hello, beautiful witches! i wanted to make an intro for myself with the hopes of finding friends and fellow practitioners ~
i'm elfy (they/them), 25yo, from usa. ive identified as a pagan for about 14 years and a witch for about 10, though my practice has been rather inconsistent up until a few months ago. im adopted, but after discovering my welsh and cornish heritage, i began researching and evolving my craft. i mostly practice solitarily, but i would love to connect with other like-minded practitioners or even seek wider community like a coven! who knows, bleh :p i follow back from my main, special interest blog @thed0sian !
i would probably describe my practice half hedge/astral magic and half brythonic folk. idk its kinda in this metamorphosis rn lmao. its very much influenced by my background of astral work, spirit communication, and divination and my ongoing research of psychic abilities, fairy veneration, and folk practices. i am mostly doing research in welsh mythos, with a massive interest in spellcrafting and shamanism, but i also want to learn about cornish folk magic as well!
some more facts about my practice; ~
- i am a devotee of my Lady Freyja, but i am also beginning worship of Lord Freyr, King Arawn and Queen Mab, Cerridwen, and Mother Earth. (very naturey can u tell lol)
- i am a veiling nonbinary pagan
- im an animist and beginning to work with plants and animal spirits (namely Mugwort, Wormwood, and Coyote)
- i do believe in cursing and baneful magic, if you don't feel comfy w that,, lol soz
- i utilize some pop culture inspired archetypes and iconography, but i do not worship pop culture entities
other than that, i'd love to connect with more witches and share advancements in my craft!! lets be friends!
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Cats. She is said to ride in a chariot pulled by cats, but these wouldn't have been domesticated housecats. To Freyja's earliest worshipers, cats were wild animals and fierce predators that could pose a serious threat. However, many modern worshipers associate Freyja with housecats as well -- myself included.
Boar. Both Freyja and her brother Freyr are associated with boar. Freyja rides a boar named Hildisvini ("battle swine"). Freyja may be associated with pigs more generally, since one of her names is Syr, "sow."
Falcons. Freyja has a cloak made of falcon feathers that gives the one wearing it the ability to change shape and fly. I personally associate Freyja with falcons and hawks.
Gold. "Gold" is used to describe the Aesir and the things associated with them in the Poetic Edda, but Freyja especially is associated with gold. Gold is sometimes called "Freyja's tears" as a kenning.
Amber is also associated with Freyja, possibly because of a shared connection to the ocean (amber sometimes washes up on the shore in Scandinavia).
The distaff and other spinning tools are associated with Freyja and with the goddess Frigg. Spinning was a very important part of Norse womanhood, and on one level, the distaff probably just shows that Freyja is a goddess of women. On the other hand, there seems to be some sort of connection between spinning and magic in Norse culture, so this may also represent Freyja as a goddess of magic.
The seidr staff is also associated with Freyja. Seidr staves weren't literally distaves, but they did look similar and some scholars argue that seidr staves were intentionally made to resemble spinning staves. Whatever the case, both types of staff are associated with Freyja.
Apples are associated with Freyja, and in Swedish folk practices people left some ripe apples in the trees as an offering to her.
Maidenhair, Adiantum capillus-veneris, was called "Freyja's Hair" in Iceland.
Common milkwort, Polygala vulgaris, was originally also called "Freyja's Hair" in Scandinavia but was renamed after the Virgin Mary during the Conversion period.
Orchids were also associated with Freyja before the conversion. While this was specifically a Northern European species of orchid, I personally associate all orchid flowers with her.
Rye is connected to Freyja in Sweden, where Freyja is said to oversee the ripening of rye.
Sheet lightning is said to be a symbol of Freyja's rage in Sweden.
The constellation we call Orion's Belt was called "Freyja's Distaff" or "Frigg's Distaff" in Sweden.
