To cast a spell in order to gain something is not a new fling of the world. It´s an old and famous tradition that reaches far back in history. It is also something to treat with great care and respect.
By great care and respect I mean do practice casting spells, do try to write your own spells and do it always with a positive intention. If you do try old spells, do not use dangerous ingredients. They can easily be substituted by e.g. tobacco. When you practice you learn.
But you also need to do your research on spells. There are a lot of correspondences to keep track of, and it is an ever ongoing task with spells, because although similarities in setup, the intentions are often different, e.g. the drawing in of a new love in love spells and the push for business prosperity in spells for growth and abundance.
My respect for the art of casting spells comes from experience. They do work, and not only if you believe it hard enough. I´ve experienced enough to say that magick is a subtle tool with powerful consequences.
Casting spells has a whole section, because it involves a lot of research and planning. Timing is alfa and omega in a spell. I use the Moon phases as my spell time, and it works well with the process of following through with an idea from beginning to end. I´m at times extremely good at procrastination, so when i work with witchcraft, I carefully plan my workings, so that they are adaptable to a day with flowing deadlines.
- 116 Spellcasting
- 117 Positivity In A Spell
- 118 How To Write Spells
- 119 Spells
- 120 More Spells
Spellcasting : How many ingredients do you need to make a spell ? Well, to my experience to begin with what you already have is a good choice. I´ve build up my collection of spell ingredients over 3 years, so I have quite a few things to choose from. But it is not necessary to buy a whole lot before you make your spell. What often works best is the simplicity of things.
It is also my recommendation that you research thorough and use your common sense when casting spells. The intention behind is much more important than this or that ingredient, after all, the ingredients are only important because they may strengthen the spell and its intention.
A spell can consist of everything from a few spoken or written words to the whole setup with herbs, crystals, candles, incantations etc. It all depends on what you want with your spell. And why you feel a need to cast it.
I have a collection of notes on casting spells and plenty of correspondences to remain organized, but I did cast spells also when I was a total newbie to witchcraft. Because it is only due to practice that you truly learn what casting spells is like and how to learn by trial and error.
Positivity In A Spell : I always work with a positive outlook, especially when I´m doing banishing or releasing work. I want to draw positivity inøto all aspects of my life, so I´m not interested in attracting negative influences. As a Grey witch I do work with negativity as well. But again always with a positive attitude towards it.
How To Write Spells : The important thing is to be specific and direct when writing a spell. That goes for the intention, the timing (e.g. Moon phase, time of day/night/year, season) and the correspondences (e.g. colours, candles, crystals, herbs, oils, ribbons, feathers, charms).
I recommend not to write any spell, if you are in a bad mood or depressed. So the right mood is also an important factor. Yes, because who wants to draw unhappiness and bad luck, which thrive on a moody and absent-minded attitude. I do, however, write a quick spell, if I need some healing on a bad day. But I always keep it positive, and I only do it, because I know it works. If I´m not feeling good, I do not work any kind of magick besides that.
Spells : My collection is not so big yet, because I try to to be as specific as possible when writing spells, so I focus on the quality of the spell, not the quantity. I have, however, spells for many purposes, should a situation arise that needs spell work. So I make spells for healing, growth, protection, personal development and happiness. That includes spells for love, self-care, career/my blog, attracting luck and money and protection of my loved ones.
More Spells : This section is for the spells that cannot be placed in my collection for some reason. It could e.g. be a new Moon spell that I have not yet tried out, ideas for new spells and good examples.
Sometimes spells just does not work out the way you planned for, and there can be numerous reasons for that. Some spells like attracting luck and money may need extra work (also physical) during perhaps more than one Moon phase. And again, magick is always dependent on the intention behind it.
But when spells do work, you won´t be in doubt. It is not like a sudden flash, but more like a quiet and slowly improvement in whatever intent you made the spell from. If you want to change something, you need to do something active about it, and the best possible way to do that is to change your attitude towards both the needed change and the reason for changes in the first place.
Intentions may vary from time to time, and as we grow older, our perspectives also gets renewed now and then.
By practicing not only spells, but witchcraft in general, from your very first day of being a witch, you´ll soon learn to discern what to keep and what to let go.
When I began my journey into witchcraft, I read everything I could get my hands at, I tried to write spells and rituals like all the beautiful ones I saw online, and I was shaky and nervous every time I had to perform a spell during a ritual.
I still read, but know I´m critical of what I see and hear. I write my own spells, simply because I like to create them first in my native language, Danish, and then to translate them into some hopefully beautiful English. I like the sound of English better at rituals.
I´m no longer anxious that I don´t have the right ingredients, that I´m not a good enough writer or that I cannot this or that.
It all comes down to practice and to learn from your mistakes. A spell can of course backfire, like everything else in the world can go wrong, and it is not always possible to fix without a sort of closing to the problem.
If this happens, I quickly write a spell to cancel the one that did not work out. I politely ask the Universe to grant me the favour not to set the spell in more motion than it already has been and to hinder the spell from working at all. After this I typically do a cleansing ritual shortly after to ground and clear the energy.
Every time I make a spell, I burn the paper with the wording of my spell or I bury it away from my house. Unless it e.g. is a growth spell for a new project with several deadlines and challenges to solve along the way.
Tomorrow I plan to work with practical elements of rituals in general, the magickal circle and many of the other ingredients that are often mentioned in descriptions of witchcraft rituals.
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