There is this concept, in many magical circles, that man-made stuff isn't suitable for magic. If you consider most correspondence lists, or spells/rituals that have been published, the stuff you need is almost always natural. And personally, I find this to be a silly restriction to limit yourself with!
I think that when we consider the history of witchcraft, we are talking about a practice that flourished among the common people...in that it wasn't something that required fancy schooling, expensive stuff or anything like that. And I think that's why so many magical workings use natural ingredients (and if you look into it, they used local ingredients)...because they were there, relatively easy for anyone to get...and free.
Today, we are in the almost opposite situation. Many witchy folks don't live near large natural places, where they can harvest whatever they may want or need. In fact, many of us probably didn't know that much about different plants and animals...until we became Pagan and started learning. It's just not an everyday thing for us now.
Instead, what we have familiarity with is man-made things. We know what they are used for, and sometimes we understand how they function better than we understand the natural world. But we still turn our nose up at using modern and man-made things, as if they can't hold magic.
What makes this extra strange, is there are some things that have managed to escape being put into the 'non-magical' box. We embrace the magical nature of candles, of bottles/boxes, of blades and chalices, of mass printed tarot cards or machine tooled stones. And if you think about it, these are all things that were the 'technology' of our ancestors. They embraced new things that people made, and they used what they had at hand.
So what does this mean for us? Well, my personal opinion is that we should do the same...we should look at the world around us, at the stuff we already use every day, and take inspiration for our magic from there!
First, let's think about some of the man-made stuff we already accept as magical. Let's talk candles. While we often use candles as a representation of fire, they were also a light source. Using a candle for a spell meant you could see (especially when you remember that a lot of old magic suggests doing things at night...and without modern lighting, that would make it pretty dark, especially if the moon wasn't present. Using modern lighting, instead of candles, isn't that far of a leap to make, and we have so many really cool lighting options now that make it even more of a customizable tool for magic!
Keys are another thing that we have accepted as magical, but again, when you talk about keys (in magical terms), the mental image is almost always of the old, skeleton key style. And while those have their charm, modern keys give us a lot of different options. We can use car keys for things involving movement, house keys for protection, padlock keys (or padlocks!) for security or secrecy. We could use a key blank as a universal opener. We can even get a bit creative with non-physical 'keys'....with our passwords! Give them a magical twist to enhance your personal security...or to enchant whatever the password unlocks (want your bank account to be more prosperous....work that into your password!) A nice side-effect of this is often our magical words are not easy to guess (so harder to hack)!
A lot of spells include paper, and we often see specific types of paper requested, whether it is handmade or brown paper. But we have paper all around us! We could use magazine pages (pick the page based on your intent), old bills (for work associated with the bill), printed pages (the sky is the limit, find pictures that fit or type out some train of thought about the topic...you can also print over stuff, so you can layer multiple things on the same page). These are especially great for doing dream boards or wish work...collect images that feed your goals!
I personally find toys to be a wonderful source of inspiration. Often they come in a huge range of shapes and sizes, many times they move (so you can position them in the way that works best for you). And many toys come built in with meaning (correspondences!) that may reach back into our childhood. Think about it...we weren't raised on fairy tales or legends, we were raised on cartoons and tv shows...so those characters are going to have deep rooted meaning for us. Why not tap into that, and use symbols that resonate with your inner child.
I know that many people love having their magic stuff feel magical, and that it being a bit anachronistic makes it feel more special (because it's NOT stuff we use everyday). There is absolutely nothing wrong with building your practice like this....IF it's what speaks to you. But if you struggle with finding herbs or stones, why not try looking towards modern stuff? See if it will also work for you. Because sometimes, working with what is always at hand makes things feel more magical...since now everything in your life can be infused with magic!
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