lonesome-bones:

witchthatiam:

Okay so you may have heard of bone casting, or bone throwing. I recently learned that bones aren’t the only objects you can cast to divine, and that a jar full of random charms and objects are not as witchy-looking as they seem. I have begun collecting objects for Curio Casting, a form of divination based on your intuition as well as the connotations each object has for you. 

It’s kind of hard to explain in a short sentence, but you basically roll out the curios on a board like this one, (which I made over on my other blog, @tarnished-headstone) and read them for their meanings. For example, if it rolls into the thoughts portion of the board, near the center, I read it as something very important that you’ve been thinking about. The farther from the center, the less important. If it rolls out of the board, it could signify something that’s missing. 

Let’s say it was a pearl bead. Maybe that could mean you are looking for beauty or are working on something that takes a very long time. Follow your intuition with each reading, because some objects have multiple meanings. 

To compile Curios for casting, I recommend finding a bag, a jar, or a cloth you can tie up. Then, look around your home, outside, or even in a box of jewelry, for objects. Pick things that mean something to you, or feel like they’re important. Over time, you can add or subtract things as well. If it feels right, then use it. If not, then don’t. If after a while you feel the object does not fit, simply take it out. Curio casting is a very flexible form of divination. 

Here are some tips from my experience:

• Make a few meanings for each object, and write them down. That way, if you get stuck while reading the object, you can have a little push in the right direction. You can give them their own unique meaning, or pick something based on what you know about the object. It’s really cool to watch a set come together, so have fun with it. 
• Decide on a board that works for you. You can find some online, or make your own. The main goal is to be able to read the board easily so you can focus on what the objects mean . On that note, you can really do whatever you want with the board; make it any shape, have as many sections as you like, and even have colour correspondence. It’s super fun to come up with different ones to use for different situations as well. 
• As I said earlier, the closer to the center of the board, the closer the object is to the person. This is just how I read it, so feel free to do as you like. 
• Read what’s missing as much as you read what’s there. Is there a curio left in it’s container? Did one or more roll off the board?
• Read overlapping Curios. Sometimes they roll onto a line, or even the center of the board. Read them in all the categories they land in, and note how the readings are connected. 
• Ask permission if you use bones. It’s always nice to make sure the spirit is okay with it first. 
• Switch up the objects in your kit every once in a while. It helps give you a wider variety of curios if you can replace and change the ones you usually work with. You can even have separate sets for different things. Ex: rose charm, rose quartz, pearl, etc for love or beauty.
• Practice. It really does help to do readings everyday. But if you can’t, just do readings when you’re able. It gets easier with time to read the Curios. 

I’m just moving some resources over to my new blog. This was from my old blog, but I am making my main a death witch blog now.

tytysdeliveryservice:

What you’ll need

• Pen
• Paper

How

Write the persons full name of whom you want to leave you alone on some paper then draw a circle around it. Then fold it up as tight as you can, put it in the furthest corner of the freezer and forget about it. 

This is probably the first spell I ever cast and I remember finding the paper and being like “Oh I remember that person… Oh it worked!”. 

It’s truly wonderful to be a witch.

darkbookworm13:

ramblings-of-a-wayward-witch:

There’s a thing  called a “ME” candle. A Me candle is dedicated to yourself, usually burned when your personal energy is low.

Usually a pillar candle, it can be any color but my personal preference is white. You can dedicate the candle any way you like, but a simple way is to just hold it and focus on your intention of infusing the candle with your energy. It helps to do this on a good day when your energy is high!  You can dress the candle with essential oils that boost energy – like eucalyptus, lemon, grapefruit, cedarwood, peppermint.  Any citrus oils are great for boosting energy. Of course, it’s ok to NOT use eo’s if you don’t have them or can’t afford them.

You can also carve sigils and/or bind runes in the candle pertaining to boosting your energy. (this is actually my preferred method – it kind of makes it more personal)

You can burn your candle on low energy days, when you’re doing a spell/ritual to boost the energy of said spell. Or even whenever you feel the need.

