My Witchy Lifestyle
PULSE Perspective by Maddy Larsen
I’m the kind of person who likes spooky things all year round, and one of the ways I incorporate it into my life other than wearing skeleton sweatshirts in the spring is by doing witchy things. I’ve always been curious about mythical and magical things as a child, possibly coming from my love for Hocus Pocus, and as I grew up I learned about mindfulness and spirituality. Now, many don’t see how mindfulness and spirituality relate to being a witch, but it has everything to do with it. Witches just get a bad representation from the media of being an old woman who uses magic for evil.
I wouldn’t call myself a witch personally, I would say I’m more of a witch in training or a beginner witch. Another side note is magic isn’t evil or good, it’s neutral. It’s your intentions that make magic good or evil.
The Basics
To be a witch you need to be mindful of your mental clarity. This mindfulness allows you to get in touch with your inner self, become grounded (meaning to be in touch with the Earth), and unbiased before doing any witchcraft. This is how mindfulness relates to witchery. Whereas spirituality relates to being a witch because both involve believing in something greater than yourself. In spirituality, you would believe in something like the universe, whereas in witchery you would believe in something like goddesses.
Both spirituality and witchery can also be believing in the spirit, which is basically the soul or the nonphysical part of you that is connected to your consciousness. Again, this is my opinion of witchery and my understanding thus far into a witchy lifestyle.
Starting Point
How I started my journey into a witchy lifestyle is, interestingly enough, by watching TikTok about it. I was late in the game to join the massive group of TikTok users and didn’t join until about two years ago. At first, my Tik Tok was full of artsy and comedic content then I somehow ended up going down the deep rabbit hole of witch tok.
Delulu Stage
For me, it started with tarot reading TikToks because I’ve always wanted my tarot or palm read. After watching a bunch of tarot TikToks and having my whole for you page full of tarot I became delulu (the cool slang word for delusional). I realized I should just read my own tarot instead of hoping for a tarot reading TikTok to relate to my life or paying someone to read my tarot.
Beginnings
I started out by writing on index cards as my beginner tarot deck, I didn’t write out all the tarot cards like the chariot or three of swords cards because that would have been too many cards (a full tarot deck is seventy-eight cards). Instead, I wrote yes or no, time stamps or messages such as be patient or smile more on them. I’ll admit I had no idea what I was doing when I did use these index cards and they weren’t the most accurate.
Even though I didn’t know what I was doing, it helped me practice shuffling the cards and being accepting of what they had to say, even if it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. One of the biggest things in tarot, and honestly the hardest, is being open and accepting of what you receive. Sometimes the hardest thing to hear is what you need to hear the most.
Tarot Cards
I got my first full tarot deck about six months ago and I’m still trying to familiarize myself with all the cards because there are so many of them and they all have different meanings. Another thing I am still trying to understand is reverse cards, which are cards that are upside down. Reversed cards have a whole different meaning to them compared to the upright version of a specific card, so it really feels like you need to understand a hundred and fifty-six cards.
The Shuffle
There are many ways to do tarot cards and the most common way is to do what I believe is called a tarot shuffle. It’s hard to explain, so I recommend watching a video on how to do it. I personally prefer doing the tarot shuffle because I am not the one actively choosing the card, it’s instead by chance.
The less complicated way to do tarot is what I like to call the magician way. It’s exactly as it sounds, you do it by spreading out the tarot deck on a table face down like a magician and picking whatever card you want and as many as you want.
Practice & Balance
As I said before, I am still understanding the many meanings of each tarot card. I recommend getting a tarot deck with the meanings on them, unlike me who got a tarot deck with beautiful illustrations on them instead. So, to get used to tarot cards and reading them I have tried to do a daily tarot card reading because, like they say, practice makes perfect. Although it is hard to get into the habit of doing something daily, my daily tarot readings are more like two or three times a week.
So be patient with yourself, tarot reading is a hard thing to learn, and it's okay if you feel embarrassed, confused, or like you’re doing it wrong. I felt this way when I first started out and it was awkward, but the point of tarot is to understand yourself, your surroundings, and eventually, the patterns you’ll see within your life. This is why it is best to practice tarot or any witchcraft in whatever way is most comfortable to you because you’re trying to understand your deeper self unless reading tarot for someone else.
The best way I have found to help the process of understanding tarot is by getting myself grounded before jumping into any kind of witchcraft. To get grounded, or in touch with myself and the Earth, I meditate. Taking a moment to clear my mind from what I have been worried about helps me relax, be in the moment, and not be biased about what I want the tarot cards to say.
This is how tarot readings can become biased, it's when you're so focused on a specific expectation for the tarot cards that if it's not what you wanted you’ll keep drawing cards until it's what you want. Or if you don’t get the specific outcome you wanted you’ll make up stuff from the cards so that it is, and this is how you can become delusional. Being biased, expecting too much, and not grounding yourself beforehand leads to a delusional state.
Currently
Tarot reading is the main witchcraft I practice, other witchery I dabble in are crystals and incense. I’m not entirely sure of all the ways you can use crystals, but I do know that just having them in your home can help with stress or whatever they’re meant to do (because each crystal helps and provides something different).
Crystals can also be incorporated into tarot, the way that I do it is before shuffling the tarot deck I choose a crystal and use it to knock on the deck three times. This helps clear the deck of any negative energies and resets it in a way.
I recently just got into using incense, which is kind of like a candle but in a stick shape made out of herbs and spices that you burn to release therapeutic aromas. Incense sticks can also be used for meditation and rituals.
I have also recently e gotten some books about witchy things, one is about moon phases which will help me understand patterns in my environment, and the other is about herbal magic. I haven’t had time to read the herbal magic one, but I’m very interested in it because as a witch in training, I want to be able to make potions from herbs.
Looking Ahead
I eventually would like to perfect my tarot reading skills, learn how to do spells and potions, learn palm reading, and understand my mental and physical patterns so I can make life happier and easier. I envision myself in the future as someone who does witchcraft on the side, and farther into the future I want to be a retired old woman who lives in a cute cottage surrounded by nature doing witchcraft. How cute would that be!
Interested In Witchcraft?
If you’re someone like me who loves the witchy aesthetic, nature, and learning more about yourself, here are a few tips on getting started:
Read books on witchcraft
Start meditating or taking time to self-reflect
Keep a journal to write down how you’re feeling or tarot cards you drew so you can look back on them
Start with beginner tools
Be patient
Surround yourself with mantras and positive words of wisdom
Be aware of your surroundings
Take your time to add new witchcraft skills to your belt