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Well, I can write about this now that it finally settled out.
My current job was a six month contract, which is pretty common in the IT world. Either folks get well integrated in the organization and have made a contribution in six months or they’re cut loose for something new. I was told I was making valuable contributions and they loved me and I seemed like an upstanding person (DON’T TELL THEM I’M A WIZARD) and so they wanted to make me an offer.
Well, my boss couldn’t get anything approved, so they extended the contract for one month.
Then my boss said he couldn’t get anything approved, so they extended the contract again another month.
Once I got the notice of extension which includes all the normal paperwork headache of SoW, rate, budget approvals, time sheets, equipment, etc I started looking. I wasn’t going to do this a third time and frankly I felt like they were jerking me around to try to get the project launched so they wouldn’t have to hire me. Being a magician, I started to setup magic to work for me to help.
Day of Sol and Hour of Sol
I put the SDAs out in their normal places in the ritual room and pulled the plug on the electronic claptrap which lives up there. The SDAs always give me a sense of being on top of a rollercoaster when I put them out. Merely looking at them inspires curiosity, but actually working through them inspires awe, even from an academic perspective. I dressed the altar in the enochian colors and made sure I was facing towards the sun. I had a yellow candle illuminating the shrewstone. Opened the temple by normal invoking pentagrams and hexagrams.
A spontaneous idea grabbed me: Frankincense (really, “church blend”) is what I normally use for the enochian work but I also decided to add some pine resin to the mix. Whats a plant which is so solar that it doesn’t even drop it’s leaves in winter? Evergreens, conifers. I added some to the frankincense mix and it really set the mood nicely.
Also off the normal course I decided to open by using calls 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The first call is normal. The other calls open the elemental tables. This in my opinion Just Works in the broad view of the system. Not only does it request physical, manifest changes, but it also is appropriate to the rulership of the Heptarchy and the Tablet of Union. Also frankly at this point I’ve been considering using the names of the tablet of union in place of the archangels in personal practice for enochian work but that’s a different post.
The opening generated a slightly strange, jammed up feeling. Which quickly felt like a coiled spring had just let fly and spiraled out into the universe. I took it as the generation of the solar system for the solar king. I felt connected.
Things were asked for, spirits inquired, all that good stuff. Similar to the post about needing a car, I was very careful to ask for something to fill the requirements, but not a specific job. Afterward my wife asked me “Why didn’t you ask for [that specific job]?” Well, I did go on an interview, I was pretty sure I was going to get an offer. I didn’t know if they would be willing to pay what I was asking for (basically my contracting rate) but I knew my old job really wasn’t willing to come up. However, I don’t know if the new job is a good fit. I would rather deal with my old job at a cut rate than deal with a new job I don’t fit in well at for the rate I was asking for. If I don’t say “Give me job X”, it really leaves it up to things with a broad view of the universe to hook me up. More on this problem in a minute. If I take the new job and I don’t fit in well, it’s likely they’ll fire me in six months and then we’ll have no income at all. So, I ask the spirits to fish me out a job for a comfortable rate I fit in well with rather than say that I want this particular thing over here. To some folks its probably a cop-out, but this is really a matter of faith.
To put it bluntly I strongly believe that it’s possible to say something like, “I want this job over here, for this rate, I want to get along with everyone, and I want it for three years, and I want the offer in two weeks.” The best case is the spirit can’t possibly fulfill that request, either because it’s unlawful by the designs of the One Thing or because there’s a factor unknown to the magician which prevents the spirit from fulfilling that request. At worst the request is fulfilled and because the magician hasn’t taken a broad view of the universe (which includes time), the magician isn’t a good fit for the job and gets fired shortly thereafter. But lets tighten it up and walk though it.
I want this job over here: Do you live near the job? Is the job going to cause problems with your family life? Are there undue contractual requirements like a noncompete which might kill future jobs? Does the company have a terrible reputation? Is the company going to put you on a product or project you don’t want on your resume?
for this rate: This is the easiest to point to for the “bad request” list. Simply – the position might not pay that rate. The company may not be able to come up. The person might overvalue the position. And the worst case is the person might get the job only to be fired when the project slips. Companies can (and do) buy contractors for the chopping block. It sucks. It totally happens.
I want to get along with everyone: Danger, Will Robinson! No-one gets along with everyone. This is really one of those True Will issues. I really strongly suspect that magic when done to people doesn’t really work. Sure the tricks like vanities can be used to maybe make a few pounds drop off but I strongly suspect that one person cannot do magic to change another persons True Will. This is pretty much my standard reply to the random “Send me a love spell” mails I get once a month from teenagers. (How do you even find my blog?) But yeah, forcing people to like other people through magic wears thin quickly, even if they buy into it. There’s simply too much other stuff on the astral that folks bump into which influences them to force everyone on the same page. Trust me, I’ve even heard of groups which tried to get folks to surrender their cellphones into a basket at the door to try to encourage them to get along. It’s sad. Don’t force it.
and I want it for three years: Is the company even going to be there in 3 years? Especially in the world of IT – the Trans-Pacific Partnership passed and we’re all going to be outsourced next week since it has provisions for the treatment, taxation, and tariff of intellectual property.
and I want the offer in two weeks: The final coup-de-grace of stupid. My job couldn’t even get me an offer in two months. Sometimes big corporations just move that slowly.
The more space you give the spirit to work, the better chance of finding something that fits those bare requirements you’re going to have. I don’t see it as embracing mediocrity (which is a frequent criticism of either my truck story or Lon Milo DuQuettes car story) but rather having the faith that if I understand what I need versus what I want, I have a much better chance of finding something. I actually really wanted to keep my existing job. I felt really quite betrayed that the company thought I was too expensive.
A full week ticked by, I got a call back from the new job asking for my salary, which I gave them. They said they wanted to call me back. Doubt set in. In the meantime my job came up on their offer another 10% which was minimizing the shave to 20%. It still wasn’t enough. I frankly was doing trench work and project manager work and I expected at least mid-level trench pay let alone project manager pay. I started to suspect that they wanted to lowball me to get me in so they could “promote” me and give me a token raise for a song. But, before I could really explore that thought, the job I interviewed for called me back to tell me it was no problem. I briefly thought DRAT I SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR MORE but the whole Sphere of Availability cautions crept up on me and I decided to be thankful instead. Also because this job comes with health insurance and 7 month on Obamacare had really cut me pretty good.
To complicate issues – I’m a huge fan of the idea that strong, legitimate, heartfelt emotions power magic. Crowley got off on sexual exploits. Mathers loved the yolk of authority in a uniform. Bennett was really an aesthetic magician at heart. Myself? Plain, stupid, desperation fueled by pessimism. I am really great at working myself up over the idea that maybe the new place will suck. Maybe the old place just wants to launch the project and fire me. What would life be like for the kids if we had to move? Who would buy the house if they knew how I wired that one outlet? A hundred random things focus themselves into a “pure ray of will unassuaged”. It didn’t surprise me then when, the next day, literally before I could turn in my resignation, my boss said they could come up to the rate I asked for.
I still told him thanks but no thanks. I set the wheels in motion, I’m going to follow through.