Getting Started
Becoming a Mage
To start off you want to collect a piece of cobblestone and turn that to stone. Once you do that, you will want to put it in a stonecutter and choose to make a Cut Stone. Surround the Cut Stone with mana in a crafting grid and repeat until it is Tier VIII. It will then be saturated enough that you can turn it into an amulet. It is suggested you use JEI, REI or EMI to see the recipe. Once you put it on, you will become a mage and the amulet will disappear.
Mana
Mana can be dropped by magic trees found rarely in the wild or has a chance of being leftover when making a power or curse. It is used to infuse cut stones. You can also combine mana with a sapling to turn it into a magic sapling.
Altars
Once you are a mage you need a way to create your curses, blessings, powers and mana operations. For powers you would use the power altar and for everything else you would use the curse altar. Use JEI, REI or EMI to see their recipes.