“E” Is For Existentialism. (via Bretjturner)

Irish people; The faeries aren’t real

Irish people; No fucking way will I go in that faerie ring

Veles

The woods whisper.

The ancient tress, bent and scraggly, reach down to hush snicker, tricking and advising you, as you breathe in this stale, moist air, of this twilight place, neither here nor there. Here you are to be tested, to be changed, to become something new- or something old, if you wish so.

So you wander, through deep grass and clingy mud, through paths of mushrooms and bushes, ever shifting and deceptive. It is challenge, certainly, but one suited for you, one that will push you to your utmost limits, and make you grow beyond them.And so you walk forward, following shadows of wails, echoes of rain slithering over rocks, the eternal traces of things that haven’t walked Earth in long, long time (but will one day do so again).

He awaits you below, in cave whose entrance is secret yet can be found anywhere, carved out of soft mud and ancient dust and great stone. Water and earth meet, meld and meddle in each other’s business. Everything there is buoyant, verdant and vibrant, full of potential, of energy and life that seems as strong as hundred springs. Your ancestors crawl there, as they await for chance to fly back to life.  You are filled with need, with hunger to learn and ask, to challenge them and test yourself, to learn secrets of this place, even as your eyes seems to melt,  trying to pierce through shadows.

Men tried to describe him in many ways, and they all got something correct, and they all got so much that isn’t right. For how can any word, any shape properly contain him? You cannot guess whether he is constantly changing, or contains all forms of world, or whether he is something else, something unseen before (or at least in long, long time- he never got used to one shape, least of all human, for he is caretaker and guise of all creatures, patron of all things wild and free). You catch glimpses, just hints of truth, like looking for gold in murky waters, like going through earliest, foggiest memories-  here pair of antlers, there hooves, over there strength and width of bear, dignity and bearing of ancient tree right there.

You see his eyes. You see power in there, reaching farther then roots of mountains, as malleable and stubborn as water, as wide as underworld itself, caring as soil, as destructive as earthquake, as consuming as flood, as deafening as silence, as freeing as your favourite song. You see ages you can’t grasp beyond, time as heavy as illness upon you, and glint of satisfied mischief. You see wisdom there, earned and practical, born from curiosity towards specific purpose (and being what he is, there are so so many things he knows). It is gaze you know, from your brother when he talks about his work, from your father and grandparents and teacher when you were young, from mirror too, from all people who know something you don’t and are happy to learn ( all but one, though she is a thing of still darkness and deep waters, for her eyes are always veiled, and she hoards secrets even lord of dead and mystery doesn’t know, greedily keeps them for no other reason but their own sake), sharp and purring, inviting, never satisfied, always watching and waiting.

A cloak unrolls from top of his horns to below his paws-feet-hooves. It is a meadow and mountain, forest and field, swamp and moss.  He seems to wear whole of world on his shoulders, all things civilized and wild and in-between, and below it he hides soil and clay, stone and caves, and all things that crawl and slither and claw and slip upon and below. It grows and withers, rises and fall, living and dying, always changing, because nothing ever stops, because nothing remains the same, because nothing escapes his eye.

There is stick in his hand. A rough, wooden staff, scrappy and twisted, warped and bent, like branch left in tiny river for too long. It is an old man’s staff, to help him climb up the mountain, and fighter’s pole, in hands of skilled deadlier then a sword or spear, and shepherd’s stick by which he defends and leads livestock, and sorcerer’s focus, by which he bends world to his will. It is all those things and so much more, greater then any scepter, and it is part of him, for he is master of liminal spaces and times, lord of wolf and cattle, who guides and directs, tests and teaches living and dead.

‘‘Come.’‘ He says, doesn’t order, even if he has every right,because he doesn’t need to, because you chose this, again and again, and you come into his embrace, in arms that are paws  and claws and fur and leather, as calming as river that flows beneath ground, as comforting as shade of tree in summer field, and you smile, smile,  for there is no monster and no nightmare that can stand against what you devoted yourself to, against He who accepted you.

Baby witch here

Can someone explain how you burn an herb? If something calls for mugwort, how do I burn it? Do I need it to be in oil form?

A Chant for Protecting Yourself and Taking your Power Back

To all those who need recovery after a psychic/karmic attack, feel as though you are powerless and you need that little extra magical push, or merely for those who have had a not-so-good day,

this is for you.

Take back what belongs to you, little witch. 

Your voice can mend. 

“Calling upon the powers from

North, South, East, and West,

The four corners of the Earth, I take my power back.

Forsake all who threaten to do harm upon me,

I signal the universe to protect me,

and sever me from their toxicity.

Grant me the power to rise above where they had thought I had been sent to fall.

