“shingar” In Punjabi Means The “adornment” Or “decoration” Of Oneself. Something As Seemingly

Travel Witchery

Because why not incorporate witchcraft into every aspect of your life, amiright or amiright?

What to bring…

Pocket/Travel altars! [X] [X] [X] [X]

Travel talisman

Small crystals/Crystal jewelry.

A pendulum.

Your tarot cards/playing cards for the intent of divination.

A witchy journal, or books on witchcraft!

Something to *legally* collect soil, water, plants, and other things from where you travel.

A locket with items/ingredients within it inspired by the spell bottles/jars below:

To aid in safe travels…

Spell for safe travels

Safe travels chant

Travel safely spell

Protection for travellers spell

Safe travels: A magical powder

Safe travels sachet / Safe travels sachet

Spell and charm bag for safe travels

Safe travels spell bottle

Safe travels spell bottle necklace

Safe travels mini spell jar

Safe travels spell jar

Other handy spells…

Spell bottle for good travels

Your own highway spell

Time passing powder

10 magical ways to spruce up your car

Car safety tips

Improvised charms for the travelling witch

Cute travel witch idea

Sigils…

The traveler’s sigil

Safe travels [X] [X] [X] [X]

I am safe while traveling

I am safe when I drive / Safe driving

I experience luck on my travels

To have an awesome adventure

There and back again

I’ve picked up my Grimoire again and begun developing my Tarot section, (which is going to be huge and very time consuming but I am SO excited!)

Please feel free to use these pages as a guide in your own practices or as inspiration for your own BOS or Grimoire :) All I ask is that if you wish to recreate my design or wording, please credit in the description of your post!! Thank you 💕

✨Pages in my Grimoire on Tarot ✨

These pages begin my Tarot study on the symbols associated with the Major Arcana, the 4 Suites and associated zodiacs/meanings, the court cards and what they represent in meanings, numerology and their associated majors, and lastly color symbolism. this is basically all I need to do intuitive readings with the tarot!!

The next chunk of this will be meanings for each of the major arcana, based off of my own practices and what i’ve learned about their symbols.

simple sleep sachet 💜

Grimoire/book of Shadows decoration ideas and ideas of what to put in them:

I struggle sometimes with what to write in my grimoire, so I thought I’d write a list to help myself and others :) and even though I keep my personal grimoire plain on the covers, I will include decoration ideas because not all people want theirs plain, and the decoration could also be for the inner pages :)

Decoration:

📖 paint the covers a colour or pattern that gives you energy

📖 a picture collage

📖 a pressed flower and leaf collage

📖 draw sigils, which are practical as well as pretty

📖 draw a pendulum or ouija board in your book, which is also functional as well as decorative

📖 washi tape borders, book marks and page keys!

📖 when writing in your grimoire, you can separate bits of information in boxes. Using coloured pens/pencils or patterned lines looks nice :)

📖 carefully paint the edges of the pages. I like it when this is done with metallic paint but the colour is a personal choice :)

Content ideas

✨ write a list of trees, types of animals, flowers etc that you feel a connection to if you think nature is important to your craft

✨ you could also do a list of objects in general

✨ write magical recipes that you like into your grimoire and what properties you feel the finished product has

✨ a list of your crystals and stones and what vibe they give off, and their properties

✨ write about solstices if you follow them

✨ when you do a spell, I recommend writing down your method and what result you got, for future reference. This way you can repeat the spell easily and it can be tweaked if necessary :)

✨ write about deities you have a connection to, if any

✨ write about your familiar if you have one

✨ If you feel drawn to a certain type of animal, you could write about what animal you have this feeling towards. It may be worth looking into getting one if your situation allows it! I believe that the animal I feel drawn to (more so after practicing witchcraft for a while!) could be a future familiar for me. For example you could write about how to care for them, whether they have any magical connotations, and name ideas if you think you’ll get one! :)

✨ tarot card spreads

✨ results of tarot/pendulum/ouija sessions

✨a list of sigils so you can remember them (they don’t have to be activated if they’re just for reference)

✨ if you feel drawn to a particular tarot card or one of your pendulums (if you don’t have multiple pendulums that’s fine! You could write about the one you have) write about it and how it makes you feel

✨ magical correspondences of herbs

✨ general information about the path you follow (or if you are eclectic, parts of each type that interests you :))

Obviously there is way more to write about and way more decoration ideas! Feel free to reblog and add ideas if you have any!!

