Magical Theory - Tumblr Posts

Understanding Magic: One-Shot vs Continuous Magic

This post is part of a series of animistic, spirit-oriented spellcasting for beginners. Go to the masterpost to see them all.

Terms, definitions, and labels are extremely powerful. They create lines and divisions. This can create blinders which prevent us from seeing the whole picture. But it's also dang useful for navigating a murky informational swamp.

I would like to provide you with a few informational labels to help you sort information into boxes for safekeeping. Do not forget, however, to discard these labels in the future once you've outgrown their use.

I find a very good way to categorize spellwork is based on their longevity and how they are expected to operate. The best way to explain this is to jump right in.

First of all, what's a spell?

For the purposes of this series of posts, a spell is a discrete pool of metaphysical power patterned to achieve a distinct goal or outcome. This combination of power and intent is meant to have a literal effect on the physical world and its inhabitants.

One-shot Spells

Like your favorite fanfic intended to be published in one part without any followups, one-shot spells are spells which are cast once, do something specific, and then that's it.

In my way of working, the major thing that makes it one-shot magic is that either:

The spell was never tied to a physical object (in the case of pure energy work or astral magic), or,

The spell was tied to a physical object (like a candle, paper sigil, or incense), but that object will be destroyed in order to release the spell, and,

The spell is intended to do something specific once and then stop.

One way to envision one-shot magic is like assigning a specific quest to a fairy knight. He gallops out of your castle and across the kingdom to achieve what you desire. When he accomplishes the task (manifests your goal), or when he runs out of his fairy bread (the energy of the spell), he disappears - whichever comes first.

Once the knight has left your castle, it's really hard to get him to change his course of action. If you realized you made a mistake sending him out, you're probably going to have to send another knight to stop him.

Also if you tell him his job and then lock him in a room he will DESTROY it trying to get out and do your bidding. This is a little more like 201 stuff but keep that in mind :)

Pros of one-shot spells:

They come in clutch when you need something specific to happen once, but you don't need it to continue happening on a regular basis. Examples include finding a job, getting Becky fired, getting a lease for an apartment you can afford, or finding the perfect pet for your lifestyle.

They are set-and-forget. Once the initial casting is complete, you do not need to go back to recharge or monitor the spell.

You can pre-cast spells and store them inside of physical vessels (again, that's the candles, incense, paper sigil, etc etc) and wait to release the magic until you're ready.

Cons of one-shot spells:

The initial spellcasting is meant to provide them with enough power to fully complete your goal. This means they can be more draining to cast, especially if you let your personal power charge them (a fix to this, however: pre-cast the spell and continuously charge the disposable vessel over time to slowly boost it).

Because the spell is not tied to any physical vessel once the casting is complete, it can be a little more difficult for beginners or those without strong psychic senses to track, monitor, or modify their spells if they choose to.

It's an ineffective way of approaching magic in your life that needs to be both ongoing and easy to manage.

Continuous Magic

As opposed to one-shot spells, continuous magic is magic which I define as being both:

Bound to a physical vessel (such as a piece of jewelry or a container), and,

Intended to provides the same effect continuously through an extended period of time.

One way to conceptualize continuous magic is like a personal assistant that stands around you at all times. The assistant constantly works to bring you the things you've asked for, or keep away things you don't like. The assistant is also open to input and suggestions, as long as they don't stray too far out of his job description.

However, your assistant will only work if they get their monthly paycheck (that's the recharging!).

Because this assistant is always around, you can put him on unpaid leave at any time or restart his employment. You don't have to send a knight to convince the assistant not to come to work that day, you can just tell the assistant that for the time being his services are no longer necessary.

Pros of continuous magic:

They are ideal when you need a magical effect to constantly work without a set end date. Examples include most protections and general prosperity spells.

Once set up, they are easy to deal with and manage. Recharging is much easier and faster than the initial casting, and often needs to only be done monthly (or less!).

If you need to pause or dismantle the effects of the spell, doing so is relatively easy, and the spell can be started up again later.

Monitoring and modifying the spell is usually a breeze.

Cons of continuous magic:

The magic radiates out of the vessel, so where the vessel is actually matters a lot. Unless you have a taglock that forwards the magic to a different person or address, it's effects will spill out around it.

