Headmistress Challenge 6/4: Physically clean your altar, then cleanse the energy. If you do not have an altar, do your workspace or even just an area you are in frequently.

 Look up the meaning of a tarot card you have trouble remembering (or just have no clue in my case.) Try to find the art from a deck or two and try to identify the symbolism used. Share your findings if you want!

Good morning everyone! It is Magickal Motivational Monday! I hope everyone was able to have a relaxing weekend! I spent mine cuddling with a baby and cats. To follow along with our first Sigil Sunday, we’re going to be talking and thinking about confidence! Confidence can be such an important part of our path. For me, it ties really nicely with intent. Because how can we really support our intent when we are doing anything magickal if we aren’t confident in what we are doing? So today, let’s think about where our confidence shines! Or, maybe, where we need to build our confidence! Because we all have to start somewhere. Most of us don’t start full of confidence in everything we do. So there’s no shame in working to become confident in what we do! It doesn’t have to be something wonderful, though you could be showcasing what you’re good at. But that’s not what today is about, today is about starting to feel confident in your path. Finish something you’ve been working on, start something new that you’ve been wavering on, or continue in the daunting task at chipping away at something you’ve been working on for a while. So let’s get #magicalmotivationmonday going!  Let’s share with and motivate each other! Please post pictures if you can and give details on what you’re doing.

If you want your work featured on the blog, just @witches-of-ouroboros and it will be added to the queue.

Live class date and time: 5/12/2017 @6:00PM CST

The term ‘spell’ had a range of meanings in Old English. As a noun, it could mean story, discourse or message. For example, it was applied to the tale told about Beowulf, a story (spel) crafted skilfully by a ‘boast-laden man, mindful of songs’. Old English writers also used “spell” to refer to learned discourses or works of history. ”Spell” could also mean news or message, as in the English translation of the Greek εὐαγγέλιο euangelion): ‘gospel’, or ‘good spell’. As a verb, it meant ‘to talk’ or ‘to converse’. (Ironically, the modern English verb ‘to spell’ actually comes from the French épeler, although that also has a proto-Germanic root.) ‘Spells’ only seem to have become associated with magic much later: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the first recorded use of ‘spell’ to mean magical incantation was in 1579, in Edmund Spenser’s Shepheardes Calendar. In Old English, terms like galdor or seiðr seem to have been used for incantations and charms, in some contexts.

-Source

Words have always held great power for humans. This is a universal theme in “holy books” and lore. 

Come sit a spell.

Disclaimers:

• Mundane first. Magic is not a substitute for medical advice. It also can take less effort sometimes to just talk to someone or make a schedule rather than spending time gathering ingredients and writing a ritual.
  

• Sometimes a spell is more for catharsis of the caster than actually affecting a massive change.
  

• Some things you will write will be terrible. Laughingly cringe-y and looked back on years later with shame or amazement. But you don’t improve if you don’t practice.
  

Preparation:

1. What do you want/need?

(Ex: “I want to feel confident on test day.”)

2. Why?

(Ex: “Because I  get nervous during tests and think my grades would improve if I were more confident.”)

3. What kind of things do you associate with the goal? Any bits of writing, art? A smell? A colour? Think about how these can be incorporated, especially if you need something discreet. You can make special spell writing playlists too. 

(Ex: “A colour of lipstick or this scarf makes me feel confident.”)

4. Any correspondences?

****A lot of resources will lump different cultures and religions together for their correspondence list. This can lead to appropriation and incorrect usage. There’s nothing wrong with researching and appreciating other cultures. But chances are if a site is listing correspondences for a stone that isn’t even found in an area, or for religious/astronomical concepts that would be foreign or contradictory to a culture; the writer may not have done their work. I’ve seen someone use a bindrune that could symbolise a miscarriage in a luck spell before because a random site treated the runes like kanji on a tourist’s lower back.***

(Ex. “________ herb is known to increase alertness and this crystal mental clarity.”

OPTIONAL: 5. If you’re into that type of thing, check the moon phases and other environmental requirements for a spell.

6. Write! It can be a limerick, a list, a filk, a rewrite of something from pop culture (always credit sources!), haiku, long and elaborate verse…its your spell.

7. Give your work a boost by putting in some mundane effort.

(Ex. Studying, grooming/self-care, going to bed early the night before test day and avoiding caffeine, eating something nutritious, etc.)

Examples:

Double bubble toil and trouble, bring me cats so I can cuddle!

-Teacher Goat

Christ, the bee swarm is out here! Now fly, you my animals, come. In the Lord’s peace, in God’s protection, come home in good health. Sit, sit bees. The command to you from the Holy Mary. You have no vacation; Don’t fly into the woods; Neither should you slip away from me. Nor escape from me. Sit completely still. Do God’s will.

-Lorsch Bee Blessing

Q&A:

do spells always have to be at least __ long or less than blank long? like any set requirements? if not, any suggestions for the length of the spell? shorter, longer, medium? 

No they don’t. It’s not like an essay for school where you have to pad your paragraphs or change punctuation size to increase page count. The words themselves are more important than how many of them there are. If 1-3 words or a profane sound gets the job done, then so be it.

Your thoughts on emoji magick? Would you consider it a spell. Just a random question

I don’t use it, but technically, yes, especially by modern definitions, it is magic/a form of spell. Its possible in 20 years emojis will have become the new hieroglyphs and/or their own branch of magic. They’re just pictographs in a different medium.

So: sorry if you addressed this but you do find it easier to plan spells out thoroughly or be more spontaneous about it? 

It really depends on what I’m doing. If its something for a long term regiment, I plan and schedule. But if its protection, or a rage or a sudden inspiration, I just ad lib. I do write everything down though, to reference and refine later.

Do you find there are certain types of spells that are more “reuseable” than others? Do you “classify” or tag these differently in a grimoire?

Yes. Some things are tailored for very specific situations and those exact conditions may not happen again. But they can be archived in a “genre” (charms, curses, wards, etc.) of work, for later referencing. I use little symbols and different colours to mark things. 

barberwitch:

Today’s Prisma Visions reading May 9, 2017: Temperance and Ace of Chalices
Before you begin something new, especially when I comes to matters of heart and emotion, it’s useful to find your center. Walk the middle path and don’t get carried away. Excitement and enthusiasm are bright stars in our lives, but they can be overshadowed by detritus left from neglecting other things. Keep your head about you and walk the tightrope with confidence, past on one side, hope on the other and your future ahead. You are order, you are chaos. Like the water in the fountain, no drop falls in the same exact way as the last, unique and indifferent to perfection, but it falls in the base of the reliquary like the drop before. Be excited and be unique, but stay true to yourself, or you risk looking back and not realizing you strayed from your chosen path in a moment of haste.

barberwitch:

Today’s Wild Unknown reading May 8, 2017: VII of Chalices, VIII of Wands, and II of Wands
Fear holds us back. The fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, and the hardest to come to terms with is the fear of success. Sometimes, you get caught up in the moment and realize you’re ahead, but what if you fail later on? Or what if someone resents your successes where they fell short? This is the secret obstacle that we all hold on to. The thought that our happiness is short lived and insubstantial. Sometimes the best way is to just leap forward. Plan to be reckless, envision abandoning inhibitions and dive right in. Making a plan for success and failure is prudent, but don’t look at it as a stringent law, but a fluid guideline. You are the cup filled with water, it maintains its shape in its vessel, but will move to fill the spaces of anything it is put into. Be the spark of light to see the glimmer of the cup, and the sparkle of fluidity inside.

By: Mama Bones

Live class date and time: 04/13/2017 at 6pm CST

Disclaimer: spirit work is a path that requires a lot of intuitive thinking and “feeling”, but it’s important that you not let things get toxic or dangerous with your emotional and mental health. Be aware that this is a path that deals with “talking to non-physical beings”; which can be dangerous for many types of diagnosed conditions. Please be safe and logical in your own practice. Spirit work is absolutely not required for the practice of witchcraft.

Primary focus on: basic communication/sensing

 I won’t go into detail on that since we’ve had at least one lesson and numerous references shared on the server that are in pins.

There are some important things to remember with spirit work.

           3.) Be polite. This should go without saying, but you will not find spirit work successful if you’re a dick. Don’t be a dick. That’s not to say you have to be overly chatty or friendly. You can be logically cool, but still not be a dick.

           4.) Be logical. Yes, spirit work requires some openness to the esoteric and intangible. But don’t overwhelm yourself with daydreams and fantasies. Mundane is still mundane. Don’t force interaction. And remain aware of your physical surroundings. Don’t let yourself get in a bad or dangerous situation just for spirit interaction (i.e. a non-witch observing or prying, weather, lighting, laws, etc.).

Nature spirits

I am Hellenic, so I deal with them mostly in the sense of dryads and nymphs. But do feel free to treat them as you would for your path. The above rules should apply to all, regardless of your visualization of their “essence”, so to speak.

Do NOT choose a plant/tree that you or your family has caused damage to in the past. I.e. through landscaping, weeding, etc. Even if it was years and years ago, they remember. Especially trees. Trust me. If you are stuck in a situation where your family does harsh landscaping/poisoning of the plants in your yard, go to a park or friend’s house where you will be a neutral party.

I like to sit with them. When it’s a spirit I don’t know, I will sit near, but not touching/leaning. Definitely not crushing! Once you work with a spirit a lot and become friends, those rules may change. For example, I lean my back against my pine trees frequently. They like the physical affection.

Get comfy. This will likely take some time. Feel free to have a book out on your lap or headphones with music playing quietly if you are needing a cover for sitting outside for that long. I also encourage bringing water with you, both for yourself and as an offering for the plant. A snack doesn’t hurt, especially to help ground you afterwards.
You can bring a divination/communication tool as well if you want to try that route. I don’t personally use them for my spirit work, so I’m not good at instructing on that, but you can incorporate them into my lesson today I’m sure.

Place your hands on the ground lightly and focus on the feel of the earth, the soil. The temperature. The texture. If your sense of smell is sharp enough, focus on the smell of nature around you. Filter out human related sounds and focus on things like wind, birdsong, insects. If you’ve done meditation or trance-states before, what we’re trying to achieve is a light version of that. A receptive trance state. It’s very much similar to what you do for many kinds of divination, like Tarot, runes, pendulums, etc. It’s up to you on whether you would like to do this with your eyes open or closed. Please choose what makes you feel safe, especially if you are in a public area.

You want to stay quiet and observing for a couple minutes. You’re welcomed to let your mind wander and think- we aren’t going for traditional blank meditation by any means. Ideally you want your thoughts to be about nature and the plant you’re about to focus on, but it’s okay if other thoughts pop in.

After a couple minutes, you should gently start to focus your observation and thoughts on the specific plant. Do not touch it yet. But you may lean closer and smell it, look at it closely. Observe how the texture is of this plant up close. What colors it has. The shapes.

Now, after all that physical observation and use of your normal 5 senses, it’s time to try and exercise your non-physical observation and sense. I like to close my eyes for this, but it’s absolutely not required. It may help you “catch” the sense initially though if you want to try it for a minute or two and then open your eyes again for safety.

You will be reaching for something abnormal. It is hard for me to describe, but if you can’t snag the sensation, it’s okay. This is just an exercise that you want to practice regularly when starting out with spirit work. It’s not uncommon at all that it doesn’t work the first time. The best way I can describe it without narrowing it too much for individual experiencing of the sense, is you will get a “pop” sensation when the connection/sense clicks into place. But the way you experience the sense is entirely your own.

If you are able to sort of feel that connection to the plant, fantastic! If not, don’t worry but stay open. It could be that the connection will snap into place after you start the communication itself.

Now you’re going to do the meat of spirit work. Communication!

Talk to your plant. It does not have to be out loud. It does not have to be in English (although it does need to be a language you understand). Keep the inquiries pleasant and light initially. Don’t give your life story. Don’t talk about global warming. Like office parties, the weather can be a good opener, especially if it’s pleasant outside. Although discussing rain or storms is perfectly fine as well and not “upsetting” to plants.

For “replies”, you likely will not get them in comprehensible “human” language at first. That’s fine. It’s normal. The easiest thing to sense is vague emotions or concepts. Some people hear music/sounds. Some see pictures. Some get scents. It’s okay if you struggle with this. Continue carrying on your one sided conversation, remaining as open as your can to things that don’t “seem” to come from you.

You can ask if they need anything like water or soil loosened. Even if they don’t seem to need any tending, you can ask if they would like an offering (water is really the best offering, although you can bring a stone/crystal if you like as well). Keep in mind that if you are still struggling with sensing “replies”, it’s okay to give a splash of water as a good faith offering regardless. Don’t give it a bunch though, unless it looked very thirsty.

Honestly, you can keep this communication/conversation part going as long as you’re comfortable with. If you keep getting feelings or impressions, feel free to go until they start to sort of fizzle a bit. That’s a good way to know that the spirit is done talking for now. Don’t take it personally, there’s a variety of reasons why they’re “tired” of talking. Thank them for their time and wish them well.

You should end with the similar trancing actions that we began with- using your standard senses to connect with nature. Smelling, touching, listening, looking at the soil/grass and plants around you. Slowly ground yourself. Feel free to drink or nibble something at this time. If it helps you, turn your music up. Stretch slowly, rolling your joints.

You may feeling like you want to encourage that extra sense to linger and keep paying attention to it as you do mundane things. I do not recommend this, especially for beginners. For many people, your body is used to processing “peripheral” sensations from your other five senses without clogging up your ability to function smoothly. It takes a lot of practice for this to be possible with a new sense. Take it slow. Reach out for it only when you have the time to focus on it until you’re more comfortable and at ease with the sensations and impressions.

Spirit work comes more quickly if you direct your focus, so I do recommend going back to the same plant/tree and working with it more than once to try and strengthen that connection. Once you have one more solid connection under your belt, the others will come much more easily.

The biggest tip I want to leave you with though is to balance being practical/logical with that esoteric optimism. That’s what I’ve found has given me the best and safest baseline for my spirit work over the years.

Note: This technique can be tailored to work with communicating with your pets/animals, spirits that aren’t from this plane, and ghosts. Just remember to do the order of “centering, semi-trance state, connecting/communicating, withdrawing, grounding”.

Any questions?

Originally posted by butteryplanet

Some of you here might remember the announcement we made a while back regarding our server event, Magical Motivation Monday. For a brief refresher we described it as:

“a roundtable discussion in our activities channel, where we encourage others to share the magical activities, projects or plans they’re working on. This way, not only do we get another chance to pad our grimoires, but we get much needed motivation and accountability from one another to invest in our practice – and ourselves.”

Only now, we’ve decided to expand beyond the server itself. From now on we’ll officially be tracking the tag #magicalmotivationmonday here on tumblr!

From now on, by tagging your posts with #magicalmotivationmonday, you have an opportunity to be featured on our blog each week. Please make sure the content you provide is informative and respectful – use common sense and everything will be fine and dandy.

For those of you interested, go ahead and jump right in on the fun. Share sigils, spells, projects and devotional activities. Are you carving a bindrune? Sculpting a deity? Designing an oracle deck? Tag it!

No magical act is too small, from brief tips to emoji spells to shadow work. Tag it and we’ll share it with the community.

Thanks for sticking with us on the Ouroboros Witch Server and following us here on the blog. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

― Activities Director Prism

barberwitch:

Today’s Dalí Tarot Universal reading April 11 2017: IX of Pentacles, Knight of Swords and Justice
After working hard, you need time to rest. Simple fact of balance. When you work so hard you get in a frenzy, you need time to appreciate the fruits of your labor. Spend time relaxing and indulging to remind yourself why you work or study the way you do. If you’re always budgeting, take a beat and treat yourself. There’s no reason to go on a spree, but do something special for yourself whether it’s taking a bath and shutting off your phone, buying that book you’ve had your eye on, or getting that pair of boots that scream at you. Afterwards, everytime you see that book, remember that balance of work and reward, wear those boots as a symbol of dedication. All in moderation, you reap what you sow. Put forth a bad work ethic and suffer, work hard and be honest and be looked at with respect.

barberwitch:

Today’s Wild Unknown reading April 9, 2017: Daughter of Wands, VI of Cups and The Lovers
Enthusiasm and excitement have the opportunity to drive you forward. The thrill of new experiences lays ahead of you. Don’t get caught up in nostalgic reminisce of he past that remind you of your situation or you might miss out! It’s nice to think fondly about the past, but don’t get so caught up in memories that you miss the present. Down the line, the memories you make today will be the fond memories of tomorrow. Be sure to maintain your relationships in these new experiences, share them with others. You can feed off each other’s happiness and gain a new sense of contentment by opening the paths of togetherness with these experiences. Gaining familiarity and a closeness you might not have already. Let them lift up while your enthusiasm drives you forward and you’ll fly.

Oops, it’s almost 3 AM on the 10th and I just realized i didn’t post this. My bad