Updated URL

The URL for this blog is now http://ivyandhoneysuckle.blogspot.com. Just thought you should know.

Modeling Works Both Ways: Beware the Broken

If you do what someone does, you'll get what they have and you'll become what they are. Modeling works. It's powerful, and it can lead both to success and failure. Remember that when you wonder if it would be a good idea to emulate the practices of someone (whether those practices are magical or mundane.) If someone promises you that their advice will make you successful, don't listen to their words. Look at what they are. Examine their lives, their thinking, their results.

It bothers me to see so many messed up, dysfunctional occultists, witches, and other magical practitioners handing out advice to their followers and readers. If someone's magical practice has turned them into a credulous wreck, you would be wise to look elsewhere for advice. If you believe that spending long years drug-addled, gullible, and paranoid is a necessary step to "enlightenment," then by all means, go ahead and do it. But if you want to become successful in the real world, you may want to rethink your strategy and adjust accordingly.

I have had the opportunity to meet people who are incredibly successful by just about every metric -- personally, physically, financially, romantically -- and none of them, NOT ONE, has been a magic user in the way that most people think of it. They have all been extremely efficient at using psychology to get their way (whether intentionally or not), but none of them got where they are by firing off sigilis while they masturbate in their bedrooms. And if they DID use some sort of magic to get where they are, they don't talk about it.

Now, there are a lot of ways to measure success, and, certainly, some people desire the kinds of trippy, synchronicity-filled experiences that so many occultists end up living through, but a lot of them come out of it broken because they are modeling what broken people do instead of modeling success. The Work is dangerous, yes, and many people will be broken simply by virtue of attempting to attain it, but you will up your chances for success considerably by carefully assessing who it is that you choose to call "teacher."

If your desire to do magic is driven by a desire to succeed on a mundane level, do not seek out someone who is attempting to rewire their reality for internal peak experiences. Seek out someone who is successful on a mundane level. Of course, the danger of that is you might not hear what you want to hear. You might hear that instead of sigils and grimoires and spells, you're going to have to go out and get a real career and network with boring people and go to the gym and do the mundane, tedious WORK that creates the foundation for success. And nobody wants that, right?

The "magical" path as it is usually presented online is littered with the fractured psyches of those who employed nonsense to get nowhere. Watch your step.

Life Intrudes

Work, work, work. I've been buried under it. It's a mercy and a pain in the ass. Lord knows I could use the cash, particularly as the holidays loom (I promised my mother the new HDTV that she's been wanting; that's going to take the biggest chunk as I have resolved to use no credit this year and only buy what I can pay for outright with cash.) I work from home, and I've been feeling a little isolated, like a kid home sick watching all of her friends play outside while she's stuck in bed. I've been doing lots of whining.

Sometimes I feel like it would be healthy for me to get a part-time job outside of the house. At least I would be around other people a little more. But a part-time gig at this time of year would most likely mean retail. No thank you. I have done enough retail to last me three lifetimes, and retail at Christmas is soul-destroying in a way I can't afford right now.

I've been having bad dreams lately, including a whopper of a nightmare about my late father that put me into a funk for an entire day. That one hit during the dark moon, a really weird time for me, usually.

My new tarot deck continues to delight and amaze. I am so happy I decided to get into it and wonder why I didn't do it sooner. I'll be starting a series of meditations on the cards this week.

The fall colors are at their peak in my part of the world as my absolute favorite time of year descends upon us. The neghbors have been lighting their fireplaces, and the smell at night is intoxicating.

Overall, I'm feeling loaded down with mundane crap right now -- family, job, friends, health, house. I feel a little disconnected from my gods and guardians, and my spiritual year work has taken a backseat. I feel like I need to nest and retreat, and I'm not sure that's what's actually good for me right now.

My Weekend Plans

Energy Update

I just had to slam a brick wall shield up and mirror it. I didn't need to draw anything. The extra energy buzzing through me was enough to solidify that shield almost before I thought of it. Before I did, I walked outside and tossed some roots into the ground from my palms. The juice was flowing out so strong, my whole upper body was rocking back and forth as it pumped out. I have been neglecting shields lately, and this is me paying the price. Back to daily work. I don't want to get hit like that again. 

Ungrounded

Good lord, there is a lot of energy flying around today. My hands are shaking and my anxiety has ramped up big time. I thought that it was JUST anxiety until I noticed the dogs acting weird and went for a little walk. The hot spots around the neighborhood are LIT UP. I had to ground a shit-ton of extra energy into one of my traps, and I still feel a little buzzed and jittery. I need to put it to good use. I've already done some cleaning, but I think I need to get back outside. This is more than my traps can handle. I need to get rooted into the earth and let some of this go.

Card Game

When it comes to divination, I'm a simple kind of gal. I usually either use a pendulum and grid or toss some stones and bones on a painted altar cloth. Although I have always loved the imagery of the tarot, I've never actually worked with a deck. I don't know why. I guess I just never really felt like I needed it. A long, long time ago, I was given a Hanson-Roberts deck. I would play with it occasionally, but I never really learned how to use it. I lost it in a move years back. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Lately, I have been feeling a distinct push to get myself a new deck and see where it leads me. Maybe I've been reading too much Golden Dawn stuff. I find the complex correspondences of astrology, Qabala, and the tarot fascinating, even though I have little interest in astrology (other than occasionally reading a horoscope or two and ranting about how it doesn't fit) or Qabalistic cerermonial magic. In any case, I feel like it would be fun to get into, so I broke down and got myself a deck.

This one to be exact: The Easy Tarot. I bought it mostly because it uses The Gilded Tarot, which I find really lovely:

but also because it's for beginners. I have a feeling I will be discovering my own meanings for the cards rather than following the book, but I'll take all the help I can get. i hope to start an on-going series of tarot meditations here after the deck arrives.