Are You A Star Witch?
Art by Chiara Bautista (but sourced via Pinterest)
🌟 Do you plot life goals along your astrological cycles (Saturn Return, Pluto Square, Solar Return 😋), deploy task lists alongside Mercury (or Mars) transits, or synchronize your social and home rhythms with moon phases?
🌟 Have you ever consulted with any kind of professional (not an astrologer) for a metaphysical perspective on a personal issue? Likewise, are the type of person to casually mention current transits to your doctor, dentist, or landscaper as though it a realm of shared understanding? Like, with your OB/GYN, “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting us to conceive last month, Eris has been making her Return, ya know.” 💁🏻♀️
🌟 Are you notorious for whipping out astrology trivia, not necessarily about your own placements? “OH HI, you have Venus in Libra, pure beauty, manifest in the social sphere!” Or for commenting about other peoples’ astro cycles? “Omigosh, you’re turning 27?! Here comes Saturn! 🙀 Let me just look this up for you real quick…”
🌟 Do you lead with a “galaxy-printed everything”? Are there poster-sized print outs of you and your partner’s synastry chart, or of your children’s natal charts, hanging on your walls? Really—how much planet, galaxy, or star-themed artwork can you spot around your home?
🌟 Would you (secretly) admit you are “price blind” to astrology readings, subscribed to more than one premium horoscope website, and/or supporting at least one astrologer through Patreon?
🌟 Do you crush on astronomers of the past… or just Carl Sagan? Do you also enjoy casual reading about star-worshipping ancient civilizations, like those described by Graham Hancock in Magicians of the Gods and America Before?
🌟 Likewise, how many times, so far, have you streamed The Pyramid Code on Netflix?
🌟 Totally random one: do you lead with a personality function called “introverted intuition”? (In the Meyers Briggs personality typing system: INFJ or INTJs.) OR, are you an Enneagram Four?
…Basically, are you someone with a gift for spotting patterns from lots of data, or someone who interprets the world through personal feeling and aesthetics?
🌟 Did you get the film Interstellar, and can explain the bookcase scene, though not necessarily scientifically? 🤔
⭐️Was Spirit Science (or something similar, maybe related to David Icke 😉) your first ever YouTube binge?
…you might be a Star Witch. 🤩✨
Star witches craft their lives alongside astrological cycles and rhythms. We guess your Rising Sign within minutes of laying eyes on you, and usually take a full scope, meta point of view on every situation.
At our worst, we might seem like Professor Trelawny from the Harry Potter series, predicting disaster (or “spiritual growth”) at every turn, blaming character flaws on our Moon sign.
At our best though? We’re the sages who get shit done.
We’re the mystics with moxie. ✨
Whether you're ready to swan dive into planetary witchcraft, or just spooning some astrological elements into your existing magic practice, I've got tips, ideas, and resources to get you started!
What is Astrological Magic?
Art by Chiara Bautista (but sourced via Pinterest)
On the whole, star witchery is known as astrological magic, or cosmic witchcraft.
Sometimes astrological magic gets lumped with planetary magic (I'm often lumpy with them ✨), though astrological magic is more rooted in Renaissance Hermeticism, while planetary magic is more attributed to “folk” and “natural” magic.
As Above, So Below is actually a Hermetic axiom recognized and observed by witches from many paths, and has been syncretized into hella witchy practices, though it speaks specifically to this belief that the “meta” can be “divined” by its observable smaller parts.
The astrological wheel is just another “meta” time-keeping device, a way of measuring the psychological experience of the life cycle, as subjected to (and dangling within) this miasma of celestial energy. For many witches, the astrological wheel serves the same purpose as the Wiccan wheel of the year: observing sabbats (ritual holidays), because their coincidences with the seasons calibrates the witch for an unconscious process happening all the time, whether she’s “doing” magic or not.
Star witches and modern Hermetic magicians tend to syncretize pop psychology with astrological observation: how might observing, informing myself of, and preparing for this transit serve my personal aims—short term, long term?
So, if I can sum it up and simplify it for you, star witchery is an aesthetically-forward spirit craft, a hands-on way of blending your own poet-philosophical interpretation astrological information (remember, we have apps ✨) with your own true-life experiences, and coincidences you spot out there in our consensus reality. 🙌🏻
Here are my favorite quick-start tips for mixing a little starshine into your magic!
