Witchcraft 102 Masterpost

simple daily crafts (i)

i don’t have access to most witch resources (herbs, crystals, divination tools, etc) so i often opt to incorporate simple witchcraft on my daily routines:

chanting a spell as i take a shower to cleanse my body and re-establish a layer of protection (great for witches who associate with water)

use spells to help my skin be clear and healthy as i do my skincare routine

draw sigils on foggy surfaces (eg. mirrors after a hot shower)

pour good intentions into my cooking (health, prosperity, etc for those who eat it)

enchant my drinks so they can help cleanse my body from the inside

get permission to eat edible offerings to impart the energy, strength, and wisdom of my deities/guardians/etc

use part salt water when i mop the floor to cleanse my space regularly

enchant my money so that when they’re with me, they keep my finances prosperous and when i use them they’ll help me earn more in the future (you can also enchant them so nobody can use them for “bad” purposes, curse those who steal it, etc the possibility is endless)

enchant and charge my detergent so when i wash my clothes, any energy that negatively impact me that stuck to them will be neutralized

use glamour spells when i put on my make up

cleanse my living space using smoke from incenses (usually ones i’ve offered to my patron deity, after getting their permission) and establish a layer of invisibility protection

use novels and textbooks i have for bibliomancy

basically enchant everything and anything cause there are no limits to this!

Peaceful moments ☕️💭

IG: jaye.chantelle

Grounding & Centering

In my practice grounding and centering have been valuable tools to working magic and managing my energy and emotions. Centering is important to put you in the correct mind frame to perform spells and grounding aligns your energy with that of the Earth. 

For some, grounding and centering may be separate practices. However, in my practice they are one combined process. Some form of grounding and centering is often present in meditation, martial arts, and psychology. I personally use it to bring my awareness back to reality when I am feeling anxious or dissociating. 

The technique I use to ground and center is visualization. This involves using your mind to imagine things that are not normally visible. If you feel this process worsens your distress from psychosis, this method may not be for you. 

To begin grounding and centering, you can sit, stand, or lay, however feels comfortable to you. Some of the resting yoga positions can be beneficial for this. I recommend closing your eyes but it is not necessary if that feels uncomfortable for you. 

First, we center. Visualize your energy pooling within your body. What color is it? Pay attention to how far your energy extends. Is it within your body or does it radiate outwards? Extend your awareness to the bounds of your energy. Imagine that energy contracting and forming a sphere within your body.

Next, to ground, extend your awareness to the energy of the Earth. It can help if you are outside or on a ground floor but you can just as easily ground in an apartment building or high rise. Visualize waves of energy radiating from the center of the Earth. Allow them to pass through you. Begin shaping that energy towards you. Visualize your energy and the Earth’s energy combining. Maybe a beam of light connects your orb to the Earth. 

While doing all of this you should focus on breathing. If breathing deeply is uncomfortable for you, just breathe normally. But it is important to stay aware of your breath. This can also keep you focused.

If you find your attention drifting, just guide it back gently. The first handful of times you ground and center you may have difficulty keeping your attention. This is okay, it will get easier the more your practice. Forgive yourself for getting distracted and bring yourself back to the task at hand. 

After this process, you may feel more connected to the Earth or you may feel energy surging within you. You might feel a bit warm. Or maybe you will feel none of these things. It can be a different process for everyone. We all respond to magical energy differently. Note how you feel. 

You should now be prepared to do spellwork. Remember, that this can take practice.

Let me know about your experience or if you have any other tips for beginners!

(image from pixabay)

Shadow Work 101: Ruminating vs Reprocessing

I need to start this off with my usual disclaimer that I am not a therapist and really underline it here. I speaking on this based purely on my own experience and a little bit of reading I’ve done on the subject. It in no way constitutes a expert opinion. (Also it’s 3 in the morning here, so even if I was an expert, this would not exactly be optimal material here)

However, it’s important enough that I want to at least bring this part of shadow work up because I realized recently that I’ve not addressed it very explicitly.

When you’re working with difficult memories and even trauma in your shadow work, it is incredibly important to evaluate whether you’re reprocessing the memory when you bring it up to explore it and sit with it.

What I mean is usually in going through old memories there’s this discovery process, where you suddenly see your past experiences in a new light. But it’s important to then move to the next part which is reintegrating that memory in a way so that remembering it isn’t painful or causing dysfunction. There are a ton of ways to do that. Therapists have a ton of tools at their disposal to help with this so if you can see one, I highly recommend it. But tarot is also a good way to begin to reexamine and reintegrate these difficult memories. Spreads can help you see those memories in new lights and help balance out the intensity of our negative thinking.

However, there’s something I’ve seen with some folks where they’ll almost obsessively recall memories and do not reprocess them. Or they’ll bring up more memories than they can possibly do any sort of reintegration work at a time. This can be overwhelming and even damaging in my experience. It can lead to folks freezing and shutting down. It can wind up being used to justify poor behaviors that might have sparked the exploration in the first place, keeping the person locked in their dysfunctional patterns.

That sort of obsession without reprocessing is called rumination. Where you feel as if you can’t stop thinking about a difficult memory or that you have to in order to prevent something bad from happening again. Rumination can almost become a form of self harm depending on how it manifests in a person’s life. If when someone messes up they then recall a bunch of times they’ve messed up and they don’t follow that up with any sort of reframing, it’s essentially like yelling and humiliating yourself. Rumination, even in it’s milder forms, is highly correlated to depression and, at least in my experience, can totally stall the shadow integration/healing process.

