Wearable Study Bottle

What surprised me in Peru

I have been in Peru for almost 4 weeks now. I haven’t seen much yet as I a have been volunteering in the same town for 3 weeks but I really do like it so far! People are super chill, the food is delicious and the little town I’m staying is awesome for surfing :)  However, there were a few things that surprised me since I got here ^^ Here are a few examples: 

Speed bumps: Ok I really love Peru, but can you guys stop with speed bumps??? Honestly there are everywhere, super high and wide and also SUPER annoying. No sign to warn us, no official size, just BOOM a speed bump (thank god I’m not driving!). Also drivers honk ALL the time, sometimes for no reason at all. 

The variety of climates and landscapes: Peru is quite big so obviously there are quite a different climates here, but that much variety is incredible. On one side of the country you have the biggest rainforest on earth, and where I am right now it’s super dry, no vegetation, just sand and dust. And obviously there are also a lot of mountains with the Andes. It’s almost 30°C where I am now and only a few hours from here, it’s snowing, like how cool is that? 

The desert: It’s always been my dream to see what the desert looks like, and now I’ve seen one. Thank you Peru! (I always thought I would see the desert in Africa, but nope, the earth is full of surprises^^)

People are very helpful: In France and the vast majority of countries I’ve visited, when you ask someone for a direction, they will explain you were it is with words and gestures. But here in Peru (and I noticed the same thing in Costa Rica, is that a Latin America thing??) people actually walk with you to your destination, even if it’s quite far. And like, THANK YOU!!!??? Why do people do that? At first I thought it was a weird thing of men following me, but no, people really do that because they’re kind, and honestly wow, you would never see that in Europe (at least not in France…). Also I’ve had a lot of people asking me if they could practice their English with me, here is seems like everyone wants to learn English and is actually making a lot of efforts to do so, which is pretty cool :) And a lot of Peruvians also helped me with my Spanish!

People share their beer: I don’t know how it’s done everywhere else, but in Europe (and North America I think?), when you get a bottle of beer, you drink it by yourself. Of course you can ask other people if they want some, but it’s not seen as rude to drink the whole bottle or can be yourself. Here in Peru you are supposed to share everything! Here the rule: don’t drink the whole bottle, pour some in your glass and pass the bottle. 

Fireworks: people use fireworks every day, at any time. They don’t necessarily  need a special occasion to play with them. It’s kinda weird to hear fireworks for no reason all the time but we get used to it ^^

Purple corn: A few weeks ago, I had no idea purple corn actually existed. But now I love it, especially in Chicha Morada :)

🌲🌿🪴🌻🪷🍂🌳

Moons, Holidays, and Retrogrades 2022

Figured I'd get a head start on this since I'm taking tonight's full moon as an opportunity to clean/cleanse my apartment, have a little wine, and update my calendar with witchy events through the end of next year. :>

As always when I make these kinds of posts, if the peak of the full or new moon is in the wee hours of the morning on one day, I enter it into my calendar as the day before, since that is the night I will be celebrating even though it technically falls on the next day.

Sources this year are my trusty Simple Moon Phase Calendar app for Android, www.pagangrimoire.com, and horoscopes.astro-seek.com

~January~ 2nd - 🌑 New Moon in Capricorn 14th - Mercury retrograde begins 17th - 🌕 Full Moon in Cancer->Leo 18th - Uranus retrograde ends 29th - Venus retrograde ends 31st - 🌑 New Moon in Capricorn->Aquarius

~February~ 1st - 🕯Imbolc🕯 4th - Mercury retrograde ends 15th - 🌕 Full Moon in Leo->Virgo

~March~ 1st - 🌑 New Moon in Pisces 17th - 🌕 Full Moon in Virgo->Libra 20th - 🌸Ostara🌸 31st - 🌑 New Moon in Pisces->Aries

~April~ 16th - 🌕 Full Moon in Libra->Scorpio 29th - Pluto retrograde begins 30th - 🌑 New Moon in Taurus

~May~ 1st - 🔥Beltane🔥 10th - Mercury retrograde begins 15th - 🌕 Full Moon in Scorpio 29th - 🌑 New Moon in Gemini

