To Banish: • Burning to ashes and sweeping away the ashes • Cast out a window, down a cliffside, etc • Bury it and spit on the spot

To Bind: • Wrap in black thread • Cover in wax or other material • Seal in jar and hide in dark spot

To Hide: • Wrap in ribbon • Place in a (painted) black jar or other container • Cover in cloth or other material and bury

To Encourage: • Plant or bury near the front door/steps • Plant or bury near a window • Place near a window

To Communicate*: • Anoint a candle • Leave out an offering • Meditate • Open the front door and/or windows

To Glamour: • Leave under the full moon • Work with its reflection

To Cleanse: • Bury in salt • Burn herbs and pass through the smoke • Let it bathe in the moonlight

To Protect: • Leave sigils/wards on doors and windows • Carry sigils/wards on every day items (keys, phone case, etc) • Enchant jewelry with protection spells

Create an infusion by pouring boiling water over yerba santa, “holy herb.”

Bring the strained liquid to the cemetery and sprinkle it over the grave belonging to the person whom you wish to see and perhaps communicate with.

Allegedly the person will appear in your dreams that very night, although the extent to which one can communicate may be dependent on your dream skills.

Why Incorporate Graveyards?

Graveyards have always been associated with the supernatural and metaphysical. In both ancient and modern cultures, funerary rights and the dead have always held great significance in society. When working in these spaces, the most important thing to remember is respect. The dead are not as mutable as the living and it may take longer to rectify a mistake and earn their trust again than it would have been to learn the proper etiquette from the start.

Which begs the question, why work in these spaces and with these spirits? Well lots of reasons, some people choose to only work in graveyards that they have a direct ancestral connection with (ie. family members or distant relative are buried there). Others, like myself, find it a good way to honour the local spirits. Even spirits of people you don't know and have no connection too are worth honouring. Some people believe that since all of humanity has a common ancestor, we are all related and so even cemeteries you have no direct connection to, are connected to you by our common ancestor (another reason I am quite fond of). Maybe you just think it's cool, which is valid. Whatever your reason, just make sure you have one and are not going there with insincere intentions.

What is Graveyard Etiquette?

Graveyard etiquette are the ways in which we should behave when entering and visiting a graveyard in order to be respectful to those resting there. Although there are general rules of thumb which many witches follow, as you develop a relationship with a particular graveyard, those customs can change. Here are some I like to follow:

Leaving an offering- I always bring an offering of coins or flowers. If I'm visiting a graveyard that I've never been to before, I will leave coins at the gate, for the guardian and at some of the older and unkept headstone (also graves of young children if I find any). During regular visits, I leave offerings with the guardian and at headstones of spirits I've developed a relationship with.

Walking the entire graveyard- this is not something I do every time but I like to walk around the entire site and introduce myself especially if I plan on having a working relationship with the spirits there (this may be more difficult for larger sites, I recommend picking an new area each time you visit if that is the case).

Entering and leaving through the same gate- this is not one I stick to every time if I know the spirits really well. If I've never visited before I will always leave through the same exit that I entered from.

Throwing salt or spinning- I heard this one from ChaoticWitchAunt (on TikTok) and it's something that I've just always done. They recommended spinning around three times before leaving to prevent spirits from following you home. I've also thrown a bit of salt over my left shoulder outside the entrance for the same purpose (beware: salt is not good for the earth). This is definitely something that just resonated with me after a bad experience and that's why I continue to do it.

A Note on Necromancy & Death work:

Necromancy is often a term used in many scary movies and cult fiction. It is actually a form of divination which utilizes the dead. Anyone can learn necromancy however it is an integral part of death work. Death worker (practitioners who practice death work) are involved with crossing spirits over. The job requires some level of mediumship abilities and can be very taxing on your mental health. Some death workers take on the lingering emotions of the deceased (pain, fear, anger, etc.) in order to help that spirit. Death work is much more than the small bit that I've described but it is important to note that the path is not for everyone. You can still work in cemeteries and utilize necromancy without doing death work (& a big thank you to the death workers who continue on their path despite the toll it takes, we love you!).

🖤Disclaimer: I do not believe in the 3-fold law or the Wiccan rede. These methods are things I use in my own practice and am choosing to share. Please do your own research!

What is Baneful Magic?

Many people confuse the term "black magic" with baneful magic. The term "black magic" is actually a racist term and should not be used to describe baneful workings. This is also the same for the term "white magic" being used to describe healing magic.

Baneful magic is magic cast against someone or something with menacing or harmful intent. Baneful magic can be used to speed up the consequences of someone actions towards you or they can be used to block people from benefiting from their work. In my practice, I believe that if baneful work is not warranted (i.e there is no real reason for it to be done), it will not work. This means that I never cast a baneful spell unless I believe it to be truly worth the time and effort.

