witchonthebeach

[witchonthebeach]

Nervously, I pull from the tarot deck. It’s the Nine of Clocks. My fate is revealed to me: It’s my bedtime, and I gotta go to sleeps

[witchonthebeach]

Alright, I am trying a new thing right now.

This days I came across a post talking about macro and micro goals with spells and decided to try it in a sigil.

The situation where I plan on trying it is a bussiness travel in which i have a list things i want to influence:

- first i want the trip itself to be save

- i want the internet conexion to be good

- and i want my neighbors in the place i will stay to be silent people.

And I want all of this in a single sigil for a successful travel.

So i got this 3 intentions (in portuguese, my first language):

CAMINHO PACÍFICO (peaceful path)

TECNOLOGIA CONFIAVEL (reliable tech - for both a good internet conecion and to garantee nothing will malfuncion)

VIZINHOS SILENCIOSOS (silent neighbors)

Next, i take out the vowels:

CMNHPCFC

TCNLGCNFVL

VZNHSSLNCSS

Then I take the repeating letters, so we get:

CMNHPF

TCNLGFV

VZNHSLC

Finaly (but not really), we get the numbers

345876, 2353764 and 4858133

We could keep it just like that, but i want one single sigil for all of it. Maybe it counts as a hypersigil ou something like that? I'm not sure, but anyway, to get a single sigil out of all of this numbers, I sum the numbers in each string. And we have:

3+4+5+8+7+6 = 33

2+3+5+3+7+6+4 = 30

4+8+5+8+1+3+3 = 32

333032

And thats it! Since I will have it in a piece of paper to carry around with me, I'm thinking of styling it a bit, maybe add some little drawings or something like that. I will post it here if I come up with something.

For casting, I will carve the numbers on the top of a candle and light it up. When the wax melts, it is done.

So, on the dilema about how to make and use sigils discretily, I may have come up with something: ✨numerical sigils✨

It is extremely simple to do and its not very artistic or particularly pretty. It is as its name suggests: a string of numbers, so you could write on your hand or a piece of paper or on a digital post-it in your laptop or cellphone and no one would bat an eye (which is extremely useful for a closeted witch like me).

I got the idea from my job, where i use a lot of part numbers, or PNs for short. If you are familiar with the concept of a PN, you know that it is a code that refers to an item in your ERP/system/whatever. It is a way to categorize and identify things in a database.

Usually, the process of creating a new PN follows a set of rules like type of product, size, technical characteriscs and so on, followed by a serial number (1, 2, 3, ..., 100, etc). The result is a unique code that refers to only one especific item or product.

Now, i didn't came up with anything fancy for this part, but i think it has a lot of potential. For now, I am stiking with a table that goes from 1 to 9 (bc 9 is a perfect number) and each letter from the alfabet is assigned a number:

The process of creation is simple: write the word or frase of your sigil, take the vowels out and swap the remaing letters with their respective numbers. That is all. There is some wiggle room here to customize your sigil: you can take out the numbers that apear more than once, for exemple.

You could argue that it takes all the fun out of creating sigils, but for me personally it helped focusing on the intent/goal of a sigil. Also i love the practicality of this method.

Anyways, its a work in progress and very experimental, but im sharing it regardless.

[witchonthebeach]

Sigil Magic

Symbols are the language of our subconscious mind. They have great magical power and are used in many rituals. A sigil is a coded image of our desire, embedded in the subconscious. By creating a sigil, we give our desire a certain structure, charge it with power — and start the fulfillment process.

Seance of Magic:

There are literally dozens of traditional ways to practice sigil magic now, and anyone can easily come up with another dozen symbols. Come to think of it — absolutely each one of them will work!

The main thing is to follow four simple rules in the process of this fun magic:

✶ First, you know exactly what you want.

✶ Second, you assert your will to get it, focusing as hard as you can on the result you want.

✶ Third, you create a magical seal that will do just that.

✶ And last (but not least!) is you must keep silent about what you have desired.

Enchanting:

✶ First of all, you should define your wish. It should be very clear and be contained in a single brief sentence. You must present it so vividly, as if it were not a wish, but a specific intention.

✶ Next, you should create a sigil. It can be a monogram or a mantra that you create on your own.

To create a monogram, write down the wish, remove all the repeating letters and make any figure out of those remaining: the letters can be inscribed into one another, placed on top of each other, or add pictures to them. Remember that this is your magical seal and you are free to do whatever you want while creating it.

✶ A mantra is created in the same way, only the remaining letters are transformed into a meaningless phrase or word that you chant throughout the day.

✶ Once your sigil has been ready, it must be charged. This can be achieved through meditation (detachment from the wish) or visualization (maximum focus on the wish).

✶ The process starts! After performing the ritual, it is necessary to pull away from your desire, to forget about it for a while. In order to do so, the most common practice is to use laughter — get distracted with a joke or watch a comedy.

