Just a quick compilation of the posts I've made about exercises to help improve your craft. These can be used as journaling prompts, inspiration for activities, or as methods for pulling yourself out of a slump and recharging your witchy inspiration.
Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft
Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches
Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons
Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews
Witchcraft Exercise - Witchy Inspo Journal
Witchcraft Exercise - Spring Cleaning
Witchcraft Exercise - Creating Correspondences
Witchcraft Exercise - Creating Your Own Runes
Witchcraft Exercise - How to Write Your Own Spells
Witchcraft Exercise - Shakespearean Witchcraft
Witchcraft Exercise - Music To Witch By
Related Prompt - Music to Witch By
Witchcraft Exercise - Annual Review
Most of these are also available in the May 2021 bonus episode of Hex Positive (check your favorite podcatcher).
Happy Witching!
(If youâre enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar, tune in to my monthly show Hex Positive on your favorite podcast app, or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. đ)
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And just a few clarifications for folks who donât know:
- The hype surrounding âThe Exorcistâ (1972) is exactly that. The reports of accidents and supernatural happenings on set was part of their ad campaign. The only ritual being performed in the movie is the rite of exorcism. Thatâs not going to SUMMON anything, I promise you.
- The horror movie rule which states âNever Read Books Of Demon Summoning Aloudâ is a good one, but it must also be remembered that most ancient spell tomes mentioned or used in horror media are entirely fictional. Including the fabled Necronomicon.
- It is very important to keep in mind that the facts in many of the so-called landmark cases in paranormal study have been greatly embellished, either by the investigators or by writers and movie producers looking to make a buck. Nearly all the stories of ârealâ hauntings you see in popular media have been exaggerated to hell and back. If the Warrens had anything to do with it, you can bet good money that the actual happenings bear little resemblance to the stories we associate with those cases now.
- While it is possible for spirits to attach themselves to objects, therefore necessitating some basic caution and cleansing if youâre prone to collecting antiques or yard sale fodder, there is no guarantee that something is going to attach itself to your belongings unless you INVITE IT TO DO SO. (Someone cited the Annabelle case. If we believe the story, the ghost did not come with the doll, it was invited to possess it by the owners. Allegedly. See above note about the Warrens.)
- Swearing does not count as baneful magic. Itâs CALLED cursing, sure, but if you stub your toe and yell, âFUCK!â youâre not wishing harm on someone. Youâre upset and in pain. (Then again, I do like that meme about a witch cursing a house in this fashionâŠ.)
- Most pagan holidays are celebrations for some part of the harvest cycle. Holiday observances are not automatically magic rituals, and neither do they summon spirits unless you are openly calling them to the feast. I am not calling in the ghosties by thanking the earth for this beautiful bucket of tomatoes and watering a tree.
- Just because something CAN be part of a spell or ritual doesnât mean itâs ALWAYS part of a spell or ritual. We donât accidentally cast spells by dancing or singing or thinking or sneezing. Intention and focus are part of the process for a reason.
A brief masterpost of some of my advice posts for beginner witches and the episodes of my podcast dealing with the same. (There is UPG here, particularly where marked, as I base a good deal of my advice on my own experience and observations of other witches.)
candle spells take too long to set up for things that I have to do more than once a year or so, so I have been charming up dedicated single-purpose votive holders with the bases full of materia and components and just run tealights in them with some oil and powders and stuff on em and its fine
not to be on all your posts today but I've gotten into this somewhat and it fuckin rocks. I went into it air dry clay and diorama style so the candle holder is a 'sacred well' of power ... you can embed herbs/dust/stones in the clay, stamp and paint it. make an attached card holder space to hold petitions etc.
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i see people post on here all the time about how they felt like a lesser witch because X, and advise not to feel like a lesser witch because X, and I really have to wonder if that would be such a common feeling if we weren't trapped in a bubble of advertising constantly trying to insinuate to the entire populace that lesser is a thing that happens in people and you need to be sure it doesn't happen to you, with our fresh new product all the people who aren't wastes of otherwise profitable organs are already using. I'm thinking it might have affected us
I was having an interesting conversation with a friend last night about comparison to others in witchcraft, especially seeing what other people are doing and asking yourself if you're wrong for not doing that.
Which I do all the time. Like jbird I'll see you post and I'm like, my *god*, am I supposed to be doing Appalachian folk magic? Or I'll see a gorgeous picture of an altar... my god, am I supposed to have a seasonal wildforaged altar based on Catholicism?? Am I?! Because someone else is doing it and what am I doing, a whole bunch of dust and duct tape shit over in Tarpit, California.
As I was talking with this friend I said you know, I think comparing yourself to others is just something people do. But I think that we go wrong by internalizing it. I think maybe that impulse to compare and contrast is just a social thing, a quick check to see if that person is in our tribe.
"Ooo, Appalachian folk magic! Is that me? No?" And then at that moment I think you can continue as, "neat, now I have some social information about how this person and I relate," or "so I guess I'm wrong."
Anyway my PSA is that I don't think this goes away when you develop your own practice or gain confidence in your craft, I think this is something else about how you relate to the world, and if you want to stop feeling this way you have to practice and try to reframe the experience because (trust me) it will not go away just because you've found your own magical identity.
I can 1000000000000% confirm appalachian folk magic is not by default better than any other kind of magic, if that helps. I really truly honestly feel that magic is a soft system with very wobbly "rules" that anybody can work and nobody can ever claim rulership of. (I think i already scheduled a post about this thought, so if I seem to repeat myself in a week or so in a vent post, yeah, this has been on my mind, and i've been grappling with it a lot, so, forgive me if in the near future I repeat myself in a separate post) having a specific cultural identity just means your wobbly ruleset for the application of said soft system is culturebound, I truly believe that. I could take a list of ten of the superstitions by which *i'm* "supposed" to work magic that imply a ruleset for me, and not get any better or more lasting results than someone who did the same spell from first principles without following any of the rules my background insisted applied to magic and that would be very tempting for me as a practitioner to assume were universal to magic and need to be there to be effective magic, and the more I think about it the more I feel like magic in particular is a system that can be interacted with from any grounding, and that as practitioners, and really, even just humans in cultures, we end up with mixed bags of beliefs about it and I think there's always more work to be done about which rules are "real" and which we believe might be real and which are the beliefs of other people that have trickled into our systems yk?. I feel like there's a venne diagram between culture and magic and somewhere where they overlap are the concepts that are more or less universal, but that the other parts of those circles are taken up by stuff that may not be true rules, but are thought to be so by the cultures in which we are individually bound, yk? And I feel like a bit of the consequence of this complexity is that people interacting with or seeing rulesets that have been built can't help but feel the implication under all that, that they might be doing something wrong or lesser, but in my heart of hearts, at the end of the day, I believe in the scientific method and testing our hypotheses and that magic itself is (perhaps intentionally) difficult to assess in that way because so many variables can seem related when they really might not be. I really feel like their may be a clause under it all ensuring that it can never truly be fully objectively understood and just has to be experientially determined by each practitioner, cuz we're all unique complex systems of spirits and ancestors and godlets and gods and familiars externally, and biases and beliefs and desires and not-desireds internally, and that the subtle variations in those complex systems may account for some of the wobbliness of those rules. Like we're all on a slightly different operating system and trying to figure out which commands can run on our hardware and software and environment. Regardless, I feel like the most important thing is results, and so long as you're getting results, that's literally all the proof that needs to be there that it's worth continuing to work the way you do, and that we can't really make assumptions about the universality of the things we observe. and if you're not getting results I just think it indicates a need for more experiments, and that these ought to be fun. I definitely feel like there's something to your assessment that comparison is just something humans do, but like, in the case of magic specifically i feel like that instinct is even less useful than elsewhere simply because it is so wobbly and so bespoke to the individual. And I really do think people should try to curb, as much as they can, that tendency to self evaluate negatively, because like. even if it didn't work, you still did a magic. you did an act of magic. and that makes you a practitioner. birds sing, cows moo, elon musk drinks piss, and practitioners do magical experiments. results not guaranteed.
