Episode 71: Magick to motivate you so that you can turn your intentions into reality

Listen to the show:

We cover:

• How to use magick to create motivation (Instead of waiting to be motivated)
• How to do a jar spell for motivation
• What to include in your jar spell for motivation
• How to ‘work’ your magick after your spell jar is created
• The importance of building relationship with your magick and your tools

References:

The Latest Episodes

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to the A Pinch of Magick Podcast with me, Rebecca Anuwen. So last week, we spoke about the moon phases. So, I thought we would continue that conversation today, as today we step into the first quarter energy of the moon cycle.

So, if you remember from last week, the first quarter moon is the energy of growth and expansion.

Last week we were setting our intentions with the new moon.

Today it’s all about growth and I was thinking about growth, I was thinking about motivation because it’s all very well me saying, “Oh, yes, this is the time for growth, think about that energy of spring”. Last week, it was like all about dreaming and thinking about what it’s that you want to create.

This week, it’s spring. So, all those little seeds are now shooting up through the soil and taking action.

However, maybe you don’t feel like it.

Maybe you’re like, “No Rebecca. I don’t really feel like that at all today.” So, I want to share with you a spell to get you motivated but I also want to talk about motivation.

So, when we start anything new, we’re always going to hit resistance.

It’s just what happens.

When we’re dreaming about things, everything has potential. It feels incredible. Anything is possible because it’s in our imagination, we’re feeling it, and we’re dreaming usually about the finished product.

We’re dreaming about what it will be like when we have achieved what it’s we want to achieve, when we’re doing what we want to be doing, when we have what we want to have.

Whilst that’s important, it’s also equally as important to focus on the process.

We see this with the moon phases too.

Last week was about dreaming, it was about resting, it was about nourishing, it was about nurturing. That’s fantastic. That’s fun, it’s light, it’s joyful, it’s playful.

This week, it’s about taking action.

As we know, when we go to take action, we start to hit the reality of what it’s going to take to get us where we want to go and that can sometimes be a little bit uncomfortable, because it’s going to require us to grow.

We don’t have what we want already. So, we’re going to need to do something new to get what it’s we want.

Maybe it’s about learning a new skill.

Maybe it’s about asking for help and support, or for someone to guide you.

Maybe it’s about looking at your mindset.

Maybe it’s about looking at your life philosophy. What is your magickal life philosophy right now? What are the stories and beliefs that you’re running to support you to become the person you need to become, to have or do that intention?

Growth is essential for us to move forward.

It often means we have to step out of our comfort zone. That can often be uncomfortable.

I often think about this like going to the gym. You go to the gym; you want to become healthy and fit and strong or just feel a little bit better. And what you do is you break down the muscles, like you physically break them down. So, the memory of that muscle you’re using, those muscles have to build them back stronger.

And so those muscles build back stronger, fitter, leaner, healthier but it takes that moment to break them down, first of all, so we need that breaking down to grow back stronger.

The same thing happens on our spiritual growth, and our emotional growth.

It’s like we have to go through that momentary discomfort. Now I’m not talking about pain. I’m not talking about where you need to go and get additional help. But I am just talking about you pushing yourself and going, “Oh gosh, I don’t want to do that. thing or it feels a bit hard to go and learn that new thing, perhaps I’ll wait till next week”.

But it needs you to go and learn that thing, to commit to that thing, to look at that obstacle in front of you and go, “Okay, let’s do this”.

So, when you can ground into your values, into your life philosophy, into the things that are actually really important to you, that are bigger than that momentary discomfort, everything changes for you.

So, here’s the trick though, most people wait to feel motivated, but that’s the wrong way to do it.

Motivation might come along, maybe… but when you take action, then you end up motivating yourself.

So, I have spoken many times about this before. It’s not always about taking the big action. Quite often we have to psych ourselves up to take the big action.

We take the big action, and then we have a vulnerability hangover.

And then we crash the other side of it.

Then we stop and then we psych ourselves up again.

Psych ourselves up again and then we do the big thing and then we crash the other side of it and then we have to recover and then we wait.

Sometimes the most effective way to do things is to do them, tiny step by tiny step, by tiny step.

It’s not sexy.