Happy Witching , lovelies ❤

As a Spoonie Witch, I need to make this a thing I do.

theowloracle:

Witches ladders (also known as witch’s ladders) are a type of knot magic that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. They are commonly made by braiding or knotting cords together while incorporating other materials that represent the intention of the creator. Witches ladders can be easily customized for every practitioner and used for nearly any purpose, making them a very versatile and convenient talisman to create. Witches ladders can be used for purposes like attracting or manifesting things, creating a more positive environment, warding off negative entities or energies, protecting yourself or others, or banishing certain behaviors or individuals, just to name a few.

To make a basic witches ladder, you will need:

– Several cords of equal length in colors of your choice

– Whatever materials you choose to weave into the cords (such as feathers, bones, herbs, hair, flowers, seashells, ribbons, beads, hag stones, sticks, crystals, keys, charms, etc.)

Optional but helpful:

– Tape

– A ruler

Some other ideas: You can incorporate pieces of paper with sigils drawn on them, drawstring bags filled with herbs or crystals, or personal symbolic items that have been made from clay or another material. If you are making a witches ladder for an individual, you may wish to include a taglock (a personal item that is strongly associated with the target) to further bond the person to the talisman. Taglocks may include hair, jewelry, etc. Depending on your practice, you may wish to incorporate numerology into your witches ladder by using a specific number of knots, number of cords, or number of items used.

For my witches ladder, I used thick dark green yarn, twine, seashells, goose feathers, ribbon, a pine cone, and a sand dollar. I chose to arrange my goose feathers with the smallest ones at the top and the largest ones at the bottom. I also decided to make a double witches ladder purely for aesthetic reasons, but you can stick to one or make as many as you want.

Creating the witches ladder

1. Start by gathering your materials and getting your cords ready to knot or braid. It may help to tie the cords together on one end and tape the knotted end to a table or another surface. I found that doing so helps to prevent the cords from getting tangled in the process and it helps maintain a nice tension while braiding.

2. As you braid or knot your cords, begin adding your chosen materials. You may wish to recite something or chant as you are doing this, but it is not necessary. Depending on how many items you are using, you may wish to space them out evenly. For this, a ruler may come in handy. In my own experience, I have found that certain materials such as feathers, herbs, flowers, and certain bones can be difficult to braid around. It may be helpful to braid the cords first and then insert your objects into the braid later on.

3. Continue braiding or knotting until you have made your witches ladder as long as you would like it. To finish your witches ladder, you may choose to simply tie off the cords, or you may choose to add something extra to the end. I chose to add a pine cone and ribbon to one of my witches ladders, and a sand dollar to the other. Finish off your witches ladder however you see fit.

4. Hang your witches ladder. You may wish to hang it near a doorway in your home, near your bed, or even outside. The best location for your talisman will depend on both it’s intended purpose and your personal preference. If you have cats or other mischievous pets, it may be a good idea to hang your witches ladder up high or out of their reach.

-theowloracle

Please do not remove source

starseed-academy:

A lot of the newbies I’ve talked to are so hung up on seeing energy. They have  had results, just not results they could see with their eyes. I’d say that 95% of the time

, I perceive energy either by feeling it or by using my “6th sense”. Some individuals with the natural talent of seeing auras may be able to pick up visuals easier than others.

The first step to perceiving energy, is to learn to feel it. After you start feeling it, you develop your 6th sense naturally and, in time, that’s all you’ll use.  You just gotta open yourself up and be open to it. Try visualizing energy beaming into parts of your body and see if you can feel something there. This stuff gets easier, you just have to trust yourself and practice.

Here are some ways we use to describe how these energies feel to us that might help you increase your awareness of them. They may be sensed with the hand or all over the body

• Buzzing or tingling, like when your leg is asleep.
• Prickly, like static electricity.
• A feeling of heat without a heat source. (Usually denotes a LOT of energy moving.)
• A feeling of cold without a physical source.
• A sense of a rising or falling pitch without any audible sound.
• A feeling of something flowing through you like wind or a stream or current of warm water.
• A feeling like a wave passing through you.
• A sense that some other Being, like an angel or ghost has stepped inside of you (“incorporation”)
• Pressure or a pushing sensation with nothing touching you.
• A pulsing sensation that is not in time with your heartbeat. (Usually a balancing “Healing Pulse”.)
• A sensation of bubbles rising like carbonated water or Alka-Seltzer.
• A “clanging” sensation like striking a piece of metal held in your hand with a hammer.
• A spinning or whirling sensation.
• A fluttering or shimmering sensation.
• A sensation like a change in altitude or barometric pressure.
• A sense of lightness that wasn’t present before.
• A sense of expansion in some way.
• A shift in consciousness like meditation or falling asleep.
• A sudden sigh or yawn. (Denotes that you are getting relieved of something by what you came into contact with.) 

