Spell Casting: A General Procedure

1. Creating magical space/time
2. Raising magical energy
3. Setting the Intention
4. Releasing/transferring the intention
5. A moment of gratitude
6. Returning to normal space/time

Step 1: Creating magical space

While the descriptive title of step 1 suggests that the focus is on the workspace, in truth, it’s aimed at the worker. By taking steps that set the mood in the workspace, the initial steps of a working signal that something special, something extra-ordinary is taking place. The opening acts of a magic working should initiate a transition from one’s normal mode of thought, feeling, and behavior toward a state that is more conducive to making magic. What constitutes a desirable magical state is somewhat unique to each worker, and therefore cannot be fully explained or described. One simply needs to try to develop a useful state and figure it out eventually. 

The process of creating magical space can take the form of an elaborate opening ceremony, richly imbued with in esoteric symbolism, but may be as simple as lighting a special candle that isn’t used for any other purpose. While learning how to create magical space for yourself, most seasoned workers agree that keeping it simple is advisable in the early going. Complexity may be added later, only if or when a change makes sense to the worker. With that in mind, the following is offered as a useful starting point.

1. In a private place, clear a work surface (on a table, nightstand, dresser, etc.) of any potentially-distracting clutter.
2. Place a new white candle, a candle holder, some oil, and some matches (or a lighter), a tea towel, and a small bell or gong on the work surface. If other material objects will be used for the working, those items should be placed on the work surface at this time as well.
3. Anoint the candle (rub oil all over it with a finger) and place it in the holder (use the tea towel to wipe residual oil from your hands).
4. Light the candle and focus attention on the flame for a few deliberate breath cycles. Breath deeply and consciously. Relax with each exhale.
5. Ring the bell (or bang the gong) three times. If you don’t want to use a bell, you can stamp the floor, knock on the work surface, or something similar.  

Something to note in devising one’s own opening ritual is that the sequence of events above is highly specific and is not something one would otherwise do in the normal course of their daily life. Something else to consider is that even though the sequence should be unique in that way, the individual acts of the sequence should feel relatively natural to perform. At the least the acts should not make you feel uncomfortable or silly for doing  them.

After trying the above procedure a few times, feel free to develop your own procedure with inspiration as your guide. So long as you honor the spirit of the above steps, your own procedure will be at least as good; perhaps even better.   

Step 2: Raising magical energy

The opening ritual is but the beginning of the transition from one’s work-a-day state toward a useful magical state of being. Step 2 continues the process, and for most, is where the real transition is completed. If you’ve completed the Basic Energy Work Level 1 module, you can use what you learned there at this step. Otherwise the following is provided, but be advised that it takes a significant amount of practice for most people to reach the presumed skill level. Also be advised that you’re not expected to imagine anything during this exercise. If you’re really doing it you’ll really feel it, and if you don’t really feel it you’re not really doing it. 

1. Tuck your elbows into your sides so that you can comfortably extend your hands away from your body at a perpendicular angle. Turn your palms to face one another.
2. Take a few deep breaths and relax. Then focus your attention on both palms at the same time. Many people develop subtle sensations in their palms within a few seconds. The sensations are usually quite subtle, to the degree that, if sensed under normal circumstances may not be noticed at all, or might simply dismissed as unimportant. The purpose here, however, is to intently focus attention on those sensations no matter how faint. For most people, the sensations naturally become more intense with the added attentional focus.
3. When sensations in both palms are present, include the space between your hands as the space you’re focusing on. 
4. When the energy feels stable enough, keep your palms facing each other but move them to manipulate the energy into a ball about 6 inches in diameter.  
5. Keep your attention on fully focused on the spare where the ball is. Be ever mindful of how it feels.

1. Gradually let your arms relax and hang once again at your sides, while simultaneously driving the energy that was between/in your hand down the front of your body toward your feet. Wherever you focus your attention, there will the energy go. 
2. By a simple act of will and attentional control, drive the energy down to just beneath your feet then up the backside of your body, up over your head, then back down your front side again.
3. Repeat the circulation of energy down your front and up your back several times. Pace the circulation with your breathing rhythm, up your backside as you inhale, and down your frontside as you exhale. Let the energy intensify with each revolution.
4. When you feel you’ve raised the energy level to a high pitch, drive the energy about your body outward from you in all directions by act of will, to form a sphere of concentrated magical energy, enclosing your entire area within. Once accomplished you can assume that the space you’ve charged with magical energy will remain so charged until you consciously dissipate it.
5. When the energy sphere is well-established, take a few deep breaths and relax your body.

