Work

From May 2018

One black candle lit, one white candle lit. Palo Santo, sage, and lavender smolder, sandalwood incense smokes. Taking a moment to speak directly to the ones who listen and the ones who mutter and whisper at my ear.

"Yes, Papa, I know. Things to do. Decisions to make. Yes, things to make for others for you, you greedy bastard. Always looking for another and another, you are."

"S, if you can hear me, I still miss you so deeply. You are welcome here. I promise I will add a photo of you soon. Come anyway."

Hecate asks for more too, in her way. "Yes queens of fate, I hear you. I will do it."

And always buzzing, buzzing, buzzing, my muse, that faceless bitch, "Yes, yes, yes. Let me serve you by serving them. If I do, can I paint again? I miss it. It's been over a year. You send the images and refuse to guide my hands and it hurts. I will follow your call, I always do, what more CAN I do?"

------------------

The way of the witch is not always fluffy, painless, trendy or cute. it's pain and work and and allowing deity to come in to your life in a very personal way. Sure my altar may be pretty and smell nice, and it's filled with objects of beauty, but I promise it will never always be sunshine and roses. Or moonlight and jimsonweed.

Listen, children, listen keenly. If you do not they will shout until you hear them, and sometimes that shout is more than just sound. Sometimes it is filled with consequence.

They will strip you of everything and make you beg. This path, this craft, will carve you up, leave you raw, and come back with lemon and salt and ashes to rub in the wounds. But man...the resulting scars? Beautiful.

Aesthetics are nice but this is real WORK. Patience and perseverance will get us everywhere in this.

my altar in May 2018

Note: Papa referenced above is Papa Legba, a voodoo deity, an orisha/iwa/loa. S is my older brother, Simon, who died in March of 2017.

"Vampires'

From June 2018

From time to time, we have talked here about people in our lives, in our communities, that we label as 'vampires' often, specifically, psychic vampires. We talk about recognizing them, the feelings you might feel after dealing with one, how you will feel emotionally and physically drained. We have spoken about carefully warding yourself against them, setting mental blocks and other things that one might do when looking at this issue from a craft or path point of view, but i thought I would also share this article from Psychology Today that touches on the subject as well.

All of us have interacted with someone who walks through life with the basic skill set of manipulating others to their own benefit. people often label them narcissistic or self centered, or try to diagnose other mental disorders to explain the behaviors, but sometimes it is simply that someone learned at a young age that manipulating others to get their way is easier than doing things for themselves. Or that manipulating others to set themselves up as a victim gives them the positive attention they crave.

It often all just boils down to a power play of one kind or another - and if we are all honest with ourselves, we are likely all guilty of having exhibited some of those behaviors a time or two in our lives.

I feel that it is important not just to identify the people in your life that are your 'vampires' but also to identify when YOU are being one yourself, and eliminate those habits in yourself. Spiritual and emotional growth is something we are all capable of, some of us may just struggle to abandon the 'easy' manipulative methods we may have employed in our lives. But abandon them we must, if we wish to grow into healthy, enlightened human beings. So read this article, which sadly has a bit of click-baity title, and recognize not just these things in others, but in yourself. learn to how to handle the behaviors in others, but also consider how to change the behaviors on your end.

A Binding Spell

From May 2018

Many of us have known the touch of a narcissist. Many of us have met our personal vampire, the soul sucking, life damaging, heart breaking entities that draw on our energy and power to feed their own egos and power. They are our monsters under the bed, our closet ghouls, and sometimes the ones we love dearly.

Mine groomed me for years, wearing a mask of friendship and tempting me with desire and promises of something better than what I had. The promises were empty, the heart he gave was a cold vessel I could not fill.

This is a binding spell for your personal demon, the monkey on your back that strings you along with false love and promises in one hand, and a needle drawing your life's blood away in the other.

Ethics and Pathwork

From this point onwards, the Twilight posts are ones I posted but never recorded the ORDER i posted them in , so I'm just adding them here as I dig them out of my group's archives.

#TWILIGHT

Twilight’s Insights - A Very Randomly Posted Kaleidoscope Post by Rachel Dayton

So, Ethics. 

Ethics and Pathwork.

