Cheap, Newbie Lithomancy

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*magical girl transformation but i turn into this*

🔔 BELLS IN WITCHCRAFT 🔔

Bells might just be the earliest form of superstitious practise that I remember. My baba attached three sakura-patterned suzu bells on my schoolbag as a kid, purportedly for good luck and protection from evil spirits – and Japan is far from the only place to have associated bells and bellringing with mystic practise. They’ve been used worldwide to ward off evil and carry messages – and in a more metaphysical sense, sound is the movement of energy through substance. Sounds have the potential to work powerful magic.

Here are some of the ways I’ve found utilising bells to be helpful to my craft. While I’m more likely to use traditional suzu type bells, your own background, path and culture will likely have its own types of bells – and as ever, bells can be ornate antiques or they can be a bottle cap in a tin can, as long as they’re used with intent.

GETTING STARTED

🔔 As with so much of the craft, if you’re new to the witching bell, it’s a matter of exploration and experimentation. Get a “feel” for what works for you and the specific bell you’re using.

🔔 It’s good practise to ensure that the bell itself is cleansed, warded and protected – you don’t want anything nasty tapping into that power. All witching tools can do as much harm as good, intentional or accidental.

🔔 A good way to begin incorporating bells into your craft is infuse them into any typical ritual that you’re comfortable with, or even just a prayer or moment of contemplation at your altar if you have one.

🔔 Give the bell a soft ring while focusing on the energy it’ll ripple and move, try to track the movements it creates and what it touches. The tone it’s sending out.  The most primal and versatile use of the bell – and what many of the below come down to – is simply another manner of physically channelling energy, giving it shape and direction.

PROTECTION

🔔 “Passive” bells such as windchimes or small bells attached to belongings you don’t want disturbed are a starting point. They will scare off some forms of spirit all by themselves, especially if appropriately blessed, charmed or enchanted. Or cursed.

🔔 Gently tolling can draw energy into a ward or circle you are forming and enforce its protective properties, or for a simple cleanse, letting the sound travel to every corner of the area you are protecting. It’s a little more “cutting” than a smoke or incense cleansing, which I view as more “gentle” forms of cleansing. Both have their uses.

🔔 Harder tolling is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful ways in which to enforce a banishing – however, it’s best to you know what you’re doing with the bell before you go bashing it about.

DISCERNMENT

🔔 Bells can have quite the effect on your perception and awareness. Ringing and then stopping, listening to the silence left in its wake, can bring you new perceptions or make things you’d previously missed obvious. Let it attune your mind and senses to something new, whether that’s in your thoughts or something with a little more presence. Visualise travelling with the sound, taking heed of the energies it touches and disturbs. Take note of the echoes – you’ll learn what they mean with experience.

🔔 A set of windchimes can let you know if something is passing through or if there’s some unusual energy afoot – and, yes, it may also just be letting you know that it’s a particularly breezy day, but that’s witchcraft for you.

CONJURING

🔔 This can be as simple as calling good energies to witching tools, spell jars, tarot decks, crystals, altars and shrines, your favourite teddy bar, anything at all.

🔔 With spirit work, it can truly help to magnify your “calling”. This can range from gently bringing your latest offering to the attention of your friendly neighbourhood house spirit – all the way to trying to catch the attention of something more. Be mindful, however. As I said, I consider bells pretty powerful tools and a call that’s too loud is not good spirit work practise for the spirit worker’s own sake. It can really help coax something out of hiding if you’re gentle with it, though.

COMMUNING

🔔 Some use bells to mark the beginning and end of a ritual, and I’ve read that in Wiccan practise an altar bell can be used to invoke the Goddess, although as a non-Wiccan, I’ll welcome corrections on that if I’m wrong.

🔔 In my experience, very simple forms of communication via bell work a lot better than anything too complex – “come here” and “stay away” have already been covered, and other than that they can serve as greetings or signals of a start or end of some practise or ritual, the opening or closing of a door, etc.

🔔 They can also serve as a warning or a litmus test regarding spirits, a signalling of your presence and awareness, lack of fear, or willingness to defend – but be prepared to deal with whatever responses these garner.

BINDING

🔔 Bindings are where you most often see that famous (clockwise) circular motion of the bell, embodying the meaning of the spell. This can be a simple binding to seal a spell or charm or enchantment, or a spirit-binding.

🔔 Personally, spirit-binding is something I do as little as possible simply due to my beliefs holding the autonomy of spirits in very high regard. However, sometimes situations arise that call for it, and I’m aware that not all bindings are unwilling. Far from it – and some spirits are dangerous when unbound.

🔔 As an animist (believing that all things, including inanimate objects, contain a spirit of their own), I consider gently nudging a spirit back into its physical form a sort of semi-binding, and that can be useful.

I’ll leave you all with a note that I am an urban apartment-dwelling witch through and through, so I understand that we can’t all be jangling away at all hours. I myself have a glass windchime in my front window that makes a distinct but muted sound when disturbed by passers-through, and highly recommend wooden ones also. I also only use my small and relatively quiet suzu bell for my crafting – one given to me by my baba herself.

