This is a fact we’ve all know for a long time. Anyone who practices in anyway is ultimately a witch, as long as they’re comfortable with the title. When I first started my practice I avoided calling myself a witch, since I felt it was too feminine of a title for the kind of person I am. After some meditation and talk with other witches of the world I saw how the term is meant to be used and started my journey on the path of the masculine witch.
My journey started in college when I first discovered the Celtic gods and the druidic practices that they were associated with. I felt an immediate connection, and after many weeks of research and soul searching I decided to become a Celtic Druid, somewhat to the dismay of my parents. It wasn’t long after that that I was writing my first spells and crafting my first sigils.
At first I was extremely rigid in my practices; I followed spells to the letter and used formulas to write anything of my own. While this was great for me to learn as a beginner, it ultimately left me limited in what I did with my practice. It wasn’t until I finally broke a mold that I saw the possibilities. The first time I did anything completely original was when I learned how to meditate while I sparred. I had been inspired by Star Wars: Knight’s of the Old republic’s concept of a battle meditation and did it literally as I fought.
This led me down many rabbit holes as I found my personal best way to practice. I made my first altar at which I pray daily, I joined my first traditional martial arts school since middle school to train my body, and I started exploring the fandoms I loved for things to bring into my daily life and practice.
Today that has turned me into the person writing this blog: I practice Celtic Druidry using Chang Quan Kung Fu for active meditation, while trying to live my life in a way that fits my Mandalorian values. This might not be the best way for everyone to practice, but it is for me, and I hope my sharing it here will give other people the jumping off point they need.
Every good witch needs a magic circle, whether it’s just casting it for fun or for some serious casting. So I thought, why not make a giant spread, so everyone can call up their own magic circle, and call forth their own clow spirits.
But just a word of warning, this is going to be a big spread, which means it’s going to require a lot of energy. So make sure you don’t overdo it, stop when you feel you need to.
Stolen from @wand_and_moonstone on Instagram, describe yourself in three witches.
1. Penny ‘Grams’ Halliwell; Charmed. Like Grams, I am fiercely protective of my family, and I’m quite knowledgeable about and proud of my craft. And, like Grams, I sometimes have have trouble keeping my confidence from turning into arrogance.
2. Wendy Beauchamp; Witches of East End. Wendy is bold, and likes to have fun with her magic, which is me to a tee. She knows what she is doing, but also knows how to adapt her craft to make it her own. We’ve been in over our heads before, but have allowed ourselves to learn from our mistakes.
3. Granny Weatherwax; Discworld. Terry Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax is, in my not so humble opinion, the witch to end all witches, and she sets an example that I strive for. The mistress of ‘headology’, she often uses non-magical methods of helping, healing, and even cursing. Though she had incredible power at her command, she has learned over the years that the easiest and sometimes most effective solution to a problem is not always with magic. This is a lesson I’ve learned and learned often; being a witch isn’t just knowing how to use magic, but knowing when not to.
What three witches would you describe yourself with?
You just… you just know good and god damned well that Terry Pratchett either was a witch or or had a very intimate knowledge of witches. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Agnes Nitt, Tiffany Aching… they are all very real characters who each practise very real brands of witchcraft.
Hello everyone! It’s been AGES since I’ve posted a Harry Potter inspired post. This isn’t really so much a spell or anything “serious”, but I thought it might be fun to equate the Hogwarts magical curriculum with magic that can be studied in the real world. This curriculum probably isn’t very practical to follow exactly, but it might be a fun guide for the beginning witch to help guide you in your magical learnings. Perhaps the “years” can be condensed into shorter time periods (like months, for example?) to help make the curriculum a bit more practical. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
First-Second Years:
First years are sorted into one of the four houses (you can find plenty of quizzes online to help find out which house you belong in). Use this masterpost to learn more about your house and how it can relate to your real-world magical practice.
Required core classes:
Charms– Basics of spellwork, casting etc.