One of the things a lot of people seem to not realize as they start out on their fluffy, happy, freeing spiritual journey to find the Path they are meant to tread is that it does not matter that we are a community and something of a minority, spiritually speaking  - we still have bad actors. We still have people whose ethical and moral maps are skewed, or downright crooked. There are people in the Pagan/Occult/Voodoo/Hoodoo.Rootwork/ATR/Heathen/Druid/Shaman/Native communities who are there for little more than to fill their pockets with gold earned from YOUR naivete’. 

There are people who say all the right things and will sell you dirty water but call it a potion. 

There are people we in this group like to call vampires, who will feed on your attention, but will sell themselves to you as leaders or mentors or guides.

There are people who will attach  themselves to you like a leech - claiming they want to learn from you or support you - and will turn around and try to profit from your hard earned Path knowledge.

There are sexual predators in our communities. 

There are bad actors in EVERY community - be it that Instant Pot recipe group you joined last week or the Spirituality forum you have been in for years - there are always bad actors. We can’t police them all the time, and we all want to believe the best of other people. 

The reason I am saying all of this is not to scare you or badmouth our communities - as I said, this is something that exists in every community because our communities are filled with  humans - but because I keep seeing the effects of the bad actors. And the worst thing is that the bad actors are almost always people the community at large ALREADY KNEW WERE BAD ACTORS.

This is a problem I have seen in other communities - in the kink community, for instance, a known sexual predator will be protected by their peers, despite accusations of rape or consent violations, because they are members of the community, and because they provide something to the community they feel they maybe cannot get from anyone else. People who are the victims of the bad actor will be ostracized for speaking out against their abuser, and the community will rally around the bad actor instead of caring for and protecting the victim. I’ve seen it over and over in many different forms in many different communities. 

Personally, I choose to speak out, and if I get shunned, I honestly do not care. If anyone asks, I will tell the truth as I know it or experienced it. 

It is my opinion that this is something that should be broken. If someone hurts you, tell someone. If someone steals from you, tell someone. If you see someone stealing or hurting, tell someone. Stop the cycle of protecting the bad actors, stop creating bad actors out of those who were victims.

I’m not talking about  going out of your way to make everyone you meet know that so-and-so is a bad person, or a thief, or a whatever - but I am saying that  there are ways to make sure other people do not become a victim in the way you did.

We do not need to be silent because it makes us complicit in the protection of our abusers. 

See something, say something.

Context in Tarot Reading

NOTE: I am pretty sure this is also a post on my tarot blog, but since it was a Twilight post I am including it for continuity's sake.

#TWILIGHT

So, I just got home from the tarot class/group I lead most Saturday mornings. and a small point I made as we were going through our readings today using the layout pictured below was about how we read/interpret the card positions themselves, not just how we interpret the cards. So I'm gonna go over one of the readings, the cards that were laid out and the positions the were in, and how there are a couple different ways to understand the card based on the context AND interpretation of the position it is in, in the layout.

So - the layout was a 6 card spread, with the following contextual meanings for each position:

What I want.
What is motivating me.
What I need to release.
Universal guidance.
Universal goal.
Changes for success.

Now, to most people using a layout, these contextual meanings are locked in at face value. And before you lay any cards out, they are, for the most part, right. These are the ‘rules’ for this particular game of cards. However, as soon as you lay out the cards and begin your interpretation of THEIR meanings within the context of the ‘rules’ of the layout, those  contextual meaning can begin to not make any sense at all. 

For instance, in today’s group, one of the readers drew the following cards for this spread:

10 of Wands (oppression, burden, trial, ruin, disruption, failure, limitations, restrictions, and holding back)
King of Cups, in Reverse (violence, scandal, injustice, and weakness)
The Mage (will, communication, inherent ability, memory, clarity of thought and feeling, organization, invention, and originality)
Knight of Swords, in Reverse (extravagance, braggadocio, and romance)
9 of Coins (gain, prudence, benefit, balance, order, organization, and unification)
2 of Wands (virtue, cooperation, partnership, integrity, consistency, and congruency)

So, when reading those cards and their meanings within the context of the layout, it may not make sense; especially if you read the ‘rules’ very literally. A good example here is the 3rd rule, “What I need to release.” Nearly every person in my group today read that as “What I need to let go of/get rid of,”and to be quite honest when you see that the spread itself is titled “Doubts and Fears” it goes to reason that the 3rd card is meant to, most likely, represent the fears or doubts one is meant to let go of. But when you look at the cards laid out, it doesn't make sense to let go of what the Mage symbolizes. 

