The Season Between

I can’t be alone in the feeling that we’re standing at what feels like a doorway whenever September flutters into our timeline.

Summer hasn’t completely packed her bags yet (it’s 100 degress today, FFS!). The afternoons can still be blazing, the garden is still working hard, and we’re definitely not living in sweater weather just yet. But the shift is felt and it’s not just me bringing my decor boxes down from the basement because it’s time to decorate.

The mornings feel different. The light starts changing ever so subtly. The evenings creep in a little earlier. Suddenly I’m thinking about candles (more than I already do!), simmer pots, warm bread, and all the autumn magic waiting just around the corner.

We’re entering that beautiful in-between space, and I truly love it here. I think that makes September the perfect month for our next Rooted Magic word:

But before anyone starts rearranging their schedule, buying a new planner, or trying to somehow divide their life into perfectly equal little pieces, I want to make something very clear:

Balance does not mean everything gets an equal amount of you.

That version of balance has never made much sense to me. Sometimes work needs more of you. Sometimes your family does. Sometimes you’re bursting with creative energy and you want to pour yourself into something new. And sometimes you’re exhausted, the laundry can absolutely wait, and rest gets the whole damn pie.

Balance isn’t 50/50, not even close. What I mean by balance is truly paying attention to the needs. It’s noticing when you’ve been pouring from one side for too long. It’s recognizing when something that mattered deeply three months ago doesn’t need quite as much of you anymore. It’s giving yourself permission to adjust instead of desperately trying to keep every plate spinning at exactly the same speed.

Nature doesn’t do that either. September itself is proof. The season is shifting. The light is shifting. The garden is shifting. Everything around us is quietly adjusting to what comes next. And you know what, maybe we can too.

So this month, we’re not chasing perfect balance. We’re practicing the much more useful magic of recalibration.

We’re asking: What needs more of me right now? What needs less? And what have I been carrying simply because I forgot I was allowed to put it down?

There is plenty waiting for us this September. Mabon and the Autumn Equinox are coming, the garden is heading into round two, we’re beginning preparations for Samhain, and there are some very exciting things brewing behind the scenes at Mystic Sisters.

But first, witches... Let’s find our footing and blow that cinnamon through our front doors.

This month, balance isn’t about giving everything equal weight. It’s about noticing when something needs to shift. 🍂⚖️

Mabon & the Autumn Equinox

🍂 Standing at the Point of Balance

There is a moment every September when the Wheel comes to a gentle little pause. Summer is behind us (as is the promise of the heat!), Samhain is ahead of us (YEAAAAAAS!), and right here in the middle we reach the Autumn Equinox, one of two points in the year when day and night come closest to standing in balance with one another.

Astronomically, the equinox happens when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. Here in the land of the North (aka northern hemisphere), it marks the beginning of autumn and the slow tipping of the scales toward longer nights. We all know winter is coming….

And for us witches? Aside from the spooky bitches council, it’s probably easy to see why we’re a little obsessed with it.

The Equinox gives us this beautiful, physical representation of something we’ve been talking about all month: balance isn’t a permanent state. It’s a moment within a cycle.

The light and dark meet and then the Wheel keeps turning.

🌾 Okay, But WTF Is Mabon?

If you’ve spent any time around modern witchcraft, you’ve probably heard the Autumn Equinox called Mabon, one of the eight Sabbats commonly included on the modern Wheel of the Year. And if you are anything like me when I first dove into witchcraft you might be asking, but WTF is Mabon and why do we celebrate it?

Mabon is generally celebrated as the second harvest, nestled between the first harvest of Lughnasadh and the final harvest associated with Samhain. It’s a season of gathering, gratitude, sharing abundance, and preparing ourselves for the darker months ahead.

But here’s where the history gets interesting.

Calling the Autumn Equinox “Mabon” is actually relatively modern. The name was applied to the equinox celebration within modern Pagan traditions in the 20th century, borrowing the name Mabon from Welsh mythology. So while harvest festivals and equinox observances have very old roots, our modern witchy celebration of Mabon isn’t one perfectly preserved ancient holiday passed down unchanged for thousands of years.

And that’s okay! Traditions evolve. Practices borrow, blend, disappear, return, and take on new meaning. Understanding where something actually comes from doesn’t make it less magical. If anything, I think knowing the history gives us more freedom to decide how we want to practice it.

We’ll be digging much deeper into all of this in this month’s WTF Magic?! Mabon, including where the name comes from, what we actually know about historical autumn celebrations, and how Mabon became part of the modern Wheel of the Year, as well as how to celebrate it as a modern witch.

For now, what matters is what this seasonal moment offers us.

🍎 Celebrating Without Making It a Whole Thing

And because this is Mystic Sisters Coven, you know I’m not about to tell you that celebrating Mabon requires seventeen herbs, a historically accurate feast, an elaborate altar, and three uninterrupted hours under the moon.

You can absolutely make Mabon a whole beautiful event if that brings you joy. But you can also just...notice the season. Make something warm for dinner using autumn ingredients. Bring home a few apples and place them in a bowl on the kitchen table. Add fallen leaves, acorns, dried herbs, or seasonal flowers to your altar. Donate food or supplies to someone who could use a little extra abundance.

Then think about what you’re willing to explore as the darker season begins. And finally, ask yourself:

What am I ready to leave here at the threshold?

Because balance isn’t only about deciding what deserves more of us. Sometimes it’s recognizing what we’re finally ready to put down.

🕯️ Want to Go Deeper?

I’ll also be sharing our full Mabon & Autumn Equinox Ritual this month for anyone who wants to make a little more space for this seasonal crossing.

We’ll be working with gratitude, balance, reflection, and release as we intentionally mark our transition into the darker half of the Wheel. But whether you join me for the full ritual or simply eat an apple on your porch and watch the sun go down, you’re celebrating the same thing: The Wheel is turning.

And we’re turning and returning with it. 🍂

Rooted Magic — Balance

This month’s Rooted Magic focus will be on: Balance.

The biggest misconception of balance in our everyday life are things must remain perfectly balanced. This usually leads to an understanding that we’re meant to divide ourselves evenly among everything.

Our attention needs to be on work, and home life. On our kids and our families and friends. On our passions and our goals and our relaxation and our rest. We need to pour into all of those buckets all the time, every day.

That isn’t balance. That’s chaos and a breakdown waiting to happen.

Balance is responsive. It’s noticing. Adjusting. Recalibrating.

Nature itself isn’t always perfectly in balance. The Equinox is a turning point, not a permanent state. We’ll dive more into this idea on this month’s Rooted Magic post, on how to work with balance to find our grounding rhythm, as well as work to adjust when life and our practice feels out of sorts.

WTF Magic?! — Tool of the Month

The Mirror

Don’t shy away from this one, witches. The mirror might be the perfect magical tool for this time of year.

August was all about the basket and asking, what am I carrying? September shifts the question:

What do I actually see?

Our WTF Magic?! deep dive this month will explore the magical history of mirrors through folklore, divination, scrying, protection, glamour magic, spirit traditions, and, of course, how witches are working with them today. Mirrors have been getting blamed for spooky shit for a very long time, and frankly, we need to discuss.

But perhaps their most obvious magical purpose is also their most powerful: reflection.

Give something your full attention and truths have a funny way of floating to the surface. Mirrors ask us to look instead of avoid, which makes them a fascinating tool for reflection, self-awareness, and yes...shadow work.

And before you slowly back away from the newsletter at the words shadow work, stay with me. We’re going to strip away some of the heaviness around it and explore how a mirror can help us better understand ourselves, our craft, and the things quietly hanging out beneath the surface asking to be noticed.

So dive in with me this month. We’re looking into the mirror, witches.

Being afraid of our shadows is so last year. 🖤🪞

Kitchen Witchery

September food should taste like summer and august did their cool secret handshake and hand-off. We aren’t QUITE at pumpkin-everything…yet. We still have tomatoes, greens, herbs and late summer produce, but apples, nuts, root vegetables, warm spices and heartier foods are beginning to creep into the recipes, and I’m so down for it.

These two recipes are a great pairing because they hit two different September moods: the salad is still holding onto late summer, while the bread is firmly whispering, put on a sweater and light a candle (though if it’s 100+ degrees you can maybe put on a tank top with a sweater graphic on it. Fuck it’s so HOT!)

This months Kitchen Witchery is creating the kitchen mood we’re going for this season: Cozy, Flavorful, and Nurishing.

🥗 Apple, Roasted Squash & Goat Cheese Late Harvest Salad

This should be fresh, crunchy, sweet, savory, and filling enough to actually count as dinner.

For about 4 servings, I’d use:

• 5–6 cups mixed greens (any greens will work for this)

• 2 cups cubed butternut squash

• 1 crisp apple, thinly sliced

• 4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

• ⅓ cup toasted pecans

• ¼ cup dried cranberries

• ¼ cup roasted pumpkin seeds

• Olive oil, salt + pepper for roasting

Maple-Dijon Vinaigrette

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard

• ½ tsp minced garlic

• Pinch of salt + black pepper

Roast the squash at 425°F for about 25–30 minutes with olive oil, salt, and pepper until caramelized around the edges. Let it cool slightly, then toss everything together and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

For the witchery piece, we’re working with apple for abundance and love, squash and seeds for prosperity and harvest, pecans for grounding, and maple for sweetness.

It becomes a literal bowl of late-summer-meets-autumn magic.

🍞 Apple Cider Honey Bread

I feel like a lot of fall breads for me always start with Rosemary, but for this one I wanted to lean into the sweet and soft flavors of apples and honey. This soft yeasted loaf rather than a quick bread has that beautiful Mabon bread connection we’re looking for and using apples in the salad and the bread cuts down on your shopping list needs!

For one loaf:

• 3½–4 cups all-purpose or bread flour

• 2¼ tsp instant yeast

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ¼ tsp dried thyme, optional

• ¾ cup apple cider, warmed

• ½ cup warm milk

• 3 tbsp honey

• 3 tbsp melted butter

• 1 egg

Mix the cider, milk, honey, butter, and egg. Add the yeast, cinnamon, thyme, salt, and about 3½ cups flour. Knead until smooth and slightly tacky, adding additional flour only as needed.

Let it rise until doubled, about 60–90 minutes.

Shape it into a loaf and place it in a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Let it rise again for about 30–45 minutes, then brush the top with a little milk or melted butter.

Bake at 350°F for roughly 35–40 minutes, until beautifully golden and the center reaches about 190°F.

And then comes the important ceremonial step:

Cut it while it’s still slightly warm and apply a completely unreasonable amount of salted butter.

For the magical correspondences, we’ve got apple for abundance and wisdom, honey for sweetness and attraction, cinnamon for prosperity and warmth, wheat for abundance, and thyme for courage and protection.

Together, I think these tell our September story really well:

🥗 The salad says: We’re still harvesting.

🍞 The bread says: But autumn is definitely at the door. 🍂

These would be absolutely lovely for a Mabon table!

Everyday Witchery

Finding Balance When Life Isn’t Balanced

This is where we bring the theme into real life. Is anyone else feeling the pressures of chaos and disorienting schedules? Telling an exhausted witch to “find balance” can become one more irritating task. Even writing this it’s hard not to snap at myself and say, ‘fuck off, I’m trying! Stop yelling at me!!’

Ok we aren’t going to do that, we are going to take a deep breath and calmly ground ourselves as best we can in the chaos. Reality in this season of school schedule changes and a new season on the horizon and all that comes with it, we need to move at a pace and flow we can handle. Enter the micro-adjustments.

Forward movement, even slow forward movement, IS movement. So let’s take a look at what that would be:

• Opening the window to let in the cool breeze (if you are in a place that is still as hot as hades then perhaps skip this one).

• Taking five minutes outside (after the sun has set, because HOT).

• Saying no. It is a full sentence. Put up that boundary and don’t feel guilty that you are protecting your peace.

• Eating before you’re starving. I am so guilty of this. Planning all my meals and prepping ahead is so hard to do but it saves me so much time. Even the day before doing prep will help you the next day.

• Lighting your candle while doing dishes. This one is my golden light at the end of the day. It’s my anchor to an evening of peace and a calm down. Pour that glass of wine, you tavern wench, turn the lights down low and let’s do our evening cleanse.

• Putting your phone down ten minutes earlier. Oh, I am terrible at this. Let’s find something else to do as a wind down at night instead of doomscrolling our way to 2am.

• Pulling one tarot card instead of doing an entire spread. A single card pull is so fun for me because I look at the card and assess my thoughts and feelings before ever looking at the book. Honestly, I am often off base but it’s starting to shift toward understandig as I see patterns in the meanings of the cards and suits.

The Witch at the Threshold

Our Samhain Workshop Is Coming

Are you ready to get spooky!? The Spooky Bitches Council says that starting Sept 1st we’re not only allowed to be obnoxious about this coming season, we are also allowed to be beyond vocal and loud about our love for the Samhain season.

Now, what I’m MOST excited about this season is sharing the Samhain Witchy Workshop with you because this year’s workshop is the best step-by-step guide I’ve ever created to step into the season and prep our house, our lives, and our practice for the Witch’s New Year. We end this workshop with a Samhain Ritual and 5-weeks of small steps to creating a perfect ritual balance and flow.

Let’s get into the breakdown of what this workshop is all about:

Week One: Prepare the Witch’s House

Creating the physical and energetic foundation for Samhain.

Week Two: Guard the Threshold

Protection, boundaries, wards and understanding threshold magic.

Week Three: Remember What Came Before

Remembrance, ancestry, beloved dead and exploring what we choose to carry forward.

Week Four: Meet the Crossroads

Divination, transition, uncertainty and listening for what comes next.

Week Five: Cross Into the Witch’s New Year

Bringing everything together into a personal Samhain crossing ceremony.

I will be diving into more details this week in my post to come: The Samhain Witchy Workshop Is Coming

This seasons workshop is similar to the Summer Workshop structure, so it stays manageable. We aren’t receiving 35 days of homework on day 1. This workshop is meant to flow with our busy schedules as we build something slowly together.

And by the end, you won’t have simply learned about Samhain. You will have created your very own Samhain practice topped off with a ritual with the coven.

Workshop goes on Sale on September 14th and starts on September 28th.

Curious on what’s currently in the Mystic Shop? Take a peek! —> Mystic Shop!

Autumn Seasonal Spell Box

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

I truly look forward to organizing these seasonal spell boxes EVERY season. With Summer being so busy this year, and the amount of travel I was doing (as well as my vendors) it made more sense to pour our hearts and witchy souls into the Autumn Seasonal Spell Box. This one is going to DELIVER, witches.

Samhain Sip’tual Kit

Have you ever made a simmer pot and thought to yourself, ‘I wish I could do more than just simmer pot these items, I wish I could enjoy it more afterwards.’ Don’t worry babes, I got you. I created Sip’tuals; simmer pot recipes with rituals that you turn into a simple syrup to drink afterwards with cocktails, mocktails, tea, coffee, and more.

In this Autumn Spell Box, there will be two new Sip’tual flavors and rituals to accompany them. That’s not all though, this little kit will include:

A 6 oz glass storage bottle
A dry herbs + sugar + powdered dry fruit satchet for simmering
A mini matching charm bottle for your altar
A small optional baggie of edible glitter to add to the simple syrup
A ritual for the simmer pot and drink options for your syrup.

These are perfectly seasonal spooky. They are undeniably witchy and they GLITTER!

We also have included in this Autumn Spell Box:

🍵 Tea from Cauldron Creations
🕯️ Intentional Candle from Fire & Alchemy
📕Collective Coven Bookmark (exclusive)
🔖 Burn + Release Bundle Papers designed to accompany the deeper reflection and shadow work of Samhain

✨ And more still to be revealed...

The Autumn Spell Box will be going on Sale on September 21st, with the boxes shipping out on the 1st week of October.

Garden Corner - Round Two

There is no joke to this, we are starting again. Yep, ripping out the dead that are crispy and done and the weeds that took over my thyme and we are starting a little fresh. Don’t worry, my tomatoes are still King Commander of the garden, going strong with their monster cherry tomato army.

We are starting fresh with some autumn friendly veggies. Did I know I could start a second wave of gardening during the summer swing of heat saying hello to autumn? Nope, but I am so going to go for it. It’s hot as fuck for long as fuck down here in the section of 10B, so as I like to say when gardening…

So gardening in August and September look really different than gardening in February and March. For one (oh, I bet you guessed it) I’m a hot, sweating, beet red, mess of a human. The sun is trying to kill me, but I am going to plant my new little army of veggie seeds anyways. Because?…..that’s right my witches….because FUCK IT!

🌿 Wave One: August

Basil + bush beans

Last week of august I planted bush bean seeds and basil seedlings already showing fresh leaves. Both of these are planted in areas that will get a decent amount of mid day coverage from the sun’s death rays so I am optimistic they won’t wilt around 1pm.

🥬 Wave Two: Late August / September

Autumn lettuce (hearty leaves) + radishes

With all the lettuce primed and prepared to kill us off this year, I thought it might be a good idea to grow some of my own lettuce because in the heat a nice crunchy salad is a necessity. I also love radishes.

Now, transparency here. The last time I grew radishes they…uh….tasted like spicy dirt. So round two is a charm! These babies will for sure grow better than the last ones. You might be asking why I know that (well I don’t)? But I did plan out a layer of compost to be used on these two freshly planted seed batches so they better eat up those ground nutrients.

🥕 Wave Three: September / October

The best I saved for last, and also because I need to wait until Summer stops trying to murder us with a death sun level ‘surface of the sun’.

Lettuce (delicate leaves) • cilantro • carrots

Something I didn’t really understand the first year I started gardening was succession planting. We tend to think of things in this order for planting:

Plant → Grow → Harvest → Done.

Gardens really do operate in cycles. Interestingly enough, so does witchcraft. This brings us right back to the idea of balance. Planting additional seeds and plants to feed your family in the winter isn’t just ‘planning for the colder season long storage’ and it’s not just ‘working to avoid buying something that will give us deadly diarrhea’. This last round of planting brings us back to a routine of love, tending, growth, harvest, and nurish. The wheel continues to turn, and we witches, we turn right along with it.

Coming to the MSC in September

We have a great line up of blogs and posts to come this month!

🍂 WTF Magic?! Mabon
What Mabon actually is, where the celebration comes from, and how modern witches can celebrate the Autumn Equinox.

♍️ WTF Magic?! Sigils
From folklore usage, creation of your own, and interpretation, we are going on a deep dive into what Sigils are and how we can incorporate them into our craft.

🪞 WTF Magic?! Mirrors as a Magical Tool
We aren’t just looking into the mirror to fix our lipstick, we are going to take a gander into the history of mirrors and how they can help you reflect on your magic and your deepest struggles to be a stronger, emotionally capable, and powerful witch.

⚖️ Rooted Magic: Balance
Why balance isn’t 50/50 and how to recognize when something in your life needs recalibrating.

🍎 Mabon Ritual + Autumn Equinox Practice
Your larger monthly ritual, with reflection, gratitude and release.

🕯 Everyday Witchery: Entering the Dark Half of the Year
A gentle guide for shifting your magical practice with the season.

🪞Monthly Ritual: Confidence in Glamour Magic
Along with our tool of the month, we will be exploring a deeper ritual exploring our confidence, strength, and beauty in a decadent glamour ritual.

🕯️Monthly Spell: The Burnout Banishing Candle Spell
The beginning of the holiday season can feel ramped up with stress and anxiety but we don’t need to let that dictate our lives. We will find a route to banish the burnout and ground ourselves through the chaos.

Looking Ahead — October

Rooted Magic: Deepen

The transition from September to October is so beautiful and felt.

September asks us to Balance. October asks us to Deepen.

The light is fading, and the crisp morning air feels sharp and alive. Samhain approaches. Our practices become quieter, more reflective and perhaps a little stranger.

We will begin exploring:

• Shadow

• Divination

• Ancestors and remembrance

• Protection

• The thinning veil

• Deepening our relationship with our own craft

And because the Samhain Workshop will already be underway, October will feel like we’ve officially crossed the threshold into the heart of witch season. The celebration and joy and excitement will absolutely follow (and last until December 1st. Pumpkin spice life is LIFE).

🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️🎃🍁🧙‍♀️

The time to be weird without care is right fucking now, witches

September always feels like the landing place right before all the good stuff starts.

The light is getting softer. The evenings are creeping in earlier. The first candles are coming out (ok the first seasonal smelling candles are coming out, let’s be real here). We’re thinking about warm bread, simmer pots, sweaters, crunchy leaves, rustic colors, the scent of cinnamon, and whether it’s technically too early to start decorating for Samhain.

(It isn’t. I will not be taking questions. The decorating begins on September 1st. The spooky witches council confirmed and I follow their doctrine to the fucking letter, babes.)

But before we fling ourselves broom-first into autumn, September gives us this quick little sigh of a moment to get our footing. August asked us to look at what we’d gathered. Now we get to decide what we’re actually bringing with us. Because we don’t need to carry the entire basket into the next season.

Some things are going to be preserved. Some will be shared and others will be composted (alongside poor Brad). And some things? We can simply put the damn things down. That’s not failure. That’s not quitting. That’s how cycles work.

So take what nourishes you. Keep what you’ve learned. Make room for what you know is coming. Because witches...

We are standing right at the edge of my favorite part of the Wheel.

The kitchen is getting warm and cozy. The nights are getting longer. The veil will begin to thin. Our magic will turn inward and deepen. The Samhain Workshop is waiting just around the corner, the Autumn Spell Box is brewing, and I can practically hear October tapping its little black fingernails against the window.

We’re almost there. But don’t rush through this part. Stand in the doorway for a minute. Feel the shift. Light the candle. Bake the bread. Open the windows when that first cool evening finally arrives and let the whole damn house breathe it in.

Autumn is coming. The good stuff is right about to begin. 🍂🕯️🖤

Someone recently asked me a really good question in my comments and I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive for them.

They said, basically: when life is chaotic, how do you find ways to do simple magic that actually stick?

I loved that question because it gets to the heart of Everyday Witchery and how I practice magic every day.

The question wasn’t just, how do I make something look magical? It’s not, how do I add a candle to my life and call it a practice? And it wasn’t, how do I do tiny witchy things when I remember to do them?

The real question at the core of this is: How do I create small magical moments that actually stick and enable me to feel grounded, focused, connected, and present when life is loud?

That is the practice right there, and that’s the real work.

Anyone can make something look witchy for thirty seconds. We can light the candle, stir the coffee, put a crystal in our pocket, whisper something poetic into our water, and yes, all of that can be lovely.

But the magic only sticks when it does something deeper. When it interrupts the spiral that we go down when life gets fucking loud. When it brings your attention back, grounds your chaos, and gives your body a cue to chill.

An action that helps your mind stop floating twelve feet above your life is exactly what Everyday Witchery is all about. We aren’t going on and on about magical aesthetics (as much as we love the alter with a smattering of 57 crystals and 43 different types of tarot decks).

We are simply looking for simple magic that fucking sticks because it works. Let’s get into, witches.

