I thought it was about time that I made a post about this, since anxiety and unwanted thoughts and worrying about what my thoughts were attracting has always been a problem for me. Let me very quickly explain what the law of attraction is, basically its the thought that what you spend a lot of time and energy thinking about will manifest. For people with anxiety and/or intrusive thoughts, this concept can be pontentially scary, especially in the middle of a bad night or a anxiety attack.
I have several phobias (including socializing in certain settings and driving) and for years during panic attacks, I was afraid that I would manifest what I was thinking about without even consenting to what I was manifesting, however I want to assure you after years of worrying about this, this isn’t how manifestation works. I don’t really know why I have intrusive thoughts, but some nights, the worst things I’ve ever heard happen to people won’t get out of my head, as much as I’d prefer to sleep peacefully. Disgusting thoughts about historical and fictional atrocities bar me from relaxing, and I beg the universe to not manifest these horrible thoughts. Again, this isn’t how manifestation works. If you could manifest things by accident, you’d probably have worse problems to worry about than what you’re feeling in your panic attacks.
Manifestation takes repetitive, conscious effort. Think logically about this for a minute. If accidential manifestion was a thing, imagine how many demented clowns would literally be hiding in sewers, or how many resurrected dinosaurs would be devastating the world. Those things don’t happen on this plane, despite being common fears and fascinations of young children everywhere. As weird and slightly disorienting as thinking about this sounds, take it as assurance that what you’re thinking and feeling in the midst of a panic attack is NOT what you are bringing into your life.
For better or worse, manifestation takes work. The law of attraction doesn’t work for people who aren’t consciously devoted to it. This plane is very dense on a molecular level, compared to most other planes, which means that thoughts alone cannot produce three-dimensional objects, nor can they produce real situations. If everyone manifested their desires, no one would be seriously suffering and everyone would either be rich, famous or gorgeous, or all three. Unfortunately, this means that the law of attraction works in weird ways and doesn’t really care about the intentions of people who take advantage of it, this means that corrupt people become the wealthy elite, untalented, unworthy people become the most famous, and people who are outwardly gorgeous can be cold and cruel on the inside. However, the mysterious ways in which the law of attraction works in provides a barrier so that humanity’s unstable, more emotional-based mind isn’t randomly creating chaos whenever people are struggling. Your mental illness is not willing the law of attraction to manifest itself in baneful ways.
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I don’t know about you but between going to classes, blogging, writing books, and keeping up with my social circle my life is BUSY. While I’m absolutely in love with the direction my life is heading right now, it does pose a bit of a problem on occasion: I don’t have a lot of time for actually doing magic! This can cause some problems when I run up against a situation where I really need a spell or ritual so I’ve started using a method of delaying my spells. This spell delay lets me stockpile inactive spells so that I can call on the magic at a moment’s notice.
Now there are several ways to do this, spell powders and enchanted objects can both be used this way. I won’t be touching on either of those methods today (although if you’re interested in spell powders, Bree NicGarran’s new book Pestlework is the place to go!). No, today I want to talk about the use of delay triggers in your spellwork.
What is a spell trigger?
A spell trigger is a placeholder created within your spell that, instead of activating the spell immediately, holds all of the components and energy of your work in place until the final piece of the spell is initiated. This trigger can be anything you like, it can be a word, a hand gesture, any quick and easily performed action can be used as a trigger in a delayed action spell.
This trigger system allows you to have complex spellwork at hand and ready to use at a moment’s notice. You can throw up wards, perform a curse breaking, use healing spells or call on an anti-anxiety spell with nothing more than a word. This form of spell casting can also be useful for spells that are intended to be activated at a particular time or place. Have a spell that needs to be performed while you have eyes on the target? Cast the spell in private, insert your trigger and activate the trigger when the opportunity arises. The uses for this technique are endless!
How to Create a Spell Trigger
1.) Decide on your trigger
The first step in creating a spell trigger is going to be choosing the trigger itself. You should pick something fairly quick and easy to initiate such as a word, a phrase, a hand gesture, a series of notes hummed or whistled. This trigger action that you choose should also probably be subtle, having to stomp your feet and roar at the heavens might seem like a cool way to activate a spell but it’s probably going to attract quite a bit of attention and cause questions to be raised. Keep things simple, discrete and easy for you to remember (you can’t activate the spell if you forget the trigger!).
2.) Perform your spell
Next, you’ll simply perform your spell as usual, follow all of the steps outlined in your spell right up to the release or activation point in the spell. This is key, you’ll be replacing the release of the spell in order to delay it so be sure to mark where in your spell this release or activation occurs.
