Witchcraft 101: Core concepts (energy work)
You’ve probably heard “energy work” mentioned, or at least one of the following terms: grounding, shielding, cleansing, raising, charging, visualising, casting. You’ll see these terms in spells and rituals as well as textbooks and theoretical discussions. There are other posts for theory; this post aims to give a rundown of multiple basic concepts of energy work to get you up and running. (Or at least, to help you understand other posts.) Bear in mind that much of this is personal opinion. Since everyone sees energy differently, in my “how-tos” I’ll refer to energy generally - fill in your own views.
Also, in my methods, I mention “get comfortable” a lot - exactly what that means varies, depending on what I’m doing and wearing, but generally, stop fiddling with anything, and make sure you’re in a comfortable position, whatever the position is. You could be standing, sitting, lying down, moving, dancing - whatever, so long as you’re comfortable.
I consider visualisation to be a core concept to energy work in general. Visualisation is, essentially, thought. It’s imagination and memory and emotions all rolled up into one. (This is heavy on personal opinion, by the way.) Visualisation is what makes your intent for a spell come to fruition; if you aren’t holding your intent (i.e. thinking about/visualising it) while casting it, you can’t expect your spell to work the way you intended it to.
As mentioned above, everyone sees energy differently, and your way may not be the same as mine. My basic visualisation method can be seen in the way I do any time of energy work: I get comfortable, close my eyes and steady my breath, and I focus on feeling and “seeing” the energy around me (I view all energy as white, incidentally). Say I’m cleansing something, my first step is to hold the object, focus on how it feels (is it cold, smooth, rough?) and “see” it glowing with a white light (energy). Then I’ll move onto cleansing it (see below).
Your method will be different, but you could start with this or look through other posts for ideas.
Grounding, basically, is all about ridding yourself of unwanted energy/getting your energy in balance. I kind of view it as a warm-up: you’re getting yourself in the right frame of mind and the right physical state before a workout (or spell).
How do you ground yourself?
Everyone has their own techniques, and in time, you’ll develop yours. This is my routine:
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
As you exhale, imagine unwanted energy leaving your body.
As you inhale, imagine the energy you want and need pulling comfortably around you.
Continue for as long as you like.
Many people like to visualise different places, or contact with nature. Try different techniques and take what you like from them, and just go with what works for you.
Cleansing is like setting a device back to factory settings, or washing the dishes so they can be used again. You cleanse something to rid it of any unwanted energies - kind of like grounding, but for something that isn’t you. You could cleanse spaces and objects, and it’s generally a good idea to cleanse any items you’ve used before as well as the space you’re using before beginning a spell. It’s also generally a good idea to cleanse anything you use for divination, like tarot cards and pendulums (but I totally don’t cleanse them as often as I should). You can use just visualisation, or you can use tools - water, salt, incense and sage are all pretty common tools for cleansing.
My method for objects that you can hold:
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Hold the item and focus on how it feels - its shape, size, temperature, texture, and scent.
While holding the item, now focus on how it looks (with or without opening your eyes) - its colour, decorations, the way the light falls/reflects on it.
Still holding the item, visualise energy glowing/pulsing around the object.
Still holding the item, visualise the energy flowing away from the object, leaving it without any glowing energy.
Continue until you feel like the object is cleansed.
My method for a space, area, or room:
Clear the space you plan on using (physically - move unwanted objects out of the way, pick up any rubbish etc).
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Mark the parameters of the space you’re going to use (this can be a whole room or just part of one - just mentally or physically figure out where the “ends” of your spell space are). I generally walk around the edges of my space.
Focus on how the space around you feels and looks - temperature, light, textures etc.
Visualise energy glowing/pulsing within the boundaries of your space.
Visualise energy flowing away from the space - if you have a broom, you could sweep the area while visualising the energy moving away as you sweep. You could also use incense or herb bundles while visualising energy moving away from the smoke as you move through the space.
Continue until you feel like the space is cleansed.
Basically, warding is putting up a shield to stop anything unwanted interfering with your spell, tools, ingredients, intent, belongings, etc.. It’s like an antivirus on a device, or a lock on a door. You could put up wards around your spell space, your home, yourself, anything you own, other people (with their consent) - pretty much anything.
My method for putting up wards:
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Mark the parameters of the space or thing you’re putting up wards around (this could be running your finger around a crystal, walking around an area, stretching your arms and legs out to mark the parameters of your body, etc.)
Focus on how the space or thing feels and looks - temperature, light, textures etc.
Visualise energy glowing/pulsing within the space or thing.
Visualise unwanted energy flowing away from the space - like with cleansing, you could use incense or a broom to aid your visualisation.
Visualise “walls” growing up, over and under the space or object. It’s important that the walls connect, and there aren’t any gaps (unless you want to visualise, say, a door that you can enter and leave from).
Continue until you feel like the space or thing is warded.
Raising energy is like creating or compiling energy with a specific purpose (intent). Up until now, we’ve been looking at ways of using energy to prepare yourself, your environment and your tools for spells - raising energy is a bit different. The energy that we raise has a specific intent, and generally, we want to use that intent somehow - like in a spell.
There are so, so many different ways to raise energy - such as music, chanting, dancing, walking, laughing, exercising, and a whole bunch of others. You can also raise energy by visualisation alone - as I describe here.
My method for raising energy:
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
If they aren’t already, position your hands so that your palms are open.
Focus on what you want to happen - your intent.
Visualise energy pulsing from your fingertips. The energy moves over your fingers and towards your palm, where it collects. As you do this, keep focusing on your intent.
Visualise the energy, now in your palm, growing larger and larger. As you do this, keep focusing on your intent.
Continue until you feel you have the energy you wanted, or for as long as you like.
If you’re raising energy from, say, dancing, you might visualise the energy coming from your feet or body instead - I adapt this depending on the activity, but I always like to have a way to “gather” energy in one area. This could be your whole spell area, or it could be an area like the palm of your hand - whatever works for you and the activity.
Charging is drawing on energy from elsewhere and putting it into an object to give that object intent. Think charging your phone, or laptop. You can also take energy you’ve raised and put it into an object - the energy can come from anywhere. People often have specific correspondences for different sources, however - so think about the source of the energy if you aren’t raising it yourself.
How do you charge something?
Like with raising energy, there are entirely too many methods to list here. Some examples include leaving objects in sunlight or moonlight and bathing it in water or fire. You can pretty much do anything, so don’t be afraid to experiment. If you’re raising energy, you can just put it straight into the object (see the method below). If you’re charging something without raising energy yourself, then you can skip this and consider it charged after as much or as little time as you think works.
My method for charging objects:
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Visualise the energy, now in your palm, growing larger and larger. (This is the energy collected by raising energy, with a specific intent.)
Hold the object you want to charge (with one hand if you visualised the energy going to one palm, or with both hands if you visualised the energy going to both palms) and visualise the energy flowing into the object from your palm(s). Continue focusing on your intent as you do this.
Continue until you feel that all the energy you raised is now in the object, or for as long as you like.
Once you’ve charged an object, you can leave it indefinitely and use it in a later spell (though if you’re forgetful like me, you might want to put a post-it near it reminding you what you’re using it for).
Casting is guiding your energy towards the outcome you want. For me, this is the most important part of any spell - this is when you put all that work into making shit happen. So it’s important to be very, very specific. Don’t just focus on needing a job. Focus on finding a job that is right for you, will help you meet your professional goals (you can be specific about the goals, too) and will meet your needs (availability, hours, pay, travel time, benefits etc.), and finding that job at a time that suits you. This is also where you can really have fun with visualising!
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Hold the object(s) you’ve charged, or your spell (if it’s a tangible thing, like spell bags, candles, food etc.).
Visualise the situation you want to happen. As described, be specific. If you’re looking for a job, you could visualise a “you’re hired” email, dated at some point that suits you, with the above information that suits you - the hours you want, the pay you want, etc. Morph that situation into your first day, meeting friendly and efficient coworkers and management, then six months or a year into your new job. Visualise yourself feeling productive, happy, and relaxed. Visualise yourself at a review, hearing that you’re doing well and you’ve made great progress.
Now visualise the energy in your spell moving “towards” that situation. (I like to “keep” the situation in one part of my spell space, usually in the air in front of me, so I can “see” the energy from the spell I’m holding moving towards it.
Continue until you feel that all the energy from your spell has “made it” to the situation, or for as long as you like.
So, this looks like quite a lot. I promise it’s easier in practice, especially once you’ve done it a few times. Also, remember that this is a post that largely focuses on visualisation - you can minimise effort by charging objects in light or water (aka leaving them on a windowsill for a few hours) instead of by using visualisation to raise power and charge them.
In practice, a routine for a spell might look like:
Cleanse your space, and any tools or ingredients you’re going to use.
Raise power (you could raise power individually for individual ingredients, or all at once for all your ingredients).
Charge your ingredients (either individually, or all at once).
Personally, I can do the first 3 in about 5-10 minutes altogether. The last three are more time-consuming, and could take 5-10 minutes each, per item. So a quick, simple spell with no ingredients could be cast in 15 minutes (I would just skip charging and put the raised energy straight to casting). Let’s take an example of a kitchen spell, making soup:
Cleanse space, tools, ingredients.
Put up wards around the kitchen.
Raise power while doing food prep.
Charge ingredients through stirring - energy goes into the soup through the wooden spoon.
Leave to simmer and continue charging.
When I do kitchen magic, I’m already doing most of this just by cooking. I just add more visualisation in, and put some thought into the ingredients, and I have a spell!
I hope this helps! You might find my other posts helpful:
The problem with correspondence lists
How to correspondence: food & herbs
How to correspondence: when to spell
What to use: food & herbs
When to spell: by moon phases
When to spell: by time of day
When to spell: by day of the week
titsay
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amandla
theartofmadeline
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