It’s easy to get overloaded with tips, tricks and suggestions from others when you’re starting on your witchcraft journey. There are a lot of opinions out there on the internet about what is right and what is so totally wrong to do in the world of magick, but finding your own path and figuring out what works for you is going to be best in the long run.
That being said, there are a few things I wish I’d learned earlier on in my journey which I’m going to share with you today. This isn’t about the proper way to blow out a candle or whether or not you can use graveyard dirt, this is about recognizing that your path is your own to make.
Not Taking Notes
Take it from this Capricorn witch, you needed to start taking notes on your spell work yesterday (but today is a good day to start)! Note taking is one of the single handed best things you can do to amplify your magic and magnetize the things you desire to you. Take notes on what you did in your spell and/or ritual, take notes on how it felt, write down the tarot cards you pulled, take notes on how the spell is coming to fruition in small and big ways.
“Taking notes on your spell work will recharge your practice for 2 reasons:
It will help you focus on the intention
It will help you keep track of the progress”
If you don’t feel confident in your spell work yet, start taking notes. You’ll be able to go back and see all the magick you've imbued into your life and you’ll have written proof of how it has come to fruition. This is going to be epic for your confidence and make you so much more excited to show up for yourself and your spell work every time.
Not Trusting Your Intuition
We’ve all been there, you have an intuitive nudge and yet to decide not to follow it only to find that your intuition was right all along! Intuition is an incredibly helpful tool in all sorts of scenarios that life throws your way, but it's also a necessary part of any witchcraft practice.
Your spell work is only going to be as your own relationship to your intuition, because you can follow someone else’s spell step by step any day but, the real magick comes when you know how to perform a spell from that intuitive place of inner knowing. Magick isn’t cerebral, it’s not about simply reading and studying and doing things by the book, it’s about experiencing your own magick and following it down the rabbit hole.
So the next time you’re performing a spell and you get an intuitive pull to change or tweak the spell, listen to it.
Using Other People’s Cultures and Practices
Appropriation is a huge no no in every aspect of life. It’s one thing to appreciate another culture, or study it, or even to learn from masters of that lineage, but it’s never ok to copy and paste another culture’s traditions and practices. I shouldn’t have to explain why you shouldn’t do this, so I’m not going to.
As far as witchcraft goes, it will do you well to learn about the traditions, holidays, practices, tools and deities from your own culture and countries of origin because it will strengthen your own witchy practice. Every country and every ethnicity has old and ancient traditions to learn about and work with, so not only is there no need to steal from other people, there’s also so much personal growth and knowledge to gain from staying in your own lane!
One qualm you may face is the Christianization of pagan traditions. Christianity did an excellent job of ridding many parts of the world of their earth based and polytheistic religions through either bloody eradication or the synthesis of paganism and Christianity. It’s also common to come to witchcraft after leaving the Christian church (though it’s not always the Christian church, it’s very common), so there is a hesitancy to engage in any practices which reflect that religion due to past trauma.
However, I would suggest that you don’t let the word God hold you back from exploring the traditions of your ancestry. All religions and spiritual beliefs hold a center of truth which is shared between them; we are not alone, there’s more to existence than this mortal coil, we’re all connected to one another and we should all work to be better people.
As humans evolve so do our beliefs and practices, this has led to the merging of spiritual and religious beliefs all over the world. You can pray, study saints, use a rosary, believe in God and still practice an earth based religion, they are not exclusive. So if you’re studying the traditional spiritual practices from one of your countries of origin and find that religion has been a stronghold for centuries, see what you can gain by educating yourself with an open mind.
Only Learning from tikok and IG
Social media can be a great resource for learning about witchcraft, but if you’ve spent a decent amount of time in these online places you know that it can be a cesspool for misinformation. Social media is designed to give us happy little dopamine boosts by showing us lots of things in a short period of time, but that doesn’t really work well with spiritual studies.
The esoteric realm of knowledge is meant to be absorbed slowly over time. There should be no rush when you are studying magick because it involves deep levels of nuance which just isn’t cohesive with the way information is spread online.
Social media-in regards to learning new things-acts more so like a game of telephone where one thing is said by someone knowledgeable, then it gets twisted and misconstrued so many times as the message is passed along that it loses its depth and meaning. There are some great professionals out there sharing information on all things metaphysical online, but if you’re serious about your own witchcraft journey you need to start reading books and articles, listening to podcasts and delving much, muh deeper.
Caring About Aesthetics
We’ve all seen the perfect pretty online witches with their gorgeous spells and altars, and while it’s all very nice to look at, that shouldn't be the big goal you’re working towards. That’s not to say that aesthetics can’t be a part of your craft, it just shouldn’t be the main focus and goal. Truth be told, witches come in all shapes and sizes! You don’t have to wear all black, have a collection of crystal jewelry or perfect coffin shaped nails to be valid. What’s most important is that you study, practice, integrate and create a practice that feels and looks right for you!
Spending Too Much Money
There are some instances in life where shoveling out the money for the nice, expensive tools will indeed enhance your craft, but witchcraft is not one of those things! There are so many beautiful notebooks, oils, candles and tools out there that are definitely worth the money they cost, but you can just as easily perform an epic spell with things from the dollar store and your kitchen cabinet. So don’t put limitations on what you can and can’t do just because you don’t have the funds, get creative and work with what you have right now!
Making It Too Complicated
With the vast amount of tools and spells out there to utilize in your craft you’re liable to find yourself putting in way too much work when it’s time to make some magick. You’ve probably heard the phrase “it’s all about intention,” and while that idea is nuanced, there’s a whole lot of truth to it! Where your attention goes energy flows, so if you’re juggling too many things at spell time you may find it harder to concentrate on your intention.
The next time you’re working a spell try to cut out all the unnecessary or overwhelming bits. The most important thing is that you are able to slow down and focus on the intention at hand. You are the one who is creating the energy and sending it out into the universe, so it’s best to keep it clear and concise.
Keeping Your “Real Life” and Magical Life Separate
I’ve found-in my own experience and from talking to my clients-is that it’s a pretty common step in our witchy journey to compartmentalize our “real life” and the magickal things we’re doing on the side, so if that’s where you’re at that’s ok! It can feel tough at first to imbue magick into every aspect of your life when you’re still learning and studying witchcraft, but full integration is the goal.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should put pressure on yourself to come out of the broom closet and announce to the world that you are a witch, instead it’s about making magick a seamless part of your life and routine. This can look like turning your morning coffee into a ritual instead of a necessary chore, or making your bath time sacred instead of a simple habit. You don’t need to carve out a bunch of excess time per week to devote to magickal things, you simply need to recognize that your life-as it is-can be filled with moments of magick and ritual.