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apparently this is not common knowledge among punk diy sewists but if youāre sewing patches / doing any sewing that requires pushing a needle through multiple layers of fabric, use a needle grip. theyāre little rubber things that have excellent grip on the metal needle so you donāt have to pinch the needle as hard. you will save your fingers soooo much unnecessary pain.
thereās two main types. the basic type is just a little circle of rubber that you fold around your needle, and the fancier type is a little rubber cap for your fingertips. theyāre very cheap, under five bucks for the fancier kind and less for the basic, and they last forever. you can buy nice ones from your local craft store or steal them from the quilting section walmart idc. if youāre in a pinch (pun intended) and canāt go out, if you have a non-slip mat under a rug, cut off a little corner and that will work decently. please treat your fingers kindly <3
āGƶndull and Skƶgull
Gauta-TĆ½r sent
To choose from kings
Who of Yngvi's kin
Should go with ĆĆ°inn
And be in Valhall.ā
Thus sang Ćlfr Uggason:
āSwiftly the Far-Famed rideth,
The Foretelling God, to the fire speeds,
To the wide pyre of his offspring;
Through my cheeks praise-songs are pouring.āā
SkĆ”ldskaparmĆ”l 9: Heiti and kennings for ĆĆ°inn
I'm a big fan of working with the land, and one of the easiest ways to do so is by gathering your own plants. This is also free! No having to stop at an occult/metaphysical shop to pick up that random plant you forgot you needed. I will be making individual posts on different plants that can be foraged in my own bioregion, but first we should go over a few tips and housekeeping notes about foraging and witchcraft.
First thing I want to get out of the way is that not everything you find outside is going to be safe to put in your body or even touch. On top of that, not everything that is safe for someone else is going to be safe for you. We each have different bodies and how we react to something will not always be the same. When you first start foraging, it's important to have a guide book that will tell you of any safety measures to take when dealing with a plant. Some will interact with medications in ways that are not healthy, some have fluid that can make your skin photosensitive, and some... some people are just allergic to.
When it comes to medications, you can find contraindications (when not to ingest something) with a quick google search of "[plant name] contraindications." Generally this will give you a safe answer, however always check with your doctor if you are unsure. Better to pay for a consultation than a hospital visit.
Some risks come from the environment that the plant grew in. If you are foraging near train tracks or buildings that could leach lead into the soil, the plants will pick that up as well. Contaminated soil and pesticides sprayed onto the plants can also lead to health risks. Be very mindful of where you are foraging.
Some plants that are safe will also have toxic look-alikes. A famous look-alike is wild carrot and poison hemlock (thank you Oregon Trail video game). Unless you know what characteristics you are looking for, it's very easy to confuse the two plants. One is a delicious snack, while the other is highly toxic (the poison hemlock), to the point of causing muscle death and kidney failure. This isn't to scare you away from foraging. Only to drive home the importance of making sure you know what you are gathering.
*credit to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture
I am a resident of the United States so these will be more geared towards that country. It would be to your benefit to look into the foraging laws of your own country/state anyway, as it can still differ. The majority of states in America prohibit foraging on public lands, which makes it really hard for those who don't own their own property. If you live in Alaska and Hawaii, however, congratulations your local government allows it. Even among those states that do allow it, there can be designated areas where it's not allowed such as a nature preserve. Breaking these laws tends to come with a hefty fine and possible jail time, if caught. Though these laws are hard to find with a quick google search, especially for a specific area.
The laws in the United States prohibiting foraging are generally colonial, imperial, classist, and racist (surprise, surprise). Foraging was protected by law well into the 1800s (except for Native Americans who were pushed off their ancestral hunting and gathering grounds), even when doing so on another person's private property. After the Civil War, many newly-freed African-Americans would sell their foraged and hunted goods for an income, while also using the practice to become self-sufficient. The southern plantation owners needed this system to go away so they could chain what used to be their "property" to their old line of enslaved work. Starting with criminal trespass laws. Eventually anti-foraging laws spread to the average white rural American. Outside elites began to believe that the "backwards" people of the countryside, who made a subsistence living off the practice of foraging, fishing and hunting, could not be trusted with the stewardship of the land; using "conservation" as a way to "protect" it from the people who lived there (Linnekin, "Food Law Gone Wild: The Law of Foraging" p.1008-1014).
