Altars on a budget
Stones
Leaves or branches
Sigils
Shells
Rain water or natural waters
Handmade items
Soil from different places
Wild flowers
Sand
Print pictures
Poetry or artwork (made by you)
Jewelery
Spices (keep them in the jar so you can use them later).
Tea or food before you use it for yourself.
Houseplants
A favorite book
Decorations you have lying around.
Votive candles
Placemats for altar cloths
Bandanas for altar cloths
Incense
Sea salt
Glass candle holders
Pillar candles
Crystal chips/beads
Lace/colorful threads
Birthday candles
Postcards
Stay Hydrated with Infused Water…RECIPES
Some of my scribbled notes about Tarot and it's correspondences to the wheel of the year and directions. 🔮
Wording a spell correctly is extremely important! We’ve all heard the stories of someone who cast a spell and technically had it come true, but in a way that wasn’t what they actually wanted at all! Here’s a list of common “loopholes” spells will take to get the job done, and how to make sure you get what you want!
🕯Taking its time- “I want money,” you tell the Universe, hoping to get some help with rent. Well, rent comes and there’s no extra cash in sight! Then, two weeks later, a surprise wad of cash all but lands in your lap. The spell came true, but not in time for when it mattered. This is easily fixed by adding “…by the end of the month,” or specifying what the money is for, which in this case was this month’s rent.
🕯No help needed- “I want money,” you say again. Magic will often take the path of least resistance, so if you’ve already got a paycheck on the way, the spell might not do much besides make sure it doesn’t get lost. There. Money. It can be good to specify that you want your spell to work in addition to everything you’re already doing!
🕯 Bare minimum- This time from your money spell, it arrives on time from an unexpected source! But it’s a quarter you found on the ground. Maybe three quarters. Not much help! If your intent would require the money to be close to a certain amount or any other specific like that, let it be known! The universe isn’t there to make assumptions.
🕯 For the worst- Let’s say you have two friends that have been flirting, so you cast a nice little spell to let any mutual interest between them blossom into a relationship and save them some trouble. It happens, but it turns out they do NOT work well with each other. They are interested in each other, but argue constantly and bring out the worst in each other. The relationship is hurting them both. You had the absolute best of intentions, but there was no way of knowing that would happen! This is why a lot of witches include the phrase, “for the highest good” in their spells, as a failsafe for any unexpected pitfalls like this that may be lurking. The universe will see them but doesn’t know to care unless you specify.
🕯Another layer- Once I made a dream bear to bring me more dreams. Well, I had lots more dreams, but couldn’t remember any of them! I didn’t think that was something I needed to specify. Make sure you hit every point you need to be satisfied with a result.
As a general rule, if my spell includes a prayer or petition of any sort, I take a few minutes and comb through it for stuff like this beforehand. What am I specifying? What am I leaving up to interpretation? Could any of that manifest in a way I would be unhappy with? Take a little time before you start casting to smooth out all those wrinkles! Best of wishes!
Hi guys!! Sorry I haven't been active at all lately! A lot of changes (good ones thankfully) are happening in my life and I have been super busy. But I wanted to say hi!!
Altar for the Summer Solstice.
From Magical Herbalism by Scott Cunningham
To See Ghosts: Carry lavender and inhale its scent.
To allay fears: Carry a mixture of nettle and yarrow.
To Detect Witches: Carry a sachet of Rue, maidenhair, agrimony, broom-straw, and ground ivy.
To Be Courageous: Wear a fresh borage flower, or carry mullein.
To Avoid Military Service: Wear the 4-leaved clover if you wish to avoid duty.
To Ensure Safety and Protection on A Journey: Comfrey worn or carried will safeguard you.
To Prevent Storms and Wreckage While At Sea: Put a clove of garlic in your purse or in your pocket. In the South Pacific or in Hawaii wear a garland of ti leaves.
To Guard against Rape: Wear the heather to avoid all acts of passion.
To Keep One from Dreaming: Hang a sprig of lemon verbena around the neck.
To Conceive: Wear the mistletoe, the cyclamen, or the bistort.
To Prevent Weariness while Walking: Put mugwort in the shoe.
To Keep Venomous Beasts and Wild Animals Afar: Wear avens or mullien.
To Keep Others from Deceiving You: Wear the pimpernel or snapdragon.
To Keep Disease Afar: Wear a sprig of rue around the neck.
To Enable A Soldier To Escape His Enemies: Wear the vervain and you shall accomplish this.
To Avoid Being Sent To The Gallows: Wear or carry a carnation.
To Ensure Victory: Wear woodruff to win.
To Ensure That Friendly Words Are Spoken To You: Wear the heliotrope.
To Enter the Underworld: Carry an apple, or the branch of an apple tree that bears buds, flowers, and fully ripened fruit.
To Regain Lost Manhood: Carry an acorn or mandrake root.
To Remain Youthful: Carry an acorn.
To Prevent Drunkenness: Wear a chaplet of saffron, crocus, parsley, or rue to prolong your enjoyment.
To See Fairies: Gather wild thyme and carry it with you, or put it on the eyelids (with your eyes closed) and sleep on a fairy hill.
To Be A Successful Fisherman: Carry a bit of the hawthorn.
