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Not quite what I had in mind. (letter vs. spirit)

Mordant Carnival

23:17 / 14.07.01

Does anyone else have probs with spells that sorta work, but in a slightly unhelpful way?

For example: A dark and humid Sunday night. A jobless magician is running round in circles, chanting a homemade magic word over a sigil. Her intent? That on the following Monday, she will get a new job.

The magician circles, chanting as she goes, faster and faster until finally our heroine trips over her own feet and lands on the floor. And thus, the sigil is charged.

Sure enough, Monday arvo brings a phone call from the temp agency. A new booking! Starting the following morning! Uncanny...

Tuesday finds the great and powerful sorceress picking up litter in Hyde Park (there was a fezzie there over the weekend, y'see) for five quid an hour.

For six hours.

With two ten minute breaks.

Whilst being yelled at by two moronic bosses.

In the rain.

I mean, okay, it was a job, but...

Any input gladly welcomed.

00:07 / 15.07.01

did you 'specify' what kind of job you wanted in your workings?

Mordant Carnival

15:59 / 15.07.01

Yeah. I can't recall offhand exactly what I specified, but I try not to be too vague whilst still leaving plenty of room for the fates/gods/my higher self (insert pet theroy here) to manuever. It's getting the balance right, I suppose.

15:33 / 16.07.01

I was just in a major unemployment slump at the end of 2000 and beginning of 2001. I went from a nice, well paying web job to being layed off with an industry 'crash' and no jobs to be had.

I started doing magic (and asking others less emotionally involved to do magic for me) and I started with temp jobs. Lame ones.

Really really lame ones that then turned into not so lame to pretty good to finally getting another good web contract.

It really seemed as if it was a problem with 'momentum'. My momentum started slowing down after I was layed off until it was stopped and rusted in place. It took a lot of jobs, hard work, and magic to get the momentum going again.

Use the job you've got as a 'springboard'. Do more, finelly tuned, rituals, increase the momentum until you get something you're happy with.

Just don't go backwards. When you're not sure where you're next meal is coming from any job is better than no job.

The above advice seems like it just applies to job hunting but to me it's the practical stuff like that that makes magic either succeed or fail. Keep paddling and ride the wave.

Mordant Carnival

15:19 / 17.07.01

Ta muchly, peeps, for the input. Actually I am only job-hunting to see me thru the summer as I go back to Uni and my electronics and audio course.

The rusting into place thing really struck a chord with me, tho. I 'rusted' for two and a half years, also following a period of unemployment, and it took me a hell of an effort to get unstuck.

The key things for unsticking a rusted life, I found, were focus and fearlessness. Yeah, you have to work hard, but if your energies are diffused and most importantly you are afraid of where your work might be taking you, then rusted you will stay.

L8R folks.

Mordant Carnival

17:45 / 18.07.01

Well, the thick plottens. There have been developments...

Around the time I posted my first bitching-about-work thang, I did a little working to fix it that I got something a little more congenial. Although I didn't specify it in my spell, I had in mind a lovely client who I'd temped for previously and who'd treated me very well. A day or so afterwards, the agency phones up and tells me:

1) Said lovely client wants me back.

2) the reason lovely client wants me back is because they've just had a humungous order from a really big high street store (the client deals in costume jewelery) and they have to take on a dozen new staff to fill it. They were really suprised by the size of this order since the high street store had never bought from them before. The boss was over the moon.

I was quite chuffed. Could all be coincidence of course, but it would be nice to think I helped.