Witchcraft Stomping Grounds

Yule Altar Ideas – Cosy, Witchy & Easy to Set Up

Yule altars don’t need to be elaborate — winter magic loves simplicity, warmth, and intention. Here are some beautiful ways to build a Yule altar that feel magical without requiring a lot of energy or money.

✨1. The “Return of the Sun” Altar

A minimal altar celebrating the light coming back.

Include:

A gold or yellow candle

A sun symbol (drawn, carved, or on jewellery)

A bowl of water to reflect candlelight

A piece of clear quartz or citrine (or any bright stone)

Add a simple charm: Light the candle at sunrise or sunset.

2. The Winter Forest Altar🌲

Perfect for nature-based witches.

Include:

Pinecones

Small branches or twigs

Evergreen sprigs (or faux greenery)

Dried orange slices

A green candle

Optional: Write a wish for the new year on a small piece of bark or paper and place it beneath the candle.

Warm, comforting energy for winter.

Include:

A cluster of candles (real or LED)

Cinnamon sticks

A soft cloth or scarf in warm colours

A mug of tea or cocoa as an offering

Perfect for: Witches who want Yule celebrations that feel like self-care.

4. The Minimalist Yule Altar (for low spoons)❄️

A small altar that takes under 2 minutes to set up.

Include:

A white candle

A pinecone or stone

A sun or star symbol

That’s it — clean, simple, sacred.

🌙5. The Dark-to-Light Altar

A symbolic altar for shadow work and rebirth.

Include:

One black candle (the longest night)

One white or gold candle (the returning light)

A small mirror or reflective surface

A handwritten intention for the new year

Light the black candle first, then the white one to symbolise rebirth.

6. The Herbal & Citrus Altar🍊

For kitchen witches and scent lovers.

Include:

Dried oranges (the Yule sun symbol)

Cinnamon & cloves

Bay leaves (for wishes)

A green, orange, or gold candle

A small jar of honey (sweetening magic)

Write a wish on a bay leaf and place it beneath the candle.

🧊7. The Ice & Snow Altar

Perfect if you love a winter aesthetic.

Include:

White, silver, and blue items

Clear or frosted glass

Snowflake decorations

A bowl with ice or cold water (temporary offering)

Moonstone, selenite, or quartz

Use this altar for: Cleansing, clarity, and stillness.

8. The Divination Altar🔮

For Yule tarot, intuition, and winter messages.

Include:

Your tarot or oracle deck

A deep blue or black cloth

A candle for illumination

A crystal sphere or reflective object

A feather or bell for air element clarity

Do your annual Yule reading here.

🎁9. The Abundance & Blessing Altar

Inspired by traditional Yule feasts.

Include:

A small basket or bowl of fruit (apples, oranges, nuts)

Green or gold candles

Coins, runes, or sigils for prosperity

A warm drink as an offering

Perfect if you want the coming year to be stable and prosperous.

10. The “Portable Yule Altar”⭐

For witches who share spaces, travel, or need to stay low-key.

Items to use:

A tiny jar with a pine sprig

A tealight

A mini sun sigil folded into your wallet

A stone from outdoors

A small ribbon in seasonal colours

Things to help you move on and recover from a long day, a rough night or a good cry.

Spells and magic:

Simple all purpose recover spell

Rose quartz healing tears spell

Ease the pain spell

Here comes the sun spell

Self love bath / Shower ritual

Cleansing ritual body scrub

Quick pick me up glamour

Seashell charm for self acceptance

Sunrise magic

Things to make:

Self care sachet

Self love and healing spell bottle

Inspired healing bottle

Self love jar

To move forward:

I move on sigil

Restarting spell

Clarity spell

Letting go - banishing spell

Spell for reassurance

Self empowerment spell jar

Little things to do:

Surround yourself with crystals like rose quartz, carnelian, amethyst, rhodonite, citrine, pyrite and more!

Use rose water or honey to sweeten up your day.

Witchy thing to do right now

Magical self care

Self care magic

Self care for the witch

Witch self care tips

What to do if witchcraft drains you

Drinks:

Self love latte spell

Overall positivi-tea*

‘Give me sunshine’ potion for happiness*

A warm heart tea recipe*

Healing heart tea*

Mental reboost tea*

More in this masterpost!

