For the witches and pagans who need to hear it, connecting with nature is supposed to be about like, actually observing nature over long periods of time, not doing stuff like hoarding endangered bird feathers and beach sand, or just meditating out in aesthetically-pleasing locations. Can you tell me exactly when your wildflowers and weeds start blooming? When do your bugs come out of hibernation? When do migratory birds come and go? How does the air feel during different times of year? If you can't do stuff like that, you aren't connecting with nature.
Sort of obvious, but I had to learn it (like everything else) the hard way. And as spooky season approaches and people may be revitalizing their practices after breaks, I want to say something that might end up saving a couple folks from a lot of frustration and heartbreak:
Just because it worked that way for you in the past, doesn't mean that's how it works for you now.
I mean this in a literal, making-stuff-happen with magic and sorcery way.
You guys have heard the adage that some spirit guides are with you for life, some for short periods, some for just one lesson, etc., right?
Well, the same can be said for sorcerous techniques.
I don't know if I just shed techniques like hermit crabs shed shells or what, but this happens to me a lot. Here's the kind of thing I mean:
You used to do readings with a specific little ritual involving a prayer and incense, but now that technique seems to produce incorrect readings. It feels flat and you can tell you're not connecting.
You used to be able to tie intent into knots and carry the thread around with you all day to conjure specific little occurrences, but now it barely seems to work and manifestation is spotty.
You used to be able to converse with spirits by going into a deep meditation, but now when you try you can hardly connect and it's like their messages are getting blotted out.
And I think sometimes when these things happen, people tend to process this with:
self-blame (I'm not a devoted enough witch, I brought this on myself!),
scapegoating spiritual allies (I used to pray to Hekate before divination but now my divination doesn't work, so Hekate must be mad at me), or
developing personal doubt (I used to think magic worked but now I can't replicate my own results).
When the reality is, if you're a magical snickity-snek and you've shed your skin, you might be slithering about in the soil trying to do the little old things that no longer fit the bigger, better you.
Sometimes this "shedding" is very obvious and we can feel and taste it. "Shedding" may come before, during, or after a period of intense personal transformation. It may come in a numinous moment when you hear a single phrase, or view a single image, that makes you become the Hanged Man and see reality in a whole new way.
But it can also happen without us really noticing it. I might put down my tarot cards for a couple months, pick them up again, and suddenly the ways I used to read don't work for me any more.
It's not because I'm a bad reader, or that the spirits have abandoned me, or that magic isn't real.
It's because what used to work for me doesn't any more, and now I just need to find new techniques.
So if you're trying to pick up what used to work and it just doesn't seem to be helping any more, consider that it's just like outgrowing an old set of clothes. Nothing is wrong with you, or the clothes. It just doesn't fit any more.
Since I think it'd be frustrating as hell to read a post like this without some actionable steps, below the cut are some ideas that might help you develop new techniques if your old ones seem to be failing you.
Start with your beliefs
Examine your own rituals and see if what you're doing still matches what you believe. Let's say you used to pray to Hekate and light incense before divination, but now you do that and your divination doesn't work.
Do you believe Hekate is allowing your divination to be possible? Do you believe she's the best goddess to seek aide from at this time?
What role does the incense play? Is it an offering to Hekate? Is it to feed the ancestors who supply you with interpretations? Is it just to set the correct tone and atmosphere?
Maybe you've grown in your relationship with divinity, and you now believe it's more proper to call on gods with formal prayers - but your divination ritual still uses a simple, improvised prayer.
Maybe your understanding of Hekate has changed and it feels more suitable to call on different powers.
Maybe you feel strangely about constantly "paying" gods to help you, when they say they don't need it - and lighting the incense makes you feel awkward.
Change what you're doing to match what you believe. That's always a solid first step.
Examine your own emotions and reactions
Try performing rituals (from the smallest ritual of stirring intent into coffee, to full-blown compass-casting affairs under the full moon) mindfully.
Be aware of what you're doing as you do it, but also try to examine your own reactionary thoughts and feelings.
Suppose my ritual of stirring my coffee seven times clockwise to manifest a desired emotion doesn't work any more. It used to work great, for years, so I do it quickly. But now it doesn't work, so I do it mindfully.
And while I'm stirring, I watch a few thoughts pop up to the surface: why am I doing this seven times? I'm stirring my coffee for too long and staring into it like an idiot, and it's embarrassing. What if someone thinks I'm weird?
