Category: Techniques & How Tos

Attract Affection & Romance Spell Jar

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This jar spell is meant to attract affection and/or romance. It can be used to bring willing romantic partners to you or encourage new friends or better family relations. The best part of this jar spell? It can sit right out in the open and, depending on the ingredients, can be a long-term sustained spell.

What you’ll need:

  • A jar, bottle, or some other clear container that can seal (A mason jar, pickle jar, water bottle, etc.)
  • Herbs & ingredients for your purpose (see below)
  • Key items you associate with your purpose (A friendship bracelet to rekindle a friendship long past, a business card from a place you’d like to hang out in with your new friends, a rose for romance, photo of your family to boost happy home spells, quartz for more power, etc)
  • Key ingredients for what you want to happen (Coffee so you go out on coffee dates, coaster from a club you’d like to go to with new friends, etc.)
  • Filler such as sand, corn flour, ashes, saw dust, sugar, etc. (optional)
  • Funnel for pouring ingredients (optional)

Herbs and ingredients to use will depend largely on your personal practice and paradigm. Select items that has some sort of folkloric meaning akin to your purpose or that item reminds you of friendship or love.

Here’s a short list for romance:

  • chocolate or cocoa
  • roses
  • apples
  • carnations
  • aster
  • jasmine

A short list for friendship:

  • buttercups
  • lilacs
  • vanilla
  • oranges
  • tea
  • daisies

Filler ingredients are good for people who want a full-looking jar and don’t have enough ingredients to add to the jar or want to hide ingredients from view. I’d recommend picking a filler that means something to you. I’d pick sand, for example, but you might pick campfire ash so you can find camping buddies, or sugar to sweeten current friendships and find new non-toxic friends.

  1. Cleanse your jar and empower it with your purpose. This mean you can add energy to it, tell it your purpose in a couplet or verbally, or hold the jar and envision the future you want this jar to help you achieve happening now.
  2. Gather all your ingredients together and layer them in the jar however you wish. Be as artful or not as you like. As you add them, you can say either verbally or in your head what you’re adding them to the jar for.
  3. Once you’ve run out of ingredients or you’re happy with the jar, go ahead and close it up.
Mason jars are popular but fancy bottles are great too
arsp 02
Midway through the bottle
Just place on a shelf!

Notes:

  • This spell will work best if you carefully think about your purpose before casting the spell and use care in picking your ingredients.
  • Many jar spells require shaking to “wake up” or empower the spell. This one doesn’t but you can shake it if you want.
  • You can add ingredients whenever you want but don’t take out an ingredient.
  • If you do, just scrap the whole jar and start again. If your ingredients start to get moldy, toss them, wash the jar out (boiling water, soap and water, salt water, or vinegar in any combination.)
  • When you want the spell to end, just toss the ingredients (don’t bury them) and wash the jar out.

That’s it! Happy casting!

Does this look familiar? This was originally posted here on May 7th, 2016.

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Favorite Foods + Drinks Before a Ritual

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I’m very much a spontaneous kind of spell caster. I rarely plan out full rituals, but when I do, prep is an important step.

One of the steps that’s easy to forget to do is eating before the ritual. Truthfully, if you’re going to be using your own energy for a ritual (rather than channeling fully from elsewhere) you should be eating something both before and after the ritual. So you have a lot of energy to start with and to restore the energy you consumed during the ritual.

So an hour or so before the ritual, these are what I reach for:

  • Fresh fruit, such as strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranates, and grapes
  • Fresh vegetables, such as cucumbers, tomatoes (yes, yes technically a fruit), carrots, broccoli, radishes, and celery.
  • Fresh salad, usually with lots of variation but not as much salad dressing, cheese, meat, or croutons as I might normally like.
  • Seeds and nuts, like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, honeyed peanuts. I try to keep the amount I eat on the smaller side here, as sometimes too many nuts and seeds can feel heavy.
  • A small sandwich or wrap, heavily on the vegetables and flavors. Think afternoon tea sandwich size.
  • Yogurt
  • Smoothies
  • Tea
  • Water
  • Fruit juice, often watered down
  • Sweet alcohol, fruit-based alcohol
  • Wine or harsher spirits. I usually go with this when I need to jump directly into some sort of alternative stage of consciousness or drop inhibitions (ie feeling self-conscious) as quickly as possible.

As you can see, I tend to reach for fresh foods before a ritual, usually light on meat and bread. I’m not particular when it comes to my diet – the only thing I really steer away from is organ meat and diary – but I like to go with a light meal usually paired with tea or sweet alcohol before a ritual.

I find this helps keep the energy up and still allows me to move freely during a ritual – very important with how I tend to cast rituals – and not weigh me down. They also can usually be consumed while I go over my ritual notes or do other prep work before the ritual.

This isn’t to say that you MUST eat one of these foods before a ritual. It really does depend on a person and their personal taste. Let your body guide you to the best choices for you.

It should be noted that, for some rituals, I will intentionally skip this step. I won’t eat before vigils for example where I need to do a lot of spirit work and often do trances during that time. I will often skip food beforehand when I perform oracles or medium work. I personally find that I work better that way, but it’s not something I recommend without knowing exactly how to fast safely.

