I’ve wanted to write a beginner’s guide to witchcraft for a while now, but there’s so much to include and cover, that I kept procrastinating from doing it. I’ve really stepped up my own learning recently regarding the craft and I finally figured out the key points I feel every baby witch needs to know.

This is probably going to be one of many beginner’s posts around this topic, but if you’re just starting out with witchcraft or spellwork, then I feel like this is a great place to begin your journey.

A brief history of witchcraft

When I say this is a brief history, I mean it. There is so much to the history of witchcraft across all different cultures, so I’ve narrowed it down to a few core messages.

First of all, a witch is a wise woman, someone that has knowledge that is niche and specialised. Many of these women were healers, medicine women or wise elders back in the day. For the most part, the main reason witches were condemned and burned was because these women had knowledge that others didn’t and knowledge is power, especially in days gone by.

The witch hunts of the 1450s to 1750s meant that many innocent women were burned or hung for practising what people perceived as witchcraft. In reality, these women were often midwives and healers, that had a knowledge of female health and herbalism better than any male doctor. This can be seen across all cultures around the world, not just in western history. In indigenous cultures, white colonisers would use the excuse that a woman was a witch to dominate and punish those that didn’t assimilate. In opposition to that, many indigenous women, particularly in Africa and South America, would adopt witchcraft as a form of protecting themselves from white invaders. However, a lot of the spiritual practices and beliefs that have been woven into modern-day witchcraft come from these cultures and many witchcraft practices can be traced back to African or indigenous routes, such as the Native American culture.

To this day, women in the Central African Republic are still getting tried and executed for witchcraft, and these witch hunts are still prominent in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, India, Nepal and Saudi Arabia amongst other countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In the West, specifically Europe and North America, witchcraft is more widely known and practised, although there is still a stigma around those that practice it. These days, there are many routes you can take within the umbrella of witchcraft, and it has become a manual practice for those that are in need of a spiritual connection to better their mental and physical wellbeing, in a very digital and online world.

Witchcraft and religion

One thing to make clear is that witchcraft is not a religion, it is a practice that is commonly associated with pagan religions, because many of the foundations of western witchcraft comes from paganism and druidism.

You can be a pagan and not be a witch, you can be a Wiccan and not be a witch and vice versa. You will find that a lot of witches hold varying beliefs, some witches practice witchcraft but claim Christianity as their religion, or they practice whilst also holding beliefs in line with Judaism and so on.

There’s no denying that witchcraft has been moulded and shaped by different religions over time. Whether it’s praying to deities or incorporating Kabbalah into divination, religion has made its mark across all forms of witchcraft. For example, modern hoodoo and voodoo has practices that are based on Catholicism and Christianity because of slavery and colonisation.

You do not have to have any specific religion to practise witchcraft, but many find a route to religion through their practices, usually to pagan religions, but it can help to open you up to religions that you may not have been raised within or had any previous knowledge about.

Overcoming scepticism

This may come as a surprise to some, but I am a massive sceptic, like many in modern society, we have so much information at our fingertips, it can be difficult to believe in things we can’t physically see, touch or hear. There’s a lot of trust and blind faith involved and that can be a tough pill to swallow.

As someone that has struggled against scepticism during my witchcraft journey, my advice would be to find different perspectives to look at certain elements. For example, something that put me off in the very beginning was believing in deities. I never believed in God or the idea of gods and goddesses, until someone helped me take a different perspective.

Although there are those out there that practice witchcraft and believe in a God or Gods, for me, the easiest way to use this element in my practice was to see the gods as a personification of different factors in life. So instead of doing a love spell and calling upon Aphrodite and believing that a woman in a flowy robe and long blonde hair is standing over me watching, you use that image of her to better focus your intention. You don’t necessarily believe she’s a physical being, but the image of her and what she represents helps you to focus on what you’re trying to accomplish with your practice.

Like I’ve said previously, witchcraft is a very personal journey, so these are just the ways that I wrap my head around things, and how I view witchcraft and magick within my own life. I believe that magick and spells work because we can manipulate the energy around us. I believe that if you put out an intent that is focused and has a great deal of energy behind it, that you will receive what you’ve worked for. Energy reacts to energy.

This is why the bigger the spell or the preparation for the spell, the more powerful it is. We put our own vibration into everything we do, so if we half-arse it, we’ll get a crappy outcome. If we go all in, we’ll receive a better outcome. We get out what we put in.

