Ritual Magic: Spells and Rituals for the New Year

Here it is a new year already and while most people are making New Year's Resolutions, magical practitioners make yearly aims as a great way to practice ritual magic all year long. Did you know that 45% of Americans usually make New Year's Resolutions and that only 8% of them actually are successful at achieving their resolutions? A great percentage of those who make resolutions keep them in the first week, 75% in fact. But by the time 6 months have passed that number dwindles down to only 46% still sticking to their resolutions. As you can see the statistics aren't very encouraging for making and keeping a New Year's resolution.

A Yearly Aim
A yearly aim for magical practitioners is a bit different. With the yearly aim the goal is to learn, experience, discover, and bring magic into your life. This yearly aim can change form with each month or with each season, with accompanying daily rituals as exercises. This cuts down on the redundancy and brings new life to the aim. It is important to pause daily or weekly to record results and reflections, noting and appreciating the changes and the magic.

Picking a Yearly Aim
To get started with a magical yearly aim, do some reflection on where you are magically. If you have not taken magic seriously before or are just starting out exploring a magical path, the aim could be answering the question "Is Magic Real" for yourself. You can also ask for guidance from higher powers and beings for some direction on picking an aim. You want to have an aim that is something you can observe progress on, but leave it open enough to explore it in a variety of ways. Give some thought to the wording of your aim as it can make an enormous difference.

One of our students felt she was always tense and stressed and although she had tried numerous practices to reduce the stress, still felt it in her body. She decided to set an aim that would help her find where the tension and stress came from, where it lived in her body and how to deal with it through magical means. Unfortunately, she worded her aim that year as "To observe and explore my tensions and stresses". That year was consequently a very stressful year. The Universe definitely gave her plenty of opportunity to observe and explore stress, which after all is what she asked for. The next year, having learned a valuable lesson, her aim was "I want to observe freedom in my life and practice feeling free". That made a much more enjoyable year for her. The following year was even better as her aim for that year was "To observe and explore the abundances in my life and the ease with which they come." As you can well imagine that year brought about many wonderful things with very little effort. Think carefully about the exact wording of your aim before settling on the final one.

Planning for Successful Aim
After you have picked your yearly aim, it is time to get a plan for specifically what magic spells and rituals or resources you will explore to achieve your aim. Take the example of "Is Magic Real". Here are some examples of the exercises you could pick from each month that would lead you to explore this question.

• Take a different exercise from our blog or article library each month and perform the ritual magic described. 
• Get our free ebook of 10 Magical Quick Fixes and pick one exercise a month from it to do.
• Get the Everyday Magic Email Course.
• Get our Daily Rituals for Attracting What you Want in Life ebook and pick a different daily ritual to incorporate into your life each month.
• Do the Navajo Beauty Way for a month.
• Do a 5 - 10 minute sit or meditation each morning for a month.
• Adopt a moving meditation practice such as the Gurdjieff movements, a walking litany, or walking a labyrinth for a month
• Practice a magical technique that you have wanted to learn and put off. For example, everyday for a month practice dowsing with your pendulum until you have the technique down.

These are just a few examples to get you started. Pick something each month that you can experiment with and explore that will lead you to answer the question "Is Magic Real?" Throughout the process, you want to be sure to take the time to record your observations, reflections and results in your Book of Shadows. This helps you look back over the year, see where you started, what you have achieved and help form an aim for the next year.

Whether you adopt daily rituals into your life, strengthen your use of ritual magic, explore other magical realms, gain a greater understanding of yourself or prove that magic is indeed real to yourself, the main goal with a yearly aim is to invite magic into your life, make it a part of your daily life and to learn to appreciate the process.


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Change Yourself to Change Your World

If you want to make big changes in your world, start by magically changing yourself. How does this work? There are several magical principles that you can employ when you want to create transformation in your life. Here are some of those principles and magical techniques based on them that will help you. 

Anchor Yourself
There is a magical principle that says, "When two objects are attracted, the least-anchored object comes undone first." People who are anchored are less likely to encounter "accidents" or events outside their control. In other words if you are one of the objects and you are securely anchored in present time then it is the world around you or life events that will "come undone" before you will. So instead of life events pulling on you and causing you to react to them, you will control what life events are pulled into your reality. 

Acts of Power – Doing an act of power several times of day can increase the anchoring in your life. To be an act of power, the act does not have to be anything complicated. It can be something very simple and may seem very ordinary. Remember that any act of power is a magical act, a magic ritual. Here's an exercise that will get you started on performing acts of power.

• Pick a very simple act that you can perform simply and easily. For example, make a mark on a paper or pick up a pen. 
   
• Make a conscious decision as to when you will start your chosen act, how long it will last and when you will finish the act. For example, if you chose make a mark on a paper, you can say it will start now, will take 2 seconds and will end when the mark is made. 
   
• Now do it. You have decided on an act, defined its parameters, so do it.

It doesn't matter what the act is because any act done with intention is an act of magic and can be an act of power. Doing acts of power on a regular basis allows you to start doing these acts naturally without having to think about the steps. With practice your acts of power can become longer and larger acts, but starting with short simple ones gets you going.

Increase Your Earth Element – Another way to strengthen your anchor is to add the element Earth to your energetic makeup. You can learn more about the element Earth and its characteristics in our Magical Element Earth homestudy course. 

Baby Steps
There's a law in the Universe that says, "A small change in the present will create a larger change in the future." It's part of the law of Divination. When you really want to transform your life in a big way, start small, or even better start tiny. Make a tiny change that only you will notice and see what happens. Make another tiny change and see what happens. Keep making tiny changes toward your goal. Tiny changes have a large impact because they change your habitual thought pattern enough to open you to new ideas and inspirations and since they are small you avoid the resistance factor. Any tiny change in habit will automatically shift where you stand, and therefore what you think and feel.

Make a Small Change – All you need to do to make a small change is to pick a goal and make just one very small change that would lead to it. For example, you set a goal to save more money to build up a savings account. Now let's say you go out to eat lunch every day at work. Don't start by brown bagging it everyday, but rather pick one day a week that you will take a lunch. Do this for a couple of weeks, then maybe add another brown bag day to it or pick something else to cut out one day week, like not buying a morning coffee. 

Future Memories
Future memories are another magical technique that can help change your life. Future memories are about what we will do, will say or will experience in the future. They pave the way for us from the present to our desired future. When you create future memories, add specifics like emotions, thoughts, and actions to make them seem real. The more energy put into the creation of a future memory the more likely they are to manifest. Future memories are like friendly reminders to your future self of strategies to reach your goal and of how you can avoid pitfalls. The more time and energy you put into creating your future memories, the more real they will be and the faster they will manifest into reality.

