Increasing Your Intuition

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Increasing and honing your intuition isn’t a simple or quick task. It requires dedication and consistent practice. However, there are steps you can take to make things a bit easier to practice that intuition of yours.

Children tend to have very good intuitions but as they grow older, it tends to wane. The same is true for people who take a step back from practicing their intuition. It can stagnate and grow weak. It’s just like the physical body. As a child, you might not have thought anything about sprinting down the street or being particularly flexible. As an adult, it’s less likely that you’ll be able to do what you so easily could as a child without continuous practice.

Write your dreams down

Writing your dreams down can help boost intuition. Many times, premonitions or psychic impressions come to us via dreams. Dreams also provide insight into subconscious thinking and the self.

Try to also record your first thoughts when waking up. This is a difficult habit to get into for some and for others, it’s great to do alongside journaling.

Write down your predictions

Simply writing down things you think (or intuit) might happen is a great way of tracking how often you’re right on these things. It’s similar to testing your psychic awareness with ESP cards. This another journaling technique, but you can also just do it every-so-often and leave that document in a notebook to be discovered later. It’s definitely a long-term test, but it’s one I use often with great results.

Stretching the senses

Sit quietly and extend your senses, trying to hear and sense what’s going on in other rooms and beyond the confines of your home. This is remote viewing, when it’s practiced at a decent range, but mostly it’s just practicing extending your energy and psychic awareness. Think “spider sense”, if that reference is meaningful to you.

A test to see how accurate your sense is needs a second person or camera to record the direction you’re sensing in, so you can validate what happened.

Third-eye Opening Meditation

Meditation is often used for many things and there’s a lot you can get out of it. A third eye opening guided meditation or one that focuses on your intuition is a great and relatively easy way of practicing with a bit of guidance. Repeat your chosen meditation every day or at least consistently to get good results.

Herbal or Crystal Support

There are herbs, incense, scents, and crystals to support intuition. The following is a wide variety of ingredients and tools that can be used to assist, attune, or increase your psychic awareness or intuition. This is not a completed list, especially the crystals section.

Some of these ingredients can be used as a tool, just held or kept nearby, while others might be used topically or even consumed. Everyone will tolerate these ingredients and tools differently, so be sure to check to see which ones are helpful to you.

NOTE! I’ve marked some of the more dangerous or potentially illegal ones with an asterisk *. DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE USING!!!

Plants: Acacia, acorn, anise, ash tree, bay laurel, belladonna*, borage, calendula, camphor, chicory root, cinnamon, cinquefoil, clove, clover, diviner’s sage*, elecampane, eyebright, flax, fly agaric*, ground ivy, hazel, heliotrope, hemp, henbane*, honeysuckle, juniper, lemon grass, lilac, lovage, magnolia, maidenhair, marijuana*, mastic, nettle, nutmeg, orange, patchouli, peppermint, poppy*, rowan, rose, rosemary, rue, saffron, sandalwood, thyme, tuberose, wormwood, yarrow

Other: clear crystals, quartz crystal, aventurine, goldstone, amethyst, agate, silver, water, the moon

Spirit Connections

For some people, they can see or sense spirits easily but not other forms of energy – or vice versa. Someone might be particularly skilled at working with faeries but struggles to read the energy in an item. Or they might have no difficulties what-so-ever in reading the future, but they’re blind to spirits.

If you’re able to work with some sort of spirit, deity, or being, you may be able to ask for guidance in sensing other forms of energy. This will largely depend on your relationship, but it’s something to explore.

Familiars and Constructs

A Familiar, as I defined them, is a being who makes some sort of agreement or contract to work alongside or serve you. This is a spiritual bond and may feel destined.

A Construct, as I defined it, is a being whom you create to serve you. If handled poorly, Constructs may go rouge and become malicious spirits. Older Constructs may developed self-awareness and become spirits or familiars.

Now that the terminology is out of the way, these beings may be able to lend extra boost in power or assist in seeing or sensing what you cannot. They also can warn you, like your intuition would. By using their perceptions alongside your own intuition, you can verify what your intuition is saying. Assuming this sort of verification is meaningful to you.

Divination

Divination is a way of tapping into your intuition. By practicing your chosen divination techniques routinely, you’ll increase your intuition.

