It can be easy to feel super overwhelmed when you’re first starting off. This post is for very new witches who have limited knowledge and would like a broad overview! These are my opinions, feel free to disagree but be polite about it.
Please note: Some sections contain information from other posts. All are sourced and linked both within the post and at the bottom!
Coven vs. Solitary?
It is a common belief that you must join a coven to be a witch, but that is not always true.
Many witches are solitary, meaning they primarily do witchcraft on their own. They may however do it with a friend or two on occasion! I am a solitary witch myself.
“Covens are a group of practitioners with like minded interests, ethics, and beliefs. They gather together to perform rituals, to connect, and to learn. They often celebrate sabbats and create their own traditions.” [source]
There are benefits to being solitary, and to being in a coven. It is often a matter of personal preference!
Secular vs. Religious?
Another common belief is that witchcraft = religion.
Witchcraft certainly CAN be a religion for you.
It also can be tied into whatever religion you are already practicing.
However, witchcraft is not inherently religious, and you can keep witchcraft and your religion separate.
Additionally, witchcraft isn’t inherently spiritual, and that also falls under the category of secular.
You can practice witchcraft without worshiping or believing in deities!
Paganism vs. Wicca vs. Witchcraft?
Trust me, this is about as simplified as I can make it while trying to keep it accurate and informative! Basically, people may identify under one of these categories alone, or multiple. They are all valid.
Paganism. Was used as a blanket term for everything that didn’t fit into a tidy box of “main world” religions (anything pre/non-Christian). The phrase paganism is now used to describe anyone who follows ancient religions. It is often connected to nature worship as well. [external source]
Wicca. “A form of Neo-Paganism. The practice of Wicca places religion and magic together. They are linked together and cannot be separated. If you practice traditional Wicca, you cannot do magic without attaching religious reference to it, usually in the form of calling on their Goddess and/or God. There is also a set of rules that many practitioners follow.” [source]
Traditional witchcraft. “Often serves as a reconstruction of what we believe, from the sources of folklore and history we have, witches did and the roles they served. It is based in and inspired by the lore of witches in the Early Modern Period.” [source]
Witchcraft. Is a bit of a blanket term. Although by definition it falls under paganism, not all witches identify as being pagan. There is a diverse group who chooses this label, and some may follow certain rules and guidelines, while others do not.
Curses vs. Hexes vs. Jinxes?
You do not have to do these if you don’t want to. I personally don’t, but fully support those who do perform curses/hexes/jinxes.
Curses. Curses are long-term, potentially life ruining things. They hold the power to do a lot of harm.
Hexes. Often considered a weaker version of a curse, designed to make all the little things go wrong, and are long-term.
Jinxes. More of a momentary, short-term thing. Designed for the target to have all the little things go wrong or have a touch of bad luck.
Enchantments vs. Charms?
The terms can be interchangeable and it is a matter of personal preference. My personal opinion is….
An enchantment is what you DO to an item. It can also be done to a person.
A charm is the end result (an item being enchanted).
Blessings vs. Spells?
Blessings are typically short term and nice little things. A blessing could be “may every light be green for you today”.
To bless something with certain intent is kind of a mix between a blessing and a spell, and can last a long time.
Spells can range in length and intent, and are basically everything not already covered in this post!
And so the permaculture transformation of my lawn begins. #lowbushblueberries #nativeplants #perennialfood #fruitlandscape #permaculture #beginner #growwhereyouareplanted (at Kent, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAeBK3nn5Hz/?igshid=1gu3n3uyby11r
Been watching sewing videos and everyone makes it look so easy! I alter and take-in clothing all the time but sewing something from scratch…. it only feels insurmountable to me because I don’t own a sewing machine. My altering takes forever since I hand stitch.
I’ve been active with painting, leaf-pressing, drawing, medical-oriented classes, nifty home-crafts, cooking, weight training and wanted to expand my interests further. I’m going to have a whole summer before med schools get back to me so I wanted an activity.
Jusuf made this fun beginners guide… they inspired me but….. I have limited cloth-space and no sewing machine…..
Hey i’m a fashion design student so i have tons and tons of pdfs and docs with basic sewing techniques, pattern how-tos, and resources for fabric and trims. I’ve compiled it all into a shareable folder for anyone who wants to look into sewing and making their own clothing. I’ll be adding to this folder whenever i come across new resources
container with a wide opening (ex. jar or a deeper bowl)
salt
incense
time
Fill your container with salt about halfway or ¾. Every time you need to burn incense - be it stick or cone - just put it in the container. It will catch the ashes as they fall. You can use this to burn your ‘everyday’ incense for the smell, or in your rituals and spells (or both). Once you feel like it, mix the ashes into the salt. Congrats, you now have a very charged black salt (although it is not very black in color, so optional ingredient is: charcoal, mixed into it).
Black salt properties: protection, banishing,, everything you associate salt and the color black with, the properties of the incense you burned to make it
In honour of the late, great John Belushi, I made a small doll of him in the classic SNL Bee suit. The eyebrow is what really sets this doll apart from all other bee dolls. Springs can be used for the antennae to make them more similar to the source material, but yarn keeps him cuddly.
Difficulty: Beginner
Yarn: Yellow, Black, Skin, Brown
Hook Size: 3.5mm
Crochet Stitches Used: chain, single crochet, slip stitch
Body/Head
Round 1: Using black yarn, ch 2, 6sc in second ch from hook. (6)
Round 2: 2sc in each st. (12)
Round 3: (2sc in first st, 1sc in next st) around. (18)
Round 4: (2sc in first st, 1sc in next 2 stitches) around. (24)
Round 5: In BLO, sc in each st around. (24)
Round 6-8: Sc in each st around. Switch to yellow at end. (24)
Round 9-10: Sc in each st around. Switch to black at end. (24)
Round 11-12: Sc in each st around. Switch to yellow at end. (24)
Round 13-14: Sc in each st around. Switch to black at end. (24)
Round 15-16: Sc in each st around. Switch to yellow at end. (24)
Round 17: (sc2tog, 1sc in next 2 stitches) around. (18)
Round 18: (sc2tog, 1sc in next st) around. Switch to skin at end. (12)
Round 19: (2sc in first st, 1sc in next st) around. (18)
Round 20: (2sc in first st, 1sc in next 2 stitches) around. (24)
Round 21-23: Sc in each st around. Place safety eyes between rows 22 and 23. Begin stuffing. (24)
Round 24: (sc2tog, 1sc in next 2 stitches) around. (18)
Round 25: (sc2tog, 1sc in next st) around. (12)
Round 26: sc2tog around. (6)
Fasten off. Sew hole shut with tail.
Using black yarn, sew one eyebrow flat across the top of the eye (approx. 1 row above) and sew the other pointing upwards in raised fashion.
Hair
Using brown yarn, cut several strands and use slip knots to create the hair.
Antennae
Round 1: Using yellow yarn, ch 2, 5sc in second ch from hook. (5)
Round 2: sl st, ch 20, cut yarn, leaving a long tail.
Unhook your hook and slide it through two stitch holes across either side of the project, rehook the last loop and pull the work through so that approx. five chains are visible on either side.
Whenever a crocheter needs to get a fellow crocheter a gift, it’s nearly impossible to figure out what to make for them. After more than my fair share of hours trying to come up with gift ideas, I realised that the only thing any crocheter ever needs is a versatile, portable crochet hook holder. It’s a small piece that’s fairly quick to make and can be done with any spare yarn.
This is a holder that has enough room for 18 hooks and can hold sizes from 2mm to 10mm. The back portion is a square done in moss stitch and the top of the piece becomes the lower pocket, so the whole project needs to be flipped to be used as the photo shows.
