Many people are under the impression that the more complicated a ritual or spell is, the more effective or powerful it will be. We suppose that we cannot blame people for thinking this way – after all, we too had this same mentality quite some time ago as well…until we realized how foolish we were.
The one thing that most Practitioners and Occultists have in common with each other is that they tend to overthink things. Read too much into something. Think to hard about a topic. Hell, even to this very day we catch ourselves overthinking things at times, but then we swiftly end it as soon as its ugly little head rises within us. Overthinking the matter at hand (in this case, a ritual or spell) over-complicates it in your mind, and thus reflects in your practices…making a simple ritual into an unnecessarily-elaborate thing. In doing so, in over-complicating your practices, you completely forget the initial purpose of that which you actually set out to do in the first place, and all your focus and energy is instead siphoned into the pomp and circumstance of it all, leaving the intended goal or purpose unfulfilled.
There is a saying: “keep it simple, stupid”. Although a bit, well, simple in its statement – it is an extremely good bit of advice, not just in your mundane life, but also in your Magickal endeavors. The simplest spells and rituals work the best – hands down. Remember – your physical actions and the materials etc you make use of is for no one and nothing else’s benefit but your own. Perception. Association. Focus. Intent. Will. If you add glitter to a bird, it will definitely not make it fly better for some odd reason, now would it? Of course not.
In keeping your rituals simple and to the point, your focus will be upon the actual goal or purpose of the ritual itself, which in turn will make it more powerful. As an example, by carving a few Runes into a candle and letting it burn down by itself will work just as good, if not immensely better than a week-long ritual to the same purpose. Wearing a cross made from lead around your neck will protect you from negative influences (yet again) just as good, if not completely better, than an elaborate ritual to ward off negative influences. Writing your desire upon a piece of paper, marking it with your blood and burning it will manifest things just as good (and even better) than other options even. And let us not forget the humble little binding, the knotted cord, which is one of our personal favorite tools to successfully and effectively manifest anything from healing to curses and everything in between – with just a simple cord that you knot.
Rituals that you may find in older Grimoires especially are by default long and have many steps and requirements. Do you know why? Not because it is absolutely necessary…but instead to get you into the mindset of the ritual itself, or to align yourself with the energies you are about to work with. All those prayers and petitions that can sometimes take a number of hours to complete can easily be replaced with a deep meditative state which can be achieved effortlessly, or in the case of energy, by drawing the kindred energy within yourself. Simple and plain.
We have a saying that we like to recount: “the more moving parts something has, the more likely a fuck up will happen”. This is completely true. The more unnecessary aspects you include in a ritual, the greater the chance becomes that you will lose the plot completely. After all, the purpose or goal is not the ritual, but the outcome of the ritual – THAT is what you want, not the ritual itself. The ritual is the tool to get the outcome. We even made a podcast episode some time ago pertaining to this topic.
Heed this bit of advice and see if and how you can apply this to your own practices – we assure you that if you do, you will notice a great difference for the better.
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