Because You're Beautiful ...

Being a witch is about celebrating the seasons and the changes that come with them. 

It is also about celebrating the shorter cycles of the moon. 

My mentor Cronos tends to call witchcraft the original stepped self-help program. What better self-help than that of self-care and self-maintenance practices? Those things that make you smile or that you need to do to maintain your physical self. We all, or well I have, a bad habit of looking for big rituals or shows as being signs that we are witches. But being a witch also means seeing the little rituals that make us, well us. The woman who always presents a "together" image, the man who manages that "rough" but always refined look. Each of these are appearance-based rituals and go through their own cycles in order to create and maintain them. Those appearances would not have been created if they were meaningless, if they did not serve some purpose. 

The advantage of being an independent witch who no one creed holds my name, is that I can choose what is sacred and what I call a valid form of worship. As the Charge of the Goddess from Dorene Valente implies all things that bring pleasure are pleasing to the Goddess; why not make the simple act of your physical image an act of worship? Image magic is a thing, and it is typically called glamour magic. 

But more than that.

The last quarter, a waning or dark/new moon is typically a time of banishing or cleaning. Sounds like a great time to do some detox or exfoliating scrubs or masks. 

You can even add in the current season of the year to your grooming in the use of scents or inspiration for what grooming to focus on, I think we are heading into the relm of bath magic?

Then you have those grooming habits that come with the age range you are in, cause let's be honest, as you age your body needs different things in order to meet the basics of what society deems the minimum grooming standards. A bath with Epsom salt becomes a wonderland of worship by adding candles and essential oils, while helping with that pesty season driven ache in your joints. 

Add in music and chanting and well you get the idea. 

Or at least I hope you do.