So, I’ve been seeing a lot of things about Dionysus lately. I jokingly called out earlier,

“Dionysus, are you calling me?”

Well, as I’m lying in bed, I start researching a bit. Attached below are screenshots of what I found. It’s strange to me because I used to make things like the crown and the staff all the time. Pine cones are almost always on my altar, and I really wanted to make a staff with a pine cone at the tip last year (before I knew about Dionysus).

When I got done, I absentmindedly looked at the time, which was 5:55 PM. I also do numerology work, so I decided to look up the meaning. The main words that resonated with me were “communication” and “change.”

I was talking to my SO about how I thought that I had found my patron deity, and I kissed him. The only thing I hear in my head was,

“Fuck yeah, you did!”

and I’m just like ??? hello??? Dionysus???

Summer Ritual Cookies

So I made these for the first time for my Beltane Feast, and they ended up a wonderfully yummy addition. With the fire-associated cinnamon and the warmth of honey, maple, and vanilla, these cookies work well for any summer ritual or gathering. Use them as offerings or to share with friends.

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

**To make vegan, swap for agave syrup or just use ¼ cup more maple syrup instead.

***I haven’t baked a vegan version of this recipe yet. You can use aquafaba (3 tablespoons for each egg), but I’m not sure how it will affect the taste or texture.

You can serve these warm, but I found that the texture was slightly better after being chilled. You can also drizzle a little maple syrup on top for an extra bit of sweet. 

Things you DON’T need to practice magick:

An altar

A deity

A specific path

A specific religion

Any materials

Things you SHOULD do to practice magick:

Time and dedication to learning

Yourself

Finding your interests and what works for you

Establishing a theory and following a paradigm

my ideal life

my ideal life is a beautiful mix of dark academia, cottagecore, and witchcraft.

i want to be the small town mystery that can regularly be found at the farmers market of at the local small library and book store. 

i want to fill my home with drying herbs and marble busts.

i want to live on a large farm land with almost perfectly kept gardens. 

i want my home to be a dark cottage on a hill, surrounded by apple trees. 

i want towns people to come to me when they are sick so i can help heal them with my herbalist methods. 

i want to spend my time every morning making homemade rosemary bread and flavored honey to share with my neighbors. 

i want to live a sustainable and low waste life so that the earth is just that tiny bit happier.

i want to take and old book in french and read it while sitting inside my garden.

i want to own a small ivy covered cafe with gold accents littering the walls.

i want to wake up to fog outside my house that gently envelops my gardens.

i want to have a close knit group of friends that are wild and slightly pretentious.

i want to preform rituals and make eco-friendly blessing baskets.

i want to fall in love and stay in love till i end.

i want to loudly listen to Frederic Chopin and waltz with my parter while the sun is rising. 

i want to frequent museums and large art galleries.

i want to publish poetry under a fake name in another language.

i want to live in England and travel around the world, i want to experience the cultures that fascinate me.

i want to go star gazing with my friends while drinking tea and wine and have philosophical debates.

i want to have picnics at night next to a secret body of water in the woods and skinny dip while the full moon beams down from directly above me.

i want my children to pass along my legacy.

i want to live long and peacefully pass away to dance with the stars.

that is my ideal life.

Venus Retrogtrade  May 13th- June 25th.

Hi, folks! I’m writing this post to let you know about this transit and what’ll bring us.

First of all, it’s important to remember that retrogrades are cycles that are meant for revision. When a planet is retrograde, that means that the energy goes inward, so there’s a lot of introspection, meditation, situations & people from our past coming back into our lives to help us with the revision.

Venus is going retrograde under the sign of Gemini at 21° degrees. Venus in our natal chart is the ruler of Taurus and Libra. Therefore, House 2nd and 7th are ruled by this planet as well. Venus represents love, pleasure, how we attract things and others, and what are we attracted to. It also represents our values, what we like, our talents and our resources, money we make thanks to those resources, self-worth and self-value, sensuality, beauty, harmony & the arts, and what we desire.

