S'Witch On; S'witch Off

The Requirement of Energy in Spellwork.

Thanks to “witch tok” there is a bunch of misinformation floating around the witch community. The most detrimental of these is by far that simply putting crystals and herbs in a jar is spell work. This is COMPLETELY FALSE. All a person is doing when they put stuff in a jar and seal it with candle wax is literally playing with rocks, plants, and candle wax. This is not witchcraft. This is WISHcraft. All a person is doing when they do this is making a mere wish.

To properly perform a real spell, witches must manipulate the energy around them and within themselves. It is rather a hard concept to comprehend, but we are going to do our best to explain the process so you can finally have a spell that works!

The first and most important thing you can do is ground yourself before any sort of spell work. Grounding is what witches do to bring their energies to the earth and then draw pure energy from the earth. The process is simple but it does take practice.

Find a comfortable place on the ground and sit with your legs crossed with your palms facing upward on your knees. The following visualization is a tool witches can use to focus their energies into a physical place. This visualization is a tool to train you to ground on command by quickly reaching the meditative state for centering, the next step after grounding. After you’ve practiced with this visualization technique, you’ll find yourself needing it less and less because you will develop a mastery in grounding where you are able to effortlessly channel your energies into the earth and replace it with pure earth energy. Note. This can be done with any element, but this exercise makes it easier to visualize for practice purposes.

Once you’re comfortable, relax your muscles. Feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper into the earth’s embrace. Sense your energy flowing through your body. Bring your energy to your root chakra and hold it there. Visualize roots coming from the base of your spine and going deep into the earth. Send your energy through your newly formed tendrils and allow that energy to be released into the earth.

After your energy has been depleted, allow your tendrils to draw the energy of the earth into your root chakra. Hold your energy there. That’s all there is to grounding.

Centering

With the earth’s energy held in your root. Open your next chakra, the sacral chakra, by moving the energy upward to 3 inches below your navel. Think about your sexuality, the sensations you feel when your aroused, and basically any positive feelings you have toward sex. Be sure to leave enough energy in your root chakra to keep it open. You should feel a slight pressure in your root chakra, and when your sacral chakra has opened you will feel a slight pressure on your lower back. If you feel any pain, cease the exercise immediately. Release the energy back into the earth, drink lots of water, rest, and restart the exercise at a later time.

Next, you’ll want to move onto your solar plexus chakra and so on and so on until you reach your crown chakra. Information on meditating specific chakras is readily available on the internet so we are not going to reinvent the wheel on this one.

Once you have opened your crown chakra, you will have reached the meditative state necessary for energy manipulation in witchcraft. You will feel an out of body experience. You will feel your spiritual self as separate from your physical self. You’ll feel a bridge of energy between the two connecting your physical body to your chakras. If this is the end of your exercise, release any excess energy into the earth for if you do not it could cause your chakras to become overactive. Leave just enough to keep them open. For those of you moving on to spell work, see below.

Cleansing

Cleansing is also very important. Never skip these first 3 steps. They are 100% necessary to spell casting. Cleansing involves neutralizing the energy around you. Luckily for you, we’ve already pulled pure energy from the earth, so we need not cleanse our energy another way. If you find yourself needing a personal energy cleanse, you can simply inhale smoke and imagine it burning away impurities. Simple. Easy. Efficient when you’re in a bind. For now, we can skip internal cleansing, since we already have replaced our energy with clean energies.

To cleanse an area there are a bunch of ways to accomplish this. The most popular by far, is a smoke cleanse. Unless you are a Wiccan, there is not a set ritual to follow. We literally just wave the smoke around and sense positive and negative energies that need neutralizing.

To sense energy, try practicing with the following exercise:

Close your eyes and reach your energy out into the room. Think of it like a spider web. When you hit any energy that isn’t neutral, you will feel a tingle in that direction. Using your energy, manipulate the smoke to cleanse the area. It is that simple!

A note on “cultural appropriation.” Witch tok and its nonsense has tons of gate keepers saying that witches of non-ethnic origin cannot do certain practices. While true, these witch tokkers have confused the actual ritual with practices that all witches use. For example, the most popular gate by far is the use of white sage and palo santo to use in a smoke cleanse. Keepers of this particular gate argue that smudging is a closed Native American ritual in some tribes. This, while true, has confused the ritual with the components of the ritual. Smudging is a very specific ritual in which a Native American witch or shaman will draw the energies of their ancestral spirits. To do this, they have to cleanse the area. Native Americans do not only use white sage and palo santo to cleanse, but in a smudging ritual they choose to use white sage and/or palo santo because it creates an inviting environment for ancestral spirits. That being explained, it is not the use of white sage and palo santo which is cultural appropriation, but the calling upon Native American ancestral spirits that is a HUGE no no. Just don’t do it. If you want to smoke cleanse as we have described above, do it, but since white sage and palo santo are endangered either consider obtaining them ethically or using a different herb to smoke cleanse. For example, we use rosemary because it keeps positive energies around.

Another way to cleanse is through sound. We like to play our orchina, flute or steel drum, but you can also use a bell or music. You can even dance and send your clean energy out with each step. Keep in mind dancing will deplete your energy source, so be sure your spell does not require a great deal of power. You can use your energy to create a personal shield as well and expel energy that way.

To create a personal shield:

Start by grounding and centering as described above. This shield can be used in lieu of casting a circle unless you’re a Wiccan, in which a circle is a pivotal part of spell casting since you’ll be working with deities. Deities appreciate a well-cast circle.

To cast, simply sit with your legs criss-crossed and your palms facing upward on your knees. Pull your energy from your center and into your hands. You will feel your fingers tingle if you have done this properly. Visualize that energy creating a pea sized ball of energy. As slowly as you can increase the size of the energy ball till you have two beach balls overlapping. Combine into one ball by bringing your palms to face each other. Expand your arms and continue to grow the energy between them. Bring your palms above your head eventually and pull the energy around you. Ta Da! Personal shield accomplished!

Coming Up

Our next post will be more geared toward the more advanced new witch, but feel free to give it a read. We will focus on energy manipulation in spell work. I.e. how to use the energy of objects to strengthen the power of your spells and actually accomplish your goals.

Thanks for reading babes! THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BE A WITCH!!!!