Tag: a day in the life

5 Tips to Loving Yourself + Tarot Spread

Quick post and then I’ll let you get back to your evening. There’s a ton of tips floating around about how to love and care for yourself. I’m not going to rehash all of that info because I’m sure you’ve run into it before. Here’s some of my favorite ideas.

Keep reading because there’s a tarot/oracle/divination spread at the bottom you might enjoy!

 

 

01 Focus on what you love

I pick one thing that I really like about myself and buy or create something nice for it. For example, I’m really fond of my hair so when I’m feeling down in the dumps, I’ll buy a new hat, make a new hair accessory, or try a new hair style.

It helps reinforce that there’s stuff I like about myself and that I’m still super cute even in sweats and a baggie tee while procrastinating today’s workout.

 

02 Forgive yourself

Life’s tough and sometimes it sucks. And when you suddenly remember that mistake you made when you were five, it’s like the world is crashing down for about fifteen seconds.

Forgiving yourself isn’t easy. How do you come to terms with something you’re still ashamed about or still embarrassed about? For me, I sit and and say, “yeah, that thing happened and it sucked. I’m sorry it happened but I can’t change it now. I know not to do that thing again.” And that little mental convo helps ease the regret that clings to that memory and it can ease out of the forefront of my mind. It doesn’t instantly forget that memory but it makes it easier to go on with my life.

 

 

03 Making time for yourself

I’m not really a meditation girl. I spend about five minutes on meditation, total, a day. I’m far too restless to sit otherwise. And half of that five minutes is actually me telling myself today’s to do list.

But all those thoughts running around in your head can be addressed when you’re not busy doing a thousand and one other things. Taking a moment to stop, think, and know that you’ve got eight more things to do before lunch is important. Know what else is important? Acknowledging how much of that to do list is actually for you.

If your to-do list is entirely for someone else or work, then you need to carve out time for yourself. And if you can’t find time, make time by dropping or rescheduling something that isn’t important.

 

 

04 Treat yourself

Typically when I’m treating myself,  I buy myself flowers or a book. Usually I mix up something super tasty while I’m at it. I don’t do it often and I make sure that what I’m making or buying isn’t witchcraft related. It helps separate my work and the rest of me. Don’t get me wrong, almost everything I do is witchcraft related eventually. Untreated flowers become dried flowers for my herbal creations, books are broken down to see if I can utilize any ideas in my spells. Food may later become offerings. These are all things that may happen but that’s not why I’m doing them, so it counts as a treat in my eyes.

Why and how do you treat yourself? Are you treating yourself for good accomplishments? To even out bad days? How about ordinary days? You know the ones that you have most of the time. Do you treat yourself then?

Figuring out how to treat yourself is super important. It can make ordinary days special and memorable. It can ease dealing with crappy co-workers or take the bite out of an argument with family.

It doesn’t have to be food based or shopping based, as many “treats” are. I sometimes dedicate an evening to doing something fun but “wasteful” like surfing pinterest pinning ideas for my dream home on a secret board. Or I’ll pop in a favorite Disney movie or read a favorite book once again. It’s a treat. For you. Who cares what others think of it?

 

 

05 Stop doing things when they’re no longer fun

I don’t know about you but there’s lots of people out there that start doing a hobby and it no longer is fun. Sometimes projects become frustrating or you realize that the people around a hobby aren’t people you want to be with. Whatever the reason, they’ll be a point where you’ll stop and ask yourself “why am I doing this?”

And if you don’t have a good answer for that question, then stop it. A good answer might be “because I want to master this” or “I’m doing this for a commission” or “I want to achieve this goal”. If it’s not those reasons then it’s probably not worth your time right now. Put the project and hobby aside until you get inspired to pick it up again.

Your hobbies should be enjoyable. If they’re not, what’s the point?

 

Ready for the spread?

loving-myself-by-this-crooked-crown-3

A simple spread to be sure but it focuses on big questions.

01 How can I love myself?

This card doesn’t tell you what to love about yourself or why you should love yourself. Instead, it tells you how to treat yourself with love. It tells you how to show your love of your own self in the same way a card might show how you love someone else.

02 How can I care for myself?

This is your self-care methods. It may suggest that you reread a favorite book, binge watch TV, meditate, or any number of other self-care choices available to you. When you draw this card, make sure to correlate it with real-life actions in addition to ethereal or mental actions.

This card might be a little harsh. It may tell that you need to cut back on snacks and focus on healthier food choices. It might tell you to get out of the house and go make friends. It might even tell you to drop toxic friends for your health.

03 What can I do better for myself?

This card will focus on things you’re already doing. They will be things that you should focus on now, for yourself. If your attention is scattered or you feel like you’re being pulled in a thousand directions, this card will tell you where to focus your attention and how to get back on track.

It can also tell you things like “go make some more friends so you’re less lonely” or invite more art into your life. It might suggest that you take a class to inspire your yoga routine or start taking up daily writing prompts to upgrade your writing skill.

This isn’t necessarily about bettering yourself but doing things that you already like doing and focusing on that. It may also be a suggestion that you should focus on controlling your finances or getting a job promotion. It’s less self-oriented than any of the other cards and can involve how you deal with the world around you.

