Simplified Information To Help You Understand Your Chart And Experiences Better.

The Houses

The First House: Our compass; like the spark of vital life energy, that which guides you forward. Ruled by Aries.

The Second House: Our foundation; like a bear preparing for hibernation, what makes you feel secure. Ruled by Taurus. 

The Third House: Our connections; like an observant child, how you relate to the wider world. Ruled by Gemini.

The Fourth House: Our womb; like a receptive mother, what provides you a sense of home. Ruled by Cancer.

The Fifth House: Our purpose; like a blooming flower, how you creatively express your unique self. Ruled by Leo.

The Sixth House: Our efficiency; like a true hustler, how you solve problems and improve. Ruled by Virgo.

The Seventh House: Our bonds; like royalty, what influences you to choose who to form unions with. Ruled by Libra.

The Eighth House: Our transformations; like a snake shedding its skin, how you adapt to the rhythms of life. Ruled by Scorpio.

The Ninth House: Our journeys; like a vagabond charting a new map, what opportunities you will lean into. Ruled by Sagittarius.

The Tenth House: Our victories; like the heroic warrior of a story, how you will be of benefit to the world. Ruled by Capricorn. 

The Eleventh House: Our dreams; like looking deeply into the night sky, what dreams you want to manifest. Ruled by Aquarius. 

The Twelfth House: Our transcendence; like the chaos in the death of a phoenix, how you will rise again from primordiality. Ruled by Pisces.

Hello witch mom!! 🖤💜🧡 Wanted to ask if you read any good books that would do for a beginner witch? If so, I’d like to hear some of them!

A lot of witch books, especially for beginners, have some wonderful information! They also have some iffy information, or stuff that may not fit for you. That’s just how it is. You can always learn something from any book if you go into it with critical thinking. That being said, here’s some books I’ve read that I would recommend:

Grovedaughter Witchery by Bree NicGarren

The Sisters Grimmoire by Bree NicGarren

Pestlework by Bree NicGarren

Of Witchcraft and Whimsy by Orriculum Rose

Garden Witchery by Ellen Dugan

Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea

The Way of the Hedge Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Italian Folk Magic by Mary-Grace Fahrun

Five Principles of Green Witchcraft by Asa West

Currently reading:

Viridarium Umbris by David Schulke

Wortcunning by Nigel G. Pearson

I’ve purchased these books but haven’t read them yet:

Moonology by Yasmin Boland

Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners by Caroline Dow

A Cart Full of Magic by Ileana Abrev

Weave the Liminal by Laura Tempest Zarkoff

Haus Magick by Erica Feldmann

Revolutionary Witchcraft by Sarah Lyons

The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Green Witchcraft by Paige Vanderbeck

The Green Witch Herbal by Barbara Griggs

The Witches Almanac 2018 - The Magic of Plants Issue 37

Books I’ve read that I wasn’t impressed with:

Witch by Lisa Lister

Modern Witchcraft by Skye Alexander (from what I remember, but I plan on re reading it in case it’s better than I recall)

This shop features a lot of excellent witchcraft books.

Another thing to consider is the value of non-witchy books. Some of my best information is from books catered to everyone.Science and witchcraft go hand in hand.

Field guides (for the PNW/North America)

Advice for finding helpful online resources for plant identification (plus some field guide recommendations for the PNW/NA).

Additionally, don’t underestimate the value of online resources:

Masterpost of online witchcraft resources

Library Genesis

Witches, feel free to reblog with your suggestions of books to read!

Things I’ve Learned from the Moon

🌙 She will listen when no one else does

🌙 Your dreams are just as real as what your waking eyes perceive as reality. A different type of realism, but real nevertheless

🌙 When the sun goes down, beautiful things still exist. They’re just harder to notice within the darkness

🌙 Sometimes, we can’t be prepared for what will happen. But, sometimes, we can.

🌙 You subconscious should not be feared, but embraced. It is what gives you the truth when you can’t find it with your waking eyes

🌙 In order to grow and heal, we must be renewed every now and again

🌙 Just like the moon, people go through phases in life. People may admire you at your fullest, but the other phases are just as beautiful and worthy of your admiration

🌙 If you ask her which direction to take, she’ll tell you to follow the path your heart leads you down

🌙 Your emotions and sensitivity don’t hinder you. Embrace & accept them, they are gifts from the Lunar Mother herself

🌙 She is the master of her ocean’s tides. You are the master of yours.

