What is Beltane?
Beltane is celebrated on May 1st although some people choose to celebrate it from April 30th to May 1st. Beltane is a day for fun, light-hearted celebration, love, and it is often represented by maypole dancing and performing fire rituals to honor the Mother Goddess and Sun God. The days are getting longer and all life is bursting with potent fertility and sexuality on earth is at its peak. Beltane celebrations are filled with feasts and sun magick, the name Beltane means “fire of Bel”. Beltane is a time to watch what you’ve been manifesting and working so hard towards come to life before your eyes. Celebrate, laugh, love, drink, eat and have a good time!
Ways to Celebrate
Play music that gets you feeling happy and excited. Beltane is a celebration of abundance and high energy, so play music that raises your energy
Prepare something in the kitchen. Make a food that reminds you of the coming summer months, share it with whoever you live with if you can/want to
Get crafty! You could draw, paint, write or even just work on a project for yourself. It could really be anything, as long as you’re creating it.
Light some candles or incense! Lighting fires on Beltane is tradition. So however you can safely have a fire lit nearby, have it burning while you do any of the other activities listed above.
Flower gathering
Nature walks
Washing your face with morning dew
Making Beltane bread
Colors🌈
Red
White
Green
Blue
Yellow
Brown
Pink
Crystals💎
Amber
Bloodstone
Citrine
Carnelian
Agate
Malachite
Moonstone
Ruby
Emerald
Sapphire
Rose quartz
Herbs🌿
Angelica
Mint
Mugwort
St. John’s wort
Yarrow
Thyme
Hawthorn
Flowers🌸
Foxglove
Bluebells
Daisy
Lilac
Food 🥐
Bread
Cereal
Honey
Cherries
Oatmeal
Strawberries
Wine
Salad
I hope you all have a wonderful Beltane and I cant wait to see how you all celebrated!
Black:
Element: Earth
Astrological correspondences: Saturn
Magickal correspondences: Protection, the night, truth, banishing/binding, patience, karma, death, civil servants, removing hexes
Other information: Used to invoke the power of Saturn
Brown:
Element: Earth
Astrological correspondences: Scorpio, Capricorn
Magickal correspondences: Endurance, grounding, stability, house blessing, strengthening, concentration, solidifying
Other information: Used in animal magick and for locating lost items
Dark blue:
Element: Water
Astrological correspondences: Jupiter, Moon, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces
Magickal correspondences: Truth, meditation, opportunity, psychic ability, astral projection, wisdom, protection, good fortune
Other information: Used to invoke the power of water
Green:
Element: Earth
Astrological correspondences: Venus, Mercury, Aquarius, Cancer
Magickal correspondences: Luck, money, fertility, healing, prosperity, growth, courage, change, peace, friendship, grace, nature
Other information: Used in faerie magick
Gold:
Element: Fire
Astrological correspondences: Sun
Magickal correspondences: Power, success, great fortune, divination, money, justice, healing, physical strength, ambition
Other information: Associated with masculine or male energy
Light blue:
Element: Water
Astrological correspondences: Jupiter, Moon, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces
Magickal correspondences: Astral projection, truth, justice, will power, peace, tranquility, healing, calmness, focusing the mind
Other information: Used to invoke the power of water
Orange:
Element: Fire
Astrological correspondences: Sun, Leo, Sagittarius
Magickal correspondences: The God, strength, healing, luck, justice, dominance, happiness, opportunity, harvest, vitality
Other information: N/A
Pink:
Element: Fire
Astrological correspondences: Venus, Mars
Magickal correspondences: Love, friendship, harmony, honour, mortality, self-love, action, children, compassion, passion. maturity, sex
Other information: Associated with femininity and homosexuality
Purple:
Element: Air
Astrological correspondences: Mercury, Saturn, Capricorn, Jupiter, Gemini, Sagittarius
Magickal correspondences: Wisdom, banishing negativity, dreams, protection, intuition, defence, psychic abilities/power, ambition
Other information: N/A
Red:
Element: Fire
Astrological correspondences: Aries, Scorpio, Mars, Saturn
Magickal correspondences: Power, strength, courage, passion, vitality, health, energy, protection, renewal, joy, sexuality, war
Other information: N/A
Silver:
Element: Water
Astrological correspondences: Moon, Mercury
Magickal correspondences: Communication, meditation, intuition, balance, psychic ability, success, dreams, luck
Other information: Associated with feminine energy, used in lunar magick
White:
Element: Air
Astrological correspondences: Moon, Pisces
Magickal correspondences: New beginnings, purity, peace, clarity, truth, transformation, healing, cleansing, balance, innocence
Other information: White candles can be used as substitute for any other candle colour
Yellow:
Element: Air
Astrological correspondences: Sun, Mercury, Taurus, Libra
Magickal correspondences: Health, success, confidence, creativity, harmony, divination, learning, travel, happiness, friendship, itellect
Other information: N/A
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Please feel free to contact me with any additional information you feel I should add
She’s got these eyes that just… And this hair, wow… And her smile!
