Is there a faster way than "equipping" the buff spell, casting it, equipping weapon, and proceeding to fight?

It seems exceedingly cumbersome doing it every fight.

Found it - mark spells/items to favorites. Then push Q to bring up favorites, and use number keys to assign keybinds (1-8). It won't let you do it from the magic menu, only from the favorites menu, which was what I was missing.

Lots of counter-intuitive choices in the U.I. so far, but I can't help but enjoy the game anyway.

Despite the shadows looking stupid.