#*Besom

[apixellife]

Belleza GenX Curvy and Dainty Addon

This body really is so well done, I like it very much. There could be more options on the HUD but it’s nothing major. The nails for one thing could offer different lengths but again that is easily fixed with 3rd party creators . I love NO shelf butt though and the fact that I am wearing this on my regular shape with no distortion, The skin I’m using came in the delivery box and it not so bad, I…

[stranded-in-paradise]

Départ pour le Sabbat (Departure for the Sabbat) 1910

Oil on canvas

Albert Joseph Pénot (1862 - 1930)

Private collection

[rabbitpaws]

Smoky Quartz and Fox Fur Pink Bow Cinnamon Broom ✨️

Featuring a fragrant miniature cinnamon broom that is adorned with white lace trim, a pink satin bow, a raw Smoky Quartz point, and fox fur

It measures 6.25 inches

All fur utilized in our pieces are ethically sourced and cruelty free

Buy it here

[mori-girl-life]

I like sweeping the leaves from the doorstep.

I played house when I was small,

if a playhouse was around.

If there was no house, a hollow hedge

Or a drooping tree,

Even better, a cave.

And sweeping the leaves was integral to the play.

And opening the windows.

And dusting the sills.

And picking sweet clover

To place in a glass in the corner.

To hang garlands around the doorframe,

Woven of duck feathers and grass.

That was the best part of playing house.

Being there,

tending to it,

making it mine.

Of course, boys rarely played.

A lot of them said

they "didn't know how".

"It's boring".

That's fine.

I didn't want them there anyway.

I was busy making

and holding

and respecting space.

It's Autumn now and I am older

But I like the house I'm in.

And every morning now

The leaves fall faster.

Initially,

I thought it a hassle.

Sweeping day by day, the porch, the front walk.

Folding my blankets,

Wiping the counters

Taking the trash

Doing the dishes.

For a moment,

I contemplated a leaf blower.

But then I remembered

The sweeping

is a privilege

and integral

to the play.

[sylverra]

Besom with Amethyst and Goddess Charm at Sylverra🌀

[or see our other altar supplies here!]

[ts-wicked-wonders]

Sweeping and brooms play a big part in traditional Hoodoo omens, taboos, and customs. Here are some examples.

• It is taboo to sweep after dark. If you must sweep you should sweep the mess into a corner and take it out in the morning.

• It is bad luck to sweep before a person is removed from the home after they've passed. It's said you will be next or it will shorten your lifespan.

• To wish a person never comes back you may sweep after they have left or sweep up salt behind them as they leave. Or just sweep behind them with no salt.

• It is taboo to sweep in a sleeping baby's room or you may sweep the baby's dream soul away.

• It is taboo to sweep the home on a Friday night or New Year's Day.

• Some believe you should burn your morning sweeping trash instead of tossing it.

• Sweeping an adult's foot is taboo. It believes it will sweep them away from home by imprisonment or wanderlust. Some say the person will not get married.

• One should not sweep under someone's chair while they are sitting in it. This too will cause them to have wanderlust or sweep them away.

• To hit a child or anyone with a broom will make the person lazy or make them go to jail.

• Pick up brooms or mops, it is taboo to step over them because it can bring bad luck.

• Never sweep under a sick person's bed or they may pass.

• It is taboo to bring old brooms into a new home.

• It is good luck not to sweep an old home right before leaving to move to a new home. Sweep well in advance if you must.

• Unless you want arguments and quarrels you should not sweep across a table with a floor broom.

• Do not use a house broom to sweep the yard or chimney. This wishes your mother illness or worse.

• Two people should not sweep at the same time.

• If a child picks up a broom and sweeps for no reason it's a sign a visitor is coming.

• Sweep corn into fire for good luck.

DO YOU KNOW ANY OMENS, TABOOS AND CUSTOMS?

