Easy Witchy Tips I Have Learnt Through My Craft

Witch Tip:

Get a copy of the map of your area. Not a country map, a state map, or even a county map. Your area. You can print off a Google map if a commercial version isn't available.

Take the map with you everywhere you go. Make notes on it of things you notice - does one area feel different to you? Does a tree live among many dead ones? Do you see the same cat sitting on the same fence post at the same time every morning? Where do bees live? What crossroads catch your eye? Is there a cemetary?

Once you've filled the map with your observations, keep it in your grimoire for reference.

SHADOW WORK SIMPLIFIED

What is shadow work?

If I had to describe shadow work in one word, it would be introspection. Introspection is the examination of your own mental state and is necessary in order to learn more about your fundamental nature. Although it may sound off-putting and even scary at first, shadow work is a necessary component in the process of healing. We all have aspects of ourselves that we’ve rejected and hidden away out of fear. Through shadow work, we’re able to reflect on our thoughts, emotions, and habits so that we can find the root cause of our suffering and heal ourselves. By reincorporating those aspects of ourselves that we’ve denied, we feel more fulfilled and can begin to love ourselves fully. 

Where does shadow work come from? 

The concept of the shadow self comes from Carl Jung who believed that our shadow self is the subconscious aspect, or “dark side”, of our personality that our conscious ego doesn’t identify with. However, I would like to clarify that “dark” does not imply or equate with bad. That which resides outside of our consciousness can be either good or bad, but aren’t inherently reflective of our value or “goodness” as a person. 

Although these repressed aspects of ourselves can manifest negatively, it isn’t because those parts of us are “bad”, but that the process of repression is inherently painful and toxic. This is reflected by Jung when he states, “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” He believed that until we’ve merged our conscious and subconscious selves, that our conscious would be “the slave of the autonomous shadow”. This is due to the shadow self overwhelming our conscious selves by falling victim to our own self-imposed traps. 

Through assimilating this shadow self, not over-identifying with it, Jung believed we go through the process of enantiodromia, thereby integrating the subconscious by reincorporating our shadow selves into our personality and allowing us to solidify ourselves through wholeness. He best described this by stating “assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak.” However, don’t fall into the misconception that shadow work is a short-term practice. Shadow work is a continuous practice and integration of the shadow self is a will take place throughout your life.

How do I do shadow work?

In the last question, I identified that practicing self-reflection is a key component of shadow work, but what does that mean? What am I supposed to be reflecting on? Well, the first thing that you should focus on is being present throughout the day. Identify feelings that come up throughout the day and observe them objectively. What situation or interaction triggered these emotions? How did I react to those emotions? Were my emotions controlling me or was I in control of my emotions? Why did this situation or interaction cause me to feel this way? How did I cope with those feelings (self-harming, lashing out at others, communicating my feelings, journalling, etc.)? Did I punish myself for getting upset? If so, why? 

There are numerous ways to reflect on your feelings and experiences in order to get a better understanding of yourself. Through evaluating how you react to situations, which situations upset you, and how you managed those feelings, you’re able to build the foundation to understanding your emotions and bridge the gap between your subconscious and conscious mind.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll find that the emotions you feel in the present are reflective of unhealed emotions from your past. Perhaps the reason you feel that you’re unable to set boundaries as an adult is because as a child, your parents never respected your boundaries by going through your phone or diary, yelling at you when you said no to a request, forcing you into situations that made you feel you had no choice. 

By identifying the root cause of your emotional pain, you’re able to address it in the present and heal from the trauma. The simplest way that I’ve found to address them is through journalling. You can purchase a physical journal or even use your notes app, either way, you’re writing out your feelings and reflections to gain deeper insight. It’s important to remember that this looks different for anyone and that the best way to approach shadow work is by doing what feels most natural! You can choose to stick to self-reflective journal prompts, vent about whatever is upsetting you, write letters to whoever has hurt you, etc. Ultimately, you can guide yourself based off of what you feel you need and where you are in your journey.