Simple magic has to be specific

I think one reason simple magic sometimes doesn’t stick is because we make it too vague.

We tell ourselves, I should be more magical today.

That’s a cute idea, and again, love the aesthetic of that idea. However, it’s completely unhelpful.

What does that mean when the laundry is yelling, your inbox is multiplying, the house is loud, the world is on fire, the toddler has a snack-based emergency but also wants to sit on your lap while you try to write emails, and your brain has turned into a browser with 47 tabs open and one of them is playing music from 2009?

“Be more magical” is too slippery without any grip. Your brain can’t hold onto that. Your body and your nervous system don’t understand how to slip into that attire.

What we need is for the magic to be specific.

Not: I need to be more grounded.

Try: When I touch the doorframe, I take one breath and say, “I return to myself.”

Not: I need protection.

Try: When I lock the door, I say, “Only what nourishes may enter here.”

Not: I want to feel more connected to my craft.

Try: When I stir my coffee, I choose one word for the day.

Specific magic sticks because it has a place to land.

Your doorway. Your cup. Your shower. Your keys. Your sink. Your candle. Your breath. The spell becomes attached to something you already do, which means you’re not asking your exhausted brain to invent a whole new ritual from the swamp. You’re giving your magic a hook.

Your body needs cues, not pressure

When life is chaotic, the nervous system DOES NOT need a ten-step ritual with twelve ingredients and a dramatic robe.

Sometimes it needs a cue to remind it of an action. A cue is a small signal that tells your body: we’re shifting now from the chaos you feel to the calm and grounded collection of energy you crave.

The cue can be so many things: A candle, a deep breathe, a hand on your heart, cold water on your wrists, opening a window, touching your doorframe before leaving the house, pouring the coffee grounds into your coffee maker.

The magic is not only in the words you use but also in the repetition of the cue (Are we pavloving ourselves into easy magic? Yes, yes we are, boo). Over time, your body starts to learn: when I do this, I achieve that.

When I light this candle, I can find focus.
When I wash my hands, I can find release.
When I touch the doorway, I cross with intention.
When I fill my water bottle, I return care to my body.
When I close the laptop, work is done for now.

This is how simple magic becomes real. Not because the action is huge and elaborate and uses 17 crystals. This magic becomes real because your body and your nervous system can feel it and recognize it before you even start.

Make the magic answer a real need

If you want magic to stick, it has to answer something you actually need.

Not the version of you who exists in a fantasy cottage with endless time and perfectly labeled herb jars. We aren’t living that life (and if you are, fuck yes, Witch! Good for you!)

Listen we all love a cottagecore dream, but we are living in a the real life, the real you world. That’s exhaustion, and overwhelm, chaos dressed in a summer dress and strappy heels. This you is sweaty hot (fucking summmer you need to end already, ok. Please?) and overstimulated. You are just rolling through the day with more tasks and to do’s attaching to you like velcro.

The witchy soul inside you still needs and wants to feel connected, but also has to have dinner figured out with a nervous system that may or may not be held together by caffeine and spite.

So ask yourself:

What do I actually need magic to help me with right now?

Grounding? Focus? Protection? Release? Courage? Softness? Patience?Do I need grounding? Do I need to stop carrying everyone else’s energy like a haunted tote bag?

That question matters. If you need grounding, a big manifestation ritual may not be the answer. If you need release, a gratitude practice might feel fake and silly. If you need protection, a pretty altar photo is not going to do much unless it helps you set an actual boundary.

The magic has to meet the moment. That’s what makes it useful and makes it stick to your routine.

The Everyday Witchery formula

Here is the simplest formula I know:

Need + routine + tiny action + clear phrase = magic that sticks.

✨You name the need.
✨You attach it to something you already do.
✨You choose one small action.
✨You speak one clear phrase.

That’s it.

No spiritual gymnastics. No ten-page ritual script. No need to wait until you are calmer, prettier, more organized, more mystical, or less annoyed by everyone breathing near you.

For example:

If the need is grounding, the routine could be making coffee. The tiny action is both feet on the floor while you stir. The phrase is: “I am here. I begin here.”

If the need is release, the routine could be washing your hands. The tiny action is letting the water run over your palms. The phrase is: “What is not mine leaves now.”

If the need is protection, the routine could be locking the door. The tiny action is touching the lock. The phrase is: “This home is held.”

If the need is focus, the routine could be opening your laptop. The tiny action is one breath before the screen lights up. The phrase is: “My energy has a shape.”

That’s how you build a practice inside your actual life. We aren’t adding a whole new system to your day. No witchy bootcamp. We are merely enchanting the system we already live everyday.

When your practice falls apart

I know, you get excited that this is the fix and it will never be bad again. Babes, we live in reality remember. Our practice will go up and down in our life. At some point, it will fall apart into sporadic random moments of magic.

Not because you failed, but because life is life and it has the social skills of a raccoon in a pantry. You will forget the spell when you are making coffee. You will miss the routine when you are getting ready for bed and you are so tired you can’t see your own reflection straight. You will get busy. You will feel disconnected. You will have a week where your magical practice is mostly drinking water and not launching your phone into the nearest shrub.

That is fine. Everyday Witchery is built on return, not perfection. When you fall off, you simply come back. No, overhauls. No big promise to yourself that tomorrow you will do all the rituals because you skipped a whole week. We aren’t going to use magic as punishment.

When you fall off, come back to the smallest doorway. One breath. One sip. One candle. One hand on your heart.

That is enough to reopen the practice. There is no reason to prove your devotion through exhaustion.

Just come back. The magic will still be there.

Where the Everyday Witchery Guide comes in

This is exactly why I created the Everyday Witchery Quick Guide.

Because sometimes you want magic in your life, but you need help figuring out where it fits and how to make that function. It’s not a giant ritual plan or another overwhelming thing to keep up with. You just need small, simple practices that slide into your actual day and help you feel connected again without having to think about what those would be.

The Quick Guide gives you practical starting points for weaving magic into the routines you already have: coffee, water, showers, doorways, kitchen work, bedtime, breath, and tiny moments of return.

This guide is for the witch who wants magic that sticks because it has somewhere real to live. We aren’t working toward a perfect practice, that doesn’t really exist. But we can find and create and live a real practice. That is very doable.

And if you want to go deeper

And if you are craving a deeper dive into a witchy world of ritual, seasonal magic, community, and structure that still leaves room to breathe, the upcoming Samhain Witchy Workshop is built for exactly that kind of exploration.

That workshop will give us a full seasonal path through cleansing, protection, remembrance, divination, shadow, release, and the Witch’s New Year. It’s a deeper, richer experience than a daily anchor practice, but it’s still built with real life in mind.

Guided, but flexible.
Witchy, but approachable.
Structured, but not suffocating.

So if Everyday Witchery is the small daily thread, the workshop is the seasonal tapestry. Look at us, weaving things. Very cozy. Very suspiciously magical.

Magic that can hold you

When life is chaotic, simple magic sticks when it is specific, repeatable, and attached to something real.

Remember, your magic doesn’t have to be huge to be powerful. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be meaningful. It doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s practice to be real.

It just has to meet you where you are and help you come back to yourself. Let magic become a rhythm. And when life gets loud, let that rhythm be the little thread that says:

I am here.
I come back now.
My magic lives in this life too.

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The wheel is turning, witches.

We are officially approaching that beautiful, shadowy little stretch of the year where the air starts to shift, the candles start looking more dramatic, the veil starts getting nosy, and suddenly every crow feels like it has something deeply personal to say.

Which means it’s almost time for the Samhain Witchy Workshop.

This year’s Samhain Workshop will go on sale September 14th.
The week of September 21st will be our prep week and a welcome into the fall season, which I am very calmly and normally referring to as…

Then the full workshop begins on September 28th and runs for five weeks, ending on November 1st.

This workshop is built around Samhain, the turning of the wheel into the darker half of the year, the thinning of the veil, the honoring of the beloved dead, the work of release, and the quiet magic of crossing from one version of ourselves into the next.

And this year, I wanted the structure to feel a little different.

Still guided. Still witchy. Still community-based if you want that option. Still full of ritual, reflection, and practical magic. But a little more spacious. A little more breathable. A little less “oh no, I missed Tuesday, now I am spiritually behind and must flee into the woods.”

Absolutely not. That is not the energy.

This workshop is meant to support your practice, not chase you through October with a broom and a bottle of black salt.

How the workshop is structured this year

The Samhain Witchy Workshop is a five-week workshop that begins on September 28th and ends on November 1st.

Each week has its own theme, and each week builds toward a larger weekend practice, ritual, or action. Monday through Friday will be focused on preparation, reflection, learning, and small practices that help you step into the weekend work without feeling like you have to complete a giant ritual after a long workday with one eye twitching and dinner still undecided.

The bigger “doing” pieces will mostly happen on Saturday and Sunday.

This is very intentional. Because real life exists. And this season we want to do all the things every day. Work exists. Kids exist. Exhaustion exists. The group chat exists. The dishes exist in a way that feels deeply personal. And October, while magical, is also still a month where people have jobs, homes, families, nervous systems, and schedules that refuse to behave like a tidy little ritual calendar.

So this year, the weekly rhythm is meant to give you space. During the week, we prepare. On the weekend, we deepen. And if you skip a day, you skip a day. No guilt. No pressure. No ancient council of disappointed witches appearing in your kitchen.

These workshops are designed to be done at your pace.

You can follow every day. You can move slower. You can catch up on weekends. You can read the material quietly and do the ritual when you have capacity. You can participate in the guided space or move through it on your own.

The point is not perfection. The point is connection.

The five-week breakdown

This workshop moves through five layers of Samhain magic. We begin with the home and the body, then move into protection, remembrance, shadow, divination, release, and finally, our personal Samhain crossing.

Week One: Prepare the Witch’s House

Cleansing, Clearing & Sacred Space

We begin by preparing the space around us.

This first week is about cleansing, clearing, and making the home feel like a place that can hold the deeper work of the season. Before we do protection, ancestor work, shadow work, divination, or release, we begin with the witch’s house.

This does not mean your home has to be spotless. Please do not panic-clean your entire house and call it spiritual growth unless that truly brings you peace.

This is about energetic preparation.

We’ll work with simple cleansing practices, sacred space, home energy, everyday rituals, and the idea that your home does not need to be perfect to become magical. It only needs to be tended with intention.

The goal of Week One is to make the space feel ready. Not perfect. Ready.

Week Two: Guard the Threshold

Warding, Protection & Boundaries

Once the space is cleared, we protect it.

Week Two is all about warding, protection, thresholds, and boundaries. This is where we talk about what gets access to your home, your energy, your attention, your peace, and your practice.

We’ll work with threshold magic, simple wards, protective practices, boundary spells, and everyday ways to guard your energy without turning your whole life into a haunted security system.

This week is practical and powerful because Samhain opens us to deeper work, and deeper work needs protection.

Before we open the door, we decide what is allowed to cross it.

Week Three: Honor the Beloved Dead

Remembrance, Ancestry & What We Carry

Week Three brings us into remembrance.

This is the heart of Samhain for many witches: honoring the beloved dead, remembering those who came before us, and reflecting on what we carry.

This does not have to mean complicated ancestor work, and it does not have to look one specific way. Some of us have beautiful, easy relationships with ancestry. Some of us have grief, distance, complexity, chosen family, spiritual ancestors, beloved dead, cultural questions, or complicated family stories.

All of that has room here.

This week will focus on remembrance, offerings, grief, gratitude, legacy, and the quiet question of what we carry forward from those who came before us, and what we are allowed to set down.

Samhain is not only about death. It is about relationship, memory, and the love that keeps echoing.

Week Four: Meet the Crossroads

Divination, Shadow & Liminal Magic

Week Four brings us to the crossroads. This is where the workshop turns inward.

We’ll work with divination, shadow, liminal space, mirrors, thresholds, questions, and the kind of magic that asks us to be honest without becoming cruel to ourselves.

This is not about dragging every wound into the center of the room and calling it healing. This is about listening.

What is asking to be seen?
What pattern is ready to be named?
What truth has been waiting at the edge?
What does the next version of you need to know?

The crossroads is a liminal place. It is the place between what was and what comes next. It is not always comfortable, but it can be deeply clarifying and always honest.

This week helps us prepare for the final crossing.

Week Five: Create Your Samhain Crossing

Integration, Release & the Witch’s New Year

Week Five is where everything comes together.

This is the final week of the workshop, ending on November 1st, and this is where we create our Samhain Crossing.

This will be the ritual moment we have been preparing for all month.

We will gather what we have cleared, protected, remembered, discovered, and released, and we will bring it into one final integration practice for Samhain and the Witch’s New Year.

This is the part I am especially excited about. I love a ritual that feels like a real crossing. Not just a “write it down and burn it” moment, although we respect the simple classics. I mean a ritual that helps you feel the shift in your body. A ritual that lets you mark the ending of one cycle and the beginning of another. A ritual that lets you say: I know what I am leaving behind. I know what I am carrying forward. I know what I am becoming available for now.

That is the magic we are building toward.

A Samhain Crossing. A threshold. A release. A return. A beginning in the dark.

What makes this different from last year’s Autumn Witchy Workshop

Last year’s Autumn Witchy Workshop had its own energy, and I loved that season of work. But this year, I wanted to build something more specifically centered around Samhain and the experience of moving toward one powerful ritual moment at the end.

This workshop is not just “autumn magic” in a general sense. It is a five-week Samhain journey (because in this house, we truly do LOVE the mood, and celebration of Samhain).

We are preparing the house, guarding the threshold, honoring the beloved dead, meeting the crossroads, and creating a final Samhain Crossing. Each week is part of the larger arc. Each practice builds toward the end.

The other big difference is the weekly rhythm. Instead of making each weekday feel like a separate task you have to keep up with, this workshop is structured so Monday through Friday helps you prepare for the bigger weekend practice. This gives the week more room to breathe. If work gets busy, you are not behind. Life happens, we life in the real world. If you need to skip a day, you can.

The workshop is meant to be flexible enough to support real people with real lives, not imaginary witches with unlimited free time and suspiciously clean countertops.

The magic will be there when you return.

The printed booklet option

This year, I also really wanted to offer something special and tangible for the workshop.

So along with the digital PDF, there will be an option to purchase a printed booklet for the Samhain Witchy Workshop. This will be available for both the guided workshop, as well as the self guided workshop option.

You will still receive the PDF no matter what, but if you want something physical to hold, write in, keep with your seasonal altar, tuck into your bag, or save as part of your practice, the printed booklet will give you that option without having to print the whole PDF at home.

The booklet is an exact copy of the PDF which outlines the details of each day, the weekly themes, and the practices we are moving through together. It is meant to feel like a little companion for the workshop. Something you can keep, return to, and maybe one day pull out again when the season turns dark and the crows start acting dramatic.

I am very excited about this part. There is something different about holding the work in your hands.

NOTE: Because the workshop booklet will need to be printed and shipped to your house, you will want to make sure to buy this with enough time for it to get to you before the start of the workshop. You will still have your PDF though if for whatever reason the booklet does not get to you in time. The booklets will be shipped through a third-party printing company I use for all my printed products. I usually receive my printed items in 5 - 8 business days.

Workshop options

There will be two ways to join the Samhain Witchy Workshop.

The first option is the self-guided workshop. With this option, you will receive the PDF and can move through the workshop on your own time. You will have the day-by-day instructions, weekly structure, rituals, and practices to follow whenever it works for you. This is perfect if you like moving quietly, privately, or at your own pace.

The printed booklet will also be available as an additional option if you want a physical copy to use during the workshop.

The second option is the guided workshop, hosted inside the Mystic Sisters Coven Discord server. If you choose the guided option, you will need to join Discord if you are not already there. This version includes the workshop materials plus the community experience: daily messages from me, voice memos, pictures, shared discussion, workshop reminders, and a private space to move through the work alongside others.

Both options are valid. Some witches love a quiet solo practice. Some witches want the community space. Some witches want to read everything at midnight in bed with one eye open and a candle burning safely on the other side of the room.

I support your journey, no matter what you choose. The point is to choose the version that actually supports the way you practice.

Prep week begins September 21st

The week of September 21st will be our prep week and welcome into the fall season for all of those who joined the Guided Workshop.

This is when we start easing into the energy together on the private discord channel created for this workshop. We are not jumping straight into deep Samhain work with both feet and a dramatic cape. We are opening the door slowly, pulling on our witch hats, and sipping our yummy PSL’s as we organize our space and prep for the fun to come.

Prep week will help us gather what we need, get familiar with the workshop rhythm, settle into the fall season, and prepare ourselves for the five-week journey ahead. It is also the week where we get to collectively say:

Welcome back, autumn. We missed your little spooky face. YIPPEE.

Who this workshop is for

This workshop is for the witch who wants to move through Samhain with more intention. It is for the witch who loves autumn but wants something deeper than decorations and vibes. It is for the witch who wants practical magic, reflection, ritual, and a little structure without feeling trapped by the structure

This workshop is flexible, done in the time that works for you because the witches who want the season to feel sacred also needs the practice to fit inside a real life. A busy life. A tired life. A life with work and family and dishes and notifications and “where did I put that candle?” energy.

You do not need to know everything. You just need the willingness to move through the season with intention and joy. At the heart of this workshop is one question:

What are you ready to carry across the threshold?

Hope to See you in the Workshop!

The Samhain Witchy Workshop goes on sale September 14th.

Prep week begins September 21st.

The workshop officially begins September 28th and ends November 1st.

If this is your season, the door is opening. Come through when you are ready. The candles are waiting. The threshold is near.

And the Witch’s New Year is about to begin.

Sometimes we talk about magic like it has to be called down from somewhere far away like an elusive sprite dancing in the fluttering leaves of a distant forest. It feels almost like it lives above us, or outside us. Behind a stubbornly locked door or inside the perfect ritual. Allocated to the perfect altar or the most substantial and magical looking tool. We must wait for the right moon phase or the perfect version of ourselves who definitely has a clean kitchen and somehow always knows where the matches are.

Everyday Witchery starts with a different idea.

What if the magic is already around you? I know, it’s a fun idea, let’s get into it.

What if you don’t always need to summon it, chase it, organize it, or wait until you feel more witchy to touch it? What if part of the practice is simply slowing down long enough to notice what is already humming quietly in the life you’re living?

The glass of water beside you. The candle on the counter. The herbs in the cabinet. The key in your hand. The doorway you cross every morning. The cup you reach for without thinking. The window you open when the room feels heavy. The song that changes your whole mood. The meal that brings you back into your body. The tiny moment where you pause before answering the message and remember you’re allowed to choose your energy.

All of it; Magic. Not because it looks dramatic but because it brings you back to grounding stage 1. Magic is thrumming in our veins, and even if we can’t feel it or see it, it’s there if you know how to listen and feel for it.

Magic is not always loud

There are times when magic feels big. The ritual is planned. The candle is dressed. The moon is doing something shiny and the cards are laid out in a perfect order of perfection. The spell has a beginning, middle, and end. The whole thing feels intentional, purposeful, beautiful, and above all worthy of being called magic.

I love those moments. Truly, I do! I cherish them because in my chaos house they don’t happen often.

But most of our lives don’t happen inside perfect ritual conditions. If you are anything like me, our lives are in the in-between. The kitchen. The car. The hallway. The bathroom sink. The laundry pile. The desk. The grocery store. The five minutes before someone needs something. The strange little pocket of time where you’re standing in front of the fridge, not hungry exactly, but spiritually looking for answers in shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

Everyday Witchery lives right there in the ordinary places we keep forgetting magic is also allowed to exist.

Think about it like this. If magic is only ‘felt’ and ‘seen’ when we are in stages of calm in our lives, then it becomes something we visit. But if magic can live in the small, repeated, and orginary moments, then it becomes something that can hold us when life is fucking loud.

When the Dr’s appointments are piling up, and the kids get sick, and the bills are due, and the FDA calls for another food recall (seriously though, what the fuck!?), and the weather is hot as balls, and the perimenopause or fluctuating hormones are making you want to pull out your hair. Magic can live in those moments right along side you, inside the chaos.

That is the whole point. Your practice doesn’t have to wait for the perfect setting. It can begin exactly where you are.

Gathering is a practice

When I say “gather the magic around you,” I don’t mean you need to run around your house collecting seventeen objects and accidentally create a tiny ritual hoard on your kitchen table.

Although, respectfully, we’ve all been there (especially when Brad deserves to be hexed and then thrown in the freezer).

What I mean by gathering your practice, what I really mean is gathering your attention and awareness. Pick up those little pieces of your day that already carry meaning. The mug you use in the morning or the necklace you touch and twist around your finger when you’re nervous. The plant you see when you pass by your backdoor. The candle you light while cooking dinner. The icecream you have at night because it’s FUCKING HOT! The notebook where your thoughts collide on the page into urgent scribbles of thoughts. The music you play when you need to ground, or scream, or dance out emotion to feel human again.

These things may not look magical to someone else, but who cares. Everyday Witchery isn’t about proving your magic to anyone. Your only goal is to build a relationship with your magic that fits inside the life you’re actually living.

So gathering magic starts with noticing. What helps you return to center? What calms you down? What gets out the rush of rage or frustration? What makes you feel steadier? What objects, routines, places, sounds, scents, tastes, or tiny actions already feel like little doorways back to yourself?

That’s where your magic is waiting for you my dear.

Your routines are full of spellwork

We often think spellwork has to be separate from routine. But routine is one of the easiest places to hide a spell in plain sight.

Check out how easy it is to spot these routines made to be magical anchors:
✨Hand washing
✨Making Coffee
✨Opening the blinds or a window
✨Locking the door
✨Changing clothes
✨Charging your phone
✨Putting on lotion or perfume
✨Looking into a mirror at night while you do your evening skincare
✨Cooking dinner
✨Drinking a glass of wine
✨And on, and on, and on….

The magic is not in making every single action sacred with a capital S and a dramatic soundtrack while wearing a velvet cloak. Please no. We don’t need to narrate our entire day like a woodland oracle trying to complete a side quest.

The magic is in choosing one or two moments and letting them hold intention. You stop moving through the day like you’re surviving it, and you start finding tiny places where you can return to yourself inside it.

Start with what is already in your hands

The easiest way to begin gathering the magic around you is to start with what you already touch every day. Your cup, your keys, your phone, your computer, your steering wheel, your water bottle.

Choose one object and make it a tiny anchor. Here’s what it would look like:
If you choose your cup, let the first sip become a spell: “I return to myself.”
If you choose your keys, let them become protection: “I move through the world with care.”
If you choose your phone, let setting it face down become attention magic: “My energy comes back to me.”
If you choose your mirror, let one glance become truth magic: “I see myself clearly.”
If you choose your water bottle, let every refill become care magic: “I refill too.”

This is small and it’s why it works. Small magic can make it through a simple day or a chaos filled day. Simple is easy and doable.

A tiny gathering practice

Try this when you feel disconnected from your magic, but don’t have the energy for a full ritual.

