Tea Witch

Goodness, it’s been a long time since I did a spell under the full moon like I did last night! I’m more of a morning lark, so I have difficulties staying up late enough for the moon to get above the forest trees where I live. But I managed it last night, and it felt incredible!

The full moon last night was in Sagittarius, as was Saturn. So, I tried to channel some adventurous, driven Fire energy (considering it was Tuesday as well), in addition to the deeper, flowing energies of the moon and the more concentrated, task-oriented energies of Saturn. To do this, I used my obsidian arrowhead to help channel energy into my red jasper and into myself.

I thought it would be kind of unfair to only update the tea part of my blog and not the occult part, so I wanted to share how I’ve been doing tarot divinations and what the result of the one I did today was!

First of all, I keep my deck in a wooden box I got on a trip recently, along with an amethyst and a feather. Amethyst helps keep the energy of the deck clean and connected to greater cosmic forces. I also keep a feather in the box, to represent the Air element, which is what I associate with divination!

This is the box I keep my tarot deck, amethyst, and feather in! Beside it is my tarot guidebook wrapped in the cloth I lay the cards out on. 

Moving onto how I actually perform the ritual, I like to burn either sage or frankincense incense, and pass all my divination tools I’ll be using back and forth the smoke nine times. I meditate with the amethyst and feather, and then rub my mala’s chrysocolla beads against each other so the sound puts me in a sort of trance.

Finally I shuffle the deck, cut it into three, bring the portions back together, and lay out the cards. I always pull cards with my left hand.

Hi, everyone! I’ve been quite busy these past few months! I’ve gone back to college after being forced to take an extended break, and I’ve been trying to forge ahead on my transition. It seems that after my psych eval, which will likely take a few sessions spread over a few weeks, I can finally get prescribed the anti-androgens I want to take!

This has unfortunately gotten in-between my magical training and I, but I’m still making progress on that front, too! I’ve been leaving offerings to the fae at the edge of the woods, trying to get in touch with certain animal spirits, and working on both familiar and new kinds of spells! As a matter of fact, either tomorrow or this weekend, I want to try to make my first healing poppet!

So, I wanted to let you all know, I’m not dead, just busy. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to my weekly posts before summer, but I sure will try!

Known in ancient Egyptian lore as “The Wise Stone of Conciliation,” this verdant stone dyed with the hues of forest and sea is a powerful aid to communication of all kinds. Legends tell of those who wore this stone having the remarkable ability to find compromise between the most uncompromising of people, lending them remarkable wit with which to navigate even the murkiest of circumstances. If you speak and negotiate for living, this stone is a real humdinger!

Energy ~ Receptive

Element ~ Water

Planet ~ Venus

Deity ~ Venus

Zodiac Sign ~ Taurus

As a general rule, chrysocolla occurs in grape-like clusters or in a crust. Often found interwoven with opal, quartz, azurite, malachite, and turquoise, this luxuriously-colored blue and green stone has a hardness of 2 on the Mohs hardness scale and possesses a monoclinic crystal structure. While its color may seem similar to turquoise at a glance, chrysocolla has more in common with malachite and azurite, having a high copper content that gives it its distinctive coloration.

The providence of chrysocolla is, as aforementioned, primarily that of teachers and communicators. It helps with conveying one’s ideas verbally, whether it be sharing higher knowledge with one’s students or simply giving a kind word to a loved one in need, but that’s not all! Any purposeful speaking benefits from chrysocolla, including the recitation of prayers, incantations, and mantras. I personally own a mala (a loop of beads used by Buddhists to count their mantras) made of chrysocolla, and I’ve found it to be a wonderful respite to just pass it slowly through my fingers as I chant. This stone is also strongly affiliated with musicians, and is a very helpful charm for those who are picking up a new instrument or trying to overcome their fear of performing in public!

What’s more, chrysocolla is a font of Goddess energy, and consistent contact with it can help one tap into the ancestral feminine energies and all the other wonderful things that come with them. Its connection is particularly strong to Sophia, the Gnostic creator-Aeon and Wisdom incarnate, and it is able to calm one’s emotions and help disconnect from the conscious mind for the purposes of meditation. This stone is said to have such a soothing energy that it can quell nervous disorders of various kinds, and its affinity with the Heart Chakra can help one to express their love for themselves and those around them in healthy ways. It can also aid in the function of the Throat Chakra, and thus the communication and pursuit of one’s own truth.

