Silver Chalice Wicca 'Zine #19

Magickal Non-Spells
and
White Magick or Black Magick?

August / September 2010

Editor's Note

I'd like to take this opportunity to communicate with those who have written to me lately.

I apologise for not being able to respond. The quantity of emails, combined with a heavy summer workload, has overwhelmed my ability to reply. : (

I hope to find some time to answer someday, but the point may have come when the mail influx has grown too big for one person to manage. (One day, O Goddess Bless, I will have assistants!) ; D

Please know that I read all your emails, and send blessings and prayers, and deeply appreciate hearing your kind words and stories of how the website and 'zine have affected you.

I especially want to thank all of you who offer the best thank-you -- spreading the word, sharing links and information from the site, recommending it to others through friends and forums and Digg and Stumble.... This really makes all the work worthwhile, and keeps the site vibrant and alive. I appreciate this more than I can say!

The lack of response doesn't mean I don't care! Simply that I only have two hands and one mind, and I can't do everything I wish I could.

What I can do is reinstate the Ask The Priestess column in this 'zine, so some of the most common questions get answered. So if you write a question, stay tuned to see its answer in future Silver Chalice issues.

Thank you for your understanding, and for your ongoing support. I believe Wicca-Spirituality.com has the most devoted and generous readers of any website! It would be nothing if it weren't for you!

With Brightest Blessings,

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If you have any comments, opinions, or content ideas we'd love to hear from you. Please write!

