How to Become a Witch by Amber K. Page A

snow-capped mountains mantled with green forests, and inhale the solid power of earth. Exhale all tension and weakness.
    Then visualize your favorite goddess or god, shining, beautiful, and smiling, embracing you; inhale the exquisite power of spirit. Exhale all that is not perfect.
    Finally, visualize a glowing pentagram radiating all the colors of the rainbow, and inhale the power of life—balanced, whole, and well. Exhale and give thanks.
    The elements of the pentagram are the building materials of the universe. All that we experience can be understood as being of earth, air, fire, water, or spirit, or some blend of these.

    A personal altar
    There is a model from India, the Tattvic system, that expands upon the basic five elements. They speak of permutations such as earth of air, air of air, fire of air, water of air, spirit of air, and so on for each of the elements. Each of these also represents a metaphysical portal where one can enter and explore these deeper mysteries of the elements in combination. This is fascinating work that you can look forward to doing as you advance in your learning.
    You, too, are a blend of earth and air, fire and water, filled and guided by spirit. May you be a living, shining example of the elemental balance that we see in the pentagram.

Chapter 4
    Bell, Book, and Candle Equipping the New Witch
    B ased on knowledge, filled with love,
    Touching magick, wielding power,
    As below, so above,
    I am a Witch at every hour.

    Did you think this chapter was going to start off with “Buy a pointy hat, a broom, a cauldron, and a black cat”? No? Good—because that’s window dressing, and sadly stereotypical. Neither will we start with a wand like Harry Potter’s, although a wand is a part of the modern Witch’s toolbox, so it is a part of this chapter. A Witch’s tools are aids to the mind and imagination when doing magick, but the tool doesn’t make the Witch. There is a saying that an adept has the use of everything but is dependent on nothing. We would amend this to say that the Witch is dependent on nothing outside him- or herself—but what is inside the Witch is vital.
    So what are these internal qualities? They are those attributes of self that define the Witch. Let’s start with the Witches’ Pyramid, a neat encapsulation of what it means to be a Witch and to do magick, captured in the following rhyme:
    Knowledge as a base of stone,
    Will to call the thing my own.
    Imagination helps to see,
    Faith to know that it will be.
    Silence knows what’s best to hide,
    Love will fill the space inside.
    Spirit binds them all as one,
    Now the magick has begun. [1]
    The base of the pyramid is knowledge, the inside is love, and the four sides correspond to air, fire, water, and earth. Each of these four elements has a corresponding witchy tool associated with it, and so does knowledge. There is no tool specifically associated with love, but ideally all of a Witch’s actions flow from the heart and love, so a separate tool is hardly necessary. We will begin with the pyramid’s base, and then go around the sides in the order that they are most often used in performing magick—east (air/imagination), then south (fire/will), then west (water/silence), and north (earth/faith), finally followed by love at the center. (We covered spirit in the last chapter.) We will explore both the internal qualities of the Witch and the tool and element that correspond to each one.
    The Base Knowledge, Book of Shadows
    The base of the Witches’ Pyramid is knowledge: knowledge from this book, other books, teachers, nature, your own experiences, the Internet—anywhere you can gain knowledge about yourself, other people, and the world around you. Because Witchcraft will take you to anywhere/when/who you can imagine, the Witch needs to be well read, with a wide variety of interests and a lively curiosity to know more and more and more.
    So, to become a Witch, begin by taking an inventory of your knowledge. What is