its about the doing, I think. and even the thinking about doing. Engaging in magical thought, rolling around magical ideas in their heads, examining them, pruning them, is all things practitioners do, and doing that, is very practitionery of anyone. I don't really feel like the accoutrement or even the results of the doing have as much to do with the validity of the being that we feel compelled to apply to ourselves. if that makes any freaking sense at all. But I definitely advocate for exploration and a relaxation of some metrics by which we're quick to assume we're doing a bad job because we just cannot observe it all at once and shouldn't expect feats widely believed to be impossible to be a minimum grounds for entry. It's like saying you're not a real fish cuz you can't climb a tree, in a system where tree climbing might legit have a level of awareness that allows it to resist in certain circumstances. And not everyone even has the same magical gifts. I have a sister that can roll a 7 on dice any damn time she wants to. a brother that leaves his body almost nightly. those are not my gifts, I either have to be in immediate danger or request assistance and have a legit need in order to float out, and having those limitations doesn't mean much about me, because most people don't either. And I really feel like that's the rub. we're often applying a bare minimum metric of working miracles to ourselves, I think, when miracles are pretty difficult in general. Not much unlike beauty standards centering features only a very small set of the population have naturally as being a bare minimum for not feeling like shit when you wash your face.
*whispers* (Iâm whispering because itâs very important that we keep this very low key)
hey, you know that ancient grimoire youâve been searching for but canât get shipped to your country, is probably on Annaâs Archives. Yeah⊠you could download it for free⊠pretty much any text you can think of regardless of how old it is, itâs probably on there⊠give it a little searchy search and youâll probably find the entire book for free⊠just saying.
Having a hard copy is always nice. But when Iâm trying to figure out if a grimoire is worth dumping money on⊠itâs always nice to have a little free trial,âŠ
I think a confounding factor is that (I believe) Witches are actually magical; at a certain point in your practice you stop doing magic and start being magic.
You can maintain this to greater or lesser degrees depending on your tolerance to it (and within the parameters of your hardware). But I think it's a tepid take to expect that Witches are magical.
So anyway I think it's possible to get to a point where you just start seeing around corners in a magical way, like the spirits do. Maybe it's part life wisdom - when I was 30 my base assumptions were ten years more fine tuned than I was 20, right.
But I also think one season the morning comes and you just start knowing things. I think this can onset pretty fast based on the path you take, and I also think this can be sought out.
Then one day you walk into a new situation, immediately know a bunch of stuff about it you couldn't really know, do divination, and the divination supports what you already knew. You can Fly into a situation and expect to meet a spirit you couldn't have known was there, but you did know and it was there.
Which I think is in some ways disorienting because it can require relationships with our own tools and skills to be adjusted.
But anyway if you're in a position where you're struggling with verification because your tools or spirits never really disagree with your intuition, I might have some positive news about your base competency.
So today pulling into Stop and Shop, this lady cut me off and nearly drove into me, and then, when I tried to pass her, she swung to the right and nearly hit me again, and then flipped me off.
So somebody is having a bad day and taking it out on me. Thatâs fine. Itâs harmless, and I donât know whatâs going on in this womanâs life. Iâll give her the benefit of the doubt sheâs not just a piece of shit and is just having a bad day.
But then I park and she follows me, and gets out of the car and starts swearing at me and getting in my face.
Now I go from âindifferentâ to âIâm gonna fuck with this womanâs head.â Now I would say Iâm a gentleman of size, and in all black and bemohawked I probably look spookier than I actually am, so props to this lady for getting in my face. Now of course Iâm not going to hit her, or even threaten violence. Thatâs shitty. Nobody should get threatened with violence.
Instead, I take a step back, narrowing my eyes like Iâm studying her face really closely, and then I touch one of the several piece of âoccultyâ jewelry Iâm wearing (none of which, by the way, are magicked in any way at all). Then I mumble some nonsense under my breath, and then make the fig gesture and the horns at her.
She stops, wide-eyed.
âWHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO TO ME?â
I chuckled, and shake my head. âNothing at all.â I say in a not-terrible convincing voice. âBut every time something bad happens to you today, youâre gonna be thinking of me.â
Once you advance beyond the basics (pretty much when you start moving from What and When to How and Why and feel a decreased need for peer review alongside a greater trust in your own judgment), a goodly part of your witchcraft will be made up of things that you will never be able to explain to other people. Little personal rituals, intuitive understandings, flashes of insight, spur-of-the-moment spells, the use of unorthodox items and components that suit your needs and purposes.
You will find ways of working and feeling and connecting and casting that will be unique to you and your life experience. And you may not feel much like sharing the finer details. If you had to write it all out, it probably either wouldn't make much sense to anyone but you or it would be difficult to put into words. Many things will boil down to, "I just do the thing because of reasons."
You'll also find that a great deal of your craft will be made up of small magics that you do reflexively or out of habit or when the opportunity arises, as opposed to large-scale highly intricate castings which require lots of planning and preparation. And in a broader sense, without getting into the whether-to's and the why-for's of various traditions, that is how it should be.
Everyday personal magic is just as important to know and understand and practice as any full moon ritual or choreographed group casting. Because those small magics will be the heart of what makes your craft yours.
It does not particularly matter if your spells are powerful. What matters is that they are EFFECTIVE.
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Often the idea of divine feminine in spiritual contexts is based entirely on reducing AFAB people to their reproductive organs.
The mother, maiden crone archetype or the âlife cycleâ of a female revolves around reproduction and whether or not it is being done. Ones âdivine feminineâ and spiritual wellness is judged on reproductive factors being âin sync with your cycleâ and the like.
I think it is time we move on from this. We are not defined by our ability to reproduce, witchcraft and paganism claims to be a freedom for women free from the misogyny that plagues all other faiths. Yet just like these other religions spirituality, paganism and witchcraft reduces AFAB people to breeders.
People with children are first and foremost people. Their spiritual purpose is not just child bearing and should not be forced into a lifestyle where they are treated as nothing but a mother.
A person who chooses to not have children is not âout of touch with the divine feminineâ one does not need to have children to âspiritually level upâ.
People who do not have sex or are perhaps on the asexual spectrum are still divine. Getting your tubes typed or going on birth control doesnât make you of less value. Those who can have children are not any more divinely feminine then those who cannot
AFAB people who have periods and female anatomy but do not associate them with femininity should be respected. Reproductive organs do not define a person.
Trans women who cannot have periods are not any less divinely feminine. A trans woman who never got to be a maiden in the outdated, traditional sense should not be considered any less.