Useful Tips:

✶ If you wish for something lasting and as a rule intangible, such as self-confidence or health, it is better to put the sigil in a place that you can easily observe. Where your wish comes into your life once (a new car, job promotion), after visualization you should hide the sigil and try to forget about the wish for a long time.

✶ You can practice making sigils and supplementing or transforming them as you specify your wish.

✶ You can also include your loved ones in this practice and share the symbols you have created without revealing their meaning. Since you receive a useless symbol this way, forgetting about it (thereby kick starting its implementation program) will be easier.

✶ To improve the result, we recommend adding the symbol of the respective planet to your sigils:

Sun ☉ — success and fulfillment of wishes.

Moon ☽ — enhanced intuition, emotions.

Mercury ☿ — communication, knowledge, advertising.

Venus ♀ — harmony, beauty, love, material possessions.

Mars ♂ — leadership, initiative, physical strength.

Jupiter ♃ — good luck, growth, education, faith.

Saturn ♄ — protection, support, rewards or karmic work.

Uranus ♅ — freedom, innovation.

Neptune ♆ — creativity.

Pluto ♇— important changes, transformation.

[witchonthebeach]

How do I know if witchcraft is right for me?

I suppose if it makes your life better. I don't mean in the long term and nebulous sense, like once you get used to it, or once you learn how to do magic, or once you learn to talk to spirits.

I mean does it make your life better right now? Is it something that brings you hope? Does it make you feel excited, curious, or happy? Does learning about it make you happy? Does thinking about it make you happy?

Do the steps, actions, routines, and rituals make you happy? Do they bring structure to your life? Do they help you cope with the bad times and embrace the good times?

Does it provide you with relief or comfort? Does it create security?

If so, perhaps witchcraft is right for you.

[witchonthebeach]

What if i develop a conlang for witchcraft purposes? How one does that? 👀

or I could learn esperanto to use for witchcraft, it would be funny

[witchonthebeach]

Spellcraft: Macro and Micro (aka covering all your bases)

I was reading some notes on a sorcerer (Jason Miller) and one of the concepts he talked about really resonated with me. It’s something I’ve kind of done, but not deliberately, and I think doing it deliberately is always more effective. I haven’t read his books yet (they’re on my infinitely long reading list, but I’m going to be bumping them up now), so this is going to be an incomplete introduction just based on what I’ve read from him so far. I’m sure he goes way more into depth in his book, and I’ll update on this once I’ve read it. 

The basic idea is pretty straightforward. We’ve all heard about different concepts of magic and how it applies, and one of my favourite ways to phrase it is “using magic is stacking the deck in your favour”, but you still need to play and you still need to have the cards (i.e. if something is outside of the realm of physics and possibility, you’re gonna have a bad time). 

Miller describes it using a boulder metaphor: the task you want to accomplish is this boulder, varying in size and weight depending on the difficulty of the task. Getting the boulder to move is accomplishing your goal, and sometimes doing just one thing like pushing isn’t enough. So you can add a lever, dig a pit, etc to try and make it lighter and easier to push. Some boulders might be small enough that you don’t need any extra help, but others might need some help and one of the key things here is approaching the issue from different angles and using various tactics. 

This is where macro vs micro spells come in. Most of the spells we tend to do are macro spells, meaning they cover the entirety of the goal or issue we’re addressing. I’m going to use the example of trying to get a new job, because I always test new things with money magic and I’ve just had the chance to test it. The macro spell would be an intent along the lines of “I will begin working at [company name] as a [position name] within the next two weeks” (or whatever time frame you would need, I never give it more than two weeks because if I have to wait more than that it’s kind of pointless). 

The micro spells, and this should always be plural, would address very specific aspects of obtaining the job, or specific obstacles. For example, if you know that someone with more experience than you is also applying, you could do a spell with an intent along the lines of “my strengths make up for my inexperience”. If you are applying for a job where you don’t quite meet all the requirements, you could try something like “my personality is engaging and obscures my shortcomings”. The point here is to really cover your bases as much as possible, so that every obstacle is targeted in some way. 

The great thing about this is: if your macro spell doesn’t work for whatever reason, your micro spells will likely more than make up for it. Likewise, if some of your micro spells don’t work, all the others combined with your macro spell should be sufficient. Between that and whatever mundane measures your taking, that boulder doesn’t stand a chance. 

Here’s a full list of intents you could use using this example. For the micro spells I’ve listed the specific obstacle they are targeting, and their corresponding intent. Obviously this is just an example based on what I used for the job I wanted to get, so you would need to change these so they cater to your particular needs. I personally did these in order of importance based on the obstacles I was most concerned about vs things I was less concerned about, but this was mainly because I didn’t have much time and wasn’t sure if I would be able to do all of them before the interview. If you have the time and energy for all of them, the order shouldn’t matter (I haven’t tried it though so just be aware of that as a possible variable).  

