![\"happywitch\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/05\/happywitch.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Being a happy Witch may seem like a contradiction for many who buy into a brooding stereotype, but I have no qualms about it. \u00a0It\u2019s taken me a long time to get here with a lot of hard work. \u00a0It\u2019s all about breaking cycles.<\/p>\n
In a previous life (technically still this one, but different chapter)<\/em>, I would travel to various parts of the world for work, by myself. \u00a0Those travels would frequently create a difficult conundrum, a symptom of the relationship I was in. \u00a0While I was away, I had to check in with the person I was married to, every night or he would freak out. \u00a0If I said I was having a good time, then it meant I didn\u2019t love him enough. \u00a0If I said I wasn\u2019t having a good time, I was told I should be.<\/p>\n It created a virtual anxiety ourobouros, as I traveled A LOT \u2013 and I was the primary breadwinner as well. \u00a0So I couldn\u2019t stop traveling to end the cycle. \u00a0The same anxiety applied to our finances and pretty much everything else: it was like being a zombie hamster on the wheel of life.<\/p>\n What does this have to do with witchcraft and happiness? A lot actually. \u00a0Over the last week while on tour, I got to thinking about what worked so easily now, and how it all came to be. \u00a0I thought it may be useful for others as well.<\/p>\n I spent 15 years in that situation \u2013 being worn down emotionally, mentally, spiritually \u2013 and starting to see the physical effects as I moved into the 4th \u201c5\u201d. That\u2019s when I choose to break the cycle. \u00a0It was probably the scariest thing I have ever done, and the biggest risk, but I\u2019m still here.\u00a0Interestingly enough, if we look to the Major Arcana \u2013 15 is often the Devil card. \u00a0When we draw this card, we\u2019re often letting our own fears and devices hold us hostage, and that we\u2019re suppressing our better instincts. \u00a0With 16, the Tower, just over the horizon, something\u2019s got to break, but the Star (17) reminds us of the future. \u00a0Also, if we go back to the Hierophant (#5 in the Major Arcana), there\u2019s an undercurrent of learning lessons and figuring out when to break from them.<\/p>\n But really, witchcraft. \u00a0If we look at magick as the focusing of intent in accordance with will to bring about change in ourselves and environment, then our mentality is essential to breaking cycles and creating change. \u00a0I\u2019m not going to espouse \u201cpositive thinking\u201d \u2013 but I do believe if we fixate on something, we can attract it to us \u2013 for better or for worse. \u00a0I don\u2019t believe in the \u201cthreefold law of return\u201d but I certainly have seen the \u201cmultiplicity of attraction\u201d in action. \u00a0If you expect the thing or see the thing everywhere, it probably will manifest. \u00a0Especially if you\u2019re already good at visualizing.<\/p>\n So is there a cycle you keep finding yourself in? \u00a0Here are some guidelines to break the 5 and move forward.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 1) Acknowledge the cycle.<\/strong> \u00a0If you\u2019re seeing the same pattern \u2013 in your job, your relationship, health, etc \u2013 it\u2019s time to step back and look at the larger circle.<\/p>\n 2) Hold up a mirror.<\/strong> \u00a0It\u2019s easy to blame everyone else for your stuck-in-cycleness, but you\u2019re the common factor here. What is it about you<\/em> that needs to change?<\/p>\n 3) Manifest a new mentality. \u00a0<\/strong>This is the hardest part. \u00a0If you can identify what you\u2019ve been negatively attracting to yourself, then it\u2019s time to focus on the other end \u2013 both logically and metaphysically. This is not a one night, one spell kind of deal. \u00a0This is a daily application of antidote that rarely tastes good to begin with.<\/p>\n 4) Bind the can\u2019ts, uproot the weeds<\/strong>. <\/strong>Remember, you\u2019re often your biggest obstacle to change. \u00a0What are you saying \u201cno\u201d to? Or constantly saying \u201cyes\u201d to that traps you in the cycle? If there\u2019s a habit that you keep engaging, time to bind that aspect of yourself until it\u2019s ready to change. \u00a0Or if you keep seeding your life with people who are invasive like weeds, time to get out the weed whacker.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0Go Widdershins Witch. <\/strong>You need to consciously make a choice to shift the tide, to go into a new direction. \u00a0There may be risk, but how much are you already losing in the cycle as it is? It\u2019s sunk cost, let it go.<\/p>\n 6) Raise It.<\/strong> \u00a0Put energy into the new direction, full force. As much as you believed in the currents that stuck you in the cycle, you need to invest as much energy in the shift. \u00a0Witchcraft isn\u2019t for the timid anyway, so you shouldn\u2019t be half-assing anything if you want real change.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying my life is perfect and that all of my problems have been solved \u2013 or that it happened overnight. Or that shitty things will stop happening to you (or me). \u00a0That\u2019s not the nature of this life. \u00a0But I AM a lot happier since breaking those major cycles I was caught in \u2013 and it\u2019s much easier to change the current as I see fit.<\/a> \u00a0When crappy stuff does happen, I\u2019m able to adapt and overcome it faster. \u00a0It\u2019s the difference of being on an inflatable donut on a lazy river at a boardwalk attraction, and being the captain of my own boat<\/a> on whatever body of water I choose to sail on. \u00a0I\u2019m a better artist, witch, dancer, partner, and general human being because of it. \u00a0And I\u2019m far more open to new opportunities to take me to new places because of it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a happy Witch may seem like a contradiction for many who buy into a brooding stereotype, but I have no qualms about it. It’s taken me a long time to get here with a lot of hard work. It’s all about breaking cycles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[261,253,54,262,7,4],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","tag-change","tag-cycles","tag-spellcraft","tag-tarot","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"t2-Tarot15\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/05\/t2-Tarot15.jpg\")
I\u2019ve been reading Tarot cards now for over 21 years (my divination self is old enough to drink \u2013 and it should!)<\/em> and a system I learned early on from one my mentors is how to consider numbers in correlation to the suits. \u00a0It\u2019s helpful across any deck, and then you can apply more information from the cards themselves. \u00a0In this system, 5 represents cycles, and more specifically, self-defeating habits we need to break ourselves free from in order to move on to 6. \u00a0It can be emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual things we do to ourselves, or allow to keep happening.<\/p>\n![\"Journey Spell\" - painting by the author](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/654\/2017\/05\/web-journey.jpg\")