Magick is an integral part of the practice of witchcraft and is the art of harnessing and directing energy to bring about the desired change in the physical world.
There are many different types of magick, each with its own unique beliefs, practices, and rituals. From Wiccan magick that focuses on the worship of nature, to herbal magick that utilizes the properties of plants, to solitary magick that is a personal and individual practice, there is something for everyone.
Each type of magick offers its own set of beliefs and practices, but the underlying principle remains the same: the practitioner has the power to shape their reality through their thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Whether you are a seasoned practitioner, or just starting to explore the world of magick, it’s important to understand the different types and what they can offer. This guide will provide an introduction to some of the most popular types of magick in witchcraft and how they can be used to create positive change in your life.
Here are different types of magick and some traditions that use them.
Elemental Magick
This kind of magick works with the elements of nature, such as earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Practitioners may call upon the elements to help manifest their desires or to connect with the natural world.
Herbal Magick
This style of magick involves working with plants and herbs to bring about change. Practitioners may use herbs in spells, potions, and teas to tap into their energetic properties.
Crystal Magick
This sort of magick involves working with crystals and gemstones to amplify energy and bring about desired change. Crystals may be used in spellwork, meditations, or simply carried for their healing properties.
Candle Magick
Candle magick involves the use of candles to symbolize specific energies or desires, and is often used for manifestation and healing.
Moon Magick
This class of magick involves working with the energy of the moon and its phases. Practitioners may use the different phases of the moon to enhance their spells and rituals.
Solar Magick
This type of magick involves working with the energy of the sun to bring about change.
Kitchen Magick
This variety of magick involves using everyday items and ingredients, such as food and spices, to bring about change. Practitioners may use food in spells, or cook and bake with intention to infuse their meals with positive energy.
Ancestral Magick
This class of magick involves connecting with and honouring one’s ancestors. Practitioners may call upon their ancestors for guidance, protection, and support in their magickal work.
Faerie Magick
This kind of magick involves working with the fae, faeries, and other nature spirits. Practitioners may call upon the fae for inspiration, protection, and assistance in their magickal work.
Animal Magick
This type of magick involves working with the spirits of animals to bring about change. Practitioners may call upon animal spirits for guidance, and protection, or to tap into their specific qualities and attributes.
Sex Magick
This style of magick involves using sexual energy to bring about the desired change. It uses sexual energy and arousal to manifest desires and bring about change and orgasm to boost the power of spells and rituals. This type of magick is often used for healing, manifestation, or to enhance personal power.
Death Magick
This kind of magick involves working with the energies of death and the dead. Practitioners may call upon spirits of the dead for guidance or to connect with the other side.
Dream Magick
This style of magick involves working with dreams and the subconscious mind. Practitioners may use dreamwork to gain insight, solve problems, or bring about desired change.
Chaos Magick
This type of magick involves using symbols, gestures, and affirmations to bring about change. It is a highly individualistic form of magick that may be used for any purpose.
Norse Magick
This type of magick involves working with the gods, goddesses, and spirits of Norse mythology. Practitioners may call upon these beings for guidance and protection, or to tap into their specific qualities and attributes
Hoodoo Magick
This kind of magick, also known as conjure, involves using folk magic, spiritualism, and herbalism to bring about change. It has roots in African American culture and is often used for protection, healing, and manifestation.
Voodoo Magick
This is a religion and magical tradition originating in West Africa, which is centred around the worship of ancestral spirits and the use of ritual and spellwork.
Wicca
This is a modern pagan, witchcraft religion that emphasizes the worship of nature and the goddess and god.
Ceremonial Magick
A system of magick that involves performing elaborate rituals, often with the intention of communicating with spirits and accessing higher levels of consciousness.
Hermetic Magick
A tradition of magick that is based on the teachings of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, also known as Hermes Trismegistus.
Runic Magick
A system of magick that utilizes the ancient symbols of the Norse Runes.
Necromancy
A type of magick that involves communicating with the dead and using their knowledge and power for a specific purpose or personal gain.
Divination
A practice of seeking knowledge of the future or hidden knowledge through various methods, such as tarot, astrology, or scrying. it is also a system used to explore one’s own subconscious.