Creating a Book of Shadows

When you decide to start on your own witchcraft journey, it can be very overwhelming because there’s so much to learn and so many different paths you can take. My advice to all baby witches that come to me asking about where to start is to start by creating a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire.

A Book of Shadows is a journal that you record all your research and learnings. I like to draw images in mine to jazz it up and keep my wandering mind focused. Everything I learn that is to do with spiritualism or witchcraft goes into this book. I can then refer back to it whenever I need to. A Grimoire can be the same, but I use the Grimoire as a place to record my rituals and spells. This keeps everything separate and means I have one book for learning and another for practical magick.

To help you know where to start with your Book of Shadows, here is what I started my book with:

• The Wheel of the Year

• Sabbats

• Different types of witchcraft

• The witch’s altar

• Tools on the altar and what they’re used for

This is a great base on which to build from, because as you look into these things, you’ll come across other points you’ll find an interest in and want to look up further. For example, you may be researching the sabbats and want to know what activities to do on those sabbats, which could lead to you learning more about crystals or spell bottles or elemental magick.

Keep a list of things that you want to look up in more detail as you go along, and you’ll soon find that you’re filling your Book of Shadows fairly quickly.

Places to start with your research

Now we know where to start with our Book of Shadows, here are a few topics you can branch out to once you feel ready. Always start with the topic that calls to you the most, for me this was divination, but for you it may be astrology or crystals.

• Astrology – Zodiac Signs and meanings

• Astrology – Birth charts and horoscopes

• Numerology

• Crystals

• Palmistry

• Tarot Reading

• Scrying

• Tea Reading

• Oracle Readings

• Crystal Ball Readings

• Herbalism

• Astral Projection

• Cruses/Hexes

• Hoodoo/ Voodoo

• Spirit Guides

• Kabbalah

• Hermeticism

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If you’re completely new to witchcraft, a baby witch you may say, then you may not know that there are multiple types of witches and a lot of different types of witchcraft you can practice.

Just like in your witchy practices, there will be things that you feel connected with and things you don’t. For example, I don’t work with things like the Fae or Sprites etc. I also just can not get on board with palmistry, it just doesn’t click for me and my brain refuses to understand it!

Don’t feel like you have to know everything and be doing everything, if it doesn’t connect with you on a spiritual level. This is why there is more than one way to practice witchcraft, so you can create a practice that serves you the best.

To help you discover what type of witchcraft is best for you, I’ve broken a few of the most popular types down so you can see what’s involved.

Hearth Witch

A hearth witch can also be known as a home witch (hearth being an old worldy word for home or more specifically the fire place). These types of witches practice their magick within the space of the home and focus on including magick in their daily lives within that space. Because this type of witchcraft takes place inside the home, many will be solitary witches rather than being part of a coven.

Works with:

• Home protection

• Kitchen magick

• Home based crystal magick

• Cleaning & cleansing magick

• Home blessings

These witches will most often:

• Have various crystals dotted in specific places within the home

• Have a besom by the door to ward off unwanted visitors

• Cook with intention and purpose

• Cleanse the energy within their home almost every day

• Have protection spells in place for their home

What better way to channel your cosy witchy self than making time to journal using your Tarot or Oracle cards?

Green Witch

A very popular form of witchcraft is green witchcraft. These witches work a lot in their garden and within nature. They will be the ones growing herbs in their gardens, offering you homemade herbal remedies and making all natural beauty products. Green witches work closely with nature, choosing to get their energy and magick from the natural world. Back in the day, green witches were often known as medicine or wise women.

Works with:

• Herbalism

• Folk magic

• Essential oils

• Botany

• Animal magick

These witches will most often:

• Be growing fresh herbs in their garden

• Always be outside in nature

• Practicing making natural remedies and cosmetics

• Using essential oils for various ailments

• Always looking up how to take care of plants and growing their own vegetables

Crystal Witch

Crystal witches are pretty self explanatory, they use crystals as their main focus in their practice. This means they work with the energy of crystals to help manipulate their own energy or the energy around them and work closely with the chakras and auras. This is a pretty specific sector of witchcraft, but it is one that many find themselves starting out with.