Stand wherever you are. Look around the room and choose three things you can see:

🔮One thing that grounds you.
🔮One thing that comforts you.
🔮One thing that reminds you of who you are becoming.

Touch each item if you can.

For the grounding object, say: “This brings me back to the present.”

For the comforting object, say: “This reminds me I am allowed to be cared for.”

For the becoming object, say: “This points me toward who I am becoming.”

Then place your hand on your heart and say:

“The magic is already around me.
I gather what supports me.
I return to myself here.”

Three objects. Three moments of attention. One tiny return to yourself.

A daily routine version

If you want to make this even easier, choose one part of your day and turn it into your gathering point for the week.

Morning is for gathering intention. Before you touch your phone, take one sip of water or coffee and ask: What energy do I want to carry today?

Midday is for gathering yourself back. Put your hand on your chest, take one breath, and ask: Where has my energy scattered?

Evening is for gathering what mattered. Before bed, name one thing that supported you today, even if it was tiny, strange, or not traditionally magical at all.

You can do all three if that feels good, but you don’t need to. Pick one. Let it become familiar. Let it become part of your rhythm. The goal is not to add more to your day. The goal is to notice the magic already woven through it.

When life does not feel magical

There will be days where this feels hard. Trust me when I say, I know how hard life can be when everything feels like too much. Getting out of bed is too much. Even the thought of having to make a meal or brush your teeth brings on a groan of ‘fuck off life’.

There are going to be days where the house is loud, the news is heavy, your body is tired, the sink is full, your brain is static, and the idea of “noticing quiet magic” feels almost offensive. And dumb. And impossible to remember to even do.

Fair, that’s so totally fair. Some days, magic does not feel sparkly. But hear me out, witch, because some days magic is simply the act of not abandoning yourself. We drink our water and go to bed on time. We close the app and pick up a book instead, or fuck it, we sleep. It’s washing your face before bed. It’s eating something with protein and fiber. It’s stepping outside to just breathe.

It is saying to the whole world, “I am still here,” and letting that count.

Everyday Witchery is not about pretending the ordinary is always beautiful. It’s not. There is a lot of ugly in this world. We don’t need to face all of it, but we can absolutely refuse to let the ordinary become empty.

Even on hard days, there are small points of return. Mini anchors to sanity. Deep breath, grab your favorite mug, and pour your coffee.

Pick that tiny moment where you choose to care for you. That is magic, witch. Every time you take care of you…magic.

The magic is closer than you think

When the day gets loud, when your attention scatters, when your spirit feels far away, place your hand on the nearest ordinary thing that supports you and remember:

The magic is already around me.
I gather what supports me.
I return to myself here.

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Your doorway is more than an entrance. It’s the place where the outside world ends and your space begins.

This simple threshold spell is meant to create an energetic boundary around your home, welcoming in what nourishes you while asking everything else to remain outside.

You don’t need to deep clean the house, ward every window, or spend your afternoon wandering around with incense like a tiny haunted landlord. We’re keeping this simple.

Read more

August is a strange little beast in the kitchen, and it’s truly bursting with flavors.

On one hand, it is still deeply summer. The sun has things to say, and in abundance. The tomatoes are showing off. The herbs are fragrant. The fruit is sweet. Everything feels golden, overripe, slightly sticky, and there are so many bugs.

On the other hand, August carries the first whisper of the coming turn. I know we hear the gentle whisper of our favorite season, witches, but it’s not autumn yet. Not pumpkin time yet. Please, let the tomatoes, flowers, and melons have their moment before the cinnamon broom army marches in.

And yet as much as I am trying to not give into to drinking that first sip of PSL, the first harvest of the year is here. My mind and my stomach start to turn toward the focus of how to make storage for the winter. The pantry starts feeling important again. The garden, farmers market, and grocery store all begin offering us little reminders that the season is generous, but not endless.

It is not frantic. It is not “prepare for winter like a Victorian widow with a root cellar and a dark secret about Johnny down the street.” It is not about doing everything. At the end of the day, we do have grocery stores so it’s about storing in for the heavy winter (though we will talk more about how to do that!). August kitchen magic is about noticing what is abundant right now, using what you have, and making small choices that help future you feel cared for.

Because the kitchen is not only a place where we feed ourselves. It is a place where we practice devotion. My favorite type, the Everyday Witchery kind.

You know the one, with crumbs, and sticky fruit, and warm spices, and the lingering scent of freshly baked bread or cookies.

August is first harvest magic

August is deeply connected to first harvest energy. This is the season where we start noticing what has grown, what is ready to be gathered, what needs tending, and what we want to carry forward (if you are intrigued to learn more about the first harvest, you can check out my post on Lughnasadh —> CLICK HERE!)

In the kitchen, that energy becomes very real.

A tomato on the counter is not just a tomato. It’s sun, soil, water, time, patience, labor, and the tiny miracle of something becoming edible because the world kept moving. A loaf of bread is not just bread. It is grain, heat, hands, waiting, rising, and nourishment. A jar of dried herbs is not just a jar. It is summer saved for later.

This is why kitchen witchery feels so natural in August. You don’t have to stretch to make it magical. The magic is already sitting there in the bowl, the pan, the cutting board, the simmering pot, the little jar of something you decided to save.

The practice is simply to notice. To stir with intention and season with gratitude. Prepare with love for the version of you who will need comfort, east, and flavor in the next season.

Pantry prep as Everyday Witchery

Pantry prep does not have to mean a massive overhaul. I typically leave my pantry reorganization for spring, but if you haven’t gotten to it, it’s not a terrible idea. However, you don’t need to alphabetize your beans under moonlight unless that’s genuinely your joy. In which case, bless the beans and carry on.

For most of us, pantry prep can be smaller and more realistic. It can be checking what you already have before buying more. It can be tossing expired things (dried herbs don’t go ‘bad’ so much as they begin to loose flavor. So that container of oregano from 1993 can go babe. You can buy a new one if you need one.). It can be moving older items to the front so you actually use them. It can be making a small list of staples that help you feed yourself when life gets busy.

That is magic. Not because it looks dramatic but because it creates the support and thoughtfulness we need and will appreciate later.

A stocked pantry is a spell for future ease. A jar of rice, a bag of pasta, a can of tomatoes, a carton of broth, a few spices, a tin of tea, a bag of flour, a bottle of olive oil, these things can become the difference between feeling completely depleted and being able to make something warm and grounding at the end of a long day.

Food is practical magic. Pantry prep is protection magic.

You are not just organizing shelves when it comes to a pantry cleanse. You are saying: I want to be able to care for myself when the season gets busy. I want my home to hold me. I want future me to open this cabinet and feel like someone thought of her.

That someone can be you 🫶

A simple August pantry reset

Start small. Truly small. We are not summoning the great pantry overhaul beast unless we have snacks and emotional support. Pick one shelf, one drawer, one cabinet, or one basket.

Take everything out. Wipe the space down. As you wipe, say:

“I clear what is stale.
I make room for what nourishes.
This kitchen supports the life I am building.”

Now look at what you have. What needs to be used soon? What did you forget was there? What staples are missing? What would make future meals easier?

As you put things back, try grouping them by use instead of perfection. Baking supplies together. Quick meals together. Teas together. Grains and pasta together. Herbs and spices where you can actually see them, because if they disappear into the cabinet void, they may as well be living in another dimension.

Then choose one thing to use this week.

A can of tomatoes. A bag of lentils. A box of pasta. A forgotten jar of jam. A half-used bag of flour. A spice you bought with great ambition and then abandoned like a tiny culinary ghost.

Hold it for a moment and say:

“Nothing here is wasted.
What I have becomes nourishment.”

Then build one meal, snack, or recipe around it.

That is pantry magic. Simple. Useful. Grounded. Emphasis on the simple. We are in a threshold season, remember, and the chaos goblins are nipping at heels. We don’t need to do a full pantry refresh, babes. Truly, don’t pull an ADHD Witch on yourself and unload the whole pantry and then leave it on the dinning room table because the task became immediately more overwhelming than we intended it to be. Trust me, from experience, you don’t need that right now.

What to stock for the coming season

August is a lovely time to begin thinking about what foods support you as the year starts turning toward busier rhythms, school schedules, cooler evenings, deeper work, and eventually autumn (Gimme gimme that PSL! I WANT IT NOW!)

You don’t need to stock everything. This is not a bunker. This is a kitchen (though again, on that note: I DO love deep storage pantries and will be doing a deep dive later into how to best prep for a deep winter).

For now, think in categories.

What helps you make quick meals? Pasta, rice, couscous, tortillas, canned beans, canned tomatoes, broth, frozen vegetables, eggs, tuna if you eat it, nut butter, oats, potatoes, onions, garlic.

What helps you make food taste good when you are tired? Olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, cinnamon, oregano, rosemary, basil, chili flakes, honey, maple syrup, mustard, soy sauce, hot sauce.

What helps you feel comforted? Tea, coffee, cocoa, soup ingredients, baking staples, bread flour, boxed mac and cheese, crackers, jam, applesauce, whatever says “you are allowed to eat something easy” in your house.

What supports kitchen witchery?
✨Cinnamon for warmth and abundance.
✨Rosemary for protection and remembrance.
✨Basil for prosperity and blessing.
✨Mint for clarity and cooling.
✨Bay leaves for wishes and intention.
✨Salt for cleansing and grounding.
✨Honey for sweetness.
✨Garlic for protection.
✨Lemon for cleansing and brightening.

Keep this practical. A magical pantry does not need to look like a medieval apothecary had a baby with a Pinterest board. It needs to help you feed yourself.

That is the spell.

August recipe ideas

The best August recipes are usually simple, seasonal, and forgiving. This is not the month where I want a recipe that requires seventeen bowls, a special tool, and a spiritual negotiation with the oven. August cooking should feel abundant but doable. Here are a few cozy seasonal ideas to work with.

Rosemary Tomato Focaccia

This is a perfect August kitchen witch recipe because it uses seasonal tomatoes, rosemary, olive oil, salt, and bread, all of which carry beautiful harvest energy.

Tomatoes bring vitality, joy, and summer abundance. Rosemary brings protection, remembrance, and blessing. Olive oil brings richness and ease. Salt grounds and preserves. Bread is one of the oldest symbols of nourishment, labor, and shared life.

As the dough rises, you can say:

“What I am growing has room to rise.”

Before baking, press the tomatoes and rosemary into the dough with your fingertips and say:

“I bless what feeds this home.
I bless what grows from patience.
I bless what is shared.”

This does not need to be fancy. Store-bought dough counts if that is the version of the spell that actually gets made.

The magic is in the making.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

If you have too many tomatoes, oven-dried tomatoes are a beautiful way to save summer for later.

Slice tomatoes, place them on a baking sheet, drizzle lightly with olive oil, add salt, and bake low and slow until they shrink, deepen, and become intensely flavorful. Store them safely according to how you prepare them, and use them in pasta, sandwiches, eggs, focaccia, salads, or little snack plates when you want summer to reach back through the season and tap you on the shoulder.

The magic here is preservation.

As you place them in the oven, say:

“I gather the sweetness of this season.
I preserve what nourishes.
I carry summer forward.”

This is a beautiful August spell because it reminds us that not everything needs to be consumed immediately. Some things can be saved. Some sweetness can be carried into the next season. And that sun-dried tomato pasta you make in november will truly be out of this world.

First Harvest Pasta

This is an easy no-fuss dinner idea for when the produce is good and your energy is low.

Use pasta, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini, basil, corn, peppers, or whatever August vegetables you have. Add parmesan, goat cheese, mozzarella, beans, tuna, chicken, or chickpeas if you want more protein.

As you stir everything together, say:

“What has grown becomes nourishment.
What is simple can still be sacred.”

This is the kind of meal that feels like a little seasonal altar in a bowl without making you wash every dish you own.

Mint Lemon Cooling Tea

August heat needs cooling magic. Because FUCK, IT’S SO FUCKING HOT IN HERE! Mother nature is really putting us through it this season, but we can find ways to cool ourselves down.

Make a simple mint lemon tea, either hot and then chilled, or steeped gently and served over ice. Add honey if you want sweetness.

Mint brings clarity and cooling. Lemon brings cleansing and brightness. Honey brings sweetness and comfort.

As you stir, say:

“Cool my body.
Clear my mind.
Sweeten the space around me.”

Drink slowly. Let it be a tiny reset.

This is especially good for overstimulation, hot afternoons, or the moment where your brain starts to feel like soup in a glitter jar.

Pantry Soup Base

This is less of a recipe and more of a future-you blessing.

Create a simple “soup base” area in your pantry: broth, canned tomatoes, beans, lentils, rice or noodles, garlic, onions, herbs, and whatever vegetables you usually have around. This gives you the bones of a meal when the season gets busier.

As you gather the items, say:

“This home will be fed.
This kitchen will support us.
Warmth will be easy to find.”

You can even make a little soup basket or shelf. Not because the pantry needs to be aesthetic, but because future you may be tired and extremely grateful not to go hunting for lentils behind the expired sprinkles.

Everyday Witchery in the kitchen

Kitchen witchery does not have to be a huge ritual. It can be stirring clockwise for what you want to call in. It can be stirring counterclockwise for what you want to release. It can be lighting a candle before cooking dinner and saying, “May this food nourish more than hunger.”

Sometimes the most magical meal is the one you prepare and eat with intention.

Gratitude without guilt

Harvest season can bring up gratitude, and gratitude is beautiful. But I want to be clear about something.

Gratitude should not be used as a weapon against your exhaustion. You are allowed to be grateful and tired. You are allowed to love your family and need quiet alone time. We aren’t going to shame ourselves for needing and wanting two things at once.

Gratitude doesn’t mean pretending everything is easy. It means pausing long enough to notice what is feeding you. That is a much softer practice.

Not “I should be more grateful.”

Try: What nourished me today?

Maybe it was a meal or a delicious cup of coffee. Maybe it was the fact that dinner existed at all. Know that gratitude can be simple too but just noticing what you have in front of you without shame, guilt, or thinking it could be better.

Preparing for the season ahead

August kitchen magic is not about rushing autumn. It is about honoring where we are while gently preparing for where we are going.

Use the tomatoes now. Dry the herbs if you have them. Check the pantry. Make the bread. Freeze the extra sauce. Buy the tea. Clean one shelf. Bless the kitchen. Notice what feeds you.

Little by little, the season turns. We aren’t going to sprint into it. We can prepare gently, day by day.

That’s truly what I love most about kitchen witchery. It reminds us that magic is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is a jar of herbs. A pot of soup. A loaf of bread. A clean counter. A meal made with intention. A pantry that helps future you breathe easier.

So this month, let your kitchen become a place of small seasonal magic. Cook what is abundant. Save what you can. Bless what feeds you. Prepare gently for what comes next.

And remember:

The hearth does not have to be perfect to be sacred.
The meal does not have to be fancy to be magic.
What nourishes this home becomes part of the spell.

If you liked this post, you might also like this one!

The Everyday Witchery Quick Guide and Everyday Witchery Monthly Guide has received such a flood of praise and I have to say, first off, thank you! And second, I so love that you’re enjoying them!

Then comes the next step, so we need to talk about what happens after you purchase the Everyday Witchery quick guide (the monthly guide is free if you are a paid subscriber, see link below!). Because this is usually where the goblin creeps in.

You save the guide. You feel inspired. You think, yes, this month I am going to do tiny daily magic, reconnect with myself, cross thresholds with intention, honor the harvest, cool my body, steady my spirit, and become a practical little summer witch with a hydrated nervous system!

Beautiful. Stunning. I applaud that enthusiasum and determination. Very “I have my life together and my altar definitely does not have old receipts on it.” And then, inevitably, life happens. You miss a day. Then two. You opened the guide on August 9th and suddenly your brain acts like you’ve failed an ancient exam administered by three owls and a disappointed candle and you push the guide away in shame. You did it again, you lost track. And the words ‘failure’ imprint themselves on the back of your eyelids so every time you blink you are reminded.

Alright, witch. Going to gently hold you hand, and pull you out of that downward spirl. We aren’t going there, absolutely not. That is not what this guide is for.

The Everyday Witchery Guide is not a witchy attendance sheet. It is not a test. It is not a spiritual productivity chart with fancy glitter stickers. The guide is not to make you feel behind, guilty, or like you need to start the month over because you forgot to whisper something meaningful into your iced coffee on Monday morning before chaos struck.

The guide is meant to be used, yes, absolutely. And sometimes using it means following it day by day. Sometimes using it means circling three practices you like and ignoring the rest because you don’t have brain space. Other times, using it means remembering it exists halfway through the month and choosing one small thing because your rhythm of magic is to do it when the lightening strikes your brain.

Each and every single one of these options count, and they count more than we think. The point of Everyday Witchery is not perfect consistency. The point is return.

A guide is not a rulebook

This is the part I want to keep saying until it sinks into the bones: a guide is not a rulebook (trust the process) and repeat, the guide is not a rule book.

A guide points and it offers. It says, here is a path you might want to try out.

It does not stand behind you with a clipboard and a tiny whistle yelling, you missed the fan blessing, Jessie, explain yourself! Down and give me twenty, you didn’t light your incense this morning you slacker!

No one needs that energy. Especially not in August when we are already sticky, hot, annoyed, overgrown, and full of seasonal transition. School is whisper at the corner of our minds, back to school night already!? We do NOT need our magic becoming another place where we feel chased by guilt.

August is already a lot. It is hot, loud, busy, sticky, overgrown, full of seasonal transition, school year whispers, summer plans, and whatever fresh nonsense the group chat has decided to produce. We do not need our magic becoming another place where we feel chased.

The guide is meant to make magic easier to find, not harder to keep up with. That means you are allowed to use it like a menu. You can look at the day’s practice and say, not today, little spell, I am simply too feral.

You can choose the same practice from yesterday because it felt good. You can repeat the same one for a whole week. You can skip to the threshold magic because that is what your body needs. You can use the guide as inspiration and then make it smaller.

Adjusting what you see on the page to your life is not doing it wrong. That is making the magic fit your life and honestly, that is the whole point.

The magic is in the choosing

One of the sneaky things about Everyday Witchery is that the practice is not only in the action itself. It is also in the choosing.

When you pause and ask, what do I need today? that is magic. When you notice you are overheated and choose cooling magic instead of forcing yourself to push harder, that is magic. When you realize you need grounding and rest more than motivation, that is magic. When you look at the guide and choose one tiny thing instead of abandoning the whole month because you cannot do everything, that is magic with sensible shoes and a cold drink.

This matters so much, this check in with ourselves, because so many of us were taught to treat structure like a cage. We either follow it perfectly, or we feel like we failed. We either become the ideal version of ourselves overnight, or we collapse into the emotional swamp and declare the plan dead and we toss it into the metaphorical trash.

But Everyday Witchery is not built for that all-or-nothing spiral. This type of magic is built for real life. A life where you need options, softness, the option of structure if you want it, and a tether back to your magic when life explodes into stupid chaos.

Three ways to use the Everyday Witchery guides to your advantage

Instead of trying to use the guides perfectly, try thinking of them as support tools. Not assignments. Not homework. Not a tiny magical filing cabinet of pressure. Just different ways to make your practice easier to reach when life is loud and your brain has turned into a haunted junk drawer.

The first option is the daily anchor practice from the Everyday Witchery Quick Guide. This is for the witch who likes structure, but needs it to feel flexible and human. The Quick Guide helps you weave magic into the routines you already have: your coffee, your shower, your doorway, your kitchen, your bedtime, your breath, and those tiny little moments where you need to come back to yourself. It gives you the foundation, so you aren’t starting from scratch every time you want to feel connected to your craft.

The second option is the August magic menu from the August Everyday Witchery Daily Guide. This is for the witch whose life laughs directly in the face of daily plans. You can skim the guide, choose a practice based on your actual need, and use it when it fits. Need cooling? Pick a heat practice. Need courage? Pick a candle practice. Need transition support? Pick a threshold practice. Need softness? Pick something with water, breath, or rest. You don’t have to use the “right” practice on the “right” day for it to count. You’re allowed to let the guide meet the day you’re actually having.

The third option is the daily August rhythm. This is for the witch who doesn’t want to think her way through every single day. You open the August guide, do the practice for that date, and move on with your life. One practice. One tiny spell. One small moment of connection. Lovely. Simple. Very tidy, in a magical lunchbox sort of way.

Any of these options can make your magic easier, especially when decision fatigue starts chewing on your ankles. Sometimes the hardest part of practicing isn’t the spell itself. It’s deciding what to do, when to do it, where to start, what counts, and whether you’re already behind. The guides help take some of that pressure off.

The best formula, if you want the most support, is to use the Everyday Witchery Quick Guide alongside the August Everyday Witchery Daily Guide. The Quick Guide helps you build the rhythm. The August guide gives you the seasonal options. One gives you the shape. One gives you the spark.

A doorway spell becomes part of leaving the house. A water spell becomes part of filling your cup. A kitchen spell becomes part of making dinner. A candle spell becomes part of your evening reset. A release spell becomes part of washing your hands.

That is the magic of using them together. You don’t have to wake up every morning and think, what should I do for magic today, where do I start, what does the season mean, do I need a candle, did I miss the moon, am I behind, why is my brain a cursed junk drawer with Wi-Fi?/

You just choose one small practice, place it somewhere real, and let it become part of your rhythm.

The practice is return

The August Everyday Witchery Guide is here to support you, not supervise you.

It’s here to give you simple ways to weave magic into the heat, harvest, thresholds, and daily routines of this strange liminal month. It’s here to remind you that your craft does not have to be huge to be real, nor does it need to be perfect to be powerful.

You can use the guide day by day, or like a menu, or you can choose a practice and repeat it until it becomes familiar and second nature. It’s up to you!

So open the guide when you need it. Circle what calls to you. Skip what does not fit. Repeat what helps. Let the magic meet you in the life you actually have.

And when you fall off, because life is life and August is over here sweating through its own robes, put your hand on your heart and say:

I come back now. That is the practice. That is the magic.

Everyday Witchery Quick Guide —> Click here

For paid subscribers, you also have access to the August Daily Guide for Everyday Witchery as well as some fun phone backgrounds perfect for the harvest season! Enjoy!

AUGUST EVERYDAY WITCHERY GUIDE —> Click Here!

AUGUST PHONE BACKGROUND IMAGES —> Click Here!

The Shadow Seed Ritual

The August New Moon arrives with eclipse energy, which gives this moon a different kind of charge than what we normally are expecting.

A regular New Moon is already a dark beginning. It’s that fresh blank page in a new journal, the quiet room before the beginning of an event, the deep inhale before you begin a hefty task. But an eclipse New Moon adds a whole other layer to the cake. It brings shadow, interruption, revelation, and realignment.

This is not a moon for frantic manifesting babes, we aren’t trying to control every outcome with a glitter gel pen and a perfectly organized daily calendar. This is a moon for pausing at the edge of change and sincerely asking:

What am I no longer available for?
What truth has been trying to get my attention?
What part of me needs protection as I step into the next chapter?
What seed am I ready to plant from a place of honesty, not performance?

