All You Need to Know About Being a College Witch
Whether you’re dorming, living in a sorority/fraternity house, still living with your family, or even living off campus with some non-witchy roommates, I have compiled a list of witchy advice, activities, and tips to help live your most magical life while still complying with any rules that may be in place.
I spent the past 9 months or so living in the dorms at my university. The housing contract was 20 pages long and filled with everything I wasn’t allowed to have, do, etc. To summarize that annoyingly long document, I was not allowed to have any electrical heat sources besides hair tools (hair dryer, straighter, etc), a clothing iron, and an 800 watt or less microwave. I was not allowed to burn incense or candles, use a wax warmer, a hot plate, an electric kettle. The icing on the cake was that we couldn’t even have an incense diffuser because of the air system being connected throughout the entire building and how it could travel into someone’s room and cause an allergic reaction or make them sick. So I had to get a little crafty (pun intended) with my magical practices.
Things to Avoid Doing/Having:
Anything With Fire (candles, incense, smoke cleansing, etc)
Anything That’s a Heat Source (hot plates, wax warmer, electric kettle, etc)
Having Alcohol Regardless If You Are of Age (All Campuses are Dry Campuses meaning No Alcohol is Allowed)
Having Your Familiar (Unless It’s Been Approved by Disability Services to be your Emotional Support Animal)
Doing Spells Outside on Campus (Security Will Be Walking Around And May Think You’re Making a Bomb or Doing Something Illegal)
Leave Your Fancy Athames at Home (Weapons are not allowed on college campuses so to avoid that rule get a kitchen knife or a small hidden knife)
Keeping Anything Obviously Witchy/Occult Related Out Unless You Have Your Own Room or Your Roommate is Okay With it (Pentagrams, Animal Skulls, Ouija Boards, etc)
Tools & Supplies You Generally Can Have:
Divination Tools (Tarot Cards, Scrying Mirrors, Pendulums, etc)
Loose Leaf and/or Bagged Tea
Himalayan Salt Lamps (Check Housing’s Bulb Requirements)
Ouija Boards (Make Sure If You Have A Roommate, They’re Okay With It Being There.You Don’t Want to Cause A Fight)
Your Grimoire/Book of Shadows
Dorm Approved Activities:
Spell Jars (Check my tag #spell jars)
Sachets (Check my tag #sachets)
Shower Magick (Make Sure to Clean the Shower After and Check my tag #shower magick)
Kitchen Witchcraft (Dorm Kitchens Have Refrigerators and Microwaves but sometimes more. Check my tags #recipes and #kitchen witchcraft Also the internet has so many dorm-friendly recipes available)
Tarot (Check my tags #tarot for how-tos and tips and #spreads for tarot spreads
Crystal Grids (Check my tag #crystal grid for ideas)
Pendulum (Check my tag #pendulum for tips and tricks)
Scrying (Water, Mirror, Oil, and Crystal are dorm safe)
Color Magick to Pick Your Clothes, Dorm Decorations, and School Supplies (Check my tag #colors for correspondences and for which holiday uses which colors)
Tasseomancy (Check my tag #tasseomancy)
Tea Magick (Check my tag #tea magick)
Runes (Check my tag #runes)
Using Crystals (Check my tag #crystals)
Spell Sprays (I will be posting a how-to on this later this evening. Check my tag #spell spray in a few days for different recipes.)
Sigils (Check my tag #sigils)
You don’t have to do magick every day in order to still be considered a witch. College can be draining and time-consuming. Put your schoolwork before your magick.
Make sure if you using the dorm microwave, to use microwave-safe plates, cups, etc. You do not want to set off the fire alarm at 2 am because you put your metallic non-microwave-safe coffee mug and it started to smoke.
If using common spaces like the bathrooms or kitchen for your witchcraft, make sure to clean up after yourself as soon as you are done. It can cause the Head of Housing the fine your dorm hall/building if it continually happens.
There was a college witchcraft post saying to give your roommate a gift that you enchanted when you first move in. You should never do magic without their consent and especially if you have just met them and have yet to find out their feelings towards it. Starting out already at odds will turn into fighting roommates in no time. Fighting roommates are not fun or easy for your RA.
If your roommate is not okay with you having your tools out, there are tons of ways to discreetly hid them. There are boxes that look like books that you can buy at Micheal’s. You can also DIY your own book box! You can also use a trunk, cloth bag, decorative box, or even a shoe box to hold your tools.
If you’re interested in green witchcraft, it’s best to wait until you move into your dorm room before getting a plant. You’ll never know that your room doesn’t get enough sunlight or that AC is always on in your hall until you move in. If you don’t wait, you’ll end up with a lot of dead plants like me.
If you’re a religious witch and your roommate doesn’t want there to be an altar, you can make a shoebox altar. Open it when you need and close and store it away when you don’t. You can also make one the size of an Altoids tin or even a digital one such as a sideblog or a screensaver for your electronic device.
You don’t have to do elaborate spells all the time. You can just do simple things like picking what to wear based off of a color’s correspondence or enchanting your pen/pencil for good luck on a test.
@nightshadeandroses suggested to me that you reach out to your school’s religious department. A lot of smaller schools like mine don’t have one. For some universities, it’s a part of Student Services/Resources on campus. Whichever applies to you, the people there are willing and ready to help you. Some campuses have a space available for students to meditate/pray while others will help you find a place to do that whether it be on or off campus. Every college is different and the only way to get what you need is to ask.
If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an ask or message me. I’ll be glad to help!
