Latest Posts by saintedsorcery - Page 3

slavic folk charm that I have twofold love for: if a young girl desires to have long, strong and thick hair, she should go into the forest or go into the field, and among the rocks find snake’s shedded skin - take it, and boil it, and with that concoction wash her hair.

but beware, as her hair shall truly be like a snake - and should she forget to be cautious, it will coil around her neck and choke out her last young breath.

Covet this.

In 1561 an innkeeper called Hew Draper was imprisoned in the Tower of London for sorcery. Whilst incarcerated he made these carvings in the walls which displayed astrological symbols and numbers.

The Dark Hedges, Northern Ireland. Source

“On certain nights when their bruthain (bowers) are open and their lamps are lit, and the song and the dance are moving merrily, the fairies may be heard singing lightheartedly:— Not of the seed of Adam are we, Nor is Abraham our father; But of the seed of the Proud Angel, Driven forth from Heaven.’”

— The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, W.Y. Evans-Wentz

Zillow house listings

But to make a Milkhare, do the following:

On takes nine different coloured thread of woolen yarn and go with them to a crossroads on a Thursday night between twelve and one o’clock. Here, one makes a fire from nine different kinds of wood and wind counter-clockwise, around the fire, a ball of the woolen yarn threads. When the ball is ready, one drops three drops of blood out of the left ring finger with the following words: ” If you will run for me here on earth, then I shall burn for you in Hell.”

Then one takes and whips the Milkhare with a birch twig and says: ”Money you will draw, butter you will drawn (or whatever one wants the milkhare to draw.)” Everything one desires one can get the Milkhare to draw, and the Milkhare follows generation after generation.

- Svartkonstböcker; A compendium of the Swedish Black Art Tradition, Dr. Thomas K. Johnson

Your Sight shall be in my Sight

in whose name you rest here

I will not disturb you

but hoped that you

in the name of peace may sleep

so that I may see the Hidden

and see its power

hear in celebration

and help in need.

Could you

O Holy Ghost

give to me of your power

In the name of the Holy Crucified One

Amen.

— From The Graveyard Wanderers— The Wise Ones And The Dead In Sweden by Thomas Johnson

These words were uttered as their speaker crossed themselves over a gravestone in a churchyard. When the speaker had finished the invocation, they then made the sign of the cross over each of their eyelids, three times. To the Klok— “The Wise Ones”, the folk healers and magicians of Scandinavia— graveyards, burial mounds, old execution sites and other such areas where the spirits of the dead dwelt were sacred places. In Sweden, these individuals were known as Kyrkogårdsgångare, or Graveyard Walker. The term is related to gengångare, which in Swedish means “those who walk again”. The word can be translated as “ghost”, but their form is entirely corporeal; not see-through or specter-like as phantoms in the Anglosphere tend to be.

The dead serviced the Graveyard Walkers in many ways. One could summon the spirits of the departed and ask for their service in everything from revealing secrets and hidden knowledge to obtaining lottery numbers. Or, a Graveyard Walker could utilize the dead in a more tangible fashion: both the left collar bone of an elderly man and the left ring finger of a corpse were considered to be among the best amulets for protection. (However, before the Wise One left the earthly plane, they must of course return the borrowed bone back to its original resting place.) Everything, right down to the very soil of the graveyard, was used: from rubbing Graveyard dirt on the skin to cure rashes, to drinking it in a slurry to restore a loss of appetite.

But how did one become a Graveyard Walker and a Wise One? There is the aforementioned invocation of course, but there was also the ancient practice of Uttesittning. Uttesittning is a ritual where one meditates in nature from sunset to sunrise, opening the soul and merging with the world of the spirits. There is one legend where one would go to a churchyard or any other places affiliated with burial or the dead for three consecutive Thursday nights to perform an Uttesittning ritual (Thursdays were important, as they were sacred to the old god Thor). On the third and final Thursday, a dark man might perhaps appear and reward the one performing this ritual with a gift. There are some stories that claim that the gift was a Book of Black Arts— a Svarteboken, or “black book”, also known as a Cyprianus (named after St. Cyprian). It was said these Black Arts Books would be written in blood, or written on black pages with white ink. A Wise One would keep all their spells in such books, which contained everything from Kabbalist literature to farm and home recipes.

