The ABCs of Rituals and Spells

Many witches opt to have a dedicated spell space or altar. Note. AltAr not AltEr. Unless you have decided to follow Wicca, you do not need to have a specific set of items in specific locations on your altar. Many secular witches adopt Wiccan altar practices, because that is the information that is readily available. However, as a non-Wiccan witch, you can do literally whatever you want.

Abalone Shell

Used as a heat proof surface, and is typically used to house smoke cleansing supplies

Altars

A dedicated space for spell work and rituals.

Amulets

Amulets are believed to have the power to ward off negative energy, evil spirits, or illnesses. Examples include crucifixes, runes, evil eye, lucky coins, horseshoes, etc

Ashes

Used for making black salt and adding energy to a spell. Also, commonly used in death magick

Athames

Used to channel and direct psychic energies. It can be used to draw the boundary of a circle in which rituals and spells can be performed. Traditionally, the athame is never used for physical cutting and is usually very dull. It represents masculine energy ;). Most notably mentioned in the “Key of Solomon”, a grimoire that dates back to the Renaissance..

Bags

Hoard all the cloth bags you can, because you will likely need a lot of them in your practice. Bags come in different colors and materials so if you’re into using ingredients for specific things, don’t forget about the container!

Besoms

Popularized during the infamous witch hunts when people believed witches hid their wands in the bristles of their brooms. Besom bristles traditionally are not meant to touch the ground ever. They can be used to sweep negative energies out of a space in a similar methodology to physical sweeping for cleaning just without touching the ground. Traditionally, besoms are only used for special occasions and holidays, but more modern traditions allow besoms to be used for any spiritual occasion.

Bell

Sound is an effective cleanser for your space and your altar. Many witches use bells as their main source of sound cleansing.

Bowl

Witches who worship different deities often include bowls to hold their offerings for each specific deity. It is important to replace the perishable items every day or two to keep them fresh. To dispose of perishable items, you can compost them, bury them, or throw them into running water like a stream or river.

Bolines

Used for cutting ritual or spell ingredients (herbs mainly). Typically it is cleansed like the athame and used for ritual purposes only.

Books

Having access to a wealth of knowledge near to your altar is a great way to commit to researching practices you are interested in. Alternatively, you can keep them in your reading space.

Book of Shadows

As explained in more detail here, a BOS is where a witch keeps her thoughts and feelings about spells and rituals, not necessarily the spells themselves. This is important to keep in a sacred space like an altar, because it contains a witch’s energies.

Cabinet

You’ll need a place to store all this stuff, so you’d better find something! Cabinets are great alternatives to shelves in that you can hide your witchy stuff inside so visitors don’t make unnecessary judgements. Alternatively, you can use a chest or an ottomon to hide your witchy tools. Some witches even put their altars inside of cabinets.

Candles

Definitely one of the most popular tools at a witches disposal. They can be placed around the home or used in magickal workings. See our article on candle magick for more specifics.

Cauldrons

Are heat proof containers used either for cooking (assuming it is food grade material) or for heating loose incense with charcoal tablets. Cauldrons must be cleansed and seasoned like any cast iron pot. Don’t be that gal who runs her cauldron through the dishwasher. Make sure to keep it as dry as possible. Typically using a damp rag to clean the inside is all you need unless you are making potions or food.

Cedar

Can be used as an alternative to sage. It neutralizes negative energies and removes emotional garbage. Cedar is a tree of purification, protection, healing, and wealth. It will immediately lift your spirits. It is particularly useful when you want to do spell work, but your vibe is off.

Chalices

The typical female energy representation on an altar. It can also be used as an offering dish for wine for your deity.

Charms

Charms are objects believed to bring luck to the possessor. Examples include a rabbit’s foot, four leaf clovers, etc

Cloths

A good number of witches find it helpful to use altar clothes. We don’t because we get candle wax everywhere and ruin them, but they can add a sacredness to your altar.

Coins

Some witches offer money to their deities.

Containers

Witches use various containers in their spell work. Whether it be to keep supplies and ingredients in an organized fashion or simply to contain ritual representations. Containers can go a long way. They can be any material, but the most common are glass, copper, and brass. Plastic is an ok place to store crystals, because it keeps the energy from emanating through to the other crystals.

Crystals

Another popular tool at a witch’s disposal. Crystals all have metaphysical properties and give off energy just like everything else in the universe. The difference is how that energy is produced. Crystal molecules work in grids to produce certain energies. We would like to share our crystal grimoire with you!

