This book offers a grounded, usable introductions to animistic sorcery available. Aidan Wachter’s Six Ways doesn’t just describe magical ideas, it focuses on what to do, how to do it, and how to think about magic as a lived, practical art. The tone is informal but serious, focused on real-world application rather than abstract metaphysics or traditional ceremonial trappings.
Please support the writer. Buy the full text on Amazon (not an affiliate link, I’m simply recommending it).
Magic as Daily Practice, Not Belief
Wachter treats magic as a personal, action-based art. It’s not about belief systems or dogma. His goal is to increase our ability to act, communicate, and change, internally and externally, by developing what he calls “special skills.” He defines magic as a relationship with the living world (what he calls “the Field”) and positions the practitioner not as a controller but as a participant in a larger ecosystem of spirits and powers.
His approach is practical: do what works, drop what doesn’t. He doesn’t demand that you adopt his worldview wholesale. Instead, he shows you how his thinking evolved, encourages you to reflect on your own reasoning, and then gives tools to try for yourself. This is especially helpful if you’ve read magical books that feel divorced from experience.
The Animist Worldview: You Live in a Crowd
At the core of the book is a modern animism: the idea that everything, stones, rivers, ancestors, deities, spirits, has agency. Magic happens by interacting with these beings, forming reciprocal relationships, and living symbiotically. It’s not metaphorical. Wachter talks about real interactions with spirits and expects you to do the same.
The goal is to create a “healthy ship,” where all parts of your life are aligned and working together. Tools for this include integrity, devotion, discretion, and consistent action.
Mapping Reality: The Six Ways
The title refers to a conceptual map of reality drawn from traditional witchcraft and shamanic sources. Wachter describes three layers:
- Middle World: Ordinary reality, structured around four elemental directions.
- Underworld: Realm of ancestors, daemons, and deep transformation.
- World Above: Celestial and star-related powers.
In between are liminal spaces, the thresholds where change happens. Magic occurs when consciousness shifts from ordinary to non-ordinary reality, and Wachter provides the tools to make that shift intentionally.
Core Techniques You Can Use
Wachter outlines essential practices that build a foundation for practical magic. These include:
- Breath work: Calm the nervous system, support trance, and build energy.
- Meditation: Simple but focused, observe thoughts without engagement.
- Trance: Enter altered states intentionally; light to deep levels, depending on the task.
- Energy work: Use excitatory (movement, sound, sex) or inhibitory (stillness, breath) methods to raise power.
- Microcosmic Orbit and Fire Snakes: Advanced techniques for circulating energy and cleansing the system.
Magical Methods for Real Change
The book also gives tools for focused magical work. These are action-based and aimed at clear results:
- Intention and Decision: Define clearly what you want. Wachter emphasises the power of committing to a decision and following through.
- Weeding out: Remove what no longer serves—just as important as adding new things.
- Sigils: Encode desire into symbolic form to bypass resistance.
- Servitors: Functional spirits given a task and a structure. Wachter treats them as entities attracted to a role, not artificial constructs.
- Talismans and Vessels: Physical objects charged to anchor power and intention.
- Offerings and Petitions: Regular acts of respect and communication to keep relationships with spirits alive.
- Dreaming: Treating dreams as another field of magical work with its own rules and potentials.
Ethics, Responsibility, and Personal Power
One of the most useful sections covers ethics, not abstract morality, but practical responsibility. You are what you do, Wachter says, and magic magnifies that. He encourages clear boundaries (warding, cleansing, discernment), long-term commitment, and an understanding of magical contagion—how ideas, habits, and energies spread through contact.
This is not a book about quick fixes or secret shortcuts. It’s about building a meaningful practice that works because it’s rooted in who you are and how you live. “Play the long game,” he writes. Magic is slow, cumulative, and relational. If you work with attention and integrity, it works back.
Six Ways stands out because it teaches magic as something you do, not something you just read about. It’s ideal for people who are serious about integrating magical practice into daily life, especially if you’re drawn to animism, spirit work, or trance-based methods.
You’ll finish this book with concrete skills you can apply right away, and a clearer sense of how to grow into deeper levels of magical responsibility and power. Wachter doesn’t offer you a system to follow; he offers a way to live in a magical world and build your own way of working inside it.
Core Practices and Ritual Instructions from Six Ways
These instructions outline the practical exercises and rites described by Aidan Wachter, focusing on breathwork, meditation, trance, energy circulation, and key rituals such as the Stars of the Six Ways and the Re/Claiming Rite. These practices are designed to build foundational skills and create deep engagement with magical work.
1. Breathwork (Entering into Silence)
This foundational practice prepares you for meditation and trance by calming the body and mind:
- Posture: Sit comfortably with a straight spine. Hands on knees, thighs, or in your lap.
- Breathing: Inhale and exhale through the nose.
- Equalize Breath: Match inhalations and exhalations. Use a count (e.g., four in, four out).
- Extend Breath: Increase to five-five count gradually.
- Deepen Breath: Move breathing into the lower lungs; belly should relax and expand.
- Add Pauses: Insert a gentle pause at the end of inhale and exhale without strain.
- Practice: Start with five minutes twice daily, increase over time.
2. Meditation (Entering into Silence)
Meditation centers on observing the mind and quieting internal chatter:
- Focus on Breath: Use breath sensations as an anchor.
- Observe Thoughts: Label them without engagement:
- Remembering: Past events.
- Fantasizing: Future scenarios.
