Magical Ways to Find What's Lost


Losing something or someone precious to you can be devastating. A wedding ring, a beloved pet, or worse, a loved one—loss is an unavoidable part of life, and always deeply felt. Happiness, money and life itself can be on the line. Circumstances may depend on finding that which has been lost.

There are many ways to use magic to find what you’ve lost. Often, people first turn to magic when they’ve experienced a profound loss and seek to reverse their situation. Unfortunately, not everything is meant to be found, and not every mystery is meant to be solved. But magic can at least turn the odds in your favor. 

Here are a few different ways to use magic means to find what you’ve lost: 




The pendulum is often deployed in the finding of lost objects, pets or people. Although it’s limited ability to answer yes or no questions may slow you down, you just have to be creative in your questions to effectively use the pendulum to this purpose. If you’re searching in a specific area, you could go through the names of the streets asking if your missing item is there. The pendulum will answer yes or no, allowing you to slowly narrow down its location.

Or, the pendulum may often be a good way to determine if your item can even be found. An item  may be sold, destroyed, or otherwise irretrievable, and the pendulum can save you countless hours before you spend your time in a pointless search. If you’ve lost a pet and are frantically searching, a pendulum may help you determine if your beloved animal friend is still alive or not.



Journeying is a shamanic method of meditation that allows one to visit the spirit world and interact with spirits there. Often, helper spirits and spirit guides can offer information that is valuable to us. 

If you’re looking for information about the past, especially regarding your own history, then you’re best bet is to journey to the Lower World. There, you may connect to helping spirits who could tell you what you wanted to know.

But for lost items, or missing pets and people, you’ll need to journey to the Middle World. The Middle World is the shadow side of the physical world, or the invisible aspect. You could explore the Middle World in search of your missing item or person, and enlist your helping spirits in the search. A guide may simply direct you to the object’s location. But beware, the Middle World is populated with all sorts of nonphysical beings such as elementals, nature spirits, and the spirits of dead humans. Needless to say, these can be tricky to deal with and the neophyte is advised to avoid them at all costs. Journeying to the Middle World can be an effective way to find what you’ve lost, but it’s not without risks. 

You may also use journeying to connect directly with the spirit of your lost beloved. In the Middle World, you may seek out the spirit of your lost pet, your lost loved one, or even the spirit of a lost object, as all things are considered to have spirit from the shamanic viewpoint. In direct contact, you may communicate with them and know their desires. If a loved one is in a coma, journeying to connect with their spirit can be an effective way of retrieving information or permission from them before taking action on their behalf.

Cast a Beacon Spell

Beacon spells employ local spirits around your home to act as a beacon for your lost person or object, so that they may find their way back to you. 


Find a tree near your home that you like, the taller the better. Enter a meditative state and touch the tree. Mentally or aloud, explain to the tree your situation, and ask it to help you by acting as a beacon for you. Search your belly for a response. If your belly feels bad, then move on to another tree and try again. Once you’ve found a tree that agrees (you should feel a pleasant sensation in the belly), then sprinkle an offering at its roots. Tobacco or sage will do. If you’re trying to retrieve a lost pet, sprinkle some of the pet’s favorite food as an offering.

As you sprinkle the offering, a nearby rock may catch your eye. If so, pick it up and bring it inside. Leave it on the floor by your front door. For people or animals, set a totem such as a picture of your loved one or your pet’s favorite toy. When you come and go, passing by the rock, thank the tree for its help and know that a beacon is lit to bring back what you’ve lost.


Remember, not everything is meant to be found, and not every secret is meant to be discovered. At least not on your timeline. Oftentimes, the grand forces of the universe that make existence meaningful work in excruciatingly painful ways to teach us important lessons. Other times, we experience suffering to pay karmic debts for our own past actions. Either way, the point is, sometimes the suffering is actually what’s best for us in the long run. So be prepared to accept the unacceptable should your spell fail.

Ultimately, if your spell is cast against the will of the universe, or is simply overwhelmed by the will of others, you will have to accept the loss and move on. But when desperate times call for desperate measures, you’d be remiss not to use every tool at your disposal to find what’s missing.