#pwposts

Alteration 🕯

Alteration magick goes into the astral plane before manifesting on the physical (or another plane) through direct energy manipulation.

Example: Hydrokinesis, aerokinesis, chronokinesis, micro-PK

Conjuration 👻

Conjuration magick summons a force, spirit, entity, object, etc, typically by radiating energy from a center point.

Example: Weather spells, necromancy, ceremonial magick

Destruction 🔥

Destruction magick aims to harm, deteriorate, or weaken a target typically through a direct energetic link.

Example: Hexes, curses, jinxes, evil eye

Divination 🔮

Divination magick involves the analyzation of energy constructs into a decipherable and understandable form as psychic information.

Example: precognition, tarot reading, aura viewing, clairaudience

Enchantment ⚗️

Enchantment magick involves the binding of two or more energies in order to make the two influence the others own energy.

Example: talismans, potions, sigils, poppets

Illusion 👁

Illusion magick works on mental and/or emotional plane(s) in order to give impressions and influence the five senses.

Example: glamour, “invisibility”, calmness, paranoia, eye color

Restoration 📿

Restoration magick heals, protects, or strengthens a target typically through a direct energetic link.

Example: warding, circle casting, healing, protection

These are the seven schools of magick that I personally use simply for organization purposes. They are organized in this manner instead of more traditional manners due to my own approach to magick. This is not a summary of the extent of magick nor the practices involved. These are broad categories.

Many witches become witches when they lack other areas of power and wish to make change in their life. This is a very practical approach. They will typically organize themselves by the purpose of a spell: wealth, career, health, love, luck, hexing, etc.

I understand this practical approach, and I definitely use witchcraft when I need it for such uses. But I did not become a witch because of the practicality so much as I did because of the love and passion for magick itself rather than simply what it can bring me.

This love and passion and fascination manifested through my craft by creating a focus on the development of magick. The development of supernatural/psychic powers is the goal of my craft, as well as learning various methods to use my magick best. This has influenced my choice to organize my craft, as well as (now) my tumblr, in this manner. These categories allow me to manipulate energy in various ways to better reinforce my practice. These categories are not based merely on the end goal of magick, but the methods used to get there.

Chronokinesis is the practice and art of manipulating time. All entities mentioned in this post should not be contacted nor worked with without further research on your part, and the definitions of such entities are not necessarily the full story.

These definitions are not meant to fully explain any methods of chronokinesis, but serve to connect related ideas and define jargon that will be scattered throughout my posts. I recognize some terms listed are more complex than others and will require posts dedicated to them: feel free to leave a suggestion on what I should talk more about. The list is in alphabetical order.

When researching magick online, there are a few keywords that are likely to get you what you’re searching for. Here’s a list of words to help you navigate the web as a witch:

Correspondences: If you want to find out what something can be used for in a spell, like an apple, you can simply search for “apple correspondences”. “Correspondences” is a high-frequency word within witchcraft jargon, so you’ll mostly get results pretty easily by using it. Likewise, you can look for correspondences for what you need in a spell, such as “fire correspondences”, “love correspondences”, or “luck correspondences”.

Magick: While some witches choose not to use this spelling of “magic”, it definitely makes searching the web easier in order to get what you want.

Meaning or Properties: This mostly works for crystals, so you can look up the magical characteristics of gems and stones.

Besides research key words, here’s a little jargon you may find in the witchcraft community:

Deosil: This means clockwise, or the direction the sun moves.

Widdershins: This means counter-clockwise, or the opposite direction the sun moves.

Invoke/Invocation: To invoke something is to channel an entity or property through a vessel or practitioner. This is typically bringing the entity/property into the practitioner.

Evoke/Evocation: To evoke something is to conjure an entity or energy outside of the practitioner: so a summoning that doesn’t channel the being inside of you, but outside.

Sympathetic Magic(k): This form of magick uses symbolism and imagery to represent a target or end goal. And example would be using a red candle carved as a woman or man (depending on your own gender/sex) to represent yourself during a spell to invoke passion, sexuality, and drive.

