WITCHCRAFT BASICS & HOW IT WORKS

WITCHCRAFT

The basis of witchcraft, and all religions really, is founded on animism. Animism is the belief and acknowledgement that there is an unseen force that organizes and animates the physical universe. This force has been called various things across many cultures and religions such as: spirit, spiritual energy, energy, mana, qi, ka, prana, ether, vital force, and many many more. I believe it's simply consciousness in action. If the physical universe is the universe's collective matter, then the spiritual universe is the collective mind.

The key difference between non-witches and witches is that non-witches believe that their consciousness is their own. Their actions start within their own mind, and that they only control their own body. Witches, however, believe that our consciousness is collective. Our action can start within our own mind and thoughts, and that drives us to act, that action can influence our environment, which can influence others living in that environment, which sparks a new thought in someone else to do new action somewhere else, that sparks a new thought or action within our selves, essentially functioning as an ecosystem of consciousness that connects everything.

This perception of collective consciousness is much in the way that color is collective. We can allow the natural world to be as it exists in the colors that naturally happen, or we can change and influence color by using various ingredients, like paint, to create works of art, or paint a wall, color our hair and clothes, to change our environment to reflect our personal preference. As witches we can change and influence energy by using various ingredients that share the same states of mind, to manifest what we want, reflecting our preference of reality. 

DEFINITIONS

For the sake of my Grimoire I will use these words by these definitions:

ENERGY

When the collective consciousness is doing its natural movement as it exists as an ecosystem. Often thought becoming action. It is perceived as the force that communicates between the physical and the spiritual. It is the natural animistic tendency of the universe.

MAGIC

When energy is being influenced to carry out by intentions of a witch or spirit. Often a witch influencing collective thought becoming collective action. It is perceived as the force wielded by a witch that communicates between the physical and the spiritual.

SPIRIT

Energy that is concentrated, either within a body, disembodied, a physical space, within a group of living things or in an ecosystem. It's perceived as a unique concentrated energy signature that influences the physical.

WITCH

A person who influences energy to manifest a desired action effectively creating magic. Whether that's within themself or within others or within an ecosystem.

WITCHCRAFT

The methodology a witch uses to create magic to achieve and manifest a desired result.

HOW IT WORKS

The way it was explained to me by the spirits I work with (Belial and Hekate) is that our spirits, souls, personal energy, (whatever term you prefer) functions like signals traveling through a vast network of nodes within a web of universal consciousness. In this view, we are navigators and conduits of energy, not creators of consciousness itself. Instead of producing consciousness, our brains interpret data that becomes what we experience as awareness. A useful metaphor is a radio: the radio doesn’t create the broadcast; it receives and translates waves into sound. Likewise, our brains receive and translate consciousness. This translation is done through the pineal gland, As it has rods and cones the way our eyes do, and produces melatonin (the hormone that aids in sleep) which is why we "see" in our dreams. The pineal gland being associated with spiritual site and magic isn't just my opinion. A phenomenon among nature based spiritual practitioners is that when we've asked our guides "how" it works, we often get directed to this gland. Personally, my theory is that spiritual energy influences some type of electromagnetic wave yet to be discovered, or influences various electromagnetic waves interacting that has yet to be studied as it relates to collective behavior and actions.

Most people operate only within a small cluster of nodes tied closely to their immediate physical surroundings. This is because the senses they developed most strongly while growing up were the five basic physical senses we rely on for survival and moving through the physical world. But we actually have far more than five senses. (I recently read an article that suggests we have over thirty.)

When we want to connect to a different set of nodes, (experiences, insights, or energies not directly tied to our physical environment) our additional senses help us navigate. Witchcraft gives us tools for this navigation. Ingredients, correspondences, tools, and celestial timing each hold their own “nodes” of meaning and energy. When these elements align with our intention, they help us slip past the limitations of our five senses so we can “see” and connect to other spaces, times, or states of being.

When everything is aligned, (ingredients, timing, tools, intention) our intention becomes the guiding force that moves us through a network of nodes matching what we’re trying to manifest or become. These nodes can show up within us and others as emotions, behaviors, it can show up as synchronicities or changes in the environment around us. If we just navigate this web of consciousness through meditation or altered states of consciousness we can gain insight psychically, whether that's communicating with animals, gain glimpses of the past of future. But witchcraft is active, not passive. We’re not just observing the web; we're influencing it. Using the radio metaphor again: somewhere else in the universe a node is playing a song, When we tune our frequency to that song, we broadcast it on our end where our spell song encourages those around us to sing and dance.

Regardless of what you believe, something various nature-based practitioners and I have talked about within my network agree that energy attracts the same kind of energy. We see examples of this all the time. Have you ever been in a crowded room and heard someone laugh from the other side of the room and couldn't help but laugh yourself? Have you ever been sitting in traffic and felt like someone was looking at you, only to find the guy in the car next to you, was actually looking at you? Have you ever been around a toddler throwing a tantrum and couldn't help but also get frustrated? These are all examples of energy attracting like energy. When you concentrate energy enough, action occurs, setting off a chain of events within ourselves and our environment.

In traditional witchcraft, by combining ingredients, celestial timing, and the assistance of spirits who share the same "state of mind"/energy as your intention. All of this concentrates that energy with our intentions directing it in how we want it to manifest. This is magic. Now, ethics and rules around how its done, what is used, which spirits are involved vary between cultures, religions and various beliefs. My best recommendation? Learn how your ancestors did it, practice, and keep what works. You won't learn unless you start doing it. Any magic that is done, can be undone. So why not fuck around, and find out?