SpellCraft Secrets: The Art Of Creating Magic Spells Made Easy - Second Edition, Revised

By Lionrhod

For centuries the art of spellcrafting was passed down with deep secrecy. Even now, with more magick books available, many of the real secrets are only handed down privately. You MIGHT find a book of spells, cast one, and even get a good result. You can find dictionaries that will tell you the meaning of stones, colors or herbs, but there's a surprising lack of detail or explanation. Few books, if any, discuss how spells work and exactly how to create one - why they function or why they flop.

Some folks would like you to believe that magick and spellcrafting are complicated, however the basic principles of magick are surprisingly simple. With a bit of practice and creativity you can master these principles.

Written as if you were taking an actual course with a master magician, SpellCraft Secrets gives you the basics you need to create your own original spells and to understand spells from other books so that you can customize them to your needs.

Crafting your own spells and understanding how and why they work will give you a sense of personal power, which will enhance and strengthen your magick and make you more likely to create real results in the real world. With all that to gain, why use somebody else's spell casting services when you can craft your own spells that really work?

What's New In the Second Edition:

Whole new chapters and appendixes on:

Imagination and its link with magick..
Magickal Stances, mudras (hand gestures) and sigils, including the pentagram.
How to make and utilize an Astral candle.
Earth-safe magick.

An expanded chapter on Ethics and Karma, including a section on what to do when you're tempted to do negative magick.
Added a section on Numbers.
New Exercises.
Updated, expanded and clarified every chapter.
New and updated graphics.
Many other features that didn't appear in the First edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lionrhod
• Release date: Dec 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311189042

Lionrhod

A writer of fantasy and non-fiction metaphysics, Lionrhod (pronounced LION-rod as the h is silent) caught the writing bug at age 8. Inspired by her writer mother, she wrote an extremely lousy and highly plagiarized story about a pony. From there, she went on to focus on science fiction and fantasy as well as romance, and when she realized that she was a Witch, articles on Wicca and Magick. As an avid Dungeons and Dragon's player, she has written several articles for that sort of thing and one of her pieces was featured in a TSR module way back before they became Wizards of the Coast. She has also written for Green Egg.She tends to write slow, though that is changing!She has been a witch and wysard (yes we spell it funny) for most of her life. She works as a professional psychic and a teacher of metaphysics. When she isn't glued to the keyboard, she enjoys hiking in the woods, gardening, cooking and yak wrangling. She is presently working on creating a rescue for large breed dogs and for retired animals.

Book preview

Intro

For millenia, the art of spellcraft has been a closely guarded secret, passed on in private from master to student under the strict bonds of confidence and superstition. It was felt that only those who had ears to hear, or eyes to see-- in other words, only those who already had an understanding--deserved to be gifted with this arcane knowledge. So pervasive was this thinking, that certain magicians even trapped their work by passing on incorrect information in the hopes that those in the know would catch the mistakes and those who weren't would be thwarted in their attempts.

With the coming of the twentieth (and now twenty-first) century magick came roaring out of the broom closet and into the mall. When I first began studying magick in the mid 70s you could barely find more than 3 books on the subject at the local bookstore. And never mind finding the esoteric stores that might carry more on the subject unless you were already in the know. Sure they existed. Where were they? I didn't know about The Magickal Childe, one of New York's most famous occult bookstores, until long after I'd moved out of the City. Now the bookshelves teem with information on the occult.

But even with the plethora of information now on the shelves, many of the secrets are still handed down from master to student.

Sure you can find books of spells, cast one and maybe even get a good result. You can find dictionaries that will tell you the arcane meanings of garnets or brooms or high-heeled shoes.

But there's a surprising lack of the how and why. Little information to allow the novice--and sometimes even the practiced magician--to understand how a spell is put together, why they function or why they flop. For that reason, I've taken the information that I've gleaned from my teachers, my readings and my personal studies in magick over 4 decades, and created a book that is intended to give you an understanding how the processes of magick and spellcraft work, so that you can create your own personal spells that work to change your life in powerful ways.

