Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic - Softcover

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Wiccan High Priestess Phyllis Curott is an attorney and the author of Book of Shadows. She was named one of the Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year by Jane magazine in 1999 and was a finalist for the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award in 2000. A Priestess for more than twenty years and founder of the Temple of Ara, she has been widely profiled in the media, lectures frequently around the globe and is widely respected for her work promoting civil rights and religious freedom. She lives in New York City and on the East End of Long Island.

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Phyllis Curott's first book, Book of Shadows, was an inspirational, spiritual memoir that chronicled her journey from Ivy League-educated, New York City attorney to Wiccan High Priestess. By inviting readers of all faiths to share in her own personal transformation, Phyllis debunked many of the myths surrounding Wicca and revealed it for what it really is: a spiritual movement whose tenets of Goddess worship and reverence for Nature were a great deal more accessible and familiar than she'd ever expected. In Witch Crafting, Phyllis digs deep into the practices and principles of Witchcraft to provide a comprehensive guidebook that anyone "novices and seasoned practitioners alike" can use to incorporate the beauty and power of Wicca into their own daily lives.
Far from being just another mechanical spell book, Witch Crafting is the first book to offer readers not only the how-to of Witchcraft, but also the "why-to, explaining the profound spiritual tenets behind Wiccan techniques. Filled with both traditional and innovative shamanic practices, Phyllis also provides an empowering new definition of magic and reexamines the ethics under which Witchcraft is practiced, offering a groundbreaking alternative to the Threefold Law. With enchanting stories from Curott's own experiences, Witch Crafting will also teach you how to:
- Master the secret arts of effective spellcasting
- Create sacred space and personal rituals
- Perform divinations for spiritual insight and earthly success
- Tap into the power of altered states, such as dreaming, meditation, prayer, and trance
- Keep a magical journal and create your own Book of Shadows -Keep a magical
Rich with detailed advicefor making magic, working with Nature, and finding the Divine within, as well as thought-provoking evaluations of this remarkable spirituality, Witch Crafting is the special volume that you've been searching for. Whether you are a beginner or have been practicing Witchcraft for years, whether you worship in a coven or on your own, Witch Crafting is the ideal handbook for you, or anyone seeking to unlock the divine power that makes real magic happen and experience the ecstasy, energy, and gifts of the Universe more fully.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

Real Magic

"Bring me the love that is right for me now. There's someone out there longing for me. Bring us together so we can be happy. And give me a sign, so I'll recognize him."

With these words I ended my love spell and watched the smoke from the attraction incense I had made carry my spell into the future. I blew out the red candles, put the cap on the Aphrodite oil, and closed my magical circle.

Eight months passed and nothing was materializing, but I remembered the advice I always gave others: You have to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else. I threw myself into my work, which was always a source of personal growth for me.

And then one night, it happened. The sign I had asked for appeared in a dream. It was a waking or "big" dream--the kind that's so vivid you feel as if you're awake. And it was very cinematic: I was standing in the midst of the most beautiful clouds--all brilliantly lit by enormous klieg lights--when suddenly, a dark-haired man wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket and black jeans stepped out of the clouds. I couldn't see his face because he was lit from behind.

A motorcycle appeared next to him. It was black with lots of dazzling chrome shining in the light. I found myself climbing onto the back of the bike, and magically, he was seated in front of me. He gunned the engines and we took off into the clouds.

I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing, and I answered it, even though I was still half asleep. It was my best friend Mitchell, calling to persuade me to go out with a friend of his. He sounded like an interesting guy--a successful photographer with a studio in SoHo and a house on the ocean in the Hamptons. Mitchell said he was smart, funny, attractive, a "real man" --and, Mitchell added, "he rides a Harley."

"What color is it?" I asked, sitting bolt upright in bed.

"Black," he replied. "With a lot of chrome."

"I'll meet him."

Our second date was on the bike, and we were married a few years later.

Is the world really filled with magic? If you experience falling in love, you know the mystery, promise, and power of magic are all real. You feel as if you've been given a key to an enchanted kingdom where anything is possible, where dreams come true, and your heart's desires are yours for the asking.

