All About Ostara

The Witches Cookery April 3, 2023

All About Ostara

It’s finally happening! On the 22nd of March, spring will officially arrive and with it the celebration of Ostara. The witchy, pagan celebration of the Vernal Equinox welcomes the fresh new life of spring and celebrates the awakening of the earth after the death and slumber of winter. We’ve gone into the darkness, honored the dead, faced our shadows, and now it is time for the lighter, more bountiful part of the year. 

Traditionally, Ostara would have been a time for planting seeds — perhaps even ones you sprouted at Imbolc — and would have encouraged and celebrated fertility. From an agrarian point of view, this would have been the time when baby animals would start to be born, eggs and dairy would be plentiful, and you could start to pair up and marry off humans as well! While the spring and summer months may be more social and lead to more human coupling even in a modern context, contemporary witches often use this time as a less-literal celebration of new life. Instead of planting actual seeds – although plenty of green witches do that too – we focus on putting into action the visions and plans we made at Imbolc.

The dark months lend themselves very nicely to introspection, shadow work, and tending to our hearths and homes. But the light months, beginning with Ostara, are all about reconnecting with the earth and tending to our gardens. Now, this does not mean that you need to have a sprawling Instagram-ready garden! In fact, you don’t need a garden at all. I simply mean that the energies this time of year correlate with the work of clearing away “the dead”, releasing muck left over from the past, and cultivating new life the way one would in a garden. 

If our hearth and home represent our internal lives, our gardens represent our external selves and accomplishments. Along with this video on Youtube, I have a few ideas below to help you tend to your garden and harness the energies of spring.

You can absolutely do this in an outdoor garden, a balcony garden, or even a few pots in your kitchen window. You can plant your seeds with intention and use the tending of these plants as a meditative practice.  Be sure to research which plants go best together, what kind of environment and care they need, and magickal correspondences that will support your intentions. Much like candle magick in the winter, simply planting and watering your seeds will not miraculously manifest your deepest desires. But careful tending of your magickally infused plants will help rewire your brain toward the necessary work of achieving your goals.

If you simply do not have a green thumb, or lack the space for a physical garden, there are plenty of actions you can take to harness the energies of spring and tend to your metaphorical garden. 

Much like you would clear away dried brush, harmful weeds, and any garbage that has made its way into a garden, you can use springtime to clear out and refresh your life! Spring cleaning isn’t just a cute name, after all. If you have the time, clear away and donate all the clutter that is bogging you down, throw away things that can no longer be salvaged, and focus on creating systems that support your desired outcomes. 

If you are working on actualizing a painting you have dreamed of for months, clear a space for your artist’s studio and use last year’s remaining herb bundles to cleanse and bless the space. 

Go through your spice and herb cabinet — yes, even you, my kitchen witches — and compost any that have gone bad, clumped, or are no longer useful for whatever reason. With the first fresh herbs of spring just around the corner, you’ll be able to restock your stores in no time. 

Clear, cleanse, and redecorate your altar spaces. Be sure to incorporate the fresh elements of the spring to make these spaces more meaningful and powerful for your magickal life.

The bottom line is, take this time to tackle any external circumstances that are holding you back, making manifesting more difficult, or have simply become a pretty good excuse to not get started. Spring is the time of renewed life, fresh energy, and light both internal and external. By banishing the old, stagnant energies and clearing away what is no longer needed, you’ll make space for the energies of new life and before you know it your garden — real or metaphorical – will be lush and blossoming before your eyes.

The energies this time of year are rife with new life, possibility, and the promise of prosperity to come. Take advantage of them and see what abundance you receive this year!

Connecting With the Element of Earth

The Witches Cookery March 10, 2023

Connecting With the Element of Earth

Spring is about to arrive and with it, abundant opportunities to expand your magick out of your hearth and home – where you have likely been stuck for months — and into the natural world. Witchcraft and paganism are, at their core, deeply connected to the natural world, the rhythms of nature, and the cycles of the seasons. As the earth is reborn with the Spring Equinox, nature calls us to leave our homes and rejoin the world once again to find our own experience of rebirth. Although the earth may just be starting to reawaken where you are, spring is the perfect time to connect with the element of Earth and work its energy into your magick. 

