gem-quality diamonds are rare. There are three main factors that contribute to rarity
SIZE – big diamonds are way more rare than little tiny ones
COLOR – colorless diamonds are more rare than brown diamonds, and fancy-colored diamonds are more rare than colorless diamonds
CLARITY – diamonds that aren’t full of crap are more rare than diamonds with lots of crap
I could go on for a long time about this so send me an ask if you want a full post
Fake Citrine/Burnt Amethyst
no
yellow/orange quartz = citrine, whether it’s natural or treated
it isn’t fake
citrine is often heated amethyst whether it comes from nature or a lab anyway
there are some citrines that were never amethyst, but many were
Copal Is Fake Amber
copal is young amber
amber is OLD, guys
1,000,000+ years old
they will both float in saturated saltwater.
amber is more resistant to chemicals because it’s gone through polymerization over time
don’t drop your amber/copal in solvents because chances are it’s copal
Don’t Clean Crystals With Soap
soap is good
most common crystals can be cleaned with soap
use gentle soap though, none of that orange gritty stuff that everyone’s dad had at one point
rinse off the soap when you’re done
check if your crystal is water soluble before cleaning though
and be careful with unusual and delicate specimens
Heating And Irradiation Are Bad
heating and irradiation enhance the color of your crystals
almost every sapphire and ruby in the lower to mid-range market has been heated
most other stones too
it doesn’t hurt the stone. I promise
it just makes them prettier
the earth does it to her crystals too
Treated Stones Are Fake
nope
treated stones are usually still whatever they were before they were treated
unless it’s a variety call based on color or something but y’know
heated topaz = topaz
aura quartzes are extra pretty because of their treatment
it’s cool if you don’t want to use treated stones but many people like them
treated stones are beautiful and not fake
but make sure the treatment is DISCLOSED unless it’s routine (and therefore assumed)
Blood Diamonds
it was a problem
but not anymore!!!!
there’s a fun international thing called the Kimberley Process (2003)
diamonds can’t be exported from their origin country without a clear paper trail back to the mine
diamonds are probably the most ethical gemstone purchase you can make today actually
there’s no equivalent process for colored stones
blood emeralds, anyone??
Garnet Is Corundum
Corundum has THREE MAIN VARIETIES
just THREE
ruby (red), padparadscha (orange-pink), and sapphire (every other color)
these have subvarieties (star ruby, yellow sapphire, etc etc etc)
emerald and garnet are not corundum
(garnet is a mineral group!!!! it’s not even a species, much less a variety)
not everything is corundum
I’ll add on to this in the future! Let me know if you have questions, I’m happy to expand on anything in this post or any other crystal info that you aren’t sure about 🙂
These exercises can be done in two ways. You can either pick one paper up and try to guess what is on the paper, or you can think of a paper and try to find it in the pieces of paper. If you feel you need more pieces of paper by all means add more. If you work with deities, your higher self, spirits of any sorts, please feel free to invite them to help you with these exercises, if you’d like.
The number exercise: cut four, same sized pieces of paper with the numbers 1-4 written on them. Turn them downwards and mix them up. Pick one up and try to guess which number it is.
The shape exercise: cut four, same sized pieces of paper, and draw a star, a heart, a circle and a cube on them. Turn them downwards and mix them up. Pick one up and try to guess which shape it is.
The color exercise: cut four, same size pieces of paper, and add a different color to all of them. Turn them downwards and mix them up. Try to guess which paper has which color on them.
The quiz exercise: find a quiz online that you know nothing about – this may be a science quiz, a pop culture quiz, a quiz about a band, or the Viking history quiz. Take the quiz and try to guess the answers.
The object exercise: Get a older object, works best if it’s given by a friend do you and examine it. Try to pick up the objects energies and try to see/hear/smell the person that the object is tied to. It’s best done with a friend because they will most likely know some information about the person and they can tell if you’re right or wrong.
The card exercise: Pick one card up from a deck and try to see the color, the shape and the number of that card. You can also do this with tarot cards, try to feel the cards energies.
Divination: it’s a great exercise for enhancing your psychic abilities and the range of tools you can do divination with is enormous. So, find the one that calls to you and start divining.
In my experience these are the main exercises which you can sit and work on but they’re not the only ones. Intuition can be worked on throughout the day even in the most mundane tasks:
Try to guess who texted you or is calling you before you pick up the phone.
