lunarhomewitch

[lunarhomewitch]

Being that helpful spirits may be absent, here are three ways to facilitate their presence

Have got a few people in the tags saying they vibe with this other post about my animistic views, so here's a tie-in with Witchcraft:

You know how in that other post I say that the spirit of Lavender isn't already present in the physical lavender, and that's why I have to call him? Well three things!

One, what you are doing when you lay a compass opening metaphysical roads and gateways that make it easier and less burdensome for spirits to travel to you!

Imagine you live in a hut in the middle of the woods with no roads leading to it. You could call a spirit to visit you and they could, but it would be a laborious journey for them because they have to hike across the rugged terrain.

But as a witch, you have the power to weave gossamer fairy roads that float upon the air like spider silk, scintillating in the moonlight, floating high above the clawing trees, dense underbrush, and slippery rocks.

Spirits can walk back and forth across these magical roads, making it easier for them to arrive much more fully to you by exerting the same amount of effort. Also, it's nicer for them!

The point of opening roads is to facilitate the movement of the spirits, so that they are not wasting energy just traveling, but may have more left over to help you with, or appear to you.

Two, one way to get Lavender fully present inside of the physical lavender is to carefully harvest the lavender under auspicious times, and using charms and techniques meant to preserve the spiritual power of the plant.

This is wild foraging magic - and it's a very powerful way of gathering and storing power so that it lives with you in the hut, and you don't have to call for the attention of faraway entities.

One way to think about going out and gathering magic in this manner is mushrooming. You know how those mushroom people are like, "wait until the weather gets warm and it rains, then a few days later look under fallen hardwood logs"?

It's the same thing when witches say "wait until midnight on a Saturday and go to the churchyard fence and sing this charm while you harvest a flower stalk."

It's the same in the sense that it's not arbitrary steps you have to do to prove you're more traditional. It's a map to instruct you how to find power that is only present sometimes!

The nature of magic is such that the datura growing on the graveyard fence may always be physically there, but its spiritual power may wax and wane. If you harvest the datura while it's spiritually hibernating (or if you harvest it in such a way that the spirit retracts itself and leaves your harvest inert), you are not necessarily harvesting something of power just because it's not commercially grown.

Three, if I have a really wonderful relationship with Lavender or I really like this spirit and would love to have it be a big part of my practice, I can go through the steps to request that Lavender enter my home and my life as a familiar spirit, a tutelary spirit, or a helper spirit.

You know how we live in a hut in the woods with no roads leading to it? Well I can build Lavender a room in my house so he can always just stay there with me - that room is a spirit house, spirit vessel, or shrine that you build which is dedicated to Lavender and is sort of like a permanent, hardwired road for Lavender to travel down.

In this way, every single time I want to call on Lavender, I do not necessarily have to lay a compass and open a road to call to him. That is because he has permanent access to my house, until such a time as I sever the relationship or remove the shrine.

With a big step like this undertaken, Lavender may then be available to help me in many more ways than just simple acts of sorcery - maybe by teaching me things, protecting and guiding me while I engage in spirit flight, becoming a guardian of my home, and so forth, while in return receiving the support, attention, appreciation, and care deserved by such helpful and venerable spirits.

[lunarhomewitch]

farming magic versus wild foraging magic

It's been on my mind a bit but I really think in Witchcraft, a lot of it is finding power. A LOT of it.

You know I talk about my system a lot, building relationships with ally spirits ("correspondences"), evoking and petitioning spirits, laying a compass, carefully storing and distributing energy between spells.

And this is all kind of like farming; you can learn how to cultivate the magical ecosystem around you to carefully seed, grow, harvest, and store power, and to make friends with the gods and spirits within and around this system who help you (or decline to hinder you, which is also very good).

This farming is good because it serves the same function as regular farming, i.e., it's hard work but it provides reliable and predictable resources available throughout the year.

But that's not finding power, that's farming it.

Several months ago I did one of the most powerful workings I had done in a while, which transformed my life. There was no evoking correspondences or compass laying or invocations or spirit offerings.

I found a free-flowing source of incredible power (an eclipse, and I found it by looking up), called it into myself, and asked that it do something specific.

No candles, incense, bells, talismans, or whatever: the actual technique I performed was extremely basic energy work.

The results were humbling, and continue to humble me, and I believe it is probably beyond what I would have been able to accomplish working only through 'farming'.

After all, I am a competent adult. I could build a fish farm. I could learn to keep it regulated and sustained to provide fish all year round.

But it doesn't matter how good of a farmer I am, I'll never be able to compete with the open ocean.

A lot of this stuff about Witchcraft techniques - if it seems like a lot, that's because it is a lot; it seems like hard work because farming is hard work, and it seems like you must plan ahead so much because farmers must plan seasons ahead.

But that's not all of Witchcraft, and homesteading your magic isn't just farming - it's wild foraging, too.

So if all this Traditional stuff seems a bit stuffy and laborious and lacking in spontaneity, perhaps it's good to ask if you're ever leaving the boundaries of your homestead and venturing out into the woods.

And all those planets and transits and holy days and plant lore and special tricks for foraging power without profaning it are not tedious rules, but maps that show pathways to wild foraging your own power, bringing great boons and benefits to uplift your seasonal farming.

[lunarhomewitch]

grimoire organization ideas 🔮

what is a grimoire?

a grimoire can be defined as a book of magical spells and invocations; sometimes used interchangeably with "book of shadows" but you can call it whatever you want.

what should i write my grimoire in / on?

a grimoire can be handwritten or typed, there is no wrong way to construct your grimoire. (for example, my grimoire is typed in a one note document but also stretched across many, many different notebooks and composition books)

what can i put in my grimoire?

about the author

favorites: color, magical tools, herbs, crystals

tarot birth card, astrology birth chart, personal beliefs, relationship with deities or other spiritual beings

basics 

intent

visualization

meditation

terminology

protection, cleansing, & banishing using various energies: shields & wards, circle casting / take down, protective amulets

enchanting items 

clockwise vs. counterclockwise 

other how-to’s, such as anointing items and dressing a candle

general correspondences

days of the week, lunar phases, colors, incense, essential oils, elements

correspondences based on intent 

protection, healing, cleansing, banishing, luck, wealth, love, emotions, mental clarity, psychic awareness, cursing, etc.

altar ideas

crystals

crystal grid designs, crystal correspondences & folklore, gem water / crystal elixir recipes, crystal care 

herbs, spices, plants, flowers, & trees

correspondences, edible vs. non-edible, botanicals with medicinal value, folklore, gardening 

divination

tarot, runes, pendulum, scrying, etc.

spreads

interpretations 

astrology

birth chart + traits, planetary correspondences, planetary hours, zodiac correspondences, moon / star / sun water

sigils & symbols

how to create, personal sigils, other symbols & talismans 

psychic abilities 

identification of personal abilities (clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairaudience, clairsentience, clairambience, etc.)

meditation techniques to strengthen abilities 

personal experiences

important dates

sabbats, wheel of the year, magical anniversaries, astronomical & astrological phenomena (meteor showers, planetary alignments, etc.)

recipes

food

potions (potions are edible and consumable liquids!!!)

beauty products: salt scrubs, sugar scrubs, lotions, lip balm

natural remedies: salves, ointments, balms, poultices 

cleaning products: floor washes, window cleaner, wood cleaner, etc.

powders

witchy crafts

glitter jars, witch ladders, wand-making, crystal jewelry, etc. 

spells & enchantments

sachets, spell jars / bottles, knot magic, candle spells, powder spells, curses, protective magic, etc.

magical goals

∘₊✧─────────────────────✧₊∘

good luck! ✨

© 2025 ad-caelestia

[lunarhomewitch]

Years End and New Years Tarot and Oracle Spread

This is a megaspread. It's no image, just text. Good luck, it's 78 cards long. I harvested questions from a few various spreads across the internet, and compiled them and added some parts of my personal flair. Please support the original spread creators!

Cards signified with [o] are meant to be oracle, but you can still use tarot.

