chapter two
The Anatomy of a Spell
When you have no knowledge of spellcrafting, looking in a book of spells seems like an unfathomable mystery. From the old translated Greek papyri and alchemical texts to the most modern kitchen witchcraft book, the words, colors and ingredients often seem to be randomly mixed together. There is some inherent order, some rhyme to the reason, yet if you don’t know the codes and correspondences, it makes no sense. The thought of really doing your own spells seems impossible.
Like any unknown, when you look at one part at a time, it seems easier to understand. When you take something apart, and understand how the parts work together as a whole, the craft of magick becomes much clearer.
Although there are many variables to magick, much like the human body itself, the anatomy of a spell consists of three basic components, regardless of the tradition or ritual. The three components are:
1. altering consciousness
2. clear intention
3. working with energy
If you have all three components, you can stylize them in any way that makes you feel comfortable. It will still work. If you are missing any aspect, then you spell is not likely to manifest. It’s like missing a vital organ. The whole cannot be sustained.
Working with these three components is the creative aspect of ritual design. Each tradition and in fact, each ritual, has its own way of altering consciousness, focusing intention and manipulating energy. Ritual is the technology, the vehicle to do spell work. Just as most cars have the same basic machinery to get you from point A to point B, rituals have the same basic machinery.
The difference is in the style. Not all cars look and feel the same way. We each have our preferences. You may have a favorite color, manufacturer or model. Some like convertibles, some like controlled air conditioning. Some preferences are based on economic choices. They are not always what we want in our wildest fantasies, but they are what is practical. Spell work is the same way. Our fantasy of magick might be dancing naked around the bonfire, deep in the forest, on the night of the full Moon. It’s a wonderful way to work magick if you can get it, but most of us can’t, at least not regularly. Practically speaking, we need a style of magick we can do in our own home, and in the quiet moments of the day. Fire dances and kitchen witchcraft both share the same three components. Both will take you were you need to go to do spellcraft. The difference is in the style and practicality.
Altering Consciousness
The first component, altering consciousness, is often overlooked in modern spell casting. The purpose of most rituals is to alter consciousness. When we change our mindset, our relationship to the inner and outer worlds, we find that still point where all magick is most effective. It’s the foundation to magick. When we are immersed in and distracted by our cluttered thoughts and daily concerns, we cannot find that still point to do our magick. The techniques of altering consciousness bring us out of day-to-day focus, letting us step between worlds, step out of space and time, and work with magickal energies. We can still be aware of the regular world, and still function, but our focus, our anchor in reality has shifted. When we shift our reality anchor, the endless possibilities of magick open up to us. We sense things unseen to us before and the road rises up to meet us, to guide us in the next step.
Altered consciousness seems to be this elusive state achieved only by mystics and gurus, but technically it refers to changing your consciousness from wherever it is at currently, to a new and different level. In spell casting and magickal meditation, it usually refers to altering your consciousness from the waking level of reality scientists have called beta level, to a lower brain wave state, creating a more relaxed, yet focused state in the alpha, theta or in the deepest levels, a state called delta. Alpha is a relaxed state that includes daydreaming as well as the trance like states caused by repetitive dancing and music. We all float in and out of alpha all the time. The difference between a daydream and magick is the conscious control of the switch. This is the art of altering consciousness.
Repetition and structure in thought, word and movement is what creates altered consciousness in ritual. Eastern traditions use the repetition of a mantra as a meditative focus. One sacred sound, one word or phrase is repeated silently over and over again. When it is spoken or sung, the mantra becomes a chant. Western traditions have their words of power as well, and many eclectic practitioners just repeat their magical or mundane name over and over again. People also count their breaths. You can stare at a visual focus, called a yantra or mandala, to induce an altered state. All the senses, not just sound and sight, can help create a new awareness. Candles, incense, oil, food and drink play a part in many different types of ceremonies. All of the various rituals, both in meditation and magick, are designed to induce an altered state.
Any ritual designed to induce an altered state must have boundaries. It must help you enter and cross the first boundary, and actually succeed in getting you into an altered state. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Sitting in a dark room with your eyes closed, breathing deeply will get you into an alpha state usually within less than five minutes.
The ritual technique must have a way of ushering your return back to normal ordinary consciousness. The method must ground you back into physical reality, into the here and now, and not leave your awareness floating.
We these thoughts in mind, create your own ritual to enter an altered state of consciousness. Make it something you can do almost anywhere to focus your awareness. Look to this exercise as an example to inspire you.
Altering Consciousness
Sit down comfortably and close your eyes. You can light a candle or incense, or play soft music to help you relax, but you don’t have to do so. Ultimately, you will want to be able to alter you consciousness anywhere, under any circumstances, but if you are just starting out, do whatever you think will help you create a relaxed feeling.
Bring your awareness to the top of your head and scan your body, bringing your awareness slowly down from the crown to the feet. As you pass each body part, give it permission to relax. Be aware of resistance and stress, and when you find such places, image waves of relaxation flowing from your crown, through these zones, sweeping them clear of all unwanted energies. Allow yourself to relax fully, to the best of your ability.
Breathe deeply. Take full, slow breaths that fill your lungs to the bottom, and gentle release the air. Try to make each inhalation and exhalation a little longer than the last. Feel the breath like gently winds, blowing back and forth. Imagine any distracting thoughts in your mind are like clouds, and your breath gently nudges them out. Don’t obsess or try to control them. Just let the winds of your mind sweep them away, until your mind is like a clear sky.
Focus on your heart. Feel the energy in your chest. Feel the beat of your heart and the flow of your blood. Feel the love you hold in your heart. Feel the love you have for family and friends, the love you have for the divine spirit, and the love you have for yourself. Within your heart and soul, feel the spark, the flame of light that will guide you. You don’t have to see anything in your inner vision. Just know its there and acknowledge its presence.
Though this centering ritual we have acknowledged the four traditional elements of magick. Relaxing the body helps the earth element. Clearing the mind and focusing on the breath is for the air element. Focusing the heart, blood and love is symbolic of the water element, while the spark of our soul is for the fire element. This alone is enough to alter your consciousness, but it can prepare you to go deeper.
With each breath, count down from twelve to one. I imagine that my mind’s eye is like a movie screen or chalk board, and I am drawing the numbers twelve, then erasing it and drawing eleven and so on, until I reach one. That activates my more active, analytical mind, yet focuses it on the tasks at hand. Then I count down from thirteen to one, not visualizing, but simply listening to my inner voice, activating my receptive, intuitive mind for the task.
After both counts, you are in an altered state of consciousness. Take a few moments to simply enjoy this state of mind. Feel yourself aware, yet relaxed. Focused, yet open. This is the meditative state. Our count down is only one way to get to this state, but it’s very effective for modern magick workers.
Affirm that you are in your meditative state, a state where all magick is possible, if it is for the highest good, harming none. Your magick is in accord with your true will.
When you are ready to come out of this state, reverse the process that brought your brain waves down to this level. Count up from one to thirteen. Count up from one to twelve. You don’t have to visualize the numbers at this point. Normalize your breath. Feel your body. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Move your limbs. Stretch. Activate your physical energy.
If you feel spacey, what most call “ungrounded” at the end of the exercise, you have several options. You can simply wait and center yourself. You can push your hands down into the floor, “earthing” any excess energy and helping you get in contact with the physical. You can imagine your feet are like the roots of a tree, anchoring you, or that you have a string of light descending from the base of your spine into the earth, tying you down like a balloon. You can eat or drink something, to get the metabolism to start up and bring your energy into the physical, or you can hold something that has grounding magickal properties to it, such as most dark stones like hematite, smoky quartz and black tourmaline. Once you feel grounded, you can return to your normal routine.