Macro: “I will be working the position I want at this company within the next two weeks”

Micros: - identification: “My name and identification will be accepted completely and compassionately” [if you are trans and have a different name on your application vs your official ID, this is for you] - scheduling: “They will believe me when I disparage any concerns regarding scheduling issues once school starts again” [the job I want has weird hours that would normally conflict with a student’s hours, but since I’m on a lighter load this doesn’t affect me… but sometimes people take jobs like this for the summer and say it won’t be an issue, just to bail once school starts so I wanted to address that as a possible mark against me] - strengths: “They will see my strengths, and they will be exactly what the hiring team is looking for” [pretty standard and can be used by anyone really] - eloquence: “I will express myself clearly and concisely, with eloquence” [if you’re like me and start to fumble your words when you’re nervous, this has got you covered - disclaimer: I did not have time to do this one, so it’s not tested] - best answers: “I will know the best answers to their questions” [again, pretty self-explanatory] - apprehend: “I will apprehend their questions mentally, before they are asked” [again pretty self-explanatory disclaimer - I did not have time to do this one, so it’s not tested]

I’ll need to wait a couple more days before I can confirm 100% which of these worked, but so far all the ones that were targeting the interview process did work so that’s 3/5. I still have to pass the French conversational test (which I will pass, because I am French), and then wait for the ID thing to see if that’s an issue. I’ll update this post in a couple days with the final results, but I thought it was a pretty good concept and wanted to share. 

As always, if any part of this post is unclear or you have more questions about it please let me know! I’m happy to make edits or clarify as needed. 

( Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash)

[witchonthebeach]

Blaming misfortune on unfalsifiable personal failings is victim-blaming.

There are many forms that this kind of victim-blaming can take.

An old classic is, "you just didn't have enough faith." For example, a woman becomes seriously ill. Her priest tells her that all she has to do is pray and God will cure her illness. So she does. However, she does not get better.

The priest tells her that this is because she lacked faith.

A modern form is "you subconsciously wanted it." For example, a man gets into a relationship with a woman who verbally abuses him, belittling and invalidating him every day.

His psychologist tells him, "you must have subconsciously wanted it."

Similar things are happening right now in the Tumblr manifestation/law of assumption community. People are being promised that they can manifest anything, literally anything, into their lives by simply assuming it. Never mind the lack of substantial evidence. In fact, how dare you even think of asking for evidence!

People ask about their difficulties with getting into the "void state" (a kind of trance state) and get told that they just weren't assuming. They post about trying to manifest their big, grandiose dreams didn't work, and get told that they aren't using the LOA correctly.

It's a very convenient claim to make, because no one can actually disprove it. No one can look inside the minds of these people and see what they really believed and felt. And when you're positioned as an authority figure, people will often be inclined to side with you, never mind that you can't see inside people's minds, either.

We have a bunch of people who wholeheartedly believe in the Law of Assumption, for the simple reason that some other people told them that it was true, and they had some personal experiences that seemed to confirm it. They aren't acknowledging that just because this thing they're doing seems to be helping in certain ways, doesn't mean that there isn't a limit to what it can do somewhere. Nor are they acknowledging the role that systemic privilege and preexisting wealth and social connections could be playing.

Worse still, a number of blogs pushing the idea that the LOA can do anything seem to be... shall we say, stretching the truth about their own manifestation experiences. If people are indeed lying about their experiences, then this means that they are very likely consciously lying to people who ask them why their own efforts at manifestation failed. Either that, or they've internalized the belief that manifestation can only fail because you fail, and they're living with a bunch of gnawing self-loathing right now.

In any case, this is an extremely toxic situation, and people are going to have long-term psychological damage from it. And blaming people's misfortune on unfalsifiable personal failings is always victim-blaming.

[witchonthebeach]

Witchcraft Book Recommendation Lists

(Reposting again bc tumblr turned off the reblogs on the original wtf. From an answer to an inquiry in the witchcraft tags. Decided to repost for anyone else who might need it.)

Here’s the post I made with recommendations for green witchcraft and plant magic. The list includes magical resources and accompanying practical texts on botany, herbology, and medicinal plants.

Here’s the post I made with recommendations for general witchcraft study, including practical sources on the history of modern witchcraft. (In particular, I recommend Margot Adler’s “Drawing Down The Moon” and Ronald Hutton’s “The Triumph of the Moon” for information about the modern movement.)

Here’s a recent photo of my personal library, if you’re looking for a general list of titles to check out.

Here’s the post I made with a list of JSTOR articles I’ve found that relate to witchcraft, witch trials, folk magic, occult beliefs, superstition, and the history surrounding all of them. It’s not exhaustive, but it’s pretty comprehensive.

