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Here is a handy list of tools for new witches (with budget friendly options!). You’ll be casting circles around yourself in no time 😉

Table Of Contents

• What are tools for witchcraft?
• Are these tools essential?
• 1. Journals
  • Book of Shadows
  • Dream Book
  • Mirror Book
• 2. Altar
  • What It Is
  • Basic Altar Tools & Items
• 3. Circle
  • What It Is
  • Making A Visual Boundary
  • Representing The Elementals
• 4. Clothing
• 5. Other Useful, Optional Tools
  • Your Craft Practice Preferences
  • Options
• 6. Good Books
  • Wicca & Witchcraft
  • Crystals
  • Astrology
  • Herbal Magick
  • Other

What are tools for witchcraft?

Basically, witchcraft is about working with energy, engaging with the unseen energetic world and body. Whether that energy working is:

• Celebrating a season change and internally mark the passage of time,
• Using the energy of plants to assist in a physical healing,
• ‘Reading the wyrd’ (divination), or
• Manifesting any desired outcome, or whatever the activity might be.

It all comes down to a witch’s capability to focus their mind, visualise, and truly believe in their ability to manifest their will. It’s exactly the same as praying or writing out affirmations. Witchcraft is just a different set of tools, a different language.

In order to affect change in the world or within ourselves through energy work, we make use of tools.

These tools for witchcraft can help us:

• Focus, and step into this role
• Lend their residual or lineage energy to ours
• Get closer to our Deities and spirit guides that we choose to work with.

Our connection to our Higher Self, our Spirit Guides and Great Spirit all assist us in moving energy. All tools for witchcraft are designed to help us achieve this.

Some tools are practical (e.g a place to write things down). Others are symbolic (e.g a bowl of salt to represent the Earth element). While others still are traditional and thus carry a lineage of energetic practice aligned with them (e.g the ritual chalice).

Are these tools essential?

No. I can quite successfully do an energy working sitting here in my chair with my eyes closed.

Do the tools help? Definitely!

Especially when you are still learning to harness the forces of energy around you, and what different energies feel like.

After many years, you may not need them, but they are still a great way to begin your energy working.

The very ritual of gathering, preparing and going through the steps is part of your practice and stepping into your power. And every tool lends its own intrinsic, lineage energy to your practice too, making achieving your goal that much easier.

You can build this collection of tools for witchcraft as you go. Aim to only invest in things if / when you need / want them. The Craft does not require that you have the below items. There is almost always a work around if you don’t have something at the time.

1. Journals

Book of Shadows

The first thing on a new witch’s list should be a Book of Shadows (BOS) – your personal spell book (but it holds a lot more than just ‘recipes’). This is a highly personal collection of everything relating to your practice and craft. Paganism is not a book religion – in other words, there’s no definitive book we turn to for guidance and information.

Instead, we forge our own path by compiling guidance and information that we learn from personal experience, other people on the path, various teachers, and the world around us, as we grow and explore.

A Book of Shadows is arguably the most important and ancient tool for witchcraft.

BOOK OF LIGHT?

Now that Wicca and witchcraft is becoming more open and acceptable, many people on the path are choosing to call this book a Book of Light instead of Shadows, since we can now operate in the light and don’t have to hide to protect ourselves. Information is also being more freely shared than ever before in history. I really like this, but the choice is of course a personal one – so go with whatever feels right to you.

DIGITAL VS PHYSICAL

You may want to keep a physical book, which you spend time decorating and writing in as a part of your practice. You can also keep a digital book, which would be a collection of documents, images and files.

The benefit of the digital BOS is that you can have it on your phone or laptop whereever you go. Its free and relatively less time consuming to add to. The benefit of the physical BOS is the personal energy imprinted into your records as you grow your knowledge.

You will also likely find that with a physical book, you’ll only be adding things that really deeply resonate with you, whereas with a digital book, it’s so easy to add something, you’ll end up with a LOT of information that you don’t necessarily need or want.