- Feeling: Physical or emotional sensations.
- Concentration Meditation: Choose a focus object (candle, stone). Gaze softly while repeating: “I breathe in and relax. I breathe out, becoming calm.”
3. Trance Induction (Entering into Trance)
This process uses breath and guided internal dialogue to reach altered states:
- Setup: Sit upright or lie down. Begin with slow, deep breathing.
- First Stage: Repeat internally: “My [body part] is warm and heavy, sinking into the ground.”
- Second Stage: If agitated, use: “My [body part] is dissolving into darkness.”
- Third Stage: Deepen: “My [body part] is floating in silence.”
- Alternative (Jan Fries): Use flowing internal phrases tied to breathing: “I breathe deeply – and relax completely…”
4. Microcosmic Orbit (Entering into Power)
A Taoist-inspired circulation of energy through internal and cosmic channels:
- Awareness Points: Focus on perineum (root) and crown of head.
- Orbit Path: Inhale, energy rises up the back; exhale, energy falls down the front.
- Complete the Circuit: Tongue touches the roof of the mouth.
- Add Earth and Stellar Currents: Visualize energy rising from Earth and descending from the Stars.
- Hand Work: Feel energy between palms as a ball. Use for healing, empowering, or projecting intention.
5. Fire Snakes (Advanced Energy Work)
An intense method for calling Earth-fire and Star-fire into the body:
- Begin in Trance: Visualize yourself as the World Tree.
- Earth-Fire Serpent: Call power from below; feel heat rise into your body.
- Star-Fire Serpent: Draw stellar light down through the crown.
- Integration: Twin snakes spiral, purifying and energizing.
- Contain and Close: Draw them into a fiery ball in the belly, thank and release.
6. Moving the Self (Trance and Traveling)
Practice shifting consciousness and exploring non-ordinary spaces:
- Shift Awareness: Move consciousness to different body points.
- Second Self: Engage the subtle body, separate gently, and explore.
- Crossroads Work: From a central point, travel into elemental landscapes to meet allies.
- Otherworld Navigation: Use directional language, maintain focus, and expect dream crossover.
7. Stars of the Six Ways (Directional Ritual)
This rite aligns you with cosmic and elemental forces:
- Centering: Face North, breathe deeply, ground and root like the World Tree.
- Reach Above: Visualize branches stretching to the stars.
- Call Directions: Speak aloud to North (Earth), East (Air), South (Fire), West (Water), then Above and Below.
- Work and Petition: State needs clearly, listen for responses.
- Closing: Thank powers: “By the Stars in the North… Above… Below… I thank you for your aid.”
8. Re/Claiming Rite (Personal Sovereignty)
A daily ritual to reclaim lost power and affirm self-blessing:
- Setup: Photo of yourself, bowl of water, candle, and incense.
- Steps:
- Forgive: “I forgive myself my failures, past, present, and future.”
- Call Power Back: “I call back all my power, as it was, as it is, and as it shall be.”
- Bless: “Here and now, as an Avatar of the Ineffable, I bless myself…”
- Water Consecration: Anoint key areas of the body during the rite.
- Frequency: Once or twice daily for a lunar month.
Clarifying and Working with Intention
- To start, take a piece of paper and a pen and write out why you are reading the book. The goal is to narrow it down to a single, clear sentence.
- Ask yourself helper questions to refine your intention: “What are you seeking in your life generally? What are you seeking to learn or gain from the practice of magic? What blocks your motion in the directions you desire to move? What aids you? What hinders you right now, at this very moment? What do you love in this very moment?”
- Once clarified, write your intention again on a small square of paper, about three inches across.
- Read your intention aloud three times.
- Kiss the paper three times.
- Breathe onto it three times.
- Say: “As it was, As it is, As it shall be”.
- Fold the paper in half, folding it towards you, and place it in the back of this book.
Deciding to Decide (Clarifying Focus)
This practice helps you make decisions once and stick to them, freeing up mental bandwidth.
- Start with “nonsense things” that have limited emotional or psychic significance.
- Eliminate a habit and replace it with another. For example, decide to stir your coffee counter-clockwise, or decide that nickels are “evil” and dimes are “sacred”.
- When your mind tries to make you revert, firmly reply: “I decided [the new rule]. It is done.”
- Immediately correct any “slip-ups” (e.g., drop a nickel if you find one, or take off your shoe and put the correct one on first if you put the wrong one on).
- Once you’ve mastered this with trivial things, move onto more significant subjects. Apply the same conviction: “You do it because you decided to, and it’s just fucking done.“
Re/Claiming: Self, Power, and Position
This is a foundational practice to cut unhelpful ties, recall lost personal power, and consecrate yourself as a sovereign being.
- Schedule: Perform once or twice a day for a full lunar month when starting.
- Setup:
- Get a printed photo of yourself.
- Set it on your altar (any flat surface can serve as an altar).
- Include a bowl of fresh water, a candle, and some incense.
- (Optional) Add crushed dried rose petals, essential oil, or perfume to the water.
- Light the candle and the incense.
- Centering: Take a few minutes to calm and center yourself, breathing deeply.
- The Rite:
- Forgive yourself your failures, out loud: “I forgive myself my failures, each and every one of them, past, present, and future.” Repeat this section three times.
- Call back all your power: “I call back all of my power. All that was taken from me, all that I gave away, all that I lost. I call it all back to me. As it was, as it is, and as it shall be.” Repeat this section three times.
