Lisa Marie Basile - Light magic for dark times: more than 100 spells, rituals, and practices for coping in a crisis

100 Spells, Rituals, & Practices for Coping in a Crisis

LISA MARIE BASILE

Foreword by Kristen J. Solle

F or centuries, witches and women have both thrived and suffered in the dark. They have gathered under blackened skies to commune, to study, to heal, and to practice forbidden rites in covens and consciousness-raising groups. They have found safety and solace in the shadows with one another. But because the punishing patriarchal forces that have dominated human history fear the shadows, they have also been cast as darkness itself, only to be murdered, ostracized, and abused for it.

This ambivalent relationship with darkness is one that witches, women, and all those who are part of marginalized groups share. And this ambivalent relationship with darkness is one that Lisa Marie Basile honors in Light Magic for Dark Times.

Like so many others, I, too, have both thrived and suffered in the dark. I have wrapped myself in funereal garb, frequented cemeteries, painted my lips and eyes black, and tattooed skulls and death sigils across my body. I have submerged myself in music and art and literature that celebrates despair and macabre mysteries. I have felt safest in the eldritch womb of the woods, the blacklight of the club.

I was drawn to the dark, on the one hand, because I didnt buy the lie that darkness was evil or wrong as my upbringing might have me believe. But, on the other hand, I knew darkness could also be the perfect hiding place. An excuse not to shed light on the trauma that pricked my insides. I endured abusive relationships in secrecy as I wore a sunny mask to the world because I was ashamed to admit what I did to try to bask in loves light. I kept my chronic illness from family and friends because I was afraid to have them associate my presence with doom and decay.

Thankfully, witchcraft was my way out of this darkness.

Light Magic for Dark Times is a book I wish I had by my bedside and in my heart during my most challenging moments. It holds space for healing and exploring and awakening the parts of ourselves that we or the outside world might label dark, and offers rejuvenating rites of lightness and illumination. Basiles spellcraft radiates love and sex-positivity, but it is certainly not hex-negative. She elevates shadow work and emphasizes the importance of delving into the dark and facing pain head-on to heal. There is no trauma too deep or desire too superficial for the spells, incantations, and rituals contained in this grimoire.

When I was writing Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive, a sex-positive feminist primer on the witch in history and popular culture, my goal was to pay tribute to voices that have been silenced and the artists and activists who for centuries have endeavored to amplify those voices. Basile has created a practical toolkit for contemporary artists and activists of this ilk, with a whole swath of spells specifically designed for folks involved in social justice movements.

Witchcraft has long been a tool for the oppressed to use to achieve autonomy and receive divine guidance, Basile asserts in the introduction. And part of honing that power for yourself is fighting for the rights of others.

The conscious magic offered within Light Magic for Dark Times is indicative of the kind of witchcraft I see taking hold across the country. In my college classroom and in the schools I have visited to lecture about the legacy of the witch, I have found that students are just as hungry to create social justice sigils as they are to talk about the otherworldly women and witchy femmes that have seduced the cultural imagination. Yes, they still want to dress like theyre in The Craft or American Horror Story: Coven, but they are equally interested in learning about witchcraft as a method of collective political action and communal self-care. They want to cloak themselves in darkness as they shine a light on the worlds wounds. To these students and so many more folks outside the classroom and in the streets, casting spells is synonymous with crafting protest chants. Personal witchcraft is now, more than ever, political witchcraft.

Although there are countless injustices and horrors in the world today, I dont believe we are living in dark times that are any different than the myriad dark times of the past. However, what is different is how we relate to that darkness, how we define that darkness, and how we let it define us. With the proliferation of witchcraft manuals and magical manifestos and art of all genres that allow us to see beyond the binary of dark/light, we are poised to embrace the contradictions and complexities that populate the mercurial cultural topography we are living on. And that is why a book like this is so vital nownot because these dark times are any different, but because we are different, and our light is being calibrated to shine in transformative new ways.

Let Light Magic for Dark Times be a catalyst for your conjuring, in darkness and in light, in these times and in times to come. It certainly will be for me.

D ear reader, I imagine that in picking up this book youre ready to try something new. Maybe youve got a deep hunger to get back to your self; maybe you feel a risk must be taken. Maybe you want to create healing, autonomy, and joy out of pain or fear. With this grimoire as a guide, you can find a path through the darkness, make friends with the shadows, and conjure sustainable inner light. In a way that feels right to you.

I have always found it risky to blossomit takes time and work, and the process of shedding our skin is uncomfortable. But as they say, if it doesnt challenge you, theres no way it can change you. Magic does both. I believe that magicthat electric force within us and nature and the cosmoscan help us create a life that is nourishing and resilient.

This magic, this space of light, dark, and shadow, grounds my life, and I work with it daily. Five years ago, I founded Luna Luna, a witchy, intersectional digital magazine with stories that tackle the darkness, art that conjures the light, and work that straddles the threshold. Elle magazine recently featured us in their Season of the Witch feature, and BuzzFeed called us a girl squad you need to know.

My work as a writer and editor has always been, even before I was aware of it, informed by my magical lifestyle; Ive practiced since my teen years. Im also a poet, and in all of my collections, Ive focused on the same themes: wading through the fog to find some glimmering ember, some clarity, some magical connective tissue.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

ANAS NIN

So how did I come to spell-casting and ritual? As a Scorpio (chronically Scorpio, that is), magic has always felt natural to me. I loved practices that gave me a sense of empowerment, like I could conquer (or, more accurately, learn to work with) darkness. I also had parents who encouraged my education, curiosity, and interest in magical practices. And it was this sense of magical empowerment I would lean into as I grew up.