Spellwork and Witchcraft Ethics

When we understand how powerful witchcraft and spellwork can be, we know that there is as much potentiality for causing harm as there is for healing.

I don’t believe that ethics in this area (or any, really) are black and white or something that can be written in a post and passed right along to you. I think ethics are both nuanced and personal. 

So in this blog, I’ll be sharing a bit of my own thoughts about spellwork and witchcraft ethics, and offering some different areas of reflection for your own spellwork and witchcraft ethics.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION + CONSUMPTION

Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, wrote for Medium, “Cultural appropriation is the misuse of a group’s art and culture by someone with the power to redefine that art and, in the process, divorce it from the people who originally created it.”

Cultural appropriation is rampant in the spirituality, new age, and witchcraft communities. Sacred indigenous plants are bought and sold by white folks, indigenous knowledge is whitewashed, repackaged and sold, and practices are stolen from cultures of color. 

The impacts of cultural appropriation are not just personal, they widely function to continue to funnel power towards white folks and away from Black folks, Indigenous folks, and other people of color. 

I also personally feel that working with tools and practices from our own ancestry are always going to be more powerful than working with tools and practices that are not from our own ancestry! 

Some reflection questions for your own practice around cultural appropriation:

• What tools are you using in your magical practice, and where do they come from? If they are from cultures other than your own, how are you giving back, uplifting and supporting those cultures and peoples? 

• Are they sourced in ways that feel good to you and aligned with your values (for example: are your crystals mined by children? Are trees being chopped down for your Palo Santo?)?

• What are the lineages of the practices you use? If you don’t know, do some research. 

• How were your ancestors practicing witchcraft and magic? What are their traditions? What tools were they using? What were there beliefs? (These are big questions and incredibly important ones, especially for white folks to be asking. It can be hard to find information when much of European folk magic traditions were stolen by Christianity when the religion swept over the continent, but it’s out there. To start ancestral research, I recommend checking out Sanyu Estelle’s Ancestral Altars: Europa Edition recorded class as well as Megan McGuire’s work. Cassie also loves Elen Sentier’s work on British Shamanism.)

CAUSING HARM WITH MAGICK

Just as we can do spellwork to attract love and abundance, we can also practice curses, hexes, and other kinds of spellwork to manipulate and cause harm to others.

It would be easy for me to tell you here: never use curses or hexes, never practice magic that causes harm. There are Wiccan creeds around this that you may be familiar with, the Threefold Law and the Wiccan Rede. 

The Threefold Law states that whatever energy you put out will come back to you times three. The Wiccan Rede states “An it harm none, do what ye will.” There are different ways to interpret the Wiccan Rede, but most agree that it means as long as your workings harm no one, do what you feel called to. 

I tend to agree with these ideas personally, but it’s not so black and white. Some Black magical traditions like Hoodoo have no such rules and use cursing and crossing in alignment with their own ethics. I think it’s important to stay in my own lane when it comes to passing blanket statements about what it is and isn’t okay to do with magic, when there are deeply rooted traditions that incorporate some of these practices. 

We can expand this out and ask, too — is it truly unethical to curse or hex a person who does evil in the world at a large scale?

I don’t have answers for you, but I invite you to reflect on these questions. What settles in your body and heart when it comes to causing harm with magick?

JUSTICE

This brings me to justice. Witchcraft is intrinsically linked to justice and is inherently political, no question about it. 

I invite you to ask yourself: how are my spells and magical workings contributing to justice in the world? Or are they functioning to amplify privilege and get only myself ahead?

One of my favorite practices around this was shared by Amanda Yates Garcia, the Oracle of LA. She invites us to send out any spell we do for ourselves for the collective, too. For example, a spell to attract money would also include something like, “as it is for me, as it is for all,” to ask the spell to attract money for all of us. A spell for a new home for yourself might include housing justice for all. A spell for a lover for yourself might include safe and healthy relationships for all. And so on!

CONSENT

One of the key principles in energy work is always getting consent. Energy work has real impacts, and people deserve the opportunity to be able to opt-in to receive it. 

For me, this is true regardless of our best intentions - even if we want to send healing to someone we don’t know (who can’t consent) because we think it would really help them. 

What is true for you? Ask yourself: what are my consent boundaries with others when it comes to energy?

As you can see, ethics is a murky field but an important one to consider for any witch! My advice is: Work from your own value system. If you’re not clear on what your values are, start there. Let your witchcraft practice reflect your ethos, and know that we all have different values & ideas of what is right or wrong.  