~June~ 3rd - Mercury retrograde ends 4th - Saturn retrograde begins 13th - 🌕 Full Moon in Sagittarius->Capricorn 21st - ☀️Litha☀️ 28th - 🌑 New Moon in Gemini->Cancer, Neptune retrograde begins

~July~ 13th - 🌕 Full Moon in Capricorn 27th - 🌑 New Moon in Leo 28th - Jupiter retrograde begins

~August~ 1st - 🌾Lughnasadh🌾 11th - 🌕 Full Moon in Aquarius 24th - Uranus retrograde begins 26th - 🌑 New Moon in Virgo

~September~ 9th - 🌕 Full Moon in Pisces->Aries 10th - Mercury retrograde begins 22nd - 🍂Mabon🍂 25th - 🌑 New Moon in Virgo->Libra

~October~ 2nd - Mercury retrograde ends 8th - Pluto retrograde ends 9th - 🌕 Full Moon in Aries 23rd - Saturn retrograde ends 24th - 🌑 New Moon in Libra->Scorpio 30th - Mars retrograde begins 31st - 🖤Samhain🖤 (Witch's New Year)

~November~ 7th - 🌕 Full Moon in Taurus 23rd - 🌑 New Moon in Scorpio->Sagittarius, Jupiter retrograde ends

~December~ 4th - Neptune retrograde ends 7th - 🌕 Full Moon in Gemini 21st - ❄Yule❄ 22nd - 🌑 New Moon in Capricorn 29th - Mercury retrograde begins

I didnt dedicate a journal, but I would write "dear _" letters at the start of my encounters. Id like to do so again, I might take this idea up.

🌙 deity devotion journals

if you’re anything like me, the desire to meet and communicate with a new deity might be stunted by the idea of actually, ya know, communicating. whatever the reason (you don’t use divination, cant speak aloud, are afraid of being overheard, can’t meditate easily, etc.), initiating contact with deities can seem intimidating, and might even deter you from following the god or pantheon at all. but rest assured, there are easier and more discreet methods of talking, other than whipping out a dozen tarot decks and chanting pagan prayers

💫Why a Devotional Journal? What Is It?

devotional journals are journals dedicated to a specific deity or pantheon, where you can write messages, prayers, questions, or anything else you’d like to speak with Them about. i like to think of these journals like writing letters to a good friend- except your good friend is also a god!

☀️Beginning a Devotional Journal

depending on personal preference, this can be as intricate or as simple as you please. if you feel inclined to introduce yourself, explain what you’re doing or why you’re keeping a journal, or anything else, then feel free to! when i started mine i kept it as easy as writing “dear Apollo,” in a composition notebook, then explained my reasons and goals for keeping a journal specifically for Him. so honestly? go wild

⚡️What To Put in a Devotional Journal

prayers

Their name written in its orignal language

stories about your day

your relationship goals

tarot spreads for/to Them

song lyrics

poetry

hymns

Their family tree

things like the delphic maxims (hellenic) or 10 commandments (christian)

pressed flowers

printed pictures of what They look like to you

artwork

a list of things you associate with Them

gratitudes

what your altar to Them looks like (or what you wish it could look like)

messages you’ve received from Them

devotional acts

sigils/runes/etc

Their symbols

Their myths and lore

offering ideas

Their sacred animals, plants, cities, etc

famous works about Them

if you can think of anything else to put in a devotion journal, please feel free to add on! no matter how crazily beautiful or inconspicuously simple you make yours, the important thing to remember is your gods appreciate all efforts to strengthen your relationship with Them

-Mason Lane

Binding & Knotwork // Grimoire Pages

A Witch’s Ingredients: Sand

Sand is an abundant resource that can be found across the world including along the coasts, through deserts and even in many people’s yards and gardens. Sand is rather easy to obtain and natural making it ideal for witchcraft. Though some types of sand may be harder to obtain, and more costly, than others, let this post be a guide on how to utilize it for its magical properties.

