A Magic Formula for Designing Your Own Spells

Spells. That’s a word I don’t use very often. I would usually say “ritual” or “focusing will” rather than spell, but we all know what it means and that makes it an incredibly useful word.

So that’s my title for today – a magic formula for designing your own spells.

A spell is basically a way of directing energy to manifest your intent. They often (but not always) use mundane actions to trigger an otherworldly reaction.

I tend to think of rituals and spells like drawing lines which are then coloured in by the energy you raise. Spells are usually not an instant thing. The very act of casting a spell in itself shows we believe we can shape our own fate. Yet changing our future is not always a fast process.

Therefore a good spell often works on the premise it’s easier to hold something back or make it happen faster than change the course completely.

That’s not to say this isn’t possible, or that the web of fate hasn’t already been woven to include your spell. However, I tend to think of the strands of the future like a big snowball. The more energy (or snow) that goes into that ball the bigger it is and the faster it rolls.

Once you’ve started rolling that ball down the hill it can be stopped, but the snow it’s gathered on its route still exists. That’s far harder to shift.

Spells then can take a little time to fruit.

So what’s the formula?

I’ve used the acronym SPELL to help aid memory (who am I kidding, it’s to prove I’m clever really)

Specific
Plan
Energy
Life
Let Lie

Specific

This represents your intent. Be really clear what you want to achieve and consider all the ways in which it might manifest. You might need to rewrite your intent a few times after you’ve game planned all the ways your spell might go awry. Think about what your goal is, then consider if that’s your final goal.

For example, you might think you want money but what’s your final reason for that money? If you want to buy a car or take a course your final goal is the car or the course, not the money. What can you do instead to ensure your real goal is the one the spell is designed to target?

Plan

Build your spell. This is the mundane action which becomes ritualised in order to enact the esoteric change. It can be as simple as lighting a candle or knotting some string, or it can involve elaborate sigil creation and visualisation.

Personally, I tend to favour simple, but many witches will go all out believing the effort they make with the elements of the spell adds to the energy they put into it.

Energy

This involves raising and then directing the energy into the spell. There are lots of ways to do this, you can design something which is given energy once or you can design a spell which needs a drip-drip-drip effect.

You can raise energy with your voice, with movement, with creativity. Once you’ve raised your energy you need to find a way to direct it, by releasing it into the world. This can be as a sigil, within a candle flame, through a cone of power, or in many other ways.

Life

The esoteric isn’t usually enough to manifest your spell in the mundane. Sometimes the action of creating the spell encourages our subconscious to take the right steps. But in general if you’ve asked for a specific thing you’ll need to take the actions required to manifest it in real life.

Most of the time the worst that can happen is the spell just doesn’t work, but sometimes the universe looks for the quickest route to fulfil. This is where you hear some of the witch urban myth horror stories (such as I did a spell for money and my beloved uncle died).

A spell doesn’t have to be cast before the mundane actions are taken, sometimes you can design your spell to be the final crescendo of the huge amounts of work you’re doing in the mundane to achieve something.

Let Lie

Once you’ve cast your spell try not to think of it. Resist the urge to go back and cast similar versions of it (or the same spell) until it manifests. Definitely resist the urge to keep talking about it or evaluating your efforts until it’s either manifested or it’s been long enough you’re sure it’s not worked.

How long is long enough? Take whatever you imagined and double it. Triple it even. For example if you’ve done a spell to help you win a competition maybe you need to wait until next year’s comes around!

Some witches like to seal their spells. To do this they will visualise a separation between the spell and themselves which helps them to remove it from their mind. It also helps to separate the witch from any affects of the spell and to stop it inadvertently drawing more energy from them.

“I draw a line under this spell
That it may roam and travel well
It’s separated now from me
Fate and love its destiny”