Welcome to August. If you have been following along with the Witch School curriculum, you have spent the last few months building your foundation: learning how to read the seasons, working with the elements, tuning into the moon, and beginning to understand correspondences. Now we get to put all of that together in a really satisfying way, because this month is all about spellwork.
Spellwork is the part of witchcraft that tends to get romanticized, overcomplicated, or both. You might be picturing elaborate rituals, rare ingredients, or memorized incantations. But at its core, a spell is just a structured way of focusing your intention and directing energy toward a goal. You already know how to do this. You have been doing it all year. August is just the month we make it official.
This is also a wonderful month to start this topic because the harvest energy of late summer is fully present. Lammas arrives at the beginning of August, bringing with it a reminder that what you have been cultivating is ready to be gathered in. Spellwork fits this energy beautifully: it is active, intentional, and satisfying in the way that finally doing something with all of your preparation feels.
The Seasonal Energy of August
August sits in a powerful in-between space on the Wheel of the Year. The peak of summer is softening, but the heat is still very much here. The days are noticeably shorter than they were at Litha, but you probably have not reached for a sweater yet. There is a ripeness to August, a sense that things are at their fullest just before they begin to turn.
Lammas, also called Lughnasadh, falls on August 1st and is the first of the three harvest sabbats. It honors the grain harvest, the first fruits, and the willingness to sacrifice what is ready so that something new can grow. Lammas energy is about gratitude, abundance, and the understanding that receiving is just as sacred as giving. If you are doing any spellwork around prosperity, creative output, or manifesting the results of long-term effort, Lammas season is one of the most potent times to do it.
The zodiac moves through two very different energies this month. Leo season carries us through most of August with its signature warmth, confidence, and creative fire. Leo energy wants you to show up boldly, to take up space, and to approach your magic with a sense of drama and play. Then, in the final third of the month, Virgo season begins, shifting things toward precision, discernment, and craft. Virgo energy is deeply aligned with intentional spellwork because it asks you to be deliberate, organized, and thoughtful about what you are creating.
Between Lammas, Leo, and Virgo seasons, August gives you one of the most well-rounded energetic environments of the entire year for learning the basics of casting spells. Use it.
The Core Theme of August: Spell Basics & Intention Setting
The word “spell” can feel heavy with expectation. What August asks you to do is set that weight down. A spell is a ritual act of focused intention. That is it. It can be as simple as lighting a candle with a specific thought in mind, or as involved as a full moon ceremony with herbs, crystals, and written intentions. The form matters far less than the focus.
This month you will learn the underlying structure that most spells share, so that you can work with any tradition or any technique and understand what is actually happening. You will practice setting intentions with real clarity, learn how to choose ingredients and timing that support your goals, and begin to develop your own spellcasting style. By the end of August, you will have cast your first intentional spells and you will have a framework you can return to for the rest of your practice.
The Weekly Curriculum
Week 1: The Anatomy of a Spell
Before you cast anything, it helps to understand what a spell actually is and why the structure of it works the way it does. This week is about pulling back the curtain so that you can approach spellwork with both confidence and curiosity, rather than trying to follow instructions you do not fully understand.
Most spells, across traditions, share a basic shape: you create sacred space, you state your intention, you raise energy toward that intention, you release the energy, and you close. Some spells add more steps, some simplify, but this arc shows up everywhere. Understanding it means you can adapt any spell you find rather than following it like a recipe you are afraid to modify.
Grimoire Page Idea: What Is a Spell?
- Your own definition of spellwork in your words
- The five-part structure (open, intend, raise, release, close) with your notes on each
- The difference between a spell, a ritual, and an intention as you understand it
- A note on ethics: the questions you want to ask yourself before casting
- Space for your first reaction to spellwork: what excites you, what makes you nervous
Practice This Week: Do a “spell anatomy” study session. Find two or three simple spells online or in a book you trust and read them through the lens of the five-part structure. Where do you see each step? Where does the spell skip or combine steps? Write down what you notice. This is not about casting yet, it is about learning to read the map.
Week 2: The Art of Setting Intentions
Intention is the heart of any spell. Everything else, the candles, the crystals, the timing, is in service of the intention. So this week is dedicated entirely to learning how to set one well, because vague intentions create vague results, and most of us were never taught how to be specific about what we actually want.
A good magical intention is clear, honest, and grounded in what you actually want rather than what you think you are allowed to want. It names the energy you are calling in rather than just the external outcome. And it is written in the present tense, as though the energy already exists. “I am open to financial abundance” hits differently than “I want more money,” and both hit differently than “please let me not be broke.” This week, practice the craft of the intention itself.
Grimoire Page Idea: How I Set Intentions
- Your intention-setting process: the questions you ask yourself first
- Examples of vague intentions vs. clear intentions, in your own hand
- A template or formula you want to use as a starting point
- The role of emotion in spellwork: why “feeling it” matters
- Your first three written intentions for this month
Practice This Week: Write ten intentions across different areas of your life: health, relationships, creativity, abundance, peace, growth. Do not edit yourself yet, just write. Then go back and refine each one. Make it specific, honest, and present-tense. Notice how the refined version feels different in your body than the original. That shift in feeling is the magic activating.
