You Can Do Spells When You Are Upset, But Think About The Situation And What You Want To Happen First.

You can do spells when you are upset, but think about the situation and what you want to happen first.

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.

✨Astro Calendar 2023✨

⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⋆⁺₊ Lunar Events: ⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⋆⁺₊

● Jan 7th Full Moon in Cancer

○ Jan 22nd New Moon in Aquarius -  Lunar New Year

● Feb 6th Full Moon in Leo

○ Feb 20th New Moon in Pisces

● March 7th Full Moon in Virgo  

○ March 22nd New Moon in Leo

● April 6th Full Moon in Libra

○ April 20th New Moon in Aries 
◉ Total Eclipse

● May 6th Full Moon in Scorpio ◉ Total Eclipse

○ May 20th New Moon in Taurus

● June 4th Full Moon in Sagittarius

○ June 18th New Moon in Gemini

● July 3rd Full Moon in Capricorn

○ July 18th New Moon in Cancer

● Aug 2nd Full Moon in Aquarius - Supermoon

○ Aug 16th New Moon in Leo

● Aug 31st Full Moon in Pisces - Blue Moon

○ Sep 15th New Moon in Virgo

● Sep 29th Full Moon in Aries

○ Oct 15th New Moon in Libra ◉ Annular Eclipse

● Oct 29th Full Moon in Taurus ◉ Partial Eclipse

○ Nov 13th New Moon in Scorpio

● Nov 27th Full Moon in Gemini

○ Dec 13th New Moon in Sagittarius

● Dec 27th Full Moon in Cancer

⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊ Wheel of the Year: ⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊

✧˖°.☼.°˖✧Southern Hemisphere✧˖°.☼.°˖✧

Lammas/Lughnasadh  Feb 2nd

Mabon/Autumn Equinox  March 21st

Samhain May 1st

Yule/Winter Solstice Jun 22nd

Imbolc Aug 1st

Ostara/Spring Equinox Sep 23rd

Beltane Oct 31st

Litha/Summer Solstice Dec 22nd

✧˖°.☼.°˖✧Northern Hemisphere✧˖°.☼.°˖✧

Imbolc Feb 1st

Ostara/Spring Equinox March 30th

Beltane May 1st

Litha/Summer Solstice June 21st

Lammas/Lughnasadh Aug 1st

Mabon/Autumn Equinox Sep 22d

Samhain Oct 31st

Yule/Winter Solstice Dec 21st

˖⁺‧₊˚  ˚₊‧⁺˖Retrogrades & Directs: ˖⁺‧₊˚  ˚₊‧⁺˖

☿ Mercury

RX 29th Dec 2022 –> 19th Jan  //  20 Days

RX 21st April –> 15th May  //  23 Days

RX 24th Aug –> 16th Sep  //  23 Days

RX 13th Dec –> 2nd Jan 2024  //  19 Days

♁ Venus RX  23rd Jul –> 4th Sep  //  42 Days

♂️Mars RX 31st Oct 2022 –> 13th Jan  //  74 Days

♃ Jupiter RX 5th Sep –> 31st Dec  //  117 Days

♄ Saturn RX 18th June –> 4th Nov  // 139 Days

♅ Uranus

RX 24th Aug –> 23rd Jan  //  151 Days

RX 29th Aug –> 27th Jan 2024  //  151 Days

♆ Neptune RX 1st Jul –> 7th Dec  //  158 Days

♇ Pluto RX 2nd May –> 11th Oct  //  162 Days

* ⋆·˚ ༘ * 🔭 Astro Events to See:  * ⋆·˚ ༘ * 🔭

Quadrantids Meteor Shower 1st-7th Jan; Peaks on the 3rd. Full Moon

Venus Conjunct Saturn Jan 22nd

Venus Conjunct Jupiter March 1st

Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower 19th April -28th May. Strongest in Southern Hemisphere

