🌲🌲𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙶𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎🌲🌲

Winding Grove is a 16+ inclusive server for pagans of all paths! If you’re looking for a beginner friendly, welcoming pagan community, consider joining us!

We are staunchly anti cultural appropriation and consider ourselves a safe space for those in closed practices, those who are LGBT+, and people of colour. Racism, appropriation, and any other forms of bigotry are not tolerated.

Features of Winding Grove include:

🌲 Individual deity channels for a number of pantheons that can be added upon request

🌲 Redditor bot, which posts Reddit posts from subreddits such as r/witchcraft and r/pagan into the server

🌲 Tarotbot, a simple and easy to use tarot reading bot

🌲 Self assignable roles denoting your path and name colour

🌲 Channels for various types of magic and divination, including trance work, ancestor/angel/saint veneration, dream work, and many more

🌲 Server wide discussion prompts and divination trades

🌲 MEE6 collecting and games

🌲 A member curated library of resources

🌲 A welcoming and warm community of pagans from all different paths and walks of life!

We’d be so happy to have you, so please consider joining us!

🌲🌲𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙶𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎🌲🌲

Winding Grove is a 16+ inclusive server for pagans of all paths! If you’re looking for a beginner friendly, welcoming pagan community, consider joining us!

We are staunchly anti cultural appropriation and consider ourselves a safe space for those in closed practices, those who are LGBT+, and people of colour. Racism, appropriation, and any other forms of bigotry are not tolerated.

Features of Winding Grove include:

🌲 Individual deity channels for a number of pantheons that can be added upon request

🌲 Redditor bot, which posts Reddit posts from subreddits such as r/witchcraft and r/pagan into the server

🌲 Tarotbot, a simple and easy to use tarot reading bot

🌲 Self assignable roles denoting your path and name colour

🌲 Channels for various types of magic and divination, including trance work, ancestor/angel/saint veneration, dream work, and many more

🌲 Server wide discussion prompts and divination trades

🌲 MEE6 collecting and games

🌲 A member curated library of resources

🌲 A welcoming and warm community of pagans from all different paths and walks of life!

We’d be so happy to have you, so please consider joining us!

Hi love. I tried to join the Discord server but the link is invalid :(. Is there any chance I can get a link to it?

🌲🌲𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙶𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚎🌲🌲

Winding Grove is a 16+ inclusive server for pagans of all paths! If you’re looking for a beginner friendly, welcoming pagan community, consider joining us!

We are staunchly anti cultural appropriation and consider ourselves a safe space for those in closed practices, those who are LGBT+, and people of colour. Racism, appropriation, and any other forms of bigotry are not tolerated.

Features of Winding Grove include:

🌲 Individual deity channels for a number of pantheons that can be added upon request

🌲 Redditor bot, which posts Reddit posts from subreddits such as r/witchcraft and r/pagan into the server

🌲 Tarotbot, a simple and easy to use tarot reading bot

🌲 Self assignable roles denoting your path and name colour

🌲 Channels for various types of magic and divination, including trance work, ancestor/angel/saint veneration, dream work, and many more

🌲 Server wide discussion prompts and divination trades

🌲 MEE6 collecting and games

🌲 A member curated library of resources

🌲 A welcoming and warm community of pagans from all different paths and walks of life!

We’d be so happy to have you, so please consider joining us!

★ Wards can dissolve

Wards are energy. They can get weak and even fade away.

Sometimes negative energies, spirits, demons, and other things can stress out these wards and they lose their potency.  Any spirit work you do, you must redo the wards you have placed up. This is to ensure that you will remain protected. 

The White Light method should be recharged once or twice a day. This is to ensure that the ward is still up and intact.

Spells, Chants, Sigils and Symbols should be redone after a couple of months or so. 

Please, keep up the maintenance on your wards. You don’t want anything negative to get in. 

Last updated on: June 30th, 2016.

Warding and Spiritual Protection

Whether you work with entities or not, knowing how to defend yourself from them is a must-know for everyone. 

