Sending Power
The subject of how to send power may seem obvious at first. Two full chapters on raising power have value that seems apparent—there are many sources of power and many ways of raising it. But sending power? Most people think of it as sort of automatic: You raise the power until it hits a point of intensity, where it feels you’re at the maximum or it feels like “this is it,” and then you send it. Whoosh. You might think that’s all there is to it, making a chapter on the subject superfluous.
In fact, there are a number of different ways to send power, and advantages and disadvantages to each. Naturally, there are also plenty of tips and tricks one learns along the way that improve power-sending technique. Some of this discussion will combine power raising with power sending, so that, while we previously learned about the kinds of power that can be raised and where power comes from, now we’ll talk about the process from beginning to end. Some of this chapter might be called “raise and send,” but that sounds kind of awkward, so let’s stick with what we have.
We’ll start by talking about where and whether to send power, and then we’ll go over various methods of how.
Target and Goal
Target and goal are the most important concepts to understand in order to determine where you are sending power and where you are focusing your intention and concentration.
When you send energy, it is generally because you have a goal. Here is a list of fairly typical goals for which people frequently do magic:
• Finding love
• Healing (physical, emotional, spiritual)
• Protection
• Finding a job
• Real estate goals (finding a home, selling a home, keeping a home)
• Improving relationships (in romance, in a family, at work, in friendship)
• Connecting to people (finding members for your coven/band/club, finding friends)
• Self-actualization
• Spiritual goals (worship, invocation, evocation)
• Weather magic (especially delaying rain for special events)
There are plenty of other reasons to do magic, but I think this covers 90 percent of what people do. Everything on this list is a goal or a category of goals. These are why you do magic. They are not where you send power.
Imagine that you practice archery and you are trying to win a medal. The goal is the medal. The target is the round thing with the bull’s-eye on it. It’s very important that you shoot your arrow at the target and not at the goal—if you shoot the arrow at the goal, you might hit a judge, and that would be bad.
People who practice magic can sometimes be bad archers. They have a goal in mind, but not a target. I’ll tell you right now that there are occult teachers who advise against having a specific target. They’ll tell you that the gods should choose how the magic will work, and our job as human practitioners is merely to send energy into the request.
It is true that sometimes we can’t accurately pick a target, that sometimes we have to ask that the energy find a way to an appropriate target despite our shortcomings. Our target may be metaphorical—a path out of a problem, for example. But we have already determined that magic and prayer are different—I’d suggest that sending energy to the gods and just letting them figure out the rest more strongly resembles prayer than magic.
How Do You Pick a Target?
Since I’ve already offered an entire list of goals, let’s start by figuring out what a target might be in a magical working. In fact, choosing the target is a crucial part of determining how to instruct or flavor your energy and what kind of spell you’ll be doing.
Basically, figure out where the magic has to go to be effective. What is it that has to change? The goal is the desired change, but the target should be the locus of change.
Suppose your buddy Mondo has a tumor. The goal is healthy, whole Mondo. What’s the target?
• If you target the tumor, you are sending shrinking, diminishing, or blasting power directly into the tumor.
• If you target the surgeon, you’re imbuing her with skill and deftness, with an eagle eye, with the ability to miss nothing and get every cancer cell, while leaving Mondo well able to recover.
You are not targeting “wellness.” Wellness is the goal. If Mondo is doing a course of chemo first, then targeting the tumor makes sense, but if he’s having immediate surgery, then you’re probably working on the surgeon. In this example, the decision is relatively easy.
How about love magic? Many people say flat out that love magic is unethical, for the simple reason that the wrong kind of love spell can be manipulative or controlling. Don’t ever sleep with someone who is not capable of giving enthusiastic consent! Just as too much alcohol or drugs can render a person incapable of giving consent, too much unethical magic can do the same.
However, an appropriate target of a love spell is yourself. In the “real world,” if you desired a particular someone, you’d do your best to make yourself more attractive to her. This might include things about you, such as dressing better and wearing perfume, and it might include things about her, such as being in places where you could “happen” to bump into each other, or seeing her favorite movie so that the two of you could discuss it. Love spells that target the free will of the object of your affections lack her consent, just as abducting her would, but spells that target yourself and your own attractiveness, or that target proximity or happy coincidences, are entirely ethical. So while the goal might be the two of you together, the proper, ethical target is yourself, and the power should be flavored with attraction.
Specific Target
The more narrowly you target your magic, the greater the likelihood of success.
A lot of people choose a vague target on purpose. Some, as previously described, think the target should be chosen by the gods or by the universe. Others, though, seem to think a bigger target is easier to hit. That’s true: If you’re aiming for the side of the barn, you’re more likely to “succeed” than if you’re aiming for a small door-shaped space on the side of the barn. On the other hand, if the goal is to create a door, aiming for something door-shaped is going to produce a better result.
Your energy is finite. If you splatter it everywhere, there’s less to go around. If you paint the whole barn with the amount of paint you have for painting the door, your coverage just won’t be as good, your color won’t be as rich, and some spots won’t get any paint at all. Think of your magical energy like that paint.
