Monday, December 31, 2012

Shit Works Out

I have a positive outlook on life, and I have found that this perspective, in turn helps me have a pretty positive life as a result. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I expect life to be awesome because I can see how awesome life has been to me. I've experienced it, so I expect it, and sure enough, I find it.

But I have a positive outlook on life because I have shit work out in my favor all the time. It's really easy to be happy when you lead a charmed life. I'd like to give you examples, but I sound like I'm bragging if I do, and that's not cool. I've written it up a couple times, and the level of awesome in what's happened is so huge, I can't put it in any kind of nonchalant wrapping that makes it look like anything but braggadocio.

See, even that sounds terribly arrogant. Everybody doesn't lead a charmed life. Some people are in a lot of pain all the time. Some people are depressed, or have other forms of mental illness in varying degrees. I posted this picture the other day on FaceBook:

Fictional Life is Fictional
And one of my friends who is aware of the reality of mental health issues rightly pointed out that this isn't possible for a lot of people with depression. And he's totally right, this is a fictional character from a sit-com. It's entertainment, not real life.

This is a fictional character, but wouldn't that be awesome if it were possible to just do that?

For most people, people who aren't clinically depressed, most of the time it is possible. You just have to keep in mind that the quote up there is a summary of a lot more steps because it's funnier to say it that way, and it reflects Barney's character*.

You can go from sad to awesome for one very simple reason: shit works out. It's a basic principle of the universe at large. Sooner or later the things that we're worrying about work out. We make more money, we get what we need, the source of the problem goes away, something happens, and next thing you know you're not worried about issue A, you're totally focused on issue B, which has taken priority... Because shit worked out for issue A.

Knowing that shit works out is important. Since shit will work itself out eventually anyway, you might as well get rid of it now, eh? Why keep it around any longer than necessary? Fuck it, out the door!

First, you have to figure out what's making you sad. That's not as easy as it sounds. Hell, sometimes people don't even know they're sad in the first place, let alone why they're sad. It can be anything.

A good way to figure this out is to say to yourself, "God, I fucking hate ..." and then finish the sentence. You'll be surprised how quickly the brain leaps to fill in the blanks. Track that down and analyze it, where did it come from, no matter what it was. What do you hate about it, why do you hate it, how do you hate it, how long have you hated it?

Then look at what you can do about whatever's making you sad. Can you kill it? End it? Destroy it? Or maybe... fix it? Transform it, heal it? Is it a valid thing, or is it maybe you that's broken and you should maybe transform and heal yourself? What approach do you want to take to get rid of the sadness?

This is where magicians have an "in." See, we understand the chain of manifestation. We can see what kind of magic we need to do to accomplish the desired change. We know the paths of the the Devil, Temperance, and Death. We know the way to awesome lies through the gate of the Sun. We can craft the solution and implement it, transforming or eliminating the sad thing.

And when it's gone, we can make sure that what takes its place is something that is good, something we find to be awesome.

But even though it's that easy, it's not that simple, is it. I have a friend who I nearly stopped talking to over the autumn. He's in a bad situation, and has told me about how terrible it is for years. We talked about magical solutions to his issues, and he implemented some brilliant strategies. He crafted this awesome set of rites to get rid of what made him miserable, and they worked beautifully...

And he freaked the fuck out. I can't get into details, but all of a sudden the threat of that thing that makes him miserable being taken from him drove him insane. He undid all his magic. He could have said one sentence and ended a terrible situation, and instead he ensured that he would continue to suffer for years.

And then he tells me he's sick of his magic not working. I almost crawled through the phone to kill him myself. I couldn't talk to him for weeks. I was disgusted that he would do all that magic, have this amazingly obvious supernatural sequence of events happen to get him exactly what he asked for specifically, and then ruin it all at the last second.

Eventually I got to wondering how many times I've done that same thing. And I realized yeah, that sucks, but shit. People. We fuck up.

The results we think we want scare the shit out of us when they show up and explain that, oh yeah, everything in your world is going to change now, and you don't know how it all ends for sure. It might all end badly!

But it might all end awesomely too! Especially when you have invisible friends who help, secret occult practices that give you an advantage, and ready access to several kinds of alcohol!

In fact, I promise you that if you do magic to get rid of or transform the things in your life that aren't awesome, you will find yourself growing in confidence that you can, indeed, go from being sad to awesome. Because shit works out.

* Barney, who is a ...

wait for it...

wait for it...

awwww yeah, here it comes...

a magician!

Mage-five, come on!

4 comments:

  1. "...the way to awesome lies through the gate of the Sun."

    Very well said!

    You know, that bit about freaking out isn't at all unusual and I can identify. Sometimes people with depression become so used to functioning within the chaos of that type of environment that when their lives improve due to any magic(k) they've worked to assist with the situation, they find themselves in a much different position; better, yes, but also outside their comfort zone.

    While depression and the chaos which sometimes accompanies it isn't pleasant, it is familiar territory and many already know how to navigate it; function within it. So, while things may be improving and happiness may be entering someone's life, that sense of happiness and peace isn't a familiar space. It's new, and how does one navigate in unfamiliar places without a map?

    That's scary as hell. Hence, the freak out. This is why many who have returned from combat zones to the home front will often re-up for additional tours of combat; that chaos is familiar even though it's not something they'd prefer.

    It's hard work to get used to uncharted territory even if it's somewhere we'd really like to be, but I can say in all honesty that it is well worth the anxiety of exploring without a map.

    Excellent post!

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  2. Agreed. Excellent post!

    I just said "Amen" to the other post, but I've been thinking about the Living God post and this one for the little while that my brain has been churning on the image of Al-Zubrah, the Mane from the mansions of the moon, today. Here's my post for today, based on the themes of the 11th Mansion of the Moon, and inspired in part by your words.

    Thank you again for an absolutely awesome ride through your Red Work courses.

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  3. Call the moon tonight, my friend...

    http://phergoph.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/lets-talk-to-luna/

    ReplyDelete

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