Believing Without Seeing
You’re in the right place if you…
want to believe in Magick and witchcraft but also doubt that your intention can actually make things happen.
want to learn how to practice witchcraft even when you don’t see evidence.
wonder about how to take the necessary leap of faith in manifesting your desires.
Introduction
Let’s talk about the leap of faith we often need in manifesting our desires. The believing in something without actually seeing it. The mutual trust that practicing witchcraft requires.
It’s about turning the popular phrase, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” around to say, “I’ll see it when I believe it.”
There is certainly a necessary suspension of belief with any religious, spiritual or metaphysical pursuit. Some catholics who receive communion believe that the wine turns into the blood of Christ and the bread becomes the body, while others see communion as a symbolic practice. Both experiences are equally meaningful.
If you cast a spell for prosperity, it’s up to you to decide the mechanics of a successful spell. Do you believe the spell literally makes you wealthy? Or do you believe it puts you in the mindset to pursue the wealth you desire? Neither perspective is right or wrong.
I shared about this a little in the healthy skepticism post: the need for imagination, and things that are sacred and mysterious. That there is a line we must walk between blind faith and questioning, between sacred and secular, between what is known and what is unknown.
If you can get past your initial doubts and disbelief, that’s where magick happens. Don’t let your own mind get in the way of your dreams.
What is a Active Faith?
There is something called active faith. This is basically the ability to believe beyond what you can see. Active faith is when you take action in the direction of your desires without any proof that you will be supported or will achieve what you intend to manifest.
It feels scary and sometimes crazy because it is, in essence, a leap of faith. But this leap is from a place of limitless possibilities that you know the source of your power will show up to support you in the way you need.
This is where the magic is activated, in the act of leaping.
And this is an important step in the magickal process in manifesting and creating. This shows you are serious about your desires and gets the ball rolling in the the direction of your dreams.
3 Steps
All magick no matter how big or small requires this leap of faith. Now I’m going to talk to you about the three steps involved with taking this leap.
Step 1 - How to Take Your Leap of Faith
Offer positive energy towards what you want. This is where you’ll feel scared or fearful because you will become acutely aware of the absence of a safety net.
When I moved to Portland I had no job lined up and I had no home. I was moving with a friend who would join me about a week after I arrived but other than that I had no friends.
I packed up my car and my parents car with a few irreplaceable items and we caravanned halfway across the country.
The drive from Boulder to Portland took two days. During the drive I did what I could on the road to find a place to live for myself and my friend. But when we arrived in Portland on December 31st, nothing was set.
My mom I know was very anxious for me, though she did her best to hide it at the time. I knew in my heart that it would work out and I just kept putting this energy into the universe. Anytime someone expressed their confusion at my choice to move with so little plan I continued to believe it would work out: “I will find a job, I will find a place to live, everything will be fine.”
Sure enough, one of the landlords I had been talking to got back to me the next day and said we could visit the property. Soon after, I found an amazing job I loved teaching children about the natural world, and I know I was meant to work there.
Exactly one month later, I met my Fiancé, Dana and I truly believe that the Universe was aligning for me to find my way to Portland to meet him.
In addition to my conscious efforts to find a place to live, I was actively designing my soul mate. I conducted a mini ritual in which I would know I had found him because he would build me a bike.
When we met he wasn’t riding bicycles because he had a broken wrist, but as soon as he healed he wanted me to be bike mobile, and he put together a bike for me with parts from a stash in his basement. A couple of new parts too, most notably a lady saddle and easy grip handles, so I’d be comfortable.
So long as you offer the energy of what you do want, and expect to receive it, the universe will show up and provide it.
But, it does require some trust on your part.
Step 2 - How To Time Your Leap of Faith
The next step of the process is to time the leap. When to do it? How can you time it without knowing the safety net will rise up?
The best timing is to do it now and don’t delay. Even if it’s a small action to start. Don’t wait for perfect conditions because there is no such thing and you’ll be waiting forever.
