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Overgrown Cemetery, the first prompt for Drawtober!

little pumpkin thief

He’s comzy

Lindy Pollard Oregon, 2022

If you're struggling to find affordable stuff for your practice, altars, shrines, etc... Try flea markets and yard sales.

I just want to remind you that sometimes your life really doesn't begin until you are 26+... Romanticizing and obsessing over our youth is harmful. Growing up is beautiful. Discovering who you are and how you interact with the world is a gift. Maturing and learning what you truly want out of life and living in that purpose brings fulfillment and peace. Your life is not over in your early 20's because you haven't figured it out yet, it's just beginning.

Hello, witches! Since I’m always harping on about learning your history and checking your sources, I thought I’d help folks get a head start by compiling some source material.

To that end, I’ve started a Dropbox folder with a stash of historical texts on witchcraft, magic, and related topics. Nearly everything I’ve managed to find so far is public domain (thank you Project Gutenberg), with the exception of a very thorough herbal grimoire I found online some years ago and a book of witchcraft from the 1970s that appears to be out of print.

I will be continuing in this vein with future texts that I find. Everything will be public domain or cited to the source that it came from, in PDF format. I will NOT be including PDFs of any book currently in circulation with a copyright linked to a living author or estate. The point of this folder is that everything in it should be free for sharing and open use as research materials.

Below is the initial list of titles. I tried to include as many as I could find, with a focus on some oft-cited classics. I will be adding new texts as I find them.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that these texts are (with few exceptions) more than a century old, and may contain depictions, references, or language that are outdated and inappropriate. The point of including these documents is to provide access to historical texts for research and reference. Inclusion in the collection does not equal unconditional agreement with or wholesale approval of the contents.

Take everything with a grain of salt and remember to do your due diligence!

Happy Witching!   -Bree

Note: Further posts with additional titles in the notes.

If at any point the link stops working or the files cannot be accessed due to suspension by the Dropbox server, please make a note of the titles you’re interested in and visit Project Gutenberg or Global Grey Ebooks to download your own copy. :)

Hallow’s Eve media portrayals: Chanting in the dark, flames flickering on the altar, summoning the ancestors as the chill of death creeps through from other side and grows your power

Hallow’s Eve reality: Italian great grandmother coming in strong sans introduction to ask “Why aren’t you going to church” and my German great-uncle who fought in WWI popping by to say “You light so many candles. You could light a house with all the candles. I’m concerned that you’re wasting candles.”

You're threatening vandalism and mayhem unless people placate you with bits of food or small trinkets.

Magical Herb Guide

In the following guides I define;

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

W

V

Y

Z

Guides

For lots of practical uses see my witch-crafty index (Click Here)

Please report any broken links via a PM.

For my references and Bibliography click here

Don’t forget to like and follow to help me know that you like what I’m doing.

If you would like to help me to create new posts or are looking for extra information please consider subscribing to my Patreon. patreon.com/MagicOldCottage

Q. Where can I buy “eye of newt?”

A. Please don’t!

This is not black magic and there is no need to abuse poor little newts. This is simply ancient witch code for Mustard seeds.

Back in the middle ages most witches made their livings selling healing products that actually worked. To prevent non-witches from discovering their secrets they developed a code for their Grimoires that would prevent people from learning what was really being used. It also added an air of mystery. Ask yourself what sounds more witchy.

“What’s this ointment made from”

“Crows Feet collected under a full moon my dear”

Or

“It’s Geranium”

William Shakespeare immortalised the code in his plays  and our potions contents are now the stuff of legends. If you wish to bring back this tradition or are simply trying to unravel an old spell hit more for a good list and their true meanings. Why not buy a UV pen and make your own list in the back of your book, adding in some more modern herbs and flowers.

Keep reading

“Geryon sat on his bed in the hotel room pondering the cracks and fissures of his inner life. It may happen that the exit of the volcanic vent is blocked by a plug of rock, forcing molten matter sideways along latter all fissures called fire lips by volcanologists. Yet Geryon didn’t want to become one of those people who think of nothing but their stores of pain. He bent over the book on his knees. Philosophic Problems ’… I will never know how you see red and you will never know how I see it. But this separation of consciousness is recognized only after a failure of communication, and our first movement is to believe in an undivided being between us…’” 

Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red, XXXII. Kiss

the problem is that going to bed at night feels like a chore whereas lying down for a forbidden nap at 4pm feels like the pinnacle of decadence

Debbie Blue, Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible

toxic mothers are wild they'll really be like "I never said that" like ma'am yes you did cause it's been ingrained in my head since I was twelve

“the axe forgets but the tree remembers”

corrects someone’s mispronunciation of nietzsche with a different mispronunciation of nietzsche