Searching for, or creating, a suitable vessel is typically more of a hassle and can be more expensive than one-shot magic.

You gotta have a place to store these bad boys. Vessels can be chosen to be very small and discreet, but their density and mass is an inherent and unavoidable factor.

Sometimes you make a continuous magic vessel and forget about it, and 3 months later you're like "why is this HAPPENING" and then 18 months later you find the jar in the back of your closet and you and your brain do this GIF with yourselves:

And boom, yeah, that's it. Two categories of practical magic.

Now I know what you're asking. Are there more categories?

Twist: There's not even these categories. Remember, we must not consider these two categories to be absolute. You cannot find one-shotness or continousness in the DNA of magic.

As varied and infinite as techniques, beliefs, and intents are, there are that many categories of magic.

An astute reader may already be asking, "what about spells meant to do one thing and stop, but you don't destroy the vessel they're in? What about energy work meant to last long-term but it's never tied to anything?"

Valid questions indeed, and worthy of much consideration.

Our purposes here are to not to try and wrangle all of magic into convenient boxes; that is too grand a task for any one blog series.

Even wrangling one little field plot of magic is serious work in and of itself. Our purpose here is instead to provide foundational guidelines and suggestions for those who want to understand practical magic and get to casting it just as soon as possible.

And not even all methodologies of practical magic, either -- just the ones I'm familiar enough with to share.

What Is Magic

Now, I haven’t made a What Is Magic post yet, and I always like discussing the philosophical background of this kind of thing. So I’m making one now, but I’m going to say something important. This is how I see magic, so it may be very different from other people.

1. The Basic Concepts

I have ideas about how magic works, and although they may not line up with other people’s, I think it’s important I put them to paper. Sometimes seeing theory like this can help people understand magic better or assist in their paths or craft.

In the end I believe magic can be thought of as a combination of the workings of four different things: Will, intent, energy, and sympathy.

These four aspects of magic put together form the basis of most magic I know of, in a way even talking to spirits could be seen as having all of these components to them. I’ll be describing each part of it in this post.

2. Will

Will is the base component all of magic, nothing works if you don’t have the will to make it work. Some things take a little will, some things take a lot of will, some things will take less and less will to make it work. For example bilocation becomes a simple matter when you’ve done it enough, and drawing elements becomes easier and easier over time.

In a ritual it’d be the power you imbue each component with, and in energy work it’d be the force with which you pull the energy you need to you.

So in my opinion, will is the force behind any form of magic. It’s the magic inside you, the drive that keeps curiosity on track, the drive that brought you to magic to start with, and it’s in more parts of your life than just magic.

Will pushes power into what you’re doing, it’s the electricity which gives life to a carefully programmed machine.

3. Intent

Intent is the shape you give to magic, in a ritual it’d be the words you say to give the ritual meaning, in knot magic it’s what you ask the knots to do, it’d be energy work it’d be the codes you give to elements and emotions when making constructs, and the meaning behind every oracle or tarot card.

Intent works best when the intent and the element or sigil line up, which involves the sympathy component of magic, so I’ll cover how they interact later on in this post.

Intent is probably the most important part of any magic, without intent a sigil is just a drawing, a knot is just a knot, and a bone is just a bone. The will would be there, but without intent there’s nothing to direct it, it’s like trying to make tea without any ingredients. All you’d have is a cup of hot water.

Intent creates the path through which willpower can flow, giving shape and purpose to what you’re creating.

4. Energy

Energy is something I count as different to willpower, mainly because although it can be seen to work in a similar way, it has even more uses and works on a slightly different plane.

Energy is the force which moves your magic and allows your magic to continue running. If you’ve cursed someone or performed a binding on someone, energy continues the effect after you’ve completed the spell. Energy is what’s around you at all times, you can be a natural producer of some elements of energy, like I produce chaos and air, making them easiest to call on for me.

If you’re performing a ritual using resources, there’s a chance you’ve used things charged with or made to represent different energies. Such as moon water, crystals, herbs, you get the idea.

Energy continues the effects of magic after you’ve completed the initial work, and sometimes assists in creating or affecting the world around you.

