Spellmaking from Scratch
X-posted to my personal journal
The TV shows like Charmed implanted the notion into new witch's heads that they need a cookbook of spells to cast a proper one. Ignore them. The previous post below about spell casting got me to thinking about how to teach others how to make their own spells. So many people said to the person that spells that one makes up are the best, but didn't tell them how to go about it. Well here's my way. I'll start with the notion of correspondences because that seems to be what is holding up the previous poster.
As for wanting to know more about correspondences I've found in my 20 years experience that most of the correspondences are hogwash, or at least minimally useful. But I am a more scientific minded person and have a hard time with people giving attributes to an herb, rock or color without any good explanation as to why. (That's where the feeling that it's all hogwash comes in.) I've found that your personal experiences with the elements of the world and your personal interpretations of what you experience create a much more powerful correspondence base for magic.
Start off with a few general correspondence lists and maybe Cunningham's Herb guide. Say that those lists imply that basil is to attract money. Go interact with some fresh or dried basil. Smell it, taste it, feel it and ask yourself if this herb really invokes money for you. Ask the herb if it wishes to attract money for you. If it doesn't on either counts, move on. Go through your herb closet and interact with all the herbs and spices and find one that just screams "I attract money!" to you personally and use that one. While you are in the process of making friends with your herb closet you may want to take notes as to what herbs invoke what types of images and feelings to you. Take a look at the "official" lists and see how many of your ideas match their lists. It *does not* mean you are wrong if your list is different, it just means that those herbs (and herb spirits) chose to have a new and different relationship with you than they did with whoever made the lists you gathered.
Do the same with trees, crystals, flowers rocks etc. especially when you have a specific spell in mind. This intent will drive you to be attracted to just the right things that will help you invoke what you need or want. I also find that the intense focus you put on this search actually kick-starts your spell much earlier, before you even set up an altar. After you have gathered your new friends together ask them how they wish to help you get what you need. Some may tell you to make the whole spell up and show you some fun and innovative ways to play with them, others may direct you to do more research. It's a whole lot more difficult to do it this way, but I find it creates a more powerful spell than anything you can get out of a book.
Rose