Stop Asking For Stuff….

Vepar by Cambion Art

I have come to hate the phrase “Ask (God/Spirit X) for….”

I have probably used the phrase myself hundreds of times, but I shouldn’t. Now that teach magic for a living I have come to really hate it. It’s bad phrasing that leads to bad framing when it comes to how magic works and what to expect from it.

The spirits are not Santa Clause. The Goddess is not Mommy giving you a birthday gift.

This kind of phrasing takes our own efforts almost entirely out of the equation. We are Witches, Magicians, or Sorcerers, right? Does our art boil down to just asking for stuff or does our craft matter in the results we get?  When we succeed, was our ritual or spell part of that success or did Astaroth just feel generous that day and gave us what we asked for?

Worse is what this framing does when we fail. Rather than think about how our efforts might have fallen short, or whether the goal was unobtainable, we wonder why Hekate chose not to grant our boon. Did we offend her? Was the goal too selfish? Does she have a plan for me and knows what is best?

NO!!!!

If the spell failed it was probably for the same reason that I can’t win a gold medal or lift a Toyota Tundra with my bare hands – the effort is not up to the goal.

The best thing a magician can do is to step as far away from magical thinking as possible. Magic is real and behaves more or less like other real things.

I sometimes get asked what will happen if two Witches curse each other petitioning the same deity. Will the God simply choose which practitioner they like best, or which is more just?

NO!!!!

It comes down to the efforts made in the curse! What materia is used? How strong are the links to the target? Are there sympathetic actions involved or just a request? What kind of offerings and how many?  What of the skill, realization, and spiritual authority of the practitioner? And yes, maybe the relationship with the spirit or deity matters as well, but even that is something that is cultivated over time.

Instead of ASKING GOD/SPIRIT for stuff like a child with a Christmas list. May I suggest the following.

  • I asked for aid in obtaining….
  • I compelled a spirit to….
  • I requested Goddesses influence in….

Or something else like this.

Something that recognizes that a practitioner of magic is more than a child begging for a new bike with clasped hands.  Something that recognizes that you are part of the chain of manifestation and that what you do matters, and that we are more than just powerless beggars.

And yeah…. I will probably slip and use the phrase myself hundreds of more times. That doesn’t mean its not lazy thinking or misleading framing though. I will kick myself as I hear myself say it.