What parts of yourself do you find yourself rejecting the most? Many of us have experienced the pain of rejection in some aspects of our lives and sometimes, it’s incredibly painful and leaves us with long-lasting wounds. We end up going through our lives carrying baggage that we don’t even know we have! Many times, I’ve found myself wondering why I felt so repulsed by aspects of myself and why I felt so strongly that they needed to be locked away forever. I couldn’t allow myself or others to see my truest self, my whole self, out of fear. I was scared of being rejected, shamed, humiliated by the people around me. I was scared of hurting other people by being myself and of being hurt by others. That’s no way to live, is it? When we tell ourselves that aspects of ourselves aren’t good enough, we end up going through life devaluing ourself. We’ve broken our own trust by rejecting ourselves, we’ve told ourselves that we aren’t good enough or worthy of love. In shadow work, you’re called to go inward and unpack everything that we’ve kept hidden for years and sometimes even decades. 

Bring the parts of yourself that you’ve repressed to the surface and nourish them with love, allow yourself to see that ALL OF YOU is deserving of love and support. For you, that could mean unlearning your unhealthy beliefs about food or eating, allowing yourself to be emotional around the people you love (despite how much you were told that you were too emotional, a crybaby, too sensitive in the past), allowing yourself to relax without feeling guilty about not being productive because you recognize your needs (even though you feel your sense of worth is tied to being productive at the cost of your own health).

Common misconceptions about shadow work?

Shadow work is evil or bad, the shadow is evil or bad 

The purpose of shadow work is healing through working with your subconscious to release repressed aspects of yourself and heal from painful, traumatic experiences. Your shadow side is simply your unconscious and to believe that it’s bad is to believe that you are bad. It’s merely the part of yourself that you aren’t aware of consciously and shouldn’t be feared. 

Certain emotions are “bad”

When you let go of the idea that emotions are either good or bad, you’ll allow yourself to just be and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to feel “good” all of the time. Happiness isn’t a constant state of being so stop expecting to be all of the time, we have a range of emotions for a reason so stop being ashamed of them. Your feelings are natural and if you feel like they’re out of control and something to be ashamed of, there is nothing wrong with that! It’s okay to feel like your emotions are controlling you because that isn’t permanent. Your feelings aren’t permanent and are completely manageable with proper guidance! The reason you feel like your emotions are controlling you is because you probably don’t have the knowledge to cope with them in an effective and healthy way. It’s helpful to sit with your emotions alone and look at them objectively without placing any judgement on them, this will help you calm down and assess your feelings. From there, you can identify what you need to relax and recover as well as acknowledge to yourself that your feelings are natural. When you stop categorizing your emotions as bad, they’re no longer shameful to experience and therefore you can see with better clarity how to cope with them and move on.

I’ve already released it so…

Why am I still upset?

Why does it still keep popping up in my head?

Why haven’t I moved on?

Why am I not making progress?

With the rise of self development and spirituality, I find that more and more people are rushing to complete their healing. Healing is a continuous, life-long cycle and not a destination. Putting the pressure on yourself to reach the place of ultimate healing is not only toxic, but it impedes your ability to actually heal anything. Healing is about love, compassion, and patience and it’s not going to happen according to a timeline. Allow yourself the time to experience your emotions, see them objectively, forgive yourself and others and move on without the pressure of expectations. 

 Another reason that you could be experiencing this is that despite the work you think you’ve done, it hasn’t been sufficient. I’ve found that a lot of journal prompts provided online are surface level at best and can be more pacifying than revealing. If you’re not feeling anything while doing your inner work, you’re not doing it correctly. Ultimately, this is about uncovering what makes us UNCOMFORTABLE and moving through those feelings. When you allow yourself to experience the sadness, hurt, anger, and/or frustration than you’re telling yourself that these feelings are okay and don’t need to be suppressed. The reality is that no matter what you’re feeling, you are allowed to experience those emotions and it’s only human! Unfortunately, many people associate lower vibrational emotions as bad, but this is a huge misconception! Telling yourself that anger, sadness, etc. are “bad” implies that you shouldn’t experience these emotions and that you have to get rid of them which is not only wrong, but unhealthy. There is no right or wrong emotions so don’t buy into the belief that you should feel a certain way, simply allow yourself to be and you’ll find that it’s much easier to navigate your emotions and needs. The only way to make it to the other side is by wading through the water, be patient and know that you’re feeling exactly what you should be. When you stop censoring yourself, you’ll discover a newfound sense of freedom and wholeness. 

 If you find yourself circling back to certain topics, for example, your ex-boyfriend than perhaps there are triggers in your environment that remind you of the situation, you have more that needs to be addressed that you may not have been ready for or aware of previously (hence why shadow work is a practice that is ongoing), or they’re representative of a deeper issue that you’re repressing. Whatever the cause is, the same methods as earlier will apply and can be discerned through your own intuition. 

What are some basic journal prompts that I can do?

What feelings come up when you think of ____?

How did that experience make you feel emotionally? How did it make you feel about yourself? How did it make you feel about the other person or people?

Write a letter to yourself, your inner child, the people who’ve hurt you, and the people you’ve hurt. Express how you feel honestly, without holding back and then forgive yourself and the other person.

If you could say anything to yourself or another person for closure, what would it be?

How have these situations and experiences impacted your mental health? How have they affected your belief system about yourself, other people, and the world?

What about yourself are you ashamed of? What about yourself are you embarrassed of? What about yourself makes you angry? What do you regret? Why do you feel this way about yourself and where do these feelings stem from?

What makes you feel most alone? What makes you feel most loved? How can you incorporate that knowledge into your life to make it better?

What’s the most hurtful thing someone has said or done to you? Why did it hurt you so much? How does it still affect you now? How can you heal from it and allow yourself to move on?

What do you need to forgive yourself for? What do you need to forgive others for?

Where do you feel you lack security in your life? Why? How does this impact your life and your relationships?

This is a list of generic prompts for you to start with, but feel free to message me if you need help with more specific topics or I can make another post altogether for journal prompts.

SAY THEIR NAMES

source

Small Things To Contact Spirits About

…If you want to flex your communication muscles but don’t want to be cutting deals or making things complicated for now. Just little things to try.

Let me hear a love story

Show me a song from your people

Tell me something you did today that you are proud of

Let me draw a portrait of you

Tell me a little about your culture

Ask me any questions you may have about human culture (and I will answer them, if I can.)

Look at this song/story/poem I wrote, tell me what you think.

Tell me my local reputation, if I have one.

Tell me your story (and if desired, I will record it and pass it on for more to see.)

Share a joke.

Let me admire your beauty/grace/powerful appearance/plumage/scales/wings/great personality

Tell me about your friends

What is your one big token of advice?

Teach me how to make my home more welcoming for you (while still being safe for me.)

So I discovered I can print stickers at home with my printer and my arts and crafts based self has absolutely been running wild.

I love making spell jars, and I love stickers, so my manic brain went “MAKE SPELL JARS BASED ON YOUR SIGILS” and it has consumed my life for the past two weeks.

I think coming up with what I want to use in each jar has been the most fulfilling and fun thing. I’m definitely learning much more about my herbs than I had before!

(And I swear I’m gonna try to get to asks soon, tumblr has been a brat and not letting me answer anything, so screen-shotting and posting like that is gonna have to do D:)

Solar Cross

The Solar Cross is a solar symbol made up of a circle with an equal armed cross in the middle. It is one of the oldest spiritual symbols in existence, dating back to the Bronze Age (some sources say Stone Age, limited information available). There have been carvings of this ancient symbol found in Bronze Age burial urns from circa 1400 BC.