 

 

The element of Earth holds many symbolic meanings in the craft; it symbolizes beginnings and endings, life and death, abundance, fertility, the divine feminine, and the life source. Each of these symbolic meanings can be utilized to help empower your spell work and deepen your connection to the natural world. Earth grounds us, sustains us, and nurtures us. There is a reason we call it “Mother Earth”. Working with this element can help you manifest abundance, restore balance in your life, and provide stability, strength, and comfort. 

 

Sounds pretty good, right? But how do you do it? How do you actually connect with the element of Earth? I have a few quick and simple tips for you to begin your journey of connecting with the element of Earth in today’s post and of course, I have a new video to help as well! If this form of elemental connection and magick calls to you, my In Your Element workshop is just the thing you need. This five-week online workshop dives deep into the basics of witchcraft and builds the foundation for a deep connection with yourself and with the elements.

Five Ways to Connect to the Element of Earth

  • Get Dirty – The very first step to connecting with the element of Earth is to get outside and literally, physically connect with it. Whether it’s getting your hands dirty in the soil of your garden, walking barefoot in the grass or a stream, grounding on a patch of soil, or rubbing your hands on the rough bark of a tree, touching nature is essential. For thousands of years, our ancestors were in physical contact with the natural world daily. Many of us have lost that connection and may go days, weeks, or even months without so much as smelling a flower or hearing the wind blowing through the leaves. Studies have shown that human interaction with nature is essential not only for our mental health but our physical well-being. Interacting with nature is shown to reduce anxiety and depression, as well as diversify our microbiomes. In our modern world, we have forgotten that nature is not separate from us. We are nature and to be separated from it is no different to us than being separated from each other. Reconnect with the physical Earth and feel how its energies influence your life and magick. 
 
  • Give Thanks – We all know gratitude is the gateway to well-being, but how often do you give thanks to the Earth itself? We often remember to be grateful for our family, friends, housing, health, and food, but somewhere in our ancestry, the gratitude for the Earth was taken for granted. Without the Earth, we would have none of the other things we express gratitude for. Take your gratitude practice literally down to the root and find a way to thank the Earth for its bountiful gifts each day. Start by greeting the sun with a quick incantation each morning. It can be something as quick and simple as “Thank you for the sun and the blessings that it brings,” or something cheeky and fun like humming the first line of The Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun”. Whatever you choose, fill it with the gratitude you carry for our most elemental of homes. 
 
  • Meditate Outdoors – Whether it’s a walking meditation, forest bath, or a moment of you sitting still with the Earth and doing a sensory scan, outdoor meditation not only provides you with the excellent benefits of meditation, but it also connects you more deeply to the Earth. Try to find a peaceful and comforting spot outside with minimal distractions and do a guided meditation for strengthening your root chakra. The root chakra is at the base of our spines and is thought to anchor, or root, us to the Earth. Many of us spend much of our time in the digital world, living somewhere in the ether and our roots to the Earth have atrophied. Rebuild this strength with the power of nature and see how it affects your well-being and state of mind. 
 
  • Cook and Eat with Seasonal Ingredients – We’ve all grown quite used to being able to eat whatever foods we want to no matter the season. Strawberries and tomatoes are available year-round and apples are not just a thing of the fall anymore. This modern convenience not only has negative consequences for the planet, it also breaks our reliance on and relationship with the rhythms of the seasons. This can be a difficult change to make, especially if you are a picky eater, but springtime is the perfect time to make this transition as the earth is starting to give us our first taste of the abundance of the harvest. Watercress, leeks, rhubarb, artichokes, and fennel are just a few of the culinary gifts of the early spring. Test out new recipes and practice your kitchen witchery with these seasonal ingredients and absorb the fresh energy of the earth. 
 
