THE EMPIRICAL RULES OF MAGICK Karma, The Golden Rule So far you have read a few possible explanations of how magick works. This is to open your mind to the fact it *can* work. But any explanation puts a limit on the possibilities. The possibilities which a model rules out are much harder to achieve while you use that model. Please don't limit yourself unnecessarily. But remember, no matter how much you may try to believe that you can fly, it's not likely you'll succeed. The obvious lesson here is, be careful: test the waters of your subconscious, act responsibly (but not over cautious). Don't jump off a cliff after your first flight spell. Don't quit work after your first job spell. Start slow and find out how your Little Self works before you do any life changing work. There is a hazard so universal that you should treat it as fact: Karma. This is the old saw of, "what goes around, comes around." You attract things of a similar nature to what you concentrate on (similar to morphogenetic fields). And remember, when you concentrate on something, your Little Self does so at least as much. The mechanistic reason for this may be "the subconscious mind directing subtle actions to bring about circumstances in tune with its thoughts." Metaphysicians often explain it as "like vibrations attracting like." Everything has a "vibration." This is similar to the vibration of musical notes, though obviously not the same. As with musical notes, one vibration can start a sympathetic vibration. One vibrating piano string will start similar strings vibrating. Karma is the word for this principle in magick. There is a certain vibration associated with any act. If you hit someone, the emotions and actions involved are of a certain vibration. This will tend to attract things of a similar vibration, primarily violent acts. You will tend to attract someone to hit you. It turns out that everything you do to others you essentially also do to yourself, and vice versa. It sounds trite, but being nice to others and yourself truly makes the world a better place for everyone. It doesn't matter how you understand karma, or even if you believe in it-- you are warn-ed. Many people don't believe. The action of karma, particularly on such people, is often too slow to notice. It can easily take lifetimes for a soul to work through karma. But the soul will, so avoid bad thoughts. This is impossible, but you will get better with practice. Each unpleasant thought has a negative effect on you and others. This brings negative things into your life. This is pretty rotten, but remember that each positive thought brings positive things-- that can be pretty good. In any case, you needn't respect karma to find yourself a happier person for trying to live this way. If you are just learning about karma, you will probably find that it is now a little more obvious in your life. But sometimes it's difficult to figure. If you do a spell to heal some-one, you would expect to be attracting good things. But what if immediately afterward you receive a transfer back home to live near your scummy relatives? Hardly fair! Yet that's the kind of result you can expect if you do anything to a person without permission. People have enough difficulty with their own Little Selves, it's nearly impossible to divine the desire of someone else's. The most beneficent act could violate someone's will on some level. If the person asks you, then you are free to act. But, even if you are absolutely sure that the person would want it, if he hasn't asked you, don't do it. Another fantastic example is the love spell. Do a spell to attract the kind of person you want, not a specific person. Exercising your will on others without their consent is always nasty-- doing so magickally has an even higher cost. Watch yourself. Many people working with magick do so under a "threefold law." This means that any karmic response is tripled. This is to keep people particularly scrupulous when they are fooling around with this stuff. Take it seriously. Know Thyself Karma is best described by the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The other major rule of magick is just as common place, "Know thyself." This is essential because of the Little Self. Magick is the science of expressing your will. Because there are many aspects to your will, it follows that you must be aware of all these aspects to be an effective magician. "Know thyself" means be aware of the thoughts and feelings of your Little Self. Learn how it feels about the things you want. Learn it's beliefs. You must know your starting point to effectively change negative beliefs. To do this, you have to pay attention to all the subconscious cues that your Little Self gives you. Explore your feelings, keep track of your dreams, look at your past. One of the best clues is your own life. If you create everything on some level, then part of you "wants" each thing in your life. You must not deny this, but work with it. The goal is healing because destruction is at best temporary. Different desires on other levels interfere with your conscious desire. Your Little Self picks them up everywhere. You must be aware of this so that you can counteract it. Every ideal commonly in the mass media impresses itself strongly. When Madison Avenue spreads the word that young and thin are the ideal, your Little Self will accept this if you are not careful. If you are not young and thin, this message undermines your sense of self worth. The resultant sense of undeserving works against your success. There is so much exposure to these messages that it is a real battle to avoid them. Particularly in childhood, when we can't protect ourselves, others deeply ingrain ideas that can be with us for life. You must work hard to discover these feelings and counter act them. If part of you feels undeserving, genuine success seems impossible. There are other aspects to this problem. Not only might you feel undeserving, but you could even desire failure. There are many reasons for this, usually based in childhood. Whatever the cause, you must look at your failures to see if there might be some reward. Many people are subject to chronic illness, for instance, because of the attention they get or an unpleasant situation they avoid. If you really want to succeed, you must consciously release your desire for the rewards of failure. You must also look at the fear of success. Many times we do not consider the problems associated with what we are striving for, but the Little Self does. It may be afraid of the responsibility of a better job or a new spouse. Think through your goals very carefully. What would life be like if you had what you desire? You will have to address any new tasks and responsibilities. You will have to be aware of any sacrifices. Once you are sure that you want not only your goal, but the sacrifices and responsibilities that go with it, then release your fears. People fear change, because it is unknown. You must be aware that you are taking a leap and welcome it. Have faith in your Self. When you know your Little Self well enough, you will be able to trust that it will bring you what you desire. When you don't know it that well, work on that. If you fail, it's time to work harder. When you and your Little Self have the same goals, and you have healed all the blocks to your success, you *know* that what you want is coming. When you know, you do not feel desperate. If you are feeling desperation, you are blocking. In that case, back to work! When you have worked hard enough, then you are ready for the easy part, the spell or ritual. When you enter ritual you should know what you want and why you want it. You should have healed all feelings of failure and undeserving and you should know that your spell will bring it. Work to cultivate this feeling of calm expectation, it is an important key. When you do a ritual, you will release all the power you have built to do its work on the universe. You should not even have to think about it again. Once you achieve this, though, there is another caveat. Many people have something unpleasant happen to them and later realized that they had asked for it. "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it." Always think carefully about what you want and how you ask for it. Once again, solid background work is the key. Using Magick Magick is a field with many different disciplines. There is sympathetic, Earth, Ceremonial, Enochian, Celtic, Egyptian and Kabbalah magick just to begin. These are occasionally different in their basic techniques, but mostly they differ in the symbols they use to achieve their goals. The principles are the same, however. Whichever form you prefer, it is how you observe these principles that determines your success. Beyond that, it is only personal preference. Preference is very important, too. It is your Little Self that you are addressing, and it is as individual as you. You must learn what works best for you. The first clue is what appeals to you most. Once you find the best methods for you, you build your own personal magickal system. It is up to you to find these methods, through research and experimentation. There is so much information that it is impossible to give more than a sample here. The information in this book is enough to get started. It is your work that will complete it. If you are happy with what you get on your own, you need never open another book. But you must at least pay constant, careful attention to your work to fine tune it. As with anything, the more work you put in, the better your success. The first principle is to take what you're doing very seriously. This is not so easy when you're struggling with society's negative attitudes. Ignore any intrusive thoughts you might have. Concentrate on what you are doing. You must passively avoid any distract-ions. Do not try to actively avoid them for that usually becomes an even bigger distract-ion. As long as you enter with the right attitude, the rest will come with practice. Magickal ritual is a very special thing. You must set it apart from your ordinary functions. When you do this, your Little Self is aware that you have that an important message to give it. Not only is the message less cluttered by stray thoughts, but it proceeds more directly to the Little Self. The more special things you have surrounding your ritual, the more effective it is. (As long as you don't have so much that these things become a distraction in themselves.) Pick a time when you are relaxed and awake and not under the influence of any drugs (e.g., alcohol or medication). Take the phone off the hook and see that you are not disturbed. Create a "sacred space" that is only for ritual. If you can set up a regular time or place which you use for nothing other than ritual, this is ideal. Before you begin, take a bath or at least wash your hands and use this to symbolically wash away all other thoughts and distractions in your mind. Relax your body and mind. Remove watches and tight clothes. Make sure the time of the ritual is clearly separated from your usual day. Use a symbolic act like knocking three times to open and close the ritual. Anything that you can add to the ambience will help: incense, special or no clothing, candle light, silence or meditative music (or whatever music is appropriate to the spell-- be careful of any lyrics!). If you know a second language that you don't ordinarily speak, such as hebrew or latin, you may want to use this. Alternatively, you can use the Thee's and Thou's of archaic english. During the ritual, concentrate on your goals. Make sure that your ritual is not so long that you can't keep your mind focused! It is better to repeat a ritual over days or weeks than to have an enormously long one in which you spend most of your time thinking about balancing your checkbook. Know what you will do before you start. You may ad lib, but your purpose must be completely clear before you start. Don't be surprised, however, if a ritual goes differently from expected. You may, for instance, gain an insight as you work that seems unrelated to your goal. It is important to consider this! It may be the key to what you are trying to achieve. It may also be a distraction, so be aware. The Attitude Since magick is the science of controlling your Self, the entire key is in attitude. Not only must you take it seriously, but you must also cultivate the right feelings. You must want and expect your goal. Wanting seems easy, but this is deceptive. That is because the many facets of a personality often want different things. You must unify your desire just as you must unify your will. A person who grew up abused may learn, on some level, to associate this with love. That person's Little Self will seek out abuse as an expression of love. It will want abuse even if the individual does not. Changing the desire of the Little Self to that if the individual is the challenge. An even bigger challenge is that of expectation. According to the magickal paradigm, you not only get what you want, but you get it in the way that you expect it. Thus, if you do a spell for money and you think "I'll never win the lottery," the money cannot come that way. If the spell is to work, the money must come from another source, such as finding a better job. Too often we rule out all possibility. When you do a spell, you know that has already worked. If you do not know this, it has not worked. This is the ideal. It may well take some time before you work up to this point. For these reasons it's usually best to start slow. Remember, to be completely successful, you have to want and expect on every level. Begin with a project easier than levitation! Work your way up to something life changing only after you have proven yourself. And don't look for dramatic results. Don't rule them out, of course-- you can win the lottery or even have ET hand you a suitcase of money. But remember, this is dealing in what you believe, and people rarely believe that dramatic things can happen to them. Look at magick as an extra push-- something to make the random events break your way. In addition to magickal means, strive for your goals on the earthly level. Preliminary results usually tend toward things like improved success in your ordinary pursuits: business picking up, a bonus, getting that job interview. Also, the energy you put into these mundane efforts also supports your magickal work. Even if you concentrate on winning a lottery, you must at least buy a ticket. All your efforts help to build expectation and gives a very strong message to the Little Self. Affirmation The message you give to your Little Self is the most important aspect of Magick. The whole process is communicating the right message. Desire and expectancy are the two most important messages. But often these do not get across. The Little Self has the understanding of a child. There are certain messages that work well and quite a few that work disastrously. You must learn how to talk to your Little Self. The Little Self understands images and feelings; it does not understand negatives or time. When you say "I will not fail," the image in your mind is that of failure. The mess-age to another person would be what you mean, because they understand the negation, "not." The message to the subconscious is "I will fail." Never, never, never use a negative when talking to your Little Self. If you change your message to, "I will succeed," you still have a problem. Since the Little Self does not understand time as we do, it will perpetually see success as being in the future. Success will never arrive. The proper message would be, "I succeed." This is not the way we are used to thinking, but it is necessary for magickal work. Always formulate your goals this way when you begin a ritual or spell. In addition, the more you think in this way in everyday life, the more powerful will be the positive messages to your Little Self. Visualization The images which you give your Little Self are even more important. It is the images which your words conjure that actually do the communicating. When you choose your goal, you should try to choose one or more images to represent it. The image must include you in it, either see yourself in a scene or picture it as if looking out of your eyes. The scene should represent to you exactly what you desire. The more you imagine in your scene, the better. Details, smells, sounds and textures all help enormously. The scene is most effective when it brings up all the emotions that you would feel if you were actually there. A drawing or picture is a good aid. Surround yourself with as many things you can find that make you think of your goal. Imagine you have what you want and know you have what you want. That is a successful ritual. Symbols Over the millennia, people have discovered symbols which speak to the Little Selves of nearly everyone. Various sets of symbols form the foundation of the many different schools of magick. They are often culturally oriented. Because our culture is far removed from its magickal symbols, each must discover his own. There are myriads of occult books that offer as many different symbols as you could want. If you are interested, research them. Look first to your religion or ethnic background for your symbols. Mythology and astrology are also good sources. One kind of symbol is the magickal tool. This is a physical object which you have consecrated for magickal work. If you have, for instance, a cross or star which you want to use for protection, you must empower the object for that purpose in a ritual. You will direct you will, through statement and visualization, into to object. From then on it is a constant tangible reminder to you and your Little Self. Treat it with the greatest respect. When you want to use a symbol, first explore your feelings as you look at it. If it conjures the feelings you want, then use it. With symbols from a source, try do this before you read what the "authentic" meaning is. Sometimes you can get new information by not prejudicing yourself. Be careful if the meaning is very different, though. If you are not entirely in tune with your Little Self (and few beginners are), you may be missing something that will affect your spell. Chakra To give you an idea of what to look for and a sample to try, here is a simple set of symbols based on the Chakra. Chakrum (singular) is Sanskrit for wheel, although vortex would be a better word. Chakra refers to points in the body where certain energies localize. These types of energies correspond to many different things: herbs, stones, times, planets, moods, political beliefs. It is possible to relate anything to a chakrum. This chart gives points on the body, one of the many color schemes and how one experiences these energies. This becomes useful when you seek a reinforcing energy. You can use this chart to decide where to apply a magickal oil or what color is best to use in a given project. RED ROOT Physical Health and Energy ORANGE SPLEEN Sexual and Reserve Energy (Second Wind) YELLOW SOLAR PLEXUS Mental and Emotional Energy GREEN HEART Love, Prosperity, Fertility, Growth BLUE THROAT Command, Creation, Will, Expression INDIGO BROW Magick, Psychic Energy LAVENDER CROWN Spirituality WHITE Positivity, all colors combined, the Universal Deity (God) BLACK Absorbs negativity PINK Filial Love, "Agape" (look it up) BROWN Earthiness, Grounding, Hearth & Home GOLD Wealth TEMPLES Thoughts, mind The blue is a very light blue. Indigo is a very dark blue, like navy blue. Lavender is a mixture of the colors and the energies of red, indigo and white. It is a very light color which you might be able to see at the edge of a gas flame. The root chakrum is at the base of the spine. The spleen is a few inches higher and to your left or along the spine (your choice). The Solar Plexus at the navel (there is a major nerve nexus here). The Brow or Third Eye Chakrum is associated with the pineal gland. On the skin, the point is on the brow between the eyes. The crown is the top of the head, associated with the fontanelle (soft spot). If you use something black (like obsidian) to absorb negativity, be sure to wash it occasionally to get rid of the negativity. When you burn a black candle, this creates a vacuum. This may be filled by negativity unless you also burn a white candle to bring in positive energy. Exercises Magick is not just an occasional exercise to bring what you want, it is a way of life. It requires a certain kind of relationship with your Self. This does not preclude any kind of life style or religion, it is entirely separate. It isn't what you do but why and how you do it. Magick demands that you love and respect your Self and that you accept your Power. This is the goal. "Getting what you want" is a small bonus. Building a magickal relationship with your Self is much like building one with a best friend. You learn all you can about its beliefs and feelings. You help heal it and it helps you. You achieve this through communication and love. You love through learning acceptance. You communicate by learning and listening to the language of the Little Self. Dreams The Little Self expresses itself most clearly in dreams. You should keep a regular dream diary. Have a journal handy by the bed. As soon as you wake up in the morning, write down as many details as you can. If you scribble down notes, transcribe them into a clear, coherent text. If you remember no dreams, write this down. You should have an entry for every day that you sleep. It is best to record them in present participle (e.g., "I dream that I am writing in my journal"). Once you have a dream recorded. Consider it and write down your impressions. How does it make you feel? To what does it pertain? What symbols are there? What does it tell you about yourself and your life? After you have considered these things, you may choose to look up the possible meaning in a dream dictionary. It is best to do this afterward because someone else's interpretation could prejudice your own. The advantage is that many dreams are "contrary." Such dreams actually mean the opposite of what they seem to on the surface. A dictionary can help jog your awareness. Once you've tried on your own, it's not a bad idea. Remember, though, your impressions are the most significant. You can make great progress during your dreams as well. The more control you have in your dreams, the more Power you have in your life. Try to develop this control. Remind yourself each time before you go to bed that you will remember your dreams and exercise your will in them. The ideal is called a waking or vivid dream. In this you are consciously aware that you are dreaming and everything, especially color, is very clear. The most important thing to remember in a dream is to defeat everything that attacks you. Attackers represent those things afflicting you during the day. Don't let them beat you in your dreams. If you need help, call for it. When victorious, make the attacker give you a gift. The gift is the benefit that you can gain from any situation. Defeat your dream monsters and you gain power to face your real monsters. From your dreams you can learn what your Little Self desires and fears. You can also gain powerful symbols for your work. These are all highly personal and it is up to you to divine this information. But, don't try to interpret too much. Much of what you dream is reviewing the events of the day and other items of no great insight. Look at all your dreams and discover which ones hold meaning for you. Don't worry when you don't understand. Your Little Self will keep trying when it has something important to tell you. As long as you keep listening, you will progress. Diary You should also keep a daily diary. It too, is a line to your Little Self. Use this to record the events of the day and your thoughts and feelings. These will reflect what is going on inside you. Use it also for introspection. You must do a lot of soul searching to learn about your Little Self, this is most effective when written. It is even more important to track the progress of your magickal work. Each time you do a spell or ritual record your goal, your feelings before and after and your methods. Before you get to this point, you should also have explored all your feelings associated with it. Then pay careful attention to all that happens to you (part of the reason for the daily diary). Often, a spell will work and we will not even notice. Since magick works with what we believe, things come to us in the way we expect or allow. When you do a healing, it will tend to look entirely natural, rather than miraculous. If you do a prosperity spell, receiving a tax refund check the following month could be the universe's response. Keep an eye out for any hint of possible results. Even the weakest indication is very positive. It may not be enough to satisfy, but it means that you are being effective. If you keep working, you will be able to improve until you achieve the result you desire. When you give yourself credit for even the smallest success, you build the relationship between you and your Little Self. Pendulums Another good way of communicating with your Little Self is through pendulum work. You can use any object on a string, but if it holds significance for you, so much the better. Hold your arm steady and think about the pendulum swinging forward and back. It should eventually begin to do so without you *consciously* moving your arm. Next change the movement to left and right by thinking about it. Once you can do this with facility, assign "yes" to one direction and "no" to the other. If you choose forward and back as "yes," alternate thinking the direction and thinking the word. Eventually, even when you start cold, the pendulum will swing forward and back when you think "yes." Repeat with the word "no" for the opposite direction. Now you have a way of talking with your Little Self. You can ask it questions directly. Eventually, you can even get your Little Self to spell words by holding the pendulum over a semicircle with the alphabet on it. The direction of swing will indicate each letter. Another method is automatic writing. With this you hold a pen and relax and let "it" do the writing. (This may sound like an Ouija board, but it is not. Do not try to use one for this purpose or vice versa.) Whatever method you use, be careful. Your Little Self wants to please you. It will tend to give you the answer you want. Make sure you want the truth and that your Little Self understands this. Always be friendly, as you would with a child. Praise success and don't berate failure. After all, it is only trying to please. As usual, this requires regular work over time, but eventually you can have such a good understanding that you need no tools. You will simply "know" how your Little Self feels. This is the ideal. Meditation Another way to achieve this awareness is through meditation. This is a method of calming the conscious mind. There many physical benefits from the stress reduction alone. It also allows your inner thoughts and feelings to express themselves. All the skills you learn in meditation are very useful in magick. Not only is it a line of communication with the little self, but it teaches you to quiet the conscious mind which is essential in ritual. You would do well take instruction in a meditation technique such as yoga or self-hypnosis. If you are learning this on your own, observe these rules: Relax your body consciously and completely. You must be in a comfortable, calm environment to do this properly. Starting at your feet, think about each part of your body and let it relax. It may help to tighten the muscles first. Use a cue to tell your mind to relax. This can be something like mentally going down stairs or counting backwards. [Do not use a common cue. For instance, "three, two, one" is something that you might encounter on the radio while driving. This could be dangerous. It would be better to use, "three, three, three, two, two, two, one, one, one." This is less likely to cause a problem. It is dangerously easy to get into a meditative state during automatic tasks like driving. This you must avoid.] Once relaxed, you can use this state to allow subconscious thoughts to float to the surface, or you can use it in ritual to give a powerful message to your Little Self. This mental state is another key to magick. You will find that it is very difficult to focus your conscious mind at first. See how long you can hold one word or picture in your head without any other thought. It is probably an astoundingly brief time. Watch commercials to see how many seconds they show one unchanging scene. This represents the average attention span. This is one of the reasons that magick is so difficult, you must remain focused for the entire ritual. Be aware of you concentration span. While it is short, you should be working short rituals. It is better to have three five-minute rituals than one half-hour ritual if you spend twenty minutes of the latter thinking of other things. In order to improve your concentration, spend some time each day trying to hold a word or picture as long as possible. Another good exercise is to pick a word and try *not* to think of it for a week. Count how many times you think the word in your head, if you think it again when counting it, count that instance, too. This is very difficult, but eventually you will even be able to hear or see the word without thinking it. These skills immediately become useful in communicating with your Little Self. You will want to hold positive thoughts, such as "I am a lovable, successful person." You will want to dispel negative thoughts, as when the T.V. tells you, "I was very unpopular until I started using Crealm Toothpaste!" When you are trying to reprogram your Little Self, feel free to use aids such as subliminal tapes. Another good one is colored cards. Place your simple, direct message, such as "I succeed," on a colored card where you will see it each day. Put small pieces of the same color where you will encounter them throughout the day. Each time a bit of card comes in your field of view, your Little Self will notice and remember the message, even when you don't. Symbolic acts are also very powerful. When you clean out your house and get rid of everything that you don't *need,* you make way for new things to come into your life. This is a good thing to do in concert with a major change in your life, quitting smoking or graduation, for instance. It helps to tell your Little Self that your old life is over and your new one has begun. The more you can eliminate the symbols of your old life, the more you can shape your new life to your liking. Be aware of all that you do, for you can use ordinary acts to give messages to your Little Self. Your morning shower can be a ritual to "wash away" all your stress or yesterday's mistakes. If you do this, however, you must *make* it a ritual. Develop a routine and concentrate on the purpose of the act throughout. This is true of all magickal works. Once you have begun this work to focus your conscious mind and reprogram your Little Self for success, then you can begin some small works of magick. You want to start small because most people have difficulty accepting a great success on a deep level. If start with a spell to win one million in the lottery and you are not ready for this, your failure will set you back. If you do prosperity spell and you get a small raise or win $10 in the lottery, that is a start that you can build on. One of the better starting goals is manifesting an insignificant object. Manifesting means bringing it into your life. Things tend to manifest in unremarkable ways, so keep a look out. The blue feather is a classic. Set up a ritual in which you concentrate on a blue feather. See it, feel it, smell it, want it, then let it go. Then pay attention for the following week (and keep track in your journal). You may find a blue feather on the side walk. You may notice one for the first time on a billboard that you pass every day. You may see one on T.V. All of these are successes. It is best to start with insignificant, uncommon (but not rare) objects. An uncommon object gives you a good indication of success. A rare object is a challenge you can work up to. An insignificant object is easier because you do not have interfering desires or fears. You have to be relaxed and confident and let go of your desire as you complete the ritual. You should be able to manifest such an object before you proceed to a greater challenge. It is valuable to repeat this exercise every so often in any case. Another good spell to start with is a spell to do good spells. That is, you can use magic to help remove blocks and fears. For instance, if you have discovered that you feel unworthy, this will seriously impair your ability to manifest what you want. But, you can use your desire for self worth to empower magickal work toward feeling worthiness. You can also do a spell to support your ability to concentrate on your goal. This is just an extension of all the other methods of getting messages to your Little Self. When you discover blocks and fears, when thoughts intrude and your mind wanders, or when you find yourself thinking exactly what you're supposed to avoid, don't worry! This happens as you learn to control your will. The idea is not to avoid these problems, but to *learn* to avoid them. You can't do this by trying to force yourself. There are no instructions on how to do this, only exercises. Just do your stuff and the rest will follow. When problem surfaces, recognize it and go on. Don't try to stop it and don't dwell on it, just continue. You may know that you have "spoiled" a ritual with a stray thought, but complete it anyway-- it's a good exercise. Sometimes you can deal with stray thoughts by *trying* to think about them. Concentrate on these thoughts and let your mind tire of them, then go on with your work. Work steadily, but not overly hard, on these exercises and make magick a part of your life. Unify your will. Take and prove your Power. Only after you have done this are you ready to do magick. When you feel you are ready, develop the messages and visualization which will be the most powerful for you. Decide how you are going to set up your ritual area and how you will orchestrate your spell. Whatever you feel best with is what will be the most powerful. If you need an idea of how to start, consider the examples that follow. Spells Once you have discovered and addressed your blocks, you are ready to do a spell. This is only a little different from what you have already been doing. In a spell you do nothing new, you do it differently. A spell is a ritual, an act carefully planned to have the greatest effect. You must do the planning, for only you know what will be the most effective ritual. Plan carefully and completely. You may want to use a script (it would be best to memorize it). You can ad lib once you're more experienced. At this point, you have enough information to develop more powerful rituals than you are likely to encounter in any book. However, since this is so different from what most of us are used to, here are some samples to give you a starting point. Feel free to use and change these rituals as you please. They are here to give you an idea of how you may want to approach things. The ritual starts in a special place. It could be out in the woods or in a special room. Ideally, you would never use this place for anything but ritual, but this may be impossible. If in the home, choose a quiet time and unplug the phone. Make sure that you are not disturbed. Before the ritual, carefully clean and arrange the area and take a bath or wash your hands. Think about washing away the days thoughts and cares. You are now ritually purified. You should not engage in any mundane activity until after the ritual. Enter your ritual area and knock three times, to mark the beginning. From this point all your thoughts are on the ritual. Don't do anything automatically. No matter how familiar, think about every action and what it means. Light candles and incense (only if there is no danger of fire!). Imagine the ritual area surrounded in a circle of white light. You may physically trace this circle to reinforce it. (Traditionally, all such movements are clockwise when invoking and counterclockwise when dispelling.) Repeat an act of purification. This is like the bath only more symbolic. You can hold your hand in the incense smoke and touch water from a ritual cup to your forehead, for instance. Next, relax and aum- - that is chant the mantra "ohhmmm" (or whatever works for you) to bring your mind to the proper state of alert relaxation, ready for work. At this point you will state your will. Tell your Self and the Universe how you choose it to be. This is not merely verbalization, during ritual your word is law. What you say, is. Feel your statement with your entire being, with every sense. Use all the techniques that you have found effective. Then, let the feeling go. It is going out into the universe to do its work. End your expression with a statement like, "According to free will and for the good of all." This helps to avoid problems with karma, as long as you mean it. Do not allow other thoughts to intrude at this point, it is now time to close the ritual. Imagine removing the white light circle (counterclockwise). Knock three times to end the ritual. Put out the candles, clean each item and put it carefully away in a special place. The ritual is only finished once you have completed all of these steps. Only then can you resume thinking about what's on the T.V. and how big a jerk your boss it. As a beginner, you should always be prepared to go through this entire procedure before you start. Even in an emergency, you should at least remove the white circle and knock (very quickly, perhaps, but do at least this much when possible). Nothing in a ritual is mundane, so it must be clearly delineated from your mundane actions. Otherwise you will dilute your spell and give the wrong messages to your Little Self. When ritual is obviously separate, your Little Self will know when to pay close attention. Once finished, do not talk about your work. Silence is another important key to magick. If you discuss it with anyone else, they cannot help adding their thoughts. This is almost always detrimental. It is fine to work with people, then your energies multiply. But never talk about specific spells that you have done. Destroying Your Enemies This is one aspect of magick that attracts many. It is a big mistake! Karma will get you every time. Don't try to rationalize. Though you may be able to put it off, you will not escape karma. In the mundane world, you might justifiably do violence in order to defend yourself or another from physical attack. In magick, this justifies only defense, never attack. Don't imagine yourself to be an agent of karma or a martyr saving others at your own expense. Who ever has done you wrong will get his. It's frustrating to wait and we all want to be there when it happens, but it is never worth trying to make it happen. When you have any kind of relationship, particularly a magickal one, you develop a karmic tie. You will want to avoid such ties with people you don't like. Even if you get the best of such a person, he will still drag you down. It's difficult to resist when you feel that the person owes you. If you have been swindled and left with no legal recourse, it's tempting to use magick to get your money back. Trying to get even will develop a tie with this person and probably set you up for some bad karma. Don't worry about the money, either. You can get that from anywhere (see "Prosperity"), In seeing this swindler as your only source you give your Power to him. If you are brave, you can demand justice in such a situation. This incurs no karmic debt, but you, too, can expect justice. Not very many people genuinely want this. Most prefer mercy because we have all done plenty of things that we would rather not have to pay for. If you want mercy, you must extend it to others. When you ask for justice, all your debts present themselves. If you survive, great, but it won't be fun. There are much safer ways of dealing with nasty people. Protection Psychic attack can be a real problem because it is so prevalent. When you make someone angry, the person is attacking you. Simply directing angry thoughts is a psychic attack. (This incurs bad karma, so learn to avoid this yourself!) We all have natural defenses, so these attacks seldom have an effect. But if someone has ability, or if he concentrates a lot of energy, you are likely to suffer. Psychic attack usually comes in through the neck and manifests as a headache. As you become a better magician, you will be more sensitive to the energies around you. You become more vulnerable to psychic attack. You also become better able to defend yourself as long as you remain alert. This work will also help protect you from physical threats. Keep in mind that, though magic may help, you must still act responsibly! Affirmations: I am now safe and secure. All negative influences are reflected off me into the Earth to be healed. I allow only the positive into my life. Visualizations: See an egg of white light around you-- because this keeps in negative energy, also see it filled with violet light, which will turn the negative to positive. Another good visualization is three concentric circles around you (or whatever you wish to protect) of white (outside), blue (middle) and pink (inside). Also, you can imagine a mirror at the back of the neck or encasing the whole body, reflecting outward. Other: Religious symbols are especially good for this work. Purification Remember that the things you have in your life are those that you have drawn to you. When someone upsets you, he usually has a lesson to teach you. If you can learn this lesson, you can escape the situation. If you escape without learning your lesson, you'll probably be in a similar situation soon. Sometimes people often make us angry by reflecting a part of our personality that we are unhappy with. Also, the negative vibrations we pick up during our everyday lives attract negative things. The purpose of the ritual bath is to remove such influences. It is also a good idea to do an entire spell for purification. This is not only good to do on yourself, but also your home and wherever else you spend much personal time. Affirmations: The white light cleanses me of all negative thoughts and energies. Only positive feelings remain in me. I release all negative vibrations into the Earth to be healed. Visualizations: See yourself being washed clean by white or violet light from above you (your High Self). Each time you inhale, take in pure white light. When you exhale, release all your negativity. See this negativity go down into the earth to be healed. Other: Place a piece of rock salt under your tongue. Use incense smoke or water to cleanse yourself. Again, religious symbols are very effective. Love You must take love spells very seriously, for they are quite dangerous. Never, never, never do a love spell on an individual. This is often a great temptation, but don't even risk the possibility of imposing your will on another. The karmic results are severe. Even if you succeeded, you would still lack real love, for you would have to continually renew the spell to keep the person. What you want, among other things, is someone to help express your love for yourself. As you will often hear, you must love yourself first. This isn't a problem, for you already love yourself-- that is the main reason you are alive. The problem is when you block that love. Eliminating these blocks is the Soul's goal. But don't despair, you needn't actually remove them to draw love to you. Just beginning the work can attract that special someone who will help. Affirmations: I am a perfect manifestation of love and I draw love to me. I now allow love to come into my life. I feel and express perfect love and draw other loving people into my life. Visualizations: Picture yourself as a magnet, feeling and drawing love. Imagine your-self bathed in green or pink or orange light, depending on your goals. Pink is for filial love (agape) and for that of a lover. Orange is for the sexual aspect (spleen chakrum). Green is for both (heart chakrum). But the distinctions are somewhat blurred, for love is a combination of all of these. Other: Friday is the day of Venus and the waxing to full Moon is a time of increase, so these are good times for ritual. The ubiquitous heart symbol can be useful. Prosperity Money is not all there is to prosperity. What do you want the money for? What kind of life do you want to live? What do you want to have? Keep these goals in mind. You may get them instead of the money. As you work though your blocks to prosperity, you will probably find that one of the biggest is guilt. Our society functions under the assumption that a person can only gain at the expense of others. Don't try to get money by taking it from others through force or fraud, magickally or otherwise. That is giving your Power away. In the magickal paradigm, you create. When you understand this, there is no greed because you can have whatever you desire and without taking from others. It is not money that is a root of evil, but the love of money. It doesn't matter how much you get, but how you get it. When you do a prosperity spell, it should be a joyful expression of the infinite supply available to you. If you are begging or hopping to be rescued, you have more background work to do. Another aspect to remember is that money, like all other kinds of energy, flows. In order to get it, you have to spend it. There must be an outflux for there to be an influx. This is not an excuse to be irresponsible! It is easy for the flow to be too much in either direct-ion (especially out!). Don't be miserly or wasteful, remember the flow. Use each bill you pay to remind you that you've drawn the money to pay it and that more money will come to take its place. Affirmations: I allow prosperity to manifest itself in my life in great abundance. I draw from the infinite source all the money I need and more. In my life, I now express the infinite supply of wealth around me. Visualizations: Imagine yourself bathed in green light (heart chakrum). This is a situation where visualization works particularly well, because it's a tangible object. You can even use a picture or model of the new home or car you want. Other: Good times for a prosperity ritual are Thursday, the day for increase, and during the waxing Moon. The $ (or appropriate regional symbol) has a great deal of power-- consider using it. Health & Self Improvement Your body is the most direct expression of your Little Self. It is one of the most accessible, yet challenging things to change. If you can find and address the root causes of health problems, like heat disease, it is often relatively easy to do something about them. But self image problems can be very difficult because of the way our society approaches the subject. Over weight is a good example of a self image problem. Madison Avenue bombards us with an ideal of beauty. It is almost impossible to escape. If you are over weight and unhappy about it for other than health reasons, you are probably a victim of this. It is dangerously easy to make self love or approval contingent upon losing weight. Until you've lost it, you may feel undeserving and thus fail. You may succeed, only to have old habits or new crises can throw you back into old eating habits. You have made no fundamental change, so the cycle reinforces itself. So many different problems manifest this way. You will certainly want to deal with eating habits and exercise, but this is often insufficient. People have different metabolic rates and different body types. Do not make liking yourself contingent upon your having a different body type! If you dislike your body, you dislike your Little Self. You must love yourself unconditionally. This is the same transcendent spirit expressed in wedding vows: for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. Love yourself not regardless of how you look, but because of how you look. Wanting to improve doesn't mean that you must dislike your-self as you are. If you were given $900, you wouldn't despise it because it wasn't $1000. Rejoice in your Little Self's expression of being alive. Until you do, this lesson will hang over your head. Ironically, you are most able to change your looks when it matters to you least. Remember to be responsible. Always get good health care. When trying to lose weight, follow a sane plan under a doctor's care. But in addition, work to love yourself unconditionally. Strive constantly to fight the messages from the media and those around you. You are a loving, lovable person and your looks reflect this. Make yourself aware of that. When you succeed, you may eventually look like your ideal, but even if you don't, you will see the beauty in yourself. You will be more able to defend yourself from those small minds unhappy enough to attack you for not conforming to their ideal. You will also draw those who can see your beauty. As an extreme example, anorexics always feel that they are too fat. They cannot lose more weight, for that would kill them. The answer lies with truly seeing themselves. Any time your goal is self improvement, the principle is the same. In order to better yourself, you must first realize that you are lovable, now and always. Never try to better yourself to become lovable-- it doesn't work. The goal of magick is to heal those things you do not like in yourself, not destroy them. You better yourself by first bettering your self image. You change your behavior by healing the hurts that cause you to do harmful things. Recognize that all unhappy things are in response to pain. Your Little Self can hurt you, much as a favorite pet may bite you because it is in pain. Do not feel anger or misery but love and healing. Affirmations: I love myself completely as I am now. I surrender to love. I know that I am a loving and lovable person. I heal all hurts. I now express perfect health in my life. I bring complete health into my life. My body is now a beautiful, healthy expression of my Self. Visualizations: Imagine yourself so close to the sun that you can see nothing else. Visualize the area you want to heal bathed in blue-green light. Listen to or imagine the note F#. Concentrate on the heart and throat chakra (green and blue, respectively). The root chakrum (red) is another good focus for physical well being. When healing someone not present, put a photo next to a candle. Put the name of the subject on the candle and use this to focus your concentration. Other: Rituals to increase energy and health are most effective during the waxing moon and at high noon. Rituals for eliminating disease or losing weight are best done during the waning moon. The five pointed star (symbol of Man) might be a good symbol (if you do not have any negative associations with it). Good Luck! At this point you are on your own. It takes forty days to make or break a habit, so you should concentrate on daily exercise for at least this long. Magick is not a quick, easy way of getting what you want. It is a long, hard road. Though it's quite possible to have instant success, visible results can take months. Real rewards can take years. But we all must travel this road some time. Be cautious of those promising an easier path. Though it may appear slow, magick is one of the fastest ways of taking your Power. The difficulty lies not in feats of physical or mental prowess, but in steady diligence. Do not try too hard, or you will not last long. If you are not happy with the way your life is going now and you desire to take your power, then commit to the life changes which magick demands. If your commitment is genuine, then everything will fall into place over time. Above all, be patient. Best of luck and stay on the path.