I do believe we need to protect our resources and lands. However, foraging can be regulated, not outright outlawed as it is. Learning about the plants and animals that live around us and can help us in our lives, leads us to learn more deeply about their role in the environment and just WHY we should protect them...
All this to say, look into your local foraging laws (and how local law enforcement actually enforces them, if they do at all) and then you can decide if you want to follow them or not. At your own risk.
There is a lot of talk in foraging communities about invasives vs. natives. Sometimes even bringing in naturalized plants. So let's talk a little bit about what these words mean in ecology and how this may effect your foraging habits.
Invasive and naturalized plants have one thing in common; they are both transplanted outside their natural ecosystem. A plant that is invasive in one place, can be naturalized in another. What matters is the impact the plant has on the ecosystem it has been transplanted into.
Invasive = Ā plants or animals that harm regional ecosystems.
Naturalized = plants that have successfully established and reproduced in a new environment, integrating into their new home without inflicting ecological harm.
To make things a bit more complicated, let's introduce the 10% rule. According to the Huron River Watershed Council, "the '10% rule' postulates that of all species introduced to a region outside of their native range, only 10% will survive to reproduce in their adopted environment. This 10% of non-native survivors are often called 'naturalized' plants. Of that 10%, another 10% (or 1% of the original non-native transplants) may thrive to such an extent that they dominant their new home, out competing their native neighbors. These prolific competitors are known as invasive species."
So what makes a native plant? The US Forest Service defines a native plant as "plants [that] are indigenous terrestrial and aquatic species that have evolved and occur naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, and habitat. Species native to North America are generally recognized as those occurring on the continent prior to European settlement."
Some native species can be endangered due to habitat loss from agriculture and/or competing invasive species. It's good to have a list (many state DNR (Department of Natural Resources) will have a list available on their website) printed so you know which ones should be cultivated in your garden if you wish to work with them. Avoiding these and working with invasive species can help with conservation efforts as well. Native species can still be worked with in the wild if they are not endangered.
You'll often see witches giving advice about asking the plants permission before harvesting. This is from the belief that the plant has a spirit, an animistic belief. Asking permission to harvest isn't the only way we can forage mindfully and with respect to the plant. The way that I do this is by following the Honorable Harvest set out by Robin Wall Kimmerer (a Potawatomi botanist, and the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry) in her book "Braiding Sweetgrass."
Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so you may take care of them.
Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
Ask permission before taking and abide by the answer.
Never take the first, never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only what is given.
Never take more than half. Leave some for others.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.
Share.
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift in reciprocity for what you have been given.
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.
The first rule really helps you to follow the rest of them. Know the plant. Walk by it several times, offer water even if you aren't taking something, say hello. These plants are our neighbors and when we harvest we are asking for their help.
Each plant will have it's own method of harvest to minimize the harm done to it. Some you have to pull the whole thing up, but there are ways to repopulate it. It's so individual that I couldn't add it to this post. Hopefully what's written here can help you keep a few things in mind when going out and learning about your local flora.
Foraging can be a great way to connect with your land and learn about it. Getting your hands dirty and making you feel as if you are a part of the landscape. Hopefully the first couple of sections didn't scare you off. Get a couple of good guidebooks for your region (the local library is a good place to start) and you're good to get out there and start identifying plants you want to work with!
Saw this video (love Alexa Nicole) and thought it added a good summary of what Iāve been feeling lately about foraging. Relates really nicely to this post.
"I can't connect to nature because I live in a city" Incorrect.
"I can't connect to nature because I can't travel" Nuh-uh.