Gemini being the ruler of the 3rd house, which is ruled by planet Mercury - represents ideas, perceptions, the ability to acquire knowledge over different fields and topics, quick mental activity, intellect, our brothers, and people that mirror both our light and dark sides. 

That being said, the Sun in Taurus will be forming an angle of 30° and the Moon in Aquarius will be forming an angle of 135° with Venus. This means that, the interaction of the Sun and the Moon with Venus will be bringing us awareness regarding blockages or conflicts on the topics associated with Venus and Gemini, that we can solve using our creativity, intellect, mental and psyque abilities. 

Venus also will be square to Neptune in ♓ which will manifest some tensions between what we think we want and what we really want and desire. I also think it’s important to mention that Neptune in Pisces represents the collective both conscious and conciousness, so we will have to work to meditate and connect at a deeper level with our emotions. This is to help us meditate on how the many ideals and perceptions imprinted in the collective mind have affected our personal views and perceptions regarding pleasure, what we like, relationships, etc (see Venus associations). What changed and what didn’t?

Last but not least, Venus in Gemini is a placement that tend to have difficulty in connecting at a deeper level in its relationships or even committing to a long lasting one. They need to feel alive and stimulated both mentallly and verbally, so this retrograde is an invitation to try and connect deeper to have a better understanding not only of ourselves, but of others too so we can communicate and express our wants and desires in a positive way.

I hope you like this post and find it helpful.

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION. BOTH THE IMAGE & TEXT WERE EDITED AND WRITTEN BY ME.

I love dandelions for their beauty,,

Found this post & learned something new abt them :)

grind everything together; you can charge it in the sunlight before use to reawaken or with crystals you associate with earth/other intent you may have for your specific use

random playlists (2.)

TWITCHY WITCHY GIRL — black boots, honey and lavender, purple lace, heavy grimoires, dusty shelves, dried flowers and herbs, collecting seashells and crystals, glitter on your cheeks, cats and owls, dancing under the pale moonlight, proud daughters of the night.

LOVE ACROSS CENTURIES — silk and roses, crowded ballrooms, waltzing with a stranger, misty mornings, anonymous love letters, satin dresses, country houses full of family heirlooms, secret meetings, hands brushing & promises of forever.

THE FATAL FLAW — running in the halls of a museum, long scarves blown away by the wind, rainy mornings at the library, blasting tchaikovsky at 2 am, black coffee and tired eyes, pretentious latin quotes, piles of books, bloody hands and unspoken secrets.

ANGELS ARE SINGING — empty churches, organ playing in the late afternoon, pure love & warm hugs, silent statues, echoing whispers, sunlight entering through stained-glass windows, the feeling of being part of something greater than yourself.

THE MUSIC WAS MY FAVORITE PART — crying at the movie theatre, empty seats, laughter and kisses in the dark, the sweet taste of caramel popcorn, glamour and decay, dramatic strings, holding hands, shivers of fear and delight.

crush everything till combined in mortar & pestle, charge with candles before use if desired to reawaken your salt

Witch Tip #1

Accidentally stir counter-clockwise? Just tap your spoon on the edge of the pan nine times. Nine is the number of completion, and this will sort of reset the pan if you meant to manifest rather than banish.

Tarot A History and Brief Overview of Spreads

A History

The tarot, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarock is a pack of playing cards, used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play games such as Italian tarocchini, French tarot and Austrian Königrufen, many of which are still played today. In the late 18th century, some tarot decks began to be used for divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy leading to custom decks developed for such occult purposes. The word Tarot and German Tarock derive from the Italian Tarocchi, the origin of which is uncertain but taroch was used as a synonym for foolishness in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century, most likely from Mamluk, Egypt, with suits of Batons or Polo sticks which are commonly known as Wands by those practicing occult or divinatory tarot, Coins which are commonly known as disks, or pentacles in occult or divinatory tarot, Swords, and Cups. These suits were very similar to modern tarot divination decks and are still used in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese playing card decks. 

