Witchcraft 101

In this episode, we are starting the conversation of walking the path of a Witch, and how to start your witchcraft. I will be sharing some tips to start this beautiful journey, questions to consider, and what I wish I had known before I had started on this path. 

The main themes and tips are:

• Considering what will change when you reclaim the Witch within you. What importance or meaning does this hold? These answers will be a natural driver on your path forward
• Research. Have a discerning, but open mind to learn, grow, and use what you find authentically in your witchcraft
• Start small. Cultivate some basic spells / rituals or connections that are easy to replicate, but feel gorgeous within your space. Your magick doesn't have to complicated or high maintenance
• Connect to tangible things. Learn about a few colors, crystals, etc. Use nature, the seasons, and ESPECIALLY THE MOON! These are immediate things you can use to start a beautiful practice.

Research links: (If you want all the links, the transcript, quotes, and layout, subscribe to the newsletter to get my EVERNOTE file)

The Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman by Danielle DulskyThe House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
The Modern Guide to Witchcraft: Your Complete Guide to Witches, Covens, and Spells by Skye Alexander
Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation by Silver Ravenwolf

My links

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to podcast
• 0:47 Introduction to Episode
• 6:00 Definitions of Witch / Craft
• 11:40 Considering what would change when you claim this back into yourself
• 17:22 Research. Research. Research
• 19:51 Start small
• 23:12 Connect through tangible means
• 27:43 End of episode

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: Hello there, wildling. Welcome to the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Here, we discuss topics in relation to the wild spirit, and we are rewriting the themes of wellness: 0:12

to include the spectrum of hallowed ground we claim within ourselves, and the haunted ground we conquer with reverence and honor. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf-child of Tea and Tombstones. With tarot cards in my hands, and a howl in my throat, I welcome you here. Hello there my dear spirit. Wherever you are at today, in this time, as we start to move into a new month, I hope you are well. I hope you are taking the monthly invitations from the monthly forecast of January, carving your path, creating solid grounded steps towards your thriving, what you desire, what you dream of, what is within your inner fire that burns and is hungry for, and taking those grounded steps to bring that into actuality and to manifest that in real time, in real spaces as you can. Today's episode is a little bit different. It's probably one that I should have done already, and I haven't and that's on me, but I'm so happy to be talking about this today. What we're going to be talking about is witchcraft, being a witch, what is that? This is a conversation that I'm so excited to be having, in all actuality, in all honesty. I'm so excited that I am having this conversation now with you even though I'm sitting here just talking to my microphone and my computer, I'm so excited that this is the podcast episode that I'm talking about. Because I asked on Instagram what you guys would like as a webinar, and most of you voted you would like things like witchcraft, tips, resources, tools, etc. And while I haven't put all of this into a webinar yet, because that's going to take a little time, but I am definitely committed to doing that, I decided that I first want to have this conversation here. So today we are going to be talking about what is witchcraft? What is being a witch, and how do you first come to this path, like if you want to go down this road of witchcraft, of being a witch, what are some of the first things you do to make that happen? I say this with a little bit of a grounded, or a humble seat of self here, because the word Witch is very loaded. I'm not also saying that the full way that I describe it here is the only way that you can engage with it. As with anything else that I discuss on the podcast, I invite you to take what resonates and to leave what doesn't. But words are their own spells. Words are magic. The word Witch is so potent and powerful in its magic, that I just want to remember within myself and remind here on the podcast, that there needs to be reverence and honor for the word. Now, I'm not saying that we need to gatekeep, and there has to be just a few certain ways that you can claim yourself as a witch. I would never claim to say that how someone should identify in their spiritual practice or in their spiritual rituals, in their magical rituals, or in their magical spells. What I am saying though, is that this is a word that is so layered, and it's so nuanced, that it's constantly evolving and changing and deepening even within me. I feel that that's probably the case for most people who really respect the path, is that this is not a one and done. You don't just walk through the door and come out the other side as a witch, and everything just kind of opens up from there. This is an evolving practice. It is one that is hopefully constantly asking you to look into yourself and to really see what resonates and to see what you connect to. So, in today's episode, we're going to be talking again about just some of the basic ways to start walking down the path of witchcraft, to start walking down the path of becoming a witch, and claiming that word. I will be mentioning a few different definitions in here. I cannot have this be a one and done podcast episode. This is going to be a recurring narrative because there's no way that I can include all of the information in to one podcast episode, so this is going to be a very brief introduction into some of the definitions. I will have the links for the things that I mentioned here in the show notes. I will say however that my Evernote file that I send out periodically to my newsletter subscribers is much more in depth. It has a breakdown of the definitions, including my definitions. Sometimes it includes quotes or excerpts from books or other things. It also includes the transcript, so if you would like a more full or a more in-depth link to the resources, to the layout of this podcast episode in general, I will have that in my Evernote file that I will be sending out at the end of this month to my subscribers, and if you would like that, I would definitely go ahead and subscribe to my newsletter, and then you will get that and then every newsletter that I send out after that. So I just wanted to mention that that I do include links to all of the things that I mentioned in the podcast episode, but my Evernote file that I send out periodically is just a little bit more in depth and a little bit more broken down in the information. So yeah, if you want that, go ahead and subscribe. So yeah, dear listener, grab your tea, or whatever you're sipping on, and let's sit and have a conversation about Witchcraft 101.

