Cover Photo by Kate Laine on Unsplash
Writing in our journals comes more naturally to some than it does to others and many simply don’t have the time they would wish to have to sit and thoughtfully fill their Book of Shadows… a form of discouragement in itself.
Since the autumn season has entered our lives in the northern hemisphere again, I’ve thought of 13 autumnal writing prompts that could help you to continue filling a page or two of your Grimoire.
Pick as many or as few as inspire you and remember that the pages do not judge you as harshly as you judge yourself, they are there kindly and patiently waiting for whenever you have the time to fill them.
Light a candle, focus on on your intention, get comfortable, take a deep breath, grab your writing tool and open the Grimoire…
1. Make A Gratitude List.
The autumn season is the time of harvest when we gather what we have grown, and celebrate and share our abundance. So, making a gratitude list would be both pertinent to fall and an excellent ritual to attract more of what you desire by sitting in a state of thankfulness as you jot down all that you are grateful for.
It’s straightforward and will put you in a positive mood by allowing you to reflect on all your blessings be them big or small.
2. Attach Fallen Leaves & Flowers to the Page(s).
Gather the fallen foliage you’ve come across outside or dry some of your own herbs and flowers to glue or tape on the pages of your Grimoire. If words don’t come to you easily or if you have an artistic eye, this will be an opportunity to have some fun and get creative without having to worry about your penmanship.
You’ll also be taking advantage of what the earth has to offer during autumn and if you’re a green witch, curandera, or love working with dried flowers and leaves than you’ll love decorating your book with them.
3. What Herbs, Fruits, and Vegetation are Associated with Fall?
Profiling the herbs, fruits and vegetation that are either widely or locally associated with fall is an excellent opportunity to do some research, learn more about what is harvested around the world or in your surrounding environment, and embrace green witchery whether it is a part of your common practice or not.
This can include scientific, medicinal, and magical uses of the items you profile, as well as, any mythological stories and Gods or Goddesses associated with them.
4. Stain or Color the Pages in Autumnal Colors.
Another wonderfully mindless project that can be quite meditative and offer you the opportunity to space out and just create is staining or painting select pages in your Grimoire with autumnal colors. These can be the shades widely associated with the season or the corresponding colors that resonate and make the most sense to you and your magical practice.
Remember to plan ahead if there are specific writing utensils you are planning to use to write over top of the stain or coloring, or you can always also glue or tape things on no matter what you used to color the page(s).
5. What are your Personal Autumn Correspondences?
What do you associate with the season? Not what the books, online forums, or other witches and magical practitioners associate with autumn, but you personally based off of your lived experiences, intuition, and memory.
There is no better way to celebrate a thing than to think on what it means to you, so do the same for the fall season and create a list, graph or collage of autumn correspondences that align with your beliefs and view of the world. At the end of the day, if you have a strong perspective of a color, an item, a scent, a sensation, or anything else than it won’t matter what it means to others because your internalized intent or definition will always be there peaking through, so embrace it.
6. What Endings Have You Experienced & their Meaning?
Autumn brings with it the end of long, sunny days and the death of the lush green vegetation of the spring and summer. Reflect on the endings you have experienced and the meanings you find in them.
These can be endings of the physical and material world around you, endings involving relationships and people, endings of the emotional, mental, or spiritual kind. Endings can reflect loss, moving on, necessity and more, explore them in all their depth and remark on what the new beginning they now leave room for.
7. Detail an Autumn Recipe.
Food is central to all life but especially human life. It is social, it is familial, it is congratulatory, it is welcoming, it is comforting, and so much more, so write down, without sparing any detail, a recipe or two that you are looking forward to cooking or baking this fall.
You can also write about a family recipe that you’ve eaten in the past and or that has been passed down through the generations. Or, feel free to create a new tradition by detailing a recipe you have found that you associate with this time of year and that you would like to make a habit of eating every autumn from here on out.
8. What Crystals are Associated with Fall?
Every witch is different and not all of us work with crystals but plenty enough of us do that I thought it worth while to suggest profiling crystals associated with the fall season. This can be in accordance with their color, deity association, ascribed healing properties, shape or design.
Obviously, orange crystals can easily be profiled as corresponding to the fall, but maybe you own a rainbow fluorite crystal in the shape of a pumpkin or autumn leaf and that specific crystal makes the most sense for you to profile in your Grimoire as being linked with the season – go ahead and do that, or both.
9. How is this Autumn Different from the Previous?
A mindfulness practice, this prompt would be most potent if you allot yourself a comfortable amount of time to sit and think back on what the autumn of the previous year looked like for you, the harvest it brought you, and the differences in comparison to the present-day autumn.
Since you’ll be delving into your past and present, feel free to reflect on your hopes for the future fall season and what you aspire to grow and harvest then.
10. Write a Poem About Autumn.
This does not have to be complex or elaborate, it can begin with three simple words you associate with autumn and which you expand upon until you have created a poem, or you can write a poem acrostic style that is based of of each letter in the word A U T U M N or any other word that corresponds with this time of year.
If you are a natural wordsmith or poetry writer, then you should have plenty of fun cultivating a thoughtfully worded poem from your autumnal perspective.
11. What Did You Grow that You’ve Harvested this Fall?
This can be taken figuratively or literally, but I am primarily referencing tangible plants, spaces, herbs, or other things which you have grown. Do you have a basil plant that you have been tending to and that you use in spells for money or success? What have you learned from putting your time and effort into the growth and nurture of another life form?
If you are not necessarily a green thumb, you can also reflect on this question in regards to other life situations or experiences. For example, have you grown and expanded you sacred space or altar, and what benefits have you harvested from tending to your area? Or maybe you’ve been putting a lot of effort into growing your knowledge of a subject and are seeing the fruits of your labor reflected in your expanding education.
12. Draw Gourds, Autumn Leaves, and Other Fall Visuals.
Be you an artsy soul or perhaps clumsy creative, drawing in your Grimoire is an excellent way to bring vibrant life to the pages through visual imagery and is an opportune moment to get into touch with the imagination of your inner child.
Play with color, shape, and form to create art magic that embodies the items, hues, and landscape of autumn. From gourds of all sorts of funny shapes and sizes, to autumn leaves in free fall or enticing piles, to trees turned completely red or yellow, let your creativity run wild.
13. Write a Thank You Letter or Prayer.
This can be done in a highly personalized way that makes it feel the most meaningful to you. Write a thank you letter to yourself, your deity/deities, your angel or spirit guides, your ancestors, your loved one(s), the earth, the spirit of the autumn season… the possibilities are truly endless.
♤
JYN ARRO 