Craft Basics

Magic In Cooking #1

Just some notes I have! Not originally mine. By Nicole Canfield.

Apple:

Fruit of the Goddess

Love

Health and Immortality

Healing

Garden magic

Banana:

Ruled by Mars

I’d hate to say but…. it has lust and sexual effects….

Orange:

Ruled by the Sun

Joy

Love

Creativity

Chocolate: Different kinds have different properties:

Milk Chocolate:

Nurturing

Friendship

Dark Chocolate:

Love

Intimacy

Let me know if you would like more?

This little bit of a spell occurred to me when I was making breakfast this morning.

My grandmother taught me a little poem for counting crows for divination when I was younger. It goes like this:

1 for sadness 2 for mirth, 3 for marriage 4 for birth 5 for laughing 6 for crying 7 for sickness 8 for dying 9 for silver 10 for gold 11 is a secret that shall never be told

So here’s what you do. What do you need to manifest in your life? Select that number of eggs. I used 5 today. As you crack each egg into your pan or bowl, visualize what you are manifesting coming into your life. Today I used five eggs, and visualized the laughter of my children as we had a happy and positive day. Say out loud or in your head each step as you crack the eggs. One for sadness, two for mirth… etc. When you reach your number, Stir your eggs to charge your spell. Then add: salt for grounding, black pepper for protection from other magic. Visualize the strength of your spell being tightly wound to you as you do this. Cook your eggs and enjoy a good breakfast. As you eat, visualize what you have manifested entering your being.

That’s it! Some easy kitchen magic for you all today :)

Honey Lavender Bread

submitted by @materiamystica​

½ cup Greek yoghurt ½ cup plain flour 1tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 1 tbsp dried lavender 1 tbsp honey 1 egg, beaten

The intent is to increase mental clarity and connection. To clear your spiritual and mental brain fog so that you can think and see more clearly again. To improve clarity of vision and connection to your heart’s desire. Lavender is employed to stimulate clarity and connection, cleansing, memory, passion, peace of mind, healing, love, passion and retention. With the honey for added sweetness and stickiness to make visions all the more sweet, and memories stick more permanently. Harvesting your own lavender can also be intended to honour Lammas, too!

1. Mix everything in a bowl and preheat the oven at 350 F. 2. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead adding more flour until it’s no longer sticky and has formed a nice stretchy bread dough. 3. Put into a floured loaf tin. 4. Brush top with egg wash. 5. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until a golden crust has formed and a skewer comes out clean. 6. Slice and enjoy!

Lammas - a festival to mark the annual wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year

📅 Weekly Rituals 📅

Monday

🔮 Correspondences: travels, dreams, psychic powers, peace, mystery, healing, home, fertility, emotions, family, divination

✨ Ritual: brew green tea and put all your positive intentions for this week in the tea by stirring it clockwise for good luck. 

–

Tuesday

🔮 Correspondences: bravery, business, courage, strength, war, partnership, passion, protection, sexual intentions, work, victory

✨ Ritual: connect with the strength and bravery of nature by going on a walk outside, a hike, or at least opening your windows wide open and letting the fresh, cold air of the morning in your home. 

–

Wednesday

🔮 Correspondences: art, astrology, communication, focus, creativity, education, excitement, inspiration, wise

✨ Ritual: take a ritual bath or cleansing shower, and repeat the following mantra “I cleanse myself so I may feel light, creative, peaceful and at ease”. 

–

Thursday

🔮 Correspondences: abundance, money, luck, growth, personal development, prosperity, health, expansion, altruism

✨ Ritual: on a bay leaf, write a keyword or sigil representing a wish or dream of yours, focus on it with all your intention, then burn the leaf with a white candle to make it happen. 

–

Friday

🔮 Correspondences: affection, friendship, love, romance, beauty, social interactions, harmony, birth, reconciliation

✨ Ritual: after working or studying, bring harmony to your desk by thoroughly decluttering any unnecessary item, cleaning up the dust and magically cleansing it with sage or Palo Santo. 

–

Saturday

🔮 Correspondences: banishment, spiritual communication, justice, curse, death, cleansing, purification, time, end, debts, home

✨ Ritual: to get rid of a curse or negative energy, fix a black candle in a bowl by letting some wax melt at the bottom of the candle. Then fill up half the bowl with water. Turn on the candle, then focus all your intentions on banishing the curse. When the candle has reached the water, the negativity will be gone. 

–

Sunday

🔮 Correspondences: ambitions, goals, career, growth, beginning, masculinity, health, spirituality, success, prosperity

✨ Ritual: read your tarot by drawing 3 cards (Past, Present, Future) to learn from last week’s mistakes, understand your current mental state and prepare for next week. 

