My favorite simple wards to guard the home

Discrete Warding for the spiritual/witchy ppl that can’t practice in the open:

You can write down as many correspondences as you want, memorize entire lists from someone else's blog or book or whatever, but none of it will matter if you do not understand those correspondences. It's so critically important to ask "Why?"

Why is spirit purple? Why is love red? Why is chamomile calm? Why is quartz "all purpose"? Why does cinnamon speed up a spell?

Why, why, why?

What do you actually believe? And why?

red is love because the heart is a meaty muscle full of blood

spirit is purple because it taste like artificial grape

Cinnamon speeds up a spell because spice go brrr

In high enough doses, chamomile might knock you out.

Nutmeg is a hallucinogen in large quantities.

Not everything the Christians do is stolen from some anonymous pagan culture. I'm sorry y'all but the Christians did actually come up with a bunch of shit on their own.

Like, if you're looking to criticize the Catholic Church, you really don't need to make up fake pagan traditions for them to steal Easter eggs from. You can bring up the genocides.

Oh you mean them killing so many religions and subsenquently stealing ideas from many of them and most of the times they did both so much we kinda just lost track of being able to differenciate ?

Is it really that hard to believe that Christians just came up with the idea of painting eggs for easter?

Ostara is a pagan fertility holiday.

Eggs and rabbits have nothing to do with Jesus, but you know what they are associated with? Fertility

And the word Easter comes from the spring goddess named Eostre

If you’re really gonna fight this battle, at least pick a holiday that isn’t extremely obviously pagan

There are quite literally no pagan sources the record the existence of Eostre. The story about Eostre and the rabbits was probably written in 1887. The vast majority of the supposed Ancient mythology around Eostre was probably written in the 1880s by latent German nationalist writers.

The truest and best Easter tradition is poor @Cavalorn debunking neopagan accretions around Eostre every year.

You really should read him on how extremely flawed and reductive the very concept of "pagan fertility symbol" even is.

Or, as he puts it: "What people are actually saying when they claim 'eggs and rabbits were obvious pagan fertility symbols' is 'eggs and rabbits remind us of reproduction, and those pagans were all about Fertility weren't they, so they must have been fertility symbols'. Pull up a chair while I bore you rigid explaining why this is a load of wank." FWIW he does think it's more likely than not that there was a goddess called Eostre. In 725 the Venerable Bede notes that she was celebrated in spring ... and that's it. We know nothing else about her, not even what she was the goddess of. There are no other original sources. As for pre-Christian European sacred art using eggs to symbolise anything whatever, let alone fertility ... it didn't. At all. There are no such depictions. Not associated with Eostre. Not associated with anything. There were good reasons for Christians to focus on eggs around Easter. Eggs were once considered "meat" and thus part of what you give up for Lent. Easter comes, and yay! You can eat eggs again! There is, on the other hand, no primary evidence for "Ostara" at all. As a goddess, she's a conjecture -- not an unreasonable one, but not more than that. As a festival ... Ostara was invented in the early 1970s by a man who is still alive, and you can read his blog post about how he did it. (Details in the link above.)

Cavalorn touches on how disrespectful these baseless assertions actually are to the peoples onto whom they're projected here.

sham ennessim and nowruz (egypt and persia/iran resp.) are both spring festivals, both include painted eggs, and both are older than christianity...

@breelandwalker

-pinches bridge of nose- STILL!?

All right, if you insist. HERE.

The Existence Of Spring Solstice Festivals With Similar Symbols In Multiple Cultures And Religions DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE ALL THE SAME FUCKING THING, holy hell do people no longer understand nuance.

Seasonal timing of festivals happened because that's how civilizations marked the passage of time for literal thousands of years. Similar symbols mark these festivals because, gosh, similar things seem to happen every year in the regions where they were created and why reinvent the wheel just because the name above the temple door has changed? It's indicative of a shared human experience, not deliberate or malicious cultural theft. (Not to mention, religions have been fighting each other and adapting/adopting each others' ideas and mythology since there were more than two camps, that is CERTAINLY not unique or original to Christianity.)

