hi! i'm a baby witch and i wanted to see if there are any spells you'd recommend for protecting others.
Sure thing. Though, just as a note, protecting others is a bit more difficult than simply protecting yourself just because (like all magic worked on others) you’ll need something of theirs or you may want to make something that they will carry with them. I won’t link many particular spells here, but I’ll give you some ideas and you can begin to craft your own. You might want to look through the protection tag for further ideas as well. I would recommend either creating a poppet of the individual you want to protect or (if you’re trying to protect more than one person at a time) you might make up a jar to add all of your items and taglocks into. Alternately, it might be easiest to create a charm or satchet or to simply cast on an object and have them carry it with them for protection. You can also, if you work with any spirits or ancestors, make an offering to these powers on behalf of the person you’re hoping to protect and send them to watch over them. (You can also use a picture of the person/their name/some taglock and, placing it in the center of the table, build a ward of protection around them with stone, earth, candle/fire much like this ward is being built) Either way, protection items typically include garlic, basil, salt, eggshell, witch hazel, aloe, (I usually also include mint cause the best defense is a good offense), tiger’s eye, oak, etc. Have a look about your area and see what is local to your space, what’s accessible, what associations do they have in your area that they may not have elsewhere.
Just some notes I have! Not originally mine. By Nicole Canfield.
Apple:
Fruit of the Goddess
Love
Health and Immortality
Healing
Garden magic
Banana:
Ruled by Mars
I’d hate to say but…. it has lust and sexual effects….
Orange:
Ruled by the Sun
Joy
Love
Creativity
Chocolate: Different kinds have different properties:
Milk Chocolate:
Nurturing
Friendship
Dark Chocolate:
Love
Intimacy
Let me know if you would like more?
✨🌿 Green Witch’s Comfort Spell Jar 🌲
In a small jar with a cork top, layer:
Basil
Lemongrass or Lemon Balm
Rosemary
Tree Bark (I used White Oak)
Cinnamon
Fennel Seeds
Ginger Root
Mint
Pine Needles
Let it charge in the sun for an afternoon near your houseplants, in the garden, or even under a favorite tree in the woods. For an extra boost, charge it near a moss agate stone too! Later, seal it with green or white wax and recite:
You can now take your little piece of the Forest inside your spell jar with you wherever you go as a reminder of your Green Witch oath and path. It’s great to keep in your bag, purse, or travel altar! Blessed be, lovelies! 💖🌿
Maps! Maps! MAPS! If you're a death witch, get one for the cemeteries you visit and mark gravestones/areas you've practiced in! Garden witches! Map out your gardens! Green witches! Map where you find specific herbs in your area! Lunar witches! Mark the best spots to go look at the sky! Make a key! Take notes!
Recipes for COMPONENTS! Write down how to make the mixtures you use in spells often- A special salt mixed with herbs and put under the moon, a mixture of oils for protection, the herb mixes sachets you keep making to add to sachets, whatever!
For green witches- press samples of stuff and glue them in! Go to an arboretum and ask for permission to take leaves to press, they'll usually let you take some- add them in with your notes about trees
Cool ways to make spells! I make spells in envelopes and on empty spools, what are some ways you do?
The local plants in your area and what they do. You're not going to be likely to find chrysanthemums to forage in Missouri, but you will find creeping charlie and prairie plants. What can you do with a thistle?
When you celebrate a sabbat, write down what you did and include samples! Ribbons from your Beltane altar, a pressed sample of your lemmas harvest, a scrap of your Yule decorations. Maybe do a spell and tape the remnants into your grimoire in a plastic baggie
Learn how to make an envelope out of paper just by folding it, how to string seeds, how to dry plants, how to macrame rocks and hang them from your window. Find those little witchy skills and write them down.
How to incorporate your hobby into your magic. Sigiling origami paper, weaving knot magick into your crochet, making blessed bookmarks, etc
Substitutes! Rosemary, rose and clear quartz are good for most things, but there are more substitutes to be used that are more powerful. Roanoke bells are good substitutes for bluebells, apparently.