It doesn’t look as great as when you’re like, “Yeah, I’ve just done this amazing thing.”  And everyone’s giving you accolades and like, “Oh, that’s amazing!” 

Sure, do those things, but don’t rely on them. 

Don’t rely on that motivation to push you to do the big things.

It’s often the biggest change that happens in those small choices, those small daily choices that you make. The moment-to-moment choices that maybe you don’t even notice that you’re doing.

People around you probably don’t notice that you’re doing them, but you have to choose the action.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, take action.

One thing that happens when we take action is when we’re overwhelmed, we’re in our heads, there’s too much going on and so when we try and think our way out of it; what do I need to do next?

And we’re journaling, and we’re thinking, and we’re journaling, and we’re thinking about it. What happens is we’re just adding to the noise.

What we need to do is take action, because when we take action, we get data.

So, you take action, and you get what you wanted. Brilliant! Do more of that. That’s the data. This worked. Excellent. Do more of it.

You take action and you’re like, “Ooh, that’s not what I expected”. Brilliant. That’s data.  Do less of that.

But it gets you out of overwhelm and into action and the same with feeling motivated.

“Oh, I’m going to start this new project”. “I will set that new intention” or learn the new language. “I will sign up for that course when I am motivated”.

Often that motivation, it might come and it might come sporadically, but what you can do is, you can choose to take action, you can choose to do the tiniest thing towards whatever your intention is.

So, if it’s to learn a class, that tiny action might be to read through the sales page to make sure it’s the right class for you, and to reach out to the teacher to make sure it’s the right teacher for you.

To reach out for help to get guidance on that next project that you’re working on.

It doesn’t have to be the finished product; you’re allowed to take little steps. You’re allowed to use steppingstones to get you there.

Okay. So, think of your intentions. Now, let’s bring in some magick because as I have said before, the magick, when we create magick, opens up channels for us to receive.

So, I am going to get you to do what is called a working spell. It’s a spell that you’re going to work on regularly.

And the reason I want this to be worked on regularly is because we’re looking at the energy of motivation. So, doing something once and forgetting about it, is not going to bring you the action. It’s not going to bring you that motivation to carry on going.

When we do a spell that regularly needs working and honestly, I use the word ‘work’, but let’s change that for ‘play’. A spell that needs energizing and activating in literally a couple of moments a day, or a couple of times a week. It connects you to the energy of action. It reminds you of your intention and it reminds you of activating this energy of motivation.

So, I want you to take some time to really connect to your intention.

What is it that you’re working towards?

And then think about how your values, how the things that are important to you, how the feelings you want to experience and want front and center of your life, all feed into that intention.

Now the reason we start here is because I want to make sure that the intention is yours.

Often when we set an intention, we can get tricked or tripped up rather, in thinking, “Oh yeah, this is what I want to achieve.” But when we actually stop and think about it, it might be that we want to achieve that because we think that’s what other people want for us. It’s because of what our family, society, and culture expect from us.

So, when you think about your values, when you think about the feelings you want front and center of your life, does your intention allow you to live what makes you, you in a more fully expressed way?

So, maybe one of your values is freedom or adventure, the feelings you want to feel more of are connection. So, when you look at your intention, are they bringing you more freedom, adventure, and connection?

Can you bring more freedom, and connection into your intention?

Okay, so we want to make sure you’re on the right path right now.

So in this energy of growth, we want to make sure that we’re focused in the right direction. That we’re holding our map, we’re holding it up the correct way and we have our compass pointing towards our north, our soul path and that we’re not borrowing someone else’s map, or that we have bits of it missing.

That this is our path that we want to walk on.

This is the key to magick, aligning your energy with your intention.

Okay, so once you’re clear on that, it’s like ‘yes’ to your values, the things that you believe, the things that you want more of to align with your intention, perfect.

So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to create a jar spell.

So, I like this, I like jars, but it’s also very good because we can recycle. There’s bound to be jars in your house. But again, you can get really pretty jars as well depending on what your intention is.

So, collect a jar, clean it, cleanse it, you might want to use smoke around it, you might want to put it in sunlight to clear away any negative energy.

Even if you’ve used this jar before and it has really good energy, what we want to do, we want to take it to neutral. So, cleanse that jar out.

And then what you’re going to do is, you’re going to fill it with items, think herbs, ribbons, crystals, charms, anything that connects you with that energy of motivation.

