Getting Your Mojo Back: Beat the Blahs with Elemental Witchery
[Disclaimer: None of this constitutes medical advice. I’m a witch, not a doctor. I’m not even a witch doctor. If you are unsure about the herbs suggested or really can’t kick an illness or depression, please seek medical attention. However, I do hope you enjoy this article on getting your mojo back!]
Magick is a highly energetic endeavor. While some people ascribe to an “energy only” model, many of us enjoy pyrotechnics, chanting, potion making and various, untold witchery. It speaks to our witches’ hearts and allows us to raise and direct energy better.
But witch, you do you, either way. No matter the form of witchery, even if it’s squiggles in a notebook, raising energy is the price of admission. For those of us with chronic illness, or even those of us who have just recovered from a nasty cold (or BOTH) energy is in short supply. So how do we witch in this condition?
The answer is: we can’t. Not well anyway. Not until we properly shed what’s sheddable and reinvigorate our vital energy.
Smoke Cleansing for Better Mojo
This may seem like a no brainer but smoke cleansing is the first step of getting your mojo back if illness has seemingly zapped it. Most people who have adopted the nomenclature “witch” have at least a bundle or two of sage hanging around. They are easy enough to find. But bundles of many herbs tied with string seem to work. This is not your standard woo. Scientific studies have backed up the health benefits of burning herbs in close proximity to one’s body. If you’ve been sick and you’re ready to get to work at your cauldron, make sure you smudge first! If smoke is a definite no-no, try making a sprayable smudge hydrosol and use water imagery while visualizing.
I like to combine visualization techniques with smudging and I imagine the gooey remnants of my illness. I try to get a good picture of them and then I dissipate that picture with the smoke until nothing remains. At this point, I smell like a smoked Thanksgiving turkey but I feel many shades lighter. There are many herbs other than sage we can use for smoke cleansing. I like cedar because it grows abundantly around me. Rose, rosemary, lavender, mugwort, and copal are also excellent choices. But smoke cleansing is only the first step. Sometimes the illness drains the vital energy that makes witchery possible at all. Positive activities are necessary to refuel the fires.
Mojo on the Rocks
One witchy way to bolster your energy is to find some warming gemstones and meditate while holding them (or sleep with them, carry them around, bathe with them, sing to them, or however it is you connect to your gemstones). Carnelian is my favorite option for the stoking of that witch’s fire (or creative energy, sexual energy or anything else of the sultry nature). Find a nice raw one that looks like the setting sun. There are lots of options such as fire agate, peach moonstone, orange aventurine, citrine and amber. You can use any stone that you connect to and that makes you feel energized. The important thing is to bond the stone’s energy to your own. I use scarves to place stones on my body in a comforting way. Keep it with you as much as possible. Sleep with it next to you if possible.
A Nice Cuppa Witch's Fire
Because energy is in short supply when you’re sick, it helps to prepare for the eventuality in advance by collecting and charging solar herbs that you keep ready at hand for when your inner fire has receded to embers of its former self. Ginger is by far the best herb for this purpose because it’s undeniably warming, It’s also good for the belly and lungs so it can help with the healing of flu, chest colds and other stomach bugs. Other solar herbal allies to help you reinvigorate include: orange peel, cardamom, rosemary, heliotrope (long-term use is not advised), calendula (marigold), rose hips, bay laurel and cloves. Each has both a medicinal and medical use that cleave together for the purpose of stoking the flame of your witch’s fire.
You can charge your favorite blend on your altar or let it absorb some sunshine! If your witchcraft isn’t all that herbal, you can use a good quality, commercially prepared chai tea, especially one that contains ginger. For full effect, if you are preparing for future use, charge the herbs with your healthy vital energy. Consecrate too, if appropriate. Infuse for 10 -15 minutes for leaf or make a decoction for roots. Drink 3 times a day with an incantation such as: Cuppa cuppa sunny brew, warm my body through and through. Stoke my inner cauldron flame and make my energy burn bright again. Make it so. (or whatever your directive is).
Inner Fire By Candlelight
An energetic cleansing is a great way to reinvigorate your inner fire. I like doing this with a simple candle cleanse.
Prepare a beeswax votive candle or even a beeswax birthday candle. If you would like, dress the candle in some nice, solar EOs. I recommend using almond or jojoba as a carrier oil with frankincense and mandarin (or some other type of orange). It smells like liquid happiness. If you are feeling festive, add some Melissa Officianalis oil. Reserve some oil for anointing your chakras, especially your solar plexus. When you are ready, light the candle and hold it in front of you, just close enough that you can feel some of its warmth. If you are using a votive, you don’t have to burn the whole thing. Snuff it when it’s done and repeat anytime you need an energy cleanse. Use the following meditation.
Let your breathing become measured but loose and gaze into the flame. Activate your inner flame. This means that you allow a warmth to arise from your core to through your body to the surface of your skin. Let it feel warm. Let it get as hot as you can get it. When you feel it is sufficiently hot, visualize it move into the heart of the candle. Watch it form a grayish blotch. Gaze at it until the flame starts to consume the grayness and the blotch begins to energetically match the flame. Breathe it back into your body and repeat until your flame matches the candle flame.
When you are ready, say to the to the flame “I take my energy back! My witch’s flame is fully recharged!” Imagine the energy traveling back into your body and rest in your belly for later use. This should be intense and take about five minutes.
An Everyday Witchcraft Healing Spell
If you want to seal the deal, put all of these steps together in order to energize your inner fire! But don’t be afraid to use these things a la cart while you are sick, especially the potion!
First, cleanse with your cleansing herb of choice. Prepare your tea, candle and assemble your gemstones. When you are ready, sit in front of your altar or in whatever space you consider sacred.
- Connect with the gemstone(s). You can put it near you or tie it to yourself with a scarf.
- Anoint your chakras with the oil you used to dress the candle
- Incant the charm and then drink the potion/tea
- Gaze into the candle to purify your fire
If you hail Hekate, you might want to use some of her epithets. Painios, Healer, Heiros Pyre, Holy Fire and Ergatis, Enegizer are ones I like to use to help ignite my inner fire. Find many more epithets and their sources on the Tumblr page Singing for Her. This is not necessary, of course. Whatever deity you work with can help you in this endeavor.
Repeat this spell as necessary. It’s also great for depression!
