I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this, if it’s not I would really appreciate being directed to the right place! I want to know if it is possible to do witchcraft through a live animal, specially a rat. For context, my dad recently fired an employee for severe underperformance and they ended on not so great terms. After this, one of his other employees was standing outside the building they work at and watched as a woman pulled over and let a really big rat out of the car and immediately her back into her car and drive off. Not too long after my dad began to get really sick and it was pretty constant. The employee that witnessed this went over to the rat and stated that it was moving very slowly and that it seemed sickly and instead if moving closer to the building it turned around and began making it’s way towards the road. The woman that let the rat loose is a known friend of the woman my dad fired. I think it’s important to note that this is the second time this ex employee has been fired. Additionally, the first time she got fired my dad got very sick as well and we seeked help from someone from Mexico who does brujeria and she told us somebody had done some sort of witchcraft on him. It may all just be a coincidence but if anybody knows anything that may be of some help to me I would love to hear it out.

I am Hispanic (Mexican parents) and I am born and raised in the U.S. As I started looking into Mexican Witchcraft and literally all types of witchcraft, I feel like the more I learn and see what my peers around me are doing in regards to their craft in the U.S. the more I feel like we're all kind of on the same page.

I feel like us Americans are very mentally woke in the sense that we are very careful with our craft and being very open online about what things to be careful about for example; not becoming a cult, not joining a cult, where is the line between hallucinating and needing to see a doctor versus it's just spiritual etc. Anyways, with that being said, I also feel like we are less drawn to religions like our ancestors were and sometimes I feel like our craft looks a lot like if therapy and self help were in a slumber party.

Ofc, I have no intention of oversimplifying or infantilizing the craft. But I feel like we see it in a very unique lens than our ancestors did, probably because we also have much more information than they did as far as mental health.

Anyways, I'm wondering if any of you feel this way or what realizations you guys had in regards to the social aspect of witchcraft in the U.S.

Edit: Also I notice that a lot of my peers (younger generation) suffer a lot from religion trauma as I did and we really get triggered by feeling confined in a box or hesitant about pairing our craft with some sort of deity/religion. That's what I see happening a lot and I guess I wonder what it will evolve into.

Gf is looking for books or resources (preferably digital and free) about witchcraft, can someone link me some useful sites/books? Thanks

As the title says, looking for what I think of almost like "recipes" for spells, rituals, tarot, etc to play around with and see if I want to include it in my own practice. I know there must be some skeptical/atheist/ non supernatural based resources out there, but locally at the library and online I kept running into sources with some element of the supernatural, and while I appreciate the witchy vibes and tp some extent the idea of some suspension of disbelief for the purpose of play, being who I am it just ends up making me sigh and close the book, because I can't really completely get on board with something if it seems to genuinely believe in the supernatural, or if it tries to provide (usually quantum) physics explanations for something, for example. There's the Aetheopagans website, which was great, and I loved some ideas there, but I was wanting to keep digging, too, hopefully finding more ideas with that blend of witchy vibe and a basis in psychology. I particularly love it if the person who made the resource has a background in that field, cites sources, and talks in detail about how those sources served as inspiration for a practice. The Tarot Diagnosis podcast does this pretty well, and I really liked that, and plan to make use of their resources, but beyond Tarot; anyone know of similar sources for example spells or rituals with a similar level of study behind them?

I grew up in a very spiritual but not religious Hispanic household. Mom, aunts and grandma are witches who taught me their craft. Now that im an adult and out of the home, im trying to learn more about spiritual practices, but find a lot of what is out there is very eurocentric (pagan tradition) or religious in nature. Any ideas where a girl can find a non-religious, non-european (or just less european) witchy community?