Collect all your things, cleanse all the things that you’re going to be using and then write down on a piece of paper your intention.

Write the intention you’re working towards, and that you want the motivation to show up regularly to do this, to show up regularly for yourself to do the work required to get you towards achieving your intention.

Okay, so write that down on a piece of paper and fold it and put it in the jar.

Now on that jar, or rather in that jar, you’re also going to add in items. They could be crystals, for example, you could put some carnelian, some tumble stone carnelian in there.

Someone once referred to carnelian as the caffeine of the crystal world, and I think absolutely.

So, maybe when you’re thinking of your intention, you’re like, “Oh my goodness, this is going to take a lot of energy for me to do this”. You might want to be thinking about putting crystal carnelian in there, maybe some pyrite to get sparks going.

The size of the crystal doesn’t matter. They can be like crystal chips. They can be little tumble stones, whatever you have available.

You might want to put some actual coffee in there, ground coffee or some coffee granules, whatever you have available, and put that in there to kickstart that energy for you.

Maybe there are some herbs you associate with getting things moving and going quickly.

Maybe if you’re like me, slightly obsessed with charms, maybe you have some appropriate charms you can put in there. Maybe some like one of a flame or a fire. Maybe some wings, you know, spread your wings, and move quicker. Maybe a little pair of charm running shoes to get you out of bed in the morning and maybe you have to get up earlier to give yourself that extra half an hour each day to focus on what it’s you need to focus on.

Think about what it’s that you need and start adding that to the jar.

Now if you don’t have charms laying around, you might want to cut out some pictures or print some pictures off and put those pictures in there, anything that adds to that energy.

Maybe you have a favorite poem or a favorite song that lifts you up and motivates you. Write that down, write the lyrics down, put them in your jar.

Maybe you want to add something like cinnamon which is that fiery energy to give you that boost to get going, some chili, some nutmeg, whatever you associate with what you need.

So, I am talking about the fire and the motivation but equally, this could be about the motivation of holding yourself with love and compassion.

Perhaps you have always been a driven, hugely motivated person but actually what you’re looking for now is that long-term stamina and holding yourself with love and compassion.

That might look like bay leaves to celebrate the achievements that you’re working towards. You could write on the bay leaves and add those to your jar.

You could add in some rose quartz for that energy of love and rose quartz still has that energy of growth, but it’s from a much gentler energy.

But again, whatever works for you.

This is not a prescriptive recipe.

This is a recipe for your jar, things that feel like motivation. That’s it.

So, again, if you’re after something, you might put an image or a picture or a word of that in your jar.

Once you have done that, close your jar up, and seal it with your lid. 

Then around the jar, you might want to write on the jar what it’s you want to achieve. You could decorate it with ribbons or other pictures. Anything that when you see it, you’re going to be reminded of. “Oh yeah, this is the motivation, this is what it’s that I am creating.” 

Okay and then once you’ve done it once it’s looking fabulous. Just sit with it for a few moments and just feel into the energy of the jar.

Feel into the energy of the magick that you’re creating, the very clear intention that you’re setting.

You have brought in all of your allies, whether they be herbs, colors, ribbons, charms, magazine cutouts, it doesn’t matter. Everything in that jar has been placed with the intention to get you motivated to take action towards your goal, towards your intention.

Sit with that jar for as long as feels appropriate, just feeling and connecting with that energy of motivation.

Then when you feel connected to that energy, just ask the jar, ask the energy, ask your higher self;

“What do you need to focus on to get you moving towards your intention?”

And just listen for the answer.

Maybe in that moment, you’ll hear an answer; “Get up half an hour early”, “reach out to this person”, “go listen, go read that book”, “sign up for that course”, “rest more” or maybe it will be a few days later.

You might want to journal around your experiences and notice if you felt any resistance.

You know we talked about when we start to take action, and that’s when we feel resistance.  Ask yourself what is it that you need to do to work through that resistance. Maybe it’s just to recognize, “oh, this is a pattern I have played out before”.

Just in naming it and recognizing it’s enough for you to go; “Okay, I can let that go. I can move on now.”  Or, maybe there’s some work to do around clearing the old energetic pattern so that you can move on with more confidence.