Law of Contagion: This goes alongside sympathetic magick. The law of contagion states that anything that has been in contact with each other remain that connection even when the physical connection is no longer present. Think about using a lock of hair from your target: that’s because of the law of contagion.

Low Magic(k): This practice involves the use of nature such as gems, herbs, bones, etc. in order to meet practical needs. These practices tend to be less elaborate as high magick and focuses less on spiritual needs and deity bonding. (But do not feel the need to label your craft as low or high)

High Magic(k): This practice involves elaborate rituals, robes, tools, consecrations, and in-depth systems such as the Golden Dawn and Hermeticism. Often times, it may refer to ceremonial magic which works closely with deities and other spirits in order to achieve a better spiritual state. Unlike low magick, it tends to focus on spiritual needs over practical needs. High magick is associated with the upper class and formed from the more fortunate, explaining the less emphasis on practical needs. (But do not feel the need to label your craft as low or high.)

Athame: This is a ritual knife, which typically represents the element air or fire depending on the witch. Some high magicians claim your athame is best separate from cutting knives and should only be used in rituals, however, this is not true for many witches and low magicians. Athames, like wands, can be used to direct energy. They are useful for circle casting, as well as making “tears” in circles in order to leave temporarily, while sealing the tears back up afterwards. In tarot, knives represent air while wands represent fire, so I associate athames with air.

Grounding: Grounding is the act of stabilizing the witch into reality in order to be balanced in both the physical and metaphysical realms. It is a form of energy manipulation used to keep a witch healthy and to not lose touch with reality, prevent burnout, among fixing a variety of other issues.

Psionics: This practice has a focus on energy manipulation and psychic abilities and tends to require less faith and more evidence within communities. Not everyone who practices psionics identifies as a witch, and not every witch practices psionics.

Hoodoo/Voodoo: Hoodoo and Voodoo are religions, not practices such as “dark arts” or even making poppets. Unless you’re trained in hoodoo and voodoo, it’s not hoodoo or voodoo just because it seems witchy or evil. Hoodoo and voodoo are not inherently evil, just like witchcraft is not inherently evil. I don’t know much about voodoo, but modern hoodoo has evolved from African Americans and protection magick during slavery. Besides the specifics, just know that hoodoo and voodoo are not synonymous with witchcraft, curses, or evil.

Poppets: Unlike the term “voodoo doll”, a poppet is a secular and open-practice doll or figure made to represent a target person. It is typically sewn, and I would argue best hand-sewn (though feel free to experiment).

Because I ramble, words are bolded that are research topics, while surrounding text is explanations and commentary. Besides just giving you topics to research (found in the first list), I’ve also given some guidelines after the list regarding spells. 

Witchcraft is incredibly diverse: I’d say as diverse as our everyday lives. Many areas of witchcraft can be a starting point without requiring knowledge on another area. Everything I list to you does NOT need to be learned in one day. These are topics that you can bit-by-bit go over. Below are areas most all witches are familiar with to some extent and start with, despite diverse paths:

Manifestation (spells of various sorts)

Tarot (can be used in spells, but usually divination)

Elder Futhark Runes (can be used in spells, but often divination)

Divination and Psychic Abilities

❗ Energy Manipulation (primarily grounding, centering, taking in energy, and releasing energy. Some basics can be found here http://snwitch.tumblr.com/post/120066238166/energy-work-masterpost)

Candle/Color Meanings

Sensing Energy (clairsentience: can be developed better with energy manipulation and meditation)

Meditation

❗ Correspondences and Tools (herbs, crystals, cauldrons, wands, athames, astrology/timing - all optional correspondences at your disposal for spellcraft and divination)

Enchanting (moon water, sun water, putting spells on items)

❗ Safety and Responsible Casting (understand dangers of magick and how to be safe when casting spells. Spells don’t have a moral system, they do what they can to make what you project to happen. Sometimes it will end up how you want, sometimes it doesn’t. This can range from harmless mistakes to mayhem to injury. If you curse someone to feel like they’re on fire and use fire imagery, but don’t make it clear that it’s a glamour or in their head, they could actually burn themselves or get in an accident. Or it could be subtle like a love spell gone wrong, forcing someone to be in a bad relationship, high on hormones)

❗ Spell Reversal (not all spells can easily be taken away without some damage leftover. If you summon a tornado, you can unsummon it, but the damage is done. In cases like the love spell gone wrong that I mentioned above, spell reversals are much more effective and necessary. While crafting a spell, it might be wise to consider how you would reverse the effects if the spell went wrong).

