star witch ⁷⁷⁷

A ritual to cleanse your space of all negative energy and create a sacred circle of protection before spell casting, performing rituals or communicating with spirits. You can cleanse your space just before casting the circle both in the same ritual. It’s efficient and easy and you know the space and energy within your sacred circle is cleansed and fizzing with magic. Think of this as a bubble of protection you put around yourself before you go on to do further magic making, you wouldn’t want to “trap” negative energy inside it. This ritual is compatible with any other rituals, spells, and spreads and is easy to customize to many deities/pantheons/belief systems that you may work with.

Materials:

Your favorite incense stick

Black candle

Matches/lighter

The Ritual:

Light your candle and then use this to burn your incense stick with your non-dominant hand.

Take your incense and follow the diagram to create the sign of the pentagram lightly over your body.

Start at your forehead and glide down to your left hip as you say “Earth,” imagine the smell of rich soil grounding you.

Come back up to your right shoulder as you pronounce the first syllable of water “wa—” imagine the feeling of water cleansing your skin.

Pop on over to your left shoulder on the second syllable of water “—ter.”

Down to your right hip as you say “fire” imagine a powerful warmth filling and energizing you from your heart space

Then sweep back up to your forehead to complete the five-pointed star as you say “air” and imagine a gust of wind sweeping into you, clearing your mind.

Lastly sweep a big circle anti-clockwise, completing the pentagram as you say, “Energy of the Ether” (you can customize this to any word choice to better serve your belief system).

Come down to your heart as you start to draw the left half of an infinity symbol on its side and say “protect me.”

Draw the right half of the infinity symbol as you say, “for an infinity.”

Now walk around your space (a 7 ft circle is the tradition, but if you’re in a small space you can just turn around on the spot) clockwise drawing it with your incense as you say “cleanse and make sacred this space for my magical workings. Banish all negative energy and allow only positive energies through this circle to aid.”

You are done!

Magickal timing: Any

Materia: a pendulum of some sort

Purpose: This is a method of entering into the alpha brain wave state of consciousness for those who may have difficulty with concentrating; It is particularly helpful for those who have ADHD, as well as those who have trouble visualizing. Have you ever seen those old-fashioned hypnotists that use a pocket watch to hypnotize someone? Essentially, all they're doing is getting the person to solely focus on one thing, inducing alpha with the movement and then inducing theta through suggestion. All trance states are a form of hypnosis. The key factors in this are who is doing the hypnotizing, who is leading you into that brain wave state, and what is being done once there. For this however, we're just going to bring you into alpha using a modification of this technique with you leading the session.

Directions: First, take a deep breath and shake out all the nervous tension and energy that you may be holding on to. Take another deep breath and relax. Hold your pendulum in front of you so that the stone is it or whatever is at the end of your pendulum is at eye level. Take another deep breath and relax a bit deeper. Begin to swing the pendulum side to side and follow it with your eyes. Now keep your hand still and keep your eyes solely fixed on the pendulum as it’s swinging. Mentally or internally state, “I am relaxing and entering the alpha state of consciousness” in a calm, relaxed, soothing, but firm voice. Keep repeating this as your eyes stay focused on the moving pendulum as it begins to slow down and the swings become smaller and smaller. Do this until the pendulum stops or you can feel that your mental processes and awareness are starting to shift. you should feel relaxed and slightly dissociative, like when you're daydreaming. You are in the alpha brain wave state. It would also be a good idea to pair this with the psychic prompt method of using your free hand to cross your fingers (like you're making a wish) to begin training your brain to shift at your command through a Pavlovian response. If you don't feel the shift, then try to repeat it a few more times until you do.

This is to be done prior to spellcasting. This practice is to get into the right mindset to practice magick.

Scripting is the art of reimagining your life in an intentional way, in the form of a written story. This method harnesses the power of the Law of Attraction by guiding you to write what you wish to manifest as if you’re reflecting or reminiscing on what already is. This is literally you writing the next chapter of your life. Scripting can shift your reality as you begin to believe what you are creating through writing.

