Lily & Bone

Over the past two days, I have seen a, frankly, alarming number of posts telling witches that they can put crystals in their water/tea/etc. to infuse it quickly and directly with said crystal's energy. So, today, we're going to learn you a thing.

First of all: STOP. STOP SHARING THESE POSTS. STOP DOING THIS. JUST STOP.

I don't care if you've been practicing witchcraft for an hour or a decade. Science always comes first. ALWAYS.

Here, have some:

https://www.gemsociety.org/article/gemstone-toxicity-table/

Under no circumstances should you put your crystals in your drinking water or anything else you intend to consume. Do not put them in your mouth. Do not put them in any other bodily orifice. Do not put them in your bath water. Do not put them in your perfume bottles.

"But the one I'm using says it's safe!"

First, "none known" does not mean the same thing as safe. Second, do you actually know what you have in you hands? Do you understand its chemical composition and how those particular substances interact with your system? Can you say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the stone you are holding is pure anything?

In fact, that's a good rule: before using whatever crystal you've bought in your drinking water because it is supposedly safe, ask yourself if whoever sold it to you cares more about purity than the money they make from selling their stock. Also ask yourself if the people who sold it to you knows what they have in their hands. Do they understand chemistry and biology? Or did they also go, "that's a pretty rock, let's put it in a water bottle."?

This is not some cute little "look how witchy/spiritual I am" thing. This is basic chemistry and biology.

Last year, I began the process of compiling my first grimoire. After more than sixteen years of practicing witchcraft, finally writing things down has been something of a strange experience.

For one thing, this book's organization seems completely arbitrary from a reader's perspective, but feels quite stable from an energy perspective. The organization techniques are unlikely to change, so an index shall have to find its way into the last pages of the book, which means that the pages will have to become numbered at some point.

For another, I find myself walking a line between wanting to write an entirely instructional grimoire and wanting to write in sections that could best be defined as "field notes." Fortunately, there is still time before that decision needs to be made, but the indecisiveness stems primarily from what purpose this grimoire is intended to serve. Will it be shared with other witches at any point, or is it entirely for me? Perhaps more relevantly, will it be shared with other witches in my lifetime? And why does this distinction seem to matter so much?

There's also the matter of belatedly realizing that I've added sections I neither need nor want. They're not useful to me. They're simply bits of information I happen to have. The kitchen correspondences section, for example, is utterly unnecessary. Why on Earth should I care to note what chamomile does for one's tea when I do not like the taste of chamomile or half the other things I wrote down? Sometimes, it would seem, the hoarding of knowledge is only that. Thus, it appears some adjustments will need to be made.

And in the vein of adjustments, it occurs to me that there may be rather distinct benefits to having a grimoire in a binder format. How much of this information am I likely to find irrelevant or juvenile some years down the path? How much will I someday want to remove? Unfortunately, I dislike the way that paper moves in binders; so, instead, I shall simply need to be more mindful in the future.

The book I have started my grimoire in is neither a binder nor refillable, but it is rather excellent. The paper takes most every pen in my collection without bleeding (though the ones it did not take well leave me with a distinct desire to redo that entire section). And the book's energy is incredibly steady; I could not possibly be more pleased with the results of the sigil I crafted for it.

I am, however, beginning to suspect that this book is too small. And, thus, I am left with yet another decision. There is a larger journal in my collection that I could possibly transfer everything to, but it's cover is markedly different and I am uncertain about how that will impact the energy. It would also be possible to acquire the same journal I'm already using, again, which might be large enough were I to remove the unnecessary sections. And, still, there is a third option on the table, which is a slightly larger journal whose cover would allow for embossment; that idea is intriguing, but I don't know how I feel about the fact that it ties shut. Alas, I find I am no closer to making any particular call. Indecision, it seems, makes for relatively constant company.

(pronunciation: in-Vair-T-us)

For inverting.