QUESTION: I’m not sure who to really ask about this and I don’t really know if this is the right place to go but a few days ago I accidentally killed a spider, it doesn’t seem like much but after that I kept seeing spiders everywhere and then they’d disappear. I also had continuous dreams about them for a few days after, some that didn’t exactly feel like dreams. The odd part of this all is that the other day I opened my sketchbook and found a dead spider it looked exactly like the spider I had killed with the way the legs were and all and when I found it. A really bad gut feeling of fear overcame me, my entire body went cold and I’m still slightly worried if it was something bad or just my mind playing with me. I asked my family if anyone had put or done anything with a spider in my book and they all said no and my book hadn’t moved from the same spot it has always been in since I had last used it before the spider incident. Sorry if this doesn’t mean much but it’s been on my mind and I just wanted to have someone else’s opinion on the matter.

ANSWER: Spiders can mean a variety of things depending on the type of spider, how it is behaving and where you see it. Generally, in daily waking life, living spiders are guardians – friends if you will – who look out for us, provide protection and have the message that we need to be using our own wisdom about a situation that we find ourselves in.

They do seem to get a bad rap given that they look quite scary and can freak a lot of people out but if you find yourself seemingly surrounded by spiders it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Spiders in dreams can mean very different things as to our subconscious they are enemies to be overcome.
However, in this instance I would say the dreams are prompted by the guilt you are feeling over accidentally killing one. Spiders can and do sneak into the strangest of spaces which would explain finding one in your sketchbook and I would say that the message is perhaps more that you are ignoring your own wisdom in favour of something easier to think or feel about something or someone. Try sitting with yourself in meditation or whatever else it is you do that allows you to clear your mind of all other things and focus on one thing. Ask yourself if there is something you are ignoring that you should be paying attention to. Perhaps there is something you should be wary of happening right now and the spiders are showing up as a means of protection while you figure it out.

I would also suggest as a means of easing your own mind about this accidental death would be to hold a little ritual honouring the spider for his sacrifice in bringing you the message you need to hear right now. Maybe light a candle, say a few words and express your sorrow for its death at your hands and allow yourself to move on and forgive yourself for what was a total accident and could not be helped.
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I hope this helps,
Bright blessings,
Sarah x

QUESTION: So as a newcomer to all of this, I have a question/concern as I’ve been having two different reoccurring dreams/visions and not sure if they are connected.

1. Is of a modern-day soldier lying dead on his back in a corn field there's a farmhouse about 200 feet away and another ghost (looking like he is civil war era soldier) walks up reaches down and pulls this soldiers spirit up.
2. A vast battlefield blades thrust into the ground no terrain features in any direction and looks like it has ankle deep blood all around but no bodies no signs of fighting just blades.

Not sure if this is important but my patrons are Tyr and Aries.

Any advice would be helpful.
ANSWER: It seems to me that your patron deities are speaking to you about your situation right now. Do you feel as if you are fighting a war somehow? Both Tyr and Aries are gods of war among other things. Perhaps there is a situation happening in your personal life that feels as if you are battling somehow and these dreams signify how you are dealing with them.

The first dream seems to indicate defeat to some, but I would say this is more about achieving peace, the war being over and being able to move onto the next phase of life speaks loudly here.

The second dream seems to indicate that this is an invisible enemy you are fighting, one that is not immediately visible or tangible. This could signify your own emotions or perhaps even the current threat we are all facing of a virus that is extremely contagious and can be life threatening.
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I hope this helps,
Bright blessings,
Sarah x
 
 

QUESTION: How do i make a pendulum? Can it be made of any type of string, such as a hoodie string? I'm a closet baby witch who just got into witchcraft and I've been trying to figure this stuff out. Also, what can I use instead of a crystal?

ANSWER: You can make a pendulum from many things, it doesn’t have to use a crystal, in fact many don’t!
I wouldn’t suggest using a hoodie string as it will be fairly thick and stiff but anything that is fairly thin and that hangs well by itself will work as a string. I have used necklaces with pendants, crystal pendulums, even a metal washer on a piece of normal string when times have called for it.

Rather than a crystal, you can use anything that has a little bit of weight to it and holds whatever you’re using as a string straight and swings freely. I prefer metal if I can’t use a crystal and preferably something that is naturally forming such as copper but it isn’t essential to dowsing practice.
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I hope this answers your question,
Bright blessings,
Sarah x

QUESTION: Do you have any recommendations for an online course to complete my first degree in Witchcraft or any courses in Green Witchcraft, I would love to expand my knowledge.

ANSWER: Hello and thank you for your question. I would love to be able to simply list a few links for you but believe it or not, this is not a question with an easy answer.

