witchcraftthings

[witchcraftthings]

all eldest children are obligated to leave their hometowns as early as possible lest they succumb to the various generational curses

[witchcraftthings]

⛤History of Mabon⛤

The Mabon or Autumn Equinox is a holiday that takes place from the 21st of September to the 24th of the same month.

⛤The autumn equinox divides day and night equally - here we should all take a moment to pay homage to the impending darkness.

We also thank the sunset light, as we store this year's crop of crops.

The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to the trees.

On this holiday it is appropriate to dress in elegant clothes and dine and celebrate in luxurious surroundings.

It is time to finish the old jobs and prepare for a period of rest, relaxation and reflection.

⛤ Pagans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort, the Lord, as she prepares for death and rebirth.

⛤The feast of the autumn equinox is also known by other names: Feast of the second harvest, Feast of Wine, Feast of Avalon, Autumn Equinox, or Cornucopia.

The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time between Mabon and October 15, which is the New Year in Old Norse.

The Romans celebrated a festival dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of fruit and growing things.

However, the most famous ancient myth comes from Greece. The autumn equinox marks Persephone's return to the underworld:

⛤In ancient Greek mythology, the beginning of the fall is closely linked to the story of the abduction of Persephone, also called Kore or Cora. Daughter of Demeter, goddess of earth and fertility, she was kidnapped and taken to the underworld to become the wife of Hades, the god-king of the underworld. After a period of mourning and struggle, Demeter eventually brought her daughter back from Hades to the light, but only for six months of the year. Each fall, Persephone must return to the underworld to spend six months with Hades. During these months, Nature withdraws.

⛤Mabon is a relatively modern neo-pagan celebration, which takes place around the September equinox.

⛤In the 1970s, the American author Aidan Kelley gave new names to the six pagan holidays rooted in the ancient Celtic tradition and added two new celebrations proper to the September and March equinox.

These holidays are celebrations based on the cycles of the sun.

⛤Inspired by a proper name derived from the Welsh word mab / map, meaning "son" or "boy", Kelly chose Mabon as the name for the autumn equinox celebration, and founded the ceremony he had composed for the festival in the Greek myth of Persephone.

⛤Mabon celebrates the second harvest and the start of winter preparations, and it's time to respect the impending darkness while giving thanks in the sunlight.

⛤Druids and pagans also flock to Stonehenge, the famous 5,000-year-old site in Wiltshire, and Castlerigg, another megalithic stone circle near Keswick, Cumbria, to watch the equinox dawn.

⛤The Christian church replaced many pagan celebrations with Christian observances. The most famous is Christmas, which replaced the ancient Yule festival around the December solstice.

⛤The closest Christian celebration to the September equinox is Michaelmas, also known as the feast of St. Michael and all angels, on September 29th. In this period, the feast of St. Michael is mainly observed in the Catholic church.

⛤Centuries ago in England, the time around the feast of St. Michael also had a commercial side: servants were paid wages after the harvest and workers looked for new jobs at job fairs that also became a place for celebrations.

⛤Mabon is a time full of magic, all connected to the changing seasons of the earth, this is the Second Harvest, the Fruit Harvest and the Great Thanksgiving.

⛤The Goddess is radiant and the God eventually dies with her gift of pure love with the cutting of the last grain. As the grain is harvested in abundance during Lammas and reaches completion, we enjoy the abundance of fruits and vegetables at this time.

⛤It is time to thank the waning sun for the richness of the harvest that has been bestowed on us.

⛤Sometimes it seems like every Holiday calls for thanks, and it really is: every spin of the Wheel brings both inner and outer gifts and insights, so Mabon is a celebration and also a period of rest after harvest work.

⛤In terms of your life path, it is time to reap what you have sown, time to look at the hopes and aspirations of Imbolc and Ostara and reflect on how they have manifested.

⛤It is time to complete projects, to clear out and leave what is no longer wanted or needed as we prepare for the descent, so that winter can offer a time for reflection and peace.

⛤And it's time to plant seeds of new ideas and hopes that lie dormant but nurtured in the dark, until spring returns.

I'll be posting more Mabon related content during the week so stay tuned for spells, rituals, prayers, history and affirmations!

Hopefully, you'll have a great Celebration this year too!

⛤Isidora⛤

[witchcraftthings]

I am constantly surprised to learn what is considered advanced magic.

Where does this information even come from? Is there a list? What is happening? Where's my nap?

[witchcraftthings]

[witchcraftthings]

Something I made while dealing with my own stuff and hoping drawing this would pick me up somehow. Maybe it worked.

FT my cat. His name is Mischief

[witchcraftthings]

Good news: I found a wonderfully intact swallowtail!!

Bad news: I've apparently become the worst photographer ever

Good news: I had an empty container to carry him home in!

