Starting magic....

[sedgeez]

Thanks everyone

 

[Sulis]

Thanks everyone

I'd love to construct my own spells sulis but the thought seems so daunting to me. I wouldn't know where to start!

I'm really keen to learn about candle magic too but have no idea where to start with that either, when I google it the sites that come up aren't that relevant lol

Hi sedgeez,

Don't be scared of making your own spells... From my experience, for magic of any kind to work there needs to be a very strong desire if not need from the practitioner and the more you put into it yourself the more you'll get out of it. Just reciting something you've found in a book will likely not work (that's what I've found anyway) because you're not actually investing any energy into the thing yourself.

I'd start with meditation and visualisation exercises. I think the key to making magic work is being able to visualise your goal, as if it's happening now, completely... So visualise your goal happening, how you feel, what's around you, smells, sounds etc.

I think a good way to start is to do something like sit quietly and visualise yourself eating an apple. Really picture that apple, how it smells, how it feels, the weight of it in your hand. Then imagine eating it and really imagine it. See yourself biting the apple, feel the texture with your teeth, taste it, feel the juices in your mouth (I'm sure you get the picture).
To be able to do spell work well, you need to be able to visualise what you want in minute detail.

Candle magic is a really good way to start with magic because it uses simple colour symbolism and correspondences and really isn't very complicated - it works too.

Books by Scott Cunningham are good for beginners - he has lots of visualisation exercises and he writes in a way that's really easy to understand. I also like Elen Hawke, especially since you're in the UK - she's a British Witch and often references herbs and sacred sites found on this lovely Isle of ours . She has quite a few meditation and visualisation exercises and stuff about elements in her books too.
The 2 books of her's that I'd recommend are 'In the Circle' and 'The Sacred Round'.

 

[sedgeez]

Hi sedgeez,

Don't be scared of making your own spells... From my experience, for magic of any kind to work there needs to be a very strong desire if not need from the practitioner and the more you put into it yourself the more you'll get out of it. Just reciting something you've found in a book will likely not work (that's what I've found anyway) because you're not actually investing any energy into the thing yourself.

I'd start with meditation and visualisation exercises. I think the key to making magic work is being able to visualise your goal, as if it's happening now, completely... So visualise your goal happening, how you feel, what's around you, smells, sounds etc.

I think a good way to start is to do something like sit quietly and visualise yourself eating an apple. Really picture that apple, how it smells, how it feels, the weight of it in your hand. Then imagine eating it and really imagine it. See yourself biting the apple, feel the texture with your teeth, taste it, feel the juices in your mouth (I'm sure you get the picture).
To be able to do spell work well, you need to be able to visualise what you want in minute detail.

Candle magic is a really good way to start with magic because it uses simple colour symbolism and correspondences and really isn't very complicated - it works too.

Books by Scott Cunningham are good for beginners - he has lots of visualisation exercises and he writes in a way that's really easy to understand. I also like Elen Hawke, especially since you're in the UK - she's a British Witch and often references herbs and sacred sites found on this lovely Isle of ours . She has quite a few meditation and visualisation exercises and stuff about elements in her books too.
The 2 books of her's that I'd recommend are 'In the Circle' and 'The Sacred Round'.

Thank you so much Sulis ill look up those books now.

Thank you for the advice about visualisation, the apple one sounds like a good exercise to get me into it.

I really appreciate your help as a lot of sites I've been on are very conflicting.

 

[Chiska]

Sedgeez -

I have a book on Candle Magick by Patricia ? Telesco. It seems like a pretty decent book. I never really got "in to" doing magic work. While I have great respect for the practice, I just couldn't get my brain to accept the concept. I really should start a trade thread to move along some of these books...they are just sitting there being unloved, and no book should sit without being read.

Sulis' suggestion with the apple is great! Also, you can take an apple and cut it in half - not length-wise, but cross-wise so you can see the core and the seeds. If you study the shape, you can go out into nature and see that same pattern repeated. It is a grand exercise and can help to show the connectivity that exists across nature. Magic in the simplicity of repeated patterns.

 

[sedgeez]

Sedgeez -

I have a book on Candle Magick by Patricia ? Telesco. It seems like a pretty decent book. I never really got "in to" doing magic work. While I have great respect for the practice, I just couldn't get my brain to accept the concept. I really should start a trade thread to move along some of these books...they are just sitting there being unloved, and no book should sit without being read.

Sulis' suggestion with the apple is great! Also, you can take an apple and cut it in half - not length-wise, but cross-wise so you can see the core and the seeds. If you study the shape, you can go out into nature and see that same pattern repeated. It is a grand exercise and can help to show the connectivity that exists across nature. Magic in the simplicity of repeated patterns.

Thank you you'll have to let me know if you start that thread as I'd be interested in that book
Also ill do your apple suggestion

Thanks

 

[Flaxen]

You've had some really good suggestions already. One piece of advice I would give would be not to be afraid to try different techniques to find what works best for you or even to mix and match. You are the important ingredient for any magic.

I found this book really helpful in freeing up my perspective:

Visual Magick

 

[Anna]

Trust your instincts, and don't believe everything you read in books.

 

[The crowned one]

Look to nature, and natural laws. Work with these flows, not against them, but if you can work in between them ..that.. to me, would be magic. Take the laws of conservation seriously in your magic and I think you could take your magic seriously.

Just my thoughts on a subject I do not spend a lot of time thinking on. I think working with the above would be both fun and perhaps very useful in magic?

 

[sedgeez]

Thank you all for the replies this is why I love this forum, the advice is wonderful