Automatic Writing: A Word Witchery Case Study
The first time it happened, it freaked the hell out of me. I was lying on the carpet in my first apartment, working on a chapter for my NaNoWriMo novel. I was stuck and didn’t know where to go or where to take the story. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. Then I just let my mind go dark. It’s hard to explain because it was like meditating…except not. I thought I was resting my eyes, but then a rush of visions tumbled through my brain. I saw exactly where my characters needed to go next. I heard pieces of dialogue that opened up possibilities I’d never considered. I saw my characters interacting with each other in a way that linked my chapters together. I had no idea where this was coming from (and I still don’t). But what I do know is that it happens to me a lot now. And it’s incredibly hard to describe because every experience differs. The end result, though, is always the same… a “download” of answers and guideposts to get me through to the next part of writing.
Apparently, I was doing word witchery before I knew what that meant.
There are so many ways to do word witchery it’s impossible to name them all, but there’s one particular witchy practice that seems to be a favorite for word witches and non-word witches alike. It’s also a practice I’ll teach in several of my offerings because it’s a great introduction to word witchery. It’s what I experienced in my above paragraph.
It’s called automatic writing. You may have experienced it and not even realized (like me!), or maybe you’ve tried and didn’t find success. Or perhaps you’ve never even heard of such a thing.
Well, let’s change that, shall we?
What is Automatic Writing?
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition is as follows:
: writing produced without conscious intention as if of telepathic or spiritualistic origin
I’m not sure I agree with all of that, but it’s at least a place to start. In my experience, it feels less like a spiritualistic or telepathic connection and more like I’m somehow accessing a part of my brain or psyche that I cannot reach under normal circumstances. Because of its trance-like hold, it can feel very dreamy and otherworldly. In the moment, it’s as if you feel like all the puzzle pieces are coming together and you have the exact right words to use.
So in the simplest terms — automatic writing is a form of word witchery in which you write from a trance-like state.
It sounds way more complicated than it is. I’ll explain the how in a minute. Because automatic writing can feel a bit woo-woo at first (and it can be…it’s word witchery, after all!), but I want to demystify it a bit for all the muggles who don’t identify with being a witch or having a mystical side… because the truth is — anyone, anywhere can develop this practice.
What Automatic Writing Is Not
Automatic writing is not fortune-telling. You will not fall into a trance and predict the winning Powerball numbers (I don’t think…), and it’s doubtful that you will be given clues to your date and time of death (hopefully not…).
Automatic writing is not channeling.* Caveat here because some believe automatic writing is a form of channeling. In my opinion and my experience, I don’t find that to be true.
Automatic writing is not planchette writing (essentially using an ouija board as a vehicle for a spirit to communicate). In automatic writing, there is no “other” person writing. YOU are writing. YOU are the one holding the utensil or typing the keyboard.
Automatic writing is not some method to hex, curse, cast a spell, or any other witchcraft other than your garden variety word witchery.
If you are naturally skeptical (as I am), then you’ll be delighted to know that there are actual studies that have been conducted (and more are ongoing) on the effects of automatic writing. One study¹ showed through the use of SPECT scans that when the writers used automatic writing, they were not using their “thinking” minds. This means that the normal places in the brain that light up during scans with “regular” writing do not happen when automatic writing is engaged. They also found that the hippocampus, which lights up during many forms of writing like journaling or memoir writing because it’s the “memory center,” did not light up when writers were engaged in automatic writing. So what does this mean? Well… we don’t quite know. We know the information is not likely to be coming from our thinking brains or the parts of the brain that store memory, but we don’t know where else it is coming from.
The “How” — Part One
Okay, so we’ve gotten the basics of what automatic writing is and what it isn’t — but the most common question I get asked when I suggest this practice to a client is:
“But how do I do it?”
Before we cover the actual “how to automatic write,” we need to cover how you get into the right environment for it.
This is where things get fun because there are so many different ways you can enter into automatic writing. And it’s something that evolves and shifts according to what works best for you.
Here are some basic exercises to try to get into the trance-like state that favors automatic writing:
Candle gazing — This is one of my personal favorites. Especially when I use a candle that has a wood wick. Between staring at the flame and listening to the sound of the crackling, it lulls me into that nearly sleepy state fairly quickly. The trick here is not to fall asleep but rather to start writing just as you feel as if you want to close your eyes. That’s the liminal space best for automatic writing to take hold.
Binaural Theta Brain Entrainment Music — You may have heard variations of this for other activities such as deep work, studying, memorization, and meditation because it’s a fantastic way to enter into a trance-like state. Essentially, the music creates two tones with slightly different frequencies simultaneously, but to your ears, you hear it as one single tone. Your brain activity then matches the frequency of the beat (called the frequency-following effect). It’s much more complex than this brief description (so please do more research!), but the short of it is this — if you’ve found that binaural beats have helped you in other areas of life (reducing stress, increasing concentration, etc.) than chances are pretty good, this is a great way for you to induce the right environment for automatic writing.
Meditation (guided or not) — If you are a fan of and can meditate under normal circumstances, there’s a high likelihood that meditating into a trance-like state will work for you. I am not someone who generally has good luck with meditation. However, there have been a few guided meditations that have gotten me close enough to still induce the trance-like state to use automatic writing.
Writing immediately upon waking or right when you feel like you’re going to fall asleep — this method is difficult because it’s hard to stay in this liminal space for very long. It’s counterintuitive to what our bodies are telling us to do, which is to wake up or go to sleep… but that brief amount of time is a perfect state for automatic writing because we are disconnected from that egoic and hurried brain. We are drowsy and uninhibited. And automatic writing loves living in that space.
The “How” — Part Two
Now that we’ve covered some ways you can shift into the best environment for automatic writing, it’s time for the actual writing bit. But here’s the secret — there is no secret. Because automatic writing is so personal, so individualized, and nuanced, there’s no one way to do it.
But I can tell you that sometimes the easiest way to start is by starting where you are.
When I began my intentional practice of automatic writing, I would start the sessions by acknowledging that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write. Those first few weeks were pages and pages of:
“I don’t know what I want to write about. Is this working? Am I silly for doing this? I’m not sure what to write. I’m not sure what to write. What should I write? White or write? Should or could I? What could or should I write white.”
It was nonsense writing, but it was exactly what I needed to let go of expectations for the session. Eventually, after committing to practicing this, I could “drop into” a session without having to write “I don’t know what to write” a hundred times.
So if you’re willing to try automatic writing out, don’t be afraid to start exactly where you are with it. Not knowing is part of the process.
Brief Case Study
You would think an automatic writing session would leave you with clean and legible pages, but that’s not the case. At least in my experience — the worse my handwriting gets the more my ego has been shut down and allowed the automatic writing to work through me. Here’s an example:
Automatic Writing
Not automatic writing
In my automatic writing session example, there are sections I have a hard time deciphering. It feels chaotic and jumbled. That’s typical of an automatic writing session for me. My job, once the session is over, is to sift through what I’ve written to find the gems. In my example above, the bit about Riley seeing a ghost is for my upcoming NaNoWriMo novel, so that was a nice little gem I got from that session.
Conclusion
Automatic writing can be an incredibly useful tool for anyone, but it’s particularly helpful for word witches who want to tap into that liminal space for insights and downloads. As witches, we are already well attuned to our intuition which automatic writing often strengthens. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I encourage everyone to try it at least once. You never know what kind of experience you’ll have.
And if you liked learning about automatic writing in the context of word witchery, I encourage you to sign up for my mailing list as I’ll be hosting more word witchery events, seminars, and salons on the theme.
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Resources:
The Automatic Writing Experience by Michael Sanders
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