If you need it:

I see you, witch.

Altar, 1st January, new year, full moon in Cancer

The spell jar holds mugwort, wizened and curled, picked on new year’s eve from the Talyllyn steam train tracks, the day seven of us silently retreated together in Tywyn. Milky quartz from the stream there. Yarrow from Teangue, from gathering what I recognised when I felt so lost, so recently, on Skye.

Reminders that magic
– symbolism
— messages
— guidance
—- healing
are available here, around me, wherever I am.

A reminder that the earth
offers me these things unconditionally.

Cerridwen and her cauldron, a dark goddess. Stones, a gift from Siobhan, from this community, from strangers who are friends who are colleagues who are fellow student witches and wise women. (I don’t know what these stones are. One is black tourmaline, I think.)

The High Priestess, femme sage of the Collective Tarot, old, at peace, well practiced in their ways. For finding my own path. For weaving my own tradition.

Art made on new year’s eve: a drawing in silence, an incantation, ‘step into your magic’, and then beside the fire, in lieu of a ‘vision board’, a magazine tapestry, weaving myself into a sacred circle.

Boundaries in a Bottle, just a small drop remaining, the wisdom and magic of Dori Midnight and through this symbol. all of my #witchyqueer heroes, too many to name but they’re here. I owe them so much. I will play it forwards.

A beeswax candle from my grandma, Narney. An otter shell from…well, I don’t know where. Some beautiful beach of West Scotland or Wales no doubt. It’s been around for a while.

‘To thine own self be true’. From Kathleen, the craftiest of them all.

My rainbow wand, direction, intention, manifestation.

I see you, witch.

Tarot decks shown in this post are from the Dark Goddess Tarot and The Collective Tarot. Other links: Kathleen’s art, Dori Midnight, how to make a magic wand.