Notes. A key to success with the above instructions is to carry out the steps with enough focal attention/intention to keep the energy moving. It stands to reason that stray thoughts coming to mind may interfere with that process. Breaches in focus are common while learning the procedure. You can expect to rehearse it many times before it becomes a real performance. The focal meditation module is excellent training for the single-minded focus that’s needed here. You can also have confidence that the more second nature the procedure comes, the better your focus will be, naturally.   

Step 3: Setting the Intention

Spells and workings are best when there’s a very specific aim. While it is possible to do magic for the sheer pleasure of it (step 2 can be like that), these instructions are about magic aimed at specific outcomes, like getting a bank loan, a promotion at work, resolving a dispute with a contentious neighbor, etc. While learning, however, let the purpose be your own personal development, but make it specific. Work on being a better writer, being a more eloquent speaker, being more attractive, or ideally, being more magically powerful.  

Whatever the specific purpose of the working, step 3 is about establishing that intention, and flavoring the magical energy raised in step 2 with that intention. The main skill needed here is developed with the focal meditation exercises. When the intention has thoroughly infused the space, the atmosphere will change significantly.  The process of transferring that intention to the magical energy in your sphere is similar to the way that the magical energy was dispersed form your body outward to form a sphere about the workspace (step 2). The only meaningful instruction is to consume yourself with that intention completely, then push it out into the space. From there, one simply tries to do it and gets better at it with continued practice. 

Let the intention diffuse outward in all directions to fill up the magical space. The idea here is that the generic magical energy raised in step 2 now becomes the specific magical energy that will do the work intended. Like the energy processes previously defined, this process is not to be imagined either; it’s to be felt. And just like magical energy, if you don’t really feel it, you’re not really doing. If you don’t feel it at first, stay with it. By and large, feeling magical energy, generic or specific, is mostly a matter of perceptual expertise. That takes time and effort. Simple try and keep trying, day by day till you learn how to feel it.  

Step 4: Releasing the intention

At the very moment when one feels that the gathered magical energy has reached its full potential for taking the intention, by an act of will, force the energy outward in all directions, like an explosion emanating from your core being. This act will create an immediate energy vacuum that will fairly quickly be filled with mundane thoughts and concerns, and perhaps doubts and second thoughts, etc. The previous steps temporarily set those things aside, but they’re still right there and ready to occupy your mind if you allow it.  Before that can happen, engage in step 5.

Step 5: A moment of gratitude

Immediately fill the void left by the evacuated charged magical energy with feelings of gratitude. Importantly, the gratitude felt in that moment is to be the exact gratitude one will feel when the intention of the working becomes reality (once again, the focal mediation module trains this skill). In a real sense, the idea is to place yourself in the future moment when your intention is realized, and to let yourself feel how you will feel in that moment. While the previous statement is an accurate description of what is to be done, when done well, you will in fact feel the gratitude of the realized intention in the present moment, rather than as a future expectation. That may be a subtle distinction, but when it happens, the goal has indeed already been achieved; it’s the world around you that will take time to catch up to it. As is true with the other steps of this procedure, one learns to do this simply by trying to do it, and then developing the skill to its full potential with continued practice.       

Step 6: Returning to Normal Space/Time

Steps 1 through 5 take one out of normal space and time and into a magical space that stands outside of the linear time that dominates typical experience. Once the energy has been released and the resulting vacuum filled with the gratitude of fulfillment, the operation is complete, save a necessary formal closing. To put the final stamp on the procedure, take a few deep, cleansing breaths, ring the bell three times, and extinguish the candle (or generally, reverse the actions of the procedure used at step 1). The work surface can then be cleared. If the candle is spent the remains can be discarded without care (nothing say’s “I’m done with that” better than tossing it into a trash can). If the candle is to be used again it should be used for the exact same purpose and none other. The other items used can be stowed away, or displayed in a place as a permeant altar, as is your habit.

Finally, it’s common for people to feel somewhat detached for some time after being outside of normal space/time. The surest remedy for that is to have a little something to eat. Nothing brings you back down to earth like a little nosh.