@AliceInWonderdab Those are great pieces & thrifty! I do the same I try to use what I have or can make. I have been gifted items too!
@Kasandra oooā¦ tough choices there! I thoroughly enjoyed the elementals, but the foretelling challenge was fun too! I canāt wait to see what you choose!
Canāt wait to see your entries, @Amethyst, @MeganB, and @ana6! Good luck 
Youāre very welcome @Susurrus- Iām looking forward to seeing your elemental magick 
Beautiful, @AliceInWonderdab - I love how you choose things that have such deep meaning for you (and were free to acquire!). You a very resourceful thrifty witch!
No worries at all, @Kasandra! Life does have a habit of keeping us busy, so every ten challenges is another Catch-Up to give everyone a chance at any challenges they missed 
. I canāt wait to see what you choose to do! 
Lovely altar @Christina4! Your array of crystals is stunning, and I love the star smiling down on the arrangement 
Well done!
I know what I did for the elements when the challenges were for each one, so Iām trying to think of how to incorporate those challenges into the elemental mastery. I may have to go in a different direction from the signs. Iām hoping that I figure something out with them though. Iām still having somewhat of a creative block this week. I think itās just busy & I have so much else going on. It will come to me!
Youāll come up with something good. I have faith in you!
Disclaimer / trigger warning: This post contains content about death. I will blur the portions with this content, but please feel free to skip reading this post if it will make you uncomfortable.
I hope everyoneās having a terrific Thursday! This will be my first Weekly Witchy Challenge, so Iām glad this weekās theme is a catch-up! 
There are so many of the previous challenges that I want to do (read: I want to do all of them)! However, Iām going to choose two because I came up with a way to weave them together into one āmaster work,ā for lack of a better term.
The first challenge I want to explore is the āVeil Between Worldsā challenge. I will be combining this with the āKitchen Witcheryā challenge.
First and foremost, I have always been obsessed with cooking, and I collect cookbooks ā Iāve lost count of how many I have, but Iād say a conservative estimate would be that I have at least 50. I have always used cooking and baking to share my love that I have for my family and friends, even before I was aware of the concept of kitchen witchery and putting intent into recipes. Naturally, this is a great first challenge for me to start getting more involved with this amazing community! 
I chose āThe Veil Between Worldsā as a second challenge that I want to explore. Ever since I was little, Iāve been very sensitive to different energies, and have had several āghostā encounters. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to explore this further, so I picked up a copy of Bucklandās Book of Spirit Communication, and it insprired me to delve even deeper. Since I made that decision to really hit the ground running and explore connecting with the āSpirit realmā (for lack of better words), I have been even more sensitive to the presence of other energies.
One of the most moving (?) experiences was the other day during one of my meditations. I suddenly felt this shift in energy and the name Genevieve popped into my head. I got the impression that this Genevieve was somehow related to me through my dadās side of the family. After my meditation, I asked my mom whether there were any Genevieves on Dadās side of the family, and she siad that there was, but that she couldnāt remember what her relation was to my dad.
Needless to say, that had me hooked.
My goal for this week is to dive deeper into both kitchen witchery and spirit contact. I plan on doing this to connect to the three parts of my family: my paternal side, my momās biological family, and my momās adopted family. Food, to me, is a way of passing down love, memories, and rememberance of generations past.
Several years ago, my paternal grandma was murdered by her doctor. (I wonāt go into details, but if youāre curious, look up news stories about Dr. Husel in Columbus, OH.) I feel like I havenāt really had any true closure regarding her death. I feel that my mourning process isnāt complete, and Iām looking for ways to get through the rest of the process.
At the expense of rambling further, TLDR: Iām going to pull recipes from my family recipe collections and use them as a method of attempting to connect with my family members who have passed, as well as my ancestors in general. During this challenge, I am going to learn about the magickal propertis of the various ingredients I am cooking with, really put my energies into my cooking, and use cooking to help facilitate contact with those who have passed.
I look forward to seeing what yāall are doing, learning, and experiencing during this weekās witchy challenge!
Iām sorry that you havenāt gotten over the passing of your loved one! I can relate. I canāt get closure of the loss of my grandparents. They died so close together and I was pregnant and I was double emotionAl. But if you need to talk, Iām here, Iām going through the same thing.