5. Sympathy

I call this component sympathy, because that’s the basis of the word for sympathetic magic. The idea of sympathetic magic is that the energy of something can be mirrored by something else, for example a voodoo poppet is sympathetic magic, because it’s mirroring the energy of a person so that they can be affected by the witch using it.

Sympathy is the shape of a sigil, the crystals corresponding to different elements in a ritual, the physical form of the tarot card, and the taglock you use when trying to help another witch. Sympathy works together with every single other aspect of magic. It’s the method by which people can move energy vast distances, and it’s the visualisation used in bilocation. It’s the most abstract concept I’ve ever theorised in magic, and it’s what I spend a lot of time trying to isolate and work with.

Sympathy is the translator of magic, the connection between everything. It works to allow you to interpret as well as, in a way, speak the art form known as magic.

6. Working Together

Will and Intent These two work in unison and are often hard to seperate, when you put your will into magic, using intent at the same time is natural. If I wanted to bind someone then I’d put the will to bind in with the intent, I don’t really know how to do it any other way.

Will and Energy These components work together by being the driving force that keeps magic going. Will causes the magic to work during the initial actions, energy takes it on after the initial setup is done. Take a ritual, you use willpower during the ritual but afterwards the energy takes it over.

Intent and Energy Energy in some ways can be used to shape intent, for example in energy work you often use certain elements with certain intents because those elements already have a similar intent. Chaos will want to cause chaos, air will want freedom, earth will want to be grounded. Intent and energy work hand in hand to shape the world around you.

Sympathy Sympathy works with practically every component of magic. There’s sympathy working together with energy when you use objects to correspond to elements. Sympathy working with intent when you use music. Sympathy working with willpower when you fortify yourself with tea and emotional strength.

Artist Credits: 1. Spirit of the Forest (Tumblr) 2. Dan Dos Santos (Harry Dresden Sketches) 3. James Firnhaber 4. Julian Bauer 5. Loish.net 6. Jenny Yu

Ethics of Witchcraft

Before I start, I’d like to say this is entirely my ethics in relation to witchcraft. I’m not out here to tell other people off for what they do, left-hand path is valid, cursing is valid, you’re all valid.

I’m drawing the line at death curses though, no murdering people, it’s impolite.

1. Cursing

I’m personally not too good with curses. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when some overzealous ass with too much anger and too little sense goes after someone with a curse. In my case, some of my students were cursed to continuously suffer burns, which translated to real life pain, by someone who will remain unnamed yet hated for all eternity.

You know what you did.

All binding and screaming aside, I don’t curse people because in most cases the level of trouble I’d have to go to isn’t worth it, and also because I just think I’d regret it. I don’t like hurting people, unless they hurt the people I’m protecting, in which case chances are I’ll bind them.

I try to be a role model, but I’m worried one day I’ll break my own morals.

2. Binding

Sometimes I need to bind people, and it can be hard to make that choice, but in the end I don’t regret it. Hurting the people I’ve decided to protect is a surefire way to get some stuff sent your way, one day I’ll probably snap and curse someone, I’m not going to lie about that kind of thing. They’ll pick the wrong friend or the wrong type of curse and I’ll go off.

For now though, binding is my go-to response for curses. Get rid of the curse, bind them from harming people, it’s simple and easy if you have some yarn for knot magic but you can use whatever you want for it.

Binding people from harming others is something I think is reasonable, and it’s as far as I’ll go.

3. Fighting

I am by no means a pacifist, as you can probably guess by my energy weapon post and the fact I’ve already performed a binding on someone. In a way fighting is an important part of me being a witch. If I didn’t fight, a lot of entities would still be stalking students and friends alike.

To me fighting is a matter of choosing your battles, knowing when you need to use diplomacy versus knowing when you have to be the one to throw an astral punch. Witches have to probably fight more often than normal people, simply because we have a lot more contact with critters who aren’t quite civilised, or if they are civilised it’s in a different way then we’d like.

Fighting for safety, freedom, and the people you care about is one of the most important things you can do.

4. Love Spells

Here’s something interesting to know about me, I have a firm set of values and a list of things important to me. At the top of that list is Freedom, nothing has any meaning to me without freedom. As an old Michael Grant book that taught me for the first time what it truly meant to sacrifice everything for freedom asked me. Is it more important to be free or to be happy?

