#sjwitch

Here's an emoji spell for legal, safe abortion to be available to all who need it around the world. May it be legalized!

I took a photography college course several years ago and got serious magical feels when reading about the technology of the camera obscura. I tucked it away with the intent to create a spell surrounding it at some point and then forgot about it… as if by design, I came back across my initial ideas recently and wow is it relevant!!!

The camera obscura was a predecessor to the modern film (and eventually digital) camera that worked by poking a small hole in the wall of a darkroom to allow outside light and images inside. It works essentially the same way as our own eyes work, taking an image in through a small hole (pupil), flipping it upside-down, and projecting it on the back wall (retina). Whether you want to imagine this working from your own eyes, or create a physical ‘room’ to carry out the intent is entirely up to you. The neat thing is that this is precisely the system used to view a solar eclipse back before protective glasses were widely available for viewing! I could go on for ages about how neat this technology was, especially for the time it was created, but that would make a rather lengthy post so instead I will give you the wiki link here and suggest if you would like to learn more that you follow some of the links given at the bottom of the wiki page in resources. It really is super neat (especially if you’re a photography nerd like me)!

As many of you know, this eclipse has some heavy connotations for things as they are in the United States right now… if you have not read up on just how connected the planetary alignments and symbolism of the solar eclipse are, you can read more about that here.

This spell can essentially be fine tuned for whatever situation you may want to turn around, but for the current purposes I am going to write it for the upcoming eclipse. I will actually be creating two versions. Here you will find the physical room version, and you can click here for the more covert version using your own eyes as the camera obscura!

Create your camera obscura: 1. You can find instructions for making a camera obscura (pinhole camera) here from a cardboard box. You can also make this with two pieces of paper if you do not have a box, but the image will not be as clear. Find instructions for that version here. 2. Might I suggest placing a sigil on the back wall where the image will project to solidify your intent? 3. Place this box outside during the eclipse, the world outside before the eclipse represents things as they are currently… there may be things in your own life you want to change, or you may want to take the broader focus of social justice concerns as they are right now (it’s not *just* a United States problem, so anyone could honestly use this… with or without the eclipse… I will eventually be writing a version of this spell that can be done at any time and is not as connected specifically to the eclipse) 4. As the eclipse reaches totality, you will see a small version cast into your box. Focus on the image of the problems as they currently are being filtered through the tiny pinhole and flipping on their head. As totality occurs, take a moment to view the world now laid over the world as you wish it to be and begin shifting the background 'flipped’ image to the forefront. For camera obscuras, the darker the image the clearer it is when flipped… things currently are undeniably dark on a social plane, so it should be exceptionally easy to create a clear image of change for the better. 5. As totality ends and the moon moves across to the other side of the sun, you should have the image of the world flipped on its head (the positive change) clearly in mind. This is where belief comes into play. Obviously only a few moments have passed, so it will take more time for actual change to show itself. Consider how you will personally enact change in your life and the world around you. Intent is a powerful thing, so keep that obscure image in your mind and set forward to place that image out in the world around you.

https://youtu.be/fHYKnMR7mgw Pawns standing in awe of the game Of the stage, you’ve worked so hard at building an empire Of secret rooms to display yourself And add to your wealth The sting of, oh, it stings When I saw it all come crashing I witnessed the sound of a million voices Screaming for a public hanging So hide yourself, hide, hide yourself for now, for now, for now… We caught you plotting murder And now the tide is turning We’ll light our souls, heat our bones Upon your empire burning!

You can make this as easy or complex as you want… hit play, and sing (scream?) the words… then go on with your day?

Use the words to bolster your resolve to resist throughout the day by listening to the song or humming the tune to yourself.

Bonus: you can print pictures of the people or organizations you’re resisting and scream the lyrics at them? Write it all over their faces and pin it to your wall like a goddamned crime scene? Burn baneful herbs, draw sigils, create a whole ritual around these lyrics? Make a playlist- I will have more song-based curses on the way- or just make this your own.

I found an amazing post by @wytchtrack called The Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft and found it to be a very powerful statement, especially in the current world we live in. However, I was bothered by the gendered language on some of the items and concerned that it was missing impact on a large portion of people (Syn, your avid gender-activism is showing…) So, like I do with everything in my craft, I made it my own. I want to make it clear THIS WAS NOT MY ORIGINAL IDEA and I do not intend to take credit for the original author’s genius. I encourage you to go have a look at the original, so long as gender and female-tailored writing does not bother you. Witchcraft was originally (and continues to be) centered around empowerment and healing driven by women… I in no way wish to erase that history or power. I simply wanted to give an alternative version to our male, trans, and gender-nonconforming witch family out there… we are powerful together. 

So, without further adieu…

A Gender Neutral Manifesto for the Apocalyptic Witch

(Adapted from wytchtrack’s Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft) 

If the land is poisoned, the witchcraft must respond

It is not our way of life, but life itself which is under threat

Witchcraft is our intimate connection to the web of life

WE are the witchcraft

Our world has forever changed. The trodden paths no longer correspond. Witchcraft thrives in this liminal, lunar, trackless realm

We are storm, fire, and flood.

We will not be denied!

Witchcraft is the recourse of the dispossessed, the powerless, the hungry, and the abused. It gives heart and tongue to stones and trees. It wears the rough skin of beasts and the slick underbelly of serpents. It turns on a civilization that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

We have no price; we cannot be bought.

We are not afraid; we cannot be controlled. 

Witchcraft is the magic of the people, used for the people.

We abandon all pretense of respectability.

We will arm ourselves, because war is upon us. 

We will become a part of the face at the front lines. 

Our craft is one, though it is of many names and paths.

Witchcraft is a force, not an order. It is rhizomatic, not hierarchic- we defy our categories and neat organization to attain greater meaning. 

Witchcraft is unbridled vitality.

In witchcraft, we initiate and ask those not of the craft to equal us in love and strength by whatever means they will.

Witchcraft turns on itself, inverts, and is reborn into what is most needed for the time.

Witchcraft is beauty and terror.

Witchcraft is myth which draws on the past and clothes itself in the symbols of its time. We do not mistake myths for history, but we harness their truths to transform the future. 

Witchcraft knows the ground upon which it stands.

Witchcraft honors the spirits and chants for the lost. Witchcraft will not forget!

Witchcraft embodies our ancestors and saints- they carry us with them.

The example we follow is our own.

Witchcraft is power and revolution.

Witchcraft concerns itself with mystery, through which gate knowledge enters- the most powerful form of this is love.

Blood is often the price of love, and we are prepared to pay it.

Our will is finite, infinitely renewed through passion.

We seek and drink this wine together.

Witchcraft is present. It is ensanguined and vivified. 

Witchcraft is prescient, it gazes on the future. 

Witchcraft is oracular, it will not hold its tongue.