The Witch Who Lives Down the Hall...

One of my favorite books as a child was a now-out-of-print story called The Witch Who Lives Down the Hall (1985), which you can listen to and view here. In this book, a young boy is convinced that the woman who lives down the hall from him in his new apartment complex is a witch. Why does he think this? Well, she casts spells on a magic carpet (does yoga), whips up potions (makes soup), hosts coven meetings (reading and music clubs), has a black cat, and is basically loads of fun.

The thing is, the child is not wrong. His neighbor IS a witch, only not in the way we would think.

She is the embodiment of everyday magic. Everything she does is infused with mindfulness, joy, and a touch of enchantment, as seen through the eyes of a child who can find wonder and whimsy in all things. She might not make literal potions, but isn’t a bowl of soup the perfect healing spell when we need it? So she doesn’t have a flying carpet, but her yoga practice invites an elevated perspective. Then she has her black cat and we all know black cats are pure magic!

I was reminded of this story a few years back when two little girls moved into the apartment down the hall from me. I saw them watching me from the courtyard. They took in my black cat sitting on the windowsill. Caught glimpses of me on my magic carpet (I mean my yoga mat), and stole peeks through my window at the large collection of books that just had to be filled with spells. Most importantly, they were enamored with my patio garden that overflowed with herbs, flowers, and other wild, growing things.

Obviously, mine was a witch’s garden with ingredients for spellwork.

I caught them once, picking petals from roses I’d put out to dry and taking a pinch of this or that herb. They took their stash to the fountain in the middle of the courtyard and used it to make potions. They danced around the fountain and chanted. They poured water into cups and mixed flower petals and herbs into them, making up wild songs as they did so.

One day, the younger sister returned to collect more rose petals just as I came out to water my plants. The older sister, well, she did the big sister thing and ran straight up to my patio, worried they were in trouble for stealing my rose petals and herbs.

In trouble with A WITCH, no less!

They’d read enough stories, it seemed, to know they shouldn’t upset a witch even if they couldn’t resist stealing from her garden. Or maybe they just didn’t want to get in trouble with their parents for disturbing a neighbor. Who knows?

“We’re sorry for taking your stuff. It’s just we needed it,” the older sister quickly explained while pulling her sibling away from the patio. “We’re making spells.”

“What sort of spells?” I asked, and they knew they didn’t have to fear me.

Readers, they had A LOT of spells, and it was wonderful to talk with them about the stories and worlds and potions they were making. I also showed them what they could freely take from my garden. All the dried rose petals they wanted. Honestly, those dried roses were so pretty I didn’t want to throw them out, but I also couldn’t possibly keep them all. I showed them how to pluck green tendrils from my herb plants and explained why they shouldn’t pull the heads off fresh flowers. This ensured they had fun, but my garden didn’t suffer from their enthusiasm.

Hey, I’m a practical witch.

One afternoon, I found them chanting in front of my patio garden, with a stick in hand—a wand, no doubt—and splashing water from the fountain across my plants. My familiar was most curious, watching them through the window as they went about their witchy business.

I peeked out to see what the fuss was about.

“It’s a growing spell!” The eldest explained.

They noticed, they said, that some of my plants were looking a little ragged. Their spell was going to bring them back to life. Every day after school, they ran through the courtyard to check on their spell’s progress. I told them that sometimes spells take time. We’d chat, and they’d ask me questions about all sorts of things. About my cat. About my yoga mat. About the soup cooking on the stove—they smelled it in the hall on their way to their apartment. I could see, through their eyes, that I was much like the strange woman in the children’s book, with all sorts of mysterious things in my home filled with little enchantments.

About a week after they cast their spell over my patio garden, the tired plants started coming back to life. Did their spell work? Or did those cold-weather plants just get their second wind once the heat of the summer waned and cooler temperatures coaxed them back to life? Personally, I think it was their spell. They were certainly proud of their casting abilities, and I was happy to see my plants doing so well. And, eventually, when those girls moved away, I would think of them every time I gathered dried rose petals.

I will always remember the time I got to be the witch who lived down the hall.

It brought me back to when I was their age, reading that strange little book that taught me true magic is the everyday. It’s those small enchantments—intentional living, synchronous meetings, daily rituals—that make life magical.

It reminded me, too, not to take for granted the ordinary magic I’d conjured for myself. We can get used to things, the daily workings of our lives, so much so that we can forget what it takes to craft a meaningful life and how the simplest magic is often the most extraordinary. Magic isn’t in flying carpets and cauldrons. It’s in yoga mats and cast iron pots (although, who is to say which is which?). It isn’t in grimoires or crystal balls but in cookbooks and how the light dances off water in a fountain.