Keeping Consumerism out of Your Craft

Consumerism is a set of socioeconomic conditions and attitudes that encourage the continual acquisitions of goods and services. There is no “enough” in a consumerist society — members of the society are constantly pushed to buy new things, pay for new services, and keep up with the latest trends.

There are a few reasons consumerism is bad news. For one thing, it’s terrible for the environment — consumerist cultures usually have linear economies, where resources are extracted, consumed, then discarded, with no effort to replenish them. This is highly unsustainable, because at some point those limited resources are going to run out. Consumerism also has a human cost, as it often leads to the use of sweatshops, which violate basic labor laws. In many sweatshops, workers are not paid a livable wage, children are employed as workers, and working conditions are unsafe. Companies in countries like the United States get around labor laws by outsourcing labor to other (poorer) places. Consumerism also contributes to classism, as the acquisition of expensive items is often treated as a status symbol.

Consumerism is present in nearly every aspect of Western culture, and this includes spirituality and witchcraft. There are multiple “Beginner Witch Kits” for sale from Amazon and other online retailers which include candles, crystals, and incense — which is great, as long as that’s all stuff you’ll actually use in your practice. (I mean, do you really need twelve different varieties of incense?) Witchy authors and bloggers often treat magic like a matching game, where every problem requires a very specific herb or crystal. YouTube is full of “witch hauls,” videos solely dedicated to showing off new purchases. All of this contributes to a commercialized witchy aesthetic, which can only be achieved by buying the tools of the trade.

I get it. Shopping is fun, especially when you’re still learning about magic and magical items. It’s exciting to search for the perfect crystal or incense blend, especially if you have a local metaphysical store where you can shop in person. But owning the right stuff doesn’t make you a witch. All you need to practice magic is your will — everything else is optional.

I’m not saying every witch should be a hardcore minimalist, or that you can never buy new things. What I am saying is that all of us, witches or not, need to be more mindful of how we spend our money and the impact of our purchases on the world around us.

How to Avoid Consumerism

If you’re considering buying something, ask yourself if you’ll really get use out of it. For example, I don’t use a lot of tools in my practice because I prefer to work with my hands, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to buy an expensive wand or ritual knife. Don’t feel like you have to buy something just because another witch uses it — if you don’t think you’ll use it, don’t buy it.

Don’t buy multiples of the same tool. Instead of buying multiple different colored altar cloths for different times of year, buy one white altar cloth you can use year-round. Instead of buying multiple tarot decks, find one or two you really enjoy working with. You get the idea. (Obviously, there will be some items you need more than one of, like spell candles. This rule applies more to tools that can be reused.)

Replace things as they run out instead of buying them before you need them. Buying things in bulk can lead to unnecessary waste and drawers full of unused magical supplies. Buy things you know you’ll really use, and only buy one or two at a time. Use up the items you have before you buy more.

Invest in items that have multiple uses. For example, most kitchen spices can also be used in spells — search your spice cabinet before ordering special ingredients online. There are some items that have multiple magical uses, like rosemary and salt. Buy a couple of these multitaskers instead of a large collection of herbs with very specific uses.

Use the “two week” rule. This is something I do to keep myself from making impulse purchases. If I think I want to buy something online, I wait two weeks before I order it. If I still want it after two weeks, I take that as a sign that I’ll actually get some use from it.

Go “shopping” in your backyard. Familiarize yourself with the plants, animals, and minerals that are native to your area and go foraging for spell supplies instead of buying them. Items you can probably find near your home that could be used in ritual include leaves and flowers, pine cones, seed pods, tree branches, rocks, and naturally shed feathers. Just make sure you never harvest enough of a plant to hurt it, and make sure you properly disinfect any animal products you pick up.

If you can, make it yourself. Not only does making your own magic items save money, it also creates a much stronger personal link between you and that item. You can grow your own magical herbs in a garden or in indoor pots. Many common magical tools, like brooms and wands, are easy to make at home with some basic craft skills. Making your own items also means you can customize them, tailoring them to your own craft.

If you can’t make it yourself, but it used. There are some items you can’t reasonably make yourself, like incense burners, cauldrons, and books on the craft. But you can find most of these items used, either in thrift stores or online on websites like Ebay and Depop. Buying used almost always ends up being cheaper than buying new, and because you’re buying items already in circulation you aren’t contributing to a linear economy. Thrifting is also a great way to find unique items that won’t be like what anyone else has on their altar.

