A Couple of Weeks

Ok, so the general rule I have for seeing magical results is that it takes a couple weeks. Average. Once in a while you get same day confirmations in manifestations that read like a row in a correspondence table. Like you do a Jupiter rite on a Thursday morning, and you get a call that afternoon in the Jupiter Hour from someone who found your resume on the internet and wants to bring you in for an interview, and the first available date they have is next Thursday. (Example based on a true story.) Or you do a Moon rite and you go to the mall and someone sprays you with Opium cologne. Something happens that is just obviously related to the magic you just did.

But that's not the result of your magic, not all the result. I mean, it fucking better not be. What good is a spritz of cologne or landing an interview if the real goal of the magic fails? Those mini manifestations are nice faith boosters and make for fun FaceBook updates, but they aren't the goal. They're the side effect. When I do Jupiter magic, I want:

1. HEALTH
2. WEALTH
3. EXPANSION

I don't want to get splashed by a blue luxury car with orange license plates. It's not the same thing.

(And fuck that, Mr. Universe, it's not funny.)

So yeah, I enjoy symbolism manifesting itself as a confirmation of my magical activities, but what I really want out of it is the actual intent of the rite. So that cool rite I did that left me on fire the other day is going to start manifesting materially in my life in a couple of weeks. 

What am I manifesting now?

I'm manifesting the magic I did a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes stuff from a month ago, sometimes stuff from last week, but generally, stuff I did a couple of weeks ago is taking center stage in my life today.

My problem is I'll do some magic for a couple of weeks, and then it starts to manifest, and I get all into the process of making it happen and enjoying the fruits of my labors, and I'm not doing anything to get any more magic going. So then the stuff I'm doing on purpose to make my life better hits its climax and starts to fade, and since I haven't planted any seeds to make more stuff come into being, the universe just takes whatever's lying around and brings about those consequences. And if I haven't been proactive, I end up being reactive.

So the struggle is to keep doing something to make improvements I want to be experiencing in a couple of weeks. That doesn't mean do magic every day to change the world, although that wouldn't be all bad. It's just not very realistic.

It does mean having a plan that has long term goals and things to do every week to keep the process going. The gates series provides a framework for that, a five-week process that is aimed at making your life better, and keeps you thinking about what you're doing. It's been good for me. 

Most magic I do lasts for about a full lunar cycle. It slowly creeps into being, it climaxes, and then it starts fading off to stage right. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it's gone forever, but most of the time I'm focusing on everything else that's come up. Having an overarching set of goals with weekly checkpoints that actually do something to keep me moving forward has been great. I get to see the cumulative effects as I keep moving forward. It's generating new experiences, birthing new perspectives, and keeping me focused on accomplishments AND plans instead of just the fun stuff that I already did the work for. 

I've managed to avoid the two-week droughts of cool manifestations too. When I'd get all distracted and do nothing, I'd do magic one week, nothing for a couple weeks, and then as the bright shiny whatever-it-was I'd conjured passed away, I'd start getting upset that everything good was getting crowded out by all the shit I hadn't done anything about for the last three weeks.So I'd do magic, and it was another couple of weeks before it started to manifest. So there's about five weeks wasted. If I'm only working on manifesting my kingdom the way I want it to manifest once every five weeks, that's about ten rituals to improve my life per year instead of fifty-two. I could be making solid progress towards my goals five times faster by breaking the cycle, by recognizing the two-week manifestation delay, and incorporating that timing into my magical planning and execution.

Heh, just realized I'm manifesting the Mercury rite I did last Wednesday right now in this very post. The Idea is coming down, taking on form, and it's getting put into action too (I updated my to-do list this morning, and already finished four of my ten things for today). Planning, organizing, getting the lines of communication between my desires and my actions cleared out so the activities can support my goals instead of undermining them... Yeah, it's all working. It's working nicely.