So when trying to figure out if you’re ruminating or reprocessing a memory, here are some questions:

When you recall the memory, do you see it in a new more compassionate light (reprocessing) or do you feel as if that’s the end of line, there’s nothing more to do (rumination)?

Afterward, do you feel lighter and more relieved (reprocessing) or do you feel heavy and shameful (rumination)?

When you’re thinking about the memory, do you account for the complexity of the situation (reprocessing) or do you find yourself believing you or another person was all good or all bad (rumination)?

While these aren’t perfect in their wording, they’re at least a start. If you find yourself ruminating a lot, there are a host of strategies you can use to cut down on it. One option, is just not doing memory work until you’re better able to manage that rumination. Sometimes we push ourselves too far too fast and we just need a chance to recoup in order to get back to reprocessing. There’s plenty of other shadow work skills to work on in that time - keeping small daily promises, describing things neutrally, breathwork - that don’t require you to bring up memories in order to be helpful.

If you’re really in a rut, I recommend TMS journaling - stream of consciousness journaling for 20 minutes with the focus on writing down things we’re afraid to admit to other people and then deleting or destroying it - twice a day. It’s been incredibly helpful for me to break the habit of rumination. Another option is talking for 20 minutes into a camera if journaling that much is too difficult. My question and answer method I wrote about can also be helpful here.

But maybe you’re like some folks I’ve talked to and you’re realizing you don’t really know how to reprocess a memory. While I definitely recommend a therapist above all else, one way can be to select a card as a signifier for the memory, shuffle you deck, find the card, and the cards on either side will offer a different framing for how to think about it. You can also check out some of the spreads I’ve posted under shadow working in my free resources. Working with stuck points if you’re in a good enough place can also be one way to shift the needle forward.

So I just wanted to put this out there for folks who might not realize their shadow work is actually rumination heavy and as something to consider if you’re stalling out in your shadow work. I really hope you all are well and I’m looking forward to writing more about this in the future.

field trip; antelope valley, california

available for purchase here

Simple explanation of Natal chart houses!

By themodernastrologer.com

Masterpost for dummies - which I am

Homemade posts:

Witchy iced tea recipe

Protection oil for broke ass baby witch

Egg spell for curses and blessings

Yule spelljar

Comfort-with-my-sexuality spelljar

Water unsafe crystals

Sun-hating crystals

Personal prayer to Dionysus

Personal hymn to Dionysus

Personal hymn to Dionysus 2

Creative writing for Dionysus

Deity music bingo 1

Purring for anxiety

Tips:

Basics-of-how-to-witch-without-dying-101

Crash course on warding

Home witchcraft

How to research efficiently

Tips for growing herbs

Grimoire ideas

Folklore lists

Attracting money

Crystal color tip

Writing tips

Herbs you can find at the grocery store

Safety tips

Safety rules for self-preserved witch

City witch tips

Hearth witch protection tips

Rune-reading made easy

A list of underrated divination methods

How to clean bones - a guide

Hey don’t join a cult - red flags

On the Law of Attraction

Correspondence:

Making your own correspondence

Witch runes

Water

Witchy water

Alcohol

Salt

Funny ring correpondence

Bells in Witchcraft

The clairs and what the hell they are

Long-asf-crystal-list

Crystals for protection

Various crystals and their uses

What causes damage to crystals

Natural items

Herbal remedies

Mushrooms!!!

Herbs and essential oils

Incense and oils

Poisonous plants chart

Hex/curse/jinx plants

Plants of the dead

Trees

Tree symbolism

Wood for wand

Long-asf-color-association

Simpler color 1

Simpler color 2

Simpler color 3

Cat color

Astrology

Elder futhatrk runes correspondence

A guide to Greek Alphabet runes

Body parts - proceed with caution

Bones correspondence

Deities and entities:

Deities moodboard

How to make offerings - an illustrated guide

Why reciprocity matters in relationships with the invisible

Why food offerings are important

Offerings to Dionysus

Prayer do Dionysus

Prayer to Dionysus Androgynos and Lysios

Offerings to Artemis

Psa on working with the fair folk

Ghost hunting

Psa on spirit work

Spirit banishment

Rituals:

Yule practices

Yule practices 2

Libations

Effects of libations in the garden

Greco-roman protection

How to spiritually protect yourself

A witch’s self care tips

Shrines and their uses

Wheel of the year for bedridden witches

Recipes:

Rose oil

Simple oil recipes

How to make herbal rememdies

Solar Juice

Herbal hair rinse 

Energy-cleansing bath scrub

Bug bite salve 

How to make herbal remedies

Yule tea

Drink magic masterpost

Blood ink

Dove blood ink

Spellcandles making

Banishing water

Spells:

Yule solar energy

Fire summoning

Storm summoning 1

Storm summoning 2

Kiss-that-bitch-goodbye banishing spell

Begone-bullshitter spell

No-one-deserves-you spell

Get-the-fuck-away-from-me spell 

Realize-the hurt-you-did spell

Letting go - banishing spell

The seven stings hex

My-pain-to-yours curse

List of curses

Blood magic 101

Gender magic!!!

Polyamorous Love-strengthening pells

Spelljars:

Simple spelljar ingredients

Yule spelljar ingredients

Yule spelljar

Yule spelljar 2

Money spelljar

Prosperity spelljar

Protection spelljar 1

Protection spelljar 2

Your-hatred-is-your-own curse jar

Books:

Witchy books list