SUGGESTION: Do it in the chunks indicated by space between lines. Return your cards to the deck after each chunk, instead of using the whole deck in a Grand Tableau style. Or do that, I'm not your boss. | Also, do it in chunks to spare yourself your energy if you need to! Like do one a day!

PART ONE - Year's End

01: Current Energies. 02: Unfinished Business. 03: Lessons Learned. 04: Obstacles to Overcome. 05: Areas of Completion. 06: Release and Let Go. 07: Gratitude and Celebration. 08: Guidance for Closure. 09: New Beginnings. 10: Personal Growth.

PART TWO - Months ahead.

11: January. 12: January Blessing. [o] 13: January Challenge. [o]

14: February. 15: February Blessing. [o] 16: February Challenge. [o]

17: March. 18: March Blessing. [o] 19: March Challenge. [o]

20: April. 21: April Blessing. [o] 22: April Challenge. [o]

23: May. 24: May Blessing. [o] 25: May Challenge. [o]

26: June. 27: June Blessing. [o] 28: June Challenge. [o]

29: July. 30: July Blessing. [o] 31: July Challenge. [o]

32: August. 33: August Blessing. [o] 34: August Challenge. [o]

35: September. 36: September Blessing. [o] 37: September Challenge. [o]

38: October. 39: October Blessing. [o] 40: October Challenge. [o]

41: November. 42: November Blessing. [o] 43: November Challenge. [o]

44: December. 45: December Blessing. [o] 46: December Challenge. [o]

PART THREE - Seasons ahead.

47: Winter - Tarot. 48: Winter - Oracle. 49: Spring - Tarot. 50: Spring - Oracle. 51: Summer - Tarot. 52: Summer - Oracle. 53: Fall - Tarot. 54: Fall - Oracle.

PART FOUR - What to Expect.

55: Hopes. 56: Dreams. 57: Creativity. 58: Career. 59: Money. 60: Business. 61: Love. 62: Relationships. 63: Travel. 64: Explorations. 65: Hearth. 66: Home. 67: Emotional. 68: Mental. 69: Physical. 70: Spiritual.

PART FIVE - Wheel of the Year. (If you own the Seasons of the Witch oracle seasons, use that, but if not, use tarot or another oracle as decided.) (You can also cut this part out if you don't celebrate the Wheel! Or view it as more seasons.)

71: Imbolc. 72: Ostara. 73: Beltane. 74: Midsummer. 75: Lughnasadh. 76: Mabon. 77: Samhain. 78: Yule.

Good luck! Happy reading!

[lunarhomewitch]

Crafts of the Witch Useful to Learn

Welcome to December 25th, here's some stuff about witchcraft to think about because you're on your phone looking for a distraction :)

So anyway here's stuff that's really useful to learn how to do before you actually need it because putting it all together for the first time on game day is stressful.

Creation and Desecration of a Poppet

A poppet is a deeply sympathetic representation of someone or something (usually another person).

According to the law of sympathy, whatever you do to the poppet will happen to the person it represents. You could cleanse and bless it, or smite it.

Poppets can be made in a wide variety of ways, from paper dolls, to clay figurines, to crocheted stuffies - anything you like. They also must be worked over magically to link them to their target.

The most ideal poppet is decorated to look very similar to the thing it represents, and is imbued with a taglock (such as hair, nail clippings, footprint dust, etc).

Learning Prompts:

The handicraft of creating the poppet - start with any arts and crafts you're interested in and see if they'll work for you

Practice making several poppets - you do not need to consecrate them. How easy is it for you to decorate it just like the real person? How easy is it for you to include taglocks?

Find a disposal plan. ""Voodoo dolls"" are steeped in public awareness; will it be safe for you to throw away the poppet in the trash when you're done with it?

Consecration or enlivening poppet as target. Find or develop a ritual to fill the poppet with magical life so that it becomes the target. Practice this once or twice (perhaps on a poppet of yourself, to cast blessings or prosperity magic on yourself)

Desecration or severing link. Find or develop a ritual to end the sympathetic link between the poppet and its target. Practice this once or twice.

Storage and tending of enlivened poppets. They are alive and they act like it. If you intend to have poppets sitting around for long-term spells or to use as-needed, you will need a system of storing them so that they "go to sleep" and remain undisturbed until you need them.

Consecration, In General

Here I mean "consecration" to be an act of magic which anoints an object as sacred unto a purpose, and therefore primed for magical use. In crude terms: you're making an object magical and giving it a purpose at the same time.

Consecration is a very useful thing to know how to do. In and of itself it can form a kind of minor enchantment (I consecrate this mug of oolong tea to be a potion of survival +1), but it can also prepare the way for powerful enchantments (I consecrate this ring to become a divine protector, ready to receive the powerful enchantment I soon cast upon it).

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor consecration spell which can be cast in under a minute. Strive to obtain one which is covert and can be done even in the presence of others. (Perhaps we could call this a 'cantrip'). Such a spell tends to be suitable for moving fate a few degrees over, or to dig a shallow pool in the tides of reality.

Find or create a hefty consecration spell. Consider what abilities or access you have that allows you to redefine the fate and purpose of an object. Contemplation of this spell can provide great insight into one's own belief and path. Such a spell may completely reorient fate, and carve new channels into the waterways of reality.

Practice minor consecrations on 5 different types of objects. Consecrating the tea, that's easy - stir it a few times. But how to consecrate a hairbrush? How to consecrate a mirror?

Practice major consecration twice, unto two very different domains. Perhaps a pepper oil of fiery smiting, and a crystal bracelet of deep soothing. This is an opportunity to compare and contrast the powers you raise when you work within different domains.

Desecration, In General; and Spell Reversal

To make profane; as in, to remove the magic from something and make it no more than a lump of physical matter, or a meaningless event like scattered dust on the winds of fate.

In my opinion, all witches should learn this - "don't raise up what you can't put down" also includes "don't enchant shit if you don't know how to undo enchantments."

To know how to nullify magic also means you can nullify unwanted and harmful things around you, and take the force and energy out of them.

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor desecration spell, one that you can cast on the fly and without tools or ingredients. Such a spell may be like a slapping a broom on a dusty rug; it will shake free things not tightly held.

Find or create a major desecration spell. Such a spell is like steam cleaning and shampooing a rug; it must remove every particle of magic and leave nothing behind but stripped fibers.

Practice minor desecrations 5 times in day-to-day life, targeting stank vibes and irritating situations that do not serve you.

Practice minor consecrations and desecrations 5 times by consecrating a stone, candle, etc., unto a magical purpose, and then removing the consecration.

Find an opportunity to cast a major desecration, which you may find the opportunity to do the next time the need for banishment comes up; or when sorting through old magical tools you no longer need, etc.

Find or create a solid spell reversal, one that you can use without having to have physical spell remnants on hand. Note that reverse to sender is not the same as nullifying your own magic.

Binding Divination Tools to Veracity, and Sundry Divination Management

Or if you like, binding veracity to divination tools. Binding is not baneful magic. Binding means to attach one thing to another thing, or to prevent something from being ways.

You can cast a binding on your divination tools to constrain them to only tell the truth, to truly peer beyond the veil, and only deliver what it can see; and never reflect your personal whims.

There's plenty of magic you can cast for your divinatory tools to make your life easier.

Prepare a binding spell to constrain a divination tool to only reflect the kind of truth you want. Do you want a tarot deck to only show your true state of mind? Do you want a set of runes to only read the will of the gods? Do you want your charm set to only read on the future, and not the past?

Find or create a protection spell to stop undue influence on a divination tool. This does not mean "evil spirits are manipulating your reading." Undue influence also means the strong emotions of querents, random psychic garbage, and the like; but it can also have an impact on the way you phrase questions and work with the tool itself.

Find or create a spell to enchant your tool as a magical seer/oracle. You can use a tarot deck out of the box, of course. You can also enchant it to be a magical object that obtains truth from mystical sources. Try it and see if you like the difference.

Find or create a charging ritual to revitalize your divination tools. This is a good opportunity to examine elemental energies; what kinds of energies are best suited to the purposes of divination and seeing beyond? The full moon is classically used for such purposes. Challenge yourself to recharge your divination tools once a month for 3 months, and see if you like the difference.

