It's Like Intentions But More Fun

Because there is so much modern witch lore that deals with "hidden ways" that witches would communicate or announce their presence to each other....and so much of it is completely fictional. (And anything dealing with something being purple is an automatic red flag for historical reasons.)

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love the idea of a purple door or a purple doorknob on a witch's house. That sounds freaking fabulous. Hundred percent would do it myself. I'm with you there, OP.

I just...these infographics that get passed around with no sources attached to them (ever) are really causing a lot of confusion and I'd love to get to the root of it.

Then I found an article on Witchipedia from late 2019 that included this:

Recently, a trend among witches of painting their doors purple to mean “A witch lives here” has sprung up. This seems to have started with a Facebook meme a few years ago, though it has been reported to me that some occult stores were selling signs saying “A purple door means a witch lives here” even before the meme appeared. Since I don’t have exact dates for either, I can’t say which came first and I have no idea who came up with it or where they got it from.

So that confirmed that it’s at least somewhat recent. Google has a search by custom date feature, so I went back year by year, starting in 2019 to see if I could spot the first time something like that was mentioned.

I found A LOT of articles about Feng Shei, the mystical meaning of colored doors, witchcraft and protection spells on doors. Many of those posts all used similar wording, saying pretty much the same thing, in that “I rewrote an article” kind of way you see often if you’re reading a lot of articles on the internet. So it had to come from somewhere, and all of these poorly paid authors were just copying each other, who copies an original. For anyone who’s not familiar, that’s how a lot of online journalism works.

For the past decade, THIS 2010 ARTICLE by Home Curb Appeal has been quoted and plagiarized by every website I found that talks about the meaning of a purple door. And I’m not even a little bit sure where Home Curb Appeal got this idea or if they’re the original, but it’s the oldest version I could find and it’s important either way. The only difference is that at some point they suddenly started adding in the idea that a purple door means a witch lives there. I can’t nail down that date yet, but and I suspect it was after 2013 and becomes gradually more popular from 2015 on. Here’s why.

August 17, 2013. Tumblr user @onetwistedpixie-blog​ made this post, quoting the same HCA article above, but saying that it sounds like a witch to them. It only got about 70 notes, with one follower saying they were leaning towards painting their door purple.

About a year passes, Sep 23, 2014 and the only post I could find was from a facebook group. It’s the exact tumblr post, taken nearly 1 for 1, but to a group that has a lot more people. I’m messaging the group owner to ask some questions about the groups population back then. Now the group has nearly 10k followers. Even if it didn’t have many back then, it’s one of those posts that can easily be shared to other larger groups. There are about 70 shares from that post, most are private groups, one groups that shared it the same day also has about 6k followers currently, some individuals have between 400 and 1k friends. The post is still being shared from this post as recently as September of last year.

So far, and I bet I could spend another several hours checking into this and find an actual linage of shares and spreading of the idea, it looks like that tumblr post getting put on facebook might have been the spark. It was easily memeable, easy to spread, made it’s rounds on facebook, got really popular on pintrest as well, and has made it’s way home to Tumblr. That’s my best guess and unfortunately all the time I have to research on the topic. What a rabbit hole.

All that said and done, I’m probably going to paint my door purple. It’s my favorite color and everyone already knows I’m a witch. Might as well go with the meme, since it’s already got traction.

Side note: As I write this, I find an other interesting mystery. I found some posts from pinterest of a similar image, dated 2006. Pinterest didn’t exist until 2010... So I guess google is a little messed up. Because of this, I’ve excluded pinterest results from all of my research as well as some other websites that have similar problems of the dates on google and their pages not matching up. It just seems unreliable and I’d rather go by the publish date on the website I find stuff on.

Excellent research there. I am thoroughly impressed with your skills!

And this is yet another example of how a meme can become a "fact" if it's repeated often enough, even when devoid of context or sources.

So yeah, witchy purple door symbolism? Modern myth. Creation of the internet.

