❄️✧・ﾟ✨Winter Witchy Things To Do✨*・°❄️

Friendly reminder not to bury glass or plastic jars or throw them in the ocean :)

Environmentally friendly options include:

-seed starter pots

-bell peppers

-paper towel rolls

-toilet paper rolls

-tissue paper

-hollowed out vegetables

-hollowed out fruits

-eggshells

-wrapped banana peels

(Updated thanks to all of your lovely suggestions <3)

If you have any suggestions or concerns please let me know and they will be added

Doing Magic Without Casting Spells

When I was a witch I thought “doing spells” was the height of all magic. After I left witchcraft I found myself doing spells less and less until I just… stopped. But this didn’t mean my life was without magic. The form my active magic took just changed.

I do magic with talismans now. Others may call them “altars in a box.” I call them talismans ^-^

Once a talisman is built, it works forever as long as it is properly charged. In the photograph is the charging of my personal prosperity talisman. 

Talismans are a low-spoon magical solution. The creation, use, and upkeep of a talisman requires no personal energy beyond putting a few objects in a container. You do not need to charge talismans with your personal energy.

A talisman is, in my definition, a magical trinket which can manipulate energies in your favor. In this article I am talking about container talismans.

Container talismans are built like puzzles. Each object added holds a special meaning and will affect the energies of the talisman in a special way. In my example money talisman, I have added:

Lodestone, to draw money, prosperity, and wealth.

Lodestone oil, to draw money, prosperity, and wealth.

Coins, to represent what I desire.

Gold pebbles, to represent what I desire.

A jar of iolite crystals with a $1000 store price tag, to represent great wealth (dressed with lodestone oil).

A bottle of pure gold flakes, to represent great wealth.

A charm bag of basil, to get the spirit ally Basil to work on my behalf for profit.

A sigil to save money, for obvious reasons!

A small jar of marijuana, a gesture of sacrifice to give back to the spirit world, and to represent what I desire.

My last dollar until payday, a gesture of sacrifice to give back to the spirit world, and to represent what I desire.

This talisman brings me a lot of spending money and I am rarely ever out (except now, which is why I am recharging and donating my last dollar!).

On the other hand, talismans are a practical low-fund solution because one can literally be made out of paper slips stuffed in to a jar. No need to get fancy!

Try building different container talismans for prosperity, relationships, wishes, and protection. 

Try adding dried herbs and stones of traditional correspondences.

Add representation of spirit allies who will help.

Include poems, images, sigils, or references of your goals and dreams.

Talismans can be simple or complex. Make them to your tastes and the preferences of the spirits you work with.

To build your own talisman, select an appropriate container and cleanse it using your favorite method. Cleanse objects and state their purpose as you add them to the container. “This dried rose represents eternal love within my heart.” “This quartz chip is to empower the other elements of the talisman.” And so on :)

When your talisman is assembled, charge it by placing candles on or near it and lighting them with intent to draw down power. Or, place it in the Sun and Moonlight for 24 hours, asking Nature to rise from below and complete the trinity of empowerment. In the picture, I placed a candle in the middle of the talisman jar. I dressed the candle with lodestone oil for extra power.

Place talismans on an altar or safe space where it will not be disturbed. Allow it to work for you; I see results within an hour typically but I have many allies so don’t be bothered if things don’t work for you so quickly! Give up to 4 weeks to see real changes; up to 2 weeks to see signs of change. Speak to it regularly. Give things time to manifest. Charge regularly or as needed (I charge mine once every… 2 years on average). 

If you want to include spirits to help you in your talisman, try this method of obtaining a spirit friend from a crystal (modify from the ‘protection’ theme to your own talisman purposes) or this method for making a contract with a spirit.

Hestia

Hestia is the Greek Goddess of the hearth, home, architecture, the state, and family. She’s also one of the virgin Goddesses who is seen as a protector deity. Legend says that she was originally one of The Big Twelve (or the Olympians, or the council) but she stepped down to keep the peace on Olympus when Dionysus showed up. 

General: hearth, home, living flame, architecture, bowl, veils, pantry, keys, pictures of houses you’ve lived in/cool architecture you like, family (chosen family counts) and ancestor stuff 

Animals: donkey (ass) and pigs

Plants: Angel’s trumpet (Datura), California poppy, goldenrod, hollyhock, purple coneflower, and yarrow

Perfumes/Scents: angelica, iris, lavender, and peony

Gems and Metals: amethyst, garnet, gold, silver, and brass

Colors: gold, dark rose, lavender, silver, and black

Things To Pray For: protection, inspiration, happiness, guidance, and help getting rid of the home of negative entities 

Invocation of Hestia Hail Hestia, Ancient heart Mother Goddess of the Spiritual Flame, We thank you for your constant love and care. We ask that you come and dwell here. Make of our home your home. Make of our hearth your hearth. Make of our temple your temple. Make of our hearts one heart, your heat. Hail Hestia! 

