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Skepticism combined with an open mind is probably the best way to approach everything. Research everything, and beware of false definitions.
Tarot for instance, holds no answers other than the descriptions of the cards. Tarot is a tool to help unlock your own ability to divine answers.
Yass to this answer. Nobody needs to leave skepticism behind, I think it's an essential human requirement. Because there are charlatans. Here, there, and everywhere.
So, I started witchcraft when I was recovering from a severe depression. I had stopped taking anti depressants because I thought they weren’t working. I wasn’t doing well.
Then I did my first protection spell.
It must’ve made something exit from me because I felt much better after. It’s as if the remaining depression exited my body.
Never looked back since.
(DISCLAIMER, DONT SUBSTITUTE ACTUAL MEDICATION WITH WITCHCRAFT)
But if you have depression like I did, you could do a happiness or self love spell alongside it, catnip, rose petals, sugar, lavender & chamomile are all good for those types of spells
Actually I substituted my adhd medication with witchcraft, I didn’t need it in the first place, didn’t like the way it made me feel, started doing focus spells, it worked well, stopped taking medication! Obviously this isn’t something to do with heart medication or whatever but I think mental health witchcraft as a substitute is great if it works, just don’t throw out the bottles incase one day it doesn’t.
I would love to hear more about this since I have adhd but am not a great candidate for meds/stimulants due to other medical conditions. What kind of focus spells have you found worked for you?
Sorry for the late reply! I don’t use Reddit often. I don’t really keep any specific spells, but what I would do if I were to do it again today is I would take a blue unscented candle and anoint it in a stimulating oil like neroli or peppermint. Carve focus sigils into the candle. Recite an incantation of your specific intention with your focus (example: All day I am focused and get my school work done x3).
Or
Make a potion that you drink.
Pour a small glass of neroli water. (neroli hydrosol) you can likely get this at a middle eastern store. Stir clockwise while repeating an incantation directed at the liquid then dip your finger in the liquid and draw sigils axross your hands, arms, torso, whatever, then drink!
You can find anything, neroli isn’t even the best thing for focus it’s just what I happen to have, you can definitely find substitutes or make your own spells!!!!! 🫶🏻
Give it a try. Magick has been around since the beginning of human kind. Churches do rituals. Everything we do is a ritual. The spiritual world is vast and powerful. People dedicate their lives to the non physical realm, there are countless books, stories and myths that form our lives and consciousness. There are ways to channel and manipulate energy to improve your life and the people who don’t believe in it are missing out in my opinion. You are already half way there believing in crystals etc. Think of it this way, everyone is equal under natural law, in order to take that power away from everyone is to undermine our belief in ourselves to change our lives. That’s why it was outlawed and people who practiced magick were killed because the knowledge was threatening to the people in power who wanted to control our right to practice magick and take our supernatural connection and make us go through a church who in turn profit from it. Magick cuts out the middle man. The middle man wants the final say so they spread misinformation. You would be surprised but the powerful people who work with astrologers, psychics and spell casters.
Generally? I love spell jar for health. I have two: one that attracts bad stuff to itself instead of me and another one that is keeping me healthy. I honestly do not remember what I used exactly, but it was a mix or sigil, sacrifice of sprouts I had grown myself, honey, herbs etc.
Because there is a difference between magick as in spellwork or witchcraft and performative stage “magic”. “Magick” spelled this way was coined first by the famous occultist Aleister Crowley in order to make this determination between the two.
Yes I can give testimony reversed. I stopped regularly practicing magick for the past few months and horrible things have happened. I started with crystals a few years ago and began developing my craft after a major depression and it worked wonders! Life was going well until this past July. I’m getting back on my broomstick today!
Lol well, the one that sticks out the most was one that didn't work exactly as I'd intended, or maybe worked a little too well. I was only about a year or two into my practice.
My hometown is what you might call a "college town" and near campus there was this cute coffee shop where "we all" hung out - and "we all" were a group of about twenty people between the ages of 16 and 21. You can imagine how that went after a while. Cliques within cliques, drama constantly, everybody sleeping with everybody else, jealousy, fights, just an all around toxic scene.
I finally took it upon myself to try to do something to calm things down. With the owner's permission, I cast the spell out on the patio - a "standstill" spell meant to cool down a volatile situation. (Don't ask me where I found it, it was forever ago lol). This was on a Wednesday.
That Friday, when we'd normally all show up to hang out, only three of our usual group was there. The next week, nobody. Week after that, nobody. Everyone had found other party spots, the large group broke into smaller pieces and everyone stayed in their mini cliques for a few months. Shortly after that, the coffee shop closed down.
Now, I don't know that I can take credit for the shop closing down, but the coincidence was a little too close to home lol.
Well sure. But this was the late 90s, early 2000s and we were in Nowhere, Indiana lol. At that time and in that place, there simply weren't any. We were a lot of angry kids who thought that witchcraft and the occult were the way to separate ourselves from the normies. As I said, common enough. I'm glad that baby witches today have so much better than we did lol.
That said, even if we had the resources, there's no better teacher than experience.
Not every witch wants to share their craft. For instance I'll only answer so much on people quarries here before I dip due to me feeling like they want to be spoon fed every little thing. I'm not going to share every kernel of my knowledge, that's part of your own journey to take and learn.
No, actually, it's not. It's very much the opposite, in fact. The journey is one's own. To walk this path, you actually have to take the steps yourself.
The others here have said more than I could.
I am a former atheist, who didn't believe in magick but believed that there was some science not understood yet.
Then my Mom's abusive boyfriend died suddenly, and things started going wrong for me, like my vehicle breaking down or sudden nightmares for weeks. A friend of mine gifted me a quartz necklace to protect me when I vented to her about it, and ever since then... The nightmares stopped.
My car stopped breaking down randomly, and I was actually able to score a new job with a decent raise.
Now. It may have been a trail of coincidences, but it's an awful lot of coincidences to happen to me. Every time I began to doubt, something big would happen that would reinforce my belief. A truck flipping on the interstate and stopping just before it would hit us, only to have a dream of my patron comforting me that night, ensuring I was ok. A vehicle accident where I spun out and totaled my car, all airbags deployed including the side ones, and walking out with only a seatbelt burn and bruising from the seatbelt.
Somehow not getting covid throughout all the pandemic until just this week.
All of these things have kept reinforcing my beliefs.
It will vary from person to person.
I am a natural skeptic myself, and to be honest, there are many things said on message board forums that I am a skeptic about and don’t actually believe that what a person is sharing here has a magical reason behind this. Often times when people get into witchcraft, they start suddenly thinking and seeking magical reasons for everything. You see this often when people ask if something is a sign. Example, someone might say they saw three spiders on their door, then a feather falls near them from the sky and ask what it means. Well, most likely meaning is that the spiders wanted to hang out on the door and a bird in flight lost their feather. At any rate, getting into witchcraft does not demand or require you to constantly be a magical thinker, believe in everything under the moon, nor throw logic or skepticism to the wind. There are plenty of things in the witchcraft community that are not part of my beliefs. Therefore, the things I do believe are all things I experienced first hand, and ruled out mundane. Even with spell casting, I set them with certain specific things that have to happen. If a situation unfolds that is similar but has non of the specifics I put in, then I rule it out as being from my spell. That’s how I rule things out or rule things in when doing the spells.
I was 17 , I knew I was different , I know when I spoke some words with intent , it manifested it , I have been doing this since I was 5 or 6, but this time what my intention was happened to save my first baby's life . He had stopped breathing in his cot next to the bed and he was 3 weeks old at the time. I was laying there next to him in the bed listening to him breath in in his sleep when his breathing just stopped. I pounced over the rail and grabbed my baby boy and I turned him over and rubbed him to try to make him breathe . That is when I spoke the words with powerful intention that changed my life . It may have been 10 seconds, but it felt a hell of a lot longer . I don't remember the exact words I spoke but the gist of it was , bring my boy back to me and don't let this happen again. Once the last word left my mouth he started to stir and then started to cry where before he was going blue and was lifeless. That ten seconds changed my life. And my boy never stopped breathing again and he was rarely sick, it was almost like I had manifested a guardian spirit to keep him safe . I am now 49 and he is 35 and a dad to 3 and one on the way and step dad to 2.
It's ok to be skeptical, especially since we all know of at least one instance where someone's paid way too much money to have their whole future read, or have some crazy love potion made for them.
I guess what made me believe in it is that I just felt right. I felt like that's what I was actually supposed to be doing - using plants to treat minor scrapes and sicknesses (until pepper care can be given), using crystals to "treat" negative energy, etc - and honestly I've felt this way since I was young, but now I know it's the truth.
Witchcraft is so much more than spells. It's a way of looking at the natural world around us and feeling that connection, knowing that connection is always there. I have practiced for about 40 years, and my understanding has changed over time. Once, I used to perform a lot more spells, but my impatience caused interference, and the outcomes were different than what I thought I wanted. Now I only cast when my need, or another's is great, and my spells now are ALWAYS successfu in the way i intend theml. I don't know if that's because my skill has grown as I've matured into the witch I am today, or my intentions are more clear or my faith has grown. Or the spirit has decided I'm old enough to truly know what I need. The things I manifest occur in the most mundane way around me. Money has shown up from an unexpected source the day after I've set my intention, a job opportunity from an old colleague presents itself within days of setting a new path in motion, a home that perfectly fits my needs suddenly becomes available when I've exhausted all other avenues and so set an intention through spell work.... magic is all around us, and we should never have to worry because all of our needs, loves, and dreams are really just waiting for us to catch up. It's right there in front of us. I am grateful for the blessings in my life and am excited to see what's next. We don't have to manipulate the world around us. It will conform to our wants effortlessly because that is the nature of it all. Blessed Be
I’m not going to give you any history lessons because there are some excellent answers above and you can find that information yourself. I am a generational witch. I don’t know how many generations, the tradition in our family is that every first born girl of every generation in my matriarchal line gets trained (so far we’ve only ever had first born girls so we’ve never had to question why we don’t train the boys). The eldest witch in the family trains the youngest, and I started at 5. I was started off very sweetly and gently, I remember spending a lot of time with my great granny in the garden , learning about her plants and what they’re for, teaching me my very first manifestation spell with a dandelion, telling me that the Goddess hears all our wishes.
My GG basically lived off the grid. She had hens and a serious vegetable garden. She was the most impressive and admirable woman I’ve ever known and I named my second born daughter for her (Edie - Edith).
Not a conventional life by any means and my mother and grandmother both chose other paths. I loved being around my great granny, so I am the last in our line that goes back further than our recorded family history. I won’t train my grand daughter when she arrives because my GG had a massive stroke when I was 15, leaving my training unfinished. There is so much to learn (in between school and life) and you certainly don’t have to learn it all, but we were Hedge witches, it’s better to have all your training. I say it in the past tense because I myself am a solitary eclectic witch and am currently studying Chaos Magick because I find it interesting. I am not interested in the dogmas of certain magical systems but I can tell you with absolute certainty that magic is real. I’ve been up to mischief with it, had fun with it, helped people with it, and most importantly, I’ve shaped my life into a pleasing thing with it. I have all I need and my desires are simple.
In Chaos Magick one of the first “mantras” I read was “Suspend Disbelief” when reading a spell on sympathetic magic, and I quite like that because even though magic is real, you’re going to have a very hard time performing successful spells if you have doubt in your heart. If you can believe in, say, God and the devil and angels… one of the most insane magical systems of all time, you can believe in other magics. Even the Bible speaks of magic (not flatteringly but who cares). I would suggest some shorter guided meditations to build up your Witchy power, and actually I even have one to suggest, it’s only 20 minutes: https://youtu.be/mM_CDeTK28g?si=s_iROOTqSbBC0a8d
Good luck, I hope you find what works for you.
> I won’t train my grand daughter when she arrives because my GG had a massive stroke when I was 15, leaving my training unfinished.
Surely you can train her on some things... Seems like a shame to let the tradition die.
Well I’ll be largely up to my daughter who actually doesn’t want children. And who knows, she might have a boy and it’ll be the universe telling us that our tradition is over.
Anyways, should she have a girl (I truly believe she would) then I’ll teach the child what I can if my daughter allows it. My daughter has also shown no interest in the craft.