Historically speaking, purple is a difficult color to come by. The dyes that made purple products were not cheap and for quite a long time, they weren't common either, since purple was a color reserved for nobility or at least the upper class. It didn't really become available to the wider public until the 1850s when the first synthetic dyes made richer fabric colors more affordable for the working classes. (Glass doorknobs made with manganese were manufactured from the mid-1800s to early 1900s, and these turn purple when exposed to UV light over time.)

Even then, the association between purple and magic is a fairly modern one. Older associations align the color with royalty, clergy, high rank, and rarity. It's possible that the association with spirituality and ritual carried over to modern color correspondences that mark purple as a color for magic, mystery, spiritual power, and wisdom.

In the 20th century, we also see a lot of pagan authors including references to witchy "codes" in their writing. These were largely based on the idea of a secret pagan society which survived by hiding in plain sight during the witch panics of the middle ages. Witches would allegedly "signal" their presence to each other with small tokens, such as the presentation of an acorn. Historical evidence for these claims is thin on the ground to nonexistent.

While it's no surprise that a color as special and desirable as purple would be associated with magic, and even assuming that there WAS some kind of secret witch cult passing signals back and forth, the lack of access to purple materials would seem to make the prospect of using purple doors and suchlike a highly unlikely one. (Not to mention that a secret code that you advertise with something as blatant as an unusual paint color for your front door is...a pretty lousy secret code.)

So anytime I hear about purple being associated with witchcraft practices alleged to have originated before the 1900s, I am immediately suspicious of the claim.

LITHA

🧀Fruit & veg, herbed bread, cheese, honey cakes, chicken, pork, sunflower seeds, lemonade, ice tea.

🍋Lemon, orange, cinnamon, rose oils.

🔮Moonstone, tigers eye, amethyst, flourite, agate. {Or any crystals in warm colours}.

🌞See the sun rise & set, eat outdoors, make or buy a sun catcher, bake a sweet cake, let sunlight cleanse your rooms, clear cobwebs, wear a flower crown, make honey/sugar scrub, wear warm tones.

🎬Peter Pan, Fairy Tale, Ferngully, Stardust, Tinkerbell, Maleficent.

LAMMAS

🌽Multi grain bread, corn on the cob, bbq meats, fried chicken, potatoes, soup, rice, nuts, black current juice, beer, peppermint tea.

🌹Rose, chamomile, passion fruit, all spice oils/scents.

🔮Citrine, clear quartz, tigers eye.

📖Finish a project, make a bread to share, enjoy nature, take care of plants, decorate or craft, acknowledge what you are grateful for, journal future hopes.

🎬Parent Trap, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Cheaper by the Dozen.

MABON

🍇Pies, nuts, smoked or roast poultry [bbq chicken with smoky bbq sauce], soup, corn, apples, plums, grapes, cinnamon donuts, caramel popcorn, peanut butter, butterscotch.

🌲Sage, pine, cinnamon oils/scents.

🔮Amethyst, clear quartz, citrine, yellow agate.

🌾Make scented pinecones, spend time under the stars, donate food or goods [RSPCA], burn bad habits, visit the deceased, harvest take care of plants, bask in nature, meditate.

🎬Open Season, Brother Bear, Spirit, Pocahontas, Brave.

SAMHAIN

🎃Pumpkins, toffee apples, ginger bread, chai, nutmeg or cinnamon spiced foods, hazelnuts, sweets.

🌰Nutmeg, cinnamon scents.

🔮Obsidian, onyx, bloodstone, amber, fossils.

🕯Cook a family recipe, light a fire, remember & honour the deceased.

🎬Hocus Pocus, Addams Family, Monsters Inc, Little Vampire, Corpse Bride, Casper, Hansel Gretel Witch Hunters, Underworld, Van Helsing.

YULE

🍪Cookies, fruit cake, turkey, eggnog, ginger tea.

🕎Cedar, frankincense, myrrh oils.

🔮Bloodstone, citrine, clear quartz.

❄Give or volunteer, bake shortbread or sugar cookies, share a meal with loved ones.

🎬Santa Clause, Rise of the Guardians, 101 Dalmatians, Frozen, Snow White Winters War, Narnia.

IMBOLC

🍩Poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, bread butter pudding, scones, muffins, garlic, onions.

