#assertive

By Ghia Vitale

“The fire of passion and the power of prayer will defeat evil! I’m Sailor Mars, of the red high heel!”

As a Chaote, I believe any form of media can be a valid source of spiritual wisdom as long as it resonates with you. Sailor Moon is no exception and it has impacted my witchcraft practice significantly.

Sailor Mars has always been special to me. It’s not just because I had a crush on her, either—she fascinates me as a character. When she isn’t fighting for justice, she’s living her life as Rei Hino, a student in junior high school. Her entry in the Sailor Moon Fandom Wiki suggests that “Ray of Fire” is a literal translation of her name.

Sailor Mars embodies Mars perfectly. She has an assertive, fiery personality and doubts the leadership abilities of Usagi/Sailor Moon. She isn’t afraid to wage war when it’s necessary. When you mess with her, prepare to face Mars’ red hot temper. She exemplifies so many personality traits of Mars that once I actually opened my first occult book at 12, I read the description of Mars and already felt familiar with its energy. Watching her work with fire inspired me to cultivate my own abilities.

Sailor Mars is the most spiritual of all the sailor scouts. As Rei, she lives and works at a Shinto shrine called Hikawa Shrine. She runs the shrine with her grandfather and serves as a miko. (“Miko” is a Shinto word that refers to a shrine maiden.) She developed her psychic powers by directly working with the Sacred Fire at the shrine. Although working with the Sacred Fire empowered her, others viewed her behavior as strange and avoided her because of it. This makes me relate to Rei more than the other sailor scouts: As a high school freshman, I lost some friends once they found out I practiced witchcraft. Others thought I was weird for pursuing the occult and stayed away from me.

While fighting, Sailor Mars throws Ofuda at youma (which is a Japanese word for “demons” and refers to enemies in Sailor Moon) while commanding evil spirits to disappear. These are Japanese paper charms with scriptures that are good luck. You’ll find them at shrines all across Japan. Seeing Sailor Mars work with these charms awakened me to the magickal power of writing symbols on paper and burning them.

Since then, I’ve designed a lot of personalized sigils that I charge/manifest with fire. Sometimes, when I’m meditating with a piece of paper in my hand, I’ll feel like how I imagine Sailor Mars does when she’s focusing her energy. When I actually set the paper aflame, I feel like I am throwing my own psychic Mars Fireballs.

You know how witches have familiars? Well, Rei has 2 guardian crows named Phobos and Deimos after the 2 moons of Mars. These crows provide her with insight, assistance, and empowerment. Crows have always occupied a special place in my heart, but I didn’t start working with crow energy intensely until my third year of college. Eventually, I decided to create my own crow servitors!

I programmed these crow servitors to help me send and receive psychic messages more efficiently. I gave them their own names: Shadow and Whisperer. These servitors did exactly what I programmed them to do. I even frequently “felt” them perched on my shoulders. As a result, I began appearing in my college friends’ dreams much more frequently and getting “hunches” that turned out to be true. 

The best manifestation I got from these crow servitors was when I was out birdwatching with my ornithology class. At one point, I saw 3 crows fly down from the sky. Then I casually mentioned to my peers that 3 crows are supposed to signify marriage according to that old crow-counting rhyme/poem. That night, I found out that someone close to me said “yes” to a proposal. I believe that seeing those 3 crows foretold this event. That spot-on omen proved to me that I was doing something right by incorporating Sailor Mars’ magick into my witchcraft practice.

Anime has a lot of valid witchy wisdom. I used to think my interest in anime was weird, but looking back, I must admit that Sailor Mars was a great role model for me as a young witch. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people cited Sailor Moon as a force behind their fascination with magick when they were young witchlings as well. 

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Here’s the scoop about me: I’m Ghia Vitale, a writer and senior editor at Quail Bell Magazine. I’ve been practicing witchcraft for around 18 years now. I was recently included along with 13 other witches in a Bustle article about our favorite witchy media. I’d recommend checking out this article to learn about some other ways Sailor Moon resonates with me as a witch. Thanks for reading!

Ghia Vitale is a writer and senior editor at Quail Bell Magazine. She is also a queer witch/feminist harpy/otaku who lives on Long Island. She has been practicing witchcraft for about 18 years. For more updates, follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.