Diary of a New/Old Witch

TarotHound’s Lucky 700 Giveaway!

Hey Guys! I’ve been planning and talking about this giveaway for months and was waiting for a milestone to launch it, and After reaching 700+ followers yesterday I figured I’d take the opportunity to finally spread the joy, I cant thank you enough for all your support, I’ve made amazing witchy friends on this blog (you know who you are) and I’d just like to do something for the Divination/Witch community here on Tumblr because without your help and resources, idk where i’d be today with my craft. So thank you. 

PRIZES:

1st Place:

A complete (hardly used) Original Rider Waite Tarot deck. 

A Handmade Tarot Pouch made by leafstag (not the one pictured, that’s my personal one)

A copy of The Ultimate Gide To Tarot by Liz Dean.

A free reading from any spread in my Storenvy shop

2nd Place:

A Hand-wire wrapped Amethyst/Quartz Pendant of your choice (see above for crystal options)

2 leather necklaces for the pendant: Black and Brown 

A free Reading from any spread in my Storenvy Shop

3rd Place:

A Spell kit for my Luck and Success Charm Bottle

Two free readings from any spread in my Storenvy Shop

RULES:

1) I would appreciate if you were following me, its not a requirement but this giveaway is a thank you to my followers and friends in the divination and witch community. As incentive, there will be a little extra secret goodie in your prize if you are ;]

2) Reblogs only, however feel free to like as a bookmark.

3) Feel free to reblog as much as you like but please be courteous to your followers.

4) Be a resident of North America.

5) Be 18 years of age or older.

6) Be willing to give your Address, Email, and Name to me if you are chosen as a winner.

7) No giveaway blogs,Side-blogs are fine as long as you can give me your Main Blog’s URL.

8) You have 24 hours to respond if you are chosen or another winner will be contacted.

9) Tagging with “giveaway” “contest” “sweepstakes”, etc. is highly discouraged.

10) Do NOT remove text under any circumstances.

*Not a rule, but worth mentioning, the giveaway will be cancelled if it doesn’t reach a sufficient amount of notes; around 500 minimum. I just think it would be kind of unfair if this got like 20 entries. I want everyone to have a chance and if it’s not circulated I feel like some may be missing out who maybe cant afford these types of things or don't have access.

WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH AT 11PM AND PRIZES WILL BE SHIPPED ON OCTOBER 2ND - Just in time for Samhain & Halloween;] 

There you have it, it’s not terribly big, but its meaningful! I really hope the 1st prize winner is a baby reader because it would be a good place to start! Anyways, have fun guys! 

With love and with luck,

NOT ALL WITCHES ARE WICCAN

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE WICCAN TO BE A WITCH

WITCHCRAFT AND WICCA AREN’T THE SAME THING

Gentle reminder that it is okay to have fun with your practice

There is a difference between being ‘serious’ and being ‘somber’. 

So, I had an idea for a bit of techno witchery. What about encrypting spells into your passwords? On any given day I use at a minimum four different ones for various things I have to sign into, so it’d be an easy way to incorporate a bit of magic into my day.

For instance, if you wanted a spell to keep you happy at a job you dislike, maybe your first password of the day could be “1w!llBh@ppy” aka “I Will Be Happy” or something. (That’s an example, please make up your own unique password; security is still important.) Or you could use it to magically boost security if it’s something top secret.

Healing spell using earth

Sometimes you need healing, this includes for your spirit.

What you need:

A piece of hair from the target.

A wooded area or somewhere out in the wild.

Dirt.

What to do:

This is best done in a secluded area. Find somewhere outside where you can be alone.

Dig a small hole. It doesn’t have to be a big hole.

Using the hair  from the target, place it in the hole.

As you bury the hair say:

“The earth, infinite mother of all things.

I call upon your power to counter bane.

Heal my spirit and the source of all my pain!

rosaleithewitch‘s Follower Appreciation Giveaway!

