Imagine this: the moon is in the right phase, it's the correct day and hour for your intent, you've got the perfect incense burning... And then you realize you're out of the herb you wanted to use. There's no time to get more! You've got wizard shit to do, damn it! So what can you do?
In fiction, there's a trope of needing to have the perfect components or else your spell goes horribly awry. Is that how it is in reality? Well... Sometimes? In a situation like this, you really need to know how to properly choose a substitute.
A perfect comparison for this is baking. You need a specific ingredient for a cake, but you don't have any. Maybe you're out of eggs. Okay, that's a bummer... but let's figure out what we can use instead.
First, we need to figure out what purpose the eggs serve for the cake we're making. Is it a binder? Is it to help the cake rise? Both? Now we have to figure out what else we have that can work instead. A banana? Flax seed? Aquafaba? A can of cola?
Magic is a lot like baking in this way. You can make substitutions, but you have to make the right substitutions. Figure out what that missing herb is supposed to do and find something else that can achieve the same goal.
There's a pretty large set of people who believe that a few things can cover all of your bases:
A white candle can substitute any color
Clear quartz can substitute any crystal
Rosemary can substitute any herb
While there's nothing necessarily wrong with this approach, I personally don't like it. I love clear quartz way too much for it to be relegated to the 'generic catch-all' crystal. Clear quartz, rosemary, and white all have their own uses, and it feels disrespectful to use them this way. Clear quartz can amplify your spell and grant you clarity. White candles can be used for purification. Rosemary is for remembrance, according to Shakespeare.
Instead, I try to find something that will be close enough to the original ingredient's purpose.
Let's say I want to use a green candle for something, but I'm out of green. What was the green supposed to represent? Money? Venus? Growth? I could use a different candle and surround it with coins for money. I could use a candle with a floral scent for growth. I could use red or pink, if it's for love or sex. Heck, one time I even used a marker to color a white candle red when that was what I wanted. That still counts! Magic likes resourcefulness.
I don't really have a simple list for easy substitutions, because you have to do the work for this stuff. Break your spell down into its basic components and build it back up again, if necessary.
That's all I've got to say for now.
Stay safe!
- me
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