The solar cross represents a variety of things including:

the sun

the earth

the four seasons

the four elements

The most common representation being the sun. Symbolising the movement of the sun and its light, the solar cross was very important to prehistoric humans, both for its life-giving energy and its predictable cycle of days and seasons; particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of European prehistory.

As a symbol of protection, the solar cross invokes the power of the sun god or all-father, as well as the guardians of four directions. It is a symbol of eternity that embodies themes of birth, death, and rebirth. If you meditate on the intersection of the cross, it serves as a very powerful centering exercise. 

Because of this symbol’s association with the sun, it is typically connected to the fire element.

How it can be used:

rituals honouring the sun, heat, or energy of the flame

in purifying spells/rituals (fire purifies)

casting away the old

rebirthing the new

celebrations of the solstices

banishing negativity

casting out shadows

Sources:

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/magickal-symbols-of-protection-1

https://theancientsymbol.com/collections/solar-cross

https://pandagossips.com/posts/2174

https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2018/05/witchcraft-symbols-and-meanings/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_crossa

Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Reblog this on the first of the month for good luck all month long!

♡ Witchcraft Masterlist ♡

Basic Witchcraft Sigils Spell Writing 101 Energy Work Masterpost Correspondences Candle Colour Meanings Crystal Correspondences Crystals Masterpost A Spell Masterpost

Energy Work Energy Work Masterpost Cleansing Correspondences and Masterpost Cleansing Methods   Enchanting an Item How to Enchant an Object Simple Enchantment How to Enchant Enchanting Items How to Enchant Items Charge items

Correspondences Masterpost Another Masterpost Smells Love Candle Colours Herbs

Healing Crystals Uses Healing Crystal Masterpost Crystal Correspondences

Spell Masterposts Gentle Witchcraft Wake-Up Spell Self Care Masterpost Room Healing Household Healing Everyday School Spells Finals Week Spells Pen Enchantment  

Tips and Ideas Witch’s Morning Routine College Witchcraft Ideas Tea Ideas

“Witchcraft is not safe. Witchcraft is not good and kind. Witchcraft is the domain of the trickster, the outcast, the wanderer, and the crooked. It belongs to those who know every light casts a shadow; who have looked into the depths of darkness in their soul and accepted what they’ve seen along with all that is good. Witchcraft requires cunning, manipulation, self-awareness, adaptable morals, and dash of madness.”

— Sarah Anne Lawless (via gardenofthequeen)

🍃Earl Grey Milk Tea.🍃

With everyone feeling under the weather, or having the feeling of panic in their bodies. I decided to share with you guys a recipie that helps me calm myself. I’ll add a list of the magick of the drink below the recipie.

What you need:

2 earl grey tea bags

4 cups of water

1 1/3 cup of half & half (or any other milk alternative. I wouldn’t suggest coconut milk however.)

3 brown sugar cubes

1 1/2 teaspoons of 100% pure honey

A pot

A spoon

A mug

What to do:

Bring the 4 cups of water to boil in the pot on the stove.

Once the water is boiling set the heat on low and add the tea bags. Let the tea steep for 4 minutes.

After 3 minutes of steeping, add the half & half (or what ever other milk product you chose.) to the tea and stir for about 30 seconds . As you stir breathe deeply and exhale slowly; put intent into your movements.

Let the tea steep for another 3 minutes, remove it from the heat once finished and discard of the tea bags.

Add the brown sugar cubes and the honey to your favorite mug, **CAREFULLY** pour the hot tea into the mug and stir slowly, once again breathe deeply and put intent into your work.

Enjoy.

The Magick of the Tea:

Ingredients & their magical purposes:

EARL GREY: earl grey is a black tea which represents Winter, the energy is masculine and the best crystal to hold while sipping it would be Obsidian. Earl grey tea offers courage, rids of boredom and enhances a conscious mind.

HONEY:honey is mostly known for love spells, but it also offers a perfect substance for self-love. Honey sweetens a moment, a life.

BROWN SUGAR: brown sugar is amazing for overcoming enemies and negativity, much like honey it is a sweetener for life.