Affirmations are sentences filled with a bunch of good words that say nice things about what sort of future we want to have, or what type of person we want to be. The study of psychology tells us that if we repeat words, thoughts, or visualizations (fantasy pictures in our minds) often enough, what we speak or think will manifest in the material world. In essence, thoughts are things, and you are what you think! Most magickal people, past and present, will agree that when we speak aloud, we are activating our throat chakra energy (see Chakras) as well as sending sound vibrations into the universe to create what we desire. Scientists say we are using our right brain—a gold mine of manifestation.
Too often we pay more attention to the nasty things people say about us than the nice comments. When we do this, we are opening the door to negative programming. After a while, we just might believe that we’re a loser because someone (whom we think is important) tells us we are. Don’t you believe it! Affirmations are a positive magickal defense mechanism against our worries, doubts, and the garbage other people sometimes throw at us. Deceptively simple, many people forget just how much power these affirmations have!
Daily Affirmations
Daily affirmations are repetitive sentences that we write or say to ourselves with the intent to improve or change our condition in a positive way on a day-to-day basis. They are a plan of action to reach a specific, intended goal. These statements are normally written or said (or both) at least ten times each morning and evening for thirty days (or from moon to moon). Anything less, and you will have to start all over again! You can’t skip a day if you really want the change to happen. Larger changes, such as a complete personal makeover, may take sixty or even ninety days. That’s okay. I know you can do it. If you have been meditating for a while, the affirmations you choose to recite may begin to take form quickly, perhaps within the first few days or the first week. If you haven’t been practicing meditation or visualization techniques, you may wait longer to see some sort of pro-gress. No matter. Your motto should be: Don’t give up, and don’t give in! Just because you are now a magickal person doesn’t mean that everything is going to come easy for you. We all have lessons to learn, and sometimes patience is the most valuable goodie you will ever have in your cauldron of enchantments.
Spellcasting Affirmations
These are a bit different. Spellcasting affirmations are sentences we write that match the idea of what we want to accomplish in the spell we plan to use. This means that we have to sit down and think about what we truly want, and then put those thoughts into words before we start the magick. If we follow quantum physics, then this would be the effort to set the pattern that we wish to unfold. If we aren’t specific, then anything could pop out! These sentences are repeated anywhere from three to nine times during a spell. Not every spell contains an affirmation (also called a statement of intent), though most spells have at least one sentence that describes what we want to happen, which can be separate from or be a part of an affirmation that we use at other times. According to the spell, it may be necessary to say the same affirmation while do-ing a physical act several days in a row—a seven-day candle spell comes to mind. Once the magickal working is completed, you might not use that affirmation again until the next time you cast the spell, either for the original intent or for a new one. Sometimes affirmations turn into magickal charms simply because we like the way they sound and they have worked for us before (see part 4, Charms). Although magickal word charms usually rhyme, I have several in my own Book of Shadows that don’t.
There is a term sometimes used in magickal work that we need to cover before you delve further into affirmations. It’s called “resentment of result,” and means that if you worry endlessly over an issue, even though you have worked magick, the strength of your worry will overcome the strength of your magickal work, and in the end you will reap what you most feared. This is why the old teachers taught that you should do a spell and forget about it—if you worry, or try to force the issue by skipping steps, ignoring basic universal laws and blundering blindly on, you will fail as a result of your own actions. This doesn’t mean that affirmations don’t work (because they are spoken in a positive way), but if you say the affirmations and then think the opposite, it’s like pulling the plug on your internal computer. No electrical juice means no access. Positive change cannot occur.
In magickal training, affirmations support the various exercises, rituals, and spellwork we do by helping to purify the field of intent. For example, if you did a spell to stop gossip but allowed the gossip to lower your self-esteem by mentally agreeing with what is being said (or worrying about who said what), the spellwork or ritual you employ to stop the problem could be negated or severely hampered. Affirmations help to put you in the zone of success and keep you there, despite any negativity that decides to wend its way toward you. In every negative situation you encounter, learn to pick one positive statement that can be said when the negativity hits, no matter how many times it hits. The statement can be composed for the specific instance at hand, or can be something more all-encompassing. Years ago I bought a set of excellent tapes from Sun Valley Publishing in Arizona. One particular statement, “I am at peace with the world and everything in it,” has stuck with me and I’ve used it numerous times when I’m really angry or upset at someone’s negative behavior. A more simple statement, “Cancel that,” works well when you worry too much, think frightening scenarios, or have no desire to continue a particular train of thought. I learned this one in college dictation class (something they don’t even have anymore—boy, am I showing my age!).