A DREAMBOOK IS USED FOR:

• Meditation
• Card readings or other types of divination
• Vision quests
• Animal totems
• Dreams

Mirror Book

A Mirror Book is like a witch’s diary. Again, this absolutely can be combined with your Book of Shadows, but some people prefer to have a separate book for their day-to-day thoughts and notes. As the name suggests, it is a tool that helps you look at yourself honestly. A Mirror book can be used to document:

• Experiences,
• Energy working results,
• How you felt doing various rituals or ceremonies,
• Different ways you called the quarters and how it went
• Etc

2. Altar

What is the Altar?

The Altar is one of the most essential tools for witchcraft.

The Altar is:

• Your place of worship,
• Your place of power, and
• Where you conduct your rituals, ceremonies and energy workings from.

All you need is a small surface and a few symbolic items to represent the sacred energies you work with.

The Altar helps you connect to and honour the Goddess & God / your chosen Deities and the Elementals (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), whom you work with whenever you do any kind of energy working.

Your altar can be permanent, or something you set up and take down when you practice your craft. It can be indoors or outdoors according to your preference. Big and full of lots of things, or a minimalist set up that you keep in a shoebox. It really is all about you!

Basic Altar Tools & Items

Basic altar tools you can place on the altar include:

3. Circle

What is a Circle?

When we do any kind of energy working, ritual, ceremony or practice, we always cast a Circle around us. We would usually create an Altar inside the circle. The Circle is our:

• Sacred space,
• Safe space,
• Place where we contain and build up our energy for whatever purpose, before releasing or transmuting it to that purpose.

To make your Circle, you’ll need a few items. Something to make a visual boundary on the ground, items that represent the four elements that you’ll place at the four Quarters, and a smudge or incense that you can use to cleanse yourself (and any others) before entering the Circle once it is cast.

Read our article “HOW TO SMUDGE, WHEN AND WHY” for an easy to follow, step by step guide to smudging.

Making a visual boundary

To begin with, make a visual boundary. PLEASE DON’T USE SALT. Salt kills the ground you sprinkle it on. You can use:

• Items collected in nature (branches, fallen leaves, wild flowers, pinecones, stones etc)
• A piece of string or ribbon,
• Flour

You can keep it minimalist and simple, or spend time as part of your practice to decorate it and make it look beautiful and special.

By spending time on steps like this, you are focusing your energy and already beginning your energy working as you connect to your practice.

Representing the Elementals (QUARTERS)

Once you have your boundary, you can set out Elemental representations at each of the four Quarters. Again, this can be as simple or elaborate as you choose. From a crystal, to a colour candle, to bowls of each element, or combinations of these.

Lastly, a smudge stick or incense stick to smudge yourself and any others before entering, and smudging the space.

4. Clothing

What to wear when you practice can be anything you feel confident, powerful and magickal in. It’s best to choose something that you dedicate to this purpose and this purpose only. A robe, shawl, blanket, dress or any outfit that you designate for ritual use only, that you always put on or wrap around yourself when you do rituals.

Every time you put this outfit on, you are preparing yourself for your craft, stepping into your mind’s magickal and sacred space.

Wearing a loose fitting outfit is preferable, as tight clothes are not condusive to flowing energy. Traditionally witches wear a robe. The robe is seen as a symbol of ritual and power.

Consider Colour Correspondances

While deciding what you will wear for your magickal practice, take the power of colour into consideration. This means looking into colour correspondances i.e. different colours resonate with different energies.

For example:

• Black is considered protective,
• Purple is considered spiritual and psychic,
• White is considered pure and cleansing,
• Yellow or gold is considered powerful and aligned with the sun, etc.

5. Other Useful, Optional Tools

As your progress on your magickal journey, you can invest in items to contribute to your practice of the Craft. Before rushing out and buying ALL THE THINGS!… consider reading up on different practices to see where your mind really gets pulled.

What REALLY interests and appeals to you, beyond just your image of it? What resonates? Read up on its history and try to think how it can add to and enrich your practice.

Traditional items are great to invest in, as they carry a strong energy lineage that contributes to your energy workings.

