CHAPTER 16

Spellcraft: The Techniques of Magick

t the heart of each ritual, unless it is a ritual of celebration such as a sabbat, is a spell—a magickal working directed toward a specific goal. A spell may be extremely elaborate or bare-bones simple, solemn or light-hearted, lengthy or quick. It may involve candles or herbs, crystals or parchment talismans, words of power or silent meditation, runes or cord magick, dancing or drumming, singing or chanting, or quiet breathing exercises. To an observer, it might look like a dazzling theater production, full of music, special lighting, and choreographed dance and colorful costumes; or it might look like a person sitting in an empty room doing nothing. Yet all spells are aimed at vivid and accurate communication with Younger Self, whether they are ceremonial or intrinsic in style, whether nature-oriented or kitchen witch magick.

The spells that follow are samples for you to consider; they can be worked “as is,” but will be more effective if you adapt them to your own style. All of them should be performed in the context of a fully cast circle, with asperging and quarters and all the trimmings, at least until you are more experienced and have a clear sense of when the circle is necessary and when it may be dispensed with.

The more emotional and psychic intensity you can build, and the more clearly you focus on your goal, the more effective your magick will be. Remember always to consider the ethics of a spell before it is cast. If there is any possibility that it will manipulate or affect another individual without their express, informed permission, then discard the spell and design a better one. You should, of course, spend as much time and energy planning how you will “act in accord” as you do planning the ritual.

With these guidelines in mind, let us look at a few sample spells.

A Spell to Become Calm and Centered

Equipment

A very smooth, rounded stone, smaller than your fist, and some soothing recorded music.

The Spell

Cast your circle. Sit while holding the stone and listening to the music at home, or in the outdoors if the weather is nice. Breathe deeply and rhythmically. Begin inhaling through your mouth, then exhaling through your mouth with a long, steady humming note. With each exhalation, make the note smoother and draw it out longer. Breathe your tension and anxiety into the stone. When you feel calm and centered, put the stone on the ground, open the circle, and walk away. The stone will dissipate the tension into the earth to be transmuted; if you wish, you can retrieve the stone in a day or two for later use.

Acting in Accord

Be sure you are eating well (no sugar or nasty chemicals, please!) and getting plenty of rest and exercise. Meditate on the causes of your upset, and either find ways to eliminate them from your life or to transform your attitude and perceptions so that they become positive for you.

A Spell for Easing Grief or Sadness

Equipment

Any memorabilia that tend to powerfully evoke the sadness: letters, pictures, gifts, etc.; an object that reminds you of some upcoming event that is likely to bring you pleasure (it can be an upcoming holiday or a gathering of your group, for example); and blankets and pillows.

The Spell

Cast your circle. Sit while holding the memorabilia, and allow the feelings to come freely. Say aloud why you are sad. It’s okay to cry, yell, or pound. Find a key phrase that expresses your grief and say it out loud, over and over. Now visualize yourself being held closely in the arms of the Mother Goddess, who rocks and comforts you. Swathe yourself in the blankets and pillows, and rock gently back and forth as you feel her warm embrace.

After a while, look at the memorabilia again, and recall that in the circle, all time is now. What you once had, you always have in your heart, as long as you don’t shut it out. What you were given was real and helped mold your life, and can never be taken away as long as you remember and cherish it. Remember the good times, and when you are ready, thank the Lady that you had them.

Now bring out the object that reminds you of the coming event: a visit to a favorite friend or relative, a special holiday, or a conference that should be exciting. Remind yourself that life goes on, that there is still much to look forward to: this is only a tiny sample of the good times ahead for you. Ask the Mother Goddess to heal your pain. Open the circle, and go visit a friend.

Acting in Accord

After you have visited the friend, sit down and rethink your goals in life. Do not rush out to find or recapture what you miss or have lost, but focus a while on matters like your health, your career, and learning new skills. Be gentle with yourself, but not indulgent. Spend special time often with a variety of tried and true friends, or in a congenial group.

A Spell for Employment

Equipment

A lodestone, or a small but powerful magnet from a hardware store.

The Spell

Cast your circle. Holding the stone or magnet, imagine vividly the kind of job you want and the feelings you will have while working there. Do not imagine names, the appearance of the workplace, or other details that might limit your choices. Speak aloud the qualifications you have for holding such a job, and ask aloud that you find it within a certain number of days. Raise power and charge the stone by dancing or breathing. Ground the energy and open the circle. The following day, have the stone or magnet with you as you make six job contacts, and make precisely six contacts a day until you have the job you desire.

Acting in Accord

In making the job contacts, be sure you have a well-written résumé and appear at interviews neatly dressed, confident, and relaxed. Do not limit your possibilities to the classified ads; tell everyone you know that you are looking for employment, and ask them if they know of openings or leads. Also, call companies or organizations that you admire, where you believe you would enjoy working. Ask to speak to the personnel director about future possibilities with them, even if nothing is available right now. Call back at intervals. Consider jobs that fall outside the narrow field you’ve trained for; stay open, be curious—ask, ask, ask.

A Spell for a House Blessing

Equipment

Bells, light blue candles, ritual oil, a large quartz crystal, several pieces of onyx or obsidian, a few pieces of rose quartz (two for each door into the house), salt water, rosemary, magickal friends.

Before the Spell

“Weed” your belongings and give any excess away to charity, throw out the junk. Clean your yard, and make the house inviting to those you wish to welcome.

The Spell

This consists of three steps: cleansing, blessing, and sealing (protection). Assemble your group and attune, but do not cast the circle right away. Beginning at the heart of the house, where you have placed the large crystal, proceed deosil through every room and level, ringing the bells and asperging with salt water. At the heart, attune again; then go through the house a second time, this time with the candles, and sprinkle rosemary in every room. You may want to sing or chant a blessing rhyme, such as “Goddess, bless this house below; Hornéd God, bless this house above; keep it safe by day and night, fill it with your power and love.” Then return to the heart, attune, and cast the circle. Seated, with linked hands, chant wordlessly (or use “Evohe” or “Mm”), and with a swelling, powerful circle of sound, expand the magick circle until it encloses all the house and grounds. Then proceed one last time, with ritual oil and stones. The large crystal stays at the heart of the house, where it has been charged by the chanting. An onyx or obsidian ward is placed over each door, and a Spirit-invoking pentagram is drawn with oil over every opening—door and window, fireplace or vent. Two rose quartz pieces are placed on either side of each door into the house. The group returns to the heart for singing and refreshments. Leave the circle up and expand it into the outer walls of the house.

Once the initial cleansing is done, merriment and humor are not out of place at a house blessing: they can set the tone for many happy times to come. If you want a chant or poem on the light side, then use this at some point in the process:

“This home be safe from tigers wild,

Here only tame things domiciled;

No boggle, troll, nor grinch allowed,

Nor motley mob nor creeping crowd.

Bless everything within these walls,

No matter if it sits or crawls.

Let mild weather be inside,

For those who ’neath this rooftree bide;

And too, if not enlightenment

Then pizza, love, and merriment.

And if these lines seem slightly odd,

Be glad at least they mostly rhyme.”

Acting in Accord

Lock your house when you leave, keep your kitchen clean and your bed made, and burn incense once a week to purify your home. Repeat this spell as often as you need to.

A Spell for Love

Equipment

Two candles, one white, one in your favorite color; two candleholders; a rose-colored altar cloth; a piece of red chalk.

The Spell

Cast your circle. In the circle, ground and center. Meditate on all the preconceived ideas you have about the perfect partner. Maybe you have a particular candidate in mind for romance. Release the thought of that person (it would be most unethical to work magick to make a certain person love you; this would violate their free will and put you in jeopardy by the Law of Return). Release all notions of what your perfect lover will look like, or do for a career, or even sound like. These are externals, and if you cling to them, then you run the risk of overlooking your ideal mate simply because your conscious mind was focused on superficialities.

When your mind is clear and open, hold the candle of your favorite color: this represents you. Meditate, then speak aloud all the qualities and energies you are willing to bring to an intimate relationship, such as: “Honesty, daily expression of affection, good humor even in difficult times, and the ability to listen carefully and sensitively,” and so on.

Replace that candle on the altar, and pick up the white one. This represents your ideal partner, whoever she or he may be. Speak aloud the essential qualities you desire in a mate, and ask Aphrodite to bring you together in this lifetime.

Then place the two candles in their holders at opposite ends of the altar. Draw a heart on the center with the red chalk, large enough for both candle holders. Each day thereafter, meditate on the perfect loving relationship for a few minutes, and move the two candles an inch closer together. If you started on the new moon, then by the full moon the candles should be touching in the center of the heart. When they meet, draw two more hearts around the first one, raise energy by singing your favorite love song (or singing along with a recording), and charge the candles. Keep the circle up throughout, letting yourself in and out by cutting a “gate” with your athame, and only take the circle down after the whole ritual is complete.

Acting in Accord

Keep your antennae out during the days this ritual continues. Mingle a lot, and open yourself to be more attentive, perceptive, and receptive than you normally are. Extend yourself to others with compliments, friendly conversation, and little kindnesses. Look at old friends and acquaintances with new eyes, and see whether dropping your preconceptions might allow old affections to blossom into a greater love.

A Spell for Prosperity

Equipment

Some money and/or pictures of cash, checks, and jewels to place on the altar (assuming you are working for material prosperity); drums.

The Spell

Please note that doing magick for wealth is not wrong or irreverent, always assuming that you use the wealth in positive ways. The money is placed on the altar not as an object of worship, but as a symbol to your Deep Mind of what you intend to obtain. You may wish to place a Goddess statue or other religious symbol behind the symbolic wealth as a reminder that money is not, after all, the ultimate in value.

Then proceed. Cast your circle. While standing up, drum and chant to raise power. Your chant can be something as simple as, “Wealth, wealth, come to me, I deserve prosperity.” As the power moves toward its peak, imagine a huge transparent funnel over you and huge amounts of cash, checks, and other forms of wealth cascading down through it to pile up around you (or, at least, enough for your needs plus some to donate to worthy causes). Give thanks for the wealth you know to be headed your way, and open the circle.

Acting in Accord

Now is the time to seek a job if you don’t have one, or ask for a raise, or a promotion, or look for a better-paying position. Consider new ventures, call in old debts, ask the counsel of friends and acquaintances who are financially successful. Open yourself to prosperity gained “with harm toward none, and for the greatest good of all.” When prosperity begins to arrive, give some of it freely to worthy causes such as environmental organizations or charities, and invest some in solid enterprises that will multiply your investment. Always give thanks, and more than thanks.

A Spell for Safe Travel

Equipment

A piece of malachite or malachite jewelry and a map showing the route to your destination.

The Spell

Cast your circle. Invoke Mercury, god of travel, and Iris, the rainbow-messenger goddess, and ask them to guard you as you go. Sing or breathe to raise power, and charge the malachite. Then trace it along the route on the map, visualizing yourself traveling in comfort and safety; if you intend to stop along the way, pause there when the stone reaches that spot on the map. Otherwise, move it in a smooth, uninterrupted line. Carry the stone with you when you go, or place it in the vehicle. And as you travel, visualize a huge pentagram of white light, encircled, surrounding the car, plane, train, or ship in which you travel.

Acting in Accord

If you are driving, be sure your car is checked for safety before you leave. Get plenty of rest the night before, and stop occasionally along the way to stretch. Do not drive if you begin to get drowsy, and do not rely on candy, pop, or coffee to keep you going—they may perk you up temporarily, but the following plunge in your blood-sugar level can be dangerous.

A Spell for Self-Blessing

Equipment

A chalice of wine or pure water, a candle (white or pale blue), a little salt, and a beautiful, fresh rose.

The Spell

Cast your circle. This is adapted from one in A Book of Pagan Rituals by Herman Slater. Once the circle is cast and your favorite deities are invoked, sprinkle the salt on the floor or ground, and stand, skyclad, on it. Hold the candle for a few moments, feeling its warmth and comfort. Then take up the chalice, breathe deeply, and lift the chalice to the image of Goddess as you visualize her before you. Say the following aloud:

“Bless me, Mother, for I am your child.”

Dip your fingers into the chalice and anoint your eyes, saying:

“Blessed be my eyes, that I may clearly see thy path before me.”

Anoint your lips, saying:

“Blessed be my lips, that I may speak thy truth.”

Anoint your breast, saying:

“Blessed be my breast, that I may love well and feel thy love for me.”

Anoint your loins, saying:

“Blessed be my loins, which bring forth life and pleasure, as thou hast brought forth all creation to please thee.”

Anoint your hands, saying:

“Blessed be my hands, that I may do thy work with strength and skill.”

Anoint your feet, saying:

“Blessed be my feet, that I may ever walk in thy ways.”

Present yourself with the rose, knowing that it is her gift of love and blessing to you.

Holding the rose, meditate quietly for a while, playing a CD of beautiful music if you wish. Close the circle quietly, with gratitude.

Acting in Accord

Take care of yourself, giving yourself as much respect and attention as you would your best friend. Allow yourself proper nutrition and enough rest and recreation. Dress more elegantly and carefully than usual, in some of your favorite clothes. Give yourself a special treat: a night out with friends, a small present, a trip to someplace you have always enjoyed. Consider whether there are parts of your life that make you bored or unhappy, and plan now to change them.

A Spell for Self-Confidence

Equipment

Four objects connected with your skills or successes (anything from bowling trophies to woodcarving tools to cookie cutters); red cloths for wall hangings and the altar; brass candlesticks with red candles; a large golden sun symbol, if you can make or find one; and red clothing for yourself.

The Spell

After the circle is cast, the quarters called and Deity invoked (almost any deities will do, but solar goddesses [Amaterasu Omikami, Bast, Arinna] and gods [Ra, Helios, Apollo] are especially appropriate), pick up the first of your success objects and face the east. Display it to the guardians of that quarter, and explain what it is and how it represents a success in your life. Say aloud, “I am confident!” Visualize the energy before you and inhale deeply, saying in a strong voice, “I have the power of Air!” Repeat the process in the south (Fire), the west (Water), and the north (Earth). Then stand in the center of the circle, surrounded by your power objects, and meditate on all that you have achieved in your life: the obstacles you have overcome, the goals you have attained. If you wish, play stirring music while you do this. Then lift your arms and say in a mighty voice, “I am Spirit!” Close the circle, giving thanks to the deities for their gift of confidence. Wear something red on your person for the next six days.

Acting in Accord

For several days, focus your energies on those areas where you already are successful and confident, and spend extra time with people who admire your competence. When you tackle a new project in an unfamiliar field, ask yourself what skills, knowledge, and techniques you bring to it from other areas in which you have already proven yourself.

A Spell for Self-Healing

Equipment

A cord to tie about your waist, a pair of scissors, and a large chalice of pure, cool water.

The Spell

Once the circle is cast, invoke a healer god (such as Aesclepius or Apollo) and a healer goddess (such as Brigit or Hygeia). Meditate for a while on the feelings you have about your illness or injury. Are you frustrated? Angry? Afraid? Concentrate all the negative feelings into the cord you are wearing about your waist. Whisper to yourself, “Peace and love and healing wait without.” Then cut the cord and all it contains, and cast it away from you, shouting “I release all anger, fear, and frustration!” Sit quietly for several moments, inhaling peace and relaxation.

Then begin to remember how it felt to be healthy and strong. Keep breathing deeply. Cup your hands, and fill them with a ball of glowing rose-colored light, with all the health and strength you recall poured into it. Keep breathing health and healing into the ball until you can feel it tangibly in your hands. Slowly place the ball into the water in the chalice. Lift the chalice, saying: “Great God and Goddess, I release my illness (injury) and accept the blessings of healing you offer me.” Drink all the water, feeling its energy pouring through every cell of your body. Open the circle and wash the scissors and chalice.

Acting in Accord

Get plenty of rest, pure water, natural foods, sunlight, and whatever mild exercise you can handle. Spend time with good friends and loved ones. Follow the counsel of a trusted healer or physician. Repeat the chalice spell, but during the rest of the time, focus your attention on creative projects that intrigue you. Think about the lessons you might have to learn from this experience, but do not dwell on them constantly. Trust your body and Younger Self to heal as soon as the time is right.

Techniques

The spells shown here include a smattering of various magickal techniques, but there are many more to choose from. Every magician eventually finds particular tools or specialties that become favorites. Each of these deserves a book to itself, and most of them have been dealt with at length by various authors. Here, I can simply list them and advise you to seek instruction from a reputable and experienced practitioner.

• Words of power (affirmations, charms, incantations)
• Candle magick
• Trancework
• Cord magick
• Symbols, sigils, and images
• Herbal magick
• Thoughtforms
• Auras and chakra work
• Pathworking on the Tree of Life (Qabala)
• Power animals, totems, and familiars
• Gem and stone magick
• Amulets and talismans
• Runecraft
• Tree lore and magick
• Dreamwork
• Oils and incenses
• Drumming
• Earth currents, ley lines, and dowsing
• Mudras or sacred gestures
• Sacred dance

Of course, the magickal systems of different cultures each have their own specialties.

You may be drawn to the tree magick of the Celts, Jungian-Senoi dreamwork, the Jivaro approach to power animals, Chinese feng shui (knowledge of Earth’s power currents, directions, and spatial relationships), Norse runecraft, Zuni fetishes, or the Seneca method of stone divination.

Be careful, however, about mixing techniques from various systems: this is a challenge best suited to those who have a solid knowledge of the fundamentals and a strong magico-religious framework in which to fit the pieces. Most practitioners of magick begin by learning the skills special to their religious tradition, and after a few years’ training begin to include or adapt compatible techniques from other systems.

To simply grab bits and pieces here and there, without understanding their origins or relating them to an overall model of reality or system of ethics, is to act like a crow snatching up any little shiny thing it encounters; at best you would have a jumble of odds and ends that you would not know how to use effectively. So it is worthwhile investing a great deal of time and effort in establishing a foundation before you reach too far afield for additional material.

There are many books full of spell “recipes,” and these can be fun to explore. But when you read someone else’s spell, even the ones above, always ask yourself three questions:

“Is it ethical?”

“Do I understand how it is meant to work, why it is organized as it is, and why it includes the things it does?”

“How could I adapt it to work better for me?”

Remember always that the magick is in the magician, not the spell. A well-constructed spell is a tool, period. When someone asks me whether a given spell is effective, my immediate response is: “For whom, in what circumstances?”

Exercises Toward Mastery

1: Practicing One Priority Spell

Choose three of the spells in this chapter that address your needs. Then pick the one that focuses on your greatest need, and perform the spell as written here. Make notes in your magickal journal afterward.

2: Adapting the Spell

Now go over the spell bit by bit, and recall how it felt. Rewrite the spell with changes, emphasizing the parts that felt powerful and dropping or replacing anything that did not feel powerful. Perform your new version of the spell, and again make notes in your magickal journal.

3: And Again

After you have the results you wish, choose another spell from this chapter that feels relevant to you. Perform it, make notes, revise it, and do the new version.

4: Your Own Spell Three Times

Now meditate on any changes you would like to make in yourself: your character, personality, habits, way of thinking, etc. Craft a spell from scratch to accomplish the desired change. Perform it and make your notes. Revise it and do it again. Improve it once more and perform it for a third time.

Blesséd be.

To follow this path further, read:

Spells and How They Work by Janet and Stewart Farrar (Robert Hale Ltd., 1990)

The Witches’ Way: Principles, Rituals and Beliefs of Modern Witchcraft by
Janet and Stewart Farrar (Robert Hale Ltd., 1984)