witchcraft

Elements in My Practice

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The prompt for this reading came from one of the Discord servers I’m a member of.

Prompt: Rank the elements based on how often you use them in your practice/how much you connect with them.

elements

This answer differs depending upon which aspect of my practice that we’re speaking about.  For this reason, I’ve split this post into three different aspects.

Affinities and how I connect to the elements:

earth – This is the element that I’ve always connected with the strongest. Soil and trees, forests and mountains. Plants and growing things. Grounding and stability.

water – I find comfort here, but not stability. As I crave stability over all else, comfort comes in second. There is an emotional attribute here, but not the sharp emotions that survived the eradication during my childhood years. Instead the emotions here are soft and welcoming.

air – Adaptability lives here for me. I can connect to it and bend to it, but I can’t say that it’s exactly comfortable.

fire – Destruction lives here. This is the element that facilitates the changes that hurt the most and make the most room for new things to come in and grow. Being someone who connects with and constantly craves stability, fire and I don’t have the greatest of relationships.

How often I use the elements in my magical practice:

In my magical practice, they all have their place, and each element is included in one manner or another for all of my spellwork. They are a foundation that requires each of them to contribute to create a “whole” spell.

In this magical practice, there is a fifth element that is not present in my list for affinities, for the element of “spirit” is me. Spirit is the spark within me and the spark within others. It’s the individuality that makes each person different, and makes up the threads that connect each and every living (and not living) thing together.

How the elements present in my divination practice:

In divination, the elements represent different aspects of life.  I’ve ordered these in this post in the order of what element is most under our control to what element is least under out control.

earth – The earth element relates to the Pentacles suit in the tarot, and in my divination practice is a representation in divination of the physical world. This includes things like health, hearth and home, money and resources, physical labor, concepts of stability, etc.

air – The air element relates to the Swords suit in the tarot, and in my divination practice is a representation of one’s thoughts, strategies, ambitions, and education. Although our thoughts sometimes run away with us, our plans and strategies are under our control. We choose what we want to learn and plan where we want to go.

water – The water element relates to the Cups suit in the tarot, and in my divination practice is a representation of one’s emotions, intuition, and imagination.  Emotions aren’t really something that we have a lot of control over, and our imagination has a tendency to run wild sometimes, seeping through the cracks just like water has a tendency to do.

fire – The fire element relates to the Wands suit in the tarot, and in my divination practice is a representation of one’s “inner spark”.  This is our quality of inspiration and enthusiasm. We like what we like.  Deep inside we feel what is right or wrong for us.  It’s the home of our values, our motivations, and our passions.

spirit – The “spirit” element relates to the Major Arcana in the suit of tarot, and in my divination practice is a representation of the spiritual. It’s about our life journey, the larger picture, and how elements in that larger picture affect us.

As you can see, although the answer differs depending on the aspect of my practice that we’re talking about?  There is a theme throughout each element that connects them. That is what makes them a foundational part of my practice as a whole.

Labels and My Spiritual Path

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People love to hate labels, and yet… hate to love them too. The debate goes both ways. Labels are lazy, harmful, or limiting in some way… or, labels are a “container” for a set of characteristics with the purpose of effective and clear communication. 

I fall in the latter category, although I see and understand the other side of the coin. The truth of the matter (at least in my observation) is that whether you hate them or love them, they’re necessary for clear communication.  

I wear a lot of labels, this post specifically is about those in my spiritual practice, though.  In one of the communities I’m a member of on Discord, a question came up asking, “Which terms do you use to talk about yourself and your craft? Why do you prefer those terms?”

Here are my answers:

  • Witch / Witchcraft – It just feels like a term that’s easy enough to communicate without confusion.
  • Pagan – Lots of people in society at large are uncomfortable with the word “witch”, and they find “Pagan” as more palatable with less negative connotations. It also feels like this term connects my witchcraft to my spiritual practice. Not all witches see that path as spiritual, but for me they are very much connected. 
  • Practitioner – Also a more “politically correct” term that makes non-witchy people more comfortable when speaking on the subject.
  • Spellwork / Spellcraft – These are the terms I grew up using when speaking of witchcraft workings.
  • Eclectic – This term fits because although I have a foundation in Wicca, I’ve been pretty much “winging it” in my own personal way for decades. I do a lot of “dabbling” in other types of witchcraft outside the ones listed below that I consider my “home base”, just to see how things work or how it feels. Sometimes these new experiences get adopted into my practice… but usually, even if they’re successful, they are not. 
  • Gray – This one is due to how my ethics work. I don’t have a lot of “set in stone rules”, and instead everything depends upon my gut/moral compass. What’s right one day may be wrong the next due to change in circumstances or other factors, and vice versa. It’s very wishy-washy, and could be viewed differently by different people as a result. 
  • Green / Forest – My practice leans very heavily into revering nature and her cycles, spending time in nature/communing with nature, researching nature, etc. This includes practicing with a wide variety of plant matter in a myriad of ways, as well as stones, crystals, soil, and other such detritus from nature.
  • Hedge – I spend time within, and draw energy from, liminal spaces. Especially liminal spaces among the trees and in forest areas. I feel that for me, this is a “sub-category” of Green/Forest.
  • Cottage / Hearth – I would say that my practice is split between Green / Forest and this category. My home is my sacred space and most everything in it is geared towards my spirituality and practice in some way.  Including things like cleaning, bathing, laundry, etc. I would also classify my jewelry making spellwork under this term. 
  • Kitchen – Ties in the Cottage/Hearth factor with the Green side of things in that one of the ways I commonly use plant matter in spellwork (and practice spellwork as a whole) is through cooking, tea making, baking, etc.
  • Tarot Reader / Cardslinger – It’s what I do. Quite literally with the word “cardslinger” since I pull my cards through jumpers instead of picking off a pile. I do a variety of other divination techniques, but using cards is pretty much “home base” for me. To be fair, I read all kinds of cards other than just tarot regularly. (ie: Lenormand, oracle, playing cards, image only cards, game cards, etc.) But the term “card reader” never seems to be something people understand, so I don’t use it.
  • Fortune Teller – I do predictive readings (usually using cards).
  • Mediumship – In my divination practice (and occasionally outside of my divination practices), I sometimes communicate with the dead.

