A Spell, a Wish, and a Prayer Walk Into a Bar....

What is the difference between these concepts? What do they have in common? Do any of these techniques work?

The Wish sighs and says, “If only I was able to get my dream job.”

The Prayer responds, “ Why don’t you ask God to send you your dream job? God can do anything. Pray really hard.”

The Spell says, “Why hope and wait? I have a recipe for Success!”

The common denominator between all three indicate the subject is Conscious of a desired outcome; while the difference is how much energy of Consciousness is invested in the desired outcome?

If Consciousness creates matter, physical reality, is Consciousness Magic?

Feed the image of the desired outcome with energy by focusing on it, daydreaming about it, making plans around it, creating a ritual to stimulate the energy around it, believe in it, & act as if it is already manifested.

Spells, wishes, and prayers are concerned with belief, energy that vibrates, goals and outcomes, passively or actively, taking action or letting things happen. Belief is THE one element that is essential for a successful outcome. Another very wise piece of advice to take in when considering this work is that you may get what you want in a way you don’t expect, but in the way that you need it. Trust in that.

There are so many things that happen that there are no explanations for. We take things on Faith all the time. When one considers what people of various faiths believe without question, casting a spell is a semantical situation.

It is easy to see the more obvious differences between these three mental processes.

A wish is a passive exercise in the quest for achieving a desire. It is the quintessential ‘putting it out into the universe.’ and hoping it will just happen.

A prayer is asking a spirit or a deity, to use its supernatural power to make the desired outcome come true. The level of energy of the prayer is up to the supplicant; fervent or mild. The supplicant is subservient to the deity they are appealing to, and must humble themselves when asking for intercessions, and still wait for the outcome.

A spell is a combination of these elements in my view. A Wish has a HS diploma. A Prayer is a Spell with a BA. A Spell is a Wish with a PhD.

A wish and a prayer are both passive, but in different ways. The most passive is the Wish, who just puts it out there, perhaps in a simple statement, I picture Eyore wishing without acting on it. The subject isn’t using any of its own power in a directed way. Just Submission to the universe’s bequest or not. No magic used or intended.

A Prayer is passive in the sense that is makes a plea to the God/Gods they believe in to act on their behalf. If their belief is strong the odds are good they will achieve their desire. Belief alone can achieve manifestation. (Event the New Testament tells us this in Mark 5:34. Story later in the post.) Prayers can be organized into a ritual, like praying the Rosary, and that intense rhythmic repetition will build energy towards the manifestation to the desired outcome. The prayer still waits on the deity to use their power to deliver the desired outcome, and that is passive.

What it doesn’t do is use symbols or natural law to increase the chances of success.

A Spell is a decision to use magic to achieve a desired result. A Spell can involve a deity that is a part of one’s belief system, and prayers can involve magic and elements of spells. The word Spell is part of the origin of the word ‘Gospel’, or ‘Good Spell’, in fact.

Bringing magic into the equation focuses energy on a visualization that you want to will into existence.

A Spell may ask the Deity or a spirit they believe in to bless the work they are undertaking and to lend magical power to their power in their effort to manifest their desire. In addition to that, the Spell is worked within certain natural laws. For example, spellwork is connected to moon phases. During a Waxing (growing) moon, work spells that attract, acquire, gain; while spells worked during a Waning (shrinking) moon are concerned with divesting something, letting go of something, shedding a habit/job/relationship.

In my research I found that some spellwork is done on certain days of the week, or at certain hours of the evening. There is a preference for evening spellwork due to the sense of mystery and possibilities that darkness instills. There are objects and symbols that can be included in spellwork, and I think people take don’t realize that they have participated in spell work their whole lives. They just think it’s ‘going to religious services”. I’ll come back to that.

I grew up in a Catholic culture. Half Polish, half Italian. Both groups had statues of the Jesus, saints, or the Virgin Mary somewhere in their homes. The small ones were in the house, bigger ones outside. Shrines are normal to several demoninations. Spell workers will tell us we need to create a type of shrine or altar in our home, dedicated to our hopeful, prayerful, magical work.

Collecting objects with personal meaning to be a part of our altar will become symbols to use in your work. There are colors we can ascribe meaning to as symbols in spell work and can be present as candles, fabric, or clothing. Herbs, flowers, and scented oils can be included in the work. There are crystals believed to act as antennae that attract energetic vibrations/waves, and clearing the ‘air’ by smudging with sage or burning incense creates an atmosphere. The more the space, objects, and practice are repeated and used, the more energy is infused in those objects and your personal sacred space.

Objectively, doing your own sacred work is very similar to the religious services many of us are familiar with from childhood, but do not seem supernatural or magical in any way.

When any of us attends religious services we go to a space that uses lighting, group chants and songs, incense and candles burning, rituals and prayers repeated, and costumes worn by the officiants in their weekly services, invoking unseen, supernatural, disembodied spirits to intercede in the lives of the people in that sacred space with an altar. See, not weird at all. All religious rituals originated as spells when one looks at them objectively. In fact, the work ‘Gospel’ is a contraction of the words ‘Good Spell’.

To be clear, I am not endorsing any one process or practice over another. Just showing readers the similarities between spells and religious services. But they all have one crucial element in common which is Universal, and that is Belief. Absolute, unwavering, utterly knowing, Belief.

Belief in your Deity, your Faith, your system, the Universe, Nature, it doesn’t matter. All faiths and systems work because it is the Belief, not the system or deity that makes the magic of Consciousness work.

There is a story in the New Testament that teaches us this very truth. (Again, there are those who have eyes to see and ears to hear…) It is the story of a woman who suffered from an illness, and she just believed that Jesus could heal her. She thought, ‘If I could touch even his clothes, I know I will be healed.” She went to the place where he was teaching and she slipped through the crowd to get close to him, and when she was close enough, she touched his prayer shawl. The passage in the Bible says that Jesus felt ‘the power around him pass through him to someone needing healing”. The woman admitted she touched his garment and Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your Faith has healed you.” Mark 5:34.

The magic comes from within you, me, the individual. No intermediary necessary.