Tag Magic

Okay nerds… Buckle up because I have a lot to say this time.

Today I want to talk about creating your own Dungeons and Dragons campaign or more specifically world building. A while back we did a video on our personal experiences from when Mikaela and I were first learning to play DnD where I mention not ever having DM’d. For the uninitiated, that means to be the Dungeon Master or the one creating the world, plot, deciding dice role outcomes, etc.

DM’ing is very underrated. The DM is (for lack of a better descriptor coming to my mind at the moment), the game god. It is a lot of work, prep, blood, sweat, tears, and love to be a good DM. But it is also very rewarding! You get to see your world come alive and be a part of not one character… but EVERY character as you are the playing all the NPC’s but also helping to develop and grow your players characters over time. You are constantly flexing your creativity, quick thinking, organization and, depending on the DM, your acting.

That being said, the prospect of being a DM can be intimidating. I can say that for a loooong time I avoided it like the plague because I knew it would be a commitment and I didn’t feel I would be able to do it justice. Earlier this year I decided to say, “fuck it” and start building my own campaign anyways. It may be a learning curve, but I have wanted to try my hand at being on the other side of the table and was done psyching myself out. Turns out my OCD ADHD self LOOOOOOVES world building and what I should have worried about is getting stuck in a creative concept hole.

That being said, I just want to preface my world building process with a couple notes (big surprise since I always do this).

1. I want to emphasize the distinction that this is about WORLD BUILDING for your campaign.  Writing a campaign is like writing a story whereas the world building is just focusing on building the world the story takes place in. You need to take into consideration things like the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG), character deadlines, etc but we aren’t focusing on them as that will develop and change to some extent during game play and I could/will eventually go more into that at some point.
2. I am sure you can find a bunch of other lists and articles that tell you how to world build. They will probably work. At one point or another I looked at some of those lists to make sure I didn’t miss anything. What I want to do today is show you the process that, specifically, I went through and what tools you might use.
3. I will point out that you could definitely buy one-shots, books of campaigns, maps etc and have just as much fun but this is how to build your own world for a new campaign because worldbuilding is just as much fun as playing in my opinion.
4. Again, I also want to preface this with the knowledge that there are MANY ways to go about this and none are wrong. This is just what I did. I will also be using my world as an example, so I do not go off into more tangents than is already inevitable with me.

So, let’s get into my process…

I like to start big and add more details as I go. My thought process behind this is that when writing campaigns, you want to let the world grow with the characters and let the players help build it with you. It was easier for me to consider the bigger picture and start filling in necessaries so they had a starting point with the knowledge that smaller details can, to some extent, be thought of on the spot or become lore through the actions or back stories of my fledgling party.

WHAT TYPE OF GAME PLAY DO YOU WANT?

I am not sure if this first thing is necessarily world building, but the first thing I considered was what kind of campaign I wanted to run. It helps set the tone, what kind of world I want to build, scale of the world, etc. For example, if the campaign you want is going to be a dungeon crawler you might build a high fantasy world OR do a more modern realistic world with Indiana Jones vibes. If you want a suspenseful murder mystery, you could go with a Victorian or a sci-fi space setting. Maybe you really want steampunk political intrigue. The point is that by determining what type of game you want to play; it will hugely affect what type of world you want to build. I also feel like mentioning that you can take inspiration from anywhere and to not avoid mixing and matching things. You are creating a new world so you can have new concepts! But on the flip side of that, do not be ashamed to steal a concept that is already out there and play it with maybe just slight tweaking because your players are going to add their own flavor to it anyways.

In my case, I was building my campaign world off of a book concept I had considered writing. Additionally, I am a huge book worm and also avidly consume Anime and Manga and there were certain tropes and plots that I loved and also wanted to incorporate so I pulled inspiration from a couple places. I decided on a high fantasy style game that combined an adventure/dungeon crawling style with political intrigue. I also love adventurers’ guilds but didn’t necessarily want players in one… maybe just something similar. I also loved the idea of playing something based off either a mirror image of earth or its cultural beliefs. So, imagine if the earth was populated by the myths, legends, and fantasy creatures we write and talk about and in this world, humans and our meta cultures are the stuff of their myths and legends. Again, this was kind of a vague idea at this point, but it gave me a concept to start building everything else on.

KEEP SOME THINGS, CHANGE SOME THINGS.

This is also less of a step, and more of a reminder for me and you; a tip if you will. When thinking about all the following steps, remember to keep some meta things and change some meta things. What I mean is don’t have a world so far removed conceptually that players can’t understand it or struggle with game play BUT also don’t have it be so normal in comparison to our meta world that it is exactly the same. If NOTHING in your world is relatable there is a steep learning curve. Additionally, it makes it hard for the players to have a starting place to be creative. I love being able to use my own meta knowledge about our world in creative ways… like sciencey shit etc but if NOTHING is applicable in that world it makes it hard for me to improvise. On the flip side, if it mirrors our current world exactly… what is the point? You are describing my reality, not a new world. At that point I would just call it TTRPG Sims… or I would go play my Sims… or even better, walk out my front door and interact with my normie neighbors. You need to change at least one thing about our world and then watch how it affects everything else.

START BIG. HOW IS YOUR WORLD LAID OUT?

This was my big map step. You will constantly be making maps of cities, dungeons, encounters etc. but you need to have a larger, general world for those to fit into. I already said this… but I like to start big and narrow down details later so my next step was creating the world or planet itself. Think about how big you want your world to be. You can start with a universe and then add planets that you add continents to and then later country borders to and so on, and so forth. For this world, I started at the scale of a planet. To start, I drew an equator (there is a reason for this) and then started drawing continents. This was easy for me because, though not exact, I based my continents off our meta world, BUT you could draw literally anything. The sky is the limit. Maybe your whole world is only one continent or a bunch of islands or a single spaceship or everyone lives in ships because there is no land. You get the point.