🌙 The people you surround yourself with are reflections of your own aspects

🌙 Have patience; this, too, will pass

🌙 Your inner truth must be sought

🌙 Illusions and lies are only temporary covers for what lies underneath

🌙 If you watch over others, the moon will make sure to always watch over you

🌙 Nurturing others is nice, but she urges you to start by nurturing yourself

🌙 The illuminated path is not always the correct one. Sometimes you have to uncover it yourself

🌙 If you ask her a question, she’ll often tell you that you already know the answer. You’ll find that she is right.

🌙 If she offers her advice, it would do you well to take it

🌙 Like her own, your power can be soft and loving. That doesn’t make it any less powerful

🌙 Trust your intuition. It is the Lunar Mother’s guidance.

🌙 We all have a “dark” side. It is not to be feared, it is simply full of hidden truths

🌙 Your “dark” side does not make your light side any less bright

🌙 As she ages, she keeps her soul rejuvenated and young. She can help you do the same

🌙 The moon wants to help you. Listen to her.

And, finally:

🌙If you can’t find a light in the darkness, you are the light

🌒🌕🌘

MOON PHASES

NEW MOON : Setting intentions, taking actions, moving forward, focusing in the increase, starting new ventures, exploring opportunities

WAXING CRESCENT : Redefining goals and taking first actions, consistency, gaining momentum, determination, pushing forward

FIRST QUARTER : Finding the blance between the new goals and habits, expansion, being practical, concentration on goals

WAXING GIBBOUS : Cultivating actions toward goals, improving and readjusting, intensive growth, pushing boundaries

FULL MOON : The energy of completion, gratefulness, cleansing, charging, appreciating progress, psychic work, letting go

WANING GIBBOUS : Giving thanks, decluttering, eliminating negative habits, slowing down, reevaluing goals

LAST QUARTER : Letting go, practicing forgiveness, finding time to relax, cord-cutting, get rid of unhealthy habits and addictions

WAXING CRESCENT : Making room for new, rest and surrender, energizing by doing things we love, discharging he health issues

elemental witch practices

fire dominant: candle magic, burning dried herbs and incense powders, pine bundles, full moon rituals, calendula, constantly changing witch aesthetics and wanting to get rid of old practices, vengeance magic, 7-day candles, working with potent essential oils like myrrh and frankincense, eclectic witchcraft

air dominant: wands and bundles of baby’s breath, stocking up on books about the occult, enhancing the throat center, speaking spells and incantations aloud many times, incorporating singing into spellwork, journals full of correspondences and notes, divination, getting really intrigued with niche spiritual practices

water dominant: selenite towers, sound bowls, womb magic, rose petals and bath magic, floral facial steams and tea infusions, curling up and practicing dream/astral magic, leaving offerings for ancestors on altar, asking guides for love advice/working with love deities, storm witches, practicing divination and crying about it after, glitter and whimsical aesthetic

earth dominant: late night witchcraft, collecting crystals, specializing in manifestation and abundance magic, having a familiar, making jars of dried herbs, working with their hands, crystal grids and floral mandalas, is friends with their plants and local trees, dancing under the moonlight and telling butterflies their secrets

✨🕯️💖I want to see your Hag stones! I was recently gifted one and I am so drawn to it 💖🕯️✨

Witchcraft Exercises - Witchy Inspo Journal

Not sure what to do with all those notebooks you’ve collected for future use in your craft? (Don’t lie, we all have a stack somewhere.) Turn them into inspo journals!

Create and maintain a journal where each page is a quote or song lyric or picture that inspires you in your craft or defines some element of your practice. Use scrapbooking materials, washi tape, stickers, stamps, and any art supplies you wish. If you’re skilled at drawing or painting, you can do that too. 

The journal can be a simple notebook or a three-ring binder or a nice scrapbook from the craft store, whatever works for you. Try to do a page a week if you can, and collect ideas for future pages when you can’t. Update as often as you feel inspired to do so and enjoy some witchy art therapy.

