#appalachian hellenism

[herbs-spice-and-everything-nice]

Does anybody know any good online sources for folk magic?

That's like 90% of my path and I'm realizing I've been def learning it the way it's intended, by word of mouth, observing nature, green witchery, kitchen witchery, etc. Also from different people learning it from their grandparents. But I'd like to have a cross reference grimoire and other ways of learning this stuff as just searching on google feels off when looking for folk tips and tricks y'know?

[secondwinterstill]

This is really nothing, but I love knowing that I grew up in a region that has a prominent folk song about death just for me to become an adult and worship the god of death himself...

[neonstemple]

Intro/ pinned (2025)

Hello, my name is Neon! I go by any pronouns and I am an agender lesbian! I am currently 25 and I am AuDHD. This blog is mainly going to be used as a book of shadows with me reblogging information and recording a few things from my own path as I go.

I have been a pagan for around 10 years now and my current path is best described as 'eclectic chaos magic' with influences from Hellenism, kemeticisim, Asatru and Appalachian folk magic as well as Chaos Magick. I am open to learning other paths.

My current deities include:

-Artemis (My Matron)

-Loki

-Hermes Oneiropompus

-Bastet

-Athena

and a few more here and there.

My main tools are my tarot cards and my stones, but I am trying to connect with my pendulums. I also use a good amount of candles in my practice and I do meditate and work with dreams as well.

One of my goals this year is try to work with some of the calendars from my current path.

----------------------------

DNI:

-No Minors, please!

-Ai art users

-Anyone who uses closed practices they aren't meant to be using and refuse to learn

-Any type of bigots

----------------------------------

[theanic-devotion]

Tried to put ideas you don’t see much on other lists. For your grimoire/book of shadows/journaling needs

[corythewitchboy]

We all need money sometimes.

I work with several lovely girls who are not very well off monetarily. Today, we were talking about our religious choices, and though I try to avoid to topic, their curiosity fell to me once they realized I was just listening and not adding to the conversation. I admitted I practice Hellenism and a few other Appalachian folk practices and Scottish magic, just depending on how my ancestors guide me and what gods are calling to me.

They were kind, if not a little frightened, simply because they didn't understand what that means. The only witchcraft they had ever been exposed to was harry potter, or other cheesy movies depicting bad practices. One of them perked up and asked if I could give her a spell for money.

I had to laugh a little. Money seems to be everyone's first request when they find out what I do. So I asked, "What do you need money for? You have plenty of clothes, and food, and your own apartment."

She seemed shocked that I thought she was asking for herself. She explained shortly, "My family needs money back home. They have nothing and I want to send them good."

She touched my heart, I won't lie. So tonight, while making dinner, I practiced a little bit of the old folk magic my Mamaw taught me when I was little. A bay leaf, eight coins, and some cinnamon are among the ingredients, and the good smells help me to envision good energy passing from my side of the void to theirs. I hope these spells find their families well, and I sent a small offering to the One of Many Riches to ensure any help sent to them is transported safely from me to them.

[saturniidaez]

Hey btw. If you like horror podcasts can I just. Highly recommend Old Gods of Appalachia. It is. So fucking good.

[booksandbroomstyx]

My Favorite Podcasts

I wanted to share my favorite pagan/witchy/occult/paranormal podcasts. Some of these I've listened to for years and others I've only just started listening to more recently. Here's the list (and in no certain order): --Circle Talk (geared toward those seeking to understand British Traditional Wicca - the podcast is hosted by Alexandrian Wiccans; I'm Gardnerian, so they're basically Craft siblings.) --Glitch Bottle Podcast (explores deep topics in occultism) --Magic in the United States --New World Witchery (explores United States-based Craft practices - these hosts also run another podcast called Myth-taken, which does a deep-dive of every Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode -- another person favorite!) --Styx and Bones (great for learning about Hellenism and Greek mythology) --What Magic Is This? (explores various occult and new age practices) --WitchLit Podcast (explores various books and literature related to witchcraft and paganism, and also does author interviews) Miscellaneous Old Gods of Appalachia - this is a horror anthology podcast based on Appalachian lore and geography and it is AMAZING.

