Goals of a Witch

Week 14 (G): goals of a witch

When I first put together my Book of Shadows, I included Scott Cunningham’s “Thirteen Goals of a Witch”. Over the years, I have tweaked his original list to better suit my own practice and beliefs. This is an ongoing process of modification, but the most recent version is below:

1. Know thyself.
2. Know your craft.
3. Never stop learning.
4. Apply knowledge with wisdom.
5. Seek balance.
6. Keep your words and thoughts in good order.
7. Search for beauty daily.
8. Attune with the cycles of the Earth.
9. Breathe and eat well.
10. Exercise the body.
11. Meditate.
12. Give and receive love freely.
13. Honor the Goddess.

These have become some of the most important tenets for me, both in my spiritual and my everyday life (the two are intimately related). It is deeply important to know yourself, to know your limits and your strengths. Keeping yourself healthy and happy allows your practice to expand to be the best it can be. This is why self-care is an important skill for any well-balanced witch.

I’ll talk more about self-care in the future, but suffice it to say that caring for yourself is a way of honoring the Goddess. All of these rules intertwine with one another: in order to exercise the body, you must breathe and eat well. When you seek balance, you are more able to give and receive love. By keeping your words and thoughts in good order, you are more apt to apply knowledge with wisdom. Knowing yourself is essential to knowing your craft (and vice versa). Like much of paganism, everything is connected.

by Joanna Raptis

This advice from a tree, combined with the above, make for a hefty chunk of the best advice I’ve ever heard. Trees are survivors, and survivors are the ones who have most often learned not only how to simply survive, but also how to thrive, even under the harshest conditions. We are all survivors in one way or another. It reminds me of this quote:

The things we’ve been able to survive have made us who we are. As a result of that, we’ve all made up rules for our practice, and for our lives. What are some of your rules or important tenets?