Feel free to add any of your own findings, and happy tolling.

The term “potion,” I must frankly admit, is mostly used in fantasy stories that feature magick, such as Harry Potter and The Dresden Files. In the fictional universes of those stories, the term means a variety of things, but in general it refers to some sort of liquid designed to have a magical effect. Most famously, in Harry Potter in particular, potions and Harry’s study of them in school plays a major role in the plot, and fantastic concoctions with names such as “Drought of Living Death” show up. Many witches, magicians and alchemists scoff at using the term “potion” to refer to something they make in real life just due to it’s sheer association with fiction these days. I guess the thought is that, while saying you made a “spelled tea” or “infusion” might be well and good, saying “I created a potion today!” will bring out naysayers ready to point out that Harry Potter isn’t real in the snarkiest voice imaginable.

Obviously, I disagree. The word “potion” is useful, having been used for centuries to refer to the liquid creations of witchcraft and magick. It comes from a Latin term, potio, which simply meant “drink.” Actual practitioners have been creating potions far longer than Harry and Snape, and thus I think we’ve got as much of a right to use the term as those who parlay magick into fiction. It’s a very convenient word, allowing us to describe a whole genre of magical practice.

I use the word “potion” to conveniently refer to all liquids imbued with magical intent and having a magical purpose beyond their physical effects. This means that, when I say “potion,” I am referring to a wide variety of things, ranging from simple magical teas to tinctures, oil blends, and even alchemical spagyrics. The physical basis of each of these differs, and most, if not strictly all, potions somehow involve elemental water, if only by virtue of being liquids. There are those who would argue that concoctions with an oil or alcohol basis might find their primary elemental association elsewhere, but I hold that a liquid will always have a watery essence, insofar as elemental water includes all liquids, just as earth includes all solids to a degree.

It is important to note that while I tag most of my posts that involve potions under a general alchemy heading, and many books refer to potioncraft simply as “alchemy” or “herbal alchemy,” the vast majority of potions that witches make are not true alchemical formulas, though they may have been developed using alchemical theories and correspondences. 

When I use the phrase “true alchemy,” I largely refer to the practice of creating what some call spagyrics and similar, related concoctions, and I admit my understanding of it is currently a bit limited compared to some. If you’re interested in learning about the practice of true alchemy in a present-day context, I suggest reading Robert Allen Bartlett’s excellent book on the subject, Real Alchemy, or checking out Spagyrics, by Manfred M. Junius.

While I am writing this article as part of my series for beginner witches, and many beginners do create potions, it’s worth noting that potioneering, and in particular certain kinds, isn’t a very accessible part of witchcraft. Why? Well, many books tell you that you don’t need expensive tools and ingredients to do magick. While this is true in most cases, when it comes to potions, unless you’re very creative, you’ll have to invest a bit of funds and effort into just gathering the supplies. As I’ll hopefully show, these supplies needn’t be particularly pricy, and improvisation gets you a long way, but still, potioneering requires quite a bit more materials than most forms of witchcraft.

Another reason potion-making isn’t as accessible to a beginner as (for example) sigils or candle magick rests in the fact that many of the ingredients traditionally used in potion-making have physiological and psychological effects on human beings, making it risky to use them without doing a great deal of research, which can be daunting at best. It’s beyond the scope of this essay to discuss what herb or such is or isn’t poisonous and what can be consumed in which quantities, but many existing books and websites are full of that information. At the end of this essay, I’ll provide links to some potions I’ve developed that use highly innocuous ingredients, but everyone reacts differently chemically, and even with something like chamomile, be sure to do your research. I’m not trying to discourage anyone here, but if you choose to take up potion-making, do be mindful of your budget and research ingredients very carefully.

If you want to make potions, I suggest choosing a focus. There are many different types of potions, and alluded to earlier, ranging from simple to concoct teas to complex configurations of essential oils. Most witches work a lot with oil or water-based potions, and plenty also make tinctures and other potions with an alcohol base. I would recommend choosing one medium/basis to focus on - do you want to make drinkable potions and teas, tinctures, or oils?

Regardless of what sort you want to make, you will probably have to buy or find some equipment and ingredients, unfortunately. As I’ve said, most witchcraft requires little investment besides emotional commitment, but potioneering does involve equipment and ingredients I personally have built up a large collection of supplies for compounding potions and brews, and while not everyone’s going to want or need to do this, my advice to those who are looking to create a large laboratory-like setup is to start small. Below is an image of my current supply cabinet, with all my potion-making supplies visible, as well as some charm bottles and other things.

For the most part, herbs, flowers, and other plants make up the bulk of what is used in potions today. Choosing which herbs to purchase can be pretty overwhelming, but I always found it useful to buy herbs on an as-needed basis, slowly building up a collection over the course of a few months. Even if you cannot afford a lot of fancy ingredients, much can be done with simple household herbs and spices, like mint, basil, oregano and black tea. Many of the potions I make take the form of a tea-like infusion that may or may not contain actual tea leaves (often, it’s just herbs). 