The first documented tarot packs were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrara, Florence and Bologna when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack. These new decks were called carte da trionfi, triumph cards, and the additional cards known simply as trionfi, which became “trumps” in English. The earliest documentation of trionfi is found in a written statement in the court records of Florence, in 1440, regarding the transfer of two decks to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.

The original purpose of tarot cards was to play games. A very cursory explanation of rules for a tarot-like deck is given in a manuscript by Martiano da Tortona before 1425. Vague descriptions of game play or game terminology follow for the next two centuries until the earliest known complete description of rules for a French variant in 1637. The 18th century saw tarot’s greatest revival, during which it became one of the most popular card games in Europe, played everywhere except Ireland and Britain, the Iberian peninsula, and the Ottoman Balkans. French tarot experienced a revival beginning in the 1970s and France has the strongest tarot gaming community.

These were the oldest form of tarot deck to be made, being first devised in the 15th century in northern Italy. The so-called occult tarot decks are based on decks of this type. Three decks of this category are still used to play certain games:

The Tarocco Siciliano is the only deck to use the so-called Portuguese suit system which uses Spanish pips but intersects them like Italian pips. Some of the trumps are different such as the lowest trump, Miseria (destitution). It omits the Two and Three of coins, and numerals one to four in clubs, swords and cups: it thus has 64 cards but the ace of coins is not used, being the bearer of the former stamp tax. The cards are quite small and not reversible.

The illustrations of French-suited tarot trumps depart considerably from the older Italian-suited design, abandoning the Renaissance allegorical motifs. With the exception of novelty decks, French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games. The first generation of French-suited tarots depicted scenes of animals on the trumps and were thus called “Tiertarock” (‘Tier’ being German for 'animal’) appeared around 1740. Around 1800, a greater variety of decks were produced, mostly with genre art or veduta. Current French-suited tarot decks come in these patterns:

German-suited decks for Bauerntarock, Württemberg Tarock and Bavarian Tarock are different. They are not true tarot packs, but a Bavarian or Württemberg pattern of the standard German-suited decks with only 36 cards; the pip cards ranging from 6 to 10, Under Knave (Unter), Over Knave (Ober), King, and Ace. These use Ace-Ten ranking, like Klaverjas, where Ace is the highest followed by 10, King, Ober, Unter, then 9 to 6. The heart suit is the default trump suit. The Bavarian deck is also used to play Schafkopf by excluding the Sixes.

Tarot Card Readings

The earliest evidence of a tarot deck used for cartomancy comes from an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the Tarocco Bolognese. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles. French tarot players abandoned the Marseilles tarot in favour of the Tarot Nouveau around 1900, with the result that the Marseilles pattern is now used mostly by cartomancers.

Etteilla was the first to issue a tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes around 1789. In keeping with the misplaced belief that such cards were derived from the Book of Thoth, Etteilla’s tarot contained themes related to ancient Egypt.

The 78-card tarot deck used by esotericists has two distinct parts:

The terms “Major Arcana” and “Minor Arcana” were first used by Jean-Baptiste Pitois (also known as Paul Christian) and are never used in relation to tarot card games. Some decks exist primarily as artwork, and such art decks sometimes contain only the 22 major arcana.

The three most common decks used in esoteric tarot are the Tarot of Marseilles, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, and the Thoth tarot deck. 

The six most common Tarot Spreads are the;

Here is a little you should know about the ‘love’ spread. This type of reading evaluates the relationships relevance, how strong and happy they are. Every relationship has its ups and downs and with this six-card spread you will be able to evaluate your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual connections with your partner. The ‘love’ spread has its own 6 cards which represent the following:

#1-The first card signifies what you currently feel about your relationship, your approach, and your outlook.

#2-The second card represents your partners current emotions towards you, his attitude, and expectations about your relationship.

#3- The third card is a connection card. For example; common characteristics of both of you

#4– The fourth card indicates the strength of your relationship.

#5– The fifth card shows the weaknesses in your relationship.

#6– This final card is your true love card. It interprets if the relationship is going to be successful or not.

