A Course in Craft-Building
As we enter the new year, we often take stock of what we have in our lives and make plans for the changes we want to make in the future. We might plan out our financial goals, start mapping out our plans for small business ventures, set new goals for our health, or look for ways to improve our relationships. We think about where we, where we want to be, and how to make it from Point A to Point B. One area of our lives that may get overlooked, however, is our magical practice.
Whatever our beliefs about magic—what it is, how it works, whether or not it is spiritual—a practitioner’s magical craft has a big impact on their relationship with themselves, their perception of the world and society around them, and their personal routines and rituals. Magic and our relationship with it have the potential to influence almost every aspect of our lives. So, why not include our magical practice in our New Year’s goal setting?
The mistake that many people make with magic is in the belief that, once you have a practice and are actively taking part in it, the craft-building part is over, that craft-building is something for beginners and newcomers to witchcraft. Or something for people who might be well-studied in one type of magic, but want to build something of their own.
The truth is, though, that craft-building never stops. It is ongoing, always happening—whether we are aware of the process or not. And it can be used in many, many ways. These include:
Transitioning from informal study to a more structured practice.
Refreshing and revitalizing your existing practice.
Adding more structure to everyday practices and wisdom you may have picked up from your family or community.
Designing rituals for a practice that does not contain much ritualized magic.
Building a magical practice around your faith, a particular genre of folklore, specific witch archetype, etc.
Adding to or redesigning your existing practice.
Using this Study Plan
We have designed this year-long study plan to help you meet your craft-building goals, no matter where you are in your study/practice journey. Although we have released this guide as part of our New Year’s post series, you can start it at any time of the year and work through it any way you like. You might use it as a companion to a more formal course or apprenticeship, as a supplement to independent reading, or as a guide for a year of journaling and blogging. Rather than teach you what to believe about magic and how to build your craft, it is intended to help you organize your own thoughts and beliefs into an intentional, consistent magical practice; to challenge practitioners to reflect on their existing magical practice, beliefs, and goals. How you use this guide—and what you take from it—is entirely up to you.
There is no required reading, or purchase you need to make. The course is based on reflection and practice. You can follow this study plan with whatever books you already have, or with the help of online research, blogs, videos, etc. You can use this study guide to build your knowledge from the ground up, or as a way to organize and refine the knowledge you already have into a new or revitalized practice.
This independent study plan is divided into monthly parts and further broken up into weekly units, each with very simple prompts to help you organize your knowledge and practice. You can complete one a week, or work at your own pace. (The important thing is that you work on it regularly, without rushing through the units).
A Year of Intentional Craft-Building
Part One: Getting Started
Week One – About You: As you begin this course, take some time to think about yourself as a whole. Who are you as a person? Who are you as a magical practitioner? How would you introduce yourself to a magical community or individual? What honest things could you say at this point about yourself and your practice?
Week Two – Defining Witchcraft: When you hear the words witchcraft or magic, what do they automatically mean to you? Consider your current beliefs about magic and witchcraft. Can you define witchcraft or magic in your own words? Does your personal definition of witchcraft and magic deviate from or align with any specific magical practices or traditions? Are there any specific definitions of witchcraft and magic with which you disagree? If so, why?
Week Three – Defining Your Personal Craft: Imagine that your current or ideal practice is its own “brand” of witchcraft. What would that mean? How would you explain the specific details and mechanisms of your craft to someone who wasn’t a part of it but had some knowledge of magic in general? What is the heart and soul of your magical practice? What makes it special? What makes it work?
Week Four – Goal-Setting: Reflect on your magical practice and the goals you have for it. What are you comfortable with? What would you like to change? Where in your magical life do you feel under-stimulated or underchallenged? What are a few simple, measurable goals that you have for your study and practice throughout the next year? What specific, actionable things do you hope to gain from using this study guide?
