Welcome to my blog and website!

My name’s Eliza Marie (she/her), and I’m in my late thirties. I’m from Ohio, but I’m cursed to wander between America and Eastern Europe.

My interest in the occult began with Tarot in 1999. I started exploring magic a couple years later, and I never looked back.

This stuff takes you in weird directions if you stick with it. The road twists through amazing and terrifying places. I guess it isn’t called the crooked path for nothing.

I started this blog in autumn of 2014 to share my ramblings, read other ramblings, and meet new people.

Looking for something specific?

Below, you’ll find links to my article listings, organized in categories. I try to update these often, but I’m not as active as I used to be. Still, I want to keep this site as organized as possible.

• For Newbies
• Magic
• Divination
• Grimoire and Spells
• Book Reviews and Lists
• Tangential Topics

My askbox is (typically) open, along with other means of contact. You can find it here. Please read the page before contacting me, though.

You can find all my original content and commentary tagged as #eliza.txt.

Please check out my credits page for links to those who helped with this site in various ways, as well as bloggers I admire, on Tumblr and elsewhere.

When you read the articles on this site, please be mindful of their original publication date. I’ve kept this blog for nine years. I would hope I’ve grown and changed over the course of that decade!

Keeping this blog is a hobby for me, and I’m not a ‘professional’ witch, Tarot reader, or anything of that sort. I don’t make money from this. I’ve offered Tarot readings online in the (distant) past, but not now. I enjoy sharing my perspectives here, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

This pinned post was initially written on March 8th, 2023, and will (hopefully) be updated regularly. The most recent major update to the site’s layout and infrastructure happened on Groundhog Day, 2023.

If you’re having trouble viewing this site, please visit the mobile version here.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a great day.

the-clumsywitch posted

Witch Tip No. 29

Don't like makeup but still want to enchant something for glamour like you would makeup? Use your skincare instead.

For example, instead of enchanting foundation, enchant your moisturizer/face cream, use lip balm instead of lipstick, or eye cream instead of eyeshadow. To increase the effects try looking for products that have ingredients or ingredient names that correspond to your particular glamour.

Note: Always make sure the product works well with your skin!

- Erika, The Clumsy Witch

wortcunningwitch posted

PSA: my blog is NOT for people who believe crystals can cure disease, mental illness, chronic conditions, disabilities, etc. or people who believe crystals can substitute modern medicine and be effective in the slightest. yes, this includes people who say crystals can “help with depression/anxiety/etc”.

wishful-seeker posted

If you want really powerful spells that work 90% of the time i have one important tip for you

PLEASE incorporate your childlike wonder into your spells

When i was little i could see spirits, i made "potions" with random plants in pretty bottles of water. I read and took notes of spiderwick chronicles feild guide, dragonology books and those fairy pop up books.

I incorporate this into my practice by rereading those kid books. The dragonology book had anglo saxon runes and translations branded as "dragon language" and now i use that alphabet in sigils not because im a norse pagan but because they're connected to my childhood. I still take little notes of the spiderwick chronicales because some things are based off of real folk lore. I make spell bottles not because its popular, but because i did it as a kid. I work with spirits and clairvoyance because again, that was my childhood.

If you're struggling with creating a reliable spell please try asking yourself "what would kid me do?" Because giving your younger self a voice and space for self expression not only makes your spells more powerful, but also heals your inner child.

Its technically really chill shadow work.

Working with every part of yourself makes spell casting actually reliable.

ouroborosposer posted

Heya!! Anyone want a really cool totally not cursed rock?

elminx posted

Elminx's Guide to Augmenting Your Spellwork

This guide is intended to be allied to the type of spellwork that draws something towards you or is desirous of change within yourself. The goal here is to create actions throughout our day or week that bring our thoughts back to the magic that we have performed. From my way of thinking, this keeps the stream of magic flowing in the right direction through your returned focus. It can have the added benefit of reminding you to take the actions in the world that are necessary for the success of your spellwork.

There will be a number of examples following but they all have the same theme: doing something during your initial spellwork that you will return to after the spell has been cast to keep your attention focused in the direct on what you want. Some of these things will be very obvious and you will have seen them before - others may be less so and better suited to a person in the broom closet. Some of these are standalone spell techniques on their own; here I am trying to convey that when combined together, multiple types of spellwork can have a greater effect than individually.

The idea is to continue to do the things listed below until your spell has manifested. Yes, there are obviously too many to do all at once. You are, as always, free to pick the ones that fit the spell best or the ones that fit your own lifestyle. Or to disregard all of them altogether.

