The Fallen one's

From Grian’s Ep. 4 and Mumbo’s Ep. 5, so mild spoilers I suppose if you haven’t watched it!

What is a glamour?

Stemming from the old Scots word, a “glamour” (always spelt with the British “ou”, as we are referring to the spell not the trait) is a kind of magickal spell or enchantment that a person casts upon an object, a person, or themselves to confuse, bewitch or obscure the senses of other observers. For instance, a pickpocket may use glamours as a means of assisting in the avoidance of detection, and a secret Witch may use a glamour to hide their spell supplies. Glamours are also one of the primary spells that the Fae Folk use to hide their presence, and also to make mischief and cause harm to intrusive or blundering humans who offend them. 

Why have I never heard of this before?!

Probably because it’s not very flashy and, by its very nature, it’s centred around concealment. Glamours are very powerful, very useful spells, but they don’t involve love or money or luck or happiness and so they tend to be overlooked by most novice or self-taught Witches. They’re also quite hard to perfect, and so many more experienced Witches give up before they have mastered them.

They are simultaneously very simple spells to perform, but very difficult to perfect, as they require significant effort of Will and a lot of practice but if you achieve a true glamour it can be one of the most powerful spells in any Witch’s arsenal. It’s also worth noting, however, that glamours do not conceal things from machines. Machines like metal detectors, security cameras and proximity detectors don’t have minds, and as such they cannot be fooled by magick that affects the mind and how the brain perceives senses. They also work poorly on animals, especially cats. Do not try to fool a cat with a glamour. Dogs are often confused by glamours, but generally see through them with time, and snakes and lizards are completely immune as far as I can tell (since their minds are not concerned with things that glamours affect).

OK, but how do I cast a glamour?

The first step is, as with all spells, to decide to do it. Decide “I am going to cast a glamour”. Know it in your soul, know that what you will do is magick, it is a glamour, and that it’s purpose is to hide yourself. Glamours on yourself are generally the easiest to start with, because they are the easiest kind with which to tell when something needs improving. 

Secondly, you must visualise strongly - and I mean REALLY strongly, let it consume your being - the purpose of the glamour. Fill yourself with the knowledge how how it will work, what it will do, how it will work. If you are looking for a glamour of imperception, whereby you attempt to make yourself hard to see by convincing the minds of people around you that you are utterly uninteresting and forgettable, fill yourself with that. Let to complete and utter truth of that ring through your head; 

“I am forgettable, I’m not even here. You don’t remember me, I’m utterly boring, I’m just another part of the background. Everything about me is empty and dull. There is nothing here”

And similar such truths. Let your Willpower make them true, let their truth fill the world around you through the strength of your visualisation.

Thirdly, sustain it. This is the hardest step, but a glamour will only last for as long as it is sustained and remembered. If you are visualising a glamour on something that moves or changes (such as yourself) this can involve literally constant reinforcement - never ever stop thinking those reinforcing statements and pouring all your Willpower into them. For objects that are more static, for instance a chest containing spell supplies, this can simply involve a period of refreshment every evening whereby you place your hands upon it and refresh the enchantment you’ve placed upon the chest, reminding it of how completely ignorable and boring it is, reminding it that nobody will open it because nobody will care enough to try, that nobody will notice it because it’s so dull it’s not even there. 

That seems REALLY hard, is there a simpler way?

The short answer is, no. This is why glamours are often quite unpopular - despite their obvious power and usefulness, the sheer effort of Will that goes into the construction of a glamour, and the amount of practice you need to get really good, can scare off a lot of Witches from truly persisting. Those who need glamours are often the only ones who are really any good at them - the best glamour-caster I have ever known developed her skill during her life as a pickpocket, when she used glamours to avoid getting caught. The simple fact that she has no criminal record attests to their efficacy! But, it took her a very long time to get that good, and most Witches simply don’t care enough to try.

However, I urge you to do so! It’s such a rewarding skill, even if only so that you can be the undisputed champion of paintball and laser tag in your friend group because nobody ever sees you in the shadows. 

So there you are! The ancient, powerful, and mostly-overlooked art of glamours! I hope this helped all you lovely Witches!

Moon Dates and Meanings:

Times are shown in CST/CDT depending on the time of year!

