Every day items can be used to enhance the magic and accessibility to our higher selves. This is what some term “Old World Magic,” meaning people wanted the things they used every day to be full of positive energy.
Open doors in this world and in your magical world.
This vintage door handle set can be used to create some great design feel in your covenstead. The bonus for this set is that it has been cleansed and charged under the Super Blue Moon by an elder witch to help gain access to your best and highest good. This particular set has a shabby-chic patina, but is fully functional.
For those Country Dwellers out there looking to use this set for spell crafting, they are ready for your work. Often door knobs are used to provide access to our dreams, new pathways in our lives, manifesting new opportunities, or even deciding which route to go when you have too many choices.
Instagram, TikTok, and the like have been a great way to stay in touch with your community throughout this Coronovirus Global Pandemic. If you’re like me, it’s allowed you to expand and strengthen your community and relationships. But, you must remember it’s full of haters and dictators, too. That said, as mentioned before, it’s also full of love and teachers. You have to decide which one you are and if you’ll make space for the other.
For every post where practioners of the Craft say “you’re doing it wrong” there’s at least one if not more with, “here’s what I do, maybe it’ll work for you, too” post. I tend to be attracted to the latter and try my best to model it as well. The former however seems counter to all that Witchcraft offers those on its path.
That said, we all get in a mood sometimes and it’s easy to hit that button and bomb a missive into the ether of the Internet. So perhaps we need to ask ourselves – this is something I tried to get teach my children: T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak (or post, as the case may be).
This poster hung in our home while our kids were still living with us. It’s a great guide for social media posts, too.
Let’s look closely at those parameters again:
T – is it True?
H – is it Helpful?
I – is it Inspiring?
N – is it Necessary?
K – is it Kind?
If what you’re about to put out into the world as a constructive criticism is a knee jerk, maybe take a breath and run it through a filter. And I don’t mean the Moon filter, but rather, check whether it supports the T.H.I.N.K. frame work. Because otherwise, edicts of “you’re doing it wrong” will fall flat and maybe even get you your own cancel hashtag.
In regards to being a witch and practicing, I believe, and most witches I know do as well, that inclusion is the key to determining if you’re walking a legit path. Do we want to exclude hate and oppression? You betcha! Do we want to include as many people into the world of magical practice? Without a doubt! Prostelyzing is not a core tenet of Witchcraft, which in itself may open the door to these Negative Nancies. But how we leverage inclusivity is just as important as not being exclusive in our creeds. Ranting “you’re doing it wrong, you need to do it like me!” isn’t very inclusive. Refer back to T.H.I.N.K.
Honestly, if someone is doing something that you don’t find authentic, walk away. The Universe will teach that person in due time. And we all started somewhere. As someone who has spent most of her life in the broom closet, huzzah for photos of Tarot spreads, tiktok quick spells for the New Moon, and notifications of the Cosmic Weather. How wonderful that people can be so open with their Craft. Unless someone is being hurt physically, emotionally, mentally, or financially, calling out someone who practices the Craft differently than you do amounts to being a bully, mean girl, and a general judgie mcjudgy pants.
Witches have been judged for too long. Acceptance, leading by example, and minding our own path seems way more like being a Witch, than what the stereotypes would have anyone believe. Don’t understand why someone is practicing a certain way? How about opening up a dialogue and ask questions. Your questions and their answers may teach both of you something.
Fairy Rock; an uncommon yet powerful tool to unlocking dreams.
According to long-time Witch and Country Dweller knowledge, this rare Fairy Note or Fairy Writing Rock is found along natural river shorelines. This particular one came from the banks of the Colorado River. A Fairy Note Rock is a type of igneous rock included with crystals of what is usually Feldspar in patterns resembling the script of the land’s good neighbors (fairy). These stones are untouched by man. They are naturally river tumbled. They are sometimes called “frogs” because they are found sitting on top of river rocks. Fairy Note rocks are said to offer help to access information whether it be from dreams, ancient sacred texts, Akashic records, or other divination, by providing clarity in translation. It is a stone to support dream work, helping us into the dream state and to direct our dreams. Use on your altar, your tarot table, bedside, or keep on your person for clarity of intuition and universal messaging. This particular one fits in your hand as if it was a natural writing stone; makes for nice comfort as you meditate with it.
