Today is Thursday, August 26. The Moon is waning gibbous in Aries. We are cruising right through the month of August and heading for September and Taurus season. And although I do love autumn, I am really trying not to wish this month away. Part of my purpose for this podcast was to do some of my own shadow work, and one of my biggest faults, well, I say faults, but I don’t want to use negative language. One of the things I’m trying to do more of is to enjoy the moment, whatever that moment may be, whatever it may bring.
So instead of saying how much I hate the summer months, and I hate being sweaty, it’s too hot to do anything outside, and everything is too goddamn dry, I will instead try and appreciate the things I do like about this time of year. For example, one of the things I appreciate about August, especially here where we live, is that we have some of the most delicious produce. Strawberries like you will see nowhere else in the country are grown right here in my town. There’s a man here who runs a strawberry stand and his strawberries are so exceptional, that he has managed to put his kids through college all on the income he makes from his fruit stand. That is how good this man’s fruit is.
And when we move out of this godforsaken state, and I am speaking it into existence, we WILL move out of this state, I will honestly, truly miss that. It will be just about the only thing I’ll miss, but I’ll miss it.
But enough of that. What I really want to talk about today is Fire Magick. This episode is part 2 of a 4 part series I’m doing on elemental magick. Last week was episode 1, where we talked all about Air Magick. So if you’re interested in that topic, please do certainly look that episode up and give it a listen.
First and foremost, when considering what kind of element you’re going to incorporate into a working, think about what the purpose of that work is. As we touched on briefly in the Air Magick episode, there are certain kinds of work that are best supported by specific elements.
So with that in mind, some of the intentions or specific spellwork that sort of falls under the Fire Magick umbrella might be any work that seeks to activate or awaken something. Aggression and anger are fire emotions, so if you’re trying to guard against aggression or diffuse or control anger, think fire. Ambition is also ruled by fire, so are confidence and creativity. Those are all very intermingled and intertwined as well. Desire and destruction are also ruled by fire. Lust, sexual energy and love (although deep and sincere love is also ruled by water), inspiration, leadership, magic itself is guided by fire.
The fire signs of the zodiac are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, which is helpful if you’re putting together a ritual or a spell and you might want to perform the ritual during those zodiac seasons. The planets associated with fire are Jupiter, Mars, and the sun, which is’t a planet, but is still a celestial body whose energy can help your fire work.
Fire magick entails all of those things you would expect, like candle magick, cauldron magic, a lot of love magick and passion magick uses elements of fire. A lot of kitchen magick as well, especially cooking and baking.
But even if those kinds of magic aren’t really your forte, you can still incorporate the element of fire into your magical workings simply by using ingredients that are ruled by the element of fire. It’s a way of combining different kinds of magic into something really powerful and cohesive, and that kind of flexibility and experimentation are really quintessentially witchcraft. I mean that’s the kind of freedom that drew so many of us away from organized religions and dogmatic ways of thinking in the first place.
So for example, if you’re someone who really really loves spell bottles or creating ritual teas, or maybe your’e just working a spell that you want to be a slow-release kind of working, so you don’t want to burn it, you want to bury it instead. But maybe because of the specific kind of spell that it is, say a love spell or a creativity spell, you need to call upon the power of fire. How do we combine a non-fire spell method with those powerful and potent qualities of fire?
Well, In these cases, one way would be to use fire ingredients. So if we’re talking about herbs, that would be allspice, basil, bay, tangerine, orange, lime, all of the citruses really, and pineapple too, clove, rosemary, witch hazel, sunflowers, oak, dragon’s blood, fennel, mustard, walnut, st. johns wort, chrysanthemum, curry, pepper, horseradish, all of the spicy or warm herbs and plants like even cinnamon or ginger, chili peppers, frankincense is another big one, thistle, pomegranate. God I could go on for like an hour just on these herbs.
But there are other kinds of things as well, like certain minerals and crystals that Topaz, tourmaline, especially red tourmaline, red agate, red calcite, just aaaallll the red stones really, like garnet, which is a red gemstone, red jasper, ruby, onyx, fire opal, pyrite, bloodstone, citrine, tiger’s eyes, there are a lot of different stones you can work with to bring some fire power to your spells. You can also wear certain metals, too, like brass, gold, steel and iron.
