šŸƒā€ā™€ļø Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Catch-Up!

I have a cat tarot deck coming tomorrow in the mail (the images were just too cute to resist :cat: :heart:)! I think Iā€™ll share the cards from my first draw and my interpretations.

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Oh, thatā€™s awesome @Kasandra, I canā€™t wait to see them. I love seeing peopleā€™s decks because they are all so gorgeous. I could easily have a problem with collecting decks :rofl:

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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!

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To the Coven,
I missed the moon magic :crescent_moon:
And is the one badge I really wanted.I know what Iā€™ll be doing this weekend! Thank you for this challenge!
Blessed be!
Jeannie

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You are a very creative soul, @Susurrus- Iā€™m looking forward to seeing what you will make! I know youā€™ve been having a lot of fun with your resin works- perhaps you could incorporate the elements (with symbols or colors) into that craft? :sparkles:

Beautiful @Jewitch- I can tell you put a lot of thought into this! :blush: (And thank you very much for the warning and blurs- it helps to keep the forum safe and is much appreciated :pray:). Iā€™m 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 :grin: From another lover of Kitchen Witchery- I am cheering you on! Best of luck and blessed be :sparkling_heart:

Oh, the salt shaker is lovely @AliceInWonderdab ! :salt:

A cat tarot deck sounds adorable, @Kasandra! :heart_eyes_cat: Feel free to share the cards and how your first reading went :flower_playing_cards:

Hooray, @Jeannie1! Wishing you the best of luck with your Moon Magick. Enjoy! :full_moon: :sparkles:

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I didnā€™t 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 Iā€™m excited! I need my daughter to wake up so I can get out there & do some resin!

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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).
Itā€™s also how I invoke my deities. By filling the air with the incense/essential oils theyā€™re associated with.

Foretelling the Future:
The tarot card deck is cuter than I expected! :cat: :heart:
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 ā€œto seek new perspectivesā€, ā€œquestion your motivesā€, ā€œavoid 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? :laughing:) Writing is daunting at times. Sometimes, it feels like a losing battle. But thanks to the lunar Capricorn meditation on this site, Iā€™ve learned to break down this lofty goal into smaller parts: focus on one chapter at a time and soon Iā€™ll 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 didnā€™t shuffle my deck enough? :laughing:

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 Iā€™m 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 Iā€™m 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, thatā€™s the best interpretation I could come up with. Iā€™d love to hear what more experienced tarot readers think!

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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 Iā€™m a beginner & thatā€™s 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!

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Thanks! Have a blessed Ostara, krissie ! :egg::rabbit::cherry_blossom:

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:warning: 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. :warning:

I apologize for the length of this post. Feel free to skip to the bottom for a TLDR summary :sweat_smile:

Challenges chosen:

For my Weekly Witchy Challenge this week, I was glad that it was a Catch-Up Week because Iā€™m just now starting to get more involved in this community. I chose two topics Iā€™m 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 Iā€™ll 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 grandmaā€™s ā€œSno Balls,ā€ but my dad recently had to make a dramatic change to his diet, and I didnā€™t 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 didnā€™t bake the Sno Balls, and am not comfortable sharing my grandmaā€™s recipe, this post wonā€™t have any photos to break up the massive wall of text. :confused:

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 didnā€™t 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 donā€™t 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 grandmaā€™s 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 couldnā€™t 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 Cunninghamā€™s 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 didnā€™t 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 ā€œCakes and Aleā€ portion of ritual work. Therefore, Iā€™m classifying my grandmaā€™s Sno Balls as cakes for the purposes of this post.

In CEWK , Cunningham states that ā€œAll 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 ā€œback in the day.ā€

I could continue rambling about this topic forever, but I should stop here. :sweat_smile:

TLDR: I broke down my grandmaā€™s 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 didnā€™t 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:

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I am happy to have this chance of getting to post in one of the challenges that I missed. I am greatful for any great opportunity that I may have in doing something great. There are many things to be thankful for and being here is one of them :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

For my witchy CHALLENGE Catch up I have decided to do the giving gratitude challenge https://forum.spells8.com/t/weekly-witchy-challenge-giving-gratitude/4051giving.
(Link to the challenge)

I am a lover of poetry and have a collection of my very one, however I have decided to share a poem I have created with you just for this challenge below :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

GRATEFUL, THANKFUL, BLESSED BE

I am grateful for the God and Goddess
The ones that we hold so dear,
Who loves us, guide us and makes us whole
So grateful for this gift of gold.

