“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

That’s wonderful advice… as long as you know what you love to do. Some people are born with a clear direction and their lives are spent joyfully moving forward. I couldn’t be more jealous of them! For the rest of us, there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to our passions and wants. Sure, we may have hobbies and interests, but employers are hesitant to pay us for watching Netflix or casting spells. Besides, enjoying something in your leisure time doesn’t necessarily mean it’s your true purpose, although it can provide clues. 

I don’t believe in fate, so I don’t believe we are predestined to do anything in particular. We all make our way in the limited time we have and hopefully we find something that we enjoy, but that also leaves us fulfilled and gives our lives meaning. The feeling of not living up to your true potential haunts many, and in this post I want to show you some ways, through magic, to rediscover yourself and find where your true path lies. 

While there are lots of personality tests and career assessments available no one can tell you what you love better than you. Finding this truth may be hard for some because it’s been suppressed or never fully explored. Perhaps you showed an interest in art as a child, but this was never supported, or worse, it was ridiculed. Maybe you, like many, felt pressure to follow a different path that wasn’t your own but pleased someone else. The good news is that even though this purpose hasn’t fully bloomed yet, it’s never too late, and you have the answer (and power to change) within. You just have to find it. 

Awakening Intuition

Trusting your intuition seems like a no-brainer, but it’s a skill like any other and it needs to be honed. All day long we are confronted with outside opinions, pressures, and suggestions from the world about right and wrong and what we should or shouldn’t do. When we’re young, we’re supposed to face challenges that build our confidence but sometimes this doesn’t happen and instead we learn to suppress our inner voice, often in favor of another’s. To know what you want and what your best path is, you have to know who you are, what you believe, and what brings you happiness. Learning to use your own inner compass, your intuition, can help with this. When you’re faced with a choice, the first place you should look for an answer is within and the response you hear should be one you know you can trust. 

First, you must learn how your intuition works. Is it a slight nagging sensation in your brain or body? A picture or word in your head? An impulse to go left instead of right? Learn how your intuition presents itself and how it feels different from just a normal passing thought. Practice with this and learn to pay attention to when and how your intuition manifests. It can also be a presence in dreams, during tarot or shadow work, or just while you’re outside on a walk. 

Witches have a more finely tuned intuition, though that doesn’t mean they’ve learned to trust it. A simple way to learn to listen to your intuition is to put an end to thoughts that try to shut it down. For example, say you’re out of your home and you get the sudden thought that you left a candle burning. Immediately following this thought is another, one that discredits your intuition, that says you’re being overly fretful.

For so many reasons, we’ve been conditioned to ignore our intuition, but I say listen to yourself! It’s not about whether or not you really did leave a candle burning, it’s about giving respect to your intuition and treating it as something that needs to be heard. Even if you’re wrong, you should still give it credence. Maybe you’re driving along and you get a bad feeling about the road you’re on or you’re talking to a stranger and you get a bad vibe from them. Learn to listen! These are small things and may not have much impact in the long run, but it’s not about that moment. It’s about figuring out what your intuition feels like and deciphering what it’s telling you through experimentation.   

As you learn to listen to yourself, your intuition will grow stronger. With room to grow, it can be counted on more. Moonstone and pearl are excellent stones to wear to sharpen intuition and are especially helpful for those just learning to listen to this inner voice. 

Intuition Booster Spell

This is a quick spell to sharpen your intuition, especially if you’re just learning to work with it. 

What you will need:

• A piece of silver
• Moonstone or pearl
• Quartz
• Lemongrass oil, diluted in a carrier oil
• Honeysuckle (rosemary can be substituted)
• A blue or purple candle

Cleanse the area and get comfortable in a seated position. Dress your candle in the oil and honeysuckle and set it in front of you on the floor on a fire-safe dish (and one you don’t mind getting wax on!). Light the candle. In each hand, take the moonstone and pearl and place the quartz in your lap. Place the piece of silver between you and the candle to create a symbolic line of elements from your body to the flame. Center yourself, close your eyes, and reach a calm state of mind. When you’re ready, recite this spell as many times as you feel necessary:

“Grant me gentle wisdom, 

To find pearls in the sand, 

Let me know the truth, 

When I have moonstone in my hand. 

