Magic On Your Terms: The Path To Empowerment

The word magic comes from the magi. The magi are more than just a sect of priesthood from ancient Persia. The Magi represent a universal force, and every culture has their magic. Not all people who walk the craft walk it in the same way or do the same things. They don't speak the same language. Some people in the craft are very out of the broom closet. Others are very circumspect. Nobody has the right to tell you which is the way for you. That's up to you.

That's why you'll see at Ariel's Corner, if you come onto our Discord server, there's all kinds of people. There are people from all walks of life, and we don't have a judgment about what you're supposed to be and what the craft is supposed to look like for you.

Now, it's true. I have my own path that I walk, and I have my own ways that I teach. The way that I teach is my specific way, my perspective, and how I see things and how things work for me. And that's all I can teach. I can only teach the craft as I practice it. I can only teach the way as I see it and as it is revealed to me. And even if you, quote, walk my way, you're still going to end up doing it your way.

The craft is not a great place for people who are lemmings, for people that want to be told what to do, just because ultimately the idea of the craft is to find your power and to exercise your power and to be able to make verifiable, repeatable change occur in your life. Be able to meet your challenges and overcome them. You can't do that while you are following somebody else's way.

The way that human beings learn is by imitation. We do learn by aping. But that's a temporary method. After something gets assimilated into the deep mind, it becomes automatic for us and it becomes our own. And then we become our own agent. And that's what being a witch is, or a magician, or a magis: finding that magic within yourself and walking your path as it's revealed to you.

Even if you're working within a tradition or within a coven, you are always a solitary practitioner. You have to be a solitary practitioner first and foremost, and then you can come together in a tradition, you can come together in a coven if you desire or not. If you think of a coven or a tradition as being an orchestra, you don't want an orchestra peopled with those who never practice their instruments. You want an orchestra peopled with musicians who are well practiced. They have a solitary practice.

So even if you are one of those practitioners who enjoys and feels like you thrive in a group setting, that's fine, that's wonderful, but you still must walk your solitary path as well.

The world is full of people that want to control you, that want to be the leader. And that only lasts for so long in the craft. It's a craft. It's an art form. You can have art teachers, you can have artistic movements that you're a part of, but you're still your own artist. And the same thing goes with the craft. You're your own artist. Your medium happens to be consciousness other than paint or musical notes. You can have it be however you want it to be, whatever calls to you.

When I lecture and when I teach, I get very passionate about the way I see things. Why would you want to hear me if I wasn't passionate about the way I see things? But that doesn't mean that you need to see things the way I see things. You don't need to agree with me. The same should go with whatever you're finding out there as a teacher, as a leader, as a craft purveyor. If you're expected to swallow a belief system whole without questioning it, it's not really magic, is it? Now you are in the realm of religion. So be careful that you question everything.

Just watch TikTok and in those little short videos, maybe you're taught some rule or something like that. And if you believe it and just follow along with whatever their rule is and you never question it, you may or may not ever succeed in your goal of becoming a magus because you're just only aping what you've been taught, but never actually internalizing it and understanding if that is a valid concept, what it means.

And there's a lot of that. It's on YouTube, it's on TikTok, it's on Facebook, it's everywhere. All these memes and posts about this is what a witch is, this is what you must do. And it's so confusing for people that are just starting out.

I feel very blessed that I started out back in the 70s because there wasn't anything out there. It was very limited. There were a few books, a few teachers, if you were lucky to find them, there were some correspondence courses and there just wasn't so much out there. And I was able to find what I could and study with the teachers that I could find and be introduced to my own inner guide through those teachers and continue my path in my way.

That's the way I would love to see it happen for each and every person who finds the craft, that they use the resources offered them and then get introduced to their own inner guidance and find their own way, make their own way in the craft and not listen to the noise as much. There's way too much noise out there.

Everything in the craft, the way I practice it, is seen as an opportunity for learning, no matter what it is. And it's not just magic. A lot of times people think that the craft is only limited to what you do in a circle or what you do in a spell or what your magical tools, et cetera, are. But remember, like I said, this is an art form of consciousness. And so therefore you don't ultimately need tools. You don't need all of that unless you want to use it.