- Bless yourself and give thanks: “Here and now, ever and always, as an Avatar of the Ineffable, I bless myself. I give thanks to the powers that aid and guard me, I thank them for their help, their protection, and their infinite blessings. As was, as is, as is to come.” Repeat this section three times.
- Consecration: Throughout the work, bless yourself with the water as inspired. Pay special attention to your head (brow, crown, back, nape of neck), throat, hands, feet, and any areas holding pain.
- Adaptation: You can rewrite the exact words, but do not deviate from the core intention and always include a phrase like “past, present, future” or “As it was, as it is, and as it shall be”.
The Watchtower (Visionary Space):
- After trance induction, imagine standing before a door in a curving stone tower wall. Visualize its details (square/rounded top, handle location, swing direction).
- Decide to open the door and grasp the handle. Notice the cool metal.
- Enter the entry hall. Notice the floor and walls, describing them internally if you don’t “see” them.
- Step forward fully inside.
- Notice doorways to stairs (right/left, leading up/down). Choose one.
- Ascend/descend nine steps to another door, leading to a plain working room.
- Upper room (if ascended): Greet the room, make an offering by lighting the candle with matches, then the incense from the candle.
- Lower room (if descended): Greet the room, make an offering by lighting the candle with matches, then the incense from the candle.
- Re-visit and furnish these rooms as desired (e.g., add windows, tunnels, an altar).
Moving the Self (Consciousness Shift):
- (Perform trance induction first).
- Notice where your consciousness is “seated” in your body. Experiment with moving it to another point (e.g., from head downwards).
- Once moved, spend time noticing the differences in perception (quieter, more/less stable, emotional, etc.).
- Notice your “second self” (a less physical body) inside or overlaying your physical body. Feel its connection and move your consciousness into it.
- Gently raise this second self (e.g., an inch per breath) or move it forward a few inches to sense its differences from your physical body.
- “Flip” your perception so your second self is looking down on your physical body. From this perspective, scan your body for energy leaks (places where energy drifts away). Close these leaks by gently touching them with your “hands”.
Crossroads Work:
- When deep in trance, notice what exists in the four directions (e.g., mountain North, plains East, desert South, misty land West).
- Walk into these elemental/mythic “lands” to explore, learn, and make allies.
- Set the intention to meet an ally when entering a new zone. Spend time communing; allies may speak, show things, or act as guides.
- Be aware that work in these realms can affect your physical world. Only make agreements that make sense to you.
- If not visually oriented, rely on other senses (hearing, smell, taste, touch) and gently describe your experience internally.
- Ask allies to guide you, as they may travel in ways other spirits cannot.
- Develop a “moving” language (e.g., “walk forward,” “return to the Crossroads/Tree”) to navigate.
- Pay attention to sensory details (e.g., water droplets, grass movement) to deepen immersion.
- Expect dream states to be influenced by your trance travels.
- You can perform ritual work in these realms as a helpful complement to physical work.
- Expect to be asked to help spirits (e.g., cleaning up things, helping stuck entities).
- Be prepared for experiences to be “weird” and radical.
Simple Divination: The Pendulum
The pendulum is a quick and effective tool for getting yes/no answers and clarifying information.
- Tool: Anything with some weight attached to a single string or thread (e.g., a ring on a thread).
- Method: Primarily a yes/no question-and-answer process.
- Question Formulation:
- Be specific and rigorous. Questions must be answerable with a yes or no.
- Example: Asking “Will I get what I am asking for if I do X ritual?” is effective, whereas “Should I do X ritual?” is not.
- Be willing to ask many questions to narrow down information.
- Calibration:
- You can draw a simple pendulum map (Yes, No, Unclear, Maybe directions) or learn the swings implicitly over time.
- Hold the pendulum so it hangs freely over the center of your diagram (or your perceived center).
- Ask the pendulum: “Can you show me a yes to calibrate?” Then ask for a “no.” Repeat this before each reading.
- Do not help the pendulum. Allow it to sit still, spin, or change directions on its own.
- If you don’t understand its movement, talk to it (e.g., “I have no idea what you are doing! Can you give me a yes again?”).
- You can ask for “clearer” swings.
- During a Reading:
- Keep questions simple (yes or no).
- Feel free to rephrase, circle back, and take your time.
- Avoid asking two questions at the same time.
- Recalibrate anytime you feel the need or ask for stronger swings.
Raising Power and Finding a Magical Voice
These practices help generate and direct magical energy through the body and voice, and clear energy channels.
- Vowel Toning (Inhibitory Method):
- Sit, relax, and breathe.
- Begin “vibrating” the seven vowels, focusing your attention on each of the seven chakra points along the centerline of the body.
- The sounds rise in pitch as you move up from root to crown:
- Root (perineum): UUH (as in “up”), low and guttural.
- Sacrum (base of spine, below navel): OOO (as in “too”).
- Third chakra (solar plexus): OH (as in “no”).
- Heart: AH (as in “saw”).
- Throat: EYE (as in “sky”).
- Third eye (between brows): AY (as in “say”).
- Crown (top of head): EEE (as in “see”), as high as comfortably possible.
- Work your way up and back down a few times.
- When ready to stop, bring your attention to your belly and consciously store any excess energy there.
- Uses: Set consciousness in a particular location/vibration (e.g., clear your head by singing into higher points), or generate energy and root to the ground (low and guttural tones). Bring these tones into evocations/invocations to draw particular powers.
