Draft: Spells, Rituals, & Spreads for Expressing Gratitude

by Jaime Hutkin

As the seasons turn and the nights grow longer, this time of year naturally calls us to pause and reflect. Gratitude is a practice we can carry with us always, but there’s a special kind of magic in embracing it now — when the world feels slower, softer, and more intentional. Through simple rituals, gentle spells, and mindful card spreads, we can channel this seasonal energy to nurture a deeper sense of appreciation and connection with the world around us.

The Science Behind A Regular Gratitude Practice

Let’s start by diving into the science behind gratitude with Jolene Hart’s Well-Rested Every Day: 365 Rituals, Recipes, and Reflections for Radical Peace and Renewal:

A simple, research-backed habit for longer, deeper, and more restful sleep: gratitude. The practice of giving thanks has been shown, time and again, to have incredible restorative and rest-giving benefits for the body, including increasing happiness and reducing depression, strengthening mental resilience and self-esteem, and improving sleep, self-care habits, and empathy toward others. Bedtime is an ideal time to call to mind some of the highlights of your day that evoke grateful feelings, but you can switch into this practice just about any time or place that you wish to calm and center yourself. You can also mix gratitude with mindfulness by looking around and naming what you see, hear, smell, or touch that you feel grateful for. Gratitude helps you lean into rest by reminding you that you already have everything you need. Make naming the things you’re grateful for a game, a regular habit, or even a diversion to pass the time while commuting or waiting in line and you’ll be deeply enforcing your well-rested life wherever you go.

Gratitude Journal Prompts

With the science behind gratitude in mind, we’ll turn to an excerpt from Heidi Smith’s The Uncommon Book of Prayer: An Illuminated Guide to Co-Creating with the Universe for a healing practitioner’s perspective on gratitude along with some helpful journal prompts:

Building our capacity for gratitude and joy aids in resilience. It offers us the ability to draw from our reserves when we may be running on empty. Cultivating gratitude and joy equips you with more resources for the times when life inevitably doesn’t go your way. Choice is a gateway to change, and gratitude is a choice we can make that shifts us from victim to empowered consciousness, and from lower vibratory states to higher ones like joy…There are so many factors (genetic, social, economic, environmental, etc.) that are beyond our control that can impede our joy. But research shows that a consistent gratitude practice can actually help us shift our perspective, despite our conditions and conditioning, and improve our sense of optimism and well-being…The more embodied and present we are with ourselves, the easier it is to feel gratitude for the small things that can fill our proverbial glasses… If you do feel you’re in the window of opportunity for this practice, know that it might require a “fake it until you make it” approach. A simple way to integrate gratitude into your life is by adopting a gratitude practice… Here are some gratitude practice tips:

Write down what you’re grateful for or say it out loud. This enhances the mind’s and the body’s recognition of what you are stating.

Start off small. It’s okay if you need to be grateful for a cup of coffee or a snuggle with your cart.

If you need inspiration, consider: people, exchanges, places, animals, plants, weather, your home, or your community.

If you’re reflecting on something that felt hard or didn’t go your way, is there any place in that experience where you can find some gratitude? This can mean feeling proud of how you showed up in the face of a challenge or finding something about the experience that gave you more clarity.

Consistency is key, so find a time of day that works best for you and see if you can commit to a daily practice.

Consider doing this practice and reflecting on the week ahead, looking to the future with gratitude.

Challenge yourself. When you feel resistant, see if you can choose this practice over resentment, hopelessness, despair, etc.

A Ritual For Expressing Gratitude Before A Meal

A simple way to practice gratitude every day is right before a meal.

Here is a ritual from Plant Magic at Home: A Complete Guide To Harnessing The Power of Nature From Rituals to DIYs by Enid Baxter Ryce and illustrated by Claire Harrup:

Offerings: candle, a bowl of water, an altar. Or simply, gratitude and attention.

Blessings before a meal: (choose which resonates)
With this offering, we thank:

Deities: We thank the loving spirit of (your choosing) for your meal and our blessings.

Food: We are thankful for our food. We share this earth with animals and plants whose ancestors are connected to ours.

Who carried the food: We are thankful for those who gathered, carried, and prepared our food. May they be blessed.

Ancestors: We are thankful to our ancestors for their journeys that bring us together to share this meal. May they continue to watch over us.

Toast: To our adventure.

Creating an Autumnal Altar

For this practice, we turn to The Witches’ Spell Book for Love, Happiness, and Success from Cerridwen Greenleaf’s The Practical Witches’ Box Set:

Your altar helps you maintain balance in your life and deepens your spiritual connection to the world around you. A seasonal altar is your tool for ceremonies to honor Mother Nature and connect with the deeper wisdom of the earth.

The leaves are now falling and the harvest is here, calling for a gratitude altar that reflects the bounty and continuance of life. An arrangement of pumpkins, acorns, multicolored branches, and a handsome bouquet of leaves will honor the natural changes that characterize autumn.

A Gratitude Spread

Though gratitude and pleasure are different practices, the following spread from Pleasure Alchemy: A Deck and Guidebook for Self-Expression and Fulfillment by Maude White offers a way to really understand how you’re feeling about a situation, approaching it with mindfulness and gratitude.

The Pleasure Check Spread is for those times when you’re not sure whether you’re truly enjoying a situation or think you may simply be going through the motions. You’d be surprised how hard it might be to tell the difference! Use this spread when you need to refocus and reassess a pleasurable situation to make sure you’re really feeling the vibe.

What about this experience makes me feel good?

What does “good” feel like right now?

What can help me refocus if I find myself drifting or unaware of the pleasure in front of me?

What can help me determine whether I’m feeling pleasure or just distracting myself?

What can help me truly be present with pleasure?

For this spread, pull a card for each question and use the card’s meaning to reflect on your answer.

Recognizing Gratitude with a Magical Ritual

Sometimes, working with a deck is as simple as focusing your energy on one particular card. In this case, we turn to a magical ritual found on the Barachiel card from Be Not Afraid: A Deck of Biblically Accurate Angels and Celestial Magic.

“Barachiel, an angel of grace and benevolence, is revered for bestowing blessings and fortune. With a white rose in hand, this heavenly being embodies the essence of purity and the expansive wisdom akin to Jupiter. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Barachiel resides in Chesed, the sephirah of loving kindness, which symbolizes the generosity of spirit and the reservoir of unlimited abundance.”

MAGIC: To perform this ritual, you will need a single white rose and frankincense incense. First, light the incense and invite Barachiel into your presence. Next, start removing the petals from the rose, one by one, while verbally expressing something unique in your life for which you are grateful. Continue doing this until all the petals have been removed.

Afterward, gather the petals and place them in a pouch under your pillowcase. Each night before bed, ask Barachiel to bless your life with more things to be grateful for. Once your requests have been fulfilled, transfer the petals to a vessel on your altar to symbolize gratitude for the favors bestowed upon you.

An Abundance Tarot Reading

Part of gratitude is recognizing the abundance already present within your life. With that in mind, here’s a suggested tarot card reading from Intuitive Manifesting: Align Your Inner Wisdom and Attract Your Dream Life by Brigit Esselmont.

Do this reading when you wish to deepen your connection with the essence of abundance. Before you begin, hold your Tarot deck and close your eyes. Tune in to the energy of abundance—sense what abundance feels like, hear what abundance sounds like, see what abundance looks like. Let this energy permeate every cell of your being.

When you feel ready, gently open your eyes, and pull a card for each of these reflective questions:

How is abundance currently manifesting in my life?

In what ways might abundance unfold in my future?

What steps can I take to attract more abundance?

How can I open myself to receive greater abundance?

What are the ways I can express my gratitude for abundance?

Trust your intuition as you interpret each card. Journal your thoughts, letting your intuition flow freely. Conclude your reading by giving thanks for the abundance in your life and the prosperity yet to come, acknowledging the Universe’s role in this endless cycle of giving and receiving.

Ending Spells with Gratitude

One common thread amongst all of these rituals is that they end with gratitude. This is an important step of any ritual, every time! As Nikki Van De Car writes in Practical Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to Crystals, Horoscopes, Psychics, and Spells, these are the last two steps of any spell you cast:

GIVING THANKS: If you asked for assistance from the Divine, be sure to give thanks. You can leave an offering or just bow your head in gratitude––whatever feels right to you.

CLOSING THE CIRCLE: It is important to finish your spells, and closing the circle indicates that the spell is complete. If your circle was a psychic one, take your vervain smudge wand and walk in the opposite direction. If you used candles to create a pentagram, blow them out, giving thanks with each one. If you used stones, collect them one by one, again giving thanks.

Dive Deeper

Well-Rested Every Day

by Jolene Hart

$19.99

$25.99 CAD
The Uncommon Book of Prayer

by Heidi Smith, Illustrated by Chelsea Granger

$24.00

$31.00 CAD
Plant Magic at Home

by Enid Baxter Ryce, Illustrated by Claire Harrup

$26.00

$34.00 CAD
The Practical Witches’ Box Set

by Cerridwen Greenleaf

$15.95

$20.50 CAD
Pleasure Alchemy

by Maude White

$32.00

$40.00 CAD
Be Not Afraid

by Jennifer Sodini, Illustrated by Natalee Miller

$30.00

$39.00 CAD
Intuitive Manifesting

by Brigit Esselmont

$22.00

$29.00 CAD
Practical Magic

by Nikki Van De Car

$18.00

$23.00 CAD