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Victoria Raschke

@vvitchtoria.bsky.social

(she/her) Author where you buy books, publisher at 1000Volt Press, podcaster at WitchLit, and syncretic antiquarian animist folk witch wherever (still workshopping my P-Touch drawer label) also: @witchlitpod.bsky.social https://linktr.ee/victoriaraschke

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Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 3h ago

28 Aug 26🌖♓️🌦️81 11 Fructidor - Watermelon, E. Burne-Jones b1833, Janet Frame b1924, St Moses the Black, Eleusinia, Varalakshmi Vrat, Raksha Bandhari, Rakhi, Gayatri Jayanti, Chandra Graham Herb: Bent Goldenrod • Solidago flexicaulis Card: Nocturna Oracle, Fog - take heed & tread carefully

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Lamy AL-star - aluminum, EF #ink Diamine Snow Storm Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “On [Varalakshmi Vratam], women worship the goddess Lakshmi with utmost devotion, offering fruits, sweets and flowers, usually a kalasha (representing the deity) is decorated with a sari, flowers and gold jewellery, with offerings placed in front. The puja begins with the formal welcome of Lakshmi into one's house. A wooden tray or a stand is placed outside the house's threshold. Rangoli is drawn in the puja room, usually inside the house. A kalasham (a brass or silver pot) is placed on the tray outside the house. The pot is decorated with mango leaves as well as flowers. Auspicious items such as rice, betel leaves, turmeric sticks, bananas, and coins are placed inside the pot. A thread dipped in turmeric is tied around the neck of the pot. A coconut scrubbed with turmeric is placed on the top of it. In some traditions, the face of the goddess may be drawn on the coconut, or a brass or silver face may be kept on the pot and decorated with kumkuma, turmeric, and sandalwood powder. During an auspicious hour, the women sing a song of greeting to Lakshmi, and carry the tray and kalasham into the puja room. After lighting the lamp and performing the arati, shlokas, and songs of the goddess are recited. The yellow thread is untied, and a piece is given to each girl or woman to tie around her right wrist. This is symbolic of the conclusion of the auspicious puja, as well as receiving the blessings of the deity.” — editors of Wikipedia, updated 25 August 2026. Below the text is a card with the skeletons of bare trees in a green-gray fog; a aluminum fountain pen with a black loop clip; a swatch of medium gray ink with silver shimmer; and a four-legged, concave-sided square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · yesterday

27 Aug 2026🌕♒️⛅️87 10 Fructidor - Ladder, Volturnalia, St Maelrubba, Day of Battle btwn Horus & Set, Hungry Ghost Festival Herb: Umbelled Hawkweed • Hieracium umbellatum & Eglantine • Rosa rubiginosa Card: Arcana of Astrology & Moonology • Saturn & Full Moon Eclipse - let go of what’s holding you back

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Lamy AL-star - purple, EF #ink Jacques Herbin Gris de houle Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “SWEET BRIAR (Rosa rubiginosa) Just as well known under the name Eglantine. ‘Sweet’, because of its inherent fragrance, which, so it is said, is fresher before rain. This rose has attracted legends, just as the others have. One of them explains why their thorns point downwards. The devil was expelled from heaven, and he tried to regain his lost position by means of a ladder made of the thorns. But when the plant was only allowed to grow as a bush, he put the thorns in their present position out of spite. In some parts of France, it is said that the sweet briar was actually planted by the devil; and the hips are his bread. It is called ‘Rose du diable’ in those areas, and ‘Rose sorcière’ in Anjou and La Mayenne. French mothers use an injunction to stop their children picking the flowers. If they touch them, they say, a thunderbolt will fall on them. There is a Derbyshire superstition that where the sweet briar flourishes in a garden, the mistress is ruler, a belief that is associated with quite a few other plants, notably rosemary, and even sage. But this rose is also a symbol of chastity, sometimes being painted in portraits of ladies of the Elizabethan period. There is one of Elizabeth Brydges, for instance, in which a spray of eglantine appears in the top left hand corner, and also in her hair, and, as an embroidery, on her cuffs.” — Donald Watts, Dictionary of Plant Lore, London, 2007. Below the text are two cards - one with a depiction of Saturn without its rings and one of a red eclipse moon showing through trees; a purple fountain pen with a silver loop clip; a swatch of medium gray ink; and a tall skinny cylindrical bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2d ago

Morning Pages 26 August 2026🌔♒️🌤️87F 9. Fructidor honoring Liquorice, Peggy Guggenheim b. 1898, Onam, Day of the Battle between Horus & Set Herb: Banded Star Lily - Amaryllis vittata Card: Grimalkin’s Curious Cats Tarot • Five of Wands - time to rise to the challenge

Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Licorice • Glycyrrhiza glabra. Gancao | Lacris | Licourice | Liquorice | Lycorys | Mulaithi | Reglisse | Sweet Root | Sweet Wood | Zoethout. SYMBOLIC MEANINGS: Domination; Love; Rejuvenation. POSSIBLE POWERS: Business transactions; Caution; Cleverness; Communication; Creativity; Faith; Feminine energy; Fidelity; Illumination; Initiation; Intelligence; Learning; Love; Lust; Memory; Prudence; Science; Self-preservation; Sound judgment; Thievery; Venus; Water element; Wisdom. FOLKLORE AND FACTS: Carry a piece of Licorice root to attract love. • A long, dried, woody stem of the Licorice plant is believed to make a good magic wand. • Licorice is used in both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine • In the Netherlands, as in most other countries, Licorice drops and other forms of licorice-flavored candy are a favorite sweet confection. Licorice has been deemed edible by the United States Food and Drug Administration as long as it is not excessively consumed. Pregnant women should avoid it. • In Italy and France, Licorice is a popular breath freshener. • In Italy, pure Licorice extract is used to make a confection that is sold in small pieces, and also to flavor liqueurs. — S. Theresa Dietz, The Complete Language of Herbs, New York, 2022. Below the text is a card with a digital collage of a cat batting at five feather wands against a backdrop of a stormy sky over a field of blue flowers; a clear blue plastic fountain pen; a swatch of chromashading light blue ink; and a teardrop-shaped bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 3d ago

Morning Pages 25 August 2026🌔♒️🌫️89F 8. Fructidor honoring Apocynum, Battle of Blair Mountain 1921, Opisconivia, St. Genesius, Feast of the Light of Isis Herb: Marjoram • Origanum majorana Card: The Archeo • The Intimate - sensuality and intuitive understanding

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Sailor hocoro, F #ink Diamine Icy Lilac Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Apocynum androsaemifolium • Spreading Dogbane. Apocynum cannabinum • Indian Hemp. Cordage plants of the field. Indian hemp and dogbane, the two common names for our native Apocynum species, point to important attributes of the characters of these two related species. The name Indian hemp tells us about one of the strongest, most workable wild cordage materials on the continent, used for everything from bowstrings to clothing. The name dogbane, on the other hand, reminds us of the toxicity of the plants in this genus. Many poisonous plants have a dual nature, as toxic agent and healer. Herbalist Matthew Wood calls spreading dogbane (A. androsaemifolium) “Werewolf Root” and uses it for people who “need to make a ninety degree turn or they will die — spiritually or physically.” Note that he uses the plant only homeopathically, not in material doses. If you’re curious, I suggest you read more in his excellent and highly narrative tome The Book of Herbal Wisdom. Both dogbane species contain toxic cardioactive glycosides. That said, there are no known cases of fatalities due to dogbane poisoning, and historical medicinal uses for both species are well-attested. A. cannabinum was listed in the U.S. National Formulary as a cardiac stimulant, and A. androsaemifolium was described as a cathartic, diuretic, diaphoretic, emetic, and expectorant.” — Jared Rosenbaum, Wild Plant Culture, Gabriela Island, Canada, 2023. Below the text is a card with a soft pencil drawing of a pale woman looking sensually over her shoulder and a superimposed tree of life at the bottom of the image; a gray plastic dip pen; a swatch of lilac-colored ink with heavy silver shimmer; and a small square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 4d ago

A sunflower for the Bartlemas Wayzgoose, the traditional printers’ and bookbinders’ holiday on Saint Bartholomew’s day. Watercolor on unknown art paper, fittingly in a handbound book purchased at a Wayzgoose.

Watercolor sketch of a red-gold sunflower a leaf on the stem and one peeking from behind the petals. The text surrounding it reads: sunflower, Helianthus annuus, “the Su flower blew and became the starre of Bartholomew” — trad. rhyme, for malaria fevers, and grant luck to gardeners. The alchemical symbols for the sun and fire are in the upper right hand corner.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 4d ago

24 Aug 2026🌔♑️🌤️86F 7. Fructidor honoring Winter Barley, Feast of Bartholomew (Printers’ Wayzgoose), Marsha P. Johnson b. 1945, Mundus Patet, Schäferlauf, Lunalia, Pliny the Elder d. 79CE Herb: Sunflower • Helianthus annuus Card: The Fountain Tarot • 5 of Swords - pay attention to the whole picture

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Pilot kakuno - clear, EF #ink Colorverse Lunar Black Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “It is St. Bartholomew’s Day—Bartlemas, a day celebrated less in churches so much as it is amongst practitioners of the Book Arts: papermaking, bookbinding, and most especially the one that is sometimes referred to as the Black Art: printing (more on that Black Art thing later). St. Bartholomew is a patron saint of all these noble professions (Post print addendum: actually, he is a patron saint only of bookbinders), and his feast day on the 24th of August brings the Bartlemas Wayzgoose, a particularly English celebration that comes out of this shifting of the seasons. We know very little about the historical St. Bartholomew. He was one of the Twelve Disciples; that much we do know. He may have traveled to India, to the area around [Mumbai]. Tradition says that he met his end in Armenia in the first century. His martyrdom was a gruesome one—one that by association made St. Bartholomew a patron saint of butchers and of tanners and of bookbinders, who very often bind books in leather. I’ll leave the method of his martyrdom, based on those associations, to your imagination, but there, nonetheless, is our connexion to the bookbinders.For papermakers, the connexion goes back to the days before glazed glass windows. Back then, it was waxed paper that was used to keep out the elements, and the arrival of Bartlemas was the signal that it was time to paper the windows in preparation for winter.” — John Cutrone, “The Printer’s Devil’s Wayzgoose,” Book of Days, August 24, 2018. Below the text is a card with a man stilt walking on swords precariously balancing three more in his hands with two dejected figures behind him; a a clear plastic fountain pen; a swatch of black ink; and a teardrop-shaped bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 5d ago

