Sage's Magick

threedifferentways:

“You know I’m going to write this for the public eye.”

“What is it to me? I do not force the hands of your readers. Or your own for that matter.”

“And still you wish to show me?”

“Yes.”

“Begin.”

The dark robed and hooded figure led me through the darkness to a table with two chairs. I was led to one chair and directed to sit. He took the other and sat across from me. Two candles sat on the table. One tall and brightly lit, providing the sole illumination. The other squat and cold. Beside the squat candle was a needle, a carving knife, a loop of bare wire, a bundle of faggots, and several small minute candles and tealights.

He made a sweeping gesture across the table, forcing me to withdraw my hands to my lap. He made a shushing gesture with his left hand, and a lowering gesture with his right.

He picked up the squat candle and turned it before my face so I could examine it. I noted it changed size as he did so, but the proportions remained the same. As wide as it is tall. The plain candle was unscented, uncolored, and was unremarkable in nature. It was never smaller than two inches in diameter, never larger than five, and settled on being three inches in diameter and height when he sat it on the table.

He took the needle, and with deliberate care, inscribed a person’s name around the exterior of the candle. He did so sometimes in a cursive script, sometimes in a block script, sometimes using sigils, sometimes using descriptions. No matter how he referred to this person, he completely covered the exterior of the candle. He turned it to show me how thorough he was. None of the scratches were more than a few millimeters in depth, but they covered every workable portion of the candle’s sides.

Now, gently gripping the candle so not to disturb the names he has inscribed, he begins to dig out the top of the candle with the carving knife. Taking care not to break the outer wall of the candle, and taking care not to break the wick, he carves out chunks of the candle’s interior. As he removes each piece, he names what he is removing. This piece is the satisfaction that comes with tea. This piece is the contentment brought by a hug. This piece is the skills to use a computer. This piece is the grace of movement.

A fireplace suddenly roars to life beside us in the darkness. As each piece is carved out of the candle, he throws it into the fire to be consumed utterly. There is no reusing of this wax. Once named and pulled free, it is given over to destruction.

He reaches the limit of the blade, but he still wished to carve out wax. He takes the loop of wire and heats it in the candle flame. Quickly, before it cools, he scoops out another chunk of wax. I note sometimes he burns his fingers doing this, but his desire to perform this act is greater than his desire for self-preservation.

Finally the squat candle is hollowed out except for enough wax to hold the wick upright. He turns the candle over to show me, how little the names were disturbed. He turns it so I can see inside the hollowed candle. There is now maybe 5 minutes of burnable wax remaining.

He places a small mirror on the table, face up, and sets the hollowed candle upon that. He lights the wick within and sits back patiently. The wick takes to light at once, and as the inadequate amount of wax runs down from the heat, the flame reaches upward as it greedily follows the wax downward. Once the flame reaches the little metal holder inside every commercially made candle, the flame self-extinguishes, leaving the candle appearing whole from without, while only those that look within can see the candle is empty and useless.

He waits until the useless candle is cold and hard. He then takes care to show me the smaller candles on the table. Some are like birthday candles. Some are mini tea-lights. He takes one and carefully inscribes a command on it. He places it inside the hollowed candle and lights it. At once, I understand the intent, but it is not for me to record. Let those that see, see.

The small inner candle is too weak to impact the walls of the outer candle. As such, with care, the outer candle can be used over and over. I nodded in understanding. He then took a knife and cut the hollowed candle in half. I heard someone in the distance sigh in relief. The pieces were then thrown to the flames.

He made another sweeping gesture across the table. He clapped his hands and spread them with showmanship.

“Did you see?”

“I saw.”

“And still you will write?”

“That’s why you called me here, isn’t it?”

“I called you here to show you. It is up to you if you will write.”

…

How could I not.

faerylizzy:

Since Sage is being used way too much, I decided to make a post about this c:

rosemary

• This is a fantastic alternative! Burn Rosemary incense, sprinkle rosemary around.
• use Rosemary oil to cleanse and bless things

Birch

• Great for removing negativity (spirits and fae specifically) and keeping harm away, while attracting positive things
• You can burn it, you can create a scent bowl with it (like potpourri), or you can sprinkle it around your house

Salt

• Always has been associated with cleansing and blessing.
• you can sprinkle it around the house, put it in water and sprinkle things with salt water~ you can also use salt water like you would use essential oils

Olive oil or Vegetable oil

• Great for using in place of essential oils~
• You can use these for blessing and cleansing stones, items, and such
• to bless and protect your home with these, you need to place the oil upon doors and windowsills (you can draw symbols)

Crystals (Quartz crystals)