[honeyscreations]

ttps://honeypigeon30.etsy.com/listing/1805955262

FUNCTIONAL HANDMADE COTTAGECORE CHRISTMAS DECOR

#broom #handmade #Christmas #christmas2024 #christmasgifts #giftideas #uniquegifts #queerartist #queerowned #queerownedbusiness #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #cottagecore #witchaesthetic #altar #besom

[greenpanda-basicfakewitch]

Witch Tools | Witchs Bell | Besom | Ladder

Witch's Bell

Ringing the witches bell is actually a ‘spirtual language’ spoken to the spirit world. Its more effective when you repeatedly call the same spirit [e.g your guardian angel]

Ring three times the witches bell everytime you summon the same spirit for a whole week, starting on Wednesday.

Right after that, the spirit will come to you with just three gentle rings.

A symbol of the female force and the celestial vault... Witch Bells, Spirit Bells, Ritual Bell, Devil Drivers.

Magical Uses

Ring a bell to cleanse the energy of a room, before a ritual or spell. Pass a bell through each of the four corners, summoning the guardian spirits of the elements.

Ring a bell on Samhein to banish evil spirits. After spell work, ring a bell to ‘seal the spell’ Hang bells on the gates/doors of your home to keep evil energies/entities from entering. Ring a bell before meditation to focus the mind.

A bells vibrations banish the unwanted spirits and/or negative energies. They are also used to raise the spirits of the dead & to call fairies. 

Bell on the door, Protect my home. While I’m here Or When I roam.

Besom [Broom]

Used to spiritually cleanse your space, often before a ritual or spell. Hang it above your door to ward off evil.

Making a Besom.

You would like a besom of your own, they are fairly easy to find in craft stores, country markets or folk art fairs. You can also invest your energies into making one. A good idea if you wish to use it in place of a wand or other ritual tool.

To make a besom you will need;

A four foot dowel one inch in diameter. Ball of twine. Scissors. Straw or longer strands of pliable herbs.

Take the straw, or another herb you have chosen for the bristles, and allow to soak overnight in war, lightly salted water. The water softens the straws to make them pliable, and the salt soaks out the former energies. When you are ready to make your besom, remove the straws from the water and allow them to dry a bit, but not so much that they lose the suppleness you will need to turn them into your besom.

Find a work area, where you can lay out the length of your dowel, and begin lining the straws alongside the dowel. Starting about three inches from the bottom, lay the straws, moving backward, along the length of the dowel. Begin binding these to the dowel with the twine. You will need to tie them very securely. You can add as many layers of straw as you wish, depending on how full you would like your besom to be.

When the straw is secured, bend the top straws over the twine ties. When they are all gently pulled over, tie off the straws again a few inches below the original tie. Leave the besom overnight to allow the straw to dry.

 The dowel part of the besom can be stained, painted, or decorated with pagan symbols, your craft name, or any other embellishments you choose. Dedicate your finished besom in your circle as you would any other ritual tool.

Know your broom

*A Witches broom*

Can range in size from the 6* long to a full broom Made of twigs tied around a stick Sacred to the goddess Represent the element of water. Can be made of any wood/twigs Sweeps away *Energeticclutter* Used during rituals to purify a space and sweep negative or residual energy away. Can be placed at the entrance of the home to guard against negative or unwanted energies.

__________________________________________________________

Witchs Ladder

How to make a witches ladder.

 By Knot of one the spells begun. By Knot of two the magick comes true. By knot of three so shall it be. By Knot of four, this power is stored. By knot of five, my will shall drive. By Knot of six, the spell I fix. By knot of seven, the future I leaven. By knot of eight, my will be fate. By knot of nine, what is done is mine.

*When tying the last knot, direct all of your energy into the cord/rope and its knots now it is stored in the knots in the cord. 

*Tie the ends together and use as a necklace, hang in your car, or by your bed.

This is typical done during the dark moon to set intentions for the full moon and is united at that time. 

Green for money, red for passion, white for creativity, purple for wisdom, black to stop bad habits, brown for balance, yellow for happiness, orange for health and blue for peace.

Rope and Feathers, Witches rosary.

Traditional a witches Ladder is a cord with 3,9, 13 or 40 knots. 

