🌈 Mystery experiences and rituals, like handfasting, initiation, dedication, croning/saging etc. The point of The Mysteries is they are difficult to explain, and often cannot be relayed to another person. So writing them out for yourself can help you understand them better.

I was attempting to finish my altar box, but the rule of cats applies to familiars, too. He fits. He sits.

I spent the good first two years of my practice looking for a specific way to name it, and being disappointed I couldn't find a word that could encompass most or all of it. I know in hindsight, it looks kind of unnecessary, or even a little bit naive, I think it took me a while to realize I'm the kind of person on who labels simply don't stick easily. After five years of practicing, I feel like I now have a better handle on what works with me and what doesn't. For example, I have a Taurus stellium, which includes my Sun and my Venus. It should make it easy for me to do glamour workings or money magic right? Yeah, not really, my Sun is in my tenth house and the rest of my stellium in the eleventh, my magic works best when it serves the community, not myself first. My religious beliefs are currently very rooted in Folk Christianity, with a growing side of ancestral work, as well as the occasional enlightment thanks to the help of the infernals. I still pay respect to the gods from other pantheons who helped me and supported me in the past. I'm also on the more animist side than magician-centered now. In terms of tools, I think I have dabbled in almost everything. High and low magic, planetary, divination, spirits, hedgeriding/pathworking, languages, music, art, deities, agnostic, sea, elemental, crystals, green (my black thumb still cannot keep a single plant alive), mixology... At first, when I was learning something new I got excited, then when I saw it wasn't working better or worse for me than other tools, I'd get disappointed. I thought I needed my thing, something that would feel easy and natural and that give me that Eurêka of "Yes, I found exactly the type of witch I was supposed to be!". Now, I realize this doesn't exist. Props to anyone who did find something that way. Some people are very confidently hedge witches, green witches, love witches etc. If you found your thing, and it works for you that is great. But now, in my path, I think I find it more freeing that my practice is what I make of it and not what someone else (fate, my chart, whatever) has decided for me. I think I still do some sort of divination or prayer most days. I have 3 or 4 pages worth of handmade sigils in my grimoire and a box full of decks I am finding new uses for. I DIY most of my tools now, and don't feel the need to buy buy buy as much as I did. I don't feel the need to restrain myself to certain things, I also don't force myself to do stuff I don't like, my enthusiasm is a core part of my practice and helps me discern what I truly desire versus what I think I am expected to want. I found a love for justice work, for reflection, for reparations. I am looking for ways to integrate aspects of my practice in my career. I look through the practices into the core principles, then try them out, and figure out what works and what doesn't and why, which pleases the science-loving part of my brain. I may not be super advanced to the point of seriously teaching or mentoring anyone towards a specific path into mastery, however I do feel confident enough to support beginners in getting to the point of competency or at least enjoyable amateurism. I also got the chance to meet a lot of people older than me, wiser, who have spent more time practicing than I have been alive and whose practices are influenced by literal PhDs they pursued. I think I am lot of things, including someone who has a lifetime in front of them to keep learning and keep being amazed and starstruck by how much magic there is in this world.

This angelic communication now begins through the realm of sun as I begin my Almadel ritual work.

I've been moving over to substack slowly but surely and wrote this piece over there about how I got into making an arbatel in the first place. As well focusing on the transmission of inspiration in the occult, and why i feel it's important to be sharing photos of my practice.

Inspired by @pathandpractice To me, witchcraft is a craft first, a hobby. Many people get curious, start and just enjoy keeping it on the low, doing tarot readings at parties, throwing out a little candle spell for specific things etc. For some of us, yes it is a calling, it is practice that we blend with our spiritual beliefs, wether about ourselves, our faiths/religions, our ancestors, the world around us etc. As time passes, the craft can take more or less space in our lives, some of us make it our jobs or or our side jobs, a side gig for fun, or for a few months or years it becomes a box of books and tools you forget in the back of your closet. All paths are valid, as long as done in the respect of the traditions you chose to become a part of, and those you can't join.

this is inspired by the challenge created by @pathandpractice. How do I define magic? Well, I define magic as the literal fabric of consciousness and spirit. I have grown quite fond of animism since last year or so, and I find it beautiful to think that Rosemary, Quartz or Jupiter as spirits have defining features and can be interacted with on a spiritual level not just as tools, but as companions and allies. If magic is fabric, not only is it something inside and outside of us, but also what links us to the rest of the world, and the practice of magic the acknowledging of these relationships but also the maintaining of them.