It’s Friday evening and you stumble home from another grueling work week. Your brain has assumed the consistency of tapioca pudding and the tightness in your neck and shoulders is showing no sign of letting up. Oh, no. You suddenly recall that tonight is the full moon. Your magickal mind immediately turns towards ritual and communion,. Your body, however, is definitely unwilling, What’s a witch to do?
We’ve all been there. Exhausted, stretched thin, there doesn’t seem to be enough time for witchcraft let alone taking care of yourself. Yet we all know how important it is to take care of ourselves, Our craft truly suffers when we are ill, run down, and energetically drained. Still, we want, no need, to be there for our deities, our covens, and circles. We are driven to practice, to connect with our magickal side. So how do we go about giving ourselves a well-needed rest, combined with a bit of pampering, and still practice our craft? How do we keep the “I” in Witch?
In answer to that question I have listed below several ways you can give yourself the care and pampering your body and mind needs while still working on your craft. Many of these require little to no special tools other than yourself and a few items you probably already have in your herbal cabinet or kitchen shelves. Creating these items with intention and then allowing yourself to indulge in self-care will only strengthen you and your magick.
- Give yourself an herbal bath: Create a simple herbal bath with Epson salts and a few drops of your favorite essential oils such as lavender, rose, and sage. As you add these into the water picture the ingredients taking away your cares and fatigue. Relax in the warm waters and see the worries and stress sluicing off of your body and into the fragrant water. Arise from the bath feeling energized and refreshed and watch as the waters swirl down the drain taking with it your strife and lack of energy.
- Meditate: Yes, meditation. It is one of the most beneficial and magickal ways we can pamper ourselves. Even 10 to 15 minutes a day will make the world of difference in your mundane and magickal energy levels, not to mention the boost it gives to your general well-being.
- Imbibe of the sacred chocolate: Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is a mood enhancer and anti-oxidant. Magickal, and well, it’s chocolate. Enough said.
- Give your feet a good soak and scrub: If a full bath is not possible try a good foot soak and a sugar scrub. I always have a box of Epsom salts and “Mom’s” sugar jar that I have imbued with healing energies and stress relief. On those stressful days I set the kettle on the stove to boil, set out the foot tub filled part way with cold water and add the salts. When the hot water is ready I add it to my desired temperature. Then the bliss begins. Let your tootsies soak for a bit then grab a palm full of the sugar. Add a bit of the foot soak water to the sugar then start gently scrubbing your feet. Feel the stress slough off with each stroke, along with any rough spots and calluses. Rinse your feet when done, and as with the bath, watch the worry and stress flow down the drain as you pour out the water. Ahh, the wonderful feeling of clean feet and no worries.
- Listen to your favorite “Witchy” music: For me, nothing releases the stress, worries, and daily crap like listening to my favorite music, especially of the “witchy” kind. My personal favorite, Stevie Nicks. I turn it up load, sing, dance, and just revel in the beat and the sound. Before you know it, stress be gone.
- Indulge in a good cry: Yes, cry. Talk your Deities. Offer up your woes to their care. If you don’t work with the Gods then offer it to the Universe. Weep. Scream. Implore. Cry buckets. Get it all out. There is amazing therapeutic benefits loaded into a good cry.
- Get a massage or Reiki treatment: Body and energy workers are some of the most magickal people I know, whether they realize it or not. They transform, transmute, move and manipulate the energies currently in our bodies, changing them into something entirely different, something more beneficial. A great massage therapist or Reiki practitioner will relieve you of your stress and replace that destructive energy with love and peace. If you haven’t had a treatment before I highly recommend one. Don’t stop at just massage or Reiki. There are many other healing modalities that are equally as beneficial. Explore and find one that works for you.
- Soak in a hot tub in the light of the Moon: If you are fortunate enough to own a hot tub or spa (alas, I am still saving up for this) a glorious soak under a full (or new, dark) moon is a fabulous way to relax and feel especially connected to the Elements and to your magick. While the jets pulsate your tension away, the Moon will fill your essence with Its energies, renewing your body and spirit.
Life is full of stress, both in our mundane and magickal lives. Work, home, family, covens, kids, and responsibilities, all of these bring us both joy and stress. How we handle that pressure can be magickal as well as practical. It is my wish that the few simple suggestions that I have made will aid you in placing that “I” back in witch. May your stress melt away and your magick forever thrive. Blessed Be!