For creating these, I find my porcelain mortar and pestle helpful, which I got from Amazon.com rather cheaply. I use it to grind up particularly difficult roots and herbs, and to bruise flowers such as lavender in order to better release their taste/scent into the mixtures I make. I also have a small scale, of the sort commonly sold in head shops, but I only really have this because some of the potions I make actually contain (legal) psychoactives and I’ve got to be careful about dosage. 

Whether you need any of this or not really depends on what your plans are. If you intend to work with so-called “baneful” ingredients or anything that has a strong physiological or psychological effect on the human body, a scale might be a good safety precaution, as it helps you calculate dosage. If you plan on mostly working with things like mint and thyme, which are culinary and safe for most people, it might not be necessary or worth the investment. Similarly, while a mortar and pestle allows you to grind and mix ingredients rather easily and adds a level of effort (and therefore power) to the process, not everyone’s going to want or need one plenty of herbs don’t require grinding.  

If you’re mostly going to be working with oils and making magical perfumes/scents, dried (or even fresh) herbs won’t be as useful as pure essential oils, though. These compounds are called such because they contain the chemical essence of the plant - basically the active ingredients of whatever herb or plant they come from. While essential oils, for the most part, aren’t consumable or meant to be ingested, they capture much of a plant’s properties, both magical and chemical, and often have an extremely strong scent, making them useful for perfumes and anointing oils.

Above is a photo of some of my oil and perfume-making supplies. I personally use essential oils rather extensively, mostly to make custom magical perfumes and scents, to create anointing formulas for candle magick, and also for use in cleaning (both in a non-magical and magical sense). Because essential oils are chemically as well as magically powerfully, I also use them in a therapeutic fashion - for example, I add a few drops of rosemary essential oil to my shampoo to improve my hair texture.

You can go into many stores and buy “aromatherapy oils” or “fragrance oils,” but in most cases, these aren’t actually essential oils and are instead synthetic forms of the scent, or just the essential oil diluted into a carrier oil. For example, if you buy a vial of rose oil perfume, it’s highly unlikely to contain any rose essential oil, and is probably a synthetic imitation of rose scent mixed into a carrier oil. Fragrance oils like this can indeed be used in magick if their smell is evocative enough, but keep in mind that synthetic rose oil perfume won’t have any of the chemical benefits (for example, clarifying the skin) that actual rose oil might give, and might actually do damage if you try to use it in that way. Once again, it’s really beyond the scope of this article to give a lot of safety and usage information, so please do your research. If you want actual essential oils, most health food stores will have them, and they’re available online quite affordably, even on Amazon.

For the most part, if you buy herbs online or elsewhere, they’ll be packaged in some form of plastic bag. Even Mountain Rose Herbs does this, but their bag’s rather thick and is vaccum-sealed. Either way, I recommend moving herbs from their original plastic bags into jars, which should be as airtight as you can find. I personally got a bunch of random jars at craft stores and places like Target, and store my herbs there, as well as in containers I just saved along the way, such as jars that used to hold instant coffee or peanut butter. If you’re potioneering plans involve making anything that you’ll save for later (an oil for later use, a salve, etc), you will need to have storage for it, too. I keep a small selection of bottles for this purpose, mostly purchased from the same herb stores where I get my essential oils and raw herbs. 

One note about that, though - while some of the jars I use to store my loose herbs have corks, I would never use a corked vial or bottle to store a finished tincture, salve, or other concoction, as most of the bottles you get that have corks are unlikely to be watertight and simply invite spoiling. Pretty much anything you make, though, will spoil eventually. There are methods (such as adding Vitamin E or buying a carrier oil that already has it in it) that will halt the process a bit, but nothing really has an indefinite shelf life. In particular, don’t expect to be able to keep a tea-like brew in your fridge for more than a few days without it going bad.

I personally recommend Mountain Rose Herbs for both dry herbs (in bulk) and essential oils, as well as carrier oils and many other products you might need for creating potions. Of course, there’s plenty to be had at most health food stores and even grocery stores, too. One thing I want to say about shopping for herbs is that it’s almost always best to buy loose herbs (say, mint, etc), instead of herbs already portioned into tea bags and labeled as a herbal tea. It’s much less expensive and generally gives you better quality because the herbs are fresher and, again, there’s less overhead. 

With loose herbs, you’re not paying for the cost of them being slapped into tea bags. I recommend getting some sort of tea ball or strainer if you want to do teas, and avoiding the cost of commercially-prepared tea bags. This is much more cost-effective in the long run. I cannot, obviously, cite prices everywhere, but as an example, here in Poland, a box of mint tea is roughly 9zl, whereas a slightly-greater amount of the actual herb, loose and without bags, is only 2.50zl. In the image below, you can see the strainer I currently use. I actually have a larger one for making teas for the household, but this one works very well for making strong brews for myself. I prefer strainers that allow the herbs to spread out in the water, so I rarely use things like tea balls.