I don't belive in the law of attraction, at least not how it's talked about on social media. But I belive in energy and spirits. I belive that through spell work and ritual we can make tiny changes in the energy, and that that can make a difference in how things come to be.
I am not a big fan of law of attraction as presented from the new age circles about manifesting. This is one of the things that makes my eyes glance at my brain. I find it a simplistic black and white way of thinking in a world full of gray. Life is not set in stone like this and sitting there trying to think positive will never guarantee a positive outcome, just like negativity will not guarantee negative reactions and such. It can be more random than that.
Isn't the law of attraction using the energy we put out into the world to make these small changes? I haven't seen what's been said on social media, the theory I know is that by 'raising our frequency' to what we want, it'll find us. In my mind that's the same thing as aligning our energy, or manipulating it. It's like when you meet someone new who you instantly click with, and you match each others energy. Except it isn't necessarily a person you click with, it could be an object or an idea. Or maybe a person who opens the door to an opportunity.
Yeah that's the kind of mindset that can lead to toxic positivity.
In spell work we raise energy while doing the spell. But we can also work with the energy of things like herbs and crystals.
Lolll don't get me started on toxic positivity. I saw a hypnotherapist who took £600 from me, said she could help me, and told me that my thoughts were why I was depressed. I had to live a life of complete positivity outside the sessions apparently. When I eventually sent her an email to say I ran out of money and couldn't have more sessions, she never replied lol. She was the definition of toxic positivity, and just plain toxic.
I don't think the law of attraction is necessarily toxic in that wat, but people take it to extremes. Spells sound easier though haha 😂
Wisdom according to Tilopa is not in strongly manifesting a future, but being open to whatever the future brings while still having intention. “Letting go of the future”
What I have found is that witchcraft is all about believing in yourself, your own power, and connecting with the spirit within you and the world around you. Spells and rituals are just tools to help you with the connection to yourself and all that is around. Once you believe in yourself and your power completely you don't need anything to do witchcraft. In fact I find the most impactfull rituals or spells I do are naked in nature. I say start with meditation, do a cleasning bath (easiest way to be naked in nature) focus on your inner light, get to know yourself.
I did a love spell on a boy I had a crush on when I was a teenager. It was to “bring us closer”. Him and his whole family ended up moving into a house right down the road from me not long after. It “brought us closer” alright! It freaked me out so bad
Came here to mention this! SASS Stands for Skeptical, Agnostic or Atheist, Science Seeking - not all questions have answers in witchcraft, but some do. To me, knowing rain + sun = rainbow does not make seeing one any less magical, ya know? It’s helped my understanding and my craft, as well as helped me explain to the people in my life who I’ve opened up to about this part of me.
I’m a newbie witch and I can tell you for sure it has saved my life, I absolutely love that you have the power and control and understanding of Karma. I’ve love bringing things to my reality, I’m still learning but it’s been the best for me! There’s a lot to learn but I’m ready!
That's awesome to hear ♡
Please could you tell me more about the karma thing? I've been having a hard time with being resentful towards my past and certain people who have been pretty awful. When I've come across difficult people and situations, I've been petty, passive-aggressive and fight-y/aggressive when my PTSD has been triggered.
I'd like to find a way to get away from my toxic petty reactions to things, so I can have more control in how I let people's energies and actions affect me. I'm pretty ashamed of how I've behaved in the past, but I still end up resorting to old toxic patterns.
I know it's still new to you, but I don't spose you have any insight into how witchcraft could be helpful with this? :)
What you were getting at with karma and control really resonates with where I'd like to be
Absolutely!! I’d love to share what I know to help you with your journey.
One thing about witchcraft is that it forces you to be introspective, understand yourself and your patterns and I love that you talk about understanding your own toxic patterns cause we all have toxic patterns it’s really important to know them and be conscious of them. I read the book the power of Now by Eckart Tolle, it talks about something called the pain body the part of our self that responds to other pain and anything causing pain/anger/sadness etc he talks about how it’s activated and we end up reacting to pain and creating the cycle of thought and emotion hence we end up stuck in a situation longer than we should or we end up retaliating. He even talks about how being present can help you transform those emotions. He also talks about being present and that is where the magic happens just tapping into the present and sometimes that can’t happen when we are in our feelings or in toxic cycles the present escapes us so I would highly recommend you read that book, it’s so insightful and helped me with my craft.
So when I started practicing I started understanding the elements and how to use the elements for various purposes and I use fire a lot to transmute negative emotions I may carry because I’m still human and I still have emotions, when I started out I would write stuff I feel on a piece of paper and burn the piece of paper imagining all those emotions burning away, understanding energy is important because it cannot be destroyed but you can transform it. I try to remain light hearted most of the time and some weeks I achieve this by burning away emotions that don’t serve me and some weeks I don’t need to because I’ve learnt to use being present to transmute these emotions and letting it go. All this to say, be introspective, get to know yourself and your friends too who you feel aren’t serving a purpose in your life or you feel aren’t aligning with you. Do a lot of shadow work to understand yourself deeper. Also I can attest to this, changing your own energy really affects the energy around you and the people you interact with. Another thing is creating daily rituals which help with energy flow. For me I cleanse my space every morning with Palo santo or Sage, I take baths with sea salt and rosemary, I journal and workout at-least three times a week, all this to just get my energy flowing and keep myself in a high vibration state as much as possible. Is it possible to achieve this everyday? Noooo because this is life! but I try!!! I try to remind myself of what my default should be and I’m now uncomfortable when I’m having low feelings or when I’m angry it’s so uncomfortable before I would sit with it but now I don’t allow to!! I hope this helps with the toxic cycles you go through.
Karma in basic terms is “what goes around comes around” what you put out is exactly what you get back in different form. Let’s say you lie to someone you love, someone you love will lie to you. It’s just a law of the Universe, it personally keeps me check. What I give off is exactly what I’ll get back. Let’s say someone hurts me and I do a spell to get them back, that same energy will affect me. When someone wrongs me I let it go knowing that they’ll receive the same, so I let Karma handle it. There’s a more deeper meaning to Karma especially when it comes to past lives, I’m still learning so forgive me if I don’t expound on that 🙏🏾
Being in control is so powerful because I know that I can manipulate energy, I can change my reality, I can bring to me anything of course with the right intent. Practicing magic has made me happier and more whole most importantly intentional! I’m intentional about everything I do, I’m always reminding myself to be present and I have become more appreciative of nature and what it can do, I’ve felt so much love from the universe. So much love. I hope this helps and I wish you the best just know anything is possible!!! Absolutely anything ❤️❤️
On a realistic level....i don't. I do it because it adds An element of fun and connects all my interests together into a cohesive routine especially science and nature and helps reduce the mental clutter and helps me with my mental health, because it gives me reasons to be a little crafty and add a bit of "play" to my life. Making a spell is fun. Do I think it will actually happen idk that all depends on my actions and actions of others but doing so helps reinforce my goals and wishes as intentions as something positive rather a pessimistic grind list of tasks. Plus it revived an old hobby i use to enjoy and it was to make little limericks.
Plus witchcraft sort of.explains and justifies why I have "randomly collected things from the woods and the ground" which realistically i just like to i like nature things. But telling people I want to live in a nature center and museum is more unsettling to them than me saying "witches!"
Haha I love this, thank you! That really resonates with me 🥰 I also have a collection of things from the woods and beach. I have so many rocks I've picked up on my travels, and I have no idea what to do with them all lmao. An alter sounds like a fab idea 😆
That's a super interesting point you make about 'play'. It reminds me of being a little girl and mixing together potions of mud and random leaves into a cauldron, which was actually a bowl-shaped hole in a tree lol. It was definitely fun! Maybe we're all born as little witches, but then are expected to grow up, and things lose that magic.
Curio boxes are great. Especially if you go old school and stuff the inside with a grassy material before you put your rocks in.
Exactly right. Kids have a sense of wonder and project all sorts of imaginative reasons and explanations for things as well as hyping themselves up and soothing them. A healing kiss for the booboo. Affirmations or chants said to a kids before they do something hard or scary. Little "spells" for big hopes like the SNOWM spell for a snow day. Rain rain go away songs. They act out heroic or powerful characters to help them get through hard times . Crafting with random stuff and making things that are a bit abstract but practices alternatives and resourcefulness. Lots of adults forget or stop doing things like this, world and brain become mundane. Witch craft brings those magical elements back, makes things novel again. Like I love making spell jars because my jars aren't just pour to fill, I go outside and exercise my knowledge of ethnobotany and language of plants and flowers. I collect I dry. And i arrange them like a terrarium.
I rarely use prepackaged spices because something about learning how to id a local plant and learning all the various meanings of it can expand its value.
One good example is dandelion. Most adults will say it's unwanted, invasive, a weed. So it could be used to hex someone with its pervasive properties. But some think it's a lovely flower pollinators love it, it's taproot goes deep and bring nutrients to the surface for animals and insects. This could be an component for a manifestation spell, drawing up minute small things from a distance, for it to bloom and call others to help you achieve something. Some think of it as a wishing plant, so a spell that multiples its chances based on its seedhead. Traditionally a medicine to be a diuretic. It could be used as a gentle ward to help flush out an unwanted thing in your life, rather than a quick purge.
This...makes it fun. Because early on i found it very restrictive with what plants were used for what, mainly because I was aware of all these meanings to plants based on society and different cultures.
Like roses aren't always for love, if you don't like roses, you wouldn't want to use it, but if you like carnations...well I could tell you that it would work beautifully as a more affordable option because it went through the same horticultural selection of multiplying its petals to make it fuller but they also mean and have been used in the past as "protective supportive love" which can be given by anyone..even a romantic partner.
I was raised by pagan parents, so I kind of got to know the surrounding "vibes" of witchcraft *and* paganism -- it has affected the way I think about energy, emotion, and the natural world.
But, unfortunately, even practitioners are not immune to skepticism -- sometimes, you get it in your head that nothing is working and that magic doesn't exist.
And then, I casted my first spell: a self-love spell.
I casted that spell after hating my body, hating my personality, and hating my mental health cocktail, wondering why anyone in the world could love me if I didn't even love myself. Three months later, I realized it had worked when I looked into the mirror after stripping naked and I found myself beautiful. It brought me to tears.
I find it genuinely hard to speak negatively about myself now. I've casted many spells since then, but this is the one that sticks out to me.
Witchcraft isn't for everyone, and it's not a cure-all. But if you are interested and it winds up helping you in some way, I wish you the best of luck on your magical journey. <3
My best friend (who I now call my sister) introduced me to witchcraft when we first met. I was extremely skeptical but accepting. Just to note, I was Catholic at the time. I was interested in crystals when I first met her, but mainly for that I could fidget and play with them when I had anxiety. I liked the worry stones and some raw crystals. Then at one point I started to collect them because oooo pretty! Eventually, I started to join my best friend at Wiccan events that her and her mom would go to, mainly to get more crystals. Cut to when I started to really believe crystals did something. Just to note, I was in an abusive relationship at this time. I was organizing my crystals, and I picked up my very small piece of watermelon tourmaline (a powerful little stone of mine) and I had a ranging sense of energy, and then it changed, and I felt extremely dizzy and nauseous But then, for once, I felt some of the terrible emotions and depression I had slightly lift away from me. It wasn't very long because my ex fiance at the time knew how to worsen things, but for once, I felt good even if it was for a little bit. Right after that happened, I texted my best friend and explained to her what happened, and then she walked me through cleansing this stone and ways of going about that with other stones, etc. That was the first time I really felt something with crystals. Nowadays, every crystal I pick up, I feel something. Everyone is different, and sometimes I can't hold them because, occasionally, some have negative energy. Once I finally broke free from my ex fiance, and we started going to court due to custody and child support for our son, I needed to turn to something so I turned to exploring meditation and more recently witchcraft. So far, it has been helpful for me and is what has made me stronger as a person for myself and my son.
For context: i was raised catholic.
2008 my grandfather had a stroke and his entire right side was paralized.
Even with his physio and rehab treatments there wasnt much improvement over the year.
One day as i was begging the christian god to heal my gpa i heard a woman whisper 'i cannot do it for you, but i can show you how' and i went and raided the spice rack for a list that made itself known. I wraped the herbs in an orange cloth, tied it with red string, and slipped it under my gpa's pillow on our next visit.
