Prosperity

Once again, my email list have me wonderful things to think through. This is a compilation of several emails. I was responding to a fellow list member struggling with issues to do with prosperity, asking for needs, and possible backlash from a spell she had done. The following is about three responses, woven into one. I share with my blogging friends because the things I say here influence so much of who I am:
Rather than money spells, I try to think in terms of prosperity spells. I visualize the bounty of the universe as a ocean, sufficient to all and available to all. Many of us have been trained not to be greedy, so we don't ask for the prosperity we need. I don't believe that calling to us that which is needed or desired is greedy.

Prosperity, by the way, is more than money. It is all the things we need, including a place to live, transportation, eduction, bills paid, etc. Specifically, I like to visualize myself drawing on the bounty of the universe. And sometimes, instead of the teaspoons we've been trained to use, I like to use buckets or even pipelines to draw what is needed.

Often, I have found, it's very hard to open to the bounty of the universe. For me, it comes down to worthiness issues. I have trouble internalizing that I am truly worthy of having my needs and desires met; that I am a worthy child of the universe. So when I do prosperity spells, I try to work something in to claim my place in the universe as a child of the lord and lady. I try to state my worthiness and place it within the context of calling to me the bounty available to all when we open ourselves to possibility and magic. I also place the call in the context of best possible outcome, in case there's some miracle that I haven't thought of that might answer my call better than I have envisioned.

I recongnize the right for all to decide what they may/may not do. That said, because I have worthiness issues (abused in the past and all that), I have come to believe that we are co-creators with the universe and have the right and responsiblity to see to that our needs are met so that we can then meet the needs of others appropriately. Indeed, without our basic needs met, it is extremely difficult to meet the needs of others.

it seems to me that wicca/paganism especially demands a heck of a lot of personal responsiblity. In my view, as a witch it is my responsiblity not so much to seek power, but to utilize my resources, including my own personal power, to do the work of Diety (as a priestess I see myself as a channel, but also called to use my own resources in Her service). One of things that drew me to this path, in opposition to Christianity, is that I have a direct access to Deity, and that I am personally responsible to do the work to make the magic happen. When I keep in mind the Wiccan Rede, then it all seems to balance quite nicely.

In my work, I have a responsiblity to provide whatever healing I can, for example, because that is part of my calling to this path. Indeed, I am blessed to work as a therapist and as a substance abuse counselor, so I literally consider myself in the Lady's direct service as a healer. Yes, I have gifts and abilities. I have trained and learned my art for a long time. Yet my gifts and abilities sort of co-mingle with with the priestess part of me to become something really bigger than I am alone. So when I'm balanced and functioning well, I become a channel for the Goddess' work. Perhaps power is wrapped into that work, but I just don't think of that way.

Once I have worked out a spell, I work it repetitively. Usually every night for seven nights, or even thirty. I find that the repetition gets it into my subconscious which further opens me to the possibilities of the universe...