When you’re ready to take the plunge and make your first potion, ask yourself what effect you would want it to have. I am a firm believer that, in witchcraft, form has a complex interdependent relationship with function, but that the latter should be considered first and foremost. While almost any form of potion can be designed to have any number of effects, I’ve personally found that certain forms are more suitable (from my perspective) for certain tasks. Oils, when used to anoint the body, go a long way towards changing how the user is perceived, and thus I tend to use them to help me put my best foot forward. Teas and concoctions that are consumed are great for altering your mindset and deep internal changes. The creation of waters, floor washes, and similar products are obviously best-suited to spells designed to affect an entire area, household, or everyone who will encounter the formula. These are just some general rules I use in my practice - you might experiment and find things work differently for you, but I thought I’d mention them nonetheless.

Regardless of what form your potion will take, please keep safety in mind at all times. You might read in some old manuscript that a certain herb helps with a certain purpose, but if we now, here in the 21st century, know that herb to be poisonous, you probably shouldn’t use it, or at least exercise extreme caution! Safety first at all times. Choose ingredients based on the magical associations you personally have for them, first and foremost, which may or may not be based on whatever tradition you’re working within. 

With the added safety precautions required of something to be consumed, worn, or doused about, the advice I give in my article on bottle spells for choosing ingredients mostly applies here, too, but there’s other issues to be considered, as well. If you’ve decided your spell will be a tea, you must concern yourself with how it will taste, and if the taste of the finished product lends itself to the goal in question. With an oil, you don’t want it spelling foul in most cases, so the harmony of scents, as well, must be considered. There’s actually a really good book out there, called Mixing Essential Oils for Magic, by Sandra Kynes, that, while also giving excellent traditional information on the correspondences of various flowers and herbs, also explains the theory behind perfumery and how to make blends that smell delicious.

Basically, when choosing ingredients for a potion of any sort, many factors should be bouncing around in your brain, and these include:

Safety (first and foremost!)

Scent/taste

Appearance

Traditional correspondences.

Personal correspondences

Safety (of utmost importance!)

Usually, when I’m making any sort of potion, I start by listing ingredients that are safe, appropriate to the form I’ve chosen, and associated in my mind with my goal or purpose. I then experiment a bit with them, mixing and matching until I’ve got something that works and fits with what I’m trying to do. For example, if I’m making a perfume oil for prosperity, I might begin by just setting out all the essential oils and herbs I currently have that I associate with prosperity, then make tiny batches mixing and matching until I get something that works scent-wise and in terms of general association, at which point, I’d make a larger batch. 

For teas, once you’ve factored in and taken proper safety precautions, a lot of it is simple trial and error. Some of my recipes are modifications of tea recipes I found online, having worked out the correspondences. Others are just things I’ve tried and found delicious and workable. I admit to using my fiancé to taste-test some of my infusions, too! This isn’t really an exact science, though there are aspects of science to it. If you’re being safe, don’t feel bad if you end up a few times with a concoction or scent you hate - just dust yourself off and try, try again. It took me forever, for example, to find that I hate the taste of lavender unless it’s combined with mint, and that, while I love eucalyptus as a scent, it lingers too much and is ill-suited to my preferences in terms of a floorwash or area cleanser.

One thing that bears mentioning, though, is that magick is not about following a recipe or even creating one, and in my experience, a tea or perfume will be just that (i.e., not a potion) until it is in some way magically empowered or enchanted. I’ve written an article about this, too, which you might want to read. Most witches realize the importance of intent and that strange factor that seems to separate the magical from the everyday, and I personally do go about enchanting each ingredient, whether it’s an oil or herb, that I add to a potion. I also, as I mentioned doing for spell bottles, add a final bit of enchantment to the finished product before using it, and with some things (oils, etc.,) I continually empower them with each use. This is one of those things that’s incredibly difficult to explain, though most people who do magick have a way of doing this that works for them, I’ve found.

Here, at the end of this very brief introduction, I’ll include links to potion recipes I’ve written and posted here. I’ll admit there’s only a few, and not all of them are meant for human consumption. As usual, use caution and do research before mixing up something from an online recipe. Also, I’d like to include a link here to @honeycoyote​, a Tumblr user who’s blog features a wide array of tasty, tea-like potion recipes - check them out here. I’ve made quite a few of those and enjoyed them! Here’s my own small list of potion recipes I’ve posted:

Devotion Oil

Attraction Potion

Concealing Your Craft

Focus Enhancement

Blogging Potion

To Bring the Sun Inside

I also want to recommend the following books for those looking to learn more about potioneering and herbal alchemy! The following is just relevant bits posted from my masterpost of book recommendations, specifically the books focused on potioneering and alchemy, but they’re really quite useful.

The Herbal Alchemist’s Handbook, by Karen Harrison. I cannot praise this book enough for its concise and well-formulated approach to astrology, herbs, and magick as a whole.

