Image: Mila Poirier

“Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”

Garth Stein

Today’s topic is one that a lot of you will probably laugh at but I am hoping after reading this you will see how much truth there is to my crazy little theory.

I think most of us can agree that thoughts are intentions, and create manifestations in our lives.

We bring to us what is most like our current state.

If we vibrate with negativity we attract negativity, if we vibrate with love we attract love, if we vibrate with rage we attract rage; like attracts like, the most basic Law of Attraction.

Let me side track for one moment because I want to talk about the word manifestation.

It has become an overused, light worker associated term, when in reality it is anything but.

Manifestation is very real, and any true Adept knows this.

Yes, the new agers got ahold of the word and just like everything else they touch, they have made it fluffy.

But, manifestation is nothing more than the Law of Attraction in action, and it can have positive or negative effects; I would say that is far from “fluffy”.

It’s essentially the Eastern idea of Karma; meaning action.

In this context it’s our Will; our intentions ARE action.

We then can draw similarities to Newton’s Third Law: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

And people say Science and Spirituality can’t coexist. They go hand in hand!

Carrying on…

Thoughts create reality, right?

Words are energy, they essentially manifest our intentions, they conjure our desires, right?

So would it be so far-fetched to say that accidental castings can happen?

Is it even further of a stretch to say that they happen quite often?

The term “Self-fulfilling prophecy” has stemmed from this concept of manifestation, or at least I believe it has.

The catch phrase itself means that we create our fate, in layman’s terms.

According to good ol’ Wikipedia it means “a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.”

I have personally only seen the term used, and witnessed the idea in action in a negative context, a self-sabotaging type of way, but I suppose it truly could be positive.

For those of us who live, breathe and exist in the world of Magick we become our craft and we are the most important, deadliest tool in our arsenal.

What we think, we create.

What we speak, manifests.

When these intentions, thoughts and emotions are paired with action and words, it creates a spell. The idea that one needs ritual or ceremony to cast is what gets people into trouble.

Magick at its core is really quite simple, and basic.

We are casting Magick every second of every day because we ARE Magick.

I have cast against myself without even knowing it, and I am not ashamed to admit that. I was not clear with my intentions and the excess energy conjured backfired in my face.

I have forgot to send Djinn back, and they ended up turning against me because they were bored.

Those are just two experiences of mine.

I have had plenty of hiccups, and fuck ups along the way, and anyone who says they have not, I question the validity of their Practices, their discipline, their passion and their will.

To become great one must know what it is to be weak.

To become a Magickian, to become an Adept we must play both master and slave to our Will (we must know both sides of the coin).

Otherwise it’s (our Will) ineffective towards another, and it’s ineffective at bringing to us what we desire.

Let me give another example of accidental casting.

A friend (not at all new to Magick) recently casted a variation of the Vodou Spell known as Expedition Mort against herself.

For those of you who are familiar with the spell (ceremony) you are probably wondering how this could happen, as Vodou is extremely devotional and ritualistic, but let me explain.

She had attended a funeral for her most Beloved friend,  a Soul with whom her connection will never cease to be; you could use the term “Twin Flame”.

It was a gut wrenching time for her, and is still.

At the wake she had put a letter in his hands to be buried with him, and took a rose from his coffin.

The exchange between the living and the dead (he holding her letter; her in possession of his coffin rose) blurred the lines between this world and the next.

Her thoughts were suicidal, and her intentions, even though they were subconscious, were to die so she could be with her love; therefore, she gained the attention of the dead.

The spell became effective within 36 hours and her life began to fall apart; ways to kill herself were swirling in her head, her dreams had become intense and we both could feel that death was around her and had come to collect.

The Spell gained momentum, and the activity became intensified when she visited his grave site, and some of the dirt from his plot lodged in the tread of her boots which she then brought into her home.

Generally speaking, deals with the dead are not reversible, but there are always loopholes.

She found the loophole and faced some minor consequence or “ripple”, but I suppose that is better than death, right?

All actions,  Magickal or otherwise, have consequences. As I said above, I don’t believe in a threefold law but actions do have reactions and sometimes that’s our cross to bear, so to speak.

If you are afraid of being held accountable for your actions, Magick is not for you.

Alternatively, if the fear of consequence holds you back from going after what you want, or using your Magick to the full extent of your abilities then the craft is most certainly not for you either.