Category Archives: Think Like a Witch

Fashionably Late, Part One: #OcculTea

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I watch an awful lot of YouTube videos these days. That habit began because I absolutely detest commercials, and only got worse when I started researching Etsy. YouTube is a wonderful resource for all sorts of educational information, if you’re careful.

As I’ve been “witchy” for about 35 years or so, I don’t normally watch a lot of pagan/wiccan/witch content. So much of it is just Wicca 101, or other 101 types of videos, and those are simply not relevant to me.

Or so I thought.

I got myself a TikTok account so I could watch my daughters’ videos. I quickly discovered TikTok isn’t really the place for me, or at least I’m not the TikTok video kind of creator. I like words, written words, so I can think carefully before expressing myself.

I also prefer longer content. I just don’t have the patience for tiny little videos and scroll, scroll, scroll…If a video is less than 20 minutes I feel jilted.

I did, however, find a few excellent creators over there who happened to have YouTube channels, and so I recently began following them. So that is how I finally caught wind of #OcculTea. As a woman with a lot of opinions, I couldn’t resist throwing in my two cents and change, so here I am.

This hashtag was started by three content creators from YouTube; Ella Harrison, The Redheaded Witch, and the Polish Folk Witch. Admittedly, I wasn’t following any of them, but I’ve now watched at least a couple of their entries about this topic. I’ll likely be watching more of them later, but I really didn’t want to be any later to this party than I already am. I believe the post was shared first to Instagram, not YouTube, but I’m not over there just yet so I’m not sure.

Introduction: Introduce yourself. How long have you been participating in the witchcraft online space? What practices and topics do you discuss primarily?

I have a whole page here as an introduction, but I’ll try to give a quick re-introduction in case anyone is here straight from the hashtag and hasn’t read it yet.

I go by Camylleon. Its a nickname I started with back when AOL first went to 13 characters from 8, and I was too excited that I was able to get a name that didn’t have to have numbers on it. That’ll give you an idea of how long I’ve been online.

I was immediately at least reading in the witchcraft spaces I could find back then, because it was a lifeline. Up to that point, I had been scrambling to piece together information from library books, what few books I could afford from a local metaphysical store, and what little they carried at Borders.

Yeah, dating myself again. Borders. That goes back, doesn’t it? I wasn’t posting as much back then. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer. I was learning. I was looking for teachers, information, anything. Times were tough. I even went through a three-level Wicca school. Paid for a lifetime membership and everything.

So to answer the second question, how long have I been participating? Oh, I guess the mid 90s? If my math is right, let’s say about 30 years or so, give-or-take.

What practices and topics do you discuss primarily? I’ve only just gotten started, twice now, maybe three times really, with this generation of this blog so its still sort of hard to tell. I ramble a lot. I like rambling. I haven’t really ruled anything out yet.

My own practice right at this moment is hard to explain. I can’t call it worship exactly. I work with Ancestral Spirits, primarily, but there are a few Deities around as well. I consider myself an Omnist. All Entities exist and are valid; every last one. I might disagree about different qualities or aspects of the Entity, but I’ve no doubt they exist.

All Spirits are, at the end of the day, Spirits. I don’t believe that humans quite understand the differences between disincarnate human spirits, saints, orishas, lwa, demons, angels, demigods, daimons, gods, etc., etc.

Currently, I’m spending most of my writing on sharing my journey and how I got here from there. I think its probably the most relatable part of who I am. Its something we all have in common, we learn as we go. Sometimes its harder and sometimes its easier, but we seldom end where we began.

TOPIC ONE: IMPACT ON COMMUNITY

What is my personal reasoning/inspiration behind sharing my practice online? Do I seek to educate, learn, or connect?

I don’t know that I’ve actually thought much about it. I have a long history of having my privacy invaded, so I suppose in some ways this is the only way I can do it anymore. If its public, it can’t be violated?

Despite having an abominable experience a number of years ago with yet another couple of leeches, I keep thinking that maybe someone out there wants or needs to hear what I have to say. Maybe someone else out there feels the same way I do. Maybe they need the encouragement and information I wanted and needed 30 years ago.

What am I looking to achieve by participating?

Nothing, except perhaps to throw my opinion out into the void, get it off my shoulders, and move on. Its a release.

As far as educate, learn, or connect…

I’m always looking to learn. I’ll happily share any knowledge I have if that counts as educating. I’m leery of “connecting,” though, as the odds seem pretty much against me in that department. Although I will say that when I connect and it sticks, I do pretty damn well. The few friends I’ve kept are some of the best a person could hope for.

