Tag: Witchcraft

On Cleansing (Cast Iron Pan Theory)

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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 Create a Witchcraft Journal, Book of Shadows, or Grimoire

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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!

New Patreon Offering: Get To Know Your Oracle Deck Worksheet

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

Based on the popular tarot book “21 Ways To Read a Tarot Card,” this multi-page, in-depth worksheet will teach you how to really get in touch with your oracle deck and turn divination into a personalized, multi-sensory experience.

Remember that all Write Mind content on Patreon is priced as affordably as possible. Each item on the shop is $3, which is Patreon’s minimum price for downloads. Subscribing, and therefore getting every shop item for no extra cost, is $5 per month.

Check it out on Patreon here!

Bullet Journal in a Happy Planner: Method

joelsherwood2 Comments

In the previous post, we talked about how to get started Bullet Journaling in a Happy Planner.

In case you missed it, the Happy Planner is a ring notebook that allows you to add, remove, and rearrange pages. It’s often pre-printed with traditional planner pages, but I took those out of mine and put in blank dot-grid pages from the company Talia. Happy Planners come in three sizes (Big, Standard, and Mini)– I recommend the Big size because, with a specialized hole-punch, you can add standard letter size paper. This could be useful for keeping track of important mail, or you can create or buy printables. Your imagination is really the limit here.

One notebook to rule them all?

The Bullet Journal system is designed to consist of one notebook, though there are many variations, and people often find it most convenient to use multiple notebooks for different topics. My Happy Planner Bullet Journal has a variety of different sections, and I use it for all my life administration, but I have additional notebooks for my witch journal (also known as a Book of Shadows or grimoire) as well as my reading journal. (Posts about those are in the works!) I definitely think that having one notebook is my ideal, but you should do what works for you!

Divider Sections

One of the biggest innovations of the Bullet Journal system, in my opinion, is that you just use the next available page for whatever you want to write (or draw, or design) and then add it to your index. However, the Happy Planner has the ability to move pages around. Therefore, I don’t use an index, and use divider tabs instead. When I sit down to Bullet Journal, even when using a regular bound notebook, I flip through every page to see if there’s anything that needs to be written down, migrated, or recorded. (That sounds like a lot, but it only takes me about 10 minutes a day to do this.)

The sections are labeled:

  • BuJo. This is where I keep my life administration stuff that I made myself, and this is the section I flip through every day. More on this below.
  • Notes. This section is really going to come in handy when I start grad school. Right now, most of my book notes live in one of my other journals.
  • Journal. This is where I do my Morning Pages as well as any other long-form writing I might do throughout the day. I do Morning Pages a little differently, and tend to write about what I’m going to do that day. I find more focused writing to be better than just freewriting for me, but everyone’s brains work differently!
  • Blog. Self-explanatory.
  • Paperwork. This is where I keep things I have hole-punched to add, like important mail and legal information.
  • Blank. This is where I keep blank dot-grid pages to add to the other sections.

Bullet Journal Pages

The Bullet Journal section is my main section.

Pages that I find useful include:

  • Contact info for if I lose my notebook.
  • A future log/yearly calendar with space to write important info, like far-off doctor appointments.
  • Monthly calendar in a traditional grid format
  • Life focuses (post about this incoming!)
  • Task list, both short-term and long term projects. (I might divide this up in the future, but for now I have it all as one list.)
  • Weekly symptom recording by day.
  • Monthly reviews. This is part of the Bullet Journal method, and consists of asking “What worked and what didn’t?” Traditionally, the scope is within your notebook, but I like to ask the question of both my organization system and my entire life.
  • My Points System. Discussed in an old post, this is my system for getting stuff done. I have a points goal for the day, and each reasonably productive activity gets me a certain amount of points depending on effort.
  • Habit Trackers.
  • Finished books for this year.
  • Passwords. I am very careful with my notebook for this reason.
  • Things to bring up to the doctor.
  • Health appointment log. This is where I write down any notes from doctor’s appointments, like what we discussed and what the results were.
  • Miscellaneous Lists.

Coming up soon: my unique Bullet Journal key and how I use it.

Upcoming Patreon Offerings!

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

Listen. I don’t blog to make money. I have been there and it sucks. However, I would like to be able to keep hosting this blog. Therefore, download-ables (which I have been planning on making for a while) will be hosted in my Patreon shop. Yes, I have a Patreon! This will help me out with the costs of running the site, as well as ensure you have a safe and secure place to download additional content from me.

Each downloadable/printable/ebook will be priced at the minimum that Patreon allows ($3) and will be worth at least that much. You can buy the ones you’re interested in OR you can become a patron for $5/month and download all of them for no additional cost. (Patreon takes a small cut of each sale or monthly renewal.)

Things I plan on offering:

  • Oracle card worksheet based on 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card which will help you get to know every single card of any oracle deck you want to learn to use
  • You Feel Like Shit workbook and worksheet based on the popular twine, a self-care guide for everyone who struggles with executive dysfunction. Includes a quick guide that you can print as well as space for your own notes on each self-care activity, like (for example) favorite grounding exercises. Created with permission from the original creator.
  • Pagan prayers and devotionals that I have written, which you can yoink directly or use as inspiration for writing your own.
  • Meditation scripts that I have written and use in my own practice.
  • Zines
  • Book notes

If you haven’t already, please check out my Patreon! You can become a member today OR you can hit the three dots in the corner and click “Follow” to be notified when I post something new (for free!)

Prayers for Pagans

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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.

Baba Yaga: Ancient Goddess?

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

I have been reading a book (Fierce Feminine Divinities) that posits that Baba Yaga is an ancient earth goddess who has been telephone-gamed into the mercurial witch of the woods from folklore.

I have been working with Baba Yaga in my witchcraft as a representation of complexity. She does not choose between being feral or being domestic: she is both, and that is what I want to embody.

However, I don’t think that she is directly the result of a Slavic goddess getting morphed over time and demonized into a witch. I don’t think we have evidence for that, and it’s very far-fetched. We don’t have any evidence for the goddess that she supposedly was, nor etymological evidence that shows a change over time like that.

I DO think that the old paganism was strong in the Slavic collective unconscious at the time that this folklore was written down, and that there are connections that could be made that could be VERY pertinent to understanding Baba Yaga herself.

However, I have not studied in-depth a lot of the folklore scholars, like Vladimir Propp. Maybe he makes a lot of good points that I am missing out on.

Does anyone have any wisdom on this?

My Current Witchcraft Practice

joelsherwoodLeave a comment

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!