If you're hoping that this book will teach you to walk on water or turn your hair blonde overnight, that's not terribly likely. Changes like that are conceptually possible, but they take years of dedication and practice.

Magick can, however, be a force for creating change in your life. Here are some of the things that magick and spellcraft can do for you:

Help you overcome the limitations and preconceived notions that you have placed on yourself.

Help you understand and transform your emotional and thought patterns in healthy and positive ways.

Widen your perceptions of what is possible.

Enhance your skills and talents.

Give you an increased feeling of confidence and having power in the world.

Create actual change in your life and in the world.

Best of all, magick is fun. From the first excitement of making connections and understandings…to the play of putting together your idea…the thrilling rush of energy as you send power to your intended desire, to the whimsical amusement of watching how your magick works in the world and creates results, magick is a blast to work with.

As an art form, magick draws on many talents--creativity, thinking skills, intuition and sense of drama. In return, it allows you to reach a place where you can feel powerful and centered in your world. It allows you to understand that all things are possible.

Some folks would still like you to believe that magick and spell crafting are convoluted and deeply esoteric subjects. While it is true that there are forms of magick that take more study (and even those form rely on the basics you'll learn here) the basic principles of magick are surprisingly simple. With a bit of practice and creativity, you can master these principles.

Why Create My Own Spells? Can't I Just BUY My Solutions?

Yes, it's possible to find a spell in the plethora of books out there, which might answer your need. Or possibly you can find a more experienced magician who will be willing to give you the spell you ask for.

You might even find a magician who is willing to let you pay them to cast a spell on your behalf. Though whether or not they'll actually do it and whether that spell will have enough energy to make change in your life is open to question. (I'll talk more about the downfalls of people casting spells for others, later on.)

But these are one-shot answers. Being given a spell rather then creating it on your own, doesn't give you the ability to create a spell the next time you need one. The only answer for that is to understand how the spell was created and to learn to build one for yourself.

If you surf the chat rooms and forums on the web, you'll probably find out that many experienced witches and magicians are reluctant to give out spells. Although it might sound mean or stingy there is actually good reason for this.

Working magick takes practice and a bit of knowledge. It's been my experience that most of the people who ask for spells tend to lack both of these. Working magick without knowledge behind you can be physically as well as spiritually unhealthy. That's exactly why this book was created--to give you that knowledge and to allow you to practice with it in positive and healthy ways.

Spells and each human who uses them are very individual. What works for one person won't work for another.

For instance I have one spell book, which utilizes passages from the Bible. This may be okay for some people, but I was raised outside of Judeo-Christianity, and so the Bible is not aligned with my basic understanding of the world.

As you learn to work with spellcraft, you will find that some things and concepts make sense to you while others do not. When you use someone else's spell, one which wasn't personally designed by you, you may find yourself working spells which do not have meaning for your Unconscious mind. As you will learn in the sections on the Parts of Self and Archetypes, the Unconscious mind is a large part of making your spells work.

When you create your own spell, there is a far greater likelihood that you will understand, both consciously and unconsciously, the meanings and powers behind the concepts you use.

By learning the art of spellcraft you will also be able to understand how and why the spells in the books you read might work. This insight will allow you to better determine if they will work for you and customize them to your needs, or garner ideas from them to create your own original spells.

Lastly, crafting your own spells and understanding how and why they work will allow you a sense of growth and personal power, which will enhance and strengthen your workings, and make your spells more likely to create real results in the real world.

With all that to gain, why use somebody else's spell when you can craft your own?

How to Use This Book

I've written this book in a conversational tone, much in the way I would teach my classes. Magick has nearly always been passed on through oral tradition. I find that this method preserves that style of teaching and helps you, the student, understand things in a way you might not, if I was talking about just anybody.

