Time for Magic: Consistently Inconsistent
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learn more about how to bring magic into your daily life
understand the ebb and flow of magic within your self
become more compassionate with your inconsistency
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Today, I want to talk to you about inconsistency in terms of your witchcraft practice, especially inconsistency in terms of the opposition to routine.
One of my most popular blog posts is about how to make more time for magic. And in that post, as well as the free course in Mumbles Academy, I share that routine is really vital when it comes to practicing witchcraft regularly and consistently.
I’ll share a few of those tips here, but I also want to talk about how inconsistency is also important to witchcraft.
So how can you be both consistent and inconsistent? Well perhaps it’s more accurate to say, “Do your best and know that your best will change from day to day.”
If you are stressed, in the midst of interpersonal conflict, not getting enough sleep, there will likely be some disruption to your routine and your ability to maintain a practice. You are likely balancing your mental and physical health, health, job, kids and/or pets, a social life, partner, house and yard work, witchcraft and/or spiritual path and more.
And when your routine gets disrupted, it doesn’t make you a failure or a bad witch, because there’s no such thing. There’s no such thing as a bad witch.
Your Life is Sacred
So this idea of balancing all your wants and needs and responsibilities ties nicely into the first way to make more time for magic in your day.
Instead of adding more to your plate for management, look at all areas of your life as sacred and magical.
In fact, spiritual experiences become that much more meaningful when we take action on the lesson and root it in our daily life. If we keep the magical stuff separate from the mundane, it seems to me that the value of that magical experience is somewhat diminished.
But by layering the magic and the mundane on everything you do, by creating rituals around managing your health and wellness, and your job, and relationships, and everything else, these activities become so much deeper and the connection to spirit is strengthened
Making Time for Magic Daily
In the making time for magic daily course from Mumbles Academy, I share several other ideas for creating space and time for your witchcraft practice.
I talk about scheduling time and creating boundaries around that time.
I share a couple of time management techniques. The pomodoro method, in which you set a timer for 25 minutes and work on one thing for the duration, then you take a 5 minute break. After the fourth pomodoro, you take a 15 minute break. And the quadrant method, in which you list all the things you think you need to do and categorize them into four different boxes: urgent and important, urgent and unimportant, not urgent and important, not urgent and not important.
I tell you about how a witchy morning routine can set you up for success each day, by putting you in a magical mindset.
And I give you a list of 13 magical activities that have no time constraints that you can go to with whatever amount of time you have and slip a bit of magic into the day.
This course is available for free as of this publishing. You can enroll and access all of these tips and downloadable resources. And since that resource is already available, in this episode I want to talk with you about the other side of this: the inconsistency of witchcraft.
Ebb and Flow of Magical Energy
I think the most important thing to remember here is that magic is mutable: it shifts and changes.
If you recall the Principle of Rhythm, it reminds us that all things exist within a pattern or a repeating cycle. The moon waxes and wanes, the sun is at peak strength at Litha and at its weakest at Yule. Between birth and death, plants and animals have a peak vitality.
Energy or magic has a cycle too: it ebbs and flows with the seasons of your life and changes to meet your desires. There will be points when you need to rest, reflect and release just as there are times when you need to push, expand and increase.
If you begin to track your emotions as well as your magical interest, you may start to see a pattern emerge. For me I feel the most magical at the first quarter moon and feel very tired and unmotivated whenever the third quarter moon comes around.
You may have a similar magical cycle that lasts about a month, or maybe you feel this ebb and flow on a weekly basis, or maybe it’s longer, several months or even a year.
I urge you to pay attention to these changes in some way, color code your emotions and mark in your calendar each day. This will help you prepare yourself for the times when you know you’ll be feeling more magical and the times when you may need a bit more self care.
Related: Essential Self Care Practices to Prevent Burnout
Self care is the ability to tune into yourself and listen to your body and mind and spirit.
Sometimes the best way to care for yourself is to take a bath and rest your mind instead of researching. It’s to spend time playing with your pets instead of creating a sigil for bringing joy into your life. Sometimes doing these other activities that aren’t necessarily considered witchcraft can be more magically powerful in terms of enhancing your spiritual life, than if you half-ass your ritual or spell.
This is why I always talk to you all about seeing the magic in the everyday moments. To layer the magical over the mundane and to not keep them separate from one another.
In addition to creating a deeper experience of life, this helps you continuously align yourself with the vision you have for your life. In doing so, you can make choices based on what serves you so that you maintain the path you desire.
So in this way, what may have previously felt like inconsistency in your practice, is actually consistency with a natural rhythm.
You can’t force something when there just aren’t resources—whether time, money or energy—available to do it. And if you do try to force it, you won’t receive the same benefits as when you are in flow.
In these times of rest, you give your mind a chance to assimilate the information it is holding. I find that many of my greatest spiritual insights arrive, when I am not actively practicing magic.
Take a Break When You Need To
Of course no life is perfect and there will be times when your energy doesn’t match your usual cycle. Maybe your energy is depleted because you have an illness, or a big project at work, or your kids are home from school for the summer or because of a pandemic. Maybe there is simply no time left in the day between work and food and sleep.
There may be occasions when several months go by when you don’t actively practice witchcraft, while you attend to these other aspects of your life.
But, when you just aren’t feeling particularly magical, there’s no need to be hard on yourself. And actually, nothing good comes from this, so give yourself a break.
It’s okay to shift your focus from one area of your life to another because we only have so much time and energy to give and it’s nearly impossible to be at full capacity in all areas at once.
Do not push yourself to practice if you have nothing available.
If right now, the tangible practice of witchcraft is not your focus, it’s okay to let that part of your life slide.
Witchcraft is supposed to enhance your life!
Most people come to witchcraft in an effort to gain control over their circumstances, to claim their personal power, and to connect with themselves and the world around them. It’s supposed to give you an escape for your list of stressful obligations.
If practicing witchcraft is adding to your stress, it is still worth it? If you find yourself mentally berating yourself because you missed a chance for a ritual, is it enhancing your life? I don’t think so.
Besides, even if you did force yourself to tap into your personal power and cast that spell, do you think you’ll be happy with the outcome? You’re stressed out, exhausted self is not in the right head space to achieve the results you desire.
Witchcraft is not an obligation to tack onto your to-do list. It’s not something you grit your teeth and bare. It’s about connection, and being the master of your destiny.
Summary
In this post, I shared a few tips for consistency in your witchcraft practice. I also gave you permission to allow some inconsistency into your practice and to always do your best, whatever your best is at any given moment.
Join us in the Talk Witchcraft Facebook group to chat about this episode with other witchy folks.
Wait, don’t go yet!
Thanks for hanging out with me today. If you’ve enjoyed this post of Talk Witchcraft, I invite you to check out mumblesacademy.com.
Mumbles Academy is the place to be for intuitive souls at any stage on their WitchPath. Whether you are a Wildling at the very beginning of witchcraft journey and looking for a safe learning environment, a Creator who is already committed to their practice and wants to develop their witchcraft skills even more, or a Sage who full of wisdom already and is ready to share that with others, Mumbles Academy was designed for you.
With monthly masterclasses and live Q&As, an extensive archive of courses and training, and a supportive community to help you along the way with encouragement and advice, Mumbles Academy is the perfect place for you to be as you as you continue on your WitchPath.
Now it’s your turn!
Share how you make time for magic and how you allow your magic to flow.
