Hello witches, and welcome! We survived the New Moon in Leo, and we looked damn good doing it. This Leo energy is overwhelming as hell, and this is not surprising because that is how Leo does it. Leo is not going to let us sit on our asses and stay in our comfort zones. And we can talk a lot of shit about Leo but what we absolutely must acknowledge is that Leo challenges us.
Leo does not believe in stagnation and so it isn’t going to allow us to coast, Leo does suffer fools gladly so we better come prepared for all possible scenarios, and Leo isn’t going to let us play dumb so we can’t pretend we don’t know what we are doing and what we need to continue to do. This New Moon in Leo is ready to party, ready to have a good time, but it’s ready to put us to work, too.
So last week, we spoke about Death Magick and I got a lot of really constructive feedback. But what I did not do was read the original email from the witch who suggested this topic, who happens to be a funeral director, and I didn’t read my responses either. I was going back through that email, and I feel like some of her questions bear answering here. I am going to leave a lot of the info out for reasons of privacy, but I will share some of it. Her questions were as follows:
-I’ve always thought that once someone dies, the deceased’s spirit would pass on (most likely to be reincarnated), but if they didn’t, they’re more likely to stay at the place of death or go to their loved ones. Where do you think people go when they die?
-If you think a spirit would follow a funeral director, do you have any suggestions on keeping me protected?
-I’ve noticed there’s been a handful of times throughout the years that I’ve been able to “guess” certain things the deceased liked and to my surprise, have it confirmed by the family. Sometimes it’s something small like I get the feeling I should put a butterfly pin in the casket, put a specific flower in their hand, the poem for the memorial folders that I suggest to the family fits the deceased’s personality perfectly, the colors I pick for their lipstick are what they would’ve worn in life, etc. it’s not like I hear a voice that necessarily says “do this” but I feel drawn to do certain things that I wouldn’t typically do. Do you think that’s the deceased’s spirit telling me? Is there a way to hone that communication without opening myself up to every dead person that I’ve encountered?
-I’ve never handled the funeral arrangements for a witch before but have you ever attended one? If so, what was it like? If not, what kind of rituals would you want for your funeral?
So, there’s a lot in there that we didn’t get to in the Death Magick episode, but I’ll go through what I told her in response. As far as what I think happens after we die, and this is just my opinion, I believe that we remain here in this place for a while, just on the other side of the veil, and then we are eventually reincarnated. I believe that it varies how long we remain here before we move to our next lifetime, and that this is why I can still communicate with some of my deceased loved ones. I also think that sometimes when people pass, they’re not ready to go, or they don’t realize they’ve died, or they just plain don’t know what to do, and so they linger in places they don’t belong. I believe this is why some spirits inhabit their homes long after their families have moved out or passed away, for example.
I think it’s absolutely reasonable to expect that one of these spirits could become attached to their funeral director/embalmer. If they’re staying close to their body because they are confused, upset, or unable to move on, then it would make sense that they would feel comforted by you. You’re handling their body respectfully, preparing it for burial, and at ease with their remains, and they probably feel that you’re knowledgeable and trustworthy. You’re not distraught like their loved ones are, you’re not in emotional pain. You’re at peace. This has to put them at ease in a way that could cause them to become attached to you.
I have no doubt that this is why you’re able to receive impressions about the deceased. You’re a stable presence, a point of security for them, and you also have some definite psychic ability. The best way to strengthen this ability is to trust it. When you get those impressions and have those gut feelings, listen to them. Don’t talk yourself out of it or try to rationalize it away. The more you trust your ability, the more trustworthy your ability will become. This is just how it works. With that said, you will want to set boundaries so that spirits don’t follow you home every other day.
I would recommend some black obsidian to protect yourself and to discourage attachments (some simple obsidian jewelry will be inexpensive and relatively neutral so that you can wear it often). But when all else fails, using your voice to firmly command unfamiliar spirits to leave you alone will always work. You’re the living soul; you’re much stronger on this plane than anyone who has passed.
I would also suggest that you get some iron nails or railroad spikes and plant them at the four corners of your property. If you’re in an apartment, put them in the corners of your home on the inside. This is a cheap, effective, and lasting way to secure your borders.
Lastly, I’ve never attended a witch funeral! But my personal plan is to be cremated. My family can do whatever they like with my ashes, although I suspect that my daughters will probably keep some of them at least for use in ancestor work or protection spells. This is fine with me. I would prefer a short service, I want everyone to wear yellow, and to wear a sprig of rosemary for comfort and protection. Afterward, a party with a bonfire, drinks, and general revelry. I want everyone to have a good time, because I plan to be there and I hate a boring party!
So thank you very much to that witch, and if you would like to suggest a topic or if you simply have some questions, please email me at eli@middleagedwitch.com.
