Meditation Steps And Tips For Beginners

~10 Kinds Of Magical Books~

1. Book Of Shadows- A witch’s book of spells, rituals, personal feelings, etc. It is a general book for any metaphysical or religious information that you wish to put into it, among other things.

2.Bestiary- A sometimes hand-written encyclopedia or manual of mythological and magical creatures and beings, used for reference when you want to work with a non-human energy, or for general research. 

3.Grimoire- Usually filled with tables and charts, lists relating to astrological, numerical, and color correspondences; properties of crystals, herbs, trees, etc. Contains moon phase meanings and medicinal properties of plants- This one has an old-timey textbook feel to it, usually.

4.Book Of Mirrors- a special journal, where you ‘reflect’ on things going on in your day to day life, providing deep insights which are invaluable when you’re doing work regarding personal growth. Very helpful with developing personal spiritual philosophies.

5.Book Of Moons- A book entirely relating to the moon and it’s cycles, names of the moons of each month, their attributes and energies, dates of lunar eclipses as well as full moon dates of upcoming moons. Filled with vast knowledge of lunar attributes and special dates of red moons, blue moons, etc.

6.Dream Journal- Here you record the dreams you have in as much detail as you can remember, and some people draw images from their dream adventures in this book as well, since dreams use the language of symbolism and imagery. You interpret the meanings of your dreams in here too, if you wish. Dreams can help us get a glimpse into our subconscious and the more dreams you write the easier it becomes for you to remember them.

7. Book of Visions- A vision book is used with the law of attraction, it is a ‘vision board’ in book form. Put different images of things you want in life, be they experiences, physical items, money, health, etc, in the pages of the book. Open the book up to pictures of what you want to visualize having. Think of this as an on-the-go vision board, except with much more space as there are so many pages!

8.Book Of Positive Aspects- At the top of each page you write the name of a topic that you are unhappy with, like ‘the workplace’  for example. Below the topic title you begin listing all the positive aspects of the subject, and by the end of your list your emotions will be in a much better place regarding the topic. You can do a list a day or many in one sitting, it is a valuable tool for cultivating positive energy or for switching viewpoints on things that normally would upset you.

9.Gratitude Journal- A book where you write about EVERYTHING you are thankful and appreciative for in your life right now. You feel overwhelmed with love and positivity when writing in this book, which aids you in raising your vibration and frequency.

10. Book Of Intuitions- a psychic journal, it’s a book where all divination and psychic exercises are recorded, ranging from full tarot spreads, to tea leaf readings, even psychic impressions you pick up off people. It’s handy for tracking progress as well as for record keeping.

Witchcraft Exercises

Just a quick compilation of the posts I've made about exercises to help improve your craft. These can be used as journaling prompts, inspiration for activities, or as methods for pulling yourself out of a slump and recharging your witchy inspiration.

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews

Prompt - Music to Witch By

Most of these are also available in the May 2021 bonus episode of Hex Positive (check your favorite podcatcher).

Happy Witching!

♀➡♑

Venus has entered Capricorn just now (3:50AM EST)!

🌙 The Moon Phase You Were Born Under — And What It Says About Your Emotional Blueprint

We often speak of Sun signs as identity, of rising signs as masks, and Moon signs as emotions. But we rarely ask this question: What was the Moon doing when I was born? Was she just beginning to glow… or was she already starting to let go? The Moon phase at your birth isn’t just a backdrop, it’s an emotional rhythm, an imprint of your soul’s internal timing. It speaks of how you process feelings, how you grow through life’s tides, and what kind of light you carry, growing, full, fading, or new.

P.S. There’s a little poll waiting for you at the bottom! Should we explore the Moon phases through the zodiac signs next… or wander through the houses? You get to decide.

🌑 New Moon — The Seed

You were born in the hush before the story begins. When the sky is dark, and everything that could be is still curled inside silence. This is the phase of souls who begin where others end, who carry invisible blueprints in their chest and build futures from intuition alone. Your emotions come from a place before language, raw, instinctual, searching. You feel life deeply, but often quietly, like waves moving under frozen lakes. You may feel like no one truly sees you because you are still writing who you are. Still dreaming what you’re meant to become. You don’t need to follow a path. You are the path.