Ostara was literally created by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. We. Have. Receipts. The existence of spring solstice observations and associated traditions featuring bunnies and eggs prior to that has fuck-all to do with Ostara being any sort of ancient holiday, because it isn't one.

It's all in the episode, there's a partial transcript here and LOTS of receipts on my Wordpress.

Bottom Line - Get past your own issues with the Church and read some actual history. I didn't spend seven years fighting this battle for a bunch of jackasses who can't tell the difference between syncretism and theft to keep carrying on this nonsense.

(Props to Cavalorn and Crypto et al. for carrying this banner. It's a heavy one. Solidarity, friends.)

Question for lady witches and trans-lady witches.

The Yemenis had warned of a major escalation if the siege of Gaza isn't lifted and here it is: Israeli ships are prohibited from travelling through the entire Indian Ocean

"Look at this video of a child disappointed at their expensive gift! Children are so spoiled these days!"

That's cool. So, why did their parents upload their small child being upset online? In a public video, shared to the entire video? Why did they even save the recording?

Like. The kid in that scenario could be saying the most entitled nonsense in the world, and if their parents post it online to be publicly shamed, I'd still support the kid 100%. Thinking your child's life is a toy to exploit freely for #content is "spoiled"; when faced with mommy vlogers, kids should be demanding three PS5s and a new Bugatti, and we should be applauding them for it

This also tends to attract a lot of responses from grown adults eager to fantasize about how they'd "punish" the kid, and. If your power fantasies involve you owning an eight year old (in the metaphorical sense not the Sixpenceee sense) I don't even know what to say

Also there are a lot of expensive gifts that are really thoughtless. If an 8 year old wants a Lego set and you buy them a model train set and they get pissed about it, you’re the problem.

I don’t care that the thing was expensive, if you didn’t ask or ignored what they wanted, that’s on the parents

A lot of people seem to not realize (or care) why kids want specific things, and also that kids don't get what money is. They haven't had it beaten into them yet that they're supposed to like expensive things more than less expensive things. What they find enjoyable may have nothing to do with how expensive it is, and that fries the brain of well-off parents who care about things primarily as status symbols. The notion that someone could be happier with something that cost $20 than something that cost $2,000 infuriates them on a deep subconscious level

It's also limited by parent's lack of knowledge about tech, so they can't understand why someone who wanted a Switch would be upset if they get a PS5. It's more expensive, so clearly it's just the same thing but better in their mind. They don't know or care that their kid really wanted to play Mario and that they can't do that on the PS5, so they process it as ungratefulness

Kids also don’t have a huge amount of experience in anything, and it’s a parent’s job to teach them. This sounds incredibly obvious, doesn’t it?

Before a family Christmas celebration, when all five of us happened to be lounging around together, I announced we were playing PRESENT PRACTICE. I wrapped a toy frying pan in a muslin cloth and handed it to a child, who unwrapped it and mimed amazement. The older children and their father were all awarded points for their simulated appreciation and the baby got points just for learning to unwrap something. On the second pass we all leveled up to making a grateful comment in reaction to the particular gift, such as “this will go in my collection of frying pans” and “now I can cook one very small egg.”

For the six year old, I very seriously presented the important and tricky case study of unwrapping a large exciting box to find a single pair of socks. The child suggested a reaction of “this is great, how surprising! But,” their face changing to seriousness and the tone of giving the giftee useful feedback for the future, “I’m not very interested in socks.” They explained the utility of passing on this feedback. So, this being present practice, I received this reaction with the grace and thoughtful attention of an award-winning director, and we discussed how we would leave that part out for our more sensitive audiences.