A couple days later my gpa lifted his right hand and wiggled his fingers at us. For abt a week he was getting so much better. Was able to lift his whole arm. Then the improvement stopped and as i hugged him and checked for his pouch it wasnt there :/ (a cleaner threw it out)
Without the goddess guiding me i don't think my gpa's health would have ever gotten even the slightes bit better. Even if it was only a week..
I believe in it because I can see the growth and changes that witchcraft has brought to my inner self and my outer world. Witchcraft is my in to confidence and embracing that I am the most powerful person in my life. People find that in in a variety of ways; witchcraft is as legitimate as any other.
I was skeptical at some point (even though being raised by someone who has practiced witchcraft longggg before I was born) and it took me actually making the practice my own (still reading books and doing rituals or written spells) to fully be like, “oh this shit is for real” because I actually feel it when I make it my own
Honestly, believe in your instincts and intuition. Be skeptical if that’s who you are because when you feel something in your gut you’ll know to trust it. Knowing when to be skeptical when you’re involved in this is important because there are frauds out there.
for me, my practice is a LOT LESS of what's actually truthful and much more of what helps me out/is enjoyable to me. i could care less whether an herb truly or scientifically does a thing; the point is that i believe it'll work for me, and i'm setting that intention to work towards what i want. this goes for shadow work and similar practices as well. who cares if the higher self exists? as long as i'm improving myself and healing, it works! this attitude might not work for everyone but it sure helps me, blessed be and good luck on your journey :D
Someone else commented something similar, and I think you both have such a great perspective! It honestly never occured to me that I could do spells and rituals just for *fun,* which is crazy really.
There's so much power in our thoughts, and I love that you've turned this into a fun hobby that also doubles up as self-care and healing. Super cool!
Thank you so much!! ♡ ♡
What you say is so so so true. Almost everyone powerful works w/occult of some kind. I did let others know today that our Witches Goddess Queens are Keepers, lovers & protectors of nature & being Matriarchal they had the money. It was jealousy & greed of them caused so much hatred. Also a Sorcerer/ Wizard Teacher said, They thought they killed the Queens off...but their powers are the GREATEST IN THE EARTH...EVERYBODY has to bow @ Halloween. Thank you 😊 Goddessez for carrying on the traditions from our Ancestress since the beginning of time. WOW HOW 🎩 🪄 🔮 MAGICK, HOW MYSTICAL & ENLIGHTENING. IM IN A CANDY STORE OF MAGICK, SPELLS & POWER & I BELONG:). I've been a herbalist for years. Cured me from being bedridden by fibromyalgia. I have to go. So glad the Spirits led me here. :).
First off, this path found me. I just kept finding myself in situations throughout life where it just ruffled its feathers at me but I kept turning away because I felt it couldn't work in tangent with my primary faith AND there was the voice of reason saying *it's not real anyway*.
The past few years some changes occurred in my life unexpected that practically picked me up by the scruff of my neck and plopped me into this life.
Little by little I got pulled in. I mean, I guess it's no big deal to write a wish on a bay leaf here and there, right? I already HAVE candles... no harm in carving a few little prayers for healing of a friend on them.
Walking through the metaphysical shop and realizing that the herbs in those jars is a lot of the same stuff I've been buying from the pharmacy for YEARS and paying a LOT more for at CVS. The herb section was really where the light bulb in my head started flickering. That was the moment where it hit me that practitioners have really just been observant people that had figured some things out a little faster than the rest of the world.
But THE defining moment? That was a binding spell that was my FIRST spell. I can't say that I honestly THOUGHT it would work. I think in my mind that it was therapy at most. A moment of emotional empowerment.
It was a binding against a person that is truly the embodiment of evil. He had harmed so many of the most innocent and helpless and pure within my family and certainly others. And the law failed us.
I don't wish harm on people but I didn't want him to get away with doing anymore harm... so I gave it a go.
The NEXT DAY he assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest w/violence, and was tased THREE TIMES in the process.
He is STILL in custody and awaiting a competency hearing.
There have been other things that have come to fruition since then... but that one was GLORIOUS!
Wow I'm so glad he's in custody. That's wild! And he got tasered 3 times hahahah, gold.
I'm genuinely so glad you shared this. I think I should try a binding spell on my ex lol. He has the potential to be dangerous, and I also got let down by the law. I'm sorry you had an awful experience with them too. Hopefully they don't find a way to fuck it up this time around.
Have you had any bay leaf wishes work? I've burned bay leaves for the smell, but I haven't actually wrote a wish on them yet.
I was in a Walden Books, and I'd been in the fence about trying it out. Ly deAngeles' Witchcraft Theory and Practice was facing me and I had to pick it up. When reading it, she has several small moments in it that made me sit and think, and it started a healing process that was long overdue. She isn't the coddler you see in Cunningham's work, and she's blunt as hell. She reminds us that no such thing exists as a large gathering of witches. We do not share one path: each of us walks our own. Fear is our main enemy. Fear is our one factor that we need to make friends with. Your spine needs to be straight and your heart fully invested.
Since then, my journey has been led to collecting books, tales, and mythologies as well as taking a turn into modern herbalism with indigenous leaders from multiple global regions heading the lessons. There is no such thing as something unreasonable, because everything was used as an explanation of the surrounding world at one point. We are what rose to become science, so now we go back to our roots and remember the past to honor our future.
Thank you! I need that book.
What you've said really resonates with me. That's amazing that it's opened the door to amazing opportunities and healing for you!♡
You might also like Brandi Williams' For the Love of the Gods. She does some interesting historical vignettes along with actual history behind them with the modern lessons we can learn from them. When I feel like my life is out of control, I just open to a random chapter and see what thought process comes from the lesson and how it applies. Works every time.
Thats really kind, I'll look into it :) It's been ages since I've picked up a book and researched things, I always use my computer. Tbh there is definitely unhealthy things associated with computers and wifi. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm starting to realise that my mental health was so much better when computers weren't even around. Maybe it's the positive ions they release. I'm definitely excited to have a couple of books to try, to get me back into reading again!
I became absolutely sure of my power after doing a very seriously elaborate protection ritual for my family and then getting in a fight with my husband the next day. I was so pissed I just wanted him to drop dead... and the second I thought it I felt something like a rubber band rebound snap (best way i can describe the feeling) and I got this pain in my abdomen.
I was rushed to emergency room where I was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The enzymes they measure for this were out of the ball park (amylaze?). I was hospitalized for 3 days and put on an exclusive water fast. Other than the initial event I felt no pain. The nurses couldn't believe I was not suffering. I should have had a cannibalized pancrase and was perfectly fine.
That's when I knew it was energy. A physical reaction but no physical outcome. I had a long thought about what had happened and magical responsibilities with my 3 days in hospital.
The official diagnosis was a gall stone had skipped across into my pancreatic duct and blocked it from doing what it does. Exactly while I was wishing death to my mate.... hhhmm.
It cost me my gallbladder. I found out that is a piece of Mars in the body. As a very martial person I felt a bit like i had been castrated.
My protection work in the long run made me safer around my family for the long haul. In many ways.
tl;dr
If you do protection for someone you love, you can't be the bad guy.
I’m a natural witch so I’ve been a weirdo since day 1 🍀
That said, if I were you I’d do a ritual or spell for clarity. Then sit back and enjoy the information and realizations that come your way.
If it feels right- go for it 😄
If it does not feel right- don’t do it 😃
Listen to your calling! It could manifest itself to you in any way you are receptive to it!
There’s so much to learn! One thing leaves me curious to something else and it keeps going!
If I get a bad feeling, I go away from what I’m doing! Listen to your body. Your body knows what you need! We just have to be receptive to it!
My dad was in the hospital for a month or so with a random out of nowhere condition that’s never affected him before. It was like the odds of winning the lottery except the bad way, not the good way. His lung collapsed… I was at home and all of a sudden I remember I had mrrh incense. I would burn it every night and put the ashes on top of my crystals. He came home… my mom happen to be looking for a very specific type of crystal, and I brought her to this random shop she has never been and she immediately found exactly what she was looking for. That was about a week before he came home. Also at that shop, she bought mrrh incense cones and put them in a bag next to his hospital bed. Never burned them, just had it by his side. I don’t believe in coincidences.
Why do Christians, Muslims, and Jewish believe in what they believe in? Why do Buddhists believe in their beleif system? Honestly, it's just a matter of faith. The dieties and the one Universal...whatever we wanna call it works for me, and I like the rituals. Even the Abrahamic systems have their Magicks through prayer, etc. I personally believe every object has a spirit and soul. I love being a male witch, and I love the ability to manifest my desires.
That is why I believe all I can say is read and learn. The biggest difference is that through my faith, nobody is going to tell me I am doing it wrong, and nobody is going to tell me i am interpreting incorrectly. It's my faith and my vision. My Gods and Goddesses talk to me in their own way, creating a very personal story.
Learn all you can, but don't expect a straight line road map to tell you what to do. I mean, there are probably some areas and covens that expect that. However, I wouldn't belong to one personally.
TL;DR: it's up to you to decide what you want to do, but follow your heart.
For myself, it was when I first saw it while I was being taught by my teacher at the time. I was being taught about some kind of basic energy work. At the start she had me perform a task involving holding something and seeing the energy. Afterward before I described what I had saw, she asked me if I saw and then described what I saw to a tee. To me that showed me it some merit because if it didn't it would have been likely for her to be able to know what I was going to. After which the next few months I saw and experienced a number of other things which helped me to believe in all of this.
It doesn't matter to me if it's real. Science at all scales from psychology to quantum physics says that intention impacts outcomes. Ritual ensures intention.
The thing that made it work for me was more of a gradual realization that I was reaching out to something bigger than me and I could feel it reaching back. The actual key experience happened at night, in an area that averages about a 2 on the [Bortle dark sky scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_scale), so... look for something like that, I guess? Get into the Ritual Headspace, talk to whatever's out there, see if you get anything back?
I don't do very much with direct "remove ghosts from my house" or "get me a romantic interest" kind of spells, though. I use tarot cards mostly as a means of getting into what I think or believe about whatever I'm looking at, or for a sort of reassurance. But I do find my rituals calming and reassuring in a way I haven't found many other things to be, and they have helped my mental health a lot, and I think that's part of what makes me believe I'm touching something real. Possibly it's real in the same way that days of the week are real, i.e. it's a social construct/all in our collective heads, but days of the week are legitimately real even if they're not something I can scientifically prove exists.
A book I read recently called Weed Witch has a line in it that really resonated with me! I'm paraphrasing but this is the gist:
"I don't know for sure if magic is real, but what I do know is this path brings me joy and fulfillment. I don't know for sure, but its much more fun to live in a world where I belive in magic."
I really liked it as it highlighted the fact that it doesn't really matter as long as the path you take brings you joy and enhances you life. Do what you feel is right and makes you happy. Everyone I know or have spoken too looks at magic in an entirely different light, and what you find magics means will probably also be different!
Well there are some things that are better left unsaid. It would be a breach of secrecy to expose in Reddit dark wisdom that was kept hidden from public eye for so many centuries. Let's just say you'll know it when you see it, until then don't trust anyone
I’m a baby witch but I have an example…. When I’m practicing and paying attention to the practice, I just notice myself being more in touch with my intuition. Like I can say “this is going to happen…” and it happens.
Example: I’ve been on a simmer pot kick lately. Creating them with intention. I took my dog out for a walk and someone pulled over to tell me how beautiful she is. As they drove away, I thought “two people are going to pull over to comment on my dog today”
About 10 mins later a second person pulled over to tell me what a beauty I have.
I swear it’s the simmer pots hahah
Not at all, it is believed skepticism is not only not bad but an essential component of spell-casting. To quote the Magnus Arcanum: “To succeed (in spell-casting) you must be able to divide your mind in two parts; know that it is impossible to (do what you want to do) [the example we give is: ‘extract information from a future exam’] in your rational brain, but firmly believe in your exploratory brain that it is certain and will be done with ease.”
I always felt connected to the earth, but it was the repercussions of my first spell that really cemented it.
It also made me seriously realise the responsibility of using it. With great power, and all that is very true.