Part Two: The Practitioner
Week Five – Magical Origins: A magical origin story can be an important part of a practitioner’s magical journey. What is yours? How were you called to magical practice? When you imagined yourself practicing magic, what did it look like? When and where did you first feel a connection to magic?
Week Six – The Practitioner’s Role: Consider your beliefs about the role of the practitioner in the practice of magic. What makes someone a witch or qualifies them to be a practitioner of magic? What are the qualities a person needs to practice magic?
Week Seven – Practice & Practitioner: What is your understanding of the relationship between the practitioner and their practice? What is the importance of this relationship to the practitioner’s magical study and success? How does a person cultivate a relationship with their practice?
Week Eight – Practitioner & the World: Consider your feelings about the practitioner’s relationship with the world around them. What is that relationship? Do you believe that practitioners in general have a particular “place” or “purpose” in the world? Do you believe that you as a practitioner have a specific place or purpose in the world?
Part Three: Beliefs & Worldviews
Week Nine – Magic Theory: Think about your beliefs about what makes magic work. When we perform magic, what is it that we’re interacting with and how? What do you think gives practitioners of magic the ability to interact with and move these forces?
Week Ten – Magical Ethics: Think about your personal beliefs about the ethics associated with the practice and use of magic. What are they? Where do they come from? What makes magic ethical vs. unethical? Are there things which you do not consider unethical in the general sense but avoid doing yourself? What are your personal “rules” for practicing magic and witchcraft?
Week Eleven – Magic & Spirituality: Many times (but certainly not all), a practitioner’s beliefs about spirituality or their spiritual practices are connected to their magical practices in some way. What are your beliefs about spirituality—religious or non-religious? What perspectives and worldviews do you bring from your spiritual beliefs into your magical practice? If your magical practice and spiritual beliefs are entirely unconnected, how do you feel that impacts you as a practitioner of magic? What perspectives do those beliefs lend to your routines and habits as a practitioner of magic?
Week Twelve – Your Magical Mission Statement: A mission statement is a declaration of one’s mission or purpose. It incorporates your goals and objectives, as well as the beliefs on which they are founded and the specific actions you take to achieve them. Think about your “mission” as a practitioner of magic. Take some time to organize these thoughts into a mission statement, creed or manifesto that declares your magical intentions and direction.
Part Four: Source Material
Week Thirteen – Past Sources: Think about the materials you have used to inform your practice. Consider the books, blogs, and other resources that have been the most influential to your current practice. What draws you to a resource? What repels you? What methods do you use to assess a resource for its accuracy or relevance? What do you like about the resources you’ve used in the past? What do you dislike?
Week Fourteen – Goals & Scope of New Research: Think about your goals for your practice. Whether you are creating a new practice from the ground up, organizing your thoughts into more formal magical routines, or revitalizing and refocusing your existing practice. Create a list of goals specific to your current or future research. Is there a particular focus you are looking to shift into in your practice? Are there certain sources of influence you are trying to cleanse your practice of? Use these goals to define the scope of your current or future magical research.
Week Fifteen – Mass Market, Self-Published & Online Sources: Most of the resources used to research and inform magical research and practice are consumer-targeted published materials, which include tradition, self-, and online publishing methods. These sources are accessible to many due to their availability in stores and their use of common language. Consider the consumer-focused publications you plan to use to inform your craft-building. How do they align with the scope and goals you set for your craft-building journey? What method of assessment do you plan to use to gauge the usefulness of these sources?
Week Sixteen – Primary, Scholarly & Classical Sources: In addition to consumer-focused materials and publications, there are also many other sources that a practitioner can use to inform and guide their practice and their understanding of magic. These include the classical texts with which much of the magical community is already familiar, such as the Key of Solomon and the Black Pullet. Classical texts that may not be specifically magical in nature but can also be used to inform and guide a magical practice include saga, myth, and other classical literature as well as religious texts like sections of the Holy Bible. Other materials that can inform a magical practice include scholarly publications (such as dissertations and other research papers) and primary materials (such as personal grimoires, firsthand accounts, and artifacts). What primary, scholarly and classical sources can you incorporate into your magical research? What would the benefits be? What methods of assessment do you plan to use to evaluate these types of materials?
