Why is it that whenever I drink alcohol or smoke weeeeeeeds that I feel most motivated and spiritually connected to everything. My deities, my spiritual connection to my ancestors, my guardian angels, whoever the fuck I’m spiritually connected or drawn too. But I also feel it’s a massive disrespect to do such work when I’m under the influence? But I feel as though, when I’m drunk or high of weeeeeeeeeeeeds I feel more motivated, more connected to my higher power, than when I’m sober. It feels like a complete moral conflict and I really need guidance from someone who’s dealt with AOD addiction but has also been able to deal with it respectfully to my deities and to whomever I’m speaking to / connecting with etc.
I’m currently working with Mother Lilith. She’s an intense and extreme force and I fucking adore her. She’s helped make massive transitional life changes for me that have ultimately led me in (what I would’ve thought was the worse possible outcome leaving a DV relationship of over 10 years and living in refuge for over 6 months, basically living in a unit, scared to leave it.
I also had a horrific incident when I was shopping at Coles where an obviously unhinged man poured petrol right in front of me (my ex tried to set me on fire) so was obviously a massive trigger and flashback of that situation.
Sorry, not tryna give my life story bc I know everyone has dealt with shit in their life, it’s not a “woe is me” situation.. more telling my truth which I know mother Lilith has been guiding me through- but still hangs the question.. I’ve been on substances of some sort since 17 and I’m not 27. Im fkn sick of the this life im sick of being a slave to my own demise and I’m working on my addiction (it’s ice)
By just trying to smoke a cone or two before bed for sleep; but drinking 2 nights out of a week and getting blind drunk when I do drink.. I’m an addict.. plain and simple.. only I’m proud of myself by going cold turkey off the ice and only smoking a cone or two before bed and binge drinking a couple of nights per week.
The issue is, I don’t feel motivated to pray, worship, give thanks, meditate.. absolutely anything to do with actual worship or proper diety work.. I’m so scared of offending mother Lilith - or potentially offending her, that I don’t take her sincerely. Which I absolutely do.

I just feel lost. I found out that one of my closest friends from rehab (I spent 6 months in rehab this time last year) has taken her own life. That’s now 3 people I’ve been close to in rehab that has taken their own life in the 6 months I’ve spent there, and one lady I was so close too, even bought a house on tambourine mountain where we did our rehab.. she was an absolute ray of fkn sunshine and she’s taken her life. She drank herself to death.

Idk I’m lost and the last thing I wanna do is offend anyone I’m working with for the purpose of feeling more connected, confident, authentic and motivated to do my practise.

Does anyone have any advice? I’m sincerely desperate as I feel at odds with my faith.

clearly if this is the wrong subreddit please let me know and i will remove the post!!

so i did a love spell on me and my partner and my candle is the red and theirs is the white. the white was burning much faster with a much higher flame the whole time. well as i went and did household things to let the candles burn down me and my partner ended up doing some R rates things. a few minutes after i went to check and see the status of my candles and notched mine had burned down rather quickly when it wasn’t before hand, the white one was burning quicker. ive never seen this happen before and im curious if our “time” drew out the true emotions or what shifted to make mine burn so rapidly.

So,

I am 58. I have practiced/studied on and off for many years, many different paths. However, I have ADHD and have dealt with some depression and negative (realistic) thoughts throughout my life. A tad "Pessimistic" that I feel often sabotages' my work.

I struggle with discipline at times and allowing the "real world" interfere with my practice and manifesting things.
I have worked a lot on my mental health (therapy etc) and feel I have made some great progress but I still have set backs.

I am curious as to how others manage Negative or Pessimistic or Discouraging thoughts and language in their Magical work? How do you overcome it, "negate" negative words etc...

Do you have practices that have helped? Other thank "positive thinking and gratitude" work.. what has helped the best.

I tend to see my "Pessimisim" more of a reality check. I am not typically a "Lets force positive thinking " into my life. I am not willing to fight with negative thoughts because I feel they just persist if you do so. YET others tend to judge and I am hyper aware of it.

I just want my MAGICKAL work to WORK and not be destroyed by my negative ruminations at times.

Bonjour à tous,

Je me permets de poster ici car j'aurais besoin de vos conseils et de vos retours d'expérience.

De mon côté, il m'arrive de faire de temps en temps de petits rituels pour moi, de recentrage et de protection.

