First of all, let's be real. There IS something to some of the claims practitioners make. One of the most fascinating things I've found about the magick I practice is that it's usually traces about 90% of all the same lines as scientifically backed psychology. You don't even have to go too far into the transpersonal realm for most of it. Spiritual psychology, existential psychology, and humanistic psychology are all looking at things humans have been doing for forever to see why they help us lead more fulfilling lives.
Meditation is good for you, even if you're taking a guided journey to meet your guardians, spirits, ancestors, gods or higher powers. Keeping a physical metaphor of your intention on your person to remind you of your objective can help you focus whether you call that a charm or a foci. Your unconscious mind can be influenced with visualizations—whether you call it affirmations or glamours; by repetition—whether you call them mottos, slogans, or mantras; or by intense focus on your desires—whether you call that autosuggestion or manifestation.
Parts work in psychology is SO much like shadow work that the first time I did the latter my shadow was already well developed and already waiting to talk to me. Habit stacking is useful to add things you want to do as a daily routine even if you call it ritual practice. Journaling helps you think straight and keep track of your long-term thought arcs whether you're doing it as an intellectual exercise or a spiritual practice. Time in nature is grounding and rejuvenating whether or not you hug a single tree. Higher powers don't need to be sentient beings to give our lives meaning and purpose. Service gives us emotional resilience whether we do it as a calling or simply because we see the need to reach out and bridge the divides that wound the human family.
Yes, you can transform into a better version of yourself if you believe in yourself and are confident. And confidence affects everything from performance to mental health to body image and the energy you exude that people find compelling. It doesn't matter if that is coming from positive self talk into a mirror or a spell to "bring out your inner light." And it doesn't matter if your "reminder" that you are awesome is hooked to some music or a scent or something wrapped around your neck that gets in your way, repeatedly nudging those energies to the forefront of your mind.
Now…I'll admit that ten percent that goes towards the woo…I can't explain and have stopped trying. I've had experiences I don't claim to understand—channelled things that VERY clearly were not me and that then made predictions that turned out to be SPOT on accurate, and a number of coincidences so large as to give even my skepticism pause that I'm starting to sound ridiculous. But if explanations that sound like "lightning reflecting off of swamp gas wreathed Venus" help you sleep at night, wonderful. And if my drug addled visions of a story that has been told enough times that it has become sentient—conscious of itself and its purity and it's tellers, draws powers from humans' belief, and can influence humanity helps you sleep at night is what helps you sleep at night, wonderful. Whatever.
It is in that ten percent that leans towards the "mundane" side that I see big problems among modern practitioners though—problems that trace the lines of the rest of our culture and its proclivity to silence the voices of the powerless. These "masters of transcending human limitations” forget what the rest of a human being is.
Yes, your perception can affect your reality—that's not really even a noteworthy observation these days (the science done on how our brain begins to trick us during hunger, sleep deprivation, the influence of music, or even the ability to solve a math problem that disagreed with one's politics)—but to fundamentally change perceptions in a way that alters our reality for longe than the song with the eighties power chords is on, someone has to CREATE that practice and do the work and it takes time and energy and probably won't work tomorrow. So you do it for yourself and teach if asked. But what you DON'T do is spew it AT others like a cereal box platitude of weaponized toxic positivity. ("If you'd just see this as a good thing….") A gratitude practice isn't going to polyana someone through chronic illness…injury…systematic injustice….or even just a REALLY bad time in their life.
Fuck off with that shit. Let people tell you they're hurting. Hear them without trying to guilt them that their magick ought to be powerful enough to overcome any hardship.
A practitioner who is serious about magick will work to create a world where those things do not limit the range of ALL our potentials, not castigate those who have obstacles to overcome for "bringing down the vibes, man." A true healer knows the world is caustic and has some empathy about that.
I feel like the live, laugh, love practitioners aren't looking around and noticing that they're starting on third base by being middle class (usually upperly so) and mostly white, and are using their magick and "intentions" to justify silence…and silencING others. In a chilling echo to the lack of empathy we find everywhere in capitalism, they simply wrap it in a magical language "skin" and keep doing what the rest of society is also doing. But the shadows can't be denied in magick. (Actually "ESPECIALLY in magic") And so trying to keep everything positive always is just more of the same social hierarchy crap and "isms" and "phobias" as ever. It's gatekeeping with woo. It's just dressed up in robes and talking about ascending to the fifth circle….or something.