Because I lean into experimentation, there’s a lot of other terms that could be used to describe my practices, but I feel like none of them really weigh heavily enough in my practice to break out of the “eclectic” container and stand alone on their own.  

It was an interesting exercise to look at my spirituality and practice in this way, and I feel that it helped me in seeing my own path in a more organized light.  I’d definitely encourage others to do a little examining of their own paths and see what they come up with as well. 

Remember, just because a label fits doesn’t mean you’re restricted by it. It’s just a word to help in communicating with others. After all, we don’t call a mug “that cylindrical thing that holds the hot drink made with brown beans”. We call it a mug, even when it holds paperclips instead of coffee.

When to Cleanse Divination Tools

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This is a prompt from one of the Discord servers that I’m a member of.
“Do you cleanse your divination tools or anything else that you may use? If so, how often? If not, why is that?“

So, I know that the question is about divination tools, but I thought I would add a bit extra to the response as divination tools are not the only tools that get cleansed in my practice.

Ritual tools get cleansed and consecrated before each ritual (as opposed to spellwork tools, which might or might not get cleansed beforehand). This is because rituals are for sacred appreciation and connection with divinity. Spellwork is more about goals and intention.

Divination tools get cleansed when it feels like they need it. For me, this boils down to clairsentience and psychometry. My hands are very sensitive to energy so I can feel when energy I don’t want in the deck is there, and will cleanse it to resolve the issue.

This “unclean” feeling usually feels like a creeping cloying prickle/tingle feeling on the inside of the skin/beneath the skin starting in the palms and spreading through inside of forearms to outside of biceps. It can often create an urge to want to wash my hands. For cleansing during these instances, I use smoke cleansing, and go through the deck one card at a time, passing each card through the smoke while pushing my own energy through the card to “crowd out” and cleanse away the unpleasant energies I want to get rid of.

That said? I do minor cleansing of my decks when I use them just due to the fact that 1) I naturally push my energy through the deck during the shuffling process and 2) after having recently worn the finish off my wooden reading surface, I’ve shifted to using a selenite plate for shuffling and “knocking” of the deck during the shuffling process. I also have one in quartz, but I prefer the selenite one better.

Other divination tools are similarly done. If they feel “off” energetically, I’ll cleanse them with either selenite, smoke cleansing, or both while pushing my own energy through them.

What is Centering and Grounding?

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Although a lot of people look upon the terms “grounding” and “centering” as one in the same, in truth they are two very different things that are often used in conjunction together.

Centering, which is usually done first (although not always), is about drawing in your chaotic energy. Imagine your energy as a sphere that surrounds you. When you are feeling chaotic, distracted, scattered, etc, the particles of energy in this sphere are agitated and disorganized.

In centering, you are taking these particles of your energy and drawing them from the sphere and in closer to yourself, even into yourself. Drawing these energies in, they condense and calm, ceasing their agitation and disorganized behavior. This is called Centering. It is bringing your energy “to center” in order to “piece yourself together” and calm your energy into a state of solid stability.

Grounding is usually done after centering, although some people do them simultaneously (or only do one or another depending on what works for them). Grounding is taking that stability within you and connecting it to “an anchor”. There are lots of things you can use as an anchor, but in my case it is always very literally… the ground.

Grounding helps preserve the centering that has been done, giving the stability found in the centering a more solid and long-lasting quality. It can also be used to help release excess energy that can build up when one is dealing with things like nervousness or anxiety, or otherwise balance out one’s energies.

