#patch-workcrow

I’m going to do my writing for the #2019GrimoireChallenge just directly on my blog for the time being (I didn’t want to stick these in the middle of my OBOD course work). But anyway! The first research/journal prompt for Week 2 was Magic: what it is and how it works.

The answer to this will literally differ vastly depending upon who you talk to. So for sake of not ruffling feathers, etc. etc. this is my gnosis of the above topic. 

Magic is, to put it most simply, the act of changing, attuning or manifesting something within one’s self, the world, or the web of fate and circumstance. 

Now, I know that doesn’t really seem very simple at all, but stick with me for a few more paragraphs. Magic, for me, can be sort of split up as thus: the magic of life/being/awe, the magic of working change within one’s self-which can be accomplished in a number of ways, and the magic of working change in the web of fate/circumstance/etc. 

The first is those moments that are magic- looking up and being taken aback by an inky sky full of stars, the way a cold wind hits you as it rips over the bay dragging a storm behind it, the way a song can make the hair on your arms or neck stand on end, or the gentle peace and awareness of wind whispering through the trees. This also applies to the magic of creating, of giving life to inspiration as it strikes us. Creating art, music, poetry, prose, gardens, literal LIFE, all of those things are magic, and they aren’t thought out spells or carefully constructed rituals, they are just the parts of life that make our lives feel, well, lively. 

The second, working magic within one’s self is identifying parts of the self that need improvement, love, healing, expression, whatever, and giving them what they need in order to become more full, healthy, and grounded people. You can accomplish this with spells and rituals- by all means, those things are powerful psychological tools that help us to mentally make the shifts we need in order to actually make the changes we need in our life. This can be brought about through meditation and visualization, or through the very very mundane act of sitting down, goal setting, and getting your shit together. It’s self-alchemy, and in many ways I think it’s more important than the third type of magic.

Working magic to affect the world about me, change the web of fate, etc. is what most people usually think about when they think about spells and rituals. We raise energy and focus in order to will positive (or negative perhaps) outcomes into being. Spells work by utilizing tools: herbs, crystals, candles, etc. which energetically align with our desires, and help us to focus our intentions. 

Photo by Michal Lomza on Unsplash

Tagged by  @witches--crows ; Thanks for tagging me to play along!

Rules: answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better.

Nickname: Rach, Sunshine (thank you family), Pookie (only to my friend Morgan), ahh... Yeah, I don’t actually have too many of them

Zodiac: Cancer

Height: 5′6″

Last movie I saw: Bird Box (My friends made me watch it, and I actually sort of liked it?)

Last thing I googled: How to Parallel Park (I’m retaking my driving test in a little over a week. o__o)

Favourite musician: How DARE you make me pick??? Um, David Bowie trumps all, but Stevie Nicks, Damh the Bard, Florence and the Machine, and Frank Turner are some others I’ve been jiving to lately.

Song stuck in my head: “Recovery” and “I am Disappeared” both by Frank Turner

Other blogs: @theravenafterdark is my goth-aesthetic blog, and @stardustandcrowfeathers is sort of my fandom/ shit-posty blog. I also have a Patchwork Crow blog on Wordpress.

Do I get asks: Next to never. 

Following: 360

Amount of sleep: Well last night I stayed up entirely too late playing Fire Emblem, so it was like... four or five hours of sleep? Usually I get about 6 or 7 though.

Lucky number: 6 or 13, which sounds edgy and whatnot but they genuinely are lucky for me.

What I’m wearing: Oversized hoodie from my university and jeans

Dream job: Proffessional blogger/ tarot reader

Dream trip: Returning to the British Isles and making a pilgrimage to a bunch of sacred sites: The Long Man, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Isle of Skye, Avebury, New Grange, Tintagel Castle, etc.

Favourite food: I honestly couldn’t say I have a favorite. I will never turn down chicken salad or pasta though, I guess.

