Faith, Intention, and Perfection are three facets of a single diamond — mysticism. It is no secret that the study of magic must begin with oneself. Anyone who wishes to become a professional in any field must possess a certain level of knowledge, skill, qualification, and inner discipline. This is true of every profession, and magic, when approached as a professional practice, is no exception. It is essential to understand clearly: Faith, Intention, and Perfection are not merely beautiful words, but keys to understanding. Let us explore them in greater depth.

The magical art is entirely permeated by what you believe in. As you begin to delve deeper into it, it is worth asking yourself: who or what governs your life? The lives of those around you? Nature, and all the phenomena and events you may encounter? Everyone is free to believe in whatever most deeply corresponds to their inner nature.

At the beginning of my own path of becoming a practitioner of magic, while I was still learning, I went through many different journeys of faith. If I were to compare this path to school, then in my first year my search was especially varied: from the now well-known and, for many, overused Norse gods to deities that attract far less attention today — such as those of ancient Sumer.

I searched for myself in many different traditions, from Shinto to the beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of North America. The world is vast and diverse, and it contains far more than Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — the Abrahamic religions. There are countless other paths, mythologies, and spiritual systems.

In this way, I explored Slavic mythology and later Sumerian mythology. One of my particular favourites was Ereshkigal — the Great Lady of the Underworld, as her name may be rendered from Akkadian. Later, because I was studying — and continue to study — under my teacher, I devoted many years to the study of Christianity, particularly Eastern Orthodoxy.

The next stage in the evolution of my spirituality was Judaism. Before finally coming to understand my own faith, I travelled a long road. And you, too, may not immediately understand what it is that you truly believe.

At certain periods in our lives, our beliefs can resemble our tastes in food: today we crave something unusual, tomorrow we want a bowl of soup for lunch, and in summer almost everyone longs for something cold. Faith can change in much the same way. You may believe one thing today, but a year from now your outlook on life may have changed, your inner “tastes” may have shifted, and you may find yourself drawn towards something entirely different.

I am not speaking here of a simplistic idea such as: “I do not believe in curses, therefore they do not exist, and so I cannot be affected by them.” No. Whether you believe in them or not is another matter entirely. What I am speaking about is a profound spiritual evolution — one that you are likely to encounter on your own path.

The first step is to understand yourself and your own “tastes”. This will take more than a few months of inner work. You will need to explore different religions, beliefs, mythologies, and spiritual systems. Through this process of searching, you will gradually begin to free yourself from social conditioning and inherited limitations. One clear example is the tendency to follow the same religion for generations:

— If my parents believe in this, then I should believe in it too.
— If I went to a church, cathedral, or mosque as a child, then I should continue doing the same in adulthood.

No. And once again, no. An entire world is opening before you. You alone have the right to choose what you believe in, and the result of that choice will directly influence your studies, your development as a practitioner of magic, and the person you become as a magician. This is true magical initiation. Not the initiation rituals that people have invented in countless forms, but initiation through self-knowledge and the conscious choice of where you belong.

For example, if your path is Buddhism, you will naturally perceive this book first and foremost through a Buddhist lens. Your attention will interpret what is written through a Buddhist framework of understanding. For this reason, as you read, it is best to observe both yourself and the book as though from the outside. In this way, you will develop the ability to observe, while your own “I” will be less likely to colour the entire process too strongly.

In your search for yourself and your faith, always seek depth. For example, if you become interested in something exotic, make sure it is accessible to study, analysis, and practical understanding, rather than being limited to myths alone. Your faith should be something you can explore more deeply at any time — through books, original sources, and perhaps even visits to religious sites connected with the tradition you have chosen.

Not so long ago, Slavic paganism, ideas of ancestral lineage, and everything associated with them were widely popular in Ukraine. Yet most people failed to notice that, in many cases, what they were dealing with was not an authentic ancient tradition, but a modern invention or a form of New Age spirituality, connected with antiquity mainly through the use of Slavic names for deities.

The person who played a major role in popularising this new religious movement relied on a forgery known as the Book of Veles. This is not even to mention the fact that it was within this same milieu that the concept of so-called “Slavic runes” emerged, along with the claim that the book itself had been written in them. Why is this a fiction?

Because during the spread and establishment of Christianity in the Slavic lands, sanctuaries dedicated to the old gods were destroyed and churches were built in their place. Sources that might have preserved information about the pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavs were also destroyed.

For this very reason, only the tip of the iceberg has survived from authentic Slavic paganism as a living religious system. Most of the rest is New Age reconstruction, lacking genuine depth and a serious historical foundation. In many ways, this part of history resembles the period of Roman rule in Britain. Roman authority also gradually displaced local Celtic religious forms, disrupted the existing order, and brought sacred space under new cultural and political influences. Much as would later happen in the lands of Kyivan Rus’, sanctuaries disappeared, along with traditions, oral lines of transmission, and sources that might have shed light not only on the social and cultural world of the time, but on the faith itself.

As in so many similar cases, only echoes have survived to the present day: myths, folktales, legends, and later literary adaptations. And while the Book of Veles remains a forgery, works such as The Mabinogion and The Cattle Raid of Cooley are valuable records of tradition — Welsh tales and an Irish epic that allow us, at least in part, to draw closer to the beliefs of the ancient peoples of Britain and Ireland.

I have raised the question of primary sources deliberately, so that the reader can see and understand that some religious movements may simply lack the depth required for serious study. The same cannot be said of the Abrahamic religions, Hinduism, and other major spiritual traditions, which are supported by centuries of texts, schools of thought, interpretations, philosophy, and living practice. It is this depth that you must learn to seek and recognise before moving further along your own path of spiritual development.

Along the path of your magical development, you will inevitably encounter a lack of reliable information. And if you do not learn to distinguish authentic sources from later additions and reinterpretations, this can have a damaging effect on your spiritual development. There is always a risk of encountering misinformation, accepting it as truth, and building your entire future path upon it.

As I have already said, I spent a considerable amount of time within Eastern Orthodoxy and later moved towards Judaism, because in my case this choice formed part of my training and reflected the religious views of my teacher. This is precisely why I say that studying under a genuine teacher is far more valuable than following the path of a self-taught practitioner. But if you choose the first path, be careful.

Today, there is far too much inaccurate, distorted, and superficial information. Everywhere you look, there are teachers, mentors, and guides — and that fact alone should raise certain questions. Especially when behind the grand words there is neither deep experience, nor maturity, nor years spent walking the Path. In any case, genuine teachers are not found on social media.

Eastern Orthodoxy contains a number of ritual practices that are easier to approach and understand — what I call forms of lower magic. Lower magic is not necessarily connected with harmful or negative acts. Far from it. It is called “lower” because there is also higher magic — something that stands above ordinary incantations, candles lit for health, and everyday ritual practices. It is towards higher magic that one should always strive.

Higher magic reveals how the physical world and the magical world are structured — two worlds that exist inseparably. It shows how influence upon physical matter becomes possible, and why some rituals work for you while others do not.

When I reflect on matters of faith, I do so without attaching them to religious fanaticism. It is important to understand that, in choosing a faith, a magician should not fall into religious extremes. There is no need to withdraw into a monastery, enter closed religious structures, or submit to systems that demand complete self-renunciation. What matters is finding something that genuinely reflects your view of the world — something that brings you a sense of inner harmony.

You should seek a religion or spiritual tradition in which nothing oppresses you and nothing forces you to act against your own nature. Even if the tradition you choose requires you to fast, you will be able to do so without suffering, simply because the practice will resonate with your inner world and you will understand its purpose.

It is important to understand that one cannot practise magic — or truly become a magician, witch, or sorcerer — without a certain degree of self-sacrifice and some distance from society. If you see a “witch” who is excessively social, constantly interacting with the public, frequently appearing in public places, endlessly streaming and broadcasting live, gathering crowds around themselves, and remaining permanently visible, be prepared for the possibility that you are most likely looking at an ordinary person rather than a witch, magician, or sorcerer.

As you go deeper into mysticism, you will often develop stronger critical thinking and a greater ability to analyse the events, people, and processes unfolding around you. But there is something that is rarely spoken about: a practitioner gradually loses the desire to scatter themselves across society.

During this period, qualities associated with introversion begin to develop. A person feels an increasing need to spend more time alone — in silence, perhaps somewhere in nature — in order to think more clearly, observe, analyse, and feel more deeply what is happening around them. As magical skills develop, the desire to invest oneself fully in social life gradually begins to disappear. And this is a positive sign of magical development, because mysticism most often belongs to the realm of deeply hidden knowledge. Believe me, when you begin to understand certain magical theories, the desire to carry them out into the wider world gradually fades. You no longer feel the same need to prove yourself, assert your ego, or seek validation from others.

