Yes, you can, right now. You can just do it, whether or not you're a spirit medium or can "visualize".
Don't get me wrong, I find cultural and historical research of correspondences to be very important. But also, just ask the thyme in your cupboard what it likes to do in its spare time. (Bonus points if you take notes and compare to your research later on)
Here's how I do it. I call it my "pinging" method, like how a modem pings a server. Here's how:
If you want to be polite, start with a, "hello, is anyone there?" Although admittedly this is more for animists. If you believe you're just reading energies and there is no indwelling spirit, why not get right to it?
Questions to explore utility and correspondences include:
"Magically speaking, what are you best at?"
"If I added you to this spell, how would you influence/affect it?"
"What kind of intents are you best at supporting?"
"What kind of magic do you not like to be involved in?"
"What other ingredients do you work well with?"
"What other ingredients do you not get along with?"
Avoid performing this technique on living animals, as it often scares them :(
Have it in your field of vision, or touch it, or do whatever you need to do in order to feel focused on it.
Observe, Believe, Feel, Understand, or Know, aka OBFUK (my handy acronym I use to replace "visualize," which I ordered that way because it kind of sounds like "oh f*ck," as in, "oh f*ck, the ubiquitous use of the word 'visualize' has caused many witches to be ironically equipped with blinders that require energy perception and control to be funneled through a filter of sightedness and images, which for many is counter-intuitive and detrimental to their practice"). Anyway -
Observe, Believe, Feel, Understand, or Know that the object which you would like to communicate with is aware of you and will hear you when you send your question.
Speak or think your question to the object. OBFUK that the object receives your question.
Listen, here's the downfall of this technique: You need a wee bit of open space in your mind. No, you don't have to be a meditator to do this technique (I did it for years before I began meditating). You just need enough space for the answer to arrive.
I have found that ideally, this means actively anticipating receiving your answer for 1-3 seconds.
This works on the same meditative trick as, "wait for your next thought to come and it never will." The force of anticipation itself is what creates an open platform for your answer to arrive at.
Your mind does not have to be "totally clear". You can have a lot of tabs open and still be able to pull off this technique.
We will all get answers in different ways. Repeat: there is no golden standard for how you are "supposed" to receive your answer. Here are some ways your answer might appear to you:
Snippets of memories, songs, scenes, verses, or literature pop into your awareness.
A fully or partially formulated concept comes to you all at once.
You are strongly reminded of something (say, the god Aries, or a soothing woodland scene).
An image or images come to your mind's eye, either still or animated.
Nothing seems to come to mind at all, but certain things on your altar or around your house, or certain colors, suddenly stand out or seem especially relevant.
Nothing seems to come to mind, but you feel energy moving on or around you.
Nothing seems to come to mind, but you feel as if you can smell or taste something that wasn't there before.
It is unlikely that you will hear a voice in your mind that says, "hi, I'm Basil, and I'm good at..." Our particularly clairaudientally blessed friends may receive such information, but the rest of us are likely going to have to apply some level of interpretation to what we receive.
Be aware that if you're talking to something with an indwelling spirit, it may not be interested in trotting out answers to your question, and may have questions of its own, or something else it wants you to know instead.
I believe good manners go a long way, so even if you feel you haven't received any answer, it's polite to send a message like, "thank you for your time, have a good day."
UPG stands for Unverified Personal Gnosis. It means that you have personally received information through spiritual means, however, that information is not necessarily agreed upon or accepted by anyone else but you.
Please don't go around sharing your UPG as if it is actually verified spiritual canon!
Even if that information is totally cohesive within your personally constructed spiritual system, I'm sorry, but your personal spiritual system is not universal.
If I have a communication session with my rosemary plant, and it tells me, "yes, I'm a plant of protection and dreams [community accepted correspondence], but that's only one side of me; I'm also a spirit of evil, nightmares, and destruction, and that's why I can also defend against them [unverified personal gnosis]," it is wildly misleading of me to go on Tumblr and post a new rosemary correspondence that includes "cursing, nightmares, and destruction" as if everyone needs to automatically accept and believe my own claims.
It is now on you to experiment with the information you receive, compare it to other resources, and decide if what you heard was valid, legitimate information for a certain group, tradition, or practice, or if it is untrue, or if it is only true for you.
Your UPG might end up being totally valid and verified by others (this is then called verified personal gnosis) and this is such an exciting, wonderful, and validating thing to experience.
