YESā¦It is finally here. I have so many that I have started and just before the deadline something comes up no excuses because most of them that 90% finished so this will be great for me! It bothers me so when I donāt get my changes in on time. If I miss another one, I donāt know Iām going to have to go do something drastic. 
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Need an alibi?
LOL
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Welp, time to get my spreadsheet out, too! 
I know I missed at least the last twoā¦ 
I might have an entry for each of them!
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Challenge Entry - Catch Up #1
š Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Astrology: Reading the Skies) - Astrologer
I chose to look more into the combination of my moon sign (Sagittarius) and my sun sign (Aquarius).
- Intellectually Curious and Visionary: Both Aquarius and Sagittarius are signs that thrive on intellectual stimulation. Youāre likely to be someone who is always looking forward, interested in new ideas, and innovations, and exploring different philosophies or cultures.
- Independent and Freedom-Loving: Independence is a key theme in both signs. Aquarius values individuality and non-conformity, while Sagittarius seeks freedom and adventure. You probably cherish your freedom and are uncomfortable with restrictions, whether in personal relationships or your career.
- Humanitarian and Idealistic: With Aquariusā humanitarian streak and Sagittariusā optimistic and ethical nature, youāre likely to be idealistic and concerned with larger social issues. You may be drawn to causes that aim to make the world a better, more equitable place.
- Sociable yet Detached: Aquarians are known for their friendly yet detached nature, and Sagittarians are known for their outgoing and gregarious personality. This can make you sociable and well-liked, yet you may maintain an emotional distance and value your personal space.
- Adaptable and Resilient: Sagittarius is adaptable and resilient, and Aquarius is innovative and resourceful. This combination suggests that you can easily adapt to change and are not easily deterred by setbacks.
- Philosophical and Reflective: The influence of Sagittarius may bring a more philosophical outlook, complementing the Aquarian tendency to think deeply about things. You likely enjoy exploring different belief systems and may have a unique or unconventional worldview.
- Restless and Seeking Variety: Both signs are restless in their way. You might find yourself constantly seeking new experiences, ideas, or even places, making you a lifelong learner and explorer.
I see some truths in there and some that donāt fit quite right.
- I am absolutely one of those people who love new ideas and exploring new cultures and religions.
- I also am someone who cherishes my freedom.
- Iām not sure that I consider myself a crusader or ardent about social justice, thatās not to say I donāt care about the welfare of the world and of the people who live in it, just that it isnāt my lifeās goal.
- Ding Ding Ding!
I enjoy being social on my terms and enjoy alone time to recharge and create. - I find that I am not immediately adaptable - meaning that I like making plans and the plans going accordingly, and when things change, I am initially resistant and upset but after my little āpout periodā I am fully capable of replanning, changing course and adapting. Some changes I am more mournful about what Iāve lost but I do keep moving forward.
- Spot on.
- I would say this is probably the least like me. I am not one with wanderlust and a desire to always be moving and seeing and doing new things. I do like routine for the majority of my life, but I also do like learning and making new crafts be it sewing, metal clay, or weaving grasses into brooms.
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Challenge Entry - Catch-Up! #2
Love Magick ā Lovely Witch
After the week Iāve been having, anxiety has been rearing its ugly head with self-doubt and blame, so this is the perfect time for A self-love appreciation break
Which was an absolutely perfect way to end my evening 
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I absolutely agree! When I first started doing the catch-ups, I realized I was avoiding certain ones since they perhaps were outside of my current knowledge or practice. Using a random number generator to pick mine, has broadened my practice as I go by the ones it picks. Always a fun surprise!
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CHALLENGE ENTRY 2 - Teas and Infusion
My partner often suffers from a bloated stomach. I made this ābloaTEAā which seems to help so thought I would share incase it helps others too.
Ingredients
Thumb sizes piece of gingerš«
Cinnamon stick
6 cloves
Lemon 
Honey 
Loose tea (optional)
- Cut the ginger into slices. I then press the knife down on the pieces to release the juice. Add to the teapot.
- Add the cloves and cinnamon stick. I tend to crush the cinnamon stick
- Add a slice of lemon and a squeeze of juice from the remaining lemon.
- Add a teaspoon of honey
- Add a teaspoon of loose tea if using.
- Fill the teapot with boiling water.