The Long Moment
The long moment, also called the Cortothalamic Pause, is a technique that slows one's perception of certain events in order to see what is really happening in present time. It can be used to slow life down so you are able to form an appropriate response instead of giving a mechanical response or more likely a mechanical reaction to a situation. For most people there is a 3 step process they go through that leads to responding to events and situations with a mechanical reaction. These are:

1. We receive an incoming perception: ie. – A person speaks loudly to us
2. The perception is immediately routed by our flow of associations to a certain place in our memory: ie. – In this or a past life, we have memories of loud voices and anger.
3. The perception is assigned a meaning: ie. – The person is angry with us.

These steps happen very quickly, less than a second usually and lead to a reaction of however each of us responds to an angry person. We don't take the time usually to consider that there may be other feelings involved and that we are assigning our own interpretation to another's actions. This can lead to overreactions at the moment and cause more problems. If you had a Cortothalamic Pause, you would not react out of your own memory, but rather be able to slow the event down, be totally present in the "now", and form a more appropriate or true response. Start out twice a day practicing this skill. When someone asks you a question or asks you to do something, stop everything inside yourself for 2 seconds. Stop all thought and consideration. Get quiet. Then respond to the person. For a while you won't actually be able to stop your internal thoughts, but you will be able to see all the mechanical reactions and thoughts that immediately spring up. You may be surprised at the massive and often chaotic activity that happens inside yourself. It will give you true insight into the way you interact with life.

You now have several daily rituals to explore to help you with changing yourself and having an impact on the world around you and what you want to attract to it. For more daily rituals and to learn how to create daily rituals for yourself, check out our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook.

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Want to Change Your Life Magically? Get Ready for the Big Burn

If you have anything unwanted in your life you can get rid of it magically with this ritual you'll find in our Kindle Book, Learn How to Do Witchcraft Rituals and Spells with Magical Tools along with lots of other great rituals. This ritual gives you the power of the Firebowl to do the Big Burn.

The Firebowl
When choosing a firebowl, look for one that is made of brass, cast-iron, ceramic or a hard hardwood. It should be 4-6 inches in diameter and 4-5 inches deep. It should also be a shape that is easily held with one or both hands and light enough to carry in one hand if necessary. Make sure your firebowl has a shape that will be stable when placed on a flat surface. The shape of the bowl should also be curved-in and flared back out at the top rim to promote "columning" of incense or smoke. For this ritual, along with a Firebowl, you will also need:

• Self-starting charcoal discs
• Wood chips to insulate the charcoal from resin or incense and facilitate burning
• Pine resin
• Finely ground or rubbed sage
• Sun Candle
• Pen and plenty of blank paper

Start by lighting the Sun Candle with wooden or paper matches and charging it with this verse:

"Child of Wonder,
Child of Flame,
Nourish My Spirit,
And Protect My Aim!"

Then follow these directions:
1. Stand or sit in the South facing North with your Firebowl and other materials in front of you.

2. Light the charcoal with a match lit from the flame of the charged Sun Candle. It should begin sparking within seconds.

3. Once charcoal in the center of the Firebowl is lit, blow Sun Yellow energy pulled from the Sun Candle into the Firebowl until the disc is burning well. 

4. Add wood shavings to the charcoal, then the pine resin, and then sage as needed until the Firebowl is producing a good column of smoke.

5. Blowing Sun Yellow into the charcoal before and after the verse, and between each line of the verse, use a voice of command to charge the Firebowl with this verse:

"Fire and Air where you are cast,
Let no spell nor adverse purpose last,
Not in accord with me!
Clear from my life these unwanted matters,
Send far from my life these negative factors!
Thus my will, so it be!"

Doing the Big Burn
This magic ritual is especially good for getting rid of unwanted anger, negativity, or negative factors you are experiencing in your life. The technique matches the energy of anger in particular because it burns literally. Be sure to observe fire safety precautions when doing this ritual and follow these directions:

1. Sit in the South facing North with all of your materials in front of you.

2. Light and charge the Sun Candle

3. Charge the Firebowl.

4. Start writing everything that is bothering you or making you feel negative on your blank pieces of paper. Keep writing as fast as you can and get everything out on the paper. Write as much as you need to and don't worry if you repeat yourself. Write until you literally run out of steam (combination of Fire and Water energy).

5. Now you are ready for the Big Burn part of the ritual. Place your Firebowl in front of you (be sure your Firebowl is large enough to accommodate the burning of the papers – if not, move the entire operation to the sink or some other place that is safe for burning)

6. Take a moment to do whatever you need to do to move the anger or negative feelings out of yourself. You might ask for help from angels, ask for guidance, just have a moment of silence, or take several deep breaths.

7. Now, light the papers with your wooden or paper match and let it burn in the firebowl. You can light each sheet individually (many people find this method more satisfying), or wad up the whole mess of papers and light the entire thing (again observing fire safety precautions).

8. Then sit back and watch your anger go up in smoke.

If you are dealing with a chronic or stubborn problem, you may need to do the Big Burn on a daily basis for 40 days or more. This will give you 40 days of making a daily conscious contact with the Universe. Doing this technique as a daily ritual will also build the strength of your spell matrix for 40 days in a row. While some experts feel that bad habits or chronic conditions can be handled in less than 40 days, spiritually the number 40 is very effective.

So the next time you find yourself overwhelmed with anger or other negative feelings or situations, just get out your firebowl and do the Big Burn. Magically melt those problems away so you can enjoy life.

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Online Magic Tip #28: When Action Helps Your Intention, and When It Does Not!

If you watch videos like "The Secret" you may walk away with the idea that you can and should set your intention daily, and then put your head in the sand like an ostrich for the rest of the day. Do that for long enough and, "Poof!" ... the magic happens and all is well!

When Intention Works Alone
This online magic tip is all about whether intention, by itself, works well, and when it doesn't.

So can intention, used alone, actually magically bring about the results you desire? Well, the answer, as you may have guessed, is "It depends!"

The success of your intention really depends on who you are--and how you are. If you are the type who enjoys setting your intention and then "going with the flow," then using intention by itself will probably work well for you. Go with the methods mentioned in "The Secret" and wait to amaze yourself.

On the other hand, if you are more of the type who, as a child, persistently asked, "Are we there yet?" while in the car, then intention alone probably won't work for you... at all! If you are the "go get 'em" type who is more into action than meditation, then read the next section in this online magic tip to see how you can help your intention along without getting in your own way.

When Intention Does Not Work Well Alone
Based on our personal experience (and the volumes of email we get), we suspect that the majority of the world falls into this second camp--the camp of folks whose motto is "I can't wait!"

When it comes to magic, the problem with intention is that having an "I can't wait" attitude tends to interfere with your intention, slowing down the arrival of that which you desire. Bummer.

But here's the good news--and the real nugget of information at the heart of this online magic tip: you can take action steps that will assist rather than interfere with your intention.

Good Action Steps for Impatient People
The key to helpful action steps for impatient people is, wait for it... intention! Yeah, we know, intention is kind of the problem for impatient people. However, intention is also the solution.

