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How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

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  • How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

    Hi,

    I am a newbie on those things, I've read a couple of books on esoterism/occultism treating on the theoritical aspect of these subjects but I really don't know how to practice any of that.

    I mean how do you even know where to start? I am pretty much alone in this, I don't know anyone IRL that could help me. What should I attempt to do first, I am a positive person so I only wish to do positive things.

    Have you any suggestions, tips, book titles that could help me begin? Nothing too fancy, please.

  • #2
    Re: How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

    This forum is amazing and has several threads ready for your reading convenience regarding the use of magic (both basic and detailed). I would really suggest reading through those when you have some time, as reading and researching is almost always my first and foremost advice when it comes to these kinds of things.

    Discussion about magical and witchcraft practices, including spell crafting and casting, as well as spirit work, energy work, etc.


    Discussion of different practices and techniques, from Shamanism to crystal use.

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    • #3
      Re: How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

      I think it would be helpful to know what you do already or have experience with--do you meditate? How are you in terms of creative visualization? Have you ever done yoga or tai chi? You don't need these things, but knowing what experiences you've had in terms of energy work and meditation can be helpful. If you haven't had any experience like this, these are all skills and activities that will improve any magical practice. But I think the best place to start is being aware of yourself and your own energy. Once you get that, its a matter of being aware of the energy of others, and of other objects, etc. Then its a matter of using meditation and creative visualization to shape/move/absorb/repulse/etc energy*.

      Once you've go that, all you need to do is to give the energy a purpose--attach an intent to it...IMO, the easiest way to do this is with some sort of action to assist you. My kids like to blow "wish bubbles", we make popcorn and cranberry chains for our tree with blessings for the people we love attached to them. You can sew, knit, bead, paint, cook, etc blessings, healing, thanksgiving, etc into just about anything.



      (Also, Mrs. P has a book called Magic on the Breath (its on kindle) that is a great introduction to doing magic just with you.)


      *energy is a really shitty word to use...but...its the closest thing in English for qi/chi, prana, mana, etc. Its the animating force that makes things more than what they can be weighed and measured as--the spark that makes you and I alive, that makes the Grand Canyon more than a really big ditch, a sunset more than the rotation of the earth, etc.
      “You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom

      “We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
      ~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

      "We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
      ~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

      "Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett

      Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
      sigpic

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      • #4
        Re: How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

        The three books I always recommend to people wanting to practice magic but unable to access a teacher are Initiation Into Hermetics by Franz Bardon, The Kybalion (published under the name of "Three Initiates," but the general consensus is that it's the work of William Walker Atkinson) and Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa. The first is the most complete system of magical development publicly available, the second is a short but in-depth text which goes into some of the the "nuts and bolts" of how magic works, so to speak, and the third provides a deeper theory and cosmology and some further practical techniques. Most importantly, the first two are entirely non-denominational, so they're useful no matter your religious beliefs, and while the third does have a fair Christian bent due to the era it was written in, you don't have to take that aspect in to gain a lot out of it.

        I'd also strongly recommend you take up a moving meditative/energetic practice like yoga, chi kung, tai chi or another of the internal martial arts. These will improve your physical, energetic and mental health, all of which are going to improve your ability to perform magic.

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        • #5
          Re: How do you start practicing witchcraft or magick?

          Hi,

          Thank you very much for your insights and recommendations, very much appreciated.

          I should have said earlier that I do indeed practice meditation since a year and a half, 20 minutes of mindfulness on a daily basis that is. Besides the benefits of being a bit less anxious as a person, I believe it allowed me to experience lucid dreaming on two occasions which I had never done before.

          That being said, my interest in magic and occutism I prefer to keep to myself, because that's not something that is seen as positive in the kind of society I live. It is often been attributed a negative connotation or downright nonsens. I myself held this opinion for a long time, that magic was the stuff of fairytales, a curious interest for the paranormal lead me to read books on occultism and I realized how biased I was and that I did not had the whole picture.

          I shall read The Kybalion which looks very interesting (and affordable besides) so I am hoping to get into some basics practical stuffs soon enough.

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