Baneful rituals can be very simple and low energy or they can be very intense and complex. This honestly depends on what kind of spell work you are doing and what you are doing it for. For example, a baneful ward is something that I would consider to be low energy because you set it up once and as long as it remains intact, it continues to work. However for me, a higher energy baneful spell would be a "stop gossiping" spell because the ingredients I would use are harder to find. Baneful works also depend on the amount of correlations you want to include. For example, do you want the spell to coincide with a specific day of the week, moon phase or month. Maybe you want to perform it during a specific season or ask for help from a specific entity, all these factors should be taken into account when performing these workings.

Some of my Favourite Methods:

Hex water- Adding names to hex water can be a really low energy way of ensuring that someone must deal with the consequences of their actions (I use this as more of a "karma" insurance but it can be used as a full on hex).

Freezer spells- some people may argue that this isn’t very baneful but it's one of my favourite and most used methods. Freezer spells can be used to essentially "freeze" people’s influence over you or block them from being able to reach you. You can do this with items as well (when I was quitting smoking, this is how I did it). You can freeze names with regular water or you can bind them first and freeze them in hex water.

Return-to-senders- another one of my favourite spells, this spells is used to return unwanted or harmful energy back to the source that cast it (which is why people always say to tether your hexes to something other than yourself). You can also add a bit of a kickback to these spells or return them with 3 times the energy if you are feeling a little vengeful.

Mirror spells- again one that might not be considered baneful but can be adjusted. The way I use these spells is to make the recipient "look in the mirror" and take an objective look at their actions. This often involves ensuring that they can't run from their problems and must deal with the consequences of their actions. Other variations of this exist as well, you are only limited by your imagination with this one.

Sending a spirit- depending on your relationship with specific spirits, you can petition them to do the work for you. This usually works best if you already have a close working relationship with the spirit you are petitioning but you can also contact spirits you don't normally work with as well. I have seen this work using house spirits, familiars, the dead, deities and many more. It's important for me to stress that how you go about this and the results achieved will depend on the spirit you ask and your relationship with that spirit.

Baneful Work & Ethics:

Witchcraft in general does not have a standard or set guidelines for what is ethical and what is not. Many witches may come to a consensus on what they believe to be ethical based on shared morals or opinions but in reality, it's all fair game. Just because I believe or follow one thing, doesn't mean you have to or will.

It is important for you to determine your own ethical guidelines before practicing baneful magic. I say this because it is very easy, when things go wrong or you are feeling hurt, to just cast magic against whatever or whoever you want but it is not always helpful or necessary. Having guidelines and sticking to them is an important part of baneful practices (they can always change and evolve but the most important thing is that you don't compromise on them when you are emotional). Here are a few guidelines I stick to, feel free to use them if they resonate with you.

Never cast without reason- I will only spend my time and energy on things that are really important to me. If the person I am casting against is already a waste of space in my life, they will also probably be a waste of time.

Never cast emotionally- I will wait several weeks before I decide to cast against someone. If what they did is really bad enough to warrant my energy and time then it's probably something I'll still be upset about weeks or months later.

Never cast against someone you live with or cannot cut out of your life- this one is kind of self explanatory but casting against someone you live with is bad news. You will be affected by your own working and will end up having to reverse it.

Know how to reverse your workings- things can always go wrong so make sure you have a back up plan and a really good uncrossing spell on hand.

Know yourself- it's important to do some reflecting before you hex. Ask yourself how you may have contributed to the situation. Are upset or are you projecting past traumas onto someone? What would you have done if the roles were reversed? Questions like these are tough to answer but help determine if a hex is really warranted or not.

Protect then hex- if you are casting against someone who lives with children or pets, you may choose to do a protection working on them before performing your hex. The energy a hex has often affects other people around the recipient and children/animals do not deserve to be negatively affected by the actions of someone else.

*All images are from Pinterest*

Rain storm

Growth

Rebirth

Shedding old skin

Lightening storm

Potent magical power

Good for curses and hexes

Snow storm

Purification

Endings

Changing

Home and healt work

Tornado storm

Erratic but powerful energy

Good for any ritual

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What are Baneful Protections?

Baneful protections can be considered both a form of baneful magic and a form of protection magic. When beginning baneful work, this is usually what I recommend starting with. Baneful protections are protection spells that produce some sort of consequence when energy hits it. This can be done without the use of physical taglocks (like names or dates of birth) because energy is able to act like a taglock. For example, some of the baneful protections I have set up will reflect any energy that hits it back to its source while others trap that energy instead (so it can used later on).

It is very important that even though you are protecting yourself, you aren't accidentally tethering the energy to you. In my first baneful protection, I used my saliva to tether the protection to me but instead I tethered all the negative energy the spell had trapped to me and had a horrible case of bad luck for weeks before I realized what I had done. As a rule of thumb i personally don’t include any personal taglocks in baneful protections and always make sure to include a petition that details my exact intent for the spell.