Blessing, In General

You have the power to generate and coalesce benevolent and helpful energies, and to distribute them into the world around you. You can bless anything you like, and perhaps the more the merrier; it's a very fine way to transform a space, and put love into the world.

Try considering blessings to have 2 parts; the first is to evoke a desirable force, and the second is to apply the force in a certain way: You could evoke the winter dawn as a blessing power, and then ask it to do something specific (provide a calm day, to make wise choices, to avoid bad traffic, etc).

Write your own minor blessing spell that you can perform in a minute or less. Try centering this blessing around a wonderful and benevolent force, whether it be a certain god, mushrooms, unconditional love, and so forth.

Write a separate minor blessing spell using a very different focus. Try the deep blue calming waters of the deep ocean, or the sprightly breezes of alpine hills, or the feeling of the first sip of a perfect bowl of soup; but make it have really different vibes from the first blessing.

Practice both minor blessings and see the difference. Challenge yourself to use each blessing cantrip 5 times. Try clustering the blessings to fill a space with that kind of energy (such as five items on desk blessed under the alpine breeze, and five items in the bathroom blessed under the deep ocean). Can you feel a difference in the spaces as you move in and out of them?

Write a major blessing using the various benevolent and lovely powers of your practice. This is another good opportunity to explore your practice. When you are in need of love, kindness, grace, and softness, what part of your path rises to meet your needs?

The Big Practice

Consecrate a poppet unto yourself. Bind and enchant a divination tool to be a powerful oracle of truth, and read on the most helpful equipment the poppet needs (RPG style: weapon, armor, familiar, potion?).

Whatever the answer, make a tiny container spell which serves the purpose. Consecrate it to be the tool that the poppet (you) needs.

Give the enchanted container spell to the poppet and cast a blessing on it, to be empowered with the new tool it has been granted in life.

Carefully store the poppet and its tool.

Periodically, perhaps between 1 to 6 times a year, recharge your divination tool and discern what new tools the poppet might need. Desecrate the old tool if you need to (or let them stack up), and consecrate new tools.

Keep the poppet and its tools for as long as you like, carefully severing the link between yourself and it when you're done with it.

[lunarhomewitch]

do you have any ideas on how to maybe get someone to understand how their actions hurt others through magic? do u think i could possibly write the request on a bay leaf and burn it and that would work (?)

I have no direct experience with the bay leaf wishing spell thing.

A classic solution is this:

Create a poppet of the person and trap it inside a mirror box, or have it face a mirror.

A mirror box can be handily created by carefully lining the inside of a small box (perhaps an old tea box) with tinfoil, shiny side reflecting inwards. Line all 6 sides.

If you use a mirror, any small mirror will do - perhaps one from a makeup compact, or a bulk mirror that can be bought for arts and crafts. But it should be small enough that you can put it up on a shelf with the poppet and have it be undisturbed.

Tell the poppet that it won't be allowed to look away until it's faced its behaviors and acknowledge what its done. Tell it that it may only close its eyes and rest when it's learned its lesson.

Of course, you probably ought define exactly what wrongs need to be acknowledged.

Leave the poppet in the mirror box, or facing a mirror, until the work is done.

You may determine the work is done through any variety of means; try wax scrying. Periodically, light a tealight or small candle to "wake up" the poppet and make sure it's filled with energy to do its work.

First, watch how the candle burns to see if omens may be gathered that way.

Second, when the candle is near the end of its life, drop the remaining wax into a dark dish full of water. If the candle is a tea light, pour the liquid wax; if a taper, turn it upside down and drip wax into the water.

Read the shapes that appear and interpret them to determine if the work has been done, or what stage the work is at; a handy symbol to keep watch for is an eye. An open eye may indicate realization, insight, and awareness; a closed eye may indicate the work is not done.

When the spell is done, desecrate and dispose of the poppet as desired; the mirror or mirror box may be saved for later use.

Additionally: You may find empowerment and catharsis in writing the person's wrongs directly onto the mirrored surface (perhaps with a sharpie pen), or on the reverse side; but don't block the mirrored surface with a piece of paper or anything else.

[lunarhomewitch]

Hiya Chicken, hope all is well with you! Something’s been on my mind and I would love your perspective.

The thrust of it is: can the will of the universe (if there is such a thing) override spellwork?

For context, I lost my job earlier this year, and have been working some magic to get re-employed (along with a metric shit ton of mundane legwork). None of it has been fruitful, and in attempting to troubleshoot, I realized that several of my spells had conditions along the lines of “this new job will serve my highest and best self.”

I’m still a novice at casting – frankly, I’ve not had much success with *any* magic (😞) – so I’m guessing the more immediately pertinent issue has to do with raising power/magical headspace. But, I’m curious if that nebulous “highest and best” would get in the way of producing results.

Also, where exactly does that language originate?? I think I’ve seen it when people talk about petitioning the universe for guidance, or getting in touch with your purpose/path in this life, but is that from a certain tradition or set of beliefs? And if everyone has a pre-determined purpose (or something else that counts as becoming your highest and best self), would including such a statement cause spells to fail if whatever you’re casting for doesn’t align with that purpose? Because real talk, my unemployment has run out and I don’t have time to wait for the highest and best job any more.

Thanks so much for your time, I appreciate you!!

It's New Age.

FUCK your highest/best self.

Even if it exists it can go suck a room temperature limp pickle.

Bear with me my guy. Let's be bears together, peacefully watching the sunrise of this idea over the serene forests of wisdom:

What in the good fuck is the point of being a witch if not to DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE SHIT UNIVERSE HAS DELEGATED FOR YOU.

It is changing fate.

It is CHANGING FATE.

WITCHCRAFT IS CHANGING FATE.

THEREFORE HOW CAN YOU DO THAT IF YOU JUST ASK THE UNIVERSE TO KEEP DOING WHAT ITS DOING?!

"Hi I believe in this life I have been assigned a True Goal and Best Outcome. I don't know what it is! The Universe could decide it's in my best interest to never escape poverty so my soul can learn some shit. But whatever this Best Outcome is, I will obey it :) blindly :) Spells, go do my bidding! But not if they change my fate. I'm on those train tracks, baybeee. Full speed ahead towards the same place I've been going since birth."

YOUR SPIRITUALITY FOR HOW YOU CHOOSE TO STRIVE TO BE A GOOD PERSON, AND THE PERSONAL WORK YOU DO TO BETTER YOURSELF, SHOULD PROBABLY BE INTENTIONAL I BET.

What is your highest good? Because I kind of feel like you shouldn't leave that up to a nebulous force you don't understand. My guy, and I mean this in the best possible way, you don't even know the widely popular faith (New Age) these beliefs are coming from. I don't think you understand this concept of The Universe; and yet you seem to be willing to place your fate in its hands.

And I think you may also be horrified by the realization that you are ceding autonomy of your ambitions, your goals, your needs, even the very core of your morality, to some fucking Power or Presence or whatever.

What is your highest good? I'm sorry, I mean this genuinely - you do not get to let someone else decide that for you. We all have to read some philosophy and smoke weed and look at the stars with friends and decide for ourselves what it means to be a good person who lives well. Many of us will grapple with this our entire lives.

There is no shortcut. You can't be your best self by doing whatever you want and delegating the decision making to some outside force, hoping that a smarter and more benevolent power will just cancel out any bad decisions you make based on a rubric you don't understand.

If we do have Highest Selves and soul evolution, I do not believe we can evolve based on always letting someone else make the final call for us.

YOU CAN HAVE GUIDANCE. You can have help. You can have plenty of it!!

That's what the witch's familiar is for. That's what tutelary spirits are for. That's why so many people turn to gods for guidance. You can research someone, or ask for a specific kind of help, and say, "hi I want to cast a job spell but I don't know sorcery great, can someone help me craft this so that I don't end up doing something disastrous?"

That's what I do all the time! I'll be about to do some stupid shit about twice a week, but the spirits who love me and help me are like, "Hey! please do not do that sweaty :) That would be Bad," and I listen to them, because they are not nebulous faraway forces; they are my very good friends whom I have known for years and trust completely.

