Magick: Empowering or Disempowering?

This morning, I received an email question:

I have read your book on to the place where you help [one] of your student[s] with his or her exam by describing the kind of meditation or talisman they can make to help with their exam. Please tell me specifically the exact talisman you prescribe for them.

Here is what I responded:

The goal of Modern Magick has always been to empower the student. By that I mean I want it to help students of the book learn how to move from being a victim—of chance, of fate, of the will of others, or of bad luck—to being in power and control of his or her life. It’s a change from being a victim to being a victor, from acting in response to things that happen around you to being the cause of things that happen around you.

If you work through the book—not simply read it, but do the actual practices—you will learn exactly how to design any talisman you need. More importantly, you’ll also learn how to effectively charge it, so that rather than just being some paper with writing on it, the device becomes a powerful magickal tool to help you achieve your goals.

Were I to give you the information you request, you’d be dependent upon me for talisman design rather than upon yourself. Plus, all you’d have is a design—I have no information showing you’d know how to effectively charge it. In short, you’d be empowering me and giving me your power (disempowering yourself), and all you’d have is a paper with writing on it rather than a charged talisman. When it did not help you achieve the goal you wanted, you’d be inclined to think that magick doesn’t work (although it does) and consider yourself a failure (although you aren’t).

Therefore, rather than give you the design for the talisman you request, I would respectfully suggest that you start at the beginning of the book and do the work. By the time you finish the lesson on talismans and how to charge them, you’ll have no problem making an effective talisman for your purpose or for any purpose.

That being said, I did not go into depth on meditation for a purpose in Modern Magick. For your purpose I would suggest  the following:

1st: Prior to each study session, perform the Relaxation Ritual. This will help you eliminate all thoughts, beliefs and cares that might get in the way and block you from understanding and remembering what you are studying.

2nd: After performing that ritual, spend five minutes before each study session in meditation. Use the technique described in Modern Magick. After you achieve a meditative state, imagine or visualize yourself easily absorbing, remembering, and able to recall all of the information you are studying.

3rd: Before going to bed each night, again do a brief meditation. In this one first imagine or visualize yourself going to take a test and feeling wonderful about it, totally relaxed and knowing that you will do well. Then visualize yourself going into the test room and easily taking the test. See yourself with the knowledge for each question coming to you easily and successfully. Finally, imagine or visualize yourself leaving the test, knowing you did fantastically well.

Do this each and every night. It will “program” your subconscious to do everything necessary to learn what you need to and to be able to put it in writing when you actually take the test. It will also help prevent “test anxiety,” a type of nervousness that prevents many people from getting good grades.

Finally, magick is not about cheating, it’s about assisting. You still won’t get good grades unless you study. There are many tricks that can make your study more effective, and you can get advice on this from your school counselor or from books at the library such as How to Study by Fry and What Smart Students Know by Robinson.

Should Magick be DIY?

I presented my philosophy and the purpose of my writings in my response to the person who had emailed me. I want to help educate and train people so they can use magick to improve their lives. I don’t want to do magick for people, I want everyone to become empowered—by the knowledge they they can be a magician, by the experience of successfully performing magick. In short, I think magick should be DIY: Do It Yourself.

Usually.

I can fully understand how if someone is in dire straits—especially a close friend or family member—it would be appropriate to help them. If a family member came to me saying they were desperate for $500 so they wouldn’t be out on the street, of course I’d give it to them. The same thing is true for a close friend. So yes, in some situations I’d do magick for others.

Although this would get them through a tough time, I would be their temporary and temporal savior. They give me what little power in their lives they have. Even though I am helping them I am also disempowering them, taking the power they give to me.

When a person learns magick, however, and does magick themselves, they become empowered, knowing they can help themselves to achieve their goals.

I realize that there are a lot of people who will do magick for others. They have small buildings out on the interstate, gaudy offices in the suburbs, and advertise eBay how they can harness a genii for you. There are also people in occult shops who will do this for you. Some are successful in doing magick for others. Some are successful only in separating a victim from his or her money.

When people are in need, I think they should be given help. If they stay in need, dependent upon a magick worker and disempowered, they stay victims to fate. I think it is better to give assistance and then give training.

In most cases, however, people who come asking someone to do magick for them are not in real need, they just have a desire that will be forgotten in a few weeks or months. To these people I offer training in the form of my workshops, classes, and books. I let them choose to learn and practice magick, becoming empowered in the process.