Day: 7/6/08

It is in my understanding that when a person prays, performs ritual, hopes, and/or dreams, that they are in effect attempting to cause a change in conformity with their will. This "to cause change in conformity with the will" to me is the basic understanding of what magick is. That we pray, or do other, to some higher power to change some aspect of our world to something else; to cause change. Who among any can say that they have never prayed or wished upon a star for "peace on Earth" or something along those lines? I doubt many can say so honestly.
It strikes me then that if so many people, regardless of tradition or path, are attempting to make such changes, why do they not seem to happen? I submit that they are attempting to happen, it is the manner in which they are happening that is the problem.
If I were to perform a ritual for world peace and leave it at that, well, who is to say just how world peace would be achieved? One would hope that it would be done delicately, that those with such anger that they disrupt world peace would suddenly be cleansed of their anger and have some fairy tale ending where everyone loves everyone again. I find it hard to believe that it happens this way.
One of the main lessons of many paths of wicca or other pagan paths is that the wording of a spell or ritual is just as important as the expected outcome. The wording, it is taught, should always include something to the effect of the Wiccan Rede: "An ye harm none, do what ye will." In essence, as long as no one or thing is hurt in the process, go right ahead and attempt to make your change. I know from my own experience in the Roman Catholic church, that this kind of 'safeguard' if you will is nonexistant in their prayers. Honestly, I do not ever recall praying to God, "Lord, please deliver world peace without anyone getting hurt in the process."
It is this lack of wording that I believe is causing so much strife and disharmony in the world. Without such wording, magick has a tendency to take a direct approach, sometimes even to a literal point.
What would bring world peace? The annihalation of the entire human species would do that pretty well. Without humans, the animal kingdom would return to a balance on its own and nature would reclaim what he had taken by force. Pretty drastic way of doing it, right? But would world peace not then be achieved? :)
Or perhaps it will be a little more lopsided. Say for instance, everyone that does not bow to one particular flag is imprisoned, killed, exiled to space, etc.? All that would be left then is one group of people that would have much less to argue over, and so world peace may be created in such a way.
Perhaps one would think then to start smaller, say you want to make enough money to pay your bills off. I can say I've asked for this one! But if you leave it up to 'just get to the end however, as long as the change is done' kind of attitude and lack of care and precaution, you could wind up with your entire family dying off from some tainted vegetable at a family reunion and you inherit all the money. Hey! Your bills got paid off, right? Or perhaps you get hit by a bus on your way to work. Nice settlement from the bus company to your lawsuit would pay off your bills quite well. Oh, but if you were now a parapalegic, well, your bills still got paid, right? In this course, one might then say that they were hoping just to win the lottery, or that some new loophole in the tax laws would be found that would pay them some nice dividends, or some ancient stock that was passed on to them by some long deceased relative would finally pay out for something. Yeah, it could happen, so can the bus.
It is a nice thought that so many people around the world are wishing for things like world peace, or some better tomorrow, but I think we should all stop and think about how these ends would come to be met. In my experience, most people do not consider the 'how' of some change coming to hand, only that it does cause a change in accordance with the will.
I know that when I go to say my prayers, or perform my ritual, I will take the extra few moments to make sure that none get hurt, including myself, in an effort to cause some change to match my will. I would hope that those that read this will also stop and think about the 'how' of their particular wished for change may come about and take that extra minute to add a little hope of safety for others instead of just shooting into the dark and hoping to hit the bad guy standing in the back of the row behind all the innocent bystanders.