The Weiser Concise Guide to Herbal Magick, by Judith Hawkins-Tillirson. This is excellent for anyone who’s interested in any kind of magick. Yes, the focus is generally herbs, but there’s a lot to be learned here about Kabbalah and other correspondence systems, as well.

Real Alchemy, by Robert Allen Bartlett. Excellent book, lots of history and detail. There’s a strong focus on tradition within the text, yet the author is quite accommodating of his audience and describes alternate methods that work better in a modern context.

Spagyrics, by Manfred M. Junius. With a highly-developed academic tone and attention to detail, this book is a meaty look at traditional alchemy. I recommend this more for intermediate practitioners due to the sheer density of information.

Mixing Essential Oils for Magic, by Sandra Kynes. Fills a very difficult gap in published knowledge regarding the use of essential oils by discussing, in great detail, how scents interact with each other and how to create a formula that’s not only palatable, but evocative.

I hope this article was useful and interesting. It’s meant to just be a short introduction to the concept of potions rather than a full guide. I’ve got plans for more potion-related articles and writing, and if there’s something in particular you’d like to see, don’t hesitate to contact me. Also, if you enjoy my work, consider offering support to help fund future endeavors. Thanks for reading! 

My witchy iOS apps.

Wow! I’ve never gotten more than MAYBE 15 notes in my many years on tumblr. Thanks, witch fam!

UPDATED*** Here are some app links for @valicorne​ and others who requested. They should all be free. Some of these are also in the Android Marketplace, and for those that aren’t, there are comparable ones.

And my mom has a baller sigil making app on Android I envy: Sigil Automatron. Anyone know of a comparable one for iOS? (I don’t want just a paint or photoshop-like app, but one specific To making sigils)

Not all the full names show in the screenshotted app view, which is why some of you struggled to find them. Sorry!):

1. Tarot Card Memorizer: Pretty self explantaory. This is a nice reference when you’re trying to learn card meanings.

2. Pendulum Charts Free - a plethora of charts. I like using that on my iPad, not super useful on a smaller screen, aka my iPhone. Can also use to reference for making your own charts on paper, or woodburning like I’m working on.

3. Golden Thread Tarot - Really nice free eversion of great physical deck. Nice for witches on the go, or witches on a budget.

4. Crystals And Gems - Handy reference guide for both physical and metaphysical attributes.

5. Mighty Timer - temperature, time, and amount of tea you need for the perfect cup. Great kitchen witch app, especially if you grow some of your own herbs for tea, like I do.

6. TimePassages - Free daily horoscopes, meanings, planetary bodies glossary and then some paid options for chart downloads.

7. Herbs Guide - Herbs for health and cooking. ***never take any information found on the Internet or via apps as medical advice. Seek professional medical help if you have an issues. This witch is very pro-science and modern medicine, despite making teas, tinctures, and herbal salves. Those are merely supplements to help relieve symptoms.

8. Dreamboard - my favorite digital dream journal

9. Runes - pocket advisor - Get one, two and three rune readings. Also helps you learn the meanings of elder futhark runes. 10. SkyView Free -This overlays constellations and other astronomical information when you open the app and point it at the night sky. Uses your camera and GPS to know what it’s looking at. Works inside, too. I impress the heck out of people when I whip this out at stargazing events.

11. Best Essential Oils and Aromatherapy Guide Pro - This app, containing six broad sections - guides, application, single oil, oil blends, aromatherapy and weight loss. Again, this is not to be used in place of proper nutrition and medical attention, and be very careful when using essential oils. All need to be diluted with carrier oils, and some are dangerous if you’re pregnant, etc.

12. Spellcaster - tarot cards, horoscope and pre-written spells. Not my favorite, but fun to flip through.

13. Celeste -LOOOVE. Celeste allows you to calculate a natal chart, which you can view on a zodiac wheel. You also get a description of all the planets in signs, not just the sun sign.

14. Star Chart - This is similar to skyview. I haven’t played with it too much so I can’t vouch for it quite yet. I think I prefer the skyview interface.

15. Free Candle - Different candle options, and you cna blow them out. Great for on the go candle magick/meditation, and for those who aren’t allowed to use candles in apartments/dorms/etc.

16. The Pocket Pagan - “This unique Pagan app includes a map of the USA and Canada filled with Pagan, occult and New Age stores, a handy correspondence guide for quick magickal look-ups, and a calendar that shows you the next full moon and Sabbat dates. Quick links can help you find the latest news, blogs and videos too. One little widget shows the real-time moon phase too.”

17. Moon - current moon phase - Love this. Very simple interface for when you JUST want basic full, new, waxing, waning moon info.

18. Herbs in Magick - The application contains information about more than 200 herbs and their magickal use. No internet connection

Your Life Isn't Over Because You Have Misophonia (Surprise!)

