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Sam's Masterlist of Beginner Resources

These are some of my favorite books, podcasts, and blogs that can help you develop your spiritual practice even if you have zero previous knowledge. All of these resources are approachable enough for total beginners, but I also recommend them for more advanced practitioners who want to brush up on the basics. Some books are listed in multiple categories because they cover multiple topics.

This list will be updated continuously as I find new resources that I want to recommend.

Secular Witchcraft (witchcraft that is not part of an established religious or spiritual tradition)

Witchcraft for Everyone by Sam Wise

A Witch's Guide to Spellcraft by Althaea Sebastiani

"Witchcraft for Skeptics | Science and Theory Behind Magick" by Jessi Huntenburg on YouTube

A Green Witch’s Cupboard by Deborah J. Martin

By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn by Althaea Sebastiani (this book is about protection magic specifically)

Witchcraft Traditions (witchcraft that is part of an established religion or spiritual path)

Wicca For Beginners by Thea Sabin

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

Reclaiming Witchcraft by Irisanya Moon

The Spiral Dance by Starhawk (written by a founder of Reclaiming, but also contains elements of Wicca and Feri)

Betwixt & Between by Storm Faerywolf (about the Feri tradition)

Witchcraft in History and Culture

Waking the Witch by Pam Grossman

Witches, Sluts, Feminists by Kristen J. Sollee

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deidre English

Paganism

Wicca For Beginners by Thea Sabin

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

The Spiral Dance by Starhawk (written by a founder of Reclaiming, but also contains elements of Wicca and Feri)

Irish Paganism: Reconstructing Irish Polytheism by Morgan Daimler

Morgan Daimler's YouTube channel (Irish paganism and Fairy lore)

Lora O'Brien's YouTube channel (Irish paganism)

The Irish Pagan School

Temple of the Cosmos by Jeremy Naydler, Ph.D. (Kemetic paganism)

The Way of Fire and Ice by Ryan Smith (Norse Heathenry)

On Black Wings: A Site for Fire & Ice Heathen spirituality and practice: https://www.onblackwings.com/

Skald's Keep: https://skaldskeep.com/ (Norse Heathenry) (on tumblr as @skaldish)

North of Annwyn: https://northofannwn.wixsite.com/home (author is Heathen but posts about magic and paganism more generally; author is currently on hiatus) (on tumblr as @north-of-annwn)

American Folk Magic

New World Witchery podcast

Southern Cunning by Aaron Oberon (Southern folkloric witchcraft)

Roots, Branches & Spirits by H. Byron Ballard (Appalachian folk magic)

Sticks, Stones, Roots, and Bones by Stephanie Rose Bird (Hoodoo, African-American magic)

Jambalaya by Luisah Teish (New Orleans Voodoo and African-American women's spirituality)

Divination

Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova

Astrology for Real Life by Theresa Reed

Fifty-four Devils: The Art & Folklore of Fortune-telling with Playing Cards by Cory Thomas Hutcheson

Religion, Spirituality, and Politics

"Rethinking How Paganism Engages Culture" by Sam Wise (blog post: https://www.samwisethewitch.com/post/rethinking-how-paganism-engages-culture)

Bringing Race to the Table edited by Crystal Blanton, Taylor Ellwood, and Brandy Williams

"Witchcraft PSA: The Chakras & Cultural Appropriation" by Anthony the Witch on Tumblr (https://anthonythewitch.tumblr.com/post/187293358858/witchcraft-psa-the-chakras-cultural)

Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich (deals with toxic positivity)

McMindfulness by Ronald Purser (this one is a little bit dense but has a very important message about how American mindfulness culture misappropriates Buddhist practices)

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Fairy Tale Spells by Bree NicGarran

Fairy tales have always been with us. Apart from teaching moral lessons and practical cautions, they remain a source of wonder and inspiration that persists even in a modern age dominated by technology.

There is magic in these tales as well - spells and charms that aid the worthy and conquer obstacles, heal the ailing and bring wealth to the poor, thwart the wicked and exact terrible revenge, or grant someone their hearts' desire and make their dearest wishes come true.

I have created over a hundred such spells, inspired by the tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm and the folklore collected by Andrew Lang. One volume was published back in 2017 and another is forthcoming. If you're curious (and maybe a little bit daring), here are some previews of the spells to be found in the pages of The Sisters Grimmoire.

After all, who couldn’t use a bit of Happily Ever After?

