Thepainterofthegeneration

Just hear me out on this one.

Friendship bracelets…

Are knotted by hand

Can be made with an infinite variety of colors and patterns

Are very cheap to make

Do not require candles, incense, herbs, or gems

Definitely do not look ‘witchy’

All of this equals a powerful, versatile charm you can make with relative ease and wear openly without worry of being noted as a witch.

Because friendship bracelets are all knotted, each knot can carry with it a charm, creating a wave of powerful magic that flows infinitely around your wrist without beginning or end. Like basically it’s the best.

Friendship bracelet patterns

As much embroidery floss as you could ever want for about ten cents a skein

(Or check at Walmart for a big box at a similar price)

Choose colors strategically

Light to dark fades can indicate power growing

Dark to light fades can indicate banishing or reduction

Colors can represent gods, spirits, or elements

Match colors to emotions you want to invoke

Use traditional color correspondences

Choose patterns to suit your needs

Patterns can show waves, hearts, swirls, chevrons, or be quite plain. 

Some patterns use only 3 or 4 strands of thread, while others use 10 or more

A pattern can be altered in length to become a necklace, belt, shoelace, or hair tie

Buy cheap metal fasteners at the craft store so you can take off the charms as needed

Weave creatively

Weave bracelets as gifts to gods or spirits

Tie memories or emotions inside of them

Hang them up around your room or in your car as charms

Use them as a way to enter trance state through repetitive tasks

Use them as bands of protection or power for your other tools

Weave magically

Bless the threads under the sun or moon, or with your own power

Soak the threads in herbal, crystal, holy, or blessed water before you use them

Whisper or think a spell or chant as you weave, tying the power in

Stay up on certain days to weave the charm during the appropriate astrological hour

I knew at some point I would need to write a blog on that most famous of witch herbs, belladonna. I just was not sure how. Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade as it is also know is poisonous and highly toxic. Before I go any further I am going to say that you should never under any circumstances ingest belladonna. If you are determined to use it I encourage you to take precautions, such as wearing gloves when handling, labeling and putting jar out of reach of children and using the herb in a well ventilated area. In truth there are plenty of safer substitutes for belladonna and its uses both magically and medicinally are both better left in the past. As such I have decided to write about how belladonna was used in the past rather than from an everyday witchcraft use point of view.

Before I get started on how belladonna was used in the past here are the basics on it. Belladonna is a feminine herb which is associated with the element of water. It is ruled by the planet Saturn and is sacred to Hecate, Bellona and Circe.

The Goddess Hecate; one of the deities belladonna is sacred to.

Here are some ways this herb was used in the Past:

Belladonna comes from the Italian meaning beautiful woman. Women in ancient times put drops containing belladonna in the eyes to dilate their pupils. This was to achieve a large seductive look.

It was used as an anesthetic in surgery prior to the Middle Ages.

Was used in the past to aid in astral protection. Also to produce visions. I recommend the use of Mugwort for astral protection aid and Coltsfoot for inducing visions.

Was used in incense to attract the dead. One should never burn this indoors or inhale the smoke.

Was used as an ingredient in flying ointments. In reality this ointments caused witches and shamans to enter a trance like state, and experience a different type of flying known as astral projection.

Bellona; Roman goddess of war. Her priests consumed a drink infused with belladonna before worshiping her and seeking her aid.

I hope you have found this week’s blog informative. Once again I would like to state that by writing this I am in no way encouraging the use of belladonna in your herbal remedies or spell craft. If you insist upon using please use caution, Never consume internally and do your damn research. Until next time be well Witches!

Brightest Blessings,

The Violet Moon Witchery

So. You’ve covered the basics. You know what every kind of ritual tool does, you understand all the terms that seemed alien to you before and you think you’re finally starting to get a feel for this witchcraft thing. You’re not a baby witch anymore, but… where to from here? Making the move from beginner witch to intermediate witch is a lot more difficult than it seems, purely because resources aimed at intermediate witchcraft are few and far between. But there’s a good reason for that.

There are general rules and ideas that can be applied across all of witchcraft. There’s so much to learn from other witches, but your greatest teacher will always be yourself. There is a reason witchcraft is so customisable to the individual: some things just work better for certain people. Not to mention pretty much every magick practice in history was developed by witches using their intuition! Because of this, it’s hard to create resources that tell somehow how to go from a beginner to an intermediate. However, they do exist! You’ll just find that most of them will act as prompts or scaffolds. They’ll instruct you on how to figure things out for yourself.

This next stage of your craft will involve a lot of introspection, and a lot of trusting your gut. It’s the reason you learnt all that baby witch stuff in the first place. This is where most of the personal growth happens. It can be scary, but it’ll also be magical. It’ll be a while before you actually qualify as an ‘intermediate witch’, and there’s no shame in that. The process of moving from beginner to intermediate is one that can take years, simply because witchcraft is such a deep and complex art. I myself definitely wouldn’t identify as a baby witch, but I’m still a beginner in many aspects despite having been a witch for years.

Without further ado, I present to you witchcraft 102.

GENERAL

The Problem with Sharing Advanced Magic

Using Tumblr as a Resource

How to Stop Being a Beginner Witch

How to Deepen Your Craft

Developing Your Craft Beyond Tumblr

Creating a Spiritual Calendar

SOAP Journaling: a Devotional Framework

Devotional Journal (for deity worship)

Questions for a Deeper Spiritual Practice

ORGANISATION

When reading through information, I recommend taking notes on the content, as well as your thoughts on it. Do you notice any connections to other texts or ideas? Do you have any questions you’d like to follow up? This will not only help you remember the information, but encourage you to look at it critically and see the bigger picture. Here is an example of my personal note-taking scaffold which includes some of the notes I took a while ago. I adapted it from the Cornell notes system based on my personal needs.

