An incubus is a demon in male form who, according to mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleeping women in order to engage in sexual activity with them. Belief in and the debate around incubi began early in the Christian tradition. St Augustine of Hippo wrote of the demon, going so far as to state there are “too many accounts to deny.” Both Augustine and King James stated in their writings that the neither the incubus or succubus could produce demon seed themselves. That is to say that they could not beget offspring of their own being, but instead steal seed from humans, dead or alive, and impregnate living women. This was done in various ways, including the theft of semen from a living or recently deceased corpse. The corpse would have to be fresh, as the semen would go cold and be unusable. A way for the incubus to get around this problem would be to inhabit the corpse itself, rise from the dead, to lie with its female victims, putting a child in their womb.
It is said that one can identify an incubus by its unusually large and cold penis. The children of the incubus/succubus are cambion, the unnatural halfbreed of the earthly and unearthly. While human, made with human seed, they are bestowed with supernatural powers. Merlin was said to be a cambion, the reason behind his great magical abilities. It was not unheard of for folks in the community to be accused of being cambion, especially if the pregnancy itself was unexplained. Within the Maleus Malificarum, the Hammer of Witches, there are instructions to combat the effects of an incubus on its victims. Exorcism is one of the five ways stated, the others being Sacremental Confession, the Sign of the Cross, recital of the Angelic Salutation, or the moving of the afflicted to a different location. However, the franciscan friar Ludovico Maria Sinistrari wrote that the incubi “do not obey exorcists, have no dread of exorcisms, show no reverence for holy things, at the approach of which they are not in the least overawed.” It would appear that to some, we are defenseless against the spirit.
The incubus, along with the succubus, are an ancient evil, seen in various cultures globally. The alp of German mythology is something akin to a vampiric incubus. The trauco in provincial Chilean folklore is a hideous deformed creature of small stature who lulls nubile young women to seduces them in a dream state. A lidérc is a satanic lover who flies at night in Hungarian legend. Brazil, South Africa and Sweden all have their own variations, as well as the near and far east. The demonic lover is a spirit that has haunted man and woman alike as far back as our written stories. It bares a resemblance to the more recently understood phenomena of sleep paralysis, especially the succubus, with the hag laying atop the male victim. Many point to this as an example of early man attempting to explain away sleep paralysis and nightmares.
I am going to describe my experience with a practice called Kasina. I am not going to break down every aspect of this practice, you can google that. This practice is amazing for skrying, visionary work and developing psychic power. If you decide to practice this work I definitely recommend reading Mastering the Core Teachings of The Buddha by Daniel Ingram. Not to become a Buddhist, but to learn the amazing collection of techs available in Buddhism. They spent a couple thousand years learning how to hack the brain so you may find something useful. Yes the language is different and can be confusing and that is why I recommend Ingram’s book. It is done by a western mind and written in that perspective. If at any point during this little guide you don’t understand what I am talking about it can be found in Ingram’s book. It’s free. Read it.
I will describe two ways to do this. The terrible way and the real way.
First the terrible.
Set up a candle in a dark room like this:
This was done in my living room with my dog crawling around and whining because he wanted attention. I was distracted and often did this practice while talking or petting him. I figured because of this I should focus more on insight practice. I would observe the movement of the flame for varying amounts of time and once I noticed that the image was burnt into my eye I would shut my eyes and observe the visual details of the afterimage in as much fine detail as possible. I tried different ways of focusing on the flame and the afterimage. The worst possible way to do it is a laser like focus on the flame and afterimage. So you would begin to get a strained tunnel vision like focus on the flame, you begin squinting. Then the afterimage may start out brilliantly but dance around and get lost quickly. I found the longest I could hold the afterimage this way was between 4-6 minutes. The afterimage was still bright and vivid and maybe could begin morphing into various shapes that would look like a blue space like the sky with a brilliant point, ruby red third eyes surrounded by a blue-green aura, a red-white sphere, a comet, a brilliant glowing orb with white runic letters written on it, a planet with a ring, a reddish ball that shifts into a blue ball, then into purple black ball and then it would blink in and out. I found for best results in this terrible practice one should view the flame for about a minute. Now, you may be saying “J! You saw some cool visuals, how is this a terrible?” Because what is possible with this tech! If you do the above or get the results described above you are barely scratching the thinnest surface.
I actually still recommend doing it this way to see how much detail and resolution you can gain get on the afterimage. You may surprise yourself at how pixelated your vision will be of the colors. It will be like watching an 8 bit psychedelic video game figure morphing into different things, but on the back of your eye lids.
The (OH SHIT WAS THAT GOD) real way
I set up my altar in the way I have it for meditation practice
You don’t have to set it up this way, just get some things that are meaningful to you. You are not doing a ritual or anything you are just getting your right brain in the mood. If doing a ritual gets you in the mood, then do one. Not required.
If you want the practice to be the most successful keep the following things in mind:
Keep a relaxed wide view. You are not focused like a laser visually on the flame, Your mental focus is the flame, not the visual focus. If you find yourself zooming in and the surroundings fade out, zoom back out to wide view. This may sound weird but imagine ALL sensations even body sensations are playing on a screen in front of your awareness. You are behind it all observing the total. That may help, it may not but try to get into that mode of thinking. The important part is the wide view. Wide view activates the right brain. Once you have this relaxed wide view then begin.
Keeping the relaxed wide view, on the in breath *mentally” not visually zoom in on the flame. On the out breath relax that mental zoom to wide view. You are “holding” the flame mentally, not visually. Try out a few different ways and you will get it. keep flowing between an expansion and contraction. O/o. This may be the hardest part. Relaxed visual focus, flowing mental focus between flame and wider experience. Like waves of attention but always keeping the flame in the center. It is a gentle balance. Too much laser like focus will not bring the best results (you will still get pretty cool results) You will want to keep your eyes open for at least a minute. Don’t worry about blinking, just be natural. This isn’t a staring contest, in fact if you notice *any* strain, relax it.
Now for the afterimage! This is where a key concept of insight meditation will bring you results. The basic concept of insight meditation is that you can only know something/anything through the experience of the sensations of that thing. Once you get that into your mental programming and add the the idea that to have a successful magickal result one must imagine the desired result “As If” it were occurring right now you will be well on your way. That is why we are so focused on activating the right brain, we want to go with the flow, experience everything in that dream like “as if” and save the rational, analyzing left brain for after the experience and our journals. If you have experience with the hypnagogic state its the same thing but on steroids.
You will keep that same relaxed flowing expansive and contractive experience with the eyes closed. So on the relaxed slow inhale you will gently zoom in on where ever that afterimage is and all the sensations you can experience in relation to that experience and on the slow relaxed out-breath you will gently expand out to your full experience of all sensations related to NOW and being. Focus is on bright afterimage while keeping relaxed awareness on all possible sensations.
