Solo witch solitary magic guide is my short compendium of 6 important areas to consider if you want to be a happy and fulfilled solitary witch.
Whether in a city, town, village or tent, a solo/solitary witch is simply a woman who prefers to do her sacred work independently of others. She has good friends but avoids being tied to a group; often due to her strong desire to remain independent and free of human entanglements.
Equally, because she has an introverted streak, which could include an element of INFJ (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling and Judging in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI), she prefers the intimacy of one-to-one time with her confidantes to socialising in large clusters.
In the words of Marian Green, author of A Witch Alone, she follows the path of “…The wise-woman, the hermit, the folk healer, druid or shaman“. Often times you’ll find her walking this path between holding down an office job, getting the car cleaned and doing the weekly grocery shopping. If you can identify with the above and would like to know how to fly as a solo witch, this solo witch solitary magic guide is aimed at YOU.
No doubt, you already have your own strategies and wisdom to add to the pot. This solitary magic + healing guide is not definitive. I’m not the first to write about such matters, neither will I be the last. I do not claim as my own any of the old ways I write about here; in fact they are millenia old and therefore belong to everyone (especially women).
I wrote this ‘Solo witch solitary magic guide’ simply for the joy of talking about habits that have helped my recovery and ownership of the word: WITCH.
That is, a woman who loves nature, working with natural cycles of life, solitary magic and healing. I make book recommendations at the bottom of this article. Blessed be.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#1 Honouring cycles
Honouring cycles is about being aware of your own micro-cycles (energy levels, menstrual, daily, etc) and macro-cycles such as seasons, daylight hours, the moon/tides and planetary. The reason it is important to be aware of and work within natural cycles is simply: efficiency. A flower doesn’t get frustrated trying to bloom in winter. A wolf doesn’t tire himself trying to hunt at night. Likewise, humans can make the most efficient use of their limited time and energy by being in tune with natural cycles.
Urbanisation and electricity mean that we humans are no longer tied to rising with the sun and sleeping when it sets. Many of us haven’t seen the moon for years due to street lighting and may be divorced from nature. Yet, if you record times when your energy is lowest over a period of months, you may find it happens at a regular time every month and can plan accordingly. Likewise, if you notice you feel less outgoing from autumn to spring, the you use this time carefully, instead of trying to force certain outcomes, and vice versa.
Additionally, an awareness of human life cycles (birth, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, midlife, maturity and old age) prepares us for the inevitable – and sometimes unwelcome – changes we are destined to face.
If you want to learn more about the cycles, start with my Moon Wisdom Meditation for the waning moon period.
It comes with a free Moon Wisdom bonus teaching about the natural cycles of the year and why it’s important to honour them.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#2 Sacred space
It can be hard if you are living somewhere that doesn’t inspire you or lift you up. You can feel fantastic until the energy of your place pulls you down when you step through the front door.
Whether it’s due to too much clutter, unfinished household jobs, dirt/dust, belongings that don’t bring you joy, not having control over your own space (i.e. renting or lodging where there are restrictions on what you can do to ‘pretty-fy’ your home), or just simply not liking where you live, every solo witch needs her sacred space in order to feel safe, happy and powerful.
Throughout 2017 I was living in a building site while my apartment was renovated. I had only a temporary kitchen (we called it a ‘camping’ kitchen) and bathroom arrangement (i.e. an old shower, delapidated toilet and wash fittings). I love the buiilding where I live, but the general chaos and dirt inside my space impacted my capacity to focus. I had to take time out of various projects because not having a clear physical space became overwhelming.
While working to change my surroundings, the actions below greatly helped my state of mind:
- Decluttering
- Cleaning
- Organising the belongings I chose to keep, and
- Buying a few small symbolic objects, such as crystals and lamps, plus digging out other favourite possessions from storage to have around.
Your sacred space might just be a corner of a room, or simply an alter or window ledge with all your cherished objects on it. You can burn essential oils, and use lighting and pretty fabrics to camouflage any ugliness until things can be changed or left behind.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#3 Self-awareness + shadow work
“The unexamined life is not worth living” said Socrates.
Though self-awareness can be both a joyful + painful procedure, the rewards for those who seek the truth about themselves are immeasurable.
With self-awareness we have the power to heal our wounds, balance our moods, avoid negative patterns, attract healthy experiences, improve relationships, get things done, + avoid destructiveness / drama.
All this while embodying increasing levels of peace, contentment and harmony in everyday life. It’s all about bringing our unconscious material into the light of awareness. This includes our history, familial connections, programming and beliefs.
For healers, there has to be a deep reflection on the shadow part of our being. Our stories + wounds. Without it, we risk attracting re-enactments of unfinished business + difficult clients who hold a mirror to our blindspots.
Every positive characteristic has it’s shadow: confidence can segue into egoism; humility can bleed into martyrdom + righteousness can distort the purest desire to serve.
Debbie Ford’s Dark Side of The Light Chasers is an excellent introduction to shadow work.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#4 Healing
You can’t heal your relationships – or your life, work or any creative endeavour – until you have healed your past.
There’s a tendency for hidden wounds to surface during any kind of relationship. Your baggage influences outcomes, the way people respond to you and what they are able to take away from your presence. Similarly, any blindspots in your awareness can prompt re-enactments of previous negative experiences.
When this happens, you may ask yourself: why am I in this place AGAIN?
Fortunately, though it’s occasionally an arduous route to happiness, the more responsibility you take for your own healing the more secure your inner happiness is. Ultimately, you may find that your path to healing helps others too.
Through a process of distillation, your healing journey condenses a lifetime’s joy and despair, gratitude and pain, into a medicine that others can imbibe. You can only heal others to the extent you have healed yourself.
Indeed, you “cannot get poor enough to help poor people thrive or sick enough to help sick people get well. You can only uplift from a position of strength, clarity and alignment” [Abraham Hicks].
For me, healing is a feminine superpower and the stuff of miracles.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#5 Nature
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know I make no secret of loving nature. An environmental activist from a young age, I’m a strident supporter of mother earth/gaia, and a fully-fledged, card-carrying, tree-hugging hippy witch! Though, if you met me in the street, you might not guess that. I usually just sing to the choir!
Though I grew up in the countryside of Lancashire and DREADED living in a city, I ended up spending 20 years carving out a career in the centre of London, UK. It would take me a minimum hour by train or car to reach any kind of rural environment.
Accordingly, I had to be inventive and resourceful in order to replenish my soul with regular nature contact. Without it, I withered. Even so, I was often without it. I write about the importance of sacred time within nature in my blog post: Healing power of nature break free from the City (above). You can download my free guide to easy nature escapes for Londoners’ here too.
Ultimately, we humans come from nature and will return to nature when we die. The domination and decimation of nature is the cause for much of humanity’s inner desolation and hopelessness, as well as the planetary trauma we are witnessing. We – wo-mankind – must learn to respect mother earth.
Solo witch solitary magic guide:#6 Harming none
When many people think of a ‘witch’ they think of the evil witch is Wizard of Oz. Or some other crazed, power-hungry maniac; casting aspertions and creating trouble. Oh dear. Centuries of religious prejudice, domination of women, demonisation of healers and fear of the unseen/unknown, has led to this sad stereotype.
Why do people shelter a belief that a witch has the power – and will – to do harm to others? Most true solo-witches are quiet, harmless and pure-hearted women, who only want to help and heal, albeit using somewhat unorthodox means.
Even the most basic of witches understand and abide by the threefold law: what you send out will come back to you three times. If you intend to harm someone, then be prepared for harm to come to you. And it will; usually when you are least expecting it.
Therefore, never focus your energy and intent in this negative way. Whatever short term victory you achieve, long term gain will NEVER come of it. Again, this goes back to cultivating the self-awareness to understand your unconscious motives and drives. And the ability to be really honest with yourself when difficult – shadow – instincts, such as jealousy, envy or fear for example, arise.
Always focus your energy and attention on the good. If that choice is denied to you in any situation, then withdraw until you find the opportunity to advance in more positive, life-enhancing ways.
Solo witch solitary magic guide: Book Recommendations
These are my three favourite books on solitary magic:
Hedge Witch by Rae Beth (Robert Hale, UK, 1990)is a classic text written in a series of letters, from experienced witch to her apprentices. She shares what she knows on the sabbats, moon cycles, Book of Shadows, using an altar, guardian spirits, the dead, the Goddess + the Good, ritual, visualisationn and much more.
A Witch Alone by Marion Green is another classic tome, and it covers many of the same themes as Rae Beth’s book, but in a more structured approach. Less like a novel, more of a handbook, Marion’s chapters are divided neatly into themes, all of the above plus divination, dowsing and plant power.
Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot explores the history and science of the faith, while dispelling the myths. She goes into detail about the Craft, including a section on ‘Spells’. The book is intelligently written and enlightening.
