One of the ways I continue to experiment with magic involves studying non-occult disciplines to discover what insights they can provide that I can apply to magic. For the last 7 years, I’ve been studying principles of architectural and interior design and spatial studies with a question - How can I use these principles to help me create better energetic flow and ritual space in my magical workings?
Questions like these are what lead me to books like Christopher Alexander’s Process of Life series where he asks a similar question - Can the process of creating buildings be done in an organic way that encourages a deeper appreciation of life?
At the heart of each of these questions is a desire to collaborate with and connect to the spirit of a given space. Reading Alexander’s series helped me revise my spirit work modalities by recognizing that a space is a spirit. We often associate spirits as otherworldly, but sometimes the spirit is the space you are in or traveling toward.
Another book I read, Welcome to your World by Sarah Goldhagen, provided a similar perspective in terms of the design of the environment, and spoke to how you can make an environment more dynamic and alive through the purposeful design.
Now when I walk in to a space or I decide to create a ritual, I look at the aesthetic and design and consider how I can include in my experience. In this article, I’m going to walk you through how you can intentionally work with a space to create a more powerful experience with your magic.
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3 practices for work with space as an active element of your magical practice
Practice 1: Tune into the space to understand how it lands in your body
Do you ever enter a room or house and feel as sense of tension or deep relaxation? Each space has its own energy and presence. Part of that energy and presence is defined by how the space is designed. Part of it is your response to the space.
What feels comfortable for one person, won’t necessarily feel the same for someone else, so its important to recognize how the response to a given space is subjective. Nonetheless, there are principles of design that can help shape the experience.
For example, take a pause from this article and look around the space you are in.
How is the furniture set up?
Where is the art located?
What else is in that space that stands out to you?
Unless you are outside (and maybe even then) you are in a designed space. That design creates your experience. You may or may not be able to change that design, but you can ask yourself what it is about that space that you like or don’t like and then take that awareness and apply to it your own space.
You can also extend this further. How would you take a given space and design it to enhance your magical spells and experience?
We’re going to explore that question with the next two practices below…
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Practice 2: Embrace working with all of your space
I want you to once again look at the space you are in. When you think about designing that space, whether it’s to create a ritual space or use it for some other purpose, what do you initially focus on?
I don’t know your answer, but my answer is the walls.
I think about what will go on the walls to make that space come alive. A blank wall feels empty. That can be useful to work with, as an awareness practice, but when I think of a designed space, I ask myself how I can design the space to simultaneously become a magical space and be reflective of my aesthetic and experience.
I don’t stop there though.
Another consideration I apply is how I’ll navigate that space. Movement is intimately tied to space, so the way a space is designed will shape the movement patterns you have access to. Movement can happen many different ways and can play a powerful role in your magical spells and workings when it’s incorporated purposely. I’ll share more about this in a later article.
This brings me to the next practice though and it can be a game changer.
Practice 3: Your space is a temple with many walls
Something that blew my mind when I read Welcome to your World was the idea of working with the ceiling of a room. I had never thought about the ceiling of a room as a design choice, but it can be!
In my bedroom and in my office, I have placed art on the ceiling of the room. I made this choice because I realized there was a dimension of the spaces I was in that I wasn’t connecting with in a meaningful way. I also realized I could use that same dimension to help create the magical atmosphere of my ritual space.
I tacked paintings on the ceiling to create the magical atmosphere that I wanted to work in. I treated is as an exercise in deliberately creating ritual space using all of the environment as part of the process. It changed my rituals because it added something extra to the space.
Look at your own space. What aren’t you using in that space that could be worked with?
One of the ways we can empower our magic involves also empowering how we collaborate with the environment around us.
Closing Thoughts
Anyone who has studied my work for a long enough time knows that I’m fascinated with the application of non occult disciplines to magical practice. What I find in various non occult practices is a perspective that provides a different angle for magical practice, and can create innovative processes and solutions.
In the case of studying these books on architecture, what I’ve come away with is a better awareness of how to appreciate and work with a given environment, whether it’s constructed or natural. I hope, in reading this article and applying the practices that you’ve come away with a similar appreciation.
In perfectly magical space and time,
Taylor
P.S. If you want more practical suggestions and ideas for how to work with space as an intentional element of your magical practice, then you’ll want to check out my class Space/Time Magic, where I show you how to work with space and time as practical elements of magic that help you get results.
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