Get ready for some amazing experiences once you get this right. If you accept that whatever sensations you experience are reality then you are about to blast off into realms of bliss. In fact, this is probably the easiest way to achieve Jhana.
Now for the tricky part which is just going to take time and experimentation. You are going to get some insane visuals and blissful feelings, and I want you to just ride it out at first. Just experience and try not to exert control over it. You are not skrying aethyrs or going speak with ancestors or having a ram session with Apollo, you can do those things with this, but I want you to just try to experience the waves of bliss and the visuals for what they are. ALLOW. Let the waves and colors and sensations do as they please without your effort or interpretations. If you see gods and angels appear and bless you don’t interact, if the universe burns away and you are left sitting in a paradise don’t jump up and taste the fruit just yet. Let the experiences just roll through you, taste the bliss but do not grasp, command, demand, influence or direct in anyway. In time you definitely can if you want! I just want you to see what CAN be if you allow it to happen. If that takes weeks, months or years that’s up to you and your goals. I highly recommend researching the different jhanas though as this will be quite insightful.
To bring this into the practical realm, you would first do a magickal ritual to direct your intent and then use this method to skry or as a means of gnosis to produce a magickal change. So, for an evocation you would set up everything, banish, purify, make your calls inside a circle and keep the flame in the triangle and then perform the kasina. You would then allow the afterimage to morph and grow into the angel. For sigil magick one could have the basic intent of power, success, bliss for any operation, perform the kasina, let the afterimage do its thing and once you enter this glowing relaxed equanimity state where it feels like everything is as it is, all is fine THEN create the sigil in that space and release it. Trust me on that one!
In my time running this blog, I haven’t seen a single post about numerology, maybe just because nobody knows it, or maybe because witches have a pathological fear of math. Either way, it’s a shame! The basics of numerology are painfully easy to grasp, and I would mark it down as one of the easiest divinitory systems I’ve tried to date. So let’s hit the basics!
We’ll jump right into it.
The Math
Actually, we need to work out the numbers we’re using first. While a person’s birthday is already very handily in a numeric form for you, their name is written up in pesky letters. But every letter has a corresponding numerological number, and by noting the number for each letter in a name, you’re able to calculate what you need.
Here’s a chart of the numbers, nice and easy and not necessary to memorize at all.
The numerological ‘alphabet’ if you will, only goes from the numbers 1-9. The letter ‘A’ marks 1, then J does again, then S. The more you work with numbers, the more you’ll come to just know what letters are associated with what, but even if you don’t, this chart is easy to replicate and even easier to find online.
The next part comes in writing out the numbers for a person’s name. You’ll want to keep this organized rather than messy, as you’ll be using different parts of the numbers to calculate different things. I like to write out the names, then write the numbers for all the vowels above the name, then all the numbers for the consonants below the name. When you’ve done so, it should look something like this:
Some things to note:
Y is treated as a vowel when there are no other vowels in a syllable (Ex: Lynn, Carolyn)
W is treated as a vowel when preceded by a vowel and when it produces a single sound (Ex: Bradshaw, Matthew)
The birthday, again, is already in numeric format, so now all of your numbers just need to be added properly. Which brings us back to the scary part.
The Actual Math
Really, it’s nothing more than basic sums.
If you can add, you can figure out your numbers. Hell, if you can’t add,
you can have a calculator figure it out for you.
It is a little more involved than adding all the numbers you’ve so dutifully marked down and calling it a day, but let’s work through it first.
First, add all the numbers from the vowel section together. Then, add all the numbers from the consonant section together. If we go off the name I provided above, it should look something like this:
Congrats, the hardest bit of math is over!
“But Shay,” you say. “You said the numerological alphabet only consists of the numbers 1-9!”
And so I did. But I also said only the worst of the math was over. Next, we need to break down the numbers we got until they fall into that range. What you do for this is you take each numeral in the number and you add them together.
Let’s break it down. Looking at the vowel section, we’ve been left with the number 22. To get the numerological number, you take each numeral and add them together – here, that looks like 2 + 2 and leaves us with the number 4, perfectly within our range.
Our consonant number at the moment is 54, or 5 + 4, which adds up to 9. Again, in range. Should you get a number that’s still too big, keep breaking it down until it’s only one digit. For example, the number 98 becomes 17 (9 + 8), but then 17 becomes 8 (1 + 7) and is now within the acceptable range.
You’ve just calculated the Inner Dreams number and the Soul Urge number. And by adding those two together (and reducing as necessary) you will have the Destiny Path number. In this case, it’s 4 (The Soul Urge and Inner Dreams numbers 9 and 4 add up to 13, and 13 as 1 + 3 equals 4).
That’s three numbers down, one to go.
We’ve largely neglected the Life Path number, but all it really requires is the reduction method we just covered.
Take my birthday. April 27th, 1993, or in number terms, 04/27/1993. All you have to do is add all these numbers together, then once they’re nice and neat in one giant number, you simplify it as you learned. 04 + 27 + 1993 = 2024, which gives us a number to reduce. Even though it’s more than two digits, you handle it the same way. 2 + 0 + 2 + 4 adds up to 8, making a quick work of the reduction and giving us our Life Path number.
For you visual learners out there, it looks something like this:
Breaking it Down
So now, we have all four of our numbers! And with minimal tears shed. For the sake of having everything in one place, all of my numbers put together look something like this:
A number showing up more than once implies a strength of presence in that number – two or three times indicates that the traits associated with that number are strong, as do numbers that ‘resonate’, such as how 4 fits evenly into 8 or 3 fits evenly into 9. If there are too many repetitions of a number, expect to see more and more of the negative associations of those traits brought to light. Keep your eye out for these, as they will amplify one another.
Okay, but what does it all mean?
The Divination
There are four major numbers you go for when putting someone’s numbers together. The Life Path number, the Destiny Path number, the Soul Urge number, and the Inner Dreams number.
Life Path:
The
life path number is the sum of the numbers in one’s birthday (date,
month, and year). It relates to the path in life one will take and the
traits one has at birth.
Destiny Path:
The
destiny path number is the sum of all letters in one’s full name. It
relates to the tasks one was meant to achieve in their lifetime.
Soul Urge:
The
soul urge number is the sum of all vowels in a person’s name. It
represents a person’s inner cravings, their likes and dislikes, and what
they value most.
Inner Dreams:
The
inner dreams number is the sum of all consonants in a person’s name. It
represents secret dreams, inner desires, and fantasies.