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I

A Bellyful of Stones - A curse to punish the greedy.

Eyes Like Coals - To summon a spirit guardian.

Roughskin - To protect and disguise oneself from those who mean to harm you.

Straw Into Gold - A spell to bring wealth.

Table of Plenty - To obtain needed money or provisions.

The Red Flower - For removing enchantment.

The Sorrow Pot - To relieve your sorrows and bring justice for a grievance.

The Wall of Thorns - To protect one’s home and property.

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. II (forthcoming)

Make Sure You Lock Up - To set your household wards when you lock your front door.

Gilded Locks - To braid wealth into the caster's hair.

Something In The Water - To discover whether a person is suffering from the effects of baneful magic.

The Ferryman's Curse - To curse another with the problems that plague your own life.

The Shining Web - To repel trouble from the home.

You can find more spells from The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I and potion and powder recipes from Pestlework by checking out the mid-month minisodes of Hex Positive, available on your favorite podcast platform.

All of my titles can be found on Amazon or ordered from the Willow Wings Witch Shop. (If you'd like to see them in your local witch shop, feel free to give the proprietor my contact information!)

If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar and tune in to my monthly show Hex Positive! 😊

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Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

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Magical Powder Recipes

A collection of some of my original magical powder recipes.

All-Purpose Cursing Powder

Bree's Banishing Powder

Clean House Powder

Come Hither Powder

Dead Man's Dust

Dream Dust

“Eye of Sauron” Revelation Powder

Get Thee Hence Powder

Ghost-Be-Gone Powder

Heal Thy Heart Powder

Hexbreaker Powder

Inspiration Salt

Lucky Day Powder

“Outta My Way” Powder

Peacekeeper Powder

Persuasion Powder

STFU Powder

Traveler’s Luck Powder

Truthfinder Powder

For those of you who may not be able to find herbs locally, here are some online suppliers who consistently have affordable and high-quality products.

Penn Herb Co. - Bulk herbs, spices, and botanicals - including over 400 wildcrafted herbs, gathered from the United States and worldwide. Single ounce packages are available. Excellent source for powders.

Starwest Botanicals - Bulk herbs, spices, oils, and teas. Good amount of organic and Fair Trade products, as well as supplies for holistic medicine and tea-making.

Mountain Rose Herbs - Bulk herbs, spices, and sundries. Also carries organic products and essential oils, and has link to schools that offer courses in herbalism and herbology.

Bulk Apothecary - Bulk herbs, spices, and oils, in addition to materials for the home production of soap, candles, wine, and beer.

For more recipes to fill out your potion kit, you can check out Pestlework: A Book of Magical Powders & Oils. (Available on Amazon and in my shop!)

If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊

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Major Arcana Post Guide

Here are all of the Major Arcana posts that I've written! This includes upright, reversals, and key words.

🃏 The Fool

🪄 The Magician

🛐 The High Priestess

♛ The Empress

♚ The Emperor

🗝️ The Hierophant

🦁 Strength

🐚 The Hermit

💌 The Lovers

🎠 The Chariot

🔁 Wheel of Fortune

⚖️ Justice

🪢 The Hanged Man

💀 Death

🙏 Temperance

🤘 The Devil

⛈️ The Tower

🌟 The Star

🌙 The Moon

☀️ The Sun

📯 Judgment

🌎 The World

Enjoy my posts?

Consider leaving me a tip on my ko-fi!~

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Minor Arcana Post Guides

Here are my post guides for the minor arcana, they will be updated as I add more!

Suit of Swords

Suit of Cups

Suit of Wands

Suit of Pentacles

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Learn the Most Accurate and Important Tarot Spread There Is

Anyone serious about tarot needs to master the Celtic Cross. Here is why as well as how.

Why It is Superior

There are a myriad tarot spreads. You can make your own, or use none. Just pull as many cards as you like and read them as you want. As with food and fashion, we each have a preference. But there are reasons the Celtic Cross deserves so much reverence.

1) It respects you and your question.

The Celtic Cross is not designed to give rushed, biting and abrupt answers. It recognizes that your question is important to you. So it takes the time to explore every detail of your situation before giving you advice and a prediction.

2) It kindly proves itself to you.

Fortunetelling involves powers beyond the natural. Powers that only a few can truly harness. To minimize the trickiness of the business, the Celtic Cross states what you already know: your past, hopes, fears, pains, secrets, goals. If it accurately describes these things, you can trust its promise of what tomorrow will bring.

