When it comes to spellcrafting, spells are often grouped into different categories. You don’t have to label every spell you cast, but understanding where a spell fits can be genuinely helpful. It can sharpen your intention, clarify your focus, and make it easier to choose correspondences that support what you’re trying to accomplish.
What matters most in these classifications is the purpose of the spell, not the specific ingredients used. While some authors organize spells by tools or materials, I approach this differently. Ingredients don’t define a spell — intention does. Herbs, crystals, candles, and other tools are there to support and amplify your goal, not to determine whether the spell works.
Below is a breakdown of the most common types of spells you’ll encounter. Think of these categories as guideposts rather than rules. They exist to help you understand what you’re doing and why, not to box you into a rigid system.
Protection Spells
Protection spells are some of the oldest and most widely practiced forms of magic in human history. Folklore from all over the world is full of protective practices: cats sealed into walls to guard a home, horseshoes hung above doorways, mugwort crosses placed over windows, or oak branches arranged around a house. The variety of protection magic is practically endless—and there’s a very good reason for that.
For most of human history, the world was genuinely dangerous. Illness, injury, and sudden death were common long before modern medicine existed. Even now, accidents and disease are still a part of everyday life. Protection spells developed as a way to guard against these threats, both seen and unseen.
When people didn’t have scientific explanations for sudden misfortune, illness, or tragedy, those events were often blamed on spirits, demons, witches, or malicious forces. Protection magic became a way to feel safer in an unpredictable world—a way to push back against chaos and regain a sense of control.
Most protection spells take the form of warding or defensive magic. If your goal is to keep unwanted influences out of your home, reduce bad luck, protect against illness, or create a general energetic barrier against negativity, you’re working within the realm of protection magic. These spells aren’t about aggression—they’re about preservation, boundaries, and safety.
Protection spells remind us that magic doesn’t always have to be reactive or dramatic. Sometimes, its purpose is simply to help us feel safer, steadier, and more secure in the spaces we inhabit.
Cleansing & Healing
After protection spells, cleansing and healing spells are some of the most commonly practiced forms of magic. Their purpose is fairly straightforward: to remove what doesn’t belong. This can include unwanted energy, lingering entities, illness, harmful influences, or even the residue of previous spellwork, whether it’s attached to a person, a space, or an object.
Historically, cleansing spells were often used as a response when protection failed—something went wrong, so cleansing was brought in to fix it. In modern practice, however, cleansing is usually recommended before protection. Clearing away stagnant or harmful energy first makes any protective work that follows far more effective.
Cleansing rituals most commonly involve smoke or water, both of which have long-standing associations with purification. Smoke cleansing using herbs or resins and water-based cleansings through washing, sprinkling, or bathing appear across cultures and traditions. You’ll also encounter cleansing spells that use ingredients like salt, eggs, onions, crystals, or candles, each chosen for their symbolic and energetic properties.
Healing spells often overlap with cleansing spells and follow a very similar logic. Rather than “adding” something new, healing magic focuses on removing what is causing harm or imbalance. Water, in particular, is frequently used in healing work because of its long-standing association with restoration, flow, and renewal.
In both cleansing and healing spells, the intention is the same: banishment. If your goal is to remove, clear, release, or drive something away—whether that’s emotional heaviness, spiritual residue, illness, or negative energy—you’re likely working within the realm of cleansing magic.
Abundance, Prosperity & Wealth Spells
Within manifestation magic, spells for abundance, prosperity, and wealth are some of the most commonly worked—but they’re often misunderstood or lumped together as if they’re the same thing. While all three involve calling something in, the intent behind each is very different, and understanding those differences matters.
Abundance comes from the Latin abundantia and simply means “a great amount.” Historically, abundance was closely tied to agriculture and food security, which is why many abundance spells still carry imagery of crops, harvests, and growth. But abundance isn’t limited to material things. You can have an abundance of joy, creativity, support, peace—or an abundance of anxiety, fear, or exhaustion. Abundance just means more.
Because of that, clarity is especially important when working abundance magic. If your intention is vague, the spell may deliver “more” in ways you didn’t actually want. Abundance spells also aren’t passive. Casting one doesn’t magically place food on your table without effort. You still have to tend the field. The spell supports movement and opportunity, but you remain part of the process. If your goal is to increase something in your life—whatever that may be—an abundance spell is usually the place to start.
Prosperity is different. Coming from the Latin prosperitas, it refers more to well-being, favorable outcomes, and things going smoothly overall. Prosperity isn’t about quantity so much as flow. Prosperity spells don’t usually show up as a single event; they show up as a series of small shifts that make life feel more supported or less obstructed.
Prosperity magic often works through momentum. Things line up more easily. Obstacles soften. Helpful people appear. While prosperity can lead to abundance, that isn’t always the point. These spells tend to operate on a give-and-take principle—you offer effort, gratitude, time, or care, and the spell supports you in return. If what you’re seeking is better odds, smoother paths, or general good fortune, prosperity magic is likely what you’re looking for.
Wealth spells are the most specific of the three. While they fall under the broader umbrella of abundance magic, their focus is on securing resources—money, stability, access, or support. Wealth spells are often about ensuring your basic needs are met consistently, rather than chasing excess.
