Sympathetic
Magic in Witchcraft
Have you ever wondered how spells work?
As a paranormal writer, I wonder about this a lot while I’m
crafting my magical world. But the basic “law” behind spell crafting is as
simple as it is old: sympathetic magic.
Though the law of sympathy has been used and understood
since the ancient Egyptians (and perhaps beyond), it got its first scholarly,
western analysis by Sir James George Frazer. He explained it as an mash-up of
two other laws: the law of similarity and the law of contact.
Law 1: Similarity, or
like produces like. The easiest example of this to give (and everybody
does) is the poppet or voodoo doll. A poppet is a small doll created to
represent the person you want to cast a spell on, for better or worse (let’s assume
better). Whatever the spell caster does to the poppet, then happens to the
person.
Law 2: Contact. The
idea here is that objects that were once in contact with each other will
continue to affect each other even after that contact has been broken. For example,
in the Dresden Files, warlock Harry Dresden is careful to make sure no enemy
gets hold of his hair or nail clippings. Why? Because the strongest contact
would be between a person and, er, all those little bits that tend to fall off.
Put these two ideas together, and voila! Sympathetic magic.
But let’s say your witch doesn’t want to go the evil poppet
route and thinks nail clippings are icky. How could she use sympathetic magic
to build a spell? The answer: correspondences.
Correspondences – the idea that seemingly unconnected things
actually do share a connection at a mystical level – stem directly from sympathetic
magic. For example, the sun corresponds to fire, the lion, the birch, the heart
and circulatory system, happiness, and success.
So if you want to craft a spell, you could use an object
that corresponds to your intended effect and give your magic more oomph. Using
the solar example, a witch might bring some sun energy into her spell for
personal happiness by lighting candles, scattering birch branches on her altar,
and/or by casting her spell around the summer solstice.
In the film Practical
Magic, the young witch casts a true love spell, Amas Veritas spell. To cast
the spell, she lists the qualities of the lover she’s calling. For each quality,
she plucks a flower petal or blossom that represents that attribute. When she
says that his favorite shape is a star, she adds a star-shaped flower to her
magical mix.
I can’t get enough of this idea. In fact, it was the
inspiration for a locating spell in my latest book, The Elemental Detective, when my
metaphysical detective uses a favorite book to find her missing familiar.
To sum it all up: as illogical and paranormal as magic seems
– and let’s face it, that’s what makes reading about it so fun – it’s really
surprisingly logical.
About the Author
Kirsten Weiss is the
author of the Riga Hayworth series of urban fantasy/paranormal mystery novels.
Here’s a blurb from her latest, book five in the series – The Elemental Detective.
Mermaids, menehunes, and murder.
Riga Hayworth just wants to relax with her new husband on
their Hawaiian honeymoon. But a body on a Kauai beach pulls them into a murder
investigation, sending the supernatural world into an uproar.
When Riga detects traces of magic at a murder scene, she
knows she can’t ignore the call. There’s necromancy afoot, and she must prepare
for the battle to come. But can Riga fight the forces of nature? Or will they
destroy her and everyone she loves?
Book five in the Riga Hayworth series of paranormal mystery
novels, The Elemental Detective is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy blending
romance with the supernatural, and exploring the magic of Hawaii.
The Elemental Detective
Author: Kirsten Weiss
Published December 21, 2013 by misterio press
Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Mystery
Series: Book 5 in the Riga Hayworth series of paranormal mystery novels
Word count: 70,647
Available for review: ePub/Nook, mobi/Kindle, PDF, paperback
Get it from:
Blurb:
Mermaids, menehunes, and murder.
Riga Hayworth just wants to relax with her new husband on their Hawaiian honeymoon. But a body on a Kauai beach pulls them into a murder investigation, sending the supernatural world into an uproar.
When Riga detects traces of magic at a murder scene, she knows she can’t ignore the call. There’s necromancy afoot, and she must prepare for the battle to come. But can Riga fight the forces of nature? Or will they destroy her and everyone she loves?