Part Five: Lore
Week Seventeen – Folklore that Informs your Craft: Think about your relationship with folklore. What folklore has influenced or inspired your craft thus far? What is the connection or correlation between your magical practice and this lore? Is the connection casual or direct? How happy are you with the link (or lack thereof) between your magical practice and folklore? What would you like to change? What would you like to stay the same?
Week Eighteen – Figures from Lore: Consider the figures from lore that you feel particularly connected to with regards to your magical practice. What roles do they play in your relationship with magic, yourself, or spirit? What traits, symbols, and powers do you associate with them? What magical goals do you have in association with these figures?
Week Nineteen – Power Symbols from Lore: Consider some of the lore from your region, spiritual practice, magical practice, or ancestral regions. What are some symbols from this lore that you associate with magic and power? These could be symbols such as animals, plants or objects featured often in the lore. They could also be archetypes or actions that are given prominence in folkloric stories and tales. Make a list of the folkloric elements that you associate with power. How do/can you incorporate them into your magical routines and practice?
Week Twenty – Customs from Lore: Mythology and folklore are full of symbols and customs that can be incorporated into a magical practice. These may include holidays, rituals, etiquette for communing with spirits, and rites of passage. They may also include Old Wive’s Tales and regional wisdom. What customs from myth and folklore do/can you incorporate into your magical practice? What do they mean to you? What do the bring to your practice?
Part Six: Elements & Symbols
Week Twenty-One – Your Magical Theme/Brand: Sometimes, defining your magic in term of a theme or brand of magic is a useful way to define the scope of your magical practice and focusing your symbolism to a fine point. Consider your own personal brand or theme of magic. What is the focal point of your magic? What is the scope of your practice?
Week Twenty-Two – Imagery & Symbols: Think about the images and symbolism that you utilize in your practice. Make a list of the images you use the most—both actively and passively. Reflect on how you discovered them or build a relationship with them. Think about how you use them and what they mean. How do they enhance your magical practice? How do they speak to you? What do you associate each of these symbols with?
Week Twenty-Three – Elements & Components: Many of us are familiar with the elements that are commonly cited as the basis for all magic—earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. But, this week, consider the elements central to your practice. Your practice may use the five-element system or focus on one or two. You may also use other, more specialized “elements”—for example, the wilderness, storms, volcanoes. If you had to define your craft in elements, how would do so? What are the building blocks of the power of your craft?
Week Twenty-Four – Application of Elements & Symbols: Now that you’ve taken time to consider the symbols and elements that make your practice what it is, think about how you apply each one to your magic. How do you bring your symbols and elements into the rituals and spells you perform? How do you tap into the power of those elements and symbols through action or visualization?
Part Seven: Tools & Aids
Week Twenty-Five – Your Toolset(s): This week, think about your current toolset. Think about your past toolsets. What tools have you incorporated into your practice? How do you use them?
Week Twenty-Six – The Nature of Tools: Consider your opinion on the nature of tools. What is your opinion on their purpose within a person’s craft? What is your belief about the power of tools—does it come from the tool itself, or is it sourced from elsewhere and directed through the tool? Do you believe that tools are a necessity to your craft?
Week Twenty-Seven – New Tools: Think about the toolset you’re currently using. What’s missing? What’s not working? Is your current toolset tailored to the work you do? What can you add, take away, or change to improve the fit of your toolset?
Week Twenty-Eight – Supplies & Components: Taking your beliefs about the nature of tools and aids into account, how do you select your spell curios and components? Do you use correspondences or another system of magical associations? Make a list of the types of spell components and curios that you use most often (for example: herbs, stones, animal objects, etc.). Are your selections of these types of items informed by certain lore or knowledge? What is the purpose of these components? Do they make the magic or simply direct it? Do you believe they are necessary or just nice to have?
