Witch Magic on Screen

Merry meet all,

There is a new Witch movie on the block. This latest magickal movie is a ” The Little Witch is a Swiss-German live-action story about a witch who only wants to cast helpful spells and be nice to humans, instead of being evil as her old, ugly superiors order. This will make her instantly enchanting to the young viewers for whom this is intended. She is a fun girl who likes to soar on her broom, chat with her talking raven, and conjure rainstorms of raisins and balls of yarn. Her big problem, which may make this a bit scary for the youngest audiences, is that the head witches are menacing, in the mold of The Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch of the West. They threaten to turn kids into stone. The overall message is that being good has its rewards as The Little Witch triumphs without succumbing to pressures to behave badly.”

However, the Witch plans to usurp her ugly evil elders. She doesn’t want to turn children to stone. Since I have two young adorable niece and nephew, I can sympathize. I wouldn’t want them harmed either. I can’t wait to see this movie even though I am adult. I don’t care. It is so different from the Witch  movies we are used to. That is why I want to go.

The new Sabrina the witch show is under fire by Witches. We are not so satanic in our practice. The young people who don’t know more about magic and witchcraft will think that that is what we all do. I am not interested in seeing that show or in supporting it. I have been called a devil worshiper on Facebook when it is not even true. That’s thanks to thousands of years of conditioning and brainwashing by the churches and within the last few decades of the Hollywood industry. I hope the show is even soon to be taken off the air. If people want to watch it, and believe the hype and the content of the show, go for it. The Sabrina show has been hotly discussed between me and the witches who work there. We don’t worship the Devil. When will they ever get it? That is hard to say.

Well save your lovely dollaz, munch on popcorn and stay inside. Maybe gather your pals together to enjoy a Witch movie fest. It is cold outdoors. Time to nestle in for the long cold winter. Have fun.

Here is the trailer for The Little Witch movie:

Enjoy

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Family Experiences Scary Supernatural in home

Greetings All,

Yesterday my dear kitty endured an afternoon at the Groomers. She likely believed I sent her there to be tortured. That’s not true. It is just hard for a comb to get through her mats. Ah my dear kitty.

Samhain is still here but Christmas merchandise is filling the stores. I don’t buy into the whole commercialism side of the holidays. I celebrate Yule, which to me has more meaning, more substance. I shall post more here on how to celebrate Yule with style. So stay tuned!!

Here is an eerie tale for you. Curl up and grab your teddy or comfy blanket for protection!!!

Family confronts the supernatural

29th Nov 2011 9:21 AM

WHEN Lavinia Heremaia moved into her home in Point Vernon in the middle of 2009 she knew immediately something wasn’t right.

Despite her feelings she decided to stay in the house and that is now a decision she has come to regret.

Lavinia and her sons Chase, 4, and Jacob, 17, claim they have been experiencing paranormal activity in their home for months.

More Stories

• Sceptic sees the supernatural

It started with Chase telling her about a man he called “Santa” who sometimes came to play with him.

After observing her son’s behavior and listening to her son speak about his new-found friend, Lavinia soon believed that “Santa” wasn’t a pleasant entity to have around – nor did he seem to be just another imaginary friend.

Lavinia said the right side of the house seemed to be the site of the paranormal activity.

Worst affected areas include the kitchen, bathroom, hallway, Jacob’s bedroom and Lavinia’s bedroom.

Lavinia didn’t know what to believe – until early one morning she said the supernatural being paid a visit to her room.

She was standing near her door when she felt something like a strong breeze pushing her back and she was unable to move.

She felt something touch her while she was standing there.

The next thing she knew she was lying on her bed, totally paralyzed.

She could see and hear but was unable to move a single part of her body, except for her eyes.

Lavinia said she tried to speak to the entity to tell it to leave but that was difficult because she could barely move her lips to speak.

It was then that she saw something like a flash of light.

She was able to move again and ran out of her bedroom, into the hall, calling for her sons.

Jacob was always a bit skeptical about what might have been going on in the house.

But that has changed since the family called in a psychic medium.

The psychic medium told the family there was a porthole in Jacob’s room releasing spirits into the home.

She suggested to the family that if Chase was talking about seeing “Santa”, they get out their camera and start snapping shots of the areas around him to see if they could capture an image of the spirit.

Recently when Lavinia was at Zumba, Jacob and his friends were looking after Chase when he started playing hide and seek with the entity.

They started taking photos around the home with a phone – and captured a photo of what appeared to be a man hovering above Jacob as he lay on his bed in his room.

After that, Jacob began to believe that the home really might have supernatural visitors.

After her initial feeling that the house was not a good place, Lavinia started saving up so she and her family could leave.

But several different incidents over the past two years have conspired to keep her and her family in the home.

“It feels like something is trying to keep me here,” she said.