Practice this skill of altering consciousness daily until you are well versed in it. The process will come in handy for future acts of instant magick and meditation.
Clear Intention and Divine Will
What do you want? Do you really want it? Have you thought about what it entails and how your life will change once you have it? If you can’t answer these questions easily, then you do not have the second requirement of magick—clear intention. You must know what you want before you set the wheels of creation in motion. You can do magick without clear intention and get results, but it’s not very smart. The result you get isn’t always what you really want.
Intention is the focus of your will, your primal energy used to create. Will relates to the element of fire and the ritual tool of the wand. The magick wand directs our will. Fire is the spark of creation, the spark of life within us. It is the divine godlike essence. As the divine force is a creator, we too are partners in the creation process. This is the fire that fuels our creation. If you don’t know how, where or why you are directing it, then you will never have clear results in magick. Most people are not clear in their intentions, so their will is often thwarted and they see no other options. Understanding of will and intention is what separates ordinary people from magick workers. We all have the same potential. We all create our own lives, our own realities. Those who do magick are simply more educated and active in working with their inborn gifts. They are conscious o their creations.
Working with your will, magick teaches you about two very different and distinct forms of will. First there is your personal will, what most people are familiar with when you say the word ‘will.’ It is what you want on a personal, ego level. It is influenced by your hopes, dreams, fears and past successes and failures. Personal will is not good or bad. It’s simply a part of existence. We all have personal wills.
The second will is divine will, known as true will, magickal will or higher will. This is what your soul, your higher self wants for you. It is the true “you” beyond this time, place and body. It is the bornless, eternal self. Your true will helps you fulfill your place in the divine plan. It is your life’s purpose. We have many purposes, on many different levels and in many different situations. Our true will regarding our family and relationships might be very different than our true will with our career, yet when it is true will, they are compatible and supportive of each other.
Our true will change over time. What is appropriate at one point is not at a later date. My experience as a musician and singer was my true will for a short time in my life, and in that time I was supported in that endeavor with my magick. It helped me learn many things about public speaking and getting over stage fright that has served me in my magickal writing and lecturing. It was not appropriate to remain a professional musician for my entire life. My true will called me to other work.
Many think that true magick is the acts that support, encourage and express your true will. If your magical intention is not in harmony with your true will, then you are not doing magick, or at the very least, you are not doing good magick. Magick that derail your true purpose, but are done with the intention of the highest good, harming none, often just fail. We might not be conscious of our true purpose, but we can do magick with the disclaimer “I ask this be correct and for the highest good” or something similar, to short circuit spells that conflict with our divine true will. Though many can do harmful and malicious magick, out of harmony with their true will, their spells are short-sighted and will eventually turn back upon them. Magick stemming from true will is just on another vibration than harmful magick, or magick stemming from pure ego. Some magick is not of the true will, but not necessarily harmful. Magick is a technology. If you have the proper technique, intention and energy, you can create almost anything. The question is, “should you?” Sometimes exploring desires that are not for the highest good, eventually point us towards the direction of true will. When we burn our hand, it can teach us to not stick it into the flame. Some of us have that self-preservation instinct, while others have to learn the hard way. Ultimately, magick stemming from the intention to work our true will is much more effective over the long run.
When we work magick, we find our true will by examining what is supported and what is not. We work through our desires, finding what is healthy and what is not. We work through our fears, blocks and ego. Those spells that do not manifest are usually not for our higher good, and we can more fully examine why we wanted them in the first place. By watching the spells that work best, we find experiences that support our higher will. If a spell doesn’t work, we also have to consider our technique and spellcraft before assuming it’s not for our higher will. There is a science behind magick, and if we choose to work with tools that conflict with our intention, they our spell will fail.