Correspondences of odd things. Turns out different kinds of cats have different correspondences, huh.
Superstitions and such from where you're from.
For kitchen witches: easy to alter recipes. An egg noodle recipe that takes herbs really well, a simple bread recipe that can be dressed up for spells or rituals, how to make a good pie crust that you can sprinkle nutmeg in or whatever you desire.
Or: What foods go good with what herbs. You'll make a better apple pie (and get the benefits of apples, nutmeg, and cinnamon together!) If you know how your herbs taste together with your cooking. (Most kitchen witches know this stuff, but for a green witch who likes to make teas or a sea witch that likes to make soup, etc, this is important)
rawest fucking florence and the machine lyrics in no particular order:
no more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone
want me to love you in moderation, do i look moderate to you?
this will be my last confession, ‘i love you’ never felt like any blessing, whisper it like it’s a secret only to condemn the one who hears it
because i am done with my graceless heart, so tonight i’m gonna cut it out and then restart
tenderest touch leaves the darkest of marks and the kindest of kisses breaks the hardest of hearts
you don’t have to be a ghost here among the living, you are flesh and blood, and you deserve to be loved and you deserve what you are given, and oh how much
but the loneliness never left me, i always took it with me, but i can put it down in the pleasure of your company
at seventeen i started to starve myself, i thought that love was a kind of emptiness, but at least i understood then the hunger i felt, and i didn’t have to call it loneliness
the fabric of your flesh, pure as a wedding dress
it’s an evensong, it’s a melody, it’s a battle cry, it’s a symphony
but i know it’ll have to drown me, before i can breathe easy
to the crowd i was crying out, and in your place there were a thousand other faces
and it’s over and i’m going under, but i’m not giving up i’m just giving in
in a moment of joy and fury i threw myself from the balcony like my grandmother, so many years before me
and it’s peaceful in the deep, cathedral where you cannot breathe
i know i seem shaky, these hands aren’t fit for holding
i’m not beat up by this yet, you can’t tell me to regret, been in the dark since the day we met, fire help me to forget
it seems that i have been held in this dreaming state, a tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
shower your affection, let it rain on me, pull down this mountain, drag your cities to the sea
and i did cartwheels in your honor, dancing on tiptoes, my own secret ceremonials
a year like this passes so strangely, somewhere between sorrow and bliss
in the spring, i shed my skin and it blows away with the changing winds
i swallow the sound and it swallows me whole until there’s nothing left inside my soul
And how does it feel now you’ve scratched that itch? And pulled out all your stitches? Hubris is a bitch
and i want you so badly, but you could be anyone
drink too much coffee and think of you often in a city where reality has long been forgotten, and are you afraid, because I’m terrified, but you remind me that it’s such a wonderful thing to love
i was in the darkness, so darkness i became
Celebrate on the correct days!: Yule is a solstice sabbat, which means it’s on the day before, of, and after the winter solstice*. It’s NOT December 25th.
Hang all kinds of evergreens everywhere: Do you know why? Because while snow is very pretty at first after a while the never ending blinding white and brown and black starts to drive you slowly insane. Holly and Mistletoe are the two brightest green plants you could get your hands on during winter so of course they were everywhere!
Light a massive bonfire**: It’s dark and cold and everyone is miserable. Burn some shit! If you aren’t a heathen then Yule is about the rebirth of the sun god(dess?). Welcome that guy back with the best sun imitation you could get!
Leave feed out for Odin’s Horse: Kids would leave out hay or treats for Odin’s Horse(Sleipnir) to eat while he road in the wild hunt. A gift given means a gift must be returned and so Odin(also known as the parents) would leave treats for the kids. Yes this is where Santa came from.
Make winter clothes: Winter was the time when all the housework was done because, well, you can’t plant when the field is under five feet of snow. Clothes were often made during this time and given to the family.
Welcome guests into your home: If there was one thing the Germanic people valued it was hospitality. Friend who has no were to go? Come on over! Your kid’s friend who comes from a tricky home? Why don’t they stay a night or two. Everyone is invited!