Thank you for sharing your experience and for the offer ā Iām here if you need someone to talk/vent to also 
I appreciate that!! 
I have a cat tarot deck coming tomorrow in the mail (the images were just too cute to resist 
)! I think Iāll share the cards from my first draw and my interpretations.
Oh, thatās awesome @Kasandra, I canāt wait to see them. I love seeing peopleās decks because they are all so gorgeous. I could easily have a problem with collecting decks 
What a good idea! Food can trigger so many memories for us, the taste and smells tripping synapses in your brain. I hope this works for you @Jewitch!
To the Coven,
I missed the moon magic 
And is the one badge I really wanted.I know what Iāll be doing this weekend! Thank you for this challenge!
Blessed be!
Jeannie
You are a very creative soul, @Susurrus- Iām looking forward to seeing what you will make! I know youāve been having a lot of fun with your resin works- perhaps you could incorporate the elements (with symbols or colors) into that craft?
Beautiful @Jewitch- I can tell you put a lot of thought into this! (And thank you very much for the warning and blurs- it helps to keep the forum safe and is much appreciated 
). Iām so sorry for what happened to your grandmother, Wade. I hope you are able to connect with warm memories of your family and perhaps find the mysterious link between you, your family, and Genevieve From another lover of Kitchen Witchery- I am cheering you on! Best of luck and blessed be
Oh, the salt shaker is lovely @AliceInWonderdab ! 
A cat tarot deck sounds adorable, @Kasandra! Feel free to share the cards and how your first reading went 
Hooray, @Jeannie1! Wishing you the best of luck with your Moon Magick. Enjoy! 
I didnāt even think of that, I have a zodiac candle holder with all of them & zodiac dish with a cover that I can make. I will have to do that today so I can get it set & painted before Monday. Oooā¦ now Iām excited! I need my daughter to wake up so I can get out there & do some resin!
Of the Elemental Air:
The best I could think of for air magic is diffusing rosemary essential oil to purify the air around my altar (and in turn my deck).
Itās also how I invoke my deities. By filling the air with the incense/essential oils theyāre associated with.
Foretelling the Future:
The tarot card deck is cuter than I expected! 
After I blessed my deck, I did drew a single card the day.
Nine of Wands Reversed:
When the Nine of Wands is in reverse, you may need āto seek new perspectivesā, āquestion your motivesā, āavoid a situations that seem like a losing battle.ā
For about a year, I have been working on a novel, which is one of four currently planned books (there may be more or less, who knows? 
) Writing is daunting at times. Sometimes, it feels like a losing battle. But thanks to the lunar Capricorn meditation on this site, Iāve learned to break down this lofty goal into smaller parts: focus on one chapter at a time and soon Iāll have a finished book!
For the three card spread, I drew the King of Pentacles, the Queen of Pentacles, and the Knight of Pentacles in upright.
Seems unlikely that I would draw these three cards, especially in that order. Maybe I didnāt shuffle my deck enough?
But anyway, the King of Pentacles suggests that you know how to plan accordingly to manifest your goals. Successfully, that is.
In regards to my book, could that mean that Iām doing all I can to finish it?
The Queen of Pentacles suggests that you know how to balance your home and work life. Not entirely sure how this pertains to writing my book. On the other hand, my parents have health problems and need my assistance in some matters. Maybe Iām able to find the time, balance, between writing my book, working, practicing my Craft, and caring for them?
And finally, the Knight of Pentacles. This card was a bit easier for me to interpret. If I continue doing what I am doing, I will surely reach my goal of finishing my book!
Well, as a beginning tarot reader, thatās the best interpretation I could come up with. Iād love to hear what more experienced tarot readers think!
I love that deck. As I am a beginner with tarot also I think you are ready for the next cycle of your life to start & you know what you need to go there. You have everything you need & at the ready! Seriously Iām a beginner & thatās just what they told me when I looked at them. I could be way off.
Great interpretation though! I really like it. You did a great job! I hope you have a great Ostara!
Thanks! Have a blessed Ostara, krissie ! 
Content/trigger warning: This post contains content about death. If this will make you uncomfortable, please feel free to skip over this post. I will blur any portions that discuss this topic.