Prizes:

~ One free-form pink pearl choker necklace

~ One large banded agate, tumbled

~ One Magical Messages from the Faeries Oracle deck by Doreen Virtue with white sachet, box, and guidebook included

** All items are fully cleansed and cleared of any previous energy before shipment **

Rules and Regulations:

~ This is for my followers, so y’all have to be following me

~ Don’t spam, okay? It’s annoying for your followers

~ Each reblog counts as one entry, likes are not entries but are allowed

~ Purchasing a divination service from me counts as five entries for every purchase, no matter how small

~ Don’t tip off Tumblr by tagging this as giveaway or anything like that, otherwise this whole thing will be shut down

~ I only ship to Canada or the US, and shipping must be paid for (I can’t afford it, I’m sorry!)

~ The giveaway runs until September 22nd, 2015, I will pick a winner the same day

~ Do not remove any credit, information, or tag as anything that will get Tumblr’s attention

~ I have the right to adjust, change, add, or remove any and all rules or information at any time, if absolutely necessary

_____________

This is my second giveaway since opening this divination and magick blog in September of 2014, My previous one was a little odd, and I gave away a Lenormand deck. kittenwicked won it, and I hope she enjoyed the deck!

Now, I’ve a reason to celebrate, given that Mad Diviner will be a year old in September… I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than to give away something special to one of my followers! I’ll be giving away a single prize package.

What is it, you say? Everything pictured above, and then some!

I realize a lot of blogs do Samhain giveaways, but I’ve decided to do one before Samhain containing swag to help diviners prepare for the Samhain season! This one contains two Samhain-themed decks and a sort of luxury bag to keep them in, as well as a third deck, and a (admittedly not-Samhain-themed) journal.

I will be sending the winner a new Coach cross body pouch with a strap (pictured above). The bag is leather, black, and suitable for most occasions. It may not fit with everyone’s sense of style, but I do think it will look stylish on most people and is a nice luxury way to transport and protect your Tarot deck, and potentially other valuables as well. The bag is authentic Coach, not a facsimile or fabrication, and retails for approximately $150.

Included within the bag, the winner will find three (3) divination decks. The image above shows two of then (Vintage German Lenormand and Samhain Deck of the Bastard) from my collection. These versions have been edge-treated. Unless specifically requested, I won’t be opening or edge-treating the versions I’ll be giving away, but there are ways to do it.

The first of these is the limited edition soon-to-be-discontinued Samhain Deck of the Bastard by Seven Stars. I’ll be reviewing this deck soon, and it’s simply gorgeous. The theme for this deck is Samhain, obviously, and it is decorated with dark but thought-provoking imagery in border form. Worked into this, one finds both keywords as well as zodiacal/elemental symbols to make reading easier! 

The images themselves are a pastiche of various famous Tarot decks. Many of the numbered card images are Rider-Waite, but some of the Major Arcana are drawn from much older decks. I personally have gotten a lot of great use out of this deck. It is something both practical and treasurable. Seven Stars created both this and the original Deck of the Bastard (not included in this giveaway) for vintage fans, and has taken the time to add individual wear-marks to each card to give it a vintage feel.

As mentioned, this is a limited edition deck and is soon to be replaced by a different version. The current version retails for $89 on Etsy, and slightly less on Seven Stars’s website. It fits nicely into one of the compartments of the bag, filling it out properly, and the bag will keep the deck safe.

The second divination deck I am including is the Vintage German Lenormand Samhain Edition in miniature form. This is a small Lenormand deck based on the Vintage German Lenormand, which I reviewed here last year. The difference between the two is that t he Samhain Edition has a dark background and more contrasting features, as well as a border similar to that seen in the Samhain Deck of the Bastard. 

This particular deck retails for $16, and is, as far as I know, only available via Seven Stars’s website. The two decks (SDoB and this one) complement each other perfectly, and it would be quite appropriate to use them together or in tandem throughout the Samhain season and beyond.

The third deck is the original Vintage German Lenormand in miniature form. It, too, retails for $16. You can, as noted, find a substantial and visually-rich review of it on my blog here. This deck is not Samhain-themed, but I thought I would include it anyways given that it’s a personal favorite. The small size of this deck and its Samhain Edition make them ideal for creating Grand Tableaus in limited space as well as carrying them around. They both fit snugly in the pouch/bag alongside the Tarot deck.

