One key to overcoming self-doubt around your magick
Hello,
Having self-doubt around one's magic can be like wearing the heavy stinking corpse of an albatross around one's neck.
(This is the punishment that was suffered by the mariner in the 19th century Coleridge poem, the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by the way...
... - the mariner's crime? accidentally shooting down an albatross, a symbol of good luck, while on a sea voyage.)
The source of the heavy, smelly, burdensome self-doubt could be nothing in particular: just our materialist society's general disdain for magic, or some past workings gone wonky.
Either way the bird just hangs there, rotting. Weighing you down. Killing your mojo.
Of course when you've got a disintegrating albatross hanging on you it's hard not to despair and continuously feel like a fuck up.
So how to lift the stinking curse of self-doubt?
A simple method that I recommend to all participants in my INFLUENCE course on mastering practical magic (which opens for registration again on September 13th!)...
.... is to keep a Magical Diary.
In the Magical Diary, you just record the details of your workings right after you do them (time, location, what sort of tools / materials / invocation you used, what kind of mood you were in before / during / after, what deities or spirits you worked with)....
.... and then in subsequent days, weeks, months you record the synchronicities you notice that appear to be signs of your intended outcome arriving in the world.
Keeping a Magical Diary is a powerful practice for the same reason that keeping a Dream Diary is a powerful practice....
... it's powerful because the conscious, "rational" mind finds it very, very easy to dismiss and forget magic, just like it finds it very easy to dismiss and forget dreams.
... just like you probably don't remember your dreams unless you make an effort to recall them and write them down...
... you probably won't remember the precise actions and results of your magic... unless you write them down.
Once you've been keeping a Magical Diary for a few months, though it becomes relatively easy to lift the curse of your self-doubt because you can go back, read, review...
... and discover exactly what workings lead to exactly what useful outcomes in your life.
Over time, the efficacy of your witch power gradually becomes more and more difficult to deny...
...just like when you wrote down that one dream you had about kissing your best friend, that became impossible to deny too ;)
Thus, the curse lifts, and you're much more confident in the reality and usefulness of your own magical power.
best,
Carolyn
P.S. If you dig this sort of thing, you would wildly love INFLUENCE, which opens for registration on September 13th.
Here's what one participant in the last round of INFLUENCE had to say about its impact on her:
"I was a complete mess in a transition period of my life and needed some grounding with my shadow side. The lessons were the perfect anecdote to my frustrations. At the very beginning I zeroed in on 'the' thing I needed to happen in my life.
"This became my mantra: 'I now have a beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous home to live in that provides a significant and meaningful outdoor space as well as indoor space where I live in harmony with all that share and flourish within.' I am happy to report that I moved into my new surroundings before the 3rd lesson even began!
"I absolutely LOVE Carolyn's teaching style. She is open, honest, and pulls no punches. She is not for the faint of heart and I love that.
"INFLUENCE takes you deeper into growth than you could imagine. There is nothing 'surface' about this course. Carolyn gets down to business right out of the gate and continues to the very end."
- Michele Z. Fergus
And another...
"Thanks to INFLUENCE I began to approve of myself more. My relationship is more connected and loving. I feel my energy creeping back after huge career burnout. I'm ready to launch another biz. I signed my first coaching client as a direct result of the course.'
"INFLUENCE is in the top 3 of a 100 or so personal development and spirituality courses I've been involved in." - Fabrienne Serignese