  • Take Your Rituals Outdoors – This one may be challenging if you live in a city or are still in the broom closet, but taking your rituals out of your home and into the natural world can help to deepen your connection to the Earth and supercharge your spellwork. Whether or not you believe in the spirits of nature, the energy among the grasses, trees, and animals is definitively different from that of your bedroom or altar space. Changing the location of your rituals and honoring and invoking the energies of the Earth can help to deepen your practice, provide you with grounding, and maybe even give your rituals a little extra something. 
 

The Earth is our only home and our connection to the life force. This spring, let’s get out into her beauty, give thanks for her blessings, and see what abundance that brings. 

Lunar Magic

The Witches Cookery February 17, 2023

Lunar Magic

The moon is a mysterious, constant, and continuously changing force that has captivated human imagination and spirits for centuries. The moon speaks to something in us that is called to mystery, light in the darkness, and the natural rhythms of change. Witches are no strangers to the call of the moon. A devotion to lunar deities and lunar magick can be a powerful door into the magickal world for newbie witches, as well as a constant connection to the divine for seasoned practitioners. 

So what exactly is lunar magick?

Lunar magick is a form of sympathetic magic in which practitioners work their witchcraft and spellwork in accordance with the natural phases of the moon. Practitioners of lunar magick take the changing phases of the moon and prescribe them properties that assist different intentions or types of spells or rituals. From waxing to waning, each phase is given a magickal correspondence that informs a witch’s practice.

The correspondences stem from humanity’s great history with the moon as a calendar, navigation tool, and symbol of fertility. While many cultures throughout history have prescribed masculine traits to the moon and its phases, in the contemporary Western world, the moon is often thought of as feminine and is linked to women, fertility, and feminine cycles.

Now this all may seem historically dense and even scientifically inclined (and it can be!), but working with the moon is a “choose your own adventure”, flexible form of witchcraft. It can be as in-depth and complicated as you’d like, or it can simply be about connecting with the beauty of the rhythms of nature. You can dedicate all your magick to lunar living, or you can simply engage in a new or full moon ritual whenever it suits you. The moon is not fickle, it’s always there, so don’t be shy! Just dive in and give it a try in a way that feels right to you.

In witchcraft, many practitioners use the phases of the moon and their correspondences to give their spellwork and rituals a bit more power or to simply remind them to shift their focus to different areas throughout the month.

How you work with the moon is personal and unique to you, so while I am here to share inspiration and ideas for how to incorporate the moon into your magickal life, this post is hardly the end-all-be-all of lunar magick.

So, here are the basics. Scientifically speaking there are eight phases of the moon each month — often in witchcraft we add an additional phase before the new moon called the dark moon, but scientists would consider them to be the same. The lunar cycle starts with the dark/new moon, waxes or grows until it reaches the full moon, and then wanes or shrinks until it reaches the complete darkness of the dark moon and the cycle begins all over again.

Nine Moon Phases:

  • Dark Moon
  • New Moon
  • Waxing Crescent
  • First Quarter
  • Waxing Gibbous
  • Full Moon
  • Waning Gibbous
  • Last Quarter
  • Waning Crescent
  • Magickal Intention Setting
  • Banishment Spells
  • Cleansing Baths
  • Shadow Work
  • Visualization Meditations
  • Vision Boarding
  • Manifesting
  • Abundance Spells
  • Gratitude Rituals
  • Offerings
  • Celebrations of Abundance
  • Abundance Kitchen Magick
  • Banishing Rituals
  • Cleansing Baths
  • Cleaning Magick
  • Hex Breaking
  • Curse Breaking
  • Protection Spells

Each of these phases corresponds with intentions, spells, and rituals such as banishing, abundance, shadow work, manifesting, times of release, and times of drawing things toward you. It is believed that coordinating your magickal workings with the phases of the moon will harness the energy of those phases and support your desired outcome.