- Allow the tea to brew, or as we say in Scotland āmastā for 10 minutes. I have a metal teapot so tend to do this over a low heat on the hob.
- Pour into cup through a strainer.
- Add a slice of lemon and extra honey if desired.
- Serve and feel the benefits
Ginger has compounds that can help relax the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract to help reduce bloating.
Cloves have carminative properties, which means they can help relieve gas and bloating.
Cinnamon has long been used to support digestion and to relieve bloating, gas, and indigestion.
Lemon contains citric acid, which can aid the production of stomach acid and promote the breakdown of food.
Blessed be
Alan
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Itās no problem at all, Suzanne 
Welcome to your first Catch-Up Challenge, I hope you have lots of fun with the process- enjoy!
Exactly this! 
You worded it beautifully, Phoenix- itās kind of like an open workshop or group class in this sense. Itās a judgement-free zone to dip into something new, experiment, and potentially find a new area of the Craft that brings joy and value. At the very least, the challenges are a place to swap ideas and share inspiration around! 
Iām really happy that you enjoy the challenges, Phoenix- thank you!
No need for anything drastic, my friend- thatās why the Catch-Ups exist! 
They are kind of a breather- a chance to catch your breath and look back on any topics that were missed. And there is always another one near on the horizon- we do a Catch-Up every 10 challenges, so opportunities will always exist. No stress and no pressure! 
This is such a clever idea for choosing topics! And I have to admit Iām always excited to see which challenges the generator picks for you!
Look at all these fascinating entries right off the bat- you are all amazing! 
Iām gobbling up all of the wisdom, ideas, recipes, spells, and more. Catch-up challenges are my favorite- it is so much fun to see everyoneās beautifully diverse practices on display!
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Challenge Entry - Catch-Up! #3
Giving Gratitude - Blessed and Grateful
I chose to do
as my entry.
I set up an altar, picked a flameless candle for Kitten Safety, used Cypress essential oil instead of incense, and used a lioness figurine as my offering.
Hear me, Zeusā daughter, celebrated queen,
Dionysian and Saturn, of a noble mien.
In darts rejoicing and on all to shine,
Torch-bearing Goddess, Martian divine;
Over births presiding, and thyself a maid.
To labour-pangs imparting ready aid.
Dissolver of the zone and wrinkled care,
Fierce huntress, glorying in the Sylvan war.
Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skillād,
Wandering by night, rejoicing in the field.
Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind,
Illustrious dƦmon, nurse of humankind.
Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell,
āTis thine; blest maid, on woody hills to dwell.
Thank you for all that I am and all that I have
Thank you for the wind that caresses me
Thank you for the sun that keeps me warm
Thank you for the food that I have
Thank you for the water
Thank you for the seas
Thank you for the sunsets
Thank you for the sunrise of a new day
Thank you for the grass
Thank you for the plants
Thank you for the flowers
Thank you for all the beautiful aromas
Thank you for my strength
Thank you for the fire
Thank you for the earth
Thank you for the home where I dwell
Thank you for the sacred temple that is my heart
Thank you for the trees.
Thank you for my breath.
Thank you for my life.
Thank you, Artemis
Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight,
In endless youth who flourish fair and bright.
O, universal queen, august, divine,
A various form, Cydonian power, is thine.
Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind
Auspicious, come to mystic rites inclined
Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear,
Send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair,
And to the mountains drive Disease and Care.
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Okay, I decided to do the magick in the arts challenge and receive the art witch badge a second time. 
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Challenge entry #1
Multilingual Magick
I can manage in a few languages: Macedonian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. And I can probably survive in a whole lot more than that. I love learning bits of different languages, even dead ones like Latin and Phoenician. I think improving my Chinese and Russian are next on my list, though. My Chinese is alright, but I canāt write a serious paper like I had to for university anymore, so I would like to get that back at some point.
Recently, I tried translating some Polish using knowledge from the languages I know and online dictionaries.
When it comes to the demonic side of things (The Demonolatry Experience for some context on why I think of demons at all), Latin seems to be the number one language of rituals and spells. The Light Bearerās Call, for example,
Ut patet viam meam dimitto ceteris
Aperi tu cor meum ut lucifer audite quaeso
Meae voca ego offerre mea erga obsecro incipere
(Donāt worry, you havenāt summoned Lucifer by reading that in your head. But I blurred it anyway. 
