tools I use, the more inclined I am to practice. There's no extraneous setup. There's nothing extra, it's just the bare essentials, and that's all I have ever needed.

My home and my hearth is an extension of me, and that's all I need.

[hearthwitchhome]

"I like to think that pets become domestic spirits. You know, like the Romans had. They're like sponges, when you think about it. Running around soaking up all the love in a place. I like to think that when they're dead and gone, all that love stays in that same shape."

[hearthwitchhome]

Local house witch telling you to please learn basic housekeeping skills.

It’s not your fault if no one ever taught you but YouTube is a magical place and can teach you at your own pace.

[hearthwitchhome]

DIY Crescent Moon Wreath

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sew-much-to-do: a visual collection of sewing tutorials/patterns, knitting, diy, crafts, recipes, etc.

[hearthwitchhome]

assorted spoons | giles newman

[hearthwitchhome]

Dandelions symbolize everything I want to be in life

[hearthwitchhome]

A while back ago I had a lil rant about the pagan/heathen/witch community and made this list with my friend about some problematic aspects about our craft/faith/practise or what ever you call it to help pepole who are new to it.

Idk if it any of worth or if anyone will bother to read all this but I hope its somehow helpfull for you new ones to this path.

(Pardon my 🇬🇧, im a 🇸🇪)

1. Not every polytheist does magic or has an intrest in it and thats ok.

2. Not every norse heathen knows runes or has to know every Rune and meanings to have a meaningfull relation to the gods and nature.

3. Not every raven is a sign of Odin, sometimes it just means you saw a raven and thats just as good if not better if you ask me.

4. Being able to quote havamal in old norse or know every myth and kenning of the gods is good. But does not mean you have a stronger spirital connection the land and the gods then those who dont know it all. It just means you are good at reading. And that in it self is something you should take pride in.

5. A good acorn and some dirt is just as good if not better than any long ritual with ancient chantings sourounded by a collection of crystals.

6. The pebble you find on a walk can shine just as fine on your altar, as the amethyst that was mined and payed for.

7. Your altar dont have to look Nice, it just need to feel Nice.

8. An offering dont have to be big to work. It just have to mean something.

9. Offering one loaf of bread you baked with your own two hands, is worth more than five loafs you payed somone to bake.

10. Just because a pebble dont have a story, does not mean it never had one. And just because a star has a story, does not mean its a good one.

11. If all nature is holy, that includes the parts you dont like or find nasty. Yes even ticks and spiders, mud and horrnets. No one said you had to like holy things.

12. Your body is a temple yes, but you and only you decides what rites and offerings are right the god within said temple.

13. You can still be a drunk horny ape and be spiritual.

14. No illustration of the gods is more corect or more true to their form.

But then there is no garantee everyone will see who its meant to be. And thats ok.

15. Doing spirtual junk and practise magic or healing does not make you more enlightened...

16. Just because you wrote a book about magic, healing and spiritual matters, does not make it a good book or you a good author.

17. Just because someone you look up to said it, does not make it more right. It just means they said it.

18. Making this list to remind the pagan/witch/heathen community to hummble them selfs does not make me better. Im also doing this to just remind myself. Im not better or wiser than any of you lot.

19. Dont ever expect to have your craft respected if you dont give that same respect back to others.

20. It does not matter how old or big your coven or group is. If it has toxic and harmfull parts that clearly hurt and or make pepole unhappy. Then its ok to criticize it. Age or size does not make it untuchble.

21. If a craft or faith says its all about nature but cant change its ways, then it has clearly missed a very important thing about how nature works.

22. Every rock is an altar and every forest is a temple.

23. For every horn of mead you offer to the gods, you should plant at least one seed.

24. If all in this world has a spirit and is alive, does not mean you cant take space and exist and live in it.

25. Its not about beliving. Its about to experience and to perceive. That if you ask me, is the core of animism and polytheism.

[hearthwitchhome]

[hearthwitchhome]

Witches don't owe you mundanity, actually.

Discussions about "mundane before magic" are important. I'm not against them.

When I was working full time, for half of the year I woke up before sunrise, worked all day indoors, and drove home after sunset. Being able to experience the weather felt like a truly magical event. Feeling the sun on my skin felt like a kiss from the gods.

And it's very handy for there to be awareness that, no, Apollo wasn't calling to me to be a devotee because the one day I was really stressed in December the clouds broke and it was sunny in the outdoor seating area.

Clouds just move sometimes.

But I am against people's need to come into conversations which are specifically about real magic that is happening, and say, "hold on! What if it's not happening, though? Rule out mundane first!"

It's actually fine for witches to have conversations that assume the reality of magic without people needing to barge in and say, "wait! What if this isn't magic at all?"

These conversations are not inherently unsafe or irrational.

The people participating in them are not automatically mentally ill or in need of medical treatment.

"Mundane before magical" is not a talisman that needs to be hung on conversations before they can be rational and useful.

It is not up to you to decide the route other practitioners want to take in order to explore their own experiences.

Sound bites about "ruling out mundane" aren't helpful if people do not understand how to practically apply that advice.

People are not obligated to trot out a list of their mundane discernment techniques before they make a magical post about magic in the magical community, and declining to do so does not mean that they failed to take those steps.

For heaven's sake. If you cannot comfortably exist around magical conversations without assuming that everyone else is engaging in irrational thinking, you are the problem.

Conversations about developing discernment of mundanity itself are very good and healthy.

But these talking points do not belong in every single conversation. Much less in personal posts where a person is just sharing cute photos of spells they did!

Look, practitioners do not owe you mundanity.

Practitioners do not owe you an explanation of the mundane shit they've done in conjunction with a spell.

Practitioners do not owe you an explanation of the mental health counseling they've received as part of their spiritual journey.

Practitioners are not obligated to tack on lip-service "mundane first :3" disclaimers onto posts that are clearly discussing the reality of magic within their own paradigm.

Magical practitioners do not owe you mundanity.

Please, make your own posts about mundanity discernment. Do research, ask practitioners, make well-rounded masterposts. Share and reblog these posts. Link them when appropriate. Be a part of the conversation that highlights these important issues and discernment skills. Contribute resources when people ask for help with their magical discernment.

But don't think that walking into any random post and asking OP why they assumed they had a magical experience is helpful in the slightest.

[hearthwitchhome]

Magic is truly all around you.

[hearthwitchhome]

me out loud: "magic does work and you should expect results! It's not just in your head!"

me under my breath: "holy shit I can't believe that worked"

[hearthwitchhome]

Blassed Yule to all who celebrate and a fortuitous solstice!