Bravo
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Witchcraft for beginnersIf you were helping someone first get started in witchcraft, what would be your advice?
Are there any websites you'd recommend?
Are there any books you recommend?
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Raymond
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To a brand new "newbie" I would advise them to keep well clear of the internet at first.
As wonderful as it is the internet is a minefield of dodgy information at best and dangerous crackpots at worst.
Some of the sites I've seen and some of the things they've asked newbies to do would make your toes curl.
My advice to all people interested in the craft is to first read some books. By reading books you will at least get a "feel" of what it's all about and after reading just two or three you will know if it's for you and then can make an informed choice as to wether or not you wish to continue.
There aren't any specific books I recommend, I prefer to suggest specific authors as they all have a number of books on sale that are easy to get hold of.
Ray Buckland, Janet and Stewart Farrar, Patricia Crowther and Scott Cunningham all have very excellent books for the beginner and to provide a 'taster'.
Avoid the 'how to be a Witch' books at the start and focus more on the background and philosphy of the craft first.
This way you will get a clear idea if it's for you and will also avoid paying lots of money on props and items that you may never find a use for.
After all that the difficulty really starts.
You've read the books and it feels right and now you want to learn more. The best way forward in that is to either join a coven that trains people or find a teacher, and quite frankly you'd have more luck tracking down half a pound of hen's teeth.
Training and teachers are very, very thin on the ground, especially in towns and cities.
People just don't have the time to teach a group or an individual in their busy lives.
Teaching any subject in your own time requires more dedication from the teacher than it does from the student and you'd be very lucky indeed to find it.
However, it isn't impossible.
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Bravo
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That's excellent advice, thank you very much.
I will have a root about for those authors on ebay when I get the time.
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Samjaza
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Trust nothing.
Seek wisdom objctively.
understand that hugging a tree is not a hippy philosophy. 
The world is a magnet. we are conductors.
The soul is a canvas.
"God" is the greatest in that it gives free will and creativity.
erm... and believe it.... " magic " works.
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Raymond
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| Samjaza wrote: | | understand that hugging a tree is not a hippy philosophy. |
The hippies were right on a lot of things, wrong on others. Not too sure about the sandals however.
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david hobbs
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Do everything, no matter how simple the task, with intent.
It will work.
Always trust your first intuition without question.
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evergreen
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I think we need a wise words coloum .. these are fantastic 
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billy nomates
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why would a spell fail?
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david hobbs
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Becuase you don't have a spell checker?
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Raymond
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| billy nomates wrote: | | why would a spell fail? |
Most often than not because it isn't done properly. Now for the can of worms....... what is 'properly'?
'Properly' can mean different things to different people. True, there is a set formula to follow when casting a spell and most people who do spells follow it with various differences according to the type of magickal path they follow and/or occult practices they subscribe to.
A ritual magician, for example would cringe at the thought of following the formula that a Hedgewitch might follow and vice versa, however, if performed correctly both spells would (and do) work just as well as each other.
'Properly' means finding a magickal path which is in accordance with your own personal abilities and talents and, with some slight modifications, following that path to the letter.
Working magick isn't like following a recipe ( stear clear of 'spell kits' kids! ) add two cups of this to three cups of that and a teaspoon of so-and-so and you end up with a finished product, magick is about adding your own personal energy to the formula, your own 'mojo' if you will, and if that mojo is all wrong, or not strong enough at the time, the spell will fail.
Also, there is a school of thought that says sometimes, with certain situations, all spells will fail.
Witches call it 'Goddess intervention'.
Sometimes people experience certain situations in life and for some reason no amount of spells, praying, wishing or hoping will change that circumstance.
This is because that person is meant to experience that particular thing,- it's part of their personal growth path and us mere Witches, Magicians, etc, are not allowed to interfere with that process.
I know somebody who has been to numerous Witches, Voodooists, Magicians, Druids and the like to try and fall pregnant, each time it fails. For some cosmic reason she is simply not meant to have kids.
It's a bit sh*tty but hey, that's life.
