⟡ hi, i'm pauline. french, cottage witch, thirty-something, living in the countryside with my partner and a garden that keeps me humble.

⟡ this blog is my little corner of the internet: i started it more than five years ago to document my spiritual practice. it's basically my grimoire shared with the rest of the world, intermixed with quotes that help and inspire me.

⟡ next to this, i'm also a writer working on my first novel, and i document a lot of that journey on my other channels.

⟡ if you're new here, welcome. if you've been here a while through my witchcraft content: hello again, i'm so glad you're still around.

⟡ you can also find me here: ‎ ‎ ╰‎ TikTok: @storiesofpauline books and literature ‎ ‎ ╰ Substack: stories of pauline personal essays on quiet living and books

"I treat myself as I would my daughter. I brush her hair, wash her laundry, tuck her in goodnight. Most importantly, I feed her. I do not punish her. I do not berate her, leave tears staining her face. I do not leave her alone. I know she deserves more. I know I deserve more."

✨ Getting ready for back to school season with magic ✨

We're mid august now, back to school season is nearly upon us, so here's a few tips and tricks where you can use witchcraft to prepare yourself...

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Back to school shopping

📒 Get yourself a new journal - we witches call it grimoire - to keep physical notes of your spells and rituals for the new season

🔮 Find a new crystal to add to your collection. This one will always represent this part of your life, this year in your school or university.

🖋️ Buy a brand new pen and imbue it with all of your magic. If you worship the sun, leave it in sunlight for a while; if you like the moon, let it sit outside at night; or choose whatever other way to ensure it is fully charged and ready to go.

Daily rituals

🌪️ Start every morning by opening your windows wide open and getting fresh air on your face to clear out negative or distracting thoughts. 

✏️ Draw a productivity sigil on your notebook or add it digitally to your notes on your computer, if you don’t use actual paper. I like using this one.

🧘 Meditate at the end of your days to absorb the knowledge you accumulated during the day and calm your thoughts before bed.

Study sessions

🕯️ Light a purple candle, which is associated with power, ambition, and focus, to get inspiration and energy from the flames. 

💎 Set clear quartz crystal around your study space to bring clarity of mind and a deep focus state. 

🍵 Drink matcha, peppermint, or green tea to increase focus and concentration while studying. 

⁀➷ Wrote about quitting my job, taking a year off, and my thoughts on bravery and privilege on Substack. Give it a read!

💧🍋 A quick spell to cool down in this heat 🍋💧

It's hot, isn't it? So let's cool down with a quick spell I love to make in the summer...

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What you need

💧 Water - ideally, moon water that you have left to cool outside during the night in a clean and sealed recipient

🍋 Lemon juice - ideally, organic and fresh

🧊 Ice - ideally, made of that same moon water, but frozen

How to make it

Shake the lemon juice with ice, then pour into a container of moon water. While stirring (always clockwise), chant the following words:

Then, drink it!

It's simple and fast, which is my favourite kind of spells. Witchcraft doesn't have to be complicated!

It's August, So Let's

rub tomato leaves on our wrists like perfume samples; beg the waves to lick sand from our toes; weave wild poppies into our late-summer grief; leave the bedroom window cracked; feel the cool cling to our skin like a second sheet; overstay the evening, where the sun drapes heavy and sweet; listen to the frogs in the drainage ditch - a song that, every year, we wish we knew by heart.

─ Elise Powers

🌑🌞 August 12th, 2026 | Solar eclipse 🌑🌞

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere in the areas where the solar eclipse will be visible tomorrow:

First, you may want to avoid using magic altogether. Some witches warn against practicing spells or rituals during the eclipse, due to the historical fears associated with the event. You must decide for yourself whether this is something you believe in.

If you don't, here's some ideas on what you might do...

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🌑🌞 Shadow work: it's the perfect time for self-reflection. The power of the eclipse will help you uncover truths you may have been avoiding. Meditate under the shadow of the moon to use it to its best potential.

🌑🌞 Sun and moon candle spell: bring one black candle (for the moon) and one white (for the sun). Light the black candle as the eclipse begins, all the while reflecting on what you need to release from your life. When the sun starts showing its face again, light the white candle, and ground yourself around what you wish to attract. Let both candles burn out completely to symbolise the completion of a cycle.

🌑🌞 Make a talisman or a charm: using moonstone and citrine, which are associated with both the moon and the sun. Charge the stones under the eclipse, and wear them close to your heart.

✨ Practicing witchcraft in august ✨

Here's a few ideas of what to do to practice your craft in the middle of summer, whether you're on holidays or sweating it at the office....

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🌞 Solar witches: meditate and charge your energy in the sunlight. This is my most important advice: the sun has many magical properties which you must store inside of you for the darker months ahead.

🌿 Green witches: use the sun to dry fresh herbs and plants. You can either lay them out outside or hang them in your ceiling. Take the opportunity of the warm temperatures to store as much as you can for your future spells.

🌊 Sea witches: spend as much time in water as possible. The ocean, lakes, pools, your bathtub if need be. August is a time for a pause and intuition, to think about what comes next in your life and in the year. Water is perfect for such work.

🎀 Cottage witches: if you can, host a bonfire night. Bring your closest friends and sit around the flames, to think about what you need, to whisper your biggest dreams and aspirations to the spirits, to conjure them into existence.

🔮 Divination witches: look for shapes and patterns in your tea and your bread. This is an old folk practice I particularly love this time of year, especially near the Lammas festival. Divination using tea leaves or grains are particularly strong right now.

🐈‍⬛ Shadow witches: escape the sunlight and connect with the moon instead. If you can be there for the solar eclipse on August 12th, 2026, that's even better - you'll do your best work that night.

🍎 Kitchen witches: preserve your vegetables in glass jars and make jams with your fruits. Make as much as you possibly can to last the cold winter months. August is the perfect month for this!

"I'm not feeling strong yet, but I am taking good care of myself. The weather is perfect. I read and walk all day and then walk to the sea. I expect to swim soon. For now I am content. I am not sure what I hope for. I feel I am doing my best. It reminds me when I was sixteen dreaming of Locca, the gentle trees outside and the creek. Perhaps poetry replaces something in me that others receive more naturally. Perhaps my happiness proves a weakness in my life. Even my failures in poetry please me. Time is very different here. It is very good to be away from public ambition. I sweep and wash, cook and shop. Sometimes I go into town in the evening and have pastry with custard. Sometimes, I sit at a table and drink half a beer."

─ Linda Gregg

💪 A spell to feel strong 💪

F***k the skinny trend epidemic. I'm so done with this, you have no idea. So here's my idea of a spell to keep you on the path towards strong instead of thin.

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What you'll need

What you do

Inscribe the candle with your name and the words "good health". Blend one tablespoon of vegetable oils and a paste of the basil leaves to promote vigor. Anoint the candle with the oil and place in a safe holder. Sprinkle some protective salt in a circle around the base of the holder and light the candle.

Repeat the following chant three times: "Stay fit and well in the coming days."

Let the candle burn down, and repeat the spell once a month to insure good health and strength.

-- -- --

⁀➷ Wrote about my thoughts on this new skinny trend nightmare on my Substack today. Give it a read (but beware of tw).

🪻Abundance smudge stick 🪻

Abundance isn't defined as having material resources beyond our needs. It's a state of mind that lets us free ourselves from the fear of lacking, in order to reach a calmer state of awareness. When we embrace the principle of abundance, it becomes easier to let go and to share, both materially and emotionally.

What you'll need

Making it

Choosing the plants

The energy of these three plants favors abundance, luck, and love — both self-love and love for others (an essential quality for opening up to sharing). Basil and lavender help calm emotions and encourage mental clarity. Thyme also promotes harmony and balance, helping one find their place in society. Finally, their purifying and protective properties, along with their support for psychic and spiritual elevation, can help with any magical work.

"Later, after I married and had a child, I learned to find... meaning in the repeated rituals of domestic life. Setting the table. Lighting the candles. Building the fire. Cooking. All those soufflés, all that creme caramel, all those daubes and albondigas and gumbos. Clean sheets, stacks of clean towels, hurricane lamps for storms, enough water and food to see us through whatever geological event came our way. These fragments I have shored against my ruins, were the words that came to mind then. These fragments mattered to me. I believed in them."

─ Joan Didion

🐞 Insects and their magical associations 🐞

Let's be clear. I'm obviously *not* advocating to use them in your spells, rituals and concoctions. Even tiny, these are living beings that deserve respect and care! But if you spot one in your path and are looking for a specific message, here's what it could mean...

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🐞 Bee - love, luck, community, communication, family, messages.

🐞 Spider - conjuration, creation, creativity, destiny, femininity, illusion, inspiration, mysticism.

🐞 Ladybug - happiness, luck, dreams, wishes.

🐞 Cricket - abundance, instinct, intelligence, resourcefulness, transformation.

🐞 Snail - chance, determination, divination, meditation, birth, peace.

🐞 Ant - discipline, energy, strength, industry, organisation, patience, power, work, team work.

🐞 Wasp - warning, strength, independence, curse, attack.

🐞 Dragonfly - air, acceleration, speed, change, learning, energy, wisdom.

🐞 Firefly - love, communication with spirits, fire, illumination, freedom, moon.

🐞 Praying Mentis - beginnings, direction, navigation, peace.

🐞 Fly - travels, flights.

🐞 Butterfly - beauty, change, transformation, balance, grace, youth, death and rebirth, transition.

🐞 Moth - happiness, moon, night, passion, truth.

🐞 Grasshopper - air, freedom.

🐞 Beetle - creativity, immortality, rebirth.

🐞 Earthworm - growth, fertility, underworld, life.

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest part of a ferry's wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color."

─ Natalie Babbitt