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Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com
"HOW TO USE MAGICK with a Straight Face"
(C) 1989 by Scot Rhoads, all rights reserved
MYSTIC MOON Metaphysical Books, NEW MOON RISING journal & BBS
8818 Troy St., Spring Vly, CA 91977 (619) 466-8064; BBS: 466-5403
"People that eat blowfish are stupid.
People that do not eat blowfish are also stupid."
--Japanese proverb
With the advent of the New Age, many people are airing great
new ways to change your life for the better. These ideas are
based on the premise that we have total control of our lives on
some level. All we need do is reach that level with our desires.
This is, of course, the big challenge. You can read millions of
words on that subject. Why is there so much information? Because
achieving this kind of control is a very individual thing. There
are so many different ways that each person could write his own
book. To succeed, each must find his own path. The reason there
are instructions at all, though, is because each can find
guidance in the successes of others. Magick is one of these many
guides.
This file is relatively short because it concentrates less on
the myriad details of magick and more on how to find your own
path. The task is never as easy as it sounds, but it is not
complex, either. With straight forward exercises (good, honest
work on your Self) you will achieve whatever you desire. We all
have this power. The way we use it is not by gaining a new
ability, but by getting out of the way of the ability we already
have. This book outlines the basic blocks and the kinds of things
to do about them. But, as with any advice, it is up to you to
honestly assess your own situation and discover what works best
for you. Remember, achieving your personal Power is everyone's
path in life. You will succeed, it is only a question of when.
This book is designed to bring that success more quickly and,
overall, more easily.
Many people these days still appeal to the "booga-booga"
aspect of magick: "We will grant you incredible powers to use on
whomever you please if you send us money." As we enter into the
New Age of understanding, people are learning that occult powers
are actually a natural part of everyone's life. It is our goal to
help this process along. We hope to teach newcomers what magick
is about. This book is written not only to inform, but also to
circumvent the psychological barriers set up by living in a
mechanistic society. The mechanistic paradigm (the idea that each
person and object is totally separate from the rest of the
universe except through physical interaction) precludes magick
(non-physically affecting one's environment). The magickal
paradigm states that your beliefs create your reality. This
choice is like contemplating eating blowfish-- when you analyze
it, you can conclude that adopting either paradigm is stupid.
Since you can't please everyone else, pick the one that you like
best. If (and only if) the magickal paradigm appeals to you, then
choose it. Then the trick is to get out of the mind-set that says
that magick is impossible. We hope that you will try some
exercises to prove to yourself that magick works. Once you have
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done so, then you are on the way to achieving anything you
desire.
POWER
Power can be a very misleading term. The way most people mean
it is in the sense of "power-over." People recognize power as the
ability to get others to do what you want, especially when these
others have different ideas. This is not Power (with a capital
'P') at all. When you rely on someone else to do something for
you, you give your Power to him. This is very different from
doing something *with* someone, then both parties gain. But, to
believe that you must force or trick another is to say that you
need this person to do something that you cannot. You may steal
their power (lower case) but you give away your Power.
Power is, among other things, the innate ability to bring
whatever you truly desire into your life. When you "make" others
manifest them for you, you create blocks in your own mind. These
blocks say "I cannot do this myself," which obstructs your Power.
This is "giving away your Power."
When you "take your Power," you accept responsibility for your
life. This is not guilt or martyrdom, it is honestly assessing
your life and recognizing your successes and failures. Give
yourself credit for even the smallest success and recognize that
you can overcome every obstacle. Then you allow your Power to
express itself. What you need comes to you; projects work for
you.
We often think of many obstacles as insurmountable. For
instance, many believe the lottery to be their only desperate
hope of escaping poverty. Such people give away their Power. And
why shouldn't they? Everything they've experienced tells them
this. Our whole society is rooted in the mechanistic paradigm
(all causes and effects have a physical link), which precludes a
belief in Power. How is one to know that this concept works? How
can this be real when it is so different from what we are used
to?
Our society has a concept of "Reality" as an objective
existence of which we are all a part. When two people have
different ideas of the nature of some detail, then at least one
is Wrong. We all have a fear of being Wrong. When we are Wrong we
miss out on things and people don't like us as much. Therefore we
desperately strive to be Right. It turns out that Right is what
ever those around you happen to feel that it should be. It's as
if they all took a vote when you were out of the room. But
"Right" changes all the time: from preservatives are harmless, to
preservatives cause cancer; from Stalin is a great leader, to
Stalin was a monster; from Ptolemy explains the forces of the
universe perfectly, to Newton explains the forces of the universe
perfectly, to Einstein explains the forces of the universe
perfectly. The philosophy of science this calls this evolving
better (or at least different) explanations. Yet, while these
ideas hold sway, people call them "Reality."
Just how reliable is Reality? We all live our lives using our
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individual concepts of Reality to get along. We update them as we
see fit. But few will fundamentally change their concepts. We are
sure that, although we may not have the details, we certainly
have a feel for the basics. Anyone who disagrees with the
mechanistic paradigm, for instance, must be missing at least a
few marbles. Such a person is irrational in a universe that we
know to be rational.
But is the universe truly rational? Science has pursued the
mechanistic paradigm down to the smallest scale, particle
physics; here it fails to explain the universe. The building
blocks of Reality do not behave rationally. If you drive a car
from one side of a mountain to the other and you have a choice of
two tunnels, you will drive through one of them. If a single
electron has a choice of two holes in a plate to pass through, it
will go through both. You can plot the speed and position of your
car to the limit of the accuracy of your instruments, but you
will never be able to do both to that electron.
When you observe this mythical car, it is a solid object. If
it were not, it would not be a car. If you drove it around, then
tested to see if the car were not solid and discovered that it
wasn't, what would you think? Around the turn of the century,
scientists figured out that light acts like a wave when you test
for a wave, and like a particle when you test for a particle. In the
regular world it must be one *or* the other. The two are as
mutually exclusive as a non-solid car that you can none the less
drive. Mysteriously, light was behaving like both. Eventually,
scientists concluded that light doesn't work like the universe we
are used to. The act of observing light defines its character.
This is called wave-particle duality. Later in the century,
scientists found that atomic particles, the building blocks of
all matter, behave this way, too.
Now imagine that you can find no evidence that this car
crosses the space between where you see it and where you saw it
last. Suppose the car isn't actually "there" when you're not
looking-- the act of looking brings it into "existence." What
would you think if noticed that your expectations seem to have an
effect on where it turns out to be? This is awfully strange, but
it is the kind of universe that particle physicists find.
"Looking at" a subatomic particle "brings it into existence."
Also, scientists are finding that whatever kind of particle they
expect to find in an experiment, tends to be there. This is
starting to look less like brilliant theory and more like an
effect of the observers. They are no longer separate from their
experiments. It turns out that the universe doesn't actually work
the way we've always assumed it does.
This is the nature of matter on the smallest scale, and it
doesn't make sense in every day life. This does not mean that we
should abandon our present ideas of how to live. Keep what works
("If it ain't broke, don't fix it"). Particle physics won't
affect how you drive through tunnels, for instance. But, if you
accept physics, the epitome of the mechanistic paradigm, this
means that our mechanistic ideas of how the universe works are
fundamentally incomplete. In other words, the mechanistic
paradigm is not the whole story.
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Big deal. What does this mean in a practical sense? The world
seems to work just the same as it did when the mechanistic
paradigm was unchallenged. But what if our preconceptions dictate
what we are aware of? It is a common trick to set up a group of
people for startling event and see how many will overlook a
strange inconsistency. In one instance, a teacher took a student
off into an adjoining room on a pretext. There was the sound of
an argument and a crash and the student ran out through the room.
One of the other students suspected a set up and she was the only
one who noticed that the teacher's accomplice was carrying a
bone. A much more dramatic example is the story of Magellan's ships.
