A Practical Guide To Witchcraft And Magic Spells Part 2

What Are Spells?

There is a clear difference between spells and rituals. 'Spell' tends to be the term used for the less formal folk magick that, unlike ceremonial magick, is not so rigid about such things as circle casting (see page 49) and the use of specific tools, though it may be based in forms and use words that date back hundreds of years. Our kitchen witch ancestors swept clean their magical areas and danced in circles under the Moon or round sacred fires on one of the old festivals to bring fertility to land and people, but most of their magick was done by firelight or the light of smoking tallow candles in a cramped living room or in muddy fields.

It is a serious mistake to regard informal spells as inferior to the kind of magick in which the appropriate planetary hour is carefully chosen, incense is burned, the tools laid out in the correct position and the names of all the archangels recited without a mistake. Both have a place and even if there were an actual deity watching the minutiae of the ritual, he or she would be less interested in whether a correct elemental pentagram was drawn than if the intent and the heart were pure and the need was genuine.

The Purposes Of White Magick There are three distinct and yet related types of magick, all of which can be used informally, in spells, or formally, in ceremonial rituals.

Personal Magick As I have already said, it is quite permissible to use magick to empower your personal needs, though this does not bring lottery wins or the object of your romantic fantasies delivered gift-wrapped to your door. Magick has traditionally encompa.s.sed material needs, and spirituality is very difficult to achieve at a time when there is a crisis of physical need or emotional shortfall in your life. For example, in days when having sufficient food and heating was an ongoing concern, abundance for the coming winter months was a prime focus of Mabon, the harvest festival at the autumn equinox. Many kitchen witches would carry out private spells using the equinox energies, to empower talismans and cast spells to ensure their own family would survive the inhospitable months of winter.

In the modern world, concerns are different, but no less urgent, and for many of us still centre on the home, family and employment. We need money to fulfil obligations, help for a child who is studying for exams or perhaps suffering bullying, a partner to share joys and sorrows, better health for ourselves and our loved ones. There are subjects for spells for yourself, your partner or lover, your children, close relatives and friends. They are usually the strongest in terms of emotion and so can be very simply carried out at home, in the garden or on the balcony, often with everyday items.

Magick For Others You may, however, wish to carry out rituals for people or groups with whom you are less intimately involved, who are vulnerable or to whom you relate in a caring, social or a professional capacity. These might include the people in your workplace, a sick neighbour, or a colleague you know is unhappy or worried; or perhaps it could be an animal park or environmental project that is under threat or needs help financially, legally or practically or even a local disaster.

As you send out loving or healing energies, so you will receive them in return, often in unexpected ways or perhaps at some future time when you yourself are vulnerable. This is part of the cosmic banking system and in practice there is considerable overlap between this and personal spells.

Magick To Increase Positivity These are the least focused kind of spells. They are used to send out energies to whoever needs them, for example of love, happiness, health or abundance. They may be for an endangered species, a war-torn land, a country in need of water or the planet itself. If a large number of people do send positive energies either to a large-scale project or into the cosmos, followed where possible by practical help or support, then this can really make a difference. Again, by sending out healing you will receive in return threefold healing in indirect but powerful ways.

The Four Stages Of Magick Although there are many different kinds of magick, in practice all spells and more formal magical rituals tend to follow four stages, though informal spells may combine one or more steps.

The Focus This defines the purpose of the ritual or spell and is generally represented either by a symbol or a declaration of intent. These could take the form of a candle etched with the name or zodiacal glyph of a desired lover, a little silver key charm or an actual key in a spell to find a new home, a picture of an ideal holiday location, and so on.

In a sense, this part of the spell begins before the actual rite and involves verbalising the purpose. As you define it in a few words or a symbol, you may realise that what you are really seeking lies beyond the immediate external purpose. Spending time at this stage is quite vital as it is said we tend to get what we ask for, so we should take care to ask for what would truly fulfil our potential, rather than what we think we need immediately.

If you are working alone, hold the symbol while speaking words that summarise the purpose of the magick. You may be surprised to discover that it is your wise psyche speaking, guiding the intention towards what you truly need or desire - and afterwards you realise it could have been no other way.

