The Modern Varangian

This jar spell is to help calm nerves and anxieties, to help you feel peaceful and relaxed. It can be used to help with sleep or just a stressful environment. I realized after I made this that I named it after an essential oil without meaning to so… lol

For this spell, I used…

amethyst shards (healing, balance, alleviate irrational anxieties and fears)

rosemary herb (keep away nightmares, remember dreams, protection)

crushed bay leaf (healing, protection, dreams)

sage herb (protection, wisdom, peace)

crushed rose petals (security, self love, peace)

sea salt (protection, cleansing)

opal shards (calm, communication)

Feel free to use as many of these ingredients or as few as you like; substitute items, replace them, and add your own! Let me know how it goes ❤️❤️

- Mod Sun

Our last blog post, Discovering Essential Oils - Basil, covered the many uses of Basil oil. However, the plant itself can be used in a variety of ways. In this post, we are making three, easy to prepare, Imbolc crafts that will not only help you get into the spirit of the sabbat but also help relax your body and mind. 

Basil Lime Sugar Scrub

Ingredients:

1 C white sugar

5-6 medium basil leaves, chopped into small pieces (or basil essential oil)

Zest and juice of ½ of a lime

1 tsp coconut oil

Directions:

Start by using a food processor or blender to crush your basil leaves. Skip this step if using essential oils. Add all ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together until combined. Store in a glass container and place in refrigerator until ready for use.

To use:  Using gentle pressure, roll granules over the skin. Concentrate on rough areas like elbows and knees. If you use it on your face, be extra gentle and avoid eyes. Be sure to moisturize after use. 

Basil Coconut Bath Soak

Ingredients:

2 cups coconut oil

2 cup Epsom salt

10 drops basil essential oil ( or personal preference)

Directions:

Add coconut oil and Epsom salt to a small bowl. Add the essential oil and mix with a spoon until well combined. Store in a container with a tight-fitting lid until ready to use.

Note: The coconut oil can leave a slippery residue on the bottom of your shower if you’re not careful, so make sure to rinse the shower/tub thoroughly after you’re done!

Gourmet Himalayan Basil Salt

Personal Imbolc Altar

Here is my more personal altar to Brighid and for Imbolc! I also have my Ogham staves for divination and communication and a cute ‘witch ball’ ornament that @barberwitch sent me for the holidays. It really represents what I want from this new year and new spring. Plus the fire bush berries are great to represent new plant life and the fire of Brighid!

Also featured is my shrine to my ancestors, spirits, and deities. The fair folk are represented as well. You can also see my new magical herb and oil shelf, a straw angel, and a devotional art for Brighid.

Have a bright and blessed Imbolc, may the coming spring warm your heart and spark inspiration in your soul!

Trøllabundin eri eg eri eg Galdramaður festi meg festi meg Trøllabundin djúpt í míni sál í míni sál Í hjartanum logar brennandi bál brennandi bál

Trøllabundin eri eg eri eg Galdramaður festi meg festi meg Trøllabundin inn í hjartarót í hjartarót Eyga mítt festist har ið galdramaður stóð

English translation:

Spellbound am I, am I The wizard has enchanted me, enchanted me Spellbound deep in my soul, in my soul In my heart burns a smouldering fire, smouldering fire

All of my spoonie/disabled/low-energy witch posts…

(Before sending me an ask, click here…)

Bedridden witch:

Bedridden witch - General edition

Bedridden witch  - Nature edition

Bedridden witch  - Worship edition

Bedridden witch - Divination edition

Bedridden witch - Stale energy edition

Bedridden witch - Elements edition

Bedridden witch - Pastel edition

Bedridden witch - Kitchen edition

Bedridden witch - Winter edition

Bedridden witch - Ocean edition

Spells - range in level of energy required:

Simple spell: Ease the pain

Simple spell: To be humble

Simple spell: To be proud

Simple spell: Start the day ‘light’

Simple spell: To bring balance

Simple spell: To succeed in a career/job

Medium spell: Kiss that bitch goodbye

Medium spell: To attract kindness

Medium spell: To Gain Control

Anti-Migraine Spell + Altered versions of this spell

Tips and tricks:

Witchcraft in the Hospital

Low energy devotional tip

Bath magic made easy

Witchy things for spoonie students

Cleansing (via your phone)

Charging crystals: My version [X] Simple version [X]

For when you can’t sleep

A tip for using salves

Other:

Spoonie sigils + Updated version

Small devotional acts (for the Greek + Roman pantheon)

Some gentle reminders [X] [X]

How I recovered from depression influenced by chronic illness

Low energy plants

Bedridden witch:

Bedridden witch - Love edition

Bedridden witch - Weather edition

Bedridden witch - Garden edition

Bedridden witch - Bath Edition

Bedridden witch series (all current posts)

Tips and tricks:

Chronic migraine relief

My daily routine

Witchcraft & meds

Tips for taking meds

Other:

Chronically ill witchcraft: For your symptoms

Mentally ill witchcraft: For your symptoms

And at the time I was really cowed and felt so fucking stupid, but now I think honestly if someone is genuinely so bored that they need to come onto someone younger’s blog and shit all over a really fucking brilliant idea that I have since implemented to great success, they might try getting a job, a hobby or a life.

