Grounding

You know those great science fiction stories where a culture in the future has founded an entire way of life around some random quote left over from present times? Where "eorge ashington" is all they know about leadership or "Have a Coke and a Smile" leads to intense theological debate concerning what the ancients meant by "Have a Coke"? Where a garbled version of the Pledge of Allegiance is a sacred text?

I sometimes wonder which words, if I had to choose, as a witch, I'd leave for some oddly witch-deprived world of the future to discover. I generally wind up unable to choose between "All acts of love and pleasure are rituals of the Goddess," and "The Goddess is alive. Magic is afoot!" Both seem, to me, to encapsulate so much of what's good and right about Wicca. I do know, though, (yes, I spend a lot of time on such silly thoughts) what one skill I'd teach if I were the last witch left and not left for long, at that. I'd teach Grounding.

IMHO, if you can ground, you're a witch and you'll probably eventually get all the rest on your own, anyway. (OK, and -- "don't light a lot of candles when wearing flowing robes," "spend some time every day outside," "when you forget your well-written incantation, just make it up, it will probably be better anyway," "you don't REALLY need an athame," "witch wars are not worth it," "handle wolfsbane and thorn apple with gloves, really," and "when you meet Great Lady Artemis Raven Moonflower along the path, kill the Great Lady" -- those are good, too.)

Grounding is the basis, for me, of all magical practice and if all that you have time to do is to ground, I still think that you can say you've engaged in daily practice. Similarly, I'm v hard pressed to think of any situation in which grounding isn't the first thing you should do, the most effective magical spell that you can cast, the best and most effective way to be a witch in whatever situation you face.

More here, here, and here.

Beyond that, there's the Ha Prayer or some form of breath work, and there's building a personal place of power where you can go to work magic, find answers, gather strength. But, trust me, only ground and the rest will come. Even if you never have a small, ancient jar full of ground-up High John the Conqueror's root tucked in the hidden compartment of an ash broom carved w interesting runes. Not that there's anything wrong with that.