If other people cook for you, try to guess what you’re having for lunch before seeing it.
Try to pick up what your friend is going to tell you before they do.
Try to guess when the light is going to turn green at a traffic light.
Think of a person, and try seeing what they’re doing at the moment. After you’re done, ask them whatsup.
When talking to a friend on the phone try to see what they’re wearing, what their hair is like, and/or what they’re doing and ask them.
When you get up try to sense what the weather is going to be like today.
When at the store and you’re waiting in line try to sense how much the person before you needs to pay.
Tell a friend to think of a number and try to guess that number.
When listening to music on shuffle, try to sense what the next song is going to be.
When people close to you talk on the phone try and sense who they’re talking to and ask them afterwards. (only if they’re comfortable with it, not all people would like their privacy invaded, my friends and family know why I’m doing that so they’re cool with it)
Try to sense what a close friends text is saying before you open it, or try to sense why they’re calling you.
These are all I can think of a t the moment, hopefully in the future I’m going to add more. Basically anytime, anywhere when you have some space left to guess what’s going to happen, do it.
MEDITATION: I can’t stress how important meditation is, especially to witches, mages, shamans, and all occult practitioners in general. I know it sounds boring when people tell you to meditate but we all need some time to relax and clear our heads. And in the moments of blissful relaxation we let out soul speak to us the most thus coming into our strongest potential where we can energetically change our DNA and rewire our brains. In the moment of deep relaxation you can focus on cleansing your pineal gland / increasing your intuition.
I like to imagine purple/indigo color and lavender flowers coming out of my pineal gland spreading and covering my whole body and aura. I also like to imagine roots stretching from my pineal gland bursting through my forehead opening an eye in the centre of it. I like to massage the centre of my forehead, and I like taping an amethyst to it lol.
There are lots of guided meditations on youtube, which are extremely helpful, and there are lots of binaural beats and isochronic tones, which are also very helpful. Just find your comfort zone to working on the pineal gland and focus on it. Don’t feel bad if per say, isochronic tones don’t work for you but storm sounds do work. Find your comfort zone and work within it.
Also you might want to check out Sun Gazing, which is a very powerful exercise you’re going to need to dedicate yourself to.
Pineal gland detoxification:
Avoid ingesting fluoride – I know this is hard, seeing at the people on top put fluoride in literally everything knowing what it’s doing to our brains. But there are alternatives, the internet is a huge place and you can find almost everything there. Avoid fluoridated water, fluoridated toothpaste, GMO fruits and vegetables, soda, all artificial foods and drinks. Try to eat healthy and organically and if possible reduce eating meat – and cutting it off completely.
Avoid sleeping with technology in your room if possible – this means wireless routers, mobile phones, computers etc. The pineal gland is suppressed by electro magnetic fields.
Avoid or if you can, completely cut off all sugar, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
Once you’ve detoxified your body and pineal gland it’s time to start working on activating and boosting your pineal gland:
Spend time in sunlight every day – or as much as you can. Practice sungazing as well, and it is best done when the sun has risen or in the moments it’s going away because the sun is the weakest then and it can’t harm your eyes and it won’t bother you.
Oils and incense –
Sleep and meditate in complete darkness.
Commit to meditation every day.
Dedicate rituals to your third eye – whether it be a bath ritual, once in a full moon ritual, a day of the week ritual, or whenever you feel like it ritual, do it.
Practice yoga, especially Yoga Nidra as it is the most powerful yogic practice to increase the blood flow to your pineal gland.
Eat food that boosts the pineal gland – raw cocoa, coconut oil, lemon – the body’s best friend, basically the master of detox, garlic, raw apple cider vinegar, goji berries, watermelon, honey, hemp seeds, iodine, vitamin K1/K2, boron, bananas, alkaine food, chlorophyll rich foods, oregano oil, sea moss, walnuts, turmeric and melatonin.
Crystals that stimulate the pineal gland – amethyst, lapis lazuli, clear quartz, moonstone, sodalite. You can meditate with these crystals on your forehead daily, you can tape a crystal on your forehead and stay like that for a while, or you can massage your forehead with it.
Chant – there are a lot of chants to boost your pineal gland, you can google some, I’ve found that OM works best for me.