After that, think about if and how your continents would be further divided up by “human” constructs such as territories or state/country borders. Do they have defined borders or is everyone nomadic? Or maybe the world isn’t very populated and is mostly uninhabited wildlands. When I got to this point, I chose to take a bit of a hybrid approach. A planet is large and if there are multiple continents, it stands to reason that not all of them will be the same. Because I was basing my world off of our myths, legends, cultures, etc. I did research on those cultures and made decisions accordingly. The continent corresponding to our Europe has country borders that are not a mirror of but are vaguely reminiscent to Europe’s countries. The continent corresponding to North America is completely different. I chose to base it off of Native American lore and their cultures as a whole had less defined borders. To reflect this, I chose to show the territories where nations are generally found but avoided hard borders and many (not all) of the nations were nomadic or semi nomadic.

I also started adding major topographical landmarks (think major mountain ranges, great lakes, things big enough to show up on a world map) at this point but I didn’t focus too much on it yet. It is a whole planet, and I could easily get super sucked into this FOREVER.

You do not need to pull all of this from thin air either. Think about your inspirations and work smarter, not harder. I pull images and information from the real world and resources already out there. Here are a couple I use(d) on the regular.

• The internet in general- This is obvious. I used this for research and for images. Google search the shit out of everything. I was all about using reputable sources and fact checking but depending on your world and what you are searching for, realism may be less relevant honestly.
• Inkarnate – Create Fantasy Maps Online– This is a favorite resource of mine for several reasons. You can use this site to make your own custom maps fairly easily in multiple styles for free and with paid versions. Additionally, there are randomization options for those who want less work or care less about this aspect or are stuck. This service works for world maps but also for cities and dungeons, so it is VERY useful long term. Finally, many users publish their maps for other world builders to use FOR FREE so you can also find a map that suits your world if map making from scratch is not your thing.
• AI art- AI gets a bad reputation but if you are looking for fun visuals for your world without spending forever, this is the way to go. As an artist, I sometimes (a lot of the time) hate AI art and what it means for me BUT sometimes I go this route. I just find free programs online and sometimes I know what I want or other times I will use the weird things it makes as inspiration. Either way, I love having visuals for my players and myself and while I enjoy hand making things, I will also supplement with this.

THINK ABOUT THE RULES OF A PLANET.

When I talk about thinking of the rules of a planet, I am talking about the laws of nature. Once the campaign is running, this is mostly not thought about in game play because it is second nature (baddump-tsss) to accept those everyday rules. I mean, how often during the day do you consciously think about tectonic plates, gravity, or the tidal currents of the ocean and how that affects landscapes, weather, and where certain things live? The answer is A LOT if you are me but probably not at all if you are the general public. Just think about that for a second though and what this would look like in your world.

I would recommend using our world as a reference for these laws. Remember: keep some, change some. It will make the world more relatable and avoid awkward gameplay. I am not saying that you need to become a meteorologist, zoologist, geologist, etc. to make your world. How in depth you go and how much you change is up to you. I knew I could spend forever creating this new world and never actually play if I got stuck in this. I went VERY DEEP and will probably always be adding to this. What I am saying though is to just put a bit of thought in… I started with these categories for me:

• Tectonics- I went there! You don’t need to. But I just briefly thought about it because it helped me decide where to put mountain ranges and volcanic hotspots. I did use our planet as reference, but I didn’t want placement to be 100% the same.
• Seasons- Do you have the same seasons or are they completely different? I kept the same seasons. Both because of familiarity and because a lot of ancient lore revolves around the seasons, so they were relevant. Also, I knew I was going to focus more in other areas and was avoiding even more work.
• Natural Disasters- What types are there? Are they more prevalent in certain areas? I decided to keep our normal ones and add a couple new ones since I had a highly magical world. For example, I added a Chaotithaumaturg Storm with is basically a big word describing a huge storm event that happens around areas that are particularly dense with magic, and it causes your own magic to react and manifest in weird ways or not at all.
• Gravity- This was easy for me… I kept Earths gravity. This may be different on your planet, spaceship etc. If you are in space, you could have VASTLY different ranges of gravity and that will affect races, game play, technology, flora, fauna, etc.
• Distance from Equator- I told you this would be important! Again, because I used earth as a reference, I knew my rules and could mostly ignore its placement BUT, on your planet, think about how this affects everything. On Earth, closer to the equator means more light and warmer weather which means that the races and flora and fauna there have adapted to that. It also means the water in the oceans is warmer near the equator, leading to more hurricanes.
• Wind and Ocean Currents- Again, for me, Earth was a reference, and this was one area I chose not to mess with. There is one big thing to remember about currents though if you have different terrain/ continents and it is that currents will follow the path of least resistance. This could mean flowing downhill if we have Earth gravity or up if we have a different gravity rule.  If wind hits a mountain range, it will be forced up which will cause different weather on each side of it. Water will flow until it hits an obstacle (like a continent) and then will be redirected to flow along the coast until it is redirected again by another obstacle. When apposing currents meet you could have a strong up or down current or a whirlpool. Just things to think about if you want to make more realistic maps/terrains.
• Flora & Fauna- This is where I chose to make more of my changes and where I am still making new things constantly. Think about what plants and animals are in your world and what/where their habitats would be. I kept a lot of our meta plants and kept them native to areas relative to our world while adding larger carnivorous, magical, and monstrous options as well. For the “animals” or creatures in the world I may have gone a bit far (to the point of dichotomous keys). I did keep some of our animals but for the most part I wanted to make run of the mill animals, like pigeons, the equivalent of a mythical creature like a phoenix. Instead of Pigeons, they have something that looks like tiny rat pigeon gryphons called a Rageon. A shifter that turns into an earth wolf? How magical! What is a cow? Instead, my cultures have domesticated and made a global industry out of Bonnacon farming. I just felt like it really made for an immersive world and opened up opportunities for fun interaction.

