Ash W. Everell
Witchcraft is a fun, fulfilling, spiritual, but frequently expensive craft that, more often than not, ends up costing some serious coin if you—like me!—lust after every single pentacle candleholder and Himalayan salt lamp you come across. Luckily, witches have existed for centuries without the ubiquitous Pagan shoppe or occult Etsy store, so let’s turn back the clock and examine some old, modern, and folk tricks to craft witchery on the cheap!
There are a ton of ritual tools, spell supplies, and other magical objects that can be crafted, scavenged, repurposed, or gathered from nature and that work just as well—if not better!—than expensive tools.
Tools
Crafting, finding, or repurposing your own tools is just as effective, and perhaps even more personal, than buying a set of premade ones. You can customize and select your witching tools to perfection, and even create a more comprehensive aesthetic and powerful energy for your altar supplies and witching utensils than with store-bought supplies.
Wand
The best wands, I think, are just wooden rods that speak to you on a personal level (and trust me, I’m a huge fan of the gorgeous, bespoke,
hand-turned wands you can buy). Go outside and find a length of wood with the thickness, pliability, and feel that you like, try to determine the type of tree it fell from, and consecrate it as needed.
You’ll find the best way to build a rapport with your wand is by going out and feeling it out. If a branch doesn’t grab you, try something different that does, such as a long candle for a Witch with a fiery affinity or a wooden spoon for a Kitchen Witch.
You’ll find the best way to build a rapport with your wand is by going out and feeling it out. If a branch doesn’t grab you, try something different that does, such as a long candle for a Witch with a fiery affinity or a wooden spoon for a Kitchen Witch. If you’re absolutely after that luxe wand look, try using a simple penknife to shave or whittle down your stick or branch according to its natural shape. You can even rub beeswax on it to seal it and protect its fibers from mildew and moisture. (Hint: Rub from handle to tip to encourage the flow of magic.)
Altar Cloth and Altar
For an altar cloth, pick out a cloth napkin, a tablecloth, or even a scarf or shawl in a color you feel is powerful. Crates turned on their sides or boxes (avoid cardboard, since you might want to use candles in the future) make great bases for altars, and you can even keep all your witching supplies inside them. If you’re in a pinch or don’t have the necessary supplies, a viable option is to find a stable object of the right height (like a chair) and place a tray on it to create a surface.
Athame/Ritual Knife
For cutting herbs, directing power, or in ritual, many Witches have need of an athame, boline, or ritual knife. A plain table knife or butter knife may be used, and the handle can even be wrapped in string or twine in a color corresponding to your tool (black if you’re making a “100 percent accurate Wiccan” athame, for instance, or white for a loose Green Witch interpretation of a working knife).
Cauldron
Trust me on this one: use a mug. Find a heatproof mug or perhaps an oil warmer that you like. You’ll be able to use it to mix potions, seep herbs, and create incense mixes, among other things. As for finding a cauldron that can withstand heat, for boiling tinctures or burning herbs, you’ll want to find a fire-safe container—that is, cast iron, certain metal pots, or stone—that you can consecrate as a magical tool. The obvious choice here is a pot or pan that you don’t use anymore. Try to avoid surfaces that will break under high heat, such as glass or porcelain. If you’ve got an oil warmer, you can use the space for oil as a traditional (albeit tiny) cauldron working space, heated by the candle below.
Book of Shadows
Keeping a record of your practice is a super-helpful tradition. A Book of Shadows need not be fancy, and having a plain notebook or even looseleaf paper is all you need to start. Later on you can copy the pages into your “fancier” Book of Shadows, if you wish.
Bell
Find two objects in your house that go ding! without breaking or causing chip damage—that’s it! I discovered that simply by clanging my pestle and cauldron lid together, I can make the most beautiful, resonant sound that is perfect for my craft. Try different noises (with care—never use china or glass!) with different “instruments” to find your tone. If you’re not one to literally bang pots and pans together, you can use your own hands: clapping firmly and commandingly can easily take the place of a bell.
Candleholders
The best (and almost free!) candleholders I’ve found are old bottles. Wine bottles are perfect for taper candles, and for the freecycling-minded Witch, twin beer bottles make perfectly acceptable altar candleholders (you can even swap them out for seasonal brews as per the Wheel of the Year). For tealights, empty jam and Mason jars make great candleholders, as do glass tumblers and cups, wine glasses, and other glass containers. You can create more formal candleholders by layering some sand or rocks as a base for your tealights.
As for the tiniest of spell candles—the classic four-inch chime—you can employ a bit of physics and ingenuity to prop it up. Filling a container with sand or rocks, then placing the candle in it so that it’s supported upright, is a tried-and-true method for holding those candles that don’t seem to fit anywhere.
Spell Supplies
Here are some inexpensive options for spell supplies.
