When you follow a Magick path, your success in that path depends on your ability to focus charged energies, and send them out into the universe to get whatever you desire.

If you ignore your connection to Magick energy, it will weaken ? as will your power. They are especially important for beginner wiccans.

?Daily devotions? are things you do on a daily basis to strengthen the ability to control your inner Magick energy. A devotional routine helps to raise the energy daily, at various times.

Think of daily devotionals as short rituals of energy. They strengthen your connection, and also bring positive energies into your life.

Above all else you want to pick a routine that is right for you ? and follow it every single day!

You can do all of your chosen devotionals at one time, or you can spread them out through the day. Find something that works within your schedule, and follow it.

Your devotionals can be anything that brings positive emotion into your heart. It can be something as simple as making diary entries into your Book of Shadows every night before bed. In your Book of Shadows, keep track of where negative patterns are in your life, and work to build on the positive ones in your mind ? and in the Book of Shadows.

Another devotional ?mini? ritual you can follow is to spend at least a few minutes breathing, meditating, and visualizing positive things to create positive energy in your life. You can even use the meditation exercise that I gave you previously in this book.

Here are a list of some devotionals that you can do every day. There is not a need to do all of them, but pick ones that you feel most comfortable with:

Morning wake-up devotional
Connecting to the Lord and Lady
Connecting to the Divine, Infinite Energy
Greeting Devotionals to the Spirits or Elements around you
Connecting to Nature and the Earth Mother
Journaling
Food Blessing Devotional
Breathing
Meditation
Visualization Exercises
Playing with Energy

Remember, none of the devotionals you do should tire you out. And you should never be in a situation where you ?dread? doing them. You should look forward to them ? so make sure you select ones that work best for you.

Most of the devotionals above are self-explanatory, and you can ?create? these devotionals any way that you wish. There are no ?hard and fast rules? when doing your daily devotionals. (I demonstrate some of them in the Witchcraft Academy In-A-Box)

For now, I will walk you through the simple but powerful ?Playing with Energy? daily devotional.

Sit in a comfortable position, and begin the basics of the meditation exercise from earlier in this book. Once you have dropped into the stage of slowing your breathing, open your eyes.

Take your hands, palms facing, and briskly rub them together. While you are doing this, start calling the energy from around you into your body. Hold your hands out in front of you, palms facing each other, about twelve to eighteen inches from your face. This works best of you have a solid, dark background in the direction you are facing.

Focus first on your hands, and sending the energy in your body out the palms. When you feel the flow is good and strong, shift your focus to just past your hands, at a point on the background beyond them. Can you see the ethereal, nebulous energy between the palms? It may take some time for you to see it, but keep working at it, you will. Once you can see the energy there, concentrate on making it brighter and darker, increasing the flows and lessening the flows. Keep playing with the energy on a regular basis, until you get comfortable with how to manipulate it to do what you want it to do.

Once you have reached that point, start playing further with the energy. Form it into a ball, move your hands closer and further apart, seeing the ball change in size and intensity. As you get the hang of each one (over days, not minutes!), try different shapes and sizes. Play with the energy and get comfortable with its existence. This is the same energy you use in order to cast magick. Seeing it in solid form, even if there is still an ethereal quality to it, helps to strengthen your belief, and raise your levels of energy even higher.