The Importance of Knowing yourself in the Craft

Know thy self – an age-old rule for practitioners of the Craft. We have seen this in numerous materials both in books and on the internet. But how important is knowing yourself in your magical journey?

The most important thing in working your magic is giving all of yourself when you manifest that Will. Most practitioners of magic would always say that crafting a spell requires not just placating all your senses, aligning your thoughts and your mind towards a specific goal, but also blending all these things together with foci in different planes – Physical, Mental and Spiritual to manifest the intention or the end goal of the rite. Doing these however would be very challenging if you have not accepted yourself totally. If you’re hiding behind walls of denial and rejection of your true self, this would really affect the outcome of your working.

 Here are some advice that I would give new practitioners walking in the path:

 Acknowledging you – your strengths and weaknesses

You are you. Let’s establish that first. We are individuals with unique personalities and behaviors. We have a lifetime to identify our strengths (develop it) and weaknesses. The first thing we need to do is to assess ourselves. What do you think is your strength? What are the things that you can consider your weaknesses and how to improve yourself as a magician/witch? As you have identified these parts, the next thing to do is to…

 Embrace all your sides – Darkside and all

We are people with different facets, unique parts that make us who we are.  Everyone is a special mixture of attitudes, behaviors and characteristics that are just ours, making us totally different individuals. There is also a “dark side” in everyone, which most people hide and ignore. However, to become a “complete” person, this shadow self must be accepted and embraced, since this is part of who you are. Once you have embraced all of you the next thing is to…

Work on your Strengths – There is always a room for improvement

Many practitioners claim that they have this and that skill. I knew someone who told me that she is a psychic with a range of abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, empathy, astral projection, psychometry, etc… and the list goes on. Most of practitioners that I know would have a variety of “USABLE” talents that they can utilize when needed. Some have varying degrees of clairvoyance (for example) and other skills. However, most are still in the “infancy” stage, where you know that there is a hint of that ability, and it needs to be practiced constantly to improve it. No one is a Supreme with all 7 Wonders under their belt. It takes hard work to develop abilities (unless one is born with it) and not everyone would have all of them at once. Which brings us to…

Know that you are limited – Acceptance is Key

Let’s accept it, sometimes no matter what training we do to develop some psychic abilities, we are not just made for it. Sometimes, people wanted to develop an ability that they spent their entire lifetime developing it, while disregarding the ones they have. By knowing your limitations, you will be able to work on the ones you have and cultivate it. Once you identified these limitations and accepted them, you must strive to move forward. Understand that …

Knowledge is ALWAYS power – Stagnation is worse than regression

Most seasoned practitioners have become so lenient in their practice that they stagnate. Most of us (myself included) would plateau in the practice that we sometimes feel stuck. What I normally do is to go back to basics, revisit the rites and rituals I did in the past and check if I can improve them. Amassing knowledge is always a good thing and is a sure way to improve your workings. What I do is to eat up every book and materials that I can find and gobble them up, expanding my knowledge in different topics of metaphysics/occult etc. However, after a few years of getting the knowledge from books and mentors, you would have that feeling that you still need to learn more. This is where you need to…

Listen to the Inner you – Jiminy Cricket Speaks

When we have learned everything (at least “everything”) that we can from books and mentors, we need to learn from other sources. This is where our intuition or our “higher self” will play the part of a mentor. We need to listen inwardly for wisdom and new knowledge. Sometimes this voice is from our Spirit Guides, Ancestors or Gods. In the absence of these worldly sources, the best way to go forward is to learn from these ancient sources. Once we have listen and learned from these spiritual sources, this is the time to…

Ground yourself with what is Real – Tama na ang Drama Recipe!

This is usually the pitfall where “famous” practitioners in the country fall victim into, losing themselves in the blanket of “mystery” and being special. Most of them label themselves masters, tagapagpangalaga ng Brilyante ng Apoy, Caster Keeper, Pulis Pangkalawakan atbp. My advice to practitioners is to always ground themselves. Though we are bending the laws of reality, we are still governed by these laws, whether we like it or not. As practitioners, we must always remember that we are still operating within the physical realm where certain limitations are being imposed.

Some of these practitioners that I heard of often claim outlandish things that might be “amazing” to newbies but is very laughable to someone who is also knowledgeable about these things. We need to remember that sooner or later, we will be challenged to prove these claims.

These are the things I want to put out there for new practitioners and to end this entry, I wanna leave these to you all – Live, Seek and Learn.

-Photo from the internet-