But at the end of the day, they can't make decisions for you. A very creepy truth, that I believe is actually true, is that gods and spirits of Witchcraft will not make decisions for you. They will not cancel out spells if it's not in your "highest good." They will let you do anything you want in your own worst interest.

They will help you and they will guide you. But it's like I said: you can't end up being your best self by doing whatever and hoping someone else picks up the slack.

I don't think it's possible to ever achieve any highest good or best self by never making an actual decision.

And that's what it is, I think. That's what it is when you say, "let me have a job if someone else thinks it's a good idea."

That's not your decision. That's not your choice. That's not your power. That's raising your hand in the back of class and hoping teacher will call on you.

Fuck the Universe. Fuck the highest good. How about some of that live deliciously shit? When do YOU get to eat? Your highest self must be stuffed at the table of delicacies harvested from every moment of your life that you sacrifice to it while you are here with your unemployment run out.

Look in The Universe's eye and tell it to start calling you daddy.

Command. Do not ask, do not intend. Force; compel. Dominate.

next I visualize that the candle is full of prosperous energies if Earth-Goddess wills it in my highest good- NO.

"Listen to me. Listen to me, Earth. Listen to me, Sky. Listen to me, my own Soul. For 27 goddamn years I have been doing whatever I think you want me to do. Now you're all going to do what I want to do. It is not my normal voice that speaks, but the voice of my power. The power within me laces every word, it seeps into the air like water into paper."

Do you feel like someone is suddenly squeezing you by the throat? Do words suddenly become hard to find? Do you feel a bit dizzy? Do you have a strange moment where you can't remember why you started any of this, like you're not sure how you got there? You're on the right track.

"On this day of Jupiter, on this hour of Jupiter, I am giving a command. I command that the magical pathways of this candle be opened, so that the free-flowing and freely given benevolent powers of Jupiter will empower and charge my spell."

(Do not command Jupiter, of course. We're engaging in a little courageousness, not trying to get struck by lightning)

"I do not need to visualize the movement of energies. I know the truth because I have commanded the truth and I am a creator god born into this flesh: The candle is filled with the power of a God, I have the ability to channel the freely-given power of one of the Seven Governors whom has been worshiped by humans since the start of time, it is here and I have claimed it as is my right, as was offered to me:

This candle spell will bring me the fate I desire, because I have designed that it will occur, and no god, spirit, beast, or man will stand in my way."

It should feel fucked up, my friend. It should give you stage fright. It should make your palms sweat and your stomach queasy. It should give you the same emotional sensation as having a heartbreaking conversation that you know will change a relationship forever.

Sorry, reality. Sorry, fate. It's just not working out. And since we can't get divorced, you two need to shape up your act because right now I'm in charge of this polycule. When the spell is over, we can be equals again.

And if you do it right, it should make you have to sleep for probably about a week. If your health allows it of course, I recommend not trying to restrict carb intake for the next few days. Keep headache medicine on hand also.

Thank you for being a bear with me. I hope you enjoyed this serene forest of wisdom.

[lunarhomewitch]

When deciding what the properties of a crystal are, please do yourself a favor and look up why. WHY is obsidian associated with cutting ties with things or reflection? Ohhhhh it’s because the Aztecs used it as sacrificial knives and reflective mirrors. WHY is rose quartz associated with love? Ohhhhhhhh because the goddess of Love (Aphrodite) had a lover who bled out onto the stone. WHY is amethyst- ok you get the point. Context is EVERYTHING. Otherwise it’s just meaningless regurgitation of concepts missing their original relevance. Then, after you figure out why they are associated with certain attributes, decide for yourself if you subscribe to this. If YOU feel a difference in energy then obviously use it differently.

[lunarhomewitch]

Cleansing: A Bit

There is sometimes still an issue about whether or not a person can use white sage for cleansing, and this is often based off misinterpretation. You can use the herb, but it is not smudging. The reason it is not smudging is because you do not know the rituals, the methods needed in order to do smudging.

White Sage, however, became a part of occult consumerist culture. This can be seen as part of the tradition-culture struggles in which a person in an assimilated culture does not have their sense of identity or root identity. So, they seek out their identity in other cultures and in pursuit of 'ethnic' or 'exotic' cultures. This forms a part of spiritual materialism, our culture or origin is lost in an assimilation of consumerist culture and we look to remedy this emptiness in other areas of life.

So, White Sage became an extension of consumerist occultism. That meant that it was exploited, smaller business, especially native businesses, were overshadowed. Sustainability and bio-regional occultism was replaced with monetary occultism. One of the spiritual tenets of bio-regional occultism is a spiritual affinity to the land, and this means respecting its spirit, its laws and its distribution. The Holy One provides as required, not as exploited. We are given the wisdom of the land are expected to maintain it.

With that in mind, some people still don't feel comfortable with the usage of white sage, even if it is sustainably sourced from Pow Wows, Native Sellers or persons who sourced it from Native Sellers or sustainable sources. So, I wanted to talk a bit about the cleansing and clearing with plant materia.

Not all herbs are made for cleansing. Some have spirits that cleanse in ways that are not just 'removal'. Sometimes, a herb is more like preventative medicine. Others are herbs that make a space more conducive to benefic energies and inhospitable to malefic energies.

Some plants act like absorbers, taking energy into themselves. Others are spears, they block out energy or prevent it from coming in. They're apotropaic, cactus plants are generally spear like spirits, and Snake Plants are good examples of absorbers.

Salt is another absorber. Red Chili is a spear plant, and can be roasted on a pan and on the stoop to prevent the entrance of unwanted forces. Limes are an absorber, but they also act as a spear.

The spear can be directed inwards or outwards. The inward spear is often plants that absorb and trap energies. For example, an onion takes energy into itself and the layers act like cages which hold or confuse the spirit.

Rice is an absorber, but doesn't have a spear. It absorbs energy but doesn't have as much of a martial energy as other items. A bowl of salt, vinegar and holy water is a good example of mixing Spears and Absorbers. The Salt takes in. The Vinegar traps and binds. The Holy Water transforms and consecrates.

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If you like what you see and want to support the creation of similar content, pleases feel free to check out my Ko-Fi here!

[lunarhomewitch]

Avenues of Spellcraft

Spellcraft as Theistic Mystery:

"Lord, make me an intstrument of your peace." - The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Each ritual becomes the embodiment or contemplation on the multifaceted avenues of Gd. For example, a prosperity ritual becomes a meditation on Divine Providence. Curses become representative of Divine Severity. These often presented to the deity in the form of a case and accusation rather than an actual curse. In a similar fashion, a ritual to attract a desired outcome is the ritual meditation on the form of Gd as attracting and binding as compared to banishing, which is Gd as repelling.

Spellcraft as Hypersigil or Pentacle:

Although intent matters as a motivation, the ingredients and preparation of a spell are often the child of the intention. They are the physical image and language of an abstract concept. We use the color orange to resonate with Mercury's energy. In a ritual, it is then adjective and noun denoting a ritual as being mercurial. Every ritual is then akin to a letter or pentacle where the ingredients, prayers, and timing form parts of its sentences and punctuation. It relays a message to the spiritual force.

Spellcrafting as Sympathetic Magic:

Spellcraft as sympathetic magic relates to the above. By virtue of the ingredients, items, and invocation, we create a sort of Poppet and Servitor which represents our abstract desire in a manifest form. It is the plant of an astral seed and an astral seed for a manifest plant.

Akin to sympathetic magic, a ritual fulfills the idea of "whatever I do to x will happen to y". Since we are praying for the creation of a desire, we are affecting x (the ritual as focused desire) so as to affect y (the result as manifest desire or potential manifestation).

[lunarhomewitch]

id love to have more servitors but im shit as remembering to feed/charge them on a routine!! any tips for ways to have them “automatically” fed somehow?

Inb4 "set a repeating alert."

There are a few methods you can take. For me it basically comes down to a few options:

Permanently plug in the servitor to an energy source

Plug all the servitors into a power strip so you charge all of them at once

Plan ahead and prepare vessels and energized substances so each feeding is easier.

