Few misconceptions in Magick

It takes years of dedicated practice to obtain results

Well, it takes years, decades, sometimes even lifetimes to obtain mastery in Magick, true indeed. But you don't need to be a master to have results, results are usually granted along the path, first result can be obtained in range of days.

Practitioner must believe in God

God that requires faith is not God worth the faith, you don't need to believe in anything supernatural to practice Magick and any faith-related Magick can be easily adapted to suit your needs

There is only "this" way of doing things

There are currently 7 billion of people with individualistic needs, desires, thought processing and talents. Thinking that there is only one way to do Magick is silly, Magick is limited just by limitation of practitioner's imagination.

Chakras do/do not exist

This is a bit hard topic so let me explain in greater detail. There are information from many clairvoyant people, some that do see chakras and some that do not.
This topic is usually explained by chakras being a metaphysical constructs created by "gurus" and implanted to their students through faith and concentration.
My apprentice was never interested in chakras and I never forced that idea to him. Once during our session I have noticed his crown chakra and touched it. He felt the touch as a very real and quite disturbing, I also managed to slightly displace his chakra, but that's a bit different story, now.
From my story you can see that my apprentice had no way how to get this construct implanted, which means it was there to begin with, so where is the truth? Why do some clairvoyant people see chakras and some do not?

Answer is simple. There are different layers of our reality and chakras are not part of every of them, I would say that there are actually very few layers containing chakras as we know them, only clairvoyance adapted to such layer can perceive chakras and only Magician vibrating in such layer can work with them.
Most important thing of this story is: You don't need to work with chakras unless you see them, no requirement in there.

Practitioner needs specific elemental energy to cause the desired change

First of all, energy is just one, but in many different shades. Shades are funny thing to begin with, as these are not specific to objective laws, but to specific subconsciousness.
Elementalists perceive elemental energies, astro magicians perceive planetary energies, necromancers perceive life versus death essences and every one of them can easily work and distinguish their native energies.
Point is that the elementalist, when he needs to eg cast a spell to improve his memory, will use Air element because Air element is associated with memory, intelligence, etc. He can easily say what shade of energy is of Air element and how to use it.
In reality you are subconsciously selecting shades of energy that are easiest to manipulate for the given task and this shade of energy is subconsciously attributed to correspondence list you know (eg elements).
If we were to filter our sub-c from the process and work directly with shades of energy, we would find out it is an impossible task for our brain to process such subtle data, sub-c has a leading role in this process, translating into correspondences we know just shades we need and in form that we understand.
Without elemental practice you won't perceive elements, you won't understand elements and you won't be able to use elements because there are no elements for you. Same applies to planetary energies, life and death essences, etc.

Practitioner must be initiated by master/temple to obtain magickal faculties

Misconception and lie, nothing else. I am used to say this quite often, but let me repeat myself: Magick is our birth right. We were created with everything we need for Magick, good master will just show us the door, bad master will blind us with a lot of moral garbage and then he will lead us through the same door with blinded sight.

Astral projection is dangerous for beginners

This lie is actually very dangerous because a beginner that spontaneously astral projects while having this in mind, surely will get into some trouble. There is only one enemy in Astral, our own mind. During astral projection your mind gets power over matter. Power that is our birth right, power that is dangerous for weak minds that are damaged by this dogma. Throw the dogma away. Throw away the idea that astral projection is dangerous for you. Throw away the idea that some entity can harm you in Astral and throw away the idea that you can die in Astral, and you will project without any problems.
One more tip:
During Astral projection, all our senses (subtle and physical) are enhanced, you can hear very weak noise being actually multiplied and you can perceive actions of undeveloped entities with such intensity that these can scare you.
Don't worry about that, this happens around you normally, you usually just don't perceive it with such intensity, just don't put your attention into these noises. Projecting might seem scary, but when you are already in Astral, everything is completely fine and returned to normal with your only threat being your expectations.

You need to know all the theory before you start practicing

 Simply no. You need to take few deep breaths, man up, and start practicing, don't delay the funny part, don't read about the process, be part of the process.

Incorrect energy work can harm you

If you believe in this, then it really can harm you. Same hint as with Astral projection applies. Throw away your fears and old dogmas and you will find yourself as winners.
Common premise in this misconception is that there is some energy body that works with energy and this energy body can be harmed by the energy work. Energy body is in fact just perception, our highest form of being is our mind, your thought has a power over energy, your mind has power over your whole life, your mind is eternal and absolute state of being and only thing that can harm your mind and thus your body is your mind (or mind of a more skilled practitioner, but we will talk about that later)

Curses can harm you

Very complex topic. There are real curses and there are false curses. False curses are the most common ones, based just on psychology, harming your mind from inside. These curses will get you just if you open the door, just if you start questioning yourself.
Real curses are potent mind spells. Only mind with stronger willpower and inhuman concentration can attack another mind in such manner and I can assure you that you will never find a person on the internet that would attack you in such manner. Simply because they either do not have the skill or they will never have the reason to do so, such practitioner will never give a damn about your existence and making such person angry is usually impossible on your state.