- Experiment: Play with your own name, or names of deities/spirits/angels, speaking them from different points to feel their resonance. Pick a word of Power (e.g., a rune like “Algiz”) and speak it from each point to find its “happy place” where it resonates most.
- Vary volume and voice: Tone quietly or loudly. Pretend to be a monster, Tuvan throat singer, or Tibetan monk to find which voices work for you.
- Last Exercise on Voice (Manifestation Practice):
- One morning, decide on a word of power you want to manifest, but do not say it aloud.
- Carry it inside you all day, close to your center. Bring your attention to it dozens of times throughout the day.
- In the evening, when alone and uninterrupted, take your word (still held quietly) to your altar.
- Sit and light a candle.
- Vibrate the vowel tones (up, down, back up a few times).
- Once you feel strong and open, notice the word in your center again.
- Quietly hum the vowel tones with your mouth closed. Let the word feel its desire to be birthed into the Field.
- Let the word rise from root to crown with your humming. After the last, highest “EEE” (or another point that feels right), open your mouth and speak the word. Choose your word well as this is a very potent practice.
Offerings
Offerings are a way to build symbiotic relationships with spirits and influence the Field.
- Go-to Offerings: Cool water, candles, incense, and various kinds of food.
- Cool water: The most basic. Can be “fixed up” with rose petals, perfumes, tinctures, or oils depending on the spirit’s preference.
- Candles: Use tea lights or Shabbat candles. They are considered “food” for spirits as they transform solid energy into heat, smoke, ash, and carbon when burned.
- Incense: Resin incense on an incense heater is recommended for controlled release.
- Food: Common offerings include unbroken eggs, tortillas, chili sauce, fruit, and flowers. You can bake for spirits.
- Identify preferences: You can use a pendulum or cards to ask what spirits might like.
- Dressing a Candle: This is like making a meal more interesting for spirits.
- Inscribe a petition or sigil on the candle’s wax using a scribe.
- Anoint it with an oil.
- Rub or roll it in powders and herbs (homemade are best).
- For candles in glass (tea lights, novenas), sprinkle these things on top.
- Be smart about fire safety when adding materia to a candle.
- Go with your gut on how to dress it, unless otherwise indicated.
- For close connections, you can lick or spit on the rune/candle to link it directly to yourself, creating a strong protective bond.
- Making Offerings (General Practice, influenced by Jason Miller):
- Be polite: Light a candle, a stick of incense, and offer a cup or bowl of cool water.
- Quiet your mind.
- Speak (example): “Spirits who aid and guard me, be with me now and always. Please feed on this light, smoke, and water. Be nourished and strengthened. Spirits who obstruct my path, spirits that I have offended by ignorance or transgression, please feed on this light, smoke, and water. Be nourished and strengthened. Let there be peace between us for all of our days.”
- Sit quietly for a while.
- Talk about your goals and what you wish to achieve. Ask for help without demanding or begging, bringing a spirit of joyful giving.
- Example request: “Spirits who watch over me, aid and guide me on my path. Open the roads that I travel so that they may be free of obstacles. Grant me clear vision so that I can see the ways forward. Protect me from all harm and from all wrathful beings who would do me harm.”
- Regular practice cultivates strong relationships with spirits aligned to you.
- Heating and Cooling (Offerings): This concept helps influence spirit activity.
- To make a spirit more active/excitatory: Offer hot things like peppers, coffee, ginger, tobacco, hard alcohol, or red/black items.
- To calm a spirit/quiet things down: Offer cool water, cool fruit, flowers, or cool colors.
- The consistent giving of offerings is highly effective for smoothing the path of fate.
Petitions
Petitions are a simple way to ask for help from spirits or focus magical intentions.
- Paper: Use a small square of paper.
- Step 1: Write your petition.
- Write out what you are asking for over and over from top to bottom. (It’s okay to lift your pen from the page).
- Step 2: Layer the petition.
- Turn the paper a quarter turn.
- Write your petition again over the top of what you just wrote.
- Repeat this process four times in total. The text should become mostly unreadable.
- Step 3: Add your name (or the recipient’s name).
- Start writing again over the top, writing your name (or the name of the person you’re doing the petition for) over and over.
- Fill the entire sheet, then turn the page a quarter turn, and repeat this four times in total. It will become even more unreadable.
- Consecration:
- Make it special: Sit on it (to link it to you), add appropriate oils, herbs, powders, or perfumes, or pray over it.
- Folding/Rolling:
- Fold or roll the paper towards you for things you want to bring into your life.
- Fold or roll it away from you for things you are sending away.
- Placement: You can stop here, or place the petition on an altar, in a vessel/container, or in your wallet (e.g., for money attraction).
Sigils
Sigil magic is an efficient and effective foundational practice for coding information into the deep mind, bypassing conscious censors.
- Choose Your Change/Desire: If it’s complex, break it down into discrete pieces.
- Write Your Intention (Guidelines):
- Use positive language only. Avoid negatives.
- Focus on the completed desired outcome.
- Letter Removal:
- Remove all repeated letters.
- (Optional) Remove vowels.
- (Optional) Remove mirrored/inverted/contained letters.
- Create the Sigil Image:
- Use remaining letters to form a monogram or symbol.
- (Optional) Make it visually appealing.
- Activation/Charging:
- Draw sigils on 3-inch squares.
- Focus on the image under low light.
