A folk grimoire of destagnation.

Those of us with European parents are undoubtedly familiar with the feeling of coming home from some trip, where your parents urge you to run through the house and open all the windows: "air out the house!" You speed around, kicking up dust, moving the air, slowly washing away the strange feeling of stillness that has contaminated your home. Air out the house. "Don't catch the draft," your parent yells up the stairs at you. The draft, of course, is never explicitly acknowledged to contain some ill-wishing spirit that will give you the flu, but everybody knows it does. And the same can be said for that stagnant air in the house, the silence permeating the walls.

Witchy Blessings

May your spells manifest exactly as you would like them

May your spell ingredients be affordable and easy to find

May your herbs dry properly

May your intuition be clear and trustworthy

May your space be clean and open

May you find the energy to accomplish all your witchy goals

May your grimoire pages be organized, and may they be beautiful

May your faith in your craft shine through

The reason people are told "mundane before magic" is so they remember to do things like check whether they've got mold or carbon monoxide in their house before they decide the problem is a malevolent spirit, find out whether their health problems have a treatable medical cause before deciding they're cursed, and make sure they have a mechanic check their car once they hear funny noises instead of just casting a safety spell on it and calling it good. People get hurt if they neglect the mundane.

Grave offerings and burying the dead with tools and goods is actually such a deeply human thing to do. It's not really even necessarily about how much you believe in a literal afterlife or them taking the tools with them. It's also just going Wait, I'm Not Done Taking Care Of You, let me make you one more pair of socks so your feet won't be cold when you go wherever it is where I can't follow.

"COME CLOSER," said the thing whose name sounded like Hornet Head, but was not. "LET US TALK... OF MANY THINGS."

This is my finished miniature oracle deck! It’s made purely from sigils, and that was a very purposeful decision. I wanted something small and easily referenced; just one card to pull every morning to see what the day will bring, or if pulled upside down, what it will be missing. It can tell me what sigil to wear that day or what to be on the lookout for. So it’s nothing fancy, just a fun idea I had and went for it.

Sigilwork is by far my favourite way to do magick other than kitchen witchcraft and it brings me a lot of joy. I didn’t use any of my personal sigils on these cards just because I wanted something I could throw together within the last two days, but in the future I plan to remake this deck or make a normal sized one complete with all personalised sigils.

I absolutely love art and I always have so that will be a joy to do. and if any of y’all have been considering making your own oracle decks or means of divination, I say go for it! I had a great time and I feel like I’ve made something that i’ll get some true use out of and something that i’m proud of.

But yeah! I just wanted to share it and since I didn’t use any of my personal sigils, i’m not afraid to share the full pictures of each card. the backs are nothing special, just some swirls to represent each card’s energy. Let me know what you think and I might be occasionally sharing what card I pull each day.

Blessed be!!

Some of my favorite spell jars

 Eyes on You, Blackout, Negativity absorption jar

Here’s my Eyes on You and my Blackout spell jars before I dedicated them.

I also affixed a cheap chime candle holder on the top for ease of use. I just toss things in here and fire it up at will. Something needs my attention, throw it in the jar! need other people to watch someone so they don’t get away with shit? Throw it in the jar! Someone has a rad project that needs more support? Toss it in the jar! Someone needs some love and attention? toss it in the jar!

The blackout spell jar pretty much works in the opposite way. Its just spray painted black. Want someone to leave you alone? Place a representation of you OR them in the jar. Got some negative thought? place them in the jar! Got a secret that is hard to keep? Put it in the jar!

The last in my negativity absorbing jar. It’s filled with war water, ink, mirrors, and some other nasty stuff to absorb shit that flies my way.

Marks of growth as a person and practitioner in witchcraft spaces:

-not feeling the need to constantly correct others

-knowing when and how to offer a dissenting viewpoint

-being content to disagree without engaging in debate

-fact-checking information before passing it along or incorporating it into your practice

-questioning your assumptions and decolonizing your thinking

-understanding that no two practices are the same and that the experiences and opinions of others do not need to govern your path

-understanding that practices not your own or contrary to your own can still be valid

-being able to describe your current beliefs without putting down others or defaulting to discussions about religious trauma

-focusing on comprehension, learning, and exploration rather than consumption

-understanding that "witch" is a gender neutral term and that anyone can be a witch if they choose to

-understanding that safety is more important than visibility

-understanding that magical practice does not have to be constant

-Developing personal beliefs and practices that may align with existing traditions but may not match them precisely

-Developing a reliable bullshit detector and employing it regularly

-Diminished desire for constant validation from outside sources as to whether you're "doing it right"

-diminished desire to overshare or aestheticize your practices, instead focusing on what works for you rather than what looks pretty enough for social media

-diminished desire to Do All The Things At Once and instead focusing on the areas where you are comfortable / interested and taking things at a reasonable pace

-being aware of the problems in the community and doing your best to not contribute to them

-being aware of the New Age pipeline and staying out of it as much as possible

-embracing science and history and common sense alongside magical learning and spiritual beliefs (if you have them)

There are lots of others, but these are some of the ones I've noted in my own journey. Just some things to consider.

Happy Witching and Keep Growing!

Some tips for anyone else who's about to get their seed trays and peat pucks out of storage to start this year's produce garden.

Spoilers - the plants suggested to be grown from seed (as opposed to buying a seedling from a garden store) are sunflowers, curcurbits (cucumbers, squash, melons, gourds), snow peas, pole beans, corn, carrots, radishes, and beets.