The first approach is to design (or later modify) servitors so that they're plugged into an energy source. This is like leaving a phone constantly plugged in: on the one hand, the servitor becomes tethered to the energy source. On the other hand, it's always charging.

This old tumblr post is still my go-to online resource for this.

There is some fuss about servitors becoming "corrupted" if you attach them to energy sources and walk away, the idea being that new programming can flow through energy, and so over time - if you are not monitoring the servitor - they can start to change in unwanted ways.

I find this to be sort of true, but "corruption" shouldn't be taken as some kind of evil Jekyll and Hyde situation. Probably a better word is fragmented, but even so the effects aren't all that bad in my experience. And I doubt a very well constructed servitor, even a decently made one, would have too many issues with this.

The only real issue I have with plugging servitors (or anything) into an energy source so you don't have to remember it, is that you might forget it.

One thing you can do to keep things more hands-on is centralize the operation. Witches do this all the time with spellcasting altars. Bind each servitor to an object, or all of them to a single object (like extension cords plugged into a power strip), and energize all of them at once.

This can be done cyclically, perhaps around the full moon, but especially when you anticipate actually having the time/energy to do work.

Of course there is nothing at all wrong with just slotting in magic where it fits, but if someone has a lot of work they need to upkeep, I imagine sooner or later a person might actually need to free up one weekend a month to focus on it.

But you don't have to rely on direct energy work to feed servitors. Here's a post on making a feeding oil to anoint vessels, where you spend all the energy enchanting the oil in one go.

This other post about feeding spells may also be applicable (as what is a servitor but a spell with a personality?).

If you do just want to slot things in where they fit, excess energy gathered during other spellwork, energy exercises, prayer, and so forth, can then be used to charge servitors. Of course only you'd know if the energy is suitable for such, but you could do it. If grounding is a part of your practice, funnel energy into servitors rather than into the earth.

So there are plenty of options IMO, but if you do want to start doing things automatically, I'd really recommend keeping strong written records of what you're making. These things are best not completely forgotten.

[lunarhomewitch]

"When you work spells, how do you deliver them to their target? What techniques and methods do you employ to make sure they can get to where they need to go?"

What part of the spell would this be? The sealing it?

I'd wager somewhere beforehand, during the "programming" phase, or while you direct/teach/instruct the energy to do what it is you want it to do.

Banishing spell for rude customer:

>Charged red peppers >Charged candle >Some olive oil to stick the peppers to the candle (ventilation concerns already taken care of) >Used napkin cleared from customer's table (perhaps more likely, little notecard filled with every bit of identifying info you can manage) At some point you combine all of these things. Try starting your targeting at the very beginning. Ofc I don't know how you work, but like:

"These red peppers are to burn Craig, *reading from notecard* the customer who comes into [Sandwich Shop] every weekday at 12:45. *Visualizing his stupid smarmy face and feeling all your disgust*. This man I see in my mind's eye is who I target. This feeling of disgust is the road that leads to the man I banish.

"Just as I bind the peppers to the candle, so do I bind the spell to Craig. Just as Craig inevitably orders a turkey on rye, so does this spell inevitably chase him from the doorstep of [Sandwich Shop]."

(Or maybe you've got a really excellent taglock like the napkin. Well I'd still say do all of the above; I really focus on targeting, I think it works well! But then if you had the napkin, maybe:)

"As I rub this napkin on the oil-free candle I have yet to anoint with peppers, the spell sniffs his scent like a bloodhound; as his gross fucking mouth touched this napkin so will his mouth burn with the disgust I feel towards him, and his mouth and hands will burn when he thinks of [Sandwich Shop], and he will never return." Regardless of what you have for targeting, whether it be information or a nice taglock (you can be creative also - sweeping up their footprint dust, or sticking up some dust on a piece of tape; capturing their shadow in a mirror, printing off their linkedin profile, etc.), I find the following tricks to also help:

Place any taglock, including a notecard of information, nearby the spell as possible. Of course we couldn't put the napkin on the candle, so just place it underneath the candleholder, or incorporate it in any way possible (drawing a sigil on the napkin, etc).

Deploying the spell as close as possible to the target's physical location. In many situations it is reasonably impossible to leave a spell vessel near to someone. But I would not fuck with any witch who finds Craig's car in his work parking lot across the street and tapes a sigil underneath the tailpipe, or leaves a broken stick with a string tied around it near the entrance to his office.

(Imagine anon if we only did this work during the spell sealing. "Now that I've created a totally generic banishing spell, by the way, this all goes to Craig, that guy I hate. Here is when he comes into the shop:." It has far less zing, although it can be done.)

[lunarhomewitch]

So, every Winter Solstice, I do a simmer pot to enliven my space, cleanse the air, and enhance happiness and luck for the coldest months of the year. It's also a solid offering to my spirits, giving them a nice boost of energy at this time of year.

I always try to make the simmer pot edible also. I like to be able to drink the results!

This year, I'm switching things up a little bit. I'm gonna be experimenting with ingredients I don't usually use to see how it goes! I'm also doing this in the morning instead of in the afternoon to make more time for feast preparations!

Here's what I'm putting in my pot and what it's for:

Enough water to float everything safely, adding more as it evaporates throughout the morning

Sliced apples - Love, happiness, luck

Sliced oranges - Happiness, sun energy

Lemon juice - Cleansing, joy, sun energy

Cranberries - Health, protection from illness and misfortune

Cinnamon sticks - Happiness, fire energy, wealth

Cloves - Warmth, fire energy, luck, protection from misfortune

Brown sugar - Sweetness, happiness, love

If I wasn't planning on drinking some of this, I'd include pine needles -- I don't love the taste, and I want to enjoy this!

The idea is to fill a pot with water and gently add all the ingredients. Then, bring it up to heat and let it simmer on low heat for as long as I like, adding water as it evaporates. Once it's nice and steamy, I'll take a cup of it and carry it around my apartment to flick small amounts of fragrant water here and there.

And even if it's cold, I'll open up the windows for a few minutes to let the air flow. It's so important to keep air moving in the winter; otherwise, it gets stagnant and stale, and it makes me feel worse.

I don't usually, but I think this year, I'll also use it as a wash for my front door. We could definitely use a boost in luck and protection and joy for next year!

[lunarhomewitch]

Jasper's Servitor/Thoughtform Resource Post

last updated: December 6, 2024

Please note: The biggest difference between a servitor and thoughtform is the level of sentience (or perceived sentience). A servitor is not sentient, while a thoughtform is. Determine it as you will.

Also, a disclaimer! Even if I don't find a source particularly helpful, you might get more out of it than I did! I just like to categorize and sub-categorize things.

Tumblr Posts I Find Helpful

How to Make a Servitor by viadescioism: A rather straightforward guide on servitor creation.

Creating a Thoughtform by windvexer: A decently lengthy guide on thoughtform creation.

When Creating Thoughtforms by witchesalleyway: A little reminder about picking the shapes of your thoughtforms.

Technowitchcraft - Thoughtforms by aceswitch: A post with the idea of using a USB drive as the "body" of a servitor/thoughtform to allow for future edits.

Egregore by trustmepink: An extremely short post defining what an egregore is. Great for being introduced to the word and concept, though there's not much meat in the post and the sources/helpful links are a bit questionable.

Sigils: Scribbles to Forget or Spirits to Remember by witchofsouthernlight: While not about servitor creation, this is about reusing sigils for specific goals and how those can be spirits in an animist perspective. A really neat post overall and useful here because of the way that servitors are often tied to sigils.

Entity Creation Worksheet by jasper-pagan-witch: Adapted from Creating Magickal Entities, but altered to a decent extent so it's more helpful to me personally.

Servitor Design Template by ritual-and-chaos: Adapted from Servitor Magick, extremely straightforward with an explanation. A great alternative to my adaptation of the template from Creating Magickal Entities.

Chaos Magic: Servitors, Thoughtforms, and Godforms by trollkunnig: Incredibly in-depth and detailed when it comes to servitor creation, but since OP deactivated, the links in reference to the godform parts are broken. Damn the loss of information on the Internet!!!

