You’re setting out to acquire some wisdom, not superstitious twaddle and bogus hokum. You’re not going to learn very much from restricting your reading to pop-Wicca books that gleefully extol the virtues of playing at mediocre, misinterpreted folk traditions of dubious vintage.

Try to read a variety of authors, and don’t read just about Witchcraft. This will require reading everything you can get. You need to establish a set of ground rules for what you want to do. It can also be worth it.Ģ) Gather your resources. Setting out to explore things on your own as a solitary practitioner is not something to do on a whim, nor is it a “fun” hobby. Ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” Examine your motivations–pursuing any particular spiritual path is a serious commitment. If you decide to pursue self-initiation and build your own version of spiritual practice based upon the Wiccan model, here are some tips to help make the process go a bit more smoothly:ġ) Clarify your intent. It means hard work, requires creativity, persistence and determination–it is a challenging path to take. Anyone who approaches the Gods with sincerity, respect, and integrity can and will discover their own way to commune with these essential forces of Nature. No one has a monopoly upon wisdom, nor on the Mysteries–these are not things that you can own, only experience on your own terms, and even then they keep moving, changing and growing. So why self-initiate? Why be a solitary practitioner? These are questions you have to answer for yourself. By its very nature, the solitary path doesn’t have a lot of guidance available–usually you strike out on your own to discover it all for yourself. While a valid and legitimate spiritual path, self-initiation and working solitary pose a few unique challenges to those who would follow this particular path to the Old Gods. There are many more self-initiated Wiccans and Witches out there than practically any other variety of Pagan.

Solitary practitioner