Types of Magic
A Compendium of Magical Practices and Currents
Within the tradition of the Coven of the Veiled Moon, magic is regarded as both a disciplined study and a living art. At its foundation lies a simple principle: to access magic is to access power. This power is experienced as current — a moving force that can be aligned with, directed, and expressed through deliberate workings. The perspectives offered here reflect our own understanding and are presented in broad, general terms.
Across generations, we have gathered knowledge of its many branches—some rooted in prayer and devotion, others in complex ritual or symbolic theory. While we do not practice every form represented here, we believe that understanding their principles deepens both discernment and respect for the craft. Each type of magic engages different currents, symbols, and risks, shaping not only the working but the worker. Magic is never neutral to the one who handles it.
This compendium is offered as both map and mirror: a guide for the curious seeker, a resource for the seasoned practitioner, and a reminder that every magical act participates in a greater web—woven of power, ethics, and intent, and carried by unseen currents that move through all worlds. A working is not the creation of power from nothing, but the moment in which a current is recognized, entered, and given form.
Channels of Access
Magical power is not always self-generated, nor is it always owned. Many traditions understand force as something that may be cultivated internally, received through alliance, inherited through lineage, or temporarily borrowed through relationship. Practitioners draw from reservoirs that extend beyond the individual: spirits, places, symbols, communities, cycles, and objects that carry accumulated charge. The categories below describe the primary sources from which magic is accessed. In lived practice these currents overlap. A working may be personal in will, divine in alliance, and environmental in grounding at the same time. Magic is rarely singular; it is braided.
Personal Power & Will
Magic cultivated through disciplined awareness, intention, and directed will. The practitioner becomes the instrument through training of mind and body.
EnterDivine & Spiritual Alliance
Power accessed through relationship with deities, spirits, ancestors, and guiding intelligences. The magician acts as bridge and collaborator.
EnterPlace & Environmental Currents
Magic rooted in land, elements, and natural forces. Certain locations and ecologies carry currents that can be aligned with and honored.
EnterEnergetic Exchange
Power that moves through flow, circulation, and interaction — healing, polarity, and the routing of force between beings.
EnterObject-Linked Power
Energy stored or anchored in physical vessels: tools, talismans, relics, and consecrated materials that act as reservoirs or keys.
EnterCollective Field
Magic generated by synchronized intention. Groups form amplified fields greater than any single practitioner.
EnterSymbolic / Archetypal Currents
Power accessed through shared symbolic structures — myth, geometry, language, and archetype — which shape perception and reality.
EnterTemporal & Cyclical Power
Magic drawn from timing, celestial rhythm, and recurring cycles. Certain moments open currents otherwise dormant.
EnterMagical Alphabets
Scripts and symbolic letterforms used to encode intention, build sigils, and anchor words into ritual form.
ExploreSigils
Condensed symbols of intent — designed, charged, and released to shape outcomes through focused meaning.
ExploreDivination
Methods of insight that clarify patterns and timing — reading the currents before deciding how to act.
ExploreHearth & Hedge
Everyday witchcraft of home and threshold — kitchen magic, household blessing, and the quiet power of routine.
ExploreWhere to Begin
Every path into magic begins a little differently. Some arrive with questions. Some are searching for a place to start. Others want to understand the workings most commonly practiced, requested, or spoken of within the craft.
These pages offer a practical threshold into that process: a place to begin, a guide to foundational spellwork, a look at common forms of magical working, and a space to reach out when you need clarity, direction, or support.
“The road into magic begins not with certainty, but with the courage to notice.” -Kael, MCC
Where Practice Begins
Magic is vast, layered, and expressed through many forms. The traditions below offer a broader and more comprehensive view of how power can be worked, understood, and embodied. Yet for many practitioners, the first doorway into the craft is not through abstraction, but through the lived world—through the home, the body, and the act of making.
Kitchen work, culinary magic, and herbal craft are among the most immediate ways to begin. They root practice in daily rhythm and tangible transformation. From these foundations, the wider landscape of magic opens below.
A Working Map of Magical Practice
Types of Magic
Magic takes many forms, and no single list can contain every tradition, method, operation, or name used across cultures and communities. The entries below offer a strong working map of commonly encountered magical practices, but this compendium is not exhaustive. For goal-based spellwork and familiar magical needs, visit Common Workings. For guidance understanding a practice or deciding where to begin, Ask a Witch.
Begin with stability
Foundations of Practice
Before complex spellwork, spirit contact, or altered states, many practitioners learn to stabilize themselves, clear the field, establish boundaries, prepare sacred space, and direct energy with care.
Stabilizing awareness in the body, the present moment, and the place where magical work is performed.
Grounding & CenteringClearing unwanted residue or influence from people, objects, tools, and ritual environments.
Cleansing & PurificationEstablishing durable magical boundaries that deter, redirect, or contain unwanted intrusion.
WardingPreparing and defining ritual space so attention, relationship, and power can be held intentionally.
Sacred SpaceSensing, raising, directing, balancing, and releasing subtle force within magical practice.
Energy WorkTransformation of matter and self—symbolic, spiritual, and sometimes laboratory-based.
AlchemyHonoring ancestors for guidance, protection, and cultural continuity.
Ancestral VenerationWards off harmful forces using symbols, gestures, or protective charms.
Apotropaic MagicProjecting consciousness beyond the body to explore subtle planes.
