How much of a spell is really needed?

catherine yronwode

2004-11-17 04:48:15 UTC

Well, I've had quite a lot of experience
over the years trying all sorts of new
things with magick. But it it seems to me
that every single person that publishes a
book can't come out with anything that exactly
matches anything another author has published.

Some reasons for this diversity are
* culturally different approaches to magic
* personal artistic innovation for the sake of style
* copyright issues (only relevant with modern books)

Setting aside copyright issues, if you are truly trying to understand
why there is so much variation in magical spell-craft, then it may
help you to take a look at how differing cultural approaches and
personal artistic innovations operate in other fields of human endeavour:

Not all clothing books contain exactly the same patterns for cutting
and sewing cloth into human garments, but even if you only pick one
region's clothing -- say pre-colonial Native American -- you will find
many different patterns for deerskin dresses embroidered with
porcupine quills.

Likewise, not all wood working books contain the same plans for making
home furnishings, but even if you pick only one culture's home
furnishings -- say American -- you will find many different designs
for building a kitchen table.

And not all cook books contain exactly the same recipes for preparing
grains for human consumption, but even if you only pick one culture's
food -- say Asian -- you will find many different recipes for steamed
rice, sticky rice, rice flour noodles, and so forth.

Knowing the above, i never expected all spell books to contain the
same spells described in the same words ... so i have not been
confused or disappointed by the diversity found in such books.

It is like whatever book you look at will
have completely different information than
any other book. For the most part every
spell and its execution is different.

With this i do not agree. I have collected many, many spell books and
i have found the same spells over and over, told slightly differently,
perhaps, but recognizably the same from one source to another. This is
particularly true when working with books that describe spells within
one cultural paradigm -- that is, all German spells or all African
American spells -- but even comparing ancient Jewish magic and
contemporary African American folk magic, you will see many of the
same spells.

Well my main point is, how much of a spell is needed for it to
work?

That can only be determined by experimentation. It's like art: How
much paint do you put on a canvas before it is a finished painting? Or
it's like sewing: How many pleats do you put in a skirt before you can
call it a pleated skirt? Responses to those questions will vary
greatly from one person to another.

They all have incantations for the most part but does the
language matter?

Actually, if you were to look at a wider selection of spell books, i
think you find that incantations are not a world-wide magical
phenomenon. Many cultures do not employ incantations in their spell
work at all. In other words, not all spells do have incantations, and
the absence of incantations in a spell is not necessarily an oversight
on the part of the author.

Different cultures approach the issue of speech while performing
spells quite differently. In European magic the words are not only
meant to be spoken aloud, it is often considered of value for them to
rhyme. In the African American tradition, the words are generally to
be improvised in a cadence not unlike that spoken by a preacher, but
they almost never rhyme. Among some African tribes, it is considered
bad form to speak a magical petition or desire aloud, and even to
whisper it may be incorrect.

Is it just the intent and meaning of the words
no matter what language?

Language is important to the style and artistry of many spells,
especially those that originated in cultures where language is given
importance in spell craft. In those cultures, a perfect recitation of
the words is part of the spell.

How people treat the various things that make up a spell -- the
language, the tools, the spirits called up, the herbs, the oils, the
candles, etc. -- is part and parcel of the cultural matrix from which
that spell arose.

To return to the cook book analogy: There is more to making bread than
just mixing ground-up grains and a liquid and heating them in an oven.
If you wish to make San Francisco style sourdough bread, you don't
start with corn meal, egg, and baking powder, you start with high
gluten white wheat flour, water, and a live yeast culture.

Likewise, if you are practicing hoodoo root magic, you don't try to
substitute words for the roots -- the roots are essential to the
spell-craft; the words are just grace notes.

Does what your candles are made out of matter? Does color
really matter or just that its a source for flame?

Historically speaking, candles of the coloured type you are
describing, paraffin candles, only came into existence after the US
Civil War. Prior to that candles were made of beeswax and/or animal
tallow. Prior to tat lamps filled with oil were burned. Is one more
"right" or "correct" than another? No more so than one style of
clothing is more right or correct than another. Read lots more about
the history and practice of candle magic at

http://www.luckymojo.com/candlemagic.html

I could go on for ages asking questions like that. But
basically im thinking that none of it is neccasary for
a spell to work.

Experiment! Try a simple spell using "nothing" (a wish, i suppose you
could call that) and then try a spell for the same results using a
more traditional method. Only you can judge the results for yourself.

As to what -- if anything -- is the only "necessary" part of a spell
-- well, that varies from practitioner to practitioner. For some it is
will power. For others it is proper language. For some it is roots and
herbs. For others it is the spirits they call up to help them in their
works. A few even reduce the necessary core of magic down to NOTHING
-- they say that no magic exists except within their own minds, and so
they need not ever perform a spell or act of magic, simply seek union
with the divine godhead.

Could you just focus your will and thoughts and have
that be the end of it?

You could -- and that kind of magic -- which is called "will based
magic" (or, in the words of the 19th century author Paschal Beverly
Randolph, volantia) is one style or pattern or recipe for spell-craft.
Read more about volantia at

http://www.luckymojo.com/tkpbrandolph.html

-- but be aware that will based magic is not the only cultural or
artistic style, pattern, or recipe for magic, and it is not inherently
"better" than other types, any more than a Colonial style pine wood
table is "better" or more "efficacious" than a Craftsman style fumed
oak wood table or an Italian style marble table on steel legs.

A lot of problems arise when magicians who try to discuss the varied
forms of magic in usenet are called to account by dogmatists who hold
that they have discovered the one, the only, the essential thing that
makes magic work -- or that magic does not work at all but is rather a
sort of psychological viewing device through which one sees the world.

I say this: You are entitled to work whatever forms of magic you wish
and should be able to write about your magical experiences in usenet
without being held accountable to the sociocultural paradigms or
philosophical belief sets of other magicians.

Cordially,

cat yronwode

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