This can also be turned into a devotional activity, with your inspo journal dedicated to your chosen deity(ies) or pantheon. A devotional inspo journal can also make a great private altar if you don’t have the space for one in your home or if you’re a stealth witch who can’t practice or venerate openly.

Here are some examples from my own inspo journal:

The Fields of Asphodel: The Afterlife from a Pagan Perspective

Originally posted on nightshadeandroses.wordpress.com.

Death is often a topic avoided by polite company. It is one of the most mundane taboos in American culture, something that is avoided and shunned at all cost. This is made apparent by the ways in which we treat the dead and dying, often opting to shunt the elderly and the terminally ill into medical facilities rather than allowing a home death. Oftentimes, we do not even discuss death unless someone is actively dying and we can no longer avoid it.

Much of why we avoid death is fear. And that fear is certainly valid since, despite how deeply we may believe in an afterlife, we can never know for certain if our view is correct. Or if there is an afterlife at all.

As a child, I was terrified of death. At night, I would spend hours staring up at the ceiling, scared that I would one day die unexpectedly in my sleep and that staying awake would somehow prevent Death from coming for me. That fear of death stayed with me throughout my childhood and into my young adulthood (though I stopped fearing that I would specifically die in my sleep, thankfully.)

Most of my fears stemmed from the various unknowns around death. Growing up in a not-totally-religious home but with a Christian father, most of my ideas about the afterlife were from a Protestant Christian perspective. I was taught that when I died, I would either go to Heaven or Hell, and that I needed to obey God and accept Jesus Christ as my savior in order to get into the “good” afterlife.

“But what if I’m not good enough?” I would often ask my Dad. Or “but what happens if someone is mostly good but isn’t Christian?” His answers, while meant to be comforting, often scared me more. They often boiled down to “don’t worry about it; just pray.” For someone like me who always struggled to connect to the Christian God, I found the silence during my prayers as confirmation that maybe I wouldn’t have access to the “good” afterlife.

Even after I officially converted to Hellenismos/Hellenic polytheism, my view of the afterlife and of death remained mostly unchanged: I was still afraid of dying and of what would happen after. But, as a devotee of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, death isn’t exactly something that I can wholly avoid. So, I was forced to confront my fears head-on, diving into the Hellenic myths surrounding death and the afterlife.

What I discovered of the Underworld was entirely unlike my conception of the Christian afterlife. In the Underworld, all souls except for those who are exceptionally great and influential are seen as equals and granted the same afterlife. The dead are able to wander throughout the Fields of Asphodel, great misty meadows filled with sweetly-scented flowers. Those who were exceptional in their lifetime are able to celebrate in the Elysian Fields, which is blissful and heavenly.

While the Underworld is a lot more somber than the idea of Heaven, I find solace in the fact that I won’t be condemned to burn for eternity regardless of what religious beliefs that I hold (as Tartarus, the closest equivalent to Hell, is reserved only for monsters and the truly wicked and irredeemable.) I also enjoy the concept of all people being equal in death. Not only that, but the afterlife is not necessarily eternal; the concept of reincarnation was present in various ancient Greek mystery cults like Orphism and the Eleusinian Mysteries. So while the afterlife may not be as exciting as Heaven, I won’t be trapped there forever. I will be able to be reborn and live a new, different life. So while I’ll no longer be “myself,” I will be able to forge a new life filled with experiences, opportunities, and growth to nourish the essential part of me that lives on between incarnations. Life is not seen as a preparation for Death in Hellenismos; life is meant to be lived fully, completely, piously, and beautifully. Life is meant to be lived for its own sake.

I won’t deny that all of my fears of death are gone. There is still that fear that there may be nothing after this life. It could be a void, like the emptiness of a dreamless sleep. Even though this may be the case, I am less afraid of that possibility. Because followers of Hellenismos are encouraged to live to their fullest potential rather than treating life as a dress rehearsal for what comes after, I am more content with the time that I have. With that, I know that when I am old and dying someday, I will be able to look back without regret or disappointment of what I may leave behind. But if there is an afterlife, I look forward to wandering the Fields of Asphodel, the domain of my Queen.

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sun in bitch, moon in hoe, slut rising