The Practice of Magick

How do we use magick?

So ok, we have addressed what magick basically is, but how do you use it?  Talking about the energy of magick and putting it into context is great, but if you can't harness the power for your daily life, then what use is it to us?

The greatest thing about magick is that you absolutely can use it in a practical manner to influence your world and your reality.  However, let's get some basic warnings out of the way.

1. Harm None

In simplicity, this means not to do anything that might harm another being or interfere in any way with their rights as another spiritual being.  However, it goes deeper than that.  

If you try to manipulate someone's emotions, for instance, you are harming them.  Whether you do that with a spell, or words, or a guilt trip, you are still harming them.  

To understand how you harm them, you must first understand that each person has the right to decide for themselves everything about their reality- from who they love, what they do and how they do it to what they believe.  This means you have to respect them as individuals and respect their rights.  If you manipulate in any way, you are not respecting them.

It also means don't harm yourself.  If you take drugs, drink too much, and smoke cigarettes, we all know those are a means of harming yourself.  But what about the words we use daily that are negative?  Words like "I can't" and even the occasional "Oh I am so stupid"?  

Do you realize that your subconscious believes every single word or phrase you say or think?  If you are telling yourself such things, then it is small wonder that you can do anything at all.

2. Whatever you send out comes back to you.

You can't send out negativity without getting it back.  Some religions teach it comes back to you threefold, others say nine, and some even say tenfold.  However what it basically means is what you plant in life, you will harvest.  If you plant seeds of barley, you will get barley.  

If you therefore talk about people behind their backs, you shouldn't be surprised to find the gossip has become about you.  If you cheat, lie and steal, you shouldn't be surprised to find your most prized possession missing.  Not to mention people avoiding you because they realize what type of person you are.  

Each thing you send out has repercussions.  If you do small acts of kindness daily, you will find wonderful things beginning to happen in your own life.

3. You are responsible for anything you think, say and do.

That means you must take responsibility for the effect your words, thoughts and actions have on those around you and even on yourself.   It relates back to "harm none".  But it also relates for taking responsibility for your own life and your own reality.

No one can change your life but you.  It is all up to you.  

4. Everything works within nature, not against it.

Don't try to do things that are against nature. You will fail and it will come back on you.  Every failure will undermine your faith and destroy your abilities.  So realize that some things are not possible because they defie natural laws.  Magick is not supernatural.  It works within natural law and is limited and defined by those laws.

Nature's laws were put in place during the very creation of the Universe.  We don't know all of them.  We don't know how most of them work.  But we do know they exist.  

However, you also must realize that if it is within the boundaries of nature, then it can be done.  Religious books like the Bible are very good at pointing out things that we often think of as being outside of those laws but telling us they are entirely possible.

Some of those things may well be possible, but we have forgotten how.  Things like healing, raising of the dead, walking on water, and even levitation and what was once defined as flying (not like birds however) are mentioned in books like the Bible, other religious books,  and the old stories and legends.

So we won't say you can't do them.  We will just say that you don't know how yet.  You may be the one who discovers how.

How to Harness the Powers of Magick

So are you ready to harness the magick?  We start with baby steps.

  

1. Realize that this is a Spiritual Journey

Harnessing magick and spirituality can not be separated.  To use magick, you have to be willing to work and grow your abilities.  All of magick comes from and is part of the spiritual world.  You therefore have to understand that this is a spiritual journey that will take you far beyond anything you have ever found in all of your searching.

We all search for something greater than ourselves.  We hope that if we find it, we will begin to experience changes that will help us in our daily lives.  Some hope for love, others for riches, and still others wish for simply a more positive life experience.

All of that is possible.  To get there, however, is a journey that you alone must undertake.  It won't come overnight and it won't be easy.

2. You must have faith.

What is faith?  It is the strong belief in things we don't see or understand.  But it is more.  It is knowing, beyond all doubt, in the outcome of an adventure or a prayer.  

If you have faith, you can do anything in the entire world that is within the laws of nature.

3. You must build your spiritual strength.  

There are several ways to do this and you are encouraged to use more than one method.  There is meditation, prayer, fasting, and practice.  These are just a few ways.  Study is another way.  Reading what other people have to say and giving it a lot of thought.

Don't depend on other people to tell you exactly what will work for you.  You are the only one who will know that. But reading what helped them may well open doors in your mind for things that will work for you.

Open your mind.  With strength and growth will come new abilities.  Practice them.  Experiment.  You don't know what you can do until you try.

Not everything requires a spell.  Some things only require an open mind and a will to make things happen.

4. You must be persistent.

You can't get anywhere if you are impatient.  Don't try a few times and then give up.  Keep trying.  You will get there. You may have to change your methods.  You may have to change your perceptions. But if you give up, it will never happens.

5. You must be willing to let go.

Once you have set something in motion, you have to be willing to let it go.  It can't happen if you don't.  A person who harnesses magick is not obsessed with their work. They know that everything follows a certain path to success.  

First you have to plant the seed, then you have to help it grow, then you have to let it go so it can mature.  Only then will you be able to harvest it.

It is the same with any work of magick.  You have to start it.  You have to build the momentum of it.  You have to release it.  Then you have to wait for it to come back to you.

6.  You must have a spirit of gratitude.

You don't wait for your rewards to come before you give thanks.  You give thanks before they come.  But it is more than that.  You need to be grateful for every blessing in your life right now.  You need to see every hardship and every failure as a lesson you needed so that you can grow.  You also need to show gratitude in your daily life.  

Don't just show it, feel it.  Understand that gratitude is the key to having wonderful things come your way.  One way to show and feel gratitude is to pass it on.  Don't hoard your wonderful blessings, share them. Do something for someone else each time you get a chance.  You will be amazed at how much you will have to be grateful for when you began to practice gratitude.

7.  You must accept and claim the result.

Let's say you asked for a way to pay your rent this month.  Things just haven't been going well and you need a little help.

First of all, you have to be willing to help yourself.  That is responsibility.  Then you have to be grateful for what you have.  But sometimes things aren't answered in exactly the way you expect.

Yeah for one person money may appear on the ground for them to pick up.  Or someone may give them money out of the blue. Or a check might come in their mail.  But that might not happen for you.

With faith however, it can work for you.  Perhaps in a dream an idea is  given for how to make some extra money.  Or you see on tv or in a story somewhere that someone sold something on ebay for a certain amount of money- and you happen to have the very same thing sitting around.  

Or your boss may ask you to work a bunch of overtime.  Someone may need some handiwork done.  Don't limit how your request will be answered by expectations.  Just have faith and know that it will work for you.

If at the end of the month it didn't seem to work, go back and take a hard look.  What did you do to keep it from happening?  Did you squander what money you had thinking you would get more?  Did you not get the hint when an idea came?  Or did you ignore something that was trying to come your way.

You have to be willing to accept the answer to your request in any form it might come.  And you have to claim it.  If you don't it will pass you by and you will feel like you failed.

However, an unanswered prayer or spell or request is often just an opportunity missed because you weren't open enough to see it.

These are just some basic rules for getting started.  We will address the way to work in the next post.