Often one area of adventure leads to another. And in the case of using energy to influence my [book] proposal. I was asked by a concerned witch.
- Aren’t you scared of the self-gain issue with magic?
So I thought I would do a post on it, if for no other reason than to share a picture of 3 lovely lasses. The popular Charmed tv-series was replete with the notion of not using magic for personal gain since such use would come back and bite you on the proverbial. This idea has been around in many magical circles. But of course never really stops witches and warlocks from practicing such personal gain spells. Taking up my dowsing rods I explored this topic with some gusto.
After some initial confusion I was led to an interesting path. Why are all the tales of Genies and wishing fraught with failure? Looking back through tales of Genies from myth we find that more often than not the wishes are granted with some twist. A good reasonably modern tale can be found in the X-File episode Je Souhait. In which the main character Fox Mulder encounters a Genie. In almost all cases the granted wishes go awry. Why?
As my intuition explored this phenomena I came to the conclusion that magic of any kind is (in our world) a manipulation of energies. As I have come to learn energies are not only subtle by name but subtle by nature i.e. there very manipulation is quite subtle and open to the slightest intention and thought. Given this, my research into this area brought two notions to mind when thinking of magic for self gain.
- The first of these is the lack of focus in the user. Our thoughts are like the wind with many a thought fluttering in and out of conscious. Since thought is a key ingredient in making magic manifest. This lack of focus may contribute to spells going off-direction.
- The second is a curious one, that of deserving. In the vernacular of personal development books it is called self-sabotage. As far as my dowsing goes this is a secondary reason as to why magic for personal gain goes off the tracks.
My conclusion at the moment is that inherently there is nothing wrong with using magic for personal gain. However the twin forces above are highly likely to cause the spell (energy manipulation) to go astray.
Again, in the refrain of personal development we know that we will often do much more (and be more successful at it) for others than we will for ourselves.
Thoughts?
Kal Malik
Hi again gentlemen 🙂
I think this is a very interesting discussion, it’s great to get a full spectrum of ideas and I’m always open to re-thinking beliefs and changing my mind, as I think all people should be 🙂
Kal – I would agree with you that there is a general error in equating magic with spirituality, in fact its my belief at the moment, that the splitting of these principals might have been a historical cataclysm in some strange way. Not in a moral sense – but in the power raised during extreme spiritual bliss and whether its possible to channel that into creative intention. This is one of the questions I’ve posed myself this year, which is why I’m hoping to attend a Sufi circle – its something that’s appealed to me for years, as no other tradition quite captures how I feel about the divine as mystical Islam – in fact without wishing to spark deeper debate, its my belief that this tradition is in fact the ‘Old religion’ I’ve even read an article online by a Islamic scholar who suggests it is indeed the case. The very feminine nature of these practices appeals to me as you can imagine, and the extraordinary passion/compassion of divine love when it hits – it can shift you right out of your body and into another place, this has happened to me… Anyway I digress…!!LOL I’m only trying to illustrate a point about a conjunction of mystery and will – this is something that is burning with intrigue in my own head and heart at present, maybe because of all the questions 2012 raises and whether we are moving through a less dense state, that we are entering the fifth age and a new stage in our evolution. Is it possible at this time, to put out the intention to create a better world, to bring more compassion through will into this dimension? I think it is, that maybe the diehard romantic in me, the idealist, but I believe its worth trying – why not? Why else would people like us trudge through mud and put up with accusations of being ‘off us ‘ead’ as they’d say here(!) if we didn’t love Gaia and all Creation? I believe its the heart that counts in life, but that’s just me who is soft and sensitive, forcing my ‘will’ is just not me, but giving birth to a will of the heart is something entirely different and that is one of my intentions this year. 🙂
Yes – I know that saying well Kal – I think people attribute it to Nelson Mandella don’t they, when it fact it was said by Marianne Williamson (wow – you have some influential friends Kal!) This paraphrase is one of the truest things ever said of humanity. Waking up to the divinity within is what we all strive for i think, but the darkness of fear, the terrible fear of rejection (something that is my own darkest demon) can overthrow so much light. One reason that all my life I have tried my best not to judge and to be patient with people’s foibles. As Gwas says – what other forces come into play to either help or sabotage us? I think this is very pertinent too and your own work in discovering these energies is also as vital to the mix as compassion.
As far as reincarnation goes – I don’t have a fixed idea of how it works, again I don’t think its that simple either. How karma works is surely not a system of punishment and I do believe that the soul judges only itself, and that we decide in the pre-life state where we want to be and to meet up with various soul mates and significant others during the course of a life. We may have ‘spiritual’ DNA among this alleged ‘junk DNA’ they speak of, we may be tied to ancestral forces or something else – again I don’t know, I agree anything is possible. I only can live and talk from my own experience of these things and what just clicks for me. We have free will entirely and although there is no doubt synchronicity, its our choice to follow it or not. I find it interesting as a side point, that its females generally that subscribe more to the idea of reincarnation, so many esoteric men I’ve known talk of – returning to some kind of spirit gene pool, or various other things. I don’t usually subscribe to something unless I have personal conviction and ‘proof’ both of which I have in regards to the journey of my own soul, again, maybe we can choose entirely which path to go on with our consciousness, whether to live lives and be reborn or to do it another way. In the end, I steadfastly believe that all is simply a journey back to the divine source of thought and love – from which all creation came. Which I suppose brings me back to this question of will and love – if it actually emulates the state of God consciousness, maybe it is the way to go? I hope all of that made sense and wasn’t too much of a diatribe, I was just trying to sketch out some ideas I thought might be helpful or of interest to you both 🙂
Liz x
I would like to inject the notion that we are not alone in our use of energies. Your hypothesis is that objectively, in an isolated human environment, the individual would only encounter his own limitations as the factors that determine the success of intented and directed energy.
My proposal is that there are also external forces, other entities that utilise energy and are energy-aware, that may also influence the outcome of our use of subtle energies.
I also add to this the idea that very few humans, even those that profess to be energy-workers (and I include myself in that group) have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the subtle forces that they work with. Therefore, how could they be efficient and effective in their use of a tool that they barely know how to wield, let alone be skilful with?
Oh, and why is it that witches in TV programmes are alway just getting ready for bed? They always seem to be wearing lingerie. How peculiar!
Gwas (adding fuel to the fire).
Excellent Gwas, I love debate!
1) “we are not alone in our use of energies” I would take this as granted after all in the material world there are those who hinder our efforts and those who help and I would add that some of these people are visible to us and some not so. Thus the analogy stands, and here is an example.
I might want to build a house on a plot of land, there maybe visible objectors in the form of the council. There maybe invisible objectors in the form of local inhabitants who sabotage the machinery. Then there maybe helpers in the form of the banks lendng me money.
As above, so below (means to me) as in the material so in the energy too.
2) “clear and comprehensive understanding of the subtle forces” Again I agree, and indeed include myself in this group (sigh – always an exponential amount to learn) However I do think that you don’t need to know the inner-most workings. It is “my personal truth” that either energy is intelligent or that there is something with intelligence between the concious me and the actual manipulation of energy (what that is, is worthy of a several hundred posts). But given that there is, then you don’t need to know so much how it works, but “just” how to get it to work.
As an example, consider a miracle (it doesn’t matter which one) Almost always the person who has supposedly done the miracle doesnt (intellectually) know the process of how it was done. Given that, where is the intellegence that did know?
Kal (squirting lighte fluid on the fire)
Hi Kal 🙂
I think you raise a very interesting moral question here, one that I think most people involved in any form of magic grapple with, at least if they’re the more enlightened sort 🙂 Personally I’ve taken your stance on this, that is to be very careful. I don’t think I’ve ever asked for some desire to be gratified through spell work, though I feel very comfortable doing things for others if its asked of me, is good and is needed to help. If I do feel in desperate need to have a wish come true, I think just putting energy into that thought alone can manifest it, whether we perform some kind of ritual or not. I’m a bit fatalistic about life I guess, I ask the universe to make it so, if its for the best possible good of all concerned, so really it comes down to it will be if its meant to be.
As you and Gwas know, I have been studying reincarnation a lot over the past nine months and have found that so much of what we do to others, can rebound in later lifetimes. I know I that in a previous life I was involved heavily with occultism and used it for my own advancement. In this life time I have been extremely wary, as if by instinct not to do this, I learned my lesson back then. Some of the people who were caught up in my ‘magical web’ as it were, have had their revenge on me in this life! It really is true, be careful what you sow and if it doesn’t rebound on you this time around, it sure as hell will another time! Although I don’t see karma as punishment per se, merely as humanity’s lesson in becoming more unconditional and non-judgmental in our loving, it can be a hard teacher and I have paid sorely for hurting others when I was a vain and arrogant man.
I can understand how badly you want to get published Kal – I know I do! There is also so much talk at this time of people being able to manifest their reality as we’re supposedly moving into a less dense vibration on Earth. Whatever your feelings about this, I can say it has happened to me in quite a charming way, so its not all bad! I’ve wanted a dog for a long time, and said only the other day to Rick – gosh wouldn’t it be nice, but I know we could never afford one or take on the responsibility… Well, our next door neighbor who is virtually family to us and who we’ve known for years, have a key to each other’s houses – etc, is taking on the dog that his friends have to leave behind as they’re emigrating to New Zealand. So my wish came true – I can have all the fun of a dog, even though I can’t actually own it, it can still be in my life – isn’t that great! 🙂 I think if you have a fairly confident non-egoistic sense of your work, a quiet assurance, then it most likely will get published. You strike me as the sort of person who can set his mind on something and get there through patience and persistence – that alone can be enough if your work is good. My problem is that I have no trust that anyone out there will be remotely interested, that is as far as publishers go, it seems like a closed door to me and one has to be able to approach these people professionally, something I’m ill-equipped to do. So for me, Kindle is the solution and I’m happy with that 🙂 I know if I tried to go that path, my negative expectations would sabotage it, so I don’t, you on the other hand, won’t have that problem I’m sure 🙂
Good luck with all this, a very interesting topic.
Liz
Hi Liz,
Thanks for your comment, really appreciated. I’d like to begin by saying that the following is just my personal truth and isn’t meant to persuade, only to describe.
For me, the moral question of using magic is the same as using any other skill. I was a computer programmer for a while. Now the question is, could I use that skill to make money? Of course. Why then not magic?
I have often asked audiences this question and the conclusion that I have come to is the that they erroneous (in my view) equate magic with spirituality. Thus they feel that they are using something spiritual to gain something (seen) as dirty i.e. money. After all the pursuit of this has been deemed to be evil.
Have you ever noticed that it is (mainly) only poor people that say that?
I have to say tho, that although I am a believer in the attraction of like energies. I don’t personally subscribe to those effects crossing the boundaries of death and life. So, although I am not averse to reincarnation (i.e. returning to the material) I don’t feel that we bring energetic debts or karma with us.
I always love it when differences appear in beliefs. It makes life exciting don’t you think?
If your interested I will happily expound a description of my belief in relation to karma etc further. but tend to avoid doing so these days as I am perfectly happy believing it in my own.
On the matter of denser enegies, perhaps it is so, I don’t know. However I do agree with you that, from my own, Gwas’s and others I am in contact with that we are being able to realise and manifest our desires more. Again I have a theory lol (don’t I always).
On the matter of getting my book published. I always seen it as a certainty. Since that is the method of attraction that I employ.
On the matter of Ego, I fully subscribe to the words of a dear friend and teacher of mine, Marianne Williamson…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I think that pretty much sums up my philosophy in this regard.
With regards to your endeavour, I agree with you whole heartedly, re this…”my negative expectations would sabotage it”
I have coached several people to the point of publication, which is very uplifiting work for me. But in all cases it has been after many sessions to rid them of such sabotage.
I wish you every success in all your endeavours and recall the wisdom that “any achievement begins with the belief that it can be achieved”
Blessings,
Kal