solitary-cosmos

[solitary-cosmos]

How can you motivate yourself to practice? I'm so busy with work and other daily life things that I often don't have time, energy or motivation to practice, or I just forget. Time goes so fast these days and suddenly I've missed the last two sabbaths and full moon, then I get bad conscience and feel like I'm a "bad" or "failed" witch. (I struggle a lot with self deprecation in general with my mental health) Do you have any tips on how I can motivate myself to practice more?

Oof, I hear you. We all have the best of intentions when it comes to keeping up with our practice and making progress on our goals and projects, but damnit, Real Life just keeps on getting in the way.

Ideally, we'd all be able to keep perfect track of the occasions we wish to celebrate and the cycles of the moon AND have time and energy to devote to our practices on top of taking care of silly things like jobs and families and social lives and household management. Ideally, we'd be well-read, well-rested, well-organized, and perfectly in command of our faculties.

It's nice to dream, isn't it?

In reality, we're all doing the best we can and despite our best efforts, we miss holidays and moon dates and gatherings and go weeks or months without having time to sit down and actively work on our craft. And that is OKAY. None of it means we're bad people or failed witches. It just means we're human beings with human lives and human limitations. We can only do so much with 24 hours in a day.

The nice thing is that the craft meets us where we are, and if that means waiting a while, it's got a loooong shelf life. Besides that, practicing witchcraft isn't JUST performing rituals and casting spells and lighting up the altar. It's research and rest and reflection too.

In my practice, I've found that doing small things as part of my daily routine and larger things when I have time really helps. For instance, stirring a blessing into my morning drink, or setting my wards when I lock the front door, or wearing a charmed piece of jewelry. I do my best to keep track of the moons using reminders and a planner so I can put my jars out, but I forget sometimes. It's annoying, but there's always another one coming. And I find ways to make things I'm already doing magical as well, like cleansing my home when I clean or take out the garbage or reconnecting with the land I live on while doing yard work.

And when all else fails, I take a break and go back to the things that inspire me. I work on crafts. I journal. I try something new. I listen to music and watch movies and maybe re-read some things, and I give myself a little grace. (I've run myself into a full burnout before by ignoring my limits before. I don't recommend it.) Then when I have the time and energy, I get back to work.

Here are some posts that might help:

My Intuitive Spark Feels Low - How Do I Get It Back?

I’m In A Slump - How Do I Get Out Of It?

I’ve Reached A Stopping Point - What Do I Do Next?

How Do I Know When I’m Ready For The Next Step In My Practice?

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Witchy Inspo Journal

Witchcraft Exercise - Music To Witch By

I also discussed the topic on two episodes of my podcast:

Hex Positive, Ep. 027 - When Inspo Takes A Holiday (March 2022)

Hex Positive, Ep. 033 - Touch Grass (April 2023)

Hope this helps! 😊

[solitary-cosmos]

Here's the thing, folks.

I've personally discussed this with the black people in my life, and not all of them are magic workers.

And they've told me how they feel about this whole white magic versus black magic thing, which is that the concept is racist, colorist, and antiblack.

As a woman of color, I agree with them, because I've seen with my own eyes, how the terms white magic and black magic have been used, in media, in real life, and in online spiritual spaces.

It's a fact that no small number of white people (white Christians as well as other white spiritual circles) have long treated African diasporic practices such as Voodoo, Hoodoo, Santería, etc. as dark and evil, and therefore called them black (bad) magic. And to portray themselves as the opposite, white witches among the modern witchcraft movements would literally call themselves "white witches" who practice white (good) magic, almost as a means of counteracting the "black magic", aka the bad magic of those people of color.

It's white supremacy, plain and simple. Just stop with the white/black/grey magic baloney. It's costs nothing.

[solitary-cosmos]

An essay on why we all get so fatigued trying to do witchcraft, and some ideas on what to do about it.

I've mentioned a few (several?) times that I'm trying to rework my practice to be so much lower energy.