With the new moon just a few days away, this is the perfect time to try your hand at lunar magick, or dust off your old practice that has fallen by the wayside. Seen as the beginning of the lunar cycle, the new moon is typically when practitioners set intentions and what work they’d like to achieve by the full moon when gratitude and abundance are celebrated. The waxing portions of the lunar phase utilize the symbolism of the growing moon to manifest and draw more to you. During the waning portion, work is done to release and banish what is no longer serving you. And just like the wheel of the year, once the cycle ends, it all begins again.

To get you started, I have a video all about lunar magick to use as a mini crash course in moon magick, as well as some New Moon Magick inspiration.

Of course, the totality of lunar magick is much more complicated than can fit into this post or even a few videos. So if you find yourself drawn to the moon and a lunar lifestyle, I have put together a month-long Lunar Living virtual workshop where we will dive deeper into lunar magick, and learn more about lunar magick, structuring your life to moon cycles, and getting more in touch with this natural energy that feels so magickal.

The Magick of Imbolc

The Witches Cookery February 6, 2023

The Magick of Imbolc

Sometimes called Midwinter Day, Imbolc is the celebration of the beginning of the reawakening of the earth in the spring. It’s definitely not spring yet, so hold off on switching out your snow boots for sandals. But just like our ancient ancestors, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you are probably just starting to see slightly longer days and the promise of plant and animal life returning. Snow Drops are traditionally associated with Imbolc as they are often the first buds of spring to emerge from beneath the frosty snow. Even though the sun has not fully returned, we can feel it stirring in our bodies and the earth around us, giving us hope that we just might live through the winter yet again.

The etymology of the term Imbolc is somewhat contested, but the general consensus is that it comes from the Irish word “imbolc” which means “in the belly”, or that the earth is pregnant with the spring. Much like early pregnancy, this time of year is still unpleasant and rife with the struggles of winter, but new life is coming and we can begin planning for it. It is also thought that perhaps the association with pregnancy came from this being the time of the year when sheep would become pregnant with the lambs they would birth in the spring. Either way, it is a time of promised new life, fertility, and preparation for what is to come. 

 

While Imbolc was celebrated by many different names  all over Europe and eventually North America, the general focus and celebration of the holiday was much unchanged from location to location. People would welcome the signs of new life, look to the year ahead, and both literally and metaphorically begin to sprout the seeds for planting in the spring. 

 

Around this time, we see that many cultures turn to animals as oracles of what the coming months might hold. In America, the second of February is still Groundhog Day, in which all of America predicts whether or not there will be an early spring based on whether or not a groundhog in the state of Pennsylvania named, Punxsutawney Phil, sees his shadow. I am told there are several other groundhogs used in this practice in different locations throughout the country, but that Phil is the traditional groundhog for the day. And it’s no wonder this tradition is strong in the state and in Pennsylvania in particular, where many Germans settled and brought over the tradition of predicting the coming of spring based on the hibernation cycle of the badger. 

 

So aside from waiting with bated breath for an American groundhog to predict the spring, what can we witches do to celebrate this hope and light-filled holiday? Don’t you worry your witchy little head about it, because I have already shared plenty of ideas on my channel and have a few more below to help us all combine the traditional and modern aspects of this holiday.

Candle Making and Blessing

Imbolc is also known throughout much of the world as Candlemas and traditionally would have been the time when families would make and bless their candles for the year. Get crafty with it and make your own enchanted candles, roll bee’s wax tapers, or cleanse and bless your existing candles. You can anoint them with oils and herbs, or carve in sigils to help work your magick in the world.