We forget, as we age, that magic is all around us. That we are magic. It’s inside us and all around us, no complicated rituals necessary. And sometimes, life gives us a gift—two little girls who remind you that you are, in fact, much more magical than you feel at the moment, or a woman who lives down the hall from you who must certainly be a witch—to show us that the enchantment we’re looking for is right under our nose.

And, truly, isn’t that what witchy business is all about? Everyday conjurings for a magical life.

As I gather pumpkins and hang autumn twinkle lights with my familiars—I have two now—in preparation for Halloween, I think about the joys of being the witch who lives down the hall. I think about the new stories yet to unfold, the ones that have nourished me over the years and the ones I will one day write, and, most importantly, which ones will jump from the page and into my life as this children’s story did. After all, stories are the deepest form of magic, and there is a quiet conjuring that happens when we find the medicine we need in the pages of a good book.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Here’s to a magical life!

How to Cultivate a Witchy Garden

It’s that time of year when I’m dying to get my hands dirty.  I’ve been collecting seeds all winter and have started prepping my garden space by turning the soil, cleaning up the debris that protected it over the colder months, and thinking about where I’ll put my plants. I’m dizzy with the promise of a summer in my magical garden space where my biggest concern is harvesting and drying my medicinal herbs fast enough—the hard years of pandemic teaching forgotten under the sun’s nurturing gaze and the pliant soil beneath my feet.

This is a feeling that is always with me, even in the winter, warming my soul when it’s too cold to be outside.  You see, I grew up in a magical garden.  My mother was the original kitchen witch who grew so many herbs and plants in our backyard that stepping out there was like entering this secret garden of enchanted things—it still is!  

I remember when I learned that the licorice and lavender and lemon verbena she planted had medicinal properties and that you could steep them to make delicious and healing tisanes. I was obsessed with collecting these plants, brewing with them, and drying them to store in cool jars I’d collected over the years.  Yeah…I think it’s pretty clear that I was always kind of witchy!

Even when I left home, I made it a point to bring a little bit of that garden magic with me wherever I went. Sometimes it was just a few plants on a windowsill in my grad school apartment.  Other times, it was a magnificent patio garden, complete with vermicompost, where I grew all sorts of culinary and medicinal herbs.  Or it was an open space where I could sneak away to plant early spring leeks and onions or the Pinterest board where I pinned everything I wanted in my dream garden, the place I’d cultivate when I lived in my forever home (yes, it will closely resemble the house in the movie, Practical Magic, naturally). 

Plant magic is so much a part of my being, especially as a bruja, that I’ve come to think of my garden as an enchanting space for conjuring.  I have a natural affinity for plants and have often sought solace in their company when the outer world gets to be too much (truly, plants and cats are much more sensible than humans, at least that’s what my familiar says, and I tend to agree with him). 

Sometimes, though, it might seem like a daunting task to create a witchy garden full of medicinal herbs and magical plants.  Where do you start?  How do you maintain it?  What plants do you use?  The most important thing to creating a magical garden is your intention—that desire for a more magical life—and taking enjoyment in learning as you go.  

So, if, like me, you’re looking to be witchier than ever this year, here are a few tips, in no particular order, to cultivating a witchy garden.  It goes without saying, however, that any witchy tips you get here are general guidelines—see what resonates with you and then make your own magic as you develop your relationship to the space you’re working with and the plants that speak to you. 

Don’t get too manictured! I quietly cringe at the perfectly manicured gardens in magazines.  I can practically hear the plants screaming to be free! A garden should be a sanctuary where you let your hair down, walk barefoot, and forget about the world for a bit.  Where you plants can thrive and grow wontonly.  Sure, tend your garden, but don’t turn it into the environmental equivalent of those airbrushed models on a magazine cover—they’re not real and should not be images of beauty we aspire to. Instead, embrace the wild messiness of growing things.  It’s good for the soul.

Remember that all plants are magic. Who didn’t spend afternoons as a child gathering roots and twigs and leaves and stirring them up to make potions and mudpies? It’s as if we all instinctively knew there was something magical to these living breathing things. (If you are one of those rare and strange creatures who never did that…I feel sorry for you.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy that kind of fun now—go get your hands dirty and collect plants that call to you!).  As you go about cultivating your garden, learn about the flowers, herbs, and produce your plant. They all have lovely magical, medicinal, and, yes, even mundane histories.  Each of them has stories and there’s something powerful to learn more about them. You’ll be surprised how much of their stories

Talk to your plants…and don’t be surprised if they talk back. Oftentimes, the plants we are most attracted to have the medicine we need.   For example, one year, I was deeply drawn to Juniper, the seeds, the leaves, and the sharp smell of its essential oils.  I later learned that Juniper is a deeply healing plant that is specifically known for taking negative energy and turning it into light.  As it happens, that was the exact magic I needed as I was healing from some toxic situations and learning to find my own happiness again.  And, yeah, you should check on your plants and talk with them as you tend them.  My mornings aren’t complete without a cup of coffee in the garden and a good chat with growing things before I draw the tarot.

