The Much Anticipated Aphotic Sequence. This Is A Sigil Method That I Designed Myself, And If You Look

The much anticipated “Aphotic Sequence”. This is a sigil method that I designed myself, and if you look in the tag “Aphotic Sequence” on my blog, you can see some of the sigils I’ve bad with it.

How to use: Instead of crossing out vowels and double letters, write out your intent and use all the letters present.

The lines represent the letters. If you have a repeating letter, place a small circle at the end of the preexisting line. You don’t need to be exact with all the angles of you the lines.

Just use this picture as reference or, I would be happy to teach you how to make it. Feel free to ask me about it if you don’t understand and want to learn. Please, if you decide to use this method and post it, tag me, I’d love to see.

I’d love to see this post make its way through the community as an alternative for new and old member alike.

credit:@wolfofantimonyoccultism for helping me get everything laid out. You should check out their blog

I’ve been messing with the concept of suburban surrealism.  Tryin new colors, techniques, and shapes 

I don’t really know what people generally call this method of sigil making, so I’m just calling it “Letter Shaping” because you’re using the basic shapes from certain letters. This is the most common form of sigil making, and it allows the most creative influence. As you see above the sigils are for nearly the same thing, yet the sigils came out completely different. Not because the purpose was different, but because I approached them both a different creative way, and that’s what I like so much about this method. There’s a lot of freedom and personalization involved.

(UPDATE: Here’s a link to a guide on how to deconstruct letters down to basic shapes)

Never Lost Sigil

May your feet always know the path to take. May your compass always point towards your destination. May any item attached to this sigil remain with its owner.

Reasons Herbs May Not Work

It breaks my heart when I see people give up on herbs too easily.

More and more people are turning to herbs because there is a growing disappointment with using pharmaceuticals for chronic illness.

Many people are getting fed up with taking a pill that never really cures their illness and gives them awful side effects. Maybe they are concerned about acetaminophen giving their young child asthma (1) or they see the growing evidence about the risks associated with statins (2) and they say enough is enough!

From this moment forward they vow to never resort to drugs again and instead try a more natural and holistic approach thus leading them to the world of herbs and herbalism.

But sometimes their love affair with herbalism is stopped short.

They reach for the closest herb book, try a few remedies and then declare that the herbs don’t work! They tried using horehound for coughing with no relief. They tried meadowsweet for their headache to no avail.

They begin to wonder, “Are herbalists a bunch of delusional wood fairies touting the miracles of something that never works?”

As much as I would love to be considered a wood fairy, I’ll have to say no, this is not the case. I’ve seen herbs work hundreds of times. I’ve seen them work for serious infections as well as serious chronic diseases. I’ve seen them work when modern medicine failed.

Yes, herbs work!

I want to share a handful of reasons why herbs might not work in a given situation.

1. Improper dosing (either too little or too much)

When buying over the counter drugs like NyQuil or Tylenol, they come in a package that is clearly marked with the dosage instructions. Generally these are very simple instructions. “Adults take 2 tablets, three times daily.”

Herbs don’t always come with directions. If you buy bulk herbs the dosing instructions are absent entirely. If you buy a tincture or a bottle of capsules the dosage listed on the bottle has most likely been chosen by the FDA’s labeling mandates and not by an herbalist.  

I am not going to lie to you. Dosage in the herbal world is confusing.

In herbalism dosage varies from person to person, from plant to plant and from preparation to preparation.

A 15 minute infusion of a teaspoon of nettle leaf will not extract the same vitamins and minerals as a four-hour infusion of an ounce of nettle leaf in a quart of water.

A few drops of lobelia tincture can promote relaxation. A strong cup of lobelia tea could make you vomit.

One way I commonly see dosages being flubbed in herbalism is people using small amounts of tonic/adaptogen herbs in tincture, versus the traditional use of large amount of tonic/adaptogen herbs as decoctions or powders. (As always go with what works, but if you aren’t getting the results you’d expect after taking 5 drops of ashwanganda tincture twice a day, consider your dose!)

Frequency of dosing can also be an issue. During acute illnesses we generally use slightly smaller amounts but with more frequency. I may take elderberry elixir 1-2 times each hour at the onset of an illness for example. General recommendations are to take herbs 3 times a day, but that won’t cut it for acute illness.

2. Low quality plant material

Herbs often don’t come with an expiration date. Quality can also vary significantly and will suffer greatly if the herbs have been improperly harvested or improperly processed.

Plants decay. They simply go bad. The rate at which they do this varies significantly from plant to plant. If you’ve just pulled a bag of herbs from your back shelf and had to blow off an inch of dust… well, they are probably not at their prime.

Keep reading

How do spells actually work?

Before casting one, you should know the basic concepts of this! 

Spellwork has a lot of different forms. Some people compose their spells in the form of prayer to their deity of choice, ask spirits to aid and guide them and others simply do everything themselves. People who don’t even believe in spellwork cast spells all the time. But what makes a spell ‘work’?

Spellwork is at the most basic level, energy manipulation. It is the process of you putting your personal energy into the world in the direction of a certian goal to enact change. You have pushed this energy out into the world, given it a direction and it is pushing energy at your goal and causing a shift. The chain of how this works may differ depending on who you ask but this is a very basic principle of spellwork.

So it’s important to keep in mind that casting a spell does not mean your goal will happen. It just shifts things a little more in your favour, makes things more likely. Spellwork is an aid to real life situations, it can not create them. It means that there is a higher chance of your goal happening, but nothing is definite. You still need to work towards your goals outside of witchcraft! The spell is there to help you but it can not do all of the work.

Frequently Asked Questions:

So how do deities and spirits come into this?

Many people pray, have rituals or make offerings to deities to ask them for their aid. This is essentially the same thing as casting a spell, only they are also appealing towards a divine source to aid them in putting that energy. In regards to spirits, it is the same thing. People are asking that spirits lend their energy or protection.

Can I cast a spell to win the lottery?

You can, but don’t expect to win. The odds are so impossibly high that the small amount of favor a spell will grant you likely won’t make much of a difference.

What do you mean by energy?

The basic energy that lets you live your daily life. It can be the adrenaline when you go running. Think of the anticipation you get before you do something, the rising sense of excitement and nerves. All of that can be put into spellwork. You can also use extreme emotions such as anger, happiness, joy, sadness…

Do you have any proof that this works?

Aside personal experience and the experiences of the Pagan community as a whole? No. But there’s no proof of any religion aside from people’s personal experiences. Millions believe in those. If you’re on a witchcraft blog looking at this in the first place then I’m not sure why you’d ask for proof.