You might wonder why do magick at all? If we have a divine will, doesn’t that mean things are meant to happen? If we are supported by divine will, why take action? What about fate, or destiny? Some traditions take this path, but on the magickal path, we believe that divine will holds a pattern, but we have free choice as to how we will manifest that pattern. Divine will support us, but through magick, we invite it into our lives. We become active, not passive partners in its manifestation. We create our reality with it. Divine will cannot manifest without our conscious choice and clear intention. We have free will to choose to explore and express our true will. Because of our society and the general lack of introspective and intuitive skills taught, it is difficult to even have an understanding of our true will, and we take a lot of time exploring it.
The highest aspect of magick is merging your personal will, what you want, with your divine will and becoming one. Through it, western mages and witches have their own path to awakening and enlightenment. Though magick is very practical and designed to bring balance to your life, it is also very spiritual and many spell books forget that fact when giving instructions on how to make potions and charms. Magick is a spiritual partnership, a cooperative effort.
Before you do any magick, even the seemingly simple spells in the popular books, think about those initial questions. Is this something you want? If it’s worth putting time into, then you must have some desire for it.
When you really think about it, is it what you really want, or do you want something different? Many people do magick for the means to the end, not the goal, when magick for the goal is far more effective. If you are sick and lack health insurance, don’t do a spell for the money to buy your medicine. Do you really want the money, or the medicine? Do a spell for the medicine itself. Someone might give it to you free of charge. A government agency might come in and have a program that you qualify to join. There are many possibilities. In fact, I would imagine your goal would be to get better. If that’s the case, then do the spell to get healthy. If the medicine is a part of getting healthy, it will be included into the spell, perhaps with other benefits. Getting healthy might mean getting involved with an herbalist or nutritionist who agrees to take you on a client at a very low cost. If you did a spell strictly for pharmaceuticals, the energy of the spell would be not free to act and attract the herbalist into your life. Ask yourself what is your end result and once you know, go for that result with your magick.
Have you thought about the consequences of the spell and how it will change your life? Many people do spells, have success by getting exactly what they wanted, but never think about it. I know someone who did a love spell to find her perfect husband. She found him, but then was upset that he was so serious so quickly. She thought she would still be able to date other people too and have fun. Her new boyfriend wanted to get married and settle down right away. She never thought about the implication of finding her husband. She only thought she wanted it. Still, she got exactly what she asked to get.
Lastly, ask yourself if this is for your highest good? Does this support your divine will? Does it seem in balance with where your life is going? Is it in harmony with other messages and experiences, or is it contrary to what feels right for you now?
By asking yourself these questions, you become clear in your intent. You will walk the magickal path of will and learn to understand your needs and desires. You will manifest what is needed, discard what holds you back and transform your life as you merge with your divine higher will.
Energy Direction
Energy direction is the third and final component of spell casting. Altering consciousness allows you to perceive and tap into the subtle energies within and around you. Clear intention opens the pathway from what you desire to manifestation. Energy direction allows you to gather the necessary energies and launch them into the universe to manifest your will.
You need a method of energy direction. Like altering consciousness, the methods to direct energy are diverse. Different traditions combine a variety of these techniques to make effective magick. Some people use their pure will to gather and direct energy. Once they psychically sense energy, sheer focus and concentration is the only thing needed. Movement, postures and dance are all effective ways to both alter consciousness and work with energy. Visualization is an effective tool for directing energy. Seeing in your mind’s eye what you want to manifest is a prime method of programming the energy to do your bidding. Like a mantra, words and sounds focus and send energy. Affirmations, positive statements and prayers are all methods to manifest. Many prayers end with an affirmation, a statement that what is said is true, such as the Judeo-Christian “amen.” Other traditions have similar words and sounds. In Wicca, we end many spells with “so mote it be” meaning “it is so.” Energy is often raised, gathered and projected through the medium of ritual. Ritual can combine a variety of techniques together fluidly and effective to create change.
Think about how you perceive and manipulate energy best. What senses and techniques appeal to you? If working with subtle energy is brand new to you, and you have had no previous experiences, try this simple energy exercise to get your feet wet. Then experiment on your own.