As always, I think that it is important to start with the definitions and to really get a sense of what these words mean, so that we can honor them that we can respect them. But before we get into some of the definitions that I think are important to know, I just want to say to not get bogged down by the definitions. Yes, the words are magic, yes, they are important and yes, we should respect them as we go down this path, but it can be very easy to let the words kind of trap us into this box of almost stagnation. Yesterday, as I was putting some of my notes together to have for this podcast episode, I was going through some of the different definitions and I just went down this rabbit hole of going from one definition to the next and then comparing, contrasting, and going to defining the words that were defining those words. So, what I came to after all of that is this: 6:09

that we need to use and respect the words, yes, but we should let the words ignite curiosity and further discovery instead of boxing us in to this place of understanding but that also stagnates curiosity or exploration or evolution in the process. One of the reasons why it is so easy to get lost and fall down this rabbit hole so hard of understanding, of nuance, and layers of meaning and definitions is because it is not a one size fits all here. No two witches are the same, are going to have the same beliefs, and that's the same for every person. If you put any sort of group of people together, no two people are the same. What makes being a witch, practicing witchcraft, being spiritual, or even just being Pagan, a little bit different is because there is no way to make a one-size-fits-all definition. So for example, some people believe that Paganism is a religion. Other people do not. There are Pagans that believe and work with the many different pantheons of gods and goddesses. There are Pagans like me, who work mostly with my patron goddess, which is Lilith. I will work with a few other goddesses or gods in there, but mostly my work is focused and grounded in working with Lilith. There are secular and atheist Pagans. There are Pagans that believe in a singular, monolithic consciousness, or a singular monolithic divine energy, divine spirit. This could be just titled Spirit capital "S." This could be God, and then there are some who work with the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine. So I've only been talking about this for a few minutes, and you can already see it how branched and nuanced this is, and it is the same with witchcraft, and with starting the path of claiming your Witch. I wouldn't say becoming, because I think we all have that energy within us, and it's just about calling that forward and claiming that for ourselves. So let's first just talk about before we go down the branched rabbit hole of the many different types of paths you can walk as a witch, let's just start with the bare bones definitions. I think that's a really great place to kind of ground and just kind of root ourselves into that understanding, even though it is so branched and it can go down the rabbit hole, I think that's a good place. And again, these links will be in the show notes and then if you subscribe, you will get the full shebang on my Evernote file. This first definition comes from the book A Modern Guide to Witchcraft, Your Complete Guide to Witches, Covens, and Spells by Skye Alexander. I have not fully read this book. I got this book for Christmas along with many other books, but I did find this definition in here and it's a really good one, and it says "A witch is someone who uses his or her power along with the natural laws of the universe to shape reality in accordance with his or her purposes." This definition comes from the book The Holy Wild, A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman by Danielle Dulski. I have mentioned this book many, many times. But in this book she says "I call you a witch to affirm your birthright as a holy healer to vindicate those socially rejected women who were hunted, who still are hunted in many parts of the world, in the name of not only patriarchy, but also institutionalized racism, classism, and persistent imperialism. I call you witch to give a fierce nod to our stolen feminine spirituality, and to give your wisdom a real name. Witches live on the edges of what is permissible, continually seeking out the fringes, and brewing up secret recipes of the holy wild as having countless earth-based religions and non-systematic spiritual traditions. Your inner witch remembers how to get home to those liminal places between honored guest and social outcasts, between queen and freak."

