#rituals
[Letter to a devout, practicing Jew mother on how to raise her son who “believes in science”]
Of course in a free country, within limits, you can raise your children how you please, on whatever belief system you choose. For this reason, most people in the world who are religious, practice the religion of their parents. For example, the chances of Christians raising a child who later becomes Muslim, or a Muslim family raising a child who later becomes Jewish are extremely rare. The children will be more likely to grow up believing in no Gods than in the Gods of other religions.
So the urge to raise your son as a devout, practicing Jew, being one yourself, is entirely normal and natural. But of course you have, at most, only 18 years of direct influence on him. Your son will spend more than eighty percent of his life under a different roof than you.
From what I have seen and encountered, Judaism manifests across a huge range of practices - from emboldened Jews who enthusiastically eat bacon to the various sects of Orthodox Jews who, among other practices, maintain separate kitchen utensils for dairy and for meat. As a scientist, I have much more experience with atheist Jews. They do not view the Torah as the word of God. They see it as a book of stories - not to be judged for their truth or falsehood, but as a repository of insights from which wisdom for living one’s life can be derived.
Think about it - when we read fairy tales, we are not judging them for whether they are true or not. Instead, we fold lessons derived from them into our world views. Not only this, atheist Jews will commonly celebrate the high holidays with no less ritual than practicing Jews, right on down to leaving an open seat the Seder table for Elijah, and making sure the front door is unlocked, so he can just walk right in if he happens to show up.
Why would an atheist Jew do this? The answer is not hard. Rituals and traditions account for some of the strongest binding forces among peoples of the world. Attending Mass on Sundays for Catholics. Prayer five times per day for Muslims. Ancestor worship for the Animist religions. One can participate without judging whether the events that established the ritual have any literal truth at all. The participation creates a sense of community. which has almost always contributed value to civilization. It disrupts civilization only when people require that others share their particular rituals, with threat of force to achieve it.
Being on the spectrum and liking science as he does, your best bet might be to not enforce the literalism of anything religious, but to keep him plugged into the beautiful traditions of the religion, and emphasize the value of ritual as a seed and taproot of community. Often that alone represents the greatest challenge when raising autistic children - getting them to embrace the value of love and compassion for people and for relationships.
Rest assured that you can raise a wholesome, intelligent, law-abiding child without requiring he believe that Moses turned a staff into a snake, or that manna fell from heaven.
Good luck. In my experience, it takes some of that too.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson in ‘Letters from an Astrophysicist’
Move girl and light ya ass on
Do you have a morning ritual that serves to start your day balanced, centered and calm. It’s a practice I’m constantly trying to curate.
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I notice that when I start my day with Coffee and News the energy is much different than when I start with gentle acts of self care like warm water lemon acv, honoring morning silence, making a comforting healing drink like this Maca Matcha Turmeric Latte and reading a chapter of an empowering book. I show up for myself in kinder + stronger ways and for the work I do as well.
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Is there a change you’ve made or a morning practice you want to start?
#love #restore #balance #peace #selfcare #bethechange #morning #rituals #sacred #bestill #happy #healthy #selfcare #macalatte #matcha
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Blessed Spring witches! I hope this season is treating you well so far. I’m sorry I haven’t posted a lot recently, life has taken a turn and I suddenly ran out of time to do anything witchy… I’m hoping spring will bring in some new energy and help me get out of these difficult times.
Here’s a list of what I’ve been doing to feel more like myself, and appreciate the season of fresh starts and new beginnings.
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Nature:
- if you can, walk around in a forest or in a field, barefoot, and learn to notice the trees and flowers growing all around you.
- if you live in a city, and have limited access to nature, bring it inside your home: decorate it with fancy flowers and new plants to take care of.
Cleanse:
- donate clothes and furniture that no longer inspire you, deeply clean and freshen your home to give yourself a new environment.
- spiritually, open the windows wide open and practice rituals to banish old energies and bringing in the new.
Self care:
- eat fresh salads, green vegetables and bake beautiful honey cakes that are tasty and make you feel good.
- celebrate your body by moving again, whether it’s dancing, exercising, practicing yoga, stretching, walking, running or cycling.
Colours:
- the cold season is over, so it’s time to dress in florals, pastel colours to celebrate this new season!
- paint your nails, use makeup with colours that inspire you and make you feel like you’re on top of the world.
✒️ About you
─ What do you want out of witchcraft? What have you gotten so far?
─ What are your core values and beliefs?
─ Write about something in your life that you are the most proud of.
─ What are your birth tarot cards?
✒️ About your practice
─ How do you celebrate the 8 sabbats? What is the history behind them?
─ How do you plan on improving your witchcraft this year?
─ Describe the type of magic you would like to improve on.
─ Research deities that could match with your spiritual beliefs.
