Vixen Witch🦊

Trank’ile by @leifmensch

An amazing ecovillage settled amidst warm and natural autumnal landscapes! The whole place felt very rustic yet simple and natural and I had an awesome time exploring the island!

What is an Altar:

An altar is a workplace of a witch where they keep items used in their practice. It is where a witch can practice their craft in a space they have created for that specific purpose.

Do You Need an Altar:

No, you don’t! Altars are not necessary for a witch. Many witches that practice in secret cannot keep an altar and that does not make them any less a witch. Some witches just prefer to not have an altar.

Types of Altars:

Permanent Altar: An altar set up in a spot with the intent of it staying there long-term. It could be a shelf or a shelf or something similar.

Travel Altar: An altar carried in a small container for on-the-go work. Can be carried in an old altoid box, a shoebox, or another small container. Contains only the basics such as a tealight, a lighter, small elemental symbols, a couple crystals.

Hidden Altar: An altar left in an area where other people can’t find it. Could be hidden behind clothes in a closet, in a shoebox, or made to look like regular room decorations.

Shoebox Altar: It’s in a shoebox.

Digital Altar: Some witches can’t keep an altar in person, perhaps because of a lack of space or because they are practicing in secret. They might keep a Pinterest board, a Tumblr blog, or a folder of apps on their phone in place of a physical altar.

Religious Altar: An altar dedicated to a specific deity or deities where offerings are placed and a witch may take time to pray to or meditate with their deity.

The Whole Room: Some people like to make a whole room their altar. A kitchen witch might keep crystals by the window, candles on the table, sigils on their cooking utensils. The whole room is their witchy workplace.

Yourself: Some witches choose to have themselves be their altar, practicing a healthy lifestyle to maintain their altar and decorating themselves with certain colors, jewelry, makeup, or clothes.

What to Add to your Altar:

Personal Items: Pictures of your family, pets, ancestors, or you. A souvenir from a trip that changed your life. A piece of art you made, a poem you wrote.

“Witchy” Items: Athame, wand, tarot deck, pentacle, altar cloth, crystals, candles, a pendulum, a bowl of salt, a scrying bowl, shells, plants, herb bundles, incense, a mini besom.

We tend to have alexithymia, meaning we have difficulty identifying and describing own feelings. 

You can’t say how you feel if you legit don’t know.

Self monitoring is an executive function; our self awareness about how we are doing presently .. which is hampered in ADHDers. 

A deck of tarot cards is a useful divination tool, but that doesn’t mean we have to be all stuff about it! Tools can have personality, and we can attach ourselves too them in meaningful ways. (Of course, you probably don’t have a special relationship with all of your tools magical or otherwise, but a tarot deck is a bit different from your microwave.) 

Once you’ve started to develop your tarot practice a bit, you will begin to find which routines work best for starting, building, and maintaining deck “relationships.” Until then, these methods can be a good jumping off point.

The Tried and True

These methods are ones you’ve probably seen floating around the internet or even heard mentioned by tarot-obsessed friends. That’s because they’re effective! But, don’t think that these are prescriptive. Since these are so basic, there is a lot of room to adapt them to what feels right for you. Use your intuition!

Sleeping with Your Deck Under Your Pillow

One of the reasons this is so popular is because it is a passive way to start working on that reader/deck relationship. Part of bonding with a tarot deck is getting your energy into the cards. Keeping them close to you for long periods of time, like when your asleep, is great for this.

Carrying Your Deck Around

Is there anything easier that putting something in your backpack or pocket? Like sleeping with your deck, keeping the cards on your person while you go about your day introduce the deck to your energy. The major difference here is that you are awake to take them out and interact with them.

Daily Readings

Your main goal is to get to a point where you and your deck have a nice back and forth and an easy reading relationship (unless your deck is a real spitfire, then things might be a bit more interesting), so doing light readings with a new deck is always useful. This gets your hands on the cards and, if you ask some simple questions, can give you a feel for how your deck likes to respond.

Deck Maintenance

I’ll talk more about deck maintenance in another post, but small tasks like cleansing and charging and otherwise maintaining your deck are a great way to strengthen your bond.

Shuffling

You might be thinking, “Hold on! I’m not ready to read yet!” Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to. One of my favorite methods of bonding with a deck (or even maintaining a bond with a deck I’ve had for a while) is shuffling. You don’t have to pull out and wild card tricks or high roller shuffling skills for this. Just passively shuffle the deck while you watch Netflix or read a book. This shuffling has no motive other than closeness. It’s like cuddling!

Deck “Interviews”

The name “Deck Interview” is a little misleading because by this point your deck already has the job, but that doesn’t mean you two don’t need to get to know each other. Using the questions below as a guide, shuffle and pull six cards from your deck. Read each card as the deck’s response to your question.

A general introduction

What are your strengths?

What are your limitations?

What can I learn from reading with you specifically?

What are some challenges of working with you?