Leave those weeds for the birds and the bees. Okay, I know that we don’t want a garden that’s overgrown with weeds but some are seriously important! This goes back to not being too manicured.  The garden is a living ecosystem so leave those dandelions to help our pollinators, just as wildflowers attract birds who help keep pests in line. Some plants that are so aggressive they become like weeds (I’m talking to you, mint!), so do what you have to do to make sure you keep your unwanted plants in check but allow your garden to be a joyful wild ecosystem that isn’t hemmed in by hospital-like tidiness. The wildlife and your mind will thank you!

Embrace composting. There is nothing more magical than taking scraps and other discards and turning them into pure gold.  It’s positively alchemical! Composting is a fairly easy thing to learn how to do and one of the cheapest and most eco-friendly ways to nourish your plants--seriously, ditch the chemical fertilizers and other junk that’s bad for the environment.  I also like to think of all the energetic junk I’m composting for future fertile soil as I feed my vermicompost or turn the heap.  It makes me feel like no experience, piece of writing, or feeling is wasted.  Even if it’s something I have to let go of, it has done its part to help nourish my inner garden.  It’s very cathartic!  

Know your local ecosystem.  I love my local medicinal plants like globemallow and yerba mansa, not to mention the drought-hardy Hollyhocks.  Part of cultivating a witchy garden is knowing the land around you and the plants and animals that thrive there.  When you garden in harmony with the environment around you, you produce better yields, have happier plants and wildlife, and embrace your inner wildflower. 

I suppose if there’s one last bit of advice to give you as you cultivate your witchy garden, it’s to listen to your intuition. Plant the plants that make you happy. Design your space in a way that soothes the soul. Go slow. Enjoy the sacred simple pleasure of time spent with growing things. And always, always make a little time each day to get your hands dirty.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

I am a love story...

I would make a love spell, if I could, made of the torn pages of a romance novel, rose petals plucked under the darkness of night, and the bloody suture that stitched the pieces of my heart back together after I was so careless with it.

I would take these things and mash them together between the teeth of my mortar and pestle, along with dandelion seeds and olive oil and dirty thoughts and ground cinnamon and the sweetness of a spring morning.  I’d bind it with my spit and tears and hope.

I would even drink this potion if I could. Swallow it all down with a spoonful of honey to soften the intensity of this longing and think of nothing but seeds and fruition as it slid down my throat.  

If a love spell would bring me what I want, I would dance naked under the moon and use strands of my hair to weave together an impossible unbreakable love story. I would work long hours just to be able to afford that small crystal bottle full of hazy pink liquid tucked safely behind the glass counter in that one occult shop everyone knows but says they’ve never been to.

But it’s no use. 

No use trying to conjure warms hands and a beating heart from chicken bones and ribbon.  Or the soft sincerity of an appreciative gaze from glitter and sanding sugar, let alone the gooey warm feeling of being safe in another’s arms—you could try melted chocolate on the tongue or cocoa butter rubbed into your skin.  But it won’t work.

These sorts of love spells never do.  

I’ll tell you what does—though you won’t believe me.  Amateurs never do.

It starts inside, a slow steady drumbeat in your body. Follow that song—out into the meadows and let the birds join in the symphony.  Don’t try to pin down the feeling or stuff it in a jar.  Just let this lightness wrap around you and tease your skin like a lover’s fingers.  

Don’t look too hard, either, for the thing you think you want. Just fill yourself up with the luscious energy that makes you feel whole without arms to hold you—those will come in time.

Now here comes the hard part: Shake off the desperation.  Shut out the voices that say too old too hard too picky too aloof too needy too demanding too sexy too strange too wild too much. All they’re really saying is that they wish they were brave enough to dance with the meadow bees in broad daylight. Unafraid and safe in the knowledge that the Universe is wiser than you and easily bypasses your childish attempts to control your future.  What you want right here and now—the thing you try to capture with your butterfly net—it’s inside you, not in paperback pulp and shredded roses.

So stop waiting for it to happen to you. This love story. 

You are a love story.  Know it. Feel it.  Let it saturate every part of your being.  Say it and embody it:

I am a love story. 

I am a love story. 

I am a love story. 

Hold that phrase up like an offering to your soul.