First, I would like to advise you on what to avoid. Courses that are listed on sites that have large educational variety from website design to ancient astrology are best avoided. They list courses offered by individuals but have little knowledge themselves as to whether the content is valid and worthwhile so find it a struggle to ensure the content is quality. These kinds of courses are usually cheap and may well be great for a little bit of insight or maybe to fire your imagination and give you ideas of what to study but not as in-depth courses that will train you properly and responsibly.

To be honest, I have never studied any degrees of witchcraft online in this way, only using it to seek out information on individual aspects just as I have read books and listened to talks given by other practitioners about things I would like to learn or have found interesting or useful to my practice – but then the internet did not exist when I began on my path!

So how do you choose an online course? Look for either an individual or a coven who have plenty of real and good recommendations. Look through their content, does it seem reasonable for the level you’re working at and are you drawn to work with what they’re putting out? Don’t just settle for the results on page one of any internet search either, the better results for this undertaking will come on pages after that rather than the ones who have paid for their SEO or advertising. The ideal would be that you find a solitary practitioner looking for someone to mentor or a coven who will take you through the levels safely but I do understand the need to look into online avenues so here’s an example of a good course on Wicca, I cannot personally recommend it as I haven’t completed it myself but it looks like reasonable content and has plenty of good, real sounding reviews.

https://www.unclefesters.com.au/Free-Wicca-Course-Home-Page-s/189533.htm

Of course, we have plenty of good information here on WitchPathForward too and will be expanding our offerings in the summer to include some courses and workshops so you can always keep on checking back here too!
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I hope this helps,
Bright blessings,
Sarah x

ANSWER: The short answer I'm afraid is no. Reading the future isn't what most people think it is for several reasons.

The first is that we don't actually read the future when we are reading anything be that a person’s energy, tarot cards, astrology or through any other means of divination. The second is that everyone has free will and is free to choose a different path to the one that may be read while using divination. The last is that any divination is all up to the individual’s interpretation as to what is read from something and that is incredibly personal and likely to not be repeated by the next person along. All of this means that telling someone accurately what will happen to them in the future is not possible.

What we can do is look at the events that have led up to someone asking for a reading and what the reading is telling us to describe a likely outcome given the evidence in front of us within the symbology of the divination method. This will give us a good – possibly accurate - guess at a possible outcome if the person is to keep on being themselves and doing things in their usual way. However, if they act in ways which may drastically alter whatever is seen in the reading then the outcome might well be very different to what might have been described.

I would add that there are those rare individuals who do have the skill of foresight in this manner and might well be able to connect well enough to see what possible path you might have and the outcomes of that path. Usually though most people use methods of divination to find the possible answers to specific questions for those who haven’t learned how or have no wish to for whatever reason.
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I hope this answers your question,
Bright blessings,
Sarah x

QUESTION: I believe Aphrodite has reached out to me and I get the feeling someone new is also reaching out to me, but idk how I feel about this specific one, it just feels kind of off. Any tips on how I get to the bottom of things?

ANSWER: Thank you for your question, I’m not sure I can answer it to your satisfaction 100% but I will try and shed some light on the situation, nonetheless.

As your question is light on details, I can’t be totally sure that Aphrodite is reaching out to you or anyone else for that matter BUT I will say this……

Signs of a particular deity reaching out to you can sometimes be quite vague, or they can be so stark in their nature that you can’t ignore them. If Aphrodite is reaching out to you then I would expect you to be seeing, hearing or feeling something that is associated with her in some way. It is a very personal thing to be called by a deity and no two people will experience it in the same way. Have you tried meditating on the feelings you have or even asking her straight to show you if it is her? That would be my way forward if I was unsure.
You can use both of those things to look at the new entity you are feeling around to. Meditate on their presence, keep an eye out for definitive signs and ask them to let themselves be known.

It is always wise to protect yourself before communing with any entity and in this case, it seems especially important if you are sensing something off about the contact in some way. Ensure you are shielded and grounded well when trying to meditate or talk to them but at the same time give yourself enough space to explore and find out the truth of it without hindrance. Also maybe consider keeping a written record of all the things that are happening to make you think that these beings are around and reaching out to you, it might offer some insight you haven’t yet seen for yourself.
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Bright blessings,
Sarah x

QUESTION: I'm not sure if it is supposed to be here or if this has anything to do with witchcraft at all, it is just something really weird that happened to me and a former friend, I hope you can answer it and if not, it's okay, I understand.

The thing is that before I started doing research (I'm a baby witch and that's all I've been doing for a while) I had a friend and we shared names. The thing is we connected at the first minute we became friends and were really close. After some months talking strange things started to happen like sometimes, she got anxious and I experienced it too when she wasn't there, and nothing happened to make me anxious. I even learnt to notice when the feeling was her feeling and when it was mine. Sometimes she got hurt in her body and the bruise appeared on my body and not hers.

It really freaked both of us out and it doesn't happen anymore but because we stopped talking.