Nyi & Nidi - Mondphasen

Nyi und Nidi (Nyji und Nidhi oder Nyjar und Nidhar, altnordisch von ný „Neumond" oder auch „das kommende Licht" und nið „Neumond, abnehmender Mond" oder "das gehende Licht") sind zwei Zwerge oder auch himmlische Geister. Sie stammen von Motsognir, dem ersten Zwerg, ab und gehören zu den Erdzwergen.

Alleine aus der Übersetzung Ihrer Namen muss man sie mit den Mondphasen in Verbindung setzen. Mani der Gott des Mondes, lenk die Bahnen des nächtlichen Himmelskörpers und bestimmt Vollmond und Neumond.

In welcher Verbindung diese Zwerge mit den beiden Kinder des Wildfinn, Bil („die abnehmende”) und Hjuki („der zunehmende”), den Begleitern des Mani stehen, ist unbekannt. Denn in erster Linie bilden Bil, Hjuki und Mani zusammen die drei Mondphasen. Welche Aufgabe den Zwergen dabei zuteil kam oder ob sie Personifikationen der Mondphasen waren, bleibt fraglich. Eventuell waren ihre Namen auch nur auf den Zeitpunkt ihrer Geburt zurückzuführen.

How to use a pendulum

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

Tiere, Teufel und Satyrn

Heilige Fauna

Bären und Wölfe, Wildschweine und Hirsche, Füchse und Wildkatzen, Eichhörnchen und Hermeline, Dachse und Biber und noch viele weitere Tierarten, der Sage nach übrigens auch Einhörner und Drachen, streunten im Altertum durch Europas Urwälder. Auch Wisente und Auerochsen - europäische Wildrindarten (,„Bisons‘“) - lebten in Europa; erst im Mittelalter, zur Zeit der Christianisierung, wurden die Großsäuger mit den teuflischen Hörnern ausgerottet.

Im Neuen Testament wird „das Tier‘ mit dem „Teufel“ gleichgesetzt („666°“). In der germanischen Mythologie hingegen treten Tiere als göttliche Begleiter, totemistische Krafttiere und spirituelle Schutzgeister in Erscheinung: Die Fauna war den Heiden heilig, durch sie offenbarten sich die Götter und Naturgeister. Viele Germanenstämme leiteten ihre Herkunft von Tieren ab, etwa die berühmten Cherusker („Hirsche“); aber auch Eigennamen zeugen von der besonderen Beziehung der Germanen zu Tieren, etwa Wolfgang und Eberhard, Bjöm, Ulf oder Falk. Ist es Zufall, dass dieselben Tiere, die in heidnischer Zeit als Göttertiere galten, seit der Christianisierung einen schlechten Ruf haben als Unglücks-, Hexen- oder Teufelstiere, zum Beispiel Raben (Odin), Böcke (Thor) oder Katzen (Freya)? Wotan wird von zwei Raben und zwei Wölfen begleitet, wenn er auf seinem achtbeinigen Pferd durch die Wälder braust, gefolgt vom ganzen Ungetier im Zug der Wilden Jagd. In der Edda verwandelt er sich sogar in eine Schlange, in ein Tier also, das in christlicher Interpretation wiederum den Teufel symbolisiert.