Let me unravel chaos, 

Make it bright and silver glow, 

So when I’m needing guidance, 

From within I’ll know. “

Journey Within

Learning to trust your intuition and yourself is the first step in learning your true purpose. The next is a journey inward. Cleanse your area, then burn some white candles or your favorite incense, and dim the lights. In a small dish, burn some basil and close your eyes. Think about what you loved as a child, things you really enjoyed doing. Think about times in your life when you felt fulfilled and happy and try to link some common threads. Think about your ideals and morals and how big of a role you want to play in making the world a better place.

How important is helping people to you? How important is independence or family or success? If you knew you would die a year from now, what would you most want to spend your time doing? What brings you joy? What are some qualities about yourself you love and you’d like to share with others or have them attribute to you? What comes easily to you? What’s something you could spend all day doing without noticing the time? What choices have you made in your life? Try not to see successes or failures, just the experience. What did you learn about yourself from each of these choices? What do you now know about yourself because of these choices? If your life was ideal, what would it look like? Picture as many aspects of it as you can. Where do you live? What does your home look like? Are you living with someone or are you alone? What do you spend your time doing? Walk through a day in this ideal life and where there are blanks, explore further. 

Use your intuition here as you ask and answer these questions. Be honest with yourself and don’t think of your answers as good or bad. If you were happiest as a child spending all your time outside, but you can’t immediately think of how that translates into a career, stop yourself. Just examine how you feel. What have your experiences taught you about who you are, what you value, and what you love doing? 

This isn’t a quick process so don’t be discouraged if you don’t immediately come up with perfect blueprint for your new life. But keep practicing and remember, there is no rush — you’re allowed to do things in your own time. Throughout the day, listen to your intuition and make choices based on that voice over all others. If something makes you happy, choose that and make note of it! If you’re doing something you have reservations about or just doesn’t feel “right” make note of that, too, and think about what would be a nice alternative. The point of this exercise is to teach you to listen to what your subconscious self is trying to tell you, instead of shutting it down. It’s choosing not to be complacent with your own happiness. Pick paths throughout the day, no matter how small, that bring a smile to your face instead of unhappiness, worry, or fear. Eventually you find where your true purpose lies. 

Manifesting A Fulfilled Life

Once you learn to trust yourself and listen to what you want, options start to appear. Things that seemed impossibly vague before are clear and attainable because you understand yourself better. You can see several steps ahead that a choice may be wrong for you because that’s not who you are. What you want begins to take form. Time to make a game plan. Remember that it’s also ok to change your mind! Sometimes we try something that we think we’ll love only to discover that we really don’t. This is a good thing! With every experience you’re learning what you do and don’t want in your future.

I wish I could tell you exactly how to achieve your goals, but I can’t. I can tell you with certainty, however, that they are not as insurmountable as you may believe. One trick is to take things step by step, never looking too far ahead so as not to be overwhelmed and to keep things manageable. Another trick is to be neutral. You can celebrate achieving a small goal, but if you don’t, don’t let it bring you down. Redefine success. Deciding to change and explore the possibility of a happier life is amazing. You’ve already taken a huge step forward! If something doesn’t work out, just shrug it off. The alternative is being bogged down, living in stagnation, and that’s not helping you! Keep success and setbacks in perspective and remember you can always just try again tomorrow.

One of my favorite things is finding references to magic in non-magical settings. Time and time again, psychologists, life coaches, therapists etc. talk about intention, visualization, and affirmations. These are witchcraft terms that the general public has completely stripped of their magical origins. I don’t know why, but there is something refreshing about a psychologist suggesting patients use, for all intents and purposes, magic for their problems. As you define and redefine your goals, your intention may change and that’s okay. What is important is that you set it and refer back to it often to keep your focus. I suggest performing a ritual around this intention, programming a quartz with your intention and keeping it with you, or creating a sigil and re-activating it whenever you feel your motivation slipping or complacency setting in. These are powerful ways to reinforce your intention and provide you with that extra help to keep forward momentum. Make the ritual weekly, reflect on what you’ve learned, accomplished, and how you’ve changed for the better. Rethink your intention if need be and see if your overall goals are still the same. Say your intention out loud every morning when you wake up. This gives your intention power. It becomes the theme of the day, which is great! Instead of whiling away time at a job or life you aren’t enjoying to the fullest, you’re waking up with a purpose — to improve and make this day a happier one. 

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