Sympathetic magic is a magical technique that involves symbolically imitating the desired outcome, often using a symbol to represent the target. This process involves linking two objects together with one of at least ninety bindings, which are executed by saying the following words:
- Set your intention: Clearly define what you want to achieve with your spell.
- Choose symbols: Select symbols that resonate with your intention.
- Gather materials: Collect candles, crystals, herbs, and personal belongings or representations for your ritual.
- Create a sacred space: Find a quiet and comfortable space where you can perform your ritual.
Sympathetic magic is an expression of interconnectedness, where a person can be effected magically by actions performed towards something that represents them. It is easy to understand, requires no real training, and is catholic in its application.
To perform a sympathetic magic ritual, create a ritual that aligns with your intentions. The process involves setting your intention, choosing symbols that resonate with your intention, gathering materials, and creating a sacred space.
In summary, sympathetic magic is a powerful tool for bringing about healing, prosperity, love, or any other magic goal. It involves using symbols to represent the target and harnessing the sources of their magic to create “sympathy”. Anyone who can tie knots or fashion a wax doll can use sympathetic magic to achieve their desired effects.
📹 Sympathetic Magic- My Most IMPORTANT Video To Date!
Very important history about what ALL ancient humans believed. Understanding how humans believed in sympathetic or imitative …
What are the three rules of magic?
Brandon Sanderson’s three laws of magic are: First Law: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to the reader’s understanding. Second Law: Limitations > Powers. Third Law: Expand on existing magic before adding new ones. However, a flimsy magic system can ruin imaginative worlds. Most authors over-explain magic systems, leaving ambiguity and confusion. Finding the sweet spot where magic enhances the story without overshadowing it is crucial for creating a captivating fantasy world.
What are the laws of sympathetic magic?
The principles of sympathetic magic are analogous to the fundamental laws of association, specifically contiguity and similarity.
How does sympathetic magic work?
Magic is based on two principles: the Law of Similarity, which states that like produces like, and the Law of Contact or Contagion, which states that once in contact, objects continue to act on each other at a distance. The Law of Similarity allows magicians to produce desired effects by imitating them, while the Law of Contact or Contagion implies that any action on a material object will affect the person with whom it was once in contact.
Imitation involves using effigies, fetishes, or poppets to affect people’s environment or themselves. Voodoo dolls are examples of fetishes used in this way, where a lock of hair is used to create a link between the doll and the donor. This connection ensures that what happens to the doll will also happen to the person.
Correspondence is another principle in magic, allowing one to influence something based on its relationship or resemblance to another. Popular beliefs about the properties of plants, fruits, and vegetables have evolved due to sympathetic magic, such as the belief that certain herbs with yellow sap can cure jaundice, walnuts can strengthen the brain, red beet juice is good for blood, and phallic-shaped roots can cure male impotence.
Is sympathetic dominance real?
A state of Sympathetic Dominance is characterized by constant stress, with the body constantly being sped up and the parasympathetic nervous system unable to slow down. Symptoms include a sour stomach, reduced appetite, and cold sweats. The autonomic nervous system is divided into two systems: the sympathetic nervous system, known as the “fight or flight response”, which speeds up, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows down. This state is characterized by a constant state of stress and a lack of balance between the two systems.
What are the 12 magical laws of the universe?
The 12 universal laws of The Universe include the Law of Oneness, Energy or Vibration, Correspondence, Action, Cause and Effect, Compensation, Attraction, and Perpetual Transmutation of Energy. These laws govern our existence and the universe, and understanding them can help us live a better and more fulfilled life. The journey began as an intention to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life as a family, based on an abundant mindset, happiness, and doing what we love.
The laws of energy, correspondence, cause and effect, compensation, attraction, and perpetual transformation of energy are essential for understanding the laws that govern our existence and the universe. As we embark on our travel journey, we hope to share more detailed posts and deep dives on these subjects.
How do you activate the sympathetic nerve?
The autonomic nervous system, the involuntary part of the nervous system, controls various bodily functions such as digestion, homeostasis, sweating, blood pressure, and heart rate. It is traditionally divided into two systems: the sympathetic division, which activates the “fight or flight” response, and the parasympathetic division, which activates the “rest and digest” response.
The effects of sympathetic nervous activation can be studied by measuring heart rate. In a fight or flight situation, the heart rate increases, sweating begins, respiration increases, digestion is inhibited, and the eyes dilate. Conversely, the parasympathetic system activates the “rest and digest” response, which performs the opposite, reducing heart rate, digestion activating, and salivation increasing.
These reactions are controlled by hormones, which enter the bloodstream instead of the synaptic cleft to find their targets. Hormones have response times in the scale of seconds to minutes on multiple body structures, allowing for a more detailed understanding of the human nervous system.
What is an example of contagious magic?
Contagious magic involves using items like hair, nails, clothing, and bodily fluids to achieve specific outcomes in spells or rituals. These items can be used to cause harm to enemies, protect oneself, or cause harm to themselves. For instance, a lock of hair or fingernail clippings can cause illness or misfortune, while a charm made from a piece of clothing worn by a powerful person can protect oneself. The Basutos are cautious about concealing their extracted teeth to prevent them from falling into the hands of mythical beings who haunt graves.
What are sympathetic magic foods?
The concept of sympathetic magic foods, exemplified by wheat and rice-based voodoo dolls, represents a symbolic food that evokes a similar response when performed through magical rituals. This underscores the significance of cultural influences in shaping perceptions of health and illness.
What are the magic 8 foods?
The Magic Eight, a collection of documentaries and programs by Beatrice Alvarez, features Santa Fe Native food historian and chef Lois Ellen Frank discussing eight indigenous ingredients: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, and cacao. The program explores stories of Native chefs and communities uplifting their Indigenous cultures through traditional cuisine and foodways. The collection includes recipes for home consumption and discussions on food sovereignty, emphasizing the importance of food as a celebration of changing seasons, healing hearts, and family history.
What are humans with magic called?
Magicians, also known as archimages, mages, magus, spellcasters, enchanters, sorcerers, warlocks, witches, or wizards, are individuals who use or practice magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. They have a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore, and are common figures in fantasy works like literature and role-playing games.
In fantasy works, the terms magician, mage, magus, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, and wizard have different meanings depending on the context and the story. An archmage is used to indicate a powerful magician or a leader of magicians. Enchanters typically practice imbued magic that produces no permanent effects on objects or people and is temporary or of an indefinite duration.
Examples include enchanting a weapon or tool, transforming a person or object, creating illusions, compelling a person to perform an action they might not normally do, or attempting to charm or seduce someone.
For example, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair can transform herself into a large green serpent and enchant Rilian, compelling him to forget his father and Narnia. When the enchantment is broken, she attempts further enchantments with smoke and a musical instrument to baffle him and his rescuers.
What is the law of similarity in sympathetic magic?
The law of contagion posits that once two entities are in contact, they can influence or change each other over an extended period. The law of similarity, on the other hand, suggests that entities that resemble each other possess fundamental properties in common, thereby establishing a direct correlation between the image and the object.
📹 Sympathetic Magic: The Tool you Need to Make your Spells WORK
A re-upload due to copyright claim issues…. Give it some love! I love sympathetic magic and I love talking about sympathetic …
Won’t lie, this article has made me start down the rabbit hole of your other articles. You caught my eye with sympathetic magic, something I never hear about in pagan circles, despite it being one to the oldest and most universal forms of traditional magic. I’m loving how well you blend conversational tone with strong historical evidence. Keep it up!
I think blood is a very powerful thing, because whether you’re looking at it from an entirely secular and scientific standpoint or a more spiritual and metaphysical view, “life force” is a pretty accurate way to describe it. I don’t take magic involving blood lightly and can understand why the ancestors would sprinkle blood on their altars.
I don’t believe much ‘magic’ exists at all, but I also don’t deny the almost supernatural effects of the human psyche. To believe something so outstandingly hard that it comes to fruition. Whether it’s healing from an otherwise mortal affliction, an unlikely victory in battle, the survival of a deadly trek in the wilderness, or getting the love of your life, there’s something profound about wholely believing in the outcome until it comes to life.
There’s a description of Germanic warriors fighting Rome in Gaul after crossing the Rhine, The women were standing on elevated platforms behind the men. Sounds familiar to many other things you’ve brought up. Makes you wonder if they were chanting, casting, singing, or portraying ferocity they hoped to website into the men. Edit- forgot to cite the source For anyone seeking information on this, it is specifically mentioned in the battle of Vosges which took place in 58BC, against king Ariovistus. There are several interpretations and translations.