1. Create an altar for your spell
   
   Say that I was going to create a spell for money to make sure that I could pay my rent on August 1st. I would create a money altar for my spell, do my spell on the altar, and keep all of the spell ingredients (including candle remains and any nonperishable offerings) up for the month of July.
   
   If I was going to create a spell to combat the upcoming Venus retrograde, I would keep the altar up all the way through the end of the retrograde.
   
   The visual reminder of the altar helps to realign your thoughts toward that spell.
2. Feed your spell
   
   This one goes along with the first nicely. This can look like a lot of different things - it could be adding coins to a money bowl or a spoonful of sugar to a sweetening jar. It could be burning incense on your altar for success on your exams every Sunday. It could be successively lighting small candles to charge your spell for a set number of days, weeks, or on every full moon.
   
   If you work with spirits of deities, it could be making repeated offerings while you ask for help with your spellwork.
   
   If you are the type of person who sticks to schedules well, make it a scheduled thing. You could align it with the days of the week if you're into that or with the moon cycles. If you're not a scheduler, do it when you remember.
3. Mantras (and other Spoken representations of your spell)
   
   If you are a verbal person, word magic may work very well for you. This can be anything from one phrase to a rhyming couplet - the idea here is that it is something that you remember to repeat to yourself. I think that this type of magic work especially well when doing work on changing something about yourself, but you may find a use for it in other areas that I have not.
   
   Ideas for using mantras: say them when you wake up or before you fall asleep at night, say them while looking in the mirror while getting ready in the morning. Or, simply say them when it would be appropriate for the magic that you have worked.
4. Sigils (and other Visual Representations of your Spell)
   
   If you are a visual person, sigils and other types of art magic can help you to augment your magic. The idea is to charge or create your symbol during the casting of your magic and then return to it throughout your days. Depending on your situation, you may able to hang your artwork or sigil on your mirror in your bathroom or even on your fridge.
   
   If you cast a spell to get better tips, carry the sigil or wear it when you are working. You can draw sigils on your skin with lotion or other skincare. This can be at once the most obvious forms of magic (think the Bluetooth symbol) and the most discreet. You can incorporate your sigil onto something you handmake like clothing (inside your clothes or out), jewelry, or any number of other charms.
5. Put it in a Jar (and other Physical representations of your magic)
   
   Yes, jar spells and other container magic are a topic all onto themselves. But have you thought about putting the remains of a spell into a jar? This is a very sympathetic view of magic, but it makes no sense to me to cast a spell to bring something toward you and then immediately get rid of the objects used in the spell. It's counterintuitive to throw something away that you want. N'est pas?
   
   Instead, put the items you used in the casting of the spell into a jar or bag and keep it somewhere safe until the spell comes to pass. This is where an altar to your spell comes in handy - it's a place to house this object. Bonus: this makes it harder for sneaky people or inquisitive animals to find their way into your spell components.
   
   Other versions of this include putting your intentions for the spell into an object such as a stone or a piece of jewelry and carrying it with you every day.
6. Invoke Your Senses
   
   Again, this is strictly my opinion, but magic involves both the unconscious and the conscious mind. The best way to hijack your unconscious mind and keep it aligned with your consciousness is through the base senses like smell and taste. They tap right the fuck in as they are deeply connected to our memory centers.
   
   Here I suggest picking a scent or flavor from your spell and incorporating it into your life for the duration afterward. If you use rose petals, buy yourself a rose-scented soap or rose perfume. If you use basil, make yourself pesto once a week or work to otherwise incorporate basil into your meals. As far as food goes, items like jams and simple syrups are perfect for this purpose if applicable.
   
   This involves a bit more planning than some of the other suggestions but can be very rewarding (and tasty!).
   
   Alternatively, if sound is important to you, you could use a piece of music during your spell and then play it repeatedly to reactivate the feeling of the spell. Or, if you're very musically inclined, you could write your own song or simply set your mantra/words to music in some fashion.

This is a very non-exhaustive list of some of the techniques that I have used to keep the energy of my spells flowing when I am working on a longer manifestation. Mostly, as stated above, these techniques are best used for magic designed to bring something towards you or to change something about yourself but they can be adapted for use with other types of magic as well.

Again, the goal here is to create moments throughout your day or week where your attention is turned back to your magic through repetitive actions such as showering with rose soap or donning a necklace you made with your sigil every morning.

