Let’s be real here.
Life sometimes sucks. Jobs get in the way. Chores are never-ending. Errands seem to take up too much time. At times, everything seems to pile up in your life and you can feel out of control. Its absolutely understandable that in times when life seems to be swirling sideways, that practice and ritual can become just another notch on the list of dreaded tasks.
I’ve found myself in the situation many times throughout the years. Ritual becomes a chore rather than a joy. Sometimes its very hard for me to dispel the negative energies I feel and concentrate on a ritual. Many times I’ve given up because my concentration is easily interrupted or clarity is unreachable.
So how do you get out of the quicksand? Read on for some of the ways I get reinspired to practice when life gets tough!
SET A SCHEDULE
It sounds counter-intuitive, but its not easy to be a “witch” every single moment of every single day. It can be hard to come to terms with the fact that its just not going to happen (especially for new practitioners). Life has an uncanny ability to run over that idea with a semi-truck.
The bottom line: it’s okay to have a day without ritual. It’s okay to have a week. Quite frankly, it’s okay no matter how long the haitus. It’s about what feels right for you not for everyone else.
But, think of it this way… You schedule time to have breakfast, take a shower, go to the grocery store. You can, in fact, do the same thing for ritual. Maybe its lighting a blessed candle while you are taking a shower. It could be reciting a small affirmation while you are commuting to work, or when you arrive at your desk in the morning. It doesn’t have to be big and spectactular, which is where many people can find themselves getting stuck. Nor does it have to be a full-ritual, all you need is something small that helps you feel centered to start or end your day.
Make an effort to turn your everyday into a little more magical. Pick out clothes in the morning and focus on color associations. Do you want to inspire strength or vitality? Try something red or orange. Want to raise you intuition or wisdom? Try violet, gold, or silver. Really pay attention to the small details and rituals you utilize in every day activies and infuse them with your intentions.
CREATE YOUR OWN VISION BOARD (OR 3 OR 4)
Have you ever asked yourself what you wanted from your practice? What you want it to look or feel like? How about just looking at your life and focusing on the things that are going on? How do you want your life or your job to feel?
My husband and I started a board together for 2019. We decided early on that we wanted to consistently adjust the board, because life changes all the time. It also means that we don’t just write down our goals and forget about them. We write things down with intention and then make an active effort to turn these ideas into a reality for us. All done in the hope that at the end of the month we’ve kept the things that make us happy, and worked on the items that we feel bring negativity into our lives. So far this year, it has been a positive experience for us.
We have our vision board in three categories: “What’s Going Well,” “What Needs Work,” and “Things To Focus On.” Here are a couple examples from our list for March:
- “What’s Going Well:” We listed various items that were making us happy like the fact that we were getting married, we’re employed, had good relationships with our family/friends etc.
- “What Needs Work:” Worship/Ritual (my husband and I are different religions), exercise, health issues, and stress/anxiety management (both of us have really been struggling lately).
- In the “Focus” section both of us wanted to spend more time being creative. My husband is an artist and a writer, and I wanted to spend more time on my blog and grimoire. We also had less fun things like doing our taxes (
) and cleaning out the bedroom closet. (But I’m sure you get the idea).
We were not successful at everything we listed for March, but what the vision board did help with was understanding the areas of our life we wanted a change. It also brought up the idea that some of our ideas were too broad and for April we needed to refine them. For example, while we have both been exercising more we decided that for April one of our goals would be to join a gym and work out together. This way we are addressing our concerns but also spending time together.
March also showcased just how much I’ve been struggling in my practice and why. For me anxiety and health issues have been a problem. So instead of long rituals at my altar, I’ve tried to be more purposeful and enhance more mundane activities of my day – like listening to music that inspires happier emotions. (Usually its me rocking out to the oldies, with the windows open and dancing like a fool). I’ve also made more of an effort to cook breakfast for myself, rather than settle for something on-the-go. It helps me to think about what I’m putting in my body and why I need it.