Cleansing Rituals

Spring Cleaning didn’t come from nowhere! In fact the idea that you needed to clean out and cleanse your home after the harsh, wet, muddy winter months goes back centuries. After spending months inside with windows closed, sickness floating about, and smokey candles and fires burning, homes would have been quite disgusting if you can imagine it. While our homes are more prone to clutter and dust these days, we all know the psychological effects of having a clean and tidy home cannot be understated. It is also difficult for us to take on new projects, tasks, or goals when our lives are weighed down by pointless clutter. Take this time as a push to get your home decluttered, tidied, and clean for the spring when you will open the windows and doors to the world again. But don’t stop with the physical cleaning! Be sure to practice energetic cleansing once the clutter and dust are gone to clear away old, stagnant energies and infuse your home with whatever new energies suit your life and goals. Try smoke bundles, diffused essential oils, natural and eco-friendly cleaners  (I have a recipe for one in this video),  and sound cleansing.  Once your home is all set, treat yourself to a ritual bath with herbs, oils, and some of those newly made candles to clear off any remaining energetic gunk.

Planning for the Future

Now that our little caveman brains know we know we will likely survive the winter, we can begin planning for the future. Get out your calendar, plan with friends and family, and of course, do not forget to set goals. Now is a great time to create a vision board that will help keep you anchored and working toward the life you want all year round.

Fertility Spells

Whether you are trying for a physical baby, or a more creative one (like maybe writing a book or creating a work of art), Imbolc is the perfect time to do fertility or creativity spells. Think of the new life you want to bring into the world this coming year and plan rituals, dedications, and spell work around it. Get your planner out and time these magickal workings with the moon, sabbats, or seasons for added benefit.

Seed Sprouting

It’s not quite time to plant your gardens yet. But it is time to plan them and sprout your seeds. Whether you are working with acres of land and garden beds, or a few pots next to your apartment window, it’s time to decide which plants you’d like to grow this year and begin sprouting the seeds. You’ll need to plan the set up and care of your garden to ensure a fruitful harvest. Don’t worry if you’re a newbie to magickal gardening. I have a few tips and tricks for you to set up the perfect green witch’s garden this year.

Kitchen Witchery

Milk, butter, oil, goat cheese, rosemary, and protein rich meals are the order of the day. After a long winter with dwindling resources, it’s time to put a little meat back on our bones to plump up — mostly to increase our fertility and look less like a sickly Victorian ghost-child, but also to increase our strength for the coming planting season and the festivities of the spring. Get in the kitchen and whip up some fatty, cheesey, protein-packed recipes that will both please the gods and bring the color back to your cheeks. If you’re in the mood for something particularly fatty and sweet, I have just the recipe for you in last year’s Imbolc vlog. 

 

The hunkered down, darkened days of the winter are coming to an end. So take this Imbolc to chart your course, set your goals, and prepare for the work you will do to bring these plans to life!

Magical Self-Care for the dark months

The Witches Cookery January 15, 2023

Magical Self-Care for the dark months

Winter can be hard. Even if you love the cozy vibes, early sunsets, and snowy mornings, winter is not always the easiest time to take good care of yourself and feel your best. Between frigid temperatures and a lack of sunlight, you can easily find yourself feeling a bit blue and not wanting to partake in practices and activities that fill you up and allow you to bring your best self to light. So this winter, instead of checking out mentally until the daylight returns, let’s intentionally devote the darker half of the year to self-love. 

Self-love expresses itself in self-care and in our fast-paced, modern society where everything is about what you can deliver and produce, we have to intentionally learn, practice and devote ourselves to this expression. 

If you struggle with self-love, my upcoming Awaken Your Inner God/dess workshop is just what the doctor ordered. This five-week-long workshop will jumpstart your self-care practice and guide you into a more meaningful, caregiving relationship with yourself. This workshop focuses on building a self-love and self-care practice by connecting you with your own inner divinity. You’ll learn how to treat yourself with the same devotion, reverence, and love as you would a divine being. This workshop is a way for you to find yourself and use the winter to hibernate, practice introspection and truly care for your mind, body, and soul.

But if you are a more seasoned self-love practitioner who maybe just needs to put the spice back in your relationship with yourself, I have a quick winter self-care starter pack for you today. The practices are a quick and easy way to incorporate self-care into your daily routine and help you reclaim the winter months as a time to nourish your mind, body, and soul. But as always, if you need more ideas, check out my videos on Making Your Winter Magickal and Winter Witchcraft.