And here are a couple of masterlists of podcast episodes that deal with witchcraft, witch trials, the history of witchcraft-related beliefs, and resources for fact-checking and debunking misconceptions and misinformation commonly found in witchcraft spaces.

(Also I have published a few books on practical secular witchcraft, if you’re interested….)

You can also find additional recommendations in the "book recs" and "witchy books" tags on my blog.

Hope this helps!

(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. 😊)

[witchonthebeach]

Using tarot to read on magical events in your own practice: quick theory, new card meanings, and spread ideas

this post is OC based on my personal tarot practice; the examples given are hypothetical for the sake of this post.

Well-meaning guy: "If you think that event was a bad omen, why not read tarot to clarify?"

Person who learned tarot from popular online resources and introspection-focused art decks: "I drew the 6/Cups, so I guess my ward falling off the wall is about my inner child?"

Tarot meanings change and evolve over time. Historical meanings are often not the same, or even contrary to, modern meanings. (Consider, 6/Pentacles: the French present moment was misinterpreted to mean presents, gifts).

By acknowledging that many modern meanings available for tarot cards are modern interpretations for modern concerns, many of which have fuckall to do with witchcraft, we can also acknowledge that we can apply our own sets of meanings to tarot to achieve personal interpretations in pursuit of personal goals.

I call this concept symbol sets, and you can apply your own symbol sets to certain tarot readings in order to rapidly obtain information about magical events in your life.

Symbol sets can be swapped out for each reading. You can intend to operate on your "normal meanings" for a typical reading, and then intend to operate with "magical omen meanings" for another reading.

There are no such things as universal tarot card meanings; there are some traditional meanings, some historical meanings, and many modern meanings. Adjust what each card means to you to your heart's delight.

The more symbol sets I've developed and practiced with, the more versatile and accurate my tarot reading has become. Working with custom symbol sets might be the single biggest leap in my reading ability in 16 years of practice. At least, it feels that way!

Quick n' Dirty Symbol Set for Magical Omens, Appropriate for Everyday Use

1. Apply general portents to each suit which matches your magical practice.

Here is one set that could be suitable to troubleshooting potentially magic events:

Swords, or Air: Misfortune, betrayal, malefica, ill-intent, adversity, due to harmful (even if unintentional) spirit action, pointless or wasted effort. Sometimes, banishing, binding and hexes.

Wands, or Fire: A lot of power, excessive power, due to your own actions, uncontained energy, something you did was very much overdone. Sometimes, protection and empowerment.

Pentacles, or Earth: Mundane, physical and normal reasons, an everyday occurrence, mundane but natural growth and change. Sometimes, unlocking and unblocking.

Cups, or Water: Blessings, magic working as intended (even if unexpectedly), the normal course of magical events, magical growth and change. Sometimes, cleansing and purifying.

Major Arcana: Guiding spirits and gods; their behaviors, guidance, or messages.

A spirit worker might like to add an additional layer of complexity, which modifies the prior set:

Court Cards: The actions of another being, such as a practitioner, god, or spirit, whether they acted intentionally to bring about the event or not.

(Further breakdown, as an example: Swords courts are beings intentionally acting badly; Wands courts are the most important spirits of your path; Pentacles courts are mundane folk or spirits unrelated to your path; Water courts are other practitioners, or spirits related to your path without being in your "inner court.")

Interpret any card drawn within these principles. Here are a few random examples. Let's say, a money spell has failed to produce results, and we'd like to know why.

5/Cups [disappointment, failure]: This is the normal course of magical events; the spell wasn't cast well, and so nothing is happening.

9/Wands [determination, boundaries]: A lot of energy was raised, but incorrectly targeted or released; the energy is cooped up.

Judgment [judgment]: An important spirit in your path wants you to deal with what you have been avoiding, and will interfere with your magic until you face them.

Spread Ideas

"What's going on with that thing?" | 3 cards

Card 1: The source or cause

Card 2: The current state of affairs

Card 3: Suggested action

Example; the money jar doesn't work: Card 1, King/Swords: The source of failure was the person in the discord server who promised to curse you for not feeling the same way about Destiel as they did. Card 2, Page/Pentacles: The current state of affairs is that as a symptom of the curse, an unaware person or spirit is blocking the prosperity you seek. Card 3, Queen/Cups: Ask a benevolent spirit or helpful practitioner friend to assist you in unblocking the situation.

Determining responsibility | 2 cards

Card 1: Why this thing happened

Card 2: Why it didn't happen; one thing that wasn't the cause at all

Example; the ward fell off the wall: Card 1, 10/Pentacles: This happened because of random happenstance in the home; it was not a magical event. Card 2, Ace/Swords: This action was unrelated to malefica or bad spirits or things like that.