Aren’t you eager to see how it unfolds now that you are no longer swallowing the torn pages of someone else’s story?

Too much work!  I know that’s what you’ll say. 

This, from the person willing to swallow their own nasty spit and stitches and dance naked in the moonlight—or work overtime to pay for pink-stained water pretending to be an aphrodisiac.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Witchier Than Ever...

When I first started this blog, oh, almost ten years ago, I got in the habit of starting each year with a new year’s resolution, something to meditate on for the year. I did everything from slow living, radical self-care, and thinking about living more sustainably.  After a while, many of these things became an integral part of my life. Then the pandemic happened and I felt a decreased desire to focus too hard on another goal, even if it was rooted in my desire for cultivating a more magical life.

There’s nothing wrong with making resolutions—in fact, I rather like the idea of choosing something to gently meditate on throughout the year. It’s like my daily tarot card reading. It’s nice to have something to help you get clarity on what you want to manifest in your life or help you explore your inner world.  Intention setting is one of the most mundane forms of magic-making and all the more powerful for its simplicity. 

That said, when I took a pandemic-inspired step back, I realized that I’d gotten better (despite a few bumps in the road), at integrating things like self-care and energetic awareness into my daily life.  Part of it came from years of practice.  The other part, from writing Practically Pagan ~ An Alternative Guide to Magical Living.  Writing that book helped me return to the fundamentals of magical living, ways of being that are intuitive and seamlessly integrated into our daily lives.  Writing has always been one of the most powerful forms of spell-crafting for me.

In the process, I got rid of the things cluttering up my life: complicated exercise regimes, things that made me feel bad about myself, the constant need to apologize or over-explain things, saying yes to too many demands, self-doubts, and anxieties that lead to bad habits in an effort to self-soothe.  I got rid of people, too. I have no room for pandemic-deniers and performative allies in my life, and joyful hex bigots out of my space.

In their place, I created more space for unexpected magic. I cultivated my relationship to the tarot and to seeds—soul seeds and turnip seeds, aggressively joyful hollyhock seeds and the seeds of dreams I hope to nourish in the coming year.  I gave into my inner kitchen witch and bought a pizza stone—then rigorously tested the best ways to make a pizza (wink wink).  I stopped reading books that bored me and binge-read series that brought me joy.  I trusted my intuition more even when it seemed to go counter to the surface of things.   I lit beeswax candles and made time for cat cuddles at the end of the day.  I learned the gentle art of divine receptivity.

I grew things. I made things. I dreamed about a lot of things.  And I conjured some things, too.  I listened.  At times I spoke.  I let my body—the ripples of pleasure and coils of tension—tell me what I did and didn’t need in my life.  Mostly I embraced my deeply introverted need for solitude and the healing revelations that can only come with time spent in silence. 

In other words, I allowed myself to embrace my full witchiness.  In my own way and via my own path.  The past few years have been hard in so many ways that I’ve had to make a conscious effort not to harden my heart or shut down as I pour all my energy into trying to maintain important boundaries.  Don’t get me wrong, boundaries are essential!  And I do keep my heart safe from the people who would abuse my kindness and empathy.  But my inner-bruja has also helped me remember that I ferociously maintain those boundaries so that I can have the space and safety to nourish joy, Eros energy, and sacred simple pleasures. 

Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to trust in our ability to keep ourselves safe from the proverbial demons of the world so that we may hold space for the divine.  It is no small thing to allow our energy to flow, welcome in divine receptivity, and make room for unexpected magic. 

So this year? My new year’s resolution is to be witchier than ever. 

What magic are you hoping to conjure this new year?

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

The Bruja's Guide to Everyday Magic

With the publication of Practically Pagan ~ An Alternative Guide to Magical Living, many readers have asked me what I mean when I say I write about and practice ‘everyday magic.’ In fact, a number of people have picked up my new book expecting complex spells and occult practices, only to be disappointed by pages filled with anecdotal stories and tips about energy, intention, and conjuring so subtle it’s part of our daily lives. The irony, of course, is that these simple acts of energetic awareness—what some people call mindfulness or intentional living—are actual magical practices! These daily conjurings might lack some of the sparkle and flash of more elaborate mystic practices, but they are some of the most powerful forms of spell casting and an important foundation for any kind of magical practice.

I’m all about keeping it simple. Our thoughts are spells. Our energy tells us everything we need to know about a specific situation or person, as does their vibe. Our daily habits shape the kind of life we want to live—so we need to be intentional about it. We can also sometimes get a little carried away with the theater of the occult world, so much so that the real magic gets lost under the hocus-pocus. I think of it as burning incense to cleanse your home when the space is dirty and what you really should be doing is giving it a good scrub down. Light those incense, sure, but don’t ignore the important task of tending your sanctuary. It’s not just dust and crumbs on the floor, but stagnant energy that needs to be cleared out through the literal act of cleaning. That’s the thing with magic: the best kind is simple, but also hard work.

