Motivational Psychology and Wicca

Motivational psychology is one of my favorite subsections of psychology. In 1996 I received an Associate’s Degree with honors in Chemical Dependency Counseling or Addiction Therapy as it is currently called. I worked for several years as a counselor for different agencies and continue to work on my bachelor’s degree as time and money allow. When Cat and I first started going through the coven book of shadows, I was surprised that she included a section on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as a part of understanding underlying issues of the need for ritual and spell work and why they sometimes bomb or hopefully succeed. In recovery we talk a lot about what is our motivation to change our life, transform it completely by not giving into our addiction and why we may need to change our inner world so that the outer changes can be made. My first mentor, June, focused equally on Maslow as she did on the twelve step program of AA to help folks make the connections they needed as a part of their recovery. Magic, as one definition states, is the art and science of creating change. Ritual workings and spells are some of the tools we use to help our lizard brain get over itself and grow into a new way of thinking, perceiving and doing things. For Maslow, the over arching goal is self actualization or the continual process of self fulfillment or the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. i.e. one person to express themselves athletically or another person to express themselves through art etc… The basic structure of the hierarchy of needs focuses on 1. Biological and physical needs for air, food, shelter, water, warmth, sex, sleep etc. 2. Safety Needs i.e protection from the elements, physical security and emotional security. 3. Social needs i.e sense of belonging and compassion. 4. Esteem needs; self esteem, mastery, etc.. 5. Self actualization. In Wicca we strive to live in harmony with the natural cycles around us each according to our abilities. The motivation for most types of spell work comes down to one of those needs not being met be it a search for a lover or turning the lover into a toad (social needs) to any of the number of prosperity spells for biological and physical needs to protection spells for safety needs. Earlier, I made the distinction between spell and ritual working. Spells to me mean that I am doing something that is affecting my outer circumstances like the ones mentioned in the last paragraph. Ritual workings then are about changing my inner thoughts and world to help manifest a better physical world. For example, I have a ritual from Family Spirit by Awo Folokun that is designed to change self esteem and inner tapes from negative to positive. I perform it at least once every 6 month cycle. When I am asking the universe for an additional boyfriend or more money coming in to pay off a bill that is a spell. Why most magic flops for people is that they are usually not clear within themselves what they really need to have happen (working or spell) and they are usually not having patience for their issue to manifest. Harkening back to the last post with clear intent you need faith and patience to manifest your desired vision. Unless of course you’re interfering in the free will of someone else but that is an entirely different conversation of morals and ethics in magic. With that, gentle readers, I have a pug that is napping next to me and I am sorely tempted to join her. I hope this was helpful in some way. Blessed Be!