I’ve also added to the divination page here on the site. You could always order a custom reading, but I’ve changed the menu and wording around to make it even easier to order.
The King and Queen Divinations are This Crooked Crown exclusives. I created these divination methods. The King’s Divination is a lot or ‘throw the bones’ style reading using crystals. The Queen’s Divination takes the King’s stones and adds a spinning board to the mix. Or head over to Etsy for a reading.
Oracular style readings are also now available. This reading requires me to channel a spirit or deity and answer questions or offer whatever the entity wishes to say. It’s an intensive reading and only some entities will allow themselves to be invoked by me. I’m offering these as a trial right now, but I’d like to offer them full time. They’re also on sale right now for $50 for the trial period.
Poppets – Witchcraft tools
Rope poppets, hand-made by a witch from a single piece of rope are available. These poppets are unique and one of a kind, due to their nature.
They’re perfect for spell crafting. They’re made with organic materials so they can be buried in an environmentally sound way. They can also be easily burned.
They are NOT enchanted. You must enchant them yourself. I can enchant them to your general purpose, for an additional fee. Additional poppets can be made.
Simple magic cords are knot spells. They can be worn as a bracelet, tucked in a pocket, tied to your keys or bag, or hidden among your sheets.
This month’s magic cord is Serene Lake. Washed in midnight Full Moon Water gathered by a lake, this cord was created on a sunny full moon morning, right as the moon became full.
It’s meant to help reduce anxiety and focuses on calmness and peace.
I’ve always offered spell casting. Etsy changed their policies a few years back requiring me to move the service off their website, but I’ve offered it still. I recently revamped the “buy a spell” section of the website.
Right now, knot spells and specific candle spells are available, but I’m open to casting most spells. All requests will be considered, but I hold the right to refuse service.
Ever see a spread on pinterest or tumblr and think “I wanna try that?” and yet it’s stupidly hard to get into? Like reading a book or a watching a movie that is dragging slowly. You want to finish it but it’s just not happening.
Let’s be honest: sometimes you’re distracted and that’s why nothing’s happening. Sometimes it’s the wrong time for that reading or that information for you. Or you’re using a deck that doesn’t like that spread or is feeling uncooperative.
But maybe it’s because some spreads don’t like you as much as others.
I believe that spreads, like any works of the mind and self can captured the energy of the creator. Not all people get along so why would you get along with their art?
For example, I create a lot of spreads. Not all of them reach the light of day. The easiest ones I’ve ever used are the ones that I created because they felt right. I created them because they didn’t need to fulfill a particular need, but because I wanted to make them.
When reading these spreads, I can complete the reading at least twice as fast and with less effort and energy than a smaller spread that doesn’t mesh as well with me.
Still, sometimes you need to work though a spread. Here’s my tips on how that.
Rephrase the spread
Sometimes the wording of a spread isn’t working for you. Rephrase the questions in the spread and see if that helps.
Try a different deck
This may mean you need to break out a different tarot card deck, an oracle deck rather than a tarot card deck, etc. If you don’t own another deck, try using an online app! Download your favorite tarot app (I use Galaxy Tarot) and draw a card for each position of the spread.
Tell a story with the spread
What is this spread suppose to do? Tell a story with it. “Once upon a time there was a girl who [first question in the spread or the purpose of the spread]. She wanted to know / change her life’s path, so she [next question/ position in the spread].” So on and so on.
Break time!
Get up and have a break. Take a walk, stretch your arms and legs. Have a snack, watch some TV, or play with your pet. Sometimes, you just need to stop banging your head against what you’re working on and do something different for a while.
Change the environment
Sometimes an environmental change can make all the difference. Try a different playlist, head to a local coffee shop, set up camp at a local park. It can make a world of difference to change your environment and your perspective along with it.
Lighten up
Sometimes we take ourselves WAY too seriously. Lighten up. Accept that the cards are snarking back or things are just being way too serious. You may not emotionally be on the same level as a playful spread at the time. You may be using a super serious deck for a silly reading. Sometimes, things just don’t mesh well. Try again later, in a different mood, or with a different tool.
Make your own spread
Maybe it’s the layout messing with you. Maybe the questions just don’t feel right. Summarize the spread’s questions and write up your own spread with that summary. I caution against using the newly created spread in professional readings, because it might qualify under plagiarism, but it’s a very useful tool in understanding a particular spread.
Mostly, it’s important to realize that sometimes, things just aren’t going to work the way you want them to, both in life and in card reading. Don’t worry about it overmuch. Try a different spread. Ask another question. Go back to it later. Its (probably) not the end of the world.
This is a spell to help alleviate medical bills and bring funds in for medicine and so forth. It’s specifically set for that.
Ingredients:
Mint (any kind, but common mint is ideal)
Cinquefoil (aka five finger grass)
Apple (any kind, whatever feels most useful for the spell)
Rue
Rose petals (any kind, try color symbolism or floriography)
Water
A place to plant or bury something
A sunny day
Gather your ingredients and bring them outside on a sunny day.
Sitting in the sun, cut open the apple in half. Sprinkle the interior of the apple halves with the rest of the herbs. As you do this, imagine and/or speak how healthy and debt free you are and will continue to be.
Bury the apple halves in the ground or in a flower pot. As you bury them, say something like this:
I buried this apple
To bury my debts
As this apple decays, my debts are resolved
As this apple decays, my health grows ever stronger
As this apple decays, my finances grow ever stronger
Water the ground, slow and steady. Repeat the above verse as you water it. Keep watering the area once a month, ideally on the days you pay your health bills.
Notes:
You don’t have to speak the spell loudly. You can even clearly speak the spell in your head.
You can do the spell again and again every spring, if you want to.
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.
Ready for the easiest money spell ever? Small but mighty, this spell is designed for even the most secretive witches or beginners can do it in fifteen minutes or less.
Ingredients:
White tealight candle
A shiny penny or some other coin
A tray, burn plate, or fire-safe thing (see notes)
Lift your tealight candle out of the little tin or plastic cup it’s sitting in. You might need to pull it by the wick to get it out, but it should just slid out.
Take your coin and rub it between your hands, like you’re trying to warm your hands up with the coin in your palms. As you do this, say or think of the money you want to come into your life. Think something specific and attainable like “come on rent money” rather than “come on winning lottery numbers”. Put a lot of energy and emphasis on that wish.
(Why is rent money is more attainable than lotto numbers? Primarily for two reasons. Prayers, wishes, and other spells are often thought or said for over the lottery. That’s a lot of magic pulling on the same thing and luck factors in as well. Rent money is more attainable because someone might loan you the money or you get an extra shift at work or something. There’s more chances for that to happen. That being said, it won’t hurt to cast a spell for the lottery, just don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work.)
Now put the coin under the candle inside the tin or plastic candle holder and put the candle back on top of the coin. Light the candle and say or think,
“As you burn, my money will come.
When you die, my money has arrived.”
Carry the penny / coin with you. You can reuse that coin or keep it as a lucky coin, if the spell works. If the spell doesn’t work, give or spend the coin (or use it in a cursing spell). You might need to scrap the wax off to spend it, but don’t keep it.
Notes:
When it comes to fire plate for this spell, it’s really more about catching spilling wax. So pick something, like a ceramic plate, to put under the candle. The coin probably gives the tealight candle just enough rise to make spilling wax a problem. If you’re doing this spell outside or you have some other sort of candle plate or whatever, then don’t worry about this.
Beginner practitioners of candle magic probably will sooner rather than later hit up your local dollar store or used goods store for a simple ceramic plate. It doesn’t need to be fancy. It’s just there to catch incense ash and candle wax, but that plate can be a lifesaver when it comes to clean up. Seriously. 1000% recommend.
Hi folks! Happy May! We’ve got some new shinies up for you to grab, plus some of your old spread favorites are back in the shop.
Some of you probably noticed that the shop has been looking a little empty lately. I’ve decided to change up how I offer readings online. I often get swamped with readings and that makes it difficult to deliver quality in a timely manner. Plus, my energy gets super tapped and then I have nothing to give to anything else (like the blog or answering questions).
So we’re going on a rotation. I’ll be offering certain spreads and readings at different times. The selection will change monthly.
No worries! You can always get a non-spread specific reading or custom request a specific reading. I’ll be updating the shop here with my spreads and readings so you know what to look forward to or request.
Some eagle-eyed folks probably noticed a change in some of the menu links. The links should open to post tags rather than an individual page with a long list of links. Hopefully, that means you’ll be able to find more of what you’re looking for. Let me know what you think.
Anyway, onto this month’s updates.
Charm Bottles are back! These little charm bottles always fly off the shelf whenever I make them. Each one is one-of-a-kind, with hand braided enchanted cotton cords, wax sealed glass bottles stuffed with a magic herbal blend.
These ones are for protection. Head over to the shop to read up on the details and snap one up for yourself.
Charm bags are also back. These two felt sachets are stuffed with herbal goodness, but they’re designs are simple. The pink one is even irregularly shaped. I use to make these babies all the time, but fell out of practice. It felt good to get back into the swing of things, but the designs of these two weren’t super good. Therefore, they are marked accordingly. (That means they’re super cheap).
The pink one’s for love and friendship, the blue one’s for protection. Made from felt and cotton thread, they’re simple, but easily concealed in a bag pocket or drawer.
Ardent Mugwort is also back. These made to order beauties are gentler flying ointments than what’s usually on the market, using mugwort as the activating herb. Handcrafted and enchanted for astral travel, meditation, trance work, and spirit shenanigans.
There are five readings up in the shop beyond the usual.
There are thousands of ways to break a curse. But the other day I was thinking about curse breaking with ordinary items. The humble egg is the most common hex breaking tool in your average kitchen. But what about an apple?
Apples are great for love and healing spells. They’re used in binding spells too. And no one can forget the apple curse that trapped Snow White. But breaking a curse with an apple? Absolutely.
I can think of several ways to make this work, the most obvious being simply using the apple as a poppet – which is actually something of a traditional substitute. But we’re going to go a different way with a hex breaking spell today.
This spell is intended to break a hex or curse that you think has been placed on you. With an ingredient as common as an apple, you can easily do this unhexing even if you’re unsure that you’ve been hexed.
Ingredients:
A firm sour apple or crab apple
An onion
A sharp, large knife
Heavy duty cutting board
Skewer or string
Get yourself either a crab apple or a firm, sour apple. Small green apples tend to be more sour, so aim for one of those. You might find the apples you need under “baking apples” rather than “eating apples”. Wash your apple well and dry it off.
Set your cutting board up and make sure your knife is sharp enough to go entirely through the apple with one slice.
Breathe across the apple and rub it over your heart. Take your time with this. As you breathe across the apple, concentrate on breathing out negativity and any spiritual gunk you have. The intent here is to connect yourself to the apple so the curse is passed to the apple.
Once you think you’re ready, cut the onion in half. Then, with the same knife on the same cutting board, chop or slice the apple in half in a single, powerful move.
Rub the onion’s cut side on the apple’s cut side. Then skewer or tie the onion to half of the apple. Essentially, you’re creating two half apple and half onion.
Take the apple-onions, touching only the onion sides, to a crossroads far away from your house, workplace, or anywhere you frequently visit. Leave or bury the apple-onions at the crossroads.
Notes:
The onion here is serving as a binding agent and a purifying agent. If you can’t touch onions, garlic or similar noxious purifiers will work.
Black string is probably best for this, but a wooden skewer or even toothpicks will work.
There’s a place somewhere between the realm of dreams and spirits that is for release of grief emotions.
Perhaps you’ve been there. A place where sorrow is understood and, despite the beings moving around you living their lives, you feel comfortable to be in your grief.
It starts at a sandy altar. A table-style of sandstone, about mid-chest to waist high on an adult. Incense burns here, billowing individual trails of smoke coalescing into a wind of fragrant prayers. The altar is in a courtyard with a blue open sky above, but shadowed by the surrounding pale sandstone walls. Awnings of hand-dyed fabric hang high over the altar, protecting it from rain.
In the dream or astral visit, you start here. Most often you’re at the altar and light incense, shakily pray, or simply try to say goodbye through a pinched, watery smile. Some people linger here, wrapping themselves in black homespun fabric and tucking themselves into corners to cry. Sometimes, people are with you, other times they are not. Who? They could be family, friends, lovers, or strangers that could have been more. Sometimes, its just you.
Who is there depends on what you’re mourning. Mourning a family member, a loved one? You may have loved ones alongside you, family to support you, friends to carry you, lovers to hold you, pets to comfort you. If you’re mourning an event that could have been, a situation you might have had or was in, or just losing a piece of yourself, you’re usually alone.
Either way, there you remain. Until finally, you’re ready to move on. You place your final piece of incense on the altar, say a final goodbye that feels like a loss all on its own, a goodbye that isn’t quite as shaky, a smile that isn’t quite as heatbreaking, and you slip through the archway to the left of the altar.
People move here, work here. It’s a dyer’s marketplace. Baskets of little ornaments, flowers and florals, bolts of fabric, and pocket charms sit on sun-bleached tables. You cannot see the sun though. The entire space has flapping cloth awnings on tall pole, protecting the workers from the heat of the sun, protecting you. More fabric hangs, little banners and flag, swatches of material in all manner of hand-dyed goodness. Blues, greens, reds, oranges, purples, and pinks. Natural linen color dominates with a rainbow of tucked away color. In the distance, you may hear chatter, soft and indistinct. A weaver’s loom works, but it’s comforting. the passage between these stalls, with gently smiling people sharing actual kindness, is narrow. People do not get in your way. As you move, they seem to never be in your way or make you slow down or stop unless you want to stop. They don’t readily acknowledge you either, unless you glance at them first. A smile, a pat on the arm, maybe soft murmuring that’s meant only to be comforting, supporting. Then they move on.
The passage is like a C, but there are other corridors that lead elsewhere to the marketplace. You can even sometimes glimpse where the fabric awnings break into brilliantly, unbelievable blue sky.
In time, you do weave your way through, following a course that you only seem to know in your head. Sometimes you find yourself with dried flowers or charms pressed into your hands. A long string of beads around your wrist, a shawl of soft mauve around your shoulders.
At the end, you come out to of the space with nothing before you. More sandstone buildings are to your left, but the doorway is hidden in the depths of that fabric maze. Beyond the buildings and marketplace is nothing but endless white plains and blue, blue sky. Sometimes family and loved ones stands before you, waiting for you. They may even have a car ready to go. Sometimes its just you.
The dream or astral visit ends there. I’ve been to this place several times, each time mourning different things or people. And it is always the same altar, the same sky, the same place, the same twisting, fabric passage.
What happens during that time varies. Once I came out with a long length of wooden beads around my wrist, neither a mala or rosary. Another time I came out of that comforting place with a bunch of tiny purple and blue flowers in my hands. It varies.
This place, a place of letting go of your grief, should be sad. Instead, I’d say its more comforting than anything. Like finally being able to catch your breath or how much better you feel after crying. You’re still miserable, but there’s a feeling of releasing, letting things go. It’s a somber place, but one of profound peace and change.
Have you been here? Does this place sound familiar? I honestly can’t tell you how to get here. I think you just arrive when you need to be there. I hope that introducing people to this special place will encourage more visitors.
As to whether its a dream or an actual astral destination… I think it’s both. I think a place can be both a dream and astral. The astral is connected to dreams. It can be influenced by dreams. And dreams can slip into astral travel. I think its both.
A simple but effective charm to gain attention. This can be used when you want to be flattered, charm someone at a bar or club, show well at an audition or interview, or stand out in a crowd.
I wouldn’t particularly consider this a kind spell. It gains attention, but it doesn’t necessarily gain good attention. You may gain the attention of someone you’d rather not deal with. You may get yelled at by your parents instead of spend time with them. It gives you attention – it doesn’t say what kind of attention. It’s up to you to use the attention you gain to your advantage.
That being said, it’s good when you want to stand out while at the club, auditions, or interviews.
Ingredients:
Yellow or red candle
Floral fabric
Clover
Apple or apple blossom
Thyme
Jasmine
Oak leaf or acorn
Almond or almond blossom
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
St. John’s wort
Eyebright
Rosemary
Hydrangea
Rose
Peony
Sugar
Rose quartz
Carnelian
Quartz crystal
Citrine
Bloodstone
Goldstone
Fire agate
Aventurine
Garnet
Magnet or magnetic sand
Make a charm bag that closes using the fabric. It can be as large or small as you’d like. A good sized charm bag for this specific charm should fit in the palm of your hand.
Carve into the candle “I shine. I glow. I am like fire.” Use a knife, toothpick, or even just write it with a sharpie.
Gather together at least seven ingredients from the list (excluding the candle and fabric) and spread them before the candle.
Light the candle and say the following:
I shine and glow
I rise above others
Others will see and know me
I am like fire
I draw people like moths to a flame
Blow out the candle. Fill the charm bag with your chosen items and carry it with you when you wish to gain attention.
Notes:
Yellow is a good color choice for this charm. Yellow roses, yellow peonies, yellow fabric, antiqued hydrangeas, and so on. Anything that’s yellow or gold works well.
Sewing’s the best option for creating the fabric bag, as you can using knot magic in your stitches as a boost. But you can glue, staple, or create the charm bag any way you’d like.
You can repeat the spell as often as you like, reusing the candle and stone ingredients again. You’ll need new dried herb though.
I’ve been catching up on some reading and magical research of my own recently and a thought occurred to me. Are our homes less protected from spirits and outside forces than homes were historically?
The short answer is yes, of course they are. Historically speaking, it was culturally relevant to place simple household protections in the home, even if you weren’t superstitious. Parents and family would gift good luck charms to newlyweds setting up a new house and houses were built with supernatural protections in mind.
That’s what really switched me onto this line of thinking. The building of the home. In the past, there were many things people would do, worldwide, to strengthen and magically protect a new building. It’s an universally seen phenomena. Some of those things truly are done merely for supernatural protection and others were done for some middling ground of supernatural protection and mundane protections.
Here’s a few folkloric bits that come to mind specifically.
Walls need to be painted to keep ghosts away.
Walls had to be painted so ghosts couldn’t enter. Any color would do, but the paint should be put up as soon as possible.
I believe I read this in Scott Cunningham and David Harrington’s book The Magical Household, but I’m also 80% sure I’ve read this elsewhere too.
I think this stems from the idea that the house is “unfinished” when it isn’t painted. And, historically, that’s true. Paint helps preserve wood, especially when the paint is continually (even ritually) reapplied regularly. This is true even today. So a house may be considered unfinished if it wasn’t painted. I think even painted wood with a sealer, like linseed oil, probably also counts.
Burying things in the foundation or walls will strengthen the home.
This is a recorded thing. You almost certainly have heard this folklore, in some way, shape, or form before. Essentially, you bury or place an object or corpse while building the home as a sacrifice. Sometimes, it’s even a living sacrifice.
Most often, these objects are hidden by or under the hearth, threshold, corners of the home, floors, walls, and attic. What is buried varies, but it’s often animals or material objects. Snakes, frogs, rabbits, cats, dogs, horses, cattle, and even humans have all been buried ritually. Other objects are witch bottles, shoes, coins, tools, weapons (like arrows), and paper talismans (sigils) have also been found.
I would also link this behavior to witch bottles. Modern witches often joke that witches love jars and much of our solid evidence for historical witchcraft stems from witch bottles being discovered. It’s the same idea and some witch bottles were made as sacrifices, so to speak, to the household foundations.
I will admit that there is one major flaw with this: we have few ways of knowing whether something was trapped inside the foundations or put there intentionally. Some are found with gifts or coffins, indicating intentions in a clear way. Others are discovered in places where it’s difficult to imagine the item would get there naturally. But a letter or coins can fall through a floorboard. A snake may crawl up through some mouse hole and curl up under the hearth for warmth in the winter and die.
Another consideration is the smell of decay. Any living or corpse sacrifice would rot. You would have to deal with the decay (and the smell of it and the maggots/flies) that come from decay. It would have to be worthwhile. Yet we know that some of these sacrifices were made with fresh or still living animals. It makes you think.
Nevertheless, it’s actually quite easy to stick a witch jar on a crossbar in the interior of the wall. I’ve done it myself. I store several witch bottles in this manner in a side room, tucked out of sight but easy to access without the wall-boards in the way. When my home was remodeled, I drew protection symbols on the wood framing and I enchanted the sealant I used on the wood working.
Mostly, this behavior is recorded in western Europe. It’s noted especially in the UK, but it’s been seen elsewhere such as Finland, France, Iceland, and New England. (I know some other places too, but I can’t recall them off the top of my head.)
To be fair, not every single thing buried in the walls, floors, or attic is for protection. Protection is, widely, the number one reason, but it can also be for fertility, luck, to curse someone, for health prosperity, abundance, repelling pests, and so on.
The anthology book Hidden Charms – A conference held at Norwich Castle April 2nd, 2016 by editors John Billingsley, Jeremy Harte, Brian Hoggard gives plenty of evidence to this end in the papers presented inside the book. It’s not an easy text to track down, but if you can find it, it’s worth the read.
Materials matter
You already know this. People have always picked materials for certain magical or spiritual properties as much as they are selected from prettiness or strength.
This is especially true though on how it affects modern houses vs old houses. Modern houses tend to be built with concrete, pine wood, and Sheetrock wall boards. We use linoleum, vinyl, and plastic. All ingredients can be magical, but these aren’t typically thought of as magical and are often scorned. Older homes have more handmade or crafter built items in it, so the artisan’s energy also plays into the household’s protection. Just like how an artist can pass on a message through their artwork, an artisan of any kind can do the same.
We can, of course, remodel and add our own selection to the house. You can put new flooring down. You can add furniture of a particular material to balance out the house. All these things can be done to balance out and protect the home.
Planting certain plants for protection.
If you work with plants or herbs, even in the very slightest, then you’ve already seen what magically selecting the right plants can do for magical protections. Planting trees, bushes, flowers, and more in various (and sometimes extremely specific) locations on the property can protect a home. Sometimes not planting an item can do the same.
Some of this is for agricultural reasons – a nut producing tree can provide food and shade. Some for less noticeable reasons – hydrangeas planted by the door was said to make women living there spinsters because the flowers were more stunning then the women. Lavender by the door was said to keep away witches. Oak and rowan are great protectors but elder is nothing but bad news.
Of course, items made from these things also need to be taken into account. So oak flooring might have been used over pine, for example, not just for the sturdiness of it, but also for magical merit.
These days the easiest way to help balance out a home’s protection is relatively the same if you use plants. Plant a protective plant where folklore indicates you should and call it a day. Be sure to check local ordinances, as some places are pretty specific on what can and can’t be planted and where those plants can go.
You can also hang a bunch of drying protection herbs over the door (beside your lucky horseshoe) for protection. This was and still is really well known folklore witches use today.
It may have been a normal part of house building to make adjustments or pauses in work to add in these magical protections. They may have been viewed as superstitions, but chances are people still upheld them as a matter of cultural rote, even if they weren’t superstitious by nature.
That’s why I think that our newer houses may, by their very nature, be less protected. They don’t have the years of people hoping their house is safe and full of good life (wishes can be powerful spells too, after all). They probably don’t have people who go out of their way to ensure that the house is built facing the best direction for some magical reason or allow time to place items in the wall. How many of you can dig up your hearth or move a hearthstone to put something under it? Not many I wager. Newer homes have less problems (if they’re well-built), because they’re new, but I think we also put ourselves into a lot of supernatural trouble because houses aren’t as well protected by years and years of wishes, belief, faith, and magic.
As magical practitioners, we found ourselves at a disadvantage and know that we’re at a disadvantage. I also think that normal people are also victims here. It may be that people are more susceptible to ghosts or hauntings because there’s less magical intentions and protections built into the house. I mean, that stuff all still happened, but you find more old stories that spirits in the house were invited first, then caused trouble, and that most spirits couldn’t enter the house. Once popular opinion and thinking switched to more scientific thinking, people shed those superstitious actions they might have done by rote, and thus we have more hauntings and ghosts.
(Did I just give a possible reason why we see more spirits from the 1800s than earlier? Yes, yes I did, but I think there are other reasons for that this trend too. That’s a different topic for a different day.)
Anyway, since I haven’t yet run into any construction crews that build with magical intentions in mind, then we have to take steps ourselves to build in those protections. Trace a symbol in a corner close to the floor in paint before layering on paint when repainting a room. (I recommend this because you can and will pick up the symbol under paint layers, if you’re only putting a layer or two on.) Add a protection symbol to a newly poured cement walkway (hey, people but their hand-prints and dates on that stuff all the time!) Enchant the water you wash your floors, windows, and walls with. Add witch jars to the corners of your house. These are things we can still do, but are often pushed aside for more exciting protection methods. I like the idea of setting up multiple protections in a house, so that you’re covered from many, many angles.
Don’t get me wrong. Modern houses are just as good as old houses.
I love old houses because of the history and detail in these places are amazing, but often there’s a lot of weirdness that happens as buildings age and different people use if for different things. Homes get remodeled, rooms added or removed, doorways and whole apartments added or removed. New piping, old piping, and more. It can be a mighty task to keep up an older home. New homes will have less maintenance (except the standard maintenance of course), but often don’t have the fine details or history attached to it. Shoddy workmanship is also a factor when it comes to modern homes, because they haven’t withstood the test of time. I love new homes because there’s can be so much cleverness and purpose built into new ones, especially when combining with technology today.
There are pros and cons to each of these homes that need to be considered when moving into or purchasing one of them. There’s a lot of factors that need to be considered and this may be one that you should keep tucked in the back of your mind.
What do you all think? Have you heard of something magically done while building a house? Do you know someone who constructs, remodels, or designs homes with magical intentions in mind?
This Crooked Crown 