And this is my definition of witch: "someone who uses physical and energetic means to create change, shift awareness, and transform the self and the collective, internally and externally." A continuing theme that you're going to see across just these few definitions here, and any that you find in your own research, is that a witch is someone who manipulates energy and uses that energy towards a directed intention or towards a directed or desired outcome. The witchcraft is the doing of that. It is the physical action of that, even if there's no physical action. That's why in my definition, I mentioned both physical and energetic means, because sometimes your magick and calling in your witchcraft could be simply sitting in meditation or prayer. It could be just simply sitting outside and feeling and connecting to the elements, sitting outside in nature. So it is using physical and energetic means, and is directing all of that, manipulating that, protecting that, strengthening that towards a directed intention or outcome. That is witchcraft. So the first thing that I would invite for you, in starting to reclaim this identity, this archetype, these energies, this history and lineage into part of yourself, and starting to embrace and walk this path of a witch and claiming your witchcraft is to consider these two things: 10:44

what would change, and what does it mean? What would change even if like, you've never done a spell before, you've never read a magic book, by claiming this now, what would change internally, externally? What would change for you? And what is the meaning in that? And I will give you an example from my own life, because obviously, that's the one that I can speak to. There were a few precursor things that happened years before I ever claimed the identity of which back into my life. Things like going through my divorce, and having to realize the hard way that my sovereign power, and the intimate parts of myself, the gifts of myself, are non- negotiable for people who will not see it. It is non negotiable now. Things like having my very first poem published about Lilith leaving the Garden of Eden because she wouldn't submit to Adam, and then learning years later, that the celestial astral body of Lilith was present the night of my birth. I learned this when my friend was learning how to do birth charts and read astrology charts, and she wanted to get familiar with her software, and she knew that I had this poem published years before of Lilith, and so she pulled up my birth chart, pulled up the time and then she was like, "wow, the asteroid Lilith was present the night of your birth," and I was like, that's a little bit too much of a coincidence for me to just kind of write that off as nothing or happenstance or circumstance. These big synchronicities were starting to become apparent to me to something bigger than myself and to something magickal and spiritual and beyond the veil than just my physical world. And then the last was what I came to the Tarot. When I came to the Tarot, I felt utterly powerless. Some of that was still like, residual things that had happened to me, but a lot of it was just me, not recognizing that I had to come home to myself and really deal with some of my shit, and not run from myself anymore, you know? I had to come home to myself and tend to those sore spots. I had to say, "I am worthy, I am valuable. I am strong, I am capable, I'm beautiful. I'm all of these things." As I started to reclaim those parts of myself by going through the tarot, that was the bridge towards this path because I was like, I can no longer deny that I am capable of creating my life and directing it the way I want. And in that moment, what changed for me, when I really took on the identity of witch and started to really not go down just a path of tarot, but down the path of witchcraft, what changed for me was that I felt more powerful in my sovereignty than I ever have felt before. I also felt more humble and in surrender to to the interconnective threads of me to everything around me before. Like, I felt so fully in connection to people, places, things, nature, the world, the universe, I just felt so fully in connection and seen by the universe in that moment. And that's what changed for me is that I'm not fully alone in my life. These things in my life that are here with me at all times, I have things within me at all times, that I can use to direct my life towards what I want, and what I need, and what is good and right for me. So that's why I asked you to really consider what would change for you in your life. What would change, and it doesn't have to look anything like mine, that was just my own story, but what would change? What is the meaning in that? What is the deeper purpose or the deeper connection in that that really resonates and resides within you in that place that is sacred and beautiful? Because that right there, that meaning, that purpose, that connection is going to be the driving force for you embracing and walking the path of witchcraft. As I say all the time, it's not a destination. It's a journey. It's a process. If you start to really work and embrace and walk this path and work with this identity, having that grounded understanding of the value and the meaning is going to be what directs you towards what feels right, and what feels most in connection for you towards what you want, and what you need. That value and that meaning is going to be a natural driver, in how doors and paths start to open for you as you embrace the path of being a witch and your witchcraft. It's just going to naturally start to call in things. So for me with my own rewilding, that I just mentioned, that has naturally opened up narratives of exploration, of discovery, and that's why I talk so heavily about it on my platform. It's why my personal life, I really try to advocate for connecting back to nature. I try to focus on lessening my carbon footprint. All of these things, I try to focus on that personally and professionally because that is how I really embrace the path of my witchcraft, and that is how I embrace myself as a witch.

