Category: Witchcraft

On Cleansing (Cast Iron Pan Theory)

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I call it Cast Iron Pan Theory. Cast iron pans should not be washed with soap very often, and when they are, they need to be re-seasoned. The seasoning is what makes cast iron so special. I think witchcraft works the same way.

There are some people that do a lot of magical cleansing. They cleanse their spaces, they cleanse their objects, they cleanse themselves– and that is not how I operate. Things (and especially divination tools) have their own spirits and experiences, and I don’t want to get rid of or reset that unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Don’t get me wrong, cleansing has its place in my practice. It’s not like I NEVER cleanse anything– it can be an effective solution to a specific problem. I just think it’s often much too harsh, as well as unnecessary for what I am trying to achieve. It’s not my default.

I also feel this way about warding. Once again, it has its place– if an entity or spirit was being problematic, I would absolutely tell it to stop and put up protections. But I don’t see why it has to be the default. I don’t ward my house, and I don’t create magical protections when I do a working. If someone or something has a message for me, I absolutely want to hear it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have boundaries, but I think it’s wrong to assume that entities automatically wish you ill.

I think a lot of the culture surrounding cleansing and warding in modern witchcraft is a result of the West’s Christian history and its focus on purity. Of course there are other traditions that involve ritual cleansing, and if you want it to be part of your practice, you have my blessing.

But I often ask myself: why do we need our witchcraft items to be cleansed? What if instead they were broken-in, and well-loved, by ourselves or their creators or the earth?

Quick Tip on Creating Rituals and Spells

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If you are stuck when creating a ritual or spell in your witchcraft practice, I recommend coming up with what I will call a “central metaphor,” the action or idea your ritual or spell is trying to evoke and “copy.” Decide what you are trying to achieve and create a metaphor around it, and then use that metaphor to come up with ritual actions. I recommend focusing on a verb that you can make into a ritual action, but common idioms can pack the same punch.

This is a process you might do automatically with common spells like cord-cutting, but I do not often see the idea articulated this way for people interested in designing their own spells and rituals. We do this all the time with correspondences and ingredients, but we witches (or maybe just me?) often stumble on what actions to take for a spell or ritual. (Do I write it on a piece of paper and burn it? Do I put it in a jar?)

An simple example would be burying something in the dirt in accordance with a central metaphor of burying something in the past. If you’re trying to sweeten someone’s feelings toward you, make them a sugary treat.

For an example of a more complicated ritual, I was designing a New Year’s Eve ritual and I decided that my central metaphor was going to be restarting like a computer: powering down and then powering back up again, installing updates and fixing hard drive problems. To do this, I cleaned my bedroom and the bathroom, took a shower, went to bed on New Year’s Eve, and then meditated when I woke up in the morning on New Year’s Day.

If you can’t think of a central metaphor right off the bat, I recommend doing an “I Want” List in a notebook or app. To do this, as I have said in previous posts, start a new page and focus on your ritual or spell, and then begin each sentence with “I want” or “I don’t want” and see what comes up. Refine your results with more “I want/I don’t want” statements until you feel like you’re done.

Seed & Sickle Oracle Deck Review

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Divination has been an important part of my practice in the 15 years I’ve been doing witchcraft. Recently, however, I got bored of tarot, but have been having trouble finding something equally versatile. I think I have found it in the form of the Seed & Sickle oracle deck by Fez Inkwright, with my own twist. In this post, I’m going to review the deck as well as tell you how I’ve put my own spin on it.

Why oracle cards?

An oracle deck is used in divination, but unlike a tarot deck, every oracle deck is different and has a completely different vibe. While most tarot decks have 78 cards and consist of a major arcana and minor arcana, oracle decks can be set up however the creator desires. There are infinite variations, meaning you could experiment with a new one every day and never run out of new experiences!

There is a popular assumption, unfortunately, that oracle cards are somehow lesser than tarot– that they are supplemental, less “spiritual,” or less in-depth. However, I believe they are powerful enough to stand on their own, especially if you find a deck that works for you.

Why the Seed & Sickle deck?

First of all, the art is beautiful.

