How necessary are 'props' in your spiritual practice?

When you say 'prop', do you mean a physical prop? What about hand seals/mudras? Or visualised props?

It was left ambiguous intentionally.

Yeah, fuck it, I'll go "Essential". Actually, "Inevitable" is closer to what I'm thinking. That's probably just me taking the ambiguity to the most extreme place I can.

I refuse to vote.

Hrm... I think this'd probably depend on what I was doing. In some instances I could consider some prop essential to a successful working (e.g. Abra-melin), whereas in other instances I would consider no prop necessary (e.g. astral workings). Nevertheless, since the question asked about my overall practice and since there are instances where I would consider some prop essential, I'll have to go for "essential".

Furthermore, if I wanted to chase this to the extreme I might consider books, websites, friends and colleagues as 'props' in a grand divine comedy.

So yeah, that's my take.

my vote is cast to "important". i use props. i use props in literally every magical work that i do. if i don't have the necessary prop i don't consider myself fucked tho. the reason that i chose "important" instead of "essential" is because there are plenty of nonmagical spiritual practices that only require a prop that every human is necessarily equipped with, the body and the brain. although i can see an argument for the body/mind as "prop", i think this makes the term so generalized it becomes nonproductive to even discuss. and i don't mean yoga or zazen or some particular gesture when i say "spiritual practice". a specific motion or method of controlling the body/mind would certainly be categorized as a prop. i mean the basic functions of life; your lungs expanding automatically, your heart being jolted by minor electrical impulses, blood pumping through your fractal circulatory system...according to my view these basic functions are very spiritual, and it's been said "there is more wisdom in the body than all the secret teachings of every age". in this sense my props are only useful in the achievement of certain specific psychic settings and magical goals, the most important spiritual work is happening deep under the surface of conscious manipulation, keeping the psyche in agreement with the external reality of the senses. maybe this seems like an arbitrary disagreement with the majority ruling of "essential", but i think it's a critical point. the intuition that in reality guides yr decisions is not a conscious mechanism, but something deeply rooted in physical awareness, and tho it is perhaps possible to augment with props, i wouldn't call them necessary to the functional miracle of physical being.

I voted somewhat essential as I didn't read too far into the question. Do I prefer to use props during my magickal workings, yes. Do I absolutely need them, no. But I guess if I read further into the question and considered the question to entail any form of visualization tools, or ambient music, or literature then I would probably have to lean more towards the very important or essential answer. I think it would all depend upon how you interpret the question though.