When we think of how our brain works, we tend to think in terms of left and right brain, or IQ versus EQ (Intelligence versus Emotion). Almost always, these two modes of thought are seen as being fundamentally opposed, as if they were opposite sides of the coin and you could only work with one at a time, whichever side was facing up.
But in reality, most of the times, you want to grab the whole coin and use it! You don't want to be so far in magical theory that you forget to work within the limitations of the world around you, because then you end up just wishing for things to change. But you also don't want to be so blocked in by what is that you forget that things can move and change because then you stay stagnant.
There is a level of suspended disbelief that most people learn to manage, where we face that question of "Is this all in my head?" And at some point, you have to accept the fact that you have no real way of Knowing. There is no way to peek behind the curtain and see if it was your magic that changed things, or if your petition to the Gods was heard, or if it was just a random occurrence. Unfortunately, the same is true when things don't work. We don't know if our magic didn't work, if someone else was working harder towards a different outcome or if there was some other factor we didn't see at all.
Almost all of the time, starting with a functioning knowledge of how things work is a great base. If you want to get a job, knowing what types of qualities they are looking for is a key factor, no matter whether you are working a spell or filling out an application. And working both the physical and the magical, together, is where power really starts to accumulate.
It comes back to the idea that things are bigger than the sum of their parts, so if you only do one thing you only get one level of 'success' in your outcome. If you combine multiple things, those successes multiply each other. Let's think again about the applying for a job situation. If you have a really nice application, which shows you have a lot of applicable experience and have done well in the past at similar jobs, that is great. If you go into the interview, are personable and answer the questions well and leave a good memory, that is also great. But you combine those together, and now you've created a synergy that will stand out. The person looking at the applications will remember your interview, and that will make your application look even better.
This is why, a lot of times, one of the steps of magic is to go out and do the work. You don't just cast a spell on a blank application and hope that a job falls out of the sky. You cast your spell, but then you fill out the application and turn it in. And, if you really want it, you don't stop there. You do more magic before the interview, to help you feel confidant and calm, and you do your best at the interview. You cast another spell for success and you call them back to check in after a few days (or some other appropriate follow up action). You keep working the magic and working the world until you get what you want.
One of the reasons why knowing how things works helps magic preform better is that you are able to be more specific. If I want my garden to grow better, and I know what types of plants I have, what their needs are, and what helps them thrive, I can work those details into my spells. Instead of just doing a general "make my garden grow!" spell, I can ward off harmful insects (while still allowing all the helper bugs and critters in), I can ask for the right type of weather (and watch to make sure I am doing what I can to augment any lack, like extra watering if it's been dry for too many days), I can watch for signs that there may be specific things I need to counter (like common problems that your plants might experience).
And you might have to fight through this romantic ideal that magic shouldn't involve practical research, or that our ancestors didn't have Google and their magic worked just fine. However, consider the fact that our ancestors had practical, working knowledge of most of the things that they were working magic on. If they were a farmer, they knew about their plants because they had been growing them all their lives, and they learned from their parents.
In the modern world, we are so much more jack-of-all-trades because we do have access to the internet and all this information is at our fingertips. If I want to go out tomorrow, and learn how knit, or blacksmith, or fix cars, that information is there, for me to learn and use. If I lived even a hundred years ago, that might not be the case. If I wanted to learn something, I might have to ask around, to try to find someone else with the knowledge I wanted, then I would have to travel to them, and convince them to teach me. And even then, I would have the experience of one line of teachers, not many different viewpoints, like we have today.
The advantage to working both sides of your brain is that, when you do, there are less objections. You don't have that voice in the back of your head saying, "this is silly, why are you doing this?" Instead, you have found ways to appease both the thinking and the feeling parts of you, and your whole brain is working towards the same goal, even if they are working in different ways. This makes you a whole lot more effective (and makes your head a much more peaceful place!), in everything you do.
So look for ways to back your magic up with science, figure out how to engage both your thinking brain and your feeling brain, get your intelligence and emotions working together, and see how far you can go!
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