Crystal Balls

Ah yes, would you like your fortune told? Ok, so that’s not quite how it works. It is a tool used to understand one’s inner self. A witch’s inner self or shadow self can speak to her through gazing practices.

Deity Representations

Witches who work with or worship deities want those deities’ energies in their homes or on their altars, so it is important to be able to channel their energies. If having a statute or the like helps you do that, then great!

Dishes

Ok, not quite a magickal tool, but it is super useful for keeping wax off your table and anointing candles!

Elemental Representations

Another common placement on altars is the placement of the elements on the altar. This can be any of the correspondences found in our previous article.

Energy

A witch’s most valuable tool is her energy and the energy around her.

Evil Eye

Be careful when choosing to use an evil eye for protection. Some consider it a closed practice, but with proper respect and use of an evil eye, its protection can go a long way for any witch. Just remember to be respectful of ancestral spirits when exploring “closed” practices.

Feathers

Most commonly used for wafting smoke during a smoke cleanse, but can also be used for sending energy into the universe during spell work.

Forks (Tuning)

Tuning forks can be used to balance our electromagnetic field generated by our chakras. It also works as a great sound cleanser.

Gloves

Sometimes the mundane tools can really save our hides! When working with poisonous substances like mandrake, it is important to wear proper protection to avoid negative reactions.

Gold

Not only does it look pretty, but it brings a warm energy and sense of opulence to an altar.

Grimoires

Grimoires are what new witches tend to call a Book of Shadows. While similar, the two are quite different. Grimoires are solely a collection of spells, rituals, and information. They do not contain the energies of the witch like a BOS does.

H

Hairs

Kind of gross, but pet hair is a great way to protect your pets during protection spells for them. Even human hair is, at times, useful in spell casting.

Hamsa Hands

Otherwise known as the “Hand of God”. Hamsa hands are a traditional middle eastern amulet that in all faiths represents protection. It is said to bring its owner happiness, luck, health, and good fortune. It offers protection from the evil eye, specifically. A prayer often said by those who use Hamsa hands is “Let no sadness come to this heart, let no trouble come to these arms, let no conflict come to these eyes, let my soul be filled with the blessing of joy and peace.” The hand can face up or down. Again, please be respectful of ancestral spirits that play a part in the protection given by the Hamsa hand. It has origins in all Abrahamic religions.

Harmony

A witch strives to make her home and her spell space a harmonious place by placing certain objects with certain energies in and around the space.

Herbs

A very popular tool for the green and kitchen witches of the world. Each herb is believed to have various metaphysical properties that can help a witch specify her intention for manifestation in the universe.

Incense

Used across the world for various religious practices, incense produces wonderful scents with metaphysical properties that can really get you “in the mood” (we don’t mean THAT mood, but rose or dragon’s blood is a good option if you need THAT kind of motivation).

Ingredients

You don’t necessarily need ingredients for spells. After all, the power of the spell comes from energy, but ingredients can be used to solidify the intention of the caster.

Jars

We know, again with the mundane, but jars are so widely used by witches, we had to mention them! Typically, a witch will use a glass mason jar to create what is known as a “spell jar”.

Kits

Amazon and Etsy have a lot of wonderful starter kits for new witches. We personally recommend buying ingredients as you need them rather than buying things you probably won’t use that often, but it is entirely up to you!

Ladles

Particularly useful for your average kitchen witch or potion brewer to carefully pour into containers to store her creations.

Letter Holders

We know this is a weird mundane thing, but we’ve found it particularly useful for holding things like tarot cards, books, notebooks, and stray pieces of paper to make an altar space look a little less chaotic.

Manifestation Box

Very similar to a prayer box, a manifestation box is a box that you use to keep track of your spells. When one is manifested, you take it out and burn it. Alternatively, you can keep a list of your intended manifestations in a notebook and put something that represents the spell when it has manifested.

Mortar and Pestle

Another mundane tool that is particularly useful for mixing herbs, grinding eggshell powder, and creating loose incense.

Nothing

As we mentioned above, the most important and only necessary part of a spell is your personal power, so you don’t really need any of these things we’ve listed, but they are available if you want to incorporate them into your practice.

Oils

Essential oils are a popular ingredient for potions and anointing candles. They are “essential” because they contain the very concentrated oils of the plant in question. This is like using hundreds of tablespoons of an herb in one drop of oil.

