Success with spirits

[Tana]

I actually tried a psychic one time to find out why I haven't seen success. They told me it was a curse (snippage)

Oh yes... and if you give them all your money, I bet they've been willing to lift it from you?

Let's get to this in my loved-by-all logical way.

Why does your magic/spellwork not succeed?

a) magic is bogus
b) somewhere something is wrong
c) you suck at magic
d) you have results, but don't recognize them, because your expectations are different

e) people claiming mind-boggling successes, lie

f) you being of 'Celtic' descend (which is basically saying something like: I am of European descend)

Now...

a) well, obviously not my opinion, since I am  - you know - a witch
b) and c) has to be considered closely
d) important: what do you expect?

I've seen numerous people complaining: I see nothing, I hear nothing, I feel nothing. Until you kindly coerce them to describe this 'nothing' and lo and behold, suddenly it turns out to be something, all right.

e) people lie all the time and never compare your chapter 1 to their chapter 20. (Writing metaphor, sorry.)

f) descend is of no importance at a large imo.

Back to b) and c)

A lot of things can be going wrong.

For ex. your mindset might not really be into it and you expect failure. Or you are really jumping too fast from shiny thing to shiny thing. Happens. And as Randall said: dabbling with CM is not a good way to get results, since there is a metric f+++-ton of stuff to study and know behind CM. Alone the Kabbala stuff takes years to half-way wrap one's mind around.

You try too hard. Also an option. A big part of magic is doing the work, putting will in it and then let it go.

Ah well, also possible, you might just suck at it. Maybe you are not wired for this kind of work. It's like 'we all can sing' but not all of us should. Talents and aptitudes exist also in magic. But this includes also the possibility that you just haven't found the right thing yet.

All in all, I can't say, why you don't get the results you want.
But maybe you want to have a fresh start? Beginn with something like meditation, energy workings and things. Not thinking of any results for a while. Just going with the flow.

[RandallS]

I should have clarified Over the last few years I've tried the same *type* of magick (sigil, candle, ceremonial) to get decent at that type, and I also did the exact same spells or rituals, many times over.

For most people, success at many types of magic requires study and practice over a long period of time. Just as real success at a sport or the like requires lots of practice/training for most people.  Sure, for some people it comes naturally, but for most it doesn't.

[Emma Eldritch]

Over the past few years I've dabbled in the occult, mostly ceremonial magick based on the Judeo Christian spirits and traditions. I've seen next to no results as far as contact with spirits or success with magickal workings. This had me baffled, so now I want to try something different.

I've narrowed down the issues as to why I haven't seen success. I tweaked and tweaked until I could rule everything else out. When I think of what else could be standing in my way, it's that I'm of Celtic descent.

Everything I've tried so far was based on Judeo Christian spirits and traditions as I said, so Maybe I should try something more Celtic/Norse?

 
Uh. That's quite a weird jump there. I mean... who were the big ceremonial magicians? British dudes. Chances are there was some Celtic ancestry going on there.  

As for why you're not succeeding... have you considered how much real work you do? You say you've 'dabbled' over the past few years - like others have said, getting good at something takes a long time, and certain subjects (like ceremonial magic) require a lot of study and practice.

How much time do you spend meditating? Do you practise visualization and energy work? These are boring things, but they are important for a solid skill set in magic. If you figure you can skip them because you're just that awesome, then congratulations, you're me when I was a teenager. You're also wrong. ...again, like me. They are also things it's easy to lose the hang of - it's a lot like exercise. If you keep a routine it's simple, but the second you take a week off... ugh.

You mentioned that you may consult your tarot deck to get some insight. I think that's a great idea, actually. And if you don't understand the reading, you can always ask for a second opinion - here on the forum in the divination section people ask for/offer readings and interpretation help for free.

[Ivy]

Even simple candle magick, of which I've tried many times, has worked pretty fastly for others. I'm pretty dry for anything occult or magick.

 
Interesting. In an earlier post you state that the candle and hoodoo stuff was a single time, not many times as you now state.

As an aside, there are somethings that no amount of magic will make happen. For example, someone who is 5'1" tall is not going to magically become 5"8" tall after doing a simple candle spell. Have you considered the fact that perhaps what you are seeking isn't a possibility, magically or otherwise?

Lastly, as others here have stated, magical workings aren't something that you just dabble in. It takes work, unfortunately a lot of people don't want to do the work which is why they don't see the results.