Can't Understand Messages from the Universe?

Many people ask us to help them interpret answers and messages from the Universe. Some people have trouble receiving answers from the Universe, but more frequently people receive messages from the Universe... and cannot figure out what those answers mean.

What can you do when you ask the Universe for help or guidance, and then get some feedback that makes no sense to you? That's easy. Ask again... and again... and again if necessary. Luckily the Universe never gets impatient when someone asks for clarification. If you have asked the Universe or your Spirit guide or an angel for some kind of message or guidance, but can't decipher the meaning, first take the time to thank that being for sending the message. Then, feel free to ask again. Ask the being to send the message again, this time add the phrase, "In a way that I can clearly understand." You might also want to specify a time within which you would like to receive the clarified message. For instance, you might ask an angel to send the message again and add a time frame, such as "Before 6:00 pm tonight." With the time qualifier you know the being will send the message before a certain time. With that in mind, after the specified time you can review your day to see if you can locate the new clarified message or guidance.

Communications from Universal Beings
Sometimes we can miss the message or answer or guidance because Universal beings do not always communicate the same way as we do. When we talk to another person, we use language and words. Thus we tend to think that all beings communicate in the same way. Not so. An angel may use words, but might not put them in your mind directly. You may find your guidance in a book, an overheard conversation, or even graffiti written on a wall. For instance, one person who was struggling with anxiety was given the following quote by Robert Louis Stevenson in a fiction novel:

"Quiet mind cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune, at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm..."

This became a mantra for this person to repeat when feeling anxious. The vision of the unmoved clock, ticking steadily away at its own private pace during a wild thunderstorm, became the essence of the kind of inner peace this person was hoping to achieve. What's more, the more this person used this mantra, the less worried she became about other people's opinions of her or her choices. She became more confident of her choices and lifestyle, thinking of herself like that clock, moving in fortune or misfortune at her own private pace.

If you review your day, after having asked your Spirit guide to send you a clarified message, and you can find no verbal reference, such as a quote or snippet of conversation, look for non-verbal messages. For instance, one person asked an angel to send a clarified message during his workday. The man was looking for guidance as to whether to accept a job in another country. While the job would certainly prove to be lucrative and offer many new experiences, the man was uncertain as to whether he should leave the safety and comfort of his current life and job. In particular, he wondered whether he would be able to re-create a similar support network in a different country amongst strangers. As he reviewed his day, he could find no verbal clues that would answer his question. In fact, he found very little verbal communication had taken place all day. Upon reflection, he realized that he usually spoke with several of his close friends during the day, and a few family members as well. He had spoken to almost no one that day, having been very focused on his work.

Upon reflection, the man realized that he had not felt isolated or alone that day, despite not connecting with his usual social network of friends and family. And therein lay the answer to his question. Could he successfully leave his social network and family to take a new job in a foreign country amongst strangers? Yes. His realization that he had not felt isolated or lonely that day, even with almost no contact with his friends and family, made him realize that he was sufficiently confident and capable that he did not need to have his social network always available for a chat. He was outgoing enough to make new friends. He would not feel lonely in a foreign country. As soon as he realized the answer sent by his angel, his phone rang--a call from a close friend who had been "thinking of him" all day but was too busy to call during the day. The man immediately thanked his angel for the clarified answer, and then happily chatted with his close friend. Message sent and received.

Whether your guides choose to send you verbal or non-verbal messages, the key to receiving answers from guides and angels and other Universal beings is to keep asking for clarification until you get the help you asked for. You can even ask that messages be sent in verbal form so you can more easily hear them. Just keep asking and do not give up until the message has been sent and received to your satisfaction. And remember, thanks and appreciation are the key to continued communication with the Universe... it is the spiritual coin most recognized by higher beings. Learn more about working with Universal beings and other magical skills with our Kindle book 1 of the Witchcraft Spell Books series – Learn How To Do Witchcraft Rituals and Spells With Your Bare Hands and our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook.

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Accident Prone? The Universe May Be Sending You a Message

Have you hit a patch in your life where you just seem to be accident prone? Maybe you keep tripping and falling, hitting your shoulder on a door frame, or getting into a number of small fender benders. Many of these "incidences" can be blamed on astrological events such as Mercury Retrograde. But if you find yourself or your family experiencing more strange accidental events that can't be so easily explained, maybe the Universe is trying to tell you something.

Accidents as Messages from the Universe
Karma is generally interpreted as "What goes around comes around." There are many theories as to whether one's personal karma is spread over a number of lifetimes or is simply limited to this lifetime. Our teacher, George Dew of the Church of Seven Arrows, always believed that karma is a "pay as you go" system in this Universe. That is, whatever you do will be reflected back to you very quickly, and certainly within this lifetime. This doesn't necessarily negate the idea that karma from past lives can appear in this lifetime to be paid. At the same time, there are two reasons that karma may come around very quickly"

1. Aquarian Age: As we move further into the Aquarian Age, everything happens more quickly. The result of any spellwork will manifest with greater speed. Karma will also come around fast and furious, and either pay out or require one to pay in.

2. Magickal Practitioners: If you are practitioner, then karma also moves faster in your life. Those with magickal force and power have a greater effect on the world and Universe, and also have a greater responsibility. Thus any negative or positive karma created by your practice will come around more quickly than for the average citizen.

Having said all that, the question then becomes, "What do these accidents mean?" George Dew, in his Rules of the Road (the Universal Laws that govern magickal practice), noted that accidents are often the Universe's way of providing the magickal practitioner with "feedback" about his or her actions. The feedback can be about breaking any of the Rules of the Road. In addition, there are several minor rules in particular that many practitioners are prone to ignore.

- Vanity: Using magickal abilities to "show off" or be noticed

- Cost: Charging too much for magickal services (in general, services should cost the same as any other professional--such as a lawyer or accountant--would charge)

- Using Complex Spells by Others Without Proper Checking: While it's perfectly fine to use spells written by others, especially simple rituals and spells that have little chance of creating a lot of karma, using complex spells and rituals created by others without first doing some divination to ensure the spell is "safe" can cause the Universe to send you one accident after another until you take down the spell. At the Esoteric School, all spells and rituals offered have been checked against Rules of the Road to prevent negative feedback.

- Binding or Coercion: Magick is neither good nor bad. Magick simply is a force that can be used in many ways, depending on the practitioner. If magickal force is used to bind or coerce another (a love spell that binds a certain person into a relationship is the perfect example) the Universe will not hesitate to bind you in a similar manner. If the binding causes another person to lose their personal freedom, the Universe will reflect that back to you tenfold, and quickly. Prepare for not just small accidents, but one that may limit your freedom for many years to come (as in being sent to prison, losing the use of one's body, and so forth).  Double check all spell work to be sure that it does not limit another's free will or choice.

How to Stop the Accidents
The best way to stop the Universal "messages" disguised as accidents is to locate the source of the problem. Review any magickal work you have done recently. Check your actions against the Rules of the Road (get the full list HERE). Use divination methods such as Tarot, pendulum, question circles, scrying, or the Firebowl to locate the cause of such Universal feedback.

Once you have determined the cause of the problem, move to immediately clean up the mess. If you have cast a spell that is causing negative feedback, take the spell down immediately. If you have been charging more than is reasonable for your services, either offer refunds or pay it forward by doing some pro bono magick. Whatever the cause, stop the magickal force or behavior that is causing the trouble. You will find that the Universe will stop harassing you with "accidents" just as quickly as it caused them.

If you take down a spell or stop a behavior that you feel is causing the Universal messages, but accidents keep happening, continue to use methods of divination until you find the source. The Spirit of Owl is always good at digging up hidden issues. Angels can be hired to help. A Sun Candle can disperse negative energy and help you see the issues more clearly. Whatever the cause, don't stop investigating until you find the answer, since you will not enjoy the continuing accidents from the Universe. You'll find these and plenty of other magical help in our Witchcraft Spell Book: The Complete Guide of Witchcraft Rituals & Spells for Beginners.

The good news is that the Universe is just and fair. As soon as you take care of the offending issue, the Universe will also stop offending you with accidents. The Universe is among the most perfect of mirrors for our own actions and behaviors.


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Magick to the Rescue Part 4: Heads Up Procrastinators!

Earlier in this series Magick to the Rescue:
Part 1 
Part 2 
Part 3

Have you been a chronic procrastinator all your life? Or maybe you are just facing a truly mountainous task and you have no idea where to begin... so the best solution seems to be to not get started at all.

Welcome to the world of procrastination. Some of us have been citizens of this nation for decades while others just stop in on travel visas from time to time. Regardless, when you are in the land of procrastination you usually feel stuck, unmotivated, clueless, and guilty, yet not guilty enough to get you motivated to start on the task.

Heads up procrastinators! Feel guilty and stuck no more. In this article we will explain the most common reasons for procrastination, as well as a magickal solution that will kick you into gear so fast that your head will spin!

Common Reasons for Procrastination
As you might have already guessed, one of the most common reasons for procrastination is not knowing where to start. If you don't know how or where to take the first step, the second and third steps are definitely out of the question. If you have ever sat in a 12-step meeting, you will often hear the slogan, "You only have to take the first step to begin." While that is certainly true for 12-step programs, which have 12 neatly outlined steps, this offers little hope for those of us who don't have such a handy list... either for life or for a particularly nasty task.

Another group of procrastinators suffer from "list phobia." List phobia is simply the act of reading down a list and immediately getting stuck on the first item that you don't understand. Suppose you are given a list of seven instructions on how to perform a specific task. You might read through steps one and two just fine, because you understand what each step is asking you to do. But step three may turn out to be the show-stopper of the century for you. If you don't understand step number three, and you have list phobia, chances are high that you will never even read steps four through seven. Your mind will be so busy spinning around trying to figure out step three that you don't even remember steps one and two.

The third group of procrastinators get stuck when they can't figure out every single step required to complete a task. Suppose you are asked to put together a bridal shower for a co-worker. You might know most of the steps, but there are a few tasks that still baffle you. Perhaps you can't figure which types of flower arrangements would be best, or whether your co-worker would enjoy the usual bridal shower games or not. Or maybe you are not sure whether you should invite certain guests, and whether one or more people would get their feelings hurt if they were not invited. These are just examples of decisions that baffle this third group of procrastinators. The members in this group can't proceed until they have every single detail figured out. Flying by the seat of their pants is definitely NOT an option.

There are, of course, other reasons that people procrastinate. However, from a magkical perspective, almost all procrastination stem from a single misunderstanding. The easiest way to handle all forms of procrastination, then, would be to clear up this misunderstanding so that all of us in the nation of procrastination can migrate to the land of motivation and action.

The Magickal Cause of Procrastination
Although there appear to be multiple reasons that people procrastinate, magickally there is only one single reasons for this delaying tactic. The reason comes from a misunderstanding of the steps of the Magickal Creation Sequence. The Magickal Creation Sequence is just what it sounds like--these are the steps any magickal practitioner takes to create anything in life... from wealth and love to a harmonious family life or a fulfilling career. The order of steps in this sequence is unknown to most people in the world, hence there are a lot of procrastinators in the world!

So what is this big magickal mixup? The confusion arises from people putting two important steps in reverse order. These two steps are called the base decision and the control decisions. The definition of these two steps is simple.

Base Decision = The Yes/No decision to move ahead with the project or task

Control Decisions = The detailed decisions required to carry out the various action steps in the project or task

In our society, most of us are taught that we must first create a complete and thorough action plan before we decide whether to proceed with a project, a new business, or a marriage proposal. This principle of placing control decisions (the "how to" steps of an undertaking) before making the base decision (the "Go/No Go" decision) is the basis of most business plans. In today's world you have little hope of getting a bank loan or investor funding for a new business unless you have created a business plan that thoroughly outlines all the control steps that will be taken to ensure the business is a success.

Unfortunately, from a magickal standpoint, the creation of a business plan before deciding whether to proceed with creating the business is putting the cart before the horse. In magickal circles, the Creation Sequence tells us that we must make the base decision first. In other words, we have to decide whether we want to start a business or not before ever even thinking about how we will go about starting that business or making it a success.

While the idea of putting the base decision before the control decisions might seem a little reckless and irresponsible, it makes more sense when you consider the sequence from the Universe's point of view. While we humans like to think that we are the masters of our kingdom, the fact of the matter is that we could achieve barely one-hundredth of what we achieve without the co-creative help of the Universe. Certainly elbow grease and sweat equity plays a big role in the success of any enterprise, but how many of the people who are at the head of such enterprises have not prayed or asked for help from some higher being? Very few, if any.

The magickal reason to put the base decision before the control decisions is that the base decision alerts the Universe that we have a desire, and we invite the Universe to help us fulfill that desire with as little heartache and as few headaches as possible. By announcing our desires by making a positive base decision, we empower the Universe to get started right away in helping us fulfill that desire.

If, on the other hand, we get bogged down in control decisions, with no small amount of confusion, the Universe can't really decipher whether we really want to fulfill a desire or we are just playing around with ideas. Once the Universe gets the message that we have made a "Go" base decision, it immediately begins aligning the necessary resources, events, interactions, and other "coincidental" happenings that will help us fulfill our desire. With this kind of Universal orchestration, the number of control decisions we need to make along the way diminishes drastically. The Universe actually takes over the lead in the co-creative dance, and we simply need to remain open and aware to the many forms of guidance and help the Universe constantly drops on our path.

If you really like the feeling of your own sweat, blood, and tears, then by all means play with your control decisions before making your base decision. But if you prefer to tell the Universe, "I want this!" and then have the Universe help you make the necessary control decisions along the way, then choose to make your base decision first. You will work less and achieve more. You will produce more and enjoy more. Work will become play and play will become work. And procrastination becomes something you used to do. What more could you ask for?

Ready to stop procrastinating about making the decision to introduce magick into your life? We have plenty of free resources, online courses, ebooks, and Kindle books to help you get on the magickal road to making life easier and more joyful.


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