While in between writing projects (waiting on editorial notes), I’ve been doing these little botanical pieces, partly to scratch a different creative itch & partly to pick up art supplies that have gathered dust for years because [insert self-doubt reasons here], but, mostly, I forgot it was fun.

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Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 5d ago

Morning Pages 23 August 2026🌔♑️🌥️90F 6. Fructidor honoring Tuberose, Vulcanalia, Destruction of Pompeii 79CE, Shravana Putrada Ekadashi* Herb: Tansy • Tabacetum vulgare Cards: Mildred Payne’s Secret Pocket Oracle • 61 Foot, 48 Trumpet, 18 water - expect news that will shift your emotional stability

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Lamy LX - marron, EF #ink Kyo no oto ochoguriiro Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “August 23: Vulcanalia. Vulcan, the lame Roman god of fire, volcanoes, and the forge, is the equivalent of the Greek Hephaistos. In Rome he was honored with bonfires in late August, perhaps because it is the hottest time of the year. Despite the great regard with which smiths were traditionally held in early Indo- European societies, Vulcan is not too well-known today (although he did lend his name to the fiery volcano). Nevertheless, as the god of all metalworking and metallurgy, he is the author of much of civilization… Orphic Hymn to Hephaestos, Anonymous (ca. 200 CE), translated by B. Nolan. Indomitable Hephaestos, mighty, great-hearted spirit, glittering one, shimmering one, great god who illuminates the lives of mortals, strong- handed lord who lives in your works, great craftsman of the cosmos, perfect element, highest, all-consuming, all-taming, all-commanding—you are the sun, the moon, the stars, and the sky, all the pure lights: these things are the parts of you seen by the world. You may be found in every nation, every city, every home; and you reside in the bodies of humans, mighty giver of a multitude of blessings. Hear me, holy one, as I call you to this sacred libation, please come gently to the rites of welcome, tame the savage anger of wild fire, even as nature burns in our own bodies.” — Barbara Nolan, A Year of Pagan Prayer, Woodbury, Minnesota, 2021. Below the text are three small cards with simple drawings of a foot, a coronetto shaped trumpet, and waves of water; a dark brown fountain pen with a copper loop clip; a swatch of dark chestnut colored ink; and a rounded rectangular bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 6d ago

Morning Pages 22 August 2026🌔♐️⛅️83F 5. Fructidor honoring the Salmon, St. Eulalia, St. Guinefort, St. Timothy, Great Procession of Osiris, Willem Arondeus b. 1894 Herb: Dahlia • Dahlia coccinea Card: The Black Bird Oracle Deck • XXXV. The Green Lion - seek balance and temperance

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Kaweco Student - rock, M #ink Sailor Seiboku Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Alchemists were masters of wordplay. Many alchemical texts claim that they are ‘hiding a secret openly’, meaning that initiates will understand them, and that everyone else will see complete gibberish. (Gibberish, incidentally, is alchemical in origin: it was coined to describe the apparent incomprehensibility of the writings ascribed to Jabir, or Geber, as he was known in Latin.) In addition to the symbolic characters from alchemical art, such as the Green Lion and the Ouroborous, the texts frequently employ riddles, puns, and assonance.They even go to the extent of stating the exact opposite of what they are intended to convey.This wordplay is known as the Language of the Birds, or the Green Language.The great Persian poet Farid ud-din Attar’s twelfth century work The Conference of the Birds is one of the earliest works to ‘openly conceal’; he states that his work is intended to show the path of spiritual development through the journey of a group of birds to find the palace of the Simurgh, or Lord of Creation. Each bird has various skills. The Hoopoe has knowledge of Good and Evil, while the Wagtail has ‘knowledge of God and the secrets of creation.’” — Sean Martin, Alchemy and Alchemists, 2006. Below the text is a card with a pen and ink drawing of a crouched green lion mouth open in a roar surrounded by a border of foliage; a blue and ivory-colored fountain pen with gold-tone trim; a swatch of medium blue ink; and a plastic sample vial of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · last wk.

