The Modern Witchcraft Spell Book: Your Complete Guide to Crafting and Casting Spells - Skye Alexander 2015
Tapping Magickal Power
Spellworking Basics
What does it mean to practice magick? When we speak of magick, we mean the transformation that occurs when a witch, wizard, shaman, or other magick worker uses his or her power to shape energy, in order to accomplish an objective in the physical or nonphysical world (or both). When a witch does a magick spell, she doesn’t send sparks flying from her fingertips, nor does she levitate objects and hurl them through space—that’s pure Hollywood. Instead, she attunes her own innate abilities with the forces of nature to elicit a series of controlled coincidences that will achieve her desired result. She moves, bends, or otherwise alters the flow of energy in the universe to bring about a condition that will benefit her or someone else.
Each person who decides to take up the practice of magick has reasons for doing so. Before you begin performing spells, spend some time thinking about why spellcasting is important to you and what you hope to achieve by engaging in this practice. Write your thoughts in your book of shadows—putting something in writing helps you to clarify your thoughts. Begin to define what you believe. Do you seek out magick as a way to escape from the mundane aspects of life? Are you mainly concerned about making changes in your personal life (love, career, money)? Or do you want to deepen your spiritual connection to the universe? Do you intend to obtain practical results or to enhance your intuition? Most likely, your goals will include a combination of all these things, and maybe more.
The Law of Three
Ethical spellworkers abide by what’s known as the “law of three.” This means that whatever intention and energy someone sends out returns, like a boomerang, to the sender threefold. This is a strong deterrent against mischief, manipulation, or other deceptive practices.
CONSCIOUSLY CREATING CHANGE
It’s been said that the only constant is change. We observe change all around us, all the time. The rising sun changes night to day; the setting sun changes day to night. Wind changes the face of the mountain. Rain changes the depth of the river, which wears away the rocks to carve the valley. Fire changes substance to ash. Planet Earth is constantly shifting, spinning, revolving, and renewing itself.
The purpose of doing magick is to create change intentionally. When you cast a spell, you bring about a change in some facet of your life and the world around you. When you cast a circle (as you’ll learn to do in Chapter 3), you change a room or a grove of trees into a sacred temple. When you build an altar, you change a table or other surface into the stage upon which you interact with other forces and entities. When you consecrate a magick tool, you change an ordinary stick or wineglass into an instrument of Divine Will.
You possess the power to change just about anything in your life. As quantum physics has demonstrated, when you focus your attention on something, your energy influences the behavior of the molecules that you are watching (even though you can’t actually see them). Focusing on something causes molecules to collect in the area where you direct your attention. What this means is, you quite literally change whatever you observe. That’s magick! The goal—and the challenge—is to use magick with conscious awareness and intent. Spells are one way to do this.
WHERE DOES MAGICKAL POWER ORIGINATE?
We live in a magickal universe. Everything you see—and don’t see—is imbued with magickal potential. We’ve been taught to believe that the things around us are material, tangible, and immutable substances, but none of that is true. A tree, a rock, the chair you’re sitting on are all composed of energy. As I’ve said before, our world is surrounded by an energetic matrix that connects everything to everything else. This matrix, or cosmic web, not only envelops earth, it permeates all things that exist here, and it extends throughout the solar system and beyond. The web pulses with subtle vibrations, which witches and other sensitive individuals can feel. Regardless of whether you are consciously aware of these vibrations, you are affected by them—and your own energetic vibrations continually affect the matrix.
Let’s talk some more about the Law of Attraction, because it’s a fundamental part of magickal practice and spellwork. According to Esther and Jerry Hicks, whose bestselling books have done a great deal to popularize this ancient concept, “Each and every component that makes up your life experience is drawn to you by the powerful Law of Attraction’s response to the thoughts you think and the story you tell about your life.” This means that your ideas contain magnetic power, and that you’re already bringing to yourself the outcomes you’ll experience—even if you don’t realize it.
What you get is what you see. The ideas and beliefs you hold in your mind are the source of what happens to you. They are the seeds from which your reality grows. Your thoughts, words, and deeds are at the root of your health, wealth, and happiness—or your illness, poverty, and misery. That’s not meant to cast blame but to help you understand the amazing power you have at your fingertips.
In magickal work, learning to harness and direct your thoughts is essential to creating successful outcomes. Look around at your life circumstances. If you don’t like something, know that you possess the power to change it, by first changing your thoughts.
Energy Signatures
Everything in the world emits energy of some kind, and everything has a unique energy “signature.” Sometimes a signature is described as corresponding to a particular level of vibration. Higher vibrational levels usually are considered more spiritual and closer to the deities; lower vibrations indicate something more material.
YOUR PERSONAL ENERGY CENTERS
Just as your physical body has internal organs that enable it to perform various tasks necessary for survival, you also have nonphysical “organs” or energy centers that play an important part in your well-being. Asian health and healing practices, such as acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, Reiki, and yoga, deal with the movement of energy through your body—especially as it relates to these dynamic energy centers known as the “chakras.” The word chakra means “wheel” because to sensitive people who can perceive them these orb-like energy centers resemble spinning wheels or spirals. However, most individuals can’t perceive them, nor can they be quantified using conventional medicine’s tools.
Although many chakras exist throughout the body, we’re primarily concerned with seven major chakras that roughly align vertically from the base of your spine to the top of your head. Each serves a particular function as a locus of energy that nourishes your body, mind, and spirit. When your chakras are in balance, your intuitive and psychic abilities are at their strongest, and you can draw upon their energy to work magick effectively. You’ll find a number of spells in Part II of this book that involve working with the energy of the chakras.
Kundalini: The Mystical Serpent
According to mystical Eastern wisdom, the divine essence of all the chakras is kundalini. Kundalini is depicted as a serpent coiled around herself three and a half times. The serpent sleeps at the base of the spine and awakens (through yoga, breath work, or other practices) with a rattle or a hiss. She slowly uncoils herself and begins her ascent, traveling up through each chakra center, opening and activating it as she goes. Each major chakra is associated with a color and a significant symbol (which are all variations on the lotus flower). Use these symbols as guides to understanding and integrating these vital energies, so that you may experience the benefits. You’ll find lots of pictures of the chakras online and in books, to help you connect with them further.
The Root Chakra
The root chakra is located at the base of the spine and is linked with the color red. This energy center deals with all issues pertaining to survival—it is your connection to the earth. Many fight-or-flight responses and animal instincts are stored here. The root chakra is also concerned with security, your sense of self, and your confidence. When you activate the root chakra you embrace your primal nature, as an integrated and necessary part of your higher self.
This chakra also affects your interactions with the material world. If your root chakra is balanced, you are likely to feel secure with your place in the world and your ability to cope with any hardships that may come your way. Blockages in the root chakra, however, may lead to feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and a lack of self-confidence, which can interfere with everything you embark on, including spellwork. You can strengthen your root chakra by meditating and envisioning a glowing red ball of energy at the base of your spine, continually growing brighter and stronger.
The Sacral Chakra
Located just below the navel, the sacral chakra is associated with sex, desire, pleasure, and fulfillment. Its color is orange. Your carnal instincts reside here, in this realm of procreation and sensuality. When you open and balance your sacral chakra, you accept yourself as a sexual being who seeks pleasure. Obviously, this chakra affects spells you do for love. In addition to its correlation with sexuality, the sacral chakra impacts other kinds of desire as well. Your passionate hopes, dreams, and aspirations dwell here, too.
If your sacral chakra is balanced, you are likely to feel comfortable with your sexuality. You may also be adept at understanding and expressing your own needs on many levels, and you can find ways to make sure your needs are met. A deficiency or blockage in the sacral chakra may lead to excessive inhibition, as well as feelings of discomfort regarding sexuality and perhaps pleasure in general. Consequently, you might limit your ability as a creative being and as a spellworker, for doing magick spells is a creative endeavor. When your sacral chakra is balanced, you easily connect with your own needs and desires and your ability to attract what you seek. Visualize a spinning vortex of bright orange light just below your navel to activate your sacral chakra.
The Solar Plexus Chakra
The solar plexus chakra, located about halfway between your navel and your heart, is the center of your personal power. Its color is yellow. Its energy enables you to actualize your personal gifts and talents. Your willpower resides here, and when this chakra is functioning optimally, you take charge of your life and exercise your power—in the mundane world as well as the magickal one. When you open your solar plexus chakra, you take responsibility for your choices and feel confident acting upon them.
If your solar plexus chakra is balanced, you feel comfortable expressing your unique abilities. You use this chakra’s energy to produce positive results for yourself and others, without fear or reluctance. In spellwork, your personal talents come to fruition, bringing you a greater sense of self-worth and helping you attain your goals. To strengthen this chakra, envision a brilliant yellow light, like sunshine, glowing there and radiating out into the world.
The Heart Chakra
The heart chakra, as its name implies, is located in the middle of the chest near your heart. Its color is green. This chakra deals with issues that pertain to the emotions, especially your ability to love and be loved, and obviously it plays an important role in love spells. It serves as the link between your physical body and your spiritual identity. The heart chakra is involved not only with romantic love but also love of self and love of community: family, friends, and humanity in general. It also connects you to nature and the spirits with whom you interact, whether or not you are aware of them.
When your heart chakra is open and balanced, you experience love without walls and can accept your own vulnerability without fear. Blockages in the heart chakra can lead to feelings of unworthiness, mistrust, and loneliness. People who have had their hearts broken often distance themselves from the heart chakra, saying things such as “I will never allow anyone to get that close to me again” or “No one will ever get the chance to hurt me like that again.” To open this chakra, meditate and imagine spiraling green light all around your heart, sending forth love and receiving love as well.
The Throat Chakra
At the base of your throat, near the hollow where your collarbones meet, you’ll find the throat chakra. Its color is light blue. All matters of communication relate to this energy center, as well as how you interact with other beings in the world around you and in the higher planes of consciousness. The manner by which you express your thoughts and speak your own truth is also affected by the throat chakra. Because many spells involve affirmations, incantations, or other verbalizations, this chakra affects the success of your spells.
If your throat chakra is blocked or imbalanced, you may take a dogmatic approach to discussing ideas or beliefs. Perhaps you talk excessively without listening or get caught up in arguing. Or you might be afraid to speak about your ideas or to share your talents with others for fear of criticism. To balance this chakra, imagine a beautiful, light-blue glow swirling at the base of your throat.
The Third Eye Chakra
The third eye or “ajna” chakra is located at your forehead where your eyebrows come together at the top of your nose. Its color is indigo. This is the site of psychic awareness, where matters pertaining to your intuition or “sixth sense” reside. It allows you to experience your spiritual nature through clairvoyance (seeing the unseen), memories of past lives, empathy (feeling what others feel), telepathy (accessing the thoughts of another), and astral travel (entering into nonphysical realms where the physical body cannot go).
When your third eye chakra is open and balanced, you experience your connection with other realms and may find you can communicate easily (intuitively) with beings who reside there. In magickal work, you can receive spiritual guidance and wisdom from higher sources—you may even be able to divine the future. A blockage or imbalance in this chakra may lead you to reject your own psychic gifts out of fear or skepticism. To activate your ajna chakra, picture the indigo light of the sky at night emanating from your third eye.
The Crown Chakra
Located at or just above the top of your head, this chakra is associated with the color purple, though some people see it as white. All spiritual matters pertaining to your soul’s existence dwell here. The crown chakra serves as a portal through which you receive spiritual guidance and wisdom. A balanced crown chakra allows you to communicate with god/desses and divine beings on other levels of existence and to receive aid from them in magickal work.
When you activate and balance your crown chakra, your ego falls away; you live in a state of acceptance and assimilation with the Divine, a place beyond desire. You experience a sense of oneness with all beings. Because you know your spirit is indestructible, you fear nothing, not even physical death. An imbalance in the crown chakra can cause you to feel lost, alone, cut off from your Source and the higher forces that exist around you. Or you might suffer from delusions of grandeur. To bring this chakra into balance, visualize a brilliant, regal purple light emanating from the top of your head, flowing over you and through you, connecting you to All That Is.
CREATIVE VISUALIZATION
In the late 1970s, author Shakti Gawain brought the concept of creative visualization into widespread public awareness. But witches and other magickal practitioners had long known that visualization fuels magick and precedes manifestation. When you’re doing a spell, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.
Creative visualization involves forming a mental picture of the result you intend to manifest. Don’t think about the problem or condition you wish to change—instead, focus on the end result you seek. For instance, if your goal is to heal a broken leg, don’t think about the injury; instead, envision the leg strong and healthy.
Images possess more power than words. Advertisers know this very well—just watch a commercial for some sort of drug, in which the pictures show happy, healthy people while the voice-over describes all the drug’s unpleasant side effects. The viewer’s mind reacts to the pictures rather than the words. Because images have such a strong impact, witches incorporate lots of visual and sensory components into magick spells, as well as words.
Imagination is at the heart of a spell. If you can’t conceive of a situation or state of being, you won’t be able to attain it. When you imagine the possibilities of what you may be able to create, you plant the first seeds. Remember how, as a child, you had fun letting your imagination run free? It’s time to do that again. Give yourself permission to dream big. Enrich your mental images with lots of color and action—clear, vivid images generate faster and more satisfactory results than bland ones.
Try this exercise with a friend to explore your ability to form mental images:
1. Silence all distractions (phone, TV, etc.).
2. Sit in a comfortable place and close your eyes.
3. Ask your friend to say aloud a series of words, one by one, such as “apple,” “horse,” “campfire,” “sailboat,” or “ski chalet.”
4. Notice the pictures that pop into your mind. Do you see a shiny red apple? A sleek, chestnut-colored horse with white stockings? A blazing fire shooting sparks into the night sky?
5. Choose one of those images, and let it spin out into something more. Do you envision a racehorse galloping toward the finish line? Girl Scouts seated around a campfire roasting marshmallows?
6. Now switch places, so your friend can exercise his imagination while you give him verbal “cues.”
7. Record your images and impressions in your book of shadows.
Creative visualization will improve your psychic abilities as well. Once you learn to clear your psyche of all that useless clutter and chatter that take up space in your mind, you’ll find your innate creativity can express itself. Furthermore, you can begin to form mental images that are in line with your purposes and that will attract the outcomes you desire.
What Is a Book of Shadows?
A book of shadows is a witch’s personal journal of his or her magickal experiences. Here you keep track of your spells, rituals, and other things related to your development as a magician. It’s like a cook’s collection of recipes. Often you’ll hear the words grimoire and book of shadows used interchangeably, although some differences existed in earlier times. Grimoires served as guidebooks that described spells and rituals. A book of shadows might also include its author’s musings or insights related to a spell, as well as her dreams, feelings, and other asides.
LEARNING TO SENSE ENERGY
Magick spells draw upon the energies within you and around you. If you’re going to become a successful spellworker, you’ll benefit from learning to tap into the vast storehouse of energy that’s available to you. Although energy currents flow in and around us all the time, invisibly wafting through our environment, most people don’t pay attention to them. However, you can develop an awareness of them, and doing so will enhance your spellwork. Try these exercises to hone your ability to sense energy:
✵ Enter a building you’ve never been in before. Notice your reactions. Do you feel comfortable, welcomed, at ease? Or do you experience apprehension or hesitation? Do you want to continue further into the building, or withdraw? (This relates to an ancient Chinese magickal system known as feng shui.)
✵ Go to several different places, perhaps high on a hilltop and then near a body of water and finally deep in the woods. Spend some time sensing the “vibes” there. How do you feel in these different spots? Consider not just the obvious things, such as wind or sun or dampness, but also your personal reactions. Do you feel more enlivened in one place or another? Do you feel calm or agitated in a particular spot? Even if your impressions seem weird, don’t discount them.
✵ Now go to several different places in a town or city. What do you experience there? How do you react to the faster pace? Does the energy seem more chaotic than it did in the natural places you visited? Do you find the energy invigorating or stressful? Exciting or draining?
✵ Go outside at night and look up at the sky. What do you see and sense? Many people are afraid of the dark—are you? And if so, why? In the world of magick, nighttime relates to mystery, the subconscious, and the realm beyond our everyday activities. In some magickal traditions, nighttime is the Goddess’s time, when the feminine force is most active. Pay attention to your own experiences and remember to note them in your book of shadows.
✵ Go outside at dawn and again at dusk. These interim times, between day and night, are known as liminal zones. All around you, things are changing. Because change is essential to spellwork, you can align yourself with these transitions to perform powerful magick. Pay attention to the energetic shifts you sense as day and night switch places.
In Chapter 8, we’ll look more closely at the energies inherent in the moon’s phases, the earth’s cycle around the sun, and other passages that can enhance or hamper your spellwork. You’ll also learn how to time your spells to take advantage of the powers of nature and the cosmos that are available to you at various times throughout the year.