Spellcraft: Level Five

Before you begin Spellcraft Level 5, be sure you've completed the courses for Visualization, Raising & Directing Energy, and all courses on Defensive Magick. Take a brief journey through them again if you feel you need a refresher. In addition, Spellcraft Level 1 is a primer for all the classes on Spellcraft that follow. Skipping ahead will likely leave gaps in your knowledge and skills that can leave you with unsatisfactory results in your spellcraft.

When you get comfortable with these concepts, you’ll be able to use them to create powerful spells that will resonate strongly with your beliefs, memories, and life experiences. You can also use the principles in sympathetic magick to make changes to any spell you find online or in a book to tailor it to your specific needs and personal beliefs.

Here are a few exercises you can do to discover and identify the beliefs and associations you already hold.

Color

Write down several colors that you use frequently in your Witchcraft in your journal.

Red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white are common colors in spells. You can also include metallic colors like gold and silver if desired.

Go somewhere that you know you’ll see a lot of colors. This can be an art museum, a botanical garden, a toy store, or even watching tv.

Whenever a color draws your attention, write down the thoughts, feelings, images, or energies that come up for you as you take in that color.

Notice where these colors appear most frequently and in relation to which objects or situations. Do this until you have notes on every color.

Then look back over your list and see if there are any patterns.

Look for colors that bring up similar energies and colors that bring up opposite energies.

While color magick can be highly personal, in the case of sympathetic magick, you are looking for archetypal and universal correspondences. You are relying not on your own associations but on the relationship between related items or ideas.

Nature

Spend some time in nature and be intentional about experiencing nature through all of your senses. I recommend jotting notes down in a grimoire or journal, so you can look back on your observations when you’re putting together spells in the future.

Notice what you see—colors, shapes, light, shadow, animals, clouds, and plants.

Write down what words, images, or energies come to mind when you see each sight.

Then bring your awareness to the sounds you hear—the buzzing of insects, the rustling of squirrels, the creak of the branches, the whistling of the wind, and the sound of your breath. Again, reflect on what energies you associate with each sound.

Use your imagination to find relationships between these things, like you would when cloud watching. Some relationships, like sunflowers and sunshine or the human-shaped mandrake root and poppets, may be easy to spot. Others may take more care and contemplation as in the relationship between mugwort and the moon. (for example, the undersides of mugwort plants are silvery, like moonlight)

Symbols

Spend some time creating a list of associations with a variety of objects. These can be archetypal or you can look for more personal meaning.

Some examples include:

Let's talk about Symbolism. A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences.

Symbolism is used extensively in Spellcraft and magickal practices around the world. The use of symbols is ancient, and our brains are hardwired to recognize and speak the language of symbols.

How we interpret symbols can be very subjective and personal. Our own experiences, biases and culture influences the way we think of symbols. Some symbols have universal meanings, while others are very specific to region or the individual. There are no wrong answers here.

Get as creative or abstract as you want when you’re using symbolism to power your magick. It’s like stepping into your own story.

QUESTION 1:

What does the bean in Jack and the Beanstalk represent for you? Rapid growth?

Big aspirations? How can you use that energy in a spell?

QUESTION 2:

What does the forest in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream represent to

you? A place of magick? A place removed from the oppressive rules and structure of

society where you can truly be yourself without judgment? How can you use that

symbolism in your magick?

QUESTION 3:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use this symbol in your magick?

QUESTION 4:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use this symbol in your magick?

QUESTION 5:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use this symbol in your magick?

QUESTION 6:What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use this symbol in your magick?

QUESTION 7:

What do these symbols mean to you? How can you use them in your magick?

QUESTION 8:

What do these symbols mean to you? How can you use them in your magick?

QUESTION 9:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 10:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 11:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 12:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 13:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 14:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 15:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

QUESTION 16:

What does this symbol mean to you? How can you use it in your magick?

Dedicate a few pages in your grimoire or journal for noting any words, objects, colors, images, or even song lyrics that represent you.

Many spells, rituals, or altars call for something that represents the Witch who is performing the magick.

You can always use something that traditionally represents the Witch such as the Fool tarot card, a candle shaped like a person, or something with your name on it, but you can experiment with using something that feels inherently “you”.

You’ll know when you’ve chosen the right object to represent you when you feel an immediate intuitive connection by looking at or holding the object.

Final Thoughts

Magickal theories are our attempts to explain the magickal and spiritual phenomena that we experience in our craft and your understanding of these theories will evolve and deepen. As you use your lived experience of the craft to engage with these ideas, remember that these theories should be a way to open the intellectual doors to higher levels of magick and not rigid boundaries that prevent you from exploring. Your questions, your curiosity, and your experimentation are a vital part of progressing your craft as a Witch. Use these ideas to ignite the creative fire of your magick and learning!

In future courses on Spellcraft, we'll talk about more advanced theories, and begin your journey into hands-on magickal practices. I'm excited for this and I know you're excited for this, but I want to stress how important it is for your future success in Spellcraft to not just skim and rush through the beginner and intermediate Spellcraft courses for the sake of getting to the juicy goodness of magick-making. My lovely, to approach it this way would do yourself a real disservice and cause you to miss out on critical stepping stones in this process. I want better for you. So stay present and put into practice everything you've learned by testing it and testing it some more. Use your journal or grimoire and do the work.

Have questions or feel stuck? Let's chat!

Message me anytime at sageandcrow@gmail.com

Love,