The wishing well has served as an auspicious portal of hope, imagination and dreams coming true throughout history. Wishing has been an integral part of my spiritual practice since childhood, yielding many unlikely successes and glorious adventures, but it wasn’t until I began the study and practice of self-hypnosis that I really began to master the art and enjoy the benefits of well-wishing (positive ritualistic wishing) and Wishcraft. In my work as a professional hypnotist, I have shared the WishCraft Method of self-hypnosis with thousands of clients, witnessing them successfully train themselves on how to take control of their subconscious minds and make their wishes become a reality. When we learn the art, benefit and practice of well-wishing, our subconscious mind becomes a proverbial wishing well; an ideal place to plant our wishes.
One of my favorite wishing rituals is the exercise of wishing well with an actual wishing well (or rather a conceptual well) that you can easily craft at home. This is inspired by my Irish heritage and the Celtic roots of the original wishing well, where water was revered as sacred — a source of healing and the dwelling place of the gods. Thus, it was an auspicious place to surrender their wishes and worries to the gods.
By creating your own wishing well at home, you can begin to practice a sort of ceremonial self-hypnosis, empowering your wishes with intention and ritual as a way to anchor your wishes into your subconscious mind with attention and significance. Self-hypnosis, despite popular misconception that surrounds hypnosis, is a natural ability and a practice; it refers to the trance like state where we focus and narrow our attention. In fact, we are in an out of hypnosis many times throughout the day — scrolling social media on our phones, watching a movie or intentionally like mediation or savasana in yoga. In the trance state we are more receptive to suggestion. The ritual of wishing well with your own wishing well can focus your mind, and help it find and receive what it’s looking for. Then, you can begin to use your imagination as a wishing well of possibility within you.
Excerpt from Wishcraft: A Guide to Manifesting a Positive Future.
Ingredients for ritual wishing:
- Candles, lighter or matches
- Ambient or healing sounds or music without words
- Flowers
- Paper and pen
- Notecards or notebook
Make Your Own WISHING BOWL RITUAL:
- Place some water in your wishing bowl. I like to bestow a prayer or blessing upon the water as it’s being poured in the bowl. I usually do this by giving it thanks for its cleansing, healing and life-giving properties, as well as its ability to surrender to all that is around it.
- Place flowers around the bowl (I prefer roses for their symbolism of endurance and beauty).
- Make three wishes: one wish for yourself, one for someone you love and one for the world. Write down the wishes.
- Wishing bowl and water (remember the significance of wishing wells as it was understood in ancient traditions, a holy, nourishing source of life, healing and potential can use the wording given there).
- Speak each wish out loud, slowly and affirmatively. Tear off a few rose petals as you state each wish and lovingly toss them into the water. It’s wonderful to do with well-wishing friends and share your wishes for one another.
- I love taking the flower petals and seeding them into the soil of a houseplant or garden, watching the wishes grow in their own way and their own time.
May all your best wishes come true for you!
Photo by Dingzeyu Li.
Shauna Cummins is a certified Clinical Hypnosis Practitioner with a private practice in New York, author of Wishcraft (2021), holder of ceremonies, multi-disciplinary artist and founder of Divine Feminine School of Hypnosis and MindMassageHotline. The method she developed and works with is called Wishcraft™. Wishcraft is self-hypnosis that teaches the art of well-wishing as a practice for changing thought patterns and beliefs, turning wishes into action. (Headshot by Helena de Bragança)
