The Element Encyclopedia of 1000 Spells: A Concise Reference Book for the Magical Arts

Anything radiating any degree of magical power whatsoever is perceived to be alive, although the manner in which different beings are alive is not identical. A stone may be alive but even the most hard-core practitioner won’t look for a pulse

If something can be recreated so that there are identical, indistinguishable specimens, and if that something is completely predictable and controllable, it lacks life. Lacking life, it contains no power, no innate magic, and is of little value to the magical practitioner

do so. It’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel, although experimentation can be fun. A font of established information exists for you to draw upon. The Element Encyclopedia of 1000 Spells merely scratches the surface of world magic.

What is Magic?

Magic is an individual action, undertaken because the cosmos is not believed to be benevolent by nature, or, at least, not benevolent enough to that person.

Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, London, 1953

Magic spells stem from the observation and consideration of an Earthly paradox.

Earth is beautiful, full of power and promise. Yet despite all that potential for fulfillment and happiness, individual existence is too often harsh, hungry, painful, limited, bitter, dangerous, and just plain miserable. Yes, life holds promise, but will your promise be fulfilled? Can you depend upon benevolent forces of the universe to provide your needs and desires for you, or is further action required? It is significant that Adam didn’t need a book of magic spells until he was forced to leave the paradise of Eden.

Magic is a realistic art, not an idealistic one, although it is a game for optimists. The one thing magic requires is a belief that things could get better.

Not every promise is fulfilled, not every power is realized. Life is not fair. Some are born with looks, brains, talent, vibrant health, all their limbs, and a loving family, while others are not. Some have a head start toward success that others lack, even within the realm of metaphysics. Some come from families immersed in magic traditions, eager to transmit secrets and techniques. Others do not.

Occult knowledge, however, is egalitarian. All you have to do is acquire it. In theory it’s not even necessary to understand it in order to tailor your destiny more to your liking, fulfill your dreams and aspirations and, perhaps most crucially, ward off life’s harsh blows, just like the ancient Egyptians said you could.

Magic levels the playing field.

Magic encourages creativity and inventiveness. It rewards persistence and curiosity. People have discovered thousands of ways to exploit Earth’s natural magic power. There is basically no technique, no material, providing it possesses some life (and, once upon a time, prior to mass industry, there was virtually nothing on Earth that didn’t possess life), that can’t be used for a magical purpose. Magic accesses a huge repository—rock, paper, scissors, you name it, somewhere it has been used in a spell.

Wealth and status are not necessary for acquiring magical power; the crucial requirements are desire, will, curiosity, awareness, knowledge, and education. That is the secret message hidden within the Celtic tale of Taliesin. A poor, beaten, oppressed orphan child is forced to labor endlessly for the great witch-goddess Cerridwen, stirring the fuming, boiling cauldron where she brews a potion capable of transmitting all Earth’s wisdom. By accident the child tastes the brew intended for Cerridwen’s own son. Those mere few drops of wisdom immediately transform a miserable, ignorant child into a shape-shifting master shaman, a pre-eminent wizard, and his ultimate

Magic is the manipulation of Earth’s naturally occurring powers in an attempt to provide the spell-caster with the success and happiness she or he desires

Magic spells are deliberate, specific attempts to harness and manipulate this energy, following some sort of formula or direction

Magic power is inherent on Earth; people didn’t create it, imagine it or make it up. By various means, they learned how to use it: magic spells are the result

Every magic spell was created by at least one person and probably refined and improved by thousands more

rebirth as a true child of the goddess, a child Cerridwen cannot deny. Who cares about transforming pumpkins into coaches or pulling rabbits from hats? Real magic holds the key to self-transformation.

Although rare, precious materials, gemstones, and fragrant tree resins are packed with power, there’s also tremendous magic in blades of grass, handfuls of dirt, moonbeams, and ocean water. Plenty of the most powerful magic is free, available and abundant for all.

Is Magic Evil? A (Very Abridged) Secret History of Magic

Another issue must be addressed, as it is the rationale most frequently offered for centuries of concerted efforts to eliminate magic and persecute practitioners, and because it is an issue that prevents some from accessing their personal power. You think you’d like to cast a spell, but you’re afraid. Is practicing magic evil?

