Looking through the forum posts the other day, it struck me that many of them are from people who want spells done for them.

Another large group seem to believe that the form of the spell, rather than their own magic, is the key to success.

There seem to be quite a few members who've been around the block here, and know the ropes, so I thought a discussion on these points might be of help to newcomers on the scene.

That said, I'd better lay my cards on the table (and these are simply personal beliefs since there is no "right" way to live your life):

Magic is always best when worked by the person who wants the outcome. Magic can be done for others with success and provide a stop gap solution, but ultimately the way to fix you life is to use your skills to bring things into balance, then apply yourself to your life's tasks from a position of stability.

The secret of any spell is in your own mind. There is a mental "knack" to making magic work, and this skill is based on your natural ability to use magic. Everything else is to give form, or symbolic form, to your goal. At the end of the day, all you need is the knack, clear intention, and some kind of symbolic representation (and this can even be a mental image).

The way magic is taught confuses these issues, since most teaching takes place within a defined religious or philosophical framework, and this blurs the practical issues of the skill and craft of magic, with the religious or philosophical elements alongside which it is taught.

Please feel free to shoot me down on this one, everyone.

No shoot down's here... I agree whole-heartedly.

Most magical teaching today focuses on the religon and not the "art of Magic" its self. This is a serious lack and I can only think that many are too afraid to "hand children nuclear weapons" so they concentrate on giving the "children" what they need to grow up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the religion isn't important. On the contrary we all need SOMETHING to believe in. But the main point that seems to be lacking recently is that this is an EXPERIENCIAL religion. We grow through messing up, and through getting it right. It's when you sit back and let someone else do the work that you don't get anywhere. In my mind this is starting to breed a mass of "Baptist wiccans". People too entrenched in thier belief systems to look and see that the universe is big enough for all. This is an old rant with me though. I moved from an area of the country that was open and accepting, to the "bible belt" where you have to wait for an invitation to go to something that's "open". Religious training here is done in living rooms instead of in the community.

JUST TO MAKE IT SHORT AND SWEET, I AGREE WITH WHAT JULIAN AND APRIL SAID.

heroheidR wrote:
.... In my mind this is starting to breed a mass of "Baptist wiccans". People too entrenched in thier belief systems to look and see that the universe is big enough for all.

Quite right. Fundamentalism in any belief system (including scientism) is dangerous to eveyone.

THAT'S TRUE!

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