You don’t have to focus on all these things, or you can look at other “rules” than I have here. I would recommend though that whatever you are thinking about, consider how they interact and change in relation to each other if you tweak just one thing. How would less or more gravity affect your natural disasters? What if there was only 1 season… or 13? And how would that affect how plants, animals, or even people adapted?

TRIBES: WHO, WHERE, AND WHAT ARE THEIR RELATIONS?

So now we have a planet and need to start adding “people” as it may be. I like to think of this in terms of “tribes” because it is a bit more in depth and pushes me to think about things in different ways. Tribes can be defined as:

a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.

A tribe can be a race in the broadest sense of the word, or we can narrow it down to nationalities, religions, government factions, a club at school, a friend group, etc. I like to start thinking about who my tribes are, where they would be found, and what do their relationships look like. Do you only have 2 races; one that has adapted to water and lives on the coast and an inland hunter gatherer race. Do they get along and trade for resources? Or do they compete and have a long history of conflict? I once again find it easy to start big and narrow it down:

1. What races inhabit your world? I went high fantasy and had a lot of options since each culture has numerous intelligent characters to turn into races. Just think Celtic Fae or Japanese Oni and the variations within those categories alone. Therefore, I have a very diverse world.
2. Where does each race live? In my world I based this generally on what culture the mythos is from, but you may need to look at things like where resources would be available and where their physique would make sense. Or maybe your race has to live someplace odd but there is a relevant reason that you are writing into your campaign (ie. dwarves living in trees because of extenuating circumstances no one will tell you even though they hate it).
3. Next, start dividing into smaller tribes. Maybe it is the scientist in me, but I love to categorize things. First, I started with broader groups that I thought would relate to each other best. In some worlds this could be nationality. I did consider nationalities as a tribe but I actually went with categories of races first such as the fae, shifters, mer people, demons, angels, tauric races, vampiric races, shades and revenants, giants, etc. Within those I then broke them down into subcultures. Take dwarves for example… just to name a few I put in that category I have the Menehune of Hawaii, Duwende of the Filipines, Duergar of Northern England, and the Zwerge of Germany. These were my own categories that I used for my world so I did take some creative license, but you get the point.
4. Think about how these different categories or tribes interact with each other and why it is how it is. Just as a note, I feel that tribes closer together are more likely to have either the most conflict or the most harmonious relationships. It is this duality of naturally wanting to be seen as unique/different and competing over the same resources while simultaneously having a lot of commonalities due to similar environments and an exchange of goods/ideas. If you are in forced proximity you are bound to either love or hate each other eventually.
5. Start adding smaller tribes. Here are some I considered/added: countries/ governments, gangs, organizations, guilds, and religions. Maybe in your world it is fleets or packs. Regardless, make yourself some groups and decide who they like and don’t like. 

I feel like a lot of other articles that talked about world building didn’t really talk about tribes and their relationships, but I think it makes it more realistic. Especially if you are looking to make a very large world and if this is a campaign you plan on making a long one. It adds layers that you may not interact with at first but will add complexity later.

WHAT DOES THE DAY TO DAY LOOK LIKE?

This was actually a suggestion in a Master Class about Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing by N.K. Jemisin. By this point you should have a very clear idea of what your setting is and who is interacting with your world. Think about your daily routine and what that would look like in the world you are creating. This will help you flush out the minutia like transport, money, language, prepping food, bathroom routines… little things. This is probably where I get stuck the most trying to make things consistent and make sense. N.K. Jemisin listed off some different areas to consider how your world is different or the same as ours: Deviance, Military, urban vs rural, gender, politics, inequality, medicine, technology, health, family, stratification, law, conflict, race, economics, culture, education, religion, environmental, ethnicity, science vs magic (how does it work in your world), and industry. I wouldn’t even know where to start to give examples for this step because once again I went a little cray cray at this point. I decided that like different countries in our world had different day to day routines, currencies, socio-economic structures etc…. so too would mine. I will say that I originally started just flushing out the deets in the area my players started in and am building other cultures etc with my players as we go to an extent. It also helps that I am once again basing much of it off of our meta world so if it is an area of the world that historically bartered and was nomadic… the culture in my new world will barter and be nomadic.

MAKE SOME NPCs… BUT NOT ALL OF THEM.

Okay… Now that we have general groups of people, we need to flush out some NPC’s. Your NPCs should constantly be evolving and growing as the campaign progresses. Don’t worry too much about having the info for every person in the world and their whole genealogy. Just focus on some NPC’s you will need either on a regular basis, to progress plot (like your BBEG), or in your next session. When deciding who to initially create, I asked myself a couple questions:

1. Who do my players already know? I try to have at least one NPC per player that would be tied to their backstory and the players themselves can help with that.
2. Who are some of the local vendors?
3. Who are some local figures of authority?
4. Who are a couple NPCs that you may NEVER meet but everyone would know their name? This could mean adding celebrities, higher ups in your star fleet, or the king for example.
5. Who is my main villain?
6. What NPC’s do I need to progress any story I have?

This is just how I started to get the dice rolling and for each one I tried to make note of a couple things that made them relevant and interesting so that I had a starting point to play them later. Things like how they look, likes or dislikes, their role in the world, maybe a couple sentences on their backstory, a quirk, or a skill that isn’t obvious, but your players could accidentally discover and take advantage of.