The children also traditionally give small cheap or handmade presents to their family members. Each parent takes each child secretly in hand to prepare a present for the other parent. The six-year-old also has access to the PTA school shop, where the PTA purchase small shitty items (scented candles, bars of soap, cheap socks) and sell them to the schoolkids for £1.50 each, and wrap them on the spot. The 6-year-old carefully squeezes the value from the £10 we give them for this purpose, and squirrels away their mysterious bag of wrapped gifts like it’s a state secret. The three year old is given “pocket money,” and taken shopping. There is now emotional investment in giving; we whisper together quietly about how much people will like the gift. The three year old frequently whispers hotly into my ear about the item they chose for their grandmother (a tissue cover, lmao). The children, therefore, watch adults carefully when their own offerings are unwrapped and admired. When they see us reacting with amazement and gratitude to their gifts, it maps that pathway and lights it up. It also teaches pretty early on that giving is actually supposed to be rewarding, and is a more reliable source of cheer - as you can always control the feeling giving, while getting is tiresomely at the whim of an external giver, isn’t it? And it reinforces that a certain degree of social performance is expected.

Present Practice is a fun game to play so the kids do it to each other. It’s a funny trick to play on a parent, too. You can hand a parent something hilarious, like a potato wrapped in toilet paper, and see them try to do a Level 3 reception on it (“this will be my favorite ever potato,” I say mistily, “how did you guess what was in my heart?”)

For high-pressure present-opening situations, you can just sit back and watch, really. Even when I had to let them open USA-grandparent Christmas presents over Zoom AT the house of the British Grandparents. The children spontaneously decided to receive presents in the guise of angels. I was giving the kids wild thumbsups from behind the camera as they warmly enthused over the sentiments in the cards before even looking at the gift.

Does it sound artificial? Well, they have fun, and they’re kind, and they love giving and receiving. They’re nice and well behaved - and people love to give them presents. It’s all social performance! and you’re expecting super high-level software to run on Kid Hardware, which is like trying to program Plant Pathology 101 onto a border collie! Kind of an unfair expectation on the framework, mate!

I’d suggest the first port of call is literally - teaching kids how to get presents.

#my god! imagine explicitly telling kids what behavior is correct rather than expecting them to intuit it!#especially if there is a wrong answer!#some kids are good at it but others - will just remember being Wrong and not knowing why#honestly Present Practice is kind of blowing my mind#holy shit! you can just tell them the rules!

WHEW Part one of Caro and John’s history and lore-dump. Obviously you can read more about them in depth in either of my webcomics Seemingly Dark and Mil-Liminal, but this has some stuff that isn’t addressed there so that’s fun! Exclusive content and you ain’t even have to be on my discord server. Part two coming some day, but not today. The formatting might be a bit awk because this was built for instagram but hopefully it’s alight, considering y’all were really the ones who asked for it haha.

Q’s below or in my ask box! Yes I love fan art, fan fics and cosplay PLEASE.

SDTRK is: You Had to Be There but the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in tradition of adding a song on my comic updates.

Does this count as a fandom throwback when it's an original story and the OP is the creator? YOU KNOW WHAT YEAH because this series doesn't get nearly as much love as it should. And it isn't even just storytelling through words, it's through images as well; I will always ALWAYS respect comic writers/artists to a degree that I can't...I can't even put into words.

I love this story, I see a lot of myself in Caro in one way or another and I know that this story came to my dash because of THE IMAGE that everyone's seen by now and attributes to their Fandom OTP or whatever but if you dig deeper theres such amazing, rich lore here. And a wonderful story.

Thank you so much for creating this story, these characters for us to enjoy!

AHH Hey this is wonderful. Thank you so so so much for this honestly Maybe it counts as Fandom because That Image that inspired me to make this Lore Dump int he first place broke containment to the point SO MUCH fandom has been projected on it that in the end i have lost complete control of it, haha! (which again, i've made my peace with, i think its neat, and im not naive enough to pretend i dont know thats why it got so popular even if it was accidental, i was drawing my oc ship haha.)

But. WHAT I'M ACTUALLY here to say, is thank you to you. For this. For the words you wrote. Cuz, yeah like, it's neat i have a popular post. Thats never happened to me before or since to that scale. But when people look and see what i was ACTUALLY doing. When they go to my page and they look at my stuff and maybe they even read the story, and they find out that its NOT their fandom like they probably thought it was...and they STILL like it. The truth of it didnt ruin it for them, they aren't disappointed... thats, well thats the most special to me honestly. And maybe i cried a little bit at this. Cuz i think i speak for a lot of original content artists and authors when i say to be perceived is terrifying, but for people to enjoy the worlds we create, well. That means everything.

