Should you do that Magical Thing that you're Afraid to do?

When would-be magicians come to me and ask questions, a good percentage of them are about whether or not they should begin conjuring spirits, because it might be dangerous.

• Will I get possessed?
• Will I or members of my family get hurt?
• Is it dangerous?
• What if they're lying?
• What if they won't leave and turn your house into Poltergeist?
• If you really work with demons of the Lemegeton's Goetia, do you become one of their Legion members when you die?

The last one is for real, by the way. Dude had heard it from the guy who was teaching him conjure magic. Heh. I mean, even if that does happen, it wouldn't be all that bad. But I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.

All these are aspects of fear in the magician of the consequences of their actions. They're afraid that it might not work, or worse, that it might work, and they have limited information on magic and its consequences because it's magic, occult, hidden wisdom. It's not like a computer program that you can break down into logical lines of if-then-else statements with all the possible results documented and a start and a stop where it isn't still doing stuff when you're done.

So yea, it's a valid fear. The unknown. But should that stop you?

Fuck no.

Doing things you're afraid of with magic is how you learn to become a good magician, not just some well-studied book-quoting intelligent Magus Psittacus.

Growth

Doing magic can create personal, financial, emotional, and spiritual growth. We grow the most when we are stretched beyond our comfort levels. Magic does that, in a healthy way most of the time, although you might not think it's all that great at the time. Ask the Heptameron's planetary angels of the Sun to help your side project replace your full time job, and bam, your contract is terminated for budgetary reasons, and you have all day to develop your side business, and the motivational financial understanding that you'd damned well better.

And it works.

You can work with spirits that bring peace between people from the Lemegeton's Goetia, and find yourself becoming a peace-maker yourself, first within yourself, and then with you and others, and then with people you know and haven't met yet. The journey can be uncomfortable as you grow, but the things that alter in your life are extraordinary.

Experience

You'll never know anything well in magic when you're inexperienced. You won't understand things like planetary hours, and what happens when you miss it and do it anyway. Or if it even matters for this type of ritual. You won't understand the power that grows between you and the spirits that you work with the most, or what types of unlisted offerings this spirit or that will enjoy by the way they smell when they walk in the temple.

You'll miss all the in-jokes blatant references that make no sense without having stood in or before a circle and spoke to the forces of Nature and the Heavens above. Our predecessors had a sound sense of humor and nuance in their descriptions of paraphernalia, vestments and of course, the spirits themselves. 

Power, Wisdom, all that Jazz

As you do magic, you gain influence over yourself and others and the things that make up the warp and weft of your daily experienced lives. Sometimes a great deal of influence, other times not so much. You'll know what happens when you aren't looking, even if it's miles away. You'll understand how things are called into being, manifest, and fade according to their designed intent. You'll know where people are coming from, literally and figuratively. You'll gradually start to think Trithemius' puns aren't that bad. All the things Magic is supposed to do, all the reasons you want to do a thing you're afraid to do, they all happen, in degrees and stages, as you go through the metamorphosis into the Magus you were born to be.

But Seriously, What if ...?

But those fears, of getting possessed, haunted, causing unintended side effects, and all that though, what about them. Could any of those things happen?

Well, I mean I guess they could, and probably will, but it's not that bad being possessed, and hauntings are cool, and sometimes some family members are askin' for it anyway. Most magic is temporary, but if it's not, all magical systems come with ways out. There are more banishing rituals, cleansing rites, offerings to make, spirits to call on for aid, and ways to undo what you did than you can think. Learn one of them.

And this works because of a basic axiom: 

THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU CAN FUCK UP WITH MAGIC THAT YOU CANNOT FIX WITH MAGIC.

But take some basic simple steps. At a minimum, specify in every conjuration that no harm befalls anyone, or yourself and your loved ones. It's in the script of most of the conjurations, I think. Take the obvious precautions when you're doing the ritual the first time.

Long term, get you a familiar or HGA or Supernatural Assistant using one of the many rites in the PGM, Dehn's Book of Abramelin, Crowley's Samekh, Agrippa's Good Genius, and at the start of the rite have them provide the spiritual food to the spirits in attendance, and send them as an emissary to make clear the way between you and the spirit.

Have a Banishing Ritual present just in case.

Afterwards, watch for things to happen in relation to your request or the spirit's description. 

Thank it with something appropriate. Make a new friend, or thank it and just send it on its way.

Take notes.

And realize that honestly, it was silly to be afraid the whole time.