Sceptic Witchcraft

Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest season, when farmers would traditionally start harvesting crops in northern Europe (I’m referring to northern Europe because that’s where the tradition originated from and because that’s when the harvesting season was in northern Europe.) This Sabbat is also about death, rebirth, and reflection on your successes over the past year as well as things that should be left behind. 

When: August 1st 

Altar: Colors: yellow, orange, red, brown, green. Objects that are great to put on the altar:

If your job requires creativity, put objects that represent that creativity on the altar (for example, as an artist you could put your paintbrushes or your paints on the altar). 

Food such as bread and corn 

Objects are the ones that represent the harvest such as baskets, sickles, and scythes. 

Dry flowers to represent a change of the seasons towards the fall. 

Straw braids 

Corn dolls 

Crystals: Aventurine, Carnelian, Malachite, Sardonyx, Shiva Lyngam, Citrine 

Activities: have a bonfire, make corn dolls, journal about things that you don’t want to continue doing/want to live behind in the previous year, dry herbs, flowers, etc... that you had gathered for future spell work, make candles, watch the sunset, (if you are allowed to and it’s safe) have fireworks 

Spells/Rituals: Prosperity spells, blessing charms, protection spells, courage spells, career spells  

Food: Bread, corn, grapes, wine, onions, carrots 

Recently, there were a lot of confusion on this topic in the witchcraft community. So this is a very high level overview on this topic. 

What are Curses/Hexes? 

Curses, hexes and jinxes are spells that you cast with the intent to cause harm. Curses are the most serious types and are meant to be permanent while hexes are less severe and are meant to cause some temporary discomfort. Jinxes are the least serious of the 3 and are just meant to cause some annoying discomfort. 

Who can you Curse/Hex? 

You can curse/hex individuals. You can also curse people who come from the same family lineage, often referred to as “blood line”. With this said, there is a caveat. If a family member is cut off from the rest of the family, the curse will not work on that person. There is a ritual that one can do where one cuts a string with a knife, signifying his/her “separation” from the family. In that case, that person will no longer be effected by the curse. You can also curse/hex places (houses, lakes, forests, etc...) and objects. Think of it as creating a haunted house or a haunted object. 

What you can’t curse (or not curse with a lot of success) are abstract ideas such as “hunger”, “poverty”, “white supremacy”, etc... You can curse or hex a specific white supremacist (an individual) but you can’t curse it or hex it as an ideology. Curses/hexes also work better on people that you personally know rather then people that you don’t personally know. And if you do hex/curse a very loosely defined group, if the hex/curse were to work, it’s most likely to work on the person/people in your social circle.  You also can’t curse/hex deities. You can’t curse gods, goddesses, angels, demons, etc... You can ask for a certain deity to “go away/leave you alone” but that’s pretty much all that you can do. You also can’t curse the whole set of objects as a whole, such as for example all oceans, all rocks, all fire, all water in the world, etc... 

How common are Curses/Hexes? 

Genuine curses/hexes that can’t be explained by science or something outside of witchcraft are extremely rare. The majority of curses and hexes are nothing more then a placebo effect. A person thinks that he/she had been cursed and his/her subconscious mind starts manifesting the curse (regardless if the person was actually cursed or not). Often times, witches who go around screaming “you are cursed” (Yes. People like this exist especially on TikTok) don’t actually do any rituals to place a curse on people that they claim to curse. It’s all in the mind of the victim. 

The second issue is a question of coincidence and hidden variables. Correlation does not always equal causation. If you, for example, were to curse someone who smokes and that person were to get lung cancer, is it because of the curse or because he/she smokes? If you had cursed a guy who acts like a jerk and he loses his job, is it because of your curse or because that guy acted like a jerk towards his boss and the boss fired him? There is no clear answer to those questions.

Good for Spells: Love potions, repelling evil and psychic vampires, protection against negative energy, purification, breaking spells, good luck spells. I personally mostly use it for protection spells and to protect me against unwanted people. 

