Wizards For Hire? Options

Expertise in any sort of occult path requires a significant commitment of time and effort. There are dozens of books to be read over countless hours, and a great deal of work to be done no matter what sort of spells and rituals you have chosen to pursue. Anyone who has actually done these things could be reasonably considered an occult expert of some sort, if not a bona fide magician worthy of esteem. The amount of study and work required is at least equivalent to what one would put into a collegiate degree or professional training in a trade.

Certainly a person of modest means and intelligence, given the inclination, could learn to practice his or her own magic; but these people could also learn to do the other jobs for which professionals are called. Do you install your own electricity and plumbing, fix your radiator, style your hair, and evaluate the condition of your father's prostate gland? I doubt it, and no one would expect it if you did: professional assistance is warranted and even recommended.

Where, then, do you stand on the subject of hiring an occult professional?

If you had no occult practices of your own, would you hire such an individual? Upon what conditions or criteria would you do so?

Under what conditions would you undertake paid magical work, and to what extent? How would you determine the appropriate fees?

Personally I would not charge for occult services no matter what the price or the request. I strive to set magical goals that are productive enough in their own right, without the need to sell the same service to others. If I feel that someone else warrants my help, I give it freely. If requested for intervention, I say "no" and then either do it anyway or ignore it completely, at my discretion.

I believe that a magician should be independent, at least to the extent that he or she is not reduced to drooling over the possibility of a hand-out. We ought to be in charge over what we choose to conjure for ourselves and for others, so that we make happen what we think is best instead of what we expect to be paid for doing. Obviously this is only my opinion though, as there are many people who are happy to sell any old thing as long it makes money, and I wouldn't really hold it against them for earning a living.

One of the biggest differences I can see in hiring a magician versus hiring a plumber is that you can be relatively certain that the plumber will actually come over and install pipes. With magicians, especially online or by mail-order, there is no such guarantee, and I have known many to simply collect client checks and laugh about it, without any intention to do the spell or ritual at all. The customer complains, and inevitably the fault is pinned on the customer for failure to comply with some obscure terms of the original deal. Selling services as a spell-caster or spirit-conjurer is, by and large, the business of frauds and is rightly made illegal in many civilized nations.

If I were to hire a magician, I would first ask whether or not he or she had previously conjured for the same sort of problem in the past. This is obviously no guarantee, but it will give an impression of how the conjuror presents his or her work. If he says he cures cancer or reunites lovers, I want examples. I would also never, under any condition, pay before the spell or whatever has satisfied the original conditions under which I agreed to pay. Notarized agreements to pay, or maybe even some sort of escrow, might be appropriate; but giving money (especially a lot of money) before the fact is pretty stupid without a very good reason.

I should mention here that while I am skeptical of conjurors, I have seen magicians of many paths cure diseases, help in personal relationships, bring financial favor, and all the other things the same fake magicians promise. These things are not rare or exclusive practices hoarded by elsuive authentic magicians: they are basic goals of most magicial traditions worldwide. I would not dismiss the for-hire sorcerers out of hand for simply charging for their services, but it would be ignorant to deny that there are problems in this business.

I think a lot of people pay the spell-casting frauds because they feel as though there might be a chance that these scam artists are legitimate. It is very often a case of excess cash and insufficient intelligence on the part of the customer. Amusingly, when the big scam spell-casters are caught, many of their former clients (some of whom have paid tens of thousands of dollars) refuse to come forward to accuse them of fraud either out of embarrassment or out of fear of the fake wizards.

Has anyone here ever paid for magical work to be done? What did you pay, what did you request, and how did it go?

I have never paid for magickal work, but if I were going to, I would ask for references. It follows that many clients wouldn't want to give a reference out of embarrassment for having consulted a 'wizard' in the first place, but if a magician-for-hire gives good services to paying clients, then there should be no reason that they couldn't provide references. Of course, then there's the very clever charlatan who not only doesn't pull of a successful magickal stunt, but then actually convinces the paying client that it did indeed go off - not the way expected, but to an ultimately beneficial effect. So it's a tangled web to get into in the first place no doubt.

But I think the average individual has no idea what kinds of questions to ask in most cases. An IT guy can bu**sh*t a problem, followed by an equally fallacious solution, and get the ignorant customer to pay for it all anyway, no questions asked, with a bit of relief on their part - for having fixed an imaginary security issue for instance. I know a business man who does just this thing in order to cover unexpected expenses, bonuses, etc., with his company.

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to charge for magickal services, though. I didn't charge for energy work originally, but when I started making a real impact with my clients, on both a physical and psychological level, I did make it a part of my general business. I have put years of work into what I can do now, and while I originally thought it was something anyone can just 'do', comparing present to past results has shown me that while everyone may be capable of it - just as we're all capable of learning programming or carpentry, some with greater ease though they may - it does require dedication, education, and practical experience to refine it into a skill.

