Forever My Fave Piece Of Cake Ever. Perfect Carrot Cake W The Perfect Amount Of Walnuts, Heavenly Spiced

On Purple Dead Nettle

My new plant-love of this Spring season is the unassuming (and yet striking beautiful) Lamium purpureum, aka Purple Dead Nettle.   This wild forageable is considered a “weed” in many yards and gardens and yet has great medicinal, edible, and magical properties.  What more is there to love? I first noticed purple dead nettle after seeing it on a Youtube channel - it turns out, it was growing in my neighborhood all along and I had been oblivious! Purple Dead Nettles (Also sometimes called Purple Archangel) is found around the world.  In warmer areas, it is a annual Winter weed that provides much needed ground cover - here in Southern New England it is a early Spring flower that blooms for about six weeks starting in mid April.   It is highly distinguishable by its square stem (proving its membership to the mint family) and distinct red/purple leaves.  It can grow up to 8-10 inches tall but generally prefers to stick close to the ground. It is a super food - all parts of the plant are edible though its leaves are fuzzy so it can be a strange experience to eat it on its own.  It can be added to salads, used as an edible garnish, made into pesto, or added as a green to smoothies.   It’s flavor is green and reminiscent of grass or clover. Medicinally, it is an astringent, diaphoretic, and purgative.   It has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties.  It’s leaves can be made into a salve or applied directly for on-the-go wound care.   Consumption slows the production of histamines so it has a claim to fame as a plant used to treat seasonal allergies.   It can be dried and drunk as a tea but can have a laxative effect if consumed in quantity.   It is also listed as unsafe for pregnant and breast feeding humans. On of the best quality of this wonder-plant, in my opinion, is that it is one of the earliest bee friendly flowers that blooms in the colder climates.  Bees and other native pollinators seem to prefer Purple Dead Nettle to other plants.  Yet another reason not the mow this lovely plant down and let it thrive!

Magically it is associated with happiness and cheerfulness and considered useful for grounding when combined with yarrow.   Like all hearty plants that will grow “anywhere” it also has an association with strength and resiliency.  For magical purposes, dead nettle is most often dried and turned into an incense blend or tea (see the above mentioned warning about drinking too much of it.) Last but not least, I wanted to share a fun fact.  The Latin name for Purple Dead Nettle (lamium purpurium) means “diminutive purple monster” - a nickname given to the plant that spread out of control.   Laugh all you want but be careful where you plant it if you don’t want a yard FULL of dead nettle.  But for real - who wouldn’t want a yard full of dead nettle?  Certainly not me… Like my work?  Please consider supporting me by Buying Me of Ko-Fi.

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When Life Gives You Jewelweed, 1

As an intuitive witch, I strongly believe in working with the plants that grow in your natural environment. It's a covenant that I have made with my spirits and the spirits of the land - it's invasive, I should use it all up or if it's native, I should help it to flourish and grow.

Enter jewelweed aka Impatiens capensis, Balsam Weed, Slipper Weed, "Touch Me Not"

Jewelweed is native to the American Northeast but is not often a gardener’s friend.

I don’t blame the intrepid gardener who, appalled at the HUNDREDS (literally) of jewelweed plants that spring up in their yard, pulls them all up in a haste to do be done with the voracious spreader (jewelweed is known as “touch me not” because its seed pods go off like a BOMB when touched, spreading its seed voraciously – one misstep with this and you will guarantee yourself months of weeding jewelweed out of every space you have).

Yes, almost every single plant in this following photograph is jewelweed! Dora has recently moved into her ancestral home and is trying to reclaim her gardens back from the mess that her Grandmother made of them to “fit in” with the popular gardening trends of the ’90s.

As often happens when you start to clear out a wild space, the first thing to move in are the “weeds” – in this case – jewelweed!

Still, as a green witch, I know that even the most “obnoxious” plants have fabulous magical, edible, and/or medicinal properties. Jewelweed is a perfect example of this.

Jewelweed is both anti-inflammatory and an anti-histamine and can be used topically to treat eczema, bug bites, stinging nettles, and fungal rashes. It is best known for its ability to neutralize the urushiol compound in poison ivy that causes many people to have that horrible itchy rash. This can be done in one of two ways. Firstly, by applying the raw sap of the jewelweed plant directly to the area that you want to treat. For longer-term use, jewelweed can be made into a salve or tinctured (I am going to put mine into a Thatcher’s Witch Hazel toner because I know that my skin tolerates that well).

Magically, there is less information on the properties of jewelweed. Like many of the native plants to the Americas, there is a dearth of information due to the continued reliance on “old world” herbs in our modern crafts. Due to its healing properties and the wet environment in which it grows, the obvious elemental association is Water. The bright orange color of its trumpet flowers speaks to happiness and joy. I might simplify that plus its healing properties to a sense of “relief”.

My intention is to pick and dry some of the flowers and play around to see how it works out magically. I’ll update you with the results.

I am pleased with the medicinal applications of jewelweed. My partner has both realized their love of gardening and developed quite an intense contact dermatitis to something in my garden, so a jewelweed concoction is right on time. I intend to make both a salve and infuse into Witchhazel – they will ultimately be my guinea pig as to which is better.