However, every single time I have a question about a spirit or god, and someone says, "hold on, I'll ask them!" and comes back 5 minutes later with an answer they assume I should accept as canon, I want to reach through the screen and slap them.
Your spirit communication is not automatically spiritual canon, and should probably undergo many steps of testing and verification before EVEN YOU accept it as true.
"It isn't possible for me to complete the active anticipation portion, what could I do instead?"
This technique is specifically a telepathic one; you receive communication within your mind. If doing so on the fly isn't possible, I'd recommend trying an entirely different technique, such as asking the same questions through tarot or another divination system, or petitioning the ingredient for a dream.
"I don't think I'm receiving any answers, what do I do?"
Not all spirits want to talk to us. Or from a secular perspective, not everything is imbued with enough energy for us to get a reading, or that energy may be hard to access or understand.
Objects which are very often used in witchcraft, such as magical and culinary herbs, minerals, and animal parts, often have something to say. (Perhaps the reason they are used in magic is because they're so willing to work with us in the first place!)
You can also gently cleanse the object and offer it some incense or water, then invite the spirit/energies back, and see if that changes your results.
Or, you may need to try contacting it over several days, maybe also with feeding and cleansing, before it responds. (Remember, it takes the object energy to communicate with us, whether it is a spirit or just a lump of energy, something must be expended to send you a message).
Plus also: This technique is a skill you need to practice. If I tell you how to hold a guitar and how to make three cords, it's still going to take you a minute to strum out Wonderwall. I recommend a minimum of hours of practice before you write off your own psychic abilities.
"I don't know how to tell the difference between a spiritual answer and my own thoughts."
Practice, practice, practice - and verify. Also be patient and gentle with yourself, and move forward with the understanding that far from 100% of people are magically born with thought patterns clear, regular, or tame enough to easily (or ever) track.
Perhaps the best way to move verify is to communicate with common ingredients in witchcraft, ask them for information, and then verify it against information online. Don't give up too quickly; common correspondence lists are often oversimplified to the point of uselessness. Your herb might have given you a snippet of information commonly ignored by mainstream witchcraft.
"I'm only getting invalid answers - my rose quartz told me it's used for blood magic and banishing."
Try cleansing and charging objects before you read on them. For beginners, it may be difficult to discern whether you're contacting an object, or the energies it's sucked up or wallowed in.
There may be an indwelling spirit or energy "haunting" the object and returning invalid or silly answers. Try reading on different objects and see if your luck improves.
You may be particularly psychically closed off. When I don't properly connect, I get all kinds of nonsense that seems like a real answer, when it's just my random thought generator (un)helpfully trying to fill in the blanks. General practice of divination and spellwork will assist you. I would avoid using this technique to practice, as it may confuse your discernment to accept your inner voice as external communication. Set it aside and come back to it after a couple of months and see if there are changes.
Similarly, the spirit might just not want to talk to you, or isn't present in the item (or, the energies you seek to understand don't exist in that item).
The spirit may be giving you valid information that most people just don't agree with. My UPG for rosemary is that it is sort of an "uncrossing" agent for your life in general - part of the way it protects you is to align things around you so that misfortune is diverted. It's not a good luck charm, this is just how it achieves its goal of protection. This isn't totally off the wall; I think almost everyone agrees that rosemary is protective, powerful, and "high vibrations." But I don't think I'm going to find anyone else talking about how rosemary works the way it does, so I'm not going to be able to cross-check this anyway. But even if they do, they might talk about a different aspect of rosemary or something else it does. So I'm caught in a limbo where this information is true for me and the plant works that way every time I use it, but I can still never verify that with my community. If your answers aren't totally out of left field, you may be receiving genuine information about how the object wants to work with you. But that doesn't mean you will ever be able to verify that with your community.
Updated: November 12th, 2017
[Have I Been Cursed?]
[How to Tell if You’ve Been Cursed]
[I’m Afraid That I’ve Been Hexed]
[Knowing if You Are Under a Curse/Have Been Cursed]
[So You Think You’ve Been Cursed]
[So You Think You’ve Been Cursed?]
