Knowing yourself is the most important thing you can do when you work with spirits. Knowing exactly how your body feels in a natural, contemplative state; taking careful inventory of yourself and making notes on it. Sitting with yourself and becoming acclimated to how and what you feel takes time and patience, but is crucial for honing your perception of spirit.
Spirit interactions elicit physical responses. Knowing how to differentiate, knowing what is you - a typical bodily response - and what is not organic to you - influence of a spirit - is what develops your discernment and therefore, your relationships with the spirits.
Spirits can make themselves known in a subtle manner - like a small chill, or a tingling in your fingertips. They can also make themselves known in much more obvious way - involuntary responses such as spasms, bodily temperature changes, and emotional responses. When you can’t separate out what response is just you versus what is your body’s response to spirit, you’ll miss the subtler nuances of the exchange.
spirits don’t have to be your friend. the rock in your backyard doesn’t have to behave like a human or be useful to you to deserve respect. there is inherent value in loving the web of spirits that surrounds us without asking what they can do for us.
I think that more people in the occult community should do outdoor sports (hear me out)
Rock climbing and mountaineering drastically shifted my perspective and understanding of the way I interact with and interpret spirits.
You can be exhausted to the point of tears, bruised, bleeding (limestone is sharp) and the mountain will be as it always has been. The rocks will not work with you, are are working with them. You asked to be there, you came to the mountian and asked to step on it, and walk with it.
Ive tried surfing, got my ass kicked by the smallest wave exerting hundres of pounds of force without any effort.
From a witchcraft perspective, we seem to recognize huge forces of nature as great and powerful when there is something obviously drastic happening, like a thunderstorm or tornado. We know that there is danger but we talk about it like reckoning rather than simply a process of nature. The storm is not angry at you, personally, it is just a storm (and all of the energy and power that comes with it is also indifferent to you).
Plants don’t grow for us, anyone who’s had an uncomfortable brush with poison ivy can tell you that much, they just grow and we can learn to use them and work with them, but they would grow regardless.
And this is my opinion, based on my expiriances, but interacting with nature in such a way that youre trying to accomplish a goal (like summiting a mountian or climbing a rout or rafting a river or skiing a slope etc) really helps put it into perspective that its not just the large terrifying forces of a thunderstorm that are indifferent to you, its all of it, and that is why you have to learn to work with it through that lense of choice.
You are choosing to try and work with the spirits around you, not the other way around.
Of course you dont /have/ to be an ultra marathoner or mountian biker to come to this conclusion, but I think that there’s something about the direct goal oriented physicality that, when relying on the features of nature specifically, helps to put it into perspective.
(This is also a reason why I love survival stories, it really puts the indifference into perspective. I highly recommend the two podcasts National Park After Dark and Tooth and Claw for fun survival and animal attack stories)
do you have recommendations for how to get back into your craft and how to feel reconnected? It's been two years since I've done anything with my craft and I feel the itch but it also feels so overwhelming and shameful to have to relearn everything
I don’t think you have to relearn everything. Things are still there and they’ll be there for you when you’re ready to return. I’d recommend picking your favorite and doing a little bit of that as often as you’re up for, then go from there and gradually build things back up. I took almost 2 years off from my practice and when I returned to it I certainly didn’t jump right back into the deep end.
And there’s no shame in going back to the basics. The most experienced masters of any skill, any craft, finds themselves going back to the basics again and again. It’s necessary to reinforce the foundation, no matter how long you’ve been doing something and now good you’re at it, even without stepping away from it for a while.
hello! unfortunately I am not nearby, so not at all able to attend one of your workshops. do you have any resources on creating personal correspondences for my own biome? that sounds so fascinating and I'd love to learn more
There’s also an audio version in Ep. 054 of Hex Positive, appropriately titled “Witching With Your Local Biome.” (Find it on the Nerd & Tie Podcast Network, Spotify, or your favorite listening app!)
Democrats passed the affordable care act, passed the infrastructure bill, got rid of junk fees, lowered prescription costs, gave civil rights, protections, forgave student loans, etc.
Everything the republicans are doing is undoing the work of democrats. Yall would rather sit there on your flat asses and make these weakass centrist takes than actually have the courage to face what is happening with clarity.
But yall let these false ideas spread and become the common thought and you allow the fascist to creep in. The american apathy and aversion to the truth is why we are here!
Democrats have not controlled all three branches at any point in my lifetime or the lifetime of anyone on this post.