- Try to disconnect it from its meaning.
- Shoaling (Batch Activation):
- Activate multiple sigils (3–12) at once.
- Shuffle, then gaze at each until it “shifts.”
- Burn completed sigils when done.
- Steering (Adjusting Course): Create new sigils to shift direction.
Servitors
Servitors are a form of spirit (either created thought-forms or attracted spirits) tasked with specific functions to aid your magical work.
- Function-Based Sigil: Make the intention task-focused.
- Create a Material Base (“House”):
- Paint the sigil on a chosen object.
- Feed and Bring into Being:
- Use energy work and offerings.
- Evocation is optional.
- Name It and Give It a Job:
- Idle servitors may cause issues.
- Reward Good Work: Give offerings when it performs well.
- Adjustment:
- Clarify instructions if it’s underperforming.
- Listen or divine for feedback.
- Releasing a Servitor:
- Politely thank and dismantle its base.
- Consider reassigning if still useful.
Warding Your Home
This practice protects your space from unhelpful spirits and energies.
- Thorough Cleaning:
- Clean floors, open windows, take trash out through back door if possible.
- Prepare Cleaning Solution:
- Water + vinegar + salt (+ optional herbs or scents).
- Charge it with verbal intent.
- Application:
- Wash windows and doors with intent.
- Renew work periodically.
- Awareness and Gratitude:
- Interact consciously with your home’s entry points.
- Clarity:
- Don’t invite disruptive entities (or people).
- Align your habits with your stated intentions.
Playing the Long Game (Self-Transformation)
Consciously working magic for long-term self-improvement and aligning your path with your true desires.
- Honest Assessment:
- Reflect on your life via meditation, divination, or therapy.
- Identify limiting beliefs or events.
- Changing Perceptions and Behaviors:
- Use ritual and mundane effort in tandem.
- Ritualize practice, use verbal cues, and celebrate progress.
- Consciously Choose Your Path:
- Write a declaration of intent and responsibility.
- Read it aloud daily at altar or in nature.
- Weeding Out Hindrances:
- Burn written blocks ritually.
- Gaining Skills:
- Write desired skills, enchant, and do the mundane work.
- Cultivating Desires (“Engine of Desires”):
- Feed real desires, release false ones, boost clarity.
- Working with the Lunar Cycle:
- New Moon (waxing): Increase-focused work.
- Full Moon (waning): Decrease-focused work.
- The waxing crescent to full moon is noted as ideal for increase work.
On Consecration, a Candle Spell, and Falling in Love
Consecration makes an object special and potent for magical work.
- General Consecration:
- To consecrate is to make something special.
- Use a scribe (iron needle) to carve sigils or runes into wax. (e.g., Algiz rune for protection).
- (Optional, for direct link to you) Lick or spit on the rune to moisten it and link it to you.
- Anoint it with an oil.
- Add powdered herbs or dusts. (Redden with red sandalwood powder or other pigments).
- Example Protection Candle Spell (for someone else, Julia):
- Gather materials: Candle, protection powder, red sandalwood powder, lighter, oil, needle-scribe.
- Pick up the candle and say aloud: “Creature of wax and wick, I ask that you work with me to aid and guard Julia.”
- Take up the scribe and say: “Creature of iron, I ask that you work with me to aid and guard Julia.”
- Etch the rune into the wax, saying: “Beautiful Algiz, bright and sharp, I ask that you work with me to aid and guard Julia.”
- (Optional, for strong personal link) Lick or spit on the rune: “By the water of my life do I give life to you that you may aid and guard Julia.” (Only for very close connections).
- Place a drop of oil on the rune and rub it in, saying: “Creature of oil, bless this creature of wax, and join with it to aid and guard Julia.”
- Sprinkle protection herbs on the rune and rub them in, saying: “Creature of the fertile Earth, join with your brethren to aid and guard Julia.”
- Add red sandalwood powder and say: “I redden this rune, I consecrate this creature of wax with spit, with oil, with herbs, with iron, and with the breath of my body (breathe upon the rune). Creature of wax, I give you life that you may aid and guard Julia.”
- Mount the candle in a holder and light it, saying: “Creature of fire, kindle the flame, awaken this creature of power to aid and guard Julia.”
- Carving an Ally (Falling in Love Approach):
- Get a piece of wood and a small pocket knife. Sit by a fire or in the sun.
- Think about a desire you wish to manifest. Sharpen the knife, thinking about all possible (and impossible/unknown) ways it could come to pass.
- Address the wood, asking if it would like to help. (If it “says no,” use a different piece of wood).
- Tell it your desire. Ask if it has a form it wants to take (e.g., circle, bear, fish, moon). If it suggests one, go with it; otherwise, choose a simple shape (sphere, egg, cylinder).
- Begin carving away the excess. Focus on capturing an essence, not high art.
- Talk to the wood as you carve, reiterating your desire and acknowledging openness to unknown paths for manifestation.
- Ask your wood-friend to find a good way to bring your desire about.
- Pay attention to subtle feedback while carving (e.g., explicit voice, vision, or a sense of “all will be well”).
- When the piece feels “done,” spit on your hands and rub it into the wood.
- Breathe onto (into) your ally to give it life.
- (Optional) Pass it through smoke for warmth, or give it a particular oil or perfume if it comes to mind.
- Continue conversing while leaving quiet spaces to listen.
- Carry the finished object, place it in a special visible place, or hide it away for secret time.