Potions– Basic kitchen witchcraft
History of magic– Study of the history of witchcraft throughout different cultures, time periods etc.
Defense against the Dark Arts– Basics of magical protection, cleansing etc.
Astronomy– Basics of astrology, planetary witchcraft (aka space witchcraft)
Herbology– Basic green witchcraft and herbalism
Flying– Basics of astral travel, not necessarily performing astral travel at this level yet. Optional for second year.
Transfiguration– Basic energy work & manipulation
Third-Fourth Years:
Each of the above core subjects should be continued at more advanced levels (flying is optional).
Students must choose a minimum of two of the following elective courses:
Arithmancy– Numerology for divination purposes, sacred geometry
Divination– Tarot reading, tea leaf reading, scrying, and other means of divination
Care and Keeping of Magical Creatures– Study of magical creatures, spirit work, fairy craft etc.
Study of Ancient Runes– Use of runes for divination and magical purposes
Muggle Studies– Use of witchcraft in everyday modern life
Fifth Year:
Classes are continued as in the 3rd and 4th years.
Magical skills and interests are assessed. Courses for the next year are determined based on these skills and interests. Courses may be specialized to fit the student’s needs and skill levels.
Sixth Year:
Certain core classes may be dropped at this time to make way for the classes that are of the student’s interests and skill-levels.
Optional: Apparition– Remote viewing, visualization skills etc.
Optional: Alchemy– Elemental magic studies
Seventh Year:
Classes continue on normally from the sixth year. Apparition will not be offered, but alchemy will still be available.
Extracurricular Activities:
Available all years. Can be used to help students explore their own personal interests.
Ancient Studies– Similar to History of Magic with an emphasis on ancient magical practices
Art– Sigil design and usage
Frog Choir, Music, Orchestra– Incorporating music and songs into witchcraft
Ghoul Studies– Spirit work
Magical Theory– Philosophical and theoretical approaches to different types of magic and how they work (see theseposts for some examples)s
Xylomancy– Obscure, overlooked, and uncommon forms of divination
I hope you enjoyed! Much of the information about Hogwarts curriculum is appreciatively sourced from the Harry Potter wiki :) Thanks for reading,
Forchaosundone‘s 31 days of pop culture spells challenge, Day 2: Write a curse inspired by the first fandom or character that made you interested in pop culture magic.
Purpose: To curse your target to cold and loneliness, rendering them invisible when they want to be seen and silent when they want to be heard.
What you need:
cloth
scissors
sewing needle & thread
lemon juice
black pepper, poppies (whole flowers), and rice
optional: mint leaves and apple seeds
two liquid-proof containers, one larger and one smaller
a sharpie, or something to write on cloth with
something to represent your target — a picture of them, their name written on a piece of paper, etc
water
a freezer, ice box, or somewhere else really cold
How to:
Fill the smaller container with lemon juice. Add the representation of your target first — their picture, a scrap of their handwriting, their name, etc. If you’re using the optional ingredients, the mint leaves and apple seeds, add those next. Then the black pepper, poppy flowers, and rice go in. Try to pack the ingredients down so they’re all in the lemon juice — you can add more juice if needed. You’ll be leaving this to marinate while you prepare the poppet.
With your sharpie, trace a human figure on the cloth. Double side the cloth and cut it out so you have two identical silhouettes. On one side of one silhouette, write out longhand what they have done to incite your wrath, and on one side of the other, why they deserve this curse.
On one of the unused sides, draw two eyes and use the scissors to cut a mouth open. Then sew it shut again, to silence them so they cannot be heard.
Now sew the two cut-outs together into a poppet, with the writing you did on the inside. When you sew it up, leave a small un-sewn gap at the top of the head.
This is where we come back to the ingredients you left marinating at the beginning. This is what you’re going to use to stuff the poppet through the little gap. Make sure the representation of your target gets in there! When it’s full, sew up the gap.