Plants that enhance intuition – ginger, gotu kola, ginkgo, skullcap, elder leaf, berries and flower, fennel, lavender, lemongrass, saffron, bay leaves, rosemary, honey suckle, anise, eyebright, lotus, mimosa, sandalwood, burning acacia, cinnamon, buchu leaves, celery, lilac, mint, mugwort, solomons leaf, frankincense, jasmine, lemon, peppermint, rose, sage, vanilla and star anise.
Oils – bay laurel, carrot seed, galbanum, german chamomile, grapefruit, myrrh, nutmeg, palo santo, petitgrain, roman chamomile, sandalwood, st. john’s wort, angelica root, eleni, juniper, frankincense, rosemary and patchouli.
And most important of all – trust your gut! The problem with not listening to our intuition is when our rational, logical mind interferes and tries to come up with logical solutions as to why your intuition is wrong. Whenever you get that gut feeling, just go with it, don’t question it. Also always remember to protect yourself when working on your pineal gland, seeing as we are more open and vulnerable to psychic attacks during these moments.
Don’t agree with everything on here but it’s still very useful
Quick idea I had and need to note down before I forget it:
a witch bottle designed not to harm the incoming energies (like most witch bottles seem to be with their nails, thorns and black pepper) or block them (like the protective witch bottles I’ve seen with rosemary and basil), but filter and transmute.
Somebody throwing bad luck at you? Great, you’re giving me energy, I’ll filter it and change it into a blessing.
“When life gives you lemons” sort of idea, inspired by a post I’ve seen floating around about that witches shouldn’t ground bad energy, but filter it and transmute it, because earth can only take so much negative.
one word
charcoal
seriously, charcoal filters, man
maybe also mussel shells? since they’re filter feeders? hmmmmmm…
You could crochet a net wrap around the bottle or paint a “net” around it.
Bury it in a pot of geraniums or add persimmon seeds, for change and transformation.
Could use coffee filters somehow too?
Maybe even used coffee grounds (dried or not) themselves considering that they’re used to neutralize acidity in soils? Or sniffing them sort of purifies the sense of smell.
Infusions work best for making tea from leaves and flowers as these plant parts give up their active constituents easily.
Allow the tea to steep for 10 to 20 minutes so the therapeutic properties can pass from the herb into the water.
To make an infused oil put dried herbs in the top of a double-boiler, cover with oil about an inch over the herb (olive works well for this because it has a fairly long shelf life), let simmer for 2 hours without letting it get too hot or boiling, a temp of 150 F is good. Strain the oil into a clean jar, date and label. Without any preservatives, infused oil will last about a year.
Decoction
Teas made from roots and twigs are most often brewed by decoction because it is more difficult to extract their medicinal properties any other way. Boil or simmer 1 to 2 teaspoons of the herb per cup of water for 10 to 20 minutes.
Poultice
A poultice is a paste of chopped, fresh (or dried and then re-moistened) plant material which is applied directly to a wound or skin infection. It is held in place by a wet dressing covered by a bandage. Poultices are most often used to prevent infection and hasten healing.
To make a poultice, boil, steam, or pound the healing herb of your choice to release more medicinal compounds. Then shape the material into a small, coin-size wad which can then lie flat against the wound. Many herbalists recommend mixing 1 part herb with 3 parts water, alcohol, witch hazel or vinegar. Thicken with flour to make the poultice easier to handle and apply.
Note: doing a patch test first would be a very good idea to make sure your skin doesn’t get irritated.
Tincture
Stuff dried herbs into a jar, add enough alcohol (usually vodka or everclear (natural grain alcohol), depending on the strength needed for the particular herb) to amply cover the herbs, and screw the lid on. Allow the mixture to stand for about a week, shaking it occasionally. Then strain it, discard the plant material, and store the tincture in a bottle with a dropper lid. Label and date the bottle. Most tinctures have a shelf life of 2 years.
Wash
A tea or infusion meant only for external use. A mild form of a wash would be ¼ ounce of herb to one pint of boiling water, steeped until lukewarm, then applied.
All of these posts are my original work unless stated otherwise. All of these can be found in the tag, “Jelly’s Resources”. I also tag asks sent to me as “Jelly answers”. Beginner info can be found in #beginner info and #FAQ. Cherrie’s posts are shared with her permission.