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billy nomates
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hi raymond.......i am particularly interested in what you said at the end of your reply......ie a person is meant to experience something or not be able to have kids......
in my own meditations i have experienced brief glimpses of satori.....
in which there is nothing...........nothing to do,learn,own etc.....
so if all there is is actually nothing-then how can anyone have anything to learn or do?
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Raymond
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Would you expand that a little more please Billy.
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billy nomates
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ok i will try........
just meditating and chanting or focusing on an object i have sometimes been able to slip in to what some of us would call the space.....it is when i fall into another place where i have no thoughts,no body just a kind of shamanic ecstasy.......in this place there is no billy,no raymond,no body,no place,......no universe just zero!
just for a short time it is possible to lose the ego.or that which i would call this person.me,moi,mich,therefore allowing in the unseen........
in this place there is actually no-one to love,hate etc because we do not exist!
++++++++++++
when doing magic i guess we imprint our thoughts on 'the field' and shape 'our reality'............
so as wu wei wu would put it we are all suffering from a case of mistaken identity.........we are actually not humans but part of that 'field'.......
++++++++++++++++++++++
now this all sounds great.but.........life drags us back into this realm......
we all have highs and lows.........
now a big problem i have is understanding the experience of being a 'person'............if we are just part of the field then we cannot possibly be here to learn or do anything,to suffer,to be saints or whatever........
some say that we are here to learn or suffering karma.........
but how can one be expected to learn something when one doesnt have a clue what the lesson is all about........
ie the lady that cannot become pregnant...........obviously this is creating a terrible chasm in her life.how could it be that there would be an esoteric reason for this? if we are all part of the field the surely it is all an illusion and nothing matters>therefore any lessons or hardships are invalid?
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Raymond
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I sort of understand what you're saying now.
Once more I have to point out that I am far from an authority on this or any of the subjects discussed on this forum.
I can only give my thoughts and opinions at any given time and it down to the reader to either accept those opinions as worthwhile or a complete load of tosh.
I firmly accept that the human stage of life is a stage of learning and experience, that's why it's a physical stage of life.
It's important to remember that every human experience is a lesson. Even in the most difficult of circumstances there are lessons to be learned.
What's the point? Well, I believe that in order to eventually end up as one with the 'Godhead' or spirit or whatever you call 'it', a soul must first experience everything. Every state of being.
We go through cycles of human existance and then cycles of spirit existance and then finally we're ready to join with the collective.
To be quite frank with my explanation, none of it really matters. The woman who can't get pregnant, the single mum who never has enough money, the drug addict who can't get clean, the young couple who lose a child to cot-death, the starving millions around the world, none of it really matters in the grand scheme of things.
It's all individual experiences that each of us are living in our own way.
A soul born into royalty in this life may be born into starvation in the next, that's two forms of human existance ticked off the list.
Suffering is an important lesson to learn. It must be learned. When you take into account the importance of balance that I'm always banging on about how can one appreciate joy if one has never experienced suffering?
The void in the barren lady's life is a lesson she must learn, a life of childlesness may be the only reason she was born in this current life, remember - being without children doesn't mean the same thing to everybody, personally having kids is my idea of hell, I honestly couldn't think of anything worse.
The point is that we are here to learn, learn for ourselves and occasionally learn from each other.
That doesn't give you free reign to go out and f*ck your life up and say "Oh that's my path, man", we should all be trying to figure out what it is that we are meant to be doing in this life and doing our best to achieve it.
The only way to do that is to be really honest with yourself, and a lot of people don't find that very easy.
So they spend their time drinking, doing drugs, blaming other people or other things for problems of their own making when really they should be looking in the mirror and getting off their lazy backsides and achieving what it is they're here to achieve.
All of this is little comfort for the lady who cannot have children, "Oh it's okay dear, it's your life-path" is not what she wants to hear, but that's exactly what it is.
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billy nomates
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as crowley said'it's all a point of view'......
isnt it interesting that with all our so called sophistication (internet,tv,cars,computers) how many believe we are 'cursed' (yes me too)! or suffering from karma or bad spirits?