For example, a traditional witch’s besom can be used to sweep your sacred space before casting the circle, when doing a house cleansing, or for general energy ‘movings’.

Your Craft practice preferences

Most witches like to work with crystals, since they are all about energy.

Some witches go into herbalism, others into oils.

When it comes to casting spells, you might want to focus on candle magick, talismans, poppets, or medicine bags.

You might like to dabble lightly in a few different practices to see what resonates most with you, and then go deeper into that, becoming adept. Or you might like to be a ‘jack of all trades’ with a light knowledge of many things, picking and choosing what you want to work with for each circumstance.

Finally, once you have your basic altar tools, you can consider collecting items to represent the Esbats and Sabbats. For example, a silver tablecloth and moon ornament for the Esbats, or seasonal items for Sabbats (pinecones, gourds, a Yule tree & decorations, etc).

Useful optional tools include

• Traditional ritual items e.g. Besom (ideally a wood handled broom, this can be used to symbolically sweep away old energy or clear areas before ritual), Pentacle, etc.
• Divination tool of your choice (pendulum / cards / dowsing rods / runes etc)
• Crystals
• Spell ingredients basics e.g. felt and string to make medicine or mojo bags, colour candles for candle magick, a few essential oils, a few herbs, small empty jars for bottle spells
• Items to represent the esbats – new moon & full moon – and the sabbats

6. Good Books

I’d recommend one or two good books on witchcraft as “must haves” to begin. This can give you a basis to work from, and guide you towards further interests or specialities as you progress. Choosing a classic, like ‘Bucklands Complete Book of Witchcraft’, is an excellent starting point.

This list is formed from my personal collection of books I’ve gained a lot of value from over the years. Based on my personal experience, I can recommend them as great reads. There are tons of new authors out there who I haven’t read – so this is by no means a ‘be-all-end-all’ definitive list.

WICCA & WITCHCRAFT

• Scott Cunningham – especially “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” and “Earth Power”, but really anything by him is fab
• “Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft” by Ramond Buckland
• “Earthtime, Moontime” by Annette Hinshaw. (I quote her book in my article “The Calendar of Moons“)
• “Dancing Under An African Moon” by Donna Darkwolf
• Silver Ravenwolf – “Solitary Witch” or “To Ride A Silver Broomstick”or “To Stir A Magick Cauldron”

FOR CRYSTALS

• Judy Hall, especially “The Crystal Bible”
• “The Book of Stones” – Robert Simmons
• Philip Permutt, especially “The Crystal Healer”
• “Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic” – Scott Cunningham
• “Crystal Grids – How & Why They Work” – Hibiscus Moon. Hibiscus Moon offers great crystal courses on her website hibiscusmooncrystalacademy.com.
• “Field Guide to Rocks & Minerals of Southern Africa” – Bruce Cairncross

FOR ASTROLOGY

• I recommend anything by Linda Goodman – “Sun Signs” is a good place to start.
• For moon lore, Yasmin Boland. “Moonology” is a good start with her. Yasmin has a TON of free information available on her website moonology.com.
• Another free resource, Pam Gregory is a fantastic astrologer who does regular YouTube videos and has free resources on her website, The Next Step.

FOR HERBAL MAGICK

• “The Green Witch” – Arin Murphy-Hiscock
• “The Charmed Garden” – Diane Morgan
• Anything by Margaret Roberts, especially “Indigenous Plants of South Africa” and “100 Edible & Healing Flowers”
• “Medicinal Plants of South Africa” – B Van Wyk, B Van Oudtshoorn, N Gericke
• The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews – Scott Cunningham

OTHER

• “Everyday Rituals & Ceremonies” – Lorna St Aubyn
• “Spells, Charms, Talismans & Amulets” – Pamela Ball
• “How to See & Read The Human Aura” – Judith Collins
• “Elemental Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells” – Judika Illes
• “Animal Speak” – Ted Andrews
• “The Druid Animal Oracle” – Philip Carr-Gomm

Read our article “HOW TO SEE AURAS” to learn how to see the body’s energetic field.

Have fun! (With harm to none) xxx