Secondly, I felt that the two guidebooks provided an interesting roadmap for interpreting the cards. This is the main selling point of the Seed & Sickle deck: it comes with two guidebooks, labeled “dawn” and “dusk.” Dawn is for readings about beginning projects and potentialities, and Dusk is for introspective readings. I felt that this was a really interesting development and could lead to great daily readings.

Thirdly, I wanted an oracle deck that would be versatile to the point that it could replace tarot. Tarot has cards that could represent just about any situation, but many oracle card decks are restricted by their themes.

How I’m Using It

I am actually not interpreting based on the guidebooks at all at this point. Instead, I am using my intuition– and these have been some of the most powerful divination experiences I have ever had.

Here’s how I did it: I made a gigantic chart in my witch journal that included 4 columns and enough rows for each card, and about 8 lines each. (It took like 15 pages, so if you want to do something similar, you may want to do it digitally or in its own dedicated notebook!)

I went through each card in order and wrote down my intuitive interpretation first, based on the art on the card and its general vibe. Then I researched the folklore and correspondences of each plant and wrote those in the third column. Finally, I split each box of the fourth column into two and recorded the Dawn and Dusk interpretations from the guidebook.

If, during my readings, another interpretation crops up, I will write it down!

A Note

This is not a criticism of the deck at all, but someone who was more well-versed in plants might have an easier time with these cards than I did. On many of the cards, there are no symbols other than just the featured plant and often I struggled with an intuitive interpretation of these cards. I should have known from the creator’s bibliography that it was an herbalism-based deck, but honestly I bought it on a whim and didn’t do too much research.

Check out the oracle card related offerings in my Patreon shop!

How to Design Your Own Witchcraft Path

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Designing your own spirituality is one of the great allures of witchcraft, but not a lot has been written (at least not that I can find) about how exactly to do so. How do you know what you want to do in your witchcraft practice? What is important to you and not just a passing fancy? Where do you want to go next?

I have designed, kind of on a whim, a writing exercise for figuring out where you want to go with your witchcraft, and I wanted to share it with you in case you were feeling as frazzled and directionless as I was.

The Exercise

This exercise is appropriate for people at all “levels,” whether they are beginners, intermediate, or advanced practitioners. Afterwards, you will have a document that will guide you in making large decisions (like whether to join an initiatory lineage or dedicate to a deity) and small ones (like what witchcraft-related things to do each day).

You can free-write this by hand, use a word processor on the computer, or even write in your notes app on your phone. (That’s what I did!)

Your prompt is “I want…” (Yes, this is vague on purpose.) Each new paragraph can be a different topic, but I recommend making them all begin with “I want…” Get as detailed within each paragraph as feels right.

Some further prompts, if you need help getting specific:

  • What you want to do in your regular witchcraft practice
  • What you want to do once, or less frequently
  • What you want to learn about (and how)
  • What you want to feel (and why)
  • What you DON’T want (This one is very fruitful for me!)
  • What you want to focus on (and how)
  • What you want to celebrate (and how)

Remember, you don’t have to have all the answers when you start writing– the point of this is discovery, even if you end up rehashing some stuff you already know.

Mine ended up being about four pages long, but afterwards I had a much clearer idea of what belonged in my witchcraft practice and what didn’t. For example, I learned that I had been placing a heavy emphasis on divination when in reality, that should be supplemental.

After the Exercise

After I finished this exercise, I let it sit for a few days, reread it, decided it was good, and copied it into my witch journal. Now, I use it to guide my decisions– rather than doing tarot/oracle draws once a day or more, I try to do it every few days, because I don’t truly want it to be the bulk of my practice. However, I do want to work with crystals, so I choose one to carry for the day, as often as I remember.

Keep in mind that you can do this exercise as often as you like, though I don’t recommend doing it TOO often (whatever that means). You could set a regular schedule for it (every year on Samhain or New Year’s Day) or just do it whenever you feel your practice has changed significantly.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

How to Create a Witchcraft Journal, Book of Shadows, or Grimoire

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I used to spend a lot of time Googling what to put in my witch journal. (Other people may call it a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire, neither of which feel right for me.) It was a very fun activity for me, but social media had me thinking it was incomplete. I was motivated to work on it, but I didn’t know what to include. Recently, however, I realized that a witch journal should be as unique as the person writing it, and I set out to figure out how to achieve that. In this post I will share my method with you!