My headcanon is that since Miguel's lab is like the darkest and quietest part of the HQ it kinda doubles as best communal napping spot.

It makes it really hard to be all brooding when spider-werewolf-man is snoring in the background XD cue the silly platform.

is it a cheap joke? yes

had I have to do it? no but actually yes XD

cuz those dumb jokes are actually capable to fight their way through and make me draw more

Kitchen Staples and Their Properties

If you're any kind of kitchen user, there are a few things that are usually present. Things like bread, cheese, beans, and vinegar are all things that many kitchens keep in stock. So, here is a list of some staples you may have in your kitchen, and what they mean.

Adding some things together melds their properties! Cooking in butter for your friends can strengthen your relationships with them, and baking bread can bring abundance into your home.

As always, do your research, practice safely, and blessed be!

Support your local witch on Ko-Fi!

Small personal addendum - I've found honey to be excellent for eloquence and persuasion as well, as in the epithet "honey-tongue" once applied to poets and bards.

Good kitchen witch tips!

I've seen an influx of people asking this over on tarot reddit

But in short there's nothing wrong with buying your first tarot deck yourself the whole 'you must be gifted it' superstition is a fairly modern invention and means nothing

Also please do not steal your first deck as I've seen people claim thats a thing and just don't

PODCAST RECS - Debunking and Fact-Checking for Witches & Witchcraft Spaces

A collection of podcast episodes fact-checking, debunking, or just providing some clarity on modern myths, misinformation, and conspiracy theories that are frequent flyers in witchcraft and pagan spaces, both theories mistakenly touted by community members and some of the utter drivel spouted by non-witches that still affects us today. Check out these shows on your favorite podcast app!

(Updates to be made whenever I find new content. There will be some crossover with my Witches In History Podcast Recs post and some of the content will be heavy. Blanket trigger warning for violence, abuse, bigotry, sexism, antisemitism, and mistreatment of women, queer people, and children.)

[Last Updated: Dec 29, 2023]

This post is broken into three basic sections:

List of Cited Podcasts, in alphabetical order

Historical Misinformation

General History of Witchcraft

Historical Blindness - A Rediscovery of Witches, Pt 1 & 2 Oct 13, 2020 & Oct. 27, 2020 A discussion of the early modern witch craze and the myths, misconceptions, and theories about witches spread by academics. Topics of discussion include the works of Margaret Murray and Charles Leland, the founding of Wicca, the emergence of the midwife-witch myth, and folk healers as targets of witchcraft accusations. Sarah Handley-Cousins of “Dig: A History Podcast” supplies guest material for both episodes.

Hex Positive, Ep. 36 - Margaret Effing Murray with Trae Dorn July 1, 2023 Margaret Murray was a celebrated author, historian, folklorist, Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, first-wave feminist, and the first woman to be appointed to the position of lecturer in archaeology in the UK. So why so we get so annoyed whenever her name is mentioned in conversations about witchcraft? Well, it all has to do with a book Margaret wrote back in 1921...which just so happened to go on to have a profound influence on the roots of the modern witchcraft movement.

Nerd & Tie senpai and host of BS-Free Witchcraft Trae Dorn joins Bree NicGarran in the virtual studio to discuss the thoroughly-discredited witch-cult hypothesis, Murray's various writings and accomplishments, and why modern paganism might not have caught on so strongly without her.

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep 03: The History of Wicca October 06, 2018 On this episode, Trae digs deep into the history of Wicca, and tries to give the most accurate history of the religion as they can. I mean, yeah, we know this is a general Witchcraft podcast, but Wicca is the most widely practiced form of Witchcraft in the US, UK, Canada and Australia… so how it got started is kind of important for the modern Witchcraft movement. (And trust me, there aren’t any pulled punches here.)

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 28: The Burning Times May 30, 2020 On this installment of the podcast, we tackle probably one of the more controversial topics in the modern witchcraft movement: The Burning Times. What were the actual “Burning Times,” where do we get that phrase from, and what really happened? Also, how has this phrase been used in modern witchcraft? It’s a heavy one, folks.