How to Create a Ward

In order to keep spirits out of your area, you’ll need to do the following:

Stay in the place you wish to ward and close your eyes. Vividly envision the whole room being filled with either burning flames, a blinding light, toxic shadows, etc. Whatever works for you. But be absolutely certain that this energy fills the entire room, don’t leave any gaps. 

With this done, open your eyes and summon up all the power you can muster from within yourself and push it into the surrounding area with the intent for it to harm whoever dares enter. If you have spirit companions, you may program your energy to allow only them in or just benevolent spirits in general. It may help for beginners to stretch their arms out and push their energy into the room this way.

Once you feel satisfied, check how your room feels. Is it any different? Make sure you take note of this for future wards and be sure to recreate it every week or so, as the energy weakens over time.

Self-Defense in the Astral

The astral is a wonderful and complex place but I highly advise beginners to not wander through this place until they are familiar with it and know how to protect themselves. If you enter into the astral or are forced into it by a malicious entity, the following are the basics on self-defense:

Similar to the ward, you must summon up all your inner power that you can and forcefully will it into an explosion of flames. As you do this, be as angry as possible and focus on how much you want to harm your attacker. The power of this will vary based on both experience and what sort of entity you are, as different beings have different levels of power, but this should work enough. If the entity attempts at tying you or locking you up somewhere, you must become as angry as possible and summon up all your strength in order to free yourself from your bonds. Attempt at burning everything away if possible. If this fails, try and call for a deity to aid you.

This technique can also be done if an entity in your home is attempting at harming you or is threatening you. However, if you aren’t sure what they want, please just request the spirit to leave before doing anything harsh.

Cleansing 

There are several ways to go about this, but please note that sage and salt are almost always never enough to remove an entity, they are mainly for negative energy residue. Removing an entity requires something more heavy-duty and using something which doesn’t work only pisses the spirit off.

Envision a glowing light filling you and purging negative energy residue 

Take a salt bath

Scrub your floors with salt water or vinegar

Burn sage and carry it around the room

Burn white, red, or yellow rose stems

Unscented Epsom Salt with a touch of alcohol- burn and waft around room

Hang dried hot peppers in the room (for both cleansing and ward-enforcing)

Warding In Witchcraft

Introduction:

Wards are constructs, or entities that go through the process of wording a specific area that you set them up to watch over. This form of warding magick is also referred to some times as apotropaic magick, and our ways in which practitioners can turn away negative, or unwanted energies from an area, or space. Wards are like energetic guards that watch over an area. These wards will target whatever you intend them to, and will turn them away, force it out, or banish them from that area. Wards act as a form of protection to keep that space, or area safe from what is not wanted. Any space, object, or entity can be worded if you take the time to place one upon it. These Wards can be very complicated, or very simple depending upon what they are needed for. Wards can be set up for a period, but are primarily used when a construct, space, or entity needs to be protected for an extended period of time. Wards can also be cast whenever protection is needed, and will be able to provide protection for whatever they are warding. This is a very useful skill to learn, and get under your belt so that you can defend yourself, and the spaces around you with the power that you conjure forth with your magick.

Difference between warding, and shielding:

Warding, and shielding are two different things. Warding being the act of pushing away specific unwanted energies, and entities, so that they will not be able to enter the perimeter, or be in the area. Where the active shielding is simply setting up a wall in order to stop unwanted energies, and entities from penetrating the perimeter. Shielding is like building a wall between you, and the outside world and warding is like putting guards at that wall. These processes are usually done together, but do not have to be, and are completely exclusive to their practices.

Maintaining wards:

These wards will have to be maintained through the act of checking over them, recharging them, and/or reconstructing them when they have been in use for a long time, or have been used constantly. These wards will need energy in order to continue doing their job, so finding a source of energy to connect to the wards will allow them to recharge, and continue to work. This is because they will have an energy source to draw energy from when they get low. Try using an energy source that is renewable, and comes from a process that inherently exists. This will allow your ward to continue on working even when you are not there to give it energy. Using only your own energy to power your wards can leave you fatigued, and allow you to fall into energetic burnout, so remember to know your limits, and to not simply rely on your energy. Find other energy sources that you can use in order to power your wards. In order to connect these other energy sources all you must do is go to the ward in question, and take them in your hand, or place your hand on to them, and relay your intentions through your energy, so that the ward knows where to draw from. You could also go through the act of drawing an energetic line of energy between the source of energy, and the ward in order to allow that source of energy to power the ward. Good energy sources would be such things as quartz crystals, selenite, or any other high energy vibrational stone, along with candles, energy sigils, sunlight, moonlight, and storm energy, among many other things. It is important that your wards are maintained, and get the energy that they need or else they will not be able to work properly, and will eventually go down.

