How Can I Practice Witchcraft In Secret?

[whisperingMaiden]

I'm secretly a witch because where I live witches are given negative looks,and sometimes even forced to move out.My family (except my mom) is also like this.I need help I wanna set up an altar but my grandma judges everything and pokes her nose in my things.My great grandma thinks witches are satanists and it really depresses me.So tell me,how can I set up a secret altar and buy wiccan related things,without getting caught?

Thank you for reading.

[BeckyDarling]

Well, a few of my friends are also in the "broom closet", as they say.

One bought all kinds of official-looking wiccan books and said it was for a project for school. So that's one idea. The other has an altar, but hers has just statues and plants on it, really, so it just looks like a fancy decoration atop her dresser. You can keep the working things in a little box and pull them out to work magic, or you can make them inconspicuous. Like, have a bowl with mints in it, and under the mints have salt or something, then just take the mints off when wanting to work.

You really just have to get creative with hiding things. :)

[The Judge]

Or you could wait until you are in a position to have one without it being an issue, i.e. when you have your own place. There is a lot of things in the craft you can study until that time comes. I've been studying it for over 10 years. I practice it now that I have a place to do so.

[raynelae]

Well...as Witches, the earth is our altar. Learn of and use herbs for magick. Seek to nature to connect with the Goddess. Let each day be sacred and a celebration of life.

[Kassandra]

Well...as Witches, the earth is our altar. Learn of and use herbs for magick. Seek to nature to connect with the Goddess. Let each day be sacred and a celebration of life.

That is so beautifully worded, raynelae.

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[raynelae]

Thank you

[SpiritTalker]

I realize this is an old post but it's something that is asked again & again so needs more exposure.

Quote: "...it really depresses me. So tell me,how can I set up a secret altar and buy wiccan related things,without getting caught?"

Ok, so you live with the Snoop Sisters. Your wording sets up a self-defeating, impossible framework. Understandably it's due to feeling depressed so you've got to ditch the poor-me-isms to out smart it. The first thing is to wake up your creative, inner-child. Realize the potential of what's around you. Historically only the priestly class at the temples had fancy copper daggers & bronze tripods; the regular people improvised from household goods. A cauldron's just a versatile kitchen cooking pot. The house broom became the staff/wand. Both were repurposed from the ordinary kitchens of a former era & have become icons of the Craft. Nothing shouts "witch!" & outs you like a cauldron so substitute with a bowl, like the character Jillian did in the movie Bell, Book & Candle. By changing your attitude you open your creative ideas. Also, if you store your witchy things clumped all together in a box under the bed or in a dresser drawer you're only rewarding the Snoop Sisters for invading your privacy by giving them something "odd" to find. Let them find a box of rocks... nothing to see here.

You have to make smart choices between secret vs hidden in plain sight and using non-Witchy looking household tools that won't attract attention instead of so-called Wiccan-related items; unless you like paying for fancy packaging. Keep a digital BOS & use free, on-line books. http://www.sacred-texts.com/ and Library of Congress websites.

In-house altars are drop dead easy! Adopt household items just as our ancestors did. Reserve a favorite mug or cup for use as a chalice (I've used my Wonder Woman mug just for fun & i think The Lady enjoyed it.) Drinking-water and table salt are sacred symbols of Life so use them. Bread & jam makes a simple offering & looks like a snack yet is sacred wheat & grapes. A flatware table knifeor scissors serves as athame or we can direct energy with 2-finger pointing to represent a dual-edged blade or 1-finger for a wand. A saucer of table salt with a star traced in the salt is your pentacle, or use a smooth stone & trace a star on it with a wet finger dipped in the mug/chalice; the water-on-stone becomes an earth offering & the star conveniently disappears. If candles are OK, a scented air freshener candle can represent the Fire element, symbolizes Deity as Light, & the scent replaces incense. An LED 🕯candle can be used if open flame isn't OK (respect that) & a battery has a dual polarity that represents the creative forces of Goddess & God. Some other shared symbols of both Deities are wheat & bread & reindeer since both sexes have antlers. Got a Xmas card with reindeer?

It's not possible to disguise the smell of incense smoke or a scented candle when flame is notOK. You could use a reed oil diffuser or potpourri sachets that you shake as needed to release the aroma for elemental Air/scent. A jar can make a dry vase with pebbles in the bottom for weight & a scented potpourri mix with some leafy oak & pine twigs - or whatever’s in your locale - for decoration in plain sight. Ever since H.Potter wands are a dead give away but a plain stick can be camouflaged in a leafy vase. An altar could be set up each time it's to be used & broken down & re-distributed in plain sight when not in use; that's a normal thing anyway with many household altars because most homes don't have space to spare for a permanent one, so it's no big deal. If you should want to brew a potion - Make tea.

An altar usually has representations of the elements & deity (the creative forces of Nature). You could simplify & divert attention even more by using a potted plant as a living altar - it features Earth in the soil & greenery, Air in the plant's natural photosynthesis, Water as it's cared for & Fire could be symbolized by using a terra cotta pot or as a red-hued stone or marble displayed in the pot & add more marbles of the 5 elemental colors: /air, /fire, /water, /earth, /ether. The plant’s life-force reps divinity.

We can do reverently silent rituals with no tools at all by using hand signs to mime the actions. It can be a very intense experience when we stay focused. An X traced on the forehead, heart & belly can ground & center us. The see-hear-speak no evil hand gestures mimes purifying sacred space. Cast circle with 2-finger pointing to direct earth-energy. Placing the hand-to-heart (fig =Lady & horns =Lord) with a bow greets Deity. A wave of the hand can invite or release; an air drawn pentacle can summon or reversed it releases. Murmuring under your breath helps that. An offering (libation) is as easy as leaving water & bread pieces outside for the birds afterwards. When done mindfully it becomes a sacred offering to the gods of nature.

We can do spells in-circle without a single tool or ingredient by programming & sending the Cone of Power. After you've cast circle, greeted quarters & invited Deity - done due diligence to the rites - you charge the upward spiraling circle with your spell intent. You think, feel & feed the thought into the misty blue spiral. Then push & set the spiraling cone of light free. Remember to farewell Deity & release the elements with an air-drawn pentacle & ground any residue of the circle energy. Ground yourself.

And if no-ingredients spells aren't to your liking & you prefer hands-on then use sigils that look like doodling. Use yarn for the Nine Knot Spell. Do stone stroking spells that merely involve stroking stone while you sway & softly chant. See the "post a spell" area Simple Spells post.

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[corvidus]

Nice post SpiritTalker

[Astro Logical 1]

Mow a giant pentagram on the lawn, hang a goat skull in the kitchen, smoke the house out with 2 pounds of mugwort so everyone trips out hard and then anytime after that when you act normal it won't seem so bad



Obviously I'm kidding lol. Don't do that haha

[Corbin]

Investigate working on the Astral or constructing an Astral temple perhaps? Meditation? Long walks alone in the countryside?

Find places of assured privacy. Get a sturdy chest with a lock to store books and equipment. Don't buy anything out of the ordinary; substituting exotic tools for day to day ones. Witchcraft has evolved through a history of persecution doing just such things. Be crafty yet be wise.

I sympathise however with your situation.

[barker]

Any situation that doesn't work, next thing that happens is right. See it through..