Anna in dressing gown and sleep mask

Practical Magick: Banish Despair

I mean, bless, ease and joy are cool and everything, but have you ever tried a delicious hot dose of despair? I'm about to give you a delectable and sensuous way to be with misery.

Hello, my name is Anna Bellissima. I am an extremely powerful magician, as of course are you and it may not surprise you to learn that I have over the years received at least my fair share of psychiatric diagnosis and treatments, including medications, therapies and even electroconvulsive therapy. Apparently, they couldn't burn this witch.

After I decided to stop thinking of my moods or personality as being in any way disordered, I began instead considering myself to be beautiful, powerful and whole. And coincidentally, I began to become beautiful, powerful and whole. All of this is to explain that my shadow loves to crawl-splash through the murky waters of anxiety, despair, helplessness, shame and rage.

Thankfully, these days it is almost always a fleeting visit. But I have learned a thing or two about surviving these periods. In my experience, these practices help by changing our response to what we're going through. In the words of Byron Katie, 'We only suffer when we argue with reality.'

So here is my recipe, in case of emergency. One, rename what is going on. This is not a low mood or a funk or an existential crisis. Call it an integration. Drink a glass of water because it never hurts to do so and add a flower essence or clove tincture if they are to hand.

In a hot, comforting alchemical bath, invite your sadness to come forward and play. Meet them as you would your favorite child or pet completely willing to be with them without trying to change or judge only love contact a confidant. It will help you and them.

Give yourself some self touch, followed by some gentle magical practices like lighting the candles and incense on your altar, drawing a tarot card. Hypersigiling from a better place next week. Draw a glyph of your deity on your body, give yourself nourishing food and tuck itself into bed for an early night.

Fall asleep in conversation with your dream genius with a clear request for sexy dreams about your holy guardian angel with a rakish smile, enchanted to watch you squirm and suffer. I hope you will save this video so that you can use it next time you experience a crisis of despair. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to this channel and have a look in the description below where I will link the practices I mentioned today.

I send you my love. Thank you for being here with me and I will see you next time.


Practical Magick: Good Question

If you ever find yourself trapped in circular thoughts, stewing, trying to solve problems that seem intractable, I'm about to offer you a solution that works so well, I believe it is actually magic.

Hello, my name is Anna Bellissima I am an extremely powerful magician, as, of course, are you. And in a moment, I'm going to give you the specific method for untangling the tangliest of conundrums without breaking your brain. But first, let's have a look inside that beautiful head of yours. Now, of course, our minds are infinitely wondrous and perform almost unimaginable feats of intellect on a daily basis. Personally, I would not wish to be without one, but I have noticed that sometimes, like a piece of software glitching, they become stuck in a loop, replaying a particular question over and over again, overheating as they grind away to discover a solution and provide us with an answer.

It can be quite distracting while you are at the beach intending to enjoy the sea air, the delicious breeze, the game of Frisbee with your loved ones, the sensation of sand between your toes and in your picnic, your sweet, diligent mind keeps interrupting your experience. An error message, a well-meaning error message popping up every two minutes to say, This is lovely, but the car was making a funny noise. How are you going to pay for the repairs? And more often than not, there is no immediate or simple solution.

And if there were, it wouldn't be interrupting your day at the seaside. So instead of trying to think your way to an answer, try thinking a better question, because one of the fundamental things that our thinking brain has wrong is believing that it is its responsibility to come up with a solution when in fact the best solutions come from the part of our mind that has nothing to do with thinking at all. Now, I do appreciate that thinking about thinking can be rather tricksy.

So let me give you a concrete example. So you are self-employed and times are hard as they are for everybody at some stage setting up in business now pondering questions like should I launch a new product? Should I hold a flash sale? Should I see if I can get a part time job? Should I invest in more business advice or less? is wonderful. If you can give yourself a quick answer that feels good and is actionable, but there is no correct answer to these questions, so you may well find yourself ruminating, in which case I invite you to ask instead a very different type of question, which is actually extremely related to the practice of writing a hypersigil which which we explored in an earlier episode of Practical Magic.

The exercise is this: cast your mind forward just a little way into the future. And from that perspective, ask, Wow, when did business become so easy for me? Where did all these perfect customers come from? How did I become so confident and when did I become so lucky? Asking the right questions is what gives you the right answers. Be sure to include key words for how you want this to feel.

Easy, perfect, creative, confident, lucky. Then shrug your shoulders, shake your head in wonder at all your good fortune and let your brain chew over these delightful questions until at some point in the next few hours or the next couple of days, it will deliver you a part of the answer, a thread you can follow. And as you keep on mulling over those delightful questions about how everything worked out so easily and so, so beautifully for you, your unconscious mind will drip feed you - will drip feed your consciousness - with each next step in turn.

I would love to know how your thinking mind responds to this. So leave me a comment and don't forget to explore the rest of my channel, particularly the very relevant lesson on hypotheticals I mentioned, which I will link in the description. Thank you so much for being here with me today and I look forward to seeing you next time. Bye bye.


Anna holding sigils

Practical Magick: Sigils

If you are interested in shaping reality through the use of magic, you will want to learn about these weird and witchy symbols called sigils.