Lyrids Meteor Shower 16th-25th April, peak on the 22nd/23rd

Venus near Pleiades & Hyades star clusters April 21st/22nd  (20 meteors per hour)

Venus-Mars-Moon Triangle May 23rd

Beehive Star Cluster near Mars & Venus June 1st/2nd

Venus-Mars-Moon Triangle June 6th

Moon Venus Mars Visible low in the west on the Solstice of June 21st

Delta Aquarids July 12th - Aug 23rd; peak 28th/29th July

Perseids Meteor Shower begins July 27th and peaks on 12th Aug

Blue Moon Aug 31st

Oct 14th Partial Solar Eclipse, visible to Southern USA; Gulf of Mexico

Leonids Nov 3rd - Dec 2nd; peak Nov 18th

Geminids Meteor Shower Dec 4th - 17th, peak on the 12th (120-160 meteors per hour)

Ok, so you want to practice every day?

You know what, valid. So do I. I'm going to make this as short as I can because we have a lot to get through.

You don't have to practice every day to be a "good," valid, powerful, or whatever-you-want witch.

Generic "ground and center every morning, then enchant your tea" practice routines aren't going to be helpful for 90% of us out here. (yes, I wrote similar in the past!)

"Practice" does not equal repeating exercises and casting spells.

When witches say "in my practice," IMO they are using this word interchangeably with "in my path," or "when I actively engage in my path."

Eschew the idea that your "daily practice" is supposed to be a workout routine that is training you for something better.

Embrace the idea that we're actually talking about "practicing daily," aka "engaging with my path on a daily basis." You aren't training for the next thing - you're at the thing already :)

Your daily practice needs to start with what you want out of your faith and practice.

Not everyone wants to be an energy worker.

Not everyone wants to venerate nature.

Not everyone wants to be a spirit-worker.

Not everyone wants to learn herbalism or kitchen witchery

Brainstorm your idealized path. I mean envision yourself in the cutest little cottagecore village, living your total fantasy witch life. What are you doing?

Do you want to...

Be a diviner?

Learn sorcery?

Be a licensed herbalist?

Talk to spirits and make friends with the forest and the flowers?

Help and heal the villagers?

Be a spiritual warrior who battles with evil spirits and aberrations?

Be a world-walker, who goes to unseen realms?

Learn to slip into new skins?

(The list goes on)

Also ask yourself what you don't want. Gods freak you out? Ok, don't interact with them. You want to do pure energy work with very little ritual ingredients? Beautiful. Stand your ground, flip off people who tell you "but witches worship pagan gods and burn candles to their familiars 🥺"

Find ways to start including what is the most important to you in your daily life.

It might be helpful to make a list of the 1-3 things you really want to focus on right now. If it helps, choose a time frame of weeks to try out these practices and see if you like them.

But before you get too far into that:

[Picture ID: A tweet from @rmccarthyjames which reads, "all of my plans for the future involve me waking up tomorrow with a sudden sense of discipline and adherence to routine that i have never displayed even once in my life"]

This, right here, is what we want to avoid.

Please, for the love of God, do not sit down and say, "okay, I'm going to wake up 30 minutes early and do a 15 minute meditation each morning, then 5-10 minutes of energy exercises. Then, I'm going to ground and center (energy work goals). Then during breakfast I'll enchant my food and read about herbalism while I eat (kitchen witch goals). Then, in the evening ---"

I can pretty much guarantee you that almost any activity you have access to right now will be actively draining.

Magical techniques, exercises, and spellwork take energy - just like working out at the gym.

You can work out at the gym and feel energized for the next couple of hours, but then become fatigued in the evening/next day.

You can work out at the gym every day for 5 days, but then suddenly you feel too weak or sore to even get out of bed the next day.

Meditation, grounding, and centering can restore metaphysical energy to your body, and increase your access to it. But it's like eating a protein bar after a workout - you still have to rest and recover.

