The Witch's Survival Guide E-Book

Jennifer Lane

• Herausgeber: September Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Spells, rituals and elemental magick for dealing with the stress and strain of 21st-century life. The modern world has pushed many of us to breaking point. Our bodies and minds are burnt out, and we can feel anxious, inadequate and lonely. This is because we were meant for a very different life - one that connects us with swaying trees, wild creatures and the rush of the elements across our skin. We are meant to feel the power and peace of being at one with nature. In The Witch's Survival Guide, Jennifer Lane shows you how to take back control of your life and tap into the deep magick that resides in the plants, trees and ancient places of this world. Among the many spells and rituals, you will learn to: - Make an energy protection spell with a simple apple - Use candle magic to draw self-love into your life - Soothe anxiety and create balance with the powers of water - Let it all go under a full moon.Through guided spell work, Jennifer shows us how to harness the natural forces of the four elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - so that we can finally restore and enrich our souls.

Leseprobe

To all my fellow witches who feel at home in nature

Author’s note

This book is not intended to replace medical advice but can be used alongside it to complement and enhance the healing journey.

How to use this book

If you are new to rituals and spells then I suggest you work carefully through Part 1 before moving on to Part 2 in order to get comfortable with common aspects of a witchcraft practice. If you are already well versed in the ways of magick, then by all means dive straight in to Part 2 and dip in and out of Part 1 as your fancy takes you.

Contents

Title PageDedicationAuthor’s noteOpeningPart 1:The Witch’s Journey to Healing1:Finding witchcraft: Discovering the right path for you2:Discovering the elements3:An introduction to rituals and spellsPart 2:Healing with the elements4:Earth: Grounding, nourishing and resettingEarth rituals and spells Ritual for drawing self-love from the earth Protecting your energy with apples spell Earth ritual for deep grounding Panic attack prevention spell Moving through fear ritual5:Air: Uplifting, inspiring, energisingAir rituals and spells Depression blasting spell New moon manifestation ritual for a happy outcome Full moon ‘letting go’ ritual Growing your joy spell jar Wind-in-your-sails pinpoint focus spell Feather charm bag to dispel heavy feelings6:Fire: Passionate, cleansing, motivationalFire rituals and spells Fire cord-cutting spell to sever ties with a person or place Fire banishing ritual Sunlight positivity magnification ritual Fire-in-the-belly spell to combat dissociation Candle magick protection spell Self-love fire ritual Goddess Brigid candle healing ritual7:Water: Soothing, cleansing, intuitiveWater rituals and spells Water ritual to bring balance Water energy spell to soothe anxiety Gentle joy water spell Salt water self-purification ritual Feminine water energy ritual for burnout and overwhelmClosingA very witchy appendixHelpful guides to magickal correspondencesFurther readingEthical stores to buy your magickal toolsGlossaryReferencesAcknowledgementsAbout the author Also by Jennifer LaneCopyright

1

Opening

The sun is shining and I am sitting in a hedgerow.

We are in the midst of a heatwave; I watch the long, shining grasses in the fields as they catch the sun’s rays like blades of gold. My daily walk consists of a loop past tumbledown ivy-strewn cottages, through cow fields and then over the canal and back around. I am allowing myself an extra-long lunch break, giving me plenty of time for a saunter in the sun.

The hill rises in front of me as I walk past hawthorn trees that had only a few months before been almost entirely white. Now they are hazes of green. Inside their branches, I hear the peeps and questioning pips of a robin, its ragged-looking breast about to shed its summer plumage. I turn the corner onto a cobbled lane bordered by hedgerows. On my left is an incredible tangled mass of brambles, nettles and more hawthorn, and on my 2right an abundance of ripening pink rosehips. I smile at the jumbled disorder of plants. The modern mind has been arranged by society to keep our roads and gardens razor-tidy to within an inch of their life (quite literally); disorder and unconformity can sometimes set people on edge. But not here in the countryside. These hedgerows might appear unkempt to others but so many creatures depend on this messiness. Right now, the hedgerows are buzzing and quivering, humming and alive. Bees, ladybirds, shrews, sparrows and caterpillars all watch, confer and wait around me. A baby blackbird scuffles out of the brambles as if sharply shoved by the roots below it. It is still white around the mouth, a sign of a new fledgling. I give it a wide berth and a respectful nod as I pass slowly. It doesn’t jerk away back into the foliage, only bobs its knees like a dipper as if returning my nod.

