Life is filled with so many such happenings.

The idea of permanence being good and desirable is directly connected to the concept of linear progression: a series of steps or phases that occur, one after another, until a final destination is reached. It is easy, intellectually, to agree that such progression does not fit, well, pretty much anything outside of the education system and progressing from one grade to another.

And yet that’s so often how spiritual practice is approached, even if only as an unshakable idea in the back of our minds. We’ll begin a path—and the path will unfold, one step after another, with successive milestones being hit along the way that signify our growth and progress. We buy the books, we practice the spells, we approach the Gods, we gain familiars, we dedicate and become a priest, and then we die, old, happy, and still a priest.

And yet things change. The only things that do not change soon rot, forcing themselves through change regardless of our views on the matter.

I’m rambling rather than getting on with what I set forth to write about.

I was released from my vows by all four of my gods two days before the Dark Moon.

There was no warning, though the signs were surely there. And those signs would surely have been noticed had I sought council with another spiritworker at any point (as I should have). My Ordeal to one of my gods had stalled, I was struggling, and so They paused it. I felt a failure. But nothing I could do could force me to do the thing that was necessary to move through the Ordeal. The desire was there, the skill was there, the knowledge was there—and yet I was too burdened, to weighted down. I could not do what was asked of me.

Over the last year or two, I have been slowly reconnecting with my culture, trying to regain what I had before so many family connections were severed. It was inevitable that I would decide to piece together my ancestors’ pre-Islamic religious practices. At first, I threw myself into ancestor work, connecting with family, finding strength and comfort to deal with the chaos of an ongoing Ordeal through their presence.

And then a new ancestor appeared. Older. So very older. And why do they speak in that growly tone that old spirits do... Why do they look so very much like the shamans who were once central to our lifeways…

We talked. They taught me things, guiding me through my struggles and helping me to get closer to completing the seemingly impossible task my gods had given me. The work felt so much easier with their help, though it wasn’t discernibly different from the guidance given by my gods.

Months would pass. The relationship held solid. I decided to, specifically, research ancient skills and techniques, desiring to piece together this specific practice, through this specific lens, connected to my specific ancestors. Names for practitioners were found. Descriptions of their foci were discovered. Images of tools and descriptions of their use fell into my lap. Images of old gods were uncovered too easily.

And I did that thing you do, when you are a spiritworker and the name of a god is enough for you to call Them forth and talk to Them. And They did that thing gods do where They respond and introduce Themselves in a way that fortifies connections to ancestors, connections to Them.

A few days later my gods, all together, told me I was released from my vows.

I sat in shock.

Their words continued, offering explanations, comfort, and next steps. They explained how my vows had become burdens, keeping me from being able to do the thing They required of me. So They were removing those burdens from me. I was being pushed toward different gods, old gods, ancestral gods. They could find others to do the work They had given me, but there are not quite as many people with my skill set who are able to do this work for those gods. And I would be able to the work for Them. There was additional help available to me that had already proven to be truly helpful.

The other two, the ancient two, were there. Warm and large and brilliant. The One who spoke so strongly to me before spoke strongly again. Comforting. Encouraging.

My Lady spoke, too, the one Who had been with me the longest, the first of my four gods to Whom I had dedicated nearly two decades ago. She would still be here, for now. I was released from my vow, but I could not release Her just yet. And so She would be here to help with this transition.

It has been a week now. I have lost track of how many Tarot cards I have drawn, how many bones I have thrown, how many windows I have stared out of while drinking who knows how many cups of tea.

I had frequently described being a priest for my Lady like that of being a lantern: She is the light that fills me, I serve no purpose without Her. Similarly, I have described being a spiritworker like that of being a jellyfish: the ocean gives the jellyfish shape, the ability to move, the ability to thrive; the Gods are the ocean. I would have expected to crumple if ever my gods had somehow left me. And yet, in being released from my vows, I have found new strength.

I feel more clearheaded. I feel more open. I feel more capable.

The uncertainty, confusion, and intense churning of my insides as I was unable to move in any direction… it’s over. It’s gone. There is no burden now. There is no crushing weight. I can breathe. I can feel again. I can hear my gods and spirits so much stronger again.

So much is gone but I have lost nothing. I have moved closer back to myself, I am more myself now than I have been in years.

And through all of this, the love of my four reverberates softly around me. There was so much love in this release. So much care for my well-being.

I should be filled with grief. Yet how can I grieve when Their love is still so strong?

I have no idea what comes next. My practice is being shaped in new ways, yet so much isn’t really changing at all. My relationships with my spirits remains the same. My relationships with my ancestors remains the same. My work with the community remains the same. There are new gods, but there have always been gods.