If you are working in a group, a declaration of intent, created by the group collectively before the ritual, is a good way of focusing the energies. After the initial circle is cast, the symbol can be handed round while the person leading the ritual speaks the intention. Alternatively, each person can add his or her special interpretation while holding the symbol and so the declaration is worked as part of the ritual. As others are holding the symbol, visualise it within your own hands; this provides the transition to the next stage of the ritual.

Concentration is the key to this first stage.

The Action This is the stage where you use actions to endow the symbol with magical energies. This is part of the continuous process of translating your magical thoughts and words from the first stage, the inner plan, to manifestation as the impetus for success or fulfilment in the everyday world. These energies amplify your own. For example, pa.s.sing incense, representing the Air element, over the symbol activates the innate power of rus.h.i.+ng winds that cut through inertia and bring welcome change, harnessing the energies of wide skies in which there are no limits, soaring like eagles, carrying your wishes to the Sun. You can unite other elemental forces by using the appropriate tools and substances.

Similarly, you might begin a chant, a medley of G.o.ddess names or a mantra of power linked with the theme, or a slow spiral dance around the circle. You could try drumming or tying knots either on individual cords or in a group, creating a pattern with the longer cords of fellow witches, perhaps looped around a tree.

The action of the magick is limited only by the environment and your imagination. You may find that improvisation enters quite spontaneously as the energies unfold and spiral.

Movement is the key to this stage.

Raising The Power This is the most powerful part of the magick, as the magical energies are amplified and the power of the ritual carries you along joyously. Ecstasy forms a major part of shamanic ceremony and the old mystery religions; it is akin to the exhilaration you experience riding on a carousel or running barefoot along a sandy sh.o.r.e with the wind lifting your hair.

You might repeat a chant of power, dance faster, drum with greater intensity, bind your cords in ever more intricate patterns or add more knots if working alone, visualising a cone of spiralling, coloured light, rising and increasing in size and intensity as this stage progresses.

Stretch your arms and hands vertically as high as possible to absorb power from the cosmos. If you are in a group and have been linking hands, as the power increases to a great intensity, this is the time to loose them.

As the power builds, you will create what is known as a cone of power. The cone-shaped hats traditionally a.s.sociated with witches and bishops' mitres reflect the concentration of spiritual potency. The purpose of the cone, like the sacred pyramid, is to concentrate energy in a narrowing shape so that it reaches a pinnacle of power, which can then be released at the end of the ritual to carry your wishes or desires into the cosmos. In order to create a cone of power in magick, you can visualise these energies as coloured light or as gold.

Alternatively, you can visualise different rainbow colours to create a cone of every colour that merges to brilliant white at the apex. In healing work, some people see this as silver blue light that becomes brilliant.

Whether working alone or in a group, as you build up the power, breathe in pure white light and exhale and project your chosen colour, seeing it become ever more vibrant and faster-moving as the intensity increases. After you have been practising magick for a while, you will notice that the cone of colour builds up quite spontaneously, with no apparent effort. It has also been described as a cloud of energy. At the point when the climax is reached, comes the release of power.

Note that for some people the cone concept interferes with their own natural magical abilities - some of the most skilled witches and healers see circles of light, s.h.i.+mmering golden beams or rainbows with their psychic eye. Some see nothing at all, but instead feel power pus.h.i.+ng their feet almost off the ground.

Growth is the key to this stage.

Release Of Power When you release the power in the final stage, you may see the cone exploding and cascading as coloured stars or light beams, which surge away into the cosmos and break into brilliant rainbow colours.

If you wish, you can direct the energy after the final release of power by pointing with your hands, or a wand or knife, so that the energies cascade horizontally and downwards, for example into herbs on the altar that you are empowering to make into herb sachets. Or you can direct the cascading energies in a specific direction, perhaps towards a person who is ill or in need of magical strength.

Release is the key at this stage.

This release may take the form of a final shout, a leap, or words. As you extinguish your candle of need, you may shout: It is free, the power is mine!

Or, at the point of release, you may throw your extended hands wide in an arc above your head. If the ceremony is formal and you are using an athame, you can at this moment bring it in front of you to mark the invisible cutting of the knot holding the power. Pull your visualised or actual knots tight, cut them, leap into the air, shouting: The Power is free! or It is done! Sometimes there is just a sudden stillness, as the power leaves.

