I’m so glad you have joined us, Kayla, I’m Marsha, an Eclectic Solitary Witch, from Colorado. I’ve always asked a lot of questions!
Of course, I have ups and downs, but my life is blessed! I think of abundance as Treasures of the Heart not my bank account, and I have many! Yes, my needs are met in one way or another always! And yes, money is there when I need it. I have been a witch since I was… 5 or 6! As a young woman, I had a vision of beautiful energy flowing from the palms of my hands, so my adventure into learning alternative healing began! I also use Magick Potions (Essential Oils) for healing. I love learning new things, and I’m still learning as my journey continues.
It’s fascinating that you have asked so many questions in your introduction! I am looking forward to getting to know you better, Kayla, and always, keep asking questions!
I’m Katerina. I reside in Australia with my partner and two lovely cats. My journey began in earnest only this year, and I became active in this coven at the end of August. So I’m definitely not long-time… But I suppose I have some thoughts.
I don’t aim to have a joyful, abundant life, I aim to have a fulfilling one. It might sound like semantics, but I find there is a big difference between the two. On a very basic level, joy is an elated feeling, fulfillment is a calmer feeling. Fulfillment is about having done and achieved things I am proud of, while joy is about feeling good in the moment. And I don’t need abundance to have a fulfilled one.
My needs aren’t always met, but there’s no space for growth and improvement if they are. There’s nothing to strive for or be challenged with. I’m not saying this in a way that supports a survival social structure – I would love a post-scarcity world where everyone’s needs are met. But I think even in that scenario, we will create problems in terms of play to ensure that we don’t become entitled and lose our motivation to strive for something and live.
I don’t always have money when I need it, but that’s not relevant to witchcraft, I find. Witchcraft is one of the things that has given me confidence, which helps. I also have an Etsy store selling tarot readings so, in a sense, I do connect money to practice. But it’s not the point, if that makes sense.
I have healing when I need it, but neither is that solely a witchcraft thing – my partner and friends are wonderful, and I’ve have some good psychologists, too. The people in my life have helped me come to terms with ASD, ADHD, and PMDD, and my witchcraft, in practice, is more like a balm for these things I’ve discovered and worked on with others.
It probably sounds strange for me to say all this, considering that I tend to walk the left-hand path, working with Hekate, Lilith, Lucifer, and his demons. But working with demons isn’t about greed or gaining things for myself, anyway. I wrote a bit about how I got into deities in the first place here:
I’m Kat and am currently located in North Carolina. I found the practice over 20 years ago but lost my way for a while. I found my way home a couple of years ago and shortly thereafter found this amazing group of people!! I am a fairly eclectic Green witch with a deep interest in tarot, runes, herbalism, and moon magic. My deities are Artemis (she’s been with me since the beginning), The Morrigan, and Hekate, a recent guide in my life.
I would say that by no means is my life perfect or bliss but I do find that magick has brought me more peace, solace, motivation, and happiness into my life than I had previously!
I was just talking to my family about this the other day! We were talking about happiness, and one of the ideas that came up was that we should strive to be happy all the time. Then the question was brought up about if we wished that we would be happy all the time. My thought was no, I wouldn’t want to be happy all the time. If everything was great all the time, then joy and happiness would lose meaning. We would have no recollection of what it meant to be without joy and happiness, so eventually I think we would get discontent and bored!
I find a great practical way to test this is by eating your favourite food for every meal. You would have to keep increasing the flavour to keep it enjoyable, until it comes to the point where nothing can improve it, and you’re feeling empty, despite being at the peak of the mountain of sensation.
I had an interesting interaction with my father’s girlfriend when she bought us some brown sugar pearl milk teas one time. She told me to not shake it, because then it wouldn’t taste like anything if we did. Then she walked away.
My partner and I looked at each other like, !
At the bottom of the cups was nothing but the pure brown sugar syrup. If we didn’t shake the drinks and you’re supposed to, the flavour from that would explode our heads. I mean, to the point that our mouths would feel gross and our stomachs would feel sick. But to her, that was the only thing she could taste. She was completely desensitised to taste of sugar!
Meanwhile, my partner and I enjoy Carolina reapers in our food.
I’d worry I was the same, if I didn’t fully enjoy every tiny grain of flavour in things without chilli at all or with very small amounts of a mild one.
I think that’s a good way of putting it. It’s like desensitization, almost. Bad things may suck, but I find that it helps me appreciate the better things as long as I take time to remember them!
and welcome home 
@kayla11
and magick 
always
!