“I’m not going to bother you,” he says without looking in her direction, “you know that.”

She does know that. She knows his voice, his smell, the way the darkness of his winter coat bundled body will remain in the same patch of cleared snow behind the house. The yearlings behind her twitch and flick their tails impatiently. They know him, too. What they don’t know is why the old doe is so cautious. They don’t know yet know that such caution is how you get to be an old doe.

One hoof follows another and the thick coated deer step out of the forest and into the shadow filled backyard. They move silently just outside the tree line, noses rooting through the powdery snow to find the green holding stubborn or maybe a missed scrap of the pumpkin that the man had given them weeks earlier.

Soft orange light upon his face gives way to hands swollen from work pinching off the glowing ember. His eyes watch as it falls to the snow, clearing a small nest about it before succumbing to the cold. He coughs softly before turning toward the deer. They withhold attention to his actions, offering conditional trust instead. Their shadow forms move further along the treeline, noses still in search of whatever might be found. The man departs, in search of warmth, in search of sleep.

​Releasing expectations so we can have a more authentic and honest experience is the first step in dismantling toxic ideas of respect in regards to the natural world. This is how we stop forcing our ideas of what we think the Land is upon it. We take this further now through action because intention is never enough.

We are each defined by what we do and we are held accountable for the consequences of those actions, regardless of our intent. Thoughts and intentions don’t cut it. They don’t create change to the extent that produces measurable results in our lives nor the lives of others. And when it comes to land spirits—who witness humans disrespecting their home on a daily basis—those intentions really don’t count for shit.

Yes, we can change our actions through our thoughts (e.g., I decide I’m going to stop eating processed foods and then I do so) but we more effectively change ingrained attitudes and ideas by adopting actions that support the values and worldview we want to more strongly embrace.* In this way, by focusing on actions vs thoughts, we disallow ourselves the chance to overthink or complicate the matter, and we undermine doubt that could otherwise keep us from doing anything. And in changing our actions, every time we get the results we seek from those actions, we reinforce the behavior and indirectly alter our thoughts and emotions. In other words, through changing our behavior to be more congruent with our values, every time we successfully embody those values, we show ourselves that the behavior is effective and we become more inclined to repeat it, which further shapes our thoughts and seats those values deeper within us.

This is how we infuse our practices with greater integrity: by walking our talk and allowing our values to be more fully present in our lives. And this is how we begin to allow the Land to show us what it is so we can approach it on its terms and begin forging those life changing relationships.

One of the simplest ways to build upon our previous activity is by using that open and receptive state to go outside and just have an experience. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to make a trip outdoors productive. We all do it. Spare time is sparse to nonexistent so when we finally have a day free to do whatever we want and we choose to do something spiritual with it, we tend to try to squeeze in too much. And then we get disappointed when we don’t manage to accomplish everything on the list.
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Having big goals is really useful for our practices, however. They provide us direction and identify milestones to work toward as part of meeting those goals, such as wanting to more fully embrace the role of healer so we work toward learning to manipulate energy with our hands and toward developing a magickal hygiene practice that supports that role. These big goals and smaller milestones keep us motivated. But they also take time and effort. We can only do so much at a time. And when it comes to a free day to lay about in the woods and do a little witchcraft, goals we set for the day can serve as little more than restrictive expectations that limit what we can achieve with our time.

Working through the ways in which we are complicit in toxic “respect” is an ongoing process. Seeing the world alive with spirits and acting upon that knowledge stands in direct contradiction to the ways that our society encourages us to live. But if we truly respect the land and the genius loci, if the potential for relationships with them truly matters to us, we can’t not allow knowledge of them to change us and to change our everyday lives.

Our efforts to be respectful, to reclaim our right to be part of the land, and to see ourselves as one among many beings—human and nonhuman alike—who call the land home are humble and challenging. They require us to look closely at our lives and see where we aren’t meeting our own standards, where we aren’t upholding our values. Our efforts require us to change and grow but in doing so we find ourselves transformed. Our spirit bodies are brought into greater congruence with the natural energy currents of the land. We find allies and even friendship with beings with greater reach and power than our own. And we remember ourselves to naturally be creatures of power and strength, too.

These ongoing efforts to be done with entitlement and to be done with tourist witchcraft all serve to entangle us more deeply within the land, to sink us into the natural world and further dissolve the perceived boundary between magick and the mundane, to place us more fully in that liminal place between the physical and spirit worlds that we are privileged to hold as witches.

In acting off the knowledge that our witchcraft is dependent upon the land, we empower ourselves with greater ability to create real and lasting change within our lives and within the world around us. This is where the deep work starts, where the path beneath our feet becomes just a little bit clearer, and where we meet the claws of witchcraft only to find that we ourselves are just as sharp of tooth and claw.