"I can't connect to nature because I-" Wrong.
Anyone can connect to nature. Please, remove the mindset that nature is something *out there*. Nature is all around you.
The dandelions peeking through pavement cracks, the birds you don't notice on your windowsill, the brambles in the alleys, the storms and sunshine.
All of this is nature. You are surrounded by it. Notice it, learn about it. Write down when you notice the days getting longer, when more butterflies appear and when ripen blackberries ripen. Connect to the nature that lives outside your window, just past the boundary of your front door.
Watch nature documentaries, build a small windowsill garden, let the spider in your room corner stay for a while.
Connection is not determined by proximity, but by effort.
This is especially important for people who can't leave their homes, or even get out of bed.
Even if you can only observe nature through an open (or even closed!) window, you can still appreciate it and connect with it. Nature is all around you, even in the heart of the city, in birds, bugs, even as op said, the weeds poking through the cracks of the pavement.
YOU CAN CONNECT TO NATURE BECAUSE YOU ARE NATURE!!! THINKING YOU ARE ANYTHING BUT ANOTHER ANIMAL IS COLONIALIST THINKING!!!! YOU CAN CONNECT TO NATURE BECAUSE YOU ARE NATURE!!!! YOU ARE AN ANIMAL DOING WHAT NATURE BIDS YOU TO! YOUR HOUSE IS NATURE! YOUR PETS ARE NATURE! THE GRAIN IN THE WOOD OF YOUR BEDFRAME IS NATURE! YOUR PARENTS ARE NATURE! YOUR LOVER IS NATURE! HELL, YOUR LOVE ITSELF IS NATURE!!! BREATHE IN AND TASTE THE NATURE! IT'S YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This is one I really like. I used to keep a small bowl at the ready (refreshed weekly), though I now just make smaller bowls whenever the need strikes.
This is one I crafted for those days when my insecurities are a little too heavy. I am definitely my biggest critic and my own worst enemy some days. So, for when those negative thoughts are loud.
Materials
Small bowl
Salt
Crushed rosemary
Pinch of black pepper
Combine salt, rosemary, and pepper in a bowl.
Dip your fingers in the mixture, then flick it away from you and say, "Not mine to carry."
You may want to rest your fingers in the salt first, taking a moment to let those negative thoughts and feelings be absorbed. As you flick the salt away, visualize your insecurities being flung away.
Follow up with any self-care activity that feels right to you. Personally, I'm fond of having a cup of rose or lavender tea.
Disclaimer: These are things Iāve learned to do through trial and error. My advice might work for you, or it might not work for you. I donāt have many resources, as this is something I simply learned through working with Spirits, along with trial and error.
What is trance?
How I define and experience it, trance is going in a state where Iām relaxed, less in control, and allow myself to become a conduit for either information, energy, or imagery; sometimes itās two of those things at once, or even all three.
I use trance during hedge walking (astral travel), introspective spirit work, and some spell work.
In part one Iāll be discussing three forms of trance that I use, along with things I help to induce trance and aid in the process. In part two I will discuss what type of trance I like to pair with what aids, and what those combos have been useful for me for.
Also a lot of this is off the dome from just experience being a witch on the specific path I'm on, and experience with using trance for my spirit work, hedge walking, and some spell workā so I donāt have resources to cite.
Types of Trance
Ecstatic trance - This form of trance is high energy, and involves a lot of movement. The movement is usually big, and oftentimes can be symbolic.
Light Trance - This form of trance is not so high energy. It involves little movement.
Deep Trance - This form of trance requires either no movement, or very little movement depending on what you do to help achieve it.]
Note: All of these will be discussed further in part two, along with examples of each type of trance.
Trance Aids (things to aid in helping you achieve trance)
Herbs
Forewarning: When using any herbs please be mindful of your allergies, any medications youāre taking that may interact with herbs, along with any other health concerns, and the legality of herbs where you are and your ability to use them.
