One of the questions that recently came up in the magical experiments Facebook Group was if its possible to draw on multiple sources of energy, instead of using your own for magical workings. The short, flippant answer is yes, but I want to share in detail what this really looks like, because this is an approach to magic that I specialize in.
In my approach to magical workings, one of the questions I ask myself is how best to fuel my magical workings. I’ve rarely taken the approach of using my own energy, because a person’s energy is limited ultimately, and I’d rather focus that energy on my health and well-being. So when I consider the fuel for the magical working, what I look is how the magical working can be tied into existing efforts and actions already being taken. The reason is because those actions and efforts involve some energy, so why not harness what you’re doing and turn it into metaphysical fuel as well.
For example, if you’re looking for a job, take the effort you put into filling out applications, sending in resumes, and interviewing and make it into fuel for whatever workings you’re doing. What this lets you do is take what you’re already doing and turn it into a potent source of fuel for your working that also helps you accomplish your result.
Emotions are another source of energy that are often underutilized. You are already feeling the emotion, so why not take feeling and use it to charge your working? I’ve applied emotions to my own magical workings, in situations where the emotions would otherwise get in the way. By providing my emotions an outlet through the magical working, I’m not letting them become an obsession that blocks me from achieving a result. Instead I’m turning them into a source of energy that benefits the working and keeps me from fixating on the situation I’m applying the magic to.
Of course, in both examples above, you might note that I’m still, to some degree drawing on my own energy. But what you should also be noted is that what I’m actually drawing on is the expression of that energy. In other words, the energy is being directed somewhere. I’m just choosing to optimize it so that it really does two things instead of one.
That said, there are still other sources of energy that we can draw on. A person’s attention is one such source. even the act of casually paying attention is an expenditure of effort on the part of the person paying attention and this can be taken and applied to magical workings. I call this attention stacking, because you take the attention someone provides you and redirect it toward a magical working, to fuel that working.
Then there’s the case of harnessing other sources of energy for your magical purposes, such as elemental and planetary energies. In such cases you can draw on these energies or work with a spirit that can mediate those energies for you. I have set up specific magical tools that I use for the purposes of channeling such energies, and I apply those tools as needed. Such tools can be talismans that a person has created, or an active tool that you might use like a wand or an athame.
My magical workings are set up so that they draw on multiple sources of energy. I may setup the initial working and charge it with expressed energy, such as emotions, then draw on relevant external sources of energy that can also help empower the working. By using multiple sources to empower the magic working, I effectively keep it charged until its realization…and even after because I set my workings up to be retroactively charged even after the fact. That’s my approach to using multiple sources of energy for my magical workings. What’s yours?