But in our everyday lives, we find it hard to believe in such things. Look around you: turn on the television and watch the evening news, walk down the street and see the homeless folks, look at a strip-mined hillside, dolphins dying in a trawler's net, or another bloody war and it's not just hard, it's impossible to believe the world is filled with magic. There's no doubt that we humans treat the world as if it's the complete opposite of magical. In fact, we pretty much use it like a combination supply depot and garbage dump. And our own lives seem ensnared in endless details and responsibilities that couldn't seem further from magic.

We live in a world of sophisticated skeptics, where the word "magic" is dismissed with a sneer. It's a silly childhood belief that Hogwarts School can teach us to fly on brooms. We know it's just Hollywood special effects that enable beautiful babes to make furniture fly and demons explode. And it's elaborate props and mirrors that allow a Las Vegas lounge act to make a tiger "disappear." We enjoy the illusion, but we tell ourselves real magic is impossible, because we've been taught to believe in scientific, rational explanations. We've been told that magic is just a superstitious and illogical belief, defying science and the harsh realities of grown-up life. Yet, deep down inside, everyone longs for the power to heal the wounds of the world and to make their dreams come true.

The irony is that even when we've been told that it's foolish, even demonic, to believe in magic, the dominant patriarchal religions in our culture tell us that we should believe in their "miracles" --Moses parting the Red Sea, Jesus rising from the dead or walking on water. The difference, apparently, is that their "miracles" come from their "one true God." But this distinction is just an example of one religion demonizing another.

Throughout history there have always been magicians and mystics, and modern Wicca is one of the world's most magical religious traditions. Divine magic is an integral aspect of this spirituality, but what we practice is not your childhood abracadabra. So how do we make real magic?

To answer that, we have to look first at the traditional definitions of magic, see how they work, and then consider a new one.

The Traditional Craft Definitions of Magic

Over the years, two definitions of magic have had a major impact on the development of Wicca. "Magic is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will," wrote the controversial Aleister Crowley, enfant terrible of early twentieth-century magic. In keeping with this view of magic, practitioners of Wicca learn to visualize their goals, create thought forms, raise energy, direct that energy into the thought form, and project, direct, or will the energy into taking form--first in the realm of pure thought, and then in the realm of material manifestation. Mental focus and the projection of will are key to this magical approach. And it certainly works. But not all the time, and often not in the ways that one expects.

Another very popular definition of magic was provided by Dion Fortune, author and member of the Golden Dawn, a magical order from the early 1900s in England and Ireland. Her definition has had an enormous impact on contemporary Wicca and was later popularized by Starhawk: "Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will." And, once we have entered an altered state of consciousness, magic is then the art of changing events in the world by using heightened consciousness.

Wiccans employ a wide variety of simple yet very effective techniques to shift their consciousness from the mundane to the magical. It's one of the first things you learn in crafting yourself as a Witch, and something you will continue to explore for the rest of your magical life. Below are some basic, but critically important, Wiccan practices designed to "flip the switch" and get the part of your brain that you need to make magic working.

Basic Practice

Changing Consciousness at Will through Meditation

Here's one of the easiest and most important of all Wiccan techniques for changing consciousness: basic meditation. It has many elements in common with the practices of yoga, Buddhism, and transcendental and other meditation traditions.

The actual meditation need not take more than five minutes when you first practice it. As you become more able to relax and focus, work on gradually increasing the time you devote to meditating. A half an hour is ideal.

If at all possible, find a secluded spot outdoors, or at least in a place where you can see and hear nature. If you are indoors, turn off your phone ringers and lower the sound on the answering machine.

Sit comfortably. Next, relax your muscles--begin by tightening the muscles of your face, then releasing them. Continue to tighten and release your muscles, as you gradually work down the length of your body to your toes. Exhale. Take a deep breath slowly, breathing in through your nose, and hold it for a count of three. Exhale slowly through your mouth. Take another breath through your nose, fully expanding your diaphragm as you inhale, hold it for a count of three, and exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat one more time, and then continue to breathe deeply, slowly, and fully throughout this meditation, inhaling through...