Magick and spell crafting are concepts that need to be understood before being applied. I strongly recommend that if you are new to magick, you read it through at least once before casting any spells, to get the best effect from this book.

Get ready for a journey of exploration. In these pages you'll discover:

In Chapter 1: What is Spellcraft? We'll define magick and spellcraft and learn how the mind works to create magick, and how you can entice it to play along with you.

Chapter 2: The Ethics of Magick discusses karma, the force that creates your challenges and gives us lessons when we do wrong--and how to stay out of karmic trouble.

Have you ever wanted something and then when you got it you realized it wasn't quite what you had in mind? Chapter 3: What Do You Want? teaches how the power of your intent can get you the things you really want with your spells. I'll discuss Path and Goal oriented magick and how you can use them to avoid roadblocks and put your magick on track for successful spellcasting.

In Chapter 4: Imagination Your Most Potent Tool we look at how your imagination is not only real, but actually creates and changes reality. Plus I'll give you tools to expand your imaginative power.

Before you learned to read, you had to memorize and understand the alphabet. Magick has an alphabet too. Chapter 5: Dancing with the Unconscious teaches you the alphabet and language of archetype and symbolism, giving you the first steps to the power to contact and communicate with the Unconscious mind--the part of you that directly connects to the making of magick.

Chapter 6: The Central Archetypes introduces you to the central powers of magick--the Moon and sun, the five elements and the celestial bodies. Chapter 7: Getting Out the Crayons brings a world of color into your magick and prepares you to grasp a true understanding of symbolism. In Chapter 8: The Mechanics of Symbolism and Magick we learn the 3 basic laws that govern how magick works, and take you to the point where you speak the language of magick so well, you can just about throw away the dictionary.

With your knowledge of symbolism firm and complete, Chapter 9: Crafting your Spell takes you step-by-step through the spell creation process, showing you how to utilize the knowledge you've gained over the previous chapters to create a spell that works for you--powerfully. I include examples of actual spells in creation, so that you can watch the process and listen to my inner thoughts and feelings as I create the spell.

Chapter 10: Sacred Space and the Altar takes you out of the realm of normal time and between the worlds, to the place where magick happens, giving you a detailed understanding of how to ready yourself and your physical surroundings, and how to create the magickal realm in which you can cast your spell.

Chapter 11: Raising Energy puts muscle behind your spells, giving you the magickal oomph! (that's a technical term) and power to thrust your spell through the Universe and create positive change. Just reading a spell and performing the actions won't make it work.

Obviously if you're going to put effort into creating and casting a spell, you want it to work, right? Chapter 12: Dealing with Obstacles discusses how to smooth the path so that your spell has the best chance of working, including using innovative techniques that are rarely taught in magickal circles.

People tend to think that once a spell has been cast, that's it. Chapter 13: After the Spell will give you the information you need to help your spell succeed; covering grounding, releasing, taking real world actions and how to prevent the unintended creation of magickal entities.

In Chapter 14: Meet Aunt Clara we look at why spells go wrong--sometimes in hilarious ways--and what you can do to fix them, or make sure you don't have problems in the first place.

Chapter 15: Magickal Timing lets you tune your spell to the forces of nature--the Moon, the Sun, the planets and more, so that you get the tides of the Earth working to empower your spell.

Now that you have a strong grasp of spell creation, Chapter 16: Analyzing Spells gives you actual original spells--created especially for this book--that you can take apart and diagnose (and cast if you like) giving you the power to read any spell in a book and understand what they are doing and why.

Chapter 17: Substituting Spell Components shows you what to do if you don't happen to have wing of bat, deadly nightshade, or whatever other component is called for in a spell.

Chapter 18: All-Purpose Spells offers a few proven spells that can be quickly customized to any need and cast with great success.

With all your spellwork, you're bound to start a collection of magickal tools. Chapter 19: Magickal Tools gives you the ins and outs of choosing a tool and consecrating it to your magickal needs.

