Writing it on your skin (then washing it off, you don’t have to wash it off of you feel just writing it on your skin works)
Burying in the dirt
Cooking (ex: writing a sigil in a cookie and baking it activates the sigil)
Visualizing the sigil activating
Dissolving it in water
Soaking in moon/sun water
Draw the sigil in sand and let the ocean wash it away
Singing to the sigil
Sleeping with the sigil under your pillow
Eating the sigil (carve it into meat, or draw it with ketchup on your burger for example)
Make the sigil with dirt, sand, ash, or dust and blow it away
Carve sigil into soap and use soap
Draw the sigil on a balloon and pop it
Draw the sigil (using a non toxic marker) on gum and chew the gum
Draw the sigil on a rock and toss it into a body of water
Draw the sigil in the air with smoke and allowing to disappear
Carve sigil into a candle and allow candle to burn
Carve it into wood and put wood into fire
Masturbate/have sex with sigil in sight or on top of sigil
Put sigil as device lock screen and charge device
Carve sigil into bathbomb and put it in bath to fizz and activate
There are a million ways to activate a sigil, just do what you think works best! If you know any other ways to activate a sigil, add onto the post! Carry on, witches! 🖤🌙
Lá Bealtaine sona daoibh! Happy Bealtaine everyone!
I hope you have a beautiful May Eve and May Day!
Below are some Beltine/Beltane/Bealtaine traditions:
“[Gaelic Beltane superstitions] were concerned with the safety of the familiar things which supported life, and especially the milk cows whose ‘whitemeats’ were to provide the main food-supply until harvest came round once more. It was a matter of pride to have a last formal dish of stirabout on May Day, ‘for if they can hold out so well with bread they can do well enough…for then milk becomes plenty, and butter, new cheese, and curds and shamrocks are the food of the meaner sort all this season’. It was considered mostly unlucky and unwise to give away salt, water or fire on May Day lest the luck and ‘profit’ of the farm went with the gifts. Witches and fairies were unusually active at this time, and many tales are told of the wiles they adopted to outwit the unwary and gain admission to house or byre to do their mischief. It was a wise precaution to pour milk on the threshold, or at the roots of a fairy thorn, and the many protective charms against the stealing of cattle and milk were augmented by others special to the occasion. ‘On May Eve the peasantry used to drive all their cattle into old raths and forts thought to be much frequented by the fairies, bleed them, taste their blood, and pour the remainder on the earth’(U.J.A. 3.1855, p165). It was said that the ghosts of cattle that had been lost could be seen in such places.
Portents, prognostications and protection were sought in the familiar flowers of field and hedgerow, in the weeds and shrubs his secular struggle for survival, especially in those that carried the promise of butter in their golden cups and a free flow of milk in their bounteous white blossom. May flowers, primroses and gorse gathered before sunrise were scattered on the threshold of the house and garlands of ‘Summer’, as the flowers were called, were hung on the doorposts and even tied to the cows’ tails. In the Antrim Glens the mayflowers were crushed to provide a juice with which the cows’ udders were washed, and elsewhere buttercups were used for the purpose. Cow dung, if less hygienic, had similar protective power, presumably in the belief that it contained the essence of the flowers of the fields. Sprigs of rowan were stuck in the midden, placed over the door of the byre and hung on the cows’ horns. Flowers were also put around the well, for it was supposed that a milk-thief could steal your summer’s milk and butter by skimming the water at this time, or by dragging a rope across a field to collect the dew. Boundary streams were also potent in this connexion, and I was told in Donegal that the milk churn had to be washed on May Day in ‘three landlords’ waters’, that is the meeting place of three properties.
…
The May Day bonfires and the May Queens are now little more than children’s games and excuses for begging. The burning of bones – whence the word bonfire, which in Ireland keeps its original pronunciation- and in particular of horses’ bones, were formerly considered proper to the occasion. There were dances round the fires, performed with great dexterity and precision by youths armed with cudgels. The May-pole, however, and the May-bush observances seem to go with areas of strong English influence and do not seem to have been generally adopted by the Irish, perhaps because May-trees, which are not given this name in Ireland, are likely to be fairy thorns and therefore should not be damaged. The May Eve assemblies are thus described in eighteenth century Kilkenny: ‘Bloody battles and much confusion and uproar is the mischief that follows from the barbarous and unheeded custom of collecting May-balls among the new-married folks…The hedges and fences, in the outlets of our city, are stripped of full-grown hawthorns, whose late blooming pride and fragrancy is now miserably dying away on dunghills before cabin doors, the new-married linnet and his mate, but fastened in the ground for the vilest purpose – to hang filthy clouts upon’. The gold and white balls which were hung on maypoles have been regarded as symbols of sun and moon – or it may be of butter and milk. Another May Day custom was the license allowed young boys to run about stinging people wth nettles, a privilege which in my youth in Shropshire was permitted only on 29th May, the victims being those who did not wear on oak-apple.”
– Irish Folkways by E. Estyn Evans
Below are some prayers for protection during Beltine:
The protection of Odhran the dun be yours, The protection of Brigit the Nurse be yours, The protection of Mary the Virgin be yours, In marshes and in rocky ground, In marshes and in rocky ground.
The keeping of Ciaran the swart be yours, The keeping of Brianan the yellow be yours, The keeping of Diarmaid the brown be yours, A-sauntering the meadows, A-sauntering the meadows.
The safeguard of Fionn mac Cumhall be yours, The safeguard of Cormac the shapely be yours, The safeguard of Conn and Cumhall be yours From wolf and from bird-flock From wolf and bird-flock.
The sanctuary of Colum Cille be yours, The sanctuary of Maol Ruibhe be yours, The sanctuary of the milking maid be yours, To seek and search for you, To seek and search for you.
The encircling of Maol Odhrain be yours, The encircling of Maol Oighe be yours, The encircling of Maol Domhnaich be yours, To protect you and to herd you, To protect you and to herd you.
The shield of the king of the Fiann be yours The shield of the king of the sun be yours The shield of the king of the stars be yours In jeopardy and distress, In jeopardy and distress.
The sheltering of the king of kings be yours, The sheltering of Jesus Christ be yours, The sheltering of the Spirit of healing be yours, From evil deed and quarrel, From evil dog and red dog.
Offering the bannocks to the Beltine fire ‘This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep’
And throwing behind you ‘This I give to thee, O Fox! Spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded Crow! this, O Eagle!’
So I really try my best to tell new witches and spirit workers not to go the mentor route. That it’s good to make friends and learn from each other or to learn from someone but never to put someone on a pedestal above yourself as your source of knowledge. I do however realize that many new witches/spirit workers will choose to get into their practice this way. So, here are some tips and warning signs when it comes to mentorship.
Never, ever trust your mentor as a end all be all source of knowledge!
No witch no matter how experienced knows everything, they can be wrong or the topic at hand may be very dependent on you and how you personally work, sense, things, etc. If you blindly trust everything your mentor tells you then you will not be able to develop on your own, you will grow completely dependent on your mentors advise, help ,and approval and in some cases this is what the mentor wants.
If your mentor attempts to discourage you from learning on your own ditch them.
No good mentor/teacher would ever shame you or discourage you from growing on your own, expanding your mind, and forming opinions
If your mentor belittles your experiences and undermines your knowledge ditch them.
Basically they will turn everything you tell them as an excuse to god mode themselves by making you look up to them as more important and eternally more experienced.
If your mentor refuses to allow you to have your own beliefs and or opinions ditch them
It is in no way healthy for you to allow someone to bully you into fitting their spiritual mold. Your path is your own and no to witches are alike, so do not let someone force you to walk their path rather then your own.
Do not allow your mentor to push you around and change your practice. Examples of this are;
“Oh I talked to *insert deity here* and the don’t want to work with you/ don’t want you worshiping them”
“Oh your spirit companion is actually evil despite all your past experience and I am the only one experienced enough to see the truth.”
“Let me send spirits to you to keep you safe, but they are still my companions not yours and I communicate with them for you”
“You can’t work with this deity because I work with this deity”
“You can’t do that because it’s against my morals/religion”
“You can’t do that because it’s evil dark magic”
Gaslighting
Making you think that your are crazy, stupid, and wrong so that you depend on them and only feel secure if you go to them for help
Berating you when you get information or talk to other witches
this will often turn into them attempting to convince you that the other witch is evil and that you should stay away from them.
They do things that upset/hurt you in the name of ‘keeping you safe’
Warping your experiences so they fall in line with their own
Basically ‘correcting’ your experiences so that they fall in line with what they want you to believe so that you stay on the path they have chosen for you. For examples
“That spirit that came to you in your dream was actually sent by me and I know everything about them! “
“Oh that is true but here is what you don’t realize!”
Telling you that they are the chosen one, or a prophet of god in order to keep you in line by fear mongering.
Attempt to build relationships with your spirit companions as an attempt to steal them from you and control you further
Warning signs for this are
“Your companion visits me so often!”
“Your companion came to me in a dream last night!”
“Can I have an alter for your companion?”
“We should have a joint vessel for your companion so that I can help you keep them safe!”
Do not let your mentor preform magic on you that is supposed to be connected to your aura, your energy, or your soul
Everything that happens to you seems to magically line up with what is going on with them or something that only they can help you with
Mentors, Check Yourself If
You find yourself shooting down all of your students opinions, beliefs, and experiences
You find yourself mocking your students for their so called ‘experiences’ because you obviously know more
You feel that you are better then your students
You berate them when you find out they are talking to other people and learning on their own
You bully them into thinking that you are the only safe source or knowledge
Mentor’s are teachers and advisers, not gods, not all knowing beings. A mentor is meant to help you learn, adapt, and expand your knowledge and experience not to control you. Please be safe, so many people end up in toxic situations because of a bad mentor.
Apparently bergamot is getting popular. I figure now’s a good time to address the issue.
Bergamot is a citrus fruit that smells amazing, so a lot of people like to make essential oils out of it and put it in candles and stuff.
However, this should NEVER go on your skin. It has the same effects as Giant Hogweed (& some other wild carrots like Queen Anne’s Lace) and will give you nasty rashes and chemically hyper-boosted sunburns by making skin highly reactive to sunlight.
Remember this?
I personally have had friends who were seriously hurt by putting bergamot essential oils on their skin. It sucks.
In case you don’t want to look it up yourself:
Don’t use or make bergamot soap. Don’t use or make bergamot lotion. Don’t use or make bergamot anything that goes on your skin.
Just don’t put bergamot on your skin.
Stay safe beautiful! ❤ And please signal boost this!
The bergamot in Earl Grey tea is the best thing in the world. Bergamot on your skin isn’t.
Okay but this is like… 99% bloody fucking hyperbole. Y’all are taking a single fact (“Bergamot CAN increase photosensitivity”) and just fucking throwing all kinds of bullshit on top of it.
For starters, no, bergamot is not “like” giant hogweed. It is nothing like giant hogweed. Giant hogweed will fuck you right the fuck up in ways you don’t even want to think about and photosensitivity is barely even an afterthought. Just fucking read the excerpt up there, Jesus Christ (and then actually compare it to the one about bergamot.)
Things that are “like” giant hogweed: Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac. Things that are not “like” giant hogweed: fucking bergamot.
Secondly, literally ALL citrus, when topically applied, can and probably will cause photosensitivity. Orange oil? Yep. Lemon oil? Yep. Lemon JUICE? YES. Lime oil? Yes. Lime juice? YES ALREADY. IF IT’S A MEMBER OF THE CITRUS FAMILY, TOPICAL APPLICATION OF IT WILL TEMPORARILY MAKE YOUR SKIN SENSITIVE TO SUNLIGHT.
(So will things like ibuprofen, a bunch of other medications, hair removal lotion, and pretty much every single acne treatment on the market, including “natural” ones.)
I mean, lemon is insanely popular as a “gentle” alternative to hair bleach or chemical blemish treatments, but I don’t see anybody making “PSAs” about how it’ll make your scalp and skin more susceptible to sunburn for a while after application. Even though, y’know, that’s exactly what it does and lemon-based skin products will have a warning on the label saying as much.
may the bridges I burn light the way 