An Explanation:Automatic Writing is when you let an spirit/entity take a hold of your hand and move it to write, scribble, draw and communicate. It’s a (usually) safe way to communicate with spirits, as long as you stay calm and don’t let fear take over.
A Fair Warning:
Fear is food for spirits. Feed them, and they’ll get stronger. Stay serene. Automatic writing takes practice and might not work on the first try.
How to:
If you want to be very safe, surround yourself with a circle of salt.
A lot of people prefer to do automatic writing in the nude, however, you do whatever makes you comfortable.
Spirits like to come out at night, so you might be more successful then. Now, to the actual writing.
Light a candle (preferably new and black for protection, but white’ll do) near where you’ll be sitting. Sit comfortably. Some people prefer to do so half laying back. Take your pen in whichever hand you want (maybe best in the hand you’re not predominant in? Since you body will have less control over the writing in that case.). Place it on the blank page. Close your eyes. Enter a meditative state. Calm your mind. Let go of all thoughts and just breathe. Relax your arm entirely so that you have no muscular control over it. If your hand starts writing, let it do so. Don’t open your eyes. Don’t try and see what they wrote, what they drew, anything. Eyes closed, relax. If you feel yourself starting to take control of your hand, let go of the pen and wait until you’ve relinquished all hold on the arm that’s writing. Don’t try and understand, interpret or control. Let it flow. Once you feel that it is over, open your eyes, put the pen away, thank the spirit, say goodbye, turn the candle off, throw it away and then, you may look at what was written. By candle light, no danger should come. If you feel unsafe or that something “evil” or “bad” has taken a hold of your arm (and it frightens you), just request help from beings of light to protect you, or that your guides come and help you. If you want to communicate with a particular person, you may try by having an image of them or an object that belonged to them with you, but it’s a bit like chatroulette, you could get anyone from anywhere. And they might not even know how to write or speak your language, Remember that.
Bonus:
Samhain is coming up! It’s a great time to get into spirit work, channeling and such. The veil between our worlds are thinner.
Some writers have been said to write entire books through this method. And some have had lengthy conversations with spirits this way (once you’re good enough, you can keep you eyes open and ask questions.) Either way, stay safe. Have fun, and share your experiences with me!
So, while I was sweating my butt off today on the treadmill, I set my mind on how I could use witchcraft to help improve my gym experience.
1)Enchant anything you think you could possibly forget. Mp3, water bottle, socks, headphones, ponytail holders, deodorant, etc, etc
2) Write sigils on the tongues of your shoes and on the tags of your clothes. Hell, even sew them into your socks if need be. Sigils for focus, energy, and motivation could help you immensely.
3) Make sachets for energy, focus, etc. Hang them in your gym locker, stuff them in your gym bag, make a mini one and shove it down your bra. It’ll help your bag and locker smell better and help increase whatever you need to increase.
4) Annoint yourself with oil before working out. (Remember basic oil safety, though!)
5) Someone constantly sitting on machines and texting and getting in your way? If you’re for it, give them a little curse. If not, maybe bless them with a bit more motivation.
6) Witches have the lowdown on all the good things herbs can do for you. Use that knowledge to make kickass pre and post workout smoothies. Bonus points if you’re a kitchen witch.
7) In fact, use your knowledge and power to make a yummy and blessed post work out meal to help heal your body and keep your energy flowing.
8) Take a healing bath after your work out. Heal yourself and mediate on what went good during your workout and what went not so well to plan your next session.
9) Creeps creeping on you? Shield yourself with protective armour and wards to make those annoying jerks back the frick off.
10) Use your knowledge and skill to make soothing salves to calm aches and pains.
So being a practicing witch is college can be challenging, especially if you live on campus, so I’ve decided to make a list of things I do to stay connected with my spiritual side.
You can make this recipe at any time of year by substituting Butternut Squash or Sweet Potato instead of pumpkin. Their texture and taste are almost the same when flavored and cooked.
This makes one 10" x 1.5" Pumpkin Pie.
To make the pumpkin puree:
Cut a medium-sized pumpkin into wedges and discard all the seeds.Cook the pumpkin in the microwave on high power for 12 minutes. Scrape off all the cooked flesh and purée it quickly in a blender until smooth.
(If you are using canned pumpkin purée you’ll need to spoon it onto a clean tea-towel and squeeze away as much liquid as possible.)
You’ll need 400g/14oz Pumpkin Purée for the pie.
To make the sweet pastry:
Ingredients
8.5oz (250g) plain flour
3.5oz (100g) butter
2.5oz (75g) light brown sugar
1 medium egg
A little cold water
3.5oz (100g) crushed gingernut biscuits
Method
Rub the butter into the flour until it’s like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix in.Break in the egg and quickly pull the pastry together adding a little cold water if needed.Roll it out and line a floured 10" pie dish (about 1.5" deep). Trim off any extra pastry.
