spirituality – The Northern Witch' s Blog

Mythology and folklore are necessary tools, if you work with deities in your kind of witchcraft. It is necessary to know the basic attributes of a goddess, a god or a mythological creature like the dragon, if you plan to practice with them on a more regular basis.

You can also learn quite a lot about yourself from these old tales that are handed down through generations before us. For example, I use human archetypes in my shadow work in order to get in touch with my inner feelings more easily, so my work will be as honest as possible.

24 Myths And Legends
25 Archetypes
26 Pantheon Examples
27 Goddesses
28 Gods
29 Nordic Mythology
30 Egyptian Mythology
31 Greek And Roman Mythology

Myths and legends : While myths typically are about world creation with gods and goddesses, legends are tales about historical or everyday people. They are both good stories to tell around a bonfire and have a strong cultural influence even today in a modern world, where story telling luckily is becoming more and more popular again.

Archetypes : To me, archetypes are two things. 1) General characteristics in order to psychologically describe the behaviour of humans, both the light and the darker, shadowy side. And 2), attributes of goddesses and gods in my daily work with witchcraft, where I typically read a prayer to a goddess/god relevant to strengthen my intentions with e.g. a spell for harmony or prosperity.

Pantheon Examples : Deities from all over the world, because I prefer to get my knowledge from a broad variety of sources rather than one source only.

Goddesses : All about their attributes, offerings and correspondences. Aphrodite, Arianrhod, Bastet, Branwen, Brigit, Cerridwen, Demeter, Diana, Erzulie, Freyja, Gaia, Hathor, Hecate, Inanna, Isis, Kuan Yin, Lakshmi, Lilith, Maat, Morrigan, Rhiannon, Sekhmet, Shakti, Yemaya are just some of my favourites.

Gods : Anubis, Balder, Cernunnos, Freyr, Herne the hunter, Horus, Marduk, Odin, Osiris, Ra, Set, Shiva, Thor, Thoth and a lot more than that.

Nordic mythology : Native Danish, I feel a very strong connection to the Northern traditions, and I use some of them in my rituals.

Egyptian mythology : Being one of the world´s oldest civilizations, it is awesome to learn about this epic culture with still so much influence on the modern world of today.

Greek and Roman mythology : Living in Europe in the Western part of the world signifies also the influence from Greek and Roman sources, as in the way many of the societies in Europe are build upon e.g. the rules of democracy.

This part of my Book of Shadows, yesterday´s traditions and old ways, and tomorrow´s part on spirituality are together with the section 4 Harm Ye None the background for my core beliefs.

It is the big words, yes I know, but this is what I believe in :

I believe in Nature and a world of incredible force. We are only humans, we cannot build mountains high and rivers broad. Nature is the big mystery, and ever since the first bonfire was lit, humans have tried to explain to themselves, what this wonder of a world has been, is and can become.

I also believe in a world of deities. Or in my interpretation, deities representing the mighty forces of Nature and Mother Earth and Father Sky.

I believe in common ground among human beings. As long as we are able to listen to and talk with each other, life is always worth living. I like to learn from as many people as possible and hopefully to teach other people as well.

When people stop listening, we need to begin again, instead of making wars all over the world and for what ? We also need to take greater care of Nature, before everything is about money and the dance around the golden calf.

But I believe in people. It is possible to live peacefully together, if we only dare to will it. I live myself in an extended family and it is so life-affirming to share the daily life together.

And I believe in witchcraft as the right path for me to walk, because here I find calm, beauty and assurance that things will pass as they are supposed to, one way or the other. I cannot change what happens, but I can change my attitude towards it. So being positive even through rough days is my answer to modern stress and hurry. It is my faith, but I respectfully acknowledge other people´s faith as well.

Tomorrow I´m going to tell you something about my view upon spirituality, dear reader. It is a lot more than a deity collection, it´s also an inner walk down memory lane to clear up clutter along the way. And it works well as a booster of self-confidence and clarity.

First of all, let me point out that there are as many ways of creating and working with a Book of Shadows as there are magickal people. Therefore, I do recommend that your make your Book of Shadows suitable for you and nobody else, since it is you who are going to work with it.

For a thorough examination of what a Book of Shadows or a grimoire is, I would like to recommend The Witch of Lupine Hollow ( https://www.pinterest.dk/pin/483574078733958147/), where there is a link to her site), who has inspired me to work more focused with my Book of Shadows, so it is integrated in my daily work with witchcraft.

My choice is a mix between handwritten and printed material. I have multiple Book of Shadows and ritual books, because I work both online and offline. I have handwritten notes, rituals, spells and a lot more than that. But in order to keep myself on the right path for practical work with a Book of Shadows, I´ve also by necessity and to be able to get in touch with like-minded people a Book of Shadows on my laptop, on my cellphone and on Pinterest. Then I have a Ritual Book of the Year, where I record all my ritual workings and ritual books for sabbats and spells.

So you see, I have a pretty busy schedule when working with my Book of Shadows.

My Book of Shadows is structured like this (for my Book of Shadows on Pinterest click : https://www.pinterest.dk/thenorthernwitch/ ) :

1-8 The Book Of Shadows (ideas for a Book of Shadows, index for my online boards and my physical ring binders, history of witchcraft, shadow work and ethical rules). It also includes good examples of work sheets, ideas for colouring pages and links to nice resources online.
9-23 Traditions And The Old Ways (old traditions and inspiration)
24-31 Mythology And Folklore (the deity world and different beliefs
32-35 Spirituality (spiritual guidance, angels and the fairy world)
36-51 Divination 1 (different kinds of divination)
52-57 Divination 2 The Tarot (Tarot and divination)
58 Divination 3 Lenormand (Lenormand and divination)
59-78 The Northern Witch´s Den (the daily cottage witch)
79-97 Correspondences (correspondences, familiars and spirit animals, symbols and sigils)
98-107 Sabbats (the Wheel of the Year)
108-115 The Moon (all about the Moon)
116- 120 Spellcasting (the art and magick of casting spells)
121-133 Rituals (rituals and practical stuff)
134-135 Witchy Tips (good ideas and a collection of advice)
136-142 Creative Magick (affordable witchy art and inspiration)
143-144 The Grey (between white and dark is the shadows, I´m a grey witch)

I develop it on an ongoing basis, because as with everything else in witchcraft, in my opinion, it is an evolving process that never stops. We are never too old or too young to learn something new or something old.

My Book of Shadows is my life line to my daily magickal practice. I use it to plan rituals and spells, to record my personal journey in witchcraft and my Tarot spreads and for many, many other purposes.

I keep it close to my ritual altar, because it and my understanding of what magick and witchcraft can be are the basic tools in any of my magickal workings.

In a future post I´ll return to the subject of magickal tools. There are as many possibilities as there are creative ideas. It is easy to buy, but it is also both magickal and fun to try to make your own tools. And it´s up to you what you need, as long as you remember that the most important tools in any kind of witchcraft is yourself and your intentions with your magickal workings.