According to general worldwide metaphysical wisdom, magic is a source of power. Power may be used benevolently or selfishly, with varying degrees of mal intent. Thus it isn’t the abstract practice of magic that is either good or bad; it’s what each practitioner chooses to do with it. Responsibility for one’s actions and the consequences that stem from them rest securely on the individual practitioner’s shoulders. Have evil people ever abused magic power? Sure. Just take a look at some of the hexes in this book. Is magic the only power capable of being abused? Of course not. How about financial power, political power, brute strength, nuclear power, and so on and so forth? In the sweep of history, abuse of magic power is far less responsible for the accumulated sufferings of the world than many other forms of abuse.

There is a general rule, accepted across the board, that magicians reap what they sow. Cast an evil spell—ultimately receive evil back. Negative efforts attract negative returns, at a return rate of three-, seven-, or nine-fold. The standard rule of witchcraft is do what thou will, but harm none. Many modern witches are absolutely terrified of transgressing that rule.

So then, why magic’s bad reputation?

Yes, there are legends of wicked sorcerers using their skills to hold others in thrall. However, if one examines those legends closely, it’s usually revealed that the magical aspect is but a smoke screen for more reliable, conventional methods of coercion, like brute force and access to greater wealth, although I suppose one could argue that magical prowess enabled their acquisition. Suffice it to say that any position of power, in any profession, is vulnerable to corruption and temptation. Let’s talk about the average working magical practitioner.

Magic is concerned with the immediate needs and desires of the practitioner in the here and now, or at least in the immediately foreseeable future. It is not about “pie in the sky.” The average magician doesn’t want to wait for the possible rewards of the sweet hereafter. Magic is not for the passive; if you’re willing to passively accede to your fate, the destiny others decide for you, whatever it is, why waste time, effort, or money casting a spell?

Magic recognizes that Earth is full of gifts and the practitioner wants his or her share now. Magic is not the same as religion, although many religions have historically incorporated magic into their practice, and still do. To put it mildly, magic is not an inherently reverential system. Magic demands that my will be done, not necessarily thine, or at least, let’s find a compromise. It is not a humble art. Magic possesses an intensely powerful independent, egalitarian streak.

An infinite quantity of magic power exists in the world, enough for everyone. It’s not like a scarce commodity, where if I have it, you don’t. Magic power is constantly being generated, although various modern practices, especially those that affect the natural environment, have diminished present quantities drastically. Similar to Pullman’s His Dark Materials’ dust, the energy that each individual generates enters the universe where it affects and may be drawn upon by others. It is to everyone’s benefit (except perhaps for that elite few already achieving their heaven on Earth at the expense of others) that every individual, creature, or thing, maximizes its potential for power.

Furthermore, not all powers on Earth are positive: intense extended misery, suffering, and oppression generate a negative energy that ultimately affects everyone badly, diminishes baraka, obstructs magic power, and limits everyone’s access to it. In addition, the extinction of Earth’s life forms—the loss of plant and animal species—eliminates every practitioner’s potential access to their unique powers. Thus general oppression and certain policies affecting the environment, beyond any ethical considerations of right or wrong, hamper the magician’s ability to maximize personal power and the power of their spells.

There is an inherent tension between the individual practitioner seeking power, and authority of all kinds, most especially religious authority, which seeks to maintain its authority by retaining and controlling access to the divine, as well as to tools, theology, and ritual. Religion frequently seeks to establish rules and boundaries about who has direct access to the divine, and who bestows that access and the proper channels. Correct methods of worship and spiritual communication are prescribed, including what is permitted and what is not.

If something has power, magicians usually want to try it out, regardless of whose tradition or faith it comes from, regardless of whether some authority says its use is forbidden. Although magic is a conservative force in ways, harking back to humanity’s most primal arts, it also evolves endlessly, adapting new materials, new traditions and new methods as they appear. It is fluid and defiant and resists control.

Fundamentalists of all kinds are inevitably opposed to magic, but this tension exists even among liberal faiths that prize their magical traditions—so-called magical religions. Here, inevitably, religious tradition stipulates a right way to practice magic. Knowledge may be reserved for the few, with methods reserved for those going through the proper, authorized channels. Tension will exist between the officially initiated and independent practitioners.

