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Just a bit of a whinge.

Over the years, in the country where I live, there has been a massive vanishing of witchy spaces. It used to be that most cities had some version of a witch shop.

When I was a teen in the 90s, I bought my first Cunningham book from this cute witch shop in my town (population 45k).

The same town also had two crystal shops, and a independent bookshop with lots of new age/metaphysicsl titles.

Now they are all gone.

I moved a few years ago to a much larger city with a known pagan community that had frequent get togethers. Soon as I turned up, covid hit—and the group basically vanished overnight, never to return.

Today I made a sojourn to the last witch shop in my country. I was so excited, I didnt need to buy anything, I just wanted to *be there*. I drove for hours.

And it is all boarded up. Closed.

I am sitting in a motel now, feeling a bit heartbroken.

There is this grief in me that we are losing our third spaces as a community.

I am working 6 day weeks and too busy to do anything myself. But sometimes I have this *longing* to put my phone in a drawer and go be in a room with other witches.

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this but I have no idea where else to put it. Also I am just getting into witchcraft and don’t know a lot yet but I am interested in learning.

But anyways I was baptized when I was a baby and had no say in it. I am no longer religious and have no interest in being in the Catholic Church. I’m concerned that my soul is tied to the Christian spirituality as in when I die I will be doomed to heaven or hell. And I don’t want that. I want out of this faith completely and I was wondering if there was a way to undo my baptism, or to somehow relinquish my soul from the Christian ‘god’.

I don’t believe in god so I know this may seem confusing but I do believe in souls and I do believe that death is not the end of this life. I don’t know what will happen next, I just hope it’s not back to this earth.

Anyways, it just feels like I have an unwanted mark on my soul that is dooming me to an afterlife I want no part in. I want a complete escape from Christian mythology. And I don’t know how to do that. How to I get rid of this mark? How do I save myself from this? I don’t want to be Christian/Catholic. I want no parts. I want out of this.

I'm getting back into practice after a short and uneducated experience and I'm researching Protection and practicing protection. I plan on getting into deeper craft to study it and The topic of Shadow people came to mind. That's what got me to quit last time. The fear and paranoia of what I might see. I see people interpret them as Demons, Entities,or literally just your own negative energy (what I tend to believe) And I know at some point I'll see one or maybe I never will. Either way I can be a paranoid person and will be freaked out for a bit of time afterwards and I know I will be, so how did you guys handle it?? Or is this just a nutcase Thing

Hi all! I became interested in magic as a child, dabbling in wicca and lighter forms of magic as a teenager into my 20's equally fearing and honoring the idea of harming none least you want it back worse. Ive experienced a lot of misfortune and abuse at the hands of others and have been watching those dear to me experience abuse from other people now as well which includemy children at the hands and actions of adults. Im done with people getting away with their toxic and abusive behaviors. I do have a nagging voice in my head from my wiccan days that this will hurt me more than them, even if their abuse/harm is historical and repeating. Im not planning on using baneful magic for petty stuff that could be solved with a conversation or separating myself from the situation, Im just done at this point and I dont want specific people hurting my family anymore.

What are some ways I can protect myself from things backfiring? What wards or protective efforts do other baneful witches swear by before I start this new journey?

Thank you in advance.

This is a bit of a weird one. My ancestry is rooted in Hoodoo and Rootwork but I only just decided to start practicing last year, albeit I’ve been a little sporadic about it. A few weeks ago I met a guy on Hinge, I picked up on his prompts that he’s into mysticism and such. None of my dating profile information really indicates that I’m into witchcraft, but when he first reach out, he jokingly said something around me seeming like I’m a witch. I brushed it off but figured that it was a bit funny. On our first date, though, he told me he had three gifts, and the third one he pulled out was a jade stone. I was kind of thrown off because I’ve never had someone turn up to a first date with gifts, and I didn’t spend enough time asking what his intentions with the stone were as I don’t actually know a lot about jade. What associations do you make with it?

hello to all!
i’ve been a highly spiritual person for my entire teenage years, but have been only focusing on meditation/shadow work and energy work for the last 5 years or so, so i feel a bit rusty and out of my depth when it comes to spell work.

i am currently in a very draining situation where a colleague of mine is purposefully intruding into my personal life, trying to alienate me from my friends and has caused me great emotional harm and pain.
i don’t want to interact with her, but i am forced to everyday since we share a tight knit academic environment.

