Review: The Elements of Spellcrafting by Jason Miller

In the past I’ve blogged on how to do magic, how it works, and seldom have I come across practical, down to earth primers on the act of creating spells and what goes into them. The few I’ve run across tend to either be very basic and lacking in practical detail or get far too involved in particular traditions and talk from that angle.

This book answers the question “What do I need to do in order to create a successful spell?” and covers it from all standpoints. What goes into the process of creating a magical goal? How does one set a good and reasonable goal? What is a reasonable goal? What goes into creating the exact request and phrasing for the spell? What do you need, do the spell ingredients really matter, or is intent all there is? Jason Miller gets that last part right away and knocks it out of the park: “EVERYTHING MATTERS.”

Along with detailing what you need to do and what you want, the book also covers what you don’t want and why. The advice is sage, practical, and down to earth. And it’ll save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Some of the things he covers are things I too learned the hard way.

I won’t lie; some of the topics the book covers will beat up on a few sacred cows found to be cherished in many an occult community. But his arguments are sound, and he explains them all. It is my hope that in reading this people will rethink some of their attitudes surrounding spellcraft and magic. Yes, context matters. Tradition matters. Everything matters.

But the best part about this book is that it is absolutely agnostic to any tradition or faith. Anyone from any background can come in here and this book will work for them. I would highly recommend it to everyone who is an occultist regardless of whether or not they are beginner or a seasoned veteran. You may find yourself nodding in parts and thinking, “Yes, this is why that last bit didn’t quite work as well as I wanted it to last time, but I couldn’t quite get the right words around why.”

Getting magic to work and perfecting the art of making magic work is important. It’s why they refer to it as the Craft, after all.

The Elements of Spellcrafting is currently available on Amazon.com. You can get it here.