[ofrunestoruins]

Introducing Rune ✨️

Hello! I'm Rune! If you saw my name as something different on my blog before I changed it, no you didn't haha

Anyways, some quick facts about me:

🦊 I'm nonbinary, (Although more along the lines of gender fluid)

🦊 I'm 24

🦊 I love languages, history, writing, tea, and have a special connection with foxes; I tend to study pretty frequently in my free-time and I also love a good ttrpg, video game, and book.

🦊 I'm Polish American but sadly the only thing passed down from my grandparents were those lovely, lovely polish recipes, and they passed long before I can ask them more about how they grew up, so you may see some content on this blog about me discovering my roots as a Polish American from Appalachia living (suffering) in the south haha

🦊 I'm also striving to learn herbalism, but not in a crunchy, conservative way (Because yes, that does need to be clarified these days it seems)

🦊 I hate bigots and I WILL stand on business if you try to come on my blog and interact with me if you're one of them. (Aka I will block you if you are anything from a neo-nazi, to a terf, to a homophobe. Do not interact with me if you're gonna hate on others for being who they are.)

🦊 And finally- I love baking and cooking, so there might be a bit of flare of that as well.

Now, onto some facts about my practice:

🦊 I am.. very heavily pagan. Specifically Norse and Hellenic, however I've recently been looking into Celtic, and Slavic Paganism

🦊 Although rn I'm more of an eclectic witch, I'm currently building my craft from the ground up with a much heavier focus on folk magic. I will be splitting content, however, across 3 blogs. This one will be more basic, lighthearted stuff, things I wanna review first, take my time with, or very introductory; @ofwoodandash which will cover more intense, darker, and more specialized topics including but not limited too: Seiðr, traditional witchcraft, Appalachian Witchcraft, Spirit Work, chthonic aspects and the like; and finally @apagansprayers which will cover things more religious in Nature, mostly as a digital prayer book and personal e-shrine to the deities I worship, as actual information may be reblogged here (To this blog you're reading this from),, I'm still.. debating how to use that blog specifically BUT that´s a general outline.

🦊 I also have almost a decades worth of experience with Tarot, Oracle, and Pendulum readings, and I'm also currently learning the Runes

With that being said, I believe that covers enough of the basics, but! If you ever have any questions about me or my practice or just wanna chat- feel free to send me an ask or a message! I'd love to chat!

Check out Rune's Tag Masterlist for a handy guide on how to navigate this blog! (Will be posted soon)

[madintersexmermaid]

My bio:

*read before you follow, like or interact!*

My name's Orion (my online nickname to protect my privacy)*. Here's some background about me:

I'm 30 years old

I'm an interfaith believer in Christ, with many additional Christian influences of Native American Christianity, Quakerism, Catholicism, Ringātu (Māori indigenous Christianity), Calvinism, Celtic Christianity, Hellenic (Greek) Christianity, Appalachian Indigenous Christianity, Hellenic (Greek) Judaism and Messianic Judaism as part of my faith and beliefs (yes, like it or dislike it, we interfaith Jewish believers in Christ exist. You don't have to worry about me forcing it on you as I'm aware it's a messy and complex topic to get into but don't get nasty, rude or disrespectful in my comments via invalidating my Jewishness or insistently trying to force me to not talk about my faith. Respect me and I'll respect you and vice versa).

This page and account is an adults only page for grown 21-30+ adults and older adults only.

I'm autistic, neurodivergent and mentally ill, with comorbid clinical depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, chronic and severe debilitating OCD, borderline personality disorder, complex PTSD, schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, etc.; I believe in both professional diagnosis and in self diagnosis and every mentally ill and neurodivergent individuals' illness and neurodivergency presents differently in each individual, so don't start any pointless discourse as it always tips into ableism, disrespect, rudeness and neurotypical social desirability standards and I'm not in the mood for any of that.

