teaberrymagic:

🥄 Spoonie Witch Tips 🥄

Written by: @teaberrymagic

As a person with chronic pain and fatigue issues, I’ve had to give up a lot of my hobbies. So how do I practice witchcraft when I can often experience too much pain or tiredness to do the things other witches do?

TAKE SHORTCUTS, MAKE MODIFICATIONS

Don’t spend all your spoons trying to do something that is difficult or impossible for you. Modify practices where you can, and eliminate the things that you know are beyond your limits. You don’t have to prove to other people that you can do the same things they’re doing, and your practice is allowed to look however you want or need it to.

MY PERSONAL MODIFICATIONS

So what do I personally modify to make things easier for me with chronic pain?

I never meditate sitting, and I wish it’s something more people modified. If I want to completely relax all the muscles of my body and focus on something like visualization, energy work, astral, etc., I lay down. I find a comfortable place (usually a couch or a bed) and lie there instead of feeling like I have to do the cross legged stereotypical meditation pose, or sit upright in a chair. I’m using my mind, sitting upright just isn’t necessary and lying down takes the pressure off my body.

I never cast with a wand and I generally don’t even lift my arms. I visualize and just look in the direction I need to cast. (I can describe this visualization in another post!)

I use sigils as an energy saving alternative to complicated spells with lots of steps and ingredients. Sigils are simple in execution, the supplies for them are almost always within my reach, and they’re chargeable so on a good day I can make them, and on a bad day I just take them with me. I bring a pocket notebook and pen everywhere I go, so I can make and use sigils whenever necessary.

I use tarot apps if I can’t take my entire deck out.

I sit or lie down as much as I can. I can do kitchen witchcraft on a hot plate sitting on the floor. I lay out a blanket on the ground and pull cards there. I cast a circle around my bed and do spells, rituals, energy work from whatever position is easiest to maintain (sitting, leaning, lying down, etc).

I utilize “passive magic” as much as possible. I leave water out in moonlight to charge without effort and collect it when I have the energy. I create talismans and charms that will keep working throughout the weeks and months afterward. I program spells to activate when I’m low energy. I keep bells and chimes to cleanse my space with just a tap of my finger. I use a diffuser with various scented oils. I turn on a bedroom lamp that lights up different colors for color magic. I burn candles with various scents and correspondences. I keep flowers with certain meanings around my apartment. I make infusions, tinctures, and pickled foods because they require very little prep and mostly a lot of time. Whatever I can do standing, I do sitting or lying down with visualization instead.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS

💻 Rather than a handwritten grimoire, use a digital one. Typing is lower impact and you can even use speech to text apps if typing is too much. Voice recordings can work for some people too, but I find it difficult to reference past material if I have to listen to a half hour speech every time I want to find something.

📚 If heavy books are too difficult to lift or hold, keep your library on an external hard drive or an e-reader. I hardly have any physical books in my apartment, I have converted most of my collection to an e-reader. Holding and shelving books has become too taxing, so I read everything on my laptop, e-reader, or phone.

🕯️ If the upkeep of a physical altar is too much, keep a digital, paper, or pocket altar. Lighter and candle apps are a great (and budget friendly) alternative to keeping a huge collection of candles for your altar, home, and spells too. I personally keep a few candles for each season and have no designated altar. I just keep things with good energy around my space.

🌱 If you don’t have the energy to take care of plants, keep low energy alternatives like cacti or moss balls. If even those are too much energy, keep plant figures, ceramics, or art instead. Keep an app like Viridi so you can grow and take care of digital plants without even needing to get out of bed.

A PERSPECTIVE CHANGE

Spoonie witchcraft is about creativity, substitutions, and a willingness to define your own boundaries. When you’re dealing with chronic illness and disability, there are things you can’t do or can’t do the same way anymore and it’s not about fighting or forcing yourself to do things the way other people do. Use that awesome brain to come up with workarounds that will allow you to engage with the same intentions in a different way. There’s never one right way to do a spell, so be creative!

Spoonie witches will likely gain skills in meditation, visualization, energy work, and astral abilities more than anything else as many of these can be substitutions or workarounds for other elements in one’s practice. And at the end of the day, every spell ingredient is just a conduit for energy. All you need is yourself for witchcraft and none of those things are necessary.

If anyone has a specific spell or practice they’re having a hard time with due to chronic illness or disability, let me know and I would love to brainstorm ways to modify it with you! Good luck, spoonie witches! 🥄✨