Beginner spell ideas; A guide to gaining Proficiency in Magic
This guide is not intended to be a standalone. This implies you already have dipped your toes into the water and may have even already done a spell or two. This is a guide to getting better at spell work and should not be taking as the first guide to starting spell work. Take this as a guide to help you target your focus.
Previously I have had people ask what spells to do; but not in the way I think its been answered before. More of a "what specific spells can i repeat to simply get better at spells" type of idea. There are dozens of types of spells out there. There are even those Spell A Day books that often require 35 ingredients for 40 separate spells. Thats a lot of items you may never use again and you may end up spending your time on spells you don't really want or care about. Not super helpful in my opinion.
So what spells can you repeat everyday or even a few times a week that still benefit you and can help you understand the working of a spell and get better at them in general?
This comes from excellent advice I was given when i was first starting on whittling. I only had one basic knife and the book I had was very in depth. Someone suggested that I carve a simple sphere or square every week. It wasn't amazing at teaching me how to make a grand work of highly detailed art but it did get me used to holding the knife properly and applying pressure properly for the cuts i wanted. I got really good at making spheres and it helped build the "muscle" to make more delicate designs.
So what is the sphere in Magic? Here are the best ones Ive seen people have success with to workout your magic muscle:
- A important part of this is write it down. It doesn't have to reveal everything and can be very heavily abbreviated but take a moment to journal how the spell felt so you can see your progress. This can provide a major confidence boost. The second important part is to take notice when things happen that may relate to your spell and notate those with your entries.
- Creating a psi ball and playing around with it. This is a great way to start with energy work and can help you understand what you are doing if you choose to pursue more advanced energy work, it can also simply help you recognize the flow of energy in other spell work.
- Create a Sigil to represent your day or week. If you are exploring creative sides of magic, this is a great way to simply get used to creating and empowering sigils. You can use the date, or a highlight from the day to practice the creation and feel the energy effects of setting the sigil.
- Practice casting and taking down a Circle. This is another energy work type that is also a great starter into protection magic. Many Wicca books ive read start with only practicing this for a month and Ive always loved the idea.
- Casting a very simple Abundance or Luck spell. This would not usually be a everyday practice but could very much be a weekly occurrence. The simplest forms of these can be cord magic, or writing it down on a piece of paper and activating it almost like a sigil (or just a sigil itself). If you try and phrase it differently every week or use a different ingredient every week this can help you with improving your spell creation and research skills. Its also a create type of spell to improve your confidence and motivation with spell work
- Writing down the best type of spells that can be done today. This is a great preparation and research skill builder. You don't need to actually preform anything on this one! Just write down the best types of spell work and why. This can include things like the day of the week, time of the year, moon phase, planetary alignment, major world events, or even historical events that can all give unique circumstances to a spell. Also you could start including local events and the nature of your surroundings to make extremely specific spells that could work very well on this day. Some witches will time things out for years to ensure the perfect set of circumstances for a spell. (Note that this is NOT required to preform one, most spells can be done at practically anytime and anywhere but lining up circumstances can make a very difficult spell very easy or a rather weak spell very powerful. If you want or feel the need to do a spell that doesn't line up well with the circumstances that okay, do it anyway)
As for other things, simply practice on consistent work. Designing spells even if you don't do them, or asking a pendulum questions you may already know the answer to to flex those muscles is great. Pulling tarot cards and reading their meaning even when you aren't asking a question to simply learn the cards better.
You can easily use a very simplistic spell in the topic that interests you the most and practice it as often as you can. Find the sphere for the area you want to work on, and keep doing it.
(Note: this is merely one avenue of getting better at your craft, /there are others, and many specialized paths have a way of doing it that people have found to work very well. This is a tool targeted towards those with a eclectic type path or perhaps haven't quite found one yet.)
Just like any other skill, practice make better. Knowledge is key. And practicing your knowledge is an amazing way to excel.
Feel free to ask expanding questions :)