Chapter 20: Doing Spells for Others discusses working magick for your friends and whether or not you should, while Chapter 21: Time to Fly gives a wrap-up and makes some final suggestions.

Also included are several appendixes, some of which are new to this edition of Spellcraft Secrets. They're you'll find

My own answers to some of the exercises on symbolism and spell analysis, with the full text of spells written exclusively for this book.

Forms to help you simplify your spell creation process and track your successes.

A glossary.

Look Before You Cast, an article I wrote in 1994 on magickal research.

The Ubiquitous Potroast Story, a story by Lord Ash, on knowing why you're doing something.

A tongue-in-cheek article that will help you diagram and understand symbols.

How to create and use an astral candle.

Information on stances, mudras and sigils (especially the pentagram) used in magick.

An article on keeping your spells Earth-friendly.

You can also visit my website at:

http://www.lionrhod net

where I'll post links to many of the books referenced within, as well as informative and fun links on magick, and where you can also find downloadable copies of the forms used here.

What's New in the Second Edition?

If you already have the 2004 paperback version of this book, why would you want the new edition?

Or for that matter, if you don't have either yet, why should you go with the new version rather than the old one?

Here are just a few of the changes I made when updating this book:

Added an entire new chapter on the subject of Imagination

Expanded the chapter on Ethics and Karma to include ways of dealing with situations where you may be tempted to create negative Karma,

Added numbers to the Archetypes chapter.

Added an appendix explaining stances, mudras and sigils.

Added an appendix on Earth-safe magick.

Added an appendix on Astral Candles.

Added several new exercises, both in the new chapters and in previously existing ones.

Updated, expanded and clarified just about every chapter.

Do I Need Any Materials or Supplies?

I highly recommend using a dedicated notebook for your play with this book. Use it for your exercises, to jot down ideas for spells, to make notes of points that feel important to you or touch a nerve.

While you can do the exercises on a computer, I find that writing them by hand will help establish a better connection with your Unconscious, and therefore leads to better results.

You might also want:

A separate notebook for a Dream Journal

A separate notebook for an Imagination Journal

A binder or Book of Shadows for keeping track of your spells and results. I like to use a loose-leaf notebook so that I can add pages wherever and whenever I want.

A binder (again, a loose-leaf works well) for creating your own symbolism dictionary.

Crayons, colored pencils or colored markers.

And, of course once you start casting your spells, you'll need the components you've dreamed up for them.

Is Magick Hard Work to Learn?

Nope!

It's hard play.

The same kind of hard play as when you're playing tag or playing fetch with a puppy, or rolling down a grassy hillside.

The same kind of play as when you were a kid. You were excited, focused, flushed, laughing. And your parents may have had to remind you to come in for dinner.

Does it take a bit of concentration? Sure.

When you first learned to read, you had to recognize the shapes and sounds of the alphabet.

After that you needed to put those shapes and sounds together into words.

Then you formed those words into sentences.

Now you probably don't even think much about the sounds of the letters, or the meanings of the words except when you're presented with a new word.

And in fact, you're so good at reading now, that in many cases you can understand the context of a word without even knowing what it means.

Here's an example:

Aunt Clara sped down the road in her shiny new Flibberjibbitz.

You might not know what a Flibberjibbitz is, but you can deduce that it's a vehicle of some sort. It might be a car, a hovercraft, a lawnmower or a vacuum cleaner or

Learning magick is equally simple when you learn it step by step.

Once you have the alphabet (an understanding of symbolism and the workings of your Unconscious) and learn the processes that turn it into words (an understanding of energy) you can start putting together sentences and even paragraphs (spells and ritual).

You'll even get so good at it, that you'll be able to sense when something's wrong with the information you're getting.

If I told you that, Aunt Clara struggled with the weight of her Whoseitwhats, you can guess that a Whoseitwhats is heavy and not easy to move. It might even be an item you have to carry. And it's probably not the same as a Flibberjibbitz.

So if some author somewhere (Not me, I'd never do that!) tells you that a Whoseitwhats is the same as a Flibberjibbitz, you'll instantly know that the information you're getting is probably incorrect.

There are innumerable things that are harder to do than magick. It's not nearly as challenging as learning Mandarin or playing the violin. (Anybody who tells you otherwise is probably a prodigy at one of those.) If you're like me, you'll find magick simpler than high school algebra.

What's even better is that magick makes just about everything else you do easier.

That's the entire purpose of magick: To make things you desire happen easier and to make yourself more effective and successful at reaching your goals.

How Long Does This Book Take?

When I teach this course as a live class, I do it as a 2-3 hour class once a week for six weeks.

By the end of that time, all of my students have created one or more spells of their own (usually several). Many of them have already cast their spells.

Often, several students have positive results before the end of the class.

Since you're studying on your own, your results will vary by the length of time it takes you to read the book.

When I teach SpellCraft live, we do many of the exercises in this book right in class. Others are given as homework and we share our results and learnings at the start of class.

Doing the exercises will definitely help positive results come faster.

One of the benefits of learning in a group setting is the ability to bounce ideas around the room and get feedback. If you have friends who are also studying magick you can set up a discussion group to share ideas.(Obviously you'll each need your own copy of this book.) You might even wish to cast spells together.

It's not, however, imperative to study this book, or magick in general, in a group.

But getting there fast isn't the goal here. There's no race, either with yourself or others to know it all, or achieve the fastest (or strongest) results.

Take as much time as your understanding and available schedule permits. Remember you have the rest And every day will make you a better magician. I'm far stronger than I was when I started. I'm wiser and better at making magick than I was when I wrote the original copy of this book. In fact that's why I updated SpellCraft Secrets--to add in the many things I've learned over the past decade.

And next year and twenty years from now, I'll even be a better magician than I am now, and still loving the process of growth and learning. (But don't go looking for a 3rd Edition any time soon. I've got other things to do coming up!)of your life to become a more powerful magician.

Sidebars and Exercises

Scattered among the test you'll find sidebars. Sidebars are there to highlight important concepts. Since this is an ebook, they can't look exactly like normal sidebars in regular books, as there's no way to shift them to the side of the text.

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Sidebars look like this.

When you see one, take a moment to focus on the important point they highlight.

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If you were taking my class, we'd do exercises during the course of the class and I'd send you off with homework. Obviously I can't check your homework but I highly advise that you do it anyway. Good homework, after all, is not for the teacher, but so that the student can grow and learn. Following the exercises, will give you magickal understanding as well as practice.

Resist the temptation to put the exercises off for later. The exercises are an integral part of this study, and will help expand your understanding of the parts that come after them.

With some exercises, if you don't do them the first time, and continue reading, you'll spoil them and lose the chance to do them with your mind untainted with the answers I give later. That's a sad thing, since you would cheat yourself of the discoveries you will make as you follow them now.

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Exercises look like this.

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A couple exercises are labeled as optional. That's because either they require that you go out and purchase something (a deck of cards in one case) or because while they're useful, I don't want you to stop everything and do them before you continue to read. Remember, you can always come back to the optional ones later.

When I do give answers to the exercises, remember that those answers are my answers, and that if yours differ, that doesn't make either of us wrong. It merely means that we have differing perspectives and ideas.

The magick and any ritual (in particular the instructions for casting circle) in Spellcraft Secrets is based on Wiccan and Wysardn ritual. If you are more familiar with a different system, by all means, use that.

Realize that there is no one true right way and use what is comfortable to you. If something does not feel right by all means change it. In making those changes, consider why you are changing it, and how the changes you make will affect your experience.

Magick is both and Art and a Science. It is a science in that following certain procedures and ways of doing things will lead to results that are in part, predictable. It's an art because each individual person has the ability to create and experience it in new and different ways.

Experiment with writing several spells before you cast any. The practice of creating spells will make your magick more likely to take strong effect.