When the explorer landed on a particular island, the natives, who
had never seen europeans before, recognized them as funny looking
men in funny looking little boats. But Magellan soon found that
the natives were unaware of the large ships that carried them
there, though they were impossible to overlook. The natives had
seen men and small boats before, but they had never seen a large
ship. Such a thing was outside of their experience and therefore
outside of their comprehension. Their eyes must have seen the
ships, but their brains did not. The natives gathered to try to
see them, staring intently at where they supposed to be anchored.
Soon the local shaman could discern the barest outline which he
described to the others. Eventually they could all perceive
ships.
Who can say what we make ourselves unaware of? It is only
after we've expanded our perception that we learn how limited it
was before. But we can't go around indiscriminately "expanding
our consciousness." What we choose to believe is based on our
desires. If you are happy with what you believe, the is no reason
to change. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Change is
challenging and even if you succeed, it may well be unpleasant.
But if you feel unable to overcome obstacles in your life (and
you *really* want to), then you have nothing to loose. Magick
will only expand possibilities. If it's all a crock, you've lost
nothing. If it's true, you can do anything you're willing to work
for. It is a draw-win situation. The only way you can lose is to
make your choice out of fear. Don't let the opinions of others
influence what you choose to believe. Don't give away your Power.
Everyone else is in the same situation you are, so when it comes
to your own life, there is no greater authority than yourself. If
you're interested in magick, try it and see for yourself if it
works for you.
................................................................................
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WHAT MAGICK IS
Magick is a way of using your Power. More technically, magick is
the process of non-physically affecting your environment through
messages consciously impressed on the subconscious with a system
of symbols. (This will become clear later.) This is the broadest
definition and it can include such things as prayer, meditation,
chanting, positive thinking, subliminal tapes, programming and
hypnotism.
Some think that magick is unnatural and evil. It is no more evil
than any tool. A knife, for instance, is "good" or "evil"
depending on its use. It can be invaluable in many beneficial
projects, yet it can also harm. Nothing is immune to misuse.
People even try to use prayer against others. Such potential is
not a reason for fear, but for respect. The idea that magick is
unnatural is a modern misconception. Magic has only recently come
to mean Hollywood special effects or pulling rabbits from hats.
It is often spelled magick in order to distinguish it from this
new meaning. For millennia magick has been a path to
enlightenment and self mastery or just plain getting what you
want. It is nothing supernatural. Magick uses natural powers and
the natural flow of the universe to bring about the changes you
desire. We are so immersed in magick that, like still air, we are
unaware of it. We all use this power without thought, like
breathing. Magick is using these powers with awareness.
Magick involves placing a message of your choosing into your
subconscious. This is all that is necessary to achieve any goal.
The power of the subconscious is awesome. When you unite it with
your conscious will, you can do anything you want. Remove the
internal barriers and the external barriers melt away. Oriental
philosophy would call this "following the Tao." Achieving this is
the challenge of magick.
HOW MAGICK WORKS
How can programming the subconscious affect the world around
us? What are the mechanisms involved? According to the occult
view, it works because that is the nature of the universe.
In the West, we use the mechanistic paradigm. A paradigm is a
pattern or model, in this case describing the way the universe
works. We use paradigms to function, usually without even
realizing it. The mechanistic paradigm is one of the most basic
that underlie our culture. This model states that there is an
objective reality in which objects interact solely through
physical contact. Science has updated this to include fields like
gravity and magnetism, but the principle is the same. The result
is a universe in which the individual is nearly powerless. You
can only make real change through physical action. Magick is the
act of making such changes non-physically, so it does not fit in
with the mechanistic paradigm.
Most westerners are unaware that the magickal paradigm
represents a majority view among the world's cultures. Basically,
it is the antithesis of the mechanistic view. It states that
there is no objective universe, only subjective universes. These
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universes are the perceptions of each individual. You couldn't
possibly do any experiment that would show your universe to be
either subjective or objective. You must be an objective observer
in order to tell the difference. You are automatically a
subjective observer because you are in the universe. That's life.
At this point, there is no practical difference between these
views. The universe looks the same either way. But the magickal
paradigm also states that the universe is an expression of your
perceptions and your perceptions are that part of yourself over
which you have control. When you change your own attitudes and
preconceptions, the universe will follow. This gives an
individual as much power over the universe as he has over
himself.
Metaphysics
We obviously don't exercise infinite power. There is more to
magick than merely having a desire or belief. That is because we
have many conflicting desires and beliefs on many levels. There
is a level called, among other things, the Little Self. This
roughly corresponds to the subconscious and the super ego. The
ego, the part of ourselves which we think of as "I," is called
the Middle Self. The Little Self is the gateway to the High Self,
our connection with godhead and the universe. Infinite power lies
with the High Self, but our access is through the Little Self
which has its own ideas. The Little Self is aware of and accepts
everything around it and everything you think, even when you are
not aware. These perceptions build up very strong ideas in the
Little Self. When these ideas are different from yours (those of
the Middle Self), your ideas loose. To succeed, you must unify
your will.
Of course, people rightfully complain that even if we do
create our universe, it's still tough to make changes. That is
because there is quite a bit of inertia to ideas that have been
strongly supported since childhood (or before, if you accept
past-lives). In an extreme example, the original "Peter Pan" had
to be changed to keep from harming children. In the original
version, the characters flew because "they believed." Many
children attempted to fly and discovered the hard way that their
Little Self did not agree. Things like a belief in gravity may be
possible to overcome, but no one will argue that it's commonly
done.
This example sounds silly because our experience of gravity is
so compelling that it seems ridiculous to consider it to be
"merely a thought construct." But another belief that is nearly
as widespread is that of poverty. This is a significantly less
daunting belief which many have overcome. As long as you believe
you are poor, you will be. This is often a very strong belief.
Many cannot even genuinely imagine themselves as being wealthy.
But, because it is not beyond reasonable comprehension, it is
possible to reprogram your Little Self-- much as it's possible
for left-handers to learn to be right-handed. Magick is an
effective way to do this.
If you are unconvinced, consider how many little messages you
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heard when growing up, which you now believe on some level.
Frequent messages, especially with children, usually become true.
If you have heard all your life that you are poor or dumb or
unsuccessful, eventually you believe it and eventually it's true.
You probably know many people with an unjustifiably poor self
image. This is an image which their Little Selves accepted,
probably during childhood when they couldn't protect themselves.
That is how messages to the Little Self work against you. And the
Little Self is aware of everything, even when you are asleep. It
also believes everything it hears. So the next time that you hear
that you're not good or that you need to buy a product that you
don't really want, consciously give your Little Self a different
message. Talk to it and tell it what you want to believe. This is
what makes your universe, so make it the way you want it. When
you have a particularly powerful belief to overcome, then you
must send a powerful message. That is the role of magick.
Religion
The religious rendition of magick is prayer. Although they are
different things, the principles are similar. Techniques that are
effective for one will work very well in the other. In fact, they
use many common symbols. One could say that magick is secular
prayer.
Prayer works when "God answers it." This is entirely in line
with the metaphysical explanation. You can say that the Higher
Self is God or your connection to God. This is simply a different
way of expressing the same ineffable principles. You can adapt
anything here to fit into your views. Don't let the way these
concepts are phrased put you off. Feel free to interpret this as
much as you like in order to make it acceptable and usable to
you.
Psychology
The explanations so far require new way of thinking about the
universe, but those entrenched in the mechanistic paradigm need
not miss out. Psychology has enough respect as a science to offer
hope. If you replace Little Self with subconscious, the principle
is the same. Although there is no longer a source of infinite
power or non-physical change. But influencing the subconscious is
the next best thing in a mechanistic world.
Psychologists would say that magick directs all your
unconscious efforts toward your goal. It also eliminates those
unconscious efforts keeping you from your goal. This may not
sound like much, but it is primarily these efforts that determine
success or failure. It is easy to overlook because, for the most
part, the conscious will is the same as the unconscious will.
Thus, we succeed at endeavors such as waking up, getting to work
on time and fixing dinner. This may seem silly, but when your
subconscious doesn't share a goal, even simple tasks are
exceptionally difficult. The power of the subconscious can either
fight you or help you. Where ever you succeed, it's almost
certainly helping. Where ever you fail, it's almost certainly
fighting.