*Besides Orion, I also use other nicknames for myself: Kairi, Kaworu, Dionne/Dionysus, Satsuki, Elliott, Orchid, Mars, Marama, Ares and Ashe.

I'm extremely mixed race, with extensive Black Native, Afro-Indigenous, Afro-Native, Afro-European, Afro-Aboriginal, Blasian, Romani, Melungeon, Asian-Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. Don't start any pointlessly rude and disrespectful discourse thinking you have any right to dictate how a mixed race and biracial individual should identify or express themselves or what they should look like; it's racist, featurist, colorist and plain rude, point blank.

I support the Jewish community especially as I'm Jewish and a Jew of color, so antisemitism will not be tolerated.

I'm also pro Palestinian and anti zionist and yes, like it or not, being Jewish doesn't automatically equate to being zionist and being Jewish doesn't require anybody to be zionist; plus, zionism's fascism and white supremacy, and with me also being a mixed race Afro-Palestinian / Palestinian Jew, I refuse to have anything to do with zionism. If you're zionist and have a problem with any of this, block me immediately.

I'm intersex. I was born intersex and have a large amount of intersex variants (i.e. polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), PCOS-related hypoandrogenism, XXX syndrome, Non-classical Cogenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (NCAH), hypogonadism, partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS), etc.); the only type of questions I'll answer are questions that are respectful not just to me but intersex folks at large, especially intersex women/femmes and black and brown intersex women/femmes of color and also intersex men/mascs and intersex men/mascs of color. Any questions that get invasively oversexual, rude and intrusive will be stopped immediately. And any form of intersexism, interphobia, intermisogyny, intermisogynoir as well as intermisandry and intermisandrinoir, whether it be intersexist erasure and invalidating intersex folks' existence, regurgitating of harmful and offensive right wing conservative or radical "feminist" eugenicism that reduces and stigmatizes, and wrongly and falsely paints intersex folks as medical deformities or pitiable defects in need of "fixing" (aka promoting unethical and unwanted surgeries that leave us intersex folks physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically damaged and traumatized) or just any type of manipulative, abusive and disrespectful intersexist gaslighting and endosplaining will be reported and online trolls that do these things will be blocked. Oh, and if you're a radfem = instant block. Ya'll are the worst perpetrators of everything I mentioned and I know ya'll are bigoted, extremist IERFs (Intersex Exclusionary Radical Feminists) by proxy, and we have nothing to talk about and I have no interest in listening to any of the baloney ya'll have to say. Ya'll are not feminists and are not radical, ya'll are frauds and chronically online fake feminist Karens.

I'm an Appalachian and an Urban Appalachian and want to know more about that part of my culture especially given my Melungeon heritage and my roots in midwestern and southern states such as Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, Indiana and Florida, and the Ozark Mountains.

DNI (do not interact) if you're: zionist (liberal or conservative), right wing conservative, Donald Trump/MAGA supporter, Andrew Tate defender/sympathizer, Amber Heard defender/sympathizer, Justin and Hailey Bieber fan or defender/sympathizer, Ron Desantis defender/sympathizer, Lovatic/Demi Lovato fan/defender, Trey Songz defender/sympathizer, Ronnie Radke defender/sympathizer, radfem, redpill fratdude, racist, white supremacist, misogynistic, misandristic, divester, an apologist for any type of abuse towards others, if you have any hateful antisemitic views, if you have anti Palestinian racist and xenophobic views, etc.

My sideblogs are @madswiftiemaggotjester (venting blog) and @alienbymidwestprincess (trashposting/memes/politics/humor/paranormal blog)

[breezingby]

DEVASTATION on the APPALACHIAN TRAIL from HURRICANE HELLENE

[junadeo]

Texan word:

raz

(very long below so uhhhh also things are subject to change)

1. In the sense of "rice"

Alternative spellings:

ras (sometimes used by speakers who use (s) for /s/; proscribed)

ris (Old Script)

roz (Northern eye-dialect)

Pronunciation:

Standard: /rɑːs/ [ʁɑːs]

Northern: /roːs/ [roːs], [rʊs]

Central: /ras/ [ʁɑːs], [ʁɔːs]

Southern: /roːs/

Etymology:

From Middle Texan *rás, from Classical English rice, from Middle English rys, borrowed from Old French ris, in turn, borrowed from Old Italian riso (alternatively risi), from Latin oriza, borrowed once again from Byzantine Greek ὄρυζα (óruza; yielding Modern Hellenic υρζα), of unclear origin but probably from an East Iranian language, which is in turn, possibly from Sanskrit व्रीहि (vrīhi), then speculated to be of Dravidian descent, and finally, from an Austroasiatic language of some sort.