We want Mondo’s surgeon to target Mondo’s tumor very specifically. We don’t want her just chopping away at his body and hoping for the best. Magically, we should target Mondo’s tumor equally specifically and not just send healing energy in his general direction.
Choosing a specific target is the best way to make sure the energy goes exactly where you want it to go. It’s also the best way to truly take responsibility for your own magic. After all, if you raise a lot of power and then vaguely send it “out there,” it’s not really your fault if nothing happens. No one can claim it didn’t get where it was going if “where it was going” was left open-ended. When you fully own your magic and commit to it, as you do when you specify a target in detail, you will be greatly empowered. It’s a scary step to take, but an important one.
Finally, choosing a specific target and goal helps you figure out what you really want. Often, we wish for something better in life without grasping that wish, looking at it closely, and determining what it really is. When you commit to specificity in magic, you actually discover a great deal about yourself, because you need that information in order to proceed.
Local Target
Part of pinpointing your goal and target is found in being local. By this I mean a local place, local people, and local things.
People have been doing the “visualize world peace” thing for quite a while now, and the world remains resolutely nonpeaceful. However, magic seems to have a noticeable effect on the local level.
The Maharishi University of Management—founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who is also the founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM)—has reported a “Maharishi Effect,” where crime rates are reduced in the city where TM is practiced, as compared to cities where practitioners are less prevalent. The first study on this effect was reported in 1976, but was discredited. However, there have been several studies since, including an intriguing one in 1993 in Washington, DC.
Here’s the concept: Don’t look at world peace. Look at the effect that a local group raising energy has on that locality. Look at the city, or better yet, look at the neighborhood.
Remember, too, that all of the studies that have been done have been focused on the effects of meditation. The idea is that simply generating the mental/spiritual energy creates a local impact. When you do magic, you’re not talking about the effect as a byproduct, but as the whole point of the exercise.
If I wanted to reduce violent crime in my immediate neighborhood (a local and specific goal), how would I go about it? Perhaps I could create a cloud of peacefulness that would cover and permeate a radius of several blocks. My target, then, is the cloud, and my energy flavor is peaceful and kind of sticky. The goal and target are complex and ambitious, but notice how being local and specific helps: The magic is understandable and potentially achievable, and my mind can accept it. I know what I’m doing, why, and (more or less) how. “Visualize world peace” has none of those qualities.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t do distance magic. Naturally, you have to establish a sympathetic connection whenever you perform magic, and you have easy, natural sympathy with your own locality. But because you’ve learned that magic transcends time and space, you are not confined to your own neighborhood, region, or state. The idea of “local” is about physically narrowing the parameters of the goal.
So if you’re working on Mondo’s surgeon, you should know what hospital she’s in. If you are casting a blessing over peace talks, you should know the city in which those talks are taking place and localize your energies.
Knowledge Is Power
In the previous paragraph, I used the phrase “you should know” twice. Knowledge is crucial to empowering your magic, and knowledge of the goal and target is key to a successful spell.
The more you know, the better you can target. If we return to our archery analogy, it’s obvious that a target you can see clearly is easier to hit than one you cannot see at all or can only see vaguely.
One spell I did as a beginner was to help a pregnant friend. I knew she had serious health concerns about the baby, and she’d stopped answering her phone (this was way back before cell phones, email, or social media). I worked intensively to save the pregnancy, but I eventually found out that she’d already miscarried before I did my magic. All other efforts—power raised, sympathy created, space transcended so as to reach her in Florida when I was in New York—were immaterial because I didn’t realize the goal was no longer achievable.
Here are some of the things we should know before doing magic:
• What is the goal?
• Can the goal be achieved?
• Should the goal be achieved?
• Who or what is the target?
• Where is the target?
• What are the potential repercussions of achieving the goal?
• Is magic needed?
So, for my friend’s pregnancy, the goal was to carry to term, and that goal could not be achieved.
What about “should” the goal be achieved? Often, we are looking from the outside at complex situations. We know we want to help, but perhaps we don’t know how. Our friends’ relationship is troubled. Is it best to work for reconciliation, or are these two people better off apart? A friend is in a custody dispute. Are we confident which home is best for the children? A relative has slipped into a coma. Do we work for healing or for an easy, painless passage to the other side?
Sometimes answers seem unknowable. Perhaps the person in a coma discussed his wishes with you previously, but often that is not the case.
Divination is an important tool for any practitioner of magic. It can help you determine the appropriate goal and target, whether or not magic can or should be done, and help you focus and flavor your energies. When a spell has a significant unknown factor in the mix, pull out your tarot deck, rune stones, or scrying mirror. The method isn’t important. What is important is that you draw upon your magical skills to answer questions before proceeding, if those questions have an impact on what you will do or how you will do it.
What do I mean by repercussions? I think all of us have been in situations in which we had to deal with the unintended consequences of well-meaning actions. It’s important to understand that you won’t be able to anticipate every potential result of your magic, and you shouldn’t let that stop you from doing the work. Nonetheless, a careful examination of what you’re doing and what happens next matters.