And I think the same should go for other magickal work. It would be unethical entirely to read a few books on magick, do some daily rituals, and then start taking clients - your capabilities are untested and you can't possibly be sure that you can actually cause results for any and all claims, or even specialized requests. However, I see no harm in doing it for free for a while as you learn to produce dependable results. And if in the future there is some hitch and you fail, you should either refund the payment, or expect no payment.

Effective magick is a skill that requires years of dedicated effort. Doing magick for yourself is more difficult, in my experience - and I may simply be lacking - than doing magick for others. Then there is a question of general morality in magick and your own feelings on what you would do for yourself vs. what you would do for others - if you would rain down magickal vengeance upon your own foes, or magickally entice a lover to your side, then you shouldn't do it for anyone else. While a magician may act on someone else's behalf - and they have, in almost all cultures, since time immemorial in one form or another, and for one form of compensation or another - the karmic debt incurred is his own, if there be such a thing, and not the client's. Some people are unscrupulous in their ambitions when someone else is carrying out the dirty work.

Under what conditions would you undertake paid magical work, and to what extent? How would you determine the appropriate fees?

I believe that a magician should be independent, at least to the extent that he or she is not reduced to drooling over the possibility of a hand-out. We ought to be in charge over what we choose to conjure for ourselves and for others, so that we make happen what we think is best instead of what we expect to be paid for doing.

At the moment I undertake magickal work for friends and family only, and the conditions don't involve any kind of fee, but it is something I have considered for later in life in conjunction with other more lucrative endeavors. But it seems to me that any magickal request can be handled ethically - from money, to love, to trouble with the Joneses. When working for those who know me, I make it clear that everything that comes to pass is done so in the most peaceful and harmless way as possible, even though this may sometimes take a little more time. Some people want outright vengeance, but it's safer and kinder to simply resolve a dispute than to rain fire and brimstone down on someone. Turn an enemy into a friend; help a person learn to be ready for love rather than enchant the object of their lust; create opportunities for money rather than rigging a raise or a bet, etc. Almost everyone is going to ask for one of these three things. Healing is a different matter, of course, it's nearly impossible to ask for such a thing with animosity at it's root. As for the appropriate fees - my instinct is to say, ask for a reasonable donation, what the client feels the results are worth. However, in many cases they'll give you a 20, assuming that you needed to do no more than utter a few barbarous words over a pile of incense and funny drawings. Or, ask for it in barter - a favor for a favor. This is a more practical solution to the fee system in my opinion, at least if magick is not your one and only lucrative skill. You can always promise to take away what was granted if the client reneges, and that is completely possible if it's within the bounds of your personal ethics.

However, most people prefer to simply deal in cash directly. Were I in such a position, it would depend on what they want, when they want it, and how specific they are. Spellwork should cost less than evocation, as it's less dangerous to the magician, and arguably more subtle in it's effects. Evocation should depend on the spirit, and a client should be, in my opinion, somewhat 'in on' the process at least to the point that they understand what's being done and through what channels - it takes only the most elementary educational chat to get them to understand. They might incur the cost of any arcane ingredients - which I think should still be found, collected, and/or prepared by the magician. THe most expensive thing a client could ask for would be to be present during an evocation - whether out of curiosity or to see that it is accomplished. Effectively done, they'll more than likely come back and give referrals.

A good magician doesn't need to charge for his services, though, in the end. So why work for others at all? I think that for one, it spreads the belief in magick in general, which - despite the fact that most would abuse and debase magickal knowledge if it were such a common thing (which you'd think it would be with all the books now out on the subject...) - I personally think is good for the human race in general; secondly it is a way for us to use our skills for the benefit of others in some way, after all a person of any other trade skill employs that skill to become a contributor to his community, and being a magician typically involves a wide variety of knowledges and skills that are employable sometimes exclusively to the practice of magick or divination. Last of all, the contribution a magician will ultimately make to the world will rely almost solely on his notoriety - the same can be said for any other man, and this is gained by recognition as an effective member of whatever field one is associated with. For a scholar, this is in teaching, for a technician it is in building and fixing things, etc. For a magician, it is accomplishing magickal work - and precious few people will ever know of the magickal work you do for yourself. Almost all of the classical magicians whose names are still known were so noted for their contributions to, depending on the time period, the local townspeople, the regional nobles, etc. While it seems on the lower end an ego thing - and the desire to make such a contribution can be selfish or selfless, depending on the root of that desire - advancements are not made by keeping one's notes, history, and results to oneself. For that matter, you may inspire a few individuals to take up the path themselves. And to inspire others more than assures your place in the books, if you follow through.

In the end, I have mixed feelings about the issue. Any skill can be employed by another unskilled in that profession, and it does only make sense to do so. Such employment should come with some compensation in most cases. If material results are expected, then some material should be exchanged, I feel. On the other hand, a magician who can produce dependable results for others is, I feel, a rare thing, and one should not take money for such endeavors until they are 100% certain that they will achieve the requested results 100% of the time.

That's my 50 cents.

Peace