If the language youâre using to describe AFAB people is the same way that a dog breeder describes a breeding dog, youâre doing something wrong.
When looking around your yard or local biome for wild plants to harvest for your craft, there are several important things to keep in mind:
1 - Prepare for your trip ahead of time. Have some idea ahead of time where you're going, what the terrain and weather will be like, and what plants you want to look for and harvest. Make sure you wear appropriate clothing and footwear, and bring containers, supplies for labeling, and a travel-size resource for plant identification. (Pro-tip: Paper lunch bags are excellent receptacles for harvested plants.)
2 - Look for patches of plants well away from roadways and places which might be contaminated by chemical runoff or pesticides. When possible, select a large patch where your harvest won't wipe out the presence of the plant. (The exception to this is if you are removing invasive plants or weeding a prepared garden as part of your harvesting.)
3 - Make sure you properly identify plants before you harvest them, using a field guide for local plants or an identification app like Plantnet. This helps you avoid potentially harmful lookalikes. (And it couldn't hurt to look up what harmful plants exist in the area where you'll be looking.) Do not harvest endangered plants or plants growing on private property or in national parks. When in doubt, leave it alone.
4 - Take a modest amount of plant material for your stores, no more than you reasonably need, while disturbing the surrounding area as little as possible. Clearly label the container with the species and date of harvest. (Again, I'm recommending those paper lunch bags.) As an added courtesy, you can bring a bottle of water and hydrate the remaining plants to encourage regrowth.
5 - Clean and dry your plant material when you get home, if necessary. Just give them a quick rinse and gentle pat-dry with a clean kitchen towel before placing the plants into your preferred drying device. One simple solution is to cut the flaps off of wide, shallow cardboard shipping boxes and lay out the plant material in a flat layer so that most of it is touching the cardboard. (As opposed to leaving it in a big heap.) Label the sections or the side of the tray and leave your plants to dry.
6 - If you're not using an oven or a dehydrator, allow plant material to dry for at LEAST two or three weeks before breaking it up for storage in airtight jars or freezer bags. Make sure the plants are dry and brittle all the way through to avoid rot and mold in your storage containers and spoilage of the contents. Label and date the containers and store at room temperature out of direct sunlight. (If you discover mold or a bad smell in any of your containers, discard the contents and either throw away the container or sterilize it for reuse - this generally only works for glass jars.)
7 - Check back periodically! Give your wild plant patches time to regrow and you can then make additional small harvests on future visits. Also, look for different plants to emerge as the seasons change.
Familiarizing yourself with your local biome allows you to connect with the land where you live (and encourages you to care about it in the process). Also, it can garner you components for your workings for the cost of a few bags and an afternoon stroll.
But wait! What if your local wild weeds don't have magical correspondences? Not to worry - there's an exercise for that.
I'm going to stop you right there, homie. You don't need anything. In fact, you'll probably regret getting everything now. You'll end up with so much you don't want.
Don't even get me started on those witchcraft "starter packs"
I began my practice with a single candleâjust one. A white, three-wick Bath & Body Works candle I already owned. I learned the phases of the moon, traced sigils with quiet devotion, and stirred intention into my morning coffee. I printed my first tarot deck on plain paper.
Even now, I donât have much. Another tarot deck, a handful of colored candles, but my magic still lives in my spice rack. I steep my water in the light of the moon and sun, letting nature do the work.
A cauldron is wonderful, but so is a simple pot. A tiny, ornate bottle of sage is lovely, but so is the sage tucked in your kitchen cabinet.
You already have everything you need for the craft. Even if all you have is yourself.
PODCAST RECS - Debunking and Fact-Checking for Witches & Witchcraft Spaces
A collection of podcast episodes fact-checking, debunking, or just providing some clarity on modern myths, misinformation, and conspiracy theories that are frequent flyers in witchcraft and pagan spaces, both theories mistakenly touted by community members and some of the utter drivel spouted by non-witches that still affects us today. Check out these shows on your favorite podcast app!
(Updates to be made whenever I find new content. There will be some crossover with my Witches In History Podcast Recs post and some of the content will be heavy. Blanket trigger warning for violence, abuse, bigotry, sexism, antisemitism, and mistreatment of women, queer people, and children.)
[Last Updated: April 16 2025]
This post is broken into three basic sections:
Historical Misinformation
Modern Myths and the People Who Create Them
Conspiracy Theories and Moral Panics
List of Cited Podcasts, in alphabetical order
American Hysteria
BS-Free Witchcraft
Dig: A History Podcast
Hex Positive
Historical Blindness
History Uncovered
Morbid
Occultae Veritatis
Our Curious Past
Our Fake History
Ridiculous History
Stuff You Missed In History Class
The History of Witchcraft
Unobscured
Youâre Wrong AboutâŠ
Recent Additions:
American Hysteria, S5 E97 - The Paranormal Entertainment Industry with Sapphire Sandalo and Jim Perry
A discussion about the paranormal entertainment industry as it exists today and dream of breaking away from the Christian-influenced "ghost bros" formula to tell a broader range of more nuanced stories.
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 74 - Homeopathy Is Bullshit
Host Trae Dorn dives into the history of homeopathy, what it is, why it's bad, and how it wormed its' way into modern witchcraft and paganism.
Hex Positive, Ep. 049 - Satanic Panic? In MY Witchcraft Community? (with Trae Dorn)
Bree NicGarran and Trae Dorn of BS-Free Witchcraft sit down to discuss the stubborn traces of Satanic Panic rhetoric that still linger in the modern witchcraft movementâŠ.and have somehow become an accepted part of the lore.
History Uncovered, Ep. 131 - The Satanic Panic: Inside The 1980s Hysteria Over All Things Demonic
Beginning in the early 1980s, wild theories about ritual abuse, widespread occultism, and devil worship dominated news headlines and created a moral panic that led to unfounded accusations and even wrongful imprisonments.
Historical Misinformation
General History of Witchcraft
Historical Blindness - A Rediscovery of Witches, Pt 1 & 2
Oct 13, 2020 & Oct. 27, 2020
A discussion of the early modern witch craze and the myths, misconceptions, and theories about witches spread by academics. Topics of discussion include the works of Margaret Murray and Charles Leland, the founding of Wicca, the emergence of the midwife-witch myth, and folk healers as targets of witchcraft accusations. Sarah Handley-Cousins of âDig: A History Podcastâ supplies guest material for both episodes.
Hex Positive, Ep. 36 - Margaret Effing Murray with Trae Dorn
July 1, 2023
Margaret Murray was a celebrated author, historian, folklorist, Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, first-wave feminist, and the first woman to be appointed to the position of lecturer in archaeology in the UK. So why so we get so annoyed whenever her name is mentioned in conversations about witchcraft? Well, it all has to do with a book Margaret wrote back in 1921...which just so happened to go on to have a profound influence on the roots of the modern witchcraft movement.
Nerd & Tie senpai and host of BS-Free Witchcraft Trae Dorn joins Bree NicGarran in the virtual studio to discuss the thoroughly-discredited witch-cult hypothesis, Murray's various writings and accomplishments, and why modern paganism might not have caught on so strongly without her.