​*Hopko, D. R., Ryba, M. M., McIndoo, C., & File, A. (2015). 14 Behavioral Activation. The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, 229


​Originally published 10/25/19, in Stone, Root, & Bone: Issue 1.

The natural world lays at the heart of witchcraft, inescapable and beckoning. It is woven through the force and flow of our magick and evident within the materials we use.  While other systems of magick may place the source of their power elsewhere, for the witch, our power lays within our connection to the land and to the very real spirits that inhabit it. Yet so many of us have grown deaf to its call, unable to place a name to the whispers that scratch so insistently at the back of our minds. ​

Throughout this six-week course, you will explore that inextricable bond by restoring your connection with the Land. This requires a broadening of perspective and learning to see the Land and your place within it in a way that you may remember only from when you were very young. You will explore the practical side of animism, the worldview which permeates witchcraft no matter the religious prescription of the witch. Through embracing this worldview and implementing it within your life, you will learn to see a world alive with spirits and to recognize the relationships that exist amongst the physical and spiritual worlds. ​

Though we may each approach the Gods through the lens of sometimes very different traditions, devotional practice remains constant among them as a means for us to forge strong relationships with the Gods. What devotional practice looks like for each of us will look different—as it should. Our relationships with the Gods must be personal, reflecting the time and effort spent to know Them intimately. Just as the way you know your best friend will be different than the way their parents know them, so, too, will your relationship with a particular deity be different than the relationship someone else will have with that very same god. However, across traditions and among the many, varied relationships that exist with Them, a foundational part of devotional practice is that of making offerings.

There are no limitations to what we can give the Gods. Our love and our service—through worshiping and honoring Them—is no small thing. But, humans are peculiar creatures and so often we can feel like our actions and efforts aren’t enough. This is where regularly giving tangible offerings can help us to overcome the doubt that tells us what we’re doing isn’t enough or isn’t good enough. That doubt does not speak true but it can still be a powerful thing to overcome.

So, when we have a need, when the doubt is strong, when we long to feel a connection with the Gods more clearly, or when we simply wish to do something to show our love for Them and do something for no purpose but that we care and are thankful for Their presence in our lives, we can make an offering.

These offerings can be simple things: a glass of clean water, wine, or liqueur; a plate of fresh fruit, home baked bread; a bowl of honey or raw meat; smoldering incense and flickering candles; fresh flowers, greenery, or herbs gathered from the wild or your garden. While each deity will have Their own preferences (after all, They are people just like you and I) a good starting point and generally well-received offering is a glass of red wine. If you don’t drink, consider how keeping a nice bottle of wine on hand for your Gods can show your interest in Them and willingness to go out of your way for Them.

But, what we give doesn’t matter so much as the emotion behind our giving.

When we make an offering to the Gods, we create a connection between us and Them. And that act of giving is a declaration that that moment is important, the actions we are taking are important, and the Gods to Whom we give are important. It affirms our desire to know Them better within our minds and hearts. Each offering we give makes it easier to give again and to establish a regular and consistent devotional practice. This helps us to become disciplined in our practices.

Yet the single most important reason why we make offerings is because of Them, because the Gods deserve our praise, because of Their continued presence and aid in our lives, because of the power They hold in shaping and maintaining order within the cosmos. We give out of awe, we give out of love, we give out of gratitude.

Unless you are part of a tradition which has standard days for making offerings, you have a lot of flexibility in how often you make offerings. However, a consistent practice of making offerings to your Gods and acknowledging Their presence in your life will help you to forge deeper relationships with Them. It will help you to better see Their hand at work in your life and receive further blessings. It also more clearly shows your love and care for Them and your desire to truly know Them rather than just “believing in” Them.

If there are any traditional or historical feast days for your Gods, these are times when you should especially be making offerings to Them. Other times that may be appropriate are when you find yourself facing challenges in life and could use a little back up. Also appropriate are the Pagan holidays as found in the Wheel of the Year. Many of these holidays possess only the barest of traditions and meaning, which makes them well-suited for adaption to a devotional practice, especially as the equal spacing throughout the year will afford greater consistency to your devotional practice.

It’s also appropriate to make an offering whenever you feel moved to do so. Are you receiving little signs and synchronicities throughout the day? Spend a few minutes at your shrine making offerings to the Gods to check in and see if They have any messages for you. Did you have an unexpected bout of good fortune? Make time to include Them in your joy and thank Them for any part They likely played in it.

Part of our reasons for making offerings is also a desire to feel the Gods more strongly in our lives. Yet, to feel Them, They must be present. And for Them to be present, we must make space for Them in our lives. One of the simplest and clearest ways that we can demonstrate and delineate that space for Them is through the creation of a shrine.