In feng shui, chrysocolla is associated with the element of Water, and thus is ideal for an area of your home that you use for stillness and contemplation. With regards to spellcraft, chrysocolla lends itself well to spells spanning Land and Sky to call down divine insight, and it’s also a wonderful ingredient for magick that’s intended to aid with emotional healing and drawing out one’s inner strengths. It’s recommended to wash chrysocolla that’s used for spellcraft under warm running water once a month, before recharging it in a bowl with tumbled hematite overnight.  

Disregarding dubious legends about the medicinal ingestion of this very copper-rich (and thus very toxic) mineral, there’s one last lesson from chrysocolla that I want to share: it’s possible in some circumstances to answer a problem or question with silence. Sometimes you can tell others exactly what they need to know by saying nothing at all.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. 

It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

~ Vivian Greene

The kyusu tea pot (bottom left) my best friend ordered for my birthday last month finally arrived! It’s made of celadon and was shipped all the way from Japan! My family got me the tetsubin kettle and sasa tea cup (top), and while I was rummaging through the cabinet, I found that cute little mug (bottom right) to really tie it all together! 

As many of my longtime followers can probably attest, I have a long history of insomnia that doesn’t seem totally resolved yet. I don’t have all the materials for this Wicca-based spell, but I think I’m going to try to acquire them, because I seriously think I could use the help!

You will need a sprig of lavender, a piece of smoky quartz, and a blank piece of parchment alongside something you can write with. I’m sure most of you are familiar with lavender’s properties of aiding sleep, but smoky quartz also has a very soothing effect, so it’s a two-pronged attack of relaxation!

Prior to casting your spell, you’re going to want to prepare your bedroom for sleeping well. Clean linens, dim lights, and as quiet a space as possible will all help. If you want to involve a little bit of feng shui, try making sure that the closet door is closed and there’s nothing under your bed. 

Then, while sitting on the bed (and avoiding sitting on the pillow you’ll be sleeping on), hold the smoky quartz and sink your consciousness into your body. Meditate and feel yourself embracing the crystal’s calming energy, even as you let your worries drift away. When you’re suitably grounded, chant the following incantation while holding the stone in your right hand and rotating your wrist clockwise:

The Moon is up,

I hold its piece

The silver dust

Will guard my peace

Once you’ve done this, wrap the smoky quartz and lavender sprig in the parchment and lay them beside your bed. Now, bear in mind that, like anything else, spellcraft requires practice. Some spells don’t take the first time, and you may need to keep trying for up to three nights. From what I’ve read, though, this spell is well worth your patience!

There’s a spell I’ve been planning that may seem a big too dramatic for the problem it’s trying to resolve, but hear me out on this one. I’ve been dealing with a mounting creative blockage for a year or two now, and it’s gotten to the point that I can barely write and can’t draw anything. It even seems to have obstructed me from doing things I enjoy and taking inspiration from them for the things I create!

So, tomorrow morning (as Saturdays correspond to spells for removing blockages or obstacles), I have a spell planned that I’ve been preparing for about a week! Ever since last Friday and through the full moon on Wednesday, I’ve been charging up my sodalite, orange calcite, white opal, and obsidian arrowhead with energy from the sun, moon, and stars, along with a black, a white, an orange, and a blue candle. These candles are going to be arranged to the north, east, south, and west of my altar, respective to their hues, with their crystals of corresponding colors set in front of them. Then, in the spaces between each one, I’ll be laying some of my artist’s tools: a writing pencil, a drawing pencil, a paintbrush, and an implement for shaping clay.

I also plan on possibly making sigils for each candle, and I’m definitely going to try using tarot cards as an additional medium. I’ll also load up the spell with incantations, prayers, and even some mantras! As for why I’m going this far, well... Other than magick, creative expression of all kinds are kind of the pursuits I live for the most. And this creative block I’ve been experiencing has been getting so bad and going on for so long that I think I need to use my other most beloved pursuit, magick, to get my energies moving again!

