Fruits of Your Craft

What was the most intense or effective magical experience of your life?

I did a spiral dance with about a hundred people at a festival. I’ve got to say, the power raised during that was absolutely awe-inspiring.

Fruits of the Craft: 30 Day Challenge

4. What do you wish you had known as a beginner?

I feel quite happy about how my pagan journey has gone. I’ve grown quite organically through my curiosity and interests.

Still, if I could recommend some things to my younger self it would be:

- read Drawing Down the Moon and learn about the history of modern paganism earlier.

- the local drum circle has a lot of pagans at it. Go there and you will start to be invited to local pagan events and rituals.

- you don’t need to be so anxious when you shop the metaphysical section of bookstores. No one is judging you.

- yes, all the therapy you do DOES align with and intertwine with your pagan practices.

- your early attempts at meditation are NOT failures. You’re doing just fine. Keep going!!

Fruits of your Craft: 30 Day Challenge

3. What are your views on cursing, hexing, and binding spells? Has your view changed throughout your journey? Why or why not?

Personally, I value examining the moral compass of a person more than labeling a certain type of action. Just as stealing can be viewed in many shades of grey once you know the whole story, hexes and curses also exist within a narrative that is important to examine. I think there are valid reasons to use tools like that, and there are also petty or cruel reasons to do so.

Personally I’ve never found myself interested in learning or practicing harmful magic, my workings tend to focus on self-healing, but I don’t mind if others explore it.

Fruits of your Craft: 30 Day Challenge

2. What’s the biggest error or mistake that you feel you’ve made when working magick?

When I was 12 I was trying to be Christian, although retrospectively I had a very pagan way of doing that. I wanted to repent and become a better person, so I lit a candle and cut myself to give my blood as an offering and proof of the sincerity of my atonement.

That was a major error as it was rooted heavily in obsessive thoughts and mental illness. The best thing to come out of that is that when I did turn to the pagan gods I had the memory of that experience to guide me away from blood magic. For me, blood magic is too close to my struggles with self-harm and is not a magic I can engage with healthily. So, I learned from that error, but it was pretty significant. My first act of ritual and offering was rooted in illness. It’s not something I think I’ve spoke of before, and it’s definitely something I am uncomfortable with.

Fruits of Your Craft 30-Day Challenge

1. What has been your most influential resource in your study of the Craft?

I’m not sure I can identify a singular most-influential resource.  So, instead I’m going to provide a thought-provoking resource I’m investigating currently!  I’m really enjoying the book’s exploration of magical theory.  Despite reading many overviews of magical theory I haven’t really gotten what I’d consider to be a firm grasp on it yet (aka I don’t understand it well enough to engage in discourse about it, apply it to varied scenarios, and break it down to teach it to youth).  I feel like magical theory may be the next deep-dive I indulge in. This is helping me get a grasp of what key words and topics I will want to start my research with.

There’s going to be a lot more than just magical theory in this book, but I’m just at the start.  I’ll keep y’all posted as it progresses through the Little Work, which Duriel defines as a bit of a play on “The Great Work”, and as the everyday magical practices/work that is needed to truly progress towards Great Work and/or a balanced, healthy, and powerful magical practice.