Hello all!
Alright lets get down to the nitty gritty business of Witchcraft supplies!
First off, as I have said before and I will say a million more times, this post is not to make you feel inadequate for not having certain supplies. Witchcraft is about your intent. You do not have to have any supplies to be a witch. This is simply a list of what I personally started out with and what you can use as a substitute for certain supplies.
Not all supplies are set in stone, so if you don’t have a specific herb or a certain stone to aid you with your spell, trust me when I say I have been there before and I have a substitute for whatever you are missing. Also keep in mind that if you do go to a witchcraft shop, not all supplies are created equally so please be mindful when purchasing. Now, not all supplies HAVE to come from a witchcraft shop. The other day I did a spell using birthday candles. (they’re cheap and serve their purpose. They also burn really quickly and thats a big bonus if you are impatient like I am.) I will go further into this later in the article. I am all for saving money on supplies, so, if you decide that you would like to try your local thrift shop for supplies please be mindful. You will want to cleanse them of the energy from their previous owner. This can be done while washing them (of course that is if it is washable. You’re not going to want to wash candles.) I have purchased candles at my local thrift shop and sat them out on the windowsill during the full moon for cleansing.
The supplies that I had started out with were:
Essential oils
Jars
Candles
Herbs
And a notebook as my book of shadows
Thats it. Of course since then my supplies have grown.
Alright lets start off with essential oils. Nothing too special that I would recommend, but they work very well for helping you heal and they’re just great to have. Essential oils can get expensive, and you also have to be mindful when purchasing essential oils. You do not want oil fragrances. These are not essential oils. Oil fragrances are good if you want to make candles but not for anything else. The ones that I use the most are lavender and eucalyptus. Mixed together they are amazing. My favorite brand of essential oils is aura cacia. You can purchase essential oils at your local health food stores like whole foods. However if you’re going to whole foods I would go with their brand (I think it is called 365) I have also gotten essential oils from windmere and now. These brands are great! You do not NEED to have essential oils. I just happened to have some from making sugar scrubs. (essential oils are so versatile!)
Jars- These can be any type of jar. I use them to hold my herbs, but you can use them for anything. I got a bunch of mine at Michaels. They have a great selection there and they’re cheap. But these could be anything from store-bought jars to jars that you are recycling.
Since we were just on the topic of herbs, I started out with lavender buds, salt, and rosemary. If you plan on having an altar, I would suggest having some sort of sea salt for protection and cleansing. I have black salt. I actually got this at Walmart in the herb section and it was about $2 for a big thing of it. Rosemary is important. It is cheap and it can be used in the place of any herb in any spell.
On to candles. I’m going to be honest with you, I LOVE CANDLES and I have way too many of them. I went to my local spiritual store and they have them for thirty five cents each. They’re not super expensive, but they aren’t completely necessary. Most spells call for you to burn the candle down, and if you’re like me, you don’t have 2 plus hours to wait for the candles to burn down. So if you’re impatient, have a few kids running around or if you just have a cat that has a strange affinity for fire ( Wednesday loves fire… I have no idea why. So I’m always super nervous about leaving my candles burning for long periods of time. I could look away for one second and she could burn the hair off her tail..) You can use birthday candles! Who doesn’t love birthdays, right? If you’re like me you have a few kicking around from friends or family birthdays. They are super cheap, they come in a package of like a million, and they have a boat load of different colors! Plus they burn down in minutes, which is amazing!
Your Book of Shadows does not have to be anything fancy, unless you want it to be. It could be a spiral notebook or even a three-ringed binder (this will come in handy if you like to move things around and customize things. But, I will go over this in my next post.) I use a notebook that I got at Michaels during one of their sales, its inconspicuous, teal and says something like “more thoughts than time” I am working on getting everything into a three-ringed binder because I am a control freak and I want things to be in the correct spot, and if I deem that it should go in one place one day and then move it to another place the next I want to be able to do that.
Optional supplies.
You do not need to drop a bunch of money on supplies right up front, if you choose to purchase supplies. But they do come in handy.
You may want to consider getting some:
Sachets
Tarot cards
Some type of smudging bundle
Crystals
The sachets can be anything you would like. I got mine at Michaels in the wedding aisle because they have a bunch of colors.
Tarot cards you can get anywhere. I would suggest that you start with the Rider Waite deck. This is a great starter deck!
Smudging bundles. Oh smudging bundles. I have a love/ hate relationship with smudging bundles. Mostly sage bundles. Yes, its great, but I hate the smell. Obviously this is a personal issue that I have with sage but, you really can use anything. You can make your own smudging bundles out of dried flowers, you could use palo Santo wood or even a braid of sweet grass. As an alternative to a sage bundle, I like to burn sage candles. They smell much better!
"Teach a girl about crystals and she wont have money for anything else”- Me. This quote is all too true. I LOVE crystals. I love the experience of going to the crystal shop. (We are lucky enough to have three shops that have a great selection of crystals!) If you don’t have a crystal shop or a shop that has a good selection of crystals near by, you can always order them online. I prefer to go and pick mine out just to get a feel for the stones energy. However you shop for your crystals, make sure you cleanse them after purchase! Also, if you do end up at a shop, be mindful that when you touch a crystal you are imprinting your energy into that stone. I like to follow a rule when buying crystals; if I touch it, I buy it. Not only does this save me a bunch of money (because lets be real here, I would be acting like a 5 year old who was given one hundred bucks and told to go pick out snacks for a road trip) I would strongly suggest getting a crystal quartz. Crystal quartz stones can be used in lieu of any other stone.
Since we have gone over supplies, I will briefly go into altars. Altars can be as complex or as simple as you would like them yo be. Typically, there is a tapestry of sorts that covers the table. I suggest having a little bowl of salt out so you have it ready when needed and it helps cleanse and protect your space. You can put flowers or any sort of offering on your altar. I like to keep a lot of my supplies near my altar so that I can focus on working magick without having to get up a million times. I would suggest that you have one thing to represent each element. You could have a glass of water, a feather, crystals, and your candles. You don’t necessarily have to have these pieces, I just like to have them because I feel like it makes my altar whole. If you are a closet witch, you can get mini altar tools to keep in a box. However, an altar is a very personal thing. I can’t tell you what you have to put on your altar. Whatever feels right for you. If you need inspiration, I would suggest going to Pinterest (to get pinspired!)
Always, always, always be mindful of the energies and beings around you.
As always, please check your energy before commenting!
Blessed be!
K
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