Rule 1: Harm None
Ok I said this wasn't about a religion. And it really isn't. It is so much more.
Religions are simply ways to worship. People constantly quote from the wonderful books written by different religious leaders back in their day - like the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the teachings of Buddha, the Vedas. These are all full of wisdom for those who embrace them. In them you will find some universal truths if you are looking for them. You may also find a lot you disagree with, but that is alright. Each person should experience religion in their own way.
Our personal walks on this Earth are indeed personal. Each time we worship, we connect with the Divine and we are reminded that humanity and nature are connected. That is as it should be. However, there is way more to magick than that.
In magick, we learn that we have influence over the tides of nature and how they affect our lives and those around us. We also learn personal responsibility for thoughts, words and actions. Our thoughts can hinder or help us. Our words can harm or heal. Our actions can destroy or build. It's all up to us.
In taking that responsibility, we must also be aware of consequences. We must accept that whatever we put out comes back to us. If we harm others, we harm ourselves. If we heal others, we heal ourselves. It's as simple and as complex as that.
Too often people think that it only matters what they do to others. Or that if they are doing it for someone's good, then it is OK to manipulate or control others. Not so, because again you reap what you sow. If you control or manipulate others, it is harmful and you will in turn harm yourself. Harm none means also don't harm yourself.
We don't get to do anything we want just because we can think of an excuse to call it "justified". It doesn't work that way. Returning bad for bad and harm for harm doesn't justify us. If you send out negative, you will get negative no matter what the excuse. It is not in our hands to reward another for what we perceive as harm. However, we can invoke the Laws of the Universe that will take care of that for us.
That is known as "invoking the Law" - where you ask a higher power to handle that situation for you. We may miss our mark, or target the wrong person, or not see the truth of a situation. The Universe, however, knows and will return good for good and bad for bad. Some call that Karma.
Later in excerpts from my Book of Shadows (a book of spells, processes, and experiments that certain religious practices keep) that I will share with you (in part), I will discuss some various spells that handle such situations. For now, you need to know that vengeance is not ours to extract. The Rede "and if it harm none, do as you will" is very serious and should not be taken lightly. No it is not just a Wiccan Rede. It was adapted from some very ancient teachings that are reflected in almost every religion in the world.
Rule 2: Protect Yourself
The essence of magick can be said to be a religion for a modern world, surpassing any set religious beliefs to tap the very core of our universal energies. You see, you don't have to be of any particular religion to access it. All you have to do is believe. You can use your own form of prayer to work with it. You do, however, need unwavering faith that it will work.
Today we will discuss several things you can do to build up that energy and protect yourself while doing so.
First, let's talk about protection. You will need to make sure that any time you do anything magical, you are protecting yourself. You don't want to fall prey to negative energies that may accidentally get through. You also don't want negative entities interfering with your work.
Yes, I know, many people no longer believe that disembodied entities exist, but they do. They are all around us. No, they are not waiting to grab us or possess us. Sometimes people can invite them to do so, but that is another topic entirely. What we are concerned about is opening a channel to the Divine and having it interfered with accidentally or purposely by energies not our own. That can be a living person's energies as well as a disembodied person's energies. Or it can simply be energies of the Universe around us that are not meant to influence us.
When you open yourself up, whether in prayer, or meditation, or to empower a spell, you risk opening yourself and your mind to whatever energies are surrounding you. So we will teach you some simple ways for protecting yourself.
Rule 3: You Must Condition Your Mind
We do this with forms of meditation. There are no shortcuts for it. If you are not in the right frame of mind, your works won't have the energy to manifest themselves.
Meditation is the way we still our minds, going deep into the Silence, so that we can begin to build energy. To really be effective, you need to actually focus on meditation. While we can get into a meditative state in various ways and often go in and out of such a state during the day or night, to actually become effective, you need to actively practice at it. If you can't do this, you won't be able to harness the energies needed to build and focus your spell or prayer.
So yes, you can spend hours on your knees praying loudly, and practice a spell until you know it by memory. Unless you have put in the work in the Silence that reaches into the depths of your subconscious, you will not be very effective in your work.
Rule 4: You Must Know Exactly What You Need
If you don't have a fully formed understanding of what you want to accomplish, all of the training in the world won't make it happen. You have to first have the understanding of what you need. It also has to be a need, not a simple desire. You can desire a lot of things. Wanting them won't make it happen. However, the Universe will fulfill your every need if you have faith.
There is no reason that we should not expect our needs to be met. What one person sees as a need, another may see as a desire. In reality, we are the only ones who know what we need to be happy, successful, fulfilled, and healthy. There are basic needs, such as a roof over our heads, food in our mouths, a safe place to sleep. Then there are other needs, like a car to get back and forth to work or to doctors, a yard for our children to play in, clothes to wear.
There are also luxuries that we may feel we need, like a new computer, a new bike for our child, those new shoes in the store window. Do we need them? If you really feel you need them, then they are a need. Your attitude is everything. If you feel you can live without them, you then they are just desires.
Rule 5: You Must Believe
I can't say this enough. Faith is absolute belief and trust that something you need will be provided and something you ask for will be given to you. There can be no room for doubt or thinking maybe. There also can be no feelings of regret or that you don't deserve it. You have to believe that you absolutely deserve to have your needs met and an expectation that they will be.
You need to get rid of those feelings of inadequacy and inequality. You have to understand that you deserve to have all of your needs met and then you have to believe they will be.
Rule 6: You Must Gather and Build the Energy
To do this, you have to be able to focus your entire mind on the thing you want to happen. This is where all of that practicing meditation comes in. You have to be completely immersed in the energy you are building up. You can't be distracted or having the phone ring, or having anything else coming into your mind. It's all about your focus.
To help with that focus and meditation, we often place a little circle around ourselves to help contain that energy as well as protect it from intrusion. This can be of light, or a circle of salt or corn meal. What it does is allow us to contain our energy in physical boundaries so that our mind and subconscious can understand.
You need to understand that your mind thinks in concrete ways. If you don't set a physical boundary of some kind, it will assume there is none. Everything we do happens in the mind first before coming into physical reality. Placing things in a physical reality tells the mind what you want to happen. As I show you ways to use magick, you will find that I always refer to the use of physical boundaries and properties to create the link in your mind.
Building energy within a circle is called building a cone of power. It is within the circle that the energy takes form, becoming cone-shaped as it raises. The tiny point that it becomes is easier to focus than a large round tube. However you see it in your mind will move it into physical reality, even if you don't see it with your physical eyes. As above, so below. As below, so above. It is a two-way path.
Rule 7 You Must Focus on Sending Out the Energy
Yes, you can't keep it in and still expect it to happen. You have to send it somewhere. We channel it to a specific need, or we send it to someone who needs it if it is for healing. The Divine is the vehicle for the energy, but it has to land somewhere.
The landing is usually a visualization like the car you need or the money to get it with. To help with the visualization, we use physical anchors like a small car or a picture. If we need money, we may write a check to send it to or put some "seed" money in a small bowl or pot or jar. The whole concept is that if you can believe it, and think it, you can make it happen. To do that it helps to have something physical to to focus on and help you send the energy into the need.
Rule 8 You Must Have Gratitude
It helps to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in your daily life. We suggest several ways of doing this, Primarily, you count your blessings, writing them down and numbering them. You look around you to find things in your daily life to be grateful for. If you have a downfall, you can be grateful for the lesson learned or that it wasn't worse. Every cloud has a silver lining- you sometimes have to get above the cloud to see it.
Gratitude is the fuel that keeps good things coming to you. If you take it for granted, you will soon find it no longer happens for you. The Universe, or God if you will, (or Goddess) is not an impersonal being to just think of in the abstract. It has energies of its own and operates by a strict set of rules. We interact with it daily. It is that which holds the world we see around us together. There is no island in the world. We are interdependent on each other and on the Universe.
If you just accept the goodness that comes your way thoughtlessly and expect it without giving anything in return, it will soon stop coming. It needs to complete a cycle to be able to come back to us. We have to send out and then it will return. In order to send it out again, we have to have gratitude.
Those are the building blocks of magick, the rules of the road so to speak. If you neglect one of them, you will find you do not have the momentum to make anything happen.
There are a lot of books about meditation. We will focus on each rule in the next posts.
