by Nate Leved
Everyone needs a little magic in their daily lives to make living worth while. We need to win at the game of life. Were it not for magic, we would be living by random chance, and our odds of successful outcome would be about the same as winning a lotto. Magic is simply prayer expanded to its full potential, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Everybody wants a piece of the action, and that's why magic doesn't work very well for lotto winning. Everybody's doing it and the astral is so full of me, me ME requests, that all requests become as white noise, much like that found in tuning between stations on the AM radio band. However, for improving the outcomes of our individual pursuits, magic can be of great help as long as there isn't too much competition. If there is, then the outcome becomes a matter of personal power. This piece then, will deal with the building of personal power. Do you want to play a game?
Opinions vary, but many old timers believe in the power of three and sending waves of magical energy into the ether to accomplish successful "Low Magic" outcomes. Here is why: Low Magic is sympathetic magic, that means that it is based upon gaining sympathy for our desires from an outside, and hopefully, more powerful source. The concept is much like a little kid trying to climb a fence and getting a helping hand up and over the top.
Now most folks, new to magical pursuit, have a pretty dim astral presence, as they mostly don't do anything and are not of any particular interest. Oh, they may have a guide or two or even a guardian spirit, but the person, themselves, has never attempted to move Heaven and Earth, and therefore, is like a movie with no plot. There is little of interest to watch or become involved with from an astral spirit point of view. Seriously, how long would you sit and watch a baseball game where nobody scored? The action would be so slow as to put you to sleep.
Rooting for a player is where it's at. The astral spirits like a little excitement to keep them cheering and placing bets. Each of us is a player, and some players are more fun to watch and support than others, as the "live ones" are always up to something. That means that when we start to do magic and attempt to change the great ho-hum, we start to draw an astral crowd. The more astral spirits who are gathered around and rooting for us, the more powerful we become. That boils down to the fact that we will have more successful outcomes.
Obviously, the more magic we perpetrate, the more visible and exciting we are. Our light grows brighter, and word of mouth travels fast. Call that advertising. Doing our magic rituals is much like putting on a great stage play for the denizens of the astral, and if we do well, we will draw supporters and perhaps even some dissenters to watch our performance. The trick is to draw more ayes than nays!
What we are doing is manipulating both positive and negative energy in order to change things more to our liking. The more energy we can garner in our support the better. A good analogy would be an astral tug of war with one team for us and one team against us. The more energy pulling on our side, the more chance we have of winning the game.
To become a great magical adapt (athlete) we need to do a lot of practice and play a lot of games. We need to churn up the ether and leave behind a wide wake, that will make the crowd cheer and drop their popped corn. A great adept is a magical gladiator who is a favorite player. Consider two adepts vying for the same prize. Which one will win the game? That answer is simply, the one with the most personal power and the greatest astral following.
That is where the rule of three comes in again. Let us say that one mousy little adept sits there on his or her couch, and without even turning off the TV set says, "I want this new job at the doughnut factory. Please give it to me." Who, what, when, where, why? What did they say? huh? They hardly stopped passersby or even drew their gaze or attention.
On the other hand, another adept who also wants the new job at the doughnut factory, turns off the TV, does a top- notch cleansing ceremony, puts out some advertising, stirs up the astral, and does a slam-bang ritual that rocks the boats of everybody on the astral sea, then WOW! Popped corn, peanuts, hot dogs, beer! All the loose cannons on the astral are aware of the game in progress! Even some fans who are watching a boring, low-key show, might even get up and trot over to see what's up.
Moths always travel to the brightest flame, there to give their all to the cause. As adepts, we must draw the balance of energy to our side of the court if we want to win! We develop reputations just like great ball players, auto racers, and boxers. If we don't work out, practice, and play games, we are of little interest to the fans. People who set upon the couch and do nothing atrophy. Their muscles become weak and their concentration suffers. They can't focus on anything for more than an instant, before jumping to something else. They have no power, and their muscles have forgotten how to work.
Yes, even muscles work in opposing groups. One reason why inactive people are weak is that their muscles have forgotten how to work together, pushing and pulling in tandem. Muscles learn to work properly by using them. Soon, one muscle learns not to fight against it's mate on the other side and they begin to work together to do useful work without opposing one another. One pushes while the other pulls. The same holds true with building magical power. Use it or lose it. Little kids have lots of magical power as they obviously get what they need and usually what they want. However, if they don't keep working at it, their power falls off to near nothing as the years pass, and they become a dud.
One of the best reasons for using the rule of three is to set up magical energy waves that will work for us again and again. We literally beat the thing into submission. There is so much energy generated for our purposes, that it overwhelms any energy against us, and we win the game of life. Any ritual worth doing is worth doing three times. If it hasn't worked by then, try another angle. By-the-way- just because a ritual doesn't have the desired effect doesn't mean that it is no good, it simply means that it was the wrong ritual for the intended purpose or that there was too much resistance at the time. Another ritual might sneak by and jet the job done. Why not have more than one tool in your tool box? It is hard to turn a screw with a hammer.
