Preparing for Magick and Casting a Circle

Witchy Wisdom
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I’ve come back to the Craft after a number of years and recently joined a coven. Even though we have an outer court and an inner court, I have found that what I learned previously about cleansing was omitted! I am going to write how I prep for magical works before casting and please tell me what you all do.

  1. A witch’s house is their sanctuary. I learned as a child to put everything in order, pay bills, clean and organize and removed mundane distractions.
  2. Once the house is in order, take a shower. This shower is to physically cleanse you.
  3. Eat a light meal while waiting for the hot water to heat up! Drink less than one glass of wine or mead to relax yourself.
  4. Meditate for some time.
  5. Set up your altar, prep your cakes and wine and get it all together.
  6. Run a ritual bath: use salt water, lavender and any oils or herbs that resonate with your intentions. Old tale: sit in the bath and breathe in and relax letting go of the mundane. Once you are free, open the drain and let the water run out as you sit in the tub.
  7. Only slightly damp yourself dry but leave the salt on your body.
  8. Using Palo Santo (my fave) or Sage, sage the entire house respecting the four corners and in the name of the God and Goddess your usually invoke/evoke. “In the name of __ and ___ let all hindrances and malignities be henceforth cast from this sacred place.” Note that it is malignities not malignancies.
  9. Head close to your circle and sage yourself and your participants.
  10. Stand clear until everyone is purified and then begin the circle.

It seems like a lot, but your patron deities will respect you. My experience even alone in my circles is that I am elevated to a different plane when purified. When I am not, I seem to never get away from the mundane.

Blessed be,
Dylan Green (Marco)

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Welcome back @marco! I’m so happy you seem to have found a good rhythm for yourself & your practice.

While I don’t do some of those things, I do have a setup of sorts. I usually take a ritual shower/cleansing shower the day before or the day of & work on grounding & centering, spending time with nature. I make sure to do an energy cleanse/grounding/reset meditation.

I cleanse my space & self with Palo (also a fave of mine :star_struck:) or with sage. I make some of my own incense. The 2 that I have made are for my deities so when I am working with one of them, I will use their corresponding blend. If I am asking them both for assistance, I will use an incense stick of Palo, Sage, Lavender, or Dragon’s Blood.

I set up my altar with the items I would like to use & their placements & with my intention for each item. I always use at least 1 candle but have used up to 4 with their corresponding colors, deities, energy.

I choose a meditation to ground & center & quiet my mind so I can focus on the task at hand. I speak my intent as I go through my workings & let the candles & incense burn through to their ends. I put the ash from the incense in my smaller cauldron & if I used a stick, the remaining stick in a jar. I move the cooled candle holders to their home on my altar, but I leave the representations of my work. The crystals, jar, herbs, deities, offerings for at least 24 hours before I move them.

Anything in the chalice, gets returned to the earth in some way. If it is a type of water then I will choose a plant or area around my oak or a part of 1 of my gardens to empty into then cleanse the chalice. The herbs go into the stick jar if there are any left over. The crystals will get cleansed & charged after their ready to be removed. Other items go back to their homes, some are on my altar area just not the working area… that only has important things or commonly used things on it at all times.

I usually do a something to switch gears from what I just performed. Sometimes I have to lay down, sometimes it’s a shower then laying down, a meditation outside, just being outside & watching nature happen in my backyard.

(I have fires in my fire pit. I add things to the coals & fire to cleanse the pit & area before I do any releasing or gratitude. There’s a lot of energy that was hanging out in there from a lot of internal/shadow work/overcoming/grief… anyway… I keep those sticks & a herbs to place on the coals or in an aluminum foil pack with water to steam the herbs while we are having the fire.)

Edit My practice is chaotic right now & I am back to finding what works for me since the last 2 years of change & inner work. Things are starting to be enhanced & come together differently than before. This is what works for me though. I work with Brighid on a daily basis & I frequently work with the Morrigan when it comes to tough situations, inner work, ancestors… etc. They are like my balance between light/dark, yin/yang, inner work/healing those types of things. They let me know when I need to be paying attention or meet with them, which usually happens when I have a lot going on or I am overly stressed/anxious. If I don’t, I start feeling off & chaos ensues. I have learned that maintaining the balance is just as important as meeting with or giving gratitude to my deities.

My practice also involves magic in the mundane. So I have days where I may not doing anything necessarily “witchy” but I will do things to reconnect with nature & the cycles & for grounding myself when I feel floaty. This time of year that means walking around my neighborhood with no shoes most of the time. :laughing:

This is my experience, I’m sure others have a different way of doing things. I am in the process of bringing my practice back to some sort of routine or order. In the last 2 years, a lot has happened & my practice got a bit chaotic & I disconnected from some things. I’m slowly integrating the things I have learned & my intuition getting so much better into what works for me.

I do work with a lot of protection energy & workings because I know that I am unusually vulnerable at this time. Once I re-settle into my practice (new & improved :joy:), I’m sure that it will be easier in the long run for me, but I have used the mundane on the days that I don’t have time or just seem to be on the go from opening my eyes… to keep my connection to my practice so I don’t let it go by the wayside again.

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Greetings @marco,

It’s always a pleasure to hear from you- I’m glad you’re doing well and that you’ve built a beautiful practice for yourself! :heart:

Thank you for sharing your preparation- I can tell you put a lot of care and mindfulness into getting your mind, body, and the space fully ready to begin. I think that’s amazing! :sparkles:

For me, the prep work I do varies greatly depending on the type of work. When I meditate, I usually just tidy up the immediate space and make a comfy little spot before getting started- and that’s it! :person_in_lotus_position:

For smaller rituals, I don’t have a permanent altar so I begin with cleaning, purifying, and then setting up a small space to do a spell. I do the working, and then finish with spell cleanup, returning things to a functional space (such is the life of not having a small and impermanent living situation!). I also like to end or follow up later with a gratitude prayer.

I would love to move into more elaborate ritual work someday, and I think a full routine like what you have here with the cleansing and preparation sounds amazing! Thank you again for sharing and I’m excited to hear what others do for their pre-spell work prep too :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Blessed be! :sparkles:

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I really like that you make your own incense. I have been collecting resins and herbs but really need to find an accurate recipe book! Thanks also for your reply - it really gave me some additional ideas.

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