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Author Topic: General/Non-Specific: Just Stay Positive...  (Read 1713 times)

Talariq

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Just Stay Positive...
« on: June 17, 2018, 08:08:35 pm »
As usual, I apologize for my vagueness-yet-over-explanation here.

So, I'm in the middle of just about the most tumultuous and painful situation I've ever been in. I'm beginning both magical and mundane work soon that I'm 100% confident will bring an end to it.

My problem is this, though...

I know that negativity can greatly affect the results of any work. While I'm confident in the work I'll be doing, I find it nearly impossible not to feel pain and doubt about the situation in my day-to-day life.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Would the daily emotional pain really affect results that badly? If so, does anyone have any techniques for banishing the pain or shielding the work itself from any negative emotions I feel outside of my ritual space?

Anything is appreciated.
"Your focus determines your reality."

Darkhawk

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Re: Just Stay Positive...
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2018, 09:45:24 am »
I know that negativity can greatly affect the results of any work. While I'm confident in the work I'll be doing, I find it nearly impossible not to feel pain and doubt about the situation in my day-to-day life.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Would the daily emotional pain really affect results that badly? If so, does anyone have any techniques for banishing the pain or shielding the work itself from any negative emotions I feel outside of my ritual space?

Anything is appreciated.

If normal human reactions made magic fail nobody would do magic.  Be skeptical of any idea that demands that you not have normal human reactions; they're set up to predispose you to a convenient helplessness that is easily exploitable by powerful people.  (This applies to more than magic.)

Instead, remember that something like 90% of the historical magic we have is rooted in a basic "This sucks, I'm gonna make it better" or "gotta prevent this from sucking".  Without the acknowledgement that something felt bad who would bother inventing how to do spellwork to improve the situation?

Being negative about the magical work could be a good way to sabotage it in some approaches, sure, but you said you're 100% confident in it right there, so you're not doing that.
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

Jenett

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Re: Just Stay Positive...
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2018, 11:34:54 am »
Would the daily emotional pain really affect results that badly? If so, does anyone have any techniques for banishing the pain or shielding the work itself from any negative emotions I feel outside of my ritual space?

As often happens, Darkhawk's reply crystallised a thing I was trying to find words for.

I think there's a couple of layers when dealing with strong emotions and magical work:

1) Making sure that the strong emotions aren't muddying the water
By which I mean, sometimes people are hurting, or scared, or feeling other strong emotions, and that gets in the way of their decision making - they have a horrible breakup, they want revenge. They are horribly stressed at work, they start making choices that will affect their long-term options, that kind of thing.

If your emotions are getting in the way of you being able to look at the different possible outcomes of the work, then they're going to be a problem for magic, just like they'd be a problem for not-magic. And if the strong emotions are leading you to make lousy long-term life choices, then the magic might work, but not actually be what you really want (or what is good for you.) Which is obviously a problem.

2) Making sure it's not negative emotions about the work
Darkhawk covered this one - but basically, if you're "I'm doing this thing but I'm sure it's not going to help, everything is awful" then, well, you're going to have a hard time believing that the magical work is going to help, and that makes it a lot harder for anything helpful to come out of it.

A lot of magical systems have a concept of doing the magical work, and then letting go of attachment about the outcome - that you do the thing, set it free, and wait for it to manifest, and that it may do so in unexpected ways. That lack of attachment to outcome can be a lot harder to manage if you're feeling strongly emotional about the work.

(But, on the other hand, if you can funnel that emotion into 'I want this thing to get better' without attaching to a particular outcome to it, then the emotion can be a really powerful tool.)

3) What else are you doing about that pain or emotion?
Pain is exhausting. Emotion can be exhausting. It can swamp everything else going on for you, and make it harder to do anything, including magic.

There is a point where sometimes maybe you need to get to the point where you're no longer frantically bailing to keep afloat before you can do much else to improve the situation. Magic can definitely be a tool for that, but you may need to do the equivalent of 'magic to be able to bail water', 'magic to plug hole in boat', 'magic to get to somewhere you can stand on dry land' before you can do the magic to get you to the bit of dry land you actually want to be on.

Some magical practices can help a lot - cleansing and shielding work to make sure you're only dealing with your bit of awful rather than everyone else's, divination or meditation to help you figure out what the most efficient way forward might be, meditation or ritual to focus on your goals (not necessarily big magical working, but 'get me centered enough to make better long-term decisions' and/or ask for help from the Powers you have an established relationship with or are highly relevant to the particular situation.)

But maybe you have to do those (and maybe for a bit) in order to get a grip on the key issues that are causing the distress in a way that leads to a longer-term fix.

A couple of things on my website that might give you ideas for approaches: removing old energetic ties, protection practices, and self-care in difficult times all have some elements that might be helpful, and there's more general techniques linked from the Doing index page.