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep 03: The History of Wicca
October 06, 2018
On this episode, Trae digs deep into the history of Wicca, and tries to give the most accurate history of the religion as they can. I mean, yeah, we know this is a general Witchcraft podcast, but Wicca is the most widely practiced form of Witchcraft in the US, UK, Canada and Australia⊠so how it got started is kind of important for the modern Witchcraft movement. (And trust me, there arenât any pulled punches here.)
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 28: The Burning Times
May 30, 2020
On this installment of the podcast, we tackle probably one of the more controversial topics in the modern witchcraft movement: The Burning Times. What were the actual âBurning Times,â where do we get that phrase from, and what really happened? Also, how has this phrase been used in modern witchcraft? Itâs a heavy one, folks.
Dig: A History Podcast - Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches
Sept 13, 2020
Since at least the 1970s, academic histories of witches and witchcraft have enjoyed a rare level of visibility in popular culture. Feminist, literary, and historical scholarship about witches has shaped popular culture to such a degree that the discipline has become more about unlearning everything we thought we knew about witches. Though historians have continued to investigate and re-interpret witch history, the general public remains fixated on the compelling, feminist narrative of the vulnerable women hanged and burned at the stake for upsetting the patriarchy. While this part of the story can be true, especially in certain contexts, itâs only part of the story, and frankly, not even the most interesting part. Today, we tackle male witches in early modern Eurasia and North America!
Dig: A History Podcast - Doctor, Healer, Midwife, Witch: How the the Womenâs Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch
Sept 6, 2020
In 1973, two professors active in the womenâs health movement wrote a pamphlet for women to read in the consciousness-raising reading groups. The pamphlet, inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, looked to history to explain how women had been marginalized in their own healthcare. Women used to be an important part of the medical profession as midwives, they argued â but the midwives were forced out of practice because they were so often considered witches and persecuted by the patriarchy in the form of the Catholic Church. The idea that midwives were regularly accused of witchcraft seemed so obvious that it quickly became taken as fact. There was only one problem: it wasnât true. In this episode, we follow the convoluted origin story of the myth of the midwife-witch.
Dig: A History Podcast - Cheesecloth, Spiritualism, and State Secrets: Helen Duncanâs Famous Witchcraft Trial
July 3, 2022
Helen Duncan was charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, but her case was no eighteenth-century sensation: she was arrested, charged, and ultimately imprisoned in 1944. Of course, in 1944, Britain was at war, fighting fascism by day on the continent and hiding in air raid shelters by night at home. The spectacle of a Spiritualist medium on trial for witchcraft seemed out of place. What possessed the Home Secretary to allow this trial to make headlines all across the UK in 1944? Thatâs what weâre here to find out.
The Conspirators, Ep. 63 - The Last Witch Trial
Nov. 26, 2017
Englandâs official laws regarding the prosecution of witches dates back to the 1600s. Those very same laws would also remain on the books until well into the 20th century. In 1944, a psychic medium named Helen Duncan would gain notoriety by becoming the last woman to be tried under Englandâs witchcraft laws.
The History of Witchcraft Podcast, hosted by Samuel Hume
Witches didnât exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.
Unobscured, Season One - The Salem Witch Trials
Welcome to Salem, Massachusetts. Itâs 1692. And all hell is about to break loose.
Unobscured is a deep-dive history podcast from the labs of How Stuff Works, featuring the writing and narrative talents of Aaron Mahnke, horror novelist and the mind behind Lore and Cabinet of Curiosities.
As with his other series, Mahnke approaches the events in Salem armed with a mountain of research. Interviews with prominent historians add depth and documentation to each episode. And itâs not just the trials youâll learn about; itâs the stories of the people, places, attitudes, and conflicts that led to the deaths of more than twenty innocent people.
Each week, a new aspect of the story is explored, gradually weaving events and personalities together in chronological order to create a perspective of the trials that is both expansive and intimate. From Bridget Bishop to Cotton Mather, from Andover to Salem Town, Mahkne digs deep to uncover the truth behind the most notorious witch trials in American history.
Think you know the story of Salem? Think again.
Witchcraft and Other Magical Practices
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 43 - âLilithâ
Jan. 29, 2022
Host Trae Dorn discusses the ongoing debate over whether or not itâs okay for non-Jewish witches to incorporate Lilith into their practices. Is Lilith closed? Is it cultural appropriation? Thereâs so much misinformation in New Age and poorly written witchcraft books on Lilith, itâs hard for some witches to get a clear picture. Itâs common to run into folks on social media talking about Lilith as a âGoddess,â which she very much isnât. Letâs dive into the origins of the folklore surrounding this figure, and weâll let you decide whether or not itâs okay to work with Lilith. But, uh, spoiler â we donât think you should.
Historical Blindness, Ep. 106 - Lilith, the Phantom Maiden
November 22, 2022
Host Nathaniel Lloyd explores the evolution of the figure of Lilith, from Mesopotamian demon, to the first woman created by God, and back to a succubus mother of demons. Itâs a tale of syncretism, superstition, forgery, and a dubious interpretation of scriptures.
Hex Positive, Ep. 19 - The Trouble with Tarot
August 1, 2021
Tarot and tarot-reading have been a part of the modern witchcraft movement since the 1960s. But where did these cards and their meanings come from? Are they secretly Ancient Egyptian mystical texts? Do they have their origins among the Romani people? Are they a sacred closed practice that should not be used by outsiders? Nope, nope, and nope.
This month, we delve into the actual history of tarot cards, discover their origins on the gaming tables of Italy and France, meet the people who developed their imagery and symbolism into the deck we know today, and debunk some of the nonsense thatâs been going around lately concerning their use. The Witchstorian is putting on her research specs for this one!
Stuff You Missed in History Class - A Brief History of Tarot Cards
Oct. 26, 2020
How did a card game gain a reputation for being connected to mysticism? Tarotâs history takes a significant turn in the 18th century, but much of that shift in perception is based on one authorâs suppositions and theories.
Hex Positive, Ep. 23 - The Name of the Game
November 1, 2021
Bree delves into the history, myths, and urban legends surrounding Ouija boards. Along the way, weâll uncover their origins in the spiritualist movement, discover the pop culture phenomenon that labeled them portals to hell, and try to separate fact from internet fiction with regard to what these talking boards can actually do.
Our Curious Past, Ep. 20 - The Curious History of the Ouija Board
August 18, 2023
Host Peter Laws explores the history of the âtalking board,â which was wildly popular in the early 1900s, until something happened that would tarnish itsâ reputation for good.Â
Ridiculous History - Brooms and Witchcraft, Pt. 1 & 2
Oct. 13-15, 2020
Most people are familiar with the stereotypical image of a witch: a haggard, often older individual with a peaked hat, black robes, a demonic familiar and, oddly enough, a penchant for cruising around on broomsticks. But where did that last weirdly specific trop of flying on a broomstick actually come from? Could the stereotype of witches on broomsticks actually be a drug reference? Join Ben, Noel, and Casey as they continue digging through the history and folklore of witchcraft - and how it affected pop culture in the modern day.
Historical Blindness, Ep. 116 - The Key to the Secrets of King SolomonÂ
May 02, 2023
Host Nathaniel Lloyd continues his occasional series on the history and mythology of magic. In this installment, he looks at the development of the story that the biblical King Solomon was actually a flying-carpet-riding, magic-ring-wielding wizard and alchemist who bound demons to do his will. The origins and content of the legendary Key of Solomon are also discussed.
