Last week, I mentioned a magical light bulb that flicked on while I was redoing the crystal grid on my altar. It’s related to something I call a keystone spell.
But first, we need a bit of context.
Earlier this year, I was feeling magically frazzled. Raise your hand if either of these sound familiar:
- I wanted to do magic, but I had approximately zero energy to actually do it.
- There were so many things I could do magic on that I’d waste most of my non-existent energy choosing an intention. (That I would never use.)
Spirit guides to the rescue!
After listening to me bitch for a solid fifteen minutes, my guides prescribed a radical focus protocol.
Rather than casting dozens of piddly spells (and frittering away most of my energy deciding what the hell to cast them for), I would focus all of my magical efforts on a single spell.
Not forever. I could switch gears whenever I damn well pleased. But as long as I felt frazzled and, as a result, disinclined to do any magic at all, I had one place to put whatever magical energy I did have.
🪄 My keystone spell.
Holy cow, did this ever work for my brain. I won’t be sharing my keystone intention here since this is an active magical working, but I’ll do you one better and walk you through setting up your own.
Craft Your Keystone Intention
While none of these suggestions are chiselled in stone, I’ve found all three to be quite useful:
1. Choose a keystone intention that’s specific enough that you’ll know, without a doubt, when it has come to fruition.
For instance:
“My freelance work consistently brings in $5,000 a month.”
Not:
“I am financially abundant.”
2. Your intention should feel meaningful 3-6 months (or longer) from now, even if your immediate plans change.
Compare:
“My freelance work consistently brings in $5,000 a month.”
With:
“I land the proposal I sent on Tuesday.”
“I book three new clients this week.”
If there’s a decent chance the intention could be fully resolved next week, it probably isn’t a keystone spell. A keystone spell should have enough depth and longevity that you can keep feeding it for months.
💡 A helpful distinction: a keystone spell should be aimed at a well-defined condition you’re building, not a single short-term checkpoint.
3. Once you’ve dialed in the final wording, the intention should be succinct enough that you can remember and say it easily.
You shouldn’t need to unroll a 50-foot Dead Sea Scroll every time you want to state your intention. Capiche?
Put that Keystone Intention to Work
Once you have your intention, now what?
The short answer is: Do whatever the hell you like. 🙏
That’s basically the long answer, too, but the point is to use this intention whenever you do anything the least bit magical.
Sure, if you have the energy, don your ceremonial robes, bust out the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and ritualize that shit into the next century.
🪄 But maybe you simply state your keystone intention three times before bed, as often as you remember to do it.
🪄 Maybe you say your keystone intention over your morning cup of tea before drinking.
🪄 Maybe you’re standing at the gas pump, and instead of hopping on your phone, you focus on your keystone intention.
🪄 Maybe you feel like making a sigil this weekend. Use your keystone intention!!
The point isn’t to do a one-and-done working. The point is to keep adding pinches of energy to the cauldron whenever you think of it.
Before casting my keystone spell, I already had a practice of standing at my altar first thing in the morning and right before bed. I place my palms on either side of my crystal grid and do my morning/evening check-in. Now, I’ve simply added my keystone intention to the mix.
And when I meditate in the evening—you guessed it. I spend at least 15 seconds meditating on my keystone intention.
On the rare occasion when I have energy to do a full-on ritual, you better believe I’m keystoning. It doesn’t even have to be the focus of the ritual; I just make sure to slide it in somewhere.
Your Magical Homework is…
I’ve been adding little pinches of energy to my keystone spell for months, and in that area of my life, I’ve noticed a serious uptick in synchronicity, along with diamond-edge clarity about what to do next.
Between the synchronistic wind in my sails and the dramatic decrease in time spent dicking around, I’ve made a lot of tangible progress. (Who knew!)
Then, while rebuilding my crystal grid a few weeks ago, something clicked. My sneaky unconscious mind had apparently been playing a longer game than I realized. 🤔
As part of The Magician & the Labyrinth of Yesterdays launch, I’ll be teaching a Jungian Magic ritual I’ve been developing alongside the book. And suddenly I understood that the keystone spell I’d been feeding for months has a special role to play in that ritual.
I’m keeping that piece under my witch hat until the launch, but here’s the nifty part:
If you craft your own keystone intention now-ish and start feeding it little pinches of energy whenever you can, you’ll be following almost exactly the same process I did.
By the time I teach you the ritual, you won’t be arriving with an intention you dreamed up five minutes earlier. You’ll be arriving with a spell you’ve been feeding for months, like a unicorn-infused sourdough starter.
And then, my friend, we’re going to turn the volume up to 11. 😀
Alrighty, I’m heading back into final-draft hibernation, but take a crack at that keystone intention. Feed it when you can, and let the cauldron bubble.
I can’t wait to see what you cook up.