The Crafts: Wixes, Spells, and the Weaponized Placebo Effect

I've only had a couple crystals really talk to me. My main focus quartz was just kinda "Hello, yes, it me. Take me home." and smokey quartz in general seems to like me more than anything else.

I had a tourmalinated smokey quartz sphere freakin' sing at me in a rock shop but my wallet screaming drowned it out :(

 

You can do plenty of witchery with "normal" kitchen herbs! Cinnamon, rosemary, basil, pepper...

 

Don't forget garlic, sage, and mint! Or the aforementioned salt. Have ya got chamomile or mint tea blends, etc, around?

There's also a lot of common weeds and landscaping plants. Mugwort's a personal favorite of mine, and it grows like a weed around my neighborhood, it's the sort of thing you can find on median strips or in grassy spots that aren't really well mowed or maintained. Dandelion! I literally realized 'Oh wait, is that rowan?' about some bushes in my neighborhood last week. Plantain and Mallow! (Plantain is edible, too, and can be used to make a poultice or w/e that's pretty good for bug bites or scratches.) Nettle can be pretty common but I can't ID it on sight so I overlook it all the time.

If you want to get creative, there's stuff like crabgrass for tenacity and endurance or getting some big spiky plant with stickers for....well whatever Ye Olde Englishe would use blackthorn for, or w/e. Invasive ivy or wild grapevine for flexibility & overcoming obstacles, etc.

I know some people that like to collect special waters. Like that they've collected out of a hollow stump, or when it was raining on the day of the equinox and it was a freaking eclipse too or w/e, or at midnight during a lightning storm.

 

yes hello
I like to collect special waters
particularly water from when it rains at night, or lightning storm water, storm water in general is useful actually

 

I collect rain and storm water. Both for my "well" and for saining things.

 

I used to try and collect rain water and storm water when I was a wee little proto-pagan. The idea is still appealing, but I'm currently short on storage space, at least until I set up a proper workstation/brewspace down in the basement. I don't have enough shelves for all my /books/ right now.

Also! I found a cool and pretty thing to share: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/205701210/help-print-the-pixel-tarot-deck

I don't know if I could read a deck that had totally abstract minor arcana like that, but I love the designs for the Majors!

 

I love rainwater, but in my case that usually involves actually going out into the rain and letting it come down on me. Best fucking cleanse honestly.

#washingtonian witch problems

 

I just realized that I might be able to make a pretty good protective + anti-anxiety charm using this dried rose that I picked in full bloom while it was snowing (and the rose was covered in snow). I associate snow with calm and protection, and if roses are good for protection too then it seems like this could be a good base for a little vial necklace or something. I'd be making it for a friend who's Floridian, though, and she hates cold weather. Anything under ~55 and she starts shivering. Might that have an affect on how well the charm would work for her? And does anyone have suggestions for other things to add to the charm?

 

Hmm plants, plants.
Oregano: good for cramps. Haven't actually tried it but I've had three different people swear by it. I'm guessing it might help decrease inflammation?
Cinnamon: for loose stomachs. Boil up to make an infusion and drink.
Peppermint: also for cramps, I like it. I should buy more
Ginger: nausea, weakness, dizziness. I have had both as an infusion, and small bits to suck on but I like the strong taste so...

Hm, I know Andean plants?
Coca leaf: for energy, for weakness, for being awake, for high altitude, for nausea, for vitality... it is used for a LOT. It's also a good way for divination. It can be chewed (not swallowed!!! The pulp has to be spit out at the end) to help a flagging spirit. It's also a popular tea.
We use Anis and Cedrón a lot too, but I can't remember what is what either, same with Muña.
We have trimate, anis + camomile + coca, for colds and illnesses.

In another topic I'm really feeling a pull to thread/fiber work. I've heard bits about string used to cast or prepare spells, and it's been in the back of my mind. I'll probably use some twine sometime this month to test out. If only I had a better idea of how quipus worked I could do this better... At least I have vague memories to go off and some research ideas.

It's fascinating reading all these traditions and wix lineages, so to speak. It's also really funny because I have a strong "Not Mine" feeling for a lot of them. Anything Irish is lovely but not me. It's like looking at someone else's nice house and going "gosh it is so pretty, they have excellent taste, but I could not live there". I think I am weirdly Andean aligned for all that I wasn't born there and barely lived in the mountains. You can take me out of Bolivia, but you can't take Bolivia out of me! Its where my roots are, and I have always known that. It's an anchor. I'll have to see if I can ask my uncle questions about what he knows of yatiris and the spiritual... authorities of sorts he's met.

 

I love kitchen witchery. If it's in a spice cabinet, there's probably a use for it. My ward mix has rosemary, sage, fennel, salt, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg... And probably a bunch more I'm forgetting since I haven't made a new batch in a while. Dried eggshell is also good for a LOT of things. Bake 'em in the oven for like, 5min at 200 if you don't want to leave them in a windowsill to dry (ants D:)

You can find culinary lavender (I found mine at a particularly nice Target) and I see no difference in brand-name tea than ~organic~

My go-to "bad day must stress cook" food is rosemary bread, which is then eaten dunked in olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian herbs, most of which have protective qualities of one kind or another. Also kneading bread is excellent to channel stress if you can do it by hand. And then something something symbolically reconsuming your stressful energy as something nutritious and beneficial.

 

please be careful with this, drinking too much peppermint tea can actually cause stomach troubles. I know this because I drink a lot of mint tea and fucking hell is it unpleasant to "overdose" on that
also pls be aware that there are a lot of herbal teas pregnant people are not allowed to consume bc they can cause miscarriages, I'm mentioning this just in case it could ever be relevant. Mint is, again, one of those.

 

Raspberry leaf is another one that's good for cramps and supposedly for other assorted shark week symptoms but ymmv, I haven't noticed change with shark week, but my shark week has been screwy for the last year. (Fixed now)

Licorice root tea is amazing for sore throats if you can stomach the taste (hate the candy, love the tea. Idfk, man)

But yeah any herbal remedies should be treated like normal meds and research the potential complications before consuming, especially if preggers.

 

shark week classics:
chamomile and balm. In German they BOTH have the secondary folk name "Mutterkraut", mother herb.
combats all the queasyness and cramping and unhappiness.

now i have a stupid question:
when I make myself food I somehow end up gravitating towards a certain mix of spices almost without fail: cinnamon, chilli, pimento/allspice and vanilla salt. It's really subconscious I don't really notice until i look at my spice selection and go "THAT again? okay.png"
i'm so terribad at navigating witchblr right now, can anyone quickly help me with what those spices/herbs are usually used for in magic? there has to be a REASON for me to be drawn to using them (apart from that they taste hella with avocado and apple. you know.)

 

Not witchblr but a good go-to

witchipedia herb associations!

 

@Raire Heh, I feel the same way about a lot of these traditions. Oak savannas and sandstone cliffs are My Thing, European witchcraft just doesn't resonate for me.

Sidenote - Not very exciting, but I've always liked meditating. Like, imagining my energy rooting into the earth, centering and connecting me to the life around me. Hard in February, but it's always been best for me if I can sit with my back against a tree, on the earth.

I've been playing with intentionality this weekend. It's really easy to get sucked into a panic and half-ass tasks because there's so much to do. So I'm trying to step back and do one task each day as well as I can, being present in the moment and not worrying about everything else I need to do. As like, a symbol that what needs to get done will get done, and a meditative exercise.

So I dusted the end table and scrubbed my bathroom sink with a grout brush. >>; I am the boringest wix.

 

so cinnamon is probably comfort and protection, as well as health, allspice seems to be determination and energy and health
somehow none of these lists ever have vanilla or chili??? bluh
the kitchen witch corner correspondense table lists vanilla with beauty (okay.png), clarity, soothing and improved disposition so that's helpful
Avocado is probably the health association. Apple is probably strength and health....

so right now it seems to be overwhelmingly health improvements that come from these. That's. Interesting?
fwiw chilli seems like a burning shield against negativity and also something associated with purification.

 

I've seen spicy stuff like chili in a lot of "offensive defense" spells like witch jars and wards. Seems like it's used to make passive shielding more aggressive, amp it up from "leave me alone" to "back the fuck off" and vanilla is all about comfort and soothing. If all else fails, what it feels like to you carries more weight than what the internets or even tradition says, IMHO.

 

well vanilla being soothing explains why it's my number one comfort smell... accidentally been witch crafting for years apparently. Not sure if surprised or not.

 

so I tried to contact Brighid by pouring milk on the ground and asking her to talk to me via the tarot, and then asked if the rowan pull was pointing me towards incorporating her into my practice
answer was an unambiguous yes
so
I dunno what to do next but apparently I'm being called towards her for a reason

 

congratulations i guess??? wow yeah i guess it's time to start researching maybe :D