BIG OL WITCHY MASTER LIST

Liminal Spaces in Witchcraft

First of all, what is a liminal space? A liminal space refers to a place or time that is in a period of transition between two phases. These are usually places where reality feels altered because you are neither moving forward or backward, like a rest stop. The word liminal originates from the Latin word limens, meaning threshold. These places often give off a sense that time stands still and that you are experiencing some sort of reality shift. 

        In magic and witchcraft these spaces are considered to be the boundary between our world and the other, it is known as “the in-between”. These places are considered areas of great magic because it is believed this is where the veil is thin. These places are great for divination, spirit work, meditation and astral travel; they are ideal for hedge witchcraft.

Times & Spaces of Liminality:

crossroads manmade or natural

river, creek or lake shores/ beaches

hallway/corridor/stairwells/landings/doorways

graveyards

dawn, dusk, afternoon, midnight

valleys

forest glades

many more!

      Samhain/Halloween is considered the best time to communicate with spirits and faeries because of its liminality, it is a time of transition between autumn and winter. Irish folklore tells that this is the day faeries and ghosts come out to play because of the veil thinning. The equinoxes and sabbats like Beltane and Imbolc are also days of liminality because the time of day and night are equal (equinoxes) or it is a transition between seasons.  

       Mental states of liminality are also times of spirit communication. While being in a meditative state we are in a state of transition between our concious and sub-concious minds, this is where we sometimes experience astral projection or messages from spirits. People often experience spirit while falling asleep because this is another state of liminality. 

     In my craft I often practice in liminality in order to connect with the faerie realms.

-Moonlight 🌙

Historical Witchcraft 101: Familiar Spirits

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the witch’s familiar. Nowadays, a familiar is considered to be an animal that has an unusually close bond and a spiritual connection with its owner. This animal could be a cat, a dog, a mouse, a toad, a rabbit, or even a fly; and birds such as owls and ravens could also be considered familiars. The familiar’s function is to aid the witch in their craft, accompany them on their travels, as well as provide general companionship.

[Image description: Frontispiece to Matthew Hopkins’ ‘The Discoverie of Witches’. Matthew Hopkins, witch finder, stands at the top. Two witches sit in chairs either side of him, naming their familiar spirits, which are shown at the bottom of the print.] [Image source]

A physical familiar is certainly one form a familiar can take. Looking at the records we have, it’s often suggested that the familiar is a spirit (often referred to as a devil, imp or a fairy) that is seen as taking physical form. The witch is sometimes said to possess their physical familiar and go out and perform magic. (This will appear again in a later post on shapeshifting)

The idea that familiars were spirits that took physical form could be part of the reason why it was commonly believed that witches fed their familiars blood, as blood would be necessary to give a spirit physical form, although obviously a desire by the elite to make witches seem as horrific as possible plays a large role in this as well. Other food/ payment for familiars includes milk, bread, leftovers from your plate, and in the case of a ‘fairy wife’ (we’ll get onto that), sex.

The practice of feeding familiars bread and milk in particular points to a different type of familiar: a familiar spirit, or a fairy familiar. This is especially resonant of the practice of leaving out bread, milk, beer and/ or water in the kitchen in case the fairy host visited your home overnight. These familiar spirits play a more active role in aiding the witch with their craft, often performing tasks, acting as a spy, or even teaching magic to the witch. They were often described as either very small or very tall, wearing black, white or green (all fairy colours, especially green).

A final type of familiar is the ‘fairy wife’, or fairy lover, I mentioned earlier. The best example of this is probably Tam Lin, or perhaps the Queen of the Faeries in Thomas the Rhymer. The fairy wife often takes humanoid form, sometimes with some small marker such as horns or animals to show that they are more than human. They give the witch magical knowledge in exchange for sex. For example, Aberdeenshire cunning man Andro Man claimed that the Faery Queen was his lover, and he had had several children with her. In witch testimonies, this is normally sex with the Devil, and could even extend to marriage: Rebecca West, in Essex, claimed that the Devil promised to be her loving husband until death.

Familiars can be obtained in a number of ways. In some stories, they appear to those in need and offer assistance, such as appearing to those who are hungry and offering to teach them skills that can help them make a living, typically healing and the power to locate lost objects. For others, familiars are granted by the Devil when they first become a witch, at their initiation. Another common theme is hereditary or bloodline familiars, which are passed down between family members and sometimes covens. For example, Elizabeth Francis confessed to receiving her familiar, a white spotted cat named Sathan, from her grandmother.

