Practical Witchcraft: Dirt Poor Witchcraft - Herbs, Spices, and Leaves?

 Dear Reader,

It's hard to keep up with the witchy neighbors who have the luxury of a full apothecary, garden, and an on-line subscription to the ritzy places that sell every spell component you could use plus a few you really shouldn't. If you are like me, you try to keep a garden but the neighbors keep pulling flowers, dumping cigarette butts in it, and throwing garbage into the deeper foliage. Also, if you are like me, you have a limited capacity for indoor plants, with one specific plant trying to conquer the world no matter how many cuttings you give away.

It gets frustrating when you read a spell that calls for exotic things like frankincense. While bay leaves are relatively less expensive than frankincense, the cost of those bottles of spices add up quickly. Especially if the spice/herb you are using is of limited supply because of all these supply chain issues we've been having since COVID-19 arrived on the scene. 

For example, prior to COVID-19's impact on the worldwide supply chain, I was using Turkish Rosewater (which was a bit expensive but less expensive than other brands) as an offering to Déa. Now, I haven't been able to find it anywhere for the last two years. I don't know if it will be back in stock or not. I attempted to cultivate some roses and make rosewater with it but it failed horribly. As such, I am replacing the rosewater offering with plain, clean drinking water.

When it comes to spices and herbs that spells have required, I have been watching the prices go up. As such, I turn my attention to the plants in my area and what information the herbals I have gives me about their traits. Bay leaves are starting to get a bit pricey in my neck of the woods, but I found an alternative that is not toxic if you burn it. Willow leaves. They're just long enough to write a word or a small sigil on them. You can't exactly add them to recipes. But you can make sachets with them and use them in place of bay leaf. And willow is a gentle, healing tree that can be used for healing magic and helping one to sleep.

One thing that you should be careful of in foraging for spell components is that you are not getting mixed up with poisonous plants, like poison ivy, poison oak, or hogweed. These are three plants you do not want to come into contact with, especially the hogweed. And you most definitely do not want to burn them, because the smoke is just as toxic as the oils in the leaves if not more so. Also, check your plants closely because hemlock (which is an invasive plant in my region) looks virtually identical to wild carrot. The difference between the pair is subtle. A pictorial guide to your local flora and fauna is a very wise thing to take with you when you are foraging. Investing in books like this are a worthy thing to do, and just as 'witchy' as buying herbals. It keeps you from poisoning yourself or others. It gives you something to look at and compare with what is in front of you. And it helps you become more proficient in herbalism and herb magic by deepening your awareness of the plants you are working with. 

Divination: Tarot: Suit of Swords

 Dear Reader,

The suit of swords is the one that is most frequently misrepresented in popular culture and media. People assume that the swords mean death, disaster, and destruction because they are weapons of war. While this suit has a higher likelihood of having those connotations, they can also speak of courage, cunning, and overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The trick in reading the card 'right' is understanding it's placement in a pattern (i.e. the Celtic Cross) and it's relationship to the surrounding cards and the querent.

There is some disagreement as to what Elemental force this suit is aligned with. Many people say it is the Element of Air. Others say it is the Element of Fire. I personally was trained to associate it with the Element of Fire on the basis that swords are formed out of metal worked in fire. There are ancient kennings in various languages describing the wounds created by a sword as fiery. As such, it seems most logical to me that the suit of swords are associated with fire.

Divination: Tarot - The Minor Arcana & The Suits

 Dear Reader,

After some careful consideration, I looked at my pile of tarot decks and decided that we were going to take a stroll through the minor arcana and the suits. I know that there is a lot you can pull out of these cards. Simply using the minor arcana alone (or a regular pack of playing cards) you can do a full tarot reading.

Much of what I am going to present here is going to be my basic interpretation of these cards and how they relate to each other. There are some cards that have ties to the Major Arcana, we will be exploring those too. Where most of my reading is intuitive, I do have a standard set of meanings that I work with as a base for my intuitive style. And they're a bit different from the 'standard' meanings as defined in the Rider-Waite decks.

Next week, we will start with the suits. You can condense an entire deck of tarot cards down to a single suit to do a reading. It has it's challenges but it is possible to be done. That, however, is something we are going to discuss later in the series of posts (I'll be going over different tarot spreads and how to draw information effectively from them. It'll be in a series of posts after we wander along through the suits and the minor arcana. Good things to look forward to!)