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from Karin Wanderer Learns

Continuing #ArtABCs

This year we're arting the alphabet from A-Z. Letters like æ, ñ, or anything with a diacritical mark can go anywhere you like.

Watercolor of upper case letter C in a lovely shade of green with gold swirls.

Congrats on making it this far into the year! We've reached the letter C Any art subject starting with that letter is fair game, no matter how abstract.

Watercolor & Ink painting of a skull with a suspiciously pointy canine tooth sitting on a rock. An ominous blue-green-gold candle has been stuck to the top of it and burned enough to melt around the skull, although it is not burning now. C is for Candle

Let's make terrific art!

Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.

Use #ArtABCs & tag me @KarinWanderer so I see it!

Pick your social & post your art! Mastodon Bluesky Cara

All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch! No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed. Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!

 
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from Karin Wanderer Learns

Hello & Hello Again!

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. You can find a complete list of the recipes at the end of this article. Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

C is for... Challah!

This recipe takes time, but it is worth it! I love this amazing bread so much when it is freshly baked, either plain or with jam. Want a sweeter braided bread? Check out my bulle recipe.

Braided loaf of challah baked a gorgeous brown, with some slices cut. Recipe makes 3-4 loaves depending on the size

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • ½ cup honey
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over barely warm water.
  • Beat in honey, oil, 2 eggs, and salt.
  • Add the flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition, graduating to kneading with hands as dough thickens.
  • Knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed until it reaches a good handling texture. Bowl of bread dough waiting to rise
  • (This is how you test for a “good handling texture”: Press the dough gently with a clean finger. The dough should barely stick to your finger as you start to pull it away & slowly re-inflate to the original dough ball size instead of staying indented from your finger.)
  • Cover with a barely-damp clean cloth and let rise for 1 ½ hours or until dough has doubled in bulk. Bowl of bread dough risen until doubled in bulk.
  • Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto floured board.
  • Divide in half and knead each half for five minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep from getting sticky.
  • Divide each half into thirds and roll into long snake about 1 ½ inches in diameter.
  • Pinch the ends of the three snakes together firmly and braid from middle. It’s just like braiding hair: if you don’t know how, there are a billion tutorials online. If you want to get fancy, you can braid more strands. This will affect your cooking times- my instructions are for a 3-strand braid. If you try a more complicated braid, let me know how it goes!
  • Either leave as braid or form into a round braided loaf by bringing ends together, curving braid into a circle, pinch ends together.
  • Grease two baking trays and place finished braid or round on each. Cover each with a dish towel and let rise about one hour.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Beat that last egg and brush a generous amount over each braid.
  • Bake at 375 degrees F for about 40 minutes. Bread should have a nice hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.
  • Cool on a rack for at least one hour before slicing. Do not rush this! It's hard, I know, but it's worth it.

4 Unbaked braided loaves of challah.

Finish Them!

My favorite ways to eat this bread are plain or with a bit of lingonberry jam, alongside a cup of coffee.

Past Recipes

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi! The #ArtABCs challenge is on! Join us for Letter B!

 
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from Karin Wanderer Learns

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, #ArtABCs ~The Beatles, probably

This year we're arting the alphabet from A-Z. Letters like æ, ñ, or anything with a diacritical mark can go anywhere you like.

Watercolor of upper case letter B in a lovely shade of green with gold swirls.

Begin The Beguine

Congrats on making it this far into the year! We've reached the letter B Any art subject starting with that letter is fair game, no matter how abstract.

Watercolor Jewel Beetle in iridescent greens & blues. B is for Beetle

Let's make terrific art!

Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.

Use #ArtABCs & tag me @KarinWanderer so I see it!

Pick your social & post your art! Mastodon Bluesky Cara

All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch! No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed. Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!

 
Read more...

from Karin Wanderer Learns

Happy New Year! I was going to write a whole article about how important it is to take breaks, but instead I’m going to lead by example. Please, take however long you were going to spend reading this week’s blog & take a break instead. Drink some water, breathe a little, relax your jaw. Don’t worry, you can read any of these articles if you miss me too much 💚 We’ll get back to our regularly scheduled program next Tuesday. See you then!

Watercolor of a hazy pine forest blanketed in snow.

 
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from Magicka Ovriana

Part Two

Wiccan Version

The Wiccan versions of the Witch-bottle which follow are more suitable for the Wiccan view of the world, magick and ethics. They are often intended to capture the negative energies or prevent it from ever arriving and – what's important – prevent it to harm the home and its inhabitants. Many of these Wiccan versions are very much like the basic bottle described above, so it isn't necessary to repeat everything over. However, you can use wine, (apple) vinegar or blessed (salted) water instead or in addition to urine. The nails used may be new, etc.

Many Wiccan Witch-bottles use herbs, with the herbs being chosen according to their magickal qualities. There are sometimes very specific instructions given for the gathering of each herb and other items, including correct phases of the Moon. The herbs and other objects may be put in the bottle the previous day, letting the bottle stand by the witch's bed over the night. In the morning, you can add (morning) urine to the bottle, after which the bottle is closed and sealed utilizing Wiccan rituals. Some instructions state that the bottle will be placed in a cupboard or closet, so you don't necessarily have to carefully hide it.

The following instructions are a basic version of a Wiccan version of the Witch-bottle, using herbs. You can do everything using a longer/more complex or a shorter/simpler route, depending on your own inclinations. You can for example start collecting the necessary items on a given phase of the moon (for example on the day before New Moon) and perform the ritual on the next Dark Moon. Or, you can collect the items when you have time for it and build the bottle at any phase of the moon (with protective spells, you don't always have to wait for the right phase of the moon – you do it when you have to). You can utter a suitable spell with every item added to the bottle, summoning the spirit of the item/accessory and meditate for a while – or you can speak your chosen words after the bottle is filled. You can make the bottle as part of a ritual, or you can construct a ritual especially for this occasion. One reason why I'm being so vague with the instructions is that I'm not Wiccan myself.