Dig: A History Podcast - Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches Sept 13, 2020 Since at least the 1970s, academic histories of witches and witchcraft have enjoyed a rare level of visibility in popular culture. Feminist, literary, and historical scholarship about witches has shaped popular culture to such a degree that the discipline has become more about unlearning everything we thought we knew about witches. Though historians have continued to investigate and re-interpret witch history, the general public remains fixated on the compelling, feminist narrative of the vulnerable women hanged and burned at the stake for upsetting the patriarchy. While this part of the story can be true, especially in certain contexts, it’s only part of the story, and frankly, not even the most interesting part. Today, we tackle male witches in early modern Eurasia and North America!

Dig: A History Podcast - Doctor, Healer, Midwife, Witch: How the the Women’s Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch Sept 6, 2020 In 1973, two professors active in the women’s health movement wrote a pamphlet for women to read in the consciousness-raising reading groups. The pamphlet, inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, looked to history to explain how women had been marginalized in their own healthcare. Women used to be an important part of the medical profession as midwives, they argued — but the midwives were forced out of practice because they were so often considered witches and persecuted by the patriarchy in the form of the Catholic Church. The idea that midwives were regularly accused of witchcraft seemed so obvious that it quickly became taken as fact. There was only one problem: it wasn’t true. In this episode, we follow the convoluted origin story of the myth of the midwife-witch.

Dig: A History Podcast - Cheesecloth, Spiritualism, and State Secrets: Helen Duncan’s Famous Witchcraft Trial July 3, 2022 Helen Duncan was charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, but her case was no eighteenth-century sensation: she was arrested, charged, and ultimately imprisoned in 1944. Of course, in 1944, Britain was at war, fighting fascism by day on the continent and hiding in air raid shelters by night at home. The spectacle of a Spiritualist medium on trial for witchcraft seemed out of place. What possessed the Home Secretary to allow this trial to make headlines all across the UK in 1944? That’s what we’re here to find out.

The Conspirators, Ep. 63 - The Last Witch Trial Nov. 26, 2017 England’s official laws regarding the prosecution of witches dates back to the 1600s. Those very same laws would also remain on the books until well into the 20th century. In 1944, a psychic medium named Helen Duncan would gain notoriety by becoming the last woman to be tried under England’s witchcraft laws.

The History of Witchcraft Podcast, hosted by Samuel Hume Witches didn’t exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.

Unobscured, Season One - The Salem Witch Trials Welcome to Salem, Massachusetts. It’s 1692. And all hell is about to break loose.

Unobscured is a deep-dive history podcast from the labs of How Stuff Works, featuring the writing and narrative talents of Aaron Mahnke, horror novelist and the mind behind Lore and Cabinet of Curiosities.

As with his other series, Mahnke approaches the events in Salem armed with a mountain of research. Interviews with prominent historians add depth and documentation to each episode. And it’s not just the trials you’ll learn about; it’s the stories of the people, places, attitudes, and conflicts that led to the deaths of more than twenty innocent people.

Each week, a new aspect of the story is explored, gradually weaving events and personalities together in chronological order to create a perspective of the trials that is both expansive and intimate. From Bridget Bishop to Cotton Mather, from Andover to Salem Town, Mahkne digs deep to uncover the truth behind the most notorious witch trials in American history.

Think you know the story of Salem? Think again.

There are people in the witchcraft and pagan communities that really need to come to terms with the fact that pagan isn't the universal term for everything that isn't Christian (or Jewish, or Islamic). Hinduism isn't pagan. Buddhism isn't pagan. Hoodoo isn't pagan. African traditional religions aren't pagan. Many regional folk practices aren't truly pagan. The list goes on. It's more of an insult than an identity for some of these groups.

fuck, can we go a step further than this?

Witchcraft isn't paganism. Unless it is.

Witchcraft can be pagan. But individually, it is its own thing.

To explain better: witchcraft individually isn't pagan. If a person decides to incorporate their pagan religion into their witchcraft practice, then sure, it can be pagan. You don't have to be pagan to practice witchcraft.