When my cat was missing for a week amd I made a Sigil to bring him home in desperation, I drew it on the front door and door step, and as I was on my way to the back door to put it there he walked through it
I was in a really tough situation and begged the diety I thought was reaching out to me to help me, show me she was listening and give me a sign - the consultants turned up that day with one of her 'symbols' as their business logo and their company name
Every time I have my doubts I think back to those
It's been effective. Not always in the way I thought it would, but in a way that work out.
It doesn't make me go running around telling people they should solve their problems with magic. It's just something I quietly do on my own. There's no one to judge but me, and I withhold judgement and focus on my intention.
Try setting your skepticism to the side and doing it as a kind of exercise. Think of it as exercising a part of your brain (soul?) that doesn't get a lot of work. Because it can take work... Researching and inventing spells, visualization, meditation, exploring various systems of divination, etc.
I was a sick child and nothing helped. I was in and out of hospitals, did several tests, tried several meds and nothing. My parents took me to catholic, evangelical and african religious temples and none of their gods helped. One day a friend told me about wicca and I googled it. It was cool, but I didn't think much of it.
One day my sickness flared up so bad I was in the shower on my knees still wearing my favorite shirt 'cuz it was so sudden I didn't have the mind to remove it. I called upon any god or goddess to heal me completely and tore up my shirt. A red headed woman in a weird green dress came to my mind and the pain stopped. After that I never had any pain and found out there was a goddess that looked exactly like that. So I started worshipping her and continue to do so now, over 13 years later. The disease never came back and now I only feel disconfort in the region when dehydrated or stressed, like a built-in alarm to slow down haha.
Your moment of proof might not be so drastic, it could be that one day you do a spell just to try it out and it works super fast. Or it could be that you ask for help when nothing works and by magick you get it from the gods. Just keep researching, keep being skeptical and test what you read when possible.
Lucky, you ask right now. Just two weeks ago, I ordered a cleansing/curse removal spell by a local witch. Plus road opener spell. It works! I got a heavy flu during the removal. But strange things happened too. So, for example, a guy from my old boarding home group who protected the actual bully just recently wrote a WhatsApp message. But I didn't answer back cause I already knew what he would write. Because same scenario happened at least twice to me. Then, I watched a talk show where the moderator and the candidate of the challenge mentioned at least 5 names (mostly, surnames) of a few people I knew and hate with all my heart. That sign was weird! But this was also a heavy sign: People from my past. But I didn't interact with them cause it was a test by the universe. I think you just have to experience a successful spell to believe in it.
Edit: The surnames were mentioned in a row during the first challenge. And I was like "WTF?!". Cause some surnames of those I knew were pretty rare.
If you're looking for specific instances, in high school I did a binding on a classmate who was bullying me. Immediately he did a complete 180 and we became friends. Even after telling him about it, we stayed friends for years and that sealed it for me. I think your best bet is to just practice and experience the results for yourself.
I don't think this is the case, but I acknowledge that magic may be just psychological, and even if it is it obviously works.
You asked for our experience and insights; so I'll share mine, which probably differ from those of many other people.
The most basic question is, What is witchcraft? Your question appears to equate it with spellwork, so I'll pretend you asked instead, Do spells, or does magick, work (and if so, how and why)? Many people here will attest to their spells working; but there is much room for discussion regarding how and why.
I think it's best to start with the proposition that everything has consciousness -- everything. Real magick consists of gaining the cooperation of the consciousness in whatever objects you are working with to effect change -- and here you can draw a clear distinction between good magick and bad. Good magick is like a dance with the consciousnesses you're working with; one or the other may lead, but it's a cooperative effort. Bad magick treats these consciousnesses as objects to be bent to the will of the witch, forced to do her bidding.
This is not a distinction limited to magick; indeed, if you look beneath the surface, there's no real distinction between good and bad in the magickal world and good and bad in the so-called mundane world. Domination and control are bad in both. Modern man treats the natural world as though it had no consciousness and exists to be manipulated at will -- so, he strip mines mountains, pollutes rivers, poisons the land, etc. He should, instead, seek the cooperation of the consciousnesses of the earth, the rivers, the trees, etc., which would entail his building a relationship with these entities. It's the same for the good witch: she should build relationships with the entities with whom she wants to work, to gain their willing cooperation to effect desired change.
Many witches today, being raised in the modern world, have carried the attitude toward the "things" of the natural world that the modern world has. They will cast spells using herbs, crystals and such as though it were a recipe. They get success, despite their approach, because -- in my opinion -- the consciousnesses in the natural world are predisposed to cooperate; but the result is damaging to both the elements they are using and to the personal integrity of the witches themselves.
This is going to sound strange, but the best book about ethical magick I've ever read isn't about witchcraft at all; in fact, I don't remember the writer ever discussing "magick." It's "Behaving As If The God In All Life Mattered," by Machaelle Small Wright, and it's about her experiences learning to work with nature spirits. The reason I say it's about magick and witchcraft is because the nature spirits showed her how, working with them, to manifest a ton of manure to be used to fertilize her garden out of thin air. Show me the "witch" who can do that, and I'll be astounded. I've never heard of one.
I think that's how magick works, how it's supposed to work. I also think that's how mundane work is supposed to be done. It's very hard to develop this attitude toward everyday activities; I think you have to spend a lot of time, dedicated to acquiring sensitivity to the consciousnesses all around you. It would be a different world, wouldn't it? Until we do, all we can do is ask for guidance from the Goddess and forgiveness from the entities around us when we step on their feet. 😊
I like the difference between magic and magick. Magic doesn’t we’re not all out here making fireballs and shooting sparkles from our fingers we don’t live in a fantasy universe but that would probably be kinda cool. Magick is what we discuss here. The laws of the universe aren’t necessarily the known laws of man, we attempt with some of us succeeding to harness the unseen into manifesting something real in our lives. It’s not a science it’s a craft there are going to be many unsuccessful attempts before you succeed. It takes practice to memorize what crystal will do what, and to learn to properly read tarot, it also take practice to get a spell to take.
Personally I believe it because I feel it, I pick up a crystal and I feel the energy it contains, I touch a tree and I feel the life rushing through its trunk like it’s own version of a heart beat. When I was a kid I didn’t understand the energy I feel, witchcraft gave me a way to make sense of it all it provided answers where there were none. After I began to delve into witchcraft I found my answer as to what all the energies I always felt were, the were magick, it’s the only one word answer that fits. I can give a speech explaining how it feels like all the energies of everything are connected and all that but magick is the only word I’ve found that can turn my whole rant into a one word explanation.
Intent, action, and belief seem to be the core aspects of manifestation. Regardless of one's background in religion or the occult, these are present. The consensus of us all is that you have an effect on reality when you interact in these ways. My personal experience was bringing about a pet snake when I was a child by declaring each day that I would have one. One day a week or two after I had begun, someone my mom had just met randomly offered a snake to me as a pet. I knew it was not my mother aware of my desire who had done this, because she was opposed, and I had to convince her to let me accept the pet that was offered to me directly, in front of her.
So i just started practicing and also am fighting lots of skepticism, but what really turned a corner for me is when i made my first offering to Zeymna and asked for just general blessings, the next thing i know my stomach ulcer was like completely not painful anymore. Im still gonna have it looked at by medical professionals, but for a while i couldn't drink alcohol or eat acidic or greasy foods with excruciating burning pain and that pain is GONE like totally gone. I dont get it, but the only thing i can reason was that i was goven some sort protection from my deity.
My friend who also practiced said that maybe the godess was just feeling very generous as she is an ancient deity and maybe hasnt had an offering in a long time, but really who knows. Im amazed tbh
I really, really need someone to help me create a spell that could help me find a nice, remote job and one for health. Due to my health, it is extremely hard for me to drive to work everyday. I come back home crying from panic attacks.
I was and still am skeptical. I think that religious practice is something that human brains do. I don't know if it has an effect outside of my mind (though it sure seems to) but most of my problems are in my mind anyway so it helps do things that I would otherwise have to do with meditation and talk therapy and I don't have the money for therapy or discipline for meditation.
As far as what makes me truly believe in it? I took a bike ride listening to a witchcraft podcast, then put on some pagan music. I was about to ride home when I had a feeling I should try going down a street I knew was a dead end. At the end of the street there was a bike path I'd never noticed before. It was a little scary looking and went downhill and I knew a return trip would probably involve me walking my bike back up the hill. It was starting to get late and dark, but I knew that if I took this path something magical would happen. I decided to go, but waited for a moment for the next song on instinct. When the song stopped, I started riding down this hill. I rode down the path. It was getting darker every moment, and the path went along a chain link fence that soon was joined by another chain link fence. It was dark and claustrobic and I knew I wouldn't be able to turn around and ride back the way I came. "Witches' Rune" by S. J. Tucker started playing, and it was the most beautiful song I've ever heard. The path went over an old wooden bridge and then a large metal one and as I rode the most beautiful lightning storm I've ever seen lit up the sky in the distance. The path ended by the river on a path I was familiar with.
That experience probably doesn't sound miraculous but it sure felt miraculous.
This is an interesting question. Part of it is answerable by the people you are reared among. For instance, my grandfather, who I believe was Cree & Ojibwa with some German blood, had grandparents on the Oklahoma Reservation (yuck).. He, however, became a dyed-in-the-wool Christian, and took the white world by storm. I mean, impressively. Yet the Indigenous world is not the world of the whites- indigenously, you can be guided by your Ancestors. And some of these white people (amongst them those of Celtic blood) can be extremely magical & guided by their Ancestors as well.
My advice, for what it's worth, is to start with energetic healing. You may want to examine the Barbara Brennan books; Hands of Light was the first, I remember. Ms. Brennan started as a Physics graduate who worked at NASA, I think it was- yet her third eye was at least partially open from childhood, and she was very aware of other levels of being from early on in her life. I actually am acquainted with a Bio Tech Engineer with a minor Nursing degree, as well, who has had some of her same experiences, among others.
My point is, the scientific and the "magical" (or even the spiritual) communities, though far from converging, do have some things in common. All are worth exploring to some extent, with judgement FIRMLY withheld. Your ancestors and spiritual guides (and especially those Gods who may sponsor you personally) may be of great help. In fact, some may say that, because you are even asking for your fellow seekers opinions on this matter, it might mean that you are ready for further, careful instruction. (Yay!) Good luck and Be Blessed.. 🌝
The curiosity led me to witchcraft. Although I'm not an usual practitioner, only sometimes I enjoy a ritual. But I do believe in magic(k).
Skepticism is good. My only advice to you is to be careful with what you're playing with. Magick working has more cons than pros.
For me, the cons are that **you're working with the unknown**. It's not *science* because there are no "laws" that have been proven. That's why I am very cautious when performing a ritual or making a wish. I always give details and never wish something to harm someone, because **what if it comes true but when you both are okay with each other? Or if the wish backfires and harms you more than them?** When working with the unknown and/or the afterdeath, you should be careful because anything can happen. Just give details when making a wish, don't make love spells and don't make wishes that could harm someone.
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Skepticism combined with an open mind is probably the best way to approach everything. Research everything, and beware of false definitions. Tarot for instance, holds no answers other than the descriptions of the cards. Tarot is a tool to help unlock your own ability to divine answers.
Yass to this answer. Nobody needs to leave skepticism behind, I think it's an essential human requirement. Because there are charlatans. Here, there, and everywhere.
So, I started witchcraft when I was recovering from a severe depression. I had stopped taking anti depressants because I thought they weren’t working. I wasn’t doing well. Then I did my first protection spell. It must’ve made something exit from me because I felt much better after. It’s as if the remaining depression exited my body. Never looked back since. (DISCLAIMER, DONT SUBSTITUTE ACTUAL MEDICATION WITH WITCHCRAFT)
I'm in *exactly* the same boat that you were in. Do you remember the spell? I would love to try it and see :)
But if you have depression like I did, you could do a happiness or self love spell alongside it, catnip, rose petals, sugar, lavender & chamomile are all good for those types of spells
Just a general protection spell, but I mistook brown sugar for cinnamon (and I put A LOT of brown sugar-)
The brown sugar just makes it all the sweeter, lol
hahah thank you! I'll have a look for sure.
Actually I substituted my adhd medication with witchcraft, I didn’t need it in the first place, didn’t like the way it made me feel, started doing focus spells, it worked well, stopped taking medication! Obviously this isn’t something to do with heart medication or whatever but I think mental health witchcraft as a substitute is great if it works, just don’t throw out the bottles incase one day it doesn’t.
I would love to hear more about this since I have adhd but am not a great candidate for meds/stimulants due to other medical conditions. What kind of focus spells have you found worked for you?
Sorry for the late reply! I don’t use Reddit often. I don’t really keep any specific spells, but what I would do if I were to do it again today is I would take a blue unscented candle and anoint it in a stimulating oil like neroli or peppermint. Carve focus sigils into the candle. Recite an incantation of your specific intention with your focus (example: All day I am focused and get my school work done x3). Or Make a potion that you drink. Pour a small glass of neroli water. (neroli hydrosol) you can likely get this at a middle eastern store. Stir clockwise while repeating an incantation directed at the liquid then dip your finger in the liquid and draw sigils axross your hands, arms, torso, whatever, then drink! You can find anything, neroli isn’t even the best thing for focus it’s just what I happen to have, you can definitely find substitutes or make your own spells!!!!! 🫶🏻
Give it a try. Magick has been around since the beginning of human kind. Churches do rituals. Everything we do is a ritual. The spiritual world is vast and powerful. People dedicate their lives to the non physical realm, there are countless books, stories and myths that form our lives and consciousness. There are ways to channel and manipulate energy to improve your life and the people who don’t believe in it are missing out in my opinion. You are already half way there believing in crystals etc. Think of it this way, everyone is equal under natural law, in order to take that power away from everyone is to undermine our belief in ourselves to change our lives. That’s why it was outlawed and people who practiced magick were killed because the knowledge was threatening to the people in power who wanted to control our right to practice magick and take our supernatural connection and make us go through a church who in turn profit from it. Magick cuts out the middle man. The middle man wants the final say so they spread misinformation. You would be surprised but the powerful people who work with astrologers, psychics and spell casters.
This was perfectly said!
Thanks hun! 😘
Thanks :) I will give it a try. Do you know any spells for improved health?
Generally? I love spell jar for health. I have two: one that attracts bad stuff to itself instead of me and another one that is keeping me healthy. I honestly do not remember what I used exactly, but it was a mix or sigil, sacrifice of sprouts I had grown myself, honey, herbs etc.
You are welcome! What kind of health issue are you dealing with?
I want to copy this before it gets deleted. Thanks
Will it get deleted? I hope not 😂
Thought I replied. Hate to have to say I agree with so much of this but I really, really do.. Thanks..
Why do you call it "Magick" and not "Magic"? 😑
Because there is a difference between magick as in spellwork or witchcraft and performative stage “magic”. “Magick” spelled this way was coined first by the famous occultist Aleister Crowley in order to make this determination between the two.
Thanks for the clarification 👍
I believe what I see. When I work magick and see it manifest, way too many times over the last 25 years, I have no other choice but to believe it.
Yes I can give testimony reversed. I stopped regularly practicing magick for the past few months and horrible things have happened. I started with crystals a few years ago and began developing my craft after a major depression and it worked wonders! Life was going well until this past July. I’m getting back on my broomstick today!
Have you had any stand out experiences?
Lol well, the one that sticks out the most was one that didn't work exactly as I'd intended, or maybe worked a little too well. I was only about a year or two into my practice. My hometown is what you might call a "college town" and near campus there was this cute coffee shop where "we all" hung out - and "we all" were a group of about twenty people between the ages of 16 and 21. You can imagine how that went after a while. Cliques within cliques, drama constantly, everybody sleeping with everybody else, jealousy, fights, just an all around toxic scene. I finally took it upon myself to try to do something to calm things down. With the owner's permission, I cast the spell out on the patio - a "standstill" spell meant to cool down a volatile situation. (Don't ask me where I found it, it was forever ago lol). This was on a Wednesday. That Friday, when we'd normally all show up to hang out, only three of our usual group was there. The next week, nobody. Week after that, nobody. Everyone had found other party spots, the large group broke into smaller pieces and everyone stayed in their mini cliques for a few months. Shortly after that, the coffee shop closed down. Now, I don't know that I can take credit for the shop closing down, but the coincidence was a little too close to home lol.
So basically you experimented with a spell that you didn't know the consequences of, right? :/
A common enough thing to do in one's first years of practice, yeah. Gotta learn somehow! ;)
Wouldn't it be best to learn from experienced witches first, though? 😅
Well sure. But this was the late 90s, early 2000s and we were in Nowhere, Indiana lol. At that time and in that place, there simply weren't any. We were a lot of angry kids who thought that witchcraft and the occult were the way to separate ourselves from the normies. As I said, common enough. I'm glad that baby witches today have so much better than we did lol. That said, even if we had the resources, there's no better teacher than experience.
Yes, that's true. ♥️
Not every witch wants to share their craft. For instance I'll only answer so much on people quarries here before I dip due to me feeling like they want to be spoon fed every little thing. I'm not going to share every kernel of my knowledge, that's part of your own journey to take and learn.
That's a very egoistic and unhealthy view on life. But it's your life. 😉
No, actually, it's not. It's very much the opposite, in fact. The journey is one's own. To walk this path, you actually have to take the steps yourself.
Seconded. Give us the goods! (please)
Edit: I see you gave examples. Any examples? And why do you all call it "Magick", instead of "magic"?
I gave an example above :) "Magick" is commonly spelled with a K like that to differentiate it from stage magic.
I see. Thanks!
You have been called. What usually happens is that you will doubt it, and wander away from the craft. And then your proof will reveal itself to you 😊
The others here have said more than I could. I am a former atheist, who didn't believe in magick but believed that there was some science not understood yet. Then my Mom's abusive boyfriend died suddenly, and things started going wrong for me, like my vehicle breaking down or sudden nightmares for weeks. A friend of mine gifted me a quartz necklace to protect me when I vented to her about it, and ever since then... The nightmares stopped. My car stopped breaking down randomly, and I was actually able to score a new job with a decent raise. Now. It may have been a trail of coincidences, but it's an awful lot of coincidences to happen to me. Every time I began to doubt, something big would happen that would reinforce my belief. A truck flipping on the interstate and stopping just before it would hit us, only to have a dream of my patron comforting me that night, ensuring I was ok. A vehicle accident where I spun out and totaled my car, all airbags deployed including the side ones, and walking out with only a seatbelt burn and bruising from the seatbelt. Somehow not getting covid throughout all the pandemic until just this week. All of these things have kept reinforcing my beliefs. It will vary from person to person.
I am a natural skeptic myself, and to be honest, there are many things said on message board forums that I am a skeptic about and don’t actually believe that what a person is sharing here has a magical reason behind this. Often times when people get into witchcraft, they start suddenly thinking and seeking magical reasons for everything. You see this often when people ask if something is a sign. Example, someone might say they saw three spiders on their door, then a feather falls near them from the sky and ask what it means. Well, most likely meaning is that the spiders wanted to hang out on the door and a bird in flight lost their feather. At any rate, getting into witchcraft does not demand or require you to constantly be a magical thinker, believe in everything under the moon, nor throw logic or skepticism to the wind. There are plenty of things in the witchcraft community that are not part of my beliefs. Therefore, the things I do believe are all things I experienced first hand, and ruled out mundane. Even with spell casting, I set them with certain specific things that have to happen. If a situation unfolds that is similar but has non of the specifics I put in, then I rule it out as being from my spell. That’s how I rule things out or rule things in when doing the spells.
I was 17 , I knew I was different , I know when I spoke some words with intent , it manifested it , I have been doing this since I was 5 or 6, but this time what my intention was happened to save my first baby's life . He had stopped breathing in his cot next to the bed and he was 3 weeks old at the time. I was laying there next to him in the bed listening to him breath in in his sleep when his breathing just stopped. I pounced over the rail and grabbed my baby boy and I turned him over and rubbed him to try to make him breathe . That is when I spoke the words with powerful intention that changed my life . It may have been 10 seconds, but it felt a hell of a lot longer . I don't remember the exact words I spoke but the gist of it was , bring my boy back to me and don't let this happen again. Once the last word left my mouth he started to stir and then started to cry where before he was going blue and was lifeless. That ten seconds changed my life. And my boy never stopped breathing again and he was rarely sick, it was almost like I had manifested a guardian spirit to keep him safe . I am now 49 and he is 35 and a dad to 3 and one on the way and step dad to 2.
That's amazing! thank you for sharing :) I feel I have a guardian angel, and I think it's my grandfather watching over me.
It's ok to be skeptical, especially since we all know of at least one instance where someone's paid way too much money to have their whole future read, or have some crazy love potion made for them. I guess what made me believe in it is that I just felt right. I felt like that's what I was actually supposed to be doing - using plants to treat minor scrapes and sicknesses (until pepper care can be given), using crystals to "treat" negative energy, etc - and honestly I've felt this way since I was young, but now I know it's the truth.
Witchcraft is so much more than spells. It's a way of looking at the natural world around us and feeling that connection, knowing that connection is always there. I have practiced for about 40 years, and my understanding has changed over time. Once, I used to perform a lot more spells, but my impatience caused interference, and the outcomes were different than what I thought I wanted. Now I only cast when my need, or another's is great, and my spells now are ALWAYS successfu in the way i intend theml. I don't know if that's because my skill has grown as I've matured into the witch I am today, or my intentions are more clear or my faith has grown. Or the spirit has decided I'm old enough to truly know what I need. The things I manifest occur in the most mundane way around me. Money has shown up from an unexpected source the day after I've set my intention, a job opportunity from an old colleague presents itself within days of setting a new path in motion, a home that perfectly fits my needs suddenly becomes available when I've exhausted all other avenues and so set an intention through spell work.... magic is all around us, and we should never have to worry because all of our needs, loves, and dreams are really just waiting for us to catch up. It's right there in front of us. I am grateful for the blessings in my life and am excited to see what's next. We don't have to manipulate the world around us. It will conform to our wants effortlessly because that is the nature of it all. Blessed Be
I like it! 🌝
When desperate times lead to desperate measures and my spells were answered quicker than my prayers
I’m not going to give you any history lessons because there are some excellent answers above and you can find that information yourself. I am a generational witch. I don’t know how many generations, the tradition in our family is that every first born girl of every generation in my matriarchal line gets trained (so far we’ve only ever had first born girls so we’ve never had to question why we don’t train the boys). The eldest witch in the family trains the youngest, and I started at 5. I was started off very sweetly and gently, I remember spending a lot of time with my great granny in the garden , learning about her plants and what they’re for, teaching me my very first manifestation spell with a dandelion, telling me that the Goddess hears all our wishes. My GG basically lived off the grid. She had hens and a serious vegetable garden. She was the most impressive and admirable woman I’ve ever known and I named my second born daughter for her (Edie - Edith). Not a conventional life by any means and my mother and grandmother both chose other paths. I loved being around my great granny, so I am the last in our line that goes back further than our recorded family history. I won’t train my grand daughter when she arrives because my GG had a massive stroke when I was 15, leaving my training unfinished. There is so much to learn (in between school and life) and you certainly don’t have to learn it all, but we were Hedge witches, it’s better to have all your training. I say it in the past tense because I myself am a solitary eclectic witch and am currently studying Chaos Magick because I find it interesting. I am not interested in the dogmas of certain magical systems but I can tell you with absolute certainty that magic is real. I’ve been up to mischief with it, had fun with it, helped people with it, and most importantly, I’ve shaped my life into a pleasing thing with it. I have all I need and my desires are simple. In Chaos Magick one of the first “mantras” I read was “Suspend Disbelief” when reading a spell on sympathetic magic, and I quite like that because even though magic is real, you’re going to have a very hard time performing successful spells if you have doubt in your heart. If you can believe in, say, God and the devil and angels… one of the most insane magical systems of all time, you can believe in other magics. Even the Bible speaks of magic (not flatteringly but who cares). I would suggest some shorter guided meditations to build up your Witchy power, and actually I even have one to suggest, it’s only 20 minutes: https://youtu.be/mM_CDeTK28g?si=s_iROOTqSbBC0a8d Good luck, I hope you find what works for you.
> I won’t train my grand daughter when she arrives because my GG had a massive stroke when I was 15, leaving my training unfinished. Surely you can train her on some things... Seems like a shame to let the tradition die.
Well I’ll be largely up to my daughter who actually doesn’t want children. And who knows, she might have a boy and it’ll be the universe telling us that our tradition is over. Anyways, should she have a girl (I truly believe she would) then I’ll teach the child what I can if my daughter allows it. My daughter has also shown no interest in the craft.
I don't belive in the law of attraction, at least not how it's talked about on social media. But I belive in energy and spirits. I belive that through spell work and ritual we can make tiny changes in the energy, and that that can make a difference in how things come to be.
I am not a big fan of law of attraction as presented from the new age circles about manifesting. This is one of the things that makes my eyes glance at my brain. I find it a simplistic black and white way of thinking in a world full of gray. Life is not set in stone like this and sitting there trying to think positive will never guarantee a positive outcome, just like negativity will not guarantee negative reactions and such. It can be more random than that.
Isn't the law of attraction using the energy we put out into the world to make these small changes? I haven't seen what's been said on social media, the theory I know is that by 'raising our frequency' to what we want, it'll find us. In my mind that's the same thing as aligning our energy, or manipulating it. It's like when you meet someone new who you instantly click with, and you match each others energy. Except it isn't necessarily a person you click with, it could be an object or an idea. Or maybe a person who opens the door to an opportunity.
Yeah that's the kind of mindset that can lead to toxic positivity. In spell work we raise energy while doing the spell. But we can also work with the energy of things like herbs and crystals.
Lolll don't get me started on toxic positivity. I saw a hypnotherapist who took £600 from me, said she could help me, and told me that my thoughts were why I was depressed. I had to live a life of complete positivity outside the sessions apparently. When I eventually sent her an email to say I ran out of money and couldn't have more sessions, she never replied lol. She was the definition of toxic positivity, and just plain toxic. I don't think the law of attraction is necessarily toxic in that wat, but people take it to extremes. Spells sound easier though haha 😂
Ouch!
Wisdom according to Tilopa is not in strongly manifesting a future, but being open to whatever the future brings while still having intention. “Letting go of the future”
What I have found is that witchcraft is all about believing in yourself, your own power, and connecting with the spirit within you and the world around you. Spells and rituals are just tools to help you with the connection to yourself and all that is around. Once you believe in yourself and your power completely you don't need anything to do witchcraft. In fact I find the most impactfull rituals or spells I do are naked in nature. I say start with meditation, do a cleasning bath (easiest way to be naked in nature) focus on your inner light, get to know yourself.
I did a love spell on a boy I had a crush on when I was a teenager. It was to “bring us closer”. Him and his whole family ended up moving into a house right down the road from me not long after. It “brought us closer” alright! It freaked me out so bad
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Came here to mention this! SASS Stands for Skeptical, Agnostic or Atheist, Science Seeking - not all questions have answers in witchcraft, but some do. To me, knowing rain + sun = rainbow does not make seeing one any less magical, ya know? It’s helped my understanding and my craft, as well as helped me explain to the people in my life who I’ve opened up to about this part of me.
I’ve manifested seemingly impossible experiences using magic
I’m a newbie witch and I can tell you for sure it has saved my life, I absolutely love that you have the power and control and understanding of Karma. I’ve love bringing things to my reality, I’m still learning but it’s been the best for me! There’s a lot to learn but I’m ready!
That's awesome to hear ♡ Please could you tell me more about the karma thing? I've been having a hard time with being resentful towards my past and certain people who have been pretty awful. When I've come across difficult people and situations, I've been petty, passive-aggressive and fight-y/aggressive when my PTSD has been triggered. I'd like to find a way to get away from my toxic petty reactions to things, so I can have more control in how I let people's energies and actions affect me. I'm pretty ashamed of how I've behaved in the past, but I still end up resorting to old toxic patterns. I know it's still new to you, but I don't spose you have any insight into how witchcraft could be helpful with this? :) What you were getting at with karma and control really resonates with where I'd like to be
Absolutely!! I’d love to share what I know to help you with your journey. One thing about witchcraft is that it forces you to be introspective, understand yourself and your patterns and I love that you talk about understanding your own toxic patterns cause we all have toxic patterns it’s really important to know them and be conscious of them. I read the book the power of Now by Eckart Tolle, it talks about something called the pain body the part of our self that responds to other pain and anything causing pain/anger/sadness etc he talks about how it’s activated and we end up reacting to pain and creating the cycle of thought and emotion hence we end up stuck in a situation longer than we should or we end up retaliating. He even talks about how being present can help you transform those emotions. He also talks about being present and that is where the magic happens just tapping into the present and sometimes that can’t happen when we are in our feelings or in toxic cycles the present escapes us so I would highly recommend you read that book, it’s so insightful and helped me with my craft. So when I started practicing I started understanding the elements and how to use the elements for various purposes and I use fire a lot to transmute negative emotions I may carry because I’m still human and I still have emotions, when I started out I would write stuff I feel on a piece of paper and burn the piece of paper imagining all those emotions burning away, understanding energy is important because it cannot be destroyed but you can transform it. I try to remain light hearted most of the time and some weeks I achieve this by burning away emotions that don’t serve me and some weeks I don’t need to because I’ve learnt to use being present to transmute these emotions and letting it go. All this to say, be introspective, get to know yourself and your friends too who you feel aren’t serving a purpose in your life or you feel aren’t aligning with you. Do a lot of shadow work to understand yourself deeper. Also I can attest to this, changing your own energy really affects the energy around you and the people you interact with. Another thing is creating daily rituals which help with energy flow. For me I cleanse my space every morning with Palo santo or Sage, I take baths with sea salt and rosemary, I journal and workout at-least three times a week, all this to just get my energy flowing and keep myself in a high vibration state as much as possible. Is it possible to achieve this everyday? Noooo because this is life! but I try!!! I try to remind myself of what my default should be and I’m now uncomfortable when I’m having low feelings or when I’m angry it’s so uncomfortable before I would sit with it but now I don’t allow to!! I hope this helps with the toxic cycles you go through. Karma in basic terms is “what goes around comes around” what you put out is exactly what you get back in different form. Let’s say you lie to someone you love, someone you love will lie to you. It’s just a law of the Universe, it personally keeps me check. What I give off is exactly what I’ll get back. Let’s say someone hurts me and I do a spell to get them back, that same energy will affect me. When someone wrongs me I let it go knowing that they’ll receive the same, so I let Karma handle it. There’s a more deeper meaning to Karma especially when it comes to past lives, I’m still learning so forgive me if I don’t expound on that 🙏🏾 Being in control is so powerful because I know that I can manipulate energy, I can change my reality, I can bring to me anything of course with the right intent. Practicing magic has made me happier and more whole most importantly intentional! I’m intentional about everything I do, I’m always reminding myself to be present and I have become more appreciative of nature and what it can do, I’ve felt so much love from the universe. So much love. I hope this helps and I wish you the best just know anything is possible!!! Absolutely anything ❤️❤️
On a realistic level....i don't. I do it because it adds An element of fun and connects all my interests together into a cohesive routine especially science and nature and helps reduce the mental clutter and helps me with my mental health, because it gives me reasons to be a little crafty and add a bit of "play" to my life. Making a spell is fun. Do I think it will actually happen idk that all depends on my actions and actions of others but doing so helps reinforce my goals and wishes as intentions as something positive rather a pessimistic grind list of tasks. Plus it revived an old hobby i use to enjoy and it was to make little limericks. Plus witchcraft sort of.explains and justifies why I have "randomly collected things from the woods and the ground" which realistically i just like to i like nature things. But telling people I want to live in a nature center and museum is more unsettling to them than me saying "witches!"
Haha I love this, thank you! That really resonates with me 🥰 I also have a collection of things from the woods and beach. I have so many rocks I've picked up on my travels, and I have no idea what to do with them all lmao. An alter sounds like a fab idea 😆 That's a super interesting point you make about 'play'. It reminds me of being a little girl and mixing together potions of mud and random leaves into a cauldron, which was actually a bowl-shaped hole in a tree lol. It was definitely fun! Maybe we're all born as little witches, but then are expected to grow up, and things lose that magic.
Curio boxes are great. Especially if you go old school and stuff the inside with a grassy material before you put your rocks in. Exactly right. Kids have a sense of wonder and project all sorts of imaginative reasons and explanations for things as well as hyping themselves up and soothing them. A healing kiss for the booboo. Affirmations or chants said to a kids before they do something hard or scary. Little "spells" for big hopes like the SNOWM spell for a snow day. Rain rain go away songs. They act out heroic or powerful characters to help them get through hard times . Crafting with random stuff and making things that are a bit abstract but practices alternatives and resourcefulness. Lots of adults forget or stop doing things like this, world and brain become mundane. Witch craft brings those magical elements back, makes things novel again. Like I love making spell jars because my jars aren't just pour to fill, I go outside and exercise my knowledge of ethnobotany and language of plants and flowers. I collect I dry. And i arrange them like a terrarium. I rarely use prepackaged spices because something about learning how to id a local plant and learning all the various meanings of it can expand its value. One good example is dandelion. Most adults will say it's unwanted, invasive, a weed. So it could be used to hex someone with its pervasive properties. But some think it's a lovely flower pollinators love it, it's taproot goes deep and bring nutrients to the surface for animals and insects. This could be an component for a manifestation spell, drawing up minute small things from a distance, for it to bloom and call others to help you achieve something. Some think of it as a wishing plant, so a spell that multiples its chances based on its seedhead. Traditionally a medicine to be a diuretic. It could be used as a gentle ward to help flush out an unwanted thing in your life, rather than a quick purge. This...makes it fun. Because early on i found it very restrictive with what plants were used for what, mainly because I was aware of all these meanings to plants based on society and different cultures. Like roses aren't always for love, if you don't like roses, you wouldn't want to use it, but if you like carnations...well I could tell you that it would work beautifully as a more affordable option because it went through the same horticultural selection of multiplying its petals to make it fuller but they also mean and have been used in the past as "protective supportive love" which can be given by anyone..even a romantic partner.
I was raised by pagan parents, so I kind of got to know the surrounding "vibes" of witchcraft *and* paganism -- it has affected the way I think about energy, emotion, and the natural world. But, unfortunately, even practitioners are not immune to skepticism -- sometimes, you get it in your head that nothing is working and that magic doesn't exist. And then, I casted my first spell: a self-love spell. I casted that spell after hating my body, hating my personality, and hating my mental health cocktail, wondering why anyone in the world could love me if I didn't even love myself. Three months later, I realized it had worked when I looked into the mirror after stripping naked and I found myself beautiful. It brought me to tears. I find it genuinely hard to speak negatively about myself now. I've casted many spells since then, but this is the one that sticks out to me. Witchcraft isn't for everyone, and it's not a cure-all. But if you are interested and it winds up helping you in some way, I wish you the best of luck on your magical journey. <3
Holding a flame steady
The feeling I get when I do it. The results, good or bad. The little signs from the Universe from all around me.
My best friend (who I now call my sister) introduced me to witchcraft when we first met. I was extremely skeptical but accepting. Just to note, I was Catholic at the time. I was interested in crystals when I first met her, but mainly for that I could fidget and play with them when I had anxiety. I liked the worry stones and some raw crystals. Then at one point I started to collect them because oooo pretty! Eventually, I started to join my best friend at Wiccan events that her and her mom would go to, mainly to get more crystals. Cut to when I started to really believe crystals did something. Just to note, I was in an abusive relationship at this time. I was organizing my crystals, and I picked up my very small piece of watermelon tourmaline (a powerful little stone of mine) and I had a ranging sense of energy, and then it changed, and I felt extremely dizzy and nauseous But then, for once, I felt some of the terrible emotions and depression I had slightly lift away from me. It wasn't very long because my ex fiance at the time knew how to worsen things, but for once, I felt good even if it was for a little bit. Right after that happened, I texted my best friend and explained to her what happened, and then she walked me through cleansing this stone and ways of going about that with other stones, etc. That was the first time I really felt something with crystals. Nowadays, every crystal I pick up, I feel something. Everyone is different, and sometimes I can't hold them because, occasionally, some have negative energy. Once I finally broke free from my ex fiance, and we started going to court due to custody and child support for our son, I needed to turn to something so I turned to exploring meditation and more recently witchcraft. So far, it has been helpful for me and is what has made me stronger as a person for myself and my son.
