Most witches, when they hear the words daily practice, think of lighting candles, reciting devotions, and consulting the tarot or other divination. These simple routines are a good beginning, but not where daily practice ends.
Practice, Practice, Practice
I'm a very good cook. I learned my culinary skills at my mother's knee and took to it like a kitten to cream. Since becoming a young wife some four decades ago, I've cooked nearly every day, often times more than one meal.
Though I never imagined I could handle cooking professionally, when I worked as a waitress in a small restaurant, my love for the art of turning food into a meal shone though. The owner took me under her wing and I became a professional cook. I learned things I hadn't known as a home cook, the tips and tricks of the trade, but also the science and chemistry of transforming food—the magick of it.
Practice, practice, practice, and the willingness to push my boundaries and learn new things made me a good cook. It's the same for any craft, including witchcraft.
Living Your Witchcraft
At the very least, you should have some form of daily devotion, preferably in the morning upon waking.
It's like making breakfast. Some days, I might make bacon and eggs and fried potatoes, with toast and jam and glass of orange juice, and coffee—always coffee. Other days I might pour cereal in a bowl, splash on some skim milk and call it good. Some days, it might be a handful of crackers, or almonds and a banana. It all depends on what my brain is craving and my tummy can tolerate, my energy level, and my time.
It's the same with daily devotions. When I'm rested, feeling well and craving deeper connection to what I know as Spirit, my devotions take about twenty minutes—a series of prayer and petition, connection to powers of elemental nature, asking for grace and honoring my ancestors. I may or may not add meditation and journaling that can stretch my daily devotion to an hour or more. Other days it might be simply lighting a candle at my Altar of Mothers and asking for grace throughout my day.
And on the days when my energy is zeroing out and I have not the capacity for either effort or sincerity, I may just clutch my cup of coffee, inhale the warm steam and rich, bitter aroma and pray, "It's me, I'm here. Thank you."
What I understand about the practice of devotion, is that it gives me an outline for living my life, it keeps me grounded to a set of beliefs and values that are important to me. My practice of spirituality is a touchstone. It doesn’t matter if it’s real. To be honest, I don't even have to believe it’s real (because sometimes I am filled with doubt). It works because I work it.
But there is more to being witch than daily devotion, just as there is more to cooking than reading recipes and obtaining the ingredients. You actually have to cook.
Still, even more than the cooking, being a good cook means applying what I know about cooking to everything related to cooking—shopping for ingredients, storing the food properly, deciding which herbs and vegetables I choose to grow in my garden (or buy at a farmer's market), how I tend the crops and harvest the yield.
All the way down to how I serve the meal.
Likewise, it's not the grand rituals, the sabbat celebrations, the potions, lotions and elixirs that makes one a witch, though they are all the practice of witchcraft. Being a witch means I apply everything I know about witchcraft to my otherwise mundane daily activities.
Let's stay with cooking, for example. As a witch I believe that all things possess energy, I can appeal to the energy of the ingredients I use in cooking in the practice of my witchcraft.
I don't need elaborate rituals or rhymed incantations. I call on the properties of garlic and onion for purification and protection as I add each to a dish. I call on something as simple as corn and beans for abundance and prosperity. Tomatoes and peppers lend their good vibes of love and passion, while cilantro, with its bitter notes, is a reminder that life comes with sorrows as well as joys. Mix a dash of maple syrup for longevity (it has to be the real stuff) into olive oil and add it to the above ingredients. Season it all with salt for grounding.*
If you know your way around a kitchen, you know that I just gave you the recipe for a tasty, and magickal, salsa.
But What If I'm Not A Kitchen Witch?
Whatever you put your hand to, you can also put your witchcraft to.
The way we choose to present our homes, ourselves and even our work spaces, communicates more than just our tastes, it tells the universe what is important to us, what we admire and what we desire. My sister and I both love to decorate. When we obsess over the placement of an object in an arrangement on a mantle, that's decorating pure and simple (and maybe a little OCD tendency). What we choose to display is individual style and taste. But, as a witch, my choices also become my witchcraft.
I'm rehabbing a vintage motor home my husband I bought on a lark. You can bet I'm witching up my handiwork in this tiny home on wheels, but that doesn't mean I'm creating a replica of some Hollywood Halloween movie set complete with ravens, skulls and a cauldron—or even the more innocuous candles and crystals.
I started with the bathroom, the room most in need of some TLC and the one least in sync with my vibe. When I painted the walls and cabinets I laid down sigils before applying the two coats of primer and two coats of color. I chose an ocean beach theme for the visible decorating, to not only invoke the relaxation and restoration of a day at the beach, but to also honor the element of water. A hand crafted Poseidon candle for safe and stable travels in our land ark, is the finishing touch.
The bedroom is calm and airy with shades of blue and white. Reminiscent of a summer day, it invokes and honors the element of air. The rest of the living space is dominated by wood cabinetry and accents in earthy tones that bring grounding into the mix. A large framed print of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" calls on the warmth of the sun and the element of fire.
Living Your Witchcraft at Work
You can live your witchcraft in your workplace, no matter how firmly ensconsed in the broom closet you may be. Dedicate your efforts as offerings if you practice with deities. Use color magic in selecting your clothing—we all know about men and red "power" ties, right? Green invokes harmony, growth and abundance, yellow and orange bring energy and stamina.
If you have the space, display an image that represents the elements, if it's abstract, all the better to charge it with your specific intentions. Charge a decorative crystal bauble, like those sold as sun catchers, and hang in your space. And don't forget sigils. You may not be able to draw magickal symbols on your paperwork or tools of the trade but you can trace them invisibly with your finger.
At work or play, choose prints and gemstone jewelry for the associated magical correspondence. Think of the subtlety of leopard print shoes and cat's eye earrings on a day when you want to quietly observe, like a cat—or invoke the power of the king of the jungle.
Whatever the routine and activities of your day may be, living your witchcraft simply takes imagination and consistency. Daily devotion is a good practice, but it doesn't end there. The more you infuse your craft into your day to day activities, the more connected to the forces of energy your practice will be and the more powerful witch you will become.
*Salt is most often associated with protection by absorbing negative energies, but it is an earth element and represents such on altars. Also, think of the implied grounding and stability invoked when saying somebody is "the salt of the earth."