pop culture paganism

Dandelion: Resist Annihilation, hope, anarchy, anti-authoritarian

Oak: Strength, protection, providing for others

American Sycamore: Resilience, Survive Extinction, Stay Hydrated

Allegheny Blackberry: Be nice but have boundaries

Osage Orange: Don't make yourself palatable to others

American Pokeweed: Make the best out of a bad situation, Loud Colors

Bradford Pear: The ideal of American suburbia is hostile, false, and will inevitably collapse under its own weight

...

Well made magical language, but it's a 1 to 1 swap for Hebrew.

Well made magical language, but it's a 1 to 1 swap for Sanskrit.

Magical language based on English that's shitty and thrown together.

Unfortunately I really don't.

Like beginner stuff is easy to recommend because in the solitary practice driven world of the modern witchcraft movement it's the main way 90% of us get started. Reading for your first few years becomes a necessity, and for a lot of folks that's where they find out what a lot of the options are.

And so those books sell. Those books get published.

One problem is, after that, you get into more specialized things. There is no general intermediate version of Witchcraft. People branch off and get into way more specific things. It's like how when you're a kid there's just "science class" but in college it splits off into so many disciplines. If you tried to write one book to cover all of it, it would be massive and unmanageable (or just not end up giving you enough information to be worth it and just be another beginner book).

The other problem is that these books are harder to sell for publishers because the audience is smaller. You always sell more beginner books for any topic (because there will always be folks who want basic understanding but not more -- be the subject carpentry or witchcraft), plus those that specialize will fraction off to what they want to do next.

So yeah. That means there are way fewer "intermediate" books out there.

And book availability aside, the main reason I can't recommend any... is that I haven't read a lot of them. Y'all, I love doing witchcraft -- I've spent the last twenty five years of my life being a witch -- but I don't actually enjoy reading witchcraft books like some of y'all. I mean, don't get me wrong, I research the hell out of stuff I do, but I'm pretty set in my practice. I learned a lot of stuff by trying and doing within the frameworks I've developed. I also learned stuff from working and discussing with other witches. I stopped actively reading witchcraft books for fun a couple of decades ago.

Folks ask me "what do you think of [author who first published five years ago]," and my response is either "I don't know their stuff" or "Ah fuck, you're going to make me read something aren't you just to find out whether something is terrible or not." Or I ask one of my friends if the author is terrible. Most of the time it's that third thing.

I'm like the opposite of @asksecularwitch in so many ways.

Like so many of my witch friends just spend so much time reading witch books, and that's great. I'm glad they're enjoying it, but I'm not that person. I've always been much more one for direct conversations with other witches -- and then when I do research something spending more time with non-witchcraft sources to make sure I'm getting the cultural, historical, and scientific sides right.

So, uh, yeah.

That's why I don't have any good recs for you.

Sorry?

There's actually books on Tarot Spells in particular that use tarot completely differently. Yes, they are 101 books but really if you're picking them up to compare and contrast and to understand how others see Tarot spells, that's very different. You may also find zines that are focused on particular topics. Like I just picked up over the weekend a zine that was about a specialized kind of witchcraft (I think, I've not read it yet). But the only reason I know about zine is from @upthewitchypunx . So that may be another publishing option that isn't a book or a blog.

Finally, I didn't start reading books (tm) until I joined tumblr. So like I think I joined in 2012 - 2013? Something like that, so like until 10 years ago I didn't read a single occult book. But I had been practicing over a decade and some change by that point. So I read these books just to see what they are saying to and see if they are actually good.

So far I've had 1 recommendation - Buckland's Practical Candleburning Rituals. Why? Because some of it is some of the best candle magic with textile techniques I've ever seen. A lot of what Buckland says is impractical in some cases and also Buckland was very irritated that he had to make a book in the Practical magic collection. So it shows. I would argue that this book is not a 101. But some other flavor, like an elective of a beginner class.

So yeah, I think ask yourself what information you need more information on to move past introductory and then start there.

What most people said "pick a direction and go" most of what's beyond witchcraft 101 falls into 4 buckets:

1 Specific traditions which are often initiatory to gain more info, but you can study about traditions and not claim them as your practice.

2 General folklore and history of different cultures or magical systems

3 specialized open areas to study more deeply like tarot, spell techniques, spirit work, etc.

4 fuck around and find out and do it yourself.

“ oh amygdala, oh amygdala … have mercy on the poor bastard … ”

FESTIVA PRAESBARETE

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✧ table of contents ✧

➳ intro

➳ what is masculinity?

➳ correspondents

➳ incorporation

➳ beauty products

➳ outro

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✧ Introduction ✧

• welcome! this is going to be my masculinity in makeup magick post where i talk about how to bring masculinity into something that is mainly known for the feminine side.

• if you’re male presenting, androgynous or a non binary individual looking to bring masculine expression into your everyday life then this post can help you!

✧ What is Masculinity? ✧

• what is masculinity to you? is it being connected with the divine masculine? is it being a man? is it having traits and strengths that represent who you are as a person? there is no correct answer as all these are good questions, whatever masculinity is, it’s defined on how you see it.

• masculinity to me is like the left part to our brain. masculinity in my eyes is the ability to take leadership within doubt, having courage and bravery to stand for what is right in your heart, masculinity is speaking your mind as well as remaining logical in decisions and nobility. we all are made up of two different energies, the divine masculine and divine feminine, it’s just a matter of figuring out how you see masculinity yourself with your experiences.

• while those examples of masculinity may be positive there still is negative to every positive, negative traits of masculinity may be power hungry, controlling, toxic masculinity, lack of self control and egotistical behavior. working on the divine masculine is an important part of working on the self in my opinion as it’s relearning what you may have been taught all of your life where trauma with masculinity may lie.

• using makeup magick to get in touch with your masculine side can be intimidating at first but in my experience ive found it to be very eye opening to gender roles and breaking social norms. makeup magick can provide a soothing way of slowly opening up your masculine expression.

✧ Correspondents ✧

colors

red, orange, gold, forest green

black, gray, brown, tan

scents

lavender, rosemary, sage, chamomile, mahogany, basil, tobacco, frankincense, patchouli, dragon’s blood

planets

sun, mars, jupiter, saturn

zodiac

aries, leo, sagittarius

gemini, libra, aquarius

elements

air & fire

crystals

tigers eye, sunstone, black tourmaline, malachite, pyrite, garnet, jasper

• if you’re also inspired by other practices like studying/working with crystals, planets, etc. you can bring some of these correspondents into your glamour practice as inspiration to boost masculinity!

✧ Incorporation ✧

• there’s a lot of ways to help incorporate masculinity into your glamour practice, im going to list a few ideas that you can use over others if that’s what you prefer!

• color magick is really good, what ive noticed to go for is when you’re trying to appear more masculine it’s definitely better to go for more tans, browns, gold and black. usually it’s easier to pass when you’ve used browns to contour your jawline, deepen your eye sockets, darken the eye bags (you can even use a purple or red). plus gold is associated with masculinity and black is a gender neutral color that hides what you want to be hidden which could possibly be your feminine traits.

• enchanting the makeup you use with certain intentions for what you desire it’s purpose to help you in masculinity helps! an example is enchanting contour with the intention of “I use this contour to sharpen my jaw to accentuate my masculine features”.

• using sigils to lower feelings of insecurity revolving around your gender dysphoria definitely is a good trick of mine! programming sigils with the intent to dissipate dysphoria or sigils created to boost your masculinity

• i personally really like contouring my features since ive found that contour makes my facial structure look more angular which usually is a more masculine trait, so using contour is good for masculine makeup! i also don’t recommend using foundation, but minimal concealer is fine just don’t put too much concealer on since you want to still have some blemishes show so it won’t appear you’re wearing makeup (if that’s your intention).

✧ Beauty Products ✧

• personally the whole idea for me to look masculine and using makeup is to appear as if im not wearing any makeup at all! this is why i advise to use as little makeup as possible to remain more masculine looking. or you can use makeup to enhance your imperfections! (like the eye bags as an example).

• minimal concealer

• contour & bronzer

• eyebrow and eye pencils

• brow gel

• contour brush

• short shader & small angle brushes

✧ Conclusion ✧

"Flora, of the moon, of the dream."