It is cognates with several American languages: Missippic ras; Georgian ras; South Floridian rase; Carolinian ros; Virginian róo; Appalachian ror; New Yorkian rois, lois; Pennsylvanian reih (and hence Standard American reis, via Literary Middle Pennsylvanian reis, reice) Ohioan rah; Californian rai; Cascadian ruis; and North New Englandic reisse.

Definition:

noun (countable and uncountable; plural razir)

(strictly) rice; a highly important cereal, the editable seeds of the grass genus Oryza, specifically O. sativa.

(broadly) Oryza or O. sativa and everything produced from it. (Also referred to as a raspleynz (rice-plant))

Hyperonyms: ziriou (archaic; cereal, grain of a grass), krof (crop), zet (seed, embryotic plant), füt (food)

Hyponyms: Eyfriknraz (African rice), Zenrarraz (rice grown in Asia)

Coordinate terms:

cereals: barley (barley), korn (maize), eüt/eütz (oats), feüyneü (acha, findi, fonio) ra (rye), wet/wez (wheat), zorgm (sorghum)

Synonyms: Reis (American scientific name for Oryza), razet (definition 1)

Grammar:

It is both countable and uncountable. The singular is raz and the plural is razir.

When referring to rice as a collective, the grammatically singular form is used. When used to refer to several individual seeds of rice, the plural is used.

A single Orysa plant is grammatically singular; several are plural. Orysa collectively is singular as well.

Example sentences:

Noun phrases

A bou w'raz. (a bowl of rice)

Tengle raz. (tasty rice, delicious rice)

Full sentences

Ser d'razir pikin. (she's harvesting the rice)

Iz beyz raz in weyz eynwarmeyntz dgreü. (it's best to grow rice in wet conditions)

D'Mizipe produser yüyt kwondirer w'raz. (The Mississippi river produces enormous quantities of rice)

2. In the sense of "to write"

Alternative spellings:

wrice (Old Script; outdated, used from around the 26th to the 28th Centuries)

wrisce (Old Script)

Pronunciation:

Standard: /rɑːs/ [ʁɑːs]

Northern: /roːs/ [roːs], [rʊs]

Central: /ras/ [ʁɑːs], [ʁɔːs]

Southern: /roːs/

Etymology:

From Middle Texan *ráts, from Classical English write, from Middle English writen, from Old English wrītan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan, from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-.

Definition:

verb (past reüz; present participle rariny; past participle riten; infinitive draz)

(transitive and intransitive) to write; to escribe; to carve, print, press, or otherwise put symbols on a surface (typically paper or a paper-like item), as a method of communication.

(transitive) to give an impression, image, idea, sense, etc.; to affect a person's perspective on or idea of someone or something, either positively or negatively.

Synonyms: dro, eyzkraw, marh, peyn, pleyz

Conjugation:

lemma form: raz. verb, strong verb, somewhat irregular.

non-finite forms

infinitive: draz

present participle: rariny

past participle: riten

finite forms

first person present singular: raz

first person present plural: wraz, raz

first person past singular: reüz

first person past plural: wreüz, reüz

second person present: yraz

second person past: yreüz

third person singular present: raz

third person present plural: raz, draz*

third person past singular: reüz

third person past plural: dreüz

*the third person plural form draz is not often used, because it is identical to the infinitive form. Many authoritative organizations proscribe draz as the 3rd per. plural form and instead prefer just raz. It is also rare across most Texan vernacular dialects.