When you’ve covered all the basics, the next step is to pick some topics and study them in-depth. Take notes, whether they are online or by hand, and find creative ways to incorporate what you’ve learned into your practice. With depth of knowledge comes depth of understanding, and that will make you a stronger witch. Here are some ideas/topics to get started:
Mesopotamian magic (especially the role of astrology in Mesopotamia)
Go through each of the Sabbats and write down a summary of how they came about. What is their history, purpose and associated mythology?
Hermeticism and its influence on Western magic
The first recorded spells and incantations (hint: they were in ancient Sumer)
Who was Zoroaster?
John Dee and Enochian magic
Freemasonry
The Golden Dawn
The Salem Witch Trials, and how they affected legislation on, and public perception of, witchcraft
Carl Gustav Jung and his work on the connections between psychology and alchemy
Crystal elixirs
Shadow work
Mythology from a variety of cultures - you’re probably familiar with Zeus and Ra, but how much do you know about Ranginui and Papatuanuku? Knowing a variety of mythologies, whether you follow them or not, can help you better understand the deities you work with.
Other religions! It’s the same as mythologies - the more you know, the better.
Buddhist philosophy
Reiki
The fae
Botany - if you can, try to research the plants in your region, and devise correspondences for plants you can find in your local area based on their physical or medicinal properties. Just make sure to be mindful of local/native cultures if there are any.
Make a dream journal, and write down whatever you can remember about your dreams (don’t worry if it’s hard at first, the more you write them down the better you’ll get at remembering). Research possible dream meanings of any dreams that stand out to you!
Astrology, if you’re not already familiar with it. Astrology originated in ancient Mesopotamia as one of the first forms of divination, and as a result is the basis of a lot of magic today.
The natural world. The metaphysical is important but perhaps more so is the world to which it is attached. I’d recommend watching nature documentaries for this one.
Cover all your bases. If there’s a witchcraft 101 area that you never fully learned, now’s the time. Things like grounding, centering, circle casting, meditation, warding, visualisation… these are all important foundations that you need before you can try to build on your knowledge.
Agrippa
🔮 The Moon goes ‘Wax on, Wan off’
🔮 White Candles, Clear Quartz, Rosemary and Roses can be a substitute for anything
🔮 Do research on your Deities and Divine beings so you don’t accidentally offend them
🔮 Before you start doing spells and rituals, make sure you got bath magick, tea magick, and sigils down pat
🔮 Clockwise is for positive things, such as summonings, and Counter-clockwise is for negative things, such as banishings
🔮 If your ritual/spell/potion goes wrong, Don’t Panic. Finish it and make sure to Cleanse and Bless the area strongly afterward. If you are still in doubt or if the problem consists, consult an older or more experienced witch
🔮 Never doubt your own power, you are more powerful than you realize, so be careful!
☽O☾ Blessed Be!
Hey guys here are some tips for charging objects for spell-casting and why!
