My name is Kaia Blackwood. I'm a blogger and a self-published ebook author (in another genre) and I'm creating free ebooks for my readers over at my blog*, but before I do that I want to gather some research by asking questions specifically for beginner witches.
However, if you aren't a beginner witch and wish to answer this question, feel free. But, please state whether you are new to magick or whether you have been practicing for a while. And for those who are not beginners, as you answer this question please tell me what you WISH you had when you were a beginner - not something you would want NOW necessarily.
The question: What kind of ebook do you feel would be the most beneficial to you as a beginner witch? I'm not writing some general book of shadows (there's already SO many out there). Here are my thoughts:
My idea is to write an ebook to help beginner witches dive into witchcraft and guiding them to explore the different types of magick and spells, such as kitchen magick, potions, jar, sigils, candle, color, transformation magick, high magick, simple spells, etc. Majority of these spells are cheap or free, and advise using ingredients that people FIND or MAKE, not BUY (though, some spells may have some items such as crystals).
Although the book does provide a lot of spells, too, it is NOT JUST a book of spells. It is also tips, advice, stories, interviews, references, how-tos, etc.
It is not a "do this, don't do that" book because it all depends on the person's beliefs, however it is a "here's a piece of advice, take it if you want, and here's the experience I and fellow witches have from this piece of advice"
In the book, there is a (totally optional) 30 day challenge for new witches to explore variety forms of magick to find what they enjoy doing the most.
I am making a second ebook for intermediate witches, too and that one will have a 30-day challege as well, but to "find their niche".
It may be 30 days, it may be 15 days, who knows.
The book, which is going to be free to readers on my blog (cause who doesn't like free stuff?) also will include a private facebook group.
Now, please share your opinions! I need brutal honesty. Does this idea completely suck? Does it sound like a good idea, but to exclude or include certain things? Does it sound like it's too much in one ebook? Please share your HONEST opinions. However, if you don't like the idea, please give CONSTRUCTIVE critisizm. That means also including a suggestion/idea, too!
Thanks,
Kaia.
*The blog link is not included in this post because that counts as self-promotion, which is only allowed on the advertisement section of the forum, as far as I can tell.
Re: I need brutal honesty... By: Ashen_Heart / Beginner
Post # 4 May 21, 2019
Not a total beginner and not a total expert, but I remember just how confusing starting out was, and I wrote my own BoS with large emphasis on clearing up confusion because of this.
Religion/Traditions:
Maybe not everyone feels like this, but for me I was so confused between all the different religions associated withwitchcraft/include witchcraft as a religious practice.
Firstly there's Wicca, right? A lot of newbies think that Wicca and witchcraft are one and the same, or that Wicca is a "whatever you want it to be" sort of thing. And then you have all the different sects of Wicca. Then you have religions that aren't Wicca but nevertheless include witchcraft and celebrate similar sabbats like Norse paganism and Celtic paganism. Then you have reconstructionist paganism vs. revivalist paganism.
Then you have religions that originated outside of Europe, like Vodou, Taoism, Shinto... and all of these have their own set of folk practices and traditions. Also you have confusing things like Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Vodou which are all different from each other.
And I know a lot of beginners don't realise that you don't have to be religious to practice witchcraft.
Fundamental Practices:
I notice that a lot of beginners don't start with the most important things, which is ethics, meditation, visualisation, grounding, centering, energy work, divination, and having means of protection. They just go straight to tools and spells. A lot of books (I meanthe ones in mainstream bookshops) either gloss over the fundamentals, or omit them entirely.
What magick can achieve, and what it can't:
Pretty much every beginner has a poor understanding of what naturalmagick actually is, as opposed to magic seen in fantasy and movies. Again a lot of resources discuss what magick can be used for, but not always what it can't be used for. There's the obvious things of course, like changing DNA, but there's less obvious things too that aren't really mentioned.
Also, different types of magick!
Basic spells:
I know a lot of newbies come on here like "what's a good first spell" and they don't really get a straight answer. However I think it's because they don't know a good basic format of a spell, or how to write them. I'm always referring to thebasic manifesting spellfrom Selene Silverwind's "The Witch's Journal" because itcan be really easily adapted to suit your own goal. Some books provide spells which are just too specific to be useful.
A few other things worth mentioning:
How to write spells
Modern practices, like tech witchcraft, and living in an urban area
Broom closet practices, and also how to get out of it
Budget witchcraft
Simple kitchen witch recipes
Spells that don't require you to evokedeities/spirits (fornon-religious folk)
Common spell ingredients oriented to a specific goal, to make writing spells/substituting easier (e.g. if someone wanted to write a spell on healing, they'd then know to include rose quartz as an ingredient)
Good websites to talk to other witches and find out more e.g. SoM, some reddit threads, Discord, reputable sites
Recommended books to read, and reputable authors
So those are my suggestions, and a few reasons behind them. Sorry if it's a bit long D: I wish you luck :)
Resources such as meanings and uses of herbs, meanings of colors (such as in candles), different types of knots and their meanings, etc.
As for the resources, I don't mean an ebook on just herbalism, etc. It would contain other things too. So my question is, what kind of book (assuming cost was not a problem and it was free) would you, personally, find most valuable? This is mostly for beginners.
And sorry, last I read the site rules, I believe it implied that the words capitalized meant all words (like the entire paragraph or sentence, which is super annoying) I did it to emphasize so I don't get responses that don't answer my question I guess lol, but I didn't know it meant one word being capitalized (instead of italisized or bold) was against the site rules, so thanks for telling me! :)
Thanks that was helpful! I actually already have a lot of that included, but there is also a lot of things you mentioned that I haven't included, so thanks!
