5 Ways to Tell if you are a Water Witch

So you are a witch and you love the water! In fact you might even be a just a little obsessed with it. You tend to find yourself walking the shores and collecting river rock and sea shells. If you tend to work with spirits that are associated with the water and worship goddesses born of the waves then chances are you are a Water Witch. Water Witchcraft is a “genre” of witchcraft that honors and derives its power from the water. Sea witches have a long history in both ancient and more modern folk and mythic stories. So if you are drawn to the water and witchcraft here are 5 ways to know if your genre of witchcraft is Water Witch or Sea Witch.

1) You Spend time with the water!

Do you spend time near the water? Great! That is the first step to an active Water Witch practice! Becoming one with the energies of the water, be it the ocean, river, or lake, is an important part of being a Water Witch. If you haven’t spent time by a bubbling brook or a raging ocean what are you waiting for? Studies show that spending time near the ocean is good for your health! It’s going to be good for your Witchcraft too! No doubt walking the shores of a river or the ocean in a light meditative state while opening up and listening to the water is a going to deepen your connection with water!

If you are a land locked Sea Witch try getting a friend to send you a bottle of sea water from your favorite ocean. If you are a home bound Water Witch, try working with the water that you can access from your home! Water can be stored in clean glass jars and placed on your altar!

2) You give offerings and do rituals by the Water!

Witches do spells and rituals! That much we can agree on right? Well Water Witches do them too! You may find a Sea Witch drawing sigils in the sand or collecting sea water! You may find a River Witch meditating in a quite space under low hanging trees over a rippling river. Flowers are often found on the beach, remnants of a ritual that was performed there before, however they can often be problematic, and other offerings can often be toxic to the environment. The best offering we can give the Water is to keep it clean, collect trash, help keep the waters clean and send healing spells to the water. More about offerings here

3) You Collect Water!

Witches in general tend to have many boxes, bags, and bottles! But Water Witches tend to have more bottles and jars than anything! Why? Well they hold the various waters we work with! A witch’s cabinet is just as unique as the witch varying with their tradition and path. In it you may find various jars of water including, ocean water, muddy water, rain water, full moon water, holy water, water from various sacred springs and local water sources, florida water, war water, floral essences, gem essences and other strange watery concoctions!

4) You Make Magic Waters!

There are so many different types of magical waters to work with, however a basic skill every water witch needs is how to create holy water! Every witch has their own way; some with a hag stone, salt or silver, others charge water from a sacred spring or under the full moon as a basic water to empower their spells and rituals. Holy water is also useful in cleansing and purification rites and learning how to make your own will be useful in case you wanted to take a sacred bath in a tub of holy water! Because Water Witches love their sacred baths too!

5) You work with a Water or Ocean Spirit, God or Guide!

Depending on your path you most likely work with some type of spirit. Spirits come in many forms, Godlike, ancestral, angelic, demonic, animal, Faery, plant, etc. Most pantheons have water spirits! Even the Ancestral realm has extinct water creatures such as the Megalodon or mythological sea monsters. You could also explore working with the spirit of a pirate or Davey Jones Locker. There are Water Faery and Gods abound and are too numerous to list with each pantheon having multiple deities! Chances are that you have a shrine or altar space that is watery in nature or even dedicated to the water or a water god/ess. Or perhaps a collection of prized sea shells intermingled with candles that are more to you than decoration.

There are many other ways to be a water witch and these are not mutually exclusive and there are many other ways to incorporate water into your practice. Divination may play a large roll in your practice or perhaps it is ritual for you. You may be an energy worker practicing on the sea shore, it doesn’t matter really! It just matters that you are doing the work and following your own path. I do hope you enjoyed the article and a fun way of categorizing Water Witch traits!

Source: Published on Patheos by ANNWYN AVALON