Pearl 💛 Witch

It can be easy to feel super overwhelmed when you’re first starting off. This post is for very new witches who have limited knowledge and would like a broad overview! These are my opinions, feel free to disagree but be polite about it. 

Spells:

It’s okay to start by using other people’s spells and build the confidence to write your own! Spells can be spoken, or thought (in my opinion). Sometimes speaking spells into existence isn’t always possible.

Casting circles. Many witches cast circles to do spellwork. It involves calling energy from the four directions and building the “omph” to preform the spell. Most of these involve calling upon a deity/deities but you could easily alter them to avoid this, it is not necessary. 

Ingredients. The most important ingredient for a spell is… you! Most spell ingredients can be substituted with more common ingredients, following correspondences. What did that ingredient bring to the spell?

I’ve written a whole “so, you want to be a witch?” post on spells!

Names:

Many witches feel names hold power. 

I personally choose to not share my birth name/everyday name for both this reason, and to protect my privacy. A lot of witches choose a witch name (mine is Mouse!)

Wards: 

Wards are something that I feel are very important for any witch to have. They can be on your being and on your home, and protect from undesired energy and spirits. Picture them as a shield. 

Warding yourself. For me, my wards are my armor. I envision armor forming around me with specific forms of protection and use my energy to make it so. You could also view your ward as a bubble of energy! If you have a hard time with envisioning things, carry something physical (a necklace, crystal, etc.) as your ward.

Warding your home. Again, you could envision it (however you like). I picture light washing over the floors, walls, and ceilings and use my energy to guide it. I also have physical wards. An example would be to make a paper pocket, fill it with herbs, crystals, and sigils, and place in the four corners of your home.

Sigils:

I simply adore sigils, they are like little spells in a physical form (symbols). It’s okay to use sigils created by others.

Sigils are created with a certain phrase in mind, such as “I am happy”. You can then draw them on yourself or on something to carry with you.

Once drawn, you’ll need to do something to activate it. This can be done by forgetting about it, using your energy, or fun things like using the elements or your favorite song. To keep the sigil working, you’ll need to charge it every once and a while. This is the same idea as activating it!

Cleansing:

The ability to cleanse your space and yourself can be extremely valuable, whether it’s in preparation for a spell, or to get rid of the funk of a bad day.

Smoke cleansing. Can be done with sage, bay leaves, or any type of incense. Waft the smoke over yourself or your space.

Water cleansing. I enjoy making a spray with some lovely herbs (like lavender and mint) and spritzing my room or myself. 

The elements/natural world. The wind, the moon, the sun and many other things can act to cleanse as well. 

Divination:

Divination can be overwhelming at first - there’s so many different types! You don’t need to practice divination to be a witch, and you certainly don’t need to learn all of the ways!

Tarot. Tarot cards are cards that have drawings on them and an assigned meaning (usually more than one). They are often used as a way to get advice. The average deck has 78 cards, and a lot of us still use cheat sheets!

Pendulum. Pendulums are often depicted as a crystal hanging from a string, but they can be anything hanging from a string. Different movements mean yes, no, and maybe. Some people use them to communicate with spirits, but this only happens when you invite them.

Runes, scrying, and tasseomancy are also common forms of divination, but ones I am less familiar in! 

Tools:

Crystals, candles, tarot, incense, herbs. All tools. 

They all can boost your abilities and aid your craft, but are not needed. You have all the tools you need in yourself, and in your life. Don’t feel pressured to spend a lot of money on fancy tools right away! It can be beneficial to build your abilities without them, in my opinion!

Using your intuition can lead you to finding/creating some really awesome tools and methods! Let your instincts guide you. 

Astragaloi

What are they?

Basically, they’re Ancient dice with only four sides!

Made of sheep, cow or goat knucklebones (also called the pastern bones of the hind legs) or ceramic replicas of them

They were cast onto a table or dice tray. This tray was set on a table in front of an image of a god/goddess, usually Apollon or Hermes.

Just as dice were used for games, so were astragaloi.

🦴🦴🦴🦴

The sides of an astragalos

Khios

Narrow face; s-shaped depression

Koios/khios/coan/chios

Narrow face

Somewhat flat, irregular surface

Huptios

Means supine

Deep pit in middle

Pranes

Rounder, slightly cylindrical, broad face

🦴🦴🦴🦴

How to do an astragaloi reading

Questions asked are usually asking for advice. Both formats of the divination are more complex than yes/no.

There are at least two ways to do readings, based on two sources: Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching by Kostas Dervenis (questionable title, but useful book), and John Opsopaus’ book Oracle of Apollo and website. I personally prefer to use Dervenis’ system for astragaloi. I just read a source I’ll mention later so this is subject to change.

