Category: Techniques & How Tos

30 Items to Move Into Your New Home First – Basket of Blessings


“Basket of Blessings” – a superstition based ritual process of selecting various items to bring into your new home first, as a means of encouraging various sympathetic magic results, such as luck, wealth, abundance, health, and so on.

I’ve covered this topic before here and here on Patreon. That post is great and covers a lot more of the in-depth ideas, including practical things to move in first as well as what to NOT move in. This list is simple, but fast with explanations on why the stuff is on the list.

This is a common concept in other cultures. I don’t know what this entire concept is called, but I’ve decided to called this “Basket of Blessings”. Yes, I’m coining the term for this concept. You heard it here first. The idea is that the first thing you’re carrying in is a collection of items intended to bring good luck, prosperity, blessings, abundance, and other assorted good vibes.

A few examples: A student might carrying in books, blank paper, and pens to encourage a scholarly pursuits. A person moving into their first apartment might want to bring things to encourage luck, such as a four leaf clover, and comfort, such as a favorite blanket. You get the idea. It’s intended to say “this is what I want my home to be like”.

It has a secondary goal of being something to keep the home occupied when you aren’t there. For someone who might be moving in over a duration (like moving a storage unit over a week or having to travel hours to the new house from the old house), these items will let the house feel not so cold and lonely.

(Crafting a house guardian will also help in this endeavor, but that’s a whole different post.)

Pick any choose whatever you want / need off the list. Remember, this is what YOU want for YOUR home, so get creative in personalizing this process.

  1. Drinking water – so you’ll always have clean water
  2. Purified water, blessed water, moon water, holy water, etc – for blessings and magical cleansing
  3. Coins, paper money, cash – for abundance and wealth
  4. Silver (coins, jewelry, dishes, etc) – for abundance and wealth
  5. Gold (coins, jewelry, etc) – for abundance and wealth
  6. Crystals, jewels, and gemstones (jewelry, loose crystals) – for abundance and wealth – double check correspondences for gemstones
  7. Steel (spoons, plates, etc. No knives) – for stability and protection
  8. Cast iron (pots, charms, etc) – protection
  9. Bread – so you’ll never go hungry
  10. Rice – so you’ll never go hungry
  11. Fresh fruits and berries – so you’ll never go hungry
  12. Fresh herbs – so you’ll never go hungry
  13. Oranges – for luck, health and to never go hungry
  14. Basil – luck and money
  15. Rosemary – health
  16. Sugar – for sweetness, money, and food
  17. Honey – sweetness and food
  18. Chocolate – sweetness, treats, food, wealth
  19. Coffee and/or tea – for welcoming guests, abundance, productivity, wealth, food, etc.
  20. Salt – cleansing, money
  21. Alcohol, wine, alcoholic offering, non-alcoholic beverage offering
  22. Fresh cut flowers – beauty
  23. House plant, money plant, potted herbs, potted fruit trees
  24. Books – for knowledge, religious purposes, cookbook, divination, a gain a certain sort of lifestyle or energy, etc
  25. LED candle, lamp – so there’s always a light on to welcome you home
  26. Blanket – for warmth
  27. Picture of the household members – for family happiness
  28. New broom – for a fresh start
  29. Bells – for cleansing
  30. Luck charms and other magical charms – for luck and assorted purposes

Put things together. If you’re bringing in fresh cut flowers and fresh sprigs of herbs, put them in the same vase. All the food and drinks can go in a box to be snacked on during the move or be easily used in the morning. Put together a witch jar with all of your crystals, coins, luck charms, and so on so it’s all contained for right now. You can dismantle the jar (or box or whatever) at a later date.

You can also just shove it all in a tote bag and call it a day. It doesn’t have to be fancy if you don’t have the energy for it.

If you’re running out of boxes, toss all the stuff in the blanket, wrap it up, and bring it in just like that. Use this first box to keep bottled water so you and your movers know where the water is (just don’t keep the money there too, yeah?)

