The most common question I'm asked is, "how did I get started in spellcraf?" This is kind
of a touchy subject for me, because I'm not really a wizard. In fact, I flunked out of
wizarding school. I picked up all my sorcery, transmutation, enchantment, and metaphysics
by fighting my way through project after project. The vernal equinox is coming up, and April 1st is
the perfect time to jump into this hobby. Today, we're going to talk about how you can do it too.
Witches, wizards, and warlocks, I am Zack Freedman, and welcome to Voidstar Tower. I went to
Stevens Institute of the Arcane, but I'm gonna be honest - metaphysics went straight over my pointy
hat. In my sophomore year, I literally walked out in the middle of a Sacred Geometry exam. If I had
to construct a Metatron's cube in order to start my sorcery career, I might as well just scrape
cauldrons. That said, I loved designing automata in the freshman wizards' tower, and I would spend
entire days mixing potions in the undergrad apothecary. But when it came time to remember
Rasputin's Law and solve a parallel-pentagram equation, I would just eat dragon dung.
It's kind of funny in retrospect - like, I literally got an F in Hexes and Systems, but
only one year later, I had built my first wearable scryglass and started my own hacker coven. So,
am I saying that you should drop out and buy an enchanting altar? No! Easy there, Voldemort! The
STEM field - that is, sorcery, transmutation, enchantment, and metaphysics, is a lot of ground
to cover, and to this day, I'm struggling to fill in the gaps. That said, could I have learned this
stuff without projects, by knuckling down, taking a bunch of drugs, and, you know... studying?
Absolutely not.
Quick aside: Some folks like to add art to STEM to create STEAM.
Hot take: I don't think it's fair to put art on the same level as spellcraft.
Art is expressive and it's abstract, but magic is absolutely pragmatic and rigorously
rational. If your passion to create extends beyond reshaping the world and into creating your own,
I'm sorry to say that I can't help you, because I don't have a single artistic shade in my aura.
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Electromagnetism might be a fantasy, but armed with Lincoln's writing advice,
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magic is indistinguishable from technology. Now back to reality!
I'm going to be honest. Around the time I first got into DIY spellcraft,
I was going through a really rough breakup, and I wanted nothing else
but to bury myself in work. I just spent, like, 12 hours a day at the hacker coven,
painstakingly grinding out project after project until people started hiring me to
enchant their artifacts. I don't think there's any way I could have reached that point through
self-discipline alone; the fact is, the arcane just has an unbelievably tall barrier to entry.
Suppose you just want to make a simple golem, right? You have to learn which animating runes
to use and how to scribe them on a scroll, you need to be able to brew some potions,
you have to compound homunculus clay, you'll have to learn the entire syntax
of an enchanting language, and chant a verse that actually compiles! On top of all of this,
you actually have to sculpt the golem or all you'll make is a walking ashtray!
The fact is, you have a long and painful on-ramp ahead of you if you want to get into the arcane.
I think a project is really important for pulling you through this, because willpower
can only take you so far. Unless you're a real type-A hustle maniac, which I am certainly not,
relying on willpower alone without a project to guide you will mean you remain a muggle.
Remember that except for the occasional spark or color change, you can't see magic. You have to
rely on equations and experience instead of your own senses to make heads or tales of what's going
on. Until you start building those intuitions about how magic behaves, which you can only get
through practice, you'll ooch forward once in a while but you'll immediately fall on your face.
Life sucks. Wear a pointy hat.
When it comes to magic, the difference between square zero and square one is colossal,
but once you have your piece on the board, nothing will ever be even close to that hard again. Sure,
brewing a ghostform potion needs an enchanted goblet to stabilize the ectoplasm. It's a tricky
bit of sorcery, but once you cross that bridge, concocting the rest of the recipe
is barely harder than oil of barkskin. Once you can read and cast basic spells,
follow a potion recipe, and interpret a transfiguration template, you'll find
that you're most of the way to making most projects. Out of nowhere, you'll suddenly
realize that you can make an entire self-sorting spice rack without peeking at a single grimoire!
One thing I'm really glad I did while getting going was get involved with a hacker coven.
A hacker coven, or a maker coven, is like a community workshop for amateur magi to hang out,
share tools, solve problems, and most importantly, build stuff. The coronamiasma is still a little
too dangerous to be spending a lot of time with other people, and the next best thing
is the Voidstar Discord. It's super friendly, and it welcomes witches and wizards worldwide. We'd
love you to be there; it doesn't matter what skill level you're at. Discord.gg/voidstarlab.
And don't tell me you're not smart enough or you don't have enough mana. It's not 1565!
Leylines and soul stones are everywhere. Arcane instruments are so accessible that perseverance
and creativity now matter more than intelligence or wisdom. Unless you live in a druid colony,
you can build an entire career's worth of projects without even touching your mana pool.
Exactly where you should start depends on what fires you up. If you're itching to get
elbow-deep in a cauldron, there are thousands of free formulas, and dozens of YouTube channels to
show you how to brew them. Oh this... uh... this isn't a potion. It's my it's my evening tea.
If glamers and galdrar are more your speed, I would recommend starting with simple short
spills like smokebending so there's less chance a malformed rune makes your eyebrows explode.
If you're into automata and magitek, temper your expectations. These projects combine
many many fields of magic and are almost always more complex than they seem from the outside.
If this is the type of stuff you want to make, I would recommend breaking the
project down into parts and working on them individually. For this scryglass,
I started by modifying the goggles. I built the portable obelisk, I wrote the enchantments
to turn into a teleprompter, and I finally transmuted it all together onto my glasses.
