Hopefully quick and simple question here. I don’t want to go into the details right now, but I am bordering on furious at someone (no one here, don’t worry I won’t turn on my friends on BALG, haha.) Anger has been a growing problem lately, and I’m just fed up, fed up with fighting, with dealing with nonsense, just fed up of being fed up. I planned to do some working tonight, but now I just don’t know. Am I just o mad, too fed up, too hurt to dare to do it? I worry that if I try I will at best simply mess up and get nowhere, and at worse end up casting curses or throwing rage energy right back at someone in particular!
I just wonder, in your opinions, can emotions be a magical benefit, something to add energy and will, or just plain destructive to your workings? Can we really use emotions somehow?
I have found strong emotions to be, in fact, indispensable to my successful workings. And if you think about it, it makes sense: most magical techniques, especially for us beginners, involves creating and empowering thoughtforms on the astral, and emotion is the currency of power on the astral.
I have even gone so far as to intentionally place myself in situations where I know I will have a strong emotional response in order to build fuel for my magic. And there’s this, too: a ritual working is a great way to rid oneself of excess emotions, as, if the ritual is well done, they will be expended in the working and a feeling of calm confidence will result in relation to the matter involved.
I think there are certain rituals which require emotion and others that don’t. If you’re doing the ritual with only your own power and a doll, yes, I would build up anger and release it. I have found that to be unnecessary in certain circumstances. In my necromantic practices, I don’t need to build up anger. I can simply tell the spirit what I need done and make it happen.
If your emotions consume you, your magic will be ineffective. That type of emotion can still be useful, but only when you are in control of it. Emotions are great for manipulating people. If someone’s behavior changes completely depending on what emotional state you present, then who’s really in control of that person’s actions?
I find that dead emptyness after an emotional purge to be a much better place to perform magic from. You burn through neurochemicals to sustain those emotions, and that fuel supply is not infinite. I needs time to regenerate. After you burn out on an emotional rampage, and you feel nothing, empty, then you can find your true will.
Trying to burn yourself out on emotion like that on purpose is exhausting though.
But it can probably be done in a ritual, in a measured and appropriate way. Whether it’s the emotion itself, or the clear state afterwards that does the work, who knows?
I think I’m just reiterating what has already been said, and I see both the peak emotional state and the clarity as part of an energetic continuum of a method of a magic that has worked well for me.
Burning through a peak emotional state while maintaining focus, that eventually transforms into a clear space seemingly beyond limitations, where the mind is unfettered and can focus without restriction, and letting go (which can be challenging with an emotional issue) has already happened.
It depends. If your emotions are affecting you to the point that you cannot think clearly, then it could interfere with your magick. But if you are able to use that emotion to your advantage such as anger, directing it towards the person that angered you during the ritual may be beneficial but only if directing the emotion towards that person in an attempt to make them feel like you feel. I would not direct that energy towards the spirits, but I’m sure you know not to. I have found that strong emotion can sometimes let the spirits see exactly how upset a problem is making you, letting them see the importance of the working to you which may further entice them to help and maybe speed things along, but uncontrolled emotion can sometimes be chaotic and hinder you more than it can help like making you dwell on something 24/7.
If I could summarize this discussion, I’d say that it all boils down to taking control of your emotion. If you are not in control, it affect the Working in a negative way, but if you can control it, then it is a positive attribute.
So, what to do? Where do you physically feel the emotion? Try to pinpoint it, in your stomach, your chest, your throat, you little toe? Then get into meditation and calm yourself (does not mean become tranquil so you get rid of the emotion, you need it), find your emotion, that spot of power that it is creating, feel it, let it gather and build, but view it as an observer. Once it is focused and built, its almost as if you could take it out of your body, hold it in your hand and examine it, its no longer your emotion, its a thing inside you, and that thing can be directed and used. Anger is one of the best emotions for this, mostly because you can really feel it.