So it probably therefore won’t surprise you all that have a firm belief that love spells are worse than curses. They strip you of your free will by taking control of your emotions in the worst possible way. They’ll make you sacrifice everything for someone without it truly being you in control. Unlike curses, I know I will not use a love spell under any circumstances.

I don’t trust people who use love spells, I will never use a love spell, and I sure as hell will never let someone use one on me.

5. More On Free Will

I have immense respect for people who just get rid of parasites from people, who chaotic good it up and remove demons or what have you without permission. I think I need to be friends with a few more people like that.

For the simple reason I don’t, I figure if I get rid of the parasite they’ll go and find more, or worse yet curse me as a result. So I leave them go, I always hope they come to their senses but, I’m not happy about it.

On the other hand if the parasite attacks me, I prioritise myself and kill it. I don’t care what happens, it’s my choice if I let it hurt me or not, and given I have enough firepower to get most anything coming my way. The parasite is dead.

I won’t follow someone’s wishes if it means I’ll end up hurt, but I do try to let them decide for themselves.

Art Credits: 1. Nan Fe 2. BeaGifted 3. Eleni Tsami 4. Simon Pape 5. FleareHuce (Deviantart)

Elly’s Workbook

Alrighty folks! An update on my progress.

1. The Storm

I am more than aware that something is moving, and am unsure what it is. It’s nasty and is causing some stir amongst inexperienced or young witches who haven’t been practicing long. As well as those who aren’t good with shields.

If anyone has any information on this, please do tell.

2. The Coins

-Standard astral currency?

-Found by others across the astral. Definitely some kind of standard traveller’s currency.

3. Love

-Final attempt successful.

So this finally worked, thanks to everyone involved, I’m going to be sending a few samples to my friends and will find out more about it!

Elly Cavalier/Jones/Miramor signing off.

Magical Theory (Pt 1 out of ?)

I am a massive nerd that analyzes and theorizes about everything. Here is a small part of my massive nerd headcanon on magic.

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Magic is a form of energy and acts as an extension of magical folks’ bodies. Like any appendage or muscle, it needs to be used consistently or it will become weaker. As magic is constantly flowing into a ‘well’ inside their bodies, if a witch of wizard completely abandons their magic, they risk their magical energy overflowing and being subjected to complete destruction, like if a battery is overcharged (this can be seen in the formation of the Obscurus).

Spells are a way to release this energy. When a spell is cast, magical energy bursts out from the caster and becomes a new form of energy (electrical, kinetic, thermal, whatever) – and, like any energy conversion, some of the energy will be lost into the surrounding environment (usually in the form of heat). This is why, like Dumbledore said, “Magic always leaves traces.” This waste energy can hang in the surrounding environment from mere minutes to centuries and can act as an amplifier for magical energy being used in spellcasting later. If performed with precision, casting a spell will cause a minimal loss of magical energy and the spell will maintain optimal strength. If done poorly, the spell cast will be weak and a lot of magical energy will be lost into the surrounding area. However, precision of the spell casting is not the only thing that determines the amount of energy lost – the specific spell being cast and how powerful the caster is play a part in this as well.

Regarding the power of the spellcaster – some magical folk just have more magical energy flowing through them than others. It has nothing to do with blood status, unlike how likely a magical child is to be born (though some would claim otherwise), and is generally considered complete chance. Magical energy is extremely inconsistent in how strong of a flow will appear in them (though this may simply be because we have not found the proper way to measure or predict this form of energy yet). The more powerful the magical input into a person is, the more powerful their magical output will be which will, in most cases, increase the strength of the traces they leave behind.

In the case of the spell being cast – the more powerful the spell, the more energy it will require to produce and leave behind when cast. The power of spells is based on the effects it will have on the balance of nature and/or the intricacies required to evoke the necessary magic. Dark Magic is generally considered extremely powerful magic as many of the spells in this category require more than the focus and wand movements that other spells do – they require clear, volatile intention and extreme emotion. In some odd cases, however, presenting no emotion at all will have the same results. Blood sacrifices and horcruxes, some of the most powerful and dark magic known to wizardom, require rituals and tamper with someone’s very soul and being