Materials

* Bottle or jar, with a tightly closing cap or lid * Sea salt * Crystal or stone, for example turquoise, obsidian or black onyx. * Herbs, for example acasia, aloe, lilies, lime, lotus, agrimony, corn, cayenne and black pepper, dried onion, salvia, frankincense, basil, mint, myrrh, garlic, rosemary, mistletoe, pine needles. * A few nails or needles * Wine, (apple) vinegar or urine * Thread * Black candle for sealing * The usual tools used in the ritual section

Preliminary Preparations

You can choose the herbs and crystals you are going to use according to their special qualities or use some of those I've listed. You can also use a drop or two of an essential oil instead of a herb. You can choose the number of herbs and solid items in general (in this case, essential oil is counted as “solid”) to put in the bottle on numerological grounds either so that the number of all solid items is a specific one, or that you will use a certain number of herbs. Suitable numbers are 7, connected to protection, or 9, connected with the Goddess.

Gather the necessary items. Clean the bottle you are going to use. Wash it with warm soapy water carefully (if you can use a specific soap made for protective purposes, so much the better) and dry it well. You can leave the bottle over night in the light of a full moon to charge it. Choose a place to hide the bottle. For a bottle to be filled as part of a ritual or ritually, it is a good thing to have all the necessary tools at hand, on your alter. You can also construct your ritual and spells and chants beforehand.

The purpose of the crystal (which isn't absolutely necessary, the list is given as an example – including the liquid items) is to use it's magickal qualities, the same goes with the herbs. The salt is there to purify and bless the target of the Witch-bottle (the person(s), home to be protected). The nails and needles ground the negative energy and you can also visualize it being then sent back to its sender, threefold. The thread tangles the negative energy in a knot similar to what you are tangling the thread into and to bend the energies away from the builder of the bottle. You can also visualize the negativity tripping over to the thread. The urine represents the builder of the bottle. When using wine or vinegar you can visualize the negative energies drowning in the liquid, with vinegar acting as a purifying element as well.

The Actual Making of the Bottle

If you're constructing the bottle as part of a ritual, you can perform the ritual opening as usual.

Start filling the bottle with the salt. After the salt, add needles or nails, bent or straight. After this, it's time to add the herbs. The crystals and the thread you've tangled into a “ball” can be added next. If you are adding liquids, that is done after the solid items.

When the bottle is otherwise finished, you can raise energies with a suitable chant (I've seen the traditional “Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna” recommended for this purpose) and directing it into the bottle, after which you close the bottle and seal it with the wax of the candle.

End your ritual as usual and bury the bottle into a suitable place or otherwise hide it. You can burn incense on the hiding place to seal the spell properly.

Witch-Bottle to Show Off

Witch-bottles that are intended to be left out in plain sight are not usually made to that much protect their makers, but to bring the one who has cast this bottled spell something she or he wants. The usual reasons are the reasons so common with other types of spell as well: the wish the gain more love, material gains, happiness, creativity.

I won't give any specific instructions, only basic principles:

Select the bottle or jar used according to its color, shape or the simple fact that it is pleasing to the eye. Go through the magical qualities of herbs, colors, essential oils, metals, crystals etc and choose the ones you'll use in the bottle according to how well they suit your intended purpose. You won't normally use any liquids (except for a few drops of essential oils) in bottles left in the open, they are “dry bottles”. Aim for a harmonious whole. That means: don't try to squeeze in your bottle every single herb or crystal associated with, for example, wealth. Too much is too much!

Pick a few suitable herbs or oils, one suitable crystal, one suitable color. To represent the color you can add (silk) ribbon to the bottle or tie a ribbon around it, or paint a symbol representing your goals with the chosen color. You can also make a “hat” to cover the lid of the bottle, making it out of black cloth and painting a symbol on it with fabric paint or magic marker, or use the color of your spell as the color of this “hat”. You can use colors as colored sands or salts. Even metals have their own magickal correspondences, so you might want to use metal dust or chips.

If you are following the phases of the moon or other celestial objects in your magick, take them into consideration while constructing the bottle. It is up to the bottle's maker whether to use a formal ritual or not.

As a basic principle, it could be suggested that sands (and metal dust/chips) usually go to the bottom, herbs and oils on the sand and the crystal in with the herbs.

Final Words

You can easily develop a large number of versions of the basic Witch-bottle to suit your (and others') needs and life situations. Even during the time historical Witch-bottles were in use, there were new versions being developed, so why not today?! There is no One True Witch-bottle (even though there probably are people who would like to claim so), only bottles more like the traditional ones and bottles of more modern variety. I have run into all kinds of bottles myself, some being love-raising bottles on the brink of going over the level of good taste and ethics (some actually going overboard) to bottles constructed to bind a given bad person very tightly. The many varieties speaks volumes for how effective this type of spell work can be and how versatile it is.

— [1] Oxoniana, vol. i. p. 232, tells how the bottle got its name: “One of the Fellows of Exeter (College), when Dr Prideaux was rector, sent his servitor, after nine o'clock at night, with a large bottle to fetch some ale from the alehouse. When he was coming home with it under his gown the proctor met him, and asked him what he did out so late, and what he had under his gown? The man answered that his master had sent him to the stationers to borrow Bellarmine, which book he had under his arm; and so he went home. Whence a bottle with a big belly is called a Bellarmine to this day, 1667.”

