In consulting my patron, Apollo, about this, he reminded me of a personal barrier which I am learning to overcome: I struggle to believe in my own abilities. Be they mundane or magickal, I am really good at writing off my skills and discounting the frankly amazing things that I have been able to do in my life (but I’ve come a long way!). He told me that the key to living a more magickal life is to believe in your own magickal power. So, let’s chat about how belief powers magick and doubt erodes it. You’ll also find some practical ways to learn to believe in your magickal abilities. Let’s dive in!

When the Belief Comes, the Magick Follows

What is the very first step of any magickal act? Before speaking the incantation, or choosing your tools and components, or even deciding on which spell or ritual you want to enact, you must believe on some level that you have the power to change your circumstances. No matter if this is your first-ever spell or your hundredth, no matter how worried you are that nothing will happen, there is always at least a modicum of belief and hope that you are capable of making ripples in the universe. Whether you believe in and call on deities and spirits, or believe that it’s all placebo (both are valid!), any magickal practice is reliant on enacting one’s will upon the universe. If you felt completely and utterly hopeless and powerless to change your life, you would never turn to magick.

Likewise, the more belief you have in your own abilities as a magickal practitioner, the more magick you’re likely to practice. You’ll find it easier to turn to magick because you have internalized a track record of success in using it. Belief in the self doesn’t necessarily make the craft easier, though. In fact, the more you believe in your magickal abilities, the harder you may work at the spells you cast – because you believe you can get greater results. And, the greater the results you want to achieve, the harder you have to work, both magickally and mundanely. That’s just par for the course.

On the flip side, believing in your own power also opens the doors to smaller, everyday magick. For me, it started out of curiosity: how can I magickally set the tone for my day in a way that works for me? What happens when I apply this oil to a tea candle and light it while I study? How am I perceived if I enchant this ring with a simple glamour and wear it to lunch with a friend? Time after time, these tiny spells have worked and made my life a little easier. The more I learn to trust my magick, the more my mundane and magickal worlds blend into one another. When I had less trust in my abilities, these aspects of my life remained largely separate. I did far less magick, big or small, because I didn’t think I could change as much as I know I can now. Doubting my power had serious effects on my practice as a whole.

Doubt: The Magick Killer

There is very little magick to be made when a practitioner has little faith in their own power. It’s very common for us magickal folk to craft a spell aiming for what is reasonable and realistic, rather than what our heart actually yearns for (or what we really need). While these spells are often effective, they don’t usually fulfill our wishes for the life we want to live. Our doubt in our own magickal potency disempowers us from living our best lives.

We know that magick has natural limits – we’ve all heard the story about the witch who cast a job spell and didn’t apply for any jobs. But, as practitioners, we can still put those limits to the test. We can ask for a thousand dollars instead of five hundred. We can ask to meet our new sweetheart within the next two weeks. The worst thing that can happen is that the universe tells us no. But how will we know the answer if we never ask?

Sometimes, the universe wants to say yes, but we tell ourselves no. We doubt that our magick is strong enough to create the change that we want to see. So we aim for smaller, more reasonable goals, as mentioned above, or we refuse to do magick altogether, because, “there’s no way that will work. What’s the point?” Remember this: doubt is the magick killer. There is no room for doubt in magick.

There is, however, a difference between doubt and anxiety. When we doubt our magick, there is, on some level, a part of us that doesn’t want our magick to succeed. Perhaps we fear our own power or are afraid of change deep down, even if it’s something we think we want on the surface. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a byproduct of hope. When we worry about our spellwork “backfiring” or fizzling out without effect, it’s because we really want or need that working to come to fruition. Sometimes people turn to magick out of sheer desperation; they might not even know whether magick works at all, but it’s their last-ditch effort and they just need something to happen. And, because their desperation is energy added to the working, something does happen. Desperation holds hope within it, and hope holds belief. I have cast spells out of absolute necessity, with a feeling of bone-deep terror at the thought that nothing would happen, and still gotten exactly what I asked for. I didn’t have doubt; I just had anxious hope. Be mindful of this difference as you practice.

Side note: As a witch with an anxiety disorder and OCD, I strongly urge you to disregard anyone who tells you that the “Law of Attraction” will make your anxious and intrusive thoughts become reality. It’s a malicious lie. Trust me.

Though there is a difference between anxiety and doubt, there is also a bit of overlap. Ideally, when we perform a magickal working, we trust in the universe (or our gods or spirits) to carry out the magick we’ve asked of them without further intervention on our part. However, our anxious thoughts can cause us to create doubt within ourselves. This often manifests as excessive consultation of divination on the progress of the spell we’ve cast. In Hekate: Goddess of Witches, Courtney Weber makes an excellent comparison of this bad habit to that of opening the oven door to check if the cake is rising. “Spoiler: it won’t!” If you want to consult divination on your spellwork, I recommend doing so before you attempt the working, so as not to interfere with the energy of the spell.

The practitioner’s doubt isn’t the only kind that affects spellwork: anyone else who is privy to the details of the spell can cast doubt on it and render it less effective, or entirely inert. Many folks I know keep their magickal workings secret from others at least until they have come to fruition, for exactly this reason. However, if you plan to do a spell for someone else, I recommend you inform them of your intention to do so before you cast the spell. They’ll either agree and add their hopeful energy to the spell, or they’ll have doubt and decline. If they’re doubtful, you know that their doubt will impact the magick and you can (and should) opt against it.

Practicing the Act of Belief

Now we know that believing in ourselves fuels our magick, and doubting ourselves does quite the opposite. So how do we learn to believe in our magickal power? In my work with Apollo on this topic, he has often instructed me to create a list of everything I can think of that demonstrates my abilities in whatever it is I’m having doubt about. Since we’re talking about magickal practice, an example list might look something like this:

• Met my partner three days after casting a romance attraction spell

• Worked my money bowl and got the pay raise that I asked for

• Successfully used glamour magick to make myself invisible to my rude coworker

…And so on in this fashion. If you’re a beginner witch, you may not have much (or any) track record to show for your magickal skills. In this case, it’s time to start experimenting and writing down what works. Get curious and have fun!

If you’re anything like me, chances are you will take time to write out this list, look it over, and think, “wow, that’s amazing! Look at all the magickal things I’ve accomplished!” and then put the list away and immediately forget about how incredibly potent your magick is. This is normal! It takes a lot of time and repetition for things like this to sink in. I encourage you to continue adding to the list as you do more successful magick, and really reflect on how amazing it is that you’ve done what you have with your magickal power. After each realization and subsequent “forgetting” of your magick, the idea drives itself deeper into your brain, and eventually you will just know that you are super powerful.

Another great way to realize your own power is through repeating affirmations. Don’t roll your eyes – they really do work! I know this because I also used to scoff at the idea until they started to have an effect on me. The trick is to find the right words for how you want to feel. “I am a powerful witch” might not make you feel anything, but “I am full of potent magick” might spark a fire in you that inspires you to practice a bit of spellwork. I encourage you to experiment with the phrasing of your affirmations, especially if you’ve been using them for a while and they seem to have gone a bit stale. If the wording of your affirmations makes you feel uncomfortable, like you don’t deserve to say that about yourself, you are on the right path. The more you say these things to yourself, the truer they will feel. When you know an affirmation to be true in your bones, it’s time to retire it and find a new one.

Something else I’ve found to be helpful in this journey is to try looking at yourself as a third person. For me, at least, I believe wholeheartedly in the magick of others, but struggle when it comes to my own power. I heard somewhere that stating your goals and accomplishments in the third person makes them feel more significant. So, instead of saying “I’m planning a spell to get a new job,” I would phrase it as, “Leif is planning a spell so they can find a new job.” It definitely feels weird to talk about yourself like that, but it also holds a fascinating magnitude. Give it a try!

You may also find other ways that work well for you to get this idea of belief to sink in. That’s great! I hope you share them with others so we can all learn new ways to believe in ourselves.

When fulfilling your desire for a life full of magick, the first thing to focus on is the belief in one’s own power. Knowing exactly what you’re capable of allows your magick to expand in all directions, growing into large, complex rituals as well as tiny charms throughout your everyday life. Without this belief, your practice stays small and you remain out of reach of the life you wish to live. Belief in yourself can be learned through simple tasks like affirmations or taking note of accomplishments, among others. Ultimately, there’s no way around this: belief fuels magick, and doubt kills it. Learn to trust your magick and your practice will flourish.

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P.S. In writing this article, I’ve noticed my practice expanding in small ways as I come to realize the true extent of my belief in myself. It’s fascinating how writing about something you want to achieve helps you to see everything you already have within you to help you achieve it.