I was going to write a post about mood boards; 2000 words later I realized it was going to have to be a series. Expect a new installment every Friday.
Welcome to Part One: What is a Mood Board
A mood board is basically an image or grouping of images that helps you to focus your intention and manifest the changes you want in your life. For some people it’s a spiritual practice and for others it’s a visual “to do” list, reminding them of their goals. Typically this board, often a bulletin or magnetic board, is placed in a highly visible location where it is often walked by, looked at or interacted with.
Mood boards are similar to vision or spell boards. Some people like to group them together or say that they’re “the same thing” which is understandable. In my experience, they look similar but are created with different intentions in mind. The intention part is important. Don’t get hung up on specific names, they’re more like working titles than strict definitions. Like everything in the New Age community, someone else may have a completely different definition/opinion. Which is a good thing.
1. Vision boards are a creation of the Law of Attraction craze that swept through the world via Oprah. People were making boards pre-Oprah but they weren’t referred to specifically as “vision boards” and they weren’t so closely associated with the book The Secret. The intention of a vision board is that you assemble a collage of specific pictures of items/advancements/goals you want to achieve in hopes of attracting them into your life. If you want a new car, for example, you include a picture of the specific make, model and color of the car you desire. Full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the book The Secret. It’s basically the repackaging of a Pagan belief system for a Christian audience… which is unkind to Pagans and unkind to the poor Christians who are unknowingly making a literal Witch craft, which may or may not be something they’re comfortable with. I think vision boards are prone to being materialistic and demanding. The Universe is infinite but the Universe is not Santa. While 12-year-old Me would have totally asked Santa Universe for an iPad, it’s important to remember that It won’t cave to every demand for new toys. It has more important things to do… like dealing with famine and misogyny.
2. Spell boards are a type of Witchcraft using visual representations to manifest a desired outcome. They are usually made with a specific intention like attracting a new lover or gaining employment. The main difference is that a Witch will use rituals, words of power and spellwork to imprint their intention onto the board. The board is likely placed on an altar or in a sacred space and is worked with nightly for a week, month or moon phase until the spell is complete. By “worked with” I mean a Witch may light a candle every night, allowing the wax to drip onto the board or they might anoint the board with essential oils or surround it in incense smoke. When creating the board the Witch incorporates special sigils, symbols and incantations or representations of goddesses and deities. I love using spell boards… I might write a future post about them.
3. Mood boards are more personal. They are visual representations of You. What you want, how you want to feel and what that looks like to you. Mood boards are infused with your energy and full of pictures that represent how you want your life to feel. The photos tend to be more symbolic. If someone saw your board, they wouldn’t be able to tell what your goals were specifically. These boards tend to look like beautiful collages. They are witchy is the sense that you’re working with symbolism, color and personal meaning. It’s a way of showing the Universe how you’d like to feel and leaving the specifics open.
For example, you want to vacation in Hawaii. Maybe that’s what you really want. But maybe Hawaii is symbolic of wanting to feel peaceful, happy and free while surrounded by tropical plants and clear water. So you choose photos of oceans and bohemian-artist girls and big, tropical jungles. And then maybe the Universe sends you to Hawaii for 6 days and 7 nights. Or maybe the Universe re-locates you to Bora Bora for a year. Or maybe you make some changes and begin to feel free and happy in your daily life. Maybe you buy a house near a lake with a sunroom full of tropical plants. In all of these scenarios, you get what you want but the Universe decides how to bestow it.
This might make you uneasy, but relinquishing control is often a good thing. Think of it as leaving room for something even better or something more meaningful to manifest. It helps you to move away from the material and focus on your mental/emotional wellbeing. We’re often wrong when we assume that a specific thing will make us happy. It’s like asking for a lover with green eyes when what you really need is a funny, warm person who doesn’t mind that you leave cracker crumbs in the peanut butter jar *ahem*
These are my own brief and highly subjective definitions of different types of board tools. Which is what they are, tools to help you manifest the life you want. Maybe it’s spiritual for you. Or maybe it’s just a visual reminder of your goals. “Meaning” is an entirely personal thing, attach as much or as little of it as you wish.
Stay tuned for Part 2: How to Make a Mood Board which will be posted next Friday.
