Day 2: Where do you draw inspiration for your practices?
This is part of a series based on Allec's 31 Days of Secular Witchcraft questionnaire. I wrote the bulk of these entries on 10/26 while flametending.
My witchcraft (not my spiritual practices and holidays) is my own creation, influenced by what's going on in my life. It is indirectly informed by what I've read and discussions I've had, but it is my own. That's how my grandma and dad taught me to cook; see what you have on hand, use what you know about flavors, and just make it. I will occasionally consult books and tables of correspondences that I trust, but it's more about confirming my own intuition rather than following someone else's script and recipe. I always want to have a personal connection to any ingredients or symbols I use, and I only have a loose outline of what I will say during the spellwork. I like to let it flow from the heart, not the page.
I'll give you an example of my process. I meet with a local UU group each month, and we celebrate the Neopagan Wheel of the Year holidays together on the closest monthly meeting. This Lammas, we used consecrated corn husks to mark out our circle. We ate the corn inside those husks in our feast after. It was a nice, low-key and largely unscripted ritual with a good, mellow zing to it, and I wanted to commemorate it and do something nice for the UU pagans. I took the corn husks home with me and knew I'd do something with them. I wanted to make them into some sort of charm and give them to the group at our autumn equinox meeting.
I also had (and still have) a ton of dried nettles from when our group volunteered to weed the church garden this summer. I had a weird, synchronous experience with the nettles and the book The Twelve Wild Swans, so I knew that since those nettles were personally important to me and from the church grounds that they needed to be a part of the spell.
I then thought about the equinox. To me, the equinoxes mean many things, but I was most drawn to the idea of balance, symbolized by day and night being equal on those days. I decided that I would use the corn husks as wrappers, kind of like dollies or tamales, and put nettles inside. Nettles to me symbolize health (when ingested, they are supposed to be very nutritious and therapeutic) as well as action and courage (since they are used to make textiles and are prickly.) I needed something to "balance" action. I wanted to do gems, but it wasn't economical, so I chose chamomile.
I drink chamomile tea at least 4 times a week. This summer, my nightly ritual was to sit on my roof, look at the moon, acknowledge the four directions, pour out a little chamomile tea as libation, and then drink the rest while quietly praying and reflecting. I know the soothing and healing properties of chamomile firsthand, so I knew that chamomile could be the balance to nettles.
I like to work under the full moon, so I waited until the full moon to make the bundles. I also consecrated a tabletop fountain that I now keep full of holy water that night. I made holy water, consecrated the fountain, made the bundles, empowered them by asking divine blessings, and then let them sit outside under the full moon's light overnight. I brought them inside, and waited to give them to my group until our equinox meeting.
In short, that spell was inspired by a group ritual, a fairy tale, and my own personal consumption habits. It is a pretty accurate reflection of how my brain comes up with a spell.
My witchcraft (not my spiritual practices and holidays) is my own creation, influenced by what's going on in my life. It is indirectly informed by what I've read and discussions I've had, but it is my own. That's how my grandma and dad taught me to cook; see what you have on hand, use what you know about flavors, and just make it. I will occasionally consult books and tables of correspondences that I trust, but it's more about confirming my own intuition rather than following someone else's script and recipe. I always want to have a personal connection to any ingredients or symbols I use, and I only have a loose outline of what I will say during the spellwork. I like to let it flow from the heart, not the page.
I'll give you an example of my process. I meet with a local UU group each month, and we celebrate the Neopagan Wheel of the Year holidays together on the closest monthly meeting. This Lammas, we used consecrated corn husks to mark out our circle. We ate the corn inside those husks in our feast after. It was a nice, low-key and largely unscripted ritual with a good, mellow zing to it, and I wanted to commemorate it and do something nice for the UU pagans. I took the corn husks home with me and knew I'd do something with them. I wanted to make them into some sort of charm and give them to the group at our autumn equinox meeting.
I also had (and still have) a ton of dried nettles from when our group volunteered to weed the church garden this summer. I had a weird, synchronous experience with the nettles and the book The Twelve Wild Swans, so I knew that since those nettles were personally important to me and from the church grounds that they needed to be a part of the spell.
I then thought about the equinox. To me, the equinoxes mean many things, but I was most drawn to the idea of balance, symbolized by day and night being equal on those days. I decided that I would use the corn husks as wrappers, kind of like dollies or tamales, and put nettles inside. Nettles to me symbolize health (when ingested, they are supposed to be very nutritious and therapeutic) as well as action and courage (since they are used to make textiles and are prickly.) I needed something to "balance" action. I wanted to do gems, but it wasn't economical, so I chose chamomile.
I drink chamomile tea at least 4 times a week. This summer, my nightly ritual was to sit on my roof, look at the moon, acknowledge the four directions, pour out a little chamomile tea as libation, and then drink the rest while quietly praying and reflecting. I know the soothing and healing properties of chamomile firsthand, so I knew that chamomile could be the balance to nettles.
I like to work under the full moon, so I waited until the full moon to make the bundles. I also consecrated a tabletop fountain that I now keep full of holy water that night. I made holy water, consecrated the fountain, made the bundles, empowered them by asking divine blessings, and then let them sit outside under the full moon's light overnight. I brought them inside, and waited to give them to my group until our equinox meeting.
In short, that spell was inspired by a group ritual, a fairy tale, and my own personal consumption habits. It is a pretty accurate reflection of how my brain comes up with a spell.
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