old-mother-hubbard

[old-mother-hubbard]

A Little bit more New Years Lore!

-—~•~>{o.M.h}<~•~—-

Though it’s past the first, it’s technically still Christmastide so I express no guilt in posting this so late.

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It’s still quite early in the year,

So late to risers- have no fear!

Though your neighbors have wiped their slate

You’ll find, I promise, it’s not too late

For praxis, jest, and cheer!

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-———•>}II{<•———-

Source: The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud

[old-mother-hubbard]

“There is in Glamorganshire a New Year’s Day custom of great antiquity and large present observance, called the apple gift, of New Year’s gift. In every town you will encounter children, on and about New Year’s Day, going from door to door of shops and houses, bearing an apple or an orange curiously tricked out. Three sticks in the form of a tripod are thrust into it to serve as a rest; its sides are smeared with flour or meal, and stuck over with oats or wheat, or bits of broken lucifer matches to represent oats; its top is covered with thyme or other sweet evergreen, and a skewer is inserted in one side as a handle to hold it by. 

… The Christian symbolism of this custom is supposed to relate the offering, by the Wise Men, of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. The older interpretation, however, takes the custom back to the Druidic days, and makes it a form of the solar myth. In the three supporting sticks of the apple are seen the three rays of the sun, the mystic Name of the Creator; the apple is the round sun itself; the evergreens represent its perennial life; and the grains of wheat, or oats, Avagddu’s spears. Avagddu is the evil principle of darkness - hell, or the devil - with which the sun fights throughout the winter for the worlds life.”

From our stacks: Illustration “The New Year’s Apple.” from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes, united States Consul for Wales. With Illustrations by T. H. Thomas. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1881.

[old-mother-hubbard]

New Year’s Superstitions

Don’t do laundry on New Year’s Day lest you wash away your good luck for the year or wash away the life of a loved one.

Kiss someone at midnight to ensure lasting affection throughout the new year.

A tall, dark-haired man should be the first visitor in your home in the new year to ensure prosperity and luck,

Eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck.

Eat collard greens on New Year’s Day for wealth.

Don’t throw anything out on New Year’s unless first something has been brought into the house (no taking out the garbage unless you’ve already brought in groceries).

Breaking anything on New Year’s is considered doubly unlucky.

Try to enter the new year with a full pantry/fridge.

Any money that you find on New Year’s should be spent on someone other than yourself. 

Pay off personal debt and try not to carry debt with you into the new year.

Make as much noise as possible at midnight to scare away bad energy. 

Likewise, open the door at midnight to usher the old year out and the new year in.

Essentially, the rule  is that whatever you do at New Year’s is the fortune you’ll carry all year. So eat for wealth and luck, bring only good into your home, and surround yourself with small comforts and friends. 

[old-mother-hubbard]

More Sigil Work

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Picture 1: A power bank to store power for later use.

Row 2, picture 1: A lightning catcher

Row 2, picture 2: To nurture relationships positively.

Row 2, picture 3: To converge and store power from two people ( to aid in “enchanting/hooding”) into an item. A “binder”. Especially useful in contracts.

Picture 3: The sigil of the silver tongued.

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If anyone has any suggestions for my next set, I’ll happily take them.

Sincerely,

0ld M0ther Hubbard

#folk witch #folklore #witch #traditional witchcraft #witchcraft #charms #spells and hexes #i suck at hashtags #sigilcraft #sigil witch #sigil making #sigil requests #sigilwork #sigils

[old-mother-hubbard]

I’ve been doing a lot of sigil/image based spells as of late, and I thought I’d share a few.

Due to their complexity, the usual method of application is not very efficient. The way I employ is as follows:

I keep a sketchbook devoted to these. On the cover is a Sigil designed to take in power. It’s built similar to a spiders web. Each night when the moon’s light overflows, I set it out to swallow it. There is a mark on each page through to the back cover that links them all together, as well as to me. As long as the book remains intact, I don’t need to continually recreate the images within.

