trouble the waters

THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES ENTITIES — sticker designs

Hi friends! As a follow up to my post Witchcraft for Beginners, another question that I have either been asked frequently or that I have seen other people ask is how to incorporate witchcraft into your daily life. So, I decided to make a post listing some of the ways that I do it, as well as some ways that were suggested to me when I first started out. For those of you interested, the rest of the post is under the page break!

**For interacting with strangers and associates–dynamics with friends and family are much more individualized**

Disability Pride Month 07-31-20: finale

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you are a heretic of the highest order - rejecting the Gods and claiming divine power by your own wits [listen]

Come Together - Gary Clark. Jr., Junkie XL

Someone told you it was the destiny of the Gods to return to the chaos they were born from, which doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to you.

Nobody Home - Pink Floyd

Your stomach is empty, your fingers are numb, and the roof over your head can’t keep out the rain. The chapel on the other side of town is overflowing with gold and warmth. 

Saint Bernard - Lincoln

Your parents thought giving you up to the church might give you a better chance in life, but saints and saviors don’t see you the way they imagined.

All Gone - Mother Mother 

Resentment can grow as quickly and deadly as a disease beneath your skin.

Haze - Tessa Violet

Other acolytes don’t see the world the way you do; the light of the Gods that pierces the veil in front of their eyes only drives you deeper inside yourself. 

Sleepwalk - Forrest Day

You are searching for something on your pilgrimage - you don’t know what it is, but you can feel it calling to you, churning in your chest, telling you that this is not all there is to the world. 

Грустная Сука - IC3PEAK

The voices told you they would show you ancient power beyond the capacity for your mind to understand. You should have recognized a warning. 

Dream Sweet in Sea Major - Miracle Musical

Welcome to the edge of the universe and the end of time!

Spring and a Storm - Tally Hall

There’s a certain beauty to having your consciousness shattered in the vastness of space before the Gods finally decide to intervene in your life.

Impress your Creators - Tub Ring

You’ve touched the elemental chaos that created the Gods, so what’s the real difference between you and them now? 

Terrible Things - Brick + Mortar

Brimming with divine power and a powerful vendetta can make you want to do such terrible and awesome things. 

Undisclosed Desires - Muse

You preach your own gospel now. People love to follow divinity. 

Evening On The Ground (Lilith’s Song) - Iron & Wine

Someone should tell these holy warriors sent to wipe you from the earth that you are your own weapon now.

Sacrilege - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Heretic. Apostate. Blasphemer. It’s sacrilege, what you are. 

Say Amen (Saturday Night) - Panic! At The Disco

You are surrounded by followers who hang onto your every word. You are attacked on all sides by the furious disciples of the Old Gods. Everyone prays for the souls of the wicked. Truth is what you make it. 

Goodbye To A World - Porter Robinson

House Guardian

House Guardians help keep wayward negative energies from accumulating too quickly or from “sticking” from day to day activities. They do not, however, stop massive amounts of it from being brought in.

Materials:

River stone that catches your eye and “feels right” (can be a land stone, any color but preferably you have a stock of these things you have picked up and can pick the one that your guard symbol can stand out on)

pen or brush (I prefer a short quill as you can see from the photo)

Black ink (Normally I have some ink I’ve made from fire ash but I haven’t had the chance to restock yet, so India Ink it is!)

Process:

Your House Guardian is going to essentially be your security guard, so treat it accordingly. 

As you pick out your stone, feel its energy. If it seems to resonate with a particular frequency that you associate with masculine or feminine, or if the stone outright says it refuses to be referred to in such a manner, give it that dignity. Most stones are neutral in that regard but “identifying” a stone in such a way only helps in naming and building a relationship. Every stone is different.

This process can take a long time, so don’t expect to get it done in a half hour. With this particular stone pictured above, I have been working at building a connection for a few months (and asked permission for it to be a part of this post). Over this time it has let me know what to call it, how to treat it, and what “face” it was comfortable with displaying. Sometimes a stone won’t tolerate a face but a symbol, sigil, glyph, sometimes a word in a certain language, sometimes even random squiggles or nothing at all. The stone will let you know.