Ultimately, for me, the craft is all about whatever is in front of me. Whatever life puts in front of me is my lesson. And if I can approach what's in front of me from a magical point of view, I can learn the lesson and then have that skill should I come in contact with a similar lesson in the future, no matter what it is.

My own particular path is a path of peace, is a path of love. That is what has been revealed to me, as what is my way to walk: the way of the Magi. It's the ancient craft of the wise. And therefore, when I'm confronted with something that's a problem, my first goal has to be peace. It's just what I've discovered through all of the decades that I've been working magic, that if my goal isn't peace, then I'm going to be stuck on that lesson until I establish that goal of peace. It saved me on my path a lot of time, instead of always looking cynically at the problem, which is the popular way of looking at things.

The other thing that kind of annoys me, I don't love when people are so flippant about the concept of cursing. Now, I don't mind a good joke. I love jokes if they're funny. And sometimes there are some funny cursing memes. But a lot of what I see posted and talked about isn't a joke. It's all about "Don't look at me crosswise, or I'm going to curse you. I'm going to hex you. I'm so powerful. Don't get in my way because I can curse you," that kind of thing. I find that's very disrespectful to the art of cursing.

Cursing is a very real thing in the craft, and it's not something that I take lightly. Cursing is all about basically putting somebody in magical prison because of something they've done. It's really all about squelching someone's freedom, squelching someone's right to be free through magical means. While it does have its place, it's not something that we should be joking about like that.

When I just said should, I don't like to should on people. I mean, do your thing, do you. But I personally find it quite offensive. And I understand where people are coming from. It makes them maybe feel better about themselves. But if you really are so good at cursing and making your curses be so effective, you're not talking about them. You're not joking about them. It's not funny. It's serious. It's sacred. But that's just me.

Anyway, what I was saying is that from my point of view of the craft, it's a path. And when I'm walking on my path in my life, life is going to bring me situations, and those situations are there for me to look at magically. And my situations that are brought to me that I need to look at magically, if I first have the goal of peace, then it's very easy for me to understand how to approach it magically. If my goal is not peace, I tend to have a lot of circumvention, and it takes a lot longer for me to get the resolution I'm seeking.

For instance, somebody came to me the other day, they were talking about an argument with somebody, and they wanted me to agree with them because I was their friend. They wanted me to agree that they were in the right because I was their friend. And I didn't agree with them. And I didn't think that they were in the right. In fact, I thought what they did was pretty awful. But they assumed, since we had such a close relationship, that I would just be on their team.

My way of handling that had to be first asking, what is my goal here? What do I want from this situation? Take a breath. What is my goal here? Oh yeah, that's right. My goal is peace. Genuine peace, not just, quote, keeping the peace. Peace is different than absence of conflict. Peace is a deep-seated experience of love, of joy. It is the absence of tension. It is the absence of conflict, but it doesn't end with that. Peace is a real connection. You can't have true peace without feeling connected to your source, without feeling connected to life, and without feeling connected to everybody on some level.

When I first found that goal of peace, then I was able to be guided as to what my words were. And my words were very clear. I don't think that you're in the right. I don't think that what you said was good. And this is why. Now, had I not taken the moment to have peace be my goal, I might have said the same thing to them, but from a different energy, from the energy of wanting to maybe show them how wrong they were, or being defensive of my other friend, or something else. And I don't think that my words would have been received in the same way as when I first took a second and said, what's my goal here? This is all silently and internally. My goal is peace. And then I was able to tell my truth, but that truth came from a different energy than had I just responded without connecting to my goal first.

And that's true with any kind of magic. If you're trying to respond to a situation in your life magically, you have to have a goal as to what the outcome is. You have to have some sort of intention as to what the outcome will be. If you don't, then you're just reacting. And that's not magical. It's just like everybody else. Everybody else is just reacting. That's what we do here. We're reaction machines. But if you're coming from a magical point of view, if you are powerful in any situation, you delay your reaction long enough to ask yourself, what's my goal?

Now, I know for me, because I've been trained in my own path, walking my own path, I already know what my goal is, but I have to remind myself, I have to establish that goal, and then I can respond to the situation. The person, when they heard what I had to say, I could tell. It didn't feel great for them, but I could also tell they understood what they did was probably not the highest thing to do. And trying to recruit me into agreeing with them wasn't going to work. But they could also see that I love them. I wasn't judging them or holding it against them, but I was telling them the truth.

I'm not sure that it would have had that kind of resolution had I not just taken that moment and asked myself, what's my goal here? It turned it into a magical experience versus a mundane experience. Just that moment of asking myself, what's my goal? What's my goal here?

I invite you to look at yourself as a magical being and ask yourself, what is your goal in any situation? What do you really want? What do you want more than anything out of your life? And if you can't distill things down into a singular purpose, a singular goal, you have some work to do. Because if you don't have a life's purpose, if you don't have something that you carry with you as your primary goal, then you're flailing. You're just grasping at straws. You have nothing to solidly stand upon.

And I think that that's what's missing in a lot of the so-called craft education out there is there is no goal. There is no bottom line to one's practice. It's just the next shiny thing, the next trendy spell. Your goal can't only be blowing cinnamon over your doorstep at the beginning of the month. There's got to be something more than that. Why am I doing what I'm doing? And that's missing from the bulk of what I see taught. Whereas for me, it was the crux of my education in the craft. If you don't know what your goal is, if you don't know the purpose of what you're doing, then you don't know anything. It was always hammered into me over and over again. Know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Think it through. Think it through and do it right. Why? What do you want from this specifically?

And that specificity can't only be, I want the money, or I want the relationship, or I want the promotion, because that's not the end goal. Why do you want the promotion? Why do you want the money? Why do you want the relationship? Why do you want to curse them? What's your motivation? What's the end game for you?

Luckily for me, I was able to find my end game at a very young age. So I can always ask myself, what's my goal? Oh yeah, my goal is peace. My goal is peace here in this situation. And it's interesting how even though your goal is peace, it doesn't mean that everything you do is all love and light. A lot of times to get to the goal of peace, you do curse someone. Sometimes to get to the goal of peace, you do stand up for yourself. Sometimes to get to the goal of peace, you do some things that on the surface don't look so peaceful. But that's an illusion.

So if you don't have some kind of a goal you can lean on as being your life's purpose, find one. What's important to you? What's important to you? I hear people complain a lot about why so-and-so is bad or why such-and-such is wrong. Or they complain about their own lives. They haven't ever gotten under the surface. They don't know why they want those things or don't want those things. They have no clue. Because nobody's asked them. They've never been given the assignment to get underneath it. What's your primary goal? What do you want?

People think that they want more money more than anything, but why do you want the money? It can't be an end goal. Money can't be an end goal. How is that even possible? What's that going to do for you? Just having money? Well, what's the money going to bring you? And for what purpose? Why do you want that?

In spellcasting, I call that finding the essence of your goal. And it's good to find the essence of your goal, but today I'm talking about taking it one step further. What's the essence of your life? What's the essence of your craft? What's the essence of your path? Why are you here? It's very easy for us to think, I'm not that special, or I'm just a part of the crowd. That's exactly where the ego wants us, because that's not true. You were sent here. You decided to be born in order to fulfill a function. And if you don't take the time to ask yourself, what's my function? Magic is nothing. It's not going to give you anything. You have no oomph behind it. You have no power.

But once you find your goal, once you understand what your goal is, then everything is colored by that goal. Then you know why you want the money. And you know why you want the relationship. Then you know why you want that car. Then you know why you want to curse that person. You have taken the time and the effort to distill what it is you're here for. How do you do that? By asking. By asking. You could do it right now if you felt like it.

Think about something you want. What do you want? What do you want more than anything? Just real practical something. Money, health, pain relief, what do you want? Then use that as the catalyst to find your life's purpose. Why do you want that thing? What is it going to bring you? What is it going to do for you? How is it going to help you? And then ask, what's that gonna bring me? And then what's that gonna bring me? Finally, when I got to the bottom of what's that gonna bring me, what's that gonna do for me, once I finally got to peace, I realized there was nothing else that I wanted. That was it. All I wanted was peace. No matter what it was, that's all I truly desired was peace. And again, not peace meaning the absence of conflict, meaning true peace. Peace that passeth all understanding. Absolute bliss.

