Melina's Witchcraft blog

  A new movie called Tarot was recently released in theaters and is about the tarot cards coming to life. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as: "When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings -- never use someone else's deck -- they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings." I've seen the trailer come up a few times when I'm watching TV and would really like to see it since I love horror movies. It's nothing new for production agencies to profit off witchcraft in creating a horror movie, but this is the first I've seen about Tarot cards. I never thought of the cards with such a negative connotation, but in this movie, the cards come to life and try to kill the people that used them.  Historically, it has always been bad luck for someone who isn't the owner of the tarot ...

 Modern Witch University is an institution that offers online classes for those wanting to learn more about modern magic and the history of witchcraft.  link to website The university was first established in 1989 as a retail shop and healing center in San Fransisco. They offer interactive classes and events to those who sign up such as a Witches Sabbat from Feburary 2-4th and a crystal magic intensive. The witches sabbat is a double event feature with the Hortocculture which is a celebration of green witchcraft. The crystal magic intensive is offered as a five-class bootcamp for $175 where students focus on their "crystal familiars".  Although they have a lot of classes about the history of witchcraft, the newer classes added focus on contemporary magic such as: Black Rose witchcraft, modern conjuring, spiritual cleansing, blue lotus reiki, and blue rose faery. The university also offers internships.  No accredited university has a class about how to use witchcraft,...

 I've been seeing a lot of videos on Instagram recently of young women hoping to become the witch who lives deep in the forest and scares people away. That's a very specific thing to relate to, but everyone has their own goals in life. But, this is called Green Witchcraft and there's a couple different communities you can join online of course. One of the groups,  Naturally Modern Life , claims to develop practices that flow with everyday life to live with the seasons and the moon. They say that they draw energy from the Earth and the untamed things. This website has a checklist of things to check if you are a green witch or not:  " You might be a green witch if: You love making your own ritual tools from found objects in nature and often planning for the energies contained within them. You are an animal and/or environmental activist. You consider the source of objects and bring awareness regarding ethically sourced minerals, endangered herbs, and other such environmen...

 Apparently, people associate owls with witches and the devil...??? I always thought they were associated with wisdom and stealth, but others argue that they connect the world to death, misfortune, and dark magic. Some say this is because they have such great vision at night, they must be used to flying around in Hell where it's always dark. And the only explanation for their stealthiness is because a witch cursed the birds to be large, yet fly as easily as a mockingjay or a dove. Furthermore, people in certain parts of the world believed that owls looked like a human, so they looked like a witch in bird form. The history of trepadation against owls is so historic that Christopher Columbus and Shakespeare had it out for owls and called them "funeral birds of the night". Old English folklore went so far to say th at " if an owl’s call was heard outside the home of somebody that was ill, the only way to prevent this person from dying was to dispatch the bird and place ...

  In the reading from this week, I came across a passage that talks about Adam and Eve and how that story may have inspired the notion that accused women witches are more dangerous than male witches. It got me thinking about how Eve is portrayed in the story from Genesis and how knowing the story impacts the way we think. And honestly, it makes me really mad. Men assumed women's bodies were weaker and therefore easier to fall to the devil. This thought probably comes from the Bible because, of course, it was Eve who was susceptible to the serpent and ate the apple. This was accepted as a given because the Puritans believed everything in the Bible and could only assume that women were the weaker sex. If it wasn't for this story in the Bible, would there have even been the Salem witch trials? I found this really interesting article relating Genesis and the treatment of women to Maleficious Malificarium attached below.  Washington Post The article relates the treatment of women d...

  Over spring break, I visited Phoenix, AZ and to my surprise, there were so many psychics. With only $10 of cash to my name, I told my friends that if I saw a psychic reading for $10, I would do it and write my blog post about it. So of course when I saw the sign offering psychic readings for $10, I had to do it. The woman told me that I had three questions to ask her but she couldn't tell me any more than what I asked her. My friends and I stepped out of the room and got our questions together before going in. She asked me for my name and birthday and for my three questions. The questions I asked were: 1. How do people perceive me when they first meet me? 2. When will I next fall in love romantically? 3. Will I get the job I want after grad school? When she recited the questions back to me, she flipped over 3 tarot cards for each question and explained what they meant to me. First, she said that my career after school elicited happy and successful cards pointing out that I'm ...