MAGICK 101: The Principles of Magick
I see very few blogs out here teaching the basic principles of magic, so I wanted to provide a guide to what Iâve found are the important principles. (with gifs!) I divided things that I think will be helpful when creating or altering spells and things that are helpful when figuring out if a spell will succeed or why it failed.
SPELL CREATING PRINCIPLES
Law of Similarity
These first two principles are from James Frazerâs The Golden Bough and are fundamental to all of magic. Frazer describes this law as âlike produces like.â This law says that manipulation of an image or likeness yields manipulation of the thing itself. Hereâs some examples of the Law of Similarity in Graeco-Egyptian magic:
Stabbing a human figure with nails to cause pain to the person
Drawing the caster holding their love interest on a leash in a âlove leashâ spell
Writing a spell in a circle around someoneâs name to encircle them and restrain them
Putting a love spell that aims to have the target âburn with loveâ into a lit oil lamp
Walking on a written spell to have the target âunderfootâ and under your control
Similarity isnât restricted by literal similarity, it extends to metaphorical similarity as well. Idioms and puns were widely used in Egyptian myth and magic
Law of Contagion
Frazer puts this one quite well:Â things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other. I will extend this law to say that magical energy can be transferred or shared between objects by contact and that transferal is strongest if they are in contact or very close. Examples in Graeco-Egyptian magic include:
Using the hair of the target of a love spell in an oil lamp
Writing a spell to Seth on a donkey hide (an animal of Seth)
Burying a separation spell at the home of the couple to affect them
Hair is super useful (and sometimes required) for any spell targeted at someone. I know people who keep or trade hair as collateral.
MAGIC TIP: If you need to perform substitutions in a spell, use the Law of Similarity and Law of Contagion for selecting the substitution (ex: use red wine mixed with an animalâs hair instead of blood from that animal)
Law of Durability
This law basically is covered by the Law of Similarity, but, because itâs so important for picking items, Iâm including it separately. Magic done with more durable items will yield a longer lasting effect. For example, a spoken spell will be weaker than a spell written on paper. A written spell will be weaker than a spell carved into stone. This law applies to enchanting as well: more durable items will stay enchanted for long.
Law of Layering
The law of layering must be applied carefully because it is about complementary layers, not throwing as many things at a wall as possible.Â
The principle is the more layers that are used in magic, the stronger the magic will be. More layers build more power. Some ways to add layers are:
Have a pre-spell ritual, like bathing and meditating
Cast spells in a designated space for casting with items designated for magic
Make motions that mirror the words youâre saying
Add objects to a spell via the Law of Similarity, the Law of Contagion, or objects along your correspondence
Perform a spell in a group instead of solo
Reinforce a spell by doing it for multiple days in a row or once every week, month, etc.
Perform several different types of spells with the same aim, or perform multiple spells with complementary aims
These are examples to give you an idea of what I mean by âlayersâ. All of these actions work to build or reinforce the energy of a spell.
SPELL SUCCESS PRINCIPLES
Law of Likeliness
My mentor compares magic to stacking a deck: youâre manipulating chance to get circumstances in your favor. This means two things. The first is magic cannot make the impossible happen. Magic will not cause things to levitate, or conjure fire from nowhere, or anything else that is not possible in our universe. The second is if an outcome is less likely, stronger magic will be required to achieve it. Some decks are easier to stack. Take a money-drawing spell used on someone who makes commission versus a salary worker. The same spell will be far more effective for the salesperson, whose income is highly dependent on chance, than the salary worker.
Law of Agency
No magic short of possession can rob a human of their free will. For example, if you do a love spell on someone whose sexuality doesnât align with yours, it will have no effect. If a person is resistant to a certain energy in their day-to-day life, they will similarly be resistant to that energy when sent via magic.
Edit: Since a see this post is gaining a lot of traction and I thought of another principle, I wanted to add it onto this post.
SPELL SAFETY PRINCIPLES
Law of Risky Immorality
I will preface this by saying there is no âwhite magicâ or âblack magicâ as firm categories. Sorting spells into âwhiteâ or âblackâ would be like sorting cutlery into âgoodâ and âevil.â All of the cutlery can be used morally and while yes, itâs far easier to injure someone with a knife, forks and spoons can be used to harm. Remember that magic is a tool and itâs how you use it that defines its morality.
The more counter-moral a spell is, the more likely the caster is to invite harm on themself. I say âcounter-moralâ here to mean âgoing against morals,â where these are the casterâs morals, the morals of their magical practice, and the morals of the spirits they work with. These spells are more likely to backfire or cause adverse affects down the road. Many attribute this to karma, but sometimes the cause is quite obvious. If you try to force a spirit or deity to do something against their morals, they wonât be happy with you.Â
I am by no means anti-curse, but, from my own experience, I highly urge people who wish to cast them to aim for well-justified revenge or something with a moral backing and to use a lot of magical protection when casting.
I hope these principles are informative and help you with your magic!
