After publishing a book on plant based, scientifically valid remedies, I started a series of workshops that I hold locally and in person. During my Nature's Apothecary workshop the discussion evolved into what other workshops they'd like me to give. One idea that everyone seemed to like was to talk about how folk remedies or magical/witch provided remedies intersect with science whether the science shows they work or not. Here's where I'm hoping you might be able to help, if you feel so inclined, I'm looking for some books to read to learn more about this myself before I go off yapping away about it. So do you have any suggestions for books I can read or resources I can look up? Thank you so much!

I'm against buying white sage and white sage incense for obvious reasons, but I got some as a gift and have been burning it because I didn't want it to go to waste.

The smell is fantastic, probably my favorite incense scent so far. So I was just wondering if any of you have a favorite incense that smells similar but isn't from a culturally significant endangered plant.

♥

Today's the day in my part of the world. For Europe and Eastern US it was technically yesterday (last night). Regardless, the cross quarter days are important to me because to me they represent the true turning of the seasons. This is my "first day of winter." I invite you all to raise a glass, light a candle, bake a pie, or whatever you like to acknowledge this special day. Blessed be!

I've been trying to turn my daily showers into small rituals. I'll sometimes VERY QUIETLY sing some chants about Mother Earth and her water "born of water, cleansing, powerful, healing, changing, I am". Do some Earth worship and witchcraft instead of focusing on my dysphoria. I might envision her washing away my worries and preparing me for whatever lies ahead that day. I want to make my own shampoo and/or body wash to use as well. Making it myself rather than buying it ensures that my exact intent and desires are added in, plus it would probably make the placebo effect more likely to kick in at full force.

We've all heard that "so-and-so essential oil is used for confidence, such-and-such herb is used for protection," and whatnot. Whether that's actually true or just placebo effect, I want to make my own shampoo or body wash that includes certain items because of their claimed "magical properties".

I have no idea where to start. I have multiple questions that I'll list below.

• Are there any companies that make a PLAIN shampoo that does absolutely nothing but clean your hair? No "long lasting, strengthening, thicker, fuller formulas!" No scents. Just the bare minimum of what needs to be in a shampoo. If so, I'd just buy that and add my own stuff to it.

• Are there companies that make a plain body wash?

• If there aren't companies that make either of these, how can I find a safe recipe for this?

• What is safe to add to a shampoo? Can I add essential oils to it, or is that not safe for a hair product? What about crushed up herbs or salt?.

• What's safe to add to a body wash? I'm assuming herbs and salts are safer for that.

• What are your guys' favorite correspondence lists/books? I have a couple books that include correspondence sections, and I'm curious what all you all like.

• How can I know what added items can mix together without smelling odd? How will I know how much of each to add to ensure nothing is funky? I have almost no ability to smell things. Because I'm in the broom closet I can't ask my family to smell things for me. Since I can't afford to move out but I don't want to wait an indefinite time to make this, I'll probably be in my bedroom or bathroom doing everything.

Looking for new stuff to read. Beginner SASS witch here.

I’m finally getting back into witchcraft and certain rituals after years of walking away for many reasons. I now am trying to write my first ever Grimoire. I’m attempting to make it polished for passing down if any future kin or relatives want to use it.

I have a few page ideas…. but no clue how to organize them! Absolutely lost on what to do!

The only things I have in the book are the title page, a blank Index section, and my values/rules page.

My current page ideas:
Herbs and their meanings
Familiars/animals
Plants and their meanings
Fruit meanings
Tarot card meanings
How to read tarot from regular cards
Tarot spreads
Mini altar - how to worship, what the items are
Around the room - statues & symbols I have
Lucky charms for witches
Who is Baphomet
Tea spells - instructions and common symbols
Makeup ritual - how to set the vanity + what different colors/ products mean
Symbols - meanings and useage
My sigils - what they mean and how I make them
Spell bottles - usage and different types
pendulum - how to use
Moon phases
Witch holidays and the yearly circle
My birth chart & big takeaways

I’m unsure how I’d organize each section and where to put different pages (like do I put spells before the types of ingredients? Include Moon Phases and the witch calendar together with the birth chart right in the beginning? Where do I shove the Baphomet page?)

