A Witch's World of Magick by Melanie Marquis

and it does not symbolize you. It is not connected to your core being in any way. Just like using baking powder instead of baking soda in a recipe, the decoy simply substitutes and takes your place. When we are substituting in magick, for instance, using rosemary rather than rose petals in a love spell, the rosemary does not in any way become a symbol of the rose petals—it is another thing entirely, but its energies are similar enough to the rose petals that it will have a similar effect in your spellwork. When you are substituting a decoy for yourself in order to prevent a curse or divert a spell before it strikes, the decoy is acting as the rosemary standing in for rose petals—the decoy simply takes your place, but it in no way becomes you.
    In contrast, if you did want to create a symbol of yourself, you would want to actually name the object as such and think about it in those terms. You would sense the innermost energies of yourself and of the symbolic object, and you would consciously weave and join these energies together to form a bond. The object then becomes a symbol of you, a representation of you that is exacting and detailed enough that its energies are literally connected to you. Can you anticipate the problems that might arise if you were to accidentally use a symbol rather than a substitute when applying the decoy principle for spell diversion and curse prevention?
    Creating a substitute rather than a symbol isn’t as tricky as it sounds, and there are many ways to prepare a decoy to an adequate extent without going overboard. Forging an energetic similarity between the decoy object and the person to be protected does take finesse, but that finesse is more in the mental process than in the method. As we’ve seen from the examples in this chapter, there are several very simple and effective ways to impart energetic similarity to a decoy. Let’s take a quick look at these, then we’ll discuss how to actually put this decoy magick into action.

Handling
    Handling the decoy is one very easy, very quick way to impart energetic similarity. Through direct contact and touch—through the contagion principle or the principle of close proximity, in other words—the decoy is imprinted with the energetic essence of the person to be protected and is thus effectively converted into an adequate substitute. This is the method employed in the stone-throwing practices discussed earlier in this chapter. If you’d like to try the technique yourself, don’t over think it. You might simply hold the object momentarily, rub it briefly, or otherwise put it into contact with your body. Think only about your outermost surface energies “rubbing off” on the object, creating a substitute rather than a symbol of you. This is enough to impart your energy and “fool” the curse or other spell, but not enough to literally connect you with the decoy in potentially unfortunate ways.
    Human-derived Ingredients
    Another method you might use to create a similar energetic essence in the decoy object is to include personal ingredients like hair, urine, nail clippings, or saliva—just as is done in the construction of a witch’s bottle. When using such ingredients, you don’t need to do anything extra to empower them or impart intention—they are already strongly imprinted with your energy, and extraneous handling can risk imparting on the ingredients a symbolic quality that will directly connect you to the decoy.

Sympathetic Connection
    Sympathetic connections are also a way to achieve energetic similarity in a decoy. In sympathetic magick theory, objects that share similar physical characteristics also share similar energetic characteristics—the star, or pentacle, in the cross-cut apple core becomes associated with wealth; thorny briars become associated with pain and curses. The eye beads discussed earlier in this chapter are a prime example of a decoy that gains its energetic similarity through sympathetic connection.
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