#wiccan | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sejdkvinna · 2 days ago

Text

a year and a day of witchcraft research

Years ago, I asked myself how I would approach witchcraft if I were to start all over again. I loved the idea of dedicating yourself to a year and a day of study, even if I don’t align with Wicca. From this, I created a weekly study plan for a year and a day of witchcraft research Realistically, I don’t think you can study one topic in depth per week, but I do think it’s useful for beginners to explore a little bit of everything to find their interests. Please don’t feel confined by the weekly structure! If a topic interests you, take more time to explore it! The application of a topic is just as important as reading about it. If a topic doesn’t hold your attention, be grateful for what it has taught you and move on. Or just use this for inspiration on what to dive into next!

A note on research - not all sources are the same quality! Over the years, I’ve gravitated to academic articles and botanical books for information on history, plants, etc. Many witch authors have spread an insane amount of misinformation, so being able to track where their information is coming from is crucial. That’s not to say there aren’t good witch authors on witchcraft – do a quick search on their background and look at book reviews! This is additionally important to understand what biases may be lurking in their writing.

Finally, I want to encourage you to keep two journals during your study. I keep one journal as a grimoire/book of shadows (BOS) or whatever name you choose to call it. I keep another journal to keep my personal experiences with the craft (meditations, spell work, etc.). I’ve loved being able to look back at my progress over the years.

Week 1: History and Cultural Appropriation

A good place to start your witchcraft research is the history of witchcraft. Learn a bit about where it started and how it evolved to its modern form. This is also a good time to also do some research into cultural appropriation – many modern witchcraft practices are full of it! Understanding the roots of practices will help you to not only build discernment skills, but it will also help you to respect closed practices.

Week 2: Traditions

There’s many schools of thought and cultural contexts for witchcraft. This is a good time to explore the different witchcraft traditions and see what resonates with you. I personally would discourage beginner witches from picking a path early on, as I find that you’ll naturally gravitate towards what’s meant for you. However, doing some research on different paths early on can help you make connections and see practices through different lenses as you progress.

Week 3: Ethics

In addition to there being many paths, many witches have created codes of ethics. Do some research into what ethical framework you wish to move forward with – you are more than free to create your own! What does ethical witchcraft mean to you?

Week 4: Cleansing and Banishing

Learn what cleansing and banishing are, and find a few ways to do it that you like. What are some indicators that a cleansing or banishing might be needed? Think about cleansing yourself, your home, your sacred space, tools etc.

Week 5: Protection

To follow up cleansing and banishing, learning some forms of magical protection and warding. Again, think about the different ways you might protect yourself and your space. What are some signs that it’s time to renew your protections? Make sure to practice protection magic moving forward in addition to learning about it!

Week 6: Meditation

Do a little research into how to meditate and give it a try. Meditation doesn’t come easy to everyone, so don’t get discouraged! For this week, focus on your breathwork, entering a blank space, and generally relaxing your mind and your body.

Week 7: Visionary Work

Once you’ve gotten the basics of meditation down, move on to visionary work. Build your visualization skills – this does not have to be “seeing” things in your head. It can include all senses! Something that helped me with visionary work was to look at my surroundings in front of me while “seeing” my surroundings that were behind me. Incorporate meditations with visionary aspects during this week.

Week 8: Centering and Grounding

Now that we’ve done some visionary work, try doing some meditations with the goal to center/ground yourself. There’s so many meditations (and even other ways to center and ground yourself) out there – find what works for you! What are some signs that it’s time to ground yourself again?

Week 9: Energy Work

Hopefully you’ve already got a bit of a sense for handling energy from centering and grounding, but this week it’s time to really dive into energy work. What does your energy feel like? What about others’? Objects? How can you manipulate and shape energy? Etc.

Week 10: Shadow Work

Get to know your shadow this week! Learn about what shadow work is and how to integrate your shadow. There's lots of exercises and prompts out there already - go ahead and explore!