Standard procedure

○ Roll 5 astragaloi or one astragalos 5x

○ Read numerical value of downward (Opsopaus) or topmost (implied in Dervenis) face

○ Faces marked by shape

○ You can mark the faces with pips or alphabet too

Opsopaus style

○ Add #s of downward faces of all 5 “rolls”

○ Roll with hands, dice cup, or dice tower

○ You can blow into hand after u pick up lots to inspire divination

Dervenis style

○ Add numbers of topmost faces of all 5 rolls

○ Look up the answer by the total number obtained in his book, and by the exact number of each side (i.e. 3 khios, 1 huptios, and 1 pranes)

🦴🦴🦴🦴

Reconstructionist astragaloi

We don’t know a lot about how astragaloi were actually used, but we have the possible answers from engravings. Opsopaus references this but seems to take a lot of liberties.

iThis is a table I made from Fritz Graf’s chapter “Rolling the Dice for an Answer” in Mantikê edited by Sarah Iles Johnston and Peter T. Struck.

🦴🦴🦴🦴

Tips for using astragaloi

If you use real bones, make sure to thank the animal for the bones! Perhaps also a deity (Artemis, maybe?).

You can also make them from wood/clay!

🦴🦴🦴🦴

Sources and further reading

Fritz Graf’s chapter “Rolling the Dice for an Answer” in Mantikê edited by Sarah Iles Johnston and Peter T. Struck

Oracle of Apollo by John Opsopaus

Opsopaus’ website

Oracle Bones Divination: The Greek I Ching by Kostas Dervenis

Background image

Valentines Day Magick 💐

Take time today to sit with your Rose Quartz. Admire its beauty, & admire your own beauty! Inside & out.

If you have Rose Petals, sprinkle some on your altar. To bring more loving energy into your space 💕

Your relationship status doesn’t define you, your worth, or appearance 👑

-

1. Your current situation.

2. What’s creating stress in your life.

3. Something that can bring you comfort at the moment.

4. Something inspiring or motivating to focus on right now.

5. A way to resolve the stress or issue that is causing you stress.

6. Someone or something that can offer you support.

7. Something to be hopeful about and look forward to.

The 13 Full Moons of 2020

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

🐺 Friday, January, 10th

❄️ Sunday, February, 9th

🐛 Monday, March, 9th

💗 Wednesday, April, 8th

🌸 Thursday, May, 7th

🍓 Friday, June, 5th

🌩 Sunday, July, 5th

🐠 Monday, August, 3rd

🌽 Wednesday, September, 2nd

🏹 Friday, October, 2nd

💙 Saturday, October, 31st

🐿 Monday, November, 30th

🥶 Wednesday, December, 30th

Retrograde Planetary Movements

Uranus Retro in ♉️ : Aug, 12 (2019) – Jan, 1st

Mercury Retro in ♊️+♒️ : Feb, 17th – Mar 10th

Pluto Retro in ♑️ : April, 25th – Oct, 4th

Saturn Retro in ♑️+♒️ : May, 11th – Sept, 29th

Venus Retro in ♊️ : May, 13th – June 25th

Jupiter Retro in ♑️ : May, 14th – Sept, 13th

Mercury Retro in ♋️ : June, 18th – July, 12th

Neptune Retro in ♓️ : June, 23rd – Nov, 23rd

Uranus Retro in ♉️ : Aug, 15th – Jan, 1st (2021)

Mars Retro in ♈️ : Sept, 9th – Nov, 14th

Mercury Retro in ♏️+♎️ : Oct, 14th – Nov, 3rd

Celestial Signs

♑️ Capricorn : Dec, 22nd – Jan, 19th

♒️ Aquarius : Jan, 20th – Feb, 18th

♓️ Pisces : Feb, 19th – Mar, 20th

♈️ Aries : Mar, 21st – Apr, 19th

♉️ Taurus : Apr, 20th – May, 20th

♊️ Gemini : May, 21st – Jun, 20th

♋️ Cancer : Jun, 21st – Jul, 22nd

♌️ Leo : Jul, 23rd – Aug, 22nd

♍️ Virgo : Aug, 23rd – Sept, 22nd

♎️ Libra : Sept, 23rd – Oct, 22nd

♏️ Scorpio : Oct, 23rd – Nov, 21st

♐️ Sagittarius : Nov, 22nd – Dec, 21st

Sabbat Festivals (Northern Hemisphere)

🕯 Imbolc – Candlemas : February, 2nd

🌺 Ostara – Vernal Equinox : March, 21st

🔥 Beltane – Mid Spring : May, 1st

☀️ Litha – Summer Solstice : June, 21st

🌾 Lammas – Harvest : August, 1st

🍁 Mabon – Autumnal Equinox : Sept, 22rd

🎃 Samhain – All Hallows’ Eve : Oct, 31st

❄️ Yule – Winter Solstice : December 21st

Sabbat Festivals (Southern Hemisphere)

🌾 Lammas – Harvest : February, 2nd

🍁 Mabon – Autumnal Equinox : Mar, 21st

🎃 Samhain – Witches’ New Year : May, 1st

❄️ Yule – Winter Solstice : June, 21st

🕯 Imbolc – Candlemas : August, 1st

🌺 Ostara – Vernal Equinox : Sept, 22rd

🔥 Beltane – Mid Spring : October, 31st

Full Moon tonight! Charge your crystals, set out your moon water, and let the full energy of the powerful full moon into you!

