Spell for Removing Creative Obstacles
Intention: To move through “writer’s block” or another obstacle to a specific project.
Materials: Paper, Writing Utensil, A “Thing of No Value” (something you are ready to throw away, to move out of your house, that represents what you are banishing), Clearing Herbs like Juniper, Fire Source and Burn Bowl, Something that Represents Your Project (if you are writing a book, this might be your book title, for example)
Process:
Discern a laser-focused intention for what you are banishing. Do not simply banish “all fears” with a spell. In preparation, you might begin to create as you normally would and notice what the specific blockages are. What are the statements that bubble up in your brain and keep you from creating? What is the feeling? How will you know when this block has been removed? How do you want to feel when you create? Your intention should be specific enough that you know when the spell has worked. Name your proof before you cast the spell, but be sure to name the what and not the how. Our linear brains will try to decide how you will get this, and that is the spell’s business; not yours. Know the what. Don’t worry about the how.
Once you know the what, link it to an embodied feeling of creating fearlessly, joyously, and without any blockages. Root yourself in that feeling.
With your materials close, cast a circle. You might use this method or another that’s in your practice:
Face the North. Call your loving ancestors of the north, past and future, to come closer to your circle and witness you. To the north, to my artist ancestors, to the sacred energies of the Earth, I say welcome.
Face the East. Call your loving ancestors of the east, past and future, to come closer to your circle and witness you. To the east, to my artist ancestors, to the sacred energies of the Air, I say welcome.
Face the South. Call your loving ancestors of the south, past and future, to come closer to your circle and witness you. To the south, to my artist ancestors, to the sacred energies of the Fire, I say welcome.
Face the West. Call your loving ancestors of the west, past and future, to come closer to your circle and witness you. To the west, to my artist ancestors, to the sacred energies of the waters, I say welcome.
Name the obstacles you are releasing now as best you can. Perhaps they are a “fear of being seen” or a “belief that art is not productive.” Ask yourself where this thing is in your body. What color is it? What temperature is it? On your piece of paper, “write it gone” by telling the obstacle to go. Use all the ferocity you’ve got. Why does it not longer belong? Why does it hold no power over you? You may use the prompts I offer here or create your own:
You are nothing to me, and I am free of you because…
To you, I say…
You are already gone from my world, and I feel…
Read your writing aloud and with conviction. Begin to chant no, be gone, away with you, and fold the paper AWAY FROM YOU. Keep chanting. Get louder and more forceful. Build the energy. When you feel ready, burn the paper and begin to move in ways that break up the energy of the obstacle in the body. Go for about 10-15 minutes if you can. Chant and move. Watch the smoke rise. Your clue that the energy-raising phase is ending will be a subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) energetic shift in the body. Move until you feel the change.
Let your chant go quiet while the ashes cool. Feel the new feeling. Stay here for at least five minutes. Cover the “thing of no value” in some of the ashes once they have cooled.
Open the circle by offering gratitude to the ancestors and elements from West, to South, to East, to North.
Place your hands on the ground. Breathe from low in the belly. To end the spell, carry the thing of no value to the trash and release it. If it can be ethically buried without poisoning the ground, you might do so in a place you don’t regularly visit. Dispose of the remaining ashes and do not look back.
Let it be. Place your “energetic link” to your creative project on your altar.