To complement these decks and the bag itself, I am also giving away the journal seen in the picture above. It features vaguely-alchemical stylings, and the creators (Peter Pauper Press) say it reproduces the binding of an encyclopedia called The Universe or the Infinitely Great and Infinitely Small. The idea is that, if you want, you can use the journal to keep track of your readings! It retails for $12.99, and could also be used to record spells and workings, or just as a normal diary, if that’s your fancy.

This giveaway is for those following my divination/occult blog, MadDiviner. If this is your first time hearing about it, go ahead and follow me, and be eligible for the giveaway! When I choose a winner, I’ll check and see whether the person chosen is following MadDiviner. 

This giveaway is, unfortunately, not international, and, to enter, you must be within the United States. I hope to do an international one sometime in the future!

To enter, reblog this post as many times as you fancy, but use your discretion regarding that and please don’t spam your followers.

On September 13th, I’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner and will send the prizes as soon as possible after that date.

The winner will be contacted via askbox, so please have yours open if you enter! You will have twenty-four hours to respond if you win, or another winner will be chosen in your place.

Likes are appreciated, but do not count as entries.

Sideblogs are eligible, but you must be able to confirm that you’re a follower via your main blog before claiming your prize. This is, after all, a gesture of thanks towards my followers!

Please do not tag this as “giveaway.”

Blogs that exist solely to enter giveaways are not eligible.

Another note: I unfortunately do not live in a smoke-free household, but most of the items are wrapped in plastic, and I’ve taken special care to keep them safe. There’s also a cat in the household who is totally mean and a jerk and has no friends, and as retribution, he occasionally sheds his fur. 

Just so everyone knows, the bag is very durable - I have one much like it (but it’s pink) and drag it everywhere. I don’t take it to work, obviously, but pretty much everywhere else, because I can fit literally everything I need into it. I carry a Tarot deck (though not the one above - I tend to rotate based on which deck I prefer at the time), a Lenny, and my mundane money-cards and such, as well as usually a bit of perfume.

A quartz crystal placed near the stove when cooking makes food taste better.

A pot of basil herb grown in your kitchen keeps the area safe from negative spirits.

Candles keep their shape better and burn longer when kept in the freezer.

A witch’s kitchen should never be without a lunar calendar or chart showing the phases of the moon and its movement through the wheel of the zodiac.

A full moon increases extrasensory perception and is the ideal time to prepare and use potions that increase the psychic abilities.

Love philters and aphrodisiacs should always be prepared during the waxing moon.

The best time to plant herb or vegetable gardens is when the moon  is in Cancer, Scorpio, Libra, or Pisces.

Homemade magickal incenses, sachets, and potpourris become more fragrant if aged several months before use.

Homemade incense should always be stored in tightly capped or corked jars.

Unlucky influences should be kept away when cooking or preparing magickal recipes, and this is accomplished by stirring in a clockwise direction.

An aloe vera plant should be kept on the kitchen, as its juices are an instant cure for minor kitchen burns. and the plant brings good luck.

Herbal preparations should never be boiled in aluminum vessels,  but in only copper, earthenware, or Pyrex to avoid contamination of the medicines.

Alright kids, tell me your best first or secondhand ghost and spirit stories. I’ll start with a basic one

I was hosting an imbolc ritual in my old apt and everyone was gathered in my bedroom talking. The main room was housing a nice little set up on a coffee table, it was set with tons of glass candleholders and plates with offerings and etcetera. So everything is fine until we all hear a DEAFENING CRASH from the main room, all of us, and it literally sounds like someone tried that magician trick where you pull the tablecloth out without disturbing the plates and failed. Like it sounded like someone hurled all of our glass on the table into the wall at high speed and it all broke at once

What made it worse it when we all simultaneously run back into the main room, NOT A SINGLE THING WAS OUT OF PLACE

Usually it is, really long legs walking by a first floor window, lights turning on or off, shadow cats, other shadow things, troll looking things peaking out from behind an above ground pool. That sort of thing.

One night, I woke up because I heard singing. There weren’t really any words, it was just kind of like vocalizing in a minor key. It was a really beautiful sound. It was about 3 in the morning and everyone else was asleep. 

Being the naturally curious, adventurous sorts, we went in.

And while none of us physically saw anything, we all felt it. There was something in that room, and it was furious. It was sort of like the feeling you get when you drop a glass and a parent hears and you know you’re in for it, but much, much worse, coupled with losing all the breath in your lungs. We ran like the clappers and all immediately started talking about it, all wide-eyed and shaking.

