New witchcraft blog!

[Ritual at Dusk]

I just created a blog about witchcraft. I am hoping to get some followers, and since this is a wiccan guild I thought it to be the best place to start. My goal is for everybody to feel comfortable posting new ideas or spells, rituals, recipes, and tips and critiques for others along with gaining knowledge from other people! check it out!
here is the link:
http://witchcraftatmidnight.blogspot.com
if you check it out, can you please post either on this forum or on the blog what you think of it and any cirtiques for it. Thanks!  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

I swear we used to have a thread for plugging stuff. I find myself unable to find it at the moment though.

Your warning is misleading. It suggests that magic is not dangerous if you're doing it with good intentions. Frankly I think good intentions are the most dangerous.

You're making the assumption that belief in the "three fold law" is widespread. Most witches have no time for it. It buggers about with conservation of energy, for one.

What goth rock bands are your favourites?

Do you suggest that people find a pre-existing spell before writing one of their own?  

[Ritual at Dusk]

Sanguina Cruenta

I swear we used to have a thread for plugging stuff. I find myself unable to find it at the moment though.

Your warning is misleading. It suggests that magic is not dangerous if you're doing it with good intentions. Frankly I think good intentions are the most dangerous.

You're making the assumption that belief in the "three fold law" is widespread. Most witches have no time for it. It buggers about with conservation of energy, for one.

What goth rock bands are your favourites?

Do you suggest that people find a pre-existing spell before writing one of their own?

My favorite gothic rock bands are evanescence, within temptation, marylin manson, HIM, Mandragora Scream. I am not suggesting that people find a pre-existing spell first, but if they are just beginning magick, then I suggest getting a feel for it before they go into making their own, because they might be accidentally working with dangerous aspects. A lot of witches don't have any time for it, but it is important, and it is in the wiccan law! I just think that it is important that people remember it, even if it is in the back of their mind  

[rmcdra]

Nightmare Apparition

I am not suggesting that people find a pre-existing spell first, but if they are just beginning magick, then I suggest getting a feel for it before they go into making their own, because they might be accidentally working with dangerous aspects.

It's magic. Magick is specific to Thelma and has a special significance in its spelling. Next why is it bad to work with dangerous aspects? You learn more from screw ups then you do success. Also how can one know if they are dealing with a dangerous aspect if they have not experienced it for themselves?

Quote:

A lot of witches don't have any time for it, but it is important, and it is in the wiccan law!

It's rede, advice not law. It is not listed in 161 outer court laws of Wicca.

Quote:

I just think that it is important that people remember it, even if it is in the back of their mind

If it is not applicable to their religion then why should it be on someone's mind?  

[Morgandria]

Nightmare Apparition

My favorite gothic rock bands are evanescence, within temptation, marylin manson, HIM, Mandragora Scream.

These are goth? I must be a very old stick-in-the-mud...they're not goth, to me. And I am far from the oldest goth in existence.

Nightmare Apparition

I am not suggesting that people find a pre-existing spell first, but if they are just beginning magick, then I suggest getting a feel for it before they go into making their own, because they might be accidentally working with dangerous aspects.

And if they're just beginning, they're not going to understand how to effectively alter an existing spell for their own use, simply because they're not familiar with the mechanics of spellwork and magic.

I'd be happier that someone learn the component skills, and how to put them together, making one single basic act of magic out of it, rather than simply grabbing someone else's work and casting a mainly ineffective spell, since they don't really understand why and what they're doing.

At least, that's how I teach my students.

Nightmare Apparition

A lot of witches don't have any time for it, but it is important, and it is in the wiccan law! I just think that it is important that people remember it, even if it is in the back of their mind

1) As mentioned previously, 'Rede' means advice, not law.

2) It is simply 'The Rede'. It is not Wiccan; it first appeared many
years after Wicca was founded, and is not found as part of our laws.

3) Furthering that thought - since it's not Wiccan, Wiccans don't have to abide it unless they should choose to. Even if it were, not all witches are Wiccan - it still wouldn't apply to everyone who practices witchcraft.

If people wish to take the Rede's advice, that's fine. After all, it doesn't prohibit harm - it merely advises that one can do that which causes no harm freely, without thought.

If you're the sort of person who considers the consequences of your actions in the first place, it's unnescessary advice.

And as for laws - Wiccans have the Ardanes. Other paths may have other laws; Wiccan law will not apply to those religions. And personally, I understand the physical laws of our universe, and consider them to be guideline enough.

And just graphic wise:

I find the blog is unreadable unless I highlight the text; dark blue and purple on black is nearly impossible to read.

I know for myself that I simply don't try to decipher pages when they're hard on the eyes or poorly laid out; I just leave. You may find that your blog disappears into the forgotten masses of similar pages, unless you change your graphics/text to be easier on the eyes.

You might want to find a background for your page that incorporates your blue and purples, and set your text to a light, softer blue shade, or a silver; this keeps the page dark, while leaving the text legible, and avoids having white text on black backing, which is similarily difficult for the visually-impaired to read.  

[rmcdra]

Laws vs Ardanes?

What's the difference?  

[Morgandria]

rmcdra

Laws vs Ardanes?

What's the difference?

As far as I'm aware, the '161 Laws' are the Ardanes. Different names for the same thing.

There's no outer-court laws that I've heard of.

Most covens have their own laws, in addition to the existence of the Ardanes, that assist in their own governance.  

[rmcdra]

Morgandria

rmcdra

Laws vs Ardanes?

What's the difference?

As far as I'm aware, the '161 Laws' are the Ardanes. Different names for the same thing.

There's no outer-court laws that I've heard of.

Most covens have their own laws, in addition to the existence of the Ardanes, that assist in their own governance.

Okay my confusion there. I thought the 161 Ardanes were for the outer court. Thank you for clarifying.  

[too2sweet]

San... the Shamless Advertising thread is in the Common Room subforum. biggrin

Nightmare Apparition... have to agree with Morg, it is terribly hard to read.

Quote:

I am not suggesting that people find a pre-existing spell first, but if they are just beginning magick, then I suggest getting a feel for it before they go into making their own, because they might be accidentally working with dangerous aspects.

If they don't understand enough about spell working that they can't create their own spells (or at least modify existing ones to their own purposes), then they probably aren't really all that ready to be casting.  

[Violet Song jat Shariff]

Nightmare Apparition

A lot of witches don't have any time for it, but it is important, and it is in the wiccan law!

Why is it important when it doesn't actually have a place in certain practices of witchcraft? Why is what is important to you suddenly important to ALL witches? Considering the diversity of witches, it seems you don't have a proper scope of the very group you intended to speak to.
What more, why in the hel would a "Wiccan law" be important in non-Wiccan practice?? So it would be okay then for the laws of Uganda to apply to the US, right?

Quote:

I just think that it is important that people remember it, even if it is in the back of their mind

Edited: Why is it important though? Why is what you think so important for say, oOGarrettOo who does well and fine practicing witchcraft with no regard for the TFL?

I have to wonder why you prefer to take the spin of "Here are spells for you to use!" rather than "Here are things, serious things, to think about and consider and understand before you start casting spells." Why do you assume that handing someone a spell with a pat on the back will be more helpful?

Also, what kind of experiences do you have and for how long that makes you feel that you can adequately lead newbie witches in safe spell casting?

As for feedback on the blog itself...if I were poking around the internet for witchcraft information, I would take one look at it, roll my eyes while muttering something about "fluffy bunnies" due to the heavy splashing about of "OMGZ TEH 3FOLD LAWLZ!" and browse on to another site.
Perhaps you should try discussing things of actual substance on your blog? Like, ethics in magic (beyond the often used-and-abused 3-Fold Law; believe it or not there is a slew of other issues regarding the ethics of magic and its use). Or trends you happen to be noticing in a particular area of the witchcraft scene?

Maybe it's the way I have my screen set up, but I didn't have a problem reading it ^^;;;  

[oOGarrettOo]

I was going to post this thing, but I figured I wouldn't bother. I should just create a thread on Witchcraft and get it over with.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Nightmare Apparition

My favorite gothic rock bands are evanescence, within temptation, marylin manson, HIM, Mandragora Scream.

Yeah, not goth. At all. Any of them. At all.

Protip: just because a person in a band looks like maybe they could be a goth doesn't mean that the music that that band plays is gothrock.

Protip #2: If you've never heard of Bauhaus, you're not a goth. Educate yourself before claiming to be a member of a subculture, ne? It's not about dressing in black, it's not about apathy, and a goth that does badly in school is an unusual goth indeed.

Morg said pretty much everything else I would have said.  

[Moonlite__Syren]

I really take offense when people try to associate "goth" stuff with topics like these. I'm not saying I dress in pink or whatever. I do dress pretty dark but its not because I think I'm goth or because I believe and practice the craft. What you wear, what you listen to, and what you believe in are three totally different things.

Reminds me the one time I ran into this guy at Barnes and Noble who was placing little slips of paper in the multi religious book section to advertise his friends' rock band. It was sickening and really gave him and his friends a bad name.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Moonlite__Syren

Reminds me the one time I ran into this guy at Barnes and Noble who was placing little slips of paper in the multi religious book section to advertise his friends' rock band. It was sickening and really gave him and his friends a bad name.

Why is that sickening? Sounds like a good idea to me. I'd be quite charmed to find something like that in a book I was looking through. Plus they might be pretty good.  

[Moonlite__Syren]

Sanguina Cruenta

Moonlite__Syren

Reminds me the one time I ran into this guy at Barnes and Noble who was placing little slips of paper in the multi religious book section to advertise his friends' rock band. It was sickening and really gave him and his friends a bad name.

Why is that sickening? Sounds like a good idea to me. I'd be quite charmed to find something like that in a book I was looking through. Plus they might be pretty good.

Its stereotypical.