Nerd Witch

I would say yes, others might disagree, but I can't speak for them :')))

My post is less a commentary on what a grimoire is and more a commentary on doing the work of having a practice to document. You know what to put in your grimoire as you develop your path and as you see which things you go back to reference, as you create things you want to remember, as you make changes you think are worth noting.

Worrying about "what do I put in my grimoire??" before you have those things is silly. So don't worry about that. Just put things into notebooks or obsidian vaults or whatever works for you. Whatever things you want.

"Should I document my every ritual in my grimoire?" Put it in a notebook and see if it's useful to you.

"Should I include information on the astrological signs in my grimoire?" Put them in a notebook and see if they're useful to you. Do you go back and reference them ever or are they just pages in a book?

You'll put things in you eventually won't use anymore or like anymore or even completely disagree with. You'll add things that you'll reference a lot to your notebook. Over time you'll wish you had specific information in there and then you'll add it too.

It's also easy to fall into the trap of getting a special fancy book that you plan on using for your grimoire, but then it is so special and fancy that you become afraid of writing in it.

If this sounds like you, all the more reason to start with a cheap notebook. This will be your lab notebook as you experiment and get your hands dirty. Cross shit out, tear pages out, spill tea on it. It's fine. This is a rough draft.

It is a deliberate decision to market to beginners. Hell, some of my own work is meant for beginners. The issue comes when the decision to market to beginners is made because:

They are less experienced and have less knowledge in their pockets already, so they are more willing to accept confident statements and less likely to know how to vet those statements;

They are unable to discern quality products and services, because they don't have the experience necessary to recognize a scam versus a low-quality offering versus a high-quality offering;

Beginners want to believe, and are therefore often unwilling to ask questions that threaten the fragile threads of belief they already have; and/or

Beginners want to be part of something, and are therefore often unwilling to challenge confident voices out of fear of rejection, particularly if they have a seemingly above-average amount of social sway (whether or not the sources of those voices are aware).

A beginner witch has begun to practice because they want something. Whether that's enlightenment, control, change, growth, connection, or something else, there is an urge that needs satisfying. The combination of inexperience plus strong desire plus fear of rejection is a powerful cocktail -- one that businesses are all too eager to cater to.

I think it's really important to keep this in mind when providing products and services to this particular demographic (and in general, to a lesser degree). It's really easy to slip into grift territory, even if your skills, products, and services are real enough. Maintaining a sense of realism, integrity, and honesty in your marketing is crucial from an ethical standpoint. Taking advantage of vulnerabilities in order to turn a profit sucks.

If you're going to cater to beginners, do it without positioning yourself as an Ultimate Authority. Do it without making them reliant on you and your products and your services and your information. The best way to do this is to cite other sources, point toward and recommend others in your same community, and speak frankly about your abilities and offerings.

Ebook - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards

Binder Margins - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards

Original version as I copy-pasted it from the archive website

Quickref guide, 1 page front and back

If anyone has input on the slur disclaimer, I am open to input and replacing or altering my disclaimer for something more suitable.

If you notice any errors in formatting or other issues, please reach out. I can fix the files. File versions are just dated to help keep track if there are changes.

These documents are here because this information has mostly disappeared from the internet. Save resources you value.

You literally have to collect rare stones from remote locations, put them into specific formations to work. All of this gets written down in symbols which don't make sense to the uninformed. It gets powered by energy which can not be seen in most cases.

Normally my sigils are pretty freeform in their use ("charge as desired") but this one comes with instructions for a mini-ritual!

Draw the sigil circle design on a piece of paper (you don't have to write the words or draw the red circles if you don't want). Write your desired transition goals in the very center circle - whatever is specific to you and what you want to see in your transition (or not see even). Include important dates of procedures if that's part of your plan too.

Place 3 candles on the paper where the red circles are marked - use whatever color you feel best represents your gender / lack thereof, or you can use red / white candles. Light the candles, and reflect on your goals. Imagine yourself with these goals fully realized, and what that might look like physically, emotionally, and mentally. Try to focus on the good feelings of euphoria it will bring with it.

With these good feelings and thoughts in mind, draw the body sigil for "progress on transition goals" on your right side. Feel free to also draw the "gender euphoria" body sigil on your left side to balance it out. Continue to meditate / reflect in front of the sigil circle, and feel free to trace the body sigils as you do.

If you're comfortable touching candle wax, dip your finger in one of the candles and put a dab of wax on each of the body sigils. If you're not cool with that, you can charge the body sigils with some physical exercise.

