Seeing new magick books vs old, it makes me think about what it means to be a successful magician.
I explained in a DM to a friend what I looked for in magick. It hasn’t been “successful” due to my offline circumstances.
I came across a document off another forum, where they are wedges of an angelic seal within the decahedron right triangle slice. It worked, but not the way I thought it would.
I could find housing graciously offered to me and my cat for as long as she was not needing to be put to sleep (unknown health problems were overflowing). Jobs I could obtain. I had seizures. I was struck down by a nasty disease over a year ago. I won an SSDI case due to those health issues. My family took care of me for as long as possible. My family still takes care of me. I have survival needs covered. I have things lined up. Old loser friends are no longer who I wish to contact. Some friends I need to contact as those I care about. I’ve become stronger in magic the more I do it. I don’t measure myself to others anymore.
I’m due time, and with the right work done right, I will succeed. I’m not in a race, but I’ve been on and off this forum for over 12 years. Several people slugging through .. EA and Timothy, Behemoth-X, Nate Bales, Lady Eva, all successes. I greatly pale in comparison.
When I drop off from doing magickal practice, and trying to pursue the four magickal powers to be a living God, it greatly hurts my success. Overnight Magis’ are a dime a dozen, and it seems toe some produce a booklet on magick that’s 80% bullshit. We all have to build our kingdom and empire somehow. So maybe I do need to step it up a bit.
So, what is magickal success to you, after losing everything, even your health and wealth?
it does sound like you’re succeeding in at least surviving, keeping your head above water, and without magick you might not be here. But you haven’t reached your goals for financial independence and health.
For myself, my goal is to remember who I am, my past lives, why I’m here, and where I’m going next, and on top of that, gain full understanding to unlock my siddhis and become a fully realized human. I haven’t reached all that either.
As long as you never give up investing in your goals, you have not lost or failed. There is always the next life, and you will carry your learning forward even if you don’t remember how you learned. None of this is wasted.
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It’s not about the destination but the journey. It might sound trite and cliche but there is often some truth in such axioms. We often learn more from the failures along the way than we do by immediate success.
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Very good points 
It’s cliche as well, but often the definition of the Great Work, to meet and Converse with your HGA/HGD. But it’s the truth. I know for me it’s fulfillment of at least completing Modern Magick, which has you evoke planetary spirits as well as Bael, Clouneck and Botis. If I do everything in the book, then that is one more success, and then that begs the question, should I fully evoke all the major spirits?
Should I devote three altars, one for the HGA, one for ancestors, and one for the HGD?
Should I tackle evoking all 144 major spirits? Should I tackle grimoires?
But, then again, there is Soul Travel, Divination, and Evocation. I feel like I’m missing a fourth godlike power.
There is Hermetics, there is Enochian.
But yes, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should be fulfilled.
Focus on one thing at a time. You’re overthinking and stressing out, which is causing you to spin your wheels and go nowhere. You need to decide on only one thing to practice, give it a definite timeframe, and then forget about anything else. Devote all of your energies and concentration to completing that one thing. If that is working through Donald Michael Craig’s Modern Magick, then do only that. If it is taking the Flames of the OAA, then do that. Only you can make the choice but choose you must. Otherwise you’re going to keep going around in circles and be no better off than you are currently. EA once told me in a consultation that when he studies a new system or current, he goes all in for up to two years, putting everything else aside for that period of time to fully immerse himself in whatever it is he is studying. If you want to be a master of magick, then choose a part of it to master.
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Great points. I’m sort of bipolar in terms of being so excited with magick, that I want to do everything at once, then get lazy halfway through (thank you to another friend who called me out on slacking off ), then get depressed.
Good point on the time frame and dedicated commitment. I’m hoping to pursue Lesson Four by February, so I can go onto Theoricus in Aquarius. Kraig actually brings up SMART goals, where T is for the timeframe.
Thank you and I will be completing Kraig for sure.
And Happy Merry Christmas Holidays to all!!
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I’m sort of the same way. I kind of dance all over the place, never really committing to one thing or another. I have extraordinary discipline but I have difficulty choosing a path because, like you said, I want to do everything, so I can’t concentrate that discipline in a single direction.
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Exactly
Case in point in “Kabalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation” a Neophyte project is to build a compendium of gods and goddesses of particularly Egyptian and Greek, their placement on the Tree of Life, and relativity to each other.
Researching this, I asked Wikipedia and eventually found the chart for Egyptian terms. Example:
In my Journal of Theoricus, I just added today’s post, where at the end are a lot of magickal Goals, where each one in itself is a tremendous undertaking.
Examples:
To exercise and diet in order to lose weight. Perhaps glamour magick, to appear more attractive and thinner, while earnestly working to lose excess weight.
To heal by word or touch. Mahasiah oversees Marbas, perhaps Raphael overseeing Mahasiah. My learning through Evocation from them in order to be able to heal.
Just two of several examples.
I can say that I came to the forum after great upheavals in life. For me, success is built from basic needs to higher ones. I’m really interested in learning witchcraft, writing rituals and spells myself. But first of all, I need a good income and everything that is the basis.
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So it seems that the Success Magick and Wealth Magick books might be useful to you?
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I was thinking about some of the goals I listed. Some require other smaller goals for the larger goal. All goals should be corresponding to the format of SMART goals.
Perhaps to pay it forward, I may think about saving the money to attend classes for a CNA certification, is CNAs have taken great care of me here. Or, maybe work for an ambulance company is an ambulance assistant. It may require courses or training.
Or, in terms of being a socialite, I might attack first my anxiety disorder. Anxiety should have no place in being a socialite. Another aspect might be to take a toastmasters courses, and give speeches at a toastmasters conference. I may have to buy several suits or a tuxedo, as being a socialite in some social clubs I’ve seen (in cities like Chicago, and one is in Los Angeles), that frequent operas and fundraisers, quite often requires being dressed up in a tuxedo or suit.
Some goals, such as having a hot rod, may require more of an angle of magic in the Glamour Magick category.
SMART Goals factors:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timeframe
Maybe I’ll see if there’s anything in my country. We blocked payments in foreign banks in dollars (but I’ll probably look for ways to be able to buy Coetting’s book by runes.) Well, I’m thinking of working the same way with demons, planets and elements.
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I don’t have the books, and don’t want to get involved in bank drama.
It is probably better for you to order them through Amazon.
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So, in researching the goal of becoming a socialite, it appears that my mind is stuck iñ the 1990s.
I used to live in Chicago, and there were two social clubs - Chicago Young Professionals and the Chicago Social Club. CSC even had their own magazine called Chicago Social, and it had ads for everything that was out of my financial league, including real estate and jewelry. I almost got into it, but I’m better off, since a prick of a former employer was in it years later. But, joining it would eventually make you wealthier beyond your wildest dreams. There were three other such Social Clubs - Miami, LA and NYC; possibly Seattle.
But, to be a modern socialite is much more than owning suits and tuxedos, and attending gala events. Now it’s about being brand owners and celebrities owning a corner of their niche group.
But Lucifer and Ipos are good choices to make you a worthy candidate for the social clubs. It’s more than becoming a toastmasters member and giving a speech.
And as @DarkestKnight pointed out, it’s similar with magick, you have to pick one thing and work the shit out of it until you’re the reknowned expert in it. Pick several, become the new expert in it, and at magick conferences you’ll be the newest magick socialite.
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I’m picking low hanging fruit.
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I need to (for the magick world), stay the course, and reach Adept Portal grade; having worked through the two books, at that time work on the Adept level material. So, geomancy stones and pentacle built, all other requirements met for advancing to the Theoricus grade in February. Work on the dagger while I’m at it.
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Technology world ..study AARL to certify as a Ham Radio technician, and get a Baofeng and a transmitter antenna built.
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For the socialite world, look into verification or membership for Toastmasters.
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Perhaps study Hesiod and talk earnestly about Hesiod if he were a member of Toastmasters.
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Hierarchy of needs. Look for Assisted Living and a way to make money via arts and crafts. That will satisfy basic needs and some cash to work with. Plus the AARL, Toastmasters, and arts materials aren’t free. So do divinations for donations at a Starbucks when I’m mobile again.
Correction .. it was not AARL, it is actually ARRL – Amateur Radio Relay League.
And for Toastmasters – and there is a Los Angeles chapter–
And for being a well rounded Socialite….
The great thing is is that the ARRL test is cheap and from what I hear is easy, and it would tackle my fear of success and my fear of failure. Toastmasters would be expensive, and I should see if there is an online option. St John’s College lays out exactly what the course content is, and Amazon is always there for us all, and SJC does have an online course program. So that would be success, to me at least, that while possibly poorish, I would be well rounded.
Another point to make is the many posts on Saturn and Saturn’s ways and effects on us.
Success financially speaking doesn’t mean to be “rich”, it means you have the funds available to pay for your bills, shelter, food, and last but not least, temple items. It is extremely embarrassing to admit you are so broke and unsuccessful at magick that you cannot afford to buy candles and incenses, paper and pen, to get going with magick.