Lukewarm take: If you want to get good at practical sorcery, you're probably going to have to do a lot of magic you don't need to do, just for the sake of practice
I do not like or support the idea that ~all~ witches are supposed to be spiritual bodybuilders who are ~supposed~ to do daily training drills.
But some people really would like to really practice certain skills related to witchcraft (as in, habitually engage with a skill for the purpose of improvement).
I'm really into sorcery, and every time I bring up the idea that to get good at it you should practice it, I feel like someone always ends up saying, "but I don't need anything."
IMO there is a very unhelpful vibe when it comes to ""practice discourse"" where it is assumed that if you don't need something, then it isn't useful to practice it.
Case in point, cleansing!
A lot of people say that you don't really need to cleanse things, not even spiritual tools; that it's a handy skill to have if you need it, but it's not necessary.
My point isn't whether or not you really need to cleanse things.
My point is the practice that cleansing can bring!
Cleanse a hundred objects, and you have a hundred more interactions with magic under your belt.
Depending on the method of cleansing you're doing, you've enchanted a hundred dishes of salt water, a hundred sticks of incense, said a hundred charms.
You've engaged your willpower and magical mind a hundred times.
You have a hundred more experiences with how working with that energy, or that correspondence, or that charm affects you; how it leaves you feeling; how it leaves the object feeling.
Imagine how effective a charm might begin to be if you use it a hundred times. Imagine the experience you might gain using ten different cleansing methods ten times each.
You've got a lot more experience with objects before and after they've been worked over.
A person who does a hundred cleansings may not begin to develop an innate sense for the spiritual grime that can accumulate in the world around us, but I imagine they'd be a lot more likely to than someone who doesn't cleanse at all.
The thing with magic is that (IMO) you can never just practice one thing at a time. If you practice cleansing, you may also be practicing enchantment, energy work, psychism, petitioning, and so forth (again, depending on your methods).
And when the time comes to cast, idk, a prosperity spell, I would put my money on a guy who has only been cleansing because he had nothing better to do, than someone who hasn't been practicing any magic at all in the same timespan.
It goes for anything. A hundred energized little rocks to change the mood of a room. A hundred bits of string to tie up an annoyance.
Maybe you don't NEED an annoyance tied up.
But if you WANT to practice magic, then what does it matter what the magic is for?
mornin, can you expand on your thoughts abt practicial sorcery bettering your life and how you would personally define that kind of sorcery? thank you 🐔🐥 ❤️💖
Hello!
This seems to be in reference to this post where I said I personally believe that sorcery is an aspect of witchcraft, but that witchcraft in and of itself is not sorcery.
I use the term sorcery when talking about magic because I think people conflate witchcraft with magic, as in all there is to witchcraft is doing sorcery, which I do not believe is true.
In other words, sorcery is one of the crafts of the witch, whom (by virtue of being a witch and not something else) would tend to work it in a special sort of way. Or at least, that's the idea. As there is no centralized concept of what constitutes a witch, there is no actual cohesive set of standards by which witches tend to work sorcery.
Anyway...
I haven't put very much thought into my beliefs about the phrase practical sorcery because I just use it when I mean magic for changing your lived experiences in everyday reality, as opposed to magic for other purposes, such as worship, religious ceremony, or transcendence.
It's not like it's a discrete category of magic. Magic likes to defy easy sorting.
When I talk about practical sorcery, I mean things like...
The strap of your bag keeps breaking so you mend it with magical thread and enchant it to stay strong.
The neighbor plays music super loud at 2am so you work a charm to silence them.
Your lab results keep getting delayed so you work a spell to force forward motion
The roof hasn't been fixed yet so you work weather magic to stave off the rain until next week
This may seem obvious, but it actually took me a while to realize that you could just do magic like this in your everyday life.
But for me, that's what practical sorcery is. We've all got our lives to lead, sometimes we run into problems or want things, or want to fix things, and we can do magic to obtain that.
Chapters 1, 2, 3 AND 4 all in one PDF. To DOWNLOAD the PDF click the download button. TO READ PAGE BY PAGE CLICK BELOW: OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACKS: Project theme: youtu.be/dW3cE8nEXVY Chapter 1: ww...