When gathering these things, I like to put them in a basket or a box and “present” them to the house. Sometimes having two boxes is better. One with all the expensive stuff that can be tucked in a closet or cupboard during the moving process and another for the more household stuff or plants.

"Basket of Blessings" - A superstition based ritual process of selecting various items to bring into your new home first, as a means of encouraging various sympathetic magic results, such as luck, wealth, abundance, health, and so on.

Again, this topic has a related post here and here on Patreon. It was public first as early access over on my Patreon. Link for that post is here.

Patreon | thiscrookedcrown.com

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New Year Cleansing / Cleaning Checklist

It’s a new year. Lots of people like to start the new year off by a good cleansing. But how about your house?

You can absolutely cleanse your home with your normal methods – sound, smoke, energy, or whatever you use. But one of the best ways to clear out stale energy and get yourself off to the right start in a new year, is combining cleaning and cleansing.

Spring cleaning might be more common for some people, using the mild weather as a chance to air out the home without losing precious heat or inviting the wet chill. But I prefer to do deep cleaning on my house at the new year instead, saving the spring for the garden.

Before you continue, this whole list may take a few days to get through, depending on how cluttered or disorganized your house is and how much energy you have to spare. Work at your own pace.

Here’s my order list on getting a good cleansing/cleaning done.

1) Keep a notepad and pen nearby these piles or located in a central area (like by the fridge) so you can write down other chores as they come to you.

2) Arrange locations for the following piles. These locations can be piles on your dining room table. It can be cardboard boxes, totes, bags, or whatever. You might need more piles or less.

Homeless stuff – is for things that don’t have a place. Maybe it’s a pair of gloves or a decor piece. The items are things that have no specific location, but you still want to keep them.

Donations – stuff that is in good condition that can be donated to local shelters, community centers, donation bins, etc. If you plan on donating stuff via the internet, like facebook marketplace, keep that stuff in the same area but slightly separate. You know it’ll take time to upload that stuff online.

Trash – stuff that is broken or is simply trash.

Recycling – your recycling program may be different from mine. Check your region’s recycling program and see when/if they do pick ups or where you can drop off your recycling. They may recycle things like old electronics, holiday lights, tires, mattresses, fridges, and so on. Sometimes they’ll charge you, other times they won’t. If that doesn’t work for you, you may be able to list stuff online for people to come and take away. Junk companies may also be available in your region. They come and take away all sorts of things and you usually have to pay by the weight of the stuff.

Special disposal – some items can’t just simply be tossed. They must be recycled or disposed of in a certain way. Paint is famous for this, but so are many chemicals. Many community centers or recycling centers will have special days every few months where they’ll take on those special disposals. The services are almost always free. I’ve even been to some where it was completely no contact and no speaking. I just waited in line for my turn in my car, they took all the stuff out of my trunk, and I drove away.

Shredding – if you shred your sensitive documents, but have inevitably fallen behind on it, this is that pile. If you don’t shred, maybe you should consider it. If not, your community might have shredding available during certain times of the year.

Family and Friends – this is stuff you want to give to certain people. Or return borrowed stuff.

Returns – stuff you need to return to stores but keep leaving the house without grabbing said item.

Fixing box – this is a box of stuff that’s broken in some way and needs fixing. It could be a window frame that needs a new screen, a shirt without a button, a bag without a zipper, etc. It’s stuff that you think “I can fix that!” and you never do.

3) Pick up stray items and put them away. If they don’t have anywhere to go, dump them in the homeless stuff area for now. This includes your kids’ toys, your craft project, your pets’ toys, the weights you keep tripping on, the dishes in the sink, and the laundry that needs to be put away.

You may wish to make special note of things that constantly appear in the same location. If your roommate constantly throws their coat on the stair rail, then maybe put up a coat rack or coat hook nearby to fix that probably. Is it as aesthetic? Probably not, but it won’t be as annoying.

4) Open a window up a bit, if possible. If not possible, turn on a fan. Clean your fan before you turn it on, if it isn’t already clean.

5) Dust and clean the ceiling fixtures, ceiling fans, the tops of doors and windows, and anything above your head. Do this before the floors to avoid cleaning the floors twice.

6) Dust everything else.

7) Sweep every floor. Do a really good job of this. Pull furniture from the wall if possible to sweep under it, break out the vacuum cleaner, get the trim work too. This is BY FAR the most important cleaning step. You can skip EVERYTHING else on this list, but sweeping is a must. You’ll be surprise by how just cleaning the floors of dust will make a massive difference in your spaces, regardless of the amount of magic used.

8) Rearrange furniture as needed. Consider the best layouts for energy flow and what’s the best flow for you. This is also the time to make the bed and generally make the place look as neutral as possible. It doesn’t have to be showroom ready, but it shouldn’t be piled with stuff yet.

9) Wash the floors. I tend to add a bit of magically infused water into my mop water to clean the floors.

10) Wash the windows (yes, really.) I use magically infused water for this too.

11) Wash the laundry. By this point you may have a heap of clothing dirty from cleaning, but you may have also noticed that the curtains need washing, the couch’s throws are furry from pets, and somehow, you’re out of clean socks. Do a few rounds of laundry as needed. You can add some magically infused water into the laundry too.

12) Go through storage areas. Tackle that junk drawer, closet, etc. You might not need to deep dive here or you can slowly go through every box in your basement. The choice is yours. Re-home things into the various places it needs to be in or the piles.

13) Do something with those piles of stuff. Put the stuff in your car to donation, recycle, etc. (You will absolutely do it more readily if it’s in your car). If you don’t have a car, put it next to the door as much as possible, so you can grab it more easily as you leave. Bags, like shopping bags, make this much easier.

For some piles, you’ll need to decide what to do with it all. For the homeless stuff, find a place for it or sit and think about why you don’t have a space for it. For the broken stuff, figure out if you’re really going to fix that thing or if you’re just holding onto it because it’s too expensive or sentimental to throw away. Maybe learn to fix it yourself or put it somewhere in a storage space for when the opportunity to get it fixed is available. Do that with intention. Don’t just shove it in a closet.

14) Take a cleansing shower.

15) Cleanse your home in your preferred method.

Afterwards, I tend to bring home a bouquet of cut organically grown flowers or a new house plant to bring new life into the space. I’ll also cook a good dinner for myself, making sure to clean up entirely afterwards.

Robot cleaning is common these days. If you want to do a cleansing / cleaning, give the robot a break and do it by hand. If you can’t/want, that’s fine. Create a cleansing and uplifting powder and sprinkle it in the corners of each room to have your little robot friend clean up. Alternatively, placing a cleansing sigil on top of your robot can do the same thing.

This may not be entirely easy with roommates or housemates in the way. If all you can do is one room, then that’s better than not doing it at all. If you can’t do a whole room, just clean and cleanse your sleeping space and your working space (like your bed and desk).

You may also want to cleanse your car, but I tend to wait until spring for that one.

Renewing Cleansing Shower Spell

A shower cleansing or renewal spell or meditation is a commonly run into concept. People have been using them for years and similar concepts are found all over the place, some deeply rooted in religion and tradition.

This spell is not new grounds. It doesn’t have to be. If it resonates with you, then it does its job.

This is less a cleansing spell, and more of a renewal spell. It lives firmly in the arena of energy manipulation. Once you get use to doing it, the practice will feel less forced and more seamless. A part of the showering experience.

First, go ahead and prep for your shower. This can be pinning up hair, undressing, getting the towels out. Whatever. Try and keep your mind serene during this time. If you’re use to meditation, the idea of recognizing the thoughts and letting them go should apply here. It’s not that you don’t want to think, it’s that you don’t want to linger on any speciic thoughts right now.

Once you’re in the shower, go ahead and rinse off first. While doing this, imagine all the grim and sludge running off you. Think of the bad experiences you’ve had, the unpleasant emotions you’ve held onto, the resentments, regrets, and so on. Any unwanted energy should slid of you.

Once you fee like you’ve cleared the energetic sludge from yourself, go ahead with your usual showering stuff. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc.

When you’re about finished with the shower, picture yourself drawing energy from the water itself. The water is its own element, so draw power from the strength and gentleness water can provide. Cycle this energy up and down your body, moving it along your limbs and blood stream. This is energy manipulationIf you’re familiar with auras, then it will feel like your aura has been cleansed and balancing.

If you’re unfamiliar with how energy manipulation works, concentrate on a part of your body, such as your hand for a moment and push internally, focusing the energy to gather in your hand. It may feel warm or tingly.

When you’ve cycled the energy through your body a few times, you can finish up your shower and get on with the day.

NOTES:

  • You can use affirmations, meditation, chanting, or spellwork during the shower to focus the ritual.
  • Using different scented shampoos, soaps, etc to double up on your purpose for the day is also a good idea. Use vanilla for a meeting and fruit or flower scented stuff for date night.

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Elemental Combinations

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I don’t really use elements in your traditional ritual set up. I do sometimes use them but it’s often in a more alchemical way than an earth-air-fire-water way.

One of my favorite ways to use elements is to combine them.

A good example of elemental combinations is an air plant. An air plant largely lives on air (with the occasional misting of water) but it’s still a plant so it’s an earth element. That’s three associations (air-water-earth) to deal with for one tiny little plant!

But elemental combinations are actually a really smart way to help set up an altar or a spell on the go. You can just roll with it. Instead of packing a ton of ritual items, you can just pack one or two herbs and that can suffice. It helps if you travel a lot, do a lot of on-the-go rituals, or need to be low-key.

It can also lend a lot of strength to ritual magic. By adding extra fire in a ritual, you’re creation more power so speed things along and adding passion or anger.

Elemental combinations also have the benefit of being dual purpose so you can bring two different energies into a spell at the same time. Need both fire and water? A dried water plan may be the best way to go – just burn it with a candle.

One thing to consider when doing elemental combinations is how they affect one another. Fire and water obviously don’t mix unless you want to destroy the fire or evaporate the water. Similarly, air and earth don’t always get along either. They can change one another though. Air (and water and fire) can all move earth by force. Wind can blow soil, erosion can destroy shorelines, and fire burns through the ground when it can. However, earth can strength air by tunneling it through canyons and caves, water seeps into the ground so it can spread everywhere, and fire lives on wood and natural gases for decades. Similarly, air can strength fire to an uncontrollable level or it can blow a flame out.

In general, all the elements can strengthen and weaken one another, when used in the right balance. You just have to stop and think about how an element functions and what kind of action you want it to perform.

When you combine multiple elements, make sure you’re keeping them in the balance you want. If you only want a little earth, then pick something with a less strong earth element. In my air plant example above, earth is the weakest of the elements because while an air plant is a plant, it isn’t planted in the soil. Water actually is actually stronger with an air plant because you do need to water air plants as needed. Air, obviously, is the strongest of all for an air plant.

Of course, the thing with element associations is that they are NOT universal. Asian occult systems have a lovely elemental system that includes the very combination I’m expressing here in a different way – but they use five elements: earth, air, water, fire, metal. Every practitioner will need to rely on their cultural or traditional folklore in addition to their own personal associations.

Want a quick way to look up correspondences? Check out my online sourced correspondences list.

Does this post look familiar? That’s because some of it appeared in this post from 2017. I’ve expanded upon it here to get further into details on how elemental combinations work.

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Best Face Forward Glamour Spell

Sometimes, you just need to present a very specific aspect of yourself (your face) and let the other parts of yourself slip into shadow for a little while. This works well making excellent first impressions, especially during presentations, job interviews, etc. 

