Summary

The undefined website outlines the preparations and activities for the upcoming Witch Camp, including identifying one's witch type and creating a personal Witch Tent, along with sharing a DIY Smudge Potion recipe.

Abstract

The "undefined" website invites readers to prepare for the Witch Camp experience, a part of the Secret Storyworld's Reader+Writer+Creator storygames. As autumn approaches, the camp serves as a creative workshop for embracing the Halloween season through various witchcraft practices. Participants are encouraged to identify their witch archetype from six options, including Green, Kitchen, Cosmic, Hedge, Traditional, and Modern Witches, to tailor their camp experience. The camp offers both in-person and online participation, with a focus on DIY solutions to engage the senses and create an immersive environment. A key aspect of the camp is setting up a Witch Tent, a portable altar, using elements like candles, herbs, stones, and divination tools. Additionally, the website provides a recipe for a Hedge Witch Smudge Potion, an alternative to traditional smudging that respects the cultural significance and sustainability of the practice. This potion is intended to purify and prepare the witch for magical practices, highlighting the importance of self-preparation and energy channeling in witchcraft.

Opinions

The author values the sensory experience of the Witches' New Year, emphasizing the importance of sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch in the Witch Camp activities.
There is a strong emphasis on the DIY aspect of Witch Camp, suggesting that participants can engage in the camp's activities from anywhere and that commercial or mass-produced items are not necessary for authentic practice.
The author acknowledges the cultural significance of traditional smudging practices and advocates for sustainable and respectful alternatives, such as the Hedge Witch Smudge Potion, to avoid over-harvesting and commercialization.
The website conveys inclusivity by offering a variety of witch types and the flexibility to participate either online or in person, catering to both solitary practitioners and those who prefer a coven setting.
The author suggests that the act of smudging is a powerful tool for energy channeling and maintaining clarity in one's magical work, positioning it as a fundamental aspect of witchcraft practice.

The Monster Ball

Get Ready for a DIY Witch Camp

Are You a Green or Kitchen Witch, a Cosmic or Hedge Witch, or Traditional or Modern Witch? Plus Witch Smudge Potion Recipe!

The Ashland Witches gather after a Witch Dance performance at the Old Monster Armory (image by author)

We’re coming up on my favorite turning of the Wheel of the Year. Summer makes way for Autumn on Sept 22 in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn ushers in my favorite month of October and my favorite class begins. Witch Camp.

Witch Camp is the Creator part of our Secret Storyworld’s Reader+Writer+ +Creator storygames.

We read a scary story.

We write a scary story.

And we go to Witch Camp to create things that immerse us in the sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and tactile pleasures of October and Halloween.

Halloween is also known as Celtic Samhain (summer’s end) and is celebrated as the Witches’ New Year. Witch Camp ensures that we are ready for this new year, all filled up with the sensory charms of the season.

This year Witch Camp can finally gather again in person though we will also continue online. Online brings some sensory challenges which bring DIY solutions. The good news is that this means you can do Witch Camp from wherever you happen to be.

Your Witch Camp Quest

Camp begins with choosing your Witch Camp Quest. Choosing your Quest is much easier when you discover what kind of Witch you are.

For our Witch Camp purposes, we have identified six Witch types.

🌙 Green and Kitchen Witch
🌙Cosmic and Hedge Witch
🌙Traditional and Modern Witch

These six types of Witches pair together rather nicely. The first pair is the Green Witch & Kitchen Witch. These Witches have a passion for herbs and plant witchery, and stirring up enchantment in the kitchen.

Next is the Cosmic Witch & Hedge Witch, the maverick witches in the bunch. A Cosmic Witch is interested in partnering with the cycles and seasons in her magic. Very likely uses astrology and other divination enchantments.

The Hedge Witch is a solitary practitioner. Rare in a practice that generally calls on the collective power of the group or coven for their spells and rituals.

Our final pair is actually a combination of opposites. The Modern Witch & Traditional Witch. The Modern Witch is creating a unique approach, borrowing favorite practices from all the traditions to create something new.

The Traditional Witch will be a member of a coven and follow the heritage celebrations and rituals handed down through a Witch lineage.

