Practical Magick: Applied metAlchemy

“If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative. In our thoughts and words, we create our own weaknesses and our own strengths. Our limitations and joys begin in our hearts. We can always replace negative with positive.” -Betty Eadie

This power, this potential—like the oak contained within the acorn—is the premise of the evocation mantra of metAlchemy. Where there is scant energy, evoke it with words, thoughts, and actions that bring to life those twelve high moral principles around which the philosophy of meta-alchemy centers. We have a choice when it comes to the energetic footprint of our lives and a responsibility to each other and ourselves to make positive changes where we can.

What Does Scant Energy Mean, Anyway?

Say you wake up and you're just not feeling the day. Everything is a little off and as a result you can't quite find your rhythm and you don't want to do much of anything but lay around laying around. This is a scant- or low-energy state, but it's not the only one. Scant energy describes any situation where the motivation is missing or there is a dearth of dedication to the task or other challenge at hand.

These low-energy states are like blank slates to the cosmos—an invitation to create positive change in the emptiness. The mistake we often make is to take them as a prescription to procrastinate, waiting for inspiration to strike us instead of seeking it out in the spaces where it sits waiting for us to call its name. Here, proactivity is a driving principle. Whatever you wish to see happen, you should actively pursue.

What Is Evocation and Why Should I Try It?

Evocation in a literal sense is the semi-mystical act of speaking or bringing something into existence by calling that feeling, memory, image, concept, or deity from the subconscious to the conscious mind. It is the mechanism by which the playlist augury technique focuses thoughts and encourages processing through mirrored introspection.

The next time you find yourself in a scant energy state, try this: speak the thing you want to out loud. Let's imagine a scenario where you wake up and you have no energy to take care of household tasks, but you only have one day off so you need to take advantage of the time to complete them. Instead of thinking over and over about how you need to do thing a, thing b, and thing c (which will leave you paralyzed in the scant energy state and unable to even begin your daily routines), try this:

Push the thoughts from your mind and say out loud to yourself, "I need to do thing a," as you begin your morning routine. Repeat, out loud, at every step of the routine until you complete it. By repeating the statement out loud to engage your senses while moving and engaging both parts of your mind through the routine, you evoke the motivation to complete thing a. Immediately begin thing a upon completing the routine and say as you begin, "I need to do thing b." Then rinse and repeat.

How Do I Evoke the Energy of the Universe?

Evoke by taking whatever actions you wish someone would take, small or grand. This could be as simple as picking up litter or as profound as starting a nonprofit, but by initiating these acts of good, you are practicing evocation. Another way to evoke is by beginning every interaction the way you wish to be interacted with. Treat people the way that you want to be treated, but also return the energy that they project on you back to them.

By doing good things for others and the world at large simply for the sake of doing good, you bring positive energy to the scant energy spaces and crowd out the negative. Actively, consciously making healthier choices in your diet and other habits, breaking generational trauma cycles, and practicing harm reduction techniques are all excellent methods and examples of evocation as a practice.