When To Magic, And When Not To Magic: Timing Is Everything

When should you use magic to resolve a problem? Are there times when you should, and times when you shouldn’t? And how do you determine that?

There are various factors to take into account before performing any particular spell, and the following potential scenarios to consider:

It’s a spell that you should be doing, and you should be doing it as soon as you’re able to.
It’s a spell that you should be doing, but not right now, only during certain times of day/month/week, and/or during an upcoming event.
It’s not the right spell or the right elements that should be done, and other factors need to be considered first. In short, any action is premature and not entirely well thought out. More information needs to be taken into consideration or you’re missing something entirely.
It’s a spell that you shouldn’t be doing due to any number of reasons, and the gods are giving it the hardest of nopes.

One of the best ways to determine whether or not you should be doing something if it’s not already crystal clear is typically via some form of divination. There are a number of excellent ways to do it ranging from bibliomancy or divination via books, tarot, runes, etc. If this yields clear positive results, you’re good to go. If there’s not a clear yes, then it’s time to dig into the reasons why, and it could all boil down to timing whether it’s a particular timeframe or never. There’s always the potential of acting too quickly–or not quickly enough. If you have insight into that, fantastic. When in doubt, checking in via divination is the way to go. It may also not necessary be a matter of acting too quickly as much as not taking into account other influences that could make or break your operation.

It’s also always important to take into account is not just should you do the spell, but the actual, literal timing of when you perform it. Spell timing is another time honored tradition, typically using planetary hours, days of the week in association with the planets, astrological influences at present, or even lunar mansions. Any and all of this can pack some additional punch into the spell, and I strongly recommend giving any and all of those methods a try and experimenting with their results.

Of course, there are times when whatever you may want to do shouldn’t be done. How do you know when that is the case? Typically you’ll see the following signs:

Divination yields strongly negative results
You just might not have a good feeling on it but don’t know why. Trust your instincts!

Sometimes attempts will just bomb, and you won’t know why. Was it because you shouldn’t ever do it, was it the timing of the spell itself, or maybe it was how you tried to do it? It’s important to know how to debug your rituals and find out why certain ones were met with success while others were not. While it’s possible that a spell bombing means that it may have been a bad idea, it’s more valuable to know as much as possible why it was a bad idea. Learning this and taking it into account in your future work will ultimately make you into a better and more effective witch or magician.

The rest is up to you and your comfort level in regards to whether or not certain magics should be performed based on your philosophy and taking ethics into consideration. I personally am not against performing hexes or curses given excellent reasons and circumstances in which to do so. A huge chunk of being a good occultist is personal responsibility and a good amount of adulting. Always practice safe hex!