Retailers have begun to advertise holiday deals and your loved ones may be starting to ask about wish lists so they can buy you lots of goodies. For those that follow the wheel of the year, or maybe have created their own holiday in their practice, this time of family gatherings and travel might make you wonder how you’re going to celebrate – especially for younger practitioners who maybe haven’t told the world.
What do you do? How do you plan? As someone whose friends and a close sister are the only ones who really know the depth of my witchy practice, I’ve got some tips for top secret plans.
Let’s start with Samhain.
Because let’s face it: Halloween is literally amazing and who doesn’t want to go trick or treating with their cute nieces and nephews, go to that party with friends, or *safely* go ghost hunting (which we have a post on). That doesn’t leave much time for ritual or spell work.
The easy tip that goes for all sabbats is to remember the energy of that sabbat may peak on a certain day, but it lasts much longer.
It’s okay to simply shift the days you do your ritual work to your one day off, or when the rest of the household is at work. This year, I will literally be across the country when “Yule” happens – so I’m waiting until I get back home, a whole month, to do any ritual work that I want to do. And that’s okay. It might not be what everyone is posting about on social media, but the energy will be there if I summon it. That’s what matters.
Have you tried kitchen witchery?
There is literally an association for every spice, every fruit and vegetable, and every food. Some people have different associations for the different shaped pasta – meaning you can find associations to foods you always eat, no matter the culture. This means you can always do cooking or baking around any holiday – cold weather or warm, witchy or not, and usually not have to give anyone any explanation other than “I really wanted this food” or “it’s a form of my self-care.”
On that note, crafts are usually good for hiding things too.
Making candles, knitting or sewing, and any skin salves, bath salts, or anything like that can usually be passed off as a hobby or that you’re working on gifts for fellow loved ones and friends. Each craft can vary in affordability – crocheting is rather cheap to get into I’ve learned – but can all be used in magick. It’s around Samhain and darker months I start making candles in prep for ritual work, but the making of the candle or craft can be a ritual itself, where you work intention and magick into the object.
Lastly, good ol’ journaling.
Vision boards can be created on Pinterest, as can digital offerings and altars. You can do journal prompts, scripting, or written spells in journals or on paper. I won’t go too much into detail because you’ve most likely heard this one before, but journals can be taken anywhere, especially if its in the notes app of your phone or good notes on an Ipad, a word doc. on your computer, or similar.