Although wealth magic is frequently associated with money, it doesn’t have to revolve around traditional employment or career paths. It can just as easily focus on financial relief, consistent support, reduced scarcity, access to care, or the ability to meet your needs without constant stress. At their core, wealth spells are about sustainability—making sure you aren’t left without what you need to survive and function.
Understanding these distinctions helps you choose the right kind of spell for what you’re actually trying to change. Manifestation works best when intention is specific, honest, and grounded in reality—not when everything is bundled under a single, shiny word.
Love Spells
Love spells have always been popular, and they continue to be some of the most searched-for forms of magic today. What’s interesting is that many people who seek out love spells don’t actually identify as witches or believe in witchcraft at all—they’re simply looking for something that might help when it comes to love.
Because of that, love spells tend to be surrounded by controversy. Some people believe that no love spell is ever ethical, while others practice them regularly without issue. As with abundance, prosperity, and wealth spells, love magic is ultimately about attraction—but the form that attraction takes can vary widely.
Love spells can be worked for many different reasons. Some focus on drawing a new romantic partner into your life. Others are meant to strengthen an existing relationship, support emotional closeness, or help maintain a long-term partnership or marriage. Love magic can also be used to encourage reconciliation, prevent infidelity, or foster a deeper sense of connection and commitment.
Not all love spells are about another person. Many focus on self-love, confidence, emotional healing, or learning how to open yourself to healthy relationships. Some are purely divinatory, intended to offer insight into a future partner or the nature of a potential relationship.
Binding work can also fall under the umbrella of love spells, depending on intention. If the goal is to create attachment, prevent a partner from leaving, or stop someone from being unfaithful, it becomes part of love magic—even though it raises significant ethical questions.
At the end of the day, if the intention behind a spell involves romance, emotional bonds, or matters of the heart, it’s likely a form of love spell. How ethical or appropriate that spell is depends entirely on the intention, the method, and the boundaries you’ve chosen for your own practice.
Curses, Hexes & Jinxes
I’ve already gone into much greater detail about curses, hexes, and jinxes in the previous post, Ethics in Spellcrafting: To Curse or Not to Curse, so I won’t rehash everything here. If this is a topic you want to explore more deeply, I strongly recommend reading that post first.
In short, jinxes tend to cause minor, temporary inconveniences. Hexes are more sustained and are usually intended to teach a lesson or stop harmful behavior. Curses are the most severe, often long-lasting, and are typically used as a form of justice or retaliation. Binding spells can also fall into this category—most often as a type of hex—when the intention is to prevent someone from continuing harmful actions while forcing accountability.
Historically, baneful magic wasn’t practiced in isolation. Curses, hexes, and similar workings were often used alongside protection magic as a way to counteract harm. Curse tablets, charms, and written spells appear across cultures and time periods, and their presence in folklore and historical records tells a much more complex story than modern narratives often allow.
It’s also important to recognize that curses have frequently been used by oppressed and marginalized people as a means of seeking justice when no other options were available. For many, baneful magic was not about cruelty—it was about survival, resistance, and reclaiming power. That context matters, and it deserves respect.
Whether or not you choose to work with curses, hexes, or jinxes is entirely up to you. As I’ve said before, ethics are personal. The earlier post in this series is designed to help you think through those boundaries and define what aligns with your values through reflection and journaling.
Transformation & Personal Growth Spells
Not all spells are about gaining something, removing something, or influencing the world around you. Some of the most powerful spellwork focuses inward. Transformation and personal growth spells are centered on change that happens within the practitioner rather than externally. These spells are about becoming.
Transformation magic works on patterns, behaviors, beliefs, emotional responses, and internal blocks. It’s the kind of spellwork used when you’re ready to shift how you move through the world, how you relate to yourself, or how you respond to situations that once felt overwhelming or unchangeable.
This category includes spells for breaking harmful cycles, releasing internalized narratives, processing grief, integrating shadow aspects, or reclaiming personal power. It can also involve spells for clarity, acceptance, emotional regulation, confidence, or learning how to hold boundaries without guilt. While these workings often overlap with healing magic, the intention is different. Healing spells focus on removing harm; transformation spells focus on growth and integration.
Transformation spells are rarely flashy, and they’re often slow. They don’t usually result in instant external change. Instead, they create subtle shifts that unfold over time—changes in perception, behavior, or resilience. This kind of magic asks for patience, honesty, and participation. You aren’t handing the work off to the universe; you’re partnering with it.
Because these spells are self-directed, ethics tend to be simpler but not less important. Transformation magic requires consent by default—you are both the caster and the subject. That doesn’t make it easy, though. Changing yourself can be far more confronting than changing circumstances.
This form of spellwork is especially valuable for those whose lives don’t follow linear or traditional paths. When external options feel limited, inner work becomes a powerful place to focus energy and intention. Transformation spells don’t promise a different life overnight—but they do offer the possibility of a different relationship with the life you’re already living.
If your goal is growth, self-understanding, emotional resilience, or long-term change, you’re likely working within this category of spellcraft.
Edit: While not every spell fits neatly into a single category, most do. Understanding the intention behind your spell makes planning and crafting it much easier and often brings new clarity to your work. In the next post, we’ll move into the basics of spellcrafting itself, including a general spell structure, to prepare you for writing your own spells.