This is especially true for divination techniques like scrying, where your intuition and second sight is what’s showing you the future or what you want to see.

There’s a lot of different way to increase your intuition, but the most useful method is consistency and practice. Few people can master a new musical instrument or get a super-fit body in a single day and the same is true with intuition.

Confidence Mirror Spell

This spell is to boost confidence. It’s good for events and situations where you need to be a little more confident, such as job interviews, dates, and so on. 

What you’ll need:

  • Mirror
  • Water, divided
  • Sea salt
  • Rosemary
  • Roses
  • Hydrangea
  • Nasturtium
  • Two bowls
  • Dahlia
  • Paper towel or rag 

In one bowl, mix half of the water with sea salt until the salt dissolves. Wash the mirror with the salt water to cleanse the mirror.

In another bowl, steep rosemary, hydrangea, roses, nasturtium, and dahlia petals in the other half of the water. Wash the mirror again with this water to enchant the mirror with confidence boosting. You can say the following chant or similar affirmations.

"I am confident 
I am strong 
I am blooming 
I am powerful 
I am unshakeable 
I am confident."

When you’re ready to activate the spell, flick some water at the mirror and repeat the above chant or similar affirmations.

Notes:

  • Any “showy” flowers would work for this spell. Pick your favorites.

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Witchcraft 101 – How Much Stuff Do You Really Need?

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If you’ve picked up a beginner’s witchcraft book, especially an older book, you’ll often find these long lists of items for you to acquire as you start your magical or pagan practice. But how much of it all do you really need?

First, let’s cover the basics –

  • You can absolutely use stuff you already have for magic, just make sure you’re not mixing the bowl you eat your cereal in with the bowl you worked non-edible herbs in, for safety’s sake.
  • You don’t need the super expensive or specialty stuff right away. Yes, they’re pretty, support artisans, and may be made a certain way that helps increase your practice, but you don’t need them to start. Wait a bit and see if you’re even going to use that item at all. Instead, swap in with a more common items for now – like a $10 hardware store broom rather than the $300 hand-made besom. You can always upgrade later.
  • Used goods store and discount dollar stores can be extremely useful. Cups, glasses, jars, candles, incense, craft supplies, paper, bowls, and more can be purchased cheaply here and that allows you a bit more freedom to play with items that you think you might need but aren’t sure of.

Still, the lists are often useful because they’re a combination of commonly used items and items the authors probably use themselves. It’s a good thing to look at them because you can see how different people use different things to reach similar results.

When you get lists like this (or you’ve written down lists of stuff you’d like), break down those lists of things you want into five categories: necessities, ritual items, spell items, aesthetics, and miscellaneous.

Necessities are things like lighters, a fire proof bowl, a jar, a candle holder… You get it. It’s stuff that, for most people, you’ll just need. If you don’t work with fire, you won’t need that fire-related stuff, but by and large, 95% of us  use the same kind of necessities.

Ritual items are objects used for rituals or worship. This could be an idol statue of your goddess or it could be a veil to use during ritual ceremonies. You may have nothing in this category, depending on your practice, or you may have a lot of stuff. Try and keep this list short when you’re starting out. Sure, you’d love to have a beautiful altar for your deity, but do you really need that expensive hand-carved ritual bowl right now? Probably not.

Spell items are objects used for spell casting. This could be rosemary and bay leaves. It might be a mortar and pestle or herb grinder. It could be materials for a poppet. It could be a box of candles. It depends on your spell casting style.

Aesthetics are just that  – things you have because they are beautiful. Typically these are items that are expensive or something that’s just pretty.  This isn’t to say they don’t have a use! You may have some beautiful objects that are just pretty but are also useful in your practice. I like to think of this as a “if I never had this, would I miss it?”

Miscellaneous is a category for things that don’t fit anywhere else. Your miscellaneous category might not match anyone else’s. Maybe you want a besom for cleansing, but that’s not a spell or ritual task for you. It’s not a necessity – you could do without it – but you want it. It takes some thinking. It may also be things that aren’t “necessary”, but are just plain useful.

My practice consists of a lot of things so my personal list of things is going to be wildly different from other people’s. This is my list below and a little later in this post I’ll give a recommended list.

Necessities – Lighter or matches, stoneware bowl, bells, paper and ink, knife, water, thread and ribbon (all colors), sea salt

Ritual items – Incense, idols, nature offerings, baked offerings, fresh offerings, offering bowl, cleansing supplies, brass, candles, cleaning supplies

Spell items – bones or hair, blood, sharp scissors, jars, candles (all colors), iron or metal, herbs and similar, sewing needles and fabric, honey

Aesthetics – Most besoms, scarf or veil, cauldron, baskets, ritual clothing

Miscellaneous – Most crystals, beeswax, sand, brooms (not besom), wands, stirring spoons, mortar and pestle, divination tools including tarot decks

My items are a bit odd for some. For example, I heavily use bells in my daily magical practices. I use a specific set of scissors for my practice and a few different kind of knives. A regular stoneware cereal bowl often doubles as a candle holder during spells – I rarely use traditional candle holders in spell work because of this.

You’ll see the usual accompaniments of a besom and cauldron are in the aesthetics category. I don’t use them much. My cauldron is actually really handy when I need a fireproof bowl or a bonfire, but I also have a firepit and metal trashcan. I’d never miss it, if I didn’t have it. I use a veil for divination purposes, but I don’t need it. Same thing with most rocks and crystals. They are in my life and I love them, but I don’t use them as others do. Divination tools aren’t spells for me but they aren’t rituals either. They exist in some weird third space for me.

Whereas my ritual category is pretty basic, but I including cleaning supplies in addition to cleansing supplies. I keep a tiny broom, dusting clothes, sacred waters, and dustpan for cleaning the shrine areas exclusively. Usually it’s just for dust and incense ash, but I like the feeling of even ordinary actions like sweeping can be made sacred this way. It’s all about honoring those there, even the mundane cleaning bits. But, that’s just me and it’s part of my private spiritual beliefs.

Of course, I can define my practice’s items easily because I’ve been at it for over quarter a century. And it does fluctuate over some years as I get into certain hobbies or try new ways of using old tools. If you’re new to practicing, it may be difficult to define these categories or know exactly what you’ll use. It’s still a handy technique, especially if your budget is a concern or you’re trying to keep your materialism to a minimum.

And, since this question you probably want to know, this is my recommended list for beginners of most practices:

  • Stoneware bowls or baking dishes
  • Tealight candles and matches or a lighter or LED candles
  • Glass jars or bottles with lids (or cork that fits the jars / bottles)
  • Embroidery thread, twine, or ribbon
  • Quartz crystals

Most of these items can be purchased at a used goods store or discount dollar stores. The rest should, ideally, be acquired from independent small businesses. Check your kitchen cabinets for herbs or spices and neighborhood sidewalks for rouge flowers. Books can often be borrowed from the library, some even accessible online through your your library.

Take your time gathering things. It’s part of the journey to your witchcraft practice.

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8 Tips to Help Your Divination

Learning a divination technique is not always easy. For some people, it can be a real struggle and it can become a mental mountain to overcome. 

Even long-term diviners may find themselves challenged at times. Divination burnout is definitely a thing and there are times where you just feel disconnected from your intuition.

Here’s a few things that can help.

1 – Work in a darkened room

I’m not saying to work in the complete dark, but work in a room where your surroundings are in the shadows. Being in the dark lessens distractions. You can see that distracting thing (the laundry that needs folding or your Nintendo switch, for example) in your peripheral vision, so it no longer becomes a mental task or temptation. It’s out of sight and therefore (mostly) out of mind.

2 – Change up your surroundings

If you normally work in your bedroom, head into the kitchen or hunker down at your public library. Rather than your couch, try the backyard (make sure to have something to weigh down your cards!). You can even just switch up the surface your work on. Instead of a table, try the floor. While leaving your normal space to do a reading may feel really weird, the newness can shake things up for a while. It breaks you out of the “I have to do this” sort of routine. 

Be aware of your confidence in your new space. You may feel really self-aware when working in public. Most of the time, people don’t care. They might look at you for a few minutes, but 90% of the time – if not more – people do not give a shit about what other people are doing. This is true for casting spells in public and anything else. 

Divination is a bit weird though. People tend to approach tarot card readers and assume they’re always for hire or worse, ask for a free reading. If you want to do their reading, that’s fine, but don’t be afraid of saying no. Tell them no, you’re not taking readings at this time, offer them a business card if you have one you’d like to give out, then politely and firmly go back to what you were doing. Headphones are great for this because you can just literally tune them out. If they keep pestering you, then leave that space.

3 – Set the scene.

Light a candle, burn some incense, get your diffusing going, put on a fancy outfit, lay out the good reading cloth, softly play some music, and so on. Set up your space for success. If you already do this, try skipping parts of it them to see if that changes things for you. Or you can switch up the incense you burn, the music you play, or the scents you add to the air. 

4 – Meditate, center, and ground.

Now, I am the first to say that meditation doesn’t always help and isn’t necessary. If meditation is something you struggle with, then doing it before you try something else you’re struggling with is only setting you up for failure. But if you like meditation, or at least don’t mind it, then give it a try before the reading. It can help organize your thoughts and raise some energy.

Centering and grounding also are useful. Even more useful than meditation, even. While the three of them can be combined, centering is more about re-balancing yourself and bringing yourself back to neutral or centered within yourself – great when you’re all over the place. Grounding is about dispersing your excess energy. It can also be about rooting yourself down, building a foundation to stand on. Using which one when you need it can be helpful. 

5 – Manage your phone and devices

Put your notifications on silent. There’s some phones and apps now that have a “focus” mode, allowing you to pick and choose what notifications can disturb you during your phone time. You can also get a focus timer app like Forest to use. I use focus mode when I do divinations plus Forest. This means I can’t access my social media, video games, or anything else like that while I work. Instead, what’s available to me are things like my camera, photo editing apps, related programs, and so on.

6 – Don’t take it so seriously

For some people, divination is a big deal for them and it’s very serious business. For others, it’s all fun and games. If you’re on the more serious or intense side and you find yourself struggling to do a reading, try loosening up. Put the reading you’re working on aside and do a fun one. Predict the outcome on what’s for dinner or ask what your cat’s thinking. Reduce the amount of pressure you’re putting on yourself by making it less serious. 

7 – Mind your schedule

Schedule time to do readings. Pick a day or make time during the day the same way your would some other appointment and work on your divination. This doesn’t mean you need to solely do readings. You can read books on the subject instead, meditate with your cards, or plan spreads. Or you can just sit there and crank out readings. It’s up to you, but scheduling time makes it a priority for you and reminds your brain and this is something that you’re serious about. Practice is key to learning a skill, any skill.

You’ll also want to consider taking breaks while you’re doing readings. For example, I do all of my readings for the week on Sunday. It’s the one day of the week I devote entirely to divination. Why Sunday? Well, once upon a time it was the one day of the week I was guaranteed to be home alone except for the animals. It meant I knew I wouldn’t be disturbed and I could take up as much room and make as much noise as I want.

8 – Tell it to someone

If you’re having trouble getting your words out, try explaining the cards and reading to someone. This could be your pet, a crystal, a familiar, a guide, a friend, or so on. If you normally talk your readings out, then try writing them. Do something to express what the readings in a different way than you normally would do. 

And those are some tips to give you a hand. Don’t be afraid to step outside your norm to shake up your divination routine. It can be really helpful and lead you down a new path of knowledge and divination.

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Magnetic Charisma

A spell to boost your charisma. It’s ideal for people that are making speeches or presentations, but it could also be excellent if you’re going for a job interview or something similar.

What you’ll need:

  • A magnetic piece of jewelry 

Hold the magnetic jewelry in your hand and imagine anyone who looks at it will be drawn to you and your words like a magnet. Once you have that image cemented down, say the following,

"My words are heard 
You follow my lead 
You're drawn to me as if I am the sun 
My charm is endless 
I'm filled with cheer, charm, and grace, 
Do as I suggest and say 
My charisma holds you in sway."

Simply wear the jewelry when you need to be extra charismatic. 

Notes:

  • Magnetic jewelry can take any form, such as a bracelet, necklace, rings, anklets, earrings, cufflinks, shoelaces, sunglasses, tie clips or tacks, etc. Magnetic ties, shoes, or other pieces of clothing would also be fine.
  • You can alternatively use magnetic therapy sport wraps or anything else magnetic that would be visible to the audience.
  • A simple refrigerator magic would work, but it should be visible to your audience. 