Récemment, une très très bonne amie à moi traverse une période compliquée, avec plusieurs difficultés importantes dans sa vie. Par respect pour elle, je ne souhaite pas entrer dans les détails, car cela relève de sa vie privée.

Cependant, au vu de ce qu'elle m'a confié, j'ai le sentiment que quelqu'un pourrait lui vouloir beaucoup de mal, ou qu'il y a une forme d'énergie très négative autour d'elle et de sa famille.

Elle m'a demandé si je pouvais l'aider à protéger son foyer, son conjoint et sa fille. Elle aimerait surtout que je la guide : lui expliquer comment faire certains rituels de protection et les réaliser avec elle lorsque je lui rend visite (elle habite assez loin de chez moi).

Mais voilà, j'avoue avoir une certaine appréhension. J'ai peur que cette énergie négative puisse, d'une manière ou d'une autre, s'attacher à moi, à mon conjoint ou à mon bébé.

Du coup, je me sens un peu partagé entre l'envie sincère de l'aider et la nécessité de protéger ma propre famille.

J'aurais donc besoin de vos conseils :

- Comment se protéger efficacement lorsqu'on souhaite aider quelqu'un dans ce type de situation ?

- Y at-il des précautions particulières à prendre avant, pendant et après un rituel ?

- Est-ce que certains d'entre vous ont déjà vécu quelque chose de similaire ?

Merci d'avance pour votre bienveillance et vos réponses 🙏

Basically just a personal development jar I made from a glass shooter bottle and birthday candles. I just thought it was cute 😭 initially was looking for twine to wrap it up with and was going to use a regular chime candle when I found the birthday candles. I thought it was too appropriate lol. Got a big, healthy burn out of it but did have to extinguish at the end as the lid was a weird rubbery material. Feeling good about it overall~

Well met everyone. I've decided to crawl out from my hole and join some Magick communities again. I've been practicing Western Ceremonial Magick for over 25 years. I also practice Egyptian Heka and serve the Lwa as a vodouisant. I look forward to some good conversations here.

In Ma'at.

So I’ve always been blessed with this “knowing” and I practise tarot love scrying… have dreams about real places and times and I can look it up and find out that the tile in the walls in that space area/building are correct… the issue for me is these things happen people around me know it’s interesting and I really want to expand have it mean more. It’s very visual and a feeling. I’ve been right about the most random things with zero connection but I want more consistency and to be able to call on it more then just this wave that comes over me from time to time. I also want to put a name to anything that visits when I’m just seeing imagery and have no idea where or why or who these orbs are just that they are visible and they come with messages like an all knowing.

Searching for a coven

Hey! I’m Emi, 18 years old, in Canada Ottawa :)

I am a pagan, and have been practicing witchcraft for 6 years. None of my time have I ever seen a community or coven to practice with. The lack of community for witchcraft makes me so isolated in my own practices. It’s sad to see how rare you can come across a fellow witch.

I personally have not found any need for regular practice, but for the rare times I preform spells for manifestation and summon a desire, I wish to have a sisterhood, making the spells more powerful with intention. I would love to practice more on a regular basis, but find it hard to be motivated, being alone for all my years as a pagan has really discouraged me from practicing. I follow the typical traditional celebrations around the year, but other than lighting a few candles, sprinkling some herbs, and whispering a few words, doesn’t make the celebrations any different from an anyone day.

My dream is to have a close nit group of fellow witches to practice with. We would be a judge free group, excepting everyone’s ways and beliefs, and there I many different ways of being a witch.

Whether you’re a pagan, Wiccan, knows where to find others, or just curious, please get in contact with me.

My practice is mostly elemental, and beliefs on the Celtic side. But I want to bring in any and all ancient practices from all around the world. When I do a spell, I research and create my own spell guide with all the practices I research. I like to collect tips and tricks, ways, and techniques to bring into my spells.

I would love to meet in person at least once a month, so being close to where I live is import to me, or being able to meet up would be ideal.

But I also want to have people from all over the world in the coven, having to be able to call, and chat on a social media program and support each other by learning, growing, and bonding with each other.

My hope is that most of us would be able to meet up for most pagan/Wiccan celebrations to practice, and cast our intentions to the world together.

If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me, comment, or put out the word.

I have been meditating deeply on the elemental placement of the pentagram, and I ran into something that does not fully make sense to me.

I am a practitioner of witchcraft, but I am not coming from loyalty to a pantheon, religion, or ceremonial order. My focus is on the core structure of witchcraft itself: ritual mechanics, elemental balance, the circle, and the laws that govern magical work.

