If you started practicing witchcraft in your teens and 20s and now find yourself staring down age 30, you likely learned a thing or two about the nature of magic by now.
Here’s 11 lessons every witch should know by age 30.
The Craft is a skill, and you have to practice to be good at it.
So many people come to the Path, read one Witchcraft 101 book, and find themselves disappointed when they fail to transform their lives instantly.
It takes years to cultivate a relationship with the spiritual world. Treat it as you would a member of your family.
Your body is a temple.
Hopefully, by age 30, you’ve found a way to silence your inner teenage girl and her incessant critique of your body.
Because guess what: It’s the only one you’ve got. It’s taken you this far. And sister, I hate to break it to you, but it doesn’t get any better than this.
Your body is your most sacred possession. Anoint it with oil, indulge in ritual baths, dance.
Magic is in everything.
You get it now.
The point is not to find the perfect candle, the perfect incantation, the perfect blend of oils.
The point is to look at the drops of rain on a spiderweb.
To pause and ponder the moon from your kitchen window.
To marvel as you knead bread that you’re using the same method your great-great-grandmother did 100 years ago—-and wonder if her hands looked like yours.
It’s all magic. Work it.
Sometimes, the hard way is the only way to learn.
There’s no way out of the core lessons you need to learn in this life. There’s only a way through them.
At its best, the Craft helps you to see the deeper meaning in the hard things, accept loss, change perspectives, allow others to be who they are and understand that you get what you give.
Spontaneity is the spice of spell craft.
When you began, you likely made a lot of common spell craft mistakes.
If you never found yourself fretting because you couldn’t find the exact combination of herbs spelled out in some ancient grimoire, I don’t believe it!
By now, you like a little spontaneity. Creativity and fluidity is part of the process of making a spell your own.
Everything you need to know can be found in nature.
Can’t figure out whether to take that new job?
Go outside.
Don’t know how to stop obsessing about the ex that’s definitely not good for you?
Go outside.
Can’t wrap your mind around a calculus problem? Need relief from grieving? Trying to overcome addiction?
Go outside, go outside, go outside.
Magic isn’t about controlling other people.
You can make it about that. But you realized from experience a long time ago that this approach never works out the way you want it to.
Magic is about understanding the inherent, cause-and-effect principle that underlies all of reality.
It’s knowing the power of your thoughts, and how to use them to manifest change.
Once you recognize it, reshaping your whole life becomes much, much easier.
You can’t expect others to respect your spirituality if you don’t respect theirs.
It’s hard to deny that the practice of witchcraft is fraught with stereotypes.
But it’s also hard to deny that a lot of people come to the Craft because other spiritual paths didn’t work out for them.
Being angry or hurt by difficult or traumatic experiences from religious institutions is normal and even healthy.
But it’s not okay to be intolerant of people who haven’t hurt you just because they practice a religion that did hurt you.
The best way to change people’s minds about stereotypes associated with the Craft is to be a good example of how you want to be treated.
Not everything is as it appears.
If you haven’t figured this one out by now, you’re not paying attention. Seriously.
Scientists don’t know everything.
The discipline of science is indispensably important. Science saves lives, builds bridges, transports probes to outer space and makes it possible to talk to your dog on Zoom from Tokyo.
But when it comes to spiritual life, let’s be honest: science doesn’t know shit.
Magic won’t solve everything.
And the truly special part is, you don’t want it to.