We’ve tried to keep things on the simple side so they are more manageable, but it has adjusted the way we think about our day and what we would like to accomplish with it.
TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR HOME
This can mean many things to different people, but here are some examples:
- The room/area you spend the majority of your time in (this can be your bedroom, office, living room, kitchen….)
- Your home as a whole
- Your altar
I’m big on lists, and I keep a variety of colored post-its and notebooks at the ready in case I need to write one down. Obviously this won’t work for everyone. But take a look around you and identify objects or tasks that are adding more weight to your life (from an emotional or spiritual standpoint).
Do you want to rearrange furniture but can never find the time?
Is your desk, cupboard, bookshelf, or altar unorganized?
Do you have items that are not only cluttering your space, but possibly adding clutter in your personal energy as well?
Ask yourself what you want/need from each individual space. Can you identify anything that is keeping you from that goal? Once you find what you feel needs the “most work,” more than likely you’ve discovered the area of your home that is adding more baggage to your life.
Be purposeful with your time. You don’t want to start too large a project and not have enough time to finish it properly. Where you begin is a matter of personal preference, but don’t push yourself. Resolve to do one or two things a day depending on “size” and “effort” and see where you get. Set a timer. Perhaps you have 20 minutes to work, perhaps you have an hour. Even organizing one small space can add clarity and positive energy back into your practice and more importantly your day itself.
It is always a good idea to reexamine your altar every once in a while. The energies in your life change depending on events you are experiencing and times of the year. The altar organization you had last year may not be positively impacting you this year. Change it up! Think about the way you want to organize your ideal altar.
Do you have all the pieces you need?
Is something out of place?
If you’ve been having a particular trouble such as health, sleeplessnes or work stress – maybe add a resonating item to your altar to inspire positive energies during ritual work.
LET IN SOME AIR
The weather is turning towards Spring. Smells, sounds and sights are changing with the season, and that means new and renewed energies! Open your windows. Get that stale air out of your home! Light some candles/incense, or smudge your space if you are so inclined. (Bonus points if you already have candles/incense that have been blessed to banish negativity or promote positive energies).
If you’re struggling in very specific areas, days of the week also have associations to add some oomph to the elements as well.
- Sunday – healing, protection, success especially in your career
- Monday – home & family, peace
- Tuesday – passion, competition, strength or courage
- Wednesday – inspiration, understanding or knowledge
- Thursday – prosperity especially in money matters, generosity
- Friday – love, comfort, friendship, or reconciliation in a negative relationship
- Saturday – long term goals or projects
Remember when opening your windows, you want to do so with purpose. You are inviting positive energies in your home, providing clarity to your space which in turn will help you find more positive emotions to practice. Air has many associations, and these can change depending on which sect/tradition you utilize in your practice. Some of the active associations with air include inspiration, imagination, diligence or joy. But remember – air also has a dark side so balance and thoughtfulness are important when working with any element.
Add an extra kick by calling upon the colors/energies you have outside your window. Air is associated with yellow, light blue and pastels – but its also Spring which brings with it an abundance of colors to choose from. Use them to your advantage! Don’t just casually open your window, think about the colors you can see and invite them to work their magic in your home.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Perhaps you feel like your practice is stale or lacks the passion it once had. Ask yourself if there is a part of your practice that needs a little something extra? Wicca is all about growth, and as you grow so does your practice. Meaning that there is always room for a new skill, new recipe, new blessing! Start by asking yourself a couple of questions.
How long have you been struggling?
What’s different in your life?
Do you need to find new ways to clear your mind and meditate on your day?
What do you want to learn?
How do you want to learn?
Next step: Plop down somewhere comfy and do some research. Find a new recipe to try with some spatula-drawn sigils. Learn a new way to cultivate plants in your home (This one is a favorite of mine). Is there an aspect of your practice where you have questions? Definitely check out how other practitioners deal with a similar situations or problems. Our community is a wonderful resource, and I can promise that you are not the only one who has struggled with their practice. We all do.