So if you've tried to stick to "do X, Y, Z" activities every day and failed, ask yourself if you were actually engaging in a strenuous magical workout routine that wore you into the ground.

Instead of choosing "X activity for Y minutes at Z time every day, consider this:

One of the most available ways you can engage in your path is by dwelling within your magical and spiritual worldviews.

Are you an animist? Look for a plant. Think about how it's got a soul. You just engaged with your path :)

Are you interested in energy work? Look for a conversation between two people. Consider the energy flow between them. You just engaged with your path :)

Are you into Traditional Witchcraft? Watch a TV show. Ask yourself how you'd solve a problem on the screen (not necessarily using magic to solve it, just in general). Then, ask yourself how your hag, fetch-beast, or familiar (hypothetical or otherwise) would solve it. You just engaged with your path :)

Are you into religious magic? Look around you. Feel the vibes, feel your feelings, feel your mood. What would your god(s) have to say about it? You just engaged with your path :)

Do you play a lot of video games? Overlay your beliefs onto the game and use events, interactions, and developments as an opportunity to consider your own beliefs (or, with Minecraft, build your own astral temples).

The more you dwell within your magical and spiritual worldviews, the more you "phase in" to the reality that you're a witch and magic is within you and around you.

Over time, constantly engaging with your path in these small ways - through choosing to see the world through the lens of your practice - makes choosing and employing "techniques," exercises, and spells soooo much more relevant and practical.

With that tangent is out of the way, practical tips for how to interact with your path on a daily basis:

Avoid "daily" activities with a high barrier to entry. If you make all these rules and regulations for your own practice, like you have to make a journal entry for every spell and magical activity, and it has to include the moon phase and planetary hour, you're going to be engaging probably a lot less than you think you will.

Choose activities which directly help and support your day to day life.

Tough work environment? Try picking up energy shielding or amulet-making.

Art commissions down? Try learning prosperity or money magic.

Feeling confused or directionless? Experiment with forms of divination.

Lonely? Learn to talk to spirits.

You do not need to create barriers to these things. You DO NOT need to meditate, ground, or center before you make an energy shield. You can just make one right now, actually.

You don't need to learn protection and warding before you practice talking to the nature spirits around you, or bringing protective presences into your sphere.

You don't need to copy down a two-page spell and then write grimoire entries for each correspondence before you can do effective spells and charms.

One of the easiest ways to perform casual, daily magic is to extend regular daily actions into the spirit world.

(For me, the "spirit world" is where all magic happens. Maybe you might call it the etheric, or the energy-double of the world).

Shower to clean yourself - just expend energy to extend the cleaning to your spiritual bodies.

Eat food to gain energy - just expend energy to also feed your spiritual bodies.

Exhale to send old breath away - and at the same time, send away an unwanted thought, energy, or presence.

("Expend energy" can be done in many ways; most often we say "visualization" but you can also dedicate your power to the task through words of intent ["I apply my power to nourish myself thrice over"], mindfulness [staying present in the moment and maintaining focus on your spiritual goal], physical gestures [stirring food clockwise with the knowledge that you are stirring power into it], etc.)

So you've found some free time. What do you want to do with it?

Maybe you started energy shielding earlier this week, and now you're feeling worn out and just want to take a day off.

Hot take: "Hey, I'm too tired to do this magical thing, I'm going to choose something else instead" is engaging with your path :) You didn't forget or ignore your path. You checked in with your magical self, took stock of the situation, and choose the activity of rest.

Be flexible!

I personally say, give all techniques and methods a chance. I myself am not a person where I start out good at things. I'm one of the people where I start out bad at things and get a little better each time I practice.

But if a technique is not vibing with you, or if new concerns arise in your life, there's no need to dedicate yourself to doing something you don't like and don't need for the sake of reaching an arbitrary goal of completion.

Remember, it's not a daily workout until you're good enough to improve your life.

It's improving your life, right now, and each time you do it you get a lil better at it :)

Your path is not subject to object impermanence*.