To See A Unicorn: As this beast usually lives among the ash trees, carry a bit of the wood or leaves and you may see one. Or lie down among ashes and place one of its leaves on your chest and wait for one to make itself known.
The reason why I have been so absent is I am in the middle of moving!! Its crazy exciting, crazy hard, and hella hectic! I will be becoming more active over the next few days hopefully. Sorry I haven’t responded to any messages. I actually havent logged on here, any reblogs or likes have been made by my boyfriend. But I’m logged on now :)
Skull Chalice ♡
What is Traditional Witchcraft?
According to Michael Howard, Trad Craft refers to “any non-Gardnerian, non-Alexandrian, non-Wiccan or pre-modern form of the Craft, especially if it has been inspired by historical forms of witchcraft and folk magic”.
Traditional Witchcraft, therefore, is not a single monolith. We can, in fact, distinguish between:
Operative Witchcraft or Folk Magic
Ritual(istic) Witchcraft
This first difference is taken from Margaret Murray; she used the first term for indicating the practice of magic, as carried out by cunning folk and folk magicians, and included the non-religious practice of spells, charms, divinations, etc. “whether used by a professed witch or by a professed Christian, whether intended for good or for evil, for killing or for curing. Such charms and spells are common to every nation and country, and are practised by the priests and people of every religion. They are part of the common heritage of the human race and are therefore of no practical value in the study of any one particular cult.” (The Witch-Cult, p. 11.)
The second term (also called “Dianic cult” by Murray) indicates, instead, “the religious beliefs and ritual of the people, known in late mediaeval times as ‘Witches’. The evidence proves that underlying the Christian religion was a cult practised by many classes of the community, chiefly, however, by the more ignorant or those in the less thickly inhabited parts of the country. It can be traced back to pre-Christian times”. Therefore we can say that Ritual Witchcraft is the cult of pre-Christian Deities or Spirits connected to the witches.
While the ideas of Murray about this cult have now been discredited, other scholars have reopened this field as a viable area of study, discovering many ecstatic witch-cults. The most known academics in this field are: Carlo Ginzburg, Éva Pócs, Emma Wilby, Claude Lecouteux, Wolfgang Behringer, Sabina Magliocco, Gábor Klaniczay, Gustav Henningsen and Bengt Ankarloo.
Relying on the work of these scholars, we can say therefore that Ritual Witchcraft was/is the religious system surrounding the Sabbath, the Procession of the Dominae Nocturnae from house to house, the spiritual flight, Elphame, the Wild Hunt, the Night Battles, etc.
As we can understand, even if the majority of the Ritual Witches were/are also Operative Witches (practitioners of Folk Magic), not all the Operative Witches were/are also Ritual Witches. The majority of Folk Magicians/Operative Witches, in fact, didn’t go to the Sabbath, didn’t astrally fly, didn’t astrally go with the Wild Hunt, from house to house with the Domina Nocturna, to Elphame/the Otherworld or to the Night Battles. Ritual Witches did.
We can say, therefore, that Operative Witchcraft is a practice, while Ritual Witchcraft is a religion.
Traditional Witches who are secular are, therefore, usually Operative and not Ritual Witches. While the distinction between Ritual and Operative Witchcraft is an established one in the Witchcraft community, I introduce a new, according to me useful, second distinction, inside Ritual Witchcraft (i.e. Witchcraft as a religion), by borrowing the terms “Revivalism” and “Reconstructionism” from Polytheism, in which it’s an already established terminology:
Hereditary Witchcraft
Revivalist Witchcraft
Reconstructionist Witchcraft
Hereditary Traditional Witchcraft brings together all the traditions that claim a lineage from the Witchcraft of the past.
Revivalist Traditional Witchcraft is inspired by folklore, trials and the figure of the witch without any presumption of hereditarity. Unlike the Reconstructionist one, it leaves ample space for personal initiative and the influence of other traditions, without slavishly following the history in every single detail.
Reconstructionist Traditional Witchcraft, finally, tries to resume, starting from the in-depth study of folklore, historical trials and documents, the exact practices and beliefs of Historical Witchcraft. For example, the pantheon of Spirits, the festivities, the structure of the Sabbath, the structure of the offerings, and so on.
An important aspect for those who practice Reconstructionism is the resumption of the names of the Gods (or it would be more correct to say, of the “Deific Familiar Spirits” or “Major Spirits”) forgotten and remained only in the trials papers and in folklore. The idea is to reopen roads, ways to these Spirits. Reconstructing therefore means paying homage to these Spirits and allowing those interested to re-establish a connection with Them.
We said before that Traditional Witchcraft is not Wicca. What’s the difference?
According to the Traditional Witchcraft author Lee Morgan:
“It could easily be said that one of the major differences between the modern revival referred to as “Traditional Witchcraft” and the other modern revival known as “Wicca”, is that Traditional Witchcraft draws on “folkloric material” and is largely “shamanic” whereas Wicca is more of a fusion of Western Occult ceremonial and natural magic traditions.”
(From: Lee Morgan’s “A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft”)
You can call me Greg! I love crystals, tarot, runes, nature, space, and all things witchy and magical. Catholic-Male-Witch. Positivity, and an open mind are welcome.
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