A Modern Witch’s Guide To Combatting Magical Lulls

As the weathers continue to grow colder, a lot of witches and other magical practitioners might be finding themselves entering their rest cycle for the year and focusing more on things like self-reflection, shadow work, ancestor work, and the like. This is usually a time when people take stock of the things they have accomplished over the year and begin the process of planning for the next year. While you may feel yourself hitting a lull in your magical practice, life continues to get more chaotic with the approaching holidays.

First, this is natural and normal! Everyone, witch or not, will have times in their life when things feel lulled, stagnant, and paused. This is part of life and part of nature! So don’t feel like you immediately need to be performing energy rituals to boost your magical practice to bigger and better heights if this is truly your spirit’s way of telling you that you need a break.

However, if you truly feel like you need a boost to get your witchy motor back up and running, try some of the tips outlined below and see if they can help spark some inspiration!

Tip #1: Consume Witchy Media

Be it books, YouTube videos, podcasts, articles, etc., find a way to incorporate learning into your routine! For some, keeping a magical playlist in the background of their mundane tasks is enough to feel the flow of magic start to move again. For others, they might dedicate some time to reading a book on a topic they’re curious about or watching a video by a witchy content creator. The reason these things tend to work is that it helps us build a community for our practice. Even if you are a solitary practitioner, it is important to make sure that you have the opportunity to surround yourself with like-minded individuals. This can come in the form of media!

These examples above also help to inspire people because they might give them new ideas they hadn’t thought of before. While you always want to be cautious of comparing your practice to another’s, learning about what other people are doing and seeing if those things might also work for you is a good way to get your creative juices flowing.

Tip #2: Ask Your Spirit Guides

Whether you work with deities, your ancestors, the Earth itself, plant spirits, animal spirits, or any other number of possible spirits, your spirit guides can be one of the best resources for helping you out of a rut. Choose your favorite form of divination and ask them to help you figure out what is causing the lack of inspiration and energy and then ask them what they suggest to fix it.

Spirit guides are a big part of a witch’s support system and so they are a great first line of defense when things seem off. If the problem you are having is related to the question “What do I do next in my practice?” try asking them what to learn next. Since witchcraft and magic are constant learning experiences, there is always more to learn from any given subject. Your guides can help you narrow down what topic you should be tackling.

Tip #3: Reconnect With Nature

Now, this is probably not the first time (or even close to the first time) that you have heard a suggestion like this before. Nearly every spiritual book ever written has focused on people’s relationship to nature and how as a society, we have strayed away from living a natural life. And that is all well and good. However, there is something to be said about simply taking notice of the world around us. This doesn’t have to mean going for a 3-mile hike at the nearest campground or taking a solo backpacking trip across Europe. It just means to take a moment, breathe in the air around you, and notice the wonderful ways that nature is all around us. Even if you live in a high-rise building in the middle of New York City, there is nature for you to explore and appreciate. The birds in the sky, the cement beneath your feet, the random patches of grass sprouting between cracks in the road, the feel of the breeze against your skin. If you take a moment and allow yourself to just feel the world around you, you might be surprised at what you find.

A lull in a witch’s practice might come from feeling disconnected—not just from nature but from everything. Maybe work has been so busy that you haven’t talked to your friends as much. Maybe you’ve been struggling with some mental health issues and you’ve been just living to get by so you haven’t had time to think of anything else. Feeling disconnected happens to everyone from time to time, and reconnecting with nature for even just a moment is a wonderful way to combat this. Find a semi-quiet space, take a few deep breaths, and allow yourself to feel connected to the cycles happening all around you.

Overall, please do not feel as though you are lacking in any way because you are feeling a lull in your practice. Even if you haven’t formally practiced in months, you are still just as much a witch as someone who practices every day. Things happen! That is the truth of it. And if you take away anything from this article let it be that it is 100% okay to not feel super magical all of the time. But if you feel like you are stuck in a rut rather than just in a resting cycle, give the above tips a try and see what works for you! You might find, as you try these tips out, that they speak more and more ideas! If something works for you, write it down to have on hand for next time! It is your magical life to live and practice how you want and may you have the best of luck with it!