Harmless Jinxes

Harmless Jinxes

may your birdfeeder attract rodents

may you choose the grocery cart with a janky wheel

may your toilet bowl be extra echo-y

may the airlines scuff up your luggage

may you settle into bed all comfy and cozy, only to realize that you have to pee

may your credit card get briefly stuck in the chip reader when you have a long line behind you

may your coworkers point out how tired you look

may you get lipstick on your teeth

may you receive a backhanded compliment that replays in your head for the rest of the day

may your hot date have awful taste in movies/music

may all the produce in your fridge spoil before you get the chance to cook it

may your smoke detector go off while you're cooking

May your pillow never have a “cold” side when sleeping.

May you feel like a rock is stuck in your shoe when walking.

May you always drop your keys before unlocking any doors

May your shower only give you lukewarm water

May your razors always be slightly too dull when you want to shave.

may you receive spam calls often

May your winged eyeliner never be even

may your gravy be lumpy

may all your doorknobs be sticky

may you put down your hot tea/coffee and forget about it until it's too cold to properly enjoy.

may your antibacterial gel leave a sticky residue on your hands

Witches who have a hard time with visualization: You can speak what you wish to visualize.

Say out loud. Speak with confidence and authority. Describe in detail what it is that you wish to bring about.

"I picture a moat filled with gators surrounding me to shield me from outside forces."

"A circle of rainbow shall now surround my friends so that no negative energy may get to them."

Your words have power, and your words carry your power.

Some days my craft is “bath in sunlight and sweet talk local spirits”

Other days my craft is “flip shit and cause mayhem”

Both are valid 😌

Fetches, Familiars, and Fylgjur

These titles have seemed to have been blurred or the meaning completely lost in modern day because they are conflated to mean the same thing when they are not the same things at all. So this post is gonna clear all that up.

Fetches:

A fetch is in Irish and English folklore, the term for one’s Double, an apparition of a living person. The fetch is also called a “co-walker” in England. Seeing a fetch is a sign of ill-boding, although in Irish lore, to see a fetch in the morning means one will have a long life. When seen at night, however, the fetch is believed to foretell a person’s death.

Fetches are seen by persons with clairvoyant ability, or by friends or family of the living person just prior to, or at the moment of, that person’s death. As such, the fetch is the equivalent of certain crisis apparitions, a term applied in psychical research and parapsychology. Sometimes the fetch is witnessed by the person who is to die several days or weeks prior to his or her death. As such, it is similar to the Germanic doppelgänger and to some conceptions of the British wraith. Francis Grose associated the term with Northern England in his 1787 Provincial Glossary, but otherwise it seems to have been in popular use only in Ireland.

Corresponding to its contemporary prominence in "national superstitions", the fetch appeared in Irish literature starting in early 19th century. "The fetch superstition" is the topic of John and Michael Banim's Gothic story "The Fetches" from their 1825 work Tales by the O'Hara Family and Walter Scott used the term in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, published in 1830, in a brief reference to "his … fetch or wraith, or double-ganger".

Familiars:

Familiars are (usually animal) spirits that can guide us and aid our magical practice and rituals. They can appear in the form of animals we are partial to and will change their form to be a more comforting animal for us.

In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to records of the time, those alleging to have had contact with familiar spirits reported that they could manifest as numerous forms, usually as an animal, but sometimes as a human or humanoid figure, and were described as "clearly defined, three-dimensional… forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound", as opposed to descriptions of ghosts with their "smoky, undefined form[s]".

When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, but when working for cunning folk they were often considered benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases). The former were often categorized as demons, while the latter were more commonly thought of and described as fairies. The main purpose of familiars was to serve the witch or young witch, providing protection for them as they came into their new powers.

Since the 20th century some magical practitioners, including adherents of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, use the concept of familiars, due to their association with older forms of magic. These contemporary practitioners use pets or wildlife, or believe that invisible versions of familiars act as magical aids.

(familiars are almost NEVER physical, so that cat you adopted from the shelter is almost certainly not your familiar. I have only ever seen one physical familiar in my entire life and it is an EXCEEDINGLY rare circumstance)

Fylgja:

Fylgjur (plural of Fylgja) (pronounced "feel-hyur" & "feel-hya" respectively) are supernatural guardian spirits, bound to a family line, who are said to accompany a person throughout life. Like many concepts in Norse mythology, the Fylgja is sometimes hard to comprehend or explain.

Fylgja, translated from Old Norse, means "someone that accompanies". They can appear in two ways.

The first is an animal form, which can be described as an extension of an aspect or characteristic of a particular family. They seem to embody the spirit, and guide the one they choose, or work deeds for them.

Maria Kvilhaug translated and summarised Professor Else Mundal's academic paper on the topic, “Fylgjemotiva i norrøn litteratur” (Fylgjur Motifs in Norse Literature):

"The animal fylgja motif is sometimes blended with the húgr-motif. [Húgr (masculine singular) means “intent”, “desire”, “thought”, “soul”, “heart” and seems to have been a part of the human soul that could move outside of the body in animal shape]. Manna hugir ["the intents of men"] sometimes replace the term manna fylgjor [the “followers” of men] and usually then appear in the shape of wolves. Wolves, being associated with fierce passion and desire (or greed and hunger) are closely connected to the húgr. The other animals appear as manna fylgjor."

The second description from “Fylgjemotiva i norrøn litteratur” explains how Fylgjur are female entities. They act as a guardian for a family, and attach themselves to an individual at birth, following through the generations down a certain lineage. They are likely to represent an ancestral mother. We know that the mothers were celebrated, with female ancestral spirits being described as "Dísir" (meaning "Ladies"). These female spirits are bound to a family of which they are matriarchal ancestors, and can be both benevolent or malevolent.

In the Anglo-Saxon and later English superstitions, an animal Fylgja became known as a fetch. Whether this was originally the same creature that appears in Icelandic literature, or whether this is a similar concept, it is hard to tell. A fetch in the British witchcraft tradition is an animal spirit, or living animal, that would allow its "owner" to travel with it or send it on errands for magical workings or spirit travel.

It is more common for us to see the witch's fetch depicted as a familiar; a physical animal that aids the practitioner in her works. Many folk tales describe how these animals might also be the witch transformed, and physical injuries suffered by the animal matching those of the witch once she is restored to human form. This shape-shifting also appeared as a Norse concept.

In modern reconstructed Heathen spirituality, a Fylgja can be seen as an attendant female spirit or animal, which may visit you in dreams, or appear if you are practising Seiðr, trance-working, or going on a spirit journey. People sometimes feel that their Fylgja has run on ahead of them when travelling in a physical sense.

Witch in Lockdown - small things I do to stay connected to my craft on a daily basis

☕ Drink my daily coffee with a favorite flavor of creamer

🐱 Spend time with my animal familiars

🌲 Go into the woods

🏇 Exercise outdoors when weather permits

🧘‍♀️ Meditate

📚 Read

📝 Journal

🎶 Work on my music

🧙‍♀️ Network with other witches on social media

🕯 Organize my tools

🔮 Daily tarot card draws

💁‍♀️ Grow out my hair

💑 Spend time with my husband

💕 Spend time with my best friends when possible

💻 Witchy blog posts on Tumblr

📖 Research more witchy stuff

Beginner witch tip: You don't need to rush into deity work, much less commit yourself to a deity right away - if ever! The notion that you should is very much a product of cultural Christianity. It's okay to take your time when it comes to deities.