Crumb the gingernut biscuits in a blender or by placing them in a sandwich bag and rolling them with a rolling pin until fine.Sprinkle the biscuit-crumb over the pastry base, pat it down and refrigerate until needed.
How to make the filling:
Ingredients
3 medium eggs
5.5oz (160g) light brown sugar
1x 15 fl oz (410g) can of evaporated milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
A pinch of ground cloves
½ tsp salt
14oz (400g) pumpkin purée
1 fl oz (35ml) Irish Whiskey
Method
Break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk them well by hand. Add the brown sugar and mix in for 30 seconds until they’re thick and creamy.Add the can of evaporated milk and mix well for about 30 seconds.
Add the pumpkin purée along with all the flavorings and mix everything together until smooth.Lastly, add the whiskey and stir it into the filling.
I have no chef logic behind the mixing and stirring by hand. Sometimes it’s just relaxing and therapeutic to slow down and do it all by hand!
Carefully pour the mix into your pie dish and tap the side of the dish a few times to help raise the air bubbles to the top. Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven at 160°C / 320°F for 40 minutes.
Check the pie as you would when testing a sponge cake. It should be soft, but responsive to the touch when it’s cooked – giving you a little spring in the center when gently pushed down. Leave the pie aside, in the dish to set, until cold.
To turn it out, put a flat plat on top, turn it over, tap the bottom of the baking tin and lift up gently. Now put your serving plate on the bottom of the pie and turn it back over. Top with pecans, if desired.
Irish Whiskey: Change, cleansing, charging or heating things up
Pumpkin pie in general is really great for bringing prosperity, healing and love. The addition of Irish whiskey specifically is great for bringing about change to a relationship or charging up a new one. Basically… you can make this a kickass love spell that you can eat! Enjoy!
using the element of fire, you can use this technique for spells with a special need for anger, lust, passion, deconstruction. fire is the element of major change.
🔥
gather: a wooden, unpainted pencil and a candle.
🔥
keep a glass of water nearby
🔥
quickly write the sigil or message
🔥
practice fire safety and common sense
🔥
caution! handling fire is dangerous, and to be done with extreme care
Whenever you’re writing, and you’re about to introduce a male character, think to yourself “Can I replace him with a female or non-binary character?”
If the answer is yes, do it. Fill your writing with women as often as possible.
It’s amazing how people disagree with this. It’s amazing that some people are so against putting more women in books. If gender doesn’t matter people, then I call for removing all men from books. Let’s never have another cis man in a book every again.
Also, to someone who I won’t name, who care if you’ve published two novels? I’m published. And you know who has three published novels? That woman who wrote Fifth Shades of Gray. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve published. Hitler was published even.
well. I kinda do disagree. like, if I am writing something and gender actually matters. But on the whole of the subject, def more women in literature.
If gender matters, then by all means keep your characters male! I know I have a story where a few characters absolutely cannot be female. But I was planning another story the other night, and I thought “And then the main character’s brother should be introduced.” But after a minute I decided “Why not his sister?” And it absolutely won’t affect the plot, and I get to have another woman in my story.
I think the key phrase that people forgot was “if”. IF you can change the gender of a character without it affecting their story arc/plot/etc, then do it. You were never trying to say that you HAD to change their gender and make everyone a woman/nonbinary, but IF you can, go for it! Especially if you have few women/nonbinary characters in the story already. Having a wider variety of characters in general is always better.
If possible, go for more ethnicities/sexualities too!
People seem to think that making your characters more diverse will be shoehorning
A list I comprised of things to do when you’re feeling passionate about your witchiness, but are not looking to do spells or rituals etc! I get this all the time, so I thought perhaps others do to! Some will be more basic then others, but I hope to inspire! Feel free to send in suggestions to my ask box for me to add to the list! I’ll update this whenever I can!
Collect some interesting sticks (from the ground, preferably) and wrap them in colourful string or wire, perhaps add feathers or crystals! Make into a wand? An altar decoration?
Write witch-inspired poetry or stories, or create art based on your craft.
Take a walk in nature and listen and look out for your native birds and other wildlife! Keep an ongoing record of what you see, perhaps in your BOS/grimoire? Or make a chart of wildlife you expect to see in your area, with identification methods and pictures which you’ve drawn yourself or taken from books/internet?
You can always add more to your BOS/Grimoire! (We’re all good at putting it off, through fear of “messing it up”) This video, was a great help for me!
Create a witchy wardrobe by going through your clothes and making mysterious outfits! Or visit charity shops and find inexpensive pieces?
There’s always more research to do and books to read! Check out your local libraries’ collection of books on the occult, witchcraft, paganism etc or even broader subjects like herbs and crystals?
Help your local community look after nature! Collect rubbish, volunteer at animal shelters etc?
Make sigils! Add them to your BOS? Draw them on yourself (with correct ink) or on paper? Store them to charge later?
Write spiritual chants or songs for your craft! Use an instrument, if you play one?