And then I found out online that Silver Ravenwolf was trash and that no REAL witch would ever get anywhere with her work. Only these days the rhetoric against Ravenwolf is a LOT tamer than it was back in those days, and the online pagan spaces were far more limited, so everywhere I turned it was the exact same burning fervor denouncing me. The vitriol against any young teen just starting out was vicious and cruel; fluffy bunny was a truly derogatory term instead of the still-insult it is now.

I felt like all the magick I’d worked was a figment of my imagination, my methods were clearly flawed. Suddenly my circles were whisper thin and my spells inert.

I’ve barely been able to gain a quarter of the efficiency and power that I initially had when the magick I worked was untainted. Yeah, Ravenwolf was and is problematic, but two decades ago it was basically her and Cunningham - that’s all that was really available to me. The venom shot my way has never really worked out of my system, and I’m perpetually hobbled by the heavy chains of doubt.

*checks notes*

Essential oil free!

sun·burst-

1. A sudden burst of sunlight, as through broken clouds

I just made my batch for this winter and I thought I'd share this recipe with you!

Good for: Physical Healing, Protection, Divination, Happiness, Love, Creativity, Prophesy, Truth, Solar Deities

Medically: cools and softens skin, helps heal small cuts, burns, irritations, SAD, breaking fever, purifying, anti bacterial, helps relieve anxiety and depression

Ingredients:

Grapeseed or sunflower oil

Dried hibiscus

Dried juniper berries

Dried Bay leaves

Dried citrus peel

Dried dandelion root

Rosemary

A cinnamon stick

If you want to add essential oils you can, I didnt for this batch but In the past I've used frankincense, lemon, orange, cinnamon, vetiver, black pepper, sandalwood, and juniper

Best to grind the ingredients before adding them to the oil (except the cinnamon stick)

Makes a great offering for any solar deity like apollo, sol, helios, sekhmet

Let infuse in the sunshine for a few weeks-months depending on how much oil you're making, or if you want it faster & stronger you can heat it up until it turns red from the hibiscus

It smells so good so it's an excellent natural perfume, and it's great for your skin!

I tend to go heavy on the hibiscus and juniper in this but the amounts used are up to you.

Yule in heathen times seems to have been conceived of as at once a long seasonal period overlapping with the darkest time of winter, with various observations including the solstice and other observances; and as a three-day festival coinciding with midwinter some time in what we would call mid to late January (January 12 on a primstav, Jan 24 this year in Iceland; I’m inclined to observe the full moon on January 10 as the yule moon, the first full moon following the first new moon after the solstice).

Holding the main Yule celebration on the solstice is Christian influence, at least in Norway. The Christian king Hákon the good moved jólablót from midwinter to coincide with the solstice/Christmas, it’s just that he was using a calendar that inaccurately placed the solstice on December 25 (by this time, the Julian calendar had drifted so much that the actual solstice was happening around December 13, still celebrated as the “darkest night” in parts of Scandinavia). Heathens and Christians alike continued to observe midwinter in January. Celebrating on the astronomical solstice is just correcting the placement of the solstice on the calendar.

A lot of times I tell people that heathen midwinter was in January and they find it really hard to believe for some reason, I guess because the solstice is so ingrained in many of us. But somehow (perhaps due to help from Halloween?) heathens are by and large aware that pre-Christian (and Christian) Scandinavians considered winter to start in mid-October at Winternights (vetrnætr). Winternights comes several weeks after the autumnal equinox. It stands to reason that there would be approximately the same amount of time between the winter solstice and midwinter. The same is true for the beginning of summer, which is still a bank holiday in Iceland in late April.

None of this is a problem. Keep doing what you’re doing. There’s no pure, unadulterated ur-heathenry. Let’s just stop pretending that what we’re doing is that. If anything, you’re carrying on as it was in the time of the most recent pagans in Scandinavia after the date was set by Hákon góði. Plus you can have another holiday in a couple weeks.

Here is the part from Hákons saga that explains the change of date.