Types of Sand & Their Correspondences

Beach/Coastal Sand: calming, grounding, cleansing, connecting to the sea, self-love, protection and warding, motivation, memory, spiritual clarity, purification of the heart, easing pain, physical and spiritual strength, can represent both the elements of earth and water

Ocean Sand (from the ocean floor/deep sea): primordial energy, banishing negative emotions and energy, grounding, mental clarity, psychic clarity and strengthening, divination, guidance, ancient wisdom and power, connections to the sea and primordial waters, birth, creation, can represent both the elements of earth and water

Desert Sand: curses and removing energy from others, weakening, draining, banishing, grounding, mental clarity, physical health, enduring hardships, “drying up” love and past emotions, healing heartbreak, burying the past, often related to burial ceremonies

Volcanic Sand: destruction, intense energy, strength, death, rebirth, banishing, secrets or hidden messages, warding, baneful magic, offensive magic, often represents both earth and fire at once

River Sand/Silt: fertility, procreation, movement, flowing energy, travels, change

Lake/Pond Sand: the present, calmness, serenity, inner focus, self-reflection and meditation

Swamp/Wetland Sand: mystery, secret keeping, silencing lies and rumors, binding, curses related to becoming lost or emotional heaviness, often represents both water and earth at once, often related to animal magic specifically those that live in swamp land

Unearthed/Buried Sand: grounding, hidden power, addressing past issues and mistakes, overcoming controversy, self-discovery, introspection, emotional healing, moving on from past scars

Biogenic Sand/Bone Sand/Shell Sand: healing, moving on emotionally, remembrance but letting go of the pain and loss, honoring those lost (often at or to the sea), close connections to necromancy

Black Sand: protection, warding, banishing, relates to necromancy and spirit work

Pink Sand: love, beauty, youth, harmony, adjusting to change, remembering the past and lost loved ones, rebirth, emotional and mental healing, forgiveness of self and others

Red Sand: strength, courage, valor, relates to fire rather than earth

Yellow Sand: divination, focus, improving memory and skills, mental health, grounding and centering, represents both earth and air elements sometimes both at once

White Sand: purity, cleansing, protection, wisdom, preparing for change, physical and emotional balance, harmonizes all aspects of oneself

Combinations of Sand and Other Ingredients

Sand and Soil: grounding, balance, cleansing, protection of loved ones and family

Sand and Salt: change, growing power, dreams, purification, warding, protection, longevity

Sand and Ash: remembrance, the past, divination

Sand and Clay: change, mental fortitude

Sand and Kelp/Seaweed: beauty, youth, birth, fertility, the ocean

The History

Not much history on the use of sand in magic from what I can find that is a reliable source, but I was able to find some bits about its use.

Sand has been used in connections to rituals for the dead and in burial practices in many different cultures to a varying degree. In some sand was used for burying the deceased such as very early Ancient Egypt for its mummification properties before better mummification methods were invented and utilized. Placing sand into graves or coffins of the deceased somethings as a means to connect them to their homelands if that person was traveling into foreign lands or countries. Some stories speak about mixing the ashes of the dead with sand to be kept in the home. Other stories tell of people mixes ashes from fires or the hearth with sand and casting it out into the sea for lost sailors who could not be brought home. 

Sand was also used historical in some types of spell jars and vessels. In some places sand was put into jars and bottles and given to sailors to keep them connected to home even when sailing. Others said carrying sand could protect one from being lost at sea or from disaster, likely where the history of sand being used for protection properties came from. It has also been used in witch’s bottles and for burying spells for varying purposes. Some cultures would bury offerings to deities into the sand of beaches or deserts.

Modern Use

Sand is still a common ingredient for many sea witches and worshipers of ocean related deities to utilize in their craft and in their altars. Deities commonly related to sand are Poseidon, Aphrodite, Psamathe, Thalassa, Aegir, Neptune and Veles. Sand is also often used in altars to represent either earth or water when representing the cardinal directions or the 4 elements. Some will use sand to represent both in cases of smaller altars.

Modernly, sand is often used in spell jars and bottles when used in spellwork or as a vessel to charge, cleanse and bury objects or tools such as crystals, poppets, amulets and trinkets. Sea witches or witches with accesses to large amount of sand will often use it for grounding and circle casting. Some will use it for runes and sigils as well.

