Rules, Rules, and More Rules

There are a few basic rules to keep in mind when spellcasting as general guidelines. And these
three basics are:

1. - Anything that you cast can be dispelled at your will.

2. - Anything that you cast can be altered at your will.
3. - Don't cast while sick.

Rule #1: This means that anything you cast you should automatically be able to cancel at
ease. If you aren't used to these rules, say them to yourself when casting. Rule #1 is set up to
avoid those moments when someone's cast a really wonderful shield...and they realize after a
while that they're effectively trapped inside their own shield because they can't take it down
other than by brute force or by asking for help from another practitioner. This has happened
before. Don't be that person.

Rule #2: By putting in the stipulation that anything casted can be altered at will, one can
make minor or major changes to the spell's definition without actually having to recast the
spell. This can be useful when you want to tweak a spell quickly and efficiently. Otherwise,
one would have to dispel a spell, regather the energy and reform the spell from scratch just to
do a change, possibly loosing the original spell in the process and certainly loosing the time
invested in it.

Rule #3: By default, your body uses your own energy to heal you. It understands better how
to heal you than you do. When you cast, you use your own energy, even if it is just to gather
outside energy. If you try to create a healing spell for yourself while sick, the energy you
"burn" to create the healing spell is more than the energy you'd get out of the healing spell, in
comparison to what your body can do to heal on its own. It is normally safe to cast when you
are just starting to feel the effects of being sick, but not afterwards.

There are a few additional guidelines to keep in mind. When drawing energy, don't draw off
other entities (people, spirits, animals) or from other people's spells. This is considered rude at
the very least, and it's bad form. There's plenty of other power out there to be had: don't draw
off things that might bite back.

Energy: Balls, Tethers, and Where to Stick Them

Energy is everywhere. People, animals, trees, entities, etc. generate their own energy. Energy
can also be generated from releases of energy such as flame, gravitational fields (poles of
planets), stars (big reactors), etc. Energy is normally ambient, similar to perfume on the air,
but also naturally pools in things called ley lines where it is often quite dense. These streams
of energy can be used as "alternate power sources" mentioned below and are much more
difficult to deplete than ambient energy. They normally run along natural topography lines
(i.e. rivers, tops of mountains), but they also seem to run other places. Wherever you are, it's
still fairly easy to find a good energy source in things like parking lots and supermarkets if
you take the time to look. If there is one thing energy is not, it is not scarce, though it may
take time and patience to collect it the first few times.
Energy Balls

This energy can be harnessed by willpower and shaped to do various things, one of the
simplest of which is making an energy ball. An energy ball is simply a ball of energy, and like
a ball of Play-dough it can be shaped to do and be different things or simply left as-is. Once
collected, it can be turned into a specific type of energy, such as healing energy, or a spell,
desire, idea, or information can be put inside it. Telling an energy ball to do something is one
of the most basic forms of spell-casting.

Forming an energy ball usually involves visualization, and how you choose to see it is up to
you. The first step is to gather energy. This visualization can be something like seeing a still
pond with a water drop hitting the center, but instead of seeing the ripples go out, see them
come in (the center being the person or more importantly, being the place they are trying to
gather the energy to). Another way is to see tree roots go down into the ground and "suck" up
the energy into the trunk of the tree. Once the energy is gathered, one can see the energy form
into a ball. Imagine shaping a lump of clay into a ball, or visualize the energy swirling inward
to form a sphere, like a mist swirling around and gradually becoming solid. Most people are
comfortable working with energy balls in their hands at first, but there is no reason for this to
be the only place an energy ball can form. They can be formed wherever your imagination can
go.

Be careful NOT to pull energy from yourself when forming an energy ball. While this is okay
at basic levels, it does deplete your own energy after a time and it can also become habitual.
It's far better to draw off outside sources. Also, do not get in the habit of pulling energy
through your own body to form a ball. The reason for this is that running energy through your
body can become a spellcasting crutch you need to unlearn later, and also, running too much
energy through a body at once can have some unpleasant side effects. A low levels, running
this much energy through the body isn't a problem, but at high levels, it can be a great issue.
While it is OK to pull energy into one's self for restoring one's own energy, it shouldn't be
used as a method of casting.