To be honest, I wasn’t even really thinking about Bede, because I’m accustomed to thinking about him as unrelated to specifically Norse things, but you’re right, this is worth considering even if ultimately we just find inconclusive information.

Bede does refer to the solstice, and to December 25 in particular (although, remember that the Julian December 25 doesn’t happen until January 7 this year, though in Bede’s time it had only drifted to what we would call December 29 – today!):

They began the year on the 8th kalends of January [25 December], when we celebrate the birth of the Lord. That very night, which we hold so sacred, they used to call by the heathen word Modranecht, that is, ‘‘mother’s night’’, because (we suspect) of the ceremonies they enacted all that night.

But Bede is not always clear, for example he also says that the year is divided into summer and winter halves based on whether the night or the day is longer, but then he also says that winter begins on the full moon in the month of Winterfilleth (which he equates to October). These should roughly overlap, but that full moon could swing quite a great distance from one year to another.

Now, it is possible to derive from Bede that Giuli or something similar was the name given to the solstice. He says that the two months named Giuli “derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase, because one of [these months] precedes [this day] and the other follows.” In this case, we have an open-and-shut case of disagreement between Bede and Snorri. Either one of them messed up, or this was different in England than in Scandinavia a few centuries later. Any of these are reasonable. We also have a conflict here is, as is often supposed, the Norse considered winternights the start of the year (I cannot remember what the argument for this is, if anything other than inference from the day beginning at sundown… I don’t think that’s good enough evidence to make an argument but I am possibly forgetting something. Norberg repeats it uncited). We also have no evidence for Mothers’ night in Scandinavia, and the celebrations which might be comparable – dísablót and dísaþing (Disting) happen in the fall in one area, and in the spring in another area.

🌿Milly’s “The Flu Can F*ck Off” Brew🌿

I’ve come down with the flu and this is what I’m drinking to help keep the symptoms at bay:

🍋 Add a tablespoon of honey to hot water, stir to dissolve (soothes sore throats).

🍋 Add 1/3 of a lemon’s juice, stir to combine (high in vitamins, boosts immune systems).

🍋 Take a small sprig of thyme and let it steep in the mug (known for ability to fight colds and flus).

🍋 You can witchy it up like I did by thanking the ingredients, asking a deity for their blessing or imbuing the brew with healing, strengthening intentions.

I recommend drinking hot and inhaling the steam to clear your airways. Stay healthy this change of seasons, lovelies!

“Timeless sea breezes, that for aeons have blown ancient rocks, you are purest space coming from afar…”

– Rainer Maria Rilke

Look, every time I find a vendor with stuff I like or a book that looks interesting, I have to play the “Are they legit or are they a nazi?” game, counting the number of times they use words like ‘ancestors’ and ‘heritage’ because those are both known dog-whistles and important parts of the religion. This game is not fun. And as someone who’s Latine, who works far more with ancestors of color than the white ones (largely because I don’t know much about the white ones, save the general regions they came from), I am frequently literally afraid of interacting with other Heathens in person without a shitload of googling beforehand, checking which runes people adorn themselves with, matching that to the potential dog-whistle count, and still never being sure unless I see them specifically denouncing racism/antisemitism/transphobia/homophobia/etc.

I am a part of this religion, and this is my experience. If I didn’t profoundly love our gods and traditions, I would’ve packed my shit and gone back to generic multi-pantheon polytheism. So if I feel this way, I need y’all to take a moment and think about what it’s like to someone who’s not on the inside, whose experience of us is basically just neonazis and the #notallheathens crowd, people who see our symbols being used by the ones emulating the fascist fucks who literally tried to exterminate people like them, and have not actually stopped trying.

And the neonazi Heathens are us. We don’t get to say they’re not, we don’t get to No True Scotsman them just because we don’t like how they’re doing our religion. They’re still doing it. We can’t point at the worst and most racist parts of Christianity and use them as examples of Christianity’s many flaws (which is a phase most pagan types seem to go through, myself included) and then act shocked and insulted when someone does the exact same thing to us.

Jewish people, Black people, LGBTQIA+ folks, and countless other marginalized groups have every right to be wary. They don’t owe us a fair hearing. They’re just trying to survive in a world where some of us are literally killing them.

Yeah, we have the right to be mad that our sacred symbols are being turned into instruments of hate, and that they’re inspiring fear in people who aren’t familiar with what we’re actually about. I sure as fuck am. But we need to be mad at the nazis, not their targets. And then we need to do something about it. If we do nothing, we’re complicit. Lecturing the people who are being hurt in this circumstance is not helpful, not sharing wisdom, and not creating frith* with people who are part of our larger communities. We create frith by listening, and by seeing to the comfort and security of our communities as best we can… and our communities out here in the Really Real World are bigger than just our co-religionists.

