Practising as a Closet Witch
Practising as a witch who is in the closet can be hard and a bit disheartening. When I first started my journey into witchcraft I was very much in the closet, there were and still are many people in my life who are completely opposed to the idea of witchcraft, they think it’s dangerous or demonic, so I had to hide my beliefs and practice.
It’s 6 years since I started my journey and whilst I’m a little more open about my practice I still hide quite a lot of it.
I wanted to make a post about all the things I used to do and still do now.
Getting Online
One thing that I did was to set up an Instagram page under a different name so that people I know couldn’t find me, it might sound strange when you’re trying to keep it secret, but immersing yourself in the community and talking with like-minded people helps a lot.
Use a magical name that people won’t associate with you - Elin Hazel isn’t my real name but it’s a version of my name and my Celtic tree sign.
Don’t post images of yourself - this is entirely up to you, but I chose in the first few years not to post any pictures of myself just in case, I do post some now but not many.
Don’t post pictures of a familiar space - if you are trying out spells or divination and you want to share pictures, great! Just make sure there’s nothing in the image that could be a giveaway to who you are.
Incognito is your best friend - if you are sharing a computer or a device with someone else and you want to read witch or occult content online without them knowing, then incognito is the best way.
Grimoire and Book of Shadows
The one thing you will come across in the community are grimoires and books of shadows, now this is something that you don’t have to keep but if you do here are few ideas -
Portable Hard drive - you can type up notes or download things from the internet and keep them on a hard drive that you could then hide away.
Notes app - pretty much every phone has a notes app that you keep your notes and workings stored, just make sure that nobody else has access to your phone or cloud storage.
Physical book - I used to conceal mine as a sketchbook because I’m a designer and illustrator so I have sketchbooks everywhere so it was easy to hide. You could try concealing the journal as a normal book or if you have a really good hiding spot place the book there.
Save things on Instagram or Pinterest that interests you and create a grimoire this way.
If you live somewhere where you don’t have a lot of privacy I would opt more for the digital version over a physical version. Don’t think you have a nice pretty book because you don’t have to, do what works for you.
Magical Tip -
If you to read books on the occult try your local library, you do not have to take the books out you can sit with a notebook and take notes or just read and make notes on your phone.
Magical Tools
One point I would like to make is that you don’t need all the fancy tools to practice witchcraft, and being in the closet sometimes having tools is out of the question. If you do want to use tools in your practice there are things you can use
Playing Cards - you can read playing cards in the same way as you read tarot, I did this for years before buying my first deck. There are also many witches who prefer to read playing cards over tarot.
Wand - go for a walk and find a stick that calls to you, this can be used as a wand. Many things can be used a wand, a wooden spoon, a pencil, use your imagination.
Crystals - I find crystals are more mainstream and accepted. You could buy small tumbled stones that can easily be hidden or if you want something that just helps you connect to the earth I would use a stone from outside. I always used to say that I collected crystals because they were pretty. Oh, crystal bracelets and necklaces can also be a good option.
Pendulum - you can use any necklace or anything that can hang from a chain or thread as a pendulum.
Candles - birthday candles, or tealight candles were my go-to as they are small. discrete and had a really quick burn time.
Divination - there are plenty of divination methods that you don’t need special tools for, some examples include bibliomancy (divination with books), astragalomancy (dice divination), you can ask yes/no questions and flip a coin.
Ok I think I’m going to leave it there for this part, I think I’m going to make a mini-series of things you can practice as a closeted witch otherwise this post is going to be really long.