I want to practice a lot. My path has responsibilities and demands. I want to be engaged in witchcraft daily and often.

As a part of this I have had to really sit down and untangle the question of chronic magical fatigue, which then turns in to chronic regular fatigue.

I've come to some personal realizations during this quest. Here is one of them, which I would like to suggest as a concept or hypothesis but not a literal truism:

One of the most vital and basic energy working techniques you can learn is feeling how full your "mana tanks" are.

Magical battery, odic fluid, witch-power, whatever you want to call it. It's finite for all of us (even if for some it can recharge faster than they can use it).

I have yet to see a "daily practice" or "101 energy work guide" provide a resource on how to feel how much magical energy you have, and explain how to avoid over-spending it.

I have also never seen a 101 guide ever really explain that "energy-gathering" techniques which are meant to recharge you are in and of themselves draining.

Techniques which refill your mana tanks are often the same techniques as energy raising and energy programming.

E.g.: "Pull energy up from the earth" (energy raising) "and guide it to your spine, imagining that it refills and recharges your whole body" (energy programming).

This is an actively draining technique.

The only passive energy-gathering technique I'm familiar with is just resting.

As humans, this should be common sense! Eating food requires energy (to find food, to prepare it, to consume it) and then can further tire us as our body redirects resources to digestion.

As humans, when many of us get older, we start to realize our physical limits. You know how far you can get in the day on a single bagel. And for many of us, if you've pushed past your limits, your whole day is thrown off. Refueling might make you crash and nap, not suddenly fill you up with a huge burst of energy!

Yet somehow it's pervaded the 101 energy working sphere that a certain energy-gathering exercise - which drains your magical power - will just fill you up and you can do as much magic as you want again. Warnings about not over-exerting are usually like, "take it easy! Only do 1 or 2 minutes if you can't do all 15, or even take the day off ;)" but no actual instructions about how to feel out your limits and know how to reliably stop before you over-exert.

I think that for a lot of people it would be helpful to divide their energy-working abilities into two categories: Muscle and Fuel.

Your energy working Muscle becomes stronger over time. It has its own muscle-memory, and repetition of techniques can allow you to do them faster and better over time. This Muscle behaves very much like your earthly muscles: it burns fuel to work, but it also becomes fatigued and even damaged with over-exertion. It requires regular periods of rest. Once pushed to the point of fatigue, the necessary period of rest becomes a lot longer.

Your energy working Fuel can be thought of as the little magical calories floating around your energy body system. These units of energy are refilled and recharged as we do normal things like eating, sleeping, and engaging in restorative mundane activities. This Fuel doesn't do anything on its own*. In order to utilize it, you have to engage your Muscle. The more that you work with Fuel-collecting and Muscle-using, the more efficient your energy body system becomes at accepting, processing, storing, and expelling Fuel. You can use your Muscle to collect Fuel and store it inside your energy body.

No matter how much Fuel you have, once your Muscle is fatigued, you have to rest.

I can run a marathon (no I can't, but imagine with me) and be totally exhausted. If I eat an entire pizza, will this allow me to suddenly run another marathon? No, of course not!

Now, let's imagine that nobody brought a pizza to me, but I had to walk down to the corner shops to buy one - now, my poor muscles can barely hold me up. Energy-raising exercises still require you to flex your Muscle, and if it's already fatigued, you are probably just shooting yourself in the foot.

Your Fuel and Muscle are not automatically synchronised. And I think a lot of us out here are abusing our poor Muscles, demanding they work again and again and again, not understanding that they need literal periods of rest - hours and days to be allowed to relax, heal, and regrow to a stronger state. And I think a lot of people do believe that just by Refueling, their Muscles are supposed to "magically" work as if they just came of a week of rest.

In my beliefs, this Fuel and Muscle are the same ones we use for divination, spellwork, and spirit contact :) So if you're trying to do tons of these things all the time and thinking that a grounding exercise can replace rest, you're probably literally just… running yourself into the ground.

