Hello and happy Thursday! We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and we are looking forward to the New Moon and then a Solar Eclipse. Halloween and Samhain are coming in a couple weeks. Summer is finally in the rearview mirror for those of us up here in the Northern Hemisphere. And good riddance to 112 degree days. No thank you, please.
A couple little notes to get to before we dive in today, I wanted to mention for anyone who is new to the podcast that all of these episodes are fully transcribed on the website, middleagedwitch.com and so if there’s ever a spell we discuss or a book we mention or whatever the case may be, you can pop on over to the website and find a written transcript of the episode. Secondly, a lot of lovely listeners have been checking out the Etsy shop and so I wanted to create a discount code specifically for listeners of this podcast, so if you see anything in the shop that you like, just use the discount code PODCAST and receive 15% off your entire order. I appreciate you. And I’ll link to everything we talk about today in the show notes.
And now, on we go! Today’s topic was inspired by another witch named Brynn who suggested that we talk about sacred cycles and witchcraft, specifically menstruation and I am going to cover that topic in a future episode. But I had been kicking around the idea of today’s topic for a while but I wasn’t sure if it was too out there. I wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on it until Brynn wrote in with that suggestion and then I said to hell with it. If it’s too weird, I apologize. It is not my intent to alienate anyone, but not every episode will be for every witch.
We are talking about blood magick today. And in the course of this discussion we are going to cover some topics that aren’t typically spoken of in mainstream witchcraft conversation. And maybe that seems like a bit of an oxymoron, mainstream witchcraft, but we know there’s a vast difference between the sort of tame, love and light, jar of rose petals-style of witchcraft and the chicken bone, urine jar, crossroads dirt kind of witchcraft. There’s plenty of room for everyone under the witchcraft umbrella and one witch’s practice is no better or worse than another’s. But. Today we are gonna get a little bit freaky. And I’m a little bit of a freak.
So on that warning, let’s go. We use a lot of different elements in our craft. We use candles, oils, flowers, herbs, shells, feathers, crystals, metals, stones and so on. We do this because we recognize that these extra elements can help us to narrow our focus to our very specific intentions. And because these additional elements give our work power. And a personal concern such as blood is incredibly powerful. Anytime we use a part of a person, of ourselves, in our spell work, we are turning it up to 11.
As an example, if I am working a spell for another person, I will include (whenever I can) some of that person’s hair. Or their nail clippings if I can possibly get them. In a pinch, I will include a sample of that person’s handwriting. Because, in a manner of speaking, I want to give the universe the scent of the person for whom the work is being performed.
As another example, if we’re working a spell to help ourselves exert some kind of influence over someone else, or if we’re sick of them exerting their influence over us, we will frequently and to very great effect, include our own urine in that work. It’s gross, I know it, but it works. I’ve used this analogy before, but it’s similar to the way a dog will mark its territory to establish its own dominance. It works. Nature recognizes it.
And if hair and urine and saliva are good, blood is better. And I know it’s yucky and everything, and if it isn’t for you, that’s fine. That’s so fine. We should never disrespect anyone’s boundaries, especially our own. So if this is not something you’re ever going to be interested in, it’s fine. You can and will perform incredible work without it. But if you’re down with it, or if you’re even just a little curious, we are going to talk about the how’s and why’s of using blood in witchcraft.
As far as why we might consider using blood in our spell work, I’ll quote author and witch Kate Freuler: “Blood can be offered as a sacrifice or devotional, employed in spells to strengthen the energetic link to yourself or someone else, or used to create a bond between members of a coven. The DNA in your blood contains your whole inherited lineage. This means that every single ancestor you have is present in your blood, making it a substance that reaches further back in time than we can conceive of.
“Those who do choose to partake in blood ritual do so for a wide range of reasons. Adding a drop of blood to a tincture, oil, spell, or charm acts as a binding agent between your physical earthly self and the energy of the spell. Including blood in a spell adds a deep vitality to it. For some, it brings the element of sacrifice to the working. It also beckons the power of your ancestors into your magick. While hair and fingernails are dead cells of a person and contain their essence and DNA, blood is a living substance. This makes it different and, some believe, more powerful.”
