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Real Magic: Lesson Four
By rockhouse wizard Posted in Lesson Course, Study of Magic on March 4, 2023 0 Comments
Real Magic Lesson Four PART TWO! Previous Different Types of Magic Next

I hope you are keeping a journal during this course! If so, be sure to have it handy for this lesson and make plenty of notes. If you aren’t yet journaling, just start now. An old, spiral notebook will get the job done but if you do prefer something nicer yet priced cheap check these out.


So far in this crash course you’ve learned about the magical state one must enter in order to conduct subtle and magical energies. We have also covered in fair detail the concept of engaging in magical acts, which can loosely be defined as individual techniques or operations. The latter acts are made up of complementing techniques and are the main work of a magician.

Magical Operations are the Spells, Rituals, Charms, and other Procedures Employed by Magicians to Alter, Sustain, and Otherwise Interact with Reality via Magic.

Today I’ll walk you through a straightforward but potent magical operation plus breakdown how you can begin formulating your own operations right away. First a sidenote that will help us avoid confusion later and answer a question at least some readers may have.

Normally by the time a student magician reaches the point where he or she will learn an operation, some basic questions about the magical system being studied have been asked and answered. We’ve made no time for that so far – remember this is a crash course and my goal is to get magic in your hands as quickly as possible.

We’ve covered a lot of ground quickly, made a good charge on the gates to the castle of magic, so to speak. Now let’s fall back a few meters and get our bearings. Don’t worry, once you’re oriented, we’ll get right back to the fast track.

(If you’d prefer to skip the section below where I discuss what type of magic I am teaching and jump right into today’s lesson click here.)

What Kind of Magic is this, Anyway?

If you haven’t already seen my article on different categories of magic as they relate to this course, you may wish to have a look here. In that piece I lightly touch on various ways people have categorized magic and explain that my practice tends to be eclectic, or taking from various methods and forming a new, fluid approach.

If I’m asked by another practitioner to be specific about my personal magic, I often say…

“I’m an Eclectic Conjurer”

As we already know, eclectic means I borrow methods and ideals in a coherent manner from many systems. Primarily I source my procedures from the Western Esoteric Tradition, but I also draw from Eastern Mystical Philosophy and regional folklore.

The term conjurer is rooted historically in both folk magic and sorcery. The former practice involves both natural and ritual magic, is often either eclectic or syncretic (borrowing from many systems in either a well-organized or serendipitous manner) and draws heavily from cultural and/or familial traditions, The latter utilizes mainly ritual magic that is heavily focused upon work involving spirits or other intelligent entities ranging from spirits of the dead and nature spirits to angelic and demonic beings. To a lesser degree sorcery also employs natural magic that relies significantly upon psychic abilities and mystical development.

This section gives an apt description of my own approach to magic, to the extent that words can ultimately describe such a thing.

It stands to reason that any course I create will be somewhat geared in the same direction. HOWEVER, I do strive to focus more on the nuts and bolts of the matter than on my own inclinations.

It’s also worth noting here: this short course has been informed by, and partially written with the aid of, my two associates, each of whom have their own practical styles and applied philosophies of magic. Above all else, it’s fair to say the course material is a balance of practical and esoteric work distributed along both ritual and natural lines.

The course material is a balance of practical and esoteric work distributed along both ritual and natural lines.

It would be wrong to say this course is for everyone, as no such curriculum, no matter how informal, can truly exist. We do hope, nonetheless, the contents herein are close enough to a catch-all that anyone reading will at the very least BE INSPIRED to pursue and find the magic within them, even if this involves finding another course more to their liking.

On that note, feel free to direct inquiries about other potential courses to the address in your course emails. I can toss a few options back.

Today’s Magical Operation

Quick reminder of the two things you aways need to practice your magic:

  1. Magical State Take the time to relax, meditate, and enter your personal magical state, ALWAYS before proceeding with any magical act or operation. The more you practice the easier and quicker you’ll be able to do this so be patient at first.
  2. Temple or Sacred Space It’s very important that you have a space or area where you can study and practice completely undisturbed for as long as needed. You should feel comfortable and safe, in addition to expressive and potent within your space. Please note that sometimes magic needs to be performed wherever and whenever you are in that moment; of course this is true! But your special space is where you should practice (and practice!) your techniques and operations before taking them into the world with you.

The Working Process of a Magical Operation

Should Flow Along the Lines of these Four Points

  1. Clarify your intention.
  2. Choose your methods.
  3. Perform the work.
  4. Release the Operation

Just about any spell or ritual, etc. can be formatted using these four points. Here’s a breakdown of the flow and an expanded look at each point.

Clarify Your Intention.

To perform effective magic, in other words work that has an effect on reality, you must know in some detail what that effect should be. The over-used analogy of an archer without a target makes the point nicely. Without something to aim at the archer cannot hope to hit her mark. Sure, she can practice her form and study the feel of different arrows on and off the notch. Some productive practice can be achieved, but she clearly can never hit her target if she doesn’t actually have one. Not only that, but she also can’t even measure her efforts to find where improvements are needed because she is either aiming at nothing or not loosing any arrows at all. Vague notions and fuzzy objectives are of no magical value and will produce only confusing results and general uncertainty within your practice. 

Only engage magic when you have a strong and very clear desire to satisfy. This applies not only to practical matters but also to esoteric pursuits. If you can check off every item on the following list then your desires and intentions are comprehensible and compatible, affirmatively aligned.

  • Understand your desire. Know what you need to get done or wish to experience.
    • Sometimes your desire can be satisfied by a whole range of specific experiences. you aren’t “married to” one particular avenue of success as long as you end up in the winner’s circle as you envision it. Here a more general desire (still not vague!) is permissible and your focus can be on the experience or thrill of victory with a flexible attitude on exactly which outcome succeeds.

The subject of magical intention, or the magician’s intention within the context of magical operations, is very nuanced territory. 

On one end of the spectrum there are schools of thought that insist only laser-focused, precise intent is useable within magical work. According to advocates of this view every minute detail of that which you work to create must be accounted for and provided with ample energy to manifest. This approach is a bit too uptight, IMO.

At the opposite end of this field, you’ll find philosophies and paradigms that tell you micro-managing the details of the outcome is both brash and futile, for your ego is not the author of destiny. Your work, adherents of this ideology will explain, is to be open to the verdict handed down by the Fates while steering creation toward the experience you wish to have. Aim for the basic idea of what you think you want, but don’t force and be open to something even better or the realization (resignation, I say) that in fact your idea is not aligned with the “highest good” or maybe it’s at odds with your “higher self”. I don’t know why one would even practice magic in the first place with this kind of half-assed and watered-down attitude towards self-improvement. 

As you may have guessed my convictions hereabouts fall somewhere in the middle of the above extremes. We need to be fluid and adaptable (like water, grasshoppa). If you need $100 by noon, well there’s not a whole lot of room for wigglin’ there, and this is surely a humble enough goal so I’d recommend full throttle focus on that hundred-dollar bill, or a couple of fifties if you prefer. On the other hand if you’re trying to land a new and caring home for a stray critter you found, do you really need to get all picky about who provides said home and where the new accommodations are located? Focus on love and safety and longevity – no compromises here – but then spin the wheel and happily go with the good opportunity/opportunities that emerge. You may even discover the wandering baby is fine where he or she is at the moment, even if that happens to be your place with the dog and cat you have already. Different circumstances and desires may call for varying approaches to how specific or flexible you are on the final vision.

Whether visualized to the last detail or experienced as a general but definite theme with open-ended possibilities, what matters is knowing the essential quality of victory relative to your situation. On that you shall falter not. I hope that makes sense and if you have questions on this hit me up via the email in your lesson email or on the contact page.


I could not in good conscience get around that interruption as I knew I had to deal with the matter of specificity vs flexibility at some point.

All right then back to our list for clarifying magical intent. 

  • (Recap Item) Understand your desire. Know what you need to get done or wish to experience.
  • Set a very clear intention aimed at your desire. Whether the specific outcome or the nature of victory as you’ll experience it, be clear as crystal. This should include imagery (visualization), emotions you will likely feel upon success, specific sensory info from touch and taste to sound and smell, an immersion in the moment of your success felt and known as clearly as you can manage is what you’re going for here.
  • Determine that you fully deserve the result you seek. Why wouldn’t you? Forget about your guilt issues and strike down any ideas of unworthiness. Look around you in this world and note the sea of assholes getting what they want on the daily. You deserve whatever it is you’re aiming for simply because you want it, so don’t even sweat this detail just acknowledge your privilege and go forth.
  • Will, with all your might, to have, do, or be this result. By this I mean “I WILL have it!” or “I WILL do it!” or “It WILL happen this way!”. Your will, or power to determine an outcome through a force similar but superior to what modern humans call willpower, must become the Will of inevitability. As a ball is dropped it Will fall to the ground. As a match is lit fire, not water, Will result. As a baby emerges from the mother, he or she Will age with each passing moment. Unavoidable. Inescapable. Inevitable. So is your magical Will, and this shall you lay upon your clear and deserved desire even before the first magical act is uttered, cast, summoned, or conjured.
  • Expect success. Have great expectations, be they anticipation of the fruits of your potent labor or reliance upon the generosity of a friendly universe. However you can arrive at the habit of looking forward with optimism, this must be inextricable from your initial intention.

The bullet-list above captures the many facet/s of magical intention and should be considered one whole rather than several different items. Practice thinking in this way and touching on each aspect listed above when you are setting out to create or borrow your operations and with time your intention will be inseparable from your ideal vision of success, your will for it to be, and your expectation of fulfillment as a matter of course. 

 

Choose Your Methods.

After becoming clear on what you intend and expect to achieve you must determine what specific magic or magics you shall utilize to fulfill your desires. This includes the technical considerations of methodology, the correspondences you’ll bring to bear, plus any timing considerations as well as whether or not you’ll go it alone or get the help of others.

Here’s my short-version unpack of what goes into this step:

Technical Considerations

Once you have some time in practice this step will become much easier as you will have go-to methods and preferred techniques, etc. In the early days it can be a bit flustering, especially when you are unfamiliar with magic as a whole.

For this lesson I’ll use the approaches of natural magic and ritual magic as example considerations. Natural magic, in essence, is about using, positioning, and combining items from the natural word that correspond to (more on this below) certain magical energies and therefore allow the magician to direct the ideal magical currents for the task at hand. Ritual magic, in 100 words or less, involves detailed ceremonies that organize various techniques, acts, correspondences, and conjurations in a way that brings about the correct energy or energies for addressing the magician’s objective.       

Advantages of natural magic include the simplicity and ease of performance. Very little training is needed to begin using natural magic. Anyone with an inclination or intuition towards magical energies and concepts can pick up very quickly on the philosophy of natural magic.

Ritual magic tends to be more complicated and time consuming, both in terms of study & learning and application. The trade-off is access to a deeper well of power and the ability to deal with more complex issues.

I encourage people to study both of these forms and develop an ability to intertwine their best practices to birth an eclectic approach that offers the best of both worlds. This gives you more flexibility on the whole and the capacity to deal in multiple ways with any desire or problem.

Certain desired outcomes are aligned with certain magical practices, which makes it easier to choose your methodology. A magician who only learns ritual magic will have to deal with all his desires and problems using the conventions of ritual, whether or not this is the ideal approach for the work at hand. A well-rounded practitioner can choose wisely from her varied repertoire, matching this array with that intent or pairing that procedure with those issues based on what fits best or offers the greatest chance of success.

Correspondences

 In magic theory when two or more things share an energetic signature and emanate similar frequencies and potential “effects”, these things are said to correspond. You can find many tables of correspondences that list items from the animal, vegetable, and     mineral realms and diagram how each item listed relates to the elements, zodiac, planets, gods, chakras, and more. Everything in existence being related to some degree per the Oneness of totality, everything you can think of also has a set of closely associated items, biological, inanimate, and spiritual, that are the corresponding manifestations.

Correspondences can be simple, like each day of the week having a planetary ruler. Or they may be complex to varying degrees, such as the Rune Geba and its relationship to physical-spiritual duality or the association between the archetype of the serpent and the virtue of wisdom.

Choose the correspondences that you feel affinity with as often as you can. When this isn’t possible select based on your intuition or the recommendation of a trusted source. During study time, outside of actual magical work, experiment with and contemplate upon different correspondences to build upon your personal gnosis or mystical understanding.

Timing, Location, and Assistance

If you are using the planetary spheres you might want to execute the magic on the proper planetary day or hour. Likewise with elemental work you might choose a time during the day when the key element is strong, or in its course.

Specific locations like crossroads, tombs, high places, bridges, waterways, etc. all correspond to types of magic and many other things that might be relevant to your work. Crossroads give power to change and renewal, or choices. Bridges can mend relations or bring safe passage, and so on.

You may also wish to gain the help of others, whether other human magicians or spirits and other unseen entities. This is almost always a good idea if you are blessed with the availability of other magicians in your social circle.

Perform the Work.

When all considerations and preparations have been made you should practice the magic you will soon perform or go over it mentally s few times before the actual execution. Thereafter, perform the work at the chosen time and using the selected resources.

Take the time to enter a magical state at the onset of your operation.

Bring all the willpower you possess and engage your imagination and emotions fully during the work. Commit to the magic with everything you have and all that you are, allowing no distractions to enter your mind or space.

Take your time and do everything as perfectly as you can. At the same time, don’t obsess unreasonably. I said as close to perfect as you can and that’s all I meant. We all have limitations so when you reach yours don’t try to go where you cannot, at least in the context of performing magic.

Release the Operation.

This is a difficult step for many but it is critical for success. Once the work is done, let go and forget about it. Get on with your life and perhaps with other magic but don’t continue to dwell on this completed work.

By letting go completely you allow your unconscious mind and the causal forces to carry on with their part of the work. to the extent that you keep “checking on your work” you will only interfere and damage your potential success.

That’s enough content for one sitting. I leave you to digest this and tomorrow in Lesson Four, part two we’ll walk together through the actual operation I have prepared for you.

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