Hello, my names Kristina. 
I’m 29 years old; about to be 30 on December 14; yes I’m a Sagittarius and take great pride in it. I’m from southern Louisiana, born and raised. I have a an awesome husband, and 2 wonderful kiddos, Harper (girl) age 3 & Harrison (boy ) age 2. They’re 13 months apart.
I started showing interest in spirituality when I really felt like something was haunting me really badly, and I had no idea why. I was so scared and I eventually went to a friend and asked for help on what to do, and she gave me some annointing holy oil, and I googled how to banish the energy or entity out of my house, and I was so determined to feel anything but scared and it worked. But eventually over the years, my husband started to feel how I felt, and next thing you know, I was buying crystals, doing some hard core research and studying on the craft, and I’ve researched the craft and all things in reference to it for a little over a year now. I haven’t actually done any sort of spell other than a money bowl or 2… I just want to make sure I know exactly what I’m doing before I do it, I guess. And, that’s it. 
I’m pleased to be here and can’t wait to broaden my horizons. Thank you for having me. 
@KristinaD.93 Hello and welcome I’m Tracy from England Loki is my patron deity. This is a beautiful coven. Make yourself at home 
welcome to the family of Witches I am Airam and I live in Greece We deal with Elemental Magic and Angelic 
Hi, @KristinaD.93! I’m Amethyst from Southern West Virginia. Welcome to the forum! 
It’s great to have you here, you’ve come to the right place for learning! Have you found the Courses yet? The first course will give you a step-by-step guide on how to get started casting spells.
Don’t worry if you make a mistake though, your hubby shouldn’t stay as a frog for too long. LOL!
If you have any questions, ask, and someone will be there to help. I look forward to getting to know you!
Hello 
and Welcome Home @KristinaD.93
It’s so nice to meet you, Kristina, I’m Marsha, an Eclectic Solitary Witch, from Colorado. Happy “Early” Birthday! I had two babies born 13 months apart! It was almost like having twins. I agree with our lovely and wise @Amethyst, the courses are a great place to start! If you have any questions, let us know. Welcome to the family! 
With love 
and magick 
always
@KristinaD.93
Welcome so glad you’re here 
Im from Pennsylvania. I have 2 sons, 18 and 15. There’s a lot to explore here don’t hesitate to ask questions! We’re all here to guide and support you! 
Thank all of you so much! Actually, the free version of spells 8 is where I started my journey! I read all the spell casting, I read all the history of Wicca, I don’t know what’s blocking me from just doing a spell. I have been researching lately more about protection wards and different ways to go about that. Also I have a question? I don’t know if I am allowed to ask this in this forum or not so forgive me if I am not, but what’s the deal with closed practices? Like if my moms side of the family is spanish, wouldn’t my ancestors be into bruja; and if my dads side is genuine Nordic, then I guess that would be old tradition Nordic paganism? Id love to get some input on this to help me understand and learn!
Hello @KristinaD.93,
Welcome! I’m Bry, one of the moderators here in the forum and an Eclectic Witch. It’s a pleasure to meet you
That sounds like a terrifying experience! But you prevailed all the same- congrats to you for successfully banishing it and protecting yourself 
You are absolutely allowed (and warmly encouraged!) to ask your magickal questions here! Anytime you have a question on your mind or want to tap into the great pool of wisdom of the Coven, I recommend opening a new discussion in Q&A. May the Coven always be able to help you find what you seek!
That’s a great question, Kristina! A closed practice can be defined as one that is meant to be exclusive to a certain group. This may be through location, through bloodline or heritage, or a practice reserved for only those who have gone through a specific initiation process.
When it comes to closed practices, it is a topic that is likely to get a lot of various answers depending on people’s own beliefs, background, and experiences. There is also no official consensus or record (at least not that I’m aware of!) about which practices are “closed” and which are “open”- so if you are ever in doubt about whether or not a particular practice would be welcoming to you, the best way to find out is to talk to people who are actively practicing/members of that community and hear their voices.
I believe we have members here who practice bruja and I know for sure there are many who practice Nordic traditions- feel free to chat with them and hear their stories to help you decide which path(s) are right for you!
That being said, at the end of the day, the only one who can choose what is right for you is you- I encourage you to pursue your interests and passions, Kristina! I hope that your magickal journey continues to bring you joy and many blessings
Blessed be!
Aww thanks @BryWisteria . I don’t know how you made separate replies in that paragraph I typed out, but that’s cool. I’ve never seen that on a social platform before! Haha! Anyways, yea so far, I just kind of research like witch craft as a whole, and I like learning about the different types whether it be hoodoo, voodoo, bruja; Nordic , Wiccan, just whatever intrigues me I guess. I definitely don’t like the spells that touch snake skin or cows tongue or whatever gross things lie that 
definitely don’t like the black magic stuff either.
But where is the line drawn between like justice spells, and then the magic that could unintentionally or intentionally hurt someone? When does the 3 fold law come into play you know? Because I have been studying and searching for a spell to kind of base my own spell off of and I don’t want to get that karmic backlash. I just want to get justice for my little cousin that recently passed away due to a bad decision that he made by hanging out with the wrong people, and he accidentally passed in their house, and they let him pass, even though they could’ve helped him, they could’ve saved his life, but they didn’t and then they robbed him after he passed, and then lied to everyone about what happened. They lied to the detectives, they lied to my aunt and uncle, they lied to everyone and they didn’t have ANY THING happen to them. They weren’t even brought down to the station for interrogation. Now I’m very upset about that, and I do create my circle with black salt and candles and my protection spell jars and all the crystals and I ask the elements to protect me so I can use my pendulum to hold over his obituary and I ask him to answer some questions for me to make sense of what happened to him. He visits me in my dreams and I know he’s trying to communicate with the family. I don’t think his passing was by “accident” like they said but anyways, I want to learn how to craft my own spell that has just enough punch to make the woman realize what she has done is beyond wrong, but I also don’t want to cross that 3 fold line and be denounced. Any thoughts?
Hi Kristina!
It is a pretty neat feature, and it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it! 
You can make separate replies by using the “quotes” features- which is done by highlighting the text you want to quote, then clicking the “quote” button.
For a full guide (with helpful screenshots!) you can visit here:
→ An Easy Guide for Multiple Replies 
Another great question! Magickal ethics vary by tradition- most Wiccans choose to follow the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law, but not all witches are Wiccans- other traditions, such as Druidry or Voodoo, will have their own doctrines and guides to ethics that should be followed (if you wish to be part of that religion or tradition).
Eclectic Witches (such as myself) and all those who follow multiple paths or blaze a trail entirely their own are free to set their own magickal ethics in their practice. When you make your own magickal practice, you are the only one who can decide what is “right” or “wrong” for you. Then it’s just a matter of practicing in a way that honors and respects your own beliefs.
For more about magickal ethics, @MeganB has a great video on the topic that she shared in Ethical Witchcraft 
What Are Your Thoughts?
I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your cousin- my heart goes out to you and your family, Kristina
About your spell- when it comes to magick, it is all about intention- wishing bad things on someone would be a different spell than calling on karma or justice to be the judge. Others may disagree (again, the topic of magickal ethics can vary quite a bit from one witch to another!), but I personally would not consider calling on justice or the hand of karma to be Baneful/Black Magick. In my eyes, it’s the same as calling for help or notifying the authorities when you see a crime- you’re just bringing it to the attention of higher powers who will hopefully come to help and bring justice for all.
Just my two cents offered up for your consideration! I would encourage you to research the traditions that call to you and hear their stances about magickal ethics. The more you learn, the better prepared you will be to find what works best for you and your beliefs
Wishing you all the best- blessed be!
@KristinaD.93
Norse Deities Master Post
Above is a good post if you want to learn about Norse Paganism.
Suggested books or authors?
I follow Loki Norse Chaos God (and everything else he covers 
), but I don’t strictly follow Norse traditions. I’m a Mish mash of all sorts really. I chat to demons, do the Wiccan prayers on the app, and have been helped by The Morrigan (Celtic) to do shadow work, but Loki’s my main man 
As far as closed practice goes, I don’t know really. An old witch who runs a crystal shop near me, said these sort of ideas weren’t around in the olden days, but then there was less travel too, so those witches of old may not have been exposed to as much as we are now, so would’ve done what was local. 
. My fathers heritage is old German, my mothers Irish, so I lean more towards my father’s side, but I do practice baneful Magick, and hoodoo, and I have voodoo dolls (I have one on my altar to Loki for my own healing, and carry a mini one with me too, I don’t know why, just do.), I also use worry dolls.
I personally feel that as long as your respectfully practicing, and not causing any harm to the culture or materials of their culture, its ok. May just be me.
We have some Brujera witches here, @crystal59
This link shows all the wonderful and varied traditions in this coven
Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Magickal Traditions & Pagan Paths
And another path I follow, as do many witches is the beauties (demons), and you can explore that here:
The Demonolatry Club
For baneful practices, I use Thalia Thorne’s book, The Wicked Grimoire
And my favourite Bruja witch is Juliet Diaz, and her book Witchery.
This is such an international and varied coven, I think every path is covered here by someone. 
Hope this helps. Have fun. Blessed be
Welcome @KristinaD.93 I’m Susurrus another moderator here at Spells8. I’ve been back to it since 2020 & here ever since
My brother is a Sagitarrius 
too! We do have an amazing collection of Astrology Information 
that has all things to do with astrology there. It gets added to as more topics come up within the forum.
We also have a lot of crystal lovers & information about them… a lot of different crystals, crystal grids, cleansing & charging them… all kinds of information really
Over the time I have been a part of Spells8 my path has changed quite a bit. I started one way & now I’m somewhere entirely different than where I had originally thought I would be.
This is what I did as I learned about different things & looked into things that piqued my interest. Which usually led to a deep dive, trying them out & some I’ve continued & others after some time wasn’t something that I continued. Learning about things has helped me a lot & I continue to learn about things every day that I am here
Search through the forum or ask any questions, share things you’ve found with us… jump in on any open topic or feel free to start your own. Everyone is very friendly & supportive. We each have our own paths & it’s so diverse here 
I’m a bit late, but welcome to the forum @KristinaD.93
My name is Megan and I’m one of the moderators here at Spells8 It’s nice to meet you!
I hope you’re finding everything easily here at Spells8. Please feel free to make yourself at home.
Welcome, @KristinaD.93! It’s lovely to meet you here. 
I’m Katerina. I reside in Australia with my partner and two lovely cats. My journey began in earnest only this year, and I became active in this coven at the end of August.
I know what you mean. The same happened to me, starting with crystals and then candles, and now, I’m doing tarot readings for people and writing spells. 
Anyway, I’m excited to welcome you into this lovely space and to keep learning alongside you.
Merry meet!
I’m Kat and am currently located in North Carolina. I found the practice over 20 years ago but lost my way for a while. I found my way home a couple of years ago and shortly thereafter found this amazing group of people!! I am a fairly eclectic Green witch with a deep interest in tarot, runes, herbalism, and moon magic. My deities are Artemis (she’s been with me since the beginning), The Morrigan, and Hekate, a recent guide in my life.
I am the saaaaame way! Mostly I want to know Why I am doing it and how it works or helps.
So glad to have you here! 
