Beginner Witch Sites

anonymous asked:

What websites do you recommend to beginner witches?

http://www.traditionalirishwitch.com/ (great articles on magical theory)

http://www.traditionalwitch.net/ (a good community for beginners, it takes a lot of dedication to get invited into the private half of the forums, but its worth it and the public portions of the forum are still invaluable)

http://www.heritagewitchcraft.com/ the online academy I am a mentor at. This school has hours of recorded classes and lectures available to paid students and a quite few things for free too.

http://www.blue-moon-manor.com/ I enjoyed the 7 week mini-course offered here and the rest of the school is quite cheaply priced too.

http://www.waterwitchinthewest.com/ This is a dear friend of mine’s witch school and I adore her and know she gives top notch education. She also charges reasonable fees for her time.

Some of these websites have nominal charges for education. Sometimes its worth paying to get personalized attention and reliable education from a dedicated teacher. Its alarming how people think they are owed everything for free. You should never pay huge amounts for witchcraft education, but small fees are reasonable and necessary sometimes if you want someone who will really mentor you.

All of the above are non-wiccan witchcraft. I don’t trust any online wiccan sites because wicca is supposed to be taught directly by a coven. If you are interested in learning wicca, I suggest sending me an ask off of anon and I can put you in contact with resources.

who new?

Witchtip: Something being new doesn’t make it bad. You can use windex or purell in a spell if it suits you. It doesn’t make you less of a witch to use modern convienances. Though sometimes doing things the old fashioned way is a part of the magic. Try and know the difference rather than doing either to be reactionary or superior.

Witchtip: Funnels are good. Yes, funnels are an unsung witchy tool that deserve some credit. Same goes for pipettes, eye droppers, and turkey basters.

Witchtip: 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.

Witchtip: birthday candles come in tons of colors and fit nicely in a pocket altar or purse spell kit. I like pink and red for love and friendship, white for peace, blue for healing, green for money, orange for job magic, and black (if you can find it) for defense or hexing.

MMC

cannibalcoalition:

Actually, since its been brought up:

What DOES everyone think of the Maiden-Mother-Crone archetypes (in Wicca or otherwise)? Does it set an unrealistic example for women? What about its male counterpart? Does it put too much emphasis on gender roles?

Is it harmful?

I ask this because in…

Honestly, not a fan. This paradigm is imposed most often on Celtic Deities. But it completely ignores other roles that these dieties held (including mmc).  I like the structure for people it fits for (primarily mothers who will become crones someday), but for me, it doesn’t fit quite right. Yet mother to me means more than giving birth to children—it means assisting with the rearing of children in anyway. So I don’t hate mmc.  I just want it to be mmwmqachclce maiden matron warrior muse queen artist craftster healer curser lover crone etc. The Brigit three would be hms healer muse smith. The Morrigan three could be smc Soveriegn, Warmage, Carrioncrow. I could go on.

How to make Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer, Ginger Champagne and/or Dry Ginger Wine from scratch.

First make a ginger bug: You start by putting two table spoons sugar (any kind of sugar is fine, honey, brown sugar, white sugar, etc) And two tablespoons of chopped up fresh ginger root in a jar or jug with two cups of water. Everyday you feed the ginger bug two teaspoons sugar and two teaspoons chopped ginger root. If you keep this in a jug with an airlock, cool, if you have it in a jar with a lid you best burp that thing a few times a day or else she will blow up! If it starts smelling like yeast/bread dough you are doing it right. Once she is nice and bubbly you move onto making your ginger infusion base.

Step two: I like to make a gallon of this at a time for pop, beer, champagne or wine regardless its a nice amount for the time and effort put in. So I start with boiling two quarts of water on the stovetop. To this I will add anywhere between four tablespoons to half a cup of grated ginger, depending on how spicy you want your final product. If you are making this as a pop for children, err on the side of mild to start. Then remove it from the heat and let it steep for a few hours. Taste it, it won’t have any sugar yet, but if you can taste the ginger kick at a bit more than the amount you like, put it back on the stove bring it to a boil again and then turn it down and add 1 3/4 sugar for a pop, 2 lbs of sugar for an alcoholic drink.  Stir the sugar in and add enough cold water to make nearly one gallon. Check the temperature, when it is room temperature, add 1/2 cup of your ginger bug. Then strain off the ginger bits. If you want to make pop skip to the last step. If you want something alcoholic continue through the next few steps.