I apologize for the length of this post. Feel free to skip to the bottom for a TLDR summary 
Challenges chosen:
For my Weekly Witchy Challenge this week, I was glad that it was a Catch-Up Week because Iām just now starting to get more involved in this community. I chose two topics Iām most interested in at the moment: kitchen witchery and communicating with, and honoring, those on The Other Side.
My main goal for choosing these two topics was to combine them to help me continue through my process of mourning the loss of my paternal grandma who was murdered by her doctor several years ago.
I must admit, this challenge was a bit more difficult for me than I anticipated it to be. I ended up having to modify my plans slightly to be able to make it work for my current circumstances, so Iāll have to circle back when the weather gets nicer and my circumstances change a bit.
I wanted to bake a batch of my late paternal grandmaās āSno Balls,ā but my dad recently had to make a dramatic change to his diet, and I didnāt bake the Sno Balls as planned; I wanted to be supportive of his recent dietary restrictions. Instead, I printed out a copy of her recipe and used it as a focal point for several meditation sessions.
Unfortunately, since I didnāt bake the Sno Balls, and am not comfortable sharing my grandmaās recipe, this post wonāt have any photos to break up the massive wall of text. 
During these meditation sessions, I meditated on her loving intention behind writing down the recipe, the memories I have of eating the Sno Balls made by her, and the time I got to spend with her before she passed. I was trying to open myself up to a visit from her. In a way, I felt her love enveloping me.
I didnāt get the one-on-one communication-type-of-visit I was really hoping for, but I did feel as if she was channeling her love for her family through the recipe, almost as if it were a type of sigil. I donāt feel comfortable sharing her recipe because that kind of stuff is very special, if not sacred, to me, but here is a recipe that is very similar to her Sno Balls.
When I was researching the correspondences of the main ingredients in my grandmaās Sno Balls, my connection with the recipe deepened profoundly.
Without going into too much personal family history detail, my paternal grandma grew up extremely poor. And when I say poor, I mean she had around $150 per month (if I remember correctly) to survive on poor. So poor that when she was a kid, she couldnāt afford to buy a single piece of chewing gum, so during the summer, she would pick tar off the road and chew it.
That being said, when she got older and gained financial stability, pecans were one of her favorite foods. She would cram as many pecans as she possibly could into her Sno Balls while allowing them to still hold together once baked.
According to Cunninghamās Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen ( CEWK ) by Scott Cunningham, pecans are associated with money and employment. I find it fascinating that my grandma who grew up in extreme poverty was so drawn to a nut that is associated with that which she didnāt have until her early adulthood.
Today, most Americans would classify these Sno Balls as cookies. However, they are not flattened like the cookies mentioned in CEWK (p. 68), and they are very similar to the Crescent Cakes on page 161 of Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. Crescent Cakes and similar baked goods are often used in the āCakes and Aleā portion of ritual work. Therefore, Iām classifying my grandmaās Sno Balls as cakes for the purposes of this post.
In CEWK , Cunningham states that āAll cakes ā¦ are ruled by Venus and the element of water, and so are imbued with loving energiesā (p. 62). These Sno Balls were staples of any of my family get togethers, regardless of the season. They were always lovingly offered to us by my grandma.
In addition to the general association of cakes with love, sugar itself is also associated with love ( CEWK , p. 158). These cakes were lovingly rolled in powdered sugar, as if the powdered sugar was an extra layer of love. In addition, the sugar and butter used to make these little balls of love were heavily rationed during the World War II era, greatly increasing the strength of the intention of love when these were prepared āback in the day.ā
I could continue rambling about this topic forever, but I should stop here.
TLDR: I broke down my grandmaās recipe into its component parts and meditated on the meaning of the ingredients as they relate to the recipe and my family history. I attempted to open myself up to the stereotypical communication contact with my late grandma while meditating on one of her recipes. I didnāt get that stereotypical contact, but I did get a sense of her love, as well as a deeper appreciation of the many meanings and emotions behind her recipe. I began researching the magickal properties of common ingredients; in this case, sugar, butter, and pecans. Through my interest in kitchen witchery, I deepened my bond with my late grandma.
I also set out to learn more about when The Veil Between Worlds thinned, but most of the information I could find other than a discussion on here about the Veil also thinning around Ostara focused solely on the thinning around Samhain.
Other Sources:
