Witchcraft in the Workplace

 Hello everyone and thank you for hanging out with me today. I want to start today with a really cool message that I received from a witch in response to the Sacred Geometry episode from a couple weeks ago. She had some really interesting information to pass along and I wanted to share it.

“I have been listening to your podcast for the last 10 months and it’s absolutely one of my favorites. Most of the episodes have deeply resonated with me and your charm and unabashed approach to so many subject matters and spiritual modalities is what keeps me coming back. So many favorite episodes that I can’t even pick one, BUT your recent one SACRED GEOMETRY really made an impression.

 

“I am an art enthusiast and I guide children through art making, nature connection and other creative pursuits. I teach after school art classes and just recently explored the art of Hilma Af Klint, whose paintings are so bold, beautiful and spiritual. To keep it short, and your readers are welcome to do their research as well, she was a Swedish artist of the last century who was really the pioneer of modern abstract art. She communicated with spirits and received commissions from her guides to make the invisible become visible through her amazing wall-sized paintings. 

 

“Her art is all shapes of these sacred geometric concepts including duality, as well as energy in multidimensional aspects. Her life is just a treasure trove of inspiration, but one story that keeps coming back to me is that she desperately wanted Rudolf Steiner (who was an Austrian artist, architect, occultist, clairvoyant, and early proponent of biodynamic agriculture, among other things), to see her paintings, not knowing who to show them to or if people were even ready for them. After years of running after him, he didn’t actually give her any indication or validation.

 

“She was very disappointed but didn’t stop making art based on her spiritual communications. When she died she asked that her paintings not be shown until 20 years after her death, because she didn’t think the world was ready. Ultimately, it was decades before the Guggenheim made them known to the world in 2018. This is also fascinating because she had written in her diary that she wanted her paintings to be introduced to the world and housed in a spiral shaped building, again spiral (sacred geometry) and the Guggenheim in NYC met that criteria. Thank you for letting me share this. And to you personally for bringing all these amazing stories to your podcast.”

 

So the story of Hilma Af Klint is really remarkable, and I do encourage anyone with even a passing interest in modern art to take a look at her work and learn a little more about her life and where she came from and what a visionary she was. Her work was so ahead of the curve and the witch who wrote in is so spot on, sacred geometry features so heavily in Af Klint’s work that it’s really easy to believe that she was being influenced by spiritual guides and entities who were clearly speaking to her and through her. So thank you, to this witch for sharing that. 

 

There is also one more bit of info I wanted to share, and that is this: I get a lot of folks in the old inbox who request different services that, to this point, I haven’t provided. Up till now, I haven’t done paid tarot readings, I haven’t performed paid spellwork on other people’s behalf, I haven’t done any kind of paid mentorship program, but I get a lot of requests for these services. So I’ve spent some time putting the infrastructure into place to begin to provide these kinds of services.

 

On the website, middleagedwitch.com, there is a link at the top of the page called ‘Live Services’ that you can click and take a look at if you like. Make no mistake, my mission here has not changed. I will still be answering emails and messages for people and giving spellwork suggestions and information to anyone who asks for it. I have done episodes about how to read tarot and I will continue to do episodes on how to read tarot, that will not change. I have always and I will always work to provide all of the information that I can to anyone who wants it. I believe that being a witch doesn’t cost money.

 

I am simply providing these services to folks who would like to take advantage of them. And furthermore, if you are now or ever have been a supporter of this podcast, I would love to do a tarot reading for you. So go ahead and click that link on the website and book a time that works for you and let me show my appreciation for your support with a reading. I would love to thank you personally and I’d love to get to know you face-to-face. Again, if you’re already a supporter of this podcast, go to the website, click the link at the top of the page that says ‘Live Services’, book a time for your reading, and after you put in your name and email, there will be a little section for additional ‘notes’ and just write in there “I’m a podcast supporter” and there will be no charge whatsoever for the reading.

 

I’m really excited to start working with people in a more interpersonal way, and I have plans for group rituals and sabbats for our online community, and I’m still getting my ducks in a row for all of that, but this is where it starts. So that is that, and I’ll leave a link in the episode description.

 

But now, let’s talk about being a witch in the workplace. There are so many times that we aren’t able to be as open as we would like to be about our practices and our convictions, but probably never as much as when we’re at work. And I can admit that I will get a little salty about having to be really mindful of the jewelry that I wear or being vocal about the sacred days that I observe because I know that there is a stigma attached. Meanwhile, my lovely Christian coworkers wear their cross necklaces and come in on Ash Wednesday with the ashes on their foreheads and it’s just such an non-issue. 

 

Is it fair? No. Is it reality? Yes, for now, that is the reality. And to be very clear, I don’t want my Christian coworkers to have to hide their identity any more than I want my muslim coworkers or my gay coworkers to have to hide who they really are. And I don’t want to feel like I’m putting my employment at risk or at the very least, my advancement at risk by being open about these aspects of who I am. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t do our best to work within those limitations and even stretch them a bit. And at the very least, we can use our craft to make it a little more bearable.