Weather working is a perfect example. Pushing complex weather systems around willy-nilly isn’t necessarily good for the environment. Sure, you want it to be sunny for your outdoor event, but is the rain needed? Perhaps you can focus your magic to move clouds to a specific nearby location, or to delay the rain by only a few hours. Healing can also have unintended consequences. In medicine, a patient’s need for treatment must be balanced by that patient’s ability to tolerate the treatment; a weak, infection-prone person may not be able to have surgery even if that surgery offers a cure. Similarly, blasting a person in delicate health with a massive wave of healing energy may not be well tolerated. Your magic may need to be tempered; an emergency doesn’t necessarily require speed and intensity.
Is magic needed? I raise this subject because of the memorable occasion when an acquaintance requested healing energy be sent to help him get over a head cold. I was, quite honestly, annoyed. There are so many worthy purposes and only so many hours in the day to devote to sending power. Why do so for an illness that is guaranteed to pass on its own fairly quickly and leave no lasting damage? While that may be a silly example, there are certainly occasions when a little research would help you understand whether magic is actually called for. This is kind of the positive flip side of “is it achievable?” In the case of my friend’s miscarriage, the magic should not have been done because of a preexisting negative outcome. What about a preexisting positive outcome? The missing child has already been found, the baby has already been born healthy, the weather report changed and rain is no longer expected. Sometimes, when I’m about to do a spell, I’ll make a phone call for an up-to-the-minute update. Is he out of surgery or is surgery happening now? Is there a fever? Has the specific area of concern changed? If ritual preparations run late, your last-minute call could bring the news “out of surgery and out of danger,” in which case perhaps magic is no longer needed, or you could focus instead on helping with the recovery process.
Splitting Focus
Focus is required for both raising and sending power. Focus on the goal helps raise power through inspiration, emotional connection, and sympathy. Focus on both goal and target helps flavor the energy. Focus on the target is necessary for sending to that target. There are times, though, when focus is challenging, not because you lack mind skills—having read chapter four, I assume you’ve developed yours!—but because there are multiple points of focus, or because the energy being raised has an unfocused quality.
One of the advantages of working with two or more people is that you can split the focus in ways that help address these problems.
Splitting Target and Goal
Let’s get back to Mondo. You have to focus on his tumor, pinpointing its exact location in his body, clearly seeing the energy rushing into it, and shrinking it into nothingness.
You also have to maintain consciousness of Mondo’s wellness—your goal. One way of doing that is to share duties among the participants.
One of the tricky parts of a group working can be to make sure that everyone is visualizing the same way—the energy can’t get where it’s going if everyone is using a different “where.” Here, it helps to know that often a goal doesn’t require precision in the way that a target does. “Wellness” can be visualized in a wide variety of ways, but a tumor in a specific location doesn’t leave much wiggle room. In a group working, having several people visualize variations on wellness, while one person visualizes the exact target, can be an effective technique. This can be done using the “battery” method, which I will describe shortly. “Variations on wellness” can be such things as focusing on an image of Mondo from before he got sick (perhaps using a photograph), or imagining Mondo doing one of his favorite things, or visualizing him laughing and clearly hearing his laugh, or visualizing him doing something he has specifically told you he doesn’t currently feel well enough to do, or perhaps picturing him in circle with you, enjoying energy raising with his friends.
Splitting Flavors and Purposes
Sometimes two different flavors of energy are needed—perhaps you wish to visualize a contemplative, sober goal, but the sending of energy should be flavored with ecstatic abandon. In Mondo’s case, we want him joyfully healthy, and that joyful tone can infuse the goal. At the same time, the surgeon being targeted should be calm, careful, and precise. If we’re targeting the tumor rather than the surgeon, then that shrinking energy is, again, very different from joyful wellness.
Group work allows this division of responsibilities so that simultaneously, two different streams of energy can exist.
The Battery
In The Way of Four Spellbook, I described a power-sending method I call the “battery.” In terms of how batteries actually work, it’s probably a stupid name, but since the previous book is still in print, I’ll stick with it.
One person is the “battery”—you might also call him the conductor, the channel, or the conduit. That person has two jobs: to visualize the target and to send the energy to the target.
Everyone else (whether that’s a group or just one other person) visualizes the goal and raises and sends power. Power raising and sending can be done using virtually any method.
Power is sent into the battery. Only the battery sends to the target.
In general, the battery is the person who is closest to the target or is best able to visualize the target for some other reason. I’ve had a nurse as the battery for visualizing anatomy (for example, when targeting a cardiac condition), and I’ve seen a pregnant woman be the battery for a fertility working.
Let’s go back to Mondo as an example. There are six of you, and you’ve chosen to dance to raise power—in part, because dancing is Mondo’s favorite thing, and this both creates sympathy and connects energetically to images of Mondo being well.
Five people dance while imagining Mondo well, happy, and dancing.