Make a ritual out of doing something that aligns with your desires no matter how small. Enchant an object so that it attracts your desires.
If you want a new job, set a sigil for confidence as your phone background before making a call. Mix a luck powder into your deodorant or makeup before going to a networking event.
If you want to find the love of your life, go to a place where single people hang out wearing a necklace enchanted for attracting love.
Or if you want to get married, buy a wedding magazine even before you find the person your meant to marry and enchant it. Buy a special coffee or tea mug that will be used by your Beloved in the not-so-distant future. Make a love tea and drink it from this mug. Then display it in your cabinet where you’ll be reminded of your intention to find this person. Or perhaps conduct a ritual cleansing of your closet to make space for them in your closet.
Find, select or buy a small item that will be used by the baby that you are calling into the world. Start talking to them now, maybe while holding this object and let them know it’s safe to arrive.
Get into the feeling space of checking out as many homes as possible that are for sale that you dream of living in.
Maybe you have a chronic illness that prevents you from doing something, get an items you need for that activity as a conscious effort that you will be healthy again.
Clean out your purse or wallet with a ritual disposal of anything that is just taking up space. This frees the energy of prosperity and shows reverence for more money to come your way.
Cat or dog toys for your new furry friend, a bike bell for your new bike, friendship bracelets for a best friend, a fancy keyring before you buy the car, that little black dress before you lose the weight, etc.
Not only does this raise your vibration, but it also matches you to the energy of your intention. This shows that you trust and are on the right track.
Step 3 - How to Relax When You Leap
Whenever you take the leap it may bring up feelings of anxiety or trepidation. This is legitimate because it is only natural to fear failure the unknown, or even different results from what you want.
To ease your mind it’s important to have strategies in place. It’s important to distract yourself so that your mind isn’t dwelling on the what ifs. Your role in the process is to relax and surrender and trust the process.
After completing a spell or a ritual or even just putting your intention out there, stop thinking about the outcome. Meditate, exercise, paint, or some other activity that calms your mind
It’s important to get out of your way.
Magick is the phenomenon of something being on the tip of the tongue. When you stop trying to remember the thing, it suddenly pops into your mind. This is because your brain wants to solve the problem. It will continue thinking about it in the background.
The universe continues working to align for you in the background. Once your role in the process is complete, it’s time to leave it alone.
This is the core essence of faith: getting away from fear and walking toward transformation.
Difference Between Stupidity and Surrender
Those are the three steps involved in taking a leap of faith, believing without seeing, active faith. Now, I want to talk about the difference between this process of surrender and stupidity.
Looking back on my story about moving to Portland, it was more like jumping without a safety net but the net was forming as I fell. I did have a cousin who lived in Portland with his wife and their new baby. I was vaguely aware that they needed a nanny, which I kept in the back of my mind. And later took them up on this offer.
I loved nannying and being part of their life, but I knew it was not my goal to nanny forever. But it was smart to have a job instead of burning through my savings.
There were some family friends in town that I knew I could meet and reconnect with if I became lonely or had a hardship. And I had the reassurance of my friend joining me so I wasn’t completely alone.
My parents were willing to cosign my lease since I had no job and the landlord couldn’t understand how I would afford rent. The year leading up to my move, I had worked my butt off at two jobs and lived at home with my parents so I could save every penny of my paycheck.
All of these things are blessings and reminders that nobody does anything alone. They’re also reminders that when it comes to big leaps of faith, there is a difference between surrender and stupidity.
Surrender is important in creation but don’t throw caution to the wind without assessment and discernment.
I know I just said that you should do the thing now. But let’s walk it back a bit, now is the right time for a tiny leap. Later may be the right time for bigger leaps. Especially, if you haven’t yet gotten the hang of your power.
Check in with yourself, your thoughts, feelings and intuition surrounding this leap of faith.
Australian aboriginal culture recognizes these as three separate brains, one in the gut, one in the heart and one in the head. This idea is also found in yoga and in the idea of body, mind and spirit. And science is catching up with this idea.
The Head Brain
The first of the three brains is the obvious one. It is the head brain, and the master of processes such as thinking, perception, and cognition. It recognizes things, makes meaning of them, creates narratives and masters language.
Head based language sounds like this: “I think”, “I reckon”, or “I understand”.
The Heart Brain
The second is the heart. Ask a person where they feel an emotion, and their hand will land directly above their heart. Nobody gestures to their elbow. We know intrinsically that this is the place that processes deep emotion.
What else is the domain of the heart brain? Here lie our values, along with the process of emoting, the process of valuing and the way we feel about relationships.
Heart based language centers on “I feel” or on the expression of the deep emotions and values that lie in the heart brain.
The Gut Brain
The third is the gut. Here we find our core identity. What is me, what is not me? This is the domain of the gut brain. It is also responsible for safety and protection. Our gut is extremely important in upholding our immune system, but it also takes care of self-preservation, fear, anxiety, mobility and action.
Gut based language says things like, “it takes guts” or, “let’s do it.”
The Three Brains
Our three brains don’t always align. Like when your brain tells you one thing but your heart tells you another. Or when you’ve felt that gut instinct that told you something was off, even when your brain couldn’t spot anything wrong. Check in with yourself especially with your emotions and your intuition.
Which brain is most in control?
Often it is our head brain, likely because our language center makes it easy to translate the signal into understandable verbiage. We may fail to articulate the nagging gut instinct that tells us a situation is at odds with our sense of safety or identity. We may fail to listen to the heart and throw ourselves into something that we feel deeply wrong about.
Make sure you are being congruent with your actions and how you think and feel about them. Before you take any major leaps of faith, ask yourself why you are. If it’s for the adrenaline rush or a belief in a quick fix, take a step back. If you are having a hard time determining the root reason, meditate and listen to your brains.
Evidence of Success
Finally, it’s important to look for evidence of your success.
Spirit guides, or the universe or something will drop clues and hints that you’re on the right track. Pay attention to the environment and people around you and look for synchronicity. Journal and record what you see, be grateful for the signs.
When you succeed at consciously manifesting something, pay attention.
My confidence from successfully moving to Portland helped me take the leap of faith to move all the way to St. Petersburg, FL. I left my job that I loved packed up the cats and the irreplaceable things I could fit in our truck. I ended up spending two months with my parents in Colorado due to weddings and then a hurricane.
Dana and I moved together, but we knew literally no one beyond each other. We both had family in Tallahassee and due to Dana’s sport of choice bike polo, we have a network of ready-made friends, but we hadn’t met them yet.
Leaving my job gave me space to take a risk on expanding Mumbles & Things. Of course we had the security of his job and his income but it was unclear at the time if taking the risk on my business would pay off for us.
But over and over again I have made decisions with the faith that everything would work out. It may not be as expected or even as asked, but I knew I would receive what I wanted or something better if I just trusted in the process.
Continue your journey and share your experiences on the Mumbles and Things Facebook page.
There is a group on Facebook and it was made for you. It is a safe and supportive place for New Age* practitioners to gather and grow their personal power while encouraging one another.
If you are a newbie hoping to learn how to become a witch or are experienced and would like to learn from like-minded folks, this group is for you.
*Metaphysical, Pagan, New Age, Lightworkers, Energy Workers, Shamans, Wiccan, Neo-Pagan, Witches, Angel Workers, Healers, Psychics, Spiritualists, and so many others fall under the umbrella of "New Age."
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Now it’s your turn!
In what ways have you taken leaps of faith in your life? Is there anything in your life right now that you are feeling an intuitive nudge to take a leap of faith for? If so, what is it? What little things can you do right now to practice active faith for the realization of your goals, dreams, wishes and desires? Do any come to mind that you can do right now or within the next 24 hours?
