Magick of Thought

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This post is about how I’m learning magick, how it was leading to depression, and how to fix it.

Learning New Magick Techniques

When I’m learning a new technique, I usually find I can do it exactly once before I’m exhausted. That’s been my main practice for the past few weeks.

(Here, I’m talking about learning new techniques with my ethereal muscles, rather than learning new commands for ethereal software. Muscles need to stretch, become strong, and integrate with my brain before they are ready to go, whereas software is just a matter of learning the command and how to use it. But if you want to build new techniques that aren’t already programmed into ethereal software, you need to use your own muscles to do the magick.)

To learn quickly, I seek out techniques I can barely do properly. If I can’t do it properly at all, then it’s too hard. But if I’m not exhausted after doing it once, I’m not exercising new ethereal muscles. Ideally, I’m using one new muscle, or taking two muscles I’ve used before and using them together. And both of those tasks are simply exhausting.

Two technical notes: I’ll do the technique three times a day, for around 10 minutes each. After about two days, most techniques are no longer exhausting. Then I’m on to the next technique.

Second, if you’re doing this yourself: Awaken your ethereal muscles before trying to use them, or the new technique will be exhausting for several weeks as the muscles awaken.

Depression

In most fields, greater skill leads to more successes. I get better at teaching, and my students are happier. But practicing magick this way means I never have frequent success. Greater skill leads to more advanced techniques that are just as hard, rather than becoming better at a single task.

I hadn’t thought this mattered — I’d been focused on learning fast, not on enjoying myself. But I’m realizing now, practicing this way leads to depression.

A Solution

I at the airport right now, flying out to teach a computer class for my day job. I almost missed my flight (which wound up being delayed), and as I sat down for lunch, I noticed I’d snapped out of a depression I hadn’t even realized I was in. What did it? I think it’s a combination of some not-too-severe stress (almost missed my flight, walked quickly for a while), a clear success (didn’t miss my flight), and the prospect of doing something social I know I’ll be good at (teaching my class).

Clear success + physical activity = happy. Not really news, but realizing it myself gives it more impact.

It seems the success doesn’t have to be related to my magick. Making my flight and teaching a class certainly aren’t.

Also, non-stressful, non-social successes with magick don’t help: I’ve had easily a dozen accurate predictions with manifesting in the past two weeks, and only a few possible failures, but I was still depressed.

The simplest answer is probably a regular exercise routine. (And there is a good climbing gym near my apartment…)

Thoughts? Have you used physical exercise to help balance out challenging magick practice? Let me know in the comments.

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Tags: Learning Magick, PersonalStory

This entry was posted on Monday, June 24th, 2013 at 2:02 PM and is filed under Personal Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.