Have you been called to the realm of the sea witch? Maybe you’ve always been drawn to the sea. The ocean waves lull you to sleep. The sand feels like magic between your toes. Salty air smells like perfume from a past life. The ocean speaks to you in a language only you understand. The sea is our mother – nurturing and healing but she can also be angry and fearsome. Maybe you’re wondering how to tap in to and harness the power of the sea in all her glory. Time to learn how to be a sea witch. 

First, What is a Sea Witch?

We should define this special path before getting into how to be a sea witch. A sea witch, also called a water or ocean witch, is someone who makes magic by the seashore and uses the powers of the ocean to fuel their witchcraft. The sea witch is able to center his or her energy by the ocean, as well as use the ocean’s powers to heal, protect, cleanse, draw abundance, and more.

No, you don’t have to live by the sea in order to be a sea witch. Many people are drawn to the ocean and only get to visit it for holidays and vacations. But that doesn’t mean they don’t take a bit of the ocean home in their hearts. Some sea witches love the sea but also just love working with the water element in general. This could mean you favor a local body of water like a lake, river, creek, pond, well or waterfall. However you decide to practice sea witchery is up to you.

How to Be a Sea Witch & Practice Water Witchery

1. Intimacy with the Sea

If you’ve chosen to be a sea witch, visit the sea on a regular basis. If you don’t live near the sea, then perhaps you live near a bay, lake, river, stream, or other body of water. Identify your local bodies of water and visit them as much as possible. Get to know the water intimately by swimming, boating, kayaking, canoeing, and walking along the shoreline. Each ocean, seashore, and body of water has its own personality. Its own spirits. Its own magic.

Make a separate page in your grimoire for each local body of water. Note their characteristics, history, eco-system, etc. Get to know the wildlife in and around this body of water including the aquatic animals, mammals, birds and insects. A sea witch knows the sea and its inhabitants so well he/she will be able to identify each by sight and sound. 

2. Sea Offerings

To create a relationship with your local bodies of water, give offerings. These should be biodegradable and eco-friendly. Creating a symbol of gratitude on the beach using seashells, flower petals, seaweed and other items that are naturally present is one easy way to leave offerings for the spirits of the sea. You can do the same lakeside with branches and pebbles. The time and effort it takes to gather the items and craft a symbol as an offering will not be frowned upon by your local body of water or the spirits there. Another sea offering could be a cup of local honey or mead poured directly into the water. Offerings are the first step in developing a working relationship with the water as a sea witch.

3. Beachcombing for Tools

A sea witch uses items from the seashore in his or her magic. Have you ever been beachcombing? Walk down the shoreline and let Mother Nature gift you with magical tools and spell ingredients including seashells, coral, driftwood, feathers, seaweed, crab shells, shark’s teeth, hag-stones, bones, seed pods, grasses, sand, etc. You can do the same at a lake or river. Collect the items presented to you and be sure to thank the ocean/water for its gifts. Place these magical items on your altar to honor the sea or use in spells and rituals. Large shells become bowls and cups. Seagull feathers become smudge fans. Driftwood becomes a sea witch’s wand. A magic circle can be drawn using sand. 

When gathered from the beach, seashells have various magical properties, including: love, fertility, healing, emotions, intuition, and dreams. Look up the seashell online and identify the kind, which makes it that much more powerful! For example, the shell of an oyster draws love into one’s life. After all, oysters are known as powerful aphrodisiacs. Or maybe you found a perfect spiral shell – spirals are the symbol of eternal life and therefore this seashell is connected to past life work.

4. Cleansing Rituals

Something you’ve probably already done but is the one of the most magical experiences is bathing in the ocean water. The water has a purifying, cleansing effect that can’t be replicated with a bath or shower at home. Ocean water contains salt, which is another powerful purifier. It cleanses your aura and removes any negative energetic residue. Cleansing oneself in the ocean is a common practice of a sea witch and should be utilized as much as possible. Immerse yourself in the sea and watch your desires manifest. 

5. Sea Gods and Elementals

Part of the reason I told you to give offerings to the sea is to forge a relationship with the spirit of the sea itself. BUT when you give offerings, also consider the sea spirits and gods present. The Celts, Norse, African, and Native American peoples all believed in sea gods and spirits. Choose a local sea god or goddess to work magic with OR let one of the sea gods choose you.

Water and sea gods and goddesses from all over the world include: Yemaya, Manannan Mac Lir, Poseidon, Boann, Danu, Dragon Kings of the 4 Seas, Anuket, Sobek, Tefnut, Mami Wata, Triton, Bangputys, Tangaroa, the Cailleach, Aegir, Nehalennia, Coventina, Cliodhna, Neptune, Morskoi, and Oshun. These are just a few! Don’t forget the sea spirits and water spirits like water nymphs, nix, kelpies, undines, merrows, selkies and merfolk.

6. The Sea Altar

When learning how to be a sea witch, it’s beneficial to start a sea altar. This can be on top of a table, counter, or shelf. Add items that remind you of the sea and bring in the ocean’s energy to your space. Seashells, coral, driftwood, stones, pictures of the ocean, god and goddess statues, vials of sand, bowls and bottles of water are all perfect for a sea witch altar. The altar will help you to focus on your connection with the ocean and gently instill the power of the ocean into your rituals and spells. 

7. Water Element Magick

Connecting to the sea is essential in learning how to be a sea witch, but don’t forget it’s also important to work with the water element on a deeper level. Water element magick includes learning how to use your intuition, improving your psychic abilities, and engaging in dream work. Water also pushes us to identify and embrace our emotions, no matter how messy the process seems.

9. Water and Mirror Scrying

Another common sea witch practice is scrying. Scrying is a means of divination and it means “to see”. The sea witch gazes into a bowl of water OR into a mirror to see the future or divine a message. The very first mirror was a reflective pool. The mirror is linked to water in this way. Some sea witches use regular mirrors, while others prefer black obsidian. The choice is yours.

10. Collect Magical Waters

As a sea witch, you might feel drawn to collect water from various sources. For instance, ocean water from the beach. River water from a local river. All water carries its own magical properties depending on the source. Try using rain water, storm water, and creek water in your spells and rituals and see how different the results might be. In addition, learn how to make your own moon water, rose water and more.

11. Working With Sand

When gathered from the beach and kept in a jar, place the sand anywhere around the house to bring the invoke powerful water magic. Set it on your altar. Use the sand to draw a magical circle for a sea ceremony or sabbat. Put the sand in spell bags, along with herbs, and charge it to manifest your goals.

12. Driftwood and Seaglass Magick

These are two common things found at the seashore. Make driftwood into chimes or decorations. Place it on an altar or decorate it and turn it into a wand or staff. Put seaglass into bottles or jars or weave it into jewelry. Seaglass is a representation of transformation by the elements, a “return to the sea”. Use it in times when you need a direction-change.

13. Sea Conservation Efforts

Tread lightly – don’t leave cigarette butts, plastic wrappers, floats, toys, straws or cans on the beach. These pollute the environment and make it dirty for the next visitor. More importantly litter physically harms the wildlife! Straws are found regularly stuck in sea turtles’ noses. Plastic can holders get stuck around seagulls’ necks. Pick up after yourself. And take the time to do a beach clean-up or aid the baby sea turtles to the ocean. Be thankful and only leave footprints in the sand.