There are lot of d100 lists, charts, and online generators to help randomize NPC’s. Here are a couple of resources that I like.

• AI art- again, just using free online programs to have visuals for your players.
• Dndspeak– This site has lists and AMAZING generators for everything from names, designations, physical traits, character quirks, etc. They have them for fantasy AND scifi themes. Additionally, they have generators and lists for even more than this… loot, locations, weather, wares in a store, dwarven insults… EVERYTHING.
• Fantasy NPC Generator with 5E Stat Block (npcgenerate.com)– This generator is nice because it lets you narrow down modifiers like age, race, or profession. It still gives a blurb and description of them but gets in depth enough to describe the voice for DM’s who live more role play. Additionally, it creates a stat block in case they end up in combat or so that you can save it.
• Youtube- I watched youtube videos to help create NPC voices. Two in particular that I found helpful were How To Create 100 Distinctly Different Voices by “Improve Your Voice” & Laban’s Eight Efforts demonstration by “David Bareford”.

IS THERE A BASE OR HOME FOR THE PLAYERS?

Now we have a general map, general groups of people, and specific people (NPCs). The next thing I needed was to zone in and become more detailed with my map as we got closer to where the players were based. In my case I followed all my previous steps for map building and still used Inkarnate to get a bit more detailed on a map of their country, adding a few towns for now and some topography. I don’t need to know a bunch about those towns yet. Next, I picked where my players would be based. If this was a city or town, I would then make a detailed map of that as it would be referenced a lot over time. I chose to have a home base outside a town, deep in the woods but there were still multiple buildings, so I mapped that. If your characters have a house or home base you could make a map for that. You could stop at country scale and use theatre of the mind for the rest. Do as much or little as you want. For now, I have not mapped out the inside of shops or their base and instead opted for theatre of the mind, but you never know when that will change.

CONSIDER THAT A WORLD HAS LAYERS AND HISTORY.

This is another one of those steps that is more of a reminder than anything else. To avoid a flat to two-dimensional world, you need to have layers. Here are some things to just keep in the back of your mind and use as you will.

• Worlds have long and convoluted histories (unless it is a new world) and usually there are multiple truths depending on the perspective of the teller. Additionally, the average person does not know everything about that history or remember it clearly if they were educated in it.
• Everything is connected so think about the butterfly effect and how each decision you make in world building will change something else OR what repercussions there will be for gameplay.
• Usually, two of the same things are NOT the same. What I mean by this is that there is always some variation. Unless you are copying and pasting something digitally, there will always be differences and you should play with this. This could be variations between individuals of a race. Or within a pack of wolves where some have different abilities or stats.

So now that I have dumped all of this information on you, I just want to remind you that this was just how I decided to approach it and is way more in depth than some of my friends have done. Some campaigns I have played, they started with just a partial idea of a town and built out from that as we went and another, I have done was a dungeon with a new world on each floor. However, you choose to build your world, I hope this has been at least an inspiration rather than it making it seem more daunting.

Until next time,

Taylor

It feels like every single year goes a little bit faster. The blinks get closer together. I blinked and it was spring. I blinked and it was midsummer. Another and now not only is it fall, but October is essentially over and Samhain is here. The holidays are approaching at a rate that would alarm even an Olympic sprinter. This year went faster than most of them because I feel like this year for me, has been packed with more monumental or life-altering changes & milestones than many of the recent years combined.

That sense of time speeding by in pockets might make me feel melancholy, but at the same time, this is the gateway to my favorite time of year. The shifting of seasons is always an interesting time, but autumn makes me feel such a specific way that it stands out in my memory every year. It’s something I try to savor.

I’ve tried to describe to several people over the years- and I don’t know if I’ll ever do it in a way that truly conveys the sense of wonder that I feel. Even spending most of my life in Phoenix, Arizona, a place that we jokes has 2 seasons: hot and dry cold; no snow, no changing colors and falling leaves, no spring bulbs. Just prickly trees, greens that still look brown, and pollen such a violent shade of yellow that you know its going to make you sneeze.

Don’t Blink

No matter where I have been in the country, October somehow brings this one specific day. You wake up and the air smells different. It doesn’t matter that 2 days before it was still 92 degrees outside, or the summer flowers were still in full bloom here in Washington. All of a sudden it’s crisp, the air somehow looks cleaner and less dusty; it’s not as heavy. Colors seem brighter, and sunshine looks less oppressive, more blue. All of a sudden there are more people outside in the park; telling you that even if it sounds goofy in a way, other people feel it too. We’re all somehow still running on the same primordial clock. That was always the morning that I knew Summer had said goodbye for the year.

Here in Washington, it’s a much easier thing to describe, because it’s such a visual change- and I treasure it even more. There are big crunchy orange and red leaves on the ground. I wake up to crows between the sleepy trees along the trail outside my apartment. The sunlight is extra sparkly on the mornings it’s out between the growing days of grey clouds and rain. All of a sudden, it smells like mulch and harvest. Its much different than Phoenix, but no less specific of a feeling.

There’s this anticipation in the air. The long hot days are over, and we’re entering a season of rest and closing. Of quiet evenings in warm homes, and soon of louder nights filled with laughter, family, and glittering lights. This is my favorite time of year. It’s the quiet deep breathe before I get to fill my cup with chaos, joy, family, and connection. I get to take quiet time for myself to rest before the big outpouring of myself over the holidays.

Tomorrow is Samhain again already. Given my current contemplative mood, I thought today would be a good day to discuss the history of Samhain and share some easy ways to celebrate at home- if you so choose.

