It’s Witch Season. The Sun is about to enter Scorpio (where Mars already is), and Halloween decorations still fill most of the stores. It’s a perfect time to go back to basics, and have a look at magic, and how it can help you in your business.
If you just want a run down of the basic of Cosmic Witchcraft, that’s the topic of the whole of Season 1 of my podcast, Starry Sky and Witchy Things. Some of the information will be the same, but in this blog series I will look at contextualising it in a business context.
Defining Witchcraft and Magic
My favourite definition of magic comes from one of the most influential (for better of for worse) figures in the Western esoteric tradition: Alesteir Crowley, prominent member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and founder of Thelema, a religion incorporating ceremonial magic.
His definition is that magic is the art and science of causing change in conformity with one’s will. In Ceremonial traditions, there’s a stronger emphasis on formalised rituals, while folk traditions are more practical and mundane. Most modern witches, especially eclectic solitary witches, have an approach that is a blend of both, while covens tend towards formal organisation even when not organised in a formal structure (as is the case for Wicca, where magic is also religious in nature, and where there’s less of a structure like that of other organised religions compared to Thelema).
Witchcraft then is one of the ways in which we refer to the practice of magic, and witch is one of many terms that practitioners use to refer to themselves depending on their tradition and personal preference. For me, it comes from a place of reclaiming something that has been a taboo, used as an excuse of violence against people and often people of my gender. “Magician” doesn’t quite hold the same baggage, but I more strongly associate it to the ceremonial tradition.
Essentially, magic is about consciously directing this power to shape our lives. You don’t need to claim a label for it to be something you want to bring into your life (although if you are claiming the label I think you should practise it in some form most of the time).
Spells and Rituals
When we discuss magic, we often mention spells and rituals. Spells involve a set of actions aimed at achieving a specific result, like stirring cinnamon into your coffee with the intention of waking up. Rituals, on the other hand, typically have a spiritual purpose and can happen with or without spells. Rituals are common in ceremonial practices or when working with deities, like in Wiccan traditions.
Cosmic witches like me centre their craft on the energies of the stars, planets, and the celestial realm. This doesn’t mean only cosmic witches incorporate tools like astrology, or that we never use magic that pertains to another tradition (like using herbs for their properties and not for the direct correspondence to a planet).
There are also witches who only believe in the energies of the planets etc metaphorically, and actively rely on the placebo effect in their approach to magic. So if you are a bit sceptical, there’s still room for you to try it out and see if it helps you achieve whatever goal you have for yourself.
How does Witchcraft fit into my business?
If you are on social media, you’re likely familiar with the trend towards “romanticising your life”. The idea behind this is that you’ll be happier if you appreciate life’s simple pleasures.
A lot of the ways people suggest to do so, it may surprise you, trace their root back to magic. It’s about intentionality, ritual, and finding the magic (pun unintended) in the day to day, since that’s most of what we have rather than the big moments.
Our jobs tend to be one of the major time groups in our lives, and so it can benefit from not bring compartmentalised from our lifestyle, but also the basic spells in a witch’s arsenal can be extremely important in making sure we are safe, successful, and prosperous.
Furthermore, and that’s one key thing for me personally, following the transits and the planetary days helped me naturally weave a schedule into my life as someone who has an open diary and a need for some structure that is not too constrictive in order to thrive.
Rather than letting choice overwhelm and decision fatigue paralyse me , I let the cosmos narrow down my options, like a trusted assistant planning my calendar the most effective way.
Why Cosmic Witchcraft?
If you’ve always found the stars fascinating, or if you want to establish a rhythm and connection to something greater than yourself, cosmic witchcraft may be for you.
It’s a path that’s adaptable even for city dwellers, as it doesn’t demand much space or equipment. You can tap into cosmic energies with minimal tools, and many are free, making it accessible to anyone without a huge upfront investment in order to explore if it’s right for you.
But, also, Astrology is a popular discipline that is easy to learn and often already integrated in business, with plenty of resources both paid and otherwise. Most people would not bat an eyelid if you admitted to being into that.
The 3 main ways in which I use cosmic witchcraft in my business
Planetary days and time blocking
Time Blocking is a popular time management strategy that goes all the way back to at least Benjamin Franklin, who we know was an adopter. In short, it’s the practice of setting aside specific time for specific tasks or areas of life, and only tackling those things when the allotted time comes. This means that anything that isn’t urgent and important gets dumped into your preferred task management system to be picked up at the right time.
Your brain can be safe in the knowledge that even if it drops the need to take some books back to the library today, it will get done on Saturday when that task is scheduled. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Assigning a time for things that are not time-sensitive helps us free up the mental capacity to handle other things instead of leaking energy, and adding the planetary days to it creates a way for our brain to be primed for what goes where.
In a future episode I will explore this framework in more depth. It may not work if you can’t handle the need for flexibility and your brain becomes too fixated on what each day means, but like with every tool it’s always an experiment and you need to find ways to make them work for you.
Branding as glamour magic
Traditionally, glamour magic was about changing our appearance to become unseen by evil forces. Or if you were an evil force, in order to be unseen by good ones (think of the plot of Snow White).
In modern times, it refers to all the practices of using magical intention in our appearance to shift our own or other people’s perceptions. Enclothed cognition is the science behind why it works.
From a branding perspective, a lot of marketing psychology has been dedicated to our use of colours and fonts and what kind of images we use of ourselves (personal branding) in order to create trust and convey the essence of our brands and what differentiates us from our competitors.
Glamour magic takes it a step further, by helping us understand and harness our personal power rather and, then, bring forth our business strategy from a place of authenticity that will be magnetic for the people meant to find us.
At the time of writing this, I am undergoing a rebranding both visual and in my copywriting, moving from a place of incorporating glamour magic into my business on top of it already having been a big part of my personal life for years.
Energetic Hygiene
The way healers of the body (doctors and nurses) sanitise the space, tools and themselves before they work with patients, healers of the soul clear their energy before seeing clients. But spiritual entrepreneurs are not the only people who can benefit from these practices.
Business is an energetic exchange at any stage of the client journey, including the back end. A clear energetic field creates a good experience for our clients, as well as help us build businesses that are aligned and not influenced by the energy of others.
Clearing and protection spells allow us to take control of our energy, while grounding and spells to channel the energy of an archetype allow us to increase and focus our energy towards a specific goal.
Many people who aren’t witches have small rituals for things they need to do, like lighting a specific candle before writing. Rituals belong to everyone across cultures, but witches add a layer of intention to it. For example, I have a candle consecrated to Mercury that I use when I need a boost creating content. In an ideal world I’d light it any time I sit down to work, but for example this post came to me as a burst of inspiration and I was writing it long before I thought of the candle (which was right as I wrote this paragraph).
If the idea of things becoming restrictive is keeping you from wanting to explore, don’t let it, you can be as strict or as lax as it works for you with anything you choose to have in your practice.
