Ways to Honour Domestic Spirits on the Winter Solstice and the Yin Season
Invite the Spirits to a Winter Solstice Ritual or other seasonal observances, such as Lunar New Year celebrations
Hold a small ceremony that acknowledges the domestic spirits’ role in your life.
Include gestures like ringing bells or pouring libations to signal their welcome.
HOW TO PREPARE RITUAL PAPER
When I write intentions to be used in ritual or spellwork, I craft them on paper that has been especially designed to support the work. I hold the belief that the paper itself is the sacred container for these intents, and to honour these intentions, the very words’ environment should be held with respect, beauty, and reverence. While early Taoist (Daoist) sorceresses wrote their sigils (an inscribed symbol that contains meaning and power) on rice paper and through ritual, ingested the papers containing these sigils, I follow certain aspects of this ancient Chinese tradition of my ancestors of long, long ago.
Why the Winter Solstice Is the Ultimate Yin Moment—and Why Honouring it Will Set You Up For the Year of the Snake in 2025
The Chinese oracle, the I Ching, operates through casting lines from the ground up, with each line representing the possibility of being either Yin (a line symbolizing spaciousness) or Yang (a solid line). When a line is exclusively Yang, it reaches a state of maximalist saturation, where the restoration of balance—most often through entropy—becomes inevitable. Similarly, when a line is purely Yin, balance can only be restored through germination and regeneration, initiating a cycle of renewal. This paradox is fundamentally what informs Daoism and reflects the dynamic interplay between Yin and Yang; the pursuit of balance is the natural Cosmic order.
Motherland
It’s hard to believe it’s been just over a year since A Tea Stronger Than Death, a collection of poems written under Tea’s guidance, entered the world. Tea, in her original form, is far more than just a beverage; the plant is a keeper of wisdom, a healing agent, a spiritual companion, and a living cultural practice. I’m currently working on MOTHER TONGUES a micro edition offering that goes beyond offering a selection of Camellia sinensis Teas from my homelands in Taiwan and China, alongside tisanes made from botanicals cultivated in my garden and responsibly foraged or otherwise sourced. My work with Tea, including the Magick of Tea gatherings, aims to honour Tea's past, engage with its present, and help shape a future steeped in taste literacy, cultural reverence, magical traditions, and re-animacy.
Agatha All Along: A Daoist Lens on Witchcraft Ethics and the Balance of Power
From a Daoist perspective, Agatha’s journey in the Marvel series (played by Kathryn Hahn) can be seen through the lens of Yin and Yang—the balancing forces of light and dark in the universe. In Daoism, living fully arises from understanding and harmonizing both sides of any spectrum, including the light and the dark, aligning one's actions with the Dao (the natural order) and embracing all aspects of existence. Agatha’s connection to darker, mysterious magic symbolizes her alignment with Yin, embodying the subtle, unseen, and intuitive. Her adaptability and ambiguous nature reflect wu wei (non-action or effortless action), where her power flows naturally rather than through overt control. Agatha’s internal balance, wielding power without losing herself, mirrors the Daoist pursuit of harmony with one’s shadow while maintaining alignment with the larger balance.
How to Use Ritual Oils
From a scientific standpoint, scent plays a primal role in human experience. The olfactory nerve, the first cranial nerve to develop evolutionarily, transmits directly to the brain, bypassing other parts of the nervous system. This unique pathway underlines the deep connection between scent and memory, both on a personal and collective level.
Scent is a powerful trigger for memories and emotions, influencing creativity, social bonds, and even pheromones, which affect attraction and emotional responses. The impact of scent is intuitive, emotional, and physical. It helps us recognize loved ones, connect sexually, and experience the wider cosmos. Scents can warn, comfort, seduce, purify, inspire confidence, and facilitate communication with the Divine and the material world.
A Prayer To Aid Your Fall Equinox Rituals and Spell Work
I wrote this in the voice of a group, for those who may desire to gather and engage in group ritual work, as I will be tonight to honour the Autumn Equinox (first day of Fall) with those in the Ceremonie community and my coven mates from Homing Coven. If you are a solitary witch or magical practitioner, please feel free to substitute the “we” to “I”.
We thank the ancestors for their wisdom, their stories, their sacrifices, and for paving the way on which we stand on right now.
How Do Autumn Rituals Help Us?
In harmony with the rhythm of Autumn, a season of release, harvest, and gathering essential resources, the Metal element of Daoism (also known as Taoism) and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) guides us to let go of what no longer serves us. Associated with the lungs and its paired organ, the large intestine, Metal helps release perfectionism and grief, and excess and waste through breath, tears, and the skin.
Guided Meditations and Writing Prompts as Fall Equinox Rituals
The Autumnal Equinox is on Sunday, September 22, 2024, 5:43 a.m. PST, and here are some creative writing prompts to meditate on
The act of contemplating the gradual return of Yin can function as a collection of Fall Equinox rituals done privately or as a group.
Fundamentally, the approaching Autumn Equinox is a time for goodbyes. We say goodbye to the warm sunsets, to the green canopy of leaves above our heads, to nectar dripping down our arms as we bite into overripe peaches. The early weeks of fall may speak of harvests, yet we know there is an inevitable slow descent into frosty days, darker skies, and eating from what we’ve stored from times of plenty.
In many ways, what’s in storage is psychosomatic. Memory has a way of revealing what is important to us, highlighting what we love, and all the stories that hold both light and shadow. And in a season where the land shows itself as increasingly darker and shaded, it’s also a natural time to sit with figurative and literal deaths, grief, and sorrow. Within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the fall season corresponds with the Metal element and the lungs, the organ that holds grief and sadness.