A Festival of Fire:

Not be confused with Halloween, Samhain (pronounced sow-win) was originally a pagan festival celebrated by the Celts. Samhain was the most significant and largest of the Great Feast days and the most important of the four Fire Festivals; traditionally the only day of the year that the Hearth fire was allowed to go out while the final harvest was collected, before being relit as part of the communities celebration after being blessed by the Druids. It was a sacred time. Certain accounts even mention death sentences for people who violated rules or committed violent crimes during this time. Prayers were said, blessings given, cattle were sacrificed, and community bonfires were used to sanctify the Hearth’s for the upcoming year.

A Festival of Souls

Originally it was celebrated as the day that the veil between the physical world and the spirit world was at its thinnest, allowing more interaction with the beings of the otherworld. (Samhain – Celtic Origins, Rituals & Halloween | HISTORY)

Offerings were left outside of doors, villages, and fields for the Sidhe, to protect them and earn goodwill from anything crossing the barrier between worlds. People often wore animal or monster costumes so the fairies would not kidnap them.

During the middle ages, carvings on turnips and pumpkins were used to ward of fairies and other wicked beings. It was during this time that the “Dumb Supper” became a tradition. During which spirits were invited to dine with the family as a way to interact with ancestors and other deceased friends and relatives.

Christian Involvement in Samhain:

Over time, and through the rise of the Christian Church, Samhain traditions became intermingled with other Christian practices. First adapting to “All Saints and Martyrs” in the 5^th Century, and then as “All Hallows Eve”, “All Saints Day”, and “All Souls Day” in the 9^th century by Pope Gregory. Eventually, many of  Samhain’s practices and traditions became synonymous with the modern celebration of Halloween.

“The Farther we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past; the more we’ve come to need Halloween”

Paula Guran

That doesn’t mean that the original spirit of the festival isn’t still there. The growing season is over, the harvest is complete, the long nights are approaching. Now is a good time to reflect on what you have accomplished this year, and settle in for a rest, while blessing and protecting your home for the upcoming dark season.

Celebrating Samhain at home:

Just because most towns are no longer holding massive feasts and community bonfires- does not mean that you cannot acknowledge the significance of this time in the natural world. Samhain is not about devil worship, black magic, or the macabre and grotesque. It’s about harvest and celebrating the role that each season plays. It’s a time to honor those that are gone, with maybe just a smidge of the magical and mystical peaking through the thinning veil for those of us that are superstitious. Below are my favorite ways to have intentionality in savoring this time.

• Take a nature walk: you’ve probably seen me say this in any ‘celebratory’ holiday post. That’s because many of these holidays center around the changing of the seasons, and one of the best ways to experience that and appreciate it is to get out in it. See it, touch it, taste it, smell it. It was particularly easy for me this year, being in a new space with vibrant colors and so much to soak up.
  Make sure you aren’t glued to your phone while you’re out. Look at the leaves, or the clouds, or whatever it may be. Smell the crispness in the air. Let the wind sit on your face and focus on what right now feels like.

• Set up or refresh your altar: Yes there are the stereotypical symbols or Halloween, but so much more can go into the sacred space this season. Symbols have power. Skulls, ghosts, I tend to decorate with my favorite leaves that I’ve picked up on the aforementioned nature walk. allspice berries, broom, catnip, mountain ash berries, mugwort, mullein, oak leaves, acorns, rosemary, sage, pine cones, and straw are also good symbols.
  Taylor tends to merge this a little bit with her appreciation of Dia De Los Muertos. She always puts up pictures of people we loved and lost, with a special focus on any recently significant losses. We light candles for each loved one and spend time talking about them together, honoring their part in our lives.

• Host a Dumb Supper for yourself and your family: This meal is traditionally mostly silent, thus the name. Leave an empty place at your table to honor the deceased. Focus your meal on products of the harvest: dark grain breads, the darkest of summers berries, root vegetables, game meats, cider or wine. On this day the table is a sacred space. Before sitting down to eat, gather everyone for a prayer:

“Tonight we celebrate Samhain. It is the end of the harvest, the last days of summer, and the cold nights wait on the other side for us. The bounty of our labor, the abundance of the harvest, and the success of the hunt all lie before us. We thank the earth for all it has given us this season, and yet we look forward to winter, a time of sacred darkness.”

• Visit a cemetery: I know- this is where I lose some of you, or you think I’m going to tell you to perform seances in disrespectful places. Not so. But this is a time of honoring the dead. Now is a good time to visit graves of loved ones. If I was home, this would be the time I would go to my grandfather’s and grandmother’s memorial; or stop to chat with my Uncle Alois. Its another way to feel close to them and honor their memory. To let them know that I’m still thinking about them.
  Since I can’t be home this year I instead visited a local cemetery.
  There are two where I live, and the old historic one is no longer active and doesn’t get a lot of visitors. I spent some time walking rows and reading names, I can’t help but wonder who they were and what they were like. I like to lay flowers at some of the ones that catch my eye or feel right. I like to think that this way, they aren’t forgotten.
• Reflect: look back on your season of growing. Review Journals, planners, photographs, evidences of your growths this year. Look back on whatever goals you set yourself and assess how you faired. Meditate. When you are done introspecting- write down your thoughts and feelings about your experience.

• Clean and reset your hearth space: homes have certainly changed since everyone had a functional hearth. The concept remains the same. The hearth was the center of the home. A place of nourishment, gathering, and safety. The touchstone that grounded most families. When I did have a fireplace, this was the time I would deep clean it and pull it apart in preparation for winter use. If you don’t have a fireplace, it is still a good time to deep clean your kitchen. Spend some time caring for the space that nourishes you. On a practical note: you’ll thank me when the holidays roll around.
• Bonfires: Samhain was the greatest of the fire festivals. Go outside, light a fire- a firepit will do if a bonfire isn’t an option. Let the smell of woodsmoke seep into your skin and relax you. Let the heat from the fire keep away the growing snap in the air. Spend time welcoming the chillier evenings and long nights. This is a good time to meditate.