❗ Healing and Protection (wards, shields, cleansing)

Visualization

My essentials are skills that I feel I need to keep in shape. This is in order to keep my magick accessible, potent, and practical (even in improbable situations). And, please note, I do not claim these skills are necessary for everyone, but they have become “essentials” in my own craft due to how useful they’ve been for me.

-

This post covers in-depth descriptions of useful skills in the craft that I have first-hand experience with. This serves as a get-go so that you might research and practice some of the mentioned skills if you don’t already. If you have any questions or would like to hear more, feel free to send me an ask. Feel free to comment if you’d like any posts regarding methods/training for any of the following skills that you are interested in.

-

Key Concepts and Skills:

1. Precognition

2. Intuition/Claircognizance

3. Aura Viewing

4. Clairsentience

5. Energy Manipulation

6. Meditation

7. Altered State of Consciousness (ASC)

-

Introduction

Psychic abilities allow you to perceive and comprehend energy before you, without having to poke around in the dark during manifestation (spellwork). In this sense, psychic abilities are more than just skills to predict the future and perform readings. Psychic abilities are foundations on which all manner of magick and the craft can grow into a deeper connection and be improved upon. Psychic abilities are about more than simply knowing. They give us the power and knowledge to make change, to adapt, to manifest, and to act. It is here that divination and manifestation cross over and fortify one another. Psychic abilities give a deeper understanding to the witch in order to cast for the outcome he or she wants or will want. This gives the witch the upper hand of precision, which can sometimes determine whether a spell is a success, a disaster, or a disappointment. Luckily, psychic abilities don’t have to be natural, but can be learned and developed.

Intuition and Precognition

Intuition and precognition: A person might cast a money spell with a green candle and some visualization, but only get a dime the next day. But being able to comprehend the outcomes of a spell as you’re casting it gives you the ability to know ahead of time any faults in your spell and correct them before the spell is complete. Recognizing the erroneous future outcome through psychic means, a practitioner can cast in the moment, for example, that the money spell will work in two days instead of one, where you can give the spell time to brew you up a little more cash. Having this psychic connection with your spell gives you the advantage of communication, as to make the spell as efficient as possible. It’s as if you’re reading the spell, like code, and fine-tuning it to meet your desires. The skills it takes to have this connection are intuition, precognition, and/or scanning.

Aura Viewing

Outside of intuition and precognition, aura viewing has proved increasingly powerful (clairvoyant/visual viewing). While it may not always be an issue for everyone, residual energy can have subtle to large effects on a spell. This is one of the reasons some witches opt to cleanse their items before any spell. Having the power to see auras gives you the ability to spot any residual or harmful energy that could negatively impact your spellwork, divination, or even your health (which will affect everything you do). You will be able to examine your aura, see the energy attached to your tools and ingredients, see energy in a place or person, and even see the energy of spells you cast.

-

Outside of interpreting what these auras mean, they can help you identify where energy is most coagulated and where it is thinnest, possibly what is enchanted, cursed, blessed, etc. You will see what is actively working on a metaphysical level, see spirits, and much more. This allows the practitioner to be more aware of what is happening on the metaphysical plane(s). Your sight might not detect everything 100% of the time, but it will certainly prove handy.

Clairsentience

Clairsentience, the psychic ability to feel and sense energy, has done wonders and works great alongside aura viewing and energy manipulation. Clairsentience is the ability that gives people “tingles” when they start to astral project or manipulate energy for a spell. It’s the ability that makes people gasp when they return to their bodies, get possessed, or receive large amounts of energy. It’s what makes cats feel magick and fae.

-

Why is this important for us as witches? It lets us be aware of energy that comes out of our bodies and the energy that comes in. If it weren’t for clairsentience, I would not have felt the low presence of a curse enter my body, nor the feeling of it leaving. Clairsentience gave me the ability to act quickly when I needed to. It also allows me to feel the movement of my own energy system when using energy manipulation, rather than simply visualizing the movements. That way, I can know if my system is clogged or how much energy I’m projecting to a more precise scale than simply assuming based on how tired or energized I feel. This can help control how potent a spell is and help conserve energy when you’re low.

-

Of course, there are other uses for clairsentience, such as psychic empathy and your typical precognition and divination (interpreting touch and feelings). It’s important to note that precognition and the like aren’t limited to clairvoyant methods like visions of the future, but other Clair- abilities can crossover with these skills, such as smelling (clairalience), hearing (clairaudience), feeling (clairsentience), tasting (clairtangence), remembering, and knowing (claircognizant) the future. The Clair- abilities are quite versatile, for they are the methods in which our minds convey near all manner of psychic information, be it from the past, present, or future. It’s also important to know that psychic abilities are best controlled, rather than simply magnified to the highest extent. This is evident with sensitive empaths who sometimes require help to control their abilities. The key is control and balance. There is no positive extremity.

Energy Manipulation

I mentioned energy manipulation earlier, but didn’t go into much detail. Energy manipulation has become a key focus in my craft, which may be rooted in my primarily secular practice (a craft not revolving around the worship or aid of spirits/deities). I’ve encountered witches who do not use energy manipulation primarily, but send messages and requests to spirits who perform the energy manipulation for the spell themselves. This is not how I practice, and it is not how many people practice (including those who work with deities). I wont teach the hows of energy manipulation in this post, but I will explain its importance, and leave further research into methods to the reader.

-

Energy manipulation is key to my spells and intentional use of psychic abilities (without tools). I take in energy and deconstruct it for psychic abilities, then my mind translates the information. I project energy into what are known as constructs to create spells. Energy manipulation is the practice of directing energy, to release bad energy, take in energy for a spell, release energy to finalize a spell, to create a metaphysical ward, etc. It is direct interaction with the metaphysical plane. This means I can use my own energy and direct it and program it as I please, and that direct contact is helpful when enchanting items so that the energy is as tied and potent to an item as it can be. Thinking back to clairsentience, you can feel the density of an enchantment you create and it’s stability.

-

Energy manipulation allows witches to direct the forces in which they are attempting to control. Inward, outward, expansion, contraction, etc. It can be used to gain awareness of your surroundings (expansion) or condense and fortify an enchantment (contraction). Important concepts to look into regarding energy manipulation are grounding and centering.

Meditation and Altered States of Consciousness

A simple combination of lavender and catnip in a cloth bag. If you’re allergic to lavender, coriander will work as a supplement.

The lavender (or coriander) works to provide peace and health, and the catnip is used to mentally prepare the mind for sleep. While the lavender works largely as a physical aid, the catnip works as a mental and attention aid.

Hold the satchel in your dominant hand and focus on your intent, and place the satchel under your pillow.

—————————————

If it is daytime, and it’s available, an item enchanted by the solar eclipse would add an extra boost.

Instructions

Place the item in a chalice.

Meditate with the chalice and imagine your intent flowing through your arms, your hands, your cup, and throughout the item.

Focus on the moon prevailing it’s power over the sun, and using that same power to aid you in your sleep.

After you have put forth your intent, remove the item, and glide it across your skin. Once you do this, place the item in your satchel of herbs.

———————————————————

For me, I had enchanted water, which I let a piece of moonstone soak in. The moonstone was put into the bag.

This is an extensive beginner’s lesson to the astral planes. It explains what they are, where they are, and how to get there. Advanced lessons will come later.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask or, if you wish to have a conversation or to feel more personal, you can send me a private message.

Image from spiritualunite.com

—–What?—–

The astral planes are different realms outside of the mundane physical world. A plane is a realm of existence, a world. The exact definition varies between practitioners, however, I use a broad and practical definition of the astral in that it contains all planes outside of the physical plane. This includes heaven(s), hell(s), faery dimensions, the mental plane, the dreamscape, even an astral replica of our physical world (the real-time zone), and much more. Our spirits are metaphysical and spells function through the astral planes.