My go-to for clearing things out involve salt-water baths and the techniques in those posts in general. When things are particularly ick, I do a beer bath, which is basically 'apply bottle of beer to tub of bath', 'soak for a meaningful number of minutes, possibly with music/reading material that helps you focus on the thing you're getting gone, alternately suitable prayer', 'immerse fully, head and all, three times' (or a meaningful number), and 'get out and air dry'.
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Talariq

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Re: Just Stay Positive...
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2018, 09:26:57 pm »
If normal human reactions made magic fail nobody would do magic.  Be skeptical of any idea that demands that you not have normal human reactions; they're set up to predispose you to a convenient helplessness that is easily exploitable by powerful people.  (This applies to more than magic.)

Instead, remember that something like 90% of the historical magic we have is rooted in a basic "This sucks, I'm gonna make it better" or "gotta prevent this from sucking".  Without the acknowledgement that something felt bad who would bother inventing how to do spellwork to improve the situation?

This makes so much sense, and seems like such a basic concept, I have no idea how this isn't the prevailing school of thought out there. There are so many people spouting advice focused on "NO NEGATIVITY AT ALL" without room for reaction to whatever a person's situation may be.

If your emotions are getting in the way of you being able to look at the different possible outcomes of the work, then they're going to be a problem for magic, just like they'd be a problem for not-magic. And if the strong emotions are leading you to make lousy long-term life choices, then the magic might work, but not actually be what you really want (or what is good for you.) Which is obviously a problem.

I definitely make sure I'm not making magical decisions in the heat of the moment, which is why I'm confident in it. I've messed around with stuff I shouldn't have in the past and it did not end well. Learned that lesson the hard way.

A lot of magical systems have a concept of doing the magical work, and then letting go of attachment about the outcome - that you do the thing, set it free, and wait for it to manifest, and that it may do so in unexpected ways. That lack of attachment to outcome can be a lot harder to manage if you're feeling strongly emotional about the work.

I think it's people corrupting this concept that is the problem. People turn "don't be negative about the outcome" into "don't feel any emotion about anything at all."

There is a point where sometimes maybe you need to get to the point where you're no longer frantically bailing to keep afloat before you can do much else to improve the situation. Magic can definitely be a tool for that, but you may need to do the equivalent of 'magic to be able to bail water', 'magic to plug hole in boat', 'magic to get to somewhere you can stand on dry land' before you can do the magic to get you to the bit of dry land you actually want to be on.

I love this idea of taking care of parts of the problem in logical steps rather than One Spell to Fix it All.

Some magical practices can help a lot - cleansing and shielding work to make sure you're only dealing with your bit of awful rather than everyone else's, divination or meditation to help you figure out what the most efficient way forward might be, meditation or ritual to focus on your goals (not necessarily big magical working, but 'get me centered enough to make better long-term decisions' and/or ask for help from the Powers you have an established relationship with or are highly relevant to the particular situation.)

I didn't even think about the possibility that I may be picking up on the emotions of others. I think I have a few more things to do before I start anything in earnest.

Thank you both so much. These responses were exactly what I needed.
"Your focus determines your reality."

Darkhawk

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Re: Just Stay Positive...
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2018, 11:13:05 am »
This makes so much sense, and seems like such a basic concept, I have no idea how this isn't the prevailing school of thought out there. There are so many people spouting advice focused on "NO NEGATIVITY AT ALL" without room for reaction to whatever a person's situation may be.

Look who profits!

So long as people are caught up in the belief that attaining some kind of crystalline state of purity is a prerequisite for doing anything, nobody will do anything.  The status quo prevails.  And the status quo is pretty good for people who are currently on top.

There's a whole lot of "you aren't pure enough" in the culture I live in already to work with, so it's easy to believe that.  So people fall for it, and then they spread it, because it's a handy explanation for why they can't do better, and so long as people are blaming themselves, they're not doing something effective.

Practical magic was largely invented by the people on the bottom; "necessity is the mother of invention".  I think it's useful to keep that in mind.
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

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Re: Just Stay Positive...
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2018, 12:21:00 pm »
As usual, I apologize for my vagueness-yet-over-explanation here.

So, I'm in the middle of just about the most tumultuous and painful situation I've ever been in. I'm beginning both magical and mundane work soon that I'm 100% confident will bring an end to it.

My problem is this, though...

I know that negativity can greatly affect the results of any work. While I'm confident in the work I'll be doing, I find it nearly impossible not to feel pain and doubt about the situation in my day-to-day life.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Would the daily emotional pain really affect results that badly? If so, does anyone have any techniques for banishing the pain or shielding the work itself from any negative emotions I feel outside of my ritual space?

Anything is appreciated.

Pain.  You can allow it to make you suffer.  Or, can ignore it, bury it, and overcome it.  You can even banish it.  You can savor it.  You can embrace and utilize it.  You can fear it, you can hate it, you can love it, you can respect it.

We all choose how we feel about our pain and what we end up doing with our pain.  How much control over our emotions we have will govern the effect our pain has on our mind and body... and how that that pain might affect the world around us.

Control over your emotions... that is something you will have to learn yourself.  Others will not control your emotions for you, “magick” will not control your emotions for you.  This is something you will succeed or fail at doing yourself.





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𒊩𒆪  𒂔𒇸𒀝  𒄿𒈨

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