One person—Mondo’s best friend—sits in the center. This person, the battery, visualizes the target (let’s say it’s the surgeon). This person, too, is raising energy, but is doing so not by dancing but through mental or emotional concentration. He is fixedly seeing the target, and not allowing this vision to waver.
At the appropriate moment, the five dancers send all of their power not to the target but to the battery. The battery takes all their energy, and his own, and sends it to the target.
A number of things have happened here. First, exactly one person has visualized the target and sent the energy to it. That’s helpful, because multiple variations on a visualization can sometimes create distortion. Imagine several similar pictures overlaid, one on top of the other; they don’t quite sync up. It’s like a double-exposure effect; the picture isn’t quite clear.
A precisely in-sync visualization isn’t always necessary. In the case of Mondo’s wellness, visualizations were general and all over the place. That’s fine, because “wellness” itself isn’t a precise term. In a group, we should all agree in advance as to what we’re visualizing and which parts must be precise. Precision is then achieved by exactly one person owning the visualization and the final sending.
Another thing that has happened is that the focus has been split in both of the ways previously described: the group was responsible for the goal, while the battery was responsible for the target, and each gave different flavors to the energy they created. Mondo’s wellness and joy carried the surgical excellence to its destination. The battery working allowed two different focuses, and it allowed two different flavors of energy.
In a “burst” sending (which I will describe shortly), the battery is also the person who decides when the power will be sent, or who “calls the drop.”
Splitting Power and Focus
Another way to divide the magical duties is between raising the power and doing any visualization at all. When magic is raised through an extreme experience, maintaining focus can be difficult. There are a number of ways to overcome this drawback, but one way is through shared duties.
Sex magic is a great example. When you’re caught up in the ecstasy of sensation, picturing your magical target might not be the easiest thing, and picturing that target may not be what you need in order to achieve orgasm.
So how about this: Partner A maintains a clear visualization of the target while bringing Partner B to orgasm. B’s entire job is to raise as much sex energy as possible and, at the moment of orgasm, send it all to A. A’s job is pretty much the battery job, with the added responsibility of getting B off.
Naturally, B should be an awesome partner and make sure to reciprocate sexually after the sending of power (if A is willing). You can even use this as an opportunity for a second sending of power.
Sex, pain, and certain forms of trance readily lend themselves to this kind of splitting of duties.
Splitting Focus and Power When Working Alone
When you’re working alone, how can you split focus? Previously, we split between multiple flavors of energy, we split between focusing on target and focusing on goal, and we split between raising energy and focusing/sending. In each case, we achieved this split by dividing duties among different people. Alone, you have to be a little more creative, and you also have to be a little more methodical.
For splitting flavors of energy, I would raise energy twice, and choose the highest-priority goal first—for example, a wave of slow, methodical energy to Mondo’s surgeon, followed by a wave of joy. Raise twice, send twice.
For splitting between raising energy and sending energy, see “Sending Power into Storage” later in this chapter.
My usual technique for splitting the focus between target and goal is to divide between the inner visualization and a focal object.
I can use a picture of Mondo, stare at it, hold it, and so on, while seeing his surgeon in my mind’s eye. Or I can do the reverse. Both target and goal are present—one in my visualization and one as an external object. When we talk about sending power into storage, we’ll see that the focal object can also be holding power that was sent into it.
When I raise power as a solitary, I usually do so in a way that allows me to maintain this dual focus. For example, drumming or other rhythm allows me to stare at a picture and visualize in my mind.
Words of a chant or call can also be used in splitting focus alone. If I repeat a chant about wellness, I’m using music, repetition, and words of power, and while I’m raising power in this way, I’m also aiding my focus—the words about wellness help keep my mind on a goal of wellness without even concentrating, while I consciously focus on the target.
Sending in a Burst: “Male” Power Sending
When I talk about “male” power sending, I am not talking about anything particularly gendered. It’s a method used as often by women and non-binary people as by men. I picked up the terminology from Isaac Bonewits,17 who likened two kinds of raise-and-release to the way energy moves in male versus female orgasms. Isaac used to speculate that perhaps it’s because we live in a patriarchal society that male power sending is the norm in modern magic, especially Wiccan and Neopagan magic.
Male sending follows this pattern: power raising begins gradually, building slowly or quickly but steadily toward a peak, and on the peak, the power is sent all at once, in an intense burst (Figure 3). Often, the whole process takes only a few minutes.
A typical Wiccan version of this kind of power sending is used in “raising the cone of power.” Witches dance, walk, skip, or run, first slowly, but with increasing tempo, around the circle, chanting, calling, or clapping. Someone “calls the drop,” basically shouting “Now!” Everyone drops immediately to the floor, throwing all the power into the cone, up and out, toward the target.
This kind of power raise-and-send is, at its heart, quite simple. There are a few things, though, that can make it go better. First, allow yourself or yourselves to feel around for a groove before things really get started. To continue the sexual analogy, don’t shy away from foreplay! In a group, it can take a few moments before you’re all on the same page, using the same beat, feeling the same energy, singing in tune. Even if you’re doing something quiet or stationary, finding that sense of unity can come with a few false starts, and that’s okay.