An alcove in the hedge makes a convenient sitting spot – so long as I don’t move much and risk making an enemy of the dog rose bushes around me.

I realise then how encompassed I am by the four elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Above me, the sun is blazing, leaving no doubt over its fiery nature; the air is filled with the sounds of birdsong and the occasional swell of crickets. Directly behind me in the full shade of trees is a small lake inhabited by minnows, sturgeons, coots and a lone heron. And how could I forget the earth? The flowers around me, the ground below my feet – the earth element is blooming everywhere at this time of year. 3

I sit for a while storing this memory up for winter like I am gathering fresh fruit to survive the darker days.

As a green witch, the spring and summer months are by far my favourite of the year. While I might come across as calm and maybe sometimes even aloof, inside I’m squealing like a giddy child when I see the first celandine of spring. Those happy yellow faces along the pathway make me hop around in glee.

But why do spring and summer excite me so much? Surely witches were born for long autumn nights with leaves riffling about their ankles?

When the first notes of September’s crispness crinkle the morning air, my body starts to recoil. This means that the darker months are coming. For many, autumn means pumpkins, rainy afternoons curled up with a book and – of course – Halloween. But my favourite Pagan festival isn’t Halloween (or Samhain as it is known in the witching world), it is the beautiful May Day festival of Beltane held under budding sunshine; I sometimes wish there was a world I could exist in where I was perpetually surrounded by the white fuzz of spring blossom.

I have had seasonal affective disorder (SAD) for as long as I can remember. When the daylight begins to fade at 3.00 p.m., so does my energy and, with it, my happiness. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 4approximately three people in every hundred have SAD1 but, in my experience speaking to friends, family members and colleagues each winter, I think that this number is much higher. It’s something I had always tried to control but had been predominantly unsuccessful – until I rediscovered my witchcraft practice.

When writing my book The Wheel: A Witch’s Path to Healing Through Nature, I put witchcraft to the test. I was chronically exhausted and constantly breaking down in a pre-pandemic world from burnout, which has been defined as mental exhaustion from continuous effort. I felt trapped in a toxic workplace environment that had motivational slogans on its walls but senior management who shattered coffee mugs against the wall if they didn’t get their way. I felt so lost. How had I ended up at this place? How could I get out? But it wasn’t just this specific workplace; it was office culture as a whole – something I had struggled with since I got my first job at age twenty-two. And to make things worse, as soon as autumn and winter hit, I felt practically useless. I was existing in fight-or-flight mode and struggling with the strange physical and mental symptoms of anxiety and deep depression.

What I experienced is scarily common. The modern world has pushed so many of us to breaking point. Edged us away from the world’s seasonal cycles until our minds almost forget them. But our bodies cannot.

Humans were not designed for constant notifications, emails, meetings and commuting. We were meant for a 5very different life – one that connects us with swaying trees, wild creatures and the rush of the elements across our skin. We were meant to feel the magick of being at one with nature.