I have a little good spell book that I look at from time to time for either fun or for inspiration. I think things like this can promote positive energy and thinking. So I thought I'd share some of my favorites or ones that stand out to me!
Listed are gonna be spells for Health, Pets, Wealth and Happiness.
It's not only spells, but some nifty herbal remedies and things like that. Also keep in mind that most of the stuff is spiritual and some of it is religious in base. I'm not really religious, and if you're not either you can swap out for anything that inspires you! Nature, the universe, even the inspiration from your favorite tv show or character is potent for positive energy and vibrations.
Everything is quoted from the books, comments and personal little spells from me in [brackets].
[Please note that the health ones are not alternatives to seeking professional treatment nor are any of these trying to say that things like mental illness are in the control of the person. It is not actually saying that things like depression can be cured simply by listening to happy music. It is not saying, "just be happy lol and u won't be depressed!" These are just little things, like picking flowers or taking a bubble bath or wishing on a star, that help to promote good energy, which is the point of good spells. Kind of like how I have come to consider a night playing video games as treatment for me, since it distracts me, clears my head, and makes me happy which has greatly reduced my anxiety and by extension, helps with my narcolepsy.
It should go without saying that any spells that have to do with a pet's health are also not a substitute for professional veterinary care.
Also, for spells that require candles—remember: safety first. Never leave a candle unattended.]
From The Good Spell Book:
Health: The independent Romanies, after hundreds of years wandering, had to be their own doctors. They learned how to use herbs, plants and other remedies to cure them when they were sick or injured.
They strongly believe that many illnesses are affected by the mind. Thinking you are healthy can make you fit. A Romany mother who says to a child, "Let me kiss it better," can actually make the child better by giving them faith. The Romanies also say that sending love to a sick person—whether the person is aware of it or not—can improve that individual's condition.
Depression
The Romany philosophy is that depression attracts depression like a vibration. To ward it off, play happy music or mix with happy people. Alternatively, walk to a hilltop to literally rise above your problem. Looking down on roads, cars, houses, and people makes them appear in better perspective.
Romanies always try to look on the bright side of any situation. However, if that is not so easy, try this Romany antidote to the blues:
☆Peel several cloves of garlic and place them in a saucer. Pour white vinegar over the cloves until they are partly immersed in it. Place the saucer beside your bed while you sleep. The garlic is said to turn pink because of the negative energy it absorbs.
The cloves should be buried in the morning and replaced by fresh cloves at night.
Dieting
This spell makes it amazingly easy to stop eating sweets.
☆Take a piece of cake, a cookie, or a chunk of chocolate—whichever sweet you're trying to banish from your life—and bury it in a pot or in the garden.
Plant three cloves of garlic on top. The cloves will purge you of your craving by the time the garlic has grown.
To cure a bad habit:
☆To help yourself or another to give up smoking, nail biting, or any other unwanted habit, first find nine strands of hair belonging to the afflicted person, and wind them around an iron nail. The nail should then be hammered into a wooden post. The habit is believed to abate as the nail rusts.
Sympathetic sorcery for ill health:
☆According to the Romanies, there is no simpler way to cleanse someone of an illness than to cut their fingernails and trim their hair. The nail and hair clippings should then be buried. Some say throwing the clippings into a stream, or river, or running water will wash the illness away.
Another way to alleviate illness:
☆Take a coin you have found on the ground and put a pinch of salt on it. Then transfer the salt into a small amount of boiling water, and let it dissolve. When the water has cooled, use the coin to flick the saline solution onto the palms of the patient's hands and on the soles of his or her feet.
☆Yet another traditional remedy uses candle magic. On a blue candle, use a pin to inscribe—moving from the base to the tip—the name of the person who is ill. Pierce the candle with the pin and leave it there. Let the candle burn down and extinguish itself, and keep the pin for future spells.
Protection spell:
This spell can be used to improve the health of an elderly person as well as to keep harm away from someone who is housebound.
Take a horseshoe or an iron nail and bless it by immersing it in salty water. Bury it in the garden of the sick person or in a potted plant. Leave the tip poking out of the earth, to act as a conductor to disperse the energy. Say when you bury it:
Ill health I do tell,
Run through this iron,
[Name of person] is free and well.
To ease lingering ill health:
This spell was traditionally used by mothers to cure their children.
☆Go to a stream with an empty jar, and let the current fill it. Take the jar home, and add seven cloves of garlic and seven pieces of coal. Leave it to steep for seven days. Meanwhile, find a three-forked twig.
Boil the contents of the jar and stir it with the twig. When the water has cooled, flick it seven times on the patient. This is believed to avert the "evil eye," a spirit of misfortune.
To increase health and vitality
A quartz crystal emits a frequency of energy, a vibration. Romanies are known for using crystal balls for clairvoyance, but they also use quartz rock crystal for healing.
☆If you have a piece of quartz, first wash it in warm soapy water and rinse it with running water. Then hold the crystal in both hands. Close your eyes and imagine being bathed in white light. Visualize the area of your illness and point the crystal to that site. Imagine a stream of light flowing from the crystal and bathing the area in its pure rays.
Place your crystal under your pillow while you sleep.
[I used to do this and similar things as a child because my mother is a psychic and used to do card readings quite a lot, and it always seemed that I picked up things that had to do with the health of the client. I used to do all kinds of meditation and crystal healing and it is very relaxing.]
To remove a headache
☆To remove a headache, rub your forehead with a stone and then cover the stone with soil. The ache is said to be absorbed by the soil.
☆Alternatively, you can run a headache away by rubbing a horseshoe o your forehead. (A piece of iron is said to work just as well.)
☆Yet another method is to lie down and place a quartz crystal on your pillow. If you can't lie down, try holding a quartz to your forehead for a few minutes to relieve the symptom.
[I carry a quartz stone in my purse at all times and sometimes I like to sit and hold it if I'm stressed or in pain.]
To cure baldness
☆A Romany remedy said to make hair grow on a balding patch is to mix equal measures of rosemary oil, almond oil, and bay rum and rub that into he scalp morning and night.
☆To halt thinning, rub garlic oil into the scalp morning and night.
☆To strengthen hair and prevent loss, rinse with an infusion of half a teaspoon of rosemary sprigs in one cup of water.
[These actually are real things! I used to work in skin and haircare and I still often make my own scalp tonics out of rosemary. It's not only antiseptic (meaning if you have microbe/bacteria and flake problems, it'll help a lot!) but it promotes bloodflow like crazy. Garlic is the same way. When I used to have very bad flare ups, I used to go buy fresh rosemary and simmer it in water for 15 minutes and then put it in a spray bottle. Every night I would spray my head. Not only tingled and soothed, but smelled so nice! And every once in awhile if I have a stubborn pimple, I'll crush garlic for the juice and apply it to the pimple to bring it down. As for the almond oil, that's very nutritious and moisturizing for the skin, and bay rum is still used to this day in a lot of men's hair products and colognes. Very stimulating.
☆To grow a good head of hair Romanies say:
Of weak thinning hair you will never complain,
If you cut your hair in the moon's wax
And never in her wane.
[My mother to this day only cuts her hair when it's a full moon.]
To ease cramps
☆The Romanies say that sleeping with a bowl of water from a stream or spring under the bed relieves cramps.
☆Another remedy is to thread corks on a red cord, or wrap them in a red silk scarf, and place them at the foot of the bed.
[Something that I have done in emergencies when my period was just killing me is to make a veggie smoothie with craptons of parsley. Parsley is a very powerful herb that promotes bloodflow as well as the release of estrogen, and I've found it can make periods much easier to handle. It literally warms my abdomen up just by eating a fair amount. It's also good for getting antioxidants, heart health, kidney health, bad breath, hypertension—it's loaded with vitamin C and iron as well, so I take parsley capsules to help with my deficiencies! Now I include parsley flakes into my daily diet but I'm going to start doing it fresh too.]
To lower a fever
☆To lower a fever, use a simple salt spell. Throw a handful of salt into the flames of a fire—salt turns the flames blue. Look into these blue flames, and visualize the patient well again. As you do say the words:
Fever burn, good health return.
Bad breath
☆The Romany remedy for bad breath is to eat at least one fresh, raw apple every night before going to bed. Another antidote is to chew parsley, peppermint, fennel or caraway seeds.
For sight and insight
☆To improve eyesight and clairvoyant vision, boil a little spring water with a pinch of saffron on a Sunday. Romanies say a saffron bath not only increases clairvoyant vision, it instantly soothes painful eyes. Saffron is ruled by the sun sign, and dedicated to magic and love because of its yellow color.
[I adore saffron, it's also very good for bloodflow, so this makes sense. A saffron bath would do wonders for body aches.]
☆Another method to relieve sore eyes is to put gold rings in the ears. (Perhaps this is why so many Romany children as well as adults have pierced ears.)
Healing from afar
☆To heal someone who is not nearby, you need a feather, rosemary oil, a shell, a stone, an onion, and a horseshoe (if you have one).
Write the name of the person you wish to heal on the onion (a ballpoint pen or pencil works well).
Plant the onion bulb in a pot or garden, and put a stone to the north, three drops of rosemary oil to the south, a shell to the west, and a feather to the east. Cover the objects with soil.
Place the pot on a horseshoe, or place a horseshoe close by if the bulb is planted in the garden. This spell uses the strength of Mars, the god of war—both the onion and the horse are governed by Mars—to win the battle over the illness.
• • •
Pets: The Romanies strongly believe in the power of hands-on healing for dogs, horses, and smaller pets such as cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice and birds. These remedies are not an alternative to visiting a vet. But they may be used in conjunction with veterinary treatment, before or after surgery, or simply if your pet appears to be "under the weather."
To heal a cat wound
☆To heal a cat after it's been in a fight, the Romanies recommend that you first light a blue candle. Place your cat on your lap or let the cat find its own comfortable place to lie. Soothe it with loving strokes until it purrs or appears relaxed and comfortable enough to stay put for five or ten minutes.
Close your eyes and pray for a spirit vet to work through your hands. After a few minutes you should feel heat emanating from your palms. You may then feel your hands being guided to various parts of your cat's body. Direct them to where they are drawn.
Imagine the colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple—streaming into the cat.
Finish by thanking the spirit vet who used your hands to channel healing energy. Then say,
Kitten scrap scrabble scrap
before giving your cat a kiss to seal the spell.
Dog healing
☆Place your dog in a comfortable position or let it find its own spot in which to lie down.
Sit beside your dog and pray for a circle of gold light to be placed around you both for protection, and for a circle of blue light to be placed around your and your dog for healing. Then say the Lord's Prayer.
Place your hands palms down over your pet.
Visualize yellow light, then blue, green, indigo, and violet rays permeating your hands and then passing into your pet's body.
End by asking for a cloak of spiritual protection to be placed around your pet to protect and keep it from harm.
This can be repeated several times a day.
Cat Love: Cats have been revered as magical since the time of the ancient Egyptians. A cat washing itself is believed to be a forecast of rain. To see it wash behind its ears is a sign that a visitor will call. If it sits with its back to the fire, it is a sure sign of frost.
☆Your cat may also assist in divination. Leave a door open and think of a question that can be answered yes or no. Call your cat into the room and notice which paw it first places on the floor. If it is the right forepaw, the answer is yes; if the cat steps with the left, the answer is no.
To call a straying pet
When a cat, dog, or other pet has gone missing, do not despair. Pets are tuned in psychically to their owners and will respond to an invisible call even at a distance.
☆Place some food and milk or water in the pet's familiar bowls. Light a blue candle next to them and say:
My fair beauty has gone astray
Please come back to me today.
With my yearning heart and wonder,
Please come back to me from yonder.
Afterward leave the candle to burn down, or snuff it out when your pet returns.
To deter straying
☆To deter a pet from straying, dig a hole and then fill it with salt, charcoal, and fur from your pet's brush or comb.
☆Another custom said to prevent straying is to cut out a piece of soil bearing the animal's footprint. The soil should then be placed under a strong tree in your garden (willow is preferable). Alternatively, keep the print indoors in a plant pot or dish.
☆Another well-known means of preventing a cat or dog from leaving home, particularly after a house move, is to run its four paws with butter. [lol wat]
To find a missing caged pet
A bird, hamster, guinea pig, or rabbit that has gone stray can be welcomed home with this basic spell.
☆Call the pet's name three times. Tie a yellow cord around its cage, after having replenished its food and bedding.
Then call the pet's name three times again.
Pet safety spell
☆When your pet is away at a kennel or at the vet's, you can strengthen your psychic link with it and ensure its safe and happy return. Place a blue ribbon or cord in a circle around its bed, favorite chair, or toys, and tie a knot to form a circle. Unknot the cord only when your pet is back in your safekeeping.
• • •
Wealth: The Romanies' motto is: "Think lucky and you'll be lucky."
Formerly, many Romanies were wealthy people, and some still are. Their belief is that possessions should only be procured in harmony with what is right and good. Simply put, they believe good is creative and evil destructive.
For the majority of Gypsies, their caravan—their vardo, or wagon—was their most treasured possession. However, much of their working, living, and cooking was carried on outside, where they were in touch with the elements. They believe that the body is a vehicle for the spirit on earth, and the vardo is a vehicle for the body on earth.
According to Romany custom, when the occupant died, the caravan and most of its contents were burned to ashes.
[Most of these money spells are loooooooong, so I only am sharing a few short ones!]
An interview divination
Although Romanies are historically and instinctively nomads, they sometimes want to stay in one place. This means they must seek work, perhaps on a farm, or find an outlet for their trade. They use the following divination to foretell whether or not they will get a job interview.
☆Take two acorns. One represents you, and the other person you have applied to for a job. Place both acorns in a bowl of water. If they float side by side or touch, you will get an interview. If they float in opposite directions, you will not.
Easy Money Spells
☆Light a green candle. Let it burn for give minutes, then blow it out. Rub your hands in the smoke and imagine money coming to you.
☆One the night of a new moon, place a coin on a windowsill with the head facing up. When the moon is full, flip the coin so that tails side is facing up—this encourages money problems to diminish. Then, keeping in harmony with the moon phases, finish the spell by removing the coin on a new or full moon.
To win a job
☆Before you go to your job interview, you will need a green candle, a banknote, and a paper clip.
Light the candle and show both sides of the banknote to the flame. Fasten the note to the back of a photograph of yourself. Blow out the candle.
Carry your photo, with the note attached, in your handbag of wallet during your interview.
Seeing a spider wave its web—especially if the web is on a window or door—is an omen of money luck.
The web must not be removed until money has arrived.
• • •
Happiness: From the time the Romanies arrived in Britain in the fifteenth century, they protected themselves with a positive attitude. Whatever wasn't good wasn't worth thinking about, and they focused on their search for happiness and talismans forecasting good luck
Stone Spell
A stone with a hole through it is regarded as an amulet to ward off evil. It should be threaded on cord hung on or over a door, to act as an all-seeing eye.
☆It can also be used as a wishing stone. Wash the stone in running water to cleanse it. Write your wish, with chalk or a pen, on the stone. What you wish for is now "written in stone." Make sure your request is precise and leaves no room for loopholes.
When the sun is setting, face west and embed the stone in soil. Beside it place a piece of blue cord, blue cotton, or blue ribbon with a knot to represent your wish. Fill the hole in the stone with allspice. Sprinkle the spell with water and speak your wish while you cover it with soil.
The winds of change will bring your wish to you. Do not doubt, or think about your wish once you have buried your stone.
To meet with success
A Commanding Spell: This spell will place you on the threshold of success. It may also be used to increase your personal power before an important meeting.
☆Light a blue candle in front of a mirror. Sit at the mirror and stare into your own eyes in search of your soul.
Ask for a circle of gold light to be placed around you for protection and a circle of blue lights to be placed around you for healing. Repeat your name twenty-one times.
Then speak your wish and repeat it twenty-one times.
Blow out the candle and await success.
[Dang, I need to pick up some blue candles...]
The key to happiness
The Romanies believe that it is extremely lucky to find a key. It means that you will soon be opening a door to success in love, marriage, or work, or even something very specific, such as getting a new car. No matter the form, happiness is assured.
☆With a key at hand, light a white candle. Visualize the metaphorical door you wish to open with the key. On a piece of paper, draw a door that will open to your wish.
Pour some candle wax on the drawing of the door and place the key in the wax, to weld the two together. Let the wax cool. Fold the paper around the key to form a neat envelope or parcel. Generously seal all the edges with more wax from the candle. Blow out the candle.
At night, toss the parcel into a fire, imagining as vividly as possible the door you are passing through. Pour your passion into the flames and send your desires heavenward. The spell has been cast. Do not dwell on your wish, because such thoughts drag it back to earth and sap its energy. Have faith. Believe in the miracle, and it will happen.
Divinations
☆Rosemary divination: A sprig of rosemary can be used to divine a yes or no answer to a question. First, ask the question seven times. Then pluck a leaf from the sprig and say, "Yes." Pluck another sprig and say, "No." Continue alternating yes and no with each leaf you pick, until the sprig is bare. The last leaf you pick reveals the answer.
☆Hair divinations: Throw some hair into a fire. It is said to be a sign of long life if the hair flames up vigorously. It is an omen of ill health if it simply smolders away.
Another piece of lore: if a hairpin falls out, someone is thinking of you.
☆Water divination: Romany children play at divination using water and a stone to find the answer to a question.
Holding a stone, sit in front of a bowl of water and ask a question, one that can be answered with either a yes or a no.
Drop the stone into the water and carefully count the ripples it creates. An even number of ripples means yes; an odd number, no.
To have an object returned
These are easy remedies that will help you to regain an object that someone has failed to return.
☆Pick a convenient time of day when you will be able to sit undisturbed for five minutes. Will the object back into your life, and the thief will begin to feel uncomfortable, and will finally bring the missing item to you.
☆Another Romany remedy is to place a rose beside an object similar to the one that is missing. Love, symbolized by the rose, will prick someone's conscience and the object will be returned.
Birthday Spell
It is unlucky to cry on your birthday. If you do, it is said, you'll cry all year through. The traditional birthday wish is made by blowing out candles on a birthday cake, but you can also conjure up a happy year ahead with flowers.
☆Write your birthday wish on a piece of paper and keep it under a vase of flowers. Or plant a seed or bulb while you think of your wish, and your wish will grow with the plant.
To make friends with fate
Fate, it is said, may be influenced in your favor if you know your personal magic word.
☆To find it, light a white candle and sit facing south. Take a dictionary. Close your eyes and turn the book around several times sot hat you are unaware of which way it is facing.
Eyes closed, fan the pages until you feel compelled to stop at a certain page.
Eyes still closed, wander about the page using your forefinger until you feel inclined to pause. Open your eyes. Look at the word under your finger. If there is more than one word, pick the first that jumps out at you from the page. This is your magic word.
You can remind yourself of your magic word mentally or verbally whenever you wish to tune in to a situation, or whenever you feel you need a boost of energy. It will change the vibration around you and attract good influences.
To make a wish come true
☆One the day of the new moon, write your wish on a sheet of clean paper, then light a new, white votive candle. At this point turn off any artificial lighting that may be on.
For ten minutes, enjoy the flame's glow and think about the fulfillment of your wish. Then say; "As I sleep tonight, may the divine power of spiritual love and light grant my wish." While concentrating on your wish, burn the piece of paper in the flame. Leave the votive candle to burn out.
Repeat the spell at the same time on twelve consecutive nights. If you miss a night, begin the spell from day one.
☆Here is another way to make a wish come true. on the night of a new moon, write your wish on a bay leaf. Simply take the bay leaf outside and look at the moon, then kiss the leaf three times and sleep with it under your pillow.
Since the bay tree is governed by the sun and ruled by Leo, this charm is particularly potent when the sun is in Leo, between July 23rd and August 22nd.
To break a streak of bad luck
☆Go for a walk and pick up seven twigs from the ground, one to represent each day of the week. Traditionally, the twigs should be ash for Monday, beech for Tuesday, elm for Wednesday, oak for Thursday, horse chestnut for Friday, yew for Saturday, and elder for Sunday.
Take them home, snap them into pieces, and burn them in the hearth or a bonfire. Say:
Ill luck is broken,
As these words are spoken.
To deter an unwanted visitor
☆To avoid being revisited by an unwanted caller, all you need is salt. Immediately after they have made their departure, sprinkle salt, which is regarded as a purifier and a protection against evil forces, on the ground where they said goodbye.
To remove a problem
☆Write a problem on the sole of an old shoe. Put the shoe on, stamp on the problem three times, then take the shoe off and burn it in a fire.
☆Another method is to write your problem on a piece of paper. Dig a hole, place the paper inside, and bury it along with a piece of copper, a piece of iron, and some zinc.
☆The simplest remedy is to write your problem on a piece of paper and throw it into a fire.