Table of Contents Events & Announcement -- Social Media Milestones Special Offers -- Free Diamond Alignments Magick Book In Progress -- Magickal Non-Spells Ask The Priestess -- White Magick or Black Magick? Fave Quotes -- Honorary Wiccan: Albert Einstein Word on the Street -- This Religion Shines Silver Chalice Details   Events & Announcements Our Twitter club now has over 2,500 followers, and has just celebrated this milestone with a free download. Our Wicca Spirituality Facebook fan page is coming up on it fast! You might want to join, to receive this special gift and partake of a vibrant and fun online Wiccan community. Also, you can join in Wiccan surveys and play with Wiccan Koans (sacred thought-puzzles) with us. I do hope to see you online! Special Offers Have you tried the Diamond Alignments yet? You may have heard me raving about it before. It boosts my energy level, my peacefulness, and my spiritual growth. It's profoundly calming. It makes me feel wonderful. It even uplifts the Earth, assisting the transition we are currently going through! It's among the easiest, fastest, most effective meditation techniques there are. The best part? It is now completely free! Even a few minutes of focused meditation per day can dramatically improve your life. Try it. There's nothing to lose, and a new joy and New Earth to gain! Wicca Magick -- Book In Progress (Please Note: This material is protected by legal copyright) Magickal Non-Spells (Magick Book Introduction) Many people, when picking up a book on magick, might expect a catalogue of recipes for spells. A "recipe" or script for a spell is a set of instructions: "Under a Waxing Moon, gather 3 women wearing white. Light a blue candle in the East while chanting to Tara...." This is not that book, and for two important reasons: Spells are not necessary for magick. To be really effective, a spell must be absolutely individualized. What this book will do, instead, is teach you how to craft your own -- far more powerful -- spells, and beyond that... To work magick as a natural, everyday occurrence. Spells Are Not Magick A spell is merely the outer form -- the part of magick-working that is visible to the eye. A spell is not what makes magick happen. What it can do, however, is help create the proper psychological conditions for magick to take place. Dion Fortune is said to have written that "Magic[k] is the art of changing the consciousness at will." This is, I think, the best summation ever written on the subject. In other words, you can go through all the motions of a given spell flawlessly, and it would just lay there like a dud. Or, you could do no spell at all but shift your thought patterns and miracles would be instantaneous! Going through the motions of a spell-script is like building a man out of straw and old clothes. It might look like something you could put to work, but it can't actually do anything. This is the biggest reason most spells fail. And this is usually exceedingly unwelcome news. Newcomers always wish to hear that they can say magick words and wiggle their noses and a 3-course meal will appear, complete with servants... to be erased later with another nose wiggle. That is fantasy, pure and simple. And that's why there's a common disbelief in the real power of magick. People imagine that magick works like that -- you say and do something arcane, and miracles happen. That's only because they can't see what's really going on... the inner workings of magick. They can see only its outward expression. Still Interested In Magick? You may now be feeling like you aren't interested in this book. And that's fine. Real magick is not for everyone. If all you want are showy parlour tricks, look up "sleight-of-hand" on the internet. If you're craving effortless infinite powers, good luck with that pipe-dream. (You can have infinite power, and I'll tell you how, but it's too much hard work for most people to really be interested.) If you're wanting to change your life without changing yourself, you're going to be eternally disappointed. Magick doesn't work like that. But magick does work. This book is about real and unlimited magick, not just spells. It happens within you, not within pouches or candles or incantations. You can use these things. And they can be helpful. I'll even give you instructions on how. But to give you spell recipes is to feed you metaphysical junk food: you might like it, but it won't do you much good. The second reason, below, really demonstrates why.... Spells Must Be Precise Spells can be amazingly effective if they are absolutely specific to your situation. And if they work with your inner orientations, the subconscious patterns of your mind. You can't just copy a spell off the internet and expect it to transform your life. That's like taking an aspirin for everything from cramps to arthritis to indigestion to heartache. You may be thinking that you know lots of people who do that. I do too. Here's the point: how well does it work? You can release cramps. You can heal arthritis. You can cure indigestion. You can even fix heartache. But all a pain-reliever does is dull the symptoms. And that means it's probably setting you up for more serious problems in future. Don't you really want a cure? A really potent spell is like that. My friend, Colombe, who works absolute miracles with magick spells. Her method? It couldn't be further from generic spell-recipes. She does meticulous investigation to determine the exact problem, the precise spell to shift things in the right direction, the right time to do the spell, and the readiness of the individual to receive the change. This is what makes her spells miraculously effective. Does she spend much effort on the specific ingredients of her spell? No; that's not the important part. As she says, "Figuring out where the lever is and how to turn it — that is the spell, that's what I want the magick to be. The rest of it is just like putting it down on paper." There's a direct, unavoidable relationship between the precision of the spells and their effectiveness. In other words, it's the inner process that makes spells powerful, not the outer trappings: the words and herbs and hand gestures that other people tell you to do. For some people, it works when they bring strong and clear intent and energy to a generic spell script. If you have the natural inner resources to create the change within yourself, it doesn't really matter what kind of spell you do -- you're doing magick within you. If those things are challenging for you, you need more than the outer trappings of a spell. You need to learn to make magick itself. These Are The Limitations Of Spells Can you see why generic spells are fairly useless? They will work if ... you are very open and ready for them anyway, you happen to respond to stimuli in the same way as the spells' creator, you're willing to face the patterns that created the problem in the first place, and you are free of subconscious resistance. If if if .... In other words, when you just need a gentle nudge in the right direction, you can get results that were likely to happen anyway. Sometimes we want spells for these things. Most often, however, what we really want is magick for the intractable problems that plague us, those issues where we are most blocked or most resistant. And that's exactly where spell recipes