🌟 LEARN YOUR BIRTH (OR “NATAL”) CHART
A star witch may not consider herself an astrologer, but at the very least, a star witch knows what’s goin’ down in her stars.
Your natal chart is basically a picture (in symbols) of where the planets were in the sky at the time and location you were born.
✨ What can knowing what’s on your natal chart offer in terms of magical efficacy…?
Deep research into the story and timing of your life coded into your stars. Start learning what themes, motifs, and archetypes actually apply to you, and your life path.
✨ Here’s how to get started…
FIND A COPY OF YOUR BIRTH CHART. I tell you about my three favorite (totally free) places to get astrology charts in this post, with step-by-step instructions. All you need is the time, location, and date of your birth, located on your birth certificate.
STUDY YOUR BIRTH CHART! This post has everything you need to start interpreting your natal chart, but if it gets hairy, you might want a pro astrologer to kick it off for you. I talk about my favorite online astrologers in this post, most of whom offer tons of free educational material on their blogs or in their newsletters to continue assisting you on your natal journey. 🖖🏻🌟
BIRTHDAY FOREVER
🧁✨
BIRTHDAY FOREVER 🧁✨
Hello, World!
Learn, Memorize, ‘n Make Magic with Your Birth Chart in 8 Days with This Totally Free Email Series!!
After 8 days, you'll finish the series, but stay subscribed to my newsletter! 🤩😛🥰
All you need is your birth data: birth date, time, + place.
Enroll right here, or learn more about the class. ✨
🌟 START TRACKING THE SUN, MOON, AND PLANETS
These apps help me stay on top of the stars, though I am by no means checking each of them everyday:
🌟 Time Passages. Basic birth chart app with cute widget options that comes with lessons + explainers you passive-learn your chart and transits. Just load your natal data (birth time, place, and date) into the app, and explore tons for free. Want to dive deeper? Pay literally ninety-nine cents for a transit report. Only slightly robotic-sounding transit summaries!
🌟 Time Nomad. Another birth chart app with cute widget options that comes with lessons and explainers to help you passive learn your chart and transits I really dig the planetary hour + weekday widgets, it’s like next level planetary tracking. 👍🏻
🌟 Co-Star. Nerd-cute, and sync’d with NASA astronomical data, totally perfect for thinker witches who would like a data forward astrology perspective… also lets you connect and compare across seven categories of astrological compatibility with friends.
🌟 The Pattern. An astrology-based social network platform with built-in relationship analysis across three categories: foundation, development, and relationship.
🌟 Sanctuary. Subscription based, includes 15-minute minute monthly live chats with true-life astrologers.
🌟 I also rely on the DeluxeMoon app to show me the moon’s current phase, but also the zodiac sign the moon is in! The app also provides advice about what activities to perform or avoid, given the astro climate, but the advice is not always clear.
🌟 HOT TIP 🔥✨… You’ll also get the 411 on what’s happening astrologically if you’re subscribed to an astrologer, like Soul Shine Astrology, Rachel @ AeolianHeart, or Dark Pixie Astrology.
🌟 If you need it, this post pretty much lists every astrology newsletter I’m subscribed to. 🤓
Okay, so you’re opening the astrology apps ✅, and checking the astrologers’ emails. ✅
Now—where do you track the info? 🤔
Brace yourself, but I actually drill down on the nitty-gritty of scheduling your life with astrology—in a planner-based grimoire no less 😳—in this post. ✨
It might be a little extra, but once you start writing it down on, connecting the super-abstract “meta” language that is astrology with the on-the-ground details of your ordinary life, it’ll help you spot allllll the cosmic synchronicities! 🤩
🌟 BUILD AN ASTROLOGICAL GRIMOIRE
A grimoire is basically a witch’s database or reference guide.
I don’t really care whether you call it a grimoire, but def keep some kind of diary, a place to cultivate a relationship with your own mind, where you can document your life alongside the intriguing omens and synchronicities as they crest upon your awareness... ✨
Collect ritual outlines ‘n witchcraft recipes in your grimoire, but also record your transits and daily doings for later review, such as in ten years after an eclipse trips your natal chart ( 😳 ).
You can also collect crafts, rituals, ‘n recipes for new and full moon ceremonies, tributing your chart ruler (and documenting the experience 📖), celebrating your Venus Return, and otherwise enhancing your astrological observations.