A shrine is a permanent space created for and dedicated to a Deity or a group of Deities. It is a place to hold images of Them, such as statues and paintings, as well as being a place at which to make offerings. In considering that we call Them into our homes through our worship, the presence of a shrine is a part of good hospitality: it’s having a comfy and beautiful chair ready for your cherished guest.

What your shrine looks like will depend upon the Gods for Whom you create it, as well as on your own preferences. It needn’t be complicated or filled with devotional objects. A simple shelf with a single candle that you light when you make offerings and communicate with your Gods will suffice. Ability to buy beautiful things is not a hindrance to worshiping Them. Again, it is the emotion behind our actions, it is our love and gratitude that move us to make offerings that is the true gift. So if your shrine is a single candle on a windowsill, with a pretty stone you found while walking and thinking of Them, that is enough. Fill your offerings with love and trust Them to tell you if They require more of you.

The following is a basic framework that can be applied when making offerings to any deity. It does not come from any one particular tradition and can be modified however you see fit—especially so if your Gods ask you to do so. May it help you to cultivate a deeper relationship with the Gods and to know Them better.

Purification
Before you approach your shrine for Them, purify yourself. This can be done though a traditional or preferred means. Purification with smoke is a simple, versatile, and very effective purification method. You can use incense or a sprig of herbs—which herbs should be chosen based upon their attributes, associations with the deities you’ll be honoring, or the uses that herb communicated to you.

It is the action of the smoke passing across your body that performs the purificatory function. Waving a stick of incense in the air in front of your body won’t achieve anything. Allow the smoke to pass over every inch of your body. Pay special attention to your hands, feet, and genitals.

Assertion of Purpose
Approach your shrine and light any candles for your deities. Light them with purpose. Feel the energy rise within you, feel the air change about you as you dedicate this moment and this space to Them. You may recite poems or hymns to Them or you may speak freely, allowing what words may come from your heart to spill from your lips and call the Gods’ attention onto you.

If you are unsure where to begin, you may recite the following or similar wording, substituting “traditional attribute” with an epitaph for that deity, such as “delighter in arrows” or “mighty thunderer,” repeating for each deity to Whom you will be making an offering:

Ideally, your offerings should be left in place at least over night, giving the Gods time to fully appreciate them. Some offerings, such as fresh flowers and herbs, can be left until they wilt or become dry and brittle. Food items should absolutely not be allowed to remain so long that they begin to mold.

Once removed from the shrine, solid items, such as food and plant matter, can be burned, buried, or placed in the trash if there are no other options (you won’t offend the Gods). Liquid libations can be poured out onto the ground, poured into a hole and buried, or poured down the drain if no other options exist. It is advised not to dispose of libations by giving them to potted plants.

At the heart of Paganism lays devotion to the Gods. Yet information on approaching and honoring the Gods continues to be decidedly lacking within Paganism and polytheism. Which Gods should you approach first? How do you do so respectfully? What does an altar to the Gods look like? What type of offerings are best to give and what the heck do you do with them afterward?

Developing Divine Relationships will provide you a firm basis from which to begin devotional practice. This course will help you to begin a relationship with a God or Goddess, or, should you already have a relationship with a deity, help you to make that relationship substantive and transformative.

Through 6 weekly lessons focused on growing closer to the Gods and practical devotion, you’ll develop a framework for your devotion and create a spiritual calendar, providing you with direction and a firm foundation for your spiritual practice.

So pleased to finally be able to announce the title of my brand new trad pub and that it is now available for preorder on Amazon!

Paganism for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Nature-Based Spirituality for Every New Seeker is a comprehensive and inclusive overview emphasizing the beautiful diversity of the modern Pagan movement.

If you follow me on twitter or instagram, expect to see some excerpts (and maybe a giveaway) as we get closer to the release date!

Because I am (delightfully) predictable at times, I’m funneling this stirring into so many words. So very many words. This October is going to be a very full month and all of that warrants a blog post to let you know, dear reader, just what it is I’m up to over here.

Because there is no way to fit enough witchcraft into October, I’ve declared it to be the Month of Shenanigans and will be sending out weekly emails filled with witch tips and tricks. As always, these letters will be focused on helping you to do what you’re already doing better, helping you to be more effective, and helping you to add a few new tricks to your arsenal.

If you’re already subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll automatically receive these emails. If not, you can fill out the following form to subscribe. The first of the Month of Shenanigans emails goes out Tuesday, October 1!

This course takes a practical and hands-on look at working and communicating with the dead, with the strong emphasis on doing the work that is common throughout my courses.