🌒 Waxing Crescent — The Spark

You came into the world when light was still fragile. Just a sliver. Just a whisper. And that’s how you move through emotion too, like someone protecting a candle in a storm, always hoping it will catch. There is a quiet bravery in your soul. A kind of soft persistence that keeps reaching, even when no one’s cheering. Your emotional life is shaped by longing, by almosts, by the ache of beginnings not yet named. You often wonder: Will it be enough? Will I be enough? And yet something in you always rises. Always grows. You believe in what hasn’t happened yet. And that belief makes you a lighthouse for others still finding their way.

🌓 First Quarter — The Clash

You were born into friction. The Moon in one direction, the Sun in another. A crossroads written into your bones. This is not a phase of ease, it’s a phase of pressure, of turning points, of inner battles that demand movement.  Emotionally, you live with a constant inner tug-of-war. One part of you wants peace. The other part wants to break every pattern you've inherited. You feel things like storms breaking against glass, loud, urgent, necessary. You are not here to stay quiet. You are here to challenge the blueprint, to carve a new door where others saw a wall. You don’t just feel, you ignite.

🌔 Waxing Gibbous — The Refiner

You were born in the inhale before the full light. When everything is almost - almost complete, almost clear, almost ready. You carry that ache for alignment in your chest like a second heartbeat. Your emotions aren’t chaotic, but they are relentless. You feel the pull to improve, to shape, to polish every part of yourself and your world until it reflects what you know it could be. You may overthink, not because you doubt yourself, but because you care that deeply. You are a sculptor of inner truth, chiseling slowly, lovingly, toward wholeness. Your life is not about getting it perfect. It’s about honoring the process of becoming.

🌕 Full Moon — The Mirror

You arrived in the moment of full glow. All things exposed, all feelings magnified. You don’t carry a light, you are the light. And because of that, your emotions are rarely subtle. They are floods, revelations, reflections. You see yourself most clearly through others, but that mirror can be both gift and distortion. In life, you may struggle with projection, wondering which parts are truly you, and which are echoes of who others want you to be. Your emotional life is theatrical, intense, and wildly intuitive. You feel it all. And when you allow yourself to own that intensity instead of apologizing for it, you become the moon itself, pulling tides, revealing truths, and giving light in the dark.

🌖 Waning Gibbous — The Teacher

You were born after the peak. In the glow that lingers. This is the phase of reflection, of wisdom uncoiling itself from experience. You carry the soul of someone who’s already seen behind the curtain and now wants to help others understand what it all meant. Emotionally, you live in layers. You feel first, and then you translate. People may see you as calm, but inside you, entire stories are unfolding. You are often the one others turn to, because you make pain make sense. You don’t need loudness to lead, your truth ripples outward in quiet waves. Your life is a gathering of meanings. You feel like a book always being written, always one chapter ahead of those around you.

🌗 Last Quarter — The Releaser

You came into the world already letting go. This is the phase of endings, of clearing, of sharp truths and softer aftermaths. You carry a strange freedom in your chest, the kind that comes from burning bridges that no longer lead to you. Your emotional life is one of cycles. You love, you shed, you learn. Again and again. You don’t cling, you transform. In the world, this can make others uncomfortable. They want certainty. You offer clarity. And clarity often costs comfort. You are not here to keep things intact. You are here to break illusions so new roots can form. You are the truth after the storm. The ache that knows: even endings are beginnings.

🌘 Waning Crescent — The Dreamer

You were born in the hush before the Moon disappears. When light is thin, and dreams speak louder than words. You carry a softness the world has forgotten. A depth that doesn’t scream to be known, but waits quietly to be felt. Emotionally, you are porous. You feel what’s yours, and what isn’t, and everything in between. Your life may feel like a long remembering, of something you can’t quite name, but always carry. In real time, you may drift, retreat, dissolve, searching for silence not to escape, but to return to yourself. Others may call you distant. But really, you’re listening to a frequency most have tuned out. You are the final breath before rebirth. The lullaby between lifetimes. The poem that doesn’t need to end.

Witchy Self Care & Mindfulness🌻🌿

Artwork by @CraftingWitch on Instagram

Witchcraft Exercises - Witchy Inspo Journal

Not sure what to do with all those notebooks you’ve collected for future use in your craft? (Don’t lie, we all have a stack somewhere.) Turn them into inspo journals!

Create and maintain a journal where each page is a quote or song lyric or picture that inspires you in your craft or defines some element of your practice. Use scrapbooking materials, washi tape, stickers, stamps, and any art supplies you wish. If you’re skilled at drawing or painting, you can do that too. 

The journal can be a simple notebook or a three-ring binder or a nice scrapbook from the craft store, whatever works for you. Try to do a page a week if you can, and collect ideas for future pages when you can’t. Update as often as you feel inspired to do so and enjoy some witchy art therapy.