Prayer To Hestia  Blessed Lady of the Hearth Keeper of the sacred flames of Olympus Enter this home and make it your own Enter and be welcome Bless all who enter here with peace Bless all who dwell here with your protection Grant me and mine your protection That we may always find our way to you

Personal Experience: I have limited experience with Hestia as I haven’t really started practicing with her yet. But the experiences I have had have all been really positive and easy going. 

doses_of_style

When You’re Stuck In A Situation With Triggers

(For situations you cannot excuse yourself from, like being in a vehicle or an elevator.)

-Do not focus on being trapped, how badly you feel, or how disgusting you think the person is for making that sound. Try focusing on something else. Anything else. If you have intrusive thoughts, do not engage with them. Notice them but do not dwell on them.

-Relax your muscles. I never feel it happening, but my shoulders tense when I’m triggered. Forcing them to relax every time, has given me the ability to withstand my triggers longer with less of an intense reaction (Ex: I can stay in class now when someone makes those sounds. When before, tears would come to my eyes and I could no longer hear what my teacher was saying. I’m still extremely uncomfortable but I do not have to leave, I can still take notes, and it doesn’t make me cry. It took me about a month of practice before I noticed a difference.) 

-Continue forcing any tension to leave. Do not dig your nails into anything and do not clench your fists, or you’re only increasing the intensity of your nervous system’s response. If you tense up, immediately release it.

-Take deep and steady breaths. You want to avoid hyperventilating if you feel panic rising. This will also help to keep your heart from racing. Count your breaths, as an added distraction from the trigger sound.

Afterwards:

-Find a quiet place where you can recover, like a bathroom. 

-It’s okay to lie if you need to excuse yourself for a moment and feel that you cannot explain what happened.

-If you feel the need to cry, allow yourself to. Give yourself a set amount of time, like 2 minutes, to dwell on how difficult and painful that was.

-After that time, do not focus on the negative emotions. Simply feel them, accept them, and let them pass, while breathing deeply and steadily.

-When you feel calm again, celebrate. You just survived a horrible experience. Text or call someone that knows about your Misophonia and tell them how well you handled it. Knowing someone is proud of you will help you feel better about the entire situation and encourage you to feel proud of yourself.

-Consider developing a reward system. I like to keep candy in my pocket or backpack so I can reward myself for withstanding my triggers.

-Forgive yourself if you didn’t handle it as well as you think you should have. Sometimes life forces you to go over the limit of what you can handle in a day. This is a chronic disorder that is not your fault.

call me a necromancer bc i just raised a meme from the dead

Biological Basis for Misophonia (Explained in Layman’s Terms)

A groundbreaking study about misophonia was released this year by Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar and his team from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and the Wellcome Center for NeuroImaging at the University College London and has changed the game when it comes to discussing this misunderstood neurological condition. 

It’s so interesting, so fascinating to people with backgrounds in psychology and neurology, but to the commonperson? Words like “ventromedial prefrontal cortex”, “amygdala”, and “myelination” might as well be in a completely different language. 

And I know that most people with misophonia would absolutely love to be able to understand what’s wrong with them, so that’s why I’m doing this. Strap yourselves in, we’re taking a crash course in miso-psychology!

Some Words You Should Know Before We Get Started So You’re Not Totally Lost:

- Frontal Lobe:

This is the brain part in the very front. It is important because it controls emotions, problem-solving, memory-language, judgement, and the birds and the bees. The control panel, if you will. 

- Cerebral Hemispheres: 

Think of a hemisphere as half of a globe. Your brain is the globe (the word cerebral come from cerebrum, which is your brain), and the hemispheres are the two halves; left and right. 

- Myelin and Myelination: 

Myelin is an insulating substance that covers special nerves in the brain that send information. (Kind of like those chutes at drive-through banks you send your money through.) The more myelin is covering the chutes, the faster and more vroomwhoosh the information can send. More myelin is like high-speed Internet. 

- Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC): 

Don’t panic, this is just a big word that tells us exactly where on the brain this part is. “Ventro-” on the underside of the brain, “-medial” in the middle, “Pre-” before, “-frontal” in the frontal lobe, “cortex” center. So it’s on the underside of the brain, in the middle, and on the very tip of the frontal lobe. It actually sits right above the eye-socket. VmPFC for short, this part of the brain helps keep emotions like fear and empathy in line and helps you make decisions. 

- Salient: Important, or relevant. 

- Stimuli: Sensory information coming into the brain through your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin.