• Connect with your community: This might feel harder in the anti-social, demanding, fast-paced world we currently live in. But in times past, Samhain was an important time to connect with your community because everyone relied on everyone during the long winter months. Now is a good time to check in on friends and relatives and make sure they’re okay.
  Find a local organization to help- lots of communities will look for volunteers at this time of year to help with food and shelter for the homeless, or under privileged. There is a need for community now more than ever. Get out of your house- go to a fall festival or a pumpkin patch. Make new connections and friends in your community.

However you choose to celebrate, make sure you do so with intentionality. Focus on the feeling in your heart as this season closes. Take time to rest, recharge and prepare before the glitter and sparkle of the holidays suck us in for another grand finale. Take a minute to make sure your eyes are wide open before you blink and its spring again.

When black cats howl and pumpkins gleam, may luck be yours on Halloween.

Happy Samhain!

Mikaela

Salutations! In light of the upcoming holiday, I thought we’d do a bit of a dive into the history and practice of the Lammas Feast Day. 

Lammas AKA Lughnasadh is the first of three harvest festivals of the Pagan wheel of the year. Typically, Sundown July 31^st– Sundown August 1^st. Although technically you would need to consult an Almanac yearly to see what day of the year the stars would be in the right position if we were following the original way of tracking the Wheel of the Year. 

Lammas has been known by many names. In Ireland its known as Lugnasad or Lughnasadh. In Scotland it has been called Lunasda, The Welsh refer to it as Gwyl Awst. It was the English that called it Lammas, evolving from the Old Anglo-Saxon word Hlafmaesse, or Loaf Mass. 

Lughnasadh or ‘Lugnasad’ gets its name from the Celtic Deity Lugh (pronounced Loo). 

Lugh in modern times is frequently referred to as a solar god or harvest deity; though originally seems to have been understood as a god of human skill & craftsmen, kings, and a patron of heroes. Lugh was king of the Tuatha De Dannan, a race of divine beings whose name translates to “People of the Goddess Danu”. (Marquis 2015) 

Danu was the Celtic Mother Goddess. In the old Sagas, Lugh together with Danu displaced the Fir Bolg and the Fomoiri who were the cruel previous rulers of Tuatha. 

There are 2 popular theories around the origin of Lughnasadh as a holiday: 

1. Lugh’s wedding feast.  

2. And more commonly a funeral festival Lugh started in honor of Tailtiu; wife of the last king of Fir Bolg. Whilst we cannot prove that exactly, we can prove there was an annual festival August 1^st called the Fair of Tailteann equidistant between Navan and Kells near a reputed gravesite of Tailtiu in what is now County Meath, Ireland. 

Marriages were common or Trial Marriages and partnerships were commonly declared at this time (feeding into the story of Lugh’s wedding Feast). This would last for a year and a day until the next festival at which time the marriage could be dissolved if it didn’t work out (similar to a handfasting- which typically followed if things worked out). 

Originally Hlafmaesse was a celebration of pagan deities, but as the Germanic Peoples converted to Christianity and began settling in what is now Britain, Hlafmaesse was absorbed into the rites of the Church and celebrated as the Feast of First Fruits. This was celebrated by baking a loaf of hallowed bread, cutting it into fours and burying or crumbling each quarter into the corners of the barn intending to invite blessing and sanctify the harvest in the upcoming year.  

As Anglo-Saxons began to more heavily influence local culture, some of the older Lughnasadh traditions became replaced or hybridized, making it very hard to distinguish the exact origins of many practices. In many places across the United Kingdom, we can document where Lughnasadh traditions and Lammas traditions have been meshed together.  

In modern times, many people struggle to find ways to celebrate Lughnasadh and feel connected to the holiday with how removed most of us are from our Agriculture. As well as struggling to find distinctive ways to celebrate it separately from the other Harvest festivals. It is the first of three annual harvest festivals, ending with Samhain- or the closing of the growing season. But where Lughnasadh shines is in the bearing of the first fruits. The first crops of the year are coming to maturity, and we can enjoy them, but the true celebration is in knowing that the Harvest and bounty is still in front of you and is just beginning.  

Whilst most of us are no longer actively tilling the land, planting and harvesting- we still depend on the Mother Earth every bit as much as our ancestors did. Common Modern themes to celebrate and honor the holiday include: Harvest, Gratitude, and Reflection. Potlucks, Picnics and feasts are common practices. Offerings are also traditional, either to the Mother Earth, Lugh, ancestors, or the dead in general. Regardless of the nuances in regional celebration practices, the overall message is the same: Giving Thanks!  

Bear in Mind, that Pagans are a diverse group, and you will find Nuances in celebrations between Celtic Reconstructionism, Wiccans, Asatru (also referred to as Heathens or modern Norse Pagan), Modern Druidism, traditional Witchcraft, & Neopagan. 

Celebrating at Home: 

1. If you do Garden, or grow your own crops or herbs, Celebrating Lughnasadh is commonly celebrated by pulling your first harvest of the year, picking berries, gathering herbs or other wild crops.  

2. Many rural communities also celebrate with Bonfires.  

3. Another way to honor the beginning of the harvest season is to cook with what it offers. After all, it is one of the Great Feast Days- this is why potlucks or gatherings are a common and great way to celebrate.  

4. Lughnasadh is also a great time to get out into the great outdoors and search for new magical tools while the ground is open and easy to view. Unique branches and sticks that can be turned into staffs and conduits. Rocks and sticks that draw your attention and call your name are also always good to hunt for. Remember to never harvest or take things from compromised or protected land, and respect the spaces you are in.  