Lastly, Bone Reading availability will be drastically reduced during October. The Ancestral Reading Service will still be available but Basic Bone Readings and In-Depth Bone Readings will be closed as of October 1.

And.... September marks my blog's birthday month! 9 years I've been sporadically throwing words in to the void. Flashback to my first post Whispering to the Wind: Lessons in Evocation.

There’s a heavy cloud shadow sitting on the mountain. A single opening allows the angled sunlight to find a way through, to find a way to make the hard stone glow. The monsterman won’t look out the window of the truck. I point, tap the glass, but nothing. The mountains that will soon be a faint memory to him can’t draw his eye. As always, he does what he wants and rawrs at me.

He’s known nothing but desert, mountains, and arroyos. Third birthday so very soon, he knows nothing of rivers, nothing of the way a forest wraps you in hushed greenery.

It’s funny how I only remember that a blog can be personal, should include the personal, when on the precipice of change. Oh, what a precipice on which I stand.

There is a different sort of wind that blows in the desert. Years ago, when facing the prospect of moving away from the only land I’d ever known, that my children were the 5th generation of my family to live upon, I wondered if the same wind would be there, if the same moon would shine on that land. A far away friend assured me they would be the same but the desert proved her words to be little more than hope.

Everything is different in the desert.

Everything will be different when my family leaves the desert.

Years blur when the seasons progress strangely to one’s mind. At any moment, when asked, I would likely give a different number for how long we’ve been here. My mind insists it’s only been a few months yet the calendar insists it’s been years. Both are wrong when you measure time by the lives of your children. The monsterman’s hair, never been cut, now reaches past his waist. The family we ran from would be aghast. The family we’ll be reclaiming will be amazed.

So many patterns, cycles, spirals… My dearest familiar tells me this is a reset. His words convey the hope they intend, yet the weight is not missed by either of us. How many loose ends can one trip attend to? How many beginnings can a homecoming birth? How much of which pasts will I retain and carry with me? Do I even know who I am anymore? I am who I have always been. Nothing has changed. Everything is different.

What a precipice my feet cling to…

I don’t know what to think about the coming future. As usual, I’ve not been permitted to see. It would alter my actions, my expectations, make the work less effective. I acquiesce. What choice do I have? I knew what I signed up for.

A reset.

A breakthrough.

The wind picks up and the cloud ruffles itself, closing the gap, shutting out the light, allowing the texture of the mountain to shine through.

There is such damn beautiful dirt in the desert.

Because it's late, because I can, because these eclipses are making all our heads spin, all courses and Bone Readings are marked down through Imbolc (February 1.)

If there is one constant regarding families, it is that families are complicated. Very few people have families or a family history that is neat and clean. Rather, we have problematic relationships with our kin, parents who failed in their responsibilities to their children, grandparents who didn’t care about their grandchildren let alone their own children. We have family histories that travel about the globe, with ambiguous origins and stories filled with violence and mystery.
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But that doesn’t necessarily remove the desire to work with one’s ancestors; to make that connection across the generations and feel that stability that comes in being firmly rooted in the past; to stand on the shoulders of those who came before us; to know that though our relationships with our living family may be utter disasters, that someone is there, some family member is there and cares.

You are absolutely allowed to pick and choose what ancestors you remember and honor at your ancestor shrine and in your ancestor work. Abusers deserve to be forgotten. And people who were assholes in life rarely stop being assholes in death. Yes, death can bring perspective but this is not instant.
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Just as we must work through things in life to grow and see things differently, the same is true in death. We must each work through the energetic consequences of our choices and actions in death. But that doesn’t mean that someone who made awful choices in life should be pitied in death. All actions -good and bad- have consequences and leave residual energy that must be worked through. If we can’t resolve that energy in life, we resolve it in death (this is karma, not the bastardized version found throughout the West that places karma as a force of retribution or justice -it’s only about energy, not cultural perceptions of good vs bad/evil.)

If you are unsure of your ancestors much beyond your parents or grandparents, you can still create a shrine, light a candle, and reach back across that family line to whomever may be lingering about you, to see who may be interested in getting to know you better. Someone will be there.
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You can work with your ancient ancestors, too, those family members who lived so long ago and who have now stepped into the role of guide and protector for your family line. They may have guidance for you in your life and spiritual practice, with advice on learning new skills and dealing with challenges.

Note that those individuals who you barely knew in life, like a great aunt or uncle who bounced you on their knee and sang you silly songs, can also be worked with and a strong relationship cultivated now that you didn’t have the chance for earlier. You can even include those people who you are not related to by blood but that were an important part of your life, such as friends of the family when you were growing up, beloved friends, and elderly coworkers.

You can also choose to work with the Mighty Dead of your religious/spiritual traditions -those individuals no longer living who’s work had a strong influence upon your path. This can include founders of traditions, teachers, occult artists, and authors.

Helping people to begin making that connection with their ancestors is one of the things that I specialize in. As part of the Ancestral Reading Service, I bridge that distance between you and your ancestors, finding who is lingering about you and most interested in working with you. From there, messages that that ancestors has for you are conveyed, along with guidance on how you can work to strengthen that connection and better communicate with that specific ancestor.
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If there is any ancestral trauma that prevents a strong relationship being formed, I begin the initial work to heal and repair that trauma, with step by step instructions on how you can continue that work on your own. It is an intense service that helps you begin a new chapter in your spiritual journey. 

In the last post, we took a surprisingly in-depth look at the ethics of not just working magick to get money, but the ethics of witchcraft in general. That there is a lot of personal freedom within witchcraft is a point frequently discussed* yet that we should have standards for our behavior and that we hold ourselves to (because 1: standards are your friend, they keep you from doing dumb shit you’ll regret, and 2: they help teach discipline which is crucial in witchcraft) is something rarely discussed.

Yet standards are essential if you want to head in a continuous direction and make definitive progress on your path (as evident through the development of new skills, deeper understanding, experiencing new challenges, and identifying consistent solutions for those situations that once presented themselves as significant challenges.) Standards are also how we act with integrity and express sincerity in practice. They demonstrate our values and personal ethics, guiding our actions and helping us to determine the truly best approach for the magick we wish to work. To be a witch without standards is to be a sloppy witch with no results.

When working magick for financial gain, it’s really important to consider what it is you really need to accomplish because a one-off candle spell cannot fix chronic financial problems. This is a point that’s true for any situation in your life that is complex and took time to create: you cannot fix it simply because you remembered it’s the Full Moon and you threw extra glitter in your candle.** Pervasive problems require a pervasive approach in order to make progress and eventual resolution.

If you are constantly struggling for money, have your paycheck spent before you get it, regularly spend more than you can afford for the emotional high, or have difficulty maintaining employment, you cannot fix these issues with a single spell or consultation with your favorite diviner (ahem.) Work must be done to get to the root of these problems with consistent magick worked to support your goals (e.g. having consistent income, having a greater income, eliminating old debt, not acquiring new debt, not spending money you know needs to go toward bills, etc.) while you also work magick to solve those root issues (e.g. healing deep-seated feelings of lack, addressing buried feelings of worthlessness and helplessness, doing shadow work to confront repressed anger or feelings of powerlessness that sabotage your actions without your awareness, etc.)

Correcting those deeper issues is outside the scope of this article, but starting with some divination  to identify those areas you need to address and work on, and to identify measures that would be effective now to start turning that tide in your favor is highly advised. Divination cannot solve your problems, but it can help you to see them more clearly -which allows you to devise a plan of action and to do the work magickally and in your everyday life to correct issues and achieve your goals.

So, what can you achieve with a one-off bit of magick? Anything that benefits from a quick boost when you need it most and that tips the scales in your favor.

Here are a few examples:

• meeting with a new client and wanting to impress them
• having a job interview and needing to make a great impression
• launching a new product or promo
• have a bill coming up and you’re short the full amount
• unexpected expense(s)
• increasing attention on your business or your efforts and/or skills at work

​With that in mind, that your approach in your spell is essential for its success, let’s now look at a handful of ways that you can use magick to get money, increase your prosperity, and boost your career.

Magick needn’t be complicated and you can achieve powerful results with everyday items that you already have lying about your home. Here are a handful of practical yet potent ways to work prosperity magick with simple items (or no items!) to inspire you to find other ways to work the magick you need with what you’ve already got.

One of the ways that we realize we really need to boost our prosperity magick is when spending money. Seeing your hard earned cash leaving so quickly can create feelings of anxiousness -but you can put those emotions to work to make ensure the money that leaves you finds its way back to you.

When at a restaurant or café, you can easily work some magick to make back what you spend on the bill. Take a sugar packet and hold it in both hands. Charge it to draw money and really push that energy into it. Slip it into your wallet for a simple yet potent money drawing charm.
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Another simple trick is to charge your money before you spend it. You can incorporate a sigil or symbol, such as a clockwise spiral, tracing it upon the bill or coin as you push energy into it. Incorporate a chant, if you like, something simple like “the money goes out and the money flows in” or anything better that you feel moved to create that encourages the inward flow of money through the action of spending it.