Foresight Before Acting | 4 cards

Card 1: The current state of affairs

Card 2: The outcome of your intended plan of action

Card 3: Recommended plan of action

Card 4: The outcome of the recommended plan

Example; the spirits did not seem to appear during a spirit petition spell: Card 1, 3/Wands: Sufficient energy was raised to attract the attention of spirits, but they may not have been properly called to action. Card 2, 6/Swords: Your plan to call the spirits back and re-cast the spell is a fruitless attempt at a transition into a new plan. Card 3, Empress: Communicate with your primary goddess or powerful spirit of the earth and obtain input and guidance. Card 4, Magician: This plan will result in obtaining important magical information about this type of summoning spell you are trying to achieve.

[witchonthebeach]

I do wish that “oppositional sexism” was a more commonly known term. It was coined as part of transmisogyny theory, and is defined as the belief that men and women, are distinct, non-overlapping categories that do not share any traits. If gender was a venn diagram, people who believe in oppositional sexism think that “men” and “women” are separate circles that never touch.

The reason I think that it’s a useful term is that it helps a lot with articulating exactly why a lot of transphobic people will call a cis man a girl for wearing nail polish, then turn around and call a trans woman a man. Both of those are enforcement of man and woman as non-overlapping social categories. It’s also a huge part of homophobia, with many homophobes considering gay people to no longer really belong to their gender because they aren’t performing it to their satisfaction.

It’s a large part of the reason behind arguments that men and women can’t understand each other or be friends, and/or that either men or women are monoliths. If men and women have nothing in common at all, it would be difficult for them to understand each other, and if all men are alike or all women are alike, then it makes sense to treat them all the same. Enforcing this rift is particularly miserable for women and men in close relationships with each other, but is often continued on the basis that “If I’m not a real man/woman, they won’t love me anymore.”

One common “progressive” form of oppositional sexism is an idea often put as the “divine feminine”, that women are special in a way that men will never understand. It’s meant to uplift women, but does so in ways that reinforce the idea that men and women are fundamentally different in ways that can never be reconciled or transcended. There’s a reason this rhetoric is hugely popular among both tradwifes and radical feminists. It argues that there is something about women that men will never have or know, which is appealing when you are trying to define womanhood in a way that means no man is or ever has been a part of it.

You’ll notice that nonbinary people are sharply excluded from the definition. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to them, it means that oppositional sexism doesn’t believe nonbinary people of any kind exist. It’s especially rough on multigender people who are both men and women, because the whole idea of it is that men and women are two circles that don’t overlap. The idea of them overlapping in one person is fundamentally rejected.

I think it’s a very useful term for talking about a lot of the problems that a lot of queer people face when it comes to trying to carve out a place for ourselves in a society that views any deviation from rigid, binary categories as a failure to perform them correctly.

[witchonthebeach]

JSTOR Articles on the History of Witchcraft, Witch Trials, and Folk Magic Beliefs

This is a partial of of articles on these subjects that can be found in the JSTOR archives. This is not exhaustive - this is just the portion I've saved for my own studies (I've read and referenced about a third of them so far) and I encourage readers and researchers to do their own digging. I recommend the articles by Ronald Hutton, Owen Davies, Mary Beth Norton, Malcolm Gaskill, Michael D. Bailey, and Willem de Blecourt as a place to start.

If you don't have personal access to JSTOR, you may be able to access the archive through your local library, university, museum, or historical society.

Full text list of titles below the cut:

'Hatcht up in Villanie and Witchcraft': Historical, Fiction, and Fantastical Recuperations of the Witch Child, by Chloe Buckley

'I Would Have Eaten You Too': Werewolf Legends in the Flemish, Dutch and German Area, by Willem de Blecourt

'The Divels Special Instruments': Women and Witchcraft before the Great Witch-hunt, by Karen Jones and Michael Zell

'The Root is Hidden and the Material Uncertain': The Challenges of Prosecuting Witchcraft in Early Modern Venice, by Jonathan Seitz

'Your Wife Will Be Your Biggest Accuser': Reinforcing Codes of Manhood at New England Witch Trials, by Richard Godbeer

A Family Matter: The CAse of a Witch Family in an 18th-Century Volhynian Town, by Kateryna Dysa

A Note on the Survival of Popular Christian Magic, by Peter Rushton

A Note on the Witch-Familiar in Seventeenth Century England, by F.H. Amphlett Micklewright

African Ideas of Witchcraft, by E.G. Parrinder

Aprodisiacs, Charms, and Philtres, by Eleanor Long

Charmers and Charming in England and Wales from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century, by Owen Davies

Charming Witches: The 'Old Religion' and the Pendle Trial, by Diane Purkiss

Demonology and Medicine in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, by Sona Rosa Burstein

