I say I have to agree completely with EA on this line of thought. In fact, this is just what I was saying back in September as regards the so-called ‘Law of Reversed Effort’.
The outcome of a magical ritual is going to be in line with the desire for which it was performed if the magician has attained knowledge of this outcome by the close of the ritual. This by itself leads to detachment. As EA has said, if the ritual was effective, you are not even going to care any longer about the thing you desire coming your way.You don't need to lie to yourself about the matter. You simply know it is. You can grab the other end of the stick, of course; if you are obsessed with the result, then the ritual was not effective, or is at least in some sense not closed. If you don't know that you've changed the world, then you in all likelihood haven't. Put another way, only an effective ritual will alter reality, and only an altering of reality can and should lead to a state of knowledge of this alteration. Hopes and worries are mere wishful thinking.It’s not merely the case that an obsession with the result inevitably involves feelings of doubt as to the outcome, and that the interfering negative thoughts and imaginings that this leads to are an important part of why rituals fail, but that such a state of mind precludes the state of gnosis. If this is the case, then the “law of reversed effort” is not first and foremost overcome by trying to stop worrying about the result after the ritual, but by perfecting the ritual itself, which will leave little room for doubt and will enable you to more easily detach yourself from the desire. Jesus, if you had the power to call forth a spirit, a demon physically materialised before you, and this prince of Hell gave you his word that he will do such and such, what the hell are you going to doubt afterward?
If knowledge is power, then this is nowhere else more true than in the practice of magic.
I’ve always had problems with this ‘Law of Reversed Effort’. It never worked for me as it was painted to. I can think of no reason that actually makes sense that merely having ones desire in mind would cause ones ritual to fail, as I have experienced successful rituals after which I never ‘forgot’ about things. It helps, perhaps, to not interfere with what one has created, but it surely can’t be key to thwarting the efforts of powerful spirits. On the other hand, no amount of ‘letting go’ and ‘forgetting about it’ ever turned a shitty ritual that I left without certainty into one that brought me what I wanted. Oh, sure, ‘detachment’, in a limited sense, is a part of being in the God state - but it’s more of a detachment that is a small part of what it means to experience being God. No. When you have obtained the assent of a spirit, truly, to perform your will then you WILL know it and it WILL be done. If you haven’t, no amount of trying to convince yourself that you did will get you what you want. I always go back to the state of being I am in on the astral where I can literally create worlds out of nothing or battle powerful spirits and coem out on top - that is the same state of being I need to get to, or at least get close to, to work miracles right here in this physical world.
So, I don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with doing repeated rituals for a goal. Put as much effort into it as you can until you know. Don’t stop. Hell, do one every night. Bring the world to it’s knees. Beat it until it buckles, and if it won’t budge, sharpen your weapons and beat it some more. Conjure up a goddamned storm against ‘reality’ and don’t take no for an answer. No. You are a living god and it MUST obey.