Book five in the Riga Hayworth series of paranormal mystery novels, The Elemental Detective is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy blending romance with the supernatural, and exploring the magic of Hawaii.
Excerpt: pages 1 – 3
The palms outside rattled like bones, awakening Riga. A warm salt breeze slipped through the open door, and shivered across her bare skin. Beside her, the mattress sagged, the bed frame creaking an accompaniment to her own, steady breathing.
One breath, rising and falling. Her breath.
Muddled by sleep, she stilled, her heart leaping with a sudden jolt of adrenaline as she understood it wasn’t her husband beside her, weighting the bed. Riga kept her breathing steady, and extended her other senses. Probing. She opened her eyes, peering through her lashes. Through the open glass door, the moon illuminated a winged figure, hunched beside her on the hotel’s bed.
“Brigitte!” Riga sat up, torn between annoyance and the panic rising in her throat. She clutched the sheet to her breasts. “What are you doing here? Where’s Donovan?”
The gargoyle shrugged, the sound of rocks grating together, and the bed shifted. “Monsieur Mosse left an hour ago,” she graveled, a French-accented Lauren Bacall. “And his whereabouts are the least of your worries.”
Riga lurched to the left and reached for the bedside lamp. Instead, her fingers found emptiness, fumbled in the dark, then touched a wooden leg, upright, seemingly supporting nothing. Where the hell had the tabletop gone? Her fingers brushed a rounded stump and it fell over with a crash. Where the hell had the lamp gone?
She swung her feet out of bed, took two steps, and bashed her shin into something hard. Riga felt along the wall and smacked the light switch, cursing. Uncomprehending, she stared. Everything but the bed had been turned upside down. Cushioned wicker chairs. Wooden table. Television… She grabbed her silk robe, draped over an upside down ottoman, and slipped it on, walked to the entertainment center. That was still upright, but the TV inside had been inverted.
Wonder leaked past her anxiety. She sniffed. A trace of magic lingered, wild like a forest glade, elemental. Fae? She regarded the creative destruction she’d slept through, and amended that thought. Stealth fae. Dammit. She fumbled the belt of her robe.
“What happened to Donovan? Where is he?” Riga’s voice sounded shrill, even to her ears.
“Your husband left of his own accord.”
“Alone?” Riga motioned toward the mess. No, it couldn’t be happening again. Not another run-in with the faery world. Not here. Not now. “Did you see who—”
Brigitte’s stone-feathered head reared backwards. “I do not spy!”
“But you saw Donovan leave.”
“And then I waited by ze rocks until you woke up.”
“You woke me up.”
The gargoyle picked at her feathers. “I grew bored, and the sun will rise soon, and we have much to discuss.”
The diamond on Riga’s finger glinted, and she rubbed the back of her wedding rings with her thumb. She and Donovan hadn’t yet adjusted to island time, and both were rising well before daybreak. Donovan had probably woken up while she was sleeping and grown restless, hadn’t wanted to wake her. Of course he was safe. It couldn’t be happening again. That would be stretching the bounds of… She worked the knot on her robe. He was safe.
She swallowed, despising the remnants of fear that made her muscles twitch, and flipped her emotions to anger. Anger was simpler.
About the Author:
Kirsten Weiss is the author of the Riga Hayworth paranormal mystery series: The Metaphysical Detective, The Alchemical Detective, The Shamanic Detective, The Infernal Detective, and The Elemental Detective.
Kirsten worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of the former USSR and deep in the Afghan war zone. Her experiences abroad not only gave her glimpses into the darker side of human nature, but also sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and how both are woven into our daily lives.
Now based in San Mateo, CA, she writes paranormal mysteries, blending her experiences and imagination to create a vivid world of magic and mayhem.
Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer reruns and drinking good wine.
You can connect with Kirsten through the social media sites below, and if the mood strikes you, send her an e-mail at kirsten_weiss2001@yahoo.com
Thanks for hosting me, Dana!
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