Introduction

This is a common topic, but also important, so that is why I felt it should be revisited. Workings are discussed and attempted frequently, but they can create problems that may be especially troubling to new people. Below I wish to give some background info and techniques which can improve success here.

Simple Summary on Karma

As we have seen explained by others, our karma is like the culmination of the patterns of our soul. This includes obvious things like thinking patterns, but also subconscious sensations or base level concepts, like Saturn's perceptions of reality. All of these different energies, and the results they produce, are present in our soul together.

When we look at the natal chart, we see how this goes even deeper, with various connections made between the energies. If I have Mars in a certain sign, my Sacral chakra or "area" of my soul, plus other aspects of Mars, will behave differently than seen in other people. In this way, there is a diversity between souls, as well as a complex nature within ourselves.

These energies can come from our parents, but also from our previous incarnations. Here, there is like a "memory" of sorts, and this can explain why we do things a certain way. These "memories" are like energetic impressions on the soul and therefore when you encounter a similar situation you are likely to take a certain action. This works great in the case of inheriting skills from ancestors (see Othal and Kenaz), but also works against us if we are carrying trauma from past lives, as well as other errant behaviors.

Workings as Transformations

When we decide to do a working for something in our life, this should be thought of as like a transformation of these patterns. The exact scope of this transformation is based on the affirmation you use, as well as the energies you raise. Something broad may impact multiple planets, including aspects between them.

Many people may do something simple to help themselves, like a working to gain money or love. These energies then go out into the environment, including ourselves, and interact with reality to create the willed result. However, because the desired result or pattern may be different from what currently exists, reality has to shift to match this, and this part is what may confuse or trouble people.

The reason I use the term "transformation", as opposed to just "spell" is because I believe its connotation properly reflects how these energies work. To get to the end result, the energies must either create or destroy whatever to get there, and this can be both inspiring (feeling better on one day), as well as frustrating when we release negative patterns.

Looking at each planet, we can foresee what some common obstacles may be. With the Sun, this can cause the individual to feel depressed as they are forced to confront obstacles to their happiness. With Saturn, we may realize certain constraints or realities that we were ignoring beforehand, and so on. If we have Mars aspecting Venus, we may deal with problems pertaining to the balance of power within relationships.

When we do a working and encounter these obstacles, confusion may happen, as you think: "But, I thought I was blessing myself", which could even lead to: "The spell must not have worked!". However, this is a dangerous misconception rooted in a misunderstanding of what is happening.

When the energy is applied or willed, the result is created instantly. However, just because we perceive a delay in other aspects of reality does not mean the manifestation has not been created at all. What starts as just the vibration of a chanted mantra must then result in a materialized impact on the world, and this can take time to be visible, and is not without backlash or stress.

Further, what appeared as negative in that moment was actually a transformative process by which the soul has been altered and is growing from. This is because the final result is positive, as you intended, and that fact is what separates it from just a curse or other truly negative circumstance.

For example, on day 3 of your vitality working you may have periods of low energy, but on day 10 you may feel noticeably stronger, and so on.

We experience pain even from physical surgeries. If our finger is dislocated and needs to re-enter the socket, we know the result will be positive, not worse. Similarly, shifting the energies of your soul into "better positions" can come with its own style of stress, yet the overall process is ultimately good for us.

Confidence with Workings

As HPS Pythia described, we focus on the energetic result of our intention. We sense this and we do not doubt this. This is not just an inspiring quote of hers, but the actual mechanism for creating changes to reality. Yin and yang should connect for creation to occur, as shown by Eihwaz or Kenaz. In this case, the yang is our will and the yin is our senses and perceptions of what is occuring.

Those who are more sensitive by nature will have an easier time observing and feeling their results, whereas those who are more willful are better at impressing their intentions on reality, but both are needed together for magick to occur.

Confidence is gained here through experience. This is why the fundamental exercises, like Azazel (also known as Apollo)'s Directing Energy, are listed as such for beginners because they are easier to sense. The feedback from circulating energy or spinning a chakra is more appropriate for beginners, rather than trying to sense some change happening in the world, or sensing something you never had before.

By building yourself up from smaller successes, you are then able to be confident with these larger goals. For example, you have experience using Sowilo on yourself, so now you feel ready to use Sowilo to manifest money or something more abstract, like confidence. You may not know what confidence "looks like", but perhaps you know that it relates to your fire energies, so you visualize a positive fire building within you as a mental conception to represent this increase in confidence with you.

Even if you cannot fully conceptualize or fully feel the result, at least focus on the interaction itself and know the energy did what it was commanded to do. The goal here is not to 100% sense the result (which is often impossible), but sense enough for you to be confident and satisfied that the magick occured. In other words, to change something about yourself, you do not need to know which molecules in your body should shift, but this will happen because your intention applied the energy where it needed to go.

Relating back to the previous passage on workings, your past experience with a vitality working will remind you not to panic if you do face backlashing negativity, as you know this is actually a sign of success, rather than failure.

Mitigation of Negativity

Cleaning

As stated above, it is normal to experience stress as obstacles are released. However, that doesn't mean that nothing can be done to improve this, or that our advancement itself will always be like this. It is only the nature of coming from a lower stage of development that gives us more difficulty here, as it does with everything.