For a solitary, the barrier is often self-consciousness. A group may struggle to sync up, but they also give one another confidence. When you’re alone, if you falter, there’s dead air. If six people drum together and one loses the beat, the other five keep going. It can be harder, alone, when you can’t hear that beat maintaining, waiting for you to rejoin, but must “catch up” only with the rhythm in your heart (or perhaps a recording).
Instead of aiming for your power to rise smoothly in a steady line to a peak, allow for some variation, some ups and downs (Figure 4).
When I first started practicing magic, those dropping-off points scared me. I would lose confidence that the power would eventually come back up, and I’d send power at a low point, fearing that was as much as we could get. It was a great lesson for me to learn to let go, to trust, to let the power dwindle down to nearly nothing, if need be, and watch as it climbed to a peak more beautiful, more thrilling, than the one that had dropped off and caused me to panic.
Here’s another important aspect of this technique: You want to send just before the peak, not at the peak (Figure 5). Look at those final drop-offs. When you’re done, the power drops off very fast, pretty much crashing. (Again, the “male” analogy really works.) When you feel the moment coming, when it feels as if the peak will come any second, send.
What if you miscalculate, and the peak comes and the drop-off comes and you didn’t send? Should you send during the drop-off ? No! Allow that drop-off to become another valley in the jagged climb to the top, catch your breath, let the power climb even higher, and then send. You’ll probably be extra-exhausted when you’re done, but you’ll have sent a powerful stream of energy to your target.
Sending in Waves: “Female” Power Sending
Again, this analogy about gender has nothing to do with the gender of the participants. Female power sending is a technique that replicates how many women have orgasms.
Here, the power is raised more gently and more steadily. There is no focus on peaking. Instead, the power rises and falls in waves, and is sent continuously as waves rise (Figure 6). There is no need to coordinate sending. There is no “Now!” In a group, people send power as they feel it, and raise and send simultaneously.
During this kind of power raising-and-sending, you will not be going for any kind of build. Power will build naturally; it will flow into high spots, and those spots will become higher and higher, although sometimes, just as in the burst technique, there will be valleys. A wave method of raising and sending may ultimately end in a burst (just as a female orgasm does), but it may also taper off, with waves gradually decreasing just as they gradually increased.
Wave sending can be maintained for a long period of time. In order to effectuate timelessness, I never use a watch or clock during a magical ritual, but I’d guess that I’ve maintained this kind of power sending for thirty or forty-five minutes. It’s quite effective in combination with a trancey or meditative power-raising, or with a raising that is of necessity slow, such as certain kinds of textile magic.
Sending Power into Storage
Power can be sent somewhere and stored there. This power can be raised and sent in a burst or wave, as just described. When it is sent into an object, this object then becomes a source of stored power, as described in the previous chapter.
Talismans
A talisman is a magical object made to be worn or carried for a particular purpose. There are many names for such magical objects—charms, amulets, jujus, fetishes, etc.—and each is slightly different. A talisman is something made for a singular magical purpose, often marked with potent symbols and imbued with magical energy.
For example, planetary talismans have various symbols associated with the individual planet, are created during appropriate planetary hours and from appropriate planetary materials, and provide power associated with that planet. So the talisman of Venus protects against jealousy and preserves marital harmony; it has on it a dove (among other things) and is made of copper.
When power is sent into a talisman, the purpose of the magic is fulfilled by wearing, carrying, or otherwise situating the talisman (placing it in the home, burying it, etc.).
Power flow, as we’ve been considering it up to this point, is more or less this: get the power, raise it, send it toward a target, goal achieved! So, get the power from the self, from an object, or from deity, and send it in a burst or a wave. The target may be distant or not.
Here, though, the target is an intermediary. Suppose your marriage is troubled. You might have a goal of harmony, and send harmony-flavored energy toward you and your spouse. The target is the two of you, or perhaps “my marriage” as a thoughtform, or perhaps your home—filling the home with harmony. With talismanic magic, though, you send the power into the talisman and then wear it, carry it, or place it in your home, where the power does its work.
Some occultists teach that certain talismanic symbols “trap” the power, keeping it cycling within the talisman once placed there. Since there is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine, and entropy is a real thing, you can expect that over time the power will dissipate, no matter how powerful the symbols are. Power is released (sent), but only very gradually. It’s like a room freshener, releasing a tiny bit of its power round the clock but eventually evaporating—simply having it there alters the atmosphere of the room.
You will, in time, wish to renew the power or discard the talisman if it has served its purpose. Keep in mind, though, that your talisman will continue to gain power from your mind as you wear or carry it. Every time you notice the talisman, you’ll be reminded of the power-raising, and your memory will give a little extra juice to it. This will not keep the power going indefinitely by itself, but it tends to maintain the power for longer than you’d think.
Burial
One of the uses of burial is as another form of storage. You send power into an object that is buried. (There are other uses of burial in magic as well.)
