Creativity to Enhance Your Spells

In a day and age in which so many things are automated for us, there is something to be said for lending your own creativity to add a little oomph to your work. Whether you are a painter, writer, singer, or fire dancer and whether you are a professional or "just" a new hobbyist, embellishing your spiritual work and rituals with a touch of your personal creativity can bring about dramatic results.

In this article, I will go over

• What Purpose Creativity Serves in Spellwork

• Ways to Incorporate Creativity into Your Craft

As usual, if you prefer video format, here you go. Otherwise, keep scrolling...

What Purpose Creativity Serves in Spellwork

Dedicating Time For Energy or as a Sacrifice/Offering

Certainly we all love those quick charms that require nothing more than charging up a store-bought stick of incense with intention and lighting it or something that requires just as little time and effort. These can be effective as supplemental work to a bigger ritual or just provide a little helping hand, but you can't expect dramatic results from such a quick, effortless gesture.

Again, there's nothing wrong with these, in fact they make up a good chunk of my day-to-day practice, but I wouldn't expect life-changing results or massive manifestation from something so simple. I do not mean simple in regards to the lack of ingredients or incantation. I think certain types of simplicity can be highly effective in spellwork, but it's the lack of time and energy dedicated to the task. How can I expect to get huge results out if I'm putting small efforts in?

When you create something, this requires time, effort, and care. Whatever it is you are making, you are adding the energy of all that time, effort, and care into this creation you've made. If you are also appealing to Spirit (whether deity, ancestors, or other) to assist you in this endeavor, you can also consider the time, effort, and care spent on this project part of a sacrifice or offering for their assistance.

Personalization

Again, this is about lending your own energy to your work. But personalizing spells and ritual is also a means of linking your mind to your manifestation. I talk about this in more depth in my article Demystifying Magickal Correspondences, but when you practice sympathetic magick you are acting out your will in a symbolic manner in order to manifest it in reality. E.g. Lighting two candles that are bound with a chord and allowing them to burn through it in order to break ties with someone else. The candles represent you and this other person, and the chord is the bind you are breaking in order to rid them from your life or their influence over you.

Depending on the ritual you are performing (and the method of magick being used), everything from your ingredients to your motions are likely symbolic for the results you are attempting to achieve. This is why we use magickal correspondences in our ingredients and moving clockwise is for bringing in while counter-clockwise is for sending away, for one example.

The more your spell suits the symbolic purposes for you, the stronger the association between your actions/ritual and your desired results will be. If a spell calls for an incantation to be written and spoken aloud, but you hate writing and you think you are a much better painter, then by all means, you should paint a picture of what the incantation is trying to say.

Focused Intent

Last month, I made a batch of black salt specifically to ward off a pesky (to put it nicely) neighbor. The entire time I was making it, I was thinking about how uncomfortable he makes me and how relieved I would be if I never ran into him again (or if he moved away entirely 🤞). That particular batch of black salt has that intention bound into its creation.

More on creating ingredients in a bit, but I want to point out how impactful it can be to have an intention in mind as you create something, weaving it into that process and each component as opposed to take a general intent ingredient and adding specificity later. But even if you are designing a one-time-use ingredient, tool, or motion, it will pack a bigger punch if its purpose is added during its creation.

Gnosis & Indifferent Vacuity

Sometimes, the creation process is the spell. I discuss this further in my introductory article on Chaos Magick, but achieving gnosis (an altered state of mind) and indifferent vacuity are two common ways of charging up and casting sigils. And sigils are not the only art form that can be empowered by these practices.

Have you ever been so focused on a painting you were working on that you didn't notice someone calling your name from another room? Have you ever been so wrapped up in the emotions of a song that you were singing that the rest of the world and every thought in your head melted away? Practicing an art can help you achieve gnosis and indifferent vacuity nearly effortlessly.

Ways to Incorporate Creativity into Your Craft

Making Your Own Spells

This might be the most obvious way to mix a little creativity into your craft, but it is also one of the most effective. Back in the section on Personalization, I already explained why making a spell your own can provide a beneficial impact. Even if you are a newer practitioner and don't feel quite ready to craft an entire spell from scratch, you can pull one from a book and restructure it to suit yourself, whether that is altering ingredients, motions, or changing the words of an incantation.

Sigils

If you'll allow me to oversimplify the process, a sigil is made by writing your intention in the form of a sentence, eliminating all vowels and repeating letters, arranging the leftover letters to form an abstract image, and then charging or empowering that image. One theory behind why this works is that by converting your desire into an image, you are shifting this desire from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind which can then power the manifestation (again, oversimplifying here).

Watch this video to get in-depth instructions on creating and powering sigils:

Collaging or Vision Boards

This is a common practice done by practitioners and non-practitioners alike. In fact, I like to create a new vision board on Canva every New Year and set it as the desktop image for my PC and laptop. This gives me a solid visual of all that I'm trying to manifest over the year and every time I look at it, I am actively utilizing the law of attraction and thinking of these desires often. I find vision boards work best as a supplemental for long-term goals, and if you choose to make a physical one, they also make nice altar decor.

Handcrafting Spell Items

I touched on this already in the previous Focused Intent section where I talked about ingredients, but I do want to expand on this idea. Making your own black salt, incense, oils, or various other ingredients is an impactful way to mix in some creativity, but you may also want to consider other items that might help with your work. I recently did a multi-day spell candle for fertility, but I also handcrafted a fertility charm bag that I charged next to the candle and stored above my husband's and my bed after the candle ritual was done.

Other options may by poppets or dolls, spell jars, witch balls, a witch's ladder, amulet or talisman jewelry, etc.

Kitchen Witchery

Unless you stick to microwave mastery (hey, no shame there), general cooking is creation and can double as a spell. Bonus points if you can create your own recipe and/or ingredients from scratch!

Painting or Drawing

Whether it's oil on canvas or a 3-panel comic, painting and drawing are great ways to manifest intentions by creating the visuals of what you want to happen or the results of your spell coming to fruition.

Creative Writing

The same concept carries over to creative writing. Write a poem of how your intentions may come to life or a short story detailing your life a year after you spell has manifested and explore how your life has been altered by your results.

If you're curious about a magick practitioner who has had this work for them, look into Grant Morrison's experience when writing his comic The Invisibles.

Dance

Not only is dance a physical form of expression that can communicate your intent outward, but it is also a great way to raise energy and to give praise to Spirit.

Literally Anything Creative!

The possibilities here are endless and you know much better than I what your personal creative inclinations are. So whether you sew, sing, blow glass, or edit film, there are a vast amount of ways to work your magickal craft into your creative craft.

I would love to hear how you include your art into your practice. Tell me all about it in the comments below!