#beach magic

As summer is approaching, I thought I'd post about my witchcraft practice at the beach...

🐚 Use the sea water to cleanse your body and soul. Breathe in deeply, dive in, and spend a few seconds underwater to recite in your head "I'm getting rid of anything that isn't serving me, and release it all to the ocean".

🐚 Draw sigils onto the sand. It's a simple one, but can be quite powerful, especially if you keep on drawing it repeatedly as you sunbathe.

🐚 Whisper a protection spell as you apply suncream. This isn't just about protecting yourself from UV light. This simple act of self-care can ward off much more than that.

🐚 Collect shells for your altar. I think this one is my favourite. I'm always on the lookout for small items with strong significance to decorate my altar. Shells are the perfect items to have in preparation for Midsummer.

🐚 Sand has a strong association to time. Use it for any spells that require you to slow down and be in the present. Depending on where you are, the sand between your hands may be a thousand years old!

🐚 Meditate at sunrise, facing towards the ocean. Repeat wishes and manifestations while breathing in the salt air. If you ask something of the waves, you might just get it.

Gray and I ran away to Cape Cod on Saturday to try and harvest some of the wild forageables that we had scoped out throughout the year and I thought that I could take you all along for the ride since I know that many of you that read this are Sea Witches.

Though in many ways the five witches in my tiny coven are all very different from one another, we all have one thing in common: a love of Mama Atlantic. Since we all live ~3.5 hours from the good beaches (see also: outer shore of the Cape), it is imperative for our practice to continually return to the ocean and bring pieces of the ocean home with us. This comes in the form of shells, bones, and when seasonally appropriate - wild forageables that were sustainably and safely harvested.

First, we hit up Marconi Point in Wellfleet. This is a beautiful space of public land with beach access, cliff access, and many beautiful trails through the cliffside. Above you see some wild goldenrod (and some seals cruising in the waves in the background). Goldenrod is a wild native that is connected to Abundance and Money magics through its golden color.

Marconi, like most of the beaches on Cape Cod, is also home to the Beach Rose, aka Rosa Rugosa. This is a non-native rose that has been naturalized to the East Coast - because of this it is one of my favorite wild forageables. In the scheme of "Eat Your Invasives" - Rose Rugosa takes the cake - rose hips are amazingly tasty and very high in Vitamin C. They are what I came to the Cape to pick.

From what I understand, Rugosa's hips are especially prized because they do not contain the itchy hairs that the other common American wild rose (the dog rose) has internally and are, therefore, supposed to be much easier to process.

Also, the flowers are stunningly beautiful and bloom all Summer long and late into the Fall. Rosehips, in general, are used magically for Love, Psychic Powers, Healing, and Protection but I apply an extra intention to Rugosa hips in particular: tenacity. If a plant can grow in the salty air, it can pretty much grow anywhere. Rugosa hips are heavily seeded and can also be used to bring your desires (seeds) to fruition through fertility/fecundity magic.

The (sur)prize of the day was getting to meet Bayberry in the wild for the first time. An American Native, Bayberry is often called Candleberry because its tiny berries can be boiled down to make a plant-based wax with a lovely green color and pleasant smell that can only be described as distinctly "Christmasy."

As a folk practitioner, I have a long-time interest in Bayberry and its uses. Because it is an impractical everyday candle (it takes a LOT of bayberries to make a single candle) - Bayberry candles were somewhat of a special treat when people were normally making candles out of smelly tallow. They were often burning on Christmas or New Year's Eve and are associated with abundance for the coming year.

We've had incredibly wet Summer and I was surprised to find mushrooms growing among the sand! Not by the water proper but on the bluffs above the beach. The beach always has such beautiful gifts to explore and get to see and this was certainly no disappointment.

Marconi Point is especially unique in that it has a beautiful White Cedar Swamp trail with a boardwalk so that you can get in your forest bathing while you are at the beach - hence why this location has become my favorite place on Earth.

It is always moody in the cedar swamp which makes my black witch heart so very, very happy. Here, do the constant influx of water, everything is covered in a carpet of beautiful green moss and lichens. It looks like it is straight out of a fairy tale. The trees have faces, too!

These are cedar galls - they are technically a sign of pathogens in the plants but the end results are these strange chthonic faces growing out of the trees. You are definitely watched while you are in the cedar swamp. Tread only where you dare (and stick to the boardwalks because the environment is very fragile!)

Here was why Gray came - they had remembered that during previous Autumns, you can find bits of cedar needles that have fallen onto the walkway. We collected to our heart's content - knowing that we were taking only what the trees were willing to give.

Cedar is a powerful plant most often used for Healing, Purification, Money, and Protection.

Nature has its own way and creates its own rhythm in its own time. I am always amazed by what I call "Nature's Still Lifes" - beautiful items that I just find gathered together on the forest floor. Here you see another mushroom, a branch of cedarwood (I'm pretty sure), and a sprig of Pitch Pine.

Pitch Pine is native pine that loves the sandy soil. Like all of the pines, it can be used magically for Healing, Protection, or Money/Abundance Spells. Since I have a personal relationship with Eastern White Pine, I let the Pitch Pine needles be after stopping to admire them.

I deeply love the evergreens - you can read about my relationships with them and how they help me to survive our long New England winters. Here you see a recently shed pine cone nestled among some Crow Berry!

Crow Berry is a plant that I did not know anything about until I visited Iceland (they make liquor from Crow Berries there). It is an alpine or sub-alpine plant that keeps its berries late into the winter and serves as an important food for animals when there is little else to eat. There weren't any crowberries on the plants that I found but I would have left them be since I know that they are an important food source for the critters. Lastly, before we left, we had to actually go for a walk on the beach. Since we were still in search of more rose hips, Gray and I headed to Harding Beach in Chatham because I know from past experience that there is a plethora of Rugosa rose growing on the dune walk on the backside of that beach. We were not disappointed and found a beautiful crop.

When you visit the south-facing beaches of the Cape during the early fall, this is a common sight. This is most likely a molted horseshoe crab shell and not a dead crab though I didn't get close enough to check! Horseshoe crabs are a common visitor to the Cape - they come here to spawn in the Spring and then their molts wash up on the beaches all throughout the Fall.

Horseshoe crabs are pretty cool and have some strange anatomy that gives them their magical associations. Their copper-rich blood is blue in color and anatomically, they have many different eyes on different parts of their body. It is easy to see why they are associated, as a result, with the Sight and Visioning. Since horseshoe crabs molt, it is safe to collect their empty former homes for use in your sea magic if you wish.

All in all, it was a beautiful day. I feel cleansed and renewed by sticking my toes in the chilly water, by being battered by the strong sea winds, and just getting to be in the spaces that I love so fiercely.

I hope that you enjoyed getting to hear about this trip as much as I did writing about it!

You can read more on my series about Sea Magic here.

This is an original spell of mine. However, it was loosly inspired by a spell Harmony Nice featured on her Youtube channel. I will link her spell at the end of this post. 

For this spell you need:

Pen, Paper, & Access to the ocean

Begin the spell on a Friday, preferably during the waning moon. Bonus points if you complete the spell on the new moon.

Start by writing an honest, candid letter to the person you are releasing. Pour all your emotions into your words. Say everything you’ve always wanted to say. Most importantly, write to this person as if you will never be in communication with them again. Feel within your soul that this is the last time you will say anything to this person.

After writing the letter bring up anything that reminds you of them. This way you can bring to surface any emotions towards them you have suppressed. I listened to old songs that reminded me of him, and went through my old diary entries in which I journaled about him.

Reminisce, and allow yourself to cry. If rage comes up honor that.  Allow yourself to feel the full range of the emotions this person caused you to experience.

Then, fold the letter, and tuck it away somewhere on your person. I put it in my bra. You will be carrying the letter on you until Monday morning. 

On both Saturday and Sunday find some personal time to read the letter aloud to yourself. Again, honor any emotions that come up. When finished, put the letter back on your person.

Monday morning at sunrise go to the beach. For a final time, read the letter aloud. Going at sunrise is significant, because sunrises symbolize new starts. 

After reading the letter aloud for the final time say aloud this incantation. 

“The love and energy I have given you

Will be placed on me one last time

then washed away where the ocean flows through

So I may be reinvented anew. 

So mote it be. ”

Then walk into the ocean and dunk yourself under the water. When you resurface- feel as if the ocean has healed your pain. 

I am going into the water in the winter, because I hate the cold. Therefore, the cold is symbolic of the relationship to me, and the pain he put me through. I will go through pain (the pain of the cold water) one last time.

However, if the cold is too extreme to you you can simply put your feet in the water, and then picture the pain of the relationship disappearing as the waves curl back into the ocean.

As you go to leave the beach bask in the joy of releasing this person. 

Afterwards, I personally danced to songs that empower me, and made me feel happy about my choice to let go of this person. Dispose of the letter when you are home.

Harmony's Spell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDlYkq59S8g