Well. It became apparent he forgot to mention why you would need to have more than one priest bless a room. There was something in that room and holy it was not

It’s the closest I’ve come to being thrown by a spirit. The air crackled like I should brace for being struck, the ground heated to such an extent I felt like I was standing on hot coals through my rubber soled sneakers, and I felt the sheer anger of the thing so intensely all my hair stood on end

I ran the fuck from that room. There’s some shit even I won’t mess with

Soon, the apartment started flooding whenever it rained. We’d get an inch or two of water easily. For note, I don’t blame this on our haunting, but it IS important.

A few months into living there, I woke up around 3 AM to the smell and sound of burnt microwave popcorn. I looked around. My favorite lamp was on fire, and sparks were shooting everywhere. I ran out of bed and got my parents. When they walked in, the fire began to die out, soon becoming nothing. I got rid of the lamp and went back to sleep; the next morning I would have thought I dreamed it if not for the holes burned through plastic items nearby.

A week later, I got a terrible feeling of dread when sitting on my bed. I immediately got up and started towards the door. Within seconds, the windowframe (and all the glass in it) fell towards me. The glass shattered, right where my body would have been. Probably the metal frame would have hit too. 

That’s when I grabbed my witchy friends and we salted the dead shit out of my room and the apartment. That lasted a good few months, and when things started happening again, the apartment manager decided to move us out to fix the flooding issue.

For those of you familiar with Harry Potter, Sonorous is a spell that amplifies the sound of your voice. My spell is more of an “I will be heard, and not ignored” type of thing, but it should work nonetheless ^_^ 

What you’ll need:

Dried Thyme: Courage

Dried Carnation Petals: Strength 

Fresh Lavender: Enchantment

Your name written on a piece of paper (can be decorative and pretty if you’d like)

Sachet Bag

Grind the thyme,and carnation together in mortar and pestle, and put strong, confident energy into them as you get them to a nice powder. When you’re finished, set it aside.

Pick up the paper with your name on it, and close your eyes. Think of a time when you were ignored, or had to repeat yourself multiple times. Send that frustrated energy into the paper as a boost. You don’t want that to happen ever again, so it won’t. You control your life.

Whisper the word ‘sonorous’ into the paper. Do it again, this time growing to a normal talking voice. do it twice more, and then a third time, practically screaming into it. See how nice it feels to unleash your voice like that? It’s invigorating!

Place the paper in your sachet bag, and turn your attention to the lavender. This lavender demands attention, with its hypnotic aroma and beautiful color. It resembles your voice, and cannot be outdone. Put it alongside the paper, and then slip the thyme/carnation mixture into it as well.

Introduction to magic masterpost

“Cutting ties” is a magical action that can work well if you are really astrally tangled up with someone. But simply cutting ties between yourself and another person (or object, or situation, etc) is not the same as banishing them.

Imagine a stick on the ground. You walk up and chop it in half with an ax. The ends are cut apart, but physically they are still right next to each other. You cut them apart but they did not automatically separate. In order to separate the two halves, you still have to move one away from the other.

Cutting ties is also not necessarily a healing act. Imagine a long string that is very tangled up. You cut the string in half. Now the tie between the string was cut, but both ends are still really tangled.

Cutting ties will not automatically make the two ends separate forever. A woman’s Fallopian tube can be tied, but it will regrow. If one or both sides want to regrow the relationship, forces will be raised to regrow it. In order to stop the connection from regrowing, protections or blockages must be put in place.

Like all magical acts, ‘cutting ties’ can be powerful, but I believe it does have limited use. I believe it is best employed as a preliminary measure before banishings (like, cast your tie cutter and in the same ritual, cast your banishing). Or, if you recognize that two or more things are unnaturally and unhealthily tied to each other, cutting those cords may rectify the situation.

Cord cutting is typically not a gentle magical act. If two people have a very intense bond, slicing that in to could be emotionally or astrally traumatic for them. If someone feels like they are losing another person (or people), they could redouble their efforts to connect. This could spell bad news if one of those people is an abuser.

Cutting ties is a simple magical act to perform. You can make it more complex depending on what other effects you wish to include.