Anything that still has Yule in the name probably comes from the original: Yule log, Yule boar, Yule goat. These are all from the original feast day.
Yule is a feast to celebrate the wild hunt: So make a feast!
And finally, throw one hell of a party***: Yule is a Norse holiday guys. There was no such thing as a low-key party in that culture. The majority of their myths can be summed up thusly; partying, beating up someone who ruined the partying, partying because they beat someone up. Have fun!
*These are the days I do it because celebrating for 12 days - 2 months is impractical.
**Don’t be dumb with fire.
***Don’t do anything illegal.
I’m not a heathen, and also observe Yule very low-key because I still live in my parents house. If there is anything I missed or got wrong please add onto this!
It's common practice for candles to be lit in offering to various spirits and powers for favor, power, or gain. The seven day glass jar candles which are available in just about every witchcraft store, Botanica, and apothecary are perfect for this purpose, as they are not only self-contained in their jar, but can be refilled and reused if you have the know-how. But that is a post for a different day.
One practice I have really fallen into a routine with is the practice of "feeding" offering candles. While the burning candle itself is already a great offerings, thay offerings can be made more sacred and appropriate. The "feeding" process is very simple, and only requires a candle and an oil.
Take your offering candle and prepare it however you feel is appropriate. For the glass jar candles, this may include anointing them, carving sigils into the top, or speaking specific prayers over them. Here I have a simple white candle.
Light the candle in the name of the figure to whom it will be granted. Allow it to burn for a moment to melt the wax around the wick. Then, grab your oil of choice. I tend towards a blend of Tunisian frankincense and myrrh, but Olive Oil will literally be PERFECTLY fine. I just like these because of the scent that is created.
With the dropper, drop several drops of oil into the wax pool.
If you like, you can reiterate your prayer as needed when feeding.
This process can be used to feed not only the offering candles, but can be used to offer various substances to spirits, even the witch's blood should it be desired, through the medium of the burning flame. As the oil is dropped into the wax, the wick will absorb it until the oil itself is burned off by the flame, completing the offering.
Just to make it clear, there is NOTHING wrong with the just burning these candles, as multiple practices and peooles do across the world. This is just a ritualistic process that helps me focus my offerings a little more, and one that I feel compelled to share.
I see people talking about a person who has been making transphobic comments on my dash. And its made me want to say this.
If some one says that you have to use special tools to do magic, they are wrong. If some one makes a claim about someones Gods, and its historically inaccurate they are wrong. And this one came from some one in discord. if some one says the Gods punish you or make you uncomfortable in your worship, They are wrong. And especially if some of one says that if you have a spell meant for “women”, so it doesn’t work for trans women they are wrong.
Never support uninclusive magic!
What I mean by inclusive magic, is practices that do not use homophobia, transphobia or racism.
Here is stuff to watch out for!
You need special tools to do magic. (Absolutely not. Some spells can even be cast with a glass of water. I have a pair of scissors on my altar. And you can use playing cards In divination.)
My family says something needs to be done in a certain way. (Like if they say “my family says you can only read your cards once a day.” That is fine for them to practice it that way, but you are fine to do it your own way.)
If a spell is meant for a women, then it means a trans women cannot use it! (Absolutely not true. You can use any spell for a “women”, as a trans women. Because trans women are women. we should never accept transphobia in magic)
Men cannot be witches! (Absolutely anyone can be a witch or magic practitioner.)
My religion or practice is superior. (every practice that is not racist, homophobic or transphobic is valid)
Its ok for me to use rituals from closed practices, that I am not in. (Absolutely not)
If you take a brake from magic or stop trying to spiritually better yourself, you are a failure. (Wrong, people do what is comfortable for them. Some times it takes people time and many brakes.)
Feel free to add more red flags to watch out for!
The oldest worship of the world was of the sun and moon, of trees, wells, and the serpent that gave wisdom. Trees were the symbol of knowledge, and the dance round the May-bush is part of the ancient ophite ritual. The Baila also, or waltz, is associated with Baal worship, where the two circling motions are combined; the revolution of the planet on its own axis, and also round the Sun.
Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde (via worldofcelts)