So it took me a little to realize but I have a thing called aphantasia which is the inability to visualize or use the mind's eye which is very strange to me because how does one lose the ability to do that??
Is there any spells to help my aphantasia because I feel if i don't like help myself out with this it'll be very limiting to me trying to be better and do spells (to help others) I'm not the best at making spells can you guys help me out?
I would suggest you two things: Firstly try to open your third eye chakra. Secondly, try to visualize simple things that you know very well. For example: If I say "water", what do you think I am talking about? Imagine the colour of the water, the flow, the sense you get when you touch it, the smell that it gives you, the taste, the sound of a stream, water drop, or rain, etc.
You can even read books about visualization. I suggest you Jan Fries with his book Visual Magick
Personally, I don't think one needs to be able to visualize to preform spells. It's an incredibly useful tool, to be sure, but I don't consider it always necessary. Though I don't have aphantasia, I do have things that make me unable to control what I picture happening, and I've found ways to get around this and I'm able to preform spells fine.
One thing I've found helpful is sympathetic magick. This allows you to place a physical object in place of visualization. For example, if you were binding someone, you could tape a picture of the person's face to a poppet and wrap string around the poppet. This gives you a visual representation of the goals of the spell and can help make up for shortcomings in visualization.
Another thing that can make up for it is the power of words. Rather than a short incantation, I generally chant things over and over to really cement it in my mind (such as repeating "I will get a promotion.")
Writing down what you want to happen can help too (and can help some people control what they picture). If you can draw, you could utilize that as well.
Different traditions have different viewpoints on the necessity of visualization, but that's what I've found to help.
I don't know much about this affliction, but there are ways to improve ones visualization [meditation, balancing your chakras, creative arts, even trying to simply looking at a picture of a red ball and then trying to visualize It for a few minutes can help]
As for spell work, while it is one of the pillars of a successful castings, there are work arounds. I know people who make vision boards or stare at photos while writing out a story [either in their head or on paper] about how the spell will manifest for the person in the photo.
I am of the opinion that some of the posters commenting here have little clue on what Aphantasia is. It is quite a foreign concept, as many of us here are vivid and skilled visualizers, me included.
I personally came across knowledge of this condition a few weeks ago, and it really piqued my interest, so I spent some time reading up on it. However, a few hours of intense-internet browsing, does not an expert, make.
As I do not have Aphantasia, I have no true experience on what is like.
According to consensus among the online communities that suffers from this condition, apparently when they are told to imagine or visualize something, say, an apple or an elephant...literally nothing pops up. They just...can't. Just blurry blackness, or maybe the meaning and traits of the word pops up. That's it. The literal inability to visualize.
Yet, many people who have Aphantasia are capable of imagery in dreams or when one is extremely sleepy and drowsy. Thus, I am of the opinion that Aphantasia is the inability to visualize when one is in ordinary, every-day consciousness. Perhaps this is due to how the physical brain itself is wired? I am no expert on Aphantasia, so I am not really sure.
If you are truly determined to visualize, you can try working with and experiencing Altered States of Consciousness.
Many prominent occultists define Magic something along the lines of this:
The Art and Science of Causing Change in Conformity with Consciousness and Will... .
or some similar variation thereof.
In pretty much every definition I have come across, Visualization is not included inside of it. Visualization and/or Imagination is only one of the many aspects of Consciousness. You are not too severely impeded.
Thus, do not feel discouraged if the ability to visualize does not come to you.
You're kinda right but the words don't pop up it's more like my mind's voice describing it in detail no matter how hard I try to visualize i get nothing it's very empty it's just nothingness I guess
Very late.. But I also have aphantasia and I am very creative, this does come with a lot of issues..
Because I love to draw and paint, I always need to search up millions and millions of reference picture, cut a paste them to fit how I want it to look like and then give it my own twist.
The part above is not fully relevant, but it shows a little bit of the struggle that I have as an artist. The same goes for wicca, every time when I try to do certain things I just get lost and don't know what to do or how to do it without being able to visualize it..
Whenever I went to Shamans, Healers or just plain meditation with Oma [grandma] , a lot of the times things will be said like "Imagine a building in front of you" or "Imagine a string of light" or.. "Imagine a castle made out of quartz around you", these things can be so frustrating to hear, because so far I have been the only one in those groups that has it.
All of these things I see as something important to be able to visualize, but it is just not possible, how hard I try, how patient I am..
Same goes for trying to get into contact with entities, or my spirit animal..
I used to pretend when I was younger that I could see my wolf, but I never could, I could only feel him and I would cry over the fact that I couldn't see him and eventually I didn't feel him either..
What I do now is try to stay calm whenever things like these are being brought up and explain to the people around me how I'm feeling and what it's like. For example "Imagine an apple, which colour does it have? Can you rotate it? Perhaps take it in your hand, or is it hanging from a tree? Now if you managed to do that, Imagine complete darkness, you only hear your own thoughts, but you do not see anything.. That is what I see when I imagine an apple, or anything else. That is called Aphantasia."
Most people are very shocked by this.
Also when it comes to working around it to do magick, I just try my best to put my energy into what I want, I close my eyes and when I want for example to give someone energy I keep saying in my head "I am connecting to 'x' and I am taking 'x amount' of energy from my self and I am sending this to 'x'."
You can be as descriptive as you want with things like this, just stay focussed and once you feel a full on change, you know it has been done.
