corvid corner

Living in the city as a witch can sometimes be a bit depressing. I know how it feels to feel really disconnected from nature and your craft, but know that you're still a valid witch even if you don't have 24 hour access to woodlands and rivers. Here's some ideas I have to make your city feel a little more witchy 🌀

Learn your city's history (this one is pretty obvious but it can really make a difference imo)

Locate your local witchy shops if there are any. Sometimes they're not so obvious, a witch can make good use of thrift stores, plant shops, bio stores, and more!

Learn to use energy sensing and FEEL out certain spots in your area, you might come across some hauntings or some spiritually active areas!

If you have any green spaces visit them often. Get to know your local trees, plants, flowers even if it's just in your local park. Make a relationship with them!

This wasn't my idea (I'm sure I saw it on another post somewhere) but make a witchy map! Mark all of these important places in it.

Provide witchy services if you're able to!

Try to make your home or your apartment feel more witchy and nature-y by adding house plants, you could even get into growing your own herbs for spell work!

Here are a few things you can do to kick-start the magic juices.

Craft a sigil using a method never used before. Here's mine if you're interested.

Low energy? Check out this 7-day spell crafting method to get you through the week.

Write down a list of your household spices and either research their correspondences or give them your own!

Research a spirit or deity from a culture you've never looked into before. How were they interacted with? How is this different from what you're used to? How is it the same? Here are some research tips btw!

Grab one of your tarot or oracle decks and pick a few cards. Without looking at the meaning, write down what you think the meaning is based off the imagery you see. What does the scenery imply? What about the individual parts? How do they come together to create meaning?

Wanna cook or bake? Here are a few kitchen witchery posts of mine, but also check out @breelandwalker's page and her many recipe round-ups! Follow the recipes or use them as inspiration to craft your own!

Deep dive into the life and death of one of the many occult figureheads throughout history! Here's a list of some of them.

Check out my #weekly witchy questions tag on my page to expand your practice by exploring your beliefs!

"Tricksters are inherently transgressive figures who literally embody what it's like to live in a socially unacceptable or taboo way, which is why members of marginalized communities flock to them while more privileged people find them distasteful. They are the personifications of chaos and social unrest, which includes how much strife surrounds people who are deemed socially unacceptable; they are literally the gods of minorities and people who suffer under bigoted unjust systems.

When tricksters do something bad in a myth, marginalized groups see a complex rebellious figure with their own motives while privileged people see a bad person doing bad things. And when tricksters are punished, privileged people just see a bad guy getting their comeuppence while marginalized groups see the harsh realities of living as a socially unacceptable person.

Now I know this is gonna make me sound old as shit but I gotta say it:

When I was started learning about witchcraft around 15 years ago, all 'witchcraft' books were wiccan books and they were all fucking awful. You might find 3 books in the back corner of a bookstore and they were all misinformation and blatant lies about history. You might also find a couple books about tarot, dream interpretation, healing crystals and natural remedies but that was IT. To find out any real information you had to do extensive research in historical and anthropological texts and academic journals.

So while there are thousands of 'witchcraft' books available nowadays (I saw 6 sitting on the same shelf as popular self-help books in KMART today)... they're all watered down and 'socially acceptable' spells for love, money and self acceptance....

Dont get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I dont have to hide my practice as much as I had to years ago but... a lot of the witches I meet now are swimming in the shallow part of the pool while thinking they're delving in the deep seas. This lack of understanding isn't their fault though, just as it wasn't mine when all I had was books that only shared personal gnosis and misinformation.

The problem with flooding the market with shallow 'witchcraft' books, is that these books don't really help new witches and they don't help experienced practitioners either. For newbies these books can touch on some of the basics while simultaneously giving the reader the impression that this book will tell them EVERYTHING THEY NEED TO KNOW. The majority of these books also don't help experienced practitioners because they either share a rehash of 'common knowledge' or they make witchcraft out to be this fluffy-bunny, white-washed, appropriating crap.

The majority of my practice is built around history books, recorded folklore, academic journals and anthropological texts. My general rule of thumb is, if the author cannot bother to include a workes cited, end notes or any sort of referencing system to say where information originated from then it should all be considered personal gnosis. Which isn't wrong - it's a bit like reading a diary; it's a great primary source into the thoughts and perspective of the author but it can include misinformation and bias that they believe as fact.

Now, historical sources also can't be treated as gospel and have to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt because of academia's racist interpretations of history for the last hundred years. Another thing to consider is that the majority of people in academia who write papers and publish this information about historical witchcraft... don't practice witchcraft themselves so the lense through which they understand the material is skewed and can lead to misunderstandings.

So as I said at the start, no one book will give you a complete picture of witchcraft. Some will give context and primary sources. Some will give snippets of historical practice which can be misinterpreted due to either preconceived notions about what witchcraft 'should' be or personal biases of the author.

We are all human. We are all inherently opinionated and biased. This cannot be helped. That's why its important to read a wide variety of texts critically and then test out what you learned in practice. It is only through this gruelling back-and-forth process of in-depth research and personal practice can you grow in your practice.

people say “do research” but like, it’s not research if you’re just reading every witch book in the Barnes and Noble with no ability to tell when the author is talking out their ass or not. it’s important to be able to evaluate your sources and you can only do that if you have perspective from other disciplines, and it’s especially important with witchy stuff to stay grounded in reality.

I think it was the Caretaker of The Stars Skeleton talked about this a bit ago, but basically, meditating, spiritual stuff, all this can lead to a psychotic break even in people who aren’t predisposed to them. you need to stay connected to reality, to what is possible, if you are going to try and do these things on your own or with anybody else.

we’ve all met that weird intense and creepy pagan with rancid vibes who tries to like, touch your hands too much and make unblinking eyecontact because they are deffo trying to talk to you in your head. nobody wants to be around that person. if you wanna not become that person you gotta maintain your sense of perspective and stay grounded in reality.

the other thing you’re maintaining here is your ability to not get sucked into a cult or a folle a deux by maintaining your ability to say “that’s not real, that’s not how that works.” by having a rock-hard understanding of real physical reality, it maintains your ability to tell crazy people to fuck off.

but I’d say it also helps the efficacy of your spellcraft. don’t fuck around doing rituals on the beach with candles and junk, find out what kind of offering you can give the sea that will actually help (it’s bones and shells) and why (the sea needs it’s calcium back)

Also, you can't just leave a gem like this in the tags!

Just a quick compilation of the posts I've made about exercises to help improve your craft. These can be used as journaling prompts, inspiration for activities, or as methods for pulling yourself out of a slump and recharging your witchy inspiration.

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews

Witchcraft Exercise - Witchy Inspo Journal

Witchcraft Exercise - Spring Cleaning

Witchcraft Exercise - Creating Correspondences

Witchcraft Exercise - Creating Your Own Runes

Witchcraft Exercise - How to Write Your Own Spells

Witchcraft Exercise - Shakespearean Witchcraft

Witchcraft Exercise - Music To Witch By

Related Prompt - Music to Witch By

Witchcraft Exercise - Annual Review

Most of these are also available in the May 2021 bonus episode of Hex Positive (check your favorite podcatcher).

Happy Witching!

Loki: