Is Real Magic Black, White or Something Else Altogether?

If you go to Google or Yahoo and type in the word "magick," you'll get a lot of listings for black magick, white magick, chaos magick, sex magick and thousands of other kinds of magick. And if you type in the word "magic," you'll get something entirely different. So what is magic (or magick)? Is real magic black, white or something else altogether?

In the experience of most magicians with some level of training, magic is neither black nor white, good nor evil. Instead, magic is an unchanging set of operating principles that are in effect whether you know them or not. Magical laws are like physical laws - they are impersonal, fixed and completely immune to bargaining.

One of our favorite authors, Paxton Robey, explains it so well in his book "No Time for Karma." He says, "The Universe and its rules must be seen as impersonal principle if we are to become self empowered beings. Remember the law of gravity. When you jump out of the window, you will go down. On the way you, you might remember about gravity, but the earth will not care one way or the other. Gravity is impersonal so it will not say, 'She is a pretty good person so maybe we should let her down easy.'" While the idea of impersonal magical forces can seem cold and unfeeling, the good thing about it is that it's very, very reliable. You'll never go to make use of magical principle and find that it's no longer there.

What Makes Magic Black or White?
What makes magic so-called "black" or "white" is our intent. Remember that magic is the study of intention. Our intention and attention are what direct the forces of magic in one direction or another. So what do you do when you stumble on a website offering black, white, chaos or sex magic? Use your own experience and observation to decide if whatever they are offering is really right for you. All types of magic are valid. What's right for you depends on your goals as a magician.

In reality, all forms of magic are just specializations in the same field. Magic is such as vast area of study that every particular branch is just a focused shot in the dark, trying to find out more about this area or that. Voodoo magic is about using the law, "as above, so below" to create effects in the world. What you do to a voodoo doll (as above), you likewise do to the person the doll represents (so below). Chaos magic is about using extreme methods to create heightened states of awareness and consciousness. Love magic is often attracting the right person to you.

Magical Side-Bands
And that brings up another interesting point. Above, we said that all forms of magic are valid. They are. But some have "sidebands" or side effects that you might not want in your life. For instance, if you cast a love spell that's supposed to make another person love you, you are binding that person. Binding is a magical problem that causes a backlash. You see, the Universe operates on the principle of reciprocal maintenance, which means that whatever you do to others will also happen to you. So if you bind another person with a love spell, you can be sure that you'll find your own freedom bound in some way, against your will.

Got it? Good! Check out Rules of the Road, a list of cosmic governing laws put together by George Dew of Church of Seven Arrows. It provides some good rules of thumb when you're trying to decide whether one form or magic or another would be fun to play with.

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Shamanic Secret: Don't Get Sick... Celebrate Instead!

One shamanic secret of magic that works is to celebrate. We tend to get so busy with our everyday lives that we don't take the time to do as the tribal people of ancient times and celebrate the change of each season. Instead we rush through our obligations, responsibilities and to do lists and end up getting sick. The body, mind and spirit demand down time and if we don't make time for it we are forced into it through illness. In our Everyday Magic Email course, this is one of the topics we cover along with how utilizing the ancient shamanic secret of celebration works to clear out the old and make way for the new.

Celebrating
Ancient celebrations of the changing seasons often incorporated singing, dancing, and ritual. These celebrations often lasted for days clearing the old out of body, mind and spirit to make way for the new. The elders knew new creation could not occur otherwise. We find taking the time to use magic that works, invites magic into our lives and we don't have less time to get the things done that we feel we need to. Instead we find that there is magically enough time to get everything done and manifesting what we want comes easier. In today's times we understand it is hard to find days to have these types of celebrations. The good news is that we don't have to take days of ritual to honor the changing seasons, although if you have that kind of time it is very rewarding. Here are a few ways you might employ this shamanic secret of celebration and get some downtime to nourish your body, mind and spirit:

• Go camping to spend several days out in nature or at least spend several days going to take a long walk in the peace and quiet of the woods or a quiet park.

• Commit to turning off your phone, email and social media for a few days or at least one day.
   
• Perform a small ceremony for yourself or go all out and perform a more formal ritual in a full cast circle.
   
• Take some quiet time alone to write a gratitude list of things that have been in this phase of your life. Take time to read each one and individually express appreciation for each one while focusing on it.
   
• Make a list of those things you wish to let go of or release from your life. Focus your attention on each one as you visualize it moving away from you and then burn the list.
   
• Commit to doing a daily ritual such as the Day Greetings and Day Endings of the Navajo Beauty Way and do it every day for a few weeks. After seeing the results, you may decide to keep this one up all year.
   
• Learn a short yoga routine to do each morning in a quiet space or take that time each morning to doing a 10 minute meditation for a week or two.

These are just a few ideas to get you started thinking about taking some time off at the change of each season. You will become much healthier in body, mind and spirit by doing this and find that by inviting magic into your life in this way, your life will become more magical.

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How to Learn Magic by Asking for a Sign

While discovering how to learn magic, many people find asking for a sign helps get them through the wait time. For example if you are attempting to manifest something and hit an obstacle or unexpected roadblock it can be difficult to keep a positive attitude and really know that what you are creating is coming to you. We talk about this in our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook and cover various techniques for getting answers and guidance from higher powers. The Universe is always willing to help us and sometimes a positive sign from the Universe helps keep us upbeat and cheerful and give us the reassurance we need while waiting for our manifestation to appear.

Here is one of the simple techniques covered in the ebook you can do to ask the Universe for a sign.

• First thing in the morning, sit quietly in meditation for a few moments to clear your mind and connect with your spirit.

• Sit and breathe for 3 minutes if you are not comfortable with meditation.
   
• Then ask the Universe to show you a positive sign today that what you desire is coming to you.
   
• State that you'd like the sign to be something you can easily recognize.
   
• Thank the Universe in advance for its help (it is good spiritual practice to give thanks before receiving).

Now go about your day. Be watching for anything that might be the sign, stay alert. The sign might come as a piece of conversation, a gorgeous rainbow, an unexpected source of money, lyrics in a song, an unexpected pleasurable phone call or in thousands of other ways. The sign doesn't have to be big, it just has to mean something positive to you. Once you see something that you recognize as a positive sign, be sure to immediately thank the Universe again for its help.

If at the end of the day you have not recognized a sign, take some time to sit quietly and review the day. Think about events that happened and become very curious about the sign. The Universe never fails to send a sign, but we may fail to consciously recognize it. Since your mind records everything, you may be able to find the sign by going back through your memories of the day.

If you still don't find the sign after going back and reviewing your day, thank the Universe for sending a sign and ask for another sign tomorrow. Ask this time that the Universe make it even clearer. Keep this process going until you receive your sign. We've never seen it take longer than 3 days for someone to get a sign that they are able to recognize.

This simple ritual is often full of surprises and a great one to add to your exercises for how to learn magic. It starts you communicating with the Universe and higher powers, helps you establish a relationship with higher powers, gives you insight on your awareness and perceptions, is a great way to make decisions or give indications of directions to take in your life, and many other skills that are useful to a magical practitioner. This ritual is definitely one that can show you how magic not only has a practical application in life and can give you greater insight into yourself, but also is lots of fun.

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How To Choose Even When You Have No Choice

When we look at our lives many of us often feel like we have very little choice. We have to work, meet family obligations, and attend to the daily chores of "making a living." This lack of choice often makes us feel helpless and disempowered. We feel that we are not in control of our own lives.

The good news is that there's a simple way to regain our personal power. It's called "choosing even when you have no choice." Consider going to work, for instance. Most of us have to work to earn an income for basic needs, and while we might have the freedom to change jobs, we don't really have the choice to not work. So how can we choose in this situation where we have no choice?

Pick a segment of your day at work (could be as little as 15 minutes and no more than one hour) during which you will experiment with choices and personal power. Now make a choice about something for that segment. If you have some freedom in your work, choose what you will do during that segment. Decide precisely when you will start, exactly what you will achieve, and when you will stop. When the time comes, start your chosen work and end whenever you've chosen. It's important to end at the chosen time--the ending is just as important as the starting point.

If you don't have the freedom to choose what you'll do, then choose something internal to focus on. For instance, you might choose to focus only on thoughts that put a smile on your face or work with a smile on your face. You might choose to be aware of the sensations in your right hand while you work. You might choose to see how much work you can complete in 15 minutes. You might choose to take off one earring or one sock during that segment. It doesn't matter what you choose or how trivial it might seem. The key is that YOU'VE chosen it.

Why does choosing in a situation where you have no choice make a difference? Because any intentional choice is an act of personal power, and will increase your personal power. The more acts of power you do, the more personal power you will gain. The more personal power you have, the less you'll feel trapped by daily life. Just remember that you can do acts of power in any situation, no matter how little freedom you appear to have.

Enjoy!

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How to Meditate with Animals

Meditating with Animals

We all know that watching fish swim, chickens peck, or cats stretch can be very relaxing, but did you know that you can actually extend the art of animal watching to a meditation that can offer you deep insights into the wisdom of animals?

One of our favorite teachers, Abraham-Hicks, likes to say that whenever you want to attract something into your life, feel the desire for that thing and then pet the cat. Why should you pet the cat? Because almost by osmosis you get that relaxed, go-with-the-flow, allowing feeling that cats automatically exude, and Abraham teaches that allowing is the key to manifestation.

Animals, by their very nature, are more in touch with Spirit than we are, and tend to be connected to all that is higher. If you want to relax, get back in touch with Spirit, and connect with the higher, try this simple animal meditation.

1) Get into a comfortable position where you can see the animal you want to meditate with. Make sure the animal you've chosen is in a relaxed state of being. You can choose a cat, dog, horse, cow… any animal that seems to have the spiritual energy you're looking for.

2) Observe the animal closely. Notice the color of their coat or skin, the way the light catches different parts of their body. Notice anything that comes to you about the animal's appearance. Keep this level of observation for a minute or two.

3) Next, begin to mimic the animal's breathing. Match the animal breath for breath. Now extend that mimicry to include the animal's expression and focus of attention. Are the eyes open or closed? Where is the animal's attention? What is he or she looking at? Is the animal's attention inwardly or outwardly focused? Stay focused on this aspect of the meditation for a few minutes, until you really begin to feel that you are being "breathed" by the animal's rhythm.

4) Finally, if you want, mimic the animal's action. If a cat is twitching its tail, imagine you have a tail, then twitch it in the same rhythm. If the horse you are watching is chewing grass, move your jaw in the same motion. How does that feel? Stay with the meditation as long as you wish, or until you get the connection you're looking for.

If you've chosen an animal that is truly in a connected state of being, and you mimic that animal's actions, expressions, breathing and attention, you will begin to feel the same sort of spiritual connection that most animals feel all the time. Plus, it will give you a lot of insight into how your animal perceives the world.

This exercise works because of the law of "as above, so below." When you physically mimic your chosen animal, your mind and spirit will also mimic the animal's mental and spiritual state. In fact, some horseback riding trainers encourage their (human) students to follow their horses around for an entire day, mimicking everything they do. This gives the students an opportunity to really understand the world from the horse's point of view.

Animals have so much wisdom and connection to share with us, and we often miss their special gifts because we don't take the time to really "be" with them. To learn more about how to communicate directly with animals, check out Leta Worthington's beginning animal communication ebook.

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