August itself is a threshold month as we’ve been talking about. The blazing hot summer sun is still fucking BLAZING, but the wheel is beginning to lean toward harvest and the crisp cool season of pumpkin spice…ah, I mean Autumn. The first signs of seasonal shift are there if you know how to look: the light changing, the air feeling different in the evening (unless you live in a place where it’s still satan’s ass hot!), the first whispers of routine returning (ah, the scent of freshly sharpened pencils and clean lined paper), the strange little tug between wanting more summer and knowing something new is coming.

So this ritual is for the witch standing in the middle of it all and looking around feeling a teensy bit overwhelmed.

The heat, the pressure, the push to grow, and the following uncertainty of ‘what if I don’t’. There is a deep desire to begin again but we need to find a way to do this without the burnout. Change is hard, yes, but a fresh start is chalk full of opportunity.

The intention of this ritual is:

To clear what has been draining your energy, protect the self that is emerging, and plant one honest intention for the season ahead.

Let’s get into it, witches!
NOTE: This ritual is different from the one I posted on Monday in that it includes a 10 minute audio meditation. The themes are similar, but the ritual itself is different. I hope you enjoy this ritual as much as the previous one!

The Ritual: “The Shadow Seed”

What you’ll need

Keep this simple, grounded, and protective:

• 1 candle, ideally black, white, gold, yellow, or orange

• A small bowl of water

• A pinch of salt

• Paper and pen

• A seed, dried herb, grain, oat, cornmeal, or a small leaf

• A small stone, key, charm, or piece of jewelry

• Rosemary, basil, bay leaf, mint, lavender, mugwort, or garden sage (choose just one)

• A drink for sealing the ritual, like tea, lemonade, moon water, or a simple sip’tual

A note on eclipse energy: Eclipse rituals can feel intense. You do not need to do a huge working. Keep it contained. Keep it gentle and simple. This ritual is not about forcing a result. It is about listening, protecting, and choosing your next honest step.

FUN FACT: What’s the difference between a dark moon and a new moon? The dark moon is the 1.5 - 3 days before the new moon is seen where the cycle resets. The new moon is the cresting visibility of the moon as it begins the waxing cycle toward becoming a full moon again.

Step One: Open the Space

Place your candle in front of you. Set the bowl of water beside it. Add your pinch of salt and, if using, a little rosemary, basil, mint, lavender, or another herb (choose the herbs or plants that call to you for calm, growth, abudance, and/or protection)

Light the candle and say:

“I open this space with care.
I welcome the shadow of the dark Moon.
I welcome the clarity of this new Moon.
I welcome only what supports my protection, truth, and becoming.”

Take one slow breath in. Let it out. Soften your shoulders and ease into a comfortable position.

Imagine a soft circle of light forming around you. Not a wall. Not a fortress.
A boundary. A sacred edge between you and the noise outside this moment. You are in the protective circle, and you can relax into this ritual.

Say:

“I am safe to pause.
I am safe to listen.
I am safe to begin again.”

Step Two: Name What Has Been Draining You

On your paper, write:

“What has been draining my energy:”

List three to seven things.

Examples:

• overexplaining myself

• waiting for permission

• carrying everyone else’s urgency

• old fear

• micromanagement at work

• perfectionism

• work to exhaustion without any appreciation

• comparison

• doomscrolling

• saying yes when I mean no

• trying to bloom in every direction at once

• confusing exhaustion with devotion

Read your list quietly. Then place one hand over the page and say:

“I see what has been taking from me.
I name it without shame or guilt or judgement.
I do not need to carry it across this threshold.”

Choose one item from the list that feels the most important to release and circle it.

Step Three: Shadow Release

On a separate piece of paper, write the one thing you are releasing and hold it between your hands.

Say:

“I understand why this took root in my mind and body.
I understand why I carried it for so long.
I will not let this lead me anymore.”

Now choose one release method:

Burn it safely in a fire-safe dish.
Tear it into small pieces and place it in the bowl of water.
Fold it away from you three times and set it beneath the bowl until the ritual is complete.

As you release it, say:

“I release what drains my life force.
I release what blocks my truth.
I release what keeps me performing instead of becoming.”

Take one slow breath. Imagine the energy of that old pattern loosening from your body.

Step Four: Protect What Is Emerging

Pick up your stone, key, charm, or piece of jewelry. Hold it near your heart.

Say:

“This is a charm for the self I am becoming.”

Now dip your fingertips into the salted water and touch the charm lightly, if it is safe to do so. Then hold it near the candle, safely away from the flame.

Say:

“Water to cleanse.
Salt to protect.
Flame to awaken.
New Moon to hold the seed in darkness.”

Hold the charm to your heart again and say:

“I protect my peace.
I protect my energy.
I protect my becoming.
I protect the version of me that is no longer willing to disappear.”

You can carry this charm for the next lunar cycle, place it on your altar, tuck it into your bag, or wear it as an anchor of remembering to your boundary.

Step Five: Plant the Shadow Seed

Take your seed, grain, oat, herb, or leaf into your hand. This is your shadow seed. Not because it is bad but because it begins in the dark.

Ask yourself:

What am I ready to grow from a place of truth?

Not from guilt, or pressue, or trying to impress anyone. From truth.

On your paper, write:

“Under this August New Moon, I plant the seed of…”

Choose one.

Examples:

• courage

• steadiness

• self-trust

• protection

• creative devotion

• clear boundaries

• honest visibility

• rest without apology

• money flow with ease

• a softer relationship with my body

• the next brave version of my life

Hold the seed, herb, grain, or leaf over your words.

Say:

“This seed does not need to be seen to be real.
This beginning does not need approval to be sacred.
I plant this in truth.
I will tend it with care.”

Place the seed or herb on top of your intention paper.

Step Six: Step Through the Eclipse Threshold

Choose a doorway, hallway, or symbolic threshold. Bring your charm and intention paper with you. Stand on one side of the threshold.

Take one breath and say:

“I stand at the edge of what was.”

Take another breath and say:

“I release the shadow that kept me small.”

Take one final breath and say:

“I protect the self that is ready to rise.”

Now step through the threshold.

Once you cross, say:

“I cross into truth.
I cross into protection.
I cross into the next honest beginning.
I do not need to see the whole path to choose the next step.”

Pause. Deep breath. Feel your feet on the other side. Let your body and nervous system understand what your spirit just chose.

Step Seven: Choose the Next Honest Step

Return to your candle. Look at your intention paper and ask:

What is one small action I can take within the next seven days to tend this seed?

Keep it simple so it doesn’t begin an overwhelm spiral.

Examples:

• write for ten minutes

• clean one corner of my home

• take one real rest break

• send the email

• make the appointment

• say no without overexplaining

• move my body gently

• spend five minutes outside

• set a budget check-in

• record the thing I keep postponing

• ask for help

Write your action down.

Say:

“My magic lives in my choices.
My intention becomes real through what I tend.
I choose one honest step.”

Step Eight: Seal the Ritual

Lift your drink if you have one, or place both hands over your heart.

Say:

“To the New Moon above me.
To the shadow that reveals what must change.
To the seed that begins in darkness.
To the self I am protecting now.
To the truth I no longer abandon.
So it is. So I begin. So mote it be.”

Let the candle burn for a few more minutes if you can, then snuff it gently. Keep your intention paper and charm somewhere meaningful for the next lunar cycle.

Let them remind you: Not all beginnings announce themselves.
Some begin quietly in the dark, and still change everything.

Audio Meditation Script

“The Seed in the Shadow”

If you liked this ritual, you might also enjoy:

Hi loves,

Your August Everyday Witchery guide is here!

Yes, she is arriving fashionably late. Was she meant to be here at the beginning of the month, hair brushed and altar dusted? Absolutely. Did August immediately kick the door open with heat, chaos, back-to-school whispers, Mercury acting like a haunted stapler, and the general sensation of time being a greased watermelon rolling downhill? Also yes, yes and yes. Ya’ll, this month has already been kicking my butt.

So, because this guide is arriving a little later than planned, I’m including an extra little gift for you: a simple August sip’tual recipe to help you cool down (why is it SOOOOO FUCKING HOT!), come back to yourself, and make late-summer magic feel a little easier to hold.

A tiny magical apology beverage, if you will 🫶Very official. Very sacred. Most definitely delicious.

This month’s Everyday Witchery guide is built around the energy of August: heat, harvest, thresholds, and tiny daily practice. August is still very much summer in it’s absolute prime. The sun is loud. The days are hot. Everything feels a little overgrown, overstimulated, and somehow both slow and rushed at the same time.

But August also carries the first whisper of the turn. Lughnasadh brought us into first harvest energy. The season starts asking what has grown, what we are gathering, what still needs tending, and what we are quietly ready to stop carrying. Back-to-school energy begins to creep in around the edges. Routines start knocking on the door. The year starts shifting, even if the weather is still acting like a dramatic oven goblin, the shift has begun.

That is why August magic does not need to be one more thing to keep up with. It can be a return point like a magical anchor to your sanity.

This guide is not here to boss you around. It’s not a spiritual chore chart or a daily practice with a whistle and a clipboard, demanding to know why you skipped Tuesday. Absolutely not. We don’t need our magic becoming another micromanaging supervisor. She may take her laminated expectations and sit quietly in the shade (and shut the fuck up).

The August Everyday Witchery guide is here to give you one tiny magical option each day. Something simple. Something seasonal. Something you can use, adapt, simplify, skip, circle back to, or completely ignore until the exact moment your spirit says, wait, I need that one.

That is the whole point of Everyday Witchery.

Inside this month’s guide, you’ll find little practices for late-summer magic: cooling rituals, harvest reflections, threshold moments, candle work, kitchen witchery, grounding, protection, and simple ways to reconnect with your craft when life is loud. Some practices take less than a minute. Some are meant to help you pause. Some are there to help you notice what has grown. Some are for crossing from one part of your day into another without dragging every bit of stress through the doorway with you.

August is a threshold month, and threshold months can feel strange.

You may feel like you’re still in summer mode, but also already preparing for the next thing. You may feel energized one day and completely melted the next. Don’t stress, Witch, we are there with you. The pull toward Autumn is strong, but hold tight, we aren’t quite ready to release summer yet.

And because I’m late getting this into your hands, here is your extra little August Sip’tual gift to all my paid subscribers, along with the August Everyday Witchery guide and the August Phone backgrounds to enjoy!

To my paid subscribers: thank you. Truly, deeply, most sincerely, thank you.

Your support is what allows me to keep creating these monthly guides, rituals, meditations, workshops, graphics, sip’tuals, and all the little pieces of Everyday Witchery we build together. Every subscription helps keep this space alive and growing, and I’m so grateful you’re here.

If you’re an unpaid subscriber peeking in and thinking, wait, I want the late-summer spell guide and magical apology beverage too, this is the kind of seasonal support paid subscribers receive: practical witchcraft, simple guides, downloadable magic, moon rituals, monthly practices, and little spells that are meant to be used in actual life, not just admired from a distance like a fancy broom you’re scared to touch.

Read more

Eclipse season has a way of making everything feel a little louder.

Not always in a dramatic, lightning-cracking-open-the-sky kind of way. Sometimes it is quieter than that. Sometimes it is the sudden realization that you are exhausted from being understood incorrectly. You might feel heavy or weighed down but it came on in a sudden realization. Sometimes it’s noticing how much of your life has been shaped around keeping the peace, softening the truth, managing other people’s reactions, or becoming the version of yourself that felt safest to present.

This ritual is for that exact moment. The Eclipse Threshold Ritual is a liminal doorway working for releasing performance and protecting the real self we’ve buried beneath the performance.

To be clear, it’s not about forcing clarity before you’re ready. We aren’t walking out the front door without pants on, we want to be prepared to step into the light of understanding.

This also isn’t about demanding that the universe hand you a five-year plan on parchment with a wax seal. Magic isn’t automatic, there is always hard work, determination, focus, and intention behind every ritual.

What this ritual is about, is pausing in the doorway between who you had to be before and who you’ve become or are becoming still.

August brings us deep eclipse energy, with a total solar eclipse on August 12 (NOTE: Path of Totality viewing: Sweeps across Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, northern Spain, and a small part of Portugal. Partial Visibility: Parts of North America, including Alaska and parts of the northern U.S.)

Eclipse seasons often feel like thresholds: endings and beginnings braided together, old identities loosening, new truths pressing gently at the ribs.

This ritual gives that energy somewhere to land. You will stand on one side of a threshold and name what you are done performing. Then you will rinse your hands in water, pause in the between place, and step forward naming what you are choosing to protect now.

Change doesn’t always need to be chased. Sometimes change needs to be crossed with care.

Purpose

This ritual is for moving through a threshold without spiraling, rushing, or trying to control every outcome. It helps you separate what was built for approval from what is actually true within you.

Use it when you are entering a new chapter, leaving behind an old role, making peace with an identity shift, or choosing to become more visible without abandoning yourself.

Best For

✨Eclipse season (but not only to be used during Eclipse season)
✨Identity shifts
✨Visibility fear
✨Letting go of people-pleasing
✨Ending a role you outgrew
✨Beginning a new chapter
✨Choosing authenticity over approval
✨Returning to yourself after over-performing
✨Feeling like you are standing between who you were and who you are becoming

You Will Need

✨Two candles
*or one candle and a doorway
✨A bowl of water
✨Paper strips
✨Pen
✨A dark cloth, scarf, or towel
✨Optional: a key, stone, charm, or protective object

If you only have one candle, that is enough. Don’t stress if you don’t have the list of items, you can always improvise with what you have. If you do not have a doorway you can physically step through, you can create one by placing the dark cloth on the floor as a line to step over.

If movement is difficult or unavailable to you, you can move your hand across the threshold instead. Your body does not need to perform the ritual perfectly for the magic to know where to go.

Core Spell Line

I release the version of me built for approval.
I step forward as the self I am ready to protect.

Before You Begin

Choose your threshold. This can be an actual doorway, the space between two rooms, the edge of a rug, or even a symbolic line made with a cloth, scarf, or towel.

Place your bowl of water in the middle or near the threshold. This water will be your between place. Place one candle on the side you are leaving. Place the second candle, or your grounding object, on the side you are stepping into.

If you only have one candle, place it near the threshold so it can witness both sides.

Light your candles.

Take three slow breaths.

Say:

I stand at the threshold.
I do not rush the crossing.
I do not force the becoming.
I arrive with honesty, protection, and breath.

Place your hands over your heart for a moment. Let yourself feel the body you are in. Not the version of you that explains. Not the version that performs. Not the version that has learned to make everyone else comfortable.

Just you, here, breathing and real.

Step One: Name What You Are Done Performing

Stand or sit on the first side of your threshold. This is the side of what you are ready to leave behind.

Take your paper strips and begin writing down the roles, masks, behaviors, or patterns you are done performing. Write down as many as you can think of. This is where we need to be honest with ourselves and allow the truth to bubble to the surface.

You might write:

✨Being easy to digest
✨Being agreeable at my own expense
✨Pretending I am fine
✨Shrinking so others feel powerful
✨Over-explaining my boundaries
✨Performing confidence when I need care
✨Performing calm when I am angry
✨Performing productivity when I need rest
✨Performing spiritual perfection
✨Performing softness for people who benefit from my silence
✨Waiting for permission to be visible
✨Making myself smaller so the room feels safer

Let each strip hold one performance but don’t judge what comes up. Some of these performances may have protected you once. Some may have helped you survive certain rooms, jobs, relationships, families, communities, or seasons of life.

This ritual is not here to shame the old self. The old self got you here. We can’t be angry at them for the choices made in an effort to survive. But not every survival costume needs to become a lifelong uniform. We can clean out the closet and make room for new changes.

When you are done writing, place the strips on the side of the threshold you are leaving.

Look at them and say:

I see the selves I built to be accepted.
I honor how they protected me.
I release what no longer needs to perform my life for me.

Take a deep, calming breath.

Then say:

I release the version of me built for approval.

Pause. Let that sentence have weight. Let it unhook something.

Step Two: Enter the Between Place

Now bring your attention to the bowl of water. This is the pause between the old performance and the protected self.

Dip your hands or fingertips into the water. You are not washing yourself because you are unclean. You are rinsing away the grip of performance. You are making a small ceremony of return.

As you touch the water, say:

I enter the between place.
I do not need to know everything before I cross.
I do not need to control every outcome to be safe in myself.
I let the false urgency fall from my hands.

Slowly rub the water over your palms, wrists, or fingertips. Imagine the roles and expectations loosening. Imagine the need to be instantly understood softening. Imagine your real self standing quietly behind the curtain, not needing to shout, only needing the door opened.

Say:

What was never mine may loosen.
What was only performance may fall.
What is true may remain.

Take another breath. This is the part of the ritual where you do not rush.

The threshold is not only the line you cross. It is the sacred pause before you choose.

Step Three: Name What You Are Protecting Now

Move to the other side of the threshold, but do not step fully across yet.

Stand with one foot near the crossing if that feels possible, or place your hand over the threshold if you are doing this seated.

Take a new paper strip.

Write: I protect: ________.

Now fill in what you are choosing to protect as you move forward.

You might write:

✨My peace
✨My boundaries
✨My creativity
✨My voice
✨My rest
✨My tenderness
✨My rage
✨My joy
✨My body
✨My attention
✨My truth
✨My magic
✨My timing
✨My softness
✨My becoming
✨My right to change
✨My right to be misunderstood
✨My right to exist without performing

You can write one thing or several. But choose at least one that feels real enough to carry.

This is not about becoming untouchable. This is about becoming loyal to yourself.

Hold the strip in your hand and say:

I do not cross this threshold empty.
I cross with devotion to what is real in me.
I cross with protection for the self I am no longer willing to abandon.

Now say the full core spell line:

I release the version of me built for approval.
I step forward as the self I am ready to protect.

Step Four: Step Through the Threshold

When you are ready, step across the threshold.

If you are seated, move your hand, candle-safe object, stone, key, or paper strip across the threshold instead.

Let the crossing be slow. Let it be deliberate. This is not a leap or burst of sudden movement.

This is a claiming.

Once you are on the other side, place your hand over your heart, wrist, or belly.

Say:

I have crossed with breath.
I have crossed with truth.
I have crossed without abandoning myself.

Then repeat 3x’s:

I release the version of me built for approval.
I step forward as the self I am ready to protect.

Take a deep breath after the final repetition. Feel yourself on the other side.

Not fixed, magic isn’t an immediate bandaid or decades of therapy happening in the blink of an eye. The work isn’t finished. We aren’t magically immune to the group chat, the news cycle, the inbox goblin, or the ancient human ache of wanting to be liked.

But we are now returned to our own keeping.

Step Five: Cover What Is Leaving

Take the paper strips that name what you are done performing. Place the dark cloth, towel, or scarf over them.

This is not to hide them in shame. This is to mark them as complete.

Say:

These performances may rest.
They do not lead me forward.
They do not name who I am.

If it feels right, place your hand over the covered papers and add:

I do not owe my life to the version of me that kept everyone else comfortable.

Leave the papers covered until the candle is out.

Later, you can tear them up and throw them away, compost them if the paper is safe, or place them in a small envelope labeled: Released

You do not need to burn them. Eclipse work can already feel intense, and not everything needs fire to be real. Sometimes the most powerful spell is closing the curtain and refusing to audition.

Step Six: Seal What You Are Protecting

Hold the paper strip that names what you are protecting.

If you are using a key, stone, charm, or protective object, hold it with the paper.

Say:

This is mine to protect.
This is mine to honor.
This is mine to carry forward.

Now name one way you will protect this part of yourself over the next week.

For example:

✨I will not explain this boundary twice.
✨I will rest before I resent.
✨I will post the thing without apologizing for it.
✨I will say no without decorating the no.
✨I will ask for help instead of pretending I am fine.
✨I will take one hour offline.
✨I will let myself be seen by the right people.
✨I will stop performing calm when truth is needed.
✨I will let myself change without holding a trial about it.

Say:

My protection becomes practice.
My practice becomes power.
My power returns through my choices.

Fold the paper toward you. Keep it on your altar, under your pillow, in your journal, near your candle, or tucked somewhere private.

This is your crossing token.

Closing the Ritual

Stand or sit on the new side of the threshold.

Look back at the side you left.

Say:

I honor what helped me survive.
I release what asks me to disappear.
I carry forward what is true.

Dip your fingers into the water one final time.

Touch your wrist, heart, or forehead.

Say:

I am allowed to change.
I am allowed to be seen.
I am allowed to protect the self that is becoming.

Then speak the core spell line one final time:

I release the version of me built for approval.
I step forward as the self I am ready to protect.

Blow out your candle (or let it burn all the way down.

Pour the water down the sink, outside at the base of a plant, or into the earth.

As you pour it out, say:

The crossing is complete.
The becoming continues.

After the Ritual

You may feel clear. You may feel tender. You may feel nothing at all until three days later when you suddenly realize you are no longer available for a pattern that used to own the deed to your nervous system.

Let the ritual work quietly. Threshold magic often moves like that.

It does not always arrive with fireworks. Sometimes it arrives as a sentence you do not over-explain. A boundary you do not soften. A truth you do not dress up for company.

Over the next week, pay attention to where you feel tempted to perform.

Pause there.

Ask:

What am I trying to earn right now?
What part of me am I protecting?
What would be true if approval was not the altar?

Then return to your spell line:

I release the version of me built for approval.
I step forward as the self I am ready to protect.

This is the doorway. This is the crossing. Remember to close the door behind you, we don’t need to go back. This is you, choosing not to abandon yourself on the threshold of change.

Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy things people hear about online, side-eye in group chats, save to their camera roll, and then wonder, wait, what does this actually mean?

Today, we’re talking about cord cutting.

And before we go any further, let’s clear something up right away. Cord cutting is not only for exes and shitty people who fucked around with your emotions.

Yes, it can be used after a breakup. Yes, it can be deeply helpful when you’re trying to release emotional attachment to someone who still has a weird little folding chair set up in the back of your mind. Cord cutting can absolutely support you when you’re done letting a person, memory, pattern, or situation tug at your energy like a cursed marionette string. But cord cutting isn’t just dramatic candle wax breakup theater.

Cord cutting is the magical practice of releasing an energetic attachment that no longer serves you. We are magically cutting that energy out of your life (that’s right, fuck off for good, Brad!).

That attachment you are severing might be connected to a person. It might be connected to an old version of yourself. It might be connected to guilt, shame, fear, people-pleasing, comparison, a job, a habit, a place, a belief, a season, or a story you’ve been carrying for so long that it started pretending to be part of your personality.

Cord cutting is not about pretending something never mattered. It’s most definitely not being delusional in saying, ‘you don’t matter!’ and then buring it beneath your ability to overcome the emotional turmoil. We are not about erasing your past or punishing yourself for caring.

Cord cutting, in a simple sense, is about choosing what no longer gets access to you. You are putting up a boundary of sorts, and you are saying, ‘I’m done allowing you to have access to me.’

So what is a cord?

In magical language, a cord is an energetic connection. That sounds mystical, but it is also very human.

Think about the people, places, stories, worries, and patterns that still pull on you. The person you haven’t spoken to in years, but somehow one memory can still hijack your whole afternoon. The old shame story that shows up every time you try to be visible. The obligation that makes your stomach tighten before you even say yes. The comparison spiral that yanks you away from your own path. The version of you who learned survival by staying small, pleasing everyone, and never needing too much.

That pull is the cord.

Try not to think of a cord as something evil to snatch out of your life. It’s not negative energy someone is sending you through a candlelit ritual they are performing in their basement. Sometimes, and honestly, more often, a cord is formed through love, habit, fear, repitition, grief, intimacy, trauma, responsibility, shared history, or the very ordinary human experience of caring about things.

Some cords are healthy and we are not out here cutting every connection like an emotionally unavailable goblin with scissors. Connection is sacred. Love is sacred. Community is sacred. Care is sacred. We are meant to be connected so keep in mind that you don’t need to cut every single cord when things feel a bit funky.

Diving deeper into what cord cutting is for

Cord cutting is useful when something keeps pulling on your energy even though you know it is time to release it.

It can help when you keep replaying an old conversation over and over again without being able to find the pause button. Or when you feel emotionally attached to someone who is no longer good for you like an ex, a past friendship, a family memeber. Sometimes we continue to carry the guilt that belongs to an older version of your life. We allow those old stories to decide what you are allowed to want now.

Cutting a cord can support you when you are ending a pattern.

A cord can be attached to anything that keeps saying, come back here, when your spirit is trying to move forward.

What cord cutting is not

Cord cutting is not a substitute for safety, boundaries, communication, therapy, legal support, medical care, or actual real-world action.

We do practical magic here, babes. We also go to therapy, we communicate, and we practice self love and self care.

If someone is harming you, harassing you, threatening you, stalking you, manipulating you, or making you feel unsafe, cord cutting can be part of your spiritual support, but it should not be the whole plan. You still deserve tangible help, protection, documentation, community support, and real-world boundaries.

Cord cutting also does not mean you have failed if you still think about the person or pattern afterward. This is a very important part to understand.

A lot of people think a cord cutting “didn’t work” because they still feel something the next day. But cord cutting is not emotional amnesia. You’re a person, not a hard drive with a delete button (as cool as it would be at times to truly have an option like in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind).

Feelings may still come up. Memories may still appear. Grief may still move through you without your permission. The pattern may still try to tug at you. That does not mean the ritual failed. Know that with any new routine or rhythm you need to practice the movements. The cord cutting is your mental focus and intention to making that change and cutting ties to that energy. Your follow through means your body and spirit will then need to learn how to stop answering the pull.

Sometimes the cord is cut in one ritual. Sometimes it has to be cut in layers.

Sometimes you cut the cord, and then you have to stop retying it every time you check their page, reread the message, rehearse the argument, say yes when you mean no, or feed the old story again.

Yes, I am saying this with love and a little candlelit eyebrow raise. After a cord cutting, the next steps are up to you. Do you lean back into it, or step forward and away?

Not every cord needs to be cut

Here is another part I think matters a lot: not every cord needs to be cut.

I know. Very rude of me to bring nuance into the room when we already had the sharpest of scissors out. But this note is important.

Sometimes the thing pulling on your energy doesn’t need to be severed from your mind and spirit. Sometimes it needs to be understood, shifted, transformed, composted, softened, redirected, or given a new shape.

That is where transmutation can be a better option.

Cord cutting says: this attachment no longer gets access to me.

Transmutation says: this energy is real, and I’m going to change what it becomes.

Those are different spells.

If you are dealing with an ex, an old friendship, a toxic pattern, a guilt spiral, a version of yourself you’re truly ready to release, or a connection that keeps draining you, cord cutting may be exactly the right medicine.

But if the energy is something you still need to work with, cord cutting might not be the best tool.

For example, maybe your anger doesn’t need to be cut away. Maybe it needs to become action. Maybe your grief doesn’t need to be severed. Maybe it needs to become devotion, memory, tenderness, or a ritual of care. Maybe your fear doesn’t need to be banished. Maybe it needs to become preparation. Maybe your resentment doesn’t need to be ignored or sliced off like rotten fruit. Maybe it needs to become a boundary.

Sometimes the cord is not the problem but rather the shape of the energy. This is where transmutation really become powerful and becomes a more useful and helpful tool in your spiritual tookbox than cord cutting. .

This is also why I don’t love using cord cutting as the only answer for every hard feeling. We aren’t trying to become emotionally unavailable little hedge goblins with ceremonial scissors. We’re trying to build discernment.

Ask yourself:

Do I need to release this connection, or do I need to change my relationship to this energy?

Is this attachment draining me, or is this feeling asking to become something useful?

Am I trying to cut this because it is complete, or because I don’t want to feel it?

That last question can be a little spicy. Proceed with snacks, dranks, and handfuls of delicious chocolate.

Cord cutting can be powerful, but it is not always the first or best step. Sometimes the real magic is not cutting the cord. Maybe instead, the real magic is taking the energy that has been burning, aching, or looping inside you and giving it somewhere better to go.

If that feels closer to what you need, I wrote a full WTF Magic post on transmutation and how to work with energy that needs to change form instead of disappear. You can read that here:

Cord cutting vs. boundaries

Cord cutting and boundaries are related, but they are also not exactly the same.

A boundary says, this is the access you have to me now.

Cord cutting says, this attachment no longer gets to pull my energy.

You may need both.

For example, if someone is still in your life, you may not be cutting them out completely (for example maybe there is a family memember or an in-law that is driving you nutes. You can’t cut them out persay, but maybe instead you need a boundary). In that case, cord cutting is less about “you are banished forever into the fog” and more about releasing the unhealthy energetic attachment, guilt, resentment, fear, or emotional over-responsibility tied to them.

You can still have a boundary with someone you see often and you can still cut the cord to the part of the dynamic that drains you.

That is subtle magic, but it is powerful. The goal is not always total removal. Sometimes the goal is disentanglement from energy that drags you under.

Cord cutting vs. banishing

Banishing removes energy, influence, or presence from a space, situation, or pattern.

Cord cutting releases attachment.

If warding is locking the door, and banishing is telling the unwanted energy to get out, cord cutting is removing the emotional string that keeps dragging you back to the door to check if it is still standing there.

Very technical. Very scholarly. Very gotchic velvet wearing witch talk here.

Cord cutting is especially helpful when you notice that the thing is not physically present anymore, but it still has energetic access to you. Like it keeps swirling around you mind like a song lyric you can’t seem to stop repeating.

The relationship ended, but the guilt remains. The job is over, but the anxiety remains. The argument is done, but the replay loop remains.

Cord cutting says: we are done feeding that connection.

When should you do a cord cutting?

Cord cutting can be useful when you feel ready to release, or at least ready to stop being ruled by the attachment.

You do not have to be completely healed first. If we all waited until we were fully healed to do magic, we would be sitting around for 900 years with excellent journals and no spells.

But you do want to be honest. Are you ready to release the attachment, or are you still trying to use magic to make someone miss you, apologize, come back, suffer, understand, or finally become the person you needed them to be? No judgment. That is human but it’s not cord cutting. Cord cutting is not control magic. This isn’t black magic hexing or vengeful rage coming out.

Cord cutting works best when your intention is clear:

I am ready to call my energy back.
I am ready to stop feeding this attachment.
I am ready to release the pull.
I am ready to belong to myself again.

That is the heart of cord cutting.

What can you cut cords with?

The classic cord cutting image is two candles with a string between them, burning until the string breaks. That is dramatic, cinematic, and, depending on your setup, possibly a tiny fire hazard gremlin in a velvet hat so let’s practice safe candle burning, babes!

You do not have to burn a cord to cut it. It might not be as dramatic, but you can absolutely use string and scissors. You can use paper and tear it or you can use water and wash your hands. You can also just mimick that movement of cutting an invisible string.

As always, the tool matter way less than the intention and the follow-through of the rituals purpose. After the ritual, you are deciding to live differently. That is where the spell becomes real.

A simple cord cutting ritual

Tomorrow afternoon at 2pm PST, I’ll be doing a little Lion’s Gate portal cord-cutting ritual. We are going to be cutting the energy that has been pulling us back into old habits, the retrograde residue, the mental spirals, and emotional static.

This Saturday, Aug 8th at 2pm PST // 5pm EST we’ll be doing the 🦁8️⃣8️⃣🦁LIONSGATE PORTAL🦁8️⃣8️⃣🦁 Ritual LIVE on both Substack and Tiktok.

The Substack link will be through my account here, and the TIKTOK link will be through Kristina // Fire&Alchemy account. Here’s the details of what will be needed for this Cord Cutting Threshold ritual:

✨2 candles: chime candles or tealights are perfect

One candle represents the chaos / the retrograde residue / the tether

One candle represents you / your power / your restored energy

✨2 candle holders, or heat-safe jars/bowls with salt or sand to secure them

✨A pinch of salt

✨String, thread, or yarn, about 12 inches

✨Matches or lighter Fire-safe dish or bowl

✨A bowl of water or favorite drink

✨Something crown-like: a crown, headband, scarf, jewelry, or just your hands

✨Optional: pen and paper

Strongly recommended: water nearby, fire extinguisher nearby, and not a single curtain flirting with your flame!

LIONSGATE PORTAL LIVE STREAM LINK

A cord cutting shower spell

If you want something incredibly simple for cord cutting, use water.

This is perfect for attachments that feel sticky, emotional, or hard to name.

Step into the shower and imagine the water moving over every place the attachment has been clinging to you.

Say:

“What is mine stays.
What is not mine washes away.
Every cord that drains me loosens.
Every pull that weakens me releases.”

Place your hand over your heart and say:

“My energy returns to me.”

As the water runs down the drain, say:

“This connection no longer feeds from me.”

When you step out, put on clean clothes or an item that feels like yours. A robe, a sweater, jewelry, perfume, oil, whatever helps you feel back inside your own energy. Glamor magic is perfect to use here to replenish the light and joy in your spirit.

This ritual is simple, but it can be deeply powerful if you put your focus and intention into it. Water knows how to release.

What to do after cord cutting

After a cord cutting, you may feel relief, grief, clarity, emptiness, anger, calm, or absolutely nothing dramatic at all. All of that is normal.

Sometimes the shift is immediate and you feel it intensely like dropping a huge weight of your shoulders. Sometimes it’s quiet and you barely feel it. I can say from experience, the biggest magic is not always a lightning bolt, but the next time the attachment tugs, you’ll realize you don’t have to answer.

Afterward, be gentle with yourself. A little self care and relaxation will go a long way to put your mind, body, and nervous system at ease.

And then protect the release. Don’t immediately reattach the cord by feeding the same pattern you just snipped away. If you cut the cord to comparison, don’t spend the next hour stalking the person who makes you feel behind. If you cut the cord to an ex, don’t check their page “just to see.”

Again, I say this with all the love, don’t give into the energy you just said goodbye to. We are all chaos creatures with thumbs and Wi-Fi but protect the release. That is also part of the spell.

What no longer gets access to you?

Cord cutting is not about becoming cold to the past or cold in your emotions. We aren’t here to deny love, grief, history, or complexity. We also aren’t going to pretend something didn’t matter. Something can be remember, can matter, and still be complete and set down.

A person can have shaped you and still no longer get access to your peace. A pattern can have protected you once and still be released now because it no longer serves you in your current life. That is the heart of cord cutting. Not destruction but return.

You are saying: This no longer gets all of me.

So if something has been pulling on your spirit, let this be your invitation to pause and ask:

What cord is ready to be cut?
What part of my energy is ready to come home?
What no longer gets access to me?

Then light the candle. Hold the string. Take the breath. Cut the cord.

And say:

I honor what was.
I release what is complete.
My energy returns to me.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like this one:

August arrives with harvest energy, but I don’t want to talk about harvest only as the big, obvious, basket-full-of-bread-and-tomatoes kind of moment. Of course, that harvest matters, especially as a green witch watching my tomatoes grow like delicious little baubles of perfection. It’s a high I will never get tired of.

We love the visible evidence. The thing blooming. The project finished. The garden producing. The money arriving. The spell landing. The boundary holding. The post doing well. The workshop beginning. The moment where something you’ve tended finally looks back at you and says, see, I was growing the whole time and now watch my compiled 30 second video to show a full year of change!

But not every harvest comes with proof. That’s a truth that is hard to hear. Not every harvest is visible from the outside. How do we show that off to anyone? Including ourselves.

The reality is witch, not every growth needs to be shared and not every change can be tangible. Not every season of growth gives you something you can neatly photograph, package, announce, or explain. Sometimes the harvest is quieter than that.

Sometimes the harvest is the version of you who didn’t spiral the way she used to. The version of you who paused before reacting. The version of you who finally named what hurt. The version of you who set the boundary, even if your voice shook and your knees became weak. The version of you who rested before your body had to stage a dramatic labor strike. The version of you who came back to her practice after falling away because life was too rough. The version of you who stopped calling self-abandonment “being nice.”

All of those intangible changes; that’s harvest too.

And this month, I want our Rooted Magic practice to be about noticing the growth we don’t have to prove to anyone.

What grew when you weren’t watching?

There is something funny about growth. We often think we’ll notice it while it’s happening, but a lot of the time, we don’t.

We’re busy or tired. We don’t really pay all that much attention to the minutia. We’re dealing with real life; dishes, bills, kids, job. The group chat, the news, the house. That appointment we’ve been trying to schedule but keep forgetting. The emotional side quest we didn’t fucking sign up for. The perimenopause, the menopause, the migraines, the periods. The ‘what the fuck were you thinking’ thoughts when you look at your clueless significant other or your children….or fucking Brad.

We’re tired. And somewhere in the middle of all that, something keeps growing.

A skill gets steadier. A truth gets louder. A boundary gets stronger. A dream gets clearer. A relationship shifts. A habit softens. A pattern starts losing its grip. A little green shoot of self-trust pushes up through the dirt while you’re over there trying to remember if you moved the laundry.

You might not see it at first. Then one day you respond differently. One day you don’t chase the approval like you used to. One day you don’t explain yourself into a tiny emotional pretzel, you just say your peace and let the truth lay there in the open. One day you say, “Actually, that doesn’t work for me.” One day you realize the thing that used to knock you flat now only knocks the wind out of you for a minute and then you are back on your feet and pushing back (not today, Brad!).

And then your magic feels easier to reach. Your home though chaotic and a mess feels more like yours. The days forming and shifting around you grew something in you while you weren’t watching.

That is harvest. Not because it’s finished and done and over. No, this is a harvest that is alive. It’s growing each and every day.

The harvest no one clapped for

Some of the most important growth in our lives doesn’t get applause. No one throws confetti because you didn’t over-apologize in a text.

No one sends a certificate because you went to bed instead of doomscrolling until your nervous system became a haunted radio and it was suddenly 1 am! When the FUCK did that happen!? No one rings a bell because you chose rest, or drank water (unless you have a um…really nice ‘Sir’ in your life ‘wink wink’. IYKYK), or didn’t say yes when your whole body meant no.

No one always sees the effort it takes to become a little more honest, a little more grounded, a little more protective of your peace, health, and happiness.

But invisible harvest is still harvest, witch.

The world loves visible output. It loves proof. That before and after video to showcase the growth, the finished thing, the measurable win, the public announcement. It loves asking, what do you have to show for it?

Rooted Magic asks a different question.

What changed in you?

Because maybe you don’t have the big result yet to showcase the then and now or you feel like you’re still forming. Maybe the healing is still too recent and the tenderness of your growth feels like seedlings and not full grown maples. Maybe the life you imagine yours to be is in the first stages and not yet where you want it to be to share with the outside world.

That doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Remember from earlier this year in our Rooted Magic series, roots do a lot of work before anyone gets to admire the flair and flutter of petals.

And you don’t have to dig yourself up to prove you’re growing. Or in my case, don’t pull up the carrot before it even turns orange. Whoops.

Harvest is evidence, not performance

This is where August magic can get really tender, because harvest energy can easily turn into another performance if we let it.

Suddenly we start asking: What did I produce? What did I finish? What did I accomplish? What can I point to so I feel like this season counted? What can I show everyone so they know I wasn’t wasting time?

Tiny productivity goblin, please step away from the altar and drop the crystals. Harvest isn’t a performance review, babes. We don’t go out into the garden and rate our sunflowers against the petunias? It’s now about how big and beautiful they are, which bloomed first. Harvest is merely the evidence of the work.

It’s the quiet practice of noticing what has become real, what has strengthened, what has shifted, what has survived, and what has started to feed you back. Some harvests are external. You made the thing. You grew the plant. You sold the product. You finished the project. You built the offering. You made the call. You did the work.

And some harvests are internal. You became less available for chaos. You stopped feeding every fire. You learned what your body sounds like before burnout fully enters the building wearing tap shoes. You reclaimed your attention. You let your voice come back. You believed yourself sooner.

Both of these types of harvest matter and neither is more important than the other. It’s not more magical because it’s seen. Growth and evidence of that growth is magical, pure and simple.

One is not more magical because other people can see it.

Everyday Witchery harvest practice

This is a simple August practice for naming the growth no one saw.

You can do this at your altar, kitchen table, bedside, outside near something living, or in your car before walking back into the house. As always with Everyday Witchery, use what you have. A cup of tea, a glass of water, a piece of bread, a fruit, a candle, a flower, a herb sprig, or just your hand over your heart.

Hold your chosen object or place your hand over your heart and ask:

What grew in me when no one was watching?

Let the answer come simply. Don’t force it to sound profound. Don’t make it prettier than it is. Maybe the answer is patience, or finding your voice. Maybe it’s wearing the bright color with confidence when normally you were muted tones. Maybe it’s self trust or the ability to stand up and walk away from something toxic. Maybe it’s the ability you now have to come back to your magic after a difficult week.

Now say:

“I honor the growth no one saw.
I honor the work I did quietly.
I gather what is mine.”

Take a sip of water or tea. Take a bite of bread or fruit. Touch the candle. Touch the table. Touch the ground. Let your body receive the recognition before your brain tries to explain why it doesn’t count.

It counts. Every bit of that unseen growth counts.

A tiny harvest check-in

If you want to take this a little deeper, write these three questions in your journal or notes app:

What grew when I wasn’t watching?
What growth have I been dismissing because it doesn’t look impressive?
What am I allowed to honor without proving it to anyone?

Keep your answers honest and small. This isn’t a courtroom. You don’t need an evidence binder with tabs and highlighters. You’re not building a case for your worth. You’re noticing your life and yourself living it is.

Noticing is magic.

What if the harvest feels small?

Maybe you are reading this and thinking, I don’t know if anything grew.

That’s okay, Witch.

Some seasons are not big growing seasons. Some seasons are survival seasons. We go through something more of a drought, repair, or grief. Sometimes we just have to make it through the day without crumbling into a pile on the floor beside our heaping pile of laundry.

But even survival has a harvest. Maybe the harvest is that you’re still here. You know what didn’t work, or you understand how to take another step forward when it felt impossible. You have learned what drains you, and what you won’t stand for. You finally stopped pretending something was fine.

We don’t honor only abudance in our seasonal flows, we also must honor the honest ones. The ones that break us down, make us work, exhaust us, and we make it out the other side.

Maybe the harvest is not a basket but a seed saved for later. That counts too.

Carrying the quiet harvest forward

As August unfolds, let yourself carry the quiet harvest with you.

Not as a performance. Not as proof. Not as something you need to explain or defend. Carry it as a private knowing. I have grown in ways no one saw. I have survived things that changed me.

This is where harvest becomes more than a seasonal theme. It becomes a relationship with your own becoming. You’re allowed to pause before rushing into the next plan, the next ritual, the next launch, the next season, the next version of yourself. We can all gather what grew and appreciate it.

We can look at our life, even if it is messy, even if it is unfinished, even if the weeds are acting bold, and say:

Closing: the harvest is already yours

This month, let Rooted Magic be the practice of recognizing the harvest you don’t have to prove. The growth that happened quietly and the magic that you returned to.

You don’t have to prove every harvest. Some growth is sacred because it belongs to you first. So light the candle. Hold the cup. Touch the earth. Take the breath.

And say:

I honor the growth no one saw.
I honor the work I did quietly.
I gather what is mine.

August has a strange kind of energy. To be utterly frank, witches, it’s FUCKING HOT! I know, obvious, but there are parts of August that feel so much like a liminal space of time.

It’s still summer. Very much summer (fucking 90+ degrees EVERY DAY!?) August, the Leo that it is, is loudly summer. Sweaty, bright, sticky, overgrown, buzzing with bugs, slightly dramatic and all summer.

But it is also the beginning of a shift (can you smell that pumpkin spice yet?).

The light is still strong, but the season is starting to ever so slighly lean. The first harvest arrives. Back-to-school energy starts whispering from the corner. The calendar begins to feel a little more real again. The year is not turning fully into autumn yet, but you can feel the threshold under your feet.

August is not quite ending but at the same time not quite beginning.

We are in a flow of rest and yet here comes the routine. It’s a liminal little oven with a planner. I don’t know about you, but that can feel like a LOT.

This is why August magic doesn’t need to become one more thing to keep up with. It doesn’t need to be another checklist we need to find a way to stick to while we pull our fucking hair out. And if you are like me, perimenopausal, I don’t have any hair to waste because it’s falling out all on it’s own. So thinking of adding another ‘daily practice’ to my already full plate sounds like and feels like utter insanity.

But….August magic can be a return point for us witches. A tiny little place to come back to ourselves in the wave of unrelenting heart. With this harvest season, the transition, and the weird seasonal in-between of it all we can come back to our center.

That is the heart of my Everyday Witchery Guide.

Not more pressure. We have enough. Not more homework, we don’t have time even if we wanted to learn something. This isn’t going to be a spiritual productivity chart, we aren’t going there.

We are looking for simple practices to weave into the life we are already living. Don’t worry, boo, I got you!

August is a threshold month

I always think of August as a doorway. We are about to walk past Summer as we tip toe excitedly toward Autumn. It’s it still satan’s asshole hot when we step outside? Yes, it’s still way too hot. It’s still very much asking us to hydrate and stop pretending we are immune to the sun’s death rays (sun screen and hats are a necessity). But, August magic also carries us through the first real feeling of transition.

Lughnasadh brings first harvest energy at the beginning of the month. That asks us to look at what has grown, what has taken root, what is ready to be gathered, and what still needs care.

The heat asks us to pay attention to our bodies.
The season asks us to notice what we have been feeding.
The threshold into late summer asks us what we are carrying forward.

And if we’re being honest, August can also feel like a month where everything is slightly too much. Too hot. Too busy. Too bright. Too fast. Too many tabs open and my brain is too fried to process them all.

So the magic for August needs to be practical. Simple as fucking possible. It needs to be attainable, reachable, and without too much fuss. I have enough to pick up after, I don’t need a ritual to leave remnants I am too busy/lazy to pick up.

August magic needs to meet us in the kitchen, at the doorway, in the car, beside the bed, with a cold drink in hand and a nervous system that would very much like a chair and a cool, crisp glass of wine.

That is Everyday Witchery, babes. And I can show you how it will work for you.

The magic does not have to be big to be real

One of the biggest lies we accidentally absorb about witchcraft is that it has to be impressive to matter. We expect the full altar, the long rituals, the perfect tools we found in an ancient second hand store, the correct herbs, the quiet room, the blissfully calm and uninterupted hour. The beautiful photo afterwards so the internet knows we are so totally spiritually thriving and living our best witchy life.

Lovely, right? Yeah, in my witch dreams. I think I am able to get a ritual like that once every three months if I am lucky and the stars, and moon, and toddler sleep schedule align. We have lives, witches. That’s ok.

We don’t need to live the perfect life of our pintrest expectations to practice magic and truly feel connected and aligned with ourselves.

So the truth, perfect magic atmosphere is not required to do magic.

Especially not in August. August magic can be a glass of water pressed to your wrist while you say, “I cool my body. I steady my spirit.”

Magic lives in small, consistent acts. Remember, it’s the rhythm of magic that makes it stick and keeps it going not the elaborate one time ritual you post and forget about the next day.

August is a perfect month to remember that we are capable of simple magic, and more than that, we are magical because of our intention and our grounded focus, not because of how many crystals we own.

A return point, not a rulebook

The Everyday Witchery Guide is meant to be used as a return point. You can follow it day by day if that feels good. You can print it, save it, screenshot it, circle the practices you like, ignore the ones that don’t fit, come back after missing three days, or use it as a little magical menu whenever your brain starts doing cartwheels in traffic.

No one is grading witchcraft here. The point is not to complete the month perfectly. The point is to have small ways to return.

Click the image below to take you to the Everyday Witchery Quick Guide

August themes to work with

This month, I would focus on four main energies: heat, harvest, thresholds, and tiny daily practice.

Heat teaches us to listen to the body. Not everything needs more fire and heat. Sometimes, magic is cooling. It can be a reprieve before we burn through ourselves. That is so needed before we get to the start of school again!

Harvest teaches us to notice what has grown. Not only the big shiny wins, but the quiet evidence too. The skills built and the boundary you kept. The idea you returned to. The relationship you tended even when it might have felt broken or a little off. The version of you that kept showing up when it might have been easier and less conflict to duck under your soft blankets and nap.

Thresholds teach us that every crossing can become a spell. The doorway, the window, the car, the bedside, the laptop, the moment between one task and the next. Every threshold asks: what are you leaving here, and what are you carrying forward?

Tiny daily practice teaches us sustainability. It reminds us that a magical life is not built from one perfect ritual every six months. It is built from small moments of attention, care, intention, and return.

This is the kind of magic that can live inside August alongside the flow of shifting from summer to school. We aren’t separate from the heat, we aren’t waiting for autumn, we aren’t dependent on perfect conditions. Right here, right now, we are in the season we are in and we can perform simple magic now.

A tiny August practice

Here is a simple practice you can use anytime this month.

Stand at a doorway, window, or threshold in your home. Place one hand on the frame, the wall, or your own heart.

Take one breath and ask: What am I leaving behind today?

Let the answer be simple. Stress. Other people’s urgency. The fear that I am behind. The version of me that thinks I have to earn rest. The heat that is not mine to carry.

Then ask: What am I carrying forward?

Again, keep it simple. No need to make it any more difficult than it needs to be. Courage. Focus. Rest. Clarity. Joy. My own energy. One small action. A softer body. A steadier spirit.

Then say:

“I cross with intention.
I leave what is not mine.
I carry what is true.”

Step forward. A tiny crossing. A tiny choice. A tiny return.

Where the Quick Guide comes in

If your August feels full, chaotic, overheated, or like your practice keeps slipping through your fingers, the Everyday Witchery Quick Guide was created for exactly this kind of season.

It is not meant to give you a giant ritual plan. Totes amazing if you want that, and would use that. I love that for you so much, but we are in a survival kinda place in our lives and with busy schedules, a giant ritual plan feels like a plan of failure waiting to happen.

The goal of Everyday Witchery isn’t meant to tell you you need more discipline, more tools, more time, or more aesthetic evidence that you are a witch.

It is meant to help you find simple places where magic can fit into your actual day.

🌞Your coffee.
🌞Your doorway.
🌞Your shower.
🌞Your kitchen.
🌞Your car.
🌞Your bedtime.
🌞Your breath.
🌞Your ordinary routines.

The Quick Guide is for the witch who wants to feel connected to her craft, but does not need one more overwhelming thing to maintain. It is a soft place to begin, or begin again, with tiny practices that are easy to return to when life gets loud.

And August can be so loud. So let your magic be simple enough to hear.

Closing the circle but not stopping the movement

August does not need you to become a brand-new witch with a perfect daily practice and a sun-drenched altar that never gathers dust. Please don’t think that is what is necessary, even if you have fifteen-thousand pins in Pintrest to show this statement is somehow wrong. Magic shouldn’t be difficult to use inside the life you have, and if it is, you need to adjust the magic to fit your life today.

August is asking for something more honest than that. It’s asking you to notice what has grown. To cool down what is way too fucking hot and cross thresholds with intention.

Your magic is a place we come back to with a breath, a candle, a cold glass of water, and a hand on the doorway. A practice that fits our busy life says:

I am here.
I am listening.
I am crossing with intention.
I carry what is true.

Welcome to August, witches. I truly can’t believe we are already here, can you?

It feels like just yesterday we were welcoming spring, dreaming about gardens, making plans, and wondering what this season might bring. Now, the tomatoes are ripening, herbs are begging to be harvested, flowers are stretching toward the last full weeks of summer, and before we know it, we’ll be reaching for cozy sweaters and pumpkin recipes (pumpkin spice lattes, here we come!)

But not quite yet. Don’t pull out those pumpkins yet babes, we still have a lot of summer left to enjoy.

August has always felt like a beautiful pause to me (albeit a hot and sweaty one). It’s a month that asks us to stop looking so far ahead and spend a little time appreciating where we are. Before we rush toward autumn (I know, I know. I am literally the one to scream PUMPKIN TIME on July 5th) and everything that comes with it, there’s still sunshine to soak in, gardens to gather from, long evenings filled with cricket music to enjoy, and moments worth noticing.

This month also welcomes Lammas, or Lughnasadh, a favorite turning point on the Wheel of the Year. It’s a celebration of the first harvest, a time to give thanks for what has grown, to share what we have with others, and to recognize that every harvest begins with a seed planted long before anyone could see the results. Whether you’re harvesting vegetables from your garden, fresh herbs from a windowsill, or simply recognizing the ways you’ve grown over the past few months, this season reminds us to celebrate progress instead of perfection.

Our Rooted Magic theme this month is Harvest, and while we’ll certainly talk about gardens, bread, and late-summer abundance, I hope you’ll also think about the quieter harvests you’ve been cultivating. The confidence you’ve built. The boundaries you’ve learned to keep. The relationships you’ve nurtured. The moments of joy you’ve created for yourself, even on ordinary Tuesdays.

Inside this month’s newsletter, we’ll explore the history and traditions of Lughnasadh (though we will explore much more in the blog posts), learn about one of witchcraft’s simplest yet most meaningful tools, spend some time in the kitchen with late-summer recipes, wander through the garden together, and take a peek at some exciting things we’re quietly preparing for autumn.

So pour yourself something refreshing, or maybe another cup of coffee if you’re reading this first thing in the morning. Find a sunny spot, settle in, and let’s welcome August, and the lovely summer salt air, together.

I’m so glad you’re here.

With love and light,

💜 Jess

The First Harvest - Lughnasadh/Lammas

Welcoming the First Harvest

For any of you looking at that first word up there thinking, ‘how the F*** do I pronounce that?’ I got you boo. It’s LOO-nuh-suh or LOO-nah-sah (simplified to LOO-nuh-sa like the month Lúnasa).

Second question, are Lughnasadh and Lammas the same? Yes, but really no. They are both considered one of the eight Sabbats on the Wheel of the Year and the celebration that marks the first harvest season. I know a lot of people associate the word harvest toward the end of the summer, or even November, but in many cultural traditions, August 1st is the beginning of gathering what we've been growing since spring.

The festivals of celebration are mostly about gratitude, community, and taking an honest view of what you’ve grown. Check out the tomatoes babe, you are killing it in the garden this year. It’s not JUST about what you grew though, it’s a lot about what has grown within YOU too.

I have a deep dive for you to read more in the WTF Magic Series where I layout all the ‘what is this’ and ‘how do I celebrate this’ and then I take you on a deep dive of both Lughnasadh and Lammas to show you the differences as well as similiarities. And of course there are rituals! It’s time to celebrate babes, let’s to it together! Need help on knowing what to do? I got you covered!

Rooted Magic - Harvest

This month’s Rooted Magic theme is: Harvest

What does that mean though when it comes to the internal, emotional, and personal side of witchcraft? While Lammas and Laghnasadh celebrate the harvest our our labor, we are going to take it beyond the agricultural focus. If you’re anything like me, you’re on the train of constantly planting, tending, and harvesting in every area of our lives. I’m not sure we always realize our own growth because the next thing is right around the corner and stopping to take inventory takes time we just don’t have.

We are going to take a pause and take inventory of ourselves this month and our growth instead of immediately chasing another goal.

What Are You Growing?

Every single day, we are growing invisible seeds of hope, effort, freedom, love, comfort, joy, and more. Every boundary, difficult conversation, morning routine, offer of kindness, small creative project, and little decisions become something of a larger tapestry in our lives. Our growth happens gradually and it can be difficult to notice. Now is a great time to slow down, and look back.

What areas do you see growth that weren’t there before?

Now don’t feel any level of shame or guilt if that side project is only half done. The focus isn’t to highlight a failure, but to see our forward movement. The shift and growth in your confidence, a new friendship, something you learned, a summer side project, you learning to trust yourself more. These are all great examples of growth!

The point isn’t that every seed flourishes, but that every season teaches us something worth carrying forward.

Recognizing Everyday Abundance

The modern world of abundance can feel like we should buy everything. You need more crystals babe, three hundred and seventy two of them isn’t enough. I think what modern culture focuses too heavily on is ‘what are we missing’ and ‘what can I get next’. Harvest invites us to notice what we already have. What are things already present in our lives, in our practice, in our world that we can use to redifine abudance in a way that feels personal and grounded.

This is where we can really shine in our repurpose, reuse, and create new from old mindset. The goal is to achieve a calmer nervous system or maybe a deeper friendship. Perhaps a habit that really stuck through routine of rhythm and repition. You have more confidence than 6 months ago, fuck yea babe! Go you!

Finding joy in our everyday routine and romanticising the life we had is steeped in Harvest magic. Now we are getting to the heart of it. And while we are at it, let’s rest without any guilt and really sink into the joy of abudance.

I’ll be going into this further this whole month, but I want to leave you with a question to ponder:

What unexpected gifts has this season given you that you truly weren’t expecting?

Magical Tool of the Month

One of Witchcraft’s Oldest Magical Tools and I bet you have a ton of them lying around: Baskets

Magic doesn’t have to look magical to be magical. I would say the same thing goes for your tools. There are everyday objects we use that we may not realize the power they wield, but when we start paying attention, we can see the truth of their core. Throughout history, witches and muggles often use the same objects. A basket isn’t inherently a magical item because of what it’s made from but it can become magical because of what if can represent. Do you see where I’m going with this one?

Some of the most powerful tools you will ever use in magic are already in our homes waiting for you to take notice.

A Brief History of the Basket

One of humanity’s oldest handmade tools, dating back to thousands of years. Way before ornate ritual tools existed, woven baskets were an essential tool in every household. They were for carrying herbs, grain, collecting eggs, harvesting fruit, and storing seeds. They transported a wide range of daily necessities. Having a basket was crucial to one’s livlihood because it connected us to survival and abundance.

It only makes sense that baskets would be symbols of prosperity, fertility, protection, and generosity. A basket doesn’t really create abudance so much as it receives it. When you think about it like that, it helps remind us that before we can gather blessings, we must create a container for them. If the basket in our life is too full of shit, how are we going to collect and carry the things we do need?

I’ll be posting a longer discussion about our monthly tool in the coming weeks. We’ll talk about how to use it in an Everyday Witchery way, but also how to create a harvest basket that feels aligned with the season as well as your current gatherings of abundance.

Everyday Witchery Challenge

This month’s challenge: Find a basket

Don’t be rushing out to Michael’s or Home Goods when you likely have a perfectly good basket, bowl, or container you already own. Let’s give it a new purpose. Throughout August, slowly fill it with small reminders of what this season has given you. A pressed flower, a gratitude note, a favorite tea, herbs from the garden, a meaningful stone, or anything that reminds you of your own harvest. By the end of the month, you’ll have created a simple but deeply personal reflection of the abundance you’ve gathered.

Kitchen Witchery - Savoring the First Harvest

The Kitchen as a Sacred Space

It didn’t come to me at first that I was a kitchen witch. I think the idea of calling myself a ‘kitchen’ witch and also being a firm feminist ground against each other. Not until I did a bit more research and deep personal understanding, did I see kitchen witchery for what it is; it’s the oldest form of magic. Before tehre were elaborate rituals or ceremonial tools, there were hands kneading bread, herbs drying from racks, soup simmering in a huge pot over an open fire, and families and friends gathering around to enjoy a meal and share stories.

August invites us back to that tradition, where cooking becomes a joyous act of gratitude and nourishment. Being a Kitchen Witch isn’t about ‘staying in the kitchen’. It’s about intention, care, flavor, focus, desire, hope, and at the very end; delicious nourishment. As a Kitchen Witch, you are protecting the hearth, and filling the bellies of those in your home. There is no greater honor in my opinion than to be considered a Kitchen Witch.

What’s in Season?

Focusing on the season and flavors to incorporate in the meals is always top of mind. To celebrate the abundance of late summer, we need to highlight what is bursting with flavor. I deeply encourage you to grow food if you can, but we aren’t all able to. If you can buy local at a farm, that is a great option. But know that if your budget only allows for store-bought of anything, that doesn’t make you any less of a witch.

Celebrate the abundance of late summer by highlighting seasonal produce and herbs:

• Tomatoes

• Basil

• Peaches

• Corn

• Blackberries

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers

• Fresh herbs

• Apples

Recipe of the Month

🌿 Rosemary Sea Salt Focaccia

A simple loaf to celebrate the first harvest

There’s something beautifully fitting about baking bread for the first harvest. For generations, the first loaves made from the season’s grain symbolized gratitude, community, and hope for the months ahead. This rosemary focaccia is simple enough for a quiet afternoon at home, yet special enough to share around a table with family and friends.

As you knead the dough, take a moment to think about what you’ve cultivated this season. As it rises, imagine your intentions growing alongside it. And when it comes out of the oven, let its warmth be a reminder that nourishment is one of the oldest forms of magic.

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 4 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)

• 2¼ teaspoons (1 packet) instant yeast

• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt

• 1¾ cups warm water (about 105 to 110°F)

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan

For the Topping

• 2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

• Flaky sea salt

• Fresh cracked black pepper (optional)

Instructions

1. Mix the Dough

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt.

Pour in the warm water and olive oil, stirring until a shaggy dough forms. Continue mixing until no dry flour remains. The dough will be sticky, and that’s exactly what you want.

Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1½ to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

2. Prepare the Pan

Generously coat a 9x13-inch baking pan with olive oil.

Transfer the dough into the pan, gently stretching it toward the edges. If it resists, let it rest for 10 minutes before trying again.

Cover and let rise another 30 to 45 minutes.

3. Add the Magic

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

Drizzle the top generously with olive oil.

Using your fingertips, press deep dimples across the surface of the dough.

Sprinkle with:

• Fresh rosemary

• Flaky sea salt

• Cracked pepper, if using

4. Bake

Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and crisp.

Allow the bread to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve warm with olive oil, butter, soup, or alongside your favorite summer meal.

🌿 Kitchen Witchery

Magical Correspondences

Rosemary

• Protection

• Clarity

• Memory

• Blessings for the home

Olive Oil

• Peace

• Healing

• Prosperity

• Sacred hospitality

Sea Salt

• Cleansing

• Protection

• Grounding

Bread

• Abundance

• Gratitude

• Community

• Nourishment

✨ A Lughnasadh Bread Blessing

Before placing your focaccia into the oven, rest your hands lightly above the dough and say:

From seed to soil, from sun to rain,
With grateful hands, I honor this grain.
May this loaf nourish body and soul,
May abundance fill this home and all who gather here.
With every slice, may gratitude rise.
So mote it be.

🌾 Everyday Witchery Tip

When sharing this loaf, invite everyone at the table to answer one simple question before the first slice is served:

“What are you harvesting in your life right now?”

It doesn’t have to be something tangible. Perhaps you’re harvesting patience after a difficult season, confidence after taking a leap of faith, or the quiet joy that comes from tending something with care. Sometimes the richest harvests are the ones we carry within us.

Everyday Witchery: Gathering the Magic Around You

Magic Isn’t Reserved for Ritual Days

Sabbats and full moons are fun and we can really get into the flair of being a witch on those days. However, I want to remind you that we are human too. I know, we have to come down to reality now and then. We have lives, we have bills, we have jobs, we have kids, and annoying responsibilities like laundry and cleaning (ugh). This is where Everyday Witchery really shines. Inside our everyday.

Bringing magic into your everyday doesn’t mean adding more to your plate. No no, we don’t have time for MORE. What we can do, is weave magic into the rhythms we’re already living. We can slow down and see the magical moments in our lives.

The goal isn’t to perform more magic, but to notice where the magic already lives woven throughout our day. August, being a month of harvest, invites us not just to gather herbs, flowers, and food, but also moments of joy, gratitude, and connection.

Need some guidance on how to do Everyday Witchery in your life without adding more work to your plate? I got you, boo!

EVERYDAY WITCHERY QUICK GUIDE —> CLICK HERE!

Five Everyday Witchery Practices for August

How do we incorporate magic into the week that already feels chaotic?
I have five simple practices that anyone can realistically incorporate into their week. These require little preparation and focus on mindfulness rather than elaborate ritual.

☀️ Morning Sun Gratitude

Spend one minute outside in the morning before the sun turns into a monstrous troll of heat. Feel the gentle warmth of the sun on your skin and silently name one thing you’re grateful to carry into the day.

🌿 Gather Something Beautiful

Pick a flower from your garden, collect an interesting leaf on a walk, or bring home a bundle of herbs from the market. Place it somewhere you’ll see it often as a reminder that beauty deserves to be noticed.

🍅 Bless Your Meal

Before your first bite, pause for a moment to thank the people, plants, animals, and elements that helped bring this food to your table.

🧺 Fill Your Harvest Basket

Keep a small basket or bowl in your home. Throughout August, add little reminders of what has brought you joy: a note, a feather, a recipe card, a pressed flower, or a stone from a favorite walk.

🌙 Evening Reflection

Before bed, ask yourself:

“What was today’s harvest?”

Maybe it was laughter or patience. Maybe it was making it through the day without melting your entire face off. I would consider that a massive success.

Musings from a Mystic Witch

One of my favorite parts of August is walking through my garden just before sunset. The touch of sun is on the opposite side of the house, and my garden is a shadow of color, yet the heat is still seeping in every leaf and petal. As I water the garden, the scent of the sun, tomatoes, basil, and rosemary hit my nose, and I can’t help but smile. Two years ago, this space was a barren dirt patch, but with some love and care, it’s now flush with colors and smells.

These quiet evenings in the mid to late summer, when the air is still hot, I’m reminded that abundance isn’t always about bringing home an overflowing basket. Sometimes, the flower isn’t ready to bloom, and yet the work it’s taken to get where it is can be seen. That’s ok. Things take time. Patience is always needed, but still, I am proud of the tiny bud poking up about to join its friends in bloom.

Take a few moments. Look around at all you’ve built. It might not be perfect, or complete. But it’s beautiful, right where it is today. Be proud of your accomplishments, Witch. I know I am.

The Garden is Beginning to Give Back

Harvest Season Has Arrived

Holy tomato. I heard from a video on tiktok (I swear I have learned so much about gardening on tiktok) that if you put crushed up eggs under your seedlings when transplanting into the soil and then water your tomato plant with banana peel water, you will notice a HUGE difference. And HOLY FUCKING TOMATO! I have tomatoes coming out my eyeballs. There are so many, and they are SO GOOD! I think I’ve grown double what I did last season, and the second trick I used? I planted from the seeds of last seasons tomatoes.

Once a plant learns your landscape and growing conditions, they will inevitably do better than store bought seeds.

What’s Happening in the August Garden

This year I got smart and put up a sun shade over my garden area. It’s about a 70% shade, and it’s been so helpful in keeping my plants from turning into little crispies. Right now, I am celebrating:

• Tomatoes

• Basil

• Dill

• Carrots

• Rosemary

• Mint

• Bay Bush

• Lavendar

• Strawberry

Late summer can start too look a little wild in the garden. As a weird empath for all things, I find it hard to trim back my plants. Like, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to hurt you little plant. I can’t cut off your arms, you might scream!’ You really do need to get over that real quick though (and by you, I mean me). Trimming back your plants allows them more opportunity to grow and fruit. It’s always a good idea to keep your garden a little in order.

The weeds and clover have definitely taken over though, and they are winning in this heat. Little bastards. Hopefully the sun will ease up soon and I can spend an early morning or afternoon cleaning up inbetween the plants.

My cucumbers didn’t make it. I know…queue the violin. I had two huge cucumbers at the beginning of the season, and then white flies got to my plant while I was on vacation and I came back to a dead cucumber plant. Sad day. I still can celebrate the two I had, they were delicious. And next year, I will work to keep white flies from becoming such a nuisance.

Preserving the Season

August is one of the best times to start preserving. Todays’ abundance can be tomorrow’s nourishment long after the season has ended.

• Dry rosemary, sage, thyme, and lavender.

• Freeze pesto or chopped herbs in olive oil.

• Save seeds from favorite plants.

• Press flowers for future spellwork or journaling.

• Create bundles of herbs for the kitchen or altar.

• Can tomatoes for sauces and soups

Planning for the Next Season

One of the quiet lessons of gardening is that while one season is ending, another is already beginning. August is a wonderful time to start thinking ahead to fall gardens, cooler weather crops, and preparing beds for what’s next.

August is a great time to start thinking about refreshing mulch, feeding your soil, and dreaming about autumn planting. If you haven’t started a garden journal I highly recommend it. It’s nice to have a place to write down your ideas and watch them come to life.

Garden Tip of the Month that Saved My Sanity

• Harvest herbs in the morning after the dew has dried for the best flavor and aroma.

