#most times even the Tip Jar tier ($2 a month) gets access to them also | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

weaselle · 4 years

Text

Let’s talk about Witchcraft!

I used to pal around with people who considered themselves witches and pagans. California is a great place for finding people of a similar mindset, and I began a journey into what I then considered witchcraft with books by Aleister Crowley and a skill with tarot cards. Later, I celebrated a year’s worth of Sabbats with a group I joined in Germany. In Alabama I helped a couple people who were struggling with leaving christianity remain connected to a natural spiritualism through concepts such as the Lord and Lady. But my personal witching identity never truly fell in line with Wiccan paganism.

My grandmother had Gifts, I’ve written about them before. She had The Voice and she had True Dreams and some kind of Sight, all of which I personally witnessed before she passed. I share the same birthmark as she, and, present at my birth, she pronounced some kind of minor prophecy regarding me when she saw the mark. My mother died when I was very young and nobody else took it seriously enough to remember this ‘prophecy’; Grandma herself when she recounted the story seemed to feel telling me her actual words would... not be a good idea.

I have my own variation of her gifts, more like Charm than Voice I would say; nothing special about my dreams when I have them at all, definitely some kind of Sight. But these gifts are not the kind of thing that are controlled or used on purpose, and, at least in my own family, come rarely into our lives. Altogether I have had noticeable access to these gifts perhaps ten times in my 40+ years.

However, I have developed a brand of practical witchcraft that suits me and seems more (not to be dismissive of other folks but) more real than what I was participating in when I was spending time with wiccan flavored witchery. Perhaps an example is in order. Let us consider the Athame, the witch’s blade.

Most of the people I’ve known to have an Athame have had some silly ceremonial decorative thing. Some chrome plated jagged shaped enormous monstrosity, and they only use it ten times a year to salute the 4 directions and ritualistically sacrifice some cheese or whatever.

But witchcraft is old. The OLDEST magic, the FIRST magic -- witching is older than the very concept of a decorative knife. Witchcraft, in my opinion, is a very practical practice.

My own Athame is my chef’s knife.

I use it every day. I know its weight, the feel of it in my hand, I’m skilled with it, I care for it daily, sharpening, cleaning; it feeds me, a part of almost every dinner I eat. If I lost it I would feel as though I lost a part of myself. I can use it to create things that will, for example, win over a romantic partner’s family (let’s be honest, cooking and witchcraft are closely tied together). It is well suited to butchering a small animal, if I was the kind of witch that did animal sacrifice, this is the knife I would use.

This, to me, is a witch’s blade.

The rest of a witch’s tool box is just as practical. Knife, music, wand, chalice, candle, pentacle. Other witch’s tools are basically these same things, much the way a torch is basically a big candle. Mystical as they may seem in a modern setting, these things are, in their purest form, simply the things you would need to be different than an animal, and survive as a human being in the wild.

You have fire (candle). A musical sound (bell is often simplest but plenty of witch kits substitute a flute, or a small drum, or some other simple instrument). A pentacle is little more than a flat work surface, like a cutting board, which is far more rare and valuable than we take it for if you live in the wild. And lets talk about the chalice and wand.

A wand is a stick. Possibly the first multi-purpose tool humans ever regularly used. You can use it to dig tubers. Draw diagrams in the dirt. Stir a stew or poke a fire. It extends your reach when getting fruit from trees or poking into holes for small edible creatures. A spear is, at its base concept, a large wand (the chimpanzees we’ve observed making and using spears are mostly mothers btw). And there are two reasons I suspect one might attach significance to waving a stick around in the air.

1: if you see a group of people talking and gesturing, but one of them is gesturing with some kind of stick, that one is in charge or has some special say in things. Right? I mean obviously there will be exceptions, but that basic observation is pretty true. In this way, it confers an invisible power.

2: if you are entering an old holy place, one that you only enter a few times a year, some kind of cave, or small grove, or temple... I can tell you from experience you’re probably going to want to find a stick and wave it around in front of you, around the entire space. Or you’re going to get that icky startle you feel when you catch a strand of spiderweb to the face. Imagine how that whole process might look to someone who doesn’t know what’s happening.

But there’s something else about a wand. A classic wand will have a pointy end (of obvious use in a variety of situations) and a thicker blunt end. This is not just for grip. That blunt end can combine with the chalice or cup to be a mortar and pestle. Now your wand, knife, chalice and candle are really coming together, because when you are done making whatever it is with the knife and mortar and pestle (probably on the surface of your pentacle) you can hang your chalice over the candle and heat it. This is how a witch might make a medicinal tea, or potion.