If any individual step of a ritual makes you feel embarrassed, stressed, or avoidant, or if you feel relief from not having to do that any more - that technique is probably not serving you very well.
Seek out methods that make you feel excited, hopeful, empowered, or interested. Or, at the very least, ones that don't make you feel bad.
Be open to shifting your paradigm entirely
Going back to the stirring coffee thing, maybe I think stirring seven times is too much. So I try to stir my coffee three times. But that still feels clunky.
Then I get into left-handed vs right-handed stirring, because someone might have said that doing stuff with your right hand is for blessings.
Then I try out a new little inner mantra while I stir X times with Y hand.
But it's just not working. No matter what I try, it feels like walking barefoot on a gravel road.
So maybe I just need to do something entirely different.
Maybe numerology isn't my thing any more. Maybe now, I just need to embrace my inner divine creator.
Maybe I should think about the ultimately powerful creative energy within rich, black soil - and as I pour my coffee, I can imagine that I'm pouring pure creative energy into my divine cauldron. When I sprinkle in a little sugar, I'm seasoning that creative power to my personal tastes - and no matter how many times I stir it, when I drink that creative power, a new reality blossoms from within me.
No numbers. No memorized chants. No left hand/right hand stuff. Just me, imagining myself as a planet, drinking pure creative energy that will bloom out of my aura as wildflowers bloom in the spring.
Ask for help
I'm not called fool for no reason, and after a couple years of being unable to astral travel - after having successfully done so for years - I finally sat down and asked my spirits for help.
The answer was immediate and simple. So simple, in fact, that I was confident it wouldn't work at all.
Well, of course it worked. I spent years trying to figure out the problem on my own, trying time and time again to use an old technique that I was confident would work. It took a goddess like four seconds to tell me the new way it worked for me.
Even if you're not in communication with spiritual allies, you can still perform divination to help troubleshoot your own magical skills. Try asking a series of questions: what doesn't work for you any more, what you should try, and what you should avoid trying.
When divining, consider the different "levels" of application. A reading that means "don't use excessive force" might refer to high-level life stuff, like, you're working too hard on all your responsibilities right now, learn to relax and the magic will come. But, it might also be referring to something very specific, like, you're trying to raise huge amounts of energy in individual rituals, break them up into smaller spells where much less force is required for each one.
So, a few weeks ago, on a quest for something else, I tripped over the concept of the 78-card Tarot spread. For those who arenât into Tarot, the standard deck has four suits of 14 cards each that comprise the Minor Arcana plus 22 extra âfaceâ cards that comprise the Major Arcana, so a 78-card spread would use every card in the deck, which is a trifle unusual in my experience.Â
There are apparently a couple of full-deck spreads floating around out in the ether, but the ones I looked at werenât satisfying to me for various reasons â perfectly decent on their own, but none of them quite what I was looking for. I had been startled by the very idea of a full-deck spread, but once I looked around I decided it would be interesting to try and make one of my own.
I sat down and drafted out a chart (the hand-drawing in this post is the final drafting of that) and built up a structure around it. For the past week or so Iâve been shuffling and writing and preparing to give the reading a test-run. Now that I have (and it was very interesting reading), Iâm ready to unleash it on the world in time for Halloween â or Samhain, or All Saints, or All Souls, or Dia De Los Muertos, or whichever Veil Is Thinnest Oh Shit Light The Candles holiday you prefer.Â
You can read more about the spread, including an explication of how to read it and a few variances on the reading, at the link below. I hope you all enjoy it and have fun with it.Â
Also, Iâm thinking of typesetting the word document and publishing it on Lulu; the Google Doc would stay up, and Iâd probably throw the PDF up on Gutenberg, but there would be a print and epub version for sale as well.Â
A Reformed Druid Anthology (aka ARDA) is back in print!
I'm really excited to announce that the long out-of-print compendium of writings on the Reformed Druids of North America is available in hardcover print once again! The written works span from 1963 to 2004, with only a few critical items being updated in 2021 that were no longer current that really needed to be corrected. I had made previous posts when the first two books were available, but this last one took a lot longer to prepare.
The first edition of ARDA was compiled by Mike the Fool (the then-Arch-Druid of Carleton College Grove) in 1993 from three decades of loose papers & three-ring binders in boxes and converted into PDF files - and only a few printed copies were made. The second edition expanded the collection in 2004 and the anthology doubled in size.
From April to August 2021 I (very painstakingly) edited the degrading Word documents that had hundreds of formatting issues and version compatibility glitches. There are prolific quantities of typos in the old versions, and I tried to clean up most of them. Sadly there are still some wrong-word typos (homophones) that likely slipped by the grammar check.