If you already know that you are an impatient person, then you can take preparatory intentional steps prior to setting you "main goal intention" that will help you stay calm afterward. What we mean is that you can plan a sequence of action steps to take after you have cast your major intention.

What are these action steps? These steps are magical rituals done on a daily basis that will assist your main intention as well as keep you occupied (so you don't interfere with that main intention). Examples include: (search for these on this blog if not familiar with how to do them)

• Navajo Beauty Way
• Sun Candle Blessing
• Walking Meditation
• Water Bowl Meditation
• Rooting
• Question Circle
• Talking to Spirit of Owl
• Hiring Angels

We could literally include hundreds of daily magical rituals in the list, but you get the idea. You can even use a combination of these rituals to ensure that you don't get bored while you are waiting for your intention to manifest. The key is to plan the use of these magical rituals ahead of time. You need to set your intention around these rituals by defining:

• which rituals you will use
• how long you will do each ritual
• in which order you will do the rituals (if you are using more than one)
• when you will use the ritual(s) during the day
• whether you will use the ritual(s) more than once daily (if needed) and under which circumstances (i.e., you might choose to hire an angel to help you stay calm when you start to feel impatient)
• when you will stop doing the ritual(s) and check the progress of your manifestation (a question circle would prove useful for checking progress)

If you plan to use these types of rituals for 21, 40, or your own chosen number of days, you will find yourself much less twitchy and apt to get in the way of your main intention. In fact, you may find that you enjoy the daily rituals so much that you often forget to think of your main intention, which is just fine because the Universe doesn't need your help to deliver the goods. The Universe mainly needs you to stay out of the way and "sound a joyous note to Creator's ear." That joyous note is exactly the main goal of these daily magical rituals.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Need More Help?
Get a bunch of rituals in these books and ebooks:

Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life Ebook

Learn How to Do Witchcraft Rituals and Spells with Your Bare Hands

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The Beauty of the Navajo Beauty Way

For almost three decades I have been practicing and using the Navajo Beauty Way as a form of magical practice. Used by the Navajo tribe when they were being moved from their native lands onto reservations, the Beauty Way (in various forms) has actually been used in tribal traditions from very ancient times. It is an incredible magical ritual that helps you connect with higher powers and beings and restore a state of inner peace and harmony. It is also a form of "magic spell work in action" that can be done without great effort but to great effect.

We have introduced the Navajo Beauty Way to many of you in articles covering Day Greetings and Day Endings, and the Walking Litany. We hear from people all the time how the effect of this 3 part ritual is truly magical. Participants have all kinds of magical interactions, and learn to see magic in many new ways. The effect has been so strong from those we've heard from, that I definitely want to introduce it to more people. Hence, this blog post!

The Beauty and Magic of This Ritual
Before I dive into the "how," I want to give you the "why" for the Beauty Way. In other words, what does the Beauty Way do for you? Here's a list to get you started.

The Navajo Beauty way is a non-denominational set of exercises from very ancient times, designed to:

• Restore personal power through developing trust in one's wisdom gained through personal experience
• Enhance creative flow and one's connection to the environment and nature's laws and forces
• Help us learn new skills and use new tools for observing and maintaining harmonious and pro-active inner states
• Develop a practical working relationship with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws
• Create stability and choice in walking in different realities and worlds.
• Being safe and protected without the need to build walls or hide behind masks.
• Establish and maintain contact with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws so as to live in compliance with and gain support in our creative endeavors.
• Maintain spiritual integrity for individuals or groups during times of high external change and stress.
• Preserve cultural and spiritual identity beyond the efficacy of sociological myths in times of breakdown, and restructuring of communities, tribes or nations.
• Restore the balance both internally and externally between the feminine aspect of integration and oneness, and the masculine aspect of separation and duality.

Powerful magic, isn't it?

Dive Into the Beauty Way
So history lesson aside, let's dive right into the Beauty Way. There's no sense in knowing about a magical ritual if you can't use it, right? The Beauty Way has three different forms:

1. Exit Ritual
2. Day Greetings and Endings
3. Walking Litany

We'll start with the simplest form, the Exit Ritual. The Exit Ritual helps us connect with higher powers and beings multiple times during the day. Connecting us with powers and beings is useful because they can help us get back into that feeling of peace and serenity. They exist at a higher level than we do, so it's often easier for us to ask them for help rather than trying to do it all ourselves. The Exit Ritual also realigns our chi or life force, which can become distorted from working and living in buildings with strong electromagnetic fields.

How to Do the Exit Ritual
To do the Exit Ritual, follow this procedure every time you leave an enclosed space such as a car, building or house:

1. Extend your focus up into the sky and say aloud, "Sky Above." The reason we extend our focus first is that the Exit Ritual is a form of asking favor from powers and beings so it is appropriate that we go to them rather than asking them to come to us. In ritual, when we have carefully prepared sacred space, we can invite them in and then bid them farewell.

2. While keeping your awareness above, extend your focus into the earth and say aloud, "And Earth Below."

3. Then, keeping awareness of both above and below, say aloud, "I Greet You."

4. Wait a moment and see what happens. Be alert for acknowledgement or response in one of these three ways:

- From within you, such as a realization, a change of attitude or belief, a new awareness.

- Changes in your environment, such as a sudden breeze, a change in the color of the sky, a bird or animal suddenly appearing visually or vocally, or a tree or shrub suddenly becoming vividly visible.

- A response from Sky and/or Earth: a special message for you, an answer to a question, or guidance and new directions.

5. What happens may happen in just that moment, or it may happen throughout the day. It may change the quality of your day, your awareness...whatever you notice. You may also want to use hand gestures: Arms raised in a upward facing V for "Sky Father" and arms down in a downward facing V for "Earth Mother."

Sound good? Dive right in. Have issues, questions, or comments? Post a comment to the blog. We love hearing about magic!

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Use This Simple Magical Ritual to Live Your Dreams

There are daily rituals that can help you magically in many ways, but there are some magic rituals that can help you live your dreams by making them come true. We often think that the only way to get what we want in life is by hard work. Magic can help us manifest those things we desire without all the hard work though. In our Daily Rituals to Attract What We Want in Life ebook, you'll learn about all types of magical daily rituals and there's a whole section on daily rituals for manifesting what you want. Here's one of the daily rituals you'll find in this book to help you manifest and live your dreams.

Creating Future Memories
Once we have put out to the Universe what it is we want, the Universe starts working on delivering it. Many manifestations don't appear because either we aren't ready to receive them or we get in the way somehow of them being delivered. Our job is to clearly state exactly what we want to have happen and then it is up to us to let it go and give the Universe room to work its magic and deliver. This is sometimes very difficult for people, especially those movers and shakers that believe they have to "do" something or be in control. One daily ritual you can do to help stay out of the way, build energy and force into what you are manifesting and let you feel like you are still playing a part is creating future memories. We usually think of memories as coming from past experiences, but you can also create memories of future events. By adding specific thoughts, emotions, and physical actions into memories we create, we make them real and create them in our lives. The more energy put into creating these memories, the greater likelihood of them manifesting in our lives.

We sometimes refer to this daily ritual as the "Pack Your Bags" ritual because if you are for example working on manifesting a great vacation for yourself, one of the actions you can do while waiting for the Universe to deliver is to pack your suitcase acting as if your dream vacation is already a reality. For this example, here's how you would do the future memory ritual.

1. Sit in a quiet space relaxing your mind and body.

2. Envision the future situation as if it has come to fruition already. For this example you might see yourself on the beach reclining in a beach chair.

3. See as many details as you can – smell the ocean, feel the sand between your toes, experience the joy of relaxing with a cool drink taking in the spectacular view, and so on.

4. Sit this way for at least 3 minutes a day adding more textures, feelings and sensations each time.

You'll find that the more time you spend creating these type of future memories, the faster they will manifest in your life. You can use this type of ritual for making changes to negative things in your life too. Just start envisioning the goal that you have not been able to accomplish and see yourself changing the actions you do. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, but can't keep away from the cookies, see yourself starting to reach for the cookies and instead reaching for an apple or for the phone to call someone for support or getting up and going for a walk. Add in the sensations, sounds, emotions and as many details into the new memory as you can. Creating future memories gives you a way to influence and help create your own future magically.


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How to Reboot Your Magical Practice

Is your magical practice feeling stale, or are you not finding the time to devote to it every day? You can reboot your practice and get back that feeling of excitement you had when you first started by using daily rituals with consistency. Daily rituals can be a simple and easy way to add some magic into your day and the key to their success is consistency. Spiritually speaking, doing a ritual the same time everyday can increase the level and quality of connecting with the higher. Some rituals are designed to be done in the morning and others in the evening and some can be done at any time and whenever needed. Daily rituals help open a doorway to the higher, refresh your connection to magic, and are simple to do so they work into your busy schedule easily. What ritual you do is not as important in achieving this as doing it daily. Consistency creates more force, so a simple ritual done daily brings you as much or more than doing a complex ritual or spell sporadically.

Just Do It
Now that you know how to reboot your magical practice, you just need to pick a daily ritual that is simple enough to fit into your day, make the commitment to do it every day and just do it. If you already have a simple magical daily ritual, then you are ahead of the game. Just get going. If you don't then our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want ebook can help you out with finding one or giving you guidance on how to make your own. One of the rituals you'll find in this ebook is the Day Greetings which are part of the Navajo Beauty Way.

Day Greetings
This form of the Navajo Beauty Way is a contact ritual that starts your day off with a little magic and helps you establish a relationship with the Four Winds, Sky Father and Earth Mother. By doing this simple daily ritual each morning you will develop trust in your inner wisdom that helps in restoring your personal power, gain a more creative flow in your life, connect with your environment and laws of nature more easily, develop a working relationship with these higher powers and beings, restore balance internally and externally of the feminine aspect of integration and oneness and the masculine aspect of separation and duality, and allow the guidance and support from these beings to start working in your life. That's a lot of benefit from one simple ritual that just takes a few minutes to start your day off magically.

If the Day Greetings don't peak your interest, then try some of these rituals from our blog or get the Daily Rituals ebook. Reboot and fall in love with magic again.

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Not Enough Time for Work and Life? Try Magically Stretching Time

Are there times you wish you could magically stretch time? Does it seem like no matter how fast you run through life, you just don't have time to get it all done? Well, relax, stretching time is just one of the simple things a magician can do. There are actually many ways to magically play with time. One of these is using anticipation. Stretching time with anticipation works based on a couple of magical principles:

1. When you achieve your desires quickly or strive actively or impatiently to bring your desires to you "now," you shorten or compress time.
2.  When you anticipate your desires with patience and enjoyment in the present moment (without hurrying to bring the actual object of your desire into present time), you stretch time.

Compress Time
Universal law states when you want something, you set up a force between yourself and what you want to attract it. The more you desire it or the more impatient you are for it, the faster you will bring it to yourself. Think of it this way. You are standing in the present at this moment and the thing you desire is located somewhere in your future. Bringing yourself and the object that you desire together quickly, compresses the time between your present moment and the future moment where the object exists. By compressing time in this way, you actually shorten or bend the amount of time in your life.

Stretch Time
Now if you are standing in your present moment and instead of being impatient you just enjoy the experience of that object that you desire, you stretch the time out between your present moment and the future moment where your object exists. You still have created a force to bring that object to yourself, but by staying in the present, you expand your perception of "now". You are able to experience your present moment to include what is actually happening in that moment combined with your enjoyment of a future moment. Putting together more perceptions and enjoyment in your present moment gives you more time in that present moment than usual.

Magically Playing with Time: Example
To stretch time in your life just anticipate that which you desire in the future with lots of enjoyment and great patience. Enjoy the present and future experiences at the same time. For example, you have planned a vacation coming up soon. Spend a lot of time daydreaming about your vacation and have as much fun in your daydreams as you will on the actual vacation. Don't get impatient about it getting here if you want to stretch time, just enjoy what is happening for you now and in your daydreams about your vacation.

If in the case of your vacation you want to speed up or bend time, just focus all your attention on the future moment and very little attention on the present moment. Holding the future vacation in mind and making it your main focus, you can pull it to you. As you focus on it, feel it speeding toward you and you speeding towards it.

Whether you want to compress or stretch time, it's all possible magically. Patient anticipation to expand, achievement of desires to compress. Give these a try and have some magical fun playing with time. Then check out our Kindle book, The Complete Guide of Witchcraft Rituals & Spells for Beginners, to learn more simple magic magician's can do. 

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Is a Black Cat Really Bad Luck?

Whether a black cat is bad luck or not depends on each individual's experience, beliefs and superstitions he or she subscribes to. Superstitions only have as much force as you give them plus as much force as other people have given them over the years. The less you believe, the less force that superstition has on the planet. The force of something like a superstition can actually be weighed and measured, like any kind of knowledge. Up to you whether you choose to add or subtract from it. Daily rituals can help you add or subtract that kind of force in your life.

How Daily Rituals Work in Your Life
Doing daily rituals creates a doorway that allows your desires to manifest in your life with the help of the Universe. Engaging in daily rituals also creates a channel for us to connect with the higher in our lives which includes our own inner guidance, totem spirits, angels and other powers and beings. Most people are so busy during the day that they have a hard time hearing the quiet voices of higher guidance. Our guides speak to us all the time and are willing and eager to help us manifest what we want in life. We just don't hear them over all the noise of things like cell phones, TV, gossip, and traffic. This is where doing daily rituals comes in. It helps us set aside sacred time to connect with the higher and listen to what our guides are saying. Having these forces at work in our lives allows us to pull away from mechanical reactions and old beliefs put on us by others so we can follow our own paths and find what is true for us.

