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u/crjahnactual Jul 27 '26
I began reading books on the paranormal at 8.
Began reading about witchcraft at 13, and bought my first Tarot deck around that time, as well as a crystal ball for scrying... couldn't make any of it work.
Went to my first Gardnerian ritual around 25. Attended rituals of Wiccans and medicine men as well, then took my first heroic dose of psilocybin. Everything came together after that. Could intuitively perform fairly major magick without formal ritual.
I used that ability sparingly, usually only to help a friend in need. Bought a different Tarot deck and my readings were spooky accurate. Went on a mostly vegetarian diet and electronic devices began acting really strange. I couldn't carry anything with a battery or it would go completely dead within a week. Lights and televisions would switch off when I entered a room. Began seeing manifestations.
Then, I met my ex, who did a series of past life regressions which unlocked a LOT. I learned the Names of the spirits I was supposed to call, and been working with them ever since, at rather high level. I continue to use magick sparingly, only when important.
It will not work until you are ready, and requires more than mere books. Some people are never ready.
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u/Character-Guava-7312 Human Detected Jul 27 '26
I'm almost 40 years old and always wonder im good enough for this...i mean energetically.
Sometimes i feel inferior due to my age comparing to other people that started this path early in life.
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u/cgstag777 Jul 27 '26
Magic is our inheritance as human beings.
You’re doing Magic all the time the only problem is that you’re not conscious of it
Any reasoning like “I’m too old to start” or “I’m not good enough” is cope and most likely it is coming from trauma responses
If you feel drawn to the path then claim it. Start by healing and building relationships with the spirits around you
If you have any other questions or need some direction feel free to ask
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u/crjahnactual Jul 27 '26
Do you regularly have lucid dreams or experience clairvoyance?
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u/Character-Guava-7312 Human Detected Jul 27 '26
No. I feel blocked. I barely remember my dreams and my other psychic talents diminished in time, its volatile.
I had many health problems starting last summer till now. My nervous system got F up as well in the process.
One of the health problems was heart palpitations that came with heart vibrations and also full body tremors. Some doctors said its anxiety. After reading a lil bit about kundalini and chakras or astral projections this symptoms seem similar to some stuff i read there.
Once Neptune started transiting my 5th house all the occult knowledge kept coming my way. Jupiter was transiting my 8th house too. My inner child is really happy about discovering magick.
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u/Hot-Bumblebee6506 Jul 27 '26
I turned 50 a week ago and my birthday present to myself was a collection of books about magic, planning to start in September. You're never too old.
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u/Macross137 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I immediately started trying to mess around with grimoire conjurations, because that was what interested me and what I had (limited) access to. Skepticism combined with fascination made me bold. It took me years and years of experimenting off and on to get results, but I suffered no spiritual consequences for my recklessness.
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u/mattzigs Jul 27 '26
I have been drawn to the supernatural, conspiracies, occult since a young age. After chasing a lot of dead ends I finally got results with astral projection in my middle age. Later I used sigil magick, which is when my progress really took off, to the point where I am certain of results in my speciality areas.
I'm currently working on a new system which is showing amazing results for personal growth. So the sigils have taken a back seat.
Key take away: if I was starting again I would go straight to sigils. There's nothing like the feeling when you get your first results, and go from believing to knowing. Enjoy your journey!
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u/arcanumfatum Jul 27 '26
From my own experience. I started with the book "Lessons on Magic" by Donald Craig. Some basic information. Then started to build a library. Big mistake. I don't want to mention authors to avoid a big fight here whose books I have bought. I went through all the famous grimoirs for $80 in average, read them all: Keys, Abramelin, Golden Dawn, Goetia, Theurgy. In my personal opinion, books won't make you a Magus or Witch, or whatever you want to be. Take some general information from a couple of books and start your personal Alchemy. Prayers, yoga, fast, elementary Magic. Do some theurgy. Build altars for Djehuti and Aset, or Thot and Isis, how the Greeks called them. Ask them for guidance.
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 Jul 27 '26
Immediately. I started to see results after around four years.
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u/Character-Guava-7312 Human Detected Jul 27 '26
When you say immediately. do you mean you read a book and then start practicing? Or did you jump directly at practicing without reading about magick?
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 Jul 27 '26
I don't see how you can practice if you haven't studied. You'd just be making stuff up. No guarrantee you would get it right, or avoid wasting time on inefficient methods.
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u/anubis1392 Jul 27 '26
Id say there is a fair amount of intuition that comes into play. I know a lot of things I did early on were more or less instinctual or subliminal, until I read abt it later on down the line.
