Witch Tools - Tumblr Posts

🔔 BELLS IN WITCHCRAFT 🔔

Bells might just be the earliest form of superstitious practise that I remember. My baba attached three sakura-patterned suzu bells on my schoolbag as a kid, purportedly for good luck and protection from evil spirits – and Japan is far from the only place to have associated bells and bellringing with mystic practise. They’ve been used worldwide to ward off evil and carry messages – and in a more metaphysical sense, sound is the movement of energy through substance. Sounds have the potential to work powerful magic.

Here are some of the ways I’ve found utilising bells to be helpful to my craft. While I’m more likely to use traditional suzu type bells, your own background, path and culture will likely have its own types of bells – and as ever, bells can be ornate antiques or they can be a bottle cap in a tin can, as long as they’re used with intent.

GETTING STARTED

🔔 As with so much of the craft, if you’re new to the witching bell, it’s a matter of exploration and experimentation. Get a “feel” for what works for you and the specific bell you’re using.

🔔 It’s good practise to ensure that the bell itself is cleansed, warded and protected – you don’t want anything nasty tapping into that power. All witching tools can do as much harm as good, intentional or accidental.

🔔 A good way to begin incorporating bells into your craft is infuse them into any typical ritual that you’re comfortable with, or even just a prayer or moment of contemplation at your altar if you have one.

🔔 Give the bell a soft ring while focusing on the energy it’ll ripple and move, try to track the movements it creates and what it touches. The tone it’s sending out.  The most primal and versatile use of the bell – and what many of the below come down to – is simply another manner of physically channelling energy, giving it shape and direction.

PROTECTION

🔔 “Passive” bells such as windchimes or small bells attached to belongings you don’t want disturbed are a starting point. They will scare off some forms of spirit all by themselves, especially if appropriately blessed, charmed or enchanted. Or cursed.

🔔 Gently tolling can draw energy into a ward or circle you are forming and enforce its protective properties, or for a simple cleanse, letting the sound travel to every corner of the area you are protecting. It’s a little more “cutting” than a smoke or incense cleansing, which I view as more “gentle” forms of cleansing. Both have their uses.

🔔 Harder tolling is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful ways in which to enforce a banishing – however, it’s best to you know what you’re doing with the bell before you go bashing it about.

DISCERNMENT

🔔 Bells can have quite the effect on your perception and awareness. Ringing and then stopping, listening to the silence left in its wake, can bring you new perceptions or make things you’d previously missed obvious. Let it attune your mind and senses to something new, whether that’s in your thoughts or something with a little more presence. Visualise travelling with the sound, taking heed of the energies it touches and disturbs. Take note of the echoes – you’ll learn what they mean with experience.

🔔 A set of windchimes can let you know if something is passing through or if there’s some unusual energy afoot – and, yes, it may also just be letting you know that it’s a particularly breezy day, but that’s witchcraft for you.

CONJURING

🔔 This can be as simple as calling good energies to witching tools, spell jars, tarot decks, crystals, altars and shrines, your favourite teddy bar, anything at all.

🔔 With spirit work, it can truly help to magnify your “calling”. This can range from gently bringing your latest offering to the attention of your friendly neighbourhood house spirit – all the way to trying to catch the attention of something more. Be mindful, however. As I said, I consider bells pretty powerful tools and a call that’s too loud is not good spirit work practise for the spirit worker’s own sake. It can really help coax something out of hiding if you’re gentle with it, though.

COMMUNING

🔔 Some use bells to mark the beginning and end of a ritual, and I’ve read that in Wiccan practise an altar bell can be used to invoke the Goddess, although as a non-Wiccan, I’ll welcome corrections on that if I’m wrong.

🔔 In my experience, very simple forms of communication via bell work a lot better than anything too complex – “come here” and “stay away” have already been covered, and other than that they can serve as greetings or signals of a start or end of some practise or ritual, the opening or closing of a door, etc.

🔔 They can also serve as a warning or a litmus test regarding spirits, a signalling of your presence and awareness, lack of fear, or willingness to defend – but be prepared to deal with whatever responses these garner.

BINDING

🔔 Bindings are where you most often see that famous (clockwise) circular motion of the bell, embodying the meaning of the spell. This can be a simple binding to seal a spell or charm or enchantment, or a spirit-binding.

🔔 Personally, spirit-binding is something I do as little as possible simply due to my beliefs holding the autonomy of spirits in very high regard. However, sometimes situations arise that call for it, and I’m aware that not all bindings are unwilling. Far from it – and some spirits are dangerous when unbound.

🔔 As an animist (believing that all things, including inanimate objects, contain a spirit of their own), I consider gently nudging a spirit back into its physical form a sort of semi-binding, and that can be useful.

I’ll leave you all with a note that I am an urban apartment-dwelling witch through and through, so I understand that we can’t all be jangling away at all hours. I myself have a glass windchime in my front window that makes a distinct but muted sound when disturbed by passers-through, and highly recommend wooden ones also. I also only use my small and relatively quiet suzu bell for my crafting – one given to me by my baba herself.

Feel free to add any of your own findings, and happy tolling.

All You Need to Know About Being a College Witch

Whether you’re dorming, living in a sorority/fraternity house, still living with your family, or even living off campus with some non-witchy roommates, I have compiled a list of witchy advice, activities, and tips to help live your most magical life while still complying with any rules that may be in place. 

