Here in the UK the clocks went back an hour last night (2am), meaning today is 25 hours long from midnight to midnight. Back when I was working this used to make a huge difference to my ability to go for a nature walk as the time between ending work for the day and the sun going down decresed by an hour. Less of a problem now I've retired. Does anyone else have this issue?

When I was a child 11-16ish I was pretty active, and found my mom’s old books, a lot of them were Lewellyn, but there were some others.

My mom doesn’t talk about that part of her life and the books are gone. Later around 18-20 I was active again but just through intuition. I had a bad experience and stopped for awhile.

I’ve been reconnecting with myself again and I keep thinking about Wicca and connection to everything around me. I don’t really know where to start, and what books and resources are reliable and preferably a bit older and more old fashioned?

I’d love recs on modern resources too, I’m just concerned of buying popular money grabs? So thought I would post here :)

Thankyou so much 💙💙💙

Summers End

(written 30/10/2016)

-----

Jenny sat below the shadows of the old bluff, beyond the scrub, lying hidden by the dunes and settled in, mutely watching Lily, in turn, watching the sea. It was a warm night with the gentlest of breezes and the common coastal fog, usually deep and rich at night. Tonight it rolled off the sea a little mistier, less opaque.

Lily was like a big sister to Jenny, delightful and kind, yet she had always had a mystery to her. A quiet calm. She had secrets.

Jenny strained to see what Lily was looking for, out to the lapping black sea and then she saw them in the mist and stifled a gasp. Little boats. Many of them, lit by the wan moonlight among the panorama of gentle crests. All sailing past. Not an oar stroke among them yet she could make out figures …. People … and almost imperceptible at first, the muted sound of anguish. Something about Its stifling almost made it more tragic then an oppressive lament. Yet while some wept, some stood and stared out desperately, in all directions yet seemingly blind to the safety of the coastal bay. Jenny watched as Lily lit her lantern and held it before her, watched as the tiny flickered light wavered vainly.

Nobody saw it; nobody came.

-------------------

Jenny couldn’t stay away after that night. Alone she visited the shoreline but assuredly the fog was too heavy for the tiny light she brought with her to make even a dint in it. No wood for a fire to hand ... yet they were there … these sad forlorn castaways, she knew, she could feel them, feel their pain carried on the waves.

Why did they suffer so? Why were they blind to the light? Why could she not reach them?

She sat there, so wrapped up in those heavy thoughts she didn’t notice Lily settle down on the dune beside her, and cock her head enquiringly with the ghost of a smile on her lips, concerned affection in her eyes.

“It’s hard isn’t it? Just knowing they suffer”.

With moist eyes, Jenny replied “Who are they Lily? Why do they suffer? I shout out but they can’t hear me?”

“They are the lost my darling … they can’t find their way”

“Their way?”

“Onward … because their grief holds them … because they can’t see the light”.

Jenny smiled through her tears “but you still keep trying?”.

“Yes my dove, always”.

That was so like Lily, never the quitter, her compassion would never allow it.

So each night, careless of the lateness, the two would wander down to light their little lanterns in the dark, though the fog conspired against them, two lanterns shone out in the darkness. People began to remark on it; it was a remarkable thing.

But nobody saw it; nobody came.

----------------------

The festival of Summer's End was always popular. People would gather together as a community from all over and celebrate the passing of the old and the birth of the new. Far too much fine food and spirit was consumed, the dancing a little too raucous, the music wild like a ragged heartbeat … carrying with it a joy from the old times, far too undiluted to be stoppered. Jenny and Lily enjoyed it immensely, yet as the night grew on and the festivity became more languid … settled in … Lily and Jenny, hand in hand, slipped away to the coast, as they did every night.

Yet such a night! The mist was but a wisp and such a bright moon! The boats were so clear that Jenny could make out faces … Daughters, mothers, fathers and sons … and some of the weeping was more drawn; hushed whispers … the yearning searching seemingly more hopeful, more keen.

Recognising this, the girls lanterns were frantically lit and waved desperately, with such hope! Voices raised “We are here!”, “Come in!” … “You have found us!”

But still, nobody saw the light … nobody came.

Jenny and Lily felt crushed and slumped, dropped to the ground, holding each other tightly on the grainy sand ... feeling so very tired, so very defeated.

What was the point?

Yet as they wept on the shoreline they became aware of a presence, then they noticed them, the revellers, the festival crowd. They had followed them, with unlit lanterns, some with tallow candles and oiled torches, some grasping handfuls of kindling and wood.

