Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven

225 Pages·2017·3.96 MB·English

by  Jaya Saxena

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
CHAPTER 1
Self-Initiation: An Induction into Basic Witchery
Who Are You?
What We Mean by “Witchcraft”
What We Mean by “Magic”
Meet Your Local Witches
Our Favorite Pop Culture Witches
CHAPTER 2
Glamours: The Power to Change How You Look
How to Clothe Yourself in Literal Darkness
Dress to Sorceress
Makeup for Witches
A Spell to Find Your Colors
Witch History: When Wearing Makeup Made You a Witch
Nail Art to Terrify Men
A Spell to Wear Bold Lipstick
The Dark Magic of Unfeminine Haircuts
A Spell for Haircut Confidence
The Power of a Good Talisman
The Secret Art of Smellomancy
Dapper Magic
A Spell to Reject Pressure to Be Feminine
Lotions and Potions
A Spell for Self-Care
CHAPTER 3
Healing: The Power to Care for Yourself
The Witch’s Pantry
A Spell to Feel Comfortable Seeing a Doctor
Witch History: Witches vs. Doctors
A Spell to Accept Compliments
A Spell to Make Peace with Your Body
Kitchen Witchery
Magical Exercise
Witch Calisthenics
A Ritual for a Relaxing Netflix Binge
CHAPTER 4
Summoning: The Power to Care for Others (and Have Them Care for
You)
How to Build a Coven
Witch History: The Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell
A Tarot Ritual to Attract Friendship
The Transformative Power of Vulnerability
A Collaborative Ritual to Deepen Friendship
Which Pet Should Be Your Familiar?
Healing Friends for Fun and Profit
A Spell for Establishing Boundaries
Witch History: Why Witches Dance Naked in the Woods
Worshipping the Moon with Shine Theory
A Spell to Ditch Friend Envy
A Spell to Let Go of a Friendship
CHAPTER 5
Enchantment: The Power to Make Choices about Love and Sex
Conjuring Your Perfect Mate
A Spell to Focus on What You Want
The Waxing and Waning of Desire
Flirting with Runes
The Magic Circle of Consent
A Spell of Yes and No
Choosing the “Broomstick” for You
Witch History: The Origins of the Magic Broomstick
Saying the Magic Words in Bed
A Spell for Talking about Sex
Witch History: Witches and Reproductive Freedom
A Spell to Feel Sexually Powerful
A Tarot Ritual for Accepting Singleness
A Spell for Healing a Broken Heart
CHAPTER 6
Banishment: The Power to Avoid What Brings You Down
Expelling Social Toxicity
A Ritual to Move through Loss
The Dark Magic of Emotional Abuse
The Joy of Hex
The Different Types of Personal Demons
A Personal Exorcism Spell
Witch History: On Demons and Daemons
A Spell to Break Negative Patterns
A Spell to Counter Impostor Syndrome
The Greatest One-Word Spell: “No”
A Spell for Rejection
Backfire! When Self-Care Spells Go Wrong
A Spell to Break a Curse
CHAPTER 7
Divination: The Power to Decide Your Destiny
Channeling What Lies Beyond
A Spell to Name Your Heart’s Desire
A Ritual for When the Crystal Ball Is Dark
The Alchemy of Failure
How to Read Tea Leaves
A Spell for Embracing Failure
Witch History: The Myth of Mother Shipton
Navigating Flawed Visions
A Spell to Keep Going
DIY Rituals
A Spell for New Endeavors
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
About the Illustrator

Witches are everywhere these days. Fashion trends feature flowy black clothes
and dark lipstick, magazines and websites run special witch-themed issues, and
hipster covens are forming in Brooklyn.
What’s so appealing about the witch? Partly, nostalgia. Women now in their
twenties and thirties fondly remember growing up watching The Craft and
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, reading Harry Potter, playing “light as a feather,
stiff as a board” at slumber parties, or saving their allowance for a collectible
light-up Hermione wand.
But the witch isn’t kitsch. The modern witchy zeitgeist doesn’t only glance
backward into childhood; it looks forward to the future of powerful, defiant
women. Witchcraft appeals to the weird, the outcast, and the unconventional; it
has long been a spiritual practice belonging to those on society’s fringes. And
cultural images of witches, gleaned from history and movies and books and TV,
resonate particularly with women who reject the strictures of expected female
behavior, women who are trying to connect with something stronger and scarier.
In the original Old English, witch was a word that could apply to women and
men alike. In fact, wicca—from which we get the word witch—can be directly
translated as “male witch” or “sorcerer.” But in the fifteenth century, witch-
hunting guides like the Malleus Maleficarum argued that women were more
inclined to witchcraft because they were inherently weak (physically, mentally,
and spiritually) and susceptible to the devil’s machinations.
This theory may sound ridiculous, but ideas like this have influenced notions
of witchcraft—and, broadly, of women—for centuries. Witch quickly became a
charge levied almost exclusively at women—particularly women who lived
alone, outside the confines of the community. The witch was not beautiful, or
she was (suspiciously) too beautiful; at any rate, she didn’t look the way others
thought she should. She refused men when they didn’t appeal to her, pursued
them when they did, and satisfied herself with that (wink, wink) “broomstick”
she always “rode.” She had cats instead of children. Other women came to her
for care and comfort, but also turned on her when associating with her threatened
their social standing. The witch was intimidating, after all. Too strange. Too
unruly. Too much.
But in mainstream modern U.S. culture, we’ve largely defanged the witch.
Our cultural image is sometimes evil but sometimes silly, as if to suggest that the