- This approach can be adapted to fabric, yarn, clay, metal, painting, story, or even a book.
Vessels
Vessels are containers used to store, transport, contain, and focus magical energy and intentions.
- Honey/Sugar Jar:
- Make a petition for something you want to draw to you.
- Place the completed petition into a jar.
- Add other relevant items.
- Fill the jar with sugar (leaving room to shake it up).
- Use mason jars with metal lids (for burning candles on top) or other tight-lidded containers.
- “Shake it up” to put motion into the jar when things slow or stagnate.
- Bag Spell:
- Place a collection of objects related to your work into a small bag.
- (Optional) Use a bag of a particular color or pattern.
- Consecrate everything as usual.
- Tie or sew it shut.
- Carry in a pocket, stitch into clothing, or tuck into a pillow (for dream work).
- Drawing Box:
- Create a box that incorporates a master sigil (e.g., for business success, learning a skill, increasing something).
- Consecrate and embellish the box, adding sigils.
- As the project proceeds, add helpful elements (more sigils, petitions, stones, herbs, curios, images).
- Combine techniques: A master sigil box can house a sugar jar, with specific sigils for smaller goals.
- Feed the vessel by burning candles on it, shaking it, or heating/cooling it as needed (can be metaphorical or literal).
- Self-Made Clay Vessel:
- Dig your own clay or use store-bought.
- Build a clay jar, continuously sigilizing and forming your intentions into the material.
- Have your cork or stopper ready when forming.
- Fire your vessel to harden it and bring it to life.
- If made with full intentionality and consecrated, it should emerge “lively.”
- Finish with appropriate paints, stains, and sigils.
- Place in a wooden box for protection, and bury it for a specific time (e.g., a lunar cycle, or specific number of days/months).
- When unearthed, view it as being born. Welcome it.
- “Feed” it with dry materia as “food” (avoiding rotting items).
- Bring it into your home or working space and introduce it to your “family.”
- Approach with forethought, as these vessels are intended to be “alive” and have active sentience; do not forget about them.
Talismanic Magic
Talismans are powerful objects that serve as meeting points of power, will, desire, intention, and action, guiding you towards desired outcomes.
- Building a Talisman (Beaded Cord Example):
- Get tough cord (e.g., Chinese nylon bead stringing cord) and a selection of beads that resonate with your intentions (stone, metal, wood, bone; avoid plastic).
- (Optional) Add a charm or symbol.
- Arrange the beads in order, one bead for each word of a prayer, phrase, or mantra directly related to your work.
- Create a “verbal sigil” as your mantra: Write out a petition, then re-assemble the letters into new “nonsense words” that sound good and strong, focusing on tone and vibration rather than simplification (e.g., “ROAS FORBN KOUR PRBTO CBWAK” for “A power source for trance work”).
- Decide on the number of bead sets (e.g., nine sets of five beads for a five-word mantra).
- Use “odd” beads or knots at the beginning/end of each pass of the mantra to help you track during trance.
- Consecrate as you build: With each bead added and each knot tied, speak your intention, ask for its assistance, and thank it.
- Use it towards its purpose: Chant the mantra and count the beads as part of trance induction. If you start to slip from trance, use the chant to bring yourself back in.
- Working with Found Objects as Talismans:
- Ask found objects for their “words of power.” Sit with them, vocalize vowels, and find tones that make the talisman “speak” to you.
- Ask for its aid.
- Ask what it likes, but discern wisely if its suggestions are truly helpful or necessary.
- Cultivate a working relationship. If your ways clash, be polite: Thank it, give a small offering, and move on.
- Accept enchantment at face value. If a found object (e.g., a “lucky” pistol cartridge) “speaks” to you, ask yourself if it connects to a current you seek.
- Be wise: Investigate if its intentions are congruent with your own. Ulterior motives can exist in magic.
- Common sense applies: If something claims to bring luck but your life collapses, it wasn’t being honest, or meant a different kind of luck. Your work should move you closer to your goals. If not, change course.
Behind the Wall of Sleep (Dreaming and Dream Work)
The Dreaming is another world linked to waking reality, which can be engaged for magical purposes.
- Foundational Practice: Dream Journaling:
- Write down your dreams. Keep a book or digital recorder by your bed.
- Write everything you remember, even if it’s minimal (e.g., “Can’t remember last night’s dream, but I know I dreamt” or “I dreamt that it was cold”).
- Before bed each night, write: “I remember my dreams.”
- Record your dreams immediately upon waking. If using a digital recorder, babble it out without opening your eyes, then transcribe to a physical dream journal later.
- Applying Magic: The Dreaming Bed:
- Create a small bed that can reside beneath your sleeping bed. This can be a doll’s bed, a box with miniature linens, or a simple paper/cloth bed.
- If a 3D doll’s bed, fashion a poppet of your dreaming self to place inside, or use a small “link” to yourself (e.g., hair, old jewelry, photo).
- Consecrate every piece as you build it: “This that I build is my dreaming bed, an aid to slip into that world, to move freely with no obstructions, and to be protected there from all harm.”
- Incorporate any protective elements you require (e.g., angelic links, guardian spirit links) into the framework.
- Place the dreaming bed beneath your main bed. If sleeping with others, keep it to your side, or keep it on an altar and take a link to it to bed.
- Create a dream petition or sigil for your dream-work. (e.g., for better dream recall, to learn about a Six Ways direction, or to meet a specific ally).