Morning Pages 21 August 2026🌔♐️⛅️79F 4. Fructidor honoring Six-Row Barley, Consualia, Haitian Revolution 1791, Nat Turner Day, Jules Michelet b. 1798 Herb: French Marigold • Tagetes patula Card: The Sibyls Oraculum • Vibrationis • Vibration - ‘a sigh is both womb and grave’

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen ystudio resin - red, F #ink Kyoto Kyo no oto adzukiiro Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “A profuse and familiar family of plants, the majority of whose species are to be found in extreme abundance, under our feet, in the hedgerows, in every field. So numerous a family, that a single one of its genera embraces eight hundred species. Nothing in the world easier to detect, nothing commoner. Yet these herbs are for the most part very risky to employ. Audacity was required to determine the doses, it may well be the audacity of genius. To begin at the bottom of the ascending scale of their po tency. The first to be named are simply pot-herbs, good to eat, and nothing more,—aubergines, tomatoes, inappropriately called love-apples. Others of these harmless varieties are the quintessence of all that is calming and soothing,—the mulleins (shep- herd’s club), for instance, so useful for fomentations. Next in the scale you will find a plant already open to suspicion—one that many believed a poison;” — Jules Michelet, Satan and Witchcraft (1862) translated by A.R. Allison, New York, 1970. Below the text is a card with artwork drawn to look like a crumbling mosaic of a peacock surround by flowers in front of two Roman columns; a red, hexagonal bodied fountain pen; a swatch of red bean colored ink; and a rounded rectangular bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · last wk.

20 August 2026🌔♐️☁️81F 2. Fructidor honoring the Puffball, Robert Herrick b. 1591, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Pendle witches executed 1612, Feast of Drunkenness Herb: Autumnal Dandelion • Scorzoneroides autumnalis Card: Oracle of Forgotten Witches • Garabonciás - don’t reject a request for help

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Kaweco Sport - green, F #ink Fountain Pen Revolution Gilded Ivy Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “No glaring light of bold-faced day,/ Or other over-radiant ray,/ Ransacks this room; but what weak beams/ Can make reflected from these gems,/ And multiply ; such is the light,/ But ever doubtful, day or night./ By this quaint taper-light, he winds/ His errors up ; and now he finds/ His moon-tanned Mab, as somewhat sick,/ And, love knows, tender as a chick./ Upon six plump dandelions, high-/ Reared, lies her elvish majesty,/ Whose woolly bubbles seemed to drown/ Her Mabship in obedient down ;/ For either sheet was spread the caul/ That doth the infant’s face enthral,/ When it is born, by some enstyled/ The lucky omen of the child;” — Robert Herrick, excerpt from “Oberon’s Palace,” Hesperides or Works both Human and Divine (1648), London, 1884. Below the text is a card with an image of townspeople watching the demon dragon rider dressed in black walk toward them on the street, his black dragon looping behind him in the stormy sky; a dark green sport-sized fountain pen; a swatch of dark green ink with gold shimmer; and a cylindrical bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · last wk.

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy making this podcast? Getting to have conversations with folks like @traceynormanauthor.bsky.social is worth all the scheduling, recording, and editing hiccups and then some. And, I get to meet new-to-me books I probably wouldn’t have come across on my own.

WitchLit Podcast@witchlitpod.bsky.social · last wk.

New episode out today with the delightful and multi-talented folklorist @traceynormanauthor.bsky.social to chat about Angela Carter’s clever twists on familiar tales. Available across platforms or direct from the source: witchlitpod.com/episode/s10e...

Episode card for WitchLit Podcast featuring the original cover of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories with chimeric figure of a lion-headed woman with a floral motif across the bottom; white text on black that reads The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories with Tracey Norman with a small graphic underneath of a blue beard; and a banner across the bottom with the podcast name and a gold moon and sun logo.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · last wk.

Morning Pages 19 August 2026🌓♏️☀️87F 2. Fructidor honoring Millet, Jane Loudon b. 1800, Vinalia Rustica, Salem executions 1692, Festival of Thoth, Feast of Nuit & Re, St. Timothy Herb: Herb Timothy • Phluem pratense Card: The Arcana of Astrology • Venus - time for some self care

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Lamy AL-star - Au gold, M #ink Diamine Sparkling Shadows Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “In the year 2126, England enjoyed peace and tranquillity under the absolute dominion of a female sovereign. Numerous changes had taken place for some centuries in the political state of the country, and several forms of government had been successively adopted and destroyed, till, as is generally the case after violent revolutions, they all settled down into an absolute monarchy. The religion of the country was mutable as its government; and in the end, by adopting Catholicism, it seemed to have arrived at nearly the same result: despotism in the state, indeed, naturally produces despotism in religion; the implicit faith and passive obedience required in the one case, being the best of all possible preparatives for the absolute submission of both mind and body necessary in the other. In former times, England had been blessed with a mixed government and a tolerant religion, under which the people had enjoyed as much freedom as they perhaps ever can do, consistently with their prosperity and happiness. But it is not in the nature of the human mind, to be contented: we must always either hope or fear; and things at a distance appear so much more beautiful than they do when we approach them, that we always fancy what we have not, infinitely superior to any thing we have; and neglect enjoyments within our reach, to pursue others, which, like ignes fatui, elude our grasp at the very moment when we hope we have attained them.” — Jane Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, London, 1827. Below the text is a card with an orange circle representing the planet Venus; a gold-tone fountain pen with a black loop clip; a swatch of gray ink with gold shimmer; and an oil can shaped bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · last wk.

