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Blood Magick 101

One of the most common things I am asked besides how to begin in witchcraft is, “What is Blood Magick? Is it real?”

The short answer is…yes, but not in the way you think. Please keep in mind while you read this that a lot of closed religions use blood as an integral part of their practice and how it affects their practice is usually very different from how it affects the general open practices. This post does not apply to those closed packages as I do not practice them or possess any in-depth knowledge of how they work, but rather the general open practices with blood. If you are a member of one of those closed religions, however, please feel free to add onto this post with your experiences!

What is Blood Magick?

When we hear the phrase, “Blood Magick”, we might think of sacrifices, cutting our hands open with sacrificial blades, or, if you’re like me, you think of the big “no-no” practice that universally brands you as evil in the video game series, Dragon Age. This is all a result of popular media displaying this magick as such. In reality, blood magick is not as exciting as it is portrayed in media and can, in fact, be totally painless! General Blood Magick is when you use blood as a source of energy for your spell, ritual, charm, etc. It can reap benefits, but it very unstable and your results might not be what you expect. While the blood used is usually your own, it doesn’t need to be. I have known witches who have used game animal blood! Wherever you get your blood, it is important to receive it ethically!* 

How can I be safe when using Blood?

It is important for you to use certain protocols when dealing with blood, before any magick is in involved. Here are some general ones I’ve learned from a phlebotomist:

Never reuse needles

Never share needles

Do not attempt if you are anemic or you have any blood clotting disorder/ are on any blood-thinning medication such as Plavix

Always dispose of needles properly so that there is no chance for children, animals, garbage men, or even yourself can get poked. They actually make containers for you to dispose needles in. 

If you use a sharp object to acquire blood, ensure that the area you are using it on is clean and the needle is always sterile beforehand

Always know the source of the blood you are using, but also be sure to never get blood in any open wounds, cuts, or in your eyes. If this happens with blood you are not familiar with, immediately go to an emergency room to get preventative care. 

DO NOT INGEST BLOOD. IT IS DANGEROUS AND CAN LEAD TO A LOT OF DISEASES PLUS POISONING

It’s actually preferable if you use sanitary disposable gloves when handling blood, but at the very least, thoroughly clean any skin that got blood on it immediately.

If, at any time, you can not control the bleeding, go to the emergency room. You might need stitches. 

Do not try to acquire blood from any vein or vessel nor should you use any sharp object near one.

DO NOT HANDLE A SHARP OBJECT WHILE INTOXICATED IN ANY WAY. Look, I drink and don’t judge others who do so or like to get high. I know a lot of witches incorporate drugs into their craft. However, never use a sharp object when intoxicated. Your control and judgement will be compromised and you could seriously injure yourself without knowing. If it is absolutely necessary, collect the blood beforehand. 

Why would I use Blood Magick?

Blood magick is used when you need to infuse your very essence or a small part of your life energy into a spell, if using your blood, or the essence of a particular animal or their life energy. It is one of the most powerful ways you can charge give energy to a spell. If you are not very experienced in this, you should only use it in very desperate circumstances when all other options have been exhausted. I have seen witches use deer blood in a spell calling upon Artemis, the Greek God of the Hunt (among other things) and I have a friend who used blood magick when trying to save her house from foreclosure when she was told there was almost no chance she could save it, even with the proper budgeting and payments. 

Wait, you said I should only use it regularly if I was very experienced in it… what are the Magickal dangers of it?

Think of using Blood Magick as if using rocket fuel in a normal car. If you are an engineer, you might be able to build a car that can use rocket fuel reliably, but, if not, you most likely would build a non-functional or unreliable car, or worse, a car that just explodes. 

When you use blood, I mentioned that you are putting your very essence and energy into the spell. This very much ups the chance that you will be directly affected by the outcome of the spell, even if it was done for or on someone else. This goes double with any curses or hexes. It is also possible that you might get too much of the result you wanted or your result way too soon. If you are using animal blood, it is possible that it’s correspondence won’t agree with the purpose of the spell or the animal’s essence is just plain unwilling to cooperate. 

If you use unethically-sourced blood, you also open yourself up to the negative energies of the source including unsavory paranormal activity. It might take several rounds of cleansing to get rid of that energy. 

How much blood would I need for most spells?

Usually the tiniest drop of blood is necessary, if even needed. It would be equivalent of a finger prick when checking blood sugar levels. 

How would I use the blood?

It depends on the spell and the caster! I’ve seen it dripped on paper where the incantation is written out and I’ve also seen it mixed in a bowl of herbs (not for consumption). Generally, if you ask me, I will tell you that you most likely don’t need it for the spell you are doing. 

Please be safe, everyone!! 

*Ethically sourced is a very broad phrase, but I am referring to blood that is retrieved either from yourself, a willing participant who know what you are using it for and has given consent, animals that have respectfully and lawfully been hunted and consumed, or animals that have been respectfully and lawfully hunted and honored. You should never poach animals or steal blood from any scientific/medical institution, deceased persons, or receive the blood from a living human who is misguided or unknowing of your intentions with the blood.

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(Source)

Some things never change even across the multiverse

“The witch owes nothing. That is what makes her dangerous. And that is what makes her divine”

— Pam Grossman “Waking the Witch” (via gothicflamingos)

"I can't connect to nature because I live in a city" Incorrect.

"I can't connect to nature because I can't travel" Nuh-uh.

"I can't connect to nature because I-" Wrong.

Anyone can connect to nature. Please, remove the mindset that nature is something *out there*. Nature is all around you.

The dandelions peeking through pavement cracks, the birds you don't notice on your windowsill, the brambles in the alleys, the storms and sunshine.

All of this is nature. You are surrounded by it. Notice it, learn about it. Write down when you notice the days getting longer, when more butterflies appear and when ripen blackberries ripen. Connect to the nature that lives outside your window, just past the boundary of your front door.

Watch nature documentaries, build a small windowsill garden, let the spider in your room corner stay for a while.

Connection is not determined by proximity, but by effort.

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!

ACNH: honeybee

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