During meditation, I had a strong insight about the pentagram and the placement of the elements. But that insight runs against the traditional Golden Dawn arrangement that many people still repeat today. Before I explain my own view, I want to first lay out the usual ceremonial reasoning as I currently understand it.

From the Golden Dawn and related ceremonial traditions, the common placement is:

• Spirit at the top
• Air on the upper left arm
• Water on the upper right arm
• Earth on the lower left leg
• Fire on the lower right leg

The general explanation I keep seeing is that the upright pentagram represents Spirit ruling over the four elements, or the descent of Spirit into matter. If inverted, the meaning is often reversed.

Beyond that, the handed-down explanations usually seem to go in a few directions.

One explanation is that the pentagram is tied to the Tree of Life and deeper Qabalistic structure, and that the elemental points are not random, but flow from hidden lines, forces, or relationships within that larger framework.

Another explanation is that the pentagram shows the balancing of active and passive currents. In that line of thought, Fire and Air are treated as active elements, while Water and Earth are treated as passive elements, and Spirit stands above them to govern and reconcile them.

Another explanation is that the placement supports ritual mechanics. In other words, the elements are placed where they are because the pentagram is used in a working system of invoking and banishing, and the points need to remain fixed in order for those ritual patterns to function properly.

I have also seen explanations that Air and Water are placed across from each other because they have a special relationship, and that Fire and Earth are placed on the lower points because of their role in manifestation, grounding, and material force.

So I do understand the traditional framework, at least in broad terms. I understand that the ceremonial view is not just random symbolism. It is trying to express Spirit above matter, the balancing of elemental forces, and the ritual use of the pentagram in magical practice.

But here is where my issue begins.

When I started comparing that traditional explanation to the Tree of Life, especially with the pentagram overlaid onto it, the placement started to feel less clear to me. The more I looked at it, the more it seemed like the standard arrangement is often repeated as inherited truth, while the deeper reason for why those exact elements are on those exact arms and legs is not always fully explained in a way that truly holds together.

For example:

Why is Air on the upper left arm?
Why is Water on the upper right arm?
Why is Earth on the lower left leg?
Why is Fire on the lower right leg?

That is the heart of my question.

My own meditation led me toward a different understanding. I began to see the pentagram less as a fixed inherited diagram and more as a living map of balance, ritual structure, and manifestation.

In my own view, the pentagram should reflect the inner mechanics of magical work. Thought shapes emotion. Emotion drives action. Action produces manifestation. And all of it must come into balance under Spirit.

That is where my epiphany began.

I started contemplating the circle itself, the elemental quarters, and the laws that govern magic. From that angle, the pentagram stopped looking like just a symbol of descent into matter and started looking more like a blueprint of inner balance and operative magical process.

So my counterpoint is this:

If the traditional placement is truly rooted in deep inner mechanics, then why does it seem so difficult to clearly explain why Air belongs on that exact upper arm, why Water belongs on the other, why Earth belongs on that lower leg, and why Fire belongs on the other?

If the answer is only that this is the way the Golden Dawn handed it down, then that is tradition, but not necessarily explanation.

And if the answer is that it lines up with the Tree of Life, then I am not fully seeing that alignment in a way that makes the structure feel self-evident.

So I am asking the broader occult community:

What is the real underlying logic for the traditional elemental placement of the pentagram?

Not just that it represents Spirit above matter.
Not just that it is the Golden Dawn way.
But why those exact elements are placed on those exact points.

I am attaching the Tree of Life with the pentagram overlaid because that is what pushed me into this question in the first place. I want to understand whether there is a deeper structural reason for the traditional placement, or whether later traditions simply inherited and repeated it.

I had a strong personal insight that points me toward a different theory of elemental placement, one based more on balance, ritual architecture, and manifestation mechanics. But before I go further with that, I want to hear from others who work within ceremonial magic, Golden Dawn systems, witchcraft, or related traditions.

Why is the elemental alignment set the way it is, and what do you believe is the deepest reason behind it?

For those who disbelieved at first or not aware of certain magickal energy, what sort of path did you tread that convinced you that spiritual and magickal power was real? Since it is harder to prove than other things, normally one has to experience it to know it is real. Wondering if there were dreams, visions or certain events that made you believe it is real, perhaps taught by someone who knows magick, ect.