Ouija Boards

If you are interested in using an ouija board, please, please, do your research on proper cleansing techniques. Ouija boards can be used to speak with spirits, deities, demons, and other entities. It acts as a translation tool from the spirit world to the physical world.

P

Palo Santo

Otherwise known as “holy wood” is a tree native to Peru, Ecuador, and several other South American countries. Traditionally used by shamans an healers known as Curanderos to purify the air, dispel evil spirits, and neutralize negative energies. Medicinally, palo santo, has been used to soothe cold and flu symptoms, depression, emotional pain, and other ailments. If you are interested in using Palo Santo buy it responsibly as it is a partially endangered plant (on the watch list). The palo santo witches use is the “bursera graveoleon,” but another South American tree species also known as palo santo, “bulnesia sarmientoi,” is the one people refer to as the endangered species of palo santo, which is not sold. Basically, just be careful that you are buying the not endangered version of palo santo as it is endangered, but also has different metaphysical properties than the witch’s palo santo, bursera graveoleon. Further, witch’s palo santo may be endangered in some countries, but not others. It is up to the local government to report a regional conservation status, so when you are purchasing palo santo, ask “Does the company work directly with farmers to ensure the harvesting processes are ethical and sustainable?” and “Does the palo santo come from a region that has not marked its palo santo as endangered?”

Palm Stones

Holding a palm stone will create a powerful connection between our being and the crystal’s energy, which is typically one that brings about stillness and calming. Witches should consider having a palm stone readily available to aid in grounding and meditative work.

Pendulum

By converting energy back and forth through kinetic energy the pendulum can help a witch glean useful advice and information about a particular subject.

Pens and Parchment

Always have a writing utensil and paper for notes.

Pentacles

A five-pointed star with a circle around it. It is often part of a coin. Made of silver it is used to represent lunar energies. Whereas, when it is made of gold it is used to represent solar energies. In some witchcraft traditions it represents the birth, youth, adult, mature, and death cycles of humanity. Worldwide, it is a symbol for openness about religious and spiritual matters.

Pentagrams

A five-pointed star without a circle around it. It has been known to have been used by the Egyptians, Mesopotomians, Christianity, and many other pagan religions. In Christianity it is used to represent the 5 knightly virtues: piety, chastity, generosity, courtesy, and chivalry. In many different cultures it is said to protect against demons. An apple cut horizontally into a pentagram is a symbolic representation of knowledge and truth. In many witchcraft traditions, the pentagram represents our connection to the divine and the cardinal directions of the elementals. An inverted pentagram, despite popular belief, is not a symbol of Satan. In fact, it is used in spell work to banish, bind, release, undo, ground, and is often used in waning moon magick.

Pine

Popularized by Yule and Winter traditions, pine brings an uplifting scent into the air that purifies, prosperitizes, and cleanses. A witch can use it as an incense or even as a smoke cleansing stick.

Prayer Beads

Used around the world, prayer beads are not only used for religious prayer, but also for spiritual manifestation. To use them for manifestation, everyday simply hold one bead in your hand starting from the amulet often attached and say your manifestation. Then do this for each bead till you have made your way around the necklace. They can be worn, but are traditionally only held in one’s hand and put away into a box or nice bag for storage.

Quartz

Quartz is by far one of the most popular crystals, not only because it is readily available and therefore inexpensive, but also for its millions of metaphysical properties. Popularized quartz stones include clear quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, citrine, smoky quartz, and silica.

Ritual Wear

Some witches, particularly Wiccans, find their spell work to be invigorated when they wear specific garments for rituals and spells. This gives the wearer a sense of purpose during ritual or spell work.

River Stones

River stones are known to invigorate the aura and facilitate change and resolution to one’s inward and outward processes, which leads to a more profound spiritualization. They are often overlooked, as they are “rocks” and not crystals, but they can really help manifest sigils. To use them with sigils simply paint or carve your sigil or rune onto the stone and leave it somewhere outside, so that sigil is constantly charged with the sun and the moon’s energies.

Runes

A popular divination tool, runes, hold neutral energy, but interact with the energy around them similarly to tarot cards. Runes were made famous during the times the Germanic warbands raided present day Italy, but have been found as far north as humans live, where the Scandinavians adopted the symbols for their own use.