Create mystical or natural jewellery! Or maybe a pendant? Here’s an idea
Terrariums are a beautiful way to keep a bit of nature inside your bedroom! Here’s some instructions
Create ornamental or potent crystal arrangements! Perhaps on your altar?
Decorate or redecorate your altar space to match the season!
Gardening or planting! Water your indoor/outdoor plants? Have they got enough sunlight?
Make leaf art! Press them, draw on them, cut them into shapes, arrange them in patterns?
Join a club or class for anything new that interests you! Eg, glass blowing? Pottery? Cooking? Cards? Skills which you could easily incorporate into your craft!
If you work with deities, why not give them an offering? Something physical like a food offering or perhaps something less physical like a poem?
Decorate a notebook cover, plant pot, vase, plate etc or even your body (with suitable ink) with symbols and sigils which promote an emotion or action! Luck? To grow well? To prosper?
They’ll always be a baby witch online you can offer advice to! Or perhaps in real life at a local spiritual event?
Make a chart on the identification of clouds! Because why not? Impress your friends with your wealth of information on clouds!
Plan out your altar space or ritual for the next sabbat!
Dry and bottle useful herbs, plants and flowers you might need for a spell or ritual coming up! Or perhaps as a gift, charged with helpful energies? Perhaps make ordained labels?
Create a dream diary! Bonus points for trying to work out their meaning!
Create a witchy music playlist! For meditation? Or magickal workings?
Collect rainwater, because they’ll always be a use! In spells? Watering your indoor plants without using a tap? Some ideas
Learn a new skill within the craft, eg divination methods, herbalism etc
Visit charity shops to find inexpensive hidden gems! Interesting old books? Jewellery? Possible athames/bolines and chalices! You’ll be supporting a charity too!
Make a wild flower section in your garden to encourage bees and insects to thrive, depending on the time of year!
Or even a herb garden!
Find some witch shops near you! They’ll be thankful for the business and you never know who you’ll meet!
Find a tree close to you and use it to observe the Wheel Of The Year! Try to not pick an evergreen for the changes will be harder to note. If it’s in your garden or a public place, perhaps meditate by it? Sketch it’s changes? Research its magickal attributes, folklore or medicinal properties? What Deity is associated with it? It might even provide you wand! (Concept borrowed from Kate West’s The Real Witches’ Handbook)
I don’t have an altar. The word ‘altar’ indicates a surface/structure on which offerings or sacrifices are made. What I have is a workspace.
My workspace acts as a locus and focus for my craft that is accessible and useful and -also- inspiring. If you want to incorporate any art, craft or skill into your life, having a dedicated space for it makes all the difference. If you’re lucky, you may have a whole room for your work, but a desk, table, the top of a dresser or even a shelf work just fine.
A few tips for creating your workspace;
Whatever space you have chosen, make sure it’s clean. Cleanse the space both physically and magically. You should probably do this regularly, unless cobwebs are a part of your aesthetic. 😉
Figure out what you need the space for and how much ‘clear’ surface is required. You may use your space for preparing ingredients, working spells, performing divination (is there room for tarot spreads?) writing in your grimoire, etc. Before you start adding ‘stuff’ leave enough room for these tasks.
What to put on your workspace? It can be as cluttered or minimalist as you like. To start with; any tools you actually use in practice (which aren’t just decorative or symbolic), the ingredients you work with regularly, books you consult frequently, your grimoire/notebook, divinatory tools, supplies including paper, candles, matches, thread, ink etc.
Once you’ve got the necessities down, you can decorate to your heart’s content. Things I have included in my own, or seen on other witch’s workspaces; candles, stones, feathers, bottles, jars, dried herbs, living plants, shells, bones, rock salt, flowers, incense, mortar and pestle, small cauldrons, branches, bells, scales, crystals, boxes, scrying mirrors, a compass.
Avoid symmetry! This is not an altar or shrine, do not lay everything out perfectly in matching pairs. It doesn’t have to be symbolic, it has to be accessible and useful. If you create the ‘perfect’ arrangement, you won’t want to mess it up.
Use all of the space, that means above and below your surface too. Put up small shelves to store your stones, or a spice rack for herbs. Hang drying ingredients or pin up charts and diagrams. Store bulky things underneath if possible. Use candelabras to give more height and light.
Change it up! I don’t mean with seasonal decorations, but based on what you’re using/working on at the moment, what inspires you, what you found on your walk last Thursday etc. If it feels too cluttered, remove stuff, if it feels too empty, go scavenging.
This is not a ‘sacred space’, it can be beautiful and inspiring, but it is the equivalent of the artist’s studio, the cook’s kitchen, the carpenter’s bench, the writer’s desk. It’s yours, it’s there to be used, enjoy!
to some witches (not all) the time, day of week, junction of zodiac signs, or moon phase makes for better casting, and even strengthens their spells, here’s a quick summary of the best sort of spells to cast then
teakepp 