 

 

Give it a try! It’s a simple little reading but can really answer some questions if you’re kind of floundering right now. If you don’t want to read for yourself, you can always buy this reading over at my etsy or storenvy shops.

Decks featured:

  • Sacred Creators Oracle by Chris-Anne © Chris-Anne.com
  • Linestrider Tarot: Kickstarter Edition by Siolo Thompson ©

How to Shovel Snow & Other Snow-Related Tips

Winter kind of sucks, doesn’t it?

A lot of my witchy friends are currently deeply depressed and worried about the heavy snowfall heading their way, especially since many of them don’t get heavy snowfall.

I mainly post about witchcraft, magic, and other spiritual pursuits of that nature. But sometimes, practical advice should be offered in addition to the magical advice. So a year ago or so I wrote a post over on tumblr about dealing with it.

I’ve decided to republish it here and add a few more tips as well as some witchy ones. Keep in mind, this advice is probably only good for people in the RI/MA/CT area so YMMV on this.

 

Magic tips for winter

  • Enchant your winter gear for warm.
  • Enchant your shoes for grip and dryness.
  • Gather up some snow in a jar for winter-related spells later on.
  • Weather spells might be useful to nudge storms off course from you but you may end up messing with another town in the process. Plan your weather spells carefully.
  • Leaving an offering to winter spirits to ease your winter worries.
  • Listen for the sound of chiming or laughter when you’re outside. You may be joined by winter spirits playing. Keep in mind, sound travels very far in the stillness after snowfall so you might be hearing neighbors two streets over.
  • Use de-icer and road salt as protection salt.
  • Enchant any post-shoveling drinks or food as a health boost to keep the body from suffering in the extreme temperature changes.
  • Enchanting a wind chime to chime when you need to go out and shovel can be tricky but worthwhile if you get a lot of snow often.
  • Create a snow altar to put offerings on.
  • Your snow creations can be fantastic for offerings and can be enchanted for literally anything. Snowman guardians, snow balls as a curse, snow angels to bring clarity.

 

Shovel early and often.

If it snows on and off for 12 hours, I’ve probably been outside to shovel at least 3-4 times, it now more. Generally, my rule is every four hours. If it’s really heavily coming down, I’ll go out more often.

Even if there’s only an inch or two on the ground, I’ll go out and shovel if we’re expecting more snow. This is because the earlier you shovel, the more snow is out of your way.

Even if you don’t intend to go out, shovel. Eventually you’ll need to go out to get something and you’ll have to dig through crusted, frozen snow and that’s an awful experience.

Do not shovel more than you are able to.

Take your health into consideration. Wear supportive measures if you have to and take breaks often. Hire out if possible. Don’t hurt yourself.

Shovel in shifts.

Shoveling might go faster if two people do it, but then two people are exhausted. It’s sometimes easier to have one person shovel for round one and round two goes to a second person. This works especially well if said two people work different schedules.

Shoveling is hard work

People always underestimate how hard it is to shovel snow. It’s slick, heavy and everywhere.

Your back will ache. Your wrists will hurt. Your thighs might not like you anymore. Your fingers will be frozen. Your cheeks, ears, and nose will be wind-beaten. Your eyes will sting from snow. Your shoulders and arms will be boneless.

And then you got to go out and do it again.

If you shovel early and often, you’ll reduce the amount of strain on your body so consider that.

 

You have to shovel a pathway to your mailbox if you want mail delivered.

The USPS will NOT deliver your mail if they can’t get to your mailbox without climbing through snow. They want a shoveled path. Steps should be de-iced.

Push when you can, lift/toss when you have to, perfect the turn.

Ideally, you should be able to push the snow across a space like a lawn mover across a lawn. At the end of your space, lift or toss the snow into a pile, and do it again. Go back and get any snow you missed.

“The turn” is great for when you have a lot of snow and it’s too heavy to lift. Ideally, the turn is a slight scoop and turning the shovel to slide the snow onto a pile without actually lifting.

When you form a pile of snow, it should be at least a foot or two from the end of your driveway. This is because if you put a snow pile right at the end of your driveway it can obstruct vision when driving and can even block you from getting out. Plows can make the piles even higher and piles are very hard to move later on.

Clearly define your space.

Ideally, you should shovel the entire length and at least a person-sized width for walkways and about seven to eight feet width for each car. The space for cars to drive on should be clear, always.

If you have a two car driveway, make sure that you shovel at least two feet at the end of it. This is to clearly mark to plow truck drivers that that’s the edges of your space and they shouldn’t plow you in. Pay special attention to this if your driveway is on a corner.

Markers can help but I find they tend to get buried in the snow anyway. We once hung up stakes with LED lanterns at the end of the drive and that helped.

Shovel with the wind

You will quickly learn to shovel with the wind. There’s nothing worse than tossing a pile of snow against the wind towards a pile you started to discover that it’s flying back in your face.