Next, fill the larger container with water. This container only needs to be large enough to hold the poppet you made — you don’t necessarily need to have a container for this, you could just fill up your sink if that’s easier. Submerge the poppet. You can do this for as long as you like, but it only requires to be long enough to get the poppet soaking wet.
Once it’s soaking, stick it in your freezer, and you’re pretty much done. The curse stays in effect for as long as you keep it in the cold.
The most recent prompt for Modern Mythologists has been “Try getting in touch with your spirit guides or deity you’ve always wanted to make contact with and write about your experience!” We got to read each other’s exciting stories about meeting new deities. Here’s one example from the pop culture pagan side of our server, about contacting Meridia, The Daedric Prince of Life.
Breath of Life
The Sun.
That is the card Lady Azura gave me as an answer to my question. I had asked if she consented to me introducing myself to Lady Meridia. I do dream of working with both of them, but before I actually get started with Meridia, I wish to honor my promise to Azura. Promise of regularly devoting time for her, promise of showing that I am committed. Daedric Princes have expectations and don’t wish to be forgotten or ignored. When I’ve proved that I can keep up with a consistent worship, I can follow the both of them. Dawn and Dusk, Light and Life.
The Sun.
What could be a clearer sign of approval? And at the very same time the perfect card to represent the Lady of Infinite Energies herself? I excitedly pour an offering of honeyed tea and address the one once known as Merid-Nunda. A sense of approval washes over me.
The Sun.
Candles are lit and I settle down. I wish to travel, I want to see her. Talk to her. I close my eyes, take deep breaths. Soon I am surrounded by bright beams of light, bathing in their warmth. I can see nothing more, only endless radiance. I think I catch a glimpse of a winged silhouette in the golden glow, but I am uncertain. I decide to trust in my instincts.
The Sun.
I’m not sure where exactly I am, but it is beautiful. Peaceful. Only light. I find myself thinking about life. Nothing specific, just… life itself, if that makes sense. It does to me in that moment as I feel invigorated by the rays of light. I don’t exactly hear a voice, but I’m quite certain that I am being talked to. I can make out a single command in my mind:
Live.
As I take that in, I feel a strong sense of approval again. I am accepted, I am welcomed. Her hand touches my forehead, conferring her blessing.
During the last full moon we held a lunar event and encouraged our members to share content related to what they did for the full moon!
One of our admins @the-seidkona-of-polaris shared a photo of her space just before she began shifting it for workings, which included weekly devotional for Hel and a full moon spell work for a client ✨
One of our mods @auroras-corner set intentions and did a ritual to banish residual stagnant energy ✨
Many did small but meaningful things like making moon water, cleansing their home or blessing devotional items or divination tools. @manistemple shared their list of full moon ritual ideas. Have a look and get inspired for the next full moon! ✨
We have decided to stop posting prompts on tumblr in favor of making more posts about various clubs and events that we have going on in Pagan Sanctum. Daily discussion prompts are still happening in our Discord server, if you want to participate, join us via the link below! ✨
Video Games are something which I’ve been incorporating into my magickal practice for a while now, kinda even before I knew that’s what I was doing (like most of my magickal experience, really).So, I figured I’d give some insight into how I use video games in magick and witchcraft and maybe some others will find this helpful.
Why video games? - Why not? Hear me out. Video games, particularly certain genres, can be excellent tools to reach a “no-mind” gnosis state. I like to use fighting games at low difficulties, platforming games, easy shooters like Destiny 2, phone games, etc. Basically just lose yourself in the game. As you do, you will enter a meditative flow state, and this is ideal for magickal procedures.
Magickal Systems - Certain games even have magical systems in the game, and you can use those systems for inspiration on your own magical systems. Create enchantments based on spells in fantasy games, imagine your shields as the kind of rechargeable energy shields many games have these days, starting with Halo.
Sympathetic Magick - Sympathetic magick can be used. Set your intent that the character you make/play as in the game is you, and as the character gains/deals damage, you charge energy in yourself.