Sensing and Manipulating Energy
Sit down comfortably. You don’t have to get into a deep meditative state as in Exercise 1, but you should be relaxed and in a receptive frame of mind.
Raise your arms out and to the sides, palms facing forward. Slowly bring your hands together. With each moment and breath, allow yourself to sense the energy between your hands. It will not necessarily grow stronger the closer your hands are together. You can feel the energy pass in waves. Some waves will have certain qualities, differing from others. The energy can be felt like resistance from a magnet, or perhaps in terms of cold and hot temperatures. The experience is very subjective and everybody feels it differently, but with practice, you will feel it too.
Once you have a sense of subtle energy in your own body, play with the exercise, using other people, plants, trees and rocks as your target. Can you sense their energy? Many people can tune into one type of energy—say that of minerals—better than people. Learn where your strengths and weaknesses are.
To manipulate this energy, you can use your will, play acting and visualization. Repeat the sensing energy exercise. Bring your hands fairly close together, perhaps six inches apart. Your intention is to create a ball of light between your hands. Imagine the feeling of energy you sense is like clay, and you are molding the clay with your will and your hands, into a ball.
Energy work and breath work are intimately tied together. Breath moves energy. In the ancient worlds, the word for vital life force was often linguistically connected to the words for breath and air, believing air carries this vital energy. In Hinduism, prana is the life energy related to breath. Pranayama is breath work, specific yogic exercises, to build this energy within the body. Breath is related to the mind. Energy moves with the breath and the mind. Calming the breath alters the consciousness, the energy of the mind.
When you want to add to the ball of energy in your hands, imagine breathing through your feet or crown. As you inhale, draw up earth energy from below, or sky energy from above, and feel it circulate through your body, to your arms and out through your hands. Notice the slight differences between the two sources of energy. As you become more skilled at this, you can draw on earth and sky energy simultaneously.
You can also breathe in slow, long breaths and fast, rapid breaths to feel the energy of the body shift. By exhaling “into” the ball of energy, you can add to its power. Play with the breath and learn how energy moves with breath and thought.
Imagine it a specific color. Choose your favorite color for now. All colors have specific properties and intentions. You can experiment and see how the variety of colors affects you. If in doubt, choose a ball of white light. Make the ball bigger and sturdier as you manipulate it. When done, you can either put the ball of energy into the ground, or imagine reabsorbing it back into your hands. Later, you will learn how to create and direct this energy for a variety of intentions.
Thoughtforms
Thoughtforms are the building blocks of a spell. They are simply “packets” of energy directed by your will. An altered state of consciousness allows you to sense and manipulate energy. Through using your will, you gather your packet of energy—either literally in your hands, or in your mind’s eye. Focusing on your clear intention for the spell, you imprint your intention into the energy. Though such energy packets consist of a variety of energies, they are called thoughforms because your thoughts, your intention, rules it. You intention is like a computer program. The energy now seeks to fulfill the instructions to the best of its ability, like a computer running code.
In magick, we create intentional thoughtforms, with specific purposes. When they complete their purposes, they have used up their energy, and any remaining energy breaks down to its basic components harmlessly. Some of these thoughtforms can be crafted into semi-permanent constructs that can be periodically “recharged” such as a thoughtform designed to protection a home. Even if you don’t do magick formally, you can unconsciously create thoughtforms. Our hopes, dreams and wishes can create helpful thought forms, much like an unconscious spell. Unfortunately, many people focus on the problems in their life, and create and continually recharge harmful thoughtforms that broadcast feelings and thoughts about unhappiness, shame, fear and anger. These thoughtforms eventually become the energy “block” in a person’s energy system that can manifest as mental/emotional imbalance and even physical illness.
