While many religions make a clear distinction between the body and the soul, witchcraft is a little different. In many witchcraft practices the body is seen as sacred in its own right and sacred sensuality and sacred sexuality can be important aspects of a witches practice.
This way of thinking can be difficult to adjust to when we have been taught by religion or society that the body, and especially sexuality, are sinful. In much religious teaching we are encouraged to rise above our bodily needs and desires in order to become spiritual. This makes no sense to me. What is the point of incarnating in a body if not to experience all that bodily incarnation has to teach us?
Capitalist consumerism has added to this feeling of our bodies being flawed with its fear-based advertising. It’s difficult to sell products to a person who is totally accepting of their physical form–much easier to create a media that bombards us with messages about how our bodies are ‘broken’ and we require a product to ‘fix’ them.
Science has also seen the mind and body as two seperate systems in the past. But research now shows that the mind and body are deeply interconnected, constantly communicating through a complex network of hormones, neural pathways and chemical messengers.
I believe these messages, from science, society and religion, are one of the reasons why many of us have such a difficult relationship with our bodies and our sexuality.
Healing our relationship with our bodies and our sacred sensuality can be incredibly powerful. When we learn to live in our bodies and see our physical experience as sacred, everything in our lives changes. We begin to appreciate the life and experiences we can have in our bodies. We can let go of fear and judgement and truly embrace the sacred sensuality we were born to enjoy. We can embrace our sensuality as an integral part of our spiritual journey.
Embracing our sacred sensuality doesn’t just make us happier it also makes us more powerful as witches. Much of the energy we use as witches comes from, or through our bodies. When our relationship with our body is negative, this blocks the flow of energy.
Witchcraft offers many practices that can help us reconnect with our bodies and the energy and power that can flow through us when our mind body and spirit are aligned. The following sacred sensuality and sacred sexuality practices can help us to heal this split.
Sacred Sensuality Practices
Sacred body practices can help us to reconnect with our physical form, heal our broken relationship with our bodies and access the power that comes through our physical form. However, this process can often be uncomfortable or scary. We have become used to being separate from our bodies, shunning them, criticising them and hiding them. Learning to love, embrace and share aspects of our sacred sexuality and sensuality can be really hard. If you have experienced trauma, you will want to take this journey gently and you may need the support of a trusted friend or counsellor for some of these practices.
Grounding Practices
Often, in modern life, we live almost entirely in our own heads, viewing our bodies as simply the vehicle for our minds. Grounding practices can help us to get out of the conscious mind of rational, logical thought and into a deeper realm of bodily consciousness, as well as helping us to access our subconscious and our intuition.
Grounding practices are often used by witches before and/or after spells and rituals to release excess energy and return to our bodies. However, grounding can itself be a spiritual practice, connecting us with our physical selves and with the earth that sustains us.
Simple grounding practices include walking barefoot on the earth, placing the palms of our hands on a tree, immersing ourselves in natural bodies of water or even mindful eating and drinking.
Working With the Senses
Many of us predominantly use our sense of sight in our magical practice. However working with our other senses can help us to achieve a more embodied practice. Burning incense or essential oils, brewing and sipping herbals teas, massaging ourselves with scented oils, using music, bells or chanting, as well as eating or drinking are all ways we can incorporate sacred sensuality into our practice.
Sarah, from Obscure Clouds suggests that to overcome the predominance of sight in our practice we can ‘[play] around with this, perhaps by doing rituals in the dark, or putting on a blindfold while doing magickal workings to stimulate and heighten other senses that are usually dominated by sight.‘
Here are two rituals you can use to develop and heal your relationship with your physical body and embrace sacred sexuality and sensuality.
Body Acceptance Ritual
This ritual can be done in the privacy of your bathroom and includes either a sacred bath or shower. You might like to use soft lighting or candlelight for this ritual.
Prepare for the ritual by running the bath (if you are choosing the bathing option). You may want to add elements such as rose petals for love or lavender for healing past wounds. If you are having a shower, you can add essential oils to your shower products if you choose.
Before entering the water, take off all your clothes and look at your body (either directly or in a mirror). If you feel uncomfortable looking at your body, take this gently, perhaps starting with your hands or feet, before moving on to areas of your body you are less comfortably gazing at.
As you look at each part of your body, acknowledge it with gratitude for its service to you, regardless of its appearance. Use gentle touch to reinforce your love and care for your body. You may just hold you hands on parts of your body, or massage your body with oil or lotion. Speak words of appreciation aloud to counteract years of critical thoughts. Finish by speaking words of love and acceptance for your whole body if you can.
When you enter the water, imagine it washing away societal expectations and judgments about how your body should look or function. Feel the sensation of water embracing every curve, scar and unique feature of your physical form without judgment. This is the unconditional acceptance you can learn to give yourself. Take time to touch different parts of your body with gentleness and care, especially those you’ve been taught to dislike.
When you have finished your bath or shower, dry your body gently, again speaking words of love and appreciation to each part of your body and your body as a whole. If you desire, you can finish by massaging oil or lotion all over your body.
Sacred Sexuality Ritual
Sacred sexuality offers a powerful way to experience the unity of body and spirit. In many religious traditions, sexuality has been deemed “sinful” or separate from spiritual practice, but in witchcraft, it can be embraced as deeply sacred.
Begin by setting aside time to connect with your body’s natural desires without judgment or goal-orientation. Use conscious breathing to awaken the inner fire at the core of your being and allow it to spread throughout your body like warming flames rising through a cauldron.
For solo practice, treat self-touch as an act of reverence and self-knowledge rather than just physical release. If working with partners, create clear intentions together before beginning.
Remember that embracing sacred sexuality doesn’t mean you must perform specific acts or follow prescribed steps. Trust your intuition about what feels authentic and meaningful for you. The intention behind the practice matters more than the form it takes.
By reclaiming our physical selves as sacred vessels of magic, we heal not only the artificial split between flesh and spirit but also our relationship with the natural world.
I hope you have found this post on sacred sexuality and sensuality useful. Please consider sharing it if you have – it really helps 🙂
Blessed be
Eva x