Smart Spellcraft

In discussions on my website and my publications pertaining to a magickal Witchcraft practice, I will not be providing you with many spells.  Why?

I feel that first of all the most effective spells are that which you create yourself, because magick works not just by manipulating Wyrd, but also by "programming" the brain.  It is easier to find employment or find a relationship if you are confident, and having something tangible on hand, such as a carried talisman, or speaking a charm prior to interviews or first dates, is helpful to boost confidence.  Magick to be effective must not only work astrally, but mundanely.

Most books on the Pagan and occult market about spellworking have correspondences that do not make sense to 21st century people in Western civilization.  The whole idea of working for protection "in the hour of Saturn on the day of Mars" and drawing arcane sigils and words half in Latin, means far less to me than my own personal associations with protection, formed in my life experience.  I'm Sigrun Freyskona, not John Dee.

While there is obviously a need to educate those who are new to magick so stupid and avoidable mistakes are not made, I feel that even if a correspondence is correct and relevant to one person's associations it may not necessarily be true of another.  One may associate red with love, and green with healing.  Another may associate red with healing, and green with love.  Yet another may associate red with protection (esp. based in a "I'm not going to take this crap anymore" attitude of righteous anger) and green with money, blue with healing, and pink or lavender for love.

There's also the idea put forth in magickal texts that what works for one person should work for everyone, whether that is candle magick, or stone magick, or sigil magick, or cord magick.  I feel that while it's OK to experiment and see what you're good at in the beginning, after awhile you are either skilled with a specific kind of spell, or you are not.  Cord magick does not make sense to me, and this is someone who believes in the Norns and the threads of Wyrd, and the esoteric meanings behind Frigga's spinning.  I cannot logically feel that a knotted cord I carry in my pocket is going to help me with protection in walking through a bad neighborhood at night, or drawing money to myself (how does one "draw money to oneself", exactly?).  If it works for you -- great.  I'm not knocking it.  But to assume that because it works for one person or a handful of people, everyone needs to do it, is not good.

Magick needs to be made personal, to effect a personal change.  You are working the magick for yourself, not for Scott Cunningham or Raymond Buckland.  It is OK to read what you can -- both the good and the not-so-good -- and glean what you can, and it is even better to adapt the basis of a spell for your own use.  Raymond Buckland and Scott Cunningham were two of the first Pagan authors I'd read, and Raymond Buckland was the first person I'd seen mention a witch bottle.  I did research later on and found it is an English folk custom dating from the Renaissance period but probably much older and not talked about, and while I don't do my witch bottle of protection the exact same way as he or others, it is a good basis for learning how to do one, and it's similar anyway if not exactly the same.

Another thing that seems to be lost on would-be Witches is that by sharing spells I've worked, it lessons the effectiveness especially with potential Pagan-magickal enemies who might want to know exactly how I did something so they can work against it.  I'm not completely paranoid and think everyone is out to get me, but I'm not naive to think I have no enemies, and so in the sample spells I provide on this site, I will give a basis for something I've done, but will not give the exact same details as what I've done.  There's room for fidgeting with the outline or components and figuring out what works for you.

I think anyone who utilizes magick and manipulates their Wyrd and potentially that of others should try to be smart about it, and so I have come up with something called Smart Spellcraft, using the mnemonics of SMART to illustrate the points in a quick and convenient reference.

Simple is best: if you go through too many elaborate motions you may have a momentary lapse of attention and consciousness and blow the whole thing, especially if your working involves visualization of some sort.

Materials for casting the spell should be things that mean something to you in terms of "programming" your consciousness.  If you don't feel a particular stone has healing properties to *you* or if you don't get off on the idea of chanting over a candle... don't do it.  You don't have to.  Figure something else out that works.

Ask the Gods/spirits you work with if you are in doubt about doing something.  They may have other ideas about what They want you to do.

Reality check -- are you working for something that can be realistically acquired, or are you expecting too much?  Are you aware of the loopholes involved with working for major changes, such as a large sum of money or a permanent relationship?  Can you get to where you want to be gradually, working more magick at each level of the long-term goal?  Be honest with what you really want, and what you are willing to do mundanely (in other words, outside of the spell) to accomplish your goal.  Doing a spell for money because you're unemployed and broke and then never doing anything to find a job because you spend all your time playing World of Warcraft... is not going to work.

Think about what you're doing, the meaning behind what you're doing, and how it is going to affect your mundane life and future magickal workings.  Do your homework, read as much as you can, and learn to separate the wheat from the chaff inside your own head.


I hope you find this information to be helpful, and Happy Spellcasting!

(C) 2008 Sigrun Freyskona.