Works with:

• Crystal magick

• Auras

• Chakra healing

• Energy healing e.g. Reiki

These witches will most often:

• Be wearing a lot of crystals as jewellery

• Have a few crystals rattling around in their bags, pockets and even their bras

• Have a few crystals hidden away in their pillow cases

• Healing and balancing their chakras

• Surrounded by crystal grids

• Have plenty of crystal bibles and guide books on their shelves

Kitchen Witch

The kitchen witch is closely associated with the hearth witch, as their magick also takes place within their home. However, these witches focus their time predominantly in the kitchen. Kitchen witchery works with magick when cooking or baking, it uses food and drink in order to cast spells and within their rituals. These witches will know the magickal properties of all their ingredients and know exactly why they are using what they’re using. They will often have blessed tools such as spoons and knives that they use specifically for their kitchen magick.

Works with:

• Kitchen magick

• Herbalism

• Botany

• Potion making

• Tea reading and tea magick

These witches will most often:

• Be cooking away in their kitchen

• Sourcing the best ingredients for their kitchen spells

• Cutting freshly grown herbs for using in their food

• Boiling a potion on the stove

• Pouring you a cup of chamomile tea

Gray Witch

Many witches choose to either work with the light or the dark, however gray witches are not afraid to get stuck into both in equal measure. They understand that the world is built on balance and so they aim to practice in both the light and the shadow. These witches are more than happy to cook you up a potion or a spell to help you, but when crossed, they have no problems placing a curse of hex on you. They are neutral witches and so always try and keep a sense of balance and harmony in their practice.

Works with:

• Shadow work

• Black magic

• White magic

• Light work

*It’s worth noting that gray witches will often pick and choose different types of spellwork and rituals from all the other types of witchcraft, just like an eclectic witch.

These witches will most often:

• Be doing some serious inner shadow work

• Exploring all aspects of witchcraft

• Working with all the elements

• Filling up pages and pages of their grimoire

Cosmic Witch

The cosmic witch works a lot with the universe, astrology and divination. They are often expert astrologers and work frequently with moon magic. These are the witches that can draw out your birth chart and offer you scarily accurate horoscopes. They use celestial energy in pretty much everything they do and often practice skills such as astral projection, angel magick and divination.

Works with:

• Astrology

• Zodiac signs and horoscopes

• Angel magick

• Divination e.g. tarot, palmistry, scrying etc.

• Lunar magick

These witches will most often:

• Tell you an accurate horoscope that sets you on the right path

• Be plotting out your birth chart

• Reading tarot or oracle cards

• Seeking advice from the universe

• Preparing for the retrogrades

Sea Witch

Sea witches, in my opinion anyway, is a very focused subsection of a green witch, in that they work with a bias towards the element of water, however they still work frequently with all the elements together like the green witch does. Sea witches love to be by the ocean and use the oceans energy in their rituals and spells. They are also known to practice lunar magick, due to the moon’s connection with the oceans. They also work frequently with the weather and are also drawn to lakes and rivers.

Works with:

• Water magick

• Weather magick

• Mermaids and other mythical sea creatures and animals

• Lunar magick

• Elemental magick

These witches will most often:

• Be down at the beach or by a lake

• Surrounding themselves with water as often as possible

• Working with full moons especially

• Making moon and crystal water

Eclectic Witch

Eclectic witchcraft is extremely popular for beginners and highly recommended if you’re not draw to one specific type of craft. These witches pick and mix different types of witchcraft to create their own unique practice. I associate with eclectic witchcraft currently because I love learning about all types of the craft and figuring out how to use them together. For example, I work a lot with divination like the cosmic witch, however I also do a lot of shadow and light work like the gray witch and I’m also learning and using a lot more green witchcraft in my practices.

Works with:

• All different types of magick, spells and rituals

These witches will most often:

• Be surrounded by a variety of books on witchcraft, astrology, herbalism and crystals

• Have multiple grimoires and book of shadows filled with magickal information

• Have many different herbs and crystals spread around their home

• Have busy and eclectic looking altars

Choosing the right type of witchcraft for you

When you are just starting out, it can be very intimidating knowing where to begin. The best thing to do is pick one specific area that you find yourself really interested in learning more about. For me this was crystals, then this lead me on to divination. Once I started to get more advanced with tarot, I realised that learning more about astrology would help me learn tarot better and learning more about elemental magick would also help.

You’ll find that the more you dig into one specific subject, doors to other subjects start to appear and you can start to transition into learning about something completely knew.

If you do decide to pick a type of witchcraft to learn and practice, remember that you are more than welcome to change your mind down the line. As we grow and develop as humans, we may find that a type of craft no longer serves us the way it once did and a different type of craft now feels more relatable.

Try them all and see which one you feel the most connected and emotionally drawn to!