I would like to propose that if you are having a really hard time dealing with fatigue and energy levels when trying to engage with your practice**, you should learn two techniques: A way to judge the fatigue of your Muscle, and a way to judge the fullness of your Fuel.

Either of these things can be accomplished with a pendulum on a number line (using a pendulum requires usage of your Muscle, by the by!). Bodily sensations may tip you off - I get a strained feeling in my forehead when I'm close to over-exertion. You can also induce a psychic technique, such as asking yourself where you're at and waiting to hear, see, know, feel, or understand where your Muscles and Fuel are at.

I would also like to propose that metaphysical energy gathering can actually be so tiring that it might be inappropriate for everyday use. Raising a ton of energy and infusing it into yourself or objects for later use is a full day's activity, not a quick act you can shove into a morning routine. I'd like to clarify that here I differentiate between energy-raising, and meditative techniques which provide a "grounded," present-moment focused state of mind.

If you're taking suggestions, I would recommend figuring out how much magic you can do before you achieve a state of 50% Muscular fatigue/Fuel exertion, 75%, and 90%. I believe you shouldn't push past your limits. It just hurts. It feels bad, it's exhausting, and it takes exponentially longer to rest and heal. And I think many of us will be surprised at how little magic we can accomplish when we respect our limits.

*Some people who experience a great over-abundance of personal energy do have weird stuff happening around them all the time; it's the metaphysical equivalent of a cat rubbed with a balloon and set loose in a Styrofoam factory.

**Here, I mean people who notice marked upticks in exhaustion and fatigue when working magic, not people with baseline fatigue which just carries forward.

[solitary-cosmos]

my 'this but not that' tarot spread

A very simple spread my friends, to identify what the hecc is happening.

It's a three card draw - any arrangement will do.

first card - "the answer is,"

second card - "that is to say,"

third card - "..and it is not-"

example: "what are these weird vibes I'm getting from my friend?"

first card - "the answer is that your friend feels like they can't relate to your beliefs any more."

second card - "that is to say, your friend is growing emotionally in a direction that makes them question some of your beliefs."

third card - "and it's not that they think your beliefs are actually bad. they're just questioning a lot of things on an emotional level right now."

#tarot spread #tarot

[solitary-cosmos]

i think witches would have a lot more fun if they stopped worrying about whether things have a “masculine” or “feminine” correspondence actually

all that shit is made up!! everything is made up! witchcraft is made up!!!!!! stop relying on what one person said either 200 years ago or on the internet last september. STOP WORRYING!!!

[solitary-cosmos]

By the way, the reason the eclectic/wider witchcraft community faded out on this site might be the same reason I never post here anymore, so I thought I might share.

Every time I'd make a post that talked about some idea I had, or off-the-beaten-path thing i was thinking about or trying, the *only* responses I'd recieve would be some random person coming in with a "well, actually". Usually not even with new information to me, just something that i didn't think i needed to include in the post bc I didnt think anyone wanted to hear my full background of info on a particular topic. Just to be absolutely clear, I am not talking about important criticisms, like pointing out appropriative behaviors or making sure people are also seeking mundane medical attention when they need it. But I *am* saying when the only responses I received were unasked for critique, it killed my desire to post.

Moral of the story: if you have a community you care about and want to help grow, talk to people like they're new acquaintances. Comment on posts if you have any kind or relating thoughts. Help the members of your community not feel so alone. If enough of us do that, I think we'll be able to foster a valuable space, where the 'well actually' comments are a part of a bigger warmer tapestry, and therefore able to be considered on their own merits rather than as the only feedback you're allotted.

#witchcraft #witch #divination

[solitary-cosmos]

Also worth noting that they do have dogwhistles you can look for! For example the one I know is the term sarah used above in that text conversation: Odinist. For whatever reason that seems to be a very common term among those who would use heathenry to further their bigotry. I'm sure there are more terms so by all means add them if you know them

This is not news, but it is an important read, especially for people who were previously unaware of the trend of neo-Nazis stealing pagan symbols for their own.

