Greetings heathens and witches,
Welcome to the Horn and Cauldron podcast…
10 Tips for a Magical New Year. Join us as we go over 10 useful tips for both the newest practitioners and the seasoned vets to make your 2021 a magical year. We discuss things from Meditation to Intentions and even address the current magical space on the internet and social media. We give you tips and tricks on keeping your magical space and practice clean, organized, and safe. In a world with so much information we are here to more than just teach but to learn as well, so join us for our 10 Tips for a Magical New Year and let us know what you think.
10 Tips for a Magickal New Year
1. Meditate often.
a. We all know meditation is an important component of a healthy lifestyle.
b. Meditation is important because you want to reach a state of gnosis (mind focused on one thing) when working magick.
c. Having a scattered mind can negatively affect your practice and spells.
d. Many different ways to meditate—we’ll talk about it in a future episode.
e. Start small, and work your way up. Try for one minute, and increase from there.
2. Set goals and intentions.
a. Broadly, and for individual workings.
i. What do you want to accomplish this year—magickal or mundane?
1. How can magick help you accomplish that?
b. Set clear intentions for each working, and speak in affirmations.
i. Visualize and invoke what you want to attract.
1. Good: I am protected from other’s bad energy [or] protect me from other’s bad energy (invoking)
2. Not as good: I will be protected from other’s bad energy
c. Be realistic!
i. Want to do a full ritual for each full moon or sabbat? Takes planning, research, & time. Gotta be willing to follow-through on that.
ii. Don’t do a protection spell that has intentions to never have bad things happen to you again. Unrealistic.
3. Set up or clean out your sacred space.
a. Can have even if you’re in the broom closet!
b. Your sacred space is as extravagant as you want.
i. Essentially, it’s a place to put your magickal artifacts, or things that you love that help you feel witchy.
ii. Jon altar
iii. Julie altar
iv. Minimalistic/generic altar space for beginner
c. Start the new year fresh by giving your altar a deep clean and dusting.
4. Organize your supplies.
a. Don’t just shove things in a drawer or a box.
i. Give care to the tools and things you use.
b. Keep things in the same place, so can find them.
c. Label things as necessary: carnelian or red agate?
5. You don’t need to label your practice.
a. Magick and witchcraft have many different subsets.
b. Lots of posts out there proclaim being a forest witch, kitchen witch, lunar witch, plant witch etc
c. Don’t feel like you need to squeeze yourself into the “X witch” type. You can be a forest witch who lives in the city, or a sea witch who also does lunar magick.
d. If you choose a path, you can change it anytime you want.
6. Don’t believe everything you read.
a. Famous Abraham Lincoln quote “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
b. Many people will come across as, or tell you that they’re an expert. Take that with a grain of salt.
i. Most of the information out there—in the witchy space especially is a collection of an individual’s experiences. Just because that worked for them, doesn’t mean that the same thing will work as well (or at all for you).
ii. Use your best judgement.
1. Common sense has a place in magick, especially when dealing with fire or ingesting something.
a. Putting stuff in candles (herbs, offerings)
b. Crystals (drinking crystal water, ingesting selenite)
c. Moon or rain water (drinking, spoiled?)
iii. Not everything is a sign. Some things just happen.
1. Find a grey feather on the ground? Could be a sign indicating peace is coming your way. Could be that you’re near a nest of pigeons.
2. Look for synchronicities. If you find a feather on the ground after each magickal session, that could be a sign.
3. Bad things happening in your life are not a sign that someone’s hexed you. Sometimes bad things happen.
7. Learn more about your craft.
a. Research is key. Read up on things you’re curious about or resonate with.
i. Library, kindle books, physical books, websites, blogs, social media posts, friends, podcasts, YouTube all have info.
b. Deities, spirits, entities.
i. Research the entity before you call upon them. Your goal should be to know as much as you can about them.
1. General disposition, likes, dislikes, preferred offerings, risks, rewards of working with them, other’s personal experiences.
c. Interested in doing a spell, but don’t know where to start?
i. Start by looking up correspondences for the intent of the spell (protection)
1. Herbs: Bay, Blackberry, Cactus, Carnation, Cinnamon, Clover, Dragon’s blood, Ivy, Oak, Sea Salt.
2. Stones: Carnelian, Quartz, Jade, Labradorite, Onyx, Pearl, Ruby in Zoisite, Turquoise.
3. Colors: black, light blue, white.
4. Phases of the moon: full
5. Animals: Cat, Dog, Dolphin, Dragon, Raven, Seal.
6. Other Items: symbols, runes, found items, small toys, pictures, etc
7. Look and see whats recommended, then narrow down to what you have access to, then narrow down further to what you want to use. You’d be surprised how much you already have in your house, or can easily get!
ii. Then look up spells that other people have done.
iii. Write your own spell by using the research you’ve done.
1. Can be simple or complex.
2. Can be poetry or plain words.
3. Can be long or short.
iv. Don’t be afraid to think outside the cauldron!
1. Protection tacos dinner ritual! Wear a color associated with protection, while you make tacos that have cumin, garlic, lettuce, lime, onion on them. Leave some out as an offering next to a figurine of a protection animal, and watch a movie about knights.
8. Write it down.
a. In books, you’ll hear about someone finding a wizard or witches grimoire, and the character then uses those spells… that’s what you’re going to do!
b. Get yourself a book of shadows and a grimoire
i. Grimoire for correspondences, references, templates
ii. Book of Shadows to write down what you’re actually doing—like a journal.
c. No need for it to be a pretty book (unless you want one)—it can be hard to want to write in it for fear of messing it up
d. Use whatever you’re comfortable with: binder with paper, notebook, fancy bound book, notes app in your phone, docs saved in a folder.
9. Find friends in your space.
a. Even if you consider yourself a solitary witch, it’s helpful to find friends out there who are receptive to your practice, and that you can talk to.
b. In the broom closet? That’s fine! You might have a witchy friend IRL that you can talk to.
c. Don’t underestimate the power of the internet! TikTok, Reddit, IG, TW, FB all have places that you can connect with like-minded witchy people.
d. Don’t keep a toxic person of group around because that’s all you’ve got, or it’s interesting to keep up with their drama.
i. It’s like buying a pack of strawberries. They’re just chillin, sitting in your fridge, then one gets moldy. The ones next to the moldy one start to get soft and moldy, and it spreads. Negativity breeds negativity.
ii. Same goes for deciding to hex people/groups. Don’t keep moldy strawberries in with all the good ones!
10. Don’t give up.
a. When hearing what results others have had, it can be easy to feel like your spells aren’t working.
i. Some spells are slower working than others, or have more subtle results. Some spells backfire, or just don’t work.
b. Think about your intentions and where your head was when you were doing that spell.
i. Were you distracted? Doubtful it would work?
c. Write down the spell in your book of shadows, periodically go back and update that page with your perceived results of the spell.
d. Keep working at it! Magick is like a muscle: every time you work it, it gets stronger.
i. Just like a workout, give yourself time to rest.
ii. Magickal sessions feel intoxicating, but Magick can be very draining.
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