A Bit Late This Year But People Seemed To Love Last Year’s So Here’s One Updated For 2021. Again,

from here

to the moon

and back

Colour magick:

Yellow - happiness, joy, burst of energy, optimism, freedom

Orange - warmth, creativity, peace, wisdom

Red - seductive, passion, anger, fertility

Purple - magical, glamorous, intuition, power of the universe

Light blue - breezy, clear headed, clarity, freedom, happiness, infinity, calm, cooling

Green - fresh, abundance, nurturing, protecting, growth, fertility, calming, cooling

Racism, Spirituality, and Witchblr

As a Black witch, it first made me relieved to see so many people in the community band together for Black Lives Matter. Over the past 5 years as a member of the Witchblr community, I have been subjected to numerous acts of racist microaggressions and attacks ranging from slurs being thrown at me, death threats, insults to my cultural practices because they’re different from European witchcraft and folk magic, attempted doxxing, and more because I was outspoken about anti-racist action. And that doesn’t include the many accounts of racism and bigotry that I witnessed secondhand. So seeing the community come together to support BLM made me hopeful that there would be a cultural shift within the community. 

But, as time went on, the amount of support for BLM that I saw in the tags slowly began to dwindle as if the movement had some hidden expiration date for allies, as if all the work was done after the mass spells performed on the eclipse.

The work is far from over, witchblr. We still need to protest, sign petitions, donate, and do our part to end police brutality, defund/disband the police and abolish prisons, and address the systemic racism that exists in all facets of society.

To look “locally,” the same problems in our community still exist. And while we alone cannot eradicate racism from the whole of society, we can absolutely prevent its spread on witchblr and in other spiritual/occult communities. 

Being an ally means more than posting a black square on your Instagram page or changing your profile picture to “heathens against racism.” Being an ally means actively being anti-racist and doing your part to ensure the community is truly inclusive and safe for people of color.

So, how can we begin to address the problem of racism in the spiritual communities both online and offline? Here are a few tips. I’ve focused largely on how white allies can address racism as it impacts Black practitioners, as I can only speak from my own experience as a Black person. Other people of color of all races are welcome to add onto this.

Stop supporting cultural appropriation. I don’t care if they’re your favorite blogger, your favorite diviner, your favorite occult supply store, etc, but if they’re posting about hoodoo sweetening/honey jars and they’re not Black, it’s time to block and unfollow. If they claim they speak for the Orisha or the Lwa and they aren’t initiated, it’s time to block and unfollow. If you don’t respect our cultural practices, you don’t really respect us.

Educate yourself on non-European practices. Did you know that there are more ATRs than just Lucumi, Vodou, and hoodoo? Can you explain the difference between Voodoo/Vodou and hoodoo? What is the difference between hoodoo and witchcraft? If you can’t answer these questions, time to do some reading! Educating yourself prevents you from appropriating or saying/spreading ignorant misinformation.

Stop supporting spiritual/occult organizations that act as performative allies and/or refuse to explicitly support practitioners of color. That means covens, fraternal organizations, Discord servers, pagan temples, conventions, and other spiritual organizations (large and small.) Don’t donate to these groups and don’t attend these groups or their events.

Amplify the voices of Black practitioners. How many Black spiritual/occult authors, diviners, bloggers, podcasters, astrologers, priest/priestesses, and/or vloggers can you name? How many African or Black philosophers can you name? Our voices and contributions to religion, spirituality, and the occult matter. Listen to us.

Deplatform racists. If you are a moderator or leader of a spiritual/occult community, delete/ban/kick out anyone who expresses racist or bigoted ideologies. Defending racists under the guise of “freedom of speech” just allows them to spread their hate and potentially harm or traumatize POC. Even if you’re not in a position of power, refuse to engage with bigots to prevent their message from spreading. Don’t reblog their posts, watch their videos, buy their products, etc. If you can, spread receipts of their racist acts instead.

Stop speaking over practitioners of color. If we say that something is racist/appropriation/insensitive, listen to us instead of arguing in an attempt to “save face.” We all make mistakes. Just own up to it and do what you can to fix the situation. Attacking us just because we demand equal respect is an act of racism in and of itself.

Support Black-owned businesses. Instead of buying your herbs from Amazon, go to a botanica. Get readings or other metaphysical services from Black diviners. We deserve to be compensated for our labor. It’s the least you can do considering a large chunk of modern folk magic is inspired by, influenced by, or straight up stolen from Black spiritual practices.