Request #1: Magick is only for gifted people

This is partly a misunderstanding of old grimoires and partly a mental masturbation of some practitioners with low self-esteem. As I already said, Magick is our birth right. I myself have lived for 22 years as a complete skeptic and atheist, during my practice I have recalled few mysterious childhood memories I have suppressed during my life but everyone has such stories.
Usually when I meet someone new and I am introduced as a Magician (which I do not like, please respect my privacy), I usually get into occult talk and during such talk the person I just met usually recalls one or more of such stories from their childhood too. These stories can contain aura vision, astral projection, prophetic dreams or even breathing under water. These memories are usually suppressed because the brain cannot process them with current information, but everyone have them.
Except these few memories I have lived pretty average mundane life, actually during my earlier life my intuition sucked in the most horrible way and my opinions about occult were rather arrogant and blind.
After that I encountered an occult problem that had to be solved with occult solution, that opened my eyes and a completely new world appeared before me.
But one thing is true, you cannot practice Magick if you don't have deep roots in physical plane, or better said, you have to have solid background in this world before you can explore the new one. That's why old grimoires were talking about long spiritual journey and a lot of items that normal person cannot afford, having obtained worldly riches was usually considered a sign of being successful in this world, to be having your own place on this plane.
So, Magician never lives in his parents' basement (unless he/she moved back to help them financially or because of health reasons) and Magician is usually very independent.

Request #2: Learning curve is same for everyone

I've got two separate requests regarding gifted people so I have considered to take is as another request.
Yes, gifted people do really exist. Their gifts are usually granted from previous lives or from family bloodline. Sometimes they simply have a natural talent without any apparent reason.
But most important of all, every person is a completely unique individual with different needs and desires, with different dispositions. Some may need weeks to master a technique that a different folk will master in a couple of minutes, same as someone will learn to play guitar in a hour and someone else will need months to learn one song.

Final words

Just remember that your mind is your strongest weapon and your most fearful enemy, christian Hell is nothing compared to what your subconsciousness can cause to you, don't let yourself be leashed into dangerous dogmas and let me know if I omitted some topic, I will gladly update this article.

Recent update - summary

Well, I guess I haven't posted anything in a while so here is a quick update:
1) I got mesmerized by idea of creating a servitor for energy accumulation (I got this idea from MrBlack, so, thank you for that).
I have created a servitor with ability to accumulate energy from elements, planets, trees, rivers, Earth's core (interesting energy), recently I ordered him to learn how to gather healing energy (funny results with that, but I will describe it later) and how to pass the energy to someone else through his symbol (haven't tried that one, yet).

Anyway, I would rate it as a good idea as opposed to what some teachers at TDS thought.

I have created a formula to remember all dreams, this formula (even with my servitor's help) is still in process of charging.
My original idea was to remember all dreams when I woke up, for now it works more like I wake up after every 2 dreams, but if you wanted to try it anyway, the formula is TAVOMAP INKHESHU INIS. Repeat it in your head till you fall asleep.

I also bought an encyclopedia of astrology (original name Dictionnaire pratique d'Astrologie) by Catherine Aubier. Very good book. Information is sorted by terms and first part of the book lists basic terms a new astrologer should know, perfect for hobbyists. It is also first book I have ever found that doesn't only talk about meaning of houses but also shows how to calculate them and put them on the zodiac chart.

Currently I am in process of development of what I call "Whistle Magick".
If you ever heard about chakra singing or something like that you will grab the concept quickly. Point is to start whistling while having some sort of intention in your mind. Intention can be something specific like healing someone who is in range to hear the whistling or something as general as having a good mood.

Advantage is that you can use this for on-street Magick where you have no time to set up a ritual or draw a sigil.

Little update

Do you want a mysterious and powerful grimoire that is able to show you secrets you didn't know?
Take a blank book, pen, and write!
Write inside your notes, your rituals, your dreams, ideas, whatever. Write date for every entry and make a symbol to distinguish whether the entry is a note, ritual, dream, use the symbols.
Reading it a year or two later, you will find out a lot of things. You will find out what person you were, how much you developed, you can also make connections between your practice, between your dreams and between your personality.

Note to Self:
Next time you want to write down your dream so your 2 years older future Self can use it as an advantage, and you have a very big urge to write it down as "I had a very very strange dream about a dog", be so kind and SLAP YOURSELF!

Simple Sumerian Banishing Ritual

In this simple ritual we will call two entities that were given to Marduk.
Nariluggaldimmerankia, guardian of Igigi and Annunaki, enemy of all maskim and rabishu, and we will also call Asaruludu, ruler of the flame sword, giver of the perfect defense.

I am a bit tired now to give any more details, so here we go:
1) Face north and take a couple of deep breaths
2) Center and ground yourself (as described in How to begin with practical Magick article)
3) Call the word of Nariluggaldimmerankia, the word is BANRABISHU. Call this word to each direction, when you are done, turn back to north. This should clean the space of all negative energy, no matter if it consisted of negative emotions like anger, fear, frustration, negative entities like demons, larvae or some curse.
4) Call the word of Asaruludu. Proceed the same way as in step 3, call his word in each direction. His word is BANMASKIM.
5) Enjoy the effects.

This ritual is very simple, words of power can be easily memorized and the whole procedure takes just a couple of moments. It's perfect ritual to perform before you go to sleep, protecting you during the night and letting you wake up very energetic and happy.

Quick update

My recent dive into necromancy already started paying off. Omnipresence of death is very interesting, let's see if I can make a working paradigm out of this.

Absence

I am taking some time off to practice fully, I should be fully back till September.

Magickal wood cutting

I had to cut some very hard wood this morning. Cutting each piece was very time consuming and I quickly ran out of stamina.

After few pieces I went for a coffee and cigarette and to get some stamina back. During the break I thought for myself: "Screw it, I am Magician".

I went back, grabbed the axe, put it above my head and started with following incantation:

"O, Spirits of physical strength, I summon thee. Come to my place and charge this axe with your power so it can cut through wood more effectively. Come to my place and grant me strength.
Wood, be aware of the power of spirits of physical strength. Be aware of the power of this axe".

After that, cutting the wood changed into child's play. No matter how hard the wood was, few hits was everything I needed, hardly even getting wet.

In the middle of cutting, my girlfriend came to ask me if I was tired and found a good pile of cut wood. I asked her if she wants to try and she also didn't have any problem with cutting few pieces.