witchy shit

Athena in the ancient literature is a goddess of war and very good at fighting but she’s also a daddy’s girl and likes wearing pretty dresses.

{Orphic hymn 84, to Hestia}

Queen Hestia,

daughter of mighty Kronos,

mistress of ever-burning fire,

you dwell in the centre of the house.

May you raise the holy initiates

in these sacred rites,

may you grant them unwithering youth,

wealth as well, prudence and purity.

Home of the blessed gods,

mens mighty buttress,

eternal, many-shaped,

beloved, grass-yellow,

smile, O blessed one,

kindly accept these offerings,

waft upon us prosperity,

Job seeking:

Job spell / Job spell!

Opportunity spell

Visualization job spell

Spell for drawing in job opportunities and success

I have the job I want sigil

Career counselor tarot spread

For the interview:

Lucky interview bottle

Successful interview spell

Mini interview/luck spell jar

Luck for my job interview sigil

Tarot spread for interview prep and soothing nerves

Interview/performance review/presentation spell

To get the offer:

Spell jar to hasten a call back after the interview

Job offer spell

Be hired sigil

New job success:

New job protection pouch

New job prosperity bowl

Success and prosperity cinnamon poppet

The career tarot spread

Odds and ends:

Business success potion

My business ventures are a success sigil

Career, income and passion spell jar

What to include in a job spell jar

Success/prosperity spell sachet

Barista job spell jar

I am safe at work sigil

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Housewarming magic

Travel witchery

Magic to replenish energy

Hanging rosemary above the doorstep, and/or above doors of the house for protection.

Sprinkling a line of dried red pepper on a windowsill, to counter a curse.

Placing a mix of dried & ground eggshells and black pepper in every corner of a room to keep out unwanted spirits.

Placing a decoration representing a witch in the kitchen, to keep away illness and to favor health.

Crafting an effigie (no matter how crude!) and make it into the guardian of your home by charging it with your intent of protection and placing it near the front door.

Digital offering collage for Mother Hestia

How much of it is actually useful, how much of it applies to your spirits or cosmology?

Who or what do you neglect regularly? What areas need more attention, more focus? What flames need to be tended?

Is there anything that no longer serves a purpose? Can anything be simplified to greater effect? How much time do you devote to strengthening your core skills and foundations?

When I built my first altar, it looked like a sad thrift store shelf, mismatched candles, half-melted incense sticks, a chipped mug standing in for a chalice. I was so desperate for it to look witchy, like the glossy photos in books. But it didn’t feel like mine. It felt like a stranger’s stage.

It took me years, and many messy, candle-wax-soaked attempts, to realize: your altar isn’t an Instagram post. It’s a heartbeat. It’s your magic’s nest. It should feel like home, because it is one.

Here’s how I’ve learned to build an altar that breathes with you, one that feels like warm floors, familiar shadows, and the exact right hush of your spirit.

🕯️ 1. Know What An Altar Really Is

Strip away the fancy words: an altar is just a sacred spot. It’s where you gather your power and your gratitude in one place.

It can be as humble as a windowsill or as grand as a dedicated room. A shelf, a table, a box, all that matters is intention.

Think of it as a tiny crossroads: your body, your spirit, and your magic meet there. The rest is just trimmings.

🌿 2. Start With What Calls You

Forget the shopping list that says you must have a pentacle, a wand, a chalice, this and that.

Ask: what do you reach for when you feel witchiest? A candle that smells like your grandmother’s kitchen? A stone you found at the river? A jar of salt?

Your altar is not a museum. It’s a nest of meaning. Let it be ugly at first. Let it be real.

🔮 3. Give It a Heartbeat

I always tell baby witches: your altar’s alive if it changes with you.

Maybe you set it up on the floor for a spell, then move it to a shelf when you get a cat who loves knocking things over. Maybe you swap the flowers every season. Maybe you leave offerings that rot a little, because magic is not sterile.

Mine has bits of charred candle wicks, a cracked seashell, and a scrap of cloth from my mother’s apron. I clean it, but I don’t bleach it of history.

🗝️ 4. Make It a Conversation

An altar is not a monologue. You don’t just speak at it. You speak with it.

When you light a candle, linger. When you place a new object, ask it, “What do you bring here?” Listen. Maybe you rearrange things when they feel stale. Maybe you sleep with a stone under your pillow before giving it a spot on your altar, so it knows your dreams.

