Cooking with Magick

There has been a lot of talk lately in several of the magick based blogs that I read, about whether or not magick works simply based on belief. This notion is fairly new to the Witchcraft scene and is not something a traditional worker would say, but the idea has gained support in the last twenty years or so.

The working of magick can and usually is a fairly simple process. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes very complex rites can yield extraordinary results. Generally though, magick is straight to the point and is a simple combination of four things.

Yep, all magick is made in a large metaphorical cauldron that has just four signs on the side, these are what make the magick stick. As the mental theory would indicate, one of those is psychology. All four of the signs are present anytime magick is done, and they are the reason it works. We just don’t always remember to give credit to all aspects of the process.

So in no particular order, here are the other sigils that would line that would be cauldron birthing forth the magick. There needs to be energy… yep, energy.

Everything has its own essence, own energy, own mojo, as the Southern Conjurer* would say. Magick makes use of energy, sometimes it is our own and sometimes it is from the tangible, and sometimes it is celestial or cthonic. This, I believe brings us to the next inscription on the cauldron.

The next is the aide of outside agents. This can be the aide of spirits, Archangels, some God or Goddess, or anyone/thing else that has its own will, whether that will is created or not is irrelevant. Typically, this aspect of magick is neglected in discussion in modern forms of Witchcraft, or at least in the outer circles of Witchcraft. Just remember, that every time we do work, there are other wills that are at our aide.

Every successful worker of magick very quickly, intentional or not, gathers about themselves allies in their work.

The last of the four is knowledge. A Witch, or any magick practitioner, must know how to effectively combine the above three towards one coherent objective. Far too often, failure in spellwork comes about as a result of defeating ourselves by not having a consistent, logical, balanced, and patterned iconic system that is the framework from which the work is molded. I recommend before reinventing the wheel, that the individual turn toward any of the many centuries old systems that many others have built the foundation for.

There is one last thing that I failed to mention that is needed. All of the above is great towards getting results, but without the Witch to stir the magick to life in the cauldron, that which comes out the cauldron will not have transformed from what it was going in.

Boidh se!

-Spanish Moss

"Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path."

*Note: Basics for magick cooking metaphor shamelessly stolen (cause I like it) from Crossroads Joe (go read his blog, listed on the right), and then added upon by me.