Anyone use insects in their spells??

[BlackRat]

Ive seen a few witches using butterfly wings or bat wings in their spells, just wondering if anyone else does this? does this go against the idea of honouring nature, as we do?

[Xiao Rong]

BlackRat, the vast majority of witches do not use animal parts (Note: the EUTM moderator team does not condone the use of animal parts in spells -- please see #13 of forum rules). I will mention, however, that oftentimes in spells when they are using outlandish ingredients like eye of newt and toe of frog, that these are often code names for plant parts.

[Siona]

Ive seen a few witches using butterfly wings or bat wings in their spells, just wondering if anyone else does this? does this go against the idea of honouring nature, as we do?

Hopefully it's not against the rules to mention this, but I think it is worth saying that the vast majority of witches I've met who incorporated something like this used found objects, such as shed antlers, feathers, shed snake skins, or left behind tufts of hair, or they are items from found animals that died of natural causes (this includes things like shells and sand dollars!). Often these items are not used just once and discarded either, but become important and honored tools, and might even be seen as gifts from nature spirits. This is particularly common among shamanic witches, who might make ritual tools from such items, and will take the time to properly honor the spirit of the animal and give thanks (often even on more than one occasion, the honoring of the spirit becomes a part of using the tool). These witches are generally not going off and killing an animal for the sole use of one bit of the animal for a one time ritual (I have personally never seen it happen), which is really wasteful, rather pointless, and is pretty frowned upon in most circles. I think there is a huge difference between those two practices that it really is worth mentioning rather than sweeping it all into the same group...

(And again, I'm assuming it's not against the rules to discuss found objects, since I have seen feathers, shells, etc, brought up in multiple posts here.)

[BlackRat]

Thanks guys
Blessed be