#Witchcraft #Paganism #Magick

 
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from Magicka Ovriana

Part One

Witch-bottles are probably quite familiar to many Pagans, at least as a concept. Witch-bottle isn't a poor little Witch in a bottle, or hold something Witches drink in their gatherings. They are more akin to a “bottled spell”. The tradition originates from British folklore, traveling with British immigrants to the Americas, if not further. Many modern Pagans have included Witch-bottles in their collection of spells, widening and diversifying this old tradition – and making it more comparable with their personal ethics.

A Bit on the History of Witch-bottles

The history of Witch-bottles goes back hundreds of years. The origins of this tradition has been dated to the 1500's. They were used most actively for a couple of hundred years. This is the same time when the Witch-hunts were going on. After this period, the tradition slowly waned. The last historical Witch-bottle was found in a cabin built in mid 19th century, in Pershore, Worcestershire (UK).

The actual bottle of a traditional Witch-bottle during the 16th and 17th century was a German stone bottle called “bartmann” or “bellermine” bottle. Similar bottles of stone material were manufactured in Holland and Belgium. The technique wasn't mastered in England before the 1660's and bartmann bottle manufacturing was rare in Britain.

The bottle got its name from a cardinal called Bellarmino only after the Witch-bottle tradition had already begun. These bottles had a round belly and they were decorated with a facial image of a grim looking bearded man and a medallion of stylized floral or natural imagery.

Even though these bottles were being manufactured actively in Germany long before the time of Bellarmino – who was against the Reformation – these bottles were given their familiar name as a satirical comment on the Cardinal. His bearded figure resembled the typical bearded man depicted on these bottles.[1] Later on, the bearded image was taken to represent the Devil, which suited well for Witch-bottles, after all — witches were considered as people allied with the Devil.

Glass bottles were also used, but according to my sources they were never as popular as Witch-bottles as were the bartmann ones.

Old Witch-bottles contained things like bent iron nails, human hair (head hair and pubic hair) and urine. Urine as an important ingredient of a Witch-bottle has been long known in folk traditions, but actual findings with the bottle still containing urine have been rare. However, all of the Witch-bottles found in England which were tested for urine, did prove positive. Other traditional items contained in Witch-bottles include small bones, thorns, needles, pieces of wood and in some cases heart-shaped pieces of cloth.

The bottles were most often found buried under the fireplace. Other sites include under the floor, buried in the ground there, and plastered inside walls. The fireplace is, from a magical point of view, a security risk as it has a straight connection with the open skies above. It was believed that the curse of a Witch or even a Witch herself in a shape-shifted form could get into a house through the fireplace. Another security risk was the doorway, as doors are opened and closed several times throughout the day. In addition to the fireplace, the bottles were often hidden near the doorway.

On the Original Uses

The most active period of Witch-bottle usage and the Witch-hunts don't coincide by accident. The fear of Witches produced ways of protecting oneself against them during times when slightest misfortune was easily interpreted as being caused by a curse put on one or another member of the family. From the point of view of a present day Witch, the original purpose for building a Witch-bottle wasn't that pleasant: they were intended to keep Witches and Witches' curses away. The contents of a Witch-bottle was designed to not only divert an attacking Witch, but also to cause her to suffer the agonies brought on by all the nasty things inside the bottle. To put it simply: to turn the curse back to the curser.

The urine in the bottle symbolizes the target of the curse. The curser and the target of the curse were believed to have a strong connection and the curse was believed to target not only its intended victim, but also the bodily fluids of the target. When the bottle was placed in a way that made it easier for the curse to meet with the urine (in the Witch-bottle) before the actual target, the curse hit the bottle and not its intended victim. This is why the bottles were usually hidden where they were. The importance of pubic hair and hair was similar to that of the urine.

Witch-bottles are very much a part of age-old traditions of sympathetic magic with its intentions of causing pain for the Witch with the contents of the Witch-bottle. According to folk beliefs, the use of Witch-bottles sometimes brought the Witch herself, writhing in agony, knocking on the door – begging for somebody to break the Witch-bottle and promising to reverse the curse.

The Witch-bottle was believed to be active as long as the bottle remained hidden and unbroken. People did go though a lot of trouble in hiding their Witch-bottles. Those buried underneath fireplaces have been found only after the rest of the building has been torn down or otherwise disappeared.

Modern-Witch-Bottles

Very generally speaking, the modern day Witch-bottles are very similar to historical Witch-bottles in their basic structure, even though their intended purpose has changed. The most common purpose for constructing a Witch-bottle today is capturing negative energies targeted at the constructor of the bottle, her family or her home. Even though some bottles are “mirroring” in nature, they aren't normally built to cause agony to the sender of negative energy/caster of curses. Some Witch-bottles are intended to change negative energy into positive one and then release it into the surrounding area. This kind of bottles could be classified as “guard and protect”-bottles.

The basic structure of Witch-bottles can be used for purposes other than protective: for financial gain, for helping with artistic creativity, to call forth positive energy (instead of “just filtering out negative energy”), for improving health, etc.

One could say that the basic principle is the following: practically speaking, a Witch-bottle is a container of some sort, usually a jar or a bottle, which is filled with objects and often also liquids which fill a given magickal purpose. The person making the Witch-bottle, or in other words, the one casting the bottled spell, can charge the objects magickally beforehand and build the bottle to work on this charging until the need of renewing the spell arises. Witch-bottles can also be built to recharge themselves by the energy they 'capture' for as long as the bottle stays unbroken, whether it be years or centuries.

Instead of magickally charging the items, one can build a bottle whose the powers are based on its contents, but cumulatively so, resulting with powers stronger than the sum of its parts. Also this version can be designed to be seasonal or “one time lasts a life time”.

What Do Modern Witch-Bottles Contain?

