All magic involves channeling energy. Whether we are charging or blessing a ritual tool, casting a Circle, activating a ward, or simply saying a prayer, we move energy. To properly use magical energy, it is imperative that we're able to visualize.
Visualization could easily be called, "applied imagination." For instance, let's say you'd like to contact a spirit guide. After creating sacred space (whether you cast a Circle, clear your mind, or light incense) you must "create" the event in your mind. Reality works on several levels, and magic vary rarely begins in the physical realm. In our example, you would imagine yourself meeting your guide, almost like a a focused daydream. But this is only the first step in using magical energy.
The second step is feeling the energy. One of the ways I teach students to feel energy is to have them work with the energy that naturally occurs in specific environments. Have you ever been walking down a peaceful forest path? Or even a serene corner of a park? Think about how you felt, how the world around you felt. Now think about the last time you went to the mall, or walked downtown. It felt considerably different than the energy of the forest or park. When you consider how the area felt, you realize that it isn't an emotion or frame of mind that you were experience, but a specific type of energy.
This energy is the building block of magic. In many ways, it's akin to emotion, as emotion is also a type of energy. To use it, we have to "visualize" the "feel" of the energy. In the above example, imagine what it would feel like to meet your spirit guide. What is the energy like between the two of you? Between you and the world you meet them in?
As you begin to feel the energy of this event you've visualized, begin to intensify it, feeling it pool within you. As it begins to build, you will instinctively know when it has reached the proper level. Then release it. In the above example you can project it back into the vision, charging it and making it come to life. Though sending the energy back into your visualization may make it fade from your mind, you have just gone through all the steps of using magical energy. It wouldn't be surprising if very soon, whether in a dream or in meditation, your spiritual guide came to you, after being called in such a manner.
However, if you apply the steps above to natural energy, you'll realize that you can move and channel the energy of the earth and forest as easily as you can other energy. Always remember that when you are using natural energy, that you are "taking" from the world around you. Always give back, whether it is an offering of birdseed and a request that the birds bless the place with their songs, a libation of organic apple juice or spring water that you've blessed, or something as simple as stopping and picking up the trash you may find on your way home.