- Tuck the consecrated and charged petition or sigil into the dream-bed.
- (Example) Draw a “Gate of Dreams” sigil on the dream bed’s “bedspread” and wear the corresponding talisman to bed.
- General Dream Work Tips:
- Do not expect particular results to come in a specific way. Enchant towards the desired outcome rather than dictating the means.
- Optimize sleep conditions: Sleep in a very dark, cool, pitch-black room. Use earplugs if viable.
- Consider herbal sleep aids: Passion flower, valerian root, skullcap, or catnip tea.
- Mugwort sachets under the pillow or essential oils can increase dream activity. Datura flowers in a sachet can also be used.
- Use the relaxation parts of the trance induction as a sleep induction.
- Treat your dreams and the Dreaming with attention, communication, and integrity. They will respond in kind.
The Process of Weeding Out (Inner Work for Change)
This involves inner clean-up to remove blockages and improve magical effectiveness.
- Feeding Your Demons Practice (Tsultrim Allione):
- Set up two seats for meditation, facing each other.
- Choose a “demon” (a problem, difficulty, or blockage like anxiety or fear that drains you).
- Locate where you feel the demon residing in your body.
- Externalize the demon to the second seat.
- Switch seats, taking turns being “yourself” and being “the demon.”
- Discover the demon’s needs and desires.
- Feed it the feeling that results from the satisfaction of its needs.
- Integrate it.
- Meditation:
- Regular meditation helps you notice the “loops” your mind runs (nonsense, distraction, self-hater thoughts).
- The “goal” is simply to sit and try to still the discursive mind by noticing its chatter. Even if it chatters constantly, being aware of it is a source of power.
- Deep Relaxation:
- Regular trance inductions lead to deep relaxation, which is critical self-care in a high-stress world.
- Cleaning Up Your Mundane Act:
- Honestly identify what you do that you don’t want to be doing (not because it’s hard, but because it’s “shitty” to yourself or others).
- Make the decision to stop these behaviors.
- Create a list of things you will no longer do, and a list of things you will do instead.
- Seek better results. Expect success, understand you will make mistakes, but keep trying. Incremental improvements lead to radical change.
- Clarify What’s Important/Unimportant:
- Take your desires (e.g., fame, house, family, travel, service, sex) into meditation and divination. Find their core and what blocks them. Use the Feeding Your Demons practice.
- Identify areas of life that hold no interest for you, and minimize your involvement there. (Note: “unimportant” is not the same as “difficult” or “boring”).
- Commit to Practice:
- Consistent, careful repetition with intention to improve over time is key.
- Even small practices can be powerful: regularly lighting a candle and making offerings to helper spirits, consistently using the Re/Claiming rite, or performing the Six Ways ritual will deepen your connection and navigate your life more effectively.
- We are what we do: We get good at what we strive to be good at.
- Clean Up Physical Life:
- Get your finances in order to see clearly and take intelligent action, magically or mundanely.
- Clean your physical space. Applying concepts from Marie Kondo can help purge physical baggage and is a magical act itself.
- Manage Energy Placement:
- Take the question “where do I place my energy?” into meditation or trance. If the answer doesn’t suit you, make a different choice.
- Taming the Self-Hater/Discursive Mind:
- Recognize the self-hater and looping mind as noise, not valuable truth.
- Firmly disregard their fearful lies.
- Respond to self-sabotaging thoughts (e.g., “You can’t do that!”) with: “but you are boring and entirely ruled by fear. I am not. I will do what seems good to me.”
- Turn down the volume on their whining by boosting the “Signal” of what you truly aspire to, through words and actions, magically and mundanely.
- Achieve clarity of purpose (“I am here, and I am doing this, and I am going there”) and back it up consistently on all levels.
The Ship in Practice (Financial Example)
This example illustrates how to integrate mundane and magical practices synergistically for a specific goal.
- Goal: Improve a financial scenario.
- Mundane Side:
- Identify and stop “money leaks.”
- Begin to get control of spending and debt. These mundane actions fuel your magical work.
- Magical Side (at the altar):
- Run anything related to finances, job, savings, or prosperity through the Feeding Your Demons process.
- Perform a Road Opening ritual for the “Money Roads” to clear obstacles. (Develop a simple, brief rite for Open Roads).
- Perform divination (or have it done) to identify financial blockages.
- Make a petition for what you need financially.
- Use that petition as the basis for a sugar or honey jar.
- Create a money drawing box-vessel to house the jar.
- Compile intentions for a shoal of sigils for discrete aspects of the work (e.g., sigil for skills for lucrative work, clearing debts, understanding money “bleeds,” calling helper spirits for money).
- Create and charge all these sigils, then place them into the vessel or jar.
- Timing: Start this work on the first sliver of the New Moon and continue through to the Full Moon.
- Make offerings to your Spirits:
- Offer water, food, candles, incense.
- Speak to aiding spirits (example): “Spirits and Powers who aid and guard me, please accept these offerings I give. May they nourish you and fulfill you, and may there be peace between us for all of our days.”
- Speak to obstructing spirits (example): “Spirits who stand between me and prosperity, those who block the flow of money into my house, please accept these offerings I give. May you be nourished and fulfilled, and may there be peace between us for all of our days. I ask that you accept these offerings, and remove the blockages you have set that hinder the flow of money and prosperity into my house and life.”