When to use Baneful Protections:

Baneful protections can be used instead of or in conjunction with other forms of protection (see my blog posts for more information on alternative forms of protection magic). I personally didn't have any baneful protections before I was hexed (for the first time) and now I have some just as a precautionary measure. Baneful protections are most beneficial (in my opinion) if you are surrounded by a lot of negative energy or work in an environment that is mentally draining. These protections can help combat the toll that it takes and prevent much of that energy from staying with you for an extended period of time.

It is really up to you whether or not you choose to incorporate baneful protections into your practice. It is worth it to note that this spell work is considered baneful magic, so those who believe in "doing no harm" may choose to forgo this and stick to regular protections instead. Whatever you choose, be sure to do your own research before attempting any new forms of spell work.

Return-to-Sender Spells:

Mirrors- mirrors have the ability to reflect an image so they are also able to reflect energy. Putting up a mirror on your altar or incorporating a piece of a mirror into a spell is very effective at returning energy to its source.

Burning the bottom of a candle- this is a common one and it is also my preferred method at returning energy. The way I do it is by burning the top of the candle like normal and visualizing the energy that you wish to return. Once the candle is flat, I will flip it upside down and light the other end of the wick, symbolizing the return of that energy to its source. This can be done many different ways so check out what other practitioners do to come up with your own method.

Petitions- petitioning is a really great tool that I utilize in most of my spell work because it is an effective way at manifesting a specific intent. It helps if you know the name of the person who sent you the energy for this method but it is not necessary. As long as you have a clear intention and some return-to-sender oil you can make an effective spell.

Running water or rivers- running water has been viewed as being able to carry energy from place to place so it is possible to use it to return energy to its source. In the shower, you can imagine the energy running off of you, down the drain and back to the person who sent it. Another method is throwing your petition into a river and having the river carry it back to its source. (This method also works with a toilet if you are feeling especially feisty!)

Here are all of the Major Arcana posts that I've written! This includes upright, reversals, and key words.

The Fool

The Magician

The High Priestess

The Empress

The Emperor

The Hierophant

Strength

The Hermit

The Lovers

The Chariot

Wheel of Fortune

Justice

The Hanged Man

Death

Temperance

The Devil

The Tower

The Star

The Moon

The Sun

Judgment

The Laws of Magick are concepts that describe patterns in the effects of witchcraft. Here are some simple definitions.

The Law of Attraction

What you put out to the world will be returned to you. This is manifestation through intention: "I want kindness so I will give kindness"

The Law of Knowledge

Knowledge is power. The more you know about something, the more you understand it and can use it or have power over it.

The Law of Self-Knowledge

Know thyself. The more you know yourself, the more you are capable of becoming the master of your own destiny and the facilitator of change in your own life.

The Law of Cause and Effect

Consistency is key. If you do the exact same action in the exact conditions, you will get exactly the same results every time.

The Law of Synchronicity

There is no such thing as coincidence. Though possible, it's extremely rare that two things happen at the same time that are not interconnected in some way.

The Law of Association

If any two patterns have elements in common, the patterns interact through those common elements.

The Law of Similarity

Having an accurate physical or mental representation of something facilitates control over it.

The Law of Contagion

Objects or beings in physical contact with each other continue to interact after separation. More contact = more connection.

The Law of Names

Knowing the complete and TRUE name of an object, being, or process gives one complete control over it.

The Law of Words of Power

Certain words hold great power. Even if their meaning is lost, the power is still there. An example is names: though you may not know what your name means exactly, it still holds a lot of power.

The Law of Personification

Personifying (considering it alive or to have a personality) anything makes it an entity. This can be beneficial in many ways: one example is personifying an object to channel a deity through it

The Law of Invocation

It is possible to establish internal communication with entities from either inside or outside oneself, said entities seeming to be inside of oneself during the communication process.

The Law of Evocation

It is possible to establish external communication with entities from either inside or outside oneself, said entities seeming to be outside oneself during the communication process.

The Law of Identification

Prolonged connection or association with another (person, being, entity, etc) can result in becoming said person/thing, including holding their knowledge or power. In other words, possession is possible.

The Law of Personal Universes

Reality is only our perceived conscious understanding of the world around us (and within us). It's possible that "reality" means different things to different people.

The Law of Infinite Universes

The concepts that multiple realities can exist at once, whether that be your own (like "multiple/alternate reality theory") or yours vs another's (like your perception of reality being different than your friend's).

The Law of Pragmatism

If a belief system allows someone to cope, survive, or achieve their goals, it becomes "real," "true," and "sensible" to them.

The Law of True Falsehoods

It's possible for two belief systems to contradict but still exist at the same time. Basically, just because something doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't mean it won't make sense to someone else. This is like a TL;DR of the above 3 laws.

