Balancing spells and preventing magical backfires
important tips to keep in mind when building a spell or before casting
Lately, I have been attempting to organize my ideas for this page. There are so many, and only one can be written at a time. I have been asking myself which topics to focus on next and in what order they are best written about. I wanted to build on topics I have scratched the surface on already and it occurred to me there was plenty more to talk about. So, I decided to go back in on spells. Spells are relatively complex productions. They have many parts that make up a whole—casting one, however, is relatively simple once you understand them.
Spells are such a personal thing, a powerful expression of our inner desires. The saying “too much of a good thing is a bad thing” can be applied to spells and the energy put into them. When combining ingredients for a spell, we must remember that each ingredient has power. Think of a spell as a batter; your intention, your effort, and the ingredients are the fuel inside the battery. Too much fuel overloads the battery and causes an explosion. In spells, the explosion is called backfiring. When a spell backfires it means the change you were attempting to send out or the goal you were trying to accomplish comes back against you rather than going out into the world for you.
Spells need to be balanced to perform well. Overloading a spell only leads to disaster and unpredictable results. Depending on the spell being cast, the quantity of ingredients will change. For example, a spell bottle takes small amounts of each item in its creation. If it's a spell box, then the sum changes again; the important thing is to remember to keep things in equal parts. Consider things this way: if you do a spell to enhance your best qualities and overload that, you could become the most magnetic person in the room. This could become a significant inconvenience for you, causing more problems. In the same form of consideration, if you cast a spell to assist someone in self-reflection and use too much, that introspection could become a fixation or worse, which would mean not achieving the result you desired in a precise manner.
Before executing a spell, it is wise to ground yourself. Grounding and light meditation before casting a spell can help improve focus. Grounding equalizes your energy, releases any power that isn't charged or aligned, and replaces it with neutral energy that matches frequency. Meditation works harmoniously with that process by organizing how your thoughts come in and out of your attention span. I want you to know that focusing solely on the spell you are casting takes effort. Balance is easier to maintain with a clear focus. It gives the spell a straighter path to travel on.
Focus, Intention, and Ingredients
The nature of intention can be pure or impure, and since intention is energy, it is up to you, the caster, to ensure it’s aligned perfectly with your will. If the mind is distracted during the construction and /or execution of a spell, the power will be directed outwards with no primary target. A distracted mind could also take away from the spell's effectiveness because it did not receive the total energy and precision it deserved. Focus is the driving force behind any spell.
Your actions must also be pure. I don’t mean pure as in clean. When I say pure, I mean genuine. True to your morals, faithful to the laws of the universe, and in proper alignment with the flow of the natural order of all things. Acting out of spite, jealousy, or petty anger will never bring you the desired revenge or results. It might grant temporary satisfaction for you. The spell might even appear to have worked. Everything is a sequence of events, and causing such a ripple will create waves returning to you eventually. How those waves manifest themselves in your life is highly unpredictable when that happens. Like so many other points in the journey of magic and power, side effects or reactions to your actions in spellwork can be complex to discern from mundane happenstance.
I stress the importance of focus and intentions during spellwork because you can only build a solid foundation with a clear mind to focus with and pure intentions. These things must come first before any real casting is performed. This taps into the reality you are working to achieve and pulls it forward into the present. This foundation that the spell sits on in your mind is where you attach the power you’ve been accumulating. Pulling a potential reality forth in your mind’s eye is not enough; it needs the energy built up through focus and alignment of will to work and become a physical manifestation.
Balance also lies within the volume of ingredients contributed to a spell. If a spell requires three ingredients, each should be added in equal parts, 1 x 1 x 1. When a spell calls for more prominent ingredients, it is easier to measure each ingredient equally. Herbs and smaller pieces of organic matter can be more challenging to measure. A measuring scoop can be used if that makes things easier. I keep teaspoons in a lot of my herb jars for this reason. I know one scoop of each is a teaspoon. There is personal preference in the chosen volume used spell to spell. My examples only demonstrate what I mean by balance and equal parts. Measuring each ingredient used avoids excess waste. It can be easy to go overboard because it “looks” like there isn’t enough in the bowl or caldron. A little goes a long way, and that’s true in spells as it is anywhere else in life.
Practice till it’s perfect!
Visually mapping out a spell can help see the whole picture. A spell is cast to achieve a goal, but sometimes, things need to go through an editing process before they are performed to ensure everything turns out correctly. When a spell is written out before you, it is easier to tap into the reality you're trying to achieve. Putting it down physically gives the spell a tangible place to begin manifestation. You can do this by gathering up the items needed for a spell, manifesting the written intent/goal, and making space to work through the spell step by step. I like to do what many call “walking meditation” when I work out a spell before I do the actual casting. I act everything out, review the words, and pretend to add each ingredient. Memorizing the order that feels most right to me.
Timing the flow of my words and making notes on whether an incense should be added or taken away. I also ask questions during this process and reflect on how things felt during practice. Did all the words flow naturally? Did the ingredients blend well, or did their energies create friction? There is no wrong way; only the ways speak to you on a deep level. This serves two purposes: one is to prepare your mind and body for the steps required during the casting so that the spell flows more naturally, and two, practicing a spell this way helps point out any possible problems with how the spell is built. Speaking in more technical terms, this can be looked at as troubleshooting, except in this case, the troubleshooting is done before the problem occurs.
Eliminating any possible technical issues with a spell before casting is a valuable technique. Any trouble will present itself by practicing the spell before the actual casting. Preliminary adjustments can be made once those problems are identified, and the practice can be done again until the spell is refined. Just to let you know, there is no way to find every possible issue that could go wrong with spells but eliminating the ones within your capability helps give you more positive results. Reducing any possible trouble you encounter after casting intentions out into the universe. Spells need to be absolute when they are cast out. Definitive and rigid in their structure. The precise expression of will is how change is accomplished. Any measures that can be taken to ensure exact expression of will should be taken to give yourself the best chance of success.
spare thoughts
On Ingredients with similar functions
What happens when a spell calls for an ingredient like an herb belonging to a more prominent magical family of plants and herbs with the same purpose? Ingredients that have the same primary function will often have different subfunctions. This means you can either consider each ingredient's main functions and subfunctions or allow intuition to guide you in your choice. Ideally, when your intention and mind are aligned, the best option is to assemble ingredients whose main functions and subfunctions are the same—aligning a spell with similar or complementary energies assists in achieving a balanced delivery.