Witchcraft

[Tenebrion Valefor]

That website i told you about has tons of information, i recommend reading the FAQ then going to the forums and perhaps reading a few of the articles. And when i succeed at it i'll be able to help alot more.  

[Isobel Bellamy]

Thanks hun ^_^ *hugs*  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

Welcome ^_^ *hugs back*  

[Isobel Bellamy]

Ohh I need to plan for Samhain! I want to go and visit my friends in school dressed up as a grim reaper and handout sweets to random people *Laughs*

Ahh I love the kitchy Halloween type decorations that are about this tim eof year Isaw some cool jack o'lantern tea light holders, when I have money I think I'm getting some to decorate my room with, plus those skeleton things are fun too *laughs* I've gone through the whole 'butchering our festival' phase and now I just find the fun side of it and smile at what they get wrong, sure it ticks me off sometimes but the general public can't be held responsible for being ill informed  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

Heh, i dont really have the money to go out and spend on decorations and snacks and all that stuff. I usually just sit and meditate in front of a candle during the holidays. I wish i had some wiccan friends around here. It would be more fun.  

[Isobel Bellamy]

This wil be my first Samhain with a wiccan friend and actually doing something hopefully, it sucks being wiccan/pagan and not knowing anyone else who is, I had that for years surrounded by very vocal xtians cry  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

xtians?  

[Isobel Bellamy]

christians shortened to xtians  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

Ohh, yea they can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally one will try to argue with you and they dont even know their own half of the story. But its rather easy to defeat them with logic IF they will listen.  

[Isobel Bellamy]

Koneko_DarkLight

Ohh, yea they can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally one will try to argue with you and they dont even know their own half of the story. But its rather easy to defeat them with logic IF they will listen.

Most of the ones I've encountered were too set in their ways, one group tried to spread the word of god by being a little more forceful than they really should have been (they tried to beat the crap out of me) *sighs* not exactly the best way to try and get someone to convert......  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

Yea, and the idiots violated their ten commandments by resorting to violence....stupid fools. If anyone ever tries to convert me using violence, theyre in for a surprise. I may not work out or anything but i move rather quickly and am quite combat capable. And im not afraid to use lethal force if necessary.  

[themagikat]

Koneko_DarkLight

Ohh, yea they can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally one will try to argue with you and they dont even know their own half of the story. But its rather easy to defeat them with logic IF they will listen.

oh s**t yes, personally i try not to argue. its not that i cant, i have plenty of examples that can easily challenge different customs in xtianity (its not hard to find in any religion really) however i DO NOT argue with most of them mainly because they dont A) know s**t about their own religion and B) always MUST be correct because they are xtian (that was sarcastic by the way)

people then ask me "well how are you so good at arguing or knowing their side of the story?" and my reply is that i not only research religions on a regular basis, i also used to be a very strong xtian myself. also, i absolutely MUST know what i am not before i can decide what i am.


and to isobel: no, i havent read any psychology books.

koneko: thanks, i was out on a limb to get all that right in public. had it been wrong it would have been bad indeed...  

[lurichan]

Isobel and anyone else who is nervous about praticing magic "wrong".

I'm going to try to keep this brief, but I suppose this is one of my bigger areas of knowledge in some respects. I have quite a few books on magic floating around, and I read each one of them with a grain of salt because when talking about cerimonial magic, people can only really share what works for them, and how they got the results they were seeking. The problem with trusting only one source of information is that each source will generally portray their way as the one and only right way to practice, and that isn't the truth.

One of my favorite authors is Scott Cunningham. If you are going to pay for a book on magic I would highly recomend him because he openly says that this is how he does things, but to do what feels right for youself even if it doesn't match up perfectly with what he has put forth.

Also, a common misconception is that you HAVE to have a lot of money to practice magic, which really isn't the case. Cerimonial trappings like an anthame and wand might be useful for channeling energies more effectively, but they aren't manditory. Just because it might make it easier to practice magic, and to focus and dirrect the energies more effectively, you don't need them. You can just as easily pick up a leave on the street, weave a spell about it, and then crumple it up and scatter the pieces on the wind to disperse negative energies.

A big must with any form of magic is to do what feels most natural and right to you. Perhaps this is a little bit more difficult when working in a group setting, but the less true to yourself you are when casting, the weaker your result will usually end up being because you are putting less of yourself into it, and relying more on what other people tell you to do. If you are so fixated on getting the motions perfectly timed out that you aren't really thinking about what you are trying to achieve, then ultimatly you will fail.

Isobel, you mentioned that you were planning on doing a protection of some sort for a friend of yours? I would research a few stones with protective qualities if I where you and try to incorperate them, but that is one of the ways I go about things. I know that hematite is renowned for it's protective qualities and is relatively inexpensive to get ahold of. It is also sometimes used in jewerly. ^_^

Another crucial thing for any type of spell or ritual (when you have the time to set up and prepare) is to make sure to cleanse the area a bit first. Incense, holy water(self made of course. ^_^), purifying salts, or even burning a few candles are all great ways to clean out any negative energy that might affect your work. For the really formal, drawing a circle of some sort with any sort of material can really help define the space you are working in. On the rare occasion that I do choose to practice cerimonial magic, I perfer to have all four elements represented in some form or another. Symbolism can be pefectly fine for people who don't have the money to run out and by a ton of incense and candles.

Back to where I started though. Don't worry overly much about how you are going about things, so much as focus on the desired results when you are doing anything magically. Trust me, you will get much better results that way than fixating on silly details that might ultimatly just end up tripping you up if you worry about them too much.  

[Isobel Bellamy]

Thankies hun ^_^ I've considered myself Pagan/Wiccan for five years but not practiced anything yet, mainly because of my Catholic mum and becasue I tend to screw up a lot (long, long boring story) aaand some horror stories of spells going wrong did not help in the slightest sweatdrop

I've actually got the basics for stuff dotted about my house, but I want to get some jewlery for the protection spells (I've always loved haematite and was going to use it) so bracelets are good for that, plus hopefully they'll get worn I'm just wondering if I should tell the people Igive them to if they're protection bracelets...not too sure if many of them understand/don't mind Paganism/Wicca. I'm going to have problems if they don't like Wicca becasue I don't want to lie about or hide the true nature of them  

[Tenebrion Valefor]

Luri stated things quite well i would say. And i also like scott cunninghams books, he's very informative, i have about 4 of his books downstairs next to my bed. But not everything he says is agreeable with me, but most of it. I reccomend him to many different beginners. But its rather sad when some people think that the things he says is the ONLY way to do them. It doesnt have to be one way or another, just whatever works for you.