Denver Tries A Witch, by Margaret M. Oyler

Devil's Stones and Midnight Rites: Megaliths, Folklore, and Contemporary Pagan Witchcraft, by Ethan Doyle White

Edmund Jones and the Pwcca'r Trwyn, by Adam N. Coward

Essex County Witchcraft, by Mary Beth Norton

From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages, by Michael D. Bailey

German Witchcraft, by C. Grant Loomis

Getting of Elves: Healing, Witchcraft and Fairies in the Scottish Witchcraft Trials, by Alaric Hall

Ghost and Witch in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, by Gillian Bennett

Ghosts in Mirrors: Reflections of the Self, by Elizabeth Tucker

Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales 1700-1950, by Owen Davies

How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?, by Ronald Hutton

Invisible Men: The Historian and the Male Witch, by Lara Apps and Andrew Gow

Johannes Junius: Bamberg's Famous Male Witch, by Lara Apps and Andrew Gow

Knots and Knot Lore, by Cyrus L. Day

Learned Credulity in Gianfrancesco Pico's Strix, by Walter Stephens

Literally Unthinkable: Demonological Descriptions of Male Witches, by Lara Apps and Andrew Gow

Magical Beliefs and Practices in Old Bulgaria, by Louis Petroff

Maleficent Witchcraft in Britian since 1900, by Thomas Waters

Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England, 1593-1680, by E.J. Kent

Methodism, the Clergy, and the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic, by Owen Davies

Modern Pagan Festivals: A Study in the Nature of Tradition, by Ronald Hutton

Monstrous Theories: Werewolves and the Abuse of History, by Willem de Blecourt

Neapolitan Witchcraft, by J.B. Andrews and James G. Frazer

New England's Other Witch-Hunt: The Hartford Witch-Hunt of the 1660s and Changing Patterns in Witchcraft Prosecution, by Walter Woodward

Newspapers and the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic in the Modern Period, by Owen Davies

Occult Influence, Free Will, and Medical Authority in the Old Bailey, circa 1860-1910, by Karl Bell

Paganism and Polemic: The Debate over the Origins of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, by Ronald Hutton

Plants, Livestock Losses and Witchcraft Accusations in Tudor and Stuart England, by Sally Hickey

Polychronican: Witchcraft History and Children, interpreting England's Biggest Witch Trial, 1612, by Robert Poole

Publishing for the Masses: Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets, by Carla Suhr

Rethinking with Demons: The Campaign against Superstition in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe from a Cognitive Perspective, by Andrew Keitt

Seasonal Festivity in Late Medieval England, Some Further Reflections, by Ronald Hutton

Secondary Targets: Male Witches on Trial, by Lara Apps and Andrew Gow

Some Notes on Modern Somerset Witch-Lore, by R.L. Tongue

Some Notes on the History and Practice of Witchcraft in the Eastern Counties, by L.F. Newman

Some Seventeenth-Century Books of Magic, by K.M. Briggs

Stones and Spirits, by Jane P. Davidson and Christopher John Duffin

Superstitions, Magic, and Witchcraft, by Jeffrey R. Watt

The 1850s Prosecution of Gerasim Fedotov for Witchcraft, by Christine D. Worobec

The Catholic Salem: How the Devil Destroyed a Saint's Parish (Mattaincourt, 1627-31), by William Monter

The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making, by Juliette Wood

The Cult of Seely Wights in Scotland, by Julian Goodare

The Decline of Magic: Challenge and Response in Early Enlightenment England, by Michael Hunter

The Devil-Worshippers at the Prom: Rumor-Panic as Therapeutic Magic, by Bill Ellis

The Devil's Pact: Diabolic Writing and Oral Tradition, by Kimberly Ball

The Discovery of Witches: Matthew Hopkins' Defense of his Witch-hunting Methods, by Sheilagh Ilona O'Brien

The Disenchantment of Magic: Spells, Charms, and Superstition in Early European Witchcraft Literature, by Michael D. Bailey

The Epistemology of Sexual Trauma in Witches' Sabbaths, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and Alien Abduction Narratives, by Joseph Laycock

The European Witchcraft Debate and the Dutch Variant, by Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra

The Flying Phallus and the Laughing Inquisitor: Penis Theft in the Malleus Maleficarum, by Moira Smith

The Framework for Scottish Witch-Hunting for the 1590s, by Julian Goodare

The Imposture of Witchcraft, by Rossell Hope Robbins

The Last Witch of England, by J.B. Kingsbury

The Late Lancashire Witches: The Girls Next Door, by Meg Pearson

The Malefic Unconscious: Gender, Genre, and History in Early Antebellum Witchcraft Narratives, by Lisa M. Vetere

The Mingling of Fairy and Witch Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Scotland, by J.A. MacCulloch

The Nightmare Experience, Sleep Paralysis, and Witchcraft Accusations, by Owen Davies

