Spells of opportunity

 

 So often, when we think of magic and spellcraft, we think of a deliberate practice of picking our desires, creating the spell or ritual that will work towards what we want, gathering supplies and then actually doing the spell.  This is how most of us learned how to practice our craft, and it is how we think about magic in our head:  we start with the goal and then we build the work around it.

But if we limit our magic to carefully crafted spells, we miss out on a lot of spontaneous magic.  I was thinking about this the other day, when I noticed I had a small cut.  Now, I know blood work is a highly controversial topic, but many people and cultures acknowledge the power that is inherent in blood.  And it made me think, that we often have situations like that, where we have the opportunity to create magic on the fly, without any real preparation....but truly formed from the moment we are in.

It reminds me of an RPG (roleplaying game) term:  attacks of opportunity.  In many RPG's there are rules for handling combat, and each character has a set amount of attacks they can perform.  This helps guide the flow of time in combat.  But some systems include a special rule for attacks of opportunity.  This is basically when a situation presents itself in such a way that you have the option of an extra attack (often because a foe moved into or out of your personal space).

I think of spontaneous magic like this...they are spells of opportunity.  I may not have had anything particular planned, but if I see a dandelion puff, why not go ahead and make a wish?  A lot of superstitions and folk magic fall into this category.  If you spill salt and you toss a bit over your shoulder to ward off the bad luck...you wouldn't normally do that unless you had spilled the salt.  Picking a penny up for good luck is another sort of spontaneous magical act....because you have to find the penny first!

There are some spells of opportunity I do regularly.  If I am throwing away some kind of string (or really anything I can tie into a knot), it always gets knotted (along with a bit of a banishing or binding....whatever I want to tie up in that moment).  I have a couple of liquid glitter containers that if I have to handle, for any reason (most often for cleaning lol) that I give a good shake and ask for a blessing (one is dedicated to the fae, the other is just general happiness).  If I'm taking notes, I'm often doodling little sigils for whatever comes to mind in the margins.

The best thing about spells of opportunity is that they aren't time intensive.  Part of the whole point of them is that they just kind of pop up...while you are already doing something.  It's like an instinctual thing, like if someone tosses something at you, the automatic response is to reach out and catch it.  Spells of opportunity become things like that, once you start practicing them.

Like most things, learning to make something habitual is a process.  Spontaneous magic may not come easily to you, but it is definitely something you can work towards doing more regularly.  Amusingly, a bit of planning helps make spells of opportunity easier.  Think of it like building up a sort of muscle memory...you want to front load your brain so that when certain 'trigger' situations happen, you reflexively look for the magical response.

Start by thinking about stuff you do every day.  It might even be helpful to do a mental walk through a typical day.  Think about what you do when you wake up.  Take yourself through your morning routine, and make a quick list of things you do almost every day.  Then look at your list and think about each thing on the list....and challenge yourself to think of a few different ways you could turn that action into something magical!

A few quick thoughts on this.  Firstly, spells of opportunity are spontaneous, so setting a regular habit of blessing your morning cup of coffee is a bit of every day magic, but it's more of a daily ritual than opportunistic magic.  Secondly, your spells of opportunity should be quick and not require any extra stuff....remember the whole point is that the situation occurs and you do the magic without a lot of thought or effort.  And finally, because they are spells of opportunity and meant to be spontaneous, you can easily have multiple spells that start with the same trigger!

Mostly have fun with it.  I may have to make my bed every morning, but by adding a spell of opportunity, this simple chore can become a chance to uplift my spirits (fluffing out the sheets), ground out some fear/anger (pounding a pillow), center for the day (making sure the blankets and sheets are 'just so') or even a bit of shapeshifting (taking a moment to 'be a cat' with my kitties on the bed).  The more options I can dream up, the more magic moments I can tie into making my bed, the more ways I can grasp that spell of opportunity.

It's fun to not only do this with regular stuff, but also with things that are highly unexpected.  When something unusual happens, try asking yourself, what magic can you do right then and there!  Maybe you get a really funky piece of junk mail, and you use it as a focus to open people's eyes to scam offers (as you rip it up).  Or you might take the opportunity presented by a long wait time to practice reading the energy of the other people waiting.  Perhaps you practice creating simple sigils and drawing them in the condensation left by your cup on the table.

The best thing about spells of opportunity is that there is no real way to fail at building this practice!  If you want to start, and realize it's been a few days since you remembered to try....no worries, just look around you and see what you might do right then.  The power of this practice is that it is always in the moment, there is no planning or thinking ahead, there are no supplies or requirements....it's just whatever magic you can do...whenever you can do it.