Welcome, fellow magical practitioners! I hope you might wish to join me in this October challenge. Inspiration for it came to me one day, when I realised I only resorted to magic in special circumstances, rather than practising regularly. Witchcraft is, after all, a craft, and like any craft it requires practice. To encourage myself, and hopefully others, to practice in a wider variety of ways and situations, I have created a list of prompts to cover the month of October. These will vary from some basic skills to specific topics or types of magic, which will hopefully push our comfort zones into areas we may not have experienced before. Most prompts are fairly loose, and it is up to you to decide what adaptation may suit you best. You can make the spells as complicated or as simple as you wish, but I would recommend using a variety of methods to truly explore the challenge. You’ll find relevant links in most of the prompts to help inspire your imagination.
I would be delighted if you decided to join me on this journey; whether you decide to write about your experiences or not, whether you decide to complete the entire challenge or try the tasks that resonate with you, and whether you follow it in October or at any other time of the year. If you do decide to post about your experiences on social media, a blog, etc, please use the hashtag #WitchfulThinkingChallenge to make it easily accessible to others. Enjoy!
Day 1: Breath Work
Everything starts with breathing. Learn to breathe deeply from your diaphragm, observe your breathing and be aware of it, but don’t focus on control. Notice the air as it enters and leaves your lungs – let go of any other thoughts if they appear. Breathing mindfully this way will help you relax and enter an altered state of mind, as it can be a form of meditation in itself. This technique can be used in rituals or spells. Take some times today to practice it and become more familiar with it.
Day 2: Raise Energy
In order to manipulate energy through a spell, you must first raise it from your surroundings. There are many ways to raise it, including activities such as meditation, visualisation, chanting, singing, making music (think drumming, rattles, bells, etc.), dancing, any other type of movement, etc. You can also try summoning the energy of the land. There aren’t really any wrong answers, as long as you feel the energy around you change. Experiment and try a new method today that you may not have tried before.
Day 3: Inspiration / Creativity Spell
It’s only fitting that the first spell of the challenge could be used to inspire you for the rest of the month. You can also use it to help with inspiration on a specific project, maybe to overcome writer’s block or an obstacle in your business. Maybe you’d like to spend more time on your art or crafting. Some ideas you can base your spell on are here and here.
Day 4: Practice Grounding
We work liminally, but we must maintain a balance to stay well in ourselves. This means grounding is a ‘must do’ practice. Try a different method of grounding today. Connect to the Earth in meditation, involve different senses. A detailed article on this topic can be found here.
Day 5: Create a Sacred Space
Cleanse and prepare a space for your magical workings or communing with spirits. This will be your space connecting your physical plane of existence to that of spirits, Deities, and Otherworldly beings. It can be temporary or you can find a space you wish to use long term. A place you use frequently for worship or communing with Deities will become sacred with time, through repeated infusion of energy, however there is nothing stopping you from cleansing and blessing a temporary spot to fulfil your needs.
Day 6: Prosperity / Abundance Spell
Cast a spell to attract one of life’s necessities – money. Alternatively, if you don’t feel you need extra funds at the moment you can cast a spell for abundance, which can focus more generally on your well-being and happiness, meeting your other basic needs. Some ideas to inspire you can be found here and here.
Day 7: Craft a Ritual Tool
Over time, we build a relationship with all the tools we use in witchcraft, which improves our effectiveness. This relationship can be improved if you have put time, energy and love into making something special. Have a go at making a ritual tool in line with your skills and abilities. Sew a new altar cloth, make a wand decorated with jewellery wire, carve or burn an altar decoration, make a besom, dress a candle with specific herbs or anoint it with essential oils, make your own pendulum, create prayer beads, draw or paint a devotional painting, crochet/knit a tarot cards pouch, make your own loose incense, or anything else your imagination conjures.
Day 8: Safe Travel Spell
Whether it’s for a commute to work or a planned journey you or someone else is making, create a spell to ensure safe travel. You could create a petition spell in a circle, create an object to carry with you, anoint your car, etc. For further inspiration look here or here.