The Law of Synthesis

If two "opposing" patterns combine to produce a new pattern, that new pattern will be more true than the previous two alone. In other words, if two understandings of reality combine, the new understanding will be more "true" or reasonable/understandable because it applies to more realities and therefore can be believed by more people.

The Law of Polarity

Any pattern of data can be split into (at least) two "opposing" characteristics, and each will contain the essence of the other within itself.

The Law of Opposites

The "opposite" of something contains information about said thing, by providing information on what it is not. This creates control or power over it because you now have knowledge over it, even if through its opposite; once again showing how interconnected all existence is.

The Law of Dynamic Balance

Balance is key. To live life to its fullest, one must allow themselves to not fall into extremes so that they can experience all that life is and can offer.

The Law of Perversity

Murphy's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Emotional stability and self-awareness can help avoid things becoming utter disasters.

The Law of Unity

• Chuparosa (Justicia californica)

- Native to Arizona but found in Southern California, New Mexico, and northern areas of Mexico.

- Flowers & petals are edible raw or cooked, dried or fresh.

- Similar to hibiscus, makes wonderful summer teas.

- Hummingbirds adore the flowers and the nectar is chewable like a gum.

- Great in tinctures, scrubs, and teas.

Correspondence: Air, Beauty, Love, Positive Energy, New Beginnings, Boosting Self Esteem, Romance, Sexual Energy.

• Brittle Bush (Encelia farinosa) 

-Native to Arizona but found in New Mexico, Southern Califonia, Texas, and parts of Mexico.

- Not to be confused with the desert wildflower, desert marigolds, which unlike the brittle bush, does not have a orange button center and is poisonous to some herd animals like sheep.

- Stems, flowers, and leaves are edible. Dried, fresh, cooked, raw.

- The dried flowers make a soothing tea for stomach pains.

- Dried brittle bush leaves can also be brewed to make a medicinal tea. It’s great for mouth sores or those tight chest coughs. It taste slightly bitter and has a numbing effect.

- Local folklore says the leaf tea is great for arthritis flare-ups in the cold months.

- Don’t drink this tea before bed though as it can have caffeine-like effect in some people.

- Flower resins and nectar from this plant are chewable and chewed by locals like a candy or gum.

- Great in tinctures, decoctions, infusions, salves, scrubs, masks, and teas.

Correspondences: Earth, Sun, Healing, Cleansing, Banishes away sickness, Good Luck, and Protection, Friendship, Empathy.

• Desert Lavender a.k.a. Bee Sage (Hyptis emoryi)

- Native to Arizona but found in Southern Califonia, New Mexico, and Mexico.

- This is the supernatural plant, the bee’s knee here. Native American tribes like Akimel O’Odham, who’s beautiful people made what is now called Phoenix, AZ their home, saw this as a pure and holy plant that cleanse all evils away from the one’s spirit.

- Everything on this plant is useable. Leaves, flowers, stems, branches, roots. Can be dried, brewed, cooked, or eaten raw.

-Great in tinctures, decoctions, infusions, salves, scrubs, masks, and teas.

-In some Native Amercan practises it’s used to make smudge wands, but to those who are not native and wish to use it they may dry and use a smoke cleansing ritual instead.

- Traditionally used by Native Americans to cleanse the body of diseases and stop internal bleeding or heavy menstruation.

Correspondences: Spirits, Earth, Purity, Cleansing, Healing, Protection, Banishing, Warding, Psychic energies & abilities.

• Ephedra a.k.a. Mormon Tea Plant (Ephedra fasciculata) 

- Found growing wild or in landscaping areas in Arizona, Califonia, New Mexico, some areas of Texas, and northern Mexico.

- Historically used as an alternative to coffee

- The plant’s twigs are edible when brewed into a tea, tasty and mildly stimulating.

- Contains small amounts of ephedrine so great for hay fever, hacking coughs, or as a sinus decongestant.

- Like local honey, drinking teas with this plant is said to help aid allergy sufferers in the springtime blooms.

- Great in tinctures and teas.

Correspondences: Air, Earth, Healing, Protection, Cleansing, Positive Energy, Energy Boosting, Purity, Friendship, Happiness, Alertness, Focusing (Studying).

• Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans)

- Found often in landscaping because of it’s hardiness to the arid climates, can be seen wild though in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Califonia, and Southern Texas.

- The leaves, flowers, and twigs can be brewed into powerful teas aiding digestion and gastrointestinal issues

- great for hangovers (drink a small cup of tea in the morning, trust me.)

- Contain anti-viral properties so it’s super awesome to combat sickness.

- Great in tinctures, decoctions, and teas.

Correspondences: Earth, Resilience, Strength, Healing, Banishment, Cleansing, Cursing, Retaliation, Dominance.