Morning Pages 18 August 2026🌒♏️⛅️82F 1. Fructidor honoring the Plum, St. Helena, Lancashire Witch Trials 1612, Urban Grandier convicted 1634 Herb: Cempaxochitl (Mexican Marigold) • Tagetes erecta
 Card: Wild Medicine • Vitex • Vitex agnus-castus - honor your inner divinity

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring #FountainPen Lamy AL-star - sage, F #ink Jacques Herbin Vert Empire Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “The Spanish brought the cempasuchil, or cempaxochitl, back with them from their colonizing expeditions and cultivated it in Northern Africa, where it was then introduced to the French, who called it the African marigold, not to be confused with the pot or kitchen marigold (Calendula officinalis). It was then called the French marigold when introduced into Great Britain. Its name in the Linnaeus system (Tagetes erecta) is after Tages, an Etruscan deity who taught the Tuscan people the science of divination. The flower is prominently featured in Día de Muertos celebrations on November 2 (see page 325). Its strong scent and bright color are thought to be enticing to the spirits of the dead, who can only enjoy the aromas and beauty of offerings of food and flowers made for them. The scent also helps the dead find their way back to their family homes from the cemetery. In addition to being flowers of the dead, they are weather predictors, according to English folklore. If they don’t open by 7 a.m., it will rain or thunder later in the day. They are also a useful companion plant, reducing the population of damaging eelworms (nematodes), especially when planted with potatoes and strawberries. You can honor these golden wonders today by adding them to your garden or even your salad—as the petals are edible and impart a pleasant spicy citrus flavor as a garnish—and by regarding them as a link between the ancestors and the living.”— Victoria Raschke (me!), A Witch’s Book of Days, Chicago, 2026. Below the text is a card with a splotchy watercolor image of a the chasteberry plant - a spike of sparse purple blooms surrounded by lance-shaped leaves; a pale green fountain pen with a black loop clip; a swatch of gray-green ink; and a small round bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

17 Aug 26🌒♎️⛅️83F 30. Thermidor - the Mill, Portunalia, Rachel Pollack b. 1945, Tibernalia, Nag Panchami, Simha Sankranti, Giovanna Monduro executed 1471, Black Cat Appreciation Day, St Roch Herb: Great Toadflax • Linaria vulgaris
Card: Guardians of the Night• King of Pentacles - step in to help

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Monteverde Mountains of the World #ink Monteverde Citrine Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Portunus was an ancient god, who had his special flamen. The latter’s only recorded function was ‘to put oil or grease (persillum) on the armour (arma) of Quirinus’ (Festus, 238L). Originally Portunus was probably a god who protected doors, portus (the word is used with this meaning in the fifth century twelve Tables of law: 2.3). This is confirmed by the fact that he was depicted with a key in his hand, and it has been conjectured from a reference in a scholium to ‘claves in focum’ that some ritual concerning keys was enacted on this day: perhaps old wooden keys were hardened (or purified) in the fire, and it may be that keys and doors were given attention at a time when the harvest was filling the barns and store-houses. An alternative explanation is that portus meant ‘a means of carrying across’ and that Portunus presided over a ferry across the Tiber in primitive times. But whether he was originally a ferryman or a doorkeeper, the meaning of portus later changed to ‘harbour’ and Portunus became the god of ports.”— H. H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, London, 1981. Below the text is a card with a digital collage of a cow with a pentacle on her forehead, crowned with a golden grasshopper and a crown of fireflies; a black fountain pen with gunmetal trim; a swatch of burnt orange ink; and a square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

Morning Pages 16 August 2026🌒♎️⛅️83F 29. Thermidor honoring Cotton, Salem Heritage Day, Feast of Oshun, Angeline Tubbs d. 1865, Bon Festival, Robert Johnson d. 1938 Herb: Naked-Lady Lily • Amaryllis Belladonna
 Card: Angel Tarot • The Star • 32 • Vasariah - clemency & equilibrium

Notebook Chronicle Go-To & Col-o-ring Fountain Pen: Lamy AL-star - purple, EF ink: Anderillium Shoebill Stork Grey into Jacques Herbin Gris de houle Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Angeline Tubbs, aka the Witch of Saratoga, was a semi-legendary figure who lived in the area of Saratoga Springs, New York in the 1700s and 1800s. Although she was a real person who lived an impoverished life in Saratoga Springs, most of the publicly-available information about her life and activities has been proven to be completely fabricated by her original biographer, William L. Stone, Jr. Tubbs was born in England around 1761, in the Star and Garter Inn in the village of Watford in Northamptonshire. She became engaged to a British officer from the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot and at age fifteen followed him when he was sent to the colonies to fight in the Revolutionary War. After the British defeat in the Battles of Saratoga, he abandoned her. With no place to go and knowing no one in a strange country, Tubbs supposedly walked fifteen miles through what was then uninhabited wilderness to the neighborhood of Saratoga Springs. There she settled at the base of a hill called Mount Vista, described as "a small mountain one mile north of the village", probably a promontory in the vicinity of Glen Mitchell. For many years Tubbs lived near Mount Vista in a hut surrounded by a brood of cats. She developed a reputation as a witch and made a living telling fortunes and trapping. Tubbs died in 1865 at the age of 104. Reportedly her ghost can still be seen haunting the woods and she is a popular subject for "ghost walks." — Editors of The Occult Encyclopedia (online), last updated 2 Aug 25. Below the text is a card with an illustration of a feminine angel dressed in a robe, kneeling, a star hovering above her outstretched hands; a purple fountain pen; a swatch of medium gray ink; and a cylindrical bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