When you finally do cast your spell, you'll have a good deal of comprehension of what you're doing, and be able to cast a spell that works to create the change you want.

Of course you should only follow this advice if you actually want your spells to work powerfully, to make the world and your life a better place.

What This Book is Not

It's Not a Dictionary

You can look up the magickal meaning and uses of hellebore or amethyst in a few hundred places on the internet. Why spend your money on a book that does only that?

Instead, SpellCraft Secrets teaches you the reasoning behind why those items might be used for their various purposes. With a little research, you can become your own dictionary.

Another problem with dictionary-format books is that they are based on the beliefs and experiences of the author. (Who may or may not have had magickal training, and who might just be regurgitating the studies of other magicians.)

As an example, Scott Cunningham's herbals and those by Paul Beyerl often disagree on the planetary and elemental associations of various herbs. Both authors are excellent and both have good magickal training. (I tend to feel that Scott is more of a generalist, while Beyerl has devoted huge amounts of study to herbalism.)

So which is right? What matters isn't which is right, but which feels right and makes sense to you. One of the most important points of this book is to give you the tools to make that decision for your own magickal practice.

In the chapters on the Central Archetypes, Colors and Magickal Timing, I do offer some dictionary-like associations. However that's not a contradiction.

I offer them to you first because those archetypes are so ingrained in the Collective Unconscious that:

You probably will understand almost innately how and why those associations work, and in many (probably most) cases they will strike a strong chord with you.

Because they teach you to consider why those archetypes are seen to have those associations.

As a jumping-off point for your personal understanding of those archetypes.

On the occasions you work with others, you'll want to use associations that you share in common.

IF you disagree with those associations, you'll need to work around them. I'll explain how to do this in my chapter on the Central Archetypes.

It's Not a Collection of Spells

I think I've already made that clear, but it never hurts to restate. After all, the last thing I want is for you to pick up this book, looking for that sort of book and be disappointed.

Yes, I do offer you a half dozen or so spells, most of which were created for this book. A few are generic and were taught to me as part of my own magickal training so that I could how spells work--as well as making the spell creation process quick and easy when you don't have time to dream up a customized spell.

I'll also mention a few spells as examples of what to do, what not to do; how how people's thought processes and emotional makeup affect the spell, and so forth. These I won't give in full, but you can probably glean enough to create your own spells from them, should you desire to.

You may wish (assuming you don't already have access to books of other people's spells) to purchase a couple of these, borrow them from the library, or sit in your local bookstore and read through a few of these. They'll help when it comes to the Analyzing Spells chapter.

It's Not the Easy Way Out of Your Problems

Magick is not, and never will be an easy out.

As we'll discuss later, spells don't just make things happen. You still need to do the emotional and/or the physical work of helping the spell along.

One reviewer of the earlier paperback version said that all her spells had backfired. It was sadly obvious from her review that she hadn't read the book in full (in particular the sections on Karma or Aunt Claras) or applied the techniques to her practice. I felt bad for her, but:

The information in this book (and all magick and spellcraft) requires practice, study, introspection, and a willingness to take control of your own life.

That said, if you give it all of those things and utilize this book in the spirit in which it's offered, you will begin to make those aspects of your life that you put effort into, more powerful. Your desires will come to you more easily. Your spells will begin to work far more often than they fail.

It's Not a Book for People Who Don't Care About Their Magickal Growth and Training

This book is a playbook, not a workbook, Magick and spellcraft take time and joy and laughter.

Take as long as you need to read, explore and put the principles in this book into practice.

Folks who aren't serious will skip around the pages, avoid the exercises and may not get much of anywhere with their spell casting.

Only folks who are truly serious about their Magick will allow themselves to enjoy the exercises and explore their understandings and the way they view the world, and find amusement in doing so.

