This is reprinted here with the author's permission. I thought it was very good:

I've talked about this subject before but truly no subject out there in the Metaphysical arts deserves more discussion than confidence does. Why? Look at the amount of questions that are posted to a group like this and not the ones by Novices either.

Confidence is something you must have if you wish to work with the Unseen Powers that exist out there. Even if you're one of those who doesn't believe in Spirits, Gods & Goddesses living independently of ourselves and believe it all happens in your own mind, you still have to look at how big & murky your own mind is.

In the Oath that a Novice takes (at least in the Gardnerian & Alexandrian traditions) there is the line about 'thrust yourself upon this blade' and with that, a parameter is set that should guide you for your Witchy career. That parameter is: You should have confidence or do not step onto the path.

That is pretty intense if you think about it and that's because it's more than a challenge from the Gods & Spirits, or more from your HPS & HP but also a personal challenge to yourself.

You need confidence. The problem is Joe & Mary Sixpack-Pagan Novices refuse to do the groundwork necessary to take them up each successive level. That means they want to run before they can even learn to walk & before they can walk they have to crawl & stumble a lot.

Therein lies the most difficult thing Novices have to deal with: Stumbling.

Somehow in McWiccan literature that proliferates the shelves of bookstores, there's this sentiment that Magic has to be done perfect or else the bogeyman will come out to get you. Bah! Trust me when I say it's Bah! because I have made my fair share (and then some!) of mistakes in my Magical career.

I have stumbled, burnt my fingers & even had a potion or two explode in my face (not literally but metaphorically) and yet I'm still here to talk about it.

How did I get where I got? Confidence. And I gained that confidence one step at a time.

There comes a time when you have to put the books down and START walking. Preparing yourself by reading, reading & more reading does not help as much as you think and in fact it can hinder your progress. How? Simple: Every author has their own opinion about what constitutes making Magic - color schemes, candle shapes, potion recipes, chants & even in the ethics/morality concepts.

When you read 10 authors from ll-EWE-llyn, you get 11 different theories & hypothesis. Then add the other authors out there and well it becomes a soupy mix of blech.

You need confidence folks, not knowledge. You need to step back & examine your own book of shadows. Is it complete? No! Hell it will NEVER be complete because it is a work in progress that entails your entire Magical career. Hello???

BUT you have to start somewhere so be like Nike, "Just Do It"!! Get off your lazy *** & stop using that old argument, "I don't wanna make a mistake" and DO SOMETHING.

You will never learn if you don't do something and try. Wisdom comes with experience and the only way you can get experience is to do something. So what if you make a mistake? Learn from it! Journal about it. Go back and figure out what went wrong. By doing so, you learn more about what not to do than anything else & thus you get confidence for the next project along the same lines.

You gain confidence by experiencing little successes. Most books are set up for you to get the basics down & then move progressively forwards. For example, tooting my own horn here, in one of my own books, I outline dozens of simple, basic Metaphysical practices (not limited to Witches) that you need to do in order to get that 'Eureka!' hitting you so when you do a Spell, Ritual or Ceremony, you already know what you have to do to get it to work.

Problem: Novices & Intermediate practitioners alike always skip over that stuff in favor of the deep, dark spells listed. Ooooooh....

Perfect example: Ginny loves Harry & wants him to love her in return. So she reads up and discovers a spell in a book but she is a complete & utter Novice. She doesn't know what she's doing. Well she does the love spell but it fails in some way. It may be that Harry fell for another girl; Harry could exhibit some strange behavior towards Ginny; perhaps Harry only wants Ginny for sex; or maybe nothing happened at all.

Why did it fail? No it's NOT because 'love spells are bad karma' which is the ignorant way of explaining everything that doesn't work, but rather it is because Ginny hasn't made the leap yet. She knows nothing of how to work Metaphysics & her confidence level is pathetically low. Oh yes she might tell herself she can do this but she's trying to lie her way through.

*Buzz!* Wrong!

You may try to lie & deceive yourself into being confident but you cannot because your subconscious knows where you are in your development. What you believe you can get away with most likely will not be enough.

Now had Ginny spent several months working at the Novice exercises, she would've not only had the knowledge of how to unlock the power of her Love Spell for Harry but more importantly she'd have the confidence that it would work.

Get it? Confidence, NOT knowledge, will get you somewhere in Magic & Sorcery. You cannot rely on anyone other than yourself to wake yourself up & get out there and do something.

It doesn't matter what author you start with (even the Sheeple authors of ll-EWE-llyn) but it does matter for you to start off with the basic exercises learn them and MOST IMPROTANTLY: PRACTICE THEM! I cannot emphasize that enough, folks. Nothing will help your confidence grow in the Magical & Metaphysical arts faster than practicing the basics.

In closing, I'd like to say that if you run into someone who claims to be a Sorcerer, Witch, Magician, Wizard, High Priestess or High Priest, and they don't do much in the way of Magic, I'm willing to place a wager they're the type who either doesn't put much stock in Magic OR they're the type who I've been bitching about here - the ones who refuse to do the basics (they're too mature & important to practice the basics!) so you should RUN from them as fast as your little legs can carry you.

The only way a genuine practitioner ever gets wisdom is from the practice of the Arts, not sitting and reading. Having a good reference library is important but in truth, there are too many beginner books out there that just plain suck & teach the same old, same old with nothing knew. It's the author's attempt to become a name without giving anything worthwhile.

Confidence will make you shine. Work on it. Develop it. Enjoy it.




Love & Light,

MOLOCH

'Real Sorcery 24/7'

http://www.molochsorcery.com

I suppose that makes me a 'witch' by default whether I like it or not.

Everything has to be labeled I guess.

My main point was that "doing" magick is just as important as "learning and studying" magick.