Hard work—but worth it. So if you’re just beginning your journey into the mystic world or are a long-time pagan or witchy soul wanting to get a refresher on foundational practices, check out my Bruja’s Guide to Everday Magic below.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Keep It Simple

When I started Enchantment Learning & Living what feels like a lifetime ago, I did so with the intention of exploring a central truth: true magic is in the everyday. That’s the tagline of much of my creative work and the backbone of my own brujeria practice.

Spiritual Gatekeeping

I wanted to get away from the idea of complex spell-work and esoteric occultism that often felt like gatekeeping to what should be an organic fluid practice. Like the church insisting they are the conduit through which God, or the numinous, speaks, these more complicated approaches to the craft can imply that people can only connect to that mystic energy within themselves and without if they perform intricate rituals. We must have an Instagram-worthy altar, a collection of large, expensive crystals, and an herbal apothecary filled with hard-to-find often dangerous herbs.

Don’t get me wrong. We all have our ways of conjuring, our rituals, and spells, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You can even enjoy that Instagram-worthy set-up! The trouble occurs when we get so lost in the performance of our witchiness, yield to consumerism that tells us we can’t be magical unless we have that ultra-expensive [fill in the blank magical tool]. It’s easy to get lost in the ritual and theater of the occult, so much so that we can forget the purpose behind our spiritual practice: to reconnect to self, the universe, to others in a meaningful and life-affirming way.

This is also a way to keep people out of elitist witch circles—if you can commodify spirituality, you can choose who can and can’t have access to these energies via simple economics and cultural appropriation, which is a byproduct of this commodification. More simply, it sells the idea that you are not enough on your own to manifest what you need to, which is simply untrue.

Spiritual Bypassing & Performative Conjuring

We also run the risk of spiritual bypassing when our practice is so focused on the pomp and circumstance of witchy business. We fall into the trap of “love and light” and good feelings only, suppressing the bad so we don’t have to do the hard shadow work to truly heal. We can, in essence, get so lost in the spectacle of the occult that we successfully avoid whatever it is we need to deal with.

And it’s not just witches that do this. I’ve seen this in the yoga community, where people misuse a powerful practice to numb, rather than heal. Buearocracies roll out their anti-racism agendas that amount to nothing more than a publicity stunt—it’s easy to feel like they’re doing the hard work when a shiny new poster says they are. Actual social justice is much harder and takes more work, hence it’s easy to fall back on feel-good performativity than it is to wade into the waters of genuine activism.

The real work—spiritual, social justice, relational—happens when we show up and aren’t afraid to get messy, uncomfortable, and grounded. And, yes, sometimes those spells, rituals, and social media posts help with that—as long as people don’t stop there. That’s why one of my witchy principles is that magic is a hard, gritty thing. You have to show up and do the work every day. It’s not glamorous and it doesn’t always feel good, but if you keep at it…good stuff starts happening.

Keep It Simple

So…what do we do, knowing all of this? Easy. We keep it simple. My upcoming book, Practically Pagan ~ An Alternative Guide to Magical Living, takes a practical approach to magical living. You don’t any money to perform these proverbial spells and rituals. You don’t need fancy tools or a scholarly background in the occult. You don’t even need a lot of time. All you need is a desire to conjure more magic in your life.

Put even more simply, this book and my personal practice are all about knowing that there is magic in the mundane. As the book blurb says, “It’s a less mumbling 'double double toil and trouble' over a cauldron and trouble and a more cooking a delicious soup in a beloved cast iron pot. It’s simple. It’s mundane. It’s magic!”

You won’t find love spells or hexes in this book, but you will find simple practices rooted in self-care and energetic awareness designed to help you live a more magical life. Perhaps this is what makes this book “an alternative guide” because it side-steps the hocus pocus people expect from witchy books and gets real about the hard work it takes to conjure a more magical life.

It’s a simple concept but difficult to put into practice. I’ve been marinating on this concept more recently as reviews of my latest book are rolling in. It’s a striking contrast as the reviews can be broken into two camps: the people who are upset that they didn’t get a grimoire filled with complicated spellwork and the people who utterly and completely appreciate a more practical—alternative—guide to magical living rooted in basic energetic and mystic principles with examples and tips for how those practices play out in real life.