I am thankful for this gift of life
For the four elements that makes life strive,
They calls us, enhances us, it draws me and you
So thankful, for I am one of the chosen few.

Blessed beyond all measures, I know who I am
A soul of light, full of love, a child of the Devine.
Iā€™m grounded, rounded, created a powerful being.
With a free spirit and harm to none,so mote it be.

I am Grateful, Thankful, Blessedā€¦

Created by ; NA aka NickWick
Live Lā¤ve & LšŸ•Æght the way

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This is a beautiful poem :heart_eyes_cat: Thank you for sharing this with us! :slight_smile:

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Thank you so much for your words of encouragement :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:. Happy you like itā€¦

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I am now posting a second CHALLENGE that I was interested in, I was here with the group then yet it was something I always wanted to do.
The CHALLENGE of Spells and Strings

My string knots was intentend to have all my goals and wishes manifest since it was my first time doing a knot spell I had decided to use the guide of the knot magic steps that I found below:


Photo from: Pinterest.com

I lit a candle meditated on out all my intentions and goals that i wanted to accomplish , I went ahead and ride simple knots into my twine, while I said the follow words at the end.

May all goals and wished manifest
For the better of my highest good,
With harm to none, so mote it be.


Picture of my knot spell string

Not a master of the knots as yet :innocent: but it is the intention behind the knot that matters.

Love & LightšŸ’«

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I saw the ā€œBy knot of one, the spellsā€™ begunā€¦ā€ spell somewhere else and have been wanting to try it out! I may have to now! :star_struck:

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I think now indeed is the right time :joy:

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I just wanted to share an update with my adventures in this weekā€™s challenge that Iā€™ve set for myself to combine the ā€œKitchen Witcheryā€ and ā€œThe Veil Between Worldsā€ challenges. I had a massive breakthrough today.

I was taking a shower and imagining the soap washing away all of my negative energies and the water carrying the negativity down the drain. The words ā€œcross the veilā€ suddenly popped in my head seemingly from nowhere, so I finished rinsing off and sat down and began meditatating. (I knowā€¦ Iā€™m a total water hog ā€“ Iā€™ve been trying to get better about it :see_no_evil: If it makes anyone feel better, we get our water from a private well on our property, so Iā€™m at least not wasting city water :sweat_smile:)

In my meditation, I just kept myself open to whatever happened. Much to my surprise, I got a visit from Genevieve, whose name popped in my head a few months ago as someone who was related to me somehow. I was able to ā€œcross the veilā€ so to speak, and asked Genevieve what she wanted my relationship with her to be. I didnā€™t get much of an answer to that question, but when I asked if she was the one who guides me in my cooking, she said yes! So now I know whoā€™s leading me when Iā€™m cooking :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I felt another presence, and asked what their name was. They said George Washington [insert my family surname here]. I know George Washington [surname redacted] to be my several-times-great paternal grandfather. I asked him what, if any, messages he had for me, and he told me that he and the rest of my ancestors are happy with the person Iā€™ve grown into, and that Iā€™m a great person to carry down the family tradition of being a male with a W-name. (George Washington [surname] went by ā€œWashā€ and ā€œWalshā€ according to my family has said about our history. Wash/Walsh was also the first (to our knowledge) male in the family to go by a name that started with W.)

Needless to say, it was a very moving experience to find out that Genevieve is the one guiding my cooking and that my ancestors are proud of me :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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@AliceInWonderdab , theyā€™re beautiful! Iā€™m the same! Iā€™m all about thrifty and making my own tools as much as possible. Definitely cheaper but with your own created intentionsā€¦
Blessed be.

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Lovely poem @NickWick! Thatā€™s so great! And what a pretty knot spell! Youā€™re going so well!

Wow. Wonderful work @Jewitch! Iā€™ve never had something like that happen to me, youā€™re lucky!

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Iā€™m here! I missed the Of the Element of Water challenge so hereā€™s my answer to it. A tea blessing.

I know that others have written tea blessings but I wanted one of my own for day to day. Here it is:

Goddess of the root and leaves,
Hear me now and listen to me, please!
The water gets stirred and the sugar dissolves,
Let the tea be infused with Your love and resolve.
Bless me with Your patience and donā€™t stray,
Stay by my side throughout the day!
Blessed be!

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