That being said, I do recommend to try and ensure that you’re taking care of yourself before your rituals as much as afterwards and consider trying different food combinations to see what gives you the best results with your magical and spiritual work.

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How to Make a Wish Manifestation Jar

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A wish jar is part meditation, part spell work, part law of attraction. It’s a jar is used to manifest whatever you’re looking for and can be used for any purpose. You could call it a dream jar, but I actually define those two differently.

For this project, you’ll need to get some sort of vessel with a lid. A jar’s easy, but a pretty box works too. I have a ceramic lidded pot I use. Ideally, this vessel should be opaque, so it’s “out of sight, out of mind” but dealer’s choice in my opinion. If seeing what’s inside is more of a reminder to re-up the energy, then do that.

Once you’ve acquired your vessel, clean and cleanse it in whatever method you prefer. I typically use cleansing water, but do whatever works for you.

Enchanting your wish jar is the next big step. I tend to dump a lot of energy into the box and say something that gives that energy a direction – a command.

For most people, I’d recommend some sort of wording such as “my wishes manifest into reality”. I usually use “the wishes that go in this box become truths”. It’s kind of weird phrasing and you’ll need to think of exactly how you want to word any verbal chants for yourself. What kind of wishes are you putting in this vessel? Is it going to be mostly law of attraction stuff, like “Let’s go viral on tiktok”? Or is it “I invite a puppy into my life”? How you phrase your wishes will depend on how you enchant the vessel. Think about how you usually verbalize your spells. I have a fairly specific if unusual way of speaking, almost left-field nonsensical at times, so my wording is often just plain weird. 

Once you’ve got your wish jar enchanted, stick is somewhere you visit daily. I recommend the bathroom counter, a vanity, on top of a dresser, your altar, in the kitchen, or by the door. These are good place because they’re probably places you visit frequently with a bit of time on your hands.

You can pick up the vessel and pour excess energy into it, empowering all the wishes in the box. Or you can pull out the wishes (I’ll get to that in a bit) and read them over, envisioning each wish coming to fruition, before returning the to the vessel.

To add a wish to the vessel, simply write down what you want on a slip of paper. You can also open the jar and whisper your wish inside of it, but writing it down allows you to pull the paper out and reread it. I’ve also used wooden popsicle sticks with the wish written on it. When the wish comes true, you can either bury or burn the paper or stick, depending on your preference.

Ideally, you should power the wish jar every day and charge it under the full moon or celestially important events (like eclipses or days where the planets line up right or equinoxes).

BUT, let’s be real. We’re all busy people and most of us have tried looking for our cell phones while it’s in our hands, so don’t fret about it too much if you forget for a while. This thing borders on both law of attraction and chaos style magic, so if you forget about it, it probably won’t harm it much, if at all. It’s not “set it and forget it”, but it’s not “oh dear gods, I forgot my wish jar, all my hopes and dreams are ash”. Find your middle point and do what works for you.

It’s kind of a weird little witchy thing. It’s not quite a standard spell because it’s so personalized it barely has instructions. But it’s not-not a spell either, you know? I find it a fun technique and magic experiment. It’s a good way of easing the witchy adjacent and children into magic thinking. And, if you spent time focusing each day on something like this, it serves as a sort of meditation. Mostly, it’s just a bit of fun that will hopefully manifest big results for you.

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How To: Water Divination

Ever try water divination? It’s possibly one of the most accessible forms of divination, but one of the hardest to master.

Water Divination: How to scry with water | thiscrookedcrown.com

It’s a form of scrying. Scrying is a type of divination using some sort of usually reflective medium to derive hidden secrets or future events. Crystal ball reading is the most famous form of scrying, but scrying can be done in water, glass, oil, crystal, shiny metal, mirrors, or other reflective surfaces.

If you’re a good hand at scrying, then water divination is probably in reach. If you’re new to scrying, it’s a very intuitive based divination practice. It’s not for everyone (lots of people find it blurry or frustrating), but if you enjoy it, it can be fun.

There’s a lot of different ways to perform water divination. This one is mine.

Find an ideal vessel.

I prefer to use a flattish bowl or a plate with large edges. A tea cup saucer is usually pretty good for this, but a salad or spaghetti bowl are also good. Any bowl, plate, or cup can be used, but I find having a bowl that have a wide surface for the water is ideal.

I find it’s more important to have the bottom of the vessel to be clean. A bowl with writing on the bottom isn’t really ideal when you first get started. Vessels with scraps or scratches from silverware also aren’t ideal in the very beginning. They can be distracting.

Of course, once you get more adept, you may find that those scratches or writing may help.

You don’t need to have a dedicated vessel. I often use my morning cup of tea or the water in my water bottles. But I also have a dedicated black tea cup saucer and a copper bowl I use for more dedicated readings.

Choose your water source

I often use filtered water, either from a filtering pitcher or some other means. I often use tap water / well water as well, because that’s easiest. It’s totally fine to use tap.

I may also pour out some sort of enchanted water, like moon water. Or I might infuse herbs to make a tisane and use that.

Coffee, tea, juice, oil, blood, soda, and any other liquid you can think of can be used in the exact same manner as water. Or you can drip some of these liquids into a vessel filled with water and see what patterns form. (Oil scrying is often done in this manner.)

This means that yes, you can totally scry in your morning cup of coffee.

I do find there’s some variation on the results depending on the water source. Purified water tends to give me clearer results for most questions, but if I’m doing shadow work or some sort of soul-searching, I use ocean water or blood because that’s best for me. Juices and teas tend to edge the results in certain directions. The same results, but from a slightly different perspective.

Again, none of that is bad. Experimenting may give you different results, but I will tailor what I’m working with depending on the results I want. If I’m doing a reading regarding a business decision, I’ll use a cup of coffee for the divination, but if I want to know if I should date someone, then I might use a tea made with herbs related to love.

Bodies of water

You can also use bodies of water for divination. The water source should be calm or have a little movement in it. A river, lake, ocean, swimming pool, koi pond, or even a fish tank can be used in the above described manner.

You can use an active source of water, even a waterfall, but it’s the churning of the water or the sound that water source makes that will be used for the divination. It’s a somewhat different form of divination.

Divining in your water

Whatever mediums you’re using, the actual divination method is simple enough.

Look into the water, but do it in a way that doesn’t reflect your face or head. I find being able to stare into your own face can be very distracting.

Stare until your eyes become unfocused and your mind starts to drift. Pay attention to what you’re seeing in your mind’s eye and thinking. What thoughts appear? What mental images?

It can be completely random. Maybe a song pops into your head. Or you hear multiple conversation snippets. Or there’s a total Hollywood style vision playing out in the surface of the water.

While doing this, pay attention to what’s happening around you. Are there ripples in the water? Did something fall in it or move in it? Did the wind change direction or did a passerby’s conversation suddenly become clear? Did you cat change position or your dog suddenly start to whine.

All of those things need to be gathered together to form an entire reading. At first, it’s not going to make a lot of sense. With practice and time, you’ll start to see how the water scrying can give you results and information.

I find that have a voice recorder going helps me describe what I’m seeing as I’m seeing it. Later, I’ll transcribe the recorded session onto paper. Paper is also ideal as you can sketch out what you’re seeing or describe it.

And that’s it. It really is that easy. Divination with water may be easy to do, but since it’s a form of scrying, it can be difficult to master. Give it a try and see if you like it.

Witchcraft 101: Adapting Spells

It’s a rare magical practitioner that hasn’t had to adapt a spell at one time or another. Usually it’s for personal practice reasons or ingredient reasons, but it can simply be that it’s too cold to walk outside or they just don’t like the spell’s steps or wording.

Adapting spells can be really easy – but it can be a challenge too. It’s okay if it’s a challenging or daunting task for you! It really is. Spell casting is a lot like cooking and baking; for some people, it’s easy to moderately okay and for others, it’s a daunting task.

Cooking and baking are relatively subjective. Things need to turn out a certain way to be properly edible and taste good, but not everything is going to taste great to the same people. Spells are a lot like that. There are some things that just won’t work quite as well for you as for others and some ingredients (like some foods) that you just don’t want to work with.

Like a recipe, there’s a way of approaching a spell that you need to adapt. Here’s how.

Step One: Read & Analyze

Read through the spell completely, including any notes the author or other practitioners may have made. Take notes yourself as needed, marking what things you’d need to purchase or procure in some manner. Also know any timing events that need to be marked on your calendar (such as the next full moon).

If you plan on making any adaptations, write it down clearly. You’re swapping this ingredient for that. If you don’t know what ingredient to swap something for, then you need to really sit down and analyze that spell. What purpose does that ingredient serve in the spell? If you can’t see an obvious reason, it’s probably best to assume it’s there for a correspondence reason. To help with that, check out correspondence charts.

How this compares to a recipe: When you make a new dish, it’s always a good idea to read through the recipe. It may need a special pan you don’t have or an ingredient that’s not listed in the ingredient list above. It may need the butter or eggs to be room temperature or it could be the baking is thrown off on cold days. There may be a reason that ingredient is specific to the recipe – without it, the puff pastry won’t rise or the chemical reaction you need for the yum factor doesn’t happen. Research helps mitigate this before you’re elbows deep in ingredients and realize you’re up a creek without a paddle and a storm is brewing on the horizon.

Step Two: Double check that you have everything

There’s little reason to try a spell or recipe when you’re missing half the stuff – it’s not the same thing at that point. You may be able to create something wonderful, but it’s a brand new spell or recipe. Not the same thing. That’s not a bad thing! Just make sure you write it down. But if you’re intention is to cast a specific spell, be cautious of exchanging too many ingredients or you’ll wind up with something different than the original intention.

That being said, I’m firmly in the camp of winging it. If you want to try and spell and need to adapt it, do it. Take notes on what you’ve changed (in case it works better than the original spell or goes terribly wrong), but try it anyway.

Step Three: Make your changes

Now’s the time for the adaptations. You’ve taken your notes and you have a good idea of what you want to do. Now to make the changes.

The first stop in adaptations is to a correspondence chart or list of some kind. I have one available here, which is sourced and ever-growing.

Sometimes swapping an item can be easy. You need something to represent luck, well, here’s four other herbs that do exactly that. When things have symbolic meanings or magical correspondences, they can often be easily swapped.

But not always. If you really want to be diligent, a quick google search with the ingredient plus something like “folklore” or “magical correspondence” can lead you to why that ingredient is considered lucky. This may be critical at times. Sure, an herb might be lucky, but only for gamblers. That isn’t going to help too much when you want luck taking an exam.

You also have to be aware of herbal associations. Some spells, especially the edible kind, have herbal combinations meant to do something actually physical to the body. It’s not symbolic in meaning, but science. So you can’t just swap in something with a magical correspondence when the concoction is herbal medicine in nature. Plus, herbs can be dangerous – they can counter to one another, they can react with medication or current medical conditions, and they can be toxic. So you have to be very careful when doing something that’s meant to be consumed.

Now for some people, they stay away from herbalism and stick with magical correspondences only. That’s perfectly okay! But be aware that many herbal connections come from herbalism. Even the weird ones. So knowing why something has that association may be important.

And none of that may matter at all. People can work intuitively with ingredients and make up their own correspondences and associations. That’s a great way to go about it too.

You also have to consider the purpose of the item in the spell. Swapping a red candle for a white one is easy since white is seen as a universal color or something of a blank slate. But when you start thinking, “well, I don’t think this makes a good candle spell. What if I skip the candle?” And for some spells, you can absolutely do that. The candle is superficial or is being used as a focus object (ie, something to look at and hold) For others, the candle is being used as a conduit (ie, the spell verse might have “as this candle burns”) or the candle has a practical purpose (ie, burning a piece of paper with writing on it). It’s harder to swap out items that are practical or are a conduit.

In short, there can be more to adaptations than just “this is the ingredient on the list that I have”.

Step Four: Do the spell

Go for it. Just try the spell. When you’re casting, you may need to change things up on the fly. Maybe the candle won’t stay lit or your neighbor is being nosy. Maybe the dog starts barking because she needs to pee or your phone goes off non-stop with notifications. Sometimes the wording is just plain weird and doesn’t work for you.

Adapting on the fly happens. Finish the spell. Even if you lose momentum or the build up of energy. Even if you feel rushed, judged, or things get weird. Finish your spell. Not finishing it can lead to weirdness and energy drains, at the least.

Use the words that work best clearly for you. Yeah, that old timey wording looks great, but if you’re not feeling it, use your plain ol’ normal words instead. Speak or think honestly and clearly when you need to make wording changes.

Step Five: Record

You’ve been taking notes all along. Now record what happened. How’d the spell casting go? Over the next few days and weeks, you’ll probably begin to see results. What are they? How do they meet your expectations? Do you think your adaptations changed how the spell worked?

As you progress with your practice, you may find that you don’t want to, need to, or like to write things down. I’ll be honest, as someone who spends a LOT of my time writing, I rarely write down the spells I routinely do or do off the cuff unless it’s really good. Mostly, I write down stuff I’m tinkering with. That’s my personal preference. You don’t need to have meticulous records, but they very much help.

I know a lot of this advice sounds like “just write it down!” and, honestly, keeping notes as a beginner can be really key. I am well-known for winging it in just about all my personal spells, but I take notes for myself on spells I’m working on. It can really help, especially when you’re doing an important working or you’re making adaptations.

Hope that helps! Happy casting!

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January 2020 Round Up

Things that are still endlessly weird: Writing 2020.

This month we kicked off with a post greeting 2020 into the world. It also covers this year’s wishes and goals plus an introduction. It also also includes a self-dedication spell for your new year’s resolutions at the bottom of the post. (Anyone fall off the wagon on those yet? It’s okay if you do! Just keep trying!)

We also reviewed The Witch’s Book of Self-Care by Arin Murphy-Hiscock which earned a 5/5 stars. (Also, a weird world intersect happened on twitter when a twitch streamer I follow (Kesselruns) apparently tattooed this author. Small world.)

We dove into some magical theory with handwriting as sympathetic magic. The post talks about how your handwriting and signature is as good as a poppet or hair in a spell. Also gives tips on how to disguise your handwriting / signature from this very thing.

Then there were the spells:

A self-dedication new year’s resolution spell (located at the bottom of the post)

Prosperity Bowl – a long term spell for prosperity and abundance

“I Want to Go There” – a travel spell

Just Peachy Health Spell – a health and longevity boosting spell, especially useful for the chronically ill.

Lucky Hands Soap Spell – a daily spell for boosting your general luck

Finally, I’ve decided to extend my 2020 New Year’s Ritual until mid February.

What is it? A series of spells and rituals cast in your name by me (a professional witch) for 2020. It’s designed to be relatively secular and integrate with your own magic and spells. The spells are meant to clear out the old from 2019 and bring in new energy. If you’ve done your 2020 prep and think you need a bit more of a push, this is a good choice.

The package includes the following:

  • Sigil made just for you
  • Energy cleansing of the home and body
  • Invoking purifying elements and energy
  • Banish negative elements, such as bad luck and negativity
  • Invoking protection, abundance, prosperity, good health, and good luck.
  • Blessings of the sun, moon, stars, and elements (earth, air, fire, water).
  • Handmade cleansing and protection herbal salt.
  • Handmade herbal charm to encourage abundance, protection, luck, and health.
  • Handmade blessed and enchanted unscented jar candle with light herbal elements.
  • Written detailed account of how the spells went when casting and what you might expect to see as a result.

If interested, snap up your spot today. There’s a limited number of slots available for this package.

Also, if you’re looking to find someone special for Valentine’s next month, consider the Beckon Me A Lover spell. A combo love attracting spell and ego-boosting confidence spell, the spell’s intended to draw a lover towards you.

To buy, you’ll need to drop me an email here. You can read more about the spells available for purchase or request a custom made spell here.

Patreon

If you haven’t popped over to the Patreon recently, you might want to. I’ve launched the first chapter of my Patreon exclusive novel Artifice. It’s a LGBTQA+ fantasy novel about magic, alchemy, court political games, and love. You can read a bit of it here.

Patreon members get access to short stories, novels, and the inner workings of This Crooked Crown. You’ll also get monthly exclusive spells, articles, energy castings, and divination readings.

Your support means I can spend days researching new topics and spells to give all of my wonderful followers and it’s always very appreciated.

That’s it for this month! I hope the start of your 2020 was wonderful. Don’t give up if things haven’t worked perfectly throughout the month. You can always start again! Best wishes and safe journeys! See you in February!

Handwriting as Sympathetic Magic

Sympathetic magic is the umbrella term for magic spells or techniques that a person or thing can be affected through their name or an object that represents them. The most common form of this is poppet magic.

There’s two facets of this type of magic. The first is imitation, such as that of a poppet, where the object is created to imitate the target. The second is contagion or contact, where the object has been touched or comes from the target, such as hair or a shirt.

These terms originate from Sir James George Frazer of The Golden Bough fame. But sympathetic is a fairly worldwide phenomena and has been evidenced since prehistoric times. Archaeologist and anthropologists are studying modern hunter and gatherer peoples to partially inform over the actions of previous hunter /gatherer peoples. In short, there is a theory that some cave paintings are linked to sympathetic magic or were at least created by magicians and/or shamans in trance states (where they probably would be working sympathetic magics).

As said, poppets and hair are the most common forms of sympathetic magic, but there are many others. The soil from a footprint, someone’s pillow case, a shirt, fingernails, blood, skin, a favorite book, urine, underwear, jewelry, eyeglasses, and so much more. Pretty much anything can be used in this fashion. Including handwriting.

While the lore behind names carries a great many magical rules, such as don’t share your name with spirits. In fact, the fear of someone’s name being used against them magically is one of the reason magical practitioners take on false or magical names. Other reasons include anonymity, safety reasons, initiation rites, and magical ritualization (ie, the shedding of the modern self or of the mundane skin for magical acts), among others.

Handwriting is a very weird and rarely used magical component, but it can be so incredibly useful – and dangerous.

Think about it: you write your name out and your signature is your key and gateway to a great many things. You sign contracts, you sign checks, you sign a variety of things to something as being true. As recognizing it as something you’re agreeing to. It is the very essence of magic, in its own way. If someone has your signature, then it’s proof of your agreement. It’s held as a representation of you, in the mundane world. So your signature is as good as your hair or blood in the magical world. And it can be attached to any kind of spell and used against you.

Makes you think twice, doesn’t it?

Digital signatures should be counter in this, assuming that the signature is true to form. (Or as true as possible) Digital signatures are notoriously hard to get accurate compared to pen and paper signatures, so it may be that you’re automatically safe simply because you can’t actively replicate your own signature digitally.

Of course, you still wrote it and it was still accepted as a signature, so it could probably be still used against you, even if the affect isn’t as strong.

On the same vein of thought, handwriting is uniquely personal. You can probably tell who’s who just from the handwriting alone. This was especially true in the days before computers. It’s so personal that handwriting, such as a handwritten note, can be used in place of hair or a poppet in a sympathetic spell.

It has a variety of usages when one starts thinking of it, including but not limited to the following:

  • Love letters can be used in any number of love spells, including marriage, drawing a certain person towards you, or fidelity charms.
  • A signature or letter can be used to protect someone.
  • Career or success spells can be done by signing your name as the new title you want to achieve.
  • Write your name with your partner’s surname to encourage a relationship or even marriage. (Never thought that kind of school daydream doodling would come back at you like this, did you?)
  • If a patient writes down their symptoms, the written notes can be used in healing spells.
  • A landlord may use a handwritten note or contract to get rid of a renter who refuses to pay.
  • An IOU can be used to compel a repaying of favors.
  • A businessman could use a handwritten contract or signature to get rid of a bad client.
  • A customer can get back at a bad sales agreement or business by a mutually signed contract.
  • The signatures on a badly negotiated contract can be used to fix or create a new contract.
  • A vast number of curses.

So how can you protect your signature or handwriting? There’s a few ways.

First, you can take on a magical name, one that you use exclusively in dealings with the magical world. Like an online handle. You’re known by that and that alone. Sign magical dealings with that name. It’s still you, but there’s a degree of separation that might help mitigate magical spells against you.

You can also purposely write differently than you normally do when dealing with magical things. A good example would be writing a note to a fellow magical practitioner. Maybe you change how you write a few letters, just enough so that it throws off the sympathetic magic and disrupts it.

You can also consider writing in anti-magic ink. Essentially, this is handmade ink created with anti-magic or anti-witchcraft properties. Anything written in this would work like normal ink, but if used in a spell, the ink should counteract or at least mess up the spell in question. Of course, that holds true for your own spells, so be aware of that.

It’s something to think of. Magicians and practitioners tend to do a lot of handwriting, as part of our crafts and practices. It may be a good idea to keep track of how you write or who you share your handwriting with.

It’s also a good idea to think of how you can use your handwriting to represent you. Maybe writing out those affirmations will have more meaning that simply saying them aloud. Maybe you can write yourself a better, happier, healthier future. It’s worth exploring.

Heat Magic

Heat magic is a form of magic using heat as a conductor of or influence to spells. In short, it’s hot as balls, so might as well cast some spells.

Heat magic is, for real, any time you work magic invoking or using heat as an element within the spell or working. So if you’re using the heat of a flame in a spell, that’s both heat and fire magic. It can be really useful, which I’ll talk about a bit later.

First, let’s talk about heat, in general. (Warning for casual and probably ill-explained science ahead). When we’re talking about how hot it is for our bodies in regards to the weather, we’re actually not just referring to the temperature. I mean, yes, we do say “how hot is it out there?” And we know from the number thrown at us that it’s hot. But, heat doesn’t exist alone, so there’s some other things you need to calculate.

We also need to factor in the sun’s brightness (because standing in bright sunlight is nice for about 5 seconds until it’s not) You also need to calculate the wind’s strength and where that wind’s coming from and how hot the wind is (because hot, stale wind on your face is just gross is like the earth’s breathing on you.)

You also need to add in the most important thing: the humidity amount. Humidity affects humans because we cool our bodies by condensation (we sweat). When it’s hot and dry, the water joins the air and goes on a wonderful journey that is Somewhere Else beyond your body and you’d care more if it wasn’t so bloody hot. That doesn’t happen when the humidity is high. When the humidity is high, there’s so much water grossness in the air, it’s like a swamp. Seriously, imagine a swamp – that’s what the air is when it’s humid out. It can make a cooler temperature in general, so much more miserable and hot, because there’s so much humidity in the air.

Additionally, one must remember that we acclimate to our regions and environments. So while someone in South Cali is like “110 today? Huh, it was hotter yesterday” and sneers at someone in New York is complaining about the 90 degrees in their area, one must remember that 1) the regional weather is not the same, so it might actually feel like 110 in New York, even if the weather app says otherwise. 2) While it might be normal for South Cali to experience that kind of heat, but it may not be in New York. People aren’t prepared for unusual weather patterns in their regions. This is why, when it snows in Florida, people lose their damn minds. And 3) people have different needs and therefore some people get more uncomfortable in certain kinds of weather than other people. And 4) that mocking people for complaining about the weather, a thing we all experience, is pretty fucking shitty among strangers on the internet. So let’s ease up people.

(By the way, all of the above, also hold true for cold temperatures. Just an FYI).

How you imagine heat will change depending on what kind of heat you’re accustom to. In Rhode Island, we have high humidity regularly pretty much all year long. It often rains and the humidity  stays right where it is, which is a kick in the teeth, let me tell you. It’s like “oh, it might rain today! Yay!” Thunderstorms rolls in for forty minutes, spitting warm water at you, then rolls out. “Oh, it made no difference at all, except it’s wet now. ” It’s fun.

When I imagine heat, I imagine it in three ways. Heat from fire and ovens, which is smoldering and directionally hot. Another is from heat in general, like standing in the sun and soaking in that warmth like a cat. The third is humid warmth where everything is a hot soupy swamp and no amount of iced coffee can help it.

Depending on your goal, pick a day embodied by your form of heat magic. Healing spells I’ll use sunny days, but I’ll reserve high humidity days for curses or spells that need extra energy.

Why heat magic? Well, it’s as natural as it comes. It’s a form of nature and weather. Controlling fire is one of the key discoveries of humankind, so working with fire magic is a good way to connect to older energies or ancestor worship. It’s also super low-key and needs no tools. You don’t need a cup of water like you might with water magic or a handful of dirt like in earth magic. You just need to open a window or step outside. (And then be miserable because HOT). It’s also a good way to work regionally within your practice, because your weather is localized to your direct environment.

Heat magic can be used in the same way you might use magic during a storm. You can simply cast the spell on the heat-soaked day. You can also use the heat as an ingredient, by “capturing” the heat in a jar (it will literally be a jar of air). It can be invoked (IE “by the heat of the day”.  It can be directed, like opening up an oven, and saying your spell with the heat blasting your face.

There’s lots of ways heat magic can be useful. You might have already given heat magic a try, by using the heat from a candle in a spell. If you haven’t, see what kind of spells you can come up with that might use heat magic. Who knows, you may find a new favorite spell medium and if not, at least you’ll have something else to do when it’s too hot to move or care.

How to Make Moon Water

Bringing things back to basics with a how to make moon water. I know this seems like a pretty obvious thing to some folks, but I often get messages asking me what this ingredient is or what that ingredient does. Ingredients many practitioners consider very basic, like full moon water.

First, let’s cover what full moon water is. Moon water is water that has absorbed the light of a moon. This can be any moon phase at all. Usually though, when people refer to moon water, they’re referring to full moon water.

As you might guess, full moon water is water that has absorbed the light of a full moon. New moon water is water that has absorbed the light (or lack thereof) of the new moon. Waning and waxing moon water can also be used.

Now there are some variations of names here and some additives to take into account. I’ve seen people refer to new moon water as starlight water because without the moon, it’s really water just gaining starlight. it’s also called dark moon water, because the new moon is sometimes called the dark moon.

People also will divide the moon water up further by including and calculating out the astrological and planetary positions. I don’t have much to do with astrology, not my field of expertise, so I tend to mark the data down, but I rarely do anything with it beyond grabbing a jar marked “full moon water”.

There’s also some variation on how to actually make full moon water. what you actually need is water. But the type of water matters to some people. Others add intent to the water. Other people add crystals, herbs, salt, and so on.

Truth be told, adding these things tends to make it no longer just moon water. Adding a crystal in the water really makes it a moon water gem elixir and adding herbs in the water is just a herbal infusion. But if that’s how you want to make your moon water, then go for it! Just know that most spells aren’t referring to anything other than water that has absorbed the moon.

Ready for the recipe?

Ingredients:

  • Water, any kind. Purified, spring, bottled, filtered, or tap.
  • A clear jar with sealing lid
  • A paint marker, any color or label
  • A clear, cloudless night during the full moon

First, make sure your jar and lid are clean.

Next, pour your water into the jar and cap it. You can enchant the water, put some intent in there (such as matching the intents to what the moon phase tends to represent), or you can say nothing at all.

Place the jar in a window or outside where it will be in clear sight of the moon. This should be done after moon rise (so, pretty much as soon as you can see the moon and after the sun has set).

You can leave the jar out there as long as you’d like, but try to take it back inside before sunrise.

Label the jar by writing on the jar with the paint marker or using a pre-made label. The label should at least read “full moon water” (or whatever phase the moon is at), but you might also want to add a location, date, weather, and so on to your label.

Place the jar somewhere dark without sunlight, like a closet or cupboard. use the full moon water in spells, to anoint items for more power, abundance, happiness, to bless something with lunar energy, or to charge an item.

If you’re making any other type of moon water, this above also applies, just do it on a clear night where the moon is in the right phase.

I even made you a little pinterest how to for you all. Easier to reference, for sure. Hope this helps!

What Makes a Crossroads a Crossroads?

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What Makes a Crossroads a Crossroads

Have you ever looked at a spell and it says something like “leave the object at a crossroads”? Many, many spells end this way and for good reason. Leaving an item at a crossroads magically and energetically disperses the energy. It’s good when you’re leaving a general offering for spirits. It’s great when you’re trying to cast a non-targeted spell.

Leaving spell work in specific places is usually because you don’t want it around. As said, sometimes it’s for safety’s sake (ie curses or spirits), but other times it’s for things like healing spells.

If you used a rock to remove a disease from somebody while healing them, you don’t want to keep that disease-ridden rock. So put it at a crossroad where it’s away from you.

Some witches leave things at the crossroads so others can pick it up and a curse can be passed that way. And some witches use it to bless those in the same manner.

It’s also commonly used in getting rid of spirits and curses. Capture a spirit and release it in a crossroads far away from your home. Toss the remains of the curse you’ve casted or the dregs of whatever uncrossing spell you’ve done to rid yourself of a curse. Both instances ask you to visit a crossroads far away from you home.

A third usage is an energy reset. This usually is used by a practitioner that does a lot of land-based or local magic or works with a lot of spirits. Sometimes, you just need to cleanse the energy lines and the space.

 

All of those things can be done at a crossroads. But what makes a crossroads a crossroads? What are the unspoken rules about crossroads? And why are there unspoken rules at all?

First, let’s establish what a crossroads is.

It’s an intersection. Or, rather, a crossroad is where two or more streets intersect or cross one another.

Properly, it should be any intersection where four streets meet and none of the roads are a dead end or cul-de-sac. However, train-tracks and roads, bridges, and so are are also crossroads and can be used, even if they are literal streets.

Plus, dead ends and cul-de-sacs can be useful in crossroad including spells – want to stop energy from spreading? Want to make a boundary within your neighborhood? Those kinds of spells could benefit from streets that end abruptly.

Similarly, a corpse road is a road that traditionally refers to the pathways or roads the dead were carried on from the church to the graveyards. Often, corpse roads were separate paths with gateways because of fear that the dead linger on such roads. Now-a-days, any road used to carry the dead from one place to another could be considered a corpse road.

I like to combine the two. My home, the Crossroads House, sits between two crossroads (literally two intersections) and is behind a funeral home. So my crossroads are corpse roads. However, if you don’t work with spirits, perhaps selecting crossroads that are not corpse roads is more beneficial to you. Weigh your choices carefully.

When it comes to symology and magical purposes, crossroads are well-known world-wide. I’ll quote from The Complete Dictionary of Symbols edited by Jack Tressider (pg 128-129):

The unknown – hazard, choice, destiny, supernatural powers. The important attached to intersecting ways in most ancient cultures is remarkable. The fact that they were natural stops for wayfarers only partially accounts for the number of shrines, altars, standing stones, chapels, or Calvaries sited there. In Peru and elsewhere pyramids were sometimes built up over years by travellers adding votive stones as they passed through crossroads. Spirits were thought to haunt them, hence they were sites for divination and sacrifice – and, by extension, places of the execution or burial or people or things of which society wished to be rid. Many African tribes dumped rubbish things there so that any residual harm might be adsorbed. Roman crossroads in the time of Augustus were protected by two lares campitales (tutelary deities of place). Offerings were made to them or to the god Janus and other protective divinities, who could look in all directions, such as Hermes, to whom three-headed statues were placed at Greek crossroads. Hekate, as a death goddess, was a more sinister presence, as was the supreme Toltec god, Tezcatlipoca, who challenged warriors at crossroads. Some version of the Oedipus myth placed his faithful encounters with his unknown father, and the Sphinx at crossroads – an analogy for destiny. Jung saw the crossroads as a maternal symbol of the union of opposites. More often, they seem an image of human fears and hopes at a moment of choice.

That’s a lot of words so I’ll break it down.

Crossroads have and will always be a symbol of choice. In the past (and even today) travel by the roads is pretty much the only way to go. In the past it was safer because other travelers can band together to protect one another. Today, property laws say you can’t trespass making roads pretty much the only way to travel.

Because people traveled on them shrines, altars, and holy places were erected at intersections. Sometimes even notes were left by signs. It was also a great place to meet people coming and going.

It was and is also a place where spirits dwell. Part of that is from the shrines, others is because of the executions. I see crossroads a bit like a spiritual water cooler. Spirits seem to collect there because of all the different energies coming from different directions (and be carried by different people and things).

Additionally, if you believe that energy travels via roads (whether naturally or through people passing on those roads), then crossroads are very magically powerful.

Because of the spiritual symbolism behind them, especially in regards to actual spirits, there’s a lot of unspoken rules about crossroads. Here’s a few of them.

Never use the same route home

This means if you came up the eastern road, you should use the western, southern, or northern route home. Don’t use the eastern. This is because a spirit or energy could follow you home through the circuit you’ve made. Instead, take a different way home, which should spiritually or energetically get them of your trail.

Never respond to voices at the crossroads

Sometimes, you’re at a crossroads and you may here people talking. Logically, this is because crossroads tend to be open spaces and voices travel. However, it may also be spirits or faeries. In any case, don’t respond to the voices you’ve heard. Just go about your business and be on your way.

Do not make deals at the crossroads

This follows the above rule a bit further. If you go to the crossroads and see another person there, then keep on going. Don’t stop to talk with them, don’t stop to do your work, and don’t turn around and go back the way you came. Don’t meet their eyes and, above all, do not make deals. Simply put, there’s a strong belief that if you meet another person at the crossroads, it’s probably going to be a faerie, spirit, demon, or even the Devil, depending on who you ask. It’s Bad News. Skip the drama and don’t even stop.

Never leave items with your address or name at the crossroads

This is not only for spiritual safety, but your physical safety. Someone could simply google you and cause all sorts of problems. Spiritually, offering your real name to spirits, other practitioners, etc is often questionable. Your name is a piece of you. Guard it.

Try to leave environmentally safe items at the crossroads

This isn’t a rule, but it should be. Often times, we leave leftovers of spell work and other things at the crossroads. Typically speaking, it gets cleaned up when the city comes by or neighbors. But animals and the less fortunate also use or consume what they find at the crossroads. So if you’re going to leave an item that is not for consumption (like sugary bread baked with glass for a curse) then bury it at the crossroads. You may need to search for a crossroads that you can discreetly dig at, but it’s worth the trouble to keep animals or people from consuming unsafe things. This is also true for jar spells. Consider, does it really need to be in a glass jar?

 

I use crossroads fairly extensively in my craft, when it calls for it. But I’ve been asked what a crossroad is about a dozen times a year, so it was time to type up my thoughts about it.

Crossroads certainly have their place in magical practices. It has it’s place in folklore. It’s certainly a symbolic feature and we use it often in media to describe being torn or in many places. Remembering this folklore and symbolism is important, but you’ll also want to take into account your own practices to see if crossroads fit your practice.

 

Post includes an original tumblr post.