When it comes to spells that we work for ourselves, there are very few I can think of that wouldn’t be enhanced by the addition of some of our own blood. For the very reasons that we just said; it creates a very strong link between ourselves and the spell itself, and it gives the work the power of our own lifeforce. That’s heavy.
Anointing a candle with a bit of your blood during a money spell is a great idea. Adding a little blood to your honey jar for your sweetening spell is awesome. Adding blood to a protection spell is gonna be chef’s kiss perfection. I’m not exaggerating, any spell we do for ourselves and many of the spells we do for others are going to be well supported by the addition of our blood in the work.
Okay, but we do have to talk about safety. The first kind of safety we want to observe is safety to ourselves when we are sourcing this blood. Please only use a sterile lancet on your fingertips to draw your blood. Leave those ritual knives out of this. We don’t want to use razors, we don’t want to use knives, we don’t want to draw blood from anywhere else. A sterile lancet on the fingertip is going to release more than enough blood for our work. A few drops of blood go a very long way. And a sterile lancet isn’t going to leave scars.
They can be purchased easily and inexpensively at the pharmacy. Just ask the cashier at Walgreen’s to point you in the right direction. And get a bottle of rubbing alcohol too, because you’ve gotta wash your hands well and sterilize the area before you poke it. If you would rather use your own menstrual blood, also known as moon blood, for your work then by all means. But again, keep those hands washed.
We’re not afraid of our own blood, but we aren’t nasty either. Wash ya hands. And although it certainly isn’t for everyone, using moonblood in spellwork has a long and well-documented history. It has been used in curses, especially to destroy crops. It’s frequently used in love and fidelity spells, some of the more well-known examples of that are to bury your moon blood on your desired lover’s property to make them infatuated with you. And smearing a bit of moon blood on the soles of your lover’s shoes will ensure that he always comes home to you.
But I mean, it’s not all curses and love spells. In fact one of my favorite folk spells using menstrual blood is for gambling. If a man wraps his money in a handkerchief with a bit of his woman’s moon blood on it, he could hit the tables all night and never lose.
Beyond that though, we can use blood in our work in all kinds of ways. Charge a sigil with blood. When appropriate and when possible, use blood instead of oil to anoint candles. It’s a good idea to include blood in healing spells, this is where the sacrificial element from before can come into play, you know, by giving our own blood in the course of the ritual towards the healing of our intended target. Going back to earlier, this is a great way to give your ancestor work an extra boost. Echoes of our entire lineage are present in our blood, and these are the same echoes that will be in the blood of our own descendents generations and generations from now. Adding our blood to these kinds of spells is like adding lighter fluid to a fire. We may not need it to start those flames, but it’s going to give it a hell of a kick.
Now, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge and address that it is definitely a thing for some in the witchcraft community to imbibe one another’s blood in the course of their own private rituals. Now, it should go without saying, but that is not an activity that should ever be undertaken lightly. Sharing blood is a really big deal. For personal health and safety reasons, certainly, but also because it’s a huge energy exchange. This is the exchange of our life’s essence. You give someone a whole lot of influence over you by ingesting their blood in any kind of way, and they also will give you a whole lot of influence over them.
We can get really caught up really quickly and so this really is not something that should be done casually. And please, please, please never ever ever put your own or anyone else’s blood, urine, semen, saliva, etc in anything that someone else is going to consume without their consent. That’s assault, and it’s illegal. And even with consent, it can be dangerous and we are not interested in getting anyone sick or spreading disease and we’re definitely not interested in any unethical demonstrations of influence so proceed with an abundance of caution.
But other than that, if you’re feeling bold, put some blood in that work and just see how much it can enhance the work. And this is such a fun little thing to try, so be responsible but be bold. Have a wonderful Friday the 13th, a kick ass New Moon and a wonderful Solar Eclipse. My name is Eli Ro and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.
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