In fact, for this person in particular, these are things they need to express more fully. At roadblocks like these, it is good to revisit the ‘rule’ and read it less literally. Consider that ‘release’ might not mean ‘to let go of’, here, for this person, but actually ‘to let out’. When you read that card from the perspective that this person needs to express these things, to assert their will, to be more communicative, to use their inherent abilities, be more organized, more inventive, have better clarity of thought, feeling,and memory, then the reading as a whole becomes clear. All of the cards in a layout create a context of their own, and demand interpretation  using that as well as the ‘rules’ context. We must not, when using spreads and layouts like these, become slave to the literal or more obvious meaning of the ‘rules’, or our readings can become disjointed quite quickly.

Serendipity

#TWILIGHT

Twilight’s Insights, a ‘whenever Rachel is inspired to write’ Kaleidoscope post. :P


So, the other day a friend and I got a strange reminder from the Universe, and I thought I would share it with you. 

It began like this: I woke up yesterday morning to a message from a friend on my phone, giving me some really good news regarding a custody battle. I replied to congratulate him, and we promised to get back in touch after all the kids get settled into their school schedules, to plan an outing of some kind.

Later, I was on Facebook and a different friend posted a status about having had a dream about a person she was no longer friends with. The dream was surreal, and in it someone showed her a photo of the person who she isn’t friends with anymore, and in the photo she saw that not only was the ex-friend dead, but that their body had been made into come kind of art installation. Her head, arms and legs had been removed, and the dreamer only recognized her by her tattoos on her back. 

As I read her post, I became convinced I knew who it was about, and so I commented saying I thought I might know who it was. 

A little bit later, I got a message confirming my suspicion, so I told my friend about how I had been reminded of that person only that morning  - she was the other side of the custody battle I was messaged about. 

As we talked about it, and how though we are not friends with her anymore we would NEVER wish harm to her like that seen in the dream, I remembered that in my Facebook memories yesterday I was ALSO reminded of that person, because it was a year ago to the day that our mutual ex-friend had decided we were no longer friends. 

I feel as if there is a message in this for each of us. I am not yet sure what that message may be, but this is beyond coincidence to me, and my friend agrees. Have you ever had an experience like this? Did you ever discover the message? Please share your stories and experiences in the comments; I’d love to hear them!

A Pagan PSA

Twilight’s Insights - A Peek Into the Brain of a Common Sense Witch

A post a little while ago asking where to find the tiny crystal phalluses led me on a google search that took me to some interesting places. And some of those places were, well, unsafe! Just in case any of you have seen or have considered this practice, please let me give you this PSA:

DON’T PUT CRYSTALS AND STONES IN YOUR HOO-HAS!

While I fully acknowledge that it is very tempting to put crystals in your vagina (or, ladies and gentlemen, in your hind end) based on their healing properties (or because it seems new-agey and cute and well, sometimes they are shaped *just* right) I have to tell you that it is REALLY not a good idea.

Here’s why: Crystalline structure is delicate, and can fracture easily. They can harbor bacteria or eventually weaken enough that the crystal breaks (or both!) They contain small fracture lines naturally, and it is along these fractures that the stone is both weak and a great place for bacteria to hide. Porousness is another factor, as porosity equals extra bacteria storage!

I don’t think I should have to tell you that bacteria is bad. I don’t think I should have to tell you that bacteria plus your delicate mucous membranes is EXTRA bad. Yeast infections, anyone? Urinary tract infections? Worse?

“But Twilight,” you say, “Can’t I just clean it with toy cleaner, like I would my other toys made of silicone or rubber?” 

NO. Cleaning products can damage the stone, and the porousness can hold the cleaning products which in turn are bad for you.

“Well, then can’t I just boil the thing, like I do my silicone and rubber toys?”

NO, that will change the crystal - heat treating is a thing, to change the color of a stone, and also to change its makeup. Don’t boil your stones. It especially could lead to cracking and breakage, and we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen while you’re, uh...blessing yourself down there.

Yes, there are sites out there touting the joys of crystalline sex, and some site especially recommend particular stones, like Jade, but it is in your best interest to avoid this practice.

You wan’t to put a crystal phallus where the sun don’t shine? Be smart - get a Pyrex glass toy from your local shop, or even a ‘melt’ or ‘smelt’ glass that has been carved. There are much safer, although still potentially porous and breakable, they CAN be cleaned using toy cleaner and CAN be boiled for sanitation.

Safety first, folks.