)
So, I thought I would try examining these things a little more closely. In doing so, I went through a lot of interesting little rabbit holes.
One thing I noticed is that in a rite to Beelzebub written in Greek, Thanatos is called upon, and thereās no mention of Beelzebub himself. Now, Beelzebub isnāt known for any connection to Thanatos. Heās thought to be derived from the Canaanite god Baal, to whom the Egyptian equivalent is thought to be Set, whose Greek equivalent is thought to be Typhon.
But, that is perhaps taken too literally. For the text actually evoked the āAngel of death,ā which, in Greek, is āĪøĪ±Ī½Ī¬ĻĪæĻ ā (thanĆ”tou). Just because Thanatos is the personification of death, because itās in lowercase, it could simply mean ādeathā in any personification and not be referring to him. Iām not sure Iām explaining this clearlyā¦ But itās basically ādeath anywhereā versus āthis specific Death.ā
On the other hand, I canāt find a single example of Ancient Greek that actually uses case. Itās all āuppercaseā in everything that I can find. Which leads me to believe that the only way we can make this distinction is actually through context. Given the context, I would have to assume that it is not necessarily Thanatos himself, but whichever spirit of death heeds the call.
For my fellow language nerds, you already know that thinking about this is fun. But for those of you scratching your head and going, āOkayā¦?ā just chalk it up to a language nerd thing. Iām already fighting the voices of others in my head who get angry and say, āWho cares?! X is X! End of story!ā Iām chuckling at the image now, but it actually is really frustrating to have my curiosity shut down so hard all the time.
But yeah, thatās part of what Iāve been up to recently (outside of my 9-5, Etsy shop, moving arrangements, and life with my partner and cats).
In other news, through various other threads, I learnt the proper pronunciation of Hekate (heh-kah-tee), besom (bee-som), and Samhain (sah-win). I think that alone is a win, but hey, thatās just me ā I like all victories, big and tiny. 
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Spell Jars & Witch Bottles - Spell Jar Specialist
Hi Everyone! 
This will be my first challenge - im really looking forward to it!
Ive come a bit late to the party, but im going to work my socks off to meet the deadline!
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Challenge entry #2
Technologic & Modern Magick
I live with technology so closely that I thought this would be a fun challenge to see how to inject something new into my normal. My day job is programming, and my hobbies include website development and (computer) gaming, so on most days, I spend almost every waking hour at the computer. Iāve even got a witchy website in the works, with a focus on those practicing in Australia.
My initial thoughts
I donāt think technology is necessarily harmful to natureāitās a tool and if we use it to harm, thatās on us. After all, electricity itself is an element of nature. A computer is simply a massive collection of little on-and-off switches powered by electricity. The internet and other methods of connecting things are also combinations of electrical pulses, energy waves, and so on. The materials are mostly metals and glass, with plastic shielding. The latter isnāt great, but plastic is still just super-refined oil. A really shitty, super-refined oil that refuses to return to nature. But still.
What Iām getting at is that itās all nature harnessed in a way that looks or feels unnatural, but itās no more or less harmful than what nature already throws at us. (That being said, I live in Australia where everything is trying to kill me, so take that with a grain of salt.)
The highly technical nature of using such devices probably makes them feel overwhelming. Even though it can ultimately all be simplified down to easy singular processes and steps, we tend to think of everything as a whole and overwhelm ourselves before we begin.
Despite finding them to be simple in their complexity, I try to keep communication between my devices as simple as possible. That means avoiding wireless, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the home. My mouse, keyboard, and printer are all USB-connected. My internet, all ethernet cabled up. No IoT stuff like smartwatches, other connected appliances, etc. My fridge will never keep track of its contents, and my cat litter will never log the time my cats last did a poop. I think itās in conveniences like this where the actual pernicious nature of technology use starts to reveal itself.
But anyway, I take this approach in the kitchen, too. For example, the first thing I learned to make for others was cupcakes. Iād been cooking for myself for a while, but it was only ever for myself. Once I developed a good recipe, I started sharing my creations with others.
Then, my family bought an electric hand mixer. I tried it. My cupcakes suddenly didnāt taste as good. Why? Back then, I didnāt understand. It didnāt affect other peopleās baking like it did mine. For example, my fatherās girlfriendās stuff all tasted the exact same as before (not that it was ever great, but still); it was just easier for her to make.
