Recently there was a post going around about “secret witches”, how those in situations where they cannot practice outwardly must keep it hidden. I would like to help those witches and practitioners by making a tips and tricks booklet for them, helping them come up with new and interesting ideas for Magick that can be kept under the rug, safe from prying eyes.
If you can, please REBLOG this with ideas for secret magick, hiding places and techniques, smokeless and/or scentless magick, and any other ideas you might have that can help those “secret witches” out there.
Even if you have nothing to say on the subject, help spread the word. Thank you.
Kitchen witchcraft: Use commonly found magical herbs in teas and when cooking meals. There is no verbal work needed. When you are preparing the food or tea, just your intentions plus connecting to the herbs energy is enough.
Bath magic: Make bath time a sacred ritual time. You’ll be alone, usually with a door that locks. You can make a sigil on the bottom of the tub with salt. The sound of running water can drown out your spoken word as the bath is filling up, and you can add magical items such as salt, herbs, etc. This magic is private, inconspicuous and especially good for cleansing, releasing, renewing.
Music magic: Make your spell into a song, or match your spell to an existing song. You can hum the tune of your spell without singing when others are around.
Sigils: If you do art, add your sigil(s) first and then paint over them with the rest of your work. Drawing sigils with any clear liquid- lemon juice, vinegar, even water is effective and invisible.
Color magic: Use the colors of your clothes and makeup to activate and enhance your magical intent.
Knot magic: I can’t stress how awesome, easy and useful knot magic is. You can do it anywhere. All you need is string, even floss would work. It holds your spell and magical intention, it fits anywhere and even if someone saw it, they wouldn’t look twice.
Clothing: Make charms, spell bags, amulets or any magical item small enough to fit in your pocket. Using cloth you could also sew your magical item into the inside of your clothes, keeping it safe with you at all times.
Stones: Stones that you find yourself can have just as much energy and magical purpose as more expensive crystals in new age shops! Plus, it is relatively common for people to collect stones. You can charge them with intentions and if it is to suspicious to keep them in your room, you can disperse them in your garden, yard, or in whatever area lies outside your living space.
Candles: Tea light candles are very, very cheap and usually do not raise suspicion. If you are in an environment where tea light candles in your room would be seen and make people suspicious, they are small enough that you can hide them easily.
Hiding spots for small items: Pockets, inside of socks in drawers, taped behind picture frames on walls, altoids tins, bottom of purses/bags, inside tampon boxes, personal dvd cases, empty non-clear vitamin bottles.
“Mundane” items with magical potential: rocks, shells, coffee, string, keys, coins/change, fridge magnets, any kind of jewelry
I occasionally post tips for keeping things hidden. Here are a few:
Hiding Books – take brown paper bags and make dust covers for all your books. Doodle on them, write fake titles, whatever you like. You can read them in the open that way and not have to worry unless someone starts looking over your shoulder. Added bonus: it keeps them from being damaged.
Art Supplies – If you’re into art, the supplies are really useful. Charcoal is great for making ink, black salt, etc. Paint brushes are perfect substitutes for wands, in my experience. If you’re doing a painting, you can add subtle sigils in sliiiiiiiiightly different pigment and I guarantee you no one will notice when you hang it on your wall.
Art – It’s a great excuse. I made black salt in front of my zealot of a father and he believed me when I told him it was for bottle art.
Herbal Medicine – Also a good excuse. Unless you know an herbalist who will call you out on it, claim your herbs are for medicine. It’s especially helpful for green witches. Added bonus: a lot of herbs used in magic really do have medicinal properties on their own.
Science – Another good cover, especially for collecting odd ingredients. My father believed I was going to conduct a pollution experiment when I collected some storm water.
Stones – Say you have some unusual stones you need to hide in plain sight. Put them in a sectioned display with labels for what they are. Voilà! You have a rock collection.
Tarot Cards – If you’re like me, you need to hide your tarot cards. Your pillowcase is a good spot, especially if you change your own sheets. A lot of people bond with their cards by sleeping with them, so this is a pretty good method. Alternatively, you could hide them throughout the pages of a Bible or other inconspicuous book.
A thing I’d like to add: If you actually practice spells and such, why not do it at a park? Find a quiet, out-of-the-way area, preferably where you can light a fire and where there’s a creek or body of water, so you can have all four elements there!
WEAR EVERYTHING. If you have stones/crystals you want to have around, make them into necklaces/bracelets/rings/earrings/anything! Draw your sigil on you somewhere it won’t be seen. Even dried herbs can be placed into lockets or pocket watches.
If you want to start an herbal collection put the herbs into teabags to disguise them.
Stones: You can buy some stones at craft stores in the form of beads. I make them into magickal bracelets using wire. Then you can wear them in public or in front of family without suspicion.
Herbs: Tell your family you have a new interest in tea. I buy my herbs in tea form if possible (such as lavender and chamomile) and then use them in my spells. Or I buy them as herbs and later use them in tea spells. When drinking the tea I think about what each ingredient represents and meditate on what it is I want to achieve. I imagine myself drinking in the charged energy.
Concealing your tools: I made an old travel suitcase from a wooden box for a project and I use that to store my tools in plain sight on my desk. I keep my writing journals on the top so it appears like it’s just a writing box. It helps to find a single location to hide all of your tools to narrow your chances of being found out.
Getting an athame: I read somewhere you can use a letter opener as an athame. If you don’t usually receive mail this may seem like a strange item to buy from your family’s point of view so try to buy it in secret if possible when you’re at a greeting card store.
Getting a wand: If possible you could try to make your own wand. If you live in the city and don’t have many trees around you, you could plan to go on a hike or camping trip and pick up the wood for your wand there. Either choose a wind fallen branch or cut one off of a living tree but if you do the latter be sure to thank the tree for its sacrifice and leave an offering with it. Your wand doesn’t need to be elaborately decorated. You could just tie a ribbon around it and add a Quartz crystal on the end with wire. Both of these items could be found at craft stores and you could say that they are being used for jewelry making.
Getting a chalice: You could buy a crystal wine glass at a second hand store and hide it from you family, or use another kind of glass for the purpose of representation of the goddess. You could even use a pretty coffee cup as long as it is reserved for this purpose.
Incense: Some convenience stores sell incense. You don’t need to go to a new age store to get it. Many people use incense as a relaxer or to scent a room so it wouldn’t be suspicious for you to buy it. I told my parents the smell of incense helps calm my nerves when I’m doing homework in my room. If you can’t acquire incense you could make your own by burning herbs in a small bowl.
A lot of what’s been said is really really really great advice that I use to use myself!
Essential oils: use the excuse that you’re using them for medical purposes such as not being able to sleep, muscle pains, etc. Most people won’t second guess it. (Also be safe with essential oils!)
Altars: if you want to keep an altar, set it up to look like you just have a lot of knick knacks. Or if you can’t get away with that, you can keep your altar in shoe boxes, bedside tables, altoid cans, a shelf, a small cabinet, a windowsill, a bookshelf. Anywhere that someone wouldn’t look twice at.
Pendulums: basically you can use anything for a pendulum. Have some sort of a string with a weight. If you have a necklace with a weighted charm on it, that would work, or a string tied around a nail. Anything that would swing when held.
Scrying: a personal favorite of mine is a tv screen. It’s a black reflective surface. If someone asks you why you’re staring at a tv that isn’t on, you could use the excuse that you were zoning out, or thinking about something else. You can also use other screens such as laptop screens or phone screens!
Cleansing objects: if you have a crystal or anything else that needs cleansing that can’t be put under water, you could put it in a windowsill behind a curtain where the moonlight could touch it. If that’s too risky, you could hold it in your pocket or hand and imagine the negativity or other unwanted energy being dropped from the object as you walk with it.
Offerings: If you have an offering to a God or a spirit, and it’s too risky to actually put out an offering, incense works best. Also, if you want to give them a food offering, say a silent prayer to them before you eat, let them know that you’re thinking of them with this meal.
Be safe, and remember, no witchcraft is more important than your personal safety!
I don’t have much to add, but…
Tarot Cards: If you are not allowed to have or use them because your family sees them as evil and satanic, and you don’t have much privacy, you could always use a deck of playing cards. Use meanings for the minor arcana and exclude the page cards. Hearts-cups diamonds-pentacles spades-swords and clubs-wands. Make some sort of small mark to indicate the bottom or top of the cards so you can also use reverse meanings. This way you can disguise readings as you playing solitaire!
WITCHES OF TUMBLR, I need your help!
Published
The Carving Witch 