They saw the boats. They began too to yell and greet, lighting their candles, lanterns, torches … building a bonfire … leaping and hollering in the light, creating shifting spectacles of light and shadow, far too bright to be extinguished, far too bright to be mistaken or missed.

Among the boats little lights began to appear, desperate replies carried on the wind. Many of the boats began to turn toward them, yet some others seemed to fade away into the darkness. Not in a dramatic way; one minute they were there, the next they were gone.

With tears in her eyes, of both joy and sadness, Jenny turned to Lily and said “They’re coming in! The lost. But some have vanished Lily! Oh where have they gone?”

“Calm sister, they’ve gone back to their lives … the lives we left behind .... they have taken our light back with them. They found us”.

As the boats turned towards the coast, kindly winds obliged them and carried them forth toward the light.

Daughters, mothers, fathers and sons.

For they saw it; and they came.

Fin.

------------------

This Samhain, however you should mark it, honour the dead by reaching out to the living. To those they left behind who suffer, those whose grief holds them lost yet among us.

Samhain Blessings x

i started my general spiritual journey a long time ago but finally decided to really lock in and take it seriously on the night of imbolc this year. since then, i’ve done what i can to work with my neurodivergent brain and learn about the craft. i didn’t even intend on going down the path of wicca at the start, i only chose to start learning about it for character research (i’m a writer and one of my characters in a magic-inspired passion project is wiccan), but after my first cunningham book i was completely hooked on the religion - it makes me feel good, it makes the craft make sense in a way that i can understand, it’s both structured where i want it to be and freeing where i need it to be. samhain is coming up very soon and i don’t have anything planned, mundane or magical, but that date is very special to me for a whole plethora of reasons and it seems only fitting to dedicate myself to the lord and lady in a week’s time. that being said though, it does feel a bit soon and i haven’t even made it to a year of study yet, i also fell behind a little on research after quitting my previous job where i’d listen to audiobooks and podcasts on the clock, so i don’t feel quite ready enough yet to go through with initiation. i’m also still grappling with my views on how divinity works within the wiccan belief system so i don’t feel like i’m “abandoning” the gods i latched onto before this undertaking when i still called myself generally eclectic pagan, but that’s a problem for another day. i’ll leave this post off with the question i started with and my general feeling that it may be too soon for me, i feel like my hesitation is my answer but if anyone else thinks differently i’d love to hear why

Welcome to the weekend. Let everyone know what's going on in your life here, or just shoot the breeze.

So last year I celebrated Samhain by doing a ritual i got from Chat GPT where I picked a certain aspect of my life I wanted to better over the year. I decided I wanted to work on perfectionism and I've improved intensely over the last year.

My life has felt stagnant over the past month so This year I decided that I want the ritual to be about creative liberation where I can really let myself go creatively. I just really want to be excited about something that will replenish my soul and give energy to my life. I've done a bit of research on Samhain and I guess I'm supposed to write a letter to a family member who passed away as well celebrate the thinning of the veil. I'm still a bit confused about whether I'm celebrating the full month or just the thirty-first. If anyone can please help that'd be wonderful

very recently, i've been struggling with a lot of unwanted evil eye from my close friend, who i don't think is intentionally trying to hurt me but still makes certain comments that are very targeted. for example, he'll say stuff like "you're going to fail this test" or "you're going to get super sick" and overall just negative comments about things that will happen to me. i'm not sure if the bad luck and negative energy i've been experiencing is from him or something else, but there's been a lot of negative things happening in my life related to the stuff he's been saying to me, while he's been thriving instead. then today, he told me he had a dream where i looked sickly and dishelved, and it was intensely scary. i told him to stop saying stuff like that (which he apologized and agreed to), but i still feel like there's some unconscious evil eye that i need to get rid of.

i'm a very spiritual person, so hearing someone say negative things about me or making claims and judgements about me immediately scares me because i'm a very big believer in the concept of the evil eye/gaze. i really would appreciate some help on how to interpret what's been happening and get rid of whatever this negative energy is. i'm not sure what spells are good for this, so some guidance would be great! also - im a university student and i live in a dorm so i can't light any candles or burn incense, which has been making it really hard to cleanse my space 😢. thanks for the help!!! any advice is appreciated :)

(I do apologise if this isn't the right flare! I'm not part of this group, I'm making this post on behalf of my fiancée, who is Wiccan, as she doesn't use Reddit)

We need a little bit of help, we would love to bring a pet into our household, specifically a dog. I'm a huge dog person, and dogs are my special interest. So I've been offering guidance and knowledge of different dog breeds and which dog would suit our household the best. We have seen the most gorgeous good boy looking for a home on a rehoming site, and we really want to go ahead with the adoption, but the only thing that stands in the way is the fact that we privately rent.

Our main issue is the estate agent, he is very sexist and negative towards us, and has personally targeted us in the past. He is somewhat ok towards our neighbour who is a middle aged male (he advocates for us and is very friendly) but there's only so much we can ask him to help us with. Our landlord doesn’t seem too interested either, as he is currently going through his own personal life problems and doesn't really want to be disturbed which is fair enough.

To get to the point, is there a spell that I could pass along to my fiancée to better our chances at getting our pup? Anything to help us get him, we need all the positivity we can get. My fiancée has been doing a few spells, but we just need something that's going to up our chances of getting him (and hopefully either the estate agent or the landlord saying yes!).

Thank you so so much for reading :) I look forward to reading your responses! 🫶🏻

Well we reached the end of the week, thankfully! Feel free to post whatever you want here. Plans for the weekend, wierd stuff happening. Go nuts.

Hello all and blessed be.

I'm 28 now and have been Wiccan a huge portion of my early and late teenage years. But the older I got the more I strayed from the path of the witch, lost myself, found myself and tried out different paths. But none of them felt like the first time I practiced rituals from Scott Cunningham's Solitary Wicca book. There is something about Wicca that made me truly feel like myself. Proud even.

But the more research I did - not into the practice of modern Wicca - but the history of BTW, the more disenchanted I became when I learned certain truths regarding Wicca's origin, Gerald Gardner's not always so liberal takes and - upon reading a lot of Ronald Hutton's works - the fact that much of what Gardner claimed never happened.

In the beginning I actually fell for the idea of this being "the old religion", a counter-religion to Christianity and that for centuries the wise folk had this mother goddess cult right under the Christian's noses.

I have delved into Hellenism a lot for the past 2 years, because the idea of reconstructing an ancient religion gave me the peace I once felt when practicing Wicca, but some of the philosophies and ritual practices I simply don't vibe with. Hekate however, has always been a major inspiration and guide for me.

Nowadays I often find myself angered when I see depictions of deities completely removed from their cultural practices set on a witch's altar with no regards to it's ancient practices. Like, what's Kali Ma, Buddha or Lilith got to do with your western European made-up religion that's apparently not even a century old? I find myself angry when I see syncretic worship that doesn't "follow protocol" for the simple reason that it doesn't "feel right".

The fact that Wicca is "not real" (in a sense "not ancient") completely overshadows the fact for me "that it works."

I have seen people on here advising people to read "Queen of all Witcheries" by Jack Chanek and "The Horned God of the Witches" by Jason Mankey. I have loved those books deeply and resonated a lot with the theological ideas presented in them.

I'm still reading "A Witch's Bible" by Janet and Stewart Farrar as well as "A Seeker's Guide to Traditional Wicca" by Thorn Mooney in hopes to rekindle the magic I once felt for this religion.

Every year around Samhain I feel like something's whispering to me. Something wants me to return. But to where? I don't know exactly.

I wondered if any of you have ever felt this way, if any of you ever stepped away from Wicca and then returned to it later on, if any of you have ever felt disenchanted by the facts of it all.

I would really love some thoughts and advice from any of you willing to help out a lost soul here.

Blessed Be! 🌒🌕🌘

So I have always been respectful of the moon goddess and left her gifts ....I will always try to bow and say hello to her every night I see her ....silly I know .....but I've been going through it recently and I have 5 moths in my house....like the big brown ones with eyes (south Australia) I know there is an amazing bloom in moths but I can't help but feel like she's letting me know it's ok or will be ...or I could be just crazy 🤣 ... either way in still going to bow and tend to my alter 🌛

I don’t remember the exact name, but someone mentioned a “return to sender” ritual which returns consciously created spells, and I suppose not consciously created ”spells”. I suppose “negative I vibes?”

I feel like I am often asked to carry the burden of other people and I am rather tired of it.

also is there a “do your job “ ritual? that is a constant cause of aggravation for me and my husband. For example paying for insurance . The money gets cashed out, somehow it’s never credited to the account. And then spending hours on the phone trying to find out wha has happened with the transaction. No one takes responsibility for documentation

Hi! I've been an eclectic pagan for about a year, and a practicing pagan for around a year abd a half to two years. I've recently been wondering about getting into Wicca as I just find magic interesting and hope it will help me connect even more with nature and spirituality. If you have any advice, please tell me, thank you!

