Time is racing by, and with more and more information for your brain to process each year, it seems like 24 hours in a day just doesn’t shake out like it used to. Days on end go by, and you realize you haven’t done any real spells or rituals. You haven’t lit a candle in a month or made an herbal infusion in three months. It’s frustrating and confusing when life itself gets in the way of your witchcraft.
You can celebrate being a witch each and every day in many small ways until you find the time for the bigger things. These tips keep you connected to source energy, to the goddess, the universe, and the magic of the natural world and its forces so that you never lose your way on the path.
• Go for a daily walk in nature.
• Have a cup of herbal tea or your homemade infusion instead of coffee at work.
• Put a crystal on your keychain.
• Hang your favorite crystal or gemstone on a chain from your car’s rearview mirror.
• Light a candle every night when you get home from work and do a quick candle spell before or after dinner.
• Read books about witchcraft and increase your knowledge and creativity.
• Take more herbal baths.
• Talk to your plants as you water them.
• Plant new plants outside, especially flowers and herbs, for your craft work.
• Hang beautiful wind chimes and put ceramic fairies in your garden.
• Listen to music that makes you feel witchy, passionate, relaxed, or joyful, whatever you need at the time.
• Add a new item to your altar.
• Share a potion recipe or spell on a witch social media page.
• Answer questions for newbie witches.
• Buy products made by other witches trying to make a living.
• Review a book written by a witch or about witchcraft.
• Have a hot cup of cocoa or tea while listening to a witchy podcast.
• Mix up some elderberry syrup or tea for the flu season and share with friends.
• Watch your favorite witchy movie.
The new witchcraft is about finding big and small ways to create sacred moments for yourself and to always be connected, even when you feel sick, exhausted, or crazy busy, by doing one thing here and and one thing there until you have the time for larger rituals and spells. It’s all good. No one is keeping score as to how often you spellcast or how many new candles you purchased last week. The gods, goddesses, and Mother Nature only want your respect, your awareness, and your attention when it is time to get serious.
For anyone reading this book who is thinking about becoming a witch, know that it is a serious commitment with its own ethics and values and not something to be taken lightly just for fun or attention. The world has enough attention seekers but lacks people devoted to working with the powers and forces of nature for the good of all. You must be 100 percent sure you are choosing the right path because if you do, you have so much to learn and experience when you begin to call yourself “witch.” Fear not, though, because you can start with the basics and work your way into a more advanced practice as you progress. Nobody is timing you. You do it at your own pace. What goes on between you and the goddess, or you and your coven, stays there.
In the October 18, 2019, Teen Vogue article “Witchcraft Misconceptions: What You Need to Know about Modern Witches,” Kristen Thompson writes, “In the age of social media, digital news, and wearable tech, telling friends you’re a witch is fortunately no longer an offense likely to get you burned at the stake.” She also suggests that for some people, witchcraft is the perfect middle ground for having faith without being forced to worship a male deity, and one from another religion, to boot.
Being a witch these days isn't just about casting spells or the clothes you wear. In a crazy world where, fortunately, witches are no longer persecuted, it is a way to get in touch with the spiritual, natural world all around you.
A quote seen on social media said (paraphrased), “Being a witch doesn’t mean walking around in a red or black robe, brooding over a cauldron of herbs and crying out to the sky. It doesn’t mean sitting in a darkened room surrounded by crystals and candles and chanting hours and hours at a time. It doesn’t mean feeling guilt or shame for not doing the proper work every day and night, because the truth is, it’s all proper work. Being a witch is not something you do or have to do. It is something you just ARE. 24/7/365. That’s the way it’s always been and was always meant to be.”
The stigma of being a witch is all but gone. It is now something to be proud of, and excited about, because the world needs witches now more than ever to help bring back equilibrium and restore harmony to the chaos and imbalance we see every night on the news and in our own individual lives. Despite the overwhelm we each experience day to day, with jobs, families, and paying bills, now is the best time ever to be a witch and to reconnect with the natural world our hearts and souls long for. It’s your time to get back to the garden.
May this book help you along on your journey.
As technology continues to define the lives of people all over the world and the more formal and traditional religions fail to feed the souls of people who cry out for a new way of being in the world, witches reclaim the spirituality of their descendants with a fresh, new spin that appeals to all genders, races, and walks of life. This spirituality itself is ancient, as it is based upon a return to the awe and wonder of the natural world, but it has been reborn with the advent of the Internet and the power of social networking to bring those together who were once separated by miles, even oceans.
Religion satisfies the soul needs of some, but for those who seek a different path, the road goes both inward and outward: inward into the heart and soul and outward into the environment, with the realization that the two are intertwined and connected. The witch today may be busier than ever with jobs, hobbies, families, lovers, friends, and personal pursuits. On top of that, a dedication to the craft calls for sacred time in sacred spaces, yet today’s witch also knows how to bring his or her practice into every moment of life. Practical, purposeful, everyday magic mixed with old-school traditions and formal ritual and celebration is the way of the new witch.