✒️ Lists, lists, lists
─ Quotes that make you feel magical and strong.
─ Movies and TV shows that inspired your spirituality.
─ Books you’ve read, books you want to read next.
─ Crystals you own and their correspondences.
─ Herbs and plants you love and how you use them.
Herbs
- Basil: wealth, money, blessings, fertility, protection, house blessings
- Catnip: love, beauty, happiness, working with cat spirits
- Chamomile:luck, sleep, peace, purification, calm
- Cinnamon: sexuality, lust, consecration, love, spice
- Elderberry:exorcism, healing, prosperity, protection
- Lavender:anti-anxiety, sleep, healing, meditation, psychic abilities
- Peppermint: purification, love, anti-negativity, power
- Rosemary:cleansing, drawing the aid of spirits, mental focus
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Spices
- Cardamom: love, courage, desire, sex, intimacy
- Cumin: happiness, balance, peace, promises, protection
- Turmeric: breaking a spell, power, purification
- Mustard seeds: wealth, money, fertility, success
- Nutmeg:warmth, luck, art, knowledge, psychic powers
- Paprika: energy, creativity, strength, healing
- Cayenne pepper: banishing, passion, fire, against nightmares
- Pepper: curses, powerful spells, conjuration
- Saffron:changes, wind, healing, love, happiness
- Salt: abundance, earth, work, purification, protection
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Fruits and Vegetables
- Avocado:beauty, love, happiness, youth, transformation
- Banana: wealth, abundance, growth, energy, health
- Cherry: creativity, desire, divination, fertility, sex
- Lemon: banishing, spirits, balance, healing, joy, purification
- Pumpkin:prosperity, dreams, immortality, fertility
- Strawberry: love, strength, harmony, inspiration, luck
- Coconut: life, generosity, insurance, energy, opportunity
- Olive: abundance, wealth, money, power, security
- Bell pepper: mental health, protection, love, strength
- Apple: soul, life, relationships, wise, health, success
- Potato: money, luck, healing, truth, divination
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Kitchen Rituals
- Growing your own herbs will give them extra magical properties.
- Before cooking or baking an important meal, bless your kitchen and caste a protection circle to keep only good energies in.
- Use sigils when adding sauces or spices to your meal.
- Create affirmations and spells to say out loud when baking or cooking your favorite meals.
- Make herbal remedies to cure colds or small illnesses.
- Sing or play music to bring positive energies while cooking.
- Gift baked goods to friends, family or someone in need.
- Stir your food clockwise to bring good luck.
- Bless your most important tools, like a witch spoon, to make every meal extra special and magical.
3 Daily Habits
- Meditate and stretch every day, when you wake up or before going to bed, to recenter yourself and look inwards.
- Keep a journal, grimoire or book of shadows and write as often as possible, to remember your thoughts and log your progress.
- ✨Find something to be grateful for every day, whether it’s a big event or simply watching a bird landing on a tree outside of your window.
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3 Weekly Habits
- Make a past/present/future Tarot spread on Sundays to reflect on the week that has passed, your current feelings and the week ahead.
- Spend time around nature or observing the sky, at least once a week, to stay connected to the Earth and the Moon.
- Practice Kitchen Magic by making at least one special meal per week, where you pour positive energies and magical intentions. I try to learn a completely new recipe once a week to keep it fun and interesting.
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3 Monthly Habits
- Make a list of your goals on the first of each month, and keep it close to your desk to stay on track every day.
- Follow the moon phases to connect to the Moon’s magic and power. Work hard, start projects and be productive when the Moon is waxing ; rest, recover and reflect when the Moon is waning.
- Learn something new about witchcraft, spirituality, or a completely different topic that interests you. Staying curious, even when life gets busy and complicated, is what makes it worth living.
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3 Yearly Habits
- Fully cleanse your home after each witches sabbats to get a fresh start and throw out old energies.
- ️Switch up and clean your altar at the end of each season, to keep it alive and filled with magical power. Decorate according to the coming season and sabbat.
- Adapt your behavior to the rhythm of nature: spring and summer are high-energy, starting big projects and spending time outside, while fall and winter are about rest, reflection and spending time indoors.
Blessed Yule and Happy New Year 2021!