My function here is peace. That's why I'm here, is peace. I get it. I understand it. And now all I have to do is walk my path. All I have to do is walk my path. And I know that if my goal is peace, I can use that to dial into whatever I need. I can respond to whatever life puts before me, and I can see it as my lesson in understanding how to achieve peace.

In the process, I want that money so that I can have more peace. It's very different than I just want the money so I can buy stuff. It's okay to want to buy stuff, and it's okay to want money. But if I understand that I want that because I want peace, the money is a lot easier for me to get, because there's no more emotional baggage as to how I don't deserve the money, because the money is just there as a symbol from peace. It's a lot easier to be peaceful if they're not calling about bills. It's a lot easier to be peaceful if I don't worry about how to make the mortgage payment. It's a lot easier for me to be at peace if I'm not worried about money.

Same thing with relationships. It's a lot easier for me to find peace if I'm not longing for companionship. But if I didn't understand that my primary goal was peace, it would be a lot easier for me to get sidetracked trying to find companionship and get involved in relationships that weren't good for me, that weren't bringing me peace.

Same thing with work, career, much easier for me to find peace doing what I love to do. Same thing with conflict resolution. It's a lot easier for me to find peace if I learn how to resolve this conflict in a way that's good for me, rather than being right about an argument which prompts more arguments.

You see what I'm saying? Once we find our bottom line goal, whatever it happens to be for you, once we find our bottom line goal, then that spiritual principle guides it all. And that everything from that point of view is simply a lesson on how to get what we really want, no matter what drag it happens to show up in at that moment.

It doesn't take a lot of time. It only takes a couple of hours at the most to explore a very potent goal, some great desire of yours, and start questioning, why do I want it? What's it going to bring me? What's it going to do for me? How will it help me? And then when you find that, then ask, what's that going to bring me? How is that going to help me? Eventually you will find a bottom line and you can't go any deeper. And once you find that, that's your goal. That's the thing you live by. That's your life's purpose. And it colors all your magic.

Then you don't have to worry about what they're teaching. You don't have to worry about what they're doing. It can be interesting for you. You can incorporate it if you like into your craft, or you can say thanks, but no thanks if you don't like it and just ignore it. But you're not out there anymore wondering, I wonder if this is the way to get what I want. I wonder if this is the way to get what I want. Or maybe this is the real craft. Maybe this is the true craft. None of that happens anymore because you're being guided by a powerful principle that you came into this life in order to achieve, in order to be at one with. And then that will bring you everything you desire. It will bring you all the right knowledge. It will bring you the right books. It will bring you the right teachers. It will bring you the right trinkets. It'll bring you everything you possibly could need. And it's going to be very specific to you because your craft, if it isn't your own, it's not authentic. But you can't find your authentic craft if you don't understand what your goal is. You don't understand what your life's purpose is.

I hear a lot that it's very challenging to discover one's life purpose. And I disagree with that. It's the simplest thing in the world. It's what you want the most. It's what you want the most. Underneath all other desires, it's what motivates every desire. It's there, right there. You can find it. Doesn't take long. Sometimes it's good to do it on paper. That's just me. I like to take out a notebook and just say, what do I want? And I make a list of the things I want. And then I look at the thing that screams out to me the most on that list. And I say, okay, that. Why do I want that? What is this going to bring me? And I make those lists. Look at that list of things, what it's going to bring me and what screams out the most. What's that going to bring me? On and on until I don't get anything underneath it. Then I found my life's purpose. It's right there. And it's never that big of a surprise. Well, I mean, it can be, depending on how much you've been avoiding your life's purpose. But for most of us, it's not that big of a surprise. It wasn't that big of a surprise to me that my main goal was peace. But I just never articulated it. I never bothered to think about it as that until I did.

Once I found it, and once I understood that was my motivating factor in everything I do, then I could just let that be the motivating factor in everything I do and not get pulled off into a million directions and remind myself before I cast any spell, or even if it's not a formal spell, before I respond to anything in my life, that I can come from a magical point of view. Not just react like every other human does.

So from a magical point of view, one of the magi, what is my goal here? Find your purpose and let that color each and every goal. And you won't have to wonder, am I on the right path ever again?

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I so appreciate you. Until next time, blessed be.