My name is Anna Bellissima. I'm an extremely powerful magician, as of course are you, and i'm going to talk you through the exact steps to make and use these shapes in your magic.

But first, I want you to really understand that magic is not a belief system. It is a technology. It evolves through hypothesis, experiment, and meticulous note taking, so you do not need to believe in magic in order to try this out. You just need to be able to suspend your disbelief for long enough to earnestly perform your magic, and then stay open and curious about whatever happens next. Magic always yields results and they are always unexpected.

So these shapes are called sigils and each one represents a phrase that affirms the reality that you are creating with your magic. They are symbols that are filled with the energy of our desire, and we fill them with that energy through our attention, intention, and psychic energy. Personally, I have used sigils to entirely reinvent myself, to unlock ridiculous levels of self-expression, to find myself deeply embedded in a wonderfully supported community, to build a business I love, to find marketing easy and fun, to manifest income goals and an actual pony.

There is really no limit to what you can create and this is the four-step process of creation which i will talk you through in more detail. Define your desire: number one. Number two: create the sigil number. Three: charge the sigil. And finally, become unattached to the outcome of your magic. There is also a very cool hack which I'm going to talk to you about which will boost the power of all your sigils. And i will come to that right after I've made a sigil with you.

There are a few different methods of sigil creation, and you can even find websites that will automatically generate sigils for you, but this is the method I learned and the one I always use. Hit Pause now while you grab a pencil and paper and write down your desire across the top of the page.

Make sure it is phrased in the positive - no negative language - and that there is a mundane means to manifestation. So if you're after a new job make sure that you are actually applying for jobs. Refine and rephrase your affirmation as many times as you need to. Listen to yourself say it out loud and then when you're happy with it, write it out in capital letters.

And I am working with, 'Every day is a good hair day.'

So the first thing you need to do is cross out all the vowels. People always ask about the letter Y, I say leave it in. People always ask about numbers and currency symbols, and I would also leave those in two, but I do caution against money magic as your very first spell. Money magic tends to be done with a lot of watching and waiting energy, which tends to just lead to more watching and waiting. So I'm going to cross out all of the vowels in my phrase and here is what i'm left with.

Next we're going to cross out all duplicate consonants, so the letters that you will have left, you just want one representative of each letter remaining. So I have one V one R one Y D S G H and the consonants I am left with are: V R Y D G H. The next thing we're going to do is sort of squash the elements of these letters together to create a nice weird-looking symbol. You might need to cross out your workings and start again. You can take as long as you wish over this process. The only outcome is to be left with a symbol that might look creepy if you found it scratched on the wall of an abandoned building.

So i'm going to make mine now.

This is why I suggest you take much longer, but this is the sigil that i have created from my consonants. Once you're happy with your sigil, draw it in pen on some good paper, and cut it out so you have a nice little talisman, like these ones, that can live on your altar.

Now, the symbol you've just made is not up to full power yet. It needs to be charged. But before i get to that part, I'm going to give you the hack i mentioned that makes this process way more powerful. And that is to create several sigils which all support one central desire. I read about this on Gordon White's blog, Rune Soup. It works really well and he explained the concept as being like a shoal of fish. So when one moves, the whole shoal moves. If for example, you wanted to meet a new romantic partner, you could make a sigil for meeting funny and creative people; that every day is a good hair day; that i feel confident and attractive, and so on.

So by all means, save this video, make your whole shoal of sigils, and then come back here to learn how to put them to work.

Once you have made your shoal of sigils, leave them on an altar until such time as you are ready to charge them. Now, the idea is to gaze upon the sigils when your mind is empty of all other thoughts, which anyone who has tried to meditate will tell you is far easier said than done. One option for creating an empty mind is fear, so you could take your sigils on a roller coaster, or to watch a horror movie. Physical exhaustion is another thing that can cause an empty mind; sexual climax is a very popular way of charging your sigils, or you can use a trick of magical consciousness where you will create a magical atmosphere with candles, incense, meditation and so on, and then use the power of your imagination to kind of trick yourself into the deep belief that you are dreaming; that you are the dreamer of the dream.

And you are at a slight advantage here if you've tried psychedelic drugs or experienced episodes of mania, but this is not beyond anybody with an imagination. Just work at it until you feel an energetic shift, a sense of high strangeness, and then stare at your sigils one by one in the candlelight until they seem to quiver and almost take on their own consciousness, and you will have the thought, 'Oh shit, I've really done it. I've created an inevitable reality. I have made magic.'

Then leave your sigils on your altar, or pin them somewhere where you will glance at them each day, and then ground yourself back to reality with a barefoot walk, hugging a tree, drinking some water, eating something.

And remember to release your sigils with deep gratitude, and set them on fire on a full moon when you notice that they are doing their work and the magic is incoming. As with all topics of magic, there is much nuance and depth and much to discuss around sigils, but I hope you have found this very brief introduction helpful.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and do explore my channel for related topics, like one on creating an altar for your sigils to sit on. Thank you so much for being here with me today i look forward to seeing you next time.


