Research is key to being successful in anything. Natural born skill can be a plus but it means nothing without the knowledge to back it up. Knowing your lunar cycles, simple mechanisms of magick, and correspondences can greatly help you. You can always build on what you know, and that is as it should be. You can read a thousand occult books and still never know if they work if you don’t put them into practice. Research also means experiencing and recording your own work. Seeing if you succeed or fail, testing yourself and your knowledge in real world application.
Good knowledge to have before any working is…
– who are you working with? Deity, demons, daemons, other spirits…
-correspondences? Herbs, stones, colors, candles, directions, etc…
-what you want to perform? Ritual, spell, working, prayer
-What physical effort must you put in? Going out looking for a job, putting yourself somewhere you can meet a date, etc… (Magick does not work without physical effort)
Magick is stronger for you when you do it yourself. Do not fall for the false preachings of another to buy their rituals and they will do the magick for you. Then they charge you extra fees to “boost the magick” or “remove the curse” they put on you. This also goes for anyone claiming to be a “Master of…” as the people who think of themselves as only masters and never students inhibit their own spirituality and growth. If you follow them you will also be limited to their narrow minded views.These people abuse the craft and are only using it and you for personal gain. These people should be avoided if possible.
Always Keep a Journal to document all you have learned through your research. Having a journal of theories, ideas and notes from others is a valuable tool. Be sure to leave some space around each section to write notes from yourself too. What you have done or what you want to do differently. Take not the words of man for fact or fiction, but take it as a grain of sand in the hourglass of your time on this path. What works for others may not work for you, and what works for you may not work for others. Just as this book is a guide so shall be all the writings of the world. Perception is the foundation of each individual’s reality and so as it is perceived so shall it be.
The book in which YOUR Perceptions and Realities shall be written is called the “Book of Shadows”. This is where Your Truth shall be, This is your experiences, tests, and workings. It will be as individualized as yourself and no one will have exactly the same ideas.
“Be not as the River but as the stone, Let your beliefs be carved by your experiences, Trust not the flow of the others beliefs.”
Magical paths:
When choosing magical paths there are some things to keep in mind. First off do your research!!! This is one of the most important things in choosing, is to know what your choosing. You should know rules and regulations if they apply. You should know who practices this, what they practice, where they practice, when they practice, and why they practice the path they do. Then you should ask yourself if you can answer the same questions the same way. This is not to say you have no chance to individualize your practice it is just knowing what you are in for. The second step is following your intuition. If you have a feeling something is right or wrong it usually is. Follow your feelings and they will guide you. And the third thing is in time your path will find and choose you, you may change it multiple times in your life and it may or may not work out. You are not bound to something that doesn’t work for you so don’t get frustrated when one way doesn’t work. Some if not most people choose to be Eclectic, which means they take from anything they want to use and discard what they don’t to build a path for themselves. In the end it Is up to you to choose where you begin and where you will end up. What is out there in terms of magical paths? Here are just a few I have come across in my time. There are so many more then I could ever name, but here we go.
Wiccan: belief in the god and goddess. Have many sabbats and holidays for different times of the year. Believe in empowerment through magick with the help of the deity they worship. Believe in harm none and do as you will.
Shamanic path- believes in the power of nature, involves working with the spirits of animals and plants, a healer of souls that risks their well being to cure others, a healer of the body who uses herbs to cure illness, goes on vision quests for advice or healing.
Hedge witch- uses all forms of nature, plants, animals, rivers, earth in magick.
Kitchen witch- magick in cooking and housework, proficient in potions and home blessings.
Traditional witchcraft- can be more brutal at times it is not always light and dark. It is not a religious form of magical path. This involves healing and hexing both, and is usually for gain of the self.
Draconic magick – works with dragons in magick. This can be harsh if not prepared, it takes total dedication, honesty, and knowing of oneself before you begin. You can be made to face yourself or do things you may not be comfortable with in order to grow.
Astral witch- one who does all their work outside the physical realm. In the astral realm they create their own universes, their own “life forms”, they are their own gods in their own little world of limitless possibility. They can control time and space in their world. They can also travel parallel to the physical plane for remote viewing. They can have an effect on the physical realm almost akin to a ghost.
Fairy magick- work with the face they harness the magick of faeries and are under fae protection.
Left hand path is the path that is not all about worship and religion, and while it may still be included this path is all about building yourself and your own personal power. It is about balance.
The fact is that most of these paths were originally meant to be individualized but from people writing books and getting famous off the concept, people tend to follow the famous as absolute. Just like wicca these paths is being diluted by mainstream propaganda and concepts turning the individual into a codependent based on what they program themselves to think by over authenticating practices.
Necromancy- magic of working with the dead, death magick, communications with the dead, work with psychopomps, some even believe in resurrections and zombie magick.
Demonolatry- one who worships demons and uses demonic magick.
Luciferian – worship and/or viewing of Lucifer and Lilith as teachers. This path can be darker than some others with the use of balance between light and dark instead of all light all the time.
Satanist (theistic)- worships Satan as deity calls on him in their magick work if they choose to use magick.
Satanist (atheistic)- chooses to worship or better the self. Does not worship Satan as deity. Uses the term “Satan” which means adversary to describe the self or the path.
Draconian- to work with deity and spirits such as Lucifer, Lilith, Tiamat, Belial, Arachne and Asmoday to gain equality to them in the current of Dragon energy to become the dragon energy incarnate. A brutal path you must constantly live by. You will be tested, you will be burned by the fire of the dragon current, until you become one with the current, and become the dragon. This path requires a lot of possibly forced changes in your life. It will remove all that is holding you back and the only way to get anywhere is to keep moving forward until you achieve complete balance between dark and light and with the inner and outer current and you have achieved your goal.
First posted by me on Occult Kitten and my book “Beginners Magick Uncensored”
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