As with a talisman, the power of something buried dissipates gradually—and by the way, a talisman can be the “something” that is buried, but the possibilities are endless. What’s unique about burial is its use to send power specifically through a piece of land. The power can be sent continually, by the object being in the ground, or it can be released as the object rots or disintegrates or otherwise interacts with the earth.
Burying an object filled with protective power is a typical method of protecting a home or other location. It is the magical equivalent of an invisible fence—typical locations for burial are at a property’s borders or under the front step.
Knots
Sending power into a knot for storage (again, via a burst or a wave) ties the power up. Imbuing your intention into the power—flavoring it with your purpose—places that purpose into the knot for later release.
While a talisman releases the power gradually, a knot does so all at once. Often, a knot is used as a “just in case” spell. A classic example of this is the folklore custom of Witches knotting up a wind. This practice is noted in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and is well documented in other sources.18 The Witch sends power—in this case, wind—into a rope with three knots in it. Untying the first knot releases a gentle breeze. Untying the second knot releases a strong, stiff wind. The third knot releases a hurricane. The ropes were sold to sailors to untie when a wind was needed.
The principle is applicable for plenty of other things besides wind. Certainly, it could be used for other kinds of weather magic. I’ve never tried tying up “fair weather” in knots, but it seems plausible. A wind has the quality of a thing; it seems more concrete than “a nice day,” which is sort of nebulous, so I imagine a wind is easier to capture in a knot. I should also warn you that weather magic can be very tricky indeed. When you release a wind or push away rain, that has an effect on the atmosphere: the wind and rain go somewhere, having an impact on surrounding weather systems. It’s not easy to control and can have an unfortunate domino effect.
The Cone of Power
One of the most interesting examples of how power can be sent into storage and then released is the traditional Witch’s cone of power. As described earlier in this chapter, the cone of power is raised and sent in a burst. But let’s delve more deeply into how it is used.
One of the ideas behind a Wiccan circle is that, once cast, it contains all energy raised within it. The circle holds the energy in, like a pressure cooker, so it can build. Then, when the energy is ready to be released, a “cone of power” is created, all the previously raised energy from the ritual is sent into it, and away it goes. The sending, then, is not just of the power raised during the act of raising the cone, but of all the power raised in the entire ritual.
If a worship circle is held and no thaumaturgy is performed, then releasing the cone of power sends the energy off to the gods for their pleasure. However, if power is raised for a magical purpose, it can be stored in the circle until released by the cone.
This is not a technique I have seen many Wiccans use. Earlier Wiccan literature suggests this use but doesn’t describe it as explicitly as I’ve done here. Most people nowadays seem to go for a power-raising that is immediately sent off, out of the circle, without using the cone. Younger Wiccans may not even be familiar with using a cone at all.
However, in the traditional use of a cone, magic is a two-step process. First, a spell is prepared, as we’ll detail in chapter eight. Everything up to the point of raising and sending power is readied in the circle, and perhaps some preliminary power is raised. (This may be referred to as “charging” or “setting” the cone.) Then, at the designated time, the cone of power is raised and the power is sent—for the spell and otherwise. Theoretically, more than one spell could be prepared, and the cone would be raised and sent only once.
The “designated time” is often determined by tradition—that is, a Wiccan tradition will have a set order of liturgy, which may include when the cone of power is created and sent.
The entire concept of two-step spellwork, where raising and sending are separated, is interesting to me. The talisman work of Austin Spare is another example of splitting the creation and execution of a spell into two parts, although Spare’s work is significantly more complex.
Austin Osman Spare, a British occultist who briefly studied under Aleister Crowley, developed a method of creating talismans artistically, using letters of the alphabet. Donald Michael Kraig called them “compressed alphabet talismans.”19 As Kraig—the occultist and author who was among the first to combine high magick and Neopaganism in a single work—described it, the talisman is created based on a meaningful word or phrase. Obviously, during the creation of the talisman, the meaning is very much in your mind, and you are pouring mental energy and intention into it. But it is then set aside, and consecrated later. It can actually be consecrated or charged when the original purpose is forgotten! The idea is to allow the subconscious to take over the connection to the spiritual planes.
Power sent into storage can be another way of splitting power from focus. Power is raised with concentration and focus and sent into storage. Then, power can be sent ecstatically, or using pain, or with deep, mind-altering trance. There is no need to concentrate; the concentrated visualization is already contained in storage. Spare’s magic addresses this. If the power is sent into the talisman through orgasm, for example, you can simply be in the moment, allowing the subconscious mind to do its work, confident that the meaning is contained in the “compressed alphabet” writing itself.
A lot of magical practitioners emphasize the momentum of power raising; indeed, the whole male/burst technique necessitates building and building in a (relatively) continuous stream, and that’s the dominant technique nowadays. Two-step methods show us that power can be raised, saved, and then sent, and this is useful knowledge.
Mass Sending
There are times when large numbers of people, in a variety of locations, are raising and then sending power for a united purpose. This has been done in the magical community when the purpose was global, especially on a special occasion, or when the purpose has been timed to a political event, or when healing has been done on behalf of someone well-known around the world or around a region. I participated in such workings back when they were arranged via telephone—coordinating via the Web is obviously a good deal easier.