This isn’t a confidence spell, although it may seem like one. It’s a bit of a mood boosting or uplifting spell. It could even be used for self-love and to support mental health. It was originally intended, however, to be more of a “you don’t see the things you would think of as flaws” spell. It’s not a deception, because you’re not hiding aspects of yourself. They’re just not paying as much attention to what they consider a flaw or undesireable trait. 

Here’s how you do it:

Pick a moment that’s as close to the start of the event you’re doing the glamour for. You should be ready to go or nearly ready. 

Take a deep breath and even your breathing so you’re taking slow, deep breaths that are comfortable for you. This helps focus and boosts concentration while casting the glamour.

Now, think of a time limit. This should be something like, “For the duration of this meeting, I am…”, Until work today is done”, or “Until sunset, I am…” This time limit is intended to let you control when this glamour ends. This means you end up using your work persona when you’re trying to help your kids with your homework, getting cozy with your significant other, or trying to relax with your pets.

Think of what you want to display. For a job interview, you might have your best “customer face” or display confidence, intelligence, and success. For a presentation, you might want to appear competent and as an expert. You need to have a clear idea on what you want to happen, but try and make it as simple as possible. The more complicated a glamour is, the more likely it is to find cracks in it.

I tend to use verbal phrases to really nail the glamour. For example, if I was going to do a major presentation, I’d use “Until I return home, I am eloquent, competent, successful, and skilled. I am an expert and you see me as someone to learn from and listen to.” I’d repeat what I considered the most important aspects, probably “I am a expert you want to listen to.” I’d repeat it several times, usually seven or more.

Now take a few moments to gather your energy around you. If you’re skilled at energy manipulation, you’ll want to surround yourself and flare out your aura. If that isn’t your jam, then imagine yourself surrounded entirely by the glamour. If neither of these work for you, you can just repeat the glamour description over and over again as a chant in your head or under your breath.

Isn’t this just affirmations? Not really. Yes, it’s intended to shift the mindset. It works that way when you’re casting the glamour on yourself for yourself. But glamours are intended to nudge other people into seeing you how you wish to be seen.

Can this spell fail? Sure. If someone’s got a good resistance to this sort of magic, yes. Animals don’t tend to fall for glamours too easily, so it’s my belief that people with heightened senses will instinctually fight against a glamour. (Similarly, there are some people who are particularly susceptible to glamours.) Of course, spirits, fae, and magical practitioners are all perfectly capable of sensing or seeing through glamours.

Not everyone sees glamours the same way. A trained observer will be able to spot you faster than someone who isn’t if you’re trying to be invisible. Someone that’s always looking at fashion might pick about your glamour subconsciously because they’re use to critiquing clothing. It varies.

Still, glamours are a very handy spell to have in your pocket and can be done at the drop of a hat, especially once you’ve practiced with them.

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How to Identify a Glamour

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A glamour is a type of illusion spell, meant to manipulate, disguise, or otherwise mask something or someone.

That being said, just because they’re manipulation doesn’t mean they’re harmful, negative, or baneful magic.

There are many reasons why someone might use a glamour. They can be used to keep someone safe, to be identified the right way, to boost their self-esteem or confidence, or even to be seen as harmless or helpful to others.

There are a few ways to help determine when a glamour is in use.

1) Aura reading / Energy reading

Most often, energy manipulation is used to create glamours. If you’re skilled at reading aura or energy, then you’ll be able to pick up on an altered aura or energy around the person. This is especially true if you already know what that person’s energy or aura is like. The change in aura or energy might feel bright, expanded, stretched, or wrapped around the subject. You may even be able to detect what kind of glamour is being cast depending on how “loud” it is.

2) Herbal assistance

Oak leaves, eyebright, ash leaves, sandalwood, cinnamon, rose, wormwood, yarrow, mugwort, nutmeg, and rowan can all be used to help see through glamours. Oak leaves are especially traditional for this purpose.

Carry any of these herbs with you to help see beyond what’s presented to you.

3) Hag stone

A traditional hag stone (a stone with a natural hole through the center of it) can often see past glamours. I’ve used seashells with natural holes in them for the same purpose, although sometimes the energy gets “wishy”.