De-center yourself from the conversation. Cool, you’re an empath or a “sensitive”, but venting all day about how much pain you’re in is honestly insulting. And, if you want to rant about all the racist things your family has done, maybe go to one of your other white friends instead of forcing us to listen to you repeat their racist garbage.

Acknowledge your own biases and privileges. There are tons of resources out there on white privilege, white fragility, and unconscious forms of racism. Educate yourself.

Keep up the work outside of witchblr and spiritual communities. Keep donating, keep signing petitions, and keep using your platform for anti-racist action.

These points are only the tip of the iceberg. Racism is so deeply embedded in our society that it won’t be removed overnight. But if you want to claim the title of “ally,” you need to join in and continue doing the work. Unlike you, we don’t get to “opt out” of caring for the movement as racism impacts us every single day of our lives. Don’t opt out on us now.

some of the best mushrooms I've seen <3

for those looking to start witchcraft

this is gonna be a resource for y'all. lots of times when you wanna start witchcraft there’s a loooot of info to search through and it can be pretty overwhelming. i want this to be a database for everyone, so that you can have just a broad starting point for your craft. this is long so its under a read more.

Keep reading

Busy Witch tip #1

Charging your crystal/charm

Leave your crystal/charm/spell jar/talisman on the corresponding sigil(whatever you're trying to do or achieve), play some music 🎵 near it that has similar vibes/energy as your intention and let the crystal/charm/spell jar/talisman charge as you leave and go about doing your chores.

Let the sigil and music do its job while you do yours :)

im calm because i know whats coming and i deserve it

𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𓋼 low energy witchcraft activities 𓍊𓋼𓍊𖡼.𖤣𖥧

• Tarot apps that give you a card pull for the day or let you do readings

•Apps that give you affirmations, guided meditations, etc. so you don’t have to search much for something to follow and get overwhelmed by choice.

•Drink sun or moon water, bonus if you add healing or energetic intent into it.

•If you need to cleanse and don’t have the energy, just let some incense burn, your oil diffuser run with cleansing oils, or take advantage of my personal favourite “lazy” option and let belongings cleanse on some selenite.

•We all know this but tea/coffee magic is great for when you’re low energy, especially since you’ll likely be drinking these for comfort anyway. If you don’t drink these don’t forget you can put intent into any food or drink, these are things you’re ingesting so you’re letting that intent go into you, think of ways to take advantage of that! (Bonus again for using sun/moon/etc water for drinks!)

•If you need to sleep but need to communicate with a deity/guide/etc invite them to communicate to you in your dreams. Take care of yourself first and let yourself rest but sometimes there’s moments where you need to talk to them and are struggling to find the energy.

•Simplify offerings to match your energy level, whether that’s saying you can’t give anything today, or finding something easy for you like a fresh glass of water, some herbs, whatever works with your needs.

•Audio books, podcasts, and youtube videos are great for when you want to learn but don’t have the brain power to read and research much, especially when you’re in an emotional rut vs. simply taking a few days off because you burnt yourself out. You can listen to these in bed, eyes closed, get those good feelings from being productive by learning more while not pushing yourself too far.

•Sigils are perfect low energy magic, even more so if you have sigils made ahead of time! Draw an energy sigil on you, put a pain-calming sigil under your pillow, a motivating sigil on your bath products to help you get through washing your face and/or brushing your teeth. Be mindful when using sigils off the internet that you don’t always know for sure what they’re made for, and it tends to work best when it’s your own. Using symbols like runes or bindrunes are also a great option if you want to play it safe but not make your own.

•rock. just pick the rocks you want in your pockets, on your bedside table. it’s pretty, it’s nice, they’re good fidgets, i don’t have to explain to other practitioners why crystals are great (coming from someone who barely uses them in their practice)

•Baths!! Baths aren’t as easy as a lot of people treat them, it’s totally okay to not have the energy to run a bath, especially if you want to wash out the tub a bit first, not have to deal with wet hair, all that. But if you can, it’s going to ease your body so much, use teabags you already have for simple herbs in the bath, water safe crystals, epsom salts are great for your muscles.

•Do some self love journaling, which is a great balance to doing shadow work. Look up self love journal prompts and go with whatever you can come up with things to write about.

•Music/sounds for everything! Youtube and other audio platforms are full of music and sounds that already are made with intention, or you can play intentionally to cleanse, protect, calm, bring joy, etc.

•Making online altar spaces or just collecting general fun inspiration, pinterest and tumblr are great for these!

•Sit outside, lay in the sun, watch the bugs, watch the weather, stare at the moon and stars.