Do you like my work? You can support me by tipping me on Kofi or purchasing an astrology report written by me just for you.

prokopetz posted

*reading a tarot spread using one of those edgy novelty decks where every card is an indecipherable Gigeresque welter of chitinous maybe-boobs and spiny, electrified probably-dicks* "Your future holds... hm. Are you busy this evening?"

lukanthropi posted

meme-worthy images from The Werewolf’s Guide To Life

onyxandrosepetals posted

Witch is a gender neutral term

oursaviorkellinquinn posted

ATTENTION

If you see this you are OBLIGATED to reblog w/ the song currently stuck in your head :)

crazycatsiren posted

“The light in the piazza”, from the musical of the same title by Adam Guettel, sung by Kelli O'Hara.

maddiviner posted

Uhm, well it’s this one, which is what I’m currently listening to on Spotify. No, I have no idea how the title is pronounced, what it means, etc. Got a vague idea of who Centr is, from Google, but barely. This just happened to come up on my 64 hr 24 min Spotify playlist of Russian rap and hiphop which I made after discovering the genre when I was overseas?

pondering-the-kaiju posted

I dunno who needs to hear it, but this golden era of witchcraft where everyone was supposedly very serious about witchcraft and everyone always knew what they were talking about never really existed.

There were always people who were mostly just in it for the aesthetic. There were always people who were spreading historical misinfo. (Hell, 20th century witchcraft was massively influenced by the work of Margaret Murray and Robert Graves, two extremely discredited people now.) There were always people influenced by sketchy New Age ideas. There were always people doing just about anything people claim is a unique problem of today's witchcraft.

If you don't believe me, just start reading literature from whatever time period you think was free from any kind of nonsense. Actually dig into this, and I promise you're going to find that things really haven't changed all that much.

breelandwalker posted

WORD.

People are still just as serious about the craft now as they were ten or twenty years ago. It's just that now things aren't so focused on ceremony and ritual and covenship, and there are many more voices in the conversation. It's not just all about Wicca and Wiccan-adjacent ideas anymore. Other groups have established communities, other schools of thought are contributing to the discussion. We're examining our assumptions, decolonizing our practices, employing more critical thinking, and actively learning to take out our own trash.

And sure, some of the conversation is silly. Some of it is people speculating wildly or getting things wrong or saying just the most idiotic shit you've ever heard. But let's be honest - that's nothing new in witchcraft and pagan circles.

And the fact that we're having open discussion and gatherings and such, the fact that we're comfortable being silly about magic IN PUBLIC, is a really good thing. Means the community is growing. Means we've got the space and the freedom to live a little more openly than in the past. Maybe not everywhere but...it's still progress.

So if there's been change in the community, I think it's in a positive direction. Even if some of it might pucker the assholes of the practitioners who insist that everything has to be done A Certain Very Serious And Ceremonial Way.

auntieashleydark posted

Wait, there was supposed to have been a golden age of witchcraft where we were all Very Serious Witches, Very Wise in the True Lore?

What I remember was midwestern witches accusing California witches of being too political to be spiritual, east coast witches accusing everyone west of the Appalachians of being ignorant fakes--when they weren't at war with each other over who had a "real" lineage back to Gardner--and having absolute meltdowns about anyone outside of the British traditions using the word "wicca."

Maybe everyone was a little too serious, now that I think on it.

lokilysolbitch posted

me a witch, who does tarot, has prophetic dreams, etc when something that i think will happen does in fact happen: oh my god

cryptobotanical posted

I've had a feeling for a while now that people are ruder now than they were before the pandemic. I did some googling and turns out I'm not crazy or alone in thinking people have gotten ruder and more aggressive over the past few years. The articles chalks it up to stress from the pandemic and the economy and other global situations, but I think it's deeper and more complicated than that. I don't think stress is a valid excuse to be rude to strangers who don't deserve it, even when I'm really upset or stressed out I don't use a random service industry employee, or any random undeserving stranger, as my punching bag because that's deplorable behavior.

I think one of if not the biggest contribution to the rise of rudeness comes down to people spending years inside getting little to no in person socialization and spending massive amounts of time online, and social rules online tend to be different than social rules in person. Online it tends to be more normal and acceptable to be aggressive and hostile to strangers, usually because there's not the same consequences (it's hard to punch someone through a computer screen) and also it's easier to not feel guilty about bad behavior when someone is just words and pictures on a screen, it tends to make the hostility and aggression spilled on others not feel as "real" or "bad" as treating someone like that in person. (and I'm not saying this is okay, I really think as a society we should address and work on the ease and acceptance of being a total raging sack of shit to strangers online) But I think if people spend years spending massive amounts of time online and little to no time actually in person with other people, it's going to affect their sense of how it's acceptable to behave and treat other people as they adopt the social norms of the internet.