- Anterior Insular Cortex (AIC): 

“Anterior” in the front, not posterior, “insular cortex” the area of the brain in the middle (imagine a baseball in a mitt - the baseball is the insular cortex and the mitt is the rest of the brain). This part of the brain is on the front of the insular cortex and does a lot of things. The AIC decides what stimuli is salient. This part of the brain helps process emotions. It also arranges all the sensory information you’re taking in so that you have a good picture of what’s going on in the world around you. Believe it or not, but how you experience the world is all related to how your senses are processed!

- The Amygdala: 

The area of the brain where the fight-or-flight response is started. Fight-or-flight is what kept humans alive in the caveman days where the rustling in the bushes could be a bunny, but could also be a tiger. 

The amygdala is located in the insular cortex we talked about above and assigns salience to sensory stimuli so you can be ready to run in case it’s not a bunny, but a tiger. 

Now That That’s Settled, What Causes Misophonia?

Okay. So the first thing that Kumar’s team notes through their MRI studies is that people with misophonia have a ton of myelin in their vmPFCs. This means that people with misophonia have vmPFCs that function much faster than the average person. Also, the vmPFC is an area that has a ridiculous amount of information bank-chutes to many other areas of the brain.

 Like the areas which process memories, smells, and most importantly, the amygdala. If the vmPFC and the amygdala are talking more than usual? There can be trouble. And that trouble is spelled M-I-S-O-P-H-O-N-I-A. 

This study also found that people with miso also have greater activation in the AIC when they hear trigger sounds. 

Remember how I mentioned that the AIC is responsible for putting together a picture of your reality based on the sensory information you’re picking up? Imagine if for whatever reason, the AIC decides that grandma chewing gum is important. 

Then the amygdala, for whatever reason, thinks that because grandma’s gum-chewing is important, it must be a tiger in the bushes and you gotta be ready to run. 

Then the vmPFC gets confused and thinks it needs to be angry about it because together with the amygdala, they’re not processing emotions the way that they should be.

 Before you know it, the misophonia sufferer, through no fault of their own, is experiencing the anxiety of being chased by a tiger when they know full well grandma’s gum-chewing sounds aren’t a tiger; and in addition, they’re really freaking angry about it.  

To me, this research is fascinating because it confirms everything I have felt as a misophonia sufferer. I have felt like an idiot because I know full well that my classmate eating chips isn’t going to hurt me. But my body is responding like the noise is actually a threat to my bodily safety. This is because my brain doesn’t see reality as reality, and even though I know that, my brain doesn’t. 

And before anyone tries to say, “Well if you know it’s not going to hurt you, can’t you decide to not be bothered by it?” let me say this: the brain is an organ. It’s part of the body. You can’t just decide to not have cancer because you know you don’t need to grow a tumor right there. Your body thinks it does, but you’re not thinking for your body.

I hope that this post helps to clear up questions about what misophonia is, because it is a very complicated and unbelievable-sounding disorder. And though you may not be a scientist, my hope is that after reading this, you may be able to better understand what’s going on in your body and feel more in the loop with the current research. 

(Original artwork by Stephan Thomas Vomacka not to be independently posted elsewhere without credit being given.)

References:  Brout, J. (2017, February 04). Misophonia Breakthrough Study. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/noises/201702/misophonia-breakthrough-study-0

Garden witches, green witches, healers and anyone who uses herbs in their practice...

This is a really good, comprehensive list of edible flowers. It has a vivid description each plant’s taste and how to use and harvest as well as including which parts of the plant are inedible (x)

Here’s a great free ebook on cooking, brewing and blending herbs (x)

This website has fantastic gardening advice. Just search for a plant and it will tell you how to grow it, what grows indoors, pest, solutions, trivia and much, much more. (x) And it even has an edible gardening section (x) plus an indoor section if you don’t have a garden (x)

If you have any other resources, feel free to add them to this list.

I don’t know if ya’ll would be interested, but Cheerios is giving away 500 wildflower seeds for free (per person). I’m not sure where all they’re sending to, but its free and its to save the bees! http://www.cheerios.com/bringbackthebees/form I also did not even need to pay for shipping

Self Care Spell Jar

Ingredients: A piece of my hair. Sugar to sweeten my attitude. Lavender to help me keep calm and bring happiness to my life. Dandelion to make my wishes come true. Agrimony and Juniper, for protection. Mullen for courage and motivation. Cardamom pods to attract love and lust. Orange peel, for luck and happiness. Rose for self love. Jasmine for love and protection. Cinnamon for love and money. And my favorite ingredient .. Orchid flowers fully bloomed, for inner peace and a reminder that I to will bloom beautifully.

I put sage on the top of the jar for a final cleansing and sealed it up with a white candle.

🔮🌸