Monday, August 11, 2008

When it doesnt all come together

I was all set to write a post about how awsome St Expedite is. I was gonna post his picture here and gush about his speedy success. I was gonna go by a pound cake and lay it in front of his statue for him to soak up the buttery cakey goodness.

But I can't.

I was doing a spell for someone important to me. I would have liked to influence a person to get it done, but had no access to this key person at all. I find that Saints and spirits are good to rely on in cases like this. In this case, the job had to be done quickly and involved elements of prosperity and charity. Right up the alley of St Expedite. He has in fact worked wonders for me in exactly this kind of spell in the past.

I started to get a bit alarmed on Thursday, the day after the spell began. I had all the signs of a prosperity spell being cast on myself, which could mean one of two things:

1. Just from working with that kind of mojo, I picked up some good juju.

or, more likely...

2. The Saint could not accomplish his task so all the energy was just zinging around like a stream of water hitting a wall.

Today, at the very moment that the last candle burned out, the phone call arrived confirming that the spell did not work. It happens sometimes. I wanted to write about it because I think that too many writers on practical magick do not aknowlege thier failures, and that gives the impression that their magick always works. It doesnt. Not for anyone. If they claim that it does, than they are either lying or they arent pushing themselves to accomplish anything that wouldnt be accomplished without magick anyway. Failure sucks, but dealing with it and learning from it, is a big part of being a magician.

So Saint Expedite. No picture up on my blog. No gushing post about your effectiveness and fast action. No buttery poundcakey goodness. Not saying I wont use you again, you have come through too often for that, but I am saying that failure generates a reputation as well...

5 comments:

Persephone said...

Jason,

I think it's wonderful for you to post about when things don't work. It leaves room for the rest of us to not be perfect!

I find that whenever I try too hard to be perfect, I bleed all the creativity out of what I'm doing. It was only in giving up, once and for all, on being perfect that I found my real voice and my work.

And I thank you for the many times you told me, "Trust your instincts!"

So do let us know when things don't work for you... you encourage your readers to push beyond our limits if we know it's okay to fail sometimes.

See ya tomorrow...

P

Amy Wolfing said...

I have given up working with Saints. They seem very hit-or-miss. I think being stuck in the afterworld for so long has made them bi-polar.

I wonder if younger Saints - such as St. John Newman - might be better? Not as tired?

Rufus Opus said...

Positive results are successful magic. Negative results are coincidences. That's like the first rule of magic, isn't it? ;-)

I had great success with St. E in dealing with a sticky legal situation. He shut up a lawyer and kept a nutty witness from showing up and ruining the case, getting us the judgment we sought practically at the hearing instead of much later.

Recommended him to a friend, and she hasn't seen any of the success I expected.

I've placed St. E. somewhere at the level of a Knight in the Goetia. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out he's got an affinity for lead and is a form of a Saturn spirit.

But I put out the pound cake with the picture while I prayed, I didn't hold it back as a coming reward based on success. I think I got that from Moloch's site. Would that make a difference?

Jason Miller, said...

I have done it with the poundcake out at the beginning too. Doesnt really make much difference. I have had him work both ways. In the end I like the reward structure.

I agree with you about the Saints corresponding to sub-lunar entities, but I would put them in a different category than teh Goetic spirits. More intercessionary than active in and of themselves.

I would also count expedite as Mercurial. The Saturnian thing doesnt ring true to his fast acting nature to me.

Jason Miller, said...

Amy,

Sorry you are having such bad luck with the Saints. I still like them. Some things just can be gotten without major major force. Even things that seem to be simple enough on the surface, can in actuality be harder than making it snow in July.

You can try some of the younder saints, but I dont think it makes much of a difference.

As you saw, evem the Archangels themselves may have to resort to damage control rather than the hoped for goal.

Try Goetia though. You might find you have an affinity for it.