Primer for beginner witches.
Spells are very much like recipes, you can try to follow it step by step, but since you aren’t familiar with the steps or ingredients it could leave a bad taste in your mouth. At this stage you know nothing/not enough about cooking to know if the recipe is in fact any good and you won’t be able to see the flaws. You don’t know how certain ingredients affect the outcome of whatever it is you’re trying to make and if by some miracle it comes out correct, the chances of you being able to repeat it are slim since you won’t know how you made it work.
In order to get past using other people’s recipes and really knowing how to “cook” you need to fully understand the function and correspondences of all the ingredients and tools in the craft. Understanding what you’re doing gives a better success rate, so studying and learning in-depth explanations might suck but it will pay out in the end. Just read loads of books. Learn as much as you can and take what you can from it.
The most important tool in Witchcraft is the mind. The stronger your mind is the more powerful your magic will be. You need to learn how to :
Stay focused for long periods of time.
Move from one state of consciousness to another.
Access parts of the subconscious and conscious that you would normally not be able to tap into.
Use your senses to their full capacity.
Manipulate energy.
In order to strengthen your mind you need to exercise it. There are tons of psychic exercises that you could practice daily to help with this, they teach you to use all your senses and even gain control over energy. The best way to strengthen the mind would still be proper meditation. Meditation is not just about clearing the mind it’s basically gym for the mind and is very difficult at first, but with anything the more you practice the better you’ll get.
There’s a big hype around the traditional tools used in witchcraft. Don’t get me wrong the tools are great but they are not absolutely necessary. Don’t go out and splurge on expensive tools, some of them might not even work for you and just gather dust in the back of your cupboard. Use what you have and if you like working with that tool then feel free to invest in a nicer, pricier version of that tool. But then again, if you put lots of time and effort into training the mind, you won’t even need tools.
What is important though are the key components to any spell; the herbs, stones, feathers, etc; needed for your spellwork. It all comes down to preference but since you're a beginner I would recommend just experimenting with all of it (research it first!) until you find your favourites to work with.
Learn your correspondences, it makes it easier for you to start writing your own spells. For beginner studying I would recommend reading up on the following :
Astrological correspondences: moon phases, planetary hours, etc.
Elemental correspondences.
Herbal correspondences.
Animal correspondences.
Correspondences of the cardinal directions.
Correspondences of symbols.
Masculine and feminine correspondences.
Correspondences of your tools.
Keep charts of these handy when you start doing the practical side of magic. It makes spell planning a lot easier. After you have become familiar with all of most of these then it’s safe to wing it, but until then make these charts your best friend as they are the foundation of spellwork.
You might have a few slip ups to start off with, but don’t let that discourage you. There is a lot to learn and gaining the knowledge is part of the journey.
Any questions?
