Melancholy & Missing Lighters

One of the things that helps me continue practicing is knot charms. My particular take on witchcraft isn't heavy on the use of tools anyhow. However, without a stable space to really plan and cast spells, it can still be tedious for me. Since I mostly do energy work, it seems only logical for me to at least embue things with energy. For that, I make knot charms. My knot charms consist of knotting energy into my chosen rope to be readily available for whenever I want to cast a quick charm by undoing a knot and releasing the trapped energy. It's essentially the same as the method of trapping wind in knots for sailors to untie in order to encourage stronger winds (though, I can't remember what exactly it was called and can't seem to find it online). I keep it attached to a headband around my neck, that way, it's always within reach, and I can somewhat subtly undo the knots whenever, wherever.

"Witches of times past, Bless me now through this ward I cast, Under the cloak of night, Creatures of the wilds, grant me your might, The power of three will set me free." Chant by light of candle white. Apply aloe to third eye, hands, and wherever else feels appropriate for optimal effects. I found a page of one of my many old books of shadows at the bottom of my pack. It's a ward I had written to accompany an aloe plant I had been growing in a pot since elementary school. Although the plant had died about five years ago, I still have the ward. Because aloe has spines and the gel has protective properties for the skin, utilizing him for a ward only seemed appropriate. And if you were a fan of 'Charmed', you can definitely see how the show inspired quite a bit of my spell writing haha. I've set my craft mostly aside for the past four years because I've been going through changes and hardships. Despite the fact that I've been feeling a pull to re...

  Source I've recently rewatched "The Day After", and then watched the BBC's "Threads" for the first time. Two 80's television movies, two warnings of the tragedies of nuclear war. Admittedly, my hubris goes so far as to convince me that I could survive just about any disaster. However, this confidence is not foolish enough to extend to nuclear war. If I were to survive the initial blast, how could I ever hope to survive radiation poisoning? Apparently, Prussian Blue is a medication that removes radiation from the body. So, if I were lucky enough to be provided this pill, I suppose I'd have a better chance of survival. But nuclear winter sounds like the most brutal of all. How would food be grown? How far would the dust clouds spread? Would they cover the whole world? Would I be allowed in unaffected countries? Despite the low likelihood of being subjected to a nuclear war, the anxiety of the future still weighs on me. If not nuclear war, what w...

  After so many months of procrastinating and going back and forth with ideas, the short-ass zine is finally finished! I had intended to make a few copies to leave around, but I clearly cannot operate a copy machine, and the library technicians using the machine as well could tell I was struggling, but I felt too nervous to actually accept help, soooo there's only one copy. I wanted to finish this before summer, so I'm just gonna go with it. I'm honestly not even too fond of how this turned out, so it's not a huge deal. I'm likely gonna ditch it somewhere in Chicago. But it was fun making it. Anyhow, here's the PDF version: MAMLzine01