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Lightning Protection Sigil

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What you’ll need:

  • Mugwort
  • Thunder water
  • Paper

Steep mugwort in thunder water overnight.

The next day, use the steeped water to write a lightning protection sigil on the paper. It’s okay if it isn’t very visible or clear. 

You can make your own sigil or use the one I’ve provided below:

Place the paper at the highest point in your house that you can access. 

Notes:

  • Thunder water is water collected during a thunderstorm. You may know it by other names such as lightning water or storm water.

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How to Make a Good Dream Jar

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Ever have dreams keep waking you up at night? Not just nightmares, but dreams that were stressful or so hectic that you feel exhausted in the morning? Or have you had such poor sleep and you think it might be dreams or nightmares causing it, even if you don’t remember the dreams in your waking hours?

When dreams, especially unwanted dreams, cause problems, it can be a difficult battle. This jar can help mitigate that. It can also be used to bring about good dreams even if you aren’t struggling against bad dreams. It’s an excellent way of just having a peaceful night’s sleep.

What you’ll need:

  • Mugwort
  • Lavender
  • Jasmine
  • Rose
  • Rosemary
  • Glass jar with lid or cork
  • Candle or sealing wax in blue or light purple

Cleanse your glass jar. Begin to heat your candle or sealing wax.

Layer your herbs in the jar in any pattern you find pleasing. As you add each in, think of the good, peaceful dreams you wish to have. You may speak aloud or simply think it.

Put the jar’s lid on top. The candle or sealing wax should be ready now. Pour it over your jar lid and say,

"Good dreams fill this jar 
Nightmares are barred 
I will sleep peacefully all night long."

Let the wax harden. Place the jar beside or under your bed.

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Gold Leaf Money Spell

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This is one of my most favorite money spells I’ve ever written. It draws from one of my favorite bits of mostly universal folklore – exchanging leaves for money.

It’s a “set it and forget it” style spell meaning so long as the object isn’t damaged, it’ll keep working.

What you’ll need:

  • A leaf that fits nice in your purse or wallet.
  • Gold leaf or gold paint

Paint the leaf with gold leaf or gold paint. You can paint then entire leaf or just gild the edges of the leaf. Let it dry completely.

Take the leaf into your hand and say,

"You are painted with gold 
And are a treasure worth having, 
Now my wallet is never be empty 
It is always filled with coin, bill, and currency 
All thanks to you, my leaf gilded in gold."

Keep it in your wallet where you keep your money.

Replace the leaf when it’s broken down or when the gold leaf or paint has completely flaked off.

Notes:

  • Leaves  from almond trees, basil plants, mint, cinquefoil, sage, or apple are good choices. But any plant that feels like a “money plant” that has a large-ish leaf will suffice.
  • Gold leaf is ideal, but gold paint is cheaper and easier to apply.

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Dream, Mirage, Glamour Spread

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This is a simple spread intended to reveal things like false idealizations, illusions, and so on. Sometimes we idealized people or put them on pedestals. This reveals what’s behind the curtain. This spread would also reveal what’s they’re fooling themselves with.

1 – What is the dream or (false) idealized version of the person or situation?

2 – What are the unintentional illusions of the situation or person? What falsehoods have been unintentionally perpetuated?

3 – What intentional illusions is this situation or person hiding behind?

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Protection from Blades Spell

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This is protection from metal blades. Inspired by a spell from The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells by Judika Illes, found on page 881 under the title “Blade Proof Spell”.

What you’ll need:

  • Edelweiss
  • Borage
  • Nettle
  • Rowan wood
  • Ash wood
  • Ash from a fire (especially a fire used to forge a blade)
  • Black charm bag or bottle with stopper and black sealing wax

Gather together your plants and fire ash. Stir them together and say, 

"Protect me from fire 
Protect me from blades 
Protect me from the forge 
Protect me from malicious intent 
Protect me from sharp edges 
Protect me from dull brands 
Protect me from all harm."

Pour the mixture either in a black charm bag or a bottle with a stopper. If using the bottle, you should seal it with black wax over the stopper. 

As you tie the charm bag or seal the bottle, say,

"Fire made you, blades 
But you cannot harm me 
I am safe from all harm."

Note:

  • You could easily add a horseshoe charm, shavings from sharpening a blade, or a piece of forged metal in with the fire ash for extra protection. 

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