What it means to be a Witch

They come out of the woodwork this month, all the Halloween Witches that just love October and witchy the trappings that make you feel magical. Kind of like Sunday Christians. Being a Halloween Witch is a good start, but let me give you 13 things that you can do all year long to earn that Witches Union Card and master your magical self.

1. Give yourself the authority over your own wellbeing -
   You are the decider in your life and there is nothing more magical than a choice made from intention and empowerment. If you are in a crappy situation, make a new choice every moment, every day to see your way out of it. Baby steps may be what it takes, just make sure you are stepping and not standing still.
2. Connect with a power greater than you -
   You are part of a greater consciousness and the path that you choose to connect with that higher power is less important than connecting. Pagan, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Agnostic, it doesn’t matter. Dogma is more interested in the Divine than the Divine is interested in Dogma. When you seek communion with your higher power you are filling the energetic voids created by stress, grief, anger or any of the negative emotions that plague your every day.
3. Understand the value of your ancestors -
   You are the culmination of all the hopes and dreams of your ancestors. Good or bad, they have paved the way for your life today and they are the spirits that are most invested in your success. Your ancestors are free of the personalities that made up their human lives and only have your highest good at heart. With every legacy left to you by your ancestors there is something to be healed and a blessing to be embraced.
4. Don’t settle for failure, dig deeper and find what is broken -
   Magic is all about reaching outside of your comfort zone. If you could have, you already would have and failure is just a sign that you need to shake it up and challenge your beliefs. Witches know that a good spell makes you nervous and challenges you to be more than you think you can be.
5. Listen to your divine self -
   Your divine self, or higher self is the part of you that is always connected to the Divine (by any name you use). When you are quiet and gentle with yourself you can hear the messages of your higher self and they always take you in the correct direction. The more often you take the time to meditate and listen, the louder your higher self is and easier it is to hear the guidance.
6. Face your fears with courage -
   Courage is not a lack of fear, but an embracing of fear. Fear is a tool that your ego uses to stop you from doing something that threatens your sense of self. Sometimes that sense of self is damaged through experiences and needs a bit of healing, thus the need to face your fears with courage and create a new experience that writes a new sense of self.
7. Know your boundaries -
   Some boundaries are for keeping and some are for breaking; know the difference. There are no hard and fast rules to guide these boundaries and your needs for them will change from year to year and experience to experience. Know that they are always moving and always important because unrestricted growth can quickly become cancer.
8. Perform random acts of kindness -
   When you do kind things without reward out in the world, you build your magical bank account. Wild magic is that force at work in everyone’s life bringing luck and fortune, but it is how you feed your wild magic that will make it good or bad.
9. Recycle or choose your act of respect for the earth we live on -
   Whether you believe we are guests on this earth or entitled to all that it has to offer, we have to keep it in good shape to support us. Choose your activity and let it become habit and grow. Just start with one thing, master it and make it part of your everyday.
10. Play and allow your inner child to awaken your magic -
    Magic comes from your inner child. It is that innocence to trust in the universe, trust in humanity and trust that wishes do come true that magic is born from. Even in your most desperate moments you suspend all doubt and believe that miracles can happen and it is your inner child that makes this possible. Get out your crayons, coloring books and glitter and help your inner child love the world.
11. Cast spells when you need them and be purposeful in your actions and intentions -
    The most powerful time to cast a spell is when you need it. You don’t have to wait until everything is perfect because life doesn’t work that way. Don’t sit there and suffer, take action when you need to and be purposeful about it. Set a clear intention and dig deep to find the issue under the symptom and craft your spell from there. Remember, magic = healing.
12. Do the work and practice, over and over again –
    Magic does not work by a timer. There is no guarantee that 3 days from now you will get a $100,000 check because you cast a spell. You do your work, set your intent, light your candles, wear your oils, arrange your crystals and see what happens and then do it over and over again. You do all this while you go out there into the world and do the physical work that supports the energy that you put into your spell. When you do both, you spell manifests faster and you find the errors quicker.
13. Start every day with gratitude -
    Gratitude is magic on steroids. When you start every day and every spell be being grateful for the bounty in your life you are infusing it with jet fuel. Any moment that sets you off into a downward spiral can be rerouted by a quick recounting of your blessings and finding gratitude in the moment.

Witches are not a religion, but a state of being. You are a witch when you know there are energies at work outside of what you can touch, taste and feel. You are a witch when you empower your ideas with the vibration that will facilitate their manifestation. You are a witch when you make a wish and then do the work to make it come true.