At some point, every witch deals with backlash from a spell. I’m not talking the “you cast a bad spell and now it’s coming back at you threefold” nonsense. No, what we’re talking about today is the kind of spell hangover that happens when you cast a spell and then afterward you feel horrible. Think headaches, body aches, exhaustion, depression, anxiety, feeling “wired”, and just generally feeling off after finishing a spell. 

Despite what many people may think, this is an incredibly common occurrence! Newer witches and even many experienced witches suffer from these post-spell symptoms and typically, the more intensive the spell the worse the symptoms become. In severe cases, this kind of spell backlash can cause migraines, nausea, vomiting, and flare-ups of chronic health issues.

This spell hangover is not an unavoidable reality of witchcraft though! In fact, it’s quite easy to prevent by simply taking the right steps and keeping your magical hygiene on point. If you struggle with feeling crummy after spellwork then read on, this post is for you.

What Causes Spell Hangovers

Nasty post-spell symptoms are almost always caused by the same problem: unbalanced personal energy.

When casting spells, a huge amount of your energy is transformed, moved, spent, and used to power your spells and this can pull your personal energy way out of whack. You may end up with not enough energy, too much energy, or the wrong kind of energy held in the wrong place in your body and any one of these issues can cause deeply uncomfortable symptoms. Your personal energy field has a particular way of being on a day to day basis and disrupting that will always have consequences.

The best way to solve a problem is to avoid it in the first place so if at all possible, make a routine of following the steps below (some or all of them, as needed) and you will likely be able to end your spell-hangovers forever.

How To Avoid Spell Hangovers

1. Grounding after your spell

Grounding is perhaps the MOST important step you can take to avoid those nasty symptoms after spellwork. I’ve written an entire article on grounding but to give you a quick overview of what grounding is, here’s a little excerpt from the article:

“Grounding is a vital part of learning to practice magic in a safe and healthy way. The term comes from the process of grounding an electrical circuit. Essentially if an object is negatively charged, grounding allows excess electrons to flow from the object into the earth, and if an object is positively charged, electrons flow from the earth into the object. It’s a method of balancing and equalizing the flow of energy.”

If you’ve expended too much energy during a spell, you’ll likely feel tired, headachy, moody, or under the weather. In this case, grounding will allow you to draw extra energy up into your energy field to bring you back into balance. If you raised too much energy and have too much of it swirling around in your energy field still, you’ll probably feel anxious, wired up, agitated, and you may get body aches. Similarly, grounding in this instance allows all of that excess energy to leave your body so you can come back to a state of balance. 

2. Cleansing before & after casting

Cleansing is another important form of magical hygiene that often gets overlooked. If the problem isn’t necessarily too much or too little energy, it might be that you simply have the wrong kind of energy clinging to you. Spell residue, negative energy or emotions, spirits, and more can become lodged in the energy field during spellwork and cleansing can help you remove all of those unwanted energies and get back to normal asap.

To learn more about cleansing, check out this article.

3. Hydrate and feed yourself

Just because the work we’re doing is spiritual, doesn’t mean that it won’t affect our physical bodies. The physical body and the energy body work together and if one is out of alignment, the other will be too. Staying hydrated and having a snack an hour or so before a spell can make a huge difference in how you feel after your spellwork, especially if you lean toward spells that are heavy on the ritual, long, or require a lot of physical movement.

Make sure that you don’t eat too much before spellwork though! Heavy meals can tie up a lot of your physical energy in digestion leaving you feeling sluggish and unmotivated during casting.

4. Don’t cast when you’re sleep deprived, very stressed, or sick

If at all possible, avoid doing spellwork when your energy is already out of alignment. Being too tired, too stressed, emotionally distraught, or ill can lead to some nasty post-spell hangover. I mean, you’re already not feeling great, draining your energy more isn’t going to help!

For those of you who struggle with chronic illness and fatigue, this is an ever-present struggle. For you, the other steps in this post are all the more important to help you maintain your energy despite the exhaustion and illness that you live with on a daily basis. There are other ways to mitigate this effect though! You can cast spells over several days to avoid expending too much energy at once. You can draw energy from an outside source to power your spells. There are even tons of types of spells that are “low power” so to speak and will be easier for you to accomplish such as jar spells, powder spells, sigils, and visualization. Make adjustments to your craft to suit your needs and listen to your body. It’s ok to take time off if you’re just not feeling up to it as well.

5. Try to get the job done with the least amount of energy possible

With nearly everything, there’s an easy way to do it and a hard way. Magic is no different. Which sounds like it’ll be more taxing to you?

A.) Casting a job spell to get a specific job at a specific company despite you being moderately under-qualified for it

OR

B.) Casting a job spell for any job that has the pay you want that utilizes your personal strengths and will make you happy

If you answered B, you’re right. Being less specific in this instance allows your magic to take the path of least resistance. Instead of trying to muscle an exact outcome into being, you give parameters and allow the magic to find the easiest way to bring you exactly what you want. This requires you to trust your magic a bit more but it uses vastly smaller amounts of energy to accomplish the desired result. When in doubt, always take the path of least resistance.

What To Do If You Do Get A Spell Hangover

Ok, so what if you’re reading this article and you’re already past the point of prevention. You’ve cast the spell and now you’re in the thick of those nasty hangover symptoms we talked about. What do you do?

1. Ground and cleanse yourself

As we discussed previously, grounding is always step #1. This will bring your energy back into a state of balance and allow you to proceed with the proper self-care knowing that you aren’t fighting a losing battle against your own energy. Do this ASAP and then move on to step 2.

2. Eat a snack, drink some water, & take a nap

Next comes physical self-care. Eat a meal (a full meal this time, if you want), hydrate yourself, and if you’re feeling headachy or run down, take a quick nap. It’s amazing what giving your body a little TLC can do, this alone can probably mitigate a lot of your symptoms.

3. Deal with symptoms as appropriate

The fact that your symptoms are caused by a spiritual problem doesn’t mean that mundane remedies won’t work. Take headache medicine, anti-nausea medicine, give yourself necessary care for any anxiety or depression that you may be feeling and just generally treat yourself with kindness. Learning to use magic is a tricky journey and you don’t need to be flawless from the start. It’s ok if things go awry and you need time to recuperate, that doesn’t make you a bad witch, that makes you someone who is still learning! Have fun, learn from your mistakes, and don’t let spell hangovers stop you from becoming the badass witch you want to be. 

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