Part Eight: Seasons
Week Twenty-Nine – Seasons & Magic: Think about your beliefs about the seasons and how they affect magic in the general sense. Do the seasons change the way magic manifests? Does the change of the seasons change the way we interact with and access magic? If so, how do you believe that is? What changes? What causes those changes?
Week Thirty – Seasons & Personal Practice: Now that you’ve considered how magic in general is affected by the seasons, think about how these changes affect your magic within your personal practice? Do you find yourself feeling “more magical” during any particular seasons? Do you find that your specific magical interests or routines vary as the seasons progress? What does that feel like? How to you experience feeling more or less magical? How do you feel “called” to different routines and magical focuses in different parts of the year?
Week Thirty-One – Magical Celebrations: There are many celebrations associated with the magical community and the practice of magic. Most members of the magical community are familiar with the concept of the Wheel of the Year, which is observed (in variations) among many different practitioners and practices. Additionally, many practitioners observe other celebrations such as rites of passage, initiations, re-birthdays, etc. Think about some of the celebrations you have observed. How did they make you feel? What was significant about them? Did they feel like the right fit? If not, what would you change?
Week Thirty-Two – Personal Celebrations of Magic: Celebrations can be a great way to enhance your relationship with magic and with your magical practice. Now that you’ve had some time you think about the celebrations you’ve observed in the past, think about how well your celebration routine fits you. Do the feasts you observe (if any) represent and connect with your magical practice? If not, how can you improve that? Going beyond feasts and seasonal rituals, what personal celebrations can you add to your calendar? Do you have ways to celebrate your growing relationship with your magical practice, or to mark the tides of the year as they relate to your magical craft? Think about ways to celebrate yourself, your ancestors, your relationship with the world around you. What would you add to your own “Wheel of the Year” to celebrate yourself? What rituals could you add to your existing celebrations—such as your birthday, family observances, etc.—that could make them more magical?
Part Nine: Ritual
Week Thirty-Three – Past Experience with Rituals: What is your past experience with rituals? What do you remember about your first ritual? What rituals do you observe regularly? Is ritual a good fit for your practice? Think about rituals that have worked for you, and rituals that haven’t. Try to sum up what rituals have made you feel in your past experience. Have they been empowering? Have you felt awkward or out of place? What parts of the experience made you feel that way?
Week Thirty-Four – Ritual Components: Often, rituals have parts or pieces that can be repeated in the same order over and over. Think about the parts of the rituals you enjoy using. What are they? What components would you consider the building blocks of your rituals? What components would you identify as your “template” for ritual order?
Week Thirty-Five – Favorite Rituals: What are your favorite rituals? They don’t have to be rituals you’ve actually taken part in. What rituals do you feel drawn to—whether you’ve seen them in literature, movies, or elsewhere? Make a list of your favorite rituals and why you feel drawn to them.
Week Thirty-Six – Rewriting & Writing Ritual: Choose one of your favorite rituals from the last prompt. How could you rewrite it or write a ritual based on it that fits your practice? How could you add your ritual components/template to your chosen ritual? How is it different from the original? How is the same? Try using the same method to rewrite a ritual from a book or from another practice? Practice using your ritual template to write your own ritual from scratch?
Part Ten: Spells
Week Thirty-Seven – Past Experience with Spells: What is your past experience with spells? How do you use them, and how often? In the past, how have you sourced your spells? Do you find them in books? If so, do you use them as is or do you modify them? Do you write your spells yourself? Are your written spells based on any particular tradition, folklore or other source?
Week Thirty-Eight – What is a Spell?: Defining a spell can be different for different practices and practitioners. How do you define a spell? Does it need to follow a specific format or follow a template? Does it need to be intentionally performed?
Week Thirty-Nine – Favorite Spells: What are your favorite spells? What are your favorite types of spells to use (for example: candle spells, knot spells, etc.)? What have been your most successful spells? Where have your sourced your favorite spells?