A key factor in successful spell casting is learning to let go of your thoughtform, thereby letting go of your intention. If you don’t let it go, it can’t go out in the universe to create your desired intention. You call it back by thinking about it, worrying about it or getting upset about it. You drain its energy, taking back its power bit by bit, until it has none to fulfill your intention. Trust that it’s working. If you could keep a completely upbeat attitude, and send it more energy, as many people try to do through repeated actions, then you could potentially empower the thoughtform, but for most of us, particularly beginners, our repeated thoughts come with doubts and fears. It’s best to learn to let it go completely, and not concern yourself as to how a spell will manifest. Juts be confident that it will because you crafted it properly.
Magical Ritual
Ritual brings together the three components of spell casting. Ritual is the structure where we place all the parts of our craft. Ritual is really a form of technology, allowing us to smoothly integrate altering our consciousness, focusing our will and raising and directing energy.
Ritual uses symbol, usually a variety of symbols, to speak with the universe. As humans we cannot process raw magickal energy. We create symbol systems to interpret energy and work with the universal powers. Even when we think we are processing energy directly, we perceive it through symbols of the physical senses. We feel it as temperature or magnetism. We physically “see” it as light. We “hear” it as sound. Our senses are symbolic when it comes to subtle energy. Some symbol systems become our spiritual structures and eventually our religions. They are the interface we use to connect with subtle energies.
Wise magick workers realize that all traditions are just that, different interfaces, and each is equally valid and powerful when used by a knowledgeable practitioner. We each resonate with particular symbols and systems. When we find systems that work for us, or create our own from parts of many traditions, we have a technology, an interface that allows us to do magick.
A computer-oriented friend describes it as operating software. There are many different kind of operating software for a computer. Each has its own style and set up. We are comfortable or familiar with a particular kind of software. We can work in other software, but prefer the one that makes the most sense to us. Often we choose that one intuitively. Its creator’s imagination is in harmony with our own. Other times we focus on the one that is the first kind we learn. It is the most familiar and comfortable. Knowledgeable users can customize their “preferences” and “settings” to make something eclectic and personal. No path is completely right or wrong. Each is a way of using ritual, of an operating system, to your best advantage.
Rituals are a form of repeated actions that are symbolic in nature. We already know symbolic actions and movements as a part of our cultural heritage. They are innate, but since most people don’t live a magical life, we don’t recognize them.
Raising your arms up to the heavens is a natural movement to connect with the energy of the sky, sun and stars. Bowing down on the ground connects you to the earth and grounds you. Arms outstretched put you in a position to receive energy. Arms crossed not only close your body language, but prevents unwanted energy from entering your space. People who feel threatened often fold their arms to cover their heart or solar plexus, places where we can feel vulnerable. All these movements have symbolic qualities to them, but they also alter consciousness and energy, whether we realize it or not. Forms of magick in the eastern traditions, yoga and marital arts, alter consciousness and energy through body movements. Ritual magick has similar, if not as vigorous, body movements.
Traditional magick rituals with which we are most familiar use ritual tools along with motions and words. The tools hold both a symbolic power and literal power. A silver chalice is symbolic of the element of water, and of the Goddess energy, but there is a natural vibration to the silver metal and the shape of the chalice. Magickal rituals use colored candles, incense, herbs, oils, stones, symbols and a variety of ritual “weapons” such as the wand, blade, chalice and shield. Each holds both a symbolic power and inherent natural vibration that makes it useful in altering consciousness, focusing will and directing energy. When you hold a symbol of a specific energy, particular a symbolic tool that has been ritually consecrated, you attract the vibration, the energy, of the concept it symbolizes.
All of these tools are much like the different paints in an artist’s box. They are the colors a magick worker can choose from to express the art of a spell. Many artists favor particular kinds of pigments, brushes and canvases. The tools we use in spellcraft reflect our personal tastes and aptitudes as well as our tradition of magick.
The rituals of Instant Magick do not use the conventional pigments of physical tools like candles and incense. Like interpretative dance or musical toning, these rituals use raw emotion, will and intention mixed with powerful words, visualization and energy. By learning the techniques of instant magick, you will learn how to create your own magick.