At the end of the day, we all have to be able to sleep at night from a place of knowing the truth, not from ignorance of the impacts of our actions. What do you need to change or lean into in your practice to make that so? 

3 Rituals for Mabon

Mabon, also known as the fall equinox, is the holiday on the Wheel of the Year that descends us into autumn. On this day, as with both equinoxes, light and dark find balance — we hover, suspended, at an even keel before tipping into more darkness.

When we fear darkness, this descent may feel scary. But intentionally working with the seasons and the Wheel of the Year can teach us the inherent goodness in every season, and the necessity of each point in the year. Without the fall and winter dying season, there can be no space for growth in spring and summer.

Without the pruning and reevaluating of the dying season, the growth season brings overwhelm and lack of focus. Without the shadow work fall and winter invite in, spring and summer feel shallow — love and light with no substance. Working with ritual is a beautiful way to honor this sabbat. Scroll down to explore some rituals to inspire your practice for this sacred day and season. 

Gratitude Ritual

Often referred to as the Witches’ Thanksgiving, Mabon is thought of by some as a second harvest time. A time to reap what you have sowed, and enjoy the fruits of your energy with those you love. 

This gratitude ritual is inspired by this aspect of Mabon. All you’ll need is a candle in a color that connects you to gratitude, a piece of paper and a pen. You can make this fancier if you’d like by rolling your candle in oil and herbs (here are a few gratitude herbs shared by Yoga International to check out), but it’s definitely not a requirement.

Ground yourself and spend some time reflecting on the question: what are you grateful for? Think back throughout this whole year, perhaps since the last fall equinox, and free-write everything you can think of on your paper. 

Maybe there’s even enough time and space from some of the harder things of the past year to find some gratitude in them (or maybe not, and maybe there never will be, and all of that is okay, too!). 

When you feel complete with your list, light your candle and start reading aloud everything you’re grateful for. Take a breath and pause with each item to really feel the gratitude move through your body, to consciously connect with this energy. Depending on how long your list is and how you’re feeling, you might read your list a few times.

Then, raise energy in a way that feels joyful to you - it could be dancing, shaking your whole body, laughing, or anything else that feels good to you! Let gratitude soak into your cells. Let it infuse your body with love. When you’ve felt the energy shift, burn your gratitude list on your candle and offer up a little gratitude prayer that feels good to you — I like something simple like, “thank you, more please!” to share my gratitude and offer to the Universe that I’m open to receiving more things to be grateful for. 

Let your candle burn out, or burn it for the next few days and sit in a short gratitude meditation each day while you do. 

Make an Altar

Making a seasonal altar is a lovely and tactile way to honor any season. To make your altar, ask yourself: what textures, scents, images, archetypes, symbols, and items evoke a feeling of autumn for you?

Check out this video from our Instagram page for tips on resetting your altar for the seasons.

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Here are some suggestions to inspire your practice, but I highly recommend letting your altar creation be intuitive:

• Sticks and/or leaves from the land near you 

• The High Priestess tarot card, symbolizing Persephone’s descent into the underworld 

• Local seasonal fruits and vegetables like apples, grains, and squash as offerings for ancestors 

• Autumnal colored candles — brown, red, orange, and/or yellow 

• Pomegranates, which also symbolize descent into the underworld 

Try to be as present as possible while creating your altar to really sink into the space you’re creating. After you’ve set up your altar, try spending a few moments meditating on the themes of Mabon and intention of this holiday.

Ritual to Descend into Darkness

This ritual is to be done outside at sunset (if that’s possible for you, if not, you could change it to be inside and view the sunset through a window) on the fall equinox.

Set yourself up for a pleasurable and safe sunset viewing experience, whatever that means to you! If it’s chilly, maybe you need a sweater and thick socks. Maybe you like to have yummy snacks and a drink, or a journal to write a poem about the sunset beside you. It’s up to you!

Watch the sunset and try to be as present as possible. Notice how the sun’s energy makes you feel, and how that might shift as the sun continues to sink lower and the colors change across the sky. As the sun sets, offer gratitude to the sun for its life-giving energy.

Sink into the darkness, and try to be as present as possible with it, too. Notice how your energy and the sensations and feelings in your body shift with the darkness. Ask yourself: what are the gifts of this darkness? What’s the medicine, the magic? Notice what you hear, smell, see - maybe it’s bugs singing, the stars in the sky, a smoky scent of someone’s backyard fire pit.

Speak words of love and praise aloud to the darkness. Share what you love about it. What you’re ready for. What calls to you about the darkness. If you feel called, leave an intuitive offering out for the darkness — food, a poem, a painting, a flower, anything that feels good to you.