So when you start to understand what the value is, and what the meaning is for you, and reclaiming this identity and walking this path, that's going to be a natural driver, and where you are directed and guided towards other paths, resources, peoples, things and energies that will allow that to continue to bloom. The next tip that I want to share in this Witchcraft 101, and some tips and helping you start to embrace this identity and embrace and walk this path in an authentic way is to research. Research, research, research. I cannot emphasize this enough, because other than like what we just talked about with your values, your connections, your meaning, and why this is so important to you, researching the different paths of witchcraft, and there are so many, is going to help you discern and decide what is right, appropriate or authentic for you. So for example, the very first witchcraft book that I think I ever bought, was this book: Solitary Witch: 17:14

the Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation by Silver RavenWolf, who is a very well known author and speaker. She is a Wiccan High Priestess and clan head of the Black Forest family that includes 28 covens around North America, I'm just reading off the back of the book here. And when I first started reading this book, I was just like yes to everything, like all of this is right. All of this is beautiful and perfect, and then the more I started to read with a discerning mind, still an open mind, but also a discerning mind, and then I read some other books on Wicca, I decided that this is not the right path for me. This is not how I want to engage in my witchcraft. It just doesn't feel right. For many other witches, Wicca is absolutely the true and right path. So it is through researching and through discerning and also being open, that you will start to find the path or the paths that are right for you. It is through research and through being open to books, podcasts, YouTube channels, speakers, events, that you will start to see if you fall more into embodying an eclectic witchcraft path, a hedge witchcraft path, a green witchcraft path. If you want to incorporate some from some of these different traditions, it is through research that you will really start to take on the knowledge and the use that you are given through this research and make it your own in your path, in your rituals, in your spells, in your divinations and just in your physical life. And just to put a little asterix in that, I think it's also just a little bit of an important reminder here to also consider where we need to not appropriate, where we need to not do harm to other spiritual traditions and just take them on because we did the research on him, that's obviously not right as well. So the research is so important, but it's important to be rooted in a sense of what is right and what is revering and honoring but also what is just plain out appropriating.

Another tip that I have for starting out on this path, embracing your identity and archetype, and bringing that back into yourself and embracing your witchcraft and walking that path, or even if you're just want to kind of come back into it, which I feel like is where I'm at a little bit, and that's a different topic for a different day, but one of the things that I wish I knew when I first started this was to start small. The reason I say that is this, yes, research, as I just said, research, research research, because you want to cultivate as much knowledge as you can. However, I say that also knowing that when I first started, I was reading so much, that I started to feel very overwhelmed. It was hard to discern where all of the knowledge I was bringing in ended and where my own authentic witchcraft began. Research as much as you can. Cultivate as much knowledge as you can, but also start small. One of the things that I wish I had done, when I first started casting my spells was to have three basic spells: 20:04