And lastly, the meaning of the numbers themselves. This post is already long enough to the point where I’m not going to write up a paragraph about each and every number (they are all available and more if you look them up online), but I’ll give you a run-down for each.
Scattered energies, self-centeredness, unfinished projects, lack of direction
4:
Positive Traits: Strong sense of order, highly practical, steady growth, fine management skills Negative Traits: Lack of imagination, stubborn, fixed opinions, argumentative, slow to act
So there you have it! Put the numbers you calculated to their associated meanings and work it out in your head, just like with tarot or other divinatory practices.
Just a few parting comments before I end this post.
In Summation
This is the setup for a slightly above basic numerological reading. The most basic that I ever use involves taking just the Life Path and Destiny path numbers. To take an even more complex spread, you could break down the person’s full name by each individual name, analyzing the vowels, consonants, and overall number for the first, middle, and last name individually, so that you can study what builds a person up into their full name and their path numbers. This gets very extensive very fast, and even with just the four above, you may end up doing three numbers per name plus the Life Path number. For your standard 3-name schema, this would involve ten numbers. Still manageable, but quite a lot.
On the topic of nicknames: generally, the rule in numerology is that you should use the name a person has held the longest. For example, Shay isn’t my birth name, but I’ve been called Shay for just over half of my lifetime. This is a good guideline, but please consider it only as a guideline. If someone has a name they do not wish to be called, respect them, and analyze the name they give you instead. An interesting thing to do – if the subject is comfortable – is to compare the birth name with the chosen name numerologically, and they can comment on advances that you have made through your life.
This is all I can think of at the moment! Go forth and numerolocize!
Lastly, I put together a blank template so you can practice on your own 😀
Whatever language one uses to describe these potentials that are within people and the wide web of causality, one will run into problems when dealing with anyone who is not very well-versed in the terminology, very broad minded, and very experienced in these things. For example, if you call it science, you alienate both the religious as well as those who are scientists who would not lump unusual effects into science. If you call it magick, then you alienate the hyper-rational or merely concrete and conventional. At some points you will see a breakdown in communication with anyone, but those with real knowledge and real understanding will not have a hard time getting back on track. The trick is to work with people where they are.
Consciousness plus intent produces magick. Anything that was produced by these two, even if present in the smallest way, is a magickal act or product.
This broad definition of magick, while more correct than less inclusive ones, can be limiting, so I will define two subsets of magick for the sake of discussion:
The more we increase our ability to concentrate and to perceive reality clearly, the more we will begin to perceive the extraordinary magickal aspects of reality.
Magick can be looked at from two points of view:
That leads to the degree to which the act is consciously rather than unconsciously seen as a magickal act.
These definitions of magick and the ultimate and relative points of view help define various groups of people:
To the degree that the relative perspective is valid, it must be noted that where our experience field overlaps someone else’s experience field, there is an interplay of forces shaping that junction, specifically the consciousness and intent of each of those perceiving that junction. In this case, the difference between belief, intent and force is an arbitrary one.
The corollary of this is that the less obvious the junction of experience fields, the less obvious the interplay. This has important implications for those who practice magick when we examine the next few points.
Clearly, different effects may occur if the interplay/overlap is more or less overt, particularly if the beings involved have differing paradigms of what is possible. That is, if some of the beings involved think that some things are impossible and other beings involved think that those same things are possible, there is a set up for very deep conflict.
Our expectations, beliefs, previous experiences, and paradigms color what we perceive, which is to say, they have a direct effect on our field of experience and life. This effect is actually a very powerful one.
Most people don’t have a well-developed understanding of the vast and complex terrain of the magickal world.
This simple fact is an extraordinarily powerful magickal force, something I will generically label “The Field of Disbelief.” While not nearly as static or simple an entity as this name would imply, the general nature of its effects can be commented upon in crude terms. The Field of Disbelief is actually a field of beliefs about how things are.
The Fields of Disbelief may vary radically between people. For example, one person may consider a lucky rabbit’s foot to be very powerful, whereas another may have occasional premonitory dreams but think that the rabbit’s foot is pure superstition. One person may think that traveling out of body is not that unusual but may think that telekinesis is completely impossible. Some believe in angels, devils, spirits, fairies, pixies, trolls, and/or ghosts. Some think it possible to speak with the dead, heal by laying-on hands, read other people’s thoughts, or divine the past or the future. These are but a few examples of common magickal beliefs in modern times.
In general, the more people’s fields of experience you have overlapping, and the more obviously they overlap, the more Fields of Belief or Disbelief you have to deal with. In these circumstances, overt magickal acts that do not fit with the paradigms of these fields become more difficult. Ways to deal with this include:
Another extremely important point about having magickal experiences is that your paradigms will begin to diverge from those around you who don’t or haven’t yet. There is no way around this. The more times you see visions, travel out of body, do energy work, trace glowing pentagrams in the air, speak with spirits, shift into altered states of consciousness, manipulate the world in various extraordinary ways or understand aspects of ultimate reality, the more you will be out of alignment with “Conventional Reality,” not that you could get two people to agree exactly what that was. Real practical wisdom involves working with this to everyone’s benefit or at least not to anyone’s detriment if you can help it.
There is a difference between one’s inner world diverging from “the non-magickal norm” and one’s outer world diverging from it. This has to do with external marks of being “different”, such as unusual clothes, tattoos, hairstyles, props (such as wands, daggers, pentacles, crosses, amulets, etc.), special languages, special symbols on one’s belongings, etc. While having cool and unusual props can be great fun, giving one a sense of there being something special and symbolic in what one does or just getting attention or both, they can also cause adverse effects on one’s jobs and public relationships. These props and trappings may also attract people of like mind, and so are, like everything, a mixed blessing.
While props have their advantages, particularly as they may work with deeper parts of your own Magickal Brain to short-circuit part of your own Field of Disbelief as well as to focus and firm-up various aspects of your Vision and Intent, there are reasons to get used to working without them, as if you are going to do Stealth Magick it is much easier if you are prop and trapping free.
The counterpoint to this is that props can alter people’s Fields of Disbelief based upon their own internal paradigm conflicts, just as it can alter your own. A person who claims to not believe in magickal things may still react strongly to something like a provocative tantric idol, a statue of the Virgin Mary, or an incense-filled room decorated with curtains with a magick circle and its associated symbols drawn on the floor, creating the possibility of doing more Consensual Magick.
Another important factor influencing the interaction of any Magickal act and people’s reactions to it is the timing of the act. There is Immediate Magick and Delayed Magick.
The example of the candle flame moving vs the work situation resolving raises another important consideration: there is magick that works within what might appear to be natural causal mechanisms and effects, e.g. the work situation resolving, and magick that works by what are, for most, clearly extraordinary or unnatural magickal methods and effects, e.g. the candle flame moving. For lack of better terms, and defaulting to limited and inaccurate paradigms, I call these, naturally enough, Natural Magick and Unnatural Magick.
Also influencing the likely degree of success, we have the degree of Alignment between your True Desire and the Specifics of the magickal result you ask for, which is to say the degree to which you know what you really want and your willingness to ask for that specific thing. This simple concept is one of the very hardest aspects of good magickal work. This breaks down into its two component parts:
In a similar vein, we have your ability to Feel Into the Specifics of the Web of Causality that relates to your specific True Desire. This has three aspects:
Related to this is the degree to which what from a relative point of view are independent Agents’ intentions align with your own. Were we to view Reality as the sum total of the Fluxions of the Magickal Influence Clouds (of which Fields of Disbelief are a small-subpart) of the sum total of the Agents (defined as those things with consciousness and intent) in the Universe, then the degree to which your True Desire aligns with or is not explicitly countered by that sum total of Influence Clouds will also influence the outcome. In plain terms, if a bunch of beings have wished in line with, neutral towards, or in conflict with your own, this is significant. This I term the degree of Synchrony or Asynchrony.
Of great significance are also underlying abilities of the Agent performing the act. Very briefly:
There is also the issue of the Set-Up. Taking the time to really set the thing up right can make a large difference. The Set-Up is implied in multiple categories above, such as having good props, feeling the thing out, learning about the causal system you are trying to influence, really refining the degree of Specifics and the Alignment, and then doing the magical act at the right Time, in the right Setting, in the right Mood and the like will all have an influence on the outcome. It also generally involves rising up to the highest and most exalted state one can attain, particularly the highest jhana one can attain, leaving that state, and then resolving to have the magick occur with full and unbridled intent.
Finally, as the Web of Causality is so infinitely complicated, there are the factors that can’t possibly be known, and these will be generically and only somewhat appropriately called Luck. It could in many ways be considered the most important of the factors, but in this case Luck clearly favors the well-trained and well-prepared, though not always.
We now have enough categories to be able to flush out a large swath of categories of magick and how they relate to the Field of Disbelief, as well as how people are likely to react to them, and also how easy they are to pull off. On the one extreme, we have Unnatural Immediate Public Non-consensual Apathetic Poorly-Aligned Poorly-Felt-Out Morally-Conflicted Implausible Hyper-Specified Asynchronous Poorly-Concentrated Unconfident Distracted Unfamiliar Poorly-Set-Up Ill-timed Disgruntled Unlucky Magick in an Non-Conducive Setting, and the other extreme we have Natural Delayed Private Passionate Well-Aligned Well-Felt-Out Morally-Non-Conflicted Plausible Non-Specific Synchronous Well-timed Concentrated Confident Singleminded Joyous Familiar Well-set-up Lucky Magick in a Conducive Setting. Were one to put these on a spectrum, one would find that the closer one was to the former, the harder it is to pull off, and the closer one is to the latter, the easier it is to pull off.
That list of closely related concepts also clearly hints at how various factors might influence each other. For instance, Morally-Conflicted Magick is also likely Unconfident Magick, as is Unfamiliar Magick. Unconfident Magick is likely to be Distracted Magick. Poorly-Aligned Magick is likely to be Apathetic Magick, which itself is likely to be Poorly-Concentrated Magick, etc.
That leads to the next point, and brings things back into some sort of more Buddhist context: training the mind to have positive mental factors, moral motivations, and less-specific and more universal forms of well-wishing and compassion is thus an extremely good idea from a Magickal point of view, both for Ordinary Magick and Extraordinary Magick, meaning the sum total of intention and its effects.
This leads to the obvious question: how does one train the mind to be clear, steady, concentrated, compassionate, loving, appreciative of the successes of others and equanimous? These, obviously, are the Brahma Viharas, qualities that often get overlooked in many magickal discussions, but I will claim are the key to Optimal Magick, with Optimal Magick being defined as the best magick that one could have come up with in that set of circumstances.
For those not familiar with the Brahma Viharas, they are:
This notion of “best” obviously implies choices, and the relative assumption of choices, of will, and of an Agent that can make those choices is a good working assumption for all moral work, and for those with more direct and ultimate understandings, namely those of natural causality, empty unfolding, and selflessness, is still not contradictory to them, but becomes complementary instead. It also implies defined and findable criteria for “best” which obviously can’t be found, and thus either becomes on the one hand an article of Faith, and on the other hand, a meta-logic or vision-logic point of real understanding, or more often some fusion of both perspectives.
Brahma Viharas end up being the Theravadan Buddhist answer to the question of meditative training that most likely leads to Optimal Magick. There are other options, some closely related, in the other Buddhist frameworks, but I will write of that which I know the most about and leave the other methods to other authors. Let’s explore why:
Thus, it is worth knowing how to practice the Brahma Viharas. Excellent instructions can be found in the Visuddhimagga in Chapter IX. A summary of those instructions appears below:
Ordinary Magick: that which most people wouldn’t call magick, and involves what the ordinary person generally believes to be simple intentions leading to actions, like lifting a spoon or composing a symphony. For the sake of clarity, I will call ordinary magickal effects simply ordinary effects.
Extraordinary Magick: includes the levels of causal effects that are beyond what most people consider the ordinary world of cause and effect, i.e. the realm that science, with the occasional exception of particle physics, considers mythical. In short, what most people would call magick, regardless of whether or not they believe in it, would fall into this realm, including magickal effects from “ordinary actions,” that is effects beyond what ordinary people imagine come from what they misperceive to be simple, non-magickal acts, something I term Collateral Magick. For the sake of clarity, I will call extraordinary magickal effects simply magickal effects, realizing that this may cause confusion in those not understanding the full implications of the broad definition of magick.
From the ultimate, in which all that occurs is the natural, impersonal unfolding of the lawful pattern of totally interconnected causality.
From the relative, in which each individual Agent has the power to influence their field of experience/universe/life.
The combination of understanding of Ordinary Magickal effects and Relative Reality is something I will call loosely Conventional reality.
For instance, an ordinary, relatively non-magickally oriented person might, in a moment of rage, suddenly decide that they wish to send that rage flying against the person they are enraged by. If they consciously understand that this act was as obviously magickal it is, it is more likely to be tempered by their own moral and philosophical codes than if it is not viewed as the clearly magickal act that it is. Thus, we have Conscious and Unconscious Magick.
By way of another example, someone might just be walking around in a self-obsessed rage with no obvious awareness that this internal state is very likely to have significant real-world consequences of some kind, and thus this would be an example of Unconscious Magick.
