Magic Vs Prayer


Magic Vs Prayer Cover
One of the questions brought up was the difference between Magick and prayer, and how this ties into the scheme of things in general. Well, I feel that prayer and magick are only loosely connected. In prayer, a person pleas with their deity for assistance. Energy wise, the person praying is asking that something be changed, and believes that the request will result in a change.

In magick, we use our inner energy, combined with earthly and elemental energy and Deity energy, and send this forth do accomplish the goal of our spell. I think it's like "breaking" in the game of pool. We are controlling stick (our spell), while we gather the energy to push the stick/spell. Our Cone Of Power is like the cue ball, and the racked balls are the target, which effects a change (breaks, or the goal of our spell) from the force of our energy. There may be a point where prayer becomes a type of magick (or, a psychic event) if the person knows of the personal energies involved, and releases them with the prayer. I feel that a prayer works the opposite way. The prayer is a request to effect a change in the ambient energy and invoke God (using the Christian form). This
change in energy is slower because it is "diluted" in the surrounding energy and depends solely on faith ("I believe it will happen, so it will").

Am I out in left field or just being redundant? I forgive if I'm "running at the mouth". Now I'll try and tie in Parapsychology. Magic and psi are very closely related in that (aside for leaving out the 'k' in magicK) the same form of energy is used. It's just on a different 'frequency'. When I do an object reading or empathic reading on someone/thing, I'm receiving a type of energy. When I send a Cone of Power, I'm using the same type of energy, but on a (higher?) wavelength and with greater force and higher power. Grounding
negative feelings is an example of onverting one form to the other. Auric healing is the opposite. So, I feel the energies are inter-changeable. I ask, as Elsbeth has, "What do you think of THIS?" As someone stated before, the definitions we are trying to define and clarify are our own, much like our beliefs- our own. We are trying to find, I believe, common ground between the nuances of our definitions and beliefs.

Blessed Be! Salgamma

Recommended reading (pdf e-books):

Aubrey Bell - The Magic Of Spain
Anonymous - Magic And Wyrd
Solomonic Grimoires - The Magic Of Armadel

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Relaxation Ritual


Relaxation Ritual Cover
1- Sit or lie in a place where you will not be disturbed. Get comfortable. You arms and legs should not be crossed. Your eyes should be closed.
2- Visualize a ball of warm golden light surrounding your feet. The ball always brings peace and total relaxation. Let it go and as it goes, feel you feet being filled with the warm golden glow of total relaxation and peace.
3- Now allow this ball of light to rise up to your legs and up your torso. Then allow it to go down your arms to your fingers, and finally up your neck to your head. You are covered with the warm glow of peace and relaxation.
4- Stay in this state for a few moments. Be at one with yourself.
5- When you want to come out of it, take three deep breaths and feel fresh energy come into your body.

Also try this free pdf e-books:

George Robert Stowe Mead - A Mithraic Ritual
Anton Szandor Lavey - The Satanic Rituals

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Rituals And Spell Objectives Octarine Magic


Rituals And Spell Objectives Octarine Magic Cover
Following Pratchett's hypothesis, the eighth colour of the spectrum, which is the magic-ians personal perception of the "colour of magic", may be called octarine. For me, this is a particular shade of electric pinkish-purple. My most significant optical visions have all occurred in this hue, and I visualize it to colour many of my more important spells and sigils on the astral. Before I set sail in a handmade open boat through the Arabian Sea I was tricked into accepting a huge and priceless star ruby by a wizard in India. It was of an exactly octarine hue. During the most violent typhoon I have ever experienced I found myself shrieking my conjurations to Thor and Poseidon whilst clinging to the bowsprit as mountainous waves smashed into the boat and octarine lightning bolts crashed into the sea all around. Looking back it seems miraculous that I and my crew survived. I have kept the octarine stone, uncertain as to whether it was passed to me as a curse, a joke, a blessing, or a test, or all of these things.

Other magicians perceive octarine in different ways. My personal perception of octarine is probably a consequence of sex (purple) and anger (red) being my most effective forms of gnosis. Each should seek out the colour of magic for himself.

The octarine power is our instinctual drive towards magic, which, if allowed to flower, creates the magician self or personality in the psyche, and in affinity with various magic-ian god forms. The "Magician Self" varies naturally between magicians, but has the general characteristics of antinomianism and deviousness, with a predilection for manip-ulation and the bizarre. The antinomianism of the magician self arises partly from the general estrangement of our culture from magic. The magician self therefore tends to take an interest in everything that does not exist, or should not exist, according to ordinary consensus reality. To the magician self, "Nothing is Unnatural". A statement full of endless meanings. The deviousness of the magician self is a natural extension of the sleight of
mind required to manipulate the unseen. The god forms of the octarine power are those which correspond most closely with the characteristics of the magician self, and are usually the magicians most important modes of possession for purely magical inspiration. Baphomet, Pan, Odin, Loki, Tiamat, Ptah, Eris, Hekate, Babalon, Lilith and Ishtar are examples of god forms which can be used in this way.

Alternatively the magician may wish to formulate a magician god form on a purely idiosyncratic basis, in which case the symbolism of the serpent and the planet Uranus often prove useful starting points.

The magician can invoke such god forms for the illumination of various aspects of the magical self, and for various works of pure rather than applied magic. The category of pure magic includes such activities as the development of magical theories and philos-ophies, and magical training programs, the devising of symbolic systems for use in divinations, spells and incantations, and also the creation of magical languages for similar purposes. It is worth noting here that chaos-magical languages are usually now written in V-Prime before transliteration into magical barbaric form. V-Prime or Vernac-ular Prime is simply one's native tongue in which all use of all tenses of the verb "to be" is omitted in accordance with quantum metaphysics. All the nonsense of transcendent-alism disappears quite naturally once this tactic is adopted. There is no being, all is doing.

The octarine power is invoked to inspire the magician self and to expand the magicians primary arcana. The primary personal arcana consists of the fundamental symbols with which he interprets and interacts with reality (whatever that may assault perception as), magically. These symbols may be theories or kabbalas, obsessions, magical weapons, astral or physical, or indeed anything which relates to the practice of magic generally, that is not dedicated specifically to one of the other powers of applied magic, whose symbols form the secondary personal arcana of magic.

From the vantage point of the octarine gnosis, the magician self should be able to perceive the selves of the other seven powers, and be able to see their interrelationship within his total organism.

Thus the octarine power brings some ability in psychiatry, which is the adjustment of the relationship between the selves in an organism. The basis difference between a magician and a civilian is that the latter the octarine power is vestigial or undeveloped. The normal resting or neutral mode a civilian corresponds to a mild expression of the yellow power which he regards as his normal personality or "ego". The magician self however, is fully aware that this is but one of eight major tools that the organism posse-sses. Thus, in a sense, the "normal personality" of the magician is a tool of his magical self (and, importantly, vice versa). This realization gives him some advantage over ordinary people. However the developing magical self will soon realize that it is not in itself superior to the other selves that the organism consists of, for there are many things they can do which it cannot.

The development of the octarine power through the philosophy and practice of magic tends to provide the magician with a second major centre amongst the selves to compl-ement the ego of the yellow power. The awakening of the octarine power is sometimes known as "being bitten by the serpent". Those who have been, are usually as instantly recognizable to each other as, for example, two lifeboat survivors are.

Perhaps one of the greatest tricks of sleight of mind is to allow the magician self and the ego to dance together within the psyche without undue conflict. The magician who is unable to disguise himself as an ordinary person, or who is unable to act independently of his own ego, is no magician at all.

Nevertheless, the growth of the octarine, or eighth power of the self, and the discovery of the type of magician one wants to be, and the identification or synthesis of a god form to represent it, tend to create something of a mutant being, who has advanced into a paradigm that few others are aware of. It is not easy to turn back once the journey has begun, though quite a few have tried to abort the voyage with various narcotics includ-ing mysticism. It is a pilgrimage to an unknown destination, in which one awakes succe-ssively from one nightmare into another. Some on them appear vastly entertaining at the time. There are worlds within us, the abysses are just the initiations in between them.

The evocation of an octarine servitor can create an invaluable tool for those engaged in magical research. The main functions of such entities are usually to assist in the disco-very of useful information and contacts. Negative results should not be ignored here, the complete failure of a well prepared servitor to retrieve information about the hypothetical cosmic "big bang", was a contributory factor in the development of the Fiat Nox theory, for example.

Recommended reading (pdf e-books):

Scott Cunningham - Earth Air Fire And Water More Techniques Of Natural Magic
Keith Thomas - Civility And The Decline Of Magic

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Elemental Magick Earth


Elemental Magick Earth Cover
The elemental Spirits of Earth are the Gnomes.

Mastering The Element Earth….

1- Make a list of things which have the combined qualities of dryness and coolness. However, don't to this just out of your head. Rather, make a list of Earth things that you see each day. Practice this for one week. Be sure to record the results each day in your magickal diary.

2- Find a place filled with nature, such as a field or park. Wear as little clothing as you can (if possible, nudity is best), and sit or lie on the ground so that as much of your skin as possible is touching the ground. This is especially easy for women, as they can simply wear a flowing skirt with no underwear and sit on the ground with the skirt spread out. Spend some time contemplating, feeling the coolness and dryness of the Earth. You should do this at least three times within a week.

3- Spend a period of up to three minutes (no more), once a day, imagining that you are the element Earth. Feel the heaviness, the slowness, the coolness and dryness of Earth. Feel the way you can absorb the pains and problems of the world (however, do not actually do so). Become Earth. Do this exercise for at least a week before moving to the next exercise.

4- Once you have leaned to "be Earth", the next step is to control the element Earth. Bring the feeling from the previous exercise into your consciousness. Next, hold your hands 9-12 inches apart, palms facing each other. Imagine a bottle or box between your hands. Now, as you exhale, visualize all of the Earth element which is in you going out with your breath and into the container between your hands. Three to five breaths should be enough to fill it. Then, with three breaths, inhale it back into you and go back to normal consciousness.

THE TEST

The next time you feel lightheaded, overweight, just heavy and lethargic, do this exercise. If you feel lighter and better, you have succeeded, with the test AND with mastering the element Earth.

Also try this free pdf e-books:

Benjamin Rowe - Enochian Magick Reference
Malcolm Mcgrath - Practical Magickal Evocation
Dion Fortune - Ceremonial Magic Unveiled

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That Old Black Magic


That Old Black Magic Cover
Getting Specific about Magical Ethics

Sometimes a clichй just wears out. It loses meaning or, worse, begins to say things we never meant. I think it's time to retire the phrase "black magic."

Saying "black" when we mean "evil" is nasty nonsense. In the first place, it reinforces the racist stereotypes that corrupt our society. And that's not all. Whenever we say "black" instead of "bad," we repeat again the big lie that darkness is wrong. It isn't, as people who profess to love Nature should know.

Darkness can mean the inside of the womb, and the seed germinating within the Earth, and the chaos that gives rise to all truly new beginnings. In our myths, the one who goes down to the underworld returns with the treasure. Even death, to the Wiccan understanding, is well-earned rest and comfort, and a preparation for new birth. Using "black" to mean "bad" is a blasphemy against the Crone. But even if we no longer speak of magic as "black" or "white," we still need to think and speak about the ethics of magic. Although black is not evil, some actions are evil. It simply is not true that anything a person is strong enough or skilled enough to do is OK, nor should doing what we will ever be the whole of the law for us. We need a clear and specific vocabulary that enables us to choose wisely what we will do.

We need to replace the word "black," not simply to drop it. Some Pagans have tried using "negative" as their substitute, but that turned out to be confusing. For some people, "negative" means any spell to diminish or banish anything. Some things - tumors, depression, bigotry - are harmful. There's nothing wrong with a working to get rid of bad stuff. "Left-handed" is another common term for wrongful practice, very traditional, but just as ignorant, superstitious and potentially harmful as the phrase "black magic" itself. So in Proteus we tried using the word "unethical." That's a lot better - free of extraneous and false implications - but still too vague.

Gradually, I began to wonder whether using any one word, "black" or "unethical" or whatever, might just be too general and too subjective. Perhaps all I really tell a student that way is "Judy doesn't like that."

I won't settle for blind obedience. If ethical principles are going to survive the twin tests of time and temptation, people need to understand just what to avoid, and why. Even more important, they need a basis for figuring out what to do instead. Especially when it comes to projective magic.

Projective magic means active workings, the kind in which we project our will out into the world to make some kind of change. This is what most people think of when they use the word magic at all. Quite clearly, magic that may affect other people is magic that can harm. This is the basis of the proverb "a Witch who can't hex can't heal." Either you can raise and direct power, or you can't. Your strength and skill can be used for blessing or for bane. The choice - and the karma - are yours.

Just as some people feel that strength and skill are their own justification, others feel that any projective magic is always wrong - that it is a distraction from our one true goal of union with the Divine or a willful avoidance of the judgments of Karma. I think these attitudes are equally inconsistent with basic Wiccan philosophy.

We are taught that we will find the Lady within ourselves or not at all, that the Mother of All has been with us from the beginning. We can't now establish a union that was always there. All we can do, all we need to do, is become aware. Knowing what it feels like to heal and empower, again and again till you can't dismiss it as coincidence, is one of the most powerful methods for awakening that awareness. It makes no sense to say that the direct experience and exercise of our indwelling divinity distracts from the Great Work.

Indeed, it is this intimate connection between our magic and our self-realization that our ethics protect. Wrongful use of magic will choke the channel. No short term gain could ever compensate for that.

The karmic argument against practical workings seems to me to arise from a paranoid and defeatist world view. Even if we assume that the hardships in this life were put there by the Gods for a reason, how can we be so sure that the reason was punishment? Perhaps instead of penance to be endured, our difficulties are challenges to be met. Coping and dealing with our problems, learning magical and mundane skills, changing ourselves and our world for the better - in short, growing up - is that not what the Gods of joy and freedom want from us?

One of the most radically different things about a polytheistic belief system is that each one of us has the right, and the need, to choose which God/desses will be the focus of our worship. We make these choices knowing that whatever energies we invoke most often in ritual will shape our own further growth. Spiritual practices are a means of self-programming. So we are responsible for what we worship in a way that people who take their One God as a given are not.

Think about this: what kind of Power actively wants us to submit and suffer, and objects when we develop skills to improve our own lives? Not a Being I'd want to invite around too often!

So it will not work for us to rule out projective magic completely; nor should we. Total prohibitions are as thoughtless as total permissiveness or blind obedience. Ethical and spiritual adults ought to be able to make distinctions and well-reasoned choices. I offer here a start toward analyzing what kinds of magic are not ethical for us.

Baneful magic is magic done for the explicit purpose of causing harm to another person. Usually the reason for it is revenge, and the rationalization is justice. People who defend the practice of baneful magic often ask "but wouldn't you join in cursing another Hitler?"

For adults there is no rule without exceptions. If you think you would never torture somebody, consider this scenario: in just half an hour the bomb will go off, killing everybody in the city, and this terrorist knows where it is hidden....

It's a bad mistake to base your ethics on wildly unlikely cases, since none of us honestly knows how we would react in that kind of extreme. Reasonable ethical statements are statements about the behaviors we expect of ourselves under normally predictable circumstances.

We all get really angry on occasion, and sometimes with good cause. Then revenge can seem like no more than simple justice. The anger is a normal, healthy human reaction, and should not be repressed. But there's no more need to act it out in magic than in physical violence. Instead of going for revenge - and invoking the karmic consequences of baneful magic - identify what you really need. For example, if your anger comes from a feeling that you have been attacked or violated, what you need is protection and safe space. Work for the positive goal, it's both more effective and safer.

The consequences of baneful magic are simply the logical, natural and inevitable psychological effects. Even in that rare and extreme situation when you may decide you really do have to use magic to give Hitler a heart attack, it means you are choosing by the same choice to accept the act's karma. Magical attack hurts the attacker first.

The only way I know how to do magic is by use of my imagination, by visualizing or otherwise actively imagining the end I want, and then projecting that goal with the energy of emotional/physiological arousal. All the techniques I know either help me to imagine more specifically or to project more strongly. So the only way I can send out harm is by first experiencing that harm within my own imagination. Instant and absolute karma - the natural, logical and inevitable outcomes of our own choices.

I would think, also, that somebody dumb enough to do such workings often would soon lose the ability to imagine specifically, as their sensitivity dulled in sheer self-defense. That callusing effect is the reality behind the pious proverb that says "if you abuse it, She'll take it away."

But not every other magician is ethical. Psychic attacks do happen. Should we not defend ourselves? Of course we should. Leaving ourselves open to psychic attack is no good example of the autonomy and assertiveness our chosen Gods expect. But first, how can we be sure what we are experiencing really is psychic attack?

The fantasy of psychic attack is often a convenient excuse that allows us to avoid looking at our own shortcomings. When lack of rest or improper nutrition is the cause of illness, or a project isn't completed on time because of distraction, it's a real temptation to put the blame outside ourselves. Doing this too easily betrays our autonomy just as badly as meek submission to attack does. Then, to compound matters, projected blame becomes an excuse for unjust revenge -- and that is baneful magic without excuse.

Once in a rare while, some fool really does try to throw a whammy. It's hard to predict when you might be targeted. Passive shields are always a good idea. Like a mirror, these are totally inactive until somebody sends unwelcome energy. Then a shield will protect you completely and bounce back whatever is being thrown. You may not even know consciously when your shield is working, but the result is perfect justice. Perfect justice; elegant and efficient. You won't hurt anybody out of paranoia or by mistake. And perfect protection, even though we do not have perfect knowledge.

Bindings, according to some, are completely defensive. They do not harm, only restrain. But imagine yourself being bound - perhaps by someone who believes themselves justified - and notice the feeling of impotence and frustration. Binding is bane from the viewpoint of the bound.

Even if restraint were truly not harm, bindings are just plain poor protection. They target a particular person or group. What if you suspect the wrong person? Somebody harmless is bound and your actual attacker is not bound. Shields, which cover you, not your supposed enemy, will cover you against any enemy, known or unknown.

So, baneful magic, besides being painful in the short run and crippling in the long run, is never necessary. There are better ways of self protection, and retribution is the business of the Gods.

Coercive magic is magic that targets another person to make them give us something we want or need. When most people think of the "Magic Power of Witchcraft," this is what they have in mind.

The spell to make the teacher give you a good grade, or the supervisor give you a good evaluation, the spell to make the personnel officer or renting agent choose you, the spell to attract that cute guy, all are examples of coercive magic.

So, what's wrong with high grades, a good job, a raise, a nice apartment and a sexy lover? There's nothing at all wrong with those goals. An it harm none, do what ye will. As long as nobody is hurt, go for it! But don't strive toward good ends by coercive means.

Although there is no deliberate intent to do harm or cause pain in coercive workings, other people are treated as pawns. Their autonomy and their interests are ignored.

For Pagans, to do this is total hypocrisy. We profess to follow a religion of immanence, one that places ultimate meaning and value in this life on this Earth, here and now. We claim to see every living thing, humans included, as a sacred manifestation. To do honor to this indwelling divinity, we place great value on our own personal autonomy. How can we then justify treating other people as objects for our use?

Nor is it harmless. Forcing the will, controlling the independent judgment of another human being, is harm. Once again, empathy leads to understanding. Just imagine you are the person whose will and judgment is being externally controlled. How does puppethood feel? From the viewpoint of the target, the harm is palpable.

The Pagan and Wiccan community as a whole is also hurt by coercive magic. One of the main reasons people fear and hate Witches is our reputation for controlling others. This is an old, dirty lie, created by the invading religion in an attempt to discredit the indigenous competition. Today, that reputation is mostly perpetuated by people who claim to be "our own," who teach unethical coercive magic by mail order to strangers whose ethical sensitivity cannot be evaluated long distance. May the Gods preserve the Craft!

People who are connected to the situation, but invisible to us, may also be seriously hurt: the cute guy's fiancee, the other applicant for that job. What you think of as a working designed only to bring good to yourself can bring serious harm to innocent third parties, and the karma of their pain will be on you.

That isn't the only way an incomplete view of the situation can backfire. There's a traditional saying that goes, "be careful about what you ask for, because that's exactly what you will get." What if he is gorgeous, but abusive? What if the apartment house is structurally unsound? Better to state your legitimate needs (love in my life, a nice place to live) and let the Gods deal with the details.

Finally, remember this: asking specifically limits us to what we now know or what we can now imagine. But I remember a time when I could not have imagined being a priestess. What if the cute guy in the office is perfectly OK, but your absolutely perfect soul-mate will be in the A+P next Wednesday? The more specifically targeted your magic is, the more you limit yourself to a life of tautology and missed chances.

And beyond all the scenario spinning lies the instant karma, the natural, logical and inevitable consequence of the act. It's more subtle than in the case of baneful magic, since you are not trying to imagine and project pain, but the damage is still real.

Every time you treat another human being as a thing to be pushed and pulled around for your convenience and pleasure, you are reinforcing your own alienation. The attitude of being removed from and superior to other people takes you out of community. As the attitude strengthens, so will the behavior it engenders. The long term result of coercive magic, as with mundane forms of coercion, is isolation and loneliness.

Are you beginning to think that magic is useless? Did I just rule out all the good stuff: love charms, job magic, spells for good grades? Not at all. It is not only ethical but good for you to do lots of magic to improve your own life. Whenever it works you will get more than you asked for - because along with whatever you asked for comes one more experience of your own effectiveness, your power-from-within.

Work on yourself and your own needs and desires without targeting other people. Then feel free! Ask for what you want. Visualize it and raise power for it and act in accordance on the material plane. "I need a caring and horny lover with a good sense of humor." "I want an affordable apartment near where my coven meets with a tree outside my window." "I need to be at my best when I take that exam next week." Fulfill your dreams, and sometimes let the Gods surprise you with gifts beyond your dreams.

Manipulative magic is magic that targets another person for what we think is "their own good," without regard for their opinions in the matter. In the general culture around us, this is normal. As you read this, you may have some friend or relative praying for you to be "saved" from your evil Pagan ways and returned to the fold of their preference. These people mean you well. By their own lights, they are attempting to heal you. We work from a very different theological base.

As polytheists, we affirm the diversity of the divine and the divinity of diversity. If there is no one, true, right and only way in general, do we dare to assume that there is one obvious right choice for a person in any given situation? If more than one choice may be "right," how can one person presume they know what another person would want without asking them first?

No life situation ever looks the same from outside as it does to the person who is experiencing it. Are you sure you even have all the facts? Are you fully aware of all the emotional entanglements involved? Perhaps that illness is the only way they have of getting rest or getting attention. Perhaps they stay in that dead end job because it leaves them more energy to concentrate on their music. How do you know till you ask?

And, to further complicate the analysis, it's possible that the person you are trying to help would agree with you about the most desirable outcome, but fears and hates the very idea of magic. They have as much of a right to keep magic out of their own life, as you have to make it part of yours!

Our religion teaches that the sacred lives within each person, that we can hear the Lady's voice for ourselves if we only learn to listen. "... If that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without." In behavioral terms, when you take another person's opinion about their own life seriously, you are reinforcing them in thinking and choosing for themselves. The more you do this, the more you encourage them to listen for the sacred inner voice.

Conversely, whenever you ignore or override a person's feelings about their own life, you are discounting those feelings and discouraging the kind of internal attention that can keep the channels to wisdom open. Although well-intentioned meddling may actually help somebody in the short run, in the longer run it trains them to dependency and indecision. Few intentional banes damage as severely. This is especially true because even the untrained and unaware will instinctively resist overt ill-will, but in our culture we are trained to receive "expert" interference with gratitude.

Check by asking yourself, "who's in charge here?" The answer to that will tell you whether you are basically empowering or undermining the person you intend to help.

And, as usual, the effects go both ways. The same uninvited intervention that fosters passivity in the recipient will foster arrogance in the "rescuer." Its control and ego-inflation masked as generosity. It's very seductive. If you make this a habit, you will come to believe that other people are incompetent and powerless. Then what happens when you need help? Your contempt will make it impossible for you to see what resources surround you. Manipulative magic is ultimately just as alienating as coercive magic - and it's a much
prettier trap!

The way to avoid the trap is to do no working affecting another person without that person's explicit permission. Proteans are pledged to this, and I think it's a good idea for anybody.

You don't need to wait passively for the person to ask. It's perfectly all right to offer, as long as you are willing to sometimes accept "no" for your answer. For the person who believes s/he is unworthy or who is simply too shy, offering help is itself a gift. Taking their opinion seriously is an even greater gift: respect.

The rule is that whenever it is in anyway physically possible to ask, you must ask. If it's not important enough to pay long distance charges, it certainly isn't important enough to violate a friend's autonomy. If asking is literally not possible, then and only then, here are a few exceptions: Sometimes an illness or injury happens very suddenly, and the person is unconscious or in a coma before you could possibly ask them. If you know that this person is generally comfortable with magic, you may do workings to keep their basic body systems working and allow the normal healing process the time it needs. If they are opposed to magic, for whatever reason, back off!

Traditionally, an unconscious person is understood to be temporarily out of their body. Maintaining their body in habitable condition is preserving their option, not choosing for them. Doing maintenance magic requires a lot of sensitivity. At some point, the time may come when you should stop and let the person go on. Be sure to use some kind of divination to help you stay aware.

This is a hard road. It may be your lover, your child, lying there helpless. Any normal human being would be tempted to drag them back, to force them to stay regardless of what is truly best for them, regardless of what they want. Don't repress these feelings, they do no harm, even though your actions might. It takes great strength and non-possessive love to recognize that your loved one knows their own need. You may be calling them back to a crippled body, to a life of pain. You may be calling them back from the ecstasy of the Goddess. And this is no more your right than it would be to murder them.

If a person is temporarily not reachable, you may charge up a physical object, such as an appropriate talisman or some incense. When you present it to them, give them a full explanation. It is their choice whether to keep or use your gift. By interposing an object between the magic and the target in this way, you can work the magic in Circle, with the coven's power to draw on, and still get the person's permission before the magic is triggered.

With all these rules about permission, perhaps it would be safer to work only on ourselves? Safer, yes, but not nearly as good. If you have permission, you may do any working for another person that you might do for yourself. Coercive magic is just as unacceptable when somebody else asks for it, and you may not do manipulative magic on your friend's mother, even at your friend's request. The permission must come from the magic's intended target and from nobody else. With proper permission, working magic for others is good for all concerned.

Every act of magic has two effects. One is the direct effect, the healing or prosperity working or whatever was intended. The other is a minute change in the mind and the heart of the person who does the working. Everything we experience, and especially everything that we do in a wholehearted and focused way - the only way effective magic can be done - changes us. Each experience leaves its tiny trace, but the traces are cumulative. They mold the person we will become. Our karma is our choice.

Instant karma can also be good karma. Logical, natural and inevitable outcomes can be desirable. When you send out good, what you send it with is love. Love is the driving force. When you let love flow freely, the channel down to love's wellspring stays clear and open. When you send out good, you direct it along the web of person-to-person connection, and awareness of that web is reinforced. The totality of that web is the basis of community.

When you send out good it feels good. In the same way that sending out bane requires imagining pain, sending out blessing requires imagining pleasure, strongly and specifically. And, when you send out good, just the same as when you call it to yourself, you reinforce your sense of effectiveness in the world. Blessings grow in the fertile ground of mutuality, to the benefit of all.

A pattern is becoming visible. In baneful magic, the magician intends to harm the target. In coercive magic, the intent toward the target is neutral. In manipulative magic, the magician actually means the target well. But no matter how different the intent may be, in all three cases magic is done to affect another person without that person's permission. In all three cases, the target, the practitioner and ultimately the community are all hurt. And in all three cases, there are safer and more effective ways to reach the valid goals that we mean to aim for.

So, perhaps there is a descriptive word that covers all wrongful magical workings after all. How about "non-consensual" or "invasive" magic?

There's one thing left to examine: the paradox of making rules to protect personal autonomy.

If we make some of our choices as a community, by discussing things together and arriving at a common understanding about what magical behaviors are acceptable among us, then we choose and shape the kind of community we become.

Or we could give up our right to choose, because we feel we shouldn't tell each other what to do. Some people believe that a refusal to set community standards promotes personal autonomy. It never has before.

Appeals to individual rights can be real seductive. None of us wants Big Brother looking over our shoulders, telling us what to do "for our own good." For Witches in particular - members of a religious minority with bad image problems - this is a very legitimate fear. But make sure when somebody talks about "rights" without specifying something like "religious practice rights" or "the right to consensual sex," that you find out just what "rights" they mean.

Rhetoric about "rugged individualism" has been used in recent history to fast talk us into letting the rich or strong dominate all our lives. Without anything to stop them, they can destroy the forestland, or deny jobs or apartments to "cultists." Personal autonomy for most of us is diminished when we allow that.

Magic can be used for dominance, just the same as muscle or money. There is no difference, ethically, between the magical and the mundane. We are not obligated to tolerate power trippers among us. We are not obligated to run our own community by the slogans and ground rules of the dominator culture.

Thinking about "rights," or about "laws" for that matter, in the abstract leads to "all or nothing" thinking - immature and slogan driven. I don't think we should ever "just say" anything. We need a deeper and more mature analysis. We need to ask questions like "right to do what?" and "law against what?" We need to get away from absolutes and to look in practical terms at the advantages or disadvantages of our choices.

Once more, our religion itself shows us the way to steer between the false choices. "An it harm none, do what you will." What a person does that affects only herself - magical or mundane - is truly nobody's business but her own. For example, consensual sexual behavior affects only the participants. But toxic waste dumping affects everybody in the watershed.

As long as we look at behavior in terms of private choices or individual will, we obscure the distinction that really makes a difference. If we're serious about wanting to give each of us the most possible control over our own lives, then decisions should be made by all the people affected by the behavior - not just by the people acting.

As soon as another person is magically targeted, that other person is affected. If we allow such targeting without consent, we are not supporting personal autonomy, we are subverting it!

When the behavior begins to affect us all - for example when real estate development threatens the salt marshes, and ultimately the air supply - or, very specifically, when invasive magic erodes the trust we need to work together - then we have a right to protect ourselves as a community. No ideology should turn us into passive victims when something we hold precious stands to be destroyed.

Invasive magic hurts the target first, and soon the actor, but in the long run it hurts all of us. It's been so long since we've been able to meet together, share our knowledge, help one another in need. Pagan community is very new, and still very fragile. It can only grow in safe space. The People of this Land forbade skirmishes around the pipestone quarries, keeping that sacred source open to all. Otherwise, no sane person would go there, and the Old Ways would wither. For much the same reason, we cannot tolerate poppets in our council meetings.

An atmosphere of coercion and manipulation and magical duels does not nurture community. Eventually, for self-protection, the gentle will either change or go away. We could lose what we have misguidedly refused to protect.

As within, so without: our karma is our choice.

by Judy Harrow

Recommended reading (pdf e-books):

Anonymous - The Basics Of Magick
Ophiel - The Art Practice Of Caballa Magic
Israel Regardie - The Art And Meaning Of Magic

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A Wassail Ceremony


A Wassail Ceremony Cover
Here is a simple wassail ceremony.

* Heat a large container of ale or beer - about 3 or 4 pints.
* Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup mixed spices (cinnamon sticks and whole cloves are also excellent)
* Cut up 2 or 3 small sweet apples and add those.
* Add 1 1/4 cup of pineapple juice and the same of orange.
* Squeeze 2 lemons into the brew.
* Place over a slow flame; then, before it begins to boil, take off the heat and whip up some cream. Let this float on top of the brew like foam.
* Put into a suitably large bowl (the more ornate the better).
* Toast several slices of bread, if you have fruit cake you can use pieces of that instead.
* Now, with a few friends, go out to the tree or trees (_see note below_).
* Dip pieces of toasted bread into the brew and place in the branches of the tree. Hang pieces of bread and cake from the higher twigs to encourage robins (guardian spirits of the trees). Bend the lower branches down and dip their ends in the brew.
* Wet the roots liberally with the brew. Pass the rest around and when everyone is thoroughly warmed up, sing a wassailing song.
* Lift your glasses to the tree and shout "Huzzah!" three times as loudly as you can.

NOTE: These don't have to be apple trees, since any tree will benefit from a well-intentioned blessing, but it is traditional to wassail fruit-bearing trees. You can wassail the trees in your yard, near your home, or trees in some previously selected area.

Recommended books (free to download):

Arthur Edward Waite - What Is Alchemy
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Silver Key

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