I wanted to write a post about you specifically. Yes, you, not someone else, you. I want you to know that your life is not over because you have misophonia, and that you’re important to the world. You have a lot of options as a diagnosed misophonic! Here is sort of a mega-post of information to maybe help you to succeed in life and explore opportunities you may not have known existed :) I’ll also put some photos in between so that you might feel more inspired. 

The Importance of Getting a Diagnosis & Your Legal Rights: First off, I think the first step you have to take in making your life easier if you’re still in school is getting a diagnosis from a certified doctor. I know that not every state or region has an audiologist that can diagnose you, but I certainly think that a trip to the nearest one, however long it would take, is completely worth it. Why? Because, as far as I am aware of, if you live in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland or Australia, you have anti-discriminatory rights as a disabled citizen. (I know there are laws in other countries, but we’d be here all night if I covered them all!) Here are government links that explain your civil rights in the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Ireland and in Australia. Also, I checked with Canada, and they don’t have a law yet, but they’re currently campaigning towards one!) Here are two lists of practitioners who treat misophonia: (Just the United States) and (The U.S. and several other countries). Some of the doctors on the second link might only treat tinnitus, so email them first or look them up! The doctor in London and the doctor in Victoria, Australia do treat misophonia for sure, so do not fret! 

Your Legal Rights to Equal Education in These Same Countries: Because there are anti-discriminatory laws in the countries I named, you have an equal right to attain an education as any other non-disabled student. If you are officially diagnosed with misophonia from a certified doctor, these rights legally apply to you, as long as your doctor can explain in a letter exactly why misophonia is a disability for you. In the United States, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 basically says that federally funded schools cannot discriminate or deny a student the same access to education because of their disability, and it specifically covers neurological disorders - which misophonia actually is. Because of this law, I was able to get accommodations at the University of Colorado Denver to make my education attainable. (I am one of two students there with misophonia accommodations!) I am allowed a note-taker, I may leave or skip class without being counted absent (so long as my excuse is misophonia-related), my professors are not allowed to discriminate against me in class because of my disability, I get preferred seating, I can take tests and quizzes in a room by myself (yay!!!), and I am allowed an FM system (an auditory system consisting of earphones for me with a receiver and a microphone for my teacher, so I can’t hear other people!), which my professor is legally required to wear and help me with. I mean, how cool is that?! These are the sorts of accommodations you can ask for when you try to make your case! For a while I had been thinking about dropping out because going to class was so hard, but man, nothing is stopping me now! PhD., here I come! 

Those of You Who Are Home-Bound: Even if you can’t stand being in a classroom for any reason, there are many options as far as online school go. Here are 50 online high schools and 542 online colleges and universities! Here are some online programs for those in the UK needing to complete sixth form. I personally know at least one girl with misophonia who is doing online school here in the U.S., and it seems to be working for her :)

Rights As An Employee: Disability laws also protect us in the work space! As far as Section 504 in the U.S. is concerned, an employer is required to accommodate a disabled employee within reasonable means. In the U.K., the Equality Act of 2010 says, that an employer has to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to avoid you being put at a disadvantage compared to those in your work space who do not have disabilities. In Australia, their anti-discriminatory law says that it is against the law for an employer to act in a discriminatory way towards your disability. Ireland’s Disability Discrimination Act says it is illegal for employers to discriminate against people with disabilities for any reason related to their disability, in all aspects of employment, unless it can be justified. I didn’t quite understand New Zealand’s Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill, but you can visit this page for more information if it would be helpful to you!

Ideal Jobs: Basically, I’ve learned that if you have a job where you can control your environment or work alone, it is possible for you to work a job as a professional. Ideal jobs would be things like being a teacher, working from home, owning a business, being a doctor or a counselor, being an electrician, doing work in the field, working in a controlled office, ect. I currently work at my dad’s office, where I am mostly on my own. The secretary I work with knows about my condition and helps me out in any way I need! To be honest, I’m kind of scared to get a job working in customer service because my triggers are so bad, so I additionally raise cows, whom for the most part, don’t bother me yet. Plus, they pay for my textbooks! 

Places to Find Online Support: These blogs: confessions-of-a-misophonic, adventures-in-misophonia, misophonia–sucks, misophonia-isnt-fun, living-with-miso, misophoniachicago, misophoniaadailyhell, and misophoniaandme! 

These Facebook groups: “Misophonia Coping and Solutions”, “Misophonia: Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome (4S)”, and “Misophonia-Parents of children with misophonia”.

Websites:  Misophonia Online, the Misophonia Association, and Haunted by everyday noises. 

Conclusions: I really stand by the fact that even while you have misophonia, you are still able to live and interact with the world, and you are also able to make a difference! The Internet, in this way, is a beautiful and wondrous tool that allows us to come together as a community, share ideas with one another, and encourage each other. I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have you all for support! I’d encourage you all to think of the talents you have been gifted with and maybe think of ways you can use them to further raise awareness and help other misophonics in our community. Like, if you’re going to be a misophoniac, be a damn good one, right? If you’re a musician, maybe write songs; or if you’re an artist, create ways for others to visualize what we have; if you’re confident, make videos, talk about what you have, and share them with the world; and if you’re not too bad at writing, speak out and communicate! I mean, that’s how this ridiculous blog got started. I just thought I’d share a few ideas and then it kind of bubbled over and came to life! It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.

