Recommended Reading
The charm casting posts will continue soon, but in the meantime, I was reminded yesterday that I have a short list of books to kickstart a new witch's practice if they want to do something similar to what I do.
To be clear: I do a lot of art magic and I do spirit work. Sometimes I'll work spells that aren't art spells too, and there's material in these books about other types of witchcraft. But my focus is connecting with spirits, ensuring I hear them clearly, and creating things that advance my goals and the spirits' goals together.
The first book is Courting the Wild Twin by Martin Shaw. It's an introduction to storytelling as a way of understanding one's wild side, shadow, etc. Story is very important to my practice, especially the stories we tell about ourselves and the people and spirits around us.
Next is Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is an introductory book about a combination of folk magic, chaos magic, and other elements that come together to form his practice.
Sigil Witchery and Visual Magick by Laura Tempest Zakroff are next, for an extended look at one way of producing sigils that look like art.
Visual Magick by Jan Fries comes after that - it starts with sigils and rambles through Fries' techniques for chaos magic, including getting to know your personal associations with color. I feel like it would have been helpful to have LTZ's sigil teachings before I started on Fries' exercises, although I didn't when I first encountered Vidual Magick in the 2000s.
Weaving Fate by Aidan Wachter is next, and returns to the thread of storytelling about oneself by introducing a long-term, story-based sigil you write in order to shift the possibilities of what will or won't happen to you.
Ensouling the Effigy by Matthew Venus introduces journey work, spirit agreements, and making physical bodies and/or houses for spirits. I don't follow the ceremonial approach like he does, but the material is adaptable to different styles.
I would then recommend Seidways by Jan Fries. I don't know how historically accurate the parts about historical spirit work are or aren't. I do know that the practical instructions on how to manage trance through shaking were the foundation of my early journey work practice. While those techniques are presented as having roots in Germanic/Norse religion, they are an open practice and usable regardless of your religion.
Finally, Changeling by Aidan Wachter gives a list of characteristics that a witch should have and that magic has, along with exercises, prayers, etc to develop the characteristics and be a better witch.
I also recommend the "Spread Your Artistic Wings through Intuitive Art!" class from abyssimoartschool.com - it will teach you to develop artistic intuition (different from psychic intuition!) so that you can create abstract art that represents who you are...and looks good. Once you have that skill, you can add psychic intuition and learn to bring through art that represents the spirits you work with.
