Easy Elemental Magick For Fat Liberation and Beyond

NAAFA invited me to bring some of my witchy shenanigans to their Fat Liberation Month programming. Being the 4th annual Fat Liberation Month, I created this workshop to share some quick tips about how to work with the 4 elements in ways that make magick more accessible in our daily lives—for fat liberation and beyond!

When I first committed to exploring my spiritual practice, I developed a super intense, rigid daily routine. It involved many steps, lots of specific items and tools, and took up a ton of time and energy. While I think it was an important part of my process as a budding witch who was getting to know just what kind of witch they were, things came to a screeching halt when I became mysteriously ill for months and was later diagnosed with lupus and fibromyalgia. Since then, my capacity has fluctuated as my health has been all over the place, and my spiritual practice suffered. There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed, let alone sit at my altar for hours, or dance around for my spirit team, or stand over the hot stove cooking candles, or whatever the fuck else I was doing. But I missed my spiritual practice desperately and I could feel the difference in my wellbeing without my practice. Finally, the light bulb cracked me over the head. How can I incorporate magick into my everyday life? There’s gotta be ways to make magick out of the things I already do in my day-to-day…

I’m here to tell you that there absolutely is. Magick does not have to be rigid, difficult, hard, or inaccessible. Magick can be easy, accessible, and even free! And it turns out, when it’s more accessible, I do it more frequently, and it actually becomes more effective. Who’da fuckin’s thunk!

So, here are some ways we can engage easy magick by utilizing the 4 elements: air, earth, water, and fire.

air

Air is the easiest element to work with because we all have free access to it right the fuck now without even thinking about it! There are a million different ways to do breath work and it’s got multiple benefits. It can be used as self-care to calm our nervous system when done slowly (I use it all the time to soothe my anxiety, mitigate panic attacks, and lower my heart rate). It can also be used as a meditative practice and even as a hallucinogenic.

When thinking about how to use breath work for fat liberation, I instantly went to belly breathing. This is when we focus our breath on our belly. Instead of focusing on breathing into our chest, try breathing into the belly. Some find it helpful to put our hands on our belly, to feel the rise and fall of the belly as we slowly inhale and exhale. I think touching our bellies can be especially empowering, healing, and/or soothing for those of us who may have struggled (or still do) with their bellies, whatever our size. It’s especially important to do this type of breathing exercise slowly, especially when the goal is to calm our nervous system. Here’s how I do it:

• Inhale 5 seconds

• Pause 3 seconds

• Exhale 5 seconds

• Pause 3 seconds

• Do at least 3 times or as many times as needed

To add some magick to the breath work, I like to add intentions to the inhale and exhale. Here are a couple of ways I like to do it:

• Inhale what you’re bringing in to self, exhale what you’re releasing from self

• Inhale what you’re bringing in to self, exhale what you’re giving back to universe/earth/community

Earth

We already eat everyday, so it’s super easy to just add some magical intention to the meals we’re gonna be chowin’ down on anyway. Remember, the baseline of all magick is intention, so it literally doesn’t matter what you’re eating or drinking. It doesn’t have to have specific ingredients. It doesn’t have to be a big ol’ fancy meal. It doesn’t have to come from any place in particular. It can be home made, it can be store bought. It. Does. Not. Matter. What matters is that you apply intention to what you’ve got.

• If you’ve got a store bought meal, you can apply intention to the meal as a whole, or apply intention to specific ingredients. Don’t feel pressure to apply intention to every single ingredient if they don’t all resonate with you.

• If you’re cooking or baking at home, you can apply intention to each ingredient. Again, don’t feel pressure to apply intention to every single ingredient.

• I encourage folx to apply meanings to ingredients however they resonate with them, but here are some of my faves and the reasons I’ll use them: ginger (movement), cinnamon (fierce protection), rosemary (gentle protection), salt (neutral protection), bay leaves (cleansing), lavender (comfort).

• When stirring, mixing, grinding, etc., go clockwise for manifestation and counterclockwise is for banishment.

Water

Hygiene is something that’s part of our routine and we probably don’t even think of it as particularly fun or glamorous. Well, guess what? Once you add a little magick to it, it can become pretty fuckin’ cool pretty quick! Water is a magical element without even adding anything to it. It’s cleansing, calming, and soothing. Plus, just like I said earlier—intention is where it’s at. When you take a shower or wash your hands, you can say an affirmation or step into the shower with the intention of cleansing the day away, and that in and of itself counts as magick. But if you wanna get a little fancy with it, here are some extra magical items you can add to your water routines.

• Hang plants in the shower (I’ve got dried eucalyptus in mine with the intention of healing)

• Use a few drops of essential oils on the corners of the floor of the shower, choosing each oil based on their associated meaning/use to you

• Use shower steamers made with essential oils

• Use hand soaps with essential oils

• When washing your hands, the clockwise/counterclockwise manifestation/banishment thing can work here too when rubbing your hands together

• Add other elements to your bathroom like plants (whether living or dried), art, affirmations (I love putting notes on my mirror)

Fire

Fire always seems like the sexiest element to me, but I also learned the hard way that it’s the most dangerous element to work with. So, heed my warning. All magick is serious magick and should not be used frivolously. But fire is one to be extra careful with, especially when working with actual fire (like, flames). This is why I’m suggesting something that’s technically also an earth element, but is associated with fire and can be utilized and accessed in a ton of different ways—cinnamon! I’m sure there are plenty of other methods to fuck with cinnamon, but here are just a few. Remember, as long as you apply your own intention to it, then it doesn’t matter which method you choose to engage. Don’t overthink it. Your gut and/or your spirit team will always guide you in the right direction.

• Cooking, baking

• Tea

• Sprinkle on candles*

• Buy scented candles*

• Throw in cauldron (can add others herbs, spices, dried shit)

• Cinnamon sticks for smudging

• Incense

• Gum

• Cinnamon brooms

  • Stock up in the fall! There are large and small ones. I usually find them at Trader Joe’s, CVS, Aldi, and Ralph’s

*A couple notes on candles:

1) I fucking love candles! If you’re looking for a way to work with all 4 elements at once, than candles are for you! The wax represents earth, the flame is fire, the melt is water, and the evaporation is air.

2) I’m all about the local witchy shops. Support local witches 100%. But I also know that the prices are not always accessible to everyone. So, don’t feel like your candles aren’t magical if they don’t come from the witchy store. I do a lot of my candle magick with tea lights from the fuckin’ dollar store, sprinkled with herbs and spices I got from the grocery store. In fact, the entirety of my witches pantry came from grocery stores, dollar stores, and friend’s gardens. Don’t ever let anyone shame you into thinking you can’t afford magick. It’s just not true! *hops off of thrifted soap box*

***

Are you interested in working with a fat liberationist witch? I offer sliding scale peer counseling and tarot readings! Book a sesh here.

Looking for fat community? Check out the Fat AF! Peer Support Space or the Fat Fridays Virtual Social Club!

Are you trans, non-binary, or otherwise gender expansive and interested in learning more about tarot? Come learn for free at my Easy Tarot for Self-Care class!