#OliveArtClub colored pencils and pen and ink on unknown paper in a handbook booklet. @moviessilently.bsky.social this is my first entry after recently picking up pencils and brushes after years. Thank you.

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Movies Silently@moviessilently.bsky.social · 3w ago

It is not autumn but gardens do what gardens will do… For this week’s #OliveArtClub please make art based on this pumpkin. All mediums, all skill levels, no AI. I took the photo (and grew the pumpkin!) so feel free to share or sell what you make.

Small orange pumpkin
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

15 Aug 26🌒♎️⛅️79 28. Thermidor - Lupin, Julia Child b1912, Assumption, San La Muerte, Santa Muerte, Charles Leland b1824, Nemoralia, Herakleia, Hariyali Tuj, Kaza Matsuri, Bon, Offerings to Amun Herb: Virgin’s Bower • Clematis vitalba
Card: Art Oracles • Sonia Delaunay - the practical should be art

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Jinhao 82 - peacock, glass nib #ink Diamine Pineapple Spritz Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Among the many folk saints revered by practitioners of folk Catholicism, none seems to garner as much controversy as La Santa Muerte. Represented as a skeletal figure in holy garb, this depiction of death incarnate makes many outsiders fear her as a harbinger of doom, but for those who work with her, that is almost entirely contrary to what they know of her. Instead, she is invoked as someone who can protect people in vulnerable situations (including people involved in illicit trades such as drugs or sex work) and offer favors and benefits to those without many resources. She is seen as a padrina, or ‘godmother,’ figure and treated with reverence and respect. (She is Death, after all.) But she is also a figure who treats everyone who comes to her with fairness and compassion (because, of course, Death takes all people equally, regardless of station, skin color, or creed). While her adherents are quick to note that she can be temperamental, they also talk about how readily she comes through for those who keep their devotions to her.” — J. Allen Cross, “Saints with Scissors: American Brujeria” in Llewellyn's Complete Book of North American Folk Magic edited by Cory Thomas Hutcheson, Minnesota, 2023. Below the text is a card with an illustration of artist Sonia Delaunay in front of one of her paintings; an aqua blue & sparkly fountain pen; a swatch of yellow ink with green gold shimmer; and a small square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

Morning Pages 14 August 2026🌒♍️🌤️77F 27. Thermidor honoring Rapeseed, Torta dei Fieschi, Agathos Daimon*, Rosh Chodesh*, Bon Festival, St. Werenfrid Herb: Bastard Saffron • Carthamus tinctorius 
Card: The Antique Anatomy Tarot • King of Rods - play to your strengths

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Conklin Herringbone Signature - silver, M #ink Diamine Sugar Snap Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “THE FEAST OF SAINT WERENFRID. Salad-loving missionary, 760, Patron of vegetable gardeners; invoked against gout * (emblem: ship bearing coffin) The Christian Anglo-Saxons were tireless in their attempts to save the heathens of Holland; seemingly everyone whose name began with W became an English missionary to the (all too appropriately named) Low Countries—Saints Walburga, Werenfrid, Wigbert, Wilfrid, Willehad, Willibald, Willibrord, Winfrith, Winnebald, and Wiro. Werenfrid is venerated in the Netherlands, where he har- vested souls and vegetables until his death.” — Rosemary Rogers & Sean Kelly, The Birthday Book of Saints, New York, 2001. “SAINT WERENFRID, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR. He was an English monk, and, according to Mabillon, accompanied, or, as the Bollandists rather think, followed St. Willibrord into Friesland, and assisted him in preaching the gospel. St. Werenfrid planted the faith in the isle or territory of Betawe, or Batavia in Holland, lying between the Rhine, the Leek, the Maese, and Merve, especially at Elste, a town in that territory, where he was buried. His tomb was famous for pilgrimages, and the miraculous cures of sick persons, especially those afflicted with the gout. Baldericus the fifteenth bishop of Utrecht, founded there a collegiate church, in his honour, with eight canonries.” — Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, London, 1846. Below the text is a card with an illustration of a human skull on a plinth surrounded by hyacinths and sunflowers; a chiseled silver-tone fountain pen; a swatch of yellow-green ink with silver shimmer; and a small square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