Destroying Your Thoughtforms: by viadescioism: A fairly detailed (if a little wall-of-text-y) post on the destruction of the thoughtform, with a guide in case you didn't build a kill switch/phrase into your thoughtform to begin with.

Thoughtforms: Theory & Ethics by spiritvexer: A good companion post to the thoughtform destruction one above, giving a few alternatives to total destruction for the thoughtforms when you no longer need them.

Thoughts on Thoughtforms by spellsandwoo-woostuff: An insightful read into another approach to thoughtforms as OCs or writing muses given life rather than spells given sentience.

Basics of Servitor Creation and Implementation by majokkid: Part of majokkid's Magi Praxis series, this goes over the basic steps of servitor creation in a way that is straightforward, easy to understand, and works well even beyond magical girl-aligned practices.

Books And Websites I Find Helpful

Condensed Chaos: An Introduction To Chaos Magic by Phil Hine: While this is a chaos magic 101 type book, it has an incredibly robust chapter on servitor/thoughtform creation. It also has the benefit of talking about chaos magic more broadly to give you more context for servitor/thoughtform creation. You can find my initial thoughts on it here. APPLICABLE PAGES: 106 to 125, under the chapter name "Chaos Servitors"

The Forty Servants, The Four Devils, and The Grimoire of The Forty Servants by Tommie Kelly: Two pre-made servitor systems that are incredibly in-depth and, in my opinion, quite fun to use. There's a little bit of plug-and-play applicable here.

Magickal Servitors: Create Your Own Spirits to Attract Pleasure, Power and Prosperity by Damon Brand: It is effective, straight to the point, and actionable. But interestingly, it's incredibly combative towards chaos magic, which is where servitor/thoughtform creation sprung up to begin with. You can find my initial thoughts about it here.

Tumblr Posts I Find Less Helpful

Creating a Servitor and Creating a Thoughtform by witchy-oates: These guides aren't bad, but they really seem to focus on the fear that a servitor will spontaneously develop sentience, which I generally disagree with.

Is Your Spirit A Thoughtform? by elysiumconjures: A lengthy questionnaire and list of red flags that an entity you're interacting with might be a thoughtform. Personally I found it frustrating to read, but the list can at least guide beginners who are still learning discernment techniques to figure out what to look for.

On Telling The Difference Between A Thoughtform And A "Real" Spirit by creature-wizard: The counter-post to the above one, though you kind of need to see both perspectives to fully appreciate creature-wizard's wonderful counterpoints.

Distinguishing Imaginary Friends, Thoughtforms, and Spirits by spiritconnect: Another post about deciphering whether what you're talking to is a thoughtform or some other kind of entity.

A Short Guide to Thoughtforms by thewitchofbucktown: Longer than it promises, and I personally don't feel like referring to all deities as thoughtforms is something that works with my understanding of things at this time, but not a bad post considering it was written 11 years ago. Plus, OP hasn't deactivated, which is really hard to find in servitor/thoughtform resources.

Servitors: A Basic Guide to Artificial Entities by tinyrosemarysparrows: While this is a very detailed guide with some interesting and unique approaches to servitor creation, the author dropping back to "destroy if it even blinks wrong" (not that much of an exaggeration) makes me hesitant to recommend it fully, hence its placement down here. The post even says you can reprogram servitors but still recommends immediate destruction for every little thing, so…it's not really how I roll.

Books And Websites I Find Less Helpful

Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation by David Michael Cunningham, Taylor Ellwood, and T Amanda R Wagener: I hated this book so much. Out of everything in here, I found only four things that were actionable and that I could use. Every single author here was pretentious as fuck and took forever to make their damn point. This could have been an email. You can read more of my complaints here. The three parts that I found most interesting can be read in these Tumblr posts of mine: Servitors as Links; Energy Store-House Entities (ESHEs); and Servitor Biographies.

Protection & Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual by Jason Miller: I can't fucking believe I'm putting a Jason Miller book here. And look, I can't say this entire book is helpful because I haven't yet finished it, but the section on artificial spirits created for magical offense and defense? Probably one of the best sections on servitors/thoughtforms I've read in a non-dedicated book in a while. Just be aware that his tone of speech is deeply annoying, and this book of his leans more Hekatean. But because I have not finished reading this book, I cannot recommend this book fully. APPLICABLE PAGES: 119 to 146, under the chapter name "Spirit Guardians and Servitors"

Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation through the Ovayki Current by Andrieh Vitimus: I hated this book. I hate this book. I will hate this book. It's deeply frustrating and there's only so many times I can keep writing "stop citing a white woman on hoodoo" in the book itself before I just start eating the pages. That, and many similar problems, are why I do not find this book helpful on the whole despite how in-depth it goes in its three chapters on servitor creation. The author also refers heavily back to Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine, so that's required reading before you even pick this up. Personally, I'm just not impressed. APPLICABLE PAGES: 287 to 339, under the chapter names "Creating Entities with Energy and Information", "Giving Form to Concepts and Ideas", and "Advanced Practicum on Entity Creation"

Jasper's Miscellaneous Bullshit

Jasper's Energyform Zine by jasper-pagan-witch: I suffered for two months to write this damn thing and by the gods I shall shill it.

Jasper's Guide To Energyforms by jasper-pagan-witch: A little glossary of how I, personally, use the terms you've seen speckled throughout this post.

The Modal Commander Servitor by jasper-pagan-witch: A Magic: The Gathering Commander format approach to creating a kickass servitor that can change and adapt as easily as swapping out cards.

Atronachs, Ash Guardians, and Quick Notes on the Less Common Atronachs on @the-college-of-whispers: Want a quick look at how Jasper from 3 years ago approached the idea of elemental Daedra as entities, both created and summoned? These three posts are for you.

@jasper-and-the-forty-servants: Remember how I was talking about the plug-and-play part of the Forty Servants above? Yeah, that's what I do over on this blog. My favorite two are, hands down, Falco Spara, Pactweaver as the Protector and Dina, Soul Steeper as the Healer.

GOFLOWOLFOG and Fotamecus: Two servitors/egregores that I and people close to me have had incredible experiences with. Hell yeah to both of them.

Mesperyian: Tumblr's very own Greek goddess egregore. An excellent study in the power of multiple people taking something and running with it. (Her original story can be found here, by the way!)

[lunarhomewitch]

Hi, Chicken!

Perhaps a silly question, but maybe you know: is the chemical composition of stones (regular rocks picked up on a beach, or in a forest) somehow important in spells? Can I just use them in a protection spell if I associate them with something solid and safe? Or can I use a rock whose shape reminds me of the moon in a spell related to the moon?

I'm not really into crystal magic, but I like picking up pretty rocks and putting them on my windowsill, so I thought about using them.

Good morning! You can certainly do anything you like. Here is some theory you may find to be helpful.

We might consider that any object can have three bodies: its physical body, it's mental body, and its astral body. (this is an oversimplification).

These bodies stack together like matryoshka dolls. The physical body is the anchor that holds the mental body, and the mental body is the harbor that accepts and shelters the astral body.

The physical body is just as you describe in your post: the chemical composition and the shape of the rock.

Many rocks found in the forest or beach only have a physical body, and do not have mental or astral bodies,

The mental body is something people create by assigning meaning and possibility to the rock.

The mental body can be thought of as a gossamer vessel nestled within an object that can hold the even more subtle energies of astral (magical) power.

The concept of adding a mental body to something is more or less the same thing as "programming" or "setting intent."

Physical body: Rock that looks like a moon Mental body: "This rock looks like the moon, therefore it's good at hosting lunar energies." Astral body: Lunar energy channeled into the rock, filling the mental and physical bodies like sand filling up a shapely glass bottle

In this paradigm, the process of developing and setting the mental body is vital for acts of magic; in fact, if you're in a rush, you can skip the physical altogether.

Technically - and to actually answer your question, Anon - you can apply any mental body to anything and it will work, at least for a little while.

Specifically, all mental bodies last until they are worn down and eroded by the astral ecosystem, and the ecosystem of human thoughts (as, after all, all humans can create mental bodies - not just practitioners).

if the mental body is in harmony with its physical body, then the physical body provides support that shelters the mental body. This is like building a swimming pool at the bottom of a natural basin.