Go here for more about creating ‘n customizing, ‘n starting your very own astrological grimoire! ✨
🌟 STUDY PLANETARY MAGIC, A.K.A. ASTROLOGICAL MAGIC
Let me point you towards some helpful texts to help inform and inspire your discovery process!
The Astrological Grimoire by Shewolfe and Beatrix Gravesgaurd: perfect in size and information for beginning to learn and memorize the astro-magical process, and how it applies to you!
The Book of Tarot by Starchild Tarot deck creator and cosmic artist Danielle Noel, creator of the Starchild Tarot. This is perfect if you’re already tarot journaling or otherwise incorporating the tarot into your magic. Every card has an astrological correspondence, and this book actually catalogs all the relevant astrology. And it’s also really fucking beautiful.
Honorable mention, for obvious reasons: Secrets of Planetary Magic by Christopher Warnock. Someone suggested this book to me, and although I don’t remember what it actually says (it’s been a couple years 😅), it packs a ton of useful info!
The Illustrated Picatrix: The Complete Occult Classic of Astrological Magic, bit of an investment as far as magical excurricular texts go, but much easier learning from than the Kindle version of The Picatrix! 😩
I’ve also taken formal (ooh lala) courses on planetary and astrological magic (because I am price blind to such fetishes, scroll up 🤙🏻), which can be very helpful for connecting with other weirdoes doing other weird things, and also for discovering all the books, documentaries, websites, and other resources in existence for learning into your weird verve 🤩:
For planetary magic (combined with psychological shadow work), Carolyn Elliott’s INFLUENCE and Rachel Capurso’s SPIRITUALIZED, for astrological rituals paired Hermetic meditations for spiritual growth.
Heads up, this is super useful: Rachel Capurso offers a totally free class, Astrological Magic 101, get access here. 💫
✨ Okay, so now you know where to STUDY astrological magic, but how you try it out…?
A simple, familiar entry point: moon rituals! 🌙
You might already be observing new and full moons with personal rituals (even if it’s just charging your crystals 💎), and one easy way to mix in some star shine is to note (and plan for) the Moon’s sign. The Moon changes signs every two and a half days, and can help you chart the course of an intention, taking about six months to wax from a new moon in a sign to a full moon in the same sign.
Here’s a general principle: the Aries new moon happens while the Sun is in Aries, while the Aries full moon happens when the Sun is in the sign opposite Aries: Libra.
When the Sun enters Libra (Sept-Oct), you’ll intuitively time-track: it’s been about six months since laying that intention! 🙀
(Scroll up for the apps I use to help track the Moon’s jaunt around the zodiac. 🤙🏻)
✨ Planning a personal ritual, and want to mix in tools and elements that will sing to celestial deities…?
Visit this article for a complete reference of the planetary correspondences: minerals, metals herbs, crystals, harmonics, Goddesses, symbols, etc. Everything you'll need to start thinking cosmically about the craft! 🤩
Once you actually perform the ritual, copy it down in your grimoire, so that you might revisit and review at a later time—it’s the only way to really observe whether the ritual ingredients added zing!
🌟 COSMIFY YOUR GODDESS ALTAR, + INVOKE ASTRONOMICAL GODDESSES
Can you “cosmify” goddess spirituality?
If we couldn’t, there would be no fucking point! 😎✊🏻
Visit this post to learn more about building a goddess altar (and find hella inspo), and here are some ideas for sprinkling a little stardust on top:
Carve zodiac and planetary symbols into your ceremonial candles--especially if they correspond with the sign of the of the new or full moon you’re conducting your ritual during 💫✨ score a celestial altar cloth or hang a cosmically-decadent tapestry in your ritual space (like these ones from Danielle Noel, creator of the Starchild Tarot, luvvv) 💫✨ write sigils or even your magical intentions with a glitter glue pen 💫✨ hang twinkle lights from the ceiling above your altar, or affix glow-in-the-dark stick’um stars on the surface of or the wall above your altar 💫✨ balance your cosmic altar with 1 glitter jar and 1 “void” jar
If you KNOW you're a star witch, why not invoke an astronomical Goddess, like Shakti (the Cosmic Mother) or Nuit (the Egyptian Sky Goddess)?
If you already have a Patron Goddess, research the planets and constellations she’s associated with, and see what inspires you. Example: my Patron Goddess, Inanna, is associated with the Morning Star Venus 🌟, so I use copper-plated tools and totems.
This sounds trivial, but my craft feels so much more detailed and cohesive selecting tools and swag directly attributed to my Goddess.
ROCKET-BOOSTERS FOR YOUR STAR CRAFT! 💫
Art by Chiara Bautista (but sourced via Pinterest)
Ideas for cultivating star craft in your life, or just for expressing your madly astro-witchy sensibilities!
🌟 Go varsity with your stargazing! Invest in a telescope, or join up with a local stargazers’ club. Look up the events calendar for a local planetarium or observatory, if you’re fortunate to have facilities nearby, because they’ll often host lightships and speaker series.
🌟 Take astrology classes, like this one I took from Aeolian Heart Astrology 💫, and go beyond your personality horoscope.
🌟 Start keeping an astrological grimoire, a.k.a. a personal catalog of info, craft, ‘n rituals, as well as a journal for logging planetary transits and coinciding spellwork!
🌟 Prioritize astrological time-keeping with an actual daily planner! I tell you all about building a planner-based grimoire in this post, and specifically about tracking astro-currents in a planner-grimoire in this post. (Because… Hi, I’m over-functional. 😅)
🌟 Get the app! Two other smartphone apps every star witch needs: Stardust and Night Sky 4. Stardust tracks your period alongside the lunar calendar (wuuut, I love it ☺️), while Night Sky is beautiful and shows you all the planets and constellations in the sky, in whatever direction you hold your phone.
🌟 Watch The Andromeda Key, a video of the Andromeda galaxy meant to activate latent starseed memories and abilities. (Not sure you're a starseed? 🤔)
🌟 Hydrate with moon water! Here are 4 different recipes to try.
🌟 Paint your nails with glitter or use a nail polish pen to draw the planetary symbols. This blog post shows you which colors correspond with the planets.
🌟 Bring the night sky into your bedroom! Score a small tabletop light projector or the Moon In My Room lamp, which projects the accurate moon phases against your bedroom wall! 🤩
🌟 Throw parties to celebrate astronomical events, like eclipses or meteor showers. Bookmark websites that calendar these events, like InTheSky.org, or sync your Google calendar with a subscription service, like this one. Schedule evening picnic-stargazing adventures with your friends. Create playlists (or subscribe to Bess Matassa and Sandy Sitron’s Star Party Podcast), then drive to the edge of town (where I live, it’d probably be Montana de Oro 🐻), then kick back and talk about the spooky coincidences you see in each others’ natal charts. 💖
The Star Witch Prayer
Art by Chiara Bautista (but sourced via Pinterest)
I love the idea of listening to space while you meditate. But I also LOVE this prayer I found online! I think you should memorize & whisper it to yourself in times of strife, anxiety, & dread. You should intone it together with your girl gang while picnicking under the stars or before settling into a magical study session with a piece of esoteric literature.
I am the flames that crown the Sun.
I am the valleys & craters of Mercury.
I am the burning clouds of Venus.
I am the life that blooms on Earth.
I am the dust & darkness of the Moon.
I am the towering mountains of Mars.
I am the swirling storm on Jupiter.
I am the frozen rings of Saturn.
I am the floating mist of Neptune.
I am the diamond rain of Uranus.
I am the subterranean ocean of Pluto.
I am made of the same stardust as the planets & one day I will return to them.
WHAT OTHER TYPES OF WITCHES ARE THERE?
Art by Chiara Bautista (but sourced via Pinterest)
Not convinced you're a star witch?
There are HUNDREDS of witchy babe-types: storm witches, sex witches, sea witches, paper witches, bone witches, psi witches, tech witches… Check out LavenderWhisp's Master Tumblr Post on witch types for more! 🤩🥳
But you don't have to identify as any type of witch. You’re at liberty to syncretize and experiment with procedures and elements from any magical tradition.
Creating this post was for me to show already-sorcerous babes how to do it with astrology!
Also, if you want to explore more about star witches and cosmic witchcraft, visit the Saturn Queen over on Tumblr! I learned SO MUCH from her #tags! (That link directs you to a collection of her posts tagged "cosmic witchcraft".)
