Day One
Prompt: What has been your most influential resource in your study of the Craft?
Like most people who grew up in the 2000s and 2010s...the internet! This is a double edged sword because there is a lot of information out there, but also witchcraft and pagan spaces are rife with misinformation. A lot of that misinformation has been around since before the internet so, it's really deeply ingrained. Luckily, as more witches and pagans got into academia or began doing in-depth independent research, more reliable information has been put out there. I did spend a lot of time copying down every correspondence chart I saw and every bit of information about any deity that was put out there and every spell -- and I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, since I did learn which things were incorrect eventually, but I also think it's important that new witches don't just repeat what they learned without looking into it more. I was keeping everything to myself so, that wasn't too much of a problem.
Books became helpful eventually, once publishers stopped only publishing books about Wicca...and I loooooooooove books. I'll throw some recommendations in here actually:
- Encyclopedia of Spells: The Ulimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts by Judika Illes
- Dictionary of Anceint Magic Words and Spells by Claude Lecouteaux
- The Book of Candle Magic by Madame Pamita
- Traditional Magic Spells For Protection and Healing by Claude Lecouteaux
- Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham
- The House Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
- Protection and Reversal Magick by Jason Miller
- Magical House Protection by Brian Hoggard
- The Tradition of Household Spirits by Claude Lecouteaux
- New World Witchery by Cory Thomas Hutcheson
As for websites, I mostly read random blogs or looked up specific concepts/communities on social media. I was big into Tumblr as a teenager so, I also got a lot of information from there. Take everything you read with a hefty serving of salt though and try to verify claims to the best of your ability. Try things out on your own, make your own connections and corresponence lists (ie through personal associations and folklore/history/etc), focus on what interests you.