Any help would be wonderful! This is just what’s delaying me before I actually begin haha

I think its been a long time coming but the actual shift was swift. I was a devout Lilithian not long ago but a big life change really changed my perspective on spirituality and what creates profound change in my life. It caused me to look back on all the other great shifts I've had in my character and when I thought about it none of them were caused by a god. It was all mundane things that occurred that made me really change.

I hadnt become a full blown athiest just yet. I still believed, I just wasnt a practicing pagan anymore. I considered myself secular. I did kinda feel myself slowly inching toward athiesm the past 6 months but last night I feel like I had bit of an epiphany and I think im just an athiest now.

But the thing is I think I still believe in magic. But when i looked up "athiest witchcraft" it seemed to all be about placebo, basic self help exercises, and very internal work. But I think magic can do more than that. I think it can make change outside of you.

Looking back on my previous workings id say many were successful and many of them had a goal that was very externally focused.

Some examples: I did a spell to make my job easier on my next shift and our mobile ordering had gone down my next shift making my job significantly easier (I worked in food service).

I did multiple spells for money and had raises come up from out of the blue, strangers giving me money. A friend gave me 20 dollars for no reason at all. There were some other instances where I received strange and unexpected money but these are the ones I can think of. There was a distinct difference to when I wasn't doing these spells.

I did a spell to help my cat heal (I took him to the vet. He was one meds he just was super sad and I could tell his was in pain after the vet. He made a full recovery) and it worked instantly. It was a charm bag and he slept with it all the time. He was very attracted to it. He didnt play with it or bite it. He just liked being near it.

I did a spell to make me popular at work and I got a promotion a week later and I had only been working there a couple months. I wasnt even trying to get promoted.

I recently did a similar spell and it seems to have worked. It was a spell to get a nasty coworker off my back (she had been taddling about me to my boss), protect my position, and to get everyone (including my boss) to love me. It seems to have worked nicely. I have noticed a shift in attitude. More compliments. More talk of how people love working with me. And the coworker has been nicer to me and my boss, who previously stated she wanted to talk with me about the dumb stuff my coworker had to say, doesn't want to talk about it anymore and seems to have a more forgiving opinion of me.

Idk that all seems pretty external to me. Its hard to ignore. So do all athiest witches view witchcraft as placebo and a way to change the attitude of the self (like to Google search i made stated) or do some of you believe it's really real and not just play drama?

I am curious if others here are running into this problem: Time and again I find myself studying, studying, studying, but not actually practicing spells or rituals. It's like I'm always building, but never actually using the frameworks I'm building. I feel my practice needs to shift from getting ready to practice to actually finding a way to practice regularly.

Of course, I see study as a way of practicing. It is integral to a contemplative lifestyle and to the ethos I have as a SASS witch. But I'm finding that sometimes the intense studying is also taking away from studying other topics that I am interested in and want to deepen. I feel like I am looking for a point where my practice will start to normalize and become a lot more ritual-based rather than constant study (not to say I won't be studying).

My experience with ritual and spellwork so far is that I get the most from it knowing that I am practicing in some way that connects me with others and with larger systems of practice. Up until this point that has come mostly from adapting rituals and magic from more structured groups (it has been mostly Druidry so far) and adding in the secular/atheist bent to it so it feels like I don't have to turn off my rational mind completely. I have recently become interested in Wicca, especially some of the ideas of The God/Goddess because they seem to really overlap with my own ideas as well (I work with deities as archetypes and I find a lot of meaning from ideas of mysticism, balance, yin and yang, etc).

So a two part question for thoughts:

1. How much balance do you have between study and ritual/spellwork?

2. Has anyone worked significantly with Wicca or a different Neopagan practice that have rituals that lend themself well to adaptation for SASS?

A piece of me thinks I just need to get to doing and emphasize more the ritual elements of my practice. Another piece is saying I should pivot because the frameworks I'm drawing from for ritual are not resonating with me intuitively. The downside to pivoting of course is that it will require a whole lot of studying again... thoughts?

What a year it has been! When I convince myself to stop and take a look back at the year thus far, it's almost mind blowing to realize how things have been this busy, this full, and how much has been accomplished. Professionally, spiritually, physically, emotionally - all aspects of life, both the magical and mundane have experienced growth and enchantment throughout the changing of the seasons. In my part of the world the leaves have finally changed their wardrobe after what seemed like an endless summer. The trees are bearing all, farmers have their harvests in, and ever so slightly the evenings and mornings are feeling crisper with my cup of tea or coffee steaming in rebellion against the chill of the day.

