Ups and downs

So as I mentioned a while back, I had a string of fairly significant magickal accomplishments (meaning they were things that could not easily be chalked up to mere coincidence). But after those, my success rate went down to pretty much zero. Is this normal when you are still a novice or, rather, is there a red flag that I need to look out for?

You did magic. You had success in magic. Then you stopped having success.

A lot of newbies have this issue where they think they figured out the key to magic, and so a certain urgency, a certain desperate energy, gets lost in subsequent works. Its like a feeling where one can finally relax and just do it. Problem is, that urgency and desperation is one of the key components to making it work.

Does this sound like you? Like you went from ALL OR NOTHING to a sort of false confidence? Like you stopped generating enough power to body check a hippopotamus and knock its ass down? If so, that’s most definitely your problem. Get more amped up!

You’ve got your feet wet, you know you can shape reality according to your will, so now, why do YOU think this happened?

Was (for example) any part of you feeling like “this is to good to be true” or that things would have to “balance themselves out”?

We get fed disempowering nonsense 24/7 by the media (including adverts and stuff that flies under the radar) and it’s always worth making sure none of that crap got itself a handhold in your thoughts, it can happen to anyone, vigilance is important.

I have been giving more thought to why my successes dropped off after having several clear victories.

My successes happened when I was very optimistic about life. I think that the positive energy fueled the magickal accomplishments. But then, when I wasn’t feeling as optimistic, I was unable to “will” the other things to manifest as I did before. Then that made doubt set in and put a halt to my progress.

In summary, I think that a negative outlook due to circumstances was at the root of my problem.

So I am trying to now wake up in the mornings and verbalize positive affirmations. I know it sounds like a bunch of New Age crap, but it might help.

We’re surrounded by all kinds of demotivational and corrosive messages, so it’s actually just good self-protection, like having a spiritual immune system!

You could also try Afformations, that’s a slightly different system (just as easy) - it’s explained in full on this page.

Hang in there, you’ll be fine. I’ve had successes followed by failures. I think you’re on the right track to identifying the reason. For me, it’s been doubt in some form or another. Doubt and lust of result seem to be the two big magick killers. Maybe the only two things, as far as what’s coming from you, and not an external force.

I hear so much about raising energy and such, but I don’t know how to do that, or even what that really means. Maybe I’m just not at the point where my magick needs it? I’ve found, through hindsight, the successes came when I was simply confident that it would work, then forgot about it.

so i was just reading over old posts as i often do, but what thagirion said here spurred a question in me. If this desperation and sense of urgency is necessary for magic to work…how does someone like EA and others perform rituals for hire to alter situations and lives which he has no personal stake in?