This New Moon definitely put me in a cosmic mood. 
Looking up at a clear night sky, it reminded me of a Terence McKenna video I watched recently about our relationship with the universe and the strange experience of being part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
So I started researching cosmic witchcraft! Mainly: planetary magick, astrology, lunar practices, and some of the much older magical traditions connected with the sky.
A cosmic witch… or a lunar witch? Is there a difference?
What Is a Cosmic Witch?
This witch label is generally used for someone who brings the sky into their witchcraft. This can include the Moon, Sun, planets, stars, astrology, celestial cycles and magical timing.
There isn’t one official tradition called Cosmic Witchcraft with a fixed set of beliefs. The name itself seems to be modern, but the practices that fall under it can be very old.
Francis Barrett, The Magus (1801): Seven planetary spirits
A cosmic witch might follow the Moon phases, notice the zodiac sign the Moon is in, study their birth chart, choose certain days for spellwork, or work with planetary and stellar correspondences. It can also be as simple as spending time under the night sky, meditating with the Moon, observing a planet, or using astrology for journaling and divination.
The common idea is integration: bringing astrology, lunar magic, celestial cycles, and witchcraft together as part of one personal practice.
An Old Idea With a New Name
People centuries ago probably weren’t calling themselves cosmic witches, but magical practitioners were definitely looking to the heavens.
The 28 lunar mansions in the Picatrix
The medieval Picatrix contains astrological magic involving planets, celestial timing, talismans and lunar mansions.
Planetary characters Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, published in the 16th century, describes magical relationships between planets, stars, plants, stones, metals and other correspondences.
Later occult books continued developing these ideas. Francis Barrett’s The Magus from 1801, for example, describes planetary and astrological magic in great detail.
Planetary Magick 
Planetary magick is probably one of the clearest ways cosmic witchcraft connects with older magical traditions. I wrote about this before in Planetary Magic: Ruling Forces, Uses & Correspondences, so I won’t repeat all of it here.
The basic system uses the seven classical planets: the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Each is traditionally connected with particular qualities, days, hours, colors, plants, stones and magical intentions.
This gives you a simple way to add celestial timing to magic. You might work with Mercury for communication, Venus for love, Mars for courage or Jupiter for prosperity.
The days of the week also carry these old planetary associations. If you want to explore that without getting into planetary hours and complicated calculations, the 7 Magickal Days of the Week is an easy place to start.
And planets are only part of the story. I also explored the magical use of stars in Talismanic Symbols of Planetary Magic: The 15 Fixed Stars, including the Behenian fixed stars found in older astrological and magical traditions.
Astrology as Witchcraft 
A cosmic witch might look at the current Moon phase, the Moon sign, a planetary transit or something happening in their own natal chart and use that as a starting point for meditation, spellwork, divination or journaling.
If birth charts are new to you, the Astrology Master Post has lots of resources collected in one place. There is also the Spells8 Stellar Foundations Astrology Course, which goes into signs, houses, planets, retrogrades, aspects and interpreting a natal chart.
This is more as another layer of information you can choose to use when deciding how to practice your cosmic magick.
An Easy Cosmic Witch Practice ⛤
Start with three things:
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What is the Moon doing? What day is it? What is happening in the sky that catches your attention?
You can check Tonight’s Moon Spell, which already combines the current Moon phase, Moon sign and day of the week into one practice.
Or visit the Daily Devotional and look at the magical correspondences for that particular day. -
Then choose something simple. Light a candle, pull a tarot card, meditate, journal, make a sigil or just sit outside and look at the sky for a while.
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Keep notes in your Book of Shadows or journal and see whether you begin noticing patterns. That feels more interesting to me than trying to memorize hundreds of correspondences immediately.
Lunar, Celestial and Cosmic Witches
There is a lot of overlap between cosmic, celestial, and lunar witches. A lunar witch usually focuses more on the Moon, while cosmic or celestial witchcraft can also include the Sun, planets, stars, and astrology.
These labels are only guides. The posts on witch types and labels and witch types based on your zodiac sign can help you explore what fits, but they are not fixed categories.
Beliefs vary too. Some witches see celestial bodies as spiritual forces, others work with deities or archetypes, and some simply use astrology and cosmic cycles as symbolic tools for ritual and reflection.
Do you identify with the cosmic witch archetype? What parts of cosmic or celestial magic show up in your own practice? 
Moon 
in Scorpio 
and my Rising Accent is Libra 
as a child I was fascinated with the stars and planets that appeared during evening twilight and would squint my eyes to try to see more looking for the North Star the more you look up the more you see the sunrise/sunset and of course the Moonrise/Moonset. I also think who else is looking at the same time as me. We are all connected through, time and distance.
