The Underlying Dream

Think about magickal success for a moment. When magick works, you can travel to that country you’ve always wanted to visit. You can have money to spare. You can be with the people you want, and relax and enjoy life in a way that once seemed impossible. It’s not always instant and easy, but you’ve read the reviews, you’ve heard the stories. The possibilities are astounding. But remember that when magick doesn’t work, there is always something to be gained, and sometimes it can be the most important thing of all. A magickal failure can lead you to the power of your underlying dream.

When magick works, everything goes well – great, that’s what we’re looking for. We want magick to work most of the time, and we’ve never seen so many reports of success as in recent months. Sigils of Power and Transformation was something we knew would be a big deal, and many people find it’s unlocked magick. Some find that the method can be used alongside other magick, and it’s making everything easier. But although there’s lots of good news, and many stories and anecdotes of success that just make you go WOW!, there are still people who don’t get what they want.

Today, I heard from somebody who’s been using magick for nearly three months without success. The good news is, I can sense that this reader still believes in magick, so hope is not lost. Sooner or later, something will click.

We live in impatient times, and many people expect success quickly, or give up. And who can blame them? Time is short, life is hectic and magick is a pretty big step aside from the ordinary world. If you believe in magick, you’re opening yourself to dreams and possibility. That’s something most people don’t do. It can feel risky to hope. The act of magick is an act of courageous belief in your connection to reality.

I think a lot of people see our books, they see the reports of instant success (which we love, by the way, so never stop telling them – it’s pure inspiration), but then they think that’s the only way. It’s difficult to convince people that, sometimes, you might have to wait longer than the person who got a result in three minutes.

These are amazing days if you’re interested in the occult, because the best magick is being poured out into the world for everybody to use. Not that many years ago it was almost impossible to get your hands on any good, practical magick, without putting in years of effort and spending a lot of money. So, great, the magick’s there, but what if it doesn’t work instantly? Is it your fault? Have you done something wrong? No, but you just might have missed the underlying dream.

Before I get to that, I should say that in some cases, yeah, let’s be honest, it’s not the magick that’s at fault – people flip through the books without reading the details, they ignore instructions, they make sloppy mistakes, they ask for $10,000 when $50 would be a good starting point. They never read these posts or the FAQs. They demand one result and they demand that it comes in one way at one time or else they blame the magick. I must win a fortune tomorrow! If not, then magick is a lie. Ok, that type of person, we can’t help. But if you know that you’re connected to magick, if you believe that magick could work for you, then it will work for you. Sometimes, it can take a few adjustments.

In the past few weeks I’ve had messages from people saying that the floodgates have opened. All their magick has started working. And what’s the key that unlocked the magick? Partly it was persistence; it came from a deep belief that magick was going to be important and would one day work. Partly it came from trying different types of magick until something clicked. Partly it came from taking baby-steps, gradually targeting magick on small problems until the big ones just fell away. But the main thing I found is that it all started working because people discovered their underlying dream. When you start to work with magick, then the sense of what you really want, what you’ve always hoped for – that dream starts to nudge at you.

The underlying dream is the thing you really want, and it might not be so obvious. Everybody wants more money, and it’s easy to think that’s all you want. Get money and all your  dreams come true! Well, money’s a great problem solver, and yeah, I love money. But sometimes we focus on money to avoid facing up to a deeper dream, a deeper need. When you sense the underlying dream, you might find you’re not as desperate for money as you once thought.

I often hear from people who perform a ritual, but then change their mind and want to cancel it. This isn’t because people are fickle, but because doing magick gives you insight into what you want. Doing magick is powerful, because it makes you see what is possible, and with that power comes freedom of choice. Magick gives you the power to choose the life you want, and as you use magick you begin to sense this; you can make things happen. That gives you a sensational level of freedom. When you truly know you can have anything – even if you only sense or believe that for a moment – you start to sense your underlying dream.

You may think you’re certain about what you want, but is it possible the things you’ve always dreamed of were put there by somebody else? Or perhaps you were trying to prove something about yourself. Did habits and rules forge these desires? Did a lifetime of belief about yourself (imposed by others) limit your dreams? Is it just possible that something else might occupy your heart?