Now this week’s episode is all about potions. We’re keeping it light, the ambient energy right now is intense enough. So we’re gonna talk about potions. Yes, I’m saying the word potions because it sounds so much better than the word cocktail. We are taking back the word potion. I really want to talk about how we can use mixed drinks, suspensions, elixirs what have you, herbal concoctions if you will, to support our magick, and we are going to talk about how we can give these infusions additional significance and additional potency by calling them what they are, magickal potions, and infusing them with our magickal intent.
We are going to talk about spirits, alcoholic drinks, because I do personally feel that there’s a lot we can do with spirits within our craft. But I also recognize that a lot of witches do not consume alcohol either in their craft or even socially, and that’s a-okay. There is a lot of pressure socially for people to drink and there are a lot of reasons why someone wouldn’t want to and that’s fine. We are not here to make anyone feel uncomfortable or feel like their boundaries are not being respected. So bear in mind as we go through all this info that we can make non-alcoholic drinks using plenty of the ingredients that we’re going to talk about.
But firstly, for witches who do partake, there are a lot of ways we can use spirits to support our magick. And although this will not be an exhaustive list, we are going to go through the main spirits that we might use as mixers for creating our potions. And then going to talk a lot about other things we add to mixed drinks and cocktails and we can completely use the rest of the info to make non-alcoholic drinks that are going to give us so many of the same benefits as the alcoholic drinks.
I like the idea of finishing a ritual or any serious spell work with a drink that will serve to not only help us unwind, but it’s also a way to literally internalize and then carry forward the intentions and the purpose of the work that we’ve just performed.
And as I was trying to go through how I wanted to arrange all this information, I decided we are going to organize it all according to our intention. So we are gonna start with luck and money. Both of these intentions are strongly associated with earth magick, and incidentally, so is protection. And the primary spirit that comes to mind when I think of earth magick is vodka.
This is a distilled alcohol that’s typically made with potatoes, and potatoes are absolutely of the element of earth. So a drink made with a vodka base can absolutely be assigned the intention of supporting our luck spells, our money work, or our protection magick.
Another good element in money work is cinnamon. And this is why, and I know I am going to catch hell for this, but Goldschlager is fantastic in money work. For those of us fortunate enough to have never tasted Goldschlager, it’s a cinnamon schnapps with actual gold flake in the bottle. I use Goldschlager in money work, and you can really use any cinnamon liqueur in money work. Hell, I use Fireball too. It works like a bastard. It’s pretty gross, but it works.
Wine is also a solid choice for a great way to close out your money rituals. It’s made with grapes, which are all about abundance and prosperity. You can make a nice mulled wine or a mulled cider with cinnamon and nutmeg and this is a triple threat for money work. Cider is an excellent sub for wine if you’re not interested in alcohol because apples are incredibly lucky. So luck, prosperity, money, apples and wine.
I like wine for prophecy and divination work too. Other elements for your divination libations are going to be juniper and for me, juniper means gin. I love gin because it is absolutely packed with herbal allies that we can use in our work. Besides juniper, which is the primary defining characteristic of gin, it contains coriander which is also associated with clairvoyance. It is protective, as it contains fennel, grains of paradise and angelica root, it’s also got lavender for dream work and intuition. Gin and gin-based drinks are so powerful for receiving and channeling intuitive and psychic messages.
For general psychic benefits, we can also use peppermint. Peppermint schnapps, peppermint liqueur, peppermint syrup in our hot chocolate, again, we don’t have to use alcohol. Strawberries are another strong divination ally. I think we usually think of strawberries in love works and that’s totally valid, but they’re dead useful for divination work. If you’re doing a really rigorous divination ritual and you want to cap it off with a strawberry margarita, you are not going to be disappointed.
But since we already started down that road, let’s talk about love spells we can support with potions. Strawberries, hell yes. Muddle some strawberries and mix them with sparkling water if you’re not a margarita girl or boy. Pomegranate juice in love work is insanely powerful. I mean, there’s so much symbolism inherent in pomegranates just in general. We have the Hades and Persephone connection, and incidentally, death and the afterlife, too, but there’s that deep, boundless, soul-mate kind of connection that we think of when we think of pomegranates.
And you can use pomegranate juice in so many mixed drinks! Pomegranate margaritas, pomegranate cosmopolitans, you can make a pomegranate gin fizz, a pomegranate mimosa which is a great morning drink to follow up a night of sex magick.
Basically, if you’re doing some work and it’s gonna take a lot out of you, finish strong with a nice drink that’ll help you unwind while it also helps to keep those energies surrounding you for a while. It’s valid work, it’s a nice little treat, and it’s fun to do. I love making drinks for myself and my friends and loved ones and if I can set a vibe for the function using my knowledge of spirits, then I’m calling it witchcraft and I’m having a good time. So thank you for joining me, enjoy the start of Virgo season next week, and we’ll talk next time. My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.
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