The Pagan Experience - Magnetism and the Law of Attraction

Week 1 - June 1 - Magnetism and the Law of Attraction - What do you strive to attract to yourself? What actions have you taken to bring this into manifest form? How does this quality of magnetism inform your spiritual and mundane life?

For a little over a year I’ve been trying to get a job.  Specifically, I’ve been trying to get a job in the social work field with free supervision and that pays around 40k a year.  One where I won’t have to work more than 40 hours a week, and one where I will be happy and fit in with the agency culture.  One that will be fulfilling, fun, and most of all, where I will really do good work for my clients and their families.

I graduated with my master’s degree in social work in May 2014.  I immediately did a ritual and spell to bring my dream-job to me.  Then I spent the summer writing a book and being worried sick about money.  I applied to a few jobs that seemed just wonderful, and didn’t get even one job interview.  In the meantime, my classmates all got jobs and began to happily pay back their student loans.  It was a wonderful, magical summer, full of gentle weather, fireflies, rituals, potlucks, parties, lavender, BBQ, rock concerts, and mystical revelations.  That magical summer transitioned into a frenzied autumn – festivals, retreats, conferences, rituals… and then the holiday season.  At this time I was so busy that there didn’t seem to be any time to look for a social work job.

Winter transitioned into spring, and spring now into summer, and I find myself in the exact same position that I was a year ago.  I ask myself – what do I strive to attract to myself?  And to be honest, that would be joy and pleasure, which I have in abundance.  What actions have I taken to bring this into manifest form?  Having fun is my only option at this time.  If I weren’t having fun, then I’d sink deep into the depression and anxiety of unemployment, the feeling of failure after having top internships and graduating Magna Cum Laude and yet being unable to find employment.  Of failing my hardworking husband who gives everything for me all the time, and of failing my professors and supervisors who invested their time and energy in me, and of failing myself.

How does this quality of magnetism inform my spiritual and mundane life?  Despite a richly magical life full of blessings and enlightened wisdom, my year of unemployment has made me question.  I question myself as a person, as a social worker, as an adult.  (I turned 30 before my Year of Unemployment.)  It made me question magic – how much is coincidence and how much is actual changing of one’s environment?  How much of it is blessings from the Cosmos and how much of it is blind luck?  And how much of it is destiny or a blessing and disguise?  (I wrote a book, I traveled a lot, I went to retreats and conferences, I worked in a conjure shop, I organized my house, I got a lot of sleep, I watched a lot of Netflix… I was mostly happy this past year, despite the crippling anxiety as I tried to pay my bills every month.)

Fundamentally, I function in a world where "like attracts like".  In my experience, sympathetic magic is very powerful and very easy to employ.  But that’s just the thing – it works on simple things, and not always complex desires (a “dream job.)  I’ve done very little spell-work about my job situation since my initial ritual, and I’m not sure if I want to, even a year later.  As the wheel turns and turns again, my credit is maxed out, my bank account is depleted, and I’ve called in every favor from everyone I can think of.  I’m just not sure how much magnetism and the law of attraction can help me now.

(But don't let my unemployment fool you!  Something has been keeping me going this whole time... here is my favorite, go-to, very simple prosperity charm.)

The Pagan Experience - "Cleanliness and Godliness"

http://www.luckymojo.com

Wk 5 - Mar. 30 - Any topic of your choice! Have fun with this one. Prose, poetry, fiction, art work or any other creative format are welcome!

"Cleanliness and Godliness"

I’ve been studying a little bit of hoodoo while working at a local occult and conjure shop.  My boss is a little  very obsessive about cleanliness, which has been a bit of a challenge for me.  I’m not a dirty person, but I am a messy/cluttered person.  Also, a little dust doesn’t really bother me; it flies right under my radar.  My boss would like me to sweep more, I’d like him to pay more attention to the inventories I do.  You give, you take, you win some, you lose some.  C'est la vie.

In the tradition of hoodoo, however, cleanliness is very important.  Though I’m no expert, it seems as if hoodoo is heavily reliant on sympathetic magic.  That is, imitation and correspondence are very important.  Phallic-shaped items are good for male virility, green items are good for money, walnuts are good for the brain because they resemble little brains, and a cluttered and messy home attracts a cluttered and messy life.  So, if you have dust bunnies and clutter all over your living space, lower-level entities and spirits will be attracted to those spaces.  These guys, while not necessarily evil or anything, aren’t really good, either and they can really muck stuff up.  (Not to mention, if you have a lot of low-level bad stuff around you, that in turn may attract other stuff, which will attract other stuff, which will attract other stuff.  Not good!)

I’ve seen it recommended that before doing any magical working one should clean their whole space.  This would include your house, your room, your altar, and yourself.  Magical baths are incredibly important in hoodoo, too, both to banish energies away and to draw them into your life.  Pre-ritual baths are popular in Neo-Paganism as well, though most often for a body/mind/spirit cleansing.

http://www.lookandlearn.com

About a year ago I came down with a bad case of the flu.  I was sick for about a week, being able to do little else than sit around, sleep, and watch terrible 80s movies all day.  I was in graduate school at the time, and I didn’t even have the energy to catch up on homework or reading.  After a few days of Gatorade, pajamas and soup, I decided I had just enough energy to clean up my room a bit, to air out the stench of sick and illness.  I rearranged things, cleaned up any piles of clutter, dusted, lit incense, smudged, and wiped down surfaces… until my whole room was perfect.  Even though I was exhausted from working so hard, I felt so much better, and the flu cleared the next day.

So, my challenge for all of my readers right now is to go clean something!  It doesn’t matter what it is.  Clean your body, clean your desk, clean your room, clean your whole house from top to bottom, clean one room, clean one closet – just go clean something.  I promise it won’t take as long as you think it will, it will be painless, and you’ll feel good after doing something so productive.

Go!  Go do it!  If you don’t clean your house, at least go clean your altar.  It will feel wonderful!