For Your Mind

It goes without saying that meditation is one of the most powerful practices for shifting your mindset and taking care of your well-being. You can easily tailor the meditations to fit your schedule and personal needs. You can try out apps, or take advantage of the wealth of free content on YouTube, Spotify, and even Instagram. There are mediations for different times of day, different mindsets, walking meditations, soundbaths, and more. Or you can even escape to the shores of a sun-drenched sandy, beach with a guided visualization! Whatever you need, you are sure to find and studies have shown that even five minutes daily can boost your mental health and well-being.

For a longer, witchier meditation, give my guided visualization on Awakening Your Inner Magic a try! And to receive exclusive witchy meditations and visualizations on a monthly basis, consider joining my Patreon – together with a lovely community of other witches.

For Your Body

The cold winter months are the perfect time to indulge in the ever-so-witchy practice of ritual bathing. Take a moment for yourself, throw together a seasonal herbal blend or grab some essential oils that support your desired state. Turn off all distractions, lock the door and submerge yourself in the warm, cleansing power of water. To make it a full and truly luxurious experience that truly nourishes your body, you could light candles and play music, or do a grounding meditation during your bath. If you don’t have the luxury of a bath tub – this also works great in a shower!

When you are finished cleansing, be sure to show your body some extra love by giving yourself a little massage. You can create your own enchanted, self-love oil with ylang-ylang, rose, or vanilla to support your loving intention. As you massage, think of at least one thing each part of your body allows you to do that you are grateful for before moving on to the next part. Be sure to spend extra time caressing and loving the parts of your body you regularly spend time thinking negatively about or hiding. 

For Your Soul

In order for self-care to be truly transformational and not just damage control for our modern lives, we must be committed to enacting it in our daily lives. As witches, we are particularly adept at ritualizing things, so why not some self-care for your soul? 

Try setting up a self-care altar in a special and private place. From now until Ostara, commit to spending just 3-5 minutes each morning at your self-care altar. Each day, in a journal, write one word or a quick sentence that states what kind of care you need that day. Then write another word or sentence describing how you will give that care to yourself. Check in with your journal regularly and take note of how setting the intention to care for yourself in specific ways has changed your relationship with yourself. 

 

Caring for others can come quite naturally to us, but when it comes to self-care we often need a bit more help creating the practice. Join me this winter in reclaiming the dark months as the season of self-care and see how your world shifts. 

Manifest an abundant new year

The Witches Cookery December 29, 2022

Manifest an abundant new year

The new year is the perfect time to reflect on the past, set goals for the future, and manifest the life of your dreams. Unless you have been living under a rock or peacefully away from social media for the last few years, you will know that manifestation is all the rage these days. While scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, it can seem like everyone is just wanting things, willing them to be, and suddenly the universe gives them their heart’s desire like a cosmic vending machine. If you too have been left feeling like everyone knows some secret you don’t — or maybe the universe just loves them more than you — fear not, not only do I have my upcoming month-long workshop, Season of the Witch, to help you master the fundamentals of manifestation, I am also here to demystify the practice of manifestation. This post is sure to give you some psychologically driven methods just in time to help you make 2023 the year to manifest your desires and wishes!

At its core, manifestation is the practice of shaping your reality through clearly visualizing your desires. There are many different methods of manifesting, including the 369 method, the 33×3 method, and visualization meditations. Many of these rely on the law of attraction, or the belief that “like attracts like” and that if you embody the energy of your desires they will magnetically be drawn to you. This idea can be a tricky one though if you think about its flipside. It can quickly turn into victim blaming if we aren’t careful. Instead, I prefer to rely less on the mysteries of the universe and more on the science of psychology and human behavior. I’ve discussed this at length in my video on manifesting, but today I’m going to share with you the true secret of manifesting to guide you in finding methods that work for you and help you make 2023 the year you start moving toward a life that suits and fulfills you.

Here it is, the big secret to the magic of manifesting: there is no magic in manifesting.