Coordinated Sending
In a coordinated sending, everyone agrees that their ritual will start at exactly the same time. This means real time—the purpose is for everyone to send together, so that if I am in New York I send at 9:00 p.m., and my friend in California sends at 6:00 p.m.
“Exact” time can actually be a bit tricky, especially if people have different magical practices. If my Wiccan tradition requires about ten to fifteen minutes of preliminary ritual before magic is performed, and your magical lodge requires twice that, then starting at the same time doesn’t actually result in us sending energy at the same time. And as I’ve stated previously, working with timelessness is enhanced when there are no clocks or watches present in the ritual space, which can be an impediment to coordinating.
A mass sending need not be the work of hundreds of people. Two or three magical groups in two or three different locations might wish to sync up their efforts. Sending at close to the same exact time is easier with a smaller group, although pooling the largest amount of energy at the same time is more intense with a larger group. Basically, there will be some variation in the exact time of the sending, but it will cluster around the prearranged time like a bell curve: the more people involved, the more hits in the fat center of the bell.
I’ve used coordinated sending in much simpler circumstances. It can happen that a coven or other group is scheduled to meet and has important magical work to do, but one or more members can’t make it. Maybe there’s a blizzard. Maybe the car broke down. In this case, the group gets together and, as the ritual is about to begin, sends a message to those working solitary from home, and they are still “together” magically.
Creating a Funnel
Here’s a technique I used to help coordinate a large-scale working. In this case, Pagans, Witches, and magicians of all stripes were doing a coordinated working for a well-known Pagan who had fallen ill. There were literally hundreds of people all over North America (perhaps elsewhere) participating. My then-husband had been one of the primary organizers of the coordinated healing, and we worked at home with our coven.
We had a set time, but we knew that people would be sending energy plus or minus that time. We also knew that most people work in the male style, so that bursts of energy would continue to arrive over a period of time.
We decided on a female style of working, raising and sending in a long, slow, steady stream. We focused on visualizing a huge funnel directly over our target’s hospital. The purpose of that funnel was to receive and then direct the energy, capturing it as it arrived and sending to the target. We used the slow wave of sending to maintain the funnel for a very long period of time, “catching” the energy throughout the period of the working.
Rolling Thunder
“Rolling thunder” is something I first learned about back in 2006, when the first coordinated mass workings began for Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, who had just been diagnosed with cancer. (Morning Glory passed away in 2014.)
According to her husband, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart,
It’s coordinating a ritual not for simultaneity,
but astronomically—such as at the local moment
of a full moon according to each time zone.
So, like a sunrise or sunset, it rolls around the planet. 20
The idea is not to pinpoint an exact time and not try to coordinate the very large number of people who will be sending energy. Instead, let the power flow in waves to the target (such as to Morning Glory) as the earth turns. Since time zones “roll” across the planet with its rotation, allow the power to roll across Earth—hence “rolling thunder.” In this way, a mass sending of energy can be organized without worrying about an exact time, and the target will receive a steady stream of energy over a period of time, rather than a single series of bursts.
Deciding How to Raise and Send Power
In the two chapters on raising power, we learned a wide variety of ways to do so, and in this chapter we focused on various ways to send that power, including the process of raising and sending. With all these methods to choose from, how do we decide what we’re doing on any given occasion?
Practical Considerations
• What are the physical limitations of the participants? Are you asking those with mobility impairments to run or do the limbo? Are you asking someone with fine motor coordination problems to tie intricate knots or weave complex patterns?
• What are the skills of the participants? Power raising via drumming requires someone who can keep a beat.
• What are the physical limitations of the space? Maybe there isn’t enough room for the dance you’ve planned. Maybe rolling around on the ground is better in a carpeted space than on hardwood floors. Maybe lighting fires can’t be done because you’re in a fire-prone area in a drought.
• What are the privacy and noise considerations? Is a baby asleep in the next room? Have neighbors already complained about the howling after midnight?
Any of these considerations might guide your choices. A female/wave style of sending is often a way of working around physical limitations and noise restrictions, but there are many ways of quietly doing a male/burst sending or sending into storage. Members of a group who have differing levels of ability could be the cause for some creativity regarding splitting up duties. Suppose you’ve decided that walking a labyrinth to raise power and then sending at the center is the technique most suitable for your purpose, but one mobility-impaired member would struggle with that. That member could wait in the center, holding a clear visualization the whole time, increasing the power of the working. This is, essentially, no different from having the member with the best singing voice be the one to lead the chanting. We all have various abilities that can be used in magic, as well as weaknesses that sometimes must be worked around.
Timing Considerations
When raising power, one of the most important questions to ask is What is the phase of the moon? Moon-phase effects are among the most well documented and scientifically supported of magical concerns. Moon phase has a statistical impact on crime rates,21 surgical outcomes,22 fertility,23 and more.
