some do magic and some do harm

Hanging rosemary above the doorstep, and/or above doors of the house for protection.

Sprinkling a line of dried red pepper on a windowsill, to counter a curse.

Placing a mix of dried & ground eggshells and black pepper in every corner of a room to keep out unwanted spirits.

Placing a decoration representing a witch in the kitchen, to keep away illness and to favor health.

Crafting an effigie (no matter how crude!) and make it into the guardian of your home by charging it with your intent of protection and placing it near the front door.

Use herbs you have in your kitchen. (Rosemary, salt, black pepper, and usually anything spicy can be used to protect yourself or your home. Be careful of some spices getting wet, though. They can dye your counters/door frames 😅)

Incorporate your witches ladders/fabric wards into crafts.

Keep a broom by your main entrance.

Burn a stick of incense by windows and doors and focus on your intention (also be careful n do your research. No appropriating. No harming your animals with smoke.)

Why is spirit purple? Why is love red? Why is chamomile calm? Why is quartz "all purpose"? Why does cinnamon speed up a spell?

Why, why, why?

Eggs and rabbits have nothing to do with Jesus, but you know what they are associated with? Fertility

And the word Easter comes from the spring goddess named Eostre

You really should read him on how extremely flawed and reductive the very concept of "pagan fertility symbol" even is.

Or, as he puts it: "What people are actually saying when they claim 'eggs and rabbits were obvious pagan fertility symbols' is 'eggs and rabbits remind us of reproduction, and those pagans were all about Fertility weren't they, so they must have been fertility symbols'. Pull up a chair while I bore you rigid explaining why this is a load of wank." FWIW he does think it's more likely than not that there was a goddess called Eostre. In 725 the Venerable Bede notes that she was celebrated in spring ... and that's it. We know nothing else about her, not even what she was the goddess of. There are no other original sources. As for pre-Christian European sacred art using eggs to symbolise anything whatever, let alone fertility ... it didn't. At all. There are no such depictions. Not associated with Eostre. Not associated with anything. There were good reasons for Christians to focus on eggs around Easter. Eggs were once considered "meat" and thus part of what you give up for Lent. Easter comes, and yay! You can eat eggs again! There is, on the other hand, no primary evidence for "Ostara" at all. As a goddess, she's a conjecture -- not an unreasonable one, but not more than that. As a festival ... Ostara was invented in the early 1970s by a man who is still alive, and you can read his blog post about how he did it. (Details in the link above.)

All right, if you insist. HERE.

The Existence Of Spring Solstice Festivals With Similar Symbols In Multiple Cultures And Religions DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE ALL THE SAME FUCKING THING, holy hell do people no longer understand nuance.

Seasonal timing of festivals happened because that's how civilizations marked the passage of time for literal thousands of years. Similar symbols mark these festivals because, gosh, similar things seem to happen every year in the regions where they were created and why reinvent the wheel just because the name above the temple door has changed? It's indicative of a shared human experience, not deliberate or malicious cultural theft. (Not to mention, religions have been fighting each other and adapting/adopting each others' ideas and mythology since there were more than two camps, that is CERTAINLY not unique or original to Christianity.)

Ostara was literally created by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. We. Have. Receipts. The existence of spring solstice observations and associated traditions featuring bunnies and eggs prior to that has fuck-all to do with Ostara being any sort of ancient holiday, because it isn't one.

It's all in the episode, there's a partial transcript here and LOTS of receipts on my Wordpress.

Bottom Line - Get past your own issues with the Church and read some actual history. I didn't spend seven years fighting this battle for a bunch of jackasses who can't tell the difference between syncretism and theft to keep carrying on this nonsense.

That's cool. So, why did their parents upload their small child being upset online? In a public video, shared to the entire video? Why did they even save the recording?

Before a family Christmas celebration, when all five of us happened to be lounging around together, I announced we were playing PRESENT PRACTICE. I wrapped a toy frying pan in a muslin cloth and handed it to a child, who unwrapped it and mimed amazement. The older children and their father were all awarded points for their simulated appreciation and the baby got points just for learning to unwrap something. On the second pass we all leveled up to making a grateful comment in reaction to the particular gift, such as “this will go in my collection of frying pans” and “now I can cook one very small egg.”

For the six year old, I very seriously presented the important and tricky case study of unwrapping a large exciting box to find a single pair of socks. The child suggested a reaction of “this is great, how surprising! But,” their face changing to seriousness and the tone of giving the giftee useful feedback for the future, “I’m not very interested in socks.” They explained the utility of passing on this feedback. So, this being present practice, I received this reaction with the grace and thoughtful attention of an award-winning director, and we discussed how we would leave that part out for our more sensitive audiences.

The children also traditionally give small cheap or handmade presents to their family members. Each parent takes each child secretly in hand to prepare a present for the other parent. The six-year-old also has access to the PTA school shop, where the PTA purchase small shitty items (scented candles, bars of soap, cheap socks) and sell them to the schoolkids for £1.50 each, and wrap them on the spot. The 6-year-old carefully squeezes the value from the £10 we give them for this purpose, and squirrels away their mysterious bag of wrapped gifts like it’s a state secret. The three year old is given “pocket money,” and taken shopping. There is now emotional investment in giving; we whisper together quietly about how much people will like the gift. The three year old frequently whispers hotly into my ear about the item they chose for their grandmother (a tissue cover, lmao). The children, therefore, watch adults carefully when their own offerings are unwrapped and admired. When they see us reacting with amazement and gratitude to their gifts, it maps that pathway and lights it up. It also teaches pretty early on that giving is actually supposed to be rewarding, and is a more reliable source of cheer - as you can always control the feeling giving, while getting is tiresomely at the whim of an external giver, isn’t it? And it reinforces that a certain degree of social performance is expected.