However, the patterns of our lives have become unrecognisable from what they would have once been even 200 years ago. Stress has been said to occur when ‘aspects of the environment overwhelm people. That is, people feel stressed when too much is expected of them, or when events seem scary or worrisome.’2 In the short period that technology has revolutionised the world, our bodies have not been able to keep up with the new fast-paced lifestyles forced upon us, leaving many people with burnout, feeling frantic and out of control. While stress has always been a factor in human lives, the imposition of targets, long days, blue light and crowded commutes has compacted our stress. The UK’s Health and Safety Executive estimated that in 2020/21 there were 822,000 workers affected by work-related stress, depression or anxiety and found that these conditions accounted for 50 per cent of all work-related instances of ill health.3

Society gives us neither the time nor resources to cope with stress – and the longer periods of pressure continue, the more likely they are to manifest as long-term trauma in the body. Common side effects of this include feeling overwhelmed, strange physical sensations, having racing thoughts or difficulty concentrating, trouble sleeping, panic, dissociation and avoidance. These symptoms are 6very similar to those of someone experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

But there are things that can help.

In order to heal our minds and bodies from the stress that the world’s current structures perpetuate, many studies have recommended living a life in nature and one that is connected to the earth. Being exposed to the rush of running water, the sound of birdsong on the air, the thrum of the sun’s pulse and the unshakeable green world around us has the power to reset the mind, body and soul. The elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water have what it takes to make us well again.

Back in 2018, between fitful moments of sleep and the stress-related pain that rocketed through my knuckles and wrists, I knew I needed to do something to get me back to myself. The nature-loving child I had once been felt like a scuffed school photograph lost at the bottom of a drawer. Who was I now that I had lost my connection to my childhood self?

What if I could return to and reconnect with the green and natural lives my ancestors would have lived? What if I could tap into the deep magick that resides in the plants, trees and ancient places of this world?

What if I could use magick to heal?

I decided to rekindle the love of witchcraft and magick that had got me through my early teens. Back in those days, there had been lazy Sunday afternoons copying out Celtic Ogham into a paperback journal, trance-like meditations 7on my bedroom floor surrounded by my favourite teddies, and the frequent days lying in my grandparents’ garden soaking up the energy of the beech and pear trees that bordered it. Perhaps these things weren’t the average pastimes of a thirteen-year-old but, hey, I never professed to be normal.

This connection with nature has always been a big part of my craft. The green, natural world offers us the tools and medicine we need to help us come back to ourselves and shed the anxiety of modern life.

That is why I’m writing this book.

In this book, I want to share some of the knowledge, rituals and spells that have helped me to heal from a world that was not intended for soft, caring or spiritual people. This book gives spells, rituals and elemental magick for those dealing with the stresses and strains of home and the outside world of presentations and deadlines. Through guided spell work, those with a love of green and positive witchcraft can manage stress and anxiety, harnessing the natural forces of the four elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water – to cure and restore their souls.

Witchcraft brought me back to myself. This book shows you how you too can take back control of your busy life through the healing power of the craft.

Here in the hedgerow, I am reconnecting to the joy of the natural world. The elements cluster around me, touching my skin, waiting to hear what I might ask of them.8

9

Part One

The Witch’s Journey to Healing10

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1

Finding Witchcraft

Discovering the right path for you

In the last 20-plus years, I have worked with many different forms of witchcraft in search of the one that felt right to me. I’ve followed complicated rituals that involved layers of initiation, I have worked with different covens, I have danced in the woods and I have spent hours in meditative quiet in front of my own sacred altar. But nothing has felt more like ‘me’ than the solitary green witch path.

I have learned to never stick with a practice that feels abrasive to you. Wherever your witchcraft journey takes you, always do what resonates with you to your core and what speaks to your soul.

So what does my path as a green witch involve? Basically, you spend a lot of time with your face in wildflowers.

A green witch is someone who celebrates the cycles of Mother Earth, practises Earth magick and who has a 12love of all things green and growing. My magick comes out best when I use herbs and when I walk barefoot in my garden and let the swirls of soil imprint themselves on my soles.

My main activities as a green witch involve growing and harvesting herbs to use in tinctures, teas, vinegars and oxymels, tuning into the cycles of the moon, getting lost in wild places and giving back to the beings (seen and unseen) of the natural world.

While most witches have a complete adoration for the natural world, we do have another trick up our trailing sleeves. Many witches practise the arts of spellcraft and magick.