Day 9: Create a Good Luck Charm
We can all do with a bit of luck at times, particularly when those times are difficult or stressful, or a rare opportunity presents itself. Consider which correspondences or symbols are associated with luck and which speak to you the most. Create a charm bag filled with those items available to you, create your own symbol, or charge an object you already have.
Day 10: Healing Spell
The term “healing” can be used a little loosely at times. Maybe you have a specific ailment you want to focus on, or maybe you don’t feel you need to “heal”. You could create a spell focused on someone else’s health or recovery, or even one focused on Earth and the land around you (with mass extinction happening, waters being poisoned, and the Amazon forest burning, it can’t hurt to focus some of our magic here). Look here, here or here for ideas.
Day 11: Claim Your Personal Power
A confident witch is a good witch. Today, focus on improving your confidence in the craft or life in general, and claim your power. You can perform a spell to enhance your confidence, enchant a personal item to be your power token, or even claim your power back following a traumatic event or a relationship breakdown. Find inspiration here, here and here.
Day 12: House Blessing
As energy around our homes becomes stagnant, polluted, or starts to attract unwanted spiritual visitors, it is time to cleanse and bless your space. A cleansing can be done using one of the many methods listed here, followed by a blessing to infuse your home with positive qualities.
Day 13: Cleansing Ritual
Our own personal energetic hygiene is also important. Today, focus on cleansing your aura, energetic body, chakras, meridian points, or any other system you work with. Take a ritual bath or shower, use reiki, or try one of the methods mentioned in the house blessing suggestions.
Day 14: Sharpen Psychic Abilities
Which of your psychic senses are the strongest, and which is the weakest? These will include clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, clairsentience, clairolfactance, and clairgustance. Perform a spell to improve your psychic skills or an exercise to work on them, such as divination, scrying, reading auras, dowsing, psychometry, etc. You can also try some of the exercises suggested here and here.
Day 15: Create a Witch’s Ladder
A Witch’s Ladder is commonly used in modern witchcraft as a charm or spell with wishes or intentions embedded into it, or as a ritual counting tool. You can create one for whichever purpose you wish, using yarn or cord, beads, feathers, stones, or any number of materials, with full instructions found here.
Day 16: Practice Shielding
A strong protective shield is another must for any practising witch. It is a short term measure, which can help to keep boundaries while dealing with other people’s energy, or while dealing with other spirits. A shield is created around you using your own energy, or energy drawn from a source such as the Earth. You can give your shield specific colours or properties. Practice using this technique today and notice any differences in your energy field or in your feelings.
Day 17: Dreamwork Spell
If you haven’t started a dream journal yet, start one today to record your dreams and try too spot any patterns, symbols or messages contained within them. Writing down your dreams regularly will improve your dream recall, which may allow you to gain a deeper understanding of your dreams. You can also practice lucid dreaming, which can be used for anything from simply having fun, to communicating with your spirit guides. Before going to bed, perform a spell to help you in your dream connections, with some ideas here, here and here.
Day 18: Create a Sigil
Sigils are a form of chaos magic, where a symbol is created for a specific intention, most commonly by writing out the intention then removing all repeated letters, and forming the remaining ones into an abstract image. Set an intention and try to create a sigil to encompass it. Full instructions for sigil creation can be found here, with more digital creation ideas here.
Day 19: Cleanse and Re-Dedicate an Altar
Spend some time cleaning your altar today, both physically and energetically. Decorate it according to the season and occasion and re-dedicate it for the purpose. If you don’t have an altar yet, set one up today. You can focus on a specific Deity, your ancestors, or witchcraft in general with representations of elements, or other components.
Day 20: Practice Energy Manipulation
Since feeling and manipulating energy is one of the basic witchcraft skills, spend some time today practising it. Try making an energy ball and playing around with its properties such as size, colour, warmth, etc.
Day 21: Craft a Poppet
A poppet is a type of sympathetic magic, representing a person of your choosing. For example you can create one of you, a friend, a loved on, or a pet, and use it for any type of magic such as luck, prosperity, protection, healing, and yes, cursing or banishing too. In the spirit of the challenge, I’d keep it light and breezy. For a guide on creating a poppet and its uses click here, or for more spell ideas see here, here and here.
Day 22: Create a Ward
Wards are protective spells used to keep yourself or your space safe. They can be created through a variety of methods, charged with your energy and designed for specific tasks. Take some time to recharge your existing wards today, or create a new one if you have not done so before. For some ideas on how to get started click here. I would also wholeheartedly recommend By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn by Althaea Sebastiani to delve deeper into the topic.
Day 23: Glamour Magic
Glamour is all about making ourself more interesting, charming, beautiful, and of course glamorous. On a deeper level it is also about self-acceptance and integrating our shadow. Spend some time today practising a glamour spell focusing on a specific aspect of yourself. For some inspiration look here and here.
Day 24: Knot Magic
Knot magic is a simple way of focusing energy using physical knots, tied with any material conveniently available. It’s a versatile type of magic, so you can adapt it to your current needs, including protection, luck, breaking habits, binding, etc. For some ideas have a look here, here and here.
Day 25: Practice Awareness / Discernment
Another key skill is being able to tell when an Otherworldly being is trying to make contact, and when our minds are playing tricks on us. Seeing signs and omens around every corner will not be helpful to you, however neither will ignoring genuine spirit communications. Today, focus on simply being aware and mindful in your experiences. Note what your energy, your inner voice, or gut feel like and how that differs from other people, spirits, or Deities. Look for common sense explanations to ensure they’re not ignored for the sake of a spiritual experience. For more, see this article.
Day 26: Create a Protective Amulet
By definition, amulets are seen to be protective items. You can create jewellery or an item from scratch, or use something you already have and give it protective properties. The amulet can be created for you or intended for someone else. Check out these spells for inspiration.
Day 27: (Self) Love Spell
Love spells are probably some of the most commonly discussed spells in beginner witchcraft books. Today you can focus on attracting love into your life, be it romantic love, or platonic love in form of a friend or a pet. You can also focus on self-love, working on self-acceptance, even incorporating shadow work if you wish. For some ideas on (self) love spells look here and here. You can also browse Kelly-Ann Maddox’s useful YouTube videos to learn more about shadow work.
Day 28: Banishing Spell
Banishing refers to removing something that is unhelpful in your life, such as a bad habit, illness and pain, a negative spirit, a person who’s influence is unhealthy, and anything else you can think of. Think of one thing which is stopping your from achieving your goals right now and banish it, with ideas to base your spell on here and here.
Day 29: Connect with Spirit World
We are surrounded by spirits and Otherworldly beings everywhere – spirits of the land, spirits of people who have passed away, ancestors, nature spirits, the Good Folk, Deities, and depending on how animistic your world view is, spirits of plants, rocks, and items all around us. Spend some time today focusing on one connection you would like to strengthen, or start. Meditate in your garden or a local park to speak to a genius loci, make an offering to your ancestors or a Deity. Be careful not to cause offence though, or start something you’re not ready for. For example caution is advised when entering a relationship with the Good Folk, make sure you know what this means for you. For more ideas click here or here.
Day 30: Enchant an Item
If you haven’t done so before, it’s time to use your witchcraft on an every day item to make it extra magical. This could be as simple as enchanting your morning brew to help bring luck or give you patience and resilience for those tougher days at work. Try to think outside the box and bring a little magic to your everyday life and chores, with examples here, here and here.
Day 31: Ritual for Balance and Reflection
For the last day of the challenge, and for Samhain, reflect on what you have accomplished during this challenge and during the year. Were there things you tried for the first time? Which ones would you like to repeat? What worked well? What do you think needs more work and attention? Where do you want to take your witchcraft next? What skills would you like to develop and how will you achieve this? Samhain is often seen as the witch’s New Year, and though no one sticks to New Year resolutions, some achievable and realistic goals can be helpful. Remember to keep balanced – grounded but spiritually connected. Design a personal ritual to help you achieve that in the next 12 months.
And that’s all folks! Thank you for joining me on this journey, I hope you have a happy and fulfilling Samhain, and have enjoyed taking part in this challenge as much as I enjoyed making it.
Moonlit Path 