or purchased spells are all but useless. That's when we need real magick. Spells can help, when they are precisely focused, tailored to your individual connection with life, and accessing the power of magick that lives within you. But it's really all about the magick within you. And tapping into that is what this book is all about. Want To Be Informed When This Magick Book Becomes Available? Please Send me an email and I'll let you know! You can also tell me how you like it so far, and what else you'd like to see in it. Thanks!! Ask The Priestess White Magick or Black Magick? Dear Priestess, I have been practicing for almost 3 years now and with both white and dark spells, and they all worked. I know you can feel which path is right for yourself … it's just that for me they both feel right. So what can I do? JH, USA Dear JH, You've brought up a very important point... Feeling isn't the only tool the Goddess/God has given us. She's also given us the power of intellect, empathy, faith, etc. Use your logic and sense of compassion to help guide you. If you know something about magick, then you must be aware that the energy you create in your spells affects you as much as (or more than) it affects anything else. That's what the 3-Fold Law talks about. You may not notice it right away, but you can't harm anyone without wreaking more harm on yourself. What does logic tell you about hurting yourself? What does compassion require? The essence of the Divine is Loving-Kindness and Compassion. Your logic can tell you easily that if you are acting without those qualities, you are acting against the Divine, and moving away from the Divine. Can that ever be right? Only the ego can trick us into believing such an outrageous idea! We really have to beware the ego's rationalizations. It is the slipperiest creature ever! It can convince us that black is white and right is wrong... but that doesn't make it true. And if you fall for the lies, you will end up paying the price, that is, reaping what you sow. I do know the heart is the supreme and faultless guide, but it's so often cluttered and covered over with ego-stuff that we can't tell what it's saying. That must be the case here... because if you could really feel your heart of hearts, your answer would be completely clear. I don't mean to pick on you... the same is true for all of us, to some degree or other. At that core, we never wish to harm anyone, or see anyone hurting. There's a deep connection we can feel to every living creature (and even non-living objects), and that connection urges us to do whatever we can to heal, to help, to lift suffering. This is especially true for Pagans and people who can work magick. At our core, we are Divinity, and the essence of us is Loving-Kindness and Compassion. When we work against those qualities, we alienate us from ourselves. If you have been working magick for three years only for your own desires, you may have been increasing your ego-gratification. If that's the case, it may not have given you any increased awareness or sensitivity, and you may not feel more connected to all of life. I think that's unfortunate, because you've been missing out on the real gifts of Wicca and of magick. I suspect that it hasn't made you happier either. That's another one of the ego's tricks: it says, "If you have this, that, and the other thing, you will be happy! Really!!" But as soon as we have what we've desired, the ego sets up another desire, and says we won't be happy until we get that too. It goes on forever, of course. And the more we buy into this cycle, the stronger the ego gets, and the more unhappy we end up. The ego will always urge us to act without regard for the quality of our actions. That's just its way. That's what makes the spiritual path a choice, and a test of character, rather than just an instinctive habit. Our automatic behaviour is to listen to that deceiving ego-voice... it's so much louder and pushier than the quiet whisper of the Divine. It's also easier than looking for our deeper feelings, taking responsibility for our actions, and facing our fears and sorrows. Ego tries to distract us from these things, even as it increases them. And it will never stop, until we stop believing it. Like any addiction, it will fade as we quit giving it power. If Goddess-worship is important to you, you may want to pursue Wicca more as spiritual practice than as a magickal tool to satisfy desires, because the Goddess is never pleased when we harm others or take without giving in return. Same with the Earth/nature. If you examine your heart, and your mind, and your motives, and your deepest underlying desires, I think you will find that one path is clearly right. I can say this with some confidence, because it's true of everyone. One path leads to the Divine, which is Truth, Reality, Love, Bliss, Infinite Peace. The other path leads in the opposite direction: Falsehood, Error, Hardness of Heart, Suffering, Feeling of Loss and Lack. Why would we knowingly choose that? And I suspect that deep down you already sense there's something wrong with that second path. Otherwise, why would you even be questioning? : ) I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best on your journey! Do you have a question you'd like answered? Email the Priestess and your question could be answered in a future issue. (Note: questions may be edited for brevity or clarity. No real names will be disclosed. For reasons of legality, all questions become the property of Wicca-Spirituality.com.) Fave Quotes Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. The only real valuable thing is intuition. Our imagination is more powerful than knowledge. Space and time are modes in which we think, not conditions in which we live. Anyone who becomes seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that there is a spirit manifest in the laws of the universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man. The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Reality is merely an illusion. Albeit a very persistent one. There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. ~ Albert Einstein Word on the Street Thanks for writing!! I appreciate hearing from you! What People Are Saying About Wicca-Spirituality.com: You have helped shed a new light upon my spirituality. While I have been a witch for some time now, I have not thought about the beauty that you have taught me that this religion shines. -- R.E. in USA Know somebody who'd like to read this? We really hope that you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. If you think your friends might be interested in taking a look, please feel free to forward it to them. Haven't subscribed yet? If you're reading this on the recommendation of a friend and would like to receive all the future editions, you can subscribe for free through this link: The Silver Chalice E-Zine to subscribe. Contact Us If you have any comments, opinions, or content ideas we'd love to hear from you. Please write! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ © erin dragonsong 2010. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinting any of this is forbidden unless you obtain my written permission: karma and the law agree on this one. And Copyscape is keeping an eye on these things.

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