[Curse Removal / Protection]
[A Hearth Witch’s Defense, Part Two - Protecting Yourself & Your Hearth From Curses]
[Protection and Return to Sender Jar]
[Protection from Curses]
[Protection Jar Against Binding and Hexes]
[Protective Measures Against Common Hexes or Curses]
[Three Little Empresses: Curse Protection Poppets]
[To Ward Off Curses]
(a decoy acts as a “substitute” for you, which the curse will be redirected to instead of harming you; the decoy can then be cleansed or destroyed to remove the curse from it; sometimes you don’t get a choice and the decoy gets destroyed, and you have to make a new one if you still desire its protection)
[Anti-Curse Poppet]
[Black Hole Decoy]
[Creating a Decoy for Protection Purposes]
[Curse Decoy]
[Decoy Poppet]
[Diversion Jar]
[Negativity / Bad Luck / Curse Absorbing Decoy Poppet]
[Sea Witch’s Scapegoat]
[Spell: Witch Bottle]
[The Spook’s Decoy]
[Substitute Spell]
[Witch Bottle]
[Antidote: Hexed Objects; Removal Powder]
[“Black as Night” Curse Removal Body Scrub]
[Blackthorn Reversing Spell]
[Break a Curse Candle Spell]
[Break a Curse Spell]
[Break a Spell Cast Against You]
[Breaking a Curse]
[For Breaking a Curse]
[Burning Bridges Spell]
[Buster Poultice Recipe]
[Curse Breaker Cleansing] (cw: sigil)
[Curse Breaking Hand Washing/Bath]
[A Curse-Breaking, Purifying, and Protective Witch Jar] (tw: music autoplay)
[Curse Removal & Reversal]
[Curse Removing Wash]
[To Destroy a Curse]
[The Healing Pool: A Cursebreaker]
[Hex and Curse Breaking]
[Hex-Breaker Candle]
[Hexbreaker Powder]
[Lemon Uncrossing]
[Lift a Curse]
[Mild & Spicy Cursebreaker Powders]
[Multipurpose “Curse Removing” Wash]
[To Remove a Curse]
[Remove a Hex, Reverse a Jinx]
[Removing Hexes and Curses]
[Rid Yourself of a Curse]
[Smoke Out the Curse]
[Thu'um Magix: Disarm]
[Unbinding Spell]
[Anti-Curse Powder]
[Calcifer’s Bargain - A Spell to Reverse a Curse/Hex Placed on You]
[Charm - Curse/Spell Breaking]
[To Counter a Curse]
[Curse Breaking Shampoo]
[Curse-Reverse]
[Curseturner Powder]
[“Drown the Witch” Reversing Spell]
[Engraved Hourglass Nebula Curse Return Spell]
[Flame Wheel]
[Lemon Curse Breaker]
[Major Arcana Spells - Lady Justice - Return to Sender]
[Mirror Counter-Curse]
[Mirror, Mirror (Reversal)]
[Reflect Away Harm (Curse Reversal)]
[Return to Sender]
[Return to Sender / Banish Negativity Spell]
[Return to Sender Candle Spell]
[Return to Sender Spell]
[Reverse a Curse]
[Sealed with a C(urse)]
[Simple Hex/Curse Reversal]
[A Simple “Reverse the Curse” Spell]
[Spell: Return to Sender]
[A Spell to Counter Another’s Magick]
Some of you may have already come upon this one, but I’ve found that when it comes to objects I want to imbue with magic or bring to “life” (in an animist sense), simply just breathing on them goes a long way. Like a rock can be “dead” and then you can just breathe on it and the little fella just wakes up. Of course you can do this on anything you want, like stuffed animals and figurines and all of your tools. You could even do it on a snowman if ya want. So yeah. :D ETA: Breathing on things can also be fine for quick cleansings. Just blow on ‘em like you’re blowing off dust or whatever.
In honor of eclipse season, I wanted to share a recipe to bring your buzz down a notch (or two). I've been drinking this nervine tea for nearly five years now; it features all of my favorite herbal flavors! I'm not going to go into detailed herbal profiles for each of these botanicals, but I suggest looking into them more if you are curious. I think learning the basics of herbalism can greatly benefit the kitchen witch.
Each of these ingredients can be found in any decent grocery store, bought online, or grown yourself. The combination is designed with flavor and herbal actions in mind; it's not a measure of exact ingredients - mix with your heart. All of these botanicals are well tolerated and can be drunk regularly by most people. Please be careful when trying new herbs; allergic or other adverse reactions can occur.