That’s All Folks!
Finding a way to recenter yourself and reignite your passion for practice will never work if you force it. Sometimes the small steps are what you need to get back into things. Discovering what you want versus what you need can go a long way in determining what you need out of your practice in that moment. Always remember that things are constantly changing. The good, the bad, and that pesky little gray area may always be there, but the key is finding tricks that help you discover the way over the wall.
I sincerely hope that something in this post helped you find your center once again. Let me know how things go! I’d love to hear from all of you! Until next time my magical friends.
Blessed Be.
I would love to write something positive about this particular book, but I was completely unimpressed by the author’s take on the subject. The premise of the book is what caught my eye in the first place, and I should have stopped there. Gaudet claims to be providing a historical study of how writing impacted the growth/evolution of Western culture. While the historical context he provides isn’t uninteresting, his writing style is monotonous and barely scratches the depth of research available. It wasn’t so much a “rise” of civilization as a “guide to how papyrus was cultivated.” Again, might be interesting, except upon learning that the author basically wrote the same book twice. He has another non-fiction work studying papyrus and its impact on culture in Papyrus: The Plant That Changed the World.” Insert epic sigh of disappointment here.
I did check out the TV show first, and only learned it was a book after the fact. If you are pursuing the novel based on your interest in the show itself, you should that the amount of similarities are minimal, at least in my opinion. While most readers have come to expect a little fiction license when it comes to Hollywood translations of books, I’d say this one was extreme.
There were two relatively minor issues I had with the first of Remy Chandler’s adventures. The first was that A LOT of characters were introduced in a short amount of time. Many of them were flat, one-dimensional introductions. While most of the characters popped up time and again in the novel, it wasn’t super impressive and some of the connections were low on depth. The second issue was the introduction of Remy’s personal history into the narrative. The constant back and forth between explaining Remy’s supernatural history and his mystery-solving dialogue was a little much. I freely admit, I at times skipped a page or two of narrative…
In a way, this series was very Gilmore Girls meets Charmed. A mother and daughter team full of sarcasms and witticisms, who both find out after moving to new town that they are in fact supernaturally inclined. I immensely enjoyed the dialogue of the book, especially between the mother/daughter duo. It showed a healthy relationship between a single mom and her teenage daughter, but didn’t sugar-coat the negatives either. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of a mother/daughter duo learning their powers together, and navigating the differences in how they learn. It would have been highly disappointing if both the mother/daughter just naturally jumped into a supernatural existence without any bumps in the road.
After reading Cursed Child, I’ll admit I still have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was ecstatic to jump back into the Wizarding World once again. On the other, most of the time scripts leave me with a disjointed feeling as much of the visual nature of the narrative is missing. I thought the story had massive amounts of potential, and I’ve heard many wonderful things about the play itself, but the “novel” left me feeling slightly incomplete.
of which are descriptions straight from the book jacket. All are misleading.
I really enjoyed Soulless. The main character, Alexia, is written in a fantastic witty style. The characters that surround her, from the gruff werewolf to the narcissistic mother to the air-headed best friend, all were dynamic interesting personalities. Carriger did a great job world building, providing just enough detail to make everything cohesive but not going overboard. (Some paranormal novels are just ridiculous). The story had a great pace and I didn’t feel bored or lost during the narrative.
I picked up this book as it was recommended to me both by friends and by my Goodreads book list. To be perfectly honest, while I finished the book, not a fan. The plot had so much potential and really didn’t work out.
I was hoping based on the summary of this book that I would be getting a semi-current account of current research into dinosaur DNA. (Well, at least as current as 2009 when the book was published). The book is interesting, showcasing how Paleontology has become an interdisciplinary subject. It meticulously describes early research and the breakthroughs (such as Genetics) that made discovering blood vessels, feathers and even DNA strands in animal/plant fossils possible.
I’m literally not even going to bother with any sort of lengthy review. It was horrendous! The characters were annoying, selfish and vain. The narrative was unbelievably atrocious and I skipped more than half of this novel and its prequel The Rules of Magic. I’d highly recommend running in the other direction.
Mabon is another holiday where personal reflection comes into focus. With day/night starting to even out, balance becomes paramount both in our personal and professional lives. People always talk about “spring cleaning,” but the Autumn Equinox is a great time to clear away that extra clutter!
In this way, I highly recommend creating a box with fun activities that you can do during the cold and often dreary days. Create sections like “outside,””alone time,””recipes to try,” to give yourself options. Fill the jar with ideas like board game or movie nights with your friends. Include indulgences like “at home spa days” or “date night” ideas when you just don’t want to stay in.
When creating a Book of Shadows, it’s important to determine what format works best for you and your practice. Your Book of Shadows will change as much as you do, and its beneficial for your BoS to reflect who you are as much as who you were. To start creating a Book of Shadows for yourself (or even a new one), ask yourself some key questions:
(In 17 years, I’ve started and utilized at least three Book of Shadows. The incarnation that lasted the longest was a 2″ purple binder. However, I also had some rituals and information in digital format on its own special thumb-drive. Neither of them are “me” anymore, which is why I’m currently working on my fourth version.)
owerful words. My BoS begins with the Capricorn symbol, although not the current symbol for the sign. I utilize the Roman version, when Capricorn was still represented as a water sign, the “Sea Goat.” The symbol reminds me to be strong even during the worst times in my life.
wonderful about celebrating with a ritual during the solstice itself, bringing those energies into your home for the entire Summer can have lasting effects.
If you aren’t much of a gardener, Farmer’s Markets are wonderful places to find fresh. Getting to know gardeners and vendors are great ways to find suppliers for herbs, fruits and veggies during any season. One of the easiest ways to bring the solstice into your home is to add some color. Flora and fauna abound during the season. Gather, dry and store herbs for the coming year, either for some kitchen witchery or to add to ritual sachets, dream pillows, or incense. Don’t forget honey for your table either. Bees are out and about with their busy little lives. Support ethically sourced honey, which will bring positive energy to your mind and your table.
Getting outside is a must. Wrap up a color-packed picnic for anyone and everyone. Gather your friends for an outdoor BBQ or a trip to the beach. Celebrate their achievements as much as yours. Take pictures, breathe in and rejuvenate in the sun’s natural energy. If you normally do your rituals at a specific time of the day or night (or always in your home), try changing it up. You may be surprised at the difference in energies that are available to you.
I grabbed these books solely due to its premise: Furies leading the way. Lets take the old pantheons and create a world in a world, which in general works pretty well. The author makes the collision of the two worlds believable, although for the most part, we only get one side of the description. Having a Fury as a heroine was an interesting touch, since the author had to balance the tradition of Furies as judge, jury and executioner, with her career as a Boston investigator.
little wiser, and not 100% willing to accept supernatural causes for events.
His book Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, published in 1988, still remains one of the top-selling Wiccan guides. All of his books lay out notions of practicing related to spell work, altar structure, color associations, the inclusion of cardinal directions, roles of the God and Goddess etc. I find that his guides are excellent places to build the foundation of your rituals. They are extremely detailed, and if you are unsure or confused, they provide structured rituals for practice.
About 5 books in, I told my boyfriend he should set me a limit. He thought I was kidding. I left with a baker’s dozen. I completely ignored the non-fiction section of the library, and I still had at least 4 aisles I didn’t make it through. Mostly because my arms couldn’t carry anymore. But I also realized, I was relaxed. I was in the library an hour, but that hour did wonders. Mentally, I didn’t feel like I was centered, but I also didn’t feel like my focus was still on hyperdrive. My dragon has a borrowed hoard, so hopefully it will quiet down a little. It would seem that even more than my favorite characters, I just needed to spend time in a familiar and comforting place. Plus, it less expensive than spending an afternoon in Barnes & Noble.
Toil & Tomes 