When you are finished, burn the sigil circle paper with one of the candles to release the energy and desires. If you can't burn the paper, destroy it however you want and blow out the candles.

Very useful, A+.

Inspired by the weekly discussion question in our Discord server today, here are a few questions to dive deeper into how we each understand and experience magic. These prompts are meant to spark introspection, conversation, and a bit of soul-searching about what witchcraft means to you. There are no right or wrong answers. Post post and answer one of these questions each day and tag @pathandpractice in your replies and don't forget to put then in the #pathandpractice tag. Also, feel free to reblog and tag friends you want to join in with you. Everyone is welcome!

Day One: How do you define magic? Is it energy, intention, relationship, will, or something else?

Day Two: What does witchcraft mean to you? Ex: is it a craft, a calling, a way of life, a skill?

Day Three: When did you first understand what “magic” meant to you, and how has that definition changed over time?

Day Four: Do you see a difference between magic and witchcraft? If so, where do you draw that line?

Day Five: How do your spiritual, cultural, or philosophical beliefs shape your understanding of magic?

Day Six: Do you think everyone can practice magic, or is it something that calls to specific people?

Day Seven: How does your definition of magic influence the way you practice it?

Day Eight: Do you view magic as natural or supernatural? Or do you see no real division between the two?

Day Nine: How would you explain what magic is to someone who doesn’t believe in it?

In the witchcraft circles I’ve been in, wands have seemingly fallen by the wayside or at the very least haven’t been fully recognized for what you can do with them. So I decided to make a post about wands.

So why might you want a wand? For one thing, they are incredibly versatile - they can be used to create wards, trace magical symbols or words, infuse things with intention, and much more. They're also usually easy to ethically source and they can potentially last for years if cared for. You also can replace a lot of single-use items with a wand.

Now, how wands are supposed to work depends on who you ask. Your old timey Hermetic mages believed wands had special properties from the stars, but a more popular idea today is that wands are conduits for your personal energy. One might also ask a divine being one worships to bless the wand for working magic. Being someone who doesn’t believe much in magic as a literal force (I’m more for the psychological model of magic), I’m not going to endorse any specific metaphysical opinion here. I will say that a wand has the potential to be as efficacious as anything regardless of how you personally think it works.

Wands should be sized depending on how they will be used. A wand that will be used in a large public ceremony should be big enough to be visible to attendants, so perhaps around sixteen to twenty inches. A personal wand used for things like casting protective circles should be whatever size feels good to wave around, so perhaps ten to fourteen inches. A wand used for tracing magic symbols on small items can be the size of a pen.

Wands can be made from many things, like sticks, twigs, dowels, or anything you can make a sturdy wand shape from. Paper is fine if you don’t mind your wand being fragile. (To make a paper wand, you diagonally roll a piece of paper into a tube, glue it at the end, and then decorate it however you please. You can find many tutorials by searching DuckDuckGo.)

I’m sure some people out there will object to paper wands, but I say that if paper’s good enough to put a sigil on, then it’s good enough for a wand. Besides, you can write intentions on the paper before rolling it up.

If you’re going to use wood, any kind that feels agreeable to your purposes should work fine. You can search for tree correspondences or go on your own associations. (See this post to learn more about developing your own correspondences/associations. You can decorate your wand by carving it, staining it, painting it, wrapping it in wire, fabric, or leather, or by gluing things to it. Or you can skip decoration if you don’t feel like it’s necessary. (Some sticks look fine as they are, after all.)

You should hold your wand in your dominant hand. If you’re left handed, please ignore the ignoramuses who’d have you think your left hand is secretly Miroku’s wind tunnel.

Anyway, here are some ways you can use a wand. (For those of you who aren’t good at visualizing or just don’t want to do it, you can presume instead – just suppose that the energy exists beyond your sensory perceptions, like ultraviolet light or ultrasonic sound.)

Casting a protective line or circle: Trace a line with your wand above the ground or over anything you want to place a barrier over; visualize or presume a line of protective energy being placed.

Unwanted entity removal: Point your wand at where you reckon the unwanted entity is and visualize or presume magic beams coming out of your wand. Or you can visualize/presume your wand as the hilt of an energy sword and slice the entity with it.

Cleansing a space: Visualize or presume a soft cleansing energy coming from your wand. Wave it around wherever you want to cleanse.

Bestow a blessing: As you wave the wand, recite a spell according to your intent. For example, you might wave your wand over a pen while saying “may I always write well with this pen.”