Ostata Alter, Blossoming Spread and New Moon Manifestations

Blessed Be everyone.

In my last blog I talked about a new moon manifestation ritual that I was trying to see if the moon and universe would help me to manifest my intentions for the month ahead. I asked for help with my mental health, finding the right job for me and for the continued energy to keep up my walking regime and I do seem to be moving in the right direction (mostly). When you ask the universe for help the expectation is that obviously that you put work in yourself too and job-wise I have been e-mailing every department in the building offering my services (I just realised how bad that sounds 👀) and I think I am finally getting somewhere - cheers universe!).

In other news I was finally able to build my first Sabbath alter for Ostara this week.

Luckily for me one of the suggested themes for the alter are rabbits to correspond to the fertility theme of the celebrations and as a bunny mum/slave bunny trinkets are not something I lack! Another suggestion that I read for Ostata alters are painted eggs and rather than starting a messy art project in my limited space I decided to put my cross-stitch skills into action and sew one instead.

Of course it was also an excuse for more bunny-related crafts!

Thank you to everyone who gave me such lovely feedback on my Twitter page I'm really excited to start planning my Beltane alter.

Last night as part of my Ostara ritual I used the Blossoming Tarot spread from Urban Witchery's Plannoire, you may remember I raved about it in my Making Magic Happen blog last month. 

Absolutely gorgeous just like the rest of the book

The spread asks us to review how the seeds of our manifestations that we planted at the beginning of the year are developing and what we can do to further nurture them.

I got some pretty interesting feed back from the cards including pulling the Five Of Wands and The Tower

Cheers Tarot Deck

The spread was essentially telling me that whilst I am on the right path with nurturing my seeds and am ready to develop my craft more and perhaps start casting my first spells! (I also pulled The Knight Of Swords, Two Of Wands, King Of Pentacles, The Chariot, The World, The Eight Of Pentacles, The Four Of Wands and The Sun) I obviously have a battle and a big change coming my way, which I'm not looking foward to since The Tower reflects a dramatic, potentially shattering change. Hopefully I'll at least gain wisdom from it as my Tarot Guide suggests. 

Let's see how this pans out.......

Blessed be and have a good weekend. 

Love Jen

XxxX

Urban Witchery - Making Magic Happen

As a newbie witch I'm always on the lookout for anything that will make my learning path easier or more straightforward so when I discovered Urban Witchery and their Plannoire (the website is currently being updated at the moment - exciting things are afoot!). You can also find them on Twitter and Instagram (so so many pretty pictures!)

The Plannoire is a fantastic tool for planning what you want to achieve over the year and tracking the progress of your intentions. There are northern and southern hemisphere editions so witches all over the world are covered!.

To start with it's just so damn pretty, shallow I know but it's absolutely gorgeous!

Making my alter even prettier!

The pages inside have a lovely, glossy texture to them -

The blurring is my phone not the text btw!

I'd describe it as a cross between an organiser, a journal, a book of shadows and a textbook. There's useful dates of the different sabbats, moon phases, tarot spreads to try and explainations of the celebrations throughout the year. 

Wheel of the year for 2019

All the Imbolc info you need!

Astrology for the year ahead.

Right at the beginning we are asked to think about what our intentions for the year ahead are, what do we want to achieve? What are our dreams?

Doodling space

At the beginning of each month we're asked to jot down what intentions we have for the month and also intentions for the lunar cycle - whichever feels more relevant to you (or of course both!). Not only do we note down our intentions but we're also asked how we'll make the intentions happen, what work do we need to put in? It almost works as a project planner as much as a diary.

This week's questions and moon phases

There is a week to a page starting with the week's moon cast and what it means for us; for example this week we have a new moon in Pieces which is focused on our dreams and intuition. There are questions for us to think about and answer over the week such as "What ways can you develop your intuitions and connection to the craft?". 

I'll admit that some week's the questions are easier for me to answer than others, a couple of weeks ago there were questions about how I saw my ideal future and I actually found this really hard to answer because I'm going through a very bad episode at the moment. But on the plus side it was one of the pushes I had to finally go back to counselling and address my problems. There was also a question about how your craft contributes to your community which as a solo witch wasn't really applicable to me but then lead me to create this blog and my @MuddlingWitch Twitter to try and connect with other witches. 

I also find that when I feel stuck or that I'm not moving foward with any of my manifestations I flick back over the past few weeks and look at my answers to previous questions and notice that yes there are little shoots of progress peeking up above the ground that need to be nurtured and encouraged. 

I'm looking foward to getting further through the year and looking back and seeing what progress I've made. 

I also really recommend checking out the Urban Witchery Coven on Facebook, it's full of lovely people who are really supportive and helpful with any questions I've ever had. 

I really hope that a 2020 Plannoire is in the works as mine has already proven invaluable to me and helped this Muddling Witch to see the path ahead. 

