Magick and Working With Deities

I am constantly learning about magick, working with deities, and how to intermingle the two.  There is one hang up that I continue to come across and I'd like to see if I can talk it out with myself through this post.

I have learned that while working magick, you can't just hope that what you want will manifest itself because you wish it will be so; you have to command the energy you harness and bend it to your will.  Basically, I've learned that magick takes force; one cannot be timid in their attempt to work magick.  I can see why this may be so, and because of it I can also see why the Rede is so important.

On the other hand, I've learned that you do not command deities.  To work with deities, it is polite to request their presence and/or their assistance.  Also, if you work magick "in the name of insert deity's name here," you better know for certain that the work you are doing will actually bring honor to that deity's reputation.  Apparently, gods and goddesses don't like it when you tarnish the name they've made for themselves (or the name other cultures have made for them).

This makes working magick a little tricky in my mind.  I find it confusing because I'm used to relying on God completely to create change in my life.  While I've always believed "God helps those who help themselves," I was also taught that God has a plan for your life and to trust in Him completely.  To me, that kind of meant that what God sent my way in life was what God was giving me to achieve his plan for my life, and how I dealt with what he gave me was my way of helping myself.

In this new spirituality I'm exploring, deities don't exactly work that way.  I guess I almost feel like I have to ask a deity's permission to use magick, and then I don't feel very forceful doing it because the action relied on someone's permission.


I need to have more faith in myself.  My feeling of being helpless without a deity sounds a little crazy in my head.  I guess I understand how atheists might view Christians, relying on a god like a security blanket.


So what I got out of this post was that I need to work on having more faith in myself and not being afraid of angering a deity and subsequently being struck down.