For the sake of argument, I will discuss this in terms of conjuring a red rubber ball, but these principles apply to acts of magical creation on all levels. Still, the range of conjuration I present here is not the only way to talk about this subject—just one way that appeals to me personally. Remember: in magic, as in all things, let personal intuition and firsthand experience be your primary guide.
Moreover, these basic ideas can become very complex when we broach the subject of spirit work, personal initiation (“The Great Work”), lodge work, and collaborating with divine entities toward magical-religious goals. For now, I want to keep things simple and talk about the ways we bring things into our lives (i.e. creative acts of practical magic).
I think the professional magician, Jason Miller, once voiced the longstanding occult belief on his blog that practical magic can realistically only do two things: influence minds and / or influence probabilities. And while magic can undeniably accomplish those feats, as a useful explanation, I think that’s a bit oversimple.
It doesn’t address equally important questions (especially to working sorcerers and people committed to so-called “results magic”): how does it do these things and why is this the case? Why can’t I shoot fireballs out my backside, conjure solid-gold Escalades, and make the genitals of my enemies rot off?
To that, I answer, you actually can create such effects; though, perhaps not quite in the way you’ve been trained by the media to imagine them. And so I humbly request that you hear me out before you decide I am incurably insane. Because this might be of some value to you going forward.
Instead of Miller’s facile and not-so-useful statement, I suggest this: in life, and therefore in magic, all things are possible, but far fewer things are probable. Notice that I did not write “only some things are possible” or “practical magic is limited to the following effects.” I’ve been around real magic long enough to see many ostensible “laws of nature” violated directly in front of me. So just for a moment, I ask you to play along and drop your assumptions and acquired expectations about how the world must work. Pretend you are a child (often the most potent sort of magical creator) and that you haven’t yet had ideas about what’s possible and impossible beaten into you.
Easiest: Static Eidolon Conjuration
Since we are playing a game where anything is possible, please imagine a red rubber ball. It’s no problem if you look up at the picture above and then just reproduce it in your mind’s eye. If you have done that, you have conjured something in the easiest way possible: in your imagination (or, if you prefer, on the “Astral Plane” / Yetzirah), which is where all magical acts are graphically shaped. You have brought an image, a phantom, an eidolon into being.
Many magical techniques begin an end with this act alone because whatever is conjured on the Astral Plane / Yetzirah must eventually manifest on the Physical Plane / Malkuth. It is the easiest sort of conjuration to perform and it is why human beings (especially children) are constantly performing magic, whether they are aware of it or not.
Somewhat Harder: Moving Eidolon Conjuration
But what if two of us are imagining a red rubber ball? Does that increase the power of its manifestation? In many cases, it does. Or it could. Take a look at Mark Stavish’s book, Egregores, for an interesting in-depth discussion about that. But without digressing into such a complex topic here, we can say that one person can conjure the eidolon of a red rubber ball and give that eidolon to another person, all using the power of Yetzirah. If you don’t believe me, look back up at the picture. Didn’t I just conjure that in your mind after I conjured it in my own?
Yet Harder: Social Objective Conjuration
Since we are beings rooted in physical bodies and therefore find physical things more satisfying than phantom images and ideas, we usually work practical magic at a third level of difficulty (we might even say, “density”), by seeking out the physical manifestation of our Astral creations. Remember, anything created on the Astral must eventually manifest on the Physical.
So back to our red rubber ball. We’ve imagined it in great detail. It exists as a conjured image for us and perhaps for others. Then we watch and wait. Sooner or later—usually sooner—the universe will bring a red rubber ball into our physical experience. If we have created it in collaboration (or as a viral transmission) with another mind, it is very likely that person will bring it to us or at least be involved.
This is what I mean by “social objective conjuration.” It’s social because we’ve involved another as the pathway of manifestation. It’s objective because we’re not just talking about producing an image. Now we want a conjured physical thing. And it’s a conjuration because this is straight-up practical magic: causing change in conformity with will to produce a desired physical effect.
We might simply say to our friend, “It’s my birthday. I want a red rubber ball.” That magic is rather direct. Your loving friend may go to the sporting goods store and buy one for you. But it can be far more mysterious. Say you float a magically charged image of a red rubber ball onto social media and your friend sees it. She might arrive at your house with the object as a joke, not quite sure why she finds it so funny. Or the ball might come to you in a way very indirectly connected to your act of Astral eidolon transmission. But it must come to you if you have deliberately created the eidolon. And if others receive that image, it is very possible that they will be part of its journey.
Hardest: Pure Objective Conjuration
Instead of deliberately involving others as part of our conjuration, we “fire and forget.” I make a sigil for a red rubber ball and release that sending into the cosmos. I’ve (1) imagined the ball; (2) formed a symbolic statement of intent that encapsulates and directs the manifestation of the ball’s image into the Physical; and (3) patiently and calmly opened myself to receiving that ball from wherever it may come. It may arrive in a very circuitous and strange manner. Or its arrival may be so mundane and unspectacular that I hardly notice the magic at work.
The philosopher, Robert Anton Wilson, described this as “The Thinker and the Prover” effect: what the thinker thinks, the prover sets out to prove, not just perceptually and subjectively but in the broad, objective scope of our experience. We are not sure what pathway of manifestation the red rubber ball is going to take. At least, we’re not as sure as we were when our friend was involved. But because we are not limiting ourselves (specifically, we’re not accepting that magic has limits), there are no limitations to get in the way. This is what real sorcerers can do. They can attain a state of personal gnosis (cf. Spare’s “neither-neither”) that facilitates any and all pathways of manifestation.
At this level of magical difficulty, the eidolon has been created in a mind or in multiple minds, and it seeks physical manifestation through a kind of magical aperture into an objective state of being. Wilson suggested that people experiment with the image of money in the street. Ritualistically visualize it; think that you are going to find some; and, if you are walking down the street, in the very near future you will. Here, I suggest a red rubber ball manifesting somewhere nearby . . .
Now back to my principle: in life, and therefore in magic, all things are possible, but far fewer things are probable. I could shoot fireballs out my backside. Google it and you will likely see people doing so. I could manifest a solid gold Escalade without spending a dime. I could conjure millions of dollars, acquire an unlimited succession of sexual partners, send my rivals off cliffs, and get that promotion. Whatever I want can be accomplished at one or more of the above levels—even ostensibly miraculous or “impossible” things.
It’s all possible if I’m the one deliberately bringing it into being. But far fewer things “just happen”—thankfully with regard to my fireball example. I can imagine a scenario where anything might happen even if I didn’t do magic. But it’s far more likely that extraordinary events / effects do not come into being unless I’m focusing on them with intention.
It’s much harder to purely and objectively conjure a physical thing than it is to summon up its eidolon. Then again, sometimes only the eidolon is necessary. And sometimes conjuring the physical thing is more trouble than it’s worth. Still, ask and you shall receive. But you have to know the right way to ask.
Know the amount of probabilistic distortion you are imposing on the world but keep a very open mind. Conjure an image as a first step. Then remind yourself that in the powerful mind of a child, who sees no limits because she has never learned them, anything is possible. Anything.
Ask in a powerful way and, as the Russian physicist-mystic, Vadim Zeland, writes, “Apples will fall up” and there will be no choice but for you to get what’s coming to you . . .