I spent the past 9 months or so living in the dorms at my university. The housing contract was 20 pages long and filled with everything I wasn’t allowed to have, do, etc. To summarize that annoyingly long document, I was not allowed to have any electrical heat sources besides hair tools (hair dryer, straighter, etc), a clothing iron, and an 800 watt or less microwave. I was not allowed to burn incense or candles, use a wax warmer, a hot plate, an electric kettle. The icing on the cake was that we couldn’t even have an incense diffuser because of the air system being connected throughout the entire building and how it could travel into someone’s room and cause an allergic reaction or make them sick. So I had to get a little crafty (pun intended) with my magical practices.

Activities & Tools

Things to Avoid Doing/Having:

Anything With Fire (candles, incense, smoke cleansing, etc)

Anything That’s a Heat Source (hot plates, wax warmer, electric kettle, etc)

Having Alcohol Regardless If You Are of Age (All Campuses are Dry Campuses meaning No Alcohol is Allowed)

Having Your Familiar (Unless It’s Been Approved by Disability Services to be your Emotional Support Animal)

Doing Spells Outside on Campus (Security Will Be Walking Around And May Think You’re Making a Bomb or Doing Something Illegal)

Leave Your Fancy Athames at Home (Weapons are not allowed on college campuses so to avoid that rule get a kitchen knife or a small hidden knife)

Keeping Anything Obviously Witchy/Occult Related Out Unless You Have Your Own Room or Your Roommate is Okay With it (Pentagrams, Animal Skulls, Ouija Boards, etc)

Tools & Supplies You Generally Can Have:

Crystals

Divination Tools (Tarot Cards, Scrying Mirrors, Pendulums, etc)

Herbs

Sachets 

Bottles/Jars

Loose Leaf and/or Bagged Tea

Battery Powered Candles

Himalayan Salt Lamps (Check Housing’s Bulb Requirements)

Ouija Boards (Make Sure If You Have A Roommate, They’re Okay With It Being There.You Don’t Want to Cause A Fight)

Witchcraft Books

Your Grimoire/Book of Shadows

Art Supplies

Plants 

Coffee

Food

Dorm Approved Activities:

Spell Jars (Check my tag #spell jars)

Sachets (Check my tag #sachets)

Shufflemancy

Shower Magick (Make Sure to Clean the Shower After and Check my tag #shower magick)

Kitchen Witchcraft (Dorm Kitchens Have Refrigerators and Microwaves but sometimes more. Check my tags #recipes and #kitchen witchcraft Also the internet has so many dorm-friendly recipes available)

Tarot (Check my tags #tarot for how-tos and tips and #spreads for tarot spreads

Crystal Grids (Check my tag #crystal grid for ideas)

Pendulum (Check my tag #pendulum for tips and tricks)

Scrying (Water, Mirror, Oil, and Crystal are dorm safe)

Color Magick to Pick Your Clothes, Dorm Decorations, and School Supplies (Check my tag #colors for correspondences and for which holiday uses which colors)

Tasseomancy (Check my tag #tasseomancy)

Tea Magick (Check my tag #tea magick)

Runes (Check my tag #runes)

Using Crystals (Check my tag #crystals)

Spell Sprays (I will be posting a how-to on this later this evening. Check my tag #spell spray in a few days for different recipes.)

Sigils (Check my tag #sigils)

Witch Tips/Advice:

You don’t have to do magick every day in order to still be considered a witch. College can be draining and time-consuming. Put your schoolwork before your magick. 

Make sure if you using the dorm microwave, to use microwave-safe plates, cups, etc. You do not want to set off the fire alarm at 2 am because you put your metallic non-microwave-safe coffee mug and it started to smoke.

If using common spaces like the bathrooms or kitchen for your witchcraft, make sure to clean up after yourself as soon as you are done. It can cause the Head of Housing the fine your dorm hall/building if it continually happens.

There was a college witchcraft post saying to give your roommate a gift that you enchanted when you first move in. You should never do magic without their consent and especially if you have just met them and have yet to find out their feelings towards it. Starting out already at odds will turn into fighting roommates in no time. Fighting roommates are not fun or easy for your RA.

If your roommate is not okay with you having your tools out, there are tons of ways to discreetly hid them. There are boxes that look like books that you can buy at Micheal’s. You can also DIY your own book box! You can also use a trunk, cloth bag, decorative box, or even a shoe box to hold your tools.

If you’re interested in green witchcraft, it’s best to wait until you move into your dorm room before getting a plant. You’ll never know that your room doesn’t get enough sunlight or that AC is always on in your hall until you move in. If you don’t wait, you’ll end up with a lot of dead plants like me.

If you’re a religious witch and your roommate doesn’t want there to be an altar, you can make a shoebox altar. Open it when you need and close and store it away when you don’t. You can also make one the size of an Altoids tin or even a digital one such as a sideblog or a screensaver for your electronic device.

You don’t have to do elaborate spells all the time. You can just do simple things like picking what to wear based off of a color’s correspondence or enchanting your pen/pencil for good luck on a test.

@nightshadeandroses suggested to me that you reach out to your school’s religious department. A lot of smaller schools like mine don’t have one. For some universities, it’s a part of Student Services/Resources on campus. Whichever applies to you, the people there are willing and ready to help you. Some campuses have a space available for students to meditate/pray while others will help you find a place to do that whether it be on or off campus. Every college is different and the only way to get what you need is to ask.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an ask or message me. I’ll be glad to help!

Best of luck witches!  🔮✨

Small psa to remember to thank your tarot cards, your pendulum, your crystals, your stored herbs, your plants, your pets, your tools, your grimoire, your friends, your spirits, your family, and anything else you may think of. They stuck with you through thick and thin during the last year or however long they’ve been with you, so show them some simple appreciation and start the new year on a positive note!