Blessed Be

Jen

XxxX

Introduction To My Muddling

Hello lovely people and welcome to my blog all about muddling through the world of witchcraft as a newbie witch.

I wanted to start this ‘sister blog’ to my normal Stitches, Beads & Rock N Roll blog  with it’s various ramblings and document my journey learning about the art of witchcraft and hopefully make some friends along the way ☺ 

In witch (sorry) case I’d better be polite and introduce myself! My name is Jen and I’m a 31 year old Newbie witch living in Sunny (allegedly) Sussex on the south coast of the UK. I’m firmly under the paw of a 10 year old grumpy rabbit called Esme, I’m a massive plane and music geek and a (very) amateur photographer. I also suffer from a lovely cocktail of Borderline Personality Disorder with a dash of OCD. 

I guess Wicca and witchcraft first came onto my radar way back when I was at school, a classmate was complaining in an RE lesson that Wicca wasn’t covered and curious I asked her about it. I naturally ended up with a copy Teen Witch by Silver Ravenwolf. It dropped back off my radar once I’d left college but there was always a ‘something’ there at the back of my mind waiting to be heard.

It was the summer just gone that I felt the urge to explore crystals and learn about tarot cards. I started analyzing how each card made me feel and it’s connotations and compared it to the guide book I had and the impressions I gained from the cards mostly matched up to their ‘correct’ meaning. I particularly connected with the three of cups as it felt like such a joyful card. In fact the first time I attempted a tarot reading for myself last month it was the first card I drew!

I love this card

With the crystals I wanted to find stones that would help with specific problems I had like anxiety, mood imbalance and PMT so ended up buying Quartz, Amethyst and Malachite. I now have quite the collection, I tend to look over crystals in shops and see which stone/s I feel drawn to. I seem to pick up a lot of creativity and psychic energy related stones at the moment – Tiger Eye, Carnelian and Azurite to name a few. I imagine these relate to the learning I’m doing with the cards, runes and my Book Of Shadows.

Malachite

Carnelian

I finally accepted my ‘calling’, sorry for the clunky cliché but I really can’t think of any other way to describe it, after a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon last Autumn and visiting Magic Alley There was such a great vibe in there and I ended up with books, crystals and a dowsing pendulum (Tiger Eye again!) that I seem to be able to encourage to swing quite dramatically! I came out of the shop feeling such great vibes, obviously something clicked then and I’ve been studying ever since.

It's that Tiger Eye again!

Since beginning my journey I've started noticing far more about the world around me. Usually I hate winter and spend the dark months depressed and longing for summer but now I'm trying to follow the advice of Wicca and use the dark months to sow the seeds for my intentions for the year ahead. When I walk to work in the morning I've been noticing the dawn appearing earlier and earlier each day.

Not a bad way to start the day!

I've also set up a small alter in my room, I love that alters can be personalised and changed whenever we like. I'm looking forward to decorating it to correspond to the celebrations through the year, naturally it'll be completely OTT for Samhain (Halloween) my favorite day of the year! 

At the moment my alter has cross-stitched God & Goddess symbols, a cross-stitched pentagram, the candle holder at the back reminds me of sunrays, there are also some stones and crystals, my Book Of Shadows (BOS) and centre stage are my gratitudes for the last lunar cycle. 

I think my favourite thing so far has been that, much like my alter, Wicca is a religion where within reason you can follow your own path and truly make it your own. For example at the last full moon rather than doing a formal ritual I lit candles at my alter and talked to the god and goddess and thanked them for the blessings they had brought over the last lunar cycle, a previous full moon saw me burning a piece of paper with a list of things I wanted to leave behind and blowing the ashes out into the wind. It's a life-long learning process and needs patience and hard work. 

I’ve pretty much been trying to read as many books, watch as many YouTube videos and read as many articles as witchily possible. I'd really love to hear your recommendations for books, channels, social media accounts that you guys like.  

These are a few of my favourite witchy accounts and some books I've found really helpful, interesting and informative. 

Books -

This is a great starter book,
It's detailed without being OTT
and is written with humour.
@TheaSabin

I have these books from Lisa Chamberlain
her books are great for a simple introduction
to magical subjects.

As a witch with pretty severe mental health problems
I brought this book by Lisa Marie Basile.
It's the book equivalent of a cuppa and a hug. 

YouTube -

Jessi Huntenburg her Instagram is here.
Tess Whitehurst

Instagram/Twitter -

Wiccan Tips

My Witchy Diary

Fat Feminist Witch

I also absolutely love MoonChild spiritual emporium for witchy supplies. I've recently ordered some Ostara candles and a beautiful candle holder from them. 

This candle holder is going to look adorable on my alter

Hopefully you've made it to the end of my blog without being bored silly. I'd really love to hear any of your recommendations or advice on witchy matters, you can chat to me on my Instagam or Twitter

Blessed be

Jen

XxxX