Random Rants

“I already meditate.”

“I know the basics. Just tell me how to do spells.”

“Not everyone uses meditation and visualization.”

“I am just more advanced than you are.”

As a leader on several online occult groups and a few off line ones, I am amazed by people who claim to want to learn. They are gung ho, ready to become powerful wizards or witches and throw fireballs at one another. They want to learn how to do spells and achieve powerful results, summon demons and become immortal. And then, life sets in.

Many of them realize the error of their beliefs and begin to study and practice good works. However, there are always those few who hang on to their beliefs. They are typically the ones who say “If you believe hard enough, it will become reality.” Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. But, the lack of evidence that they are following the wrong belief noes nothing to turn them away from their intended goal.

My advice to anyone starting off is always the same: Start with the basics. Meditation, energy work and visualization. Without these, you are not doing anything magical. You need to have the correct symbolism and you need to have symbolism installed in your subconscious. And, you need practice. All of this needs to happen before you start trying to cast spells or perform rituals.

I have had people ask where to begin and I have given them directions and pointed them to sources for the basics. Then a day or two later they come back and say “Ok, I’ve got that. What now?” Excuse me? I’ve been doing this for over a quarter of a century and I still practice the basics daily. You think in two days you are ready for advanced work? But, unfortunately this is prevalent in our culture today. They want it right now. No one wants to do the work to acquire knowledge or ability. 

I encountered a person just the other day. He wanted to know how he should approach the leaders of a coven. He was not looking to join,. He just wanted to meet them. So, I gave him my advice. Then, he asked me “How do you think they will react when they find out I am 14 and trying to start my own coven?” He was not amused when I told him they would probably laugh at him. He went on and on about how I thought he didn’t have experience because of his age, and who was I to judge him, and yelling and cursing. He completely passed over the point that I was not referring to his age but his attitude. The only one who made age an issue was him.

When I first started learning, I had a teacher. We sat down and I told him what I wanted and was looking for. He told me what he did. We connected. Then, he began to teach me. Now, there was a lot of work involved in the process. There were things that I thought at the time were pointless. But, I did them anyway because I knew that I was not where I wanted to be and he had the knowledge I wanted. I questioned why we did things, and tried to understand them, but not once did I not follow instructions. And, I got to where I wanted to be, and surpassed it. 

When you find a teacher, it means that they have something you want. Why would you not follow their instruction on how to get it? This attitude that “I don’t have what I want, but you do and I want it, but I’m not going to listen to you” is not the right way to go about things. Another attitude is the “everything is possible” attitude. The belief that nothing is impossible. Unfortunately that is not reality. You must understand what is possible and what is not. Do not make fantasy your reality. It will not make the fantasy a real thing, but it will make your reality a work of fiction. 

I had a student a few years back who came to a Reiki class I was teaching. I instructed the class, like I always do, and then we broke up into partners to practice. This student started doing things he had learned from other places, or made up himself, and was not doing the work that I had instructed. In fact, he was not doing much of anything. At the end of the class he asked me what I thought of his work. I gave him the answer that he was doing somethings, but he could improve and that he should practice. I made it real positive to encourage him even though I had actually seen and felt very little from him. His response was “Well, I just work on a higher level than you, and you don’t realize what I am doing.” He never returned to my classes, and has a terrible reputation in the healing community. I still practice and teach Reiki successfully.

My point about this whole rant is that you must be willing to learn and receive instruction. The pick-and-choose attitude is not productive to magical and spiritual growth. There is nothing wrong with learning more than one way to do things, and then combining them into one thing. But, do the work and actually learn it. Don’t just go to a class and then not do the work. Listen to your teachers. Think for yourself, but remember that your teacher has something you want. Follow his or her instructions to get it.

Thank you for listening to my rant.