In doing daily rituals, consistency is a key element. By doing a ritual consistently at the same time every time you increase the level and quality of the connection with the higher. There are rituals that you only need to do when the need arises such as those for pain relief or when you need to manifest a certain thing in your life. Then there are other rituals that you want to do every day. These are the ones that will establish connection and relationships with the Universe and higher powers and beings and your own inner guidance. With these type of daily rituals another key element is to keep them simple. If the ritual is too complex the chances of it getting done around our busy schedules lessens.

If you already have a daily ritual practice then we'd love to hear what you do. Leave your story in the comments. If you don't, then check out our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook. With this ebook you will receive directions on a variety of rituals such as for pain relief, contact rituals, getting information you need and lots more. It will also help you learn the key ingredients to creating daily rituals yourself.

So is a black cat bad luck? That's up to you to decide. With the help of daily rituals you can hear your own inner guidance and block out the old beliefs others have fed you and find the truth for yourself. Start a magical connection with the higher and give all those poor black cats given a bad rap a break by breaking through the forces that produce superstitions.

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Esoteric School Discovery Guide to Magic – Part III

A Strong Relationship with the Universe is a Crucial Key to Successful Manifestation.

Would you ask a huge favor of a total stranger? Probably not. You might ask to borrow a section of the newspaper while riding the subway, but you wouldn't ask them to babysit your kids. On the other end of the spectrum, your best friend will do anything for you and vice versa. The same is true of the Universe. When you just begin your relationship with the Universe (with the Beauty Way or working with angels), ask for small favors. With each successful co-creation with the Universe and mutual appreciation (the Universe thanks you and you thank the Universe), the relationship deepens, which gives you the leeway to ask for more and bigger favors. One key is to thank the Universe right after asking the favor and also when the manifestation occurs.

Daily Rituals to Form Connection
Daily rituals are one way to start forming a relationship with the Universe and higher beings. They create a channel for us to spend some time each day connecting with the higher which could include our own inner guidance, totem spirits, angels or other higher powers and beings. Pick a daily ritual to do consistently each and every day. It doesn't have to be long or complicated; just something that connects you with the higher. If you don't have a ritual you already use or want to use, you can find lots of them on our blog or in our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook. The daily ritual you use should be one that gets you away for a time from your busy day so that you can hear the quiet voices of higher guidance. You may or may not know that there are guides speaking to us all the time. They want to help us manifest what we want in life. We just can't always hear them over all the noise that surrounds us with cell phones, TV, gossip, etc... Doing daily rituals gives us that quiet time to hear and connect with these higher beings. It is important when establishing a relationship with the Universe to do it with as much consistency as you can. Those in spiritual circles know that the consistency of doing a ritual at the same time every time increases the level and quality of the connection with the higher.

Here are some things to remember as you start using daily rituals to connect with the Universe.

• You can be, do, and have everything and anything you want.
• The Universe is friendly--it's on your side and will help you succeed.
• Be grateful first--you'll then receive.
• The Universe delivers whatever you put your attention toward--what you think and feel. It can't go against that.
• If you've asked for something that isn't coming to you, ask for help shifting your energy into a more allowing and receiving mode.
• Don't try too hard--relax. The more relaxed and joyful you are, the faster the things you want will come to you.

Now that you know why daily rituals are important and what they can bring to your life, get started and pick one to do. Do it daily and consistently and watch the magic of the Universe unfold in your life.

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How to Use Magic to Get the Information You Need

When learning how to use magic, one of the first things you need to know is that as a planetary citizen you have a right to any and all information in the Universe. What you do with that information, especially if it concerns other people then falls under the Rules of the Road, but you are entitled to have the information whether you choose to use it or not and however you choose to use it. There are many ways of gathering the information you need or want and you will find specific directions for these techniques in some of our other blog articles (see below) and in our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook. Deciding how to use magic to gain the knowledge you seek can be through one or many of these techniques. You can use magic rituals to consult spirit guides, higher powers and beings, and/or get information from yourself.

Some Guidelines
Whichever method you use to gain knowledge and information, there are a few guidelines that will be helpful to keep in mind for how to use magic information gathering techniques. First of all, don't be afraid to ask for information. You have the right to access any information. Second, show gratitude. When you are working with your own Spirit, spirit guides or higher powers and beings, remember to express thanks for the information before you get it and after you get it. Also, don't be afraid to ask that the information be given to you in a way that you can understand it easily. If you don't get answers that you can understand, ask again and keep asking until you do get answers in a way you can understand. The more you practice this process the easier it will become.

Magical Ways to Get Information
This list of techniques and magical rituals will get you started learning how to use magic to get the information you need or want.

• Question Circle 
• Asking Owl 
• Asking for a Sign 
• 3 Day Question 
• Navajo Beauty Exit Ritual 

Getting Answers from Yourself
Above are some ways of how to use magic to get information from spirit guides, higher powers and beings and the Universe. Esoteric teachings however tell us that we create all the problems we have so that we can discover the answers. Our life experiences are like a school in which we have set up a number of problems so that as we go through our lives we discover ourselves by discovering the answers. For example, if you find that you keep encountering the same kind of problems over and over again in just different situations or with different people, then that should give you a clue that there is a lesson there for you to learn. Here is a way to get answers from your own Spirit.

• Write the question that you would like to have answered on a sheet of paper using your dominant hand to write with. For example you might ask what lesson you are to learn from your current situation. 

• Now switch your pen or pencil to your other hand (non-dominant hand) and write the first thing that comes to you. Do not stop to ponder the question or think about the answer, just write.

• If the answer does not make sense right away, don't worry about it. Just carry it with you for the next several days and see if anything comes to you that clarifies it. Information often comes in small pieces at a time so that we can digest it better. It may be only a partial answer at this point and more will come as you are ready for it. 

Real Magic Example
Here is an example of one way that one of our students got information for a situation that she felt guilt over after asking the question, "What else do I need to do for self-forgiveness?" First it might be helpful to have a brief background of what she was dealing with. She had been involved in a situation in which Spirit was telling her not to be in a certain place at a certain time. She ignored this and an event occurred which left her feeling guilty. She had dealt with these guilt issues in many magical ways over time, had moved forward to some extent, but there was still something lacking. Thus the question she posed and here is an account of her experience.

