Witchcraft as a Pastiche
Everyone has Magick and innate knowledge, whether that is the wisdom of laughter as medicine or the childlike awareness that trees really do hug back. This is our soul memory.
As young people, we learn about society and survival through observation. Magickal knowledge is acquired in a personal combination of inner wisdom and integrating information shared or modeled by elders in books, ceremony and lifestyle as well as the natural world itself.
Whether you answered the calling for the Magickal Path from birth, age seven, twenty-seven or seventy-seven years old, all Witches and Magick Makers build a personal practice on the wisdom passed down through the ages. We don’t have to re-invent the wheel, but build on the knowledge that our magickal predecessors safeguarded through difficult times.
There is nothing new under the moon, or sun – except for the special way that you weave your magickal knowledge into your daily life. You have the magick inside and following the path paved before you, magnifies your Magick. My version of Witchcraft is based in High Magick Wicca – meaning all my Magick is directed toward the Light – with influence from Indigenous Shamanic practices, Buddhism, and Christian Science, the religion of my childhood.
I pattern my activism after Starhawk’s permaculture wisdom and civil disobedience. I so admired her impact on the groundswell movement for Witches to affect change on our planet, not just through spellwork or ritual, but physical action. With the publication of The Wicca Cookbook in 2000, I have always considered that writing Witchcraft books is my air, energy, water, and land activism. My teachings focus on the value and holiness of the Four Directions and how Air, Fire, Water, and Earth lives and breathes through us as a multi-faceted diamond of the Divine Source.
My original cultural activism focused on safety and acceptance for Witches and Wiccans to discuss their moon ritual on an elevator with the same level of equanimity awarded to Christians discussing a church picnic. With the three million people following #witch, and 37,000 copies sold of my book The Book of Spells, which is heading into Walmart stores to reach the Witches in the far corners of America, I feel like I can put this sword down.
Now I feel it is time to honor my predecessors at the same time that I explain Magick is what we make of it. We each create a Witchcraft practice as unique as a yoga practice, an exercise routine or eating habits. Our teachers, mentors, ritual leaders and favorite authors have all taught us something so that we send out Magick from the tip of our fingers. Take what the world gives you and create the practice that only you can make. Let it unfurl like a beautiful garden.
Recently I was going through my magickal herbal concoctions and found some oils that needed to be used before they spoiled. As the sun is returning to full strength, I thought it would be lovely to make a salt scrub that would exfoliate dead skin and leave my body feeling smooth and glowing. Try making this ritual for the New Moon, as an indication to the Universe that you are ready to step into your dreams and see those desires manifest.
Dark Moon Salt Scrub
Note that this recipe is essentially ½ cup of two kinds of salt each and ½ cup of oil (eight tablespoons is ½ cup). Some people like Himalayan pink salt, but its beginning to be overmined. I prefer to always use Epson salts since they do such a great job of extracting toxins. If you don’t have vitamin E oil that’s okay and remember that you can use any essential oil that appeals to you or has a magickal property that you would like to invoke. I include cedarwood because it calms the nervous system (and I’ve been feeling choleric lately fighting for local water) and helps one drop into a deep sense of belonging.
½ cup Epson salt
½ cup sea salt
3 Tablespoons rose hip-infused jojoba oil
3 Tablespoons calendula-infused apricot kernel oil
1 Tablespoon aloe gel
1 Tablespoon shea butter
10 drops vitamin E oil
10 drops cedarwood oil