ADDED NOTE: This also applies to 'yoni eggs' made of stone and crystal. If you want to strengthen your pelvic muscles, get stainless steel or pyrex, there's many SAFE options for you online!

 

Deals With Deity

#TWILIGHT 

Twilight’s Insights, a Weekly Kaleidoscope post by Rachel Dayton

Deals with Deity; or, Worshiping YOUR Way.

For me, as a solitary witch, and an Eclectic Omnist one at that, working with different deities from may different spiritual paths is par for the course. As I explore all of the branches of Spirituality, my path winds through some pretty varied terrain. Currently, I am exploring African, Louisianan, and Haitian Spirituality, through voodoo, hoodoo, and rootwork. This means that I am also building a relationship with the Iwa/Loa/Orishas of those paths. 

Now, so far, I only work with one Loa, the guardian of the crossroads, Papa Legba. He is a laid back fellow, but working with him means he brings me to the crossroads often, and will lay the smackdown on me, in his way, when Balk at making needed decisions. Last year was an exercise for me in how Papa doesn’t care what choice you make at his crossroads, so long as you make one. Or maybe he does. I learned some lessons last year, some really hard ones, but those lessons have led me to some spiritual and personal growth I might not have reached otherwise. 

Now, part of working with Papa Legba means I must make offerings to him. Sometimes this is as simple of making a small temporary altar to him and putting things he likes on it along with something to stand in for him, but most work with the Loa requires that they ‘ride’ you. Kind of like channeling the spirit in some evangelical churches, this means that Papa rides my body for a short time in order for me to do the work I need to do with his touch. Mostly this happens when I create talismans dedicated to him, but sometimes he just hops on in and takes me for a spin. He is Loa, it’s what they do. Once invited, Papa is like that friend who will come over and ransack your fridge and drink all your beer but who also pays for it with good advice or a helping hand.

Now, when I was very young, I made a personal vow to myself that I would never in my life get drunk, or drink hard liquor. My father was - IS - an alcoholic, and he and I are very alike, and drunk him is not a person I ever want to emulate. I have stuck to that vow, and have never been drunk in almost 41 years. However, I have had to bend my rules a tiny bit. You see, Papa loves to drink. It is standard to have a bottle of rum on an altar to him, and when making the talismans, I must anoint them with rum, and at the end of every session with him, he wants a taste for himself. It’s part of why the Loa ride people - its to get a taste of the pleasures of our plane of existence.

So, this was kind of an issue for me. Papa Legba and I went round in circles for a bit, with me trying to keep to my personal convictions, trying to placate him with the forms of alcohol I do permit myself, and him just getting more and more hungry for his rum. 

So, we made a deal. It was a long process to get there, with me trying to ply him with my favorite champagne, with beer, with asking another vodoun to drink extra on my behalf - finally Papa smacked me so hard (figuratively) my head spun and I went and got a bottle of rum. Because of my vow, I don’t know good rum form bad, so I regret that bottle deeply, but Papa was happy as can be. And here’s the thing - I still have never been drunk, and I don’t know if the amount of rum I drink even qualifies as actual drinking. When I make talismans, anointing them with rum literally means I put my finger in a shot glass with a tiny bit of rum in the bottom, and put a few drops of rum on the pieces I’m working with. Papa has agreed that as long as I don’t waste any of the rum at the end, and drink what is left, he’s okay. He isn’t completely selfish, that wily wiry god-man; he just wants his payment. So I get to make horrendous faces and drink a sip or two of rum (good lord that stuff burns! EW!) and he gets his taste and enjoys his ride. 

So, why am I telling this story? Because Papa Legba and the pantheon of African gods, Iwa, Loa, and Orisha are not the only deities who enjoy an offering. MOST of them do. Some religious practices have very set in stone rules for said offerings, and for the most part they are simple, just placing the things they like on an altar, saying some words, perhaps burning the stuff so it can get to them, but other practices are more fluid, like mine. Don’t hesitate to stand up for your personal convictions when dealing with deity. Make a deal! If you don't like the idea of sacrificing an animal for your deity, see if cooking them a meal from the grocery store works. Meat is meat for some of them, and fresh kills are not always required. Allergic to some herb they like? Your deity doesn’t want you dead, so make a deal! Maybe there’s an alternative, or maybe you don’t have to burn it. I’m personally allergic to many essential oils, and burning incense releases oils in to the air that make me ill. So I leave bundles of dried herb instead, or do any burning outside where it wont bother me as long as I’m out of the line of fire - or smoke in this case. 