(*The following is primarily poetic; take it or leave it as you please)

You are what you are and wherever you stand, there your path is around you. To try and curse your path into a quasi-existence where it only appears when you're making energy balls is a terrible fate for a path to be bound to.

It's your friend. It wants to be with you. It doesn't want to be told it's invisible and un-present unless you're staring it in the eye.

A great deal of my early path was taking huge breaks from magical practice - I mean, for months and months at a time. It's called the Crooked Path, not the Straightforward Linear Path Where Expected Things Occur.

Sure, if you're done with witchcraft for a while (or forever), set it aside. Tell your path it's done, closed down, and you'll be back when you're back.

But while you're in, you're walking it. Is your path one where you accidentally forget witchcraft exists and take breaks for months at a time without meaning to? So that's your path. It matches you step for step, no matter where you go.

It doesn't go hungry - you eat and you sleep, and it eats and rests with you. It doesn't feel rejected - it's right there with you. When you touch the doorknob, your path reaches through and holds your hand. When you write a school exam, it traces the pencil lead from the other side. It doesn't matter if you know it or see it - it's there, patient and waiting, watching you with love. All you need to do is fail to believe that your path is gone when you stop paying attention to it.

Emotional Healing Bath

I recommend doing this in tandem with Shadow Work & Trauma release exercises. I saw a great thread on twitter that I'll link. I am NOT a professional- please be sure to do your own research and you can always use different herbs in this spell! Edit it to your liking, I made this a few nights ago for someone special. So I thought I'd share it with you guys.

What you'll need? - draw this sigil on a piece of paper to put into your jar or beneath your candle, if you are doing a bath you can always put this sigil in your satchet and trace it into the bath while stating your intentions. The usages of the sigil are explained in the linked post. I personally used colored pencils & took a page from my favorite notebook to draw it <3. I used Yellow for happiness & pink for love and then on the back in orange wrote my intentions for the sigil.

For those interested in a Spell Jar, you'll of course need a Jar and a Green candle to represent growth which you will seal the jar with. If you're able to I recommend carving the sigil linked above lightly into the candlewax. If you're interested in a spell candle, you can do one or multiple candles. I recommend any of the following colors: White for purification and renewal. Green for Personal growth & healing Orange for Mood Improvement & self confidence Yellow for Happiness and Confidence in Self Expression. Focus on what you are looking to get from this reading when you're choosing candle color <3 If you feel drawn to a different color for a different reason then go with your intuition.

A/N: Obviously these herbs have way more spiritual correspondences, but to keep it simple we're going to focus on the intention of the herbs for this specific spell. Witch Hazel Planet: Sun Element: Fire Gender: Masculine Moving on, releasing Grief, Mending broken heart, find inner balance. Amaranth Gender: feminine Planet: Saturn Element: fire Mending a broken Heart

Chamomile Gender: Masculine Planet: Sun Element:  Water  Peace & Calmness Chrysanthemum Gender: Masculine Planet: Sun Element: Fire Happiness & Elevated mood! Ashwaghanda Planet: Moon & Mars? Apparently also the Sun. Mental Power & Enhancing Mental Health! Hyssop Masculine Jupiter Fire Relieving Depression & for a more positive outlook on life salt FOR THOSE WHO DO A BATH. U can use the salt to ground the stagnant energy that is causing blockages and when u drain the tub it's like removing those blockages from ur life!!

I really recommend making a playlist for your bath that consists of comforting and emotionally relieving songs. For those who are taking a spellbath with this recipe, the goal is to release so that the spell can do it's job to heal. The salt is really a big help for this reason, so don't be afraid to cry.

🌱Self Love Affirmations🌱

I am worthy of receiving the love I give.

I have enough. I do enough. I am enough.

I am proud of myself and all I have accomplished.

I choose to stop apologizing for being me.

I accept myself unconditionally.

I am becoming more confident everyday.

I offer self love and tarot readings ❤️