And so, once you have done that, maybe there’s a message, maybe there’s not. The chances are there’s a message whether it comes in immediately or a little bit later.

And then ask the jar, ask yourself, where does that jar want to be stored?

Maybe you have an altar. Maybe it’s on your bedside table. Maybe it’s on a windowsill getting charged by the sunshine. Maybe it’s next to your toothbrush so you can see it every day before brushing your teeth.

Just notice where it wants to be stored and then as I mentioned at the beginning, this is what we call a working spell because you’re going to work the magick regularly.

And so, what you can do again depending on the jar and depending on what you have in the jar, is every time you see your jar, you can give it a gentle shake.

If it’s only got leaves, powder, and paper in there, you could give it a more vigorous shake. You know if it has got lots of things in there like the metal charms in the glass and the jars maybe not as thick as it could be, you might just want to give it a little, wiggling my wrist around gently, just give it a little swirl almost.

You might feel called to add more things to the jar.

And you might feel called; this happened to me. I’m working with a jar spell at the moment, actually it’s a bowl, and some days I have to put a lid on it. I have to put a lid over my spell and then other days I take the lid off.

It’s really interesting to notice how that shows up in my world. Like when things are slowing down when I have the lid on and when I take the lid off, it’s like ‘yes, let’s go’ again.

It’s almost like that reminder just to slow down and to pause and then it’s like ‘yes, now we can go again’.

So, notice how you connect with your jar and the energy and the magick that you’re weaving.

Does the jar want to stay in one place all the time?

Is it somewhere sacred to you? Or is it somewhere really practical?

Again, that might reflect how you feel about your intention.

Or maybe it’s just more practical to have it on your altar so you can see it. Or maybe it’s more practical to keep it on your bedside table so that every morning when you wake up or at night when you go to bed you can give it a little shake. You can give it a little cheeky wink just to say; “Hey, I see you, I recognize you.”

Then every time you work that magick, you’re connecting into that energy of motivation.

You have started the process of taking action.

And once we take that one step, it becomes easier to take the second step, and every day when you connect or you know, maybe you’re connecting to it a couple of times a week, but every time you connect with it, you’re just taking a moment to remind yourself of your intention.

You’re connecting with that energy again, of creating motivation, instead of waiting for motivation.

Connect with it and just ask, this is one of my favorite questions to ask;

How am I moving towards this today?

What am I doing today to move me closer to my goals?

And when you have that jar in front of you, it’s like you have that relationship. You have built that relationship with that jar.

Actually, if you’ve not watched it, during the summer we did Magickal Summer School where all the classes are free, and we did six weeks of magick and we talked about spell work. I talked  in much greater detail about why it’s important to develop relationships with your spell work.

So, if you have not watched that, I recommend you go and watch it.

If you go to the community link in the show notes; Come and join us in the community, again, it’s completely free, go to the resources page on the left-hand side of the page, and in that space all the replays of summer school and in there, there will be spell work.

That was a long-winded way of doing it…

I will also put that link in the show notes so you can just click it.

If you’re already a member of the community, it will take you straight there.

But it’s worth watching because it’s about building relationships. It’s building relationships with your tools, with the items that you’re using so that we can trust that energy, so that we know that we’re working and co-creating something bigger.

Then regularly you’re just asking yourself, ‘what am I doing next?’,’ What am I doing next?’, ,’What am I doing next?’

Because as I talked about, when we create magick when we do magick, what we’re doing is, we’re creating channels to receive.

So you’ve called on the allies, you have called on the correspondences, to send that energy out in the world to create those channels in the world to say this is what I want to create.

My energy is in alignment.

My thoughts are in alignment, my values are in alignment and the feelings are in alignment.

That’s what I want to create so that when you come up against those, let’s call them obstacles, those challenges, those moments where we have to choose ourselves and grow, instead of going, “Oh, it’s an obstacle. It must be here to send me in a different way.”

Instead, it’s like, “oh, this is an obstacle, this is how I get stronger.” so I can hold the intention, so I can have that new thing, so I can do that new thing, so I can experience that new thing because it’s a new thing.

So, it’s almost like you have to get ‘match fit’ for it, and that challenge can often be, or is often, a way of getting you stronger and aligned and on purpose so that you can hold and receive what it’s you actually desire.