Anna dressed as a deer

Practical Magick - Signs, Omens & Synchronicities

If you're on a quest to experience a magical life, you need to understand signs, omens and synchronicities.

My name is Anna Bellissima. I am an extremely powerful magician, as of course, are you. And, do you want to listen? If you are a very intelligent person with a short attention span like me, adjust the playback of this lesson to one point two five speed. You will get all the information in less time. And this helps me immensely when I am in the mercury current.

Now, as an announcement, the information I share on this channel can change your life to an overall experience of joy and bliss instead of suffering. So it would therefore be sensible to subscribe and click the little picture of a bell, so you get to learn it all.

So to the subject at hand, signs, omens and synchronicities in other words, the fundamentals of augury, which is the practice of reading and making sense of portents. I'm going to share with you some ways to attract and respond to these nods from the universe. But first, some foundational understanding. Let's define our terms and look at some examples.

As far as I can tell, from my extensive reading, the difference between a sign and an omen is far too subtle to be of much interest to me. Although I do note that omen is more frequently used as an indicator of a negative event.

However, a sign is an object quality event or entity whose presence indicates the presence of something else, an object, quality, event or entity whose presence indicates the presence of something else. It is something that indicates something else. And of course, whether the something else it indicates is desired or feared by you is somewhat beside the point. Some signs you will know, such as the white feather indicating the presence of a departed loved one, or breaking a mirror starting a run of bad luck. And these are more or less culturally accepted, while others are very personal to the individual. If you don't already have a suite of signs that you recognize immediately as your wink from the great mystery, then I advise you to take a moment or two now to decide on one or two. These would be something that you don't see all the time, like, for example, a black car. But that does have a mundane means of manifestation in your typical environment. So, for example, some of my signs are white horses, biplanes, vintage sports cars, foxes and pink ribbons.

Synchronicities are rather similar, but more elaborate. Carl Jung, the psychologist and psychiatrist who gave us analytical psychology and the concept of the shadow, developed the principle of synchronicity in the nineteen sixties to describe the occurrence of circumstances or events that appear meaningfully related but where no causal connection is apparent; events or situations that appear related, but where there is no causal connection, the only thing they have in common is their meaning. So the simplest example of synchronicity is when you think of your Aunt Daphne just moments before the telephone rings.

But you may have experienced the more baroque and intricate stories that unfold when we respond to these synchronicities in a kind of dance. About six months ago, I gave a three card tarot reading to a lady I had known for a few years on the Internet but never met in person. I don't think she gave me a question for the reading, but the message that came through for her was unequivocal. The great mystery is calling you: purchase some incense, start meditating and listen to your intuition.

About three weeks later, about three weeks after the reading, I woke up in bed from a very insistent dream that had just one word for me. Augur: A U G U R.. So I woke up and of course looked up the definition and read this. And Augur was a priest in classical Rome whose main role was the practice of augury, interpreting the will of the gods by studying the behavior of birds.

Later the same day, I received a message from my tarot client who wanted me to know, and I quote, "I've been burning nag champa and there's a crow eating out of my hand. I feel like the universe is speaking." So far, so wild. Right? So I took this story because this kind of story delights me to my magical community. And much later that evening, I logged on and saw this, "Anna, the most beautiful thing just happened. I am planning a spell. I need to buy soil from the spirit at the local crossroads.

This morning, I read a couple of posts here, including yours. Which I pondered on for a moment and I decided to go look for a crossroads to trade what I need from the spirits. After wandering and making a couple of wrong stops, I sat down in the park feeling defeated. In that moment, I remembered a crossroads near my place, beautiful classical architecture and massive trees. I went there and asked the spirit if it was OK to take some soil. I was standing there thinking, How will I know if the answer is real or if it's just my imagination? Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a huge flock of pigeons pecking on the ground. And then I looked across the street and saw this beautiful facade of a building and between sculptures of angels, a huge engraved sign read augury and big golden capital letters. How did this sign appear right now? And not once did I notice it before? Of course I had my answer."

So why does synchronicity happen and how can we engage in a dance with it? The purpose of synchronicity is to take us out of our ordinary state of consciousness; an ordinary state of consciousness being rolled out of bed, get to work, go to the supermarket and complain about the sore hip and the need to pay taxes. A sign or synchronicity is a nudge, a bell, a surprise that jolts us out of this very compelling but limiting reality. And it jolts our conscious awareness into a state of wow, whoa, the remembrance that there is far more at work and at play in the universe than we can immediately see and hear around us. A sign or synchronicity teases us to loosen our grip on reality, which inevitably involves suffering. And in that state, we feel awareness expand. We sense our connection to everything else in the universe.

Synchronicities deliver one of two gifts. Either they are providing you guidance or counsel, pointing you turn it to the next step on your path. So that would be something like meeting an old friend in a coffee shop who can set up an introduction which leads to an opportunity. Or they are delivering to you a personal acknowledgement, a wink from the universe to confirm your power and your magic. So if, for example, you are somebody who frequently sees repeated number sequences, when you look at a digital clock, that's the purpose of those kind of synchronicities. The universe is telling you your intuition is strong. Now go out and learn a new way to play this game.