*Please research herb safety before using!

Odds and ends:

The new you tarot spread (3 card)

Moving forward tarot spread (5 card)

Magics for heartbreak

Witchcraft for the grieving

Gentle witchcraft

Magic to replenish energy

materials:

white sand.

dried moss. 

citrine.*

dried sunflowers.

dried yellow and orange wildflowers.

dried orange peel.

sigil.

sea salt.

notes:

This is a little spell jar I did to promote my own self love and self care! This is not something that I plan to bury, but rather keep in my space as a reminder to continue my journey of loving and caring for myself. It was such a nice uplifting experience to make💕

💖Materials💖

🌸 A glass jar of your choosing that can be sealed with a cork or lid 🌸 Fire proof container, incense burner, mortar and pestle 🌸 Rose quartz 🌸 Self love sigil 🌸 Rose and frankincense incense for love and peace from insecurity and anxiety 🌸 Cinnamon 🌸 Nutmeg 🌸 Dried rosemary 🌸 Dried rose petals or rosebuds 🌸 Sugar 🌸 Pink Himalayan salt 🌸 Pink candle

💖What to do💖

🌸 Burn the incense and self love sigil 🌸 Combine with mortar and pestle and pour into jar 🌸 Add the following into the jar in this order: cinnamon, nutmeg, rosemary, sugar, pink salt and then top up with rose petals/buds 🌸 Cleanse and charge your rose quartz, hold it in your hands and think loving thoughts about yourself then add into jar 🌸 Create a list of things you love/enjoy about yourself 🌸 Light pink candle, look into the flame and read your list aloud 🌸 Put cork on the jar and seal with the candle wax 🌸 Charge overnight in moonlight and place jar somewhere you will see it often

As someone who suffers from mental health issues, I often need reassurance to help me push forward. This spell combines advice from my doctor on how to heal from past trauma or troubles, and fill yourself with love.

(side note: no spell or magick can replace a doctor. A doctor should be your very first step for any physical or non-physical healing. This spell is only an additional supplement and may not be right for everyone.) 

🍃  Gather  🍃 

✨ Bottle

✨ White Candle (for peace)

✨ Paper & Pen

✨ Obsidian (to dispel negative energy)

✨ Citrine (for healing)

(side note: if you prefer not to use citrine because it is heat treated amethyst that is fine. Amethyst can be substituted in for it’s calming abilities)

✨ Salt (for protection)

✨ Basil (for love and protection)

✨ Parsley (for Love and Protection)

✨ Rosemary (for healing)

✨ Thyme (for healing)

✨ Turmeric (for purification)

🍃  Process 🍃

✨ Begin by grabbing your pen, paper, and obsidian. Hold the obsidian in your hand as you think of a phrase of protection. Mine was, “I am safe, there is no pain here.”

✨ With the obsidian in your hand write the phrase on the paper. Let the energy from your obsidian dispel any negative thought. When your finished roll it into a size that will fit into your bottle.

✨ Prepare your other ingredients. Let each herb touch the citrine. Let them absorb citrine’s healing power.

✨ Layer in your salt, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and turmeric into the bottle. Somewhere halfway through place your rolled note into the bottle and let it be covered.

✨ Close your bottle and light a white candle. Gently wave your bottle of the smoke for purification, then use the melted wax to seal your bottle.

🍃 Moving Forward 🍃

Keep the finished spell bottle somewhere you can easily and quickly find it. On it’s own in will fill whatever room or space it’s placed in with positive energy.

Whenever you feel extra anxious or upset grab the bottle and hold it in your hands. Repeat the phrase written inside the bottle, while breathing deeply. Let the phrase and the love from the bottle lift you up.

An original sigil, created by The Mori Witch. This sigil accompanies the All That You Love Will Turn to Nothing curse.

This curse is the first one in almost 8 years of practising witchcraft that I have created. It has been a long time coming, and a long time in the making as I have used it once before, with success, and it is centred around,… personal trauma. It has come into being as the result of me being unable to feel any real closure or justice after being put through years of emotional abuse and sometimes violent outbursts.

Please, feel free to use it.

Ingredients:

A jar you can securely seal.

Vinegar (banishing)

Chilli flakes or powder (adds oomph, represents fire (burning) and sends people away).

