Practical Witchcraft: Dirt Poor Witchcraft - Offerings

 Dear Reader,

Offerings are a big deal. They are part of the glue that keeps the relationship between you and the spiritual beings in your life chugging along. There's a lot of competition between folks who post pics of their altars as to who is giving the best offerings and such. There is also a great deal of unverified personal gnosis that is flying around the community as to who likes what offerings and dislikes what other offerings. Don't let all of this talk discourage you.

While offerings are a big deal, they don't have to be expensive, brand name, or luxurious. They can be simple, humble, and as mundane as a shiny stone you saw that reminded you of Them. One of the most common offerings when one is on a tight budget is water. Some may scoff at water being an appropriate offering. For millennia, potable water just couldn't be had. This is why so many ancient cultures brewed up things like beer, mead, and wine. Yes, there was alcohol but the alcohol in it was what made the water safe to drink.

Your Mesopotamian spirit friend may be quite bored with beer, as it was their everyday beverage. Giving a glass of clean water would be a delightful change of pace for them. Offering common modern beverages is also an option. Popular rumor has it that Loki enjoys an occasional bit of Mountain Dew. It doesn't have to be a special wine glass or something you inherited from your great grandmother's china to serve it in. It can be in a mini-plastic cup (they're basically shot glasses but don't call 'em that).

Breads of many forms are staples of offerings. This doesn't have to be the case. You can put out some cookies, bake some biscuits, or make an extra serving of oatmeal in the morning. Indeed, you can put a small portion of your meal aside for Them. Don't go too far and sacrifice your health in order to express you affection and devotion. Your spiritual companions want to see you doing well and as healthy as you can be. This leads to a third option in giving food or drink. Dedicate your first bite/sip to your spiritual companions. For people who come from a Christian background, this may be a bit awkward at first. 

If you have been raised in a custom where you ask the Divine to bless your meal, you can compose a blessing dedicating the meal to your spiritual companions to be said (whispered or thought) over the meal before you eat.

Divination: Tarot: Suit of Rods

 Left to Right: Kawaii Tarot, Holographic Rider-Waite Tarot
and the Celestial Tarot

 There are many ways to portray the suit of Rods (also known as wands). They are related to the suit of Swords but not interchangeable. Many associate the suit of Rods as an elemental Fire suit and read it as I read the suit of Swords. As you can tell from the image to the right, every tarot deck out there has their own way of portraying the suit of Rods.

As a green flourishing stem or the star topped image of the traditional magic wand, this suit is generally benevolent in nature and tend to speak of matters of work, travel, and striving for better things in life.

This suit, I associate with Air. As such, there are many cards in the suit that reflect communication. Inverted, the Rods are not as dire portents as the Swords, but like the Swords it is full of warnings of danger, miscommunication, and ill fortune.

Ugh.

 Dear Reader,

Life offline has become a complicated mess again. The school messed up one son's schedule in a horrific fashion. He is literally talking about dropping out of school if he is forced to participate in one of the alternative educational programs. He had a lot of difficulty in that program because of the unstructured classroom environment. As such, he has decided that if he must go back into that learning environment, he is simply going to leave and do his best to get his GED. This is a really big deal and stressing him and us out.

The other son is not quite having panic attacks about the idea of the bullies that harassed him all through middle school having co-conspirators in the high school to harass him there as well. Also, his IEP got messed up and we're trying to fix it. And did I mention we made the horrific discovery that neither young man is at grade level for their mathematics and we suspect other subjects got glossed over. It's been a bit of a nightmare over here trying to fix this mess and getting the kids to talk about their concerns with their therapists.

Gods help me, my hair is going to be white by the end of this fiasco. 

Video Post: An Update and some rambling: Did the Dark Queen Cause All Suffering?

 

Dear Reader,

I apologize for the blurriness of the video, a lot of light behind me and some stuff on the lens doesn't make for a great picture. I open this video with an explanation and an apology why I've been away for so long. It's been a rough year between my bipolar type 2 acting up and my seasonal affective disorder kicking me in the teeth roughly around a week after the solstice last year. I'm doing a bit better now, but it's utter chaos trying to pick up all the threads laying around and get the kids ready for school. Also, I have forgotten how to do algebra which is making tutoring my eldest son a nightmare. Between the two of us, I can't multiply with out a calculator and he can't divide with out one. It's been rough going.

I've been visiting with the local Jehovah's Witnesses for a little while. The gave me a tract and shared with me a video that presented the claim that the fall of the angels was due to Satan's questioning Jehovah about the possibility of a perfectly good world. And, as per their tract and video, the Jehovah's Witnesses argue that all suffering in this world is due to Satan, who has command of it.

This got me to thinking about the Dark Queen and her relationship to the world and suffering. I am of a position that suffering is a natural consequence of being in this world. It's not a punishment or the result of a sadistic anti-demiurge wanting to torture all of existence. The Dark Queen and her servants can cause mischief, mayhem, and misery but they are not the reason why I have bipolar type 2 or that my nieces have it as well. That's just flawed genetics which arises from being in an imperfect world.

The Dark Queen's power is diminished by the Daughter's Sacrifice and the Mother's Rescuing of her Daughter. The servants are as mist on the wind. They can give us a spiritual chill and make illusions dance before us in that mist, but they are powerless over us. Temptation to despair and give up hope are ultimately empty words from the Dark Queen's servants, no matter how beguiling they sound. Because in the end, they are forced to pass away from us and we see the light of Déa shining through the mist, banishing it to the place it arose from.

I humbly ask your patience.

 Dear Reader,

Over the last week, things have become challenging. My efforts to draft entries and similar bits for this blog have been falling to pieces because I am functioning on not enough sleep due to chronic nightmares because I'm coming up on a big trauma anniversary date. Well, a string of them. Complex Post Traumatic Disorder is really hard to deal with and remain functional. I'll keep trying and eventually, we'll get past this rocky period.

At some point, I may even tell you the story of what caused this trauma that makes writing difficult. For now, I ask for your patience as I work through this mess.

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.