GOOD WITCH/BAD WITCH ART EXHIBIT 2020

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Goodwitch/Badwitch   is a group exhibition that explores the intersection of contemporary art, ritual and witchcraft/Brujeria. Through the work of over 40 artists and witches, the exhibit aims to help drive a more modern understanding of what witchcraft, magic and technology is.

As an Afro-Latina, my mission on this project is to utilize this space with as much artwork created by Black and POC creators and visionaries as I feel the world needs to see our  magic now more than ever. We are open to all submissions however, I am calling Black & POC witches and healers to the front. If you are an artist that works in mediums  (but not limited to) photography, painting, poetry please submit your work. 

My vision is to create a modern grimoire of hand written spells  to be featured in the gallery you may submit them to info@museumofmuseums.com we would prefer them by mail send  to: Hoodwitch, C/O Museum of Museums, PO Box 20026, Seattle WA 98102.  Submissions for artwork consideration MUST be submitted by August 21, 2020 include you name, Instagram handle, website/portfolio links !!

Be sure to follow @Thehoodwitch and @MomArtSeattle for updates!


The Witch Wave Podcast Features Bri Luna of The Hoodwitch

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 Are you ready to ride the wave of the witch? of course you are!

Our lovely friend Pam Grossman just launched her AMAZING new podcast today, The Witch Wave! and while in New York, I had the pleasure  to visit Pam in Brooklyn to  discuss modern witchery, art, beauty, and everything else in between.  We've shared the very first episode (above) give it a listen +  add some magic to your day! 

 

For more information check out The Witch Wave

 

 


Witchcraft as Devotion: A Closer Look at the Practices and Principles of Witchcraft in the Modern Age

Photography by Mo www.phobymo.com

Photography by Mo www.phobymo.com

Written By Jaliessa Sipress

With Vogue magazine hailing our time as a “witchy renaissance,” it is safe to say that witchcraft is on the rise.* But, what is witchcraft? What is it really for? Is it all just spells to get rich and make people fall in love with you? Is it about worshiping he who not be named and learning how to pronounce wingardium leviosa? For some, it is all of these things and for others, none. A witch can mean many things and can come in many forms, and much of it's popularity seems to stem from that. While witchcraft and wizardry has gained wild popularity for it's reclamation of power and perceived formlessness, what should not be forgotten is that being a witch is less about the fact that one has “power” and more about acknowledging where that power comes from.

Witchcraft is a work of gratitude. It comes from the practice of honoring the people, land and animals that came before you, that coexist with you now and that have yet to arrive. Witchcraft is the work of the wise because it is the everyday practice of those who are humbled by the world around them. Witches find meaning in the mundane and see the magic in weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalk or a shed feather of a dirty bird. Witches are rememberers, mourners and healers because they have reconciled with the cycles of life and realized what is and is not in human hands. Witchcraft is about gratitude and alignment, treading lightly and respectfully and only taking what you need. We must remember that witchcraft is less about control and more about connection. A connection to our own divinity, but also an understanding of the limitations of it.

A witch’s power is in their ability to adapt, working with the natural cycles of the earth to bring about abundance, clarity and direction. It is not about manipulation or having complete control. Witchcraft is about surrendering. It is the knowledge that most things are out of our hands but continuing to work with our surroundings to help swing things in our favor. It is the act of bowing to the elements and submitting to their power that makes a spell stick. Witchcraft is a labor of love and intention. Spells work because they are an act of communion with the powers beyond us, acknowledging our need for help, and partaking in a mutual relationship with things we cannot measure. It is about giving without the expectation of receiving.

Photography by Gregory Halpern

Photography by Gregory Halpern

To practice magick is to be in attunement with a sensitive and dying world and being interested in working with, fighting for and healing with it. Yes, witches cast spells and ask the universe for guidance. This is because they are interested in being led, in asking for help when in need and respecting that whatever shall come, will come. Sometimes spellwork is feeding late Aunt Mable’s altar or lighting a “road opener” candle for weeks until anything finally sets into motion. Sometimes it is the humbling act of continually asking and never receiving because it is not what the universe wants for you. It can sometimes mean waiting, worrying, re-configuring and waiting again. But all of the waiting and worrying is worth it because the craft is about finding understanding in failed spells and magical mishaps. It is about finding true love for yourself and the world around you and being in communion with the gifts that come from that. It is about faith.

Witchcraft is a fun, freeing, beautiful and impassioned practice, and we must acknowledge that our ability to experience it as such is rooted in the magnetic force of offering. Offering our power, offering our light, offering our darkness, offering our strength, offering our material and immaterial gifts, our dedication and our relationship to the deities and beings that guide us. Staying in a state of gratitude and giving helps to attract the exact blessings you are grateful for. Your love and power are precious tools. Use them to uplift, remember and protect and they shall never go to waste.

 


How Witches Deal With Negativity

Written By Michael Cardenas

 Gossip, envy, jealousy, ill intentions, and hatred all come from a place of fear and deep insecurity. People project these inner demons onto us when they become triggered by seeing someone do what they want to be doing. The only remedy to that is for them to stop comparing their journey and get to work! Create your own lane and there will be no competition. Until people come to this realization we are left with the projections. These are low vibrational frequencies that can drain you of your vitality and spiritually block you from reaching your goals.  You do not need this in your life. If you are experiencing this type of negativity in your life, DO NOT ENGAGE. The more that you feed into it, the bigger it gets.  Five things can energetically remedy the situation: Space Clearing, Flip the Energy, Spiritual Cleansing, Cleanse the Gossip, and Boundaries. Turn off your phone for an hour. Disconnect, ground, and remember who the fuck you are. You are boundless light and magic. Happiness and prosperity are your natural state of being. You are divinity in human form. You are an ancient soul returning to this world to accomplish amazing things. Now take three deep breaths in through your nose, exhale through your mouth, and get to work.

 

 

Space Clearing

Photo by Bri Luna

Photo by Bri Luna

 

 You will need:

Sage

Florida Water

 

Clear the clutter. Clutter is bad for you on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level so clean it up and make some space in your life for positive energy to flow through. Physically cleaning and clearing your space is vital before engaging in any spiritual work. To energetically clear the space, open all the doors and windows, put on some music that makes you feel empowered, and burn some sage walking around the house in a counterclockwise direction (banish negativity). Next spray every room in the house with Florida Water walking in a clockwise direction (invoke positive energy). Lastly visualize an electric blue light filling the entire space and surrounding the outside of your home for psychic protection on all levels. It is done.

 

Flip the Energy

If things are moving in a negative direction it’s time to address the issue and change the course of energy. I’m a firm believer in the power of positive thinking but I’m also a believer in handling it! Address the issue and then move forward in a positive direction. I personally do this every month for preventative maintenance but you can use this as needed. I like to give this to clients that I am performing Reversal, Uncrossing, and Tapa Boca spell work for.

Photo By Michael Cardenas

Photo By Michael Cardenas

 

You will need:

Glass of water

White plate

Sea Salt

 

Photo by Michael Cardenas 

Photo by Michael Cardenas 

Take the glass and fill it with water, and add nine pinches of sea salt. Adding salt to water makes it a better conduit of energy and it purifies negativity. Next speak into the salt water and tell it exactly what you need it to do. Water is highly intelligent and the most receptive of the metaphysical elements. For example, I would say: “Cleanse of me envy, jealousy, gossip, and ill intentions. I reverse this energy so that my life may got back into alignment with blessings, prosperity, love, and happiness.” Speak from your heart and state your honest intentions. When complete take the plate and place it on top of the glass. Firmly hold the glass and plate together, and flip the glass and plate over. This is best done over a sink or bathtub. Place it near your front door or in your bedroom. After 3, 7, or 9 days (use your intuition to determine the number of days) flip the cup and plate back over and flush the water down the toilet. Wash the glass and plate with white vinegar, soap, and water. Save them for future workings. It is done.

 

Spiritual Cleansing

 

It’s important to spiritually cleanse yourself often, especially if you’re sensitive to energy.  This is one of my favorite baths to make when I feel like I need a cleansing. It’s an old school one taught to me by my grandmother. Simple and powerful.

 

You will need:

3 cups of white rice

a gallon of warm water

Florida Water

Cascarilla (optional but recommended)

 

Soak the rice in warm water for 5 minutes making sure to stir it well so it gets super cloudy. Strain the rice and keep the water. You can cook the rice and use it as an offering to your ancestors of favorite deity. In a large container pour in the rice water, some powdered cascarilla, and a good splash of Florida Water. Hold your hands over the bowl and visualize a brilliant white light infusing the water.

Take your regular shower and when complete pour the rice water mixture over yourself from the neck down, making sure to get the back of your neck especially.

Do not rinse off. Pat dry and wear some white or light colored to sleep. Do this anytime you intuitively feel your energy is off.

 

Clear the Gossip

 

1 piece of Alum Stone a.k.a. Alumbre

Self-igniting charcoal

photo by Michael Cardenas

photo by Michael Cardenas

 

Alum Stone or Alumbre is actually a mineral similar to salt that will eventually dissolves in water. It is used to cleanse yourself of gossip and to illuminate your energy field with light and progress. Light a charcoal tablet and place it in a heat safe container. Let it heat up until bright red. Take the stone and cleanse yourself with it from top to bottom gentle rubbing the stone on yourself and paying special attention to the back of your neck. When complete set the stone on the charcoal and let it burn until the charcoal goes out. As this is happening it is burning off the gossip from within, through, and around you. When it is finished burning it will show you signs of who, what, when, where, and how. Let everything cool down completely and take the melted Alum from the heat proof container and examine it. Use your intuition to interpret the shape and images. Write this information down and get rid of the stone by either burying it beneath a tree or tossing it into a crossroads. *You can also use the cup flipping technique for this just use a piece of alum stone in addition to the sea salt.

 

Set Boundaries

 

You can use the following crystals to set strong boundaries. Sit or lay down to connect with them. Intuitively feel their energy and communicate with them through your thoughts. Wear them, hold them, or place them around your home to access their energy. Make sure to cleanse them after any heavy sessions and every New Moon.

Black Obsidian: warrior like protection, psychic boundaries, and deep grounding

Black Tourmaline: anti-negativity, psychic protection, and transmutes negativity into positive energy. Protective stones are Available HERE


HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE!

The midsummer solstice (Litha, Longest Day, shortest night) is today! The summer solstice is the time of nature's bounty and abundance. The elementis FIRE, the direction is south, and all around us we are surrounded by color and fragrant aromas  fromblossoming roses, wallflowers, lavender, honeysuckle, and jasmine.


Becoming the Earth: Contemplation, Visioning & Aesthesis.

Written By Alicia Bello

I wanted to write an erotic love article to you. I wanted to write love to you by saying: May all kinds of milks, honeys, fragrant oils and flowers fill your home, altar, and bath. Let there be Eros possession in which every word rolled off the tongue is a spiced nectar. Let there be every lush nude sensation. Let every body in whatever sensual embrace undulate, hum, shudder and drunk on rhythm and ecstasy … whether crying out or soft sigh of respiration, mouth the genuine expression of ecstatic release (and please do always). Hopefully that article will want to be written soon because, well… what a sensation. Instead this article transformed from body in relationship to body into body in relationship to earth… a different kind of body, of intimacy.. the same and different.. but kind of the same. I have found myself outside significantly more than being inside anywhere. My hands and feet have been constantly investigating and trampling through the tropical landscape of Florida and so the intimacy running through me has been the aesthesis of shoots of new green covered in dew, balmy air scented with salty wet earth, and bees pressed deep into the center of flowers… and all of this is happening in the wide open, no shame, Nature needing no permission to burst with her blatant sensuality.

Connecting to the earth is not a new concept for those who practice the craft (to each and every guardian of the directions, the elementals, Hail and Welcome). It is a foundation of study and also a potent remembering. Within every natural witch lies dark earth, fertile, lush with the protected seedcrets of ancient ways, alive with mystery and kept sacred and untainted from the “normalization” of the status quo. No matter how we practice, each and every expression of the work that we do is beautiful to behold in its own right. Our earnest devotion to our practice is the catalyst to what peels away the layers so we begin to see the world completely differently. The earth is living, breathing, pulsing and we perceive it perhaps as our ancestors have, not in the grandiose Hollywood kind of way, but magic in the very real sense that begins to show itself when we learn(remember) how to look (be in relationship to it).

The Anima Mundi, the spirit of the world at this point is no longer a concept but so much more. It is perceived in the body and felt in the depths of individual experience. We, in turn, interact with our planet instinctually, in which in any given moment we turn on and tune in, and allow the power to course through our very body vessel. We can play the subtle vibrations like an instrument that opens the gates to other perceptions and other realities. The relationship that we cultivate with the spirits of the land is so very vital and just like any important relationship we’ve got to keep in touch, forget the small talk so to speak, and nurture it. We know the state of earth right now and quite obviously to say that it’s not healthy is a gross understatement. Just being with the understanding is like a glacial shower and it’s a beginning. We start right here, right now, with what is right in front of us. Without projecting rage or blame on anything, or fear, for the current state of the earth but to just be in a state of heightened mindfulness about say, the decline of bees or the poisoning of water… The Mother is where she’s at just as we are. Just to be in a heightened kind of mindfulness before any practice in which we evoke the elements, and contemplate their actual current state is incredibly important because we have to start where we are at. That being said, magic works non-linearly. No matter how we are working we can heal through coming into contact with root essence of the elements. What I am offering, however is to maybe initiate any ritual with that kind of present acknowledgment and then move into connection with the spiritus, gennii loci, and/ or Anima Mundi.

Visioning

I practice this visualization outside with meditation and contemplation either at sunrise or sunset, but as I usually instruct: if it feels right to practice it in ritual then do it. If you feel inspired to practice on the spot totally do it….except if your driving…listen to your intuition.

Demeter, just one name for Earth Mother is birthing and dying and birthing for us constantly...

Photo: Alicia Bello 

Photo: Alicia Bello 

Vision your body/full self becoming Demeter by dissolving into the earth completely and merging with her creative chaos and order. Lie down on the earth while practicing. If you can, be completely naked or partially naked. See the shape of your body turn into dirt. Watch all of what you were dissolve into the earth completely. You are gone, but now you are also the whole of the earth. You are reborn in spring. See your blooms opening and the bees drinking your nectar. Smell sweetness of the season on the wind. Go through all the seasons of the earth in this way over and over. See the earth, which is you, floating in space. Place the periphery of your attention on the rhythm of the breath of your body. See the earth in your visioning breathing, the rhythms are in synch. Draw the scope of your vision to the place within the earth that you inhabit. See you where you are envisioning yourself as the earth while you are also the earth. Draw this harmonic image into the vision of your heart and let the vision pulse with your breath as you bring your attention back to your physical body. Enjoy your breathing still seeing the earth pulsing with your breath as your beating heart. Start all over again. Do it as many times as you can.

  • Take notes on how this practice affects you after two weeks and a month.

 As you move through your day, contemplate aesthesis as drawing in the essence of the world, the Anima Mundi with robust sensory perception. Drink in everything.


Queen Hecate & Tending The Bone

"As witches we don't just walk in the shadow, we open to it's mysteries like night blooming jasmine. Fragrant with magic and revived in the properties of the night." Journey with Author Alicia Katrina to working with the Dark Mother Goddess Hectae as we learn to "tend the bone".