Lesson 12: Guide to Spells and Rituals

A spell is a set of words, a verse , or ritual designed to carry out a desire the witch has. Spells don't need to be complex, but can be simple. For example, if you wanted to send healing to a friend with a cold, you could write the friend's name on paper and hold it in your hands while visualizing healing energy being sent to your friend. The most important parts of spell working are intention, belief and visualization. When casting spells, set an intention about what you want to do. Keep it simple. You might meditate with some soft music while focusing on a specific intention such as healing. The next step is visualization, you visualize the steps you might take to manifest your desire such as creating a mental picture in your mind of your friend being well. Now place your hands at your heart center and allow the energy of your heart surround your spell work. Believe that the spell is working and energy is being sent to where it is needed. You might say something along the lines of "I send healing energy to where it is needed. A healed person arises before me." Grounding after spell work is very important for releasing energy. Simply shake your hands and visualize the energy going into the earth. Likewise you could raise your hands above like tree branches and visualize the excess energy filling into the heavens above you.
Spells are energy to help a witch work on bringing their desires into manifestation. They can be as simple as the one mentioned or more complex like a ritual method. Spells and rituals are very similar. A ritual is a procedure carefully planned out to manifest a desire, it is essentially a complex spell. Both rituals and spells require visualization of energy sent to a specific goal. 

A common ritual might be a purification ritual where the witch lights candles and draws a picture of a person figure to represent them. Gazing into the candle flame, the witch writes on the person figure things that they want to release. Just gaze into the candle, allowing their mind to relax and write down fears and anxieties to let go. Spend as long as you need to writing down what you want to release. Then take the candle outside along with the paper of the person figure and hold the paper in the candle flame allowing the flame to burn away your old self. raise your hands above and allow the sun light to fill your body with warmth. Say "I release my past self. I am no longer attached to my faults and shadows. I let go and invite love in." Scatter the ashes and allow them to blow away with the wind. Bring the candle inside and relight the flame if needed. Then with another piece of paper, draw another person figure and write all the positive things you have done and include things you would like to be. Let the candlelight illuminate the desires and hold the paper close to your heart feeling your heart beating. Imagine a pink light surrounding your entire body as you breathe in and out. Breathe in love and exhale gratitude. 
Now keep this picture with all the good qualities somewhere safe where you can refer to it when you are feeling down. Close down the ritual by allowing the pink light to fill your heart and visualize the beam of light radiating out from your heart into your life. Say "I walk the path of light and love. I am creating my best self. The universe guides me along the way."

Another common ritual is Drawing down the Moon from Margot Addler's technique of attuning to the lunar energies. The moon goes through different phases and the full moon is the time witches and wiccans enjoy heightened magik. There are thirteen full moons in a year and wiccans celebrate them by esbats. Drawing down the moon technique was inspired by an esbat ritual with wiccans dancing in the moonlight. Witches or wiccans either in a group (coven ) or solitary stand in the moonlight and they allow the energy of the moon to fill their bodies. The moon is representative of the Goddess and the phases represent mother (full moon), maiden (waxing gibbous) and crone (new moon). The mother, maiden and the crone are three aspects of the Goddess in wicca religion. 

As you can see, rituals are more complex than spells because they have steps. There are different rituals that witches and wiccans do at different times of the year. The Wheel of the Year is the wiccan/pagan calender that has sabbatts or days of power for  witches and wiccans. During these sabbats, wiccans celebrate nature's changing seasons and different patterns of day length. These sabbat rituals are ideal times to connect with spirit guides, the universe and heal by connecting with nature. During the sabbats wiccans can practice spell work and magik being aided in their desires by the universe. The sabbats are a powerful time to work magik. 
More about the different rituals for the sabbats as well as what each sabbats is will follow with upcoming lessons. Also some more lessons about rituals honoring gods/goddesses and spirit guides will be coming. 
 In this lesson, you learned about spells and rituals. Spells are energy in the form or words or verses to manifest a desire. Rituals are similar to spells in the sense that both require energy and will of the witch performing them. The only difference between spells and rituals is that spells can be simple whereas rituals are a procedure with steps to follow. Some other things learned are that wiccans celebrate sabbats listed on the Wheel of the Year and each sabbat has different rituals with it. 


Subject to edits by instructors