Adaptive Spiritual Practice for Pagans and Witches: A Response to Challenging Times (Yet Again…) – Part One

I’ve been revisiting my old blog posts from 2020, and damn, some of them are hitting just as hard five years later. I feel like we’ve descended back into a time of chaos and uncertainty, where we are inundated with dozens of awful headlines each day. The overwhelm is real, and I feel like everyone I know is surviving, not thriving.

So, here is an updated version of my posts on Adaptive Spiritual Practice for Pagans and Witches, 2025 edition:

It’s hard to feel inspired when just getting through the day is difficult. I am an advocate for living, evolving, personal religion. I believe that spirituality should be applicable to modern life, and it should support us and nourish us. When our spiritual practices are no longer relevant to our circumstances, it is time for them to change.

A Different Perspective for a Different Time

So many things in our daily lives have changed since the pandemic started in 2020. It turned almost every aspect of our lives upside down. And it still is – We are still experiencing waves and people are becoming severely ill, hospitalized, and even disabled as a result, though the US government and the CDC would like to pretend that none of that is happening. The pandemic is still very present for folks who are immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable, and for those of us whose brains have latched onto the danger and never let go (like me with my OCD).

On top of that, it feels like yet again the world is on fire. Fascism, genocide, bigotry, deportations, tariffs, and more now permeate our every day. Some international conflicts and struggles are ongoing, and some of this absolute insanity came with the last US presidential election. Like it or not, the US is a global super power, and now the government is fucking shit up for everybody. Most Americans don’t want this – even the ones who voted for him are getting buyer’s remorse. Our Congressional representatives aren’t listening to us, and it is incredibly easy to feel powerless and overwhelmed. 

So many utterly horrible things happen per day that it doesn’t even feel real. People are being snatched off the streets and taken away from their families. Peaceful protests are being met with violence. The basic human right of healthcare is being taken away for many. The economy is fluctuating wildly with uncertainty. Criminals who have harmed others are walking free. People are losing their jobs. Minorities of all kinds are facing more open discrimination, and DEI policies and funds are being slashed by both government entities and corporations. It’s empowering hate and creating so much suffering, and it HAS to stop.

But amidst the chaos, we have to keep ourselves afloat. We have to keep on surviving. We are worn out, beaten down, and exhausted. Who has the energy to cast a circle these days?

If you’re feeling guilt about your spiritual practice (or lack thereof) these days, let me tell you to stop right there. Drop the guilt. Quit shaming yourself for not reading that book or doing that spell. Just making it to tomorrow is a victory. You are doing the best that you can, and YOU ARE ENOUGH.

While holding ourselves in compassion, we can also begin to explore a different perspective on our spirituality. What would it take for our spirituality to nourish us, instead of feeling like an obligation or a chore? What can we do to honor ourselves, as well as the Divine? What would spark joy and wonder? What would be fun? What do we need right now?

Your needs likely look very different these days than they did in the pre-2020 world, or even the pre-2025 times. And that’s okay. But you can’t expect the exact same spiritual practices that served you pre-pandemic and pre-governmental clusterfuck to still meet your needs today. Start an honest conversation with yourself about your spirituality and what is and isn’t working for you.

Expanding Your Definition of Spiritual

One thing that I have constantly been working on since I began my relationship with Aphrodite is to continually expand my definition of spiritual.

Coming from a vaguely Christian background, there were a lot of preconceived notions that I had about religion that needed to change when I started my journey on the Pagan path over twenty years ago. Some of them were easy (Nature is my church now, check!) and some were more difficult (I should be praying, right? How many times a day? To whom? Or what? And how?). I already knew that Christianity didn’t work for me as a religion, so that made the paradigm shift expected, even if it wasn’t always painless.

I feel like it is much harder to look at a spirituality that you identify with and are passionate about, and to go through a similar process of honest assessment. What has worked for you in the past may not be a good fit now, and something you initially dismissed on your journey of spiritual discovery may be exactly what you need in these new circumstances. 

In this challenging time of exhaustion and stress, I encourage you to expand your definition of what you consider “spiritual.” Aphrodite has shown me that anything done consciously and with intention can be spiritual. Ordinary, mundane things like taking a shower, eating a meal, or even watching Netflix, can be spiritual. Necessary chores, like cooking or doing laundry, can be spiritual. Taking care of yourself and getting enough sleep is spiritual.

If you feel like you are stretched too thin, and don’t have time to do anything else, I encourage you to look at what you are already doing (or are required to do), and see how you can approach it as a spiritual act. Thank the elements for washing your dishes in the dishwasher (soap from the Earth, bubbles for Air, heat for Fire, and Water… is pretty self-explanatory). Dedicate the pleasure you take from eating dessert to Aphrodite. Turn your daily walk with your dog into mindful connection with nature.

If you would like some more ideas on how to shift your perspective on your daily activities, or small things you could add to your day, check out my posts on Pagan Practice When You’re Busy, 7 Ways to Bring the Magickal into the Mundane, and 7 More Ways to Bring the Magickal into the Mundane.

Letting Go of What You Don’t Need

In addition to figuring out what does work for your spiritual practice right now, you also need to consider what isn’t working. Letting go of what you don’t need will free up space and energy for you to do what nourishes you more. And just because something isn’t meeting your needs right now, doesn’t mean that it never will again. Circumstances change, and our spiritual practices must adapt.

For me, formal ritual was one of the first things that needed to go out the door. Most of my rituals don’t tend to be formal anyway (I explain why in this blog post), but once the pandemic hit, I had neither the time nor the energy to cast a formal circle except on rare occasions. I didn’t spend as much time sitting in sacred space, during meditation or otherwise. My rate of physical offerings trailed off as well. I did not energetically shield as much as I used to (even though I know it would be good for me). Some of that recovered as the pandemic progressed, but some of it didn’t. (I still don’t shield as much as I should.) And now, thrown into another time of upheaval, my spiritual practices are changing again.

Now, I crave the comfort of formal ritual. It’s a symbol of consistency and normalcy in a wildly uncertain world. My work as a priestess has slowly shifted more in the direction of personal spiritual mentorship instead of writing, though I am thrilled to be writing again and hope to be writing more often. Creating connection and community have become top priorities for me, so some of my spiritual work might look a bit mundane on the surface.

If the idea of letting go of a particular practice is bothering you, even though you know it isn’t serving you right now, I encourage you to do a ritual to honor that practice. It doesn’t have to be formal or take up a lot of time. Thank that practice for how it has enriched your spirituality, acknowledge why it is difficult or impossible to do right now, and let it go (perhaps with a promise to pick it back up at some time in the future, if that feels right to you).

What if the practice that you need to let go of was actually serving you, but circumstances have made it difficult or impossible to do? If this is the case, I encourage you to brainstorm to see if there is an alternative practice that could meet that need better or more easily in this challenging time. Perhaps your once thrice-daily prayers feel impossible right now, but prayer is one of the major ways that you connect to the Divine. Is there a way for you to pray once a day, and have it still meet your needs?

When you are assessing your practices, you need to not only look at the practice itself, but also the frequency and particular way you perform the practice. In my own Pagan practice in the time of COVID, I still do a lot of the same activities, but the frequency and the way that I do the activities has changed. I still make offerings, but they are less frequent and tend to be more devotions or offerings of action rather than physical items. I’ve found I am actually praying more now since the pandemic than I did before. During the main phase of the pandemic, I didn’t meditate as often as I used to before the plague, but I made leaps and bounds of progress in journeying that I couldn’t have imagined beforehand. Lately, my practices in sacred sexuality and sensuality have reached new levels and I’ve been experimenting with different techniques. Physical intimacy helps me to feel grounded, which is something that I have been desperately needing.

Just because the circumstances of the world right now are bad doesn’t mean that you need to think of the resulting changes in your spiritual practice as bad, or even just as coping mechanisms. Trying new things and opening up to flexibility may allow your practice to evolve in a way that wasn’t possible before. You may find new things that you want to carry on in your practice in the future, or you may find new ways of doing old things that work better in any situation.

At the same time, do not hold yourself to the pressure that your spiritual practice “should” be anything right now. I’m all for finding silver linings when I can and for capitalizing on opportunities when they are available, but if you are just making it through the day, that is still a win! Treat yourself (and your practice) with kindness and compassion. You are doing the best you can. And that is enough.

This is Part One in a series on Adaptive Spiritual Practice for Pagans and Witches: A Response to Challenging Times (Yet Again…). Read Part Two here!

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