The Supreme Court has had a conservative majority since Nixon was in office. In the last 60 years, Republicans have filled 15 SCOTUS seats; Democrats have filled 5.
The only time in recent history that Democrats controlled TWO of the branches of government — both chambers of Congress and the presidency — they passed the ACA.
Millions of people are alive because of it. No one seems to want to remember or acknowledge that people used to be denied insurance because they needed medical care.
So yes, Democrats do good things when actually given the power to do so. But no one seems to want to give them that power.
Often the sentiment of Democrats Did Nothing boils down to “because they did not do the Theoretically Perfect Thing, clearly they did nothing” with a side of anything complicated that can’t be explained in a single text message doesn’t count as “doing something.”
How it worked was kind of complicated and convoluted, but briefly lifted a huge number of kids out of poverty. One of our congresspeople here had been fighting for a version of this for 20+ years and very briefly got it.
but to get it passed AT ALL, it had a sunset clause in there. And it went away.
But it happened.
Justice40 reprioritized a huge number of grants from existing programs to now go to historically underserved communities that had suffered from underfunding and redlining. (40% was supposed to go to those) But it’s loads of small projects in EXISTING programs so you never saw that. But that guidance on priorities was in the first month of Biden’s administation.
Last year, provision kicked in where employers could now treat your student loan payments as if you’d made a contribution to a 401K retirement plan… and match your payments. again, complicated math, a little hard to explain, but a functional pay boost to a LOT of people because they otherwise would have gotten zero dollars there. they can’t touch those dollars til years from now, but that may keep them out of poverty later in life. And that’s just an adminstrative shift.
that’s all Biden era stuff but there’s enduring stuff from other eras too. But if it doesn’t make you feel Morally Pure while Fitting on a Bumper Stick, they did nothing.
Every month I get an email digest from my representatives about what they’ve done recently and what their priorities are. I expect that a lot of other representatives have similar mailing lists. If you want to know what your representatives are doing, why don’t you sign up for them so that your representatives can talk to you? Before the Big Shitty Bill was signed, my reps told me ‘this is what’s in the bill and that’s why I’m not voting for it’. My representatives are by no means “young and hip” either!
the reason the fascists cutting medicaid affects so many people?
is the medicaid expansion in the ACA. which is also the reason I was able to get health care at all in 2016-18 and 2021-2024.
if you’re under 26 and on your parents’ health insurance? thank Obama and the Democrats.
if you have a uterus and pay the same premium as someone with a penis, thank Obama and the Democrats.
if you have a pre-existing condition and you have health insurance, thank Obama and the Democrats.
the Biden administration gave unprecedented amounts of money to Tribal governments and conservation programs, through the USDA and the Department of Interior - which was run, let’s not forget, by Deb Haaland, a Native woman (Laguna Pueblo tribe), who was the first Native American to head the department that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
and don’t forget, it’s always easier to break shit than to build it.
It’s also worth mentioning that since 1980 the Democrats have only been able to advance a legislative agenda at the federal level for two periods, 1992-1994 and 2008-2010, and both times the electorate punished them for what they did by giving control of at least one house of Congress back to the Republicans at the very next opportunity.
“Let your craft be like a tree, firmly rooted in the old, but stretching into the new. Get your hands dirty, and find out what works and what doesn’t work for you.”
- Roger J Horne’s Folk Witchcraft: A Guide to Lore, Land & the Familiar Spirit for the Solitary Practitioner
Please note that I would recommend properly greeting land spirits before talking to them, or making offerings to them. If you’re intrested in reading about my thoughts and experiences with land spirits, give this previous post a look!
Open the window and let the outside air in. If your window is equipped with a screen against bugs, you can place a drink at the window for a few hours to serve as an offering
Taking a walk around the block, spotting the nearby trees, gardens, flowerbeds, rock formations…
Journal about your personal relationship with local natural spots, indigenous plants, wildlife…
Become interested in local birds! Birds are among the most common types of wildlife to be observed in urban areas, which makes it all the more relevant to do so. Setting up birdhouses also makes for a great offering!
Limit the amount of processed foods in your diet
Read up on plant identification in your area
Engage in artistic activities in order to depict nature! It might seem silly, but it’s a good visualization exercise, and any time spent meditating upon the land spirits may be considered devotional. Drawing, painting, writing… no matter your activity of choice!
Reflect on what local issues might affect them, especially concerning environmental protection
Leave a bowl of clear water outside as an offering
Do your part to respect nature: composting, recycling, saving water and the like make perfect devotionals
Talk to them regularly, if only once a week. Spend a moment outside to tell them of your appreciation for their presence and protection
Use natural elements to decorate the house: get flowers when available, pick up the acorns or fallen leaves that strike your fancy…
this is incredibly reassuring to read as someone who is currently sitting on the fence of their spirituality and craft, because my fatigue has made everything that much harder. Going out for walks, going bone hunting or cleaning up litter, or whatever else I find myself doing to connect with the world around me is difficult when its too hot or too cold outside for me to cope with. When taking a few steps feels like a mile.
I do a lot of these things already. I always have, and I used to see them as integral parts of my connection and worship, but I think I lost that. It is good to be reminded that your whole life can be a prayer and dedication with every small step.
Remain hopeful my friend, there are lots of solutions to this sort of fatigue! As you can see, I’ve had to find them myself. It’ll get easier to navigate, I promise.
Seriously, the most useless people in every leftist activist group are the ones who refuse to see progress as, well, progress, and instead are obsessed with the idea of fomenting Revolution on a truly massive scale, because “that’s the only way things will ever truly change.” Not that they’re actually going out and trying to START that revolution ever, mind you. They’ll just keep telling you that that’s the only real solution, and until that happens, until they can get their absolutely perfect outcome, they’ll just sit on their asses and tell the rest of us that what we’re doing is useless. Which is bullshit, of course.
This is closely tied to the, “I won’t vote until the perfect unicorn candidate appears on the ballot, which means in practice that I just never vote” mindset, which is equally pointless and even more damaging.
I was once told, “Don’t throw out the good in favour of the perfect” and I think that can apply here. Like, I can reduce my own carbon footprint for whatever that may be worth while also fighting to hold massive corporations accountable for destroying the earth’s many ecosystems in order to earn more money than I’ll ever see in my lifetime.
online communities are so strange because people slip away so easily. you can be on here for years, folding people you’ve never met into the fabric of your daily life, and then they disappear, leaving only ghost posts scattered across tumblr behind. or their blog stays dormant, for weeks, months, years, until you’re only still following them because you remember that they love sunflowers or they were kind to you when they didn’t have to be or the last thing they posted was sad and raw and you still worry about them sometimes.
and sometimes they come back when you least expect it, years later, even, and there’s this sudden rush of relief like there you are, there you are, even though you barely knew each other.
there’s a strange kind of love to it. i don’t know you and i want to hold your hand across miles and time zones and oceans. i can still see the imprint of you in this community you left. you don’t think anyone will notice or care when you’re gone, but we notice and we care and we wish you well.
i hope you’re all okay out there. i hope the sun is shining on your face and you are breathing deeply. i miss you.
to anyone who practices witchcraft… any tips for fact-checking your sources??
First and foremost - check it against something mundane. Especially when it’s a claim about history or religion or anthropology or science.
There’s a lot that gets skewed or glossed over in witchcraft literature, and the authors with a more New-Age bent (which is its’ own kind of problem) tend to do a lot of free association between disparate ideas with only passing surface similarity, or ascribe antiquity to things created in the modern era in order to lend them more credibility.
So if I see a claim that strikes me as odd or doesn’t jive with previously-held knowledge, I go looking for a reputable academic text on the topic. The writings of Ronald Hutton, Michael Bailey, Owen Davies, and Margot Adler have been very helpful in this regard when it comes to the history of pagan practices in the western world and the modern witchcraft movement.
I also keep a go-to trove of resources handy on things like minerology, botany, and medicine, just in case I run into any odd claims about the properties of certain plants or stones. I also have books on folklore, mythology, and comparative religion that I keep around for similar purposes.
Beyond this, I also supplement any magical study I’m engaged in with practical learning, so that I have a broader context and frame of reference to work from. And so that things like ingesting essential oils or dumping belladonna into one’s tea in order to see visions immediately ring a bell as a Bad Idea.
I credit my finely-tuned bullshit detector to a developed habit of immediately fact-checking claims about witchcraft in history or modern pagan practices and occult philosophies against mundane sources. (You’d be surprised how much you can find just on Wikipedia.)
There’s always going to be some variation in practice and belief within the community, but if someone brings up a claim that should be supported by historical evidence (i.e. “Tarot originated with the Roma people” ….no it did not), it’s helpful to be able to debunk misinformation and make sure I’m not unknowingly helping it to spread further.
I have some news for members of the united states armed forces who feel like they are pawns in a political game and their assignments being unnecessary.
