Timespan after a working
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I've long thought that judging causation is entirely the wrong approach.
I first concluded this after observing that, time after time, I'd put off performing the magick until a juncture that - at the time, or in the aftermath - things were about to turn in my selected direction anyway.
If these observations are sound (and there's a pretty good chance they are, since they were recurrent and I'm a pretty good observer of my own psyche and life), then the most causation could be attributed to the magick would be my high-level selecting to move in the direction the stream was starting to flow.
This has so many implications that an essay/article could be written on their consideration alone.
I think the point is that we are to just do magick, and just hurl ourselves into the universe, expressing ourselves and externalizing self-expression, throwing ourselves against a wall - without lust of result. It's not about magick causing something to happen, but about living a magical life in unfolding True Will (in fact, using feedback from the universe constantly to instruct us on our own nature and how it intersects with the universe.)
For purposes of the record, the proper attitude, I think, is to note, when purposeful magick is done, whether the objective occurred; but to attach causation is to abide in lust of result. During the ritual one must usually, unconditionally, be committed to an outcome with every ounce of one's being; and then, when it is included, move on with life.