Self-Care and Witchcraft: Bringing Intention and Purpose to the Everyday

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Practicing witchcraft for me is about having it permeate every part of my life.

Paganism and Witchcraft is a mindful and spiritual experience for me and something I wish for others to experience as well. Much like reading passages out of a Bible or reciting prayers, practicing my magick each day is incredibly important.

I call it my non-negotiable or my daily self-care.

Without good self-care routines, it is all too easy to get away from spiritual practices. Life has a funny way of pushing us to do everything that is urgent but not necessarily important.

I can promise you that the pile of dishes will be there and that they will feel urgent. Also, because they only take about 15 minutes you are going to be tempted to do that rather than taking the 15 minutes to practice that meditation you’ve been intending to do.

In case you can’t tell, doing the dishes is always on my list of urgent but not important tasks.

Pretty soon though, you will have done five 15 minute urgent tasks and will put off and then inevitably not do the items that will actually make you feel better.

Because if we are really being honest, self-care is not all bubble baths and pedicures. Not even half the time for me.

If your self-care is limited to hygiene tasks and chocolate, then your self-care is not enough.

Let’s repeat that.

If your self care is limited to hygiene tasks and chocolate, then your self-care is not enough.

Self-care is about taking care of your mental, physical, and spiritual health. So while a bubble bath does feel amazing and has its place, it’s a temporary band-aid on the larger problem of not dealing with the sources of overwhelm in your life.

The key is to prioritize what’s important and eliminating your burnout. These next seven items are some of the ways that I infuse my self-care with my spiritual practice.

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Seven Ways to Add Magick into Self-Care

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Divination

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A tarot card a day keeps the witch doctor away?

I enjoy pulling a tarot card once a day. In fact, I use a handy little app called Golden Tarot which has a push notification for my card of the day pull. You can set the notification timer to whatever time works for your practice. I enjoy pulling my card just before my workday.

This helps me see where my mind is at. Did the card that I pulled cause a negative or positive reaction? Can I spin what I initially perceive to be a negative card positively?

Better still, find a card that represents what you’d like that day and take the time to find and study that card in particular.

This method can easily be adapted to a rune stone pull or even asking questions of a pendulum.

Practical Application:

• Pull one Tarot Card, Rune, or Ask a question of your Pendulum

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Hearth and Kitchen Magick

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One of the subtlest forms of magick is Hearth and Home magics. These magics are easy to do and are great for your mental health.

First, I’ll put on the electric kettle. Then, as that’s beginning to heat up the water, I’ll carefully choose what tea or herbs to steep and consume.

Remember not all herbs are meant to be ingested!

Doing your research or sticking to pre-blended teas are the best way to stay safe. I personally choose Yogi’s Stress Relief tea when its been a long day and their gold Turmeric tea when I don’t have a big appetite.

When I’m feeling up to it, having a good solidly nutritious meal helps boost my mental state. While chocolate and ice cream seem like comfort foods, for me it has the opposite effect.

(Not knocking it if it is your self-care item! I just know that not everyone has the best relationship with emotional eating)

I know I’ll feel guilty for indulging my emotions with eating. So sticking to the plan of nutrient-dense foods helps me nurture and take care of myself.

Practical Application:

• Cook an Intentional Meal
• Mix up a Tea
• Get Cozy with a Blanket or Book

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Reconnecting with Your Essence

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Reconnecting with your essence is not necessarily a task that will only take an afternoon. We are always getting to know ourselves better throughout our lifetime.

Our essence is more than our bodies, more than our thoughts. Our essence is our purpose and our gifts.

When I find that I am unsure of the next step on my journey, I find that reconnecting with my essence and purpose puts me back on the right track.

Practical Application:

• Write a list of everything going on in your mind. Don’t edit. Dump it all out on as many pieces of paper you need.
• Curate it. Is this useful? Is this important?
• Re-write all that is important and all that you love. Purposefully let go of those items that aren’t serving you by tossing them in the trash or even burning the paper that those were on.

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Create Your Sacred Space

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Sacred space can be anything from a small reading corner to an entire room dedicated to what is sacred to you. Over the years my sacred space has changed.

Sacred space should be any space that will help you recharge and help you on your self-care journey. The sacred space is usually but not always a place where you can journal, pray, or just sit contemplatively.

When I lived with roommates, my sacred space was confined to my own room. A single bookshelf held my journal, a couple of tea light candles, and crystals of all sizes and colors.

Now that I have built a home with my husband, who is also a practicing pagan, we have sacred spaces built all over our home.

In the kitchen, we have a small altar placed. It is a flat jewelry plate with rose quartz, a bowl of salt, and a smalls stylized metal spoon.

Each of these items has significance to us. Any sacred space should speak to you as well.

Ask yourself some questions when setting up your space.

• What kind of space relaxes you? What helps you slow down and just breathe?
• Is it time to declutter or redecorate?
• Shift some things about and set up your space to be sacred to you.

Practical Application:

• Take out all the trash and pick up all the items, not in their place.
• Bring out or dust off that which gives you joy. Any statuary, knick-knacks, stones, tools, or books.
• Infuse the space with incense or candles.

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Set Daily Intentions

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I believe that intentions should be set daily in order to feel a sense of control and contentment about our lives. In fact, the story that we tell ourselves and the way we view the world greatly affects our mindset and how we move through life.

Just like needing a shower once a day, I believe that motivation and intentions should be done once a day as well.

When we don’t set an intention, we easily deviate from our goals and from what is most important to us. Not living intentionally is usually what throws our energy off and burns us out.

When we revisit our goals and priorities and start living to those and not what others think is important for us, then can we begin to live happier, fuller lives.

Practical Application:

• List your top three intentions for your life.
• Put those intentions where you will see them every day.
• Think about them positively and tell the Universe your intentions.

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Practice Gratitude

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The mindset shift from always seeing the negative in your day to finding the positive in each day.

Part of my morning journaling process starts with listing at least three things that I am grateful for.

If I’m being honest, I really didn’t get why this would change anything about my day. I judged myself to be superficial and when I just wasn’t feeling it that day I really felt like a fraud.

But the point of daily gratitudes wasn’t to feel perfectly grateful for everything. It was to purposefully shift my mindset from one of negative brain talk into one that was looking to feel grateful.

And if it wasn’t perfect that day? Oh well!

Getting into the practice and habit of looking for the positive became easier every time.

Practical Application:

• List three things you are grateful for each day.
• When you notice a negative thought, immediately reframe it into something positive.
• Think generously of yourself and others.

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Allow Yourself Space to Express

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Too often we are playing a role in life. At work, at home, with others. It takes us away from our center and it takes us away from our essence. Not having a process of expressing ourselves can keep your energy tangled up and can feel exhausting.

While I enjoy my job as an accountant, I can’t say it affords me many opportunities to creatively express. For my own energetic health, I create my own spaces for expression. Each day on my lunch break I write 750 words or roughly 3 pages. What I write each day varies from storytelling to general ranting.

On the weekends, I pull out a letter-sized piece of paper and let myself freeform doodle or color it in. I am by no means a greatly skilled artist but allowing myself to relax and let my energy guide me I get the opportunity to re-center on my essence.

Setting aside time to play and to express yourself creatively is imperative to being able to access your magick.

Practical Application:

• Write 500 words a day.
• Color in an entire piece of paper.
• Sing as loudly as possible.

No matter what routine you choose or develop or yourself, anything that helps you recenter and feel purposeful each day is a good routine. Without a self-care routine, it is all too easy to get away from our spiritual practices.

Making time for yourself is not selfish. Being able to feel confident and purposeful allows you to do the things that matter most to you. Life has a funny way of pushing us to do everything that is urgent but not necessarily important.

So find some time today and this week to recenter yourself and fill up on the things that give you energy.

Love and Light,