The Wise Ones and Graveyard Walkers are endlessly fascinating to me, as well as folk magic in general. I hope to create many more artworks inspired by this topic, and I hope that I’ve piqued your interest in it as well!

For more books on this subject:

Gårdbäck, Johannesburg Björn. Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition. The Ironwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology (YIPPIE), 2015.

Johnson, Thomas. The Graveyard Wanderers — The Wise Ones and the Dead in Sweden. Society of Esoteric Endeavor, 2013.

Sibley, J.T. The Way of the Wise. XLIBRIS, 2013.

A special thanks to my friend Eli, for all your insight into Swedish folklore and folk magic!

I carved a Sutekh icon for my altar from the same blackthorn branch that I carved Eris. He is stained with an 18-year-old red wine bequeathed to me by a dead bus driver (praise be to Albert! May he live forever!), blackberry and fig liqueurs, and icon. The black stain is part char from my stove, and part a mixture of ritual ash and Stuart Semple's Black 2.0. The gold is ol' Stuart's goldest gold, which I can't recommend enough really, and gold leaf. The red is a crimson alcohol ink I bought last year and immediately forgot I had. Turns out, it stains unsealed wood really well, and can be blended out with neat isopropyl alcohol on a paintbrush. This would ordinarily make me worry about drying out the wood, but beeswax and neem oil solves all problems.

SHOP / KO-FI / PATREON / INSTAGRAM

TIL that Aleister Crowley literally told people that he was the Beast from Revelations and all I could think about is how easily I could picture him as a controversial youtuber/tiktokker.

various cicada-shaped knickknacks

[succulentlover77 / flickr]

Thrjár by Maéna Paillet

bittersweet nightshade

Burning man, Tomasz Kawecki

Andy Goldsworthy

https://vesemir.blogspot.com/2021/02/blog-post_12.html

Skotiy Bog

***

I sell copies and prints of my works.

I work to order.

e-mail: plastilinmira@gmail.com

Most of my work can be viewed on Facebook -

www.facebook.com/timeofmyths/p…

Продаю цифровыe принты своих готовых работ.

Пишу красками копии со своих работ.

Рисую нечто новое на заказ.

by yanadhyana

Kevin Lenaghan, “Stairway”, “Glass Palace”, and “Crystal Stairway” (2021)

Me: I need a library card, but I just moved so I don’t have an ID with my address or any mail with it.

Librarian: -slides me a blank library postcard- Write your address on this like it would be mailed to you.

Me: Sure?

Librarian: -takes it back- Great! Now we have mail with your address on it!

Me: …does it really work that way?

Librarian: the rules don’t say it DOESN’T work that way. Here’s your new library card!

Diy Scrying Ball

I’ve been waiting since last Christmas for my local Dollar Tree to stock the diy snow globes so I could put my master plan into action. The time has finally come!

Last year I created this:

Now I’m gonna step it up a notch and create this:

Lets go!

Materials:

Diy Globe kit

Sparkle glue or Sparkles and Veg Glycerin

Waterproof LED Tea lights

(not pictured)

a drill

a hot glue gun

food coloring

rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer

Bowl

something to stir with

Instructions

so you’re gonna separate the kit into all its parts and then drill a hole into the lid smaller than the bulb of the tealight.

Slowly push the bulb through the hole to open it up, then take it out, hot-glue the area around the bulb then slide it back in, once its in give it a thin layer of hot glue over where the bulb protrudes. Test that the light still works and will fit into the base without issue.

move to a sink, place the globe into a bowl and add some water and color (best to mix the food coloring in water then add to globe)

add in your alcohol, glitter and glycerin (or glitter glue), then top it off with water put back on the bottom.

That’s it!

Happy Scrying

Here’s my contribution to the #regionalwitchcraftchallenge started by Via Hedera

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So I wasn’t sure if I should have taken part in this because #Maine doesn’t really have anything (that I know of) that is specific to the region.

To make up for that, I try to incorporate as much of the local flora, fauna, and landscape as I can.