This can also be turned into a devotional activity, with your inspo journal dedicated to your chosen deity(ies) or pantheon. A devotional inspo journal can also make a great private altar if you don’t have the space for one in your home or if you’re a stealth witch who can’t practice or venerate openly.

Here are some examples from my own inspo journal:

Color Correspondences page in my grimoire ✒💕🍃

witch shit

Improving your Intuition

There is a common misconception that only certain people are intuitive, that it is purely a metaphysical skill. A quote that really changed my perception of intuition was discussed by an author who gave a discussion on the different  books on intuition and witchcraft she had written, “Intuition is a muscle”. But this would mean that everyone has this muscle! Many people feel barred from even trying to do magic, pick up a tarot deck or rune set, communicate with a passed relative, or even consult with their deity or god because they believe they are not intuitive. Coming from someone who is naturally gullible / somewhat naive, I want to talk a bit about what intuition is and how anyone can become more intuitive.

What is intuition?

The best way I can define intuition concisely is the ability to understand or know information immediately, without any conscious reasoning or evidence. The ability to know something without being told or being shown proof. This may sound completely foreign or impossible, so let me provide some context. Have you ever heard the phrase “The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife”? Have you ever gotten a “bad vibe” from someone and avoided them? That is your intuition at work!  Even interpreting emotional context based on someone’s vocal tone, pitch, body language, are forms of intuitive understanding. 

It may seem strange to think social nuances we have been trained to observe and interpret since the day we were born could involve intuition, but think about it. Is there any physical evidence or conscious reasoning to explain tension that is literally palpable? Is there physical proof that when someone speaks in a certain tone or pitch, or moves in a certain way, that they are angry? No, these are just things we have trained ourselves to understand. A form of intuition. But of course, this may not translate over to tarot, or spirit and deity communication as easily as one would like.

How does intuition work?

When discussing how intuition works exactly, we have to discuss what exactly someone who is intuitive actually senses. I look at intuition as a form of energy work. Lets briefly discuss the “Thick Tension” example. Tension from a conversation is not a physical concept in that it is not a literal brick that has weight when held in someone’s hand. But the conversation still disrupted the surrounding area, due to the energy that conversation created. Think about how different emotions feel like different things. Many describe anger as sharp, jabbing, thick. Sadness is often equated with water, such as when someone is “pouring their heart out”.  Although emotions are not bricks, the energy they have creates a physical disturbance. intuition includes being able to interpret those energies even though they can’t be given physical evidence of existing.

There are a variety of different ways to sense energy, many of which include employing clair senses. Clair senses refer to the ability to have intuitive understanding through our senses, the discussion of which could take up many more posts, but I will link resources at the end of this post. Some of the kinds you may be familiar with include clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, and clairempathy (also known as being and “empath”).  

So how can I improve my intuition?

Well, it depends on what you want to be able to do! But I will link and discuss a multitude of different exercises and things you can do to improve your intuition.

Be aware of physical sensations when speaking with others or entering situations. Do you feel at ease with someone even though you don’t know them? Or do you have a sinking feeling in your stomach that you are trying to ignore? Listen to your gut! More often than not, you will find your “hunch” being right, especially as you practice.

Practice divination! I am not just saying this because I love divination, I’m saying this because I primarily improved my claircognizance through using divination. I used to not really have hunches, but now I have extremely accurate ones after 3 years of practicing tarot reading and other forms of divination. 

Keep a dream journal and try to start interpreting your dreams. As nonsensical as they may seem, if you research symbolism, you may begin to see patterns in your dreams that reflect the main  problems or situations in your life. I know I have! And I rarely remember my dreams.

Practice identifying objects without looking at them. This is a fun sensory game for most, but with time and more difficult items, you may be able to sense the energy of the item itself, see an image of it in your minds eye, hear a sound it makes, etc. If you want to amp this up, close your eyes and walk through a room while trying not to bump into anything! This is great for practicing sensing the aura’s of objects, and the more you can sense, the more you can try to interpret.

The next two exercises I am taking from Ellen Dougan’s book “The Natural Psychic”.

The first is practicing using your senses, and requires you to journal for four days.

Day 1: Seeing day

You should focus on your environment as if you are seeing it for the first time. When you enter a new room or landmark, you scan teh area to get a lay of the land, right? Take time to notice colors, shapes, people and items that catch your attention. How do these make you feel? Write down what you notice.