Hex Positive, Ep. 049 - Satanic Panic? In MY Witchcraft Community? (with Trae Dorn)
October 7, 2024
Bree NicGarran and Trae Dorn of BS-Free Witchcraft sit down to discuss the stubborn traces of Satanic Panic rhetoric that still linger in the modern witchcraft movement....and have somehow become an accepted part of the lore.
Holidays
Hex Positive, Ep. 28 - The Easter-Ostara Debacle
April 1, 2022
Host Bree NicGarran puts on her Witchstorian hat once more to delve into the origins of both Easter and Ostara and to finally answer the age-old question: which came first â the bunny or the egg?
Historical Blindness, Ep. 28 - A Very Historically Blind Christmas
Dec. 18, 2018
An exploration of the origins of Christmas traditions, with special guest Brian Earl of the Christmas Past podcast. (There is also some mention of Christmas witches!) Further installments of this series explore additional Christmas traditions and iconography which have been falsely claimed to have pagan origins as well as the myths surrounding the history of Christmas itself. (Eps. 47, 63, 84, 132, & 163 in December of subsequent years)
(An Easter-focused episode of Historical Blindness is coming out soon!)
New Age Nonsense
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 55 - Lucky Girl Syndrome and the Law of Attraction
January 28, 2023
Trae takes a look at one of New Age spiritualityâs most toxic philosophies - The Law of Attraction. The history of the idea is discussed, where it came from, and how this dangerous combination of prosperity gospel, purity culture, and victim-blaming has come back in a major way to a whole new generation as âLucky Girl Syndrome.âÂ
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 74 - Homeopathy Is Bullshit
August 31, 2024
Homeopathy is harmful in addition to being complete and total bull. Host Trae Dorn dives into the history of homeopathy, what it is, and why it's bad.
Dig: A History Podcast - Plastic Shamans and Spiritual Hucksters: A History of Peddling and Protecting Native American Spirituality
July 24, 2022
In the late 20th century, white Americans flocked to New Age spirituality, collecting crystals, hugging trees, and finding their places in the great Medicine Wheel. Many didnât realize - or didnât care - that much of this spirituality was based on the spiritual faiths and practices of Native American tribes. Frustrated with what they called âspiritual hucksterism,â members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began protesting - and have never stopped. Who were these âplastic shamans,â and how did the spiritual services they sold become so popular?
Historical Blindness, Ep. 145 - All Is Number: Pythagoras and Numerology
May 28, 2024
In this installment of the ongoing Encyclopedia Grimoria series, host Nathaniel Lloyd talks about a cult leader who is remembered as a great mathematician, whose real lasting contribution to the world is the nonsensical divination "magic" known as numerology.
Modern Myths and the People Who Create Them
Ed and Lorraine Warren
Youâre Wrong AboutâŠEd and Lorraine Warren w. Jamie Loftus
Nov 8 2021
Special Guest Jamie Loftus tells Sarah about Ed and Lorraine Warren (of The Conjuring and Annabelle fame). Topics of interest include Connecticut as a locus of scary happenings, New England uncles, and psychic communication with a tearstained Bigfoot.
Dig: A History Podcast - The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World
Oct 3 2021
In the 1970s, Lorraine and Ed Warren had a spotlight of paranormal obsession shining on them. In the last decade, their work as paranormal investigatorsâghost huntersâhas been the premise for a blockbuster horror franchise totaling at least seven films so far, and more planned in the near future. So⊠what the heck? Is this for real? Yes, friends, today weâre talking about demonology, psychic connections to the dead, and the patriarchy. Just a typical day with your historians at Dig.
History Uncovered, Ep. 92 - The Enfield Haunting That Inspired "The Conjuring 2"
Oct 25 2023
The Enfield Haunting began with a bang. Literally. From 1977 to 1979, an unassuming North London home was the site of near-constant paranormal activity, from knocking sounds and moving objects to disembodied voices and the terrifying alleged possession of one young daughter of the Hodgson family. But how much truth was there to these happenings? And since the Warrens got involved briefly and subsequently touted themselves as experts on the case (and made money from talking about it), how much of what we think we know reflects the actual events?
Hex Positive, Ep. 042 - Extended Warren Tea with Jenn the Ouija Girl and Lorelei Rivers
Jan 01 2024
Discussions about the careers and rhetoric of the Warrens make the rounds regularly in conversations about the paranormal among members of the witchcraft community. But who were the Warrens? Why do they inspire such ire even as the Conjuring franchise gains steam? How much of what we think we know about the supernatural comes from them? And why is it important to recognize - and refute - their rhetoric when we encounter it? Bree NicGarran sits down with Jenn the Ouija Girl and Lorelei Rivers to spill ALL the tea.
"Paranormal" Literature & Media
Youâre Wrong AboutâŠWinter Book Club - The Amityville Horror, Pts. 1-3
Dec 20 2021 - Feb 6 2022
Sarah tells guest host Jamie Loftus about the Amityville Horror, how itâs a Christmas story, and buying murder furniture might not be such a great idea. Further highlights include Jodie the Demon Pig, poor insulation and terrible parenting as evidence of a haunting, lots and lots of sunk cost fallacy, and how the book kind of debunks itself.
MORBID, Ep. 610 - The Amityville Horror Conspiracy
October 17 2024
The supposed experience of the Lutz family at 112 Ocean Avenue served as the basis for the iconic haunted house story, âThe Amityville Horror,â and the countless films adapted from or inspired by the original novel. However, unlike most other stories of paranormal experiences, âThe Amityville Horrorâ became a phenomenon that influenced everything from Ronald DeFeoâs criminal defense during his murder trial to the American publicâs belief in the supernatural. Yet for all their talk of it being a genuine story of demonic activity, in the years since the publication of the popular novel, a large body of evidence from skeptical evaluations to court records and interview transcripts suggest that Americaâs most notorious haunted house might not have been quite so haunted after all.
American Hysteria, Ep. 125 - I Was A Teenage Poltergeist
October 14 2024
Sarah Marshall, host of âYouâre Wrong AboutâŠ,â transports us to the old world of British Hysteria to reveal the mysterious story of the Enfield Poltergeist and joins host Chelsea Weber Smith at the seance table to discuss the great unknown and the ghosts they know.
Youâre Wrong About⊠- Michelle Remembers, Pt. 1-5
March 26, 2020 - April 30, 2020
Intrepid hosts Sarah and Mike delve into one of the foundational texts of the Satanic Panic - âMichelle Remembers.â A young woman spends a year undergoing hypnosis therapy, which uncovers repressed memories of shocking and horrifying abuse at the hands of a Satanic cult. The book became a foundational text for both mental health professionals and law enforcement attempting to grapple with an alleged nationwide network of insidiously invisible child-abducting cults. The only problem isâŠnone of what Michelle remembered ever actually happened.
American Hysteria, Eps. 64-66 - Chick Tracts, Pts. 1-3
March 20 - April 03, 2023
In his own lifetime, Jack Chick was one of most prolific and widely-read comic artists in history. His company, Chick Tracts, published hundreds of millions of copies of pocket-sized bible comics, filled with lurid illustrations of cackling demons, wicked witches, and sinister cults, all hell-bent on corrupting any hapless mortal they could get their hands on. These tracts were meant to be left where they might be found by a sinner in need of salvation, with a scared-straight morality-play approach to Christianity that contributed in no small part to the period in the late 20th century we now call the Satanic Panic. (Thereâs also a follow-up two-part episode about one of Chickâs âoccult experts,â who claimed to be, among other things, a real-life vampire.)