Here is your complete guide to making a witch journal, Book of Shadows, or grimoire that:

  • you will realistically use regularly
  • is unique to you
  • is perfect for your personal practice

What Notebook Should I Get?

Before you start a witch journal, Book of Shadows, or grimoire, you have to choose a notebook. Having tried both analog and digital options, I prefer analog for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that it’s a lot of effort to copy down something someone else has written, making you more motivated to include your personal insights instead. (There’s nothing wrong, of course, with writing down stuff like “Crystals That Can’t Be Exposed to Water” or “Fire Safety Rules,” but in my opinion, that shouldn’t be the bulk of your witch journal.)

I highly recommend the Artist’s Loft dot grid journal from Michael’s. They are sturdy, less than $10, and last me at least a few months. Recently, they have been including space for an index as well as numbered pages. They also often have a pocket on the back inside cover.

The only criterion for choosing your notebook is to get something you WANT to write in– not something so beautiful you don’t even want to touch it. For me, that is something that looks nice but is not extremely fancy. Your pick might be a composition notebook or spiral-bound with some stickers on the cover– it’s really up to you! Get as messy or as aesthetic as you please.

How to Organize Your Witchcraft Journal

To keep everything accessible, I use the Bullet Journal method in my witchcraft journal. This means that the first few pages are an index, and (with a few exceptions) pages are not set aside or divided up into sections. When you need to use a new page, just use the next numbered one. Therefore, tarot journaling (for example) might be on pages 4 and 8, with notes from a book on page 5 and 11, art on page 6, etc. If you want to, you can color-code different subjects in a variety of ways. I use markers for the headers in corresponding colors, for example, but you could also use circular stickers on the edges of pages or anything else you can think of.

What To Put In Your Journal

Witchcraft is the only endeavor where people tell you to copy down a ton of stuff you can easily Google. Have you noticed that?

Instead of writing pages of one-word correspondence lists that don’t mean anything to you yet, write about your unique spiritual journey.

I recommend starting with a daily witchcraft-focused journal session and expanding outwards from there. It often helps to think on the small scale. For example, you might write about what you thought about spiritually that day, the rituals or spells you did, offerings you gave to spirits, books you read, tarot readings you gave to friends, signs you saw, etc. You might be tempted to write a manifesto on your practice right off the bat– I do recommend doing that at some point, but my advice would be to start out as small-scale as possible. Just write about your day, from a witchcraft perspective. And then keep doing it.

This will naturally expand into other things that are relevant to your practice: wishlists, artwork, tarot/oracle reference charts, correspondences for crystals you own, plant profiles, offering logs, book notes (lots of book notes!), recipes, etc. The sky’s the limit!

I have had at least three witch journals in the last 15 years, and the daily witchcraft-focused journaling still forms the basis of my practice. It’s also very useful to see my evolution into the witch I am today– for example, I first write about Baba Yaga on April 7, meaning I have been researching and working tentatively with her for about 6 months at the time of this writing. That is useful information!

What About the Aesthetics?

I run into a lot of people who are hung up on the aesthetics of their journals, so my first instinct is to say, to hell with the aesthetics! Let your witch journal be as messy as you want!

On the other hand, some of you reading this may be art witches or just people who genuinely like to decorate their journals and planners.

I am not artistic at all, but I have started doing marker drawings and stickers and sometimes fancy paper, but only in a way that is relevant to my actual practice. For example, my current witch journal includes a drawing of amethyst (one of my favorite crystals) and a half-open folding knife (a symbol from one of my favorite tarot cards).

Conclusion

I hope this helped you move towards creating a witch journal, Book of Shadows, or grimoire that is personal, unique, relevant to your practice, and realistic.

Let me know any thoughts you have in the comments!

Prayers for Pagans

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I have been experimenting with prayer in my witchcraft.

I got the idea after downloading a short ebook about death witchcraft from Etsy. It had an all-purpose prayer for those who had passed on to be able to find their destination smoothly. It was not directed at a particular deity, and was more like a well-meaning wish. This really struck me as a great idea, and changed my approach to prayer to realize that it doesn’t have to be for one’s own benefit only.

