Should I Be Veiling: A Guide for Witches

You may see many spiritual people adorning some form of headscarf around their head. There are many different ways that you may find a practitioner of the craft veil themselves. Some wear bandanas over their forehead to protect their third eye chakra, others wear them over their entire head so as to cover their crown chakra, some may cover their hair, and some may wrap their hair. There are many different reasons a witch may veil. At the end of this, depending on what you believe you may decide veiling is not for you, which is entirely your own choice. No witch is required to veil, it is entirely your own choice. Personally, I veil on the sabbats, during intensive spellwork, and on days where I feel particularly weakened by the energies of those around me.

Witch practices usually start with some form of belief building. For example, if you're an atheist witch you probably aren’t doing much tea time with Loki. Veiling is no different. If you believe your energy will not be better protected by veiling it will not protect you. It’s that simple.

Earlier I listed four possible ways a person may veil. The way one veils is directly linked to the culture’s they build their craft upon beliefs on the head and the hair. For example, if we start with the discussion of chakras we look directly at the head and the third eye chakras for answers on how to veil. The crown chakra is seen as the holder of our divine wisdom, our connection to the higher power. Witches who are religious or do deity work may veil out of respect to the higher powers they communicate and/or work with. The Ajna Chakra commonly referred to as your third eye is seen as the holder of your intuition and spiritual sight. Due to its deep connection to other planes, a witch may choose to veil in order to protect themselves from negative spiritual energies. Another popular belief is that magick energy flows to your body through the strands of your hair. For this reason, a practitioner may wrap their hair or fully cover it to prevent overflow or to block energies that try to enter uninvited.

When deciding if you should veil, start by looking at your personal ancestral background. For example, I am Scottish, Irish, and Italian. According to a quick and (probably not the most reliable google search I have done for my craft), the ancient celts’ believed that the hair and its length were symbols of the power a person holds. The ancient celts also believed that the head was the keeper or home of the soul. In veiling a modern practitioner may decide to veil as I do, always letting the length of their hair be shown and let their forehead/head be covered thereby protecting the soul and showing their power. This is the conclusion I came to after reading a bit about it on Google, more research can definitely be done into this topic. However, personally, I started veiling because wearing headscarves in that fashion always provided me with a sense of confidence and security. I took this emotional belief and turned it into a spiritual belief that I built upon after diving into my background a bit. Perhaps after more research 8 will change my mind and decide veiling is not for me. That’s just how being a witch works, our craft is always changing as we are presented with new information.