The waxing moon causes increase, while the waning moon causes decrease. The full moon provides the energy of fulfillment, sacredness, and lunacy, while the new moon brings energy related to darkness, secrecy, and mystery.
The flavor of the energy you raise should be consistent with the moon phase, so that you’re not working against yourself—fighting the tide, if you will. The target and goal should also be appropriate to the moon phase.
From time to time, you will encounter an urgent need to send power during the “wrong” moon phase. Suppose, upon learning of Mondo’s diagnosis and imminent surgery, it was just a few days after the full moon—it won’t be a waxing moon for two weeks. So you’d use the diminishing energy of the waning moon to shrink Mondo’s tumor instead of waiting for the energy of increase, which could increase the surgeon’s skill.
Sometimes using the moon’s energy involves making a simple linguistic change, reversing the phrasing from what we will create to what we will remove. We’ll reduce risk, decrease pain, or unwind confusion, or we’ll increase luck, improve health, or heighten clarity. Sometimes it’s a more complex matter of reconceptualizing what the work actually is.
There are plenty of other timing considerations, including time of day, time of year, astrological and planetary influences, etc. The energy of planetary, zodiacal, seasonal, or cosmic events is present anyway and can’t be avoided, so working with it simply makes sense. Allow these conditions to guide your power raising and sending choices.
In addition, you can choose to time non-urgent work based on the appropriate planetary timing. In other words, if you have magic that must be done on a particular day, then choose the energy techniques best suited to that day. But if you have work that can be done at any time, schedule it in accordance with planetary, lunar, or other influences. Even simple seasonal workings can help keep you in touch with nature and with your own life cycles, which is an added bonus.
Magical Considerations
Your primary magical considerations are the goal and the target. These should shape every decision you make about how to raise power and how to send power. Sometimes getting a handle on what that means energetically can be tricky.
There are many obvious correlations. A spell to improve one’s ability to study should draw on mind skills for power raising. Any goal related to the home in which you live can send power into storage, since (a) it relates to storage/living/having a space metaphorically, and (b) you can connect easily to the target by placing the talismanic object in your home. Fertility magic can be raised sexually and can use the metaphor of male sending to replicate impregnation. As you think through your problem and your intention, you can come up with many creative ways of flavoring both the raising and the sending of power.
The Elements
When figuring out your intention and the appropriate flavor of the working, determining the elemental qualities of the work can be a powerful aid.
There are, indeed, many magical correspondences that can help your work. If you’re a Kabbalist, for example, you’ll be interested in what path or sephirah most closely connects to the work you’re doing. A Pagan naturally is concerned with the gods or goddesses who have a relationship to the work. Tarot, astrology, runes, and many other disciplines can help to determine the flavor and style of a working.
I like to use the elements for a lot of reasons. In part, it’s because they’re simple (there’s only four of them, five if you use spirit as an element) and yet almost infinitely complex. In part, it’s because they’re universal in Western magic. For instance, tarot, astrology, and Kabbalah all draw on the four elements, and roughly agree on the meaning of each.
What you’re doing is figuring out the character and quality of the energy you need by determining what element(s) should be present in the work. For example, is healing Mondo fire or water? Both elements correspond to healing. Fire is the life force, burning and awakening. Water is the gentle healer, compassion, love, and the embrace of wellness. Is Mondo strong enough to be able to take in fire energy? Is his tumor too aggressive to be treated with water? Asking elemental questions is a way of looking at the big picture.
If you’ve chosen to work with fire, this influences other decisions. Now you’re likelier to choose a burst rather than a wave to send, and you can begin to set up your altar with fiery sympathetic objects.
I once taught a class on magic in which one of the attendees wanted to create a spell to find a new job. He had a strong earth focus to the spell he was constructing, which makes sense since earth corresponds to career as well as to money. But in listening to his actual goals, it was clear that he wanted a job that was more satisfying and fulfilling than the one he currently had. This wasn’t about money but about feeling, and that shifted the work from earth to water. Naturally, a host of other decisions about how to raise and send power were quickly rethought.
17. Isaac Bonewits, Rites of Worship: A Neopagan Approach (Earth Religions Press, 2003), 207.
18. Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples (Rome, 1555).
19. Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Sex Magick: Secrets of Erotic Spirituality (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2003), 113–116.
20. Personal correspondence.
21. C. P. Thakur and Dilip Sharma, “Full Moon and Crime,” British Medical Journal vol. 289 (December 22, 1984), 1789–1179, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1444800.
22. Robert Preidt, “Moon’s Cycle Tied to Heart Surgery Outcomes: Study,”HealthDay (July 22, 2013), https://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/heart-stroke-related-stroke-353/moon-s-cycle-tied-to-heart-surgery-outcomes-study-678381.html.
23. Fiona MacRae, “Lunacy? Women Are More Fertile During a New Moon and Most Likely to Conceive During the Darkest Nights, Say Scientists,” DailyMail.com (October 24, 2014), www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2807180/Women-fertile-new-moon-likely-conceive-darkest-nights-say-scientists.html.