Example sentences

Verb phrases including an object (or predicate)

Tü buk ratiny. (is writing a book, are writing a book)

Jeyr jar jeyple riten. (has impacted her positively)

Raz d'im. (write to him)

Full sentences

Your beyt esseir in ratiny. (you [plural] are bad at writing essays)

En Mendey, se reüz me a letter. (she wrote me a letter on Monday)

Abeoz deyz, yaü keynz yraz. (you [singular] can't write about that)

Je wor a poem ratiny. (he was writing a poem)

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[voxisweak]

Beginners in Need | Types of Witchcraft

This won’t be a complete list of different types of witchcraft. I see a lot of questions regarding what type of witch someone is, what they should label their practice, how to label their practice, etc. While I personally believe you don’t have to label your practice, I understand that this can be important to others. So I wanted to expand on some key things so you all have that stepping stone to move forward! There’s also different types of paganism, such as Hellenic, Norse, or Celtic! But this post won’t be talking about that side of things and focus on the Witchcraft Labels as I’ve noticed there’s much more confusion on that end.

Table of Contents

I.Introduction

II.Examples of Types of Witchcraft

III.Why Some People Use Titles and Others Do Not

Introduction

Hello! You’ve probably seen people label their witchcraft in different ways! You may even start to wonder… what type of witch are you then? First things first-you don’t have to have a label, unless you actually want it. Always remember that! Now, if you do what to label your witchcraft… how do you do so?

Theres some main branches that label broad concepts, then you can always get a little more in depth but there’s no inherent need to go to far into it unless you want to.

Examples of Types of Witchcraft

These are going to sound very broad, and very basic. But they are only meant to serve as examples and not a teaching point of what they are in full, nor a full list of the different types you may see.

Secular-Secular witches don’t use religion in their workings. They may have a religion, but it is separate from their workings.

Solitary-Solitary is just that! Someone who prefers to stay to themselves and not participate in anything like covens or group rituals/spells.

Green-Exactly as it sounds, Green Witches have a focus on using natural items in their craft. A few related practices may be things like herbs, and natural medicines.

Kitchen-The use of food and flavor in their workings! Kitchen Witchery is focused on what goes down with the pots, pans, and mixing bowls!

Death-You’ll see terms like Death Doula, or Psychopomp here, as well as general necromancy and the like. (No-not that kind of necromancy.)

Chaos-We all know that Chaos is… well chaotic! Imagine a little bit of everything and nothing at the same time. There’s no real rule set, but also so many things! All of the things!

Traditional/Folk-Traditional and Folk practices heavily depend on location! Think of an old woman in the woods of Appalachia, Vs a weathered man in the deserts of North America. They will have very different folk or traditional practices as it’s based of folk tales, wives tales, and tradition of the area. My grandmother liked to refer to herself as a “backwoods witch” when really, she was just an Appalachian Folk practitioner.

Why Some People Use Titles and Others Do Not

You’ll see a lot of discourse on if you need a title or not. Often times when someone asks where they’d fall in different subcategories, there’s at least one person to tell them that it does not matter. While to some it does not, I usually urge people not to tell others that something that may matter a lot to them does not matter.

I don’t have a good title for my path. It’s an amalgamation, and I always refer to it as such. Titles do not matter to me in this sense… but to someone else, especially someone finding their footing, it could mean the world to have an idea of where they can look for more information from people like themselves.

For someone like me, titles just don’t work. I don’t stick to one type of thing to only read one type of thing. But someone who is specifically in the Green Witch category may use that heavily, to find books that are made for them and their path or others like them! If you wanted to find more information on Death Doulas, that’s exactly what you’d look into, the SEO you’d use to find the information. And if you wanted to find books on Demonolatry, you’d look up Demonolatry. So imagine how being able to find people who do the same thing you do to give this information can be a godsend-especially for people who don’t have ready access.