"I was doing my morning sitting outside, facing the pasture behind our house with the woods beyond. This was several days after posing the question of what else I needed to do for self-forgiveness. During this sitting I had what I can only describe as a vision. Everything around me became very quiet and still. I saw the trees as taking on an almost human form and the thought of them as "Standing People" came to me. I suddenly became very aware of all the shadows. I didn't see the Standing People (as I will continue to call them as that's how they seemed in this vision), but rather saw their shadows. As I looked into the pasture the Standing People all moved closer towards me from the woods and moved closer to each other. It became very dark and the spaces in between them were filled with dense, dark undergrowth. I saw something dark moving in the shadows there and I asked it what it was. The answer came back very clearly. "I am Stupid". So there was Stupid in the shadows. I got it, sat stunned for a minute, then started to chuckle. Just as rapidly as the shadowland appeared it disappeared. All the Standing People moved away from each other, the undergrowth was gone, light filtered in the spaces between and it became the normal serene scene I am used to seeing every day; pasture in front and trees beyond.

This explained the part that I had been missing in my search for self-forgiveness. Just dealing with the guilt wasn't enough. There was a much deeper issue to deal with – the one of feeling stupid that I was there in the first place and then didn't leave when "Spirit" was telling me too. This issue of feeling stupid has very deep roots in my past and gave me a lot of situations, encounters, misunderstoods, and relationship issues to explore. The answer seemed so simple and was inside me all the time, but lay there unrecognized until I was ready to deal with it." 

Trust in the process that what you seek will present itself to you at the perfect time. It will come when you are ready to understand, appreciate, and learn from it. Remember that the destination is not always as important as the journey. In other words, you will learn more about yourself and why you attract the situations you do by looking at the process by which you arrive there.

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Meditating Made Simple

Meditating is a simple and effective way to create peace, joy, harmony and manifestation in your life. Meditation has been practiced for centuries by students of many traditions, and there are as many forms of meditation as there are colors in a rainbow. A simple way to start meditating is to follow the steps below.

1. Sit comfortably in a quiet place. Make sure you have at least 15 minutes of quiet, undisturbed time to sit - early in the morning is best. Feel free to sit on the ground, in a chair or anywhere you find comfortable. You do not need to sit in the lotus position, just any position you find comfortable.

2. You may want to sit with a lit candle, burning incense or a fountain to improve your meditating. You may also want to burn some incense or botanicals like lavender to help you relax.

3. Once you have set up your space and are sitting quietly, close your eyes. Feel the breath moving in and out of your body, but don't try to force the breath or breathe on purpose. Instead, feel your body breathing by itself.

4. If thoughts come into your mind, let them simply pass through.

Here is a metaphor that will help: 
Imagine that you are sitting on the shore of a river watching boats go by. The boats are the thoughts that come into your mind. Every now and then, you will get so fascinated with a particular boat that you will want to jump on board and investigate. This is what happens when your thoughts carry you away from your quiet place on the shore. When you notice that you have been carried away by one of your thoughts, just return to your quiet place on the shore and notice your breath again. 

5. If you have great difficulty being interrupted by your thoughts, you can also meditate with your eyes open, focusing on a candle flame or on the smoke from your incense burner. Sometimes having a visual focus will reduce the internal chatter from your mind. The sound of a fountain, which is irregular and difficult for your mind to follow, can also help.

6. Sit for at least 15 minutes in this way quietly meditating, or longer if you desire. The length of your meditation is not as important as the consistency. It is better to do a shorter meditation daily than to do longer ones sporadically.

7. Do not judge the results of your meditation by how peaceful or disruptive it was. It's the effort to reach a place of inner quiet that matters, regardless of whether you actually reached total quiet.

Even a session filled with thoughts and efforts to return to inner quiet can be effective. The results of your meditation will appear in your daily life - during daily encounters and events. You will find, over time, a new sort of peace and inner quiet in dealing with all of life's events and people. Most of all, enjoy your time of meditation. It is time you are devoting to your own inner development. The more you develop your inner life, the more your outer life will flourish and grow. The practice of magical daily rituals is another way to develop your inner life as well as your connection with the higher. Our Daily Rituals ebook can help you get started on a regular practice of daily rituals.

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5 Reasons We Don't Get What We Want

It is a magical truth that you can be, do and have everything you want in life. This is not a new concept as master teachers world-wide have been teaching it for ages. All that is necessary in getting everything you want is to ask the Universe and sit back and let it deliver. It's like being in a great magical café. You select what you want from the menu of infinite possibilities, place your order and the Universe delivers. So why aren't we all doing this? You first have to get yourself to the "restaurant" and second make yourself ready to receive. One way to enter the "restaurant" is by doing daily rituals. These are small planned actions that connect us with what we want in life and put us in the energetic space to be able to receive. Daily rituals can help you release pain, start the day and end the day in a magical way, get help from higher powers and beings, and access knowledge from the Universe. You'll find a wide variety of these in our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook.

We've identified 5 of the main reasons more people aren't using this simple principle and manifesting all their desires. In previous articles we've explored four of these reasons in-depth and gave some magical solutions for turning them around. In this article, we will explore the number 1 reason we think interferes with the magical process - We Don't Believe We Can Be, Do, and Have Everything We Want.

As a reminder, the top 5 reasons we've identified are:
1. We Don't Believe We Can Be, Do, and Have Everything We Want
2. Negativity is Popular
3. We Are Hypnotized by Daily Life
4. We Are Afraid of Failure
5. We Think We Have to "Make it Happen"


We Don't Believe We Can Be, Do, and Have Everything We Want
The majority of us grew up hearing phrases like, "You can't have your cake and eat it, too." or "There's no such thing as a free lunch." With that philosophy being drummed into us it's no wonder we don't believe we can have it all. The lesson our society teaches is that if you want something, you have to give up something. The Universe however has no limits so we can ask for anything, create anything and receive anything and everything we want and there's still enough for everyone else to do the same. It's not a limited supply or inventory that will run out. The Universe we live in is continuously expanding and as more and more people begin creating, they can all be accommodated. There's no way we could ask for more than the Universe can handle.

The Real Magical Truth
The real truth is that it is part of our jobs as human beings to create. It is one of the reasons we are here in physical bodies; to experience the process of creation. Doing daily rituals is one of the ways we can separate from our mechanical ways of living and rushing through everyday life to connect with the Universe and higher beings that can help us. That's why it's called "co-creating". We don't have to do it alone. It's our job to do the dreaming and asking, then to sit back and let the Universe do its job of delivering. We have to get out of our own way so to speak and trust that the Universe is limitless and can do its part. Basically, you have to believe in the magic that is available to you and allow it to work in your life.

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Is Your Magical Practice at Risk?

The most common reason that people lose their magical "mojo" is that they don't practice daily rituals. Daily rituals provide regular contact with spirit guides and the Universe, and a good working relationship with these beings does improve chances of getting assistance in magical acts. Also consistent practice of regular magical rituals helps boost your magical force--every successful daily ritual adds magical force until your magical bank account is overflowing; but failing to keep in touch with your magical practice can leave you magically bankrupt!

A good way to make sure you are keeping magic in your life daily is by signing up for our Everyday Magic Email course. This course gives you 52 magical lessons and inspirations, one each week, for daily magic practice. Here's a sample of what you'll find in this course.