Some braid charms, feathers, or talismans in for a specific spell effect

[queenallipics]

Lovely day to ride the hedge! Samhain Blessings on this Wonderfully Wicked Day

[okaydrawboy]

happy spooktober, i forgot it was october already so i'm a day behind! a little city witch

details update

[apixellife]

MIURA - Demetra Earrings

@current round of UniK ! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chandar/253/65/1001 While I am doing the domestic goddess thang….I do it in gold and flowers and diamonds…

[stranded-in-paradise]

The Witches Sabbat (1880)

Oil on canvas (74.3 × 41.2cm)

Luis Ricardo Falero  (1851–1896 Spanish)

Private collection

[rabbitpaws]

Smoky Quartz and Fox Fur Green Bow Cinnamon Broom ✨️

Featuring a fragrant miniature cinnamon broom that is adorned with white lace trim, a green satin bow, a raw Smoky Quartz point, and fox fur

It measures 6.25 inches

All fur utilized in our pieces are ethically sourced and cruelty free

Buy it here

[midwestbramble]

Besom, Stang & Sword Book Review

This is the book that first introduced me to Traditional Witchcraft. I read it in the Pagan & Witches Amino Book Club (which no longer exists to my knowledge), and it talked about all the things I was looking for. I'll try not to be biased in this review (it's why I have a section on both what I like and don't like). Let's get into it

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Content:

Synopsis

What I Liked

What I Don't Like

Overall Thoughts

Conclusion

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Published 2018

"Traditional Witchcraft is not about where you are from but where you are. Regional traditional witchcraft teaches people to find their craft in their own backyards, in the uncultivated land, the wild unknown, and in their ancestors rather than in ancient foreign deities or a Neo-Pagan-styled religious form of witchcraft.

The authors founded the Blacktree Coven in 2014 and set out to forge a modern approach to traditional witchcraft for a new era of praxis. Besom, Stang & Sword is a landmark book that presents their introduction to regional traditional witchcraft and a fresh, spirit-based, nonreligious guide to the spiritual practice of witchcraft in a modern context. The material presented in this book is adaptable to any region in which the practitioner lives."

-from the back of the book

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What I Liked

The book starts off with a good rundown of what traditional witchcraft is, the main players and traditions, the types of spirits worked with (such as the folkloric devil), and what the book will be focusing on. The ritual for "Becoming a Witch" is more of an introduction to the spirits; I've done the ritual myself a couple of times and it's really worth doing if you're interested.

The book is from the perspective of the authors' own tradition, which really we can only talk from our own perspectives when talking about witchcraft. So here they give us a few different altars that they set up for their own rituals. One is Genius Loci altar (an altar for the spirit of the land), an ancestor altar, and what they call a sacrificial altar (where they leave their offerings). This is great for getting ideas for your own altars if that is something that interests you.

The same chapter that talks about the altars and tools, talks about a traditional witchcraft ritual called The Witches' Compass. It does a great job of explaining where the magic circle most people are familiar with comes from, as well as what makes the compass different from that. It also gives instructions on how to lay your own compass. A lot of traditional witches will have a shorter version of this ritual as well. Here we get the crossroads rite. I personally still use this in my craft for smaller rituals when necessary.

The book also talks about trance states, with explanations of brain waves and how these help us create magic. There's an explanation of the Alpha state in the chapter on spells, and explanations for Delta, Theta, and Gamma in the chapter on hedgecraft. These come with exercises to help you utilize each state with practice.

There is a decent amount of spells in this book to get you started. The variety is wide with things such as binding, banishing and hexing as well as blessing and cleansing among others. This goes for the section on divination as well. They give some examples of different types of divination practices such as seership and scrying, and talk about theories of divination as well.

The book talks about the three worlds briefly, but also the Witch Queen as a keeper of the gates to them. There is a lot of focus in traditional witchcraft books on the Witch Lord/King/Father as the folkloric devil, but we don't get a lot on the Witch Queen. So it's nice to see even a short discussion on her (they say she is a hard one to pin down), and a ritual to contact her.

One of my favorite chapters is the one the hidden landscape. Connecting to the land, the different spirits (plants, trees, fungi, insects, etc.), as well as land wights. Plus a discussion of how living locally can help you connect more with these spirits is just *chefs kiss*. This chapter also discusses using local lore in your craft, such as their coven working with the Jersey Devil as Witch Lord (they are from New Jersey, USA). They give a list of similar monsters that you could look into if they are local to you.