🐾January 🐾

2nd at 10:46 PM: First Quarter

10th at 1:23 PM: Full Moon

17th at 7:00 AM: Third Quarter

24th at 3:44 PM: New Moon

❄️February ❄️

1st at 7:43 PM: First Quarter

9th at 1:34 AM: Full Moon

15th at 4:19 PM: Third Quarter

23rd at 9:33 AM: New Moon

🌄March 🌄

2nd at 1:58 PM: First Quarter

9th at 12:48 PM: Full Moon

16th at 4:35 AM: Third Quarter

24th at 4:29 AM: New Moon

🌸April 🌸

1st at 5:21 AM: First Quarter

7th at 9:35 PM: Full Moon

14th at 5:56 PM: Third Quarter

22nd at 9:27 PM: New Moon

30th at 3:38 PM: First Quarter

🌷May 🌷

7th at 5:45 AM: Full Moon

14th at 9:03 AM: Third Quarter

22nd at 12:39 PM: New Moon

29th at 10:30 PM: First Quarter

🍓June 🍓

5th at 2:12 PM: Full Moon

13th at 1:24 AM: Third Quarter

21st at 1:42 AM: New Moon

28th at 3:16 AM: First Quarter

⛈July ⛈

4th at 11:44 PM: Full Moon

12th at 6:31 PM: Third Quarter

20th at 12:33 PM: New Moon

27th at 7:33 AM: First Quarter

🦈August 🦈

3rd at 10:59 AM: Full Moon

11th at 11:47 AM: Third Quarter

18th at 9:42 PM: New Moon

25th at 12:59 PM: First Quarter

🌾September 🌾

2nd at 12:23 AM: Full Moon

10th at 4:28 AM: Third Quarter

17th at 6:00 AM: New Moon

23rd at 8:56 PM: First Quarter

🦌October 🦌

1st at 4:06 PM: Full Moon

9th at 7:41 PM: Third Quarter

16th at 2:32 PM: New Moon

23rd at 8:24 AM: First Quarter

31st at 9:51 AM: Full Moon

🍂November 🍂

8th at 7:47 AM: Third Quarter

14th at 11:08 PM: New Moon

21st at 10:45 PM: First Quarter

30th at 3:32 AM: Full Moon

☃️December ☃️

7th at 6:37 PM: Third Quarter

14th at 10:18 AM: New Moon

21st at 5:42 PM: First Quarter

29th at 9:30 PM: Full Moon

🐾Wolf Moon: Starting over, cleansing, new year, new beginnings, self-discovery, connecting with deities. 

❄️Snow Moon: Focusing on the home and family, conception, planning for the future. 

🌄Worm Moon: Renewal and new life, balance, the earth. 

🌸Pink Moon: Rebirth, change, taking action towards goals. 

🌷Flower Moon: Lust, fertility, career magic, passion, 

🍓Strawberry Moon: Coming together, nurturing, improving and maintaining what you already have. 

⛈Thunder Moon: Gathering herbs, drying them in the heat of the summer, meditation, dreamwork, divination. 

🦈Sturgeon Moon: Getting ready for winter, harvesting the fruits of your labor. 

🌾Harvest Moon: Insight for the future, thanksgiving, hearth magic. 

🦌Hunter’s Moon: Psychic work, communicating with spirits and ancestors, divination. 

🍂Beaver Moon: Silence, strength, inner workings, shedding bad habits, new beginnings. 

☃️Cold Moon: Life evaluation, giving, survival, sharing good fortune. 

🌑New Moon: Thinking about what you have and what you still need to accomplish, ridding your life of what you don’t need anymore, finding your inner self, new beginnings, cursing, destroying and banishing. 

🌒Waxing Cresent: Gaining strength, increasing things like money in bank accounts, fertility, communication, healing, legal matters, manifesting desires, self-improvement, and creativity. 

🌓First Quarter: Best for attraction magic, finding lost objects, obtaining desires, attracting money or success. 

🌔Waxing Gibbous: The final energy boost in gaining those desires of yours, finishing stalled projects, seeing things through, new strength, stopping yourself from getting burnt out. 

🌕Full Moon: Activity, fulfillment, energy, power, psychic ability, celebrating, all-purpose magic, rejuvenation, prioritizing, divination. 

🌖Waning Gibbous: Minor banishing, cleansing, cleaning the house, divination for introspection, closure. 

🌗Third Quarter: Banishing temptation, getting past roadblocks, aiding in transition and change. 

Cinnamon is a very delicious spice. It’s in my favorite treats like cinnamon rolls and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Although I love it’s flavor I didn’t know much about it so here’s what I’ve learned in my research on it.

Cinnamon is associated with the element fire and the sun. Gods that are also associated with cinnamon are Athena, Oya, Ra and Apollo Planets associated with cinnamon are mercury, the sun, mars and Uranus

Magical properties include:

healing

Drawing money

Happiness

Love

Luck

Protection

When used as an oil you can anoint objects for healing and blessing rituals ( make sure to dilute it with a carrier oil)

Cinnamon can help creat the holiness and specialness of your alter room and raise spiritual vibrations.

Bonding is important when you become a Spirit Keeper. And when I first started, I tried my best to interact with everyone. But, that’s hard and mentally draining because my system became routine and I just stopped altogether. Your spirits understand you’re only given so many spoons in a day, but it can be harmful to the relationship to stop everything because you can’t keep up.

After hearing about certain things going on with other fellow Keepers that are also friends, having a Bonding Journal is a good thing to start. In conjunction with having a Bonding Schedule, you can focus on one or a few on that day and it’s totally up to you and yours how you make this work. Whether it’s in teams that specialize in certain things or randomly choosing them, it’s all a matter of what you, as a collective, agree upon. If you only have, let’s say less than 10, you can just alternate days with a randomizer and see how many days they want to do their session.

