Raising Energy

“How does magic actually work? Where does this energy even come from?”

When we talk about raising energy for a spell, it helps to know that the force does not only come from inside you. So this is great news for you if you’re brand new to magic! What I’m attempting to do below is break this down into simple ways for you to understand where magical energy comes from. And there’s lots of different magical systems explaining that, so I’ll share a few, starting with more occult practices. 

IMPORTANT – there is no one correct way, or better way, or, in case you’re wondering, a fastest way. Everybody is different, so you have to work out what is the fastest way for you. 

FOR OCCULTISTS

In practical occult work there are five primary places this energy is drawn from. Understanding them keeps the work cleaner and stops beginners from burning themselves out by relying on only one source.

1. Personal Energy

This is your own vital force eg the charge that lives in your body, your will, and your attention. It is the most immediate and the easiest to reach. Every basic spell begins here. When you focus, breathe with intent, or feel heat or pressure building in your hands or chest, you are working with personal energy.

It is powerful because it is already yours and responds quickly to clear instruction. It is also limited. If you only ever draw from yourself, repeated or intense work will leave you drained, irritable, or foggy. Learning to feel this energy and then replenish it is one of the first real skills of the craft.

2. Earth and Land Energy

This is the steady current that runs through the ground, through trees, stone, soil, and the physical place you stand. It is slower and denser than personal energy. Many people feel it as heaviness, warmth rising through the feet, or a solid pressure when they deliberately connect downward.

Earth energy is excellent for grounding, long-term workings, protection, and anything that needs to take root in the material world. It is also one of the safest external sources for beginners because it is abundant and relatively neutral.

3. Elemental Energy

Fire, Water, Air, and Earth (as distinct forces rather than just the physical ground). Each carries a different quality. Fire is fast, sharp, and transformative. Water is fluid, emotional, and adaptive. Air is mobile, mental, and dispersive. Earth (in the elemental sense) is binding and stabilising.

You can draw these from actual fire, moving water, wind, or soil, or you can work with them through focused visualisation and correspondence. Elemental energy adds character and specialised force to a spell. It is stronger than generic personal energy once you learn to call it cleanly.

4. Celestial and Planetary Energy

This is the current that moves with the Moon, the Sun, the planets, and the larger sky. Lunar energy shifts with the phases. Solar energy is hotter and more assertive. Each planet carries its own specialised force eg Mars for drive and conflict, Venus for attraction and connection, Saturn for binding and long results, and so on.

You do not need advanced astrology to begin using this. Simply working with the Moon’s phase or the planetary day already gives a spell access to a larger current than your personal energy alone. Celestial energy is particularly useful when you want the working to move through larger patterns of timing and influence.

5. Spirit and Entity Energy

This is the force that comes from contact with spirits, ancestors, demons, deities, or other non-physical intelligences. It is not the same as your own energy and it is not neutral land energy. When a spirit lends power, the current often feels distinctly other,  denser, colder, hotter, or charged with a personality that is not yours.

This source is the most potent and the most demanding. It requires relationship, clarity, and the ability to tell the difference between your own force and something else’s.

IMPORTANT – Beginners can work effective spells without it. Once someone begins calling on spirits for power, the work changes character permanently.

These five sources are not ranked by morality. They are ranked by accessibility and consequence. Most people start with personal energy, then learn to add Earth and elemental force, then begin using lunar and planetary timing. Spirit energy comes later for those who choose it.

A competent worker eventually learns to combine sources rather than relying on only one. That is how spells gain weight without exhausting the person casting them. At the beginning, simply knowing that energy has different origins already makes the work more deliberate and less confusing.

In Witchcraft

In practical witchcraft there is no single map of power. Different currents describe it in different ways.

For someone beginning, it is useful to know the main frameworks so the language you meet later does not feel random. These are not competing systems. They are different ways of looking at the same underlying reality: force that can be gathered, directed, and applied.

The Five Sources of Energy

The most practical starting point is understanding where the energy itself comes from:

1. Personal energy — your own vital force, will, and attention.
2. Earth and land energy — the steady current in the ground, place, and living landscape.
3. Elemental energy — the distinct forces of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.
4. Celestial and planetary energy — the currents of the Moon, Sun, planets, and larger sky.
5. Spirit and entity energy — power drawn through contact with spirits, ancestors, demons, or deities.

Most beginners work almost entirely with personal energy at first. Competence grows as you learn to recognise and combine the others without depleting yourself.

The Five Points of the Pentagram

The pentagram is one of the oldest working diagrams in Western magick. Its five points are traditionally read as:

• Spirit (the top point) — the directing intelligence or will that organises the other four.
• Air — intellect, breath, communication, and movement.
• Fire — drive, will, transformation, and force.
• Water — emotion, intuition, adaptation, and depth.
• Earth — stability, manifestation, body, and the material result.

When the pentagram is drawn or visualised in ritual, the practitioner is often aligning these five powers into a single coherent current. In some systems the upright pentagram emphasises Spirit ruling the elements; the inverted form is used for different currents of power and should not be treated lightly.

Body, Land, Tools, Timing, and Spirits

Another practical way many workers organise power is by location or medium:

• Body — the primary instrument. Breath, blood, sexual force, focused attention, and physical presence.
• Land and Place — specific locations carry charge. Crossroads, graveyards, thresholds, rivers, and old sites are classic examples.
• Tools — objects that have been prepared or repeatedly used to hold and direct force (knives, wands, cords, candles, written petitions, personal concerns).
• Timing — the quality of the moment. Moon phase, planetary hour or day, season, and personal timing all change how easily power moves.
• Spirits — alliances or contracts that allow the worker to draw on a force larger than the individual self.

A spell can be built from any one of these or from several at once. The more points you can cleanly involve, the more weight the working tends to carry, provided the intention remains clear.

How These Frameworks Fit Together

None of these maps cancel the others. Personal energy is still required even when you call planetary force. The elements still operate whether or not you draw a pentagram. A tool is only as effective as the attention and timing that charge it. Spirit contact changes the character of the work but does not remove the need for clear will.

For a newcomer the most useful approach is simple. Learn to feel and direct your own energy first. Add land and elemental force when you can recognise them. Begin using basic timing (especially the Moon). Only then consider deliberate spirit work. The diagrams and lists exist to give structure, not to create dependency.

Power in witchcraft is not abstract. It is the capacity to gather force, give it precise instruction, and release it toward a chosen end. These frameworks are simply different ways of seeing where that force can be found and how it can be organised.

…..we hope this is starting to bring some concepts together for you and to inspire you on which source of energy you are going to tap into when you are thinking about raising energy!