Avoid these 3 common mistakes to unlocking your magic

Lately, I've heard a common concern come up again and again — that a lot of people are scared/nervous/hesitant to use magic.

Oh, they want to be supremely magical beings more than anything. But for one reason or another, and usually for similar reasons that most of us have been culturally conditioned to believe...

They feel that they shouldn't use magic.

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MagicSam Garcia Comment
dying while still alive / calcination

Today I find myself thinking a lot about an alchemical stage that isn't very pleasant: calcination.

In metallic and plant alchemy, calcination happens at the beginning of the alchemical cycle - and it involves burning the "matter" that you're working with to ash.

In practical magic, the "matter" that you're working with - is you.

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Sam Garcia Comment
a very merry solstice to you! (& a heretical gnostic gospel verse)

Happy Solstice! There's a line from the gnostic, heretical Gospel of Thomas (which is not part of the canonical Bible organized by the Council of Nicea) where queer witch Jesus says this:

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

I love this line and I think of it all the time.

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excruciating gratitude

It's now Thanksgiving week in the US (which is a holiday with a complex and fraught history re: the genocide of Native Americans) ...

... and while Thanksgiving time gives me pause to reflect on all of that history (by the way, you can click here to donate to the Native American Rights Fund, which fights to protect Native American rights & resources)...

... it also, of course, tends to make me think about gratitude and its role in life and magic.

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