13 Aug 26🌒♍️🌤️79F 26. Thermidor - Myrtle, Gluck b. 1895, Ides, Nemoralia, Lady Freida Harris b. 1877, Vertumnalia, Hercules Invictus, Pananthenaia, Noumenia, Rosh Chodesh, Bon Herb: Magnolia • Magnolia grandiflora Card: Woodland Wardens & Thoth • VI The Frog & Lotus, 7 of Disks - practice improves

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Lamy Studio - brown, M #ink Kyoto Kyo no oto ochiguri Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “The flowers ofMagnolia grandi flora look like great white pigeons settling among dark leaves ... It is not always easy to know what to put against a new red-brick wall; ... the cool green of the magnolia’s glossy leaves and the utter purity of its bloom make it a safe thing to put against any background, however trying. Besides, the flower in itself is of such splendid beauty. I havejust been looking into the heart of one. The texture of the petals is of a dense cream; they should not be called white; they are ivory, if you can imagine ivory and cream stirred into a thick paste, with all the softness and smoothness of youthful human flesh; and the scent, reminiscent of lemon, was overpowering ... Goliath is the best variety. Wires should be stretched along the wall on vine eyes for convenience of future tying ... [Otherwise] The time may come when you reach out of your bedroom window to pick a great ghostly flower in the summer moonlight, and then you will be sorry if you find it has broken away from the wall and is fluttering on a loose branch, a half-captive pigeon trying desperately to escape.” — Vita Sackville-West, A Bouquet of Garden Writing Selected from Five Grand Masters edited by Ursula Buchanan, Boston, 1987. Below the text are two cards a large one with an illustration of a frog in the center of a lily pond and a smaller card with seven disks on a background pattern of blue fern leaves; a dark brown fountain pen with silver clip; a swatch of dark chestnut colored ink; and a rounded rectangular bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

12 Aug 26🌑♌️⛅️86F 25. Thermidor honoring the Otter, Helena Blavatsky b. 1831, Matthew Hopkins d. of TB 1647, Hekate’s Deipnon, Surya Grahan, Hercules Invictus, Pananthenaia Herb: Fennel • Foeniculum officinale 
Card: Enchanted Foraging Deck • Ribgrass Plantain • Plantago lanceolata - cool things down

#Notebook Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet #FountainPen Platinum Prefonte - dark emerald, M #ink Colorverse Cosmic Reef Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “On account of its aromatic and carminative properties, Fennel fruit is chiefly used medicinally with purgatives to allay their tendency to griping and for this purpose forms one of the ingredients of the well-known compound Liquorice Powder. Fennel water has properties similar to those of anise and dill water: mixed with sodium bicarbonate and syrup, these waters constitute the domestic ‘Gripe Water,’ used to correct the flatulence of infants. Volatile oil of Fennel has these properties in concentration. Fennel tea, formerly also employed as a carminative, is made by pouring half a pint of boiling water on a teaspoonful of bruised Fennel seeds. Syrup prepared from Fennel juice was formerly given for chronic coughs. Fennel is also largely used for cattle condiments. It is one of the plants which is said to be disliked by fleas, and powdered Fennel has the effect of driving away fleas from kennels and stables. The plant gives off ozone most readily. Culpepper says: ‘One good old custom is not yet left off, viz., to boil fennel with fish, for it consumes the phlegmatic humour which fish most plentifully afford and annoy the body with, though few that use it know wherefore they do it. It benefits this way, because it is a herb of Mercury, and under Virgo, and therefore bears antipathy to Pisces.” — Maud Grieve’s Modern Herbal, Vol. I (1931), New York, 1971. Below the text is card with a stylized botanical illustration of plantain in seed, the thin stems holding up conelike fruit above the ribbed lance shaped leaves; a dark green plastic fountain pen with silver clip; a swatch of forest green ink with red sheen; and a teardrop-shaped bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 2w ago

Morning Pages 11 August 2026🌘♌️🌤️87F 24. Thermidor honoring Inula, Dog Days End, St. Claire, Mountain Day, Celebration of Ay’Zan, Navasard, Pananthenaia* Herb: Our Lady’s Tresses • Spiranthes spiralis Card: The Lineages of Change Tarot • Four of Fire • fennel - relax into community

Notebook: Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet Fountain Pen: TWSBI Eco - black, 1.1 stub ink: Diamine Myrrh the Merrier Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Numerous flowers have been identified with her dress, such as the marigold, termed by Shakespeare ‘Mary-bud,’ which she wore in her bosom. The cuckoo-flower of our meadows is ‘Our Lady's smock,’ which Shakespeare refers to in those charmino- lines in Love's Labour's Lost, where— ‘When daisies pied and violets Mue,/ And lady’s smocks all silver white,/ And cuckoo-huds of yellow hue/ Do paint the meadows with delight,/ The cuckoo then on every tree/ Mocks married men, for thus sings he,/ Cuckoo.’ And one of the finest of our orchids is ‘Our Lady's slipper.’ The ribbon grass is ‘Our Lady's garters,’ and the dodder supplies her ‘laces.’ In the same way many flowers have been associated with the Virgin herself. Thus, there is ‘Our Lady's tresses,’ and a popular name for the maiden-hair fern and quaking-grass is ‘Virgin's hair.’ The lilies of the valley are her tears, and a German nickname for the lungwort is ‘Our Lady's milk-wort.’ The Anthyllis vidneraria is ‘Our Lady's fingers,’ and the kidney-wort has been designated ‘lady's navel.’ Certain orchids, from the peculiar form of their hand-shaped roots, have been popularly termed ‘Our Lady's hands,’ a name given in France to the dead-nettle.” — T. F. Thisleton Dyer, The Folk•Lore of Plants, London, 1889. Below the text is card with an illustration of a feminine figure with four fiery horns, her face tilted down with eyes closed serenely; a black and clear plastic fountain pen with silver trim; a swatch of dark teal ink with heavy purple-red sheen and blue shimmer; and a tall square bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 3w ago

