Getting Real about how Magic(k) Works - How to enchant for incremental results

The other day I read a couple of articles on Substack about how magic works. One article made the argument that magick doesn’t actually work like magic (i.e. Hollywood magic) and the other article explored why results de-manifest when you’re not fully able to let the results land in your identity. They were both good articles that laid out some of the problems that people around their magical practice:

• Having unrealistic expectations how results

• Internal disbelief that magic really works

• A subconscious belief that you don’t deserve the result you want.

These are all valid reasons for why a result doesn’t land when you do a magical working. What the reasons really are, though, are symptoms of a deeper narrative around magic and the practitioner that hasn’t been fully explored or understood. Dealing with the symptom can help you in the short term, but it won’t address the long term reality that needs to be changed your relationship with magic.

What is the deeper narrative?

The deeper narrative is the set of beliefs that you have about yourself and magic that tells you what is or isn’t possible. It’s the set point you have within yourself, as well, that creates the relationship pattern you have with:

• Money

• Success

• Love

• Opportunity

• and other various variables in your life.

The set points that you carry within you create the limits and parameters that you and your magic operate in. If you aren’t aware of those set points and their influence on you, then when you do magical working that takes you outside of those parameters, identity-wise, that part of you will react and bring you back home, because the set point is familiar and feels safe. It may not be serving what you want, but it serves the part of you that doesn’t want to get hurt, rejected or lose everything.

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The 10X problem

Have you ever been given the advice to 10X your goals?

On the surface it seems like good advice. Go big or go home. The reality is that 10x-ing your goals, as appealing as it may sound, actually creates a rebound effect on your results. You go big AND you go home to your set points. The reason is because you’re reaching too far, too quickly, and that causes the result to rebound, if you are not ready to receive the results. It basically is a system shock and when your system is shocked, it fights back and reverts to homeostasis, because that’s what it knows.

Instead of 10xing your goals, trying 2xing your goals. I know it doesn’t as glamorous, but it’s achievable and it has a hidden benefit. It allows you to adjust your set point incrementally without creating resistance to the desired outcome. A 2x goals is something you can achieve with your magic and your life and you’ll adjust to it. And once you achieve the 2x goal, you can move the goal again, 2xing again and again, gradually moving your set point and increasing your overall bandwidth and capacity to receive and integrate the result.

Incremental change isn’t very dramatic, but it is a sure sign that your magic is working and transforming your life. It enables you to trust yourself as well, because every part of you readily accepts and embraces the change as something natural.  You become acclimated to the change and it becomes your new set point, transforming the way you experience yourself and the world.

Are there ever exceptions to this rule?

There is an exception to the set point, of a sort. When you are already going through a period of upheaval, such as a tower moment, the usual rules go out the window. Your set points are already disrupted, which makes it easier to manifest and keep results that fall outside the normal capacity and tolerance you have of change. For instance, if you get divorced, the tower of your life is falling apart and so your tolerance of change is greatly increased. You have nothing stable to cling and change is the only way you will get back to any stability.

A tower moment can be a  useful experience for doing magic for improbable results, because you have more freedom to turn those results into reality. Your limits are stretched and your set points are open to being recalibrated. You can do magic for improbable results and have it land without the usual resistance and pushback you would otherwise get.

A tower moment is an ideal time to create radical change. If you’ve been wanting to move to a new part of the country or take a risk on a career change and your life is already in a place of upheaval, its the perfect opportunity to take the risk. It’s a calculated risk, because you are using the existing transformation and upheaval to fuel your magic and change your capacity to receive the results.

I don’t recommend this though as a strategy for long term change. In the moment it works. In the long run, it can burn you out. If you want long term success, the incremental approach is best, when paired up with long term/legacy magic. In future posts, I’ll be sharing more about long term/legacy magic and how you can apply it to design your magical life.

Tower Time is officially available!

When the Tower falls, a magician is forged.

You didn’t come to this path to stay safe. You came to wake up.

Tower moments are initiations that tear through your life without warning, but they are not mistakes or punishments. They are thresholds. And every serious practitioner of magic must pass through them.

In Tower Time: Turn Crisis into Catalyst with Practical Magic for Radical Change magicians Taylor Ellwood and Sheena Witter hand you the keys to navigating collapse as a crucible of magical development. This book is a tactical guide for transforming crisis into power, rooted in decades of lived experience, shadow and somatic work, and practical sorcery.

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Directions, Correspondences, and Intentions

I explore the relationship between directions, correspondences and intentions and use this exploration to demonstrate a profound aspect of magical practice in relationship to how we call in the spiritual forces in our lives.

Creating The Beltane altar for Coalessence

Picture courtesy Joanna Brook

Recently I was given the opportunity to create an altar for the Coalessence Ecstatic dance community which has dances every Sunday and Tuesday. It was the Sunday before Beltaine, and on a spur of the moment I decided to volunteer, feeling moved to create an altar. I decided that the theme/focus of the altar would be around Beltaine, and I would dedicate the altar to my patron goddess Aphrodite and patron god Eros.

My approach to creating this altar was also informed by a desire to consider the aesthetics of the deities I was working with as well as the energy I wanted to call into the dance hall. I wanted to make the altar into an art magic working that would call forth the divine power of Aphrodite and Eros and inspire the dancers to celebrate the energies of Beltaine.

I started my process by choosing the items I would bring from my home to the space I was going to be working in. I brought my statues of Aphrodite and Eros, conch shells I had placed on the altar, a bracelet with the inscription of “Live in the Moment,” some crystals in the shapes of hearts, a Lapis Lazuli necklace, a crystal goblet, and roses I recently bought for my beloved, but also as an offering to Aphrodite, since we both work with her.

How to setup your magical space

I discuss how to setup a magical space and what considerations to keep in mind in order to make that space effective for your magical work.

Thanksgiving 2022 Musings

I discuss the power of gratitude, muse on my recent Thanksgiving and share why its so important to honor, respect and love yourself. I also discuss my plans for 2023 in terms of books and classes.

Wealth Magic 3: The Application of Magic

In this third installment we explore the application of magic to wealth, building off the foundation of need and discipline that presents us with an informed awareness about wealth in our lives. I share why its important to apply short and long term perspectives to your magical approach and discuss the benefits of working with spirits or doing wealth magic through practical magic, as well as when to blend the efforts together.

Timing and Magic Part 2: Further thoughts on when to do magic

I explore the significance of planetary hours in magic and share an experiment I’m currently engaged in and what some of my thoughts are on the experiment and how its allowing me to explore my process of magic from a different perspective.

Manifestation is the realization of the imaginal

When we manifest the imagination into reality we turn the seed of potential into a new identity for ourselves and reality. I explain what this means and why it can change your approach to magic when you approach manifestation from your identity instead of from your scarcity.

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Imagination as the seed of reality

Imagination is where reality begins. It is the seed of potential and the promise of manifestation and I share why your imagination can be one of your most potent magical tools, as well as how to work it in to your magical practice.

Sign up for From Imagination to Manifestation: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/from-imagination-to-manifestation

Case Study: An Experiment with Modifying an existing Magical Working

Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels

In last week’s article I shared my perspective on when it’s best to start experimenting with magic. This week I thought I would share an example of an ongoing experiment I’m doing with an existing magical working that I’ve modified extensively. The working in question is the Sphere of Art. I first learned about this working through Robert Stewarts books entitled The Sphere of Art. Before we get into the ongoing work, let me provide a bit of history around what I’ve done with this working.

In October of 2017 I decided to do the Sphere of Art working. The first task I undertook involved memorizing the chants for the sphere of art so I could call in the relevant spirits and energies for setting up the basic Sphere of Art. This memorization took approximately 6 months to accomplish. The benefit of it is that conditioned my mind and body to receive and connect with the spirits and energies embodied by the sphere. The original chants were for the four directions of East, South, West, and North with appropriate correspondences derived for each direction, but after I memorized those chants I made my first modification.

My first modification was to create chants that represented the underworld, the stellar cosmos, and the final point, a point of fixed manifestation that binds all the forces together. These chants were not arbitrarily added to the Sphere of Art, but rather were included because of careful research I did with both the source texts and supplementary texts that indicated that these chants and the corresponding connections with spirits and energies would fit into the Sphere of Art work. So I came up with and memorized the chants and found that indeed there is a fit with the existing material.

Once I memorized all the chants I was ready for the next phase of work which involved gathering together alchemical materials and prepping them to be worked with in the Sphere of Art. In this case I opted to work with homeopathic materials, which I ordered and then stored in 10 glass vials. I also collect spring water and Vodka to be used in 10 additional glass vials. This was all part of the original working, but I also modified the working by creating sacred art for the planetary/elemental energies being worked with, as well as the archangels being worked with.

In October 2018 I started doing the Sphere of Art work, which involved not only the recitation of the chants but also working with the alchemical substances, specifically charging first the dry and then the wet materials for a specific cycle of time. I did this work over the course of two months. A the end of those two months the charging was done.

At this point I modified the working again. Over the course of the next 10 months, I mediated and worked with the alchemical substances, archangels and corresponding planetary/elemental energies for each alchemical substance. For example, in the first month, I worked with dry and wet substances of Carbon, as well as with the underworld energy of Earth and the archangel Sandalaphon. This work involved creating the sphere of art each day, and then taking the substances of the month and meditating with them in order to mediate their energies into the ritual space. I also put up the sacred art in appropriate locations around the ritual space. The purpose of this work was to create a permanent rarified ritual space where the energies and spirits are continually mediated by the space itself, and by the sphere of art work.

In October of 2019 I concluded that work, but continued on with working with the Sphere of Art, specifically in relationship to cultivating a deep and abiding relationship with the elemental energy of creativity. From October 2019 to October 2020 I worked with this element via the Sphere of Art and found that this, along with the previous years’ work set me up with enough creative ideas and work to last the rest of my life. I currently have at least 50 projects to work on, in terms of books alone, with more ideas waiting in the wings.

During this time I also focused on utilizing the Sphere of Art to enhance practical magical workings, specifically around wealth generation, with the goal being to get me back to full time self-employment. I have found that the SOA does amplify workings done within it because you are setting up a very specific space and time with what you want in that space/time and nothing else, until you do the magical work and release it into the universe.

Current work: I am still doing the Sphere of Art everyday, though I did take a month hiatus in late August/early September due to life events. In the last half year or so I’ve also begun learning a lot more qi gong, specifically nei gong work that involves cultivating the internal qi of the body and marrying it to the external forces one chooses to work with. I do find that the Sphere of Art is uniquely suited to this work because it provides the external environment and mediation of forces that can be worked with, but I’m also finding its necessary to first build up one’s internal stores, which is what the main focus of my current work is. I do anticipate as I get more practice I’ll be able to fruitfully join the practices together to enhance my connection with the relevant energies and spirits, while also working with the internal energies I’m cultivating.

All of this work has been carefully done in stages, with any modifications only being done after ensuring necessary precautions have been taken. Overall the work has been beneficial and life changing. I anticipate that this will continue to be life long work that continually changes and develops because of the continued mediation and refinements of the connections being worked with. I share this case study as an example of long term experimentation and what thought/practice must go into such work.

Magic and Responsibility

I talk about responsibility and magic

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