You may be thinking, “Hey aren’t you a witch? Isn’t magick your whole thing?” And yes, you are correct, but in order to manifest the reality you desire, you cannot just idly sit by hoping the universe drops it in your lap. You will need to make changes in your life beyond lighting a candle. You will need to step out of your comfort zone and do things you have never done before. The ritual and visualization that is key to manifesting, is more about repeatedly shifting your mindset to help you see yourself as the kind of person who does the things you dream of doing, than it is about writing a wishlist to the universe (although if that works for you, more power to you!).

Below are a few of my favorite manifestation methods to help you shift your mindset, keep you focused, and help you shape your own reality.

Vision Boarding

 

Not only is this a particularly fun form of manifestation for the crafty ones among us, it’s also extremely effective. Before you begin printing, cutting, and pasting the life of your dreams, you’ll want to sit down and visualize everything you can about the reality you are trying to create. Be as specific as you can! Set a timeline for your vision board — oftentimes people do a vision board for a whole year or a specific season, think of all the changes you want to make, goals you want to achieve, and anything else you’d like to bring into your life. Sit with each of those events and visualize exactly where you are, how you will feel, what your mindset will be. Visualize anything you can and be as specific as you can be.

Once you are done visualizing, make a list of everything you envisioned for yourself. Then take the time to find images that represent each of those things. Maybe you want to write a book in the coming year and you visualized yourself typing away at your computer surrounded by cups of tea with glasses on your face and thick wooly socks on. Find an image on the internet or in a magazine that shows this as closely as possible, print it, cut it out, and glue it to a large piece of cardboard, or pin it to a corkboard. Do this with each of your desires for the coming year and place your vision board in a place where you will see it regularly.

This board should be a visual reminder of all the things you want in your life and keep you on track for taking the actions you’ll need to take to make them happen.

Writing Letters From Your Future Self

 

If you are more verbally inclined than visually driven, this may be the manifestation technique you’ve been looking for. The idea is to write your current-self a letter in the voice of your future-self. As with vision boarding, you’ll want to start by envisioning your future as specifically as possible. Once you have done so, sit down and write yourself a letter in the voice of your future-self. Share with yourself as specifically as possible how you feel in the future, what your mindset is like, when and how you were able to achieve these things. Depending on your preference, you can write it on your fanciest stationary with a special pen, type it up on your phone for easy access, or write it down in a manifestation journal. Whatever you do, ritualize it and be sure to make it a special and intentional act. The key with this practice is to write out your future as if it has already happened and is your reality. For current-you, these things are all in the future, but for future-you, they are all the present reality.

Read and write these letters often to help you to internalize the mindset and actions you’ll need in order to manifest your dream life.

Affirmations

An excellent method in its own right, or a fantastic addition to other methods, practicing positive affirmations is a great way to shift your mindset and outlook to help you achieve your goals. Just like with other methods, you will want to start by visualizing your dream life. This time, instead of getting straight to the manifestation, you’ll want to pause and make a list of all of the limiting beliefs, mindsets, and attitudes that are currently preventing you from actualizing your dreams. These may be forms of negative self-talk that you are already aware of like, “I am lazy”, or ”I’m afraid”.

After listing out your limiting beliefs, make a new list that turns all of your negative self-talk into positive affirmations. “I am lazy” could turn into, “I am motivated”. “I’m afraid” could shift to, “I am brave and adventurous”. Whatever shifts you make should reflect the attributes and attitudes you’ll need to have to achieve your goals.

You can post these affirmations on your mirror, record and listen to yourself reading them, or simply practice saying them to yourself when you find you’re slipping into old patterns. The more you repeat these affirmations, the more they will form new pathways in your brain that help you shift your beliefs and actions.

 

Well, there you have it! Your 2023 manifestation starter pack. Give these methods a try, sign up for my Season of the Witch manifestation workshop, and test out your own practices. Before long, you’ll be able to look back and see just how far you’ve come in creating the reality of your desires.

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