Oh man, the semester caught up to me and I’ve been crazy the last few weeks.

But finals are over and Yule is right around the corner.

So, for baby witches, what is Yule?
Yule is the celebration of winter basically. It’s what Christmas is based off of, and one of the few holidays you can celebrate very inconspicuously, since most Christmas traditions coincide with Yule.

Yule is the celebration of the sun leaving and coming back. Many traditions stem from Yule, such as lighting a Yule log in the fireplace, having a tree inside, exchanging gifts, and having food with loved ones.

Many Yule decorations can be used interchangeably with Christmas decorations; Christmas trees, anyone? Not to mention lighting candles, or baked goods. Many spices associated with Christmas are ripped off (sorry,not sorry) from Yule, such as cinnamon, orange, and peppermint.

So how can you celebrate Yule, either loud and proud, or subdued and respectful of everyone else’s holidays (Kwanza, Hanukkah, Christmas…)?

For my loud and proud witches;

1. Decorate your altar! There are so many nifty ideas on Pinterest for altar decor for this time of year.
2. Have a party! That’s right. Invite your loved ones over, eat some food, share the joy.
3. Have a fire! If a fire isn’t available, then light a candle. If fire of any kind is unavailable (i.e. dorm rooms), get some of those fake electric candles or play a video from Youtube.
4. Leave some food out for the natural wildlife. Spread birdseed and treats for the local wildlife since the cold winter months make food scarce to find. But only do this in areas where it’s allowed; if your campus squirrels are overweight and you can get into trouble for leaving food out for them, then maybe pass on this idea.
5. Give back to the community. Whether donating old clothes you no longer need, volunteering at a shelter of some kind, or donate money to a charity, give back some of the wealth you’ve experienced through the year to those who need a little extra help during this period. Make it a tradition; instead of buying gifts out the ass for everyone and their mother, band together as a group and make a mass donation to a charity.

For my closeted witches:

1. Donate! This is an easy way to celebrate and stay closeted, because there’s no direct correlation between witchiness and charity. SO give back in some way, even if it’s just buying a less fortunate soul a cup of coffee and getting them out of the cold for an hour.
2. Burn something! Of course safely, but if you’re a college witch in the closet, just play a Youtube video of fireplaces, or use those electric candles.
3. Bake something! Bake some cookies, a pie, cakes, or a casserole! This is the time of year everyone and their mother is baking to some degree, so go ahead and bake as well. Then you can share the fruits of your labor at a party or whatever.
4. Decorate! I know, this seems counter intuitive; ‘I’m in the closer, why am I going to decorate?’ Yule and Samhain/Halloween, are the two times of year where witches and nonwitches share a lot of commonalities. So you can totally decorate your room in the spirit of Yule and everyone will just assume ‘Oh Christmas decorations, neat!’. And you don’t every have to go all out; whether large scale house decor or just changing your phone background, you can totally decorate freely without fear of outing yourself.
5. Meditate! I know, I know, we witches are constantly mediating. Like seriously. Meditating is the whole ‘have you turned it off and on again’ of the witchy world. We meditate for everything. But honestly, this time of year is one of the few where mediation feels different. Like waking up on a snowy morning, before dawn, and sitting and meditating on the beauty of the world before you. Just meditate on how the year has been for you and what you want in the coming year.

Yule is a good time of year to come out from the broomcloset and be close with all those around us who may not be a part of our covens or practice. This is the time of year to bake cookies, send letters to old friends, help our communities, and look to what the future holds for us.

With the full moon, so much should be done. As a new witch, it’s overwhelming how much you hear about what needs to be done on the night of the full moon. Crystals this, moon water that, charging this, spellwork that…

So how do you actually get anything done on the night of a full moon? Especially if you’re a closeted witch?

When I know a full moon is coming, I set a reminder in my phone. If you’re following a couple witchy accounts on any form of social media, they will definitely remind you as well when a full moon is coming.

So, now that a full moon is coming, what are you supposed to do? There’s so much that everyone else is telling you to do and you’re honestly a little lost. Take a deep breath. Depending on what kind of witch you’ve aligned yourself to be, that can help narrow down what you’ll want to do a full moon night.

Three things you’ll want to do, no matter what kind of witchcraft you practice are…

1. Leave things out to charge. Anything you can’t leave in sunlight, like certain crystals, or tools, sigils,Tarot cards, etc.
2. Leave out water to charge for some moon water.
3. Appreciate the full moon and meditate underneath it’s light (outside is recommended but not required, if conditions are not feasible)

See? You’ve already done three things of what everyone is freaking out about. Personally, I leave what I can out all night. However, my cats do like to cause mischief, so if I’m charging water, Tarot, or crystals (if I had any), I leave them out for just a few hours under the moonlight on a windowsill where the cats can’t bother them, then pack them up before I go to bed so I don’t end up with a pool of water on my kitchen floor in the morning or playing 78-Tarot-card pick-up.

So what else can you do on a full moon night? Well, look into what other kinds of witches in your field of witchiness do.

If you perform mostly fire magic, maybe you’ll anoint and light some candles to supercharge a spell under the full moon.

If you do divination, maybe tonight is a good night to just charge your crystals in advance for a new moon divination spell.

Maybe you’re a kitchen witch, so you can do something special like make a moon-themed dish or recharge your cooking tools, or charge oils (cooking kind, not essential) for future recipes. I know there are a couple awesome moon cookie recipes out there and I’m if you ask, someone will share.

Maybe you’re so new you don’t know what you are witch-wise, or maybe you’re an eclectic/grey/hedge witch and have no idea what else you can do on a full moon night.

Some things I do that no body talks about…

1. Write in my Book of Shadows/Grimoire about upcoming works or things I tried earlier that week that I’m waiting for it to manifest
2. Shuffle through all my Tarot decks and shift their energy to release the old energy and take in the full moon energy
3. Clean up my space; the full moon works wonders for my energy and I use that energy to clean all the weird nooks and crannies that I normally ignore, like the old cobwebs in the corner of my laundry room, or scrubbing that weird stain in the bottom of my sink in my bathroom.
4. Sometimes I dye my hair or just try a new makeup look, just to see what it looks like.
5. Self-care bitches! Do a face mask, take a bath (with or without moon water), treat yourself to a special treat for making it through the month, paint your nails, moisturize, pop that back pimple, knock over your ex’s mailbox, watch a rom-com, get laid… Just treat yourself.
6. Dance naked under the moon light. Can’t go wrong there. Not only are you honoring those who came before but damn, who doesn’t want to be a stereotypical witch every now and then.
7. Go gather some supplies. Full moon light is great for nightly excursions. Find some cool rocks or sticks, or gather stuff from your garden.
8. Have a cup of tea. Whether made with moon water or not, just relax with a cup of tea (or a glass of iced tea if its too hot outside).
9. Prepare things you need to get rid up in the coming waning moon, like old clothes and documents that need to be shredded.
10. Prepare anything coming in your life like laundry, dishes, finances, appointments. Use the full moon energy to make sure you have everything on track.

Don’t be afraid to look into all the neat stuff you can do during the full moon. If nothing else, just chill in the moon light for 10 minutes and appreciate your place in the world.

If you are new at witchcraft and wickedry, then don’t sweat trying to do a big spell or whatever. You have time to get there and right now, you just need to work on yourself before diving into a prosperity spell for your aunt’s coworker’s niece.

Full moons are meant to be a time to recharge and be thankful for all around you. So charge yourself and your charms and your sigils and your spells to make it through the month.

If you still feel overwhelmed, then remember to use this time to chill. Soak in some moonlight and breathe. You’ll figure it all out before you know it.

Are you just starting out in witchcraft and freaking out about how science fits into all of it?

Are you worried that you’ll have to give up your belief in evolution and physics just to fit in with all the other witches?

I struggled myself with this; as a biological science major in school, with aspirations of being a veterinarian, how could I ever justify, even to myself, my belief in witchcraft and magic. How was I supposed to explain to my (eventual) children that I was a doctor and a witch (ha, a witch doctor)?

Well fear no more fellow witchling. Because I have some great news for you.

You can do whatever you want.

Witchcraft is literally without rules. There’s no one way of doing anything.

But how do you reconcile your scientific beliefs with your newfound spiritual beliefs?

Well…

Witchcraft and science overlap in multitudinous ways.

For both disciplines, you have to conduct research. You should look deeper at every claim you come across, whether it’s crystals or the use of new pesticides on corn crops.

Both disciplines rely on building on the knowledge that came before. For example, we’ve been building on how solar energy can be used for decades now. Similarly, witches have been building on the knowledge of the past in areas of horticulture, psychology, and spirituality. Both use claims from the past and investigate how to either dispel or improve on previous research.

Both disciplines keep records in some way. Most sciences rely on mathematics for their record keeping, whereas witchcraft journals about personal experiences. However, both are necessary to understand fully whether something was repeatable and testable.

So it should be easy to reconcile scientific beliefs with witchcraft because both have the same underlying purpose; understanding the universe and our place in it.

But I can hear you saying, ‘how can these make sense? How do these fit together?’

So think of witchcraft as a new form of science. Think of it as a melding of psychology and biology in an attempt to understand things we have yet to fully study. Think of spells and spell work as testing psychological boundaries and you are the Guinea pig, testing how best to help yourself and others. Think of the aspects of appreciating nature as biology and geology and you are simply documenting your experience in the world for future scientists/witches to use and grow from. Think of studying the celestial bodies as what it is, astrology, a real discipline of science.

There’s no real reason to segregate witchcraft and science, especially since witchcraft was a precursor to science.

So moral of my story is, that sometimes you have to put all the questions into a different science machine to get some kind of answer. While we as a society may have a vast understanding of how the planets work and how rain falls and why the sky is blue and why trees grow, there are still so many questions we as a species have about our world; like, how can I find happiness in the darkest times? Where can I find peace with the passing of a loved one? What can I do to help someone when I feel utterly lost and powerless?

And if you look at witchcraft with a critical eye, you can see that many aspects of witchcraft are even currently being studied by science to see why it works; things like mindfulness, meditation, manifesting (fake it till you make it), homeopathic options for illness treatment (lavender anyone?), and even just the psychology behind putting your belief that something will work (commonly called the placebo in an experiment, where you believe in something to a degree where your brain actually believes it can work). And that’s not even counting all the disciplines that have grown from witchcraft practice; baking, home-brewing (what hipsters every where are going crazy over), horticulture, astronomy, psychology, midwifery, natural medicine techinques that actually have some scientific proofs (cold-compression on swelling, the effects a cup of tea can have on your mood, aromatherapy to help calm and relax, color psychology, the effects of the outdoors and sunlight on your mood) (not you, anti-vaxxing bullshit.).

So while witchcraft may seem scary and mystical, just remember that so much of what is revered in witchcraft has become sciences and disciplines of their own and have scientific backing. So there’s no reason to ditch one set of beliefs for another.

Have you ever tried to meditate and you just can’t seem to get the hang of it? Maybe you took a yoga class or two and at the end you just can’t seem to listen to the teacher and turn your brain off. Maybe you were recommended it by your friend Stacy who went gluten-free by choice last year and only eats vegan bacon even though she’s not vegan.

Or maybe, you’re like me, who just jumped head first into witchcraft and now, you’re stuck trying to figure out how to meditate since it seems like EVERYTHING runs off meditation (and intention, but whatever.).

But you’re sitting in your dark room, struggling to grasp this concept and you just can’t.

So how do you meditate?

Extended meditation, which is what a lot of these mediation gurus and yoga teachers are talking about, takes practice. Like a lot of practice.

So don’t expect to just slip into this trance as soon as you start saying gibberish words you think someone says while meditating.

My favorite way I’ve seen to help facilitate mediation is to sit and begin to image a color growing in your center (where ever your center is, whether bellybutton, heart, head, or ass). The color can be whatever color you like. Some advise white light or a warm color, but I say just pick your favorite or whatever you feel like today.

With each breath, let the color grow, like a flickering flame. Let the color extended through your body slowly. When it finally reaches the tips of your fingers and toes, imagine gathering up the color.

With an exhale, release the color into the world. Imagine it floating through your space, over you, covering everything. Then just breath for a bit in your space. When you feel like the color has faded, leave the space.

Now, I know that meditation is supposed to be clearing your mind and thinking of nothing in that moment, but sometimes you need something to get your brain started on the right track. And especially when you’re so stressed and overwhelmed, you can’t always just quit thinking or acting to just sit for a minute and breath.

Why is meditation so important for witchcraft?

Well, if we power the spell by setting intentions, think of meditation as a way to process the intention before hand. You don’t dump straight crude oil into your car. You have to refine it first to get the best product for the spell. Just like you don’t just eat a tea bag when you want some tea. You have to make sure the water is boiled and safe to drink.

So we meditate to make sure that what we bring to the table for a spell is what we want to go into a spell. If we mix up our thoughts and feelings with spell, we may have something that can go awry or just fizzle out completely. So we clear out mind and heart of everything that isn’t pertinent in that moment, so that the spell knows exactly what’s what.

So meditation and intention go hand in hand. You need both to work big spells and to make sure that you’re not letting your own feelings get in the way of the spell.