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-Maine black bear skull, gifted from a local hunter

-Novena candle (one side of my family is Catholic and that has started to influence my craft)

-Locally harvested cedar

-Two keepsakes of my departed grandparents

-Birch Water (à la “An Carow Gwyn”) with bark harvest from my property

-An antique rosary found while thrifting

-A hag stone from the coast of Maine

-Selected bones from my casting kit that are all local animals (red fox, coyote, beaver, bobcat)

-An arrowhead from our state museum

-Ritual blade made from white-tail deer

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The Sabbat was held as the Mirror rode high and full. The stang was lit, the spirit amassed, and the Dragon awoken from within the deep heart of the flames. The mighty serpentine force rose higher and higher as the mill was trod, the whole of the compass becoming bathed in the pale light of the vibrant stars bespekling the great black mare and the eldrich spirits attending the holy rite.

The sacred paint was enchanted and made manifest with blood, wort, and oil in the mysterious rites of the black cauldron. Then used to inscribe the first sigilum upon the brow of the beast, the witch’s hand guided by the dark whispers of the unknown ones.

The bestial, raw, and primal Scarlet King was beckoned forth, drawn toward the ensourceled goat skull at the base of the Great Tree. The hissing flames announced his arrival, the eyes opened and gazed upon us, and thus did He begin to speak…

Soon, I feel, shall the next sigilum be enscribed upon his ivory skull. Thus shall we continuing to therein enflesh the luminious bestial form and bring forth the great King to the Witches’ Sabbat.

Traditional Ways to become a Sorcerer

Having the Gift

The Second Sight, Varm Hander (warm hands, healing hands), or diviner. Usually inherited from a family member or a past ancestor. 

Acquiring the Gift

Given to the practitioner by the spirits, by hugging a tree in which a cuckoo sings, touching or eating a white snake, touching the death shroud of a child, or sleeping under a coffin in which a dead person is displayed. 

Utesittning (sitting outside)

This may be sitting out in a cemetery, sitting at a crossroads, walking around a church three times and then sitting on the steps, going out in the forest and waiting for the forest spirits to teach you. 

Learning from a Teacher

This relates to the passing on of power. In Scotland, Faery Seers would pass on the power by placing one hand atop the initiate’s head, and another below their feet while the initiate stepped on the Seer’s left foot and looked over their right shoulder. It is said that the a teacher should not teach anyone older than themselves, and that if they teach a charm or rune, they will lose their power over that incantation forever. Also joining a secret society, like the Horseman’s Word. 

Standing outside of Society and the Church

This involves renouncing one’s baptism, staying away from society, becoming “violent” or wild. In one ritual, a seeker of magic would take scrapings from a church bell to a deep lake. There, they would cast the scrapings into the lake saying: “As far as these scrapings are from the bell, so too shall I be far from God.” And walk away without looking back. 

Having and learning from a Blackbook. 

Owning and learning from a Blackbook, or Svartebok, was another way to gain mastery over magic. This book may be given by the Devil or some other spirit at a crossroads or in a graveyard. It may be given by a teacher. Or it may be dictated by the spirits in spirit trance. 

The Toad Bone Rite

Crucifying a toad upon a tree, then collecting its bones from an anthill. One of the bones would float upon throwing them into the river. The seeker would then fight with the Devil over possession of the bone. Should the seeker succeed, then they would have power over man and beast.

When someone blogs about a spell, consecration, ritual or any personal magical or witchcraft work, they usually leave something out intentionally or unintentionally, said or unsaid. My first witchcraft teacher taught me to always add something to my spell work and especially if a spell had an even number of components to make it odd by addition. As a witch you need to make a spell your own, something that you and your spirits add to the mix. While most anybody can use a well made spell without edit to reasonable success, a witch tends to seal theirs with some personal flair. I have not heard this specific advice repeated by any of my subsequent craft teachers; however, it rings so true and perhaps sensible that I have always held it. Of course my subsequent teachers have emphasized making your own spells. So the emphasis on personalized witchcraft holds.

Goldfish breeds and other aquarium fishes, their care and propagation, 1908