Creating & Casting a Successful Spell
Creating & Casting a Successful Spell
A spell is the name given to a magical working. When some people hear the word “Spells” they think of bubbling cauldrons, reciting strange things from old dusty books or pointing a wand at a prince to turn him into a toad. But this is not what a real spell is.
Think back to your birthday parties when you were young. Did you have a birthday cake with many pretty colored candles on top? Were you told to make a wish and blow them out? Did you realize that you had just performed a spell? I’m sure you truly believed that your wish would come true and you thought really hard about what you wanted. Well a spell needs focused thought and to be believed in to be effective.
A spell can be as simple as a religious spell where you pray to a Deity for something, or as elaborate as a full ritual with many candles, incense, special robes, etc. However, all you need is your intent and belief. All a spell is, is basically you asking a “higher power” (Some call it Spirit, some call Her Goddess, some call Him God, etc.), or for some no “higher power” is called upon at all and all they use is the power within themselves and the Earth, for a change to occur. To get something you desire or to be rid of something, etc., the principles are basically the same.
Spells generally ask for one of two things, to receive something or to get rid of something. Positive or Negative. This isn’t about good or bad, it’s about the flow of the energies. Magic in itself isn’t good or bad, it’s neutral, but it can be used for good or bad intent. So, a negative spell isn’t a spell that is bad, but a spell that pushes something away from you. A healing spell can be a negative spell if you intend it to, say, send pain away or send the illness away.
Also remember that magic is governed by physics in many ways. Yes, physics does apply to magic. Energy can neither be created or destroyed. So where does your energy come from? It comes from you, the Elements (thus your tools and supplies) and the Deities. As long as you have one of these things you will have the energy to do your spell working. As for it not being destroyed, the energy that you have gathered to you has gone to make your spell working manifest. You did not destroy it. Even if the spell you did was to counteract a spell that was sent to you, you are not destroying the energy that was put into it. You are merely sending it back either to the sender or to the universe. Energy can be dispersed but not destroyed.
Physics is also applied to magic in the belief that for whatever you do will return to you.
This is also a part of the Law of Attraction which simply states that you attract to yourself that which you send out in either thought or deed. In other words, like attracts like. So, if you wish to gain money, then you give a bit out yourself. Donate items to those in need or volunteer your time. If you wish to be liked and/or loved, then give out compliments and love to others. This is really simple and doesn’t have to cost you anything you don’t already have to give. These are simple mundane actions you can do to support your spell working.
You often see spell books that call for many weird and exotic ingredients (and some that use not-so weird or exotic), these are all “props” or tools, they help you to cast the spell, but are not strictly necessary. Herbs and crystals add to the vibrational energies used, as they contain Earth energies within them. We can use these energies to add to our own, but we don’t have to use them at all. Candles and incense help to represent the elements Fire and Air respectively. The element Water is often used also in many ways in your spell working. These again help to add their powers to yours, but are also not necessary. By charging candles and other items to use in spells, you are helping to keep your mind focused on what you want to achieve. Water can also be employed in magic but doesn’t need to be. Don’t forget that there are always alternate tool or ingredients that can be used when you don’t have access to the ones listed in the spell. And you can perform spells with no tools or ingredients at all, just by performing them with your concentrated intent and believing in what you are doing. Vocalizing your spell can and does work very well even without tools.
A simple spell is no less effective than a complex one, as long as the person performing it is focused on their intent and believes in it. You can have all the candles in the world burning, but if you don’t focus on what you are burning those candles for and believe in what you are doing, they are useless.
Spells can also be done in the mind's eye, when performing them in real life is not possible. Like asking for protection on a train, visualize yourself surrounded by protective light. Imagine the whole ritual or spell, as if you were watching it on television. The tools you might have used are not necessary. The test of a good Witch is not how many tools they have, but how well they can do spells without their tools.
So how do you actually cast a spell? Some require you to simply light a candle, some might require that you say something while doing something else. You may have to make an amulet or some other object. It can be very different from spell to spell. Some people say that spells needs to be done in a Magic Circle, while others say they don't. You can do whatever you feel is right. The main thing that is needed, however, is for you to focus on what you want to achieve, and put energy into that. In other words, your intent and belief that what you are doing will manifest.
Before doing your spell working, sit down and write out what you intend to get out of it. What is your purpose for doing this spell working? Take as much time as you need to really understand what you want or need. Next is to determine if you truly need to do the spell working at all. Have you done all you can in the mundane world to solve the problem. If you decide to do the spell then do your research on what might be useful to you to achieve your goal. What part of the lunar cycle will help you? What day of the week or the hour of the day? What other astrological significance will work in your favor? Choose what you wish to use and then carefully begin to write your spell out. What words do you want to use and of course what items will be useful? Then before you actually do the spell working, sit back and carefully consider what you have written down and see if you might have missed something or added something that might not really get you what you intended. Meditate on it and if you can, set it aside for a day and then look at it again to see if this is what and how you wish to do the spell working. Now you are ready to focus on your intent as you proceed. Believe in your spell working. If you don't believe in it, then how can it manifest. Visualize it from start to finish. Then if the spell working calls for it, follow up with mundane actions to help it along. Remember the spell helps your actions to come to fruition, they don't create anything out of nothing. So, follow through with your intent for what you are doing the spell for. The Goddess doesn't reward greed or laziness. So, take action to achieve what you wish to achieve.
So, let’s talk about the actual construction of your spell. First determine why you wish to do the spell. Say your friend has broken his leg and you wish to do a healing spell for him. Ok, why? What is the reason for doing your spell or any spell. Of course, your reason here is that you like him and don’t wish him to be in pain and wish him to be well very quickly. Very good. You should write this all out. You need to be sure that you have a clear reason for doing your spell. There is nothing written down or even spoken of that says you have to do a spell or two every day. But you should know why you are doing one if you choose to do it.
Next, you should determine if you should do the spell working. Are you thinking clearly as to what you are about to do and its outcome. Are you angry or frightened? Or are you thinking of what is best for the objects that spell working is aimed at. In this case, you are sure that it is best for your friend to be well and out of pain. Both of these seem to be good reasons and you are thinking clearly of what is best for him. However, if you are in a state of anger, agitation or fright, then you need to take a moment and calm down. Meditate if you need to. You should never do anything when you are angry, agitated or frightened as you will more than likely do something that you will later regret. So calm down first. Few things need a magical answer at the moment that they happen. There is usually time to calm down. This is when you would use your breathing exercise. Also, you should be first doing all that you can in the mundane manner that should solve the problem before you do a spell. So, in this case you should be encouraging your friend to do what the doctor tells him to do to get well. Also, be sure that you have permission from the person you wish to do a spell on. This goes back to free will. A person has the right to say no to you when you ask to do a spell on them. You may not like it but they have the right to say no.
Now that you’ve established the reason for doing the spell and the right to do it, you’ve meditated on it and done all mundane action for it and have determined the need to do the spell. What is next? You need to next to determine when is it best to do your spell. In this case you are doing a healing spell and healing spells are best done during the Waxing Moon or Full Moon. Also, they are better done during the morning at about dawn is best and on a Wednesday. There are correspondence charts that can help guide you to determine the best time to perform your spell working. But in a pinch, you can do any spell at any time. You just might have to work at it a bit harder to get it to manifest. Timing your spell work maximizes your available energy flow. But you always have an energy flow so you can always do a spell working when you truly needed to.
Now you need to start to determine what type of spell you wish to do. Will it be a candle spell or a charm bag or poppet or some other type? This can vary according to the problem you wish to solve and what you have on hand. In this case, you might try a poppet spell or a candle spell. Either is effective in this situation. There are others but we are keeping this simple. So, say you wish to do a poppet spell. Now you need to make a list of what you might need. For a poppet spell you will need cloth, herbs, maybe a stone, something personal of the person it is aimed at, needle and thread and maybe some stuffing. (I use both stuffing and herbs as herbs can get expensive when filling up the whole poppet.) You might also wish to use some yarn to make the hair of the poppet. So, what color should you use for the cloth that will be the body of the poppet. Well, for healing you would use either green or blue or if you don’t have that then white will work also. (Remember, white is the universal color.) Next, what herbs will you need. Well, rosemary, cinnamon and lavender are easy to get and not expensive. As for something personal, you could ask for some hair or nail clippings from your friend or you can simply use a picture of them or write their name on a piece of paper. A stone can be added at this time too. Bloodstone, Malachite and Amethyst are great stones for healing. A small stone is best, so it should be fairly cheap. I give instructions in another article about the construction of a poppet. Simply refer to that at this point. Just remember to be focused on your intent and believe in what you are doing when you make your poppet.
But you are not ready to do the spell working yet. You will need words to say over your poppet. Words are the center of your spell working and are quite important. What you say directs your intent so you will wish to say the right words. This will take time to write. Some say that you need to rhyme your words, while others say you don’t. I am of the former but still the words need to be the right ones. Don’t rush this. Take time to first set straight in your mind what you wish to happen. You wish your friend to heal quickly and to be in no pain, but you want him to heal properly. It will do him little good if his bones healed crooked and he is left with a limp he didn’t have before. So, be sure that your words express what you really wish to occur. You want your words to be exactly right. Magic tends to be literal and if you say the wrong thing or leave something out, then it won’t know and will only give you what you asked for. Yes, intent is very much needed, but your intent is generally expressed in your words. So, write down what you intend to say and then spend time to go over it more than once and word by word. Meditate on it if you have to. Just be sure that it says what you wish it to say.
You should also remember that the spoken and written word is an imperfect attempt to express that which is the actual thought within the mind. The mind can conceive of ideas and thoughts that it finds difficult to express in the language that is available to us. This is one of the main reasons for the misunderstanding that many times exists between people. Thus this is why it is important to be exact in your wording of what you wish for in a spell. It is also just as important that you keep your focus on and visualize exactly what you wish to be manifested in your spell working.
Don’t forget the Goddess and God in all this. They can and will help you with your goal if you ask them. You might call on the Goddess and God or you may call on a specific Deity that specializes in healing. There are quite a number of Deities to choose from for this magical act. Artemis, Brigid and Freya are just a few of the Goddesses you can ask for help. Apollo, Lugh and Thoth are a few of the Gods you can call on for help. No matter what your spell working is for, there are Deities that you can call on for help to perform them. Do a bit of reading on the Deities you think you might ask for help before you actually ask Them. It’s always best to know who you are talking to when doing a spell working.
Are you now ready to cast your spell? Well yes and no. You next need to determine if you wish to cast a circle for your actual spell working. Personally, I suggest that as a beginner you cast a circle. It will help you to concentrate on what you are intending to do and a circle also helps to concentrate the energies you will be sending out to the universe. And of course, you’ve chosen your Deity or Deities that you wish to ask for help with this spell working and you will want a consecrated circle to invite Them into. So, don’t forget to cast that circle. So, don’t forget to gather all the items you need to cast your circle. A general list is included in my article about casting a circle. Refer to it if you think you need to.
Now you are ready to start your casting. By now you should have gathered all your supplies and tools. In this case you should have already made your poppet. Everything should be on your altar, ready to use. So, you cast your circle and light your candles and incense. You pick up your poppet and say the words that you have written. You now start to build up the energy you wish to release to heal your friend. You can do this in a couple of different ways. You can dance, sing, drum, chant or anything you wish. This builds up the energy you need. Once you feel that the energy is at its peak, you stop and release it to the universe. Many will do so with a sudden shout or to suddenly lift your arms as though you are throwing something up and away to the universe. Your spell is complete and on its way to do what you have directed it to do. Now you can carefully open your circle and take time to ground yourself by eating some small bit of food and a drink of something. This is called the Simple Feast by some. You have expended quite a bit of energy and need to replenish it. This is the purpose of the Simple Feast. Don’t forget to leave an offering to the Deities that you called upon to assist you in your spell working.
A spell is basically a way to focus your intention, and to give it power to help it manifest in the physical world. When you do a spell, you have to want the outcome with “every fiber of your being” and you have to focus on what you wish to achieve and send energy towards that goal to make it happen. Be sure to focus your intent on the finished product and not half way through it. In other words, if you were doing a spell for healing your friend’s broken leg, don’t just see him in that cast but see him up and walking without it totally healed. Or if you wish to get a job, don't just see yourself filling out the application and turning it in, also see yourself getting the job that you have applied for. In the end, you will need to focus your intent and believe in what you are doing for it to manifest.
Another point before I close this article. I have here given examples of the tools and supplies that can be used in a spell working. But the truth is that an experienced witch can do this spell working with no tools or supplies at all. This takes concentration and a steady will. Most beginners will find that they work better with at least a few tools and supplies. Just keep in mind that you don’t need to spend all of your savings on these things. The witches of old didn’t have a local pagan store to shop at. They made their own tools or traded with each other and as for the stones and herbs and other things, they simply walked out their back door to find them. Most of the modern witches today don’t have a back yard or a convenient wood nearby. So, we either go to our local pagan store or the internet. However, your local grocery store and thrift store can many times have what you need. Don’t forget that there are always substitutes for most ingredients. I wrote an article about how to spend little to no money on your supplies and another article about your tools. Check them out. You’ll be glad you did.
One more thing. You should always record your spell works. This is so that you will have a record of it so that you can either be able to copy it for another time or improve on it if things didn’t turn out the way you wished. Be sure to record the date you did the spell working and all of the astrological information, like the phase of the Moon and the day of the week and time of day you performed it. Don’t forget all the other information like the colors you used if any and herbs and stones. Of course, don’t forget which Deities you called on. And of course, what type of magical spell work it was. Write down what words you used as well as anything else that you would need to know to do this spell over again or make changes to. Remember to also not to forget to record whether or not the spell working was successful and how long it took for it to manifest. Don’t forget to describe how it manifested itself. Any and all information you can include could be helpful next time you do a spell working.
So, keeping these helpful hints in mind about the things you can use in spell workings and how to actually construct your spell, I hope you will be able to not worry about not being able to do a spell. Remember that in the end if you do not have a focused intent or don’t believe in your spell working while you are making and then doing your spell work, you will get little out of it. All the fancy or even not so fancy items won't make a spell manifest itself if you do not focus on your intent and believe in what you are doing. Now, have fun and happy spelling.