5. Play Games! Lughnasadh was traditionally a time for competitive sports and games to show off skill and prowess. Host your own Tailtaenn fair. Invite friends over for a game of football, a foot race or any other manner of sports. Remember to keep it lighthearted and fun. Add in an element of silliness and award prizes for winners of competitions. Ribbons, goofy hats, pies, pastries, or decorated brooms all make great winnings. 

Lugnashadh and Magick:  

Many different types of Magick were performed around Lughnasadh, but it is an especially good time for protection magic. Below is a more modern interpretation of a traditional Irish Practicing Herbal Spell for protecting livestock (which can these days also be translated into protecting anything that is of value or considered an asset to you). 

All you need is a selection of fresh herbs of your choosing (best to stay in season if possible). Make a list of the ‘assests’ or valuables that you want to protect and then choose a corresponding herb for each one. You can do this by either following your intuition and gut feeling or, if you choose, you can always consult an herbal guide for different symbolism in plants if you need help. I find it best with things like this to pick whatever resonates best with you.  

Set yourself up someplace quiet, with a small bowl of water. 

Pick up an herb and focus your intentions on the topic you have ascribed to that herb. Repeat the following: 

This is not (the name of the plant; i.e., basil) 
But it is my (name of the thing, person, asset, etc. that you are trying to protect (i.e., financial success, or ‘my cat’) that I hold in my hand.  

Now hold the herb in the bowl of water and focus on strength and protection and say:  

By the Power of Water, and River and Sea 
What I have is protected! 
So mote it be! 

You will need to repeat this with each herb/intention. Then take the pile of wet herbs outside to a place in nature that feels good to you (you will need to bring an apple). Place the Pile of Herbs on the ground and on top set the apple, stem facing up as a final offering. Pour the water from bowl over the top and give thanks for the welfare and protection of your assets.  

Here in the next few days, I’ll be uploading one of the recipes I will be using for our own Lammas feast. Have fun, be safe, and be well. 

Happy Harvest, 

Mikaela 

Let’s talk about intention setting. It’s something you hear thrown around directly and indirectly all the time. From mindset and goalsetting gurus to psychologists and even the old adage ‘It’s the thought that counts’; your intentions guide almost everything you do. We place a lot of moral weight behind someone’s stated or hidden intentions. The concept of intentions has sparked some of humanities oldest proverbs and colloquialisms:  

• The road to hell is paved with good intentions. 
• Let a wrong-doing repeat itself at least three times: the first may be an accident, the second a mistake, but the third is likely to be intentional. 
• He who covers up his mistakes intends to make some more. 
• No matter how brilliant an action, it should not be considered great unless it was the result of a great motive. 

This is one of the fundamental differences in the conversation between magic believers and non-magic believers. Some people would argue that it’s the difference between magic and science, but I fall into the camp of people that believe all magic is science that we don’t have the ability to explain yet. That doesn’t make it not magic. Things that we now refer to as common knowledge science would have gotten you burned at the stake 400 years ago. Then there are those things that I believe mankind just isn’t meant to unravel or dissect- they just are part of the magic of existing. 

Whilst I hate being the kind of person that loads you up with definitions- some things bear defining. So let’s start there.  

Intention: a thing intended; an aim or a plan. 

Stated simply your intentions are your goals, aims, hopes, and meanings. Intentions encompass everything from all that you hope to accomplish to the thoughts behind actions you do for and to others. That’s a lot of weight to put on one little word.  

Intention setting is one of those science meets magic subjects that I love. Why? Because right now- the majority of people on the planet consider it hippy woo-woo metaphysical, magical, mystical and otherwise two solid frog hops from the Crazy Pond. Meanwhile the Scientific community is just starting to seriously explore the concept of intentionality in serious depth. We’re at one of those awesome crossroads where we can watch the process of the scientific being used to explain the magical. Its an exciting thing.  

The basic concept of formal Intention Setting is the basis for most forms of magic. Intention setting is the first step in Manifesting. It is the spark and creative power that pushes our desires, hopes, and dreams out into the universe so the Law of Attraction can work is magic. Setting an intention is more than just stating what you want and waiting for it to happen. It’s a purposeful direction of psychic and physical energy toward a goal. Anything less is just a wish.  

We talk about setting intentions constantly for both big and little projects, seasons, our lives; Before rituals, going into classes and experiences. “What are your intentions? What are you hoping to get out of this?” Setting intentions means being mindful of your thoughts and your inner dialogue. 

The law of attraction is founded on the premise that the quality of our most prevalent thoughts, moods and attitudes determines the quality of what we manifest in our lives (What Is The Law Of Attraction? – Forbes Health). Its quite literally the power of the mind and how it interacts with the positive and negative energies of the world.  

Ever had someone turn to you and say “Mind over Matter”?  

This isn’t a new concept. I mentioned in a previous post a quote by Napolean Hill “The Mind attracts the things it dwells upon.” Which is a more condensed version of his original “Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts”.  

In an Article by Forbes, Christy Whitman, a master-certified law of attraction coach in Scottsdale, Arizona, the founder of The Quantum Success Coaching Academy and author of The Desire Factor, has a great way of explaining the basics of the theory: 

“Thanks to the contribution of Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, we now understand that matter and energy are inseparable, and that energy is the basis of everything in our tangible universe,” she continues “Everything that manifests in the physical world does so by a process of resonant energies being drawn together.” Whitman explains that it’s like when a C chord is struck on a piano. “Every other key that is tuned to the chord of C quivers in response to the note that’s been sounded, because frequencies that resonate at a similar vibration are magnetized together,” What Is The Law Of Attraction? – Forbes Health 

Some of the most successful people in the world swear by the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’. Oprah Winfrey discusses it in her book ‘The Secret’. Other celebrity names include Jim Carrey, Lady Gaga, Denzel Washington, and Jennifer Lopez. Whilst I am not a huge follower of tinsel town- what I’m getting at is that there are some very successful mainstream icons that are beginning to recognize the science behind it. The idea also falls in line with the Power of Association (when your parents used to say “I don’t want you hanging out with so-and-so, they’re a bad influence!) and the idea that like attracts like. It’s the concept that the direction and intention of your thoughts has the ability to interact with the Intentions and purpose of the Universe; and in the words of Bernard Shaw “We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.” 