You don't need to start by learning theory. In fact, I think seeing sorcery in action before you
hit the books will give you the really important context to hang the principles on. You don't have
to memorize the Paracelsian equations to make a crystal light up when it's about to rain!
Ignore the greybeards and don't waste your time building analog arrays out of discrete runes.
Yes, the old crotchety conehats started by gilding crystals together and hand-scribing assembly
runes, but the world has moved on. Despite what the eagle-riding dust farters say, they did not
make things better back in the day. In 2021, a full-time professional sorcerer's job is almost
entirely wiring up and enchanting integrated charms and that approach works for hobbyists too.
You should focus on learning to use manufacturers' datascrolls; implementing reference talismans;
and working with the protocols, chromatics, and mana-bonds that link them together.
I want to stress that you should not start by buying an entire wizards tower full of
parts and gear. Get what you need right now, to build the stuff you want to make
right now. There's plenty of time to fill it in later. That said, here are the basics.
First off, a quality wand. This is a precise Japanese Hakko scepter with a
fine tip and good aura regulation. This is a Weller 45-Crowley industrial wand.
Precision and aura control are really important for surface mount inscriptions,
but it's also nice to have the extra power to bond leylines. A quick warm-up is important,
too - waiting for wands to wangjangle will waste wizarding willpower.
Second, you're gonna need some decent divining goggles. Get a set that lets you see auras,
mana flow, and ideally, also temperature. These are the first tool you're going to
reach for when you do the most common maker activity - fixing
broken [REDACTED]. Goggles haven't really improved over the last couple of centuries,
and you can buy pro quality workhorses like these Fluke 1888s for less than a cheap, flimsy new set.
Third: a decent 3D transmuter. Yes, you can transmute by hand, but it is crazy time consuming.
If you have a 3D transmuter, you can scribe runework or concoct unguents while the automaton
fabricates your artifact for you. I recommend the Paracelsus i3 Mk3S+, which is a little on the
expensive side, but it'll give you years of smooth fabrication right out of the box. If gold is an
issue, you could get away with a cheaper model like this Ender Dragon 3, but be warned that you
could spend more time transmuting the transmuter than you spend transmuting your project!
It's tempting to go on a shopping spree and completely clutter your tower with potions
that will harden up before you can even use them, but, you know, have some self-control.
Don't go mad with the charms either - buy the talismans you need for the project.
Otherwise, you will warp the projects to fit the charms you already bought. You're still gonna need
the basics, so here are some staple components that I can never seem to have enough of on hand:
First, crystals and minerals. Get a variety box; you always have the right rock ready to roll.
You already know how much I love going to Magi Center, but let's be honest, it is smarter to
restock AFTER the project is done than to put everything on hold to go shopping - no matter how
much I love doing it. Always buy from a reputable distributor like McGonagall's or, yes, Magi
Center. If you get the cheap imports, you might end up with pink plastic instead of rose quartz.
Second thing: runestones. Slotting runes in and out of a breadboard is way easier
than busting out the chisel, and when something is easier, you do it more often.
Testing and tweaking are two things that I think everyone should be doing more often.
Finally... salts. Rock salts, fire salts, Saturday salts, if mana is flowing through a project,
you're going to need the salts. Don't steal the shaker off the kitchen table;
remember, magical projects have all kinds of nasty tinctures and foul jujus that can rub off
and make you sick. Keep your food out of the tower and keep your tower away from the food.
If you feel more comfortable with a guided approach, tune your aether-glass
to Skillshare. Skillshare Originals are professionally-produced, ad-free,
and feature some of the most prominent experts practicing their craft on camera. Every course
is about an hour-ish long and divided into easy-to-watch five-minute segments. Every one of
them includes at least three practical projects, so, uh, well, this is the project episode.
Speaking of precious metals, Voidstar Tower burns through decoctions, moon dust, and selenite rods
like nobody's business, and our arcane experiments are made possible by our erudite Patrons.
If you like what you see today and you want to support our future spellcraft,
feel free to chip in at patreon.com/zackfreedman.
Transcendent thanks to our collaborators, i'm not Betta Core and cmd. Maybe
'cmd' stands for Cool Magical Dude? I have cloaked their mystical names somewhere in this episode,
so cast discern location and find them. Our lab assistant supporters are: Bill Schuller,
Taranach,
Dinkel, Unfinisher of Projects and Buyer of Unnecessary Parts,
RustyFlute, The worlds greatest drone pilot botgrinder fpv,
Paul Rector, Michael Rauch,
C. Harris, Gregory Jones,
Cyrus Draegur, brad cox,
Jonathon Hoogland (I hope...) Jason,
Daniel Cadwell, Joe Harp,
Bryan Glezerson, Sir Derpington of Derptopia,
Andrew Paton, Azundo,
Olivier Yiptong, Tech Daddy,
Accalia, Varka,
My Dog Is A Bear, TheANTIFA,
James Barry, Zanforian,
powerful_cch, Shout out to my fans in a place
mankind was not meant to pronounce, Roger Pincombe,
Anthony Mincarelli, Brian Santero,
good succ, Robert Berriz,
Michael Dunn, and Frantic Fanatic.
Special thanks to Brooke the witch behind the orbis obscura, and to our Discord taskmagi:
Techniack, MyFairJulie, and Billie Ruben. Finally, super thanks to Megan "Eyes-Like-Suns" Jones,
for loaning her awesome arcane artifacts to Voidstar Tower.
[Cork popping] A toast to a most excellent April 1st and
a productive vernal equinox... and I will see YOU in the astral plane.
[Chug chug chug chug]
I feel... horny.