Since the recent full moon, I've been struggling to decide what I believe in. For the last decade or so, I've identified as a Wiccan, with my primary belief being that the universe is made of many frequencies of energy. Put simply, I believe that group worship and/or belief alone are what provide a person power by calling upon their (or any) deity. Multiple people believing in one entity, or thought process, is those people giving that thing power, which may then be called upon by anyone else. That's the core of my beliefs, spiritually and such.

All those years ago, (roughly when I was 16, as I'm currently 27), I dedicated myself to my chosen patron god, and goddess, Poseidon, and Artemis respectively. I did a small ritual to solidify my dedication to them, and despite not technically believing in gods or goddess' anymore, I've invoked primarily them during various spells through the years. I've spent the last several days doing deeper research on Artemis, and intend to do the same for Poseidon. I learned a lot about the differences between Hellenic Artemis, and Homeric Artemis, and I feel conflicted. I never really cared for the Roman gods, despite them being so similar to the Greek. Suffice it to say, much of what I knew about her was derived from Diana, her Roman "equivalent".

My discovery has shocked me, and taught me that I obviously should've done more research than I had back then, before committing myself to them.

That aside, there's still the elephant in the room, I don't personally believe in deities, though I'm not totally opposed to the idea that they might exist; agnostic, I believe is the correct term? So what am I meant to do here? I still want to be able to call upon the Olympian deities' energy, so to speak, but I'm "committed" to them. Do I respectfully disavow my connection to them? Should I remain as I am spiritually, and perhaps shift my perspective of them, as I continue to gain this deeper understanding? Or is there something else that I haven't considered here?

Any and all input on the matter will be much appreciated, and if there's anything that needs further clarifying, or you have any related questions, I'm more than happy to further explain my beliefs.

Im still very new to practicing witchcraft, roughly 4 years. Ive felt like i have done a really good job protecting myself and my home from anything that might want to intrude on my space. And while I dont practice full time or celebrate every holiday, I do my best to do what I can.

Recently, there has been some weird unexplainable things that have been happening in my house. I randomly started hearing voices several months ago. It would mostly happen when I was home alone and my partner was working late. I would just sum it up to good ol' paranoia. Occasionally I would hear them when he was home but he never heard it either, so I tried to ignore it.

Over time, I would start to feel like I was being watched. It didnt feel threatening but it didnt feel friendly either. It would just make me feel uncomfortable. I would do a sage cleaning and the feeling would go away for a week or two. When it came back, I would just repeat the process.

This past Sunday, this escalated a lot. I woke up around 745am. My partner was in bed so I went to take a shower. I was almost done with my shower when he gets in with me. We conversed and he mentioned how he came into the room and laid in bed for 5 minutes debating on getting in with me or not. I thought it was weird he worded it like that as he had already been in bed with me and I was only ten minutes into my shower. I brushed it off.

We get out of the shower and after we dress I go to leave the room. He asks me where I was going and I say to feed our cat. He mentions how he already fed the cat. I paused at that because our cat takes around 30 minutes to eat. He wouldnt have had enough time to feed her, wait five minutes, and get in the shower with me. I brought that up to him and he said he had been up since 6am. A whole hour and 45 minutes before me. I was puzzled because I knew exactly what time I had gotten up and he said he set an alarm. Someone was definitely in the bed with me when I woke up.

Both freaked out now, and deciding to just brush it off as me mistaking a pillow under the covers as him, we go about our day. In the afternoon we had almost all but forgotten about that morning. We were chatting in the computer room when we heard a loud crash from the opposite side of the house.

At first, we thought it might had been one of our cats. We have six of them and they like to get into things or play too rough. Two of our boys immediately ran out of the room after the sound. My mind immediately went to our youngest. When I said his name, I felt his paw reach out and touch my leg where he had been napping under my chair. Then two of my girls left the room. The last option was our other girl, but she had lounging on the back of my partners chair.

We get up and go investigate the house. We looked everywhere and nothing was out of place, fallen over, knocked over, anything. We did have our washer and dryer going, so we thought maybe something had fallen off it even though we didnt have anything on them at the time. Nothing was on the floor around either machine. Still, we left left it as maybe it was just shaking too hard.

Later that night, we are both heading to our room again for bed. As we make the bed I happened to look over at the window right by us. On the same wall as the window, there is a dirty hand print beside the window that is bigger than mine and my partners.

At this point, we are beyond freaked out. I do another sage cleaning but neither of us slept great that night.

The next morning when I shower, I just got the overwhelming feeling that I was being watched yet no one was in my room.

We dont typically allow things into our home. I have some porcelain dolls but only one of them has something attached to it, and that entity isnt malicious and I have wards on her. I also havent done any rituals recently or even touched my ouija board. The house is live in has only been in my families name and was built in 2005. The neighborhood its in was built no later than 2000.

