Things no one tells you when you start practising witchcraft…
When I first started witchcraft, I was fortunate enough to have a family with similar beliefs. I know there are many witches out there, in hiding because their family does not understand their practice. To those hidden witches, I see you and I hope you find your place here.
It can feel confusing at first.
When you first start, it can feel confusing because there isn’t one fixed way of doing things. Unlike subjects with clear rules or steps, witchcraft is personal, intuitive and guided by the person practising it. Two people could do the same spell in completely different way and both are valid.
A lot of the confusion comes the sheer amount of information that is available today. You’ll find different traditions, beliefs and opinions online and in books. Not all of them agree with each other. Instead of clear instructions you’re met with multiple interpretations of something that person has spent years curating. It can make it hard to know where to start or what to trust.
Many people begin by trying to ‘do it right’, when in reality a big part of witchcraft is self-exploration. That shift - from following external guidelines to developing your own practice - takes time. Until your confidence builds, it can feel like a piece is missing or you’re not doing enough, when you’re actually just paving your own path.
You’ll doubt yourself a lot.
Another thing no one really talks about is how much you will doubt yourself. Not just your abilities, but your judgement, your intuition and whether you’re even ‘doing it right’. There is no fixed rule book, so it’s very easy to second guess yourself and feel like everyone knows something you don’t.
You might compare your practice to others online and feel like yours isn’t as strong, as structured or as ‘real’ as theirs. But what is the one thing we know about the internet? It’s not real! People spend time curating a feed that will appeal to you. It’s not always fake and there are a lot of really good people out there who show their practice truly. The self-doubt is an experience every baby witch needs to go through to come out the other side.
Overtime, your confidence will build and you’ll realise you were never ‘doing it wrong’, you were doing it YOUR way. Witchcraft is less about proving yourself and more about growing your own practice.
Your practice will change.
Your practice will change more than you expect. What you are drawn to in the beginning might not be what you continue with, and that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It means you’re learning and growing!
As you grow, your understanding of energy, intuition and tools will naturally shift. You may find yourself working with herbs, crystals, astrology and divination all at once! You don’t have to pick one topic and stick with it, find what resonates with you.
This change is often what people don’t expect. There is this idea that once you start things will just happen, you’ll build a fixed practice and stick to it. But witchcraft is more fluid than that, it adapts, it grows, you decide the pace.
You don’t need to buy everything you see online.
Trust me when I say this, you do not need the most expensive tools, books, herbs or crystals. There’s only one thing you need and that is intention. Intention is EVERYTHING! Intention is power.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of buying everything you see, but witchcraft doesn’t require any of that to be powerful. A lot of what you see online is specifically made to make you feel like you need the latest product. Women were practicing witchcraft in 1500s without aesthetically pleasing journals, hundreds of books and every kind of candle. No, you don’t need it! The real power comes from your intentions, not the amount of things you own.
