Missing Links and Spell Failure
STRATEGIC SORCERY BLOG HOP
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Did your spell fail?
Did the demon not accomplish its task?
Did the Hoodoo that you do, not know who to do the Hoodoo to?
It might be bad or missing links.
Links to people, places, or just to the material world are essential to sorcery, and when I talk to students and clients about magic that fell short of the mark they are the number one reason that a spell yields up the proverbial “404 Not Found”.
Why We Need Them
Sorcery is good at influencing events and minds. The amount of influence it has on any given situation depends on a number of factors: degree of probability, forces invoked, gifts and development of the Sorcerer, and links to the target.
Links to a person or place act like a targeting system for magic. Yes you can raise your cone of power, summon your demon, or lay your problem before the gods, but without a good good link for that magic to grab onto, it runs the risk of falling flat.
Hairy Situations.
The most classic links to a person you want to effect are of course hair and fingernails. Not only are these intimately connected to the person, but they are regularly discarded and easily gotten from a bathroom trashcan, hairbrush, or a Supreme Court Justices soda can.
Sometimes people go the extra mile and steal unwashed underwear thinking that if its sometghing a bloodhound could sniff out to find someone, it might be even better for magic. This is not unsound thinking , and some prendas in Palo contain the bones of a dog as well as that of a human so that the dog can hunt down targets.
If you are not willing to get the nasty bits, or just a good excuse for when you get caught getting caught stealing underwear or pulling hair out of a comb, a signature is an excellent link. Even a digital picture from a scanned document can be a great link as it is that persons assertion of selfhood. Like a politicians attack add it says “Yes, this is me and I authorize this message.”
Pictures, are good, but in practice they work best alongside of other links. Lots of people look like you after all. You might argue that the picture, being a captured image of a specific person is even better than a signature, but there is something about the signature being made that seems to do better for me. Pictures help me focus and visualize, and some people swear by them, but for me they are not the link of choice.
If Corporations Are People
Mitt Romney famously articulated the Citizens United SCOTUS decision by saying ” Corporations are people, my friend.” Well if corporations are people, then logos are links! So are contracts. So is dirt from the ground of the headquarters. Treat them like people and bless them for doing well and curse the crapola out of them when they do ill. Speaking of buildings…
Listen All Y’all It’s a Sabotage
If you can’t grab links from a target person or building you can always bring your magic to them. On the positive side of things, this is exactly what a Talisman is: a bit of magic that captures the power of a ritual, a spirit, or a time and brings its influence to the wearer.
On the less savory side of sorcery this is where the hot foot power and goofer dust comes in, but you shouldn’t limit yourself. Planting sigils behind pictures, condition oils in shampoos, and trojan gifts are all tricks I have seen done. One sunny spirit taught me to plan a mirror with his sigil on it so that the reflection would shine into a persons room every day… Nasty business.
Ain’t Good Enough…
Just because you have a good link, doesn’t mean its good enough. People get to binary in their thinking: it works or it doesn’t, when they should be thinking about things on a scale from good to better to best. Even if you have a link, that doesnt mean you wouldn’t do better with a better on.
Many years ago a friend asked me to jinx and confuse someone that was doing something bad I can’t mention. I don’t do stuff like that for hire, so please don’t ask, but for friends – sure. He gave me a digital photo of the person, his name, his birth date, and such. That is usually enough, but as I did the work at home I could literally feel it just going nowhere. Like trying to spray someone with a water hose when they are behind a glass door.
My friend was reporting success but when I questioned him further I felt like it was fairly meager, and would fall short of what we ultimately wanted.
So I took the magic to Mohammed. I got an address and went to lay confusion powder on his doorstep but as I approached floodlights turned on. So I purchased a super soaker and painted it up with appropriate sigils. I put the powder in some war water and re-consecrated it. That night at 3am used the Super Soaker to “dress” the targets front porch without ever setting foot on the property.
Suddenly all the magic I had been doing had a clear route and the floodgates opened. Mischief managed.
Living in a Material World
Sometimes its not about linking to a person or place, so much as it is just giving an operation something material to grab onto. Folk magic is often inherently material, but all the high magic, spirit evoking, demon compelling, stuff took on new effectiveness when I realized that offerings formed a material link to help give material result. The same is true of sympathetic magic performed with the aid of an invoked or even fully conjured spirit.
Those that are into the psychic/psionic/energetic work, as well as New Thinkers who “will” things to happen, might find their efforts bolstered as well by having a good link to focus on.
Whatever you are trying to achieve, I find that very often the missing link is… well… a link.
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