Ritual Space

Witches should always have a dedicated ritual/spell work space. This keeps the act of manifestation sacred. Some witches run into problems in maintaining a dedicated space and that’s OK. For example, most kitchen witches do not have a kitchen for mundane cooking and ritual cooking, so they are required to rededicate their kitchen each time they perform a ritual or spell in the kitchen. Likewise, some witches have tiny tiny toddlers that are fascinated with their ritual supplies, so they cannot keep it laying around. The same goes for broom closet witches. We recommend keeping your supplies in a container and dedicating a space whenever you have the need for ritual or spell work.

Salt

Sea Salt is great for protection and amplification, so it is a great resource to have readily available. Red salt, made from mixing sea salt and red clay from Hawaii, is a great way to embrace your passions or solidify them. Pink salt comes from Pakistan, and produces a receptive energy which makes it good for attracting love, self love, and divination practices. Another popular salt is black salt, which is often used in banishment rituals.

Sage

There are so many different kinds of sage! You do not have to use white sage! White sage is not only endangered, but hard to obtain from sustainable sources. You may opt for prairie sage, which is a) less expensive b) not endangered and c) literally does the exact same thing as white sage. Alternatively, if you struggle with communication, blue sage is a great way to open up your channels of communication. We often cleanse our divination tools in blue sage to make ourselves more receptive to their insights.

Sand

Check out this link for different uses of sand! Readily available all over the world, sand is a great addition to any ritual or spell.

Seashells

Not only do these make a beautiful representation of water’s energy, but they also have pretty cool metaphysical properties, which include: stimulating intuition, sensitivity, imagination, and adaptability. They are also great tools for studying and divination as they enhance mental clarity and provide insight into decision making.

Selenite

This crystal is such a wonderful crystal! Selenite not only can charge your witch tools, but it can also cleanse them. It is a great idea to include a piece of selenite in all your containers with crystals and ritual supplies to keep them constantly charged and cleansed.

Silver

Silver is the metal of lunar energy. It therefore aids in emotions, psychic matters, love, and healing. Put silver on your altar if you think your altar needs these energies. Or you can wear silver too!

Talismans

They differ from amulets in that they are believed to give more power or positive energy to the person wearing it. Some examples include magic rods, magic hats, charged crystals, Excallibur, etc

Tarot

Invented in the 1430s in Italy, the cards used Egyptian and Italian imagery. They were originally used as playing cards and are the source of inspiration for modern day playing cards (The fool = the Jack). The Rider-Waite decks are based on the Venetian or Piedmontese tarot from the 1500s. It was not until about 1780 in France, where the cards were used for divination purposes as a parlor trick. Thus, the use of tarot as divination is not cultural appropriation, and has misled many witches into thinking they cannot use tarot, because it was later adopted by the Roma peoples. (Thanks witchtok). Keeping a deck handy, will help in shadow work and general inquiries.

Tongs

Yes, another mundane tool, but particularly useful when working with charcoal discs or poisonous substances.

U (You)

You don’t NEED any of these things. The power you have comes from you and your energy!

Vials

Stock up on these bad boys; you’ll need them!

Wands

Wands can also be used to draw a circle like an athame, but because there is so much variety in materials, you can really use wands for very specific castings. For example, a wand made from a cherry tree can be used when cast spells for love or self love. A witch can adorn her wand with different crystals, herbs, talismans, amulets, etc to further solidify an intention for a wand. A great love wand would be one made of cherry tree wood affixed with charms for love and rose quartz at the base.

Witch Balls

These are basically glass ornaments (like for Christmas) that witches can fill with various ingredients and hang around their homes for various purposes.

Wax Burners

Some witches may opt for scented wax in lieu of incense, so a wax burner is common instead.

Xenas

Known for being intense female warriors, a Xenas representation somewhere in a witch’s life will be particularly useful energy to have around! So get to googling your favorite female warrior and put something around you to represent that warrior goddess energy!

Yin-Yang Representations

It is commonplace to represent both female and male energies on an altar, and yin and yang represent the ultimate balance between the two.

Zodiac Representations

If you’re into astrology, having representations of your big three (sun, moon, rising/ascendant on your altar can go a long way.

Again, you do not need all of these things! These are just suggestions. Get what calls to you the most. Another piece of unsolicited advice, buy one thing at a time, don’t go on a shopping spree. We’ve been there and now we have a ton of shit we don’t ever use. It makes good for witch trading, but other than that it doesn’t really fit our vibes.

Hope this was helpful!

Love and Learning!