Storing Sand

For those wishing to store and use collected sand ensure that there is nothing undesirable in it - garbage, sharp bits of glass, decomposing fish or animals, insects etc. Shift it thoroughly to ensure anything that could be potentially dangerous is removed and if needed properly disposed of. Once the sand has been shifted ensure it is dry before you seal it into anything.

Wet sand can house bacteria and mold - which can also smell quite foul when the container is opened again. You can use the sun to dry it or indoor heaters at a safe distance. Spread it out thin and flat to help ensure it is thoroughly dried if it is damp or wet.

Once dried the best way to store sand is inside of glass or ceramic vessels. Jars and bottles are the most ideal. Ensure that they are sealed tightly to ensure no spillage or condensation can get inside.

**this post was personally researched, compiled and directly from my personal grimoire. Please do not repost**

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Home Protection Magic: A Method For The Low-Spoons Spellcaster

After a rough couple months of mental health, all my wards and shields kinda… fell by the wayside. Since I’ve been putting them back up, I thought I’d offer a general explanation of how I do it.

Basically, I use a form of sympathetic magic to reduce the toll my wards take on me. Otherwise it has to be an obnoxiously complex multi day process. Since this works just as well, I don’t see the point in putting myself through that.

So clearly it comes in handy if you have limited energy reserves, but it’s also useful if you have issues visualizing. I’ve included another method to make this work specifically for folks with visualization issues.

Supplies

All you need is a few writing utensils in assorted colors and some paper, or an image editing program. It doesn’t need to be a fancy one, you can literally do this in Paint if that’s what you’ve got.

The Prep Work

For the sake of convenience (and also not publicly posting my actual house on the internet like a dingus) I’m gonna be using a random Sims 3 lot for this post. Say hi to our demo house:

We’ve got the house, so now we’re gonna map the place!

If your place is on its own lot, include the whole lot. I like to do this from a top down view so if I’m struggling I can go to Google Earth and get a reference.

But since I’m using the Sims for this demonstration I’m gonna just… shift the camera angle.

So, from here you’re going to mark off the property line, walls of the house, trees, gardens, paths, frences, decks, etc. Whatever you think is relevant.

It doesn’t have to be perfect or 100 percent straight, just enough you can tell what’s going on.

This is what I ended up with for the demo house:

So yeah, clearly it doesn’t have to be perfect, just close enough you have everything of importance covered.

This is a lot sloppier than I’d normally do it since it was like 5 AM and I wanted my bed, but it would still work because I don’t really do a ton with plants so the missing tree and chunk of garden aren’t a big deal to me.

(That said, be smarter than me when you’re doing this for realsies. Don’t do it for real when you’re about to drop from exhaustion.)

So, now you set up your external protections.

For this exercise I picked a fire based ward for the property line to incinerate malicious magic and deter anybody nasty, a ward filler that was inspired by Apollo and made up of golden arrows that will sap the strength of malicious magic and cause extreme discomfort to people with less than honorable intentions who got through the first ward, a fog based ward to slow/delay any intruders and to hold any magic that gets through the rest of it till it dissipates, and a sanitization ward at the front porch and the back deck because I’m an empath and don’t like taking residual crud from outside into my house.

You can set these up in a few ways, but I’ll be including one with visualization and one without so this doesn’t get any longer than it already is.

The Procedure: Visualization Edition

Drag your finger along the lines of the diagram and visualize the ward going up on that part of your property. While you do, focus on what you want your ward to look like, how it feels, what you want it to do, how strong you want it to be, where you want it how you want it to react to an attempted breach, etc. That’s it!

It’s still going to take energy, but the drain on your resources should be a lot smaller.

The Procedure: Not Visualizing Edition

So, this is a little more complicated but not too much so. You might want to make a few copies of your diagram (or take a couple pictures on your phone. Just in general replicate it a couple of times.) just in case, because you’re gonna draw your wards.

Grab some pens/pencils/markers in colors that correspond to your wards (or pick colors in your graphics program if you’re going the tech magic route)- elemental affinity, purpose, both, up to you.