Afterwards, you need to ground the energies by sitting or lying on the ground and letting excess energies fade away into the Earth as you press down with your hands and feet.

The Four Elements I have mentioned the use of the elements in rituals. In magick, there are four elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. They all contain symbolic qualities and powers that together form the energies used in rituals. Each element controls a quadrant in the magical circle.

Earth, in the North, represents the stability, security and strength of old stone circles, mighty castle walls, tall craggy rocks and mountain peaks. It is also a.s.sociated with the time of midnight and winter. Salt is often used to represent Earth in spells and rituals.

Air, in the East, is action, freshness and power for change, the winds blowing across plains, vast, cloudless skies stretching endlessly, storms and whirlwinds stirring stagnation but also bringing destruction of the old. Air is also a.s.sociated with the dawn and spring. Incense is often used to represent Air in spells and rituals.

Fire, in the South, is the quicksilver, inspirational energy and clear light of the Sun, the lightning flash. It is the hearth fire that warms, the ritual fire that cleanses, the forest fire that sweeps all away. It represents the full power of the Sun and light at noon and in summer. Candles are used to represent Fire.

Finally, in the West is Water, that falls as refres.h.i.+ng rain, tides that ebb and flow, watercourses always finding a way, moving ever onwards, never backwards. Water is a.s.sociated with autumn and sunset. It represents the changing responsive, human emotions of life cycles, and personal ebbs and flows of energies. Water is used to represent its own element.

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Magick In The Southern Hemisphere In magick, time and direction have an important place and it is necessary to understand that there may be differences according to which hemisphere of the globe you are working in. In the northern hemisphere, magical circles are cast clockwise, or 'deosil', which means 'in the direction of the Sun'. In the southern hemisphere, however, pract.i.tioners casting their circles deosil should normally cast them anti-clockwise, because that is the direction of the Sun in that hemisphere.

For this reason, I have used the term 'deosil' (and its opposite, 'widders.h.i.+ns') throughout this book when referring to the direction of circles. These terms are clearer than clockwise and anticlockwise, because as long as you think in terms of the direction of the Sun, the terms can be applied wherever you are standing on the globe.

Pract.i.tioners in the southern hemisphere will also need to alter the dates I have given. For them, for example, the mid-winter solstice is celebrated on or around 21 June and the summer solstice, when the Sun is at it most powerful, is around 21 December.

In the same way, the two annual equinoxes, when there is equal day and equal night, move round so that the spring equinox falls around 21 September and the autumn equinox around 21 March. It is perhaps better to think in terms of the Wheel of the Year, rather than our modern-day calendar, for what matters is not the date but what is happening with the cycle of growth and fruition. So the autumn equinox is the time of harvest, whenever that may be in your part of the globe.

Things are a little more complicated, however, when it comes to the use of the quadrants of your magical circle and the directions, North, South, etc. I explained on page 41 that North is the direction of Earth and winter. However, in the southern hemisphere since the equator, the area of maximum heat, is to the North, this direction will more naturally be regarded as Fire. To face the colder direction of winter, you must turn away from the equator, towards the Antarctic - the South.

This means that when following the instructions in this book pract.i.tioners in the southern hemisphere should subst.i.tute the opposite for each direction. So, for example, where I have said you should set up your altar in the North, and enter your circles from the East, you would set up your altar in the South, and enter from the West.

If you find this too complicated, don't worry. Some pract.i.tioners in the southern hemisphere follow the northern traditions, especially if they have ancestors from colder climes. It really is a matter of preference and all this diversity actually has a very positive effect, because it means that you can weave the natural forces into your personal creation of magick. The only important thing is that you are consistent in your att.i.tude.

A Ritual Using Light And Cosmic Power The following ritual can be carried out anywhere at all, as direction is not important. It is most powerful when performed standing beneath a tree that perhaps has stood for hundreds of years. If sunlight is filtering through the leaves, so much the better. You can work alone, with a group of friends, or in a more formal coven. You may want to decide in advance on a focus for the power, for example healing a particular place or a person you know. Alternatively, you can let the energies find their own target as they cascade though the cosmos, increasing the positivity of the universe.

* Stand with your feet apart and your arms outstretched above your head like the branches of a tree. Through your feet, draw up rich, golden light from the Earth and let it flow upwards, becoming lighter and more golden as it rises to your fingertips. Feel the light from above flowing downwards to merge with it.

* If you are working alone, then, holding a long, silk scarf in either hand, move around the tree with your hands rising and falling in a spiral path to create swirls of energies, the most ancient of the Mother G.o.ddess sacred geometric forms, while chanting and dancing. If you are with friends, join hands around the tree and pa.s.s the light and energy between you from hand to hand, deosil, until you can feel the circle of light (you may even see luminous energy transferring from hand to hand).

*Begin to circle the tree deosil, reciting faster and faster: Tree power, Earth power, Sun shower and light,Encircle me, enfold me, G.o.ddess radiance bright.

If you do not want to use the G.o.ddess as a focus for your magick, you can subst.i.tute the word 'G.o.d' or say 'golden radiance bright'. You can also create your own chant, if you prefer, that may change from line to line, or use a simple mantra, such as: Touch me,enfold me,enclose me.

* When you feel the power reaching a climax, cast the scarves high into the air and hug the tree, pressing your feet down hard to ground your energy and receive healing light from the trunk. If you are working alone, you may feel that in a sense you are not alone but are joining with the tree spirits and Devas, the higher forces of nature who will dance with you as you spiral. You may even see their luminous outlines.

* If you are working in a group, when you feel the power has reached a climax, unclasp your hands and with a final call, Above!

raise them straight above your head and allow the energies to spiral through the cosmos.

* Then sink down so that your hands and feet are pressing the ground and let any excess golden radiance and power return to the Earth. (If you do not do this, you will be buzzing all day and night as though you had been drinking too much coffee.)

3 - Beginning Magick

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You can create magick in all kinds of ways and you can use it for an almost infinite variety of purposes. Your magick can be solitary or group-based, self-centred or entirely altruistic. It can be personal and informal, or it may be framed in rigid ceremony. But whatever kind of magick you wish to practise, you will need to create a special place to work in, a personal area at home for your private healing and personal development work.

A Magical Place When you were a child, you probably had a special place, perhaps a tree house, a den under a table with a curtain draped over, or a corner of the garden hidden by bushes that only you and chosen friends visited; in this place you wove your dreams and played with your treasures. The magical place I am describing in this section is just such a special place, an extension of and, in a sense, a return to that time of enchantment, for you are once again making an area separate from the everyday world, where you can set up your special artefacts.

But it will also be very different from your childhood place, because as an adult you can learn to control and direct the energies that then ran free and unstructured. Your imaginings can be refined as visualisations, your daydreams as altered states of consciousness; you can make wishes and dreams come true, not just in faerieland but in the here and now.

If you have sufficient s.p.a.ce, you may set aside a room, perhaps a conservatory, attic or bas.e.m.e.nt, or a sheltered spot in the garden for your special magical place. Alternatively, you may need to use a corner of your bedroom or draw a velvet curtain across an area of a room where you can be quiet and private. In the summer, I like to work out of doors at my caravan and go down the winding track to the beach for my sea rituals (and puff and pant up again). In winter, I work either round the hearth that is the focus of the small, dark family room where I write, or high in the attic bedroom of my narrow house overlooking the hills.

Altars Your special place will need to contain an altar. To many people, the word 'altar' summons up images of vast churches with golden crosses or B-movies with dark-robed figures sacrificing damsels on a stone slab in the middle of a deserted moorland. But in magical terms an altar is simply the term for a sacred work s.p.a.ce on which you place your tools, candles, incense and symbols for rituals.

In practice, many people use their altar every day, as a focus for quiet meditative moments, perhaps at the end of a busy day or early in the morning. Such use does not make it any less special. Indeed, by becoming a part of your daily world, it becomes charged with your own essential magical qualities, and provides a repository of magical and healing energies, even if you only spend a few moments each evening in personal, informal work.

It is your place and the rituals you hold there are limited only by your own desires and ingenuity.

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Setting Up Your Altar You will need a large, flat surface for your altar; a table or a cupboard will do - you can use the drawers for storage and cover it with a cloth. It does not really matter what shape the surface is - circles and squares are both sacred shapes and easy to divide into quadrants for the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, that are central to traditional magic and play a part even in informal rituals. A round altar, the shape of the sacred circle, works especially well.