I just get hurt more often than not. Still, I’m here so I suppose I’m willing to risk it. Therapy. Therapy helps a lot.

How do I believe social media, as a whole, has impacted the community?

Its all at once wonderful and horrifying.

But then, I keep saying it is what you make of it. So I suppose that explains it. People are all at once wonderful and horrifying.

If you fill your feed with cute puppies and kitties, that’s what you’re going to get. If you fill it with seething hate-filled rants from people who have the complete opposite views from you because you love to argue, that’s what you’re going to get.

Social media is us.

How do I think social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have each impacted education/sharing information?

To me, two of those three haven’t done anything terribly good for either education or sharing information.

TikTok, in particular, is horrible. Sharing is easy, too easy. Anyone can do it, and it can be difficult for someone who is coming in with a blank slate to tell good information from bad.

There’s an awful lot of bad on TikTok.

There’s some good as well, but if I were going into it with no background information or damn good intuition to guide me, I’d be more confused or more misled, one or the other.

Both Instagram and TikTok are big on looks. The better you look, the better your following. They’re shallow platforms with unrealistic depictions of the “ease” of witchcraft, and if you ask me, the aesthetics of witchcraft.

I get it, its cool. Don’t get me wrong. I love the crystals and the mood lighting and the dried plants hanging all over. I want to live in the Practical Magic house, too. But that’s Hollywood, not reality. TikTok and Instagram are quite good at packaged sound bites of cute, repeated information. Not so good at actual education. At best, if you were looking at the Linktrees or other links in profiles, you might be able to find quality information if you dig. A lot.

Sharing, well, they’re both too good at that. Bad and good information travel like wildfire, and sometimes do as much damage.

I’ve also seen how peer pressure functions in those two platforms. There are fads, fashionable types or genres of witchcraft that I find suddenly everyone is practicing. Sometimes for the wrong reasons.

YouTube is slightly different. Not that there isn’t the same percentage of bad to good there, but to me there’s more variety. Longer video time also means its possible for those who want to provide information can share detailed, quality information. If they want to.

The problem there is that YouTube doesn’t exactly promote quality. It also promotes the pretty, the angering, the strong emotional reactions. So if you rely on the algorithm to suggest videos to you, you’re not going to find much. You have to be actively searching and in control of your feed.

It is also what you make of it. 🙂

Additionally, there’s a lack of good advanced information, and an awful lot of 101. I believe there are a lot of creators in all the different subjects on YouTube who just get burned out with being stuck in entry-level information. Its as tedious for them as it is for viewers.

Is consuming witchcraft content becoming a substitute for practice?

Not for me. Could it, though? Sure. Its not much different than people who read and research and research and read but never practice. That was me for an awful long time; I was simply not secure enough in my knowledge to do it myself, by myself.

That’s what can happen when people don’t have IRL guidance. When you have someone there to hold your hand, to walk you through it, its easier. Much easier, like so many things in life. Especially when people are shouting from the sidelines about whatever “law” you might accidentally break.

I finally got off of my ass and got to work, and once I did, I realized how silly I had been. I would imagine there are a lot of new, “Baby” witches in that same position. No shame.

There could also be people who will never actively practice. I don’t have a problem with that either.

If you know Christianity, or any other mainstream religion really, you quickly figure out that there are priests, lay people, and congregations. Not everyone is made to do the Spiritual Work. That’s one of the many reasons there’s televised services; not everyone can or wants to attend church, but they want it in their lives.

It doesn’t mean they’re any less believers, they’re any less pagan or what-have-you. Its just not their calling. They might attend large gatherings for holidays, post happy solstice messages on their social media, and watch as many witch or pagan videos as they like. It doesn’t mean they’re any less dedicated.

There’s a place for all of us.

Alright, I’m leaving it there because its quite long enough already! Part Two to be written when I’ve recovered!

Rock my World:

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Opalite

I have been involved with making jewelry in some form almost as long as I have been involved in alternative religions/Witchcraft. Almost. I got involved with a friend of mine in college doing a painted jewelry, so that would date me at about 30 years, give or take, of jewelry making. I tried to fix jewelry even before that, and made a few things as well. With no knowledge of hobby stores, jump hoops, clasps, or much of anything “professional,” I stripped baggie ties to use the wire with beads from broken necklaces. I guess I was “destined” for it or something. Or maybe I just inherited my grandma’s crafting gene/bug/disease. Not sure. That same grandma was a florist who had a membership for years to the “Mineral of the Month Club.” I wish it still existed! Her collection was part of my inheritance. Unfortunately, many of the specimens lost their boxes and cotton inserts, as well as labels, as they were tossed from one storage closet to another. That journey began only about five years ago when my Dad started cleaning out his own collections.