The witches of today have unprecedented access to books, ebooks, information on the Internet, support groups, websites, and local groups and activities as never before. This huge explosion of access had no doubt helped increase the number of witches, Wiccans, and pagans practicing today. Even college courses exist that teach the history of witchcraft and its association with anthropology and cultural studies, and the word “witch” no longer raises hairs on the back of the neck except among those who don’t understand it or continue to shun it because of religious affiliations.
It isn’t just accessibility and the spread of information that account for the rise in interest and increasing numbers of people coming to the craft, though; it’s the cry of Mother Nature asking her children to help save the planet, the promise of equality for women, and putting an end to the abuse of animals and children that drive many people to explore the pagan traditions. It’s also a cry of the spirit begging to be set free from traffic, commuting, sitting in cubicles, going to clubs every night, being stuck inside all day at school, and, in general, becoming sedentary, indoor couch potatoes.
Getting back to nature isn’t about being a groovy hippie who never wears deodorant. It’s about reclaiming our wild nature as we find ways to get back out into nature itself and reconnect with the web of life that we are a part of. Being stuck indoors has created a strong sense of separateness between human beings and their fellow species of the air, land, and sea. The rising numbers of witches are those who realize that they cannot thrive indoors, cut off from the flow of life, from the gifts of Mother Nature, and from their own inherent god and goddess within. It’s a cry to get back to the awe, wonder, and reverence we all had for the world around us as children, when everything was fresh and new.
For women, it’s a chance to feel truly empowered and to band together to work for the things important to women, children, and the planet. That includes the men we love. Without a return to the balance of masculine and feminine, the world will always be a lopsided place out of harmony. The pendulum will swing as it always does, from one extreme to another. Witches seek to bring it to a point of equilibrium and lessen those extremes. Witches seek to heal, and that includes a sick and dying planet.
Political and social change is in the air. Feminism, environmentalism, and spiritualism are on the rise as traditional religions and politics are losing acceptance across the world. Witches are an important part of this social and spiritual evolution.
In her interview with The Daily Beast, author Stacy Schiff, who wrote The Witches: Salem, 1692, stated that this resurging trend of witchcraft is all about perfect timing, with spiritual hunger, environmental concerns, and gender politics all coming into the fray. “Plus, witches are subversive, something which our political times demand. We’ve little vocabulary for female power, or at least few words of which we can be proud.” She goes on to state that the imagery of the witch is something women are seeking to reclaim because it is empowering, yet because of the negative history witches have lived through, it is a symbol that is a double-edged sword. However, it is that exact history, the persecution of women and their beliefs, ideals, and sexuality, that is at the heart of the modern rise in popularity of witchcraft, Wicca, and paganism. It is also the history of cultures turning against nature that triggers this modern drive to return to nature and restore and protect it before it destroys us all.
The witch can lead the way for a revolution to take back our bodies, minds, and spirits and reconnect us to what matters most. Witchcraft is a way to accept progress, yet stay centered in the practices and modalities that can keep the balance and bring true healing physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The new witchcraft demands leaving the world a better place than you found it for generations to come and not just living selfishly for the present with no regard to wasting resources and hurting others who get in the way. That’s just not the way of the witch, Wiccan, or pagan.
As the population of those identifying as witches, Wiccans, and pagans rises, a new and concerted effort is being made to reintroduce magic into the lives of people struggling to find a deeper connection. Witches are teaching the craft to their children in the hopes that each new generation will show more respect and reverence to the natural world so often taken for granted and used for profit. A child who learns magic today becomes a stronger, more confident, connected, and empathic adult tomorrow.
A better time has never existed to engage in, and believe in, magic. Even science speaks of magical, mystical properties of the quantum world and the power of the observer to manipulate the outcome of a light particle’s behavior. Could this happen on a grander cosmic scale, too? Could witches use magic to manipulate, in a good way, the outcome of our planet’s destiny? Maybe. It isn’t necessary for the new witch to save the world. He or she just has to focus on saving the self first and foremost. A healthy, empowered individual leads to a healthy, empowered populace over time. Grand acts of magic are wonderful if you can achieve them, but it really comes down to the little things, the spells cast each day, the greener living mentality, the understanding of the Golden Rule and the Threefold Law, and the ethical, and moral, foundation of not wanting to harm anyone in the quest to fulfill personal intentions. These are the small steps that, when taken, can lead to the highest of heights for all involved.
If you have no magic in your life, don’t worry. It’s there. It exists whether or not you believe in it. You just have to find ways to get back to the garden and rediscover the childlike awe and wonder you possessed as a child. As a witch, you live magic. You breathe it and practice it, and it is a huge part of your life as you practice your craft, but it doesn’t cease to exist the moment you walk out the door for school or work. It doesn’t cease to be available to you when you have the flu or just don’t feel like spellcasting. Maybe you’re even pissed off at the world, and the goddess, for something that happened. It’s always there whether you are tuned in to it or not. That’s the magic of, well, magic.
The new witchcraft is about balance, harmony, restoration, and equilibrium. It understands that you don’t have to shun new ways and ideas to continue to honor the old. It works best when you first find that harmony within yourself so you can then project it outward through your spells, rituals, and general craft work. Stay wild, Moon child, but most of all, stay balanced as you usher in the new witchcraft of the twenty-first century.