Does magic work if you don't believe in it?

[Bantu_Kelani]

With regard to the magic aspect of traditional African religion, does it work if a person doesn't believe in it? That is, if you are trying to work magic on someone and they don't believe in traditional African spirituality, can you work magic on them?

B.K

[Maya]

I think it does work .
Somebody practised this kind of magic on me and it worked .
It's not I didn't believe but I wasn't aware of the spirits' power. Although in my homeland we have spirits beliefs too , I was completely fresh and new to those practices .
I am not allowed to write all details of that magic thing from the past .

Maya .

[Bantu_Kelani]

Where are you from if you don't mind me asking and who performed magic that was effective on you? The magical practices of Sub-Saharan Africans affect the most. If you take magic with amusement I’m not sure you have any experiences, symptoms, or consequence. There is absolutely a difference of magical practice between black people and white people. Who was the initiate who called on the spirits for you a black or a white person?

B.K

[Oshun_Auset]

With regard to the magic aspect of traditional African religion, does it work if a person doesn't believe in it? That is, if you are trying to work magic on someone and they don't believe in traditional African spirituality, can you work magic on them?

B.K

IMO it only matters what the practitioner wills on the subject of their conjuring. Not what the subject believes. Although if the subject is also a  believer it can only be beneficial.

My best friend and I did an Ifa healing ceremony for her boyfriend's brother. He was in a severe car accident with internal bleeding. He had been in the hospital for months with an intestinal infection that traditional medicine did not cure. He is a non-church going Christian and even had the pastor of his church pray over him several times(he didn't reallly get spiritual until he was told he may not make it). He just continued to get worse. The doctors had given him 72 hrs to live. My best friend came to me, she is somewhat new to Ifa, and we consulted my Babalawo. We did the ceremony, in a week he was out of the hospital and now he is almost completely better, and the doctors and his family couldn't figure out why. We still have to cointinue with the ceremony until he is completely healed. Then we will be finished.  Some non-believers may write it off as coincidence...I don't.

[Bantu_Kelani]

Thanks for your testimony sister Oshun Auset, it seems like the healing ceremonies really work for you friend. It means that uninitiated people who don’t’ respect partnership with the spirits can still be empowered with Ashe and be healthier than before! In this case a shamanic priest can really hurt someone even he doesn’t subscribe to ancient belief system. I just get irritated when so many people are vindictive about magic, calling it perverse or senseless.

B.K

[Maya]

 If you take magic with amusement I’m not sure you have any experiences, symptoms, or consequence. There is absolutely a difference of magical practice between black people and white people. Who was the initiate who called on the spirits for you a black or a white person?

The person who called spirits on me was Black . Actually , there were more than one person there . Everybody Black .
I didn't take it with amusement . I was pregnant and had serious health problems .

At that time I wasn't aware of that kind of power . I'm not and I wasn't at that time religious person in a conventional way . ( I mean , I do not belong to any congregation of any church ) .

Bantu Kelani , I will send you private message because I feel I'm not allowed to discuss details of those things on the open forum .

M.

[Maya]

Bantu Kelani , I just sent you a private message .
M.

[QitQat]

It's like flicking a light switch; if the necessary elements are properly arranged, it works.  Belief doesn't factor into it because Magick is a science.  It doesn't seem so to some because it incorporates the science of the ethereal realms as well and linear people have a very limited access to those spheres.  

[Bantu_Kelani]

It's like flicking a light switch; if the necessary elements are properly arranged, it works.  Belief doesn't factor into it because Magick is a science.  It doesn't seem so to some because it incorporates the science of the ethereal realms as well and linear people have a very limited access to those spheres.  

Magic includes the power of the shaman, the spirit, and the client. The spirit has as much "character" as living people. The spirit cannot help if it is not respected. So to use the world science here is a bit incorrect.

B.K