Another way I employ them is to use them to “enchant”, “bewitch”, or “hood” items. This can be done simply by laying the object upon it and speaking a spell, or by creating a circle or liminal space.

The respective meanings of the enclosed “charms”:

The above image is both a binding and a severance. It’s generally directed at generational cursing, inhereted mental illness, family secrets, and wrong teachings passed on. In addition to this, it aids in the discovery of lost truths and teachings in a particular family line.

The goal of the “Pathfinder charm” is to give or boost an instinctual sense of direction in life. That is~ to lead you from danger and towards what you need or seek. This one is user-dependent: If what you seek overrides what you need, it could lead you to despair.

The goal of the first charm in the row of three images is reinforce the tools you need to create your own happiness.

The goal of the charm that resembles a lightbulb is not to gift creativity but to repel and ward that which blocks it (to clear the mental fog).

The final two are labeled.

Feel free to use these, but please don’t claim them as your own (not that anyone would lol~ much better art in the world).

#folklore #folk witch #witch #traditional witchcraft #witchcraft #the good neighbors #charms #spells and hexes #sigilwork #sigilcraft #sigils #nordic runes #sigil making #sigil witch #sigil requests #glyph #tdbk’upwt’puf’fttq’ay’xpztg’ay’ytmxajjtg’ukpty’sarty’hxarf’2’wt’ #dqg’ph’puf’oftg’djdpqfu’wt’p’rpxx’ypft’2’uktpy’hdxxpqj’

[old-mother-hubbard]

Do not be afraid, in ritual, to be undignified, to be strange, to express what is animal and taboo and shameful in your desires. To express emotion, to be ugly, to get dirty.

Ritual - most especially ecstatic ritual - is about finding and expressing the power of your deepest, rawest, wildest self. That doesn’t look pretty, it is not what society asks us to be, but that is not what witchcraft is about.

[old-mother-hubbard]

I’ve had some questions about the second sight as of late so I thought I’d reblog this.

Lets Talk about the Sight…

Having “eyes to see”, does not mean that you will see clearly. It doesn’t make the doubts go away. I used to think that, maybe, if I could see then I could be more certain of my reality; that the world as I breath it is real. I was wrong.

In fact, just the opposite happened.

All gifts can be confusing, and “open eyes” are not an exception. They are the showpiece of confusion. And just like any other gift, it is as much a curse as it is a blessing. The occasional doubts that sometimes plague the late hours become more frequent and more debilitating.

How do you tell what’s real and what’s not? You ask yourself if any of it is real or if it’s all just your imagination. Or maybe you’re only conjuring up what you wish to see.

There are moments that are so clear to you, that any other truth would be senseless- absurd. There are times of intense and unrelenting fogginess where you are neither here nor there. Lastly, there are the moments of normality, where you question if you ever saw anything at all.

I can’t speak for anyone else. I can only speak through my personal experiences. But if you’re anything like me-

Your depression will be worse.

Your anxiety will be worse.

Derealization is a frequent visitor.

All that being said. Skepticism is not a bad thing. Skepticism is a very important tool when dealing with the Other and things less concretely bound by our limitations. However, the manners of thinking that come from compulsive anxiety are not true skepticism.

They’re a biaism against the self.

While you shouldn’t assume all that you see to be true, it can also be injurious to assume it all to be false. You will find that doing so closes yourself off from many potentially beautiful and amazing experiences. True, it can be terrifying. Truly terrifying. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

It’s also good to understand that sometimes the mode of sight will change. Liminality by nature and etymologically is not a concrete thing. At least not in a way we are able to fully grasp. Remember, our eyes are still physical. We are organic. We are biology. We have limits. Having the true sight does not necessarily mean that what you see is something in its completeness. It does not mean you can see everything. It simply means that you can see more.