Here are a few things I suggest for those that have more than 10 (I have over 400 so yeah…):

Find out who needs more attention. Chances are, you have some that are not as strong as others so you might not know they need the attention. Keep in mind that, especially for those that have mixed Arts in their Keep, they’re not going to tell you right away, if at all. it’s important for you to check periodically for this so that no one gets left behind.

Make a list of names and then randomize it. Initially, I took the names of those in need of more attention and made that a separate list from the others and randomized both. then combined the more attention with the rest. Whatever system works for you and yours, do that. Teamwork!

Schedule in the time. whether it’s one day or one week, you should start with what they want. As time goes on, you can adjust. For me, I started right after the New Year with giving a single spirit a whole week. That got boring and it would take me years to finish so we adjusted to 3-4 spirits a day randomly chosen.

Individual vs. Teams. Depending on how big your Keep is, you may want to work in groups or teams. Say, for instance, you have a few divination spirits. Work with those few for however long you feel you can allot.

Again, these are just suggestions and I’ve tried a few combinations. Best thing is to see what works for you. Find other suggestions and mix it up :) You’ll find the best combo and everyone can be kept happy, healthy and wise.

I found this in an old notebook, I hadn’t written down who or where it came from but here it is.

1/2 Apple

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon zest/rind

2 tsp rosemary

2 tsp thyme

10 sage leaves

1 tsp clove

Orange peels

Water

Simmer ingredients 20 minutes and add honey.

MISTLETOE: love, protection, luck, reconciliation, banishing.

SNOWDROP: hope, cleansing, beauty.

LEMONGRASS: banishing negativity, attraction, purification.

CINNAMON: love, happiness, money.

SAGE: longevity, wisdom, protection, wishes. aiding in grief. 

ROSEMARY: purification, dreams, healing.

GINGER: power, manifestation.

ORANGE: divination, fortune, health, love, good luck, money.

BAY LEAVES: cleansing, psychic abilities, wishes, dreams. banishing, protection.

ASH: prophetic dreams, luck, attraction, energy channelling. 

THISTLE: vitality, cleansing, purification, uncrossing.

CEDAR: protection, attraction, healing, invocation. 

PINE: positivity, protection, fertility, warding. 

FRANKINCENSE: cleansing, consecration, banishing. 

CHESTNUT: longevity, intuition, grounding, focus, success. 

IVY: fertility, protection, healing. 

HOllY: prosperity, protection, luck, dreams, rebirth, banishing. 

JUNIPER: protection, warding, divination, secrecy, love. 

OAK: money, success, strength, fertility, stability, health, healing, luck.

SANDALWOOD: healing, purification, consecration. 

YEW: necromancy, astral travel, death.

CYPRESS: purification, stability, focus.

Also Dingo

green witch: freshly pressed flowers, walking through a field of wildflowers, talking to the trees, terrariums, plants sitting on the windowsill, forest sounds

kitchen witch: cookbooks, stirring tea with intent, lots and lots of jars, herbs and more herbs, the smells of baking, tea blends swirling in jars 

storm witch: lightning crackling, calling up a storm, dancing in the rain, getting excited when you feel a storm coming, checking the weather activity

dream witch: sleepy eyes, soft blankets, meditating in the mornings to remember your dreams, reality checks, sleeping with crystals under your pillow

divination witch: wearing your pendulum as a necklace, sleeping with your tarot deck, shaky hands, too many tarot decks, meditating with your tools

sea witch: jars of seawater, walking barefooted on the sand, sitting on the beach at night, missing the seashore, balmy sea breeze, seashell collection

lunar witch: setting alarms for moon phases, talking to the moon, making moon water, getting ready for the next lunar eclipse, quiet moonlit nights

spirit witch: bonding with spirit companions, feeling the presences in a room, setting out offerings, seeing shadows out of the corner of your eyes, amethyst

fire witch: a whole bunch of scented candles, the smell of incense, cosy warmth, dancing flames, jars of ashes, almost burning the whole house down

crystal witch: keeping crystals in your pockets, crystals sitting on your windowsill under the moonlight, crystalline light reflections

water witch: way too many jars, running out in the middle of a storm to collect water, carrying a jar everywhere, shower cleansing and grounding rituals

tech witch: embedding sigils in code, stereoscopic light of a phone screen, ambient soundtracks, witchy phone apps, emoji spells, digital grimoires

music witch: jamming to your tracks over a spell, shufflemancy, headphones on earbuds in, charging tools with your speakers, playlist for every occasion

urban witch: dollar stores, carrying around their magickal tools, sigils for not missing the bus or train, finding that one witch book in local bookstores

glamour witch: sigils on the mirror, rose quartz in random places, makeup bags, looking fly, youtube channels on makeup, on-the-spot glamours

closeted witch: hiding grimoires in drawers, sigils for invisibility, waiting for everyone else to go out, performing spells behind locked doors at night

Iskall: Just one. The real question is, how many ladders does he need?