I found an article from Lawnlove.com that made my heart happy! 300 years ago, you could be executed for being assumed to be a witch and today, we have a ranking of the best places in the US to be a witch. The best part? I live an hour away from #9 and 4 hours away from #3! Turns out, I live in #13! Ironically, Texas is very open to the Pagan religion despite its heavy Republican influence. This is just my experience mind you, it likely depends on what city you are in. Because just like 2 of the top 10 best are in Texas, the #1 worst is also in Texas. Lawnlove included a pretty cool image with some best and worsts as well!
Below are the TOP 100 BEST CITIES FOR WITCHES of 2022:
1 New York, NY 2 Los Angeles, CA 3 Houston, TX 4 Chicago, IL 5 Las Vegas, NV 6 San Diego, CA 7 Portland, OR 8 Seattle, WA 9 Austin, TX 10 San Francisco, CA 11 Phoenix, AZ 12 Dallas, TX 13 San Antonio, TX 14 Philadelphia, PA 15 Atlanta, GA 16 New Orleans, LA 17 Denver, CO 18 Orlando, FL 19 Pittsburgh, PA 20 Colorado Springs, CO 21 Miami, FL 22 Tucson, AZ 23 Louisville, KY 24 Albuquerque, NM 25 Jacksonville, FL 26 Nashville, TN 27 Raleigh, NC 28 Tampa, FL 29 San Jose, CA 30 Washington, DC 31 Charlotte, NC 32 Oakland, CA 33 Indianapolis, IN 34 Cincinnati, OH 35 Sacramento, CA 36 Salt Lake City, UT 37 Columbus, OH 38 Charleston, SC 39 Minneapolis, MN 40 Richmond, VA 41 Baltimore, MD 42 Kansas City, MO 43 Virginia Beach, VA 44 Reno, NV 45 Boston, MA 46 Oklahoma City, OK 47 Fort Worth, TX 48 St. Louis, MO 49 Knoxville, TN 50 Lexington, KY 51 Tacoma, WA 52 Santa Rosa, CA 53 Omaha, NE 54 Scottsdale, AZ 55 Long Beach, CA 56 Salem, OR 57 Spokane, WA 58 Dayton, OH 59 St. Petersburg, FL 60 Memphis, TN 61 Mesa, AZ 62 Milwaukee, WI 63 Tulsa, OK 64 Fort Lauderdale, FL 65 Arlington, TX 66 Rochester, NY 67 Cleveland, OH 68 Syracuse, NY 69 Fort Collins, CO 70 Wichita, KS 71 Durham, NC 72 Tempe, AZ 73 Savannah, GA 74 Des Moines, IA 75 Vancouver, WA 76 Aurora, CO 77 Eugene, OR 78 Grand Rapids, MI 79 Rockford, IL 80 Fresno, CA 81 Sioux Falls, SD 82 Greensboro, NC 83 Buffalo, NY 84 Denton, TX 85 Henderson, NV 86 El Paso, TX 87 Chattanooga, TN 87 Hollywood, FL 89 Boise City, ID 90 Bakersfield, CA 91 Plano, TX 92 Huntsville, AL 93 Birmingham, AL 94 Chandler, AZ 95 Tallahassee, FL 96 Riverside, CA 97 Huntington Beach, CA 98 Anchorage, AK 99 Winston-Salem, NC 100 St. Paul, MN
To check out the full list, read the full article. They even include the criteria for which they grade each city on: Overall Score, Covens Rank, Health Rank, Spirituality Rank, and Supplies Rank and where they rank on each of those items. The full article had a ton more information than what I included here. There was no way I could include it all without straight copying the entire page but they did a great job in compiling everything together! I just wanted to summarize a it to show that we, as a religion, are making leaps and bounds of progress despite how we have been portrayed for millennia.
TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE BY LAWN LOVE, CLICK HERE.
Collect objects to use as mediums. The word has many definitions, but in this case, “medium” refers to the substance through which you’ll transmit your bad energy (i.e. your curse). Any of the following items will serve as strong mediums:
Curse victim’s DNA, called taglocks, as this holds their essence which include hair, nails, cigarettes/ cigarette butts, etc.
A poppet which is a small human shaped doll often used to represent the victim.