Hibiscus, Hibiscus sabdariffa Hibiscus is the primary flavoring agent in this blend. It gives our tea its Cool, Moist, and Sour properties. Please keep in mind that hibiscus will stain anything it comes into contact with, including clothing, wooden spoons, and even countertops. If you don't think you're familiar with hibiscus, it is the primary flavor in all "Zinger" teas. It tastes tart and inexplicably red.
Peppermint, Mentha piperito
Peppermint is the first of our gentle nervines to be added to our tea. Nervines do exactly what you expect them to: they calm your nerves. In addition to being a nervine (primary benefit), Peppermint adds its properties of Pungent, Sweet, Cool, Warm, and Dry to our tea. I'm sure you're all familiar with peppermint; you could probably substitute a different mint here with similar effect.
Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis
Lemon balm is a nervine and a mild sedative. It brings the properties of Sour, Cool, and Dry to our tea. Some people don't like the taste of lemon balm, saying that it tastes like Pledge. If that's you, just omit it from this drink. The taste of hibiscus strongly overpowers the lemon balm, though, so maybe try it first.
Tulsi (Holy Basil), Ocimun santum
Tulsi is a nervine and adaptogenic herb, which means that it helps the body manage stress better. Its properties are Pungent, Sweet, Bitter, and Warm. With its heady, peppery notes, Tulsi is certainly an acquired flavor. If you get along with this herb, you will know almost immediately upon drinking it for the first time. A little goes a long way; you don't need to overdo it.
Dried Apple, Malus sp.
Although apple is primarily a flavoring agent (and sometimes a sweetening agent) in this blend, it does have mild sedative effects that lend themselves to the overall feel of this tea. I suggest using the apples you would eat in this recipe; you can dry slices of apples by putting them in your oven at 225F for 1.5 to 2 hours. Use a sweeter apple if you want a sweeter tea.
2 parts hibiscus
1 part peppermint
1 part lemon balm
1-2 parts dried apple
.5 part tulsi
Start by adding 1 tsp tea to hot water and steeping for 8 minutes. Adjust to your tastes from there.
This drink tastes great, hot or cold.
I've never sweetened this tea because I like my drinks bitter like my soul, but I bet a dollop of honey would be lovely in this—especially a nice summery wildflower honey. I've added sweetened cranberries in the past (1-2 parts) for more sweetness. And honestly, I don't measure. I know when it smells right.
I apply this drink liberally, but some people may find it too strong a diuretic to consume more than once daily. I drink it any time that I feel especially anxious or when I know I am going to be under a lot of stress. My partner likes to drink it before bedtime and claims it's one of the only things that will calm them down when they feel like they have too many thoughts.
You can witch this up (it's a verb now!) as little or as much as you like. I like to work calming energy into the drink step by step as I create the mixture by working with each botanical individually. You could charge this with a candle or sigil, dedicate it to one of your favorite gods or spirits, or store it on your altar. I create bindrunes for my favorite tea blends and use them as magical labels.
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[[before you expand: LONG text post!!]]
I got diagnosed only a couple months ago, but I have been practicing witchcraft for a little bit now. So in retrospect, here is stuff that I realized I have been doing to cope the whole time, and some new things I'm tinkering with :) Please feel free to leave your own tips or thoughts!
Just do not promise to give daily offerings! JUST DON'T DO IT. If you struggle with upholding a regular routine, do not promise gods or spirits you will uphold a routine for them. You should only promise things you are confident you can deliver. ((If you identify as a beginner witch it's my personal belief that you should not be promising anyone anything.))
Delete from your mindset that all witches are supposed to uphold rigid routines.
Give yourself breathing room: if you want to give scheduled offerings, maybe do one on the full moon. Or, plan it to coincide with other activities that interest you, and that you're likely to show up for.
Unless you have a few hours a week to devote to your practice, you should probably not be dedicating yourself to doing daily anything.
Rigid routine is not the only way to get regular experience with magic, build relationships with gods or spirits, or improve in your craft! You simply do not have to promise yourself or anyone else that you will do X actions at Y times.
Maybe there are some really important things in your practice that you want to do on a regular basis. Maybe these are things like:
Quick personal shielding
Acknowledging and honoring spirits
General offering
Prayer for guidance
Instead of saying "I'll do shielding for 5 minutes every day after breakfast, then of course my offering ritual-", you can put a streamlined (short, easy) ritual together where you do all four of these things at once.