Magick also takes bravery. To get the most out of this book, however, you'll need to be fearless and glaringly honest with yourself. Magick is not a practice for the faint of heart. You'll have to examine your fears, your foibles, the areas in life where you slouch around and play the couch potato.

You already know what those things are, and your Unconscious does too. So who are you fooling? And remember, what you write into your notebook is just between you and your Unconscious. Nobody else needs to know.

It's Not a Fast Track to Enlightenment

Even those of us who have been around studying magick since the Cretaceous Period are not necessarily enlightened. We all have our faults or else we wouldn't be incarnate on this Earth.

And many of us are enlightened in some ways, but not in others.

Yes, magick and spellcraft can help you along in your journey not only to enlightenment, but in having a healthy balanced life on the physical and practical.

If you do find the Fast Track to Enlightenment, feel free to share!

It's Not the End of Your Journey

In fact, if you're new to spell crafting, it's just the beginning of your journey.

This book alone, will not make you the God-Wa Woof-Woof-Bark-Bark High Muckety Muck of magick and spell crafting.

(It can perhaps get you a little closer to that goal, however.)

Learing everything there is to know about magick will probably take several lifetimes and a library to the tune of the Vatican's to the 100th power.

I get a chuckle whenever I see a book that's labeled as the Complete guide to any subject, or the Only book you'll ever need about such and such subject. It's just not possible. Even if a book were complete at the moment it was written (highly unlikely in the first place) we're always learning and developing new information and methods of doing things.

As an example, imagine the Complete Book of Physics written in 1880. Before Einstein and before quantum physics. Oops!

This book shouldn't be the only book you ever read on the subject of spell crafting and magick.

Instead, it should be a strong base from which you can read elsewhere (and decide for yourself and based on your own practical experience and experiments whether my ideas work as well, better or not as well, for you personally) meditate, practice, learn and grow.

Ready to get your journey started? Read on!

Back to Table of Contents

Chapter 1: What is Spellcraft?

Defining Magick

Before you can understand what Spellcraft means it's necessary to understand what magick is. Magick and spells are not exactly the same thing. Spells are merely a way of making magick.

Although this book is titled with magic with a c (basically to make it easier for most folks to find the book) we'll actually be referring to magick with a k to differentiate from stage magic.)

Here are the definitions given by several students in classes I've both attended and taught:

The ability to transform things.

Working changes on the things in your life to better your life.

A way of putting your will out into the Universe. Encouraging the Universe to listen.

Working with energy.

To hook up with the Universe on all levels.

Everything is Magick.

Shaping and directing energy. Magickal Energy, Universal energy.

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Exercise - What is Magick?

Take a moment to answer this question before reading further. What is magick? What does magick mean to you?

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The primary principle of magick is connection. -- Starhawk

All of these answers are right, however for us to agree on terminology, it helps to have a workable definition.

In his Magick in Theory and Practice, Aleister Crowley (thought of as one of the foremost--and certainly one of the most notorious--magicians of the 20th century) defines magick as, the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.

My teacher, Lord Ash, adapted this definition to, Magick is the Art and Science of causing change to occur in reality, so that reality conforms to Will.

To say this more simply, magick is the art of Change.

It is the art of shaping the reality that you inhabit, both internally--by adjusting your habits and patterns of thought--and externally--by enhancing your ability to bring the things that you need and desire into your life.

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Magick is the Art of Change

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Magick is a natural process. It is not outside of Nature, but is a part of the natural energy system of the Earth and the Universe itself.

Children use magick and spellcraft all the time. When I was a child I had a coffee cup magick. It was my theory that when I was carrying several cups, if I kept certain people's cups closer to each other, it would bring them closer together. I reserved special cups for the people I wanted to give special love and attention to, and if I was mad at someone, I'd place my own cup as far from theirs as possible and give them the ugliest cup. As you'll see later, this is a form of sympathetic magick, which I understood innately, in the way that most children do.

It's only when we grow older, and listen to what our society tries to tell us about what is real and what is possible that we begin to lose our connection to that natural force.

