How to Become a Witch, Amber K. [new books to read .txt] 📗

Precognition: Precognition is the direct knowledge or perception of the future, obtained through extrasensory means. The existence of precognition seems to demonstrate that time is not linear but simultaneous; we only experience events in linear time because our brains would be overwhelmed otherwise. Witches are not necessarily more precognitive than anyone else, and most use divination to understand future probabilities. Two aspects of precognition are clairvoyance, the ability to see things removed in space or time that are not accessible to normal vision, and clairaudience, which refers to hearing sounds from the past or future, or at a great distance.

Time Travel: Though we don’t send ourselves bodily into the past or future, Witches do occasionally bend or transcend time when necessary. We use psychometry or past-life recall to gather information from the past, and divination to see future trends, and have been known to move a magick circle forward or backward in time for healing purposes or to avoid doing ritual at an astrologically difficult moment.

Past-Life Recall or Regression: Most Witches believe in reincarnation because they have experienced past lives. Recall indicates that one has recaptured memories from an earlier incarnation, usually fragmentary and with little emotion attached. Regression is a much more intense and complete experience, where one is immersed in that earlier life and can see, touch, smell, and hear everything around him or her, and relive the emotions that were part of that moment.

Because reincarnation is foreign to the Christian mainstream in the West, things like random flashbacks, déjà vu experiences, vividly realistic dreams of distant times and places, or unaccountable, obscure knowledge are shrugged off. However, a competently guided regression can be very convincing.

Exploring past lives can give you insights into personal issues with origins from before this incarnation. Past-life work can help heal lingering emotional scars, such as phobias or irrational prejudices. But it’s not a game to discover if you were someone famous centuries ago; you probably weren’t, because most of us have spent many lives as peasants, goatherds, or galley slaves.

If you choose to explore this hidden part of yourself, find a priestess, priest, or clinical hypnotist who knows what they’re doing. They will guide you into a trance state and, hopefully, ask objective, non-leading questions to help you be aware of the experience and gather information. Then it’s up to you to use that data to improve yourself here and now.

Necromancy: This branch of magick involves communication with the dead. Witches often do so at Samhain, contacting friends and relatives who have passed over. Some people seem to have a particular talent or calling for this. Occasionally a Wiccan priestess or priest will receive messages from the departed so consistently—and insistently—that they know they are called to be a psychopomp, one who helps guide the dead to the next life. Several techniques can be used for communicating: the pendulum, automatic writing, or providing energy to help the spirit manifest visually. Though most “ghosts” are not dangerous, it is a good idea to have an experienced Witch around if you try these.

Telekinesis: This is the ability to move objects with your mind. Although some people can move tiny, light objects, few—if any—have the power to do useful physical work with mind alone (even with a good wand—“Wingardium leviosa!”). If you want to try it, take a small, square scrap of paper and fold it crosswise and diagonally until it becomes a sort of umbrella shape. Balance it on a pin or needle stuck upright in a candle or lump of clay. Focus, and rotate the paper with your mind (make sure your breath can’t reach it). What this accomplishes is unclear, but it can be a fun exercise!

Deforming utensils with mind power

The famous psychic Uri Geller claimed to be able to bend a metal spoon with the power of his mind; magician James Randi said it was merely a trick, a clever stage illusion.

Amber once tried it and, indeed, mentally bent a spoon. She discovered later that one is supposed to use a comparatively soft silver spoon, not stainless steel (no wonder it took so long). Her conclusions: (a) it’s quite possible to psychically bend a spoon; and (b) why would anyone want to?

Dreamwork: Dreams are one of the easiest of altered states to enter (we all do it), and good information can be brought back to the conscious world if you work at it. You must build a strong intent to remember your dreams, and have a journal to write them in as soon as you wake up. You may want a dream journal separate from your Book of Shadows.

Life is simpler when it’s just consensual reality—“What you see is what you get.” It’s simpler when “the authorities”—scientists, radio talk-show hosts, government PR flacks, mainstream preachers—just tell you what to believe and experience, and what it means. But it means giving up your own beliefs, experiences, and meanings. Giving up your trust in yourself. Giving up your independence.

Witches won’t do that. Our universe may be weird to some, but it’s huge and endlessly fascinating, filled with wonder and magick.

If you want to develop your psychic gifts, it begins very simply with paying attention, listening, watching, and feeling the worlds around and within you.

The harder part is learning to trust yourself. When you intuit, sense, or feel something, it’s real—and yet it’s not necessarily what our culture says it is or what your mind thinks it is. We have to get past the prejudices of our culture (“There are no such things as ghosts!”) and also resist the rationalizations of our own minds (“That noise…? Aw, just my imagination—nothing really there.”).

The danger at the other end of the spectrum is believing too much, too easily, contrary to common sense and the evidence. Not everything glimpsed from the corner of your eye is a ghost, or a flying saucer, or Bigfoot. When something goes wrong in your life, it’s not usually a