A looooooong week... and some thoughts

It's been an long week here. Lots of mundane work going on, and some magical type research that's looking promising. I've also had two requests for my services that came in on the same day from different continents. One I passed on to others with more experience, the other is something I'll be taking care of on principle.

Some quick thoughts on things in general:

On Power and Duty*

POS wrote an interesting blog post on Power, and it resonated well with the kinds of things I've been dealing with in life lately. With power comes the responsibility to use it. If you don't actively seek ways to use the stuff we learn and earn in our Work, the universe is happy to fill in the void left by our neglect. I've commented about this before, but it bears repeating.


On Research

Read the grimoires through a few times. I'm finding that I miss a lot on the first couple of read-throughs, even when I think I'm absorbing everything. Many of the gaps in my understanding have been filled by going back over sections while looking for something else. Most of the questions I have about grimoire magic are really addressed in the source grimoire. They aren't as gappy, disjointed, or missing vital bits of information as I might think.

On Magic for Money

The more I look at other people's reasons for doing money magic, the more I learn about my own efforts in that regard. Most money magic is done to achieve something other than obtaining money. People want money to get out of their country, or to get love, or to be free of debt, or to get a new car, or whatever. In every case, the thing actually desired isn't money, the money is simply the means they see for acquiring what they want. We look at stuff and the currency cost associated with it because that's how you get things in mundane reality. You want something, you buy it. But magic doesn't work that way.

Instead of aiming for the means to get something using mundane means, the better approach is to aim for what you really want. There are spirits who get people out of their country, spirits that bring love, spirits that free people from obligations, spirits that provide transportation. The way the spirits bring things into manifestation is not by giving you the money to buy it. For example, you may want a new car, do a rite for a new car, and end up having a neighbor move to Ireland and have to get rid of his car. (See Gordon's Black Swan post for more info on how magic works, excellent stuff.) Go for what you really want, not what you think the means to get it might be.

On Getting What You Want

Patience, man, patience. I'm beginning to see that patience is possibly the best magical virtue you can cultivate. Everything that was stressing me out a month ago (and I did do magic about it) is now working itself out. Everything I wanted to have a month ago I'm getting now. Magic works, but it takes a while to manifest. I know, that's not news, but the application of that truth is pretty useful.

People talk about assuming the magic has already worked as if that sense of confidence is somehow a factor in getting it to work. I'm finding that it doesn't matter whether you think the magic has worked or not, it usually does work. Sitting at rest in the comfort of knowing that your desired outcome is on the way is a lot more comfortable than stressing out over stuff, but I'm pretty sure that's the only benefit.

I talk a lot about remembering that in eternity, everything we're going through has already happened, and trying to achieve and maintain a certain degree of detachment from existence that leads to embracing the Now and living in the moment, but it doesn't have to be eternity that we have to wait. Try to grab that assurance that things will work themselves out een before we die, even before next year, even before three months from now, and you're free to enjoy the moments between now and when you get what you want. At least, as much as possible. It's a lot easier to deal with the stress of temporarily being out of my permanent home than  it would be to deal with being a prisoner of war held by enemy combatants with a penchant for beheading captives and posting the videos online, for example.

On Money for Magic

I'm still open to getting paid to do magic for people, but I find I'm passing up opportunities to charge large sums for things I was actively looking for a month ago on principles. Principles! It seems I have them. Ethical considerations too.

It hasn't escaped my notice that a certain lack of desperation has left me more ethical and scrupulous. I can afford to be ethical now; when I was looking into ways to charge large sums for magic of dubious integrity, I was broke and getting broker. Jason's "emergency magic is always bad magic" rule seems to apply to more than just emergency rituals for cash.

* I have powerful duty. Yeah, I said it. :D