A picture of the victim or their name written down can also suffice
Urine, blood, saliva (your own) may be added to the jar to help you gain domination over your target
Raw meat and bones
Graveyard soil can be used to drive someone away or drive two people apart. Soil from a fresh grave is the most potent: If you do decide to remove soil from a new grave, ask permission from the departed’s soul and leave an offering — alcohol (e.g., wine poured into the ground), food (e.g., part of your last meal), or money (even a dollar) are standard
gravel
Sulphur
Dead bugs, venomous spiders, wasps, bees
Rusty nails or nails in general, needles, pins, thumb tacks, broken glass, razor blades, or other sharp items can be added to the jar to generally hurt your target
Mirrors (broken or intact) to cause them to reflect on their mistakes or harm them
Red pepper flakes or whole red pepper pods will cause your target to become angry. You could even add hot foot powder.
Vinegar may be used to sour the life of an individual, or to sour the relationship between two people. Cranberry juice can be used used as a substitute for vinegar when cursing.
Rose thorns may be used to cause your target harm through deception (as a beautiful rose looks deceptively soft until it pricks your finger) or to sour love. You can also use burnt rose petals.
Thistles
A match can be added to jars containing paper to fire up your curse whenever you shake or move the jar. You can use a cigarette to burn your anger into the poppet.
Poisonous plants may be added to the jar to cause harm to your target. Just be sure to be safe and careful whenever you’re handling anything poisonous. Hemlock, poison ivy, poppies (for confusion), marigolds, blueberries (for confusion), and mold can all be used.
Sigils
Rum
Coffee grounds to speed up the curse process
Fossils are things that were once alive but now are dead. Most really old things work well because they’ve had a lot of time to gather up negative energy that you can use.
Try to collect your curse ingredients humanely. This is simply a list of ingredients for all variety of curses and hexes.
Note: You don’t need to use every one of these items in a curse. Just one or two of them is fine. But the more items you use, the more thorough your curse can be. But you also only need to choose the items that will make your spell most effective.
If you don’t want to cast revenge spells on your enemies, then you can actually perform a ritual using protection spells on yourself. By the time anyone attacks you with magic, you already have your protection.
Can’t stop thinking about that time someone in a witch group accidentally made chlorine gas 😂
Interested in a topic of your own? Just ask here and I will be glad to post it!
This is the last of the five major tools, also known as the workbook, journal, or spell book. This is the book where all rituals, spells and magical recipes are written before use. Most witches and magic workers have what is called a Grimoire or BoS (Book of Secrets, Book of Shadows, Book of Spells, etc.) A grimoire is a textbook of magic.
It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated from the Old French word grammaire, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. By the 18th century, the term had gained its now common usage in France, and had begun to be used to refer purely to books of magic. Owen Davies presumed this was because “many of them continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts”.
However, the term grimoire later developed into a figure of speech among the French indicating something that was hard to understand. In the 19th century, with the increasing interest in occultism among the British following the publication of Francis Barrett’s The Magus (1801), the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic.
What is a Grimoire? It is a magic book, a life collection of spells, recipes, secrets of nature and sometimes even science, advice, ancient wisdom and instructions. For ages, witches have kept journals on creating charms and incantations, making talismans and recording lessons’ for using these elements in a Book of Shadows. A witch’s Book of Shadows is a treasured and much respected item. The book itself is sacred to the witch who created it. Its contents are mostly kept secret from wandering eyes.
Many of these have been handed down through generations; others are created by new members to the Magic family researching old traditional methods of living and healing. Many of the contents of these books are simple traditional recipes using time honored ingredients often referred to as complementary or alternative medicine.
A Book of Shadows documents your journey on your magical path, and might also include notes on rituals and spells, recipes, crystals, herbalism, deities and supernatural entities, stories and lore, animal symbolism, divination methods, and much more. A Grimoire or Book of Shadows doesn’t need to be a mystical old book that you hand write everything into. It can be though. Some baby witches start with just a notebook and take notes from books they read while beginning their practice. Some use loose leaf paper and a binder that they can rearrange and change out if they mess up and need to rewrite something. Choose something easy to work with when starting out because you can always upgrade later.
Witch Tip: Traditionally, a Book of Shadows was bound and covered in either black leather or other animal skin and containing parchment leaves, even a standard book of high quality drawing paper will suffice.
This beautiful book was available on Etsy! Esty has a LOT to offer.
There are many beautiful books available to buy which are suitable to use as your witch’s journal. There are even those who make pages for your Book of Shadows ready to print out with standard information such as the wheel of the year. Choose a book that suits you well. If you are artistic, choose one with plain pages so you can draw symbols and charts easily. Choose a style you love- if it feels special to you, it will generate more positive energy. Take time choosing your book of shadows and trawl for unusual finds in second hand bookshops.
Some believe the more important works should be translated in magical language for either secrecy (coming from the theory of necessity in The Burning Times), empowerment (as in the more you put into something, the more you receive in return), or simply desire.
A great example of journaling your BoS
But you could even make it a type of journaling with pages printed and pictures glued in. You could cut flowers and press them for your book. Tape in charms and trinkets as you acquire them! The possibilities are endless!
Many modern witches have a digital Book of Shadows. This is particularly handy if your handwriting is messy and difficult to read (guilty) or you want to keep it hidden from prying eyes or are low on space in your home. Fast typing and different font styles can help your finished product to look nicer and more magical as you edit and combine information from your different reading sources before finishing it off with a gothic font.
I am extremely Type A. I tried hard to get an empty BoS and write in it. It didn’t work. Currently, as of April 2020, my Book of Shadows is 247mb accumulating years upon years of research, knowledge, and art. Once I have deemed a topic finished and I will likely not add more to it, I print it out on parchment paper and put in page protectors in a very large leather binder. Page protectors keep ingredients from staining pages. Are page protectors as mythical looking? No. Do I have cats that literally just knocked over my cup of water? Yes.
After finally deciding on what they want to record their magical works in, many baby witches have trouble deciding what it is they should put write. And the answer is: anything and everything you want. Your Grimoire is personal to you and you make this book your own. This book is the ultimate personalized culmination of your craft. You don’t need to put every single bit of witchy knowledge in your book. But you can if you want. I do because I am anal and very Type A and it feels like incomplete information to me if I leave pieces out. I also sometimes reference the information when I am writing fantasy stories (my hobby). But you could also put only what you believe and will practicing. For example: As a Sea Witch, you could put only stones that pertain to water, plants that pertain to water, a description and associations with the element water, mythical creatures and deities associated with water/ oceans/ rivers/ lakes/ wells, bath rituals, and information about shells and sea creatures you would like to use in your craft.
A good choice for a Sea Witch!
Some ideas for your own Book of Shadows to help you get started:
Altars: How and when to set them up, what you’ll need for your altar and rituals
Animals: Their spiritual powers, which animals are connected to you, mythical, spirits, totems, and familiars
Books: Writings you can use as reference when needed (which can include websites)
Colors: Definitions of each color and what they can be used for (including candles, moods, spell types, etc)
Crystals: Their names and uses
Deity: Their powers, how you must worship them, your own beliefs and worship
Herbs, plants, trees: Their medicinal and metaphysical properties
Meditations: Meditations, groundings, and centering
Planets/ Celestial Bodies: Their relation to magic and mythology
Recipes: Especially for those who will use cooking/baking more often in their witchcraft
Rituals: for Sabbats, Esbats, holidays, etc.
Sigils and Symbols: So you can easily reference them for your spells/ rituals
Spells: Ingredients, prayers, incantations, etc.
Witchy History: How and when magic started, how and when your specific sect of witchcraft got started, etc.
Zodiac: Characteristics and dates
Things that are specific and give you power: For example- my familiars are cats and ravens. My flowers are jasmine and roses. My seasons/Sabbats are Autumn and Samhain. My herbs are rosemary and garlic. My celestial body is the moon. My element is water. Etc.
Witchcraft is an old tradition in which lore, rituals, and spells are handed down through the generations, but many witches also keep magic chronicles. Unlike the formal patriarchal religions, witchcraft has evolved with time; ceremonies are influenced by dreams, visions, and insights of the participants. They are not set in stone according to some bygone era. Witchcraft’s legacy as a living, oral tradition may, in some part, be due to the penalties of death, torture, or dispossession, which hung heavily over witches in the past and so nothing was recorded. Thankfully, many of today’s witches live in an age of tolerance and most covens and individuals are able to keep journals and even share their Grimoires.
Historical accounts of books of shadows are often shrouded in death, reflecting the dark times that fell against witchcraft. An Italian legend, for example, tells of a spell book that fell into the hands of the inquisition after its author was burned at the stake. Everyone who read it heard the witch’s screams in their dreams at night.
A more uplifting tale surrounds a spell book from Sussex, England. This book of shadows survived fire and flood, through many generations, keeping alive the legacy of its writers and remains with its coven even today.