The page numbering was also broken with some numbers being skipped or others doubling up. In the old PDF versions, the last page was 848, but that was 70 pages shy of the actual 918, and I even had trouble with the corrected page enumeration regressing by itself a few times. It was a mess.
Right now I am happy to say A Reformed Druid Anthology is a much cleaner mess. The updated PDF version is still free and can be downloaded in the links below. For anyone who wants a new printed copy, they are available via Lulu for print-on-demand. The prices are set at the cost of printing. Since these books are copyright-free and public domain, nobody is receiving royalties for sales.
[Book 1] ARDA Volumes 0, 1, & 2 (Intro, The Chronicles of the Foundation, and Books of the Apocrypha)
As some of you may know, the path I am on has, of late, been tending towards the druidic, and druidic paths, being shamanistic, involve, for lack of a better term, a heck of a lot of meditation. As some of you may also know, I also happen to have combined Inattentive-Hyperactive type adult ADHD, which makes meditation really hard.
So I thought Iâd write a little primer of meditation techniques that I use. Whether you have ADHD or just canât get the hang of meditating, I hope these techniques are useful to you!
Meditation: The ADHD Nightmare
The point of meditating is to â well, to be meditating. When you do it right you reach a âmeditative stateâ (duh), and my understanding is that something wack happens to your brainwaves when this occurs. I donât know, Iâm a writer, not a neuroscientist. Either way, a âmeditative stateâ is a real thing with real effects on your mind and wellbeing.Â
There are a couple of different ideas of how to get there. âItâs clearing your mind!â people will shout. âYou should be sitting there without a thought in your head!â Other people retort, âNo! Itâs not clearing your mind, itâs sitting and observing everything around you as an impassive observer!â Then yet others say, âNo! You observe your breathing and body in order to become one with it!â
Like â look, there are tons and tons of different kinds of meditation. And yeah, these are legitimate techniques used by different spiritual traditions. They also have the drawback of being boring. Like, rip-your-brain-out-through-your-nose-and-stomp-on-it, oh-my-god-please-let-me-do-something BORING. Of course not everyoneâs going to agree with me, and I am willing to admit that these techniques are valuable and useful to certain people. In fact, once youâre used to meditating, you can transition into some of these meditations â Iâve done a few of them and they are quite pleasant.
But if youâre like me and not having any stimulation makes you want to creep out of your skin backwards, but you just really, really want to meditate â well, hereâs a couple tips.
Walking Meditation
This was the first meditation I ever did, because sitting meditations made me want to die. I personally use a walking stick because it helps emphasize the rhythm of your stride, but you can do it without one, too.
Most Zen walking meditations recommend you pace back and forth along a smooth, straight path. And while the Zen Buddhists are probably much better at this sort of thing than I am, I find that technique to be brain-rippingly boring (not to mention impractical in my present living situation) and I do mine in outdoor open spaces, such as winding nature trails or along lakeshores. The only thing Iâd recommend is that you donât do it anywhere too strenuous â you want to be focused on the meditation, not on avoiding falling off a mountainside.
Hereâs what you do â start walking.
The trick here is the rhythm of your stride. Rather than just letting your brain do whatever the fuck it wants, count your steps like theyâre a musical bar (one-two, one-two, one-two, or maybe left-right left-right), focusing on the sensation of the ground beneath your feet with each step. Whenever your mind starts to drift, which it definitely will, just guide it gently back to your rhythm â one-two, one-two. Donât go hitting errant thoughts with a mallet â just redirect them, like sheep broken off from the flock, to the count. If you find youâve lost pace (youâre saying âleftâ when your right foot goes down), stop, take a deep breath, and start again.Â
My favorite way to do this meditation is with a walking staff, one, because it makes me feel like Gandalf, and two, because it goes down with my right foot (on two, every time) and helps me clearly delineate one âbarâ from the next. The vibration of the staff also gives you something else to focus on rather than the soles of your feet â I tend to wear heavy hiking boots on my walks, and the sensation of the staff hitting the ground actually gives me more of a sense of being grounded than my feet do. Just do whatever works for you.
âGood For You, But I Wanna Sitâ
But what if you canât do a walking meditation? Thatâs fine, thereâs tons of reasons why it might be unfeasible for you, from space concerns to ability concerns to even stuff as simple as âyo, itâs blizzardingâ. Thatâs cool â I have some tips for âregularâ meditation too!
Just know this: Youâre not going to be able to âquiet your thoughtsâ. Hell, if your brain works like mine youâre not even going to be able to âimpassively observeâ. You wonât be able to focus on your breathing without wanting to scream (âOk, weâre alive,â says brain, âCool, still alive, got it. All right, breathing is a thing we are constantly doing, who cares letâs GO.â) All of these tips involve a focus of some kind â something to bring your brain back to where it needs to be in order to get to that meditative state.
Looking Meditations
I do this one with a candleflame because fire is sick as hell and also interesting to watch. You could probably also do it with fish or something, or really anything you would be cool with staring at for minutes on end. This is the same basic principle as the walking meditation, except here, youâre sitting quietly â it doesnât have to be in a lotus position if you donât want. Iâve meditated sitting in an office chair, kneeling on the ground, sitting criss-cross applesauce, and lying down. Whatever is most feasible and comfortable.
In the walking meditation the Focus was your stride. In this case the Focus is whatever youâre looking at. Rather than bringing your thoughts back to the rhythm of your steps like we did in the walking meditation, youâre herding your errant brainwaves towards the visual focus.Â
Here, as in many still meditations, youâre going to want to control your breathing as well. Personally, making breathing my focus is a losing proposition, but youâll meditate more easily if youâre breathing slowly and deeply.Â
Mantras
âI donât like looking at stuff,â you might say. âI am literally blind,â you might also say. Cool! So find a mantra! (This term might be appropriative in some way but I canât find a good substitute â let me know if someone knows one). This could be a saying, or a phrase, or even a prayer. Whatever it is, I find it most useful if the mantra actually has some symbolic meat to it â not just ârubber baby buggy bumpersâ but something that youâd be able to write a short paragraph about, at least. I personally use Welsh triads (because druid). Once you have your mantra, repeat it, aloud or in your head. Forever. (Or as long as it takes you to start meditating).Â
Again, breathing is really important here, as in all sitting meditations. Try to breathe slowly and deeply. I frequently find my breathing will begin to match up with the ebb and flow of the mantra, and thatâs fine. Just keep that oxygen flow going in a steady rhythm (you donât have to track the rhythmâ thatâs an entirely different meditative technique!)
You might notice something weird will start to happen after a bunch of repetitions. At first this might take a longass time, but it gets shorter the more you practice. Youâre thinking about the phrase without really thinking about it â it starts to take on depths and dimensions that you never would have seen just thinking about it â congrats, youâre meditating! (In fact â youâre meditating on the mantra â in case you had no idea how to do that, here you go!) Do this as long as you feel like it and then return awareness to your room. Donât just hop right up â sometimes meditation fucks with your coordination for some reason â give yourself a few seconds and then go make yourself some tea. Youâve earned it.
Next Steps
In shamanistic practice, achieving a meditative state is often a jumping-off point for journeying or intense visualization. Meditation can be used in concert with these, or it can stand on its own as a daily or weekly practice. Donât get discouraged if you donât âgetâ it the first time! The thing to remember is not to force it â meditation is born of relaxation, and forcing it will only hinder you.Â
Once your brain is trained to enter the meditative state more easily, you might find it comparatively simple to transition into more traditional Zen meditations (âCLEAR UR MIND!!â). The trick is practice!Â
Happy meditating!
Just like each herb and crystal has certain properties and strength, so do actions taken during rituals and spells. When writing spells it is important to include the proper actions to make sure your spell is as effective as possible.
Burning - Burning an object is a common practice in spells and rituals. Fire is considered a cleansing and activating force.
If you want to destroy somethingâs influence, burn it and dispose of the ashes away from your home.
If you want to set something into motion, burn objects related to the situation to ash.
If you want to activate certain energies, burn objects related to those involved.
If you are performing a curse or hex, burn the object in the flame of a candle.
Burying/Abandoning - A Witch might bury and object for many reasons. They might want to put something to rest, perform a slow spell, or banish something. There are different ways in which one can bury an object to accomplish a desired outcome:
If you want to keep something close, bury the object in your back yard.
If you want to attract something, bury the object under the front door step
If you want to disperse something to a distance, throw the object into a crossroads
If you want to fix an influence, inter the object in a five-spot pattern
If you want something to work by means of spirits, bury the object in a graveyard (but donât disrupt those buried there!)
