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The other day I had someone ask me how you could go about giving more power to a spell or ritual. It's not an unusual question, because of one key word: Power. How do we put more oomph, more power into our magical workings? I think a better question to ask though is do we even need more power in order to get a desired result? Along with that, let's also ask what the best source of power ought to be for what we're doing with our magical workings.
On the surface more power seems like the ideal response. Not getting what you want? Throw more power into it. That'll tip the momentum in your favor. But in my experience brute power rarely does the trick and the reason is because power, in and of itself, isn't enough to get what you want, if you understand what all that power is going to.
A result is a manifestation of a possibility into a reality. When a result is a possibility, it has less form but more potential (i.e. power). Magic, as a process is necessarily focused on transforming that potential into manifestation. So power plays a part in this equation, but power is transformed into form. The realization of a result is the choice to make that result into a concrete reality for your life. You're exchanging power for form. Now you might say "Taylor, didn't you just tell us we're exchanging power for form. If that's the case why shouldn't more power be the solution?"
Good question. Technically putting more power into a working might be the solution, but what if the problem is that you're putting excess power into a working, or if what you've set up is sloppy? In my experience the devil is in the details, so if you're working isn't getting you the result you want, you want to look it over and figure out where the disconnect is and remedy it.
There's also another aspect to consider with power and that's where you're getting your power from. Typically what I've observed is that people draw the power for their workings from a combination of themselves and whatever they are bringing into the ritual, be it a deity, elemental, or something else. And that works. But let's say you need to put more power into a working. You only have so much of your own power to give (and this should be done carefully) and even when you're drawing on an elemental or deity or whatever else, you still need to mediate that force, which means you're still using some of your own power. So throwing more power into the mix may not be the best solution anyway, at least not if you're relying on traditional resources.
But of course there are other ways to harness power, and enhance your workings. You can create magical entities for the purpose of mediating energies and/or accomplishing specific tasks for you that aid your working. You can also look to other sources of power. The power of attention, even for a second, can be harnessed if its directed in the right away. And of course you can work on refining your own internal energy and improving your capacity to handle power, or you can even set up reserves to be tapped as and when needed. I've used all of these methods to empower my workings. What I've also done is looked at how I can take mundane activities and turn them into activities that also fuel magical workings.
If you get creative, you can find ways to empower your magical workings and get results and not tap yourself out in the process. It's just a matter of thinking through the magical working and what you want it to do for you and how you'll supply the power to manifest the form. Then go to work, make it happen, and refine as needed.
And let me share one example with you of how what I shared above can work. With some of my workings I'll create painting. I use the act of painting as part of the ritual. Every brushstroke imbues the painting with the desired result. When the painting is finished I put it on a wall and I let attention do the rest, because every time someone looks at the painting, even for a moment, they're giving it attention and attention is a form of power which gets cycled into the working itself to help create the result. It's not even necessarily a lot power, but its consistent power that's going into the work. I also set it up so that even after the result gets manifested the attention given to the painting afterwards goes into the working retroactively. The right power source, the right application of that power and a thorough understanding of the mechanics of what you're doing and how it will manifest a result will give you what you need every time.