Deep breaths, acknowledge and honor the spirits, ask for assistance in raising a shield, offering excess raised energy to them, and praying for guidance in the upcoming task.
It should take maybe like, 2 minutes tops.
Then, slot this streamlined ritual in before most practice activities. Like:
Before other energy work
Before divination
Before spellwork
Or, use it as a sort of 'generic' access point of connection and perform this ritual:
When you shower, to calm down from the day
When you're on transit to prepare for the upcoming day
When you're feeling grateful and want to share the moment with the spirits
When you're feeling sad and need support
Instead of forcing important actions into routines that may be hard to follow, find a way to carry these actions around with you in an accessible ritual, like carrying snacks around in a bag. This way you can use other exciting activities, or other life events, as a reminder to practice your ritual of important things :)
Maybe you have alarm blindness, forget to do divination, forget to check in with spells - so asking for omens can be a huge help. They are spontaneous messages that catch your eye. Helpful!
Research cultural omens
Research omens in your magical tradition
Journal and brainstorm personal omens
Write out, for yourself, a short list of personal omens.
Solid black pigeons mean a spirit wants attention. Seeing your favorite tree species means a spell was successful. Three gray dots means a spell failed. The scent of cinnamon buns means fortune is headed your way.
Perform a ritual announcing your chosen omens to the Powers That Be. Invite those Powers, Yourself, Life, the Universe, and Everything to send you true, accurate, and helpful messages through these omens.
Working with omens in this way is a skill that evolves over time. Your personal omen system will evolve over time if you use it. Think of it as another form of divination!
(Tip: Combine symbols with colors for an advanced system that's easy to remember. Oak trees are prosperity, but black means slow movement, red means powerful, and white means failure. After a spell you see a plumbing truck with a red oak tree logo; powerful prosperity. Etc.)
Employ foresight and:
Encode retirement/shutdown functions into your spells!! Do you want the spell to burn out completely and leave the vessel hollow so you don't have to deal with the vessel later on? Specify that! Do you want the spell to go to 'power saver mode' and hibernate so you can save the vessel and recharge it later? Specify!
ENCODE OMENS INTO SPELLS TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE ACTIONS! "This spell brings me financial benefit, and when it runs low, I will see my omen of slow growth - a solid black tree."
Assume that you are going to completely forget that you're able to take care of this problem, so encode the spells assuming you will never remember to deal with this again:
Spell for people that will remember they want to deal with Monica (they will also be working with wards, divination, and subtle cunning): "Stop Monica at the front desk from assaulting me with her dark energies, or else limit how much of her energy can reach me."
Spell for people that are going to completely forget this is an issue they can take care of and won't do another spell on it for maybe 18 months: "Stop Monica from assaulting me with her dark energies, or reveal to everyone in the office her dark nature, but if neither of these things is possible, change something in the office so that we never interact again."
Build a spellcasting altar, or a spell recharging altar, where you store up all your vessels. Recharge them all at once, as often as you remember to.
Poor plan: "And when this vessel runs down I will recharge it with the waxing moon as I stand under the orange tree-" More tenable plan: "And when this vessel runs down let it drink energy from my altar; let it take up any energy that suits it; let it feed on what is available to it, according to its needs."
Focus on learning how to tie spells to external energy sources so they will stay charged for way longer.
For easy deconstruction, set blanket conditions for every vessel that it be undone and the magic erased if you take a simple action. This is called a kill code. You bake it into spells and it makes deconstruction way easier.
Try developing a barbarous word of undoing and using it every time you want to undo a vessel or a spell; this word will gain power and can become very helpful in other ways.
Once again, plan spells with the foresight that it will be difficult/unlikely for you to re-engage for formal deconstruction procedures. So, anticipate your future needs during spellcasting: "And if I ever open this jar and take out the things inside it, let this spell be released and return to the earth, let it fade away without trouble and nourish anything around it as fallen logs nourish the forest floor." This way, you know that if you accidentally forget about a spell or just take it apart, the magic already has instructions to safely dissipate and you don't have to worry.
This folds in real nice with a personal omen system!!
Use a combination of colors, established symbols (planetary, alchemical), and personal symbols to develop a visual conlang that helps you keep track of what things are.