Laut Tacitus soll es unter den Germanen Menschen gegeben haben. die „Antlitz und Mienen von Menschen, jedoch Rumpf und Glieder von Tieren haben“ (Germania 46). Tatsächlich überliefert die nordische Mythologie mannigfach von solchen Mischwesen aus Mensch und Tier, vor allem von Bärenmenschen und Werwölfen, aber auch von Bocksgestaltigen oder Gehörnten; dies sind gewiss germanische Schamanen, die sich mit Tierfellen verkleidet haben und in Trance „zum Tier“ wurden.* Mit der Christianisierung wurden diese Kulte verboten. Zum Beispiel erließ Theodor von Tarsus, Erzbischof von Canterbury, Ende des 7. Jahrhunderts ein Gesetz, das jeden mit einer dreijährigen Kirchenbuße belegt, der sich in Tierhaut hüllt und als Stier bzw. Hirsch verkleidet.

„Ende des Mittelalters schritt die Obrigkeit mit immer schärfer werdenden Maßnahmen gegen solches Treiben ein. So wurden etwa im Jahre 1430 in den von Herzog Amadeus VIII. erlassenen Statuta Sabaudiae in Chambery harte Strafen ausgesprochen, die den larvaria drohten, also jenen, die sich in ‚Teufelskleider‘ steckten“.

Aus: Der verteufelte Waldgott

t.me/HueterderIrminsul

Witch Tips

Witch tips from a witch who has practiced for many years; here are some of my traditional beliefs as well as things I picked up along the way. 💫

🔮 When foraging, do not forget to thank for what you took. Thanks the gods, the fae, the earth, or whomever you worship, but do not just take.

🌙 Wear beautiful clothes when performing a ritual. Before I get into saying anything else I want to say - There is NO PRICE VALUE which makes the ritual clothes beautiful. They do not have to be expensive, or a certain brand, or from a certain place, or anything of the sort. Just make sure that they are well taken care of and that you think they are beautiful.

🔮 People will rarely understand you, and most do not actually even want to. But the trees. The plants. Animals of the earth. Rivers, still and moving water. The stars and the moon. They understand, they will listen, and if you listen, too, you will hear what you need to and be validated and understood. People alive thousands of years before you have been sharing the same heartbreak, pain, suffering, and struggle with the universe. It understands. It has heard before, and will listen again.

🌙 When trying to meditate, you are not actually doing anything wrong by being unable to “clear your mind.” The goal is not actually to have a blank mind, but an open and receptive one. If a thought pops in suddenly, acknowledge it, dismiss it, and move on. It doesn’t mean you’re not focused or doing it wrong.

🔮 Another note about meditation; there is no shame in needing herbs to achieve meditation. There is nothing wrong with you. Some people just need the extra help, and that is okay! It is also a traditional part of many practices to smoke, ingest, or otherwise consume herbs before a ritual/meditation/journey/etc. This pertains to herbs such a kava, sage, wormwood, mugwort, and cannabis. (Do not use unless you ask a doctor, know it’s safe, and so on.)

🌙 Wisdom is the combination of emotion and logic. To make a wise decision, validate the emotion and why it is being felt, look at the logic and the facts, and combine the information for the answer.

🔮 Do not be discouraged that you cannot find witches (or Wiccans, Pagans, Druids, etc) where you live. We are here. We are all over the world. It is just unsafe in some places to practice openly. But if you look for us, you will find us.

🌙 Intent is the most powerful ingredient you have.

🔮 There are hundreds (if not thousands) or ways to create a sigil, and you can make a sigil hundreds of different ways. This also goes for charging and activating sigils.

🌙 You can practice both black and white magick at the same time.

🔮 Bullying other witches is never a good idea. Obviously, bullying anyone is never a good idea and you shouldn’t, but in my years I have seen over and over again it happen when one witch attacks another and then that witch comes down with horrible luck. That is not just because they were cursed by people who support the witch who was being bullied (which is also a huge risk, and causes a lot of issues and conflict) but the universe knows when a witch attacks another witch, and it doesn’t like that. (This does not include calling someone out in an appropriate way for unacceptable behavior and so on. But when you do it about differing opinions….)

🌙 Never stop researching. You will never know everything.

🔮 Deciding that you want to start to practicing witchcraft does NOT mean you have do denounce any previous beliefs.