“Magick is killing me. I am really suffering. The ceremonial stuff is really harsh on the psyche.”
This is a comment I received recently. Since Magick can get intense, I decided to address it, hoping to help others. I’ll offer seven tactics for dealing with such experiences, preventing burnout, and improving your practice.
Balance and Banishing
Whether it’s included in the Bible, there’s the saying:
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
Popularized by Israel Regardie, the ‘banishing-banishing’ clears both the micro and macrocosm, creating:
- ‘blank slate,’ or
- ‘sterile environment.’
As a psychoanalyst, Regardie believed all people have ‘unresolved issues’ that, besides muddying the workings, could cause troubles like those mentioned. And this brings us to the first set of tactics to try if you haven’t been banishing enough lately, and want to prevent Magickal burnout.
Action Items 1.
- Start your practices with Banishing Lesser Pentagrams and Lesser Hexagrams.
- Additionally, finish with the same.
- Experiment with the classic approach of including the banishing forms of your Greater rituals.
– If you work with Geburah, follow it with GBRH Geburah. - Alternatively, do a week of nothing but:
– Mindfulness,
– General banishings and exercises like the Middle Pillar, the Three Pillars, and the Elevenfold Seal.
– Balance with the Malkuth version of SRP, GRP, or an OBW.
- If, on the contrary, you’ve been banishing a lot, switch to Invoking and Operant Fields.
- If you’ve been working with a force for too long, actively invoke the opposite:
- Chesed – Geburah,
- Netzach – Hod,
- Fire-Water,
- etc.
- Journal to see how you feel.
License to Depart
A charge of intent is the main part of any working. Yet a license to depart is just as crucial. This brings us to the following.
Action Items 2.
- Ensure to include a license to depart after your workings.
- Like with the charge of intent, acknowledge the higher names and stay mindful of potential changes.
Structure and Alchemy
While orders have structure, organizing your studies can be a challenge for solo practitioners. This alone can prevent magickal burnout.
The goal isn’t to rush but to develop yourself to handle different forces without side effects like those mentioned. This is the meaning of metaphors like:
- Building your Temple or Pyramid.
Magick deals with three types of energies:
- Personal or Elemental.
- Interpersonal or Planetary, and
- Transpersonal or Zodiac.
The path starts with the Elements, increasing awareness of and balancing your own psychological makeup. It’s the foundation some tend to neglect. The idea is to deal with your own stuff first and not have any external mess.
This is why magickal orders have Elemental grades infusing your life with an Element for an extended period. So, let’s see what you can do as a solo practitioner, wanting to prevent magickal burnout.
Action Items 3.
If you haven’t done that yet, your best bet is to work with the Elements one at a time. If you’re into biohacking, think of it like cycling nootropics or diets to optimize performance. The techniques to use are:
- The more streamlined Greater Pentagram.
- The classic and more intricate Supreme Pentagram.
The caveat is that the first is purely Elemental, while the second incorporates the Kerubic Sign, working through the Element.
- Start with Earth climbing up the Tree.
- Cycle each Element for a month or four weeks.
- Incorporate cycles of all four with the Malkuth version of the mentioned rites. Or do that on the weekends for balance.
- When the ‘metals’ (aka your hard-wired notions) start to melt, practice self-acceptance but also give yourself time to question whatever conclusions may or may not come to your mind.
- For the time being, don’t mess with anything above Tiphereth, like:
- Liber V,
- The NOX formula,
- Counterclockwise SRP above Tiphereth.
The Nephesh and G’uph
Mentioning Malkuth in another article, I offer tactics for balancing the animal soul and physical body.
Some say ‘90% of Magick is discipline.’ Aligning with Qabalistic thought, Napoleon Hill defines its basis as mastering the desires for:
- Sex,
- Food,
- Loosely Organized Opinions, including:
- Gossiping,
- Doom-Scrolling,
- Wasting Attention,
- etc.
Action Items 4.
By adding Bodybuilding, you approach the work in a much more grounded and balanced way, helping you prevent magickal burnout. Neglect these, and you risk turning your cravings into mindless obsessions fueled by the very forces you invoke.
“Magick impacts your psyche, the vessel of which is your brain, which is part of your body. The more optimal your brain chemistry and hormonal balance, the better off you’ll be.”
— POTB
Take Breaks
Speaking of brain chemistry, it would be difficult to liken Magick to:
- Nootropics,
- Psychedelics,
- Performance Enhancers.
Magick and PEDs find common ground in the sense that both make you more of yourself.
Nevertheless, it does enhance aspects of yourself which, if not properly dealt with, can cause the mentioned troubles.
Unlike meatheads, intelligent bodybuilders and biohackers understand the importance of taking breaks. Some used gear and passed in their 20s. Others like Serge Nubret remained healthy and shredded in their 70s.
Action Items 5.
While I have yet to hear about a person dying from Magick, many turned looney.
- Think of the never-published ‘Liber Nuts.
- Use people like Nubret as an example and:
- Take ownership of your journey, incorporating breaks as needed. These can prevent magickal burnout.
- The goal is self-mastery, not proving yourself tougher at the expense of your well-being.
Different Magick
We live in the Golden Age of Magick. Expanding beyond rituals, this includes so many kinds Don Webb says many are not even labeled as such. Whatever the case, nobody forces you to use one or another.
We also have:
- Philosophy,
- Logotherapy
- New Thought,
- Ikigai Teachings
- Flow Psychology,
- Behavioral Science
- Psycho-Cybernetics,
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and
- many more.
By any standards, these would have been classified as Magick or Alchemy at some point in time. As I like to say:
“Magicians and alchemists were vastly the biohackers and self-improvers of the past.”
— POTB
Action Items 6.
- If Western Magick makes you sick, don’t do it.
- Explore the vast array of available methods.
- Build a custom holistic approach serving you best to become your version of:
- Carlos Castaneda’s ‘Man or Lady of Knowledge.’
- Christopher Hyatt’s ‘Gourmet of Techniques.’
The goal is achieving results. Lifestyle designers often accomplish more tangible results than so-called’ occultists.’ Let me know if you agree.
No Magick
Mentioning him, Christopher Hyatt uses ‘buying a loaf of bread’ as a metaphor to remind us that often, simply doing the actual thing requires far less hassle than performing a ritual to increase the likelihood of getting results.
This is what Magick does—it increases the probability of something happening, starting with a change in perception. It doesn’t do anything for you, nor does it grant you anything for free.
Action Items 7.
People everywhere achieve massive transformations without a single ritual. Yet Magick can still be a mighty tool.
- Focus on creating the conditions for what you want.
- Use Magick as a catalyst.
- If rituals help, use them. If they don’t, don’t.
- If Psycho-Cybernetics or something else does, use that, or a combination, approaching things like a Chaos Magician.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Magick is a tool—it’s not supposed to consume you. If it’s making you suffer, something has to change.
- Refine your approach,
- Take breaks or even
- Step away for a while.
Remember:
“There’s no shame in adjusting. You are transforming yourself. Results and not complex techniques are your proof. Magick works for you, not the other way around.”
—POTB
But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree. Check the links in the description. And thank you for your time.