Know Thyself
Before you can wield real power, you must become a vessel capable of holding it.
That sounds poetic, but it’s also literal. Power rushes through the body like fire, like song, like voltage. It cannot be held in a cracked and leaking cup. It requires inner scaffolding, ethics, discipline, clarity, and alignment, so it doesn’t simply burn through you and leave you empty.
And most of all, it requires this:
To hold power, you must know yourself.
Not the fantasy-self, not the spiritual persona, not the carefully curated mirror you show to the world. You must look unflinching into the truest mirror, the one that shows your capability and your shadow. Because power will not lie to you. And even if power did not, the spirits, gods, and adversaries you may face absolutely will not. They will press every weakness, amplify every doubt, and offer tempting shapes to your most hidden desires.
Knowing yourself is not a luxury. It is armor.
Ethical Grounding
You cannot walk the edge if you don’t know where the cliff is.
Ethical grounding is more than knowing right from wrong. It’s learning how to hold power without exploiting others, how to be feared without being cruel, how to lead without controlling. It’s also about boundaries: yours and theirs.
Witchcraft does not hand you a rulebook. It demands something far more difficult: discernment.
Ethics requires that we build our own moral compass. Unlike, many religions, which foist theirs onto their laity, assuming them incapable of doing so. Witchcraft requires your full participation. You must know yourself, examine your motives, and choose the values you will live by, even when no one is watching.
Only you can hold your mirror. Only you can choose your line in the sand.
I have watched many a witch do this work, and I can say honestly: they are some of the most moral people I have ever encountered in my life. Not because they were told what to believe, but because they chose, again and again, to align power with integrity.
In the Wild Blackthorn Tradition, power is a flame cupped between two hands: one is Will, the other is Ethics. Lose either, and the fire goes out, or turns wild and devours.
Psychic Hygiene
Witches are sensitive. That’s part of the gift. But sensitivity without sovereignty makes you a sponge, not a channel.
Psychic hygiene is the daily practice of clearing, shielding, and reclaiming your energy. Just as you wash your body and tend your home, you must cleanse your spirit. Not occasionally. Not only when things feel “off.” But as a habit. As devotion.
A simple daily practice:
- Breathe deeply.
- Call your energy home.
- Visualize a cleansing light or elemental force (fire, wind, water) moving through you.
- Expel what does not belong. Thank it, then release.
- Seal yourself with light, symbols, breath, or intention.
Neglect this and you invite intrusion. Practice it, and your light becomes sharp—less buffet, more blade.
Even in the most formal ceremonial traditions, daily spiritual hygiene is non-negotiable. In systems like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, new initiates (Neophytes) are encouraged to perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) every day for a full year. This ritual clears unwanted influences, centers the self, invokes elemental guardians, and aligns the practitioner vibrationally with their highest purpose. It also builds confidence, discipline, and internalization.
It’s not the ritual itself that creates mastery; it’s the daily doing of it.
Whatever your path, the principle remains: cleanse, center, protect. Again and again. Power respects those who tend their temple.
Neglect this and you invite intrusion. Practice it, and your light becomes sharp, less buffet, more blade.
Shadow Integration
The edge will cut you if you’re afraid of your own darkness.
Every witch has a shadow. Power will expose it. That’s not failure,it’s an invitation.
Do you long to be adored? Feared? Vindicated? Do you still seek permission? Revenge? Are there wounds beneath your rituals?
Shadow work isn’t about banishing these parts of you. It’s about acknowledgment, integration, and transformation. You must be able to name your hungers before they name you. You must be able to say:
I know what I am capable of, both the holy and the terrifying.
This is the first armor. This is the mirror you must not break.
Embracing your shadow is not only an act of healing but also of creating wholeness. In this wholeness, we are no longer divided. Our power courses freely without obstacle, unblocked by shame or self-denial. This integration can make us more powerful than we ever dared to dream.
As the saying goes: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Strengthening the Will
The Will is the blade of the Witch.
Discipline sharpens it. Desire drives it. Belief tempers it. But it is forged in fire, by choosing, again and again, to act from the deepest truth of who you are.
Ritual strengthens Will. Repetition carves paths in the mind. Every time you say the words, light the candle, cast the circle, you are reminding the world (and yourself): I choose. I shape. I remember.
You don’t need to feel ready. You need to begin.
The Guardian at the Threshold
There comes a point in every path of power when you meet the one who bars the gate.
Sometimes they appear in dreams. Sometimes as illness, fear, loss, or a sudden pull to abandon the Work entirely. They are not your enemy.
They are you. The part of you that remembers every failure, every trauma, every vow you made to stay small or safe or silent. They wear your face. They know your secrets.
But if you face them, not with violence, but with presence, they become the ally you didn’t know you needed. They test you because power will test you. If you cannot meet your own shadow and stand your ground, what will you do when a real force opposes you?
Next time, I will offer a guided meditation to meet the Guardian at the Threshold.
But for now…
Cleanse your altar.
Name your values.
Look into the mirror.
Feel your breath return to your body.
Strengthen the vessel.
And prepare to knock at the door.
Footnote:
The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) is a foundational ceremonial magic rite used to clear space, establish energetic boundaries, and invoke the archangels of the four quarters. Originating in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it is widely practiced in Western esotericism and often recommended as a daily practice for beginners to build clarity, presence, and alignment.
A simplified instructional version can be found in:
- Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig
- The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie
- Or online: [Search “LBRP ritual text” or “LBRP walkthrough” for trusted resources]
Where the Blackthorn Grows Wild 