Play any instruments: I used to play the saxophone, and I’ve been known to plink around on a piano from time to time, but I wouldn’t say I have a terrible amount of skill in either.

Languages: English, a smattering of remembered French from high school / college, and I’m teaching myself Welsh with Duolingo right now!

Favourite songs: “I am Disappeared” by Frank Turner, “Rock n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie, “Dead Man’s Bones” by the Muteflutes (which is my cousin’s band, and you should check them out!), and “Land, Sky, and Sea” by the Damh the Bard to name a few, I suppose.

Random fact: My cousin (the brother of the one who’s in a band) was on Naked and Afraid twice, which I think is pretty hardcore.

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: hand-painted mugs full of coffee, old-fashioned star charts and maps, warm tartan scarves, the peridot green of cottonwood leaves in the summer, perpetual smell of incense- somewhere between dragon’s blood and sandalwood but never really definable, black velvet and lace, ink-stained hands

Tuesday’s prompt for Week 2 was “Witch, what does it mean to you? What type of witch are you?... Are there certain things you plan to learn as a witch? Certain goals you have?”

A witch, to me, is someone who practices witchcraft in some way: this can be spells and rituals, crystal healing, divination, artwork, devotional poetry, yoga, astrology, essentially the crafts of “The Craft”. A witch doesn’t follow a specific religious or spiritual path- they can be atheists, Christian, Wiccan, polytheists of any sort, whatever. Witches and witchcraft, for my definition of the term aren’t bound necessarily by any specific religious or spiritual paradigm, but rather in the practice of those arts.

I personally identify first as a Druid and Bard. My reasons for this are: 

1. “Witch” is often conflated with “Wiccan” and as my religious beliefs and practices are NOT Wiccan, I find it easier to start at Druidry. Druidry is a nature-based spiritual philosophy which may be applied to a number of different sects of Celtic (and Indo-European if you’re a member of the ADF) polytheism as well as other more mainstream religious movements. Druidry is focused upon connection, care and respect for the natural world, and expression of creativity- usually with an emphasis on song and poetry I’ve found. It’s usually very much entwined with Celtic cultural values of hospitality, the sacred landscape, good humor and wit, etc. and as a spiritual philosophy is not as necessarily concerned with the “craft” part of my witchcraft definition.

2. My personal practice is, usually a lot less “witchcraft-y” and more spiritual. I spend a great deal more time wandering the woods, contemplating the universe and meditating than I do crafting spells and reading cards. Therefore to call myself solely a witch feels a bit.. fake.

If I were to define the type of witch I was, I would probably call myself a Druid-Witch, or a Witch of the Wild Hunt. Longtime followers of my blog will have noticed (scattered through here and probably difficult to find because when the hell do I ever actually post personal / original content?) that I work specifically with a version of the Wild Hunt and their horned god leader. For me, this path is first and foremost concerned with nature (particularly storms and the forest), connecting with it, knowing my local environment and its cycles and patterns, etc. On another level, I feel very much called to be a bard for said hunter deity. A lot of my path is made up of composing devotional poetry and artwork, recording the tales I uncover as well as my own adventures and growth. This path includes studying patterns of the stars- not just astrology but the actual dance of the constellations across my own sky. It includes keeping my home, and my altar, as hearth for my familiar spirits to rest and to speak with me. It includes journeying through trancework and meditation with those spirits and gods. But it very very rarely includes ritual, spell work, etc. I do those things, but they aren’t the bulk of what makes up my practice.

YT Pagan Challenge 24: Which Deity Should I Work With?

In which I ramble on about sacred spaces and holy sites and a little on circle casting! There was no way to film outside, so to see the places I’m talking about, please check out my blog post I made to accompany it: https://patchworkcrow.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/yt-pagan-challenge-sacred-spaces-holy-sites-and-circle-casting/

...YouTube. This is NOT the thumbnail we agreed on. Whatever.