4) Counterspell

You can cast a spell on yourself to see past glamours. I find this is sometimes hit or miss. I think it depends on the type of glamour, who’s casting the glamour, and the power and intention behind each.

5) Declaration

Sometimes, if you know a glamour has been cast, you can simply ignore the glamour. It’s like in any form of media where a character repeats that something isn’t real to beat an illusion or trauma. Same thing. Denying the glamour doesn’t erase the glamour, but it doesn’t work as well if know it’s there. Essentially, by denying it, you’re confirming it’s active.

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Pocket Crystal Glamour Spell

This glamour spell can be for any intention but it’s set into a crystal that you store in your purse or pocket. This allows you to simply recharge the crystal to get the spell going rather than reset the spell every time you want to use it.

It’s very easy to do and can make a difference in your day to day life.

What you’ll need:

  • A crystal or gemstone of some kind

Select a crystal or gemstone to use. This could be a stone that helps your confidence like aventurine or a stone that enhances beauty like rose quartz . You could also use quartz crystal or a stone that feels uplifting to get your spell across. If you’re trying to avoid being seen or noticed, a clear stone like quartz crystal or even a simple garden stone may do the trick. Put a little thought into what stone would be best for you and your glamour.

If you have a piece of jewelry with a stone you’d like to do, you can absolutely cast the glamour on that jewelry instead.

Sit with your chosen stone in your hand and think or speak what you want the glamour to do. Focus until the image in your head is as clear as possible or you’ve described the scenario you want to happen. Take your time.

Push that idea into the stone, letting your energy flow over and into the stone. Awaken the wanted characteristics of the stone you want that match what you’re trying to achieve with the glamour.

This may take a while or it may take just a few seconds. Feel free to come back and set the intention with the stone again if you need a break.

Once you’re satisfied with the stone’s glamour intention, you’re done. Carry it with you and the stone will passively emit the glamour. If you feel like the stone isn’t working as well or you need an extra boost of the glamour, touch the stone and pass a little extra energy onto the stone. You can even repeat your glamour’s purpose to remind the stone what it’s suppose to be doing.

Notes:

  • Recharging the stone monthly with a full moon (or new moon, if the stone is intended to camoflague you) can keep the stone’s glamour running for a long time.
  • If you’re using a camoflague intended glamour, make sure you add a second spell to the stone so you both remember the stone’s existence (so you can recharge it) and so that you can find the stone when you want to.

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What is a Glamour Spell?

A glamour spell is a type of illusion, usually one to help boost some aspect of yourself, like your confidence or beauty. It’s also often used to camouflage or hide something, like an object or even yourself so you aren’t as noticeable. Essentially, they’re either spotlight or invisibility spells. 

I like glamour spells and I use them often. I find them great practice for more subtle spells and can be used in any everyday situation. They are often utilitarian. They can be cast at the drop of a hat without any tools. And they are great for when you want to cast a spell but you don’t know what to cast.

How it’s done is simple.

1) Decide what kind of illusion magic you want to cast. Be specific. Do you want to enhance the shine of your hair or the color of your lips? Do you want people to gender you properly? Do you want extra confidence? Do you want people to not notice you or see you as harmless?

2) Do you want to attach it to an object? If you want your lips to look a particular shade of pink and you achieve that look with lipstick or something similar, you can place a glamour on the lipstick itself to enhance that color and perhaps ignore any imperfections in today’s makeup or ignore a part of yourself that you don’t want to draw attention to. Putting a “I’m harmless and you don’t see me” glamour on a hoodie before going for a run is a great idea against muggings and other violence.

3) To cast the glamour, whether on an object or yourself is requires a clear picture of what you want to happen. You must be absolutely unwavering with the goal. You can be scared, angry, or any other emotion at the time, but you must be solid in what you want to happen.