☕Vanilla, cinnamon oil.

🔮Amethyst, bloodstone, onyx.

🕯Light white candles, plant seeds, bless your pets, declutter & clean your living space, bake orange and poppy seed muffins or cake.

🎬Mr Poppers Penguins, Happy Feet, Balto, Ice Age, Mirror Mirror.

OSTARA

🍌Roast ham & pineapple, eggs, milk, seeds & nuts, banana bread, chocolate milk, green vegetables.

🌹Jasmine, light florals, sweet garden, wild flowers.

🔮Amethyst, rose quartz, moonstone.

🌹Light candles, plant seeds, share a roast ham with loved ones, bake banana bread, finish spring cleaning, lay tumbled stones in your garden bed, take deep breaths [inhale new energy & exhale old energies], wear spring colours whites & florals, collect wildflowers or buy flowers that call to you & research what they mean, walk through nature.

🎬Epic, Strange Magic, The Secret Garden, Spiderwick, A Bugs Life, Barbie Fairies.

BELTANE

🍞Breads, cakes, honey, leafy greens, fruit & veg, seafood, iced tea, lemonade, milk.

🌼Florals, sweet garden, honeysuckle, jasmine, rose.

🔮Amber, citrine, moonstone, red jasper, rose quartz.

🌼Wear a flower crown or flowers in your hair, dress in red or white, make a bonfire & roast marshmallows, garden, take a walk, spend time in nature, pick fresh flowers to decorate.

🎬Moana, Arthur Trilogy, Avatar, Jungle Book, Tinkerbell, Barbie.

HOW I CELEBRATE ALL SABBATS OR ESBATS

☾Sage cleanse the house, light candles, diffuse oils.

☾Clean sheets/bedding/pillowcases/towels.

☾Eat at least one traditional food.

☾Watch a relevant movie.

☾Take notes in my BOS of how I celebrated the Sabbat to look back on next year.

☾Charge my crystals & tarot decks in the full moonlight.

☾Do a tarot reading relevant to the Sabbat.

☾Spend time outside with my dogs 🐶

Use Wax Seals and Stamps to seal spells

-bind someone by folding their picture and putting a black wax seal over the opening, burry the picture

-write your spell on parchment and seal it up with wax and a stamp as you say “so mote it be”

-add a finishing touch of association with a colored wax seal and stamp that corresponds to the spell (ei pink for love or gold for fortune)

-mix herbs, salts, or ash into your wax seal for extra magical properties

Sooo in love with this cross stitch 😭💕

…Drumroll, please!

And here we have it folks! The yearly wrap up! 

Thank you so much for a great year. See you in the next!

JANUARY / DIY Embroidered Moleskine

FEBRUARY / DIY Raspberry Rose Body Scrub

APRIL / DIY Crochet Succulents

MAY / DIY Peas in a Pod Necklace

JUNE / DIY Origami Box Pen Holder

JULY / DIY Gudetama Plushie with 3 Simple Materials!! ぐでたま Lazy Egg Plushie Tutorial

AUGUST / DIY Buttefly Lantern

SEPTEMBER / DIY Miniature Hardback Book

OCTOBER / DIY Marshmallow Ghosts

NOVEMBER / DIY Herb Drying Rack

DECEMBER / DIY Felt Leaf Garland

For the past Top DIYs of…

+ TOP DIYS OF 2015

+ TOP DIYS OF 2016

+ TOP DIYS OF 2017

✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖

Amethyst, Jade, Fluorite, Grape Chalcedony and Ajuga Reptans

Mercury Retrogrades

March 5th - March 28th, beginning and ending in Pisces

July 8th - August 1st, beginning in Leo and ending in Cancer

October 31st - November 20th, beginning and ending in Scorpio

Venus and Mars will Not be going retrograde

Jupiter Retrograde

April 10th - August 11th, beginning and ending in Sagittarius

Saturn Retrograde

April 30th - September 18th, beginning and ending in Capricorn

Uranus Retrogrades

An ongoing retrograde that began on August 17th, 2018 ends on January 6th in Aries