I live in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is so known for Witchcraft and the like that one of our state officials is open about their spirituality and they still have their office. I don’t struggle to find resources, and face much less backlash for being open that others. Most people will see my Lilith necklace and Rune tattoos and it’s a knowing smile before it’s questions on if I worship the Devil and sacrifice small animals for fun. Not everyone has that! Even in the same state, more rural areas may face much different circumstances to myself, because I live next to one of our major cities.

When you live in an area that’s much less accepting, being able to use these titles can help a lot to find resources, because they may not have anything else. In an hours drive I have 6 metaphysical shops. Someone else may need to go out of state for their closest one.

For me, a title does not help me, nor does it even describe me. For someone else, a title may be the world in finding resources, and a way for them to find likeminded people. So, while some like me do not use titles as it can almost hinder us-to some it boosts them in a way we could not imagine.

[forgeofideas]

Geo-Cultural Groups

Europe: 

-Caucasian: mountains 

-Sarmatic Plains: Swamps, woodlands, plains, and small Vikings élite 

-Balkanatolia: heartland of Hellenic civilization 

-Italic: (North) City States & Germandom, (Mid) Papal states, (South) Byzantine and Norman Polities with Islamic influence 

-Iberian: 

-Nordic: 

-Variscidia: Aside from the Papal states, Variscidia was the heartland of catholic powers during the early middle ages. It’s cultural background was a syncretism between Latin and Germanic traditions. Variscidia was the region of Europe that served as a bulwark against northern pagan Europeans, Eastern-Oriental Christendom, and Islamic expansion. 

-British Isles: 

-Visigrad: Transitionary phase into western Europe, Catholicism, Slavs and Steppe peoples (mongols, avars, gepids and magyars) 

Asia:

East Asia: 

-Tibetan Plateau: 

- Northern River Basins: 

-Southern River basin 

- Goguryeo Mountain Enclosure: 

-Mongolian Steppe 

-East Asian Desert Complex 

-Japanese Archipelago: 

North Asia:

-Siberian Plateau (Eastern Mountain Complex, Central Mountain Complex)

-Siberian Plain 

-Kolyma 

-Yakutsk Basin 

-Central Asian Desert Complex (West Asian Mountain Complex Included) 

Southeast Asia: 

-Indochinese Peninsula

-Malay Archipelago 

Indosphere: 

-Deccan Polities: 

-Indo-Gangetic Polities: 

Oceania: 

-Polynesia 

-Micronesia 

-Melanesia 

Middle East:

-Levant: 

-Arabian Peninsula: 

-Mesopotamia: 

-Iranian Plateau: 

Africa:

-Sahelian Kingdoms: Muslim & Sahelian, mounted warfare 

-Guinean Kingdoms: Forested & Folk Religions 

-Nile Kingdoms: Egypt, Nubia, axum 

-Maghreb: 

-Kongo Kingdoms: 

-Lake Kingdoms: 

-Kalahari Plateau: 

-Swahili City States: 

North America:

Appalachian Woodlands: Iroquoise & Algonquian, wooded,  Haudenosaunee, long houses

Great Lakes: 

Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere: Chimakuan, woodlands, mound builders, south east,  

Great Plains: 

Great Basin: aztec tanoan,  "Desert Archaic" or more simply "The Desert Culture" refers to the culture of the Great Basin tribes. This culture is characterized by the need for mobility to take advantage of seasonally available food supplies. The use of pottery was rare due to its weight, but intricate baskets were woven for containing water, cooking food, winnowing grass seeds and storage—including the storage of pine nuts, a Paiute-Shoshone staple. Heavy items such as metates would be cached rather than carried from foraging area to foraging area. Agriculture was not practiced within the Great Basin itself, although it was practiced in adjacent areas (modern agriculture in the Great Basin requires either large mountain reservoirs or deep artesian wells). Likewise, the Great Basin tribes had no permanent settlements, although winter villages might be revisited winter after winter by the same group of families. In the summer, the largest group was usually the nuclear family due to the low density of food supplies.