The typical contents of the basic protective Witch-bottle today is quite similar to that of the traditional one: bent iron nails (some say they are better if old and rusty while others say clean and unused are best), thorns, rusty razor blades, broken glass or pieces of broken mirror (some say breaking a mirror for Witch-bottle use causes bad luck, others claim that breaking a mirror for this particular use will not cause bad luck except for people sending negative energies to the bottle builder), or other sharp and dangerous “nasties”, urine of the bottle's builder, often also menstrual or other blood. One could use semen as the masculine counterpart for menstrual blood. The bottle is often a common tight-lidded glass jar, or a bottle with a rather wide mouth.

Other types of Witch-bottles may contain sand or different colored sands, crystals, stones, knotted threads, herbs, spices, resin, flowers, candles (no, you won't burn them inside the bottle), incense (you won't burn it either), votive candles, salt, vinegar, oil, coins, saw dust, ashes etc etc. Actually, everything used in “normal spells” can be used in this bottled version of a spell, the Witch-bottle.

Additional materials include candles and/or wax to seal the bottle/jar with. The rest of the materials depend on the ritual in question (if any) and the religion of the builder of the bottle.

On the Hiding Place

A Pagan living in their own house may be able to hide the Witch-bottle in the traditional way under the fireplace, under the floor, or in the walls. However, it is more common to bury the bottle in the yard in a place where nobody will accidentally break it while digging in the garden. One such place is behind stones under the stairs. For a Pagan living in a terraced house burying the bottle in the garden should work well – as long as you are careful not to attract too much attention to yourself while burying an odd object (the bottle) during the correct phase of the Moon, at night, with just candle light, wearing suspicious looking ritual garments.

Apartments can be a difficult place to live in when you're trying to find somewhere to hide a Witch-bottle. Or, at least it may seem like that! Digging a hole and burying the bottle in the yard may be not only difficult, but also quite likely not allowed. Nosy kids can dig the bottle up and hurt themselves on the contents. Not to mention that in the right (or wrong, to be more precise) neighborhood could cause lots of trouble for the Pagan attempting to hide a bottle in the yard.

However, the situation is not that impossible! The bottle doesn't need to be situated near the home in order for it to work. If you are constructing a bottle intended to be a personal safety guard, it can be buried in a forest or sunk in a swamp. With a Witch-bottle designed to guard a given home and those living in it, you can use a large flowerpot by the front door or on the windowsill to bury the bottle in to. In this case, the bottle should be small enough to fit in the flowerpot – with the plant!

Another idea I've heard is putting the Witch-bottle into a closet next to the front door, where it could easily do its job as a guardian and protector of the home and its inhabitants. However, this solution might cause some trouble if the same thing that happened to one Pagan happens to you: the Witch-bottle she kept in her closet worked very well – until it one day literally blew up. The bottle was of the very traditional type, so cleaning up after this wasn't that pleasant, as you can well imagine! While refining the idea further, we ended up putting the bottle in a covered bucket filled with soil and then putting the bottle inside the bucket in the closet.

For a Pagan still “in the closet” or living in something like student housing with a room mate these ideas may not be that usable. There's still no need to panic, as Witch-bottles can be made in miniature size, too. One witch working with test tubes in her professional life worked out recycling methods for test tubes as miniature Witch-bottles small enough to fit in the flowerpots on her windowsill. If you want to use test tubes, make sure you can close them tightly. There are also miniature bottles and jars available at various gift shops which can be used as well.

It should be noted that not all Witch-bottles are designed to be hidden away. Some are intended to be left out in the open, for example on the windowsill, on your altar or on your (work) desk.

Some Instructions

The next part contains some instructions for making Witch-bottles. I won't be including any particular instructions for rituals. First, because the exact rituals used depend on the religion of the person crafting the Witch-bottle and rituals aren't even always necessary. One doesn't even have Pagan religious inclinations for constructing a Witch-bottle. One of the persons who has made a Witch-bottle with my instructions is completely unaffiliated religiously, doesn't consider himself a Pagan, and is more or less an Atheist. He is, nevertheless, very happy with the results. Second, planning the ritual (if one decides to have one) can be considered an important part of constructing a Witch-bottle. As important as planning and gathering the objects used. Third, if you are using a pre-made ritual, you can easily end up repeating somebody else's words and copying somebody else's motions, without proper emotions. Finally, modifying things to suit you better is in this context not only allowed, it's recommended!

Basic Bottle for a Modern Witch

This is the tried and tested basic Witch-bottle, suitable also for modern day Pagans. The bottle is intended to be one that protects its maker, often also the maker's home and family, from negative energies. Depending on how the bottle is made and on the maker's Will, the bottle can be one that gathers the negative energies in itself (capturing), one that sends the energies back to where they came from (mirroring) or one that changes negative energy into positive (transforming). I would say, however, that this traditional Witch-bottle isn't the best suited one for the last option.

Materials

  • Glass, earthenware or stone bottle or jar, with a tightly closing cap. Size depending on how big you can easily hide. Size doesn't matter that much, so be reasonable.
    • Protective gloves for handling items you'll be putting in the bottle. A Witch-bottle won't help you much if you manage to get a blood poisoning while constructing one.
    • Wax or candles to seal the bottle. Black is a good choice.
    • Another jar for “potty” if you don't have one. Aiming isn't that easy, especially if you're trying to hit something like a Witch-bottle. So, you'll need something to pee into – and of course you'll need your urine.
  • All kinds of “nasties”: Nails, rusty and bent (you can bend them yourself, too). Pieces of barbed wire, thorns, burrs, pieces of glass and/or mirror, needles etc.
    • Some things to choose from: Menstrual blood or semen. You can drain menstrual blood from your menstrual pads or tampons. In order to get semen – well, you do know how to get it. Word of advice, though – if you are using sex magick as a part of your Witch-bottle building ritual, do try to remember that you were supposed to collect some of the semen to use in the bottle. It's not that easy to collect it out of your partner, you know. Other blood – get a sterile needle from the pharmacist and remember to buy some band-aids as well. You can also add your pubic or other hair to represent yourself. An egg can also be included.
    • Bandages should be readily available, in the case something happens. A lot of the stuff you're putting into the bottle is sharp.

