You don’t build a fire by yelling “burn.” (or maybe you do?)

So let’s talk about why some spells flop. It's not because your desire was weak. Not because the moon was in the wrong position. But because you built a magical toaster and forgot to plug it in.

You can have a brilliant, spicy spark of intent, but if it has nowhere to go? No structure to hold it, no current to carry it, no ritual act to release it? That energy just... sits there. Fog in your chest. Static in your bones. Sometimes it loops. Sometimes it leaks. Sometimes it just becomes ✧vibe soup.✧

This isn’t about perfection. Or control. Or doing it “right.” It’s about structure and the subtle architecture that lets magic move.

Let’s break it down.

Hello beautiful souls ✨

Most magic falls into one of three categories—even if you don't know the names.

When you light a green candle for money, you're using sympathetic magic.

When you tie someone's hair into a spell, you're using contagious magic.

When you draw a symbol and charge it with intention, you're using sigil magic.

These aren't traditions or paths. They're technologies—fundamental mechanisms through which magic operates. Understanding the difference helps you:

Choose the right method for your goal

Troubleshoot when spells fail

Build spells from scratch without recipes

Understand why certain ingredients "work"

Today we're breaking down all three, how they function, and how to use them effectively.

SYMPATHETIC MAGIC: Like Attracts Like

THE PRINCIPLE:

Things that resemble each other are connected. By affecting the symbol, you affect the reality it represents.

Also called: The Law of Similarity

The logic: If X looks like Y, acts like Y, or symbolizes Y, then magic performed on X will influence Y.

EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE:

Poppet/Doll Magic You create a doll to represent a person. Whatever you do to the doll affects the person.

Stick pins in it for harm (or healing)

Dress it in their colors

Name it after them

The doll is them symbolically

Candle Magic You burn a green candle for money because green = money in your cultural association. The candle represents wealth, so burning it "activates" wealth in your life.

Color Correspondences Red for passion, blue for peace, black for protection—all sympathetic magic. The color symbolizes the quality, so using the color invokes the quality.

Image Magic You print someone's photo and burn it to remove them from your life. The image represents them, so destroying the image symbolically destroys their influence.

Plant Magic (Doctrine of Signatures) A plant that looks like a body part treats that body part. Walnuts (look like brains) for mental clarity. Ginger root (looks like intestines) for digestion. This is ancient sympathetic magic.

WHY IT WORKS:

Psychologically: Your subconscious thinks in symbols. When you work with a symbol, your mind accepts it as real and responds accordingly.

Metaphysically: The universe recognizes similarity as connection. Energy follows symbolic pathways.

Practically: You're creating a physical anchor for abstract intentions, making them concrete and actionable.

HOW TO USE IT:

Identify what you want to influence (a person, a situation, a quality)

Find or create a symbol that represents it (doll, candle, drawing, object)

Treat the symbol as if it IS the thing (not represents—IS)

Perform your magic on the symbol (charging, transforming, destroying, empowering)

Trust the connection (doubt breaks the symbolic link)

COMMON MISTAKES:

The symbol is too vague. A pink candle for "love" is generic. A pink candle carved with initials, anointed with rose oil, and charged with specific intention is targeted.

You don't fully believe in the connection. If you're treating the doll like "just a craft project," it won't work. You have to feel the symbolic link.

You break the connection prematurely. You do a cord-cutting spell (cutting thread between two poppets) but then immediately text the person. The symbolic action must be supported by real-world follow-through.

STRENGTHS:

Accessible (easy to find symbols)

Flexible (can symbolize almost anything)

Psychologically powerful (subconscious responds well)

LIMITATIONS:

Requires strong visualization and belief

Cultural correspondence differences (green = money in US, might mean something else elsewhere)

Can feel indirect

CONTAGIOUS MAGIC: Once Connected, Always Connected

THE PRINCIPLE:

Things that were once in contact remain connected, even when separated. By affecting the part, you affect the whole.

Also called: The Law of Contagion

The logic: If X was once part of Y or touched Y, X retains a connection to Y forever. Magic performed on X will reach Y through that connection.

EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE:

Hair/Nail Magic You use someone's hair in a spell. The hair was part of them, so it still carries their essence. Work done on the hair affects the person.

Blood Magic Your blood in a spell creates a permanent connection. That's why blood magic is considered binding and dangerous—the connection can't easily be severed.

Photo Magic (Advanced) Not just any photo—a photo they owned, touched, or that contains their energy. The physical object absorbed their essence through contact.

Clothing/Personal Items Their worn shirt, their jewelry, their handwriting—anything they touched regularly carries their energy. Using it in magic creates a direct line to them.

Taglock Magic Any biological material (spit, sweat, skin cells, menstrual blood, semen) creates a powerful link. This is why you don't leave these things where enemies can find them.

Footprint/Track Magic Dirt from their footprint connects to them. Some traditions gather this to work magic on a person without their knowledge.

WHY IT WORKS:

Energetically: Physical contact leaves an energetic imprint. That imprint remains even when the objects separate.

Biologically: DNA and biological material are the person on a cellular level. The connection is literal, not just symbolic.

Metaphysically: The universe doesn't recognize separation the way we do. What was once joined remains entangled.

HOW TO USE IT:

Obtain a taglock (personal item, biological material, something they owned/touched)

Cleanse yourself and your space (you're working with direct connection—be protected)

Treat the taglock as a literal link to the person (not a symbol—an extension of them)

Perform magic on/with the taglock (binding, healing, influence, communication)

Dispose of properly afterward (burn, bury, return to nature—don't leave it accessible)

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Contagious magic is powerful and binding. It raises serious ethical questions:

Consent: Using someone's biological material without permission is violation. Even if your intent is good (healing), you're bypassing their free will.

Permanence: These connections are hard to break. Blood bonds especially. Don't create connections you're not prepared to maintain or sever.

Vulnerability: If someone has your taglock, they can work magic on you. Protect your biological material.

Defensive practice:

Flush hair and nails

Burn used tissues

Don't leave blood anywhere

Be careful who has access to your belongings

Cleanse items before discarding them

COMMON MISTAKES:

Using a taglock from the wrong person. You grabbed a hair from the bathroom but it's your roommate's, not your target's. Now the spell affects the wrong person.

Not protecting yourself. Working with someone's biological material opens a two-way channel. If you don't shield, they can feel you working, or energy can backlash.

Underestimating the power. "It's just a strand of hair" becomes "why can't I stop thinking about this person" three months later. Contagious magic creates lasting bonds.

Illegal or unethical acquisition. Don't steal. Don't break into someone's space. Beyond ethics, the violation in the acquisition taints the magic.

STRENGTHS:

Extremely powerful

Direct connection (no middleman)

Works even if target is far away

Hard to defend against (if they don't know)

LIMITATIONS:

Requires access to personal items/biological material

Ethically fraught

Creates lasting connections (can't easily undo)

Two-way channel (affects you too)

SIGIL MAGIC: Encoding Intention Into Symbol

THE PRINCIPLE:

Intention can be compressed into a visual symbol and activated to manifest. The symbol bypasses conscious mind and speaks directly to subconscious/universe.

The logic: Words and thoughts are diffuse. Symbols are concentrated. By creating a unique glyph that represents your exact intention, you create a battery of focused will that activates when charged.

EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE:

Traditional Sigil Creation (Chaos Magic Method):

Write intention: "I WILL FIND A NEW JOB"

Remove vowels and repeated letters: W L F N D J B

Combine letters into abstract symbol

Charge through gnosis (orgasm, meditation, intense focus)

Forget the original intention (let subconscious work)

Bind Runes Norse runes combined into one symbol. Each rune has meaning; combined, they create complex intention.

Seals (Solomonic/Hermetic) Planetary seals, angelic seals, demonic seals—all are sigils connecting to specific forces.

Personal Glyphs You create a symbol that feels right for your intention, without linguistic method. Pure intuitive design.

Charging Symbols on Objects Drawing sigils on candles, doors, your body, tools. The symbol holds and radiates intention.

WHY IT WORKS:

Psychologically: Your conscious mind forgets the intention, so doubt can't interfere. Your subconscious remembers and works toward it.

Symbolically: The brain processes images faster than words. A sigil is pure concentrated meaning.

Energetically: The act of creating the sigil charges it. Further charging amplifies and releases it.

Metaphysically: The universe responds to concentrated, encrypted intention better than scattered conscious wishes.

HOW TO CREATE & USE:

METHOD 1: Letter Reduction (Chaos Magic)

State intention clearly (present tense, positive, specific)

Bad: "I don't want to be poor"

Good: "Money flows easily to me"

Remove vowels and duplicate letters

"MONEY FLOWS EASILY TO ME"

Becomes: M N Y F L W S T

Combine letters into abstract design

Stack, overlap, stylize until unrecognizable

Make it aesthetically pleasing to you

Charge the sigil

Intense focus (stare until vision shifts)

Meditation (enter gnosis, imprint symbol)

Physical energy (dancing, drumming, sex)

Emotional peak (laughter, tears, rage)

Burn/destroy while at peak intensity

Forget it

Don't obsess over meaning

Let it work in subconscious

Trust the process

METHOD 2: Intuitive Drawing

Hold intention in mind

Draw without thinking (automatic writing but visual)

Refine into clean symbol

Charge and release

METHOD 3: Combining Existing Symbols

Choose symbols that represent your goal (astrological, runic, alchemical, cultural)

Combine into one glyph

Charge and activate

CHARGING METHODS:

Gnosis (Altered State):

Sexual: Orgasm while focusing on sigil

Meditative: Deep trance, imprint symbol

Exhaustive: Physical exertion to breakthrough

Emotional: Peak joy/rage/grief while viewing sigil

Sensory: Overload (strobe lights, loud music, spin) or deprivation (darkness, silence)

Energetic:

Breathwork while visualizing sigil glowing

Channeling energy through hands into symbol

Placing on altar during ritual

Elemental:

Burn it (fire transformation)

Bury it (earth manifestation)

Float it away (water flow)

Release to wind (air dispersal)

The method matters less than the intensity. You must hit an altered state where conscious mind steps aside.

COMMON MISTAKES:

Forgetting to forget. You create the sigil then obsess over whether it's working. Your conscious mind's doubt cancels the subconscious work.

Weak charging. You stare at it for 30 seconds while thinking about groceries. No gnosis = no activation.

Vague intention. "I want to be happy" becomes meaningless. "I experience joy in my body daily" is specific.

Reusing sigils. Each sigil should be unique to one intention. Reusing dilutes meaning (unless you're creating a personal symbol language intentionally).

Skipping the destruction. Some traditions say burn/destroy to release. Others say keep. Experiment. But if keeping, don't keep staring at it—put it away.

STRENGTHS:

No materials needed (just pen and paper)

Extremely personal (no one else's energy involved)

Bypasses conscious resistance

Flexible (works for any intention)

Can be hidden in plain sight

LIMITATIONS:

Requires strong visualization/focus

Forgetting can be hard (brain wants to remember)

Results can be subtle/delayed

No direct connection to target (if working on someone else)

COMBINING THE THREE: ADVANCED WORK

The most powerful spells often combine multiple technologies.

EXAMPLE 1: Binding Spell

Contagious: Use their hair (direct connection) Sympathetic: Bind in black thread (black = restriction, binding = constraint) Sigil: Carve binding sigil into black candle, burn over the bound hair

Why this works: Triple mechanism. Contagious connects, sympathetic symbolizes, sigil concentrates intention.

EXAMPLE 2: Healing Spell

Sympathetic: Blue candle (healing color) Contagious: Photo of person to be healed Sigil: Draw healing sigil on photo, place under candle

EXAMPLE 3: Self-Love Spell

Sympathetic: Rose quartz (self-love stone), pink candle Contagious: Your own hair or written name Sigil: Create self-love sigil, charge it during ritual

You don't need all three. But understanding when to use which creates more effective magic.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU USE?

Use SYMPATHETIC when:

You want accessible, flexible magic

You're working with abstract concepts (abundance, peace, confidence)

You don't have personal connection to target

You want culturally-understood symbols

Use CONTAGIOUS when:

You need powerful, direct connection to specific person

You have access to their personal items/biological material

You're willing to deal with ethical complexity

You want results that are hard to defend against

Use SIGIL when:

You want to work alone without outside energy

You need to bypass conscious resistance

You want something portable/concealable

You're good with symbols and visualization

You want to "set and forget"

Mix them when:

You want maximum power

You're experienced and can handle complex working

The goal is serious enough to warrant multi-method approach

THE ETHICS QUESTION

Sympathetic magic: Generally ethically neutral. Using symbols doesn't violate anyone.

Contagious magic: Ethically complex. Using someone's biological material without consent is violation, even with good intent.

Sigil magic: Ethically neutral if used on yourself. If creating sigils to influence others, same consent questions apply.

The rule: If you wouldn't do it to someone's face, don't do it with their hair.

PRACTICAL EXERCISE: TEST ALL THREE

Try the same intention using each method. Track which produces better results for you.

Goal: Attract new opportunity

Sympathetic Approach:

Orange candle (opportunity color)

Carve "new doors open" into wax

Burn while visualizing doors opening

Scatter ashes at crossroads

Contagious Approach:

Your business card or resume (contains your energy)

Anoint with success oil

Carry in wallet, sleep with under pillow

"This is me, attracting opportunity"

Sigil Approach:

Create sigil: "OPPORTUNITIES COME TO ME"

Reduce to: P R T N S C M

Draw combined glyph

Charge through meditation/dancing/intensity

Burn and forget

Track results over two weeks. Which method felt most powerful? Which produced tangible results?

Your magic will naturally favor one or two methods. That's your signature.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Sympathetic magic: Like attracts like. Work with symbols.

Contagious magic: Once connected, always connected. Work with physical links.

Sigil magic: Intention becomes symbol. Work with concentrated will.

All three are valid. All three work. The question isn't which is "best"—it's which serves your specific goal and matches your personal power.

Master all three, and you can build any spell from scratch.

No more following recipes you don't understand. You'll know why each ingredient matters, how the mechanics function, and when to use each technology.

That's when you become a witch who understands the craft, not just performs it.

YOUR TURN

Which type of magic do you use most?

Have you been combining them without knowing?

What's one spell you've done that you can now identify as sympathetic, contagious, or sigil work?

Let's talk. Understanding the mechanics changes everything.

Blessed be 🔗

Magical systems

I have been considering this for some time, because I'm reading, watching and writing things that have magic in them, and I have managed to single out three categories of magics that seem basic:

Intention-based refers to the type of magic where you picture the result and it just happens. No specific rituals or magical words required.

Word-based refers to spells, when a specific spell-word yields specific results.

Sign-based is a somewhat broad category, which includes magical signs and sigils, runes, chalk circles, ingredients required to work a specific spell or a special movement that you have to do to perform magic.

And here are a few examples that came to my mind as I was making this, and I do encourage additions and speculation:

Let's elaborate!

Okay Diana Wynne Jones has probably written every single one of these magical systems, it's just that they're too confusing for me to classify each and every instance, because there are hardly any descriptions. It doesn't help that all her stories are more or less like So they usually do magic this way BUT our protagonist has their own way. But Christopher Chant aka Chrestomanci, for example, is very clearly an intention-based enchanter, because he just makes things go his way. In The Magicians of Caprona they specifically sing spells, and their quality depends on how well they are sung (written spells are still word-based spells, by the way). In House of Many Ways doing a spell is described in detail (which doesn't mean much since Charmain has her way of making magic anyway, but it's there, to show how spells were supposed to work all along), and it has ingredients and special actions and words to say or write. Then, since it's all the same universe as Howl's Moving Castle, I'm just singling out Sophie for intention+words, because what she uses is not necessarily spells, but she just magically talks things into being a certain way, so they also kinda are.

Harry Potter had brave attempts at a straight-forward wagical system, but then some spells require unnecessarily difficult and precise wand movements to move a fricking feather, while you just point at someone to unalive them. Still, sort of falls into this crossover of categories, I GUESS.

Doctor Strange was the only example of sign-based magic that came to my mind, but I think it's a very good example. They literally wave their hands around in a certain way and make glowy things out of thin air. Amazing. Wish I could do that.

The Owl House, in my opinion, is a prime example of intention+sign, because it literally said so in the show. I think it was when Luz was trying to teach Eda and Lilith wild magic, because there are only four basic sigils, and they make so many combinations, yes, but you can ALSO shape the outcome by picturing what shape you want your spell to take. And I think they do pretty much the same thing when they draw those circles and imagine what they want to happen, so here it is.

Addition that's not on the graph: Carrionites from that one Doctor Who episode about Shakespeare are word-based. That was the whole plot point.

Iron functions much like the chemical opposite of magical energy, just as a base can neutralize an acid, iron can render magic inert. In all of recorded magical history no witch or wizard had been able to determine exactly why this is, only study the phenomena and its various applications. Iron is capable of negating magic in any form, but the more pure it is the more successful it is, but it is also limited by the materials surrounding it. For example, if someone was to make a box of pure iron, the contents of said box would be completely impervious to magic, but if someone hung an iron door in front of a room, while the door couldn’t be affected by magic the frame and the walls surrounding it, assuming they aren’t also iron, very well could be. So the larger the scale goes, the more impractical iron becomes as a way of defending against magic.

When it comes to using iron to bind witches and wizards and prevent them from using their magic it becomes a little more complicated. Technically it’s not the witch/wizard that the iron is inhibiting, but the magical energy running through them. In a way this makes iron function very much like a severe allergy for witches and wizards. Remember the comparison of iron and magic to an acid and a base? Imagine adding baking soda to vinegar, but instead of happening in a cup, this reaction happens within a person’s body. Ouch. 

But the good news is because it is not directly the magic user’s body the iron reacts to, witches and wizards can build up an immunity to the painful effects of iron by exposing themselves to low levels of iron over a long period of time, much like allergy immunotherapy. However while witches and wizards can build a tolerance and prevent their bodies from reacting to iron, iron’s magical neutralizing effects cannot be negated this way.

There is a functional difference between throwing a lump of iron ore at a magic user and putting them in sturdy, well made iron cuffs or a collar. The act of forgeing and shaping iron imbues it with a purpose, filling it with the intention to bind and contain, almost creating a spell of its own to bind the magic of any witches/wizards they come into contact with. But because the smith’s intention created this spell, a magic user’s understanding can undo it. Simply put if a witch/wizard is immune to the painful effects of iron and is capable of picking whatever lock is on their shackles, they can do so with their magic and free themselves. So the more clever a magic user is, the more complicated the locks on the shackles would need to be to contain them.

Some examples of how this would break down. Merlin, completely immune to iron and cunning enough that there are no locks anyone could put on him complicated enough that he wouldn’t be out of in a matter of seconds. Baby Douxie (as he is in ‘In the Fullness of Time’) no understanding of locks and very sensitive to iron, capable of being inhibited by very crude, poorly shaped iron. Moppet Douxie, has built up an immunity to iron but lacks the experience needed to undo its binding; iron shackles wouldn’t hurt him, but he would be unable to escape from even very simple locks. Master Wizard Douxie, completely immune to iron and has nine hundred years of experience, able to free himself from all but the most complicated of locks.

*starts thinking about designs*

*randomly remembers a tiktok about fan language*

I wonder if I can make a magical system out of that...

Magic

pinterest | wip intro | the world tree | the eldoran pantheon | slaeyrs | magic

It got long, so it’s under a readmore~