How to Achieve the 13 Goals of a Witch

Know yourself. This is the first and possibly the most important rule. Knowing yourself, your values, your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, your history and what you want to achieve in the future is crucial to Wicca. Love yourself and don't attempt to change your inner values or personality for others. It can help to write down self-biographies and keep track of your opinions on things by debating, writing or talking with friends.

Know your craft. This is not only things you have read in books or online (such as this), this is also your own personal experiences. Keep a grimoire journal and note down interesting experiences, rituals, correspondence charts, and other things you've learnt. Keep it as a record of all your knowledge and information related to Wicca.

Learn. You should never decide you know all there is to it––Wicca is an undulating and complex state of becoming, so there's always new information out there. Once you've studied all the planets, herbs and omens you can, look online and learn about other people's views and opinions. Remember to also learn from yourself, your mistakes and the world around you.

Apply knowledge with wisdom. You can know how to perfectly execute a ritual, but if you have malicious or harmful intentions, there is a chance of this malevolent intent backfiring at your expense. Seek the sensible way to achieve your goals; for example, if you and your best friend are having an argument, it might be better to talk to them rather than resort to using magic. Also, keep in mind the mundane restrictions on your craft, such as stigma, secrecy, financial situations or other responsibilities. While your craft should take a big place in your life, attend to urgent things first.

Achieve balance. Most of Wicca is about this concept in some ways, using all five elements, balancing the masculine and feminine, celebrating throughout the cycle of the year, etc. The struggle for many is celebrating all of these parts equally, instead of just the one they feel the most connected to or the one that's easiest to connect to for them. You can do this by focusing on one element or deity or concept per week, and rotating between them, developing a connection between each.

• Check out "A Witch's Primer" by Ariel: This is a series of podcasts that covers this "power base" rotation concept thoroughly, and guides you through it.

Keep your words in good order. Avoid slander or gossip as much as possible, and don't become excessively aggressive; anger is good, but violence is not. Most importantly, do not lie. Neither to yourself, nor to friends, enemies, family, the internet, or anyone else. It's bad for you spiritually, and reduces the power of your intentions during rituals, spells and other magical workings. Keep your word and even avoid those "white lies".

• If you must lie, lie by omission and change the subject as soon as possible. Keep your words meaningful and choose them wisely, like you would an incantation.

Keep your thoughts in good order. There is a power to thoughts––there are situations where people can recover from illnesses if they think they're being cured, while in some cases, stress/negativity/sadness, and so forth, may lead to illness. And, of course, spellwork rests on this very idea that thoughts lead to physical effects. Therefore, it's of the utmost importance that you filter your thoughts just as you would do while meditating, keeping the positive, productive ones and letting the negative ones go. Don't stress too much though, and keep in mind the old saying that "thoughts are like birds; you can't stop them from landing on your head, but you can stop them making a nest".

Celebrate life. This is what Wicca is all about! Enjoy nature and the Earth to its fullest, and embrace the little things. Go for walks to parks and sit on the grass under a big tree, look for edible flowers and herbs in the forest, go swimming at the beach, plant and harvest a garden, collect shells and pebbles, teach children good lessons, be kind to animals, and do anything else that celebrates the divine and life itself. Defend nature's gifts by planting trees, donating to charities like Greenpeace, picking up beach rubbish and using organic goods.

Attune with the cycles of the Earth. Most obviously, this means following the seasons and the sabbats well and embracing them in simple ways. Keep track of moon phases, solstices and equinoxes and notice the changes in your environment. Also, keep your own cycles on track as much as you can.

• For example, try to sleep a good amount of time each day at a similar time, and avoid messing up your sleep cycle with caffeine.
• You may also need to track your menstrual cycle and make sure that no external stimulus, such as extreme weight loss, is making it irregular.

Breathe and eat correctly. Focus on your breathing throughout the day––avoid shallow breaths and try to breathe through your nose and out through your mouth deeply, focusing closely on your breathing at least once a day. Meditating is a good time for this practice. In terms of eating correctly, this varies from person to person. Some Wiccans feel best when they eat a raw, paleo vegan diet that they grow in their own garden. However, many can't due to lack of money, space, time, dietary requirements, such as anemia and even just personal taste. If this is the case, simple additions can really help. These additions include:

• Purchasing more seasonal fruits and vegetables in a range of colours
• Drinking tea with each meal
• Avoiding processed or artificial additions when possible
• Having a big, home-cooked feast for each sabbat, ensuring that ingredients used are seasonal and perhaps correspond to the deities or representations of that sabbat (for example, during Ostara, eating pomegranates for Persephone)
• Choosing free-range eggs and meat
• Using honey instead of white sugar when sweetening tea or cereal
• Starting a small, windowsill herb garden to use when cooking.

Exercise the body. This is simple; if your body is healthy, so is your mind. Exercise also releases endorphins and dopamine, so it will put you in a positive mood. Working out can easily be wound into Wicca by doing it outside in natural settings, and enjoying the feeling it gives you. Exercise can include swimming at beaches or lakes, mountain-biking, hiking, walking, yoga, dance or anything else that can help keep you spiritually and physically fit. Don't focus on losing weight––instead, focus on feeling better and being able to use your god-given body to its full potential.

Meditate. A regular meditation, ritual or other spiritual practice (for example, grounding and centering) every day will do wonders for your spirituality. Meditation can provide you with answers to questions you have now or may not even know you have, a better knowledge of yourself, a better knowledge of the craft, and of course, a closer relationship with the deities you identify with. It also helps centre you and give your intentions greater clarity.