Hey guys! We have another tag post, this one focusing on the witchy side of JNJ. I figured I’d do a magick tag to sort of introduce this new subject matter. I borrowed this from The Spirit Garden on wordpress, so totally check them out or copy this Tag to fill out yourself!
1. Do you feel you have natural gifts such as (premonitions, hearing spirits) and if so do you think this is what led you to this path?
I’m fairly clairsentient, very much an empath. Sometimes it’s hard to pin down where my feelings end and someone else’s begin. I used to be able to sense the energy in rooms very quickly as a child, but as I grew up I started blocking that out. Which is part of why I’m throwing myself back in whole-heartedly, I’m upset that I shut that part of myself off. I don’t know if it lead me to this path though, to be honest. Really, I can sense environmental energy and spirits to an extent, though it’s muffled. I hope to be be able to connect to them more strongly so I can get a grip on them again.
2. What deity do you work with if any and why?
I do! My spell work calls on the Greek Pantheon most times, unless I feel really pulled to invoke someone else. I’ve been doing a fair amount of work with Hecate and Plutus lately. As for why, I just felt drawn to this Pantheon from a young age. It started with a wild love of Mythology and Athena in particular.
3. Have you always worked with this same deity?
Kind of? I used to work with Hecate when I was just starting off, because she’s considered the Goddess of Witches and has an association with the moon. I’ve always loved to look up at the moon and lose my breath in it’s glow. Then I was called to Athena for years… after finally noticing (like 6 years later). Now I feel like I’m being relinquished from Athena and Hecate is stepping in. I’m not hurt, just kind of honored that the first Goddess I ever worked with is coming forward for me.
4. Do you do past life readings and have you ever had one done?
I don’t and I haven’t. Though I do seem to have a memory that may originate from a past life. I want to preface this with saying that my mother and I have known each other before. In this memory I have, I’m a man and I’m tall/slender. I have brown hair kept somewhat long, as it more than brushes my ear lobes.
We had a little cottage or hut of some sort outside of London, the image of it is hazy now. It wasn’t very luxe but was warm and safe enough. This was around the time the London Tower was a jail/prison/death sentence. My wife at the time, my current mother, and I were helping people who were unable to pay their dues to the King/Government. I’m not sure if we could afford to pay our dues either, but we were still doing our best to help those who definitely couldn’t.
Somehow, word got out of what we were doing. It boiled down to straight-up tax evasion. My last memory from this time is them coming to get my wife and I. We were the only ones in our home so we were the only ones to be caught from this, as far as I know. When they came with their wagon with the bars on the windows, I tried to get her to flee with me. She didn’t make it out with me and I had to watch them take her away.
I remember her face peering through the bars as her hands, still coated in soot from the small fire inside, gripped the bars. I ran. Shamefully, I booked it to the woods as fast and as far as I could. At some point I tripped and my memory ends with me looking at my distraught reflection in a puddle in the middle of a dirt path.
5. What is/are your favorite magickal tool(s)?
Gems. Definitely gems. They can do everything and they can bring you power, disperse negativity, ease your mind… gems, hands down. And I suppose, Tarot cards, as I’ve been reading them since I was a child.
6. Where is the most magickal place you have ever been?
I feel like for me it’s any place I am, especially if there’s moonlight beaming down. Or a clearing in the woods with a babbling river nearby.
7. What animal is your familiar if any?
My cat Sebastian is my familiar. When I go to my altar to do spellwork, I close out the cats so they can’t get into my room. He will freak out outside of the door to be let in. When he was a baby, I had my altar stuff boxed up and no matter what I did he would find his way into that box.
We’re also very emotionally intune with each other.
8. If you have a familiar, did you choose them or did they choose you?
I think we chose each other. I went to the animal shelter to get a specific cat, his name was Damien. When I went, he was in quarentine for treatment. I almost left and came back another day, but I looked behind the receptionist and say this little grey kitten in one of the compartments. His ear was clipped and he had no tail, he was looking right at me and just screaming. I caved in, I had to see that cat.
The moment he was placed in my arms he purred up the biggest storm and held on to me. 15 minutes and $80 dollars later I was walking out with him. Best $80 I’ve ever spent.