If you can’t find it used, support a small business. Sometimes, you can’t make what you need or find it in a thrift store. In that case, buying from a small business is preferable to buying from a big retailer like Amazon. When you support a small business, you’re supporting an individual rather than contributing to some CEO’s massive yearly bonus. A lot of small business owners make their items themselves, which avoids sweatshop labor. Pretty much everything I buy new for my craft comes from Etsy sellers — there are a LOT of witches on Etsy, so with a little digging you can easily find exactly what you’re looking for!

Don’t buy crystals. I know, I know. Thanks to social media, large crystal collections have become synonymous with witchcraft. But the crystal trade is highly unethical, with unsustainable mining techniques, dangerous working conditions, and child labor. Because of a lack of regulations, it’s virtually impossible to find crystals that are truly ethically sourced. Most sellers don’t know where their crystals come from and can’t guarantee that no workers were harmed in their extraction. No stone is worth the health and safety of other human beings, no matter how pretty.

Avoiding consumerism in your witchcraft means being less reliant on tools and set dressing. This will allow you to rely on your own energy and will, which will lead to a deeper and more meaningful spiritual practice.

Resources:

Revolutionary Witchcraft by Sarah Lyons

Simply Living Well by Julia Watkins

“11 Facts About Sweatshops” on dosomething.org

“Child labour in the fashion supply chain” from The Guardian

“Bangladesh factory collapse toll passes 1,000” from BBC News

“Are crystals the new blood diamonds?” from The Guardian

“Dark crystals: the brutal reality behind a booming wellness craze” from The Guardian

Beauty Tips for The Sexy Witch

• eat citrus fruits or drink fruit water as an alternative to mints. Fruit, especially sour fruit, promotes salivation, which helps to fight off bacteria in your mouth that causes bad breath. adding some strawberry, lemon, and kiwi slices to a bottle of water is a great way to keep your breath sweet.

• Next time you make guacamole, save the pit of the avocado, dry it, and keep it in your purse or on your person. Avocado pits are deeply symbolic of sex, lust, love, and beauty, and can help to attract romance. This symbolism dates back to the ancient aztecs, who named the avocado, “ahacatl,” or “green testicle.”

• Dilute a few drops of pomegranate and rose oil in a teaspoon of coconut oil, and massage this into your neck, chest, and behind your ears as a perfume. The scent is light, seductive, and easy on your partner’s taste buds when they go in to leave a few hickies. Plus, the coconut oil will leave your skin silky smooth and soft.

• Make some DIY jewelry out of wire and river pearl beads. Strings of river pearls can be found at most craft stores; they’re quite cheap, but just as natural and magical as expensive round pearls. Pearls are associated with beauty and sensuality, as well as corresponding to the moon and Venus. They carry a soft energy that promotes both romantic and sexual activity. Red jasper, rose quartz, and rhodochrosite are also good.

• Rosewater. I know so many witches AND non-witches rave over rosewater, but the hype is for good reason. Using rosewater as an astringent facial mist is a refreshing and sensual finishing touch to your date night beauty routine. Rose energy enhances your beauty, and the barely noticeable scent will entice your partner to come a little closer.

• strawberries are a natural aphrodisiac. A stick or container of strawberry lip balm can easily be enchanted to make your lips look naturally ravishing with some rose quartz, red jasper, and a pink candle. Bonus points if it’s pink or red tinted.

• Body glitter!! I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but as someone who doesn’t often wear makeup, I like to find new and exciting ways to glamourize my look without it. Moisturizing body bars and sprays can be found at stores like lush, (the shimmy shimmy bar is my fave,) or online. You can also make your own with some coconut oil, beeswax, essential and fragrance oils, and skin safe seaweed based glitter. I use body glitter as an extra kick to beauty glamours, and a physical reminder of how magically delicious I look.

That’s all I have for now, but if you have any of your own tips please feel free to add on! Much love and good luck to you all 💕

Got some new witchy books yesterday!

✨🌿 Green Witch’s Comfort Spell Jar 🌲

In a small jar with a cork top, layer:

Basil

Lemongrass or Lemon Balm

Rosemary

Tree Bark (I used White Oak)

Cinnamon

Fennel Seeds

Ginger Root

Mint

Pine Needles

Let it charge in the sun for an afternoon near your houseplants, in the garden, or even under a favorite tree in the woods. For an extra boost, charge it near a moss agate stone too! Later, seal it with green or white wax and recite:

“Support me and guide me, Spirits of Nature. As a Green Witch, I thank you for your many blessings. I take a little piece of the Forest with me as I walk my path. Blessed be, and so mote it be.” 🌿

You can now take your little piece of the Forest inside your spell jar with you wherever you go as a reminder of your Green Witch oath and path. It’s great to keep in your bag, purse, or travel altar! Blessed be, lovelies! 💖🌿

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