I know I shouldn't worry about this coz it already ended but I really want to know why did that happen.

ANSWER: Hello and thank you for your question. This experience of yours is partly a psychological thing and partly a magical thing. What you and your friend have been feeling is empathy.

On a psychological level, some people are born highly sensitive to the moods and feelings of other people and some are created through life events, usually traumatic ones. There are different kinds of empaths that I won’t go into here, but it seems to me that you were for some reason incredibly sensitive to this friend’s feelings and the things that happened to her. This can happen to strangers but usually happens to people that are deeply connected in some way, which is what you were describing.

Empathic people are often drawn to magical practices and paths because they can learn to hone their empathic skills through working with themselves. Witchcraft and its beliefs can also go some way towards explaining their experiences which sometimes do seem to be outside of normal human capability.

The question is what to do about it? Empathic skills can be a treasure trove of goodness if you can learn to set healthy boundaries for yourself and learn when its best to disconnect from another person and the things they are feeling. There is a problem with this range of skills though and that is that you can lose yourself if those boundaries aren’t securely in place. This can lead to feeling disconnected from the world and the people in it, becoming overwhelmed with the emotional load of other people and if left unchecked for long enough, serious mental health issues. Being empathic or highly sensitive in itself can be an extremely useful skill but be careful that you use it wisely and learn how to look after yourself.
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Bright blessings,
Sarah x
 

QUESTION: Hi, I am emailing you because I have a question regarding recent energies roaming in and out of my bedroom. So, this past week, my boyfriend came over. Some backstory: I haven't seen him in 3 or 4 weeks, and he lives about four hours away from me, so our time is often limited. He works and I am a college student. But anyway, back to it. While he was here, I was constantly in the mood to have sex with him and I was always willing if he was. Our sex life is magical, so before he came, I put my green malachite pendulum over my bed so that our energy could get absorbed. Well, now my boyfriend is back home and I am as horny as I was when I was going through puberty. I haven't watched this much porn since I was in high school! I should be writing a botany lab report. So, I guess what I am asking is: if my partner and I have a really intimate romantic life and my pendulum was in the centre of that... am I feeling the after effects... will it ever go away? It's getting to be very distracting (I am never this out of control) is there a way to dilute this energy or convert into something productive? Is this going to keep happening if I leave my pendulum above my bed?
Backstory for why my pendulum is above my bed: it was the weekend after Valentine’s day, so I wanted to make sure my bedroom looked very romantic and I put a lot of planning, energy, and love into that, and to make it better, he surprised me by arriving a day earlier.

Anyway, I appreciate the positive sexual energy of this event, but I need to calm it down. Please help.
Note: I do practice being in tune nature more than my stones, mainly because I am often outside way more and my medication hinders me from connecting with the stones... I have to be off my medication to do so.

ANSWER: Firstly, thank you for your question and secondly, the answer to this could either be real world or energy based so I’ll cover both here.

The real-world answer is that it is possible your sexual needs aren’t being met through this long-distance relationship and so you are left wanting more when he leaves for home. It is a difficult kind of relationship to maintain sometimes and especially when there are big gaps of time between visits. You may find that your horny behaviour disappears with some time but in the meantime, it would still be advisable to honour your needs unless it becomes a problem and interferes with other life aspects that are important to you. If this is what is happening, then it may also be advisable to seek out a therapist experienced in sexual matters who can help you to dig deeper into the causes.

I wonder have you asked him if he’s experiencing the same upturn in his sexual needs after his visit or if his needs have changed in some way? It would certainly be worth talking to him about it for further exploration in the magical realms of reasons. It may be that you have connected so deeply to him during your intimate moments that you have maybe picked up his own depth of need through empathy, something which Malachite in particular can enhance.

My advice here would be to first explore the “real-world” options first. Talk to your partner and find out what his experiences have been since his visit to see if any light can be thrown on the situation. Once all that is done, if things aren’t improving for you then the first of the magical things to try would be to cleanse the space and any objects within it. You can do this be simply actually cleaning the space or if you prefer use sage or another cleansing herb, or a cleansing room spray. This would hopefully remove any connections to any negative causes that are having a less than positive effect on you. The second would be to find a cutting ties meditation that you can follow to sever any ties that are causing behaviour that is negatively impacting other aspects of your life. Obviously, I don’t mean that you should cut ties with your significant other, just whatever connection has caused this increase in your sexual needs.

I don't think any of this is linked especially to your pendulum, though Malachite does enhance love and affection it is more linked to heightening spiritual awareness and protection against negative energies than anything sexual in nature.

I hope this helps!
Bright blessings,
Sarah x

QUESTION: Hello! I hope that this doesn’t end up being too long - It’s a bit of a doozy for me and stems from a few years back. I think something might be trying to contact or connect to me? I’m not well versed in any of this so I’m trying to avoid saying anything incorrect.