If you want to hide somethingâs point of origin, conceal the object in a tree
If you want something/someone to work by stealth, hide the object in clothing or on objects
If you want an influence to begin or strengthen, throw the object East
If you want an influence to end or weaken, throw the object West
Rubbing - Rubbing an object can be the easiest and most immediate way to experience witchcraft. Transferring and garnering energy from objects can be done through physical contact with an object.
If you want to put energy into an object, rub it with your left hand
If you want to gather energy from an object, rub it with your right hand
If you want to bring positivity, rub clockwise
If you want to bring negativity, rub counter clockwise
If you want to use crystals to heal, rub the appropriate stone on the effected part of the body.
Soaking - Water is one of the main elements used in witchcraft. It comes in many forms with many different properties and uses.
If you want something to move away and sink, throw it in running water
If you want somethingâs influence to rise and fall cyclically, float it in a tidal estuary
If you want to protect or cleanse something, soak an object in rain water
If you are focused on your personal goals, soak your object in sea water
If you want to bring about transformation, soak your object in snow/melted snow
If youâre trying to make a wish come true, soak your object in well water
If you want to banish, soak your object in harbor water
đ Thyme Focaccia, a simple spell to attract good health. đ Perfect for Lughnasadh / Lammas đ
Ingredients
7g fast action yeast or 15g fresh yeast
1tsp sugar
200mL warm water (37°C/100°F)
350g strong white bread flour
4tbsp olive oil
1tsp grounded salt
1tsp grounded pepper
A good handful of fresh thyme (the more the better honestly)
Recipe
In a bowl, mix the yeast with sugar and warm water until frothy. Let it rest, if the foam is growing, your yeast is activated.
In a big bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper and thyme together. Make a small hole and add the olive oil and the mix of yeast and water.
Knead everything for at least 10 minutes (if you're doing it by had) or 5 minutes if you are using a robot.
Form a big ball and rub a bit of oil around it. Put in a clean bowl, recover with cling film and let it rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour - 1h30) in a warm place protected from the wind (it will not rise)
Flatten the dough into a baking sheet, cover again and let it rise again for 1 hour.
Pre heat the oven 220°C / 425°F.
Lightly press the top of the dough with your fingers to make little dimples, drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the top is a lovely golden colour.
Magick
Lughnasadh or Lammas is known as the feast of bread, this recipe would be perfect for your celebrations!
In this recipe thyme is used to attract good health. The plant was burned by the Greeks to purify temples. It is also carried and smelled to give courage and energy. Salt and Pepper are for protection.
Don't forget to prepare yourself and your kitchen when you are doing this spell. Before preforming kitchen witchery I always meditate on my intention, take a cleansing shower. I also prepare my kitchen: I clean it and cleanse it. I also love listening to music when I am cooking. I take the time to really feel the energy of the ingredients I am cooking with. If you are working with deities, a simple prayer and a offering can help! If you don't prepare yourself and your space you are just cooking, there is nothing magical in it.
Seeing the bread rising is kind of magical in itself, it reconnect with an ancestral tradition. To me the fact of rising enhance the properties of the other ingredients.
My mother taught me that it was important to shield myself for many reasons:
My personal energy and emotional state can have an effect on those around me.
To keep negative influences out
To keep positive close to myself
To keep other peopleâs energy and emotional states from overwhelming me
And to prevent those who might actively mean me harm the ability to do so psychically.
She resonates most with the element of water and forms her shielding out of it by visualising that she is surrounded by a small bubble of sea water, filled with fish and other sea creatures. It flows around her and absorbs negativity neutralising it. She sees the sea fade, not get weaker but become transparent, so that she can still feel it but is able to see through it and perform magick without having to lower her shield.
Iâm a little over cautious due to some less than pleasant experiences. I have five shields one for each element:
Earth - A stone wall that protects from taking on board other peoples emotional distress
Air - A tornado that disorientates any harmful thoughts or intentions and drags them in
Fire - A blaze that transmutes negative energy into positive
Water - A sea that absorbs this energy.
Spirit - A blue egg of energy that I can easily work magick through and where I store excess energy until I Ground it or give it to someone else.
Before I learned how to make them transparent without weakening them I would strip my first four layers and have only the Spirit shield to work within a circle.Â
Each person picks the shields that work best for them. One of my friends uses quartz. Another uses mirrors to bounce off negativity, but I find this inefficient, and prefer to put any energy sent to me to good use.Â
Just think about what makes you feel secure, and work with it. If it doesnât feel right change to something else. At least once a day visualise your shield to keep them strong. When we feel secure we can forget to shield and although it may become second nature for them to be there it is always a good idea to check them from time to time. Â
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