I thank the powers of North, South, East, and West,

The gifts of the Earth and the stars above;

powers of earth, water, fire, and air

with good to all, 

reverse harm that has been done,

by the grace of my own magic,

this spell is done.”

*The following is optional as I am aware that not all witches have access to certain materials. However, making use of the following can accelerate and/or strengthen the intended outcome if you do possess them. You can always replace or add materials as you please; make my spell your spell.

Accessories:

-Sage/Perovskia/Palo Santo

-Hawthorn

-Onyx, amethyst, smoky quartz (regular quartz may suffice as well)

Candle Color(s):

-Black; for banishing and breaking curses

-White; purification from negative energies

Tarot Cards:

-Nine of Wands

-Chariot

-The Moon

Not so friendly reminder Satan is anti map

WTF is... Death Posture anyway?

Before we get into it, I have a little disclaimer:

Warning: Do not attempt this technique if you have serious physical or mental health problems. I take no responsibility for any damage this practice causes you. You have been warned.

So what the fuck is death posture anyway? You’ll hear lots of chaote’s throw the term around without much explanation. Simply put, it is a kind of alternate form of meditation. Of course, it is a little more complicated than that. Austin Osman Spare, the creator of death posture, defines it in the following way in his book “The Book of Pleasure”:

“Lying on your back lazily, the body expressing the condition of yawning, suspiring while conceiving by smiling, that is the idea of the posture. Forgetting time with those things which were essential-reflecting their meaninglessness, the moment is beyond time and its virtue has happened. Standing on tip-toe, with the arms rigid, bound behind by the hands, clasped and straining the utmost, the neck stretched- breathing deeply and spasmodically, till giddy and sensation comes in gusts, gives exhaustion and capacity for the former. Gazing at your reflection till it is blurred and you know not the gazer, close your eyes (this usually happens involuntarily) and visualize. The light (always an X in curious evolutions) that is seen should be held on to, never letting go, till the effort is forgotten, this gives a feeling of immensity (which sees a small form ), whose limit you cannot reach. This should be practised before experiencing the foregoing. The emotion that is felt is the knowledge which tells you why.”

So that’s all well and good, but lets put it into some more modern terms. This is the way that I do death posture. Keep in mind, this is just the way I do it, and there is not an “absolutely correct” way to do something in chaos magick. This is just the way it works for me. Feel free to change any of it to suit your personal needs. 

1. Find a place where you won’t be interrupted for a while, preferably a nice, quiet dark room.

2. With your back to a wall, close your eyes (closing your eyes is not always necessary, depending on your goal) and stand on your toes. Lock your arms behind your back with your hands interlocked together. Arch your back and extend your neck as far as you can. 3. Your breathing will become/should become more labored and faster, bordering on hyperventilating. You’ll also start to feel tingly and exhausted. It will feel intense, so be prepared. 4. You will begin to feel incredibly uncomfortable, start hyperventilating, and your vision (if you keep your eyes open) will begin to blur, but stay locked in this pose for as long as it is possible. 

5. Right before you collapse from the strain, you will enter a kind of altered mental state. At this point, you may feel like your floating, or like your muscles are on fire. While in this state, it will be possible to do certain acts of visualization. This is also when sigils can be charged, or an affirmation can be said. 6. Collapse to the floor and relax. Hopefully, you didn’t blackout, but it is possible. You will probably feel fairly strange but this is normal. Do whatever banishing ritual you feel necessary (I usually go with a laughter banishing, but it doesn’t really matter as long as it works for you) and then get up slowly so you don’t accidentally fall over and crack your head open.

So why the hell would you want to do this? It sounds pretty awful.

Well, yeah. It kind of is awful. That’s the point. I initially said that death posture was a kind of meditation, which is true in a sense. Claudio Naranjo once said:

“The word ‘meditation’ has been used to designate a variety of practices that differ enough from one another so that we may find trouble in defining what meditation is.“ 

Death posture exemplifies this, as it is meditation, just not in the sense of what we typically imagine meditation being. Like any form of meditation, the primary goal is to attain a state of gnosis (something I will cover more in depth in a later WTF is article), but in attaining this gnostic state, you then use it for a work, whether a sigil, spell, or whatever.

But wait, how do I use a mental state for spellcraft/sigil craft?

You’ll hear me often say this, echoing a bit from bluefluke‘s Psychonaut field manual, but visualization, visualization, visualization. You’ll need to hold the image of what your are trying to accomplish in your mind’s eye when the gnostic state is entered (and preferably for the entire duration of the instance of death posture.) I’ll cover different visualization techniques in a later article.

Thanks to enochtopus for suggesting I talk about this. I think I’ll do sigil magick next, then move on to gnosis and visualization.

