Day: November 15, 2019

Time became an issue for me this week. I was busy writing Monday´s blog post, I had a huge amount of notes for my novel to deal with, and then the mundane world hit me with a major anxiety attack on Tuesday morning.

I decided therefore not to celebrate the Full Moon this time and it was a great decision, for it took me hours to get better after the anxiety attack. I have made it a rule not to do any sort of magickal workings when having a rotten day.

But I lit some candles, and I watched the Full Moon or rather watched what was there to watch, for it was a cloudy day and night on Tuesday. But I went to my witch´s den and sat there for a while, just two lit candles, the little wise, old dog and me. What matters is that I did something, however short it was.

Sometimes even with the best of intentions time is an issue. The mundane world takes its toll on us to be effective, smart and yet having the surplus energy to do something for both our loved ones and ourselves.

Witchcraft is by no means a time-saving project to hasten through as if the Devil himself was chasing you. Witchcraft takes it time, it needs to be nourished and taken care of with love, and it is like slow-cooking food.

Often, spells take more time than the usual five to ten minutes to put the ingredients together and say a prayer or an inspirational text. At the moment, I´m working with several spells that need long-term patience for them to work properly. One of them is for this blog to do well.

In today´s blog post, I´ll try to show you that it is possible to have a satisfying life with witchcraft, even though you are busy with other important things on a daily basis. Even with only a little time left for anything but the mundane aspects of life, there are little things that can easily be done.

Personally, I absolutely hate to have to hurry to get things done. It can really trash my whole day. As an early retired, I do have time. But to stay happy and content with life, I need to fill my days with something other than providing for myself.

So I practice witchcraft, write, am creative throughout the day. Yes, a witch has a busy life from time to time. I also need to take a look at the watch now and then. But I have created quite a few mini-rituals that don´t take up much time on a busy day.

The key is to dedicate yourself to do something, also if that something is only lighting a candle or two. Another is to acknowledge that there never will be time enough and to prioritize your wants and needs. Generally, I work with 5-10 minutes or 20-30 minutes intervals.

Think small, think easy

I have a thing with lists. They are easy to make and use, and you get to follow your progress when you strike out one point at a time. What follows is my list of ideas for your inspiration that is easily adapted to your preferences:

• Think witchcraft when cleaning your home, by e.g. adding some herbs to the cleaning water and saying a prayer of release when throwing out the water.
• Grow kitchen herbs, whereof many have magickal correspondences, in the window sill. You can use them in food or for magickal purposes, and they are ready at hand when you need them.
• Cook with magickal intentions and stir clockwise/anti-clockwise to seal e.g. a spell about healing for your loved ones and yourself.
• Take your dog for a walk, or walk alone and feel the elements around you work together in a delicate balance. Let thoughts and feelings be released through a silent prayer of gratitude.
• Use aromatherapy for the little extra luxury of a peaceful bath after a hard days`s/night´s work and wear your favorite perfume/have a handkerchief with a few drops of oils in your bag/purse.
• Pick a Tarot/Lenormand card in the morning and trust it as your inner guidance of the day. This is also a great way to get to know the cards quickly.
• Place crystals in the window sills and let them re-charge or use them to protect your home. Be careful to choose crystals that can tolerate the Sun´s rays or water, if used in a house plant.
• Get into the habit of journaling your thoughts and ideas the moment they occur and create a practical organizational routine so that your notes are sorted at once instead of making clutter.
• Create a portable mini-altar to use outside of your home or when you don´t have the time to set up your ritual altar.
• Meditate daily over a cup of your favorite beverage, lit candles. and aromatherapy/incense to relax after a rough day. Make e.g. a spell when you are preparing tea/coffee.

These are the ideas I use myself on a busy day. It keeps me grounded, it keeps my love to witchcraft alive, and it keeps me calm in that I know that I have witchcraft with me in whatever I do and wherever I go.

I´m a practical kind of witch who never leave anything to chance. I prefer working with witchcraft several places in my home for my work changes with my mood of the day. When I´m busy, I tend to forget about time.

But time is important for me because it is so easy nowadays to get lost in the world of mundane issues that need immediate attention. Often it is little, annoying matters that end up being the content of the day, and it is due to very impractical solutions from the authorities who state that life is easier with it.