Preliminary preparations

Gather all the necessary items, your bodily fluids being the very last ones as you don't want to store them even for a day. You can collect other items intended for a Witch-bottle over a long period of time, storing them until you have all the necessary items and enough of them. Items found on the ground suit the purpose well. Cut metal items into smaller pieces if necessary so that they fit into the bottle you've chosen. If you're using a very small bottle, remember that will need only a very very small number of each item or alternatively small items (broken needles, tiny nails etc).

Choose a date to suit your magickal workings best and plan your ritual, if these things are important for you. Waning moon is often considered a suitable time for building a Witch-bottle. The ritual can consist of just the visualization of the bottle's intended use.

You can use the following to help with your visualization:

Your bodily fluids are intended to symbolize yourself, they are part of your essence and are traditionally used in magick. Instead of having the negative energies hitting you, they hit your “representative” in the Witch-bottle, the part of your essence.

For a capturing bottle: The “nasties” inside the bottle are intended to capture the negative energies – the metal captures them, the glass confuses and cuts them, the thorns puncture them and iron (and egg) dissolve them. You can visualize the negative energies drowning in the urine. If you are building a mirroring bottle, visualize the glass and mirror mirroring the negative energy back to its sender or to grounding it to earth. For a transforming bottle you can use colored glass and visualize the negative energy transforming into positive one before continuing on its journey forward to benefit you, your home or the universe.

Choose the place to hide your Witch-bottle before you make it. Be sure you have all the necessary equipment like a shovel. By the time the bottle is finished, it's too late to start pondering “but where will I put this thing?” If you are going to bury the bottle in the ground, choose the place so that people or animals will not dig it up.

The Actual Making of the Bottle

Have all the necessary equipment and items at hand in a place you consider best suitable for the task, at a time most suitable for you. Cast a circle, if you feel one necessary. You can build the bottle and have your ritual at the site of where you will hide it or do everything else in one place and then take the ready bottle elsewhere to be buried.

Fill the bottle with items you've chosen until they form a disgusting mixture. Shake the bottle to mix the items, if necessary. If you are including an egg, don't break it and add it as the last of the solid items. Remember to leave enough room for it as well.

After this, add urine, menstrual blood or semen, or prick your finger with the sterile lancet and add as the very last thing a few drops of your blood. You won't need large amounts, blood and semen are considered potent, so few drops will do.

Close the cap or lid and seal the bottle. You can carve symbols of your choice (for example runes, a sigil), being careful not to break the seal. If this happens, remove the wax and start the sealing process again.

If you are going to go to another place to hide the bottle, clean up after yourself especially if there is any chance that somebody else will get to the place where you were building your bottle before you come back from hiding it! If you did cast a circle before starting, take it down. Remember to ground yourself (if you are creating the bottle at the place where you're hiding it, you can do this afterwards).

Travel to the hiding place and hide your Witch-bottle in a suitable manner. Banishing words suit the situation well and if you don't know how or don't want to use traditional banishing spells or something similar, you can even swear like a drunken sailor! You can bury the bottle upside down, putting more nasties in the hole you buried around the bottle before covering it all up. If you are hiding the bottle somewhere inside your home, hide it the right way up.

#Magick #Witchcraft #Paganism

 
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from Karin Wanderer Learns

Happy (almost) New Year!

A New Challenge Appears!

#ArtABCs An important part of my art challenges for the past year has been that each theme lasts 2 weeks. This allows everyone to take part, take their time, & have fun with each prompt. 2 weeks per prompt makes 26 prompts in each year! So this year we're arting the alphabet from A-Z. Letters like æ, ñ, or anything with a diacritical mark can go anywhere you think they belong.

Watercolor of upper case letter A in a lovely shade of green with gold swirls.

Begin At The Beginning

Surprise- we're starting with the letter A. Any art subject starting with that letter is fair game, no matter how abstract.

Watercolor of three trees growing so close together their crowns make one big mass of leaves. The leaves are yellow, orange, & red. Some leaves have just begun to fall to the ground. A is for Autumn

Let's make terrific art!

Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.

Use #ArtABCs & tag me @KarinWanderer so I see it!

Pick your social & post your art! Mastodon Bluesky Cara

All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch! No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed. Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!

 
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from RMiddleton

poor neurodivergent artist here & im not complaining about that that's my choice. But the rigamarole I go through below is ridiculous 🙃

Bc of my weird life I have to do like a 13-step process to withdraw a little money I received today. I can't get to it bc it's in venmo which my phone offloaded because I have no available space on my phone. So I'm watching the DVD extras on The Vanishing before I unplug it from the 1 of 2 USB ports on my MacBook Air (the other USB being an external drive that the computer never lets me unmount, I have to shut down before unplugging the drive—& speaking of shut down, that's what my computer will do if the magnetically attached charge cord slips off because I like Macs & for that I am condemned to have laptops that can't be laptops because their batteries aren't serviceable). After watching the director interview on the DVD 📀 (free from the library bc this movie is not accessible to me streaming) I'll remove the DVD player that's fortunately plug and play [although I cannot use the built in Mac DVD app because of a bug {that asks me repeatedly to reset my DVD region, warns me that I can only ever do this 5 times before (if I make a mistake) my external dvd drive becomes a brick, but won't permit me to set the region and it can't be because I did it already 5 times can it? No it's a known bug documented online} with an annoying multi step process to fix it so I said Fuck it I'm getting VLC again & VLC is clunky but it just works]. Then I'll connect iphone to the free USB port using the only remaining cord the Mac still accepts. Then I'll move movies and photos off phone (because I can't afford cloud backup subscription) for which I'll use the barebones Mac Image Capture app because the Photos née iPhoto app is unusable. Phew! I store on an external HD because my MBAir came with very little memory and again I can't afford monthly cloud payments. I store in sorted folders labeled Resources with sub folders by date. After clearing space on my phone I'll be able to reinstall venmo and go through whatever process they make me do to get the money out. [these services don't need to exist right? Isn't it true in the UK you can wire directly bank account to bank account?]