The magic is in the repetition, the overlap between cultivating radical self-care and developing a pleasure magic practice. These things work together to form a powerful, magical whole. And yeah, on the surface that might seem boring to practitioners who want more sparkle and flair to their witchy practice, but—and I say this with a profound love of glitter and shiny things—sometimes all that sparkle is distracting you from the very real work of sweeping up a dirty floor and thinking twice about welcoming in people who always track in mud, literally and figuratively.

Oh, and that soup in your beloved cast-iron pot? That’s a comfort spell. Pointing out, as I often do in this book, that it’s harder for women of color to acknowledge that they are allowed to do less and enjoy themselves? That’s a protection spell and boundary-setting spell. It might seem like overkill to those who haven’t had to constantly assert their right to wellness and a balanced life. But to us? The repetition is part of the conjuring and an invitation to fellow people with marginalized identities to claim our right to joy, pleasure, and the magic of everyday life. No complicated spells required.

So as you go about your daily life this week, pay attention to the energy you bring to your work, your play, your relationships. Treat every action as a conjuring, every cup of tea as a potion, every word that slips from your lips as a spell. Then see where the magic takes you.

And remember, as I always say, true magic is in the everyday.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

5 Things I Learned about the Tarot from Tarot Tuesdays

A little over two years ago, I began to study the tarot more seriously. I’d gotten my first deck a few years before in a spark of divine synchronicity. I’d been thinking about purchasing a tarot deck and learning more about it. I hadn’t told anyone about it though. It was more of a fleeting thought. Then, for my birthday a week or so later, I received my first deck from my parents. They said they read about it and it made them think of me—it was a feeling that wouldn’t go away. Clearly, the universe was telling me that studying the tarot was a good idea and was making sure I started on the right foot.

That first deck of mine was the female-POC centric Motherpeace tarot and it remains my favorite deck because it decenters patriarchy and whiteness with rounded cards that explore the Divine Feminine. It’s the one I keep for my personal, private use. A few years later, my older sister got me the Steampunk tarot. It’s the one I use when I need to feel limitless in my imagination and innovation, like any Steampunk heroine worth her salt. And this past winter, my younger sister gifted me a Spanish tarot deck, a lovely acknowledgment of my esoteric studies and our mestisaje roots—oh, and my perpetual desire to get better at my Spanish which sometimes falls by the wayside. I love all these tarot decks, each one speaking to me when and as I need their specific magic.

The deck I use for my writing and public bruja life, however, is the classic Rider-Waite tarot. I bought the Radiant edition from my local herb store because the bright colors appealed to my senses and my love of bold, loud things. I chose this deck specifically for my #TarotTuesdays project in which I would write a 78-word story based on #synchronicity and one of the cards in the 78-card tarot deck and post it on social media each week-ish. I chose this deck for the project because it is one of the oldest and most iconic of decks, and, historically, the foundation for many other decks.

Each week, I would think about whatever it was I was going through. I’d let my feelings wash over me, allow situations to flit in and out of my mind as they would while I shuffled the deck. When it felt right, I’d pull a card. I’d spend the next few days researching and learning about the card and pairing that knowledge with the personal experiences I was going through along with a heavy dollop of free-association. It was a beautiful journey that allowed me to explore the tarot and my relationship to the mystic world. I’m far from being an expert but, after writing stories inspired by those cards for the past two or so years, I think I have a solid foundation for deepening my knowledge of the tarot.

Here are the major things I learned from my Tarot Tuesdays project:

1. The more you deepen your bond to the cards, the more clarity you have in your readings. The tarot is its own energetic entity, which means you have to get to know it before you can ask it questions. Think of this as relationship building. Spend time with the cards—just shuffling, pursuing them, holding them in your hands. Even letting them sit in a stack on your writing desk is a good way to establish a bond. I know—this might sound a little too woo-woo for some, but you’re reading a witchy blog about tarot, so…talking about relationship building with your tarot deck shouldn’t be entirely unexpected. The big thing is that if you take the time to get to know your deck, the more you’ll get a sense of how you personally read the cards and what wisdom they have to offer you. If you don’t take your time with them, they won’t speak to you or the message will be muddled. Which leads me to my next lesson learned:

2. Each deck has its own energy. Think about how I just described my tarot collection earlier in this post. Each deck has its own kind of magic and its own wisdom to offer. It’s important to know that going in so that you can choose the right deck for the kind of reading you’re looking for. If you aren’t sure what that is, choose the deck that calls to you on an instinctive level—that’s the medicine you need. You also need to have a healthy respect for these divination energies. Don’t be flip when handling your deck or treat tarot reading as a party trick. That’s a good way to piss off the cards and make them stop speaking to you. As with all things mystic or supernatural, it’s a good idea to go in with a healthy respect for the unknown and the unseen. Dabbling or toying with those energies is never a good idea.

3. All cards are designed to help you and offer hope—even the ”bad” cards. The fives are notoriously bad cards, signaling chaos, reversals, and upending the status quo. Similarly, any card in reverse traditionally has more negative connotations—except for the fives reversed, because they are contrary in nature. Here’s the thing, though, reversals, disruptions, and chaos are all part of life and, when embraced and explored, offer hope and healing. Sometimes you need to upend the status quo! Or maybe you’re feeling stuck and these cards point out what it is that is keeping you from moving forward. They aren’t punishments or judgments (and if you feel that way when you get one of these cards, it’s likely you’re still working through toxic puritanical or religious norms…or maybe that’s just me). They’re more like insights and revelations. It’s important to remember that when you go about your tarot reading so that you don’t get stuck in the old superstitious readings of yore which can be a little more doom and gloom with these not-really-so-bad cards. Which reminds me…

4. Sometimes the scariest looking cards have the most hopeful wisdom to offer. We’ve all see the scary movie that shows the damsel in distress pulling the Death card or the Devil card right before things get full-on gothic. Or you have cards like the Ten of Swords, in which a figure is literally impaled by ten swords through the back and lies dead on the ground. It’s hard to think positively about such a brutal image, but, in fact, it’s asking you to face the thing you are most afraid of—the figure turned its back on their problems and tried to run, rather than face what the need to face. These scarier cards are like a good gothic tale. They want you to face the thing in the shadows, confront it so that you can move forward. They just use scary imagery to shake you out of complacency so you can hear their message. I’ve actually come to see them as incredible hopeful cards!

5. Everyone has a unique way of reading the cards. While there are some constants in most tarot readings, like the symbolism behind the major and minor acrana, it’s up to the diviner to interpret the nuances of it. You will develop your own personal way of reading the cards as you get to know the tarot more and nourish your bond with it. Around the first-year mark of my #TarotTuesdays project, I realized I was developing my own voice and my own take on the cards. I would get information from sources like Biddy Tarot, Wildly Tarot, and Modern Tarot and then let their wisdom sit with me. Naturally, my own take involved a dash of hope, a sprinkle of joy, a heaping serving of brujeria, and more than a little everyday magic.

Like I said earlier, I’m still not a tarot expert by any measure, but I think I’ve got a solid foundation to continue my tarot journey. I’d like to learn more about the individual symbolism of each card, the differences between the major and minor arcana, and maybe get to a point where I don’t have to consult my sources when I do a reading. But that, too, is part of the joy of depending your relationship to the tarot…the more time you spend with it, the more you learn, and the more wisdom it reveals to you. It just wants to know you are willing to put in the time.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Inviting Synchronicity into Your Life

What is Synchronicity?

One of the central aspects of everyday magic is synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences, that pepper our lives and offer valuable insights, signs, and messages from the universe if we are willing to listen.  Some of my most powerful revelations have come out of seemingly innocuous moments that served to punctuate an important feeling, experience, or situation.  

How did I know to trust my instincts that a relationship was well and truly over? I was thinking about the whole situation and, when I turned on my car, the radio blasted, “the thrill is gone…” Boy was it, and to ignore that would only cause more heartache.

And what gave me the courage to turn my blog posts into the manuscript that would become my award-winning Everyday Enchantments? A random folded paper tucked into an old book I’d decided to reread.  On that piece of paper was a series of scribbles from my teenage self thinking about the day when I would be An Adult and a Published Author.  I started working on my new manuscript that afternoon.  

Without those insights—those little nudges from life telling me I’m on the right track or ready to move on—I wouldn’t have been brave enough to listen to my inner wisdom.  You would be surprise what the universe is willing to reveal if you simply ask it and stay open to the answers it might give. 

3 Ways to Invite Synchronicity into Your Life

1. Get loose. Real talk: we live in a world that values concrete, rational things—all good and well in their right place—but synchronicity is a different kind of literacy all together.   It’s about opening yourself to the possibility of a new way of being.  Often times, our innate instincts and unfiltered feelings get buried under the pressure to conform to social norms.  Instead of allowing ourselves to introvert when we need to introvert, for example, we push past our needs and do more, get louder, and move faster despite our soul’s longing for quiet. Loosening up allows us to let go of rigid expectations or assumptions about how things should be so we can be open to the magic around us.

2. Get playful.  When was the last time you stayed up past your bedtime reading?  Or ditched the to-do list in favor of a schedule-free Saturday?  Or danced in your pjs to your favorite song?  If its been awhile, now is the time to welcome that playful energy into your life.  Be like the otter, an animal that devotes as much time to play as it does to work.  Why?  I’ll let you in on a little secret: Synchronicity is pretty darn playful.  It’s a lot like Coyote, that perennial trickster, sneaking up on you when you least expect it, catching you off guard, forcing you to rethink your world view.  The best way to be open to these insights is to let go of hard and fast rules and just…get playful.
   

