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by Belinda Joy Payne (Author), Catherine Joy (Illustrator)
'Wholistic witchcraft' can be defined as living wholistically while also travelling your magickal path. This means living with your mind, body and soul in alignment, and nurturing yourself physically, mentally and spiritually on a daily basis. This is not only vital for your total wellbeing, but also for your witchcraft.
Without that foundation, it's difficult to keep your vibration - AKA your energy - high. And I believe that it's only when you're vibrating at that high level can you perform your best magick.
My journey with witchcraft began over 25 years ago and my journey with a wholistic lifestyle began about five years later when I became horribly ill. It was then that I started to bring my knowledge of both magick and wholistic health and living together and identified five keys that keep me functioning at my best:
In this book you'll discover why I feel each of these keys are so important and why I believe that living by them can improve anyone's health and wellbeing, which in the end is all the better for your magick.
Once you've started to work on the five keys, you'll be ready to discover:
- The basics you'll need to step out onto the path: You'll learn all about energy, cycles, elements, deities and other magickal beings, and how to work with each of these in the first section of this book.
- Tools to help you on your way: In the second section, you'll discover tools that can help you to explore and grow spiritually - divination, creating sacred spaces, ways to keep your magick with you and building a supportive community around you.
- Advanced techniques to help you spiral into transformation: Finally, in the third section, we'll start to explore deeper with higher-level techniques that include healing, self-love, shadow work and reclaiming your power.
The aim is to start with the basic (but essential) foundations and gradually move, step-by-step, along your path to true self-discovery and wholistic living. Eventually, if you're willing to put in the work, you'll evolve to a place where your mind, body, soul and magick are flowing harmoniously together in a beautiful dance of life.
I designed this book as a journey, so I strongly recommend reading and working through it at least once from start to finish. And in order to get the most out of this book, you need to actually experience as much of this journey as possible. It's not enough to just read and take in the words. So in each chapter, I've included a ritual that will help you to integrate these teachings and propel you forward. The process of experiencing your magick will help you to bring together everything you've learnt and help you to understand the teachings more fully.
Along with each ritual, you'll find suggestions for integrating everything you've learnt into your wholistic lifestyle, journal questions for you to explore and ponder and you'll be prompted to record anything magickal you've learnt or observed in your Book of Shadows.
To help you along and to act as your guide, I have created the story of the witchling which is inspired by the Fool's journey in the Tarot. Throughout the book she follows the path you will and what she discovers personally and magickally is profound for her. I hope that within these pages, you find wisdom and inspiration in your own quest for good health, a peaceful mind and a deeper understanding of magick.
