How to Organize Your Witchy Rituals and Overcome Witchy Imposter Syndrome | A Christian Witch Talks Shop
- Sara Raztresen
- Sep 17
- 8 min read
Because the internet makes things look so much shinier than they need to be.
Psst, hey: this post was made of two different topics from my King Tier on Patreon. If you want to see more from me, including project updates, spellwork tips, early access to my YouTube videos, weekly tarot pulls, interviews with the gods, and recipe cards for our bi-weekly recipes, definitely consider checking it out!
Now, let me tell you something: if I had a nickel for every time someone made a claim on what one has to do to be considered a "real witch," I'd probably be able to pack my stuff, delete my social media, and fuck off into the Slovenian Alps forever. (You'd never seen me again, that's for sure.) There's so much nonsense about what rituals you need to do, what tools you need to use, what you need to use those tools for, and so on and so forth.
It's exhausting.
If there's anything I feel like stops people from getting into magic, it's that feeling of overwhelm. Just sheer burnout with spellwork and the upkeep of the magic. So many times, when I hear about these ex witches turned Christian, one of the biggest things they say is that they felt irritated, exhausted, and even depressed by their practice: that they felt pressured to do things like moon rituals and whatnot in order to be a witch.
But what if I told you that's silly, and not at all true?
I don't know if people look at the things I post online and think that I have some incredible 12 step routine every day for my magic. I'm sure they might see the videos of other big TikTokers or YouTubers who do magic online, ones who are on top of every holiday, feast day, moon phase, or what have you, and think that any good witch, including me, is likewise putting on big elaborate ceremonies to commemorate it all. They may see all those beautiful spell set-ups, the ingredients, the time and effort spent in ritual prayer, and think, well, shit, I don't have the time and energy to do that, so I guess I can't be a witch after all. But no, no. Truth is, none of that is necessary to be a witch.
Neither are moon phase spells/rituals. Neither are holiday spells and observances. Neither are wards, neither are jar spells, neither are love and beauty spells, neither are money spells. Truth be told, you don't have to do any single thing you don't want or feel called to do in magic. The only spells I regularly do are the whole Eucharist ritual with the church I go to, which many wouldn't count as a ritual at all, but I do, and the monthly prosperity/financial stability spells, with the method I previously told you about a la Matthew 6:24-34. That one is in there just because I have some really bad hyperfixation on my income—as if my worth and my success and my justification for living the life I live all depend on the number I see appear credited in my bank account at the end of the month.
This is something worth doing a spell over. Because this is a problem that, like an unruly blackberry bush, will only get bigger, thornier, and more overgrown if left alone. The money spell I do is something that pulls me back, reminds me of a purpose bigger than my bank account balance, keeps me focused on what's really important, and helps me redirect my energy and attention towards service of others rather than myself. That is worth repeating for me, and worth the trouble of setting up, getting into, and doing properly every time, because it's a bonding moment between God and I that helps me stay on track—which is what the purpose of ritual is.
So real quick now, let's think about long form ritual, and how you can organize one without getting stuck on all the bells and whistles people online tell you that you need (because for the most part, when people think of rituals in a witchy setting, they may think of the typical images: big, intricate circles drawn in chalk on the floor, incense and fire and bells, beautifully organized crystal grids or altar set-ups, candles literally everywhere—all the things that make a great photo op, but not necessarily good magic). There's a trick to getting the flow right for good magic, and it goes a little something like this.
Tip 1: Settling Structure and Repetition
However, when doing everything from money spells to longer rituals, I find that the things that really matters in this are structure and repetition.
Without good structure, no ritual is going to feel right or make much sense, because there's going to be no real way of pacing and compartmentalizing the different steps. Moreover, the main idea of ritual is that it's something more routine: think of your bedtime ritual, your morning before-work ritual, your day-off-easy-wake-up ritual. These things are routines, with comfortable, predictable steps that let you ease into your flow and focus less on getting the details right, more on just experiencing the moment.
This is what grounds ritual: the muscle memory, the flow of the event's structure. So when you do a certain ritual regularly (like a money spell on the first of the month), it becomes less of a hassle figuring out what to use and why, and it feels less overwhelming to do when you want to do it.
Tip 2: Getting Engaged
The next thing, though, is keeping yourself engaged right with the things you know will help you focus and get comfortable. Eliminating distractions (like your phone or TV or anything), setting the mood you're looking for (with music or a certain outfit), and giving yourself some pre-ritual winding down time from your previous tasks help immeasurably. How much can you relax into your ritual setting if you know you have to get up and do your entire nighttime skincare routine after instead of just dump into bed? How can you get started if you haven't cleaned up your space enough to not stress you out before getting started? How can you stay focused throughout the whole thing in pure silence, or with a hard floor that hurts your ass to sit on?
Tip 3: Choosing Appropriate Symbols
And finally, of course, the last tip for good rituals is getting symbols that help you understand what you're looking to do.
There are so many people who act like magic has hard and fast rules. You need to use X item for X intention, Y item for Y intention. But that's not true. What's important to remember is that everything you use in magic is a focusing tool: one that helps you organize your own magic and focus into the task at hand. While yes, we can take an animist bend and say certain plants or crystals have certain talents, what really matters is that they help you focus yourself.
This means you'll be taking some symbols that everyone agrees are good for certain things—like roses for love—but it also means that you might be using symbols people normally don't because they have special meaning to you. Maybe walnuts mean fertility to most people, but because they look like brains to you, you decide to use them for mental power and inspiration, you know? Some symbols are best used in their traditional sense, but really, so long as it helps you, anything is fair game. The magic is coming from you at the end of the day, not all the fancy tools you have out.
Your Rituals are for You—Not the Approval of the Internet!
For me, I used to try to force myself to do new and full moon rituals, but I really only care to do the tarot card pulls and maybe make myself a charmed drink or something if I'm feeling up to it. If I'm honest, I still don't really entirely understand how full moon rituals are supposed to help me if I'm apparently not supposed to manifest on those days, which is why I probably spend more time planting seeds and setting goals on new moons than I do drawing down all the energy and fruits of my goals on the full moon. One of my goals this year has been to balance that, and so far, I've done that by... not doing any moon spells. Oops.
But as a girl more connected with the sun anyway, it's just not something I care about or connect with, and that's okay. Maybe you love a good moon ritual! Maybe you enjoy celebrating each quarter phase, and those four points in the month are really good anchoring points for you to focus on different things (planting, increasing, harvesting, decreasing something). But if that's not your thing, they are not mandatory. You are not less of a witch because you don't vibe with organizing your spells by the phases of the moon.
Same goes with holidays. I personally don't give a good Goddamn about any of the neopagan holidays. Beltane? Whatever. Imbolc? Meh. Samhain? Halloween's enough for me. But because the Christian holidays are so tied up symbolically with these times of year anyway, and are culturally relevant (like August 15th, feast of the Assumption, for us southern Europeans), they make more sense for me to celebrate and do magic/ritual with God on than the neopagan holidays. I also specifically like Christmas and Easter the most, which makes sense given they're the major Christian holidays, and so those get the most of my ritual focus: Lent and Easter, Advent and Christmas, all one big ritual season, like book ends on a busy year. I might do a little observance of St. Michael's feast day, spending time with him and the angels, but it doesn't have to be some massive to-do. Never did.
And little spells? Sure, sometimes there are circumstances that get me so out of sorts that I go to God and ask Him for help via a spell: things like baneful wards, return to senders, etc. As a kitchen witch, sometimes I feel pulled to pour a little extra magic and blessing in a meal, especially if it's for family or for the holidays. And asking God to bless skincare products and such with self love and vigor never hurt or took much time (and honestly, knowing what ingredients are in your skincare that can be used for magic, like rose, makes it more fun to find a good brand, anyway).
In the end, your spiritual, witchy practice is one that should anchor you. It should give you a point of stability, becoming a ritual and routine that settles you when you're all over the place and feel like you're going crazy. Use spells as an opportunity to reset, refresh, and recommit, rather than thinking you have to do spells for every little thing all the time.
What kinds of things haunt you? What worries, aggravations, and fears trip you up in your day to day life? What are you looking to achieve long term? These are the questions to ask yourself to develop real spiritual and ritual routines. So don't feel overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start! Just do what feels natural and what settles you, and you'll be doing great!
Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.