Healing Magick
A style of magick that focuses on using energy to heal physical, emotional, or spiritual ailments.
Energy Work
The manipulation of energy for personal or spiritual growth, often in conjunction with other forms of magick.
Nature Magick
A type of magick that utilizes the power of nature, such as the phases of the moon and the energies of plants and animals.
Green Magick
This is a classification of magic that focuses on the use of plants, nature, and the environment to bring about change.
Blood Magick
This is a sort of magic that uses the power of blood and sacrifice to bring about change. usually, the practitioner utilizes their own blood to cast spells and perform rituals.
Celtic Magick
This is a type of magic that draws on the traditions and beliefs of the ancient Celtic people and focuses on the use of nature, symbols, and storytelling.
Thelemic Magick
This is a form of magic that is based on the principles of Thelema, a philosophy and spiritual system founded by Aleister Crowley.
High Magick
This is a type of magic that focuses on spiritual growth and the attainment of higher consciousness.
Low Magick
This is a type of magic that focuses on practical outcomes and tangible results, such as wealth, health, and protection.
Alchemy
This is a type of magic that seeks to transform matter and energy and to create the Philosopher’s Stone, a substance believed to bring immortality and spiritual enlightenment.
Enochian Magick
This is a type of magic that draws on the knowledge and teachings of the angels, as described in the Enochian system of magic.
Angel Magick
This is a type of magic that draws on the power and guidance of the angels for protection, healing, and manifestation.
Egyptian Magick
Ancient Egypt: One of the earliest formalized systems of magick emerged in ancient Egypt, where priests and priestesses performed rituals to appease gods and ensure harmony in the universe. The Egyptian Book of the Dead contains spells and instructions for navigating the afterlife, illustrating the strong connection between magick and spirituality.
3. Greco-Roman Influence: The Greeks and Romans contributed to the development of magick through philosophical schools like Hermeticism, which emphasized the power of the mind and the correspondence between the macrocosm (the universe) and microcosm (the individual). Theurgy, a practice aimed at invoking the divine, became prominent during this period.
4. Medieval and Renaissance Periods: The Middle Ages saw the rise of grimoires—books of spells and rituals—used by magicians. The Renaissance revived interest in ancient texts, blending them with Christian mysticism, leading to the emergence of ceremonial magick practices.
5. Modern Era: In the 19th and 20th centuries, magick saw a resurgence with movements like Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. These groups sought to systematize magick and integrate it into spiritual practices, leading to the development of modern Wicca and other neo-pagan traditions.
Benedicaria
Benedicaria is the name for the light side of Sicilian folk magic, a religio-magic tradition that uses Catholicism as a backbone, but also includes many magical ideas and rituals. Benedicaria translates to “Way of Blessings” and encompasses traditions that have been practiced in Italy for many, many years. The use of novenas and prayer to Catholic saints feature heavily in the rituals. They are often used for protection from the evil eye, but also for a good many other things. Those who perform folk magic of this sort for evil are known as Stregas (witches).
Feri Tradition
Feri is a tradition based partially on neo-pagan forms of witchcraft. It was created by Victor Anderson and his wife Cora in the mid-1900s. This odd offshoot tradition may borrow from similar belief systems, but it has plenty of unique ideas. To begin with, Victor did not believe that he had created a new magical belief system, only that he had reinvigorated a very old belief, based on an ancient people that had been roaming the Earth before humans. Victor believed that although they were known as many different things around the world, they all originated in Africa and were the fairies that we still sometimes read about in folklore today. He claimed to be related to them.
Those who ascribe to the Feri tradition believe that humans contain three different souls, or selves, all of which have different functions. One takes care of our higher brain functioning, the other our subconscious brain functioning, and the third deals with that on the immaterial realm. The tradition has a strong sexual focus, and psychic abilities and shape-shifting also feature. Feri’s equivalent of nirvana, the perfected state of being, is known as “The Black Heart of Innocence,” but it is a primal state rather than a refined one. One quote states: “How beautiful is the black lascivious purity in the hearts of children and wild animals.”