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david hobbs
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| billy nomates wrote: | ok i will try........
just meditating and chanting or focusing on an object i have sometimes been able to slip in to what some of us would call the space.....it is when i fall into another place where i have no thoughts,no body just a kind of shamanic ecstasy.......in this place there is no billy,no Raymond,no body,no place,......no universe just zero!
just for a short time it is possible to lose the ego.or that which i would call this person.me,moi,mich,therefore allowing in the unseen........
in this place there is actually no-one to love,hate etc because we do not exist!
++++++++++++
when doing magic i guess we imprint our thoughts on 'the field' and shape 'our reality'............
so as wu wei wu would put it we are all suffering from a case of mistaken identity.........we are actually not humans but part of that 'field'.......
++++++++++++++++++++++
now this all sounds great.but.........life drags us back into this realm......
we all have highs and lows.........
now a big problem i have is understanding the experience of being a 'person'............if we are just part of the field then we cannot possibly be here to learn or do anything,to suffer,to be saints or whatever........
some say that we are here to learn or suffering karma.........
but how can one be expected to learn something when one doesn't have a clue what the lesson is all about........
ie the lady that cannot become pregnant...........obviously this is creating a terrible chasm in her life.how could it be that there would be an esoteric reason for this? if we are all part of the field the surely it is all an illusion and nothing matters>therefore any lessons or hardships are invalid? |
The problem is that you do not really know what this nothing is.
It has been experienced by many over the centuries but none that I know of knew what this nothingness was.
It could simply be a state of mind that the individual takes as being the ultimate truth but is in fact yet another illusion.
I have experienced the bliss state on several occasions. It is literally pure light and love and within that there is nothing else.
Is this a state of mind. many mystics claim that it is our true self, but claims are one thing and facts are another.
It does no good to get trapped in one experience.
It may be that you have trapped yourself in a belief system.
A system that say's, what's the point.
And you believe it.
There is always a counter experience to balance things out.
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Raymond
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| billy nomates wrote: | | isnt it interesting that with all our so called sophistication (internet,tv,cars,computers) how many believe we are 'cursed' (yes me too)! or suffering from karma or bad spirits? |
I think this is at the fore more today than ever before. We all seem to have this God-shaped hole in out lives and many will quite literally cling to anything to fill that hole.
It stems from the fact that so-called 'organised' religion had let us down badly, Christianity especially so.
The answers it provides are no longer enough to satisfy our questions and where Islam still seems to have a strangehold on it's followers I can see a time soon when that too will no longer provide the answers to it's faithful.
We all need something to believe in (this is where Mr. Hobbs and I part company) belief is good, it gives life a point, it gives us something solid to stand upon when evedrything else is going to sh*t.
I'm afraid the belief system that the church is offering no longer cuts the mustard.
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billy nomates
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all good stuff chaps...........
in a weird way i have gone full circle.........
i dont believe in anything other than my own personal experience.
as i only have one life then i have to find a way to make it enjoyable or how i want it to be.this obviously involves a lot of breaking down of beliefs..
ie i am too old,over qualified-under qualified .the list goes on.......
perhaps focus and intent can be used to attract a happy and rewarding lifestyle?
it is bloody hard but then what else is there to do?
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billy nomates
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a mutual friend of dave and myself asked 'is it you or them'?
because i was whinging on a bit (as usual)!
i dont believe in karma but i saw oa woman on tv yesterday and she had the most awful affliction.......a very rare disease that will probably result in the amputation of her legs...
in north american shamanism the talk of the cosmic joker.represented by the coyote......
so.do we think that the creator has a sick sense of humour?
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Raymond
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You don't half write some difficult to follow posts Bill.
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billy nomates
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ok raymond.is god/the universe taking the michael?
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Raymond
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Well, I can only answer from the persepective of a pagan and as we believe in a God and Goddess and as that God/Goddess are the one and the many and as we see our gods with all the traits and faults of us mere humans instead of putting them on a throne, then yes, I do believe the gods have a very healthy sense of humour.
And quite right too.
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