Present Practice is a fun game to play so the kids do it to each other. It’s a funny trick to play on a parent, too. You can hand a parent something hilarious, like a potato wrapped in toilet paper, and see them try to do a Level 3 reception on it (“this will be my favorite ever potato,” I say mistily, “how did you guess what was in my heart?”)

For high-pressure present-opening situations, you can just sit back and watch, really. Even when I had to let them open USA-grandparent Christmas presents over Zoom AT the house of the British Grandparents. The children spontaneously decided to receive presents in the guise of angels. I was giving the kids wild thumbsups from behind the camera as they warmly enthused over the sentiments in the cards before even looking at the gift.

Does it sound artificial? Well, they have fun, and they’re kind, and they love giving and receiving. They’re nice and well behaved - and people love to give them presents. It’s all social performance! and you’re expecting super high-level software to run on Kid Hardware, which is like trying to program Plant Pathology 101 onto a border collie! Kind of an unfair expectation on the framework, mate!

WHEW Part one of Caro and John’s history and lore-dump. Obviously you can read more about them in depth in either of my webcomics Seemingly Dark and Mil-Liminal, but this has some stuff that isn’t addressed there so that’s fun! Exclusive content and you ain’t even have to be on my discord server. Part two coming some day, but not today. The formatting might be a bit awk because this was built for instagram but hopefully it’s alight, considering y’all were really the ones who asked for it haha.

Q’s below or in my ask box! Yes I love fan art, fan fics and cosplay PLEASE.

Does this count as a fandom throwback when it's an original story and the OP is the creator? YOU KNOW WHAT YEAH because this series doesn't get nearly as much love as it should. And it isn't even just storytelling through words, it's through images as well; I will always ALWAYS respect comic writers/artists to a degree that I can't...I can't even put into words.

I love this story, I see a lot of myself in Caro in one way or another and I know that this story came to my dash because of THE IMAGE that everyone's seen by now and attributes to their Fandom OTP or whatever but if you dig deeper theres such amazing, rich lore here. And a wonderful story.

My headcanon is that since Miguel's lab is like the darkest and quietest part of the HQ it kinda doubles as best communal napping spot.

is it a cheap joke? yes

had I have to do it? no but actually yes XD

If you're any kind of kitchen user, there are a few things that are usually present. Things like bread, cheese, beans, and vinegar are all things that many kitchens keep in stock. So, here is a list of some staples you may have in your kitchen, and what they mean.

Bread: health, abundance, the hearth, kindship

Beans: wisdom in choices, luck, money, divination, prosperity

Butter: peace, friendships/relationships, spirituality

Cheese: goal completion, happiness, moon magic, health

Eggs: feminine/goddess magic, fertility, mysticism

Honey: joy, love, sex, wisdom, lust, purification, health

Milk (Cow's): feminine parenthood/guidance, love, sustenance, spirituality,

Rice: fertility, protection, luck, money, growth

Salt: purification, protection, grounding, cleansing

Sugar: banishing negativity, love, affection, invoking kindness/sweetness

White Vinegar: cleansing, purification, protection

Adding some things together melds their properties! Cooking in butter for your friends can strengthen your relationships with them, and baking bread can bring abundance into your home.

As always, do your research, practice safely, and blessed be!

But in short there's nothing wrong with buying your first tarot deck yourself the whole 'you must be gifted it' superstition is a fairly modern invention and means nothing

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: Dec 29, 2023]

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

Occultae Veritatis

Our Curious Past

Ridiculous History

Stuff You Missed In History Class

The History of Witchcraft

Unobscured

You’re Wrong About…

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 “Dig: A History Podcast” 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 aren’t 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 “Burning Times,” where do we get that phrase from, and what really happened? Also, how has this phrase been used in modern witchcraft? It’s 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, it’s 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 Women’s Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch Sept 6, 2020 In 1973, two professors active in the women’s 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 — 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 wasn’t 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 Duncan’s 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? That’s what we’re here to find out.

The Conspirators, Ep. 63 - The Last Witch Trial Nov. 26, 2017 England’s 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 England’s witchcraft laws.

The History of Witchcraft Podcast, hosted by Samuel Hume Witches didn’t 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. It’s 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 it’s not just the trials you’ll learn about; it’s 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.

For some of us, bleeding absolutely is the main symptom, and other stuff is minor or even nonexistent. It's absolutely worthwhile to have a broader understanding of what symptoms can look like, & that bleeding is not the defining trait of a period. But what we really don't need to do is minimize bleeding just so we can replace it with a different standard of what True Periods are.

Every person is different. Symptoms vary and that's ok! Your specific constellation of symptoms doesn't make your period more or less of a period. Bleeding is not required! Cramps are not required!

For me personally cramping can get a bit uncomfortable and yeah I may have to take ibuprofen or something similar from time to time, but my cramps have never ever gotten as bad as the bleeding, which before BC lasted 2 weeks (I didn't cramp for 2 weeks though) also the two-three years before I went on BC my cycle was swinging from 50 to 60 days and there is basically no cycle-tracker that allows you to put in a cycle over 35 days, so I had a lot of sitations of bleeding through my underwear and on my trousers because I couldn't tell when my period would come

Being on BC (the pill in my example) did make the bleeding better for the time being (except for the very long breakthrough bleeding which they don't tell you about at the Dr, AND the one time when I found two pieces of white tissue in my pad, and they definitely don't tell you about THAT one)

So yes, while I do feel bad for anyone who has worse cramping than bleeding, I can't really empathize, because mine has never been that bad or worse than my bleeding.

Hello cursed eldrich children, I'm dad!

{Check out my comics below}

PART 2

> namesakecomic.com