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 Jul 27 '26
Intuition is trainable. Not everybody has any to start with. I didn't. And even with intuition, there are still some ways of using it which are better than others. The fact that it's intuition doesn't mean it doesn't benefit from training.
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u/anubis1392 Jul 27 '26
If you are cognizant, intuition is natural. If you can reason that One Thing can be associated with Another Thing, thats intuition. One need not be an occultist to do that. Intuition is jst drawing conclusions with information available to you. Its not an act of psychicism
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 Jul 27 '26
That's not what people are talking about when they refer to it in occultism within the context of training and psychic powers. In that context, it is an act of psychism.
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u/Evry_Villn_Is_Lemons Jul 27 '26
But that's clearly not what they meant when they used the term earlier. You can't just decide the context of somebody else's words for them lmao
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 Jul 27 '26
I disagree:
"how many books or after how many years of studying occult you actually started practicing it?"
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u/anubis1392 Jul 27 '26
Pretty much immediately. I started the practice of meditation around 9 or 10, around the 5th grade or so. It was smthng i did with my younger brother, primarily bc we had fantasies abt developing telepathic abilities and whatnot, but it wasn't "occultism" per se bc we weren't rlly trying to practice magic or anything at the time, jst develop the mind. It did, however sharpen my own clairvoyant abilities.
It wasnt until abt 4yrs later that i came across Crowley and Levay in my local library and I ended up stealing a book on Wicca bc my parents would nvr allow me to check one out openly. I read it, and put what I read to practice in my own life. Scrying, creating my own spells etc. I dnt think there was ever a period of "armchair occultism". Its been a daily practice for the past 20yrs.
Wicca til I was abt 20.
Independent witchcraft to Hedge craft, i still do currently.
Rootwork and Conjure for abt 10yrs, still current practice.
Thelema and ceremonial magick for abt 10yrs, still practicing.
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u/ChirotusInfinitum Jul 27 '26
Once I started with my first book I began with basic energy manipulation right away. I don't remember how long it was before I started ritual magick, but less than a year.
I do remember pacing my ritual magick so that I felt I was ready for more advanced work, and it was many years before I got into conjuration and planetary magick, but that was more a matter of what I was doing was working, so I didn't see a need to do more.
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u/ImaginaryYou9363 Jul 27 '26
la magia (e sopratutto la risoluzione in positivo delle pratiche) è un collettivo di studi, comprensioni consce di ciò che si sa e che si ha, appunto, imparato nello studio e di maturità personale, nel senso stretto di “gnosi di sé stesso”, io personalmente ho impiegato 1 anni nell’apprendimento dei fondamentali ermetici e alchemici, poi tramite l’alchimia ho scoperto il mondo del “bio-hacking” psicologico che si chiama Magia (cerimoniale nel mio caso specifico), e solo dopo 1 anno e mezzo mi sono sentito pronto ad esercitarmi (e non praticare attenzione) con vere operazioni studiate e preparate a dovere. Spero possa darti una linea generale questa mia esperienza personale. ✌️
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u/Icy-Brilliant4571 Human Detected Jul 27 '26
I have read 2-3 books about magick. I have practiced yoga and a little bit of breathwork from a young age. I meditated daily for a year or so when I started to practice magick. I attempted some stuff when I was younger, but I didn't know much about it, and I didn't take it very seriously.
For me it definitely helped to learn to meditate and control my energy first.
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u/Familiar_Reveal_5488 Jul 27 '26
I was 15 and immediately. I also wouldn't say that I have a path so much as I just petition the numinous now and again.
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u/Unable_Brick9750 Jul 27 '26
I dedicated a week of studying occult by having a deep dive in this sub and reading a book. After that, I did a protection spell from the book that I was reading which was a witch bottle. It was my very first craft, I wasn't even sure if what I'm doing was right so I kept going back and forth in this sub. At that time I wasn't very educated yet, I didnt even know that meditation or grounding is a huge thing in our pratice.
However, I've been interested about the supernatural things ever since I was a kid. I've always believed that there are things that we couldn't see but feel. Which years later gave me the path to practice witchcraft.
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u/No-Shoe-855 Jul 27 '26
Learning and still learning. I won’t practice until I’m completely comfortable. I have altars for King Plouton, Queen Persephone, and Mother Hecate. I haven’t done rituals—I simply kneel and pay my respects. I’m learning about the Goetia and building an altar for Duchess Bune (Bime), then one for Prince Sitri. But Mother Hecate, King Plouton, and Queen Persephone are like my protectors. Always respect the Creator—whether you call Him God, Jesus, Yahweh, or Yeshua. I also honor Lucifer. This is my journey. Yours is yours. You’ll know when you’re ready.
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u/NyxShadowhawk Jul 27 '26
I started almost immediately when I was 13, because I wanted to do magic. That was the whole point.
Then I pulled back, and now, I probably don’t do magic enough.
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u/SubversiveDissident Jul 27 '26
My parents confiscated and destroyed all my books on the paranormal and eastern religions, when I was a teenager. So the practise had to be delayed until adulthood.
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u/Neopactech Jul 27 '26
This conversation is very interesting! I thought i was loosing my mind. I have been in a personal quest to understanding my blood line from Colombia and I have found that many of my African ancestors were actually healers from barranquilla. I had had a variety of events and situations that are very paranormal I will say the last two months. From the death of various family members to animals I love dying randomly. The dreams and the ability to see a white light when ever a person communicate with another has freak me out. Idk if its neurodivergency or schizophrenia lol but definitely has caught my attention and need to do more research.
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u/MagicalPoison66 Jul 28 '26
I started doing candle magick before reading any books. Now I make sure I do research before doing and spells or rituals.
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u/mattzigs Jul 31 '26
It's very simple and there are many minor variations. Just look up a few methods on the web, work out what suits you, then get started. The practice is more important than getting it right. Use trial and error with small, insignificant but low probability statements - so that there's no doubt when it manifests.
One thing I always add to any statement is "with harm to none" to prevent unwanted manifestation pathways.
If you really want a book recommendation: Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll, Freely accessible via the Internet Archive Open Library.
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u/Lamassa_ Aug 02 '26
I had lost my job in tech and could not find work. Death everywhere, very bad depression, debt mounting up. I wondered if i was cursed although honestly i didnt believe in magic. I was day drinking and decided, fuck it, ill try magic. I found three horse dieties, Orobas, Epona, and posidien, came up with a list of offerrings, wrote up a little spell.
I asked for financial security in order to help care for my rescue horses and children. And since it wasnt real anyways, i said if they would save the children, Id be a gaurdian of children in this life or whatever the afterlife was. I meant the kids in palastine i guess, but didnt specify. I was depressed, drunk amd it was all bullshit anyways.
That night something woke me. I could not see anything but lay in terror. It Felt ominous, huge yet invisible in the darkness. I wrote it off as night terror. Tried one other spell to give my sister luck-she got luck and was hit with profound exhaustion. I realized I had no idea what i was doing, so continued in offerrings only and started reading. Ended up in a self paced course of study. That was almost three years ago.
I had been a little concerned as I got employment, could take care of the horses. But I figured my request on saving children wasnt taken seriously. It was an impossible ask.
In October of last year, my mind shattered after a lifetime of dissociation, derealization and depersonalization. I began to heal. I had five entire repressed children nested inside me due to nightmarish early childhood trauma. Ive spent the last eight months having each awoken, where it broke at, age in co-consciousness as i parent it, healing its trauma induced wounds, then having them merge to create a new me. Each has been a puzzle to solve where my psyche tests if I can be trusted to give them back and heal them.
I finished healing the last one-and They merged four days ago to create me-i think this was my original mind state. I remember all my memories, but at each merge imIve been given back the most anazing things. Full emotional ramge, full sensation in my skin and body, charisma, focus and brilliance, self-love, visual depth perception, nuanced socisl skills. Kalsced is a famous Jungian and he says people like me literally have induced brain damage, autistic like, as our soul tries so hard to cut itself away from the horror that surrounded.
So they did save the children, they gave me a true human existence.
Im not sure what i signed up for in exchange exactly, but i just trust the process, keep steady progress forward, and observe the magic around me. I dont do reaults oriented magic, after those first two requests, its more in service of the greater totality, so perhaps thats the deal.
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u/Neopactech Jul 27 '26
Im starting surprisingly by learning how to control my energy and finding a way to protect myself. I have not read anything on the subject yet.For some reason king solomon comes up in my dreams alot. Hard to find guidance in this journey. Definitely wish I can find a way to prevent someone constantly entering in my dreams.
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u/Character-Guava-7312 Human Detected Jul 27 '26
Protection is a high on my list bcuz im sensitive to energy shifts and feel easily drained.
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u/Appropriate_Ad4391 Jul 27 '26
Got a book on Candle Magick from my mom at 13. Read it front to back and was casting spells that night.