Difficulty: Beginner
Yarn: light weight. Any colour
Hook size: 3.5mm
Stitches used: chain, single crochet, slip stitch
Round 1: ch 40, sc in 2nd ch from hook, 38 sc to end of round. (39)
Round 2: ch 1, turn project, sc (ch 1, skip next stitch, sc). Repeat until the end of the row. (39)
Round 3-27: ch 2, turn project, sc in the ch space from round 2 (ch 1, skip next stitch, sc in next ch space). Repeat until the end of the row, the last sc should be done in the turning chain. (39)
Round 28: ch 1, turn project, sc in BLO for 39 stitches. (39)
Round 29: ch 1, turn project, sc in each stitch. (39)
Fasten off.
Fold down piece at round 28 and sew sides together on each side of the piece to make a long pocket. If desired, sew slots along the pocket to divide it into multiple small pockets.
This is where the pattern gives you even more creative liberty.
Start a new ball at round 25 with a slip stitch. (ch 2, sc 1 under the sc of the round) repeatedly across the round. Once you reach the end of the round, bring the strand up along the side with a couple of slip stitches and repeat the pattern across the row of your choice. Repeat as many times as you wish. The more loops done, the more secure your hooks will be.
I haunt various tags about it sometimes and it just…flabbergasts me that this thing is still alive after 5 years. Before you get all puffed up, I was the one who made the offering in question.
I did the Spongecake. I’ve been told Spongecake is my legacy and honestly it seems that way. Just some weird thing that the community still likes and celebrates, which is great.
It’s just horribly confusing to me, really, given it’s been so long and the internet usually buries things like this pretty quickly.
I guess I’ll give you some more background on the offering itself and the circumstances around it.
So, 2012 was just not a good year for us financially. We were living off of food donated from various food pantries, because my mother was supporting my brother and I on less than minimum wage in Southern California.
I got used to eating very little to make things stretch, or just not caring about what I ate, so long as there was SOMETHING.
My parents’ divorce had been finalized that year, or nearly was. The child support my father paid was abysmal; he always paid it but it was nowhere near enough. After months of feeding her youngest kids on fast food (enough that my brother and I started to get sick a lot, like puking and so on) she had begged him for more money to feed his kids.
He said no. So, food pantry stuff and fast food were staples.
We had one meal a day and the rest was snacks.
The sponge cakes themselves, therefore, were a rarity. Something that was a Want rather than a Need. So was the whipped cream and strawberries - we didn’t have a tone of fresh fruit for a while.
I wanted to eat all of them, fuck yeah I did, I have a sweet tooth the size of fucking Jupiter. But I decided to make an offering instead, and you all saw the picture, saw the original post on a blog that no longer exists (I’m sad about that, actually).
But I never went into food related issues surrounding the offering.
No I didn’t make it from scratch and no it wasn’t the best quality but we almost never had things like that around. The sponge cakes were never seen again after that.
The offering was made of rare, precious deeply loved things. Things I wanted, on instinct to hoard for myself. I was hungry. Trying not to be, but I was.
I couldn’t think of anything that might mean more to Loki, aside from the fact that it’s, well, cake. Come on. He loves His cake.
I never expected the blow up and I certainly never expected people to still be finding some kind of meaning in it now, but here’s a little more info on Sponge Cake Day, the stuff the posts from heathen and lokean blogs don’t know, because I never mentioned it until now.
This right here? This is perfect container for spells.
Is cheap (as little as 2 cents) or even free Can be written/painted on Is inconspicuous Is easily accessible Can be lit on fire Is biodegradable Floats
Budget witches, secret witches, all us witches.
Plain. white. envelopes.
You can even recycle old ones. But don’t use the ones with plastic windows to burn or bury.
It’s not a weird thing to have in your house
They can even be tied around candles if you don’t fill them to much.
This trendy vest will keep you cozy no matter the weather! Wear it as an extra layer or sport it alone as a cute sweater vest. Because it’s knit with large needles, it’s easy to whip out in less than a day. Pair it with wide leg jeans for a super cute look! A perfect beginner project or meditative knit for any level.
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sew-much-to-do: a visual collection of sewing tutorials/patterns, knitting, diy, crafts, recipes, etc.
Haven’t posted in awhile, so here are some makeup looks i’ve done the last few weeks! Top is oldest, bottom is newest! I can see some progression that i’m very excited about!
