#44daysofwitchery

Magic has been a part of my life ever since I could read. When I was little, I was obsessed with fairies and magic and mythology. I read the Harry Potter series, of course, and any other book on magic I could find. When I was twelve, I decided that I wanted to be a seer. So I convinced my mom to buy me a deck of tarot cards, and my cousin taught me how to read them. He also began teaching me what I now realize was the basics of witchcraft, though I didn’t know it at the time. Then, when I was thirteen, my platonic wife moved here from Germany. She was a hardcore wiccan back then, and she was the one who taught me that witchcraft was very real, though different than what I read in books. I began to study witchcraft online, though I didn’t really start practicing until this year. I, along with everyone in my family, was struggling with my faith. I was raised Catholic, but I didn’t connect with the church anymore since the pastor was homophobic and I was having none of that. So my bother joined a youth group at another church, and I built an alter. Different strokes for different folks. I’m still very new in my beliefs and whether I’m wiccan or polytheistic or hellenic or whatever, but I do know that I want to continue witchcraft.  

Thanks to all of you, this blog has become so much more than I thought it would be, and I can’t thank you enough. In honor of 164 followers in less than a month, (holy shit) and to get to know you guys and let you get know me, I’ve decided to start both the 44 Days of Witchery Challenge and the Everyday Tarot Pic Challenge. They will be tagged #44daysofwitchery and #Everydaytarot as well as #mod speaks if you want to blacklist it. I invite everybody to join in and tag #thesubtlewitch if you want me to see!

As a Pantheist, I dont really do a lot of work with deity but I love the stories and images of them. Im a big softy for Kwan Yin and Odin. Im a sucker for culture so I follow a lot of them but those are ky favorites.

Water element

I believe, & could totaly be wrong, these kinds of tools are generally used by Wiccan community. When I first started practicing, I had all of the tools but have since given them away. But the athame is a double edged blade often associated with the element of fire.

"A story, possibly Taoist in origin, describes Kuan Yin as the daughter of a cruel father who wanted her to marry a wealthy but uncaring man. She begged to be able to enter a temple and become a nun instead. Her father allowed her to work in the temple, but asked the monks to give her very hard chores in order to discourage her. The monks forced Kuan Yin to work all day and all night, while others slept, in order to finish her work. However, she was such a good person that the animals living around the temple began to help her with her chores. Her father, seeing this, became so frustrated that he attempted to burn down the temple. Kuan Yin put out the fire with her bare hands and suffered no burns. Now struck with fear, her father ordered her to be put to death. After she died she was made into a goddess for all of her kindness and began her journey to heaven. She was about to cross over into heaven when she heard a cry of suffering back on earth. She asked to be sent back and vowed to stay until all suffering had ended." There are some statues, images & stories of the Kwan Yin being depicted as a male.

I'm well versed in the Wiccan form of witchcraft. However, my heart lies in Voodoo. And as of right now, I'm trying to learn what I can about Chaos Magic. Voodood posts to come.

We'll it started around age 12, I guess. I had never felt the presence of the God my family held dear(The Christian God) not saying they didn't, it just wasn't right for me. I tried my hardest to connect to him, I prayed I got baptized TWICE, thinking something may change. I went to church and saw people crying over the words that they were hearing, I cried because I felt nothing. After trying so hard I thought something must be wrong with me, when I looked outside and felt the comfort I thought I should get from "God" I denied it for months. Til one day something told me to walk in the woods and find a big tree. I did, I went into the woods behind my grandmother's house. I walked for what felt like hours til I found a huge tree, and under neath if looked like it had been sat under for years, a little spot big enough for just me. I sat there waiting for something, and I guess I feel asleep, it was the first like the trees spoke to me, they showed me, images of my father and uncle playing in the woods and around the tree where I sat. A rustling in the leaves woke me from my daydreams, my dog had followed me. I hadn't notice I guess her short legs weren't able to keep up with me. A couple of days later was my 13th birthday, it was nothing special. I did have a good day and got a cake after school, but most people like to give me birthmas presents and such because the dates are so close. (skipping a couple weeks to the date when my Witch self came to be) It was Christmas eve, and I was sitting with my family. My aunt and uncle had just arrived, and my uncle always brought me a new book to read when he came to see me, and of course he had a book looking thing in his hand. So naturally I was excited. I greeted them at the door and hugged them both, but my uncle didn't come inside, instead he asked me to step out. My aunt turned around and give me and him a look, I didn't understand. I walked outside and, he handed me a magazine from Azuregreen, and on the cover it said "for all the paths to the divine" and that truly struck me in a way I didn't understand. He told me after that, that if there was anything I wanted from there to circle it and give the magazine back. I looked threw it and a few things caught my eye, but nothing that I would ask for, but at the end of the day before leaving, I heard my aunt and uncle bickering in the yard," why would you give her that?" said my aunt and my uncle just said," I'm a proud Pagan, and I think she needed it" that was the first time I heard the word Pagan, and it felt right. After that it just expanded from there, I Found Hecate, and she stayed with me and came to me in my dreams and held me when I was sad. I learn to respect the earth and the plants and animals that grew and lived there. I gained a peace in my soul that I had not had before. Plants spoke to me in a way humans did not, I felt connect to Herbs and by that I studied them and learn of their uses and properties to help those around me. I gained so much from one little word and feeling, and after 7 years i'm a proud Pagan and a proud Witch. That is my "witchy" background :)