That tension between authority and magical practitioner is, I suspect, the real reason why secular rulers and religious authorities (frequently in conjunction with each other) attempt to brand magic and its practitioners as evil influences, a cancer among the submissive. Lack of obedience rather than lack of morality is what really draws down the wrath of authority.

It is no accident that the Bible records that Israel’s diviners, shamans and necromancers were “put away” during the reign of its very first king, Saul. When the prophet Samuel warned the children of Israel that choosing a king would mean losing sons, daughters, land, and livestock, he neglected to mention that they would also lose their previous access to professional magical advice. Or perhaps he didn’t bother to mention it because he was aware, as apparently was the king, that those magical services are so crucial that they are never entirely suppressed. In fact, King Saul himself is very soon shown, in his hour of need, searching out one of those prescribed, forbidden bone-conjurers for a private consultation.

Because the Bible has so often been used as an excuse to persecute and exterminate witches, it’s significant to note how the Bible depicts the Witch of Endor actually accomplishing her task. She’s not painted as a stranger with strange talents, or as a foreigner, but as a member of the community. Neither is she shown to be a fraud; she capably fulfills her royal client’s request. Nor is she depicted as malevolent or evil, but as a good-hearted woman: having accomplished the unhappy task that every fortune-teller dreads, of delivering really bad news, she comforts and feeds the distraught king, providing his last meal on Earth, at personal sacrifice (she kills a calf to feed him) considering that he is responsible for her loss of profession and, presumably, income.

Fortune-tellers, readers, and diviners hold an especially tense relationship with political authority. Historically, rulers, particularly the all-powerful, very much like to have the future revealed. They also typically wish to retain exclusive control over this information. Because others may use a diviner’s skill to plot rebellion, historically diviners have been imprisoned, or one is imprisoned for the ruler’s private’s use, while others are killed. To make matters worse, rulers usually desire to hear only the future as they envision it; a diviner can only read what entrails, shoulder blades, or other tools reveal. You see the need sometimes to keep your power secret. Although it frustrates us today, there’s a very good reason Nostradamus recorded his prophesies in code.

Wherever efforts have been made either to subjugate or convert another country or people, among the first acts traditionally taken is the attempted subversion or elimination of native shamans and traditional magical practices and practitioners. This is inevitably perceived as necessary for the pacification of the masses. This is not purely paranoia on the part of those seeking to assert and retain authority.

Traditional shamans and magical practitioners are consistently in the forefront of resistance to oppressive authority. (Because winners write history, the conventional historical explanation for this phenomenon is that shamans attempt to impede the “path of progress.”) In the British West Indies, historical records show that Obeah men and women (the local shamans) led slave revolts or attempted to do so. The Haitian revolution, which ended slavery in that French colony and established the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere, was inaugurated at a Vodoun ceremony dedicated to the Spirit of Iron, the material, with the sole exception of menstrual blood, singularly most charged with magical power—although as soon as native dictators proceeded to seize and consolidate power, not surprisingly, they too attempted to restrict or eliminate Vodoun.

This, not evil, power-hungry sorcerers, is the hidden history of magic. In the United States, the prominent Voodooists Marie Laveau and Mary Ellen Pleasant rescued and redeemed slaves, with Pleasant providing funding for John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. (Their male counterpart, Dr. John Montanet, was himself a freed slave, as was Pleasant.) Lest you think that this association between magic and social justice is limited to African influence, Native American shamans were (and remain) in the forefront of resistance to white encroachment, and traditional practitioners led desperate resistance to Christian domination of Europe. Who knows what attempts to defy limitations on women’s magical and spiritual traditions were destroyed in the flames of the craze of medieval witch-burning? Virtually all the records that remain are filtered through the eyes of the torturers.

Although men suffer too, societies that suppress the magical arts will, as a rule, also limit women’s voices and power, often with terrible brutality. Significantly King Saul, in need of a necromancer, requested that his minions find him a conjuring woman. Although it’s since taken many twists and turns, magic ultimately derives from women’s mysteries and the mysteries of creation, and the history of magic’s suppression cannot be separated from the history of women’s oppression.