Anyway I'm just kidding I think I'll just get the money from venmo website on my laptop IF I can remember which browser I may have used with venmo before, if any. If I get the money this way I won't clear the stuff off my phone and the phone will continue with subpar performance.

Haha! There was an easier workaround I thought of on the toilet. I deleted Google maps app and that freed space to reinstall venmo and... the money wasn't there! The buyer hasn't made the transfer yet I guess.

This is for my one sale from the summer that the buyer chose to pay in installments

Being a neurodivergent artist is great!

And I mean that. That's not sarcastic. What isn't great is having to live in this society.

 
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from Magicka Ovriana

At some point of the journey there comes a time when you feel like you're ready to cut lose from just reading and talking, proceeding to actually doing something – in this case, to performing rituals. There are plenty of pre-made rituals available in books and on the net, so it's only the question of taking the texts in one hand and starting to ritualize? Well, that is one approach and nobody is saying that it couldn't be a workable and giving one. However, this time the approach is somewhat different – one stating that it's good to not only know how something is done, but also why.

1. Know the Backgrounds

When you're practicing your religiosity and magick alone you are lacking (out of your own initiative or simply due to the lack of a suitable group) people who would be there teaching you the basics hands-on. So, your own initiative is of prime importance. Texts and descriptions of rituals do tell much, but they don't always explain the backgrounds any closer.

To start a ritual project, you can head out to research with the help of various sources the very meanings of a ritual. Why you're supposed to say what is said in the ritual and why you're supposed to do what is said you should do. In every single better constructed ritual the words and gestures mean something and you will get so much more out of the ritual when you are aware of the meanings. Do not settle for knowing the right words – know why you are supposed to say them. Do not (for example) just call on certain deities – find out why you are calling them in this particular ritual. Do not think gestures are just gestures – know what they mean. All this may take time, but it is worth it.

2. Learn the Ritual

You can do a ritual while holding the script in front of your nose, but it won't be that smooth.

You can split the ritual into suitable sized pieces, rehearsing them one by one until you know them by heart. This way you can eliminate the “but… do I really remember what I'm supposed to do?” -factor by the time you move to actually doing the ritual and concentrate on the actual rite. Rehearsing and refining gestures can make a nice evening schedule and going over the texts in your mind can give you something worthwhile to do while you are, say, waiting for the bus to arrive. When the little pieces are going smoothly, you can combine them to larger fragments and finally piece all the fragments together to form a whole.

When you are at that stage, you can go through the whole ritual “without the spirit” – that is, without trying to achieve anything other than rehearsing – as many times as you need.

3. Make It Yours

When you have actually performed the ritual so many times it goes smoothly and gives the results it is supposed to give; it's time to make the ritual yours. In this context, making the ritual yours doesn't mean developing your own versions of the texts and gestures, as writing your own ritual is quite another subject indeed. You could compare this to the world of acting, as rituals could be likened to plays. Psychodramas, one could say. The same play can be performed in a multiple of ways, even if nobody changed a single word in it. Each actor past the stage of mimicking another actor's style brings in his or her own interpretation, making the role alive.

When you're only starting out, you are always more or less a “mimicker” while doing rituals other people have written. With the confidence brought on by doing you can little by little develop into a “virtuoso” of your own religiosity and magick working.

#ritual #magick #paganism

 
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from RMiddleton

I suggest that the United States needs to do much more than elect better people under the current constitution. A peaceful revolution is called for.

The right is right. Under the US constitution and historical tradition, the right is in keeping with American values. Liberals are wrong when we have said:

America is exceptional

America is the greatest country on earth

Bigotry, hate; and murder are not who we are as Americans

America values equality

None of the above are true. All of the above are wishful. Trump and his cronies are the heirs to the slave-owning founders, to Polk, to Jackson, to Jim Crow, to Woodrow Wilson, to FDR, to Nixon, to Reagan, and to the Supreme Court for all but a very few years.

The United States has never stood for equality. I'm not so much saying this in anger as with a clear eyed coldness. The nice words in the revered documents are lies. They are marketing materials. It's quite clear that the professions of equality are lies; simply look at the laws.

I will expand on this soon. I'm tired. Hugs!

 
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from RMiddleton

I live inside my mind. I view my number one task as survival. Before I can do anything else well I must sustain myself. What am I? A consciousness in a body. But I think more accurate to say a conscious body. My senses supply information that I interpret using emotion, aided by memory.

I am sitting in the sun enjoying a recording of a violin concerto by Saint-Saëns as I write this. Why so I like the sound of this music? And the nearby splashing water that I can hear? Why do I dislike the sounds of loud motors, and shouting, and most human broadcasts?

I try to keep the election far from my mind. I'm a white man. If I wanted I could pass as straight. I fantasize myself organizing a meeting in which I, crying no doubt, say to a group of Trump voters: “I think of you as evil people. And I am scared of you. Why am I wrong to feel this way?” The responses that I imagine would be defensive, righteous indignation, and filled with factual errors they all learned from intentionally lying sources. And they would be demonstrating their own emotions in response.

If I think anything like this I just get stuck. It's been this way for decades. It's why “good whites” cannot reach our relatives, neighbors, and coworkers.

