#sharing knowledge

I've been practicing witchcraft for about five years and have yet to see a specific place where witches can freely exchange information so that's what I'm hoping to do here!

A few things about me I'd consider myself a chaos leaning witch, my practice tends to lack structure, and I include a lot of things that are both personal and general knowledge. I'm a college student majoring in Studio Arts and Biology. I have a cat, bunny, cockatiel, and tarantula. I struggle with multiple mental health issues, and I use witchcraft AND medicine to help live with them!

i pushed this aside as something that was selfish and not necessary at the moment. there were so many more important things right?

but i wish i would have listened (story of my life) because the saddest death for me last year was my belief that the majority of my fellow citizens would care enough to stop the immediate rise of an authoritarian regime to power. they don't. i grieved that, i mourned for it. then i got up and made a new plan with that reality in mind

it's hard but make sure to grieve the america you thought existed. you can't move forward until you have

i thought i knew how bad my fellow americans were but i truly had not even begun to glimpse those depths. i still have not but i'm educating myself and much more aware of dog whistles and people's micro-expressions

i'm also much more aware of the importance of taking care of myself and making new connections and making a home and a place for myself in the world that i understand comes from within myself so it can't be taken from me. when things get to be too much i can go inside myself and find myself again. i don't spiral as long or as bad. i find solutions. i focus on foundational knowledge instead of instant answers. i am better equipped to handle the world as it is and not as i idealized it to be

First of all, the recipe cards are intended mostly for practitioners who already have a basis for their magical practices. Folks who have paradigms in place and ways of doing their magics. They're friendly enough for newer practitioners, with room to interpret, add, remove, and grow. They're spells in and of themselves, yes, but they're also prompts.

Even in commissions, where I provide extra context, tips, and instructions, I leave it to the practitioner to form the full ritual. I make mention of where I suggest including certain words or actions, and I note when to focus or rest, but... it's up to the reader to interpret that. My way isn't going to be your way, and so instructions written too specifically won't apply anymore. I don't want you to practice my magic, I want to inspire you to practice your magic.

Secondly... I use this magic. I'm a folk practitioner. Many of these recipes are spells I cast and use. I'm not going to give out all of my secrets. I'll share some techniques and ideas of where to include magic, but if I were to provide full, step-by-step instructions, it would end up as a recreation of my own workings. And that's a no-no to me. I leave out additional ingredients, steps, incantations, and techniques on purpose. I add extra tidbits that I don't actually use but that still make sense in context.

No spellwork that you see posted here (or anywhere) is 100% accurate to life. Partly because I want my work to inspire others to create their own paths, but also to protect my own magics. It doesn't make sense to share my most closely-guarded secrets. Why on earth would I give out the keys to undoing all my hard work?

Information, I think, should be shared. Communities can't thrive if we're all siloed completely away from each other. It's good to write guides and recipes and books; it's good to share tidbits and tips and tricks; it's good to provide context and help others understand and build on each others' works. It's important, even.

So over the last year I've starting practicing a little more seriously, learning what I can about different styles and elements of the craft so I can build my own practice. It's been a lot of fun.

One of the things that's really caught my attention is sigil work, which honestly is just really cool. But there seems to be a bit of a disagreement between practitioners, and I'm hoping y'all might be able to illuminate the situation.

Some folk have offered their own sigils for others to use, sometimes with instructions and sometimes without. Under most circumstances it seems like the expectation is to draw, charge, and activate the sigil in your own preferred way.

But others have said (quite vehemently in some cases) that using other people's sigils either won't work or might invite unexpected effects due to the user not knowing what intentions the sigil's creator put into it. These folk have stated that sigils will not work unless you create them for yourself.

And then on yet another side of this, most sources I can find about making your own sigils are positive or even encouraging about making use of designs, shapes, and colors that have personal significance for you, which seems to mean that I might take and repurpose another design into a sigil for my own use and that would be fine.

Twitter is a hellscape. I mean that literally. It has always been, but fuck has it gotten worse since Elmo took over.

Facebook is not any better, for that matter. (Accidental poetry for the win!) There is a reason so many boomers got radicalized into some conspiracy bullshit via facebook.

Youtube is slowly drowning in the adpocalypse.

And tumblr... Has most certainly its own issues, though I gotta say that after getting used to the place it seems the most sane place of all the internet.

And I guess reddit... Trudges along.

So, Web 2.0 in general though... Kinda sucks.

Yet, I am currently basically chatting on a daily basis with a Japanese friend, who has studied Japanese history and will ramble about said Japanese history to me all day long. And then I will chat to friends in Berlin and talk about social movements in Germany. Maybe I am then also discussing stuff with friends from the USA or from Brazil. And we will share our knowledge. There are forums on Solarpunk. There are places for people to organize.

Even the fucking hellscape that is twitter most certainly made it so, that marginalized voices that have been ignored for decades got finally more room.

And that... is kinda awesome, isn't it?

If I have a question, there is a good chance I will be able to answer it by googling it. Or by just going to Wikipedia or SciHub. There is so much knowledge accessible. Or I can just ask the question at some place and get it answered.

And... like. That was kinda what the internet was supposed to be, right?

It was supposed to be a place for knowledge to be shared. I mean, it originally connected universities for heaven's sake. And when it does that, it is kinda a fucking amazing place.

And all I am thinking is... we kinda need to find a way to take the internet back from big companies.

No, I do not know how. But... It somehow has to work, right? The internet should not be in a chokehold by a handful of quasi-monopolistic companies. It should just be a place where you could properly share your knowledge with other people. A place for folks to connect.

I really do not know how to get there. But... It needs to happen, God darn it.