You could even consider concepts such as sacrificial magick (virtual life-forms being used), or doing rituals in game, using your character. Games like Skyrim are all about magic, and let you create potions, spells, and sacrifice monsters. Imagine every experience point being a quanta of energy, a bit of information, that transfers from “you” in the game, to you in real life.
Sigil Magick - For sigil magick, I often like real-time strategy games, where I can draw sigils using buildings and resources in the game, design maps as sigils to upload that others can play on, and charge for you. Any game can be used though.
You can consider your character, or a symbol you might be able to choose on one of their pieces of armor, capes, or accessories, or even the design of the character themselves, as a sigil.
Load up an online game, and you don’t even have to play the game “good”. Every time you die, the sigil is destroyed, charging it each time. Shutting the game off after absorbing experience points would be activating the sigil.
Low-Energy/Disability/Illness - If you have low-energy/low or no mobility/disability/difficulty leaving your room, are bedridden, etc you can do a lot with video game magick. Perform rituals using your characters. Many games will even let you collect magical items and accessories, and you can really customize your game-self as much as you want, and let your virtual self represent your ideal/desired physical self.
And now I’ll list a few games I personally enjoy the most for video game magick, and my personal applications of them, which hopefully will inspire you.
Pokemon - Using Pokemon is something I’ve seen others doing. Some great people on witchblr have made entire masterposts of Pokemon offerings and invocations based on their elemental types, and certain kinds of magick associated with each type, etc. I recommend checking out those posts.
Transfer all experience points from your Pokemon, and all in-game money you earn, into alchemized energy that you can put into your magick. Use a custom character name, and custom Pokemon names as mantrical sigils, every time you read the name, the mantra is activated.
Skyrim - Use your in-game character to be the representation of your real-life self. Gain experience for your character, alchemize and transmute it into energy for yourself. Create potions and use herbalism and alchemy in game. When your character drinks them, you get the benefits.
Absorb Dragon Souls. Use your thu'uum as spell incantations. Perform rituals to the best of your ability in game. You can easily find a magical sword, a magical staff/wand, a pile of coins, and a source of water, or a cup, to represent all the magickal tools. Customize your character with your desired appearance.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice - This is a game based on a Celt warrior named Senua, who needs to restore her dead lover’s soul from Hel. Runes constantly appear in the game, and they really seem to have done much research for the game to get the runes right. It’s also a game that represents mental illness, specifically psychosis.
Senua hallucinates, has visions, hears voices, and sees runes in her world. The game is very streamlined with a simple interface, and innovative combat system, with trials to get through that can be imprinted with ritualized intent. The action is great for getting into a state of single-pointed awareness gnosis.
It also has a lot of really cool lore, that’s actually based on a real magickal tradition spanning back centuries. Extra recommended for anyone dealing with mental or physical disability/illness.
DOOM: ETERNAL - If you can deal with hyper-violence in video games, DOOM is great. It’s intensely fast-paced, so great for getting into the flow state, because if you don’t the demons will likely overtake you. There are many rune-esque symbols in the game that can be programmed with intent and used as sigils.
Assign a certain negative feeling to each of the various types of demons. For example, any time you see a Cacodemon, link it to Gluttony, and then sacrifice it, and let that represent you exorcising your gluttony, etc.
Extremely good for excitatory gnosis, the fights come in natural waves, so after every intense fight, before letting yourself feel relief or the excitement and adrenaline start to fade, isolate the feelings, remove their usual emotional connotations, and use the energy for spellcasting, and then finally release it for a very cathartic experience.
Destiny 2 - Destiny 2 is a fun game, that’s now largely free-to-play on pc, xbox, and playstation. It involves space travel, aliens, they literally say “space magic” at one point, which is about as close to saying “cosmic witchcraft” as one can get without saying it. Travel to different planets and moons, and protect the last survivors of humanity from hostile alien forces.
Destiny 2 is great for gnosis, because it’s easy enough to mostly be able to just play by instinct. There are dozens of accessories, emblems, etc, with sigils on them, that can be imprinted with intent, that each character class can get. You can design your character as a sigil that gets charged with every kill/death.
