my inner child healing journey has been inextricably linked with my spiritual practice.

i was that little girl who didn't care about dressing up as a princess:

i wanted to be a witch

i made potions in my backyard. i searched for fairies and gnomes in our gardens. i threw elaborate burial rituals for dead crabs i gathered along the shore of the chesapeake bay.

alongside my 5 siblings, i was raised by a very spiritual mother who drew up our astrology charts the moment we were born, helped us pull tarot cards when we didn't know how to approach a difficult situation, and helped us build an awareness of the power of energy.

and while i am now so grateful to have been raised this way, i spent most of my teens and early 20s trying to distance myself from it all because i hated that it made me so weird.

but as i began to soften toward my own inner child in my mid-20s and truly began to embark on my reparenting journey, i realized: wait a minute, i really CAN be a witch if i want to be! and maybe i truly have been one all along.

you don't need anything to be a witch, just awareness and intention.

but there is a whole lot of inner child magic that can be unlocked when you use the kinds of tools and resources that would've lit you up as a kid.

with their focus on intuition, ritual, and self-honoring, witchy spiritual practices offer a powerful way to reconnect with and heal our relationship to whimsy, joy, and the innate sense of sovereignty that so many of us lost during our childhoods. 

these are some of my own personal favorite ritual/spiritual tools as well as witchy gift ideas that i would be delighted to receive. while they are not all affiliate links, i may earn a commission if you purchase through my links which is so helpful for my business revenue! you can view the whole list with product descriptions here.

witchy spiritual practices for inner child magic

journaling for inner child healing

one of the most powerful inner child healing practices that i started with was shadow journaling where i would sit with childhood photos of myself and journal as though i was a trusted adult having a conversation with my little bb self about what she was feeling + going through. it was hard at first and felt so cheesy, but it always left me with powerful insights to journal about.

astrology for inner child healing

astrology is my very favorite self-development tool. it helps me better understand myself, my patterns, and my triggers. it helps me understand the energy that is available to me, what to push forward, and when to pause and retreat. i don't personally use it in a predictive way, but rather as a way to help me find my agency within the context of 

ritual tools

as i've developed in my own personal practice, i've come to see ritual tools as simply a means of helping me focus my intentions. they are not necessary, but a powerful candle, a delightfully-scented incense, and a salt spray or smoke cleansing bundle can be helpful in creating an environment that gets the magic flowing.

play as spiritual practice

reconnecting with whimsy and joy have been key for reclaiming my own sense of personal power. play can look many different ways and for me it includes the way that i dress, the way i decorate my space (witchy decor makes my inner child SO happy while helping me heal that part of myself that has always believed that it's a frivolous thing to care about!), and of course things like coloring, staring at the clouds, dancing barefoot under the moonlight, and simply playing with my children.

potion magic

i am a deep believer in the power of spiritual medicine. this can come in many different forms, but subtle energetic support in the form of flower essences, oxymels, and elixirs made by practitioners who are truly dedicated to their craft can be such a powerful ally. there is a lot of snake oil out there as well as practitioners who do not align with my values: the ones i've included in this gift guide are magic-makers that i can truly vouch for.

mantras and affirmations

mantras + affirmations have been incredibly powerful for helping me reprogram my anxious brain, interrupt negative thought patterns, and cultivate more compassion and kindness toward myself. and i find them especially helpful when they are in the form of catchy earworms that i can't get out of my head!

a note about crystals

i personally do not use crystals in my practice anymore. in the beginning, it felt like i needed a specific crystal for every possible scenario and i purchased a few. but over my years of practice and after learning about the concept of stone rematriation from dori midnight, i've come to see this relationship as extractive and exploitative. if crystals carry energy, then we should be incredibly careful about the ways that they are mined and sold and yet the crystal industry is incredibly problematic and destructive. so instead, i collect rocks that call to me from our driveway or sometimes just sit with the big outcroppings of quartz that are abundant on our property.