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The subconscious represents everything the mind does that we
do not think about. This involves a most of what we do. When you
are driving on a familiar freeway in good conditions, you are
usually thinking about the music on the radio or salient
problems. At such times it is your subconscious driving. If you
notice something strange in the road, it was your subconscious
that brought it to your attention. This is very helpful, but that
isn't necessarily the case. The subconscious can throw up all
kinds of barriers, preventing even the simplest tasks. It can
make you late for work when it doesn't feel like going-- you can
wake up late, feel ill, misplace car keys or even have an
accident. This influence sometimes goes to the extremes. People
can even be paralyzed by hysteria, a condition that lies entirely
within the mind. Pathological fears are another example. An
agoraphobe, for instance, can have such an extreme reaction to
being outdoors that he cannot leave his house no matter how badly
he wants to.
The subtle action of the subconscious can be almost as
profound. Even when the influence of the subconscious is
indistinguishable from chance happenings, on larger scale the
effect is dramatic. Psychologists try to ensure that experiments
are "double blind" for this reason. They must set up an
experimental group and a control group. In the latter, there is
only the single element, the target of the experiment, that is
different.
In drug testing, experimenters use placebos on a control
group. The act of administering a substance can have a profound
mental effect, even when that substance is inert, a placebo. When
they expect effective drugs, people can have great results with a
placebo. But the "placebo effect" is purely psychological. If
either the experimenter or the subject think that they know which
is being administered, that is enough to throw off the results.
The subconscious of the subject reacts to what the subject
expects. If the experimenter knows what he is administering, then
the subject's subconscious reacts to cues from the experimenter's
subconscious. This is sometimes called the "Clever Hans effect"
after a horse which seemed to be able to do math. In reality,
clever Hans but was reacting to cues from the people around him.
When someone near him knew the answer, the horse could sense that
person's expectation. It was sometime before researchers even
considered these nearly invisible clues. Although such
subconscious actions are very subtle, they can dramatically
change the results of an experiment.
The subconscious similarly affects results in your life as
well. Magick programs the subconscious to work for you. This is
not as potent as the metaphysical concept, but it will make you
as effective as you can possibly be in a mechanistic world. A
unified will directs all your efforts, conscious and otherwise,
toward your goal. Since the subconscious can present
insurmountable barriers, working out these barriers is all it
takes to be on the road to success.
Some may be disturbed to think that magick may be
misrepresenting how it works, but that should not be a problem.
In one experiment, scientists gave placebos to a group of
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subjects. After the placebos "took effect," the scientists
explained what they were. Even when the scientists made it clear
to the subjects that the placebos had no biochemical action, many
subjects still wanted a prescription for them. (It would be
interesting to see how much more effective prescription placebos
are versus over the counter placebos.) Were these people stupid?
Or were they wise to stick with something that worked?
New Science
Those that cannot extricate themselves from old mechanistic
views need an excuse to allow the placebo effect to bring them
success. Ironically, the same discipline which made magick so
difficult can now provide this excuse. Scientists are exploring
some new ideas which depart from the founding mechanistic
paradigm. Ideas consonant with the magickal paradigm show up in
Jung's synchronicity, quantum physics, the Gaia hypothesis and
the morphogenetic field hypothesis (see Rupert Sheldrake's "A New
Science of Life"). When these views obviously challenge the
traditional mechanistic paradigm, they are a source of hostility
or amusement. When the challenge is more subtle, people ignore
it. Never the less, the West is gradually turning toward a view
more in tune with magick. With greater frequency, people are
willing to consider the idea that we affect our universe on more
than just a physical level.
Scientific evidence now supports the idea of non-physically
affecting your environment. Quantum physics suggests that an
experimenter's goals seem to create whatever particle he's
looking for. The morphogenetic field hypothesis suggests that
actions affect all other actions to the degree that the
circumstances are similar. This explains why it becomes easier to
grow a certain type of crystal over time and how new animal
behaviors "jump" from one isolated population to another. Science
is continually finding support for things that metaphysicians
have said for millennia.
If your respect for science is such that you cannot take
magick seriously, do some research into these areas. If you can
find an acceptable explanation, then you can respect magick. This
respect is essential for success. But don't look for "proofs."
The concept of magick is nebulous. It's designed to explain the
way things are. "Contrary evidence" only shows that you
misunderstand. Change your definition to include the new
evidence.
Magick can never be proven wrong because it can't be pinned
down. Since it explains a subjective reality, it can never be
proven right, either. The magickal paradigm will confirm any
preconceptions, so the mechanistic paradigm will look "true" if
that is what you expect. Since it also postulates so many
unknowns in the mind, this paradigm states that what you get is
what you expected. As with so many things, you will believe if
you want to and you won't if you don't want to. But when you're
on the fence, the right explanation can help you accept the
possibility. Only then you can honestly try magick. If you
experiment with a negative attitude, it is the nature of magick
to confirm this. Magick works best for those practical enough to
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be skeptical, but open minded enough to give it an honest try. If
a part of you is genuinely interested in magick, work to become
comfortable with it. Start with simple and harmless work. Leave
the embarrassing stuff for later, after you've seen it work and
you don't care so much if your friends find out.
Avoid getting too involved in the "explanations." If you need
one, pick whichever you like. It doesn't have to be any of those
here. Each has to build his own models. In any case, reality
transcends the understanding of waking-consciousness, so any
expressible explanation is "wrong" in the traditional sense,
anyway. For a good illustration, try to "understand" wave-
particle duality in any but a mathematical sense. It's as
impossible to picture as a four dimensional cube.
However the universe "actually is," always act in a manner
that is responsible in an objective universe. If this were not
essential, people would have abandoned the objective universe
long ago. Objective or subjective, there are many empirical rules
of behavior that we all know. Magick doesn't change these rules.
Don't drive crazily because you've done a protection spell. Don't
spend unwisely because you've done a prosperity spell. Don't jump
off a building because you've done a flight spell. Remain within
these rules and you loose nothing by acting as though the
universe is subjective. You should not be doing anything you
don't want to do in the first place, because such acts are
pointless in either universe. If the universe is objective, then
you have had some harmless fun. If the universe is subjective,
then you have the chance to get anything you want. If you
approach it properly, you can't lose.
THE EMPIRICAL RULES OF MAGICK
Karma, the golden rule
So far you have read a few possible explanations of how magick
works. This is to open your mind to the fact it *can* work. But
any explanation puts a limit on the possibilities. The
possibilities which a model rules out are much harder to achieve
while you use that model. Please don't limit yourself
unnecessarily. But remember, no matter how much you may try to
believe that you can fly, it's not likely you'll succeed. The
obvious lesson here is, be careful: test the waters of your
subconscious, act responsibly (but not over cautious). Don't jump
off a cliff after your first flight spell. Don't quit work after
your first job spell. Start slow and find out how your Little
Self works before you do any life changing work.
There is a hazard so universal that you should treat it as
fact: Karma. This is the old saw of, "what goes around, comes
around." You attract things of a similar nature to what you
concentrate on (similar to morphogenetic fields). And remember,
when you concentrate on something, your Little Self does so at
least as much. The mechanistic reason for this may be "the
subconscious mind directing subtle actions to bring about
circumstances in tune with its thoughts." Metaphysicians often
explain it as "like vibrations attracting like."
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Everything has a "vibration." This is similar to the vibration
of musical notes, though obviously not the same. As with musical
notes, one vibration can start a sympathetic vibration. One
vibrating piano string will start similar strings vibrating.
Karma is the word for this principle in magick. There is a
certain vibration associated with any act. If you hit someone,
the emotions and actions involved are of a certain vibration.
This will tend to attract things of a similar vibration,
primarily violent acts. You will tend to attract someone to hit
you. It turns out that everything you do to others you
essentially also do to yourself, and vice versa. It sounds trite,
but being nice to others and yourself truly makes the world a
better place for everyone.
It doesn't matter how you understand karma, or even if you
believe in it-- you are warned. Many people don't believe. The
action of karma, particularly on such people, is often too slow
to notice. It can easily take lifetimes for a soul to work
through karma. But the soul will, so avoid bad thoughts. This is
impossible, but you will get better with practice. Each
unpleasant thought has a negative effect on you and others. This
brings negative things into your life. This is pretty rotten, but
remember that each positive thought brings positive things-- that
can be pretty good. In any case, you needn't respect karma to
find yourself a happier person for trying to live this way.
If you are just learning about karma, you will probably find
that it is now a little more obvious in your life. But sometimes
it's difficult to figure. If you do a spell to heal someone, you
would expect to be attracting good things. But what if
immediately afterward you receive a transfer back home to live
near your scummy relatives? Hardly fair! Yet that's the kind of
result you can expect if you do anything to a person without
permission. People have enough difficulty with their own Little
Selves, it's nearly impossible to divine the desire of someone
else's. The most beneficent act could violate someone's will on
some level. If the person asks you, then you are free to act.
But, even if you are absolutely sure that the person would want
it, if he hasn't asked you, don't do it.
Another fantastic example is the love spell. Do a spell to
attract the kind of person you want, not a specific person.
Exercising your will on others without their consent is always
nasty-- doing so magickally has an even higher cost. Watch
yourself. Many people working with magick do so under a
"threefold law." This means that any karmic response is tripled.
This is to keep people particularly scrupulous when they are
fooling around with this stuff. Take it seriously.
Know Thyself
Karma is best described by the golden rule, "Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you." The other major rule of magick
is just as common place, "Know thyself." This is essential
because of the Little Self. Magick is the science of expressing
your will. Because there are many aspects to your will, it
follows that you must be aware of all these aspects to be an
effective magician.
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"Know thyself" means be aware of the thoughts and feelings of
your Little Self. Learn how it feels about the things you want.
Learn it's beliefs. You must know your starting point to
effectively change negative beliefs. To do this, you have to pay
attention to all the subconscious cues that your Little Self
gives you. Explore your feelings, keep track of your dreams, look
at your past. One of the best clues is your own life. If you
create everything on some level, then part of you "wants" each
thing in your life. You must not deny this, but work with it. The
goal is healing because destruction is at best temporary.
Different desires on other levels interfere with your
conscious desire. Your Little Self picks them up everywhere. You
must be aware of this so that you can counteract it. Every ideal
commonly in the mass media impresses itself strongly. When
Madison Avenue spreads the word that young and thin are the
ideal, your Little Self will accept this if you are not careful.
If you are not young and thin, this message undermines your sense
of self worth. The resultant sense of undeserving works against
your success. There is so much exposure to these messages that it
is a real battle to avoid them. Particularly in childhood, when
we can't protect ourselves, others deeply ingrain ideas that can
be with us for life. You must work hard to discover these
feelings and counter act them. If part of you feels undeserving,
genuine success seems impossible.
There are other aspects to this problem. Not only might you
feel undeserving, but you could even desire failure. There are
many reasons for this, usually based in childhood. Whatever the
cause, you must look at your failures to see if there might be
some reward. Many people are subject to chronic illness, for
instance, because of the attention they get or an unpleasant
situation they avoid. If you really want to succeed, you must
consciously release your desire for the rewards of failure.
You must also look at the fear of success. Many times we do
not consider the problems associated with what we are striving
for, but the Little Self does. It may be afraid of the
responsibility of a better job or a new spouse. Think through
your goals very carefully. What would life be like if you had
what you desire? You will have to address any new tasks and
responsibilities. You will have to be aware of any sacrifices.
Once you are sure that you want not only your goal, but the
sacrifices and responsibilities that go with it, then release
your fears. People fear change, because it is unknown. You must
be aware that you are taking a leap and welcome it. Have faith in
your Self. When you know your Little Self well enough, you will
be able to trust that it will bring you what you desire. When you
don't know it that well, work on that. If you fail, it's time to
work harder.
When you and your Little Self have the same goals, and you
have healed all the blocks to your success, you *know* that what
you want is coming. When you know, you do not feel desperate. If
you are feeling desperation, you are blocking. In that case, back
to work! When you have worked hard enough, then you are ready for
the easy part, the spell or ritual. When you enter ritual you
should know what you want and why you want it. You should have
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healed all feelings of failure and undeserving and you should
know that your spell will bring it. Work to cultivate this
feeling of calm expectation, it is an important key. When you do
a ritual, you will release all the power you have built to do its
work on the universe. You should not even have to think about it
again.
Once you achieve this, though, there is another caveat. Many
people have something unpleasant happen to them and later
realized that they had asked for it. "Be careful what you ask
for, you just might get it." Always think carefully about what
you want and how you ask for it. Once again, solid background
work is the key.
USING MAGICK
Magick is a field with many different disciplines. There is
sympathetic, Earth, Ceremonial, Enochian, Celtic, Egyptian and
Kabbalah magick just to begin. These are occasionally different
in their basic techniques, but mostly they differ in the symbols
they use to achieve their goals. The principles are the same,
however. Whichever form you prefer, it is how you observe these
principles that determines your success. Beyond that, it is only
personal preference.
Preference is very important, too. It is your Little Self that
you are addressing, and it is as individual as you. You must
learn what works best for you. The first clue is what appeals to
you most. Once you find the best methods for you, you build your
own personal magickal system. It is up to you to find these
methods, through research and experimentation. There is so much
information that it is impossible to give more than a sample
here. The information in this book is enough to get started. It
is your work that will complete it. If you are happy with what
you get on your own, you need never open another book. But you
must at least pay constant, careful attention to your work to
fine tune it. As with anything, the more work you put in, the
better your success.
The first principle is to take what you're doing very
seriously. This is not so easy when you're struggling with
society's negative attitudes. Ignore any intrusive thoughts you
might have. Concentrate on what you are doing. You must passively
avoid any distractions. Do not try to actively avoid them for
that usually becomes an even bigger distraction. As long as you
enter with the right attitude, the rest will come with practice.
Magickal ritual is a very special thing. You must set it apart
from your ordinary functions. When you do this, your Little Self
is aware that you have that an important message to give it. Not
only is the message less cluttered by stray thoughts, but it
proceeds more directly to the Little Self. The more special
things you have surrounding your ritual, the more effective it
is. (As long as you don't have so much that these things become a
distraction in themselves.)
Pick a time when you are relaxed and awake and not under the
influence of any drugs (e.g., alcohol or medication). Take the
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phone off the hook and see that you are not disturbed. Create a
"sacred space" that is only for ritual. If you can set up a
regular time or place which you use for nothing other than
ritual, this is ideal.
Before you begin, take a bath or at least wash your hands and
use this to symbolically wash away all other thoughts and
distractions in your mind. Relax your body and mind. Remove
watches and tight clothes. Make sure the time of the ritual is
clearly separated from your usual day. Use a symbolic act like
knocking three times to open and close the ritual. Anything that
you can add to the ambience will help: incense, special or no
clothing, candle light, silence or meditative music (or whatever
music is appropriate to the spell-- be careful of any lyrics!).
If you know a second language that you don't ordinarily speak,
such as hebrew or latin, you may want to use this. Alternatively,
you can use the Thee's and Thou's of archaic english.
During the ritual, concentrate on your goals. Make sure that
your ritual is not so long that you can't keep your mind focused!
It is better to repeat a ritual over days or weeks than to have
an enormously long one in which you spend most of your time
thinking about balancing your checkbook. Know what you will do
before you start. You may ad lib, but your purpose must be
completely clear before you start. Don't be surprised, however,
if a ritual goes differently from expected. You may, for
instance, gain an insight as you work that seems unrelated to
your goal. It is important to consider this! It may be the key to
what you are trying to achieve. It may also be a distraction, so
be aware.
The Attitude
Since magick is the science of controlling your Self, the
entire key is in attitude. Not only must you take it seriously,
but you must also cultivate the right feelings. You must want and
expect your goal.
Wanting seems easy, but this is deceptive. That is because the
many facets of a personality often want different things. You
must unify your desire just as you must unify your will. A person
who grew up abused may learn, on some level, to associate this
with love. That person's Little Self will seek out abuse as an
expression of love. It will want abuse even if the individual
does not. Changing the desire of the Little Self to that if the
individual is the challenge.
An even bigger challenge is that of expectation. According to
the magickal paradigm, you not only get what you want, but you
get it in the way that you expect it. Thus, if you do a spell for
money and you think "I'll never win the lottery," the money
cannot come that way. If the spell is to work, the money must
come from another source, such as finding a better job. Too often
we rule out all possibility. When you do a spell, you know that
has already worked. If you do not know this, it has not worked.
This is the ideal. It may well take some time before you work up
to this point.
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For these reasons it's usually best to start slow. Remember,
to be completely successful, you have to want and expect on every
level. Begin with a project easier than levitation! Work your way
up to something life changing only after you have proven
yourself. And don't look for dramatic results. Don't rule them
out, of course-- you can win the lottery or even have ET hand you
a suitcase of money. But remember, this is dealing in what you
believe, and people rarely believe that dramatic things can
happen to them.
Look at magick as an extra push-- something to make the random
events break your way. In addition to magickal means, strive for
your goals on the earthly level. Preliminary results usually tend
toward things like improved success in your ordinary pursuits:
business picking up, a bonus, getting that job interview. Also,
the energy you put into these mundane efforts also supports your
magickal work. Even if you concentrate on winning a lottery, you
must at least buy a ticket. All your efforts help to build
expectation and gives a very strong message to the Little Self.
Affirmation
The message you give to your Little Self is the most important
aspect of Magick. The whole process is communicating the right
message. Desire and expectancy are the two most important
messages. But often these do not get across. The Little Self has
the understanding of a child. There are certain messages that
work well and quite a few that work disastrously. You must learn
how to talk to your Little Self.
The Little Self understands images and feelings; it does not
understand negatives or time. When you say "I will not fail," the
image in your mind is that of failure. The message to another
person would be what you mean, because they understand the
negation, "not." The message to the subconscious is "I will
fail." Never, never, never use a negative when talking to your
Little Self.
If you change your message to, "I will succeed," you still
have a problem. Since the Little Self does not understand time as
we do, it will perpetually see success as being in the future.
Success will never arrive. The proper message would be, "I
succeed." This is not the way we are used to thinking, but it is
necessary for magickal work. Always formulate your goals this way
when you begin a ritual or spell. In addition, the more you think
in this way in everyday life, the more powerful will be the
positive messages to your Little Self.
Visualization
The images which you give your Little Self are even more
important. It is the images which your words conjure that
actually do the communicating. When you choose your goal, you
should try to choose one or more images to represent it. The
image must include you in it, either see yourself in a scene or
picture it as if looking out of your eyes. The scene should
represent to you exactly what you desire.
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The more you imagine in your scene, the better. Details,
smells, sounds and textures all help enormously. The scene is
most effective when it brings up all the emotions that you would
feel if you were actually there. A drawing or picture is a good
aid. Surround yourself with as many things you can find that make
you think of your goal. Imagine you have what you want and know
you have what you want. That is a successful ritual.
Symbols
Over the millennia, people have discovered symbols which speak
to the Little Selves of nearly everyone. Various sets of symbols
form the foundation of the many different schools of magick. They
are often culturally oriented. Because our culture is far removed
from its magickal symbols, each must discover his own. There are
myriads of occult books that offer as many different symbols as
you could want. If you are interested, research them. Look first
to your religion or ethnic background for your symbols. Mythology
and astrology are also good sources.
One kind of symbol is the magickal tool. This is a physical
object which you have consecrated for magickal work. If you have,
for instance, a cross or star which you want to use for
protection, you must empower the object for that purpose in a
ritual. You will direct you will, through statement and
visualization, into to object. From then on it is a constant
tangible reminder to you and your Little Self. Treat it with the
greatest respect.
When you want to use a symbol, first explore your feelings as
you look at it. If it conjures the feelings you want, then use
it. With symbols from a source, try do this before you read what
the "authentic" meaning is. Sometimes you can get new information
by not prejudicing yourself. Be careful if the meaning is very
different, though. If you are not entirely in tune with your
Little Self (and few beginners are), you may be missing something
that will affect your spell.
Chakra
To give you an idea of what to look for and a sample to try,
here is a simple set of symbols based on the Chakra. Chakrum
(singular) is Sanskrit for wheel, although vortex would be a
better word. Chakra refers to points in the body where certain
energies localize. These types of energies correspond to many
different things: herbs, stones, times, planets, moods, political
beliefs. It is possible to relate anything to a chakrum. This
chart gives points on the body, one of the many color schemes and
how one experiences these energies. This becomes useful when you
seek a reinforcing energy. You can use this chart to decide where
to apply a magickal oil or what color is best to use in a given
project.
RED ROOT Physical Health and Energy
ORANGE SPLEEN Sexual and Reserve Energy (Second Wind)
YELLOW SOLAR PLEXUS Mental and Emotional Energy
GREEN HEART Love, Prosperity, Fertility, Growth
BLUE THROAT Command, Creation, Will, Expression
INDIGO BROW Magick, Psychic Energy
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LAVENDER CROWN Spirituality
WHITE Positivity, all colors combined, the Universal Deity (God)
BLACK absorbs negativity
PINK Filial Love, "Agape" (look it up)
BROWN Earthiness, Grounding, Hearth & Home
GOLD Wealth
TEMPLES Thoughts, mind
The blue is a very light blue. Indigo is a very dark blue, like navy
blue. Lavender is a mixture of the colors and the energies of red,
indigo and white. It is a very light color which you might be able to
see at the edge of a gas flame. The root chakrum is at the base of the
spine. The spleen is a few inches higher and to your left or along
the spine (your choice). The Solar Plexus at the navel (there is a
major nerve nexus here). The Brow or Third Eye Chakrum is associated
with the pineal gland. On the skin, the point is on the brow between
the eyes. The crown is the top of the head, associated with the
fontanelle (soft spot). If you use something black (like obsidian) to
absorb negativity, be sure to wash it occasionally to get rid of the
negativity. When you burn a black candle, this creates a vacuum.
This may be filled by for negativity unless you also burn a white
candle to bring in positive energy.
EXERCISES
Magick is not just an occasional exercise to bring what you
want, it is a way of life. It requires a certain kind of
relationship with your Self. This does not preclude any kind of
life style or religion, it is entirely separate. It isn't what
you do but why and how you do it. Magick demands that you love
and respect your Self and that you accept your Power. This is the
goal. "Getting what you want" is a small bonus.
Building a magickal relationship with your Self is much like
building one with a best friend. You learn all you can about its
beliefs and feelings. You help heal it and it helps you. You
achieve this through communication and love. You love through
learning acceptance. You communicate by learning and listening to
the language of the Little Self.
Dreams
The Little Self expresses itself most clearly in dreams. You
should keep a regular dream diary. Have a journal handy by the
bed. As soon as you wake up in the morning, write down as many
details as you can. If you scribble down notes, transcribe them
into a clear, coherent text. If you remember no dreams, write
this down. You should have an entry for every day that you sleep.
It is best to record them in present participle (e.g., "I dream
that I am writing in my journal").
Once you have a dream recorded. Consider it and write down
your impressions. How does it make you feel? To what does it
pertain? What symbols are there? What does it tell you about
yourself and your life? After you have considered these things,
you may choose to look up the possible meaning in a dream
dictionary. It is best to do this afterward because someone
else's interpretation could prejudice your own. The advantage is
that many dreams are "contrary." Such dreams actually mean the
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opposite of what they seem to on the surface. A dictionary can
help jog your awareness. Once you've tried on your own, it's not
a bad idea. Remember, though, your impressions are the most
significant.
You can make great progress during your dreams as well. The
more control you have in your dreams, the more Power you have in
your life. Try to develop this control. Remind yourself each time
before you go to bed that you will remember your dreams and
exercise your will in them. The ideal is called a waking or vivid
dream. In this you are consciously aware that you are dreaming
and everything, especially color, is very clear. The most
important thing to remember in a dream is to defeat everything
that attacks you. Attackers represent those things afflicting you
during the day. Don't let them beat you in your dreams. If you
need help, call for it. When victorious, make the attacker give
you a gift. The gift is the benefit that you can gain from any
situation. Defeat your dream monsters and you gain power to face
your real monsters.
From your dreams you can learn what your Little Self desires
and fears. You can also gain powerful symbols for your work.
These are all highly personal and it is up to you to divine this
information. But, don't try to interpret too much. Much of what
you dream is reviewing the events of the day and other items of
no great insight. Look at all your dreams and discover which ones
hold meaning for you. Don't worry when you don't understand. Your
Little Self will keep trying when it has something important to
tell you. As long as you keep listening, you will progress.
Diary
You should also keep a daily diary. It too, is a line to your
Little Self. Use this to record the events of the day and your
thoughts and feelings. These will reflect what is going on inside
you. Use it also for introspection. You must do a lot of soul
searching to learn about your Little Self, this is most effective
when written.
It is even more important to track the progress of your
magickal work. Each time you do a spell or ritual record your
goal, your feelings before and after and your methods. Before you
get to this point, you should also have explored all your
feelings associated with it. Then pay careful attention to all
that happens to you (part of the reason for the daily diary).
Often, a spell will work and we will not even notice.
Since magick works with what we believe, things come to us in
the way we expect or allow. When you do a healing, it will tend
to look entirely natural, rather than miraculous. If you do a
prosperity spell, receiving a tax refund check the following
month could be the universe's response. Keep an eye out for any
hint of possible results. Even the weakest indication is very
positive. It may not be enough to satisfy, but it means that you
are being effective. If you keep working, you will be able to
improve until you achieve the result you desire. When you give
yourself credit for even the smallest success, you build the
relationship between you and your Little Self.
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Pendulums
Another good way of communicating with your Little Self is
through pendulum work. You can use any object on a string, but if
it holds significance for you, so much the better. Hold your arm
steady and think about the pendulum swinging forward and back. It
should eventually begin to do so without you *consciously* moving
your arm. Next change the movement to left and right by thinking
about it. Once you can do this with facility, assign "yes" to one
direction and "no" to the other. If you choose forward and back
as "yes," alternate thinking the direction and thinking the word.
Eventually, even when you start cold, the pendulum will swing
forward and back when you think "yes." Repeat with the word "no"
for the opposite direction. Now you have a way of talking with
your Little Self. You can ask it questions directly.
Eventually, you can even get your Little Self to spell words
by holding the pendulum over a semicircle with the alphabet on
it. The direction of swing will indicate each letter. Another
method is automatic writing. With this you hold a pen and relax
and let "it" do the writing. (This may sound like an Ouija board,
but it is not. Do not try to use one for this purpose or vice
versa.) Whatever method you use, be careful. Your Little Self
wants to please you. It will tend to give you the answer you
want. Make sure you want the truth and that your Little Self
understands this. Always be friendly, as you would with a child.
Praise success and don't berate failure. After all, it is only
trying to please. As usual, this requires regular work over time,
but eventually you can have such a good understanding that you
need no tools. You will simply "know" how your Little Self feels.
This is the ideal.
Meditation
Another way to achieve this awareness is through meditation.
This is a method of calming the conscious mind. There many
physical benefits from the stress reduction alone. It also allows
your inner thoughts and feelings to express themselves. All the
skills you learn in meditation are very useful in magick. Not
only is it a line of communication with the little self, but it
teaches you to quiet the conscious mind which is essential in
ritual. You would do well take instruction in a meditation
technique such as yoga or self-hypnosis.
If you are learning this on your own, observe these rules:
Relax your body consciously and completely. You must be in a
comfortable, calm environment to do this properly. Starting at
your feet, think about each part of your body and let it relax.
It may help to tighten the muscles first. Use a cue to tell your
mind to relax. This can be something like mentally going down
stairs or counting backwards. [Do not use a common cue. For
instance, "three, two, one" is something that you might encounter
on the radio while driving. This could be dangerous. It would be
better to use, "three, three, three, two, two, two, one, one,
one." This is less likely to cause a problem. It is dangerously
easy to get into a meditative state during automatic tasks like
driving. This you must avoid.] Once relaxed, you can use this
state to allow subconscious thoughts to float to the surface, or
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you can use it in ritual to give a powerful message to your
Little Self. This mental state is another key to magick.
You will find that it is very difficult to focus your
conscious mind at first. See how long you can hold one word or
picture in your head without any other thought. It is probably an
astoundingly brief time. Watch commercials to see how many
seconds they show one unchanging scene. This represents the
average attention span. This is one of the reasons that magick is
so difficult, you must remain focused for the entire ritual. Be
aware of you concentration span. While it is short, you should be
working short rituals. It is better to have three five-minute
rituals than one half-hour ritual if you spend twenty minutes of
the latter thinking of other things.
In order to improve your concentration, spend some time each
day trying to hold a word or picture as long as possible. Another
good exercise is to pick a word and try *not* to think of it for
a week. Count how many times you think the word in your head, if
you think it again when counting it, count that instance, too.
This is very difficult, but eventually you will even be able to
hear or see the word without thinking it.
These skills immediately become useful in communicating with
your Little Self. You will want to hold positive thoughts, such
as "I am a loveable, successful person." You will want to dispel
negative thoughts, as when the T.V. tells you, "I was very
unpopular until I started using Crealm Toothpaste!" When you are
trying to reprogram your Little Self, feel free to use aids such
as subliminal tapes. Another good one is colored cards. Place
your simple, direct message, such as "I succeed," on a colored
card where you will see it each day. Put small pieces of the same
color where you will encounter them throughout the day. Each time
a bit of card comes in your field of view, your Little Self will
notice and remember the message, even when you don't.
Symbolic acts are also very powerful. When you clean out your
house and get rid of everything that you don't *need,* you make
way for new things to come into your life. This is a good thing
to do in concert with a major change in your life, quitting
smoking or graduation, for instance. It helps to tell your Little
Self that your old life is over and your new one has begun. The
more you can eliminate the symbols of your old life, the more you
can shape your new life to your liking. Be aware of all that you
do, for you can use ordinary acts to give messages to your Little
Self. Your morning shower can be a ritual to "wash away" all your
stress or yesterday's mistakes. If you do this, however, you must
*make* it a ritual. Develop a routine and concentrate on the
purpose of the act throughout. This is true of all magickal
works.
Once you have begun this work to focus your conscious mind and
reprogram your Little Self for success, then you can begin some
small works of magick. You want to start small because most
people have difficulty accepting a great success on a deep level.
If start with a spell to win one million in the lottery and you
are not ready for this, your failure will set you back. If you do
prosperity spell and you get a small raise or win $10 in the
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lottery, that is a start that you can build on.
One of the better starting goals is manifesting an
insignificant object. Manifesting means bringing it into your
life. Things tend to manifest in unremarkable ways, so keep a
look out. The blue feather is a classic. Set up a ritual in which
you concentrate on a blue feather. See it, feel it, smell it,
want it, then let it go. Then pay attention for the following
week (and keep track in your journal). You may find a blue
feather on the side walk. You may notice one for the first time
on a billboard that you pass every day. You may see one on T.V.
All of these are successes.
It is best to start with insignificant, uncommon (but not
rare) objects. An uncommon object gives you a good indication of
success. A rare object is a challenge you can work up to. An
insignificant object is easier because you do not have
interfering desires or fears. You have to be relaxed and
confident and let go of your desire as you complete the ritual.
You should be able to manifest such an object before you proceed
to a greater challenge. It is valuable to repeat this exercise
every so often in any case.
Another good spell to start with is a spell to do good spells.
That is, you can use magic to help remove blocks and fears. For
instance, if you have discovered that you feel unworthy, this
will seriously impair your ability to manifest what you want.
But, you can use your desire for self worth to empower magickal
work toward feeling worthiness. You can also do a spell to
support your ability to concentrate on your goal. This is just an
extension of all the other methods of getting messages to your
Little Self.
When you discover blocks and fears, when thoughts intrude and
your mind wanders, or when you find yourself thinking exactly
what you're supposed to avoid, don't worry! This happens as you
learn to control your will. The idea is not to avoid these
problems, but to *learn* to avoid them. You can't do this by
trying to force yourself. There are no instructions on how to do
this, only exercises. Just do your stuff and the rest will
follow. When problem surfaces, recognize it and go on. Don't try
to stop it and don't dwell on it, just continue. You may know
that you have "spoiled" a ritual with a stray thought, but
complete it anyway-- it's a good exercise. Sometimes you can deal
with stray thoughts by *trying* to think about them. Concentrate
on these thoughts and let your mind tire of them, then go on with
your work.
Work steadily, but not overly hard, on these exercises and
make magick a part of your life. Unify your will. Take and prove
your Power. Only after you have done this are you ready to do
magick. When you feel you are ready, develop the messages and
visualization which will be the most powerful for you. Decide how
you are going to set up your ritual area and how you will
orchestrate your spell. Whatever you feel best with is what will
be the most powerful. If you need an idea of how to start,
consider the examples that follow.
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SPELLS
Once you have discovered and addressed your blocks, you are
ready to do a spell. This is only a little different from what
you have already been doing. In a spell you do nothing new, you
do it differently. A spell is a ritual, an act carefully planned
to have the greatest effect. You must do the planning, for only
you know what will be the most effective ritual. Plan carefully
and completely. You may want to use a script (it would be best to
memorize it). You can ad lib once you're more experienced. At
this point, you have enough information to develop more powerful
rituals than you are likely to encounter in any book. However,
since this is so different from what most of us are used to, here
are some samples to give you a starting point. Feel free to use
and change these rituals as you please. They are here to give you
an idea of how you may want to approach things.
The ritual starts in a special place. It could be out in the
woods or in a special room. Ideally, you would never use this
place for anything but ritual, but this may be impossible. If in
the home, choose a quiet time and unplug the phone. Make sure
that you are not disturbed.
Before the ritual, carefully clean and arrange the area and
take a bath or wash your hands. Think about washing away the days
thoughts and cares. You are now ritually purified. You should not
engage in any mundane activity until after the ritual. Enter your
ritual area and knock three times, to mark the beginning. From
this point all your thoughts are on the ritual. Don't do anything
automatically. No matter how familiar, think about every action
and what it means.
Light candles and incense (only if there is no danger of
fire!). Imagine the ritual area surrounded in a circle of white
light. You may physically trace this circle to reinforce it.
(Traditionally, all such movements are clockwise when invoking
and counterclockwise when dispelling.) Repeat an act of
purification. This is like the bath only more symbolic. You can
hold your hand in the incense smoke and touch water from a ritual
cup to your forehead, for instance. Next, relax and aum-- that is
chant the mantra "ohhmmm" (or whatever works for you) to bring
your mind to the proper state of alert relaxation, ready for
work.
At this point you will state your will. Tell your Self and the
Universe how you choose it to be. This is not merely
verbalization, during ritual your word is law. What you say, is.
Feel your statement with your entire being, with every sense. Use
all the techniques that you have found effective. Then, let the
feeling go. It is going out into the universe to do its work. End
your expression with a statement like, "According to free will
and for the good of all." This helps to avoid problems with
karma, as long as you mean it. Do not allow other thoughts to
intrude at this point, it is now time to close the ritual.
Imagine removing the white light circle (counterclockwise).
Knock three times to end the ritual. Put out the candles, clean
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each item and put it carefully away in a special place. The
ritual is only finished once you have completed all of these
steps. Only then can you resume thinking about what's on the T.V.
and how big a jerk your boss it. As a beginner, you should always
be prepared to go through this entire procedure before you start.
Even in an emergency, you should at least remove the white circle
and knock (very quickly, perhaps, but do at least this much when
possible). Nothing in a ritual is mundane, so it must be clearly
delineated from your mundane actions. Otherwise you will dilute
your spell and give the wrong messages to your Little Self. When
ritual is obviously separate, your Little Self will know when to
pay close attention.
Once finished, do not talk about your work. Silence is another
important key to magick. If you discuss it with anyone else, they
cannot help adding their thoughts. This is almost always
detrimental. It is fine to work with people, then your energies
multiply. But never talk about specific spells that you have
done.
Destroying Your Enemies
This is one aspect of magick that attracts many. It is a big
mistake! Karma will get you every time. Don't try to rationalize.
Though you may be able to put it off, you will not escape karma.
In the mundane world, you might justifiably do violence in order
to defend yourself or another from physical attack. In magick,
this justifies only defense, never attack. Don't imagine yourself
to be an agent of karma or a martyr saving others at your own
expense. Who ever has done you wrong will get his. It's
frustrating to wait and we all want to be there when it happens,
but it is never worth trying to make it happen.
When you have any kind of relationship, particularly a
magickal one, you develop a karmic tie. You will want to avoid
such ties with people you don't like. Even if you get the best of
such a person, he will still drag you down. It's difficult to
resist when you feel that the person owes you. If you have been
swindled and left with no legal recourse, it's tempting to use
magick to get your money back. Trying to get even will develop a
tie with this person and probably set you up for some bad karma.
Don't worry about the money, either. You can get that from
anywhere (see "Prosperity"), In seeing this swindler as your only
source you give your Power to him. If you are brave, you can
demand justice in such a situation. This incurs no karmic debt,
but you, too, can expect justice. Not very many people genuinely
want this. Most prefer mercy because we have all done plenty of
things that we would rather not have to pay for. If you want
mercy, you must extend it to others. When you ask for justice,
all your debts present themselves. If you survive, great, but it
won't be fun. There are much safer ways of dealing with nasty
people.
Protection
Psychic attack can be a real problem because it is so
prevalent. When you make someone angry, the person is attacking
you. Simply directing angry thoughts is a psychic attack. (This
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incurs bad karma, so learn to avoid this yourself!) We all have
natural defenses, so these attacks seldom have an effect. But if
someone has ability, or if he concentrates a lot of energy, you
are likely to suffer. Psychic attack usually comes in through the
neck and manifests as a headache. As you become a better
magician, you will be more sensitive to the energies around you.
You become more vulnerable to psychic attack. You also become
better able to defend yourself as long as you remain alert. This
work will also help protect you from physical threats. Keep in
mind that, though magic may help, you must still act responsibly!
Affirmations: I am now safe and secure. All negative influences
are reflected off me into the Earth to be healed. I allow only
the positive into my life.
Visualizations: See an egg of white light around you-- because
this keeps in negative energy, also see it filled with violet
light, which will turn the negative to positive. Another good
visualization is three concentric circles around you (or whatever
you wish to protect) of white (outside), blue (middle) and pink
(inside). Also, you can imagine a mirror at the back of the neck
or encasing the whole body, reflecting outward.
Other: Religious symbols are especially good for this work.
Purification
Remember that the things you have in your life are those that
you have drawn to you. When someone upsets you, he usually has a
lesson to teach you. If you can learn this lesson, you can escape
the situation. If you escape without learning your lesson, you'll
probably be in a similar situation soon. Sometimes people often
make us angry by reflecting a part of our personality that we are
unhappy with. Also, the negative vibrations we pick up during our
everyday lives attract negative things. The purpose of the ritual
bath is to remove such influences. It is also a good idea to do
an entire spell for purification. This is not only good to do on
yourself, but also your home and wherever else you spend much
personal time.
Affirmations: The white light cleanses me of all negative
thoughts and energies. Only positive feelings remain in me. I
release all negative vibrations into the Earth to be healed.
Visualizations: See yourself being washed clean by white or
violet light from above you (your High Self). Each time you
inhale, take in pure white light. When you exhale, release all
your negativity. See this negativity go down into the earth to be
healed.
Other: Place a piece of rock salt under your tongue. Use incense
smoke or water to cleanse yourself. Again, religious symbols are
very effective.
Love
You must take love spells very seriously, for they are quite
dangerous. Never, never, never do a love spell on an individual.
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This is often a great temptation, but don't even risk the
possibility of imposing your will on another. The karmic results
are severe. Even if you succeeded, you would still lack real
love, for you would have to continually renew the spell to keep
the person. What you want, among other things, is someone to help
express your love for yourself. As you will often hear, you must
love yourself first. This isn't a problem, for you already love
yourself-- that is the main reason you are alive. The problem is
when you block that love. Eliminating these blocks is the Soul's
goal. But don't despair, you needn't actually remove them to draw
love to you. Just beginning the work can attract that special
someone who will help.
Affirmations: I am a perfect manifestation of love and I draw
love to me. I now allow love to come into my life. I feel and
express perfect love and draw other loving people into my life.
Visualizations: Picture yourself as a magnet, feeling and drawing
love. Imagine yourself bathed in green or pink or orange light,
depending on your goals. Pink is for filial love (agape) and for
that of a lover. Orange is for the sexual aspect (spleen
chakrum). Green is for both (heart chakrum). But the distinctions
are somewhat blurred, for love is a combination of all of these.
Other: Friday is the day of Venus and the waxing to full Moon is
a time of increase, so these are good times for ritual. The
ubiquitous heart symbol can be useful.
Prosperity
Money is not all there is to prosperity. What do you want the
money for? What kind of life do you want to live? What do you
want to have? Keep these goals in mind. You may get them instead
of the money.
As you work though your blocks to prosperity, you will
probably find that one of the biggest is guilt. Our society
functions under the assumption that a person can only gain at the
expense of others. Don't try to get money by taking it from
others through force or fraud, magickally or otherwise. That is
giving your Power away. In the magickal paradigm, you create.
When you understand this, there is no greed because you can have
whatever you desire and without taking from others. It is not
money that is a root of evil, but the love of money. It doesn't
matter how much you get, but how you get it. When you do a
prosperity spell, it should be a joyful expression of the
infinite supply available to you. If you are begging or hopping
to be rescued, you have more background work to do.
Another aspect to remember is that money, like all other kinds
of energy, flows. In order to get it, you have to spend it. There
must be an outflux for there to be an influx. This is not an
excuse to be irresponsible! It is easy for the flow to be too
much in either direction (especially out!). Don't be miserly or
wasteful, remember the flow. Use each bill you pay to remind you
that you've drawn the money to pay it and that more money will
come to take its place.
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Affirmations: I allow prosperity to manifest itself in my life in
great abundance. I draw from the infinite source all the money I
need and more. In my life, I now express the infinite supply of
wealth around me.
Visualizations: Imagine yourself bathed in green light (heart
chakrum). This is a situation where visualization works
particularly well, because it's a tangible object. You can even
use a picture or model of the new home or car you want.
Other: Good times for a prosperity ritual are Thursday, the day
for increase, and during the waxing Moon. The $ (or approriate
regional symbol) has a great deal of power-- consider using it.
Health & Self Improvement
Your body is the most direct expression of your Little Self.
It is one of the most accessible, yet challenging things to
change. If you can find and address the root causes of health
problems, like heat disease, it is often relatively easy to do
something about them. But self image problems can be very
difficult because of the way our society approaches the subject.
Over weight is a good example of a self image problem. Madison
Avenue bombards us with an ideal of beauty. It is almost
impossible to escape. If you are over weight and unhappy about it
for other than health reasons, you are probably a victim of this.
It is dangerously easy to make self love or approval contingent
upon losing weight. Until you've lost it, you may feel
undeserving and thus fail. You may succeed, only to have old
habits or new crises can throw you back into old eating habits.
You have made no fundamental change, so the cycle reinforces
itself. So many different problems manifest this way.
You will certainly want to deal with eating habits and
exercise, but this is often insufficient. People have different
metabolic rates and different body types. Do not make liking
yourself contingent upon your having a different body type! If
you dislike your body, you dislike your Little Self. You must
love yourself unconditionally. This is the same transcendent
spirit expressed in wedding vows: for better or worse, richer or
poorer, in sickness and in health. Love yourself not regardless
of how you look, but because of how you look. Wanting to improve
doesn't mean that you must dislike yourself as you are. If you
were given $900, you wouldn't despise it because it wasn't $1000.
Rejoice in your Little Self's expression of being alive. Until
you do, this lesson will hang over your head. Ironically, you are
most able to change your looks when it matters to you least.
Remember to be responsible. Always get good health care. When
trying to lose weight, follow a sane plan under a doctor's care.
But in addition, work to love yourself unconditionally. Strive
constantly to fight the messages from the media and those around
you. You are a loving, loveable person and your looks reflect
this. Make yourself aware of that. When you succeed, you may
eventually look like your ideal, but even if you don't, you will
see the beauty in yourself. You will be more able to defend
yourself from those small minds unhappy enough to attack you for
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not conforming to their ideal. You will also draw those who can
see your beauty. As an extreme example, anorexics always feel
that they are too fat. They cannot lose more weight, for that
would kill them. The answer lies with truly seeing themselves.
Any time your goal is self improvement, the principle is the
same. In order to better yourself, you must first realize that
you are loveable, now and always. Never try to better yourself to
become loveable-- it doesn't work. The goal of magick is to heal
those things you do not like in yourself, not destroy them. You
better yourself by first bettering your self image. You change
your behavior by healing the hurts that cause you to do harmful
things. Recognize that all unhappy things are in response to
pain. Your Little Self can hurt you, much as a favorite pet may
bite you because it is in pain. Do not feel anger or misery but
love and healing.
Affirmations: I love myself completely as I am now. I surrender
to love. I know that I am a loving and loveable person. I heal
all hurts. I now express perfect health in my life. I bring
complete health into my life. My body is now a beautiful, healthy
expression of my Self.
Visualizations: Imagine yourself so close to the sun that you can
see nothing else. Visualize the area you want to heal bathed in
blue-green light. Listen to or imagine the note F#. Concentrate
on the heart and throat chakra (green and blue, respectively).
The root chakrum (red) is another good focus for physical well
being. When healing someone not present, put a photo next to a
candle. Put the name of the subject on the candle and use this to
focus your concentration.
Other: Rituals to increase energy and health are most effective
during the waxing moon and at high noon. Rituals for eliminating
disease or losing weight are best done during the waning moon.
The five pointed star (symbol of Man) might be a good symbol (if
you do not have any negative associations with it).
Good Luck!
At this point you are on your own. It takes forty days to make
or break a habit, so you should concentrate on daily exercise for
at least this long. Magick is not a quick, easy way of getting
what you want. It is a long, hard road. Though it's quite
possible to have instant success, visible results can take
months. Real rewards can take years. But we all must travel this
road some time. Be cautious of those promising an easier path.
Though it may appear slow, magick is one of the fastest ways of
taking your Power. The difficulty lies not in feats of physical
or mental prowess, but in steady diligence. Do not try too hard,
or you will not last long. If you are not happy with the way your
life is going now and you desire to take your power, then commit
to the life changes which magick demands. If your commitment is
genuine, then everything will fall into place over time. Above
all, be patient.
Best of luck and stay on the path.
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________________________________________
"HOW TO USE MAGICK with a Straight Face"
(C) 1989 by Scot Rhoads, all rights reserved
MYSTIC MOON Metaphysical Books, NEW MOON RISING journal & BBS
8818 Troy St., Spring Vly, CA 91977 (619) 466-8064; BBS: 466-5403
................................................................................
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