Set The Fires. Bury Your Doubts. Rise Like Something Ancient Remembering Its Own Hunger. Dance Barefoot

Herbs I Wish Grew in My Backyard (and Why)

If I could plant a little garden of magic, these are the herbs I’d want growing wild and free — each one carrying a secret spell in its leaves.

• Lavender — for peace, sleep, and soft dreams woven into the air

• Rosemary — for memory, protection, and cooking with a little bit of magic

• Chamomile — for calming storms inside my chest

• Thyme — for courage when the world feels too loud

• Mint — for energy, healing, and sweetening every breath

• Mugwort — for vivid dreams and wandering through them safely

• Basil — for luck, prosperity, and the feeling of being cared for

• Lemon Balm — for joy, gentleness, and mending what is frayed

• Rue — for strong protection, old-world magic, and standing tall

• Yarrow — for healing wounds you can’t even see

• Vervain — for drawing love, inspiration, and secret strength

A backyard not just full of green things — but of whispered spells, stitched into the roots.

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For the witches and pagans who need to hear it, connecting with nature is supposed to be about like, actually observing nature over long periods of time, not doing stuff like hoarding endangered bird feathers and beach sand, or just meditating out in aesthetically-pleasing locations. Can you tell me exactly when your wildflowers and weeds start blooming? When do your bugs come out of hibernation? When do migratory birds come and go? How does the air feel during different times of year? If you can't do stuff like that, you aren't connecting with nature.

Tarot Tips for Witches, Beginners & Intuitives

Because your deck is more than just pretty paper!

Whether you’re just starting out or deep in the cards, these tarot tips will help sharpen your intuition and deepen your connection:

Everyday Tips

• Cleanse your deck often — crystals, moonlight, sound, or simply your breath and intention.

• Ask open-ended questions like “What do I need to know about…” instead of yes/no.

• Keep it simple. 1–3 card pulls can be just as powerful as a full spread.

• Trust your gut before the guidebook. First impressions matter.

• Write your readings down — patterns, symbols, and synchronicities love to show up later.

For Energy & Intuition

• Pull a daily card for guidance or reflection. Let it speak to your mood, your magic, or your mission.

• Set a soft intention before reading: “Let this reading bring clarity, kindness, and truth.”

• Speak to your deck like an old friend. Tarot mirrors your inner world.

• Shuffle until it feels right. Your body knows more than you think.

Witchy Add-Ons

• Sleep with a card under your pillow to absorb its energy in dreams.

• Keep amethyst or labradorite near for boosted insight.

• Read during moon phases — new moons for beginnings, full moons for revelations.

• Don’t rush. Some cards whisper, some scream. Give them all time.

Which tip do you swear by? Or what’s the best advice you’ve received from your deck?

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The constant battle of: I want to lay on the ground and become one with nature vs nature has bugs and I’m kinda freaked out by those and don’t want to swat them away.

Basic Incense and Their Uses

Types of Incense:

• Sandalwood: Protection, healing, purification, pleasing the spirits, consecration

• Cherry: Attracts and stimulates love, new beginnings

• Vanilla: Luck, love, happiness, stimulates memory

• Jasmine: Luck; especially in love, peace, intuition, moon magick

• Coconut: Purification and protection, fertility, love and chastity

• Frankincense: Spirituality, protection, love, prosperity, growth, confidence, an offering to the gods

• Cinnamon: Wealth/money, prosperity, success, focus, amplifies any ritual or spell, third eye

• Myrrh: Protection, exorcism, consecration, purification, peace, meditation, spirituality, offering to the gods

• Patchouli: Money, abundance, attraction, passion, romance, lust

• Rose: Love, self love, safety, calm, healing, purification, connection to maternal ancestors

• Strawberry: Passion, love, luck, friendship, romance, opens/connects root and sacral chakras, goddess offering

• Dragon's Blood: Increases personal power, manifestation, attraction, sensuality, love, favored by many entities as an offering

• Sage: Cleansing, banishing, protection, clearing the air, nullifying negativity, promoting a more peaceful environment, longevity

• Lavender: Psychic abilities, divination, dream magick, protection, purification, beauty, intuition, peace, calming