Oasisamerica: Pueblo, cities, agrarian 

Plateau: 

Californian: The Pauma Complex is a prehistoric archaeological pattern among indigenous peoples of California, initially defined by Delbert L. True in northern San Diego County, California.The complex is dated generally to the middle Holocene period. This makes it locally the successor to the San Dieguito complex, predecessor to the late prehistoric San Luis Rey Complex, and contemporary with the La Jolla complex on the San Diego County coast.

Northwest Coast:

Arctic: 

Subarctic: 

Mesoamerica: 

South America: 

Andes: 

Amazon: 

Plains:

Australia: 

Blaze

0 notes

[salty-accords]

Appalachian Folk and Fire Witch here!

I gather most of my correspondences (bay=divination, health, healing, music) from two things: the community associations in my life (bay leaves are essential for soups in winter, which are meant to warm you and your soul and foster good health through the cold months) and my religion (I'm Hellenic and worship Apollo, God of Health and Medicine and Divination). It's personal but it also stems from physical properties.

Bay leaves can be hallucinogenic, were used in ancient times as divination tools, and they've been used historically in my area and family as an important "Healthy Soup Herb." In baneful work, if that's your shtick, bay can also be used to induce nightmares in another person.

Most modern witches, from what I've seen, cite bay as a good herb for protection, healing, divination, or dream work. A lot of it comes from bay being an integral part of the organized worship of dieties like Apollo and use in medicine and food.

That's where correspondences come from. They come from learning what herbs actually do and extrapolating from that. If bay is a hallucinogen, if it effects your orientation in reality, then it makes sense (to me) to use it in dream work and divination. It it's Important in healing soups and dishes that promote good health, then it's Important for healing and protection. And for me it works!

I don't use crystals much in my practice anymore. I'm moving more toward river stones and the like, but when I did, and for the few I still do, I consider the historical uses within my practice--how has rose quartz been used by other Hellenics and Appalachian folk? Has it been used? In what way and for what reason?

I've seen people use cinnamon in hexes and baneful work. I could never--I connect with cinnamon as a "love" herb, something I associate very much with fulfillment and connection, and warmth. I can see where others feel connected to it in baneful workings, though: it's spicy, it can be harmful in large doses, and it becomes unbearable in combination with peppers, or even too much nutmeg.

It's deeply personal and it needs to be--but there's still research you can do to find your connections! Ask people in your life what they use herbs for in their cooking, and what emotions they feel when they think of certain herbs--ask yourself those questions! Look into the physical properties of things. What medical effects does bay have? What's the symbolism around bay and what culture does that connection spawn from?

A beginning book I found really helpful to start out with is "The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More" by Arin Murphy-Hiscock, which is at least somewhat American-centric, and somewhat religiously-biased toward neo-paganism and Wicca perceptions of the universe, but there are a lot of North American plants and their physical properties and some explanations.

Don't be afraid to mix histories--don't appropriate! But mixing your family's, say, Catholic traditions and home remedies in with your craft is not a bad thing. I do that! My family isn't Catholic, but they're certainly not pagan! But I incorporate a lot of their teachings and a lot of our familial practices into my craft. It's not just books and blogs and videos, it's also how you already use these things in your life. What emotions do you feel about these things, what dishes do you use these things in--what's the purpose of the dish?? What time of year do you make something the most. Look into those things. Go deep with it. You don't necessarily need to meditate or go about it a certain way, but I do recommend talking or writing through things so that you have concise answers to look back on and use going forward.

Something that bothers me a bit is that so much information about spells, magical properties or herbs and gems, etc. is often not sourced or backed up. I see a lot of "use [blank] for [specific thing]!" without expanation why. As a beginning witch I feel I need this info before I try something willy-nilly! Did we all just agree that certain plants have certain properties? Where do those come from? (Genuine question!)

[appalachianoraclewitch]

I live in WV, where not a single county went blue for the election (let the record show I voted blue). I created and run a group called WV Witches with over 500+ members

We frequently screen and keep out trump supporters. Today we removed 4 people. I was proud of each of my coven members and admins/moderators for speaking out with me against hate and against bigotry and against the events the unfolded today.

We will not turn a blind eye to bigotry.

[pieandhotdogs]

I’m working from home today, someone ask me about things.