Starting out in witchcraft

I’ve been asked a lot of questions by people who are interested in witchcraft but don’t know where to start, and I gotta say, it is super difficult to figure where the best place to start is, and so I figured I would make a post specifically for those baby witches who aren’t sure where to start

Research

The most important part of being a baby witch is research, but theses such a huge amount of information out there that it can be difficult to know where to start. The easiest way to do it, and the way I did it, is by just starting with what drew you to witchcraft. I was drawn to runes initially so started researching runestones and divination, which is how I got into tarot and everything else came in turn. Even if what drew you to the craft is something as superficial as fashion, you can still research where those fashions came from. Question everything. You see lavender is used in a spell? Research why. You see that a certain colour of candle works better in a spell? Research why. You see a sigil? Find out the origin. Someone gives you a tip on the internet? Do background research into what they said. Never just blindly follow what someone says especially if you’re going to use it in your craft. Make sure you know exactly what everything is, means, and where it came from before using it in any capacity. The better informed you are, the more likely good things will come from your craft.

Book of Shadows and Grimiors

Keeping a book of shadows or a grimior (or both) is a great way to record your research. Its important not to get caught up in the way your book shadows looks. Of course if you want to make a beautiful book of shadows then that’s fantastic, but if a page takes you so long to write that it’s hindering your research, then I would consider keeping both a book of shadows and a grimior. A grimior is purely for information, facts, spells, etc… a grimior is worth taking time over. A book of shadows functions more as a journal. For writing personal experience, notes, etc… I keep a very messy book of shadows in a plain notebook that I just write whatever in. It has no kind of order to it all, and I suspect no one can read it but me. I also keep a grimior in a beautiful leather bound notebook that I bought in italy and I write in it in neat and specifically stylised writing that is easy to read. Infact, I also have a separate tarot journal. Having both, I find, puts less pressure on academics.

Start simple

Don’t expect too much too soon. I wouldn’t recommend diving right into complex spellwork. If you’ve just started, there are probably things you don’t know about casting spells that are important to keep you safe, and you haven’t had the time find your energy and how to focus it to the best of your abilities. Give yourself time to figure out what you want in your practice rather than diving into one specific path. And absolutely don’t work with the fae straight off the bat. Bad idea. Bad. Don’t do it. Do your research. I also would recommend getting a feel for the practice and for what you want from it before committing yourself to a deity/deities. Again, give yourself time to figure out what path to take. It’s totally ok to change your path along the way. If you initially decide to be a green witch but change your mind and opt for cottage witchcraft, that is totally ok. Changing you path even when you were absolutely certain, is absolutely fine, even if you’ve been on your initial path for years (even decades). I haven’t decided a specific path at all yet, so I’m currently an eclectic witch, but that may, and is likely, to change

It’s important to remember that every witch’s path is different. Gatekeeping is a big problem in the community but don’t allow people to tell you that you have to be born into a family of witches to be a witch. It’s a practice, not an inherited gift or race.

Tbh this post isnt complete and I’ll continue to add to it very time as I think of things

Witchy planner for 2020!!

I saw a planner on tiktok that someone was recommending, and it wasn’t too expensive so I went ahead and bough it and it’s so cool!!

It’s called the Coloring Book of Shadows Planner for a Magical 2020, it cost £13.15 ($17.22) from Amazon

[NOT MY PHOTO] [found it on google]

It has a page for a tarot card for every month, it has information about how to use the planner within your practice, a wheel of the year, a seasons wheel, zodiac information, retrograde info, moon phases info (and moon phases calendar), stuff about chakras, divination, scrying, the basics for spell casting, a page to write you intuition for the coming year information on the different full moon, good spells to cast at certain times of the year, and of course, a month by month planner with space to write plans or thoughts for everyday.

Personally, I’m only using it to write events that are relevant to my practice, but you can use it like a normal planner too. I also noted down all the retrogrades for this year in the moon phases calendar.

I love this planner because I often forget things like retrogrades, full moons, important days to cast specific spells on, even sabbats. I don’t have a very good memory for these things so having the planner has already been really useful and I’ve only had it for 2 days! I’m also writing all of it as neatly as I can because like a book of shadows, it’ll be fun to look back at it in the future. Usually my handwriting wouldn’t be at all legible. (Infact I’m writing all of it in cursive with a fountain pen bc I’m a nerd).

I may even start writing my daily tarot cards in it!

I love this planner and would definitely recommend it to any witch, but especially if you tend to lose track of time or have a bad memory. (Or if you just like to be organized)

One of the best things about this planner is that the whole thing is also a coloring book!! All of the artwork is black outlines so that you can color it however you want! I think it’s super cool. It’s also very relaxing to color.