This week I´ve spent studying aromatherapy and magickal journal prompts. I´ve also been busy preparing my Full Moon Ritual, so that I only had to set up my altars and take my ritual bath before the ritual. I prefer to plan on the day of the ritual, but knowing that I for a longer period have had a lot of minor anxiety attacks and currently am fighting the side effects of menopause, I´ve decided to plan a little bit every day up to the ritual instead.
I´ve also planned to write something about blogging, creativity and mastering anxiety. At a Full Moon it is typical to celebrate achieved intentions. I have conquered my writer´s block for this time, I´m getting in a better mood day by day now which makes me want to be creative again and make some homemade must-haves, and I´m able to more than partly control my anxiety attacks.
I celebrate it by writing about it. I write with a lit candle and the sound of the rain outside. To me celebrating the Full Moon is an appropriate time to journal about what has been going on lately. And I also believe I can accomplish that here on this blog.
Without the personal touch, the feeling of home, and the sense of harmony, this would not be my blog about daily witchcraft. So often there will be descriptions, visual support and personal ups and downs.
My releases in the ritual yesterday certainly concerned mundane matters. To shed what no longer serves you can be a tough process. I do most of it in my shadow work, but I try to include a releasing aspect in as many rituals as possible, because I want to life a happy life without too many worries unsolved.
Therefore I need to let go of negativity from low self-esteem during an anxiety attack and the physical and mental troubles getting older as a woman. Spiritually, however, I ´m growing and learning important lessons about the necessity of self-forgiveness and self-care. And for these purposes magickal rituals are ideal.
The Full Moon Ritual
A couple of hours into the FulI Moon of Aquarius yesterday I called upon the elements to watch over my ritual with the intention of a healing and cleansing ritual. I also wanted to sit and meditate quietly to music before my magickal workings.
My magickal workings in this ritual were limited to a consecration of my new athame, a Full Moon blessing and 2 Tarot spreads. My husband needed some help due to feelings of stress lately, so I prioritized his needs before anything else. Therefore, I helped him to make a mojo bag with fresh lavender and crystals to carry when feeling stress and a mantra to read until feeling calm again.
The Tarot spreads were strong reminders of the fact that I need to take time to heal from a tough life filled with both adventures and setbacks. And I need to let go of the past more than once, because some things just last longer. So I concluded that I need to continue working with this blog in my pace and that daily witchcraft is many different things, depending on the conditions of the day and the moment. It is definitely both witchy and mundane issues to take good care of.
The ritual ended with a silent and private meditation to some soothing and calming music, where I let the music carry away my releases from the time since my latest Full Moon ritual. This was also my way of working with my New Moon intention about releasing more negativity from especially my physical and mental ailments.
We had planned to light a bonfire in the garden, but just as the meditation music faded out we heard the sound of the rain thundering down in a big cloudburst. It was like the Universe answered our workings with a calming and soothing atmosphere that was much welcome.
We have both felt a lot better since the ritual, so I´m pretty convinced that magick is a real thing, to describe it, however, is quite another story.
Witchcraft studies during the week
- Aromatherapy
- Magickal journal prompts
I picked the subject aromatherapy, because to wear a blend as a perfume, sleeping with a few drops of essential oils on the pillow and massage is helpful with anxiety disorder and osteoarthritis. It is also fun and pleasant to work with my own blends of scents and carrier oils.
Aromatherapy has been used since ancient times, so it can be a comprehensive and longer study that needs to be divided up into smaller parts. At the moment I´m researching blends for my ailments that can be made from what I already have of essential oils. I never use undiluted essential oils or eat or drink them, and I´m always careful to test the oils on a small part of my skin before e.g. a massage.
I don´t make essential oils myself, because the process is too complicated and expensive for me. So instead I´ve bought a box with common essential oils, and occasionally I buy one as a supplement, but only if I know I´m going to actually use it for aromatherapy or ritual purposes.
Magickal oils will be my next study project in witchcraft. I like fragrances, and I often use either incense or oil burners to create a comfortable atmosphere when working with any kind of witchcraft.
Magickal journal prompts for a writing day during the Full Moon period could be :
- What is the most challenging part of working with witchcraft, where I am as a witch today ?
- How can I work more with witchcraft on a daily basis ?
- What does witchcraft mean to me ?
The most challenging part of working with witchcraft is to make more out of less. It is necessary when living on budget not to buy as much as I sometimes want to do. It takes a little longer to plan e.g a spell or a ritual, because I often have to check for substitutes to essential oils and crystals.
But at the same time it is also a wonderful way of being able to be truly creative. I get to use what I already have, and I can work with one of my favourite issues, to use my knowledge of where to get exactly that, knowledge for a specific purpose. This is the most magickal part of witchcraft to me. To work with energies, to push and pull, following the Moon´s phases New Moon, Waxing Quarter Moon, Full Moon and Waning Quarter Moon.
I can try to meditate 20 minutes daily in my witch´s den. It is only to actually go in there and bring a pot of chai tea. I will make a daily tea ritual with aromatherapy, reading in my favourite books and relaxing myself to soothing and inspiring music. This will be my creative twist next week to show in writing and with photos what I can make physically out of that challenge, including writing.
To me, witchcraft is a way of life, a path to ancient knowledge and a mental sanctuary distinct from the modern world. I need some sacred space around me to manage the also modern term stress in daily life.
Witchcraft makes me relax and express gratitude to the Universe for the much I already have and the inner peace that is the result of my work with witchcraft on a daily basis. So yes, witchcraft makes me happy.
Blogging, creativity and mastering anxiety
It has been of great value to me to only post once a week. It gives me more time to consider the quality of the content, and it has also been a rewarding challenge to write about 500 words a day. I´ll use more journal prompts in the future to help me avoid long periods of writer´s block, because just by sitting down and write to a prompt makes me want to write more. And then suddenly, like had the Universe tweaked life a tiny bit, I discover that I´ve written a couple of pages.
Pages to edit that is. But there is something stimulating in writing without editing the first draft, before it is written in its full length. It forces me to think twice and thrice, and I believe it makes me a better writer. To write is both skills and passion. Although passion is a great drive to me, I also think that achieving new skills is something that is necessary throughout life.
I plan to read something about writing next week. And to read something new daily. Reading is just as important in writing as the writing part itself. Everybody needs some kind of inspiration. And I like to read and learn from other people. There is always new knowledge to attain, if you only dare to will it. By willing I refer to the fact that reading today needs to be critical, because there are so much nonsense and gossiping about in the world today.
And it is boring. I´d rather write longer posts than just headlines and the latest scandal somewhere. Fair enough, for those who are into that, I´m definitely not. Therefore when I study something, witchcraft or mundane issues, I always read with a critical outlook, looking for quality, not quantity. And I use several sources, not just the one and only.
Creativity has been writing for quite a long period lately. Due to osteoarthritis, due to a creative block and due to not having the inspiration in the moment, I´ve resorted to writing instead. It has helped me getting through some of the worse days, and it forced me to try to be creative about my writer´s block.
But today I´m going to colour some pages in my to-do notebook, and next week I´ll finish painting a picture that has been neglected long enough and cleanup my creative den, where I keep all the DIY stuff.
Mastering anxiety is as always of great concern to me. Recently, I´ve discovered that I have the ability to shut minor anxiety attacks down by reserving the anxiety moment for later that day, my 15 minutes of worry recycled. I either forget completely about it or I cry and laugh at myself for being extra sensitive during this strange, yet familiar transition to the Crone stage in life.
Prescription medicine can do many little chemical miracles today, but there will always be a small residue to handle myself. Again witchcraft is helping me with this real life aspect. I have fewer attacks during and after rituals, so I believe there is a healing effect of working with witchcraft. It is not the witchcraft itself alone, it is also the feeling of an inner calm that is difficult to describe in words.
As a result, I´m getting closer to mastering my anxiety. And as a creative project for next week I´ll make my own aromatherapy blends for anxiety and menopause.
So it is going to be a busy week, but I like to plan in the moment and why not in the moment of writing as well ? Writing is also many little rituals. Magick is what you make of it, sometimes it involves other people, sometimes it does not.
As a solitary witch I primarily work alone. However, in rituals I often have either my husband and my neighbours as guests as well as many visits from my philosophical cats Ozzy, Dizzy and Milo and my wise little dog Kvik.
But next week I´m going to work alone, except for the ideas for photography, where my husband is a great aid. It is also a new way of working with a blog, that there is some visual creativity as well as writing, and I need some time to learn how to make interesting pictures that supports the written material.
Conclusions
Concluding this week´s post, it has also been a productive writing week, and since I´ve worked actively with my New Moon intentions, I´ve been able to write both longer and better. There is still much to do, before this blog shows its full potential.
The time aspect is not as important to me at present moment. My ambitions are to write something worth reading, to learn slowly, but surely, and to enjoy the process as well. There is nothing in just doing what everybody else seems to be doing without at least giving it a try and create something unique and original.
I want to write quite some time, before I invest any kind of money in a blog. And 6-7 weeks are hardly enough to justify the money needed for optimizing this blog. I need to create quality content and feel that this is something for me to do in the long-term future.
With witchcraft it is not quite the same. It is a special way of living that means a lot more to me than I have words to describe. But I know that the magick is working, because it calms, soothes and nurtures the body, the mind and the soul. It can at times be a long and tiring journey, an uneasy path to follow because of this big unknown, does it actually work or not ?
It depends upon what you believe, it works if it was meant to work, it does not it if was not. I put my trust in Karma and rebirth, I love by the Moon and live by the Sun, and I´m proud not only naming me a witch, but also working as a witch on a daily basis.
Next week the Moon is in its waning and darkening phase. There will be some shadow work, if I feel fit for that, a lot of releasing and something extra that I´ll write about in my next blog post right after the ritual.
But for now, my writing for this week is over. I like the challenge 500 words a day, but I would also like to expand it a bit by adding the challenge of writing 500 words at a time. Then there could be much more ideas for content that has the interest of others than myself.
Especially on good days like today, where I listen to thundering drums and crying riffs of a bass guitar while my fingers dance across the keyboard. No anxiety attack, no irritating osteoarthritis symptoms ? No, but today it doesn´t feel like hurting all over the body for no apparent reason but hard work in too young an age for that. And then I easily reach 1,000-1,500 words.
Let me wish you a nice weekend and a happy week dear reader, by saying thank you so very much for the likes. I´ll try to live up to it by continuingly try to learn more about writing on a blog about daily witchcraft and to try writing better each time.
The Northern Witch' s Blog 