Witchcraft
a contemporary approach
Why Witchcraft
The current society seems to be in need for an escape from pure rationalism but away from religion. We are in need for Spirituality.
With this in mind, I recently dived into the world of Witchcraft. It allowed me to feed my need for spirituality with an approach deeply centered on Nature and celebrating femininity. It felt like the perfect mix of everything that I value. I really wanted to share with you this world full of creative and spiritual potential.
If Wicca believes and witchcraft have a quite serious and religious foundation, the contemporary approach is rather light and deeply centered on well-being. It is a very good tool to take care of yourself, rest your mind and bring some quite playful positivity into your life. And all this with learning things about Nature and thriving as a woman!
Body & Soul
The ultimate goal of Witchcraft now a days is to promote well-being and self growth. It includes a mix of various practices from every origin such as lithotherapy, aromatherapy, but also creative visualisation and self reflection with tools like tarot cards or runes.
Being a Witch is becoming an actual lifestyle. A lot of online brands and concept stores are proposing witchy self-care products and tools. One of my favorite shop in London is called She’s lost control. They even propose live tarot sessions on Instagram and workshops like breath work or dreams conversations. Check them out : here.
Generation Hex
With Gen Z, witchcraft practices are now spreading through the internet and across social media. Influencers like the Hoodwitch are guiding you through the moon cycles, reading tarot, horoscope online and proposing little self-care spells for every occasion.
Also, the new way to learn Tarot is now with an app. Many little businesses like Labyrinthos or Mystic Mondays are revisiting this ancient practice with a fresh approach and contemporary graphics. Grace Duong, the creator of Mystic Mondays, redesigned a whole Tarot deck with a more feminine and colorful approach and proposes podcasts to familiarise yourself with the practice. Check it out : here.
Design Witch
If the field of Witchcraft has been revisited and challenged a lot by graphic design, it hasn’t been explored so much by product design yet. Which is surprising as objects are at the center of the notion of ritual. They embody the ritual and get charged with meaning and added value. As a product designer myself, I see Witchcraft as an immense source of potential and inspiration.
One of the studio exploring the field of Witchcraft is The Unseen studio and its founder : the “alchemist” Lauren Bowker. Their projects merge Magick, science and design. They developed a colour changing ink reacting to the body vibrations or “aura”.
The product design field is, for now, a bit poor if you are a Design Witch looking for ritual objects. You can always create an Altar with Tom Dixon’s Elements candle collection but I also collected a few projects carrying a bit of design magic, like the work of Sara Ricciardi, Richard Yasmine, Lex Pott or Astrid Luglio.
So be it…
I feel like I barely scratched the surface of such a vast topic. Talking about Witchcraft raises so many questions : our relationship to spirituality, religion, magic but also to Nature and to femininity.
It is a wide field with a huge historical background taking its source in a lot of different cultures. It has so many facets to explore : herbology, aromatherapy, lithotherapy, astrology, tarot, sigils and more.
But above all, I think it is a field with a big source of inspiration for creative people which only aims to make life better and help us grow as human being on this planet.
COLOUR PALETTE
Collaboration
Objet de Curiosité X Design Shades
Photographed by Romarine Ronzon-Jaricot
Design Shades collaborated with Lilau from Objet de Curiosité and the photographer Romarine Ronzon-Jaricot to depict the interior of a contemporary Witch and illustrate the palette of the Witchcraft article.
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