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Magick is a natural process.

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Magick allows you to return to that natural force, to re-member (bring the parts back together) your connection to the world and attune with the Dance of the Universe to create change in your reality in accordance with your Will.

Big Will, little will

Going back to some of the definitions of magick we looked at earlier, I'd like to make a special point of two of them, Crowley's Magick is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with will, and my teacher's adaptation, Magick is the Art and Science of causing change to occur in reality, so that reality conforms to Will.

One of the most important words in those sentences is, Will.

Huh? you say, Okay, what is 'Will'?

Two kinds of will are often referred to when we're talking about magick.

Little will is the will of the ego, the part of you that wants to have that pretty bracelet you saw in the store or wishes that nasty bully would trip over himself, or just wants to pay the rent.

Many Eastern traditions say, Oh, you must get rid of the ego. Western magickal tradition doesn't teach that the ego is a bad thing. But in many cases the ego has a tendency to work on less than enlightened terms. The objective of the Western magician is not to eliminate the ego, but rather to perfect it. To bring it into such a state of self-awareness that it operates in harmony with the spirit and the soul.

Capital W Will refers to your own Higher Purpose. Why are you here? What is your objective? What is the reason you exist?

Many reincarnationists say that, the reason I am here is to learn to be a perfect me. I'll do it over and over again until I get it right.

That's a pretty simplistic approach to it, but it is in essence, how it works. We keep coming back until we get it right. Sometimes we remember things from other lives and sometimes we don't. We may forget the details--i.e. who did what to whom in who's backyard for how many cookies and why.

But we remember the important lessons--Be nice to your neighbors and they'll be nice to you. Work in harmony with Nature and Nature doesn't bite you back. Love yourself, and there is no way that you are not loved in the world. These are the big lessons that the soul learns.

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The ultimate objective is to bring yourself in harmony with yourself. To bring the little you in harmony with your Higher Self.

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When you're working with Magick, there is a point where the soul and the ego are in harmony with each other. The ego is that little particle of awareness that says, I am. It's the watcher behind your eyes. It's the you who is reading this and perhaps hearing my voice in your mind. That's your ego. Most people hear the term, ego and they think vanity. Vanity is a self-defense mechanism. Vanity and ego are different things. Your vanity is there to protect your ego. Your ego is your definition of self, the part that says, me.

When we talk about greater Will, we're talking about, what is your soul's Will, or what is your Higher Purpose? Spellcraft is about being able to create the ceremonies, rites and rituals that will shape Magick, that force of everyday living, to harmonize the ego and the soul, toward creating the best ultimate reality for both.

Pretty abstract, huh?

What it means is that when you're practicing Magick, the ultimate objective is to bring yourself in harmony with yourself. To bring the little you in harmony with your Higher Self.

Defining Spellcraft

Spellcraft is the act of creating that magickal change by arcane methods.

Arcane is defined in Webster's Dictionary as, known or knowable only to one having the key and, secret. It is the intent of this book to give you those keys.

A spell is an action that harnesses the energy of the magickal forces of the Universe to create results.

An act of magick can be as mundane as telling someone something that changes their reality. You can create magick by picking up trash in the park, creating the new reality of a clean park; one where glass and strewn paper and cigarette butts or beer cans don't litter the ground.

Once you'd done that, if you wanted to keep that park clean, you could police it regularly and put trash barrels around. That might help. People tend to litter though--and more than likely your park will be trashed again.

But what if you had the power to keep that from happening? What if you could make the people walking through the park notice the trash barrels--make them stick out in their minds? If you could make someone hesitate in the act of tossing a candy wrapper on the ground and make them put it in the trash or their pocket instead?

Spells can create a change in the environment of a place or a situation in a way that mundane actions alone cannot.

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You can create magick by picking up trash in the park.

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Spells have the power to transform the possibilities that exist. In the case of your park, they could make a litterbug avoid the place, give them