As far as memories allow me to travel, I have been using visioning as a tool. The piece of paper (kept safely under my bed) with little Ralph Macchio heads glued all over it, because I was deeply in love. The page from a magazine on my teenage self’s wall of two women in sequin dresses, guiding my choice for my prom dress. In the college dorm, a wall filled with quotes, notes, photos, desires, longings, prayers.

There wasn’t a name beyond collage for what it was. That is the act, it is the act of making a collage.

What it becomes: visioning and spell work.

Visioning is future focused, seeing or planning something in the future. Spell work is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect.

Creating these vision books is the practice of making these magical formulas intended to trigger a magical effect for our future becomings.

It has taken me decades to see this, to understand the spell work and to claim my name as Witch, Wild Woman, Keeper. Now the archetype that sits between Mother and Crone: Priestess of the Autumn years, Maga. The weaver of magic and spells. I am surrounded by a community of such magic makers and weavers, a place to belong and know without speaking the words. It is a deep ancestral knowing, it is wild wanderings in a dark forest until you find the truths.

In 2013 I took the years of visioning on walls and bulletin boards and began to collect them inside of a book. I called them Vision books and the pages would become thick with glue and bits of paper. Words and photos would begin to tell a story, to answer a question or ask one, to heal and to feel, to guide and to cast.

I created a group course called Spirits of Joy and for years we made these books together, guided by simple prompts, held together by the glue of all our longings and dreams. I have a shelf filled with my brown books spilling over with yarn and string and the spells of my past self.

I began to receive emails from those who made these books, telling me that the visions from the book were now woven into their lives. These pages had led to becomings, had served as a guide, had shown a path, had shown the desires, had held the dreams that would show themselves (often in unexpected ways). There was surprise and delight and fascination and awe and joy and grief and forgiveness.

I remember when I was in the devastation of knowing that my marriage was going to end my friend put a tiny piece of paper into my vision book that said, “You will be OK.” I was terrified of it. I took images and pasted them over the top. But I never removed it. I let my book hold it, hold that truth, hold those words. Yes, there will be grief when the spells are cast.

Under the Aries New Moon I began the practice of visioning for my year ahead, the astrological year that this New Moon signaled the arrival of. I could feel the anticipation of it, the days leading up to the moon swallowed by darkness leaving us open and raw and deeply connected to our intuition.

Who I became was guided by these boards; by these prompts that I made up in my head, by the shapes and colors that formed under my hands and were cast into the visual world. The years that I’ve felt stuck I have shrunken away from this practice. For most of the years of my sobriety (almost 6) I have avoided the Aries New Moon visioning practice. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to let go, to move on, to forgive, to become.

This last year I’ve wondered if I have lost the ability to dream, to want, to long for. In letting parts of myself go, am I able to grow new skin, to emerge from the soil, to push out of the cave? Am I willing to process and grieve and look towards my future self?

It feels like we need a chance to integrate the years of 2019-2021, and the ones that have followed. We were thrown into something without precedent and we can use these pages and spells as a way to integrate and process who we became and then we who want to be.

As Pisces season swirled and blew and demanded endings I began to feel it again. The call of the Aries New Moon, the beckoning towards beginnings and truth and processing and seeing. I reminded myself that it was safe to look to my past self and to vision the spells once again.

And as I did, I began to imagine the course, a guide to bring others back to the books, a gathering of the Maga magic, a way to remember the power of dreams. It was the letting go, the releasing and the acceptance of the grief that comes as you heal and integrate.

I am trusting that beckoning and inviting you to join me. I am lit up with the idea of once again putting a course together and being in creation with you. And scared. And a bit uncomfortable. Looking back, processing, seeing the way time wove the parts of who we are together to be here now.

My intention is that these 30 days together will be of integration, belonging and dreaming. You will create the magic that is your life. We will weave together, receive together, grieve together. We will cast the spells of our future becomings into the world. They will be held, safe and forever be ours to choose.

Vision Spells - April 7th to May 6th 2024

30 days of email prompts, photos and stories, gathering and belonging held in Signal (a private community app for your phone or computer) and daily support from me.

Sign ups have closed.

Please understand this is non-refundable, so please do ask any questions hannahmarcotti@gmail.com

What you will need: some quiet time just for you, a few magazines (ask family and friends to save some for you), scissors, glue or tape, paper or a blank book. There will also be some prompts to create a small tin, a card, etc. Some people like having string and other craft supplies around.

How it works: I will send out one email prompt each day for 30 days with a photo and words. You can use that prompt as is, expand on it, change it, create your own. You can do these pages in batches or carve out time each day. We will use SIGNAL for gathering and you’ll be able to post photos and share with the group if you like.

Any questions or if you need support for the financial piece please email me hannahmarcotti@gmail.com