In the chapter called The Science of Spellcraft in The Outer Temple Penczak lays out the three main requirements that make spells work. It may seem simple on the surface, but there are pitfalls to avoid.
Most people do these three things without even realizing it, even non-witches. This is how they create so-called 'Miracles'. And they think that God did it for them. Well of course 'God' did it for them. That's how magick works!
But the reason that only some of their prayers are answered and others are not answered is often because some of the ingredients are missing. Owl explain the three ingredients here because they are no secret and shouldn't be kept a secret. None the less, just knowing what they are may not be enough. A genuine sincere understanding of them is what is important.
1. Intent and Desire.
It is necessary to genuinely have a deep desire and intent to either bring the manifestation to fruition yourself, or see it bought to fruition by the elemental magick. If that sincerity isn't there the spell may not work. Also, there is a danger here as well, if there is intent (perhaps based on logic rather than instinct) the intent may be strong enough to make the spell work, yet in the end, the results may not truly be desirable. Therefore it is important to be careful what you ask for in a spell. You just might get it! None the less, a genuine intent and desire are require. Performing a spell for something you truly aren't interested in is a waste of energy.
A good example might be to ask for money with no genuine purpose in mind. Do you really want money? Probably not. You probably want what you think that money can obtain for you. So a much better spell would be to ask for what you truly want (.i.e. Love, Happiness, Friends, Sustenance, Shelter, Health, etc.) Then the spell may still produce money, or it may produce the final result directly. The point is to ask for what you truly want and not for the means to get it. Let the universe (or gods) will decide how to manifest your desire.
2. The Communiqué
This is the prayer. The 'Word'. The language.
The idea behind magick is that the universe is truly mental. Row, row, row, your boat, life is but a dream.
Life is the dream of God. Physical manifestation is all a result of the thoughts of the 'Mind of God'. God is the 'word' and the 'word' is God.
The 'word' is not a dogma that was supposedly handed down by God to be written into a rule book. The 'word' means that God is mind. And 'word' means thought. And thoughts can often be best communicated via symbols. Symbols are words in the mind of God.
When we communicate our desires to God we often refer to that communication as a prayer. A spell is a prayer. And it's not call a 'spell' by accident. It's called a 'spell' because we are literally 'spelling out' what we want in a language that Mind of God, or the universe, understands. That language is
mental visualization. Not sentences constructed in manmade languages.
Although, having said that, spoken words are also powerful if they contribute directly to the
mental visualization. This is why short rhyming poems work best for magick or prayer. The shorter and more concise the better. The idea is to
verbally paint a mental picture of what is wanted.
This is why I had commented a while back on Scott Cunningham's
Fire magic for Healing.
He wrote the following healing Chant:
Scott's Original Chant:
Burn the Sickness in your flame
Burn the sickness that would maim
Burn the illness by your might
Burn the illness in your light
Heal me of this illness pain
Heal me of all that's bane
Heal me and set me free
With my will so mote it be!
~~~
Well, that sounds real 'witchy' but is it a
visualization of good health?
No, it's a
visualization of sickness and illness.
I rewrote the healing Chant as follows
Flames of fire
help me aspire
to the perfect health
that I desire
Purge me with your energy
merge with me in synergy
A perfect body I envision
without a touch of indecision
Cleanse me with your dancing flame
make so, as I proclaim
Notice how the first chant creates a
visualization of sickness, illness, pain, and bane. Yuck!
The chant I wrote is a
visualization of what I
want, not of what I don't want!
This is important because
visualization is a
huge part of the communiqué.
Ask for and
visualize what you
want, don't ask to be rid of what you don't want!
Scott Cunningham died of a long illness at a fairly young age. Although he was a witch, and performing spells, there it is a very real possibility that he was making a very basic crucial mistake without even realizing it.
He may very well have been bringing sickness, illness, and pain onto himself by strongly visualizing and chanting to be rid of what he didn't want! His magic rituals may have very well been bringing him the very thing he was trying to get rid of! His magic was working, but in the opposite way that he had intended.
Of course, that's just a guess, but he did publish the above healing chant, and he did die fairly young after suffering a long bout of illness. So
be careful of what you ask for in a spell. Try to stay away from banishing spells and instead go for positive spells designed to
envision what you
want.
This goes for standard religions as well. People who believe in their God, may have #1, Intent and Desire, and possibly #3 as well, Emotional Energy, but they're blowing it in they're prayers by praying for their God to do away with disease or whatever. Never pray to God asking to cure someone of a specific disease, because you are just asking for more of that disease by
visualizing it. This is especially true if you are thinking of the person laying in a hospital bed looking all sickly. That's
visualization!
And it's the wrong
visualization, because that's
not what you want!
If you're going to pray for someone to be healthy then do just that. Ask God to make them healthy and
believe that is will be done.
Visualize the person that you are praying for as being up and about doing positive energetic things.
Visualize them as being healthy already.
3. Emotional Energy
This is the energy that witches raise in a circle and cast out into the universe. All our emotions are automatically cast out in to the universe. A circle is not really required. Some believe that the circle magnifies the energy.
Performing a specific ritual to raise the energy can indeed contribute to magnifying it. In fact, becoming
emotional over it is important. It is this
emotional energy that is being case out into the universe. Don't just pretend to be raising energy,
feel it it's the energy of
emotion! Become
emotionally passionate about what you are asking for. That's what the energy is, it's
emotional energy and we have the ability to psyche ourselves up emotionally. That's the whole idea behind raising energy in a witch's circle.
Of course, no circle is truly necessary. People do magic all the time who aren't witches and don't practice witchcraft. They do magic because they have fulfilled these three steps of Spellcraft.
Even an emotional Christian can fulfill these three steps by simply having true
Intent and Desire, Correct Prayer and Visualization, and simply be Emotional about it. When they do these three things, they get a 'miracle', because they have indeed cast a 'spell'. They have 'spelled' out to the universe what they wanted and they have satisfied all the criteria to have that spell answered.
~~~
Some people might say there is more to it. For example, "Gratitude" must be in there somewhere. Well, I would personally say that if all three of these steps are carried out with true sincerity, then gratitude is automatic. The very idea of taking this for granted denies the true desire, and true emotion that is required to make the spell work. Also, 'gratitude' doesn't necessarily rule out evil intent. Even an evil person may be very grateful to have their black magic fulfilled.
The idea is that whatever magic you perform, will also come back to you. So while it is possible to perform black magic, the person who performs it will suffer for his or her own manifestations.
In any case, the above is my interpretation of Penczak's message. It really is just the Law of Attraction, done methodically, and called, "Witchcraft". Or if a person prefers, it's a request to God that has been fulfilled. None the less this is how it is done. And if anything is missing from the above three steps the magick (or prayer) may not come to pass.
I would say that step number 2 is the place where the greatest errors can occur. And the most common error is the one I just illustrated using Scott Cunningham as an example. Beware of making banishing spells!
Try to stick with
visualizing what you
want to invoke and using verbal incantations that
support that
visualization. Steer clear of chants and
visualizations of things that you want to get rid of.
That would be my advice, but I remind everyone that I'm not truly a witch yet.
But this is my understanding of the principles of magick that I have just read from Penczak's second Temple book.