But the point here is, get a copy of like Cunningham’s encyclopedia of magical herbs, Cunningham also has a book on crystals and gemstones, or Llewellyn’s complete book of correspondences is another good one, and you don’t have to buy these if that’s not feasible. You can get them at the library, and you can also find them used. Both of my copies were purchased used. I got them through Thriftbooks.com actually. And while I am not paid to endorse that site, I do recommend it if your local bookstores don’t have what you need, or if you’d rather buy something used than new, they’re a pretty good resource.
But just do some research and find out what plants and herbs and stones and metals are ruled by fire, and then dig into the specific magical properties of the herbs themselves to see which ones align with your intentions most closely. And yes, this shit is very time consuming, or it can be at least, but isn’t that part of the fun and the experience of creating a spell? Do the work, man. There are a lot of spells online that you can do, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Any work that you personally create is going to be more potent and more specific to your intentions and you’re going to feel a lot more intrinsically involved in the creation of your results. Think about it like a cake. You can buy a cake at a grocery store, or you can even get fancy and have a cake specially made at a high-end bakery. Your results in both cases will be the same: you get a cake. But if you personally bake a cake, you’re learning and creating as you go. You are baking your own energy and power and intention into the cake. And maybe the first cake you bake ain’t so great, but the second will be better, and the third will be even better still. But the tenth time you bake that cake, you will be able to do it with your eyes closed, and you’ll know exactly what substitutions will work and which ones won’t, and you’ll feel an ownership over the recipe and the results and you will know without a doubt that your end results are going to be precisely what you want. That will become your signature cake.
It is the exact same process when it comes to magic. The more of the work that you personally can do, the more your result will be tailored to your specific desired outcomes. So, while I touched on this just ever so briefly, I want to kind of expand on the concept of using fire to burn your spell ingredients, or your sigil or what have you as a means of enacting a quick and powerful start to the spellwork.
Because fire magick can mean different things, and maybe I should have talked about this in the beginning, but here we are anyway. Fire magick can refer to the kinds of spells that correspond with fire, as we’ve already discussed, such as creativity, lust, or desire. But it can also refer to literally using the power and the attributes and the characteristics of fire, so like a quick, burning start, or an intensity in your work, and it can also be used in spells where a destructive element is desired, like if you’re trying to do a cord cutting or a banishing.
So consider those things as well when you’re constructing your spell. Like if I’m trying to create a lust spell to sort of reignite the passion in my long-term relationship, I might use a spell jar filled with cinnamon and chilies and things like that, or I might do candle magic and dress it with the herbs, but what I’m probably not going to do is like write a sigil and burn it along with those herbs in my cauldron, because I don’t necessarily want the spell to work once really well and then fizzle out. You know, if I’m going to the trouble to do a spell like that, I want more than one hot passionate night. I want to create a sustained, passionate physical relationship.
So think about the characteristics of the element that you want to use, and then think about the timeline you’re trying to create as well. There’s a lot you can combine to make the exact spell you want.
And mostly, as I always say, and as I’m always going to say, just do the goddamn work. Try some shit. It isn’t all going to work, and it isn’t all going to work the way that you want it to, at least probably not at first. And that’s why it’s so important to write things down. Keep track of exactly what work you do, the ingredients you use, the method of spell, the day of the month, the day of the week, the moon phase. And then go back later and update it with your results so that you can keep track of what worked and what didn’t, and how long it took. Write down things you want to do differently next time, or write down things you definitely want to keep the same. That way you can codify your own original spellwork.
Do this even if you do use someone else’s spell from a book or online. It’s like a recipe, write down exactly what you did, what you did differently, and what you want to do next time. People really underestimate, I think, the amount of research and development that goes into witchcraft. It’s not all decorating your altar for the seasons and taking pics for the gram.
It’s very academic in a lot of ways. And I think we should give witches some credit for doing the work and trying to learn as much as they can and for all the trial and error that goes into it. So if you’re a seasoned witch or if you’ve just started along this path, I want to commend you for taking the bold step of forging your own way in this weird world. Make it your own. We only get one chance at this lifetime, so do the scary thing. Do the original thing. Do what feels more authentic.
And until next time, keep those cauldrons bubbling. My name is Eli, and this has been the middle aged witch podcast.