If applicable, decorate or modify spell vessels so you can tell at a glance what the spell is for (violet symbol of Venus next to a paw: a spell to improve relationships with the spirits that help you with psychism)
Build a system that makes intuitive sense to you, perhaps folding in with your color correspondence associations, magical headcannon, or any other mnemonic device:
All the spells in jars are protective
Everything that's tied into a witch's ladder is about prosperity
If it has a red X on it, that's a hex
If it has a 7-pointed star, it involves your dragon guide
If you store it in a bag that has blue on it (blue print, blue button, blue tie-string) then that object is related to cleansing
Your personal visual language will gain its own power over time if used regularly, in the way that egrigores or sigils can gain power if used consistently over time :) It can become a real magical tool, not just a mnemonic device!
When you conjure/talk to/pray to gods, spirits, or anything, address the fact that your communication/rituals/etc ARE going to be sporadic. Explain yourself and ask the spirits to extend understanding.
Some spirits/gods/etc are going to demand regular routine. AND IF THEY EXPECT THAT, then you guys need to get on the same page ASAP as to whether or not that's possible.
Spirits can be incredibly forgiving and understanding, but unless you tell them why you are sometimes around and sometimes not, they do not necessarily know what's going on.
Your spirit guide may have not read the DSM-5. Obelon the Fox-Man might not be up-to-date with the 2025 diagnosis criteria for ADHD, and Obelon might not recognize that you are struggling with a disorder that can mimic inattentiveness. Obelon might be asking why you appear to be so enthusiastic, and yet only call for him once every 5 weeks.
Just explain!! Explain what you are comfortable explaining. Give them reassurances and ask them to not misinterpret your ability to be present.
If the way you talk to yourself about your path sounds like someone struggling with unhealthy dieting, maybe it's time to readjust.
"I just need to do my daily offerings, on schedule, for two weeks. Then I will have earned researching tarot spells."
Maybe it's not a good idea to intentionally include witchcraft in a cycle of reward and denial that will ultimately drain joy from the process until your passion is a withered husk.
Witchcraft isn't going to force your brain to change any more than Stardew Valley was going to force your brain to change. Or that time you got super into succulents. If your time spent studying wool quality in heritage European sheep breeds didn't cure your disorder, witchcraft won't either.
Witchcraft, I think, deserves to be something that is a part of your joy - not a part of a system of stressful attempts at making yourself into someone you're not because "real witches" all do such-and-such routine (I assure you, they do not) so you must force yourself to do it too.
(Incidentally, if you have a 'streamlined ritual for the important stuff' and it becomes a barrier that prevents you from practicing, then maybe that's not a good idea for you - or maybe it's not as simple and streamlined as you need it to be)
There is SO MUCH to learn in witchcraft. It's never-ending. The more you learn, the more doorways open for you with more things to learn behind them.
This is not college, you do not have to declare your major. You don't have to wait to decide on your 'magic specialization' before you start learning.
This is not college, you don't have to take semesters of boring general ed classes before you're allowed to start studying what interests you.
Unless you are getting into very serious initiations, learning stuff, advancing your skills, and building your path is not going to shut doors and prevent you from getting into something else.
If something excites your interests, GET INTO IT! Don't force yourself to ignore what you're passionate about because you think serious, responsible witchcraft is supposed to be rigid, boring, and tedious. (It isn't!)
Avoid declaring your major. As in, maybe the idea of energy glamours is super exciting, so on day 1 you create a lesson plan that will realistically take you 70 weeks to complete. Based on your history, is it reasonable that you will maintain this specific interest in glamours for over a year?
Avoid making lesson plans that intentionally slow you down and make shit boring for no good reason. If energy glamours interest you, are you (*scrolls up*) using energy glamours as a carrot to force yourself to engage in a tedious magical workout routine? Is the reason the lesson plan takes 70 weeks because you decided to spend weeks slowly moving through each phase so you have time to spam energy work exercises?
You know yourself better than I know you. Maybe wanting to slow down and engage in your focuses in a new way is the goal. Of course, listen to yourself first!
But if you have a temporary burst of energy and focus to learn a new skill, and learning that skill won't require you to make unhealthy personal or financial decisions, why not just lean into it and explore it moment by moment, wherever your interests take you?
I think you'd probably learn a lot more doing and undoing 20 glamours in a week, because you're freaking out about how fucking cool it is, than if you practice 1 basic glamor exercise once a day because that's what real disciplined witches do, and then 11 days later you forget it once and never do it again and now your interest has faded because glamouring is just another boring chore.
