An incantation or a charm is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. It’s a fast but sure spell that you say outloud to make it work.
In my native witchcraft traditions (armenian&georgian) we use a lot of incantations, because there’s nothing stronger than the power of words. But what’s the formula for the perfect effective incantation? We use just 3 ingredients: rhythm, rhyme, and imagery.
Rhythm turns a whisper into a strong energetic drumbeat, rhyme helps you remember and add strength to your voice, imagery binds the intention.
The rhythm. Make each word sound like a drumbeat when you say it outloud. Recall how shamans use the sound of drums to create their magic. You incantation, when said outloud, should be that drum. Your words should have their own rhythm, power, proper emphasis.
The rhyme. Make it rhyme, make it easy to learn by heart and repeat. It only adds to its strength if you say it outoud yourself, without peeking in a book.
Imagery. Use rich metaphors. Incantation is as much poetry as it is magic, so it’s very important to make it sound vivid, and so that each word is there for a purpose, not just too fill the void. Compare sickness to a black bird, kill it with a stone and throw it in a fire to make it go away. Be vivid, be creative.
Bonus, an example of an old georgian incantation aganst a cold:
Surdo metsvia sadilad, Cold visited me at dinner. Ra gavuketo sadilat? What shall I make it for dinner? Magrad shevkar, shevpachiche, I tied it [i.e. the cold] Shavsa dzaglsa gadavkide. Hung it on the black dog, Dzagli Khidzed gavarda, The dog fell over the bridge, Surdo tskalshi chavarda. The cold fell in the water.
Because magick works best when there are actual real memories and strong emotions tied to the items.
to attract love in life/increase your or someone else’s happiness:
- your (their) most favourite candy - a colorful ribbon from a gift wrapping - some kid’s love confession letter you found in a library book
to speed up things:
- burnt matches - a watch stem - bus/train tickets - a few torn off sheets from a daily/weekly calendar
to slow down things:
- a snail shell - a queue ticket - a pull-tab from canned food - a few drops of formalin - dried fruits
to protect/threaten:
- tin soldiers - old bullets - cat nails (naturally shed, obviously. inspect your cat’s scratch post) - dead wasps - insect cocoons - glass bottle caps (you know, these sharp metal ones)
to banish:
- a few drops of sanitizer - absorbent coal - a rejection letter - a one-way ticket (away from your location)
to curse:
- a traffic/parking ticket - bones from cooked fish that you almost choked on - your own tears, brought by sincere rage/misery - flowers from a thrown-away bouquet - the most obnoxious ad/spam mail you’ve ever received - a test paper, marked F and mercilessly corrected by a sadistic teacher
Use your senses, your emotions, your own memories and your imagination: what does this item make you feel, what did it possibly make its owner feel? You can add to the list whatever feels right to you. Remember that emotions and memories connected to the item are always a powerful magick fuel, especially in spellwork. Note: some of these things are obviously region-specific. For example, living in a place that once was the war epicentre, it’s a common thing for me to stumble across old rusty bullets while taking a walk in a suburban forest. It may be different for you, but that only means you have certain things which are only unique to your place.
I practice for more than 10 years already, and, honestly, if I were to give one (1) most useful piece of advice about the way I do my spellwork, I’d say that for getting the desired outcome, preparation and planning for the spellcasting is just as important as the actual ritual, because the preparation isalready a part of the spellcasting. You’re already working on the manifestation of your desired outcome when you’re simply drafting and preparing, because you begin to think about it and focus on it.
Don’t neglect the drafring and preparation if you really want the spell to be powerful enough to shift the reality.
Spend some time just making a draft of the spell in your journal. Divide the page on individual aspects of your desired result. For each, write all your ideas, possible correspondences, any things that you think might help with this certain aspect of your desired result (”make things faster = fire?? burnt matches? clock hands???” or “new job means new beginings, so should definitely cast it on the new moon. check the day of the week correspondence later. dont forget to use tarot imagery, the fool definitely will come handy”, etc).
Be as messy as you want, it doesn’t matter, because, again, by focusing and preparing for the cast you’re already doing the half of the work.
Carefully and mindfully preparing for a spell alone usually provides, like, 50% of the desired result for me.
I don’t usually share my art, but this piece means a lot to me and I wanted to share it with you all.
I wrote this poem during a very dark time in my life. I’m not out of it yet, but I’m slowly getting there. I do a lot of work like this, which I share over at my venting blog. If you’d like to see it, please do so with caution! My vent blog has a standing trigger warning for all posts. (Blog: @traumacope)