• Continue harvesting often to encourage more production. Prune off those bolting flower heads on your mint and basil to keep them producing longer and to hold more flavor in the leaves.

• Water deeply rather than frequently during hot weather. And by water deeply, they mean SLOWLY. Turn the water to a mist and water, and water, and water. It will go deeper, and last so much longer.

• Let a few flowers go to seed to support pollinators and next year’s garden.

• Compost healthy garden scraps to build richer soil for future seasons.

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Mystic Sisters Shop - Brewing Something for Autumn

A Note from the Mystic Cauldron

If you’ve been wondering what we’ve been working on behind the scenes, I can promise there’s plenty of magic brewing. We went a little quiet this summer, but rather than creating a Summer Seasonal Spell Box, I’ve been putting all my energy into my favorite season: Autumn.

That means I’ve been busy dreaming up new rituals, gathering inspiration, testing recipes, and designing products that celebrate the cozy, reflective magic of the months ahead. Sometimes creating less allows us to create something even more meaningful, and that’s exactly the approach we’re taking this season.

If autumn is your favorite time of year too, I think you’re going to love what’s coming.

Looking Ahead in the Mystic Shop

While I’m keeping a few surprises tucked away for now, here’s a little peek at what’s on the horizon.

🎃 Samhain Workshop

One of the things I’m most excited about this year is our upcoming Samhain Workshop. Together we’ll explore themes of protection, remembrance, shadow work, honoring our ancestors, and walking through one of the most magical seasons of the year with intention and care.

Whether Samhain is new to you or a tradition you look forward to every year, this workshop is designed to help you connect with the season in a grounded, meaningful, and approachable way.

More details will be coming very soon.

📦 Autumn Seasonal Spell Box

Every season tells a story, and autumn has always felt like home to me.

I’m currently designing this year’s Autumn Seasonal Spell Box with the words cozy, seasonal, vintage, apothecary, spooky, sparkly, and witchy as fuck at the forefront of my plans.

I can’t wait to share a full reveal once everything is ready.

🍵 Mystic Elixirs

As the weather begins to cool, I’m also experimenting with new Sip’tual blends inspired by autumn kitchens, candlelit evenings, and crisp morning walks.

If you’ve been enjoying our seasonal Sip’tuals, keep an eye out. I have a feeling your favorite mug is going to get a lot of use this fall.

💜 BIG Thank You to Everyone Who Shops at the Mystic Shop

Every order you place, every workshop you join, every newsletter you read, and every comment you leave helps this little community continue to grow.

Mystic Sisters Coven has never been about simply selling products. It’s about building a place where people can slow down, reconnect with themselves, and discover that magic has always been waiting in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

Thank you for allowing me to create alongside you. I truly can’t wait to share what comes next.

Coming this Month on the Blog Spot

• 🌾 Rooted Magic: Harvest
  A deeper look at what it really means to harvest, not just from the garden, but in our everyday lives.

• 🧺 WTF Magic?! The Basket
  One of humanity’s oldest tools has a surprisingly magical story. We’ll explore its history, symbolism, and how an ordinary basket can become part of your magical practice.

• 🍞 August in the Kitchen: Recipes, Food Pantry Prep, and More
  Some cozy seasonal recipes paired with simple ways to bring intention, gratitude, and a little everyday magic into your kitchen. We will talk about how to prep your pantry for the coming seasons, and of course, some Everyday Witchery!

• 🌿 Gathering the Magic Around You
  Practical, approachable ways to slow down and notice the quiet magic woven into your daily routines.

• 🕯️ Monthly Ritual: The Eclipse Threshold Ritual (Paid Subscriber Exclusive)

  Theme: Release performance, protect the real self, step through change
  A guided ritual for this month’s Lunar Eclipse landing on August 12th. This is a liminal doorway, focused on what we stop performing and what we choose to protect as we move through change.

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Looking Ahead: September

Rooted Magic | Balance

There’s something special about September. It might be that first sharp bite in the air after a long summer of hot nights and heavy evening air.

The long, sun-soaked days of summer begin to soften. Mornings feel a little cooler, evenings arrive a little earlier, and the world seems to take a collective breath before the busy months ahead. It’s a season of transition, inviting us to find steadiness as everything around us begins to shift.

Our next Rooted Magic theme is Balance.

Not the kind of balance that asks us to have everything perfectly figured out, but the kind that reminds us to check in with ourselves. To notice where we’re giving too much, where we’re holding too tightly, and where we might need to make space for rest, joy, or change.

As we move toward the Autumn Equinox, we’ll explore the beauty of living between light and dark, work and rest, growth and release. Together, we’ll discover simple ways to create balance in our homes, our routines, and our magical practices as we welcome the changing season.

Here’s a little peek at what’s coming in September:

• 🍁 Rooted Magic: Balance

• 🌾 A celebration of the Autumn Equinox and Mabon

• 🕯️ Cozy Everyday Witchery practices for cooler days

• 🍂 The return of autumn rituals, recipes, and seasonal inspiration

• 🎃 Samhain Workshop goes on sale and begins at the end of the month!

• 🌿 Garden updates as we prepare for the fall growing season

I can’t wait to share it all with you.

But before we rush ahead, let’s savor August. Bake the bread. Wander through the garden. Watch a sunset. Pick up the basket and notice what’s already overflowing within it. Magic has a way of revealing itself when we stop hurrying toward the next season.

Until Next Time, Witches

Thank you for spending a little piece of your month here with me.

Whether you’re reading this with a cup of tea before work, catching up during a quiet afternoon, or winding down after a long day, I’m sincerely grateful you’ve chosen to make Mystic Sisters Coven part of your season.

My hope is that this newsletter leaves you feeling inspired to slow down, notice the beauty already surrounding you, and remember that witchcraft doesn’t have to be elaborate to be meaningful. Some of the most powerful magic is found in lighting a candle, tending a garden, baking bread, sharing a meal, or simply taking a deep breath beneath an open sky.

Until we meet again, may your home feel peaceful, your table feel abundant, and your heart remain open to the quiet magic of everyday life.

💜 Mystic Sisters Coven

Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy things that sound mysterious, ancient, or like something whispered by a woman in a cloak near a fog machine, and we make them actually usable.

Today, we’re talking about threshold magic.

Which sounds very mystical, because it is. Don’t let that scare you off though, because threshold magic is extremely practical. You literally walk through thresholds every single day.

A doorway. A gate. A hallway. A staircase. A window. A mirror. The side of your bed. Your car door. The moment before you start work. The moment after you close your laptop. The breath between one version of you and the next.

It’s the magic of the in-between place. The moment when you’re not fully where you were, but not fully where you’re going yet. It’s the pause before the next room, the step before the next choice, the breath before the next version of yourself takes shape.

Can you see why thresholds are so powerful? They are points of choice. And when you start to understand that, you can then begin to see that every threshold can become a spell.

Buckle up buttercup, let’s get into it!

What the f*** is a threshold?

A threshold is a boundary between one space and another.

The most obvious example is a doorway. You’re inside, then you cross the threshold, and now you’re outside. You’re in one room, then you step through the door, and now you’re in another. It’s so simple and common I doubt any of us really think of it beyond, ‘my house AC feels good, and this outside muggy air smells like satan’s ass.’

Magically, the threshold matters. That shift marks a change. A before and an after. Thresholds hold tension because they exist between states. They’re not fully one thing or the other. That’s what makes them liminal, which is a fancy little word that basically means “in-between.” Liminal spaces are the edges, crossings, pauses, and transitions where things feel a little softer, stranger, more open, or more charged.

You know that feeling when you’re standing in a doorway and suddenly forget why you walked into the room? Annoying, yes. But also, tiny threshold goblin behavior. Your brain crossed into a new space and dropped the plot for a second.

Thresholds interrupt patterns. That’s why they can be magical.

Why witches work with thresholds

Witches love a threshold because thresholds are where energy changes.

The front door is where the outside world meets the home. A window is where light, air, and visibility enter. A mirror is a threshold between the seen self and the reflected self. The bed is a threshold between waking and sleep. The car is a threshold between one part of your day and another. A staircase is a movement between levels. Even opening your laptop can become a threshold between personal life and work life.

These places and moments already carry transition energy. Witchcraft simply asks us to notice it.

Instead of moving through the same crossings on autopilot, threshold magic says: pause here. Choose here. Leave something here. Carry something forward from here.

This is one of the reasons I love threshold magic for Everyday Witchery. It doesn’t require you to add a huge ritual to your already full life. It asks you to recognize the magical points already built into your day. You already cross thresholds. You already enter and exit. You already begin and end. You already move from home to world, from work to rest, from public self to private self, from one version of the day to another.

Threshold magic lets those crossings become intentional.

Thresholds as protection

One of the most common ways witches work with thresholds is through protection.

The front door is a classic protective point because it’s where energy enters the home. People, conversations, packages, weather, noise, expectations, errands, stress, and the general outside-world soup all move through that point in some form.

So the threshold becomes a place to set a boundary. Not everything gets to come in and not every mood gets to stay. The outside doesn’t get to pass through to the inside unless we say, ‘come in’. Yes, energy works a lot like vampires in that way. If you don’t want them in your house you better not invite them in.

Threshold protection can be as simple as touching the doorframe before you enter your home and saying:

“Only what nourishes may enter here.”

Or before you leave:

“I move through the world protected and whole.”

You can sweep your front door area, place protective herbs near the entrance, sprinkle a small line of salt if it is safe for your floor and pets, hang a charm, wipe the door handle with intention, or simply pause before crossing.

The power of threshold magic isn’t in the object. The power is in the choice. This is your home, your energy. You get to decide what enters and what stays outside.

NOTE: Please note that a boundary and a threshold charm or ritual doesn’t replace a lock. We are still going to lock our doors at night to be safe of intruders. Just because energy and vampires can’t get through your magic it doesn’t mean Brad can’t! Lock the doors, keep the Brad’s out!

Thresholds as transition

Threshold magic is also beautiful for transitions. July is a threshold month in its own way. We’re still in high summer, but the first hint of August is starting to gather at the edges. The heat is still loud. The days are still long. The season is still bright. But there’s also a shift beginning. Back-to-school energy starts whispering (I know, already, back to school is so close!). Harvest season begins to peek around the corner. Lammas approaches. The year starts to feel like it’s turning, even if the air outside is still disrespectfully, woefully hot as fuck.

That’s threshold energy. Not fully here. Not fully there. We are in the in between.

This is why threshold magic feels so fitting right now. It gives us a way to ask: what am I carrying forward? What am I leaving behind? What has this season shown me? What am I ready to stop dragging through every doorway of my life?

Sometimes we need big rituals for big transitions. But othertimes when we have no fucking time, we need a small pause in a doorway before walking into the next room. Both count as magic.

Reminder: the amount of time you spend on magic doesn’t mean you are more or less magical. It’s about your intentions and your connection to energy. NOT how many crystal grids you’ve builts or how candles you own.

Doorways

Doorways are the most obvious threshold and the easiest place to begin.

You can use doorways when you need to reset your energy before entering a room, leaving your home, coming back after a hard day, or shifting from one role into another.

Before entering your home, touch the doorframe and say:

“What is not mine stays outside. What is mine returns with me.”

Before leaving for the day, say:

“I cross protected. I move with intention.”

Before entering a difficult conversation, meeting, or room, say:

“I enter with clarity. I don’t abandon myself here.”

This is simple magic, but simple doesn’t mean weak. A doorway spell repeated over time becomes a rhythm your body recognizes. Eventually, the doorframe itself starts to feel like a reminder: pause, breathe, choose.

Windows

Windows are thresholds too. They’re where light enters. Where air moves. Where we look out and where the world can sometimes feel like it’s looking in. Window magic can be used for clarity, perspective, protection, and invitation.

Open a window for a few minutes and say:

“Fresh air in. Stale energy out.”

Wipe a window and say:

“I clear what clouds my view.”

Place a candle near a window and say:

“May light enter this space with warmth and protection.”

Windows are especially helpful when your home feels stagnant, your mind feels foggy, or you need to remember that the world is bigger than the room you’ve been pacing in.

Mirrors

Mirrors are one of the spicier thresholds. Stay with me here, because I feel like this one might freak some people out. Yes, you, the one that struggles with shadow magic and facing the truth in your tarot cards. It’s ok, I promise this one will be a good practice as well.

A mirror is not just a reflective surface. Magically, it can be treated as a doorway into self-perception, truth, glamour, protection, shadow work, and identity. No need to panic and cover every mirror in the house like you live in a haunted Victorian novel, but mirrors do deserve intention when you use them.

Mirror threshold magic can be as simple as looking into your own eyes and saying:

“I return to myself.”

Or before going out:

“I am seen with clarity. I am protected in my visibility.”

Or after a hard day:

“I release the versions of me I performed for survival.”

Mirrors can help us ask: who am I when I stop performing? What am I ready to see? What part of me needs witnessing?

That’s powerful work. Go gently. Open your eyes and your heart gently. Listen intently to the truth revealed. Know you are safe in the protection of your magic.

Bedsides

The side of the bed is a threshold between waking and sleep, between the day-self and the dream-self, between doing and being. This makes it a beautiful place for tiny rituals.

Before getting out of bed, place your feet on the floor and say:

“I enter this day with intention.”

Before getting into bed, say:

“The day is done. I return to rest.”

If your mind loves to turn bedtime into the Midnight Anxiety Variety Show, use the bedside as a boundary. Touch the edge of the bed and say:

“This is a threshold of rest. The world can wait.”

Your bed doesn’t need to become a whole altar unless you want it to. It can simply become a place where the day is allowed to end. That is a truly sacred practice and one that shuts your mind off to the day behind you. Rest is needed, and tomorrow can wait.

Cars

Cars are deeply underrated threshold spaces. A car is where a lot of us shift between roles. Home to work. Work to home. Parent mode to personal mode. Errand mode to rest mode. Public face to private face. Chaos to slightly different chaos, but with seatbelts.

Car threshold magic is perfect for busy witches because you’re already there.

Before driving, place your hands on the wheel and say:

“I travel protected. I arrive steady.”

Before going into work, say:

“I enter this space with my energy intact.”

Before going back into your home after a hard day, pause in the car and say:

“I leave what I can in this seat. I bring myself home.”

That last one is simple, but it can be incredibly powerful. Sometimes we need a moment between the outside world and the people we love. Not to suppress what happened, but to stop the whole day from crashing through the door with us.

Why threshold magic works so well for Everyday Witchery

Threshold magic is one of the most accessible forms of Everyday Witchery because it’s already built into your life. You don’t have to create a separate spiritual schedule or wait for a perfect moon phase. A crystal grid isn’t in order for this magic, you just…walk through your life and notice the crossings. Simple, easy, and quick.

This is the whole spell of Everyday Witchery: finding the magical points inside the life you’re already living. The doorways, the window, the mirror, the car, the bed; they are already inside of your current rhythm. The moment before the meeting, the breath before you send a message, the heavy sigh before you lay down to rest. All you need to do is slow down and recognize the magic where it’s been waiting for you.

Tiny threshold practices can help you protect your energy, mark beginnings and endings, create a sense of rhythm, and stop carrying everything everywhere.

Tiny threshold ritual

Use this whenever you are crossing from one space, task, mood, or version of yourself into another. You can do this at a doorway, before getting into your car, before entering your home, before opening your laptop, before stepping into a meeting, or before going to bed.

Place your hand on the doorframe, wall, steering wheel, laptop, bedside, or your own heart.

Take one slow breath. Say:

“I cross with intention.
I leave what is not mine.
I carry what is true.”

Pause. Ask yourself:

What am I leaving here?

Maybe it’s the stress of the last room. Maybe it’s someone else’s mood. Maybe it’s the pressure to perform. Maybe it’s the argument you’re still replaying. Maybe it’s a tone your boss used before going on vacation. Maybe it’s a word said with a little more harshness than necessary from a friend. Maybe it’s the version of you who thought she had to shrink away because it was easier than standing tall.

Then ask:

What am I carrying forward?

Maybe it’s clarity. Maybe it’s courage. Maybe it’s softness with a spine. Maybe it’s focus. Maybe it’s protection. Maybe it’s one honest sentence.

Take another breath. Cross the threshold.

Every crossing can become a spell

Threshold magic is not complicated nor is it far away. It’s not locked behind ancient stone arches, although those are gorgeous and very aesthetically committed to the mood.

Threshold magic is in the doorway you walk through every morning. The window you open when the room feels stale. The mirror you face in the morning with bed head and puffy eyes before you clean away the night and prepare for the day. The bedside where you begin and end the day. The car door you close before becoming the version of you who has to go handle things. The laptop you open when work begins and close when work needs to fucking stop.

It is in every moment where you pause and choose what comes with you. That is the heart of it.

Thresholds are magical because they remind us we are not trapped in the last room. We can leave something behind. We can carry something forward. We can cross with intention. We can go through the open door and we can close it after we’ve walked through.

As August begins to reach its hand out to us, let yourself notice the thresholds around you. The seasonal ones and the personal ones. The tiny ordinary ones. The ones you’ve crossed a hundred million times without realizing they were asking for your attention.

Put your hand on the doorframe, take a breath, say the words from your heart, then step forward. You got this, witch.

Every year, somewhere between the height of summer and the first wildly premature display of decorative pumpkins (no shame, I have one on my doorstep), witches begin talking about Lammas and Lughnasadh.

There is bread everywhere. Bundles of wheat appear on altars. Everyone starts using the phrase “first harvest,” even though most of us aren’t standing in a golden field with a scythe in our hands. Someone casually writes the word Lughnasadh in a caption without explaining how to pronounce it, and the rest of us quietly decide we’ll simply never say it aloud.

So, what the fuck is Lughnasadh? Is it the same thing as Lammas? Why are witches suddenly baking bread? What exactly are we harvesting if our tomato plant has produced two tomatoes and a squirrel at one of them (that wasn’t for you Roy!).

Pull up a chair, grab your morning brew, and let’s sort through the grain.

First, How the Fuck Do We Say It?

Lughnasadh is commonly pronounced something close to LOO-nuh-suh in English. You may also see it written as Lughnasa or, in modern Irish, Lúnasa. Pronunciation can vary with language and dialect, so nobody needs to fling themselves into the sea because they’ve heard it said slightly differently.

The important thing to know is that all those letters are not waiting in the shadows to embarrass you.

Lughnasadh is a Gaelic seasonal festival traditionally associated with the beginning of the harvest season. It was historically observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, usually around the beginning of August or on a nearby Sunday. It is one of the four major Gaelic seasonal festivals alongside Samhain, Imbolc, and Beltane.

Lammas is easier to pronounce, but it comes from a different historical stream. The name developed from the Old English hlāfmæsse, meaning “loaf-mass.” It became associated with a Christian observance in which bread made from the newly harvested grain could be brought to church and blessed.

Modern witches and pagans often use Lammas and Lughnasadh interchangeably because both arrive around August 1 and both have strong harvest associations. However, they aren’t simply two ancient names for the exact same celebration.

They are more like seasonal neighbors whose traditions have become braided together within modern paganism.

Lughnasadh comes from Gaelic tradition. Lammas comes from an English Christian harvest tradition. The modern Wheel of the Year has pulled pieces of both into what many witches now celebrate as the first harvest sabbat.

History is rarely a perfectly labeled spice rack. It is usually a drawer full of loose herbs, copied recipes, missing labels, and somebody’s grandmother insisting she knows exactly where everything came from.

So, What Is Lughnasadh?

Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the harvest season, traditionally around August 1. It falls approximately halfway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, which makes it one of the year’s cross-quarter seasonal points.

This is important because Lughnasadh is not quite summer, not quite autumn, and not the grand finale of harvest.

It is the first noticeable turn.

The days may still be hot. The sun may still be loud. Your thighs may still be sticking to every chair you sit upon. Yet something has shifted. Crops are beginning to ripen. Berries are appearing. Grain is ready to be cut. The light is slowly changing, even if we aren’t emotionally prepared to discuss shorter days yet.

In Irish folk tradition, Lúnasa marked the onset of August, autumn, and harvest time. Celebrations varied by region, but they could include gatherings at mountains or lakes, fairs, seasonal food, and communal activities.

This is one of the details that gets lost when we turn every sabbat into a solitary candle ritual.

Lughnasadh was not only about quietly thanking a field. It was also about people gathering.

There were communal celebrations, fairs, contests, trading, food, agreements, and opportunities to demonstrate skill. It was a season when people came together because harvest was never merely an individual accomplishment. Food required land, labor, weather, knowledge, cooperation, preservation, and community.

Our modern practice often focuses heavily on personal intentions, personal manifestations, personal healing, and personal abundance.

Somebody grew it. Somebody gathered it. Somebody carried it. Somebody taught the skill. Somebody shared the seed.

Even when the harvest is yours, you are still standing inside a web of support, labor, land, and learning.

Who Is Lugh, and Why Is His Name in It?

Lughnasadh is traditionally connected with Lugh, an important figure in Irish mythology. He is commonly associated with exceptional skill, mastery, craftsmanship, leadership, and many different arts.

One of his best-known qualities is not simply that he possesses one remarkable gift. It is that he is capable in many areas. He is often described as a master of numerous skills rather than a deity confined to one tidy little job description.

He contains multitudes. He would be extremely annoying on LinkedIn.

Stories also connect the festival with Tailtiu, Lugh’s foster mother. Medieval Irish tradition describes Lugh establishing funeral games or an assembly in her honor after her death. The exact relationship among the mythology, historical gatherings, later folklore, and current celebrations is more complicated than a single neat origin story, but both Lugh and Tailtiu remain important within discussions of the festival.

Tailtiu’s story is often linked with labor, land, sacrifice, and the clearing or preparation of earth for agriculture. That gives Lughnasadh a deeper edge than the simple message of “look at all this abundance.”

Harvest is abundance, but harvest is also effort.

It is repetitive work. It is tending something before there is proof it will grow. It is continuing when the field is still mostly dirt. It is learning a craft badly before learning to do it well. It is giving time, energy, resources, and attention to something you hope will eventually sustain you.

This is why skill is such an important part of Lughnasadh magic.

The season isn’t only asking, “What did you receive?”

It is also asking, “What have you learned how to do?”

And What Is Lammas?

Lammas developed as a harvest observance connected with the first grain and the first bread produced from it.

The name is generally understood as “loaf-mass.” Traditionally, a loaf made with flour from the new wheat harvest could be brought to church as an offering or for blessing.

This is one reason bread has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the modern sabbat.

Bread is beautifully ordinary magic.

It begins as separate ingredients. Grain must be grown, cut, processed, milled, mixed, kneaded, rested, and transformed through heat. It requires both nature and human skill. It takes many small, unimpressive-looking things and turns them into nourishment.

Bread is not instant abundance. It is abundance shaped through relationship and labor.

You don’t need to bake your own bread to understand that magic. You don’t need a sourdough starter with a vintage human name living in your kitchen. You don’t need to grind flour by hand while whispering to the spirit of wheat. You can buy a loaf. You can toast a bagel.

