discoveries

Life has been quite stressful lately, so I thought I would share small practices and spells I use to reduce my stress and anxiety when times are tough… 

🍂 Spend time near nature as much as you can, even if it means looking at trees from your windows / balcony if you live in a city. 

💨 Learn breathing exercises, like 4-7-8 breathing, and practice consistently to reduce your anxiety. 

🧘 Meditate. If you cannot last 15 minutes, try 10, and if not, try 5 minutes. Meditate daily to connect to your inner self. 

🌿 Apply lavender on your hands or pillow before going to bed, to sleep peacefully and reduce stressful thoughts. 

👝 Make a anti-anxiety sachet with rose petals, lavender buds, and amethyst. Carry it around or keep it next to your desk to draw power and peace. 

☕ Reduce your coffee and alcohol consumption. Replace with herbal teas and remind yourself to drink enough water during the day. 

📝 Make a list of everything that worries you in your journal, then close it and make the conscious decision to keep them where they are: on the paper and not in your mind. 

❤️ Be kind to yourself. Celebrate every tiny task you can accomplish, and forgive yourself for the ones you cannot do. 

Hear me, my Golden Prince

As I sing of your brilliance

And profess my unwavering love and devotion

I pray that you bless me

With your sight and prophecy

And with the gift

Of creator’s inspiration

Allow me to speak as your Oracle

And birth your masterpieces

Keep pushing me, oh radiant Apollon!

Apollo Belvedere, ca. 1795

Artist’s name lost to history

when sunbeams do this.

Water: Angelite, Azurite, Boji Stones/Shaman Stones/Moqui Marbles, Calcite, Celestine, Desert Rose, Halite(rock salt), Himalayan Salt, Hematite, Jet, Lapis, Malachite, Moonstone, Pyrite, Selenite, Unakite

Salt: Angelite, Azurite, Calcite, Carnelian, Hematite, Jet, Kunzite, Kyanite, Lapis, Labrodite, Lepidolite, Malachite, Moldavite, Moonstone, Pyrite, Selenite, Tiger’s Eye, Topaz, Ulexite/TV Stone

Sun/UV: Amethyst, Aquamarine, Aventurine, Calcite, Celestine, Citrine, Fluorite, Jade, Jet, Kunzite, Lapis, Malachite, Quartz, Sapphire, Sodalite, Super Seven, Topaz, Tourmaline

Heat: Cinnabar, Emerald, Moonstone, Sodalite, Unakite

Acid: Apatite, Sodalite

Today I’d like to talk about enchanting: the practice of charging objects with a magickal purpose. This can be done in many different ways; it is not required to follow complicated rituals and use specific ingredients to successfully enchant an object, but rituals are a great way to focus one’s will during the process.

This is the way I do it. 🌙

Start with meditation, trying to reach a very deep and focused meditative state. You have to feel your own power grow inside of you. I find that listening to music is a great way to make this process easier. 

Focus on your goal: in the case of a protection spell, you can try to visualize a protective bubble around you, or a shield that repels unwanted energies. Take your time to make the image very clear in your head.

Pick the object you wish to enchant. In this case, I used a round black onyx stone, which is known to have protective properties (but you can use whichever object you have on hand, as long as you feel a positive connection to it). Cleanse and bless the object however you see fit (I use New Moon Water and Chaos Water).

Draw the enchanting circle on a piece of paper. I start with a basic alchemical circle: I draw the three symbols of mercury, salt and sulphur around the circle and I draw a six-pointed star inside. Then I start drawing inside the circle, trying to remain focused on my goal as much as I can, and leaving a blank space where I will place the object I want to enchant.  

Surround the enchanting circle with salt to protect it from any external interference. I also place obsidian, clear quartz and carnelian around it as a representation of the alchemical transmutation. If you want, you can light a candle that matches your goal (for protection, use a black candle).

Place your object inside the enchanting circle and leave it there to charge for as long as you want. You either can remain focused on your enchantment, or you can leave the circle alone to do its magick. (But please, never leave candles unattended!)

Here’s a closer look at my protection circle. You can copy it down and use it as it is, or you can change it to fit your personal spell. 

If you feel that the object is losing its charge after being used, you can just put it back on the circle and leave it there overnight.

If you’d like to know more about the ideas behind alchemy, check my previous post on the topic here.

I keep a total of two books for witchcraft, 3 in general. First I keep a daily/monthly/yearly Planner. Next I keep a Witchy Journal, then I keep a Book of Shadows/ Grimoire.

I’m the kind of person who writes a lot of to do lists and never makes it beyond actually writing them. I am a perfectionist and a little anxiety ridden when it comes to organizing things. I have always had trouble staying on task when it came to writing my BOS or even working my craft at a regular rate and I have FINALLY found something that works for me. Just in case anyone else is having this problem I thought I would share my methods to hopefully give ideas or help. Remember: There is no right way to do this! So don’t feel like you can’t rearrange or change things to work better for you.

Here is a breakdown of how all three journals/books work together to keep me on task:

Planner: This is the least important of the three. My inability to stay on task isn’t just with witchcraft. I will literally forget what I wanted to do or what day it even is if I’m not constantly checking myself. It’s totally not necessary to have a paper planner but after years of attempts with habit apps, phone reminders and events on digital calendars I know they just don’t work for me. I also keep a monthly calendar on my fridge to write events as they come along, from birthdays and work shifts to meteor showers and moon phases. This makes it easy to apply my general knowledge to my day to day life and current times!

Journal: This is actually the first book I started. I knew even if I never touched my book of shadows I’d still meditate and read tarot, so in here I would date the time, the date, the subject of my musings and map out every tarot reading and how I should reflect on it later on looking back. Of course it was just a tarot journal to start with but there’s so much more potential for a day to day dated ‘diary.’ So now, If i want to take notes on spell experiments, practice meditation techniques, or try new practices I can note it down in journal format for later reflection, all without the worries of of things being random or out of category. Then if something works and I think it’s ‘Book of Shadows worthy’ I can add it in. I highly recommend having a diary or ‘catch all’ book you can be yourself in. Again this doesn’t have to be paper! It can be a word document or formatted in your blog or tumblr, or even just your favorite journaling app.

The Book of Shadows / Grimoire: Here we are. The big bad scary book. This thing has been looming over me since I was 9 years old. Clearly somewhere along the way I worked up in my mind that this project was so sacred, so important that I couldn’t mess it up. Don’t get me wrong, it really is an important and sacred thing! However I managed to forget one detail: I’m literally writing a book. Like how many times has someone written a book perfectly, in one go, with no mistakes or mispelled words and also in perfect visual aesthetic? Well, it’s never. That’s never happened. Even if you think it has I garuntee the author doesn’t agree. So I put my pretty leather journal into a box in storage and pulled out my trusty 2 subject notebook. Oh you know the kind: $2 at the grocery store with slightly smaller college ruled pages. And just to make sure I didn’t take it too seriously I got it in pink. If you think anything like me you’re cringing right now. That’s okay. I promise. It’s the sensation of freedom escaping your careful control. From there I compiled a short list of prompts. Things I wanted in the book for sure. Almost a draft for a table of contents. I leave this as a loose leaf of paper to be used as a bookmark in the actual spiral so I know I don’t lose any ideas I don’t have time for at the moment. Then I took a PEN instead of a pencil (we’re trying to embrace the idea of a rough draft here so I didn’t want to waste time erasing and re-doing stuff just cause it wasn’t pretty) and titled the second page: INDEX. Then I skipped about three pages ahead and started to number them from 1. Here’s where the fun begins. Each time you want to write a section for your book you just write it. Then for each subject you add it to your index with the page numbers. If you expand on an idea later on you can add the pages to the original line of the index. If you need prompts and ideas on how to begin there are plenty of reblogs I have tagged but I also reccomend you check out @2019grimoirecchallenge and give it a go. You can start where they’re at now, or go back to January like I did.

There are no wrong answers. No one is gonna read this yet, it’s not done! You’ll have plenty of time to edit it, reorganize it, change the colors and the pictures and the artwork, whatever! Once you stop trying to make a finished project the intimidation is gone and you’ll be surprised how quickly your pages fill up!