Thoughts on Magick

For quite some time now, there has been a resurgence of interest in magick. For the most part, this is all to the good, because magick is the birthright of all humanity, not just wealthy, white, predominantly male Christian or Christian-adjacent power brokers (if you don’t think these power brokers are using magick, you’re not paying attention. Read their “prayer warrior” stuff, or observe certain evangelical or charismatic church services). We all deserve a seat at the table, and for those of us not of the wealthy, ruling class, magick can provide a key to the unguarded back door of the mansion.

The thing is, though, that studying and using magick is serious business that shouldn’t be embarked upon just for giggles, or because you’re bored. Why? Well, first of all, magick works. Secondly, there is always a cost. At the very least, that cost always consists of the mental and physical energy of the person or persons performing the magick. However, there may be other costs as well, depending on the type of magick performed. In addition, performing magick attracts attention from otherworldly beings; some of these beings are perfectly benign, while others are decidedly the opposite.

There’s a lot of talk in Wiccan, Wiccan-adjacent, and various New Age circles along the lines of “whatever you do comes back to you three times” (Rule of Three, Threefold Law, etc.), but that is not how magickal energy works. The Rule of Three is part Westernized interpretation of karma, part encouragement to ethics, and part exhortation to use extreme caution. Why such caution? Because magick is a neutral but powerful force that – once it’s set loose – doesn’t care where it’s headed.

Imagine what happens when you turn on a garden hose full blast without holding the business end. You’ll have water going where you don’t want it, for a start, and the hose might get wiggly and wobbly, and make things more unwieldy. At a bare minimum, you need to be minding that business end so you can point the hose where you want the water to go, and have the good sense and follow through to turn the thing off when you’re finished. But why did you decide to use the hose in the first place? Do you need that much water? Were you planning to spray it over a sizeable portion of the garden, or were you going to power wash some concrete? Too many magick users turn on the hose full blast just to water a tiny houseplant – or apply one of those little misters to a large, thirsty garden. They do this because they don’t think or plan ahead. They don’t ask themselves the nitty-gritty questions, and they don’t take the time to think things through to their logical conclusions.

Thinking, taking the time to figure out exactly what you want – and why – and what has to happen for you to get what you want, then planning out what you’re going to do may not be sexy, but it’s necessary if you don’t want to get soaked, or remain parched.

Let’s say, for example, you live with an abusive spouse or partner. Your first steps should not be magickal; they should be practical. Such steps should include leaving the situation as soon as possible – or making arrangements to leave as soon as possible – and, if the abuse is physical, involving the authorities. Once you have taken the immediate, real world steps, then it’s time for some magick. In the case of an abusive spouse or partner, it may be tempting to hex or bind them in some way, but that should the very, very last, desperate resort. Directly interfering with the will of another in this manner is best done by a group that includes advanced practitioners; that way, the group can absorb the magickal cost, and the spell can be worded and constructed by those who have the experience. Working magick for an abuser to see the error of their ways, or be kinder, will just be a waste of your energy, because they’re not going to admit wrongdoing or be a better person unless they’re ready, and if they were ready, you wouldn’t be needing to get out in the first place.

Appropriate magick for this situation involves spells and/or amulets and/or talismans to protect yourself. Think about it; what you need, right now, is to keep the abuser away from you and/or for them to leave you alone. That’s how you should direct your magick. One way to do it would be to take an item of jewelry you always wear and charge it to protect you from all manner of harm directed at you by this person. Now, how this protection manifests will vary, depending on the situation. If you still live with the spouse or partner, they might have to go on a business trip, or have to stay so late at work, or are so swamped with work that they’re too tired to do anything but fall into bed exhausted when they get home, only to stumble out of bed the next morning with barely enough time to get dressed and go to work again. Maybe they’ll become so obsessed with some show that they’ll be too busy binge watching to bother you. The point is that you’re not being harmed – and have bought yourself enough time to make the separation more physical. If you don’t still live with the spouse or partner, you should still charge something to protect you personally, but you might want to take the additional step of creating protective wards wherever you do live. Think of this approach as a magickal restraining order.

Speaking of protection, one of the aforementioned “side effects” of working magick is that certain denizens of the otherworld will take notice. For some of them, this notice will be no more than what we ourselves do when we hear something, realize it’s someone on a bicycle, and go back to what we were doing. For other denizens, though, this notice will be more along the lines of “Ooh… lunch!” This is why it is imperative to cast a protective circle around you before doing magick. It doesn’t have to be elaborate (unless your ritual is elaborate), it can simply be the magickal equivalent of drawing the curtains so the neighbors can’t see what you’re up to. Of course, these neighbors might be curious, but it’s better for them to be curious on the outside than crashing your magickal working.

Magick works, and because it works the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it,” applies. What also applies is, “Garbage in, garbage out.” If you’re going to go to the trouble of gathering spell ingredients, lighting candles, burning incense, casting a circle, raising energy, and all that jazz, then why are you going to perform an inadequately worded spell? Incredibly, that’s what entirely too many magickal practitioners do. They’re either afraid of asking for what they really want, because they have leftover reticence from guilt inducing prior religious indoctrination, or they’re perfectly fine with asking for what they want, but want it exactly, precisely in a particular way.

According to Aleister Crowley, “Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” (Crowley was a misogynist – it was ultimately his misogyny that killed him – and a rather horrible human being, but he remains a towering, though controversial, figure in the occult world because he was brilliant at magick.) It’s the “Science” part that a lot of practitioners seem to miss. Some fashion nebulous, vague spells that, at best, get hit or miss results. For example, they do magick for a better job, but fail to include what “better” means to them. Does “better” mean more interesting, more money, more respect, or…?

On the other hand, some practitioners go to the other extreme with spells that describe only a very specific outcome. For example, they do magick to get a very specific job in a very specific situation, which leaves them with all or nothing – or with a job that is exactly what they asked for, but they hate, because it’s not really right for them. There is a happy medium, here. The trick is to first approach the wording of a spell like a lawyer; you want what you want, but without unintended consequences. This requires actually knowing what you want, and that’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you really want this particular job, or do you just want the salary it draws? Do you want more money, or do you really want the same money but different duties? Do you want $1000 more per month, or can it be $2000 or more per month? You want to be specific enough to get tangible results, but not so specific that you hamstring your spell. Once you’ve done the lawyer part of the spell wording, it’s time to apply the “Art” part of magick, and make it sound pretty, or rhythmical, or work it into a sigil that looks cool. The point is to make it yours, and to send it out into the world to work for you.