What to ward against, and ward placement:

Keep reading

Elemental Wards

A follow-up to my Crash Course on Warding. I’ve been thinking of different ways to do energy wards lately, rather than just “here’s an energy barrier that keeps X out.” If you like working with a particular element, here are a few ideas.

Fire

Burn away impurities as you enter your home (stress, worry, etc.)

Burn anything that would wish you harm

Add warmth to your home

Water

Wash away negativity

Wash away residual energies from work, etc. so you don’t bring your job home with you

Drown anything that would wish you harm

Air

Blow away negativity

Keep the energy in your home circulating to help avoid a stale, stagnant atmosphere

Lift you up to a happier state as you enter your home

Earth

Ground as you enter your home and reconnect with the earth

Negativity falls through cracks in the ground

Vines trap anything you want to keep out

The Witch Ball

This is a rewrite of one of my first posts.

One of my favorite ways of warding the home is with a traditional glass witch ball. There are many kinds of witch balls, but here I am referring to the blown glass variety. Many witches will fill an empty Christmas ornament with herbs or nails or something and use it as a spell. Very crafty. But my preferred variety of witch ball is the blown glass sort with threads of glass in the middle.

These were traditionally made by glassblowers as a way of ending their work day. They were historically made from scraps of glass, which is why so many of them are multicolored. They’re simple blown glass balls with threads of glass in the center, made by sticking metal objects (such as knitting needles) in the still-molten glass ball. The witch ball is placed near a window or a door, usually on a cord made of knotted rope or leather. The wise homemaker cleans her witch ball regularly, as this cleans it of dark spirits.

The witch ball may be descended from glass fishing floats, which are often sold in seaside tourist towns as decorative gifts. The first glass witch balls were most likely developed in England in the 17th or 18th Century and were inspired by these glass buoys.

According to popular belief, the witch ball represents the witch who has been tried and hanged. A witch ball will float in water, like a witch thrown in a body of water during a trial. It was believed that witches were rejected by bodies of water because they were too impure. By this logic, witches, like the glass fishing floats of yore, were unable to sink. Glass fishing floats, and later witch balls, were tied up in nets or left to dangle from ropes, not unlike a witch sentenced to die at the gallows. For these reasons, the witch ball serves as a symbolic warning to all witches who dare enter one’s home.

The ball’s inner threads work by means of fascination. Witches and dark spirits are drawn into the ball because they cannot resist playing with its threads. They are entranced (or “fascinated”) by them. They wind themselves through the ball’s threads until the ball is cleaned by its owner. When the owner cleans it and wipes away the dust, she also wipes it free of evil spirits. Many other spirit traps work by a similar principle - the witch bottle, the dream catcher, even a handful of rice thrown toward a malevolent entity - they all work by fascination.

Many older witch balls have a mirror glaze. Some believe the large gazing balls that decorate gardens throughout the country may have their origin in the smaller, more magical witch ball. The mirror glaze is yet another fascinating thing about the witch ball.

No matter their origin or how they work, the witch ball is at the very least a delightful and rustic objet d’art. I find witch balls to be very effective, however. They can last for generations and are, in my opinion, one of the most aesthetic ways to ward a home.

Warding meditation

This is about a 20-30min meditation.

Start by focusing yourself on your breath for 5 minutes.

Go back to a forest or other outdoor natural setting. Find your sacred space, your personal clearing in the woods that is only yours. It can be a picnic, a tent or a shack. You’ve decorated it yourself with herbs and a circle of flat, white rocks. There are two bushes there, stinging nettle, for protection. Be sure not to touch it. 