This rock was traded for other gifts to the fae under the New Moon in Capricorn, as well as when first obtained under the Full Worm Moon of March 2020. They leave their mystical messages and energies embedded in these unusual rocks. Working with the energy of this stone is very powerful even for the most experienced practitioner. Be sure to ground and center before use.
There’s only one of these in my shop, so if you’re interested, I suggest you head over to the Magical Flea Market on Etsy today!
I was watching an Instagram Live hosted by a Witch last week. Don’t know her personally or even abut in her circle, but I’m always curious how other Witches and Pagans are dealing with life in modern times. Especially modern pandemic times. Anyhow, she mentioned something about silly Christians giving up something for Lent and how it’s so ridiculous (silly and ridiculous was language she used). But, I’m here to tell you that what that Witch didn’t know was that Lent has been practiced by Witches and Pagans for a very long time before Christians even coined the term.
For those of you who are long-time Country Dweller Podcast listeners, you know I am an active student of the history of Paganism and Witchcraft. I’ll prattle on and on if you let me. Fortunately for podcast listeners, MareLin always reigned me in. But because I have studied for many years about Paganism, Witchcraft, and comparative religions, I repeatedly learned or found evidence that Lent is actually something Pagans have practiced for eons. Like many other Sabbats throughout the Wheel of the Year which have found their way into the Christian calendar, Lent is as well.
In its Old English form, Lent means “spring” and derived from the formal “Lencten.” So how do we get from a word that means spring to a 40-day fast? There’s a few theories that hold up in many different texts.
Of note is the story about the Akkadian god, the great hunter Dumuzi (commonly referred to as Tammuz, the Hebrews’ name for him). He was killed while hunting a wild boar (this was his second death and his previous story also follows along the mythos lines of Jesus…but that’s another blog post). Followers mourned for him through weeping ceremonies and fasting from meat (boars are bad after all, they killed our god!) for 40 days.
In the old testament of the Bible, we have evidence this “Lent” ritual was even found among the Israelites during the days of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 8:13-14 it is written:
“He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.”
This Lenten Tradition in Italy looks strangely Pagan.
Fasting, pushing the boundaries of flesh, weeping for what has been lost, are common themes throughout the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths, and beyond. Noah et al were stuck in the Ark for 40 days and nights. Musa (Moses) spent 40 days on Mount Sinai where he received the 10 commandments. Prophet Yunus (Jonah) was in a whale’s mouth for 40 days. Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days. Muhammad was praying and fasting in the cave for 40 days. Some Russians, Bulgarians, and Serbs believe that ghosts of the dead linger at the site of their death for 40 days. Many Christian Filipinos mark the end of the initial mourning period on the 40th day after death, and have a mass said. They believe that the soul remains on the earthly plane for 40 days before entering the afterlife, recalling how Christ ascended to heaven 40 days after his resurrection. Let’s not forget, as well, the Corajisima, a traditional practice during Lent in Italy, specifically, Calabria and other areas of the south. She is the widow, of Carnevale, the embodiment of the revelries. After Fat Tuesday, when Carnevale dies, poor Corajisima remains alone. Usually depicted as an ugly, skinny old woman with a decidedly witch-like appearance, she represents abstinence in the Lenten period. There is a count-down wherein the feathered broom she rides gets plucked after each weekly mass until Easter arrives.
In Germany, there is also Fasnet, which I have experienced. It is the night before fasting, symbolically “carried to the grave” just before Ash Wednesday. Hundreds of figures clad in white sheets and black top hats form a funeral procession. A straw effigy of Fasnet is tossed into a stream, and at the stroke of midnight, Witches dance around a blazing fire and throw their brooms into it. When all the brooms have been burned and turned to ashes, winter is said to have been “swept away” for another year. However, you have to get through the Fasching first. And that takes 40 days.
A Southern Germay Fasching Hexen, aka Witch.
Lent is 40 days. However there is also about 40 days between Imbolc (especially Astrologic Imbolc as opposed to observed) and the Full Moon after the Vernal equinox. However, I won’t bore you with more academic records that suggest the fast indicated by the Apostles of Christ may have been misinterpreted from 40 hours to 40 days. It wasn’t until the Council of Nicea in 325 CE that the modern Christian celebration of Lent even began, and it didn’t quite look then as it does now. Human history can be quite the mishmash, yes?
My personal rearing included a very strict Christian environment. I went to parochial schools. I was required to practice Lent. And it was always very cleansing. I didn’t shy from it during those times and I often have practiced it as a long-time Witch. But, I would have to say that it looks very different from giving up meat or sweets or swearing or all the other things I did as a child and teenager living in my parents’ home.
Lent is now a time where I hold space for what’s important. It’s a time to refocus yearly goals, to realign, to adjust. It’s more of a doubling down. This season of Lent for me has been focusing on the basics of my personal spirituality. I see it more like after Christ was baptized by John, he skedaddled himself off to the desert to fast, meditate, and pray. And that has been the focus of this Lent for me. After my Crone Crowning and emersion into public Witch life, I am focusing on the voice of Source and its messages for me. Lots and lots of meditation, doubling down on my craft, and praying to the universe to help me use my talents, my knowledge as a Crone, to be my truest self and live my best life. Because when I am doing just that, I am blessing all I come in contact with and you can’t argue that is a bad thing.
Now if you want to give up chocolate or alcohol during this time, more power to you. But my Witch’s Lent, is more about sloughing off winter from self, home, and hearth, and making sure I’m square and centered before the big explosion of growth for Spring.
Regardless of how you observe Lent, I’m wishing these weeks to more light and warmer temperatures go fast and find us ready for all that Spring has to offer.
As a witch in my crone phase, I am fairly routine in my days. Each morning I go into my studio and I visit my altar. I light a candle, ring a bell or burn some incense, attend to any spell work I have going on, and pull a Rune or Oracle card, or other divination. That sets me up to continue with my morning routine, which normally then includes morning pages journaling and yoga — Sun Salutations if I’m pressed for time.
My evening routine is fairly set, too. After taking care of all the physical needs before bed, I often meditate, and pull a good pick-me-up from my inspiration jar (aka Divine Affirmation Jar). They have little messages from source — divined during a special Beltane Ritual — to realign me on my path and pick me up when the day has been particularly hard. It’s amazing when you pause, focus, and say, “What do I need to know?” How simple slips of paper nudged by Source can bring you right back in a good head space.
Recently I learned that this is kind of an old-fashioned bit of magic that is making a resurgence. That serendipitous knowledge led me to makes these Divine Affirmation Jars to spread that positivity around. As we shake off Mercury Retrograde, these little pretties seemed to be perfect to redirect us towards our goals and keep us smiling and reassured.
Get one for yourself and your bestie, so you’re both glowing in inspiration and aspiration!
Using Your Dreams To Connect With Your Favorite Deity
Lucid Dreaming can be brought on by you or by a deity who wants to work with you.
Throughout my witch life my craft practice has not brought me to working with many deities. I would occasionally work with a deity as part of a moon circle or other gathered ritual, of which I have done sporadically over the past 40-ish years. There have been times when I’ve been respectful of deities, and provided an occasional offering (e.g. whiskey to Ran & Njord whilst living on my boat). Again, none of this is a regular thing. As you have likely realized and for which I’ve stated previously, I just prefer working my magic alone. Additionally, Nature Spirits and the larger Divinity of the Universe have always been more my jam when it comes to calling in some added magical energy. I’ve always been close to nature in everything I do, and it felt like I was working with my kindred there. It aligned with my own energy. But nothing in this realm ever stays the same, does it?
In that knowledge, I found myself wanting, not just considering, but like this sudden craving, to connect with more complete and powerful energies found often in deities. In short, I was being called. I have always been someone who appreciates the energies representative of certain goddesses and gods but didn’t feel called or the need to work with them.
But since becoming a more public witch, I’ve received many nudges and signs and dreams about working with deities, as well as the seeming involuntary urge mentioned above. As much as dream work, interpretation, dream recall, and astral projection have been a part of my craft and life, working with deities in it hasn’t been a thing. Now suddenly, they are intertwining and I’m finding myself feeling excited, charged-up, and at once, a bit of a nervous wreck. Yet, whenever you go out of your comfort zone those doubts and fears can percolate and swirl up. Basically, these deities are teaching this crone new tricks.
I wanted to share details with you; but, upon meditation was feeling like these deities wanted to keep things quiet between us and I agreed to just share aspects of the experience, including the spell work I did to open up the communications channels, and that working with them in dreams, not just in your magic work, is quite illuminating and satisfying. Standing in power together with them is validating and working with them through dreams can be quite the lucid experience. They are another way to learn more about your personal magic. Want to walk with a goddess and gods? Lucid dreaming is an excellent path to do so. Be prepared for some intense dreams. Not bad, just vivid and ethereal.
One deity that I’ve recently been called towards, sprinkled my dream walk with him with the scent of coconuts and tropical fruit. The journey to the realm we walked together in the visit via my dream was like walking in space without needing protection. We drank mead and ate fresh grilled fish whilst watching the natural activity of the lands between the oceans and mountains, where I currently reside. Another dream was an entirely different deity whom brought messages regarding my public practice and work I need to do to help others stand in their power and live their truest and best life. We weaved magic together and we walked in an ancient forest where I danced with upright cat-like creatures and then got down to the work of crafting spells and rituals. I’m still birthing the items in the Magical Flea Market that they showed me. My gratitude for this is endless and now altars to both these deities reside here at Villa Westwyk.
The beauty and messages were, in short, life affirming and almost professorial or parental. They do have things to teach us and are a resource at the ready if you approach them respectfully or accept their invitation. There is no demanding when it comes to deities, I have learned through my dreams, and any witch will tell you the same: You are called or they answer your polite petition.
Given these testimonies, you may want to open your dreams up to walks with certain deities. This is good magic for any Waxing Quarter Moon, like the one coming in a few days. But honestly doing lucid dreaming work with deities can happen any time. However, don’t feel like you have to do this. Working with deity energy is a personal choice.
Within the coming week, you will find a new spell bag in my Magical Flea Market that will assist you in opening up your craft to such lucid dreaming and deity walks. It is a new-and-improved version, including instructions, of what I’ve used for my own lucid dreaming to walk with the deities I have been called to work with these days; it sits charging on my altar through the waxing quarter moon, then it will be in the shop. It was something that has helped engage me with deities while providing protection and additional magic and energy to connect us.
Whether you decide to work with a deity or not, as always I wish you the courage to be your truest self and live your best life.
A warding spell bottle for protection of hearth and home.
These spell bottles represents some very Old World magic which still applies in the modern world, especially where we want to protect our homes and sacred spaces from negative elements and energies. These include protective crystals, natural elements, man-made elements, herbs, and infused with old crone magic and charged with full moon energy (Jan. 2021). Each bottle has a different bindrune (magical/spiritual sigil) and the curator chooses based on the energy she feels for you. The bottle is sealed with wax and stamped with a Vegvigsir. Your purchase includes a detailed list of ingredients and suggestions on placement.
Learning to love and understand all that we are is a healthy pattern.
Witches and Pagans are typically a very inclusive group, until people start mentioning zodiac signs and talk astrology. Then it’s “those Geminis!” or “Are you kidding me? A Taurus?” As someone who has their Sun in Scorpio, I have heard all the things about how I’m “such a typical Scorpio…” and think about nothing but vengeance and sex. However, I’ve never been one for vengeance, it’s not worth my magic; and well, sex…sex is good. I mean, it’s a delicious part of life as a human, but I hardly think about it nonstop. My very first astrologic reading (decades ago) was very much what I have come to term as “Astro Profiling.” The reader seemed to pick not just every stereotype about Scorpio, but all the negative ones. Fortunately, I was not about to listen to that.
As we entered Aquarius season, I’m hearing all the things about how Aquarians are this and that. Married to one, I can attest that they are not these analytical, stand-offish creature; nor are they simply some kind of air-headed hippy child. Also, so many people were like “He’s an Aquarius; you’re a Scorpio, it won’t work.” After 15 years, I think we can prove that myth wrong. In short, none of us are the one thing! No two signs are exactly alike. If you know any twins, you know they are not exactly the same. Just because they look a like, they are not the same. No, they are individuals. Each of us is unique. We are not one thing or the other. We are multifaceted. Like any kind of profiling, Astro-Profiling is really not appropriate. I’m working hard to not fall into the trap of it. I’m hoping others will as well. In general, my hope with this post is to help us all spotlight and highlight where we have unhealthy patterns where astrology is concerned and how we might improve.
Now we’re all guilty of it. I mean, as much as I defend for all the Scorpios out there, or for the sun signs of all my loved ones — Aquarius, Pisces, Virgo, Libra… I’ve been known to talk shit about the Capricorns and Aries in my life. They make it harder to defend… but wait, see? That’s not all Capricorns and Aries. I know some pretty bitching people who are Capricorns and Aries. But many of them I’m not related to. Just kidding. Or am I? I mean if I was an Aries or Capricorn, I’d have a hard time believing some Scorpio was kidding. But that’s my point exactly. You have to believe a Scorpio is saying something nice about an Aries, and that Capricorns aren’t always as grounded and all-business as some people think. Think about it, have you used your sign as a crutch? Have you caught yourself saying, “Oh, sorry, I’m a Cancer, I can’t help it.” If you recognize that and your behavior is questionable, um, maybe you can help it.
This past year I decided that becoming even more versed in astrology was a path I needed to walk. What a blessing the Painted Goddess’ Astrologic Lab has been. The first class I attended was called “Everyone is a Virgo!” We happened to be in Virgo season during that, but each “season” our lovely professor astrologist brings that theme forward again: “We are all X sign.” Why is that? Well, of course there’s the influence of your rising sign and your moon sign, too. Then you have to know where the planets were when you were born. Does Mercury in Virgo affect how you communicate? You betcha!. How about where Venus was? Did it sit in Sagittarius when you were born, you better believe that will affect how you interact with people. Each planet, its aspects, how it sits and in relation to other planets and signs, they are a whole other piece of the pie that makes you who you are. So literally we all have more than our sun signs influencing us. There’s also Pluto generations and planetary returns (oh, hello Chiron!), and on and on. (If you want to know more, come join the lab!) You can see that it isn’t all one sided, or one-sign-ed.
I had just finished typing that paragraph and got pulled away from my studio because the familiars needed some outside time (oh my goodness it’s freezing out!), while I was waiting for them, I was scrolling Instagram and BAM! Serendipity how I adore you. @QueerCosmos (Colin Bedell) posted a quickie video about people basically doing the same thing, again RE: Aquarians. That Long Island accent makes it all the more poignant, don’t you think? <3 Ah, the collective conscience. It’s vibrations are everywhere. I felt so validated when I saw that post. Thank you, fellow astrology lover.
I mean it’s fun to see things about our sign we identify with, for sure. I’m guilty of sharing such things. How many of us have giggled and raised our hands and re-shared one of the tons of cute tik-toks and IG Reels that are like, “here’s my impression of all the signs ordering food in a restaurant”? Again, in the case of many of those, I think, “hey, that’s not me.” And that’s because…yep, you guessed it, it’s a stereotype, generalization, or just a weird interpretation (outlier) of the natal data. I would be remiss, as well, to not point out that our circumstances as we develop into the person we are impact us immensely, especially where all the “isms” are concerned — racism, classism, sexism, capitalism, and the like. These systems and applications to who we are hugely impact the kind of person we become, without a doubt. It’s not just about our birth date, time, and place.
Instead of astro-profiling, what we learn about tendencies in astrology about a particular sun sign are things we can use to understand ourselves better. Note I didn’t say judge ourselves better. Nope. Understand. Because isn’t that what the goal is of any of the paths we walk: understanding? Understanding of ourselves, our family and friends, our place on this planet and universe? When we reach that understanding we’re able to be our truest selves and live our best lives. So if you understand you’re a Cancer and you’re probably going to “mother” too much, you can check yourself before you wreck yourself. Follow? Understanding those tendencies lets us work towards a healthier way of living.
As with everything in life, as I’ve entered this crone phase, so much of what I deal with daily has become clearer, more focused, and I give much side-eye to anything “established,” except food forests. Established food forests are a good thing. 😉 Astrology and some of the profiling conventions which have been readily accepted are not established food forests. Let’s break that down and dispose of it like last week’s horoscope. If you can compost it, even better.
And let me clear the air right here, I don’t bite, even though I’m a Scorpio. ;P
Galentine’s / Valentine’s / Mentine’s — whatever you call it is coming up this weekend and there’s still time to give yourself, a beloved, or bestie a little token of magic and love. This is our featured item this week in the Magical Flea Market. Vintage. Cleansed. Charged. and ready to grace the neckline of its new owner.
