So for whatever reason, I just decided to make a masterpost of resources and tips for anyone just getting involved in witchcraft, paganism, or herbal healing. It's going to be updated on a pretty regular basis, depending on what I find.
Remedies
I'm not saying you should avoid doctors and hospitals altogether, or that the medical establishment is in any way some kind of enemy. I take doctor-prescribed medication for ADHD, after all, and that's made my life a lot easier. When I had acid reflux and lactose intolerance as a kid - not a pleasant time of my life, other than the fact that I convinced my mother to take me out for dairy-free ice cream in the winter because I couldn't eat any other kind - it was doctors who made it possible for me to eat.
And in the past year or so, when I've had the flu or a headache or a cough, it's been my own knowledge (along with Google's) that's allowed me to heal myself without professional intervention.
I'm also a big fan of the quote, "magic is just science we don't understand yet."
I don't identify as a witch, and I'm undecided on whether or not anything supernatural even exists (and to what extent). But I do use plant remedies to cure minor sicknesses sometimes - ginger-lemon or chai tea for the flu; pineapple juice and meditation for cramps; mint for nausea. Some of what I know about healing, I learn in science class and the rest comes from Google. However, I do use resources for cottage and kitchen witches sometimes when looking up remedies or deciding what to do for a sabbat.
Self-care
Remedies
I'm not saying you should avoid doctors and hospitals altogether, or that the medical establishment is in any way some kind of enemy. I take doctor-prescribed medication for ADHD, after all, and that's made my life a lot easier. When I had acid reflux and lactose intolerance as a kid - not a pleasant time of my life, other than the fact that I convinced my mother to take me out for dairy-free ice cream in the winter because I couldn't eat any other kind - it was doctors who made it possible for me to eat.
And in the past year or so, when I've had the flu or a headache or a cough, it's been my own knowledge (along with Google's) that's allowed me to heal myself without professional intervention.
I'm also a big fan of the quote, "magic is just science we don't understand yet."
I don't identify as a witch, and I'm undecided on whether or not anything supernatural even exists (and to what extent). But I do use plant remedies to cure minor sicknesses sometimes - ginger-lemon or chai tea for the flu; pineapple juice and meditation for cramps; mint for nausea. Some of what I know about healing, I learn in science class and the rest comes from Google. However, I do use resources for cottage and kitchen witches sometimes when looking up remedies or deciding what to do for a sabbat.
Being pagan, even as an agnostic pagan, nature worship is pretty essential to me (though not all pagans agree on this). So I don't know what that makes me - amateur healer? Agnostic cottage witch, if that's a thing? An agnostic pagan who sometimes gets involved in semi-secular witchcraft and natural remedies?
Anyway, if you're interested, and if you personally avoid or mistrust doctors (which, I don't blame you if that's the case - medical professionals have done a fuckton to screw over people of color, LGBT people (especially intersex people), and disabled people (especially autistic women and girls), some things on here might help you.
- for congestion.
- For period cramps (if your cramps are severe or you have any reason to suspect that you have a medical condition that makes them worse, such as endometriosis or PCOS, go to a doctor)
- For insomnia
- these remedies from an experienced healer - not, you know, a teenager who cures minor ailments with meditation and herbal remedies found on the internet
- I've heard that electuaries make decent medicine. They're essentially herbs infused with honey. Use ground herbs (what kind you want depends on exactly what illness you want to treat), mixed evenly with honey, and simmer in a crockpot for 2-3 hours. Then store in a mason jar (yes, like jam) and make sure the lid is on tightly.
- Stir lemon juice, honey, ginger, and rosemary into hot water to make your own cough syrup.
Self-care
Pop culture
Getting Involved
- Witch Hunt: Shrines, Altars, and Samhain
- Witch Hunt: Welcome To The Coven
- Where To Start If You're A Tarot Newbie
- As a pagan: the best thing I can recommend is considering exactly what you do and don't believe and searching a path that embodies those values. Research different gods and goddesses, different traditions, different holidays, different rituals, meditate, and pray. Then define your path exactly as you want to, as long as it's not racist, ableist, transphobic, etc. (e.g. TWEF covens, white pagans appropriating dream catchers and locs, white supremacist heathens, traditions that were dysphoria-inducing to nonbinary pagans and witches, and covens that weren't accessible to disabled people. Just because we're marginalized for our religion doesn't mean we have any place perpetuating the oppression of other communities.)
- Kitchen Witchcraft
Social Justice
DISCLAIMER: I ordinarily don't like Everyday Feminism and haven't for awhile. They've published articles on allosexual and monosexual privilege, straw-manned a nonbinary butch lesbian writer (whose work I adore and find endlessly relatable and who has experienced discrimination from the TSA, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and bathroom panic for their gender, masculinity, and sexuality) on an article that they wrote about masculine of center LGBT people so that it seemed like they had experienced privilege for their masculinity, compared gay men to women in a way that implied homophobia was just an extension of misogyny, talked about 'feminists of faith' as if Christian women in the west experience persecution for their religion, and published an article in which a straight male writer threw masculine sapphic people under the bus, compared us to straight men, made us seem predatory, and implied that we could oppress dycishet women.
All in all, I'm left with the impression that the magazine that taught me feminism cares more about placating straight men than they do about prioritizing and liberating women like me - GNC women, sapphic women, and especially women who are both.
That said, I do find one writer on that godforsaken site acceptable, and that writer is Kris Nelson.
So here are two of their articles on pagan and witch feminism:
- 3 Exciting Ways Witchcraft and Feminism Intersect
- 3 Myths That Make Navigating The Radical Left as a Person of Faith Difficult
And here are two social justice blogs for young witches and pagans. Both bloggers are Hellenic pagans.
For anyone who lives in the US and works with plants:
Check out this store.
Also this website, and this one too.
Enjoy.
- Witchy Beauty - The blogger is a black cis lesbian. She keeps a tag for beginner witches and posts a lot about being a lesbian, and has a blog for sapphic solidarity, but I don't remember what it's called.
- Pagan Teens - The blogger is a nonbinary white lesbian. They have two other social justice blogs, and focus on pagan-centric intersectional feminism as well as promoting pagan solidarity and dismantling Christian supremacy in general.
For anyone who lives in the US and works with plants:
Check out this store.
Also this website, and this one too.
Enjoy.
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