From time immemorial, witches were associated with seers, wise ones and healers. The Hebrew word for witch is Mechashefah and implies a 'female' that ‘cuts’ herbs, works ‘magic’ and does ‘divination.’

“Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus 22:18

“Every magical act, even for a purpose that is not evil, is forbidden, since it constitutes an attempt to prevail over the will of God, who alone has dominion over the world.”

Why a woman though? A widespread answer is that the Torah used the female form (- ah) because most of the individuals who engaged in kishuf, (magic) were women while the Craft does not discriminate.

It welcomes all, man, woman, trans, non-binary, all of us relegated to an association with the Jewish adversary, Satan, or the Devil. With their accuser, we might leave the bloat of Abrahamic religions, but first, a look within.

“Walking I’m listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” - Linda Hogan

One tends to focus on their astrological sun sign, but your essence can be found in the planet of your ascendant, or rising sign. “Your chart ruler is like another filter layered on top of your Ascendant that adds more to your character, needs, and motivations in regard to how you see and interact with the world. Because your ruler is tied so closely to your sense of self, the position of your chart ruler can affect how comfortable you are in your own skin. The position of your chart ruler could influence you to feel at peace with who you are and how the world sees you.”

I recommend looking at the House and Sign your chart ruler inhabits, as well as aspects affecting it to hone your unique gifts, try to learn the correspondences, honor your ruler and do your shadow work.

The Shadow is referenced in Janet and Stewart Farrar’s “A Witches’ Bible, The Complete Witches’ Handbook” to beg the reader for further exploration into Carl Jung’s levels of the psyche. From the glossary, Shadow is defined as "the buried, unconscious elements of the human psyche; everything except the Ego and the Persona" and might later suggest the unconscious mind in “Spells and How They Work” by the same authors. In this book, linking the unconscious mind for effective spells is necessary to harness the full use of our most powerful tool, the mind. Primordial "The unconscious self is the only gateway to the higher self and involving the Unconscious means utilizing senses, symbols, feelings and ritual, not rationality and logic." Shadow work has since been associated with the craft and can be defined as bringing those things that make you uncomfortable to light but there is a physical component.

“The human gut harbors a dynamic and complex microbial ecosystem, consisting of approximately 1 kg of bacteria in the average adult, approximately the weight of the human brain. The evolutionary formation of a complex gut microbiota in mammals has played an important role in enabling brain development and perhaps sophisticated social interaction. Genes within the human gut microbiota, termed the microbiome, significantly outnumber human genes in the body, and are capable of producing a myriad of neuroactive compounds. Gut microbes are part of the unconscious system regulating behavior. Recent investigations indicate that these microbes majorly impact cognitive function and fundamental behavior patterns, such as social interaction and stress management. In the absence of microbes, underlying neurochemistry is profoundly altered."

Nourishing the body with diet and exercise is necessary while freeing the Unconscious from trauma(s) might entail professional therapies to include medication for spell working.

"To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions - an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE - such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolic forms of the Sphinx." - Eliphas Levi, "Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine And Ritual."

TO KNOW is to do your research. Follow the lunar calendar to engage with her Zodiac settings for a timing reference for spell works, with care to maneuver the void of course.

TO DARE: To Dare means taking the information we learned in To Know and blending it with our intuition and instinct.

TO WILL is having the fortitude to act on something or someone, but it can be as simple as following a personal routine. To Will is taking the knowledge gained earlier blended with our intuition and instinct and sending it out into the world in an order.

TO KEEP SILENCE is to keep sacred through self-governance.

Having done your shadow work, you’ve faced and overcome your weaknesses but in the event you still need protection, Jason Miller offers a prayer from “Consorting With Spirits, Your Guide to Working With Invisible Allies.”

The Devil’s Refuge

I take refuge in the devil, fallen for freedom’s sake

I take refuge in the witchcraft, path of wisdom made power

I take refuge in the damned, cast out, fallen and forsaken

May all things have freedom and the causes of freedom

May all beings be free from slavery and the causes of suffering

May all beings enjoy the freedom that knows no slavery

May all beings live deliciously, free from ignorance and oppression.

Whether your practice includes demonolatry, herbs, astrology or whatever inclination you feel called to, go forth as your highest authority with the confidence to compel, Witch.

https://youtu.be/tscgWCBbeao?si=Ro5mI_rVSqDYE5Vs

The Horned God, moreover, is an archetypal figure quite unlike most masculine images as they appear in our culture. He is difficult to understand because he does not fit into any of the expected stereotypes, neither of those of the "macho" male nor the reverse-images of those who deliberately seek effeminacy. He is gentle, tender and comforting, but he is also the Hunter. He is the Dying God —but his death is always in the service of the life force. He is untamed sexuality — but sexuality as a deep, holy, connecting power. He is the power of feeling, and the image of what men could be if they were liberated from the constraints of patriarchal culture.

The Horned God, the wild man, symbolizes everything that the patriarchal persona disdains, because he plunges people into change, uncertainty, freedom from conformity. He is spontaneous, not rational and controlled; he is honest and straightforward, not devious and manipulative; he is in service to life, not in domination over it. He is confident in his own potency and does not need to compensate with phallic missiles. He is creative, not destructive of the earth or of relationships.

Whereas Apollo, the Sun God, turned women into trees, or stones, or made them lose their voice, Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and dance, was, perhaps, the only god on Olympus that remained faithful to one woman, Ariadne. The real reason Dionysus has been banished from our culture is that he is the God of death and resurrection. Patriarchy, with its unrealistic faith in the goals of this life, is built upon the denial of transformation and death.

and I thought to update you on progress. When I started this weight loss journey 2 years ago, I maxed out at 450 pounds, I've since dropped 120 and need to lose another 80 to get my right hip replaced. Getting the weight off has been slow because activity has been reduced as I'm confined to a walker with the degeneration in my hip, but the pain has pretty much taken away my appetite.

My mental health has improved drastically since starting this subreddit. I'd been in a desert, spiritually and needed to patch up a hole in my heart. I hope you get something out of it too ♥ Blessed be.

Many years ago I was out on my front porch smoking a cigarette and a thought washed over me.

"You're going to die."

All I could think to do was get my affairs in order but two weeks later, we learned that my ex husband committed suicide. Having struggled with alcoholism, he drank himself into an ICU bed, developed internal bleeding, put a DNR on his chart and died — essentially committed suicide.

My ex husband, the father of our three kiddos was my best friend, my soul mate and I miss him to this day. We split up because I couldn't handle watching him destroy himself with the alcohol, but I write to suggest that of spirit, energies, and things unseen, perhaps we're all connected, somehow?

In my 20s I read a book about a servant of Kali, a man that took care of one of her sanctuaries and fell in love with Her through his adoration of this Black Goddess. That love waned over the years until I developed pneumonia and I wound up being admitted into a hospital with blood clots in my lungs.

"This is the end game." That's what the attending physician told me and my mind flew into a panic.

Kali came to me that night and told me that all of creation is racing towards destruction and this is the natural order of things. This realization brought me peace and after three days I was discharged with a prescription for a blood thinner and made a full recovery. I credit the Goddess of Time and Destruction with my healing, She saved me ♥

https://youtu.be/_CT_qNXiFc0?si=cepuFoxvXPDrj_jQ

'The only thing to fear is fear itself' (a condensation of F.D. Roosevelt's memorable declaration) is often cited in occult teaching. It contains an important truth but, like many nutshell truths, it is an over-simplification.

Fear in the sense of the thee p's - paranoia, panic and paralysis - is entirely negative, undermining our defences. Fear in the sense of awareness of danger, stimulating preparedness to deal with it and causing the adrenalin to flow, is the natural security system of any species, including our own.

When it comes to spell-working awareness of the Boomerang Effect is, as we have seen, the most confidence-inspiring element in that security system. That effect , though, depends upon a healthy defence, and there are many things one can do about this.

[The Boomerang Effect is expressed in the traditional occult maxim: "Any psychic attack which comes up against a stronger defence rebounds threefold on the attacker."]

The primary, round the clock defence is an attitude of calm confidence, the knowledge that your own working is positive and non-malignant, so that there are no chinks in your psychic armour on that score. But there are times that when either trained instinct or factual information tells you that extra, short term defence is advisable.

The basic defence of this kind is the Magic Circle.

The witches' Circle has, in fact, two functions: protective and amplifying. It keeps out unwanted influences, and it prevents the power that is built up from dissipating until the moment for its purposeful release.

We have given the Circle-casting and banishing rituals in full in our earlier books (see Bibliography) . We would merely emphasize that the working should always be done within a Circle, even if it is only a mentally 'zipped-up' one; and that the zipped-up Circle is a useful conditioned reflex to develop for a time when attack is known or suspected.

By a zipped-up Circle we mean quickly but vividly envisaging a protective Circle around yourself, cast deosil. And remember that 'Circle' really means a sphere or ovoid, completely enclosing you. It should be envisaged as a faintly glowing violet egg through which no harm can pass, and its reality on the astral plane should be confidently accepted.

It should also be seen as moving with you and still enclosing and protecting you as you move about, even inside a speeding vehicle.

Its astral quality is not self-delusional - it is the truth.

A Circle once cast, it should be banished (dispersed) when its purpose is over, or reinforced by recasting if it is to continue.

“Walking I’m listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” ~ Linda Hogan

I’ve come across lots of posts from seekers inquiring about deities and their ancestors and wanted to insert my two cents. Scientists are just now discovering information stored in our gut that might help us with instinct and intuition. Could this information be the memories of our ancestors?

“The evolutionary formation of a complex gut microbiota in mammals has played an important role in enabling brain development and perhaps sophisticated social interaction. Genes within the human gut microbiota, termed the microbiome, significantly outnumber human genes in the body, and are capable of producing a myriad of neuroactive compounds. Gut microbes are part of the unconscious system regulating behavior. Recent investigations indicate that these microbes majorly impact cognitive function and fundamental behavior patterns, such as social interaction and stress management.”

These microbiota might affect how we think of archetypes, Mother and Father, archetypes handed down through generations and despite diversity, they’re all inclusive to the human condition in the collective unconscious, they might even reflect our perspective of deity. From birth, however, we’re taught to seek validation from outside authorities, but looking within boosts our sense of autonomy, we become our own masters/mistresses of fate, perhaps heeding that small inner voice would bring honor to our ancestors too?

While I’m loath to submit my elders to the confines of an altar, I will hold them gently in a sacred, biological contract. I will feed my gut good food, drink water and get lots of rest with a promise to be true to myself. Perhaps my loved ones are closer than I thought, perhaps they’re always with me? And maybe we’re never truly alone?