Close your ritual with a few deep breaths, and spend some time journaling after to process your experience.

Happy Mabon! Sending you lots of love and wishes for a nourishing fall season from team Cassie Uhl. Find more rituals for Marbon here. 

5 Rituals for Lammas & Lughnasadh

Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is one of the four cross-quarter days on the Celtic Wheel of the Year. This holiday, celebrated by ancient European pagans, marks the beginning of the harvest season. 

The name Lughnasadh comes from “Lunasa,” which means August in Gaelic. Lammas is the English word for this harvest festival, which is Anglo-Saxon for “loaf mass.” I tend to use both names, as I have both Irish and English ancestry. 

At the beginning of the harvest season, the themes of this holiday are abundance, gratitude, harvest, and honoring the fruits of our labors and intentions throughout the year thus far. 

Honoring the sabbats with ritual is a beautiful way to tune yourself into nature and connect with Mother Earth. Scroll down for 5 Lammas rituals to help you celebrate this day! 

1. Meditate to connect with Lugh. This holiday is associated with the sun god Lugh (which you can see in the name Lughnasadh). Lugh is a warrior deity in Celtic mythology known for being skilled in many things, including fighting, building, and the arts. 

For this ritual, sit in meditation (ideally, outside under the sun if that’s possible for you) and ask to connect with the energy of Lugh. In my practice, I like to work with deities energetically as archetypes that are already within myself, but please, do whatever works for you! You can ask Lugh to share a message with you, ask him to share his skills in a specific area you need help with, simply offer him gratitude, or bring forward another question specific to you.

Bask in Lugh’s energy until you feel complete, offer gratitude, and close your meditation with a few deep belly breaths.

You can find a meditation for Lughnasadh here to help you harvest the fruits of your labor over the previous year and tune into the energy of pride.

2. Explore what you are harvesting in your life at this time. Try this tarot or oracle card spread for deeper clarity around the abundance in your life right now. 

• What I am harvesting at this time 

• The roots of this harvest (aka, what happened to make this harvest possible internally and externally?)

• How to step into the energy of gratitude 

• How to continue to create abundance in my life 

Spend some time meditating with your cards or journaling about their meanings to go deeper. 

3. Support local farmers. I love when ritual becomes tangible and infused with life, and this is one of those rituals! Ask yourself how you can support local farmers in your life. Perhaps you’d like to commit to doing a CSA next year or buying some portion of your food locally. Perhaps you can go to the farmer’s market, purchase some things and get to know your local farmers. Get creative and support those who make our physical harvest possible every day. 

4. Bake a loaf of bread. Associated with grains, this is the perfect day to bake a fresh loaf of bread. Do this with loved ones if you’d like for a more collaborative process, and infuse intentions of gratitude and abundance into the baking process. Share the bread with your loved ones afterward, and talk about what the themes of this holiday mean to you.  

5. Make an altar. Making an altar is a beautiful way to honor any sabbat. Get creative and make it your own! To inspire your own creativity, here are some ideas of things you might like to put on your altar:

• Bread or grains 

• Yellow, orange, red, or brown candles

• Local, seasonal fresh vegetables 

• Your tarot cards from the spread above

• The 8 of Pentacles, 10 of Pentacles, or any other cards that represent harvest, abundance, and gratitude to you 

• An ear of corn 

• Sunflowers

• Citrine, pyrite, or tiger eye

To learn more about the different sabbats on the wheel of the year (plus, get a free printable), click here. Learn more about the intersection of the first harvest season, Leo season, and Lughnasadh and the history of the Celtic God Lugh here. 

Three Rituals for Beltane

Beltane is a cross-quarter holiday on the Wheel of the Year that honors the return of summer, the return of the fertility of the Earth, and the element of fire. It’s a nature-based holiday that many of our ancestors celebrated for a long time, and now we get to carry that tradition forward. 

Like Samhain, Beltane is a time when the veil is thin. This holiday is a particularly beautiful time to connect with nature spirits, as well as any other beings you’re wanting to create a connection with. 

At Beltane, we honor the goddess as part of us. We honor the body, pleasure, sensuality, and sexuality. We bask in the fiery energy of the sun and the fertile energy that’s present. 

In this blog, I'm sharing three rituals and suggested tools for Beltane that you can work with to honor this sacred holiday. Keep scrolling to watch a video and read more!

Page featured from the Goddess Discovery Book V2

OPTIONAL RITUAL TOOLS FOR BELTANE

Feel free to add any of the symbols and tools outlined below to your Beltane rituals or altar. They each correspond with the energy of Beltane. They are not necessary and should be viewed as optional layered energy in your rituals.

Cards featured from The Ritual Deck. 

• Crystals: Rose quartz, garnet, pink tourmaline, rhodochrosite, emerald, malachite, and moonstone

• Scents and plants: Sandalwood, ylang-ylang, lilac, angelica, jasmine, and rose

• Candle colors: Pink, orange, and red

• Element: Fire

• Tarot: Empress

• Rune: Berakno

• Goddess: Venus/Freya

• Tools and Symbols: Cowry shell, flowers, and anything that represents pleasure and creativity to you

Learn more about these rituals for Beltane with Eryn by clicking the video below.

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PLEASURE RITUAL FOR BELTANE

This is one of my favorite pleasure-based rituals, and there’s no time like Beltane for it! You’ll need:

• An oil that you’re comfortable using on your skin, like coconut oil or sunflower seed oil (feel free to mix in any essential oils that intuitively feel good to you as well! Ylang Ylang, rose, and sandalwood are great options.)

• Music (optional)

• A journal (optional)

If you’re using music, take some time to create an intentional, sensual playlist. What songs make you feel really juicy and embodied?

When you’re ready, get yourself into a cozy space, turn your music on if you’re using it, and start to anoint yourself with the oil. Take your time to gently massage the oil into your skin. Keep your breath deep and full, giving yourself sensual touch and really letting yourself receive it.

As you breathe and anoint yourself with the oil, really tune in to the sensation of this touch. Try to stay present and tap into feeling good. We are generally so touch-starved in our lives, and giving ourselves loving touch can be really special.

At some point, this ritual might move into some organic, embodied movement. Or it may not! Feel free to follow whatever feels right here, but keep tuning into your senses and breathing deeply. Some mantras or affirmations might arise organically that you’d like to offer yourself, or perhaps you start to just rest with your hands on your belly and heart. 

Close this ritual with a few loving breaths, reach for your journal and hold some space for yourself to process your experience and think about your relationship with pleasure. 

SELF-LOVE RITUAL FOR BELTANE

Traditionally, folks would jump over fires at Beltane to strengthen a bond, increase fertility, and/or attract a partner. Any and all of those intentions are beautiful, but I’m most interested in connecting with our own love for ourselves at this time. For this ritual, you’ll need:

• A mirror

• A candle with a very stable base (rather than a traditional spell candle, try to use a votive or a short candle in a glass container. You’ll understand why as you keep reading!)

When you’re ready, soften into a cozy, ritual space. Place your hands somewhere on your body to ground and open your circle, and find your breath. Drop into meditation, and start to breathe into a simple phrase: “I love you.”

Notice what starts to happen in your body as you keep telling yourself this (silently or out loud). You may find yourself entering a trance. You may feel a rush of loving energy, a flood of shame, feelings of inauthenticity, or something completely different. Just notice, with compassion, how your internal world shifts as you continue to meditate on this phrase. If another phrase around love comes up for you, you can start to work with that as well. 

Follow your intuition and follow the threads. Perhaps a specific version of you or a part of yourself you feel ashamed of arises to the surface. Can you give that part of your self love, too? Perhaps a critical voice comes up, judging you and your practice. Can you be with that part of yourself, too, and give it love?

Stay with yourself, breathing into love, until at some point you feel ready to open your eyes and gaze into your mirror. Look into your own eyes. Drink yourself in. Tell yourself what you need to hear, what whichever parts of your shadow and self have come up during this ritual need to hear - that you love them regardless. That they could never do anything to lose your love. That you’ll never abandon yourself. Speak the words out loud and feel their power.

When you feel complete, close your ritual by lighting your candle and taking a sacred moment to jump over it (staying safe, of course! If you don’t have a safe candle to do this with, you can place something else there like a candle oracle card from the Ritual Deck and jump over that). As you jump, feel these promises of love solidified. Feel more love move into your body. Feel your declarations of love rise into the Universe. 

And so it is. 

EMPRESS RITUAL FOR BELTANE

The Empress, ruled by Venus, is an archetype of love, creativity, pleasure, and receptivity. This card speaks to the fertility aspect of this holiday, reminding us of our capacity to birth - whether that’s babies, a new world, art, a creative project, purposeful work in the world, or something else. Birth can be so many things beyond and outside of the birthing of humans, although of course, you can work with that here as well! 

For this ritual, you’ll connect with your inner Empress and embody her energetically. All you will need is your Empress tarot card and your journal! If you’d like to add any crystal allies to this practice rose quartz, emerald, moonstone, or rhodochrosite. 

Empress Card from The Starchild Tarot

Create a soft and cozy ritual space for yourself. Spend some time gazing upon your Empress card. Take this archetype in. How does it land in your heart, your body? Notice how you feel and any thoughts, ideas, or associations that come up (feel free to jot these down in your journal if that feels good). What is your unique connection to the Empress? 

When you feel complete, close your eyes and enter into meditation. Invite in the version of you that is the Empress. See them appear in front of you in your mind’s eye as the most embodied, Venusian version of you.

Take this version of you in and ask them any questions you have for them. You might ask them what you’re ready to birth at this time, what you need to release to step into this version of you or anything else that lands on your heart. Take your time and be in connection with the Empress - which is already inside of you.

As you feel complete, thank this version of you and close with a few deep breaths. Open your eyes, and take some time to process your experience in your journal. What will you take away from this ritual? What are you going to change, release, embody, step into? Write it all down!

Which ritual will you be working with for Beltane this year? Let us know over on Instagram! Check out the Wheel of The Year Guided Meditation Bundle here and more rituals for Beltane here.

Three Rituals for Ostara

The spring equinox, also called Ostara, takes place around March 20th each year. This sabbat marks the day when dark and light are in equal balance. After Ostara, we have more light each day and less darkness as we build up to the peak of the sun at the summer solstice. These rituals are great to perform anytime between the Ostara and Beltane.

The Earth is beginning to get warmer and more fertile each day. Associated with the maiden aspect of the triple goddess, Ostara is a time of new life, fertility, balance and harmony, birth, manifestation, and innocent, child-like wonder. 

In this post, I’ll be sharing 3 rituals for Ostara. Keep scrolling for all three rituals and check out the video below.

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CREATE AN OSTARA ALTAR

Creating an altar is a beautiful way to honor any nature-based holiday. I’m a huge fan of letting altar creation be intuitive - what does Ostara mean to you, and what symbols can you place on your altar to represent that personal meaning? Learn more about altars here. 

With that being said, here are some altar item suggestions to inspire your creativity: 

• Fresh flowers

• Eggs

• Pastel-colored candles

• Fertility goddess drawings or photos (remember, fertility isn’t just about birthing babies but about the energy of creation - which we can channel into so many different creations!)

• A photo of your child self 

• Sprouts 

• Images of rabbits 

• The Sun card, Lovers card, or other tarot cards you associate with this time 

• Crystals associated with fertility, renewal, or balance like sunstone, green aventurine, moss agate, or peach moonstone

You can ritualize your altar creation by gathering your items mindfully and taking some time to meditate before putting your altar together. As you place each item on your altar, feel the energy of Ostara moving through your body and your space, bringing you renewal, fertility, and harmony.  

CHILDLIKE WONDER RITUAL

One of my favorite rituals for Ostara is simply doing an activity you loved as a child. Maybe you loved to play in the forest, paint with your hands, swim in the ocean, or sing. Carve out intentional time to do that activity again today, and notice how your inner child responds. My guess is that she’ll love it!

As you play, see if you can suspend any skeptical or critical voices that may pop up inside, saying that what you’re doing is silly or stupid or doesn’t matter. Can you access the sense of pure wonder, curiosity, and play you once felt every day? 

Spend some time journaling afterward to process your experience and dig into the ways you’d like to bring more childlike wonder into your daily life. 

BALANCE RITUAL

For this ritual, you’ll need:

• 2 spell candles of different colors 

• Moss agate (optional)

This ritual connects to the balance aspect of this holiday. Remember, on any equinox (spring or fall), light and darkness come into balance. It’s a powerful time to find more balance in our lives, too. 

Start by grounding yourself with a few deep breaths or using another grounding practice you enjoy. Take some time to get clear on where you need more balance in your life. If you’re using moss agate, a naturally balancing crystal, you could hold it at this time. You might like to meditate, do breathwork, free write, or pull cards to get clarity on the balance your heart is craving.

Once you feel clear, take a few deep breaths to return to center and speak aloud where you are craving more balance in your life. Light your candles as you say, “As I light these candles, I call in more balance between ______.”

As your candles burn, visualize yourself having this balance in your life. How does it feel? Who do you become? Really take your time to luxuriate in this energy as you let your candles burn all the way down. 

Take a moment to ground yourself again, and close your ritual with a moment of gratitude.

Which ritual will you be doing for Ostara? We’d love to hear on Instagram! You can find more rituals for Ostara here and meditations for the Wheel of the Year here.

6 Ways to Align Yourself with the Energy of Imbolc

Imbolc is a sabbat on the Wheel of the Year that happens on February 1st.

At Imbolc, the Earth is beginning to wake up and we celebrate the approaching return of spring. We are through the hardest and darkest part of the winter, and we begin to prepare ourselves to direct our energy outwards again in the lighter part of the year to come.

The word Imbolc means “in the belly” - offering us the promise of hope, renewal, of the awakening of the Earth again. 

Imbolc is also deeply associated with the Celtic triple goddess Brigid and her sacred flame. Brigid was one of the most powerful and most loved goddesses in Ireland, and she is the goddess of healing, poetry, and smithcraft. She is associated with the hearth, fire, the home, and water. At Imbolc, as the Earth reawakens, Brigid is said to be in her maiden aspect. 

In this blog post, I’ll be sharing some ways to align yourself with the sacred energy of Imbolc. Keep scrolling to read them!Page featured from The Goddess Discovery Book V2.

Page featured from The Goddess Discovery Book V2.

1. SPRING CLEANING

Imbolc is a beautiful time to clear some space for the new beginnings to come - physically, emotionally, and energetically. This could mean literally cleaning your home and donating things you no longer use, or it could be about letting go of an unhealthy pattern, belief system, or even identity. Whatever it is for you, it’s time to clear space in order to plant seeds for spring.

2. HONOR BRIGHID 

Honor the goddess Brigid in whatever ways feel good to you. Writing poetry, reading poetry, and making something with your hands are all beautiful, tangible ways to honor Brigid. You could also sit in meditation and ask Brigid to come to visit you and share messages with you.You can read more about Brigid in this blog post.

3. CONNECT WITH FIRE

As I mentioned above, this sabbat is deeply associated with fire, the sun, and the sacred flame that burns within. You might connect with fire by going outside during the day and sitting in the sun, lighting candles or burning a fire in your fireplace, meditating on the sacred flame within, or doing a fiery movement practice to open your solar plexus. Find a journey to fire here. 

Card featured from The Ritual Deck. 

4. CREATE AN ALTAR

Create a fresh altar with items and symbols that invoke new beginnings, hope, fire, and awakening. Some suggestions:

• Seeds 

• A Brighid cross (click here to learn how to make one)

• Fertility symbolism 

• Blackberry

• Tiger’s eye, citrine, or carnelian crystals 

• An image of Brigid - print one out or use her card from a goddess oracle deck if you have one 

• White and red candles

• Frankincense or dragon’s blood incense 

• A bowl of water 

As always with building altars, get creative and use your intuition!

5. TAP INTO YOUR INNER MAIDEN

Brighid is said to be in her maiden aspect at Imbolc, so we’re all invited to tap into our inner maiden. Connect with the young part of you that is playful, that believes in magic, that has a vivid imagination. Let yourself embody creation, pleasure, and desire - whatever that means to you.

6. PREPARE FOR SPRING

If you haven’t been resting through winter and really sinking into the winter invitation of sacred solitude, this is your last opportunity to connect with this energy. If you have been resting and feel excited about spring, preparing for spring could mean starting to plan, organize, and align yourself to set some strong foundations for spring growth.

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Wishing you a beautiful Imbolc, goddesses! You can find more rituals for Imbolc here and meditations for the Wheel of the Year here.

Tap Into the Wisdom of Your Ancestors with Meditation and Breathwork

Samhain, the sacred festival of the dead, occurs on October 31st and the 1st of November. It marks the beginning of winter and the season of the crone. This holiday reconnects us to the cycle of death and rebirth.

It is believed that the veil between the spirit world and our world is thin during Samhain, making it easier to communicate with spirits. That’s why it is the best time to honor the wisdom of your ancestors during this time.

This meditation and breathwork will take you within, to honor the wisdom you possess inside and the wisdom from those whom you come from. 

1. Set the stage for your meditation with crystals and EO’s (optional)

There are many different crystals you can use to help you connect with your ancestors. Your energy is unique, so choose the crystals that have worked for you in the past or that you feel drawn to.

Here are 8 crystals that can help you connect to your inner wisdom and wisdom from your ancestors. Choose one or several of these stones to wear or place next to you for your meditation.

Lepidolite will help you get into a calm state and connect you to your third eye chakra, the center of intuition.

Celestite opens your energy to connect with the spiritual realm by helping you relax and transition into a dream state. Rose quartz a crystal of love, creates a safe and welcoming space for both you and the spirits. Amethyst helps to open your third eye chakra and can help you connect to your intuition.

Charoite will help you connect with your ancestors. It is another powerful stone for communicating with and channeling spirits. It helps you receive information from them using your intuition.

Blue Lace Agate raises your vibration to make a connection with the spirit world easier. It helps you connect with the spirits as it keeps you balanced, allowing you to receive messages without getting overwhelmed.

Selenite increases telepathy and opens the crown chakra, making it a great stone for spirit communication.

When using any of these crystals, make sure you also have obsidian, hematite, black kyanite, or black tourmaline for grounding and protection. These crystals will keep you safe and rooted to the Earth, leaving your mind and spirit free to wander.

You can also use essential oils in your meditation. Mix them with water for a mist to spritz around the area, dilute with a carrier oil such as coconut or olive oil, and massage into the skin, or even burn these scents as candles.

Here are a few essential oils to recruit for this meditation. Use one or all of them during your meditation.

Clary Sage for connection to the divine.

Rosemary for remembrance and love.

Cedarwood for purifying, grounding, and calming.

2. Start with the breath

Start with Nadi Sodhana, also called alternate nostril breathing, to balance the nadis, or energy channels, in the body. This breath brings you into the present moment, calms and centers the mind, and helps you release fear.

Sit in a comfortable seated position and place the left hand on the knee with the palm facing upward. This hand position creates an energy of receptivity. Place the index finger and middle finger of the right hand on the third eye center between the eyebrows, with the ring finger and pinky finger on the left nostril and thumb on the right nostril.

Throughout this breath, use the thumb to open and close the right nostril, and the ring finger and pinky finger for the left nostril. As you exhale, close the right nostril and breathe out of the left nostril. Inhale through the left nostril, and then close the left nostril to exhale through the right. Alternate breathing in this way for ten cycles of breath, holding your inhales and exhales steady and even.

3. Sink into Meditation.

Once you’re centered in a place of presence and balance, begin the meditation by taking a few deep, cleansing breaths. Follow these steps to tap into the wisdom of your ancestors for this meditation.

1. Visualize the support of the Earth underneath you, connecting you to the vast wisdom of Mother Nature. Feel her energy enter your body as you inhale, and run down the spine as you exhale.

2. Think about who you are and where you are in this moment. Remember that every part of you has been woven together by the fabric of your ancestors, the good and the bad. Their blood, their experiences, their pains, their joys all run through you and shape you.

3. Begin to visualize your family line, starting with a parent. Traditionally this is the father, but allow either parent to come to mind. Visualize them in front of you. As you inhale, they breathe the white-hot light of their wisdom within you. As you exhale, you breathe the white-hot light of your gratitude into them.

4. Ask if this spirit has anything they need to share with you.

5. Continue moving up your family line with this conversation, receiving knowledge, and offering gratitude by exchanging breath, taking as many breaths as you need with each spirit.  

6. When you reach the end of your family line as you know it, sit in silence as long as you like and allow the messages to come to you. These can come in the form of images or sounds in your head, a feeling, or even a smell.

7. End with this simple phrase: “I thank all those who have helped shape and create me. I honor your divine wisdom.” Take a few moments after your meditation to let out your thoughts and emotions in a journal. Release anything that came up for you onto the page, and continue to sit with your crystals for as long as you need.

You can find meditations for the Wheel of the Year here.

How to Perform a Samhain House Cleansing & Blessing

Around Samhain and Halloween is the most magical and powerful time to bless and cleanse your house. So, if you haven’t performed a house cleansing and blessing ceremony, now is the time to do it! If you’ve stumbled upon this blog during another month, don’t worry, you can still perform a purposeful house blessing and cleansing any time of the year. Just be sure to perform another one at the end of October for Samhain.

Why Cleanse & Bless for Samhain?

With winter slowly creeping in, it’s the perfect time to move out any stagnant, stale, or negative vibes before the cold sets in.

October 31st and November 1st, this year, ushers in the pagan celebration of Samhain pronounced Sow-win. Samhain is the birthplace of Halloween. Modern-day Halloween has taken a bit of a different turn with its kitschy decor. Samhain is still celebrated by many and is considered by most to be a more solemn time and reflective time, perfect for divination, cleansing, and blessing.

During Samhain, the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is at its thinnest, so it is believed that spirits and ancestors come back to visit during this time. Performing a house cleansing and blessings gives a welcome space for all of your ancestors. You want to come back and protective energy for any spirits you want to keep out.

How to Perform a House Blessing & Cleansing

This is a thorough house blessing and cleansing. Give yourself adequate time and space to fully devote yourself to this exercise. If you have a large house, you may want to chunk your house into floors or rooms to perform this spread out over a couple of days.

What You'll Need

• Cleaning supplies

• Cleansing herb of choice (frankincense, mugwort, lavender, or sagebrush make good options)

• Besom (optional)

• White candle for cleansing and a black candle for protection

• Saltwater in a spray bottle or a bowl

• Altar offerings

• Optional: protection symbols, crystals, cauldron, broom, herbs, etc.

Steps

1. Clean physically: First, you’ll want to clean your space physically. Remove things that are no longer serving you. Objects that don’t bring you joy anymore are most likely carrying old and stagnant energy that you don’t need cluttering up your energetic space. Try gifting, recycling, or finding a purposeful way to reuse these items.

2. Cleanse with smoke or incense: Use your preferred smoke cleansing tool for this step. I suggest using an herb or plant that's in alignment with your cultural heritage. If you're using something outside of your cultural heritage, like palo santo, I encourage you to ensure that it's sourced from an ethical supplier. I like to use mugwort, lavender, and frankincense.

With your cleansing smoke of choice, walk from room to room to let the smoke float through your space. As the smoke touches, each area of your house asks it to cleanse any energy that isn't aligned with your highest good or something similar.

3. Cleanse with a besom: A besom is a tool used by witches to cleanse a space's energy. You can make one yourself or purchase one around the season of Samhain (Trader Joe's always sells affordable cinnamon brooms!) For the practice of energy cleansing, you're not intended to use the broom as a physical tool, although you can if you'd like. Open a door and begin sweeping, holding your besom slightly above the floor. Visualize any negative energy not serving you being whisked out the door.

4. Cleanse and call in with candles: Using a white candle in a fireproof vessel, walk around your house, shining the light in each room. Imagine each room filling up with white. Ask the light to clear the space and bring in energy that serves your highest good. This is also a good time to call in any ancestors or loved ones who have crossed over into your space. Once you’re finished, place your candle on your stove to burn all the way through. The hearth (our modern-day stove area) is an important area of the home, which aids in transformation, so this is a great place to let your candle(s) burn as you complete your house cleansing blessing. If you'd like to call in a specific kind of energy, you can also light a candle for that as well. Black candles are ideal for this season and offer protection. 

5. Protect with salt water: Just like salt can protect your aura, it can also protect your space. Doors and windows are important areas to focus on with your saltwater because it’s where energy comes and goes in and out of your house. Spritz a bit of your saltwater in each room, focusing on windows and doors. As you do this, ask the salt to protect you and your space from unwanted energies. I like to visualize an energetic forcefield being enveloping my space during this step. 

6. Add symbolism for protection: If you’re looking for a fun and effective way to add an extra layer of protection, you can decorate with protective symbols. Runes, specifically the Algiz Rune or a protective charm bag, are potent options. Learn more about making a protective charm bag here.

7. Cleanse and consecrate tools: If you have tools you often use for rituals, this is an ideal time to cleanse them as well. You can take a few extra moments with your cleansing smoke, white candle, and saltwater to cleanse your tools. 

8. Create a welcoming altar for yourself and your ancestors: Once you’ve completed your house cleansing and blessing, prepare an altar space as a reminder and sacred container of the energy you shed and invited in. This altar will also serve as a welcome invitation to any ancestors or loved ones who have passed on. If you don’t have an altar space, you can also do this on or near your stove, which is our modern hearth. Here's a video of how I cleanse and prepare my altar for the season of Samhain.

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A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

Place items on your altar that would attract ancestors that have passed on, like foods or drinks they liked. Light your remaining candle in the color of your choice. Adorn your altar with any crystals, jewelry, herbs, or symbols that you see fit. Here are some options:

• Crystals: Labradorite, obsidian, onyx, garnet, hematite, amethyst

• Candle Colors: Purple, black, orange, silver

• Tools: Besom (broom), cauldron, any divination tool

• Plants and Scents: Mugwort, cinnamon, clove, patchouli

• Foods: Apples, pomegranate, pumpkins, nuts, meat

• Runes: Algiz, Daggaz, Ansuz, Perthro, Othalo

• Gods and Goddesses: Lilith, Persephone, all crone Goddesses, Callieach, Cerridwen, and Hecate

9. Say a prayer or invocation: When your cleansing and blessing is complete, and your altar is set up. Grant yourself a few quiet moments at your altar to reflect on this experience. Offer a prayer to ancestors that have gone before you, an invocation to a deity that is important to you, or both.

Sleep soundly and perform your intuitive work confidently during this season, knowing that your house has been cleansed, blessed, and protected. Find meditations for the Wheel of the Year here.