At TechnoCoven, a recent online witchcraft convention, there was an hour-long panel about planning in witchcraft called Spirit Papers. Here is a link to the recording. It goes over different organisation systems, notebooks, etc.

Why you should cite sources

How to cite sources

What is an annotated bibliography?

I would highly recommend setting aside a specific time every day to study witchcraft. This way, you will be improving your craft every day. Even if you only set aside half an hour, you will be doing three and a half hours of study a week. An hour a day totals to seven hours a week. If you can’t find a specific time every day, then find a specific time every week. 6pm-8pm on Tuesday and Saturday, for example, or reserve all of Sunday afternoon. This structure obviously isn’t compulsory, but with it you will advance at a much quicker pace and probably find your craft more fulfilling.

You should definitely have a grimoire already, but if you don’t, get one. It can be on paper or online, if you’d prefer. OneNote, Evernote, Microsoft Word and Google Docs are all viable digital options. You probably have lots of loose information lying around, whether its physical, in note form or on your Tumblr blog. Categorise it and order it. Then go through it. Document the important and useful parts in your grimoire.

READING

Elemental Magick in Science

Elemental Systems

The Darker Elements

History of Magick Part 1

History of Magick Part 2

History of Magick Part 3

History of Magick Part 4

How Location and History Affect Spiritual Practices

Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health (ebook)

TAROT

Stop Learning Tarot Like Flash Cards

Learning the Major Arcana

Learning the Court Cards

Reading Tarot Cards Vertically

Reading Reversed Cards

How to Take Notes on a (New) Tarot Deck

Understanding Yourself Tarot Mega-Spread

Conceptions of the Self Through Spreads

Shadow February Divination Challenge

Daily Tarot Journal Printable

SHADOW WORK

Introduction to Shadow Work

6 Phrases for Shadow Work

Safety Planning (good to have one of these if you’re doing shadow work and have a mental illness)

Shadow Working with Stuck Points

Shadow Work with Hillbillyoracle (pt. 1)

Shadow Work with Hillbillyoracle (pt. 2)

Hillbillyoracle’s Personal Shadow Work Framework

RESEARCH

Good Things to Research When You Don’t Know What to Research

Areas of Research for the Intermediate Witch

Masterlist of Journals, Articles & Books on Folklore, Mythology and the Occult

Index of Old Grimoires

Working with Plants

Tips on How to Google Correspondences

The Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection

Sacred Text Archive

Bocastle Museum of Witchcraft

Occult Library

Hermetics Library

Project Gutenberg Paganism Bookshelf

Legal Free Ebooks Masterpost

Good Pagan & Wiccan Publishers

How to Get Use Out of Older Texts

Finding Experienced Witches

PRACTICE

What to Do When You Fall out of Practice

Making Your Own Correspondences

Pendulum Dowsing for Correspondences

2019 Grimoire Challenge (a year of grimoire prompts)

Stones for Advanced Practitioners

On Tools and Psychodrama

A Way to Astral Project

Energy Alignment Identification

Magic in the Body

Spell Circles

Irish Concept of “On the Breath”

Sky Catch

Verbal Sigils

PODCASTS

Tea With the Gods

The Hillbilly Oracle

Hex Positive

The History of Witchcraft

The Empowered Modern Witches Show

Academy of Affluence

TESTIMONIALS

A Samhain Fairytale

Foundations of Diywitchery’s Practice

Godphoning

Devotional activities

GET OFF TUMBLR (AKA GET SOME VARIETY IN YOUR SOURCES) I’ve got some examples listed here but there are definitely more out there!

Bree NicGarran’s Blog

Luna Luna Magazine (Blog)

Witchy Words (Blog)

Mumble & Things (Blog)

Down the Forest Path (Blog)

The Travelling Witch (Blog)

Prisoner’s Apothecary (Blog)

Harmony Nice (Youtube)

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

6 Books for Advancing Your Craft

Hellenic Polytheism Books

Walker Between Worlds by Robert Kirk (I haven’t read it so I can’t vouch for its quality but I’ve heard its a valuable resources for those wanting to learn about the fae)

The Study of Witchcraft: A Guidebook to Advanced Wicca by Deborah Lipp (I will link to my book review here; this book is essentially a study guide)

Evolution of Goddess by Emma Mildon (book recommendation) (especially good if you are looking to find a deity but are unsure of where to start)

Cultural Appropriation

Closed paths and practices

Cult warning signs

Spiritual Discernment

Herb interactions (i.e. how they interact with your medications, if they are poisonous, if you are allergic, can you ingest them, etc.)

Fire safety (for candles, smoke cleansing, incense, etc.)

Crystal Care (learn if your crystals will dissolve in water, if they can be in the sun, if they can be in the cold, etc.)

Belladonna

some of you may know it as deadly nightshade, which is a common folk name for belladonna

gender: feminine

planet: saturn

element: water

magical powers/properties: in the past, belladonna was used to encourage astral projections and produce visions, but it is definitely not safe!! There are much, much safer alternatives to use these days

medicinal uses: more of a warning, actually--don't consume nightshade. each and every part of this plant is toxic to consume! symptoms of poisoning include ​​dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, loss of balance/staggering, a headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. if untreated, it may even cause death :(