by Renee Damoiselle
Whether you’re a longtime practitioner of magick or a newby witch, these tips will help you to power up your spells and your life! Enjoy!
Part 1 – Maintaining your Magickal Prowess:
The first five tips here are related to making sure you are fit and ready to do spell work when you need it. These five practices help to keep your mind and consciousness in tip-top shape as a magickal practitioner.
If you’re not practicing these things on a regular basis, just don’t do magick. It won’t work the way you want it to.
For the sake of keeping this article from becoming novel-length, I’ll boil it down to the bare minimum of basics.
1. Meditate
A regular practice of meditation is the single most important tool in my magickal arsenal.
It’s really difficult to narrow down the benefits a meditation practice affords to a witch in her craft, but I’ll just give you a short list of the things you need to cultivate, that meditation can give you:
Improved physical health, clearer focus, visualization skills, stress reduction, anxiety relief, detachment, self-possession and composure, connection to source/deity, etc., etc., ad infinitum!
If you think you can’t meditate, find a way. I promise you that unless you cultivate this practice, your magick will never gain the power, accuracy and effectiveness that you desire.
2. Dream Journal.
Your dreams are a portal to your inner life.
Ever notice, if you become lucid in a dream, how easy it is to manifest in that dream world? Wouldn’t it be great if you could translate that power to your waking existence?
Well, you can – with lots of practice, insight and work. Pay attention to your night-time dreams.
Write them down. Some will be meaningless but some may give you profound insights about what spells to cast and how to carry them out.
A dream, well examined, may even give you inspiration for healing that will make the spell you were thinking of casting unnecessary.
These are important clues to your own psyche. And the one thing that I always teach my students before they begin any kind of spellcraft is, “Know Thyself!”
3. Make Regular Offerings.
Many spells involve calling on deities or spirits for assistance. Cultivating a relationship with those beings is essential to your success.
It’s like building credit. If you’ve never had a checking account or a loan of any kind and you want to buy a house and obtain a mortgage loan, you will have difficulty.
Yes, there are lenders who will work with you, but what kind of deal will you get and what kind of sacrifices must you make in order to get it?
It’s the same with spirits and deities. If you are a stranger to them, where is their motivation to help you?
But, if you make small, but meaningful, sincere and grateful offerings every day (such as incense or lighting a candle, bits of food or fresh water) to the local spirits where you live, to the deities of your choice (preferably ones that align with your purpose), then you are a known entity.
You have forged a relationship and have shown that you can be thankful, loyal and helpful to them, making them more willing to bestow blessings upon you in your endeavors.
4. Shadow Integration.
Further to the idea that every magickal practitioner should “Know Herself” before endeavoring in spellwork is the practice of Shadow Integration.
The desires of our conscious mind are quite frequently at odds with the desires of our unconscious.
I believe that we create our own lives. And when we create hardship, difficulty, even tragedy, there must be a part of ourselves that truly desires to experience that.
Unless we uncover, understand and give permission to that part of ourselves, then we are divided. And a house divided cannot stand.
Your magick will not have much power without the cooperation and support of your unconscious will.
So you must integrate. Now, there are many methods and many paths to doing this kind of work. Find one that works for you.
And if you want to know more, consider working with me toward that end with one of my coaching packages.
5. Use Your Words!
“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”
I know, I know! I’m writing for witches and I’m quoting the bible. But many different scriptures point to this idea. Words are profoundly important.
And this goes really deep for a witch working magick. Words used in witchcraft and spellwork are absolutely vital. We craft incantations to bring about very specific desires.
But your word, in general, should also be impeccable (as in Don Miguel Ruiz’ book The Four Agreements). Every word has meaning and power in it.
If you are casting spells to improve your life i.e., to bring you prosperity or that new job you want or the love of your life, but you post a “FML” status on Facebook, you are working against yourself.
EVERYTHING COUNTS. And the words you use regularly, habitually, continually can easily gain more power than that beautiful incantation you wrote for a spell you’re performing on the full moon.
Think about it. You utter it once – or perhaps chant it a few times during your ritual, but the other 30 days of the month you are speaking about your lack.
You must become hyper-vigilant about keeping your everyday discussion and use of words, in print or in voice, in alignment with the things that you work on in your magickal life.
Speak in such a way that every word can cast a spell for your good and the good of others.
It’s not easy and it cannot be accomplished to perfection, but become aware and make changes where you can. This will give you so much more power than you can imagine.
Part 2 – Preparing for Spellcraft/When and When not to Cast:
There is a time for a spell and there is a time to wait. Sometimes knowing when, and when not, to cast is just as important as the components of the spell itself.
Following are some tips to help you determine when is the right time and to prepare for the spell you want to cast.
6. Question Everything.
Once you’ve an idea to work a spell, start questioning it. Play your own devil’s advocate. Ask yourself why you want this outcome.
Try to ascertain whether you really want it with your whole will. (See #4) The depth and breadth of your questioning, of course, should be commensurate with the scope of the spell.
If it’s a simple spell for some fast cash, you may not spend as much time on this step as you would if it is a spell to change your whole career and start a new life.
Broad scope spells have a much higher chance of yielding questionable results. Explore the possible outcomes.
You may have in your mind that a great new job is offered to you in your chosen profession in a city where you’d love to live.
But what might happen instead is that you lose your current job, causing a move to another city to be necessary to reduce expenses, followed by a struggle to obtain a position in the career of your choosing. (Note: this type of result can be largely mitigated by practicing step 4 above.)
And if you’re okay with either route, then that’s fine, but just ask the questions and be sure, at the outset that you’re ready for the possibilities. And, by the way, knowing yourself, as is facilitated by steps 1-5 is extremely helpful in this endeavor.
7. Clean Your Side of the Street.
If your spellcraft involves other people and if your working has anything to do with something that was done by someone else, you’ll want to pay special attention to this step.
Check your intentions and motives. Examine the situation as objectively as you can and look for the possibility that you may have misunderstood something or that there may be a way to solve this issue with relationship work, talking or a simple apology and an opening of a door to healing.
Make sure that you’ve done all you can, personally, to solve the issue before resorting to magick. Which brings us to….
8. Actual WORK.
There is footwork to be done in the mundane world in order to set the stage for any magick to work.
If your spell is about a job, you’d better get your resume in order and be searching the want ads, or networking in your field.
If your spell is to sell your house and find that home of your dreams, you’d better have contacted a realtor, saved up some money for closing expenses and tidied up and repaired your house to the best of your abilities.
Do the earthly work that will help your magic work. You may even find that taking this step eliminates the need for magick. Do everything in your power in the material realm first. Then do your spell, if you still need to.
Part 3 – Now that You’ve decided to Wield that Magic Wand:
Ok, so you’ve decided to do a spell. Let’s get down and dirty with the crafting of something truly magickal!
9. Study the Greats!
I struggled a little with the idea of including this step with the top five.
It sort of belongs in both places. By “the Greats”, what I mean is great magicians of literature, wise sages of magickal workings, those powerhouses of mystical theory and history that have forged the way for the witchy revolution that is taking place these days.
Gerald Gardner, Alex and Maxine Sanders, Dione Fortune, Doreen Valiente, Aleister Crowley, Eliphas Levi.
And go back further to Hermes Trismegistus, Heraclitus, Plato, Ptolemy, King Solomon.
The list is endless and study of their work and philosophies is valuable any time.
But before your spell begins, try to do some research into the specifics of that spell in history. We have modern greats too!
There are so many great magickal “cookbooks” out there! Check out the work of Judika Illes in the “Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells” and Dorothy Morrison in “Utterly Wicked”.
The point is, study up on the type of magick you wish to perform. Gather ideas. Check correspondences. Do your homework.
10. Align With the Cosmos.
Timing can be very important to some spells. You must pay attention to things like moon phases, astrological positions, void of course intervals.
I don’t plan every single spell that I do around all of these factors, but I do consider them and decide whether to postpone or speed up my process depending on the positions and influences of the celestial bodies.
11. Divine.
It is a great idea to do a divination regarding the spell you want to cast. You can gain information about the possible outcomes and the things you need to know or do to help make it a success.
I usually use Tarot, which is a great indicator as to your own psyche’s readiness for the outcome as well as advisor on possible components to include in the crafting of the working.
But if your preferred form of divination is something different, have at it. It’s just a good idea to do this before casting for those extra insights you may need. And upon divining you should…
12. Use your Intuition.
Once you’ve done all of this footwork, then, trust yourself.
Use your own innate wisdom and intuition, fueled by the personal power you’ve cultivated in steps 1 through 5, the introspection and mundane channels you’ve gained from steps 6 through 9, and all of the knowledge acquired through this step to decide exactly how to cast this fabulous spell.
You’ve done the work, now wave that wand, witch!
13. Look for Synchronicities – and Acknowledge Successes!
Once you’ve cast your spell, with confidence in its outcome, of course, keep aware.
Notice the small synchronicities that usually show up while the magick does its work. You may see little indications that your magick is afoot!
For example, continuing with the example of that new career spell, perhaps you will see a logo for a company you’d love to work for which has an image that precisely matches something from your spell.
Take that as the sign that it is and get your resume in front of a decision-maker in that company.
Acknowledge and appreciate when you see these indications of the change you desire.
Happy Witching!
IN CONCLUSION
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About the Author:
Renée Damoiselle is a Worldly Wise Crone Witch with personal ties to warrior deities. Her “raised eyebrow” style of Truth-Telling enables her clients to face the realities of their challenges and triumphs with confidence and humor (each when necessary). Renée offers divination and coaching combining Cartomancy, Reiki, Skrying, Mediumship and a healthy dose of good old common sense. She also offers many workshops and talks and facilitates women’s spiritual retreats. Friend her on Facebook.
Check out this site for all the details on Renee’s Retreats!
For more about Renée, read her blog.
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