a protection spell, a manifesting spell, and a releasing spell. And I don't use basic as like a bad word. I mean, have a good ass protection spell, one that you use for yourself, for your home, if you have an office, and you want to cultivate protection and security for your co workers, for your clients, if you want to do it around your car, things like that. Have a good ass protection spell. Have a good ass manifesting spell of calling out and sending out what you want to manifest for your wants and needs. Have a good ass releasing spell that feels like when you were done, you have done all that you can. You've released the energy. You've moved through this kind of bottleneck, and you come out the other side into this expansion. So start small. That is going to help you still cultivate knowledge, cultivate this understanding that you didn't have or you wouldn't have without going to these resources and learning about them, but it will also help you learn how you naturally flow in your witchcraft. For instance, one of the reasons that I learned early on that Wicca was not the right path for me, and my witchcraft is because Wicca tends to be pretty formulaic, and I tend to be pretty down and dirty in my witchcraft. I mean, it's just true. That's just kind of how I operate. I do things kind of off the cuff. I do things organically. I will say things externally; I do cast my circle, and I do call the corners, but I'm not reading a script because I tend to trip up on my words if I'm reading from a script, so when I'm saying things from just an organic place, from the gut, it tends to just feel better for me. So when you start off small, and you still bring in the knowledge and the resources that you've learned about and cultivated, you're bringing all that in and creating layers and nuance, and maybe new depth to your witchcraft practice, but by starting small, you can start to get a handle on some of the basics, and then use the knowledge to build out from there and learn what is right, what is authentic for you and your witchcraft. One thing that I want to emphasize before I move to the final point I want to share is that casting spells is not the only form of witchcraft that you can do. So if casting spells does not feel right for you, or if that is not viable option, my last tip would be to connect to tangible things. So this is why I mentioned working with things like colors, crystals, candles, music, and also I would put a heavy emphasis on things like working with nature. Now if you don't have immediate access to nature, to a park, to a backyard, and you feel weird in some of those public spaces, which I totally get, I do not like that either, you can connect to things like the seasons, or the one that we kind of all share and that you can immediately work with is the moon. The moon is probably one that I would heavily, heavily emphasize in bringing in when you're starting off small because when you learn the phases of the moon and you learn what to work with, how you want to embrace a full moon ritual, say versus a new moon ritual, that is you again, starting small and starting to learn how you naturally flow in those spaces. So if you don't want to cast spells again, if that's not a viable option, work with the moon because there are so many different times where you can connect to the moon, take the energies if it's a full moon or if it's a waning moon, a waxing moon, a first quarter moon, you can take those energies, bring them into your witchcraft and create some beautiful fucking magic.

One of the other things that I really have had to unlearn and I wish I learned when I was first starting out was that your witchcraft does not have to be complicated. It does not have to be high maintenance and that was what I thought it had to be. So I was trying to do all these different things with my witchcraft when I was first starting out and I'm still unlearning some of that right now, and like coming back to basics and coming back to what feels right for me. To recap the points that I mentioned before I close out this episode. The first is: 24:40

what would change in reclaiming the energies, the identity, and the archetype of witch for you, and where is the importance in that, because that is going to help direct you based on what is within your values, what is within that meaning for you. It's going to help provide such an important narrative for you going forward in your witchcraft, because it's all based on what changed when you reclaimed that energy, that archetype, and then how it moves you based on what is important for you. The second is research. Read, find podcasts, YouTube channels, events, covens if that feels right, documentaries, movies, all of these things. Find them and start to cultivate that knowledge because that is going to help you really understand what feels right for you and what doesn't feel right for you in embodying the path and the practice of witchcraft. The third thing is start small. Your spells or your rituals, your celebrations, do not have to be complicated. They do not have to be big, and if spells are not something you want to do, or they are not available to you, then work with tangible things. Work with colors, crystals, music, dance. Work with the seasons. Work with nature, and especially, work with the moon. All of these tangible things are a great way to start small, and they're a great way to build on. So start with those things to build a solid foundation for your witchcraft, and go from there. And again, it's a continuing journey. It's an ever evolving journey. Hopefully it is one that just invites in more curiosity, more exploration, more play, more love, and more power into your life, both in the physical and in the magickal. I want to thank my patrons, Lisa Zimmerman, Bobbie McDiarmid, Deb Guy, and Nicole Smith, thank you all so much for your support in Tea and Tombstones. It means the world to me. And to you, my dear listener, thank you so very much. I hope this was helpful. I just want to emphasize that this narrative can be of help even if you're a seasoned witch. I know that for me just coming back to the basics sometimes can really help especially like if you're in a dry spell, like I am right now with my witchcraft, or if you just kind of need to return back to the roots, come back to the foundation and connect to that. I know that is something that I need to do often. So even if you're a seasoned witch, I hope that these tips here will provide something for you, provide some insight and create some impact for you in your continuing witchcraft and in going forward. So thank you all so much for listening and for letting me into your day and until next time, take care bye. Thank you for listening and for letting me into your day. If you liked this podcast and you enjoy the content of Tea and Tombstones, please like the show, rate it on iTunes, continue to listen to past and future episodes, and share with someone who would enjoy these fierce discussions. These are the best ways to show your support and it is greatly appreciated. If you would like to work with me in services of tarot guidance and spiritual allyship, please click the link in the show notes to be directed to my store and Services page. Consider becoming a patron so you get an extra card every month, resources for the affirmation, and physical products that coincide with that third monthly card. Finally come find me and say hi on Instagram. Keep howling my wild one!