As Above So Below
How much do you move your body? Many of us spend a great part of the day sitting and not moving. By the esoteric law of "As Above, So Below" each part of our being affects the other parts. So when you find yourself mentally stuck, moving your body helps get your mind moving. By this law, when we change one part of our being, every other part has to change to match it. So as you move your body, your mind and spirit move to match it. Understanding how this law works can help you transform every area of your life. 

Slow Movement
Now that you see how moving your body can help get your mind and spirit moving too, you can also use this principle to control your mind when it starts running away with you. That means times when you start obsessing about something that happened during the day or incessant worry or just mind chatter that interferes with your inner silence or trying to meditate. In these cases when you get up and move your body, move it slowly. Walk across the room taking slow deliberate steps or slowly do some Tai Chi or yoga moves. Whatever type of movement you do, do it consciously and slowly, feeling all the sensations of your body moving and your breathing. This slowing down of the body will help slow down your mind so you can have some inner silence to hear your guides, higher powers and beings and your own inner wisdom. Regularly practice with moving your body slowly will help your mind slow down and stay more focused and help you get better sleep at night. The next time you're feeling nervous or anxious, give this a try and magically help slow down your racing feelings and thoughts.

Give these techniques a try and add them to your magical toolbox. Then for lots more information on how magic works and techniques you can use to improve your life, check out the Everyday Magic Email course.


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How to Create Magic Rituals That Work for You

Magic rituals are a big part of a magical practice. That is why we wrote the Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook that includes 36 daily rituals. That is enough to get you started on the path of using magic rituals and inviting magic that works into your life. But the real fun starts once you see what using daily rituals can bring to your life and learn how to start creating your own daily rituals. Here are some tips you can use when beginning to create your own magic rituals.

1. The ritual should allow you to connect with Spirit by helping you quiet your mind or by putting you in touch with physical sensation.

2. The ritual should disrupt your mechanical way of life and way of reacting to life allowing you to be conscious and aware of who you are, where you are and what your aims are.

3. Designing a daily ritual that uses universal principles or laws is much more effective than ones without this component added. Make sure your ritual follows Rules of the Road and principles such as "as above, so below" or the principles of the 4 elements.

4. It is easier to create what you want in life when you have a little help from your spirit friends. Your daily ritual could be one that enlists the help of angels, guides, totems, or other spirit beings.

5. A daily ritual can be created to help you control your reactions to situations and achieve aims and goals. For example, if you have a goal of attracting peace and harmony into your life, a daily ritual can be created to help you remember not to react with anger to a co-worker's insults.

Following these tips for creating daily rituals can help you make sure your magic rituals are strong and effective. Creating your own magic rituals personalizes them to your tastes and goals. It also has the added benefit of making you more involved and invested in continuing to do them on a daily basis. Experiment with making some rituals of your own and start attracting what YOU really want in life.

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How to Amp Up Your Relationship with the Universe

Establishing a solid relationship with the Universe now gives you the inside track when you really need it. Accessing spiritual information from your own Spirit or from higher beings and powers just makes life easier. The more you connect with the Universe through angels, guides, animal totems and even your own Spirit, the easier life in general will be and the easier it will be to manifest those things you desire in life. So how do you go about establishing this relationship? One way is through daily rituals. These type of rituals reconnect us with what we really want in life and put us in the energy field that allows us to receive what we ask for. There is an angel, guide, totem, and helper for just about anything in our lives. Want a new job? A new mate? A parking space at the mall? It doesn't matter how big or how small your problem is, there is a Universal being just waiting for you to ask for help. Asking is one of the keys however. These beings don't just interfere in your life at will. You have to ask for their help. Then to really get an ongoing relationship built up here are a few tips.

1. Work with the same spirit guides, such as parking angels or Spirit of Owl often and consistently

2. Thank the beings before and after the act (this is most often forgotten by people, but these guides mostly work for appreciation)

3. Ask for help as often as possible (there is an angel for everything and they gain their own ascension by doing magical acts for humans, everything from clearing up scheduling conflicts to guiding you as to how much salt to put on your food or what is healthiest and happiest meal to order at a restaurant)

Working With Spirit Beings
Not sure how to get started working with Spirit beings? No problem, we can help. First here are some general guidelines to follow when interacting with them.

• Don't be afraid or hesitate to ask for help. These beings are just waiting to be called upon. 
• Remember to always thank your Spirit or your guides when you ask for help before and after they have given you aid. 
• When asking for information ask for it to be given to you in a way that you can easily understand.
• If you don't get the information you need the first time around, thank your source and ask for clarification. Don't be afraid to keep asking until you get what you want.
• Don't second guess the information or the way in which help arrives for you. Accept it with gratitude!

Working With Angels
Now that you have some general guidelines, let's get down to specifics starting with angels. Angels are good beings to begin working with because they don't require a long, established relationship to begin working for you. Let's say you are stuck in traffic, late for an appointment, or find yourself dealing with some type of awkward situation. This is a perfect time to ask for help from an angel as they are experts at quick fixes. Here's what you do:
1. Out loud or in your mind say, "Angel expert in ___ [traffic, parking places, in-laws, etc.], please come to my aid."

2. Before proceeding, wait several moments in silence to feel the presence of an angel arriving. They are quick so you don't have to wait for more than a few seconds.

3. Tell the angel exactly what you need help with and be specific. For example, don't just say I want a parking space to be available to me. Instead say that you want a parking space at the Crossroads Mall and maybe even what city the mall is in and that you want it on the side of the mall where the Sears store is. Include that you will be arriving at the mall in 15 minutes and will need the space available at that time.

4. After stating what you want, be sure to thank the angel. Don't wait to see if it really happens, go ahead and show your gratitude now. This step is very important so that they will be more willing to help you in the future and because you are receiving a wonderful gift.

Step 4 can be tricky for some people and is the place where the communication process often breaks down and what you want may not happen. This is because angels cannot go against your will. So if you ask for help, but you are having negative or doubtful thoughts about what you have asked for, the angel can't go against those thoughts. For example, you ask for help in getting a great job. In your mind however you are thinking of all the reasons you won't get the job or how you don't believe the job will be offered to you. The angel can't override those thoughts and gets the message, "I can't get this job." See the problem? If you find your mind having these types of thoughts, you can get around it by asking one angel to help you stop your negative thinking and then ask another angel to help you get the job. Remember there is no shortage of angels to help you out with whatever problem you have, so start thinking in that direction. Anytime a problem comes up in your life, begin thinking of an angel to help you through it.

This should get you started working with Spirit beings and seeing all the magic they can bring to your life. When you are ready to move on to working with other Universal beings, our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook can help. In this ebook, you'll learn how to create your own rituals as well as find more than 35 daily rituals you can use to release pain, start and end your day properly, get angelic help, access knowledge, and to lift your mood. Daily rituals will allow you to start establishing long term relationships with Universal beings so that you'll always have magical help available whenever you need it.