Week 3: Correspondences, Timing, and Ingredients
Now that you understand what a spell is and how to set an intention, you get to learn how to layer in supportive energy through correspondences. This is where all of the earlier curriculum work pays off. The elements, the moon phases, the colors, the herbs and crystals you have been learning about: these are your spell ingredients. You choose them based on resonance with your intention, not based on rigid rules.
Timing matters too, though not in a way that should stress you out. Working with the waxing moon for growth, the full moon for amplification, and the waning moon for releasing gives your spell an extra current of support. Lammas season, still active in early August, is particularly potent for abundance, harvest, and gratitude magic. Virgo energy, arriving mid-month, supports precision and healing spells beautifully.
Grimoire Page Idea: My Spell Ingredients Reference
- A color correspondence chart organized by magical intention
- Herbs and crystals you already own, with their primary magical uses
- Moon phase timing guide for different types of spells
- Your personal notes on which correspondences feel most alive to you
- Space to add new correspondences as you discover them
Practice This Week: Choose one of the intentions you wrote last week and build a correspondence list around it. What color would you use? What herb or plant feels aligned? What moon phase are you in, and does the timing support your goal? What element does this intention connect to? You do not have to cast anything yet. Just practice the process of assembling ingredients with intention, the way a cook reads a recipe and improvises based on what resonates.
Week 4: Your First Intentional Spells
This is the week you actually do the thing. Using everything from the last three weeks, you will cast your first (or first intentional, fully structured) spells. The format is up to you. Candle magic is a wonderful entry point: simple, visual, and satisfying. Written spells are equally powerful. Herbal charm bags are easy to make and carry with you. Pick what calls to you and trust that call.
The most important thing about this week is not perfection. You will not do anything wrong. Spellwork done with genuine intention and an open heart is spellwork that works. What you are building this week is not a flawless ritual, it is a relationship with your own magical practice. That relationship grows through doing, not through waiting until you feel ready.
Grimoire Page Idea: My August Spells
- The spells you cast this week: intention, date, moon phase, and ingredients used
- What you felt during each spell (be honest, even if it felt awkward)
- Any signs, synchronicities, or results you notice in the days that follow
- What you would do differently next time
- Your personal spellcasting style: what feels most natural to you so far
Practice This Week: Cast at least two spells using different formats. Try one candle spell and one written spell (you can burn the paper to release the intention, bury it, or keep it in your grimoire). After each one, sit quietly for a few minutes and notice what you feel. Write it down. The reflection is part of the spell.
Journal Prompts for August
- What have I been building toward all year, and what would it look like to cast a spell in support of it?
- Where in my life have I been vague about what I want? What would it feel like to get specific?
- What does the Lammas harvest look like in my own life right now? What have I cultivated that is ready to be celebrated?
- Do I have any hesitation or resistance around spellwork? Where does it come from, and what would I want to say to that part of me?
- What do I want to feel more of in my life right now? Can I name the energy, not just the outcome?
- Leo season asks us to be bold and visible. Where have I been playing small, and what would it look like to show up more fully?
- Looking back at the last several months of this curriculum, what has shifted in how I think about my own practice?
Books for This Month
The Modern Witchcraft Spell Book: Your Complete Guide to Crafting and Casting Spells by Skye Alexander. A beautifully practical guide that covers the full range of modern spellwork without being overwhelming. Great for beginners who want real techniques, not just theory.
The Witch’s Book of Self-Care by Arin Murphy-Hiscock. Frames intentional magic as an act of care for yourself, which fits perfectly with the Lammas energy of honoring what you have grown. Gentle, grounding, and full of simple spells.
Witchery: Embrace the Witch Within by Juliet Diaz. A lush, heart-centered exploration of magic that encourages you to trust your instincts. Wonderful for witches who want permission to make their practice their own.
If You Have Extra Time or Curiosity
Research one specific spellwork tradition that calls to you: green witchcraft, hoodoo, chaos magic, kitchen witchery. You do not need to adopt it wholesale. Just learn how a different tradition approaches intention and see what resonates.
Practice candle reading. After a spell, observe how your candle burns: does the flame jump or stay steady? Does it burn cleanly or leave residue? Keeping notes on this over time builds your intuitive vocabulary.
Create a spell correspondences reference page for your grimoire that is entirely based on your own associations. What color do you reach for when you feel abundant? What scent makes you feel grounded? Your personal correspondences are just as valid as any list.
Study the history of folk magic and hearth witchcraft. Understanding where spellwork comes from, especially in everyday domestic practice, can dissolve a lot of the intimidation around it.
What Comes Next
In September, the curriculum moves into Tarot and Oracle, which is one of the most requested topics in the whole year. After a month of learning how to focus and direct energy through spells, moving into divination is a natural next step. Reading cards is a way of listening, the way spellwork is a way of speaking. Together, they create a conversation with your own intuition and with the energies you are working with.
If August felt like the month you finally started doing magic, September is the month you start learning how to hear magic answer back.
Want to go deeper with this month’s theme?
The Witch School Beginner’s Grimoire Kit is a complete 8-module printable workbook covering everything in the curriculum: the elements, moon phases, the wheel of the year, altars, spells, divination, crystals and herbs, and shadow work. Each module includes a mini guide, a reference sheet, two worksheets, and a bonus cheat card. Print it, write in it, and build your own Book of Shadows or Grimoire at your own pace.
No experience needed. No dogma. Just a flexible foundation you can make entirely your own.
You’re doing great
-Ariel
Leave a Reply