It’s oft-given advice in magic and manifestation: don’t have attachment to the results of your workings.
Why? Because being attached to “getting” your result – so the old wisdom goes – can keep it from showing up.
Oh damn – now how the hell do we stop ourselves from being attached?
I mean the whole reason why we’re doing the magic is because we want the thing, right?
And isn’t desire supposed to be a good thing in magic?
Well, yes. But there’s a difference between desire and attachment.
Desire is a hot, expansive, turned-on feeling of yes.
Attachment is an empty, grasping Gollum-type feeling of “I neeeeeeds it! Give it to me! My Precioussssssssssss!”
Attachment has this underlying sense of “I need to get this, I need this to happen to prove that I’m loveable / okay / worthy / safe.”
It’s more of an ego game of proving than it is a big, hot yes.
So here’s the very weird thing:
Attachment to getting is completely and simultaneously identical with aversion to having.
In other words, you would feel no attachment to getting the thing if you didn’t also have a huge shadow aversion to having the thing.
You see, attachment is kind of like a big fake show put on by the ego – like “oh no, really, I want it sooooooo bad!” [[don’t look while I shadowily do everything energetically and practically necessary to avoid having it]]
the lady doth protest too much!
Consider: our whole ego identity is built around lack.
The ego claims to want bounty, but in that claim it denies the actual bounty that’s always present and creates an unconscious demand for lack (because wanting is a state of not having – so you can’t want bounty without creating a sense of unconscious lack).
If this sounds confusing, don’t worry – the jist is this: try giving yourself permission to heartily enjoy all the bounty that’s already present in your life, including your bounty of a sense of lack / attachment.
love and wickedness,
Carolyn
editor of WITCH
P.S. On Thursday, December 21 2017 – Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere – I’ll be holding a live virtual workshop with my sorcerer husband Taia called DIVINE – wherein you’ll learn how to create a profound personal practice of dream divination (oneiromancy).
Why? because the winter season is a hibernation time perfect for deep dreaming, and divination for the coming year has always been a Winter Solstice tradition.
P.P.S. If you want to plan on joining me and Taia for DIVINE, I suggest that you begin to focus on remembering and writing down your dreams right now, so you have some material to play with during the workshop.
Throughout the day and before you go to sleep at night, tell yourself: “Tonight I will dream and when I wake I will remember my dreams in detail”- and keep a notebook and pen on your bedside, open to a blank page so you can scrawl your remembrances freely.
DIVINE will be available for registration on Wednesday, December 13th, will cost just $99, and will make a great gift for the special witches in your life :)
If you won’t be able to participate live, don’t worry – recordings and all materials will be made available to everyone who registers.