3.) Insert your spell trigger
Inserting a spell trigger can be done in a number of ways. You can verbally set the intention of the trigger (i.e. “I bind this spell, may all its power and purpose be held until such a time as it is released by my signal”) after which you perform the trigger action (saying the word, performing the gesture, etc) in order to connect the now bound spell and the trigger. You could simply perform the gesture or speak the phrase while holding the intention that the spell will be bound for later release. You could speak the intention while holding the trigger word or gesture in your mind without performing it. Any of these methods work, the important consideration is that you choose the method that feels most natural to you. Most of us are not used to stopping the flow of energy short, wrapping it up and saving it for later. Typically the idea is to release or activate the magic at the time of its casting so this process can feel stilted or uncomfortable the first few times. Experiment with which method you prefer to help mitigate any discomfort you might have with such a stark change in method.
4.) Activate the spell trigger and release the bound magic
At the appropriate time, either when needed spontaneously or at the predetermined moment, activate the spell by performing the trigger action with intention. The intention is important. Accidentally stating your trigger word or phrase in conversation won’t release the spell and likewise, you likely won’t release the spell if you offhandedly perform the trigger without reaching for the magic connected to it.
Now, this method can require a lot of personal tweaking, both to become comfortable with the process and find a way to make it work for you, and to possibly adjust spells to have a clear activation or release point where you can insert the trigger. Many spells are designed in such a way that the energy and intent of the spell is continuously released throughout the casting, and those spells can be particularly tricky to insert a trigger into. You may also find that casting circles is helpful in this kind of spell crafting. A circle can serve to contain the energy and intention you’re building so that it can be bound instead of allowing it out into the world during the casting.
Don’t be too concerned if the first few times you try this it falls flat, with the exception of very new witches this can be a serious detour from your usual spell crafting methods and require a bit of retraining to perfect.
As I mentioned before, there are also simpler ways of achieving this delay. If you’re finding this method particularly challenging or daunting it might be helpful to start with a slightly less complex method. Spell powders are a fantastic way to get your feet wet in the world of delayed activation spell work.
Pestlework: A Book of Magical Powders & Oils by Bree NicGarran is an excellent introduction to the world of spell powders and their many uses. With Over 200 original recipes, tons of helpful tips, safety information and an easy to understand format this book is the best place to start if you’re looking to get your feet wet with this kind of magic.
Can you think of any ways that spell delays could be useful in your craft? Tell me about it in the comments!
Why is it that your family gathers on Christmas in order to celebrate peace? Why not Eid? Why not Rosh Hashanah? Why not a million different holidays from the literal thousands of existing religions?
The reason you’re celebrating on Christmas of all holidays is because you’re culturally Christian. It’s not something to be ashamed of – you just need to be aware of it.
Huh. I’d never thought about it that way.
I know, right?
To be honest, I hadn’t either, not on any bone-deep level, until I started seriously considering converting, and it was only when I started realizing it on a personal level. But, then, I am also lucky in that we live in a school district where Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah and several other non-Xian holidays are given days off, which is just not the norm anywhere but in those gosh darn liberal enclaves on the coast. 😛
This feels really relevant to me too. I stopped being Xian over a decade ago, and I felt…annoyed, honestly, that I was still expected, by family and friends both, to celebrate all of the major Xian holidays even despite being at that time an atheist/pagan. And that’s only increasing my discomfort now that I’m converting to Judaism.
I don’t even know if I can keep having conversations about religion with my parents anymore, our views on faith and holidays and deities are so different now.
My parents basically just ignore the fact that @dadhoc and @mistresskabooms and I all converted. I hoped right up until the last second that they would show up to our Adult B’nai Mitzvah, especially knowing I was giving the sermon, but, welp, they didn’t.
Our class has gotten close though so it was okay. My mispacha was there, and one of the other converts in the class, her dad came, so that was good.
Off topic, so anyway.
I’d also like to add (for the fellow Gentiles out there) it’s NOT just the “obvious” things like Celebrating Christmas, either.
It is so, SO many “little things” that you don’t realize ARE Christian-influenced, that you might not even if you stopped and thought about it, because they’re SUCH a part of “secular” culture that you just assumed That’s The Way It Is For Everybody.
I had no idea for example, that the idea you had to have a witness in order for a marriage between two people to be “valid” was something not all religions and systems shared, until a Jewish person over on the NaNoWriMo forums corrected me and said “actually, you can do it just by the two agreeing if they’re above a certain age, in Judaism; it’s still considered religiously valid”.
In the USA, for a marriage to be LEGALLY recognized by the State?
It HAS to have both an Officiant (not necessarily a Priest or Pastor of your own religion; sea captains, judges, and anybody who gets the right piece of paper, can do that), and a Witness. I know this, because I am Legally Married and it was part of the process; I had to get a friend to Officiate and a second friend to sign off as Witness on the paperwork.