Obviously, as the vast majority of people do not think that their every intersection of consciousness and intent is magickal, then from this point of view the vast majority of their magickal acts will be unconscious ones, again meaning that they are not recognized to be as causal as they are.
I would very much like to say that Unconscious Magickal acts are likely less powerful or effective than Conscious Magickal acts, but I unfortunately do not believe this to be true, which is one way of viewing the primary problem facing the world today.
Said another way, the failure of the average person to consider their every intent a magickal act with implications beyond what they ordinarily imagine it has and to thus fail to have a potent impetus to apply a Moral and Philosophical Code to their every waking and dreaming intention results in a huge amount of Collateral Unconscious Magick, much of which is ammoral, unkind and uncompassionate, as well as unskillful.
In general, people may be defined by the degree to which they directly perceive the magickal aspects of reality, both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary.
They may be further classified into the degree to which they perceive the ultimate aspects of reality, which include such qualities as:
Complete Interdependence
Perfect Lawful Causality
Total Agencylessness
Total Centerpointlessness
Total Subjectlessness
That Manifestation=Awareness both ontologically and geo-spacially.
Atemporality
Total Boundarylessness
Giving up and not attempting magick. I call this Dodging the Issue, or Settling for the Lowest Common Denominator. Magick is happening regardless of whether or not you wish to acknowledge it, and past a certain point this option is not really possible.
Attempting magick in private, with the thrust of the work being to cause effects that will have minimal if any obvious overlap with anyone else’s field of experience. I call this Private Magick. It is clearly the easiest of the lot. However, like all the others, still involves the most important Field of Disbelief of them all: yours.
Attempting magick that does overlap with other’s fields of experience but does so in ways that all of the effects appear to either be ordinary, or are at least not noticed to be magickal. I call this Stealth Magick, as one gets in under the radar of the Field of Disbelief.
Attempting to work with the specific holes in a person’s or a select group of people’s Field of Disbelief, thus working specifically in ways that they truly believe are possible, so that you do not overtly run into the blocks in their Field of Disbelief. I call this Public Consensual Magick, as there was a consensus as to what was possible. Obvious examples include such things as faith healing and fortune telling. As people are bound to talk, this almost always enters the next category:
Attempting to work in public ways that directly contradict a person or group’s Field of Disbelief. This can be done, but the backlash tends to be impressive and often much more harmful to the practitioner than to those whose paradigms were challenged. I call this Public Non-consensual Magick. Important points about this are:
Attempting to alter the paradigms and expectations of a person or group before performing Public Magick, thus changing it into Targeted Public Magick. Skeptics would call this suggestion. I would call it education.
Example: you are in a conference in a small, poorly ventilated room with a guy waving around a dry-erase marker with the cap off. The solvent smell is completely annoying. After careful consideration of the ethics involved, you will him to put the cap back on the marker when he is not writing with it. This is done with no obvious external signs that you are doing this. He puts the cap back on the marker and doesn’t notice at all. The act was clearly magickal but didn’t run into anyone’s Field of Disbelief.
This example brings up another sub-point of great profundity: it is impossible to distinguish between spell casting and prognostication. It is purely a matter of convention. One could just as easily say that your internal experience of willing him to do something was actually just clues about what was going to happen anyway. Causality doesn’t care one way or the other.
It can be astounding how dense people can be in the face of things that might challenge their paradigms. The connections people can miss and experiences they can simply seem to forget happened or compartmentalize away can be amazing. While this can be very useful for the magickal practitioner, it is not an effect that one wants to count on to happen in the face of repetition, nor even count on the first time.
People often react negatively towards those whose paradigms diverge too radically from their own. This is instinctual and while these reactions can be clothed in the accepted institutions, laws and decorum of the times, nonetheless they can be extremely detrimental to the magickal practitioner.
We can look to myth and legend for illumination on this point. Consider a medieval setting and the reaction that various non-magickal people or groups might have towards various magickal ones. Note the common elements of denial, fear, anger, bargaining and manipulation.
The local ruler might size up the old wizard in the lone tower in the hill and either believe that he was just an old wacko, or if he believed he had some power would want to know how to keep him on his side and his chances of doing so. Could he be bought, seduced, or coerced through threat or otherwise manipulated?
The local townspeople might know of a witch out in the forest. Many would fear her. Some would seek her out for help with love, illness, or quarrels. Others might think she was just an old madwoman. Religious people might think she was in league with Satan and burn her at the stake.
Reactions like these take place in modern times all over the world and in “civilized” societies. The more your basic paradigms diverge from those around you and the more obvious you are about this, the stronger the reactions you will encounter. Consider gays being killed just for being gay, or people of one religion or political party killing another.
Immediate Magick is obviously magick that has an immediate effect: You wish the candle flame to move, a few seconds later it moves. Obviously, Immediate Magick is more impressive to all involved, including you, and thus much more likely to garner stronger reactions if it falls outside of the categories of Private Magick or Stealth Magick.
Delayed Magick often is of broader and more complicated scope: You wish for some complex work situation to work out in your favor, and 2 months later it does. This sort of magick can be much more satisfying in some ways, as typically it involves things that in the grand scheme of one’s life are of more import, but it obviously lacks the thrill of well-done Immediate Magick. It is much more often done as Private or Stealth Magick, but if you advertised it and turned it into Public Magick, however consensual, bad reactions are still often forthcoming, and Fields of Disbelief will have to be dealt with. All things being equal, Delayed Magick is usually easier than Immediate Magick.
Natural Magick is definitely magickal, and yet the way that everything worked out could very reasonably be explained by a so-called “rational” or “scientific” person as being totally within the laws of what they think of as ordinary reality.
Unnatural Magick is also definitely magickal, and much more in line with what most people think of as magick, in that something truly extraordinary seemed to happen, such that aso-called “rational” or “scientific” person will have to resort to some very complicated mental gymnastics to try to fit the occurrence within the standard laws of reality, and this may include you. All things being equal, Unnatural Magick is generally harder than Natural Magick.
The first part is the degree to which you actually want the thing at all. As the Force of Desire is the driving force behind magick, if you are actually Apathetic about the outcome, the force behind the magickal act will likely be little, and if you are Passionate regarding the outcome, this is much more likely to result in something happening.
Similarly, the degree to which you are Specific about exactly what outcome you wish and exactly how that will come about will have an influence on the outcome, with the more Specific you are often making it harder to get the outcome you wish, though certainly not always. The degree to which you should be Specific about the outcomes details is actually an extremely complicated topic. While there are definite exceptions depending on circumstances, in general it is advisable to ask for the most Non-Specific outcome that will still result in the fulfillment of the most core aspects of your True Desire. For example, it may often be best to ask for the best possible outcome rather than asking for a very specific outcome, though this is not always true.
