Learning Magic All Over Again

What’s your magic path look like when you map it out? Mine looks a bit like a poorly thought out Easter egg hunt. Seriously, what happened?

Mostly, I didn’t have a mentor. Why didn’t I have a mentor? For whatever reason, and I suspect there was a reason beyond my own sense of independence, in-person teachers were in short supply in my life. Learning to learn magic by intuition was a theme. I mean it was truly strange how many times I would have an experience then find books about the experience pop up in my life. Or actual teachers. Then on to the next lesson.

When I look back I clearly needed to take the path I followed. Life was a pretty good set up for focusing me on learning via real world experience  about energy.

We start with an idea of what we want to do then 20 years later wonder what happened. For myself, Carlos Castaneda introduced me to realms beyond the physical. Before coming across his books though I had already developed an interest in things psychic and paranormal. Yeah I was definitely a weird kid. When I read his books at age ten though I was inspired to explore those unseen worlds.

I am in a much different place in my practice now. Much of the past 20 years have been focused on sensing and creating energetic connections. While I did develop some proficiency in the etheric plane I did get a bit unbalanced in my magic development. Banishing rituals? Ha! My adventures in chaos magic probably didn’t help.

After so much free form magical wandering I decided to commit to a full course of training. So a bit over a month ago (December, 2020) I began John Michael Greer’s The Dolmen Arch. This course is based on an 18th century curriculum for becoming a Druid. There are almost no surviving writings about the original druids so we have to start over and make the best of it.

Now I am banishing, working with a balanced pantheon of my choosing, meditating, and writing in my journal every single day! And yes it is making a difference. As much as I prefer to do my own thing having some structure is really helpful. Other than asking questions during Magic Monday on his forum this is a very independent study situation. For me though it is working well.

What’s next? I have about a year and a half before I finish. Also, looking ahead I can see there are topics I have already experienced. Sounds like a lot of time to learn something I already know doesn’t it? What I am appreciating is how much value there is in visiting what I know in one perspective from another point of view.

Another thing I am appreciating, getting back to balance, has to do with my own energetic development. I was naturally learning to work with telluric currents with good results.

Telluric currents though are very different from solar currents. My impression is that most magical systems work with energy from a solar perspective. In this course I am developing my solar capacity and developing the astral forms to handle both.

At the same time. Next step. Mixed energy.

We are going lunar! Lunar currents are the mix of solar and telluric. Working with lunar current has been on my development plan for a while. Looking forward to finally getting serious with Moon energy.

After I finish this course my plan is to begin another system. Next time I want to look at magic from still another perspective. I am going to stick with druids and work through Greer’s Mysteries of Merlin book. Basically, self-initiation using the legend and symbols of Merlin.

Picking a Magic System

A couple of tips if you are dazed and confused about your own magical journey:

1. Vet your teachers and what they teach. Not everybody who claims a lineage going back to the old gods knows what they are talking about. In fact, a good magic system doesn’t really have to go that far back in time. Does it work? That’s the primary criteria.
2. Don’t get hung up on finding the most ancient of ancient secrets. There are good teachers over the last few hundred years you can access via books. Magic continues to evolve with the people who use it.
3. Experiment. Go with your intuition. Ultimately, does it work? Does it feel right.
4. If the system your  are using doesn’t work after a 6 months or a year start looking around for alternatives. Related, if the system is poorly designed you may begin to have decidedly negative experiences. See point one above.

I have used a variety of approaches to magic. What is surprising to me is how many work. The question is whether they work for you. The system might even work for you but you have a hard time relating to it for cultural or whatever reasons. Research. You will find an approach which fits you and gets the results you are after.