falchionknight:

Sunny here, bringing you a crash course on one of the most critical parts of being a successful and safe spirit worker – discernment.

This was originally supposed to be a post on my spirit shop’s blog – but it closed unexpectedly. I have been requested to post this on my own blog, instead, since a lot of people liked it.

---

Humans have this peculiar habit of seeing what they want to see. You start looking for something, and suddenly you see the thing everywhere – it’s like when you buy a new car, never having recognized that car before, and suddenly it seems like every car on the road is the same model as yours. These ordinary things were there all along, but, now that you’re more aware of them, everything seems magical – and this is even more true when entering a new field of practice where things really are magical, like witchcraft and spirit work. This is why the key skill of discernment is so critical – to be able to separate the mundane from the otherworldly. When it is so easy to trick your brain into seeing the supernatural, how do you know when it’s really happening?

---

What’s that big word mean?

Discernment: the ability to evaluate information or situations to determine the underlying truth, the “real” from the “fake”, the “right” from the “wrong”. It is centered around an acuteness of judgment and understanding (x, x).

Okay, now you know what it technically means – you’ve got the dictionary definition under your belt. But why is this important for spirit work?

In the context of spirit work, discernment is used to define whether or not your experiences are “real”. It also plays a part in determining whether or not the spirits you are working with are safe or whether or not they are telling the truth. Discernment is also a critical component of vetting – verifying the identity of the spirit over the course of several months.

Though this may seem opposite to the entire point of discerning, I have personally found that strengthening my discernment skills has made it easier to notice when a spirit is attempting to interact with me. Since I have trained myself so heavily into seeking out all worldly explanations first, I have learned how to distinguish a spirit much more clearly – because sometimes there really is no worldly explanation for what happened. By teaching myself how to tell when my brain is just tricking me, I’m much more capable of determining what’s real.

This is something gained through practice and experience and is, in my opinion, a massively undervalued skill. It takes patience, practice, and time. So much time. This is why it can be so difficult to learn, and, more often than not, you end up learning the hard way why it is so important.

---

How can I tell if the “spirit” is just something ordinary?

• Have you eaten enough? Have you had enough water to drink?
• Did you take your medication, if you have any?
• Did you get enough sleep?
• Do you have any mental or physical illnesses or disorders? Does the “sign” you’re receiving from the spirit correspond to one of your symptoms? Do some personal evaluation!
• Is there any physical explanation outside of yourself for the sign you have received? Ask questions like: Is the radio on in the other room? Is your neighbor outside mowing the lawn? Is this animal that I am “suddenly” seeing a lot of and interpreting as a sign actually just more active this time of year? Did someone just walk by wearing way too much perfume?
• Do things happen when you think of them? If so, it’s possible you might be placebo-ing yourself into believing a spirit is causing this. Spirits act of their own accord.

If your answer to these questions after investigations was a firm “no” across the board, there could really be a spirit around. This is not a guaranteed way to tell, but the first step to spirit work is to remember that not everything is a spirit – sometimes it’s just your grandmother sneezing in the other room. You need to entirely rule out the mundane before assuming the supernatural.

---

Okay, I proved that it’s not something “normal” – but how do I learn how to sense and discern?

This is a difficult question to address, because sensing and discerning spirits varies so greatly from individual to individual. The only way to really tell if what you are experiencing is a spirit is through a lot of experience and trial-and-error.

