👁️‍🗨 Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Honing Your Magickal Senses

[BryWisteria]

Merry meet!

Thank you once again to all those who joined in for last week’s Weekly Witchy Challenge - Catch-Up

The challenge clock has started once again- so open your eyes, unclog your ears, and listen up, as we are off with challenge #171!

The theme for this week’s challenge was suggested by the lovely @georgia and is…

Your Magickal Senses

Whether it is for casting directed spells or during practices such as grounding and centering, magick requires a focused intention. As a practitioner focuses, this draws their attention to what they are doing- letting go of distractions to listen and be more aware of the sensations they are experiencing and manifesting

While mundane awareness is usually limited to the five physical senses (sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste), casting magick involves being aware of what many call a “Sixth Sense”- a sense or way to perceive things beyond the mundane.

As such, many practitioners find ways to hone and develop their senses- both the physical five senses and those that sense beyond the physical world. Practicing these sensory skills can clear blockages, increase your intuitive powers, made meditation easier, and add greater depth to your magickal experiences, among other benefits!

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This week’s challenge is all about your magickal senses - how you choose to take on this theme is up to you!

So are you ready? Because it’s…

CHALLENGE TIME!

Picture from Canva

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STEP 1 : Which Senses Do You Use in Your Craft?

This challenge is all about magickal senses - but as always, how you choose to take on this theme is up to you!

Still not sure where to begin? To help you get started, here are a few ways in which a witch might approach this challenge.

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The Five Physical Senses

Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are the five senses that allow us to perceive the physical world. These senses are often explored through meditation and other awareness practices, helping us to ground ourselves within the moment. Consider exploring one or more of these senses as your entry this week!

Smell: Magickal Incenses and Perfumes

Taste: Kitchen Witch Blends

Touch: The Practice of Earthing

Sound: Songs for Spellcasting and Meditation

For more ideas, consider reading the entries shared by fellow Coven members in the previous Scent Magick Challenge and Sound Magick Challenge

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The Other Senses

Your “Sixth Sense” or other senses are defined as any other ways to perceive beyond the five physical senses. They are often classified as the “Clairs”:

@marsha

“Clairs” are also known as Clair senses, psychic senses, or having a 6th sense.

• Clairvoyance: Psychic seeing or clear seeing
• Clairaudience: Psychic hearing or clear hearing
• Clairsentience: Psychic feeling or clear feeling
• Clairalience: Psychic smelling or clear smelling
• Clairgustance: Psychic tasting or clear tasing
• Claircognizance: Psychic knowing or clear knowing

These refer to experiencing sensations that go beyond physical perception such as visualization (magickal seeing), intuition (magickal feeling), deity communication (magickal talking) and other forms of experiences that are not entirely physical.

Feel free to explore your intuitive powers/“Clairs”/other magickal sensory abilities for your entry this week!

How to Develop Your Intuitive Abilities

Simple Techniques to Develop Your Intuition

Visualizing: How to Have Clear Visualizations

How to Meditate: Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

Related discussions and resources:

• 23 Senses, Not 5
• Another CLAIR?
• What are the Clairs? Exploring Clairalience
• Empaths and “Clair” abilities
• Hearing voices while falling asleep - Hypnagogic clairaudience
• Trust Yourself and Your Intuition
• Is it intuition (or anxiety)?

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… And More!

The suggestions above are just a few ideas to help kickstart your creativity- if you feel called to explore senses in magick in another way, please feel free to do so!

As always, all witches are encouraged to embrace their own unique practice with how they explore the challenge theme

From Oprah: Intuition 101: Developing Your Clair Senses

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STEP 2 : Share Your Experience

Click here for a note about challenge inclusivity

Everyone is welcome to join the challenge by practicing magick in line with the current theme. For lurkers and those who don’t feel comfortable sharing, it is absolutely okay to follow along with the challenge but keep your entry personal. Feel free to join in spirit and do what feels most comfortable for you!

That being said, please know that if you would like to receive a prize and a public shout-out, it is required that you share your experience.

Getting Your Credit

In order for your entry to be counted, all you have to do is write/share about your experience and label it as your challenge entry. There is a lot of chatting here (which is awesome- chatting and discussion are very welcome!) so please clearly write that it is your entry so I know to count it!

Where Should I Share My Entry?

Click here to learn where to share your challenge entry

You are welcome to post it right here- just click “reply” to this post and write your experience in the text box that pops up!

Alternatively, you could create a new post in the forum (this is good for when you have a lot to share and/or would like to discuss aspects of your entry not related to the current theme)

Note : If you do choose to create a new thread, please add the “challenge-entry” tag and/or add a hyperlink back to this post so that it can be easily found- thank you!

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Deadline

This challenge will close in 6 DAYS

To join in, please share your experience by:

Tuesday, November 21 at 7:00 AM EDT (Eastern US Time)
2023-11-21T12:00:00Z

(Note that the time zone is ET- if you don’t see your time displayed above, you can use this time zone calculator to check for your time zone!)

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Prizes

For their efforts, all participants will receive a special shout-out and a small prize!

Acknowledgments will be given in a Props and Presents Post that will appear in the forums on Tuesday.

After the challenge closes, you are still very welcome to post but please be aware that no additional prizes will be given. This discussion will remain open for about a week after the challenge finishes.

Picture from Pixabay

A warm reminder that the challenges are designed to be very open- everyone is encouraged to participate in a way that honors and reflects their unique practice

If you have any doubts about if something is acceptable to post or say, please double-check with the Forum FAQ and/or reach out to your friendly Moderator Team.

And for those new to challenges- welcome! Know that the goal of these activities is to help you further diversify and strengthen your abilities and to bring together the Spells8 forum family to inspire and support one another in creative ways

Picture from Canva

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Smell, touch, taste, sound and sight-
Heed them well and they’ll lead you right.
But go beyond and you’ll find much more-
That’s what your magickal senses are for!

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Blessed Be!

[tracyS]

I would say my main psychic senses are: Clairsentience (Loki’s always shoving me around ) and Claircognizance (knowing) my intuition is pretty spot on, problem is sometimes I don’t like what it says, then I ignore it, and well, it all goes belly up .

This will be an interesting challenge, looking forward to everyones experiences

[Artemisia]

Hmmmmm this is one I’m going to have to mull over what I can do for a challenge. I suppose I’ll do that during my run here in a bit, otherwise, I’ll just let it sit in the Thinking Stage and never get going on it until the day it’s due! gh

[AIRAM]

challenge-entry
I was discussing a topic with my partner
I suddenly grabbed his arm
I felt a jolt and…I saw images…
I saw the event we were talking about but also his subsequent course and of course how he behaved in the midst of it…
After a few days, exactly what I had seen happened…
and this has happened repeatedly…
insight?
intuition?
who knows…

[starborn]

The second I read the title, my brain was like, "Ah… Another one where I’ll need to make a new topic just to contain all my words. I CAN’T WAIT. "

@tracyS

problem is sometimes I don’t like what it says, then I ignore it, and well, it all goes belly up

Okay, but watch this perspective jugglery.

This shows that you’re a true devotee to the path of chaos, intentionally creating chaos even when you don’t have to because you know the path towards order and choose to not take it.

[tracyS]

@starborn

(Image BBC Doctor Who)

Can’t say it better than the Doctor

[starborn]

I have no idea what’s going on, but I like “boringers”!

[Susurrus]

Hmmm… I’m kind of on the same train as @starborn… I may need a whole separate space to approach this one… so many possibilities for this one & I have no idea where to start currently

[Bonrok]

Challenge Entry (my first one!)

I’ve always been able to sense spirits, ghosts, demons and shadow people. It tormented me as a child.

I practiced witchcraft from 15-25 but I stopped because I couldn’t figure out how to keep those energies out of my way.
I never called for outside assistance other than the elements/guardians.

I was raised Southern Baptist and sensing/seeing /talking to ghosts was common in my family and I was very young when I was told I had the gift of discernment.
No one doubted demons existed and messed with you. Moving to witchcraft was and still is an issue with my mother, but only because she thinks it causes demons.

Even the good energies interfered and I just felt drained all the time. Big spells and rituals were successful! - but the side effects weren’t worth it, so I stopped practicing because of this ‘gift.’

I would not say I’m a medium because ghosts /the dead don’t talk to me, just acknowledge that I acknowledge them.

Now Claircognizance is a term I just learned from here:

23 Senses, Not 5 by @georgia

Claircognizance. This one was just recently brought to my attention. It’s a form of knowing without knowing how you know. You just Know. There’s no way to prove it except to act on it. Within this sense is the experience of going to bed with a problem to find it solved or solvable by morning.

I know a lot of things that I have no explanation for. Most of it is controversial and have no way of proving (like reincarnation and tree of life and the micro/macrocosm of how the universe works.)
Some of it is I know when someone will call that day, or something bad happened but don’t know who /the circumstances.

I wish I had a cooler sixteenth sense that didn’t make me sound crazy to the majority, but at this age, I’m used to it!

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

[Artemisia]

Challenge Entry - Honing Your Magickal Senses

I suppose this is a more “thinky” less “crafty” challenge for me. I don’t think I have any of the Clairs. I guess the closest thing would be I am fairly intuitive and am an uncanny judge of character. I am rarely wrong about my first impressions and the only times I have been, I had actually “talked myself out of” my feelings and actively ignored them. I don’t know if being an empath fits into any of the clairs either, but I do have a good sense (even over distances) of how someone is feeling and their motivations.