3-6 Nails - rusted, preferably but not necessary. (destruction, decay).

A bodily fluid of yours (blood would be most potent, but if you’re not comfortable with that, spit or tears will work too).

Cemetery Dirt (feelings of emptiness, emotional distress).

Black pepper (banishing)

A small piece of paper.

Red pen.

This sigil.

**If you choose to use blood in this spell, make sure you draw it using sterile equipment, such as a lancet (click here for more information on them).

On the slip of paper you have, write the name of your target in big, bold writing. Make it scratchy, ugly; go over it 3, 4, 5 times. 

On the other side, draw the sigil linked in the ingredients list above. Write the meaning of it too (“All that you love; all that brings you joy will bring nothing but emptiness.”

Add your dry ingredients into the jar one at a time in this order:

Cemetery Dirt, Black pepper, Chilli pepper

As you do so, channel all of the pain and hatred the target has caused you; focus on it; draw from it, let yourself seethe.

Add your paper now, on top of the dry ingredients.

Take your nails, and push them down so that their points pierce the sigil and go down into the dry ingredients.

Once you’ve done all of this, add your chosen bodily fluid. You will only need a very small amount - a single tear, a drop of blood, some spit, whatever you choose you needn’t force much out. The fluid will be imbued with the negativity that you were drawing on.

You may now fill the rest of the jar with vinegar, but leave a little room at the top, because this jar can be left for a long time - the more putrid the better. The paper will dissolve quickly, this is normal and expected.

Leave the jar somewhere dark and quiet, where it will not be disturbed.

Whenever you feel as though the power of this curse is waning, shake it vigorously, again drawing on the negative connotations and feelings you have for the target.

I got a few for ya' in the old grab bag of henpeckery.

Listed in no particular order.

One is generally advised to not curse another magical practitioner, especially one who Knows What They're Doing. But if hands must be thrown, ensure you have more than a couple wards up to break malefica - and if this person is in your friend group, under no circumstances can you accept gifts or food from them (and destroy anything they have given you). Do, however, try to give them gifts and pre-cursed foods.

Giving someone a cursed object or cursed food is an excellent way to get the job done. There's something very fairy-like in the way magic can work: by accepting the gift, they accept the curse, and it circumvents many natural defenses.

Perhaps more than any other form of magic, it does to pre-divine on the matter to see what outcome will occur. I highly encourage this when the cursing is done as a form of self-defense, because sometimes some forms of malefic magic can be fuel on the fire of abusive situations. However, even a practitioner of slight power can cause serious harm with a curse - perhaps more damage than intended. It's really just best to measure twice, as it were.

As with many spells, create for yourself a little indicator that the spell has worked. For example, wear one of those brittle hematite rings. If it breaks, the spell has become manifest. This is especially lovely if the person to be cursed is outside of your social circle and you don't have access to see if your manifestation worked.

Cleverness is all well and good, as is poetic justice. A witch does well to keep in mind, however, that their natural strengths may neither be clever nor poetic, and sometimes you've got to just make due with the tools you have in your toolbox.

When casting spells on yourself or your household, targeting isn't much of an issue. You're right there, the magic is right there, and voila. However, when working on a third party - especially one that doesn't live with you - targeting becomes relevant. If gifting an object or food to your target won't work, consider doing what you can to bring your curse into their presence by whatever physical means are safe and possible. If you can't do this, see if you can obtain something of theirs to work over by use of a poppet or some other sympathetic magic. If none of this is possible, try to make a thoughtform or employ a spirit to deliver your spell (or attack them outright), but this will be hard unless you know where they live. In other words: your spell has to get to them somehow. Figuring out how to make it happen is half the job.

Depending on how the magic is worked, it is beneficent to cleanse both yourself and your casting area after the work is done. If a spell must be kept ongoing and close at hand, cover it with a black cloth (or t-shirt, or whatever) and keep it out of view to avoid having your own space polluted with unwanted energies.

If you need a specific outcome for your own wellbeing, consider employing as many spells as you require to obtain that outcome. E.g. one for binding a tongue, another for getting that person fired, another to calm gossip in the workplace, and so on.

Pay extremely little mind to people with moral admonitions, but keep their scoldings filed away. In a few months or years, in moments of reflection, ask yourself whether or not they were right.