Some simple pointers:

• Investigate the “signs” you are receiving. Is there a pattern? If you ask for a specific sign (ex: “Show me three [animal that is not commonly seen in your area] in three days.”), does it show? Write everything down. Signs do not always appear within a few days – they could play out slowly, over a period of months, and you could miss them entirely.
• Are you able to distinguish the difference between your own internal mental chatter and the voice of a spirit? This takes lots of time and practice, but it is a major component of spirit telepathy. Learn your own speech pattern and mannerisms – an actual spirit’s speech patterns and mannerisms are not likely to match up exactly to your own. Try this: listen to what a spirit is supposedly saying to you, and then attempt to repeat it exactly. Does it come out sounding garbled or feeling off? It might have legitimately been a spirit. If you are able to replicate their voice, tone, and words exactly, it may have just been your own brain trying to trick you.
• Focus on learning how to differentiate energy signatures. A spirit may be able to change their physical appearance, but it is incredibly unlikely they will be able to change their entire energy signature – these are as unique as a fingerprint and equally as difficult to cover up. Check out this energy work FAQ, and read up on energy signatures – try out this worksheet, too. Here’s another post about how to read energy (and some expectations when you do it). Here’s some ways that energy can be sensed. Look up some exercises. Practice this as much as possible.
• Attempt to communicate. This will also take lots of practice – keep going!
• Use different methods of communication (telepathy, tarot, pendulum, scrying, astral travel, the list goes on…) to verify what the spirit is saying. One method is not enough. Cross-reference the spirit’s answers across the different methods used and see if everything lines up. If it does, you’ve got a real spirit on your hands. If everything seems jumbled and reads almost like gibberish, the spirit may not be present, but they also may not be communicating.

---

How do I determine if a spirit is telling the truth?

This is something that comes mainly through experience. No matter the species, energy alignment, or affiliation, spirits can and will lie to you.

Any spirit who is interested in working with you (or with any human) should be patient and understanding about the fact that you might have a little trouble believing if you are really hearing them – communicating to a physical being while you’re on a non-physical plane can be tricky, after all. If they really want to work with you, they’ll be willing to wait through the vetting and discernment process for you to properly detect them, get to know them, and determine if they are safe and honest about who they are and what they are capable of.

In addition, even if they are telling the truth, they may not have the best intentions. Evaluate what they want out of the working relationship. Does it make you uncomfortable? Does it seem realistic and achievable? Are they attempting to use you as a way to advance themselves or get out of a bad personal situation?

In the words of grumpylokeanelder:

Educate yourself on manipulation tactics. There are a lot of techniques out there. Gaslighting is very common. People write and publish books on the art of influencing and manipulating people for all sorts of purposes. Social engineering and mindhacks are very real. The more educated you are on the techniques used, the more you’ll know what to watch for, and the more likely it is that you’ll avoid toxic people or groups.

If a spirit came to you and claimed that they’ve known you your entire life and had secretly been guarding and guiding you, would you believe them? Would you immediately trust a spirit who randomly appeared and started claiming to have been your best friend, partner, or mentor in a past life? The answer should be no – every single time, without fail. It’s very important to remember that spirits are not all-knowing, all-powerful beings. Do not trust blindly. Do not just “take [their] word for it”. Consider: why is the spirit coming to you, and why now? They could be telling the truth, but you do not want to rush things and assume. If they are truthful, they’ll be patient.  Spirits could mislead you, and they could use your blind belief and trust in them to manipulate you. If a spirit shows up in your house and acts like you are destined to be friends and you enthusiastically accept their offer, you could be setting yourself up for much more danger than you know. Malicious spirits are not always outright malicious.

Take. Your. Time. Do not rush this. Jumping to conclusions and rushing the vetting process – which discernment is a major part of – can give a spirit the opportunity to trick you. It’s easy to put on a disguise and pretend to be someone else for a few weeks; it’s much harder to keep that act going for several months. When communicating with a spirit, it is also very important to avoid having a god or hero complex, thinking you will be the “best” for the spirit and by working with them you are “saving” them – and it’s important to not allow them to have that same mentality about you.

Doubt is healthy. Doubt can prevent a potentially traumatic spirit-related experience. Don’t be afraid to have a normal amount of doubt.

---

How does this apply to vetting and conjuring?

Are you a conjurer and/or a spirit companion shop owner? Great! This section is for you.