 

Yes, you will feel like you’ve accomplished nothing

Often times, I’ll finish shoveling only to discover that it looks like I did nothing back where I started. When this happens, I quickly run the shovel back over the main areas, especially the walkway, and go back inside.

There’s different kinds of snow

Fluffy, powder snow is the easiest move and can make the job very easy. It’s fun to walk through and great for photos. However, it makes rubbish snowballs, snowmen, and snow forts. This snow typically shows up well below freezing.

Wet snow is snow that comes down that is slightly wet. This is the kind that will pelt you. It’s heavier than the powder but still snow and should be fairly easy to move. This is the perfect snow for making things out of like snowballs, snowmen, and snow forts.It’s usually about 10-20 degrees below freezing temperature for this snow but is can show up at average freezing temperatures.

Slush is the worst. It is heavy. It’s rain mixed with snow and will make you miserable. It is very heavy and yes, it still needs to be shoveled. Watch for ice. It’s useless for anything unless you want to make deadly ice and snowballs that can smash windows and hurt people. It’s usually above or right around freezing temperature for this snow.

Day after snow is snow that’s “rested”. It’s compacted and is greatly useful for making things like snowballs and snow forts but is heavy, often comes up in chunks, and is a hassle to snow.

Temperatures are a guess. There’s a lot more meteorology to consider to guess the kind of snow properly.

 

Look at your lease/renter’s agreement to see if you’re suppose to shovel.

Some places will require you to shovel and others will hire someone to do it. Make sure you know your rights and what you’re suppose to shovel.

Check your city’s website for cancellations. Listen to the radio. AAA road services usually has the best up-to-date information in my area. Twitter, however, is extremely useful, especially if you follow local twitter accounts.

De-ice your pathways. 

De-icer is expensive but it can save you from breaking a bone from falling. Road salt is the less chemical version of it.

If you choose not to de-ice, try sand, kitty litter, or pebbles to help against ice and slick pathways.

You can skip de-icing the whole driveway and instead stick to where people get in/out and the path from the driveway to the house. However, you risk the cars not having enough grip to get out.

A combination of kitty litter on the car spaces and de-icer on the people spaces is a good, safe bet, although it can be expensive.

Make sure to check if your de-icer will damage anything. For example, road salt isn’t good for brick walkways or steps. We have brick for both our porches and have to use a particular chemical de-icer to keep from destroying the brick. It’s more expensive but it also melts the snow faster. When I get to the cement of the walkways and asphalt of the driveway, I switch to salt to melt the ice and cat litter for grip.

De-icer can freeze.

Weirdly enough, de-icer can freeze. Or, rather, it can freeze into a slushy block of horror when sufficently wet then cold then wet then cold.

We keep our deicer outside to avoid damaging the wood floors and to keep the animals out of it.

Brush off your car.

You should at least brush off your front and rear windshields, your mirrors, headlights and taillights, the grills/exhaust, door handles, and license plates. Legally, in RI, you have to have your license plates shown (and lit during the night) so you have to do this. I know people who have been stopped and given tickets for not brushing off their license plates.

Brush off the doors, roof, and area near the doors before opening the door or you’ll wind up with a wet seat.

Flip up your windshield wipers.

Windshield wipers can lift up, straight towards the sky, to allow replacement of the wipers or arms.

This keeps the windshield wipers from freezing to your windshield and allows for easier brushing off of the car. This can be a lifesaver when leaving work in rubbish weather.

However, avoid this is the wind is really, really bad as it might break the wiper arm.

Start you car

If it’s especially cold, you may wish to start your car, run it for a little bit, and turn it off every times you go out to shovel.

I usually skip this because it’s rarely that cold in my area but when it does get that cold, I do that.

 

Buy/own at least two or more pairs of gloves

No matter how careful you are, your gloves WILL get wet. Have a dry pair to switch to for additional shoveling or going out.

Skip using soft cashmere or similar gloves. Your hands will look like a lint brush after a few moments of being wet.

Snow boots are useful

However, they might not be necessary. Wear old, comfortable shoes to shovel with good treads. For example, I wear a pair of thick 2″ heeled casual boots. For me, my feet are comfortable in this position and the treads are good. Having the boots and heels elevated keeps you from getting stuck in deep snowdrifts.

Avoid sneakers if possible. Your feet will be unhappy, cold, and wet. You’ll also want to skip your fashion winter boots. They’re not meant to survive extremely wet conditions and the salt will destroy them. Trust me.

But wear whatever shoes are comfortable and have good grip.

Don’t shovel in clothes you want to wear. Wash shoveling clothes often.

Snow is solidified water, often saturated with road salt. This means your shoveling gear will be saturated with this weird white shit. When the snow dries, it will leave the material stiff and crinkly. Having clothing to switch to is awesome.

I tend to shovel in boots of some kind, warm Lycra leggings, and at least two shirts plus a heavy winter jacket with hood, scarf, gloves, and hat. I sometimes even take my glasses off because after a while you can’t see shit anyway. Save for the jacket and hat which dry easily, I rotate to a different set of clothes for another shoveling session.

Stay by the door

Going in and out from heated houses and cars to cold snow and back can be hell on your body. Stay by the door and allow your body to acclimate to the warm/cold weather before moving further. This is true for both coming inside from shoveling and going out to shovel.

Keep tissues by the door

Like the above tip, coming in and out from hot/cold weather does weird things to the body. One of those things is making your nose run like a river. Keeping tissues nearby can avoid gross stuff on everything you love.

Treat yourself!

I tend to make up a pot of something warm like coffee, hot chocolate, or soup before I go out so I can have it as a treat for a job well done.

Prepare

A flashlight and candles with a working lighter left on a counter or table can make power outages much easier.

If an outage occurs, do not panic. Keep the fridge and freezer closed as much as possible, fill bowls and containers of tap water, and pick one room to center yourself in. That center room should be the one you want to remain in mostly for the length of the outage. Bring all the blankets in the house to that room and stay warm. There’s lots of tips for making a mini heater from candles available online if you care to search.

Stock up early and well. The few days before a storm is suspected, the stores will be PACKED. Everyone will buy milk, bread, and toilet paper. Followed by de-icer, gloves, shovels, and booze. These are the most hunted for items. Buy them early or you’ll miss out. ATMs and banks are extremely busy too.

If you have to go out, plan according. I generally use at least 30 minutes to an hour for travel time to get to some place by a particular time. Do not go out unless you have to, especially if the roads are being worked on or cautioned against. Be careful when driving, slow early, and leave room for plows.

Keep gloves, a scarf, hat, a snow car brush, and a small shovel in your car to shovel when you need to leave work or whatever.

 

Parking ban

This means you cannot park there for the length of the ban. Typically this appears as an on-street parking bans during plow hours. An example would be that you cannot park on the street between 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.

The city may tow your car or fine your for parking during that time. You’ll definitely be plowed in and risk the plows damaging your car. Find a place for your car to be.

If you become stranded

Stay inside. Even if your car is stranded, stay inside of it. Cars can’t see you in the dark and you’ll be far warmer inside the car than outside of it.

Know your shovels.

Take a good, long look at what you need to shovel when choosing shovels. Deep, crescent shovels are great for pushing snow, like when clearing a driveway. Shallow shovels are better for lifting snow. Metal shovels are heavier but useful in breaking up ice and snow chunks. Plastic shovels will break but are lighter meaning good for fluffy snow.

Multiple shovels FTW

We have three shovels in my house. We keep one (metal, shallow) at the top of the stairs to keep the back steps clear and to break up ice. A second crescent shovel is kept at the bottom of the back stairs for walkways and the driveway. We keep a third crescent shovel by the front door to keep the front walkway clear without having to haul a shovel through the house or walk around the snow outside.

Walking in snow is hard work.

Lift your legs up as if you’re climbing stairs for deep piles.

Lean very slightly back when there’s ice, especially if you have breasts or a lot of weight in front of you, to give yourself counterbalance.

Assume there is black ice (ice that is hard to see) under where you’re walking because there probably is and that it is your mortal enemy which would like nothing more to watch you fall.

If you fall, protect your face but try not to land on your hands

Hands and wrists are some of the easiest bones to break. They often break when we try to catch ourselves from falling and to protect the face. If possible, turn to the side, land on your forearms, and tuck in your head.

Shovel when people are plowing. 

Snow plows operate usually during quiet times. So if I go out to shovel at 4 a.m., I’m going to be out there the same time as plows on my street. Often times, they’ll help by plowing the front part of my driveway for me for free. Sometimes they’ll ignore me. But either way, they DON’T plow me in which they WILL do if I’m not out there.

Pay for a plow or shovelers.

In my area, a plow to is about $25-35 per visit. Hiring someone to shovel can be some $15-35, to do a driveway and walkway. Our current plow guy won’t come unless there’s a few inches on the ground and costs $45 but he plows the driveways and shovels all the walkways. Make sure you know what you’re getting before you pay. Prepare to tip for jobs well done (although this won’t likely be required if you’re paying a contractual service).

Inform your city or local plower if you work in emergency services or may need emergency services as they should plow your driveway for you.

If you’re in emergency services, such as a doctor or you may need emergency care, inform your city. In my city, they’re suppose to ensure that you can get out and that disabled people can be reached.

That being said, uh, they don’t. We hired someone or I shovel. But your town might be different!

If you own a plow, do not plow the street.

Plow trucks can be hired by private parties but, in RI at least, you have to be licensed to plow the street. This is to avoid damage to the street. I’m certain rural areas are far more lenient with this sort of thing but check your city ordinances. You don’t want to be fined for trying to help people.

By the way, the streets WILL be shit afterwards because people ignore the law and the people hired by your city probably don’t care after day 5 of 3 a.m. shifts. Expect chunks of asphalt and cement; expect potholes. Advanced tip: Look to see if your car insurer covers replacement tires and double check your tire spares.

No one really enjoys shoveling but hopefully these tips can make things easier for everyone!

Originally posted over on my tumblr’s satellite blog here. Different URL but it’s mine.

Messy Lives

Let me share a secret with you: life is always going to be messy. There will never be a moment where you suddenly have your life together. Everyone’s life is messy. Everyone has streaks of bad luck where terrible things happen to them and then streaks of good luck where great things happen to them. Things balance out, eventually. And if they don’t, well, that’s what magic is for, right?

But that’s my secret. Accepting that life is going to suck sometimes and everyone else is probably going to experience a great level of suck at some point soon too.

That’s probably not motivating to you. It is to me. It means that we all aren’t perfect and that when we struggle, there’s probably someone out there who is struggling too. We can help each other and reach our goals. It means that person that you admire has had a shitty time in their life too. It helps by reminding us we’re human, mistakes happen, and we can still get up and keep moving forward.

Want me to share another secret? Of course you do. You’re still reading. Okay, here it is: spirits’ lives are no cleaner than ours.

Their lives are messy too. Even more so in some ways because they tend to embrace a lawlessness we don’t normally experience. So a spirit guide you’ve worked with probably has gone through some shit too. Ask them about it. Ask them about their day and their experience. See what practical information they care share.

I talk a lot about cleansing and cleaning. Some days my home could be a showroom (for about 30 seconds before I ruin it with a DIY project, herbs, or batch of cupcakes). You’d think, looking at my home, my life would be together but that’s so not true. My life is messy and often out of my full control so I control the one thing I can control – my personal spaces. I can embrace the messiness of my life and mind without worrying about a pile of dishes.

Embrace your messiness. Clean and cleanse what needs to be but don’t be afraid to say “I have no idea what’s going on.” Don’t be afraid to say “wow, I’m a hot mess right now”. Acknowledge these things, forgive yourself for them, and move on. See those messes as a challenge and a chance. A challenge to do better and a chance to be creative and inspired. Sometimes the best experiences in life come out of these messes.

P.S. Check out the poll currently running! It’s your chance to offer some input and tell me what you want to see more of on the blog!

2017 Resolutions, Wishes, & Dreams

Welcome to 2017.

I hope, with absolute sincerity, that your year shapes up beautifully. I hope you will find love of all kinds. I hope you will find passion and courage within your life, to pursue your dreams, your goals, your inspiration. I hope you find a well of strength in yourself to achieve the goals you’ve set and conquer the challenge you’ll be faced. I hope you find, receive, and spread kindness throughout the world. It’s so needed right now and so necessary.

 

 

Now that the blessings and my hopes for your 2017 are out of the way, let’s talk about resolutions.

You’re probably in one of three camps when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. You might make and try to achieve the resolutions you’ve set every year. Or you don’t make any resolutions for a variety of reasons. Or you halfheartedly make a resolution and maybe achieve it.

I’ve been in all three camps over the years. This year I wrote a list of things I want to do, in all areas of my life. Some are totally doable things that will happen because they’re already set up to happen. Others require inner strength and determination from me. And a few require luck or spells to occur – if at all. I starred the ones that were really important to me and wrote down WHY I wanted to achieve those goals because when it going gets tough, I’ll remember why I’m doing it. I entitled it “2017 Wishes” because they’re not all resolutions and not everything on that list is a dream. It’s just a list of things I want to happen in 2017.

 

Be kind to yourself. Make simple goals a part of your new year as well as the big dream goals. Lose that weight but also make it a goal to walk in a park, woods, or beach once a week. Finish that big project but spend some time completing your To Be Read pile. Spend time achieve little goals including big ones. Those little goals can open up so many opportunities within your life and pave the way for the bigger goals you want to achieve.

When it comes to magic, I keep it simple. I write in magical ink on enchanted paper and hang it up by my desk. with iron nails and  blessed string. I pick a quartz crystal, cleanse and let it sit in a window for a full day and night then program it with my wishes for the new year and put it beside my bed.

 

 

I find action more useful than magic during these first days so that’s what I do. For example, today January 2nd, I intended to wake up at my regular time, get my workout in, and start accomplishing my to do list. Instead, I woke up at my regular time, then my “get the hell out of bed” time, and went back to sleep until late afternoon. Instead of calling the day a wash and playing a video game, I showered, dressed, and sat down to get the important things done. Because I determine how I want my day and year to go. I want this year to be productive, successful, and kind. So that’s what I’m doing, even if the sun’s already set in the sky. Spells for motivation, luck, and other blessing are great helpers.

Here’s to 2017. May it be wonderful for you and those around you.

P.S. And don’t forget to vote in the poll. It helps me to help you!

Witchcraft Checklist for 2017

2017 is nearly upon us. Are you ready yet? 2016 had been a tough year and I’m betting some of you aren’t enthusiastic for 2017 either. And some of you are so ready for it.

Whatever you’re feeling about the upcoming new year, here’s a list of witchcraft related chores and spells to get you on the right foot in the new year.

 

2017-witchcraft-checklist-by-this-crooked-crown

 

01 Cleanse & cleanse your home

This, really, should be the first thing on your to-do list come the new year.

January’s a great time to take part in a big household cleaning. You’ll get rid of all the junk you’ve held onto this long, you can re-home items you no longer want in your life (or holiday gifts you didn’t like), and starts the new year in a clean place. It also makes it far easier to keep up as the year goes on.

If you aren’t combining your cleansing and cleaning spells, you might want to do some. Check out Cleansing & Cleaning 101 for ideas and a how to or this ritual for cleansing.

 

 

02 Check your protection spells

Protection spells periodically should be checked, cleansed, and restored. Sometimes spells get worn and don’t protect as well as they should. Now’s a good time to go through your protection spells and cast them again.

It’s also a good time to set up new protection spells. Maybe you missed something in a previous protection spell or maybe circumstances have changed and your spells need to adapt. January’s a good time to do all of that.

 

03 Toss out expired ingredients

Herbs do expire. If you’re only using your herbs symbolically, then maybe the expiration doesn’t matter but if you also use them herbally or your consume them, you’re going to need to check over your herbs, spices, and other ingredients. Some of them might have become pale, lost flavor, or became moldy.

Many companies will have an expiration date listed on the packaging. Otherwise you might need a google search to give you a hand.

Toss or compost the expired ingredients and buy new ones. Did you discover a jar of herb that you rarely or never touched? Maybe skip buying that until you really need it.

This is also a good time to check any herbs you’ve had left out to dry and process them into a more handy size and bottle them. Remember to sanitize your bottles /jars and let them dry completely before use.

 

04 Stock up on candles & incense

Sort through your candles, incense, and related goodies. Put aside broken candles for melting down into new candles and make a list of what you’re out of or running low of so you can buy them next time they’re on sale. Remember to check scents, sizes, and colors for this.

Double check your candle holders and see if you have enough holders. Clean out any candle holders that are full of wax. A crappy knife and some oil make getting wax out a bit easier.

You’ll also want to consider putting aside anything you didn’t like using. Maybe a candle never burned properly or the scent of a certain incense was horrible to you. Put them aside and re-home them with another practitioner or friend. Remember to ask online. A lot of people are willing to pay shipping to get an item free and you’ll know it goes to a home that really wants it.

Stock up on lighters, matches, and non-flame candles too. LED lights might not burn stuff but they can be really handy in a pinch with some spells.

 

05 Check spell jars

Spell jars are some of the easiest forms of magic. Just throw a bunch of ingredients in a jar, seal it up, and call it a day. But, spell jars are also some of the easiest to screw up with.

Spell jars can get moldy if they were wet when the dry components were put in it. Or the wet components molded the jar. Or the ingredients became so noxious you risk yourself if it becomes broken.

Check the spell jars you’ve made. If they’re good, then put them back (or remake them). If they’re no longer needed or have become gross, dismantle them carefully! Use gloves if you have to. Toss the ingredients in the garbage and put the garbage outside. Wash the jar and sanitize it. If you don’t want to keep the jar, recycle it.

 

 

06 Check other spells

You might have a dream pillow that’s gone flat or an herbal sachet that no longer smells of anything but you. Time to get rid of them or remake those items.

Considering dismantling and burying all cursing poppets, spells, etc. It’s a new year and maybe it’s time to let that grudge die? If not, renew the curse.

 

07 Check magical concoctions

If you’re an intermediate or advanced practitioner, you’ve probably got a whole shelf of magical oils or waters you use or make.

Double check them all. They probably need a good shaking and to be topped off. You’ll also want to see if they’ve gone rancid, cloudy, or moldy. Toss what ones are no longer salvagable and re-bottle as needed.

 

08 Check up on your houseplants and garden

Check your plants. Which ones need re-potting or new soil? What plants need a little help?  Which ones died? This serves as a good reminder to care for your plants and consider how to better care for them in the future. Try not to re-pot anything until the thaw comes around. You’ll risk shocking the plant to death.

Make a list of what you’ll need for the upcoming spring. New soil? Bigger pots? A different type of basil? PH monitor? Making this list will allow you to get a jump on the spring sales when they come around.

This is also around the time that plant catalogs start coming out so planning your garden’s a good idea too.

 

09 Examine your altar set up

Check over your altar dishes and see if they need to be replaced. Maybe the rim of your glass chalice is chipped or cracked. You might need to save up for a new one so knowing ahead of time before sales pop up is a good thing.

Give your altar statuary a nice bath and/or dust them. Clean the glass and frames of hanging pictures and clear off the altar itself to wipe it down. When you set it up again, maybe place some fresh flowers on it to signal the new year in addition to a slightly larger than average offering.

 

 

10 Buy a new broom

Remember to enchant your household broom to cleanse and bring prosperity. Clean out the vacuum cleaner and do the same sorts of spells.

 

Jack Frost nipping at your nose

Or, more properly in my case, causing snow as soon as I step outside.

As blog followers know, I don’t really worship things. Not my cup of tea. But Jack Frost and snow spirits hold a special place in my heart and thus they get a little more attention than your average spirit. Namely, I try.

When the snow began to last week overnight, it was a soft dusting that didn’t survive the dawn. But I knew it had snowed so I brought out the snow related items and went about my day. When I stepped outside to fetch some groceries, a light sprinkling of snowflakes began to fall. Not enough to even be called snowing. It was the middle of the day and was too warm, scientifically speaking, for snow to be falling yet here it was, just for a few minutes, the snow was falling. And Jack Frost was there, waiting anxiously for acknowledgement. So I did what I always do when I spot a spirit: I say hi. He was delighted and danced off to spread his snowy glory elsewhere and I went about hauling in baking supplies.

Jack Frost appears to me as an ageless youth. Often accompanied by a snow maiden or maybe a few smaller snow spirits, he’s usually a fun spirit. Cruelty comes to him quickly though at times and one should be wary of that. I find that children spirits (and his demeanor is often child-like) act this way pretty often and mostly they want attention and affection. Give them both and they’ll add a light-hearted air to your relationship. These spirits, and snow spirits in general, don’t tend to work as some others do. I find they’re not interested in trading tit for tat but instead want the attention because you want to give it to them which is a good match for me.

Because I don’t have a working shrine space (and I don’t want one) when I decide to show a little love to spirits, it takes the place at random and casually; a homemade candle on the table, pressed incense on the counter, a garland along the wall, an offering dish next to the coffee pot. Little bits of witchcraft and spirituality scattered throughout my life.

It’s just something I like to do for our winter wandering spirits. They’re just as important as the spirits of spring so honoring them with a bit of food and drink is something I enjoy doing.

Everyday Meditation For People Who Can’t Stay Still

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I’ll be honest. I hate meditation. Or, rather, I’m super restless and I don’t like standing still for more than five minutes. I can’t even watch movies without pausing them once or twice… every half an hour.

But! I do meditate a bit each morning. Each morning, before I even get out of bed or check my phone, I do some very simple stretches to shake out the kinks in my muscles that might have developed overnight.

I might do some Sun Salutations if I’m in a yoga mood but usually I sit crossed legged in my bed with my back straight as possible and my eyes closed. I’ll do arm pumps, arc my back lean side to side, bend forward, that sort of thing. It depends on what muscles feel tight and what feels loose. I keep it slow and easy. I don’t worry about the number of times I do a move. I just do it until I feel ready to move onto the next move. I just do what feels good for my body at that particular moment in time.

While I do the simple moves, I keep my mind as empty as possible. That’s pretty easy when my brain isn’t even awake yet. If random thoughts come to me, I let them happen and make note that the thought has occurred. When I’m ready and mostly sot-of awake I move into positive affirmations and a my to do list. I’ll say something like “Today, I will be productive and bake a dozen cookies”. If my thoughts stray at this point, I just nudge them back onto what I want to be thinking of instead. Your mind will wander off. That’s perfectly normal.

Things like that can really make or break my day personally. And all this can be done while sitting on my bed and stretching. Which is kind of a life goal for me, if I’m honest.

It also wakes up my body and mind. I feel far more invigorated for those mere first five minutes and I’m far more likely to have a good, long workout or head to the gym rather than doing something halfhearted or skipping it entirely. I also grab breakfast far more often, which is something I’m guilty of skipping pretty awesome.

Anyway, this is a meditation technique that works for me so maybe it’ll work for you too!

Finding My Soul Journey

It’s really hard to just go against the grain. I constantly hear people say how hard it is. I’m not really one to speak. I have created my entire lifestyle so I don’t have to deal with that kind of difficulty. I live in my own little world and don’t much care for what others think or say. I worked very hard and sacrificed a great deal to get that kind of mentality and lifestyle.

Most people can’t or won’t do that. That isn’t a rebuke or insult. Some people can’t for practical reasons – they have family, can’t afford it, or survive within a group dynamic. Others won’t because it’s not how they want to live.

I love my lifestyle. But I’ll be the first to admit that it’s very solitary and can be very hard. And I really respect people who don’t want to live this way or cannot. You’re following your priorities. I have the luxury of being in a position where I can sacrifice things I kind of want for what I really want: freedom. It’s as essential to me as writing or witchcraft so I chase after it. I chucked away chains that tied me down – acquaintances I didn’t want to deal with just out of politeness, jobs I was unhappy with, relationships that weren’t meaningful to me, and more.

Getting to the point where I recognized that freedom was an essential need for me was a soul journey all of its own. Each person who goes through these journeys and epiphanies will have different stories to tell.

I can’t tell you how to find the catalysts to these journeys. I can’t even really tell you how I got to my own revelation. It just sort of happened. Shadow work helps, certainly, by sweeping clear the rubbish and bringing the light into forgotten places in your mind and soul. Bucking doubt and just going with the flow of things also helps. I stopped questioning myself and just did what felt best for me.

A lot of times, people embark on these journeys after a drastic change or trauma. Others, like myself, have a snowball effect all leading them to the same place. You really can wake up one day and decide to change.

Change isn’t easy. I like change. I’m a Gemini so change is second nature to me. But I don’t like change that I don’t feel in control of. It took a long time for me to recognize that giving up control is controlling the situation. I let things happen as they happened, organically, and just dealt with things as they come. I’m much happier for it. In fact, it reduced my stress level so much I was able to go off medication for chronic acid reflux. Now I can medication only when I’m stressed or eating foods my body doesn’t like. It allowed me to grieve for my late mentor and the loss of a spiritual path I no longer felt welcome in. My soul journey was healing, both physically and spiritually.

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My favorite way to use bells is to wear them!

Embarking on this soul journey won’t instantly fix your life and won’t instantly cause you to be more spiritual. It should bring a deeper understanding of yourself into focus. And from that new understanding, you can begin to alter and build you life to better suit the needs of your soul.

 

 

Autumn is Here!

Yay! Autumn is here at This Crooked Crown and I’m so excited. Autumn is, hands down, my favorite time of year. It’s also my family’s favorite time of year so it’s usually pretty awesome around here.

Traditionally, things are slow in September and pick up quite a bit in October because, well, witches. Despite that, I always take Halloween off. I rarely perform any rituals or attend any parties but there’s something about sitting around and simply enjoying the highs of energy on that night without having to actually do anything with it.

But! That’s me. Most people have a great big o’ plan for Halloween-time and I love hearing about them.

This year’s is extra special. There’s a bunch of reasons why that is but the most important is that this year my family has Halloween week off. Not just the day or the day after but the whole week. We didn’t even initially plan it that way but it’s really fun to think that we’ll be home to celebrate our family’s favorite holiday together for once. We’re getting a dragon. I’m excited. Also pumpkins. So many pumpkins.

We’re also planning a trip to Salem. Yup. The most commercialized witchy town in the world. Despite living less than 80 miles from Salem, it’s been about a decade since I’ve been there. I’ve only visited two other times in my memory but it’s always a fun adventure. Perusing history is always sobering and it’s nice to wander around and to run into fellow practitioners all the time. Especially around this time of the year.

I’ll have  more updates on that front as we nail down times and date for the trip (always the trickiest part of any venture for us) and expect a ton of photos, especially on instagram.I suspect it will be the Thursday before Halloween. Just saying.

Halloween will hopefully see the launch of a project of mine. It’s a bit too early to announce it quite yet but I’m hopeful. And, if you didn’t catch it last month, I recently launched a Patreon with exclusive spells and witchy short stories. Pledge your support to get some pretty awesome goodies.

Excited yet? Me too! This should be a stellar autumn this year and I can’t wait for it.

Updates abound

So… Been a while, right?

Posted by @thiscrookedcrown on Jul 14, 2016

 

I’ve been very quite on the internet in the last month or so. There’s a reason for this. I’m working on a very complex and involved project known as “Secret Future Plan” (SFP). The project itself is more personal in nature but indirectly affects my work, heavily. It’s been going on for over a year now and that’s just been set up. We’re hoping to kick off SFP by the end of this month. There’s a second phase to SFP that I can’t plan for yet until the first phase is completed, really, so things will still be up in the air for a long while yet. I’m hoping to have everything squared away by autumn and then I’ll release a new post series on SFP.

Anyway, SFP aside, there have been a lot of minor updates happening around This Crooked Crown so I thought I’d summarize them all here for your convenience and such.

  • Readings now sorted by type over on my Etsy and Storenvy shops!
  • Storenvy shop is open again, with new stock & better mirroring with the Etsy shop.
  • Released a new spread Prince Charming in both the Etsy and Storenvy shops. Now’s a really good time for a reading because the turn-around time is short right now.
  • Updated the “Divination Methods” section of the website under Tarot and Oracle Decks. The mini reviews and images are gone and will be, over time, replaced with proper reviews with more images. List also has been updated to accurate reflect current collection.
  • Made little updates across the website, such as to the FAQ and such.
  • I sold out my free online witchcraft primer course. Which is so surprising to me! Thank you, everyone. I plan on re-opening that course in early August!

Posted by @thiscrookedcrown on Jul 15, 2016

 

And here’s a random list of things I’ve been working on in the background:

  • The previously mentioned “Witchcraft 101” course is now named “Fundamentals of Witchcraft”. I’m working on it diligently and hope to have it available by September.
  • Writing lots and lots of posts that you’ll see soon.
  • Sending out my Spirit Walker fiction manuscript to various agents and publishing houses.
  • Writing the second draft of The Sea Witch fiction manuscript.
  • I’m hoping to collect some of my spells and recipes together and forge a book to publish online.
  • Updating tumblr resources since tumblr deleted all the links and slowly moving those articles over to this website for permanent storage. So we won’t lose anything again due to tumblr’s fickle nature.
  • Updating a photos of readings and such so they’re pretty.
  • Sample readings will be soon available to view so you know what to expect from a reading.
  • Saving plants. I’ve started to bring home those sad little plants you see in the clearance areas of stores. With care and attention, I can bring the little guys back to vibrant life.
  • The aforementioned “Secret Future Plan” which consumes my soul on a daily basis. Additionally, my personal life has been rather busy taking care of various ill persons, including myself.

Posted by @thiscrookedcrown on Jul 15, 2016

 

Whew! That’s (probably) everything. Life gets really busy for everyone so sometimes the ball gets dropped but I think I’m back on track now. Thanks for sticking with me this far and hope you stick around even longer.