The degree to which you can actually imagine the thing you wish for actually happening, in other words, its Plausibility. The greater the degree of Plausibility, the less of your own and everyone else’s Fields of Disbelief you will have to deal with. For instance, if you wished to point your finger at the Sun and have it suddenly vanish forever, this is obviously significantly less plausible than if you wished to have a black sphere appear between you and the Sun that only you could see.
Deeper than that is the degree to which you can feel out the possible waves of resonance of implications of the thing you truly desire actually happening.
Finally, there are the issues about how you feel about those possible waves of resonant Implications, as you may be just fine with the central object of desire manifesting, but you may not be with all of the ways that happened or what results from that happening. For instance, you might wish acquire large amount of money suddenly, and your beloved grandfather dies, and you inherit the money, and then your sister and you go to court and fight over some portion of the will and ruin your otherwise ok relationship. The object of desire was attained, but the way that came to be and the implications of that happening both were clearly deeply problematic. Lastly, if you truly believed that your magickal act in some way contributed to his death, the money itself may feel so tainted that you might derive no enjoyment from it at all and instead feel pain and remorse. This might be summarized as the degree of Moral Conflict.
The degree of Concentration skills will have a direct effect on the power behind the act, and this is particularly true for Unnatural Magick and Immediate Magick, though it applies to all other types as well. Most magickal practitioners greatly under appreciate the degree to which very strong Concentration skills open doors to experiences and abilities. A hyper-concentrated mind becomes malleable, pliable, bright, and jumps to the task with great facility. At a certain point in concentration, suddenly things just happen by merely inclining to them. You wish to draw a symbol in the air: there it is, trailing off your finger like syrup. You wish to visualize an image: it appears fully formed, luminous, extremely detailed and radiant. You wish to jump out of body off the cushion, suddenly you are out, just like that. You wish to have deep intuition into some situation, there it is. You wish to see past lives, there they are. Learning to concentrate well, which usually takes days to weeks of practice to set up properly, opens a universe of ability that those who have never really learned to concentrate and set up that way might occasional visit in spurts and flickers but otherwise will never know.
The Confidence of the Agent: never underestimate the ability of someone who truly believes they can succeed, or the degree to which a lack of confidence can scuttle an otherwise very well-set-up magickal act.
The level of Singlemindedness of the Agent. Having the sum total of one’s attention, passion, and intent dedicated to one act is much more likely to result in stronger effects than the mind that is distracted or divided.
The Familiarity of the Agent with that specific act will also make it much easier: practicing an act makes it easier and easier, with some notable exceptions that are too complicated to detail here.
Loving-Kindness (Metta): the natural well-wishing for one’s self and all beings.
Compassion (Karuna): the natural wishing that the suffering of one’s self and all beings will cease.
Sympathetic Joy (Mudita): the natural appreciation of the successes, good fortunes and joys of ourselves and all beings.
Equanimity (Upekkha): the feeling of peace that comes from realizing that all beings are the true heirs of their karma and that their well-being depends on their actions, and not on our wishes for them.
The Brahma Viharas are generally Private Magick, and even if you make them Public Magick, hardly anyone will object or find anything odd in wishing others well or the other three.
The Brahma Viharas are not specific regarding the question of Immediate vs Delayed, and leaving that question makes for a more workable situation.
In that same way, the Brahma Viharas are Non-Specific, meaning that they do not lay out any criteria for the outcome beyond the most general and fundamental benefit, a quality that nearly always makes magickal workings easier.
The Brahma Viharas are not obviously Unnatural, though many might be surprised in learning the depth to which one can generate those feeling in the body and some of the other unusual experiences one can have while doing those practices.
The Brahma Viharas are not likely to come up anyone’s Field of Disbelief, as who would really disbelieve that one might cultivate positive qualities like this?
The Brahma Viharas are not likely to lead to Moral Conflict, except occasionally with the category of the “Enemy”, and thus, with this single exception, one can generally proceed in their cultivation not only without obvious Moral Conflict, but instead with a deep and galvanizing sense of Moral Imperative.
Being as the Brahma Viharas cultivate what are clearly our deepest wishes for ourselves and others, they are with the rarest of exceptions totally Synchronous, and those aspects in which they are not are themselves good things to pay attention to for other practice reasons.
Given that the Brahma Viharas tend to lend themselves to strongly positive feelings, they are self-reinforcing, and being self-reinforcing can naturally lend themselves to strong Singlemindedness, Confidence and Concentration.
Given that there is no obvious time when the Brahma Viharas don’t seem to be a good idea, any time they are practiced they are obviously well-timed.
Given that the Brahma Viharas require little formal setup beyond the phrases and then the feeling themselves, and given that as part of the setup it is easy to feel-out that all beings wish for happiness and the rest as we do, then it is hard to imagine an easier bit of magick to set up properly.
As to Plausibility, it is possibly that some aspects of our wishes, say for the happiness of all beings to always increase, may seem implausible, but that we wish it for ourselves and others is obviously not, and this practice is about cultivating the feeling of those wishes, them being their own reward even if they do nothing other than simply occur within us, so, properly understood, Plausibility is easily met.
As to the Influence Clouds that emanate from the wishes of other beings, given that the Brahma Viharas at their core essentially automatically resonate with the deepest wishes of all beings, no better natural resonance and amplification could possibly be asked for.
As to Luck, I am perhaps being a bit magickal in my thinking here, but it is hard not to imagine that, should there be any such thing, that Luck favors these most fundamentally beneficial workings.
The last factors are to make the Brahma Viharas Familiar and to practice them in a Conducive Setting. The first is simply a question of practice, and the latter is simply realizing that any setting may be a good place to practice these qualities that are so needed in the world.
In short, the Brahma Viharas naturally meet all the criteria that make for the most powerful and beneficial Magick, and it is actually hard to come up with anything else that does this in quite that way.
In summary, it is highly recommended that you make some time for the Brahma Viharas.
Pick one of the Brahma Viharas, specifically:
If practicing formally, seat one’s self in a comfortable posture, if not, practice in whatever posture one finds oneself in.
Reflect on the dangers of the quality of mind that the Brahma Vihara chosen most directly counters:
Each of the Brahma Viharas are associated with a specific phrase that is used to cultivate the feeling until the feeling of the Brahma Vihara can itself be taken as object, and so the next step is to learn the phrases for that Brahma Vihara. The phrases may be modified to suit your tastes, and appear in various forms in various places. Each phrase is used to extend the quality of the Brahma Vihara to various categories of beings, so a blank is included in the phrase that one fills in with the appropriate category as one progresses through them. Here I render them as:
The phrases in the short form of the practice are extended towards various beings and classes of beings in this traditional order:
When working with the categories in this way, it is traditional to stick to the easy categories first, developing them until the feeling is strong, and then shifting when one feels confident to the harder categories. This is in keeping with the Magickal Principles of Familiarity and Confidence.