Thanks for this awesome article 🙂 The most modern version of Sympathetic magic that tends to go right over everyone’s head is cheerleading in sports events. The modern shield maidens. Chanting and moving suggestively to cause their team victory and to lessen the ability of the other side psychologically. Too bad they can’t burn effigies and hurl things at the other team haha If I could take my tablet and solar charger to a time long ago I really would haha
I am struck by the similarity between your description of sympathetic magic and the theory of quantum entanglement! The key is, the human mind can interact with the quantum world, which underlies everything in the universe, and can thereby affect or alter reality. Very interesting. Keep up the good work!
Read Dr. J. Anderson Thompson’s book about “Why We Believe in Gods.” His work corresponds to this. There’s crazy “power” in human community-building behaviors of touching, music, group movement. When you consider the restrictions of the wuh-flu these past two years, it’s not a surprise to find previously normal people displaying aggression and violence these days, and society coming apart. The Scots-Irish in Appalachia had a tradition of “circle dance” to maintain group cohesion.
Dude your works are really well made, I’m enjoying the levels of research and the connections between cultures you point out, I find the journey of sympathetic magic hasn’t strayed from its roots to far in the modern new age communities of manifesting they journal just like carving runes and vision boards are very similar of the workings of a ancient clay poppet, to the whole mindset of dressing for success mirroring those women aiding their men in battle!
Great magic and belief article.. You said those are the ones you prefer yourself, over general history articles. Even tho I wish you’d do both (hel, I’d wish you had a 24 hour tv website) – but we can get general historie vids anywhere, but it’s rare to find articles with such good insights about the spirituality of things.
Archeologists have their place. The problem is they tend to forget they are bone diggers, and go about theorizing about the whys and wherefores of the bones and items they’ve dug up, while not always having the background to allow for reality-based theorizing. Bone diggers need to give it up, and bring in people from various faculties for discussion. (Hope it’s not obvious that too many archeologists get up my nose.)
I’m a new subscriber and I love your vids. I’m posting here cuz it’s your newest and I hope you see this. Concerning your vid on shapeshifting, I was married to a Navajo woman and they have very negative views on shapeshifting. They consider it witchcraft. My son, who is half Navajo and half Norwegian and has taken both cultures to heart, has been given a heard time for his interest in berserkers. His mom’s family calls it skinwalking and evil. I tell him it’s part of our history and culture. Any thouhts on this? Advice?
Sympathetic magic is a very intriguing subject – and one of my absolute favorites. Excellent article! I would love to see more on this topic. I have a ton of family in Florida, though it’s way too hot there for me, lol. Enjoy your stay, Florida has so much to see – like the Bok Tower Gardens about an hour south of Orlando. Beautiful place. Anyway, have a great time.
Also If anyone wants to know helpfull ways to prevent Sympathic Magic ( everything is energy, Scientists know this ) from being used against you let me know and WITH THOR’S PERMISSION, I will share them here, but only because it cannot be abused. Any knowledge that could be used to hurt people a lot, I don’t share with anyone until I have verified the quality of their Character and Honor and Intelligence.
that was extremely interesting as I’ve never heard of “Sympathetic Magic”. I wasn’t expecting this to be so eye opening. Like you said; it’s so easy for our perceptions of history to be wrong or off when we don’t look at all these things. I don’t know why some people wouldn’t like what you mentioned about the watermelons? Was it the shield maidens not being warriors? My conclusion on viking women are like you said; support and logistics. But they would most definitely have relished a fight if it came to them. I know that in proto-germanic times the Gauls usually took a sorceress into battle. The sorceresses were the most high ranking person in the villages/tribes and were revered for they’re premonitions and magical abilities.
As soon as you started describing what sympathetic magic is, I thought of quantum entanglement—a connection between quantum particles, the building blocks of the universe. Once two particles are entangled, a change to one of them is reflected—instantly—in the other, whether they are in the same lab or light-years apart. Even Einstein called quantum entanglement “spooky.” Then I thought of the great quote by Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” All this smashed a couple of neurons together in my brain and makes me think our pagan ancestors were really onto something, and probably understood some things better than we do now, even if they might not have known why. The older I get, the more I believe that eventually science and religion (in its myriad forms) are seemingly separate paths that will eventually reach the same ultimate conclusion, perhaps one we have forgotten, or been forced to forget. Just discovered your website and really enjoying it! Thank you!
Hi again #2!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Okay so I have a BSc in Anthropology with a concentration in Primatology, and about 10 years of frontline social services experience. Due to a PTSD relapse after my second SA, I had to be on Long Term Disability from a Major Insurance Company in Canada. And then I went back to work January 12th, 2022 to an Orthodontic Company. I worked 6 months and then LONG COVID wiped me off my butt and I am on Employment Insurance from the Canadian Government and I am on Sickness Leave. So my HYPER FOCUS topic is profession development in trauma and how to support humans that are traumatized. I recently obsessively watched The Northman. And to me, every single human’s perspective makes sense. So I guess I have some kind of magical powers lol.
In reading Black Elk Speaks he lamented that the buildings today are rectangular. He said spirit can’t move in rectangular buildings. This is completely in step with the Medicine Wheel. According to which Everything in the Universe moves in a circle and requires balance. Circular movement is a tenet of magic everywhere!
If you think of a magic computer game life is a bit like that. Some people have zero magic points, most people have say three magic points, which is enough to occasionally change the world a tiny bit in the way that you want. An average shaman or hedge witch will have 5 to 10 magic points which is enough to heal people and see a little into the future. Then there are the hereditary magicians they have an undetermined number of magic points, maybe 100 maybe more. When they do the voodoo doll terrible things can happen, which is why no one should do that sort of magic. I know I was married to one. Never turn widdershins,even though the hedge witches think it is one in the eye for the “man”, because it lets evil into your soul.
Yeah when it comes to sympathetic magic especially when it comes to Voodoo dolls the voodoo doll actually came out of Europe it’s actually a European invention the concept that it came out of Africa is more of a pop culture invention it’s not even close to true it was actually Europeans who came out with most of this stuff, and yes the Bible is covered in sympathetic Magic
When you understand how powerful the mind/body connection is, you realize their spells and magic may have actually worked. I have personally come to believe that a lot of magic is simply a way to focus the mind on certain things and bring changes in attitude. Let’s say I’m a viking and I make a talisman designed to give me greater strength and carry it around with me. Maybe it is dedicated to a certain god like Thor. I might literally believe that this talisman connects me to Thor and grants me his favor and strength, but regardless; by carrying it around, I am constantly reminding myself that I wish to be stronger. Maybe this will lead to me subconsciously choosing to work harder and eat better, and maybe my brain will even put out extra human growth hormone and testosterone in response. You can trigger a release of adrenaline or dopamine or oxytocin by vivdly imagining certain things, why not other hormones and neurotransmitters? The placebo effect is very real, maybe a similar process can lead the brain to make real changes as long as it believes the spells and amulets and other magic are a real medicine that will work, just like the placebo test subject thinks a sugar pill is real medicine, and experiences real effects. Similarly, maybe the decapitation of melons on the sidelines helps keep the warriors focused. If they look away from the battle, instead of being distracted by thoughts of home and family, they are reminded to keep their eyes on the enemy and keep taking heads.
Some similarities….the Science of Sympathy was a thing for quite awhile…and even used as a team was trying to win the Longitude award of 1714. (wounded dog on the ship, and the knife heated at each midnight in London to make it cry aboard the distance ship)…Also at the basis of the Kalevala in Finnish mythology. (to heal a wound, one needs to treat the weapon….or in the story, find the song of steel before one closes the wound. This was part of many logging camps in Calif, where the Finnish cook was often a healer)
Very insightful, I like the spinning part as I was going over the Pyramid Texts yesterday and was thinking of this very thing, because of this utterance : 406c. He has completely encircled the two heavens; he was revolved about the two lands. In North American they would circle the way of the Sun and the trickster would circle the opposite direction…
This makes me think of the Tongan “SIPI TAU” which is a form of ancient war dance made more well known in modern times being performed at rugby league games and by Tongan military serving overseas. It somerimes begins with the team forming a circle around the speaker who gathers energy and declares intent. After this they chant and act out battle moves as one, it is so powerful and is still reenacted at many ceremonies and occasions both in Tonga and by descendants overseas. The Polynesian islands all have multiple variations used for specific situations.
Excellent article, found your website today and you’ve already cleared up some misconceptions I had, some of them stemming from approaching the whole belief system blindly after years of absorbing christianity. Definitely was overemphasizing on the Gods and missing out on a lot. Thanks brother, your work is appreciated. Hail to you and yours!
You uploaded this at a perfect time! I’ve been feeling called to incorporate witchcraft into my pagan practice, and have been reading more and more into the Elder Futhark runes, Norse/Germanic magic, and völvas lately. European sorcery is fascinating to me, and I hope to practice it myself. Thank you for this! Hope you had a great Yule!
You know, even the VERY REAL and PROVEN “placebo effect” COULD be considered a FORM of sympathetic magic. By giving someone something or doing an action to someone that they BELIEVE will help them, it DOES help them. The placebo effect has even been proven to have very real measurable PHYSICAL affects on people.
very informative article. about the golden bough, i once had a discussion about this with professor ronald hutton, asking whether the golden bough was authentic or not. professor hutton’s opinion was that no it is not, that frazer made up a lot of the content. if this is true, and i tend to believe ronald, then the golden bough is literature not history and should not be taken as a source of actual practice. ronald also said the same thing about the white goddess, according to him this too was all or mostly made up by the author. a point worth bearing in mind
I believe sympathetic magic could possibly be explained by quantum physics- or vice versa. It’s called quantum entanglement. Where one particle no matter how far a distance away, can affect a different particle. It’s a phenomenon that can’t exactly be explained as to how it happens. We are all entangled so it’s totally plausible that sympathetic magic genuinely produced real outcomes!
Nice article, I’ve never heard of women chopping the heads off of melons to help their men in battle, but that is pretty interesting. Ironically, sympathetic magic is not only in paganism, but also the church, I talk about this in my Easter article. For example, people in Poland bring their Easter baskets (filled with foods that represent certain things, like eggs for new life, or ham for abundance) to church to be blessed by a priest. Since the church has virtually no enjoyable ways to celebrate of its own, it tends to adopt fun pagan practices, which often involve sympathetic magic.
God morgen. EPIC ‘CODED’ TEACHING Well indeed brother the topic conjures ( no pun intended ) a myriad of thoughts and feelings. As the article ended I said to myself immediately, ” you need to watch this again. ” You’ve given rise to ( especially with the banana trouser depiction lol) or provoked or stimulated in my experience a discussion about deep meditative practices focused on producing a specific result using techniques ancient and possibly modern. I’ll close with this before I watch the article again; Modern man’s mind is polluted, influenced and coerced by the internet, tv, holkywood, fake news, sound waves, air waves and false information. You can add more distractions. I heard a wise man say this decades ago, ” I used to believe in Santa Claus…….. but I didn’t know him. I used to believe in God, but I didn’t know him. I don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore, I don’t know him and I no longer believe in God. I don’t believe in God anymore, because now I ‘know’ God.” What he was referring to was prayers, meditation and rituals performed resulting in what one might describe as a MIRACLE.. God dag ~
My favorite and first exposure to sympathetic magick is “villain hitting”, local Daoist/Buddhist folk magick in Hong Kong. The ladies will take papers with a picture of either a lady or guy “siu yan” (little/petty person), you write the name of the person you want out of your life, and the lady will put it on a brick then beat the shit out of it with a special slipper while singing/chanting a rhyme like “I hit your head, I hit your hand, I hit you that even if you catch your breath, you find no place to rest.” They don’t stop until the paper is turned into shreds 😅 Then they feed the shreds into the belly of a paper tiger, smearing its mouth with pig fat oils so it won’t bite anyone else (offering to the tiger), then burn both the tiger and the siu yan paper. Most of us locals find it very funny, especially the chant in Cantonese, but as someone trying to decolonize myself and my practice, I’m definitely intrigued 👀 Great article Frankie!
~I literally just bought a brass key and put it in my money bowl because my goal is to save enough money to buy a home. To me the key represents road opening but also ownership and responsibility (like when you own a home and have to take care of it). This article was super helpful and now i have lots of ideas for working more manifestation! Thank you!
I realized I was already doing this by working with the senses. Like things that smell, taste, etc. bad, or even things that make you sneeze or eyes water usually push people away, like spitting it out or avoiding a smelly area. So such things are good for protection and likes. Also using random weeds in money work. They’re abundant and persistent, even annoyingly so, and that’s how one might want their money to be
I didn’t realize I was already doing this! I have a couple crystals I bought not for me, but for my boyfriend, and I still set intentions with them “for” him. So those crystals are in a way symbolic of him and of what I want for him. Thank you so much for this article, I’ll be using sympathetic magic more mindfully now.
I grew up in a christian house n was scared to talk abt why I thought dripping water on the dry earth would make the monsoon want to be here sooner, or why laying small rocks out in a wall would “protect” my dog from the mountain lion or coyotes that I’d heard the night before. I also made lil leaf pockets sewn w agave spines so I could leave food out for the critters without leaving thread for them to eat. (Payback for my dog bringing me all the rats in the area, i did not need them lol) None of it I called magic, and I told no one bc it’d get smacked. But I like to think it was noticed, and now I know people do the same stuff ♡
(min 14:50) Hey Frankie! I’m italian, from Marche, and here if we want to make it rain we just throw outside some lentils and canola seeds, because they make the sound of the rain (btw, we use also canola oil as a remedy for drought and bad harvest because it represents prosperity and fertility) and if we want to check if tomorrow will be a sunny day, we just look at sunset because there’s a saying that says “rosso di sera bel tempo si spera” (it means that if the sunset is red, tomorrow will be a sunny day). Currently, me and my family don’t know how to make it not rain, except for yelling at the sky, praying, saying a rosario (I don’t usually do that because for me, in my experience, it never worked) or using a specific ritual. I don’t know if this will be interesting for you, but I hope it could somehow help you. (p.s. sorry for the spelling mistakes)
Hi Frankie I love your articles so much I just wanted to mention bc I don’t know if u were joking or not but people didn’t actually live in the caves! Because they were nomadic! It’s as you mentioned the caves were (likely) more of a spiritual site or landmark! We know this because of the depth of the caves where paintings were found, that single caves contain paintings from multiple generations of people, and because of the debris on the floor of the caves. Most of the debris is related to creating and viewing the art (pigments, light sources, etc) rather than regular life stuff (food waste, etc). Also it’s believed that most prehistoric art in general was made by (possibly pregnant) women which I think also lends credence to the sympathetic magic idea. Like if you are in the group waiting behind with the people so pregnant they can barely walk and you are worried if the group who is getting meat will come back or not then it would make sense to try and like you said manifest through art. I also wonder if this is true of the really popular “Venus” figures if these could have been early poppets that possibly people carried to manifest a healthy pregnancy or just a way to generally represent the women of their group for the sake of blessings or protection or something?? Just wild theorizing but I love art history and that part really got me thinking!
in my ancestor’s practice, we would do these things to make it rain and storm. We would literally throw waters all around in front of our main gate while holding a black umbrella/cloth. Then we would burn a chunk of coconut leaves and blow the fire main the gate without getting it exstinguished. We then let it burn in front of the house. After that, it rains heavily with thunders and strong winds. 😂
I am really not into animal sacrifice or abuse of any kind, so while I respect other traditions, I think it’s highly disrespectful and cruel to take a life for magick. Especially when there are alternatives that can get you the same, or better results. Empathetic magick can be seen in Egyptian magic. Stepping into the role of a God, wearing their colors, etc, to command results. If I say anything orange is the eye of Horus that is what it becomes.
Hey Frankie! I haven’t commented on any articles till now, but this particular article truly made me think I have been doing sympathetic magic all my life and I never knew. I’ve been conflicted being a catholic (still am) and being lgbt + going on my withcraft path now at 29. But after perusal this, I’m truly inspired by this vid and going on my witchy journey with reborn hope. So thank you so much!!! ❤
One of my favorite uses of this is in ancient Egypt, they put a lot of weight on how you ask for things, and how your posture is when doing ritual work! For example if you are pleading to a god for something, they often do the prayer in a bowing or “head down” manner as to show what they really need/want. Sometimes if a magician needed something really bad they would threaten the gods to help them, maybe even saying they would burn down their temple or destroy their altar if they didn’t help. It shows you that magic can be physical and that the parts of witchcraft that are based in the physical realm shouldn’t be overlooked!!