23

天津甕星

Polish Classics Aesthetics

Pan Tadeusz: summer days, the wind in the garden, fields of wheat, flower crowns, mysterious pasts, young love, hunting trips, white dresses, family secrets

Lalka: rainy days, old architecture, antique shops, one-sided love, academia, porcelain dolls, hopeless romanticism

Sklepy Cynamonowe: city streets at night, daydream illusions, teather curtains, old memories, the snow in the light of a street lamp, clock going backwards, suspicious stores, footprints leading nowhere

Dziady: dark academia, pagan rituals, old churches, ghosts of past lovers, magic, anger at god, starry nights

Wesele: dancing, long talks about politics, sacred items, being without control of ones body and mind, alcohol, fields at night, family issues, hoplessness, traditional clothing, drunken singing, prophesies, phantoms, historical figures

Kamienie Na Szaniec: crumbling buildings, secret meetings, guns and ammunition, bloody hands, dark tunnels, the sound of bombs, faith, spies

Kordian: witches and devils, mountains at night, tragic love, travelling across Europe, betrayal, self-discovery, patriotism, long monologues, conspiracy, mental hospitals, city squares, royal palaces, the shining of a blade, uncertainty, the sound of a running horse

A Hearth Witch's Security System - Boundaries and Entrances

A Disclaimer: I am one person and my opinions (which I have in abundance) may not reflect the opinions of other witches, in general, or other people who call themselves hearth witches. In fact, they probably won’t, because I’m an asshole. I have a bizarre sense of humor that doesn’t convey well in text and I rant about shit I don’t like. A lot. If you don’t think you can handle that, maybe don’t read anything I write. Ever.

Protecting the Home, Protecting the Family 

Let me preface this post by saying, I am exhausted, so probably nothing I write here is going to make sense to anyone but me. Also, that has just been my luck lately, but we’ll see how it goes anyway. 

If you read my blog, you’ll know that I do a lot of stuff to protect my railroad cottage. Not just because I live here, but because I literally use my house as a symbol of my household and family. So, in a witchcraft sense, protecting my home is protecting my family. And, because that’s the witchcraft I write about most on my blog, that’s what I get a lot of questions about (spirit work aside, because that’s what I get the most questions about). 

So, this post is going to be about various ways to protect your home and (hopefully) prevent nasties from creeping inside. 

Rule Number One: Keep a Clean House

I know that sounds really boring. I know you’re like, “Emma, that is not witchcraft. Those are chores and I hate you. Did my mom put you up to this?” But, actually, there are two good reasons that’s Rule No. 1: 

It’s not easy to cleanse a house that isn’t clean. Part of protecting your home is being prepared to go into battle for it. Now, witchcraft is known to make a house a little cluttered. If you’ve got ribbons falling out of your sewing box and stockpiles of tea on your counter. Don’t worry. You’re normal. But it’s possible for a house to be both cluttered and clean.

Cleaning a house regularly is a fantastic way to magically take ownership of the property—which I’ve discussed here. 

Obviously, I’m not saying you’re house has to look like something from Good Housekeeping. My own cottage has four rooms and is home to more than four people. It’ll never be as neat as we want it to be. But’s it’s clean. And that’s what matters. 

Rule Number Two: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors 

I’m not talking about real fences—but those too. I’m talking more about magical boundaries. Like a witch fence. This can be set up in or outside of ritual, using a real fence, other objects, or using visualization. 

So, let’s talk about putting up this fence, huh? The method I use  is, of course, the “Gross Method”—and, by gross, I mean no one wants to do it or talk to me they’ve found out I’ve done it. It uses a pre-existing fence to create the boundary, which means that what you’re actually doing with this method is enchanting or reinforcing your standing fence. It’s supa supa easy. Like really, children could do if you let them. Only probably don’t let them because it’s probably a health hazard. 

For this method, you will need 1) a fence, 2) something to mark your stake-points with, 3) some bodily fluids—i.e. menstrual blood, piss, spit, sexual fluids, etc., 4) your bad ol’ self

Step One: Walk around your property and decide where you want your stake-points to be. I refer to them as stake-points because what you’re actually doing is kind of like putting up a magical tent rather than a fence. These are the strength points of your enchanted fence. You’ll want at least one in every corner of the existing fence. Mark these places. You can do this by scratching or painting on the fence, tying something to the fence, or sticking something in the ground there. In my case, I used the support posts for my pre-existing fence as my stake points, so I didn’t have to mark them because I knew where they were. 

Step Two: Collect fluids. (Unless you’re using spit, which you have.) You can water any of these fluids down if you need to—except probably spit. 