You, the conjurer, the shop owner – you are responsible for the safety of everyone who works through you, both human and spirit. This is very important to know before you even open your conjuring service. You need to be willing to put in the work – and this does not mean giving it the bare minimum. Your discernment skills need to be sharp, and your vetting needs to be intense. Any spirit who is truly willing to pursue companionship will be willing to go through this process – but you need to be insistent on making them go through the extent of it. If someone is meeting their future companion through your service, it is entirely on your end to do all of the discernment before they even leave you. Do not rush a spirit out – this could take months, or even years. It will be worth it. Take your time.

Quoted from hecaatia’s excellent post:

And the thing is, you shouldn’t be rushing spirits out. If you’re so impatient to throw up the listing of a spirit that you can’t fathom taking the time to get to know them for three months then I have to question how much you actually care. It might seem mean, but a shopkeeper should be willing to wait months and even years to match the spirit with the perfect person. By the time you post the listing of the spirit, you should be close friends with the spirit yourself. How else are you going to know what would truly be best for the spirit if you barely even know them past superficial friendships? And how else are you going to ensure that the spirit is safe if you barely took the time to get to know them?

[…]

But we also need to talk about an excuse that’s cropped up before in opposition to intensive vetting methods and that is how intensive vetting “hurts the spirit’s feelings”. If a spirit objects to undergoing a long vetting process then that should be taken as a red flag, not as you hurting their feelings. The intensive vetting is a necessity in assuring that the spirit is safe and when a spirit won’t agree to that then it’s easy to assume that the spirit wouldn’t be safe. Also, as mean as it sounds, the spirit’s feelings on whether or not they’re vetted shouldn’t matter. You have a responsibility to your customers to make sure that the spirit is fit for companionship, shirk that responsibility for any reason and you could very well be putting someone’s life in danger.  

[…]

You are putting a spirit in someone’s inner wards, usually a beginner’s inner wards, and they’re someone who trusts you when you say that the spirit is safe. Don’t take advantage of someone’s trust in you just because you don’t want to put in the effort for an intensive vetting process when you chose to be a spirit shopkeeper.  

(Read this post. Incorporate this into your practice. You should be settling for nothing less. If something happens that should have been discovered during the vetting process, it is your fault and is a sign that your process and practice has failed your client.)

Spirit work takes time. Vetting and discernment take a lot of time. If you are willing to learn and build a relationship with a spirit, and if you want to stay safe and avoid being someone’s lunch, you will need to be willing to put in the time and effort. Do not trust without questioning, even several months down the road of vetting. Take notes, and check everything the spirit says against those notes. Are there any discrepancies, or does their story just not make sense?

Leave no gaps. Take no shortcuts. By the time the vetting and discernment process ends, you should know the spirit well enough to call them a close friend.

---

Further Reading

Some of these are not specific to spirits, but these techniques, mindsets, and practices can also be applied to general spirit work.

• Discernment
• Quickie Discernment Checklist
• Hearing Your Own Voice
• Things To Consider in a Tarot Reading (if using divination with a spirit)
• grumpylokeanelder’s discernment tag
• lokeanwelcomingcommittee’s discernment tag
• thetwistedrope’s discernment resources tag
• my discernment tag
• Discernment – Is It A Sign?
• Evaluating Mystical Experiences And Messages From Beyond
• How can you know an entity you are interacting with is who or what they say they are?
• The Very Long Post About Verification: Part I, Part II
• Setting Standards in Vetting Spirits
• Tiny, Rambly Rant
• How can I tell I’m really communicating?
• Not Every Spirit Needs To Be A Companion
• Another Note On Discernment
• Discernment Pro Tips
• How can I improve discernment when experiencing maladaptive daydreaming?
• More on Discernment
• Suggestibility, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink
• Discernment (+Others)

---

A Final Note

This post is one of many out there about discernment. I heavily recommend, as I always do, to read more than just this post and the ones linked. I tried to branch out while researching, but I do have several favored blogs that I referenced – you should look for sources outside of these. My experiences, opinions, and views are not the only way that discernment is defined and my methods are not the only way to do it. Take everything I say and read further to form your own opinions. This post is not comprehensive and does not cover every possible method and definition of discernment. Remember, the posts linked above (and this post, too!) are people’s personal experiences and individual research, and, while there is major benefit to reading other people’s own original posts about the subject, you can never learn better than by learning on your own.

wolfofantimonyoccultism:

Once you believe that you have been cursed you can then start the process in order to get rid of the curse that was placed on you. You can do this by following these three steps in order to isolate yourself, fight back, and then cleanse, and heal yourself back to normal health.

