Supermarket Magic: Creating Spells, Brews, Potions and Powders From Everyday Ingredients (3 page)

can play an important role in helping to keep all the energies of your spell in alignment.

24 Chapter 2

Colors of Magic

In many spells, you will need to work with items; candles, cloths, threads, etc. of various colors in order to further focus your intent and charge your spell with added power.

The following is a comprehensive list of colors and their

traditional magical meanings that can be used to select

candles and other items that carry the type of energy you

seek.

Colors and their uses

Black:
drawing in energy, dissolving illness or negativity, protection, multipurpose

White:
sending out energy, purification, protection, air
Red:
fire, strength, passion, courage, luck, protection
Orange:
communication, energy, change in accordance with will

Yellow:
intellect, divination, learning, persuasion, air, clear bright yellow can substitute for gold

Green:
growth, fertility, abundance, luck, love (color of Venus), plants, earth

Blue:
water, healing, happiness, peace

Indigo:
psychic ability

Violet:
spirituality, meditation, higher power

Brown:
earth, animals

Magical Basics 25

Gray:
neutrality, stalemate, clear light gray can substitute for silver

Silver:
Goddess energy, dreams, moon magic, intuition
Gold:
God energy, strength, sun magic, success,

prosperity

Copper:
love (again, tied to Venus), beauty

Pink:
love, friendship, emotional healing

Once you have all the ingredients gathered together,

the next step in the process is spiritual preparation. A dis-ciplined mind is a key to being spiritually prepared. An

easy way (no, really!) to condition the mind for magic is

through the art of meditation.

Meditation

Meditation is a focusing of the mind and creating within

it a relaxed state of awareness. When you learn to prop-

erly meditate, you actually alter your brain function; lowering the brainwave frequency into what has been termed

“alpha” brainwave level. It is this relaxed level of con-

sciousness that is needed when working magic. During

a proper meditation designed to create a magical men-

tal state, a person is able to shift consciousness at will and then utilize the “alpha” level to harness, program, and project magical energy in spell-work.

You needn’t worry that the alpha level is unnatural

or permanent. We all enter this state whenever we feel

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sleepy or our attention remains relaxed for at least three minutes. It is very common to slip into alpha level while

watching television, for example. As soon as you shift

focus, your brain returns to the “beta” level; the higher

rate of waking consciousness. It would be pretty hard

to cast a spell while watching television, not to mention

while sleeping. This is why meditation is so necessary. We can use this process to shift our mind into a magical state and still keep our focused awareness. This is vital to our successful use of spell-craft.

Now that you know the reason behind the use of

meditation in spell work, the question then becomes,

“How should you
actually
meditate for magic?” First, you find the time to meditate. Now, I am not saying that you

need to find an hour a day to meditate or any other such

nonsense, I’m merely saying that you should meditate at

least once a day if only for five minutes or so. The more

often you meditate and for longer periods of time would

condition the mind faster, but any amount of condition-

ing is a positive step in the right direction. You needn’t feel inferior by anyone saying that you need to meditate for X

amount of time or in such and such a fashion in order to

do it “correctly”. There is no single way to properly meditate for magic. Many paths lead to the calm center.

Here’s a quick sample meditation for you to use in

order to move your mind into an “alpha” brainwave easily.

You can record yourself reading the meditation aloud and

play it back as a guide if desired.

Magical Basics 27

The Autumn Tree Meditation

Sit in a comfortable position preferably in a chair with

your back straight and eyes closed. Take three slow deep

breaths; in through your nose and out through your

mouth. Next, form a mental picture of a small tree (about

four feet tall) with only three large branches. On the first branch, see three large leaves, on the second branch see

two large leaves, and on the last branch see two more

large leaves, for a total of seven leaves left on the tree. At the base of the tree notice a small hollow with a soft glow coming from within the tree.

Since it is autumn (in the meditation) a soft breeze

begins to blow and it brings your attention back to the

softly waving leaves. You gaze at the first leaf and see it turn a beautiful shade of red and fall off the tree; caught in the breeze. You look at the next leaf and see it turn an autumn orange and get swept up in the breeze and carried away. You see the third leaf turn yellow and flap in

the breeze until it too is taken from the tree. Now, focus on the fourth leaf. It is still green but, its strength is fad-ing and it too is taken by the breeze. See the next leaf turn a strangely bright shade of blue as it detaches from the

tree branch and drifts off into the cool air. The sixth leaf darkens into a deep midnight blue and crumbles into the

air. Finally, move to the last leaf on the tree. It has turned a lovely sunset purple. You decide to reach out and pluck

this leaf yourself.

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You hold this leaf in your left hand and as you clutch

it, you notice that the tree seems to be getting bigger.

You quickly realize that the tree is not changing; it is you who are growing smaller. You shrink down to about three

inches in height. The purple leaf has transformed you into just the right height to go into the hollow of the tree.

You step into the hollow and find a staircase. Walk slowly down the ten steps of the staircase and when you reach

the bottom, a door appears before you …

This ends the structured part of the meditation.

Where you go from here is your choice. At this point

you are in an altered state of consciousness and can either continue on with the meditation and go through the door

or you can use this “alpha” level to work magic. If you

choose to work magic, follow the example instructions

given in the summary at the end of this chapter.

There are many other mediations that you could use

to achieve the proper altered state of consciousness. Some may be less direct in their approach; some may be geared

specifically toward “journey work” (in which you men-

tally travel to another place) or they may be designed for

“pathworking” (a guided meditation in which you are led

to an inner revelation) but, this meditation will be an ideal starting place for magic. Before casting a spell, simply use the meditation to get in the proper frame of mind. Once

you are in the “alpha” level, your next move should be to

properly focus your intent. This is accomplished through

Magical Basics 29

uniting the three aspects of the personality; thinking,

feeling and willing. First, let’s examine thinking.

Thinking

Thinking and rational perception come from the left side

of the brain and it is usually the first part of the spell casting process to contemplate the rational elements of our

spell. When trying to create change through magic, it is

best to get a clear mental idea of what you want to hap-

pen; the end result of your spell: your goal. As a general rule: do not envision the process of attaining this goal.

Don’t focus on how something “
should
” happen. Focus only on the end result! If you get too caught up in the

process, you slow down the achievement of your goals

and alter your success.

A secret to successful magic is to have clear inten-

tion. This intention should be simultaneously general and

specific. Confusing, aren’t I? What I mean by this is that you need to have a specific
type
of goal in mind (such as

“I want the correct love in my life”) while still keeping

the overall details of the goal general (as opposed to “I

want insert name here to fall in love with me”). You can

however, make a list of attributes that you would like the proper love (in this case) to possess and focus on those

specific qualities without naming a specific person, but

be aware that this would somewhat slow the process. The

more conditions you place within a spell, the longer it

takes to manifest. It is best to keep your mind focused on
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your goal and that the goal itself be as general as possible while still meeting your specific need.

Properly focusing our thoughts is only the first step

the process of creating the correct magical mindset. The

next step is to take time to examine our emotions regard-

ing the magical goal.

Feeling

The aspect of feeling is EXTREMELY important in

working magic. It is an aspect that is often underrated and downplayed. Too often magical practitioners cast a spell

while filled with desperation or fear and then wonder why

the results of their spell fail to manifest or manifest in unpleasant or inadequate ways. Improperly focused feeling

is a major cause of unsuccessful magic. The need for the

aspect of feeling and emotion is often mistakenly taught

as a need for belief. In truth, you do not have to “believe in magic” in order for it to work any more than you would

have to believe in electricity to watch television. If one is properly trained and casts a spell with the proper focus,

it will manifest. That reality can almost be a hindrance if your spell isn’t infused with the correct emotion.

When I was young (well younger, it’s not like I’m an-

cient or something) I was unaware of the need to infuse

how you wanted to feel into the spell you are casting. I

was a kid and new to the Craft, so I was more into learn-

ing by trial and error than by the loving guidance of those with more experience. The problem was; at the time, I

Magical Basics 31

could only cast a successful spell when I was totally des-

perate! That was the only time I could feel and move the

energy needed for magic. This of course, resulted in spells that were successful and yet, the results left me feeling

even more desperate than before. Keep in mind that this

was very early on and at the time I had almost no knowl-

edge of mind conditioning or energy work and really had

no business casting spells in the first place! I just wasn’t ready yet. But, I digress. It is precisely because of my early, unfortunate experiences that I must stress the importance

of proper feeling so adamantly. It is my intent to help as many people as possible avoid making that magical mistake. There; rant over, I promise. A better approach to feeling is to focus on how you will feel when your goal is

reached. Feel the happiness, calm, joy, relief, etc. whatever you would like to feel when the magic manifests. This creates that feeling as a condition for your spell which is a good magical safeguard against unforeseen problems. As

an example, if you cast a money spell and are filled with

fear because you really need the money, the fear emotion

is infused into your spell meaning that either the money

does not manifest as needed (thus fulfilling your fear) or that it manifests in a way that makes you feel fearful (such as an accident settlement). A safer option is to focus your feelings on a calm sense of security, that your needs are

met and also on the joy you want to feel when your goal

manifests. This way, the feelings of joy and security are

32 Chapter 2

infused into your spell resulting in a much better over-

all outcome. Another magical safeguard is to cast a spell

with the intent that the spell shall be “with harm to none”

and/or “for the good of all”. When you add either or both

of these conditions into your spell it greatly reduces the risk of a spell causing negative side effects. For further details on this, see Chapter 3, Magical Ethics.

As much as I carry on about the importance of feel-

ing, it of course is not the only important thing. We’ve

already gone over the importance of proper thinking and

now, feeling. Let us now move on to the power and im-

portance of Will.

Willing

The power of the human will is of incredible importance

in the working of magic. When you are filled with clear

intent, positive emotion, and then you add the fierce con-

viction of your will; the drive to
create
change (as opposed to merely influencing it) you have a recipe for magical

excellence. Your willpower comes into play as the catalyst for the transmission of the energy. Your willpower fuels

your ability to project energy (which will be covered next) and is key to activating the spell. Thinking programs the

spell; Feeling energizes the spell and Willing activates the spell and readies your intention for projection. If you do not have the willpower; the intention, the desire to
create
change, you will not be able to work magic.