You may have heard about using malas before.
They are basically an intentional meditation necklace or directly translated from Sanskrit, meditation garland (which I’ll describe more about later).
But I got started thinking (and that’s when all the wisdom of your intuition floods in right?) about the innate power, you generate while working with them let alone wearing them on you.
You are basically carrying the energy of your intentional practice with you throughout the day and continuing to harmonize with it. If you practice every day you even recharge these intentions and amplify them.
Image Credit: Yoga Journal
Little History of The Mala
As much as the roots of Japa meditation come from the practices of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and yoga we can tailor this practice to amplify our intentions and bring something forth into manifestation.
First, what is Japa meditation and what is a mala?
Typically a mala is created out of 108 beads. This is no random number and is quite intentional for many reasons.
First of all, it unites the Sun and the Moon to the Earth. This is because the average distance of the Sun to the Earth is **108 times ** its diameter. The same goes for the diameter of the Moon to the Earth as well.
Within the Sanskrit language, there are 54 letters each having a feminine and masculine form. Therefore totaling to 108 as well.
You can also break down the symbolism behind each of the numbers 108 such as 1 being the higher power, 0 being the sacred void, and 8 representing infinity.
The garland is traditionally made out of organic materials such as seeds, crystals, wood, but most traditionally Rudraksha and Bodhi seeds. You can see mala beads now made with specific crystals that can help support a certain intention you want to bring into your life or attune yourself to.
The traditional practice of Japamala meditation is to recite a mantra with each bead in your hand. Some malas are made out of 109 beads which includes a bead at the bottom called the “guru” bead. Here you would set the intention for you practice and not count it in your mantra repetitions.
If you are a visual learner, here you can find a video, to explain more about working with mala meditation in the traditional sense.
Otherwise… the mantras you would repeat depend on what energy you want to focus on or attune yourself to embody by placing your deep focus on it. Learn about the Siri Gaitri Mantra here.
Modern Witch Mala Practice
This is the part where I started realizing how much more I can customize Japa meditation to support my individual path and manifestation work. Think about it, when you cast a spell it is such an intimate practice.
I couldn’t picture anything more intimate than carrying around the vessel used to bring forth my intentions in my energy field all day. The beautiful practice of spell casting and intention setting is how it empowers you to use your intuition and make the customizations you resonate with to command something into your physical reality.
The practice is to use your mala as a surrogate or vessel to anchor in the energy you are looking to manifest or call in. Whether this is opening your heart or calling in a dream job, the mala can become attuned to the energy of this. Therefore by holding it in your energy field you continue to harmonize and connect to it all day.
Image Credit: Meandannabelle
1. Charge Your Mala Overnight
You can incorporate placing your mala on your altar at night intentionally for it to soak in a specific energy that you will carry the next day.
If you want some ideas you can use:
You can do this by setting the intention to fill the mala with the energy of the spell so you can attune to it throughout the day. Consider incorporating certain crystals, sprinkling different herbs on your mala, using your voice to cast a spell it will exude around you, and lighting specific candles while your mala charges up.
2. Modern Witch Japa Meditation
For this practice start at the guru bead or bottom of the mala. You will open sacred space and set the intention for everything to align for your best possible outcome and then you can practice two different ways.
First way involves visualization. Hold all of the mala beads between your two hands. Sit in a comfortable position and visualize a situation you would like to manifest, a version of you you’d like to embody, or a feeling you want to feel.
Incorporate as many senses as you can in the visualization. How does it smells where you are? Any physical sensations? Don’t rush soak into it. Focus on letting the emotions build up inside you and as they fill your body, your mala becomes filled as well.
If you find yourself visualizing a scene and you become distracted repeat the visualization until you can see and feel it all the way through. Take your time here.
Whenever you are ready to close the practice circle your fingers around the mala from the guru bead all the way back to the guru bead on the other side and hold it in your fingers filling yourself and the mala with gratitude for this manifestation being your reality.
I suggest performing this once and then trusting the process to manifest for your highest good in divine timing. When you obsessively repeat practices typically this is done from a place of fear that it won’t manifest rather than embodying the knowing that it will.
Second practice is work with affirmations that you want to embody like a mantra. After setting your intention on the guru bead hold each bead in your finger and speak an affirmation into it either mentally or aloud.
You can pick the affirmations intuitively and call forth the you that you wish to embody or stick to one in particular. Another option is to repeat a short spell in each bead which as you can imagine will supercharge the mala.
Once you return to the guru bead close your practice with gratitude and picture the energy of your words flowing and circulating throughout the mala. Then once you wear it you will continue to attune to this energy. This can be a daily practice too if you choose to do so,
Affirmation ideas:
- Abundance comes to me easily
- I am a powerful creatrix/creator who is living their most satisfying reality
- I am love
- I am blessed enough to create work that is deeply meaningful to me and financially blesses me
- I attract all the manifestations of love
I hope you enjoy this practice!
I am curious, have you worked with malas before?
Is there any part of this that you already see yourself customizing to fit your own intuition or spells?
I Wish You Blessed Creating 
I have not worked with malas yet. It is a possibility. I think I haven’t worked with them bc I had no idea what to do with them.
One of my challenges with meditating (and all the time, honestly 
) is with focus. I think using mala beads to help ground and anchor you to your intent is a fantstic practice. I really think having something physical to hold while meditating would help to keep any anxious thoughts tethered and less distracting 
. This is a great way to frame anxiety positively and also to invite some gratitude (and all the good energy appreciation brings) in your day. I love it! 
It’s a nonprofit organization established under the auspices of the Tibetan Women’s Association and the Department of Religion and Culture of H. H. the Dalai Lama and is dedicated to educating and supporting nuns in India from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages.
