Author: A Solitary Pagan

1. Go to the still point. This means relaxing, closing your eyes, taking several deep breaths, and letting nothing fill your mind. Be at peace. In your mind, surround yourself with white light. 2. Next, be grateful for something-anything. Say out loud what you are thankful for. These things do not have to be in line with your intent. By being thankful, you will lift your spirits. 3. Align yourself...

Visualization is critical to any magickal practice. It is the art of seeing with your mind’s eye, the results you wish to manifest when your work is completed. So how do we achieve that? With practice and focus. The previous exercises were meant to teach you how to quiet your mind and pull your energy back unto yourself while drawing from the balancing and stabilizing energies of the earth itself....

The next important step is to learn to Ground and Center. What does that mean exactly? Well during the course of our day-to-day, our energy scatters to the four winds as we try to grapple with the hectic business of our lives. We multi-task more than ever these days and as a result, our energies get fractured. Grounding and centering helps to pull your energies back to yourself and connect with th...

Three of the most important basic practices of Witchcraft include Grounding, Centering and Meditation. I’m going to address each one separately but the combined practice of these is going to be invaluable to you as a practicing Witch. Part One: First, we want to look at Meditation. There are many different ways in which one can meditate. There is trance, relaxation, controlled movement (such as Yo...

Attitude is everything. While there are many meditative strategies, what makes the difference in terms of spiritual awakening is your quality of earnestness or sincerity. Rather than adding another “should” to your list, choose to practice because you care about connecting with your innate capacity for love, clarity and inner peace. Let this sincerity be the atmosphere that nurtures whatever form ...

Mindfulness is not a technique so much as an important aspect of magical practice. Mindfulness is being in the moment, allowing whatever task you’re performing to have the whole of your attention in a relaxed fashion, so that you are fully open to the experience. Mindfulness is important in magic because you are tied to your environment, which impacts you. Being aware of everything is critical to ...

Meditation is a focusing of the mind and creating within it a relaxed state of awareness. When you learn to properly meditate, you actually alter how your brain functions—lowering the brainwave frequency into what has been termed the “alpha” brainwave level. It is this relaxed level of consciousness that is needed when working magic. During a proper meditation designed to create a magical mental s...

Leave the city for a while and reconnect with nature. This could mean going on your lunch break in a nearby park or going on a vacation to get away from the stress of daily life. Anything you can do to strengthen your bond with nature will greatly benefit your mind, and help you remember that we create most stress we feel in our mind and body. We originated in a place of pure harmony, and most of ...

Live in the here and now. Forget about the errands you have to run tomorrow after work, or the bills you have to pay next week, or the uncertainty of your future that you haven’t even gotten to yet. When you let thoughts like these ruminate, it can cause great dis-ease within the body, and even lead to anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and other serious problems. Most anxiety is caused by simpl...

Meditate on a regular basis. We suggest meditation a whole lot on our website, but for good reason. When you meditate, you stop the flow of thoughts bombarding your consciousness every second, and instead move into a space where stillness takes precedence. While you don’t have to turn off your brain to meditate, many people feel that their thoughts slow down incredibly, and they can observe themse...

Repeat peaceful words to yourself throughout your day. Pay attention to your brain at this very moment…what kinds of thoughts do you observe? Most likely, you will notice that the majority of your thoughts center around what you have to do today, or what someone said that made you angry, or even degrading thoughts about yourself. Don’t feel bad, though; with so much negativity around us, maintaini...

Focus on the positive aspects of yourself and your surroundings. In short, we have collectively created the mass disorder and confusion we observe around us on a daily basis with our thoughts. We have all allowed negative thinking to prevail for many millennia, so the physical world is merely a product of our thoughts. By simply shifting your focus to what makes you happy, or what you’re thankful ...