The Magick of Faith

Faith is a word that many magickians have a problem with, because it is often viewed as one which encourages a much more passive attitude to life than most would like. For the new practitioner of magick, however, a certain amount of faith is quite necessary. After all, unless one is initially willing to ‘have faith’ by suspending disbelief and give magick a chance to prove itself, one will never experience the tangible results which provide steady ground to walk on.

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In an effort to help new magickal practitioners to successfully navigate this potential hurdle, today we would like to reframe the concept of faith so that it can be viewed as an active process rather than a passive concept. Here then, is what we like to call the magick of faith: a five-step approach to introducing the power of magick to your life without compromising any sense of intellectual rigour or personal volition.

Focus
The first step is to establish a focus for your magickal efforts by deciding what you would like to achieve. New practitioners are advised to start small by setting a modest goal in the beginning, as those tend to be faster and easier to achieve. One might establish the goal of enjoying a quiet cup of coffee with an attractive colleague, for example, rather than having that colleague declare their undying love for the magickian by the end of the week.

Affirm
Next, affirm that your goal has already been achieved. Write down the end result that you want, as if it has already been established (for example: ‘Adam/Eve said that he/she would love to have a cup of coffee with me.’) and start repeating it to yourself as a silent mantra whenever you think of the situation. For more information on this topic, see our series on The Magick of Affirmations.

Initiate
Your focus and affirmation have served to harness your power of intent, so now you need to initiate some action which is likely to help you achieve your goal. In this case, that action might simply be to ask your attractive colleague out for a cup of coffee sometime. In other cases, you might also want to conduct a more extensive ritual or other magickal working before initiating more mundane action. Whatever the case, action must be initiated before proceeding.

Tabulate
Every action you take in life brings a corresponding result, and you should record that result (as well as the goal, affirmation and action which preceded it) in your working notebook (see How to Create Your Own Grimoire). By tabulating your magickal efforts and results in this way, and learning what proves effective and what doesn’t, you will speed your progress considerably.

Habituate
The fifth and final step is to make this process a habit until your magickal efforts have given you enough tangible results to render any passive notion of faith quite unnecessary. Even then, the process itself is well worth bearing in mind, as it provides a very simple yet eminently workable approach to magick that can serve you well even when you progress to the use of more involved techniques.

The five steps of Focus, Affirm, Initiate, Tabulate and Habituate are all the FAITH that one needs to begin working with magick in a practical and useful way. Start applying this magick of faith today and before long you won’t simply hope or believe that magick works – you will know it!