9. What in the craft are you best at?
My gut instinct is to say “I don’t know”, not to sell myself short or anything but I want to be able to give an actual answer some day!
10. What in the craft would you say you are weaker at?
Intuitive reading. Definitely. Because I get in my own way. I’ll have a flash of something in my head and it’ll make perfect sense but I’ll push it away because I don’t know where it came from. To be fair though, I’m probably weak at a fair bit. Just because my path has been kind of bumpy over the year and I’m just now getting back to it despite being a non-practicing witch for over a decade.
11. What is your most favorite part of your craft?
The feeling of connecting to the energy around me. Today when I realized that Hecate was calling me, I got such a feeling of excitement and just pure elation. It’s the feeling of being able to tap into and utilize something greater than myself. To help not just myself, but those around me.
I love that I’m able to work closely with my deities and feel their whispers around me, and their protection. I love how it makes me feel like a whole person now that I’m getting back to it after so long. I’m feeling connected and I feel empowered. It’s doing wonders for my mental health too!
13. What was the first craft tool you ever made?
I… don’t think I’ve made a tool, per se. I’ve been making spell vials and satchets lately. Do sigils count as tools? I’ve been brainstorming stuff to make, so I probably should make some tools. If I can find a rowan tree or yew tree, I’ll make a wand!
14. Do you use astrology in your practice?
I don’t! Though I’ve been interested in it for a while, I just don’t know how much, if any, credence I give to it beyond just generalized information. I’m looking into it more, like I am with numerology to kind of see where I stand on it.
15. What, if any, ways could you practice dark magick and still respect the beliefs of Wicca?
I’m not Wiccan, though I did used to be years ago. I think magick is all in intent. Magick is neither white nor black, it just is. The witch makes it white or black. With that in mind, so long as you’re not trying to override the will of others or you should be fine.
16. Do you have any other witches in your family?
I wish! My mother started me on this path as a child but she transitioned to more an agnostic/almost-christian mindset and I’m not sure where she stands right now. When I came out of the broom closet my parents took all of my books… to this day I wonder what they did with it. And if I’m being honest, I’m still a little sore about that whole ordeal.
17. What magick item can you not witch without?
Nothing. Like a good camera doesn’t make a photographer, a tool doesn’t make a witch. Even without the tools, I’d still be a witch. I like to have the tools, though.
18. Do you have a favorite time of day to do spell work?
Absolutely! I like 10PM-Midnight for my spell work!
19. Are you solitary or do you work with a coven?
Solitary! Though I have met a couple of local witches, I don’t want to tie myself in with a coven yet. I am very interested in covens for my future, though.
20. If you could pick a certain witchcraft tradition that fits your practice most what would it be?
I feel like I’m mostly eclectic in my path, though I do borrow strongly from Lunar magicks. I do most of my workings around the moon phases and honor Hecate accordingly.
21. What was the most creative spell you have ever done, and what did you use?
I’m really just starting to spread my wings with my spell work, so I don’t view my workings as particularly creative. I view them as juvenile in comparison to other witches. But, I did make a money spell sachet for myself and my fiance to use. I made the bag myself with white cloth and thread. Filled it with every herb that I had to correspond with wealth, prosperity and luck. Likewise tossed in some cleansed and blessed gems to correspond with the goal. I topped it off with gold/yellow yarn to cinch it closed and put my Prosperity sigil on it.
It was the first time I had ever used sigil magick in conjunction with anything else, and of course the bag was more than a bag. I also did cast my circle, did an invokation of Plutus (and likewise gave him an offering) after doing the incantation.
22. What do you prefer to use for divination?
I really prefer tarot cards for the most part, though I don’t use them as often as I used to. I’ve taken to pendulums recently, though I don’t know if I can trust them with my subconscious pulling the strings in the background.
I was recently called quite strongly to get a pendulum from the local occult store though, so I may try connecting to that one more. It’s a beautiful amethyst pendulum which ties in with my whole psychic awareness kick I’m on.
23. What do you do to ground yourself?
Deep breaths and I try to sweep my thoughts from my mind. I don’t know really how to meditate since I have a lovely thing called aphantasia, and a lot of meditations I see are completely centered around visualizations…. which I can’t do. Truthbetold though, that is part of the reason I’m getting to into my craft again. I want to see if I can stimulate my third eye and get that lazy ***** to open.
24. Have you ever had a spell go horribly wrong?
I haven’t!… or not that I’m aware of.
25. What are your opinions on initiation rituals?
Honestly? I don’t know anything about them/
26. How do you handle rejection from a fellow witch that refuses to do a reading or spell for you?
Bold of you to assume that I ask other witches for things. For the most part I do everything for myself, in the event where I’m not doing it for myself, I’m doing it for others. It’s not cool to ask someone to expend their energy for you and then get mad when they say no, but I wouldn’t even ask.
27. Do you think it is necessary to cast a circle when you do spell work or any magickal working?
Not previously… but lately? Yeah. It’s totally necessary to create a protective barrier between yourself and whatever else wants to come forward when you’re opening yourself up. For Samhain 2018, I did a ritual for the Sabbath but I didn’t cast a circle or invoke my deities or my guides for protection and I felt so threatened that I had to leave my room. It took me days to be able to go back in there, because every time I did I felt to oppressed.
You may not need do a full circle and invokation every time you work a spell, but I’m of the opinion (now) that it’s a good idea to be protected even if it’s something simple.
28. What is your general practice for meditation?
Generally, I don’t really. I like to (try to) meditate in the bath under a full moon when I’m doing my monthly cleansing. I just (attempt to) visualize or imagine all of the negativity that attached itself to me over the month getting trapped in a ball of white light between my hands until I can feel the ball between my hands.
When no more negativity or darkness can fit, I release it skywards to be recycled and purified. I do this three times. Afterwards, I continue with just a pure white ball of light between my hands absorbing the light of the moon and my intent. Once I can feel that, I wash myself with it (bring my hands to my face and feel the pure light energy enter my being). That is also done three times.
29. When and how did you know you wanted to be on this path?
I grew up with my mother showing me the tarot cards and teaching me how to see auras, a skill I have since forgotten. From a young age, I realized that I was much more in tune with the elements rather than the judeo-christian God. I was told I was going to Hell by my family and in my late teens, I tried really hard to find some sliver of myself that was on that Christian path, and it threw me into a depressive tailspin because I felt horrible that everyone else was able to find this love and life and all I found was pain. I thought I was broken.
In my early twenties, I started calling myself a witch again when I realized that it was the one thing in my life that was constant. In short, the path is my home. When I was a child, before my family tried to crush it out of me, I feel like I had a connection to the path that was true and strong. And now that I’m nearing my 30s it’s back in full swing. I’m back where I belong.
30. What candle color do you use most?
Lately, black. I’ve been doing a lot of protective work for myself and others, so I’m using lots of black candles. Otherwise, I use a lot of white too, especially for my cleansing rituals.
31. What area would you like to see your craft grow in?
Is all of them an option? I feel like I have a lot of room to grow in so many directions. Honestly, I want to see my divination blossom through intuitive reading, I want to be more confident in the runes… I want to be more intune to the rhythms around me and grow my empathy.
32. What is your preference, to buy or make your tools?
I feel like you can make or buy them- like, if you buy them, you can cleanse them of outside energy and then imbue it with your own. But if you really want that connection with a tool from the start, I’d say making it is your best bet.
33. What is your favorite candle and/or incense scent for magickal purposes?
My favorite candle is either black for straight protection, or white for it’s all purpose capabilities. For my incense, I enjoy dragon’s blood (a lot), for meditative practices (when I try) or just ritual work invoking the gods.
34. Would you ever teach the craft?
I’m not averse to teaching it, but I know I have a long way to go before I get to that point. These posts on here are going to be more about my own path and experiences rather than teaching anyone anything.
35. What are your totem animals?
I don’t know if I particularly feel drawn to any animals really, I used to have a lot of experiences with moths a few years ago. I haven’t been feeling any particular tug towards anything in particular, though I do wonder if Owls have a meaning to me because they’re on my mind a lot at the moment.
Java and Jeans 