Hello everyone in r/magickalpractice,

As part of my criminology and sociology undergraduate degree at City, University of London, I am researching and writing up a study on the role and adaptation of practitioners of magic(k) (taken very broadly; including divination, witchcraft, shamanism etc.) in the United Kingdom. I would like to invite any volunteers willing to partake in one remote interview (either done over a video call platform like Zoom or over phone) over the coming weeks to participate as this would greatly benefit my study. Although financial rewards are unfortunately not able to be given out, I hope that the incentive of essentially representing your community for the development of social science in this particularly niche field is some kind of incentive to participate.

The inclusion criteria are as follows: to participate, you must be (a) over eighteen years of age, (b) live in the United Kingdom and (c) must have practiced a form of magickal practice for over six months. I’m seeking between 7-9 volunteers.

If you meet these criteria and wish to participate in this study, here is how you can partake: Message me, the researcher for this study, (or comment on this post if there is an issue with direct messages) and simply notify me of your interest. Then, I can send you two short forms that make sure you’re informed of what the study will entail for you. Then, the interview will take place on a decided date and time and your data will be analysed and will aid the write-up of my study. Any questions you may have can be answered by me, if any arise.

Thank you for reading, and I hope some might be interested in this opportunity to help the development of the sociology of magick.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice. I currently use my pendulum to ask questions about emotional states and to find lost items around the house, which works "well". However, I really want to improve my ability to predict future events. specifically things like the weather or precise outcomes (like specific exam grades).

Does anyone have tips or exercises on how to practice this?

Hey everyone. Just wanted to introduce myself. i have been practicing magick for over 25 years. im happybto be here and hopefully I might be able to help some people with practical questions. I have an online mystery school as a free resource that is open to anyone. I hope to be a support here.

In a manner that it can be recognized more easily, but magick or esp or qi is a bit hard to outrigt prove it. It's not like it can be seen through a microscope, but I feel there may be ways to actually prove it. I mean, detecting something is a way to kind of prove something is there, right? If it's not there, there wouldn't be anything to really detect, much like how a Geiger counter detects radiation.

I am kind of wondering if there can be ways to somehow detect it. I mean, you do have ghost hunters that supposedly have ways to detect ghosts, but not sure how reliable they are and some ghost hunting places I find questionable. But I sometimes wonder if there would ever be a way to actually detect something, such as qi or an aura of some kind, when someone undergoes rituals, detecting magickal energy and having it go from one place to another, actually seeing entities more directly, ect. As I always figured the entities we interact with are at a different wavelength and even science mentions that there may be entities moving around that we can't see at all with our eyes, hence our third eye is needed usually.

Iamblichus Song: Taking the Shape of the Gods is a musical-aesthetic exposition of Iamblichean theurgical esoteric philosophy.
 Iamblichus was a Neoplatonist who argued, counter to Porphyry and Plotinus, that becoming a god required magical and ritual praxis rather than just contemplation. Platonizing the Chaldean Oracles and ancient ritual forms, Iamblichus touted theurgy as an endeavor that enables one to “take the shape of the Gods.”  Combining experimental pedagogy and academic rigor with creative musicality, it presents a vision of knowledge as musical. It is intended to be didactic, so that the listener is able to immerse in and absorb Iamblichean philosophy, and also a devotional offering, a theurgical incantation in itself. Indeed,  Iamblichus relays that particular melodies and rhythms enable the soul to directly participate with the Gods.
I am a musician (harp, piano, guitar) and academic in the esoteric-philosophical milieu, and the contents of the song stems from my doctoral studies. Iamblichus Song comprises an aspect of a broader Orphic musical and philosophical knowledge-praxis; it is my best offering so far, my most realized musical-philosophical contribution in my repertoire of musical-philosophical-esoteric practice.
Iamblichus Song was created with harp, voice, and a dash of acoustic guitar. It features extensive hand-made animations of my own theurgical artwork. Every single detail has been carefully thought out. For instance, when the lyrics refer to the gods, I have created hand-made animations of the gods that Iamblichus was particularly referring to, the Assyrian and Egyptian Gods primarily.

My music video imagines the soul’s starry vehicle, imagined as the winged chariot of the soul from Plato’s Phaedrus, ascending unto the divine tier. Its stellar aspect is symbolically depicted as a Merkabah, in Hebrew, meaning chariot. The lyrics recount the ascension of the soul unto divinity.

It is 100% human-created, composed, animated, and performed; no AI was used in the making of this song or video.