- Ask for what you desire (while touching the sugar jar or box): “Powers and Spirits of Prosperity, come into this place. Slip inside this house as you pass by, and bless it with your presence. Open the doors for wealth to flow to me. I am working to acquire a better job that brings in more money and gives me better health insurance. It would be awesome if I really liked it. Please guide me to what I can do to help myself in acquiring this employment. Keep me from straying down roads that are unhelpful. Bless me and my home with Prosperity. May there be peace between us always.”
- Understand that this is an ongoing practice of many small pieces, potentially for weeks or years.
- Mundane Side:
Stay Clean (Psychic Hygiene)
This section provides methods for maintaining spiritual and psychic cleanliness, which is crucial for effective magical practice.
- Regular Practices for Cleanliness:
- Calming, centering, and grounding work.
- Regularly call out to or call down the powers you work with.
- Regular use of the Stars of the Six Ways ritual.
- Perform inner alchemical work (Microcosmic Orbits and Vowel Toning).
- Consistent offering work, especially to spirits who might otherwise hinder you.
- Spiritual Cleansing (When Things Are “Out of Whack”):
- Salt: Add to a bath, or wash your hands with salt and water for quick clearing.
- Purifying Herbs (Rue, Hyssop, Rosemary):
- Make a tea from these herbs (remembering to consecrate the tea).
- Add the tea to a bath.
- If no bathtub, add tea to a basin of water and wash with it, focusing on hands, feet, and head.
- Vinegar (Harsh Method): Add a spoonful of vinegar to the water. This is powerful but can also remove positive influences.
- Always consecrate yourself after cleansing, especially after using vinegar. The Re/Claiming rite is effective for this.
- Consecration during cleansing: At every step, ask the component parts to help you: “Creature of water, I ask you to cleanse me of all impurities, all harmful energies, and to leave me clean.”
- Regular spiritual bathing is a good idea (weekly, or daily if needed).
- Known prayers (e.g., The Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23) can be useful if you are comfortable with them.
- Working with Archangel Michael (Protection Example):
- Acquire or create an image/symbol of Michael (e.g., Catholic card/medal, his Angelic seal, a custom talisman like the provided example).
- Choose one day a week (Sunday is good, but consistency is most important).
- Offer cool water, flowers (optional), and incense.
- Dress a candle for him.
- Ask for his help using the provided text: “By the Stars in the East and the Stars in the West, By the Stars in the North and the Stars in the South, By the Stars Above and the Stars Below, Michael, Archangel, Flaming Sword, Divine Messenger, Come to me, Aid me, Guard me, Cover me with your wings, Protect me with your flaming sword, Wrap me in your fury at evil, Repel all that would harm me or mine, Drive them from me, Drive them from this place, Drive them from this time, Burn them with the light of the Maker, Burn them with the Fire from Heaven, Come unto me, Michael Archangel, Aid and guard me in this work, Aid and guard me in the here and now, Aid and guard me in the past and future, As it was, as it is, and as it shall be, Flaming Sword, Fire from Heaven, Be with me now and always, As it was, as it is, as it shall be.”
- Regular practice builds a solid bond with Michael.
- Scraping (Removing Luminous Fibers/Attachments): This practice removes psychic “sticky” attachments from others.
- Physical warm-up: Stand up. Run your left hand all over your body (everywhere reachable) as if wiping away water. Repeat with your right hand. (30 seconds to a minute).
- Magical practice:
- Get an iron or steel tool (dull knife, screwdriver).
- Repeat the physical movement, “scraping” an inch or so above your body (arms, head, legs, feet, hands) with the tool.
- Say out loud: “I scrape myself clean of the luminous fibers and unhelpful attachments that cling to me, leaving myself clean, clear, and whole.”
- (If you don’t immediately feel “clean and clear”) Trust that it’s working. The sensation will likely come with time and practice.
- Anoint your hands, feet, and head with oil (scented, magical, or simple olive oil) to “seal” the consecration. Tell the oil its purpose.
- When in the difficult place or near the person, consciously deny them the right of influence (under your breath or internally): “I refuse to be touched by you, to provide energy to you, or be unduly influenced by you without my explicit statement of consent.” Repeat as necessary.
- If things get “wonky,” perform the three orbits or “Stars of the Six Ways” rite (even in a bathroom if needed) to recenter and energize yourself.
- Be consistent!
- Be gentle but firm in your interactions. In situations involving potential violence, use intelligence and discretion, as this process can be a trigger.
Dirt Sorcery
This term describes working with raw, foundational elements like soil and bones, recognizing the inherent magic embedded in physical reality and human existence.
- The Dirt Box (Example for Land Connection):
- Acquire finely sifted and heat-treated dirt (e.g., from rabbit warrens). Sterilize it in an oven (180 degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours) to remove any contaminants.
- Store it in a container like a wooden cigar box.
- Uses:
- Draw sigils directly in the dirt.
- More often: When you feel drawn to the box, open it and enter into trance.
- Hold your intention strongly.
- Sink your fingers into the dirt and make patterns without concern for artistry or logic.
- Stop when you feel “done,” when the magic has merged with the dirt.
- Pinch out a bit of the soil and use it to dress candles or petitions, or add it to a vessel or charm bag.
- General Principle: Embrace the belief that magic is inherent in humans and deeply connected to the Earth and Field. Recognize that your body is born of the dirt and that magic is in your blood, bones, and breath.
These instructions cover a broad range of practical magical techniques for real change, from setting intentions and working with spirits to personal hygiene and long-term self-transformation.