A practitioner sits before a black mirror, palms open, breathing slowly. Across the room, another scribbles a name on parchment, folds it into a tight square, and presses it to her chest. Both want the same outcome. One is chasing. The other is attracting. The difference is not in the goal but in the current they ride.
Attracting is the art of becoming a magnet, not a hunter. Chasing is the act of pursuing an outcome with force, often pushing it further away. In magical practice, the distinction is fundamental: attraction aligns you with the desired state, while chasing reinforces the lack.
Where the Split Between Attract and Chase Originates
The idea that force repels and stillness attracts appears in nearly every esoteric tradition. The Hermetic text The Kybalion (1908, attributed to the Three Initiates) states the Principle of Polarity: everything has its opposite, and the two are the same thing differing only in degree. Chasing and attracting are not opposites but the same impulse at different frequencies. Chasing is attraction with friction. Attraction is chasing without the clutch.
In the medieval grimoire tradition, the split shows up in the difference between evocation and invocation. Evocation calls a spirit to appear outside the circle. The magician commands, threatens, demands. That is chasing. Invocation calls the spirit into the magician’s own being. The practitioner becomes the quality they seek. That is attraction. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533), describes how the magician must first become like the thing they wish to draw: “The soul of the world is not moved by force but by similitude.”
The Taoist concept of wu wei (effortless action) entered Western occult thought through translations of the Tao Te Ching (circa 4th century BCE) and influenced figures like Aleister Crowley. Crowley’s The Book of the Law (1904) states: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” That “will” is not chasing. It is the recognition of one’s true nature, which then attracts what belongs to it. Chasing, in Thelemic terms, is acting against the current of one’s own star.
The chase is a closed fist. The attract is an open hand.
When we chase, we operate from a place of scarcity. The spell is a plea, a demand, a negotiation. The practitioner visualizes the outcome with desperate clarity, checking for signs, repeating the ritual because the first attempt did not feel strong enough. Every repetition reinforces the gap between where you are and where you want to be. The magical link becomes a wire carrying the message “I do not have this.”
Attraction works from abundance. The practitioner does not ask. They become. In the Ars Notoria (a medieval grimoire attributed to Solomon), the student is instructed to recite the prayers not to gain knowledge but to become wise. The knowledge follows. The same principle applies to any magical work: you do not attract love by begging for it. You attract love by being the kind of person love would naturally gravitate toward.
We see this in the practice of the “Still Point.” In our tradition, we draw a compass on the floor with chalk, four cardinal directions. We stand in the center, facing the direction that corresponds to the desire (east for new beginnings, south for passion, west for emotions, north for stability). We breathe until the body stops wanting to move. Then we speak a single sentence in the present tense: “I am the one who already has this.” No future tense. No conditional. The sentence is a fact. Then we step out of the circle and do not think about it again.
In alchemy, the chase corresponds to the solve (dissolve) without the coagula (coagulate). The practitioner breaks things apart but never lets them reform. Attraction is the coagula: the gathering, the consolidation, the crystallization. The alchemist does not hunt for the Philosopher’s Stone. They prepare the matter, heat it, cool it, and wait for the stone to form itself.
The polarity of active and receptive appears in the Tarot. The Chariot (card VII) represents the chase: willpower, conquest, steering. The Star (card XVII) represents attraction: pouring water, naked, open, trusting the universe to fill the vessels. The Chariot gets you there by force. The Star gets you there by becoming the destination.
In the Qabalistic Tree of Life, chasing aligns with the path of Peh (The Tower), which is Mars, force, destruction of old structures. Attraction aligns with the path of Mem (The Hanged Man), which is water, surrender, suspension. Both are necessary. The problem is using one when the other is called for.
The body knows before the mind admits it. When you are chasing, your shoulders are tight. You check your phone. You repeat the spell. You feel a hollow ache in the chest after the ritual. That is the gap between desire and possession.
When you are attracting, the ritual feels complete. You do not revisit it. You do not check for signs because signs are already everywhere. The body relaxes. The breath deepens. The outcome feels inevitable, not because you forced it but because you have already arrived there in your being.
A simple test: light a candle and state your desire aloud. If the words come out as a question (“Will this work?”), you are chasing. If they come out as a statement (“This is done”), you are attracting.
The most persistent error is that attracting means doing nothing. It does not. It means doing the inner work while releasing attachment to the outcome. The practitioner still performs rituals, still creates sigils, still aligns their actions with the desire. But they do not cling to the result. The difference is between casting a line and pulling on a line that has already caught something.
Another mistake is assuming chasing is always wrong. In some traditions, direct petitionary magic is legitimate. The Key of Solomon instructs the magician to command spirits with authority. That is chasing, and it works when the practitioner has the rank and the protection to do so. The problem arises when chasing becomes the default mode for every desire, especially those that require inner transformation.
A third misconception: that attraction is passive femininity and chasing is active masculinity. This is a reduction. Both currents exist in every practitioner. The Taoist symbol of the Taijitu shows yin and yang each containing a seed of the other. The most effective magic uses both: attract the vision, then chase the steps that bring it into physical form.
FAQ
Can attracting and chasing be combined in one ritual? Yes, but the order matters. Attract first (become the state), then chase only the practical steps. Never chase the emotional outcome.
How do I know if I am chasing? You feel anxious after the ritual. You repeat it. You check for results. The body is tense. The breath is shallow.
Does attracting work faster than chasing? Usually, because attraction removes resistance. Chasing often creates a counterforce. But “faster” is relative: attraction may take longer to manifest because it requires inner change first.
Is chasing always ineffective in magic? No. For short-term goals or when you have authority (such as in evocation), chasing can work. But for long-term desires like love, abundance, or spiritual growth, attraction is more sustainable.
We keep a small obsidian mirror on the altar. When we catch ourselves chasing, we sit before it and breathe until the reflection steadies. Chasing makes the reflection waver. Attraction makes it still.
The next time you reach for a candle or a sigil, ask yourself: am I trying to pull something toward me, or am I becoming the thing that pulls? The answer determines everything that follows.
For a deeper exploration of how to align your being with your desires, see our guide on The Art of Magnetic Manifestation. You may also find the glossary entry on Invocation vs Evocation useful. And if you want to practice the Still Point technique in full, our guide on Stillness as a Magical Tool walks through the ritual step by step.