Designing Complex Spells

Reposted from my Tumblr

It’s been a while since I’ve made a witchy post. This past full moon, I spent a good deal of time designing a complex spell. You can see the pages I brainstormed for a complex spell above.
For the sake of this post, a complex spell:

• is sometimes cast to achieve long-term results, without having to consistently recast the spell
• requires a lot of magical energy
• requires planning
• consists of multiple steps, or possibly multiple spells cast in succession

I highly recommend that experienced witches cast these types of spells, mainly because they have the ability to completely drain you. And I don’t want any of you harming your lovely selves!
This post is a guide or, at the very least, food for thought on how to design complex spells. As an example I will use the most recent spell I designed, a spell to worry less about what others think of me.

Step 1: Determine exactly what kind of spell(s) you wish to cast, and in what order.

For example, I created a spell to worry less about what others think of me. But in witchcraft terms, what exactly am I doing? Is it banishment, where I force others to turn their opinions away from me? Is it protecting myself from others’ opinions? Is it cleansing myself from the effect that others have on me? Is it an anti-anxiety spell, or a confidence spell? There’s a lot to consider here that can’t be covered in a single step. Think hard about exactly what you want to achieve. This is a very critical step, so do some brainstorming or sit on it if you must.

Eventually I decided to imitate the weight of others’ opinions on me, cleanse myself of their affect, protect myself from their affect, and then banish others’ affect on me. (I figured that other peoples’ opinions will be there whether I banish them or not, so I might as well protect myself from them before banishing them from my mind, in a sense.) There are many other ways I could’ve done this spell that would’ve changed the overall intent. But notice how I’m including four spells into one ritual: simulating peoples’ attention on me, cleansing myself, protecting myself, and a banishing at the end.

Step 2: Decide which actions to perform.

In my opinion, action is just as important (if not more) than ingredients in spell work. The action determines what you do with the ingredients you decide on doing. For each spell/step, brainstorm a couple options you could potentially do for that step. Here’s my example:

Ridding Scrutiny: burning, crushing, ripping, trapping in a jar, burying, locking away, cutting, throwing into the wind or into a body of water, snuffing out a candle.

Once you’ve got some potential actions written down, you can decide on which one works best for your particular spell.

Step 3: Decide on materials for each step.

For this step, I advise that you coincide the magical properties of the materials to the purpose of the spell. For example, I had originally thought of ripping up rose petals for the banishing spell, but later decided that that wouldn’t work. Roses symbolize love and peace, and it makes no sense to banish that from my life, when I really want to banish the weight of other peoples’ expectations set on me.

Now that you know exactly what your intentions are, and what actions you’ll be doing with the materials, it’ll be easier to decide on which ingredients to use when. These ingredients don’t only include herbs or crystals–I included mirrors, sticky notes, cleaning wipes, washcloth, and anything else I needed.

I know these are listed as only three basic steps, but hopefully it helps you form an idea on how to design complex spells. If you have any extra ideas or questions, add on to this post, or message me anytime. ☆=(ゝω･)/

That’s all from me for now! Love and light to you!