Quimbanda
Quimbanda is an Afro-Brazilian practice that was once closely associated with black magic. In recent years it has seen a bit of an upsurge in popularity, but many people still associate it with cult practices. The two primary forces in Quimbanda are the legion gods or spirits of the Exu and Pomba gira. They are the spirits of the people of the street—hustlers, prostitutes, and vagrants—and they are symbolized by darkness and fire.
Although believed by some to be evil, practitioners claim that they simply lack a discriminatory conscience, as opposed to being truly malicious. They have more in common with trickster gods than with devils. Exus and Pomba giras guide those who follow the Quimbanda traditions and will aid them in attaining their goals. The catch, of course, is that for any of this to work you must truly connect with the gods—be possessed by them. This element of Quimbanda, along with its embrace of the lower classes, means they will likely have trouble shedding their association with the dark arts.
Nagualism
Nagualism, or the belief in nagual, is a concept or set of ideas popular among Native Americans and most often seen as a part of shamanism. In this belief, the nagual is a spirit that is essentially a part of us, a sort of alter ego. These guardian spirits are based on a specific animal that has significance for the person. A person with one of these spirits can transform into their chosen animal entity for protection or escape and is often described as not being separate from the animal at all.
The two of them are supposed to share the same pain, weakness, and injuries, but also the same strengths. Some traditions hold that transforming into their spirit animal also allows the shaman to travel to places he could not otherwise go, such as the underworld.
Those who believe in these traditions have been known to hunt animals of their foes’ nagual, either in the hopes of actually hurting their enemy, or simply to weaken their power. Many Native Americans would assign a nagual to their child based on the animal first seen after the baby’s birth, figuring that it was the guardian spirit making themselves known.
Pow-wowing
Pow-wowing is a tradition that started with the Pennsylvania Dutch a few hundred years ago and still has practitioners to this day. While the tradition was mainly used for healing people, it could also be used for protection or other basic magical purposes. Many of its critics feel that the use of spells makes it too close to black magic, but its practitioners claim that it is okay because it all comes from the Bible.
In fact, many of the healing spells are basically just verses lifted from the Bible, but that isn’t the only source of a pow-wowers’ magic. Among their grimoires they also consult a book called The Long Lost Friend, a book of recipes, spells, and incantations that were compiled by an early German immigrant. Not only was this book full of magical instructions for the pow-wower, it was also supposed to be a magically protective device in and of itself.
Biodynamic Agriculture
Biodynamic agriculture is a tradition that started in the early 1900s and now has growing adherents all over the world. At first it sounds like a fairly normal set of alternative farming practices. Those into biodynamic agriculture believe in using only absolutely natural soil and fertilizers, and no pesticides. It’s organic farming taken to an extreme level. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wishing to keep the environment in good shape and have a farm that can sustain itself—but those who practice biodynamic agriculture take it several steps farther than just being strictly organic.
The idea was first proposed by a man named Rudolf Steiner, the founder of a well-regarded system of schooling (Waldorf or Steiner education). However, while he might have known something about education, he knew very little about actual farming. Fortunately, knowing about farming wasn’t essential to his system. He felt that the entire farm had its own organic life force and should thus be able to completely take care of itself. Steiner’s influence turned the entire thing into a spiritual quest for farming purity and included some rather strange ideas. Farmers will ritually kill a cow every year and stuff its guts full of flowers as a treatment to improve the compost for the entire farm. They also bury cow horns full of dung and later retrieve the contents for further magical benefits to the soil. Biodynamic agriculture also takes a leaf out of astrology’s book and uses the position of the stars as a guide.
Onmyodo
Onymodo originated in Japan during the first millennium and incorporated the belief systems of several different religions, including Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto, but was much more a magical tradition in practice. Despite some historical animosity between the Japanese and the Chinese, Onmyodo was actually greatly influenced by Chinese magical systems. Onymodo practitioners believed in the forces of yin and yang, the five classic Chinese elements, and a tome known as the I Ching or The Book of Changes—essentially a numerology textbook.