3) It allows for great interaction.

When interpreting a spread, it is crucial to look at how the cards are connecting. Is the Page of Cups offering his chalice to The Magician? Is the Knight of Swords on his way to attack the King of Wands? The way the Celtic Cross is laid out lets many interactions come about.

How to Perform It

It has dozens of variations. Each reader has a fancied version. Below is what my elders taught me. I use it faithfully.

1) The Hierophant (reversed) – The Present

What is happening at the moment?

2) Three of Wands – The Problem

What needs to be remedied?

3) Two of Pentacles – The Past

What led you to where you are?

4) Seven of Pentacles – The Near Future

What happens next?

5) Seven of Swords – The Conscious Goal

What does your mind want?

6) Four of Wands – The Buried Truth

What lies in your subconscious?

7) Eight of Swords – The Advice

What will the Fates have you do?

8) Six of Swords – The Environment

Where are you in the broad view?

9) King of Pentacles – The Hope or Fear

What does your soul crave or dread?

10) Queen of Wands, Nine of Wands, The Sun – The Ultimate Outcome

What does the future hold, after all is said and done?

11) The World – The Underworld

What lies beneath that can help or hinder?

How to Interpret It

STEP 1: Read the cards in the above order, one by one.

Then read the Ultimate Outcome cards as one: The Queen of Wands is reprimanding the man in the Nine of Wands. But he is supported by The Sun. All will be well for the querent in the end.

STEP 2: Compare the Near Future with the Ultimate Outcome.

The man in the Seven of Pentacles has put life on pause, anxiously awaiting what is next. Then it comes: first, it will be bad (Nine of Wands), then he will be glad (The Sun).

STEP 3: Compare the Buried Truth with the Hope or Fear.

If it is a positive card, it is the hope. Otherwise, it is the fear.

The two positions are aligned. A buried need for stability (Four of Wands) and a desire to be solid and steady (King of Pentacles). The querent is clear about his wishes.

STEP 4: Compare the Conscious Goal with the Ultimate Outcome.

It all happens as hoped for. The querent wishes to get away with something (Seven of Swords). And after a bit of scuffle (Nine of Wands), he does (The Sun).

STEP 5: Compare the Advice with the Ultimate Outcome.

The querent needs to stop acting the victim (Eight of Swords). Once he moves forward, he will face the punishment he fears, yes (Queen of Wands and Nine of Wands). But it will all work out (The Sun). No rainbow without rain.

STEP 6: Close the reading.

For this, you have ten more things to do. All the best to you.

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Will Building Spell

you will need:

a candle in a holder

paper and pen

matches or lighter

a small pouch

mugwort or yarrow (for magic)

rosemary (for strength)

sage (for cleansing)

lavender (for healing)

chamomile (for calm)

chili pepper (for fire)

Gather all your items and sit in your space with your eyes closed, allowing your body to relax. take a deep breath in, and at the top of your breath hold for a count of 3 before blowing out into cupped hands. As you blow into your hands, visualize your warm breath as your will. Hold it in your hands, feeling it as a physical force. Clap your hands together to send your will into the universe after sitting with it for a while. Write down what you want on your piece of paper. Fold up the paper and place it in your pouch with the herbs and spices and secure closed. Carry this with you or keep it on you . When you need to, do the breathing exercise and chant the words on your paper to keep this charged as a charm.

Credit to Emma Kathryn

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Elemental Correspondences

Fire

season: summer

direction: south

time of day: noon

moon phase: full

planets: sun, mars, uranus

colors: red, orange

herbs: calendula, cinnamon, nettle, rosemary, sunflower

crystals: carnelian, garnet, amber, sunstone, jasper

associations: happiness, confidence, desire, light, protection, assertiveness, warmth, transformation, strength, reaction, purification, passion, joy

Air

season: spring

direction: east

time of day: dawn

moon phase: waxing

planets: jupiter, venus

color: yellow

herbs: bergamot, frankincense, lavender, yarrow, wormwood

crystals: amethyst, kyanite, lapis lazuli

associations: cleansing, communication, creativity, divination, intelligence, new beginnings, spiritual ascension, travel

water

season: autumn

direction: west

time of day: dusk

moon phase: waning

planets: moon, neptune

color: blue

herbs: burdock, mugwort, myrrh, rose, valerian, willow

crystals: aquamarine, moonstone, opal

associations: dreams, emotion, empathy, intuition, psychic ability, purification, sleep

earth

season: winter

direction: north

time of day: midnight

moon phase: new moon

planets: mercury, saturn

colors: black, brown

herbs: cedar, comfrey, cypress, oak, patchouli, sage

crystals: black tourmaline, jade, green adventurine

associations: career, grounding, home, nature, physical health, protection, stability, wealth