1. Bury the item you want to charge. Sometimes an item is used so often or for so long it starts to absorb energies around it. Reconnect it to the earth, literally grounding the item.
2. Charge with heat. There are many ways you can add heat to an item. The hot sun, a candle, an oven, a stove top, even the microwave. Please be careful when doing this however as it is very easy to get burned. As someone of finnish decent however, sauna stones are something I have often, and would recommend others try!
3. Although an unusual way to consider charging, make sure the space around your altar is clean. Or clean something while carrying what it is you want to charge. The purpose of this is to transform the space, and remove additional energies that might be clogging up your spell
4. If possible, soak an item in salt water for a period of time. Salt’s status as an electrolyte means that it’s atoms carry a charge. I would recommend at least 24 hours. This is a very literal way to charge something, but also very easy. Note that any salt will work as epsom salts are also electrolytes (just not ones you should eat)
5. Use the New or Full moon. Naturally these are powerful times to spell cast, collect, and charge items, as even ocean waves are influenced moreso during these times. This also may be why your spells are not working–about a weak after a full or new moon, the moon is at its weakest. This reflects in the oceans as neap tides. Avoid spellcasting during those times.
6. Have someone close to you hold the item for a length of time. Every person has their own energy, and their own shared energy, and if the spell involves them, or they have a quality you want to invoke in yourself,
7. For spells relating to change, take items from, or use a charging spell in liminal spaces. What does this mean? Loosely, liminal places that are only meant for transition, getting from one place to another. These are also places that make most people uneasy because lingering feels like it is outside of it’s normal use. This includes stairwells, elevators, train stations, empty parking lots, schools during break, even when at art galleries alone, because they imitate rooms we live in, while not being livable space.
Let’s Talk Poppets & Spell Dolls!👩🏻🤝👩🏽
hollywood has massively misrepresented poppets and spell dolls as a form of evil/baneful magick (the Voodoo Doll), however, this is often far from the truth about poppet magick!
the use of poppets and spell dolls is a sympathetic form of magick which ties a magick focus or object with a soul, to an inanimate object. people use rag dolls, ceramics, photos, paper cut outs, and even animals as poppets for humans.
however i use ceramic figures! usually when i make a poppet it is used to protect or nurture a loved figure in my life. i place crystals near the poppet depending on what the person represented by the doll needs, carry the poppet in my company for lonelier friends, or i may even do spellwork involving the doll for bigger issues.
to bind a poppet to a person, use hair, belongings (scraps of clothing belonging to your subject can be stuffed inside of stitched dolls, as can topical herbs), or even just the initials or birthdate of the person will do. i paint these details on the back of the poppet.
remember if you use a poppet to do any sort of magick on a friend, it is best to ask the friend first! otherwise using a poppet may end up being controlling or an unwanted magickal intervention.
heres how i make my ceramic dolls:
I use a cheap air-drying clay called “DAS”. You can use as much or little as you like, just be aware the the bigger you make your poppet, the longer it will take to dry.
Roll your clay roughly into a potato shaped ball, and working quickly (air-drying clay dries and becomes difficult to work with fast!) snip along the dotted lines pictured above! when you pull the sniped sectors away from eachother, you should get a ugly looking body-ish shape with a bulbous head. but with some pinching and squeezing, the body will quickly become prettier.
Once you have squeezed the clay into shape, you should end up with some very simple silhouetted human shapes. I smooth the clay out using my fingers (not with any water) on the front and the back of the poppet. In 24-48 hours the poppets should be fully dry and ready for painting.
i paint the skin of the doll whatever colour i want and then give it a heart, sigils, a face, a belly button, and the name and birthdate of the person represented by the poppet on the back. i also make a few plain ones at a time so i always have some ready to use. (the paint i use is water-based acrylic paint).
i hope this is helpful to some people! i put a little extra effort into this post. don’t forget that you don’t have to make people shaped poppets! if you’re making a poppet for an animal, they would be super cute as animal shaped <3