If you do not have a suitable piece of furniture, a piece of uncut stone or unpolished wood, such as hazel, ash, rowan or oak supported on stones or bricks will do. Ensure that it is high enough, so that you are not constantly stooping.

In good weather, if you have a sheltered private place in your garden or back yard, you can adapt a tree stump or tall, flat rock as your work s.p.a.ce. But perhaps the best altars of all are those impromptu ones you make - such as the top of a standing stone with a circle of your favourite crystals, or a rock on the beach with a circle of seaweed and sh.e.l.ls to mark the directions.

The altar need not be large but you will need to have room to move all the way round it. Many rituals demand that you move in a circle with the altar in the centre, although some place the altar in the North of the circle and you stand to the South, facing North.

The central position of the altar/circle represents the realm of Spirit, or Akasha. Akasha is the name given to the fifth element formed by the combination of the four ancient elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water that were considered in cla.s.sical times to be the components of all life and matter. It is greater than the other four.

In formal magic, artefacts and lighted candles are kept on an altar but this is not vital. It is quite possible, even if you are using a communal room in an apartment or house, to leave your altar partly prepared, although items such as salt and water are best added immediately before a ritual so they will be fresh. A garden altar can be set with an outdoor candle or torch and stone figurines, perhaps shaded by bushes.

Keep pot pound or living plants on your indoor altar when it is not in use to keep the energies fresh and moving. If it feels stagnant, sprinkle an infusion of lemon or peppermint widders.h.i.+ns, to remove negativity that has come in from the activities of the day, and then deosil, to charge it with power. You can also cleanse it with incense, creating a protective circle of pine or myrrh, again widders.h.i.+ns and then deosil.

Each night, or whenever you have time, you can explore your inner psychic powers at your altar. For example, you can gaze into a candle or scry into a bowl of water on the surface of which you have dripped coloured inks. Try holding the different crystals that you place on your altar and allow impressions to pa.s.s through your fingertips, manifest as images, sounds or feelings. This psychic art is called psychometry and is one that will emerge spontaneously.

You may, however, have a more specific aim in mind. For example, to improve your finances, place a pot of basil herbs, surrounded by golden coloured coins and light a green or golden prosperity candle while visualising golden coins showering upon you. If you have a friend who is sick, and wish to send healing thoughts to them, place a photograph of them on the altar, and surround it with pink flowers, pink rose quartz crystals and a circle of tiny pink candles. Send your message of healing or visualised golden light, then blow out the candles deosil, sending the energies to where they are needed.

When you are not carrying out formal magick, keep on the altar any crystals that are of personal significance to you (see page 153). You might wish to have a clear crystal quartz for pure energy, a blue lapis lazuli flecked with gold for wisdom, a purple amethyst and rose quartz for healing and harmony, or a gleaming, golden-brown tiger's eye for grounding. You can also keep different herbs there according to your current focus (see page 110).

Empowering Your Altar You can further empower your special place as a reflection of the positive aspects of your changing life by placing on it other small items that carry happy memories for you. These might include stones or sh.e.l.ls found on an enjoyable outing, presents from friends or family, a letter or even a printed e-mail written in love, pictures or photographs of places and people that are endowed with emotional significance. Holding these can restore the pleasure of the moment and fill you with confidence, so they are magical objects because they are endowed with the power of good feeling.

Some pract.i.tioners keep a book, for example a book of poetry, a copy of the psalms, the works of Shakespeare or the I Ching. Whenever you lack inspiration, close your eyes and open your book - the page will be chosen apparently at random but in fact your deep unconscious mind has chosen the most appropriate answer by a process akin to psychokinesis.

Occasionally, gently energise these personal artefacts by burning a candle scented with chamomile or lavender. The domestic altars of many lands were originally the family hearth and an unused hearth will serve well as an altar. They depended for their power on herbs and flowers gathered from the wayside in the days before petrol fumes. Many witches who have a hearth do still keep it well swept and fresh with flowers or seasonal greenery.

Between your altar candles you may like to place statues, a G.o.d and G.o.ddess figure from either your own spiritual background or from a culture that seems significant to you; this will balance the yang, or male, energies with the yin, or female. The G.o.d figure may be represented by a horn, and the G.o.ddess by a large conch sh.e.l.l.

There are a great variety of deity figures in museum shops as well as New Age shops and those selling goods from particular areas of the world. You may, however, feel more comfortable with a ceramic animal, bird or reptile for which you feel an affinity: a tiger for courage, an eagle for vision, a cat for mystery and independence, a snake for regeneration. This is what Native Americans call our personal totem or power creature. You may find some of these are, in some cultures, the symbols of divinities. There is, for example, Bast, the cat-headed Egyptian G.o.ddess who protected women - especially in pregnancy and childbirth - the home, pleasure and joy. Bast was originally a lion G.o.ddess who symbolised the fertilising rays of the Sun.

Casting A Circle All spells and rituals, however formal or informal, are based on a magical circle. This may be large enough for an entire group of pract.i.tioners to stand in, or it may be small enough to fit on your personal altar. I have known pract.i.tioners who have only a small area create a circle on a table-top and sit facing North, physically outside it but spiritually within, manipulating the symbols within it. I have also known modern witches who will create an instant circle on paper or even on a computer screen.

If you have the s.p.a.ce, you can keep a magick circle marked out with stones in a corner of your garden or painted on the floor of a room covered with a large rug. Attics are especially good since you are nearer the sky. If you are able to keep a special area for your circle, scatter dried lavender or pot pourri on it before each use, and sweep it in circles widders.h.i.+ns to remove any negativity.

Whatever the form or size of your circle, mark the four main compa.s.s directions within it. In the marker positions, you can use stones, lines on the floor, four crystals hanging on cords on the four walls or candles in the appropriate elemental colours.

Once you know your directions, you can mark out your circle, beginning in the North (although some pract.i.tioners begin in the East), and working deosil. Draw your circle in one sweeping movement. You may wish to chant as you go.

If you are working in a group, or if this is a circle for a more formal ritual, you may wish to add G.o.d/G.o.ddess-power forms as an interspersed chant, with the voices of the group ebbing and rising in waves. You may wish to welcome the Archangels, or Guardians of the Four Watchtowers at the four compa.s.s points as you cast your circle. (The Archangels represent the celestial beings that feature in the cosmologies of the three main religions of the Western world -Christianity, Judaism and Islam. For more information, see pages 200 and 236). Alternatively, you may wish to call upon powerful G.o.ddess forms: Isis, Ishtar, Cerridwen, Innana, Shakti, Yoruba, Danu, Kali and Aine, protect, empower and inspire this magical endeavour.

You can embellish the casting ceremony as much as you like, perhaps drawing pentagrams in the air at the four main compa.s.s points, and combining this with lighting the four elemental candles.

Some pract.i.tioners like to cast a circle and then welcome other members of the group to enter, sealing the circle with a diagonal up-and-down slas.h.i.+ng movement of their power hand (the one they write with), or a wand or an athame. (An athame is a double-edged knife used in formal rituals. It represents Air and is placed in the East of the circle.

As well as drawing circles, it may be used to conduct magical energies into a symbol.) But I think it is more powerful if one person actually walks around the outside of a circle of people, enclosing them in light. In this way, the circle is created in human dimensions and is as large or small as is required by the actual formation. The circle made to fit the group is far better magically than the group made to fit the circle, for the group is the circle.

If you want to visualise a circle, use a clear, pointed quartz crystal, or wand, or the forefinger of your power hand, and draw an outline, in the air at chest level or on the ground. The circle extends wherever you draw it from the ground upwards to above your head like a wall of gold. Again, begin in the North, and continue in an unbroken, circular movement.

Remember, the circle is created with your own power, amplified if you wish by the sacred Guardians or powers you may invoke. For this reason, creating a light body and thus drawing energy from the ground (see page 124), before casting the circle, is a powerful preliminary. Some pract.i.tioners, having drawn the light, extend then-hands upwards so that light from the cosmos can also enter. Do this before joining hands if you are creating the circle as a group.

In a conventional coven, the High Priestess casts and uncasts the circle, but you may prefer to allow the person leading the ritual to cast the magical boundaries.

Casting A Dual Circle You can create a dual circle if you wish.

* First consecrate the salt symbolising the Earth element in the North of the altar by stirring it three times with an athame, wand or crystal, and visualise radiance pouring into it.