So basically, if there's anything you're planning to grow that works from a long taproot or has a delicate root system that could be damaged by transplanting, that might be better to grow from seeds. Save your gardening store money for plants that require hardening off before transplanting to really thrive (tomatoes, peppers, rosemary, fruit bushes, etc).

For more information on gardening and the best dates to plant in your local biome, I recommend checking out The Farmer's Almanac and The Old Farmer's Almanac. And if you want some book recs for garden magic or home agriculture in general, I have posts here and here.

Have fun!

Honestly, the best advice I have for anyone is just be yourself. Be strange, be peculiar, be whimsical, be weird and messy and passionate about things people don’t understand. Let your odd quirks show. Let yourself show. We get this one teeny tiny life, and you should refuse to spend it trying to hide anything about yourself, otherwise you missed the whole point. There’s nothing about you that is wrong. Whoever you are, whatever you love, whatever you do, whatever you’re passionate about, whatever you dislike, whatever strange faces you make when something disgusts you or the way you laugh is wrong. It’s not possible. You are the way you are because that’s exactly how you are supposed to be. Not everyone has to love it, no everyone has to accept it, the only person that needs to is you.

“From the ashes a fire shall be woken”

Lord of the Rings inspired sigil

— Practical Magic

Witchcraft Exercise - Spring Cleaning

There’s a marked tradition of cleaning and airing out the house in the springtime when the weather warms. As you’re dusting and tidying and getting rid of winter stagnation, take some time to do the same with your craft.

Clean and organize your workspace. If you have an altar space or a shelf where you keep bottles and jars and the like, remove everything from the surface and give it a good dusting. Take the opportunity to rearrange things or swap out pieces if it suits you. If you have ritual tools that don’t often get cleaned, check them for signs or rust or wear and give them a bit of love. Repair things that need fixing, if you can. If you have an iron cauldron that you use for fire magic, get a wire brush or some steel wool and gently remove any burnt residue left inside.

Sort through your supplies. If you have lots of candles and crystals and small items laying about, consider getting some small totes or craft organizers to keep things tidy. Divided storage boxes for beads or scrapbooking supplies are great for small items, and shoebox-sized caddies are perfect for taper, chime, and votive candles. Organizing things will make your space easier to navigate and also gives you a proper idea of what you have on hand. Which might help you resist impulse purchases the next time you’re out shopping for witchcraft supplies. While you’re tidying, be sure to discard any rubbish, candle stubs, wax blobs, herb scraps, bits of string, incense bases, and so forth that might be cluttering up the place. 

Discard things that are too old or worn to be useful. Dried plants and seasonings can usually be kept for 1-3 years if they remain in sealed containers. If they have no scent anymore or smell musty or mildewy, discard them and sanitize the container. If you’re using supermarket spices, you can use the expiration date on the container as a guide. Powdered material will likely last longer than whole herbs or cut-and-sifted material. One helpful tip is to put a purchase date on packets or bags of herbs when you buy them, or to put a little date sticker on your jars of herbs when you refill them. (Anyone who’s worked in food service will probably be familiar with the concept of container dating or day-dotting.)

If you make oils or tinctures or suchlike in your practice, check on these as well. Make sure nothing has gone off or lost its’ potency. Day-dotting your potion containers will help with this as well. A simple sticker with the name of the brew and the date it was bottled will help you keep track of your supplies and know when something needs to be tossed and replaced. (You can also print labels with the ingredients and purpose of the brew if you’re feeling super organized.)

Reorganize your books and resources. Review what's there and see if there are any materials that need to be weeded out, donated, or discarded. Remember that as you grow and progress, some things will become obsolete or may show themselves to be unhelpful or inaccurate. It's okay to remove things from your resource library that no longer serve you if you want to make some space on the shelves.

You can also cleanse your workspace and/or components while you’re tidying if you wish. It doesn’t have to be a full clean-slate-everything-must-go cleansing, but it can be helpful to just clear out stagnation or bring in some freshness and vitality.

Happy Witching! 🧼

Want more witchcraft exercises? Check out the masterpost here and visit my shop for spell kits, books, magical powders, and more!

(If you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar, tune in to my monthly show Hex Positive on your favorite podcast app, or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊)

Pagan writers when talking about female deities: "They're a mother goddess"

Pagan writers when talking about male deities: "Well, their role and function is a lot more complicated and important than just just being a father god, and here's a 10k word essay discussing why they're more than just a father god"

OOOOO I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS

This is what originally turned me away from Wicca (among other reasons). So many books, blogs, and other resources seem to have so much built-in misogyny that it boggles my mind.

It's part of why I hate the invention of the "Mother-Maiden-Crone" archetype so much.

No, Hekate is not MMC. She is a powerful force of sorcery and liminality. No, the Morrigan is not MMC. She is a Goddess of bloodshed, mercy, and power.

Reducing such multi-faceted entities, such influential spirits, down to the box that patriarchal systems tried to fit them in is so disrespectful.

Freya, Frigg, Aphrodite, Hekate, Athena, etc. Do many Goddesses have aspects of fertility, nurturing, parenthood? Yeah, they do, just like Zeus, Ares, and Njordr. Is that all they are? Is that even the core of what they influence? Not always.

Immediate red flag if any book you're reading only has Goddesses in the footnotes, as mothers.

Very well said 🙏

I will start taking Maiden-Mother-Crone seriously when male deities start being assigned Boy-Father-Geezer.