Lavinia has done a little bit of research on the history of the area and knows that South Sea Islanders were brought to what was then known as Port Vernon in the 1800s and often treated badly.

She is also aware that Polson Cemetery is nearby, although she has no idea if those factors have played a role in the strange occurrences in her home.

Lavinia is hoping to get a Catholic priest to come through her home, blessing each room with holy water.

Credit for the article  goes to the Daily News- https://www.warwickdailynews.com.au/news/haunted-house-family-confronts-the-supernatural/1190179/

Did the story scare you? I can’t judge and I may be biased because I experience weird stuff too. Remember to practice shielding to keep the bogeyman away.

Blessings Spiderwitch

2nd Guest Post

Merry meet all,

Today we have another awesome guest post- this one tells us about the amazing number of Witches in North America!!

Number of Americans who practice witchcraft estimated to be as high as 1.5 MILLION

Witches now outnumber Presbyterians in America as number of Pagans soar to 1.5 MILLION – and millennials’ love of yoga and star signs is to blame

• Pew Research Center survey finds there are 1.5 million Wicca or Pagans in U.S.
• That means there are more Wicca or Pagans than there are Presbyterians
• Wicca is a Pagan religion which emerged in Britain in the early 20th century 
• Experts believe that the explosion in the witch population is due to millennial women’s embracing of new-age spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga 

By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com

Published: 01:07 EST, 19 November 2018 | Updated: 09:23 EST, 19 November 2018

The number of self identified witches in America has soared in recent years to 1.5 million.   

A survey by the Pew Research Center found that 0.4 per cent of Americans, between 1 and 1.5 million – identify as Wicca or Pagan, according toQuartz. 

That means there are now more witches in the US than there are Presbyterians who have around 1.4 million adherents.

Experts believe that the explosion in the witch population is due to millennial women’s embracing of new-age spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga. 

Wicca, also called Witchcraft or The Craft, is a Pagan religion which emerged in Britain in the early 20th century. Based on ‘pre-Christian traditions,’ it was popularized by a retired British civil servant named Gerald Gardner throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Wicca adherents praise nature and nature’s gods and goddesses.

They practice outside in parks, gardens or fields.

They endeavor to achieve self-awakening through dancing, singing, chanting, and with the use of herbs and incense.

Witches, Wiccans, and locals gathered at a Brooklyn metaphysical book store (above) on October 21 to perform a hex ritual on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump, and Senator Mitch McConnell

Despite some depictions, it has no connections with Satanism.

The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is often confused with symbols of Satanism.

In fact, the five points represent the elements of nature – earth, air, fire and water – and the spirit, within the eternal circle of life.

Before the Pew study, Trinity College in Connecticut conducted three large-scale studies on religion which found that the Wicca population grew significantly between 1990 and 2008.

In 1990, the Wicca in the U.S. numbered an estimated 8,000. By 2008, the number grew to 340,000.

The United Kingdom is also considered home to a sizable population of Wicca. A 2011 government census found that there are 12,000 Wiccans in England and Wales.

Wicca, also called Witchcraft or The Craft, is a Pagan religion which emerged in Britain in the early 20th century. Wicca adherents endeavor to achieve self-awakening through dancing, singing, chanting, and with the use of herbs and incense

This means they are more open to exploring other faiths and customs outside of the mainstream.

While in decades past the term ‘witch’ has misogynistic connotations and was used a pejorative, modern-day witches have adopted the lifestyle as an expression of their feminism.

Social media has been the forum through which witches and witch influencers can gain a mass following.

There’s The Hoodwitch, a witch influencer with 329,000 followers on Instagram.

The Hoodwitch practices ‘everyday magic for the modern mystic.’

Experts say that one does not need to be a Wicca or Pagan in order to be a witch, meaning that the actual number of those who practice witchcraft may be higher. 

WITCHCRAFT AND THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Salem’s internationally known and famous Witch Lorelei Stathopoloulos uses dragon powder on a candle in her shop on Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts

The word ‘witchcraft’ has three main connotations: the practice of magic or sorcery; the beliefs associated with the Western witch-hunts of the 14th to the 18th century; and varieties of the modern movement called Wicca.

Wicca was first publicized in 1954 by a British civil servant named Gerald Gardner who said the religion dated to an old witch cult that existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe.

Wicca is recognized as an official religion in the United States. 

It is a primarily Western movement of nature worship based on pre-Christian traditions.

The Wiccan witch religion honors the ‘Elements of Nature’ – Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit – and their associated directions – North, East, South, West, Center – in ‘sacred circles’ where rituals are held.

The Wiccan New Year of Samhain is considered a precursor to modern Halloween. 

Today it coincides with Halloween on October 31. 

Historically, it was a Celtic festival held on November 1 where the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to mankind. 