I’m so happy to have so many new followers, so here’s a summary of all the posts I have written this year. Feel free to use all of theses resources for your grimoire or book of shadows
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Witchcraft 101
❌Closed practices & cultural appropriation
✨Daily rituals using the 4 elements
Home cleansing using the 4 elements
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Witches Sabbats
- Movies, podcasts and TV shows for Samhain
- Samhain Tarot Spread
- ✨Samhain Ritual: Dumb Supper
- ☁️After Samhain: November 1st
- ️Winter Spells & Rituals
- Festive Gifts for Witches
- Witchy Mulled Wine Potion
- Practicing Witchcraft during Christmas
- Yule Tarot Spread
- Celebrating Yule and Christmas alone
- Celebrating New Year’s Eve as a witch
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Types of Magic
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Moon Magic
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Let me know your posts requests for 2021, I would be happy to share the knowledge I have as a practicing witch for almost 6 years! Love you all ❤️
“The Trance Ritual”
Here is the finnished drawing of the previous post. It took ages to take a decent photo as the drawing was stubbornly glaring at the camera… hard lessons in photographing drawings… always fun.
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The title for this piece is still undefined but its part of my upcoming sculpture show. It’ll be about the Neolithic period, it’s matriarchal societies and the subsequential transition to more violent eras. Keep in tune for more stories made of stone.
In this piece I experimented with white chalk and grafite mixed together, it can get mushy but some of the results are delicious.
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Here’s some detail shots of my Neolithic inspired figure, I have posted this before but I really like showing details. Here she is, feeding the world.
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Late summer photo shoot of my Neolithic Venus. I took the piece to the “Côa” river valley, a place that seemed to be of utmost importance scince at least 20 000 years. Thousands of rock engravings have been found on this site, no one knows what the meaning of such a high concentration of engravings is but… it feels right to bring my sculpture over here. It’s also delicious to finalize a piece with a glorious landscape photo shoot.
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This weekend I took my latest ceramics experimentation to the wild (my home city). It’s beautiful and super close to incredible locations. The first nature shot was in one of the holiest places of pagan Iberia: “Cabeço das Fráguas”. This site contains an incredibly rare inscription describing a ritual to the old gods in an ancient indo-european language. The rest of the shots where taken in the vicinity of continental Portugal’s highest mountain, Serra da Estrela.
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A sneak peek at the development of this Neolithic Goddess interpretation. After this it’s the Tetris stage… also known as hollowing out… I’ll have to cut the piece into a puzzle, let it dry out, and then, to the kiln. Exciting moments!
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A sketch for a river god piece.
I went to the douro valley for a proper display of the sculpture, a homage to Reve, one of the old gods, with the Douro river in the background.
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Pisces Season (Feb 18 - Mar 20) ♓
Crystals are beautiful and each holds a different energy.Find one you vibe with and it can creat some big magic in your world.
Happy Solstice to All, and to All a Long Night.
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#solstice #wintersolstice #ritual #rituals #witch #queerwitch #magick #occult #petitions #intercessor #eldritch #eldritchtree #eldritchtreeprints #altar #phillyartist #philadelphia #holidays (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJFIsygH9M4/?igshid=g1vfz1ji2m2e
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Seasonal Rituals for Worshippers of Incabulos, the God of Disease and Pestilence
One of my players was playing a priest/cleric of Incabulos and he was not sure what to do on his down time so I made up season Rituals for him!! Hope you can find them useful!
Farmer’s Tale: The priests of Incabulos must go out and make sure that some of the crops the farmers plant during this season never grow. They are expected to go out and vandalize the fields. Some do this by setting them on fire, poisoning the crops, or just uprooting all of the soil. When the plants begin to bud through the soil they must go and destroy a farmers field in their gods name.
Harvest’s Tale: Once every week, the farmers of the area must give 20 pounds of their food to the priest. If they don’t give it to the priest it then becomes the priests responsibility to go out and steal 20 lbs of food from their house.
Polar’s Tale: During this month disease and sickness should be spread. As the cold assaults everyone, they become more prone to getting sick. The priests are there to help spread disease in order to please their God. They must infect up to twelve people this month. If someone dies from the disease, then they need not try and get the twelve and only need the one.
Twilight’s Tale: When the sun sets and the three moon rises, this is when Incabulos rests. He ask that while he is resting, you give him prayers. Solitude for three days praying for incabulos, whispering the smallest of incantations. If done properly, you enter a trance where you experience his dreams. Most priests become fixated on one dream alone and when they exit the trance, they try and accomplish the arena they experienced in order to appease Incabulos when he awakes.
Bahamut’s Tale: When the sky’s begin to glow orange is when your God wants you to go out and recruit. Do this any way possible. Offer peasants housing before the firestorms start, make threats, steal children. Your God does not care how but he needs his influence spread. After all, most of his wishes are considered “evil” and illegal so he is in constant need of new worshippers.
Vishnash’s Tale: The season where fire rains down. Something your God prefers is for the sacrifice of a farmer. Doing this in his eyes puts you a head of the other priests. He does not make this a requirement for all priest s but in his unholy text it talks about setting a farmer aflame during this season in order to help the hunger spread. This is a very hard to pull off task though and Incabulos would rather not lose his followers to this one tiny crime.