You can hold a tortilla, biscuit, muffin, cracker, bowl of oatmeal, or whatever form of grain actually belongs in your life and recognize the long line of earth, effort, and human hands that brought it to you.

The magic isn’t hidden inside an aesthetic loaf arranged beside a gingham cloth. The magic is in the nourishment and the many hands and skill it took to get it to you.

Why Is It Called the First Harvest?

Within many modern pagan versions of the Wheel of the Year, Lughnasadh or Lammas is described as the first of three harvest festivals.

Lughnasadh marks the opening of harvest season. The autumn equinox follows with themes of balance and gathering, and Samhain arrives at the edge of winter with the final harvest, death, remembrance, and preparation for the darker season.

That three-part structure is useful, but it is also a modern organizing framework. The eight-sabbat Wheel of the Year, as widely practiced today, combines seasonal festivals and customs from different cultures and historical periods. We can find meaning in it without pretending every detail came down to us in one perfectly preserved ancient witch calendar.

The phrase first harvest gives us one of the most useful ways to understand Lughnasadh.

This isn’t the final result. It is the first evidence.

It is the first tomato ripening on a plant that still has green fruit. It is the first payment from a business you’re still building. It is the first moment you keep a boundary that once frightened you. It is the first quiet morning after a season of chaos. It is the first sign that something you have been tending is becoming real.

First harvest doesn’t mean the work is finished.

It means something is ready enough to gather. And some of us are terrible at gathering.

We plant. We plan. We work. We revise. We worry. We keep moving the finish line. When something finally grows, we barely stop to touch it before we begin pointing at everything else that remains unfinished.

The first harvest asks us to interrupt that habit. Look at what is here. Not what might arrive six months from now. Not what would exist if you were more productive, more disciplined, more healed, more organized, or somehow capable of surviving without sleep. What is already here? What has changed since the beginning of the year? What can you do now that you couldn’t do before?

That is your first harvest.

What If I Don’t Have a Harvest?

This part matters because harvest language can become cruel very quickly.

It’s easy to turn seasonal spirituality into another performance review. We begin asking what we manifested, what we completed, how much we produced, and whether we were spiritually efficient enough to deserve abundance. That is not the point.

Sometimes we plant carefully and very little grows. I planted cilantro and it’s only 5 inches tall. The carrots I thought I was going to have in abundance only managed to grow 6, and three are still in the ground.

Sometimes the weather shifts. Sometimes our health changes. Sometimes money disappears into survival. Sometimes caregiving consumes the season. Sometimes the soil was depleted before we arrived. Sometimes we discover that the thing we planted was never suited to the life we actually want.

An empty basket is not evidence that you are lazy, unworthy, unmagical, or being punished by the universe. Your harvest may not look like visible success. Maybe you survived something difficult. Maybe you stopped abandoning yourself to keep someone else comfortable or you asked for help. Maybe you finally understood that a goal belonged to an earlier version of you and no longer needs to be carried. Maybe your harvest is wisdom of what you’ve learned through doing, or maybe it’s clarity of a situation.

Maybe it is the decision not to replant the same damned thing next year (though I desperately DO want to grow carrots, damnit!)

Harvest is not only gathering what grew. It is also learning what your actual life can sustain. It can give you guidance on what to change or shift, before you try again.

Is Lughnasadh About Abundance?

Yes, but not only in the glittery “money is flying through my window and landing directly in my checking account” way. Abundance is part of harvest because harvest provides nourishment, resources, and proof of growth. But Lughnasadh also asks more complicated questions about abundance.

What is enough? What can be shared? What needs to be preserved? What are we hoarding because we don’t trust another season will come? What appears abundant only because someone else’s labor has been hidden? What are we gathering at the expense of the soil, our bodies, our community, or our future?

A field cannot be harvested forever without being replenished. Neither can you.

Lughnasadh is a useful time to celebrate what your labor has created without romanticizing exhaustion (we don’t do that here! There is no glamour in working yourself to the bone without reason or without replenishment!). Working yourself into dust is not sacred simply because something profitable grows from it.

You are part of the field. You also require tending.

Do I Have to Celebrate Lughnasadh?

No. You DO NOT have to celebrate every sabbat to be a witch. You don’t have to follow the Wheel of the Year. You don’t have to feel connected to every tradition included within modern paganism. You don’t have to construct a seasonal altar because the internet suddenly became covered in wheat graphics.

You may also live somewhere that August doesn’t resemble the beginning of harvest. The Wheel of the Year is strongly shaped by Northern Hemisphere seasonal patterns, and even within the same hemisphere, August feels very different depending on climate, agriculture, geography, and culture.

Your environment is not failing the sabbat because it doesn’t look like a photograph of the English countryside. I live over in Southern California, and my climate looks very sunny and blue skies every day with a hefty dosage of hot as fuck sun.

It’s ok to just notice where you actually are. What’s growing, drying, ending? What food is locally in season? How has the light changed? What does your body notice? I think the more we work to notice the changes in our area, the more we might be able to tap into the seasonal changes (especially if there is so little changing visually).

A seasonal practice becomes meaningful when it helps us enter into relationship with the season we are living, not when it asks us to cosplay another landscape.

Easy Ways to Celebrate Lammas or Lughnasadh

Best recommendation: Start with food.

Eat bread, oats, corn, berries, apples, or something seasonal where you live. Pause before eating and acknowledge the land, labor, transportation, preparation, and resources that made the meal possible. If you have any local farms, go buy from them for a meal or something you are making to celebrate the harvest.

Definitely recommend baking something, but only if that’s something that brings you actual joy. Store bought bread and oats doesn’t repel magic. Trust me when I say the spirits are checking your receipts for organic purchases.

Share food with someone. Donate to a food pantry. Support a local farmer, baker, artist, or small business. Pay fairly for someone’s skill. Tell someone that you see the work they have done.

Choose one tool connected with your own craft and place it somewhere meaningful. It might be a pen, whisk, paintbrush, laptop, garden trowel, sewing needle, tarot deck, camera, microphone, shipping label printer, or the coffee mug that has witnessed every questionable business decision you’ve made.

Finish one small task that has been lingering. Send the email. Submit the work. Pick the herbs. Store the seeds. Put the final item into the box. Harvesting requires us to stop endlessly tending something that is already ready.

You can also make a small altar with bread, seasonal produce, flowers, herbs, a candle, a bowl, and something representing your labor. It doesn’t need to look like a craft store was overtaken by a wheat-based spirit.

Let it look like your life.

What the Fuck Is Lughnasadh Really Asking Us?

Lughnasadh asks us to recognize the sacredness of effort without worshipping exhaustion.

It asks us to honor skill, not only talent. It asks us to gather what is ready instead of endlessly waiting for perfection. It asks us to notice the people, land, resources, and invisible labor behind what sustains us. It asks us to celebrate growth without pretending every seed became a field.

Most of all, it asks us to look down at our hands. We spend so much time reaching for the next season (like those of us who keep talking about fall…. ::hides behind a pumpkin::) that we fail to notice what we are already holding.

Your first harvest doesn’t need to be enormous. It doesn’t need to impress anyone. It doesn’t need to prove that you made perfect choices, maintained flawless routines, or manifested hard enough.

It only needs to be honest.

Want to Go Deeper Into First Harvest Magic?

In the paid Gather What Has Grown: A Lammas and Lughnasadh Guide, we’ll dig deeper into the history and mythology surrounding the season, Lugh and Tailtiu, first harvest correspondences, altar ideas, food and offering suggestions, ways to celebrate with different energy levels, and the relationship between harvest, labor, skill, abundance, community, and necessary endings.

The guide will also include journal prompts, a honeyed bread blessing, and a complete First Harvest ritual to help you recognize what has grown, receive what is ready, release what has completed its season, and decide what you want to carry forward.

Because our first harvest is not the grand finale. It is the first proof that the work is becoming something.

Check out the paid subscribers guide here:

The wheel turns again, and we are back to the first harvest. Lughnasadh or Lammas comes with a plethora of warmth, usefulness, and emotional movement. This isn’t the final harvest, but the first moment we gather proof that our work is becoming something. Those little tomatoes are vibrant red, the carrots are pushing through the ground, and the seas of grain are lush and ready to be harvested.

We can take this seasonal turn of the wheel in more ways that just a focus on food. What are the things in our lives we’ve been working on that are ready to be received, used, celebrated, or shared? What effort created this result? There is so much we put into our lives, our hobbies, our social connections, and our own self care, that no one sees.

It’s time to celebrate all the work.

An interesting aspect of the harvest season is that it requires cutting. The core theme focus is on the cutting of grain to make bread but we can shift that same core thought into other areas of our life. Gathering one thing might mean casting aside another. We don’t need to be melodramatic about it, but it’s worth talking about how natural this is in every day life. Not everything we set aside is rotten or past its due date, sometimes something has simply completed it’s season and it’s ok to say, ‘I am done. Time to move forward.’

Welcome to the First Harvest

Ya’ll it’s hot. It’s so fucking hot. Summer is obviously in it’s final roar moment and that final roar is going to last for MONTHS. And yet, the light is subtly shifting. The gardens are heavy with color, evenings are beginning their slow return. The year is making it’s slow walk back toward autumn (Pumpkin season baby!!)

This first harvest is the threshold festival, not a full autumn cosplay like Michaels and Target would like you to believe. Do I have a pumpkin on my doorstep, yes, yes I do. But it’s from LAST season so really I am behind, not early. Would I also like to add new pumpkins to that doorstep decor, I would. But I won’t because I am working hard to stick to the season at hand. This season, the season of HOT AS FUCK, is the beginning of the harvest.

Lughnasadh arrives while summer is still sweating through my summer dress. We are not yet in the season of skulls, graveyards, hot apple cider, and wool blankets. But we have turned a corner. Let’s talk about it.

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Welcome back to the WTF Magic Series, where we take the witchy, mystical, astrology-coded things people throw around online and make them make sense without needing a velvet robe, three astrology apps, and a minor in celestial panic.

Today, we’re talking about one of the most blamed, feared, meme’d, and misunderstood astrological events out there:

Mercury retrograde.

Or, as I like to think of it when everything goes sideways at once: Freddy is in the microwave again.

The email disappeared. The group chat misunderstood the assignment. The printer has chosen violence…again. Your ex has suddenly remembered you exist (ew). Your brain has opened 74 tabs and one of them is playing a song from 2009. The Wi-Fi flickers, your schedule shifts, your words come out sideways, and someone somewhere says, with great spiritual authority, “Mercury must be in retrograde.”

But what does that actually mean? Is Mercury literally moving backward? Is your life cursed for three weeks?

Should you avoid signing contracts, texting anyone, driving, traveling, speaking, posting, buying electronics, or making eye contact with your inbox?

Let’s take a deep breath, and untangle this WTF Magic moment to get to the bottom of what we are talking about and how this can affect your life.

Mercury retrograde is real as an astronomical observation, meaningful as an astrological symbol, and absolutely not something that needs to rule your whole life like a tiny winged dictator with a planner. So let’s get into it.

What does retrograde mean?

In astrology, a planet is called retrograde when it appears to move backward through the sky from our view here on Earth.

The key word is appears.

The planet isn’t actually slamming itself into reverse like a chaotic little space Roomba. It’s an optical effect based on how Earth and the other planets move around the Sun at different speeds. From our perspective, a planet can look like it’s slowing down, stopping, and moving backward against the backdrop of the zodiac. Think of it like how you see moving tires on a car suddenly appear to be rolling backwards even though you know they are rolling forward. A trippy optical illusion.

Astrologically, that apparent backward motion is interpreted as a shift in the planet’s energy. Instead of moving outward, forward, or directly, that planet’s themes become more internal, reflective, delayed, tangled, or review-heavy.

Retrogrades are not automatically bad. They’re not cosmic punishment. They’re not the universe looking at your calendar and saying, You know what would be hilarious? This isn’t Loki fucking around, ok. They’re more like a giant celestial “review your work” sticky note.

A retrograde asks us to pause, revisit, rethink, repair, redo, remember, revise, and reconnect with whatever themes that planet rules.

Sometimes this is annoying. Especially if you are having the realization after a canceled flight having already waited at the airport for 7 hours. It’s not funny. But, unfortunately, sometimes that pause is necessary. Usually, it’s both.

Why (Freddie) Mercury gets all the blame

Mercury gets the most attention because Mercury rules things we interact with constantly: communication, technology, travel, scheduling, messages, contracts, short-distance movement, commerce, details, thinking, and information.

So when Mercury goes retrograde, people tend to notice.

Texts get weird. Plans change. Emails vanish into the fog. Words come out wrong. Delays happen. Devices act possessed. People from the past resurface like they heard a little goblin bell. Miscommunications multiply. The thing you thought was confirmed was, in fact, not confirmed. The appointment was at 2:00, but in the other location, because apparently we’re all living inside a trickster’s sock drawer now.

This is why Mercury retrograde has such a reputation. It touches our daily life.

It’s not necessarily deeper or more dramatic than every other retrograde, but it’s more visible because it messes with the stuff we rely on every single day.

Your phone. Your calendar. Your messages. Your travel plans. Your ability to say one normal sentence without accidentally summoning confusion.

Freddy is in the microwave again.

So what does Mercury retrograde mean spiritually?

Spiritually and astrologically, Mercury retrograde is a time to slow down and pay closer attention to communication, decisions, assumptions, and information.

It asks questions like:

Where have I been rushing?
Where do I need to clarify?
What conversation needs revisiting?
What plan needs adjusting?
What detail did I skip?
What old pattern is resurfacing?
What am I assuming without checking?
What message am I trying to send, and is it actually being received?

Mercury retrograde is not here to destroy your life. It’s here to make you look twice. And yes, sometimes looking twice is deeply inconvenient because we were already late, sweaty, overstimulated, and emotionally one email away from becoming a bog creature. But that’s the work.

Mercury retrograde doesn’t mean “do nothing.” It means “do it with awareness.”

Read the fine print. Back up the file. Confirm the appointment. Ask the clarifying question. Pause before sending the spicy text. Make sure the address is correct. Give people a little more grace, including yourself.

Mercury retrograde is a trickster (I mean, maybe Loki is a little involved? Who knows!), but it can also be a teacher. Sometimes it reveals where we’ve been moving too fast to notice the cracks.

Should Mercury retrograde rule your life?

No. Absolutely not. Put the crystal down gently and step away from the panic spiral.

Mercury retrograde should not rule your life. Astrology is a tool, not a prison sentence. It can help you notice patterns, work with timing, reflect on energy, and move with more intention. But it should not make you afraid to live.

Sign the contract, take the trip, send the email, launch the thing. You can buy the laptop if your current one is making dying robot noises and you need to function.

The point is not to stop living every time Mercury looks backward in the sky. The point is to move with more care. Take a peek before you step.

If you can delay something major until after retrograde and that feels supportive, great. If you can’t, you’re not doomed. Just double-check details, keep records, read agreements carefully, confirm times and places, and give yourself more breathing room. Mercury retrograde is not a reason to be afraid.

It’s a reason to be less sloppy with your energy. Lovingly and with snacks!

What are the other planet retrogrades?

Mercury retrograde gets the loudest reputation, but every planet can go retrograde from our perspective, and astrologically each retrograde has its own flavor. Think of each retrograde as a review period for that planet’s themes.

Venus retrograde

Venus retrograde brings reflection around love, relationships, beauty, pleasure, self-worth, desire, money, values, and what we’re willing to receive.

This is a time when old relationship patterns can resurface. Questions around worth may come up. You may rethink what you want, what you’re attracted to, what you value, how you spend, how you love, and where you’ve been performing desirability instead of living from truth.

Venus retrograde asks: Do I actually want this, or was I taught to want it?

It’s not a great time to panic-change your entire face, text every ex, or buy something expensive just because your feelings are wearing dramatic eyeliner. But it can be a powerful time to reconnect with your own worth and get honest about love, money, and desire.

Mars retrograde

Mars retrograde brings reflection around energy, anger, conflict, ambition, drive, action, desire, frustration, and how we fight for what we want.

When Mars is retrograde, forward motion can feel weird. Motivation may dip or turn inward. Anger may surface in strange ways. Old conflicts may return. You may realize you’ve been pushing too hard, fighting the wrong battle, or ignoring your own needs until resentment built a little cabin in your chest.

Mars retrograde asks: Where is my energy going, and is it actually serving me?

This isn’t about never acting. It’s about acting with intention instead of constantly running on heat, impulse, or exhaustion.

Jupiter retrograde

Jupiter retrograde brings reflection around growth, expansion, belief, luck, wisdom, opportunity, faith, learning, and abundance.

Jupiter is usually associated with expansion, but when it’s retrograde, that expansion turns inward. You may review your beliefs, question what growth really means, reconsider your goals, or notice where you’ve been chasing more without asking whether more is actually meaningful.

Jupiter retrograde asks: What does growth mean to me now?

It can be a beautiful time to reconnect with your inner wisdom and stop measuring your life only by outside markers of success.

Saturn retrograde

Saturn retrograde brings reflection around responsibility, discipline, boundaries, structure, time, commitment, authority, maturity, and long-term work.

This one can feel serious, but not necessarily bad. Saturn retrograde often asks us to review the structures we’ve built. Are they supportive? Are they restrictive? Are we avoiding responsibility, or carrying responsibility that was never ours? Are our boundaries strong enough? Are our commitments still aligned?

Saturn retrograde asks: What am I building, and can it hold me?

This is where we get honest about discipline without turning it into punishment. Very Rooted Magic. Very “your life needs a structure that doesn’t chase you with a broom.”

Uranus retrograde

Uranus retrograde brings reflection around freedom, rebellion, change, innovation, disruption, individuality, awakening, and breaking patterns.

Uranus energy can be sudden and electric. When retrograde, the revolution often turns inward. You may notice where you’ve been conforming, where you need more freedom, or where change is brewing beneath the surface before it becomes visible.

Uranus retrograde asks: Where am I ready to stop betraying my own truth?

It can feel restless, but it can also help us understand what kind of freedom we actually need.

Neptune retrograde

Neptune retrograde brings reflection around dreams, intuition, spirituality, illusion, fantasy, escapism, compassion, creativity, and confusion.

Neptune can be foggy. When retrograde, the fog may thin. Illusions can dissolve. You may see something more clearly than you wanted to. Spiritual beliefs may shift. Creative dreams may return. Avoidance patterns may become harder to ignore.

Neptune retrograde asks: What is real, and what have I been romanticizing?

This can be tender work, but it’s powerful. Sometimes the truth is less sparkly than the fantasy, but far more freeing.

Pluto retrograde

Pluto retrograde brings reflection around power, control, transformation, shadow, endings, rebirth, obsession, fear, and deep inner change.

Pluto is not here to rearrange your throw pillows. Pluto is the basement door opening by itself. Pluto retrograde often asks us to look at power dynamics, hidden fears, old wounds, control patterns, and the parts of ourselves we’d rather not admit are still driving the carriage.

Pluto retrograde asks: What needs to die in me so something truer can live?

Dramatic? Yes. Pluto likes a dark velvet curtain. But this can be an incredibly powerful time for shadow work, healing, and reclaiming power.

How to work with retrogrades without spiraling

The first rule is: don’t panic.

The second rule is: check the details.

The third rule is: remember astrology is a tool, not your manager.

During Mercury retrograde, double-check schedules, back up important files, read agreements carefully, confirm travel plans, and pause before assuming everyone understood what you meant.

During Venus retrograde, reflect on worth, relationships, money, beauty, values, and desire. Try not to make every feeling into a permanent decision by sunrise.

During Mars retrograde, notice your anger and energy. Ask whether you’re acting from clarity or just trying to discharge frustration.

During Jupiter retrograde, revisit what growth, faith, abundance, and opportunity mean to you.

During Saturn retrograde, review boundaries, structure, responsibility, and long-term commitments.

During Uranus retrograde, notice where freedom is calling from inside the house.

During Neptune retrograde, look gently at illusion, intuition, creativity, and escapism.

During Pluto retrograde, pay attention to power, control, shadow, and transformation.

You don’t have to memorize all of this. Truly. Nobody is handing out astrology pop quizzes in the astral hallway. The easiest way to work with any retrograde is to ask:

What is this planet asking me to review?

That’s it. That question will carry you a long way (and save this post to come back to as your reference).

A simple Mercury retrograde ritual

Use this when communication feels messy, your brain feels scattered, plans keep shifting, or Freddy is absolutely in the microwave again.

You’ll need a candle, a glass of water, paper and pen, and optional lavender, rosemary, mint, or clear quartz.

Light the candle and place the water beside it. Take three slow breaths and say:

“I slow down.
I listen clearly.
I speak with care.
I move with awareness.”

Write down one thing that feels tangled right now. It might be a conversation, a decision, a plan, a message, a schedule, or a thought loop.

Now write three words beneath it:

Clarify. Confirm. Continue.

Under Clarify, write what needs to be better understood.

Under Confirm, write what detail needs checking.

Under Continue, write the next small step you can take without spiraling.

Place one hand over the paper and say:

“Confusion softens.
Clarity returns.
I don’t have to rush what needs attention.”

Take a sip of water.

If you’re about to send a message, reread it first. If you’re about to make a plan, confirm the details. If you’re feeling emotionally reactive, give yourself a pause before responding.

Close with:

“Mercury may be moving backward, but I can still move with care.”

Then snuff the candle. All done!

Everyday Witchery for Mercury retrograde

Mercury retrograde magic doesn’t have to be dramatic. A lot of it is just practical magic wearing sensible shoes.

✨Back up your files and call it a protection spell.
✨Read the email twice and call it clarity magic.
✨Put your keys in the same place every day and call it anti-chaos enchantment.
✨Confirm the appointment and call it timeline stabilization.
✨Drink water before responding to the spicy message and call it emotional regulation sorcery.
✨Write things down because your brain deserves a support staff.
✨Light a candle before a hard conversation and ask for clear words.
✨Mute the thread when the group chat becomes a cursed carnival.

This is the kind of magic I love because it doesn’t separate the spiritual from the practical. It reminds us that checking the address can be sacred if it keeps your day from exploding.

Retrogrades are review, not ruin

Mercury retrograde is not here to ruin your life. The other retrogrades are not here to spiritually body-check you into chaos. Retrogrades are review periods. Sometimes they’re annoying. Sometimes they’re clarifying. Sometimes they bring back an old lesson with the energy of a raccoon tapping on your window at 2 a.m.

But they’re not here to rule you. They’re here to invite reflection.

Astrology can be a beautiful tool for timing, awareness, and self-understanding, but it should never make you feel powerless in your own life. You still have choice. You still have agency. You still have your breath, your words, your boundaries, your common sense, your calendar reminders, your backup drive, and your ability to pause before texting something that absolutely should’ve stayed in the drafts.

So the next time Mercury retrograde rolls around and someone says, “Mercury is in retrograde,” you can smile gently, light your candle, back up your files, read the message twice, and say:

Freddy is in the microwave again, but I know what to do.