When we talk about intention setting in magic we’re talking about the power of setting your mind to something, of setting yourself firmly on a decision or path and using your will to make it happen.  

According to Bruce Lipton, an American Developmental Biologist and former professor of Epigenetics states that when we set intentions “the beliefs we hold in our minds are converted into electromagnetic fields by nerve cells and the brain ‘broadcasts’ this information to all of the cells within our body. Cells respond to the information in these energy fields and use it to control their behavior and gene activity.” On the flipside of that same coin, if we are prone to negative thinking and fail to set positive intentions within our lives, our cells will respond by preparing to Fight-or-Flight, adding stressor triggers subconsciously in our day to day lives. 

Science is beginning to be able to measure and demonstrate this. If you want to read more about the connection between biology, the brain and mindfulness and how intention setting can affect our neurology and in turn our physiology, this article (The Biology Of Intention-Setting: Our Body’s Response To Activating The Mind – Thrive Global) talks a lot about Dr. Richard Davidson and his work on Neuroplasticity. 

Another Phenomenal Read is “The Intention Experiment” By Lynn McTaggart which draws on findings of leading scientists around the world. McTaggart uses cutting-edge research conducted at Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and other universities and laboratories to discuss how intent is capable of profoundly affecting all aspects of our lives.  

One of my favorite Excerpts from that book is a quote from William A. Tiller, a professor emeritus at Standford University. “For the last 400 years, an unstated assumption of science is that human intention cannot affect what we call physical reality. Our experimental research of the past decade shows that, for todays world and under the right conditions, this assumption is no longer correct.”  

The farther science gets into the study of intentions setting, the more power they are finding resides in the mind. We are even beginning to use the power of intention setting in psychology as a form of therapy and trauma healing as well as traditional medicine. Doctors discuss the idea of “setting the intention to get well, even if you don’t know how to yet.” That the idea of openly stating an intention to get well, to heal your body, and to focus on your health in that time can act upon the subconscious and not only speed up the natural process, but actually open pathways in the body that trigger the body’s natural healing processes on its own. Your body is designed to heal itself- it wants to be at homeostasis. It’s essentially stimulating an immune response. 

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to get better.” It falls under this same principle, just on a smaller, more subconscious scale.  

Now this isn’t to say that chanting “I am going to get better.” Is going to cure you of cancer. Modern Medicine still plays a roll and for very good reasons; your mind cannot fix 100% of anything- but it does play a huge role. Who knows what science will discover in the next ten and twenty years; in the meantime, the notable improvement in processes of the body that are already there make it worth pursuing. I can’t see why someone wouldn’t use every tool at their disposal to help their body do what it needs to do. If I had an infection and a doctor told me to drink lots of water, get extra rest, take lots of vitamin B and an antibiotic- I wouldn’t skip out on the vitamin B but do everything else. Sure, you’ll probably get better otherwise, but why wouldn’t you try and do it faster? If you’re trying to bake a cake and you only use 90% of the ingredients- you’ll still end up with something edible- but it might not be as good.  

The truth behind most modern Magic is at the end of the day pretty simple and straightforward. In more elegant words it’s a combination of intention setting and intense gratitude for what the universe gives us. Call it self-fulfilling prophecy, or the placebo effect. To dumb it down even further- its spicy psychology. And you can label it hippy woo-woo if you choose too but seeing the world the way that I want to and slowly manifesting or out-stubborning it until it reflects my vision has worked pretty well for me for twenty-eight years.  

That’s basically all it is. I decide what I want to happen. I set my intentions, very specifically. I focus my whole being on what it is I am trying to accomplish or manifest. Sounds simple huh? But simple and easy aren’t the same thing. Sure, you can say it out loud; whatever the intention may be. But at that point its just a wish more less. We’re talking about actual magnetism and attraction, which works on a molecular level. Its about actively changing your personal narrative and your subconscious on a chemical level. Which is harder than it sounds because humans are complex creatures.  

This is in some way, another area that the idea of mindfulness comes into play. You have to be aware of your intentions and your thoughts and your focus in order to direct them. And it takes discipline to build that skill. You’d be amazed at the number of people walking around the world with their thoughts higgledy-piggledy (or maybe you wouldn’t be) with little to no actual awareness of their thoughts or intentions. How many times do you hear “I dunno, I just didn’t think about it.” In response to a question regarding why they did something. And thoughtlessness is exactly it. The awesome thing about this though, is that its totally fixable. Its learnable. It’s something that you are in complete control of within your life.  

I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, your experiences, or your questions. If you’re so inclined, please accept my challenge: Take a few minutes to set yourself an intention. Start small, and don’t give yourself a list a mile long (rule one of goal setting/ habit creating/ or manifesting). Pick one thing. Be Specific. Write it down. Say it out loud. Declare it to the Universe (note here I say the universe and not ‘people’). Pay close attention to how your personal narrative talks about it and thinks about it in your head. Any time you catch yourself referring to it in the negative correct it. Don’t just stop the negative- you must replace it with the positive. Repeat it to yourself multiple times a day. Affirm it. Be very intentional with this one thing. For 60 days. Then come back and tell me what happened and how you feel about it. 

Now go get intentional! 

All the best, 

Mikaela