If you are an anti-racist, anti-fascist pagan, keep doing what you are doing, you are keeping the fight alive

If you are an anti-racist, anti-fascist person who is not a pagan, help us spread the word of this, stand in solidarity with us as we kick the fascists out of our communities

If you are a fascist pagan, fuck off, this faith is a peaceful one

No platforms for fascists.

~ Max

#tw bigots #tw nazis

[solitary-cosmos]

Rapid fire shit I wish people had told me about witchcraft:

Every fucking thing is a spell if you put your mind to it

You can and should bless your medications

Pepper is the best for banishing, especially in the form of pepper spray

Don't trust any man who promotes sex magic...with himself

Powerful witches live and die by arch support

Conversely, plantar fasciitis is one hell of a curse and all it takes to cast it is gifting one pair of cute shoes

Sing while you cleanse - it doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't even have to be real words, but the noise helps drive out bad spirits

Fire IS the cleanser but firefighters uncleanse everything so be fucking careful

Early wiccans made up the bullshit of the Law of 3, the Rede, etc, because they were shitty people who were terrified of being rightfully cursed

Never do a knot spell you can't untie

You can untie any knot spell with scissors

Witchcraft isn't an aesthetic; the most powerful witches don't look like witches and the ones who look most like witches rarely know what the fuck they're doing

Never underestimate the power of a grid

Scrapbook paper will take your spell from 0 to 60

Concrete powder in a gas tank is much more effective than sugar in a gas tank

You can practice any religion, or no religion, and be a witch

Turtles are always a good sign

Crows will be your friend for peanuts, but they WILL eat hummingbirds

Witchcraft is science with some flair

Yeah signs from the universe do exist, but most things aren't Signs(tm)

#witchcraft #tips #hearth witch

[solitary-cosmos]

I love you witchblr but some of y’all are actually truly batshit. Like you tripped over the thought that “hey maybe there’s a sort of spiritual energy in the universe and maybe we call that magic” and stumbled headlong into “literally every minor occurrence is A Sign From The Gods and also science is fake and also if I get dizzy it’s a spirit trying to contact me and not even remotely related to my health”. 

Hot Take: Most things that happen are ordinary. If you find yourself not even considering a mundane explanation for something that’s happening or something you’re feeling, you maybe need to recognize that you’re getting overexcited about the idea of something Special taking place.

[solitary-cosmos]

as small of a gripe as it is

witchcraft books stop assuming that the reader is female challenge.

[solitary-cosmos]

DEVOTIONAL ACTS AND OFFERINGS TO ODIN

~May also serve as ideas for an altar~

Disclaimer: I have only worked with Odin briefly (for about 8 months a year ago), so while these come from experiences and research, they will not be as extensive as Fenrir's list. :)

Physical Offerings:

Feathers (Corvids typically, Raven, Crow, etc. I gave him a few hawk feathers at some point.)

Runes (As the God who discovered the Runes! I made my own rune set from natural clay and dedicated it to him, but you can also buy a set)

Drawings and Art of Him

Poetry or Stories you've Written

Candles and Incense (usually in muskier/more masculine scents)

Wine/Ale/Mead/Whiskey (Handle responsibly and legally for your country laws)

Bird Imagery (Occasionally you can find Crystal Ravens in some shops)

Spearheads and Arrowheads

A Drinking Horn

Draw his symbols (Triple Horn of Odin, the Valknot)

Red Meat, Smoked Salmon (It is said that his Wolves eat Odin's food, so meat-based offerings tend to be given)

Herbs: Wormwood, Mugwort, Ash Tree Leaves/Bark, Plaintain, Chamomile, Myrrh, Frankencence, Lavender, Valerian, Yew

Crystals: Onyx, Carnelian, Sodalite, Red Jasper, Citrine, Amethyst, Agate, Gold, Jet

Colors: Dark Blue, Gold, White, Grey, Black, Orange

Spiritual Offerings

Putting Effort into Learning (He is the God of Knowledge, after all)

Being accepting of those around you (Odin is the ALLfather, not the Somefather. Show respect and care towards people who might be different than you)

Speak out against injustice

Taking Leadership, even when it's difficult

Make Donations or Volunteer for Veterans or those who have served in War

Going on an Adventure/Travelling

Other

Give a simple offering/acknowledge his Wife and Children

Wednesday is said to be "Odin's Day" in some stores. Leave offerings or reach out to him on those days

Reminder to the White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi followers of Odin,

This is not a space for you.

