HausMagick, page 1
Dedication
I dedicate this book to my dad.
(And to all the people who put up with me while I wrote it.)
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Introduction
Witching 101
Chapter 1: Manifesting
Chapter 2: Clearing
Chapter 3: Protection
Chapter 4: Comfort
Chapter 5: Harmony
Chapter 6: Balance
In Closing
Recommended Reading
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
© Winnie Man, 2018
Hi, welcome to HausMagick!
When I first began writing about interiors I struggled to find my voice amid the multitude of aspirational books, blogs, and magazines offering tips and tricks, DIY tutorials, craft projects, and trend reports. While I loved all of those things, I soon realized that I was interested in the essential ingredients that make a space both look and feel good at the same time. How to efficiently harness the magic that makes a house feel like a home, without spending a lot of money. I’ve learned that what most homes are missing isn’t a beautiful sofa or the perfect decor: it’s simply the intention to make them feel special. That is why my company, HausWitch, was created. HausWitch is about giving people the tools to heal their spaces, love their homes, and save their money. This book is one of those tools. It is a spell book of interior alchemy. It is about joining the astral plane and the material world to help you transform the energy in your home.
Being fully comfortable in your home is a legitimately important part of self-care and is central to the HausWitch mission. But I believe there are two types of comfort: the kind that helps you to relax, restore, and align with your higher self, and the kind that isolates you from the world around you, lulling you into complacency. That second kind of comfort comes from things like unlimited cable channels, screen culture, and cheap consumer goods. Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m no stranger to the luxury of ordering things online from the comfort of my couch. But it is when you are deeply connected to your space that you feel truly comfortable within it. My goal for this book is to help you to develop that connection in an authentic and meaningful way.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a homebody, at the very least your home is a shelter. In the storm of our chaotic, anxiety-producing world, it provides a retreat where you can recharge your batteries, fill up your cup, or simply get a decent night’s sleep. In terms of self-care, this stuff is right up there with eating well and exercising. By practicing a little HausMagick, you’re honoring your home for the important role it plays in your life.
HausMagick will guide you through the key ways I believe you can harness the positive energy in your home. Over the years, I’ve worked with a range of experts—from interior designers and antique dealers to makers, artists, and, of course, witches. Combining their creative knowledge with my own personal study of earth magic, astrology, tarot, and energy work, I’ve crafted this magical instruction manual for you. Each field of wisdom aims to achieve balanced energy in various areas of life, which will allow you to live in harmony with yourself and nature—and that includes the energy of your home.
With these practices in mind, I want to help you improve six fundamental elements I believe make a living space into a home: manifestation, clearing, protection, comfort, harmony, and balance.
Even if you don’t fully ascribe to the metaphysical philosophies in this book, I hope to show you how much you can benefit from incorporating elements of them into your daily life and home style in simple ways that work for you.
What Is HausMagick?
Like a lot of people, I suffered from anxiety growing up, and sometimes still do. As a sensitive and empathic child, the world could feel very overwhelming to me at times. One of the ways I was able to feel like I had some power over my circumstances was by connecting to the spaces I was in. I was often too shy to speak to the people around me, but I seemed to be able to communicate with the room itself. I could just feel it. This makes perfect sense to me now, because I know that spaces are filled with energy, as are the objects within them. By tapping into that energy, I was able to feel rooted and safe when I was anxious.
Soon enough, what started as a coping mechanism became a hobby. Relatives would call me in to consult on a room or an office that no one liked to be in. I would show them how to rearrange the art on the wall or the furniture to improve the quality of the space. It was just something I could sense naturally. I was a perfect candidate for a future in interior design.
But I am a person who insists on doing things the hard way, so rather than going to interior design school and immediately starting a career I enjoyed, I decided instead to get a degree in history, and then another in Witches (well, technically my degree is in Gender and Cultural Studies, but my research concentration was Witches)—and only then did I start a home-decorating business!
Throughout my twenties, I became obsessed with interior design blogs. I loved that home decorating wasn’t just for those who could afford to hire fancy designers anymore. An explosion of accessible, design-oriented blogs full of DIY ideas aimed at everyone appeared out of nowhere. I soaked it all up. I read at least four to five of them daily. I learned about lighting concepts, furniture design, how to distinguish between one hundred different shades of white paint—you name it, there was a blog post about it.
As grateful as I was to get a free education in practical, contemporary interior design, I also felt alienated by posts about “budget makeovers,” where the budget was still completely inaccessible to me and the people I knew. As frustrating as that was, it pushed me to get creative. I realized that if I wanted to create an environment that looked and felt good enough to be photographed for a glossy magazine, while not costing a fortune, I would have to get crafty . . . witchcrafty that is. (Sorry, I can’t pass up an opportunity for a good pun.)
Initially, the witch part of HausWitch had more to do with my own personal identification with the word “witch,” and the idea that a “magical” (i.e., inexpensive) transformation would occur in the room I was making over. Without a lot of money, the revamp would have to come from repurposing the home’s existing decor, refinished old furniture, and DIY projects.
As a teenager, I had dabbled in Wicca (a goddess-based religion that uses earth magic as its spiritual practice) by casting love spells in my bedroom at night. I quickly became discouraged by my lack of access to the “necessary” tools for practicing spells (try finding exotic herbs in a suburban mall or leaving the house at midnight to light a bonfire without your parents knowing) and gave up on Wicca.
It was only when my dear friend Kaitlyn, who had recently moved across the country, asked me to cast a spell to help her find a new house that I really returned to magic. I hadn’t practiced magic in years, but, because it was a home-related request, it felt natural, and I crafted a spell with ease. (More on that in Chapter 1, Manifesting.)
That night, as I was going to bed, an idea hit me like a lightning bolt: “Why don’t I put together little house-spells for my clients to bring good energy into their homes? No—why don’t I make little house-spells for everyone!” I didn’t get much sleep that night because I just kept channeling ideas. At that point, I had a very basic knowledge of space healing, things like burning sage to clear a space and fake plants being bad Feng Shui, but I became obsessed with knowing more. I devoured books on practical magic, Jungian psychology of the home, working with crystals, and energy healing. I knew I was onto something, and it was the best feeling in the world.
In November of the same year, I launched HausCraft—six different spells (packaged in the cutest tiny house-shaped boxes) for bringing different types of good vibes into your home. I wanted them to be different from other witchcraft spell kits I’d seen: friendlier and more welcoming for people who had never thought about practicing magic before. The kits are based on the same principles as the chapters of this book—manifestation, clearing, comfort, protection, harmony, and balance. They were an instant hit. And that’s when I started dreaming bigger.
A year later, HausCraft was a full-time job on its own. I had some money in savings from when my beloved father passed away but no idea what to do with it, and I didn’t know how I could ever fully support myself with HausWitch. (I will say that, since the beginning, my amazing clairvoyant, Christopher, always insisted that HausWitch would be my career, even when I had no idea how it would happen.) That’s when another lightning bolt hit me and I heard a spirit guide whisper, “You know what you want is to open a store.”
The store I had in mind would be like a giant HausCraft spell kit. It would carry all the things you need to make your home feel incredible and smell fantastic.
I knew the store had to be in Salem, Massachusetts, where I had lived and studied a few years earlier. The first retail space I looked at was in the middle of downtown “Witch City” and I realized the second I walked in that I was opening a store and it was going to be there.
My business, HausWitch Home + Healing, has been a total dream come true. All different kinds of magical practitioners, energy workers, and kindred spirits come to the store, and we have created an awesome community of like-minded people. Some of my closest friends, whom I refer to as my coven, have given the store its true heart and soul, and you w
The way all of these pieces fell into place has informed the way I practice magic in a profound way. If you’re trying to manifest something that just isn’t in the best interest of your highest self and your true soul path, no amount of magic spells will bring it to you. But if you leave yourself open to the flow, synchronicity, and—yes—the magic of the universe, dreams you never even knew you had can come true.
Witching 101
Am I a witch? The short answer is yes! The longer answer is that I like to say that I have always liked the acronym W.I.T.C.H.—for “Woman in Total Control of Herself,” which is something I strive very hard to be. As a feminist, I believe that the witch is an amazing archetype for channeling the innate and often unseen power of the divine feminine. To me, the word “witch” represents all that has been oppressed by patriarchy, and using the title today is a reclaiming of it.
THERE ARE AS MANY DEFINITIONS OF WHAT BEING A WITCH MEANS AS THERE ARE PRACTITIONERS AND BELIEVERS.
Every witch sees herself differently, but I believe that what unites us is the effort to stay centered and grounded in our energy so that we can use our inner strength to manifest the things that we want to bring into our lives and the world around us.
In terms of the spiritual side of my magical practice, I adhere to a New Age sensibility, which puts working with energy at the forefront of everything.
Everything Is Energy, and Energy Is Everything
A New Age lifestyle and its system of knowledge are meant to connect believers with the wider, natural world and put our lives on earth into a context that promotes an intentional existence that is aligned with nature.
Since becoming conscious of how much mindful living, intention-setting, and manifesting can change my life, I have seen my own happiness and sense of well-being increase dramatically. I feel more empowered and supported in my everyday life, and I am more able to act as a support for others and the planet.
Now, here’s the best part: living this way does not mean that you have to start using crystal balls or dancing naked in the woods (although you could!). It means taking simple steps toward improving your quality of life and starting to see how you can shift the energy around you in your favor.
VIBES
When witches talk about “good vibes” or “bad vibes,” what we are referring to is the fact that every single thing on earth and in your home—from crystals and plants to furniture, people, pets, walls, herbs, objects, and even emotions—runs at its own individual vibrational frequency. This is just basic science; everything is made of atoms, and atoms are always moving, creating a vibrational frequency.
Working with vibrations is how you work with energy. By paying thoughtful attention to the vibrations that you bring into your space, you affect the overall energy. Perhaps you can imagine the difference in vibration between, say, a ceramic bowl crafted by hand, with the thoughtfulness and attention of the maker infused right into its makeup, versus a mass-produced item made of plastic by a machine. Building an awareness of how different vibrations function in your space is a major theme of this book.
Basic Witching
As you’ll see, many types of magical techniques complement each other, and there is a lot to be gained by understanding the basics of each and how they relate to one another.
Don’t get too carried away with having the “right” magical things around you. Think of it this way: a spell is a prayer with props. Use whatever tools help you to best communicate your intentions to the world. Witchcraft is all about self-empowerment, so remember you are the magic behind your spells.
I use a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates different types of magical philosophies drawn from all corners of the world. Here is an introduction to a few of them so you’ll have a nice working knowledge of certain key ideas and terms when we explore the larger themes of manifestation, clearing, comfort, protection, harmony, and balance in your home.
A Note about New Age Cultural Appropriation
While writing this book, I have grappled with the ways in which I have culturally appropriated elements of my magical practice from religious and spiritual cultures that are not my own. By cultural appropriation, I mean when a dominant culture adopts practices belonging to another. This happens in New Age circles all the time, as we draw on traditions from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Native American Shamanism (to name just a few), often without properly understanding the entirety of these complex belief systems.
So how do we practice a more responsible witchcraft? By self-educating, even if it makes us feel uncomfortable, because that encourages us to remain open, have conversations, and listen to voices that have been silenced. By doing this, we start the project of cultural appreciation rather than appropriation, familiarize ourselves with the roots of our spiritual practices, and use them with respect and reverence for the communities from which they came.
Moving forward, we need to understand the right ways of incorporating the healing practices of other cultures into our society, where they are so badly needed, without distorting or appropriating them. I believe that as witches, we have a duty to set an example of how this can be done. To that end, I have included a few resources in the Recommended Reading section to help you understand these practices within their original context.
© Winnie Man, 2018
THE FIVE MOON PHASES
Working with the phases of the moon is a great way to align with cosmic timing. It’s important to be in sync with the lunar cycles since the moon’s proximity to earth makes its impact felt on us more than any other celestial body, aside from the sun.
Working with the moon phases is, moreover, simple to do because there are only five main phases that are important for spell work. You can use this primer to time anything from casting a manifestation spell to cleaning your house or planting a garden!
NEW MOON: in magical practices, the new moon is held to be that first sliver, that skinniest little fingernail crescent which shows up in the sky after a few days of darkness. It’s the beginning of the moon cycle and is the best time to welcome in a fresh start, set intentions, and plant seeds (literal or symbolic).
WAXING MOON: when the moon is said to be waxing, the visible part of the moon is growing in the sky. This is the best time for manifesting spells and drawing things to you—like that shiny new apartment for which you’ve just spotted a listing. Think of what you want more of in your life right now. The waxing moon is all about amplification, attraction, and expansion.
FULL MOON: the full moon is the time for welcoming any kind of positivity into your life. It is a time of celebration, completion, abundance, and gratitude. Not only is it a great time to appreciate all that was brought in during the waxing phase, but it’s a great time to feel your full power. Throw your housewarming party on the full moon for guaranteed high vibes.
WANING MOON: the moon is getting smaller in the sky, so this is a good time for letting go of what you want less of in your life. Now would be the time for decluttering and cleaning out closets (literally and symbolically). Have a yard sale or donate unused items to charity.
DARK MOON: for three days before the new moon, the moon is not visible in the sky. This is the perfect time for space clearing, banishing negative energies, and releasing what’s no longer serving you. Like, say, that piece of art your mother gave you that you secretly hate. The key words here are “Let it go.”
While it’s important to align with the moon phases, don’t feel discouraged if you are having trouble coordinating your intention-setting with the right moon phase; just try to frame your intention differently. If, for example, you want to do a manifesting spell but the moon is waning or dark, you can make it a spell about removing obstacles that stand in the way of getting what you want. And it can work both ways. If you want to release something while the moon is waxing, visualize what your life will look and feel like after you’ve released it and draw that energy in.
