How to Incorporate Magic into Your Creative Process

Nov 27, 2019

A newsletter about writing, art and living more creatively

This week I'm excited to chat with Lisa Marie Basile — writer, editor, poet and founder of Luna Luna, a magazine dedicated to magic, witchcraft, wellness and more.

She's the author of a few books, including the upcoming "Magical Writing Grimoire: Use the Word as Your Wand for Magic, Manifestation & Ritual," out next year.

I caught up with her to chat about the book and her tips for incorporating more magic into your creative practice. (Interview condensed for brevity and clarity).

How did the idea for your upcoming book "The Magical Writing Grimoire" first come up?

Thanks for having me, Eva! The Magical Writing Grimoire is a book of practices and writing/journaling rituals to add intentionality, magic, creativity, healing, and manifestation to your life. It uses ancient archetypes, astrology, trance writing, and meditative practices, along with lots of other things. It's filled with prompts and poetry, wisdom and knowledge. The reader can come to it with a writing background or literally none at all! I really wanted it to feel like a friend.

The idea started in 2017, I wrote a book called Light Magic for Dark Times, which came out last fall. It actually had a writing chapter, along with other journaling practices woven throughout. Like my first book, it was important that it felt inclusive, adaptable, accessible, and that the everyday person, writer or non-writer, witch or secular person (or both, like me!), could use it.

How do you incorporate your magic practice into your writing?

I often turn to journaling, list-making, and poetry writing as a way of making magic. I usually create a weekly writing ritual (or a moon phase-based ritual), in which I meditate, channel ideas, and visualize the outcome of my writing practice, be it in general or in a bigger project. But also, I write as a way of excavation and healing — just journaling itself can help.

Do you think your astrological sign(s) influence your writing style?

Astrology is a sort of prompt — it asks us to look at our lives through the lens of archetypes (just like the tarot presents circumstances of human conditions), and so we can all learn from what the archetypes tell us.

One of the many many many ways I think my Scorpio star sign (Cancer moon, rising Capricorn) affects my writing is that, like Scorpio, I am interested only in writing what is transformative. I want to shed skin in poetry. I want to investigate the deep abyss of the self. And I want to heal and be reborn through writing.

GIF by Robin Eisenberg

How can people incorporate more magic into their art form, whether it's writing or visual art or music?

Make your space something sacred. Light a candle that represents an intention or goal. Pour yourself some wine or tea — a sort of physical representation of taking creativity 'into' yourself. Decorate your space with power objects — crystals, symbols, mood boards, plants, ancestral items — that speak to you and your art and your vision. And allow yourself 30 minutes or an hour or a few hours of uninterrupted creativity time. Start by breathing deeply, envisioning yourself being cleared of stuffy, negative, blank energies. Breath in the color that you associate with your work.

Just honor the process. When we slow down and create with intention, our words and images are powered by that energy and force. What we create becomes something supercharged.

Thank you for your time, Lisa! How are you incorporating more magic into your creative practice?

xoxo

Your favorite small but feisty writer
Eva

PS If you missed the downloadable wallpapers available so far, click here.

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