3. Get curious.  Synchronicity is all about opening yourself up to the world and remembering that child-like curiosity with new places and things that delight the senses.  This kind of energy loves questions, exploration, expansion.  Often our sense of wonder gets lost as we succumb to the demands of day-in, day-out. Take a moment—pause, breathe deeply, and think about what it used to feel like when the changing seasons created a sense of unblemished excitement for something now or they way a sunset was like an open invitation to marvel at the beauty of life or how a winding dirt road was the promise of an adventure. Then turn that innate curiosity on your inner landscape—forget to push and prod and contain difficult feelings or old selves and simply marvel at the fact that you contain multitudes, like so many tiny cosmic seeds waiting to be explored. Synchronicity is found in these silent, joyful explorations.

How to Listen to the Messages

Sometimes we throw out questions to the universe and get an answer maybe that instant, maybe a week or month from now. More often than not, however, the answers come when we’ve forgotten to fixate on whatever it is we want answers to.  Sometimes we even get nudges and insights to things we didn’t know we even had questions about. 

Synchronicity is like that—trickster that it is—deciding what questions you get answers to and which ones you just have to struggle with on your own.  Or if it sees you forgetting to enjoy the wonder around you, well, like Coyote, it won’t hesitate to shake up your order a bit.  However synchronicity comes into your life, it is a reminder to tune into the magic of your every day.  Often the wisdom it imparts is immediately and intuitively understood, so don’t worry it like you would a loose thread on your jacket.  Just feel what it is asking you to feel.  The answers will come.

Be warned though: The more you invite synchronicity into your life, the more it will manifest unbidden, as if it only ever need your time an attention to reveal itself to you wholeheartedly and without restraint. And with more meaningful, soul-illuminating coincidences, comes more magic. Enjoy.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.  If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter for regular doses of enchantment.  Want even more inspiration?  Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  Here’s to a magical life! 

Magic is a Hard, Gritty Thing (Part II)

I asked for a new life. In return, I had to bury my seed so deep in the earth it kissed Hell.  It was important that this black disk holding the heart of a hollyhock be warmed by morningstars and forced to carve its way out of the darkness.  This, so that I could know the value of my transformation.

Now, I am uncomfortable with tight spaces and have trouble breathing in the dark, damp underground.  That is the price I paid for freedom.

I dreamed of a book once, too.  One with my name on it and my thoughts in it.  All the Universe expected in return was blood and heartache, time and tears, and that long stretch of purgatory where no one knew what I was doing--or cared--except for the emerging words on the page.  They knew.  They understood.  Felt the relief of stories so long contained finally spilling across naked sheets.

I'm about a pint of blood short now and so have less energy for things that don't understand that my heart is buried inside an herb garden, in a constant state of becoming. I get tired if I'm away from my stories for too long, worn out when I'm asked to ignore the poetry of a Monday or the grace of a slammed door. 

That was what the magic required of me to see my hope eternally bloom.  And I paid the price willingly.  That garden?  It has rosemary and words and ink and lavender in it--but no weeds and no room for nonsense.  I worked hard to make it so.  

I picked out each and every weed and each and every shade with my own hands until my fingernails were cracked and rimmed with black dirt and my hands were bloody from the nicks and scratches of angry ghosts that didn't want to leave such a cozy home.  I have a few crooked fingers now and a predisposition toward dry hands.  But no weeds.  No shades secretly living inside the sunflower's underbelly.  Just an abundant harvest to look forward to.

Magic is a hard thing and doesn't take wishes lightly.  This I know, which is why I hold up deleted pages and crossed-out passages like offerings for another manuscript, another birthing. These tattered narratives will never see the light of day.  They are the willing sacrifices for a better story.  I bind them up and surround them with twigs for kindling.  I press flame to their feet and watch the fire gobble them up because that is what the magic needs if I am to write something that is honest and potent.

Magic is a gritty thing, asking for you to give until it hurts.  That's the only way it knows you're serious and not just looking for a topical solution to soul sickness.  That kind of healing requires long journeys down dark roads and through the caves of memory until all your pains are excorcised and your hair smells vaguely of brimstone and forgetting. 

After all that, it lets you taste the first ripe peach of summer, speckled with morning dew.  Your tongue is coated in sunshine and hard-earned deliciousness.  Juice dribbles down your chin.  Your fingers are sticky with fuzz and nectar.  And in your hand is another hard seed waiting to be kissed by morningstars.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!