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Author Topic: Spell Casting: The Basics.  (Read 3802 times)

XzoriMoon

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Spell Casting: The Basics.
« on: December 07, 2011, 11:35:51 am »
After casting a unsuccessful spell, I think I need more work with the basics of spell casting, as in: Grounding, Shielding, Centering, and Visualization. I'm already doing pretty well in meditating, and have found my own way of doing it, so I don't need much help there.

Basically, I'm looking for the best ways to practice/work with these basics so I can get into harder things.

Unsuccessful Spell Story (You don't have to read if you're not interested):
Well me and my friend were going to hang out with an old friend that we both have not seen in a while, but suddenly he had to cancel because his car had broke down. So I cast a spell so he would find an alternative way to get to our area, it didn't work.

What sucks even more, is, I can't drive yet so I take the woods to get to my friends house, I have to cross the river so I usually use a fallen log that has been there forever but after this spell had failed, this log was moved completely out of the way. I feel as though it's a sort of karma or lesson, I tried to mess with a spell having to do with destination and in return, the destination I take to my friends house is no longer useable.

I feel like it's the Goddess way of telling me I need more practice before I get into the more serious spell-work.

RandallS

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2011, 05:37:23 pm »
Quote from: XzoriMoon;33494
What sucks even more, is, I can't drive yet so I take the woods to get to my friends house, I have to cross the river so I usually use a fallen log that has been there forever but after this spell had failed, this log was moved completely out of the way. I feel as though it's a sort of karma or lesson, I tried to mess with a spell having to do with destination and in return, the destination I take to my friends house is no longer useable.


Magic just doesn't work that way.I suppose if somehow offended a deity or powerful spirit with your magic they might choose to punish you that way, but you spell failing is extremely unlikely to have caused the log to me moved. I'd say about as unlikely as being hit by lightning.
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XzoriMoon

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2011, 11:16:07 am »
Quote from: RandallS;33579
Magic just doesn't work that way.I suppose if somehow offended a deity or powerful spirit with your magic they might choose to punish you that way, but you spell failing is extremely unlikely to have caused the log to me moved. I'd say about as unlikely as being hit by lightning.

 
Well that may be, but this thread was mainly made for the purpose of Spell Basics. Thank you!

2greyhounds

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Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2011, 12:39:03 pm »
Quote from: XzoriMoon;33698
Well that may be, but this thread was mainly made for the purpose of Spell Basics. Thank you!

Well Since i am new at this my own self and kind of fell into it (did not have interest in it or search it out) I dont know how much help my two cents will be..but here goes anyway. There have been spells that worked wonderful for me and others not. Before i do a spell , however i always ask my spirit guide if it is for the highest good and will it be worth while. The spells( i only have done blessing and strengthening type spells)The couple times it has not worked or the reason I am given for not even attempting has always been due to free will of the person the spell is for ( or an addiction problem) where it will not be useful. I am of the belief that there is a higher purpose we are not always aware of and we get support or none depending on that. Maybe you did everything right, but there was a higher purpose for what happened. If you are doing the grounding, the protection, the opening of the directions and giving thanks-the idea of having respect and gratitude, it sounds like you covered the major things. Maybe your request needed to be to a specific diety, i dont think you mentioned that- anyway what i guess i am trying to say you can t always blame yorself or your skills.

Catherine

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2011, 12:50:21 pm »
Quote from: XzoriMoon;33494

Well me and my friend were going to hang out with an old friend that we both have not seen in a while, but suddenly he had to cancel because his car had broke down. So I cast a spell so he would find an alternative way to get to our area, it didn't work.


Spells don't usually manifest immediately. It can take some time for them to work.

Jenett

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2011, 01:16:07 pm »
Quote from: XzoriMoon;33494
After casting a unsuccessful spell, I think I need more work with the basics of spell casting, as in: Grounding, Shielding, Centering, and Visualization. I'm already doing pretty well in meditating, and have found my own way of doing it, so I don't need much help there.


I do agree with Randall's comments - and I think it's also highly relevant to your question. If you try to do something in a way that just doesn't work, you're likely to continue to be frustrated.

My take on spellwork is like this: I need to have some skills to know what's me (centering), what I really want (self-awareness), what energy I can work with (grounding), and to be able to focus my intention in a clear and highly specific way (visualisation).

(I do not, incidentally, shield while doing spellwork. And while I believe grounding is a core skill, I do my best magical work when I am deliberately off-balance in specific ways. It's easier to work with inertia and tendencies when things are already moving/in dynamic relationship to each other, than when they're sitting still.)

But part of successful magical work is also about picking time, place, and method. In the case you describe, if you're talking about a very short time frame, there may just not be that many options available. I believe (and experience) that magic can increase the chances of something happening - but it can't create stuff out of thin air. You need to have the possibility, first.

So, in the case you describe, it's unlikely to the extreme that, say, a portal is going to open between your home and the place you want to be. It's a lot more possible that someone you know might be going the right direction at the right time. But if you've got a narrow window (a specific day), and only a few people who might give you a ride, all the possibility in the world may not get you very far, if none of them happen to be going that direction at the right time.

Likewise, with the tree having been moved - chances are good it's just one of those things. That said, when it's something like that (something I'd looked forward to, and it's changed), I do stop and take a moment and go "Is wanting this thing here *really* the thing I want to do?"

(For a totally prosaic one: my home computer is normally just fine, works swimmingly. It has a tendency to *stop* working well when I really ought to be going and doing something else, especially something else I've been putting off for a while. Instead of fuming at the computer, I've learned it's a lot better to go do the other thing and come back. Magic? Dunno. Deity making a point? Maybe. A lot less frustrating all round if I just go get my stuff done? Definitely.)

To give you an example: I spent a year unemployed, and desperately looking and working toward a job in my field (librarianship, which has been particularly dire job hunting for a while now for various reasons.)

Now, I had some very clear ideas of what I wanted in my next job, and I spent a lot of time refining them and figuring out what really mattered to me, and what didn't. (I came up with a list of about 10 things, narrowed it down into something I could repeat to myself regularly, and so that I could visualise what a typical day in Awesome Job would feel like.)

Here's the thing: my current job meets *every single one of them*, including a few that I had to take a leap of faith on (workplace culture, how my boss treats me, etc. - I was coming out of a very toxic job situation before that.)

But it also took a year to show up. Because library jobs don't grow on trees, and for there to be job that wanted to hire me (even with the amount of flexibility I was up for in a variety of ways, like moving cross-country), there's a big long process that involves lots of other people deciding that that job is going to be open or exist. (Given that it can take 3-4 months for a job to go from "We want to hire someone" to actually making a decision in my field, and before that, someone has to leave or they have to decide they're creating a new position.)

So, was my magical work for 11 of those months a failure? Or was it just not a possibility that was in existence yet? If I'd insisted on "any job, right now", it would be failure. But because that wasn't my framing, it really is a success.
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Maps

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2011, 04:13:40 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;33714
My take on spellwork is like this: I need to have some skills to know what's me (centering), what I really want (self-awareness), what energy I can work with (grounding), and to be able to focus my intention in a clear and highly specific way (visualisation).


If you use words or writing at all in your spellwork, my experience has taught me that you need to be very specific and very deliberate in what you're asking for.

The weirdest spell I ever did was one I concocted up all on my own back in 8th grade, wherein I asked that a kid stop bullying me and find reason to be nice instead. (Getting bullied in PE is the worst!) Well, it worked-- I think it might have even been the next day that he was nice to me, and it went on for about a week, when he did a full 180 and went back to his old self. What the hell?? Well, I looked over the spell wording carefully, and found that I'd accidentally written in an expiration based on a particular event; don't ask me why, lol. (To be honest I didn't try doing anything of the sort again because the whole thing was a little too weird and exact for me to want to continue experimenting on individual people.) I've heard of similar happening before to others, though. So be very clear in your intent, but be more open in how it happens, I think. If you want a certain thing and you want it to go a certain way, then that could be asking for trouble.

Just my 2 cents. :B

Jenett

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Re: Spell Casting: The Basics.
« Reply #7 on: December 08, 2011, 11:23:23 pm »
Quote from: Maps;33764
If you use words or writing at all in your spellwork, my experience has taught me that you need to be very specific and very deliberate in what you're asking for.

 
There's several different possible approaches here - though, I agree, being really really clear what you're doing before you create the spell is critical.

I've done (and been trained to do) very specific precise spellworkings: this thing, by this point, in this way. I've had some of those work.

My personal preference, though, has turned out to be to spend some significant time (on the order of a couple of weeks) mulling over what I really want (along with meditation, trance work, divination, talking with trusted friends who will wap me over the head if I come up with a careless idea, etc.)

So, with the job spell I mentioned earlier, it eventually boiled down to "Right job, right people, right place, right circumstances". Which are pretty simple words, but I had to embed them with the right concepts so that when I repeated the words, I had a very clear (and repeatable) idea of what I wanted.

So, right job was about the actual job duties, both day to day and longer term (and how it might fit into an overall career). Right people was people who'd treat me well, and be in a setting where that was expected and supported (see also: leaving previously toxic environment). Right place was a place I could live and be happy, with some idea of where that probably didn't include (I don't do well in hot humidity, so most of the southern US was right out). And right circumstances was stuff like salary and benefits.

In a lot of ways, I *had* to be generic: I was applying to jobs in a variety of library subfields (public libraries, academic libraries, independent schools, instructional design positions) with widely varying salaries, expectations, and duties. And as it turned out, i had interviews in 5 different states (3 in New England, 2 in the upper midwest, and one in Arizona, of all places.) Only one of those turned out to be The Job - but I learned a lot from each of the interviews that made me better for the next one, and I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't been casting a relatively wide net.

Point being: if I'd said "Job making at least [whatever salary] in [whatever state], doing [more specific set of things]." - well, it might have worked. But it'd have almost certainly taken a great deal longer (because it'd be a lot more specific, in a tight and complicated market), and I might well have ended up being a great deal less happy.

I'm actually sort of gearing up for another round of something similar - building new connections and relationships of varying kinds in my new home. And I think it's going to be similarly packed language: a lot of thinking about what I want the end result to be, held together by words that work as symbols to anchor what I want, so that the words trigger the appropriate emotional response.
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