Some say that the second part of this saying, “to will”, is the most difficult one to follow. I’m not so sure about that. It’s easy to will things, and then sometimes it can be the most difficult thing in the world. Granted, we all “want” things, but that’s not the same as willing them. Will means you have the power to make something happen. Will means that you are actively working toward a desired outcome.

Think about those two things which we commonly think of as needing a lot of will: losing weight and quitting smoking. It takes an active act of will to do these things, and it’s something that needs to be done on a daily basis. The thought processes which we use to continue to overeat must, for example, be tackled on a daily, sometimes even an hourly or a minute-by-minute basis.

In the case of spellwork and ritual, that will is twofold. First, you must have the will to actually do the spell and craft it in accordance with the purpose of your ritual. You need to do the research and the work to craft your ritual exactly the way you want it. You have to have the will to make the right decisions in performing the spell. This means following the rule of three and harming none.

Secondly, you have to actually have the will to go through with the ritual. Some of our magic is fun, celebratory work. However there are times when we will need to do containment or protective spells, or even banishings. It’s part of the wheel of life and the wheel of the year. We have to have the will to do these things, to take care of problems, and to be active in our solution to them.

Will is the act of performing magick. Will is the action taken when we need to move forward with something. To will it is to make it happen.

So we know what we’re doing (how and why) and now we will it to happen. Next, we’ll discuss the hardest part of all, to be silent.