History Uncovered, Ep. 95 - Roland Doe, The Boy Who Inspired "The Exorcist"
November 15, 2023
In 1949, priests performed an exorcism on a boy referred to as "Roland Doe," aka Ronald Hunkeler, in a chilling ordeal that became the real-life inspiration for William Peter Blatty's 1971 book, "The Exorcist," and the movie adaptation released in 1973. But what really happened during this alleged exorcism and was there any proof of the claims of alleged demonic paranormal activity surrounding the events?
You're Wrong About... - The Exorcist (with Marlena Williams)
December 27, 2023
Marlena Williams, author of "Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of the Exorcist," joins host Sarah Marshall to discuss the little possession movie that changed America forever. Was the set cursed by Satan himself, or plain old 70s misogyny? What makes a country going through a cultural upheaval embrace stories about the Devil? And - the most critical question of all - do Ouija boards really cause possession?
Frightful, Bonus Episode - Is the Paranormal Like A New Religion?
June 25 2024
Since the early 2000s, paranormal content has exploded in popular culture. It seems we can't get enough of ghosts (and hunting for them). What could be behind this enthusiasm for spooky things? Host Peter Laws shares a theory - that the paranormal is a clever way for us to be religious...without being religious.
(This is less a debunking than a discussion of a personal hypothesis, but it deals with the pervasiveness of cultural religious themes, the influence of social media on modern mythmaking, and the sense of community surrounding paranormal belief.)
American Hysteria, S5 E97 - The Paranormal Entertainment Industry with Sapphire Sandalo and Jim Perry
January 22, 2024
Host Chelsea Weber-Smith is joined by paranormal correspondent Jim Perry of the podcast "Euphomet" and Sapphire Sandalo of the podcast "Stories With Sapphire" (plus various paranormal TV shows) to talk about paranormal entertainment. Topics discussed include the different kinds of projects in the sphere, behind-the-scenes stories from classic reality ghost shows, the the dream of diversifying the genre away from the formulaic industry of ghost bros and Christian-influenced endings in order to tell a broader range of stories.
Conspiracy Theories and Moral Panics
Ancient "Mysteries"
Historical Blindness, Pyramidiocy, Eps. 146-151
June-July 2024
Host Nathaniel Lloyd delves into the great pyramids and the various myths and misconceptions surrounding them, some of which, despite vast amounts of historical evidence to the contrary, endure to this very day.
Further related segments on this topic may be found on the show's Patreon, including a highly interesting July 2024 minisode regarding "Books of the Dead," which examines claims about H.P. Lovecraft's "Necronomicon" and its' supposed relation to the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus.
History Uncovered, Ep. 117 - The Real History Behind the Mythic City of Atlantis
June 12, 2024
First mentioned by Plato in Timaeus and Critias, the lost city of Atlantis later became a widely debated topic among historians. But is Atlantis real? (Spoiler: No. No it is not.)
Hucksters, Secret Societies, and Antisemitism
Historical Blindness, Ep. 14 - Bloody Libel
December 12, 2017
An exploration of one of the most destructive myths in history - the blood libel, or the false accusation that Jews of the Middle Ages and beyond ritually murdered Christian children, a lie that host Nathaniel Lloyd traces back to itsâ roots in medieval England and the murder of one Young William of Norwich.
Historical Blindness, Eps. 56-57 - The Illuminati Illuminated
September 15-29, 2020
A contemplation of the modern conservative conspiracy theory of a âdeep stateâ leads host Nathaniel Lloyd back to the dawn of the modern conspiracy theory, the Enlightenment, when the ultimate conservative conspiracy theory was born as an explanation for the French Revolution: The Illuminati!
Historical Blindness, Eps. 38-40 - Nazi Occultism, Parts 1-3
July 2-30, 2019
An exploration of the dark roots of Nazi occult philosophies, from a neo-paganism preoccupied with the Nordic Pantheon, to a folksy back-to-the-land movement that evolved into a nationalist sentiment, to an ideology of racial supremacy all tied up with contemporary myths and pseudoscience.
(The host is careful to note with clarity and vehemence at the start of each episode that this series IN NO WAY approves of, promotes, or supports this ideology and Nazism is roundly condemned at every turn. Itâs not an easy listen, but understanding how and why this bigotry continues to be a problem in pagan spaces and how to recognize it is very important.)
TL;DR - Fuck Nazis. No tolerance for genocidal fuckwads.
DIG: A History Podcast - Werewolves, Vampires, and the Aryans of Ancient Atlantis: The Occultic Roots of the Nazi Party
Oct 17, 2021
Modern movie plotlines which portray Nazi obsessions with occultism might be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but they aren't made up out of wholecloth. The NSDAP, or the National Socialist Worker's Party, was a party ideologically enabled by occultist theories about the Aryan race and vampiric Jews, on old folk tales about secret vigilante courts and nationalist werewolves, and on pseudoscientific ideas about ice moons. In this episode, the hosts explore the occult ideas, racial mythology, and 'supernatural imaginary' that helped to create the Nazi Party.
Our Fake History, Eps. 66-68: Who Was the Mother of the Occult?
May-June 2018
An exploration of the life and works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, self-described sage, medium, guru, author, and one of the founders of Theosophy.
The Satanic Panic
American Hysteria - Satanic Panic, pt 1 & 2
Dec. 10 2018 - Jan. 07, 2019
This two-part episode covers perhaps the most mystifying moral panic in US history, the 1980s and early 90s âSatanic Panic.â For this episode, Chelsey covers the rise of organized Satanism beginning in the late 60s, as well as the adversarial countercultures of the hippies and the metalheads, and their apparent Satanic crimes that would be hailed as proof of their evil, as well as proof that teens, as well as children, were in serious moral peril. Satan was allegedly hypnotizing the youth with secret messages in backwards rock songs, teaching them occult magic in Saturday morning cartoons, and causing suicides through a popular role-playing games, all while helping religion blur into politics for good.
For part two, Chelsey will cover what came next, a serious investigation into an imagined network of Satanic cults ritually abusing children in daycare centers all over the country. Chelsey will try to understand this shocking decade in history, why it really happened, and the cultural issues it was really about.
History Uncovered, Ep. 131 - The Satanic Panic: Inside The 1980s Hysteria Over All Things Demonic
January 08, 2025
Beginning in the early 1980s, wild theories about ritual abuse, widespread occultism, and devil worship dominated news headlines and created a moral panic that led to unfounded accusations and even wrongful imprisonments.
BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep 10 - The Satanic Panic
April 27, 2019
The Satanic Panic of the 70s, 80s, and 90s shaped the Modern Witchcraft Movement in a lot of unexpected ways. Its effects still ripple through a lot of our sources, so in this installment of the podcast weâre digging into this extremely weird part of American history. Itâs a bit of a doozy, after all.
BS-Free Witchcraft - Ep. 32: A New Satanic Panic?
February 27, 2021
A couple of years ago, we did an episode on the history of the Satanic Panic of the latter half of the twentieth century, but recent events have led us to ask - could it be happening again? Itâs very possible that we are at the start of a new wave of satanic panic, and QAnon is just the latest symptom of a larger problem.
