Where Yoga Meets Witchcraft: A Practical Guide
So with this blog, you will see a lot of compartmentalized information, you may be drawn to more of my witchy side, practices, and information, or you may be drawn to the yogi vibes, or ultimately, you may be drawn to both, which is my personal goal.
My ultimate focus is for my blog to be a hub of information where you can learn about multiple practices, and pick and choose what you like about either to create your own personalized practice. You may not be into a strict yoga practice, but you may like some of the elements of yoga, and you may not be super into witchcraft, but are into manifesting and magick, and that's okay!
Here's ultimately where the worlds of yoga and witchcraft collide:
Clarity and focus, and staying grounded:
Yoga requires a lot of focus and mental clarity. In order to flow into a practice, you need to truly focus, you need to shut out not only the physical distractions to get into your vinyasa practice, but the mental chatter--this is where you build and move energy. Same thing goes with witchcraft--if you are casting a spell, or working on intention and manifestation, you need to move that energy where you want it to, or the spell may not quite manifest.
Ritual-based Practice:
A ritual, can simply be a consistent dedication to your practice. For example, in yoga we practice asanas, or different body postures/positionings, to help move energy or set intention. By combining these asanas, we create a flow which moves energy. We generally set intentions in yoga, or even sometimes dedicate our practice to someone, ourselves, or even a deity. That in itself is a ritual. Now, witches are known for spicing things up a bit, we definitely move energy, and our rituals tend to be a little more....engaging if you will, but both are rituals at its truest form.
Altars:
It's common for both yogis, and especially witches to set up altars for their spiritual practice. Yogis may have a more simplistic altar with a few crystals, sage or Palo Santo, an om symbol, or maybe a deity statue, and potentially oracle, tarot, or manifestation cards. Witches, are definitely known for having some amazing aesthetic altars as well. As a witch, I generally will have the above on my altar, with some fresh flowers, my mini cauldron for burning herbs, incense, and little tokens and trinkets that I want to bring into this season, or that have a personal meaning to me. Altar setups can go on and on, and there's really no clear line for what a yogis altar may have compared to a witches altar.
Practice goes both on and off the mat/altar/cauldron:
Just like any spiritual practice, you can create all sorts of wonderful juju on the yoga mat, altar, church, wherever your place of practice is, but generally, the practice should be observed in the normal world, outside of your holy space or place of practice. For example, yogis generally follow karmic law, of what goes around, comes around, and many witches tend to observe the threefold law, where if someone practices bad intentions and actions that energy gets sent back to them with three times the power/malice. Simply put, like energy attracts like energy.
Psychic Energy:
When you connect with your lowest self, you are able to connect with your highest self in both of these practices, as they each build awareness. The first step in psychic development is self awareness. In yoga, moving energy and connecting to your psychic self is called a Nadi. With the chakra system most aligned with yoga, the awakened third eye leads to enhanced psychic development. Many modern witches practice their psychic development through channeling spirit through tarot cards, oracle cards, and many other forms of divination.
The More you Practice, the More you Grow:
Just like with anything in life, with both of these worlds, the more you practice, the more you grow. Especially in terms of meditation, spiritual connection/stregth, and overall fluidity of your practice.
Earth-Based Spirituality:
In essence, both of these practices observe some type of earth-based spirituality, which simply means honoring the ebbs and flows of nature, whether it's simply observing the moon cycles, or observing the witches holidays like the sabbats, and equinoxes. Both of these practice generally have different practices that honor both the divine masculine and feminine, which ultimate cultivate balanced life.
Community and Self Practice:
Finally, both of these practices do really well with both self practice and community. Nothing is better than being in a room full of yogis where everyone's energy meshes together to help us flow through our asanas, and I haven't found a more fulfilling way to practice witchcraft and magick then working with the group energy of my coven, dancing around the bonfire, underneath a full moon.
I hope this post opened your eyes to the parallel in these two universes. I feel like with the grounding, physical, movement-based practice of yoga and the elevating magickal properties of witchcraft that you can utilize each of them as a resource to grow your practice into something beautiful by staying grounded, magickal, and aligned with your highest self as well as your earthly self.
Did I miss anything? I'd love to know! With love and gratitude, Anya.
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