Morning Pages 10 August 2026🌘♋️🌤️91F 23. Thermidor honoring the Lentil, St. Lawrence, Multiversal Underwear Day, Panthenaia*, Festival of Tefnut, a Tycho Brahe day Herb: Common Balsam • Impatiens balsamina Card: Urban Crow Oracle • 19. Communication - state what you want

Notebook: Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet Fountain Pen: Jinhao 80 - green, EF Ink: Colorverse Apollon Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “Lawrence—August 10. PATRON OF CEYLON, COOKS, LIBRARIANS, AND THE POOR; INVOKED AGAINST FIRE AND LUMBAGO. Each and every Friday since the year 257, Lawrence has been privileged to lead a suffer- ing soul out of Purgatory and into Heaven, as a reward for his own heroic martydom. A Spaniard by birth, he was archdeacon and treasurer of the Church in Rome, as well as the keeper of the library of sacred books, during the holy papacy of Sixtus II and the unholy reign of the Emperor Valerian. When Sixtus was arrested, he instructed his trusted deacon to gather together all the Church’s wealth and distribute it to the poor. Overhearing this talk of wealth, the greedy Roman authorities commanded Lawrence to gather up the Church’s treasures and surrender them to the prefect. Lawrence asked for three days to do so—and on the third day presented, assembled before the prefect’s palace, thousands of lepers, orphans, the blind, and the lame, as well as widows and virgins. ‘Here,’ he announced, ‘is all the Church’s treasure.’ Far from enlightening the prefect, this gesture appears to have enraged him. Lawrence was subjected to a sequence of tortures nearly unique in the gory annals of martyrdom: he was scourged, branded, clubbed, stretched on the rack, and torn with hooks before being placed on a gridiron and roasted. After a while, Lawrence spoke. ‘Turn me over, I’m done on this side.’” — Sean Kelly & Rosemary Rogers, Saints Preserve Us! London, 1993. Below the text is card with an illustration of a demanding crow in a kitchen window, a rainy city behind it; a dark green fountain pen; a swatch of orange-yellow ink; and a teardrop-shaped bottle of same.
Victoria Raschke@vvitchtoria.bsky.social · 3w ago

9 Aug 26🌘♋️☀️91F 22 Thermidor - the Caper, Augustin Lesage b1876, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde b1888, Sol Indiges, Panthenaia*, Kamika Ekadashi, Festivals of Amun & Re Herb: Sage • Salvia splendens Card: The Lantern, I: By Land • Mountain Laurel • Kalmia latifolia - seek the collective power of numbers

Notebook: Chronicle Go-To w/ Mohawk paper, dotted & Col-o-ring swatch booklet Fountain Pen: Lamy AL-star - turmaline, EF Ink: Diamine Celestial Skies Open notebook with handwritten text from the post at top of the page with additional text: “From time immemorial sage has been renowned for its wonderful health-giving properties. The very name of the plant, Salvia, means health, and the Arabians have a proverb which was old in the days of Charlemagne: ‘How can a man die who has Sage in his garden?’ The Chinese valued this herb so highly that the Dutch in old days carried on a profitable trade by exchanging sage for tea, and for one pound of dried sage leaves the Chinese gave three pounds of tea. The proper time of year to eat sage or to drink sage tea is in spring, and formerly country folk used to eat quantities of it with bread and butter or bread and cheese. There is an old belief that where sage prospers in a garden the woman rules, and another that the plant flourishes or withers according to the prosperity of the master of the house. Sage used to be held in such repute that both bread and cheese were flavoured with it in the making, and one herbal doctor even advocated its use instead of tobacco. Red sage is rarely seen, but what a handsome plant it is when well grown! There are few leaves more beautiful than its deep maroon-coloured ones, especially in early spring when they contrast so well with the tender green of the young shoots. Old-fashioned country folk say that red sage never does well unless the original slip were planted by some one with a ‘lucky hand.’” — Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, A Garden of Herbs, London, 1936. Below the text is card with a pencil or pastels drawing of mountain laurel in bloom; a bright aqua blue fountain pen; a swatch of aqua blue ink with gold shimmer and red sheen; and a small square bottle of same.