Week 11: Developing the Senses

Next, let's start developing the psychic senses. From the visionary magic week, you might already have a sense of which of your psychic senses might be strongest. Start looking into what the psychic senses are, and how you might start developing them. For an introduction, I really like this video by The Norse Witch.

Week 12: Consecration and Desecration

Now we're going to focus on how to consecrate and desecrate objects. Consecration is a valuable skill to be able to designate objects for a certain intent, and desecration is valuable for when you need to remove intent from an object, whether good or bad. Learn about a few different methods for each!

Week 13: Bioregionalism

It's time to get to know the nature around you. What plants grow in the area? What rocks and minerals can you find? Where are some crossroads that you can visit? These questions are just a starting point; take the time to really get to know the land around you!

Week 14: Elements

Now we're going to focus on the elements. The four classical elements may not apply to the tradition you're working within - do some research to see what the "building blocks" are for you! If you do want to work with the four (or five) elements, take some time to learn about the correspondences, associated spirits, etc.

Week 15: Directions

Building off of the research done on elements, do some research on the four directions and their associations. This can also be a good point to look at wind magic, and how different directions are associated with different winds.

Week 16: Holidays and Seasons

While many witches choose to work with the wheel of the year, you might find there are other holidays associated with other traditions. This can be a good time to think on how you want to celebrate the changing of the seasons. How do you know each season has come? What magical workings might be best for each season?

Week 17: Lunar Phases

This week, let's look at the different lunar phases and their correspondences. What workings are best for each phase? What about for each sign the moon can be in? This is also a good time to look at the correspondences for the lunar eclipse.

Week 18: Planetary Correspondences

Now let's research the correspondences for each planet. How does the positioning of each planet have the potential to affect your spellwork?

Week 19: Astrology

While learning everything about astrology would be very time consuming, this week you could aim to understand your birth chart, as well as what each sign is associated with.

Week 20: Timing

Zooming in now, let's look at timing. Look up what the days of the week and times of the day are associated with, and how they can affect your practice.

Week 21: Written Verse, Incantations, etc.

Written verse is a part of spell work for many practitioners. How can you write the incantations for a spell? Does your tradition offer any guidance or structures?

Week 22: Color Correspondences

What do you associate each color with? While there are many correspondences you can find online, be sure that they align with your intuition as well.

Week 23: Candle Magic

Building off of color magic, this week is for delving into candle magic. How can candles be used? How do you dress/anoint a candle?

Week 24: Knot Magic

Look into what knot magic and some ways you could practice it. Personally, I am a big fan of the Witch's Ladder.

Week 25: Herbalism

There's too many plants to learn the correspondences for all of them in one week (or even a lifetime), but take this opportunity to learn more about the plants growing in your area! This is also a good time to look at how to make balms, tinctures, etc.

Local/native plants

Week 26: Crystals

Once again, there's too many crystals for one week. What are some rocks/minerals you could find in your region? How can you use them in your practice?

Week 27: Tools

What are some tools you can use in your practice? This doesn't have to be the athame, chalice, etc. You can think of both physical and nonphysical tools for this.

Week 28: Spell and Ritual Writing

Now that you've got down a lot of the parts of spell writing, it's time to put them all together! While you can rely on others' spells for a while, learning to write your own is a powerful skill.

Week 29: Amulets and Talismans

How would you create an amulet or talisman? What purposes can they serve? If you feel called to it, try making your won.

Week 30: Shrines and Altars

What's the difference between a shrine and an altar? What are some purposes for both, and what might you put on them? This would also be a good time to make your own, if you feel called to it.

Week 31: Pendulum

This week, we'll start focusing on some divination practices, starting with the pendulum. Look into how to use one, as well has how to make a pendulum and pendulum board if you don't want to go out and buy these things.

Week 32: Tarot

For tarot research, I found that looking up the meaning of each card, taking in the visual symbolism, and then assigning one word meanings to each card helped me to learn how to read tarot. Look into some spreads you could use as well!

Week 33: Scrying

To add another divination practice you can choose from in the future, research scrying and how to perform it. It might also be a good idea to find some ways to make your own scrying mirror.