• Nag Champa: Amplifies a ritual, great for meditation

• Clove: Protection (especially for children), love, money, purification, exorcism, shielding/warding

• Juniper: Exorcism, protection, healing, love

• Allspice: Attracts luck and money, provides extra physical energy

• Copal: Protection, cleansing, purification, connection, spirituality, ideal for cleansing crystals and stones

• Bay: Good luck, manifestation, success, purification, protection, healing, sharpens psychic abilities

• Rosemary: Protection, exorcism, purification, promotes sleep, restores and/or mantains youth, draws love, increases intellect

• Thyme: Health, vitality, healing, cleansing

• Pine: Money, strength, patience, shielding, purification, offer to nature spirits/deities

• Fern: Burn indoors to drive out malevolent spirits, burn outdoors to bring rain

• Benzoin: Purification, prosperity, amplifies mental abilities

• Arabic Gum: Purification and protection of the home

• Blueberry: Keeps unwanted influences away

• Passionflower: Peace, anxiety soothing, promotes sleep, friendship, joy, openness

• Mullein: Courage, protection, health, divination, offering to the dead

• Rowan: Psychic ability, self reflection, healing, protection, power, spirits more likely to obey demands/requests

• Star Anise: Psychic power, manifestation, luck

• Mugwort: Strength, psychic power, spirit communication, protection, astral travel, dream work, visions/premonitions

• Rue: Healing, mental health, comfort, exorcism, love, bonding

• Saffron: Health, wealth, happiness, success, wind raising, manifestation, lust, strength, third eye

• Palo Santo: Clears stagnant/negative energy

• Eucalyptus: Healing, cleansing, physical health, clears tense energy, invigorating, empowerment

• Wormwood: Magick, astral travel, spirit work, dream work, divination, third eye, protection from magick, curses and unwelcome energies, spiritual love, opens spiritual doorways, return to sender

• Lotus: Inner peace and outer harmony, third eye, meditation ascension, recovery, offering to Lilith

• Chamomile: Love, peace, comfort, stress reduction, luck in gambling

• Amber: Manifestation, good luck, success, love, romance, patience, protection, balance, sensuality, pain relief

• Damiana: Sensuality, sexuality, astral travel, love/sex magick, baneful witchcraft, attraction, drawing spells, shadow work, healing trauma, speaking your truth

• Skull Cap: Balance, calm, recovery, anchor to bring consciousness back to the body after astral projection

• Albizzia: Opens you up to oneness, attunes the heart, brings happiness

• Lemongrass: Calming, balance, love, depression relief

• Ginger: Strength, power, prosperity, relationship success

• Oregano: Joy, travel, creativity, love, hand fasting

• Cardamom: Love, lust, charm, mental clarity

• Sweet Grass: Removes malevolent energies, draws prosperity

• Marshmallow: Spirit pulling, protection, cleansing, stimulates psychic power, self-understanding, nurturing, healing, fertility, love, sexuality

• Orris: Love, protection, divination, spirit work, intuition

• Storax: Courage, healing, moon magick, meditation, divination, encourages restful sleep, offering to Hekate

Incense Smoke Divination:

Smoke direction- Up/down:

• Up: Positive spiritual journey

• Down: Challenges, deviation from the path

Smoke direction- Right/left:

• Right: Desires will be fulfilled

• Left: Blocks and turbulent energy

Smoke direction- Towards/away:

• Towards: Reciprocal affection

• Away: Neglect or indifference

Smoke forms a circle:

• Clear circle: Strong vibes, manifestation is near

• Hazey circle: Weak vibes, uncertain manifestation

Smoke forms a Ladder:

• Multiple steps: Elevated spiritual path

• One step: Need to enhance spirituality

Spiral shape:

• Clear spiral: Big, new change

• No distinct shape: Chaos, uncertainty

Smoke splits in two:

• Important life decisions

• Trust your instincts

Many broken corners:

• Confusion, need clarity

Infinity symbol:

• Very auspicious omen

Thick and dense smoke:

• Negative energy

• Change is needed

Abrupt lighting and smoke:

• Smooth/even flame: Clear path

• Choppy flame: Hurdles on path

Territorial Insticts + alterhumanity

i think a lot of alterhuman folks experience territorial instincts in ways that don’t always get talked about. especially if your identity includes predatory, wild, or socially protective species, such as canids, felines, dragons, etc. some of us might feel a deep need to claim space. not in a metaphorical way, but like. this is mine. this is my room, my den, my person, my pack. this is my corner of the internet. don’t touch it. don’t look at it too long. i’ll bite.

and it’s not always aggressive, it can be protective, affectionate. we make a space safe for the people we care about. we guard it. we watch.

for some of us it’s instinctual. for some it’s tied up in trauma, being displaced, growing up in unsafe environments, feeling like we never had a space that was truly ours. alterhumanity can make that ache sharper, more specific.

i guard things. food, objects, spaces, people. it’s not symbolic, it’s instinct. it’s like something clicks in my brain and suddenly whatever it is becomes mine. not in a selfish way, but in a protective, possessive, defensive kind of way. like: this is important. this is sacred. this is part of my territory. don’t touch it. don’t fuck with it. don’t even get too close unless you’re trusted.

sometimes it’s my room. sometimes it’s a person i love. sometimes it’s a hoodie i’ve worn every day for two weeks. sometimes it’s leftover food in the fridge that my brain has decided i’ll starve without. sometimes it’s not even rational, it’s instinctual. animal. primal.

it makes so much sense to me through the lens of psychological therianthropy, the creature in me doesn’t separate emotional connection from territorial instinct. if i love you, i’ll guard you. if something is mine, it’s not just an object, it’s part of my den. part of my hoard. part of myself.

and it’s also tangled up with my bpd [ suspected ], fear of abandonment, attachment issues, identity instability. my territory gives me shape. it tells me who i am. if someone crosses into it without permission, it doesn’t just feel like a boundary violation, it feels like a threat to my existence. it feels like my identity is bleeding. it feels like i’m going to lose something i can’t replace.

territoriality can be violent, but it can also be soft. i’ll sit by the door while you sleep. i’ll remember exactly how you take your tea. i’ll patch up your jacket and fold it so it smells like you again. i’ll bark at anything that looks at you wrong.

for me, being alterhuman means having instincts i can’t always explain, but i feel them in my bones. and territoriality is one of the loudest ones. it’s not always easy to live with, but it makes me who i am.

I had the fortunate experience of working in a tea cafe for over 8 years while finding my footing in my craft. Tea has become such an integral part of my practice, and it'd be super rad to open my own witchy cafe and metaphysical shop someday 🖤

2025 Witches' Calendar

January 13 ● Full Moon in Cancer (Wolf Moon) January 29 ● New Moon in Aquarius February 2 ● Imbolc February 12 ● Full Moon in Leo (Snow Moon) February 27 ● New Moon in Pisces March 14 ● Full Moon in Virgo (Worm Moon) March 15-April 7 ● Mercury Retrograde March 20 ● Ostara March 29 ● New Moon in Aries April 12 ● Full Moon in Libra (Pink Moon) April 27 ● New Moon in Taurus May 1 ● Beltane May 12 ● Full Moon in Scorpio (Flower Moon) May 26 ● New Moon in Gemini June 11 ● Full Moon in Sagittarius (Strawberry Moon) June 20 ● Litha June 25 ● New Moon in Cancer July 10 ● Full Moon in Capricorn (Buck Moon) July 18-August 11 ● Mercury Retrograde July 24 ● New Moon in Leo August 1 ● Lammas August 9 ● Full Moon in Aquarius (Corn Moon) August 23 ● New Moon in Leo September 7 ● Full Moon in Pisces (Harvest Moon) September 21 ● New Moon in Virgo September 22 ● Mabon October 6 ● Full Moon in Aries (Hunter's Moon) October 21 ● New Moon in Libra October 31 ● Samhain November 5 ● Full Moon in Taurus (Beaver Moon) November 9-November 29 ● Mercury in Retrograde November 20 ● New Moon in Scorpio December 4 ● Full Moon in Gemini (Cold Moon) December 19 ● New Moon in Sagittarius December 21 ● Yule