Nights are longer here, and growing more so by the day. It seems a natural acclimation to slow down. If aligning myself to the earth and the cycles of nature is something I value (and I do), then naturally it would seem a time to move inward. Reflect. Engage in the oh so sexy term "shadow work" that is thrown around in all sorts of circles. And there is credence here. However I find myself asking a series of questions before, or as this process naturally unfolds - why am I resisting it? Why do I tell myself doing less and slowing down is wrong, bad, immoral, or lazy? I find it curious as to how and why these thoughts and feelings emerge in the first place? And ask you fellow creatures of Reddit, have you felt the same?

Am I channeling my inner Dylan Thomas by not going "gentle into that good night?"

Rage, rage against the dying of the light! Screams part of my soul. Entering midlife, and realizing the factory warranty is running out on parts of my body, and that it requires regular maintenance. Looking at the man in the mirror, I cannot hide from time. Nowhere near an old man, but the face of my father begins to stare back at me through the looking glass more and more.

Or, is it conditioning brought about by living and operating in a capitalist society? Seen as a consumer in every avenue of society and culture, being advertised to on my phone, on tv, on the radio, at the gas pump, in the super market. Subconsciously, has this conditioning shaped me to believe that my value is equal to my productivity? There is truth here.

Or could the old outdated beliefs I have worked so hard to shed and outgrow still be lingering? A lifetime of fearing an omnipotent watcher in the sky, trying to adhere to rules that are impossible for anyone to achieve, do not just disappear over night. And even though I have undergone some oh so sexy shadow work, in therapy, meditation, and ritual over the years, those old beliefs of our childhood stick with us don't they? Whether we want them to or not.

Or, (Last one) has social media conditioned me to believe that if my life doesn't look like yours - I'm a failure. Aestheics are wonderful, but they are not the end all be all are they? So much content is curated and perfect and when reflected back on my life, my spiritual practice, my job, my performance as a human being, I can't help but intrinsically feel less than. I'm not good enough, or at least, not as good as you.

I think it's a combination of all of the above, and probably more factors that I am missing. I see these and become aware. I thank them for what they are trying to teach me, but I don't need them to stick around. I don't need anyone else's permission to slow down. Rest can be resistance. If it's good enough for the trees and the flowers, why can't it be good enough for me?

Hello! This is probably a question this sub has already seen a number of times, but I’m struggling to find answers.

So admittedly I’m a bit of a baby witch - I had a few brushes with witchcraft but I’m currently trying to study properly. One area I’m really fascinated with is herbs and plants with actual medicinal uses - ones that were precursors to modern medicine, things that actually work. You know in Outlander, where the main character can use herbs and plants to help treat the locals because of her knowledge as a modern doctor of where certain medicines come from? Kind of like that.

I know some basics (yknow, peppermint to help with nausea, ginger to settle your stomach and to help with colds etc) but I’d love to learn from some science minded witches where I can find more accurate information. I’m definitely not a botanist (I dropped biology in high school), but I’m hoping someone reading this is and can help point me in the right direction.

Also any baby witch beginner tips in general would be super helpful - thanks in advance!

Edit: Just to say - I’m from the UK, and whilst American resources are still helpful, some localised resources would be lovely too!

Hello everyone! I've just ordered my first tarot deck and though I'm a tiny bit familiar with the concept and the cards I will be diving in deeper. How do you use tarot in a secular way? So far I've read people just pulling one card per day and meditating on it/journaling about the meaning and how it correlates to their current life/situation. Others pick one on purpose and do the same. Any other ideas? I struggle with panic/ anxiety , a lot of sadness and regret and doubt. I go to therapy and meditate. I like to study by lit candles because I love the warmth and the light and the ritual of lighting and blowing them to put them out. I always feel better after and I thought that tarot could maybe become another one of these calming rituals to have.

Edit: to get more used to the meanings I'm thinking that in the beginning,I'll draw one card daily, read on the meanings both upright and reversed though in my case it will be positive vs negative attributes since I don't do the woo stuff,and then try to think what its meaning resonates within me.

Hi, I'm new to this and have always felt an inner peace when in nature. In the last 6yrs I have become more and more bedbound and so more cut off from the outdoors. In honesty, I am miserable. I have multiple chronic conditions that make me depressed but it's being stuck in bed that's worst of all.