Image courtesy of   marcolm  / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Esoteric School Discovery Guide to Magic – Part V

More on The Beauty of the Beauty Way Exit Ritual

As we continue in our discovery guide to magic series, we can't move on without saying a little more about the Beauty Way Exit Ritual since this is such a great magical daily ritual to use in establishing a relationship with the Universe.

Benefits of the Beauty Way
By nature, deep inside ourselves is always a peaceful, happy and serene place. We often just get sidetracked by life and don't remember how to access that part of ourselves. The Exit Ritual, which we described in detail in Part IV of this series, is a contact type of daily ritual that can help us get to that place. Several forms of the Beauty Way have been used by the Navajos helping them stay connected with their cultural identity as they were moved to reservation life. While this ritual has gone by other names and dates even further back in tribal use by other ancient peoples, the Navajos are among the most recent to utilize this type of contact ritual. This is a non-denominational spiritual ritual that can help one restore personal power, establish a working relationship with higher powers and beings, bring safety and protection and help people or groups of people maintain spiritual integrity through stressful or changing times. There is also an added health benefit to doing this daily ritual. By having us extend our energies up and down, this ritual helps to realign our life force or chi which restores a healthy balance to our energies that are affected by the electromagnetic fields that we are surrounded by from TVs, radios, microwaves, computer, cell phones and so on.

Consistency is Key
When you first begin doing the Exit Ritual, it is quite common to go outside and go on about everyday tasks and then suddenly realize you didn't do the ritual. While the ritual itself is pretty simple, the hard part is remembering to do it consistently. We all do this in the beginning so don't be too hard on yourself if you notice this happening. Benjamin Franklin said it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit and many spiritual disciplines believe it takes 40 days for a new practice to really become part of your experience consistently. Establishing a relationship with magical beings however does require consistency just like any relationship does. You know that if you neglect a friendship or relationship and only sporadically have contact with that person, it weakens the bond. The same is true here so don't beat yourself up about it, but do strive for consistently doing the ritual every time you leave an enclosed space such as a building or car. If you need a little help remembering, post a sticky note on the dash of your car or by the door you normally go out to remind yourself. It's also never too late to do the ritual, so if you are driving along and realize you forgot when you left home before getting in the car, you can pull over to a safe place, get out of your car and do the ritual then. That in itself may help you remember in the future after having to pull over a few times.


What's In It For You
As you establish your relationship with Sky and Earth you are enlisting them as allies for any future situations that you could use a higher source of help. Once the relationship is established, you can begin asking for guidance and help from these higher powers. Maybe you need a new job, more money coming in, help finding the perfect mate for you or just need your peace of mind restored. After greeting them with the ritual you can ask for any type of specific answers or guidance that you need. Being at a higher level of existence, these beings have a perspective that we can't see at our level of life and can offer guidance in handling issues that is much easier than anything we could do by ourselves. It may be tempting if you are in a hurry to skip the ritual, but once you consider the long term benefits of taking the short time it takes to perform it consistently, you'll see it is well worth the investment of time. Once you start seeing that this is a relationship you are forming with live beings who can and want to help you with your daily life, the ritual will become as important, if not more so, as interactions you have with friends and family. 

Is It Working?
At some point you may question whether doing this daily ritual is actually having an effect on your life. When these doubts start creeping in stop doing the Exit Ritual for seven days and really pay attention to what your life is like. Then start it up again for the next seven days on a very consistent basis and observe the difference. Takes notes each morning and evening instead of trusting memory and compare your life experiences with and without doing the ritual daily. Don't worry that you will offend these beings by stopping the ritual. As higher beings they don't take that perspective. They simply patiently wait, observing your personal growth and development and are there, ready and willing, for when you are ready to ask for their help. They always leave the door open for you to approach them. Work on the consistency to strengthen the relationship and don't stop just because you get frustrated by forgetting a lot. However much you choose to use this ritual, just know that it is one of the magical tools available to you. When you are ready for more daily rituals, consider our Daily Rituals For Attracting What You Want in Life ebook. You'll find in in the ebooks section of our online store at www.shamanschool.com.

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Image courtesy of tiramisustudio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Esoteric School Discovery Guide to Magic – Part IV

The Beauty of the Beauty Way Exit Ritual

In this magical discovery guide series, we have focused on how to bring the higher into your life and establish a relationship with the Universe and its higher powers and beings. This allows you to explore all the magical possibilities open to you in your life and determine for yourself how magic can work in your life. A large part of making these connections and relationships is with daily rituals. This installment of the series, presents to you a contact ritual that is one of the three forms of the Navajo Beauty Way. This ritual is called The Exit Ritual and is used to contact and greet powers and beings. Whether you call your powers and beings Universe, God, Higher Power, Angels, Totem Spirits or so forth doesn't matter. This ritual simply lets you acknowledge that there are higher beings that exist and are available to help you. It also gives you a way to take a break during the day from all the noise, chaos and electromagnetic fields that surround us in our daily lives. The Exit Ritual can help realign your chi or life force and bring you a sense of peace and serenity.

The Exit Ritual
Here's how this powerful ritual is done. Each time you leave an enclosed space such as a building or car:
1. Extend your focus upward into the sky to establish contact and say aloud, "Sky Above."

2. Keep your awareness focused above you and also extend your focus into the Earth saying aloud, "And Earth Below."

3. Maintain your awareness above and below and say aloud, "I Greet You."

4. Wait for a moment and be aware of anything that happens. Watch for any type of acknowledgement or response.

5. If you are not too self-conscious doing the Exit Ritual in a public place, you can also use arm gestures. For "Sky Above" raise your arms in an upward facing V and for "Earth Below" lower your arms with the V facing downwards.

Response to the Ritual
Responses to the Exit Ritual can vary from person to person and from each time you do it. You may notice a change within yourself such as a sudden realization or insight, an attitude change or a new awareness. There might be a change in the space around you such as a breeze, change in sky color or a bird or animal nearby becoming very noticeable to you. You might hear a voice in your head providing you an answer to a question you have or guidance on a problem or issue you face. The response may just be something that happens at the moment you complete the Exit Ritual or it could be something that stays with you the rest of the day. Not only can it change the day you are having, but by making this a daily ritual, you establish a connection with the Universe and invite wonderful and magical changes into your whole life.

You've nothing to lose by giving it a try and see what happens for you. Then if you're ready to let more magic into your life, check out our Witchcraft Spell Books series on Amazon. The first three books provide you with magical offerings using your bare hands, magical tools and household ingredients. The 4th book is a compilation of those three. Start with the Exit Ritual and begin establishing your relationship with higher powers and beings and you'll be well on your way to preparing yourself for a magical lifestyle.

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