Also, if you’re wondering about the art supplies, I’ve had some ideas recently for how to use everyday items as components to spells! I think it would be great if you’re a witch living on a budget and want to work with some ideas that are outside of the box. It’s an idea I originally found while researching vodou, so I’ll probably make a post on it sometime after I finish my humdinger of a spell that inspired this post!

Hello, everyone! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I know I haven’t updated in a long time, and I plan on changing that, but there’s a good reason for it. I’ve been getting in touch with the faery realm, and it’s really been illuminating!

The faery realm is closely tied to the Earth and the Underworld, the world of magic that exists just under the surface of our everyday mundane life. The Faery Lands, as some call them, hold keys to deep and fast transformation of one’s life and development in magic.

However, and I can’t stress this enough, delving into the faery realm is not without risk. If you choose to go down this path, you’ll likely feel yourself drawn in by the longing for a magical world that’s so intimately close to our own, but so very neglected by our modern sensibilities. And while you’ll find many secrets and truths amongst the faeries that will make your life and the lives of others better, unless you have a purpose in this world that leads you to theirs, you’ll likely also find yourself compelled to stay with the faeries and never want to return.

I have to assert, though, that what you can discover working with faeries is well worth the relatively minor risk of getting stuck there. My experience has been that the faery realm and its inhabitants bear no ill-will or covetousness for people of our world, overall: and they hold much more respect for us and our way of life than we, as a society, tend to do for theirs. I’ve learned so much about myself and magic from just brief, cursory experiences with the faery realm that has really changed my life for the better!

Now, I can’t say much about the faery realm and who I’ve met there, because even this land of fun and discovery has rules. The main rule being that, whatever you discover and whoever you meet, you do not go boasting about them to others. You can share some for the sakes of learning, but bragging about what you’ve found there is the quickest way to lose it.

I’m going to share some of what I’ve learned and how I’ve learned it in future posts as I get this blog up and running again, but I warn you: if you incorporate any of this into your practice, do so quietly. I know it’s so very tempting in this modern age to run and tell everyone on social media about something as exciting as what you’ll find this way, and if it’s just shared with one or two people in confidence, especially for the sakes of learning, then that’s fine. 

But resist the urge to proclaim your discoveries to the world, I implore you. The faery realm is best approached quietly as you hang your ego up at the door. It will really, truly change everything.

I’m not sure how often I’ll update my blog, particularly concerning something so private as my faery experiences, but I’ll try to keep my schedule regular from now on! I hope I can keep you all suitably informed.

Class is back in session far and wide, and I’m sure many of you who follow me are students as well. A lot of you also seem to enjoy my posts on crystals and their uses, which have been woefully absent from my blog as of late. So, I’ve decided to do some research of my own, and I’ve found five crystals that make fantastic studying aids!

1. Clear Quartz ~ The capacity the humble, colorless clear quartz has to fill almost any role you might desire of a crystal is not to be underestimated! Bringing clarity of mind and focus, it’s good to have a sphere of quartz at your study area, or a small piece of quartz you can carry. Wearable quartz is fine, too! Just make sure it’s as clear as possible.

2. Tiger’s Eye ~ A golden stone overflowing with positive energy, tiger’s eye helps you stay focused and motivated in your studies, no matter how much information you have to absorb! It helps you to filter out distractions and also helps you to use the information you find in the best possible way.

3. Turquoise ~ In addition to being a great boon for the student’s mind, turquoise has the added benefit of assuaging your worries and anxieties during the study process. If you’re an academic, then stress is something you’re probably well-acquainted with! This charming blue stone soaks up those negative energies like a sponge and lets you focus on your research.

4. Fluorite ~ Coming in every hue of the rainbow (and even with a mix of multiple ones, in some cases), fluorite makes a great support stone for any sort of research and helps promote mental clarity so you can keep your mind on your objective as you study. Different colors of fluorite have unique properties, but all have their own benefits for any student!

5. Sodalite ~ This indigo stone with its pale, cloudy streaks is my personal favorite. In addition to aiding in combining your logical studies with your innate insight, sodalite has calming properties that are very helpful for staying on the ball. I try to never do research without my sodalite in arm’s reach!