S2 E25 Q & A Magical Minutia Volume 9

Are emotions beneficial to spell work? If so, when and why?

They can be very useful and add power to your working. However, do not do magic in the heat of the moment (anger, disappointment, frustration). It can affect your magic in unpredictable ways. It is also good to think about your intention and get it to exactly what you want, that takes time and is hard to do in the moment.

Being a Leo moon I would find it very hard to separate my emotions out from doing spellwork, although it might be better if I could. Maybe I do and I don’t realize it when I do this. It’s important to be in a balanced place when doing spell work so doing it while angry is a bad idea because there’s a good chance you’re not as focused as you should be and will likely bring in negative energy to the work at hand. It's probably a positive thing if you are in a good mindset. But we can’t always be happy. Often we are doing spells because we aren’t happy with something. So I guess my answer is the middle of the road. Be balanced.

Is it ok to call upon the elements?

Yes definitely. The elements help our workings and are a part of the world. The problem can come when you do workings with no particular or a fuzzy intention. The energy can go almost anywhere from there.

I feel that calling upon the elements is a vital and traditional part of doing magic when called with specific intention such as doing ritual or spell crafting for example. Calling on the elements because you want to see the weather change is questionable in my book. There’s too much of a chance for it to be more harmful than beneficial because you don’t know what series of chain reactions may be set off that may not be for the greater good.

Is there a difference between an intersubjective fiction and an egregore?

It depends on where you sit on the existence of beings. If you believe they exist then an egregore is a living being related to but not exactly an intersubjective fiction. If you don’t believe in beings, then there is little difference at all.

Is spellcasting for or on someone else without them knowing an acceptable practice?

We have covered this several times before but it serves repeating in my opinion. I often see this question or similar presented on different occult and witchery forums. Doing magic upon request is acceptable in my book but should not be done without express permission by that person. We never know what is good for the other person even when we think we do. That is our judgment, not specific truth. We just can’t know that.

When doing a spell for someone should the requester be involved in the magic?

Now if you do have permission I’d just like to say that I highly advise that that person is actively a part of the work being done. This can be done by them actually doing the spell you’ve put together, supplying the ingredients, creating the chant or, and this is the MOST important piece regardless, is to create the intention and be very specific about it’s details.

When being conscientious about gardening, is there more I can do other than just tending to it and being respectful of it?

I believe it’s important to say thanks to the plants for all that they do and offer, such as joy and sustenance. Also it’s important to do harvesting for example because that moves the natural world along in its normal natural rhythm and I feel it is necessary to be a part of that. It’s great if you can do appropriately with the moon cycle and harvesting period. We are a part of that balance but we must be aware that it is bounty and to be grateful for it. Another thought is that you need to be very in tune with your plants. Not just in the asking of using them but also when you are planting them. Listen to see what their conversations are between them. Some plants distinctly DO NOT like to be near one another (this has been proven scientifically as well) and others do. You can hear this on a magical level if you are paying close attention. Their conversations can be very enjoyable or even funny. One way to tell if you are picking up on their lingo is based on your own mood. If you were in a good mood when you started and then you are suddenly finding yourself in a bad mood, you may want to check in with what you’ve been working with in the garden (specifically while planting or weeding). This also works the other way around too. Talk with your garden.

When coming into magical power and being noticed for it how do I reign it in so I’m not a beacon?

Shielding and glamours. Shielding is usually a visual of a sphere around yourself that you create for yourself that keeps out things or keeps in things as you desire. A glamor is a seeming. The word is usually used in conjunction with fairies and their magic that affects appearance specifically. A glamor is much like a shield in that you usually visualize it, but this is to affect your outward appearance or how you seem to be to other people. So shields are for energetic purposes and glamours are for physical purposes.

The best way I can think of is to learn how to harness your energy so that it’s not all over the place for starters. Then a little glamor can work wonders if you’re really trying to not be seen. That is to say a form of cloaking or a spell that you can easily put in place in a flash just by thinking of it when you need it. Now you could do an actual spell and create a chant to go with it for example and then say that chant when needed while out and about.

How do mirrors work within magic?

I have always felt like mirrors were magical and portals to other places. They can be mirrors to the soul (self-reflection) as well as used for scrying and opening portals to other places.

I see mirrors as being potential portals and used with that in mind. They can open doorways and you want to be clear as to what kind of doorway you want to open if you in fact want to do that. It’s a delicate matter. They can also be reflective in use by looking deeper into the self. For example, if you need to do some scrying to get deeper insight into something they are very useful.

What is meditation, are there different kinds and what part does focus play in meditation?

First off focus is paramount. Meditation is focusing either on emptying your mind or on a specific element. Being a person with ADHD I find meditation very challenging. The reason being is that much of meditation is pretty low key in the energy department and my brain interprets that as ‘boring’. So I have to use meditations that actively use attention, like focusing on breaths, watching a candle flame, meditating on the meaning of something.

Meditation is a sort of contemplation. There is what we all think of with meditation which is sitting quietly and allowing visions to come and go leaving us with information to be considered afterwards. That is the type where your mind is more open and less focused. Then there is focused meditation which is, for example, where one is taken on a guided journey to a destination and told that a specific message will be received and then led back out of the meditation. As you can see there are focused and less focused methods.

Is there a way to use magic to help with focus?

I guess this is a more practical way of helping with focus, but you basically train yourself to associate focus with a particular movement or saying so that when that associated thing is performed your brain goes “Oh it’s focus time”. An example would be if you meditated (multiple times over several weeks) and focused on a candle flame and said a specific phrase like “Hocus pocus focus”, then when you say “hocus pocus focus” then your brain would pop into the focus mode.

There are two ways that I can think of. One would be to use candle scrying as a practice to learn how to focus. I say this because there is random movement but you are still focusing on just the one item and letting your mind meditate while doing so. The other requires another person. That is using dowsing rods to learn how to literally focus your energy. That is extremely helpful and important in doing magic and useful in the world at large. Magic in and of itself is a focus and the more you do it the more I think it can rub off on other aspects of your life. Will it replace meds if you need them, I don’t think so (so stay in touch with your doctor) but I think it can be very helpful to use magic as a way of learning to train your mind for better focus.

Is there another way to do visualization when you have aphantasia? (Aphantasia is the inability to form mental images of objects that aren’t present. Oxford Languages)

So there are a few things you can do. Unfortunately many people with aphantasia also have trouble imagining sounds and feelings. So that brings us to images that are outside of the person. So tarot cards are rich in imagery and meaning and can be one way to empower your magic without having internal visualizations. And if you have the ability, you can create your own art.  Another thing is to have a chant that includes your intentions in it, that is a powerful way to evoke the feelings without having the ability to visualize. So an example might be if you want a simple shield spell, to bring out the World card from the tarot and feel that circle, that world around you. It is the protector of many, including yourself, from the cold and radiation of space.