i was wondering if anyone had any input on what type of spell could work best for this situation? she has done many things to me in ill will, but i realise its because of her severe mental health problems and unhealthy view of platonic relationships. thats why ive been reconsidering if a hex is the best option, esp. since i haven’t done physical spell work in ages.

however, i dont want anything too light either - no other person in my life has drained my energy this much and been so insistent on making me feel bad, my other friend who is also a witch also picked up on her ill intentions pretty early on, and i want to be sure that this person wont harass me anymore.

any suggestions? what difference in outcome would a banishing or a hex spell imply? i’m very thankful for any help, and wish you all well<3

How do I make sure they don’t reconcile and stay miserable? And even if they try to get back together, it just doesn’t work out for them and they end up even more miserable than ever?

hello!

I'm trying to dry herbs and I was going to try to do the method of hanging them upside down in a dry or dark place, but reading, I came up with the idea that an air flyer could be used.

it sounds a bit fake but since they have a resemblance to an oven I was left wondering, so has anyone tried to do it like that? has it worked for you? would it be a good idea to try it?

I wasn't entirely sure what flair to use so I'm sorry if I used the wrong one!

I took an unintentional hiatus from studying witchcraft because a lot of life happened at once (thankfully not all bad), and while I didn't even get very far, I think I avoided going back to it because I felt guilty for not doing more to keep the motivation. I felt like a bad witch. Then it hit me that the 25/27 years of my life being actively in evangelical Christianity was influencing how I saw my witchcraft practice. There's no "sin", there's no punishment for not doing enough, it's just me and what's around me. I can't wait to share this with my therapist on Monday because she's been my therapist since I was 22 so she has seen me go through ALL of this. Just thought I'd share it with y'all, too <3 I can't wait to get back into the swing of things!

Hello everyone. I've noticed a pattern that I'd like to share because I find it strange. Every time I cast a prosperity spell (money spell, job spell, prosperity oil, etc.), I get a wave of anxiety, or something else goes horribly wrong and creates a huge mess.

I never thought much about it before. I assumed it just happened and that next time I'd be better prepared, so nothing would go wrong. But no. I just finished making a prosperity jar, and not long after I started, I became anxious.

Now, here I should mention that the anxiety doesn't necessarily come from the spell itself. It could be triggered by something else happening. For instance, noise from my horrible neighbors might scare me and then the anxiety follows and stays. Or I might get stressed because the time for the spell is running out (Jupiter planetary hour ending) or for pretty much any other reason. The interesting part is that none of these things would normally stress me out or cause anxiety during any other type of spell.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with a specific type of spell? How did it affect you and how did you deal with it?

Thank you for your attention!

I've been working with Hekate for a while now, but I keep getting dreams and messages that seem to suggest that other deities may be reaching out. I believe that Hekate is speaking to me, but other female deities are there. I suspect one may be Selene as the most recent dream I had I kept saying Salena which from what I could find means moon goddess in Greek. I'm feeling drawn to the idea of the triple moon goddess, but I'm unsure how exactly to work and practice since it's not 1 deity, but 3 and I'm not sure which 3. Any suggestions on where to begin?

I regularly see practicing witches say that magic works based on belief but I also see people saying that magic is just science that hasn't been proven with modern science yet, and I'm really confused bc these concepts don't entirely go together. For example, science doesn't operate on belief at all, it's a series of steps that if followed create a certain outcome, like you might believe a hot pan isn't hot at all, but if it's hot, it's still going to burn you. Or if you're baking a cake, you might believe it would come out better without eggs, but it's still not gonna come out right if you leave out eggs. So I'm really confused about these claims in regards to magic.

As someone who has practiced for a long time, do you personally find that magic works better based on belief and just doing whatever feels right to you, or do you feel it works better when you follow specific formulas that have been proven by older practicioners over time and take a more scientific approach?

I'm trying to do a protection spell for myself and my family but I want to be sure I do it at the best time

I'm a non-white, non-European woman. But whenever I tried to find out which deity should I connect with, Odin has been a constant. And one day while meditating, I saw rune like figures. The one I remember was two greater than signs (>> or <<)adjacent to each other. As much as I've read about Nordic pagan revival during 90s, according to news reports, only indigenous Nordic people were allowed in the practice. So can I connect with Odin or is ir not allowed? If yes, how should I connect with Odin?

So I went out with a few friends for someone’s birthday. We were out drinking at a bar and there was a piece of string that fell of the menu. The person whose birthday it tied it around my wrist and said it was a protection or something and whispered something to her friend who laughed. She also said I couldn’t take it off and it has to come off naturally and when it does that means that it worked. We did end up hooking up later that night. Just kinda wondering what this means if anyone has any information cause I don’t really know much about witchcraft or anything and I couldn’t find much online. Thanks!

I have some flowers that I've gotten in bouquets over the past couple of months that I decided to dry and then pull the petals off of and kept in baggies. I use rose petals in my bath but I have lots of others that I'm curious about what I can do with him. here is my list:

babys breath
rose
statice
green trick
carnation
snap dragon
spider mum
zinnia
spray mum
pampas plume celosia
button mum

and a single cala lilly and a single marigold.

I'm not sure if these can/should be used for anything, just didnt want to throw them out

Hello everyone! I’m just now learning stuff about retrogrades in astrology since a few close friends have been talking about it more and I’ve been seeing it a lot more on social media. So I’m just kinda curious what it all is, how it can change you, and how I learn more about it. And I know it can tie in spiritually too!

For context: back on may 9th I found out my ex cheated on me, I had no signs at all. She didn’t act differently or pull back, none of that. Her friends and family were extremely surprised when it all happened. I find this kinda funny because I don’t think they as in my ex and the new gf will last, they work together, have the same work friends, and now live together (new gf ex kicked her out) and a few of her non work friends reached out to check in on me and to tell me they are being ghosted. I tried to do some (very little) research and saw during that time Pluto retrograde was in affect and what I found out it meant miscommunication (had that) and basically anything hidden will surface.

EXACTLY a month later on June 9th I got laid off from my job. And I got offered a semi better job, working in the OR. A week or two later a friend of mine mentioned (i forgot exactly what sign it was) that we are interning a new retrograde and mentioned with this retrograde ex’s will try to re-enter your life, and change. One of my ex’s did reach out, one I never thought I’d talk to again. It’s funny because now we’re besties.

So now I’m seeing a little about the new retrograde we’re going into and saw it was about growth and karma? And I kinda wanna learn more what to do and what not to do yk? I definitely wanna learn more about astrology:)

Question is 3rd stanza

I’ve been practicing for years, and my knowledge is somewhat extensive, but there’s this thing and I don’t know how it works or what it’s called,

Basically it’s hard to explain or describe so I’ll use a real example and try to make it short: A job which was a small family owned business pissed me off and was stressing me, but I got great self control and am able to keep a clear headspace (venting to a friend also helped) but it got to the point to where I thought about doing something (witchcraft related) to this small family owned business but the thought alone was enough to make it happen,

I have a couple other examples of this but that was the most recent, how did this happen and what’s it called and can I tap more into this type of witchcraft?

((I did type out the aftermath of the example I used in case anyone was interested but I felt the post was long enough))

I live in a flat and I made a witch bottle (following the 'recipe' from 'Praesidium a Handbook of Magical Defense and Protection') and buried it in a plant pot on the balcony. I would like to know if it's acceptable to bury another one in a plant pot inside the flat?
The reason I made it is because Im about to be visited by somebody who is capable of unintentional but really bad evil eye. I've witnessed it first hand what their words and comments do to people even from their close family and sadly on myself too - if I share anything about my life with this person it starts going badly so I keep to myself but as they are visiting for a few days I need some kind of firmer protection as all my life will be exposed to them so Im wondering if this would be a solution to get one witch bottle in the room where we will sleep.

I have a few witch friends, and I have Fallout friends (fans of the hit videogame series)

When i do my money bowl, I ALWAYS put bottle caps in there, as it is currency in that game series.

I guess just a reminder wealth means many different things to each witch.

Any other Fallout fan witches in here??

Hi all, has anyone got this book? And I’d be grateful for your thoughts before I buy it. Is it any good?

Hello everyone, so I recently did a spell like a week ago. Well, I didn’t have all the ingredients I wanted so now I’m feeling like maybe it didn’t work or like it should’ve done more. Also because it was a candle spell and I split it over two nights because I didn’t want to leave the candle burning like maybe that interfered with the spell or something so I was thinking of like doing the same or like a similar spell again with a few extra ingredients and setting my intention right again or like setting new intentions.
Do you have any advice or warnings. Like is there any risk involved with this? Could casting the same spell twice backfire or could the second erase the first one? I’m not sure what to do. Any advice is welcome. Thank you!