Journaling for Witches: Prompts for Magical Journaling
Journaling can be a powerful addition to your magical study and practice. In its many forms, journaling allows practitioners of magic to enhance their relationship with magic, spirit, and themselves; organize their thoughts and more thoroughly process new information; set goals and intentions; reflect on learning and experiences; and chronicle magical and personal growth.
Journaling can be done in many ways, using different techniques depending on the individual’s goals and preferences. Prompts can be used to enhance the journaling experience, challenging the writer to explore thoughts, beliefs, and worldviews which they may not otherwise have examined. If you are interested in incorporating prompts into your regular journaling practices, or if you are feeling stuck and need ideas, the following prompts may help to enrich your magical journal. The prompts combine traditional reflection prompts with storytelling prompts, allowing you to explore your relationship with yourself and with your craft from multiple angles.
Journaling Techniques for Magical Practice
1. Visualize your magical self as a separate entity or multiple entities. Write about them. Give them a name, a face, a story. Write about them as if you would introduce a character in a novel. Try to represent your beliefs and experiences in your description on your magical self.
2. Write about your beliefs the theories of magic. What is it that you believe makes magic work? When you perform your magic, what is it that you believe you are doing and how? What are the building blocks of magical working and what makes them come together?
3. Write about your magical origin story. Take the story of how you became drawn to the practice of magic and write it in the form of fiction, myth, saga, or fairy tale. Be intentional in your use of symbols and metaphor.
4. What type of practitioner do you identify as? Try to sum up your practice in a few words, such as Cottage Witch, Spirit Worker, or Bruja. If you need to, create a brief list of up to five such designations. For every label you come up with, take some time to elaborate on what they mean to you in specific and why they resonate with you.
5. Write a poem or prose poem about yourself and your power. Begin with “I am the…” and let the words flow. Make it dramatic. Make it flowery. Celebrate your power in symbol and metaphor. Celebrate yourself.
6. What forces do you call on when you work magic? Where do they come from? What actions do you take to summon them (whether they come from within or without)?
7. Write a letter to your magical self/selves. In the letter, take the time to thank them for the things they have given and taught you. Celebrate them as if this were a love letter or song of praise. Focus on the ways they guide and protect you.
8. What is your toolset? Write about each tool and what it means to you. How did you choose your toolset? What is the meaning and purpose of each tool you use?
9. Write an ode to your tools. Dedicate a stanza (or a paragraph, if you are using prose poetry) to each tool and its magic.
10. Write about a natural element (a specific tree, a geological formation, a flower, etc.) that is prevalent in your magical practice. If you have more than one special nature item in your magic, write briefly about 3 to 5. Write about what each item means to you and what it contributes to your practice.
11. If you have an altar/workspace, write an ode to your magical or sacred space. If you do not, write one to a space that you find the most magical.
12. Write about a character that inspires you and your craft. What parts of them do you see reflected in yourself/your practice? What do you find inspiring about them? What can you learn from them still?
13. Imagine magic as a spirit/entity and envision a conversation with them. What would the Spirit of Magic look, sound and feel like? What would this spirit have to say to you, to teach you?
14. What books have most shaped your magical craft and why? Keep in mind that the books you choose don’t have to be witchcraft books. They could be fiction, history, myth, folklore, etc. Write about why you like each book and what you learned from it.
15. Write a letter to your pre-magic self, the person you were before embarking on your magical journey. What would you tell them about everything you have done and seen? What warnings would you give them about your trials, mistakes, and missteps as a practitioner of magic? What encouragement would you offer them to keep going, keep pursuing their magical goals?
16. Think about where and who you were when you first started on your magical path. How have your beliefs about magic and about yourself changed? How were your magical goals and interests then different from the ones you have now? Is your current path one that you anticipated being on from the beginning of your journey, or one that surprised you?
17. Create a playlist of 5 to 10 songs that raise different kinds of magical energy in you. For each song, detail the feelings, energies, and imagery that the music stirs up. Make note of where in your body you feel the energy building and what the sensations feel like.
18. Explore your beliefs about familiars and the like in magic. What experiences have you had with spirit familiars and companions? How have these experiences enhanced or impacted your practice and study? If you have had no experience with familiars, write about an experience you have had with recurring animal messengers.
19. Imagine a gathering of all of the facets of your spirit (or, if you prefer, all of the aspects of your personality). Describe this meeting and all of the parts of you that you can see there. Explain what each aspect of your spirit or personality brings to you and your magical practice.
20. When writing a ritual for yourself, what ritual elements or parts do you incorporate? What purpose does each part serve? Why is it important to you and your practice that you perform that part of the ritual in the way that you do?
21. Visualize or visit a non-physical location. Write about it in vivid detail. What do you see there? What do you feel? What does this space say to you?
22. Write about your favorite spell. Why is it your favorite? Consider doing the same for your least favorite spell.
23. Write a letter to a spirit ally, deity, familiar or other entity that you feel strongly connected to. If you have a standing relationship with this spirit or being, use this time to reflect on this relationship. If you do not, write this letter as a letter of introduction.
24. What features of folklore do you incorporate into your practice. Think of a particular genre of lore (such as faery lore) or regional body of folklore (such as Appalachian or Scandinavian) that you feel you have woven into your personal beliefs about magic. How do they impact your practice? How would your practice be like if you did not have those elements?
25. What do you consider the “building blocks” of magic? Do you follow the five-element model of magical working laid out in many books? Do you have another set of beliefs about what forces are at work in magical rituals, tools, and curios?
26. Write about a time when a dream that you had came true in some way. Was the dream literal or symbolic? Did you know in advance that you had had a prophetic dream?
27. Where in your body do you feel magic moving? What does it feel like?
28. What parts or functions of your body do you associate with magic? How do you care for or protect them? Is there anything that you do to enhance the magic of these body parts (such as not cutting or shaving hair, fasting, etc.)?
29. Write about yourself using primarily titles and epithets. For example, I am the Witch of the Wild Wood. I am the Keeper of the Black Lamp. Use symbol and metaphor as much as you like, but make sure that each title/epithet is true and empowering.
30. What are some things you could do to improve your magical study and practice?
31. What is a call or pull that you feel that you aren’t sure how to act on? What is holding you back? Where do you feel the pull is coming from?
32. What is your favorite quote from a magical movie, show, or book? What is a non-magical quote that you connect strongly to magic and power?
33. Write about a spell or ritual that went wrong. What do you think you could have done to improve it?
34. What is your personal code of magical ethics? How did you come to define your personal code?
35. What advice would you give to a new practitioner of magic right now?
Disclaimer: Each of the Crowsbone writers and guest bloggers has their own magical background, beliefs, traditions and practices. These post represent the opinions, research and beliefs of the individual writers. We do not believe that they represent beliefs and rules associated with all magical practice or witchcraft; nor do they represent the beliefs and opinions of all of the Crowsbone community.