So, I manually mix with wooden spoons and knead with my hands, whether making cupcakes or bread. I manually grind everything with a stone mortar and pestle. (Which, yes, is technology itself, but not as āadvanced.ā) Itās more effort, but no one can replicate the things I make, even when I teach them to do the exact same things. Even my partner, an amazing cook, who taught me every professional technique that I know. I know something is going on there ā itās not that Iām the best cook I know; my partner is (and theyāre good enough to be a chef, so itās hard to compete with that). So I donāt know what it is. But itās something.
That being said, I do use technology in my craft all the time. I print things with my printer; I listen to things via my computer or smartphone and either speakers or headphones; I research, write up, and organise my own writing, books, and other things on my computer; I even use apps to improve my writing or understanding, like Grammarly to improve my English and Google Translate to help me understand things people are saying in other languages; and so on.
Letās get exploring
How can I incorporate these two worlds more? Can I write digital spells? So, a spell must be understood by a computer to be digital. That means any incantations canāt be spoken, they have to be written. (Well, they can, but I have no interest in digitising my voice right now.)
Wait a minute! I do that five days a week. Software engineering is writing words that are turned into computer language and impact the digital realm. Iāve kind of been digital spellcasting this whole time!
Okay, so how can I do this more intentionally?
Can I write a protection spell? First of all, what would such a script do to protect me? It would shield me from harm by others. Okay, many forms of protection are already covered, from firewalls to anti-viruses (not that I use any). They would only protect my computer, but theyāre still there. Theyāre like spiritual guardians but of the digital realms.
Perhaps I should shift my focus to look for ways to make the two realms cross over. I can already do many things with a computer that fulfil what many use spells to do, whether creating opportunities for wealth, hexing others, or spiritually healing people. Iām really struggling to think of something Iād use a spell for that I couldnāt easily do otherwise.
What have other people done, then? Maybe I can get some ideas from there. Theyāve made sigil generators, online tarot readings, and even digital altars.
Could we achieve more with collaborative rituals? Where people can visit some living digital space and contribute their energy towards it and also draw from it. Oh, we are already doing that with the healing circle.
What about a digital spirit guide? Where people can talk to it, ask it to help make spells, and so on. Itās not the most interesting idea, but it could be useful and would let me work on my machine learning. I suppose this kind of exists with AI, but none of them have āa memoryā or the whole personality of being a spiritual guide. So that could be interesting to work on.
My thoughts after
Finding something I can use magick for is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Thereās so much I can already do with technology that Iām not surprised that the modern world has become less interested in magick. After all, why rely on the divine for what we can achieve ourselves? Isnāt that the reason we have free will? So we can take charge of our own lives? (Or do we have it at all? Iām not convinced that we do, but thatās the most common belief.)
Perhaps the digital realm is just another plane of existence. While we exist in the material place, many believe we can visit others, such as the astral, and the experience there is entirely different. They also believe that they can be harmed by other entities in the astral, just as we can be here. So perhaps that parallels the digital more than I originally thought.
On the other hand, perhaps the digital realm is just a combination of the various elements, and Iām more of an elementalist than I previously thought.
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@starborn I love this. I remember one of my teachers at The College of Psychic Studies in London said that spirit and deities love WiFi, they use it all the time to communicate with us. I know Loki loves tech. Really interesting entry 
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Yeah! Iād like that. Give an AI an image- angel, animal, whatever. Let it trawl the internet for wisdom posted in places I wouldnāt think to look, and see what comes out of it. I did see something similar, once, but it misread an attempt to get to know its personality (I didnāt know it was an AI) and answered with an egoic superiority which turned me off. Thus, avoid the image of a deity or oracle.
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Thank you so much but I never get my hands dirty 
MOTE IT BE
Medea
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Aww, but sometimes we need to get dirty to get wise!
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I like it thatās a great idea! I do have a site thatās called Angel talk but itās not AI. Starborn, I really enjoy reading your challenges and feedback and posts youāre quite knowledgeable and why not have a relm thatās digital. The world changes why not the realms. Do they change as well? I guess we have to go there to find out after I practice astral projection a little moreā¦lol.
Blessed Be
Medea
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And where might I visit?
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Iāll drink to thatā¦lol
MOTE IT BE
MEDEA
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