The second reason I took to magick was financial (the first being no small amount of despair concerning my love life). I was in college, translation: broke. I worked two jobs to meet expenses and during summer even extra employment failed to cover the costs of all my classes. Magic became the next reasonable option. With effort and steady spellcasting, it worked: I'd suddenly have extra shifts available at the radio station, or an a one-shot chance to earn extra cash would appear.
I've practiced magick for almost a decade since then and I've developed a cautious magical relationship with money. My finances have not been perfect, and I've suffered in the recession along with my fellow college graduates. Because I neglected both magical and non-magical avenues at bad times, I am far - quite far- from my fantasies of diving through piles of money like Scrooge McDuck. I already know that with careful management and regular ritual, however,, I tend to have money or resources when in genuine need. When I follow a course of money magic in concert with my day to day life, I live comfortably even during difficult times.
Minus magic from the equation, managing money takes more than simply lining bills according to value in your wallet. Money management demands record-keeping, budget-setting, debt repayment and saving. Sometimes tending your assets forces you to pass on the metaphysical goodies or the trips to the movies particularly when the power bill comes due. Pushing yourself to earn qualifications necessary for better pay also helps. These details may bore, but they pave the way for magic to work- - any type of magic works far better when all involved act in accord because magic travels on the path of least resistance. Any good magician working for financial health needs account ledgers and checkbooks and candles and incense equally.
Getting organized before taking up wand or athame is the best way to clear the financial path of resistance. Take stock of what you have and then give serious critical consideration to what you really need. Balance your checkbook, dig in your file cabinets and clean the change from beneath the couch cushions. Make a list of all the things you need and all the things you want. Examine the list and revise the needs list to reflect only what you need. Now that you know financially where you're at, you know where you need to go, and how regularly you need to purify and replenish your coffers.
Over time cash flow workings become maintenance magic: these are workings to perform routinely, say once a month, to maintain steady progress towards a healthy financial situation. Try scheduling these workings around the time of regular house cleansings, so all the work falls into part of a steady energy-building routine.
Regular cash flow workings can include banishing debts, counting your blessings, protecting your assets and drawing in new resources. My most regularly practiced cash flow magic is debt exorcism (I did, after all, attend college which means I am paying dearly for it now). Once a month I collect bills after their payments clear my checking account. I run them through my paper shredder for love of modern convenience and for preventing identity theft. I then gather the shreds into a bag and head out to a public park offering barbecue grills. I take with me a lighter, some marjoram for exorcism and the right mood. I set myself up at a grill, and fire away.
As the papers burn, I sprinkle the marjoram and chant:Out and about
I turn ill fortune out
My debt away
My earnings to stay!
I dissolve the remaining ashes in water, and clean up after myself. I do see the results of this magic. My debts dwindle and less financial surprises jump out from the jack-in-the-box of what might go wrong.
It is said by some witches that nature abhors a vacuum, and I'd prefer not to fill the black hole of debt banishment with more debt, so I take magical endeavors to keep my finances going in the opposite direction of down. Usually this measure takes the form of a prosperity spell on my home. This blessing fits in with routine house cleansing; when I finish banishing and warding in each room of the house, I light a candle and pray to Hestia for the prosperity and comfort of my home and those who live in it. My greatest prosperities manifest as supportive friends and having what I need when I need it. I do my best to share my prosperities in all their forms; while physical money might be scarce, prosperity allows me to acquire whatever resources I happen to need.
Keeping and tending prosperities already given also solidifies cash flow. Magic can be used to enrich a job and working spells for a business's overall prosperity can enhance job security. The prosperity, like in home prosperity, need not stick to only the dollars: improving morale can improve productivity and that may increase your paycheck. For the enthusiast, bear in mind that office magic needs to stay under the radar. Co-workers may not be understanding of you walking around the office mumbling chants, even if your work is intended to benefit them too. Use subtle methods, such as empowering objects already part of the office with a prosperity prayer. One technique I like is to charge a ballpoint pen and visualize it producing dollars every time it writes. I visualize the dollars flying out of the pen and filling the office where I work from floor to ceiling. Sometimes, even with a steady job, great resources and dwindling debts, a body just needs some extra cash. There are plenty of spells for quick money. The Internet buckles under the weight of the money spells. Magic primers routinely offer money drawing spells. This very article offers a simple money magic technique, in the next paragraph.
When I'm in a situation where I have to compensate for, say, basement pyrotechnics, I prefer the ultimate money draw power house : High John the Conqueror oil. This enormously useful root has blessed many traditions and practitioners with its powers of victory, prosperity and general success. I prefer to dab on a few drops of the oil like a perfume while murmuring a spell. My current spell-doggerel plays on words of similar sounds: Glow gold and draw like a magnet, money comes, I am its magnate! I also act in accord - perhaps I sell something I own, or I look for some extra work. I give the money opportunities to come to me.
Cash flow means managing your magical direction to result in steady resources over time. Establish good record keeping when you begin cash flow workings. You should see over the course of two years a reduction in debt and an increase in cash available. See your world, financially stable. Know that it is possible.