The main focus of Onymodo was divination. Complex calculations involving numbers and calendars, as well as the interpretation of symbols on the ground, were considered very important and used in the royal courts to influence decisions. The practitioners were capable of more than just divination though. They were also supposedly able to commune with the dead and could perform exorcisms when necessary. A great practitioner named Seimei claimed that he could command spirits known as Shikigami to do his bidding, and even make objects into spirits if he wished to, for whatever purpose he needed. The legends also say that he had a really good track record for guessing what gender a baby was going to be before it was born. While it is hard to be certain if he actually wielded these powers, he has become a legend in Japan and is honored with his own shrine.
Ku
Wu is the catchall name for Chinese white magic, but Ku isn’t necessarily its polar opposite. “Ku” is the word used for a specific set of black magic principles found in Chinese culture, and some of them are quite disturbing. Ku is often used for evil, but that is not the primary reason one would stoop to such lengths. The main reason most people begin using Ku is because they are trying to obtain more wealth, but it can also be used solely to inflict punishment on another individual. Those who practice this have a very specific and evil method of getting what they want.
In what sounds like a ritual straight out of the depths of hell itself, the sorcerer first acquires a grab bag of various venomous creatures. They then throw them all together in the same container and let them fight it out, demolition-derby style, until only one challenger is remaining. Whether for natural or magical reasons, they figure that the only critter to remain alive would clearly have the most effective toxin, so they use that critter’s venom to poison their victim. This evil ritual would attract a being from across the veil to help the sorcerer rid himself of his enemy and get super rich in the bargain—usually by stealing from the person he had killed.
Reiki
Some who practice reiki might object to referring to the traditions as magical, but as far as mainstream science is concerned, there is nothing in the systems practiced that does anything to benefit healthSome who practice reiki might object to referring to the traditions as magical, but as far as mainstream science is concerned, there is nothing in the systems practiced that does anything to benefit health. It is likely no evidence of medical use has been found because reiki is based on the Japanese believe in a life energy that flows through our bodies, called ki. It was founded in the early 1900s by a Buddhist monk—the idea has since taken off and turned into a full-on alternative healing discipline popular in the West as well as the East. It is likely no evidence of medical use has been found because reiki is based on the Japanese believe in a life energy that flows through our bodies, called ki. It was founded in the early 1900s by a Buddhist monk—the idea has since taken off and turned into a full-on alternative healing discipline popular in the West as well as the East.
Reiki involves putting your palms near the person you are trying to heal, and then transferring your ki to them in a specific, directed way. There are three levels and apart from training, those who wish to become more advanced in reiki have to receive attunements from their teacher. Once students reach the higher levels they gain powers that put the tradition on a somewhat more magical footing—they are supposed to be capable of something called “distance healing.” Someone skilled in distance healing with reiki could theoretically adjust someone’s ki from a very great distance. However, those who practice the traditions make it clear you should never try to mess with someone’s ki without their permission, especially when distance healing.
Seidhr And Galdr
Norse
Among Old Norse traditions there were actually two main branches of magic, one called Seidhr and the other Galdr. The second branch of magic was basically a form of rune or sigil magic. The goal of rune magic was usually to improve your luck. This was accomplished by carving a rune based on what you specifically needed. The piece of rock was then supposed to magically draw it to you.
Seidhr, on the other hand, is concerned more with divination, and those who practice it are known as seers. However, it is far from simply reading stars or omens—it is much more shamanistic in nature. In order to explore the nine worlds and seek out answers to spiritual questions, practitioners first enter a trance-like state. This state was often achieved through the use of drugs, fasting, and even torture. After the practitioner was in a sufficiently altered state, their work could begin.
Among their abilities they were said to be able to transmogrify their bodies into animals, project their consciousness beyond their own bodies, and even fight with a spirit animal while their body lay elsewhere. Magical traditions like this and others are often more focused on understanding the world than actively changing it—an understandable impulse, since so much of our world still remains a mystery.
These types of magick are just a few examples of the many types of magick and paths within this diverse spiritual practice. Whether you prefer to work with the elements, the dead, or your own inner wisdom, there is a type of magick that will resonate with your personal beliefs and practices. The most important thing is to follow your intuition and find a path that feels right for you. With patience, dedication, and an open mind, you can develop your own unique style of magick and explore the mysteries of the universe.