I Often Get Requests For Information And Resources From Those Just Beginning Their Journey Into Witchcraft

I often get requests for information and resources from those just beginning their journey into witchcraft and magick, and have recently begun a series of articles geared towards new witches. While, for the most part, I try to make every article I write accessible to new witches, these, in particular, focus on key concepts with regards to witchcraft and magick, and will hopefully be helpful for those just starting out. I strive to write from a non-denominational perspective, but I hope you will find these useful for starting to incorporate witchcraft into your path, regardless of what that might be!

Curious about witchcraft?

I can only offer my own advice, coming from my personal experiences, and my views may not resonate with everyone. I just want to say that you’ve probably heard a lot of things about witchcraft, witches, and magick that are simply not true.

You may have heard that all witchcraft is evil and harmful. This is not true. On the other hand, you may have also heard that witches never harm or interfere with others via magick, but this, too, is quite false. Witchcraft takes many forms and can be used in ways both helpful and harmful.

You may have heard that, to be a witch, you must worship a certain god or goddess, or join a certain religion. Also not true! While many witches mix religion with witchcraft, it isn’t a requirement, and not all witches have religious beliefs or engage in worship.

Some may have told you that witchcraft requires purchasing expensive tools and painstakingly following ancient rituals, but this isn’t true, either. Witchcraft is often innovative, and a skillful witch can make use of almost anything in his or her work.

Witchcraft requires self-awareness and reflection, but not ideology, and those who begin their sentences with “A true witch must…” or “All witches…” can be safely ignored in favor of blazing your own trail, as those who came before you did.

Advice to Beginners

These articles are mostly preliminaries that introduce concepts and my personal views on witchcraft. They are worth a read, especially if you’re brand-new to the fact that witchcraft even exists. They will also likely give you an idea of whether my own views on magick and witchcraft mesh with yours, and just give you perspective on where I’m coming from.

Of note, I recommend you read What Makes a Witch before hitting my askbox with questions about whether you’re a witch, whether you could become a witch, or about how I “realized” I was a witch. Suffice to say, witches in real life don’t operate much like those seen in Harry Potter and Sweep, as the article makes clear. I also recommend any newbies read my articles on Witch Hunts and also the one on Gaslighting, both of which highlight dangers in the magical community.

What Makes a Witch

Is there a “wrong” way to practice witchcraft?

What is Wicca?

Wiccan Versus Non-Wiccan Magick

What To Do If You Feel Cursed

Keep Calm When You Succeed

Beware: Witch Hunts

Beware: Gaslighting

The Perils of Self-Discovery

About Secular Witchcraft

Magical Foundations

These articles, while not spells or rituals themselves, give information about techniques for casting and practical spellcraft. Some are highly theoretical, but give what I feel are important foundations for magickal practice, such as the use of correspondences and symbolism, as well as visualization. Special emphasis has been given on my blog to magick that requires little or no tools, such as sigilization techniques, but you’ll find some articles in this category that do describe work with herbs and other ingredients for those who are drawn to that. Again, these articles are not spells, just techniques and information about the building blocks of magick as I see them. If you’re interested in spells, visit my grimoire page.

General Beginner Advice

About Correspondences, Associations, and Symbolism

About the Psychic Censor

Discovering Your Personal Correspondences

Sensing “Energy:” Positive and Negative

What’s Negativity?

Basic Visualization in Witchcraft

Sigils, Symbols, and Sketched Witchery

Charging Sigils: My Method

Finding Your Element

The Basics of Potioncraft

An Introduction to Bottle and Jar Spells

Visualization Tips

Enchanting and Empowering Objects

Introduction to Incantations

On Divination

Divination is a big part of my magickal practice. While that won’t be true for every single witch, I’m an enthusiastic fan of experimenting with divination methods, particularly Tarot and scrying. Here, you’ll find a series of articles with tips, tricks, exercises and information for budding diviners. Of note, especially, are the articles on scrying. Tarot may be more popular, but I personally find scrying to be an extremely useful tool, as well. This section is relatively short, so expect additions to it in the future.

Budget Solutions for New Diviners

Choosing a Tarot Deck

Scrying Defined

The Basics of Water Scrying

The Basics of Fire Scrying

The Sky as Mirror: An Air Scrying Technique

Scrying the Senses: An Exercise

Celestial Powers in Witchcraft

These articles all concern developing connections with the celestial or cosmic powers, namely the planets, and how these connections might be used for effective spellcraft. Thus far, this section is mostly limited to the seven classical planets, but I’ve plans to expand it to include information about working with  the outer planets and Zodiacal forces, as well. Some people might disagree, but I believe planetary workings are excellent for beginners and help to build a solid foundation of connectedness on which a budding witch can build their practice. I’ll admit, this is a pretty complex topic,  but it simplifies a lot of aspects of magick once understood, and can be useful for many witches.

An Introduction to the Classical Planets

[Image] Classical Correspondences for the Planets

Timing in Planetary Workings

Using Planetary Squares to Create Sigils

Using Planetary Glyphs in Magick

Using Planetary Septagrams and Hexagrams

Studying Tips and Tricks

Witchcraft is hardly all spellcraft and throwing your will around. Much of it involves just doing your homework, researching, recording, and studying magick in order to practice it more effectively. The articles below are the best advice I can personally offer in that regards, and will hopefully be useful for those beginning their journey into exploring magick through the written word and beyond.

Grimoires, Diaries, and Books of Shadows

Tips for Buying Your First Notebook

Witchy Symbols

Book Recommendations for Fortunetelling

Witchcraft Book Recommendations

This post is mirrored here on my site, and will be frequently updated with new articles and information. I hope you find some of it useful. Also, as noted, I have a tag for beginner-friendly posts specifically, located here. As always, my askbox is open constantly, and anon is enabled, but please read the FAQ first to see if your question has been already answered. Also, uh, if you like my work, consider donating or visiting my shop. 

Special Mama Von Recipe for Samhain! 

Black Salt, a powerful little ingredient for your spells, hexes, charms and more! Here’s my personal recipe for:

a) Protection

b) Banishing

c) Bad Luck Hex

You’ll Need: 

Self-igniting charcoal

Plants/Resins that correspond to your intent

Salt

Pestle & Mortar

Optionally, pen and paper

Recipe 1: Protection

For my protective black salt, I used: Camphor, Benzoin, Angelica, Ash, Rose, Clove and Birch.

However, you may use your own combination. Use as many or as little as you like.

You may draw a sigil on a small piece of paper that states your intent and will help formulate your salt to aid you better.

Next, light the charcoal and place the incenses on first (Camphor and Benzoin). Next, burn the plants one by one, and the piece of paper with the sigil. Place the charcoal outside if you don’t want the smoke in your house.

Once all the plants have been burnt to ash, put the remains of both the charcoal and the ashes in the mortar and grind to dust. 

The proportions I used were 4 part Ash/Charcoal and 10 part salt, but use whatever works best for you. 

Add the salt to the mortar and mix until the salt is black. If it doesn’t reach its desired colour, add charcoal to the mixture.

Always remember intent is key, so concentrate on what you’re doing. 

Recipe 2: Banishing

This is the recipe I use to banish unwanted things, especially negative influences and spirits.

I used: Opononax, Frankincense, Arabic Gum, Birch, Elder flowers, Mint, Marjoram, Anise and bay.

But you may use any plant that’s good for purification, cleansing, change, positivity and protection.

Same process as the first one. Intent is key and sigils really help to get that across.

Recipe 3: Bad Luck Hex

I don’t hex, but a friend of mine requested that I make it for him. So here, the sigil was really important, since I was more reluctant to put bad intentions in my craft. (I’m not the hexing types, but you may be as wicked as you please, lovely lil witches. I have nothing against it, it’s just not my witching style.)

I used: Mandrake, Nettles, Onion, Lime, Angelica and Vervain.

As usual, use your own recipe if you must! 

I tried to muster up malice and bad thoughts. Hopefully the salt will work for him.

I hope you enjoyed my black salt recipes. They’re all useful for samhain, so tell me how it goes! 

I am, I am, I am

I’m inlove with red lights

Uses for cat whiskers in spells

-getting out of tight situations

-guidance

-spell bags for balance

-spell bags for travel

-put them in your car to escape accidents “by a whisker”

-spells relating to eye health

**please don’t cut/forcibly remove the whiskers from your furry friend. Just keep a lookout for them in kitty’s sleeping space or on your floor, they fall out quite often**

glow