Energy will respond to commands. You can tell the energy to "stay" and it will. If you
don't, as soon as the concentration holding it there is removed, the energy ball will
dissipate. Similarly, when gathering energy you can state aloud or to yourself other tips,
such as not to use energy from yourself and to gather from acceptable sources. With the
concept of telling the energy to stay is the concept of putting other commands into the
energy ball. These series of commands is what makes up the basis of energy magic.

So what can you do with energy balls? Here are a few ideas to start you off.

make an energy ball to give you a string of green lights on the way to work
make an energy ball to hold off a storm until you can get to your umbrella
make an energy ball to help you find something lost
make an energy ball to call a bus or taxi can when you need it

All of these can be done by simply inserting the desire into the ball, keeping in mind the
rules of spellcasting, and letting the energy ball do its work. Make sure the energy ball
has enough energy to do the task you want it to, and have patience. While a fairly easy
concept, they don't work 100% of the time or always in the ways that might be expected.
If they did, we wouldn't call it magic.
Tethers

All the energy in the world does no good if spells can't access it. One way to give spells a
relatively constant supply of energy is to use tethers. Tethers are the name for the hose-like
construction that can connect two or more items together. In addition to hooking up a spell to
an energy source, they can be used for informational purposes. They can connect people to
each other and spells to their caster/energy source, making it possible to track people and find
out where a spell originated.

Tethers are conduits made of energy that are hollow and work as a hose. They can stretch
infinitely. They can be used to power spells, as well as maintain concentration. There are also
tethers/lines between everyone a person has met. One can trace these tethers/lines to other
people even if they are not know personally by following the tethers from a known person to
the target person. One can also trace power tethers or concentration tethers to their source,
either the energy source or the caster.

Tethers can be viewed as a line going between on place and another. To trace from
person to person, you can "view" what the person looks like in your mind's eye, seeing
thousands of lines coming from the person. Have the line that goes to the person you
wish to get to glow brighter (or flash) to distinguish it from the others. Follow the line
mentally. Since the line goes "forever", tell yourself to go to the end. You will find the
person on the other end (their inner self...see below). Spells will have a power tether
powering it, or at least the concentration tether, to who cast the spell (or to who is
powering it). Same technique to trace to source.

Alternate Power Sources

Obviously, depleting your own energy supply making energy balls isn't very useful. Internal
power is precious and though it does regenerate, the body needs it for other things. So where
can it be found, other than the weak ambient energy? The answer is ley lines. A cornerstone
of omnimancy, is using external power. The first fundamental is tapping on ley lines to power
spells instead of one's self. Instead of just using ambient energy for a one-shot endeavor, it's
possible to "tether" to a ley line and set up your spells with a fairly constant source of power.

Alternate power sources simply means any power source other than yourself. Typically, one
uses anything as small as trees, although normally at low levels, ley lines are used due to
convenience and size. Later, stars and bigger things are used. Tethers are used to connect a
spell to a power source. By not powering a spell off on one's self, one can maintain MANY
more spells than otherwise possible. Also, much more power is normally available when
using alternate power sources than is available from powering purely off yourself.

Power sources such as ley lines can act like water balloons. There is a natural pressure within
the power source but it has nowhere to go. When you tether to it, it now has a place to go.
Sort of like when you prick a water balloon with a pin, the water inside wants to come out.
Because of this effect, one does not have to spend energy to "pump" the energy from the
power source into your spell. Normally, pumping energy would waste more energy than the
extra energy one would get from pumping. This extra energy being pushed into a spell will
normally drastically increase the power of the particular spell, since the power source will
push more power into it naturally than if it was powered off yourself.
Ley Lines can be found all over the place, but tend to go across tops of mountains and
bottoms of valleys (normally waterways). There are some that go across the sky and beneath
the ground. Power can also be obtained from poles of planets and stars.

To tether to a ley line, close your eyes and tell yourself that you want to find strong
"tapable" power sources. Make sure you specify not to include entities (which include
people, spirits and yourself), and spells. One can see these power sources in the mind's
eye as if they were bonfires, long streamers of lights, or lines on a roadmap. Send a
tether to these power sources as if firing a grappling hook, and have it automatically tap
in. Other useful visualizations include screwing on the tether like a garden hose, or
inserting a needle and tube like an IV drip to feed your spells. Power will start to flow
down the tether automatically. You can put a valve on the close end of the tether to stop
the flow until needed. Remember to tell the tethers to stay in the ley line when they get
there, and to let energy flow down them and into the spell.

I Can't See Anything!: Senses

Close your eyes. What do you see? If you are like most people, you see the insides of your
eyelids. This can make magic fairly frustrating. After all, how can you shape energy if you
can't see it?

Senses don't come easily. The best, and only, way to improve them is to practice. Use your
senses (often thought of as the third eye, mind's eye or astral senses) to look at anything at
hand including people, animals, entities, and spells. While women often have slightly better
senses than men to begin with, anyone can get better senses through practice. When first
working with energy, instead of struggling to sense it, simply let your mind fill in the blanks.
Take a guess, go with a hunch. Often, mental "sight" is one of the last things to develop.
People often have a much easier time "feeling" energy around as a texture, motion, smell, or
sound. Even people with very good senses may never have an astral movie running through
their heads when they sense. Often, the way people recognize that they are holding an energy
ball for the first time is by a feeling of very slight warmth, tingling, or pressure in their hands.
It's very slight, and it often seems like it isn't there at all. Senses do not usually come through
normal channels such as physical sight and touch. Rather, they come through imagination. In
order to be able to see anything in your head, you need to be able to imagine it. Naturally
then, senses at first may seem like you're faking it or only imagining something that really
isn't there. Have confidence, and if possible, work with other people to get confirmation for
what you are seeing or doing. Practice is the only way to get better senses and establish
confidence in them.

Auras

One thing to look at as a practice for sensing, and as an application in and of itself, is the aura.
The aura is simply the energy surrounding people, the energy they give off just like exhaled
air. Normally this is seen as colors, or a mix of colors, shifting around a person. These colors
can represent many things, but the most basic method of aura sensing described here deals
with temperament, or how someone is feeling at the moment. The aura naturally shifts as
someone's mood changes.

To see the aura, visualize a rainbow of color around the person you are looking at, and
tell the appropriate colors to glow or flash. Later, the active colors may simply come to
you. If you cannot see anything, or you can't see color, then simply concentrate on
imagining the aura, perhaps with the color "written" in English on it. Ask yourself what
that color means to you. Purple may mean happy, green may be calm, black may be
angry. Each person imagines things differently, so if one person sees someone's aura as
orange, and another sees it as blue, it doesn't mean that one of them is wrong. It simply
means that they sense things differently and so they will see things slightly differently.
This is why those interested in aura work will need to learn what the colors they see in
auras mean to them, and use that list.

Use Protection: Basic Shielding

Shields are a fairly common construction used to keep out negative energy, and to give casters
a little protection when experiments go awry. They are by no means meant to be the sole
protection if you are ever actually attacked; rather, they give stalling time for the caster to
figure out what's going wrong. Shields should never be relied upon as an only defense, but
they are very useful for what they do.

What do they do? Keep things out! Casting a basic shield is simple. First, gather energy and
create a large tethered energy ball. Will it to be hollow, and imagine it to be large enough to
fit around you. Either cast it around you, or "step into" it when done. Then, will it to keep out
things that are harmful or unwanted. Remember, shields are not the real-world equivalent of
walls. They should not be solid and keep everything out, like useful energy. Rather, they
should be selective and simply buffer out things the caster does not want to contact them. Be
specific when wording the intent behind shields. Don't tell them to keep out everything,
but rather specify what is acceptable and what isn't when it comes to passing through a
shield. That is the most basic type of shield, but it's easy to think of ways that shields
could be made more refined.

Shields can be made reflective to reflect things you do not want to deal with, or
absorptive to absorb energy that they come in contact with and recycle it to use in the
upkeep of the shield. The basic shield is often made kinetic, that is, something that's
built to withstand blows or sharp pressure. They can also be made rubbery so they
won't break but rather bend under pressure. More complex shields often contain many
of these attributes, but for those new to shielding it's often easier to simply put one kind
of shield inside another, effectively building layers of protection. Whatever can be
imagined, can be made. Experiment.