Herbs like mugwort and chamomile have helped me with trance.
Mugwort is an herb that has associations with second sight, visions, and clairvoyance.
While Iām not sure if chamomile has any direct ties that are widely known with its help with visions and the like, I have used it before to help aid in the process of relaxing myself to better be āpresentā in my trance activities and it worked very well for me.
You can make tea with chamomile, but I would not suggest making tea with mugwort. Like, you can, but the price you pay in taste is not nearly worth it.
Iād suggest burning mugwort to get the same hard hitting effects that will help you with trance. The downside to this is mugwort does have a pungent smellā so crack a window if that bothers you, or also if you have sensitive fire alarms.
Marijuana (18+)
Smoking a joint can be very helpful with aiding hedge walking, and trance! If youāre not used to smoking, Iād say start off with a hit or two of a joint, and increase from there.
Oils & Ointments
Flying ointment is something I use for all of my trance activitiesā it doesnāt matter if itās ecstatic, light, or deep. Flying ointment (or oil) is a salve that has herbs or roots thatās properties are associated with spirit travel, clairvoyance, and spirit sight.
I wrote a post about how to make your own flying ointment, but thereās many wonderful etsy sellers who make great ointments! Hereās two different options at different price points: CatCaveCrafts ($10) + DeadLandsApothacary ($25).
I like to put it on with intention, and ask the plants in the oil to aid in my session.
You can rub it on your inner wrists, behind your ears, and the bottoms of your feet. I also like to anoint my spirit eye (the point in the middle of your forehead) with it, and the top of my head.
Spirit Guides
(Disregard if not applicable to your practice.)
If you have Spirits that you have relationships with, thereās always the option to ask them to help with your sessions! Spirits can range from Deities, to animal spirits, to fae. Itās dependent on you, who you feel comfortable asking, and sometimes the purpose of what youāre doing.
For example: If Iām doing hedge walking and I want help not only crossing over, but being protected, I know I can ask the Ferryman (a Guide I have a relationship with) for help by simply asking him to guide the session after I put on my oils, but before I start the actual activity.
Music
I use music as a base component for all my trance activities, because it helps not only filter out the noise of my house, but it also helps my ADHD be not so distracting.
For me I like to repeat songs with heavy drums, repetitive chanting or sounds, and I usually like to go for songs in other languages because it helps me not to focus on the lyrics vs. what I'm trying to do.
A few songs I've found helpful:
Traust by Heilung // Drumming by Drums of Trinidad Tobago // Hagal by Wardruna // Fire by Oakville Choir for Children // Vibrant Night by African Tribal Orchestra // Whirling Dervish by Omar Faruk Tekbilek // Tyr by Wardruna
Depending on what sort of trance you're trying to achieve, some songs will work better than others. If you want to do a deep relaxing trance, using a song that's too energetic might not help.
Also, these songs are songs that are just examples of what I like.
I used Drumming by Drums of Trinidad & Tobago because I have relationships with deities from the African diaspora. It works well for me for that reason.
The songs are to provide an example and reference for things that can be helpful, but by no means will 100% work for you. Use songs that speak to you, your spirit, and even your spirit life.
Be okay with trial and error here!
Ideally Part 2 of this will be posted this Friday (3/18), so keep your eye out! :) I'll update in the comments of this post when it's up, and I'll also edit this post to include the link.
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I actually do not care if my fellow witches are Christian or Jewish or Wiccan or whatever they may be. That's their business, not mine. What I care about is whether they are doing the work to understand and challenge the colonialism, imperialism, racism, heteronormativity, historical misinformation, spiritual bypassing, and other issues that impact all corners of the magical community.
I bring a sort of folklorically consistent view of religion and magic vibe that people who are afraid of contradictions between known science and spirituality don't really like
see u in the astral realm @otherside-ish - Tumblr Blog | Tumlook
