I Have The Need To Share

2013

Since bread metaphors are in, I'd like to express a controversial opinion on correspondences.

As the metaphor goes, if you want to learn how to bake bread extremely well, you may study multiple types of bread from various different cultures, because many of these breads will have something to teach you which you can apply to your own bread.

Additionally, in examining the recipes of a multitude of cultures, you may begin to notice a few common threads.

"Bread," you might then say "Is made with flour." And you would not be incorrect.

"But," someone else might point out, "Flour is for making papier-mâché!" And they would not be incorrect either.

So then, does flour have bread-making capabilities, or papier-mâché-making capabilities? It has both.

And what if someone were to add, "Bread is made with almond flour, which is completely different from wheat flour. In fact, you shouldn't use wheat flour, because some people can't use that bread." ("Well I'm allergic to almonds, so really--")

So, if bread can be made without flour, and flour can make things that are not bread, is there any connection between bread and flour at all?

Obviously, there is.

It's just complicated. If you study the practices of many different cultures, and you find similarities, then you might feel inspired to create your own recipe using some of these common traits-- the ones that you find you like the most.

The correspondences of different things are not fixed-- new ones can be constantly invented. Likewise, your spell can be ruined by a bad combination-- or a bad combination for you.

If something is not working for you, find alternatives.

not gonna lie kudzu has shot up to the top of my list of favorite plants so fast. she's such a bad bitch.

Elminx's Guide to Augmenting Your Spellwork

This guide is intended to be allied to the type of spellwork that draws something towards you or is desirous of change within yourself. The goal here is to create actions throughout our day or week that bring our thoughts back to the magic that we have performed. From my way of thinking, this keeps the stream of magic flowing in the right direction through your returned focus. It can have the added benefit of reminding you to take the actions in the world that are necessary for the success of your spellwork.

There will be a number of examples following but they all have the same theme: doing something during your initial spellwork that you will return to after the spell has been cast to keep your attention focused in the direct on what you want. Some of these things will be very obvious and you will have seen them before - others may be less so and better suited to a person in the broom closet. Some of these are standalone spell techniques on their own; here I am trying to convey that when combined together, multiple types of spellwork can have a greater effect than individually.

The idea is to continue to do the things listed below until your spell has manifested. Yes, there are obviously too many to do all at once. You are, as always, free to pick the ones that fit the spell best or the ones that fit your own lifestyle. Or to disregard all of them altogether.

Create an altar for your spell Say that I was going to create a spell for money to make sure that I could pay my rent on August 1st. I would create a money altar for my spell, do my spell on the altar, and keep all of the spell ingredients (including candle remains and any nonperishable offerings) up for the month of July. If I was going to create a spell to combat the upcoming Venus retrograde, I would keep the altar up all the way through the end of the retrograde. The visual reminder of the altar helps to realign your thoughts toward that spell.

Feed your spell This one goes along with the first nicely. This can look like a lot of different things - it could be adding coins to a money bowl or a spoonful of sugar to a sweetening jar. It could be burning incense on your altar for success on your exams every Sunday. It could be successively lighting small candles to charge your spell for a set number of days, weeks, or on every full moon. If you work with spirits of deities, it could be making repeated offerings while you ask for help with your spellwork. If you are the type of person who sticks to schedules well, make it a scheduled thing. You could align it with the days of the week if you're into that or with the moon cycles. If you're not a scheduler, do it when you remember.

Mantras (and other Spoken representations of your spell) If you are a verbal person, word magic may work very well for you. This can be anything from one phrase to a rhyming couplet - the idea here is that it is something that you remember to repeat to yourself. I think that this type of magic work especially well when doing work on changing something about yourself, but you may find a use for it in other areas that I have not. Ideas for using mantras: say them when you wake up or before you fall asleep at night, say them while looking in the mirror while getting ready in the morning. Or, simply say them when it would be appropriate for the magic that you have worked.

Sigils (and other Visual Representations of your Spell) If you are a visual person, sigils and other types of art magic can help you to augment your magic. The idea is to charge or create your symbol during the casting of your magic and then return to it throughout your days. Depending on your situation, you may able to hang your artwork or sigil on your mirror in your bathroom or even on your fridge. If you cast a spell to get better tips, carry the sigil or wear it when you are working. You can draw sigils on your skin with lotion or other skincare. This can be at once the most obvious forms of magic (think the Bluetooth symbol) and the most discreet. You can incorporate your sigil onto something you handmake like clothing (inside your clothes or out), jewelry, or any number of other charms.

Put it in a Jar (and other Physical representations of your magic) Yes, jar spells and other container magic are a topic all onto themselves. But have you thought about putting the remains of a spell into a jar? This is a very sympathetic view of magic, but it makes no sense to me to cast a spell to bring something toward you and then immediately get rid of the objects used in the spell. It's counterintuitive to throw something away that you want. N'est pas? Instead, put the items you used in the casting of the spell into a jar or bag and keep it somewhere safe until the spell comes to pass. This is where an altar to your spell comes in handy - it's a place to house this object. Bonus: this makes it harder for sneaky people or inquisitive animals to find their way into your spell components. Other versions of this include putting your intentions for the spell into an object such as a stone or a piece of jewelry and carrying it with you every day.

Invoke Your Senses Again, this is strictly my opinion, but magic involves both the unconscious and the conscious mind. The best way to hijack your unconscious mind and keep it aligned with your consciousness is through the base senses like smell and taste. They tap right the fuck in as they are deeply connected to our memory centers. Here I suggest picking a scent or flavor from your spell and incorporating it into your life for the duration afterward. If you use rose petals, buy yourself a rose-scented soap or rose perfume. If you use basil, make yourself pesto once a week or work to otherwise incorporate basil into your meals. As far as food goes, items like jams and simple syrups are perfect for this purpose if applicable. This involves a bit more planning than some of the other suggestions but can be very rewarding (and tasty!). Alternatively, if sound is important to you, you could use a piece of music during your spell and then play it repeatedly to reactivate the feeling of the spell. Or, if you're very musically inclined, you could write your own song or simply set your mantra/words to music in some fashion.

This is a very non-exhaustive list of some of the techniques that I have used to keep the energy of my spells flowing when I am working on a longer manifestation. Mostly, as stated above, these techniques are best used for magic designed to bring something towards you or to change something about yourself but they can be adapted for use with other types of magic as well.

Again, the goal here is to create moments throughout your day or week where your attention is turned back to your magic through repetitive actions such as showering with rose soap or donning a necklace you made with your sigil every morning.

Do you like my work? You can support me by tipping me on Kofi or purchasing an astrology report written by me just for you.

Lil concept for intermediate or beginner+ witches

If you've already cast for everything you need in the short to mid-term and you're looking for avenues of practice:

Look ahead and find a very strong astrological election for any desired operation (wealth, social standing, healing, psychism, defenses, etc.). If you need ideas, consider upgrading current enchanted objects or getting permission to cast on a mundane friend.

Dedicate your spare research time to building or modifying an ideal spell for your operation. Especially consider aligning stone, spirit, and herbal allies to the planetary elections you've chosen.

Spend time doing divination as you lead up to this election. Cast small spells to clear the way and prepare conditions for your working.

Seriously, spend several weeks preparing for a single spell. Feel it inside and out. Know why, how, when, where. Still do any other spells you need in the moment... just keep this one in the works.

When the time comes, pour your heart into it. Cast the everliving fuck out of that spell. Let it be The Event that consumes your week, or your month.

Let your research, divination, and development help you grow. Let your casting show you your power. And enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Elminx's Long-Form Lemonade for Sweet Cleansing

If you've been hanging out for more than a hot minute, you have probably caught on to a secret about my kitchen witching: it's not the NUMBER of ingredients you enchant; it's how you enchant them. For the purposes of witching, I prefer simple recipes (ingredient-wise) that have a bit of oomph to them. Do you need to stir a pot for 45 minutes straight? (see also my french onion soup recipe) What about starting a vinegar infusion that needs to be shaken every day?

This, as the saying goes, is where the magic is made. At least, for me.

So, imagine my surprise when my friends introduced me to a long-form way of making lemonade. Rather than simply juicing the lemons and adding some sugar and water - you combine the sugar and lemon peels and let them sit for some time to release the lemon's essential oils.

Not only does it make a superior lemonade (can confirm!), but it immediately had my magic wheels turning.

The goal is to make lemonade that will sweetly cleanse you of what ails you. This spell can easily be adapted to add specifiers—see the end of this post for more details.

As always, I will not tell you how to do YOUR magic. This is a technique, not a magic tutorial.

The Basics: When Life Gives You Lemons

Lemons have a long history of use as a cleansing agent. Cunningham's infamous green book lists them as a feminine plant, under the purview of water and the moon and used for the powers of "longevity, purification, love, friendship." (for what that's worth) From an herbal energetic perspective - lemons are considered to be cooling - they are used in the summer to cool hot termperatures and applied to the sick to help bring down fevers. Citric acid is also a bladder stimulant, which we will be making use of for the purposes of our potion-making.

What we associate with lemon as the "cleaning agent" is believed to come from limonene, a terpene found in the peels of most citrus fruits that is both antiviral and antibacterial. Lemonene is used in many cleaners that you can buy on the market but can also be extracted directly from the fruit, as we will do in this recipe.

The Technique

This standard high-end bartender technique makes wonderful, complex sour mixes that can absolutely make the perfect cocktail. Rather than extracting the limonene from the citrus using alcohol or vinegar, we use sugar.

This technique is called oleo-saccharum, which means "oil-sugar" - you are using sugar to draw the essential oils out of the lemon peels, making a natural (no heat) syrup. Note here: this syrup can be used on its own for all sorts of syrupy needs - you could stop the preparation here if you don't love lemonade.

This can be done on the fly (an hour or so), but I highly suggest letting this sit for 12-24 hours for the full effect.

The Recipe

You will need:

5-6 lemons, the best-looking ones you can find

1 1/4 cups sugar

Filter Water (to taste)

Peeler, citrus juicer, optional

Additional magical flavoring, optional

Become better acquainted with your lemons. For the purposes of this recipe, I do this by holding them, talking to them about what I want from them (general or specific cleansing), and rolling them across a hard surface. This last part helps to separate the peel from the pith, which will help you cut away the peel in the next step. Because we intentionally try to release the limonene compounds in this recipe, you may wish to begin by carving your lemon at this step (BEFORE you peel). You could carve your intentions, your name, the names of the people you are looking to cleanse, or any cleansing runes or sigils that you use in your craft.

Carefully peel your lemon. You want to get as little pith (white parts) as possible, as they don't taste good. Take your time here. Really breathe in the scents of the lemon during this. This is the first part of the cleansing process - you are incidentally cleaning yourself and your kitchen as you do this part of the spell. Lean into this. It smells amazing. Revel in it. Think about how it reminds you of everything being shiny and clean as a child. Lemons ARE cleansing - really feel into this here. We won't use the rest of the lemon until tomorrow; you can juice it here or store it overnight in an air-tight container)

Add your lemon peels and the sugar to a mixing bowl and thoroughly massage the sugar into the lemon peels. This should take some time - think fives of minutes at least. You want to do this until you can feel the change in consistency in the sugar - try to incorporate all of the sugar with all of the lemons. Remember, sugar is inherently sweetening, and lemons are inherently cleansing - you combine these two elements here to make a sweet, cleansing spell. Let the smell of it clean out your nose and your sinuses. This is the meat of your spellcasting - you are working your spell into your ingredients. Talk to it. Use your energy. Pray over it. You will know when this step is complete.

Cover your bowl and let it sit at room temperature overnight or for up to 24 hours. The longer this extracts, the more intense the flavor in the finished product. In a pinch, give it an hour, but I suggest waiting at least 8-10 for the best effect.

The next morning, add 2 cups boiling water to your lemon paste and stir until it has thoroughly combined - this is a great place to reinforce your magic from the day beforehand. (This version had the addition of some freshly picked sour cherries which gives its red color)

6. When this has cooled, add the lemon juice and additional water to taste. I personally put this in a half-gallon ball jar and filled it with water, and then my partner and I further diluted it from there.

7. Drink and enjoy. For an extra cleansing effect, consider that part of the act of citrus is that of a urinary stimulant - it will make you pee. Think about how peeing removes things from your life. Remove what needs cleansing. Your spell is complete.

This spell is as simple as that but it can be dressed up in some many different outfits with very little effort. Do you know a flavor (remember, all edibles here) with the right magic associations to add to this spell?

Add some blackberries at the infusion stage for good old-fashioned hedge witch protection. If you really need something out, you could experiment with infusing some jalapeno after you've made the lemonade (tread with a lot of care here...). I've worked with lavender and hibiscus here for calming, cool energies. I recently added a cup of sour cherries to Step 3 for a love-cleansing effect.

There are two ways you can add flavors to this spell: you can mix your flavor in during the sugaring phase, or you can do a secondary infusion after your lemonade has been made. Use your best judgment here - fruits can go in with the citrus peels for sure, but herbs and other more "tea like" ingredients might be better steeped afterward.

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm eager to use some of my savory kitchen herbs the next time I near to clear out my money flows.

Or alternatively, use it as the first step in a witchy cocktail (my go-to, as you know). This lemonade makes an exquisite base for a margarita—for a bougie twist, use white Patron and some Chambord; you will not be disappointed.

This is almost a blank slate - sweet cleansing could be used for anything you put your mind to.

Do you like my work? You can support me over on Kofi by tipping me, ordering an astrology commission, buying some art, or signing up to be a monthly supporter of my work.

Stop equating animism with anthropomorphism challenge, go!

In my worldview and my understanding of animism, it is more about acknowledging and recognizing that everything on this planet is a part of the planet's whole and that each thing - no matter how big or how small - carries a spark of that whole within its part. That spark does not in any way apply the meaning of "life" as we know it and certainly not human-like intelligence or emotional capacities.

To not appropriate the terms from another culture, the best word for this spark is most likely "spirit" but that is where things get tricky. We often call the remaining presence of a human after death a spirit, but we mean very different things here despite using the same term. When used to describe what resides within all things on this planet, I would say that "spirit" here means something more akin to "life force". But that also gets confusing because by calling it "life force" it can get confused with "living" which is also not really what is meant at all.

If one considers, for a second, that every object inside of your house has one thing in common - to paraphrase Carl Sagan: every bit of it is made of star stuff. More specifically, we exist because of vast volcanic eruptions early in our planet's history so we could say instead (and this is a deeper hint into my personal religious predilections here): it is all made of volcano stuff.

That to me, that space stuff, or that volcano stuff, that is the spark of life - that is the spirit - that is the life force within all things.

That doesn't mean that all things are living (obviously?). That doesn't mean that all things have a big S Spirit or that they have sentience, intelligence, and most certainly it does not mean that they have human-like emotions.

What it does mean is that once upon a time, every object - your plant, your toenail, your cat, your spork - all of them were a part of the primordial fire that created all of this (/crazyhandwaving). That each thing plays its role and has its place. And because it has a role to play and a place - it is deserving of respect.

How does this idea of respect for everything play out in my life? I think about what I consume. I try not to throw things away unnecessarily. I care for the objects in my life by cleaning them, using them as intended, storing them properly, etc. It means that I don't value humans over the other creatures on this planet (we are all made of the same volcano stuff and this is the home to all of it). It means that I don't value the life of animals over the life of plants (sorry vegans - you keep doing you but that doesn't work for me). But that doesn't mean sentience. My knife isn't out to get me and won't get mad if I use another knife because it is an object. It has a simple existence: it is made for cutting. Do I think that you can imbue an object with something more than that? Yes, but I don't believe that it is a simple matter to do so and I don't think that it just happens. I strongly suspect that even knives that have been used to inflict great harm are still most likely just knives. Perhaps it is best to understand that in order for anything to experience the world in the way that we, as humans, experience the world, it would have to be quite close to human. Yes, your cat may experience some level of jealousy if you pet your other animals - or get mad at you when you go away from two weeks; but watch how quickly those emotions leave your animal. Compare that to the way that a human acts and how long emotions remain. Then consider, in the relative scheme of things, how close your cat is to a human.

Your plant doesn't get mad at you if you don't water it. Your house doesn't get resentful if you fall into a depression and can't sweep the floors. In my worldview, even the gods aren't as rageful as we've been led to believe - most of that is just made-up human shit.

And honestly, that makes me feel better about my life, and it makes me feel connected, which is why I keep believing in it.

I ask myself this a lot lately: is everything exactly what it seems?

The mind and the senses kind of naturally rail against those spirits we engage with that can't be categorized or rationalized easily - not the unknown, but rather the can't-be-known.

Some things have no name, others have no form. On a very surface level, we work to let go of expectations so we can see what's really there. In a deeper sense, I believe we have to continue to cast aside these constraints we put on the spirits we engage with, and our way of perceiving them.

Spirit work involves a lot of fighting against our own apophenia - a need to distort by forcing into form and creating connections that aren't there. It's really easy to want to assign name and nature to something that can't fit neatly into a box.

It's a fact that we will make mistakes, be mistaken about the nature of, or identity of, a spirit at some point in the journey. The trick is to keep peeling away the layers, until pretty wrappings and trappings fall away and we can see what's really in front of us.

Don't blink. Don't be afraid to take yourself apart. Let yourself, and the spirits around you, become complicated.

RETURN TO SENDER SPELLS

Return to Sender (RTS) spells are a great way to send back any negativity sent towards you, whether this be a hex, a curse, the evil eye, or just someone sending general bad vibes your way. You don't have to put up with that. Send it right back to them. I do not follow any wiccan redes, nor do I believe in the rule of three because it does not apply to me or my practice. If you are justified in your actions, hex them. If they sent you nasty shit, send that shit right back where it came from. It's like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.

Send that shit right back!

I'm going to give you a couple RTS spells to try out, They all send shit back but it's your preference.

Return To Sender #1

1 black candle 1 white candle protection sigil cinnamon garlic juniper black salt cayenne pepper

carve "return to sender" into the black candle and dress with juniper, black salt, cayenne pepper

carve protection sigil into white candle (or put candle on top of sigil on paper) and dress with cinnamon and garlic.

light both and say "as this flame burns bright, so does my protection grow stronger. as this candle burns down, this energy will return to it's sender ten fold.

(any substitutes that may be needed for juniper or black salt or whatnot, just use herbs or spices that correspond to banishing.

Reflect a Hex

(Return to sender #2)

1 Protection candle 1 black candle paper and pen black salt small mirror

write target's name/birthday on paper and fold away from you.

Place black salt on mirror, covering it completely

scrape some away in the middle so the paper can stand up in a '/' shape

Light black candle (off to side) and say: "I reflect this spell back to you, enemy estranged. All harm and ill intent is yours to obtain. so mote it be"

How do I prevent this shit in the first place?

Make baneful wards. Create wards and protections that send back all negativity that is "not of your highest good" so that maybe anything you view as troublesome can get in BUT it will be for character development and growth. Any negativity sent for no damn reason except to be shitty will be sent back.

Hell, make your ward catch their bullshit, charge it up for a while, and send it back 10 times stronger. Make them regret it.

Baneful Wards that Bite Back

(please, for the love of fuck, do this outside)

. personal item or taglock of the person bothering you . florida water (to ignite, literally, this spell will literally go up in flames. Also for protection and warding) . dragons blood (banishing negativity) . defensive sigil (or protection sigil) . 3 juniper berries (for returning negativity back to sender) . rosemary (protection) . vervain (protection from harm)

Crush taglock and mix with florida water, rosemary, vervain, and dragons blood.

form mixture into your defensive sigil

pop the juniper berries in the middle

set it on fire and let it burn itself out.

bury remains.