THE RIGHTS OF THE DEAD
The last three rights of the dead may not be rights we consider much. Often we view the dead as immortally fixed, as if they cannot continue to learn and evolve, but in my work, I have witnessed spirits discovering information they did not know while alive, experiencing closure, and having a more macro view of existence. These often help them evolve, and can give them a deeper purpose as a spirit.
Why Am I Seeing Spirits?
I've been receiving many emails and DMs from the community, asking if I've (or anyone else) have had a lot of experiences lately where I see spirits and spirit activity out of the corner of my eye.
My short response is yes, and perhaps a deeper question is, why?
What’s been revealed is the urgent need for the world to return to an animist worldview. It’s not just about “believing in” animism; as this notion of “believing” is synonymous with faith or a need to be convinced. What the spirits seem to be pointing to, and reminding us is to recognize reality as being fuller, mysterious and uncontainable. We’re approaching a point where we must collectively face everything that isn’t working—everything that causes suffering and injustice— and the natural rebalancing of things that may be very inconvenient to the System and its participants who require suffering for their comfort to continue.
New Age Spirituality Criticism Must Also Be Extended to Science
‘Are psychics legit’ is a legit question, but we have other questions to also ask.
I’ve been a critiquing voice of low-nutrition McSpirituality, of charlatan mediums, of New Age scams and opportunism, of watered-down, co-opted traditional teachings, BUT it doesn’t mean that malpractice and extraction are exclusive to the psychic or spiritual.
Under A Watching Moon
Poems for Witches
It’s all over the place, every opportunity an upsell.
Things a guise for safety.
Though objects are but placebos,
and we wish someone knows us under a watching moon.
Skin Scrying: TCM Face Mapping Meets Ancestral Spirit Work
Face mapping is two way communication method for channeling and divination. Skin caring has never been so witchy.
Let’s first define scrying.
Scrying is an ancient divination technique where one looks into a reflective or translucent surface, like a crystal ball, darkened glass, stone, water, fire, or smoke, to gain insights, receive messages from ancestral spirits or guides, or predict future events. This practice, rooted in various cultural traditions, is closely linked with mystical and witchcraft practices throughout history.
HERBAL RECIPES FOR IMMUNE SUPPORT
Here are some some recipes of what I've been doing at home with the family to build IMMUNITY. I discuss the two different types of immunity HERE.
SKIN FOOD: CHICKEN SOUP WITH TRADITIONAL CHINESE HERBS
I’ll also be sharing a list of my favourite, most effective skin foods that promote elasticity, clarity, moisture, and radiance. Until then, below is a recipe to my skin food ‘secret’: Taiwanese-style herbal chicken soup. It provides necessary nutrients, but also considers core TCM elements that look beyond the physiology of the skin and into the spirit. Everyone in my household drinks at least a bowl (often more) a day, regardless of time of the year. I may adjust the herbs, but the recipe below is an evergreen one. It functions as a stand alone or a versatile base, such as adding some cooked noodles or veggies to a bowl of the soup.
CARING FOR YOUR END-OF-SUMMER SKIN
Summers in the westcoast, from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between and beyond have been increasingly hotter and drier. My skin has experienced dusty winds, icy air conditioning, salty waters, prickly fluctuations, general neglect, and like the fallen fruit that lays on the ground end of summer, I am reminded that while my skin is resilient, she also is craving sweetness and holding not from blush or bb creams, but from care, attention, and time to be. Our skin is precious, and for those who are intuitive or walk the medial path, our skin is the organ that is especially attuned to subtle perceptions and relationality. In other words, our skin from a psychic context provides information on whether we want to be open or to remain closed. I think sometimes we forget this.
A Quick I Ching Reading on Hexagram 24
The I Ching (Yi Jing) is the shamanic oracle of Chinese antiquity, also called the Book of Change. A collection of 64 change archetypes, manipulations and play arrangements in schematic form, it's one of the oldest surviving forms of divination. I say divination rather than fortune-telling, as the latter tends to suggest deities or other powers that control our human fates, whereas, in my experience as an animist medium and conjurer that it's more about change unfolding according to each situation's principles, and that all things in the process of change are connected. This allows us to determine our exact position in the unfolding process, understand who or what it will impact, and proceed with confidence in our predictions. The I Ching emphasizes probability, analyzing conditions, and envisioning actions to shape desired outcomes or avert dangers. In this way, divining becomes a form of innovation, blending creativity with technical analysis.
ANIMISM: How It's Not All About Us
Animism: The Cosmos is alive and intelligent, comprised of many different sentient beings, and humans are one of the beings within it. In other words, the Universe does not exist for humanity’s exclusive pleasure, convenience, opinions, or survival.
Do We Expect Too Much from Spirit Workers and Intuitives? 5 Best Practices for Ethical Spirit Work
I’ll share 5 best practices for ethical psychic work (and examples):
NO to Mistaking Clever Marketing /Packaging, the Visual, and “Stuff” as the Real Thing.
I've noticed that some in this field often lean into theatrics and certain devices. This can include adhering to fashion stereotypes of a witch (long hair, black dress, tattoos), equating a specific aesthetic decor with credibility, or believing that possessions like crystals, jewelry, and elaborate altars define their skill. For me, I don’t have a “witch aesthetic”; I have a “Mimi aesthetic”, meaning, I wear what I like and what’s comfortable. My altars are simple and minimalistic.