                                            ASTRAL PROJECTION

Good morning everyone, I wanted to share a little routine for astral projection. (this is my version anyway, it may or may not work for you) Now this takes a lot of practice. Like a LOT. So if you don’t get it on the first try, don’t be discouraged. Practice lots and be safe!

warning: do not do this if pregnant

what you will need:

a bed

a thin blanket (optional)

mugwort (dried)

mug and water

an hour of your time

Okay so now that you’ve gathered everything, lets move on to the instructions.

TURN OFF YOUR PHONE! I cannot stress this enough, if you are on your phone in bed before sleep, it reduces the lucidity in your dreams needed for astral projection.

fill a pot with 2 spoonfuls of dried mugwort (mugwort is an herb used to help you sleep, it relieves stress, it intensifies the lucidity of your dreams but it also induces your period which is why you shouldn’t take while pregnant. But it does relieve period cramps!)

fill pot with one and a half cups of hot water

allow to  boil, once boiled, cover with a lid and turn down heat

after 5 minutes of sitting on medium heat, turn off and pour into cup (strained if you want)

now go into your room or wherever you plan on doing this and turn off all lights, make sure no one can disract you.

before drinking the tea, begin to meditate with the cup of tea. close your eyes for better visualization. don’t use the handle but cup it with your hands and feel the warmth travel through your fingers and palms, allow the steam to cover your face, become aware of your breathing and heart beat.

now take a sip and feel the warmth travel down. breathe in the scents and think about the tastes. 

once you finish your tea, go ahead and follow up on your nightly routine, brush teeth, wash face, all that good stuff.

go ahead and lay in bed but don’t use a heavy blanket. a bed sheet works fine but its even better if you have no blanket whatsoever. 

take your time to tighten toes, release, tighten leg muscles, release, tighten butt muscles, release, tighten fingers, release, tighten back and arm muscles, release, tighten shoulder muscles, release, scrunch up your face and release. this is to ensure all your muscles are relaxed. 

focus on your breathing. breath in through your nose slowly for 8 seconds, hold for 10 seconds, breathe out your mouth slowly until there is no more breath and then breathe out again. there is always a little left. Repeat this 5 times.

now focus on your heart beat. 

by this time, your muscles should feel relaxed. you shouldn’t even be able to feel your arms and legs. 

you are now in a hypnotic state. you should see white shapes behind your eyelids. allow them to shape into whatever your mind allows.

at this point you are almost falling asleep but try your best not to. when you’re at this stage, imagine a rope above you. without moving, imagine your arms reaching up for the rope. imagine yourself pulling yourself up. you should feel vibrations. do not be afraid of the vibrations.

that’s it!

I noticed that there were only small pockets of posts on helping ease dysphoria or helping you feel more at home with your gender/identity so I decided to compile what I could here!

TERFS are not welcome to interact with this post. But, I always seize the opportunity to block gross people!

Spells (dysphoria):

Dysphoria healing spell

Dispelling dysphoria

Dysphoria spell bottle

Gender protection jar

Voice dysphoria glamour

To stop chest dysphoria

Menstruation dysphoria tea

Spells (gender identity):

Gender affirmation spell

Gender orientation validation spell

An enchantment to be seen as the gender you identify with

Gender clarity switch

Gender euphoria incantation

Confidence mirror glamour

Glamour to prevent misgendering

Sigils:

Dysphoria is banished

I am free of dysphoria

I do not have gender dysphoria

Dysphoria does not effect me

Relieving dysphoria for trans people

My gender is accepted

My voice gets deeper

For feeling more masculine:

Glamoured masculinity potion

The emperor’s reform spell (to strengthen masculine energies)

Bath spell for transmasculinity 

Dapper magic

I am full of masculinity sigil

I look more masculine sigil

For feeling more feminine:

Potion for trans-feminine people

Glamoured femininity potion

The empress reclaim spell (to strengthen feminine energies)

I appear feminine sigil

My appearance is feminine sigil

Increased femininity sigil

For feeling more non-binary (any “non-traditional” gender):

Androgynous glamour

My body is an agender body sigil

Non-binary confidence sigil

Ambiguity / Androgyny / Genderlessness sigils

General:

Dysphoria tarot spread

Crystals for dysphoria

Gender identi-tea

Other resources:

@sylvaetria‘s masterpost

@witchy-woman‘s LGBT masterposts [masculine] [feminine]

@magicusersresource‘s masterpost (spells for trans and nb folks)