Fortunately, my own journey into the world of crystals and rocks had already begun before my dad started cleaning out his attic. In my 30s I had started making jewelry again, this time with semi-precious beads and Czech pressed glass accents. I’d found my niche. Unfortunately, as far as spiritual/magical uses go, my studies had all gone into my first love, herbalism. As I peddled my wares at a weekly outdoor market, I found myself fairly consistently asked what this stone or that gem was used for. So I found myself researching the metaphysical properties just to be able to answer questions.

Low grade opal, aka opalite

With all this, I’ve got more than a little background now in researching the metaphysical uses of stones, and somewhere around 20 years of working with them now, so I’ve picked up a thing or two here or there. I thought I’d start with the bullshit, though, set some of the records straight. There are some good websites out there, and there are some horrible ones. Its easy to find hundreds of properties for every mineral known to mankind, but a little harder to find sites that will give the hard, cold truth.

Therefore, we’re starting this adventure with Opalite. The term “opalite” can refer to two different “stones.” There is the natural crystal, which is a low-grade opal stone.

The other item referred to as “Opalite” is glass. Yep, glass. Absolutely synthetic.

Opalite, not even close to natural, and not even remotely related to opal

At least you might know what you’re getting into. I don’t blame anyone for buying opalite, it is gorgeous. I work with it, myself. I wear it sometimes. I make jewelry out of it. I am aware, however, of what it really is, and I know what to expect energetically from it.

What you can use opalite for honestly depends first and foremost on your own perspective on why minerals do what they do.

Most people I know using minerals in some sort of metaphysical way work under the principle that they somehow emit, transmit, or even magnify energy. This is seen specifically with crystalline minerals. Clear or rock crystal, in particular, is often cited as its a clear case of the metaphysical mimicking the physical. After all, crystals were used in the very first radios.

Now this is an old school radio

Then there’s the atomic theory. Everything, every single thing in this universe that we know if, is comprised of atoms. Atoms that are always moving. Always. Even in solid matter, they are constantly swimming around. Or flying. Depends on how you visualize it, I suppose. In this theory, the atoms are therefore bumping into anything they come in contact with. In the case of jewelry, your skin. The air. The desk. Anything an object touches will be touched by its atoms.

The effects of the atom theory, which is where I stand on minerals and their uses, makes it a very, very, very slow affect. Which is how I look at it. I don’t believe crystals are going to have an abrupt effect in most cases. There is one notable exception on my own part, but I’ll save that for later. It might make me change to the energy theory some day. Time will tell. Perhaps the truth is actually a blend of the two.

At any rate, opalite is even more interesting in the atomic theory because glass is not solid. Its a liquid. Which would imply that the atoms in glass are moving faster than the atoms in rocks. Hard to believe any of that, I know. If you’re lucky enough to live near some extremely old buildings (like ancient, even) you might be able to witness this yourself. Ancient windows will be thicker at the bottom as the glass molecules have slowly, imperceptibly slid down to the bottom, making the bottom of the window thicker than the glass at the top.

However, glass is, at the end of the day, non-conducive, rendering the energetic theory a little difficult to fit into any uses of opalite on a metaphysical level. It insulates, it doesn’t transmit.

As it is insulating, opalite can have at least a symbolic use for protection. Insulating the wearer from bad juju and negative vibes. If you work with color, depending on the hues of the opalite, it can be an extremely uplifting and happy object to work with as well. Like a cocoon of happiness.

Because I’m an absolute pendulum addict, my all-time favorite use of opalite has to be for pendulums. When you want an answer from yourself, there is nothing better. No other entity or spirit will be able to interfere. I highly recommend using opalite pendulum when you’re trying to talk to your inner child, your higher self, your subconscious, or your Will. When you need to know what you really think or want, an opalite pendulum is what you ought to reach for.

The Opalite Pendulum: Practical and alluring!

I have heard it said that every plant has its use. I find that to be true, in general, of every object on earth, whether natural or man made. Just because something isn’t natural is no reason to snub it. There’s also no reason to make up grandiose uses that have no real basis in reality just to sell a product. “Thanks, capitalism!” Keep your eyes open because in these studies there are as many people with serious intent as there are people looking to make a buck off of people with serious intent.

Everything on this planet, and likely everything in the universe, has its use. Whether man made or synthetic, it all has some sort of value to it. Not always metaphysical, for sure, but always useful in some way or other. In the case of opalite, it does happen to have some legitimate metaphysical uses, at least in my practice. I think like a witch, its just a different way of looking at what is around you, and making the most of it.