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Author Topic: How many ingredients?  (Read 2248 times)

Omimi.Unknown

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How many ingredients?
« on: October 10, 2016, 07:02:03 am »
What are your thoughts on the use of ingredients in spellwork? Provided they are chosen with intention, is there such a thing as too many?

It's a bottle spell I'm working on that got me to thinking about this. Clearly, in the case of a bottle there's such a thing as too many ingredients - when they won't all fit inside! Mine isn't quite that bad, but I'm in the planning and collecting stage at the moment and looking over my list I wonder - is this too much?

Four herbs, two tarot cards, one stone. Pennies, nails, a seed. Honey. A petition. A pinch of dirt as taglock to a particular location. And then filled with olive oil to seal everything together.

There's nothing I'd be happy removing, so too much or not, I'm going to go ahead as planned. But in a more general sense I wonder what people's thoughts are on the number of different ingredients that can go into a spell. My instinct says more ≠ better, but on the other hand I am a believer that every thing has its own individual properties that we can harness - that is, I believe that the objects in my work are more than simply focal points: they have objective and intrinsic value.

What are others' views on this topic?

Faemon

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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2016, 07:49:34 am »
Quote from: Omimi.Unknown;197305
There's nothing I'd be happy removing

That's the best guideline to go by, in my opinion! :p
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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2016, 08:22:51 am »
Quote from: Omimi.Unknown;197305
What are your thoughts on the use of ingredients in spellwork? Provided they are chosen with intention, is there such a thing as too many?

It's a bottle spell I'm working on that got me to thinking about this. Clearly, in the case of a bottle there's such a thing as too many ingredients - when they won't all fit inside! Mine isn't quite that bad, but I'm in the planning and collecting stage at the moment and looking over my list I wonder - is this too much?

Four herbs, two tarot cards, one stone. Pennies, nails, a seed. Honey. A petition. A pinch of dirt as taglock to a particular location. And then filled with olive oil to seal everything together.

There's nothing I'd be happy removing, so too much or not, I'm going to go ahead as planned. But in a more general sense I wonder what people's thoughts are on the number of different ingredients that can go into a spell. My instinct says more ≠ better, but on the other hand I am a believer that every thing has its own individual properties that we can harness - that is, I believe that the objects in my work are more than simply focal points: they have objective and intrinsic value.

What are others' views on this topic?

 
I tend to trust my instincts...if I feel a thing needs to be included I do, but if I feel I'm just trying to think of anything that might match what I'm working towards, then it's almost like I'm trying too hard.
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Nerys53

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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2016, 09:07:34 am »
Quote from: Omimi.Unknown;197305
What are your thoughts on the use of ingredients in spellwork? Provided they are chosen with intention, is there such a thing as too many?

It's a bottle spell I'm working on that got me to thinking about this. Clearly, in the case of a bottle there's such a thing as too many ingredients - when they won't all fit inside! Mine isn't quite that bad, but I'm in the planning and collecting stage at the moment and looking over my list I wonder - is this too much?

Four herbs, two tarot cards, one stone. Pennies, nails, a seed. Honey. A petition. A pinch of dirt as taglock to a particular location. And then filled with olive oil to seal everything together.

There's nothing I'd be happy removing, so too much or not, I'm going to go ahead as planned. But in a more general sense I wonder what people's thoughts are on the number of different ingredients that can go into a spell. My instinct says more ≠ better, but on the other hand I am a believer that every thing has its own individual properties that we can harness - that is, I believe that the objects in my work are more than simply focal points: they have objective and intrinsic value.

What are others' views on this topic?


Some of my books mention 7, 9 or 13 as is supposed to be more "magick" in those nrs.
I tend to stick with uneven so 3,5,7,9, 11 up to a maximum of 13 ingredients/items.
Just to be clear a blended oil counts as 1 item, eventhough it is several oils combined. :)

Jenett

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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2016, 11:19:19 am »
Quote from: Omimi.Unknown;197305
What are your thoughts on the use of ingredients in spellwork? Provided they are chosen with intention, is there such a thing as too many?

 
I view it more or less like cooking: there are too many ingredients if the variety of ingredients muddies the taste or overall goal of the thing you're making.

Or if the desire to make the thing with more ingredients means you don't actually make it because you're trying to find X perfect ingredient, or realise you just ran out of Y, and can't replace it quickly.

The first question is a trickier one with magic, because it's a little different than cooking (where you can do taste tests more directly) but I do often find a point where adding things muddies the goal.

That said, there are things (protective witch bottles) where a wide variety of different items are traditional. There are times carefully chosen items help refine a goal (for example, if you're building a shrine for a particular goal, 9 items might be not at all unreasonable, and in some cases 15 or more might be very sensible.)
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Dynes Hysbys

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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2016, 12:55:39 pm »
Quote from: Nerys53;197312
Some of my books mention 7, 9 or 13 as is supposed to be more "magick" in those nrs.
I tend to stick with uneven so 3,5,7,9, 11 up to a maximum of 13 ingredients/items.
Just to be clear a blended oil counts as 1 item, eventhough it is several oils combined. :)


I make sure I use an odd number of ingredients in order to have a natural imbalance that can bring about change. I find even numbers to be too stable to work as well.

Ryu

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Re: How many ingredients?
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2016, 08:40:44 pm »
Quote from: Omimi.Unknown;197305
What are your thoughts on the use of ingredients in spellwork? Provided they are chosen with intention, is there such a thing as too many?......

What are others' views on this topic?

I don't know, my thinking is more along the lines of "the fewer, the better".
I do not see spells as requiring a litany of stuff just to work and I see little problems with substituting one ingredient for another.

If one focuses too much on the ingredients and rituals then it seems that one therefore limits and greatly constrains the very "energies" one is trying to harness and channel.

It's kind of like electricity, you can all the fancy transformers and insulators when a simple winding of copper wire will do just as well.

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