So, when you’re aligned with all of that magick behind you, all have that energy behind you and you have your compass in the correct direction, when you get to that challenge instead of it being like, “Oh no, what do I do?” It becomes “Oh, how do I do this? What am I being called to do?”

And you become curious about the obstacle rather than intimidated by the obstacle and so you move through that.

Like I say, you keep working the magick.

You keep working the magick, you’re sending out that energy in front of you and it’s creating that path for you to walk and it sends out shoots of energy for you to then receive.

So, maybe you ‘air quotes’ “synchronistically”, “coincidentally” notice a book, or notice some new piece of learning that gives you a piece of the puzzle that you’re heading towards.

Perhaps somebody reaches out to you that you have not heard from for a long time and says, “Hey,”. And you’re like, “Oh my goodness, you’re just a person that I need.”

It’s like just notice what comes your way, and every time something comes your way like that, a little synchronistic event, a little piece of magick. Just say ‘thank you’, that’s it, my magick is working, and it’s important to notice those moments, because it’s very easy just to go, “Oh, yeah, okay, that’s nice”.

When you’re like, “oh my goodness, this is brilliant”, guess what? we start to notice all of the things.

We start to notice when the world is nudging us one way or nudging us another way.

We start to notice as the road opens up in front of us, and we’re like, “Oh, yes, this is what I am doing.”

Shake that jar, stir the jar, add to your jar.

Maybe sometimes things need removing from the jar.

And then when it feels complete, or when you have arrived at your destination or maybe you’re like, “Do you know what? Actually, I think my intention has changed.” Just empty the jar with reverence and say ‘thank you’.

Some things you might be able to give back to the earth, perhaps where you have written on a bay leaf.

Some things you might want to recycle and reuse like the crystals you have added in there, just wash them off and cleanse them under the sun or the moonlight and recharge them.

Some things might feel appropriate to compost.

Other things might be appropriate to throw away into the bin, but you will know that because you have been working with that energy and you will just know.

So, it does take trusting yourself to be able to go, “Oh, yeah, what is it I need to do?” The more that you do this, the more that you allow yourself to experiment and ask for what it’s you need and listen to the answer, and the easier it becomes.

And then one day you will be standing in a churchyard going, “Oh, I think this is the tree that I am looking for.”  And you will hear a crow say, “No, Rebecca, that tree you’re looking for is around the other side of the church.” And instead of going, “Oh my God, did I imagine that crow talking to me?”  You just go, “Oh, thanks.”  And you walk down the back of the church, and you’re like, “why, there it’s, that’s the tree I was looking for.”

But that all comes through trusting yourself.

And maybe the crows will never talk to you, but it’s kind of fun when you do get directions from crows…

So, I hope you found that useful.

Step into that energy of expression and motivation and moving forward and having that energy of growth.

Come over to our community and let us know how you found the process of creating a jar spell and of course, if you have any questions, post a comment, come and tag me in our community. I will help you create that jar spell if you have any questions but really the most important thing is to think about your intention and the motivation to do it and ask yourself what motivates you.

Focus on the process and focus on showing up regularly.

Yes, it’s nice to do a vision board with where you want to be, and what you want to experience on it and that’s very, very powerful. But actually, it’s the process of what you need to do, to create change, to learn new things, to be mindful of your thoughts, of your habits, of your resources, that’s actually going to get you to be able to live that vision board.

So, when we create a spell jar for motivation, what we’re looking at is we’re motivating us to take action, rather than just dreaming about the vision that’s happening in the future.

The motivation is what we can do today, right now, to help us be in alignment to move our energy to direct that energy and focus on what it’s we actually want to achieve so that we can live our magick every single day right now, rather than putting off into the future when you have achieved what it’s you want to achieve.

Great celebration when that happens but also, we can live the magick right now as we use a spell jar as one way to get us that motivation to move forward to take those small steps.

So, I hope you found that useful. Do let me know how you found that.

If you would like more magick and spells in our podcast. We tend to do all sorts of magick, don’t we? In everyday life that’s, I am definitely all for practical magick. But it’s nice, I think, to have spells that are very, very tangible, that just keep us connected to the life we want to create, the things we want to achieve, and the things we want to experience.

So, thank you very much for joining me and I will speak to you again very soon.