Of the many nuanced topics that are at once very simple and yet layered in complexity, the magical will has been my least favorite to write about. One thing that throws me off is how every other writer I have read needs to insist that “magical will” is not the same as willpower or “mundane will”.
I’m going to call bullshit on that right at the top of the page. While a magician learns to enhance the will and increase willpower, we are dealing with the same component people refer to when they say “willpower”. Furthermore after a time there will be little difference in a magician’s magical or mundane will, as he or she will simply have a deeper understanding and greater control of the will as part of the self.
Understanding Willpower
Most people misunderstand willpower.
While part of willpower is the ability to abstain and refrain from acts you wish to avoid, there is much more to the the attribute. First of all, even this commonly held aspect of willpower is poorly managed in our shared, social comprehension.
Step one is not refraining, but being clear and honest about what you do and do not want. If you truly want the donuts, there is little you can do in terms of asserting determination to avoid eating them in the long-term. One must first arrive at a true desire, for example lowering blood sugar or losing weight, then transfer this to adjacent areas like diet, wherein you would not want to eat something that contradicted the thing you desire.
Moreover, willpower is just as important for what you do as for what you avoid doing. Effortful initiation, for example is the enacting of work or other activity that is difficult or challenging, and thus easy to avoid. Exercise is a good example. Here again, we must be clear about our true desires – improved health or ideal weight – so that we also have a real desire to exercise.
Willpower is actually the measure of our ability to align short term decisions with our true values and long-term goals.
You will find the development of your basic willpower can pay enormous dividends in magical success. If you are unable to drive from A to B without texting, for example, it is not likely you will be able to generate amazing outcomes through your magic. The ability to control your behavior, even under stress, will transfer to the ability to remain focused in the face of opposition.
Magical Translation
In magical work it is critical to really want the thing you are targeting with your magic. Otherwise success will be determined by factors other than your will, because you will lack the willpower to fully engage the work.
You can still pull it off sometimes, but not consistently.
Be sure you really want the outcome you claim to want before initiating magic. Once this box is checked yo can add all the intense determination needed to push your agenda onto causality.
The Determination Additive
Focus and determination are obviously important because they:
- Align your work with the desired outcome.
- Add power to your actions and momentum to your energy.
You can and should elevate your ability to both remain single-minded as you work and charge your work with intense energy and forward momentum.
Put another way, please cultivate the following skills:
- Keep your desired outcome in mind throughout the work. You will sometimes need to emphasize focus on the movements, words, and other actions of a magical operation, but even then do so because such actions lead to the desired outcome. Whenever possible see your success as a clear image or feel the thrill of victory in your body while enacting magic.
- Develop the ability to apply strong, focused energy into each step of the work you are doing. This can mean elemental energy – directing fire from a ruby held in your projective hand or focusing through your solar plexus as you chant, planetary currents – bringing the heavy, mountainous weight of Saturn down on top of your energy field as you draw a relevant symbol, or just raw determination – tensing your muscles and “pushing” a positive outcome with your mind.
When it comes to applying, pushing, directing etc. energy with your mind, think of past experiences when you played a lottery drawing or carnival game, or even a shot at the waste basket with a paper wad. In the moment did you not “hope” or “wish” or otherwise push your wanting onto the universe as you awaited news or watched your results unfold?
That was an untrained, disorganized effort to affect an outcome. Well-intentioned for sure, just take that sincere wanting and willingness to quietly involve yourself in the outcome and apply magical training and the suggestions on this page and you will be cooking with the proverbial Crisco, as the saying goes.
Once this box is checked, you are ready to look at the essence of the will. Here the real fun begins and I would argue this is the breakpoint where mundane and magical will allegedly distinguish themselves.
The Deeper Truth of Your Will
It turns out the word determination is linked to will in more ways than one.
Determination. What do you see in this word?
Many people ignore the word and run with the social construct built around it. They see determination as a term for grit, wanting, commitment to getting it done, and so forth.
As touched on this is good and important. However while a firmness or definiteness of purpose is part of the technical definition of “determination” it is incomplete by itself.
The word determination also means to establish something exactly, as in calculation. This is an important part of the will, as has been illustrated in the emphasis on clarity of desire.
The root word determine also means to decide or settle, and to control and shape. There is no try, as Yoda said; do or do not.
This becomes even more poignant when you consider determinism which is predictability and causal necessity. It is the way things are.
Now, finally, we arrive at the truth of will.
The dictionary explanation of “will” says nothing about wanting badly or pushing hard. Will is simply defined as the future tense, the inevitable, the natural outcome.
Let that sink in.
The rain will fall once the cloud reaches a certain mass and weight. No way around this.
Tomorrow will follow today. Every time.
Fire will consume normal paper. Count on it.
You must align your clarity and determination with inevitability. The first step is to assume spirit and nature will endorse your work or the causal agent will accept your input.
You cannot waver in this or your magic is vulnerable.
At this point in the conversation we walk the line between what can be conveyed with words and that which cannot be spoken. I can’t give you a count-step process for aligning your will with the will of reality, but the words preceding this point have pointed to the way.
It is now time for effortful initiation on your part.