Week 34: Runes

This week, let's look at the runes? Learn about their origin and history, the rune poems, their meanings how to perform divination with them, etc.

Week 35: Tea Leaf Reading

To wrap up the divination weeks, learn a bit about tea leaf reading (tasseomancy). What are some common shapes, and what are their meanings?

Week 36: Sigils

What are sigils? How are they charged and activated? How do you draw a sigil? There's a few different ways to create sigils - see what works best for you!

Week 37: Symbols

What are some symbols and their meanings? What are their origins? Which ones resonate with you?

Week 38: Sacred Geometry

Do a little dive into sacred geometry. What is it? What are some examples of wit can appear? How can you use sacred geometry in your practice?

Week 39: Alchemy

Look into alchemical principles and how you might want to apply them to your practice (if at all). Does it align with your view of witchcraft?

Week 40: Numerology

What are the correspondences for each number? If you're interested in it, look into your life path number and what it means.

Week 41: Axis Mundi

Many traditions have a concept of an "axis mundi" - what is the axis mundi in your tradition (and if you don't subscribe to a tradition, what does an axis mundi mean to you? How might this relate to your practice and accessing other worlds?

Week 42: Animal Correspondences

What are some correspondences for different animals? What animals are good psychopomps? What might seeing certain animals mean to you?

Week 43: Protective Spirits

Many different traditions have some concept of protective personal spirits. Many modern witches might instead refer to a "spirit team". Do some research into the different protective spirits - what resonates with you?

Week 44: Ancestral Work

Some of the easiest spirits to work with are our ancestors! You can start an ancestral practice to honor those who came before you, even if you do not know or wish not to honor your blood ancestors. Look into some ways you can work with and honor your ancestors during this week.

Week 45: House Spirits

Next, let's look at some house spirits. Do some research into some different house spirits, and get to know the spirit of your house!

Week 46: Land Spirits

This week, let's move on to land spirits. Dive into what some different land spirits are and get to know the land spirits around you. This may include spirits from folklore, as well as the spirits of rocks, plants, water sources, etc.

Week 47: Egregores

Now, let's look at egregores. Research what they are, how they are created, etc. You don't need to create one now, but it will help you to have this knowledge background if you choose to continue with spirit work.

Week 48: Dream Work

This week, let's research how to interpret dreams, lucid dreaming, how to communicate with spirits through dreams, etc. This is also a good time to start recording your dreams, if you haven't already. You can also build off past herbalism research to enhance your dreams.

Week 49: Astral Work

For this week, research the astral plane, other types of spirits, how to reach the astral, etc. For many, astral projection/travel takes a lot of time and practice - don't get discouraged! There's many ways to interact with spirits outside of the astral plane.

Week 50: Pantheons and/or Animism

Many witches choose to incorporate deity work into their practice. Other witches do not, and some of these witches may believe in animism and choose to work with plant, rock, etc. allies. What do you believe it? If you do feel called to deity work, this could be a good time to start. I recommend starting with looking into the different pantheons and seeing what resonates. I do advise against assuming everything is a sign that a deity is calling to you - reach out to those you want a relationship with, and your psychic senses or divination to see if they want to work with you too.

Week 51: Mythology and Folklore

Whether you choose to believe that stories from folklore/mythology are true or not, they do often contain valuable information on witchcraft from their traditions. Take some time to read these and recognize patterns within them. How can these inform your practice?

Week 52: Covens v. the Solitary Path

What are some benefits to working in a group? What are some benefits of working alone? Are there other practicing witches in your area? How might you meet them?

Last Day: Reflecting on your Path

You made it to the last day, congratulations! This day is dedicated to reflecting on your path so far. What lessons have you learned? Are you feeling called to any particular paths, or what interested you more than others? Do you see yourself looking for a group to practice with, or do you wish to continue on your own?

#witchcraft #witches #witch #beginner witch #witch blog #baby witch #pagan #paganism #pagan witch #wicca #wiccan #magick #occult #occultism

25 notes · View notes