Positive Thinking Exercise
How many times have you said, “I can’t do that,” “I won’t make the grade,” “I’m lousy at Spanish,” or other negative comments about yourself and your future? Every time you think negatively and say negative stuff, you are planning a negative future for yourself. For the next week, remove ALL negative words about yourself from your thinking process and don’t say anything negative about your future aloud. To help stop this bad habit, think of a silly keyword, like “banana,” a magick word, like “abracada-bra,” or a power word, like “Isis,” or the simple statement, “Cancel that.” When the negative thought comes, yell your keyword out loud if you have to! You’ll be surprised how much your life changes in just one week. Now stretch this practice to two weeks, then three. It’s amazing just how powerful your mind can be.
Exam Affirmation
With so many adults going back to school for specialized training, teens are no longer among the ranks of individuals that must suffer through written examinations. Psychologists tell us that choosing and implementing a lucky item for studying and test taking is actually a good idea. Whether it be a particular shirt, belt, or lucky pencil, you are to use or wear the item while studying for the examination. On the examination day, you should wear the lucky piece (or use it) during the test. In this spell, we are going to use a lucky pencil.
Supplies: A current calendar (any kind will do) that you will use only for magick; a new pencil (and a spare in case you lose it); a piece of clean, white paper; a small red bag or piece of cloth.
timing: New moon, full moon, on your birthday, or as otherwise mentioned.
Instructions: Cleanse and consecrate all supplies with the four elements in a magick circle. Pick a key affirmation, such as “Success, success, success!” Empower the calendar and the pencils with this affirmation. Dedicate the pencils and the calendar to Hermes (for a listing, see part 1, Gods, Goddesses, and Pantheons). On the piece of paper, write the following:
Every time I use these pencils while studying
or for an examination, I will be filled with
confidence and poise and I will be able to retain and recall any and all necessary information
that is applicable to the work at hand. I will
confidently know what to study and I will pass any and all examinations with great success. SMIB.
Wrap the paper around the pencils and secure with a rubber band. Place in the red bag. Thank deity (Hermes, in this case), close the quarters (if you have called them), and release the circle.
how to work the spell: Okay, so you know that you have a history exam on Tuesday, or you know you have finals next week. You also understand that magick can’t take the place of studying. (You do know that, right?) Each evening open the red bag and remove the paper from the pencils. Read the paper aloud and set aside. Use the pencils while studying. When you are finished studying for that time period, place your magick calendar on top of your notes. Find the date of the exam. Circle that date with a blue or purple pen. (Blue, purple, and silver are the colors of mental activity.) Hold your hands over the date, and say:
I will be calm, cool, and collected
before, during, and after the exam.
That’s statement number one. Nobody wants exam jitters. Statement number two is as follows:
I will pass the exam with
an excellent grade, or better.
Choose the grade you are shooting for, and write that down on the calendar day. We always add the “or better” in our affirmations or spells because sometimes we have a bad habit of stopping our success by thinking too small. Say both statements out loud ten times while you hold your hands over that calendar date.
Complete this process by once again reading the spell intent affirmation on the white paper. Roll the pencils in the paper, secure, and place in the red bag until you are ready to study again. On the day of the exam, repeat all affirmations in this spell before you leave the house. Remember to take your lucky pencils with you and use them during the exam. Do not lend your pencils to someone else, as their energy might taint your magickal work.
So what happens if you don’t make the grade you visualized the first time you try this spell? If you were only a few points off, don’t sweat it. Keep up the same study practice, as you can count this a success. If you were way off, first determine if your study habits need to be improved and make adjustments accordingly. Did you not give yourself enough time? Did you not pay attention in class when the instructor indicated the span of information to be covered? Were you absent and missing a large section of notes? Did you stay up too late studying the night before? Did you cram rather than studying a little bit each day? Are you worried about something else—a looming, life sort of thing? If so, you need to work on it rather than worry about it. Then do the spell again, choosing two new pencils.
Magick is the process of practice. This is assuming, of course, that you studied enough and that you truly believed you could do it—and you’ll know in your heart whether you studied or not and whether you were serious when doing the spell. Failure also comes from lack of focus and worry, or sleep deprivation. The more magick you do, the better at it you’ll get because once you’ve had one success, you can build on that one to create more.