You all have voices and are important to the world, make something of yourself that you can be proud of! You won’t regret it.

I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, I’m going to go bleach my eyes. 

orriculum’s witchcraft 101 masterpost ✨

✨ basics:

unpacking witchcraft - spell types ✧ some basic terms to know ✧ methods for spells ✧ grounding, a quick how-to ✧ how to write your own spells - resources ✧ when to cast a spell - by weekdays ✧ when to cast a spell - by time of day ✧  low effort witchcraft ✧ how to cleanse

✨ tools:

tools of witchcraft overview ✧ a witch’s wand ✧ building a broom/besom ✧correspondence resource  ✧  on making moon water  ✧    understanding herb associations with rosemary  ✧   herbs for spells : grocery store vs. home grown vs. edible wilds  ✧   grounding  ✧  disposing of spell materials  ✧  nullifying spells  ✧ how to substitute in a spell

✨ you should know:

“to be a witch” falsehoods ✧ other witches and you ✧ witchcraft and the law ✧ difference between a witch and a herbalist ✧ self care for the witch ✧ when your spell fails ✧ tarot and pendulums can get it wrong

Witchy Song Suggestions

Hello Family! I am with you today to speak about some of the songs which I listen to when I am trying to manifest. I may suggest some *Some of these songs may fall into more than one category.* Feel free to add songs!

Love/Romance Magick:

Wonderful by Lianne La Havas

Serial Killer by Lana Del Rey

Lovefool by The Cardigans

Little Numbers by BOY

Love by Lana Del Rey

Romanitcise by Chelea

A Dream by Rachmaninoff - Sung by Dawn Upshaw

Morgen by Strauss - Sung by Barbara Bonney

Hey Now by London Grammar

Like I Can (Cover) by Jordan Smith

Golden Slumbers (cover) by Jennifer Hudson

Bittersweet by Ellie Goulding

Warm on a Cold Night by Honne

River Flows in You by Yiruma

L’heure Exquise by Hahn - Sung by Susan Graham

The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

Giant Steps by John Coltrane

Red Arrow by Gem Club

Blue Skies by Ella Fitzgerald 

Long Time Ago by Trad/Copland - Sung by Nathan Gunn

Chi Il Bel Sogno from La Rondine by Puccini - Sung by Renee Fleming

Claire de Lune by Debussy - Performed by Xavier de Maistre

Che Gelida Manina from La Boheme by Puccini - performed by Vittorio Grigolo or Luciano Pavarotti 

Sex Magick:

Is It a Crime by Sade

I Put a Spell on You by Nina Simone

Teeth by Lady Gaga

All Night by Beyonce

Hey Now by London Grammar

Tear You Apart by She Wants Revenge

Hummingbird Heartbeat by Katy Perry

Pillowtalk by Zayn

Do What U Want by Lady Gaga

Off to the Races by Lana Del Rey

Money Magick:

Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine

Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Coca Cola by Beth Hart

Digital Witness by St. Vincent

6 Inch by Beyonce

Money Honey by Lady Gaga

Beautiful, Dirty, Rich by Lady Gaga

National Anthem by Lana Del Rey

Million Dollar Man by Lana Del Rey

Luck Magick:

Tokyo by Lianne La Havas

Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine

Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Primadonna by Marina and the Diamonds

Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monae

Evergreen by Yebba

Right Place, Wrong Time by Dr. John

No Roots by Alice Merton

When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing by Lana Del Rey

Nagual by Trifolia 

Make Me Feel by Janelle Monae

Beauty:

La fille aux cheveux de lin by Debussy - perormed by Xavier de Maistre

Venus by Lady Gaga

L’heure Exquise by Hahn - sung by Susan Graham

Unstoppable by Lianne La Havas

Radio by Lana Del Rey

Bel Air by Lana Del Rey

Breaking my Heart by Lana Del Rey

Binding:

Paradise Circus by Massive Attack 

Work Song by Hozier

Summer Bummer by Lana Del Rey

In My Feelings by Lana Del Rey

Brother Sparrow by Agnes Obel

Wallflower by Agnes Obel

Avenue by Agnes Obel

Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac (good cover by Karen Elson)

Up in Flames by Ruelle

Body Electric by Lana Del Rey

Circle the Drain by Katy Perry

No Roots by Alice Merton

Hit Me Like a Man by The Pretty Reckless 

Backfire by Lana Del Rey

Goodnight Moon by Shivaree

Baneful Magick (Curses and such):

