And now a brief note on magick. What exactly is magick? Well first of all magick is not the hocus pocus of pulling rabbits out of hats, making white tigers appear out of nowhere, or making national monuments disappear into thin air. Now those are all very nice illusions but that is all they are: illusions. True magick is not used to deceive in any way. Magick is not going to instantly make you rich by the casting of a spell for a million dollars to magickally appear before your eyes. Its not going to happen! Magick is not going to get rid of your enemies. Remember, harm none, that includes them too! Magick is not going to win you love. You can't bend someone elses will to your own without their permission, without serious consequences. Every time you cast a spell or perform magick of any kind, you tip the scales of balance in one direction or the other. Eventually those scales are going to balance themselves out again reminding us that for everything that we do there is always a price to pay, and when the powers of magick gets tapped into anytime, it never goes unnoticed. Magick is not an answer to all your problems. Its not a cure-all for your ills. Most of all, its not a way out, or an escape. Well now that I've told you what magick is not, lets discuss exactly what it is. Magick, although not a religion in itself, is part of the practice of religion. Magick is an endless intangible force of energy within us all to be used by us to controll our will and alter our destiny and enhance our daily lives. Magick is a tool and a source of that energy, a way to bring about a needed change in one's life.
Magick recognizes man's indissoluable like with nature, and rather than stifle his natural instincts it seeks to develope and blend them into the mighty unit known as willpower. Magick knows that the instinctual energies of the primordial urges can be concentrated into a powerful dynamo that can be use to bring into realization the conscious desires of man. the secret of magick lies within the unconscious, and all the magician's supernatural powers are only manifestations of the primordial instincts, harnessed and directed through willpower.
Modern phychoanalytical research has uncovered the fact that deep within the unconscious mind there exist certain levels of awareness that link each human being with the unconscious minds of friends and relatives, as well as with the mental processes of all mankind. This level of awareness is known as the collective unconscious. But even deeper still the human unconscious forms points of contact with the consciousness of animals and plants. The sum total of these levels of the unconscious mind is known as the superconscious, equated by magick with man's personal god.
Magick uses the deeper levels of the unconscious to bring about changes in the material world. Thus the magician believes it possible to influence someone's mind on the unconscious level and to subordinate this individuals will to the magicians will.
The first aim of magick is to strengthen the personality of the magician so he can control his entire environment and his life in general. And That is basically what magick is about-life- for magick is deeply concerned with living, with creating, with manifested power, with becoming one with the gods of nature. Even magick's interest in an afterlife is an attempt to prolong life in the physical world, because in all its forms magick recognizes that the highest homage man can pay to the gods is to live life richly and fully.
Thus magick seeks to develope man's unconscious powers and use them to enrich his life, to overcome poverty and distress, all in order to enjoy every minute of the short span of his life on this planet.
We all practice magick at one time or another in our lives, often unconsciously. Each time we will something to happen and it does, each time we achieve a goal or see a dream come true, we are using magick. What the magician and the average person who achieves a goal have in common is will and determination. The difference between them is not only that the magician is conscious of the magickal work he is doing but also knows his limitations.
Magick teaches that there are no impossiblities, only improbabilities. The magician never tries to reach the improbable. What he constantly tries to do is to widen his sphere of avialability so that there are more probable things within his grasp. With this knowledge at his disposal the magician can accomplish many things usually denied to the average person.
The magician is an avid scholar of nature and its control. He must have courage, because the rituals of magick can be fearsome. Furthermore, the magician is a master of positive thought, and for him there are no denials. He is also the soul of discretion because he believes that knowledge is power, and knowledge shared is power lost. To the magician negative thought can mean the destruction of his work, and therefore in order to avoid negativity, he trusts no one.
Magick is used to manipulate the forces and energy of the universe in order to bend reality.
Magick is something that everyone can do and is only as good, or as evil, as the individual using it. Magick really does work! However, it can only be proved in retrospect because it does not happen instantaneously. It works through symbols and channels of consciousness. Because magick uses all three planes of existence- physical, mental, and spiritual- it is more than just positive thinking.
Magick has infinite possibilities as well as distinct limitations. It relies heavily on the strength of character and mental ability of the individual using it. Probably the most limiting factors in magick are those of fear and frustration: Obstacles such as these are created by lack of knowledge and experience. We only fear what we do not understand.
Frustration is created through lack of experience. Both fear and frustration can be brought under control with training and practice. However, they can never be totally eliminated because of their relationship to our survival. The key here is that they can be controlled.
Magick is one of the best ways to gain control and bring harmony back into your life. It is what unleashes your personal power and divine spark. Magick allows you to create or bring into physical reality what you most desire. All anyone needs to do to make magick work for them is an open mind, some basic understanding of universal principles, and a willingness to experiment.
Magick is equivalent to change and our ability to alter realty. Why the emphasis on change? It is because nothing ever stays the same. All matter is in a constant state of motion. we need only look back a few years to see how everything has changed. How many of us are still wearing the same clothes we did a year ago? If they have not worn out, they are definitely out of style. The same is usually true of our friends, some are still around, some have moved, and new ones have come on the scene. We change jobs, houses, cars, and attitudes. Consciously or unconsciously we all move with the current flow of the trend. What was important most of us five years ago is less then a memory today.
Magick can help us make changes and aid us in solving impossble situations. Regrettably, magick has usually been kept a highly guarded secret by those who really understand it. What has managed to surface has been so muddled or intellectually confusing that most shrug it off as superstitious nonsense. Consequently, the power and possibilities of this wonderful tool have been either denied or rejected by the vast majority.
Magick is not harmful, sinful, or complicated. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, or just plain fear keeps many people locked away in their own personal prisons. Magick can free us from these self-created cells by restoring self-esteem. It teaches us through minor acomplishments that we can do it, and do it alone. We have everything we need inside, we just need to learn how to bring it out and use it.
The vast majority of people who get into magick do so secretly, and because of this their accomplishments are their own. Personal accomplishment is a very important aspect of magick. Nothing can replace the inner awareness of, "I did it, and I did it all by myself!". This is truly an awakening experience for those who have been conditioned to believe they aren't capable of doing anything, let alone getting what they want.
However, there are certain rules and principles which govern the movement of magick. These rules are not complex or without reason, they are just good, common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is something we all lack when the "I want it now" mentality takes over. The one differenciating factor with magick, compared to other philosophical or metaphysical applications, is that is will allow your obsession to manifest. Getting what we think we want is sometimes a necessary evil.
We are all here to learn, and learn we will, one way or another. It is as if we never really get out of school. We just graduate from one grade to another. Each brings with it teachers, lessons, tests, accomplishments, and disappointments. The effort we put into study and research, and then how we apply what we have learned determines our final grade. This is where magick comes in. It makes the learning easier, the lessons more profitable, and the outcome, one of our choosing.
Magick works by removing what is unwanted from our lives and then filling in the space with something that is wanted. Everyone knows that you can only have one object occupy a certain space at a time. This is true of both tangible and intangible ones. Thoughts are the objects of our desires; they have form and take up space. If we get rid of undesirable thoughts, we will then have room for the beneficial thoughts. We all know successful people and wish we were like them. We can be, just by changing our attitudes and taking chances on new and different things. In fact, you can't be sure that the successful people you admire didn't use magick to get what they have now.
The most important factor in all magickal operations is the rule of resolution through frustration. This means that when all of the conceivable physical methods of obtaining something have failed, we then enlist the powers of magick. We must then exhaust all of the possible ways of getting what we want first. It is the frustration of working for something and not being able to get it which raises the psychic energy level.
In addition, there is another control factor: the path of least resistence. This means that magick will travel towards its goal on the most natuaral effortless course possible, like water or electricity. Magick avoids tipping the scales of karma or fate which invariably generate a coincidence response.
Of equal importance is the rule of origination through passion. This is what will actually bring into manifestation your desires and is the determining factor of whether or not your magick will work.
The line between want and need is very fine. Often it is difficult to distinguish requirements from indulgencies. There is nothing wrong with wanting or aquiring material pleasures as long as you keep your perspective. This is one aspect of magick that so many seem to overlook or disreguard.
For some reason, humankind has never been able to maintain its equalibrium when it comes to desire vs. need. Humans will either totally abstain from all types of physical gratification or indulge their fleshy whims to the point of avarice or greed. Somewhere in between these two opposites is a point of balance where the individual will discover true happiness.
Don't make the mistake of thinking denial of the physical will bring forth spiritual illumination; in fact just the opposite will occur. Lack of proper nourishment, continued sexual frustration, sweat, or goosebumps- none of these produce enlightenment. What this type of abstinence does generate is unnatural obsessions, which in the long run can destroy the true spirit of the individual. The same is true of those who rationalize extravagances, thinking they can outwit the system. Everyone has to answer for their own action, or inaction, no matter what muddled excuse is forthcoming.
It is important to realize early on just how powerful magick can be. There is an old adage "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it". Sometimes what we think we want is not necessarily what we really need. The higher self knows what is best and has the unique ability of controlling or rationing out levels of personal energy. This can be very upsetting for those with unyielding passions. If the higher self holds back on the energy level, more then likely the desire will not manifest in its desired form.
The higher self is only interested in the progress and survival of the soul or spirit. As far as it is concerned, everything else is just an arbitrary distraction from its true destiny. In order to keep you in balance and from going off the edge, the higher self allows for certain material preoccupations. This is why there will be times when your magick seems to work immediately, while on other occasions nothing happens. Results are dependent on the aquistion of energy from the higher self to the lower self. The physical consciousness then changes this energy into usable power. This power can then be directed or focused towards the desired goal. All of this causes the reality of the objective to bend or move in accordance with the will.
The entire purpose of magick is to create or cause change. In order for you to create or change something you must take action. Desire is not enough unless it is followed through on both material as well as a spiritual plane. Wishful thinking has never changed anything, but action does.
When all is said and done, magick is the most marvelous tool we have at our disposal. It permits us to create or reshape our own personal segment of the universe, allows us the freedom to express our highest asperations, for within the bounds of ritual magick the individual reigns supreme.
Those who practice magick aren't selfish. They utilize magick to improve their lives, but they also help others who come to them with problems. Before performing magick for others, inform them of your intensions and receive permission for the working. If you make a magickally charged object for a friend, ask before creating such an object if it would be accepted. Such measures will ensure that you're not influencing or altering others lives without their consent.
The energy used in magick is natural. It is present within our bodies as well as in physical objects such as sand, wood, stone, clay, fire, air, feathers, and every other part of the earth.
There are three type of magickal energy. Personal Power is that which resides within us. This is the energy we utlize in our daily lives; that empowers our thought processes and keeps our "souls" attached to flesh and blood.
We're born with some of this energy, that which is passed to us from our biological parents. Though we expend personal power every day we also aborb it in the form of food, sunlight, water, air, and the emotions that are directed toward us by our friends and family.
When we exercise, run for the phone, become nervous or angry, pedal a bicycle, or simply breathe, we expend personal power. This is why extended physical effort creates exhaustion, for we are literally drained of energy.
Magicians also expend personal power, but they do so for the specific purpose of creating a needed change. This is achieved through certain techniques such as meditation. The power sent forth from the body is the same as that released by an athlete; but the magician molds and shapes it so that it can be of specific use in achieving a goal.
Earth Power consists of the manifestations of energy around us; the products of the Earth as well as our planet itself. The Earth is like a lens that transforms non-physical energy into specific forms such as plants, water, stones, sand, and so on.
Each specific type of natural power posesses its own range of energies. A sunflower has far different energies than that of a lump of clay. All the things on Earth- animate or inanimate, animal, vegetable or mineral, gaseous, liquid, or solid- posess a special and unique form of Earth Power.
Thousands of plants and stones have been placed into specific classifications of magickal use. In other words, magicians have found that a certain stone works well in attracting love, a certain plant for speeding healing, a flower for expanding love. Matching such "forms" to the nature of the goal is one aspect of the magickal art.
Spellcraft utilizes personal power with Earth Power. While working with shells, stones, herbs, and wheat, we're mixing our energies with those of these substances and molding them into magickal works. The combination of personal power with earth power is far stronger and more effective than is personal power alone.
Divine Power doesn't usually exist on the earth. Its non-physical, eternal, omnipotent. Divine Power is the power that created the universe.
Though magick isn't a religion, some magicians do indeed invoke divine Power to assist them in their magickal workings: Goddess and/or God is asked to bless the ritual and to enhance its effects. This certainly isn't always the case. Still those magicians who have established links with Deity can bring religion to their magick.
Magick knows that there is Divine Power and furthermore knows divinity wants to help humans. But Divinity is pure spirit and therefore not within easy reach. You must dig deep within your soul to establish contact with divinity, one must journey deeply into the dark realms of the unconscious mind to reach Deity.
Deity is in mankind. This is perhaps one of the most closely guarded secrets of magick. One does not project outwardly to a mythical heaven in order to reach Deity but inwardly to the inner mansions of the human soul, where deity dwells.
According to magick, Deity, the Unknown, is the whole of creation. All magickal rituals and ceremonies are directed towards this personal Deity that dwells within. To reach him/her, to identify with him/her is the supreme and ultimate goal of those who practice magick.
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