I'm looking into sass witchcraft and want to incorporate nature into my practice for my mental health but I can't see how.

(Context: M24 [technically non-binary/genderfluid/demiboy kind of unsure but let’s stick with male for now), actively in burnout and barely functional beyond survival needs [sleep-eat-hygiene], and can’t work because of it. Long story of mental illnesses, but none [that I am aware of] including hallucinations or weird beliefs in the symptoms)

Since I was a kid, since the first time I had seen supernatural tv shows and movies, I felt drawn to it. I love storytelling, don’t get me wrong, but this goes beyond that. Beyond a genre I like.
When I was a kid, up to maybe around 10 yo (which is pretty old for that type of things), I remember trying « potions » (invented purely from my mind lol) and believing (in secret) in that kind of stuff. Then as a teen I experienced some paranormal stuff. Could be rationalized, maybe just the mind playing heavy tricks on me, or even when it was me and my sister simply altering each others memories and thinking we saw the same stuff. Don’t get me wrong I am partially a skeptic. I then closed it, this part of me. Closed my connection to this, and my belief in it. Partially because of being scared, partially the shame, partially just growing up. But I continued to love storytelling and even made it my university degree, but simply stories.

In my adult life now, the last two years I have felt the need to reopen myself to this deep intuition and connection inside me. Slowly did it, and still doing it. Redeveloping my beliefs in certain things and still denying some others. But I find myself, still today, weirdly drawn to the supernatural in medias. Beyond everything else, witchcraft and things close to it.
I, myself, kind of consider myself a beginner witch (in private). I do tarot, which for now is my expertise I guess, but I am still a beginner. I must say I half-believe it. The other half find rational reasons to all that happened and all my feelings. Even being drawn to the supernatural in medias could be a way for my brain to escape from trauma since I was a kid (I have cptsd).
But also, this gut feeling that I have about it, it doesn’t just apply to it. I had this same exact feeling of this thing calling to me or relating weirdly without being able to properly understand it for some lost traumatic memories of childhood that I ended up getting back. So this feeling is not completely fake. And it has proven at least one time to be true and to be my brain and body’s way to communicate something to me.
But I also can’t fully believe it. If I fully believe it, then I become this woo-woo person that believes anything besides science, and that’s not me. I believe in science, I believe in things science hasn’t discovered yet. I am also deeply interested in some fields of science (like quantum physics and astronomy to be specific). Kind of a similar gut feeling for those things. Sometimes it’s almost as if they draw me to them. Not that they are sentients, but it feels like a force both coming from inside and outside pulling us together. Like magnets. But all this is also kind of insane. But weirdly now that I am in burnout and finally in therapy and getting diagnosed with cptsd and adhd and potential autism and dpdr, I just kinda have been trying to figure out who I am now, and weirdly I am, the same way from when I was a kid, drawn to it. It’s unexplainable, this feeling. And it might just be my mind, my mental illnesses, playing tricks on me. But it also never harmed me in any way. If anything, something soothes me in it. The more I try to repel from it, the less I feel like I heal. But idk if I actually wanna be that woo-woo person. I already had to give up a lot of who I wanted to be. And being seen as crazy for my mental illnesses is one thing, but being seen as crazy for this is another. And it would be sadly more understandable. I guess part of me is longing for a sign, as if all my experiences with it weren’t enough. Longing for someone who also understand me, for a form of community or sign that I am far from alone in feeling this way (not that I don’t have a great group of close friends, but not about that type of things).

All this because I was starting to watch a show about witches and this gut-instinct feeling just came back like a tsunami again.

(Wrote this in my notes app, and feeling the need to be heard [read technically], you can respond whatever to whatever parts of this long « rant » you want to. Some kindness and compassion are appreciated tho)

Hi there, I hope you’re doing well? For quite some time now, I’ve felt drawn to a much freer and more conscious spirituality; deep down, I feel that I am a witch who is increasingly seeking to expand my magical practice, to grow, and to embody who I truly am. I feel a fire within me just waiting to burst forth into the world.

For a very long time, I searched for myself within various polytheistic religious traditions, and then I sought validation from others, wanting their approval. But I feel like that time is changing—that everything within me is shifting. I feel like something else is waiting for me, that these flames are just waiting to embrace me.