Using my example wards, I ended up with this:

Since you’re not visualizing, focus on the intent as effectively as you can while you’re drawing, because you’re gonna speak (or think!) those suckers into existence.

Describe what you want it to look like, what you’d want it to do, how strong you want it to be, where you want it how you want it to react to an attempted breach, etc. All the same things you’d be visualizing if you were going that route.

If you’re confident in your art skills, you can save a bit of energy by not focusing as much on what you want it to look like and drawing a direct representation of your ward instead. (I’m not fantastic, so I’m sitting there adding stuff like “this red line is a wall of fire taller than the house” into my description. Still works!)

This is a little less energy efficient than the visualization method in my experience but it’s still heaps better than doing it all on a large scale.

So that’s the process! It’s the same deal inside your place, except instead of rocks, trees, and decks you’ll be marking windows, doors, and furniture.

Feel free to modify the method here however you see fit, and if you do I’d love to hear about it!

Imbolc is very near!

February 1, 2022 to February 2, 2022

What is Imbolc?

It is the start of Spring, which is a season of magical energy associated with the goddess’s feminine side, new beginnings, and fire. It’s a fantastic time to concentrate on divination and honing your own magical skills. Use these ideas to your advantage and arrange your work accordingly.

How do I celebrate Imbolc in a simple way?

1. Visit a stream, river, or water 

Imbolc was traditionally a time for pilgrimages to holy water, such as a spring or a well, to purify ourselves and bring fertility to our dreams. Why not go on a family excursion to find some water near your home, such as a river, stream, or well? Splash some water on yourself if the water is pure, and establish your goal to cleanse and purify. To deliver messages of hope and healing, Glennie Kindred suggests dipping a piece of ribbon in water and then hanging it from a nearby tree (trees near water are especially sacred). She also urges us to express gratitude to the spirits of the places we visit by picking up any trash we notice nearby. (greekparent.co.uk)

2. Drink milk or spiced cider

Milk or spiced cider are good options. Set a beautiful supper table with candles, evergreen boughs, spring flowers, dragons, sun symbols, or anything else that speaks to you about Imbolc. Make use of the fine china. Allow your children to make their beds in a unique fashion to resemble Brigid’s.

3. Decorate your altar

Because Imbolc’s energy is about creating plans but not yet acting on them, letting go of old energy that no longer serves you is a crucial step to take. You can begin by emotionally clearing your altar (and your entire home if you feel the need!) as well as physically cleaning it. Wipe it down with Florida Water before replacing the towel and sweeping the sluggish energy away with a besom.

Adding a bunch of candles to your altar for Imbolc is a simple way to change it up! These are meant to welcome the light and pay homage to the goddess. Red candles can be used to further portray the fire element. Fire and the hearth are also represented by cauldrons.

I wish to be with the trees.

Roaming the forest for so long that I eventually start to become it.

I will grow antlers and claws. 

Mushrooms with sprout from my skin, ivy will wrap itself around my limbs. 

My eyes will glow in the dark, I will be able to speak to the animals and plants.

I will live in a cave, and host picnics for all of the citters.

I will thank the trees for letting me be with them. 

I do not deserve them. 

Help me. I made more. How did this AU come about again? I basically spent way too much time being interested in all things mythological when I was younger so it was inevitable that this happened I guess?

I’m tagging everyone that was involved in the other post as well @vikingstrash @quantumlocked310 @ritual-unions-gotme @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie @kataphine and the person that gave me the idea to begin with @ofmanderley 😊

Merman Ragnar. The idea of Lagertha catching him in a net still cracks me up.

Valkyrie Lagertha. Given her fighting nature, this was the only choice.

Witch/Siren Aslaugh. Like @quantumlocked310 I couldn’t decide which of these two she should be, but both options work for me.

Dryad Floki. A tree spirit! It makes total sense!

Minotaur Rollo. I don’t why, but it works for me.

Phoenix Siggy. Because she comes back stronger every single time. Apart from that one time that will not be mentioned.

Werebear Bjorn. He got attacked by a bear in the show so it’s basically canon.

Siren Sigurd (which has been written into existence quite excellently by @vikingstrash ❤️)