Obviously, if you have a deity in mind, it follows naturally that you could write one for them. Or several, for the same deity or different ones. I am a poet and lean naturally into devotional poetry, but you can do whatever you want! It could be a request or merely a devotional that describes them and invokes them.

If you don’t have a deity in mind, you could do a general prayer. I find the word “May…” to be very helpful, as in “May people get the help they need today.” It does not invoke a particular entity to help, it merely sends the wish gently out into the world.

If you have the ability, I recommend memorizing your prayer so you can say it/think it at any time. You don’t necessarily need to work hard to commit it to memory; just read it as you say it until you don’t need to read it anymore. In my experience this takes about 15 days of daily repetition.

So far, I have one general prayer that is based on my deities and what I am working on in my witchcraft, but does not speak to them directly, and one specifically for Baba Yaga.

My Current Witchcraft Practice

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This blog is about my thoughts, and I’ve been thinking a lot about witchcraft lately so I want to introduce you to my witchcraft practice.

I have been a witch on and off since I was about 12. Knowing my interest in Harry Potter, some family member or another bought me a (pink) book about witchcraft, geared for pre-teens. I had the thought “OH MY GOD, THEY LIED TO ME! WITCHCRAFT IS REAL!” I was hooked, and spent the next few years diving into the supernatural, especially astrology.

Around age 14, I dated an awful boy who was a Pastafarian/atheist. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but the particular way he went about it was very self-important. In an effort to mold myself to his wishes, I became the same, and eschewed anything that even hinted at the supernatural. While it was absolutely horrible at the time, this thread actually influenced my later practice a lot, and infused a healthy skepticism into everything I do. I now consider witchcraft– at least the way I practice it– to be at the crossroads of the mythical and the psychological. My approach is very Jungian (though I am not as well-read on him as I should be!) and uses ritual as a psychological tool like in Satanism. (LaVey and most of his followers are absolutely awful people, but I have definitely yoinked this idea.)

In my early twenties, I was inspired to get back into witchcraft. By that time, my life had been ravaged by depression for a decade, and all my spells were desperate pleas for the mental illness to end– I figured I could take care of everything else in my life as long as my depression ended. (Newsflash: they didn’t work.) I had a brief stint as a professional tarot reader (for a couple of venues)and decided I hated it because people wanted “facts” about the future when I wanted to explore together what the cards were telling me.

Now, I have a witchcraft practice where I don’t do spells. Leaning into the microphone: a witchcraft practice where I don’t do spells! The way I see it, my willpower has already been bruised by overuse, since I spent so many years trying to bite the bullet and take action when my body and mind were screaming at me to be kind to myself. Anyway, I’m not really sure that I believe that spells are effective (at least for me).

Mainly, I work with deities/archetypes. Does this make me a pagan instead of a witch? Maybe, but I like the word “witch” better. The main figures I work with are Baba Yaga (I am of Slavic heritage), Prometheus, and Robin Hood. I don’t believe them to be deities as in, external existing spirits– rather, to me, they are representations of larger themes that are important in my life. Baba Yaga represents to me the complexity of being a human animal that lives in a domesticated society. Prometheus represents to me the search for knowledge at all costs. Robin Hood, a figure that has been a source of obsession since I could understand narrative, represents to me the drive to help others. I also work with bees in my practice (but not literally like a beekeeper would).

Recently, I got bored of tarot and have been branching out into oracle cards. Posts upcoming include a discussion of how I work with oracle cards and the best methods to get to know them.

In the day-to-day, I do a lot of journaling work, research, and note-taking. I consider this to be a part of my practice, rather than armchair witching.

I have also been writing devotional poetry and baking bread as offerings.

Stay tuned for more witchcraft content!

New Directions, Graduating Therapy!

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I know I said this before, but I’m going in a new direction on this blog.

I have learned a lot and graduated from therapy, and I (maybe paradoxically) no longer feel like I have the expertise to advise anyone in mental health. While I had a lot of KNOWLEDGE about mental health (and especially dissociation), it wasn’t the same as wisdom. Obviously, graduating from therapy doesn’t mean that I am perfect, but I am definitely capable of putting into practice what I have learned– which is mainly that we need to feel our repressed feelings. Mine is generally anger. Even if I struggle, I usually have a much better sense of what exactly I’m upset about, which used to be a big hurdle for me. I would often feel nebulously Upset and be unable to figure out why or what to do about it. Even just figuring out the truth about my emotions and their roots can be powerful, and often neutralizes the emotional problem.

