minty-the-witch

[minty-the-witch]

Mental and Spiritual: Different Sides of the Same Coin

Howdy everyone! 

I’ve been MIA for a while because my life has just been absolutely crazy lately. I’ve bounced around from Airbnb and hotel with my family while our house is being repaired (from a house fire). I also changed jobs during this period. All this to say, my mental health has just been in the gutter as of late. 

I did some reflection, and I realized that part of my problem was that I was neglecting my spiritual side during all this chaos. I began by getting a new tarot deck from the local Barnes and Noble. Once I began doing readings again I immediately felt better, but I was still rusty when it came to the readings themselves. I was doing okay, not great nor terrible. 

Something I have always struggled with is balance. Balancing all aspects of my life has been a challenge. Sometimes I would go all in with my writing, and neglect other areas like my spiritual work. Other times I would hyperfocus on spiritual things and my “real life” would suffer. I still don’t know a very good solution, other than to keep trying. I started journaling, but it was hard for me to keep up with that too. I take my meds every day but sometimes it feels like that doesn’t help.

Obligatory I am not a professional, seek help if you feel you really need it. 

Spirituality has helped me so much, it’s hard for me to even explain. It makes me feel whole. Whenever I read a spiritual book, or meditate, or do tarot I find myself closer to peace. I believe that humans were never designed (or not evolved) to sit at a desk job all day or on your feet for 8+ hours at a tedious job. Whenever I’m at my fast food job, I don’t even feel like a person. My good friend has a job in her field (biotech) and even she is miserable working 9-5 every day. 

I feel like people have grown to cut out that spiritual side of themselves, for various reasons but for the purpose of this post I am going to blame late stage capitalism HAH! Our society does not put much stock into spiritual growth or health, or mental health for that matter. I think that both are absolutely vital. In my own experience, I think they go hand in hand. Two sides of the same coin. When my mental health is shit, my spiritual growth suffers. And visa versa. 

That is why I am making it a personal goal of mine to read more books and try to do one blog post a week. No idea what I will talk about, I don’t know that I have much to say - I’m definitely not an expert in the occult by any means. But I will give it a shot. 

What are some things to help rekindle the spiritual fire?

For me, my love is always tarot. I love helping people with readings as well as doing some for myself. It feels so magical to do. To feel that connection with the cards and the universe. I am not a tarot expert yet, but I feel the vibe of the cards to the best of my ability. By that extension, I would suggest doing something that helps someone else!

Another thing that helps me is a spiritual cleanse in the shower. I wash up with very strong intentions of washing away the dirty negative thoughts and energy. Then I will spend 5-10 minutes just standing or sitting under the water, meditating. I connect most with water (despite being an earth sign), this may not work for everyone. 

When I lived in a different neighborhood, there was a cute little forest park nearby. Whenever I was feeling negative I would go for a walk through the woods and just vibe out to the playlist of the day. I took in the energy of the forest around me. I grounded myself almost every time with this one specific tree that felt especially magical. (I even found little spirits there!) 

Something you can do almost anywhere is classic meditation. Although it's hard to do when you have company. My favorite meditative tool is the app Calm (I’ve also used Meditopia in the past). But there are free ones available too, like the app Moonly, and also if you have Spotify you can find good meditative tracks! It’s hard for me to clear my head, as I am an anxious person, but once I get in the groove of things it certainly helps. 

Speaking of groove, doing something you love that gets you in that flow state is always helpful for your mental and spiritual health! For me it's writing. Writing is a kind of magic itself, at least that is what my guides have always told me. The ancient Egyptians certainly believed so. 

The key with any of these things, is to have the intentions of rekindling your spiritual fire. If you just do these things without the aim of that connection, well it's just good for your mental health and there’s nothing wrong with that. Like I said before, I believe they go hand in hand. Having the proper intentions and confidence is half the battle in magic. 

[minty-the-witch]

Solar Eclipse

Greetings friends!

Yesterday was the solar eclipse, and I happen to live in the zone of totality. I went with my family to see it and let me tell you, it was very intense!

The first part, the waiting for totality, was quite boring to be honest. I bought popcorn for my sibling and myself. Can’t say no to good ol’ kettle corn! But I did utilize  that time to focus on the manifestation I was trying to do. 

Despite being a little boring, the energy pre totality was still very very strong. It felt energizing, yet draining. Chaotic, yet orderly. That was only amplified in totality. When everything went dark (more like a very deep purple) everything felt so calm but fragile. Like one breath could blow it all away. Even the water we were near was still as can be. Unfortunately our direct view was obscured by clouds, but it still was beautiful. I focused all my energy on calling out to and channeling Ra and Khonsu, which just felt right in the moment. And petitioning them and their physical forms of the sun and moon to give me their power in order to work my manifestation. 

I can’t say what exactly I was working on, or if it even worked yet. Long term goals! 

I can say that Thoth had been telling me that the eclipse was the deadline for me to figure my shit out with my writing. Here’s the thing, I have been “working on” this YA fantasy novel since 2020. And I have made zero progress. I keep going back and forth between ideas and just overall being indecisive as fuck. I believe he gave me this deadline to push me to just choose. And I did, at 2am on April 8th I finally decided on a goddamn plot!

[minty-the-witch]

Hello

Hello, I am your host, Mint the Fox. You can just call me Mint. 

This is my journey with Witchcraft and Paganism. I am not new, but I am by far not an expert. I am just a humble scribe recording what I see and do. 

Like I mentioned in my about, I have been a Kemetic pagan for 15 years, but only got into witchcraft three years ago. During my spiritual awakening, which was very intense, I discovered other gods and magic. I have been hooked ever since. 

With this blog I aim to record my thoughts, feelings, and actions towards the craft. 

I have over 30 tarot decks now! And many more books (all of them unfinished haha!). I love to collect. My main altar is dedicated to Horus, Thoth and Anubis. I have other trinkets dedicated to other gods, like Odin and Hecate. 

I have dabbled in pagan communities, and now mod for a few discord servers and reddit subs. (they shall remain nameless). I have not branched out much IRL, though one of my good friends I met at work is a psychic medium and we’ve gone to metaphysical shops together. Speaking of shops, I have an Etsy shop for selling tarot readings, but I am very bad at keeping up with it, and this blog is not intended to promote it or anything. 

We shall see what happens with this blog! Wish me luck.