Here is the post on symptoms of being cursed, and diagnostics methods:

http://wolfofantimonyoccultism.tumblr.com/post/163601502625/symptoms-of-being-cursed-and-diagnostics-methods

The first step you are going to want to do is shield yourself. This will give you time to identify what the curse is, and where it might be coming from. Along with allowing you to think about how you would like to proceed in the next step. The shielding does not have to be anything elaborate it just has to work well enough to isolate you from the negative energy of the curse, and will give you some time to think, while not being impacted by the curse.

Shielding methods that you could try, would be things such as:

• Casting a circle.
• Charging, and activating a Sigil for protection.
• Using the psychic bubble of white light.
• Wearing all black.
• Wearing iron.
• Remaining in some form of sacred space or holy ground.
• Using protective crystals such as obsidian, onyx, black tourmaline, or smoky quartz, among many others.
• Burn incense, or herbs for protection such as dragon’s blood, rosemary, basil, or clove, among many others.
• Creating crystal grids of protection.
• Asking a deity, spirit guide, thought-form, ancestor, or ascended master to protect you.
• Asking another more experienced practitioner to shield you.
• Among many other shielding methods….

The second step would be to banish, or send back the curse. In order to banish the curse you will first need to look for everything that connects you to the curse, and cleanse it, or destroy it. Once you do that you will be able to send out a spell to counter, and banish the curse, or reflects the curse back to whatever sent it. In the step it would also be helpful to identify who, or what sent the curse at you in the first place, so that you can bind it and prevent it from happening again.

Curse breaking methods, and curse sending back methods you could try, would be things such as:

• Charging, and activating a sigil for curse breaking, or for sending back the curse.
• Asking a deity, spirit guide, thought-form, ancestor, or ascended master to break, or to send back the curse.
• Construct a decoy witches bottle in order to absorb the curse for you.
• Create, and cast a personal spell to nullify the curse, or to send it back to its user.
• Using crystals such as of Labradorite, obsidian, or shungite, along with many others.
• Burn incense, or herbs for curse breaking.
• Taking a bath with specific herbs can also remove the curse by nullifying its negative energy.
• Cleanse, and destroy the source of where the curse is coming from, so that it can no longer target you.
• Reading from a holy book out loud.
• Strongly intending, and demanding that the curse be broken, and dissipate.
• Stay in your protection until the curse runs its course, and runs out of energy.
• Asking another more experienced practitioner to break the curse.
• Among many other methods….

The third step would be to cleanse you and your space of negative energy that is left over from the curse, so that you can go on with your life without being disturbed by past energies. This can be done through any cleansing method of your choice, and is a very important step in order to keep you safe, and spiritually healthy. You can also in this step run diagnostics on yourself to make sure that you are healthy and all mind, body, and spirit, so that you can enter back into a normalized state.

Cleansing methods that you could try could be things such as:

• Burn incense, and cleansing herbs such as Sage, Cedar, Palo Santo stick, among many other things.
• Going to a Reiki professional to balance out your energetic body.
• Charging, and activating a sigil for cleansing.
• Noise cleansing through such methods as clap cleansing, singing bowl cleansing, or bell cleansing.
• Asking a deity, spirit guide, thought-form, ancestor, or ascended master to cleanse you of negative energies.
• Spray the area with salt water, holy water, or any other magically charged water.
• Using the power of the violet flame.
• Using your own spiritual energy to nullify the negative energy.
• Sprinkling salt in the environment.
• Physically cleaning the area.
• Casting banishing pentagram of the Earth
• Casting the Lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram
• Casting the Lesser banishing ritual the hexagram
• Casting the Gnostic Pentagram Ritual
• Asking another more experienced practitioner to cleanse you and your environment.
• Among many other methods….