Methods of Magic and Sources of Energy
Welcome back to Witch Wednesdays, I’m Steph and you are listening to the first episode of 2022!
Methods of Magic
- Sympathetic - the most common, it’s ‘like causing like.’ You take an item that is symbolic for a person, an event, item or energy you’re trying to manifest. That’s why we use correspondences.
- Magical Link - similar, but that is specifically using taglocks. The belief that something that was once a part of someone can still affect them. Or that you are making something to give to a person that will then influence them, like kitchen magic.
- Gnosis - the term originated in chaos magic, but it doesn’t have to be only about chaos magic. It refers to a mental state where everything is cleared from your mind except the one goal you’re focusing on. This allows it to burrow deeply into your unconscious mind and continue to work there. It’s what many do in visualization practices anyway, when the mind is clear and you just focus on and visualize what you want to happen. This is inhibitory gnosis, which is meditation or gazing. On the other hand excitatory gnosis is building up so much energy on that one goal that everything else is drown out, usually though singing, dancing, drumming or other sensory overload.
- Set it and forget it - this is also known as amnesia spells. So you don’t dwell on it and link your wanting to your spell and manifesting it incorrectly. Usually sigil magic is a form of amnesia spells. Not everyone likes this method.
Every spell and ritual needs energy. It doesn’t matter if you have all the right tools, crystals, herbs, or corresponding moon phase if there’s nothing powering the spell itself. You just won’t get the magical response you’re looking for. We all have energy, and it’s all around us. It can’t be created or destroyed, but it can be manipulated and focused, which is the basis for spellwork.
Resources for Energy
- Personal energy is the easiest to access and assign intention to, because it’s already your own energy. It’s also always with you, so you can access it at any time, no matter your location. This is what most beginners use, and what we had episodes on way back in the beginning of this podcast.
- Downsides: limited resource, and overuse can lead to physically ill symptoms (think Harry Potter and a patronus charm). So it’s really only useful for short term workings and low energy workings like spell bags. Things that are temporary. If something is going to be working for days, you need to draw on some other resource.
- Coven energy is drawing on the energy of other practitioners in addition to your own, one of the reasons covens are so popular. So when you have a bigger working that is benefiting a whole group, no one person is using all of their energy and getting burnt out.
- Downsides: you have to pick the right coven - listen to the coven magic episode to learn other downsides.
- Earth Energy is abundant, and also neutral, making it ideal for beginners. We talked about this in the grounding episode and also the earth element episode that was back in early December. You can add any of your own intentions to this type of energy. Since it’s so easily accessible, you can use it to replenish your own personal energy. And it can be returned right back into the earth. Some witches report an overabundance of energy that manifests in physical feelings like buzzing, vibrating, generally feeling too high energy and slightly out of it. When that happens, you can drain some of that excess energy back into the earth through reverse grounding.
- Downsides: it takes more work to add your specific intention to it. Your own personal energy is easier to manipulate, but the neutral earth energy takes a little more work.
- Elemental energy from the four physical elements of earth, air, fire, and water can also be used to power a spell, and each one has its own associations, which is something we went over in each of the elements episodes last season. The type of spell and desired outcome will determine how much of the element you need to work with, because obviously the power from a cup of tap water is much different that standing under a waterfall or near the ocean to complete a spell.
- Downsides: harder to make this work in large quantities if you’re in the broom closet, and you may find it easier to work with only certain elements. If you need the correspondences of fire and aren’t that comfortable with the fire element, it’s probably not the best source of energy for you.
- Energy from objects like plants, crystals, metals, etc. is innate. We talked about this in the crystals episode, about how crystals work and are used in things like radios. Some pagan paths also believe that these things have spirits themselves, which is called Animism. Regardless if you view it as innate energy or a spiritual energy, it can be drawn on in spellwork. This is why we include these things in spell jars and charm bags. It’s occasionally because of their physical properties, like when using herbs in healing, but it’s more often because of their energetic properties. The energy of those items, if it matches your intention for the spell, will draw in the same energy to manifest that spell. For example, when crafting a spell for self love, witches often use rose quartz because of its energetic properties that correspond with love.
- Downsides: each of these items on their own don’t contain a ton of energy. They mostly help you boost the intention of the spell, so you still need another source of energy for the spell. There is more energy though if you are instead working with the living plant’s spirit.
- Spirits and deities can also offer a source of energy, but it’s not for everyone. This encompasses all types of spirits out there including fae and familiars, so what you choose to work with will depend on your own traditions. So you either ask for their assistance in a working, where you put your own energy in and then ask for theirs as well, or you ask that spirit to do something on your behalf, so they can manifest it for you.
- Downsides: you always have to give something in return, like an offering. They are also associated with specific things, so you have to pick the right deity for that working and then build a relationship with them.
- Cosmic energy is a common energy to work with, as many witches are drawn to the moon and the power of the different moon phases, and talk about how Mercury in retrograde ruins everything. But you can also work with the sun and all of the planets, each of which have their own associations, as well as the stars and comets. The constellations of the zodiac signs are also very popular to work with.
- Downsides: they aren’t all great for a beginner. Some have very intense energy, like that of Mercury. The moon is a better one to start with.
- Energetic tethers can power spells for advanced practitioners. You can create a physical object that you pour personal energy into daily over a long period of time, so it stores all of that energy for later use. It has to be an object that can hold a lot of energy (copper and quartz store energy). Then you attach the working to this ‘battery’ to keep it powered for a long time, instead of attaching it to yourself and your own personal energy. You can also make a battery that charges on a cycle, like the moon cycles. But it’s not easy, since you have to energetically link (using your own energy) the spell to the battery.
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