In any case, I’m very excited to be making a new plant acquaintance.

Do you like my work? Please consider supporting me by Buying Me A Kofi.

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Magics for Curse-Breaking

Updated: November 12th, 2017

Are You Cursed?

[Have I Been Cursed?]

[How to Tell if You’ve Been Cursed]

[I’m Afraid That I’ve Been Hexed]

[Knowing if You Are Under a Curse/Have Been Cursed]

[So You Think You’ve Been Cursed]

[So You Think You’ve Been Cursed?]

Protection from Curses

[Curse Removal / Protection]

[A Hearth Witch’s Defense, Part Two - Protecting Yourself & Your Hearth From Curses]

[Protection and Return to Sender Jar]

[Protection from Curses]

[Protection Jar Against Binding and Hexes]

[Protective Measures Against Common Hexes or Curses]

[Three Little Empresses: Curse Protection Poppets]

[To Ward Off Curses]

Decoys

(a decoy acts as a “substitute” for you, which the curse will be redirected to instead of harming you; the decoy can then be cleansed or destroyed to remove the curse from it; sometimes you don’t get a choice and the decoy gets destroyed, and you have to make a new one if you still desire its protection)

[Anti-Curse Poppet]

[Black Hole Decoy]

[Creating a Decoy for Protection Purposes]

[Curse Decoy]

[Decoy Poppet]

[Diversion Jar]

[Negativity / Bad Luck / Curse Absorbing Decoy Poppet]

[Sea Witch’s Scapegoat]

[Spell: Witch Bottle]

[The Spook’s Decoy]

[Substitute Spell]

[Witch Bottle]

To Break a Curse

[Antidote: Hexed Objects; Removal Powder]

[“Black as Night” Curse Removal Body Scrub]

[Blackthorn Reversing Spell]

[Break a Curse Candle Spell]

[Break a Curse Spell]

[Break a Spell Cast Against You]

[Breaking a Curse]

[For Breaking a Curse]

[Burning Bridges Spell]

[Buster Poultice Recipe]

[Curse Breaker Cleansing] (cw: sigil)

[Curse Breaking Hand Washing/Bath]

[A Curse-Breaking, Purifying, and Protective Witch Jar] (tw: music autoplay)

[Curse Removal & Reversal]

[Curse Removing Wash]

[To Destroy a Curse]

[The Healing Pool: A Cursebreaker]

[Hex and Curse Breaking]

[Hex-Breaker Candle]

[Hexbreaker Powder]

[Lemon Uncrossing]

[Lift a Curse]

[Mild & Spicy Cursebreaker Powders]

[Multipurpose “Curse Removing” Wash]

[To Remove a Curse]

[Remove a Hex, Reverse a Jinx]

[Removing Hexes and Curses]

[Rid Yourself of a Curse]

[Smoke Out the Curse]

[Thu'um Magix: Disarm]

[Unbinding Spell]

To Send a Curse Back

[Anti-Curse Powder]

[Calcifer’s Bargain - A Spell to Reverse a Curse/Hex Placed on You]

[Charm - Curse/Spell Breaking]

[To Counter a Curse]

[Curse Breaking Shampoo]

[Curse-Reverse]

[Curseturner Powder]

[“Drown the Witch” Reversing Spell]

[Engraved Hourglass Nebula Curse Return Spell]

[Flame Wheel]

[Lemon Curse Breaker]

[Major Arcana Spells - Lady Justice - Return to Sender]

[Mirror Counter-Curse]

[Mirror, Mirror (Reversal)]

[Reflect Away Harm (Curse Reversal)]

[Return to Sender]

[Return to Sender / Banish Negativity Spell]

[Return to Sender Candle Spell]

[Return to Sender Spell] 

[Reverse a Curse]

[Sealed with a C(urse)]

[Simple Hex/Curse Reversal]

[A Simple “Reverse the Curse” Spell]

[Spell: Return to Sender]

[A Spell to Counter Another’s Magick]

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I have the need to share

Currently everything is expensive. like by a lot. so if you have money support the writers but if you dont you can check out mini libray i'm trying to sort

Witch Books - Google Drive

Have fun!

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Simmer Pot For Peace and Love

Since we are having guests over for the first time ever, I really want the house to feel…inviting and cozy and warm. SO! I decided to craft a little simmer pot to get those juices flowing!

2 Lemons, peeled and sliced (for cleansing, and for joy)

Roughly 2 TBSP of Rosemary (for Love, protection and peace)

3 TBSP Lavender (Love, happiness, comfort)

Pinch of Sea Salt (for cleansing and purifying)

So, just combine these all in a small pot, fill it with water, and bring it to a boil. Then reduce heat and let it simmer however long, adding more water when it gets low. 

PRO-TIP- Don’t throw away those lemon peels!! You can dry them and use them for witchcraft! You can soak them in salt to make Lemon Salt!! You can candy them and eat ‘em! 

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For the witchy asks: 🌹🦄

witchy asks

8. (🌹) - what's something that isn't talked about enough in the witchcraft community?

I don't know if it's not talked about "enough," but I find it very curious how many witches who are also animists totally ignore inherent correspondences within nature.

Arguments about where correspondences come from and what they mean very often seem to focus totally on human decisions and desires.

I've always been under the impression that the fact that correspondences for a single thing often vary from culture to culture causes people to assume that humans make them all up.

There rarely ever seems to be an idea that oak trees in England are different fellows from oak trees in Ohio (pretending that the couple hundred of species of oak don't exist and it's all just One Guy), and that authentic connection to the tree will validly produce different correspondences in each area.

Or that spirits are as multifaceted as humans. As an individual, to some people I bring pain and injury, and to others I extend deep love and protection. But if an animal spirit does so, that means those two "correspondences" are incompatible, and therefore the human made them up and projected them.

Or that as humans, two of us may see the same facet of a spirit and we ourselves respond to it differently - so of course, there is nothing inherent in the herb, all that matters are our own reactions, and there is no meaning within the plant beyond our attitudes towards it.

Or that the individual spirit of a single plant is an individual, and is not a nameless hivemind pouring fourth an unwavering, set pattern of meaning and power.

Of course not everyone works with spirits, or is an animist. But for spirit-working witches who are animists, I often question why they speak of natural things as being meaningless until a human ascribes the meaning.

9. (🦄) - what's something that's talked about too much in the witchcraft community?

I'm not sure I can say. I haven't been back in a "big" community long enough to comment on it.

But you know what, let's go ahead with TikTok.

People talk about TikTok too much.

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Grimoire Tips

Just some things I've done that have helped me out tremendously with my own.

Cross-reference everything and anything before adding it in with pen. I usually aim for between four and six sources at least.

Table of contents! Number your pages and start a table of contents on the first one. Make sure you reserve the first few pages to continue it.

Print out charts to paste in. I have the wheel of the year in mine! It was so much easier than drawing it.

If you have trouble remembering what a specific plant looks like, and if it's available near you, press-dry a leaf or stem and paste it next to its information.

Sources! Write down where you found the information! If you have further questions that your book isn't answering yet, go to the source!

Cleanse your book when it feels heavy. Not physically heavy - you understand what I mean.

Keep crystals on top of it. Depending on what you keep on it, the qualities of the crystals will keep the book feeling fresh and light.

Don't just copy paragraphs and information straight from your sources. Paraphrase things in your own words so that it's easier for you to keep them in your head. Yes, having a book to reference is great, but it's also great to study it so you don't have to use it every time you have a question!

Share. Sharing grimoires with others can be massively beneficial to everyone involved, especially if you're swapping information. Seeing from other perspectives is always a good idea.

Just a few tricks and tips! As always, do your research, be safe, and blessed be.

Support your local witch on Ko-Fi or at my store, Hallow Grove!

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I made a Winter Syrup to beat the January blahs

Every January, as we scurry off to the grocery store to buy pounds upon pounds of citrus fruit, we joke in my household that we must have scurvy.  I have multitudes citrus-forward cocktails that are designed to fight of the mid-winter ennui - lemon-drop martinis and whiskey sours - we’ve even experimented with putting clementine juice into drinks!

So when I found a recipe online for a Vitamin C heavy syrup that doesn’t HAVE to be served in alcohol form - I was pretty excited.   Better yet, it called for using evergreen needles which (if you’ve been following along) is completely in line with my study of Eastern White Pine that I have decided to undertake this month.

Serendipity is funny things: along with evergreen needles, the major vitamin C contributor in this recipe is rose-hips and I happen to have dried a bunch from Rosa Rugosa that I harvested at the beach in September that have been waiting for the perfect project.   Because I’m an overly ambitious kitchen witch (who also has a partner that loves food) - I had everything else needed for this recipe all set to go.

The crafting was surprisingly simple - its just a simple syrup - something that I’ve made dozens of times out of all sorts of ingredients.  You just want to leave the “tea” part of the mixture on the stove for a long time - we’re talking hours.

In the end I used Eastern White Pine and Rosa Rugosa rose hips for the vitamin C; cardamon, cinnamon and allspice for flavoring, a knob of ginger for its anti-inflammatory properties; lemon balm for its calming effect, and orange and calendula for sunshine energy.   For a sugar, I used raw local honey which is my go-to for most things.

So far, I’ve been loving having this in my life.  I’ve been adding some to my turmeric and ginger tea every day - it adds a nice earthy/herbal/woodsy taste but isn’t overpowering.   I will absolutely make this again and look forward to experimenting with different flavors/added intentions in my syrup.

Ko-Fi / Insta / Blog

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Longtime lurker coming back to witchblr for like...the third or fourth time.

This blog will be mostly a personal resource and notebook while I try to redefine the witchcraft practice I had going on many years ago, when I was a lot more active. I'm doing a lot of reexamining of beliefs to try and quantify what I actually want out of this and why it keeps calling me back. My focus is heavily nature-based, very local, some beginner herbalism, with a big side of home/hearth/kitchen workings. Animism and spirit work are also big interests, though I'm tentatively dipping my toes into learning about that and maybe bringing it into my practice. Angels as well, though from a secular standpoint.

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