i came to the conclusion that it is easier to make changes to the outside conditions of your life then to your own self.
i have not yet cast any spells using rituals, nor have i tried to do evocation just yet, but i did law of attraction visualisations and sigil magick and i had success regarding my environment and stuff going on in my life. i even had situations where i would shamelessly lie about something, like, make something up just for the kick of it, and tell it to somebody to shock the person, and then it would happen for real.
BUT
my success rate of making change on my SELF is almost zero. sure, we can say that any change in the environment is actually change upon perception of the SELF, but i’m talking about the real change of the self.
like, has anybody tried to cast a spell to have more lucid dreams? is this possible? it is possible to cast a spell to allways wake up in the same time? or to configure your own metabolism to increase muscle growth? or is it possible to cast a spell to feel or see the energy?
this is a mind bender and i need say of the forum on this matter.
I’m gonna home in on one aspect I see as kind of a background thread here, and leave the answering of specific questions to my Fellow Mages:
For me the greatest obstacle to Working successful Magick (regardless of the ilk) is and has always been my lack of utter Surety.
We are so inundated from the time we enter this world "Know your Place’ … “who do you think you are, Jesus Christ?” … “Don’t get too big for your britches”… “Put others first” … you see the point.
Go ahead! Get too big for your britches! You won’t be struck by lightening from an angry “God”, you won’t lose your money or your friends or your job (unless you’ve advanced into better!) and you certainly will NOT “rue the day” you chose to trust the Avatars & the Master Sorcerers are right …
You ARE, by inherent Right, entitled to have & to use Power. Z
A spell is not going to help you have lucid dreams, the best way to start having them is to put a notebook and pen right by your bed and as soon as you wake up write the dream down. As for feeling the energy you will start to grow sensative to various energies after working magic for a while. If you fail the first time at any act just forget that you ever worked it and quit giving a fuck, when I started magic I failed more times than I can count but I got so mad I started doing atleast 5 full blown rituals a week and my magic started working I can honestly say I have almost no failures now. You just need to get out there and do it, don’t worry about failure… Try to keep your mind on all those hot girls waiting to be your thralls, all your enemies buried in the ground, and all the power you will have.
Have you considered putting yourself under intense self-observation and scrutiny over a period of time(months or longer)regarding your mental, physical and emotional aspects of self? If you wish to see changes in yourself and honestly evaluate and come to terms to where you are in life, I couldn’t recommend this enough. Something like Ouspensky’s ‘Fourth Way’ book, based on Gurdjieff’s teachings might aid you, along with any kind of practical philosophy requiring intense self reflection. If self change is what you are after that is. If you don’t understand yourself, hypothetically speaking, magic may only cause more confusion and illusion. Just a point of view. Food for thought. NLP has some great techniques for self change also.
Virdon Djinn makes a valid point I think. Since Power Itself requires a certain clarity, surety & focus of intent from us, any kind of self-defeating chatter going on in our head is sure to distract us & diminish our effectiveness by default. Put another way, ‘big’ Power requires us to be the most “whole” person we can become.
Having spent quite a bit of effort on healing my own psyche, I would offer to you “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. A deceptively simple little book that made a profound impact on my ability to "take out the (mental) trash. Just offering another option … Z
Personally, I prefer to influence the environment.
Sometimes, making changes in yourself is not enough to make a big change outside.
Here is a rule of thumb:
If you want a change in yourself, look at the “teachings” of many gurus of self-help, or investigate on hypnosis and/or psychology.
If you want a change in the environment, forget the above “methods” and use MAGICK.
This forum is truly awesome. I have already learned so much and been directed to books I hadn’t heard of before thanks to the experience and knowledge of everyone here. Thanks and gratitude to everyone here and of course, EA.
All valid points everyone has made on this topic. I just wonder how far one can go go to BALG if the self hasn’t been worked through to a certain degree. For example accepting our fears, insecurities, likes, hates, weaknesses, strengths and coming to an acceptance of some sort(dark night/s of the soul), then moving forward to improve from there.
Having knowledge of ourselves as we are from a somewhat objective perspective may be the arena of psychology and self help but to advance magically is this not also useful? Lest an enemy know us better than ourselves and strike at a weakness we didn’t know was present. As another example, perhaps someone may be charming enough to manipulate or trick us, even subtly, into something we didn’t want to do. If we knew our personalities and triggers, if not yet a master, would this not also be useful?
With that said, I also think practicing magic teaches us much about ourselves so I’m suggesting a middle ground between the two is a good thing.
Both valid points, from opposite sides of the fence, so to speak. I believe BOTH are necessary … ever dealt with an unstable, immature Mage? Ever ‘lashed out’ with magick in the heat of the moment only to later rethink that decision? I can honestly answer YES to both those questions. Temperance, Stability & Wisdom are what make the True Warrior. Always be in charge of WHEN you decide to act. Or not. That’s all I’m saying. (Personally I detest the taste of humble pie!) Z
I wholeheartedly empathize with your words, Zoe. I’ve been that immature and impatient mage at times in the past and all it’s ever caused is…well… more problems than I already had. True Warrior principles like you mentioned are the way for me these days…nicely worded!
Z