Now, as seems to be true with almost everything I speak about, the trick to creating more synchronicity is to be deliberate, earnest and diligent in your commitment to experiencing more synchronicity. That means paying attention to what is happening around you rather than dwelling in your thoughts. The moment you decide to experience more synchronicity, more synchronicity rolls in. And the more you demonstrate your commitment to seeing, experiencing and responding to synchronicity, the more powerful the flow. And you can demonstrate this through performing ceremonial magic or daily ritual or through of the spiritual practices like meditation, creating a hypersigil, drawing tarot cards, interpreting dreams and so on.

But of course, this cannot be forced. This is our old friend Attachment to Outcome. And the easiest way to address that particular vice is through my quick and dirty alchemy protocol, which I will link for you below. If a synchronicity has shown up to give you a wink and acknowledgment of your power, the way to respond is simply to breathe it in, bask in it, thank the universe and accept the sign as a confirmation of your part in the dance of creation.

You can even decide right now that every synchronicity you experience gives you a kind of energetic upgrade and you permanently expand your awareness and boost your creative battery. If, on the other hand, a synchronicity is showing you towards your path and you will need to exercise discernment in deciding what synchronicity or sign is fulfilling what purpose for you right now, then the course of action is slightly different. You need to acknowledge your gratitude to the universe for the clear signpost.

Isn't that what you've been asking for? Show me a sign, O Lord. And yes, you do have to follow through with action. Ignore these synchronicities at your peril. Not that any danger will befall you, but if you ask for synchronicity. Or miracles or guidance, and you get them. Well, you have an obligation to keep your side of the bargain and I very much hope that you do, because that's how one finds oneself wearing antlers on YouTube. You must follow the path and you don't have to know where it's taking you, as my beloved Saint Augustine said, "Salvatore ambulando." By walking, it is solved.

In other words, we find out where we're going by going. Yes, it will be scary. The unknown always is. But please know that although action is compulsory, you do not have to take action immediately in a rushed way or without due consideration. So when a path is given, I invite you to sit with it and let it percolate through your body, your emotional field and your thoughts for a few days.

And in the meantime, while you're looking out for other synchronicities and signs, you can ask your dreams, your intuition, the universe for more confirmation, more reassurance, and you will receive further guidance to clarify and confirm the details of what you need to do so that you can move forward when you are not activated by fear.

I would love to hear from you about the synchronicities that you've experienced. Thank you so much for being here with me today. And I will see you next time. Bye bye.


Anna in blue on blue wallpaper

Practical Magick: Hypersigils

If you are interested in shaping reality through the use of magic, you will want to learn about these weird and witchy symbols called sigils.  

My name is Anna Bellissima. I'm an extremely powerful magician, as of course are you, and i'm going to talk you through the exact steps to make  and use these shapes in your magic. 

But first, I want you to really understand that magic is not a belief system. It is a technology. It evolves through hypothesis, experiment, and meticulous note taking, so you do not need to believe in magic in order to try this out. You just need  to be able to suspend your disbelief for long enough to earnestly perform your magic, and then  stay open and curious about whatever happens next. Magic always yields results and they are always  unexpected. 

So these shapes are called sigils and each one represents a phrase that affirms the reality that you are creating with your magic. They are symbols that are filled with the energy of our desire, and we fill them with that energy through our attention, intention, and psychic  energy. Personally, I have used sigils to entirely reinvent myself, to unlock ridiculous levels of  self-expression, to find myself deeply embedded in a wonderfully supported community, to build a  business I love, to find marketing easy and fun, to manifest income goals and an actual pony.  

There is really no limit to what you can create and this is the four-step process of creation  which i will talk you through in more detail. Define your desire: number one. Number two: create  the sigil number. Three: charge the sigil. And finally, become unattached to the outcome of your  magic. There is also a very cool hack which I'm going to talk to you about which will boost the  power of all your sigils. And i will come to that right after I've made a sigil with you. 

There  are a few different methods of sigil creation, and you can even find websites that will automatically generate sigils for you, but this is the method I learned and the one I always use.  Hit Pause now while you grab a pencil and paper and write down your desire across the top of the page. 

Make sure it is phrased in the positive - no negative language - and that there is a mundane means to manifestation. So if you're after a new job make sure that you are actually applying for  jobs. Refine and rephrase your affirmation as many times as you need to. Listen to yourself say it out loud and then when you're happy with it, write it out in capital letters. 

And I am working with, 'Every day is a good hair day.' 

So the first thing you need to do is cross out all  the vowels. People always ask about the letter Y, I say leave it in. People always ask about numbers and currency symbols, and I would also leave those in two, but I do caution against money magic as your very first spell. Money magic tends to be done with a lot of watching and waiting energy,  which tends to just lead to more watching and waiting. So I'm going to cross out all of the  vowels in my phrase and here is what i'm left with. 

Next we're going to cross out all duplicate  consonants, so the letters that you will have left, you just want one representative of each  letter remaining. So I have one V one R one Y D S G H and the consonants I am left with are: V  R Y D G H. The next thing we're going to do  is sort of squash the elements of these letters together to create a nice weird-looking symbol. You might need to cross out your workings and  start again. You can take as long as you wish  over this process. The only outcome is to be left  with a symbol that might look creepy if you found  it scratched on the wall of an abandoned  building. 

So i'm going to make mine now. 

This is why I suggest you take much longer, but this is the sigil that i have created from my consonants. Once you're happy with your  sigil, draw it in pen on some good paper, and cut it out so you have a nice little talisman,  like these ones, that can live on your altar. 

Now, the symbol you've just made is not up to full  power yet. It needs to be charged. But before i get to that part, I'm going to give you the hack i mentioned that makes this process way more powerful. And that is to create several sigils  which all support one central desire. I read about this on Gordon White's blog, Rune Soup. It works really well and he explained the concept as being like a shoal of fish. So when one moves, the whole  shoal moves. If for example, you wanted to meet a new romantic partner, you could make a sigil for meeting funny and creative people; that every day is a good hair day; that i feel  confident and attractive, and so on. 

So by all means, save this video, make your whole shoal of  sigils, and then come back here to learn how to put them to work. 

Once you have made your shoal  of sigils, leave them on an altar until such time as you are ready to charge them. Now, the idea is to gaze upon the sigils when your mind is empty of all other thoughts, which anyone who has  tried to meditate will tell you is far easier said than done. One option for creating an empty mind is fear, so you could take your sigils on a roller coaster, or to watch a horror movie. Physical  exhaustion is another thing that can cause an empty mind; sexual climax is a very popular way of charging your sigils, or you can use a trick of magical consciousness where you will create a magical atmosphere with candles, incense, meditation and so on, and then use the power of your imagination to kind of trick yourself into the deep belief that you are dreaming; that  you are the dreamer of the dream. 

And you are at a slight advantage here if you've tried psychedelic drugs or experienced episodes of mania, but this is not beyond anybody with an imagination. Just  work at it until you feel an energetic shift, a sense of high strangeness, and then stare at your sigils one by one in the candlelight until they seem to quiver and almost take on their  own consciousness, and you will have the thought, 'Oh shit, I've really done it. I've created an  inevitable reality. I have made magic.' 

Then leave your sigils on your altar, or pin them somewhere where you will glance at them each day, and then ground yourself back to reality with a barefoot walk, hugging a tree, drinking some water, eating something. 

And remember to release your sigils with deep gratitude, and set them on fire on a full moon when you notice that they are doing their work and the magic is incoming. As with all topics of magic, there is much nuance and depth and much to discuss around sigils, but I hope you have found this very brief introduction helpful.  

Please let me know if you have any questions, and do explore my channel for related topics, like one  on creating an altar for your sigils to sit on. Thank you so much for being here with me  today i look forward to seeing you next time.


Anna with trickster smile

Practical Magick: Quick and Dirty Alchemy

If you ever set intentions, cast spells, manifest magic or in any other ways deliberately engineer reality, your workings will be vastly amplified by cultivating an attitude of non-attachment to outcome. And i'm going to tell you how to do that.

Hello, I'm Anna Bellissima. I am an extremely powerful magician, as of course are you, and today I'm answering the question: what is non-attachment to outcome, and how do I cultivate it? An excellent question. And the predictable but also thrilling answer is that you do it through shadow integration. I'm going to give you my 3 step, brutally effective, shadow integration process to become unattached, open and surrendered to the universe. A vital ingredient in magical workings, and in living a joyful and creative life.

But first some background. Just for fun, imagine that you are an all-powerful deity. You can create and destroy galaxies with a snap of your fingers. You can assume any physical or metaphysical form you desire, from a clamshell to a fertility god. Nothing can or could ever oppose you. And to break the monotony of endless bliss, you chose to play a game. And as soon as you decided to play, you were incarnated as a human soul in a sweet little baby's body, and you began to learn through experience, and through explicit teachings from parents and from the culture, what it means to feel limited.

In fact, that's the name of the game: limitation. And ever since you got here, you've also been taught that certain sensations, physical or emotional, cause you suffering and must be avoided at all costs. Nothing in this game is real. Every object, environment, situation you encounter, is created by the game running in your consciousness to give the seamless illusion of limitation. And every intelligence you interact with, every person, animal, plant, deity, reflects some facet of the game of limitation, or they give you a message that you need in order to progress. And then one day - today - you receive a message in the game that gives you a new way to play. And the message is this: pain hides power.

Yes, like finding hidden treasure in a story-based adventure game, you can consciously and deliberately seek out spots of pain, execute a quick and easy process, and instead of suffering, you receive a huge boost of power, by which I mean, magic, creativity, joy, fulfilment, freedom. Wouldn't that change the way you play the game of limitation? Instead of shying away from painful situations and desperately trying to control outcomes to go in your favour, instead you'd get a hit of excitement when bad feelings come up, in anticipation of the incoming bliss. And even better if the process itself is quick, dirty, and fun. No more suffering. Only either pleasure, or alchemy.

And then we go beyond resilience, or just bouncing back, into becoming beings who are actually anti-fragile, who become stronger through challenge, and not by toughening up, but by deepening into love and into our role as divine creators. It is a very big promise. And nevertheless, I invite you to experiment with this thought for at least the next two weeks.