Sit here and notice your body, where your feet are, how your ankles and knees are bent, where your arms are. Bring your attention to your skin. We’re going to put a silver metal onto it. Imagine the liquid silver climbing up from your toes, up your legs, across your stomach, and up your back, over your shoulders, and up over your head and face. Let the metal harden like armor, able to move when you move but hard enough to keep out anything. Sit and feel what this changes in yourself and how the outside feels like now.

Now imagine this silver armor expanding like an egg around you and encompassing your aura. It is dark in here, in the silver metal. You can place your palm on the metal surface and feel its smoothness. 

Expand the silver out further until it is as big as your space, enclosing the picnic and even bigger to gather in the entire clearing which is yours. Let it reach into the trees and form a nice, smooth circle along the ground.

You can barely see the trees here. Let’s make the silver translucent. The hard material changes color, turns to glass, but unbreakable. We can see the trees now, the sun shining down, through the dome. Set your intention to your dome:  to be safe, to ward against all influences and spirits not in accordance with your own energy, with peace and quiet.

Lastly. let’s change its material. Let that hard dome shift in an instant to a cloud, airy and still there, still filled with your intent, but we are able to pass through it easily now, able to let our thoughts breathe through it.

Finish by creating a little project here. Gather some twigs or rocks or feathers and flowers and create a symbol or sigil of protection with them.

A pentagram, a spiral going counter-clockwise, circles within squares and squares within circles. As you create, send your intention into your symbols and creation.

Your space is now protected. Sit and feel the difference in its energy. Come back with a big inhalation. Ground afterward with a snack.

I'm Latinx and I've felt drawn to practice Norse paganism, but often feel discouraged and a bit intimidated given the history of the misuse of Norse Paganism. Any advice? Where should I start?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think every culture has misuse of their religion in one way or another. Don’t let that intimidate you! In fact, because of all of the *groups* that slander Odin’s name, I think more people SHOULD learn about it!

Where you should start depends on what interest you most! If you just want to dip your toes in, there are lots of cool myths and stories! I am currently reading Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythologies book, and it is great! A modern interpretation of the myths that make them easy to read and understand.

Norse Paganism is an open religion. Don’t feel like you can’t learn it! I think the best way to honor the gods is by learning and teaching in turn!

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the Askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Learn to know your mutuals and followers :D (sideblog @rebuildthemanor)

1. Dogs. I just love them so much

2. Music. It would be a sad day when my day lacked music

3. Family. Found or Blood, family is a huge part of me

4. Nature. While I don’t spend as much time outside as I would like to, I adore feeling wind and sun on my face

5. Games. I love playing video games haha

Would the gods be upset if I haven't been able to do much (rune readings, offerings, etc.) during this time due to depression?

Personally, I don’t think so. I think the gods know when we are having our personal battles, and just feeling run down. As long as you don’t abandon them with intent of doing so, I think you will be fine. Sometimes we need time for us, that does not include gods. 

I go large amounts of time between working with them sometimes. I don’t think the gods need to be 100% part of my every day life. They are always there, and I know this. That is enough for me. I keep them in my thoughts, and sometimes I light a candle, but in the overall, the gods do not play the major theme in my life. 

Please feel free to send me all your “stupid” questions about Paganism, witchcraft, divination, etc. I promise you are not the only one wondering the same things hoping someone else will ask! :)

Hello! I was kinda thinking of joining your discord for the norse polytheism, but when I clicked on the link, it said it was invalid, have you closed it from others?

No, it's not closed. Not sure what happened there. Here you go!

https://discord.gg/mF5BQv

Come join us at the Norse Pagan Beans! A small, new discord that is excited to receive new members! Those of the non Norse Pantheon are welcome! Witches welcome, too!

Hel’s Prayer

Great Hela! Giant Death, Ever so serene The purity of absence How you keep each realm clean Great Hela! Morbid Queen, Peace exemplified In your visage Beauty; Both of life and what has died Great Hela! Lokisdottir, To you I would crawl With each year passed, I travel Ever closer to your hall. Heil Hela! norsegodcalls