• Quartz Crystals are great for absorbing energy and negativity
• place a few quartz crystals around the home to help absorb negative energy
• hold an item with a quartz crystal to cleanse it

Blessed Water

• Leave a jar of water outside to soak in sunlight, moonlight, or star light to become blessed.
• Collect fresh river water, spring water, creek water, ect (sea water is great too)
• sprinkle the water around the house to cleanse it.
• Dip an item in the water to cleanse it

Bell or an instrument

• The vibrations and sounds of instruments are associated with cleansing properties
• Walk around the home playing the item and letting the noise vibrate through the home
• hold an item and play for it to cleanse it~

Dirt

• Need to cleanse an item? Bury it! I keep a pot of dirt in my house just for this~
• get bottles of dirt and place them around your home to collect and absorb the negativity

Wind

• Take an item and go outside let it sit in the wind to blow away the negativity

Fire

• Candles are fantastic for clearing negative energy. Leave an item by a candle, take a candle and walk around your home lighting up every part of the house.
• A fire place is great. you can burn different woods in it to cleanse your home

Herbs

• Get a herb that cleanses and purifies and rub it upon an item
• you can sprinkle these herbs around the house~

(via littlefaerylizzy-deactivated201)

khalheyokha:

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for the input that went into my writing this post. After I made me post about Baba Yaga, I started getting a lot of questions about how to contact a deity and how to know if a deity is trying to contact you. So…I decided to address this in a rather lengthy post. Starting with…

What is a Deity?

A deity is a being, usually considered sacred or divine, which has superhuman powers. C. Scott Littleton defined them as “a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans—but who interacts with humans—positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life.”

What is a Patron/Matron Deity? What is a dedicant/devotee? 

In some cases, have a parton/matron deity is an exclusively religious relationship. Someone may worship and honor a god or goddess that doesn’t fit in with what they practice as a witch. Some people may, for example, dedicate themselves to Hekate, but most frequently work with Demeter. Alternatively, this can also be a strictly business relationship in which the deities are honored in exchange for services. A person who is not religiously dedicated to any one god or goddess may have an exclusive working relationship with Fortuna. 

Being a dedicant/devotee, however, is usually religious in nature. Devotees offer devotion, communion and physical offerings to the deity/deities that they are dedicated too. They often follow a path set out by their deity, act on the deity’s bidding, and turn to the deity for guidance and so on. 

Read More

khalheyokha:

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: 

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.
2. 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. 

hellboundwitch:

bruxaria-arcanum replied to your post: bruxaria-arcanum replied to your post:…

Honestly, I have used the deck like once…idk…impulse buy went wrong. I really am thinking about designing my own tarot deck and laminating, lol.

If you’re thinking about making your own decks, then you should definitely check out these, if you haven’t already:

Hand Crafting Decks

Self Publishing Decks & Books

They might be helpful! I’ve had them saved forever because I still think I’m going to design my own deck even though I never will…<_<

spiritscraft:

Pick up salt packets and pepper/hot sauce packets and sugar and honey packets at restaurants. Salt is protective, pepper/hot sauce for hexing, sugar and honey for sweeting things up. Chocolates for romance and sex and mints for chance meetings where you want to make a good impression. Variety tea bags are single use herbals: Chamomile, mint, ginger, etc. You can keep them in your bag and always have them handy.

ladyofthefaoladh:

1. Mason jars are excellent for starting a witch bottle, no matter the size. Throw in a few bent nails, staples, tangled fishing line, vinegar and whatnot, carefully seal the lid with candle wax and bury near your home for protection.
2. Place medium-sized mason jars near a window, fill with soil and use as indoor planters for magickal herbs.
3. Put a twist on the classic “Recipe in a Jar” by layering the dry ingredients of either a magickal recipe such asHerbed Crescent Moon Rollsor a spell and attaching the full recipe and instructions with a piece of ribbon. Be sure to clearly label the jar so you know what the contents are for!
4. Place tealight or votive candles in small mason jars to protect yourself from the flames during rituals and to keep candles from blowing out. Tie a seasonal-colored ribbon around the neck for a touch of decoration.
5. Add height and interest to your altar by creating a small shelf out of a wooden plank and two boxes of equal height covered in fabric to arrange mason jars of various sizes and shapes on. Use the jars to organize supplies like extra tealights, runes, dried herbs or other ingredients such as besom bristles or moonwater. Mason jars also make lovely vases for seasonal floral arrangements to bring a bit of life and nature to your table.

Info from: http://witchofhowlingcreek.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/5-pagan-uses-for-mason-jars/

thesacredcircle:

This book has a Bring a Rapist to Justice Spell

SCORE!

Whoa. Wait. How have I not discovered this? O.o