I do like the point this article makes that rudeness and aggression are contagious. It is a social contagion, the more you're rude and aggressive to others the more tense and upset they'll feel and start behaving rudely and aggressively too. The good news is, kindness and courtesy are also contagious.

wishful-seeker posted

Dude Instagram is worse than reddit now, its disgusting. Check any comment section and you WILL find racism, sexism or ablism

breelandwalker posted

How to Write Your Own Spells

Originally posted by magicbecameouragenda

There are lots of ways to create spells, from planning everything to the minutest detail ahead of time to absolutely flying by the seat of your pants in the moment. If you'd like to write your own spells, either for use in your craft or as a creative exercise, here are some suggested steps that I use in my own practice:

1) Determine the intent or goal of your spell.
Decide, first and foremost, what you want the spell to do. Refine your goal if necessary and try not to be too nebulous. Your intent tells the spell what it's meant to do. A more focused goal may increase the chances of success.

2) Determine how you want the spell to manifest.
Decide how the spell should work and what the result should look like. This is a good time to build in a sign of success, especially for spells that may not work in an obvious or visible way.

3) Determine what or whom the spell will affect.
If the spell is to have a target, be it a person or a place or an animal or an object, decide what that should be and how they or it will be represented in the casting.

4) Determine how long the spell is meant to work.
If your spell is timebound or has a deadline, decide what that will be. If the spell is meant to work long-term, you may want to check in and refresh it from time to time. (Not every spell will be timebound. Many spells will simply expire when they have fulfilled their purpose or if they are blocked or circumstances are not favorable.)

5) Determine the timing of the spell, if applicable.
Not everyone uses celestial or astrological timing for their spells, but if you do, look into the prevailing conditions and decide on an advantageous time for your casting. (Please note that magical timing can only enhance your spell and casting something on the "wrong" day will not necessarily cause it to fail.)

6) Determine what methods and materials you want to use to cast the spell.
Decide how you're going to go about performing the casting, whether you're doing a ritual or making a charm or just using energy. If you're going to need a ritual space or physical components, plan that out and make sure it fits with what you want to do.

7) Determine the words, if any, which will empower the spell.
If you want to include a prayer or a petition or a song or an incantation with your spell, decide what that should be. This is not strictly necessary and the words need not be spoken aloud. (Rhyming incantations are not required, but if you prefer them that way, you can certainly do so.)

8) Prepare the materials for casting the spell.
Get all your necessaries together ahead of time. Make sure you have everything you need, that tools and components are in good and useable condition, prepare your workspace, and make sure everything is within easy reach so you don't have to stop and search for things in the middle of your casting. (And for goodness sake, if you're working with open flame, observe fire safety and tie your hair and sleeves back.)

9) Finalize details and perform the casting.
When you're ready to begin, try to eliminate as many possibilities for distraction or interruption as possible. Go over your spell and components one more time, then proceed with casting the spell.

10) Record the particulars for future reference and to determine how well the spell worked.
Make a record of the spell, including your goal, how it should manifest, the words and components used, the date of the casting, the casting method and procedure, and how the casting went. If there are any additional details or observations that seem important, include those as well. This will serve as a useful learning tool in the future and will allow you to check your work if the results make themselves known.

It's useful to write spells from time to time if the inspiration strikes you, in order to better understand how they fit together and how they work. Plus it's a fun and creative journaling exercise and recording the spells you cast a great way to measure your progress later on.

For additional tips on writing your own spells and helpful tricks for using timing and available materials to your advantage, check out my podcast, Hex Positive, Eps. 006-007, "Come In For A Spell, pt 1 & 2."

(And if you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊)

Happy Witching! 🔮✨

hare-beneath-pine posted

i do think there’s something uniquely twisted about buying a crystal for the purposes of like, ~connecting to the earth~ or ~spreading good vibes~, without considering the environmental damage and human rights abuses potentially involved in mining it.

maddiviner posted

From The Magic of Aleister Crowley. I feel supremely ashamed that I used to recommend this book to people curious about Thelema, but time marches on, thankfully.

There’s something extremely disturbing about the author acknowledging Crowley tortured a cat to death, but tries to pass it off as some kind of youthful experimentation.

Granted, Crowley wasn’t known for his truth-telling abilities, especially about his childhood. I believe this might be because of the abuse he endured, but goodness, this is a bit chilling, isn’t it? Even if he’s lying about killing the cat, well, still...