The important thing to remember is that stones are OLD. They’re made up of millions of tiny dust particles that have traveled on the wind and water, been buried and compressed under immeasurable amounts of pressure, melted and “frozen” throughout the life-age of the Earth. They are parts of a larger whole broken off and slowly eroding away again to start that cycle anew. Essentialy they are the Earth’s “blood.” They’ve been through so much more than any of us can imagine and carry with them a steadfast stubbornness that has allowed their spirits to persist for so long. 

Being labeled and used as a House Guardian is hardly a lasting moment for them, but aside from that… and like a security guard they might divulge a few old war stories or open up about the state of things in the Hidden World. Just keep in mind as well that what they may share is not often comprehensible by humans….and is said VERY slowly.

When you’ve given it a face (literally or metaphorically) you’ve also more than likely been given suggestions on where your House Guardian would prefer to be stationed, now that it knows what you want out of the relationship as well.

Be it on a windowsill, in a forgotten corner of your home, buried in a flowerpot or in the yard somewhere, even in a purse or messenger bag (should they be a rolling stone ^w^). 

#046-047

“Why did the wizard curse a bear?”

bears a cursed terror: Something nasty has been sealed inside; also conventional.

terrorises a cursed bear: Honestly just kind of mean.

terrorises a bearable curse: “I haven’t been cursed by you… you’ve been cursed by me.”

curses a terrible bear: A bear that’s frankly a bit rubbish has been met with wizardly wrath; possibly plot of a Disney film

don’t argue with or challenge the delusion—attempting to disprove someone’s delusions is not helpful at all and will result in that person not trusting you

assure the delusional person that they are safe; be open and honest at all times

encourage them to verbalize their feelings and offer protection to prevent injury to themselves or, possibly, others

start building a trusting relationship with them rather than acting on a desire to control their symptoms

do not confirm or feed into the delusion by asking questions about it when the person is not experiencing a psychotic episode

what it does not mean:

People really seem to like Crutchie so here he is! <3 I can't remember if I posted him on this account or not but anyways

ocd is not just liking things clean

ocd is not just being highly organized.

it’s an actual, real fucking disorder. a disorder that has a spectrum of severity, but the only people who are on that spectrum are people who have ocd. 

people with ocd deserve respect. people with ocd deserve to be listened to. people with ocd deserve to have their disorder treated with seriousness. people with ocd deserve better than having people invalidate them.

Great question, and I’m excited that you want to learn! It highly depends on your area, as each region has different plants. 

Apps:

Try seeking out reputable field guides that have been turned into apps. (Such as Peterson or Audubon). You may also find that different societies/whatever have created localized guides and turned them into apps.

There are a lot of Plant ID apps where you simply take a photo and it gives you it’s guesses. I haven’t personally used any, but they seem like a decent starting point if you have absolutely no clue. But please don’t use them as a sole identifier!

Websites:

I look for websites that are created by government organizations, plant societies, museums, universities, field guide publishers, etc.

When trying to identify a plant, sometimes something as simple as googling “purple flower shrub ___ (your area)” and looking at the image results can help you out, then go to more reliable sources to fact check. 

I’d also recommend familiarizing yourself with botanical terms, or at least figuring them out each time you have a mystery plant you want to identify. (Think: leaf shapes, branching patterns--opposite, alternate, whorled, other?--, flower types, fruit types, etc.) This is a huge rabbit hole you can go down but those four things are very helpful for basic identification. 

Here are some search queries to try:

Wild plants of ___ (your area)

Native plants of ___ (your area)

Weeds of ___ (your area)

List of ___ (your area) plants

___ (your area) plant guide

Broaden the search if your area isn’t pulling up much. For example, I’m in Washington state so I might try “Pacific Northwest” or “West Coast” or even “North America” if desperate. 

Here’s some examples of decent sites for my region (WA/PNW):

(I got to all of these sites by using the search queries listed above btw)

Washington Native Plant Society

Burke’s Washington Flora Checklist (University of Washington Herbarium)

USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Plant Database

University of Washington’s Directory of Recommended Links (lots of resources)

King County Native Plant Guide

Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board

Downloadable PDFs:

Northern Forest Atlases for woody plants, mosses and sedges.

Here are the plant guides I use the most:

Other plant guides (I’ve collected them over the years through used bookstores, there are likely newer editions):

Lots of libraries have field guides, I recommend borrowing them and seeing what formats work for you!