Astral ProjectionUsing planetary cycles and celestial placements for timing and alignment.
AstrologyDriving away unwanted energies or entities to clear and secure space.
BanishingRestricts harmful influence or action; often protective through knots or symbolic stand-ins.
Binding MagicColor, flame, scent, and timing focus intent; burn to charge and release.
Candle MagicFormal systems with established rites, texts, symbols, and correspondences.
Ceremonial / High MagicA results-oriented approach that treats beliefs as tools and remains flexible between paradigms.
Chaos MagicPurifying and dedicating an object or space for sacred, intentional use.
ConsecrationThings once in contact remain linked; influence travels through that continuing connection.
Contagious MagicDirected harm or misfortune—ethically debated and worked through symbolic or direct means.
Curse / Hex / JinxInsight through symbolic systems including tarot, runes, astrology, and scrying.
DivinationUsing dreams for divination, spiritual contact, insight, or problem-solving.
Dream MagicWorking with earth, air, fire, water, and spirit as forces, relationships, or archetypes.
Elemental MagicImbuing objects, tools, or places with power for a particular purpose.
EnchantmentCalling a spirit or entity into external presence for aid or communication.
EvocationEveryday household magic expressed through charms, remedies, customs, and weather signs.
Folk / Low MagicAltering perception to enhance presence, shape presentation, or redirect attention.
GlamourSupporting balance and vitality through herbs, energy work, prayer, and spiritual aid.
Healing MagicCultivating and blending botanicals—teas, oils, powders, and preparations—for magic and remedy.
HerbalismCalling a deity, spirit, or sacred aspect into oneself or the ritual space.
InvocationTying and weaving intention into cords, storing or releasing power through knots.
Knot / Cord MagicFocusing intention through visualization, affirmation, and action to shape outcomes.
ManifestationActing as an intermediary for spirits through trance, clairaudience, or other forms of reception.
Mediumship / Spirit ChannelingWorking with the dead, ranging from ancestral contact to formal summoning traditions.
NecromancyBinding promises with magical or sacred force, with consequences attached to their violation.
Oath MagicGifts of food, drink, incense, service, or attention offered through spiritual reciprocity.
OfferingsGuided visualization and journeying through symbolic, imaginal, or spiritual landscapes.
Pathworking / Guided JourneyingDirect communication with deities, spirits, ancestors, or higher powers.
PrayerShields, wards, talismans, charms, and boundaries used to safeguard people and places.
Protection MagicAiding the passage of the dead, settling restless places, and tending boundaries between worlds.
Psychopomp WorkCreating and charging runes, seals, or sigils to contain and direct intention.
Runic / Sigil MagicGazing into crystal, mirror, flame, smoke, or water to receive symbols and visions.
ScryingWorking with lunar phases, solstices, equinoxes, festivals, and recurring sacred time.
Seasonal / Ritual Calendar MagicCreating task-focused constructs such as servitors or egregores from thought and directed will.
Servitor / Thoughtform CreationMeeting hidden or disowned aspects of the self so practice may proceed with greater integrity and discernment.
Shadow WorkCalling an entity into presence for aid or communication within established boundaries and protections.
Summoning / Conjuration“Like affects like”—working upon a representation in order to influence what it represents.
Sympathetic MagicConsecrated objects carried or worn as continuing vessels of magical purpose.
Talismanic / Amulet MagicAdopting other forms or traits symbolically—or, within lore, astrally or physically.
Transformation / ShapeshiftingUsing breath, rhythm, chant, movement, or sensory focus to enter altered and ecstatic states.
Trance / Ecstatic MagicInfluencing conditions such as rain or storms through relationship with land, season, and atmosphere.
Weather MagicEthical, relationship-based gathering of plants, stones, waters, and other natural materials for magical work.
WildcraftAdvanced Practice Threshold
The following material discusses advanced magical practices intended for adult practitioners. It assumes informed consent, psychological maturity, and personal responsibility. If you are under 18, please do not proceed.
Even in its simplest form, a magical working follows a recognizable rhythm. The practitioner prepares the field through cleansing and grounding, establishes protection, performs the rite, and clears the space again. This cycle is not ornamental; it is the architecture that allows power to move safely. Advanced workings rarely abandon these foundations. Instead, they condense, layer, or internalize them. Multiple types of magic may operate simultaneously, drawing from several sources at once — personal will braided with divine alliance, symbolic structure anchored in place or time. Complexity does not replace fundamentals; it grows from them.
As practice deepens, the distinction between types becomes less rigid. A skilled worker learns to recognize how currents overlap and reinforce one another. What appears as a single act is often a convergence of methods, sources, and timing. Mastery lies not in collecting techniques, but in understanding how to align them without strain.
At the center of all work remains personal power. To cultivate one’s own current is an act of sovereignty. Power taken without consent — whether from people, places, or spirits — corrodes the worker who relies on it. Borrowed force carries obligation. Shared power asks for acknowledgment. When currents are received through alliance or generosity, they are honored through gratitude, reciprocity, and care. Magic is not strengthened by extraction; it is strengthened by relationship.
The compendium offered here is an invitation to explore these relationships consciously. Every working, from the simplest charm to the most elaborate rite, is a dialogue between self and world. To practice magic is to learn how to enter that dialogue with clarity, restraint, and respect — and to recognize that the currents we shape are also shaping us.