Step Three: Using a paintbrush, herbs, your hands, a spray bottle, or whatever, apply the fluid to the INSIDE of your fence where your neighbors won’t be touching. As you do, visualize the stake-points linking together as they’re placed. I tend to visualize something like a barbed-wire fence going up between my stake-points, but white light works too if you’re into that. **If you’re going to forget, mark where you started.

Step Four: When you’ve completed the fence and connected your last stake-point to your starting point, visualize the tent going up. In my visualization this is something like a deer-skin version of a Circus tent, but I am a legit freak of nature, so your probably wont be. 

Now, you can be done here, or you can write something to say to tweak the spell to your style. If you have Property Spirits that you work with, you may also want to ask them to guard the fence at this point. 

Rule Number Three: Gardening = Ammo 

While we’re still outdoors, let’s talk about ‘defensive gardening’. One of my favorite things to do with my garden is to reinforce my boundaries by planting protective herbs. Not only does it add punch to your enchanted fence, but it provides ammunition should you need to banish something later. 

This can be done directly in the ground, in hanging planters at/on your stake-points, in windowboxes, in planters by the door, etc. 

Some good protective herbs to start are:

Aloe

Rosemary 

Roses (thorny for offensive magic, rosehips for defensive magic)

Mint

Lavender

You may also want to include banishing plants

Garlic 

Sage 

Sweeatgrass

Thyme

As well as flowers, trees, and shrubs to the same effect (like holly, cedar, etc). 

Rule Number Four: Wards/Wardings Aren’t As Hard As They Sound

Come with me to the porch and let’s talk about wards! *runs to the porch, points at wards* Wards are awesome! There are so many different kinds and they can range anywhere from decorative to practical to invisible! 

When you’re warding your doorway, like a lot of witchcraft, intent is super important. Really, it doesn’t matter what kind of ward you use as long as you have the intent. And, with the bucket load of types of warding, you should be able to find one to fit your needs.

My favorite way to ward a door or window is with a decorative ward, which was something we did in my family for years and then I finally saw it outside of our house in an Ellen Dugan book (which I bought JUST for that reason). This one isn’t mine, but it’s a good example of one:

These hang above doors and windows to ward off evil, ill will, etc. and can be made out of dried flowers and herbs (like above), fabric (such as a warding banner), carved into the wood above a door, or any other way you prefer. 

I usually go with the pictured method. Typically I

Start with a base. For year-round wards I like to use wheat and dried grass (which you can find at a craft store—but not Hobby Lobby, because they areevil). 

I face half of my base one way and half the opposite way—so that the cut ends are together and you have the awesome wheat/grass/evergreen ends facing out. Over lap the two halves a few inches and tie them together. (I usually use twine for that, but you can use whatever you like.

Next, go you your second layer, which is the actual warding part. For this, my favorite things to use are lavender (which grows wild in the neighborhood I work in), and rosemary. But there are plenty of other possibilities, too—sunflowers, rose, baby’s breath, holly, pine, mint, etc. These can be tucked into the tie you’ve already made, glued on, or tied on separately. 

To finish mine off, I usually add a bell, to symbolize a signal, which sort of makes the ward into an alarm. Sometimes, when trouble is around, I’ll hear a bell even though it’s not ringing. Sometimes it actually rings. 

The ward can go above your door, window, fireplace, or anywhere else you feel you want to hang it. 

Of course, there are a lot of other ways to ward your doors and windows. 

With energy and visualization. 

With water or oil (drawing protective symbols on them with the water/oil) 

Warding Wreaths

Other hangings (like photographs of deities or saints, Brigid’s crosses, horseshoes, strings or bells)

Salt lines and brickdust (I tend to mix these together)

Hanging herbs by or above the door (I typically dry my herbs next to the door so I never have a shortage of door-based protection)

Whatever

The most important thing is that you make your intent clear. Whether you want to ward off evil spirits or unwelcome mortal visitors, make your intent clear. If you need to do this by putting your warding into a big ritual, do so. If you need to activate your wards out loud, go ahead. 

Rule Number Five: Everything You Need to Strengthen Your Protection is On/In You

Spit

Urine

Menstrual Blood

Sexual Fluids 

Sweat 

and so on

These are all totally useful supplies for witchcraft in general and for protection in specific. A touch of one of these on a window, door, doorknob, etc is fantastic for strengthening a boundary and clearly marking your territory to anyone who might wander inside. Surface cleaning with remove germs, but not the intent or the warning.

Rule Number Six: Never Let an Outsider Make Your Forget Whose House This Is

The conviction of ownership is pretty important to home protection. Don’t let an intruder scare you into believing that they own your home. They don’t. It’s yours. The people inside it are yours.