Art is a Gamble: Witchcraft for Success In the Arts

Y’all, I’ve been doing a LOT of research lately. Copious amounts of research. I was absolutely convinced and absolutely sure that there was some deep, hidden magick to help us hack into success in the arts that I just couldn’t find. While I did find some useful material that I’ll be sharing in upcoming months, I also decided to share some of the tools and materials that are traditionally used for luck in gambling that I personally use to see my projects succeed.

When I was growing up, I was deeply invested in reading, writing, and for a time, performing. Everybody told me that I was talented but to be practical. That’s all I ever heard. Even the people who loved and supported me the most didn’t want to see me be disappointed if my dreams didn’t come true. Here’s something people aren’t going to like me for saying: they weren’t wrong. Succeeding in the arts takes immense talent and dedication which I had scores of. It also takes luck or nepotism, or financial privilege to invest back into your art, none of which I had even an iota of.

Poor people with no connections succeeding does happen. For every Oprah Winfrey though, there are 1,000 people who can’t even get into a TV studio. It is a gamble. Literally--at that point, it becomes about luck. Which is why the folk magick used for gambling can work to bring success to your artistic life as well. Below are some of my favorite ingredients for “gambling” spellwork that I use to help my theatre company get grants and audience and to help my writing find homes.

• Allspice is one of my favorite money herbs to use because well, it attracts money. Plus I have a good friend who’s allergic to cinnamon so if we do workings together, Allspice is my go to. Allspice is specifically associated with luck and gambling though, making it a powerful ally for artists looking for paying opportunities or ways to fund their projects. Allspice is associated with Mars and all of it’s macho potentially toxic masculinity. That becomes useful though when we’re really willing to pour our soul into our artistic work and makes things happen. Allspice will give you stamina as well as help you attract the result you’re looking for. I usually just use the powdered or ground spice to dress my candles or in kitchen magick.
  

• Chamomile is primarily used nowadays in tea, food, and baths for it’s calming scent and effect. This cute little flower has a history of being used in money and luck magick too though. Most of us who are working in the arts honestly need to heal our relationship with money at least a little bit. We grow up being told that art doesn’t make money and that we’re taking too big of a risk. Chamomile’s healing energy can help us overcome those blocks and its ability to attract can help create paying opportunities for our art.
  
  If you have a specific opportunity or important meeting for your artistic career, wash your hands in chamomile water a few times in a row leading up to the meeting or any application deadlines. If you’re looking for more money healing or success in a broader way, any of the aforementioned applications will work. Like any flower, chamomile can also be added to altars, gifted to deities, or crushed up to dress candles or be added to oil blends. Also it’s a flower! If you’re a green thumb type, try a small potted plant on a well-lit money or art project altar or even just blossoming somewhere cute in your home.
  

• Pyrite AKA “Fool’s Gold” is traditionally meant to be used to increase psychic abilities and protect from unwanted negative energies. Because in modern witchcraft we also think anything shiny = money, it has become a symbol of wealth and luck that is used in prosperity workings and for gambler’s luck too. I like to keep a chunk of pyrite on my altar for my theatre company for two reasons. One is that art is competitive and rivals trying to bring your down, being criticized (even fairly) and even just society’s expectations of art and artists can all negatively impact our artwork and its outcome. Pyrite protects us from that while also attracting luck and money! Double win!
  

• Nutmeg is all about luck and success in gambling or “games of chance” which means it’s a perfect ally for making successful art! The seeds themselves are the best for pure chance, which means you should carry them in your pocket or place them on your altar for a chance at true longshot opportunities. As an oil or an herb in food, candle magick, oils, etc. etc. it can amplify the rest of your money + art magick too and assure prosperity in your current endeavors.
  

• Lodestone is not a stone I have a lot of personal experience with. I do a lot of faery work and while they can abide it, they don’t love it, so I largely avoid it since I have a plethora of other options to turn gambling luck into arts success. Because they are natural magnets though, the magickal school of thought is that lodestone can be used to draw things to you. It’s a metaphor of sorts but one that works exceedingly well for a large number of witches that I know. This stone has use in gambling magick, but is primarily known as a prosperity ingredient. Setting a nice chunk on your general money altar with the intention to ensure financial success in your art should be enough to get started.
  
  Lodestone loves being fed iron fillings or magnetic sand which is very cute in my opinion. That can recharge your existing spells if you set regular goals to sell your artwork, fill houses with audience members, or have steady donation flow.
  

• Irish Moss is my absolute favorite money ingredient which is why we’re ending on it. This crunchy, dried seaweed is usually listed as being good for business prosperity, personal prosperity AND gambling spellwork which means if you, like me, run an arts organization or run your art career as a business it has triple the magick and benefit for you!
  
  Because Irish Moss is actually a seaweed it can be used in kitchen magick (if rehydrated) as well as to dress candles, go into oil blends, etc. etc. The recommended use is usually to slide the moss under your rug/carpet or hide discreetly in your studio corners to draw luck and money to your business or arts practice. While it’s not cute I also like to toss some flakes into the bottom of my wallet for personal money magick too. It looks dirty but hey, that’s business, baby.

This list is just to get you started. I listed several ingredients popular to gamblers and reset them to help you brainstorm ways to keep your art career as thriving as it is fulfilling. I would like to note that there are known ingredients that are good for gambling that I willfully left out. This is largely because I am white, and a lot of it would have been appropriative at best to include. I want to implore you as you’re working your magick to make sure it is YOUR magick and that you aren’t taking from a culture that doesn’t belong to you. There is a fine line between appreciation and appropriation. There are gads of magickal ingredients that all are able to use. Start there, and then think about your own path, history, and culture to get more specific as you go.

Also, this is a post about art and magick! Get creative and specific-to-you. Do you love card games? Stick some poker chips on your art altar. Did you have a great visit to a Casino where you snagged a cute souvenir? Win a silly prize at Bingo with your grandma one night? Those too can be charged with intent regarding your life in the arts. Magick is about intention but it’s also about metaphor and creativity...just like art. Go wild y’all.

A Real Witch In The Rehearsal Room: On Setting Intention and Deep Breathing

It’s 6:00 PM and actors are arriving from terrible traffic, plodding through snow banks and the stress of their day jobs. I am asking them to come in after the sun has already set in Minnesota. I am asking them do more work, learn lines, work their bodies, and connect with other humans in the three hours that stretch over what would normally be dinner time for a lot of us. As people trickle in, we start laughing and chatting. If someone seems particularly on edge someone else pulls them aside to check in. It’s often me but after a couple of weeks together, it’s often not. Once we start working actual pieces from the play, there are expected setbacks but nothing catastrophic. People are having fun & enjoying this.

It isn’t always like this. Magick & theatre are both dependent on a solid cast of collaborators and sometimes all of your best intentions fly out the window if other people don’t get along or if you’ve overlooked a problematic element of the show or even a cast member due to your own privilege. The best laid plans slip away sometimes because of weather, illness, or a slew of other uncontrollable factors. Sometimes you as a project leader will cling too tightly to your vision even if it doesn’t best serve the show because that’s what you were taught to do by bad directors before you.

Not all, but so many of these things can be mitigated by bringing your spirituality into your creative space. My spirituality is eclectic though largely Pagan. In my cast are a Christian, a Satanist, another Pagan, and some people who haven’t disclosed their spiritual beliefs. That means you’re not exactly going to set ups specific spells, rituals or prayers before each rehearsal because you want the whole team to feel apart of it. These are some of the things that help me set a healing space before rehearsals:

• Like in Magick, Intention matters a whole hecking lot in art. I always have:

  • An artistic intention for the show

  • A healing or spiritual intention for the show

  • An artistic intention for rehearsal that day

  • A healing or spiritual intention for that day

• In addition to having my own intentions, during warm-ups for rehearsal I always have everyone close their eyes for a second and set their own intention for our time at rehearsal that night. I also close each rehearsal with a question for everyone to ponder that, ideally, will help them set their intention for the next day.

• While everyone is setting their intentions, I ask those who are physically able to take a few deep breaths. Deep breathing is crucial to resetting your body, clearing your mind, and generally BEING IN THE MOMENT. At the start of a rehearsal process it allows people space to feel and clear out anything that would get in the way of a good rehearsal.

• Being in the moment. I don’t ask my actors to leave their anxiety, trauma or stress at the door the way a lot of directors do. (Though I do ask artists with white privilege, cisgender privilege, able-bodied privilege, etc to think how their emotional reactions might hurt people with less privilege.) I DO ask that artists bring that stress into the scene and use it if they don’t want to/can’t check it at the door. I ask that they work with those emotions and that energy, and I work to make sure we’re all living in that moment. This means that sometimes that outside stress of traffic jams and snow plows DOES melt away. Sometimes it means that a scene is fueled by an actor’s rage at white supremacy or patriarchy. The play comes out beautifully either way.

  My experience as a witch has taught me that control of my breathe (when possible), setting intentions and doing the work to manifest my spellwork ultimately get me where I want/need to go. Those same principles apply wonderfully to theatre or any artistic practice—especially when you’re working in a group. I used to work incredibly hard to seperate my art life from my witch life. One day I realized that was cutting myself short in both worlds and since allowing the two to blend, my work has never been the same.

  Blessed be y’all!