Witchy Baths Masterpost

“Nobody else seems to belong in those empty spaces that you left behind in me”

—

Libra

A day on Neptune is just 16 hours long. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 astronomical units.

Image credit: Oscar Malet

Bath Bomb Magick

Lush uses a lot of herbs that are imbued with magical qualities. Enjoy this masterpost on all their current bath bombs (not including jelly bombs or shaped bath bombs) and what properties they have to keep you feeling your witchiest:

Guardian of the Forest

Cypress Oil - This oil helps to strengthen the connection between the witch and the afterlife. It can help those who are grieving after the passing of a loved one and can also strengthen a witch’s connection to spirits. It is a good oil to use when grounding or trying to concentrate. 

Lime Oil - It not only strengthens the skin but also promotes youthfulness and tranquility. Lime is said to purify and cleanse one’s physical energy. It brightens and rejuvenates the soul as well as the physical being.

Rosewood Oil - Those wishing to form closer bonds with Mars, Venus, or the Moon would be wise to utilize rosewood. While it is known for sensuality and sexuality, rosewood also promotes the spirit and fire elements and can represent maturity and femininity.

Oakmoss Absolute - Oakmoss is used when the caster is in need of money, luck, or all-around good fortune. It can help the caster form a stronger bond to Jupiter or the earth element.

Intergalactic

Peppermint Oil - Peppermint can be used to cleanse the soul of bad energies. It is revitalizing and brings positivity to the life of the caster. It can help to maintain good health, mentally and physically. Use when showing interest in Pluto or Hecate.

Vetivert Oil - A potent aphrodisiac, vetivert is used mainly in the breaking of hexes and curses. Can also be used for protective purposes.

Cedarwood Oil - Cedarwood should be used when honoring male deities or Sun god(s). It is associated with longevity, protection, love, wisdom, and prosperity.

Cheer Up Buttercup

Lime Oil -  It not only strengthens the skin but also promotes youthfulness and tranquility. Lime is said to purify and cleanse one’s physical energy. It brightens and rejuvenates the soul as well as the physical being.

Lemon Myrtle Oil - Lemon is known for balancing chakras and purification. It can steer you away from negative thoughts and habits. Myrtle can be used when honoring Venus, Minerva, and Mars. It brings fertility and luck.

Neroli Oil - The same as Orange Blossom Oil. Wear for sensuality and attention from lovers. Said to bring about marriage proposals.

Sex Bomb

Clary Sage Oil - This oil should be used when a witch is in need of a clear head or wishes to divinate. It is said to be eye-opening and can lead to vivid lucid dreaming. The scent can be uplifting and euphoric.

Jasmine Absolute - Can be used when trying to form a bond with Diana or Vishnu. Also frequently used in Moon magic. Jasmine brings love and attraction.

Ylang Ylang Oil - Promotes attraction, love, lust, sensuality, and sexuality. It is primarily used when the caster is searching for a partner but can also be used in Faerie magic.

Twilight

Lavender Oil - Calming but also sensual. Lavender aids in sleep but also promotes sensuality and is used in purifying and healing rituals.

Tonka Absolute - Tonka beans bring wealth and courage. The caster may choose to use Tonka absolute in rituals involving Venus or Jupiter.

Ylang Ylang Oil -  Promotes attraction, love, lust, sensuality, and sexuality. It is primarily used when the caster is searching for a partner but can also be used in Faerie magic.

The Experimenter

Vetivert Oil -  A potent aphrodisiac, vetivert is used mainly in the breaking of hexes and curses. Can also be used for protective purposes.

Tonka Absolute -  Tonka beans bring wealth and courage. The caster may choose to use Tonka absolute in rituals involving Venus or Jupiter.

Vanilla Absolute - Lust, sensuality, and warmth are associated with Vanilla. It can be used to gain material objects but also in love potions, whether platonic or sexual.

Butterball

Ylang Ylang Oil -  Promotes attraction, love, lust, sensuality, and sexuality. It is primarily used when the caster is searching for a partner but can also be used in Faerie magic.

Big Blue

Arame Seaweed - I could not find many sources on its magical properties, but seaweed can be used by Sea Witches in order to bond with the ocean and its creatures or as an offering.

Sea Salt - Salt absorbs negative and bad energies and can be used to protect the witch from harmful spirits or curses.

Lemon Oil -  Lemon is known for balancing chakras and purification. It can steer you away from negative thoughts and habits.

Lavender Oil -  Calming but also sensual. Lavender aids in sleep but also promotes sensuality and is used in purifying and healing rituals.

Dragon’s Egg

Lemon Oil -  Lemon is known for balancing chakras and purification. It can steer you away from negative thoughts and habits.

Bergamot Oil - Bergamot is most often used when the caster is seeking success or financial luck. 

Jasmine Absolute - Can be used when trying to form a bond with Diana or Vishnu. Also frequently used in Moon magic. Jasmine brings love and attraction.

Gardenia Extract - An oil that brings the wearer protection, love, and harmony.

Avobath

Lemongrass Oil - Used mostly in psychic rituals. Can aid and enhance psychic powers. Also common among rituals that involve Faerie magic. Will bring the caster spiritual confidence.

Bergamot Oil - Bergamot is most often used when the caster is seeking success or financial luck.

Rosewood Oil -  Those wishing to form closer bonds with Mars, Venus, or the Moon would be wise to utilize rosewood. While it is known for sensuality and sexuality, rosewood also promotes the spirit and fire elements and can represent maturity and femininity.

Sakura

Mimosa Absolute - Often used to enhance prophetic ability or in healing rituals. Can bring a witch visions, self-confidence, and spirituality.

Lemon Oil -  Lemon is known for balancing chakras and purification. It can steer you away from negative thoughts and habits.

Orange Blossom Absolute - Wear for sensuality and attention from lovers. Said to bring about marriage proposals.

Jasmine Absolute - Can be used when trying to form a bond with Diana or Vishnu. Also frequently used in Moon magic. Jasmine brings love and attraction.

Gardenia Extract - An oil that brings the wearer protection, love, and harmony.

Fizzbanger

Petitgrain Oil - Stimulates self-love and is strongly imbued with protective qualities. Use in spells or rituals for protection.

Cinnamon Leaf Oil - Use when attempting to meditate. It can be used for personal protection or in fire element rituals.

Ylang Ylang Oil -  Promotes attraction, love, lust, sensuality, and sexuality. It is primarily used when the caster is searching for a partner but can also be used in Faerie magic.

Oakmoss Extract -  Oakmoss is used when the caster is in need of money, luck, or all-around good fortune. It can help the caster form a stronger bond to Jupiter or the earth element.

Metamorphosis

Black Pepper Oil - Increases self-confidence and belief in personal values/independence. Prevents willful ignorance. Improves the wearer’s courage. Can be used in protection spells or elemental magic.

Cinnamon Leaf Oil - Use when attempting to meditate. It can be used for personal protection or in fire element rituals.

Myrrh Resinoid - Often seen as a highly religious oil, can be used in many religious rituals. Courage and protective spells. Used when attempting to connect with Isis and Re.

Pink

Vanilla Absolute - Lust, sensuality, and warmth are associated with Vanilla. It can be used to gain material objects but also in love potions, whether platonic or sexual.

Lavender Absolute - Calming but also sensual. Lavender aids in sleep but also promotes sensuality and is used in purifying and healing rituals.

Tonka Absolute - Tonka beans bring wealth and courage. The caster may choose to use Tonka absolute in rituals involving Venus or Jupiter.

Neroli Oil - The same as Orange Blossom Oil. Wear for sensuality and attention from lovers. Said to bring about marriage proposals.

Over and Over

Lime Oil -  It not only strengthens the skin but also promotes youthfulness and tranquility. Lime is said to purify and cleanse one’s physical energy. It brightens and rejuvenates the soul as well as the physical being.

Fennel Oil - Keeps evil at bay, used for strong protection spells.

Cypress Oil -  This oil helps to strengthen the connection between the witch and the afterlife. It can help those who are grieving after the passing of a loved one and can also strengthen a witch’s connection to spirits. It is a good oil to use when grounding or trying to concentrate.

Orris Oil - Used when conducting Moon Magic, especially when the caster wishes to reveal the meaning behind dreams. Can also be used in divination.

Cardinal Signs - Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn - The angular signs are absolutely determined to get what they want. They are the Queens of the four seasons, and now is the time to receive what they have earned the right to. But this is not entitlement. It has taken tremendous work -both privately and externally to be where they are now. And nobody is going to come along and take any of that away  

~~ Aries by virtue of starting with no memory and nothing but a name, and overcoming the odds to ensure other people they have a name people won’t ever forget it. The aim is not searching for their place and purpose in the world, the intention is to walk and build a new path at the same time, one without any footprints to follow. ~  Cancer in regards to the inner life and finding a way to manage the emotional typhoons so that other people won’t notice or realise that something is wrong. This takes tremendous and private inner work, and it’s also imperative for Cancer remaining in control of themselves out there in the world of work, friends, business, and pleasure. ~  Libra is the relationship sign, but they know too well that love is fallible, that love can be taken, or fade into nothing. So Libras are also very focused on career success because their professional path is something they can control completely. They work hard to tick all the business boxes- demonstrating their competence, relentless work ethic, willingness to learn, forming close bonds with colleagues, and charming superiors with everything Libra offers in one.    ~ Capricorns never take the easy road. Even if they believe they have done just that, they just return to the start and end up working harder. Capricorns are allowed to fail, but they are not permitted to give anything less than everything. They need to quell their desire for instant gratification, and remember that quantity is not quality. And they also need to learn when enough has been done, there is nothing more to add, analyse, or do, except for rest. 

Cherry

Ravens have paranoid, abstract thoughts about other minds

Add this to logic puzzles, human speech repetition and nonvocal signals as things ravens can do

Cementing their status as the most terrifying of all the birds, a new study has found that ravens are able to imagine being spied upon – a level of abstraction that was previously thought to be unique to humans. 

The ability to think abstractly about other minds is singled out by many as a uniquely human trait. Now, a study from the Universities of Houston and Vienna have found that ravens are able to adapt their behaviour by attributing their perceptions to others.

The study, published in Nature Communications, found that if a nearby peephole was open, ravens guarded pockets of food against discovery in response to the sound of other birds – even if they didn’t see another bird. This was not replicated when the peephole was closed, despite hearing the same auditory clues.

According to the study’s authors, the discovery “shed[s] a new light on Theory of Mind” – the ability to attribute mental states to others. A number of studies have found that animals are able to understand what others see – but only when they can see the head or eyes, which provide gaze cues. This suggests that these animals are responding only to surface cues, and are not experiencing the same abstraction as humans.

The ability to hide food is extremely important to ravens, and they behave completely differently when they feel they are being watched – hiding food more quickly, for example, and are less likely to return to a hiding place for fear of revealing the location to a competitor.

The study replicated this behaviour. Two rooms were connected by windows and peepholes, both of which could be opened and closed. The ravens were trained to look through the peepholes to observe human experimenters making stashes of food. Finally, both windows were covered while a single peephole remained open – and, though no bird was present, the ravens still hid the food as if they were being watched.

“We showed that ravens can generalise from their own experience using the peephole as a pilferer, and predict that audible competitors could potentially see their caches through the peephole,” the authors wrote. “Consequently, we argue that they represent ‘seeing’ in a way that cannot be reduced to the tracking of gaze cues.”

Although ravens may not seem similar to humans, the two species do have something in common – their social lives. Like humans, ravens go through distinct social phases, from fluid interaction with other birds as adolescents to stable breeding pairs in adults. “There is a time when who is in the pack, who’s a friend, who’s an enemy can change very rapidly,” said Cameron Buckner, lead author of the research. “There are not many other species that demonstrate as much social flexibility. “Ravens cooperate well. They can compete well. They maintain long-term, monogamous relationships. It makes them a good place to look for social cognition, because similar social pressures might have driven the evolution of similarly advanced cognitive capacities in very different species”.

It’s not the only thing ravens can do – they’ve also been found to mimic human speech, complete complex logic puzzles and show empathy for fellow birds, which Buckner says could “change our perception of human uniqueness”. “Finding that Theory of Mind is present in birds would require us to give up a popular story as to what makes humans special,” he said. “Completing this evolutionary and developmental picture will bring us much closer to figuring out what’s really unique about the human mind”.

The exoplanet Samh is named after a Muslim astronomer.

Venus rx in Scorpio - ♡🖤 October 5 - November 16, 2018

the venus rx cycle opens the door for resolving the residue of past issues that cause conflict and misunderstandings in the present. in scorpio, it means a curse and a curative on persephone’s heart, freezing her in the autumn where she can still see the flowers of life but cannot touch them.  the heart becomes encased when venus retrogrades. we may become less responsive and seemingly distanced to the behaviours and actions of our partners, which may seem alarming or like we have ‘switched off’  but this process provides the insight of a clear and delicate view of the person and the entire relationship - free from the distortion of our emotional reactions, projections, immediate judgements, and confusion. we become more aware of the responsibility we singularly have in our relationships and in the lives of the people around us, these are people who respect and regard us so highly that they have chosen us to share their lives with. from this perspective, we can certainly approach our relationships with a refined honour and the dignity they deserve. 

in simple terms the retrograding planet is just returning to the path already crossed and doing it again. from this backward step we can see the beauty of people from a light and reflection we have never seen before, or simply forgotten existed in them. sometimes in the heat and chaos of the moment we move on without resolving or receiving any validation, and the poison starts to weep from places unknown within us and manifesting in the presence of this person sometimes we need to return over the past pain to recover it and let it spill out from us completely so we can really move forward, truthfully and authentically. because venus is in scorpio, we have no real need to worry about the false promises of our ideals and fantasies. whatever path is taken - leaving relationships, remaining in a strengthened one or developing greater relationship with the inner self and the sight for beauty unseen, or returning to a past relationship  you can rest assured that each should be met with peace, and no decision made could be wrong 

C

Litha Practices

Litha is a celebration of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Celebrations focus mainly on the power of the sun.

Before Litha - A time for growing

Focus on making decisions in your social and professional life that promote growth

Re-pot plants

Arts & Crafts

Make a besom decorated for Litha

Make a honey or sugar scrub

Make a pillow stuffed with lavender for peaceful sleep during the summer

Make a suncatcher

Cleaning & Cleansing

Do a house cleaning ritual

Pick up litter

Pull up the blinds and fill your home with sunlight

Cooking

Bake a cake

Brew your own mead

Eat outside

Hold a barbecue for family and friends

Decorating & Gardening

Hang up suns in your home and garden

Put a stone circle sundial in your garden

Spell-casting & Divination

Charge your tools in the power of the Litha sun

Go to the beach to perform some ocean magic or collect beachy tools to use later

Make Ogham staves

Other Activities

Attend a drum circle

Celebrate the season with a big bonfire

Do something for charity

Get up before the sun and go to bed after it sets to experience the entire day

Go hiking and bring a field guide to help you identify the wildlife

Learn a new skill

Meditate in nature

Spend as much time as possible outdoors

Watch the sunrise and sunset

Wear a flower crown

Wear warm colors

After Litha - A time for thriving

Be active 

Focus on goals and networking

Get away into nature

Go to the beach

Go hiking

Go swimming

 ｡⋆  🎀 terfs suck 🎀  ⋆｡

Terfs: wombyn are their ovaries!!! Ovaries make a wombybybynnn. Accept that u are a womynbdgnn you have ovaries !!!!

Me, a trans man on the danger list for ovarian cancer and is going to get them removed in the distant or near future:

not for long

One word spells are powerful little statements that send BIG messages out to the universe.  Use these in your daily life–mundane or magical!  I like to combine beautiful languages outside of English with seafarer lingo to make these little beauties. 

BRONREKKEN

Pronounced brawn-wreck-in.

A combination of BRONTIDE (a rumbling noise heard occasionally in some parts of the world, probably caused by seismic activity) and the Haitian Creole word REKKEN (shark.)

Use BRONREKKEN when in needing to make your presence known in a subtle, yet powerful way (meetings with your boss, leading a group, presenting a project. etc.)

SMIRISQUALL

Pronounced smeer-ee-skwahl.

A combination of the Croatian word SMIRITI (to calm, quieten, pacify) with the word SQUALL (a sudden, violent gust of wind; a violent sea storm.)

Use SMIRISQUALL to curb sudden temper flares.  This is best for people who are quick to have aggressive emotions.  

TASKMINOG

Pronounced task-mee-nawg.

A combination of MULTITASK (to perform two or more tasks simultaneously) and the Russian word осьминог (also: os'minog) which literally translates to “octopus.”

Use TASKMINOG when having multiple things going on that need your attention.  It will aid you in being able to prioritize and accomplish your goals without getting stressed.

STELINA

Pronounced steh-lee-nah.

A combination of STELLA, the Italian word for “star”, and MARINA (a dock in a bay for multiple boats.)

Use STELINA when needing to bring a night to an end (best used at a party or event; when needing to get people to go home; when needing to wind down from a very busy day.)

SOIDIR

Pronounced sigh-deer.

A combination of the Irish word SOITHEACH (ship or vessel) and DIRECT (to regulate the course of.)

Use SOIDIR when needing your intention or actions to follow a straight, unblocked path and accomplish your goal quickly and efficiently.