Over many years of practice, I have never met a single person who truly possessed real ability and, at the same time, lived as a constant chatterbox, forever talking and displaying themselves. Most likely, you will not meet such people either. The relationship between family life and magic should also be taken into account. Ideally, the family should share the magical path to some degree. If one partner is a practitioner while the other remains completely removed from mysticism, family life can give rise to many misunderstandings and conflicts — and they do not always end well.

And finally, where should you begin your search for faith? Start with something simple: buy a comprehensive dictionary of mythology. Do not resist, and allow destiny to play its part. Simply walk the Path, paying close attention to everything that unfolds both around you and within you. And this is where we arrive at the next important concept — Intention.

Let us consider a simple example of what Intention is. Imagine that you are lying on the sofa, relaxing and watching your favourite film. At some point, you suddenly realise that you want something sweet. Then this vague desire becomes more specific: you decide to bake a cake. You realise that you will need flour, yeast, jam, and a few other ingredients. Some of them are missing, so you make a decision: you will get up, go to the shop, and buy everything you need.

A little later, you are already back home, kneading the dough, preparing the filling, and putting the cake into the oven. Gradually, the pleasant smell of baking fills the house, and you wait for the moment when you can finally take the finished cake out of the oven. So, the desire arose at the moment you realised that you wanted something sweet. Then you gave that desire a specific form: you decided that what you wanted was a cake. But Intention appeared later — at the moment when you clearly decided that you would do whatever was necessary to fulfil your desire: get up from the sofa, go to the shop, buy the ingredients, and bake the cake.

Desire says: “I want.”
Intention says: “I will do what is necessary to make what I desire a reality.”
Only then does action begin.

It is essential to understand that Intention is the driving force behind desire. In mysticism, without Intention, a magician, witch, or any other practitioner can accomplish nothing. Yet the same is true in ordinary life: a person without Intention merely exists rather than truly lives. We all want something, but we do not always direct our energy towards making our desires a reality. Those desires that we manage to bring out of the realm of thought and into reality are, to a great extent, fulfilled through Intention.

“Thoughts are material” is a familiar phrase that conceals yet another aspect of this principle. When we truly desire something for a long time, when that desire takes root within us and is not directed towards harming others, what we long for sometimes does indeed enter our lives. This is partly connected with the Intention to receive what we desire. But there is another, subtler side — one that belongs to the realm of higher magic and, more precisely, to the principles of Receiving and Giving. Now bring Faith and Intention together and see what emerges. By uniting two facets of the mystical diamond, we arrive at the third — Perfection.

Perfection in the world of magic means constant work upon oneself. Once we have come to understand Faith and acquired Intention, the next stage begins — the refinement of the self. The search for magical knowledge, the cultivation of will, and the development of thought, discipline, and personal abilities all arise from the union of the three facets of our diamond.

At a certain stage of magical development, anyone who is progressing along the right path begins to seek out and absorb knowledge like a sponge. A particular kind of intellectual hunger emerges — a constant need to read, study, analyse, reflect, and penetrate ever deeper. It can be compared to a vampire who needs blood to satisfy its hunger. Only in our case, the blood is knowledge.

The more you learn, the stronger the hunger becomes. Every truth you discover gives rise to new questions, and every answer opens the door to an even deeper layer of knowledge. As we absorb information, we develop our ability to think critically and analyse — especially when the same subject is presented differently in different sources, and sometimes in ways that directly contradict one another. As you continue to refine yourself and analyse what you read in different books on magic, always ask yourself one question: How closely does this correspond to reality?

Take, for example, the pentacles from Papus’s Practical Magic. Why should they work at all? What is their effect based on? And if they do not work, why not? To answer these questions, you will have to go deeper, search for sources, compare information, and separate genuine knowledge from false assumptions. In turn, this will give you new knowledge and skills that are essential to your magical profession. In the past, things were simpler when it came to magical literature. Around ten years ago, bookshelves were filled with all kinds of works — from copies of old grimoires to books on bioenergy, extrasensory perception, and other subjects. Today, the situation has changed. In some ways, it has become better; in others, worse.

Better — because certain kinds of information are gradually disappearing, information that perhaps was never meant to become available to every uninitiated person. Worse — because the space they left behind has been filled with masses of superficial and entirely useless literature: so-called digital psychology, endless coaches, pseudo-spiritual mentors, and other nonsense that offers neither depth nor genuine knowledge.

In the process of your own Perfection, develop your magical mind. Study different schools of philosophy, explore Hermetic philosophy and other traditions capable of expanding your understanding of the world. This is valuable. Constant reading, comparing ideas, and analysing different systems develop analytical thinking and teach you to see beyond what lies on the surface.