The natural curve of the land holds and supports the cement. But even if the swimming pool cement cracks, the water isn't going anywhere fast - the physical environment of the construct supports its purpose, so the effects of the construct last much longer without maintenance; and the rain supplements water in the natural basin anyway.

If the mental body is rooted in a hostile or unsupportive environment, it will fade much more quickly. This is like building a swimming pool at the top of a precarious volcano. Yes, you can do it. And it will hold water. But the extreme environment of the volcano heat cracks the cement, and when the cement cracks the water will spill out and tumble away. It may rain, but the pool is not at the bottom of a basin to collect rain - it will only get what falls right into it.

When people talk about "you don't need any tools or ingredients, all you need for magic is yourself and your energy," in my praxis what they are probably saying is, "you don't need the physical body of objects; you can skip that and work only with mental structures that you directly energize."

And this is true. You can attach mental bodies to anything, regardless of their suitability to host that type of magic.

If all of this is true, then which found rocks are the best for any given purpose?

I think starting with rocks that you associate with things (like solid protection, or the moon) is a very good start.

Work enough with found objects and perhaps you will find a system developing for yourself; rocks with a bluish tint always seem well-suited for hosting the Moon, and big heavy black rocks with mica sparkles always seem best for protection, and so on.

However, more work can always be done.

In my opinion, the single most impactful thing the average practitioner can do to increase the power and efficacy of a spell is to just decorate the physical spell vessel in alignment with the spell intent.

If you have a nice sturdy rock and you paint a protective symbol on it, then the mythical landscape of that rock changes. It becomes an environment more in harmony with a protective mental body.

Please forgive me as we delve here a little deeper:

What is the ideal form of your protective spell? Should it be like a placid moat that becomes infinitely wide and confusingly misty for intruders?

This is different from a protection which is like a goat made of fire which has a battle scream and headbutts intruders.

These two protections ought to have different physical bodies, because they are very different things.

Still you would choose the rock based on initial impressions: "doesn't this rock sort of remind you of an angry goat?"

But then you can take it home and paint it.

The symbols you choose for the placid moat might include the color blue, long waving lines, the alchemical symbol for water, and the symbol of the moon to represent illusions; words themselves make good decorations, as do sigils. (Painting the physical body with a symbol that directly translates into the mental body... a good decoration, I think).

All of these decorations terraform the mythical landscape of the stone to prepare it to hold the mental construct. And indeed, as you decorate the stone, you are also simultaneously building the mental body.

But you don't necessarily need to create permanent changes. Using knot magic and tying up the stone in a net, adding it to a jar or pouch with other ingredients, or placing it on top of specially prepared sigils or artwork can also function as decorations that modify the physical body.

Then, when the time for enchantment comes, I hazard your found stone will make a significantly better protection than someone who just bought and cleansed some celestite off of Etsy.

But what about the chemical composition of the stone? There are always attributes in any object we can't change.

Stones are slow and heavy. To me, at least. I'm never going to decorate a stone hard enough that it doesn't make a spell slower and heavier.

But at a certain point, the details become fine enough that they stop having an impact.

What if the refined white sugar I use is beet sugar, not cane sugar? What if the sugar beet was from a heritage cultivar, not a modern one? What if the cultivar of the beet was genetically modified? What if the package of brown sugar from beets is dark brown sugar, not light brown sugar?

To me, it's brown sugar.

To me, it's a heavy black rock with some mica in it.

You can go all the way down if you want. You can get really into isotope witchcraft, that would be cool.

But once I paint a big red X on it, I believe most of those fine details are superseded.

And even if you don't want to modify the physical body at all, you can attach a mental body to anything.

Once you develop your path enough to get symbols that directly link the physical to the mental (like, wolves mean protection, and red means protection, and an X means protection), you can start to really modify physical vessels to very closely match the intent of the spell.

And when the physical vessel and the intent are totally harmonized, and you add magical/astral energies that are lockstep with intent and form, the floodgates are opened and magic starts flowing through in very powerful ways.

But not all spells need to be like powerful, raging rivers.

You can dig a pond into any object, and fill it with energy. If it's a bad spot you will probably have to keep reconditioning the pond and hauling water to it, but it'll still work.

[lunarhomewitch]

Long Distance Friendship/Relationship Spell

A spell to help maintain a long distance friendship or relationship between consenting people.

You Will Need:

💕 Aventurine (friendship, bonds) 💕 Aquamarine (ease communication) 💕 Chrysocolla (communication, connections) 💕  Ametrine (improve communication) 💕 Clear Quartz (power up spell) 💕 Salt (protection, purifying, honesty) 💕 Basil (friendships) 💕 Rose Buds (or petals) (close friendships, love, relationships) 💕 2 Blue Candles or tealights (communication, trust) 💕 Your Cellphone

Steps:

💕 On your cellphone open the contact to the person or the chat you communicate with them through, place it on the floor or a table. To the right and left of it place your candles and light them.

💕 In a small bowl or container place your herbs and place it above your phone

💕 In a circle around your phone and the bowl of herbs place your crystals. If they are point crystals have them pointing at your phone.

💕 Using your salt make a small circle around your phone.

💕 Hover your hands over your phone and close your eyes, feel the energies of your candles, herbs and crystals radiating from them, how they pass through your body and your phone. Focus your own energy in your hands and imagine it emit in gentle waves down into your phone as well.

💕 “No distance can keep us apart, I connect to you and you connect to me, over mountains and seas we will still be in touch, we shall remain together for communication is key.” Repeat the last line (bold) as many times as you feel is necessary.

💕 Finish spell by blowing out your candles and letting the smoke trail off imagining it traveling far off to where the other is. 

Notes: If both you and the other person do this spell it will be more powerful but it is not necessary. Also, this is to help you keep communication, you still have to put effort into keeping the communication going for a successful LDR. If you are missing one or two of the crystals that is fine, just try to have as many of each as you can. 

[lunarhomewitch]

Learning to Cook Like a Witch: Using the Scraps

Cooking can create a lot of waste. From peels and rinds to bones and leaves, people throw away quite a lot of scraps in the kitchen. And witches, as you may know, are experts in the art of the cunning use of whatever we’ve got around.

As a witch who spends a lot of time in the kitchen, I’ve had ample opportunities to get creative in my cooking craft. It helps that I grew up in a household defined by scarcity: not our own, by the time I was conscious enough to remember, but my parents’ poverty. It colored the way I learned to cook, using everything I possibly could, making enough to last, preserving what I didn’t immediately use, and creatively reusing leftovers and scraps.

There are some topics I won’t necessarily cover here. Composting is an option, but there are some bits of food scrap that don’t need to be composted — they can be saved and repurposed for all sorts of things, magic and mundane. Likewise, recycling, buying sustainably, and growing your own food when you can are all great options for reducing household waste in the kitchen.

For the purposes of this post, I want to focus specifically on food scraps. This is an organized list of kitchen scraps that I’ve used in a variety of other dishes and projects. I’m focusing primarily on food waste, not so much on packaging (such as reusing egg cartons, milk containers, boxes, and so forth).

Vegetable Scraps

Freeze leftover vegetable scraps to make stock. This is a fairly common bit of advice — save bits of leftover vegetables to make a vegetable stock or another kind of stock. It’s good advice! I keep a bag in my freezer that I put vegetable scraps in to save until I’m ready to make a new batch of stock. Not all veggies should be saved like this and used for stock! Some make stock bitter or otherwise unpleasant-tasting. Personally, I tend to freeze these for stock:

- The skins, ends, and leftover cuts of onions (just be wary of the skins; too much will make your broth bitter) - The ends of celery (not the leaves — they’re bitter!) - Corn cobs - Garlic skins, ends, tiny cloves that aren’t useful otherwise, and sprouted cloves - The ends of carrots (also not the leaves) - The ends of leeks - Pepper tops/bottoms (not the seeds)

I would recommend against putting things like potatoes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and leafy greens in there. Potatoes don’t add flavor, sprouts and cabbage make the whole thing taste like those foods, and leafy greens end up bitter. If something has a strong, distinctive flavor (beets, sprouts), I wouldn’t add it to my freezer bag. These scraps often form the veggie portion of my Sick-Be-Gone Chicken Broth spell recipe!