Every Sunday, I like to reflect on my week, and gain insight on the week ahead. I came up with this spread to help!

What can I learn from this past week?

What can I let go of from this past week?

What should I expect from the coming week?

A tarot spread for when Depression/ Apathy hit hard and all you want to do is curl up in a fuzzy blanket until its over. 

1. The Never Ending Void: where is this depression or apathy coming from?

2. The Fuzzy Blanket: what words of comfort do you need to hear right now?

I wanted to keep this short and sweet. I know when I’m drowning in apathy or depression I don’t feel like touching my cards, much less interpreting them. Hopefully this will be helpful yet easy to those who need it. 

***** Please do not remove my captions******

“It Hurts When You Pee”

Whether you're in the broom closet or you just love to save money (because capitalism has us forced into wage slavery amiright), you may want to divine with a tarot deck without actually buying/owning a tarot deck. In a limited sense, you can use a deck of regualr playing cards to divine in a similar manner.

Disclaimer, this only works to represent the first 13/14 cards in each minor arcana court, unless you use more than two decks. Since a playing card deck has 1-10, a knight, queen and king already, I'll be discluding the knave from each suit, as well as the reversed meaning of each card. However the knave has the same meaning as the first card of each court, so don't feel held back by that.

Diamonds = Pentacles

King: security, control, fatherly, power, discipline, abundance

Queen: practical, home body, motherly, down to earth

Knight: efficiency, routine, conservation, methodical

Ten: wealth, inheritance, family, established routine

Nine: gratitude, luxury, self sufficiency, culmination of works

Eight: apprenticeship, education, quality, engagement

Seven: vision, perseverance, profit, and investment rewarded

Six: generosity, charity, prosperity, sharing wealth

Five: isolation, insecurity, financial loss, poverty, general worry

Four: control, stability, security, possession, conservation

Three: teamwork, initial fulfillment, collaboration, learn from others

Two: balance, adaptability, time management, prioritizing

One: manifestation, new financial opportunity, new job

Spades = Swords

King: clear thinking, intellect, authority, honesty

Queen: quick thinker, organized, perceptive, independent

Knight: opinionated, hasty, action oriented

Ten: backstabbing, defeated, betrayed, a state of crisis, endings and loss

Nine: depression, nightmares, intense anxiety, despair

Eight: isolation, self restriction, imprisonment

Seven: betrayal, deception, getting away eith something, stealth

Six: regretful but necessary transition, rite of passage

Five: conflict, tension, loss, defeat of enemies, win at all costs, betrayal of allies

Four: contemplation, recuperation, passivity, rest and relaxation

Three: painful separation, sorrow, heartbreak, grief, rejection

Two: indecision, choices, truce or stalemate, blocked emotions

One: raw power, victory, a breakthrough, mental clarity

Clubs = Wands

King: natural born leader, visionary, interpreter, honorable

Queen: exuberance, warmth, vibrancy, determination

Knight: energy, passion, lust, impulsiveness, adventurer

Ten: burden, responsibility, hard work, stress, achievement

Nine: courage, persistence, test of faith, resilience

Eight: speed, action, air travel, movement, swift change

Seven: challenge, competition, perseverance

Six: public recognition, victory, progress, self confidence

Five: disagreement, high tensions, strife, conflict

Four: celebration, harmony, marriage, home, resilience

Three: preparation, foresight, expansion of enterprise

Two: planning for the future, progress, decisions, discovery

One: inspiration, power, creation, beginnings, potential

Hearts = Cups/Chalices

King: emotional balance and control, generosity

Queen: enotional security, calm, intuitive and compassionate

Knight: romance, charm, imagination, "knight in shining armor"

Ten: harmony, marriage, happiness, alignment

Nine: wishes fulfilled, comfort, happiness, satisfaction

Eight: escapism, disappointment, abandonment, withdrawal

Seven: fantasy, illusion, wishful thinking, choices to be made

Six: reunion, nostalgia, childhood memories, innocence

Five: loss, regret, disappointment, despair, bereavement

Four: mediation, contemplation, apathy, reevaluation

Three: celebration, friendship, creativity, community

Two: unified love, partnership, attraction, relationships

One: love, compassion, creativity, overwhelming emotion