Recently I went through the crisis, and asked myself “hmm, I wonder how I could make life easier for myself?”; then I proceeded to ask occultists that I thought were competent for information and help (I offered to pay in most cases)
What did I get? not what I needed
How does one find competent occultists? how does one escape a seemingly endless maze of people who don’t actually know what the fuck they’re doing?
To be clear, it is not my intention to insult any of the people that I’ve spoken to through BALG. the feelings of disappointment that caused this are due to events that happened outside of my interactions with BALG.
Thats hard to generalize because it depends on what you are looking exactly for and why. Is it for educational purposes, is it because you want to get something done and if so: what? Curseworking, money manifestation, attraction workings, divination, healing? Would you prefer someone who is more spiritual in life or someone who is more grounded in mundane matters?
I am not too sure if someone would fit into all of these options (and if they advertise something like that for themselves I would be really really cautious! )
I think that the only way to determine who would fit your “ideal competent occultist” is via interaction. I have seen the most remarkable folks under the most humblest of guises and I would have never found out if it wasn’t for getting into contact.
Ok now I know it seems there are many people on here that seem to know what they are doing. But I see it like this there are two type of people in this world people that are book smart and then there are people that are real world or street smart. Now the first one can quote you any text at any given moment on any subject there is and that’s fine for some. Number two is real world or street smart because they have lived it and have experienced many different situations and have solutions to problems that are outside of the box and so on and so on. Now both are fine but you have to find the one that is best suited to your needs in any given situation. One is not better then the other it’s just different strokes for different folks… You just have to find what you need and go from there… I hope this helped you and answered your question.
Honestly, I think it’s hard to have good enough discernment to know who to trust with anything right now in the world in general, be it medical care or witchcraft. There are a lot of people who think they know what they are doing, a lot of people who have allowed the fact that technology can provide the answer be an excuse for not actually knowing the material and a lot of people have found you can pretend to be anything online.
I wrote a post about accepting free services from others here on balg a long time ago because it can be harmful in many cases and a lot of that applies to paid work too.
Beyond that you really have to do some research, pay attention and not get into anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. If it feels off, there could be something wrong with the scenario. Going forward in the United States after 2022, we are supposed to also have to report, collect and pay taxes on all money we collect.
This isn’t really that different, since we were always supposed to do that, but if you aren’t doing it most online payment processors are going to cut you off at $600. Like they might be able to scam around and get a zelle, an apple pay, a paypal, a etsy, and a single sale on a whole bunch of sites, but they won’t be to just have a website or ask for payments in the same ways as before.
So you could at least narrow your search down to individuals that not only are spiritual but that are legally following the processes to be selling services in their countries. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to have a federal ein, a state tax id, a sales and use tax license, set up a website and all of that.
I don’t think that should be your only criteria though, as said someone with book smarts can jump through the hoops then and be a business person, not a witch. So You need to get to know the people, ask questions, read about them- like on balg you can go back and read every reply someone ever made publicly.
If they are hiding their profile, there’s a reason. Be it they don’t want contacted, they are a private person or they don’t want the mods to easily sift through their posts to see they are a banned member, there’s a reason-so consider what it is.
I think I’m mostly repeating things I’ve said before at this point, so best of luck. Ultimately take time to listen to your gut, it will steer you fairly well in most cases if you stop long enough to ask it what it thinks
I did this thing for a while where I would do paid readings for people, then use part of the money to pay for others’ magical services, just to gather info on their abilities and energy. It’s very much a trial & error thing, just meeting people and feeling them out. Seeing what they can do. I did find a few online who are truly legit and capable.
However, most magickal insight is better done personally with spirits. (if it’s with genuine intent, ofc)
The guys working under the ritual for hire section, or at least the ones I’m familiar with are all trained professionals, who between themselves and their known associates have a collective thousands of years of experience, if I might embellish it a bit.
Look to be honest,it’s a gift you get in birth,second even the great magicians fall.third, to be a real good magician as a guy told me you must be versed in a few tradiciones of magick, sometimes I get surprised how my french friend know if Santa muerte back in 96, weird.a open mind a long study,and practice is wat make a person above others
Well, sadly its not easy because it depends what you need advice on and if that person has experience with that aspect of magick or life. Most of the truely competent occultists charge for their advice and most offering free info outside this forum aren’t super experienced. My best advice for you is to become the competent occultist, study, summon spirits to teach you, become what you’re looking for outside yourself and you’ll be able to solve your issue.
In my experience, every professional, however professional, has their own specialization.
So it depends on what you were looking for.
This also depends on their precise field of work. For example, in my experience, I have known people who through necromancy and tribal spiritism have discovered information that no one else has been able to find, but they have been completely wrong on another subject.
I met a girl who could be a superb healer with the angels but for any other more material matter she was almost useless.
This does not mean that they were just theirs, only no one is omnipotent. On others at least.
Also as others have said above, learning to do it yourself is priceless. I understand that magic is not a life path for everyone and there is nothing wrong with wanting to take advantage of the benefits like any other service, but in any case then you need to consider getting well informed and above all having clear in mind what you want.
Like being hungry and wanting to buy food, if you want pizza you go to a pizzeria, if you want a cake you go to a pastry shop.
All chefs know how to cook but if you want to eat the best plate of noodles you don’t go to a Japanese restaurant, you go to an Italian chef. And it is also true that perhaps one would like to eat tagliatelle and find the best Italian cook in the world but it happens that after eating one feels sick because he does not know that he is intolerant to flour or eggs and perhaps blames the cook but simply the problem it was another, it’s not that since it’s magic then it’s everything for everyone at the same time and way and quantity.
Sometimes there are reasons that are unknown to us why something is granted or denied to us at a given moment, and over time we will discover that it was necessary for it to be the way it was.
For example, I used to be very sad that I couldn’t magically kill a person, and that disappointed me for a long time, but now I’m so grateful that I couldn’t because now I’ve discovered much more satisfying ways to do things.
And maybe I won’t kill anyone with magic because I healed over time, and if that had happened then I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
In short. Too many answers without a real question. I write too much. Sorry
You’ll probably get better results from working with a magician that you’ve found you might easily connect with and work in unison to their efforts.
A good rhythm is hard to disrupt. So in this case here, it may not be that you were incompatible, but it’s a more than likely excuse than let’s say, the incompetency of every magician you’ve encountered out there who’s conducting ritual for payments.
The incompatible magician is far too common to newcomers, because they don’t have that inherent connectivity with whoever they’ve chosen for their mentors or their practitioners for hire.
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