I can't get stuck. To go on I focus on the Saint-Saëns, followed by They Might Be Giants, and everything else I'm checking out from the library to keep my spirit afloat. James Baldwin. Poetry. Abolitionist history. A film about fascist Italy. Aretha Franklin.

I'm changing me. Change the world? Maybe tomorrow...

 
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from Magicka Ovriana

A Creation Story

In the beginning there was Chaos. Chaos was not being, nor non-being. There was no light, nor darkness, no depth nor undepth, nor height nor unheight. There was absolute nothing, filled with potential to everything and the Potential and the Nothing were One.

Ages went by as they will always do and the Chaos of nothing and everything in one and neither stirred. Nobody and everybody knows why Chaos stirred – it was what was to be.

The Will to Live was born, but with hir was born hir ever-present twin, the Inevitable Death, as there will be no life without death, nor death without life, as there is no Light without Darkness, nor Night without Day. Neither Will to Live nor Inevitable Death are good nor evil.

Then Will to Live and the Inevitable Death breathed onto and into each others, making love to each other, with the blessing of the Chaos who never seeked to be Divided, nor to be Unified because with Hir everything is already nothing and everything.

And they created all forms of life and all forms of death as none will be without the other.

So the Will to Live created ever new ways to live and the Inevitability of Death silenced them, but Death is always a step behind the Life, as Death will not take the yet unliving, as there is nothing for Death to take. Nor will Life be born without the yet undied, as there is nothing for Life to grow on.

Thus will the dance of Life and Death ever go on, until Chaos stirs again.

And Chaos looked at it all, and said -

I am the Beginning of it All. I am at the Unborn and the Undying. I am not evil. I am not good. I am. I was here before there was here and will be here after it All has ended. Fear me not, though I know you will as the fear of me is in you lest you look beyond the Will to Live and the Inevitable Death. Embrace me and never stay the same.

#Paganism #Deities

 
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from RMiddleton

I love what I do so much. A snarketarian might say, “What the fick do you do? You have no daily job that produces income!” And that is true.

Here's what I do:

Now I'm waiting for a telehealth call from my pain doctor. Improving my physical condition is essential for me to do anything else. I'm happy to be working on this goal with help.

I'm talking to friends and new friends and neglected friends and physician assistants and neighbors and random folk — all with joy and respect. I'm not at my best every moment so I'd rate myself as spreading 93% joy. I see results in my effect on others.

I'm cleaning my house. A little every day. With joy. I'm keeping an assortment of plants alive. I'm inviting visitors over.

I'm cooking every meal at home, happily.

I'm walking and stretching every day.

I'm enjoying nature so much.

I'm celebrating human culture with books, videos, and music all free from the library. I'm so happy about that.

I may use equipment at the library to digitize some old family items. I feel good about that.

Is there more? What else is there?

I'm sharing my journey openly. I feel very satisfied with that evolution of my art practice.


What I'm not doing: feeling mad, sad, bitter, jealous, greedy, impatient, or bored.

I know how to be happy!

 
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from Poetry from a nonpoet

some poetry exercises from yesterdays class

So had my class last evening, missed last weaks and slipped out of the poets mindset, feel a bit more motivated now after doing last evenings class. Did some responses to other poems this is what i wrote.

Wonderings Paths following paths Wandering trails under woods, Scent of fresh damp leaves over streams, over fields, through shire and town Smell of fires burning. One step following another On the autumnal route, Cold chill feel of air on skin Plodding along on the trails forever For no sake but for the walk itself.

fagile life Fragility of life, Day in day out we breath, Breith after breith Go about a daily routine Have drama and joys Day in, day out we go about Not realising the fragility, Of are mortal coils.. We create a bubble of things, People and possessions, Activities to distract ourselves From the day in and day out Without being thankful, of truely Noticing are small insignificance The moment of now Then it's over.

Metamophosis Metamorphosis of seed to sapling to tree The ecosystem of growth all around Photosynthesis of light to energy The mycelium under the ground, Sharing its nutrients with trees above. Higher and far older than all other living things Mighty trees boroughs of sequoia and oaks Standing tall poking tree tops into the sky Mighty fortresses of nature Withstanding winds of gales, year in year out, Decade in decade out.

Disposable fashion The toxic waste of the worlds nations Pawned onto those in third world countries The toxic waste of a capitalist economy Forced onto an unwitting populus of the trendy Shameful fast fashion, faster than mcdonalds Half less tasty than the cardboard in bread. And far more tacky.

Got to use my 5 senses to discribe a place from memory for my homework. So need to set some time aside.

We are still using carol anne duffys bbc meastro course some useful infomation but glade i have a tutor too.

moving forward want to get into writing and reading pulp fantasy stuff so might do that here and rename the blog.

Thank you.

 
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from Magicka Ovriana

The general public is usually familiar mostly with the so called Olympian gods and goddesses along with a few others, but the Greek pantheon includes also other lessed known deities. Some of them were “lesser know” for even the ancient Greek, as there wasn't proper cult or organized worshipping connected to these deities. One of these is Khaos (Chaos). There's rather little information available in our time about Khaos, considering her part in the birth of the world and other deities in the Greek mythology.

The earliest written references on Khaos can be found in the book “Theogony” by Hesiod, who lived in the 700's before common era. In Theogony, Hesiod describes the birth of the world and the Gods, as well as Greek mythology.

The word “Khaos” means space, gap, darkness and void, referring to Khaos as that which is between heaven and earth. Khaos was also calles – albeit rarely – as Poros ('passage, contriver, intriguer') and Aeros ('air').