This is the bit the books forget to tell you: your altar listens back.

🌙 5. Protect It, But Don’t Police It

It’s good to cleanse your altar, blow off dust, pass smoke over it, ring a bell if it feels heavy.

But don’t let perfectionism be your deity. I once wasted hours agonizing over where to put a feather. It’s a feather, Nyra. Spirits don’t care if it’s center-left or right.

Your hands are sacred. Trust them.

🕸️ A Few Simple Ideas To Try

Place something that represents each element, but only if it feels real to you. A rock, a candle, a cup of water, a pinch of salt.

Add one thing that smells good. Scent ties your spirit to memory.

Leave an offering to your guides or ancestors, even if it’s just a whisper of thanks.

Keep a tiny cloth or broom nearby to sweep off old energy when needed.

🌒 A Final Whisper

Your altar is not a shrine to aesthetics, it’s a mirror for your spirit.

Build it slow. Let it shift. Let it hold your tears, your giggles, your burnt matches and hopeful wishes.

One day you’ll sit at that sacred little corner, a mug of tea in hand, and think: This is mine. And it will hum back: Yes. And I am yours.

Hearth-keeper of the world. 

Tender of the weary souls, she who lightens the burdens of others.

Fill my heart with your light,

so I may lift others as you do.

Radiant Hestia,

One of home. One of love.

Guide me as I spread your kindness.

As I spread your gentleness.

As I spread your hope. 

Beautiful Hestia,

Guide my hands as I do by you. 

Guide my heart as I love by you. 

I made a series for The Wheel of the Year many years ago but I realize that not everyone follows it and dividing suggestions into the four seasons as well might be more helpful for some!

Spring 🌿

Collect the first rain of the season and keep it in a jar

Drink floral or fruit teas

Burn floral or fruit scented candles

Light a candle or turn on an electric candle.

Open the curtains to let light in. 

Visualize a light cleaning each and every room in your home.

Decorate with dried, fresh or fake flowers.

Spray a cleansing spray throughout your bedroom.

Clean an area in your home, big or small. (It could be as simple as making a pile of trash so it’s easier to move later.)

Bathe yourself (either in the tub or sponge bath style). Infuse some herbs/flowers into the water!

Water your plants and whisper blessings to them.

Plant something new! It can be as simple as a beansprout in a paper cup.

Meditate and imagine yourself out in your favorite area in spring.

Make a terrarium.

Spray floral water in the air and on your bedsheets.

Watch for and welcome the returning birds

Learn about local plants.

Crack open all your windows to let in some fresh air.

Bedridden witch: Garden edition

Summer ☀️

Make sun water/tea

Drink fruit teas, infused water or juices

Burn floral or fruit candles

Decorate with flowers and crystals.

Wake up earlier than usual to enjoy a full day of light.

Try to be awake and witness both the sunrise and sunset.

Decorate your windows with rainbow prisms.

Make flower crowns with fresh, dried or paper flowers.

Make sure sunlight and fresh air can reach you.

Enjoy some fresh fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds.

Decorate with/wear/create things with bright colors:

Decorate a new pot for your plants (painting, sharpies, ribbons, etc.)

If you can, put a bird feeder outside your window or just watch them as they fly by.

Pour an offering of water for the plants (indoors, outside or out the window).

Have a picnic (outside, on the kitchen floor or in bed).

Find a way to incorporate honey into your day (scrubs, food, tea, etc.)

Burn beeswax candles.

Listen to music that just sounds like summertime.

Autumn 🍂

Collect the first rain of the season and keep it in a jar

Drink spiced tea, apple ciders

Infuse berries into water.

Burn spiced, woodsy or autumn scented candles

Eat things like breads, nuts, grapes, pomegranates, pies, apples and root vegetables.

Start a new project like crocheting or knitting. This is also a great time to finish that project you’ve been avoiding.

Wear and decorate and create with browns, golds, dark greens, oranges and yellows.

Decorate your home to make it look more like Autumn (fake or real leaves, acorns, paper cutouts, etc.)

Create a picnic/feast wherever is reasonable, with a little bit of everything.

Pull up a video of leaves falling or a fire crackling.

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spiced-things, pumpkin seeds.

Decorate with small pumpkins, paint them or draw on them if carving is too high-energy.

Create an altar honoring loved ones who have passed on, either a material one or a photo album online.