Think a moment on colors. Every color you can think of, every spectrum of light, can be reduced to one shade of another that you know. But what of the colors you can’t think of? What about the colors you’ve never seen, never heard of? The mantas shrimp has nine more color receptors than we do. Can you picture that they see? What it must look like? If a mantas shrimp could talk, do you think they could describe it? Biologically we can’t see what they can. No matter how we break it down, no matter what adjectives we use, no matter what the artists paint, the musicians sing, we can not see through their eyes. We can get the notion, but we cannot comprehend the same way. We have limits. And- if we were to talk to this shrimp, and they WERE to describe it, would they use other shrimp-y things that we humans haven’t knowledge of? No, Of course not. That would do no good. The Mantas Shrimp would have to describe these things by using concepts that are familiar to us.

It’s in this way that we open discourse with the other. Because of our limitations, the “Others” would also have to use ways by which we are individually familiar.

Perhaps this is.. with aliens?

Perhaps this is with.. poltergeist? Maybe not…and yet- maybe so?

Perhaps this is with literal symbolism? With doors, with string, and the spiders web.

This is part of the reason that divination is so effective. By using physical representation, we can interpret the divine or simple messages.

Take biblomancy for instance. Bibliomancy, if you’re unaware, is the act of divination by flipping through a book. The message is communicated by the “Others” essentially by quoting what is available to them and us. If the quoted verse is Matthew 27:5, “And he [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself”, we wouldn’t usually (hopefully) receive it literally. A more likely interpretation would be that in order to achieve one’s goals, that individual must cast off their limitations (perhaps the silver is represented as something regarded as important by many but in this case prevents the growth of the individual) and die to themselves to grow back stronger. It could also be interpreted in the same way as the tarot’s Hanged Man. The point is, that when engaging with the other, the place of understanding met must be a place that those involved can all understand.

Many times the sight is like this. If you are seeing things related to something you have put a lot of time or interest in, while you shouldn’t assume it to be true, that doesn’t necessarily make what you see invalid. Perhaps it’s just the best way that being saw fit to approach you- for better or worse; trickery or trustworthy.

If you see a rabbit in a waistcoat, if you see an alien, if you see anything that isn’t necessarily represented in folklore, don’t immediately discredit your experience. Study. Read the folklore, pay attention to what what you saw does or says. Does it sound like something you can relate it too? Or does it sound like you? Because of our limitations- we sometimes interpret things the only way we can. Use discernment.

[old-mother-hubbard]

Aid with Workings, The Moon, and Midsummer:

A General Post

Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great sabbath weekend!

I just thought I’d send out a post to say that if anyone needs help with a working or spell to send a message my way!

Helping out helps keep me on my toes and allows me to think creatively in a way that positively impacts my personal practice. I’m also feeling a bit restless on the “witch front”.

I’d also like to know how your personal practices coincide/ work with the moon phases. Especially what it is you do under the full moon.

Also with Midsummer coming up I’d love to know your plans! How do you celebrate? Let’s share our personal traditions in support of community, and hopefully get some fresh ideas!

Here’s a lunar calendar for the remainder of this month! The app is called “The Moon” for those interested. It’s location based.

#folklore #folk witch #witch #traditional witchcraft #witchcraft #charms #the good neighbors #spells and hexes #midsummer #midsummers eve #litha #summer solstice #moon #fullmoon #lunar #lunar witch #lunar phases

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Hi so sorry for bothering you but I was wondering if your recent post on banishing someone from a house could be reworked to banish tenets from an apartment building? My neighbors are bad. So sorry.

Hello! Your ask isn’t a bother. I rarely get them and quite enjoy helping when I can.

To be perfectly honest, It depends on the apartment complex.

Workings are never really black or white.

Generally, I would say yes! But there are always seemingly minute factors that could change the general effectiveness of the spell.

For example, is an apartment building considered one large dwelling? It is technically one building, one property and owned by someone or some collective in particular. Or is an apartment building considered multiple dwellings? Though your inhabitance is contracted in for your area, it does not necessarily give you access to a room contracted by another.

There’s also the history of the building to take into account. Was the building once a home that’s been converted? Was it once a hotel? If so, the context of the working maybe well suited. Was the building created for the purpose of housing multiple people separately? If so, adaptions are probably required.

Regardless, the concept behind the working can still be used to aid you. It would just be more more complicated.

If you message me some more specific information on state of your apartment building and etc. we can brainstorm together to hopefully come up with a way to adapt this working for you.

Sincerely,

0ld M0ther Hubbard

#folklore #folk witch #witch #traditional witchcraft #witchcraft #the good neighbors #charms #a.k.a fairies #protection spell #curses #spells and hexes #hexes #exorcism #animism

[old-mother-hubbard]

The Bond between a House and it’s Dwellers and How to sever such bonds.

Houses, while wandering spirits can inhabit them, have a spirit of their own ingrained into the physical structure. That’s what we are sensing when we are drawn to old disheveled houses and feel that eerie chill/gravitation.

When multiple people live in a house, there is an unspoken union between the inhabitants and the house. It’s usually facilitated by a physical contract, though there are other ways to form such bonds.

In order to rid yourself of a housemate you have to not only make the person feel unwelcome, but make the house feel this person is unwelcome.

If the house “feels” it has an intruder it will actively work against that person in an attempt to get rid of said intruder. The way this works is comparable to the functions of the immune system. Of course the changes are subtle; otherwise there would be no need for internal security systems. Regardless, if you are using magic to get rid of a housemate then severing the spirit bond to the house is necessary.

Most people make the mistake of targeting the housemate individually. Making someone feel unwelcome does not make them any less entitled to their legal share of the home.

Likely, you’ll need to do both: target the person individually as well as targeting their “line” to the house.

How to go about the severing:

There are several ways to do this, and in fact there are many ways it can happen without the dwellers’ knowledge. Symbolic magic is the easiest.

You could get or create a picture of the target standing outside the house (if you’re drawing you could simply draw a house with the address written in it) with you inside and literally cut them off the page.

You’ll need to label everyone living in the home’s full names. You may also want to draw the mailbox on there also. A mailbox is like a house’s signature.

When enacting the working it’s incredibly important that you only cut off the target. Nothing else.

You would then want to take the half of the drawing with you, the house, etc. and bury that on the property. After that you must take the half with him and immediately leave the house burying him off the property.

As you leave the House recite “I sever your connection, “name here”, to my home. May the house disown you, and may you be pretermitted.”

Honestly you can say whatever you wish, as long as it’s along those lines. Choose your words carefully. If you say “our” it could strengthen his bond to the house.

When you leave the Area where you’ve buried “him”, don’t look back. Bonds are hard to sever completely and often find a way to regain their strength. Looking back could reinforce the connection you are trying to break.

Other ways to reinforce your working could include making a contract with the spirit of the house, or convincing it to ban the targeted inhabitor. You could add more to the physical working by using hair and articles associated with yourself, the inhabitants and the target. You could also invite spirits in on the premise of haunting your housemate, however this could Easily backfire.

#folklore #folk witch #witch #traditional witchcraft #the good neighbors #charms #witchcraft #curses #spells and hexes #protection spell #house spirits #exorcism

[old-mother-hubbard]

Sometimes I feel like my Entire Existence...

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...has been a dream. Not literally. I know that I’m not a physical dream. But sometimes I don’t feel quite there- quite real. Sometimes my memories don’t feel quite real.

Sometimes I feel like those moments of empty “down-ness” are the only true moments of sobriety. Moments where I can look back at when I’m okay/happy and see that that version of me hasn’t any truer sense of the world then the version of myself that has disassociated. The only difference being that this one is detached enough to realize it.

I wonder if I am delusional. I wonder if me calling myself delusional is a delusion. I can’t see where the lines are Within myself~ Where one thing ends and another begins.

I wonder if It’s possible as a consciousness with needs to truly identify reality.

I wonder if it matters?

If no one can truly grasp reality in it’s objectivity, does our opinion of reality truly matter?

Does it have to matter which reality I choose to live in?

Sometimes I feel like my entire existence has been a dream. Not quite real. When I’m in one place of mind, the other feels a fabrication.

I look at the birds pecking at worms to feed themselves and their young. I look at bees hopping flower to flower. I look at myself. I look at humanity. What the hell are we doing? Why are we doing it? I look at ourselves (the ones that think and breath) and I look at what all life doesn’t~

our truest blind spot.

But all I see there, is that I can’t see what’s there.

“Is all we see or seem, But a dream within a dream?”

And will I ever wake up?

Or will I live a dream to sleep eternal.

These are the things that plague my mind. Things I can’t let go of.

[old-mother-hubbard]

So, I’ve been Digging into some Family History Recently...

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And I found this gem:

I guess I don’t have much a reason for posting it; I just found it a bit funny really.

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#folk witch #folklore #witch #witchcraft #traditional witchcraft #salem #town of salem #mary sibley #mary walcott #family history #etc etc

[old-mother-hubbard]

Some say that destiny is inescapable.

Some say that we chart our own paths.

Regardless I weave my own tangled web and wonder~ Do I defy fate or harken to Her?

Do I manipulate the silver threads,

Or are my hands moved by them?

Am I the spider in my web?

Or am I the moth in Hers?

Just Curious Thoughts,

0ld M0ther Hubbard

[old-mother-hubbard]

If you think this is all I am, then you don’t know what secrets are.

#tntui’tit’ukdu’fttf’xdif’osaq’ukpf’wdyz’rpxx’hdxx’rpukpq’pu’&’mt’mpqe.

[old-mother-hubbard]

A Simple Spell to Dispel Anger with Not so Simple Ingredients.

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(You can even use it on yourself)

-—~•~>{o.M.h}<~•~—-

1. Take a bottle that your target has drunk from and fill it anything that can tie them to the bottle.

(I.E. hair; nail clippings; blood would work best [for the same reason you wouldn’t use blood in a witch-bottle]; spit; a bandaid; ponytail holder; clippings from either clothes, a blanket, pillowcase; an old contact lense; a note [you have to be careful with this, because the words written could have an affect on the spell’s outcome {a signature would be ideal}]; etc)

2. You’ll need to add something to represent/express their anger. It could be something they’ve drawn, it could be an angry text, or it could be something they’ve torn up in a fit.

3. Get something to write on and something to write with. If you’re already adding some kind of paper, then write on that. If not, try to get a piece from something in their possession or write directly on the bottle. Ideally, use one of the target’s pens.

4. Write as follows:

“(Full Name Here), chill the *expletive* out.”

5. Stop the bottle up and hide that shit in the back of your freezer.

Warning

...to anyone who wishes to use this spell.

If you leave the bottle in the freezer for too long, there could be adverse effects:

1. Depression: anger is tied to passion, and after the anger has been extinguished so might the person’s passion and general love for life.

2. Explosive anger: At a certain point, the spell might not be strong enough to hold such emotional imbalance and it will all come flooding back.

Remember: you’re literally bottling it up. Which we all know is unhealthy.

Sincerely,

0ld M0ther Hubbard

#spells and hexes #hex #protection spell #spell #curse #anger #folk witch #witch #traditional witchcraft #witchcraft #charms

[old-mother-hubbard]

Witches’ Night and The 1rst of May

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As April draws to a close and Mayday draws near, there is one more night that’s got me on the edge of my broom: Hexennacht.

I regret to say I cannot share my plans for the eve of May first, as the secrecy of it all is not only vowed upon but also impacts the potency of my actions. I can say, however: There will be wine. There will be music. And I will be cooking quite a lot.

This aside, the true reason for this post is to engage with you all!

I want to know how you celebrate the season. I want to know if you celebrate at all. What do you do on witches night, if anything? What do you do on Mayday? If you have no plans this year, have you done anything before?

Share your stories; share your memories!

Share your thoughts, and share your beliefs! It’s great being a solitary practitioner (as I know a lot of us are), but is also great to have a sense of community. That’s part of why we made a tumblr, isn’t it? To engage with each other.

If you’ve stuck around this long, but have no idea what Hexennacht is...

Read Below:

#folklore #folk witch #germany #traditional witchcraft #witch #may #walpurgis night #walpurgisnacht #hexennacht #pagan #paganism #beltane #heathen #community #witchblr

[old-mother-hubbard]

~Painted Eggs~