This book has a great breakdown of the different types of ancestors in witchcraft traditions such as the Mighty Dead (great people from human history), the Forgotten Dead, the Hidden Company, etc. It then gives you different ways to connect with them. In the same vein, it has two different necromancy ritual, one of them being a dream ritual.

The book also talks about soulflight, but one of my favorite sections is where it talks about shapeshifting during. it gives you a couple different methods to try, such as mimicry and trance. It also speaks of familiars, what they are and how to gain one. It goes into great detail about familiars historically and their purpose. There's a ritual for finding a familiar and one for petitioning.

The book also talks about what a "sabbat" is in traditional witchcraft. Not one of the wheel of the year holidays from Wicca, this is a meeting of witches. There's a lot of historical detail here, including a discussion of the "blood libel" against Jewish people and that being where the word "sabbat" comes from. Sabbat being the Jewish day of worship.

The chapter on the lunar year is great! It's what inspired me to create my own names for the different lunar cycles. Here the authors use their own names and activities as examples to help give inspiration for you to create your own and really think about what's going on around you in nature.

Lastly, each chapter has a recommended reading list at the end dedicated to each topic. This really helped me to build my own reading list initially. I have yet to read all the books they recommend, but I do believe I've read most of the important ones.

creating your own lunar calendar

recommended reading at the end of each chapter

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What I Didn't Like

Because the book is written from the perspective of the authors' own tradition, there are items that you don't necessarily need. Such as a token of the land or a message box. I think these are cool ideas to play with and there are definitely tools explained that are common throughout many traditional witchcraft traditions, I just think maybe they could have made a section for ones that are specific to their own tradition. Though this is not a huge deal.

We are first introduced to the crossroads rite in the first chapter during their ritual for "Becoming a Witch." It's at the end of chapter two that we learn more about it. I wish these two things had been together for easier reference, but I can also understand why they organized it the way they did.

It always bothers me when people spell magic with a k. It comes from Aleister Crowley, with the argument that it's so people know you're talking about "real" magic as opposed to stage magic. I think that's crap. Context will tell people if you're talking about stage magic. I admit I am also a bit biased as I am not a huge fan of Crowley.

Within the spells sections there are a few that are inspired by hoodoo. I have mixed feelings about this. First, we all have heard that hoodoo is closed and I don't necessarily know the authors' background with the practice. However, these are not true hoodoo workings and the authors acknowledge this. They explain they are inspired by hoodoo workings. I want to give them credit for that at least. Maybe I would feel a bit better about it if they gave an actual explanation of hoodoo but that would feel outside the scope of this book.

Lastly, the chapter on herbalism focuses on baneful herbs. I'm not mad about that necessarily, it's just that the book is meant to be geared towards people who are relatively new to trad craft and witchcraft. It's a weird place to start people. On top of that, most of the plants are poisonous. There's a lot of considerations to take when working with poisonous plants for your own mundane safety. If you're curious, The Poison Path Herbal by Coby Michael is a great place to learn more about working with poisonous plants in witchcraft.

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Overall Thoughts

This book isn't perfect, but I love it just the same (and that's probably partly nostalgia). I think it does a great job of explaining some of the finer points of traditional witchcraft. Though it does feel a bit more like an introduction to their own tradition and a book made to give to their own initiates. I reference certain sections here and there and not every chapter is important if I'm honest. I do think it's one of the better books on the topic that I've read so far.

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Conclusion

This book won't be for everyone, and that's ok. I hope this review gave you something to chew on or helped you decide if you want to get the book. The authors also have a podcast called Down at the Crossroads. You can find Besom, Stang, and Sword on amazon, Google Books, their publisher Weiser Books, The Crooked Path, and Books-a-Million. You can also check with your local witchy bookstore.

*All images from the book*

Other reviews:

Blog Post 212 - Book Review: Besom, Stang and Sword

Review: Besom, Stang & Sword

[theherbwitchshoppe]

Another brom created! Will post in the shoppe shortly

[doodlesofmiddleverse]

Crest's Parents ✨