There are no real rules in witchcraft - everything is mutable. So talk to your deity, and make a deal! Come to a mutual agreement on how your relationship with them works. 

art by Galen Dara

Delicate? Topic

#TWILIGHT

Twilight’s Insights: A Weekly Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions Post

***This is a topic that may incite some anger in some people, so I want to start this post by reminding everyone that not only do I welcome your opinions and your discourse, it must be handled with respect for anyone you are speaking to, yourself included. Sometimes I will post my opinion or something I believe to be fact, and some of you might disagree. This post may be one of those times. Remember that each of us has a different perspective and we must not belittle one another.***

So, can we have a conversation?  A real one? This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I saw some things on the interwebs today that reminded me of it, so I thought I would make my Twilight’s Insights post about it.

First off, a little background on my personal perspective , path, and belief system: 

I am an Eclectic Omnist Kitchen Witch. Basically, I think everyone is right, noone is wrong, all religions are simply a different cultural point of view on the same subject matter. I come from an atheist family, so tend to lean heavily to the side of cynicism and science, and don't go for the fluffy bunny woo-woo that some do (I don’t mean that in an insulting way). I don’t do reiki, or energy work, or pyramids and aliens. If there are ghosts, I sure can’t see or hear them, but I do believe I MAY have seen the havoc a mischievous one has caused. I don’t do rituals, but have been known to cast a spell here and there. I mostly do talismanic work, using sigils or making jewelry that I load up with intent. I don't believe in reincarnation or karma or go in for past life studies. I seriously question all that manifestation and vibration stuff. I love this planet, and want it to endure, and am fairly certain that there is more out there than I can see or have evidence of. I am fascinated by all forms of divination. Art is my religion more than being a witch is, but it is also part of my religion to do art, and part of my art is to do religion. 

All that being said, I also believe that magick and science have a thin line between them. I have issue with pseudoscience being passed off as fact, but will happily accept it after I can see thorough studies have been made and the science behind it proven. My magickal life is one filled with suspended disbelief and a heavy, heavy helping of cynicism and critical thinking. Do I believe that certain crystals have special magickal properties that can affect us? Mmmmaybe. I like to think they do, but the science isn’t there yet. I will operate under the assumption that science will catch up, eventually. Same for ghosts and energy work. It’s hard, with magick, because so often we cannot see positive, immediate results when we work our crafts.  I keep my feet firmly on the ground. It’s why, early on when I joined this group, many of my posts were comments on other people’s posts, panicking about things like spells and whatnot being posted without any warnings about what dangerous herbs they might have contained, or with little thought to the level of understanding our readers may or may not have on the subject matter. 

Our spirituality is very important to all of us. But I hope that we do not become spiritual fanatics, mirroring the blind acceptance of those in other religious groups. Just because something says it is pagan or magickal or Wiccan, does not make it so. Each of us has a responsibility to decide what we will or will not accept is true. There are people out there who will use us and our blind acceptance to take advantage of us in a variety of ways. There’s charlatan readers out there, in all forms of divination, who will tell you whatever it is you WANT to hear, as long as you pay the fee. There are people out there, The David Avocado Wolfe -s of the internet world, who take advantage of the rise in new-age thinking, and try not only take your money by selling products that will do absolutely nothing to help you (‘earthing’ sheet sets that connect your sheets to the ground so you can ‘earth’ in your sleep - only $250.00!) while with the other hand promote bad science and flat out fake science as fact and the way to be spiritual. They fill your feeds with fun catchy memes and feel-good affirmations, but for every three or four innocent posts, there’s the ones that that aim to steer you toward a rabbit hole of deceit. 

Remember, my friends, that we must never set aside our brains and give up critical thought. Don’t believe everything you read, at least, not on the first read. 

Don’t even take MY word for it! 

Think for yourselves, grow both spiritually AND intellectually. 

The Third Post

So, have you thought about it? Do you know what you want to happen when the time comes?

I’ve put a bit of thought in to it, recently, because I have experienced loss and am facing the reality that my parents will not, in fact, live forever.

I used to say I wanted to be buried inside a concrete pod with a tree growing around me, but lately I’m super attracted to the idea of having my ashes compressed into a diamond that I can have set in a piece of jewelry of my design, for my children to pass down, and maybe even add themselves to over the generations. I think it would be a neat heirloom, to have a family protection amulet, don’t you?

I personally have never been one to visit graves, but I do see how it could help those left behind to have a place to visit, to talk to their loved ones.

The tumblr posts below are a humorous yet also attractive idea as well. A haunted cemetery forest is less likely to be chopped down in the name of progress, heck , I think it would be legally protected. Save the planet and haunt a tree!

What would YOU like to have done with what remains after you pass on?

NOTE: I can't find my original post for this one, and therefore also can't find the accompanying links and images. :(

Magickal Meals

NOTE: OBVIOUSLY, this competition ran it's course MONTHS ago. If you are interested in sharing a Magickal Meal with me, please feel free to share it in the comments! I don't have those aura quartz anymore, but maybe I'll send something to those who send me something I find especially yummy!


Hey Everyone! I recently was given some jewelry supplies, and in the bag of goodies I got was a small bag of drilled aura quartz and an aqua aura quartz point. I personally don’t like aura quartz; to me, electroplating a beautiful natural crystal in metal is blocking the quartz’s energy and from other energies getting to it. But, they are pretty, and lots of people love them, so I am doing a giveaway! 

In my last post, I talked about using the magickal properties of the herbs and ingredients in our food when we cook our meals. For this giveaway, the person who presents the best Magickal Entree Recipe, with explanation of how to prepare it both magically and culinarily, will win the aura quartz points. I may throw in a little something extra, too, and possibly even give 2nd and 3rd place prizes, depending on how many entries I get!

These do not have to be complex meals or seven course dinners. Just offer a recipe for an entree - a protein, a starch, and at least two vegetables. Extra points if you can do more than just season your dish with magick! Lots of vegetables have magickal properties, you know.

Submit your entries here on our page and use the hashtag ‘#MagickalMeals so I can find them to review them! 

Entries (Entrees, hehehe that’s punny) must be submitted before 11:59PM CST on March 20th, giving you a little over 2 weeks to prepare. 

So, to review:

Anyone may enter, as long as they are a member of this group.
Entree must include 1 protein, 1 starch, and at LEAST 2 vegetables
Recipe must include cooking instructions.
Recipe must include HOW the dish is magickal.
Entrees must be posted on this group page with hashtag #MagickalMeals
Entrees must be posted before 11:59 PM, CST on March 20th, 2018

POSTSCRIPT: I would LOVE to create a recipe book filled with edible spells, so if enough of you reading this blog send in contributions, I will publish the best and yummiest alongside my own recipes! Make sure to tell me who to credit when you submit! Also, they don't have to follow the guidelines a set out above - just share!

Desperation Pie (NOT a Pie)

Twilight’s Insights (A Kaleidoscope Of Magical Perceptions Weekly Post) #TWILIGHT So a little while ago, I noticed that it had been over a week since I made my first Twilight’s Insights post, and thought, “Ohmigosh! What will I write about?” As I sat thinking about it, I had to get up a couple of times to take another step in preparing dinner for my family. Tonight’s dinner is aromatic, full of herbs, and the smells of those herbs kept wafting past my nose. “What am I going to write about? What? What?” I kept running in circles inside my head. I opened the oven to check on dinner, and a blast of herb-scented hot air smacked me in the face, and I knew what I was going to write about. How many of us say we are kitchen witches? How many of us take that to heart, and bring our witchcraft into every aspect of our kitchen, including dinner? Many of the herbs we use in our craft have dual purposes - sage, for instance, is a cooking herb as well as a cleansing herb. The meal I prepared for my family tonight contained the following herbs, and for each of them I have posted a corresponding link from several different sources. It seems to me, that with each meal, I could be invoking any one of these delicious plants to not only make my taste buds sing, but also to add a bit of magickal zing! Even the mundane onion has magickal attributes that I could have worked with, along with the power of intent and maybe a bit of verbal spell craft to make our meal mean so much more. As it was, it was just a savory, delicious dish that I threw together when I realized half of the ingredients I needed for my planned meal had gone off or weren’t in my pantry and fridge. I’ve posted the recipe below for those of you looking for a new dish to try. Maybe you can work in some edible spell craft when you do! Onion: http://herbalriot.tumblr.com/post/131160595322/magickal-uses-for-onion Parsley: http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbParsleyMag.htm Turmeric: http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/plantprofiles/turmeric.php Celery: https://www.themagickalcat.com/Articles.asp?ID=242 Corn: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:corn Marjoram: https://www.magicalrecipesonline.com/2016/08/herbal-magic-of-marjoram-2.html Oregano: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:oregano Thyme: http://eluneblue.com/thyme-magical-properties/ Rosemary: http://herbalriot.tumblr.com/post/53191266546/magickal-uses-of-rosemary Savory: http://www.herbs-info.com/savory.html Basil: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:basil Garlic: http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:garlic Sage: https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/magickal-properties-of-sage 

Desperation Pie (NOT a Pie) To begin, you plan to make a traditional Shepherd’s Pie. You are sure you have a pound of beef, a package of frozen peas, and twelve ounces of mushrooms in the fridge/freezer. You KNOW you have a five pound bag of russet potatoes, and cream of mushroom soup for the rue. Step One - Realize that you have to do the dishes in order to cook, because you ran out of dishwasher pellets last week sometime, and no-one has been keeping up with the washing-up. Wash the large non-stick skillet, and place it on the stove. Open fridge, grab the ground beef you bought, open the package, and realize that you bought it about a week ago and didn’t freeze it. Whoof! Resist urge to gag. Place in dustbin. Step Two - Open freezer and grab the partial three pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken, determine there is in fact about a pound and a half left - just enough to feed four. Put 2 tablespoons of salted sweet cream butter in the skillet over medium-low heat, and dump in a generous amount of the pre minced garlic in a jar you keep in the fridge. Probably over two tablespoons. You don’t know - it’s garlic, everyone loves garlic, right? Grab the powdered chicken bouillon from the spice cabinet and add a tablespoon (at least) to the pan. Shake your container of ‘Italian Seasoning’ generously into the skillet. Let the butter melt, spread the concoction all over the bottom of the skillet . Put frozen chicken in to the skillet, then pour in about a quarter of a cup of apple juice (pray the kids don’t see you have the juice out and start griping about how they are thirsty), then cover. Go play on the internet for ten or fifteen minutes. Step Three - Check on the chicken - it should be cooked through, so flip it over and remove the lid to allow the juices to cook away. Start attacking the chicken with your wooden spoon because the cutting board is dirty, and the chicken is tender enough that it works. Open the freezer to get out the frozen peas. Realize you do not, in fact, have any frozen peas. Look in the fridge with a tight feeling in your stomach and discover your mushrooms are growing mold. Curse loudly and violently, thanking the powers that be that the kids are too engrossed in Disney/Pixar’s film, Coco, to notice. How did that happen??? You don’t have the stuff to make a chicken Shepherd’s Pie, what were you thinking? What you DO have is a partial bag of frozen corn, and two bags of frozen broccoli. Grab a small sauce pan and put an inch of water into it and put it over high heat. Dump the corn into the saucepan. Add one and half tablespoons of butter, and enough black pepper to make the cat sneeze. Ignore, ‘till half of the water has cooked off, then drain. Grab the potatoes, select the ones you wish to use, then realize that somehow in your recent move, you have lost your potato peeler. Die inside a little bit. Look at the clock. Panic because spouse will be home VERY soon, hungry. Step Four - Grab the trusty can of cream of mushroom soup you got the other night just in case you were out (you weren’t, just like last time, so there’s like, FOUR cans in there) and dump it in with the chicken, stir. Add the corn, stir. Turn off the heat under the mixture. Clean the saucepan you cooked the corn in. Add water and steamer basket, and cook one whole damned package of broccoli, because they WILL EAT THEIR GREENS, DAMNIT. Clean the cutting board and a knife. Go play on the internet for about ten minutes. Step Five - Chop your not-quite-cooked-all-the-way-through broccoli into small pieces that can’t be picked out easily. Dump it into the skillet with the chicken and corn and soup, stir. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Find the Shepherd’s Pie casserole dish, and dump the mixture into it. Clean the saucepan again.Grab the lonely box of chicken flavored stuffing living in the pantry, and cook according to the directions. Fluff stuffing and cover chicken and veg mix with it. Pop into oven. Go play on the internet a bit. When spouse arrives about twenty minutes later, check on your new dish, which you have lovingly dubbed, ‘Desperation Pie’, even though it is in no way a pie, and is, in fact a casserole. Carefully reach into the oven to pat the stuffing to see if it has got any crispness to it yet. Decide it doesn't have to be crisp, and call everyone to the table for dinner. When Child A decides they don’t like it, take their plate and eat their portion, allowing them to go make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When Child B declares they are full and you see they have eaten everything EXCEPT the stuffing, take their plate and eat their stuffing, because that’s the best part. Well, maybe the chicken. Happily eat their food and your food while your spouse sits in the other room playing World of Warcraft. When he tells you that the dinner was delicious, decide it is a win, because he HATES broccoli. Send the kids to bed. Step Six - Go play on the internet. You deserve it.

The First Post

I have created this blog to house a series of posts I have been writing for a Facebook group I admin and create content for,  A Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions. It was originally intended to be a weekly post, but it ended up being something I do when I feel moved to speak on certain witchy topics. I will upload the posts in the order I wrote them, and then when I run out, I'll compose them here and post them to the group. 


The First Post:

Hello all! I am going to begin a weekly post called ‘Twilight’s Insights’, with the hashtag #Twilight. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with the books or films. Twilight is my witches’ name, chosen in the 1990’s. It happens to be my favorite time of day/night.

My first post today will serve as an introduction to me and my path, and next week I will try to find something interesting to fill your brains with.

I am a 40 year old Eclectic Omnist Kitchen Witch living in Tulsa. I eat cheeseburgers, don't work out enough, paint, illustrate, make jewelry, write, have five cats, three children (19, 11, and 9), love bats, rabbits, nature, and my fiancee of 13 years. I have been using and studying the Tarot for 23 years, and lead/teach the Tulsa Tarot group. I (sporadically) write a tarot blog: ouroborostarot.blogspot.com, do readings at special events and for private clients, and my artwork exploring spirituality, regular art, and all things geeky/nerdy can be found at my ‘The ADD Artist’ page here on Facebook. I am currently studying and exploring voodoo, hoodoo and rootwork, and am also a student of human psychology enrolled at TCC, seeking degrees toward becoming a counselor/therapist. I look at being a witch as just something I am, not something I do. My specialty in spell work is in the crafting of talismans, sigils, and jewelry; usually as a kick-start to physical or emotional healing. 

I have been a pagan my entire life. My parents, both from England, are atheists, and during my upbringing in Dallas, Texas, I was allowed to go to church with my friends, but only twice to any one church, just in case extended exposure might ‘brainwash’ me. I remember quite clearly dancing with tiny rose garden fairies in England one summer when I was 6 or 8 years old, and up until my late teens, was able to see and read auras. I am an empath of the amplifier/ground variety, and use my grounding skills as part of my healing work. 

I had my first experiences with witchcraft as a teenager in a coven of peers, which sadly collapsed. I took the name ‘Twilight’ as my witches’ name around that time. The coven broke up when a member died via vehicular suicide. She spoke to me in the moment of her death, (telepathically, astrally? I don’t know) asking I tell everyone to remember her, and in fulfilling her request I somehow managed to alienate myself from the group.  Later, after graduating from high school, I led another coven, mostly of friends from school who were younger than I was. This group also failed, but this time because I refused to allow the group to ignore school and their grades, and would cancel coven meetings and circles and sabbats if they had other responsibilities they were not fulfilling. They voted me out, then simply faded into nothing with no organization.  

It was around that time that I decided that Wicca was not for me, and also that solitary craft was more my thing. To this day, I am a solitary witch. I like being around other witches, but I prefer to practice my craft and follow my path on my own. 

When it comes to magick and all things woo-woo, I am a skeptic and cynic. There is much overlap in the worlds of the metaphysical and science, and I tend to lean on the side of science first. 

I am a huge proponent of the concept of SAFETY FIRST. You will see me often commenting when I see spells or teas or other things that involve herbs, warning people about this or that ingredient. I don’t do it because I am an insufferable smart-ass, but because I have a deep concern for everyone, and I always worry that we do not research our ingredients enough when it comes to herbal ingredients.  Just because it’s posted on the internet does not mean that it is legitimate or safe, and we must always protect ourselves by double checking everything. 

I do not see magick in black and white terms, either. To me, it all boils down to your intent. If you intend harm, or if you intend good will - that is what drives a spell or working or directs a path. One thing that is universal across basically all religions (yes I know there are exceptions, but bear with me) is that we all treat one another as we would like others to treat us. Following this guideline does not make us a ‘white witch’ or good witch - just a good person. I will endeavor to follow that rule in my interactions with all of you here: I will treat you in the same manner I hope you will treat me; with respect and kindness.