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The Bad Witch’s Guide
No-One’s God is “Wrong”Or “My Goddess is More True Than Yours” (Photo by Clarke Sanders on Unsplash) I am not going to be naming and shaming but I read a blog this week that caught my ire. It stuck in my teeth and I chewed it and chewed it trying to figure out exactly why it pissed me off so much. This person decided to “speak for her Goddess” (really?) about how “wrong” everyone was about her quite popular Deity. This sort of stuff is very bad for my blood pressure so I’ll be brief. The main cut and thrust of her “argument” was that deep in the annals of…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
What is a Familiar? A familiar is a spirit. This idea came into being in the Middle Ages that witches could create and summon unseen creatures that could take on various animals forms to spy on, to steal things and curse. Cunning Folk had familiars too. Though they were seen as benevolent. Some kept injured or unusual animals to help “sell” this idea to their customers. To some modern witches a familiar is their pet animal that does magick with them. In modern terms a true familiar would be more like astral projection or making a Fetch or Thought-Form. While it can be pleasant to work with your pets they…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
The Bad Witch’s Guide to Faeries I have stared at this empty page and title for about 30 minutes. It is not that I don’t know a lot about fae, the fair folk, the Good Neighbours; it’s just well where to start? First off I suppose is that they are more than just the twinkly winged Barbie dolls we push on little girls. Fae are amazingly varied dependent on habitat and what they eat. In fact almost every people have some version of fae folk. Humans don’t have a universal anything, but if they did, fae might be it. Faery are not “nice”. They are incredible, powerful, wise and witty.…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
The Bad Witch’s Guide to Pagan Prayer (Photo by A L L E F . V I N I C I U S ? on Unsplash) A lot of people assume I don’t pray. This is wrong. I have a daily practice and that means I connect in some degree to what is sacred to me and within me, usually daily. My prayers can look like regular praying, or dancing, or cooking or nothing at all. Let us talk about what I mean when I say prayer. To me a prayer is the mental and spiritual and sometimes physical seeking of connection to the Divine within and outside of the…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
“The Bad Witch’s Guide to The Older People” “Or You get Better or You Get Bitter” There are some people who never seem to get old. Their bodies might age, but something in their eyes and heart has remained or even grown. Then there are people who seem to crave death. Sometimes it is depression. Often untreated, under supported and dealing with the loss of a great deal. I have been the supporter of an older relative dealing exactly with this. Without support and indeed medication these folks become something dark and unpleasant. As The Veil grows thin for a person you start to see what might be beyond for…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
The Bad Witch’s Guide to Shadow Work (Photo by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash) For about the last two months I have spent a lot of time going within and working on my spirit. Some of it has been a choice, some has been circumstances. My health (physically) has been very poor since about July and while I am no longer bleeding nearly to death regularly I felt I needed to find my strength in body and spirit. I have done a lot of yoga. A lot of meditation, usually every day, sometimes twice a day, and while drawing in the light around me my shadow would not…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
The Bad Witch’s Guide to Ghost Hunting (Photo by Callie Gibson on Unsplash) It is the season apparently for all things spooky…ooooh! I don’t ghost hunt as a rule. I ghost shoo! That said I do understand the desire for some titillation and so, on some intellectual level. It is easier in general to ghost hunt in cities than the wilds and better in Europe than the US purely down to number dead people over thousands of years. There are of course many kinds of haunting and spirit activity but violence and large amounts of people seem to imprint or cause haunting more often. My psychic American bestie…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide
The Bad Witch’s Guide Autumn Equinox I have always enjoyed the light around this time of year. The beginning of mists at sunset and dawn. The first tinges of frost and the spider webs like diamond nets over the leaves that were beginning to turn. The dead summer grass rattling in a wind with a distinctly crisp edge. The light and dark are in perfect balance. The Veil between this world and others is thin Mabon has his name attached to this festival and I like that. I like Mabon in general. I like a seeker. I also like balance so equinoxes feel really good for me. It is neither…
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Goddess in the Flesh
It is almost impossible to meet every beauty standard. It is almost impossible for the beauty, diet and medical industries to “approve” of your body, skin, hair and eyes. In a world that deliberately shifts the “should’s” and shames that attacks and blames, loving yourself is an act of rebellion. What is reviled in one country is celebrated in another. From skinny shaming to fat-hating what stays the same is the entitlement of male-gaze, the disgust and ownership of the female form. The idea that women are objects for public consumption is at the root of both modesty and pornography. My mum was a fat hater and a fat-shamer. So…
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The Bad Witch’s Guide to Lughnasadh
The Bad Witch’s Guide to Lughnasadh Lammas and Lughnasadh get a bit of a bad rap. The biggest issue is the dating. When the shift from old to Gregorian calendars happened in 1782 the year lost 11 days. So we have two dates 31 of July and August 12. The next thing was that instead of celebrating on the day, the church bumped the celebrations to the nearest Sundays or saints’ days. So what is this celebrating? Who is Lugh? What is a loaf mass anyway? This is the beginning of harvest. From wild foraging, to gardens and fields full of golden wheat and barley all was about to gathered…