How to Cast Spells – I
Spells are the same thing as prayers, but not necessarily directed towards a deity (although they can be). The reason why a magician’s spells are usually more efficacious than most people’s prayers is not because magicians have any special innate powers. Rather, it’s because their intent is more realistic. Most people pray for their desires to come true; whereas magicians pray to be shown how to make their desires come true.
Most people believe that things just happen; or else that an omnipotent God could make things happen if you could somehow fake God out. Magicians believe that they must take full responsibility for making their desires come true. That’s what intent is – taking full responsibility, leaving nothing whatsoever to chance. That’s why magicians are never disappointed when their desires don’t come true, because they did their best, and that’s all they can do. It’s like the Native Americans who fought against the encroaching whites, or the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto who fought the Germans, knowing all along they had no chance to win. It wasn’t the winning that ultimately mattered – and it’s not the winning that ultimately matters to a magician.*
Most people are addicted to some fantasy like winning the lottery, or marrying Mr. or Ms. Right, or meeting a true guru, and then all their problems will be over forevermore. These kinds of fantasies are useful in that they can provide a feeling of hope, false though it may be, to help get through the really hard times. However, addiction to such fantasies tends towards irresponsibility. It dissipates the very intent needed to find true happiness in life. Permanent change requires hard work and infinite patience. The final stroke of success may occur suddenly and even unexpectedly, but the preparation and toil take years and years. That’s the difference between the magicians’ way and most people’s way. Most people are looking for a quick fix and a free ride, whereas magicians know there ain’t no such thing.
In the popular television program Charmed, the witches have a book of shadows which conveniently contains specific spells for every single situation, no matter how outlandish, that they encounter. However, while spells do exist and do work, it’s not quite as simple as it appears in Charmed. To make spells work it is necessary to understand what expectation is, and its relation to intent. That is to say, how we make things happen or not happen, the mechanism by which we create our own reality.
People trying to understand the spiritual path sometimes wonder that, if you lose your desires as many spiritual paths seem to advocate, what spice or zest does life have left? In fact, it’s not desire per se that spiritual seekers try to eradicate, but rather expectation. Expectation means taking things personally, caring about what happens. It isn’t so much spice and zest that are lost as urgency and grasping. The things that most people care about do indeed lose their zest and spice; but in return things like the sound of the wind whispering in the trees and the feel of its caress on your skin become exquisitely piquant, sensual, and exciting.
*Although there are probable realities in which the Native Americans and Jews in
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