In all these cases, there is an implicit or explicit contract being made: freedom from want, assistance, knowledge and companionship; in exchange for food, good treatment, sex, the renunciation of one’s faith, and/or the witch’s soul.

Sources:

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

“The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland”, Emma Wilby***

“Concerning the familiar spirit”

“Familiar Spirits”

“Of Imps and Familiars”

“Familiars and familiar spirits”

“The Witch’s Familiar”, Charlotte Smith

‘Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits’, Emma Wilby***

‘The Visions of Isobel Gowdie’, Emma Wilby

‘The Element Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft’, Judika Illes

‘The Discoverie of Witchcraft’, Reginald Scott

About grimoires

I have seen a few witchblr post about using your own alphabet, and so I wanted to tell you the application FontForge is a free tool for creating your own fonts. If you have knowledge of graphic design, you can do really professional looking fonts, but if you’re a nob like me you can still create something both usable and good looking like this:

The developer(s) seem very kind people and work hard for having this tool free and open, and you can find very useful tutorials on youtube. Plus, you can add both symbols and letters with accent marks:

This is the working panel. What I did was using the straight line and the curve line and work with that, but you also have more tools, so you can experiment (in my case i didn’t want to spend a lot of time and wanted something that looked more like handwrite than a computer font, but that’s up to you!)

The only important thing is that you have to draw closed figures (you can’t just use one line). 

After you have the font done you can just save it for later edit and and add it to your writting software of preference. I don’t remember how it is done as I used a youtube tutorial, but I do remember it took less than 5 mins, bcause you only have to save+upload.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femeiche

http://www.weecke-verlag.de/

Why are agriculture classes the first time I've learned extremely basic info about nutrition and how digestion works. Why isn't this stuff in health textbooks or any easily accessible resource about healthy eating.

🌱🧚Finding Earth Spirits In The Wild🧚🌱

🌱Earth spirits are just about the easiest ones to make contact with. Their forms tend to be less subtle than those of many fairies,and they generally stick to one place- so if you feel a location is haunted by these beings, it will always be haunted. Wherever anything grows, there will be a fairy to attend to it.

🌱 Earth fairies love gardens,and will gather round you while you are planting and watering. At the end of a hot day they exult when you get out the hose or watering can, and will dance among the refreshed flowers with glee. Often they do not like you weeding,though,so make sure you always do this with respect. Leave a patch of your garden to grow wild, for the fairies love this and it creates a space for all the plants that are unwelcome elsewhere- just because humans do not like them, this does not mean they do not have a valuable place in the scheme of things.

🧚 Method 🧚

To draw close to the gnomes,settle quietly in your garden or in a park,woodland, field, or hillside- close to a barrow-mound may be the most powerful place of all. Gnomes of the deep earth may be experienced in a cave or hollow,whereas others may be more of the flower- or tree-fairy types. Let your bare feet and hands make contact with the earth,mud or stone. Beat a soft rhythm on a drum,if you wish.

Be very still, relaxed,and quiet. Try not to see anything,because that will put you in the wrong frame of mind. Just be there, and be observant- these spirits do not show themselves in the ways you might expect, and seeing them can seem almost ordinary.

Be aware of any little movements out of the corner of your eye, for that is where spirits are often first perceived. An animal running in the undergrowth may also be a shy gnome in disguise. Look out for the face of the Green Man among the leaves, and watch flowers, for they can also be sweet faces, nodding and smiling.

To show they have drawn close to you, gnomes will often give you a tangible gift,such as a coin or a piece of jewelry. If you find this on your path,treasure it, for it is very lucky.

Frühlingsfrische Gesichtscreme.

Anwendbar als pflegende Tagescreme.

Dagmar Bartosch.

Birkenmassageöl.

Unterstützt die Hautfunktion, strafft und entgiftet, kann bei Cellulite helfen.

Dagmar Bartosch.

Das Wildschwein symbolisiert als keltisches Krafttier Tapferkeit, Kampfgeist und Schutz 🐗

In alten Zeiten wurde das Wildschwein nicht nur wegen seiner physischen Stärke und seines Mutes während der Jagd bewundert, sondern auch als heiliges Tier verehrt, das eng mit der Erdmutter und der Fruchtbarkeit der Natur verbunden ist.

Die Kelten sahen im Wildschwein eine Manifestation der Kraft des Kriegers und des Durchsetzungsvermögen. Es wurde oft in Geschichten und Legenden als Beschützer der Wälder und ihrer Geheimnisse dargestellt.

In der keltischen Geschichte wird das Wildschwein häufig zusammen mit Kriegern und Göttern abgebildet, was seine Bedeutung als Symbol der Macht und des Schutzes unterstreicht.