When the world begun, Khaos was there. She is the goddess who predates everything else – gods and even the world. After Khaos arose Gaia (earth), Eros (love) and Tartaros. Without a mate, Khaos gave birth to Erebos (darkness) and Nyx (night). From the love between these two, were born Aether (light) and Hemera (day; according to Bacchylides, Hemera's father is Khronos). Nyx also bore other children – Moros, Ker, Thanatos, Hypnos, the Oneiroi, Momos, Oizys, the Hesperides, the Keres, the Moirai, Nemesis, apate, Philots, Geras and Eris1, who are all spirits affecting human lives (daimones).

Hyginus, who wrote in Latin in the 100's, relates a slightly different story in his listing of gods Mythographi Fabularum Liber. He wrote: “Ex Caligine Chaos” – Khaos woas born out of moisture, fog. Hyginus continues to tell how out of Khaos and fog were born also Nox (Nyx), Dies (day, Hemera), Erebus (Erebos) and Aether. That is, Khaos is the mother of not only night and darkness, but also day and light.

Khaos with her offspring form the more “etheric” side of the world in the Greek mythology, consisting of deities of seasons, personifications of states of consciousness (from dreams to deaths) and spirits of feelings and states of mind. Some sources do say, that Khaos was originally an ancient goddess of ear, mist and fog.

There are few mentions of Khaos in addition to her role in the birth of the world. In his account of Zeus' fiery fight with the titans, Hesiod describes how an astonishing heat took over Khaos and how it seemed as though Gaia and Ouranos had rushed towards each others and met. This gives an impression of Khaos moving away from her usual place between earth and heaven. Later on Hesiod tells that titans who lost the battle are now residing behind the gloomy Khaos, far away from all the gods.

In his Birds, Aristophanes offers a glimpse of Khaos as something other than “the first one of all, who merely exists”. He gives and account of the beginning of times, when the only ones existing were Khaos, Nyx, the dark Erebos and the deep Tartaros. There was no earth, air or sky yet existing. The dark-winged Nyx laid and egg in the bosom of Erebos' endless depths and after times had passed, gold-winged Eros hatched from this egg. Eros made love with Khaos in Tartaros and Khaos has wings as golden as those of Eros. This union gave birth to the birds – the first ones to see the light. Birds tells about birds and at this point, relates the story from birds' point of view, so describing the gods as having bird-like wings makes sense. However, many Greek deities, especially those who descended from Khaos, were often depicted having wings, so Aristophanes' story can give you a clue of what Khaos might look like.

Khaos is also present in the story of Alkmene, the woman who got seduced by Zeus who took the form of her husband and who then bore Zeus' son Heracles. Zeus had just won the battle with the titans: the highest among the gods were now the Olympians and on the top-most spot was Zeus himself. However, he was well aware that those closest to Gaia's (the source calls them “relatives”) Okeanos (sea), Nyx and Khaos still existed, hiding and lurking at the far corners of the universe and that some day, the gods would be defeated like the titans were.

Later sources often describe Khaos as nothing but a chaotic mixture of the elements – lifeless and formless, nothing-yet. Khaos is described as merely a state before the world and order, not as a goddess or even a deity. Paraphrasing Ovid (from his book Metamorphosis): before there sea, earth or the heavens arrived, there was only the uniformly desolate Khaos, primitive and undeveloped. Khaos didn't achieve anything other than heaviness and just being a tangled mass of all the elements. These later accounts may be the result of the increasing importance of the Olympic gods in the expense of other, earlier gods. “Khaos as an impersonal nothingness, the beginning of it all but lifeless” is the description you are quite likely to run into in books dealing with Greek mythology (if there actually is any mention of her), as well as in general books on mythology.

What about Khaos today? Can Khaos be worshipped, honoured? Is it possible to include Khaos in one's own personal religiosity? I don't see any reason why not. Khaos may be “a goddess without myths”, but this doesn't make her “a non-existing goddess”. Neither does lack of historical cults worshipping her. Personal gnosis – one's own personal revelation and information derived from interacting with a deity – may get more importance in addition to historical information with Khaos and other deities like her, especially when compared to those gods where there is a large amount of information available in this day and age.

Khaos may seem primordial and maybe even distant, but even the ancient Greek didn't declare her dead. Why should we?

1) Moros – doom; Keres – death-spirits, personifications of violent death; Thanatos – death, personification of non-violent death; Hypnos – Thanatos' twin brother sleep; the Oneiroi – dreams, the most skillful and important out of thousand Oneiroi were Morpheus, Ikelos / Phobetor and Phantasos; Momos – mockery, blame, criticism (he was expelled from heaven for mocking the gods...); Oizys – pain, woe; the Hesperides – the three daughters if evening; the Moirai – the fates; Nemesis – anger and retribution; Apate – deceit; Philotes – affection, friendship; Geras – old age; Eris – discord. Eris, who is nowadays best known for being the “Goddess of Chaos” of especially Discordianists, is the grand-daughter of Khaos.

Sources:

  • Aristofanes: Birds
  • Hesiodus: Theogony
  • Hyginus: Mythographi fabularum liber
  • Ovidus: Metamorphoses

  • Bellingham, David: En Introduktion till Grekisk Mytologi

  • Leeming: Encyclopedia of Creation Myths

  • McLeigh, Kenneth: Myths and Legends of the World, the Complete Companion to all Traditions

  • online: Theoi project http://www.theoi.com/

#paganism #deities

 
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from humanissome

Streamed again this morning after a 2-week vacation. I thought it went well; I divided the stream into one more talking & one more quiet. During the quiet I listened to music as I cleaned & stuff, only occasionally talking to the camera. I thought I understood the twitch rules about copyright. Based on past experience it seemed they allowed it live & silenced it for replays. But no. I think they did something unexpected to my videos this morning that included music. They seem to have been deleted. I'll check tomorrow morning.

Usually as soon as I wake up I stream on https://www.twitch.tv/humanissome

 
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