One may also extend the feelings in various directions:
As one repeats the phrases, one tries to connect to the fundamental feeling implied in the words.
One must guard against both the far enemies (those things listed above that they directly counter), and also the Near Enemies, which are those near approximations of the Brahma Viharas that are yet not the genuine quality, but impostors. These are:
As the feeling of the Brahma Vihara grows, one turns that feeling into a samatha object, such that one takes that feeling and develops it directly, working with it, expanding it, gently coaxing it through any blockages or sticking points one finds, extending it through the body until it pervades the whole body, and finally takes the feeling far out into space.
In this way, one may take the first three Brahma Viharas to the Third Jhana, as they still contain a pleasant feeling of some sort, and the Fourth Brahma Vihara (Equanimity) to the Fourth Jhana and beyond, as Equanimity is the basis of the Formless Realms.
As barriers or distractions or issues arise during the practice, we soften, connect with the deep and fundamental wish implied by the Brahma Vihara we have chosen, and slowly extend that Brahma Vihara through that barrier to pervade everything.
Much additional material may be found in Sharon Salzberg’s Loving-Kindness, The Revolution Art of Happiness, which, while mentioning nothing about developing these into deep jhanic states, still outlines many useful aspects of the practices.
Loving-Kindness
Compassion
Sympathetic Joy
Equanimity
Loving-kindness directly counters hatred. Reflect on the dangers in harboring hatred.
Compassion directly counters cruelty. Reflect on the dangers of harboring feelings of cruelty.
Sympathetic Joy directly counters envy. Reflect on the dangers of harboring envy.
Equanimity directly counters both greed and hatred. Reflect on the dangers of greed and hatred.
For Loving-Kindness: May _____ be happy. May ____ be peaceful. May _____ be safe. May _____ live with ease.
For Compassion: May _____ be free from suffering. May their suffering finally cease.
For Sympathetic Joy: May the happiness and good fortune of _____ always increase.
For Equanimity: ____ is/are the true heirs of their karma. ____’s happiness depends upon their actions and not upon my wishes for them.
To one’s self first (with the exception of Equanimity, for which this first one is somewhat philosophically problematic), e.g. May I be happy, etc.
To a friend (try to avoid those for whom one feels sexual attraction, as that tends to distract the practice, though if one gets better at this one might try to sort those two out later on)
To a neutral person
To a person whom one bears ill-will (traditionally called the “enemy” or “worthy opponent”)
To all beings everywhere
In front
In back
To the sides
Above
Below
And all around pervading everything everywhere
For Loving-Kindness, the near enemy is desire.
For Compassion, the near enemy is pity.
For Sympathetic Joy, the near enemy is also desire.
So, we always hear about what colors correspond to what types of holidays, rituals, and times of year. However, what do the colors themselves mean?
Well, buckle up because you’re about to find out.
Black
Many people associated black with evil or malintent, however it can mean quite the opposite. Some common meanings and uses of this color include:
– Removing Negativity, Banishing, and Cleansing
If you feel there is a negative energy or spirit in your or someone else’s house, life, mind, or anything else you can think of, black is the color to use. Even though black is usually seen by TV shows and books as the “evil” color, it is actually quite useful when it comes to removing negativity.
– The Unconscious
Think of your mind as a house. Your conscious being is illuminated, similar to a kitchen, living room, or bedroom. You know where everything is and you can see it. Your unconscious would be the attic or the basement: dark, mysterious, and sometimes you’re afraid to delve deeper. Black represents the darkness found in the unconscious, helping connect you to the mystery of the untouched parts of your mind.
– Releasing
If you have pent up emotions that you need to release, black can help you get there. I personally think of it as a vial of ink, bottled up words yet to be written with countless stories and possibilities, that is knocked over, spilling ink all over, releasing everything it holds within it’s black sheen.
– Focusing and Finding Your Center
Black is a firm color, remniscent of deep, rich soil. It is a firm ground you can always turn to whenever you feel lost. Within it you can find yourself and countless reasons to hold on.
White
– A Substitute
So, this is kinda basic. Yeah, I know. But white makes a great substitution for any color you don’t have access to, as white light is the combination of all colors. Essentially, don’t feel like you have to spend money to procure, let’s say, an orange candle for a specific ritual. As I like to say, if you have white it’s alright.
– Purification and Innocence
White is a pure and innocent color, simple yet powerful. Use it when you want to clean energies—not banish negative energies, but rejuvinate old, positive energies—or when you want to reminisce on simpler days.
– Spirituality, Higher Power, and Enlightment
White is the color to go to when seeking guidance from general spirits and general higher powers/energies. However, if you are working with specific entities or deities, make sure to check to see if they have their own color correspondences.
Silver
– Stability
If you feel your life is chaotic and just want to have some stability in your life, silver is the color to go to. A spell or a ritual involving the color, or visualizing it while doing a ritual, can help bring a balance to whatever you are working with.
– Neutralizing and Removing Influences
Silver is another good color when it comes to removing any influences in your life, whether they are negative or just plain annoying.
Gold
– Wealth and Financial Gain
If you want to bring luck to your life, especially when it comes to money, gold can help you get there. Creating a sigil with a gold marker or pen can help add that extra financial flair you’re looking for.
– Persuasion and Confidence
When I think of gold I think of warmth, excellence, and golden rays of sunlight. These remind me of a certain confidence we all hope to have one day; we can become our own beams of sunshine. Using the color gold can help boost your confidence and your persuasion skills by showing people the light within you.
Pink
– Love, Romance, and Friendships
When performing a love spell, whether it deals with self love, romantic love, platonic love, or familial love, use pink. It is a color that just pours its love and affection out, and using the color can help your harness that energy.
– Anxiety and Depression
Now, when you see anxiety and depression as two of the meanings, you may be confused. However, pink is a color that heals the soul, and it can help lower the feeling of dread that can overwhelm you at times. (Please know, that going to a professional therapist and doctor is ALWAYS the first step, not a spell, no matter what medical affliction you may have. Witchcraft is an aid, not an answer.)
Purple
– Magical Abilities
Purple is the color often used to represent magical abilities as a whole. With it comes an energy that feels unlike anything you’ve felt before, something truly amazing. Embrace that energy and you will find that a whole new world will open before your eyes.
-Sleep and Dream Magick
If you want to create a spell to cause certain dreams or to aid your sleep, purple is the color to use. It is reminiscent of the many worlds our subconscious creates for us when we let the curtain of sleep take over us, an endless world of possibilities.
– Meditation and Astral Projection
When meditating or trying to astral project, it may be useful to visualize the color purple flowing throughout you like a cosmic energy. Let it bring you closer to what you once thought was too far away to access; let it bring you closer to the stars.
– Wisdom and Inspiration
If you require wisdom or inspiration, whether it be in witchcraft or some other aspect of life, the color purple can help you get there. It is a creative color, as shown through it’s association through dreams and overall magic, let it guide you to a solution. Often if I am working on homework that requires a little bit of creativity and hit a block, I’ll get out one of my purple pens and start doing the work with that, letting the ideas flow through me and onto the paper. This isn’t limited to just writing or art, however, as even math and science require a creative mind.
– Power
Purple has long been the color of royalty and power, and it can be used as such in your spells. Use it to increase the power of any spell that you wish to perform.
Blue
– Water and Weather
When working with either the element water (whether in a symbolic sense or you’re working with an elemental) or working with the weather, use blue to connect you to these wonders of nature.
– Harmony and Peace
These meanings trace back to water, taking water’s calm and sharing it with the world. Think of it as sitting on the beach, letting the cool water gently caress your legs as you think about the amazing life you’ve been given. Within the blue seas you find peace and harmony, let is seep into your soul and your life.
– Loyalty and Protection
Blue represents loyalty and protection. Use it in spells involving protecting yourself and others, as your loyalty to your friends goes hand in hand with protecting them.
– Mind and Inner Light
Almost a cross between purple and gold, blue is another great color to connect to your mind and share your light with the world.
Green
– Earth and Nature
If you wish to connect more to our planet in a ritual, use the color green. Think of the grass, the forests, and all of the other life sprawling across this planet.
– Money and Abundance
If you want to make sigils or spells to draw money to you, use a green candle, pen, paper, or whatever tool you may be using.
– Headaches, Colds, and Nervousness
Green can help remedy ailments. Think of the Earth taking you into her arms, soothing you of all of your pain. Use green when doing spells and rituals to calm your mind and sense. (If you have chronic migraines and headaches, please go see a doctor. They will give you prescription medicine to help, and it’s what I use whenever I get a bad mirgraine, not a spell.)
Yellow
– Spirits and Realms
If you need to contact a spirit or any entity from another realm, yellow can be useful. I will say that personally I rarely use yellow when contacting spirits, however I know many people who do and it significantly helps.
– Air
Since air is something that we cannot literally see, yellow is the color often used to respresent the element.
– Intelligence and Learning
Yellow is a great color to use for spells when it comes to studying for school and doing well on tests. Sometimes I’ll draw sigils in my yellow pen when I’m freaking out about a test.
– Skin, Stomach, and Menstrual
If you’re doing any spells or rituals dealing with these parts of the body, use yellow in your tools to enhance its effects.
Orange
– Control and Authority
If you need to increase your control over certain parts of your life, orange is a great color to use. It’s a powerful color with a mind of its own and you can use it to show others you have those traits, too.
– Sudden Change and Adaptability
Orange can help you deal with change, similar to the season fall, where the temperatures drops and all of the green changes to orangey hues. Imagine yourself as a strong oak who is not going to deny change and embraces it instead.
Red
– Fire
Strong, powerful, and unpredictable, red is the color representing the element fire.
– Passion and Sex
Being two of its most common associations, passion and sex are fueled by red’s flame. Any spells and rituals dealing with increasing passion in your love life can use red to help increase its effectiveness.
– Life, Birth, and Death
Red also represents the phases of life, so if you want to make a spell dealing with age or death, red is the color to use.
– Blood
Any blood magic should include the color red. However, blood magic is VERY advanced and VERY dangerous, so please wait until you are very experienced and make sure to stay safe when doing any such magic.
– Health, Strength, and Vigor
Any general spells dealing with someone’s well being and strength can use red to help increase it’s effects. This ties in with blood, as it is the key to our physical bodies.
Well, if you’ve read through all of this thank you so much! I just want to state that these are not the only meanings, just some, and everyone has their own personal correspondences.
These are just some of many different theories about how spells work. For anybody who really enjoys “magical theory” like I do or is looking for validation that there’s something to all these weird spells! None of these serve to discredit magic, but rather add a deeper level of understanding to it. The success of a spell could be credited to more than one of these, or something else entirely!
Law of Attraction. Basically, the idea that you attract what you focus on. A popular example is focusing on the color red, and seeing how much red is around you that you didn’t notice before. This is most effective for spells involving personal matters and success, by formally opening your eyes to details and opportunities you may have missed otherwise.
The Placebo Effect. It’s a proven fact that our bodies can heal ourselves merely by belief that what we’re doing helps! This can extend beyond health spells to things like confidence, performance ability, and other things that aim at personal improvement. The placebo effect may be all that spell needs to be successful ( and it wouldn’t have happened without the spell!)
Direct cause/effect. Something about the spell and the way it was cast directly affects the outcome. Example: a sigil designed for protection, when looked at, serves as a constant visual reminder that you are protected, subconsciously strengthening your wards.
Science/chemistry. This is most true for kitchen witchery and herbalism. Chamomile, lavender, and other herbs aren’t corresponded with calmness and sleep for nothing… they’re made up of chemicals that have been scientifically proven to calm the nerves and aid in sleep!
Quantum physics. There’s a phrase called “Quantum Woo,” where people use quantum physics (often incorrectly) to explain any type of magical thinking or practice. While the ultimate theory behind quantum physics was recently disproven, the discoveries made through research still hold true. Basically, we know particles behave differently when observed, and our energies can effect this. We just don’t know why that is. This is the baseline behind a lot of energy work.
Divine string pulling. Ask and ye shall receive. This is where we depart from the physical to the spiritual side of magic. Many people do magic by appealing to divine forces, Mother Earth, God(s), the Universe, whatever you want to call it. This could be with an offering, a ceremony, or even just bedside prayer. The divine force hears the request, and grants it by affecting change and “pulling strings” to cause the desired outcome.
Spiritual string pulling. Very similar to the previous point, but with entities that are not worshipped or seen as divine. Many believe that spirits can still affect change “behind the scenes.” A spirit worker may make a deal with a spirit for luck or protection, or someone may ask their ancestors for good fortune and health.
Personal string pulling. Instead of asking an outside entity, this is the idea that we, as the practitioner, pull the strings. This is most seen through the “cone of energy” method of casting, where we raise a lot of concentrated energy and intent in a space, then release it all at once to do its thing. You also see it with sympathetic magic, where by doing something to a poppet, we actively affect that change on the target. No middle man included.
Occult Aspects 