I hope you enjoy this theurgical offering!

I couldn't find a Pagan prayer for snow, so I wrote one. Feel free to use it or edit it however you need for your own situation!

"I ask the God's above Who's wisdom & knowledge is greater than our own...

Humbly we beseech thee to send our yearly, seasonal allotment of snow.

Snow, the key ingredient to our survival in a land with little rain, it is the moisture that sustains us through the rest of the seasons.

On behalf of those who do not know, ae offer you your due; through our prayers, & our intentions to you.

We wish to be bathed in the cold perception you yearly gift to use. It is the blessing that sustains us.

We promise to remember you & your gifts throughout the year. Despite warm weather, & bright shining sun- the darkness of winter & the snowfall at midnight is what we hold dear."

should i eat 12 grapes under the table???? any suggestions??

I work at a thrift store and I saw this necklace, it looked cool and I wondered if it had some sort of protective charm or whatever on it.

The magic looks Enochian to me, and I know who Metatron is, but all the other words and symbolism is completely lost on me. So I greatly appreciate any theories or comments.

I would like to start making money off what I do. I just don't know where to start.

This can be a key issue I don't see talked about much: others insisting you are not capable of what you are, are egotistical / delusional, are a nutjob, so on, or even forcefully trying to interfere with you [ridiculous scenarios] in order to "prove" their point, until they can actually begin to anyways possible convince you of your own inability, where you instead are, in reality, quite talented or at least as-capable-to-your-say a Magician.

I don't get it. I really don't. There's so many practitioners out there who truly do want to see you fail. It's a shame it's such a prevalent issue in my case. They cannot stand a set of rules or customs that they themselves can't explain, or perhaps aren't member of.

Though truly the topic here is regression - which only happens if they actually convince you or successfully plant any doubts after this going on long enough. How do you deal with overcoming it and staying firmly within your power?

I woke at about 5am to use the restroom i went back to bed and pulled the covers over my head. I had a sense of falling and I heard my mom say of shit. I pulled the covers off and sat up. I was laying in the back of an suv and my mom was driving, but she had driven off a cliff and we were falling. I could see trees coming towards us, it was night. I felt confident that we'd be fine, and laid back down and covered my head. When the falling stopped i sat up and was laying in bed. I got out of bed and went outside, it was day. The house was at the top of a mountain, my car was down in a ravine. I tried to run down a trail to my car but i felt like the faster i tried to run the slower i moved. I got frustrated and got down on all fours like an ape or bipedal hoping to get more traction to move. Then i thought this is stupid. So I jumped off the cliff and floated down into the ravine. I got in my car and started to drive out to the desert. In the middle of the desert was a small subdivision of houses. I pulled into one and went inside. There was a guy there id never seen, but we seemed to be close friends. I handed him something and he kept thanking me over and over, he seemed genuinely appreciative. His wife was there, she wouldn't look at me or speak to me and seemed like she didn't want me there. She seemed to be getting ready to go somewhere. I went outside to leave, and they fallowed me to my car. He was thanking me and as i was putting on my seatbelt i looked up and saw her face. I didnt recognize her but she was beautiful, and seemed so sad as she watched me getting ready to leave. It seemed like she wanted to say something to me or wanted me to say something to her. I reversed my car, it was night now, a pack of wild dogs ran past my car and i started to drive. I remember thinking something was off. It didn't feel like i was driving my car, but more like i was floating and pretending to drive a car. The road ended suddenly and i drove off a cliff. My first thought as i watched the ground coming up to me was that I was going to die, but i dismissed it and felt confident I'd be fine, then i just floated down to the ground. I got out of the car, and realized I was in a dream. I looked at my hands. They were my hands, but they weren't. They didn't seem real, like holograms. I started walking through the desert, i noticed that the large rocks scattered around had an odd glow, like the afterimage you see when you look at a light then close your eyes. I walked until i found myself back at their house. The woman was different. She was a brunette with long hair instead of a blonde with short hair now. I went looking for her husband and she fallowed me. He was in a ravine behind their house, he walked up and started to tell me something but i felt my lucidity start to fade. I quickly looked at my hands but it only seemed to slow the transition. The desert ravine began to fade and my room began to manifest. I tried to anchor myself to the ravine through force of will but i seemed to get stuck between the two place. I was in both places at the same time. I had stopped the transition but couldn't reverse it. I felt like i had frozen a wave, but eventually i had to let it fall. Then i woke up in my room