Paradise Circus by Massive Attack

Wallflower by Agnes Obel

Strange Fruit sung by Nina Simone

Sinnerman by Nina Simone

Seven Devils by Florence + The Machine

Power and Control by Marina and the Diamonds

Teen Idol by Marina and the Diamonds

Kill of the Night by Gin Wigmore

The Rake’s Song by The Decemberists

Humans by Sevdaliza 

No Rest for the Wicked by Lykke Li

Killing Moon by Roman Remains

Bones by Ms Mr

Limbs by Widdowspeak

Yubaba (Spirited Away Score) by Joe Hisaishi

The Raven by Alan Parsons Project

Neverland by Sisters of Mercy

Countdown by John Coltrane 

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfuly

Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde

You Know that I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse

Power Gathering: 

Death Defying Acts by Angus & Julia Stone

Django Jane by Janelle Monae

The Curse by Agnes Obel

Superpower by Beyonce

Spectrum (Song and Album) by Florence + The Machine

Sinnerman by Nina Simone

Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks

Four by Miles Davis

Twice by Little Dragon (Lianne La Havas also does a beautiful cover)

Sarajevo by Max Richter

Retrograde by James Blake

Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

With You In My Head by UNKLE

Out Alive by Ke$ha

Ninth Gate: Vocalise performed by Diana Damrau

Sunrise by Yeasayer

Castle by Halsey

Breath of Life by Florence + the Machine

Healing:

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

Who You Are sung by Jordan Smith

Stevie’s Dream by Janelle Monae

Hunger by Florence + the Machine

Life Goes On by Fergie

Wonderland by Haley Reinhart 

Twice by Little Dragon (Lianne La Havas also does a beautiful cover)

Alive by Sia

Unbreakable Smile by Tori Kelly

Arabesque No. 1 in E Major by Debussy - Performed by Xavier de Maistre

Im Here from the Color Purple 

Meditation: 

Death Defying Acts by Angus & Julia Stone

Icarus by White Hinterland 

Love Drought by Beyonce

Twice by Little Dragon (Lianne La Havas also does a beautiful cover)

Sarajevo by Max Richter

Cranes in the Sky by Solange 

So Much More Than This by Grace Vanderwaal

Arabesque No. 1 in E Major by Debussy

La fille aux cheveux de lin by Debussy

Protection:

Safe & Sound by Capital Cities

Florets by Grace VanderWaal

Sarajevo by Max Richter

Alive by Sia

Ständchen  D.957 by Schubert - Performed by Evgeny Kissin

C’est L’extase Langoureuse by Debussy - Sung By Elly Ameling

The Fire by Kina Grannis

The Bird by Duke - Sung by James Taylor

Arabesque No. 1 in E Majoy by Debussy - Performed by Xavier de Maistre

Confidence:

Fashion! (Artpop) by Lady Gaga

***Flawless by Beyonce

Bodak Yellow by Cardi B

Raining Men by The Water Girls

Sugar Pill by Kovacs

Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monae

Oh No! by Marina and the Diamonds

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves by Aretha Franklin

Land of Lola from Kinky Boots

Sex Is In the Heel from Kinky Boots

Screwed by Janelle Monae

I like that by Janelle Monae

Bad by Michael Jackson

Check it Out by Will.i.am & Nicki Minaj

Happiness/Just Good Vibes:

Blood (Album) by Lianne La Havas

Blue Skies by Ella Fitzgerald (or anything she sings)

Origami by Capital Cities

Pocket Full of Sunshine by Natasha Beddingfield

Rumors (Album) by Fleetwood Mac

Young Volcanoes by Fall Out Boy

Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing (cover) by Tori Kelly

Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac

Happy by Pharrell 

Feel it Still by Portugal. The Man

Let’s Get Together by Beth Hart

Arabesque No. 1 in E Majoy by Debussy - Performed by Xavier de Maistre

Tightrope by Janelle Monae

I hope y’all find this useful! Feel Free to add songs! Also, email me at mojomidnight@gmail.com for any questions, follow my YouTube @ Mojo Magick for some Magickal content, and Be Blessed! 

Love, 

Mojo Magick

4 Things To Do Before A Spell (With Examples)

1. Clear your intention: Think about what it is that you want. Be clear with your wants. and desires. Example: If you’re doing a spell to help find a job. Be clear with what kind of employment you’re looking for. Consider distance, profession, pay. Don’t just ask the universe to hand you a “Job”

2. Clear your space: Clear your space of negativity and distractions. Example: If you’re doing a luck spell, Don’t just wing it. Cleanse your space with herbs, reduce noise, clutter, or things that will get in your way. This could also mean people. Meaning, If there is company, or people around you who are not involved in the spell try to find a calm peaceful space where they won’t effect the outcome. 

3. Improvise premade Spells:  If you’re using a spell from a book, Or online (Tumblr) switch up the spell to make it personal and doable for you. Example: If the spell calls for lavender and you don’t have it use other calming ingredients like salt, Or your favorite calming incense. 

4. Protect Yourself: No matter what spell you are doing, Always protect yourself before during and after. Example: Before your spell wear protective crystals or draw sigils on your body. During the spell create a protective circle, And after take a cleansing and protective bath with herbs and salt. 

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