Für diejenigen, die sich vom Wildschwein angezogen fühlen, mag es eine Einladung sein, die eigenen inneren Stärken zu erkunden, den Mut zu finden, sich Unbekanntem zu stellen, und die Führung zu übernehmen, wenn der Weg vor uns ungewiss ist...

Lucid Dreaming Masterpost

What is Lucid Dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is when you are in a dream but fully aware that you are in a dream, leading to you often being able to control the outcomes or certain aspects of the dream. You are able to live your fantasies and also are more likely to remember your dreams come morning.

With work Lucid dreaming can be improved into astral projection via sleep or dream walking where you can exit your dreams to enter the dreams of others or walk about the “dream plane”. Skilled lucid dreamers also often use their dreams for divination and problem solving due to how vivid they are and how it is easier to remember them.

Herbs for Lucid Dreaming: African Dream Bean, Blue Lotus, *Datura, *Mexican Dream Herb, Lavender, Mugwort, Rose Buds, Valerian Root, Wild Asparagus

Crystals for Lucid Dreaming: Albite, Angel Phantom Quartz, Danburite, Herkimer Diamond, Lazulite, Moonstone, Rhodonite, Scolecite

Foods for Lucid Dreaming: Almonds, Bananas, Cherries, Chicken, Kidney Beans, Lamb, Oats/Oatmeal, Pumpkin/Pumpkin Seeds, Rice, Soybeans and Tofu, Sunflower Seeds, Tomatoes, Turkey

Essential Oils for Lucid Dreaming: Lavender, Mugwort, Patchouli, Rose

Other things to achieve Lucid Dreaming:

Keep a dream journal and write in it regularly.

Interpret the meanings behind your dreams after recording them

Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and smoking cigarettes before bed

Keep a regular sleeping schedule

Sleep in complete darkness if possible

Meditate before going to sleep

Openly state before you go to bed “I will lucid dream tonight” and repeat this either out-loud or in your mind as you get ready for bed. When you lay in bed continue focused on that in your mind

Along with that before bed tell yourself, preferably in a mirror if it helps, that you will remember your dreams come morning

Do “reality checks” meaning in your dream check to see if you are dreaming. If you see mirrors, see if you can see the background behind you or if it is misty/blurry. If see a clock look at it, look away, then look back, often in dreams the time will change. This is the same for signs and street signs. You can also before going to bed mark up your hand with ink and in your dream look down and see if it is there still. If its not you know you’re dreaming. Look down at your feet, often in dreams they will seem oddly unfocused. If you see a bookshelf, see if any of the book titles are visible or repeat.

Okay, I know I am dreaming, now what do I do?

Well now you practice. It is rare to immediately be able to control your dreams completely. To gain full control you need to practice. Start small and take baby steps. Try hopping in place in your dream, see if you can make yourself hover for even just a second. Keep at it, try to float in place longer and longer with each jump. In time and with practice and patience you will be able to soar through your dreams one night and it’s easy from there. If you come across a locked door try opening it while saying out loud “this door is unlocked”. Keep at it, because hopefully you will be able to open it soon enough.

Start talking to the ‘characters’ in your dreams. Try to influence their behavior such as suggesting they do something. You can also approach a ‘stranger’ in your dream and see what happens if you state that you two are friends. If they start acting as if they know you and are indeed your friend, you know you have improved your control.

Take notes in your dream journal on these tests. Write down if they failed or succeeded and keep at it. With time you will be able to change things in your dreams with ease.

The Positives of Lucid Dreaming:

You can control your dreams! That is just awesome, you can live out things you can’t do in real life.

Prevent or stop nightmares, when you are lucid dreaming you can just tell whatever is causing you the nightmare to ‘fuck off’ and usually they will. Nightmares can be quickly changed into enjoyable dreams

From my personal experience and experiences of others, after a lucid dream you feel more awake and alive come morning, it’s almost energizing to wake up from

Its calming, I can relieve my stresses from the day and not worry about them in my dreams

You can attempt to solve your real life struggles in your dreams or making plans

Eventually you can work your way to Astral Travel and Dream Walking

Using your dreams for divination

Improve sleep, many people who lucid dream fall asleep faster and deeper than most people leading to them having improved sleep patterns and habits

For artists and story writers, dreams can really inspire you and help you test out your ideas

Deity communication, for those who do worship deities you can communicate or even interact with them in your dreams if you welcome them in.

Spirit and entity communication, just like deities lucid dreamers can interact with entities in their dreams by letting them in. Many lucid dreamers interact with their guides and guardians through dreams as well

Happy Dreaming everyone~