A few years ago, I want to say in 2016 or 2017, I woke up to the perfect shape of a crescent on the underside of my forearm. The tips were facing my palms, if that helps any. There wasn’t anything on my bed that could have left that mark there and I remember the imprint itself staying for a couple of days. I believe it fully faded away after a week and I was actually a bit disappointed when I noticed it was gone.
For a while after that I remember a general feeling of something always being off - gut instinct. I forgot about it until months later, about 4-6 months ago. I started seeing videos on what I believe was Wicca (I hope that’s the correct term) and it had to do with different deities, something about that struck a chord with me. I was off and on about looking into it but once again forgot about all of it until very recently.
About one month ago now I had a strange dream that was so incredibly intense and different - The only other time I had a dream such as this was when I dreamt of my sister, who passed away in 2006.

The dream itself I can’t remember aside from one very key factor: There was a dog, sitting in a way that was almost intimidating and comforting at the same time. The dog was dark in colour, such as brown or black, but had a very royal aura about them, and it felt as though they were trying to tell me something. When I think back on it, an image of the dog shaking their head rapidly comes to mind and my eyes start watering. Truthfully, I can’t remember anything except for that - When I try to, it’s almost as if everything I remember around the dog is moving so fast that it’s far too blurry to try and focus on, making the dog the centre of it.

Over these last couple of days, I’ve been feeling as though something is very off about my surroundings. I can’t explain it well, but a few stand out things have happened:
1) When I was in the parking lot of my job, a black shopping cart started rolling on an uphill slope with no one around and no wind pushing it. My friend was in the car with me when this happened and she saw it as well, she noted that saw the strap in the cart (that holds children in) lift upwards but I can’t vouch for that myself.
2) I woke up around 6am to knocking, I believe it was on a door rather than a window. I did get up to check the house and it turns out my front door was unlocked - Something that I had forgotten to do the night prior when I got home. It wasn’t an eerie feeling when I heard this either.
3) My dog started barking and growling around the house from 4:40am to around 7am. This isn’t normal by any means and he’s incredibly protective over me - When I came out of my room to check on him, he was acting off but immediately came to my side when I walked into the room. Shortly after I went back to bed, he began doing the same thing once again. It isn’t persistent barking/growling, it comes at random. This is the most significant thing aside from my dream that has happened, though once more I didn’t feel that there was any danger or something eerie going on.
4) Likely the least significant thing is that my black belt that I have hanging randomly jingled shortly before or after my dog started barking and growling. It was clear that it was my belt buckle, it’s hanging over a small loveseat, and I had left it there overnight. There’s no wind or anything at all to have caused it to move.

Anyway, I apologize for the long read and I hope that I didn’t say anything incorrect or offensive - I’m so incredibly interested in learning about everything and all of these events tied together just don’t feel like they’re in the norm for me.

ANSWER: Thank you for your question, and the first thing I want to say to you is not to worry about things you say being incorrect. The only way any of us learn is to ask questions and make mistakes along the way. To me, there is no wrong question and certainly at the beginning of your journey as you seem to be, and mistakes are inevitable. If someone makes you feel bad or gives you hassle for getting it wrong, then they probably need to look at themselves!

It seems to me that you are being shown a path that is opening new possibilities to you. The crescent moon is known as a sign of the goddess in all her forms and pops up all over the place across the world and in different paths so perhaps you are being drawn to Wicca or Witchcraft in some way.

The dream you had about the dog seems to be telling you a couple of things. The first is that friendly dogs generally mean that you are loved and protected. They represent our closest companions and usually mean there is someone around who will guide and help you even if you don’t know who they are yet.

Feeling “off” doesn’t always mean something bad is going to happen or that something awful is around you. Often it just means that it is something unfamiliar though I am not one to warn against listening to your intuition so maybe next time you get this sense, try and lean into it a little and explore whether it feels truly bad for you or if its just something you don’t recognise yet – your gut will know if you can truly listen to it. If it does feel truly awful, then there are things that you can do to put a stop to them or at least use for protection. I won’t go into them here but you can always look through the other answers we have given over the years for advice we have given about this before.

Perhaps see if you can find people locally that have an interest or some experience in Wicca and witchcraft. There are as many different paths to Witchcraft as there are people who practise it because it is a personal journey that only you can take. It is useful however, to explore with people that are experienced or who have knowledge you can gain from. You don’t need to go any further with it than you feel you are comfortable with and can always step away if you feel it isn’t for you at all. Be careful of people that claim to have all the answers or that ask for a lot of money for hidden knowledge etc. They are rarely what they claim to be!

I hope this helps and again I’ll say please don’t be afraid to ask questions or sound silly, it’s how you will find the path for you and learn what is right for you.
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Bright blessings,
Sarah x