Hello, my name is Clea. I am studying witchcraft and spells for a comic I am making dealing with witchcraft. I understand witchcraft is a very misunderstood topic and there is much to it. As for the spell aspect, could you please inform me on some general knowledge that I should know? Such as equipment, the results that follow the spells (karma, etc.), how closet witches do their practice, and any general knowledge you like! I want to make sure I'm well educated on the matter, and I hope we can get along :)
The first thing to understand is that all of modern Witchcraft is a personal practice and that there's more to the "occult/spiritual/religious/etc," community than Witches and Witchcraft. There is absolutely no universal standard on anything that is not scientific in nature as we cannot isolate variables in our practices enough to produce the same results in the same condition each time - so we go off of instinct, trial, error, and how our understanding develops as we develop as people and as practitioners.
Despite that, there are common threads that are seen as potentially legitimate as well as an initial line to be drawn between magical practice and fantasy. Fantasy in and of itself is not a bad thing and, while we don't know for 100% sure that what we're doing and believing in is real in an undeniable and repeatable way, we do have guidelines on what we feel as individuals is "right," so to speak.
So the ultimate message here is that you can't just use one source as the end all be all of what Witchcraft is and isn't unless you are using sources for Traditional Witchcraft (and even then, multiple sources tend to be a good idea).
What Evy said. It might be easier to get an idea of what kind of practice you want your witches to have and go for something similar to it. There are tons of paths and traditions out there and plenty more practices without set dogma or structure.
i think it's really cool you want to do a comic like this!
i suggest incorporating the basics that most people start off with - mediation, grounding, centering, visualization... In the way that your characters prepare to cast spells.
Learn about how to Cast a Circle(which is a Wiccan practice), Space for Spell Casting (can be a designated space in nature, an altar in their room, or maybe if they are "in the broom closet" and living with someone else, they have a small box of their materials hidden and take it out and lay down a small cloth and set up their work space and put it away again when they are done), and you can also decide if your character worships and dieties (The God and the Goddess in Wicca, a greek god, Norse gods, etc. and they can follow a certain religion or be Ecclectic which means they sort of take only what they truly believe in and have their own very personalized path)
Common tools used can be-
candles (look up color meanings)
herbs
crystals
an Athame (special knife for use in magick to manipulate energy, can be used similar to a wand in some ways. Is only used for spell casting)
a Wand
a Pendalum (a form of Divination used to find answers)
Chalice (a nice glass usually used for drinking potions)
Broom (is used to sweep the ground and air of the area to clean away unwanted energy before spell casting)
Tarot Cards (a form of Divination)
Runes (a form of Divination)
i suggest picking up the book if you can Modern WitchCraft by Skye Alexander, or any book by that author on witchcraft, it explains things very simply and is very easy to read.
i hope this helped! if you would like any more ideas or would just like to talk to me about it you can send me a mail, i love comic books and art.
