Lesson One: Before You Start

If you’ve found this page, you’ve probably been looking for something like it. This might be the first site you’ve gone through, or the hundredth. But chances are you’ve felt the urge to find something special, different. If so, you probably have potential. An innate talent of some sort that has always been in the back of your mind, something you didn’t quite understand but kept pushing you to look for it. If you believe in reincarnation, chances are you were some sort of magic user in a previous life, and are trying to discover it again. Either way, chances are you can learn. But don’t go running off without any preparation. Before you take any steps into the messy world of magic, there are some things you need to know. Hopefully, by the end of this series of lessons, you’ll be ready to enter the world of magic, and not kill yourself trying.

Know what you’re getting into. This is not a game. Magic and all the nasty things that come with it (or at least a good number of them) are real. They can hurt you. Don’t try to learn magic to have some party tricks, or because you want to look cool. It’s deadly serious. And once you get in, there’s no getting out. A friend of mine, the Mediator, explains that in her own skill – talking to the dead – you’re marked for life. Once you’ve talked to them once, they know. They follow you around. It’s the same for everything. Magic will sense itself on you, and trust me – you don’t want to draw the attention of the paranormal without knowing what you’re doing. So if you’re still determined, read on.

Learn protections. The first thing you want to do is learn ways to keep yourself safe. Nothing fancy – no magic circles or enchanted weapons – just the old standbys like amethyst, sage, light and running water. What do you need to protect yourself from? I’ll cover that in lesson two.

Build a support group. Learning magic on your own sucks. Half the time you’re wondering if you’re just going crazy. If someone else is with you, you can remind each other “No, that’s not your imagination.” Plus, you can each learn different things and increase your knowledge base. Finally, it’s always good to have someone who’s got your back. Of course, you can’t just go up to anyone and say, “Want to join my paranormal group?” For tips on finding good people to work with, check out my post Coming out as a Psion/Psychic/etc….

Don’t waste your money. As tempting as they may look, don’t shell out hundreds of dollars on mouldering old books or gold-plated athames. Until you are comfortable in your specialty and know what you need and what you don’t, don’t buy junk. People have been doing magic for centuries without the latest crystal or special oil – you really don’t need that much. And a lot of stuff can be a scam.

Keep a healthy sense of skepticism. Just because some stuff exists, that doesn’t mean it all does. Whenever you hear a claim that sounds extra crazy, stop and think. Don’t take everyone on their word.

Research and re-research! Don’t depend on one source of information. Whenever you’re looking up a certain topic, read as many books and visit as many websites as possible. When there are lots of contradictions, go with your gut instinct. In magic, that’s often right.

Now you know what to do before even starting the learning process. For your next lesson, I’ll go over the rules and warnings you need to know so you don’t end up hurting yourself, or someone else.