 

And to that end I just wanted to share three of my favorite spells for surviving and thriving in the workplace. And I’m going to start with a really good spell for getting a raise. I used this spell myself, and it worked within about, maybe four or five weeks of writing and then performing it. Which may not seem all that impressive, but I specified a 30% raise in this spell, which is a huge pay increase when you consider that an average raise might be 3% and a good raise is 5%. And it worked like a bastard,  I literally got a 31% raise, so… 

 

I started this spell by creating a sigil. And we went through a few different methods of creating sigils in the sigil episode, so I will link that in the episode description if you want to run through that information again. But as we always say, the words we use matter. So when creating your power phrase, the phrase that you are going to use as the framework for creating your sigil and working your spell, make damn sure that you’re using active language, not passive language. 

 

We don’t want to see ‘I wish I made $X amount of money per hour’ or ‘I want to earn $X dollars per year’ because that isn’t going to work as effectively as active language will. “I make $X amount of money per hour.’ ‘I receive a 15% raise before summer.’ These kinds of phrases leave no wiggle room, they don’t exist in some imaginary fantasy land. This is not about wishing for what we want, this is about calling in what we want. Because it’s out there. There is so much abundance in this world, there is more than enough. We just have to have the audacity to call it to us.

 

We are going to anoint this sigil with Money-Drawing oil, and I will leave a link for that recipe in the show description as well, because it’s a solid recipe and a very good oil to keep on hand, and we are also going to anoint a candle. A green or gold candle will be awesome, but if a white candle is what we have on hand, then that is what we will use. Go ahead and carve our pay raise amount or percentage into the wax, and we are going to anoint the candle with our oil as well, and then dress it with some additional basil. 

 

So back to that sigil. After we’ve got our sigil finalized and it looks and feels right, we are going to get a fresh piece of paper. Light your candle and start focusing your intent, your energy, your powers of visualization, everything you’ve got onto this task. See the numbers on your paycheck increasing, see the numbers in your bank account rising, see yourself accepting this raise. We are going to write dollar signs in each of the four corners of our page, and draw the finalized sigil in the center. 

 

Fold this paper in half toward yourself, then turn it clockwise 90°, fold it again, turn it, and fold it one last time. Light this sigil in the flame of the candle, and allow it to burn safely until it’s nothing but ash. Burn it in your cauldron if you have one, burn it in an old pie tin, just any fire-safe dish. We can summon sexy firefighters some other way. That’s a different episode.

 

And once your ashes are cool, take them outside and blow them to the North. And here’s the most important thing to remember; once those manifestations are out there, once we’ve put our intent out there in the universe, let it go. Let your magick do its work and don’t stress about it.

 

The second little bit of witchcraft that I like for the workplace is a moon water spell for helping to lower stress and increase a sense of peace in the workplace. The first step is going to be making some moon water. Put a pint or so of water in a jar. If you have a bit of quartz, especially rose quartz, put that in your jar too, along with chamomile, lavender or rose petals. Tell your water that it’s going to be filled with love, peace, serenity, teamwork, cooperation, etc. All of the good feelings we want to feel while we are at work. Cover the jar and leave it outside overnight on the full moon and collect it in the morning. 

 

Strain out any plant material, leave the quartz, and if you like, you can add some essential oils like lavender to the mix as well. Put this water in a spray bottle with a half teaspoon or so of salt and spritz it on yourself, around your workspace, in your office, wherever you feel like it’s needed.

 

Now if you’ve done what you can to improve the workplace conditions and you’re still striking out, there is something we can do for that as well. There are times when you will work with someone who is so awful, so unbearable to deal with, that you just want them to go. And so we’re going to look at a spell that can technically be considered a banishing, but we are softening it. This is work that will encourage this person, whoever they are, to leave. To find another job immediately. We aren’t trying to get them fired, we don’t want any harm to befall them, we are just encouraging them to go, and go quickly. And this is effective for awful coworkers as well as awful supervisors. 

 

For this, we will combine equal amounts cayenne, sulfur, and nettle. If you don’t have any pure sulfur on hand, and most folks don’t, we can sub in some Epsom salts, which is just magnesium sulfate and will work perfectly well for this application. As for where to get nettle, yes, stinging nettle is a weed that’s easy to come by, but we don’t actually want to physically harm anyone, so we are going to use nettle tea. Cheap and easy to find, just open a tea bag and dump it in with the other ingredients in a small dish.

 

While combining these together, focus your intention, visualize this person leaving, walking out the door never to return, feel all of those feelings of relief and serenity that this person’s absence will give you. Even speak out loud as you’re making this, “get the hell out of my work, you hate working here, you can’t stand this place, you’re going to find another job as fast as you can, and you are never going to come back.” And so on. Mix everything counterclockwise in your small dish, and we don’t need to make a lot of this. Like, a teaspoon or two of each ingredient will be more than enough. 

 

And then once it’s made and ready to go, you can put it in a small jar or a little baggie and you’re going to sprinkle some of this in your coworker’s space. Not too much, we’re trying to be subtle. You might sprinkle this around their locker, or their office, wherever it is they do the majority of their work. I hope that it goes without saying, but do not put this in anyone’s food, that is illegal. Do not put this in anyone’s clothes or shoes or on their physical person. We do not want to risk any adverse reactions. We aren’t trying to physically harm this person, we just want them to go on about their merry way, far away from us. Let’s stay on the right side of the law.

 

I want to go through some really quick tricks that can help in a professional environment, and I’m going to just blast them, so here we go. Rapid fire beginning with stones that are great for stressful working environments: Obsidian to repel and neutralize bad energy and rude people. It really does help us just let awful interactions with nasty customers and shitty coworkers kind of roll off our backs. Agate and tourmaline for protection against those conniving coworkers who always seem to have it out for us. Tiger’s eye for power and confidence, especially if we’re gunning for recognition or any kind of promotion. Amethyst, citrine, or jade for helping us solve any kind of work-related problems that we’ve been bumping up against.

 

Plants that are really great to keep in an office, and plants that also do well in an indoor office environment, include snake plant or sansevieria. This is a really protective plant.  So is pothos, also known as Devil’s Ivy. Either of these plants will thrive under fluorescent office lighting and are really low-maintenance. And incidentally, aloe is easy to grow in office conditions and is also really protective from not just negative people, but also any kind of negative influence. So if someone has a knack for really bringing the vibe down or just spreads their unpleasant mood to everyone else, aloe is a good counterbalance. 

 

And one more bonus tip for dealing with static in the workplace, especially as Mercury is currently in its shadow and loves to dick with our technology and communication comes from the Discord server and a witch called Aspera, who had this really great ritual for dealing with technical issues and clearing any energy issues when interacting with others through technology:

 

Step one:

 

1) make a batch of bay leaf salt. If you only have salt that works good too I just have an affinity for bay leaf and use it for everything.

 

2) take your phone or earbuds out of the case, put it upside down, and sprinkle the salt mix on the phone/earbuds. Don’t dunk your phone in the salt even tho it’s really tempting. Make sure your phone is on the charger.

 

3) tell the tech what you want changed. Ex: “I’m going to let you charge while I (insert activity here with specified time). When I come back, I expect (thing to work/glitching to stop/whatever). Thanks.” 

 

4) go do something else for the specified amount of time. When you come back, unplug the device, try out your tech and see if it stopped 

 

If it’s bigger tech, do the same steps but make sure the salt doesn’t get into anything important. 

 

Alternatively, rinse your mouth out with something minty or cinnamony or chew gum. Blow on the tech and say the same thing as specified above

 

Part 2

 

1) rinse and repeat as needed. If you try it a couple times and your phone or what have you is still giving you a hard time, proceed to step two

 

2) wave it through incense smoke and remind the tech/salt mix of what you needed accomplished. I do a lot of chaos stuff and find that putting my hand on my hip and saying “excuse you. I asked for your cooperation the first time.” In my best mom voice does the trick 

 

For bigger tech, take an empty spray bottle, fill it with a teaspoon of salt, and “spray” air on it. I find that switching up the medium you use really helps. So if you started with the gum trick and need to proceed to part 2, try salt instead of gum. I hope that makes sense.

 

If energy work is your thing, cleanse the literal phone line between you and whoever you’re talking to and start at part 1

 

So, brilliant ritual, and I love mixing different mediums in spell work to combine that elemental power for even better results, in this case mixing earth magick, which is the salt, with air magick, by either using breath or spraying salted air with a spray bottle. And the salted air trick, since we are talking today about witchcraft in the workplace, is something perfectly doable in an office or workplace environment. It’s subtle, it’s discreet, it can be done in a matter of a few minutes without attracting anyone’s unwanted attention.

 

So thank you very much Aspera, for sharing that. And if you’re interested in that ritual, of course you can find full written transcripts of every single episode of the podcast on the website at middleagedwitch.com. This is such good information in advance of Mercury retrograde. And next week we will be discussing our Mercury placements. Retrograde is coming in hot and I’ve been meaning to talk about Mercury placements anyway because it’s very revealing about our own communication styles, our learning styles, and so much more. So that is important information to have. Both for ourselves and for our loved ones. So dust off those birthcharts for next week and take a peek at your Mercury placement and we are going to expose ourselves.

 

And that is all the time we have today. Thank you so very much for joining me today, I can’t wait to talk again next week. Meantime, you can email me at eli@middleagedwitch.com, you can find me on social media at @middleagedwitch or you can message me directly from the website at middleagedwitch.com. Have a lovely weekend, we’ll talk again soon. My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch Podcast.

 

Sigils Episode: https://middleagedwitch.com/sigils/

 

Money Drawing Oil recipe: https://middleagedwitch.com/anointing-oils/

 

Live Services: https://middleagedwitch.com/liveservices/

 

Discord Server: https://discord.gg/KW65UFvF3A

 

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/941149357051804/