I find that a specific repeatable phrase helps. “I am beautiful”. “I am seen as harmless to others”. “You do not see me.” “I am not worth your attention.” “You respect me for my confidence and skills.” Affirmation phrases work wonderfully for this, but even a simple phrase can help really hone what the goal is of the glamour. If it’s a simple phrase, then you can repeat it over and over again. You can also repeat it to re-enchant an object with a glamour placed on it.

Once you’ve got your idea down, gather your energy around you. If you’re into aura manipulation or energy manipulation, this is the exact same thing. If energy manipulation isn’t your thing, clear your thoughts and concentrate on making your willpower behind the phrase nice and strong.

If you’re enchanting an object, push the energy into it. Have the energy and your willpower weave into the threads, along the facets of the crystal, along the curve or straight lines of the glass.

If you’re casting it on yourself, pull the energy or your intent around you, like you’re pulling a blanket around your chest and shoulders.

4) To dismiss the glamour, you can let it fade naturally or simply cleanse yourself or the object.

I do find that certain glamours work better with certain techniques, so practice with different kinds and methods of spellcasting to see what works best for you.

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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.

Should You Adapt Spells or Use Spells Word-For-Word?

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So you found a spell you like, but it’s not perfect. Maybe it uses an ingredient that’s rare or expensive in your neck of the woods. Maybe it asks you to go out and stand in the moonlight and there’s been nothing but snow and rain for weeks. Or, maybe, it’s just not fully clicking for you.

There’s lots of reasons why a person might adapt a spell or ritual. It’s usually for ingredient based reasons, but just as often it could be due to timing or personal practice choices.

But adapting a spell is a fine line. If you adapt something too much, it’s not the same spell. If you swap out an ingredient, you may change the way the spell works. Analyzing spells is something you figure out how to do as you gain experience and knowledge with spell casting. It’s hard to adapt a spell when you might not have the basic knowledge to do that. An experienced witch probably will make changes on the fly, using what’s in their cupboards and their knowledge from research and experience. Others might have to pause to double check something or they might even skip a few ingredients by double up the purpose of an ingredient.

In short, adapting spells can be really easy – but it can be a challenge too. It’s okay if it’s a challenging or daunting task for you! It really is. Because spell casting is a lot like cooking and baking.

If you think of a spell like a recipe, then it may take some of the pressure away from having to “get it right”. Cooking and baking is relatively subjective – things need to turn out a certain way to be properly edible and taste good, but not everything is going to taste great to the same people. Spells are a lot like that. You may learn that you just don’t click with herb based spells or anything that asks you to start a fire is a no-go. And that’s okay! Know your strengths and boundaries. It’s a good idea to push those boundaries and strengths sometimes, but you don’t need to do it all the time.

It’s okay to hold back from adapting a spell or even doing a spell, because you’re not sure of the changes that need to be made. I’m in the camp that says try your adaptations anyway. Take notes on what you changed.

Of course, there’s always some folks out there that say a spell should be used exactly as written. There’s certainly a reason for that. Spells are written with specific intentions in mind and omitting an ingredient or altering a process may change the entire intention of the original spell – even if the person adapting it doesn’t know that. The more complicated the spell – or the more often it deals with spirits – the more likely it is that the process and ingredients are very intentionally chosen. Adaptations and substitutions may cause the spell to fail or not work as intended.

I’ve written spells that have very clear instructions to them because the process, while simple on the surface, was written very intentionally as part of the ritual. The steps aren’t there for the end goal, they are part of the end goal. It’s like a recipe – you need to prep the vegetables properly to really get the flavor you want out of the dish in the end.

I’m still, by far, in the camp of adapting your spells. If a verse in a spell doesn’t seem natural or comfortable, I’ll change it. If I’m doing a complicated ritual, I’ll either take it apart to see exactly how it works or I’ll try it as written and make adaptations for future usages.

It depends on how much experimentation you do with your magic. If you’re looking for a simple grab-and-go spell (and absolutely no judgements here, if that’s your jam), then use what’s written or adapt on the fly. It’s your magic, your practice, and your results. Do what works best for you.

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