Believe me, it is not. But witchcraft is possible even after such annoyances.

Think routines, think creative

Be creative and practical at the same time and pre-arrange a few setups around your home on a day where you have the necessary time to do it. Then all the daily mini-rituals will be easy in the sense that you will save time to practice witchcraft with little efforts even on the busiest of days:

• Place candle holders and/or LED candles strategically in your home so that you quickly can arrange a pleasant mood for your mini-ritual.
• Write down short prayers/inspirational words for the mini-rituals so that you can create a daily routine from memorizing them.
• Only use a few ingredients so it is always easy to gather them for the ritual and keep them handy in small containers. This can also serve as temporary altars.
• Write down your witchy supply list next to your mundane grocery list. Often, many ingredient can be found in the local grocery shop or second-hand store.
• Include your home in your witchcraft practice. A sacred place is what you make of it, and magick can be done everywhere in a home.
• Place notebooks and your Book of Shadows at a central place you can reach from everywhere of your home, no matter what else you are doing. This way good ideas become reality.
• Decorate your home with witchy items you have created yourself. This is also a great way to be artistic and creative even on a day with little time for witchcraft.
• Check out the possibilities on the Internet and then go to the local dollar store or second-hand shop to get good quality stuff for a reasonable amount of money.
• Use what you already have to create a magickal home and make it an ongoing project only to own what you need instead of owning something for the sake of owning it.
• Less is definitely more when it comes to witchcraft. Fewer things also make it easier to use symbolism in your magickal workings.

These are the routines and guidelines I use myself on a day with fewer hours than I would wish there were. It keeps me organized, it keeps my mind from wandering off to mundane issues, it keeps me to my path of witchcraft.

I prefer to be as organized as possible, for I´m not at ease with messy details when I´m working with witchcraft on one of the busy days. It has to be easy attainable for it to work for me. It also needs to be the small miracles that make my day for me to be able to maintain my daily practice.

It should preferably not be a task as with the mundane chores. It should be a pleasure, a daily joy to work with witchcraft. And if the basics are sorted out, everything becomes so much easier in the long run. It has worked for me so that I today almost every day practice some kind of witchcraft.

But, like everybody else, I sometimes just relax and let go.

Today´s mini-ritual and reflections about time

Today, as I have been writing this blog post, I have worked with lit candles in the window sill, I have cleared my creative den with white sage incense, and I have been on a long walk with the little wise, old dog in stormy and rainy weather.

Time flies so quickly, especially when you grow older. I once believed that when I got retired, I would have more than enough time to do what I really want. The faith is transformed into the fact that I got retired much earlier than I expected and that time flies whatever you do to try to tame it.

I keep myself busy. for I simply cannot sit still and ponder whole days about my life´s challenges. There has to be some kind of action, life is too short not to be fully enjoyed, and all of a sudden time became an issue to me.

Physically, I can´t do as much as I would like to do due to my osteoarthritis and degenerated disc disease in my lower back. Mentally, I have days where I can only lie down and try to relax as much as possible due to my bipolar disorder and chronic depression.

But still, I´m often busy getting my daily chores done as the first thing in the morning, for I have other important things to do like writing my novel and practicing witchcraft on a daily basis. And then there are all the other interesting creative projects to finish.

Today, it has taken me the whole day to write this blog post. I have taken more pauses than I normally do, for I have had a couple of busy days with anything but witchcraft. I have used the pauses to work with some of my daily mini-rituals.

Now I feel much better having worked just a little bit with witchcraft. It is as if every negative issue this week has gone up in smoke and disappeared with the incense smoke this afternoon. Now the candles have gone out, it is time to reminding you of my next blog post about writing.

On Monday I´ll show you how I came from the idea of writing a novel to actually do something about is in a serious way. So serious in fact that is has become quite a rival to my love for witchcraft. Therefore, I´m happy to have made quick mini-rituals, so I still can maintain a daily witchcraft routine.

Now the time is closing in for a night off from any work, writing, and witchcraft. I would like to wish you a pleasant weekend, dear readers. May it enlighten your dreams so that they may become alive right in front of you and make you happy and proud. So it is.

Now it is time for me to close the laptop, turn off the electric lights and go to our living room where my family awaits me. Thank you, Universe, for everything.