Successful magical work does not happen in a vacuum. There is almost always a mundane component that will be necessary to satisfy in order to create a causal pathway. For example, you are a pretty damned impressive magister if you can win a lottery jackpot without a ticket. You have to be capable of re-arranging objective reality on a gross scale for that to happen. You should write a book so that I can buy it and learn your techniques.
You’re still an amazing talent if you can win even with a ticket, but from a realistic standpoint that ticket is what turns an impossible outcome into an improbable one. Note that this case doesn’t specify that you didn’t personally buy a ticket, you may find a random ticket in a gutter that happens to be a winner, but you still need that token to open up that potential timeline in your Universe. It acts as the link between the entity that is you, and the series of events (pattern? protocol?) of a person winning the jackpot. The link is the key.
Links are concepts that are heavily used in both data space and in magical operations. In the software world, a linker is the tool that assembles discrete libraries and routines into a coherent executable whole. It makes connections between the definition of an object and all of the references that are made to it. In magical space, the link is one of the most important aspects of a working. The foundational Law of Contagion is based on this. It’s just that fundamental. A further expression, at the finest level of reality is quantum entanglement, the deepest link, between individual fundamental particles, and potentially even larger systems, as recent research has revealed, hence the suspicion that these phenomena are, ahem, connected.
As I mentioned in Phenomenal Sorcery, the physical artifact used to form the symbolic and semantic connection between a ritual component and the actual target is sometimes referred to as a taglock. The closer to the target this linking object is, the better the connection, and thus the more efficient and effective the magic done through its agency is likely to be. Something that was once a part of the target is best. Hair and nail clippings have been a key ingredient in sympathetic magic back to the beginning for this reason. Something that has touched the target is next best. It will carry an imprint of that which it has been in contact with. Lastly, a depiction of the target, be it a collage of magazine clippings, an effigy, or going back again to the origins of sorcery, a cave painting.
The taglock can be incorporated into a ritual or spell in any number of ways. It can be secreted into a poppet, candle, ice cube, or nearly any type of physical object. It can be subjected to positive or negative stimuli as desired. It can be lavished with loving attention. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it can be burned, pierced, buried, etc. The exact method of its use is up to the individual performing the work, and there are myriad examples to be found over a couple of millennia of recorded magical history to choose from.
The point that I want most to convey in all of this is that at its most basic form, magic can be performed with nothing more than Will, intent, a causal pathway and a taglock. Reduce the most complicated rituals down to their most basic form, and this is what you’re left with. Everything else is stage dressing to get the conscious mind out of the way of getting the work done. Props can help, indeed sometimes they can be the difference between success and failure, but they are not as essential as the four basic components. To be sure though, there are some practitioners who can do the work with Will and intent alone. They are few and far between and are not to be crossed.
