by Jenn Stevens
Choosing to lead a witch-y existence automatically makes you a bad-ass feminist metaphysical mover and shaker.
It fundamentally involves growing confidence in who you are, what you do and – most importantly – in what you want.
Witch-dom is simply not for the spineless. It’s a path that will never jive with the wallflowers, the meek or with those who are perfectly okay with the status quo.
It’s only for those with heart and guts and most importantly — vision.
Because being a witch is all about the art of getting what you want.
Call it spell-casting, manifesting or whatever else you like. It all comes down to the same thing: turning our internal desires into our external reality.
There are as many magical methods to work with as there are colors in a peacock’s tail.
The method you go with is an intensely personal decision. But whatever it might be, take the time to lay the groundwork of how to get what you want before you begin.
Know Yourself
We’re all victims to some degree of societal conditioning.
(And it’s not the fault of anyone in particular! So don’t even bother getting all rage-y at the fam about it!)
Open a newspaper or watch a TV show and you are shown exactly what society deems to be successful and what isn’t.
A job as a banker, maxed out credit cards and a leased BMW? Cool. Becoming an artist and wearing the thrift-store wardrobe to match? Not so much.
So what happens when the things we’re supposed to care about and what we actually care about are two entirely different things?
Stepping outside of the cultural norms is scary but your dreams are freakin’ important. You have them for a reason.
It’s ridiculous for us all to chase the same goals in life or to kowtow to the same visions of success.
If you mistake someone else’s vision of success for your own, you’re never going to be satisfied. True happiness can never come from living someone else’s dream.
Find your own personal True North.
The key to our inner world is mindfulness. Getting quiet and listening to our true self is the only way to distinguish the desires that were imposed upon us from the desires that are truly our own.
Knowing the difference between the two is the most important first step to magical achievement a witch can take.
Get Behind Your Desire
Even if you’re tempted to turn your witchy nose up at it at first, spell-casting fundamentally involves something completely banal-sounding:
Goal-setting.
It might sound boring but it’s still true: witches just don’t get what they want without a little foresight and planning.
Tuning into our desire is a way of knowing ourselves intimately and truthfully.
So what do you really want?
Leading a magical life is not for the passive. It’s for those who are brave enough to admit they want the things they do and for those with the balls to make things happen.
Our desires should never be quelled or hidden away behind closed doors. They should be celebrated and chased down with passion and joy.
Never ever let yourself be talked out of the Big Scary Beautiful Things in Life because you think you don’t deserve them, you haven’t earned them or that you’re just being too downright greedy.
Fuck all of that.
Desire is your birthright. Let it fill you up, let it rule your actions, let it guide your ship.
Understand The Why
Understanding the why behind the want is another key element for witch-kind.
How will achieving your desires ultimately make you feel? And exactly why do you want the things you do?
Elegantly minimalist witch Danielle Laporte calls these your “Core Desired Feelings” but you can call them whatever you like! The only important thing is that you take the time to figure them out for yourself.
A desire to own something, be something or have is more than just what it appears on the surface.
Often these external desires stem from an internal place of lack. We seek out the designer bag, the promotion or the ring on our finger because we think that somehow they will fix us.
Being envied for our wardrobe might give us the confidence we otherwise lack or the ring on our finger might actually (finally) make us feel loved.
Not to desire-shame you here!
Of course, every witch has the right to wish for anything he or she can dream up. And wishing for physical objects just for the shits and giggles is totally cool (and well within your witching rights).
But sometimes wish-fulfillment comes from the wrong place.
It can turn out to be exactly the same as a routine mall-rat shopping addiction: a constant attempting to fill up that empty hole on the inside with the things that can never really help.
Just because you’re a magical creature doesn’t mean you can’t fall prey to those muggle psychological traps.
If you’re feeling lack in some aspect of your life, it’s important to figure that out for yourself.
You can have all the fame, hot guys and designer bags in the world but if you don’t do the work on healing yourself first, achieving those desires (magically or otherwise) will eventually feel empty and hollow.
Seek out your desires for the right reasons not the wrong ones.
Stop Playing Small
If you’re at all like me when you were a little girl you were taught not to brag, not to be bossy and not to be greedy.
And of course there are upsides to being taught each of those things, but for most women they’ve come with quite a cost: many of us naturally shy away from claiming what should rightfully be ours.
For the most part, we’ve been taught to play small. We’re not taught to put ourselves out there or even to dream as big as our brothers were.
But childhood is over and it’s time to reclaim those qualities for ourselves. We can own our beauty without being accused of bragging.
We can showcase our knowledge and expertise and not be be perceived as being bossy. And we can ask for what we really want without the fear of being greedy.
As any self-help reading spirit junkie can tell you, the intrinsic fear of greed comes from a place of lack.
It requires the basic belief that if I take more for me there will be less for you. And that’s obviously completely bonkers! There’s a lot of food to go around at the table of life.
Unless your wishes are actively diminishing another, you have every right to ask for whatever it is you really want, whether it’s a VitaMix blender or a promotion at work.
So what lights you up? What gives you energy when you think about it? What gets you really excited?
Those vibrant happy feelings that desire brings are a wonderful barometer for getting to know ourselves. So when you find them, don’t talk yourself out of them!
You don’t have to settle for living in the town you were born in, for the boyfriend who is just ok, for the job that you dread. YOU ARE CAPABLE AND WILDLY DESERVING.
What you deserve is always determined by you.
Work With The Moon
Witches know the power of the moon. And yet sometimes even we forget to harness that power fully.
We plant seeds in springtime to reap the rewards later on in summer or fall.
Of course magic works on its own timeline and won’t necessarily respond to such rigid expectations! But the general wisdom is to set intentions during the New Moon and to release things during the Full Moon.
While you can also set spells or intentions anytime you like, its smart to make it a habit to work within the timeline of the moon. Every New Moon sit down with yourself and set yourself an intention or two for the month ahead.
The more natural energy we can put behind our intentions the more likely they’ll be to be birthed into existence.
And the moon energy is one of the most powerful natural elements we can work with. So don’t forget to take advantage of it!
Make moon phase goal-setting a regular witch-y habit.
Live It
Believe it, own it, live it into existence.
You own the right to get what you want so don’t act for even a moment like you don’t deserve what your heart desires.
Our mind and our feelings are potent and of-overlooked tools in the art of getting what you want. Much of magic is an internal process; it’s our own ability to vividly visualize what we want that sets the wheels into motion.
Don’t forget to harness your own power when you set your sights on something.
Spend some time in a visualization. Feel your way into what you desire. Imagine what it would look like, feel like, taste like if your wish had already come true.
Keep that vision in the forefront of your mind. Meditate on it regularly.
You see, practiced witches know that the real magic isn’t in the sigil, the tools, the altar.
It’s inside of us.
Get Physical
Sending your energy out into the physical space is one of the most fundamental ways you can bring your vision into the world. Intention and movement are a potent combination.
This can come in the many typical magic forms: herb work, alchemy, candle spells etc.
But my own personal method is simply the art of rearranging our living space in an intentional and careful way.
Taking control over our space and placing evidence of our desire into it works two-fold.
First, creating a physical representation of your goal is the first step in making it become real. Second, immersing yourself in some evidence of your desires creates a positive feedback loop.
That positive wish energy just keeps rebounding on itself!
But if working with your space seems too unwieldy, there are loads of other ways to put some physical energy behind the energy of your spell.
Try displaying a handwritten version of your desire somewhere that you’ll see it daily or put some effort into making an entire vision board.
Draw out your goals or write a story or letter about them. Keep your intention in your mind as you go running or hit the dance floor, and allow the energy to express itself through you.
You can even speak out loud: have an imaginary out-loud conversation as if you were Future You.
Your methodology can (and should) change depending on your mood, the day or the season. The only important thing is to take the step of birthing your dream into the physical world.
Relinquish Control
As wise and knowing as we may be, even witches don’t have it all figured out.
We can put in all the energy, desire and effort towards manifesting our goals and sometimes even then things might not appear to be working out in our favour.
Remember that we’re simply creating recipes and putting them in the hands of another.
We can’t hurry up the Universe’s timeline for our small concerns.
And of course sometimes not getting exactly what we want right now is actually a blessing in disguise.
Magic is ultimately the one in charge and we must inevitably defer to the wisdom of the world.
Trust that everything that is meant to be will be. Don’t freak out that you’re doing it wrong or that your spell didn’t work!
Instead, release your expectations about timelines. Release your attachment to the outcome and most of all release your expectations about how things are supposed to happen.
Leave plenty of space for the Universe to do what it does best: surprise, entertain, play and delight.
Acknowledge your position in the world and enjoy the process. And never waste your time trying to micromanage the magic.
Magic = Alignment
The more aligned your actions are with your true desires and intentions the faster your magic will come to fruition.
Above all, truly great witchery involves embracing ourselves fully: facing up to our own true motivations (and shadow self) with complete and utter honesty.
You must master your inner world in order to master your outer world.
It’s challenging and delicious and 100% worth the effort.
IN CONCLUSION
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