Briefly about the ‘Success’ spread; it is a remarkably situational spread.  It’s often used when a person is facing an obstacle or hardship. It can also be helpful if you don’t know how to face or overcome a problem as it will point you in the right direction.

#1- it helps you to find out about the true colours of the challenge in front of you. It will help you to identify what sort of skill set and resources you will need in order to not just solve but also overcome the challenge.

#2- this further clarifies on your current problems and challenges.

#3- The third card reveals the hidden factors affecting your current situation. You need to have knowledge about what these factors are to really overcome the obstacle you’re facing.

#4- The fourth card represents new plans, people, or objects that can help you grow further. By adapting yourself to these new aspects, your vision of the situation will change, leaving you with better solutions to your problems.

#5- The final card shows what requirements you need to fulfill in order to be proven successful and things you should avoid as they will lead you to failure. It will point you towards success if proven to be a positive card but in other cases it could be a negative card and will warn you about an upcoming disaster in your life.

Despite its complications the ‘Celtic Cross’ Spread has stood popular for many years. This is most likely due to the fact that its importance lies in its difficulty. Each result of the Celtic Cross can be illustrated in a variety of ways depending on the direction of the of the fallen cards. Though not recommended for beginners, once anyone understands it, he or she can use this spread to find out the full depth of the situation. With enough practice it can it can be taken in use to find the answer to any problem. Celtic Cross deals with intricate situations.

#1– presents the current situation the person finds themselves in the and the reading is about the question they are facing.

#2– is placed over the first card, pointing to the left and is always read in an upright position. It shows what the basic challenge is that needs to be solved or the mental or physical object holding them back.

#3– The third spread reveals the subconscious influences. These strange influences have an extremely strong and powerful effect on one’s everyday life, especially in scenes relating to the question.

#4 – The fourth card shows what resources one has and the things they can use to face and solve the problem shown by the second card and in the process reach their ultimate goal, shown by the third card.

#5 – The fifth card shows the prologue of the scene. A negatively influenced past may have an effect that prevents their success on their current situation and they will need to let the memory go in order to stop it from negatively influencing their current situation so they can face and eventually overcome the problem at hand as shown by the second card. A positive past should be can simply be called inspiration. Even though the person may be facing a challenge in their current part of life, the problem

They are up against is natural growth of the positive past they had the benefit of experiencing and after they have overcome all their challenges, things will look even brighter than they were in the past.

#6 – The sixth card is the headlight. If the card states there is some form of negative energy on the way the five previous cards should give a good reasoning of why this is taking place and what we could do to prevent it.

#7 – The seventh card represents the person’s attitude. It illustrates your physical actions, thinking and ideals regarding the current problem. This will give you more to work with into whether the person’s attitude is conducive to a likable outcome or whether it’s time to retrack the way the person perceives the information.

#8 – The eighth card is an energy card. It talks about the energy surrounding them and the energy other people and the environment is letting off and if these energies are helping in any shape or form.

#9 – The ninth card tells us about what the person’s desires and fears. This is a revelation card. It gives importance to the things a person should be aware of in their current situation and might change the way a person acts which should not be neglected by them.

#10 – This is the final outcome and emphasizes on the energies, if they are complementing or conflicting. It also tells the person about the future that will take place immediately and if it is necessary or not to face the future.

Similar to the Success Spread, the Spiritual Guidance spread is used when faced with problems that are of a spiritual nature. These sorts of challenges are usually related to spirituality in a person.

#1 – The first card represents your main concerns. You may think you know about the problem but this spread goes more in depth with it.

#2 – The second card looks into your motivation for looking for guidance.

#3 – The third card looks into the things about your life you are insecure or worried about.

#4 – The fourth card emphasizes on the parts of your life that you are not aware of.

#5 – The fifth card is your advice card as it will guide you to the steps to face your fears. It ties in with the previous cards.

#6 –The sixth card guides us to a life with no worries so that we could move forward on our spiritual journey.

#7 – The seventh card teaches you to deal with the situation with the resources you have at hand.

#8 – Finally, the eighth card finishes the Spiritual Guidance Spread by telling us that the result of the tarot cards all depends on our reaction to it whether we focus on the positive or negative.

This spread is for times where we feel left out on our career. We work hard hoping for a promotion but to no benefit. It helps us with these kind of challenges that we face in our professional life.

#1 – The first card basically asks us if our job that we have right now is indeed our ideal job

#2 – The second card emphasizes on the actions we must take to further boost our career. A positive card means we should stay at the same position we are in right now whereas a negative one means we should make some changes.

#3 – The third card tells us about certain things about our job that we can no longer alter. The card may tell you to look for a job in the same category we are working in right now.

#4 – The fourth card refers to our skills on our job to see if they’re enough to get us a promotion or if we are behind everyone else.

#5 – The fifth card tells us about the things we can do in our career to improve and start a new one or just small things we can do in our current career to at least get noticed.

#6 – The sixth card gives us the answer to the question that if our past mistakes are influencing our career now.

#7 – The final card tells you that if the card is negative it might lead to a bad outcome as it might result in you making other bad career choices.

However, if you aren’t sure of the outcome, use the card again after a few days or weeks to see if the reading changes as your attitude changes.

The simplest and the most useful spread, ‘The Three Card Spread’ only uses three cards. This is what makes it the most popular. This is one of the most powerful spreads and can find answers for you really quickly for almost anything, let it be overcoming a problem or an obstacle or if you are simply just feeling lost or left behind.

As you can imagine, this layout is good at suggesting some sort of linear path, sequence of events, cause and effect, or a way of getting from point a to point b.

In this layout, each card of the spread has a common intersection. They are all equally important, like three sides of a pyramid. Without any of these, the whole structure collapses.

I think think one is a little harder to explain, but I like thinking of these spreads being communicators of advice in a way such that “given X and Y, the result is Z”. X and Y attempt to give you a clearer understanding of options, and Z is a summary, a crux, a way to move forward given the information that is there. In fact, even when phrasing these spreads, I like saying them in a way that follows this formula to make the point clearer. The bolded items represent the actual card positions.

As the layout would imply, this is about understanding conflicts and obstacles. The card that crosses over is something that stands in the way and that needs to be overcome, something that blocks you from attaining your ultimate goal, while the third card acts as a sort of advice card, looking at the situation from a more distant viewpoint. These can also be used as simpler 2 card spreads if you want to use only the crossing cards.

I will be doing card meanings on a later date :)

Source: craftingwitch, on Instagram

Beltane in Lockdown and Quarantine

Beltane is in about a week and as most of us realized right now, most of as are going to spend Beltane inside in quarantine. I though I would write a small post to give you some ideas to celebrate at home.

Baking

To me this is the easiest way to celebrate Beltane while locked inside. I gather some recipes that need few ingredients.

Beltane Oats and Honey Scones

Beltane Tea Potion

Beltane Breakfast

Beltane honey-lemon vanilla madeleines

Sweet Earl Grey Lavender Ice Cream with a Blackberry swirl You will need an Ice cream maker for this one!

BELTANE STRAWBERRY LEMON PASSION BARS

Beltane Sangria

House Cleaning

Leave an offering to the faeries

If you have a garden or during a stroll (while respecting social distancing) you can leave a bit of milk and honey for the fae! It is there celebration day too, they will appreciate!

Yoga

Try to do a few sun salutation right after getting out of bed. Dedicate your practice to your deities if you have some or just for to Spring that is in full swing right now.

Here is another great post of what to do for Beltane in Quarantine or Quarantane

Some great ideas for the witches in quarantine and the spoonies over here!

An other great Ask about what to do for Beltane in quarantine here too!

Also, I am sure it can help some people around here:

quarantine tips for people who deal with mental illnesses

There is plenty of other activities to do, if you wish you can add them too after this post! Let’s gather a great list to celebrate, the quarantine will not stop us! <3

Blessed Be!