What To Do With All the Rage?

By Amber C. Snider

A personal story about rage, empowerment magic, and new beginnings. 

Photo by stevepb on Pixabay

It had been a long winter. New York's record-breaking snow lingered on the ground and persistent grey skies weren’t helping me or my magic. I longed for a change of season or some break in the monotony of it all. After a while, the city starts to weigh on you. 

Then, suddenly, spring arrived. It felt hopeful, as the season normally does, and I felt a shift of consciousness in that renewal. Witches are especially attuned to the seasons, since it’s built right in our practice, and boy did I need that shift. 

Things in my professional life were going along beautifully (as a writer and university educator) and I felt (dare I say it?) hopeful. Just as I was basking in a well-earned end to a long season, suddenly, a string of dismissive work emails came my way. It was all a miscommunication, but I was still taken aback. I was hurt. But most palpably, I was enraged.

Now, you already know that it’s not ideal for a witch to become enraged. Weird things started to happen. I don’t know about you (dear reader/fellow witch), but when I let anger consume me, the environment reacts to it. It actually makes me nervous and takes me away from a seat of self-empowerment and balance. One night while out in Brooklyn, I placed my feet on the ground and focused on draining this anger back into the earth — a technique I teach in my book Wonderment as a grounding exercise — and next thing I know, there were actual sparks and mini-explosions coming from the nearby sewer grate that lasted for an hour. Then, a few days later, water randomly started pouring down from the bathroom ceiling in my apartment one night. What the….this was not good. 

I considered doing a variety of spells, but since my anger was so palpable, I hesitated. I didn’t want to cause any harm (even to the person who caused me harm) and in my experience, it’s best not to do magic with fear and anger looming in the background like a cinematic cartoon villain. But what to do? What does a witch do when anger overtakes them?

Image by Kanenori from Pixabay

Luckily, I have wise allies in the world (spiritually and in the flesh), so I called up the head witch at Enchantments. She gave me all kinds of beautiful advice and recommended not the usual Uncrossing or Return to Sender or any other variety of spell one might do, but something super simple: “It’s about healing this time. Recentering your power. Write down everything you want to say – the real, unfiltered, unprofessional stuff – and burn it. Let it go.” She then recommended a few oils, incense, and candles for my next ritual. 

I went to the shop for some supplies and picked up one of our new oils from the apothecary called Inner Goddess, and let me tell you, it was divine. The scent reminded me of something from my childhood, something serene yet spicy, something grounded yet dreamy. Contradictory. Delicious. Rooted. It’s an empowerment-based oil to help with emotional strength and tapping into your inherent goddess qualities, and it was exactly what I needed, among a few other things (my secret). 

While I was there collecting my items, I helped a few customers behind the apothecary counter. One person came in to say that he “felt unappreciated by his job and was looking for a change. Something that aligned with his talents and generous heart.” Another remarked she needed a “boost in confidence.” We all talked as old friends and after I recommended a few oils and kits for them, and poured their oils into small drams, I could feel they left the shop a little bit lighter.

Turns out, we’re all a bit more alike than we are different. We’re all kinda going through the same thing. Whether we're enraged by our political system, societal structures, corporations and institutions, or just by random individuals, we all understand this feeling. And before we tackle what's going on "out there" in the big bad world, we have to tackle what's going on within first. 

This is all also just to say that if you ever find yourself overcome with hurt and rage, so much that it clouds your perception and makes strange things happen around you (because I know you know what I’m talking about!), remember to stop and recenter. Do nothing at first. Then, regain your emotional strength. Regain your inherent and divine God/Goddess energy. Take a ritual bath and light a white or pink candle (perhaps a figure candle for healing). Write down all the icky garbage trapped in your throat (aka all the stuff you want to say but won’t) and then release it. Delete it or burn it, whatever. But begin with empowerment magic and the rest will fall into place. 

If this resonates with you in a way, here are a few supplies — all made right in our Enchantments apothecary — that you can pick up at the shop in-person or order online for your own rituals:

Inner Goddess bath scrub 
Goddess oil or incense
Bad Ass oil or incense
Male/ female figure candles (for healing)
An Uncrossing Candle or Kit (for purification and clearing)
Crucible of Courage oil or incense
Crown of Success oil or incense
Rebirth Kit

And if you’d like to learn more about working with figure candles, check out this story. For more on working with oils, check out this story. For a cleansing/Uncrossing ritual, read this. ​