And I knew on some level this was partly from “religions” “traditionally” requiring it…but I had NO IDEA this was really a Gentile thing, a Goy thing, in specific!
I just….assumed that since verifying it happened was “logical”, all religions would naturally require at LEAST an Officiant OR a Witness if not both, “though I could be wrong” I (very thankfully) admitted. Which in hindsight, is a big Assumption, thank goodness I left myself open for correction lol.
And see, I wasn’t even RAISED going to Church; my parents were ~liberals~ who basically raised me Agnostic.
But I was raised by a dad whose parents were Protestant, and a mom who went to Catholic school as a kid. I grew up in the American South. I grew up in America, and America is so darn Christianized, that it doesn’t matter that such things aren’t a requirement in Judaism, because they’re a requirement in Christian practice, so they become a requirement in the secular realm as well.
Even the very definition of “religion” is often mistaken for REQUIRING a “belief in the supernatural or a literal higher power” – not because this is in any way anthropologically accurate (not only does Judaism technically allow for the opposite, so do some variants of Hinduism; There’s posts on that blog that covered it better actually but you might have to dig for them; at least those both mention it), but – ding ding!
That’s still how many people in the West think it’s “defined” because that’s the requirements of the Christian religion. A belief in a literal higher power.
Like, I have seen Culturally Christian atheists INSIST that you cannot possibly be “religiously Jewish” AND an atheist/not believe in a literal higher power, only to be corrected by actual Jewish people that “uh, no? That’s not how it works, you’re thinking of CHRISTIANITY?”.
Because they were so entrenched in the Christian Definition of Religion, it never even occurred to them that there was such a thing as a “religion” that did it differently than that.
Because even “secular” society in the West usually defines it that way, because Christianity does.
Heck, the idea of “Judeo-Christian” is…heh, well. Ask a Jewish person or two and if they have the energy you’ll probably get a nice rant on why that term is a serious misnomer; but it’s VERY common to treat Judaism as if it was just the “precursor” to Christianity, as if Christianity is just an extension of Judaism with an extra set of Books, and it’s…it’s not. It’s REALLY not. That thinking stems from Christian cultures trying to simultaneously erase actual Jewish culture (where it actually differed from theirs), and pretending that theirs ~supplanted~ it and ~took its place~ like the New and Improved version, which… of course, being that most Christian sects insist that Christianity is The One True Religion, of COURSE they did.
Even the idea of weekends is pretty much derived from the habit of most Christians to make Sunday a Sabbath and “day of rest” (some Christians do actually use Saturday instead – much like Jewish folk do – but Catholics and a majority of Protestant sects use Sunday).
Even some Really Big “little things” are more Christianized than you think though.
There’s…I mean off the top of my head, that’s it, but there’s definitely more I’m not even remembering and I’m sure quite a few that I’m not even personally aware of yet.
Personally, I’ve found that the more I learn about other cultures, religions, history, etc, the more I realize how very insular and Very Specific and perhaps even culturally weird in the grand scheme of things, my own upbringing was. That’s not a bad thing though! As far as I’m concerned, it’s just helping me learn what my biases and assumptions are, so A+ 10/10 recommend expanding your awareness of this stuff. ❤
I’ve noticed this in the way people talk about assassinations. They say Martin Luther King “died for our rights.” I don’t know what that means. He lived for civil rights, and then someone killed him. The idea of a savior’s death causing salvation for all generations thereafter is alien to me. That concept is a result of growing up with a religion where it’s the core of the faith, but to me it doesn’t make logical sense.
I wish I wish with all my might, to bring to light what hides deep in my heart. To find the dreams, goals, desires, and rise them to my highest good. I call upon the Divine, God, Goddess, Universe, Creator Spirit. I call upon my guides and guards. I cast this spell in the name of manifestation. In the name of finding the steps and doors to reach my dreams. I cast this with the intent of grace and ease. With the intent of the love of all highest beings.
Ajo, Ajo, Ajo, Wopila, Namaste, Amen, Blessed Be, Thank you.
The very first thing I put in my grimoire was a sigil to keep it hidden, pasted a picture over said sigil, and promptly lost my grimoire for a week.
I can’t get over how funny this is
This is why being specific is important lmao
This is a hilarious example of why the “apart from me” clause is very important when enchanting your grimoire. Also very important if you’re cursing your grimoire, I’d imagine.
Take the full and correct name of someone who’s harmed you. Go to a Catholic church, give the priest a small donation, give him the name, and tell him that it’s the name of a dear loved one who has recently passed away and you’d like to have their name included in prayers for the newly deceased.
On Sunday, an entire church will affirm your enemy’s death.
Candlelight-magick 