Under Attack? Magical Methods of Self Defense

When it comes to using magical self defense there are a multitude of ways to protect yourself. Whether the attack is physical, psychic, verbal or just an invasion of your sacred space, you have the right to use magical means for protection as long as you stay within the self defense rules . In our online Magical Self Defense course you'll learn all about these rules as well as magic techniques such as grounding out fire energy, flowing fire energy, rooting and grounding, hand lightning, fireballs, shields and sonics for self defense. Just to peak your interest, let's look at one of these protection magic techniques – Grounding.

Grounding for Self Defense
Grounding is an especially good technique to use when you are in a routy crowd, find yourself dealing with a chatty neighbor invading your sacred silence, surrounded by anxiety that is contagious, or facing any aggression or anger from another. All of these situations involve fire energy and by grounding you are pulling excess fire energy from another person or the environment, flowing it through your body and pushing it into an electrical ground. Next time you find yourself in this type of situation, try this.

1. Concentrate on the behavior being expressed to access the excess of fire energy, ie. – noise, anger...

2. Identify a safe ground in the area for fire energy such as an electrical outlet, light switch, power lines or you can use a sink since the water pipes run into the earth. Do not use delicate electronic equipment like a computer or TV since these may short out from added fire energy.

3. Prepare to pull the excess fire energy by either putting your output hand or foot on the ground you have located or by extending your output hand toward the ground. Make sure there are no living beings between you and the ground you will be using as you don't want to flow the excess fire energy into them. If you are dealing with a situation that you are uncomfortable being obvious about what you are doing, you can very subtly direct your hand in the direction of the ground.

4. Begin pulling the excess fire energy that you have identified in through your input hand. You can access it by looking at a color source that corresponds to the energy such as red-orange for anger or aggression or yellow-orange for anxiety or you can access it from the behavior such as noise.

5. Pull the energy in through your input hand, through your body and out of your output hand into the ground that you have selected. If there are a combination of fire energies, you may have to keep switching color bands to pull all the excess fire. If you do not have your output hand available in your situation, you can flow the energy down and out through your foot.

6. Continue pulling until the noise, anger or aggression has diminished. This should only take a couple of minutes at most as most people will find it difficult to keep up their high fire energy levels once you start pulling and grounding it.

7. Be sure that you continue flowing energy into the ground through your output hand after you stop pulling it through your input hand. You want to make sure you are not taking on that excess fire by not flowing it out of your body.

If you are in a crowd and find you are dealing with a lot of excess fire energy, you can use the rooting technique along with the grounding technique. This allows you to have two energy grounds, your roots for one and the electrical ground for the other and you'll find you can pull larger amounts of fire energy this way.

Ready to get started learning to protect yourself magically? Check out the Magical Self Defense Course and fill your magical toolbox with a variety of techniques to protect yourself.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of    stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to Reap the Benefits of a Daily Magical Practice

Having a daily magical practice can pay off in big ways. When you develop consistency in your magic you reap the benefits in your daily life by building magical force inside yourself to have available when you want to do an act of magic. Daily rituals are a good way to add consistency into your practice, especially ones that connect you to the Universe, with thanks before and after. These types of daily rituals help you build a working relationship with the Universe so that when you ask for help with a magical act, it is available to you. If you need help finding or creating daily rituals, our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook is a great resource.

Magical Acts
Since any act of intention is a magical act, another way to bring consistency into your magical practice is by using the Consistency Exercise. With this magic exercise you choose a very simple intentional act to do every day at the same time and consciously do it. This exercise helps increase the level and quality of your connection to the higher, brings you back to present time, invites magic in to be a part of your everyday life, helps you build inner force, gets you more comfortable with practicing your magical skills in public and helps in changing your habitual thought patterns. For most people there is a high level of energy and excitement when initially setting a goal or embarking on a new goal, but this energy level dwindles as we get tied up with other things. Introducing consistency into your life can help keep that energy level up to help you make life changes. It can take 40 days to make a change which is why doing the Consistency Exercise is a good tool for giving you practice at developing skills to create change in your life as well as the opportunity to make magic an integral part of your life.

The Consistency Exercise
The first step for this magical exercise is to choose a simple act and we do mean SIMPLE. You could choose to make a mark on a piece of paper, touch your nose with your right thumb, snap your finger, scratch your ear, or any other really simple act that you can easily do where ever you are. Then you will choose a time to do this act each and every day. Consider your time carefully. For example, don't pick a time when you know you are at your very busiest part of the day. If you have kids to get off to school, pick a time after they are out the door. If you usually rush around getting ready for work in the mornings, don't pick that time of day, wait and choose a time you normally take a break at work. Pick a time that will not be a set-up for failure and that you will be more likely to remember to perform your act. You can also feel free to use notes to yourself or the alarm on your cell phone to remind yourself to do your act. That's not "cheating" as this is not an exercise in memory, just in developing consistency. Sounds simple so far, right? Well here's the catch. You must do this exercise of performing the intentional act you have chosen at the time you have chosen every day for 40 days in a row. If you miss a day, you must start over at day one. This can be frustrating for many, especially if you get to day 35 and then miss a day causing you start over at day 1, but stick with it and you will reap the benefits of finding acts of power take less effort, Law of Attraction kicks in more often for you and life in general just flows a bit better. This is because you are inviting magic into your life on a daily basis and increasing your magical force. Don't beat yourself up when you miss a day either. It's all a process and following the path has its own benefits no matter how long it takes to achieve the end goal. It is doing the exercise that is important, not the accomplishment of getting to the 40 days.

Now that you see all the benefits of developing a consistent magical practice, here's how to do the Consistency Exercise.

1. Choose your very simple act.

2. Pick the time of day that you will do your act every day.

3. When the time you have chosen comes, do the simple act. Do it every day at the same time for 40 days in a row.

4. If you miss a day during your 40 days, which you almost certainly will, you must begin your 40 days over at day 1. Even if you are at day 39 and miss the next day, you start over at 1.

5. Remind yourself the important thing is to do the exercise, not accomplish the goal, so do not berate yourself when you end up missing a day and have to start over. Think of it as just seeing your favorite movie again or learn to laugh about missing that day with a big "Oops!".

If you find you need or want some more help with bringing magic into your life every day consistently, try out our Everyday Magic Email Course. Weekly simple magical rituals and lessons to practice emailed straight to you to add magic in to your daily life. Once you start developing consistency you will be amazed at the powerful impact it can have in your life. You will begin to live more purposefully and consciously instead of mechanically and from habit, begin to respond consciously to the world instead of just reacting to it which empowers you, develop enhanced communication abilities, see opportunities instead of obstacles and attract more positivity. Consistency is the key to all these things and to opening the door to all kinds of magical possibilities.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of    imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Magic for When Someone is Being a Donkey's Butt

"Is there really magic for that?" you ask. Absolutely. And who doesn't run into the occasional person acting like the hind end of a donkey? If that's the case, we have magical help for you on our blog. Read this post. If you like what you read, dig deeper and read on. Or visit our articles library, online store, or get one of our magical Kindle ebooks. The possibilities are endless. And just think, you have the person acting like a donkey's butt to thanks for it!

You'll find plenty more magical techniques to use for protection, self-defense and dealing with difficult or angry people. Here's a grounding exercise you can try out to protect yourself from a person who is angry and directing that anger towards you or using it to disrupt your space. Grounding pulls excess fire energy from another person or the environment, flows it through your body and pushes it into an electrical ground. Here's how:
•Find a source for the energy color you want to pull (anger is red-orange) to look at as a reference

•Locate an electrical ground like an outlet, light switch or a sink (uses water pipes running into earth). This is where you will flow the excess fire energy to for it to be safely grounded.

•Put your output hand (hand you point with) or your foot on the electrical ground if possible. If that is not possible, you can point your output hand toward the electrical ground, but make sure no living thing comes between you and the ground.

•Pull excess fire energies in through your input hand, through your body and out of your output hand into the electrical ground.

•Keep pulling until the anger is gone. This usually takes two minutes or less according to how angry the person is, thus how much excess fire energy they have.

You can use this technique discreetly and the person you are pulling the fire energy from need not be aware that you are doing it. All they know is that the anger subsides in them.

There you have two magic techniques to try out in dealing with difficult people. Want more? Check out the blog and you'll find more of these techniques and magic techniques on many other topics to try out for yourself. It's like having your own magic reference desk open 24/7. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of  imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Did You Say Psychic Surgery?

Yup, we said psychic surgery. Having had several successful experiences with psychic surgery and many other types of energy healing, we can definitely say that magical or energy healing works. We can also say, based on experience, that just about anyone can learn energy healing. The perfect place to start is in our Energy Healing For Self and Others ebook, which offers a variety of healing techniques and recipes that make energy healing a snap. Here's a quick sneak peek at a couple of recipes:

Aromatherapy for Healing
Aromatherapy is especially good for when something is out of balance physically or emotionally. It works equally well for conditions beginning to manifest as it does for chronic or acute conditions. Essential oils can be used through a diffuser putting them into the air, applied directly to the body using various techniques, put in bath water, sniffed straight from the bottle, or steamed to inhale. You can buy high quality commercial oils or make your own. Here are a couple of aromatherapy recipes for specific uses.
Anti-Viral: Use cinnamon, pine needles, lemon, and thyme against flu and other viruses.
Mental Clarity: Use rosemary, basil, thyme, ginger, and clove.

Herbs for Healing
Harnessing the magical powers of various herb plants is another alternative healing resource. You can buy herbs, gather them in the wild or grow them yourself. Herbs can be dried, used in infusions, boiled to make decoctions, made into teas, used to make tinctures, steamed for inhalation of the scent or burned. Purifying is one of the situations in which herbs may be used by burning them. Sage, cedar boughs and lavender flowers are some of the most common herbs used in this way and for this purpose. Any herb can be burned, but when using herbs it is best to have a thorough understanding of the plants and their properties so that you can select the best one and the best delivery method for the situation. 

This is just a small taste of what you will find in the Energy Healing for Self and Others ebook. If you are ready to start uncovering the mysteries of energy healing and alternative healing techniques, this is the ebook for you.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of  Praisaeng / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ready for Tarot, Spellwork, and Simulacra Magic?

If you've taken our online Basic Magic Courses 1 and 2, and are ready for the really serious (and super fun) magical knowledge of the Tarot, Spellwork, and Simulacra, then you are primed for Basic Magic 3. This course covers these topics and more in great detail. Not only will you learn to throw a wide variety of Tarot readings, but you will learn to build on those readings to develop spells. This course also offers much more bonus knowledge just for the fun of it!

To give you an idea of what this course has to offer, here is some of the information in the class that covers Celtic Cross readings.

The Celtic Cross
This type of tarot reading is also called the Gnostic Cross and is best used to get a quick personality profile or character sketch of an animate being like a person or animal, but is not useful for situations or specific questions. For those more specific situational readings a 12 Card reading is needed. There is plenty of good information you can get though by doing a Celtic Cross reading. For example, if all the base cards in the reading show up reversed, it could mean this is not a good time to do a reading on this person because they are at a place in life where all the probabilities for them are equal and until a change happens in their life the reading wouldn't be meaningful.

Similar to 12 card readings, the cards in a Celtic Cross reading are thrown with a base card and a second card over it. The base card represents the general situation and the second card represents more specific details of the situation. The signifier card is the card that represents the person or animate being the reading is for. The Cover and Cross on the signifier give you an overview or summary of the whole reading. An upright Cover card means it represents the positive summary of the reading, making the Cross card the negative summation. If the Cover card is reversed, it represents the negative summary and the Cross card represents the positive. Just by looking at the Cross and Cover cards you get a very quick summary of what the whole reading will show you.

By doing a Celtic Cross reading you can quickly get information in these positions in the reading:
Cover and Cross on Signifier are in the middle of the reading surrounded by:

Above – This position represents unrecognized potential that may or may not come to fruition. Comparing these cards to the cards in the Outcome position can give you information about if this potential is likely to manifest by the cards in these two positions being similar.

Behind – This position show what the person has left behind or wants to be rid of or something that happened in the past that pertains to the reading.

Below – This is a foundation position and the take-off point for the reading that gives you the bedrock of this person's life.

Ahead – This position indicates the future according to the perception of the subject of the reading. It doesn't mean it is necessarily true, just how they are looking at the future and their belief or thoughts of what will happen.

To the right of this cross pattern of cards is a straight vertical line of cards that represent a Time Column. Positions in this column include:

Outcome or Far Future – The cards in this position give you a short basic look at the outcome of the reading if nothing changes. Since one of the reasons for doing a reading is to make a change of whatever you don't like, this outcome is definitely not set in stone. It merely shows the probability of what will happen if no changes are made.

Hopes/Fears or Near future – A reversed base card in this position is showing you this person's fears and that they live more in fear than hope. An upright base card here tells you their hopes and that they have an optimistic outlook.

Environment or Near Past – This position covers the time from the near past to the present and shows how the subject's environment has affected them in a positive or negative way. It also gives information on if factors in the environment are helping that person or hindering them.

Self Image or Far Past – This position gives you an idea of the subject's self-image derived from their history. If it is reversed then the subject's view of him or herself is wrong and the opposite is actually the truth.

As you can tell there is lots of information you can get that can magically change yourself or others by doing a Celtic Cross reading. Basic Magic 3 not only teaches you how to do these readings, interpret the cards and prepare your tarot deck, it also teaches you to do the more detailed 12 card readings and then how to use the tarot for spellwork. This is a fascinating form of divination that can truly help you find answers and solutions to those questions and problems that arise in your life. If this sounds good to you, then take a look at our Basic Magic Courses and start your magical journey today.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Need Some Magical Rx?

No matter how long you have been practicing the magical arts, sometimes your techniques just go wonky--for no explicable reason! Don't worry, it happens to most practitioners from time to time. If you need some magical Rx, consider signing up for our twice-monthly magical newsletter. The newsletter covers a wide array of topics, and we also attempt to answer reader questions when possible. Or, visit our FB page, magical library, or blog. Any of those places might have just the magical prescription you're looking for!

To give you an idea of what you're missing if you aren't signed up to get the newsletter, here's some excerpts from newsletters sent out so far in 2015.

(From January 6, 2015 newsletter)
You Are Psychic
Everyone has psychic abilities. Some people are naturally gifted in this area and others need to practice to hone their abilities. If you are in the 2nd category, as most are, before embarking on the journey of developing your psychic abilities, it works best to prepare yourself. This preparation will help you develop your abilities to their full potential. Activities that will help you prepare include:

• Doing a simple meditation
• Participating in a moving practice (like yoga, tai-chi, or even daily walks)
• Practicing avoiding negative emotions
• Changing one small habit

Changing One Small Habit
These first 3 are probably things you are at least a bit familiar with so let's talk about the 4th – changing one small habit. According to Universal Law "A small change in the present will create a larger change in the future." By changing a small habit in now-time, you pave the way for larger changes in your magical life in the future. Using your psychic abilities will be a change in your future, so prepare yourself by changing some small things now. By practicing this you will change your habitual thought patterns to allow new ideas and inspirations in the future and by sticking with small changes you won't run into resistance. All you have to do is find small changes to make that you don't usually think about. For example, use a different hand from the one you usually use to brush your hair, teeth or open a door, wear your socks wrong side out, sit in a different seat than you usually do or get up on the opposite side of the bed from the side you usually do. Anything that is different and a small change that you can make will work. No one else has to know about these changes if that is something that would make you self-conscious. Most of these changes will not be noticeable to anyone but you.

(From January 20, 2015 newsletter)
Magical Operational Laws
To have a safe magical practice, ancient or esoteric names, words or symbols must not be used without a thorough and full understanding of their meanings, pronunciations and complete references. Some of the operational laws used in magical practice are:
Similarity - physical likeness creates a psychic likeness and resonance, the degree of resonance being directly proportional to the degree of physical likeness.

Identity - a physical part (piece or component) remains part of and contains the psychic whole, unless special magical operations are done to alter this.

Relationship - once there has been physical contact, there is continuing psychic contact, unless special magical action is taken to break the contact.

Symbols - a symbol may be created for any object, process or other phenomenon.

Substitution - in a magical or psychic or spiritual operation a symbol may be substituted (in the operation) for any object, process or other phenomenon.

Contagion - something done to a part, a likeness or a symbol that produces a similar effect on the divided-whole, the likened or the symbolized.

Duplication - an effect created in the physical is duplicated in the psychic and an effect created in the psychic is duplicated in the physical ("As Above, So Below").

So whether you are an experienced practitioner or just beginning your journey into magic, you'll find something new to learn, something to refresh your memory, or something to inspire or re-inspire you to add to your magical practice. Information, magical techniques, exercises to try out for yourself – they're all here for you at no cost. All you need to do is sign up with your email address and twice a month these magical treasures will appear in your inbox.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Madder Than a Mashed Cat? Try a Voodoo Doll

When we say "Try a voodoo doll," we don't necessarily mean that you should get a voodoo doll and stick it full of pins. There are much better ways to magically use voodoo dolls. For instance, if you have a spiteful neighbor who keeps infringing on your sacred space, you can use voodoo, a specialized branch of magic, to keep your neighbors and their junky energies on their own property--literally! Have an angry boss? You can use magical voodoo to ensure that he or she never visits your office when angry. No pins or needles needed. Get the scoop in our Voodoo ebook!

The Voodoo Doll
After all a voodoo doll is simply a magical simulacrum. A simulacrum is a likeness of an object, person or thing that you want to affect magically. Once you key the simulacrum to a particular person, object or thing, whatever you do to it also affects that which it is keyed to. This is very useful for doing healing and other magical work on someone who is not physically present. You can make a simulacrum or voodoo doll of that person, key it to him or her and use magical healing techniques on the doll that will work on someone across the country just like if you were doing those techniques on them with them in the same room. A voodoo doll is often used as a simulacrum for a person because according to the Law of Similarity, the greater the likeness (between a simulacra and what it is keyed to) the greater the resonance or connection. For this reason, photos and pictures of actual people also can make good simulacra. The doll just sometimes makes it easier for techniques such as those for healing because it gives you the parameters of a body with arms, legs and so forth to work on.

Using Voodoo to Diffuse Your Anger
Once you have a simulacrum picked out and have it keyed to the person that is doing something to anger you, there are several magical procedures you can do. This gives you an alternative to forming a negative reaction or getting in a physical or verbal fight with that person. One magical technique for dealing with someone harassing you or adding strife to your life is to put the simulacrum of them in your Chalice. This will confine them and you can even talk to them on a spiritual or psychic level to reason with them. You can also use a keyed Plate and Chalice to separate the two of you. To do this you will need a simulacrum for each of you, put the one of yourself inside the Chalice on the Plate and put the simulacrum for the other person on the Plate but outside the Chalice. Envision the person on the outside trying to get to the person on the inside and unable to do so with their energy bouncing off the Chalice. In the real world this will cause the person outside to leave the protected person alone.

Another magical technique is to put the simulacrum of the person that is exhibiting negative energy or doing harm to you or your sacred space under the Chalice. In this case envision their negative energies bouncing back to them inside the Chalice unable to get out into the world. If this is a person that is extremely negative or powerful you can line the Chalice with aluminum foil (shiny side facing the inside of the Chalice) and you can deal with even more extreme situations by writing verses that program the shield you've created to bounce back certain kinds of energy and only letting positive, uplifting or loving energies out.

For both these operations you can use a regular Chalice and Plate, the Water tool and the Earth tool respectively, or key a cheese dome or cake dome with a matching plate like you would a Chalice and Plate and use them. That gives you a larger tool to work with that can accommodate a larger simulacrum.

If you don't have a magical Chalice and Plate available you can use a quick shield method without them. Key your simulacrum to the person you want to affect and use your finger starting at the top of the simulacrum to start tracing a downward spiral in a clockwise motion going around the simulacrum twice. This makes a dynamic shield and starts it moving. You can also envision the unwanted behaviors or energies bouncing off this shield unable to escape into the outside world.

So next time you face a situation like this, don't get mad, don't get even, just get magical. Magic can solve so many of our everyday problems and let us live the lives we want to. For more great voodoo magic techniques and information check out our How To Do Voodoo ebook.


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Step 2 on the Magical Path: Magical Tools

Ever wanted to learn how to really use the Firebowl, Wand, Athame, Chalice, and Plate? Then Basic Magic 2 is for you. This 10-lesson course covers the basics of each of these magical tools, from choosing or making the perfect tool to personalizing, using, and storing that tool. The information is simple yet effective, and builds on the knowledge from Basic Magic Part 1, which covers the four magical elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.

Once the use of the four elements is mastered with hand magic, magical tools can be used to extend our "reach," since they can handle more energies than we can handle with our hands. Each of the four magical elements has its own corresponding tool, as follows:

• Air element = Wand
• Fire element = Athame
• Water element = Chalice
• Earth element = Plate

By using magical tools, magical practitioners can affect situations on many levels, ranging from the personal level to the global level. For example, it is easy enough to put up a personal shield around your body with your hands, but for a larger shield such as around your entire property, a magical tool such as the Wand or Athame makes the job much easier. Along with the magical tools associated with each element there are other useful tools such as the Firebowl, pendulum, dowsing rods, sun crystal, tarot cards and more that are needed for such magical techniques as spellwork and divination.

Some of your magical tools you will be able to make yourself like the Wand and Firebowl and others such as the Athame and Chalice you will need to select and purchase. The pendulum is one of your magical tools that you can choose to buy or that you can make yourself. In the Basic Magic 2 course you will not only learn what tools to get or make and techniques to use them for, but also how to turn simple things such as a cup or plate into magical tools. This is done by keying, charging and/or training the tools. In the case of the pendulum, here is an exercise you can try out to make a pendulum yourself and then train it for magical use.

Making a Pendulum
To make a pendulum you will need a lightweight object and a chain or some type of string to hang it from. You can use a paper clip, small rock, earring, pendant, small medallion, crystal, talisman or other similar small object. If you use a crystal, use an amethyst, and store it in a pewter box to protect it from negative energy. Don't use Aurora crystals, which have been treated with petroleum. If you hang your pendulum on a chain, use a silver chain as it is more stable energetically. You can also hang your pendulum on any kind of natural fiber such as cotton or silk, horse or human hair or leather. Make sure the pendulum is on a long enough chain or string to swing freely.

Training Your Pendulum
Once you've made your pendulum your next step is to train it so that it answers your questions quickly and accurately. Here's how:
1. First cleanse your pendulum with smoke. The smoke from burning pine resin and sage works well. Just hold the pendulum over a column of smoke from your firebowl until the smoke begins to "stick" to it.

2. Next, your pendulum needs to be keyed so that it responds to your energies. To key it, hold your pendulum in your dominant hand (the hand you write or point with). Flow energy into the pendulum for a minute or two, or until it grows warm and tingly.

3. Begin training your pendulum by establishing its yes and no directions. Decide if you want your pendulum to indicate "yes" with a vertical or horizontal swing. The "no" indicator will be the opposite of the "yes" indicator (if "yes" is a vertical swing, then "no" is a horizontal swing). Hold your pendulum suspended from your dominant hand. Rest your elbow on a table or your knee to stabilize your hand and swing your pendulum in a gentle clockwise circle telling it, "Show me yes." Wait for the pendulum to settle into the proper swing (whatever direction you chose). If it doesn't, ask again. Once your pendulum consistently swings in the proper direction for "yes," use the same process to ask it to show you the proper swing for "no."

4. Now you are ready to start training your pendulum to give you actual answers by practicing asking questions about short futures. Ask yes/no questions that can be verified in a 15 to 30 minute time frame. For instance, at the end of the work day you might ask your pendulum, "Will my roommate be home in the next 20 minutes?" Verify the correctness of your pendulum's answer, and then ask another question. In the beginning, it doesn't matter whether your pendulum gives you the correct answer or not, this is just the practice period and giving your pendulum a lot of practice is the important thing right now. The more your work with your pendulum, the more accurate it will become. Don't get obsessed with the "rightness" of the answers during this training period.

Try making your own pendulum and practicing with it. Then when you are ready to move on to other magical tools, the Basic Magic 2 course is waiting for you online to take in your own time on your own schedule.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Stuck in a Rut? Need Money Magic Help? Read the Blog

The Esoteric School blog is kind of like a wandering magical wizard. On our blog, we wander over all kinds of topics, from which elemental type you might be to magical ways to find a new relationship to money. Want love advice? We've got that, too, along with truly satisfying ways to do a Big Burn ritual to really get that frustration and anger out of your system. Good fun. Check out the blog here.

Twice a week we post magical articles on the blog that provide magical solutions to common problems and give you magical techniques to try out for yourself. If you find yourself stuck in a rut, feeling blue, losing control of your anger, needing a magical way to increase the flow of money into your reality, or a magical solution to any other problem you are facing, this is the place to find some simple, magical solutions. For example, here's just a few of the tips you'll find on attracting money:

How to Attract Money: Change Your Thoughts
Stop counting pennies and dollars in your thoughts. In fact, stop all thoughts about quantity as much as possible (i.e., food, calories, money, time). Instead, each time you start thinking that there isn't enough of something, say to yourself "That was then, this is now. There is abundance in my life now." While this seems like a very small change against a lifetime of measurement and feelings of "not enough," magically a small change in the present creates a larger change in the future. Just know that a small change--such as redirecting your thoughts with this mantra will create much larger and different changes/manifestations in the future.

How to Attract Money: Shift Your Focus
Focus on what money will do for you, not the money itself. Money has a lot negative vibrations, along with oughts, shoulds, and mixed messages from authority figures conflicting with your own desires. One way to short circuit all this is to focus on what you want money to do for you in your life. If you want to do something from your bucket list, for instance, focus on manifesting that instead of the money that will allow you to do so. The money will show up when it needs to.

How to Attract Money: Practice Abundance
Act everyday as if you already have what you want (i.e., if you want to go on a trip, start packing your bags regardless of what your bank account says). It's an internal feeling, unrelated to external facts (like how much is in your bank account). Practice feeling like you would at the successful end of your financial journey. Like the mantra, this is a small change that will produce a larger change in the future.

Seek Guidance from the Spirit of Owl
The Owl totem specializes in hunting down information that is hidden or not immediately available. Follow the steps of this ritual to request help from Owl.

1. Aloud or in your mind say, "Spirit of Owl, I request your help."

2. Wait quietly for a few seconds until you "feel" the presence of Owl. If you aren't familiar with working with spirit beings and aren't sure you feel the presence, go ahead to the next step since Owl always comes when requested.

3. Tell Owl what you are requesting. For example, in this case you might say, "Owl, please come with me today and show me what is causing my financial situation to not improve. Please show me this in a way that I can clearly understand. Thank you in advance for your help." Thanking Owl as with other Spirit beings is a necessary part of the request as the Owl totem thrives on appreciation.

4. Now go about your day with an open mind as to what Owl will show you. Owl will ride on your shoulder, whispering in your ear, giving you knowledge and understanding where you had blindness and confusion previously. The messages may come in many different forms such as an overheard conversation from a stranger, old memories appearing in your thoughts, a significant symbol or picture you come across on a sign or in a book or magazine, the words of a song and many other ways. Just stay aware and open to any communications that come.

5. Once you get your messages from Owl and have received the information you are seeking, be sure to offer appreciation and gratitude again.

Use Rooting to Get Anchored
Get anchored by practicing rooting daily. Rooting works as a way for how to attract money based on the principle that the least anchored object comes undone first. Also, people who are anchored are less likely to encounter "accidents" or events outside their control. If you are the most anchored, what you want will come to you. Rooting is a technique in which you flow earth energies deep into the Earth, releasing excess energies of any kind and pull Earth energies into you. This would be a good way to expel any doubts or insecurities you have about receiving money and give yourself the extra Earth energies to help anchor yourself. To do rooting follow these directions:

• Sit comfortably with your feet on the ground.
   
• In your mind's eye, see and feel yourself extending roots out of your feet, through your shoes, through the flooring, into the sub-floor and down into the Earth
   
• Once your roots reach down deep into the Earth past topsoil and into bedrock, lock them into the bedrock layer.
   
• Now sit for a while and breathe. Each time you exhale, send fire energies such as tension, anger, frustration and anxiety or stuck water energies such as depression down your roots and into the bedrock. Earth is a very receptive element and will take these energies very easily so you don't have to push real hard.
   
• Each time you inhale a breath, pull in the minerals, fluids and other energies from the Earth to nourish and balance yourself.
   
• Do this with your breathing until you feel relaxed and nourished.
   
• When you feel you are done, start pulling your roots back up starting with unlocking them from the bedrock, then pulling them back up through the topsoil, flooring and your shoes, if you are wearing any.

Be sure you are doing this during a time you won't be interrupted or have any reason to get up until you are finished. Moving before pulling your "roots" back in can cause you to be sore for a few days.

Like what you see? Then bookmark our blog in your web browser as a magical reference available to you anytime. Real magic solutions to real problems are waiting for you just a click away. To make sure you don't miss anything and that you get the latest article right away, sign up and have blog articles delivered to your email. Just takes a few seconds to sign up and you'll be on your way to having a wide variety of magical solutions to help you live in magic.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of hyena reality / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ready to Get Serious About Magic? Start Here...

For those who have dabbled in magic and are truly serious about getting on the magical path, Basic Magic I is the place to start. This online beginner magic course will teach you the foundations of a solid magical practice. You will learn the basic techniques necessary to work with the four magical elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. It is said that if you can understand the four magical elements, you can understand anything in the Universe... Ready to give it a try? Then get started with the Level I basic Magic Course. Not sure yet? Here's a look at the four elements to get you going.

By having an understanding of and a working knowledge of the four elements, not only can you understand anything in the Universe, you can also create anything you desire. Four element magic is at the heart of everything in the Universe including magical powers and abilities. For example, clairvoyance and telepathy can be developed by working with the Water element since Water is the language of Spirit and lets you access information and emotions at a Spiritual level. Telekinesis is the ability to channel your Fire energy. Our classes teach students to practice this skill by throwing firebolts at a candle flame. When they are able to make the flame "jump" by pointing a finger at it then they have begun to develop this magical skill.

Understanding the four elements goes deeper than just developing magical abilities. They help in just about every aspect of life. For ourselves, they can help us follow our birth visions, listen to our Spirit guidance and live more creative and peaceful lives. In our everyday life, understanding of the four elements helps us to know ourselves better according to our elemental makeup and see what types of careers we are well suited for, help us choose compatible relationships and have a better understanding of the lifestyle that will make us happy. We are also able to apply this knowledge to others and provide service in the forms of healing, divination and facilitating communication. Having an understanding of this magical foundation of four element magic and the laws of the Universe allow us to be in accordance with the Universe instead of running into constant resistance with it.

Four element magic is the first step to developing a deep understanding of the driving forces of life and opens the doorway to direct knowledge and spiritual scientism. You can get started on this path for yourself with our online Basic Magic courses and bring some serious magic to your life.



If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Got the Blues? Dump It Magically!

If you need help with mood swings, we have a ton of magical techniques to help, from the simple to the complex. Read all about them in the Mood Changes section of our library of magical articles. You can also learn about dreams, divination, protection, manifestation, and much more. The wealth of magical treasure is there, just waiting for you to come visit. No cost, just a little investment of time and interest on your part. Here's an example of the type of magical treasures awaiting you in our library.

The Magic of Small Changes To Cure the Blues
Part of the Universal Law of Divination says, "A small change in the present will create a larger change in the future." There are two reasons that small changes now can make bigger changes for you in the future. First, they help change your habitual thought patterns enough to let you open the door to new ideas and inspirations. Second, because they are small changes, you are able to avoid running into the resistance factor. Changing your thought patterns helps you get to a new level or pull yourself out of the blues. You know that what you think and feel determines what you will bring into your reality. So if you are experiencing the blues, you will bring more depression and sadness to yourself whereas if you are upbeat, positive and happy, you will attract more of the same. By changing your mood or making a small change in your habits you can rise up the ladder a step or adjust your position just enough to be able to access different thoughts and feelings. The doubt factor is often a cause of resistance that keeps us stuck in where we are. Small changes in habit will be less noticeable and are things that we are more comfortable with. This helps break down the resistance letting us move forward.

So what kind of changes are we actually talking about? Take a good look at yourself and see what types of things you do just by habit. Do you always wear a particular ring on a certain hand or finger? Do you always sit in the same place at home or at work? Do you always perform your morning routine exactly the same way and use the same hand to do certain tasks? These can all be examples of things you can choose to do differently that no one but you will really notice. Wear that ring on a different finger, get up on the opposite side of the bed, wear your socks wrong side out, open doors with your left hand instead of your right and so on.

You get the idea now I'm sure. See what small changes you can make consciously instead of the mechanical habits you usually perform and make a shift as to where you stand inside yourself. This will open the doorway for new thoughts and feelings to come in, allow you to raise your level, and help magically beat the blues.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Take the Guesswork Out of Magic

Magic can be fun, useful, and very effective at attracting what you desire. But what if you are not sure that you are on the right magical path? One way to learn more is to sign up for our twice-monthly newsletter, in which we cover all manner of magical topics. We discuss ways to form beneficial relationships with higher beings, magical techniques for self-protection, and much more. You can also delve into magical topics in our magical articles library, Facebook page, Twitter page, and blog.

Ever feel like you are alone in following your magical path? Join in the conversations on our Facebook page and share your experiences with those of like mind. It's a great place to get insights from other magical practitioners and get your magical questions answered. Just starting to explore the world of magic? Our articles library, blog and educational resource courses, ebooks and books in our store are a great place to start. We give you such a variety of magical topics that there is sure to be something to grab your interest. Many of the articles include exercises for you to try out and experience for yourself what magic can bring to your life. No cost to explore the blog and article library so nothing to lose by giving it a try. Then when you are ready to get serious about your magical studies check out our courses, ebooks, Kindle books and other educational materials in our online store.

Just to get you started, here is a very basic beginner exercise for you to try out. Give it a try and see what you experience from this exercise. Then jump onto Facebook and share your results with our magical community.

Sun Candle
A sun candle is a great magical tool to use for creating sacred space, giving yourself an energy boost, clearing negative energies or picking you up when you're feeling blue. A sun candle is simply a regular candle that is pure, bright yellow in color with not too much orange in it. To turn this common candle into a magical tool it needs to be charged. Here's how to charge and use the sun candle.

1. Stand or sit in the South facing North and have the yellow candle in front of you

2. Light the candle with wooden or paper matches. Do not use a lighter.

3. Watch the flame grow steady and tall until it reaches what we call a good "working" flame.

4. These next steps will charge the candle. Hold your hands so that they are close to (not too close that you get burned though) and cupped around the flame.

5. Focus your attention on the candle and flame and say this verse out loud in a voice of command (strong, powerful voice):

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

6. The candle is now charged. Leave it burning for at least 30 minutes making sure it is on a plate or other protective surface so as not to be a fire hazard.

After at least 30 minutes, when you feel ready, blow the candle out. Check in with yourself to see if you feel a difference in your energy level or the quality of your energy. You may also feel lighter, more harmonious and more peaceful.

This very simple, basic magical technique could be the start of your journey into magic. Try it out for yourself, examine your results, and then decide what your next step will be in exploring the wonderful world of magic.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Under Attack? Magic's Got Your Back

Every single person has the right to sacred space, and fully safety and security within that sacred space. If you are under attack--physical or psychic--then magical self defense can help. You may use any and all magical means to defend your sacred space from attack (from verbal abuse to someone getting too personal at work to out-and-out physical attack) so long as you follow the primary rule of self defense. The rule says, "In cases of direct and violent personal harm you are entitled to defend yourself by any means available provided you did nothing to encourage or provoke the attack." Here's a more in-depth look at this rule and what it means when considering the use of magical self defense.

Direct – This includes a threat made upon body, mind or spirit. In a magical sense this would include attempts from any outside force or influence to cause a drain on your energy or impose their will upon you.

Violent – Anything that damages your physical, mental, emotional or spiritual well being is considered violent in a magical sense. Their intention to do violence or not is not part of the consideration, only what harm is actually done.

Encourage – This means that you have done nothing that would create or permit an unnecessary opportunity for a hostile being to attack you.

Provoke – If you know a sore spot someone has or know they are under a lot of internal or external stress and you become excessively pushy or confrontive, then these would be considered provoking on your part.

By Any Means Available – As long as all the other conditions of this rule are met, you can use whatever means you choose to defend yourself and the Universe will not consider any response you offer as excessive.

Sound good? Ready to explore more about the world of magical self defense? Learn more about the ins and outs of this rule, plus many magical techniques for self-defense in our Magical Self Defense online course.


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

When You Need a Little Magical Help, Click Here

Everyone could use some magical help from time to time, right? When you're down or not sure what to do, magic is just what you need. For a ton of magical resources to get you back on your feet, read up on our blog. You'll learn about magical topics from clearing junky psychic energy from a room to hiring angels, to ways to handle an angry boss. The blog has a broad spectrum of magical knowledge that is not only useful, but also fun to read!

The blog is easy to use with a search function at the top left, an archive of articles according to date on the right. Available 24/7 whenever you need a little magic and no matter where you live in the world. Get your new year off to a magical start by checking out some of our most popular blog articles like these:

What is Real Magic Anyway?

Shamanism – How to Create Sacred Space

The Beauty of the Navajo Beauty Way

Make A Magic Ritual Part of Your Morning

Take a Magical Power Walk 

Improve Your Psychic Abilities with the Perimeter Game

You Are Psychic--Yes, You!

Feeling Stressed? Try a Little Bathtub Magic

The Nighttime Blessing Magic Ritual

Ready to get started reading? Start with these and then move on to all the other magical articles on a wide variety of topics. It'll support your current magical practice or help you get started developing a magical practice.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

 Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is Magic Real, for Real?

There's no better way to start a magical New Year than to address this topic! We get asked this question almost daily by people hoping, wishing, and praying that magic is real. And yet, there's that doubt factor, too. So, if you're teetering on the edge about this topic and you're just not sure, check it out.... Magic IS real.

Magic Is Real
Not only is magic real, spellwork works and daily magical rituals can improve your life and help you resolve your daily life problems. Of course, like anything else, you get out of your magic practice what you put into it. This is what we know to be true. BUT you have to find out for yourself what is true for you. We encourage you to read our Magic Is Real article and try out some of the techniques we give on our blog and in our magical articles library. The only way magic will become real for you is when you try it out for yourself and see the results it brings you. Remember though that magic is also a precision science as well as an art so don't be too quick to give up if you don't see immediate results. Really give it a good chance to work for you and be sure to do techniques exactly as described because altered procedures produce altered results.

You Decide
By trying out some magical techniques and skills, you will then have your own experience and observations to make a judgment on if magic is real for you or not. Suspend any disbelief you may have long enough to try out some daily rituals and see if they are helpful and useful for your life. Just to get you started here is a very powerful contact ritual that we start our Basic Magic students using the first day of class and students continue to use it up through levels of advanced magic classes. This ritual, called the Exit Ritual, is part of the Navajo Beauty Way. You do it every time you leave an enclosed space, like your car or your house. This incredible magical ritual helps you connect with higher powers and beings and restores a state of inner peace and harmony in you. Here's how it's done:

The Exit Ritual
1. On leaving your house, place of work, store, car or other enclosed area, stop and put your focus up into the sky and say aloud, "Sky Above" or "Sky Father."

2. Keeping your awareness up above, then also extend your focus into the earth and say aloud, "And Earth Below" or "And Earth Mother."

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

4. Just stand still and wait a moment or two and see what happens. Watch for acknowledgement or response in one of these 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 and maybe being extra large, or a tree or bush 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 at just that moment, or it may happen throughout the day. It may change the quality of your day, your awareness ... whatever you notice.

6. You can also include hand gestures in this ritual. As you focus your attention upwards raise your arms in an upward facing V for "Sky Father" and when you move your attention downward lower your arms into a downward facing V for "Earth Mother."

Practice doing this ritual every day and record any results you notice. At the end of about 3 months, try not doing the ritual for a week or two and see the difference in your life. Life can be so much easier with higher powers and beings helping you out. This ritual helps you establish a connection and relationship with those beings. Once you have the relationship going, you can ask for help in just about anything. Nothing is too small, too unimportant or insignificant if it is of importance to you. Having these types of allies can make life, well.... magical!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let Grandmother's Tears Wash Negative Energy Away

We all have times when the negative energy around us starts to take its toll. That is when having a few magickal solutions to grounding out those energies is so useful. Here's a technique you'll find in 

one of our Kindle ebooks (book 2 in the Witchcraft Spell Book series - entitled Learn How to Do Witchcraft Rituals and Spells with Household Ingredients.)

Grounding Out Negative Energies with Grandmother's Tears
Negative energy is something that can be dealt with through a variety of magic or witchcraft rituals. Using magical stones is a good way to ground out these unwanted energies. One stone in particular, called Grandmother's Tears or Apache Tears, is very effective at grounding out any excessive energy you no longer want. This stone is a special form of obsidian (volcanic black glass) made of feldspar, hornblend, biotite, and quartz.

This stone looks opaque black in ordinary light, but appears translucent when held up to strong light. These stones have actually been spewed out from past volcanic explosions, and can be found in and around Superior, AZ. These stones are effective for grounding out excess or negative energies including anger, frustration, pain, or plain irritation. Grounding out these energies into Grandmother's Tears allows you to safely transfer these unwanted energies into the half worlds (a safe place for negative energies). Tribal people have been using these stones for generations for this purpose. Many practitioners use crystals for various types of healing work. However, crystals--and in particular quartz crystals--are easily contaminated, and need to be magically cleansed quite frequently. Because Grandmother's Tears do not actually "hold" energies transferred into them, but instead send those energies into the half worlds, these stones do not need to be cleansed unless desired by the practitioner. The stone acts as a portal to the half worlds, and none of that energy will come back to you. You can find Grandmother's Tears in most gem stores and in online stores. 

Grounding Out Ritual with Grandmother's Tears
The ritual of flowing negative energy into a Grandmother's Tear stone is so easy that it can and should be used as many times as necessary daily. Follow these steps to do this ritual:

1. Figure out whether your left or right hand is your dominant hand by simply pointing at an object in your vicinity. Whichever hand you used to point is your dominant hand.

2. Hold the Grandmother's Tear stone in your dominant hand. Use your intention to flow any unwanted energy into the stone, knowing that the energy will go straight into the half worlds, and will not "bounce back" to you. If you need help "flowing," just bring up every thought, feeling, or physical sensation related to the issue that is bothering you. Use your intention to "push" all these into the stone.

3. When you feel a sense of calm or peace, you may stop flowing energy into the stone. Alternately, the stone may feel warm, heavy, charged, or loaded. At that point, you know that your flowing is complete. Stop flowing and simply breathe, relax, and enjoy the sense of peace.

How To Use Grandmother's Tears
Some people like to carry a Grandmother's Tear stone around with them. You can easily tuck one into your pocket so you can access it whenever you need to flow negative energy. Alternately, some women wear small versions of these stones as pendants on a necklace. If you choose this method, be sure to use a silver chain, since gold is magically a much less stable metal. Other people buy multiple stones and keep them available everywhere--in the car, in the kitchen, next to the phone, and on their desks! All of these techniques work. Just pick the method that fits your personality best. If you ever need to store your stones, the safest way to store them is in a pewter box. Pewter is a metal that has protective magical properties. Pewter protects anything stored from negative energy, and pewter boxes are especially useful for other types of stones, such as crystals, which tend to pick up all kinds of energies with ease. If for any reason your Grandmother's Tear stone start to feel "junky" or overloaded with energy, you can cleanse it several different ways. While this rarely happens to Grandmother's Tears stones, some practitioners prefer to cleanse their stones monthly, just to ensure safety. Two of the easiest ways to cleanse your Grandmother's Tear stone are:

1. Hold it in the smoke of a charged cedar/sage smudge stick

2. Bury the stone in the Earth for a Moon cycle (Mother Earth takes care of all kinds of energies, and is a great magical cleanser!). 

Now that you have seen the type of magical offerings you can receive in our Kindle book, we hope you will take a look at it for yourself and the other books in the series. You don't have to have a Kindle device. Any tablet, Smart phone or computer will work and it's a great way to start using magick or add some more magickal tools to your toolbox. 

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Get Your Magical Practice Back on Track with Basic Magic

Have you let your magical practice fall by the wayside and find yourself getting caught up in everyday life to the point that you don't really put in much time practicing magic? The saying goes, "What you pay into your practice pays you back." That's true. What's also true is that most magical practitioners allow their magical practice to become stale and mechanical at some point or other. So... if you feel like you need a little magical refresher, try our Basic Magic Online Courses. Dig in and get back to basics before the new year so you can start fresh! In Basic Magic you'll get back to seeing everything in relation to the 4 elements, remember how to use the elements in your everyday life and also get a refresher on topics like:

• using magical tools
• healing
• communication with higher powers and beings
• magical self defense and protection
• divination
• spellwork
• using simulacra magic
• Tarot

Just to whet your appetite, here is a sample of one of the techniques you'll learn in the Basic Magic Course.

Firebowl Divination
The Firebowl is one of your magical tools that you will learn to construct yourself. If you don't already have a firebowl, you can find instructions on making one HERE. Divination is a way of obtaining information by psychic or magical means that is not readily available to the 5 senses. By using divination, we are able to discover influences, energies and probability lines that are active in our lives so that we can make changes or adjustments and knowingly exert control over our lives. If you don't like what may be coming in the future you can make a small change in the present to change that possible future. Divination can be done through direct or indirect methods. The Firebowl can provide you with a direct method of divination in that it gives you a visual field that the mind can visually project the information you are seeking. Direct divination methods allow psychic or unconscious perceptions to manifest into the 5 senses so we can understand them. Firebowl divination is very useful for finding people, or objects that you don't know where they are or maybe a lost pet and for looking into the past or the future. To use the Firebowl for divination:

1. Find a quiet place where you will not be distracted or interrupted.

2. Sit in the South facing North with your Firebowl in front of you.

3. You will not charge the Firebowl for divination purposes like you do for other purposes and a water incense is the best medium to burn as the Water element is the psychic element.