How often do you need to recharge your wards to keep them functioning normally?
Once you've explained your own needs and limits, how often do your spirits actually request offerings?
Are you 100% sure the spirits you're working with expect offerings in the first place?
Are those offerings expected to be physical, or do thoughts and prayers suffice?
How often should you perform a personal cleansing to keep yourself feeling magically refreshed?
Feeling anxious or guilty over whether or not you're supposed to be taking certain actions is NO FUN.
It is much less fun if you don't actually know how often you need to do these things. Then it's just all guessing, all the time, and nothing is ever good enough.
If at all possible, avoid putting yourself into a situation where you feel that you are supposed to be doing something responsible in your practice, but you're never sure exactly what it is.
Spend some practice time, learn some skills, and make notes, to discover whether or not you do have any minimum engagement requirements in the style of practice you want. And most importantly, having clear 'deadlines' so you don't have to keep guessing at what you're forgetting about this time.
use this as a conduit to connect you to the local spirits and nature
get a pot
fill it with local dirt/sand/clay
keep it on your porch/inside/near your house. somewhere you can visit it.
put cool natural items in it, like local shells, bones, branches, etc. that you’ve found…
watch it come to life. if i just leave a pot of dirt around, something will spring up in it. usually those considered “weeds”. if nothing grows, plant a low-maintenance native plant in it. but there should be something after a time.
make offerings like water and more natural items as you desire.
connect to it, talk to it, introduce yourself.
Rinse and repeat over time. That’s really it! and then you just… build a relationship as time goes on.
Do you have any advice for how to strengthen ones spirit hearing, or is it just something you're born with/given?
I was not born with it. I did not have magical experiences until I was in my 20s.
I hope this doesn't sound pedantic, but the best way to improve is to practice and learn about it.
Learning about all different types of spiritual communication from many faiths is important because it provides a more stable and well-rounded foundation. Knowing what others believe can give us insight into what we're doing and how to strengthen our own practices.
And you just gotta practice. I've put in hundreds of hours of active practice (at least). I don't just mean like, trying psychic techniques. I mean just talking to spirits.
Hello! I've taken a peek at the witch craft book library you've put together, but I'm a bit confused how it works. I can't find books it says have been uploaded and I was wondering if you could help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thank you for uploading such a large amount of readings in one place ♡
I completely forgot to update here! So due to the large amount, (and I refuse to give google my money for storage) I've been moving them to MEGA. I'm still slowly moving things over from the Google Drive, it's a work in progress and I haven't had much time lately. If you can't find what you are looking for then please don't hesitate to ask. ☺ I'll update the Masterlist to include the MEGA link as well so it's easier to fine. ☺
Thanks everyone for being patient while things get moved around!
MEGA Library:
https://mega.nz/folder/gWM2VLqQ#WJogJj3_w3ysb0RxoX-igQ
Library Masterlist:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-NC7wToVh0_hpNbuvhBEI2BUdWPbkpLlM2G15P76tiA/edit?usp=drivesdk
(Still Cleaning Out) Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10mkrjBylnr59A6lWrJQ7R7SNgbZTu8d4
A very simple spread my friends, to identify what the hecc is happening.
It's a three card draw - any arrangement will do.
first card - "the answer is,"
second card - "that is to say,"
third card - "..and it is not-"
example: "what are these weird vibes I'm getting from my friend?"
first card - "the answer is that your friend feels like they can't relate to your beliefs any more."
second card - "that is to say, your friend is growing emotionally in a direction that makes them question some of your beliefs."
third card - "and it's not that they think your beliefs are actually bad. they're just questioning a lot of things on an emotional level right now."
This guide is intended to be allied to the type of spellwork that draws something towards you or is desirous of change within yourself. The goal here is to create actions throughout our day or week that bring our thoughts back to the magic that we have performed. From my way of thinking, this keeps the stream of magic flowing in the right direction through your returned focus. It can have the added benefit of reminding you to take the actions in the world that are necessary for the success of your spellwork.
There will be a number of examples following but they all have the same theme: doing something during your initial spellwork that you will return to after the spell has been cast to keep your attention focused in the direct on what you want. Some of these things will be very obvious and you will have seen them before - others may be less so and better suited to a person in the broom closet. Some of these are standalone spell techniques on their own; here I am trying to convey that when combined together, multiple types of spellwork can have a greater effect than individually.
The idea is to continue to do the things listed below until your spell has manifested. Yes, there are obviously too many to do all at once. You are, as always, free to pick the ones that fit the spell best or the ones that fit your own lifestyle. Or to disregard all of them altogether.
Create an altar for your spell Say that I was going to create a spell for money to make sure that I could pay my rent on August 1st. I would create a money altar for my spell, do my spell on the altar, and keep all of the spell ingredients (including candle remains and any nonperishable offerings) up for the month of July. If I was going to create a spell to combat the upcoming Venus retrograde, I would keep the altar up all the way through the end of the retrograde. The visual reminder of the altar helps to realign your thoughts toward that spell.
Feed your spell This one goes along with the first nicely. This can look like a lot of different things - it could be adding coins to a money bowl or a spoonful of sugar to a sweetening jar. It could be burning incense on your altar for success on your exams every Sunday. It could be successively lighting small candles to charge your spell for a set number of days, weeks, or on every full moon. If you work with spirits of deities, it could be making repeated offerings while you ask for help with your spellwork. If you are the type of person who sticks to schedules well, make it a scheduled thing. You could align it with the days of the week if you're into that or with the moon cycles. If you're not a scheduler, do it when you remember.
Mantras (and other Spoken representations of your spell) If you are a verbal person, word magic may work very well for you. This can be anything from one phrase to a rhyming couplet - the idea here is that it is something that you remember to repeat to yourself. I think that this type of magic work especially well when doing work on changing something about yourself, but you may find a use for it in other areas that I have not. Ideas for using mantras: say them when you wake up or before you fall asleep at night, say them while looking in the mirror while getting ready in the morning. Or, simply say them when it would be appropriate for the magic that you have worked.
Sigils (and other Visual Representations of your Spell) If you are a visual person, sigils and other types of art magic can help you to augment your magic. The idea is to charge or create your symbol during the casting of your magic and then return to it throughout your days. Depending on your situation, you may able to hang your artwork or sigil on your mirror in your bathroom or even on your fridge. If you cast a spell to get better tips, carry the sigil or wear it when you are working. You can draw sigils on your skin with lotion or other skincare. This can be at once the most obvious forms of magic (think the Bluetooth symbol) and the most discreet. You can incorporate your sigil onto something you handmake like clothing (inside your clothes or out), jewelry, or any number of other charms.
Put it in a Jar (and other Physical representations of your magic) Yes, jar spells and other container magic are a topic all onto themselves. But have you thought about putting the remains of a spell into a jar? This is a very sympathetic view of magic, but it makes no sense to me to cast a spell to bring something toward you and then immediately get rid of the objects used in the spell. It's counterintuitive to throw something away that you want. N'est pas? Instead, put the items you used in the casting of the spell into a jar or bag and keep it somewhere safe until the spell comes to pass. This is where an altar to your spell comes in handy - it's a place to house this object. Bonus: this makes it harder for sneaky people or inquisitive animals to find their way into your spell components. Other versions of this include putting your intentions for the spell into an object such as a stone or a piece of jewelry and carrying it with you every day.
Invoke Your Senses Again, this is strictly my opinion, but magic involves both the unconscious and the conscious mind. The best way to hijack your unconscious mind and keep it aligned with your consciousness is through the base senses like smell and taste. They tap right the fuck in as they are deeply connected to our memory centers. Here I suggest picking a scent or flavor from your spell and incorporating it into your life for the duration afterward. If you use rose petals, buy yourself a rose-scented soap or rose perfume. If you use basil, make yourself pesto once a week or work to otherwise incorporate basil into your meals. As far as food goes, items like jams and simple syrups are perfect for this purpose if applicable. This involves a bit more planning than some of the other suggestions but can be very rewarding (and tasty!). Alternatively, if sound is important to you, you could use a piece of music during your spell and then play it repeatedly to reactivate the feeling of the spell. Or, if you're very musically inclined, you could write your own song or simply set your mantra/words to music in some fashion.
This is a very non-exhaustive list of some of the techniques that I have used to keep the energy of my spells flowing when I am working on a longer manifestation. Mostly, as stated above, these techniques are best used for magic designed to bring something towards you or to change something about yourself but they can be adapted for use with other types of magic as well.
Again, the goal here is to create moments throughout your day or week where your attention is turned back to your magic through repetitive actions such as showering with rose soap or donning a necklace you made with your sigil every morning.
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