The whole "trans women can't get periods because they don't have uteruses" terf rhetoric is almost funny to me knowing that male dogs can have false heats and false pregnancies when their bodies produce excess estrogen

to those wondering How someone without a uterus can have a period: it actually has very little to do with the organs! Estrogen is a set of instructions that your body follows. when it's in constant supply at the right levels, your body will start picking out a schedule for when it needs to release a few other hormones, and start squeezing the ever-loving shit out of the MUSCLES that it expects to be around those organs. Remember, bleeding is only a small part of a period. the main symptoms are muscle cramps, pain or discomfort in the lower abdominal area(because of the cramps), irregular bowel movements(because of the cramps), needing to pee more(because of the cramps), bloating, craving specific foods, nausea, and fluctuations in energy levels & nutritional needs. none of that requires a uterus or ovaries; even the bloating is only PARTIALLY from being full of blood.

this is also why cis women born without functioning reproductive systems(i.e. womb is just scar tissue, neither ovary actually works, developed a third kidney instead of a uterus, that kind of thing) can still have periods throughout their life. as long as they're producing lots of estrogen, it's gonna happen!

Can confirm first hand as someone who's had a hysterectomy: I may not bleed anymore, and my cramps are lessened, but it's ll mostly still there every month. I used to be one of those "But how can they have periods without a uterus?" and now that I myself don't have a uterus... oh. Like that. Ok.

Hey uh, fully support the overall point being made here, but can we please stop making blanket statements about which period symptoms are the most major/important ones? Just like, as a general rule?

For some of us, bleeding absolutely is the main symptom, and other stuff is minor or even nonexistent. It's absolutely worthwhile to have a broader understanding of what symptoms can look like, & that bleeding is not the defining trait of a period. But what we really don't need to do is minimize bleeding just so we can replace it with a different standard of what True Periods are.

Every person is different. Symptoms vary and that's ok! Your specific constellation of symptoms doesn't make your period more or less of a period. Bleeding is not required! Cramps are not required!

And at the end of the day, the most important thing: your period (or lack thereof) does not make you more or less of your gender!

Thank you ^

For me personally cramping can get a bit uncomfortable and yeah I may have to take ibuprofen or something similar from time to time, but my cramps have never ever gotten as bad as the bleeding, which before BC lasted 2 weeks (I didn't cramp for 2 weeks though) also the two-three years before I went on BC my cycle was swinging from 50 to 60 days and there is basically no cycle-tracker that allows you to put in a cycle over 35 days, so I had a lot of sitations of bleeding through my underwear and on my trousers because I couldn't tell when my period would come

Being on BC (the pill in my example) did make the bleeding better for the time being (except for the very long breakthrough bleeding which they don't tell you about at the Dr, AND the one time when I found two pieces of white tissue in my pad, and they definitely don't tell you about THAT one)

So yes, while I do feel bad for anyone who has worse cramping than bleeding, I can't really empathize, because mine has never been that bad or worse than my bleeding.

I recently got off BC because I want to start a family, so how my cycle will be once the body has started producing its own hormones, only time will tell.

Seconded. I basically never have cramps. My main period symptoms are tender breasts and diarrhea - not exactly glamorous but it is what it is. Periods are highly individual.

Hello cursed eldrich children, I'm dad!

{Check out my comics below}

PART 2

> namesakecomic.com

> crow-time.com

does anyone know how dead cicadas can be used in practice? I feel like something baneful but I’m not sure

I wouldn't use them for anything baneful, personally. For me, they're representative of Saturnian forces, time, cycles, death and rebirth, mostly because of the cicada's interesting and intense life cycle.

good lord

YEAH I GOT NOTHING

i don’t understand a single sentence in this and i’m ok with that

I haven’t stopped saying “it’s called quantum jumping, babe”

I would genuinely like to know who to blame for making these children so disconnected from the concept of imagination that they think the simpler explanation for what they’re doing is that they’re projecting their consciousness into one of infinite realities where fictional characters are real.

topical :/

WHY IS IT TOPICAL

Me shouting at my rash ointment

great post everyone

“tweens figured out transdimensional travel” didn’t that happen in homestuck

@accidental-homestuck

yeah that definitely happened in homestuck