This is a powerful method of manifesting because it allows for freedom, creativity, and play. It gives your imagination space to expand upon your desires and access your emotions and multiple areas of thought. It isn’t limited to just one area of your life. Here’s how to do it:

Have an idea of what is it you want your future to look like. This method does not require you to be concise.

From the perspective of your future self, write in the present tense using positive words. Even though you’re writing what your future will look like, write as if it is already your reality.

Be detailed. The details connect you with what you want and invoke emotions that align with your desire. How does it look, feel, smell, sound, taste? Who else is present? Where are you? What are you doing? What are you surrounded by?

Include your feelings in you script. Describe how you feel having these things and being this future version of yourself. Express yourself and your emotions fully, including your gratitude for what you have created.

Believe it. To create this future version of yourself, you must believe in it. Believe you are capable of having it.

Set aside fifteen to twenty minutes daily to do this. You don’t have to write the whole time. Take some time to visualize what your future self is like. Use some of this time to conjure up the emotions of what it feels like to be this fabulous future version of you. You can script for the week ahead, six months ahead, or even ten years down the line. The version of your future self is completely up to you!

There’s no structured time requirement for how many days you should script. Follow your intuition on this one. Keep going, keep writing, and keep creating. Remember to let go of any attachment to an outcome. When we are attached to an outcome, we become hyper-focused and fixated on something happening. In that fixation, we lose joy. We allow the attachment to drain our faith in our own ability to make something happen. When we are attached, we are shackled and often trying to force an outcome to happen in a certain way. Being attached to an outcome comes from a place of lack, desperation, and need. This is not where you want your energy to go when manifesting.

Whatever plant you choose, you have to learn what it needs. Use your plants watering schedule to bring order into your own routine and to enhance your feelings of being grounded.

Water your plants around the same time on the same day or days each week. Do this in the morning so the plant has plenty of time to photosynthesize and drink all that water throughout the hours that follow and use this act to set an intention for the day. Maybe you want to focus on abundance or growth – plants are great conduits for both. Maybe it's a pruning day: think about the things you may need to prune from your life.

Combine your tea meditation with your plant practice. Make yourself a cup of herbal tea and think about your intentions for the day, or simply center yourself and focus on the loose herbs in the brew. After you finish drinking it take the herbal mixture and put it on the topsoil of your plants. Do this maybe once or twice a year in the early spring and later in summer/fall. It provides your plants with some extra nutrients and helps you feel as though you've “planted” your most recent intentions in a very real way.

– Haus Magick, Erica Feldmann

The second most crucial energy technique after grounding is centering yourself. Centering and grounding tend to be lumped together, as they’re rightfully used together. However, understanding the difference is essential, and you can use separate techniques to get a better feel and understanding of the processes. Centering is focusing your awareness and energy on your spiritual center at the present moment. The purpose is to bring awareness to where you are in relationship to the greater metaphysical reality so that you have a vantage point to work from. It ensures that your thoughts and energy are focused and fined tuned to here and now and not scattered or distracted.

After you have grounded yourself, close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath.

 Visualize your auric field around you in the shape of an egg of white light. As you inhale, visualize this energy shrinking and condensing at your heart center in the middle of your chest. As you exhale, visualize your aura expanding from your heart center back to egg-shaped aura around you. With each inhale, feel your mind focusing; with each exhale, feel yourself relaxing. Continue this breathing and visualization for about thirty seconds. Bring awareness to the fact that you are the center of your reality within physical space from your vantage point, and that your heart is the center of your physical and spiritual essence within the metaphysical space of your reality. Affirm that you are right here, right now. All your attention is in the present moment at this time and place.

Grounding assists us in assuring that we aren’t overloading our system with energy. It keeps us healthy, balanced, and safe before we engage in any sort of meditation, magick, or energy exercises. This technique is also good for any situation in which you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed or drained by your environment, such as being in loud, noisy places, or feeling a bit spacey. Grounding should be performed before and after any energetic technique from spellcasting to meditation to psychic readings. Neglecting to do this will create problems down the road over time.

Begin by relaxing as much as possible. Visualize a tube of energy descending from the bottom of each of your feet. If you are sitting down on the ground, you can envision it coming down from each thigh. These two tubes of energy go into the earth and create a loop. From there a chain keeps forming, descending deep into the earth. At the bottom of the chain, visualize an anchor. Feel the anchor sink into a very solid and sturdy part of the earth below you, keeping you safe and secure and steady. Affirm to yourself that any excess energy beyond what is appropriate and healthy for you is automatically flowing from your body and energy field down into the golden chain and anchor, like electricity traveling down a lightening rod. If at any time you feel overwhelmed with energy or emotion, send it out of your body and down through your feet into the chain, strengthening it and empowering it.

When you are done with whatever magickal technique, meditation, or energy work you have performed, ground once again by affirming and visualizing any excess energy beyond what is appropriate and healthy for you leaving your body and energy field re-entering your grounding chain. Then visualize the energy chain dissolving into Earth, helping it to heal and to be available for those who might need it.

Visualize a big glowing ball of light around yourself and the environment you’re in. What color is it? What does it look like? Is it thick or thin? Blue? Pointy? Imagine that by envisioning it, it becomes reality. Think of the qualities you would like the space to have. Would you like everyone in it to be comfortable? Maybe you want a space that feels energetically safe, like a big comfy bed in wintertime. What other energetic qualities and vibes are important to you?

In this visualization, you can also prepare for any potential unwanted negative energies which may try to shatter the environment you’re visualizing. One way to engage with this is to visualize dark tendrils of energy drifting towards your sphere; visualize them bouncing off and transforming from grey into white energy. You can use any color that has positive associations for you.

Shielding Energy (energetic protection and boundary work)

There are many different ways to shield. A good way to begin is by visualizing a sphere around yourself. This can be a glowing light and may be any color depending on what associations you have with different colors and what you’re trying to achieve with your shield. You can do something general for protection, or something that keeps you safe and also heals you, or you can shield yourself from specific people or entities—or all of the above at once. Focus your intuition on what your goal is—shields are entirely programmable and have a lot to do with your specific needs.

Example: a simple shield against harmful vibes, which also rids you of any energetic nasties latched onto you. Visualize yourself enveloped in a thick glowing egg of white light. Then envision any harmful energy you’re holding onto in grey and visualize it dissipating as your shield becomes stronger. Something else you could do is picture grey nasty vibes coming at you and bouncing off the shield, transforming from grey into white energy. If you are going to visualize nasty energy moving away from you, be sure to visualize it changing into positive energy that is healing, nourishing, and stabilizing.

You can layer your shield too if you like – make a layer that looks like leaves or a giant bubble, or something constantly moving like flames. Or perhaps there’s a gemstone you deeply identify with and see as a protective ally. Imagine one layer of your shield taking on that shape and color. The exact specifics of what it is matter less than what you think that thing means to you. Try out different types of shields, and take note of what works best for you, and what’s more and less effective. When you’re learning and trying this stuff out, you may want to sit in a quiet room with a candle and some incense so you can really focus on what you’re doing and notice the new sensations in your body and mind that go along with this energetic practice.

It's important to remember you won’t always have access to a silent room with dim lights and an aromatherapy candle to calm your nerves. You may be in a situation where people surround you, or where everything is a bit chaotic, like a bus or walking through crowded street when you need to practice shielding energy. You may want to spend a minute in a bathroom where you know you will have complete privacy to focus on the energetic work uninterrupted.

Once you get used to it, you’ll be able to effectively shield in any situation with ease.

Another form of shielding is the “don’t fuck with me” aura. This works by shifting what your energetic field is doing. It can—if you want it to—function as an invisibility cloak of sorts, too. It all depends on how you want to program it, and what kind of energy you are putting out. You can rouse up emotions or intentions in yourself, mind, body, and energy field to express a specific type of vibe to yield certain results.