Sometimes, one might attach something to the tip of the wand to specialize it, so a wand might have a rounded riverstone that would be a greater pestle. Or it might have a crystal that can make fire from sunlight. Or it might have a gem with a point hard enough to inscribe things on stones. All manner of things. Practical Things, though, is what I’m saying. Things that would have bordered on magic when the first humans had access to these tools.

So that for the tools. But what about Spells?

I don’t know how witching on the internet works. I’m old. But I’m going to tell you how a money spell I’ve used works, and that will give you an insight into my brand of witching and magic maybe. What you do is, you put a container on your altar (you have an altar. No, you DO. It’s either that place your keys and wallet always wind up, or the desk you do your creating at, or the spot next to the stove that’s supposed to be clear space but your cutting board and favorite knife is always there in front of jars of your favorite seasonings even though technically all that stuff has other places they are supposed to be kept. Sadly it might be your TV. These places fill altar functions. Unless you have a specially designated altar somewhere else already, of course) ANYway, you take a container, the bigger it is the stronger the spell but also the more time and effort it will take. Anyway, you put it on your altar. You stand in front of your altar and you make a solemn promise to put every penny you find there, in that container. Only literal penny coins, mind you. You vow to fill it to overflowing. You get an image in your head of what that looks like, and you concentrate on that, and you dedicate yourself to arriving in a universe in which this image is a reality. Basically, by spending time and energy on the promise, you make yourself take it seriously. You decide what you will do with those pennies. Be standing there making your penny collecting vow when you decide on that thing. It must be a whole thing, don’t add them to other money for anything, and don’t spend them on things you already set money aside for regularly; ideally you pair what you are doing with those pennies to concepts of reward and/or sacrifice. So you could vow to take them to a wishing fountain and throw them all in yourself or give them to other people to make wishes, or decide to take them all to a dessert place you like but rarely go to, and spend them on your favorite dessert they have for you or your bestie (fountain or cake, you walk away from spending them without owning anything more than when you started - hence an aspect of sacrifice�� eating the pennies as cake or throwing them out as an offering is the same as burning them in a fire in many ways) And - this is important - you think about how money is desirable and vital enough that even the smallest possible increment, the lowly penny, is still worth handling and saving and spending in a planned and disciplined fashion. You THINK about that. Then you go about your life. But as you do so, you pick up and pocket every single penny you see. Pennies are worth so little, that we would often rather dump one in the garbage than pick through the dustpan to save it, but that’s not you anymore. Now, you will cross the street to pick one up out of the gutter if you see one. You’ll still put your change in the tip jar, but you’ll hold back the pennies. The more crazy into this you are, the stronger the spell… top-tier witches doing this spell would wade waist deep in cow poop to acquire a single shit-stained penny. You’re on a mission. You’ve made a promise. And you’re witching. When you get home with these pennies, at some point you’ll put them in the container on your altar. Each time you do, because of how brains work, you’ll be reminded of your promise. You’ll see your vision of overflowing coins again. You’ll imagine how fun the wishing fountain is going to be, or how delicious the cake is going to taste. And - this is important - you’ll think about how money is so desirable and vital that that even the smallest possible increment is worth handling and saving and spending in a planned and disciplined fashion. It may take you weeks to fill the container. It may take you months. But when you are done, when you have completed your vow, dispense the pennies as you planned. Don’t forget to give it extra time here. Look lovingly at the vision you have manifested, at the overflowing container when you have filled it. Feel the weight of it. Count them, roll them, recognize specific pennies that look different, think about pennies you collected in memorable ways. Fill yourself with pride and satisfaction, and carry that feeling with you to the fountain, to the dessert shop. Let your planned activity at that place magnify those feelings, reinforce those feelings. This is the culmination of the spell, the fireball leaving the tip of the wand -- experience the wonder and power of what you have done. See, true witching is, at its heart, extremely practical. It’s just a way for a human being to use intuition to reach truths housed in the dark mystery of our beings that science is only recently able to shed some light on. Things like how wearing clothes you perceive as “tough” will actually make you produce more “tough” chemicals like testosterone and adrenaline (according to studies that measured hormone levels of people switching between wearing leather jackets and pink dresses) or how if you BELIEVE a substance is medication, it can have some curative effects even if it’s just a sugar pill (placebos). Witching is often just working with these realities without access to detailed knowledge of all the science behind it.

