Sympathetic Magic: Using Nature to Amplify Your Intentions

Hey now, all. I'm Joey C. Welcome back to another episode of Spirit Sherpa. This is the show that helps and encourages you on your journey to unlock your magic mojo. With me, as always, is the spirit doctor, Kelle Sparta. Hey, Kelle. Hey, Joey. How's it going?

It's going very well, thank you. How's it going with you? I'm awesome. We are back again, and we're gonna talk some magic. Woo-hoo. Sympathetic magic. Yes. I have no idea what that means. Tell me about it, please. Okay. So sympathetic magic, very simply put, is when you use the energy of something that is in alignment with the working that you're doing to amplify the work.

So I, I know I just spoke geek to you, so let me let me- Magic geek, so it's okay ... magic geek. It's okay, yeah. For instance, oak is known to have protective, you know, strength properties, right? And a lightning-struck oak is the most powerful, most protective, most amazing thing you can possibly have, uh, in that regard.

s, early: 2000

I was like, "Ugh, that's really inconveniently placed." I'm like, "We need to do something with that, 'cause it's ugly." And he said, "It's a tree." And I went, "Yes, it's a tree." And so we went and we ... There was a, a tree around the corner from us that had shed a massive branch, and so we went and, and gathered that branch and chopped it down and, and strung it up to the ceiling so that it looked like there w- the branch was all around.

And then we created a chicken wire casing around the lolly column. Oh. And then we passed wires through and pulled it tight in different places to create it as a more organic shape, right? And cut out little spaces to create display spaces and whatever. But when you bring the two pieces of chicken wire together, they create a divot.

And he's like, "Well, we're gonna have to fill that in." I said, "No." I said, "I don't really think I wanna fill that in." You know, before that we had discussed what kind of tree we were gonna have, and he decided it had to be oak, because, you know, that would be- Strength ... protective- Mm-hmm ... and strengthening for the store, and it's in the center of the store.

So when I said, um, "No, I don't really wanna fill it in," I said, "You know some of those trees that have that like divot down the side of them?" I said, "Can we, can we make it that?" And he said, "You want a lightning-struck oak in the center of the store?" I said, "Oh, is that what creates that?" And he said, "Yeah." I'm like, "Yeah, that's what I want."

And he had to explain it to me- ... because, you know, this was 20 years ago. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know anything about sympathetic magic, much less about lightning-struck oaks. Um, but intuitively, un- I understood what I wanted. In the same store, there were two sides to that, that store. One side was the healing center, uh, and the other side was the retail, and the lightning-struck oak was on the retail side.

And the other side, which we had done first, I had actually gone out and collected leaves from our front yard. And I had picked up these leaves and was putting them in a bag, and he said, "Well, what are you doing?" And I said, "Well, I wanna, I wanna take these leaves and I wanna paint them. I wanna put the paint on them and then put them flat down on the ground with a paper towel over them, roll them onto the floor to transfer the, the, uh, pattern onto the floor, and I want it to be different for each one.

So I'm collecting a bunch of different leaves. I'm gonna do them around the edges of the healing center." And he said, "Oh, that's appropriate." And I'm like, "Okay, why?" He said, "Well, that's red oak." I said, "Uh-huh, and?" And he said, "I keep forgetting you don't know this stuff." I'm like, "Well, clearly I do. I just don't know it in my head," right?

And so he told me about the protective properties. And, and when the time came to do the other side, and we did the lightning-struck oak, I said, "Yeah," but I said, "I want, I want some saplings around the outside edges. I wanna cut down some saplings and put them around the outside edges of the store." And he said, he said, "Yeah, y- you want birch."

And I s- "I don't know what I want." I said, "I'll see it when ... I'll know it when I see it." And he's like, "No, you want birch." I'm like, "Okay. You can tell me why later." And so we went out, and we went into the forest, and, and I picked up the leaves because we were also stenciling onto the floor in a scatter pattern this time, and I was mixing the leaves of the oak and whatever it was that I wanted.

And I said, "This is the leaf I want." He said, "That's birch." Hmm. And I picked it up off the ground, and then I went, "Okay." And then I went over to, to, uh, saplings that had not actually created leaves yet, so I didn't know that they were associated. And I said, "And that's the tree I want." He said, "That's a birch."

I said, I said, "Okay. So why do I want that?" He said, "Because it's feminine energy to balance the masculine of the oak." And I went, "Sure. Okay." We did inventory a year and a half later. Now, we had a lot of kids wandering through this place, and we did inventory a year and a half later in a retail store, and we were missing $12 of inventory, and we were fairly certain that we had given it away.

Wow. Because we would occasionally give things away to people. It's $12. Do you want a s- lightning-struck oak in your store? Oh, yes you do. What was really funny is that there was a woman who was a known kleptomaniac in the area who wandered in while we were making the renovations, and while we were creating the tree and creating the energetic of it, and she walked in and she's like, "What are you gonna do here?"

And I told her, and she said, "Oh, I'll never come in here. I'll never come in here." And she just walked through the whole store going, "I'll never come in here. I'll never come in here." And I was not gonna disabuse her of that notion because clearly she was being programmed. Yeah. And I was letting it happen.

And I didn't know who she was, and the guy who was my insurance agent, I saw her walk by on the street while he was in, and he knew everybody. I said, "Who is she?" He said, "Oh, don't let her in her stor- your store. She'll steal everything." I'll s- I said, "Well, I don't have to worry about it. She'll never come in here."

But it works. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. The sympathetic magic really works. And that's even with the oak, the lightning-struck oak, in this case not even being ... It's chicken wire. Yeah. It's not even the actual thing, right? Yeah. It's just- Chicken wire and plaster of Paris ... it's the intention in that case.

Yep. So now we've talked- Papier-mâché. Papier-mâché. Papier-mâché. So we've talked now a little bit about oak specifically, and the birch, and the trees, and stuff like that, but what are some of the elements that can be applied to sympathetic magic? Well, there's all kinds of things. Mm-hmm. I mean, if you want to go deep into your emotions, you could use water.

You know, water is known as a, an emotional element. If you want to bring clarity, fire is good for bringing clarity, right? Mm-hmm. If you want to get grounded, having a root, a physical root, uh, that you put on your altar, um, or in your space that you're using to create your s- your ritual, that's a great way to get grounded.

Anytime we're talking sympathetic magic, you're really looking at what are the f- the elements that I can bring in that support the issue, right? Mm-hmm. So if you want to cut something off, you can use a dagger- Mm-hmm ... or a knife or a pair of scissors. You wanna sweep something away, I actually have one of my grandmother's old, uh, hand brooms that they used to make years ago- Oh

that I use on my altars for sweeping stuff away, for, for sweeping away the stuff that is not needed anymore. So it's more than just the elements in the way that we've talked about them before on the show, uh, the, the physical elements. It's actually other things. Like, what about things like effigies and stuff like that?

Would they apply here? So an effigy is a, an energetic connection in absentia to someone. Mm-hmm. It is sympathetic magic in that regard. Um, it's not the way in which sympathetic magic is often used. Okay. Sympathetic magic usually means that you take the natural- aspect of the element and you use it to amplify the work.

Okay. Right? So it's more into the natural aspect of the element. Yeah. So sweetgrass naturally draws in positive spirits. Okay. So you use it for that purpose. Smudge is a clearing of negative energies, and it actually is antiviral and antibacterial too, so an antimicrobial. And so you could use that to clear away stuff that you don't need anymore and things like that.

Power animals are sympathetic magic. Okay. You know, that's using the energy of the animal itself as a, uh, boost to your own ability to function in some certain ways. So sympathetic magic really adds just a power boost to the magic or the intention that we're driving force. The sympathetic component is, is sort of that, that extra fuel to give it more.

Yeah, it absolutely is. And, you know, uh, I mean, going back to what you said about the effigies as I, as I sit into it, there's, there is that element of it as well, uh, which is that you can, can leverage One energy into something else, like we did with the tree. Right. Right? Yep. Uh, but the funny thing about that tree is when we finished, people would walk down the street, stop, look at the tree, walk across the street, and look up to see if they could see where the tree was coming out of the top of the building- Hmm

because they thought it was real. Right. Because we had infused that much energy into the intention as we built it. And if you are building something, if you are actually constructing it with- Mm ... while holding that intention, it is far more powerful than if you try and infuse it with intention afterwards.

Because the, the power of the construction of it, uh, uh, is ... It, it's an amplifier unto itself, right? It's kind of like a chef seasoning all of the aspects of the, of the cooking process because then it, it layers the flavor in throughout the entire spell, in this case. What a great metaphor. That's a fantastic metaphor.

In the way of metaphor that we talk about in magic, not in the way of metaphor that we talk about in English language. Right. Yes. But yes, that's exactly what it's like. Mm. So, you know, when I painted the floor in the healing center- Mm ... I painted it with intention. I painted it green, and I said, "This is the forest floor."

And then we did a healing session, and one of my standard phrases that I was using with my Reiki sessions was, "We send loving, healing energy to Mother Earth." And one of my students said that, and the entire floor lit up 'cause she had put energy into it. Hmm. And from that moment forward, that room was infinitely quieter than it had been, and we were on a busy street.

And anyone who was earth related who sat in that room said that they would feel their feet sort of sink into the floor. Like it was on a bed of moss or something like that. Exactly. Very cool. Yeah, it was very cool. Okay. So we talk a lot about not blowing yourself up. Yeah, we do. Yeah. So are there things that people should be conscious of and aware of when it comes to sympathetic magic?

Can it go awry? Well, any magic can go awry. But- If you're going to do like the effigy thing- Mm-hmm ... if you're going to pull energy in from another source, you had better have something that can hold it. Okay. And if you're calling in energy from a, a big source like a god or a goddess or something like that, and you put it into a very small container, it will break out of the container and likely come and take you- No

instead. So you don't wanna do that. Yeah, no, that sounds, that sounds not cool. Yeah. So, you know, you can, you can use a ... You wanna be careful how you make your connection in sympathetic magic in that fashion. So you could use a, uh ... Like I have a Kuan Yin statue. Well, Kuan Yin is the goddess of, of compassion.

The Kuan Yin statue is made with the intention of being a representative of Kuan Yin, right? So that would be fine to throw on your altar. But if you try and invoke Kuan Yin into the statue, that would probably not be fine. Because the statue's so small. The statue is not designed to hold Kuan Yin. Mm-hmm.

There's ... You have to create containers for that. To use it as a representative, fine. The invocation, maybe not so much. Okay. So it's, it's a balance there. So, uh, my, my friend Mary is sitting here in the, in the studio with us and, and, uh, when I was talking about the don't invoke things into things that are not designed to hold it, I...

She had a funny look on her face, and so we stopped and went aside for a moment, and she started telling this fantastic story, and I want her to tell it now, so I'm gonna pass the mic over to her. You know I never know how to tell a story the same way I told it the first time. It's a problem. It's fine.

You know, I, I know just enough to get myself in trouble here. But in India, the, the, the murti, which is the, the image of the god, is intended to hold the god or to, to be worshiped as the god. But the, the ones that are made for veneration are made differently than ones that are made just to have the image.

They call it a Panchaloha, which means it's made from five metals, and I couldn't tell you exactly what the five metals are. I- but you could look it up, and you could find it. And it's designed for veneration, and there is an entire huge ritual involved. I saw it, it, um, when they built a temple, um, near my home in West Michigan, that there were days and days and days of, of chanting and invocation and ceremony and things offered into the fire and, and then they, they connected the, the, the fire to the, to the murti and, and invoked it into the murti and, and the, all the murtis were shipped with, with their eyes closed, and they opened the eyes.

They, they painted on the opened eyes when they brought, brought the fire into the god. It, it was a really an, an amazing, beautiful, beautiful thing. When you act in relationship to the murti as the deity, something different happens than when you just look at it and say, "Oh, it's a pretty, pretty murti." That was a fantastic add.

Wasn't it, though? I'm so glad you're still here. I would... Th- I, I don't know anything about that, so that's fantastic. And, and, but it actually illustrates what I was talking about- Mm ... which is that, you know, a, a statue that you buy at the five and dime or even on, you know, some fancy site that's, you know, gonna charge you five times more than you'd pay at the five and dime, uh, is, is still just a statue 99% of the time.

So the person that I know that knew more about murtis than anyone else I had, had met said this one time, that he said, um, "When, when you, when you meet the murti, right, that really holds the divinity for you, um, it's like falling in love. Like, you see it and you, you know it." And, and I think that's a very different thing than saying, "I'm gonna go out and buy a picture of Guan Yin."

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It's not my thing. But I was drawn to go into the store, and in the very back of the store, the only one of its kind was this crone figure marionette. And she looked at me and said, "Take me to Ken." And Ken was my shaman. And, you know, she was, like, 85 francs, which is a lot of money. Mm-hmm. And it's n- you know, I w- I was, I was traveling on a budget, and she went, "No, no.

Take me to Ken." And I went, "Yeah, okay," and I had her packed up because, you know, she was clearly Ken's. And he took her out. He was like, "Oh, my God." You know? "Yes. She is clearly yours. She said so to me when I saw her in the store." And she was the only one of her kind. I have no idea what she was doing there except waiting to see me so that she could get to Ken.

And that's the, the thing of, you know, you fall in love and it just speaks to you, right? And this, this was not a marionette. This was a murti, right? A murti for the, uh, for the crone, the wise old woman in rags. And she was in burlap. Fantastic. Fantastic thing. So, you know, sympathetic magic is a lot of different things, uh, from using the elements of the item itself to invoking the, the aspect of something into something else.

Um, and, you know, there's a lot of depth that you can go to with it, but We, uh, you know, it, it's just a process that we go through as we go through it of, of learning how to do these things. Mm-hmm. So as with everything else in this podcast, we're giving you a, a dip your toe in sort of experience of it so that you're aware of it.

Right. And then, you know, if it speaks to you, you can go out and research it some more. Yeah. There's other places that people can learn, uh, additional things about sympathetic magic as well. The great god Google. The great, the Google machine- ... as it were. So before we wrap up, I think actually this might be a good place to remind people that they should go on to whatever their favorite podcast listening location is to subscribe to Spirit Sherpa, to leave reviews about what they think about Spirit Sherpa, and give you some feedback if there's things they wanna hear about on the show as well.

Yeah, and ask questions. Ask questions. Always asking questions. Yeah. Yeah. We have on your website, kellesparta.com, a way where they can get additional information about Spirit Sherpa. The episodes will be there. The full, uh, show notes are there, including some detail notes and stuff like that. So they can go onto kellesparta.com- Yeah, it's in the menu at the top.

It says Spirit Sherpa Podcast. Perfect. That's even easier. Mm-hmm. Right? And they also can go to iTunes. They can go to Stitcher. They can go to ... I mean, th- th- TuneIn ... TuneIn. There are so many- iHeartRadio ... different places that, that Spirit Sherpa can be found on. And if you listen to your podcasts somewhere where Spirit Sherpa is not, let Kelle know and we will get there.

Right. We will find out how to get there. So, um, that's definitely just a little reminder to everyone because it's always good to get feedback from the folks listening to make sure that, that what, what's being provided is what you're looking for. So that's all that I think we have. What do you think? Yep.

I think we're good. Awesome. All right, folks, that's all we have for this week. Be sure to join us again next time as Kelle adds yet another chapter into your beginner's guide to energy, magic, and the spirit world. I'm Joey C here with Kelle Sparta and Mary. And you have been listening to Spirit Sherpa. So long, everyone.

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That's kelle@kellesparta.com. To sign up or to get more information on the programs, offerings, and services referenced in this episode, please go to kellesparta.com. This episode of Spirit Sherpa has been produced by Honeypiece Productions.