Week Forty – Writing & Rewriting Spells: Choose a spell. Choose a spell from your list of favorites and rewrite it. Change its purpose. Or change its mechanics. Find a spell from a primary or classical source and try modernizing it. Find a fictional spell and write it for actual use. Then, practice writing one from scratch. What do you think about the results?
Part Eleven: Record Keeping
Week Forty-One – The Role of Record Keeping: Consider the role that record keeping plays in magical study and practice. What do you think that is? How do you think record keeping is useful or not?
Week Forty-Two – Types of Records: What different types of magical records do you have experience with? What are the benefits of each? What types of magical record keeping have you never utilized? Why not? What are the possible benefits of these types of records to your magical practice?
Week Forty-Three – Record Keeping Practices & Goals: Think about your current record keeping practices. What specific, actionable goals do you have for your magical records? What will change about your record-keeping practices? What will you add or take away? What will stay the same?
Week Forty-Four – Record Keeping Organization: Consider your record keeping goals. How best can you meet them? What will the format of your records be—hard copy, blog, Word document, etc.? What different books will you keep and what will you call them? How will you organize each one? As you consider your answers, refer to the goals you came up with in the previous prompt. Does the format and organization you’ve chosen meet the goals you decided upon?
Part Twelve: Practical Skills
Week Forty-Five – Developing Routines & Habits: Routine is an important part of practice. Routines help us stay sharp and maintain our magical selves. What routines and habits have you developed? What goals do you have for your magical routines and habits? Do you have daily rituals? Weekly? Monthly? How do you feel about your answers?
Week Forty-Six – Developing Magical Relationship: There are many relationships that impact our magical practices. These include relationships with other practitioners, with spirits or deities, with our living family, with our ancestors, with ourselves, and with our communities. Think about the relationships in your magical life. Do you have any mentors—officially or unofficially? Do you have any connections to people or spirits that drive your magical growth? What is your magical community like? What is your relationship with them like? Think also about your spirit allies, guides, etc. and your relationships with them. What are all these relationships like? How do they serve you? How do they hold you back?
Week Forty-Seven – Cultivating Magical Identity: Think about yourself. Think about your identity. Consider what role being a practitioner of magic has on your identity. Who are you? Who are you as a practitioner of magic? What is your magical persona—and what does that express about your goals, mission, direction, and motivation in practicing magic? What separation or connection do you see between your mundane and magical selves?
Week Forty-Eight – Setting Magical Goals: Magical goal-setting shouldn’t be a one-time event. One should regularly assess their magical practice and set new goals for improvement and engagement. What magical goals do you still have after this craft-building journey? What new goals have you discovered during the process? What routines can you establish for assessing your progress and setting new goals?
Part Thirteen: Wrap-Up
Week Forty-Nine – Reflecting on your Craft Now: In Part One, you defined your craft as it was when you started this journey. What does it look like now? What goals did you have for your magical practice when you started out? What did you accomplish? What’s new? Does your practice feel more like home? Does it feel more refined? Is the fit better?
Week Fifty – Reflecting on your Growth as a Practitioner: Take some time to consider your growth as a practitioner throughout this journey. What has changed about you as you have gone on this craft-building endeavor? What skills and abilities have you improved? How has your confidence as a practitioner changed? How is the practitioner you are now different from the one who started?
Week Fifty-One – Your Plan for Developing as a Practitioner: Reflect on the changes you have made to your practice and your relationship with it. What do you still feel you need to improve? Development is a constant process in the practice magic. What are your new goals for yourself? And what is your plan to accomplish them? Break them down into measurable, actionable steps.
Week Fifty-Two – Your Plan for Developing your Practice: As you develop as a practitioner, your practice will develop with you. Consider the areas of your practice that you still feel need development. What actionable goals do you have for your practice? What is your plan for future research? New projects? New routines? Further refining your scope and focus? What are your plans for advance from this point?