Witch Tip For The Babes;

Witch tip for the babes;

You do not need anything to cast a spell. No objects, words, or sigils are necessary. Sometimes they may even hinder the spell’s effectiveness. 

Remember, all that is necessary is presence, passion, and intent of the purest form. 

The Living Wiccan's "Hell Hath No Fury" Protection Powder

This is a very simple protection salt I use to ring around my rituals, cleanse my spaces, and even sweep the floor with.

It’s good because not only does it protect, but gives a nice bite back to any negativity/entity/thing that tries to cross it. Best for ritual work and simple spirit work, not necessarily protection from physical attackers.

It’s something pretty much every single one of my readers can make at home with its ridiculously simple ingredients and process, but it’s not something that everyone would think of off the top of their head.

Ready? Here we go. Try not to sneeze!

You’ll need: 

1 part sea salt (coarse is best: see picture below)

1 part black peppercorns

1 part chili powder

a large bowl

mortar and pestle

bottles (size varies on how much you want to make)

funnel (optional, but not worth leaving out)

Step 1: 

Place the coarse salt and black peppercorns in the mortar and pestle. Grind them together. Yes, technically this could also be done with ground pepper, but I find the actual effort put into grinding them makes the powder more effective.

This’ll take a long time — you’ll want it to turn to a fine, light brown powder. 

Step 2:

Yes, you guessed it: place the sea salt and chili powder in the mortar and pestle and grind together. Remember how I said this was easy?

This should turn to a light orange, almost pink when finished (my pictures really don’t do it justice). 

Step 3: 

Add the two together. You can see the peppercorn mix on the left and the chili pepper mix on the right.

Step 4: 

Ready? Time to get this thing in a bottle. This is where that funnel I mentioned earlier can really come in handy. 

And there we have it! Put a nice little label on it, put the date you made it on the back, and now you have your own all-purpose protection powder. 

**Recipe and photos property of TheLivingWiccan. Do not remove source.**

How To Stop Using Your Own Energy To Fuel Your Witchcraft

Do you ever feel like you have to wait to be in just the right state to do magic?

Maybe you’ve been told you shouldn’t do magic when you’re sick.

Or maybe you’ve just found that spells tend to flop when you’re tired or sad.

THE PROBLEM IS, FOR MANY OF US THIS CAN MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF OUR LIVES!

From illnesses to working multiple jobs, raising kids or mental health struggles, life is messy and you just can’t maintain that optimal magic working state all the time.

This can be SO FRUSTRATING but today I’ve got a solution for you!

Now, sadly I can’t fix the parts of your life that drain you or wear you down. As much as I would love to have the ultimate answer to how to have that pinterest perfect life I am in the same boat as everyone else.

What I can do is show you how to work magic anyway.

You have to stop relying on your own energy. I know it sounds a little nuts, energy is literally what magic runs on and now I want you to just remove it from the equation?! What?

I promise I haven’t lost it and YES, that’s exactly what I want! Or at least I want you to make energy way less of a key player in your magic.

I want you to never have to worry about whether or not you have enough energy to work magic ever again.

This is all explained in detail, including energy work and getting past all of the things that are stopping your from practicing your craft, in my new program Old World Witchcraft.

You achieve this by using other sources of energy to fuel your work.

Pulling energy from other sources is a way to fuel spells when you’re low on energy yourself or you’re working on something very big that needs more than you can safely offer.

Basically what you’re doing is finding an alternative source of energy and channeling the energy you take from it into your work in much the same way you would channel your own energy into it. Instead of being the source of energy in this case you’re simply a conduit, connecting power source to magic and allowing the entire framework to run without needing your input, only your direction.

The first step in this process is finding a good source.

This source can be anything;

Plants

Animals

Crystals

People

The earth

The moon

etc.

It’s important to take into consideration that if you’re pulling from a living source you must ask permission first. It’s usually easiest to choose a source that you’re comfortable with, if you don’t work with plants much using plant energy in your magic is going to feel clunky and unwieldy, stick to what’s familiar.

Once you’ve found a source it’s time to connect your energy to it. If you’ve ever grounded and connected your energy to the earth it’s much the same. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and feel for the energy of your source. Visualize your energy and the sources energy connecting and mingling together.

Begin gently pulling the energy from your source into yourself, it might feel a little odd to do this so be careful during this process. Often pulling too much energy into yourself can cause some unpleasant symptoms such as lightheadedness, nausea, and giddiness. For this reason I suggest you have whatever you’re channeling the energy into at the ready so you can immediately pass the energy from the source, through yourself and into your spell.

You do NOT want to use yourself as a holding bay for that energy any more than you absolutely must.

It can take a bit of practice to get this technique down well enough to be used in spell work. I would suggest starting with training exercises to get comfortable before trying to use it for any big spell work.

As an example, you could try pulling energy from a plant or the earth and passing it into a stone or crystal and then back again. As you get more comfortable you can work up to transferring different energies and in greater quantities.

This technique can be used in a variety of ways, obviously, as I suggested, it’s good for adding a little extra power to your spells but it could also be used to store energy for later spells in crystals or tools. You could use it to heal yourself by channeling the energy into your own body where there are deficiencies causing pain or illness. You could even do this in reverse to deactivate a spell (it’s suggested that you not deactivate a spell by channeling into a living being, the earth is best in this case).

It’s always a good idea to thank whatever has leant its energy to you, fertilizing or watering a plant, cleansing a crystal, picking up litter for the earth, whatever you can manage to show your thanks and be respectful.

After using this technique it is always advised to finish by grounding yourself. Moving large amounts of energy can pull your own energy out of balance leaving you with too much or too little or even leaving residue of whatever you were moving stuck to your own energy. Plugging into the earth and allowing your energy to equalize and come back to a balanced state will prevent any negative side effects.

Do you have a better grasp on how to outsource your energy needs? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

And if you want to know more about how to become a witch and work magic the smart way, go check out my program Old World Witchcraft!

I love using jars for spells but sometimes I need something that takes up less space.

Sigil of the week: to help suppress/relieve chronic pain. Feel free to reblog, share and use

Guided imagery exercise to connect to the elements

Shake your limbs to relax yourself. Settle down with your spine straight and take our time taking three breaths with your surroundings, then allow your mind to linger on the words: earth, air, fire, water.

Earth. You have imagined the earth beneath your feet. Now think of the many manifestations of earth on the planet. Feel your feet on the earth of your choice… marshland, desert, forest, mountains, hills and valleys, sandstone, granite, chalk. Feel, with the pressure of your feet against the earth, the pull of gravity, keeping you anchored. Feel the current of energy from the earth throbbing upwards. You are a creature of earth. Relax into this feeling, and then open your awareness out and find yourself in a high place…

Air. Feel the air as a tangible presence as you gaze out to the vast horizon, laid out below the huge arching dome of the azure sky. In this high place, your awareness expands: the great winds of the earth, swirling round, think and pure, sharpen your wits and blow the cobwebs away. You breathe in air that sparkles like wine and are intoxicated, feeling yourself light and buoyant, You extend your arms above you as if you could float on the thermals that support the birds in their flight, feeling at one with the wind that carries messages all over the world. Stand firm, as your awareness is pulled high into the sky…

Fire. High in the vast expanse of blue, feel the blaze of the sun, striking down, warming the thin grass and bursting the buds of the alpine flowers, drying up the atmosphere. With your eyes shut, stretch in an attitude of ecstasy, fed by the warmth that pours down in golden rays. The water is pulled up into the upper atmosphere and you open your eyes to see a large cloud on the horizon. Watch it travelling with speed, and whilst it is in the middle distance in that huge vista, you see it disgorging its rain as a hazy mist over the landscape…

Water. In your imagination, see the rain from that cloud sinking into the soil, percolating through the ground to a deep subterranean spring that makes its gradual way to the surface. There is a tiny trickle of crystal water emerging from the ground, and you see it in your mind’s eye gaining strength as it tumbles downhill, changing eventually from stream to river, and making its way to join the massive depth of the sea.

Allow the scene to fade as you come back to everyday reality. Stretch, yawn, and wriggle to feel fully back in the present here and now.

Source: The Path of Druidry by Penny Billington