hocus pocus focus
Rituals for your inner witch, and the power of living woo-woo...
Hello sweet witches and wizards,
‘Tis the spookiest night of the year!
Halloween is upon us, and I’ve spent most of the day decorating salted chocolate cookies with icing sugar ghosts. Yay! Or should I say… Boo!
I love Halloween.
I love that adults dress up, just as kids do. I love that my neighbourhood is covered in giant cobwebs and decorative pumpkins. I love any and every excuse to be a little more witchy-woo.
Hocus Pocus
Halloween is mystical, magical and mythological in nature.
According to the OG Gaelic tradition (known as Samhain), the veil between the dead and alive is most thin on All Hallows’ Eve.
There are more spirits in the air (not necessarily evil or haunting, more connective and transcendent), making it easier for magicians, priests and soothsayers to divine the future. This was mega important for an agricultural society, where weather patterns and predictions could make or break a season and community.
Modern-day Halloween is a night to shapeshift (in my case, as Charli XCX) and play in a properly imaginative way. This can feel like medicine in an adult world dictated by grind, logic and the seriousness of late-stage capitalism (spooky!).
Your New Witchuals
I like to believe in some sort of spiritual world (maybe that’s the Piscean in me).
When I’m most in flow, it feels like Harry Potter on Felix Felicis, ‘liquid luck’, being guided by the wind and a hand more wise than my own. Each day has a renewed sense of magic, possibility and hope (harder to reach in your Luteal phase, I’ll admit).
There’s this wise witch in all of us!
Here are a few ways to get in touch with your own brand of Sabrina ~ from couch-level easy to blood-moon facials…
Watch Practical Magic (1998)
Perfect outfits, peak Sandra and Nicole power. And one of the best make-out scenes the world may ever see? Annual Halloween must-watch.
Eat something delicious, preferably dressed in black velvet
All treat, no tricks! This black sesame and chocolate cake is a favourite. As are Fiore’s chocolate-toffee-cornflake cookies.
Write down a dream, interpret it
Dream interpretation was a Samhain tradition. Keep a notepad next to your bed and write down your latest subconscious creation before interpreting it under a Jungian lens.1
Get a cat
I’m biased. But how fun to have a little spiritual sidekick! RSPCA forever.
Read Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers, by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
Written in 1972, Barbara and Deirdre explore how women were primary healers (as witches, midwives, doulas, mothers) before their autonomy and authority were undermined by the male-dominated medical establishment (i.e. doctors became superior to nurses).
Weaponising feminine intuition to enable pharmaceutical and patriarchal forces? Scary stuff.
“The witch-healer’s methods were as great a threat (to the Catholic Church, if not the Protestant ) as her results, for the witch was an empiricist: She relied on her senses rather than on faith or doctrine, she believed in trial and error, cause and effect. Her attitude was not religiously passive, but actively inquiring. She trusted her ability to find ways to deal with disease, pregnancy and childbirth—whether through medications or charms. In short, her magic was the science of her time.”
Find your own witchy ritual
It can be as simple as making a herbal tea with extra intention, or swimming at high tide or on a full moon (my go-tos). Pulling tarot, reading your horoscope, meditating on a memory or past love, connecting to ancestors or elders, having dinner with your chosen coven or communing with a pet ~ all witchy!
Some more ideas from four of my favourite witches women:
“When I get to a new place, if I’m travelling, I try to physically connect with the ground, to put my bare feet or hands on it and imagine energy flowing down and connecting in an energetic sense, subconsciously but intentionally. I annually scream underwater, and let the stress be alchemised and taken away by the sea. I talk to the sea too, with my spirit ~ different seas in different countries feel and sound different. When I’m performing, I’ll imagine grounding roots of light, anchoring into the Earth and into the sky… I’m actually just realising how much of a witch I am 😂” – Em
“I fixate on a craft for hours. I go to the ocean and shake my body under the water. I write letters to different body parts. I pretend I can garden and talk to the plants” – Jaimie
“Small herbal bonfires, dancing in the rain (very cathartic), prayers to the great spirit. Menstrual blood face masks under the full moon (maybe a touch too hardcore of a joke… But this feels like a safe space hahah)” – Isabella (From The Balcony)
“I have a thing with spiders. I haven’t killed a spider in ages after learning about how many cultures consider them to be super-wise, mystic creatures. So we have a very strict catch and release policy for spiders (which is entirely my job ha). And if I’m afraid of the spider, I just think about sending love to the spider in my heart and thanking it for its wisdom and saying you’re welcome for freeing it back to its rightful home (the outdoors)” – Samie
Babes 👆
May your Hallows’ Eve be delicious.
May your rituals bring you well-being, peace, a sleep-in or the love of your life!
Your friendly neighbourhood witchy-woo,
Sarah xo
p.s. Listen to this.
ChatGPT, unfortunately, does a good job of this (just ask it to use a Jungian lens).
Hey, great read as always. Loved the history of Samhain and how it became Halloween. The "thinner veil" concept is fascinating, like a temporary server upgrade for spirits? Makes me wonder about their data protocols. So much for 'ghost in the machine' being just a metaphor.