Bad news: some guy saw me photographing and then collecting a dead butterfly

Good news: he had a beautiful Mini American Eskimo puppy and we talked about that instead!

Bad news: I don't know how to clean a dead butterfly

Good news(?): I accidentally dropped it into a soapy bath I had prepared for the other items I collected, and it seemed to do the trick without ruining the wings

Eee! I've never found swallowtail wings so intact before! I'm super excited~!

#vulture culture #witchcraft #witch #occult #witchblr #tw taxidermy

[witchcraftthings]

Idk what new witch needs to hear this but, practicing and doing spells is one of the ways you learn.

Just like how you can read up on how to do wood working, and learn all the tools and techniques, at a certain point, you need to make your hands learn to actually do the things required to apply those tools and succeed at those techniques. It's the same with spells.

Learning the theory and foundations is great, but don't let people scare you away from learning to *do* the spells too, not just the theory.

[witchcraftthings]

John Vinycomb - Mantygre (Satyral), “Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art”, 1906.

[witchcraftthings]

Birds building nests in unconventional locations, unknowingly generating breathtaking symbolism and visual art > literally anything hollywood can hope to achieve

[witchcraftthings]

would you be willing to outline types of ghosts for us? i've seen a few varying kinds - weird dark rectangles, tall hunched over shadow men, blurry-faced children - and want to know more about them but can't find anything helpful thru google. also why tf can we see ghosts at all? does it mean anything that everyone in my immediate family has seen ghosts, whether they're skeptics or not?

Logic Brain: There are multiple rational explanations for ghost sightings and related phenomena, from hallucinations, to carbon monoxide leaks, to infrasound, to simple pareidolia. What we call ghost sightings are likely a combination of several different phenomena, be they mundane, preternatural. Even if ghosts are an entirely real, entirely rational phenomena, it is so astronomically rare that it is effectively impossible to study with any real rigor.

Occultist Brain: There's no agreed upon or appropriately scientific taxonomy of ghosts. Folklore around ghosts and related entities is extremely broad. What you're describing, the dark rectangles and humanoid shapes, are what most people nowadays call "shadow people." Which are a phenomena more closely associated with hallucinations and sleep paralysis than the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are likely a combination of rational and irrational phenomena, i.e. hallucination and folklore, therefore study should be focused on individual cases.

Mystic Brain: People are patterns, just ordered energy and matter. But people leave footprints in the world, and that's what I think ghosts are. Through the course of our lives, we are etched into the world like a song etched into a record. I think sometimes, even after people are gone, you can hear their records play.

[witchcraftthings]

I think that's a very wise point of view. It's a good point about respect:

Respect others decisions to not partake. Respect the spirit of the plant and know what it's capable of. And respect yourself and don't become someone who can't hear a different pov.

even as a witch I don't have a use for marijuana

Iike, it seems to bother some people, but i simply do not vibe with this plant and it has no use to me

#weed #witchcraft

[witchcraftthings]

even as a witch I don't have a use for marijuana

Iike, it seems to bother some people, but i simply do not vibe with this plant and it has no use to me

#personal #witchcraft #witch #witchblr

[witchcraftthings]

rings of salt are effective protection against both snails and demons

they are doubly effective against snail demons; or, snemons

[witchcraftthings]

some flowers illustrations i did just for fun 🌻🌿

[witchcraftthings]

I'm saying this from a place of genuine care: if you are seeing ghosts or shadows or having nightmares... and sageing, eggshells, Crystal's, and psychics arent cutting it..

Please.. please... check for things like gas leaks, water damage, vermin. I'm not saying your house isnt haunted, I'm just saying that carbon monoxide poisoning looks a LOT like being haunted.

[witchcraftthings]

IMPORTANT!!!!!

In light of recent, horrible events in the US, I’ve seen many witches/spiritualists recommend certain herbs, foods, etc.. that can be used as abortives

Do not trust them

These herbs/foods/abortives can work, but only under specific circumstances. You need proper dosages, weight and term factor in, age, current health, etc..

It’s dangerous. Someone can die.

I know these times are scary. I’m terrified. But please, for the love of hell, DO NOT SHARE MEDICAL/HERBAL/ABORTIVE INFORMATION IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING. Just because Becky on Witchtok and James on Witchblr says that mugwort can be an abortive DOES NOT MEAN IT IS SAFE. SO MANY THINGS FACTOR INTO HERBAL ABORTIVES.

We have to stay strong. These are terrifying times. But we will overcome. Gods be with us, we will succeed. We will triumph.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Carry protection. Let your friends know where you are. Make calls, send letters, anything to get our rights back.

We will win.

[witchcraftthings]

Jo Brown

Biologist and artist

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