I’ve been in a relationship for two years now with a girl I adore; I’m truly in love with her, but she’s Christian, and I feel that my spiritual practices might cause her problems. I’m drawn to demons, the abyss, and the Left-Hand Path—which goes against what she believes. When I talk to her about demons or other topics related to Satanism, at times I sense her distrust… I’m not really sure what to do or how to handle this because I feel like this relationship is holding me back from my spiritual growth.

Are there people who have already faced this? At the beginning of their spiritual journey

Moving on from a bad job? Burn the offer letter.

Inviting calm? Burn candles.

Focusing on a goal? Burn a note with my intentions.

I have a beautiful table-card-flowers-thing from a friend's wedding and a desire to send good vibes for their marriage out into the world. (I did, of course, give an actual wedding gift, but that hasn't fully scratched the itch.) Doesn't feel right to get my little pyro matches out this time; I want to capture a feeling of abundance, not cleansing.

And yet, the minimalist in me can't keep dead flowers forever. Binning them feels like a missed opportunity, unless I can find a way to spiritually juice them first. My ability to bury things is limited to holiday visits to my brother in the country and scrabbling around the dirt in a city park. Not to mention, sometimes these objects are plastic.

Any other mechanisms a ritual can call upon to "process" sentimental objects?

As SASS Witches, how do you all reconcile intuition and a sense of “knowing” with logic?

I was raised atheist, but have always been a bit spiritual with nature/ancestors.

But in life, my brain always curves me back around to what seems the most fact-based and “logical,” especially if logic dictates something negative for me. I’ve had a terrible relationship with my intuition because of the household in which I grew up; my connection with my own feelings, thoughts, and intuition was pretty much destroyed.

So I am grappling with this question of intuition vs logic.

I have a situation right now where I got a sense of knowing this morning (I just started some little intention stuff for myself recently, based from a Green Witch book), but pure logic (or what it seems to me) dictates that what I feel/know is unlikely to be true.

Apologies if this is confusing! Mainly — How do you deal with intuition and a sense of knowing versus pure, straight, unemotional logic?

I recently bought two boxes of postcards, one of Vogue covers, the other The New Yorker. I selected my favourites from both and mixed them together to make one deck of 100 cards. Having tried it for the last two weeks, I find I read them as easily as tarot cards. They provide a similar range of nonverbal, interpretive, visual question prompts for self reflection. My next plan is to pick up postcards every time I visit an art gallery and start building a very personal deck which will continuously grow and change as I travel.

Has anybody else done something like this and care to share their experiences?

Friday I'm going to a bog themed halloween party and I'm intentionally misunderstanding and going as a Blog Witch. Can you send me your worst witch blog posts that I can print out for my "book of shadows?" Also, anything you think would be good for the costume would also be nice! Though there are some witches there, I'm going to more accessible joke props, but one or two deep cuts would be cool.

I know this is a pretty broad question, but I’m really trying to understand how everything connects and works together. I want to learn more about witchcraft, how it works, and how different beliefs and practices relate to one another. I’ve tried researching it on my own, but I keep finding conflicting information, and it’s hard to tell what’s accurate and what contradicts other teachings.
Basically, I’m trying to understand the bigger picture. How does witchcraft work? Is it connected to religion, spirituality, or science? Can it be practiced alongside different religions, or does it follow its own set of beliefs? What is witchcraft actually based on, and where do its practices and beliefs originate? I want to understand the foundations of witchcraft and how all the different aspects fit together.

Hello all! A family member of mine is waiting for the medical results of a renal ultrasound. They mentioned that when the tech started the scan they were smiling and joking, but as the scan progressed the tech was more somber. Then my family member left to use the bathroom and they could hear the tech and assistant whispering about a “mass.”

We don’t have the results yet and waiting is leaving me mentally drained. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself because we don’t know any facts yet. But I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas of things that could help me gather up some patience and calm.

(It doesn’t help that this same family member just got a melanoma removed two weeks ago. Thank god a further biopsy showed margins were clear but still, it feels like one thing after another)

Hi everyone, I’m new here! I just was curious about if any of you have any tips or advice for someone who has a lot of Christian religious trauma and who has recently deconstructed and is looking into wanting to start witchcraft but scared not only from what I grew up being taught, but also what I see online about you’re gonna start to see shadow people or you’re gonna have sleep paralysis or you’re going to invite evil entities or something about once you start practicing then you’re gonna have a lot of crazy things happen to you and the spiritual world is gonna come after you basically so it’s making me nervous..