amerwitch

a desire to learn

an oddly strong love for the moon, the sun, or both

an open mind

time

a little humility

salt, probably

THINGS YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A WITCH

a vagina

nor a uterus

fancy tools

money

formal training

a fancy witch name

a neurotypical brain

[Alt Title Text: A Slightly Deeper Ask Game for Practitioners of Folk Magic, Traditional Magic, and Spirit Work]

A @hagstoneandtoadsbone ask game for those who practice centers on folk magic, traditional magic/traditional witchcraft, folklore, cunning practice, and spirit work. Reblog to participate and invite your followers to send you a keyword to ask you questions. Don't forget to send and ask to the person you're reblogging from to keep it going.

Nettle: What are your plant allies, and how did you form your relationship with them?

Lantern: What was a spirit encounter that profoundly impacted your practice or worldview?

Fur: What forms/shapes do your familiars take, and how do they make themselves known to you?

Grove: Where is your favorite place to work with the land and why?

Formula: What would the “recipe” for your practice look like? (Tradition, intuition, land work, ancestor work, scholarship, etc.)

Fog: What relationship do you keep with the spirits of the dead and how do you maintain it?

Hearth: What folklore, regional practice, or historical tradition most shaped your craft?

Iron: What is a magical no-no you personally refuse to break?

Vessel: What physical object in your toolset feels truly inhabited by spirit?

Cobweb: What is something about witchcraft/magic that you had to unlearn the hard way?

Salt: What is your most-used ingredient, tool, or materia, and why?

Owl: What is an omen you received that turned out to be insanely accurate?

Ember: What is a spell, rite, or working you wish you could go back and relive?

Tallow: What offering has gotten the strongest response from spirits?

Heirloom: What part of your practice feels inherited, even if nobody taught it to you directly?

Black Cat: What are some boundaries that exist between you and your familiars or spirits?

Thread: What do you see as the thread that ties all the pieces of your your practice together philosophically or spiritually?

Offering: What aspect of your practice demands the most sacrifice from you?

Stone: What landscape feels the most spiritually charged to you? Forests, rivers, graveyards, crossroads, deserts, coastlines?

Ballad: What is a text, myth, ballad, or folktale feels spiritually “true” to you?

Ward: What protections do you maintain even when you aren’t actively practicing?

Foundation: What core foundations does your practice stand on? (Animism, reciprocity, devotion, rebellion, healing, sorcery, etc.)

Hearthkeeping: What mundane chore or act secretly feels magical to you?

Serpent: What spirit, deity, saint, or force do you approach with the most caution?

Storm: What natural phenomenon feels most spiritually significant to you? Fog, thunder, tides, drought, wildfire, etc.?

Petition: What role does prayer, petition, or devotion play in your work?

Crossroads: Does your practice belong to a specific place, or has it adapted wherever you go?

Transformation: What part of your practice has changed the most over time?

Mask: What misconceptions about traditional witchcraft or folk magic frustrate you the most?

Broom: What does your hearth mean to your practice?

Blood: What price do you believe magic demands, if any?

Hush: What is a ritual or practice you only do in secrecy?

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who are not punished by the narrative by the end of the story.

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who win.

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who make evil look fun and cool.

😈 You are allowed to make your fun, cool evil character the protagonist.

😈 You are allowed to glorify, romanticize and eroticize evil characters and villainous acts.

Like, seriously, women should be educated about their own bodies.

So if you're on the other side of 45 and suddenly everything is twice as difficult, you get more migraines, your blood pressure goes funny, you can't sleep and you feel like your entire psyche is unstable, you might be experiencing perimenopause. My gyn was like,oh, like think of it like reverse puberty, your entire body rearranges itself. I was like, Great, nobody ever told me it can be this bad. My GP didn't even ask me about my period or hormone levels or anything. He just told me I was probably depressed and sent me to a psychiatrist, who also didn't ask about my period or my hormones. If I hadn't experienced something akin to postpartum depression and therefore know what my body does when its hormones are out of whack, I would have had no idea.

Seriously, nobody tells you how much hormones fuck you up as a woman. Nobody prepares you for this.

I've been trying to talk openly about what's fucking me up right now, and I've discovered that it's a lot more common than I thought it was. I feel like every phase of life finds another way to fuck women over. Puberty: have fun with your period as it adjusts itself. Childbirth: prepare for a hormonal rollercoaster. PMS: oh, it can get BAD. Like, BAD. After birth: hormones out of whack for months, maybe longer. Perimenopause: can fuck up everything. Like literally everything. Osteoporosis is also hormonal. Post menopause: supposedly things get better, but they don't have to.

And I feel like we're left pretty alone dealing with all of it. And we know so little about it that we're left wondering why suddenly nothing works anymore. So we flail about and feel terrible about our sudden inability to cope with life, when it's in fact our bodies screwing with us. Again.

The High Priestess and Ace of Wands

Cards of Week for June 15th to 21st.

Let rest Reversed 5 of Swords. LET REST THE BLAHS!

Wake up Mothman and Shuck. Wake up and be careful of what's going on.

Mantra: Oracle. Time to spend time in the backyard, talking to my friend/s.

Cards of the Day: Aces Wild.

I don’t want Reversed Ace of Pentacles. I don’t want this blahness I have right now.

I don’t have 5 of Wands and King of Swords. I don’t have stress. I have calm and that is thanks to my bear.

I feel Knight of Pentacles. I feel I can be real.

I think Reversed Queen of Cups. I think not with my heart but with my body.

Overall, Hermit, I bring back knowledge from distance places.