After yesterday’s post, a Facebook friend said he saw a similarity between my comments about magic and religious faith. That’s a correct observation.
Many people who study magic or what might be called esoteric principles are, in fact, strong and committed believers in either spirituality or an organized religion. They see their studies as an extension of their religious faith instead of a replacement for it.
The reason many of us use the phrase “the god of your heart” is because we know that before you come to the study of esoteric ideas and techniques, that you may well be a strong believer of an organized religion. Magic is not intended to change that or supplant that.
When using magical/psychic techniques, many people also include the phrase “if it’s the best for all concerned.” This is one way of admitting that none of us can know what “the cosmic” (God, the Creator) has in mind for a particular situation. It’s best to work in harmony with that rather than in opposition to that.
One thing that becomes clear when using the powers of one’s mind is that meditation does not counteract what you are doing and thinking the rest of the day. Let’s say that you spend 15 to 20 minutes every morning thinking positive thoughts about your attunement with the universe and a similar amount of time meditating every evening. This is a great start. However, if you spend large portions of the rest of the day in combative, worry-filled, negative, and overtly cynical states of mind, you are undoing everything you put in motion with your meditations. You have to live the positive, non-doubting confidence of your meditation 24/7.
Hoodoo practitioners often then say that when you cast a spell, don’t look back. Why? Because looking back suggests you don’t have full confidence in the spell and have to check on it. The same can be said for multiple forms of magic as well as prayer. If you pray for something and then pray for the same thing again, what are you doing? You’re saying you don’t believe your first prayer was effective, so you’re going to try a second prayer. The universe heard you the first time. There is no need to doubt it.
One of the greatest negatives when attempting magic is logic. Most of us are trained (or brainwashed) to use logic to understand the world. However, logic and magic do not necessarily bring you the same kinds of information. People who are learning to use their innate psychic abilities can be derailed by logic.
Let’s suppose somebody tells you their husband is late arriving home from work and wonders if you can use your evolving senses to discover where he is. The best way to go here is to immediately relax, slow your brainwaves via biofeedback or self-hypnosis techniques, and “look” for the person. This process will be much more difficult if you allow yourself to think about all the logical reasons the man is late: his boss kept him late, his car wouldn’t start, he had a early evening work-related event to attend and forgot to tell you about it, he was in a wreck on the freeway or his car broke down. Once you ponder all of those scenarios, it is difficult to keep your mind open to clues about what actually happened.
The world operates on logic. It’s difficult to set that aside and try an approach that’s not based on logic. This doesn’t mean logic doesn’t work. It does mean that logic can easily derail the novice practitioner of magic.
Quite often, the magical “answer” to a question you might have will seem like it’s “simply” your imagination. I urge you to explore that and see if your are coming to know things you have no logical reason to know. I have found, for example, that when I embark on a shamanic journey, that what begins with my imagination usually morphs into something that is actually true. You may need to experiment with this for a while to develop your confidence in the reality of the moment–that is, to see the difference between that you are pretending to see and what you are actually seeing.
Magic is so different than the beliefs we have been given since childhood and from the mainstream “truths” about how the world works, that it requires a strongly alternative mindset to accomplish. The first step is learning that the truths you’ve been taught from childhood are not the whole story.
Malcolm's Round Table 
Very interesting post!
Thank you. Better niche than paramecia.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!!!!!!
So glad you are rolling up your sleeves and writing about Magic. As I’m sure you are noticing, it is very difficult.
You nailed the most important lesson in magic beautifully. As a baby witch I was repeatedly told, “Suspend your disbelief.” Or, as you said, don’t let logic derail your psychic abilities.” We need to delete the sentence “I’m probably just making all this up.” from our magical practice.
But there is one point in this wonderful post that I would quibble with. You say, “The world operates on logic.” I believe the multiverse does have a “logic” of its own, but it is totally unlike our logic. I believe the “logic” that moves the Multiverse is the “logic” of the right brain, the “logic” we use when we cast a spell, read cards, and do an energy healing. We have brainwashed ourselves into thinking the world operates on everyday logic because that logic works in our world most of the time and, as you say, can accomplish amazing things. I’m a Libra, an air sign. I love logic. My master’s degree is in Botany, so I know how powerful logic can be. But, when you study science, if you pay careful attention, you see the blind spots and places where logic fails. These are often places where things are happening that we can’t measure or observe with our normal senses in the lab. They are usually dismissed as anomalies. Nobody believed in microbes and all the things they are responsible for until the microscope was invented and we could see them in the lab. And as we discover more and more things logically, our concept of what is logical shifts. Just ask any quantum physicist!
Thank you for a wonderful post. I’m looking forward to more.
You have found your niche.
Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that logic is the default approach most people think they are using to make daily decisions. Thanks for a great reply.
You are welcome!