Element: Fire 

Gender: Masculine 

Deities: Hecate. Could be used as an offering to her if your practice includes deities 

Chakra: Solar Chakra (Manipura) 

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Planet: Mars 

Medicinal Properties: Through out history, garlic had been used to treat a variety of different diseases, from bronchitis to diabetes to getting rid of parasites to treating cancer. However, none of this claims had been backed up and proven to work by science. Which means that taking garlic should not be a substitute for pharmaceutical medications and talking to your doctor. Garlic is also high in manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin C, selenium, and fiber and taste pretty good if you use it when cooking (therefore, great for kitchen magic). There are some people who are allergic to garlic. If you are in this group, do not eat or, in some cases, even touch it. 

A basic idea of a dream journal is that you write out the dreams that you have while you sleep when you wake up. Keeping a dream journal is an important part of learning how to control your dreams. They are also important in empowering you to be able to see a “trend” and patterns between your dreams and the real world. 

How Should it Look Like? 

Well... whatever you like. It’s your personal thing. With this said, I recommend that you follow the following guidelines: 

Have a physical journal. Don’t do it online. The reason for this is sometimes you might see visual things in dreams that are hard to write out in words and it would be easier for you to sketch it out. And it’s significantly easier to draw in a physical book then online. 

Keep it private. You might have some pretty weird dreams. It’s probably NOT a good idea for people to know that you are having nightmares with them in it. It just creates for awkward dinamics in your day to day life. 

Date all of your entries. And by all of your entries, I mean all of your entries. Keeping track of when you had what dream is important. Without dates, you will soon get lost and it will be harder for you to draw parallels between your dreams and the “real world”. 

The Layout/Format I follow in My Dream Journal: 

Date: If the date has some sort of significance, I mention the significance in this section as well. For example, if it’s a full moon, a sabbaths, I’m having an exam on that date, etc... I make sure to mention it in this section. 

Description of the dream (sometimes with pictures): 

My feelings/reflection about the dream: 

A blank page left out in case something from the dream is reflected in the real world: 

This is the layout format I personally follow in my dream journal. I like keeping my book of shadow and my dream journal well organized and more “formulaic” rather then a lot of other witches do. So I usually follow a format. Following a format helps develop a routine, which helps with consistency and sticking to keeping a journal. 

When to Write? 

The best time to write in your dream journal is in the morning. The reason for this is because you are most likely to remember your dreams well in the morning. So when you just wake up, get into the habbit of jotting down whatever you remember when it comes to your dreams in the dream journal. Keep the dream journal close to your bed in order to make the process of writing more “comfortable” and “convenient”. 

Good for Spells: Purification, protection against evil spirits, protection against nightmares, good sleep spells, memory spells and other spells related to cognition, helping you get rid of jealousy spells, spells related to health. 

Element: Fire 

Gender: Masculine 

Deities: Hebe, Aphrodite, also related to the Virgin Mary (but I prefer not to include christianity within the context of witchcraft), Venus, Faery 

Chakra: Heart Chakra (Anahata, 4th Chakra) 

Zodiac Sign: Leo 

Good for Spells: Sleep, money, relaxing, tranquility, defensive/protective spells, spells against unwanted energies, luck spells, sometimes also used in love spells. I personally mostly use it for spells related to sleep and relaxation. Chamomile helps me calm down. 

Element: Water 

Gender: Masculine (Although, oddly enough, I personally always felt like it was more “feminine”). 

Deities: Ra, Cernunnos, Lugh 

Chakra: Vishuddha/Throat or 5th Chakra 

Zodiac Sign: Leo 

Planet: Sun 

🏋️‍♀️Masculine: Aggressive, active, energetic, causing change, controlling, focus on spiritual and mental, rational and conscious, vision, power 

 👠Feminine: Passive, the unconscious and emotional, nurturing, creation, creativity, intuition, calmness, 

Within witchcraft, both feminine and masculine energies are important. Often the focus is disproportionately on the feminine energy. However, it is important to combine the element of both in your rituals and practice. 

Also, for most rituals your gender is not important, since the goal should be to combine both masculine and feminine aspects. And, on a spiritual level, we are all a combination of the feminine and the masculine. 

This means that you can do witchcraft if you are a man, woman, transgender, gender non-binary, etc... And most rituals can be done exactly the same regardless of your gender.