Pull up a video of a burning fire or light candles.

Turn off all of the lights and sit/lay in darkness.

Visualize your wards and boost your home protection.

Do spirit work/leave offerings for the spirits.

Burn incense/make a spray that smells of spices (cloves, basil, etc.)

Watch spooky/witchy movies.

Winter ❄️

Collect the first snow/make snow water and keep it in a jar

Drink seasonal teas, ciders and hot cocoa

Burn spruce, pine or winter scented candles

Watch gifs/videos of snow, ice forming, fire crackling, etc.

Get/make a small wreath and keep it indoors!

Keep clear quartz and snowflake obsidian around.

Make paper snowflakes! Or find an app/website where you can do a digital one.

Use your heat to draw sigils on frosted windows.

Put a bird feeder outside your window so you get winter visitors!

Get empty glass ornaments and fill them with herbs/pine needles/things that remind you of winter and hang them around.

Get some cute little snow globes. 

Decorate with winter colors! White, blue, silver, grey, dark green, etc.

Create an apple pomander with cloves or dried orange slices.

Decorate with evergreen boughs, holly, pine cones, etc.

Wash your face with snow/cold water.

Make rosehip, peppermint, vanilla, rooibos or spiced tea.

Step outside/open a window to feel the cold air (if you live somewhere warm, do this in the early morning/night).

Handcraft gifts for loved ones or write heartfelt cards/letters to the people you care about.

Put birdseed outside/a bird feeder by your window.

Make a simmer pot, or use this idea to create a scented spray.

Bedridden witch: Winter edition (more ideas in this post!)

You may also like:

Bedridden witch series

Bedridden witch: Wheel of the year edition

Bedridden witch: Elements edition

Bedridden witch: Weather edition

Bedridden witch: Nature edition

Witchcraft for the chronically fatigued

Not everyone of every faith, spirituality, and tradition wants to reclaim or associate with these terms, and they have their reasons. In many parts of the world, "witchcraft" and "paganism" are derogatory at best, dangerous at worst, or simply, inaccurate and not applicable.

I ask You to bestow upon me and my loved ones the ability to show patience and grace to those who try to test us. I ask You to give us the strength to bite our tongues, lest we shoot off at the mouth and hurt not only ourselves, but those around us as well. I pray that You will give us the strength to endure just a while longer, until we are in a place where we can confront our problems head on with the focus and energy they require.

I used to feel bad when I read so much about meditating outside, sitting in stillness with your eyes closed. I thought these writers had to be much better pagans and witches than me to accept the consequences of that in order to be close to nature.

Then I was lucky enough to visit the UK a few years ago and I realized there's just not the same kind of bugs there. These people weren't somehow ignoring swarms of mosquitos to meditate. They weren't better pagans than me; they lived in a different place.

Since then, I've tried to adjust advice to fit my home. I do nature walk meditations instead of sitting by water and I accept that I can't be out for hours when the temperatures get into the high 90s in July. Once I started working within the limits of Florida, I felt a lot more at home in it.

A lot of you may know me and my bedridden posts from my main blog, @heatherwitch. For those of you who don’t: I’m both mentally and chronically ill and do a majority of my worship to Hestia from my bed! 

Burn a candle on your nightstand, or use an electronic one!

Open your curtains and let the sunlight warm the room. 

Make a potful of tea and keep it in a large thermos.

Watch movies that make you feel nostalgic and cozy.

Make a spray that smells yummy and use it when things feel a bit stale.

Set aside time to read a good book.

Knit or crochet. Craft something with your hands.

Say goodnight and good morning to her. 

Get an electric blanket and feel the warmth connect you to her.

Cuddle with pets if you have them (or a stuffed animal).

Make a blog/journal filled with cozy, homely things.

Keep a few locally baked goodies nearby for when you need them. 

String up fairy lights and use them as your only light source.

Whisper prayers and devotional pieces before you go to sleep.

Use a Himalayan salt lamp to connect to feeling of a fire.

Invest in little things (pillowcases, photos, curtains, etc.) that make your room feel welcoming and peaceful.

Make a little bottle filled with herbs, crystals, and other things that remind you of her, and keep it near - like a portable altar!

Listen to music that makes your soul happy and your heart content.

Take care of yourself. Brush your hair, use a wet cloth on your face. Be gentle and kind to yourself.

Flameless hearths and devotions