The first and primary mitigation tactic here is to clean! Dirt will come off from the transformative process and will need to be removed. This will follow the chakras which are associated with the working's goal, with an obvious example being like a Sun Square creating dirt in the solar chakra.

Because you are making more progress in this area, more dirt will need to be cleaned off. In this case, the dirt and dross can represent the lesser aspects of yourself which are being removed to make way for the new. Even in the physical world, if we wish to build a new highway, then the old one must be removed in part to support the upgraded pavement.

Many times I had experienced negative symptoms which would very quickly clear as soon as I removed the dirt. With this example of a Sun Square, this can manifest as digestion or motivation problems, as the chakra of our vitality and will is covered in dirt as a result of the magickal operation.

Balancing

Within the elements pages on the main ToZ sites, HPS Pythia reflects on how inhaling large amounts of elemental energy which is not "normal" for your soul can create a backlash. However, this applies not just to working with the raw elements, but also with any working, especially those which may have an elemental polarity or bias.

For example, you do a working with Nauthiz because you wish to improve on an earth deficiency, but later you are hit symptoms that correlate with Earth excess, such as feeling rigid, a slowing of the physical body or mind, muted emotions and other behaviors, tiredness or heaviness, and so on.

I believe this occurs as the soul seeks to integrate itself not just with the goal of your affirmation, but also with the element itself. If you are a very fast person and then suddenly inject a bunch of "slow" energy, then of course some fluctuation is normal.

To deal with this, one way which I am familiar with is to use ether energy, which looks like a blacklight in color, as described by HPS Pythia. Containing all the elements within it, this can be used to restore balance across the entire soul, even if you are not entirely sure what the problem is.

You can either breath ether in, or chant "Akasha". Do this perhaps 10 or 20 times, then affirm something like: "In a fully positive way, my soul is elementally balanced." Alternatively, you can do a more direct affirmation: "In a fully positive way, this ether energy has balanced out any elemental backlash.".

Visually, you can see the energy creating balance, which may appear like a green harmonious reaction within you. Look at your soul overall, or the individual elements, and view them as bright, stable, and healthy, not in excess or too low in activity, either.

Also, do not imagine or think that the balancing is disturbing your workings or anything else like that, but rather imagine that it is creating a better platform within you for your advancement to take place off of.

Do this as often as necessary, and also do this before you are dealing with major backlash, as sometimes I have felt this build over the course of a working. This may need to be done daily, or even twice a day.

Protection

Protection is not just about reflecting curses, although this is itself very important. Protection involves protecting ourself from our own mistakes, or other negativity which may arise as a result from interaction with the environment, whether through other people, even friends, or astrological influences.

While fire runes like Tiwaz and Thurisaz are good for combat and reflection of negativity, runes like Algiz or Berkano are better for generally shielding. Sowilo appears to go either way.

Here, our protection can prevent us from suffering major negativity, especially in cases where you could be doing a working that involves Martian, Saturnine, or Plutoninic energies or placements, which may be more dangerous than normal.

As a result of the protective energies, maybe you learn to be more careful only through a minor accident, rather than a major one, or even better, just by conceptualizing the potential stress in your head, rather than fully experiencing it. By protecting ourself, we make sure to advance through the lessons of life without realizing them only by the harshest ways possible.

Advanced Analysis/Insight/Reflection

As stated before, we wish to learn without unnecessary suffering. However, to do this, you must be open to avenues of self-reflection. Further, you need some sort of "material" from which you can actually learn by. This gives the energy an opportunity to help you transform based off of.

Sometimes this can happen naturally, and many of us are already studying and thinking about the struggles which burden us. Maybe you are doing a Mars working and struggling with perceptions of masculinity, so you decide to watch a video that deals with men, or you read a psychology article that talks about male perceptions.

This reflective activity can lead to moments by which the working can help you release old ideas or learn by. Whereas normally you may have read the article and thought nothing, through the working's energy you may instead have a deeper and more internal degree of realization, symbolized by the Dagaz rune, about the topic matter, which sticks with you and alters you for the better.

Any of the aspects of the upper chakras have their own elements of this phenomenon, such as the air element dealing with analysis and the water element dealing with observation and sensation, including even fully feeling external situations. Whatever process you are more open to is unique to your own soul, like your Mercury and Moon placements.

By putting effort in these areas, we avoid a situation of metaphorically running headfirst into a brick wall to simply learn that it exists, as the upper chakras can sense and think about it, whereas a "headless" Mars energy won't stop running, so to speak.

Conclusion

Workings are great ways to transform ourselves and when done right lead to lasting and positive improvements on the soul. However, their nature as transformations can lead to confusion about one's own abilities or destabilization of the self when they occur without mitigating factors. By being aware of the possible pitfalls and applying various solutions, we can successfully advance ourselves without facing too many setbacks in our progress.

Credit: Thank you to our Clergy and other diligent members, as well as the Gods, from which much of this information is either derived from or expounded upon through personal experience.

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Please share your own ideas here, which I can add to this post with accreditation if they are good.