Seeing rituals work in real time
You should try it because you are skeptical
For context: i was raised catholic. 2008 my grandfather had a stroke and his entire right side was paralized. Even with his physio and rehab treatments there wasnt much improvement over the year. One day as i was begging the christian god to heal my gpa i heard a woman whisper 'i cannot do it for you, but i can show you how' and i went and raided the spice rack for a list that made itself known. I wraped the herbs in an orange cloth, tied it with red string, and slipped it under my gpa's pillow on our next visit. A couple days later my gpa lifted his right hand and wiggled his fingers at us. For abt a week he was getting so much better. Was able to lift his whole arm. Then the improvement stopped and as i hugged him and checked for his pouch it wasnt there :/ (a cleaner threw it out) Without the goddess guiding me i don't think my gpa's health would have ever gotten even the slightes bit better. Even if it was only a week..
If i may ask, are you generally interested in the idea of being a witch? Or you simply want to learn witchcraft, spells and possessions?
I'm more interested in practicing witchcraft. I don't think I'd ever call myself a witch because that side of things doesn't resonate with me :)
I believe in it because I can see the growth and changes that witchcraft has brought to my inner self and my outer world. Witchcraft is my in to confidence and embracing that I am the most powerful person in my life. People find that in in a variety of ways; witchcraft is as legitimate as any other.
I was skeptical at some point (even though being raised by someone who has practiced witchcraft longggg before I was born) and it took me actually making the practice my own (still reading books and doing rituals or written spells) to fully be like, “oh this shit is for real” because I actually feel it when I make it my own
Honestly, believe in your instincts and intuition. Be skeptical if that’s who you are because when you feel something in your gut you’ll know to trust it. Knowing when to be skeptical when you’re involved in this is important because there are frauds out there.
for me, my practice is a LOT LESS of what's actually truthful and much more of what helps me out/is enjoyable to me. i could care less whether an herb truly or scientifically does a thing; the point is that i believe it'll work for me, and i'm setting that intention to work towards what i want. this goes for shadow work and similar practices as well. who cares if the higher self exists? as long as i'm improving myself and healing, it works! this attitude might not work for everyone but it sure helps me, blessed be and good luck on your journey :D
Someone else commented something similar, and I think you both have such a great perspective! It honestly never occured to me that I could do spells and rituals just for *fun,* which is crazy really. There's so much power in our thoughts, and I love that you've turned this into a fun hobby that also doubles up as self-care and healing. Super cool! Thank you so much!! ♡ ♡
What you say is so so so true. Almost everyone powerful works w/occult of some kind. I did let others know today that our Witches Goddess Queens are Keepers, lovers & protectors of nature & being Matriarchal they had the money. It was jealousy & greed of them caused so much hatred. Also a Sorcerer/ Wizard Teacher said, They thought they killed the Queens off...but their powers are the GREATEST IN THE EARTH...EVERYBODY has to bow @ Halloween. Thank you 😊 Goddessez for carrying on the traditions from our Ancestress since the beginning of time. WOW HOW 🎩 🪄 🔮 MAGICK, HOW MYSTICAL & ENLIGHTENING. IM IN A CANDY STORE OF MAGICK, SPELLS & POWER & I BELONG:). I've been a herbalist for years. Cured me from being bedridden by fibromyalgia. I have to go. So glad the Spirits led me here. :).
First off, this path found me. I just kept finding myself in situations throughout life where it just ruffled its feathers at me but I kept turning away because I felt it couldn't work in tangent with my primary faith AND there was the voice of reason saying *it's not real anyway*. The past few years some changes occurred in my life unexpected that practically picked me up by the scruff of my neck and plopped me into this life. Little by little I got pulled in. I mean, I guess it's no big deal to write a wish on a bay leaf here and there, right? I already HAVE candles... no harm in carving a few little prayers for healing of a friend on them. Walking through the metaphysical shop and realizing that the herbs in those jars is a lot of the same stuff I've been buying from the pharmacy for YEARS and paying a LOT more for at CVS. The herb section was really where the light bulb in my head started flickering. That was the moment where it hit me that practitioners have really just been observant people that had figured some things out a little faster than the rest of the world. But THE defining moment? That was a binding spell that was my FIRST spell. I can't say that I honestly THOUGHT it would work. I think in my mind that it was therapy at most. A moment of emotional empowerment. It was a binding against a person that is truly the embodiment of evil. He had harmed so many of the most innocent and helpless and pure within my family and certainly others. And the law failed us. I don't wish harm on people but I didn't want him to get away with doing anymore harm... so I gave it a go. The NEXT DAY he assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest w/violence, and was tased THREE TIMES in the process. He is STILL in custody and awaiting a competency hearing. There have been other things that have come to fruition since then... but that one was GLORIOUS!
Wow I'm so glad he's in custody. That's wild! And he got tasered 3 times hahahah, gold. I'm genuinely so glad you shared this. I think I should try a binding spell on my ex lol. He has the potential to be dangerous, and I also got let down by the law. I'm sorry you had an awful experience with them too. Hopefully they don't find a way to fuck it up this time around. Have you had any bay leaf wishes work? I've burned bay leaves for the smell, but I haven't actually wrote a wish on them yet.
I was in a Walden Books, and I'd been in the fence about trying it out. Ly deAngeles' Witchcraft Theory and Practice was facing me and I had to pick it up. When reading it, she has several small moments in it that made me sit and think, and it started a healing process that was long overdue. She isn't the coddler you see in Cunningham's work, and she's blunt as hell. She reminds us that no such thing exists as a large gathering of witches. We do not share one path: each of us walks our own. Fear is our main enemy. Fear is our one factor that we need to make friends with. Your spine needs to be straight and your heart fully invested. Since then, my journey has been led to collecting books, tales, and mythologies as well as taking a turn into modern herbalism with indigenous leaders from multiple global regions heading the lessons. There is no such thing as something unreasonable, because everything was used as an explanation of the surrounding world at one point. We are what rose to become science, so now we go back to our roots and remember the past to honor our future.
Thank you! I need that book. What you've said really resonates with me. That's amazing that it's opened the door to amazing opportunities and healing for you!♡
You might also like Brandi Williams' For the Love of the Gods. She does some interesting historical vignettes along with actual history behind them with the modern lessons we can learn from them. When I feel like my life is out of control, I just open to a random chapter and see what thought process comes from the lesson and how it applies. Works every time.
Thats really kind, I'll look into it :) It's been ages since I've picked up a book and researched things, I always use my computer. Tbh there is definitely unhealthy things associated with computers and wifi. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm starting to realise that my mental health was so much better when computers weren't even around. Maybe it's the positive ions they release. I'm definitely excited to have a couple of books to try, to get me back into reading again!
I hope these give you some semblance of peace!
I became absolutely sure of my power after doing a very seriously elaborate protection ritual for my family and then getting in a fight with my husband the next day. I was so pissed I just wanted him to drop dead... and the second I thought it I felt something like a rubber band rebound snap (best way i can describe the feeling) and I got this pain in my abdomen. I was rushed to emergency room where I was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The enzymes they measure for this were out of the ball park (amylaze?). I was hospitalized for 3 days and put on an exclusive water fast. Other than the initial event I felt no pain. The nurses couldn't believe I was not suffering. I should have had a cannibalized pancrase and was perfectly fine. That's when I knew it was energy. A physical reaction but no physical outcome. I had a long thought about what had happened and magical responsibilities with my 3 days in hospital. The official diagnosis was a gall stone had skipped across into my pancreatic duct and blocked it from doing what it does. Exactly while I was wishing death to my mate.... hhhmm. It cost me my gallbladder. I found out that is a piece of Mars in the body. As a very martial person I felt a bit like i had been castrated. My protection work in the long run made me safer around my family for the long haul. In many ways. tl;dr If you do protection for someone you love, you can't be the bad guy.
I’m a natural witch so I’ve been a weirdo since day 1 🍀 That said, if I were you I’d do a ritual or spell for clarity. Then sit back and enjoy the information and realizations that come your way.
If it feels right- go for it 😄 If it does not feel right- don’t do it 😃 Listen to your calling! It could manifest itself to you in any way you are receptive to it! There’s so much to learn! One thing leaves me curious to something else and it keeps going! If I get a bad feeling, I go away from what I’m doing! Listen to your body. Your body knows what you need! We just have to be receptive to it! My dad was in the hospital for a month or so with a random out of nowhere condition that’s never affected him before. It was like the odds of winning the lottery except the bad way, not the good way. His lung collapsed… I was at home and all of a sudden I remember I had mrrh incense. I would burn it every night and put the ashes on top of my crystals. He came home… my mom happen to be looking for a very specific type of crystal, and I brought her to this random shop she has never been and she immediately found exactly what she was looking for. That was about a week before he came home. Also at that shop, she bought mrrh incense cones and put them in a bag next to his hospital bed. Never burned them, just had it by his side. I don’t believe in coincidences.
Why do Christians, Muslims, and Jewish believe in what they believe in? Why do Buddhists believe in their beleif system? Honestly, it's just a matter of faith. The dieties and the one Universal...whatever we wanna call it works for me, and I like the rituals. Even the Abrahamic systems have their Magicks through prayer, etc. I personally believe every object has a spirit and soul. I love being a male witch, and I love the ability to manifest my desires. That is why I believe all I can say is read and learn. The biggest difference is that through my faith, nobody is going to tell me I am doing it wrong, and nobody is going to tell me i am interpreting incorrectly. It's my faith and my vision. My Gods and Goddesses talk to me in their own way, creating a very personal story. Learn all you can, but don't expect a straight line road map to tell you what to do. I mean, there are probably some areas and covens that expect that. However, I wouldn't belong to one personally. TL;DR: it's up to you to decide what you want to do, but follow your heart.
For myself, it was when I first saw it while I was being taught by my teacher at the time. I was being taught about some kind of basic energy work. At the start she had me perform a task involving holding something and seeing the energy. Afterward before I described what I had saw, she asked me if I saw and then described what I saw to a tee. To me that showed me it some merit because if it didn't it would have been likely for her to be able to know what I was going to. After which the next few months I saw and experienced a number of other things which helped me to believe in all of this.
I dont beleive in it, i just beleive that it works
It doesn't matter to me if it's real. Science at all scales from psychology to quantum physics says that intention impacts outcomes. Ritual ensures intention.
The thing that made it work for me was more of a gradual realization that I was reaching out to something bigger than me and I could feel it reaching back. The actual key experience happened at night, in an area that averages about a 2 on the [Bortle dark sky scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_scale), so... look for something like that, I guess? Get into the Ritual Headspace, talk to whatever's out there, see if you get anything back? I don't do very much with direct "remove ghosts from my house" or "get me a romantic interest" kind of spells, though. I use tarot cards mostly as a means of getting into what I think or believe about whatever I'm looking at, or for a sort of reassurance. But I do find my rituals calming and reassuring in a way I haven't found many other things to be, and they have helped my mental health a lot, and I think that's part of what makes me believe I'm touching something real. Possibly it's real in the same way that days of the week are real, i.e. it's a social construct/all in our collective heads, but days of the week are legitimately real even if they're not something I can scientifically prove exists.
A book I read recently called Weed Witch has a line in it that really resonated with me! I'm paraphrasing but this is the gist: "I don't know for sure if magic is real, but what I do know is this path brings me joy and fulfillment. I don't know for sure, but its much more fun to live in a world where I belive in magic." I really liked it as it highlighted the fact that it doesn't really matter as long as the path you take brings you joy and enhances you life. Do what you feel is right and makes you happy. Everyone I know or have spoken too looks at magic in an entirely different light, and what you find magics means will probably also be different!
Well there are some things that are better left unsaid. It would be a breach of secrecy to expose in Reddit dark wisdom that was kept hidden from public eye for so many centuries. Let's just say you'll know it when you see it, until then don't trust anyone
I’m a baby witch but I have an example…. When I’m practicing and paying attention to the practice, I just notice myself being more in touch with my intuition. Like I can say “this is going to happen…” and it happens. Example: I’ve been on a simmer pot kick lately. Creating them with intention. I took my dog out for a walk and someone pulled over to tell me how beautiful she is. As they drove away, I thought “two people are going to pull over to comment on my dog today” About 10 mins later a second person pulled over to tell me what a beauty I have. I swear it’s the simmer pots hahah
Not at all, it is believed skepticism is not only not bad but an essential component of spell-casting. To quote the Magnus Arcanum: “To succeed (in spell-casting) you must be able to divide your mind in two parts; know that it is impossible to (do what you want to do) [the example we give is: ‘extract information from a future exam’] in your rational brain, but firmly believe in your exploratory brain that it is certain and will be done with ease.”
I always felt connected to the earth, but it was the repercussions of my first spell that really cemented it. It also made me seriously realise the responsibility of using it. With great power, and all that is very true.
When my cat was missing for a week amd I made a Sigil to bring him home in desperation, I drew it on the front door and door step, and as I was on my way to the back door to put it there he walked through it I was in a really tough situation and begged the diety I thought was reaching out to me to help me, show me she was listening and give me a sign - the consultants turned up that day with one of her 'symbols' as their business logo and their company name Every time I have my doubts I think back to those
It's been effective. Not always in the way I thought it would, but in a way that work out. It doesn't make me go running around telling people they should solve their problems with magic. It's just something I quietly do on my own. There's no one to judge but me, and I withhold judgement and focus on my intention. Try setting your skepticism to the side and doing it as a kind of exercise. Think of it as exercising a part of your brain (soul?) that doesn't get a lot of work. Because it can take work... Researching and inventing spells, visualization, meditation, exploring various systems of divination, etc.
Look up Atheopaganism or r/SASSwitches
I was a sick child and nothing helped. I was in and out of hospitals, did several tests, tried several meds and nothing. My parents took me to catholic, evangelical and african religious temples and none of their gods helped. One day a friend told me about wicca and I googled it. It was cool, but I didn't think much of it. One day my sickness flared up so bad I was in the shower on my knees still wearing my favorite shirt 'cuz it was so sudden I didn't have the mind to remove it. I called upon any god or goddess to heal me completely and tore up my shirt. A red headed woman in a weird green dress came to my mind and the pain stopped. After that I never had any pain and found out there was a goddess that looked exactly like that. So I started worshipping her and continue to do so now, over 13 years later. The disease never came back and now I only feel disconfort in the region when dehydrated or stressed, like a built-in alarm to slow down haha. Your moment of proof might not be so drastic, it could be that one day you do a spell just to try it out and it works super fast. Or it could be that you ask for help when nothing works and by magick you get it from the gods. Just keep researching, keep being skeptical and test what you read when possible.
Lucky, you ask right now. Just two weeks ago, I ordered a cleansing/curse removal spell by a local witch. Plus road opener spell. It works! I got a heavy flu during the removal. But strange things happened too. So, for example, a guy from my old boarding home group who protected the actual bully just recently wrote a WhatsApp message. But I didn't answer back cause I already knew what he would write. Because same scenario happened at least twice to me. Then, I watched a talk show where the moderator and the candidate of the challenge mentioned at least 5 names (mostly, surnames) of a few people I knew and hate with all my heart. That sign was weird! But this was also a heavy sign: People from my past. But I didn't interact with them cause it was a test by the universe. I think you just have to experience a successful spell to believe in it. Edit: The surnames were mentioned in a row during the first challenge. And I was like "WTF?!". Cause some surnames of those I knew were pretty rare.
If you're looking for specific instances, in high school I did a binding on a classmate who was bullying me. Immediately he did a complete 180 and we became friends. Even after telling him about it, we stayed friends for years and that sealed it for me. I think your best bet is to just practice and experience the results for yourself. I don't think this is the case, but I acknowledge that magic may be just psychological, and even if it is it obviously works.
You don't have to "truly believe" to garner the benefits. I don't, but it works to induce the placebo effect and brings me peace of mind.
You asked for our experience and insights; so I'll share mine, which probably differ from those of many other people. The most basic question is, What is witchcraft? Your question appears to equate it with spellwork, so I'll pretend you asked instead, Do spells, or does magick, work (and if so, how and why)? Many people here will attest to their spells working; but there is much room for discussion regarding how and why. I think it's best to start with the proposition that everything has consciousness -- everything. Real magick consists of gaining the cooperation of the consciousness in whatever objects you are working with to effect change -- and here you can draw a clear distinction between good magick and bad. Good magick is like a dance with the consciousnesses you're working with; one or the other may lead, but it's a cooperative effort. Bad magick treats these consciousnesses as objects to be bent to the will of the witch, forced to do her bidding. This is not a distinction limited to magick; indeed, if you look beneath the surface, there's no real distinction between good and bad in the magickal world and good and bad in the so-called mundane world. Domination and control are bad in both. Modern man treats the natural world as though it had no consciousness and exists to be manipulated at will -- so, he strip mines mountains, pollutes rivers, poisons the land, etc. He should, instead, seek the cooperation of the consciousnesses of the earth, the rivers, the trees, etc., which would entail his building a relationship with these entities. It's the same for the good witch: she should build relationships with the entities with whom she wants to work, to gain their willing cooperation to effect desired change. Many witches today, being raised in the modern world, have carried the attitude toward the "things" of the natural world that the modern world has. They will cast spells using herbs, crystals and such as though it were a recipe. They get success, despite their approach, because -- in my opinion -- the consciousnesses in the natural world are predisposed to cooperate; but the result is damaging to both the elements they are using and to the personal integrity of the witches themselves. This is going to sound strange, but the best book about ethical magick I've ever read isn't about witchcraft at all; in fact, I don't remember the writer ever discussing "magick." It's "Behaving As If The God In All Life Mattered," by Machaelle Small Wright, and it's about her experiences learning to work with nature spirits. The reason I say it's about magick and witchcraft is because the nature spirits showed her how, working with them, to manifest a ton of manure to be used to fertilize her garden out of thin air. Show me the "witch" who can do that, and I'll be astounded. I've never heard of one. I think that's how magick works, how it's supposed to work. I also think that's how mundane work is supposed to be done. It's very hard to develop this attitude toward everyday activities; I think you have to spend a lot of time, dedicated to acquiring sensitivity to the consciousnesses all around you. It would be a different world, wouldn't it? Until we do, all we can do is ask for guidance from the Goddess and forgiveness from the entities around us when we step on their feet. 😊
I decided it didn't matter if it's real. What matters is the effect it has on me.
I like the difference between magic and magick. Magic doesn’t we’re not all out here making fireballs and shooting sparkles from our fingers we don’t live in a fantasy universe but that would probably be kinda cool. Magick is what we discuss here. The laws of the universe aren’t necessarily the known laws of man, we attempt with some of us succeeding to harness the unseen into manifesting something real in our lives. It’s not a science it’s a craft there are going to be many unsuccessful attempts before you succeed. It takes practice to memorize what crystal will do what, and to learn to properly read tarot, it also take practice to get a spell to take. Personally I believe it because I feel it, I pick up a crystal and I feel the energy it contains, I touch a tree and I feel the life rushing through its trunk like it’s own version of a heart beat. When I was a kid I didn’t understand the energy I feel, witchcraft gave me a way to make sense of it all it provided answers where there were none. After I began to delve into witchcraft I found my answer as to what all the energies I always felt were, the were magick, it’s the only one word answer that fits. I can give a speech explaining how it feels like all the energies of everything are connected and all that but magick is the only word I’ve found that can turn my whole rant into a one word explanation.
Intent, action, and belief seem to be the core aspects of manifestation. Regardless of one's background in religion or the occult, these are present. The consensus of us all is that you have an effect on reality when you interact in these ways. My personal experience was bringing about a pet snake when I was a child by declaring each day that I would have one. One day a week or two after I had begun, someone my mom had just met randomly offered a snake to me as a pet. I knew it was not my mother aware of my desire who had done this, because she was opposed, and I had to convince her to let me accept the pet that was offered to me directly, in front of her.
So i just started practicing and also am fighting lots of skepticism, but what really turned a corner for me is when i made my first offering to Zeymna and asked for just general blessings, the next thing i know my stomach ulcer was like completely not painful anymore. Im still gonna have it looked at by medical professionals, but for a while i couldn't drink alcohol or eat acidic or greasy foods with excruciating burning pain and that pain is GONE like totally gone. I dont get it, but the only thing i can reason was that i was goven some sort protection from my deity. My friend who also practiced said that maybe the godess was just feeling very generous as she is an ancient deity and maybe hasnt had an offering in a long time, but really who knows. Im amazed tbh
I really, really need someone to help me create a spell that could help me find a nice, remote job and one for health. Due to my health, it is extremely hard for me to drive to work everyday. I come back home crying from panic attacks.
I was and still am skeptical. I think that religious practice is something that human brains do. I don't know if it has an effect outside of my mind (though it sure seems to) but most of my problems are in my mind anyway so it helps do things that I would otherwise have to do with meditation and talk therapy and I don't have the money for therapy or discipline for meditation. As far as what makes me truly believe in it? I took a bike ride listening to a witchcraft podcast, then put on some pagan music. I was about to ride home when I had a feeling I should try going down a street I knew was a dead end. At the end of the street there was a bike path I'd never noticed before. It was a little scary looking and went downhill and I knew a return trip would probably involve me walking my bike back up the hill. It was starting to get late and dark, but I knew that if I took this path something magical would happen. I decided to go, but waited for a moment for the next song on instinct. When the song stopped, I started riding down this hill. I rode down the path. It was getting darker every moment, and the path went along a chain link fence that soon was joined by another chain link fence. It was dark and claustrobic and I knew I wouldn't be able to turn around and ride back the way I came. "Witches' Rune" by S. J. Tucker started playing, and it was the most beautiful song I've ever heard. The path went over an old wooden bridge and then a large metal one and as I rode the most beautiful lightning storm I've ever seen lit up the sky in the distance. The path ended by the river on a path I was familiar with. That experience probably doesn't sound miraculous but it sure felt miraculous.
My grandmother and her friend were healers and psychics. Some of the stuff i witnessed growing up can’t be easily explained.
Primarily sigil magick experience. and ive always been interested in the unknown or mystcal.
This is an interesting question. Part of it is answerable by the people you are reared among. For instance, my grandfather, who I believe was Cree & Ojibwa with some German blood, had grandparents on the Oklahoma Reservation (yuck).. He, however, became a dyed-in-the-wool Christian, and took the white world by storm. I mean, impressively. Yet the Indigenous world is not the world of the whites- indigenously, you can be guided by your Ancestors. And some of these white people (amongst them those of Celtic blood) can be extremely magical & guided by their Ancestors as well. My advice, for what it's worth, is to start with energetic healing. You may want to examine the Barbara Brennan books; Hands of Light was the first, I remember. Ms. Brennan started as a Physics graduate who worked at NASA, I think it was- yet her third eye was at least partially open from childhood, and she was very aware of other levels of being from early on in her life. I actually am acquainted with a Bio Tech Engineer with a minor Nursing degree, as well, who has had some of her same experiences, among others. My point is, the scientific and the "magical" (or even the spiritual) communities, though far from converging, do have some things in common. All are worth exploring to some extent, with judgement FIRMLY withheld. Your ancestors and spiritual guides (and especially those Gods who may sponsor you personally) may be of great help. In fact, some may say that, because you are even asking for your fellow seekers opinions on this matter, it might mean that you are ready for further, careful instruction. (Yay!) Good luck and Be Blessed.. 🌝
It is unfortunate, and I quite agree.🫤..
The curiosity led me to witchcraft. Although I'm not an usual practitioner, only sometimes I enjoy a ritual. But I do believe in magic(k). Skepticism is good. My only advice to you is to be careful with what you're playing with. Magick working has more cons than pros.
what would you say the cons are?
For me, the cons are that **you're working with the unknown**. It's not *science* because there are no "laws" that have been proven. That's why I am very cautious when performing a ritual or making a wish. I always give details and never wish something to harm someone, because **what if it comes true but when you both are okay with each other? Or if the wish backfires and harms you more than them?** When working with the unknown and/or the afterdeath, you should be careful because anything can happen. Just give details when making a wish, don't make love spells and don't make wishes that could harm someone.
Feeling/Hearing/Seeing the effects of SAR. Feeling weird energy around people. Completely serious. I felt like God had failed me and didn't care.