Me: I practice secular witchcraft

Also me: in a long-term agreement with the planet Mercury

I'm legitimately unsure if that is a contradiction.

To clarify: I can never decide whether the planets count as gods or not.

They are definitely Spritis with a big S.

But where is that line?

If you give them the silly hat.

Stag coined "spirits in silly hats", and I ascribe to the idea that godhood is a title more than an intrinsic aspect of an entity. A god is a god because someone called it one, no more no less.

That's an interesting perspective. I appreciate it.

Silly hats! Silly hats!

When I first started worshiping unrecorded entities I had to grapple with the whole “Are these gods? Why are they gods?” question. I ended up coming to the conclusion that they were gods because I was worshiping them like gods. God wasn’t linked to “power” for me, nor was there anything else intrinsic that I could find to diferentiate between my unrecorded god, recorded gods, and the other spirits that I worked with, expect for the kind of relationship that I had with them. So I decided that for me “god” was a title, a name tag, a silly hat, that I put on some spirits and not others because I interacted with them a certain way.

What Native people say about the use of sage: you can use sage, but you cannot smudge as nothing you are doing (waving sage around) is actually smudging. Smudging is a ceremony and you are, we promise, not smudging. Please buy sage from either us, or someone who sources the sage from us. White sage may not be considered endangered by the US government but corperate sourcing is making it difficult for us to source sage for our own religious purposes. Let alone to sell it.

What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.

Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.

1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.

2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.

3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.

I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk ™

Can’t agree enough with point #3 especially. That’s a big problem here on Tumblr.

For every claim about Pagan survivals in European / North American folk traditions and holidays, it's important to remember that there are at least three layers of cruft on top:

I need to design a tarot spread for “well, now what?” I’ll call it the wtf do I do now spread.

Any of y’all got one handy?

Does this help?

It does, actually! Thanks!

Feel free to explain why you chose your answer!

Is there a good way to involve dice into the craft? I am a big fan of DnD and have a bunch of dice sets which I really love.

Also I kinda followed yalls advice and feel a lot better now, meditating was the best for the drain.

Do you have tips or setting up altars and stuff? I keep finding conflicting resources and while I have a direction in mind Id like some tricks and tips.

Dice are great for divination!

Pick one or a few and keep them aside for casting purposes. Lower numbers are generally better for clearer answers. Assign a value or option to each number before casting your divination, then ask your question, roll the dice, and interpret the results.

You can do a light cleansing between uses or let the magic build up, whichever makes more sense to you.

Also, altars don't have to be anything specific and they vary greatly between practitioners. Your altar can be a place for icons and offerings, a visual representation of your craft, your workspace for spellcasting, and any combination of these. You can keep multiple icons on one altar or have one altar for veneration and another for spellwork, or one space that incorporates everything. It can be as fancy or as simple as you need it to be. It can be visible and obvious or small enough to fit into your pocket. The only stipulation is that it has meaning to you. (And also that you're observing fire safety when using open flame or warmers.)

Hope this helps!

It’s not autumn until you bring out the family trebuchet.

I regret to announce that the family trebuchet has been retired following an incident wherein the trebuchet lobbed a pumpkin backwards, taking out a truck window, before self destructing when the counterweight swung into one of the support legs, shattering it instantly

I am delighted to announce that my dad has begun work on a new trebuchet

(Also fact-check your shit before you pass it along. And that goes double for anyone claiming to be an influencer or educator.)

Witchcraft Exercises

Just a quick compilation of the posts I've made about exercises to help improve your craft. These can be used as journaling prompts, inspiration for activities, or as methods for pulling yourself out of a slump and recharging your witchy inspiration.

Most of these are also available in the May 2021 bonus episode of Hex Positive (check your favorite podcatcher).

Happy Witching!

(If you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊)

THIS. ALL OF IT.

Something important to remember about a good deal of "classic" modern witchcraft literature is that it was written by people with an Agenda, and that agenda included trying to give modern pagan traditions a veneer of antiquity in order to make them seem more legitimate. In many cases, this means that historical records were cherry-picked, wildly (sometimes willfully) misinterpreted, or just ignored altogether if they didn't support the Ye Olde Ways narrative.

Some of the biggest talking points in this narrative revolve around Christians "stealing pagan traditions" and reworking them into their own calendar and canon. This completely ignores not only the entire concept of syncretism and the unreliability of the sources which make claims about ancient European (mostly Celtic) paganism, but also the known and documented origins of many holidays and their associated festivities. Christmas trees, the Easter bunny, Halloween jack o'lanterns, and any number of 19th-20th century traditions have been painted as "stolen" pagan rites, when in fact we know exactly when, where, and how they originated....and it wasn't in paganism.

(Also the "stolen from paganism" argument rarely seems to specify WHICH group of pagans these traditions were allegedly stolen from, instead seeming to indicate that paganism itself was some sort of specific religion or tradition rather than an umbrella term, and that sort of generalization is a pretty big red flag.)

If anyone is looking for a good resources on the topic, respected historian Ronald Hutton has written a number of books on the subject. They're a bit weighty, but they are excellent resources. In particular, I recommend the following:

There's also "The Triumph of the Moon," which makes an excellent companion to Margot Adler's "Drawing Down The Moon" as a study of the development of the modern pagan and witchcraft movements.

Ayo, please reblog for sample size and all that :]

i’m curious, i know we all have favorite crystals and herbs but what is everyone’s Least Favorite crystals and herbs??

i personally do not vibe with carnelian or anything that’s “aura” coated. and as for herbs i feel like i enjoy everything that i have

Bumblebee Jasper. I finally came across one palm stone that I could deal with, just to have it on hand.

I have been known to move pieces of carnelian to the other side of the room because it is not a calm stone and I just can't.

With herbs, it's usually the strong smelling ones. I can't do valerian in a tea without some other strong flavors to counteract the smell of the stuff.

Asafoetida - I don't think you're supposed to like asafoetida just sitting on the shelf. It is one of the most strongly scented spices out there. It's sort of like ginger, garlic and onion got in a bar brawl and didn't bathe for three days.

In occult practices it's also known as Devil's Dung and burned as incense to get rid of any energies you don't want around. Ummm, that doesn't sound clear enough. Demon summoning, kids. If you do Ceremonial Magic and something goes wrong - you burn the stuff to get rid of whatever you summoned. (easily available on Amazon if you search for Indian spices. Or at your local Indian food store where they may or may not ask about the demon summoning)

"don't start" sigil

a sigil for silencing those who are getting on your last nerves.

Traveler's Luck Powder

Intent: To keep one safe and free from mishaps on long trips.

Ingredients:

Materials:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use the Black Cohosh if you are or think you might be pregnant. If need be, you can substitute Basil. Note: Powdered versions of most herbs are available online. I recommend such sites as Starwest Botanicals and Penn Herbs for the quality products at reasonable prices. Also, if you can get your hands on a good spice grinder, you can make your own powder from dried herb products.

Grind each ingredient separately for several minutes to produce fine powder. Sieve the material through the mesh strainer into the collection dish; this removes the larger ungrindable pieces and gives you cleaner powdered herb. (Pro-Tip: Putting a funnel under the strainer helps reduce lost material.) Retain the leftover large pieces that don’t make it through the strainer. You can use this for loose incense or charm bags later. Remember, witchlings: waste not, want not! (For the Nutmeg, supermarket spice works just fine.) Combine the component powders in the collection dish, mix well, and bottle immediately. Fold a few pinches in a paper packet containing your travel details. Tuck this into your luggage or the glove compartment of your car. For more travel general protection, you can sprinkle a few pinches in the footwells of your car, or just keep a few blank paper packets around if you frequently travel on short notice.

For more recipes to fill out your potion kit, you can check out Pestlework: A Book of Magical Powders & Oils. (Available on Amazon and in my shop!)

If you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