Outcomes of this relationship

You can flip all of your cards, read, and be done with the interview if you’re trying to be quick, but I’ve had a lot of success flipping one card at a time and considering it as an expansive answer to the corresponding interview question. When I’m doing a deck interview, you’re likely to hear me say things like, “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” or “Well, I look forward to seeing how that works out for us.” Have a conversation! You can even pull clarifying cards if you need to.

Fun Spreads

This was not something I did for bonding until I got my Mystic Monday deck. Not long after getting that deck, I sat down with a friend who had also recently gotten Mystic Monday, and we did “meme” spreads back and forth. My two favorites for this are “Expectation vs. Reality” (you provide the scenario and the deck responds) and “What ___ Thinks of You” (you know the old Facebook meme?) readings.

I’ve found that fun spreads and “meme” readings are similar to shuffling in that the typically don’t require a lot of energy while still getting you engaged with your deck. (They’re also good practice! See my “Practice Makes Perfect” post.) Plus, all of the joy and laughter that comes with these readings really sets a positive tone for your relationship.

Bonding with your deck is an ongoing process, and depending on how many of the above practices and exercises you do and how often, it can take time. You can sleep with your deck, but you really can’t bond with it over night. Don’t rush. You can still work with a deck as your bond strengthens (in fact, that will probably help). Just be patient and follow your intuition.

Click here for all the other posts in this series!

This post is all about how the mundane can broaden your craft, and what topics you might consider researching!

Why bother with the mundane?

The mundane is the base for witchcraft. It includes basic skills, information and abilities. One must have an understanding of these things before influencing them/incorporating them into magic. For example: you need to have know your way around the kitchen if you want to be a kitchen witch.

It tends to be less biased. Any resource with information on witchcraft will be influenced to some degree by the person’s experiences, view of the world, and the way they built their craft. It can sometimes appear that there is only “one true way” to be a witch—this is not accurate! There is great value in learning from experienced witches, but there is also great value in learning things for yourself!

Where to research?

Please do not rely on tumblr for accurate information! It’s an excellent place to hear about personal experiences and to get ideas, but it often lacks sources.

How to find credible sources: (here) and (here). (Links are for finding academic sources, so they may be a bit more strict than what you need)

Websites

Published books

Videos (Online lectures, YouTube, TedTalks, etc.)

Free classes/information sessions

Are you a student? Be strategic with which electives you choose!

Also consider: clubs, talking with people who are experienced on the subject, etc.

What to research?

This highly depends on you and where you want to take your craft! These are just a few starting points to get the ideas flowing. I always recommend starting with whatever called you to the craft, and letting it naturally flow from there!

The natural world:

Learn local plants (natives, “weeds”, etc.), and how to ethically forage them.

Get a small calendar and note the dates of phenological changes. This can be helpful if you use the plants in your craft/life.

Learn local wildlife. Get to know your neighbors! Look at range maps.

Do they stay all year or move with the seasons? Some animals make startling noises. Do you have any of those in your area? (Think: wildcats, owls, foxes)

Learn geology, or at least how to identify some common rock types in your area.

Here’s a post on using rocks you find in your craft.

Learn weather patterns and some ways you might predict them.

Find a moon phase calendar for the year. Learn the moon phases and the science behind them if you aren’t familiar with it!

Same with the sun! What time does it rise and set? Where will it be in the sky this time of year? Learn the science behind it.

Constellations, and which ones you’ll see as the seasons change.

What natural phenomena might occur in your area?

Do you live near the ocean? Find some tide charts. What knowledge gaps do you have?

Live near a different type of water? Where is its source? Can you trace it on a map?

Do you garden? Pay attention to your zone and frost dates. Learn which plants are beneficial for your area and which may be invasive. How can you benefit the beings in your area with your garden?

What is the natural history of your area?

In the home + odds and ends:

The basics of tea: how to make your own blends, what temperature the water should be, etc.

Herbal remedies: how herbs can boost your health, which ones can already be found in your kitchen, and herbal interactions/side effects.

Cleaning and tending your home: learn how to safely make your own cleaning supplies, create routines to keep your home feeling clean and comfortable.

How to fix things and build things, how to use basic tools (hammer, screwdriver, etc.), how to mend clothes and simple sewing.

Crafts: learn how to make your own supplies (candles, wands, etc.)

Kitchen: learn some basic cooking and baking skills.

Crystals: how to identify them, how to ethically source them (and their properties).

The flow of your world; familiarize yourself with the routines of life around you. Orient yourself, begin creating a map in your mind of the area. What routines do the birds have? The people around you? The bus schedule?

What is the human history of your area?

How much do you know about your personal/family history?

LAWS: know what’s legal and what isn’t. Can you harvest here? Is it okay to have those animal bones or feathers? Are you allowed to be in certain areas? It’s on you to be informed.

There are so many more things I could’ve included, but I didn’t want this post to go on forever!