I suppose I only rely on my normal 5 senses.

Sense of smell is important to me as it links memories. I do use essential oils to help me center and calm. I have a blend for when I’m stressed, and one for when I’m relaxing for sleep. I enjoy picking scents to compliment my spells and rituals particularly if a deity is involved.

I feel grounded. calm, peaceful, and close to the magickal source when I’m out in nature - whether it’s just walking in the woods or digging in my garden. Growing plants is one of my passions.

Sight and sound play an important part. I find peace in guided meditations, listening to calming music while working on complex tasks, or working on big projects. Bringing greenery into my office whether it’s houseplants, orchids, or my terrariums of locally collected mosses and ferns, brings a kind of peace just seeing them. Green is an important color in my life.

Touch is important as well. The feel of a crystal in my hand, the warmth of the sun on my skin, the buffeting of the winds against my cheek, the way a new craft comes to life in my hands. For me, it’s important to have things I can hold, touch, or feel during a spell or ritual to connect more deeply.

I decided to read back through the suggested topics and was reading through Simple Techniques to Develop Your Intuition when I came across this section -

@Francisco

Exercise to Connect with the Environment

Take the time to simply grasp what the environment shows you. Pay attention to the information that your 5 senses are giving you. Allow your consciousness to capture and react freely (with pleasure or pain) to what it perceives. Simply remain present. This exercise has several beneficial effects:

a) It increases your ability to perceive through the senses.
b) It allows you to affirm your presence in the world.
c) It strengthens your psychic abilities.
d) It connects you with everything, bringing the awareness that All is One.
e) You will notice an increase in your intuition, a sense of peace and you will find more easily the value in every little thing that surrounds you.

This.
This is me.

I use my time running to work through problems, let go of worries, commune with nature, and enjoy the meditation that comes with running longer distances.

I’ve worked through anger, grief, self-doubt, fear.

I’ve thought of solutions to problems, ways to tackle issues, or have moments where something suddenly effortlessly clicks into place.

I gain inspiration for creating, am in awe of the beauty of nature, and come home more at peace, less anxious, more me.

(Persimmons)

[georgia]

@Artemisia , good job. You’re doing more than you give yourself credit for.

@AIRAM

After a few days, exactly what I had seen happened…

Cool! That’s always interesting.

@Bonrok Welcome. I hope you’re enjoying the challenge! Gifts aren’t always the present under the tree or next to the candled cake we grew up with: sometimes they are given to help us learn and grow. It sounds like you could have used a dose of protection or warding. At the moment, I’m feeling a bit lost, so I’ll let others lead you if you are interested.

@Bonrok

I wish I had a cooler sixteenth sense that didn’t make me sound crazy to the majority

You are cool, just as you are.

[starborn]

@Bonrok

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

Thank you for talking it!

Has it become any easier to deal with those energies since?

@Artemisia

the beauty of nature

Your photos are so beautiful.

[Sivonnah]

Congratulations on your first challenge! Great entry! I hope you’re finding some help and guidance here and how you can protect yourself and your energies! Well done!

[georgia]

Challenge entry

Caution: triggers- illness, death

I have been blocked, lately, so I’ll share the last one I had.

It was the end if August, 2019. All of a sudden, I could hear screaming and groaning clairaudiently. It wouldn’t go away. I had a claircognizance that everyone I knew was dying. There was no hint of Covid at that time, but I’m sure the pandemic was what I was sensing.

Only one person I knew died of Covid… six months after the sensations. She and het caretaker had already moved out of state when I had the sensations, but I kept in contact with them to wish her a happy birthday that December- two months before we lost her. She was so happy! We were planning on my coming for a visit, but it fell through for the holiday.

The screaming never quit. I simply got busy with my own life and tuned it out. I’m still not tuned back in. Once in a while, I get a hint that my senses are trying to come back online, usually in dreams.

I used what I heard to prepare myself as best I could- buying up food for an Indiana winter, getting cleaning supplies and tp before the rush. I had no clue it would last as long as it did nor what the economic outcome would be, so there was no way for me to be totally ready for it. Yet I was and still am grateful for the heads up.

[Bumblebee]

Challenge Entry

I’m usually a pretty concrete person and, although I’ve definitely had profound experiences outside the 5 senses, I usually don’t think about them unless they are happening TO me. I’ve been working through A Year and A Day of Everyday Witchcraft by Deborah Blake and today’s entry was about the sixth chakra aka the third eye. It talked about ways one can clear the third eye to help with divination. The exercise I’m going to try is to place an amethyst over my third eye and visualize the color purple seeping into my forehead in a clockwise swirl. I’m excited to give some attention to a sense I usually don’t use with intention.