Day 2: Hearing day

No background music today! We drown out a lot of the sounds in our environment to focus on individual tasks. Today, spend time listening to your environment, what do you hear? It would be great to go to a nature location during this day. Take note of what you hear and how it makes you feel.

Day 3:  Touching day

At this point, you should be getting the drill. When you touch items today, really spend time touching them. Feel the fabric of your clothing as you get dressed, your keyboard and mouse when you type, feel your own pulse, pet your animals. How do you feel when touching different items, and how does touch impact others, such as your pets?

Day 4: Sensing day

Today we focus on our emotions, and how our environment makes us feel. Take note of how certain environments, certain people, make you feel. You can do this with plants as well! Take note of what you sense.

The second is the ace of spades exercise, and requires a deck of cards.

Take the ace of hearts, the ace of diamonds, and the ace of spades out of the deck. Place all three face down on a flat surface and then mix them up before lining them up in a row. Go over each card one at a time and try to figure out which one is the ace of spades. Turn it over to see if you’re right! For a trial run, do this no more than 10 times in one sitting, and note how many times you were correct. This is a great way to identify what clair senses you may be employing. Answer these questions about the times you were correct,

Did you “just know” it was that card, a feeling in your gut?

Did you know it was the card when you touched it?

Did your inner voice tell you which one it was?

Did you feel an emotional response?

Did you see the card in your mind’s eye?

Other Resources: http://www.okinhealth.com/articles/10-clairsenses-intuition-emily-matweow

https://consciouslifenews.com/8-simple-way-to-boost-your-clairvoyant-abilities85450/1185450/#

“The Natural Psychic” by Ellen Dougan

https://powerpriestess.tumblr.com/post/176034234934/clairvoyance-101

https://ghosthuntingrebelwitch.tumblr.com/post/169571479633/developing-your-super-senses-in-particular

https://messageinthecrystal.tumblr.com/post/178155680555/empath-info

http://rosymystic.tumblr.com/post/177522966777/smalls-ways-to-develop-intuition

Many thanks to dislocated-cannibal here on tumblr, who is my mentor for energy work, as well as other things, who discussed the concept of emotions creating a n energy we an feel with me at length. Please check them out! http://dislocated-cannibal.tumblr.com/

Hello witch mom!! 🖤💜🧡 Wanted to ask if you read any good books that would do for a beginner witch? If so, I’d like to hear some of them!

A lot of witch books, especially for beginners, have some wonderful information! They also have some iffy information, or stuff that may not fit for you. That’s just how it is. You can always learn something from any book if you go into it with critical thinking. That being said, here’s some books I’ve read that I would recommend:

Grovedaughter Witchery by Bree NicGarren

The Sisters Grimmoire by Bree NicGarren

Pestlework by Bree NicGarren

Of Witchcraft and Whimsy by Orriculum Rose

Garden Witchery by Ellen Dugan

Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea

The Way of the Hedge Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Italian Folk Magic by Mary-Grace Fahrun

Five Principles of Green Witchcraft by Asa West

Currently reading:

Viridarium Umbris by David Schulke

Wortcunning by Nigel G. Pearson

I’ve purchased these books but haven’t read them yet:

Moonology by Yasmin Boland

Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners by Caroline Dow

A Cart Full of Magic by Ileana Abrev

Weave the Liminal by Laura Tempest Zarkoff

Haus Magick by Erica Feldmann

Revolutionary Witchcraft by Sarah Lyons

The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Green Witchcraft by Paige Vanderbeck

The Green Witch Herbal by Barbara Griggs

The Witches Almanac 2018 - The Magic of Plants Issue 37

Books I’ve read that I wasn’t impressed with:

Witch by Lisa Lister

Modern Witchcraft by Skye Alexander (from what I remember, but I plan on re reading it in case it’s better than I recall)

This shop features a lot of excellent witchcraft books.

Another thing to consider is the value of non-witchy books. Some of my best information is from books catered to everyone.Science and witchcraft go hand in hand.

Field guides (for the PNW/North America)

Advice for finding helpful online resources for plant identification (plus some field guide recommendations for the PNW/NA).

Additionally, don’t underestimate the value of online resources:

Masterpost of online witchcraft resources

Library Genesis

Witches, feel free to reblog with your suggestions of books to read!

A little tarot spread you can do with a deity you want to start working with! :D Did this when I approached Hades and it helped me get a better understanding of what he’s like and what he wants me to achieve and do ~

get a reading now