Third: Pour all of this into a one gallon carboy with a fitted rubber cork and an airlock. For beer leave it in a warmish spot in your house for two weeks. For champagne, 1 month. Then skip to the final step. If you want a dry wine, go onto the next steps.

Four: After a month, pour your liquid carefully off of the sediments at the bottom into bowl or something. Then rinse out those sediments, and pour the liquid back in. About one month later hopefully the bubbling will be slowing down. If it is still pretty bubbly, repeat step four monthly until it stops bubbling.

Final step: Bottling your brew. For all bubbly drinks, pop, beer, champagne, you must have tops and containers that can contain pressure without blowing up. Plastic pop bottles with new screw top lids, heavy glass bail top bottles or champagne bottles with corks and cage wire tops. I find heavy glass bail top bottles the most reusable long term. Use at least one small plastic pop bottle among whatever you are choosing in order to check the pressure. Pour your brew into the bottles using a funnel, do not pour in sediment from the bottom of the carboy (for alcoholic drinks) Each day squeeze the plastic pop bottle, when it is hard and doesn’t give anymore, refrigerate all your bottles. Its done!

For the dry wine you can just bottle it in whatever, its not going to burst on you because fermentation has stopped. You could use old bottles and jars with screw tops or go all out and get a corker and wine bottles.

this is from last year

Puck playing and singing old country outlaw songs with me.

Love Magic 3

vvf said: Why does he remind you of Puck? Is he tricksy? Mischievous?

He is a bit tricksy in a few ways. I can give a couple examples while leaving out the many more private ones:

—I have encountered him in my dreams very often, something that I have never experienced with a lover before. I have with crushes, but not someone I was actually with. Sometimes I wonder if a conversation we had was here or in dreamland, I can’t be sure so I wait to see if he mentions the same thing again when I am sure I am awake.

—He seems to just bring me into his space without me noticing. I inadvertently leave a shirt or something there when I leave quickly in the morning for work, its washed and in his closet or folded in a drawer and I didn’t even notice it was gone—til he shows me my little section of his closet with a few items of my clothes. Its like I am being transported into his world, scrap by scrap. Its all very sweet and romantic the way he does it and kinda magical. Like “surprise, you are more a part of my life than you realized! :D”

Originally Puck was a play on part of his real name, but more and more its fitting for who he is, both in this realm, across the veil, and in the dream realm.

Kore Mead

So I threw together some pomegranate mead tonight. I started with four pomegranates. I cut the in quarters and tried to get most of the skin off. Then I spooned them in the gallon carboy. Then I poured in about three cups of honey, I’d do more, but that’s all I had. Three pounds is about right, this was a tad shy of that I suspect. I used berry honey, seemed like a good compliment to the pomegranate. I can add more later when I come by more honey. I cut up a big tangerine and stuffed that in there too.

My landlady saw what I was up to and gave me a cup or two of pom she had left (pomegranate juice) Why not? I poured it in too. Then I poured in hot water, to where you see on the jug. All those pomegranate seeds will get pushed above the water line when the yeast gets fermenting. Lots of head room is a must. So then I added a teaspoon of champagne yeast and shook it all up. Finally I put the rubber cork and airlock on. I am thinking of adding a clove and maybe a cinnamon stick.

In a week or two I will filter out the seeds and then add some more seeds for a couple more weeks. I have two pomegranates left. By then I should have more honey too and with the honey and more water I will top it off to where the handle starts. After that, when I gave pulled out all the pomegranate seeds I will wait til the tangerine bits sink to the bottom. That’s when its done and ready to bottle, I think. I will smell and taste it here and there along the way, as to make sure I don’t leave it too long. When it tastes like mead with that kick of alcohol and basically it tastes good and not too cloyingly sweet its ready.

I am a fast and lazy wild mead maker. I use what is around and ready to try things out. I messed up one or two of my first batches, but everything else since then has been excellent.

You can get all witchy while you do this, I use my special knife and wooden spoon and my cauldron (Pyrex Dutch oven). And sometimes I chant something or light incense, but I was distracted by my landlady this time so I didn’t yet. I can get to that later tonight.

So I threw together some pomegranate mead tonight. I started with four pomegranates. I cut the in quarters and tried to get most of the skin off. Then I spooned them in the gallon carboy. Then I poured in about three cups of honey, I’d do more, but that’s all I had. Three pounds is about right, this was a tad shy of that I suspect. I used berry honey, seemed like a good compliment to the pomegranate. I can add more later when I come by more honey. I cut up a big tangerine and stuffed that in there too.

My landlady saw what I was up to and gave me a cup or two of pom she had left (pomegranate juice) Why not? I poured it in too. Then I poured in hot water, to where you see on the jug. All those pomegranate seeds will get pushed above the water line when the yeast gets fermenting. Lots of head room is a must. So then I added a teaspoon of champagne yeast and shook it all up. Finally I put the rubber cork and airlock on. I am thinking of adding a clove and maybe a cinnamon stick.

In a week or two I will filter out the seeds and then add some more seeds for a couple more weeks. I have two pomegranates left. By then I should have more honey too and with the honey and more water I will top it off to where the handle starts. After that, when I gave pulled out all the pomegranate seeds I will wait til the tangerine bits sink to the bottom. That’s when its done and ready to bottle, I think. I will smell and taste it here and there along the way, as to make sure I don’t leave it too long. When it tastes like mead with that kick of alcohol and basically it tastes good and not too cloyingly sweet its ready.

I am a fast and lazy wild mead maker. I use what is around and ready to try things out. I messed up one or two of my first batches, but everything else since then has been excellent.

You can get all witchy while you do this, I use my special knife and wooden spoon and my cauldron (Pyrex Dutch oven). And sometimes I chant something or light incense, but I was distracted by my landlady this time so I didn’t yet. I can get to that later tonight.

Pomegranate mead making, oh the underworld offering this may be given as! Oh my!

Honey Pot

A very versatile spell that I have found very useful is the Honey Pot. This spell is quite flexible, no honey? brown sugar is a traditional substitution. I think anything sweet and special will do, really. You put the sweet stuff in the pot or jar or box and add other spell components of significance, identifying information for the target of the spell, and candles (maybe dressed with oil) to burn on top while focusing on the spell, perhaps at special times or days (moon phases, days of the weeks, planetary hours, if you are into any of those things).

If there is a situation you need to sweeten up, this is a very straightforward way to do it and it has worked very well for me.  I am having trouble researching it as the same information is just plagiarized over and over all over the net. This spell is traditional in hoodoo, but I believe it has cognates in other traditions. Does anyone know of similar spells in other traditions?

It should have roots

Making root beer

Witch where?

Hedge Witch, Green Witch, Garden Witch, Kitchen Witch, Cottage Witch? These are mostly marketing terms, phrases put together to make good book titles. Hedgemage is a phrase I have run into in fantasy novels and such to mean someone who wasn’t a trained wizard but could still do magic down and dirty. But other than that, how old are these phrases actually? They seem to originate early this century (2001-2003ish).

And as far as I can tell from the various books about them, they are all nearly the same things with minor difference about what part of the town is the witches favorite. Nothing against anyone defining themselves that way! These are fun terms to use. But you are a witch whether you are in the kitchen, on the other side of the hedge/fence/railroad tracks, in your garden, living in a cottage, or a high rise apartment.

Pear Brandy

The landlady went out of town leaving ripe organic Bosc pears and fancy German honey? I can’t be blamed for making pear infused brandy can I? I can see this being an excellent offering for certain Fay Godesses.