If you’re lucky enough to be living in a coastal town or city, heading to the beach to ground, or cast magick is highly therapeutic. Beaches can be that pure white squeaky sand, shelly, littered with seaweed or driftwood, or wonderful little pebbles which make great hand-made runes (my first set was pebbles with a sharpie) Living in Western Sydney, getting to the beach is harder. I hate Bondi with a passion (again, what’s the big deal with it?! The energies there are awful!) and I’m yet to find a beach that I feel comfortable visiting. I miss doing beach magick!
There’s a few good books out and about – Sea Magic: Connecting with the ocean’s energy by Sandra Kynes is a great read with lots of ideas to incorporate into your own practice. There’s also websites and blogs, such as The Book of Tides.
If you’re interested, I’d suggest googling ‘sea witch’, ‘sea witchcraft’, ‘sea magick’, ‘ocean witchcraft’, ‘ocean magick’, ‘beach witchcraft’ etc. You will get a lot of hits for fiction novels, but just wade through them. Oh! A pun I didn’t intend on making!!
As earthy as I am with my practice, and certainly with being a Dedicant to Herne the Hunter, the beach will always be my first home. And yet, I’ve never been drawn to the Sea Gods. The one time I did try to honour Poseidon, I knew I was in over my head. He’s such a powerful figure, and I certainly wasn’t ready to meet him. The beach has always been the edge of the unknown, a boundary in which we can explore. The sound of the crashing waves, the call of the gull, watching the random tiny pebble roll back down along the shoreline with the pulling tide – that’s my happy place.
It’s also been along the shores of the beach that I’ve found the most simple yet highly powerful spell craft I’ve ever worked. I’m not an avid fan of spell craft, candle magick confuses me because I just don’t get it (for instance, the idea of using a green candle for money. Money in Australia isn’t green – notes are purple, blue, red, yellow AND green. Anointing the candle is another I just don’t understand.) I love other workings with fire – setting things on fire, lighting bonfires, etc. just not with coloured candles… Anyways! Back on track!
There’s a beautiful simplicity to be found in ocean/sea/beach magick, and I always seem to be drawn to the forms of spell craft that doesn’t involve memorising words or phrases, or knowing when to things in sequence. There’s power to going with the flow, making it up as you go along, because then it really comes from the heart. Some spells I’ve found are a lot more elaborate – find a certain shell, do something on a certain day during a certain phase of the moon etc. maybe throw some herbs in the mix. But when you can’t find shells along your nearest beach, or if there’s no drift wood anywhere along the stretch of sand, simple can be best. For example, Werribee South Beach is great for driftwood as it’s part of Port Philip Bay, whereas Anglesea is along the Bass Straight so there’s none. But both are great for pebbles. St Leonards is great for shells, and on the odd occasion you might find some sea glass. (Werribee South Beach, Anglesea, St Leonards – all in Victoria, Australia).
If the beach is particularly busy because it’s summer, and you don’t feel comfortable coming at night by yourself, or if you live in an area when you don’t want to draw attention to yourself for fear of your personal safety (maybe it’s a rather Bible-thumping town), go with simple.
At the new moon the beach was busy with families enjoying the sun. I had no tools. I sat on my thongs/flip flops on the shore facing the waves, my handbag was in the boot of the car, the car keys in my bra (no pockets). I called to the Gods and Spirits of Place for assistance, and wrote three words in the sand followed by my personal sigil. Then I got up and walked away.
It was the most powerful spell I’ve ever cast.
When you’re new to wanting to try ocean/beach/sea magick and you’re not sure what to do, or when you’ve read so much and it all feels a bit conflicting, go with your instincts. Sometimes, simple really is all you need.
Book of Eucalypt 
Luuurrrved this post! *breathes deep* ahhhh I feel like I am there right now. SO casting some beach magic this week.
Yay! Reading this makes me so happy!
I live in Ohio, so we don’t have seas or oceans per se, but we do have the Great Lakes and various lakes with beaches (some with imported fine white sands). There is something…magikal about these places. Water is just as powerful as it is beautiful. Given that I don’t get down to these sandy places as often as I’d like, I do make it a point to perform some Beach Magik, even if it’s just meditating on the shores or making Goddess figures in the sand.
I say – go with what you’re drawn to. I’ve felt this same pull of the ocean. But also can feel it, albeit in a less pronounced manner, when standing at smaller, perhaps tamer bodies of water.
Oh – and I don’t often associate green with money either.
I know this is 5 years old but thanks for this. Some of the most powerful beaches I’ve found were tiny little things in Indonesia. I agree with you about Bondi but locally to Sydney, Freshwater beach is still a rather nice place. A little further north near Toukley there is Budgewoi and Birdie beaches at Cabbage Tree bay where you can still find literally kilometres of empty beach. Norah Head lighthouse is just to the south making it a great place to visit at night. Day or night it is largely secluded, the only people you might see around are a fisherman or two. Birdie beach is also one of the few nude beaches around Sydney, so there’s that.