The Pursuit of Reality: Recent Research into the History of Witchcraft, by Malcolm Gaskill

The Reception of Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft: Witchcraft, Magic, and Radical Religions, by S.F. Davies

The Role of Gender in Accusations of Witchcraft: The Case of Eastern Slovenia, by Mirjam Mencej

The Scottish Witchcraft Act, by Julian Goodare

The Werewolves of Livonia: Lycanthropy and Shape-Changing in Scholarly Texts, 1550-1720, by Stefan Donecker

The Wild Hunter and the Witches' Sabbath, by Ronald Hutton

The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda, and Related Figures, by Lotta Motz

The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland, by Emma Wilby

The Witches of Canewdon, by Eric Maple

The Witches of Dengie, by Eric Maple

The Witches' Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors, or How to Explain Away the Impossible, by Gustav Henningsen

To Accommodate the Earthly Kingdom to Divine Will: Official and Nonconformist Definitions of Witchcraft in England, by Agustin Mendez

Unwitching: The Social and Magical Practice in Traditional European Communities, by Mirjam Mencej

Urbanization and the Decline of Witchcraft: An Examination of London, by Owen Davies

Weather, Prayer, and Magical Jugs, by Ralph Merrifield

Witchcraft and Evidence in Early Modern England, by Malcolm Gaskill

Witchcraft and Magic in the Elizabethan Drama by H.W. Herrington

Witchcraft and Magic in the Rochford Hundred, by Eric Maple

Witchcraft and Old Women in Early Modern Germany, by Alison Rowlands

Witchcraft and Sexual Knowledge in Early Modern England, by Julia M. Garrett

Witchcraft and Silence in Guillaume Cazaux's 'The Mass of Saint Secaire', by William G. Pooley

Witchcraft and the Early Modern Imagination, by Robin Briggs

Witchcraft and the Western Imagination by Lyndal Roper

Witchcraft Belief and Trals in Early Modern Ireland, by Andrew Sneddon

Witchcraft Deaths, by Mimi Clar

Witchcraft Fears and Psychosocial Factors in Disease, by Edward Bever

Witchcraft for Sale, by T.M. Pearce

Witchcraft in Denmark, by Gustav Henningsen

Witchcraft in Germany, by Taras Lukach

Witchcraft in Kilkenny, by T. Crofton Croker

Witchcraft in Anglo-American Colonies, by Mary Beth Norton

Witchcraft in the Central Balkans I: Characteristics of Witches, by T.P. Vukanovic

Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II: Protection Against Witches, by T.P. Vukanovic

Witchcraft Justice and Human Rights in Africa, Cases from Malawi, by Adam Ashforth

Witchcraft Magic and Spirits on the Border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, by S.P. Bayard

Witchcraft Persecutions in the Post-Craze Era: The Case of Ann Izzard of Great Paxton, 1808, by Stephen A. Mitchell

Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic, by Edward Bever

Witchcraft, by Ray B. Browne

Witchcraft, Poison, Law, and Atlantic Slavery, by Diana Paton

Witchcraft, Politics, and Memory in Seventeeth-Century England, by Malcolm Gaskill

Witchcraft, Spirit Possession and Heresy, by Lucy Mair

Witchcraft, Women's Honour and Customary Law in Early Modern Wales, by Sally Parkin

Witches and Witchbusters, by Jacqueline Simpson

Witches, Cunning Folk, and Competition in Denmark, by Timothy R. Tangherlini

Witches' Herbs on Trial, by Michael Ostling

[witchonthebeach]

On Witchcraft as a spirituality

Sometimes people hit me up like "I need verification, but practicing spells is so tedious, and I need validation" and I am here to tell you that

In my personal opinion you know that

You're never going to finish crochet projects unless you love making stitches.

Letting the yarn slip over your fingers and the hook goes over under over under, stitch stitch stitch, turning chain,

That is the part you've got to love, I think, because the problem is if you only love the amigurumi, or the bag, or the blanket, you're never going to get there,

because crocheting isn't having a blanket.

Crocheting is making a blanket.

"I just need to see my spells manifesting before I can have proof, I need that validation" is bullshit

because you can cast a spell that goes off so incredibly well and then you look around and all you can say is "well that just means the situation was already going to go fine and I never needed to cast, there's no way I could have accomplished that"

and all the while there's this little bit of hollowness and stress and frustration, like you're looking for the thing but the thing never presents itself,

so now the question is still there and it just switches from "I need validation," to "I need faith"

and this is exactly like finishing the amigurumi and looking at its soft squishy face and setting it aside and saying "I need a bag"

but in all the cases, you know, the answer is just about stitches.

Do you need a bag? Or do you need the quiet, repetitive, counting, soothing, structure, activity, progress, and then, by total coincidence, after a while a bag appears?

