#askagnes

As usual with this kind of thing, various foodstuffs have various meanings depending on culture/folklore, so people’s associations with them may vary. Still, there’s some pretty clear things that can be said about it.Honey, due to its golden colour and general desirability (sugar is a pretty new thing) has meant opulence and prosperity in most cultures that use it. It doesn’t spoil for years, so longevity and health are also pretty reasonable associations.

Lemon is a tougher thing for me. My culture came across them very late, and they’re pretty much “this very very exotic thing” with no cool folklore attached. Rummaging around the eclectic witchysphere shows that most common associations with lemon are (unsurprisingly) vitality, energy, and overall fresh-ness. You know, zest of life kind of thing. [Horrible pun signal]

Personally, I don’t use things that could spoil or rot as offerings, precisely for this reason. It’s just not practical in a home environment.

However, people who do use various solutions.

1. Burning. Some people burn the offering right away, and keep the ashes, or not. Other people burn the offering after some specific time has passed.

2. Composting. People who have gardens, and especially those in whose practice Nature has an important place, often add the “leftover” offerings to their compost heaps. It’s part of the cycle, and can even be part of the ritual itself.

3. Burying. Some people bury the offerings in the earth somewhere. This may be a bit environmentally irresponsible, though. Depending on what your offerings are made of, introducing them into the earth may be bad for the soil, the plants, or possibly animals who can sniff them out, dig them out and eat them.

4. Just throwing it out. Some people consider the offering made after it spent some time at the altar, and have no problem with throwing out the “leftovers” simply because they consider that whatever/whoever the offering was made to, is sort of finished with it by now.

Hi!

I am so, so sorry this response comes so late. As usual, when people say something nice about me, I screw it up completely. (I also just generally screw it up.)

There are several things that I’ve done for people with anxiety that worked so far. The best by far is a necklace with a small vial containing ingredients with a calming smell: lavender, vervain and jasmine essential oils, for example. The vial is carried on the person, and uncorked and smelled when necessary.

Another good thing is a “stress pillow” - a small pillow-like thing sewn from a fabric that’s pleasant to touch, and filled with things that can be kneaded for relief. The actual thing depends on the preferences of the patient - some people enjoy having dried herbs in there that smell nice, while others prefer something more dough-like and malleable, such as kinetic sand.

Hi, thank you for your kind words. 

Some of them think I’m a very lame witch, because I don’t do much cursing or scary stuff with various animal parts. Or paint my fingernails black. Things like that.