#deity work #odin

[solitary-cosmos]

Reblog if you practice witchcraft and/or paganism and are also mentally ill or neurodivergent. I want to know that I’m not alone!

[solitary-cosmos]

✨ Simple Practices For Low Energy Days ✨

Carry a crystal!

Choose a crystal to carry, it's as easy as popping it into your pocket! Different crystals will have different energies and therefore effects so try and choose one best suited to your needs that day.

Burn incense or oils!

Another easy daily practice, you could light an incense and take a few minutes to meditate, or have a cleansing bath or shower with one lit! Like crystals different incenses and oils have different properties so try and find ones that work good for you.

Read or add to your Book Of Shadows

When you practice magick there's no end to learning, it's helpful to collect all the information you've gathered into one place; your book of Shadows! On low energy days it may be helpful to return to topics you've already covered and revise the information or add to them!

Use colours that match your intent

Colour magick can be a great easy practice on low energy days as there are so many ways you can utilise the everyday objects around you. You could paint your nails, wear something, use a colour palate in your artwork, write with a coloured pen or use colours in your makeup.

Use bay leaves to manifest

Bay leaves are very easy to use as manifestation tools, you can simply write the things you want to attract onto a leaf and burn it. On lower energy days you could write affirmations onto the leaf and burn to attract positivity.

[solitary-cosmos]

🔥🔮🕯😂🙌🏼👄🥰👄🙌🏼😂🕯🔮🔥

a high energy emoji spell.

may your week have the most positive vibes.

only highs. no lows.

like to charge. reblog to cast.

[solitary-cosmos]

Bring Business Jar Spell

From my grimoire.

For when you want that extra boost for your small business. Take heed, it does take time to manifest.

What You Need

peppermint (money)

cinnamon (success, prosperity)

irish moss (good fortune)

business card

business/money sigil

green candle

amazonite

jar

If you cast a circle or ask a deity or spirit to join you, do it now. Light the candle and write the sigil on the back of the business card. Hold the card between your palms and charge it with your intent. Fold it once, toward you, and place it in the jar.

As you add each herb, hold your hands over the jar and charge them with your intent. Be specific in what you ask them to add to your spell:

“I ask the pepperment lend its energies to this working to help bring me money” and so on.

When you are ready, hold the amazonite in your hands and do the same thing:

“I ask that amazonite lend its energies to this working and help me to attract new customers and orders to my business.”

When you are finished, put the lid on the jar and seal it with the wax. Pass your dominant had over the finished jar, clockwise, to finish the spell.

Thank any energies you asked to join you.

Place the jar in the space that you do most of your business.

[solitary-cosmos]

🔥🔮🕯😂🙌🏼👄🥰👄🙌🏼😂🕯🔮🔥

a high energy emoji spell.

may your week have the most positive vibes.

only highs. no lows.

like to charge. reblog to cast.

[solitary-cosmos]

🌲Yuletide Simmer Pot🌲

I know I’m a few days early but I wanted to welcome the season in a little earlier than usual; plus I wanted to do some spell work too after the week I’ve had at work so yeah!

❄️ Ingredients ❄️

❄️A handful of cranberries for Abundance & Love ❄️A few bay leaves for Protection & Manifestation  ❄️Several orange slices for Luck & Prosperity ❄️4 cinnamon sticks for Success & Prosperity  ❄️3 tbsps. of whole cloves for more Protection & Clarity ❄️A whole red delicious apple in slices for Beauty & Wisdom ❄️A few pine branches for Cleansing & Protection

#yule #yuletide #simmer pot