#spell construction

⚙︎ The Functional Parts of a Spell

⚘ 1. INTENT — The Internal Spark

This is the raw juice. The emotional voltage. The psychic heat. It’s not just what you want, it’s what you’re willing to make room for. Not a wish. A directive.

Intent is clearest when it’s emotionally honest and not trying to control everything like a micro-managing Virgo sun.

Bad intent ≠ evil intent. It usually just means the signal is fuzzy, performative, or split. You say “I want clarity,” but your gut is screaming “abandon ship.” That’s a short circuit.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Functional EEG studies show intent activates motor planning centers before action begins (Libet, 1985). Translation: the brain literally starts prepping for action the moment will is engaged. Magic agrees.

Ask: What am I actually calling for? Not with my mouth, but with my will?

➴ 2. FOCUS — The Conscious Thread

Focus is what holds the circuit together. Lose it, and your spell turns into an energetic sneeze.

It’s not just about “concentrating.” It’s about staying present enough that the energy doesn’t leak out your ears. Focus is somatic. Breath. Trance. Motion. The ritual nervous system.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Sustained attention boosts neural connectivity (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). Theta waves (4–8 Hz), accessed in trance or deep meditation, = peak spellcasting state. High suggestibility, low inner critic, good vibes.

Ask: Can I stay with the energy long enough to deliver it?

⚒︎ 3. ACTION — The Ritual Anchor

Action is what makes the spell real. It’s not a metaphor. It’s a physical interface.

Whether it’s lighting a candle, chanting, drawing sigils, or screaming into a jar. A ritual action anchors intent in time and space.

The body becomes the spell’s delivery system. It’s not just theater, it’s sensorial confirmation that “something has changed.”

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Embodied cognition says movement affects belief. Intentional gestures create somatic markers (Wilson, 2002). You literally move your body into belief.

Ask: What is my body doing to tell the world this spell is happening?

❀ 4. CORRESPONDENCE — Symbolic Resonance

This is how your spell speaks the universe’s language.

Correspondences (herbs, colors, crystals, numbers) aren’t just ✧aesthetic choices✧. They are the semantic tags of the ritual world.

But they’re not universal. What’s “attraction” in one system might be “banishing” in another. Magic is contextual. Meaning is coded.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Lakoff & Johnson (1980) argue that cognition is metaphor-driven. When you use red for desire, you’re engaging neural circuits that associate red with heat, passion, and activation.

Ask: Do my symbols clarify the spell, or confuse it?

⌛︎ 5. TIMING — The Temporal Current

Spells don’t exist in a vacuum. They drop into a world that’s already moving.

Timing can mean:

Moon phases

Planetary hours

Your own emotional weather

Ancestor holidays

“This just feels right”

Right spell, wrong time? It fizzles. Or misfires. Or just ghosts you completely.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Chronobiology says our bodies respond to time cycles (Refinetti, 2006). Mood, immunity, cognition—they’re all tide-sensitive. Why wouldn’t magic be?

Ask: What larger rhythm is this spell stepping into?

❂ 6. MEDIUM — The Elemental Channel

Magic needs a conduit. An element. A field. A medium to move through.

Is it fire? Smoke? Water? Ink? Your body? A blog post? A bone? A USB drive?

Medium decides how the energy moves, and where it lands. Wrong medium = muffled signal. It’s like trying to cast a glamour using baking soda.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Energy always moves through something. Different materials conduct energy differently. Even placebo effects rely on the “medium” of meaning and context (Benedetti, 2012).

Ask: Where is this spell going? And can the medium carry it?

🜸 7. RELEASE — The Letting Go

No spell works if you cling to it like it’s your ex. You have to let it go.

Release is the exit point. The click. The exhale. The hand off the steering wheel. Without release, the spell loops. It stalls. It paces in your aura like a ghost waiting to be dismissed.

⚛︎ Scientific thread: Polyvagal theory says we need closure to reset our nervous system (Porges, 2011). The same might apply to magic: unresolved intention = energetic static.

Ask: Have I released this? Or am I still haunting it?

The Spell as a Functional Circuit

Visualize it like this:

If any part of the circuit is broken, the spell may misfire, stall, or just sit in your chest like ghost soup.

This is basically the magical version of a pre-flight safety check.

Magic Is Not Wishful Thinking. It’s Systemic.

A spell is not a vibe. It’s not ✧aesthetic ✧. It’s not a Pinterest board with herbs.

It is a functional symbolic system designed to influence reality. Neurologically, emotionally, energetically, maybe even physically.

It works when it’s built to move energy. When the circuit is whole. When the fire has a place to go.

A spell isn’t just a spark in the dark.

It’s the structure that carries that spark into the world. And lets it burn clean.

Part Ⅱ of Occult Mechanics 𝟷𝟶𝟷

✍︎ Further Reading & Sources

✧ Magic & Culture

Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough (Sympathetic and contagious magic)

Tambiah, Stanley. The Magical Power of Words

Betz, Hans D. (ed). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation

✧ Science of Mind & Body

Porges, Stephen. The Polyvagal Theory

Libet, Benjamin. “Unconscious Cerebral Initiative and the Role of Conscious Will.”

Wilson, M. (2002). "Six Views of Embodied Cognition." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Benedetti, F. Placebo Effects: Understanding the Mechanisms

Posner & Rothbart. Educating the Human Brain

Refinetti, Roberto. Circadian Physiology

✧ Symbolic Logic & Metaphor

Lakoff & Johnson. Metaphors We Live By

Starhawk. The Spiral Dance

✦ Three Spell Models (and the Spirits They Stir)

Not all spells are made up of the same grammar. But most fall into one (or more) of three major models. Think of them as magical programming paradigms. Pick your language, pick your results.

✧ Sympathetic Magic: The Echo Model

“Like affects like.” You make an image to move the original. You shape a symbol to cast its shadow onto the real. Reality as a mirror, and your ritual is the smudge on the glass.

✥ Poppets & Name-Magic In ancient Egypt, enemy figurines were bound, broken, and buried or thrown into fire. These weren’t just representations, they were the person, in ritual logic. In the Greek magical papyri (c. 100 BCE–400 CE), wax dolls were stabbed or nailed while invoking chthonic deities like Hecate or Ereshkigal.

Mimetic resonance = the thing is the thing.

⚛︎ Scientific metaphor: Mirror neurons, representational systems, associative learning Your brain responds to symbols as if they’re real. Those neurons fire whether you move your hand or watch someone else move theirs. That red candle dressed with cinnamon oil for courage? Yeah, Your nervous system registering that heat, boldness, action. The ritual builds embodied feedback. Even if no external change happens yet, your perception and behavior have already shifted.

Also: simulation theory says rehearsing something symbolically gets your body and mind to do it better in reality. You’re not just imagining it. You’re installing a patch.

✧ Contagious Magic: The Thread Model

“Things once in contact remain connected.” Aka: I have your hair, and now I own your soul. You don’t need the person. You just need what once touched them. Nail clippings. Clothing. Soil. Spit. You get the idea.

✥ African Nkisi Nkondi Fetishes Note: Kongo spiritual technologies like nkisi nkondi are part of a living, sacred system. Referencing them here is for understanding, not for reproduction. In Kongo traditions, spirits are invoked into minkisi (containers holding materials linked to people or events, like hair, fluid, dirt). Driving a nail into a nkondi wasn’t just “curse stuff.” It was a legally binding magical contract. The spirit wasn’t just symbolic. It was in the thing. Likewise, Irish folk magic loved burying enemy clothing under running streams. Very “see you in court, but make it mossy.”

⚛︎ Scientific metaphor: Quantum entanglement (metaphorically), systems theory, morphic resonance Is magical contagion “proven”? No. But systems theory says that once things are patterned together, they tend to stay linked. Rupert Sheldrake’s controversial-but-delicious theory of morphic resonance suggests similar.

Also: information fields. How trauma lives in a house. Not metaphorically. You feel it. The object holds the echo. And yes, quantum physics says entangled particles can influence each other at a distance. Is it the same? No. But does the metaphor slap? Also yes.

✧ Psychological Magic: The Mirror Model

“You are the spell.” You don’t need gods, tools, or a pentagram. The spell works because you shift, through ritual, symbol, breath, and choice. The psyche is the altar.

✥ Solomonic Magic & Grimoire Practice In early modern grimoires (Key of Solomon, Ars Goetia, etc.), ritual prep was intense: fasting, bathing, toolcraft, day-specific chants. Why? Because the magician had to be transformed. Not just to summon a spirit, but to become the kind of person who could.

Same logic shows up in Jungian ritual: the archetype isn’t “summoned,” it’s activated in you.

⚛︎ Scientific metaphor: Psychoneuroimmunology, neuroplasticity, cognitive behavioral theory (at least its not DBT) Science now confirms what witches have always known: Belief + ritual + sensory engagement = physiological change.

PNI shows psychological states change immune function. Placebos work if meaning is present. Ritual repetition literally rewires the brain. Neuroplasticity means that every time you cast a spell, you’re building new connections. Confidence, clarity, action... it’s all muscle memory for your will.

The spell is a language your nervous system understands. You're not just speaking to the universe. You're updating your own code.

✧ Ritual as Code

If this is starting to sound a little technical... yeah. It should.

A spell is not a vague hope. It’s a set of instructions. Like a line of code written in the symbolic grammar of culture, place, myth, and memory.

Intent = the payload

Symbol & ritual = the syntax

Timing, materials, motion = the compiler

You = both the operator and the instrument

✥ Icelandic Galdrastafir (Magical Staves) Note: Icelandic stave magic comes from a specific folkloric and historical context. Some symbols were Christianized or demonized, so study in depth. These sigils weren’t just for aesthetics. They required absolute precision. Carve them wrong, say the chant late, draw the line crooked? The spell failed. Not because “magic isn’t real,” but because the system didn’t execute. You didn’t speak the language fluently enough.

This is operational magic. And like code, it only runs if it’s written right.

Intent is the spark. Structure is the wick. No fire burns without both.

✧ The Models Are Metaphors; And That’s the Point

The three models (sympathetic, contagious, and psychological) provide interpretive frameworks that draw on contemporary scientific concepts as metaphorical tools. They are not claims that witchcraft is scientifically proven, nor are they efforts to rebrand occult practice as conventional science. Rather, they are ways to discuss how centuries‑old magical techniques might be understood in light of modern thought, while keeping the door open to possibilities that have yet to be confirmed or refuted.

Sympathetic, contagious, and psychological magic aren’t rival systems. They’re interpretive lenses. Ways of understanding how the spell is supposed to work. They echo modern science not to prove magic, but to create useful metaphors. Shared language for discussing things we still don’t fully understand.

Spells are not mechanical, but they are systemic. They’re not “scientific,” but they are structured. They are cultural. Neural. Mythic. Sensual.

So ask yourself:

What system is this spell operating in?

What model am I invoking, echo, thread, or mirror?

Is this ritual legible, to me, to the world, to the forces I’m addressing?

Because the world may “listen” to many languages, but the spell’s success depends on speaking the ones it recognizes.

✧ A Final Note on Cultural Responsibility

Some of the practices Ive referenced here (like nkisi work, name-magic, and certain ritual frameworks) come from living Indigenous and African diasporic traditions. These are held by communities with their own rules, responsibilities, and protections.

I’m very white. So I am sharing these examples for educational and contextual purposes, not to adopt them. Please don’t treat living traditions like an aesthetic moodboard.

If a practice isn’t from your culture or lineage:

→ Learn from those who carry it. → Don’t replicate closed or initiatory rituals. → Honor the communities who still live, protect, and practice within these systems.

✧ Respect is part of the work. ✧ Magic without ethics is just extraction. (Don’t be like the Brits.)

Part Ⅰ of Occult Mechanics 𝟷𝟶𝟷

✍︎ Further Reading & Source Materials:

Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough. (Sympathetic & contagious magic models)

Betz, Hans Dieter (ed). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. (Ancient Mediterranean spell texts)

Janzen, John M. Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa. (Nkisi traditions)

Ólafur Davíðsson. Islenzkar Þjóðsögur og Æfintýri. (Icelandic stave magic)

Henningsen, Gustav. The Salazar Documents. (Basque witch trials)

King, Karen L. What Is Gnosticism? (Psychological/spiritual transformation models)

Jung, Carl. Man and His Symbols. (Psychological resonance in ritual)

Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. The Magical Power of Words. (Speech and ritual efficacy)

Skinner, Stephen. Techniques of Solomonic Magic.

Sheldrake, Rupert. Morphic Resonance. (Contagion and form theory)

Pert, Candace. Molecules of Emotion. (Psychoneuroimmunology)

Doidge, Norman. The Brain That Changes Itself. (Neuroplasticity)

Benedetti, Fabrizio. Placebo Effects. (Mechanisms in health and ritual)

Basically my mom is always pushed around by her siblings, not so much pushed around but used so so much by them. My mom owns her own home and she has worked very hard to keep it. For as long as I’ve lived my great grandmother and my grandmother has always lived with us, when it was in a tiny 3 bedroom house to a slightly bigger 3 bedroom house. My grandmother (her mom) still lives with us now, and because of this a lot of her children (my grandmother’s) believe our house is their mom’s and not mine. So I have uncles who come and go as they please, as far back as I could recall we have had an uncle crashing on the couch, and/or one on the floor when the couch is taken. 

My mom works really hard to keep her home, she’s not some high level executive and this isn’t a mansion, so when I say she works a lot it’s for good reason. My uncles crash here all the time, ruining sofa’s and fouling up the atmosphere, and just bringing down the overall vibe.

I have two uncles here now, and honestly I just don’t know how we’re gonna pull through this, I have been meaning to put up a new ward, a much serious one. I’m just asking if there is anyone out there in the tumblr witch community who can aid me in this, I just really need to get rid of these men leaving their mark on everything.