Words are a way of shaping thought and energy into something finite and transferable. It’s a way of tapping into great sources of power through a collection of sounds, symbols, and collective meaning. So when we take those sounds and symbols and pair them breath -one of the simplest ways we have of not just moving energy through our bodies but of raising energy- those words become potent and capable of creating change.

Chanting and singing are such versatile ways for us to work magick with no tools. A simple phrase repeated over and over, allowing the energy to build, and then ended with a flourish of the hand can make for a strong and fast acting spell to bring money your way. For many years, my go-to prosperity spell was a cheer-style chant complete with full body dancing with at least a child or two involved. The movements, repetition, and laughing children (who thought their mother was hilarious) allowed for so much energy to be raised -energy that is easily gathered and sent forth even if you’re inexperienced at magick.

For any chant or song to work for magick there is one crucial point that must be adhered to: do not overthink. Overthinking is the death of so many magickal pursuits. If you have a need to work magick to help you pay your rent, then work some damn magick to help you pay your rent. And if you want to use a chant, then just make a chant. Your words don’t have to rhyme, they don’t need to be flowery, but there are some things to keep in mind to make your chant more effective -and magick that isn’t effective isn’t worth doing. You do not have time for such nonsense.

Tips for Making Effective Magickal Chants

• Frame your words in the present tense (i.e. don’t say “money will come my way” say “money is here” or “I have money.” If you say that the money will come, you prime the energy to keep the money always en route to you but never arriving. Work effective magick.)
• Focus on the solution, not the problem. Sending energy at the problem by wording your chant to even mention the problem makes that problem more pervasive. You do not correct a problem by sending energy at it to make it stronger. Focus on what you want to achieve, focus on how awesome it feels to have that solution, to have that money to pay your rent. That’s how you shape your magick and properly send the energy.
• Don’t rush it. Your words need time to build power. Chants by definition must be repeated so give yourself time and space to repeat those words. The power is not in the words, the power is in the repetition, your breath, the sounds, and the framing of the energy as you send it forth.

 
Additional Things to Consider to Add More Power to your Chants

• Different letter sounds carry different energy. For example, “S’s” are full of fire and can add speed, permeation, and intensity to your work.
• Repetition allows for energy to build and rise, reaching a point of intensity that allows it to reach its destination more quickly and allows for stronger and more unshakeable manifestation.
• Putting your words to music adds another layer of power. Rising scales tend to build energy, rising then repeating helps with honing, descending scales tend to decrease or subdue energy. Notes alone can be used to raise and send energy but this is something to play around and experiment with.

Sigils have become increasingly more common and popular in modern magick due to the ease of their creation and the versatility of their use. Sigils can be used independently, however, they work beautifully in conjunction with other magickal approaches.

For creating a sigil, please see Part 2: Putting it Into Practice of my book By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding.

Once you have created an appropriate sigil for your money magick, you are only limited by your creativity in how to put it to use. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Draw your sigil on a scrap of paper and, depending on what’s appropriate for its purpose, slip this paper into your wallet, your datebook, or binder/folder with papers for your job.
• Trace your sigil onto your calendar, onto your laptop screen before sending emails, over your phone before calling/messaging clients or your boss.
• Trace it onto your money before you spend it.
• Visualize or trace it in the air before you go to bed or when you first wake up, before/after you have a meeting, before launching new projects, etc.

As part of witchcraft’s craft-based nature, we often find ourselves making things. This is a way for us to more blatantly work with the physical world in order to wield spiritual forces to create change in our everyday lives. Working with physical materials facilitates our ability to tap into those natural energies that are associated and tied to those materials. Virtually any physical object can be used in witchcraft and you absolutely have all the materials you need in your home right now to make a sachet, charm, or talisman for your money magick.

What makes using a sachet, charm, or talisman so potent for prosperity magick is how they operate in the first place: energy is collected and placed within the object (or collection of objects) and that energy slowly dissipates. In keeping that object near to you, that energy dissipates and naturally affects the closest thing to it -you. This allows them to continuously work until there is no more energy left to dissipate, at which time the object is either dismantled and/or destroyed, recharged, or kept for another time (which is most appropriate will depend upon what that object is and what it is made of.)
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For example, you can charge/empower a piece of jewelry or a stone to boost your confidence at work, to attract money to you, to help you make a great first impression, to increase your eloquence, or to help you to feel more relaxed and make others feel more comfortable around you -all of these things can help you to increase your cash flow.

If you only work one type of prosperity magick, let it be making -and feeding- a money jar.
A money jar is as simple as it sounds: a jar or small bowl that you fill with money for the purpose of bringing more money you’re way. However, that simplicity is a bit devious because, although setup and charging takes 2 minutes tops and you already have all the materials, if you don’t pay consistent attention to your money jar it will stop working.

Putting it All Together
To make your money jar, you’ll need:

• a jar large enough to hold a small handful of coins (as well as a few dollar bills)
• a variety of currency
• one bill or coin that acts as an anchor

I like to start with a variety of coins and bills, being sure to include larger size coins and bills that I’ll need to spend soon. As for an anchor coin or bill, this needs to be blatantly different than the other coins or bills that you’ll place in your jar. Good choices are a fifty-cent piece, a dollar coin (especially because of the gold color,) or foreign currency. If you use a bill, you’ll need to mark it, drawing money drawing symbols/sigils on the front and back.

Hold your anchor piece in your hands and push in that money drawing energy. You can chant something if you like. Not sure what? How about this:

The money comes in and the money goes out,
the money is here, I’m never without. 

Thought of that on the spot because none of this needs to be complicated, it just needs to be effective. So, chant if you want to but push that energy into your anchor. Really pour your all into it and then seal that energy with a kiss. Yes, kiss the money. And then put it in your jar. This anchor piece will stay in your jar and never be spent. Ever.

Hold your jar/bowl and repeat the same action, pushing the energy in and chanting if you like.
It’s done. But, now you need to feed it.

Place your money jar somewhere where it will be undisturbed, respected, and where you can access it easily. Your workbench is a perfect place though it should not be placed on a shrine unless that Deity says that such is acceptable. Take a few coins of higher amount (seriously, do not use pennies: your money jar is NOT your change jar)  and repeat the process, pushing the energy in and sealing it with a kiss. Put them in the jar. Repeat with a dollar bill or some.

Don’t worry about only having dollar bills or if you know you’re going to have to spend that twenty really soon. Charge it all and put it in the jar.

To keep your money jar working, you must spend the money in it. And you must add more money to it. If you don’t it will stop working. A money jar only works as long as you want it to work (and if you can’t be bothered to at least take out your anchor, give it a kiss, and bury it back beneath the coins each day, you didn’t really want to work.)

Tips to Make your Money Jar Work Harder

• Add money to it regularly
• Take money from it regularly
• Kiss that coin before you toss it in
• Add additional items that signify wealth, growth, or money to you (eg I have an acorn, bees, specimen gold, and a locally found natural clear quartz crystal to feed the jar between my own feedings.)

​Your money jar is an active piece of magick that you must use in order to make it work. It needs care and feeding. A money jar that is properly cared for will not only bring a quick boost of money after you feed it, but it will also help you to have a more consistent influx of money. But a neglected money jar accomplishes nothing. Add more money to your money jar at least a couple of times each week, making sure you charge each piece before adding it to the jar. 

Each of these methods is a simple yet effective way to boost your income and will, hopefully, further show you why magick needn’t be complicated.+ It doesn’t matter what your tools or the materials you use look like, it doesn’t matter how many exotic crystals or herbs you hoard, and it certainly doesn’t matter how your dress or whether you wear makeup. Witchcraft is about doing and when it comes to working magick, what matters most is that your magick is effective. Don’t overthink it, just get on with what you need to do.

Remember, it’s called witchcraft, not witchthink: the magick you work will always be more effective than the magick you don’t work.++
 
 
* Although, this is often used as an excuse as to why one doesn’t have to do research or educate themselves on topics/practices and can cling to nonfactual concepts because they’re “free to believe” what they want. Oi. No. That’s not how this works. Just because witchcraft deals with spiritual forces that are generally unseen and imperceptible to most people -even most practicing witches- does not mean that you can dismiss established facts because you don’t like them and use personal freedom and freedom of belief to justify it. This isn’t makebelieve. Witchcraft is actually real and actually works -if it didn’t few of us would stick with this long, and, personally, I certainly wouldn’t have devoted the last 20+ years of my life to its study and practice.

** There is never any reason why you ever need to use glitter in your witchcraft. Every bit of your power as a witch comes from the land, from the natural world that you are one of many creatures and beings living within. Glitter is nothing but garbage. You cannot clean it up, it is not biodegradable, and it poses a very serious health hazard to infants, small animals, and adults with compromised respiratory systems. It is a microplastic. Your glitter is made up of tiny pieces of PET plastic and aluminum. PET breaks down and releases chemicals that disrupt hormones in humans and animals. It’s also been linked to certain cancers. NOTHING ABOUT THAT ADDS TO YOUR MAGICK. It is clogging the oceans, killing sea life. It is in the food that we eat now, found in the bellies of fish being sold in markets. You can't be part of an earth-based practice and do things that are killing the earth.

+But, should you like something a bit more complicated, check out this recipe for First Impression Ointment.
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++Sorry not sorry. This is a quote from the prelude of my book By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding.