The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

so i've seen some people say you shouldn't talk about the magic you do and other people  say it doesn't matter. I'm wondering what the reasons behind these positions are and what people here think about this issue?

If you talk about it to others, you'll be mocked and ignored. Bit of a waste of time, really.

 
The reason I've heard is actually that talking about it expends the energy one has put into it.

Honestly, it seems like one of those "if it works for you..." type things. I can see how keeping a working secret would help it succeed, but I could also see how talking to others about it would help, too.

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Honestly, it seems like one of those "if it works for you..." type things. I can see how keeping a working secret would help it succeed, but I could also see how talking to others about it would help, too.

 
This is kind of what made  me think about it I think, like some of my working no one needs to know but others of them I think it would be useful and almost part of the magic to say "So I did this thing"

so i've seen some people say you shouldn't talk about the magic you do and other people  say it doesn't matter. I'm wondering what the reasons behind these positions are and what people here think about this issue?

 
There's a couple of different reasons.

1) As said upthread, the risk of people mocking you. Not a huge one in Pagan settings, but can be other places.

2) More subtle (and in my experience *way* more common if you're talking to other people who do magic, and harder to deal with in a lot of ways) is people questioning what you did or the way you did it. (or why you did it)

Even entirely reasonable intellectual curiousity can often lead to the caster going "Wait, was the way I did that the best way? What if I'd done something else? Maybe that would work better? Why is this magic not working! Argh!" that can be self-sabotaging both in the moment and later on.

3) Related: I find that talking about magic I've done shifts me out of an emotional response place (in my symbol set, water and fire) and into a much more analytical one (air). There's nothing wrong with a good long ramble about magical theory, but doing it about a specific magical action tends to make it feel more abstract to me, and less 'real' and 'solid' and 'active' - which are all things I want if the magic is currently working.

4) The theory that talking about things breaks the container of their power. There's a long riff here on traditions with values of silence or secrecy (or both), but I do think that there's a lot of power with *sitting* with something, on your own, and coming to grips with it.

Talking to people in the middle of that process can be a lot - for me at least - like listening to a really beautiful piece of music or having an amazing experience and then immediately dissecting it. (There are times I do that too. But there are times I deliberately don't.)

5) For many methods of magic, the magic isn't done with being cast, as it were, the moment you stop the overt magical act of casting it.

For me, a lot of the work of magic is in in the planning stages and the aftermath - only maybe 25%, if that, is the "And now I am in ritual doing magic". I often get a lot more understanding and movement and change out of the planning stage (on the front end) and the listening and contemplating effects on the back end.

I tend to think a *little* time (a week or so, depending on the magical working) between doing it and talking about it gives space for the after-effects of the working to develop and then settle, so that you have a much fuller picture of what was done and how it's working. If you talk about it during that time, you can interfere with the magic 'cooking' as it were, and setting.

6) For some kinds of magic, there is something psychologically solid in doing the thing and then getting on with your life.

If you are, for example, cutting ties, or doing ritual work to re-ground a particular experience in your life, or deal with something that's been at the center of unpleasant emotions, going back and revisiting your work can run the risk of bringing up the things you want to get rid of. (Not useful!) Same thing for magic to change habits, or to start new ones.

Obviously, other kinds of magic - healing for something that's more long-term, or general prosperity, or other sorts of ongoing things, revisiting isn't a problem at all.

so i've seen some people say you shouldn't talk about the magic you do and other people  say it doesn't matter. I'm wondering what the reasons behind these positions are and what people here think about this issue?

 
I agree. I think it does matter if whomever you share with does not want the event to occur. They can set up barriers and obstacles, even if subconscious.

Secondly, I think that as a rule, society views magic and spirituality in general as bunk and you don't need anyone scoffing or mocking you.

If you talk about it to others, you'll be mocked and ignored. Bit of a waste of time, really.

 
Not if youtalk about it to others who work magick

I've had more mocking in the past from other people who work magic than other (well-meaning, at least) people who don't.

Different experiences, yeah?

True it does depend on the individual and the situation.

3) Related: I find that talking about magic I've done shifts me out of an emotional response place (in my symbol set, water and fire) and into a much more analytical one (air). There's nothing wrong with a good long ramble about magical theory, but doing it about a specific magical action tends to make it feel more abstract to me, and less 'real' and 'solid' and 'active' - which are all things I want if the magic is currently working.

 
This!

I really like the concept of the Witches' Pyramid because I find that successful magic does come from those four foundations: to Know, to Dare, to Will, and to keep Silent. Enacting those precepts keeps me in a magical state of being, souls united with the Divine. It's from that place of emotional response that I can access God Herself and create magic - also called Fetch, for those familiar with the tripartite souls concept. If Talker interferes too much, I lose that connection.