August 12th - January 1st, 2020, beginning and ending in Taurus

Neptune Retrograde

June 21st - November 27th, beginning and ending in Pisces

Pluto Retrograde

Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions: Essays in Comparative Religions by Mircea Eliade

Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle

Advanced Witchcraft: Go Deeper, Reach Further, Fly Higher by Edain McCoy

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

The Veil’s Edge: Exploring the Boundaries of Magic by Willow Polson

Deepening Witchcraft: Advancing Skills & Knowledge by Grey Cat

Kissing the Limitless by Thorn Coyle

The Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune

The Training & Work of an Initiate by Dion Fortune

The Second Circle: Tools for the Advancing Pagan by Venecia Rauls

The Otherside of Virtue by Brendan Myers

Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune

Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World by John G. Gager

Wicca 333: Advanced Topics in Wiccan Belief by Kaatryn MacMorgan

The Elements of Ritual: Air, Fire, Water & Earth in the Wiccan Circle by Deborah Lipp

777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley: Including Gematria & Sepher Sephiroth by Aleister Crowley

Treading the Mill: Practical Craft Working in Modern Traditional Witchcraft by Nigel G. Pearson

Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson

The Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel Aldcroft Jackson

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God & His Cult in Europe by Nigel Jackson

The Pillars of Tubal Cain by Nigel Jackson

The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition by Evan John Jones

The Robert Cochrane Letters: An Insight into Modern Traditional Witchcraft by Robert Cochrane

Secrets of East Anglian Magic by Nigel Pennick

Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish

The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts by Judika Illes

HEKATE: Keys to the Crossroads – A collection of personal essays, invocations, rituals, recipes and artwork from modern Witches, Priestesses and Priests by Sorita D’Este

The Satanic Witch by Anton Szandor LAVey

Advanced Wicca: Exploring Deeper Levels of Spiritual Skills and Masterful Magick by Patricia Telesco

The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald Brosseau Gardner

The Study of Witchcraft: A Guidebook to Advanced Wicca by Deborah Lipp

Progressive Witchcraft by Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone * The Crossroads in Folklore and Myth by Martin Puhvel

When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm by Layne Redmond

The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries by Anne Tedeschi

A Razor for a Goat: Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism by Elliot Rose

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath by Carlo Ginzburg

Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context by Karen Louise Jolly

The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind by Claude Lecouteux

Contemporary Paganism: Listening People, Speaking Earth by Graham Harvey

Athenian Popular Religion by Jon D. Mikalson

Greek Folk Religion by Martin P. Nilsson

Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth by Walter Burkert

The Greek Way of Death by Robert Garland

The Odyssey by Homer

The Iliad by Homer

Theogony, Works and Days by Hesiod

The Histories, Revised by Herodotus

Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History by Owen Davies

Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions by Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson

The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture by Paul C. Bauschatz

Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael

Greek and Roman Necromancy by Daniel Ogden

Rotting Goddess: The Origins of the Witch in Classical Antiquity by Jacob Rabinowitz

The Silver Bough by F. Marian MacNeil

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by James Frazer

The White Goddess by Robert Graves

Myth and Sexuality by Jamake Highwater

The Homeric Hymns by Homer

The Wisdom of the Outlaw by Joseph Falaky Nagy

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain by Rachel Bromwich

Lady With A Mead Cup by Michael Enright

Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook by Ross Shepard Kraemer

Auraicept na n-Éces: The Scholars Primer by George Calder, ed.

A Guide to Early Irish Law by Fergus Kelly

The Tain by tr. by Thomas Kinsella

The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger by Patricia Lysaght

Sex and Marriage in Ancient Ireland by Patrick C. Power

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans Wentz

The Secret Commonwealth and the Fairy Belief Complex by Brian Walsh

Beyond Celts, Germans, and Scythians by Peter S. Wells

Tales of the Elders of Ireland by Ann Dooley and Harry Roe, trans.

The Celtic Heroic Age by John T. Koch and John Carey, eds.