Herbs
Check around your kitchen or garden for herbs, spices, and ingredients to use in green magic. You’ve probably heard this tip before, but your kitchen and neighborhood are great places to find herbs of the earth. Take the time to look up which wild plants and weeds are native to your region, and check to see if there are any to collect in your own yard. Common plants native to North America that can be found in the New England region, for instance, include cinquefoil, hemlock, dandelion, and Queen Anne’s lace, all of which can be used for common folk remedies (excluding hemlock, which is poisonous and suitable mostly for sachets and careful binding or shadow work).
All-Purpose Oil
For candle dressing, spellwork, and anointing, use consecrated olive oil as an all-purpose oil. You can pour out a measure each time you need it, and bless it to your specific intent. If you’re crafting specific oils for a purpose and don’t have a traditional base oil, like almond or jojoba, use a more affordable option, such as olive or vegetable oil. Vegetable and canola oils are fine for topical applications, such as glamours or ointments, but should be avoided as candle dressing, as they are extremely flammable.
Specific Oils
If you don’t have any essential oils to work with, you can infuse your bottle of all-purpose oil according to your personal preference by adding corresponding herbs and spices and then straining. To do this, you’ve got two options:
French Press
If you have a French press coffee machine, you can fill it with a base oil and then add herbs, flowers, and spices corresponding to your intent. After letting them seep for twenty-four hours to a week in a cool, dark place, such as a cupboard, you can press down the mixture using the French press and pour the resulting clear oil into a separate container to save for later use.
Coffee Filters
You can infuse your own oils with virtually no equipment by adding herbs to a well-sealed bottle of base oil. Use a glass container, and ensure it’s clean. Try to leave as little air as possible in the container. Once sealed, place it in a cool, dark place for at least a week, ideally for a month or two. When it’s done, pour the oil through a coffee filter—(Slowly! It’ll take a while to drain!)—and into a new container to save.
Bottles
For spell jars, oils, and other crafts and practical storage, collect pickle jars, syrup bottles, free-sample perfume bottles, or anything else that comes in a glass vessel with a removable lid. These come in handy to use as spell containers, candleholders, and other miscellanea. Just be sure to rinse them out with a little salt and water first.
Practical Craft: Recycling Old Candles
If you’re like me, your house/apartment/room/studio is a maelstrom of melted wax and leftover candle bits. You probably haven’t thrown out the wax yet, in hopes it won’t be a waste. Well, it won’t! For now I share my time-honored technique of melting down old, half-burned candles into one new, perfectly earth-friendly altar candle.
1. Gather your wax bits. That’s any wax drippings, melted candles, or half-burned or otherwise useless candles. You can separate them by similar colors, if you wish, but I find that most leftover candles turn a shade of pink or pearl (and the color will change as we go along, anyway).
2. Take a heatproof bowl and a large pot. The bowl should fit in the pot and be able to contain all your melted wax. Fill the pot with a small amount of water, maybe two inches high, to make a double boiler. Heat the water to a gentle simmer, then drop the bits of wax into the bowl. Stir until the wax is fully melted. Sprinkle a very small amount of salt in it to purify the wax of its old energies.
3. Herbally infuse. If you have herbs corresponding to your altar, or even general herbs of cleansing and security (such as rosemary, oak, or sage), drop them into your liquid wax. Stir them in, releasing their energies, and let simmer for a few minutes to infuse.
4. Add oils and scents. Turn the heat off and let the water stop boiling. While the wax is still liquid, add a couple drops of your chosen essential oil. (My altar oil is a rose/juniper/sandalwood blend, but yours can differ.) Stir to incorporate.
5. Get your jar. This will house your candle. Take a piece of wicking, which can be bought online or at a craft store or can be made by taking very porous string and saturating it very well in melted wax, then leaving it to dry. Tie the wicking to a stick or pencil, then lay the stick or pencil over the jar so the wick hits the bottom. You can (and I do prefer this!) also drop in a corresponding crystal or stone, thus giving your candle a magickal base.
6. Pour! Now pour your melted wax into the candle! Wait a minute until the wax has cooled a bit so that you avoid “cratering”—when your wick sinks down into a hole. Make sure to leave a small lip so the flame is protected when it lights. Let the jar candle cool off somewhere safe, like in a sink or tub. When the wax has hardened, you can seal the magic with a knotted cord.
You can, of course, change the recipe to make candles of any type, not just general altar candles. I find that recycled jar candles end up burning for extraordinarily long periods of time.
The key to witching on the cheap is creativity. With a bit of resourcefulness and an eye for seeing objects outside of the box, any Witch can have the supply cabinet of their dreams!
Ash W. Everell is a Green Witch, writer, and illustrator who loves gardening almost as much as collecting punk vinyl records. They live in Los Angeles with their partner and an unruly kitten named Artemis and run the Witching blog Theory of Magick (http://theoryofmagick.tumblr.com).
Illustrator: Kathleen Edwards