Belief is at the heart of being a Pagan; belief in the gods, belief in yourself and your own place in the universe, and belief in the ability to use magick to create positive change. Will comes from practice and strength of purpose, and focus may be easier when you use tools, but it can certainly be achieved without them. All these things are the core of a witchcraft practice. And they are all free.
Setting Priorities
Of course, just because it is possible to be a well-rounded witch without having any of the aforementioned extras doesn’t mean that most of us are going to give up buying tools, wear blue jeans to rituals, and never purchase a book again (goddess forbid!). Witchcraft on a shoestring doesn’t call for you to stop spending money. What it does require is that you take a serious look at how you spend your dollars, and what you spend them on. That means setting priorities.
In order to figure out what your priorities are, you first need to take a good look at your own personal magickal practice, as well as your budget, your skills, and how much time you have to devote to creating cheaper alternatives to premade tools.
When examining the ways you perform the Craft, for instance, you may want to take into consideration whether or not you are a solitary or a group witch; how well you are able to concentrate your focus without the aid of tools such as candles, crystals, incense, etc.; how often you practice; and how prominent your witchcraft practice is in your life.
For instance, a solitary witch whose main magickal activity is lighting a candle outside under the full moon and saying a prayer to the goddess will need different items than a witch who runs a large coven and celebrates new moons, full moons, and all eight sabbats in full garb, complete with drumming, formal ritual and spellcasting, and a feast to follow. Each individual’s needs will be different, based on how, when, and with whom they practice. So start by figuring out exactly what it is you do, as a witch, and what the minimum requirements are for supporting that activity.
Then take a look at what you have already, and what you still need to purchase. For instance, if you already have three large crystals, you probably don’t need another one. That isn’t to say you can’t buy another one or ten if you love crystals and you have the money to spare, but you might want to save your money for something else more vital.
Another thing to consider is your skill level. Can you sew? If you can, then maybe you can make your own cloak, and save yourself the price (often quite high) of one purchased from a catalog or at a faire. Can you build an altar, carve an athame from wood, or make your own candles? You can save a lot of money making things yourself, if you have the time and the necessary skills. And sometimes you can swap your talents for those you don’t have. The members of my coven, Blue Moon Circle, have a wide variety of skill sets, and we often take turns either creating items for the group or teaching the other members how to do so themselves.
Again, you need to balance the time and energy it takes to make less expensive alternatives at home with the money you will save by doing so. Only you can decide which is in more plentiful supply: money or time.
The reason you set priorities before setting out to practice witchcraft on a shoestring is simple—it is the only way to figure out where you want to put your hard-earned money. But even when you choose what you need to have for your practice, you can look for ways to get these things as cheaply as possible.
Inexpensive Substitutes
Witchcraft is based, in great part, on our own instincts and on general principles of magick. We use tools and correspondences to focus our Will more strongly, for instance, but that doesn’t mean we are limited to using specific items, even when they are called for in a spell.
Say, for instance, that you are doing a love spell you found in a book, and the spell calls for a large pink candle, a cup of rose petals, and an amethyst crystal. And let’s assume, just for the moment, that you don’t happen to have any of those things. Ouch. I can hear your wallet screaming from here.
Instead of running out to the nearest New Age shop to buy all those supplies, let’s look at the intention behind each one. All those items are associated with love magick. But there are other ways to use these same tools, without spending a lot of money.
You could use that white candle you already have, and tie a pink ribbon or piece of string around it. If the ribbon is wide enough, you could even write the spell on it. Instead of the cup of rose petals, you could use a single rose (if you grow roses, then it would be free, of course, but even at the store a single rose doesn’t cost much), or a few petals left over from the last time you needed one, or even a picture of a rose. And instead of the amethyst crystal, you might use a small tumbled piece (much cheaper), or even a rose quartz crystal, which is also associated with love magick and tends to be much cheaper.
There are many other ways to substitute inexpensive alternatives for more expensive supplies. Here are ten easy suggestions:
Grow your own herbs. Seeds are cheap, and most herbs will grow in a small space like a windowsill. As a bonus, many of the herbs we commonly use for magick—like parsley, thyme, rosemary, dill, and basil—also have