4. Start your incense burning in the Firebowl and wait until you have a good column of smoke going. Add more incense onto the charcoal disk if you need to in order to get a good column of smoke.

5. Hold an image of a person or object if they are connected to the information you are seeking and/or get very curious about the topic, question, person or object.

6. You can ask questions to increase your feeling of curiosity such as "Where is...?", "Where was I in [name time period]?", or What is likely to happen if I...?".

7. Peer into the column of smoke and look for images or visual clues to form. Some people find it easier to close their eyes when looking into the smoke to keep visual distraction out.

8. If you get an image, but not in enough detail to make sense to you, keep asking questions until it becomes clearer or you can ask the image to zoom in or out, shift left or shift right so that you can see more details in the "picture".

Remember that the future is not set. Divinations into the future tell you what is likely to happen if everything stays the same in the present. That is one of the beauties of divination; being able to look ahead and make changes now if we don't like what we see.

This is just one of the many magical techniques you'll learn in our Basic Magic Course. Give the Firebowl divination a try and let it help you remember how magical life can be when you use your magic training every day. It doesn't matter how long it's been since you practiced magic. It's never too late to get back on board.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of Mister GC / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Got Magical Questions? We Got Answers!

Whether you want to know how to invite an angel into your life or you want to discover the procedure for finding your animal totem, we have an entire library for you to browse. Want to know if personal gain is really banned in the use of magic? No, silly! Find out why. In addition to our library, check out the blog, our FB page, and our courses and ebooks and Kindle books. You got questions, and we've definitely got answers!

The Big Magical Questions
There are 2 questions we get asked the most. They are:
1. Is Magic Real?
2. What exactly is real magic?

Our answer is that magic is certainly real. It is the science of understanding and using Universal principles. Since everything in the Universe is made up of some mix of the four elements of air, fire, water, and earth, having an in-depth understanding of these elements is at the foundation of magical practice. What makes these elements magical is the understanding of how they operate not just on physical levels, but also on levels of mind and Spirit. For example, physical level Air is what we breathe. Magically, the Air element is the conduit for psychic communication, enlightenment, understanding, dreaming and more. If you want to attract any of these qualities then you need more magical Air. You can take on more of this element directly or by wearing Air colors such as white or sky blue. Understanding these elements and working with them directly allows us to understand, create or change anything we want to in the Universe.

Magic has been taught as a precision science for thousands of years. Being a precision science means that the techniques are verifiable, repeatable and precise. In the past, the art and science of magic was taught just as math or science might have been and anyone can learn magical techniques. Today our society no longer puts the same emphasis on magic and it is not taught or even accepted as commonly as it was in the past. The most exposure we seem to get to magic these days is through fantasy shows, books and movies like Harry Potter. These are great fun and help to bring attention back to the world of magic, but the techniques are not always very accurate. For example, Harry and his friends use their Wands for just about everything. In reality the Wand is the tool that handles Air element energies only. It would actually explode if you tried to throw firebolts or fireballs with it. We're not saying that fireballs and firebolts can't be done. They are actually good for magical self-defense, but are made using Fire element energies and are better done by hand or using the Fire element tool, the Athame.

What Can Real Magic Do?
Real magic can bring tremendous changes to your life. It isn't just learning a list of techniques, but rather developing a lifestyle that includes magical principles and techniques in everything you do. A few of the major things learning real magic will teach you include:

• Balancing your energies for healing and manifestation
• Changing old beliefs you have
• Defending yourself against physical and psychic attack
• Healing yourself and others
• Finding hidden information and seeing possible futures
• Psychically communicating with other beings
• Creating sacred space
• Finding lost people and objects
• Manifesting what you want and need in life

The bottom line on real magic however is up to each individual person. There are people who will not be able to learn and practice magic. For magic to be real you have to be able to suspend disbelief and have a willingness to not exercise contempt prior to investigation. In other words, one must be open to the belief that magic is real in order for the forces of magic to act. If you can suspend disbelief long enough to try magical techniques out for yourself then it can become real for you too. Seeing and experiencing it for yourself is the only way, as it should be, to develop a magical life. Don't take anyone else's word including ours that magic is real. Give it a try for yourself and through direct experience and observation you will be able to "prove" to yourself that magic is indeed real. A simple way to experience magic and your own magical abilities is working with clouds. Clouds respond to your intention and can easily be moved, shaped and manipulated at a great distance away from you. If you could move clouds suspended hundreds of feet above you that would be quite a magical beginning wouldn't you say? Give it a try for yourself by sending a blank email to clouds@shamanschool.com. The directions will be sent to you right away. We don't use your email address to sign you up for anything or pass on to others so you have nothing to lose and just might gain a perspective into magic that will give you reason to want to explore living a magical life for yourself. 

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Image courtesy of taoty / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Fall in Love with Magic Once a Week

Is your magical practice getting stale? Getting tired of doing the same old rituals over and over again? No worries, fall in love with your magical practice again.... or if you don't have a magical practice, get started with our Everyday Magic Email Course. Once a week we will send you a magical tip or exercise to explore and play with for the week. These fun and inspiring tips will help rekindle that spirit of magic in your life. What will you learn? Here's a short list of topics...

• Creating sacred space
• Contact rituals and communicating with higher powers and beings
• Boosting energy levels
• Four element characteristics and colors
• Personal power and doing Acts of Power
• Universal Laws for manifestation
• Making conscious choices
• Getting rid of pain
• Regaining control of your life
• and much, much more.

Here is an example of one of the tips we offer in this course.

Make a Magical Wish
On our spiritual journey through this life we have guides and teachers that open doorways for us, but we are the ones that have to get through the door. That's the real journey for us. When we try using force of will to try to get through the door, we are met with an equal and opposite force called resistance or second force. This is so by Universal Law and means that we cannot do and the more we try to do, the less we accomplish. Here's an example. There is something about yourself that you want to change. Maybe you gossip too much or eat too many sweets. So you decide on an aim of not talking or eating as much. But this usually leads to us talking or eating more actually because by Law of Attraction, that which we put our attention on is drawn to us. So if we are concentrating on NOT doing something that very thing is being attracted to us and manifests in our lives. It's a spiritual catch-22 that leaves us stuck. This is when a magical wish comes in handy. If we wish it with all our hearts then we do not create the resistance that wanting and attempting do. Wishing, holding the vision, creates an allowing force that pushes us through the door. It allows the Universe, angels, and other beings to work in our lives. When we wish, we are settling back within ourselves and feeling the desire we have, then just waiting. It's all about watching and seeing without forcing anything. When you were younger and wished upon a star, you were on the right track for manifestation.
 

Whether you are wanting to renew your interest in magic or just beginning on a magical path, the Everyday Magic Email course is a great way to spend the next year immersing yourself in magical knowledge and magical techniques to try out.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.