The Poetic Edda

The Prose Edda

Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla by Sverre Bagge

Feud in the Icelandic Saga by Jesse L. Byock

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies by Andrew Lang

The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates

The Real Middle-Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages by Brian Bates

Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus by Alain Danielou

Pagan Dream Of Rennaissance by Joscelyn Godwin * Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide by Judy Harrow

Loneliness & Revelation by Brendan Myers

The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over by Starhawk

A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry into Polytheism by John Michael Greer

Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom from the Elders by Kristin Madden, Starhawk, Raven Grimassi, and Dorothy Morrison

Between the Worlds edited by Sian Reid * The Gaelic Otherworld by John Gregorson Campbell, ed. by Ronald Black

The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Shamanism and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-century Scotland by Emma Wilby

Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary Between Wilderness and Civilization by Hans Peter Duerr

The Underworld Initiation: A journey towards psychic transformation by R. J. Stewart

Power Within the Land: The Roots of Celtic and Underworld Traditions Awakening the Sleepers and Regenerating the Earth by R. J. Stewart

The Tree of Enchantment: Ancient Wisdom and Magic Practices of the Faery Tradition by Orion Foxwood

The Woman in the Shaman’s Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine by Barbara Tedlock

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade

Walkers Between the Worlds: The Western Mysteries from Shaman to Magus by Caitlin Matthews

Plant Spirit Wisdom: Shamans and Sin eaters, Celtic Techniques for Healing the Soul by Ross Heaven

The Wiccan Mystic by Ben Gruagach

To Fly by Night edited by Veronica Cummer

Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism by Jenny Blain

Cunning-Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby

Sacred Mask Sacred Dance by Evan John Jones * Circles, Groves and Sanctuaries by Dan and Pauline Campanelli

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure by Catherine Yronwode

Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo & Conjuring with Herbs by Stephanie Rose Bird

Mastering Herbalism: A Practical Guide by Paul Huson

Encyclopedia of Natural Magic by John Michael Greer

The Tree of Meaning: Language, Mind and Ecology by Robert Bringhurst

Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healingby Stephen Pollington

Learning Their Language: Intuitive Communication with Animals and Nature by Marta Williams

The Meaning of Herbs: Myth, Language & Lore by G. & Field, A. Scoble

The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth by Stephen Buhner

The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety by Simon Mills, Kerry Bone * By Standing Stone and Elder Tree: Ritual and the Unconscious by William G. Gray also known as Rollright Stone and Elder Tree

Magical Ritual Methods by William G. Gray

The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade

Hekate Liminal Rites: A Study of the rituals, magic and symbols of the torch-bearing Triple Goddess of the Crossroads by David Rankine

Lost something?

Stick a pin in your sofa and it’ll return to you.

Be Enchanted ☽ᴏ☾

Herb Spirals

The garden spiral is like a snail shell, with stone spiraling upward to create multiple micro-climates and a cornucopia of flavors on a small footprint. Spirals can come in any size to fit any space, from an urban courtyard to an entire yard. You don’t even need a patch of ground, as they can be built on top of patios, pavement, and rooftops. You can spiral over an old stump or on top of poor soil. By building up vertically, you create more growing space, make watering easy, and lessen the need to bend over while harvesting. To boot, spirals add instant architecture and year-round beauty to your landscape: the perfect garden focal point.

One of the beauties of an herb spiral is that you are creating multiple microclimates in a small space. The combination of stones, shape, and vertical structure offers a variety of planting niches for a diversity of plants. The stones also serve as a thermal mass, minimizing temperature swings and extending the growing seasons. Whatever you grow in your spiral, it will pump out a great harvest for the small space it occupies. I’ve grown monstrous cucumbers in my large garden spiral, with one plant producing over 30 prize-size fruits. The spiral is a food-producing superstar!

Stacked stones create perennial habitat for beneficial critters, such as lizards and spiders that help balance pest populations in the garden. The stone network is a year-round safe haven for beneficial insects and other crawlies that work constantly to keep your garden in balance—and you in the hammock. A little design for them up-front pays big, tasty dividends later.

Read more on Ecologia Design

Go barefoot in the grass.

Go for a walk in the park and just look and listen to the sounds around you.