Anyhow, when this spell is done, you will see money differently. Your spending habits will be different. You’ll think about money differently. Throwing your change in the tip jar won’t be a mindless activity, and maybe it makes you realize how little you’re actually putting in there and you wind up spending more money on tips than you used to - that’s okay, that’s good, the fact is, the thing you are doing with that money, how you chose to allocate your change from buying a cup of coffee, that is no longer an activity that you don’t really pay attention to; you put thought into it now. Money will have more value, now that not only are you WILLING to pick though dirt for a single cent, but it is actually habit to do so if you see one. Now something is no longer “just a dollar” it is ONE HUNDRED CENTS, and you have a visceral understanding of how much each of those cents is worth to you. And - this is important - you have completed an exercise in money management, wherein you dedicated to a planned expenditure, saved up the necessary funds, and followed through, laying paths in your neural network that take long enough to become habit and end in reward experience (it doesn’t have to be cake, simply completing your plan will give you the reward feelings, like finishing a video game level). You did this without having to change your finances, expenditures, or budget. It was just pennies, it wasn’t like when you try to save for a vacation and the saving is like a new bill you struggle to pay. This fit into your budget like it was nothing. Like it was extra money from nowhere, like it was… magic. The effects will keep spreading, rippling, transforming your life, your RELATIONSHIP with money will have been transformed, in a way too big to fully understand all implications - maybe people see a change in how you are with money and become more likely to trust you with it, more willing to loan you some when you need it. Maybe this will have filled you with ideas for other money management goals and the confidence to see them through and who knows where that will lead you? There is so much mystery and interconnection in this universe, the effects may well be long lasting and incredibly impactful. And that’s how a witch does a money spell. imo. Obviously, if you’ve read the first part of this post, you know I’m not saying this is how all magic works, or that there is no true mystery -- after all, did i not get suddenly taken to a casino for 15 minutes one morning so Grandma could win that poker jackpot with a royal flush in clubs that her late husband told her about in a dream? Clearly there is a great mysticism in the universe. But in my experience, much of the day to day experience of life and magic for a witch is rooted in practical practices.

Now go have fun darlings, and make magic happen

#witching #witchcraft #witch #witchery

3 notes · View notes

cearyfloyd · 5 years

Text

Spice Jar Labels and Spice Organization Ideas

Learn the best ways to organize and store your spices to prolong their shelf-life and preserve their flavor with these simple spice organization ideas. Add some cute DIY spice jar labels for the finishing touch!

This post contains affiliate links and includes Cricut products that were received for free in exchange for this post.

After a few months of having our house turned upside down with renovation projects, it’s been so nice to be able to get everything cleaned and organized again! I have lots of little projects that I’ve been working on over the last couple of months and I’m excited to start sharing them with you again. Today, I’m going to start with a nice easy organization project – some custom spice jar labels and some some simple spice organization ideas.

How to organize spices.

There are many different ways that you can organize your spices, but I’ve put together some of my favorite spice organization ideas. Having your spices organized not only looks better, but you’ll probably find that you’re more likely to use them when they’re easily accessible. To find the best organization options for you, follow these basic decluttering organization steps…

Declutter

Go through all of your spices and get rid of any spices that you don’t use or have expired {see below for how to know if your spices are still good}. Having spices around that you don’t need, just wastes space and makes it more difficult to find those spices that you actually do use!

Decide on the best place to store your spices.

Once you know how many spices you actually have to store, you need to determine where the best place is to store them. This will depend partially on your kitchen space and design and how often you actually use your spices. Ideally you want them close to your cooking space so you can easily grab them {just keep them out of direct heat}. This could be in a drawer or cupboard, in your pantry, or hanging on a shelf on the inside of a cabinet door. Play around with space options to find the most functional place for you in terms of ease of use and space available. I recently moved our spices from one of our kitchen drawers to the cupboard beside our stove and have been amazed at how much more I’m actually using them. Storage placement does make a difference!

You may even choose to keep your spices in two different locations – one for spices that you use regularly and want more easily accessible and one for spices that you may only use seasonally. This especially works well if you like to leave some spices out on your countertop. Just keep your most commonly used spices on a tray or spice rack and store other less used or seasonal spices in another place. We have most of our spices all in the one cupboard but I do have a small basket of other spices that are used for BBQ season that I store elsewhere.

Choose your organization products.

There are many organization products to help make your spices more organized and easier to see and grab. Before purchasing anything, be sure to measure out your space and check the dimensions of the organization product. There are so many great options available, you’re sure to find something that works in your space. Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve found…

For storing in a drawer:

drawer spice liners

expandable drawer spice organizer

bamboo spice organizer

For storing in a cupboard:

tiered spice rack {I like this one too}

lazy susan {I especially love the two-tiered ones if you have room}

drop down spice rack {This is the one on the top shelf in our cupboard and is great for easier reaching!}

For mounting on a cupboard/pantry:

wall mount acrylic organizer

door mount spice rack

over the door pantry storage

Choose if you would like uniform spice jars or will keep original containers.

When you purchase spices, they generally come in a wide variety of container size and shapes. Not only can this look more cluttered, but it can also make it more difficult to find what you’re looking for and to just buy what you need. If you prefer to keep the original containers, small bins might be an easier way to store them as you can group them into categories.

Personally, I love the cleaner lines of using uniform spice jars so they all look the same. I used two types of jars for our storage. I had originally purchased the glass jars on the lazy susan a few years ago from Superstore {you can find similar ones here or buy them individually here}. While I do like them, I found that they were harder to grab from the higher shelf though so I picked up some of these mini glass jug jars from Crate and Barrel to use up there. You could even use recycled baby food jars or other small glass jars. Just make sure the lid is airtight.

Label, label, label.

Make sure that you’re spice jars are all labeled so everyone can easily find what they need! If you transfer spices to different jars, you might also want to label the best before date or the purchase date somewhere on the jar {I use a little round sticker on the bottom of the jar}.

How to make spice jar labels.

In addition to making things more organized, labels are a fun way to add some style and personalization to your jars. I made our cute little labels using my Cricut Explore Air. I know there are tons of amazing craft projects and DIYs that can be done on the Cricut, but I couldn’t wait to use it for some organization projects around the house!

Materials

Cricut Maker {or other Cricut machine}

white vinyl {there are a ton of other colors that you can choose from}

transfer tape

Cricut weeding tools {optional but makes it so much easier!}

spice jars

Instructions

Write down all of the spices that you need to make labels for. Go to the Cricut Design Space and design your custom labels. You can use my spice label template or create your own. With Cricut, you can use any font that you have on your computer, pick one of the free Cricut fonts available, or get access to hundreds of other fonts using your Cricut access pass. I purchased the font Santa’s Workshop for mine. {TIP: When you’re looking at font options, play around with the letter spacing. It can really change the look of the font.}

Place your vinyl onto a light grip mat with the shiny side {clear liner} down and cut out your project.

Remove the vinyl from the mat and weed out the excess vinyl {negative pieces} from each of the words leaving the liner intact. The Cricut weeding tools make this process much quicker and easier and are definitely worth the extra purchase!

Remove the transfer tape liner and gently place the transfer tape {adhesive side down} over your labels. Use the scraper in the tool set to rub the tape onto the vinyl. {You can also a craft stick or credit card edge to do this.}

Peel the vinyl and transfer tape away from the vinyl liner at a 45-degree angle. If the vinyl still sticks to the liner, burnish the transfer tape onto the vinyl again using the scraper and slowly continue to peel the vinyl away from the liner.

Cut out the individual labels and apply them to the spice jars as you would like them to appear. Centering them in the middle or the word works best due to the curvature of the jar. Burnish the transfer tape onto the jar starting in the center and moving out towards the edges.

Slowly peel the transfer tape away from the vinyl at a 45-degree angle. Continue to keep pressure at the corner of the transfer tape where it’s been peeled away to avoid the vinyl sticking to the tape.

Rub the vinyl down on the jars to increase adhesion. If the jars need cleaning over time, they can be hand washed with dish soap. Just be gentle as you’re washing over the lettering.

How long do spices last?

Spices won’t actually spoil; however, they will slowly lose their potency over time and not produce the flavor that they should. How long this actually takes will depend on the type of spice that you’re dealing with as well as the storage conditions that they’re kept in. As a basic rule of thumb, you can expect whole spices to stay fresh for 3-4 years, ground spices for 2-3 years, and dried herbs from 1-3 years. {NOTE: Salt should last indefinitely.}

How do I know if my spices are still good?

To test for freshness, rub or crush a small amount of the spice or herb in your hand and taste or smell it. If you don’t notice a nice, strong aroma or the taste is not obvious, it’s time to discard. Color can also be used as a freshness indicator as this, too, will fade over time.

What is the best way to store spices?

Storing your spices correctly will help to prolong their shelf life and give you the most flavorful results for your cooking and baking. While there are lots of different storage options available for spices, there are a few basic storage rules to follow to keep your spices at their best.

Spices should ideally be stored in a cool, dark cupboard or drawer. If you like to keep your spices out on the counter, reserve this for more frequently used spices that will be used up fairly quickly.

Ensure that your storage jars have tight fitting lids that and close them immediately after you use them.

Keep spices away from direct heat {i.e. away from the stove} and direct sunlight.

Keep spices away from moisture. Ensure that you’re always using a completely dried spoon before dipping it into your spice jar and protect your spice jars from any steam.

I hope this makes you want to go out and sort through your spices! You might even be inspired to try a new recipe or two once everything is done.

More Kitchen Organization Ideas

If you’re looking for more kitchen organization ideas, check out these posts…

How to Keep your Counters Clutter-Free

8 Steps to an Organized Kitchen

Free Printable Fridge Labels

The post Spice Jar Labels and Spice Organization Ideas appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

from Home Improvement https://www.cleanandscentsible.com/spice-jar-labels-and-spice-organization-ideas/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes