Stop Stealing Practices From Native Americans And Spending All Ur Money On Your Expensive Rocks And Maybe

📜 Sabbats Journal Prompts 📜

The Witches’ Sabbats are good moments in the year to reflect and meditate, using your journal. Here are a few prompts for each festival, to help you in your mindfulness journey. 

💀 SAMHAIN 💀

October 31

Write about dead relatives and passed loved ones.

What cycle is currently closing in your life? Is this a positive ending?

Have you noticed signs of the thinning veil this month?

What have you inherited that needs banishment?

What have you inherited that needs to be cultivated?

Write about your spiritual journey since last Samhain.

Are you scared of divination/spirits? Why or why not?

❄️ YULE ❄️

December 19-22

Write a list of everything good that has happened this year.

What deserves a fresh start in your life?

Write a happy memory from the festive season.

What are your goals and dreams for the next year?

As a witch, what meaning do you attach to Christmas?

What do you find difficult about the holiday season?

Write about the energy you can draw from the darkness.

🕯️ IMBOLC 🕯️

February 1

Write how you plan to take care of nature in the following months.

Write about what needs cleansing in your life.

Why are you in pain and what helps you heal?

What metaphorical seed do you need to plant and nurture this year?

Write your feelings on climate change.

How can you nurture yourself and others right now?

Describe the garden of your dreams.

🐣 OSTARA 🐣

March 19-22

Write about negative thoughts that you are choosing not to bring with you in the coming spring.

What area of your life feels balanced at the moment?

What does fertility and growth mean to you?

What idea in your life is ready to hatch and turn into action?

Write about spring activities that you can enjoy now that winter is over.

What do you feel is your truest purpose this spring?

As a witch, what meaning do you attach to Easter?

🌸 BELTANE 🌸

May 1

Write a list of everything about yourself that gives you self-confidence.

Is there something that is making you very happy right now?

Write about your sexuality and what gives you pleasure.

What does celebrating life mean to you?

What turns you on? What turns you off?

How can you use the spring energy to make your dreams come true?

What would you want to harvest in the coming fall?

☀️ LITHA ☀️

June 19-22

Write about a difficult topic that needs addressing in the second half of the year.

In which area of your life do you feel the strongest?

How can you use the solar energy to achieve your goals?

Write a memory from your childhood summer breaks.

How can you make this summer extra special?

Write a love-letter to your body.

What is your favorite outdoor activity?

🌽 LAMMAS 🌽

August 1

Write about what you are harvesting in your life at the moment.

Make a list of everything you’ve accomplished in your life.

What will you miss most about summer once fall arrives?

Write about professional goals and plans you have for September.

How can you have a healthier lifestyle by next summer?

What is one thing you love about where you live?

What does abundance mean to you?

🍂 MABON 🍂

September 19-22

Write a list of everything you are grateful for this year.

What makes you proud in your life?

Do you feel like your life is out of balance?

Are you excited about the cold season coming up? Why or why not?* Write about welcoming darkness and becoming more magical.

Make a list of your favorite horror movies.

Write about what scares you and why.

– 

✨ Find my Witches’ Sabbats Masterpost here ✨

SHADOW WORK SIMPLIFIED

What is shadow work?

If I had to describe shadow work in one word, it would be introspection. Introspection is the examination of your own mental state and is necessary in order to learn more about your fundamental nature. Although it may sound off-putting and even scary at first, shadow work is a necessary component in the process of healing. We all have aspects of ourselves that we’ve rejected and hidden away out of fear. Through shadow work, we’re able to reflect on our thoughts, emotions, and habits so that we can find the root cause of our suffering and heal ourselves. By reincorporating those aspects of ourselves that we’ve denied, we feel more fulfilled and can begin to love ourselves fully. 

Where does shadow work come from? 

The concept of the shadow self comes from Carl Jung who believed that our shadow self is the subconscious aspect, or “dark side”, of our personality that our conscious ego doesn’t identify with. However, I would like to clarify that “dark” does not imply or equate with bad. That which resides outside of our consciousness can be either good or bad, but aren’t inherently reflective of our value or “goodness” as a person. 

Although these repressed aspects of ourselves can manifest negatively, it isn’t because those parts of us are “bad”, but that the process of repression is inherently painful and toxic. This is reflected by Jung when he states, “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” He believed that until we’ve merged our conscious and subconscious selves, that our conscious would be “the slave of the autonomous shadow”. This is due to the shadow self overwhelming our conscious selves by falling victim to our own self-imposed traps. 

Through assimilating this shadow self, not over-identifying with it, Jung believed we go through the process of enantiodromia, thereby integrating the subconscious by reincorporating our shadow selves into our personality and allowing us to solidify ourselves through wholeness. He best described this by stating "assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak.” However, don’t fall into the misconception that shadow work is a short-term practice. Shadow work is a continuous practice and integration of the shadow self is a will take place throughout your life.

How do I do shadow work?

In the last question, I identified that practicing self-reflection is a key component of shadow work, but what does that mean? What am I supposed to be reflecting on? Well, the first thing that you should focus on is being present throughout the day. Identify feelings that come up throughout the day and observe them objectively. What situation or interaction triggered these emotions? How did I react to those emotions? Were my emotions controlling me or was I in control of my emotions? Why did this situation or interaction cause me to feel this way? How did I cope with those feelings (self-harming, lashing out at others, communicating my feelings, journalling, etc.)? Did I punish myself for getting upset? If so, why? 

There are numerous ways to reflect on your feelings and experiences in order to get a better understanding of yourself. Through evaluating how you react to situations, which situations upset you, and how you managed those feelings, you’re able to build the foundation to understanding your emotions and bridge the gap between your subconscious and conscious mind.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll find that the emotions you feel in the present are reflective of unhealed emotions from your past. Perhaps the reason you feel that you’re unable to set boundaries as an adult is because as a child, your parents never respected your boundaries by going through your phone or diary, yelling at you when you said no to a request, forcing you into situations that made you feel you had no choice. 

By identifying the root cause of your emotional pain, you’re able to address it in the present and heal from the trauma. The simplest way that I’ve found to address them is through journalling. You can purchase a physical journal or even use your notes app, either way, you’re writing out your feelings and reflections to gain deeper insight. It’s important to remember that this looks different for anyone and that the best way to approach shadow work is by doing what feels most natural! You can choose to stick to self-reflective journal prompts, vent about whatever is upsetting you, write letters to whoever has hurt you, etc. Ultimately, you can guide yourself based off of what you feel you need and where you are in your journey.

What parts of yourself do you find yourself rejecting the most? Many of us have experienced the pain of rejection in some aspects of our lives and sometimes, it’s incredibly painful and leaves us with long-lasting wounds. We end up going through our lives carrying baggage that we don’t even know we have! Many times, I’ve found myself wondering why I felt so repulsed by aspects of myself and why I felt so strongly that they needed to be locked away forever. I couldn’t allow myself or others to see my truest self, my whole self, out of fear. I was scared of being rejected, shamed, humiliated by the people around me. I was scared of hurting other people by being myself and of being hurt by others. That’s no way to live, is it? When we tell ourselves that aspects of ourselves aren’t good enough, we end up going through life devaluing ourself. We’ve broken our own trust by rejecting ourselves, we’ve told ourselves that we aren’t good enough or worthy of love. In shadow work, you’re called to go inward and unpack everything that we’ve kept hidden for years and sometimes even decades. 

Bring the parts of yourself that you’ve repressed to the surface and nourish them with love, allow yourself to see that ALL OF YOU is deserving of love and support. For you, that could mean unlearning your unhealthy beliefs about food or eating, allowing yourself to be emotional around the people you love (despite how much you were told that you were too emotional, a crybaby, too sensitive in the past), allowing yourself to relax without feeling guilty about not being productive because you recognize your needs (even though you feel your sense of worth is tied to being productive at the cost of your own health).

Common misconceptions about shadow work?

Shadow work is evil or bad, the shadow is evil or bad 

The purpose of shadow work is healing through working with your subconscious to release repressed aspects of yourself and heal from painful, traumatic experiences. Your shadow side is simply your unconscious and to believe that it’s bad is to believe that you are bad. It’s merely the part of yourself that you aren’t aware of consciously and shouldn’t be feared. 

Certain emotions are “bad”

When you let go of the idea that emotions are either good or bad, you’ll allow yourself to just be and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to feel “good” all of the time. Happiness isn’t a constant state of being so stop expecting to be all of the time, we have a range of emotions for a reason so stop being ashamed of them. Your feelings are natural and if you feel like they’re out of control and something to be ashamed of, there is nothing wrong with that! It’s okay to feel like your emotions are controlling you because that isn’t permanent. Your feelings aren’t permanent and are completely manageable with proper guidance! The reason you feel like your emotions are controlling you is because you probably don’t have the knowledge to cope with them in an effective and healthy way. It’s helpful to sit with your emotions alone and look at them objectively without placing any judgement on them, this will help you calm down and assess your feelings. From there, you can identify what you need to relax and recover as well as acknowledge to yourself that your feelings are natural. When you stop categorizing your emotions as bad, they’re no longer shameful to experience and therefore you can see with better clarity how to cope with them and move on.

I’ve already released it so…

Why am I still upset?

Why does it still keep popping up in my head?

Why haven’t I moved on?

Why am I not making progress?

With the rise of self development and spirituality, I find that more and more people are rushing to complete their healing. Healing is a continuous, life-long cycle and not a destination. Putting the pressure on yourself to reach the place of ultimate healing is not only toxic, but it impedes your ability to actually heal anything. Healing is about love, compassion, and patience and it’s not going to happen according to a timeline. Allow yourself the time to experience your emotions, see them objectively, forgive yourself and others and move on without the pressure of expectations. 

 Another reason that you could be experiencing this is that despite the work you think you’ve done, it hasn’t been sufficient. I’ve found that a lot of journal prompts provided online are surface level at best and can be more pacifying than revealing. If you’re not feeling anything while doing your inner work, you’re not doing it correctly. Ultimately, this is about uncovering what makes us UNCOMFORTABLE and moving through those feelings. When you allow yourself to experience the sadness, hurt, anger, and/or frustration than you’re telling yourself that these feelings are okay and don’t need to be suppressed. The reality is that no matter what you’re feeling, you are allowed to experience those emotions and it’s only human! Unfortunately, many people associate lower vibrational emotions as bad, but this is a huge misconception! Telling yourself that anger, sadness, etc. are “bad” implies that you shouldn’t experience these emotions and that you have to get rid of them which is not only wrong, but unhealthy. There is no right or wrong emotions so don’t buy into the belief that you should feel a certain way, simply allow yourself to be and you’ll find that it’s much easier to navigate your emotions and needs. The only way to make it to the other side is by wading through the water, be patient and know that you’re feeling exactly what you should be. When you stop censoring yourself, you’ll discover a newfound sense of freedom and wholeness. 

 If you find yourself circling back to certain topics, for example, your ex-boyfriend than perhaps there are triggers in your environment that remind you of the situation, you have more that needs to be addressed that you may not have been ready for or aware of previously (hence why shadow work is a practice that is ongoing), or they’re representative of a deeper issue that you’re repressing. Whatever the cause is, the same methods as earlier will apply and can be discerned through your own intuition. 

What are some basic journal prompts that I can do?

What feelings come up when you think of ____?

How did that experience make you feel emotionally? How did it make you feel about yourself? How did it make you feel about the other person or people?

Write a letter to yourself, your inner child, the people who’ve hurt you, and the people you’ve hurt. Express how you feel honestly, without holding back and then forgive yourself and the other person.

If you could say anything to yourself or another person for closure, what would it be?

How have these situations and experiences impacted your mental health? How have they affected your belief system about yourself, other people, and the world?

What about yourself are you ashamed of? What about yourself are you embarrassed of? What about yourself makes you angry? What do you regret? Why do you feel this way about yourself and where do these feelings stem from?

What makes you feel most alone? What makes you feel most loved? How can you incorporate that knowledge into your life to make it better?

What’s the most hurtful thing someone has said or done to you? Why did it hurt you so much? How does it still affect you now? How can you heal from it and allow yourself to move on?

What do you need to forgive yourself for? What do you need to forgive others for?

Where do you feel you lack security in your life? Why? How does this impact your life and your relationships?

This is a list of generic prompts for you to start with, but feel free to message me if you need help with more specific topics or I can make another post altogether for journal prompts.

Shadow Work

Origins, Meaning and Utility

The Structure of the Mind

Carl Jung theorized the existence of three levels/spheres in the human psyche: the Ego, representing the conscious mind, the Personal Unconscious where memories are contained and the Collective Unconscious, where all knowledge and experiences of the species are shared.

Each Sphere has in it a certain number of Archetypes, used to better describe the components of those structures, and the Shadow is one of them.

What is the Shadow

The shadow can be seen as a instinctual or primitive part of ourselves, it exists as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings.

It is this archetype that contains all of the things that are unacceptable not only to society, but also to one's own personal morals and values, normally going against social norms and rules as well as what we personally consider right.

The Shadow is often described as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos, and the unknown, and it is common for people to deny this element of their own psyche and instead project it on to others.

The Shadow in Witchcraft and Benefits of Shadow Work

Art: Unknown

The Shadow, in witchcraft, can represent The Unknown, hidden depth of ourselves. Speaking in terms of energy, this is an area that can be a deep source of energetic issues, because it’s locked up in the dark and always striving to reach the light.

To not work with one’s Shadow is to make it greedy and aggressive, as well as denying a big part of oneself, making everything a half of a whole.

Through that brief explanation, we can already establish the importance and role of the Shadow in witchcraft, and with that in mind, comes the concept of Shadow Work.

Shadow Work can be seen in a number of practices, meditation, trances, inner journey’s, lucid dreaming, astral travels, spells and divination.

The method can change, but the principle is simple: Centering your intent to self discovery, self knowledge and self acceptance.

Working with one’s Shadow is not only beneficial to one’s craft, as it allows one to get in touch with their intuition as well as allows for easier connection with one’s guide/guides, but it also allows for healing and acceptance of one’s feelings and needs.

Think of all aspects of life as a wheel. If there is one part bent, the wheel can turn, but with more effort. If the owner spends time fixing that bent part, the wheel will turn in a much more smooth manner.

That is what happens when you take the time to do Shadow Work, you have to put in effort, and most of the time it’s not easy, but once done, all other components on the wheel of your life will be relieved to move on without that obstacle that makes their job harder.

The Shadow is not evil, as evil is just a moral compass invented by humans. It is a part of one’s nature, and to deny it is to supress a connection with yourself.

Take the time to know and accept your shadow, and you’ll see that life will be a little easier.

References:

A Natureza da psique (Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche) by C.G. Jung

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by C.G. Jung

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📚 Witch Study Tips 📚

🌪️ Start your study session by opening your windows wide open and getting fresh air on your face to clear out negative or distracting thoughts. 

🔮 State a clear intention for the session, for instance “I have no doubts in my ability to succeed in my studies and to understand everything clearly”. 

🕯️ Light a purple candle, which is associated with power, ambition, and focus, to get inspiration and energy from the flames. 

💎 Set clear quartz crystal around your study space to bring clarity of mind and a deep focus state. 

🍵 Drink matcha, peppermint, or green tea to increase focus and concentration while studying. 

🎧 Listen to lo-fi playlists with spooky themes, such as this one (for witches) or that one (for ghosts). 

✏️ Draw a productivity sigil on your notebook or add it digitally to your notes on your computer, if you don’t use actual paper. I like using this one.

🧘 Meditate at the end of your study session to absorb the knowledge and calm your thoughts before moving on to another topic.  

🛌 Take breaks! Don’t forget to step out of your study space, stretch your muscles, take a walk outside, make a nap. 

MARY’S SONG She said, I was seven and you were nine I looked at you like the stars that shine In the sky, the pretty lights And our daddies used to joke about the two of us Growing up and falling in love and our mamas smiled And rolled their eyes and said oh my my myTake me back to the house in the backyard tree Said you’d beat me up, you were bigger than me You never did, you never did Take me back when our world was one block wide I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried Just two kids, you and I Oh my my my my SEVEN Please picture me In the trees I hit my peak at seven feet In the swing Over the creek I was too scared to jump in But I, I was high in the sky With Pennsylvania under me Are there still beautiful things? Sweet tea in the summer Cross your heart, won’t tell no other And though I can’t recall your face I still got love for you Your braids like a pattern Love you to the moon and to Saturn Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long