Occultae Veritatis, Case #014: Satanic Panic of Martensville
Jan. 28, 2018
Today the hosts cover one of the various Satanic ritual abuse scandals that happened close to them. Is it full of hot air and false allegations? Yes. Yes it is.Â
Occultae Veritatis, Case #097A & B: Dungeons, Dragons, and the Satanic Panic
Dec. 07, 2019 - Dec. 15, 2019
Dungeons & Dragons, introduced in 1974, attracted millions of players, along with accusations by some religious figures that the game fostered demon worship and a belief in witchcraft and magic.
I got diagnosed only a couple months ago, but I have been practicing witchcraft for a little bit now. So in retrospect, here is stuff that I realized I have been doing to cope the whole time, and some new things I'm tinkering with :) Please feel free to leave your own tips or thoughts!
At all costs, avoid promising gods and spirits that YOU WILL uphold a rigid routine.
Just do not promise to give daily offerings! JUST DON'T DO IT. If you struggle with upholding a regular routine, do not promise gods or spirits you will uphold a routine for them. You should only promise things you are confident you can deliver. ((If you identify as a beginner witch it's my personal belief that you should not be promising anyone anything.))
Delete from your mindset that all witches are supposed to uphold rigid routines.
Give yourself breathing room: if you want to give scheduled offerings, maybe do one on the full moon. Or, plan it to coincide with other activities that interest you, and that you're likely to show up for.
Unless you have a few hours a week to devote to your practice, you should probably not be dedicating yourself to doing daily anything.
Rigid routine is not the only way to get regular experience with magic, build relationships with gods or spirits, or improve in your craft! You simply do not have to promise yourself or anyone else that you will do X actions at Y times.
Instead of having "do X for Y minutes on Z days" routines, try developing a streamlined ritual you can fit in anywhere for the really important stuff.
Maybe there are some really important things in your practice that you want to do on a regular basis. Maybe these are things like:
Quick personal shielding
Acknowledging and honoring spirits
General offering
Prayer for guidance
Instead of saying "I'll do shielding for 5 minutes every day after breakfast, then of course my offering ritual-", you can put a streamlined (short, easy) ritual together where you do all four of these things at once.
Deep breaths, acknowledge and honor the spirits, ask for assistance in raising a shield, offering excess raised energy to them, and praying for guidance in the upcoming task.
It should take maybe like, 2 minutes tops.
Then, slot this streamlined ritual in before most practice activities. Like:
Before other energy work
Before divination
Before spellwork
Or, use it as a sort of 'generic' access point of connection and perform this ritual:
When you shower, to calm down from the day
When you're on transit to prepare for the upcoming day
When you're feeling grateful and want to share the moment with the spirits
When you're feeling sad and need support
Instead of forcing important actions into routines that may be hard to follow, find a way to carry these actions around with you in an accessible ritual, like carrying snacks around in a bag. This way you can use other exciting activities, or other life events, as a reminder to practice your ritual of important things :)
Build a clear system of omens for yourself. Omens can intrude on your daily life and get your attention.
Maybe you have alarm blindness, forget to do divination, forget to check in with spells - so asking for omens can be a huge help. They are spontaneous messages that catch your eye. Helpful!
Research cultural omens
Research omens in your magical tradition
Journal and brainstorm personal omens
Write out, for yourself, a short list of personal omens.
Solid black pigeons mean a spirit wants attention. Seeing your favorite tree species means a spell was successful. Three gray dots means a spell failed. The scent of cinnamon buns means fortune is headed your way.
Perform a ritual announcing your chosen omens to the Powers That Be. Invite those Powers, Yourself, Life, the Universe, and Everything to send you true, accurate, and helpful messages through these omens.
Working with omens in this way is a skill that evolves over time. Your personal omen system will evolve over time if you use it. Think of it as another form of divination!
(Tip: Combine symbols with colors for an advanced system that's easy to remember. Oak trees are prosperity, but black means slow movement, red means powerful, and white means failure. After a spell you see a plumbing truck with a red oak tree logo; powerful prosperity. Etc.)
Build all your spells, rituals, and everything with the foresight that you are probably going to forget about it or not return to it for a long time.
Employ foresight and:
Encode retirement/shutdown functions into your spells!! Do you want the spell to burn out completely and leave the vessel hollow so you don't have to deal with the vessel later on? Specify that! Do you want the spell to go to 'power saver mode' and hibernate so you can save the vessel and recharge it later? Specify!
ENCODE OMENS INTO SPELLS TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE ACTIONS! "This spell brings me financial benefit, and when it runs low, I will see my omen of slow growth - a solid black tree."
Assume that you are going to completely forget that you're able to take care of this problem, so encode the spells assuming you will never remember to deal with this again:
Spell for people that will remember they want to deal with Monica (they will also be working with wards, divination, and subtle cunning):
"Stop Monica at the front desk from assaulting me with her dark energies, or else limit how much of her energy can reach me."
Spell for people that are going to completely forget this is an issue they can take care of and won't do another spell on it for maybe 18 months:
"Stop Monica from assaulting me with her dark energies, or reveal to everyone in the office her dark nature, but if neither of these things is possible, change something in the office so that we never interact again."
Assume you will forget about individual spells, that you will accumulate way to many spells than you can individually attend to, and that you may never take final steps like cleansing and deconstructing old spell vessels.
Build a spellcasting altar, or a spell recharging altar, where you store up all your vessels. Recharge them all at once, as often as you remember to.
Poor plan:
"And when this vessel runs down I will recharge it with the waxing moon as I stand under the orange tree-"
More tenable plan:
"And when this vessel runs down let it drink energy from my altar; let it take up any energy that suits it; let it feed on what is available to it, according to its needs."
Focus on learning how to tie spells to external energy sources so they will stay charged for way longer.
For easy deconstruction, set blanket conditions for every vessel that it be undone and the magic erased if you take a simple action. This is called a kill code. You bake it into spells and it makes deconstruction way easier.
Try developing a barbarous word of undoing and using it every time you want to undo a vessel or a spell; this word will gain power and can become very helpful in other ways.
Once again, plan spells with the foresight that it will be difficult/unlikely for you to re-engage for formal deconstruction procedures. So, anticipate your future needs during spellcasting: "And if I ever open this jar and take out the things inside it, let this spell be released and return to the earth, let it fade away without trouble and nourish anything around it as fallen logs nourish the forest floor." This way, you know that if you accidentally forget about a spell or just take it apart, the magic already has instructions to safely dissipate and you don't have to worry.
Develop a visual language to remind you of what collected objects and spell vessels are.
This folds in real nice with a personal omen system!!
Use a combination of colors, established symbols (planetary, alchemical), and personal symbols to develop a visual conlang that helps you keep track of what things are.
If applicable, decorate or modify spell vessels so you can tell at a glance what the spell is for (violet symbol of Venus next to a paw: a spell to improve relationships with the spirits that help you with psychism)
Build a system that makes intuitive sense to you, perhaps folding in with your color correspondence associations, magical headcannon, or any other mnemonic device:
All the spells in jars are protective
Everything that's tied into a witch's ladder is about prosperity
If it has a red X on it, that's a hex
If it has a 7-pointed star, it involves your dragon guide
If you store it in a bag that has blue on it (blue print, blue button, blue tie-string) then that object is related to cleansing
Your personal visual language will gain its own power over time if used regularly, in the way that egrigores or sigils can gain power if used consistently over time :) It can become a real magical tool, not just a mnemonic device!
During spirit work, just clearly communicate that your sporadic presence has nothing to do with your dedication đ€·
When you conjure/talk to/pray to gods, spirits, or anything, address the fact that your communication/rituals/etc ARE going to be sporadic. Explain yourself and ask the spirits to extend understanding.
Some spirits/gods/etc are going to demand regular routine. AND IF THEY EXPECT THAT, then you guys need to get on the same page ASAP as to whether or not that's possible.
Spirits can be incredibly forgiving and understanding, but unless you tell them why you are sometimes around and sometimes not, they do not necessarily know what's going on.
Your spirit guide may have not read the DSM-5. Obelon the Fox-Man might not be up-to-date with the 2025 diagnosis criteria for ADHD, and Obelon might not recognize that you are struggling with a disorder that can mimic inattentiveness. Obelon might be asking why you appear to be so enthusiastic, and yet only call for him once every 5 weeks.
Just explain!! Explain what you are comfortable explaining. Give them reassurances and ask them to not misinterpret your ability to be present.
At all costs, avoid making your path a carrot that you dangle in front of yourself to try and force yourself to fix your brain through sheer force of will.
If the way you talk to yourself about your path sounds like someone struggling with unhealthy dieting, maybe it's time to readjust.
"I just need to do my daily offerings, on schedule, for two weeks. Then I will have earned researching tarot spells."
Maybe it's not a good idea to intentionally include witchcraft in a cycle of reward and denial that will ultimately drain joy from the process until your passion is a withered husk.
Witchcraft isn't going to force your brain to change any more than Stardew Valley was going to force your brain to change. Or that time you got super into succulents. If your time spent studying wool quality in heritage European sheep breeds didn't cure your disorder, witchcraft won't either.
Witchcraft, I think, deserves to be something that is a part of your joy - not a part of a system of stressful attempts at making yourself into someone you're not because "real witches" all do such-and-such routine (I assure you, they do not) so you must force yourself to do it too.
(Incidentally, if you have a 'streamlined ritual for the important stuff' and it becomes a barrier that prevents you from practicing, then maybe that's not a good idea for you - or maybe it's not as simple and streamlined as you need it to be)
STOP trying to build a static path. Lean into temporary hyperfixations.
There is SO MUCH to learn in witchcraft. It's never-ending. The more you learn, the more doorways open for you with more things to learn behind them.
This is not college, you do not have to declare your major. You don't have to wait to decide on your 'magic specialization' before you start learning.
This is not college, you don't have to take semesters of boring general ed classes before you're allowed to start studying what interests you.
Unless you are getting into very serious initiations, learning stuff, advancing your skills, and building your path is not going to shut doors and prevent you from getting into something else.
If something excites your interests, GET INTO IT! Don't force yourself to ignore what you're passionate about because you think serious, responsible witchcraft is supposed to be rigid, boring, and tedious. (It isn't!)
Avoid declaring your major. As in, maybe the idea of energy glamours is super exciting, so on day 1 you create a lesson plan that will realistically take you 70 weeks to complete. Based on your history, is it reasonable that you will maintain this specific interest in glamours for over a year?
Avoid making lesson plans that intentionally slow you down and make shit boring for no good reason. If energy glamours interest you, are you (*scrolls up*) using energy glamours as a carrot to force yourself to engage in a tedious magical workout routine? Is the reason the lesson plan takes 70 weeks because you decided to spend weeks slowly moving through each phase so you have time to spam energy work exercises?
You know yourself better than I know you. Maybe wanting to slow down and engage in your focuses in a new way is the goal. Of course, listen to yourself first!
But if you have a temporary burst of energy and focus to learn a new skill, and learning that skill won't require you to make unhealthy personal or financial decisions, why not just lean into it and explore it moment by moment, wherever your interests take you?
I think you'd probably learn a lot more doing and undoing 20 glamours in a week, because you're freaking out about how fucking cool it is, than if you practice 1 basic glamor exercise once a day because that's what real disciplined witches do, and then 11 days later you forget it once and never do it again and now your interest has faded because glamouring is just another boring chore.
Invest some time and energy into figuring out exactly what your bare minimum of responsibility and upkeep actually is.
How often do you need to recharge your wards to keep them functioning normally?
Once you've explained your own needs and limits, how often do your spirits actually request offerings?
Are you 100% sure the spirits you're working with expect offerings in the first place?
Are those offerings expected to be physical, or do thoughts and prayers suffice?
How often should you perform a personal cleansing to keep yourself feeling magically refreshed?
Feeling anxious or guilty over whether or not you're supposed to be taking certain actions is NO FUN.
It is much less fun if you don't actually know how often you need to do these things. Then it's just all guessing, all the time, and nothing is ever good enough.
If at all possible, avoid putting yourself into a situation where you feel that you are supposed to be doing something responsible in your practice, but you're never sure exactly what it is.
Spend some practice time, learn some skills, and make notes, to discover whether or not you do have any minimum engagement requirements in the style of practice you want. And most importantly, having clear 'deadlines' so you don't have to keep guessing at what you're forgetting about this time.
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I wasnât really resonating with any of the full deck spreads I was finding so Iâve ended up making my own. Itâs intended to be a big check in for yourself, your life, and the next 12 months. Ideally, you would only do it at most every few months. But without further ado, here are the card positions.
Full Deck Spread
1-5 Positive things in your life right now
6-10 Things you can currently improve
Self Check In
11-13 Spiritual
14-15 Emotional
17-19 Mental
20-22 Physical
Life Check In
23-24 Home
25-26 Family
27-28 Work/School
29-20 Relationships
Monthly Forecast
31-34 January
35-38 February
39-42 March
43-46 April
47-50 May
51-54 June
55-58 July
59-62 August
63-66 September
67-70 October
71-74 November
75-78 December
**If you want to add an oracle card in the middle, go wild. I feel like it could provide a nice little overall message for the reading.**
I think today was the first time I ever felt truly exhausted after divination. Divination has always been a part of my craft that I really love and enjoy to do, partly alone because it came to me quite easily after adapting it to my needs. I never felt particularly tired from it. But then I read a post by @windvexer about making up methods for tarot readings. I loved it and it made me realize I can literally do anything I want and decided to use my free will today.
So I spread out all of my cards and sorted them by what subgender archetype I would assign them if they lived in the omegaverse. Because I'm a bit obsessed with the omegaverse and possibly feel connected to the miscecanis-community. I assigned every card a subgender and defined the meaning and symbolism of every archetype plus three cards who didn't fit any of the three.
Then I used my new divination system to ask a few questions and it was so fucking amazing y'all. I need you to get wild with your cards. Ask yourself â if everything was allowed, how would you read your cards? Then go and do just that. The new insights I got were so different from what I usually get and I made some cool discoveries along the way. I can now use my card deck to find out people's archetype and the tendencies that define their personalities. I feel like a WITCH!
I was exhausted afterwards and wondered why, since I slept well last night (for fucking once). Then I remembered that I've heard from some people that they feel tired after practicing divination and figured that, yeah, working with your deck for two hours non-stop is probably draining đ
