Well we can all suggest books that will help you but are you in search of an actual human being to offer you assistance and advice? You can probably ask as many questions as you like on this thread. Ask away. There are about 4 of us that are regulars and we are interested in different facets of the occult. Do you want to pose some specific questions?

like what books could help me more anything on the net (i cant go to my library they done sent me to collections for 3 dollars) not sure on what ?s to ask yet so ya ummmm..... my husband is trying to help me we got money saved back to go Salt Lake,ut but aint done it yet i know they got a few good stores up there but im in mormon ville here so dont know how much help that would be. just anything that will help me get back in touch with my spiritual side.

Okay here is one you can order online and several folks here have read it and found it very interesting and helpful. This will also address the fact that you are alone in this unless your husband is also interested? I hope its not a situation where you are doing this behind his back and it will cause problems for you.

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/recommendedreading/a/WAGFSP.htm

You can order this and then once you start reading it, ask questions as they arise.

thank you my hubsand knows and is kinda interested

Oh thats good news! At first I didnt want to ask because I felt like I was being intrusive into your life. If you are both interested all the better. Get that book and you can read it together. You dont have to join any covens. Also, most Pagans will recommend you study for at least a year. That solidifies it in your mind and will also make sure its something that you want to do.

Chakras

I've been researching Chakras today.

I took the test on this page:

http://www.chakraenergy.com/test.html

I see where I need lots of work!

That whole site is good by the way.

I've also notices that different sites associate different colors and crystals with the chakras.

Here are a couple of sites that assocate crystals and colors to chakras.

http://www.rainbowcrystal.com/crystal/chakra.html

http://www.bestcrystals.com/chakra~1.html

Clearly different people have different ideas and therefore it can only be best to build our own charka system based on what draws us intuitively.

With this in mind I'm just beginning to embark on creating my own chakra system. Of course, I'll use existing information as guidelines, but ultimately I'm going to tailor it to fit what feels right for me.

I think it's nice that there are 7 chakras and 7 days in a week. That make it convenient to assign a chakra per day to focus on and just repeat that process weekly.

There are also 7 spiritual laws as well, and they can even be associated with chakras. In fact, I see a nice association there.

So I'm having fun.

I'm definitely looking into studying a chakra-a-day. Including incorporating things like food, clothing, insense, colors, living space, bath oils, and so forth.

The Feng Shui appears to be looking as a good accompaniment to all of this as well.

I'm so glad I started down this path of witchcraft and shamanism, it is leading me to a myriad of tributaries of spirituality.

In fact, there are far more than I can possible chose, so I must limit myself. I think focusing on chakras is a really good idea. And I can personally benefit from Feng shui too.

So anyway, there's another long-winded ramble.

Ruth recommended these Penczak books to me and I love them. They are very well-suited for me.

The Inner Temple of Witchcraft
The Outer Temple of Witchcraft



These are hands-on lesson books. But these are more into the spiritual end of things, like meditations and learning to use your psychic energies.

You won't find a lot of spells or things like that. Although the Outer Temple gets into Circle Casting and a lot of other things.

Each of these books is designed to be a year-and-a-day course. But I see no reason why they can't be studying simultaneously. That's what I'm doing.

Cunningham's books are more spell-oriented. Some of his books are basically nothing but spells.

I like Cunningham's books. He's a great writer and explains things well, but they aren't designed to be lessons like Penczak's are.

I also confess that I haven't read any other books on witchcraft so I don't know what else is out there.

Penczak's books are right up my alley because he views this stuff almost from and Eastern Mystic point of view which works well for me.

If you're looking for something more hard-core Celtic, or traditional, you may not find Penczak's books to be fulfilling.

Penczak's books are more like spiritual enlightenment books that use witchcraft as a medium to get there.

Lots of meditations and exercises to actually develop spiritual power.

It's WORK!

Cunningham and Penczak are the best authors to start out with.

Welcome to the thread Sandilovebug!

thank you guys you have helped so much already see i was right

It really is. More so than most people realize. Mystics from any religion make progress because they usually devote every moment of their lives to progressing.

Glad we could help.

I've been spending a lot of time just organizing my own intentions.

Penczak's has been a wonderful guide with his books thus far. I've read the entire Inner Temple, most of the Outer Temple and some of the Shamanic Temple book.

So that has given me a great overview of what to expect. In addition to reading Penczak I had also read Cunningham, and I've researched a lot of stuff on the web.

Simultaneously with all of this I've been studying spirituality under the guidance of Deepak Chopra (not personally of course), but through his videos and web articles.

So I've been gaining a lot of insight from many different perspectives.

I'm starting to view witchcraft and shamanism as an art form of spirituality that can be very much in tune with the philosophies of Eastern Mysticism (Zen Buddhism in particular).

So I'm starting down a path of my own. In fact, it might even be safe to say that I'm trailblazing a new path. So much of my focus lately has simply been associated with deciding precisely where I want that path to go and how I should go about carving it out of the jungle of human folklore and mythology.

I'm using concepts of Witchcraft, Shamanism, Zen Buddhism, Feng Shui, Tarot, Astrology, and various herbal and nutritional concepts associated with Charkra tuning.

So it's taking me quite a bit to weave all these threads together into a single tapestry that is coherent.

I'm very happy to report that everything seems to be falling very nicely into place seemlessly.

However, this brings me to comment on the very first exercise that Penczak has his readers perform in the first book on the Inner Temple of Witchcraft.

The first exercise is to write up your intention for a year of study. It's nice that I just happen to get into this at the turn of a new year, although it doesn't need to be started at the beginning of a year.

Anyway I had originally done that exercise using Penczak's example as a guide. Initially I followed his example quite closely suggesting that my intent was to study his year-and-a-day programs simultaneously in his first two books.

However, I'm already embellishing that initial intention to include additional studies.

I will stil use Penczak's book as the main structure of my course, but I will be embellishing it with various other ideas as well.

I have several 3-ring binders that I am using to organize my study. That's how intense it can get.

Penczak also suggests that we write 3 pages in our journal every day.

I haven't even start a journal yet!

I have started a Book of Shadows though, and I will be doing starting a journal pretty soon.

I feel like I'm still in the organizing stages. Almost like a student preparing to go to college. I'm choosing all my subjects, and setting up my study materials first. Once I feel like I'm ready to begin, I start attending classes (i.e. doing exercises dutifully).

As it is right now I've just been dabbling in various exercises to just get a feel for them.

I'm about ready to buckle down into doing more rigidly-scheduled exercises.

Just to comment on my own comment,...

Tonight I just organized everything that I'm doing and it has all fallen into place quite nicely with only three main topic.


I'm using the topic of witchcraft associated mainly with spellcraft and energy transformation rituals. It mainly has to do with the science and art of alchemy, magick, and transformation of the manifestation of energy as well as with the rituals and practices that go along with this.

For this reason the following topics will all go neatly under this heading.

Witchcraft
Magick, Alchemy, ritual
Astrological pantheon - Great Spirit, Gods, and Goddesses,
Tarot and divination via scrying an other methods.

(I've decided not to get into runes)

The second main topic is more focused on shamanism. And I break that down as follows:

Shamanism
Shamanic Pantheon - Spirit Guides and Totems
Shamanic Journeying (lucid dreaming - meditating)
Shamanic Communiqué - Psychic awareness

Finally I've moved heath, fitness and healing into its own category under Chakras

Chakras

Diet
Herbal Medicine
Physical Exercise - includes Yoga etc.
Feng Shui
Art and Music
Color, Sound and Crystals
Aromatherapy, bathing, clothing and general hygiene

This may not make sense to anyone else, but overall this organization is precisely what I needed. I now have 3 notebooks, one for each main topic, Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Chakras. And I can now organize my path and know precisely where to go to store or retrieve information on any particular topic.

Of course, in practice, many of these topics overlap. But I just needed a way to organize and store my thoughts. These binders will become information centers where I can easily keep track of everything. Being 3-ring binders will allow me to constantly modify them as I grow and my understanding of these things change.

In addition to these three informational binders, I will still keep a Personal Journal and a Book of Shadows.

Just for completeness here is what these mean to me.

Personal Journal - Just a daily diary of everything I do.

Book of Shadows - A detailed book of how I view Witchcraft and Shamanism, along with the philosophy behind it, and details of how I perform specific rituals such as circle casting, etc.

The Book of Shadows is a book that I could give to other people as food for thought on how to go about things. It won't contain my personal experiences as those will be an my Personal Journal.

And there you have it. Yet another long-winded ramble.

Thanks abra... I like that picture, it makes me look hot

I've been there I would love to help you anyway possible. Just ask...

I agree... cunningham has some great books, try them out.

Today is a good day for any work pertaining to beginnings, changes, motivation and personal finances. Just don't do any spells after 6:45pm PST as the moon goes void of course until 7:47am.

Yes, and there are so many good books out there. But, I have found that these two authors provide such an excellent starting point for gaining an understanding of "what's all this about?"

Another book I really like is "A Witch Alone" by Marion Greene.

Me neither and that's one of my New Year's resolutions. I did, however, put a meatloaf in my new crockpot. So, that's progress.

What are you joking?? I would kill for those lips. Mine are on the thinner side. I use that "Lip Venom" which is supossed to "plump" them. It works for about 10 minutes and then they are back to their skimpy, anorexic selves.