Hello everyone! So I had a lot of questions about my other sigil posts and decided to post another method to making sigils. This is another one of my favorites to use! I just really like the way these turn out. I call this the constellation method!

Step 1: Get your Phrase

For this tutorial I'm using the phrase "Protect this place"

Step 2: Take Out Repeating Letters

So any repeating letters you have take them out! *Side note: this step doesn't matter too much because of the method which you will see in a minute but it helps confusion*

"Protect this place" becomes "protechisla"

Step 3: Making Dots

Remember this chart?

So grab this chart and just ignore your numbers. Take what is left of your phrase for us "protechisla" and make dots on all of the letters you see. It should come out looking something like this:

So now we've got our "stars" for our "constelation". Take out the chart and you should be left with an assortment of dots like this:

Step 4: Connecting the Dots

So we have this random assortment of dots and now you get to be creative and connect them however you see fit. Play around until you have something you like. This is what mine looked like after some playing around with different arrangements:

Step 5: Make it a "Constellation"

This is what mine looked like when I was finished.

Today I'll be sharing some tarot spreads and how to make your own

Today's Card Spreads 

1 card draw

3 card past present future spread (PPF) 

Celtric cross

15 card golden dawn

One Card Draw

A one card draw is a quick reading

The steps for a one card draw goes as followed,

Shuffle your deck

Draw one card

interpret the cards meaning based on your question

3 Card PPF

You have one card represent your past, present, and future

The layout of the cards are horizontal 

You can ask for clarification in a form of another card, called a clarifier.

Here is the diagram from my class.

Celtic cross

The celtic cross card spread is a famous and well known spread among the tarot community.

The Layout 

1 card in center

2nd horizontal

3rd on top 

4th on top 

5-6 can be flipped.

7-10 on the right side of the cross

The right side order goes 7 on bottom 10 on top 

The Layout Explained 

1st card significator 

2nd card state of mind 

3rd card is what you stand for

4th card is why you stand for 3rd card 

(Cards 5 and 6 can be switched)

5th card is relevant past

6th card is short term future 

7th card How you see yourself (Sense of ego) 

8th card is how others see you 

9th card is emotions 

10th card is potential long term future 

15 Card Golden Dawn Spread

This spread is an Analytical Spread.

There are 5 groups of 3 cards.

This specific spread opporates counter clockwise.

Grouping 

Central grouping 

Middle cards 1 ,2, and 3 

Top right cards 4, 8, and 12 

Upper left corner 13, 9, and 5 

Bottom left cards 14, 10, and 6 

Bottom left cards 7, 11, and 15

Meaning of The Grouping

Cards 1, 2, and 3. 

Card 1 in the quarent, and cards 2 and 3 represent the nature of the query and the relevant aspects of the quarent's personality. 

Cards 4, 8, and 12

These cards show the natural progression of things according to your will; unless action is taken against the indications of these cards, this is the way things will "flow" 

Cards 13, 9, and 5 

This group shows either (if in complement to cards 4, 8, and 12) the future extending from that group or (if in conflict) the future that may result from actions taken against the indications of 4, 8, and 12. 

Cards 14, 10, and 6 

These cards show the psychological implications of the query and aid in assisting the quearent in understanding their own motivations and how they wish to act. 

Cards 7, 11, and 15

This grouping shows the forces of circumstance beyond the control of the quarent, to which the quarent must adapt.

  Making your own spread

Know why and how you're doing this

Know the order 

Be clear in your own mind on which card successfully placed down means and to put them down in the order predetermined 

Hey you! Stop scrolling for a moment, it’s time for your checkup. Take a moment to check each of these things and fix any problems you might find.

Wards and Shields

Are your special spaces still warded properly? Are the barriers still strong? Are there any holes or damages?

Are your personal shields still there? Do they need refreshing? Are there any gaps in coverage? Can you still do your work through the barrier?

Altars and Tools

Are the altars clean and organized? There’s no dust?

Are there any offerings that have been sitting out that need to be refreshed or disposed of?

Is there any unusual energy in any of your consecrated items?

Does everything feel charged and ready?

Your Body

Have you taken all of your meds that you need today?

Have you been eating/hydrating properly?

Getting enough sleep?

Does your body need anything from you right now to feel a bit better?

Entities and Other Things

Are there any regular offerings you give that you could/should check off?

How are things with your familiar? Your companions? The local land wights? The spirit(s) of your house? Do they need anything from you to keep the relationship strong, if you have one?

Are there any unexpected entities hanging around/taking up anchors? (Give your knickknacks a good check for this, as well as any old toys and jewelry.)