Regrow leeks, green onions, and celery. Pop these in a bit of water and watch them grow back! It’s a fun experiment, and you’ll never have to buy them again.

Plant sprouted garlic. Aside from the fact that you can still cook and eat garlic that’s sprouted, you can plant a sprouted clove in a pot. Care for it well enough, and you’ll end up with a full head of garlic from that one clove!

Fry potato peels. Anytime I make mashed potatoes or peel potatoes for something, I always save the peels. Give them a thorough rinse and shallow-fry them in oil, turning them over until they’re golden and crispy. Toss them in a bit of salt and pepper while they’re still hot, and you’ve got tasty chips to snack on while you cook the rest of your meal! No need to cover them in more oil or anything — the heat will cause the salt to stick right to them.

Save leaves for pesto. Yum, yum, yum. Pesto isn’t just all about basil, you know. Save the leaves from carrots, beets, radishes, and even celery to grind up alongside basil, garlic, salt, and lemon juice for a delicious pesto recipe.

Fruit Scraps

Save citrus peels. Peels from oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and other citrus fruits have a multitude of uses. Candy them for a sweet treat, dry them to add to potpourri or incense, or save them to put into a simmer pot for bright, sunny energy.

Juice the whole fruit. Again, thinking mostly about citrus fruits, when you need the zest from something but not the rest, don’t just throw away the fruit. Squeeze out all the juice you can. Even if you don’t need it right now, you can freeze it to use later in simmer pots, fruity waters, or anything else that needs a touch of juice.

Turn extra fruit and berries into jam or syrup. If you’ve got berries and fruit that are about to go off, or maybe the ends of strawberries, don’t toss them! Look up recipes for jam of the specific fruit you’ve got or make an infused syrup. Syrups in particular can be used for cocktails, teas, and desserts for an extra magical kick.

Pickle watermelon rinds. That’s right. Pickle those suckers. They’re so tasty. I’ve seen people make kimchi with watermelon rinds, too, though I’ve never tried it myself!

Save seeds for abundance work. Seeds in general are great for spells geared toward long-term success, new beginnings, and — when there are a lot of them — wealth. Different fruit seeds have properties that tend to correspond with the fruit they come from, so consider their potential purposes before you just toss them! (Note also that some fruit seeds are toxic; these would be suitable for baneful workings.)

Keep cherry stems for love magic. Have you ever done that thing where you tie a cherry stem with your tongue? If I’m eating cherries, I like to save some of the stems for love workings. Tie them into little knots like you might with string while envisioning ensnaring the love you’re looking for. I wouldn’t do this with a particular person in mind; binding someone to you is almost never a good idea. I’ve used it to attract specific qualities in a person of romantic interest: attentiveness, humor, kindness, and so forth.

Use pits to represent blockages, barriers, and problems. I most often use them in baneful workings, typically jammed into a poppet’s mouth or throat to keep someone from talking shit. It could also represent a sense of dread in that way — a pit in the stomach, uneasy and nauseating. But you could also use them in the sense of removal, ritualistically removing the pit or problem from a given situation.

Herb Scraps

Freeze or dry extra fresh herbs. Different drying techniques are ideal for specific herbs. I’d suggest looking up recommended methods before sticking anything in the microwave. If you’d like to freeze your herbs instead, I typically will lay them on a damp paper towel, wrap them up, place them into a freezer-safe bag, and then put them in the freezer. Most herbs will keep for a couple months this way. When you want to use them, pull them out and let them defrost right on the counter.

Make pesto. Again, pesto isn’t just basil! Experiment with tossing in different scraps of herbs to find out what combination you like best.

Reuse steeped tea. Particularly when I use loose herbal tea, I like to lay out the used tea to dry out. It can be burned similarly to loose incense, though the scent may be somewhat weaker than with herbs that are fresher or unused. I find that it’s fine, since I’m sensitive to smells anyways.

Toss extra herbs into your stock freezer bag. Just like with vegetables, extra herbs make welcome additions to a scrap stock pot. I always make a point to save sage, thyme, marjoram, and ginger. You can add just about anything to a stock pot, but be aware of the flavors you’re adding. Not all herbs will match with all dishes.

Protein Scraps

Dry and crush empty egg shells. This is one most witches will know! I use crushed egg shells for protection magic most often: sprinkled at a doorstep mixed with other herbs, added to jars, and spread around spell candles.

Save shrimp, crab, and lobster shells. They’re a goldmine of flavor. Toss them into water with veggies and herbs, and you’ve got a delicious, easy shellfish stock. Use it to make fishy soups and chowders that much richer.

Don’t discard roasted chicken remains. Use them for stock, just like the shells. I like to get rotisserie chickens on occasion since they’re ready-made and very tasty. Once all the meat has been stripped off the bones, simmer the entire carcass with — you guessed it — veggies and herbs for a tasty chicken stock.

Reuse bacon grease for frying. After cooking bacon, don’t throw away the grease right away. Melt it over low heat, strain the bits of bacon out, and pour it into a jar to put in the fridge. You can use it to fry all sorts of things, but my favorite thing is brussels sprouts. They pick up the delicious, salty, bacony flavor from all that rendered bacon fat. So good.

Other Scraps

Use stale bread for croutons or bread crumbs. When I reach the stale end of a loaf of bread, as long as it isn’t moldy, I like to tear it into pieces and toss it into the oven for a little while. Let it cool and then pulse it in a food processor, and I’ve got delicious bread crumbs! Or, cut it a little more neatly, toss it in oil and seasonings, and then bake, and now I’ve got homemade croutons for salads. You can really hone your herbs for both of these, tuning them to be perfect for whatever spell needs you have.

Small amounts of leftover sugar. I don’t know why, but I always end up with a tiny amount of white and brown sugar in the containers. This can be used in teas, of course, but I like to offer it up to spirits. In particular, my ancestors tend to appreciate a spoonful of brown sugar stirred into a small, warmed cup of milk. You can also look up mug cake or single-serving cookie recipes; often, they’re cooked in the microwave, and they only need a little sugar to make!

Keep vanilla bean pods. Vanilla is fucking expensive. When I have a little extra and want to really splurge for a special occasion, I’ll get a couple pods. And because they’re so expensive, I hate wasting any part of them. They’re good for love magic, sure, but you can also toss the spent pods in a jar full of sugar to make vanilla-infused sugar. I’ll often use the pods to make infused milks, too; warm the milk over low heat, add the pods, and let it steep like tea. It goes great in teas and desserts. For a nice self-love spell, sometimes I’ll melt chocolate into the vanilla milk and make hot cocoa!

Save the rinds from Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheese. You might not be able to just bite into these, but they’re fabulous additions to a stock pot. They add a rich, umami depth to the flavors. I also like to throw these into pots of tomato sauce to add even more flavor to the sauce.

Used coffee is still coffee. After I make a pot of coffee, I’ll sometimes save the grounds by letting them dry back out. I wouldn’t make another cup of coffee with them, since all the flavor’s gone, but they’ll still have attributes of energy generation and smell great. I like to pack used grounds into sachets to hang in places where I want to encourage more energy and focus, replaced every few days or so. Coffee grounds also have high amounts of nitrogen in them, which can help plants thrive; just be careful about pH values in the soil! You don’t want to hurt your plants with too much acidity.

Final Thoughts

I hope you found these tips helpful! There are a ton more ways to save and reuse kitchen scraps that would otherwise go to waste. Sometimes, tossing stuff into the compost or trash can’t be avoided. But I’ve found that being aware of the possibilities can help diminish the amount that gets wasted.

If you have questions or other suggestions for reusing kitchen scraps, feel free to drop them in my inbox, reblogs, or replies. And if you did enjoy this post, consider tossing a couple dollars in my tip jar! Supporters get early and sometimes exclusive access to my work, and monthly members get bonuses like commission discounts and extras. (: