I’ve finished a bookbinding tutorial! It got a bit too lengthy for a single post, so I’ve posted it here [google drive], where you can download it as a PDF and make comments/ask questions if something’s unclear. The process is not terribly complicated, but I tried to add lots of pictures so it took up lots of space. Hope this helps out anyone that wanted to try making their own!
As always, please feel free to message me with any questions you have, I’m more than happy to answer 🙂
Use your old med bottles as a way to store witchy things by painting over them.
I don’t even paint over them. Tip: if you are thoughtful about it you can use whatever med it held to boost a spell you put in that bottle. Just be sure you have lots of wax to seal the gaps!
So, as some of my followers know, i started witchcraft when I was 11 and being 11 and practicing witchcraft low-key behind your parents’ back was kinda hard. Obviously, I couldn’t up and go ‘hey mom! Let’s stop by the local metaphysical store and buy a deck of tarot cards!’
No, obviously not. And plus tarot cards are kinda expensive.
So when I was 13 I went to the dollar store and bought a deck of playing cards, well two actually since I needed 70 something and only about 50 came in a pack.
But anyways, I went home and printed out every picture of every tarot card in the deck and hot glued it onto the cards.
THEN I proceeded to clear tape over it to laminate it and do my intent stuff and whatnot
I think I said ‘you are now my tarot. An eye in to future, a mind of advice and show-er of truth.’ or something like that and my signature sky blue energy encasing it.
and I kept it in a cloth deep in my closet.
AND BAM. (I thought I was finally the shit) I had Tarot and honestly, I see no difference between my current tarot and the ones I had back then. It’s legit the same thing.
So that’s how sly, cheap, 13 year old me used my first tarot and really, the experience is the same the only difference is that ‘normal’ tarot are a little bigger (actually, you can also buy jumbo playing cards and then it would be the same thing) but that doesn’t really matter.
Hope this helped all my broke witches and/or in the broom closet witches and/or little witchlings first experimenting!
Just a note from an artist: Please be mindful of what deck you’re printing out. It’s one thing to print out every card in the Rider-Waite-Smith* since all the original creators are long dead. It’s another to pirate the work of a living artist. I can tell you from experience that the art alone in a deck can involve hundreds of hours of work. And especially if your artist is only getting a percentage royalty on each deck, they may not be getting even minimum wage on their work unless the deck sells thousands of copies. Self-publishers may
I’m sympathetic to newbie pagans/closeted pagans/etc. who don’t have a ton of cash–like I said, I’m a working artist and *I* don’t have a ton of extra funding once the bills and other expenses are paid. (Plus I was once a new, closeted, broke-ass newbie pagan myself in the 90s.) But I’m dismayed at how many of these “tips for broke pagans” posts advocate outright piracy, which just makes your pagan artists and writers more likely to *be* broke pagans.
* I’ve heard conflicting info about whether the RWS and its images are still under copyright or not. This is a pretty good writeup of the issue, for those curious, though it’s a few years old now and I haven’t heard of any updates.
Pardon me, I in no way meant to advocate piracy. Sorry. Of course, if you’re printing out pictures for tarot, use one free to the public use or if you’re already an artist then maybe try drawing. It doesn’t have to be real pictures of tarot, it can be things symbolic of it too. This was just something I thought I’d share with witches going through some financial problems.
First let me give you a little history my Grandma told me about Spirit Chimes. They’re used to trap evil spirits/energy and turn the energy neutral and traps the spirit, everyone in the Bayou has em! Everyone I know at least. Ok lets get started
What you’ll need:
BOTTLES!! As many as you want, can be 1 or 1,000 doesn’t matter!
You’re also going to need some sort of yarn/rope pins/needles/glass/anything sharp, Lavender, Lemongrass, Sea Salt, Sage, Rosemary. and a bowl/dish to mix them in (preferably wooden) *optional a mortar and pestle.
You can decorate the bottles like I did.
then put the pins in the bottle and mix the herbs on the bowl/dish after you ground them up (like I said optional)
Put them in the bottle, with the pins
then take some string/yarn/rope/whatever and string em up!
And the ya go! Spirit chimes! Go hang em outside preferably in tree.
This is a great spell jar or spell bag to upkeep a happy and tranquil atmosphere in your house, apartment, bedroom, dorm room, hotel room, or wherever else you may be staying. It’s made for indoor spaces, so it should work for any indoor space, including offices or lockers as well.
This is great if you’ve just moved into a new place and want to start things out well, of if there’s been a lot of tension or bad energy at home that you want to deal with. If you have witchy friends, this spell has no connection to the caster, and can be given away to others as a gift and have just the same effect. It would make a great gift for housewarming, or for the coming holiday season.
Please be aware that if you have home troubles and experience bad or abusive people in your home, this may help you, but it will not solve the real source of the problem or remove it. If you feel you’re being abused by your parents, siblings, family, friends, housemates or roommates, please seek real, physical help if you can. This will only suppress the symptoms, it will not treat the cause if the cause is not metaphysical.
Required Materials:
Herbs/Plants:
10 Parts Clove
4 Parts Catnip
1 Part Dried Lemon Pulp/Rinds
1 Part Chamomile
Stone (Not required for jar):
1 piece of Quartz, the bigger your bag, the larger the stone should be. Stone should be at least half an inch in length/height/width. (preferably Rose Quartz should be used but not required)
Water(not required for bag):
Enough charged water to soak all herbs and the pulp/rind and be moved around as a liquid in the jar.
Container:
Jar with good seal. Should be cleansed before use.
or
Bag with fine enough weave/knit and tight enough tie that nothing will fall out. Should be cleansed before use. Any color will work, yellow is preferred.
Process (Jar):
Find a jar with a good seal on it and transparent glass. A yellow jar is preferred, but no color is required.
Cleanse it of any energy via your preferred method, whether it be sunlight, moonlight, salt, smoke, or anything else you’ve found to work well.
Get your ingredients all together: 10 parts clove, 4 parts catnip, 1 part lemon rind or pulp, 1 part chamomile. Put all these aside in separate containers.
Get your water ready. The water should be charged with energy of happiness, platonic love, and a love of life. However you wish to charge it is up to you.
Get your empty jar, charged water, and ingredients all together in your workspace. Put up or do whatever you would usually do while doing spell work. Casting circles, lighting candles, putting up boundaries, and so on should all be done now.
Start by putting all the herbs in, in this order. As you do, speak for each herb added:
“Clove, to banish what is adverse (add clove) Catnip, to replace the adverse with happiness (add catnip) Lemon and Chamomile, to welcome friendship, tranquility, and peace.” (add lemon and chamomile together)
Add your charged water in over the herbs, then move the jar around to mix it up, without putting the lid back on yet. As you do, say the following:
“Charged water, mix within, bring these intents to fruition.” (either say once, or repeat as a chant until you finish pouring the water and mixing it up)
As you put the lid on, and add whatever you may to help seal the jar, either metaphysically or physically, say the following
“Whenever you are mixed again, brings these things to fruition.”
Close your space, end your circle, bring down anything you put up, and go put your jar in its new permanent place.
Whenever you need more magic from your jar, shake it up.
Process (Bag):
Find a bag of a fine enough knit or weave so that nothing will fall out of it, as well as a good tie on it to keep it closed. Yellow is the preferred color, but any color will do. Bright colors will work best.
Cleanse your pouch of any energy via your preferred method, whether it be moonlight, sunlight, salt, smoke, or anything else.
Get your ingredients all together: 10 parts clove, 4 parts catnip, 1 part lemon rind or pulp, 1 part chamomile. Put all these aside in separate containers.
Get your stone ready. The stone should cleansed and then charged with energy of happiness, platonic love, and a love of life. However you wish to charge it is up to you.
Get your empty bag, charged stone, and ingredients all together in your work space. Put up or do whatever you would usually do while doing spell work. Casting circles, lighting candles, putting up boundaries, and so on should all be done now.