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the myth of persephone is about the trauma of the separation of mothers and daughters by marriage and this is the hill i will die on

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mostly i want to be deeply connected to nature around me and in me

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When I say "connect with nature" I don't just mean the aesthetic forests with deer and beautiful flowers.

I mean the weeds growing through concrete, the fungus that grows on the rotten shed, the nettles that always seem to return and the scary, spindly cellar spider in the corner of the bathroom.

Nature is not always pretty or magical - the pigeons and seagulls you swat at are nature too, the wasps and flies that hover by your meals are animals too, store-bought strawberries and the leaves that fall from your neighbour's tree are not all that different from the Giant Sequoias and it's seeds.

If you want to connect and understand nature, I mean *really* connect to it, in it's entirety, you have to seek out and learn about the ugly, scary and mundane things as well. You don't have to like it, just don't forget that it's there.

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I think what bothers me about the countless retellings of the myth of Medusa as a victim story isn't the fact that Athena is "demonized" because Athena, within her mythical narrative, is overall not a women's Goddess.

She might authorize certain purely-feminine areas of ancient Greek life within her cult role (such as weaving) or, herself, function within gendered fields by the mere fact of being a woman (and thus posing no threat to her father as a successor) and so on - gender is important to her image. Yet, within myth, she covers purely masculine areas of heroic becoming and war.

Even heroines she helps are assisted through the prism of a higher-standing (as Athena's protege) hero she assists first and foremost. What I mean is:

Penelope might be under Athena's field of control as a weaver/woman shielded from unfair/untimely remarriage but it is ultimately Athena protecting her hero's position as a husband and a ruler.

Athena - alongside Ares - is a "sacker of cities" (despite also being a protector of them; e.g. Troy) and fall of a city implies all men dead and all women taken/violated (e.g. The Trojan Women).

She punishes impious behavior within her temples (Ajax the Lesser) but so does every other Deity and it has little to do with the gender field, impiety has to do with mortality-divinity, not masculinity-femininity.

Aithra (Description of Greece, 2.33.1) does Athena's bidding and offers libations to the charioteer of Pelops but is faced with Poseidon having intercourse with her in the process and proceeds to establish a temple to the Goddess.

Athena's relationship with gender is complex and specific, myth!Athena and cult!Athena have very polar relationships with the fields within which (ancient Greek) women thrive vs. those within which (ancient Greek) men do. So, I guess, what bothers me with the account of Medusa (or Arachne for that matter, though she gets much less attention) within modern stories is that it tends to follow two major plotlines:

Athena is antagonized against Medusa and authorizes her assault.

Athena is protecting Medusa because of her assault.

Meanwhile myth!Athena seems to be more concerned with her temples being untouched (like any other Deity) and has a much more nuanced, if not distanced, connection with her own gender - much less those of others. It's not that it's wrong to approach Medusa or Arachne, especially if their later accounts speak to you personally. I just get a little bit bothered when that's where talks on Athena's relationship with women and gender stops.

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one thing that aphrodite devotees do not play about is their altars cause holy fuck everytime they are the most expansive and gorgeous thing ive ever seen in my life

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cannot recommend enough just walking around your neighbourhood, noticing the plants, trees, birds, creepy-crawlies, mammals, rocks, watercourses, etc that are around you. looking them up and learning about them, how they behave, their seasonal rhythms and changes. learning about their presence in folklore and mythology and culture.

these are your neighbours. if you take a few minutes to learn about them, if you make the small effort to notice them, be mindful of them on a regular basis, honour them and respect them - this is animism. this is re-enchantment.

we all live alongside and in community with a myriad of spirits. it is truly so beautiful and life-affirming and sacred to appreciate that and the unique character of your neighbour-spirits.

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Hi! i’m Gaby! (she/her) . I’m a 22 year old new witchling who has orbited witchblr for quite a while before making this blog! Probably will mostly be reblogs from others but maybe will occasionally post my own thoughts.

Main:

E-Shrine to Aphrodite: