How to Cast a Spell
You’re in the right place if you want to…
learn the steps involved in writing your own spells
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What is a Spell?
Let’s start by defining what a spell is…
A spell is the procedure in which a magician intentionally uses tools, materials, and words to manipulate energy in order to change their circumstances. Typically, spells are considered witchcraft.
Personally, I believe that humans have a very limited scope of understand of the workings of the universe. We do our best, but many of us have come up with a wide variety of theories resulting in numerous philosophies, religions, and ways of life.
This is the reason I wanted to define these words. Spells are simply requests for what you want. Whether you are talking to the Universe, God, your higher self, the god and goddess, a specific deity or godform, or an abstract concept to place your request, the spell is how you order it.
I like to break this process down into 6 steps which I will share with you today.
Step 1 is to get to the heart of your situation.
Step 2 is to determine the correspondences.
Step 3 is to select the tangible and intangible materials.
Step 4 is to decide on the method and tools you will use.
Step 5 is to decide on the timing.
Step 6 is to write the words.
So let’s get into it…
1. Getting to the Heart of the Matter
This is a very important step because you have to know what you want, what will solve your problem, what will help you move forward toward your goal, etc. in order to cast a spell.
Start by deciding on the purpose of your spell. This is what you want the outcome to be. For example, if you need a new job, your purpose or the intention of your spell would be to find a new job.
But it could also be to help you find a new source of income, which doesn’t always involve having a job in the traditional sense. This kind of spell might point you toward a business you could start based on your passion. So, be creative and spend some time thinking about what you actually want. Don’t limit yourself here.
You’ll also want to brainstorm whether there are mundane actions you could take. Maybe your cousin recently asked you if you wanted to go into business together and you didn’t consider it at the time. But your circumstances changed and that could be a solution now. So, look for opportunities that are already available to you before seeking a magical solution.
Related: Determining Your Magical Purpose
Then, you will want to review your personal morals and ethics. Notice I said personal. Your witchcraft practice is your own, so you don’t need to let someone else’s beliefs dictate what you do. If you believe it is absolutely never okay to curse, then don’t cast a curse.
If you don’t think it’s okay to influence another person in any way (even if it’ll probably help them), then make sure your spell is directed toward yourself. And this goes both ways. Don’t cast your beliefs on someone else either. Witchcraft is personal. It’s okay to share your practice but it’s not okay to cast judgement over someone else. Always act within your own ethical boundaries.
If you need help figuring out what you want, make sure you download the Ultimate Intention Setting Ritual.
This ritual will guide you through considering what you want to be, do, and have so that you know exactly where you want to be in your life.
Simply click the button below, and enter your information so I can send it to your inbox.
2. Consider Correspondences
Now the next step of the spell writing process is to consider your Correspondences. You may be familiar with the Hermetic principles of magic, which we discussed in a previous episode.
The principle of correspondence tells us, "as above, so below" where the above is the Spiritual Realm and the below is the Physical Realm. There is also a third realm called the Mental Realm which bridges the other two.
Basically, magic allows us to call on anything that exists in the spiritual realm in order to manifest our desires in the physical realm.
Let me share some examples of spiritual realm energies, spirits, etc.
The four elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water.
The Signs of the zodiac also live in the spirit realm. They are archetypal energies that you can draw from in your magic. Each of the signs has their own energy so it’s worth familiarizing yourself with them.
The planets also have unique energy. They have relationships with the signs and can be used in combination as well.
Other correspondences are whenever you call upon a specific deity, or if you work closely with a god or goddess. This is a correspondence with the spirit realm. Same thing for talking to God or the Universe, or your Higher Self, or your spirit guide, or familiar. It all just depends on your beliefs. And then abstract concepts like love or truth, these can be considered god forms or ideas that live in the spirit realm as well.
Related: Choosing your Magical Correspondences
So again, based on your purpose, you would look to the spirit realm for corresponding energies, deities, spirits, etc.
3. Select the Materials
Now you’ll be selecting the materials that you will use in your spellwork. You will choose them based on the correspondences you chose in the previous step.
Remember the principle of correspondence tells us that “as above, so below” and therefore we are calling something in from the spiritual realm, one of the correspondences I just listed. That’s the “as above” part.
TANGIBLE MATERIALS
To manifest, we need to have a representation of that in the physical realm that’s the “as below” part. So, we bring in tangible things like crystals—which is the word I am using to describe all stone, crystal, mineral materials, and herbs—which is any plant material: trees, shrubs, flowers, leaves, bark, roots, seeds, etc.
So, we talked about how the principle of correspondence is involved here. This is also part of the principle of mentalism. The correspondence associated with the materials chosen for a spell is partly due to ages of attaching a specific correspondence to a specific material. In doing so, every time someone says Roses are a flower of Venus they are creating another groove in the collective unconscious which attaches roses to Venus.
INTANGIBLE MATERIALS
So we have tangible materials like crystals and herbs. We’ll also include intangible things like symbols and colors in the category of materials.
Related: Choosing Your Magical Materials
Something like a drawing or fire becomes a symbol for that correspondence. Or the symbol for the Sun. Each of the planet and zodiac signs have their own symbol. Or using universally recognized symbols like a peace sign or a heart, or the emblem of medicine.
Then you can also draw your own symbol that means something just to you. These are called sigils. There are many ways to make a sigil, but that’s not what this training is about. If you are interested in learning about sigils, please join us in the Mumbleship by going to www.mumbleacademy.com.
Related: How to Create and Use Sigils
Color is another intangible material that can play a role in helping you choose the materials and tools that you will use in the spell. So things like candles, altar cloth, ink that you’ll write in, paper that you’ll write on or burn. We’ll talk more about tools in a minute. It can also help you choose the crystals or stones you’ll work with, or the flowers or leaves you’ll use.
Each color has a different light frequency that results in a rainbow. And each color has a meaning. There are traditionally agreed upon meanings and there are the meanings that you think of when you see a color. These are both important when it comes to choosing a color for your working.
4. Create and/or Prepare Tools
Now, you will select the tools you will use. So this is when you’ll determine the type of spell you’ll perform and make sure all the tools are created, cleansed, charged and ready to use.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Tools
To know what you’ll need for the spell, you’ll want to decide what kind of spell you want to perform and that will dictate the tools you will need. There are many types of spells. Jar spells have you collect all the materials in a jar or bottle and seal it. Then you either bury it or display it. Charm bags are spells you carry around with you. Bath rituals are just what they sound like, a spell you cast in a bath.
Candle spells involve using candles. There’s actually an entire course dedicated to candle magic in Mumbles Academy. Creating a sigil can be its own spell or it can be used in another type of spell. Talismans and amulets are similar to charm bags in that you carry them with you.
Related: How to Manifest Your Goals With Candle Magic
So, decide on the type of spell and that will help you know what tools you need. Tools are different from materials, most of the time. They are things like your cauldron, wand, broom, knife, a jar or bottle, bags, candles, etc.
Sometimes your tools will be the materials. For example, a crystal can be both a tool and a material, like when you use a selenite wand for the purpose of cleansing or connecting with your higher purpose.
Or, you might make a tool out of herbs that align with the purpose specifically for the spell. A broom or a wand made out of wood or twigs from a tree that aligns with your purpose is a good example of that.
You’ll also want to consider preparing your tools for the spell. So this is personal preference but you might want to cleanse and charge all your tools for the specific purpose of casting the spell. I won’t be getting into the exact methods for cleansing and charging tools for this training, just because of the time constraint. But there is an ebook about how to do these processes inside the Mumbleship.
5. Schedule the Spell
Figuring out the timing of a spell can add more power to the spell. You can plan based on the day of the week, the week of the month, or even the month of the year.
DAYS OF THE WEEK
Each of the days of the week corresponds with one of the seven traditional planets. The sun and the moon are included in planets even though they are actually luminaries. And we don’t include the modern planets of uranus, neptune or pluto because they were discovered more recently than the other planets.
Related: How To Practice Magic Daily
Basically, if your spell doesn’t need to be done urgently, you can wait for a more cosmically aligned day to perform it. This is another way to pull the planetary correspondences into the spell, either instead of, or in addition to the materials.
LUNAR CYCLE
You can also use the lunar phases to time your spell. There are eight phases, each with different purposes. These are new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent.
Related: Working With the Moon’s Energy
You can also divide the cycle into four quarters each lasting approximately one week. The first quarter of the cycle is for setting intentions and looking for opportunities. The second quarter is for taking action and celebration. The third quarter is for releasing and letting go. And the fourth quarter is for resting and reflecting.
Or even more simply, when the moon is waxing you are increasing and attracting and when the moon is waning you are decreasing and banishing. If you are interested in learning more about moon magic and connecting more deeply with the lunar cycle, consider joining The Moon Circle during the next enrollment period.
SOLAR CYCLE
The sun passes through each of the signs of the zodiac in one solar cycle. This is how you determine your sun sign in your natal chart. You can focus your magic each month based on which sign the sun is in. This is another way to bring in the zodiac to your spell casting. This is the structure of the Mumbleship as well. Each zodiac season, we have a new focus based on the energy of that sign.
Related: Astrology Blog Posts
A final way to time your spells is to consider the natural season. Many witches follow the wheel of the year which includes eight holidays or sabbats. These celebrations are closely connected to the changing natural world and the agricultural calendar.
Related: The Wheel of the Year
6. Write the Words
At the beginning you determined the purpose of the spell. Now, you want to make sure that it is focused, precise and clear.
I like to write my intention as a positive affirmation. This means written in the first person, in the present tense, and using positive words.
For example...“I love myself,” instead of, “I will love myself.”“I am healthy,” instead of, “I am not ill.”“I always have enough money,” instead of, “I am becoming wealthy.”
Related: How do Affirmations Work?
I will sometimes use rhymes for spells as well. This is helpful for when you want to remember the words and not need to read them, especially for longer spells. I use rhyming dictionaries, they’re so helpful. You can start with the affirmation and enter the last word into an online rhyming dictionary and see what comes up that matches.
Related: How to Set a Magical Intention
The easiest spell is ending the first line with me and then the second line is the closing statement of as I will it so it will be. For example, if you’re looking to improve your confidence so that you interview better, you might say, “Confidence builds up in me, as I will it so it will be.” Or if you want to bring love into your life, “Love and joy flow with ease to me, As I will it, so it will be.”
Which leads to the final point. It’s good to have some sort of closing phrase. I generally use the one I already said, As I will it, so it will be. There are variations of this. The freemasons say “so mote it be.” You could say, “as above, so below.” You might thank any deities or spirits for helping you as well. So, long as you include some phrase that indicates you are finished with the spell.
Homework
So, your homework is to go write a spell for whatever circumstances you are facing in your life that you would like to change using these six steps.
If that still feels intimidating, I hope you’ll go look at some spells and look for this process in them. Study them to learn more about why the author made the decisions they did.
Summary
Thank you so much for reading this post. To summarize we went through all the steps of writing a spell which are getting to the heart of your desire, determining the correspondences, selecting the tangible and intangible materials, preparing your tools and deciding the method of spellwork, scheduling the spell, and writing clear and precise words.
Join us in the Talk Witchcraft Facebook group to chat about this episode with other witchy folks.
Want More Spell Information?
Chapter 12 of my book Practical Magic for Beginners is all about spell casting.
In this chapter, you will find 10 spells to get you started with spellcasting. You will start by learning about what casting a spell looks like—including setting up a sacred space for spellwork, protecting yourself from unwanted energies, and the tools and materials that can enhance your magic.
Wait, don’t go yet!
Thanks for hanging out with me today. If you’ve enjoyed this post of Talk Witchcraft, I invite you to check out mumblesacademy.com.
Mumbles Academy is the place to be for intuitive souls at any stage on their WitchPath. Whether you are a Wildling at the very beginning of witchcraft journey and looking for a safe learning environment, a Creator who is already committed to their practice and wants to develop their witchcraft skills even more, or a Sage who full of wisdom already and is ready to share that with others, Mumbles Academy was designed for you.
With monthly masterclasses and live Q&As, an extensive archive of courses and training, and a supportive community to help you along the way with encouragement and advice, Mumbles Academy is the perfect place for you to be as you as you continue on your WitchPath.
Now it’s your turn!
Share the spell you wrote, or the spell you analyzed and what you learned from this process in a comment below.