I think this way often about witchcraft as a spirituality. My blog is mostly practical sorcery based. And when you approach witchcraft from that perspective I think it's pretty much, "I need a result."

But witchcraft isn't having a result.

Witchcraft is making a result.

and I think for those of us who use witchcraft as a spirituality, as a damp and safe terracotta pot within which we can unfurl our roots into the rich soil of the underworld,

It is the joy of the process itself which waters the soils - not the end result.

When you engage in your practice - the literal, physical, mental, and emotional actions you engage in, the ways you've ritualized your behaviors, the series of behaviors you engage in which allow you to interface with your path -

Do those parts, in and of themselves, serve you?

So anyway love your results but fuck results at the same time, if the actual moment-to-moment doesn't serve you, if being there doing the actions in and of itself doesn't bring you something,

perhaps there are adjustments to be done.

It could even be time to switch to a new fiber art altogether.

[witchonthebeach]

ok but like how can you be into magic if it doesn't exist... I'm so confused i thought it was a bit

part 1 of this ask, for context

I mean, magic is a thing that people do, and have been doing for tens of thousands of years. I'm just continuing that tradition. Whether or not supernatural forces get involved isn't really relevant to the existence of magic, as I see it. Magic is just the steps we take. It is an attempt to effect change.

My feeling is that it doesn't really matter if the magic I do has any supernatural effects. It's cool when it seems to work, and it's enrichment for my enclosure, even when it doesn't.

Why do people have sex when they aren't trying to reproduce? Why do they snack when they aren't actually hungry? Some actions are enjoyable and satisfying in and of themselves, outside of fulfilling their primary purpose. The study and performance of magic is like that (at least to me -- other people are a lot more results-oriented).

Doing magic allows me to think about and engage with the world in a different way than if I maintained a purely materialist view of it. It's a way to connect to our ancestors from thousands of years ago, even if the magic I'm doing takes a completely different shape from their practices. And it's fun! I'm not like a true believer in the supernatural. I am open to the possibility of it not being a thing. Still, we do the magic. Does the magic do anything? I don't fucking know! But with that said, I have Experienced Some Shit, and I like to keep an open mind.

So yeah. It's a thing I really do, but it's also a bit. After all, sufficiently advanced witchcraft is indistinguishable from shitposting.

[witchonthebeach]

Hey chicken! For the past few months I feel like I haven’t been able to manifest anything and I’ve been stuck in a sort of rut, and I just feel like I’m kind of failing as a witch sometimes (I know that’s stupid thinking, but it’s quite hard to shake)…have any words of wisdom for me? Thanks!

Hi!

Posts about dry spells:

Conceptualize yourself as a tree

growth in witchcraft as shedding of snake-skin

What can I do in the dry periods?

Posts about troubleshooting manifestation:

Potentially you gotta stop making all those substitutions to the spells, witch bestie.

Jasper's Ask: Recommendations when spells never work

Getting friendly with failure thread

What counts as a spell? Is intent all you need?

the Chicken furthermore tries to convince you to practice sorcery in a fun and fulfilling way

[witchonthebeach]

What would you recommend for someone whose spells never work? (I’ve been practicing for almost 2 years now 🥲)

*sighs and puts on my Thinking Cap*

Have you used divination to figure out why they don't work? Have you tried doing the spell as directed, or are you making the spell yourself? Have you over-warded? Does your spell have a catalyst to actually get it cast?

Have you considered doing something magical that isn't a spell?

This is incredibly vague, anon, so there's not much I can do or recommend based on what you've given me. The amount of time you practice has nothing to do with your effectiveness in magic.

(I apologize if this sounds or reads as mean, I'm still recovering from being sick recently.)

~Jasper

[witchonthebeach]

🌊Introduction 🦀

Hello! Im witchonthebeach (or maybe just Crab) and I am someone starting a witch journey since September 2023 towards a more spiritual life, although I am not entirely sure if witchcraft is the right path for me or what exactly I want to get from it. Despite this doubts I have been enjoying it greatly, especially the looking-for-resources and reading part.

Even though I only started officially a couple of months ago, I have been playing around with tarot reading for 5 years. I am also a big fan of sigil work and lately I'm exploring energy work as well (so far, it's been a struggle lol).

Despite the sea motifs I don't practice witchcraft related to the sea because I live far from it :(

I am a latin american adult that has been thought a lot of questioning when it comes to spirituality, raised evangelical and then becoming atheist. Nowadays I'm still not sure about gods and so far I am not doing any work related to gods, although I definitely appreciate the beautiful practices I have seen connected to divinity.

This blog is a sort of resources center for me, I go around looking for interesting things about witchcraft and save it here, but I need to get better at tagging stuff. Sometimes I also post my own stuff.

[witchonthebeach]

Doing readings to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack is a whole other level of magical for me