Start by putting all the herbs in, in this order. As you do, speak for each herb added:
“Clove, to banish what is adverse (add clove) Catnip, to replace the adverse with happiness (add catnip) Lemon and Chamomile, to welcome friendship, tranquility, and peace.” (add lemon and chamomile together)
Add your charged stone on top, then crinkle and shimmy the bag to mix up all the herbs and get the stone into the middle, without closing the bag. As you do so, say the following:
“Charged stone, rest within, bring these intents to fruition.” (either say once, or repeat as a chant until you finish mixing it up)
As you tie up the bag and seal it in whatever way you wish, either metaphysically or physically, say the following:
“Whenever you are mixed again, brings these things to fruition.”
Close your space, end your circle, bring down anything you put up, and go put your bag in its new permanent place. (Be sure to keep it out of reach of cats)
Whenever you need more magic from your bag, crinkle and mix up the herbs within.
This
is my first non-sigil related witchcraft and I though I’d share it with
you. I call it secret because I didn’t want it to look as if it were a
spell. I don’t like panic attacks and I hate having to explain them even
more. So, secret it is. Here is what’s in it.
Lavender oil for peace and tranquility
Cinnamon for strength against attacks
Clove for confidence and protection
Glue to keep from falling apart
Start by making some earrings out of fuses, which I learned how to do here. Next
mix up a little bit of cinnamon, clove, and lavender oil. The oil is
great because it makes the mixture clump together. This mixture goes in
the very bottom of the earrings under the metal cap where you can’t see
it. OooOOooOoo, secret.
And
then the rest of the earrings are filled with clear Elmer’s glue
colored green with food coloring. I chose green because it’s my favorite
color and I find it relaxing. Blue would also have been a good choice.
To finish it all up glue the cap back on and recited a little chant. I
said “Paranoia, paranoia, everybody’s coming to get me. Just say you
never met me. And now I’m free from anxiety.” It may seem like a weird
chant but it’s what I say to myself when I have a panic attack to help
me focus and calm down. The first part is from a Harvey Danger song,
Flagpole Sitta. Any more normal sort of statement like “Let me be free
from anxiety and safe from panic attacks.” or “All my anxiety now goes away, I will not panic at all today.” will work too.
Whew, finally back from school! Now that I’m free, it’s time to reassemble one of my best
school essentials for next quarter—tiny, reusable packets of herbs that are
perfect for spells on the go (or spicing up a dull meal…what’s the difference,
really?).
While I love the look of tiny bottles for portable ingredients, they’re
not as space-saving as these repurposed straws. So though my best staples get
bottled for easiest refills, I like to keep the odd ingredient (or extra
backups of the classics) rattling around in my pockets like this! Some things to keep in mind:
Only melt the ends as they’re separated from the herbs by
the pliers/tweezers—food safe plastic or not, you still don’t want that melting
on your ingredients!
Most straws work for this, but thin plastic straws may
warp and bubble further up the tube before the ends seal shut; try a few tests,
and heat with care.
While I always carry around a pen knife, if you don’t,
consider keeping these in a little pocket tin with a razor blade for easy
opening. Cutting the small notch in the end is pretty effective for
fingers-only opening, but may cause leaks in fluid-filled packets and should be
avoided in those cases. Small, neat incisions with a knife also make for easier
sealing for reuse!
EDIT: while I didn’t touch on it too much here, I also use these to prepare ready-made spells. If you’re doing this, consider matching the color of the candle and straw to the spell intent!
Because tumblr now only allows 250 links on a page or some nonsense
like that, here’s my DIY Witchery Resource page broken down. It’s not
all of, but I did as much as I could for now:
Part 1:
Info about me, and my blog, my thoughts on building a secular witchcraft
practice, Witchling info and some thoughts on how to get started
studying witchcraft, Problems
with the general New Age and pagan community including cultural
appropriation and their “grabby hands” approach to things they perceive
as exotic.
There
was more on the original page but this is all I’m able to get to now.
Hopefully some day I’ll be able to add the rest and add more as these
are at least 2 years old and there’s been some fun witchy stuff on
tumblr in the last few years.
teakepp 