This post keeps popping up on my dash and I see a lot of you responding that you feel the same so Switchy’s here to lay down some Witchy Shit ™ for y’all.
This is a mental exercise that is great for not only Witchy Shit but also if you’re just feeling spacey, panicky, or bored.
Sit down somewhere comfy where your ass won’t start hurting if you end up sitting a long time. If you can’t sit for a long time laying down is fine. You can do this outside but if it’s hot/cold/too many bugs there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the modern comforts of AC/heat/no fucking bugs inside.
Close your eyes and breathe normally. Don’t try and empty your mind because that shit is bogus. Let your mind do it’s thing and focus on your breathing. Can you feel the air in your lungs? Is it hot or cold? What does it feel like when you inhale and exhale?
Now that you’ve done some introspective breath focusing (you go my babes you GOT THIS) you should be a bit calmer and not as worried about looking/feeling dumb or wondering if you’re doing it right. You are, I promise.
Try and think about where your center is on your body. If you’re sitting down it should feel like a heavy spot somewhere between your abdomen and pelvis. If you can’t find it right away it’s totally cool- you’ll get it eventually but don’t worry about it for now.
This part gets a little creative. I’m gonna go with the tree/roots metaphor because that resonates best with a lot of people, but if it doesn’t work for you that’s totally cool- message me and we will find something that works for you together. You’re gonna imagine now that you’ve got these badass tree roots coming out of you like some super cool sci-fi movie. Those roots bury themselves in the ground- through your bed/floor, down through the foundation of the house, through the rocks and many many layers of soil until BAM you’ve reached the center of the earth. But instead of a molten ball of fire it’s a shining ball of energy and life. Dig your roots into that, wrap them all around, tie them up in bows whatever you want to!
Leave your roots there, and open your eyes. Congrats you’ve officially grounded!
It’s a-okay if your roots don’t stay there all the time. It’s going to get a lot easier to ground the more you do it, and it will eventually become second nature. Witchy Shit is just like building muscle- the more you do it the stronger you get.
This is an extension of the grounding exercise and is always a good idea to do when you’re feeling bogged down or icky for no reason.
You’ve got your roots down there right? Awesome. So tree roots soak up water and nutrients from the ground, and your roots are gonna do the same thing! With every inhaled breath, suck up some of the clean energy from the earth. With every exhaled breath, release some of the stagnant energy from your body.
Repeat this until the clean energy has traveled all the way back up your roots and has filled you to the top of your head. Easy peasy.
Great job, you’ve gotten the swing of grounding and cleansing. Now we are moving on to the next thing you should know- shielding and warding.
Shielding is pretty simple and the more you do it the easier it gets. Eventually you’ll get to the point where your shields are up all the time. I’m going to use a bubble metaphor here for simplicity’s sake, but again feel free to message me if you need help finding something that works better for you. The first thing you’re going to do is close your eyes and imagine yourself enclosed in a bubble.
This isn’t a regular bubble- this is like one of those cool no-pop bubbles you saw on TV as a kid, so you can poke it and prod it and that shit just stays intact. Cool AF. So you’ve got your bubble around you- this is a basic shield. Nothing can pass through your bubble without your permission. Since this is your bubble you can do all sorts of cool shit with it.
Want some more personal space when you’re out in public? Make your bubble bigger. Want spirits/fae/your mom to leave you alone? Boom, make your bubble opaque. Now they can’t see shit! Feeling unsafe or want a bit more protection? Oh snap now your bubble had state of the art impenetrable plating on it like a Gundam. It’s your bubble and you can do literally WHATEVER you want to it. My best friend covers hers in bear traps. How cool is that? Layer your bubble, encase your bubble in angry raccoons- YOU DO YOU BBY.
But Switchy, you may say, I need to protect my cat/dog/brother/snacks! Easy peasy- either include it in the bubble with you or give it its own bubble. Congrats, you’ve just shielded! It’s a good idea to remind yourself to check your shields often to make sure they’re up until it’s second nature to have them. Set an alarm, or do it every time you get a drink of water or something.
Warding is the next step after shielding. You can put wards on your car, house, apartment, back yard, the park, whatever you want. It’s like using a trip wire to trigger a shield.
Walk around wherever you want to ward, and put a trip wire (or bear trap, whatever works for you) in specific points. I use windows and doors on a house/apartment, and the corners of the property if I’m warding a backyard or park. You want to ward places you spend a lot of time in so that it’s an extra layer of safety.
You can use a physical object to tie the ward to, like a ribbon or a coin, or you can carve/draw a sign or seal. That’s it- really!
Congrats loves, you’ve got the basics. There’s always more to learn, and it’s a good idea as your craft grows you go back and modify your practice as you need to!
Thank you for coming to my Witchy Shit TEDtalk there’s snacks in the lobby.