Many magic users that I have talked with seemed to be nearly obsessed with the idea of having power to do more things and to have spells that are successful over time. Some of them come to resemble a nuclear power plant or a huge car with a huge engine. The high levels of energy they require need elaborate ritual circles, spells, etc. To raise the needed energy and equally elaborate safeguards so they don’t fry themselves or others. These high levels of energy often result in many unintended consequences.
Part of this may be due to our culture having a strong fire aspect, and because many who get involved in magic also have this. Those with the strong fire aspect tend to be attracted to high energy levels and to doing things as quickly as possible, if not sooner. In addition, what others may think of as having a high energy level may not appear that way to this type of person. Think type A personality.
High levels of energy are not needed. Instead of a huge car with a big engine, why not use a small car with a small engine? It will still get you where you need to go. In my own magical work, I now use the equivalent of a bicycle. I work with little or no ritual, without invoking elaborate sources of power, and with none but the most minimal safeguards. Mostly just a quiet place to think. And I still accomplish as much or more as the powerhouses around me. In the past I have used high power levels and still use ritual when working with others.
How do I do this?
- By understanding what my real needs are and why they are.
- By narrowing my focus to only what is truly needed and not trying to do many things at once.
- By becoming aware of unconscious attitudes and beliefs that work against what I want consciously and trying to substitute consciously chosen beliefs
- By focusing on causes, not symptoms.
- By focusing on the cause of a cause or first cause.
- By eliminating any doubt or question in my mind as to whether the magic has worked or is going to work.
I always ask the universe for help and advice. I don’t try to bowl through or command. I do not see the universe as my enemy, and I try and allow it to work for me. By doing this, the universe can and has produced strange and unexpected solutions that I would never think of. I don’t try to tell it how to do what I want. I just make sure that I and others are not harmed. Much of this can best be explained via some examples.
The first example illustrates the first three practices I use. Suppose what someone wants to go on a cruise and doesn’t have enough money to do so. The first thing he does is a spell for money.
Problem one, by asking for money, he is also sending out the message that he does not have money, so not having it is what he may get.
Problem two, subconsciously he has been taught that A. Money is evil. B. Money does not grow on trees. You can only get it via hard work. C. that he is worthless and does not deserve money, D. etcetera.
Problem three, he really doesn’t want money. He wants to go on a cruise. Therefore, he is focusing on the wrong thing. By focusing on money, he is blocking other ways to get to go on a cruise, such as finding a lost ticket, getting a prize, or getting a job on a cruise ship. Problem four, He has never asked himself why he wants to go on a cruise. There are many possible answers to this, and some may be fulfilled in ways other than a cruise. For example, eating good food, meeting women, or visiting an island in the Caribbean. He should then continue the process and ask him why he wants this particular thing. He may discover that what he thought he wanted is unimportant, or completely different from what he first thought, or conflicts with other conscious or subconscious beliefs.
I have developed a way around the first problem listed above. What I do is use a three-part request for what I desire. The first part is a thank you for what I have been given in the past. The second is a thank you for continuing to give to me in the present. The third part is the actual request for more or less to be supplied in the future. The first two parts root your request firmly in your own accepted beliefs or reality, making the last part easier, and without saying I don’t have anything.
An example of how not to do the third practice is the person who says they are a dedicated environmentalist and drives a brand-new gas guzzler. What beliefs are being shown via behavior versus being what is said? Close observation of your behaviors and thoughts will often reveal what many of your subconscious beliefs are. They’re often seen in the form of the self-talk that we do all the time.
The last practice can be illustrated by the case of a person who gets arthritis. They make a healing spell on it. They have not looked at why they have arthritis. What message is their body telling them? What is their mind telling them via their body? Arthritis can be caused by misdirected or suppressed anger. If you treat arthritis without dealing with anger either, the arthritis will not go away, it will go away and then come back or some other problem will arise. Going to the next step, if you only treat anger and not the source of the anger, it will respond the same way as the arthritis. Try to get as close to the root of the problem as possible, the cause of the cause. * If you can’t do this from the start, do what you can and work back as you’re able to.
* I think I first came across this idea in Conversations with God, Volume One by Neil Donald Walsch.
The last practice is about what you say to yourself. If you ask yourself, did the magic work or did it work yet this implies doubt that robs your magic of much, if not all, of the power it would otherwise have. Some books on positive thinking and affirmations say you should talk and even act as though you already have what you want. I don’t suggest this myself because it is too easy for magic to go astray. I simply expect and know without further question or thought that when the time is right, what I have asked for, or the opportunity to get it will appear. In my opinion, this is a much-overlooked aspect of the Wiccan idea of keeping silent. In most discussions I have read, the focus is on what is said to others rather than what you tell yourself.
Most of the books on magic that I have seen stop well short of focusing on any of this. Instead, they focus on how to do things that affect the outside world. The various schools of magic and some books do address these issues, but often indirectly and to widely varying degrees. In some cases, this is done, intentionally or not, with the idea of tricking the mind into working around its inaccurate beliefs. Examples of how they do this include:
- focus on stating or visualizing precisely what you think you want.
- focusing on being able to concentrate for extended periods of time on what you want.
- creating a conscious system of beliefs that can override or substitute for unconscious beliefs.
- relating to and using parts of the subconscious or super conscious beliefs.
- Looking to higher beings such as God/desses, angels, elementals, or demons to give us the power to do what we want to do or to have them do it for us. These beings can do this, since they are not weighed down by our limiting beliefs, but you still must tell them what you want without conflicting subconscious messages.
The question of whether these beings are simply extensions of ourselves, have been created by our beliefs, and /or exist independently of us is irrelevant to this article because the result is the same.
Becoming focused on the idea of needing more power, on needing elaborate rituals and safeguards and/or relying on other beings can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I feel that this damages us by denying the idea that we already we already can access and use infinite amounts of power and can be one with the God/dess if we only eliminate our limiting beliefs and perceptions,
Bearing this in mind, the best use of magic may be in seeking guidance. Self-knowledge and self-improvement, but this requires awareness and a willingness to change, not power.
Related Posts:
The Way of the Spirit
Magic: The Last Refuge…
Psychic Protection
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