Spell Crafting 101

There isn’t anything incredibly difficult about casting spells, but if you actually want them to work, there are a few things you need to pay attention to. What you’re actually doing when you cast is focussing your will onto changing something in the world. To do that, you need to know as exactly as possible what it is you’re affecting after – hence the poetry bit ‒ and that you’re enlisting, erm, stuff you can’t see to do the actual work for you. Depending on your usual spiritual practice, that can be your god or gods, dead people you know personally, sprites and spirits of place or situation or something else. It isn’t actually difficult, but you need to pay attention and be polite.

First of all, remember you’re waking someone/something up and making a demand that they will have to comply with. Make sure you’ve thought it through and you’re not messing with anyone’s free will because that’ll be sure to bite you on the bum later – the universe likes balance, so if you do a thing, you’re at risk of consequences. If you’re a pro at this, you get bigger consequences, but never mind that at this stage.

Quick warning: almost all spells use fire of some kind, even if it’s just birthday candles, so tie back your hair and watch those floaty robes. Safety first: even if you might just end up standing in a silly frock barefoot on the cold pavement at midnight explaining what you were doing to an attractive young fireman, think consequences.

Step One: Preparation

Any spell requires a very clear and definite desired outcome. I’ve muttered things under my breath and got exactly what I said – be careful what you wish for. When you have exactly what you’re after in mind, formulate some kind of poem type thing that says exactly what you want, exactly what you don’t want, specifies the harms you want to protect yourself and your subject (if there is one) from and says thank you nicely to who/whatever you’re enlisting to help you.

Step Two: More preparation

You’re definitely going to need some kind of altar, but don’t run out shopping just yet. This is a special sacred space that needs to be undisturbed for the duration of your spell. But remember: most magic through history has been performed using improvised props. Our foremothers often had to grab everything together, and hide it too, to avoid harm to themselves, so don’t be too precious about it. You’ll read a lot about having expensive special tools but that’s a recent development. You can’t buy magic.

So you’ve got your tea tray or end of your dressing table or upturned biscuit tin lid sorted out and you’re ready to go. Most of us also use some kind of altar cloth but again, as long as it’s been told what it’s there for, you’re fine. Which brings me to charging, or at least it will in a minute.

You’re going to be appealing to your ally to use all the elements to power your spell. Now this stuff goes back through the ages, so if you’ve memorised the periodic table, good for you, but we’re working with the old five – aether, air, water, fire and earth. You need something to represent each on your altar. Aether is the main thing you’re working with, so that comes from you (sort of), but the others are pretty self-explanatory – most of us use incense for air and salt for earth, but it’s your spell, so it needs to mean the right things to you. By the way, in this context, the pentagram represents balance between the five elements. Go away, Dennis Wheatley – that man has a lot to answer for. (Google him if you care.)

You will also need some kind of offering. Food and drink is the usual one – you take some, then as we most often work outside, the rest goes on the ground, but as I’m assuming you might be working indoors use your common sense – out the window is fine or wait till later and put it on the bird table. Honey cakes and mead is the traditional one, sometimes your own blood, but be sensible. Prick your finger; don’t chop your arm off. And live sacrifices are not something we do in general – although I know some other traditions do. I’ll spare you the banker joke.

Step Three: Charging

So you’ve gathered your stuff for your altar together and now you need to put your head in the game. If you can, meditate to clear yourself and do whatever you would usually do to put yourself in a calm, focussed state. Some people use special oils or salted water. There are all sorts of procedures, but let’s keep it simple here. Your best wand at this stage is your pointy finger, so tell it what you want and invite it to do its thing for you, then thank it nicely.

Go through that procedure with all your bits and pieces and arrange them nicely on your altar. Do the same for your altar and the area you’re working in. I’m fighting the urge to get technical here, but we’re working at the level of Bringing your boyfriend back or finding your keys – if you’re after world peace or winning the lottery, you’ve got a few decades of work to do.

Step Four: The spell

So, finally, we get down to business. Bit like decorating, isn’t it ‒ mostly, preparation.

Once you’re all ready, sit down and get comfortable. Ask each of your elements to help you with your spell and bring you your outcome, then get down to reading or reciting your spell properly. Take your time and feel what’s happening and then stay in your calm state for a while to reinforce what you’ve done.

Step Five: The next bit

There are lots of schools of thought here. The tradition I’m from would have carefully chosen an exact moment to start and finish, depending on the astrological activity at the time, and used particular herbs and candles and incense for a particular outcome.

What I do next is leave my spell as it is and repeat some kind of reinforcement for fifteen nights, then I throw the candle and incense and by now dead herbs into live water or bury them in the ground. I’ll choose the site depending on the work, but flushing down the loo gets it to the river eventually, so as I’ve said, don’t get too precious – I do this for a living.

Once you’ve done your spell, you have to have faith in it. Put it to one side of your mind and get on with ‘acting in accord’ with what you’ve appealed to happen. Be thankful – that can mean lots of things from doing your garden to holding a door open for someone or even simply smiling at a stranger (be a bit careful with that one). Remember that whether you’ve asked Thor or Auntie Hilda to come to help you with your work, disbelieving in their ability to help you is just plain rude. Thank them nicely and wait for the good times to roll.