Are the Lesser Key summonings bad? –I kind of disagree with this now but I am leaving this so that people can understand my development, if that makes sense?
Cherrie’s Guides: Cherrie is a very experienced spirit worker who left tumblr because of the toxicity of this community, but still wanted her guides to be available. These have been posted here with her permission. These are HER guides, I do not claim credit for them at all.
A list of books I recommend. THIS LIST WILL CONSISTENTLY CHANGE. The books are listed in no particular order, although they are fairly decently categorized and anything in italics is one I prefer highly for one reason or another. Clearly there are many books that should be on this list, which I have not had enough experience with to list, but more will come.
* – means the text has a fair amount of discredited or unreliable information.
*REFERENCE* – means the text should be read only for its context rather than its information. Most if not all of the information is unreliable.
Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Papyrus of Abaris by Stephen E. Flowers (2009) [I haven’t studied his history in depth so * the first half of the book but the practice is a good base on the PGM]
“What? Jes? What use can witches have for stickers?” Grimoire decorations, INTENTION CANDLES, sigils! This is a craft floating around Pinterest for putting pictures on a candle jar. Make stickers of your deity. Make stickers for yourself. Cover a jar in a collage of stickers that represent you. Or a friend. Or an enemy. Or a concept (money, peace, cleansing). Stick a candle in your jar and you’re golden.
So anyway. You will need:
🔮 scissors 🔮 clear packing tape 🔮 a bowl and some water 🔮 a magazine, newspaper, or printed page 🔮 (optional: a coffee filter, wax paper)
Find an image or word you want to use. Magazines work really well for this. Newspapers are good too. Theoretically you can use pictures you print, but laser printers work while inkjet printers don’t? I don’t know, I haven’t tried printing stuff. If you have an inkjet printer, go ahead and try it, it can’t hurt.
Cut the image out exactly as you want the sticker to look. Don’t try to trim it after you out the packing tape on. Trust me, I made that mistake.
Stick packing tape over your images. (You’ll want a non stick surface for this. I’m using a plastic tray here. Laptops work well too. I mean what.) Rub the image really well so the tape sticks to it completely. Use your fingertips, not your nails or anything hard. You can scratch the tape and then it looks icky. Again, trust me.
The ink from the image will stick to the tape, but it will cover up the adhesive. When you cut out your sticker, you’re going to want to leave a small border around it so you’ll still have some sticky left. This is why you don’t trim the image after you stick the tape on it. Otherwise you’ll get a pretty picture on clear tape with no stickiness.
Dunk your packing tape and image in some water. In this pic, I cut out the image BEFORE dunking in the water, but it’s actually easier to trim away the excess tape while it’s wet. The water prevents the tape from sticking to your scissors, so you can trim more easily. Also this is where you might want the coffee filter because…
… you’re going to rub the paper off the packing tape. If you’re lucky like I was here, the paper will peel off in one nice piece. Other times you have to rub until the paper kinda shreds off. This is where the coffee filter comes in handy for cleanup later, cause you can just lift out the filter with the paper bits and throw it away and not worry about washing it down your sink and clogging your drains.
Beware in this step though. It is possible to rub the ink right off the tape, so be gentle with it.
Once it dries, the clear parts of the packing tape will still be sticky, so you can stick it on your jars or books or laptop or whatever.
If you’re not going to use them right away, you can keep them on wax paper or freezer paper to save for later.
And that’s it!! Stickers!
Notes: dark colors are less transparent than light ones. Keep that in mind for your candles. Also, don’t experiment with the best images you really like, start with a crappy one to see how your printout/magazine/paper will take to sticker making.
Tag me if you post pics of stickers you made and how you use them! I’d love to see!
We’ve all been there. These seem obvious until you do them.
💥 Burned hair and fingers. Practice fire safety! If you have long hair, TIE YOUR HAIR BACK if you’re doing spells with an open flame and do NOT touch incense burners without oven mitts. It really hurts.
💥 Clogged sinks. Be smart with how you dispose spells! Do NOT put a bunch of herbs or other spell ingredients down a sink that has no garbage disposal. It’s gonna get clogged and you’re not going to want that bill from the plumber because of a clump of bay leaves.
💥 Coughing fits. Ventilate your area before you burn stuff! Inhaling a bunch of smoke from a bundle of cleansing herbs is not going to be fun.
💥 Faded and destroyed crystals. Don’t set your crystals in the sunlight unless you are 100% sure it won’t fade the colors, and make sure how to safely cleanse and use crystals so you don’t damage them. You don’t want to put your crystal in some water for a cleansing and see it get damaged.
💥 Bent, torn, and damaged tarot cards. Don’t shuffle them like a playing deck all the time and don’t cleanse them in water. Also, don’t go outside with your cards if it’s a windy day. Seems obvious until one of your cards gets carried away by the wind and lands in some mud.
💥 Spells that take 5000000 years to manifest. Try grounding and centering before doing spells! It helps so, so much with speeding up the spells’ manifestations.
💥 You do a spell for money and the spell decides to manifest by having your car damaged so you get money from the insurance money. Close or make loopholes in your spells! Adding little tidbits to a spell can make a better outcome of the spell’s manifestation, such as casting a wealth spell and adding, “This money shall be given to me without a negative cause.”
💥 The house smells like weed. Research what a herb smells like before you burn a bunch of it. Sometimes burned sage smells like weed. Plus, sometimes if you a burn a herb or plant, the smoke from it can kill or hurt you, like yew.
💥 You just drank some aloe vera juice and now your stomach is hurting and you’re sick. Research the possible side effects of herbs and plants before ingesting them. Some herbs can endanger your health, so research them before you decide to chomp on them.
I see a lot of witches drying rose petals for floral arrangements or even making rose water from them. Please keep in mind that roses grown for florists are over treated with pesticides and fertilizers. Anything made from these petals isn’t safe to ingest.
If you’re doing work that requires making a rose preparation for ingestion or topical application that will be absorbed into the skin, you’ll want to get rose petals from a shop that sells for these purposes.
Or grow your own organically. Old fashioned varieties rather than the hybrid teas you see in flower arrangements are usually grown for these purposes because they grown more easily without intense treatments.
THIS IS IMPORTANT Y’ALL.
As a witch who worked at a florist, whenever I ‘cleaned’ the roses for sale (taking off excess leaves, slicing off thorns, etc), I would immediately wash my hands afterward. The chemicals were so bad I would feel immediate irritation and would have skin issues if I didn’t scrub clean every 30 minutes or so (I aimed for 1 wash after every 12).
It’s especially worth noting that roses from florists are often (almost always) flown in from other countries where the laws about pesticides are a lot more lax. Originally we got ours from a grower in Colombia, which wasn’t too bad, but I believe we switched to Ecuador and holy moly I don’t know what the company we got it from used but it was strong. As in ‘The smell of the chemicals hit me like a wall as soon as I opened up the dozen, despite them having traveled all the way from Ecuador in a freezer’ strong.
It was so bad I legitimately had worries about how handling the roses would effect my long term health, and gods above and below I felt for the workers over there that had to deal with these pesticides regularly and up close.
Also, if you buy your own rose bush to use for ingestion purposes, DO NOT use the petals off of it for the first year UNLESS you got it from a organic nursery. Because most places do spray the roses with pesticides and fertilizers from seedling on up, and it will take a year for all that stuff to work it’s way out of the plant’s system.
If you need rose petals to ingest ASAP, I would strongly suggest checking out tea shops. Many local or online sellers have rose teas that are lovely, and either have rose hips (which might not be as fancy as petals and have a more citrus-y flavor, but are the fruit borne from a rose and thus symbolic as all hell) or rose petals mixed in with their teas. This are absolutely edible, and are easily accessible to boot.
Signed, a ex-florist and Rose Nerd.
I really hope people see this because it is very important. Roses from the floral section are not intended for consumption. I have found whole rose buds at herb stores, Asian grocery stores (in cooking sections), and tea stores. I would highly suggest going to those places for roses. They may also sell tea with a high quantity of rose petals which you can use in place of pure roses. Another note: jasmine tea is not tea with dried jasmine. Most jasmine varieties are not edible and you can’t use dried jasmine in tea unless it is a variety specifically marketed as being edible (jasmine sambac aka Pikake)
The Aeclectic Tarot website is how I discovered what type of Tarot deck style I wanted! It also offers details about each deck like number of cards, measurements, and a few cards to preview. It’s incredible! I HIGHLY recommend using it when searching for a tarot or Oracle deck
Candlelight-magick 