#30daysofwitchcraft

Merry meet, and welcome to my first 30-day challenge! I'm excited to talk "30 Days of Witchcraft" with you! To read more about why I'm doing my own 30-Day challenge, go to my "Write Your Craft" page. 

While Samhain starts the pagan "New Year, I'm started with Lughnasadh/Lammas because it was August 1, Monday and I wanted to get a little ahead of it so that we could all celebrate in our own ways. 

First things first, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-NAS-ah) has been spelled about 5 different ways in my research. Pick the spelling you can remember LOL! Lughnasadh is also the Celtic version of this Sabbat and can be used interchangeably with Lammas. 

Lughnasadh/Lammas occurs on August 1st, the midpoint between the summer solstice (Litha) and fall equinox (Mabon). As a midpoint, its date doesn't change yearly, whereas 4 of the sabbats do to match the solstices and equinoxes.

This holiday celebrates the fall harvest that fed our ancestors through the year. It was a celebration of the fruits of their labors.  If crops were harvested before Lughnasadh, it meant that the previous harvest ran out before the year was up. It meant that the previous year's crops were scant, and that could mean a vicious cycle of running out of food too early in the year. 

The Lammas Fest was savored with gratitude and village sharing of the crops. Some ancient pagan cultures held sacrifice: some a horse - to Freyr, some a bull or their king (sometimes in effigy - sometimes not), to their Sun God, some cornhusk dolls made in effigy of each member sacrificed into the fire for their Harvest God. Many broke bread together made with the first grains harvested that year. 

The Celts also honored Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is  Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is a time to celebrate the fruits of the season, as well as your skills as a person. Think hard about what skills you have. What are your talents? What do you excel at? Think of all the things you can do, all the things you want to do, and all the ways you want to grow in your skills. Forget your modesty for this one day, and proclaim your skills as Lugh did!

Correspondences for this sabbat:

Deities (across all pantheons)

Lugh

Tailtiu

The Green Man

The Grain Mothers

Gaia

Ceres

Demeter

Persephone

Luna

Selene

Colors

Bronze

Brown

Yellow

Gold

Orange

Stones

Botswana Agate

Jasper

Moonstone

Citrine

Carnelian

Moss Agate

Peridot

Aventurine

Herbs, Plants, & Spices

Wheat and other grains

Onion

Caraway

Basil

Rosemary

Yarrow

Vervain

Caraway

Wheat

Roses

Calendula

Sunflowers

Ash Tree

Apples

Pears

Blackberries

Honey

Food and Drink

Bread

Corn

Potatoes

Apples

Pears

Beer

Mead

Animals

Bees

Bats

Horses

Cattle

Bears

Ravens

Snakes

Deer

Salmon

Spells

Self-Reflection

Prosperity

Transformation

Ways to Celebrate this Sabbat

Decorate your altar with things related to your skill. 

Light a grain-colored candle for Lugh: brown, yellow gold, bronze

Harvest your own garden and share it with your "village"

Make bread of all kinds to share with your family and friends.

Host a canned food drive or donate canned goods to your local food pantry.

Make corn husk dolls (no sacrifice necessary!)

But you can!

Renew your home protection spells.

Have a Lammas ritual of self-reflection by meditating on the blessings in your life and the sacrifices you need to make to better your life.

So I'll be doing this awesome 30 day challenge I got from @witchsaidwhat - go check out her awesome blog!

Here's my contribution for today's post:

Day 1: My Magical Face

Mixed race: Turkish-Assyrian & Mexican, first generation American. Child of the old. Living Magically since I could remember 💖✨

The Witchy Art Challenge is one of the coolest IMO - so major props to modernwitchesdaily who made the Original Version of this Challenge! 

As I had some ideas for the Challenge I thought I could write them down and share them with the world <3 I mainly added some different Ideas on Themed Witches, one that I´m really looking forward to are Steampunk and Cyberpunk Witches! 

This challenge is for anytime during the year :) so feel free to join it! <3 use the tag #witchyartchallenge or #30daysofwitchcraft so I (and modernwitchesdaily) can see your works :) 

Lots of Love, 

All of these posts will be tagged “Serpent Witchcraft challenge” in case you want to join! How to join: Reblog this post. Every time you write a report or something for this challenge, make sure to add a link to this post so it’s easy for everyone to find. You can join at any time. Resources: You may use any blog, website or book you can find. If you are using spells written by someone else, make sure to post a link or a source. You can use my blog for resources too. I reccomend using my tag list to find what you are looking for. (CTRL+F can be very helpful when searching for something in this list) http://the-serpent-witch.tumblr.com/tagged/taglist If you are having trouble with parts of the challenge, please message me! The challenge:

Day 1: Write one post about what you wish to accomplish before the end of the challenge. Make sure you have 2 or 3 short term goals, such as “By the end of the challenge, I want to have cast or crafted three different kinds of spells with the goal of protecting myself” or “By the end of the challenge, I want to be able to write at least 400 words about how to use sigils”

Day 2: Find at least 20 songs that make you feel like practicing the craft. Share the list, tag the post with “Serpent Witchcraft Challenge music”

Day 3: Read some of these articles, but at least one. What is your opinion? Can we still learn from each other if we are not willing to share our experiences openly? http://sarahannelawless.com/2011/07/01/oversharing-witches/ https://thetwistedrope.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/thoughts-on-oversharing/

Day 4: If you’re not doing this already, start a journal. Write about your day, about what kind of witchy things you have done, and what kind of magick you could have done to improve your day, or to improve something in the future. It might also be time to start a Grimoire, if you’d like. This month is a good month to start, because you will be doing some interesting things that are worth documenting.

Day 5:  What do you do to protect yourself? Check all your protection spells, redo them if necessary,, add a little extra energy to them. Now find one new way of protecting yourself that you haven’t tried yet. Try it.

Day 6: Take a picture of something that has strong witchy associations for you. Make sure it’s nothing too personal.

Day 7: Research the use of sigils. Create a sigil. (Check my Sigils_xAll tag)

Day 8: Watch a movie or episode of a series about witchcraft.

Day 9: Share your favourite story or myth from folklore/mythology.

Day 10: Try tasseography. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasseography

Day 11: Trime for some kitchen witchcraft. Cook something and share the recipe. If you would like, you can also tell us what you have done to add magick.

Day 12: What is your favourite herb, your favourite flower, your favourite tree and your favourite crystal? Find correspondences for all of these. Perhaps you can also find the meaning of the colours of your favourites? 

Day 13: Spend some time with something you’d like to work with more often. This could be a favourite crystal, a tarot deck, runes.. Hold it and meditate, but keep your journal handy. Write down anything that comes to mind. You may find it easier to (re)connect than you had expected.

Day 14: Do you work with deities, or would you like to? Tell us why or why not. If you do work with one, it’s time for an offering. If you are not working with one, but would like to, find some info about deities you might be interested in.

Day 15: This is the beginning of the third week. Try meditating for 10 minutes every day for 7 days.

Day 16: Create a correspondence list.

Day 17: Choose a topic such as Tarot, Runes, etc. Place all objects in the set in front of you. Go to random.org and make the amount of cards/runes/etc the max in the “True Random Number Generator” Whatever number comes up, you will pick that card/rune and write about it. What do you already (think you) know? How does it make you feel? Do research.

Day 18: Pick a famous or well known witch or occultist. Watch videos they posted on youtube, interviews, check their website, read a bit about the books they wrote. How do you feel about them, their image, their path, their opinions and views?

Day 19: Write about something of your choice. Anything. 

Day 20: Write a spell. I have made a PDF you can use to record all of your spells: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3NcSPOYec9dcnpkTGVaSE54OEE/view?usp=sharing

Day 21: Did you remember to do your 7 days of meditating? Good! If not, that is fine too! It’s time to do something nice. Go to one of your favourite blogs, and send them a nice message. It doesn’t have to be anything witchy. Aditionally, you could work on your correspondence list.

Day 22: Pick 5 symbols. These may be religious symbols, or anything significant in history. Research their history and meaning.

Day 23: Do you use technology in your magick? Try it, even if it’s just something small.

Day 24: Burn something. Anything. Collect the ashes. What could you use these for? Try to find a way to use them in your magick.

Day 25: Fetches. Have you ever heard of them? Do some research. I’ve got some for you already, But I’m sure you can find some more info:  http://traditionalwitchcraft.tumblr.com/post/45147381368/the-fetch http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum/forming-fetch-t25079.html

Day 26: Enchant something. Could be jewelry, clothing, your journal or grimoire, or anything else that might be useful when enchanted

Day 27: Today we get creative. Get a jar, some base oil (sunflower, olive, etc) and one or more essential oils you like. Find out what their uses are and make sure they are safe to use on your skin. Mix them, test them to make sure it doesn’t irritate your skin. I made one to use for trance travel, but you can make oils for anything.

Day 28:  Do some research on creatures or entities you know very little about. Dragons, fae, deamons, succubi, etc. Do you believe in their existence? Would you like to work with them?

Day 29: Pick one herb and make it into a water.

Day 30: Congratulations! You have made it to the last day! Bake or buy cookies (post the recipe!), buy some good wine, juice or your favourite drink and celebrate. Maybe you could use the list of songs you made in the first week.