I said before that I wanted to write about masculinity, from the perspective of a trans guy. (Not necessarily the same as writing about being trans.) However, I am not the expert on that either.

So what direction AM I taking?

I’m going to write about whatever I’m thinking about. As someone who used to be a professional writer, I always think that I have to be monetize-able and professional on my blog. Fuck that. That doesn’t mean, however, that I am going to use this as a public diary. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but I am more interested in sharing my thoughts than my feelings. I do a lot of reading and research and I’m interested in sharing that.

Lately, most of what I’ve been thinking about is witchcraft and paganism. If that is something you’d like to read about, stick around!

I’m also going to grad school in January 2024 so I’m sure I’ll have lots of thoughts to share then. My major will be Library Science. I’ve been working in libraries for a total of like 7 years, so I feel pretty qualified to move up; I just need the degree.

Currently Reading: Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (a re-read of a favorite!)

Review: The Witch’s Path by Thorn Mooney

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This is by far the best book on witchcraft I have ever read.

I am one of those people that will research witchcraft endlessly. This is part of the fun for me, but it’s also not actually practicing the “craft” part of witchcraft.

Here, Thorn Mooney writes a book for ALL witches, no matter their level. In each chapter, she writes about a foundational part of witchcraft. Not in a beginner-textbook way, but in a way that will reignite your spark for that particular aspect. The chapters are sacred space, devotion, ritual/magic, personal practice, and community.

The best part is the practical exercises at the end of each chapter. They come in sets of four, aligned with the four elements. Air is for beginner witches, fire is for witches that need something quick, water is for witches looking to deepen their practice, and earth is for witches that feel like they’ve already tried everything.

I highly recommend doing the exercises— I did some highlighting in my ebook and went back to them after I was finished reading. Some of them are long, 30-day “challenges,” so you may not want to wait to do them before you finish the book.

Note: the author is Wiccan, but she makes sure that the information in her book is applicable to witches of all paths!

5/5.

The No-Cleanse Lifestyle

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Unlike other witches, I don’t DO cleansing.

Sometimes, there are exceptions. If something has “bad energy” surrounding it (like things that I love but were given to me by an ex-partner), I will cleanse it. If my tarot deck is giving me weird repeats, I take note of their message (then make a Facebook post about it), and then I give them a gentle cleanse. Occasionally you need to press the restart button without wiping your hard drive.

To me, my witchcraft tools (and other things, including myself) are like a trusty cast iron pan. They’re seasoned with energy, and I don’t want to strip that away. I don’t want to cleanse my 130-year-old rented house of its spirits. I don’t want to cleanse my crystals of the things they learned in the earth. I especially don’t want to cleanse myself of the energy I exude, the way I fill the air because I’m never quiet.

Some would say I’m a hoarder. I was raised that way. My father, when I was very young, built a barn in his backyard, the residents of which were cars without engines, every dish my mother had inherited, and all the books my brother and I outgrew. I have watched him pick through the trash to rescue a months-old, torn-up magazine that my brother discarded. I think it started during his brush with homelessness, but I also think it’s in my genetics to never get rid of anything. Every marble feels like an ancient artifact, if you look at it the right way. Every notebook is an old friend. Every coin you find is buried treasure. Everyone in my family is like this.

I’m the same way when it comes to memories, too. If someone offered me a miraculous chance to forget about the traumas that gave me PTSD, I wouldn’t take it. Some would say I’m holding grudges, but in reality, I am lovingly holding all the parts of me– even those that bring me pain– just for being a part of me. I need to learn to deal with the memories, work WITH what my energetic body has picked up, and never shy away from the truth of what humans can do.

Some people cleanse all the time, every day. They cleanse their crystals in the light of the full moon, they sage their auras, they purge their homes.

That’s not me.

I will never be pure.

Gentle cleansing ideas:

-put selenite on top of it for a few hours

-wave it over the flame of a light-colored candle

-place it in front of the mirror while you take a shower

-cup it in your hand and whisper to it through your fingers