So here in full is your hack for the game of limitation.

Important note: this process is not suitable if you are deep in depression, anxiety, disassociation, or grief; nor if you are in a state of active trauma. If that's you, I want you to go and look up some tapping with Brad Yates or Byron Katie. Don't do this work now, please. You are responsible for your own well-being.

Now that those cats have gone: this process has six steps but in a push, or in public, if you're trying to do it in the moment, and you have no time, just use steps three to five. Ready?

Here we go: number one: when you notice discomfort of any kind, and you don't need to be able to name the emotion or sensation, take yourself to a quiet space where you can sit or stand with your back against a wall. Hug something, a pillow, a bag, or a coat to your chest, or just cross your arms in front of yourself and hug yourself. Two: look around the space and notice that you are safe. Breathe calmly, then return your attention to your body. These are the vital steps of the process.

Number three: allow your discomfort to be felt. Let it build. Using your imagination, amplify the sensation so that you feel it even more. More sadness, more fear, more shame, more resentment, whatever it is, and remember you don't have to name it. When the energy is at a peak say this out loud: I am not afraid of the dark. I created this illusion. My will is done and I reclaim my power. Feel the energy in your body continue to grow and move, and vividly imagine it transmuting from pain into power, health, vitality, magic, manifestation, energy, creativity, freedom, love, joy. Maintain that feeling. Step six: maintain that feeling for as long as you can and repeat every time you discover a new bad feeling.

In an emergency, you can perform steps four to six only and say step five silently to yourself if you are in a public place and don't wish to draw attention. You will find that many of these emotions and situations require this process to be repeated numerous times before the illusion of limitation is completely dispelled. At other times, the relief is immediate and permanent.

Learning about ourselves as the creators of reality is not without challenges. And once we start to play the game of limitation in a new way, weird shit starts to happen: unexpected results, ridiculous synchronicities, and just reality seeming to twist and dissolve and reform. It can be quite tiring. It is an exhilarating ride, so be sure to be unequivocally on your own side with exceptional and exquisite self-care.

I hope you've enjoyed this little class. Please check out my recent videos on tarot and on dreamwork, and if you subscribe, you will never miss an episode. Thank you for joining me.


The Fated Forecast Method shown on two journal pages with crystals (quartz, serpentine and a mixed bead mala necklace on top)

The Fated Forecast Method

The Fated Forecast Method: the only prediction tool you need, step by step

We all experience extremely difficult circumstances, events piling on like nihilist teens in a mosh-pit. Leaving us jostled and bruised. In these times we wish for the gift of knowing: how, when, and by what means the tangled mesh that traps us might ever possibly resolve. The Fated Forecast Method puts it firmly within the magician's hands to decide upon and create our exceptionally and unexpectedly agreeable upshot to this tragic story.

And in far less dire circumstances the method is extremely potent in opening the road ahead and making outcomes unrestrainedly positive.

Personally I make a point of creating a Fated Forecast during phase where my nerve is tested, and before any event that is important to me - for example:

  • I wrote a sales page including a couple of sentences about how wonderful I feel when I receive messages from strangers, saying “I don’t know if I need a copywriter, but I know I definitely want to work with you.” The next morning she was there in my inbox, exactly as described.
  • Before leading a magical workshop I write a Forecast predicting the incredible magic incoming - to people taking the workshop but also to me - as a result. It has never failed.

The Fated Forecast: background

The method is derived from the ‘hypersigil’ developed and popularised by Chaos Magician Grant Morrison in the early years of this century. Here is what he says:

“The ‘hypersigil’ incorporates elements such as characterisation, drama and plot. The hypersigil is a sigil* extended through the fourth dimension… an immensely powerful and sometimes dangerous method for actually altering reality in accordance with intent. Results can be remarkable and shocking."

Morrison’s own hypersigil was a comic book series written over six years. I offer my truncated method as the only tool of prediction you will never need.

Gather your materials - a quiet place to write, paper and pen.

  1. Take a few mindful breaths, bring your energy back to your body. Become grounded.
  2. Project your energy (this means, ‘imagine yourself’) a few years hence, in a time when all the things you desire today, one hundred per cent of them, have manifested. You live in your perfect home, in your ideal relationship situation, doing work that lights you up with passion while maintaining plenty of time for self-care. Allow yourself a few minutes to bring that scene to vivid life through all your senses.
  3. Now pick up your pen and start to write the story of the intervening years: between the objectively here and now (the Very Difficult Stuckness you find yourself in), and the fulfilled and happy You from three years hence. You might begin, “Early 2021 was so tough, I wondered how I would survive: but looking back, I can see they really marked a turning point for me. I couldn’t have predicted the opportunities at arose…”
  4. Continue writing about the journey that began today, itemising some of the extremely precious things you learned, relationships you made or healed, opportunities that were presented, and how they all pointed you towards the ultimate success you now enjoy.
  5. Over the coming weeks, repeat daily or as often as you can, creating many new, interesting, circuitous, poetic, magical, mundane, entertaining variations, all of which illustrate the ways your current path is the one that leads to inevitable triumph.

* if you're interested in learning more about this kind of magic, save a space at my April workshop


Calling forth magic: a fox talisman, a Christian cross, some orange flowers and a couple of flat, polished crystals rest on a turquoise surface

Your Business Doesn't Need Your Authenticity

Why Your Business Doesn't Need Your Authenticity: Eight Ways to Inject Magic Instead

Marketing experts love to speak about 'authenticity’, as do folks in the networks and structures set up to support women starting out in business. But your business doesn't need your authenticity.

Unfortunately, the advice is handed down from mentors who have already done a great deal of personal transformation work. An essential ingredient is held back.

With the result that people attempt to implement the advice to 'be authentic' from a baseline of fear and shame.

Not that there is anything wrong with those emotions - I am well acquainted with them. But it leads to a misunderstanding. The communication is not as clear as it needs to be. An Olympic swimmer can tell you about the nuance of a stroke, but unless you have the foundations you won't be able to implement their advice.

Your business does not need you to be authentic about your shame or fear.

Instead, your business needs you to shed your shame, fear and not-enough-ness, and be audaciously authentic about the you beneath.

Eight magical ways to excavate the unique power and beauty of you:

1. Adopt the mantle of witch, magician, sorcerer, enchantress, minister, initiate or other such magical moniker, even if it feels awkward at first: this gives tacit approval from the universe to behave exactly as you wish.

Your answer to anyone, real or imagined, who questions you about ‘who gave permission,’ or ‘what are you doing?,’ or ‘who do you think you are?’ is a shrug and the phrase: I am a witch.

2. Perform a ritual (the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is remarkably effective) to dismiss the energies holding you back.

3. Create a semi-fictional alter ego, one who embodies the wildest dreams of what you might dare to think, do and say. If you’re stuck, become someone who isn't. Step into an alternate personality, just like when you performed in the High School production of Guys & Dolls.

Everything you dread being negatively judged for, your alter ego embraces and wears unashamedly. In fact, it is the very secret to their success. Give them a name, a backstory, a personality, an appearance. Invite them to take the reins when it is time to be visible in service to your business (also see below).

4. Write and perform a ritual and invite your alter ego to possess you (highly recommended).

5. Initiate a relationship with a celestial deity, engage their support with your enterprise, dedicate your business to them and see (4) above.

6. Many mentors refer to 'birthing' a business or a service. My personal experience of childbirth was not ecstatic, and I found the early years of parenthood a peculiarly potent mixture of stressful and boring.

Stop imagining your business as a needy, helpless being that you have ‘birthed’, perhaps misguidedly. You are not eternally saddled with monitoring its health and fretting over its very survival.

Instead, practice sovereignty of thought and view your business as a wise and ancient spirit. Remind yourself that you are the Chosen One with whom they have contracted to manifest in the earthly realm.

7. Decide that everyone loves and approves of you and furthermore, the more ‘you' you can be, the more love and approval come your way. The things that make you odd are the exact things that make you adorable.

The more shameless you can be in loving what you love, thinking what you think, and looking how you look, the more magnetic you become. Because everyone understands what an exceptional feat of acceptance it is.

8. Grow exceptionally comfortable with feeling sad, frightened, afraid and vulnerable. Also frustrated and helpless.

The extent of what we are able to receive is governed by our capacity to tolerate sensation - both the exquisitely painful and the unbearably blissful. Like a pendulum, it's impossible to swing further to one side and not the other.

If you can’t tolerate failing, you won’t tolerate success. If you can’t risk ridicule, you won’t receive adulation.

When you become the director of a masterful, creative performer (also you), you make the stuck, painful loop of hiding, optional.

And the dramatic friction you create by avoiding the thing you say you want, is re-directed into electricity in your business.

I hope these practices will help you as much they've helped me.

With love,

Anna
x


A crystal grid on a wooden altar top, featuring rose quartz, aphophyllite, kyanite, rose petals and more. A figurine of Fortuna stands at the head, and two candles and joss-sticks are burning.

Rose Quartz - a ritual for self-love

Rose Quartz - a simple ritual for deep self-love. This journey with will connect you with the energy of unconditional love and acceptance, and brings it with you into the 'real world' as you return to normal life. It ends with a meditation prescription for those feeling rejected, unappreciated, or careworn.

You will need:

  • Candles and a lighter/matches
  • Incense and something to hold it
  • A few flowers, or sprigs of fresh herbs
  • A journal and pen
  • A piece or pieces of Rose Quartz crystal

If you are missing any of these items, skip or substitute to your liking.

Preparation

  • Pick up the area where you will do your self-love meditation, so there is not too much clutter and mess distracting you. Cleanse with smoke or sound - ring the bell or loudly clap your hands around the perimeter of the room to move stagnant energy.
  • Arrange a soft place to lie, a nest of cushions and blankets. Loosen any tight clothing. Be warm enough in winter, cool enough in summer.

Devotions

  • Light your candles and incense, and pass all your tools through the smoke with the words 'Spirit of Fire, with this blessed smoke I baptise these tools. Please burn away any connections to energies that do not serve my wellbeing, so that I may honour and receive the crystalline energy of Rose Quartz. Thank you, thank you, thank you.'

Entering meditation

  • Take the crystal in your hand and hold it against your heart, for as long as it is comfortable to do so.
  • Lie back in your nest of soft cushions and blankets, become mindful of your breath, and meditate on the nature of unconditional self-love.
  • Invite the ancient wisdom contained in the crystalline structure of Rose Quartz to make itself known to you, and observe what makes itself known.
  • If you prefer a guided meditation, The Naked Heart is based on connection to Rose Quartz.

Afterglow
On emerging from meditation, set the intention to bring the energy from your encounter with you into the real world as you return to normal life.

Briefly bow your head to thank the energy that surrounds you, then turn to your journal to note any reflections, messages or insights that came to you.

Allow your crystal to bask in the candle light and incense smoke, sprigs of fresh herbs or flowers at her feet, for a short time before you emerge from this space that has become a cocoon of self-love.

Prescription: The Naked Heart is a soothing guided journey, in meditation, to open your heart to the nurture, healing and protection of the Divine Mother; integrate grief, gain distance from pain. You will emerge softer yet stronger, released from shame and with your naked heart restored.


Be the Witch altar to Jupiter with purple candles, magic sigils, crystal offerings on a metal try

Be the witch

My tarot card drawn this morning is the Ace of Cups: become conscious of Spirit, the guiding force, and allow it to speak. Be the witch.

It’s been a tiresome few weeks, including childhood trauma retriggered, oceans of mud, and a spiral fracture to the 5th metatarsal - nothing earth-shattering but enough to remind me of my mortality, my weakness, my vulnerability to despair at the smallest setback.

What pulls me back out is gently but consistently reminding myself: I am a witch.

And I invite you to try the name on for yourself, too. See how it fits.

Anyone can become a witch… it is simply a matter of declaring and deciding ourselves to be so. And then something incredible happens.

You see, the word ‘witch’ carries with it centuries of stories, of understanding, of meaning. We all add different nuance to the definition, but we agree that a witch is powerful, magical, disinterested in fitting in or being approved of. That she can use her powers for good or evil, that she indulges in beliefs and behaviours that are outside the norm.

She’s probably a bit frightening. She definitely doesn’t give a shit.

When we decide we are a witch any remaining vestige of a sense of seeking permission, are shed. If we have an urge to create an altar on the tree stump near the playground in the park, we do so - because if anyone were even to ask, we’re witches.

Offer with a shrug and a glare. “I’m a witch.” It’s worth saying aloud just for the barely perceptible double-take and the split second flash of apprehension in your tormentor. Are you sure you want to mess with me?

Don’t believe you are powerful enough to be a witch? My dear I assure you, you are exactly as powerful as you believe yourself to be. Everything you think, is not true - in fact, we do well to assume it is not. Adopt an air of gentle curiosity. Perhaps you are and always have been a witch, unbeknownst to your ego who has been in the driving seat all these years.

Part of the art of magic is unveiling the full expression of yourself. Or rather, the magic doesn't work unless you do so. We have to absolutely drop every negative judgement of ourselves, and be immensely ok with what is already here, rather than comparing, and judging negatively, what is here against the past or the future.

If we shrink away from the things that are (as we judge) ugly, weak, frightening, shameful… we dishonour our mortality, in human incarnation. Existence is NOT pristine and unsullied, in fact it is a stinky mess. Most of us spend a lot of time in physical discomfort, dealing with shit of one kind or another. We are here to experience all emotions, including the desperately uncomfortable ones.

If we adopt an idealistic point of view, it comes with endless negative judgement of what is ‘less than’ ideal.

And it feels like a very helpless place to be, because the resistance to all that we deem ugly is exactly what holds it in place and makes it bigger and more dramatic.

It’s just our beloved shadow, manifesting exactly what she demands in order to feel both, all, every part of the emotional spectrum.

The answer is not to deny the ugliness of the world, as so many uninspiring personal development gurus would have it (along with the gaslighting tactic of saying that your magic doesn’t work because you’re not thinking enough happy thoughts).

Instead, the answer is to try on the idea that actually you are the dreamer of the dream, and surrender to, honour and celebrate those intensely challenging aversions.* Because as long as you take it upon yourself to identify as put-upon, over-worked, under-appreciated, frustrated, anxious, you remain solidly connected to those aversions.

(* Note: if the thing you ‘do not like’ is violence like racism, misogyny, homophobia or any other system of hate and oppression, this is not a suggestion to celebrate those systems. This is applicable to aversions that are your own patterns, like an inability to earn above a certain threshold, or find a loyal and loving partner, etc.)

And to come neatly full circle, that’s why I strongly recommend identifying as a witch. To take on the name is to don a magical robe, whereby we are encouraged and expected to deeply approve of every aspect of ourselves. The lazy part, the part that just loves refined carbs, the jealous part, the vengeful part. We don’t have to act out every impulse, we are not barbarians! But we can stop rejecting them with immediate effect, and stop ‘working on ourselves’ as if it were possible to be broken.

I invite you to immediately stop working on yourself, and start loving yourself exactly as you are, and celebrating and honouring all of the darkness and frustration you have so masterfully manifested. Yes. Be the witch.

With love,

Anna
x