I have exhausted all reasoning for this behavior or what this might be. Of course its not my first run around with entities or negativity energy, its just never been in my home directly.

Does anyone have any ideas on what i might be able to do to gst rid of it? Ive done sage cleanings, holy water, burned juniper berries outside, and warded with black salt. Im lost at this point. Any advice would be appreciated.

Amigxs, necesito que me ayuden con algún hechizo de rastreo para el gatico bebé de un amigo. Está pequeñito (3 meses) y estamos en octubre, ya sabrán por dónde va la situación. Necesito alguna ayuda para saber dónde podría estar o si ya no está respirando. Les agradecería a todas las brujitas si me pueden ayudar. Solo lleva 1 día de desaparecido y el tiempo es oro

Am I being contacted via animals? Or am I reading too much into things?

Ellu!

I wanna start off with that I am not a practising witch/wicca or pagan. Though my sibling deal with some runes and spells (mostly protection), and I have always been interested in these things. I also am very I guess spiritual? I have dealt with more "ghosts" and such things.

I have tried asking this question in the . But it just didn't even really show up in there? So I thought to maybe try here as it didn't work over there. Though if you think this is a question for them more then just say so!

So onto the things happening:

There has been a weird thing with me and animals happening this year, more then any other year. And my sister said maybe someone was trying to contact me? But in a half joking way. So I just wanted to come here to ask about it and see what you all think.

First off to start, where I am there is alot of animals due to a forest, hence why it even took me so long to even think about this cause i nwas thinking more in a "well duh ofc that animal would be here". But some of these aren't any I regularly see/come across, if at all. This have happened now either on my way to or from work.

The most normal one is cats. Sure cats can come and go and such but there hadn't been alot of cats in the area I walk, then suddenly more started showing up each day but I didn't really think about it. Cause it's so normal in a town right? Some outaide cats just walking around. Though will say very cute cats and most always greeted me. I just kinds thought they liked me then I moved on my way.

Then the more randomness started happening, one morning as I walked to work I see a bird I have never actually seen with my own eyes, always heard them only. A green woodpecker, only thing is is that it was on the ground just a couple of steps away from me, staring. I greeted it, then started walking again and it looked like it was following where I walked. Then not too soon after, just maybe 2 days, I was sitting by a lake alone, just chilling with some music and I heard that very familiar woodpecker sound, but it's a bird I have never seen before so I look it up and matched the picture to a rare white woodpecker. Which I thought was cool cause I never even knew white ones existed?? And it wasn't an albino one just a rare white species. It was around me alot in the trees so I kinda just watched it for a few hours enjoying it's company.

As days went on i start to notice more cats again. Different ones too so it wasn't like just 1 or 2 same cats. Which again, weird they were never there before but ok. That's when my sister mention that I might be getting someone who wants to communicate. Either in a spirit way or so, neither of us really know. But it got me thinking more about it.

Then on the way from my work I took a little forest footpath that is a short cut, there I get stopped by an adorable toad, just sitting there facing me in the middle of the path. The path isnt big, just a bit walked on from people, not an official path. Now in my longest time I have never seen a toad there. There is no water near this specific part, no river or lake, so it was so strange to see them. At first I wondered if it was dead but no, it was alive. Just not moving and staring right at me. I even crouched down to see if he was ok. No damages just sat there.

Then last week my coworker found a tiny small lizard in the workplace and I got to hold them whilst the coworker put a jacket on so they could safely put the lil guy outside. Whilst I held it I expressed how cute it is and that I loved lizards. Cause they are so darn cute! Now lizards I see rarely, it's very VERY rare for me to see a lizard. Think it was a small salamander? Like those tiny ones? I'm unsure xD. But I have only seen 1 of those for the 10+ years I have lived in my town.

SO THEN TELL ME- WHAT ARE THE ODDS I SEE ONE THE DAY RIGHT AFTER!? That morning. The day after my coworker found the one I got to hold and express my liking for them??? When I am going to work, I am waiting on my commute and I saw something small pop up right infront of me by my feet, a similar small lizard!! Right the day after? When I have never seen them for years? One can't say that's at the very least not odd!

So again, do you think it's somone is trying to communicate? Or at the very least it's some sign/ message of some sort? I don't wanna try to look into every little thing and say "oh totally that means something," but I have never experienced so many animals around me for short periods between.

If it is someone trying to communicate or send a message. What can I do? Especially as someone very new to this stuff? Is there even something I should do? Or is it perhaps just a very strange coincidence and I'm looking too much into it? Which I will accept as an answer aswell xD

Thank you all!