I’ve also joined a local tarot group and have been trying to rely more on my sense of intuition. I’m brand new to tarot and feel really insecure about my ability to read the cards. But I recently set a goal to listen to my gut BEFORE looking up what someone else has to say about a card.

Update:
LOL Right before I wrote this, I lit a deep purple candle with out even paying mind to the color. And then after I posted, I started surfing the forum and saw that the ritual in Sacred Space was to light a purple candle and do a third eye meditation. This morning has been a very sweet reminder that my intuition is always at work whether I’m paying attention or not. So now I’m even more excited to incorporate it into my craft.

[Kasandra]

Challenge Entry

Stress can really muddle your magickal senses. Which is why relaxation is an important part of honing my magical skills. It allows me to sense things that I wouldn’t have noticed if I were under a lot of pressure.
I think my skills have been honed enough to the point where I can sense certain things even during stressful times. Something (probably a dragon) will tell me that everything’s going to be okay and to just focus, concentrate on it. I don’t always listen to it, but when I do, I find myself releasing a bunch of energy that does not serve me.

[jennifer37]

Challenge Entry
This is my first time doing a challenge since I joined. The senses that I use during my craft are the physical senses. I don’t have any of the clairs yet. For the challenge I would like to work on improving my intuition using the resources listed above. I plan to learn about different divination methods and find out which feels right and works for me. I also have a couple oracle card decks that I haven’t used yet, so I plan to use those and also take the course on taro. I’ve also always been interested in astrology so I might read a book to learn about that as well. I will also do the purple candle meditation and Poseidon devotional… I am so excited to start this challenge! I have always been interested in learning how to improve my intuition and the other clairs but I was never sure how to. I’ll add to this post after I have finished the challenge.

[tracyS]

CHALLENGE ENTRY

I’ve never consciously honed any of these skills, things just happen

I’ve always known when things or people were off, not always why though. It feels like a wall is up, and there’s no door, and if I try to push through, I can’t. I can’t fully let the person/place/thing into my life and constantly distrust them. Sometimes very quickly it’s revealed why, but with one person, I felt off for 2 years. Everyone else thought I was being silly, but I just couldn’t open the door. It turned out, his motives towards my family weren’t good and I’m convinced Loki shoved him out, because one day, he just walked away , sometimes it’s good to have a no nonsense deity in your corner.

I’m able to hear stuff, but it’s as ideas or thoughts, or nudges, to look up a book, pull a card, or switch a radio show on and there’s a show that’s just for me. I don’t know if that’s clairaudience or still Clairsentience

Up until last night, I would’ve said I’m not clairvoyant, yes I’ve seen a shadow dog in the corner of my eye, or a demons image in my mind’s eye, or through dreams and meditations, but until last night, I’ve never seen an entity, ghost that’s like right in your face (my husband has when Loki put his face over my face, and when my husband looked at me, he gave me a funny look! )etc.
My Aunty is a psychic, she sees ghosts all the time, they live in her house. She had a friend stay once, they only stayed one night then got a hotel. You see, my auntie’s ghosts love her kitchen, and make all kinds of noise, get things out and stuff. Aunty says it’s fine as long as they tidy up before the morning, which they do. However, her friend did not think this was fine . As a result few people stay the night. She has the gift of sight, and communicates with those across the veil all the time. So when I did a prayer to Mr Lucifer, last night, it was a shock to see a reflection in my TV of an entity. I’m in the reflection, my sofa, the cushion, but on the far left is a hooded figure that shouldn’t be there, because opposite the TV, in that spot, is just a plain, white wall!

I didn’t know what/who this was, if it was anything at all. But I have sensed a presence of something in my house, that’s stayed quiet for sometime. I just thought it was a demon, that didn’t want to talk to me yet.

So I sent the picture to my Aunty in Australia via email, and here’s her reply:

And then moments later, she emailed again, as this spirit guide spoke to her and said:

What I thought was interesting is that she said, now that I have seen her, I will see her more, and may even touch her, or feel her touch. It’s like this has awakened another sense in me.

I’m cool with this, however I do hope it doesn’t get too overcrowded, what with Loki, demons coming and going, now my spirit guide, and possibly an Archangel, I’m going to run out of cake fast. What I will say, is I think it’s probably best I dont bring a spirit board into my house, otherwise they’ll all visit and take over my kitchen

Happy days

[starborn]

@tracyS

I do hope it doesn’t get too overcrowded

It wouldn’t be true chaos if it didn’t.

You do so much. I’m glad you have such wonderful guides and guardians to help you.

[Shadeweaver]

I’m wondering where you got that scholarship in “spirit Communications” @tracyS

This all would be overwhelming to us mere muggles