One of the most important lessons I learned in my magical work is the lesson of consistency, specifically the need to be consistent with a given practice of magic, especially when you’re learning that practice. From the very beginning of my magical practice to now I’ve applied a consistent approach to what I’ve learned in a few different ways. That consistent practice has instilled a level of discipline with me that has helped me become a better practitioner of magic, and helped in other venues of my life, such as with my writing.
When you aren’t consistent with your magical practice it is hard to create a truly sustainable practice, because you’re not giving yourself the benefit of sticking with that practice. Instead when you jump from one magical practice to another you only the barest taste of what that practice can provide you.
So how do you develop a consistent practice of magic?
When I started practicing magic, the first commitment I made was to do the magical work daily, no matter busy or crazy my life was. This wasn’t always an easy commitment to make and there’s been a few days over the years where I didn’t do my daily practice, but overall I’ve stuck with it. Sometimes I had to get creative such as when I’d do my breathing meditation on the commute to work, and other times I just had to set time aside and do the work. If you truly want to learn and practice magic, you have to invest in your practice, much as you would with any other skill you want to learn.
The second commitment I made is that if I start practicing a specific technique or process, I would stick with that technique or process until I had truly learned it and explored every angle of it I could think to explore. For instance, when I first started practicing elemental magic, I did the exercises in the books everyday for the course of three years. That kind of dedication can seem downright tedious, especially if you’re doing the practice and nothing seems to be happening. But I’ve found that when I’ve truly dedicated myself to the practice, even during the days where the practice has seemed to be tedious, I’ve inevitably gotten something out of the practice.
The times when you do the practice and it feels like a slog are actually some of the times when the deepest work is happening, because you are seeding your consciousness and spiritual being with that work and allowing the inevitable lessons and realizations to come through to you because of that work. The transformations that occur happen because you’ve chosen to be consistent and stick with the work and allowed it enough time to have the realizations that such work brings you.
The third commitment I made is that I would pay close attention to the actual experiences that occur in the magical work, instead of getting stuck on expectations or other peoples’ experiences. To develop a consistent practice requires that you make yourself truly present to the work you are doing. When you get caught up in an expectation it blinds you to the work and keeps you from fully engaging the experience. Likewise if you find yourself comparing your magical work to what someone else is doing, you will do yourself a disservice because that person’s path is not yours. You walk your own path and dedicate yourself to it and you will get far more meaningful realizations because they speak directly to you through your experiences.
Consistency in your magical work, much like in any other discipline matters because what you commit to defines you and in turn allows you to define it. Genuine spiritual work is done because we choose to make it part of our lives and dedicate ourselves to work because it speaks to us in a way that compels to keep going, keep discovering, and keep learning.