Modern witches say it is a time of year when the ‘veil between the dead and the living is thin.’

Source: Reuters

Blessings Spiderwitch

Guest Post

independent.co.uk

How the medieval witch image has evolved over centuries

---

Flying through the skies on a broomstick, the popular image of a witch is as a predominantly female figure – so much so that the costume has become the go-to Halloween outfit for women and girls alike. But where did this gendered stereotype come from? Part of the answer comes from medieval attitudes towards magic, and the particular behaviours attributed to men and women within the “crime” of witchcraft.

Taking one aspect of the witch’s characterization in popular culture – her association with flight – we can see a transformation in attitudes between the early and later middle ages. In the 11th century, Bishop Burchard of Worms said of certain sinful beliefs:

“Some wicked women, turning back to Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe that in the night hours they ride on certain animals with the pagan goddess Diana and a countless multitude of women, and they cross a great span of the world in the stillness of the dead of night.”

According to Burchard, these women were actually asleep, but were held captive by the devil who deceived their minds in dreams. He also believed that none but the very “stupid and dim witted” could think that these flights had actually taken place.

But by the end of the 15th century views of magic had changed considerably. While many beliefs about women flying through the skies persisted, the perception of them had transformed from one of skepticism to one of fear. The magic night flight became associated with secret gatherings known as “the witches’ sabbath”, involving nefarious acts such as killing babies, taking part in orgies and worshiping the devil.

This suggests that what was originally considered to be a belief held only by women and foolish men was now being taken much more seriously. So what happened to cause such a transformation?

Champion des Dames, broom sticks from the 15th century (Wikimedia Commons)

One explanation offered by historian Michael D Bailey is that at some point during the 14th and 15th centuries, religious officials perhaps unwittingly conflated two distinct traditions: “learned” magic and “common” magic. The common kind of magic required no formal training, was widely known, could be practiced by both men and women and was usually associated with love, sex and healing.

By contrast, learned magic came to Europe from the east and featured in the “magic manuals” that circulated among educated men whom American medievalist Richard Kieckhefer described as members of a “clerical underworld”.

Interestingly, descriptions of humans in flight do appear in these manuals – but in relation to men rather than women. One example is found in a 15th century notebook in which the male author describes riding through the skies on a magically conjured “demon horse”.

Two key differences between this account and the ones associated with women are that the person flying is an educated male and demons are now explicitly involved in the act. By conflating popular beliefs about the night flights of women with the demon-conjuring magic of the clerical underworld, medieval inquisitors began to fear that women would fall prey to the corruption of demons they could not control.

The witch hunter’s handbook (Wikimedia Commons)

Witchcraft and women

While men also feature in the infamous 15th century witch-hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of the Witches), the work has long been recognized as deeply misogynistic. It suggests that women’s perceived lack of intelligence made them submissive to demons. One section reads:

“Just as through the first defect in their [women’s] intelligence they are more prone to abjure the faith; so through their second defect of inordinate passions … they inflict various vengeances through witchcraft. Wherefore it is no wonder that so great a number of witches exist in this sex.”

By the end of the middle ages, a view of women as especially susceptible to witchcraft had emerged. The notion that a witch might travel by broomstick (especially when contrasted with the male who conjures a demon horse on which to ride) underscores the domestic sphere to which women belonged.

The perceived threat to established norms inherent in the idea that women were moving beyond their expected societal roles is also mirrored in a number of the accusations leveled against male witches.

One example, a 13th-century letter by Pope Gregory IX, described a gathering of heretics which was very similar to the later descriptions of the witches’ sabbath. It stated that at orgies, if there were not enough women, men would engage in “depravity” with other men. In doing so, they were seen to become effeminate, subverting the natural laws believed to govern sexuality.

Magic was then, in many ways, viewed by the church as an expression of rebellion against established norms and institutions, including gendered identities.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

The idea that women might have been dabbling with the demonic magic previously associated with educated males, however inaccurate it may have been, was frightening. Neither men nor women were allowed to engage with demons, but while men stood a chance at resisting demonic control because of their education, women did not.

Their perceived lack of intelligence, together with contemporary notions regarding their “passions”, meant that they were understood as more likely to make pacts of “fidelity to devils” whom they could not control – so in the eyes of the medieval church, women were more easily disposed to witchcraft than men.

Jennifer Farrell is a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Exeter. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)”

Good thing those days are over. The Church truly does hate women. I hate to ask why though compelled to do so at the same time. I like to think women are more disposed to witchcraft than men because we are more suited for it. Men are not in touch with their intuition at all. Witchcraft requires that in order for it to work. It requires a certain je ne sais quoi, n’est pas? Witchcraft makes sense to women. We can get that job done- whether it’s a healing or love spell. There is a good reason why so many gay people flock to witchcraft that goes way beyond them wanting magic in their lives. They could be more disposed for it, and are in touch with a certain side of themselves that makes them successful at it.

Regardless of who you are, or your personal background, allow magic into your life. Never miss or deny yourself a moment of it.

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Shielding and Grounding

Merry meet all,

I have reviewed my posts and realized something. I have never truly and deeply explained how shielding is done. The other posts explain using tools. This time, you simply sit and meditate. Yup the only tool, the most powerful tool is your mind. So get a coffee and sit back down here. 

Now get comfortable at your altar or wherever you are seated. Close your eyes and quiet your mind. Take a deep breath each for mind, body and spirit. Concentrate on creating in your mind a shield around yourself. Visualize a shield around yourself. Imagine it around your whole body from the top of your head to your toes. Imagine it expanding around you, blocking out anything else. Imagine it growing in light and form. You may at this point discover you are tingling. That means it is working. It can be any color, light or texture. It can be in layers. Imagine the shield can expand away from your body, is in your body and protects you. The shield can be any form you choose. That can range from a beehive to a sphere of light or a sparkly white aura. Try to concentrate on a clear bright aura to repel the unwanted energies. See in your mind your shielding radiating around your body and glowing and indeed shielding you. Now if you practice this, you will get better at it and repel bad energies. You will feel more confident. This can be googled. There are meditations online to follow. 

Remember to be grounded- imagining roots coming from your feet or root chakra into the earth. The roots draw up energy and that connects you or roots you to the earth. Once you get good at this stuff, you will start to feel different. Only in a good way. 

Believe that the shield exists. Faith and believing it exists instead of going half ass about it is the key. Believe it will shield you. Feel the shield around you. If you feel goosebumps, that may be the shield you created. I have envisioned a dragon’s egg around me and a sparkly white aura. The aura expands around me. It radiates so much light nothing dark could affect it. This is the point of shielding. 

Practice shielding regularly. When you get good at that, then try adding textures and layers to the shield. You can color each layer of your aura depending on your intention. Pink and white are good, but darker colors can be used, depending on your intention. If you have a situation coming up, that makes you feel upset, then try a shield with a thicker texture and darker color. The situation you are in can help determine what type of shield you need. If your boss at work upsets you, then try a thick dark shield. Bear in mind we are all responsible for our own energy too. Make sure you have a clear intention for a shield because it can backfire if you are not careful. 

You can even lock a shield onto an object. For example, keys, a diary you want to keep away from prying eyes, your wallet- to attract riches!. It can be anything. The shield can be anything you want it to be. It should be what works for you. Also if you are at work, and your colleagues try to one up themselves around you, seriously try this trick. Put an open jar or glass of water on your desk. It will absorb the negativity from them. They don’t need to know what the water is there for. 

A shield can defend you from unwanted nasty otherworldly entities.  You are truly empowered when you can shield yourself. The shield deflects them and angers them. They can’t feed off you if they can’t get to you. That is what you want. It’s like you taste bad. Insects defend themselves by tasting bad to other predatory insects. This is the same idea. I have spirits around me but they don’t succeed in feeding off of me or hanging around. I can really deflect their energy.  If you continue to practice how to shield, then you will get good at it. You will be empowered. It is harder for anything to mess with you. They find someone else to feed off of once they can’t get what they want from you. 

Again, sit and meditate with your eyes closed.  Do the deep breathing, concentrating and visualizing again. Concentrate on a shield around yourself. A shield is not a physical matter. It is what you meditate on but a shield can still be effective. See the shield around you deflecting the entity. It will back off because you are sending a message to it for it to back off. Keep the image of the shield in your mind. A shield is a barrier around you. Now it is up to you for how long you keep the shield you. But you won’t live in fear, you will be strengthened. White light is as powerful as black. If you want to deflect, and still use a black shield, then use it with care. If they are trying to feed off of you, they have enough of their own dark energy and don’t need more from you. Once you start shielding yourself, you have to maintain it. 

I hope this posts helps my readers understand shielding and why shielding is important. I have mixed feelings about whether witchcraft should be elite or not. I think everyone should know about shielding. It is so helpful and so is grounding and centering. I think this information should be shared with muggles. Empowerment is a good thing! So why not let others know right? How are you going to practice and know how to protect yourselves unless you know this stuff? That is how I look at it. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Check out these links for more information!

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/12/the-surreal-and-scary-world-of-dream-demons/?fbclid=IwAR15C3uwGu54xsOQDOxtUPhXfRTIn3KMbnpEX8UDfoP7x91rLVgvxECacJw

http://astralhq.com/demonic-astral-projection/?fbclid=IwAR21PRl-g3tFrfWug34FbWPulZFkANrt4aJu1iuUDUaMItwKfryi0EtiKhA