Is magic evil? Well, if your perception is that sex is inherently evil, Creation inherently tainted with sin, and that women constitute Earth’s weakest link, then I guess you’d better lump magic in there with the rest of these moral dilemmas.

If magic cannot be entirely divorced from religion, even less can it be separated from herbalism, the root of all traditional medicinal systems, systems that for millennia have investigated botanical impact on health and (above all) on reproduction. Magic is the primordial human art and science. It stems from awe inspired by all Earthly creation, but especially the mysteries of human creation. Every new human life is the ultimate act of magic. Conscious attempts at conception probably constitute the first magic spells, especially if you consider that our remote ancestors didn’t understand pregnancy in the detached, technical manner that we do today. Primordial religions venerated the divine in the form of human genitalia with joy, awe, and respect, not prurience, recognizing their capacity for sacred generation and creation.

Although these symbols still survive in isolated pockets of official religion, magic remains suffused with sexual imagery, in ways that may surprise us today, in efforts to maximize the blessings inherent in the powers of anatomy, both male and female. However, magic stems from fascination, on the part of both women and men, with women’s mysteries: the capacity to produce life where it didn’t exist before, magic blood that flows on schedule from no wound and then is mysteriously retained, the links between that blood, fertility, women, the moon, and the sea. These were and remain conduits to the sacred for primordial magic and spirituality alike.

Where Do Magic Spells Come From?

According to the author, folklorist, and scholar of magic, Zora Neale Hurston, “magic is older than writing. So nobody knows how it started.” Very true, but what we do know is that magic comes from all over the globe. There is neither a people nor a culture on Earth that did not at one time possess a magical tradition, whether they recall it today, or whether or not they still use it. Some cultures and religions revel in their magical traditions. Others are ashamed of them or deny that the traditions ever existed. Some ethnic groups like to point the finger and suggest that magic comes from other people, not them, oh no, never—any practices of their own are only isolated bad habits picked up from disreputable magical wanderers or neighbors.

When a large cache of papyri from Alexandria in Egypt was found to be largely devoted to magic spells, anthropologists, Egyptologists, and other scholars exulted. Not because they were necessarily so interested in magic, although some were, but because magic spells reveal a tremendous amount about a culture and its circumstances. Read between the lines of a spell and you will discover important details about people’s expectations of life and death, their daily problems, the materials that they cherish, their spiritual outlook. For example, recently published books intended for the urban magical practitioner attempt to minimize or even eliminate the need for botanicals. Beyond their value to their intended audience, these books also transmit a crucial message to all of us regarding the state of our environment. As another example, only cultures that possess a belief in the possibility of legal justice, however remote, produce court case spells. Love spells reveal cultural sexual dynamics. So you see, magic spells have tremendous value as history, anthropology, and sociology way beyond their practical value to the spell-caster.

Translations of these Alexandrian papyri, now known as the Magical Papyri, were eagerly awaited. Stemming mainly from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE, they span a crucial, fascinating period of history: the times of Cleopatra, Jesus, the rise of Rome, the fall of Jerusalem, and the emergence of Christianity as a cohesive faith and world power.

Alexandria, although it became Egypt’s capital, is not an ancient pharaonic city. It was founded by the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, one of several cities he named in his own honor. Its orientation is the Mediterranean, not the Nile, like other older Egyptian cities. At various periods, indigenous Egyptians were not even permitted to live within Alexandria’s boundaries. It was a Greek outpost in Egypt, with Greeks as the elite citizenry. Cleopatra, descendant of one of Alexander the Great’s generals and the last of her dynasty, was the only one of her lineage who troubled to learn the Egyptian language.

The city achieved a reputation as a world capital of magic. Alexandria supported a sizeable population of magic practitioners of all kinds—diviners, dream interpreters, professional spell-casters—all presumably serving the needs of their specific communities rather than Alexandria as a whole, because Alexandria was a rigidly divided city. Although Alexandria, like many cities of its time, was divided into quarters, true divisions, like many a modern city, were cast along ethnic lines. Two of Alexandria’s quarters were Greek, one was Egyptian (the only area in which they were permitted to reside), and the fourth housed a sizeable Jewish community.