Magic Rituals: The Art of Calling in the Muses

Uninspired action really sucks, and I mean really, really sucks.

Not just because doing something you're not thrilled about is a total bore, but also because it's a useless waste of effort. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about ... that useless head-banging that doesn't net you anything but a headache?

Yeah, that would be because you are working without the magical benefit of muses, our sources of inspiration. Without that kind of inspiration, action is fairly useless. I believe that the metaphysical teaches Abraham said it best:

"Take time to line up the Energy first, and action becomes inconsequential ...if you don't find the feeling place of what you're looking for, not enough action in the world will make any difference."

That's pretty clear, huh? So if you are feeling dull, lackluster, and totally not into what you're doing, just stop. Do a magic ritual to call in the Muses. When they appear, then it's time to spring into action.

A Magic Ritual to Call in the Muses
Muses do exist in the world, and as magical creatures they bring us inspiration. People call them by all kinds of other names--angels, spirit guides, helpers, totems--you name it. But it's not all that important what you call them, just that you allow them into your life to amplify your heart's desire and call your forth in happy and inspired action.

So how do you call forth a muse? There are several magic rituals that you could use to do this, and my favorite is the simplest one of all:

Just sit there and call for a Muse.

Yup, just sit on your fanny and call for a Muse. You can do it out loud or just ask silently. Use whatever words come naturally to you. Your own Muse is always hovering nearby, just waiting to hear your call, so the words really don't matter. I often just think the word, "Muse."

Then I wait. This is the part of the magic ritual that is the most difficult for most people. If you can master the art of sitting and waiting, then you have mastered the art of control, at least in one area of your life ... and control of your attention and intention is crucial to a successful magical practice.

Why Sitting and Waiting is So Difficult
Did you know that you expend more energy just sitting in a chair doing nothing than you do digging a ditch for a couple of hours? You do. Why is this? Because movement is life, a natural part of life, so it's much easier for our bodies (not to mention our minds) to be in movement than to be still.

When we hold ourselves still, we actually have to exert tension over our bodies to do so. This tension expends a lot of energy, far more than movement, which is why we have such a hard time sitting still. It takes a lot of work to sit still.

But if you can manage to hold yourself still, both in body and mind, while you wait for your Muse, you'll find that you don't have to stay still for long. Muses can only speak to us when we are quiet, both inside and out, so the sooner you can be still the sooner your Muse will deliver the inspiration you have asked for.

Sometimes it helps to stare at a candle flame or listen to the gurgling sound of a fountain as you do the magic ritual. This keeps your mind occupied, which means your body will naturally be still.

For instance, the other day I was having difficult with this ritual. I needed to write the notes for a magic class I was teaching, but could not concentrate. I had asked for a Muse but felt so jumpy that I couldn't hear anything from my Muse. So I plunked myself down in front of the woodstove and simply watched the flames as I waited for my Muse. My mind and body calmed immediately, since flames are notoriously hypnotic. About 15 minutes later, I sprang into inspired action (after, of course, thanking my Muse).

Doing the magic ritual this way works particularly well, especially if you are feeling the pressure of a tight deadline, are experiencing an adrenaline rush, or are downright frustrated with your lack of progress. Just watch of listen to something distracting, call your Muse, and practice the art of waiting.

Patience, my friend, is a virtue ... and luckily one that yields many magical rewards

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Free Magick: Why it is Never Free No Matter Which Way You Slice It

Throughout the fifteen years we have had our magick school, we have tried various ways of offering free magick ... and time and again we have reached the conclusion that there really is no such thing as free magick.

Free Magick: Let Us Count the Ways
Over the years, we've tried various ways of offering free magick.

For instance, we currently offer:

• a vast free magick article library
• a free magick online tutorial
• a free magick resource list
  

These seem to work fairly well in that people can access magical knowledge for free, and there's no trouble. But then we tried to take the whole concept of "free magick" to the next level and offer it more deeply, and it has always backfired on us. For instance, we have offered:

• full scholarships for our live weekly teleconference magick courses
• free live one-time magick tutorials
• scholarships on our home study courses

Most of these have not produced the intended result, which is to expand magical knowledge and the use of daily magical rituals in the world. Now why is this?

Why Free Magick is Never Truly Free
The reason that free magick is never truly free is because there is always a price to be paid by both parties involved: the people teaching the material and the people learning the material.

Anyone teaching magical material has already paid the price, and continues to pay it. For instance, all of us who teach have already put in the time and effort to learn what we teach. We also continue to deepen our knowledge by taking advanced courses in magick and practicing daily magic rituals.

Anyone who wishes to learn magick must also pay the price, and therein lies the rub. Most who believe they want to learn this material can only see the physical "price tag" attached to the material, whether it be a daily magic rituals ebook or an in-depth teleconference course.

But there is a second price to be paid: the effort that a person pays into his or her own magical practice. While some people can afford the first price, the dollars, they can't or won't pay the second price-the effort.

And that explains why our scholarship recipients have never really done well in our courses. In our experience, a student who cannot pay the physical price of class usually does not have enough "will" or "force" to pay the price of effort required to learn this material. As odd though it may seem, there is a correlation between a person's "will" and his ability to manifest dollars in his life.

Even recently we offered several scholarships to students for our teleconference class, and the results were no different. In fact, they were much worse than ever. One scholarship student never showed up while another one dropped out quickly. This tells me that in this particular period of time, when karmic effects are speeding up, the correlation between a person's willingness to pay into his magical practice with effort and the number of dollars in his bank account is stronger than ever.

That's Why We Don't Teach Free Magick
We get loads of emails all the time asking us why we don't offer free magick. The fact of the matter is two-fold:

1. We offer tons of free magical resources on our website (see the list above)
2. No matter how many scholarships we offer, no student who gets a free ride every has the force or will to stay the course

The price for magick must always be paid, in one form or another. Thus, there is no free lunch, free ride, or free magick. For those who want to learn for free, there are few who are willing to spend the effort to browse all the no-cost resources on our website. They want the knowledge handed to them on a silver platter, at no monetary cost and with no effort.

Not gonna happen. It's not in accordance with the tribal magical and shamanic laws and traditions that have been passed on through the eons. So if you want free magick, we wish you the best of luck and we point you to free our online resources.

Dig in, dive in, delve in. Get your magick there at no monetary cost ... all it costs you is your effort, and you may find that the effort is a higher price than any of our classes or home study materials!

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How Magic is Like a Candy Bar ... and Why the Candy Bar Approach Won't Bring You What You Want

For a lot of people magic is kind of like a candy bar. It is an "impulse" kind of thing. As you stand in line at the check stand, you see rows of candy bars and, on impulse, buy one and eat it. If you hadn't been staring at all the candy bars, you probably wouldn't have bought or eaten one.

Magic is kind of the same way for many people. Something goes wonky in their lives and no immediate solution is apparent. All of sudden they think,

"Maybe magic will fix this."

So they fire off a question to us, a group of magical practitioners, and then forget all about it. When an email response arrives back in their inbox, 90% of the people ignore it, even though it contains valid magical information.

Why?

Because the impulse to "do magic" has been satisfied by sending off the email, just as the impulse to "eat something tasty" is satisfied by downing a candy bar. That's all, it's done. As a result, a lot of people either think that magic doesn't work or that magic isn't real. They think, "Oh, I checked it out but nothing much happened."

Hmmm...

The Problem of Mixing Impulse and Magic
Impulse and magic go together about as well as oil and vinegar ... they don't. Impulse is by definition a short-lived spurt of action that comes and goes in a blink of the eye.

Magic, on the other hand, is the art and science of intention and attention. To do magic successfully, you have to develop the ability to focus your intention and attention on what you want for rather long periods of time. That doesn't sound much like impulse, does it? And yet, impulse is the doorway through which many people approach magic. No wonder people think that magic isn't real or doesn't work.

What Makes Magic Work?
So if impulse is not the best way to approach magic, how should one approach magic so that it actually works? It's simple. Like everything else, magic takes practice. That's why most people who are involved with magic say they have a "magical practice." To be successful, magic has to be practiced the way you would practice the piano or yoga.

Magic takes practice because while every single person on the planet is born with magical abilities, we don't tend to use those abilities (called Spirit perceptics) in everyday like except at a very subliminal level. Occasionally, we may receive "premonitions" about something or experience "deja vu," but for the most part we don't exercise our magical skills much. Hence, when we go to use them by the sheer force of impulse, nothing much happens.

To "practice" magic the way you would a piano, you use daily magic rituals to help you exercise your magical skills and keep you in contact with magical beings. The magic rituals don't have to be complicated, and in fact it's better if they are simple.

A Simple Magic Ritual for a Magical Practice
There are thousands of magic rituals you could use as part of your magical practice, and here is a very simple one to get you started. This ritual will help you exercise your Spirit perceptics, but won't be so difficult that you will avoid doing them.

This ritual exercises both your ability to attract your desire into your life as well as your ability to "see" when something has manifested. To do this ritual, spend 5 minutes each morning sitting quietly. Envision a single thing that you want to appear in your day. Whether you choose a green marble, a handsome man, or a rainstorm, choose something concrete. Spend the 5 minutes of your sitting asking the Universe to bring that thing into your life today.

Oh, and pick something small and insignificant so that you don't overburden yourself with expectation. Don't pick "the love of my life" because that has too much expectation on it. Stick with little things, like a blue bird or the hiccups ... things you don't care much about one way or another.

During your day, keep your eyes, ears, and Spirit sense open for that thing. Many times, it will appear in a form that you least expect. For instance, suppose you chose to call a green marble into your experience. Depending on how specific you were, you may end up standing on green marble tile, or you may hear someone say the word "green" and read the word "marble" in a magazine. At first, your attempts to use this ritual may bring you somewhat "splintered" results, but be sure to acknowledge all of these results and thank the Universe. Your results will get more specific over time.

If at the end of the day you feel you still have not "received" that which you asked for, do another short meditation. Review your day and ask your mind for a "print out" of all possible events that might match your desired "thing." You'll be surprised at how much this "print out" will reveal to you about what you missed during the course of your day. Your mind records everything, and if you review its data carefully you will most likely find what you are looking for.

Do this magic ritual for 40-days in a row and jot down your results daily. Even if you get no results on a particular day, just keep doing the exercise. This magic ritual becomes an anchor-point of intention that will transform you into a powerful manifester. The whole goal of this ritual is to help you hone your intention and attention by starting with small objects. It's simple but ingenious.

Got it? Good ... now go try it!

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How to Live a Magical Life: Stop Being a Control Freak

I bet you are a control freak, at least in some areas of your life, even if you don't admit it to yourself. That's all right. I think we're all control freaks.

My wife calls me a "just so guy," because there are certain areas of my life (like my cigars) where things have to be "just so" or I pout.

So we are all control freaks in some way or other, and that's fine because it helps us feel in control of something, especially when other factors in our lives (like the economy) seem to be spinning out of control.

Too Much Control Leads to Too Little Magic
But, being too much of a control freak can really get in the way of living a magical life. Trying to control events all the time keeps the magic from happening because magic mostly happens when you're not looking.

Personally, I feel that phrases like "a watched pot never boils" were created to help us control freaks who so badly want to live magical lives, but just can't seem to get there. That's 'cause we are trying to control the process.

So how do you live a magical life if you are a control freak? Give it up already!

Three Magical Rituals to Help Control Freaks Let Go
Control freaks have such a hard time letting go of stuff that they literally leave claw marks all over their lives. I ask you, how can magic operate in a space filled with claw marks? It can't. So ... to help control freaks unclench a bit, here are some great magic rituals that will help anyone let go so the magic can happen.

Magic Ritual #1: The Coin Toss
People have been flipping coins since the dawn of, well, coins to determine the outcome of certain events. For control freaks, using a coin toss to make a decision is like walking out in front of a beer truck--a guaranteed disaster. Only the coin toss isn't a disaster, it's a great way to let go of control and let magic take you for a little ride.

The next time you have a big decision come up, instead of weighing all the pros and cons and trying to make the decision based on logic or control or whatever other mental stuff is running around your brain, whip out a coin and make the decision based on the coin toss. Decide ahead of time the meaning of both "heads" and "tails." Then flip it!

Whatever the coin tells you, follow that decision ... immediately. Do not pause for consideration, do not pass "Go," and do not collect $200. Just do it.

It may sound crazy, but the universe will reward you with some pretty big magic if you can manage to follow through on this. Why? Because by letting go you allow the Universe to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You open up space for the magic to appear. You are allowing the magic to lead you where you have always wanted to go ... only you couldn't figure out how to get there. It's one darn simple magical ritual that will help you lead a magical life and teach you to let go.

Magic Ritual #2: The Three Day Test
This ritual is another oldie-but-goodie. Actually, most of these rituals are quite old and date back to tribal times. In any case, this one's simple, too. When faced with a decision that you can't make, use the three day test.

To start the ritual, ask the question aloud to the Universe. Then, for the next three days, don't even think about the question. Don't let your mind touch the topic. Don't talk about the question to a single person. Leave it alone. This is the hardest part of the ritual.

At the end of the third day, ask your question aloud to the Universe again. Then, wait for the answer. Go with the first answer that comes to you. As with the coin toss, do not stop to think it over, ponder it, or otherwise mess with the process. Follow the guidance from the Universe and see what magic unfolds for you. Beyond that, actively look for signs of magic. They will be there ... you just have to be on the lookout for them. They will amaze you.

Magic Ritual #3: Decide That All Decisions are Right
This magic ritual is more of a meditation. It can be done as a silent sitting meditation, or as a more active writing meditation. It is very simple. Before you make a final decision about something, stop and do this meditation. Use this mantra:

"All decisions are right. All decisions will lead me to where I want to be. There are no wrong decisions."

You can either repeat this manta silently during a quiet sitting meditation, or write it forty times in a row during a more active meditation. I personally find that the act of writing does something magic to me. It shifts my place of being from mundane to magical, so I often tend to write mantras rather than repeating them silently to myself.

Once you have completed the meditation, go ahead and make your decision ... and then run with it. You can use either of the two magic rituals above if you have difficulty making your decision. If you encounter doubt after you have made your decision, or at any point along the journey, then repeat the meditation.

Magic Rituals Are Simple
See how simple all of these rituals are? I like simple magic because it's fast, immediate, and is an act of power. Any act of power restores personal power. When you are operating from a space of personal power, you can't make a wrong decision. You really can't. Plus, you will feel so positive that any decision is bound to be successful.

For more simple magic rituals, check out our magic rituals ebooks.

Now it's up to you. Try these magic rituals and let the magic guide you. Trust the process. Trust the magic.

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A Quickie Magic Ritual for When You Feel Like a Nut

If you are person who does not like to be told what to do by other people, then this magic ritual is custom-made for you.

With this ritual, you tell yourself what to do ...

It's pretty hard to ignore advice from yourself, right?

Feeling Nuts? One Magic Principle You Must Know
When you feel like you are going crazy, and a lot of people feel crazy these days, here's a magical principle that you have to understand:

Any form of craziness exists in the past or the future.

Think about it. When you feel nuts, what is really happening? You are doing one of two things. You are:

1. Reliving past negative events that have already happened
2. Projecting about future negative events you fear may occur

If you don't believe me, just think back to the last argument you had with someone. What was the REAL content of the argument about? While there may have been a present-time event that triggered the argument, the stuff that gets brought up is usually a rehash of old history, right?

Do lines like, "You always do that!" or "Oh, I can see this is going to turn out just like xxx did back in 1999!" sound familiar? Present time events pull in memories of past events, and that is what the argument is really about.

Conversely, the argument can be about future events. For instance, let's say you get an unexpected bill in the mail. All of sudden you start projecting out into the future about fearful events, like not being able to pay the bill. An argument begins. While the bill exists in present time, the argument is about a projected future.

Thus, it's common sense, not to mention a magical principle that all negativity exists in the past or future, not in the present.

A Magic Ritual to Bring You Back to Present Time
Once you have this knowledge under your belt, you can use a simple magic ritual every time you start feeling a little nuts. It is really easy:

Just look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself in a voice of command, "Come to present time!"

You may have to say it to yourself several times, but this command actually speaks to your Spirit and your mind. Your body always exists in present time, but the command in this magic ritual tells your Spirit and mind to come back to present time as well. Once you are in present time, you can't be nuts. It's a magical principle. It's a fact.

Try it. How does it work for you?

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