My go-to way of grounding is through rooting. This is when you allow yourself to connect through your feet (or other part of your body touching the ground) and imagine your energy creating roots that dig down into the earth and spread beneath you. These energy roots create an anchor that helps cement stability in place, and allows a give-and-take of energy with the earth to level out any excess or depletion taking place.

I center and ground many, many times a day. It is a habit that takes a few second at a time, or can take a few minutes if done consciously and with intention for a stronger effect.

In spellcraft, these techniques are especially important as they are used to help condense and prepare your energy for use and direction. Casting a spell without centering and grounding would be like shooting an arrow out of a bow with the feathers loose. The energy (arrow) may get where its going, but it sheds a good deal of energy along the way (the feathers) making the spell less effective,

By centering and grounding first, you are essentially securing those feathers to the arrow (creating fletching) so that when the arrow flies, there is no loss of energy along the way and the arrow’s accuracy is greatly increased. Thus, your intention and energy in the spell is not wasted and flies true as well.

This is why you will find in the large majority of witchcrafting communities, when people ask why a spell didn’t work or why it went awry, the first question usually posed by those with experience is “Did you center and ground first?”

Music to Craft By

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Today’s question is brought to you by two of the witchy type servers that I’m a member of on Discord. Both servers asked the exact same question within a few days of each other and I thought it might make for a good topic here.

Prompt from Server #1: “What song(s) put you in a witchy mood?”
Prompt from Server #2: “What kind of music do you like to listen to when you work magic?“

Okay, so I love music. I really do. But, there are a number of activities that I can’t do while listening to music. Because I have sound → sensation/smell/taste synesthesia, music can often have unintended distractionary repercussions, so I have to be careful to what I listen to and when. For example, I have a playlist of music I can listen to while driving because none of the songs cause me physical sensations that would distract me from what I’m doing. I couldn’t guarantee that if I were listening to the radio, where a song or sound might come up that could create a painful pinch in my hand or arm, or a pins and needles sensation in my foot or leg.

For this reason, most of the time when doing spellcraft and different spiritual workings, I don’t use music as it can create “phantom sensations” that can be distracting. That said, I do have a playlist full of certain songs that safely “fit the mood” that I will use when I want to include music. Some of those include…

Terra Firma by Delerium


Silence by Delerium


Dissolved Girl by Massive Attack


Black Milk by Massive Attack


All Mine by Portishead


To Be Free by Emiliana Torrini

Not all of these (or all of those on the playlist) are sensation-free sound. But none of them create unpleasant sensations, smells, or tastes that might distract me from my focus. And, of course, all have the same “vibe” to the music that helps “set the mood” that I like for spellcraft and witchy-type activities. I think that for a lot of people, music can really add another level of depth to their practice, and even another element of “flavor” to the magic itself.

Bugs and Symbolism in Spellcraft

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Today’s prompt is brought to you by one of the Discord servers that I am a member of.  Just as a side note that I usually include with these discord questions… The reason I do not link these Discord servers is because each server has their own rules about if you’re allowed to share them publicly and how, and it’s a pain in the ass to look it up for each one so I just don’t share them.

On to the question… “What bug associations do you hold?”

caterpillar

Like the use of crystals, and the use of herbs and plants, there are often times when bugs are used in magic.  Not just in predictions and omens, but also occasionally in spellwork and the like. This is not something that I personally do all that often, as I feel much the same about using bugs in my spellcraft as I do about using animals.  That is to say… they cannot give their consent to be used in this manner, which means it’s unfair use and disrespectful of me to do so.  That said, I do have certain associations with different bugs.  I’ve listed those below…

Ants – hard work, strength, community
Aphids – sneaky, hidden, persistence
Bees – collaborative work, success, the sun
Butterflies – rebirth, hope, renewal
Caterpillars – growth, slow organic change (usually positive)
Cicadas – deeply personal transformation, vocalization, inner truth
Cockroach – sloth, resilience, hardiness
Cricket – good luck, happiness
Dragonflies – sudden or abrupt change (not always positive)
Firefly – inner light shining bright, authenticity
Flies – filth, decay, guilt
Gnats – hunger, annoyance, persistence
Ladybugs – wishes, good luck
Locust – deceit, greed, bad luck
Mosquito – blood, medical field, usury, vampirism (energy or otherwise)
Moth – addictions, temptations, the moon, the subconscious
Praying Mantis – independence, betrayal
Pill Bugs – passive defense, being guarded
Silverfish – greed, gluttony
Spiders (most) – meticulousness, organization
Termites – perniciousness
Ticks – tenaciousness, burrowing energy
Wasps – anger, backbiting, over the top protection, warning

Keep in mind that these are my personal associations with each of the bugs listed above.  I have no idea what the “official” metaphysical associations and symbolism is for each of them, although I would imagine that I’m on the right track with most.

With that said, obviously these are not all of the uses, associations, and symbolism that these bugs can possess.  I tried to wrack my brain for as many different types of bugs as I could think of without doing an internet search for bugs, which would be sure to set off my arachnophobia like nobody’s business.