Charge your name with intent. All experience goes to your real-life self. Charge missions with ritualized intent. Finishing the mission is finishing your ritual. In magick, the belief and intent are more important than the method, in my experience.
Create servitors based on the aesthetic of the “Ghosts”, that help you learn new information, and act as protection, or healing. Visualize having one of the rechargeable shields from the game, and the ability to “revive” from failures, and move on.
Warcraft 3: This is an old-game now, 20 years old (Jeebus…), but a good one for magick. You can use the mapmaker to design maps with sigils drawn in, using the trees and buildings you can draw them, and then upload the maps for others to play in, charging your sigil.
Many real-time strategy games can be used, but I prefer Warcraft, as it’s also got to do with magic, and I have a lot of emotional attachment to the game, first playing it when I was a young child. Again, charge characters with intent, when they take/deal damage they charge, when you shut the game down, it releases the energy into the Universe.
Final Fantasy - Another series that has to do with magic, and can be great inspiration. Tarot-esque cards can be collected in many games, that can be given meanings. The series trademark “Guardian Forces” can be used as a custom pantheon, giving them each magickal associations and abilities. They can be invoked at any time as your own personal guardians, protecting and warding your space, or healing and charging you, etc.
That should do for now. Some other games that can be used for similar applications (that are also just fun to play) include: The Witcher series, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Dark Souls, Ori, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Halo, Kingdom Hearts, Elder Scrolls Online, Injustice, Ark: Survival Evolved, Dead Cells, Wizard of Legend, Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Diablo 3, Pillars of Eternity, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur,andmany more. Get creative!
If anyone has any suggestions of how they incorporate video games into their magickal practice, Feel free to add them in comments/tags, etc. ❤️
“ Before battle, it turns its back on its opponent to demonstrate how ferociously its fire blazes.” -Pokedex Entry
A glamour enchantment spell to make you look more ferocious and intimidating to others.
You Will Need:
Red Candle Rosemary Bay Leaf Red Marker Sigil for Intimidation or the word “intimidate” Burn safe bowl or plate Piece of Jewelry to enchant
Steps:
Light your red candle near your fire safe bowl
In your bowl add a small amount of dried rosemary to its bottom
On your bay leaf using your red marker draw your sigil or write the word “intimidate” on it. “Like the pokemon of fire Quilava, I wish to be surrounded in flames of red, to show others I am not one to pester, and keep them at bay with dread.” Then kiss your bay leaf focusing on this desire. Visualize yourself surrounded by a red fiery aura as others keep their distance from you.
Light your bay leaf with the candle and carefully place it into your bowl of dried rosemary. Watch it burn until only ash is left
Take your piece of jewelry and lay it into the ashes once they cool enough to be safe to do this. Visualize the source of your fiery aura being this piece of jewelry. “Surround me with flames and fire, to intimidate others is my desire!” repeat this as necessary.
Once you are satisfied brush off the ashes left on your piece of jewelry carefully. Blow out your candle to end the spell
You may store these ashes to use for other spells such as making black salt if you desire though charge them near the red candle for a few minutes longer if you wish to do this. Or you can dispose of them (properly)
Note: Keep salt or sand near you in case the fire flares up during the burning process. Make sure you are practicing proper fire safety.
Merry meet! This reading is heavily inspired by the dragon shout “Unrelenting Force” from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. For this reading, we’ll take a look into a person or situation in your life that is creating an obstacle for you, and we’ll figure out the best way to bring balance and stability to you and your life so that you can shout it apart. This reading is all about your personal power and how you can harness it to clear the road for yourself. You can do it, and we can help!
I have learned about a lot of witchcraft-related family practices and views. Our family has lived in the countryside forever and my grandparents are a testament to folklore, folk cunning and well, witchcraft. I have learned so much from my grandmother and my mother. I have localised my practice to my area little by little, working with what I have on hand and what is around me.
