{"id":392,"date":"2017-06-18T06:13:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T06:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/?p=392"},"modified":"2020-04-19T21:03:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T21:03:34","slug":"artificial-magick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/2017\/06\/18\/artificial-magick\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Ingredients In Magick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A few years back at Templefest<\/a> I was taking a workshop on folk magick by Matthew Venus<\/a>, and he made a comment that stuck with me. Someone asked his opinion regarding\u00a0artificial incense and fragrance oil as\u00a0a substitute and he said that you might as well be using sacred Febreze air freshener in your magick. While I thought that was really funny, I wondered whether or not\u00a0artificial ingredients can work in magick successfully. My own personal results have shown me both\u00a0yes and no.<\/p>\n

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Image Credit: Devanath | CC0 License<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using artificial scents in magick can work in two ways. First of all scents of any kind are powerful psychological triggers, which can help us alter our state of consciousness through our\u00a0memory and power of association. For example, the scent of roses often reminds us of love \u2013 whether they\u2019re real roses or not. This can get us into a great state of consciousness for a love spell. Secondly, it harnesses the power of intention and it can be argued (though I\u2019m not sure I agree) that charging any item is working with the power of intention \u2013 and you definitely can charge man-made items as well as chemicals. As such, through sympathetic magick an artificial ingredient may become a symbol of the actual ingredient.<\/p>\n

While intention is a large component of magick, it is not all there is to magick. The idea that \u201cintention is everything\u201d promoted strongly by New Age ideology (such as The Secret<\/a>) which waters down hermetic principles often falls short. You can intend strongly to manifest money for example and it may work, but not as powerfully as incorporating other mechanics and definitely not as strongly<\/a> as directing your willpower. Any witch who keeps a magickal journal of some sort for\u00a0their spells and practices will make this observation over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Magick is a \u201cscience\u201d as much as it is an \u201cart\u201d. Along with intention and harnessing willpower, we as witches tap into the use of correspondences and tend to work with spirits. Working with the planetary energies of an herb and the spirit of that herb will greatly increase your results. Correspondences aren\u2019t just mental associations, they\u2019re energetic similarities based on a specific \u201csignature\u201d of that planetary energy. While you can use your intention and willpower to use artificial ingredients in an act of sympathetic magick (magick where one item represents another), I do not believe that the planetary correspondences are\u00a0sympathetic magick, though the identification of how a plant is ruled by each planet does seem to be utilizing sympathetic ideology. It\u2019d be much easier to use a\u00a0Mercury plant for a Mercurial working than to use a Saturn plant and use sympathetic magick so that it represents a Mercury plant.<\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s easier to work with the spirits of the plants to gain even better results through their cooperation when you\u2019re actually working with the plant. In the\u00a0workshops I teach I often explain how when casting a spell, we try to plug into as many currents that are in alignment with our intention as possible to enhance the magick and sent it on its way as strongly as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Artificial scents are usually made of ingredients either unrelated to the scent they\u2019re trying to recreate or only have a trace, with other ingredients. This doesn\u2019t mean that chemistry is bad, but it doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re using very different energies with different ingredients in your working then the original plant\u2019s energy.\u00a0 Binders such as glues\u00a0being burned alongside other harsh chemicals, dyes and perfumes in incense and oils have been known to induce headaches and irritate the eyes in people when the original plants that they are trying to recreate often do not when burned.<\/p>\n

For example, if doing a love spell one could simply light some artificial rose scented incense and do our magick plugging into the current of intention. However, one could also use real rose which is ruled by both venus and water, call upon the spirit of rose and ask for assistance in love, call upon a deity like Eros to assist in the work, perform it on the full moon or waxing moon and perform the working in the hour of Venus. Instead of plugging into one current we\u2019ve now plugged into many\u00a0currents of energy in alignment with our intention and willpower giving an extra boost of strength.<\/p>\n

While I believe that investing in your magickal ingredients\u00a0is investing in the quality of your magick, I do understand that natural ingredients are definitely more expensive than their artificial counterparts and not all of us may have the financial privilege of being able to buy completely natural ingredients and I definitely understand that. You may also want to consider simplifying your practice and working with more common herbs than the rarer ones. You don\u2019t need a ton of ingredients to make a spell work. While I\u2019m a big advocate of growing your own plants from seed, growing a relationship with the physical plant and the spirit of the plant, not everyone can do this.\u00a0You can also buy plenty of natural ingredients at your local grocery stores for very cheap and I strongly recommend investing in Michael Furie\u2019s book Supermarket Magic: Creating Spells, Brews, Potions & Powders from Everyday Ingredients<\/a>\u00a0for the witch on a budget. If you currently work with artificial ingredients, I challenge you to try working with more natural ingredients and record the differences in results.<\/p>\n

2020 EDIT:<\/strong> I\u2019ve also written in my book Psychic Witch<\/a>, a technique I use to tap into the energy of an ingredient that you may not actually have and show how to harness that to add to your spells or concoctions.<\/p>\n

Ways To Support My Work:<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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A few years back at Templefest I was taking a workshop on folk magick by Matthew Venus, and he made a comment that stuck with me. Someone asked his opinion regarding\u00a0artificial incense and fragrance oil as\u00a0a substitute and he said that you might as well be using sacred Febreze air freshener in your magick. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2990,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,1],"tags":[111,113,112,114,12,115],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings","category-uncategorized","tag-artificial-ingredients","tag-herbalism","tag-incense","tag-magic","tag-magick","tag-sacred-fabreeze"],"yoast_head":"\nArtificial Ingredients In Magick - For Puck\u2019s Sake<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wondered whether or not artificial ingredients can work in magick successfully.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/2017\/06\/18\/artificial-magick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Artificial Ingredients In Magick - For Puck\u2019s Sake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wondered whether or not artificial ingredients can work in magick successfully.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/2017\/06\/18\/artificial-magick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Puck\u2019s Sake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"www.facebook.com\/mataurynofficial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-18T06:13:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-19T21:03:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/771\/2017\/06\/artificialincense.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"315\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mat Auryn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MatAuryn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mat Auryn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/2017\/06\/18\/artificial-magick\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/2017\/06\/18\/artificial-magick\/\",\"name\":\"Artificial Ingredients In Magick - 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He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is an initiate of\u00a0Black Rose Witchcraft\u00a0and a priest in\u00a0Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft\u00a0founded by\u00a0Devin Hunter. He\u00a0has also studied with various other traditions and teachers including Christopher Penczak in the Temple of Witchcraft Tradition, Laurie Cabot in the Cabot Tradition,\u00a0Jason Miller\u00a0in the\u00a0Sorcery of Hekate. He is a devotee of the\u00a0Covenant of Hekate\u00a0founded by\u00a0Sorita D\u2019Este. He writes for Patheos Pagan in his blog\u00a0For Puck\u2019s Sake, The House of Twigs, Horns Magazine, and on\u00a0his personal website. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, books and other periodicals such as The Witch's Almanac, DisInfo, The Wild Hunt, Down at the Crossroads podcast, Raise the Horns Podcast, Magick Magazine, Horns Magazine, Moon Books, Cutline Press, Just Julie, Magical Experiments, and more. Mat Auryn\u00a0is ranked the\u00a0second most influential person online in the field of neo-paganism and within the top 100 in divination according to Agilience. Mat was the very first recipient of the \"Most Supportive Witch Award\" presented by Witch Way Magazine for helping others in the witchcraft community and going above and beyond to make other witches feel like they are not alone. Mat has had the honor of helping thousands of people gain clarity through his skills of psychic ability and tarot reading throughout the world over the last decade. He has been interviewed on radio, in magazines, and on several websites and private newsletters. Mat teaches various metaphysical and occult subjects ranging from psychic development, magickal empowerment, working with spirits, divination, energy healing, lucid dreaming, divination, astral projection throughout New England including Salem, Massachusetts, known internationally as the Witch City. He is the author of the upcoming book Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide To Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.matauryn.com","www.facebook.com\/mataurynofficial","https:\/\/twitter.com\/MatAuryn"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/author\/mauryn\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2990"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/matauryn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}