You know that saying, ‘Do what you love and the money will come to you,’ or something like that? I’ve seen enough struggling artists to know it’s a big lie. Do what you want and you might nearly starve. But sometimes I think that’s because the tormented artist shouldn’t be an artist at all. If your work is tormenting you, could it be that you’re chasing the wrong dream?

This does not mean that everything should be easy (hard work is essential for good art or endeavour of any kind), but if there is only struggle, and no flow, and if it’s always like getting blood from a stone, then your dreams may have gone astray. (Often it’s the other way around. The daily grind at the office is horrible because really you should be writing that symphony.)

Many times, I have seen this: when you use  magick to find out who you are and what you want, you start to get the life you want almost automatically. And yes, somehow the money will flow into place too. Sounds too simple? Not when you’re working with magick. This doesn’t mean you should shun money magick. Do money magick with joy and expectation. But don’t forget what’s driving you, what’s urging you on. Do you sense a greater love, another passion?

So what is it you really want? If you’re asking for the wrong thing, it’s not your fault. You’ve been loaded up with dreams and expectations since you were a kid, but are they genuine? Success may be simpler that you think, or it might be a whole lot more complex. This is down to who you are.

Damon and I knew somebody who spent his early life trying to be a novelist, and doing quite well, but what he had to face, eventually, is that he really wanted to be a film director. Not in an idle, fantasy-driven way, but from the core of his soul. That meant learning hundreds of new skills, training, committing and risking everything for many years, with little hope of any success. But that was his underlying dream.

For some, though, it goes the other way. You think you want to be a famous movie star, or a successful business owner, but then you find all you really want to do is ride horses on the beach.  Or you give up being an opera singer to sing folk songs in bars, because that’s what stirs your soul. Or you close down your winery because you want to teach sailing. These are real examples, as you can probably guess. The trick is not to dream big, or to dream small, but to dream honestly. The underlying dream is your truth, and it changes, evolves and grows as you do.

How do you find out about this dream? When magick starts to work, the simple act of planning a ritual will help you understand your feelings. As you think about desires, you notice your emotions. If it’s fear, you can move past it. But if you feel a sense of deeper unease, like something’s not right, it might be your intuition telling you that you’re chasing the wrong dream. If you do magick for something and never get a result, that’s also a strong indicator. Yes, you may have inner blockages – guilt about money can stop you getting money, for example. But it could also be that, really, money isn’t what you need right now. You’re focussed on money and convince yourself it would make you happy because you daren’t face the truth that you’d rather be sand sculpting, or flying kites or running a restaurant.

If money magick has never worked for you, then forget about money magick for a while. Truly let go. Don’t pretend to let go. Actually, stop expecting the results you aimed for, and move onto something else. Money often shows up when you do this, but you have to genuinely give up on it. The best way to do that is to do something else. Work magick for something else that you want.

It sounds like I have a downer on money, but no; money is lovely, and if you do your money magick with warm, comfortable expectation, go for it.I’ve only used money as an example in this post because lots of people think money will solve all their problems. It never will! Money makes everything else in life easier, and it’s so much fun to have so don’t let me put you off. Enjoy your money magick, and get what you can. But if you’re feeling uptight, worried, desperate and restricted and trapped by a need for money, it could be that money magick should only be casually off to one side, rather than being an obsession.

Don’t stop doing magick. The feeling you get when you’ve finished a ritual can be – as we’ve seen – a great guide, an opening to intuition. It leads you to know who you are.

If you have The 72 Sigils of Power by Zanna Blaise or The Angels of Alchemy by Damon Brand, this is a direct way to find out who you are and what you want. These are the books that show you your underlying dream. There’s no one ritual, no one way. Read those books with an open mind and you’ll see a way, a hint at your truth and a journey you can begin. And then you have magick to help you achieve those dreams.

For some, magick is a desperate attempt at one quick fix. That’s fine. It can work. But you may find that magick is something more. It leads to your underlying dream, helping you admit to the desires that burn within you. When you know what it is that you want, the magick begins to work so easily you wonder how it could ever have been a problem. When you discover your underlying dream, it comes with the confident knowledge that if you give magick time, it will always open a pathway to whatever it is that you desire.

-Adam Blackthorne