Magick

Like many Pagan folk, I tend to use the word magick with a ‘k’ to differentiate it from what you’d find at a sideshow act led by The Incredible Fandango. Of course, the word ‘magic’ is completely fine but if you see it spelt with a ‘k’ then you know why.

But what is magick?

Having explored different perspectives, this is what I have come to believe:

Magick is a spiritual force that can be used to enhance, influence or change the way a future event happens. 13

What is a Pagan?

‘Pagan’ is the overarching term for those with a spiritual connection with the land and the four elements. Many folk who follow Paganism believe nature to have a consciousness that can be tapped into through magickal workings. We hold a reciprocal relationship with the ‘more-than-human’ world, honouring its cycles, leaving it offerings and giving thanks for its abundance. It is a very grounding path, one that celebrates Mother Earth. 14

There are many ways that a magickal practitioner can do this, such as through a spell, a charm, a ritual, a sigil or a potion. However you choose to harness the power of magick, having a strong intention and focus behind your working is key. The magickal forces need direction and won’t listen if your instructions are filled with ifs, buts and maybes. Working magick also involves a strong sense of self, knowing your own will and being aware of the magickal correspondences of the planets, herbs and times of the moon cycle to enhance your power.

Some believe that magick is constantly around us, waiting for us to grasp it and use it. Others say we need to enter another state of consciousness to tap into the energy of the universe and some say we need to speak to gods and goddesses in order to ask their permission. I believe in a combination of all three. But whatever you believe, magick is a special power that needs to be handled with respect, care and love. If used unwisely, it may bring about unexpected and negative repercussions.

Something that’s important to note is that you may often come across spells, rituals and other magickal practices that involve many different tools or ingredients. While these things are nice to have, true witchcraft needs very little, except:

 yourself

 a connection to nature

 a direct intention (see chapter 4 for more on declaring your intention).15

Your magick does not need fancy, expensive tools, crystals or rare herbs in order to succeed, no matter how much people try and push their goods your way. Tools may enhance your work but, if you don’t have a particular ingredient or item, there will always be a substitute. For crystals, clear quartz can represent any other crystal as it has a pure energy. In candle magick, a white candle can replace any other colour. Many items can be sourced from nature, such as a sturdy twig or branch to use as a wand, or a beautiful stone to represent the element of Earth. If you do not possess a cauldron, a kitchen bowl or pan works in exactly the same way. One thing to remember is that if you are using everyday items from your kitchen or living space, always cleanse them first (see sage cleansing on page 47) to remove any stagnant or negative energies that have accumulated in them over time. Cleansing an object makes it ready for magickal use. Never feel pressured to buy anything that does not sit comfortably with you or is out of your price range just because you feel you need it to be a witch. You are a witch in and of yourself. 16

Wicca

Throughout this book, you’ll find an array of green witchery but you’ll also come across an eclectic mix of practices, primarily from the Wiccan tradition as Wicca is where I first started my witching path and I continue to use its teachings in much of my current practice. Wicca is a form of positive, ceremonial magick that believes in a goddess and a god and celebrates eight seasonal festivals – such as the spring equinox and the summer solstice – depicted on the Wheel of the Year (see glossary) to promote a deep connection with nature.

I always try to follow two of the tenets of Wicca that resonate with me in my practice, but they are also good ways to go about your daily life. The first tenet speaks of the:

Threefold Law: whatever we put out into the universe, we receive back to us times three.17

So if we decide to hex our ex and make sure they get demoted from their job, your own company might announce redundancies in a few months’ time with you in the firing line. What goes around comes around – call it karma or whatever resonates with you. However, if we ask the universe to help us grow our self-confidence after the break-up, we will begin to find ourselves meeting new, better-suited people who are attracted to our newfound sense of self. Sending out positive energy into the world will only reap more benefits in the long run.

The other tenet I stand by is something we would all do good to live by:

‘And it harm none, do as ye will.’

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