If you’re like most of our Campers, you’ll fall into the Modern Witch category, which in its nature of borrowing from all the others is very DIY. But you will likely have a specialty as well. For example, if you major in Modern Witchery, you might minor in herbology.

For myself, I am a Modern Witch with a Kitchen Witch focus. I love to stir up enchantment in the kitchen with edible potions and brews. Part of why I host Witch Camp is so I can share my favorite recipes.

Over the course of our time at Witch Camp we learn how to set up our tent, which is a more portable version of an altar. Each Witch has a hand in creating our camp tent and their own tent at home. This tent is the focal point for our various spells and rituals and celebrations to be ready for Witch New Year on October 31.

Your Witch Tent

To set up your own Witch Tent, these are some of the witchy gear you may need:

🌙 Candles = Fire element 🌙 Herbs & Stones = Earth element 🌙 Shells & Cups = Water element 🌙 Feathers = Air Element 🌙 Divination Tools: tea leaves, tarot, and runes are the standard, and a crystal ball is the Witch Camp equivalent of Glamping 🌙 Altar Cloth & Spirit Symbol: A special cloth that evokes the season is a minimum. 🌙 Offerings that evoke the seasons and the senses.

And we need to prepare ourselves as well. This is where our Witch Smudge Potion comes in.

A DIY Smudge Potion

Smudging is an ancient purifying practice dating back to ancient Egypt. It is the act of burning specific plants for energetic clearing and purification. A form of it continues today with the Roman Catholic Church thurible. But it is most recognized as a ceremonial tradition of Native Americans.

The Native American tradition involves the lighting of dried sage and other herbs, and then wafting the smoke with a feather around the body to cleanse the aura of any sticky energy. This provides a spiritual purification that clearly signals that we are moving from the visible world into the invisible world.

One of the new challenges for this beautiful tradition is the mass production of smudge sticks, and over-harvesting of white sage. Commercialization can infringe on the spiritual and cultural importance of smudging as well as make it difficult for Native Americans to practice their own rituals.

The other challenge is that for an online and in-person Witch Camp we need something not only more sustainable but safer and easier to do, especially when gathering together to practice our witchery online.

Thus the Hedge Witches Smudge Potion was born. This distillation of herbal essenses decanted into a potion mister bottle provides a sensory way to make this transition into our magical Witch practices.

Here’s the Potion Recipe.

Hedge Witch Smudge Potion

You will need:

A Potion Bottle - 2 oz or 4 oz Glass Mister 1/2 cup Waning or New Moon Milk* 1 tiny quartz crystal (optional) 1/2 T pure witch hazel 1/4 tsp sea salt

ESSENTIAL OILS*: 2 drops sage for purifying 2 drops pine for light 2 drops lavender for healing 3 drops lemon for cleansing (you can also substitute 1 T fresh lemon juice)

To make your Moon Milk, place a jar of intention-charged water under the light of the waning moon or new moon. (For this batch your intention will be cleansing and spellbreaking.)

Place your crystal point in your chosen Potion Mister. Add witch hazel and sea salt, and swirl the bottle clockwise to combine.

Add drops of the essential oils, naming their powers of purifying, light, healing, and cleansing. Swirl the bottle clockwise to combine.

Decant the Moon Milk to fill your Potion Bottle 3/4 full. Cap with the Mister. Shake vigorously to activate the Smudging Powers.

TO USE: Shake vigorously to activate.

Swirl the bottle in a counterclockwise motion to activate the powers of banishing.

Mist the potion into each palm. Then clap your hands together three times.

Run your smudge-activated hands over the top of your head, down your shoulders and arms, over your throat and chest, over your abdomen and hips, down your legs and feet.

A Conduit for Light

With smudging, you have changed the frequency of your energetic field, known by many traditions as the aura. You have these beautiful invisible energies surrounding you at all times. It includes your spirit body, your mental body, and your emotional body.

Your thoughts are an energy.
Your words are an energy.
Your actions, especially actions taken with your hands are another energy.

You are the conduit for all these energies finding expression in your life and world.

This is what being a Witch is about. To channel these energies into support of the magic you are making. Smudging is just one of the tools to help you keep your energy channels clear so you can focus more of it into your magical work.

You are here to write the world with your Witch Magic.

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