You Cannot Do Magic Wrong: Rejecting Gatekeeping and Magical Elitism (Episode 4)
In Episode 4 of The Seven: Living with the Planets, Lucy Baldwin explores a topic that quietly blocks more spiritual practice than almost anything else:
Magical elitism.
The idea that magic belongs to specialists, that you need perfect credentials, or that you can only begin once you have mastered the “correct” tradition.
Lucy rejects this completely.
This episode is an invitation to a different orientation: magic as lived relationship, intuitive practice, and direct participation in mystery.
Watch Episode 4 of The Seven here:
Key Takeaways
In this episode, Lucy explores:
Why occult gatekeeping distorts the heart of magic
The difference between scholarship and practice
Why you do not need permission to begin
How the inner critic disguises itself as “doing it right”
Magic as relationship, not performance
The Problem of Magical Elitism
Many people approach magic with unnecessary fear.
They worry:
Am I doing this wrong?
Do I need a specific tradition?
Do I need years of study before I’m allowed to begin?
What if I make a mistake?
Lucy names this as a form of spiritual gatekeeping.
When magic becomes an academic superiority contest, it loses its soul.
Magic is not meant to be a hierarchy.
It is meant to be lived.
Scholarship Is Not the Same as Practice
Lucy draws an important distinction:
Studying the history of magic is not the same thing as doing magic.
You can read endlessly, collect correspondences, memorize rituals, and still remain at a distance from the actual encounter.
Magic begins when you participate.
When you light the candle.
When you speak the prayer.
When you enter relationship with symbol, psyche, and planetary intelligence.
You Cannot Do Magic Wrong
A central message of this episode is liberating:
You cannot do magic wrong in the way people fear.
Magic is not a brittle technical exam.
It is symbolic communication.
It is attention.
It is devotion.
Of course skill deepens over time, but the doorway is not locked behind perfection.
The doorway is available now.
Traditional Rituals Are Tools, Not Requirements
Lucy acknowledges the existence of formal ceremonial practices and structured magical systems.
These can be powerful tools.
But they are not the entrance fee.
You do not need to perform magic in an approved way to be real.
The planet does not demand credentials.
The psyche does not require elitism.
The mystery responds to sincerity.
Magic as Relationship
Lucy returns again and again to the heart of her approach:
Planetary magic is relationship.
It is not about domination or aesthetic performance.
It is about learning how to live with archetypal forces consciously:
Saturn as structure
Venus as love
Mercury as mind
Jupiter as blessing
This is the work of The Seven.
Not magical elitism.
Living contact.
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Hello, I'm Lucy Baldwin. Welcome to another episode of The Seven, Living with the Planets. Today I am going to dive into something maybe a little bit controversial, maybe a little bit critical, ⁓ but I think it's actually really important because...
There's something that I see a lot in the world of magic and I want to name it and I want to call it out and I want to tell you, don't listen. So there's a lot of people, believe it or not, who are in the world of magic and the esoteric and the occult who take a very academic sort of scholarship approach to studying magic and also practicing it.
And a lot of these people like to portray the idea that there is a correct interpretation and an incorrect interpretation and that there is a right way to do magic and a wrong way to do magic and that there are certain things that if you don't understand them that you are a lesser magician or that you are somehow
not going to be as powerful as they are, or you're not going to be able to do it right. I disagree with all of that 110 % because, well, I've been in this world for a while. I've seen a lot of this. I have myself gotten into arguments with people about interpretations of things.
And I'm a little bit embarrassed about that because that was really dumb. I've come to really see over time after having been swept up in it myself that the truth of magic and what I hope to convey to you over this podcast and if you take my courses
We're always magic is a tool a way of communicating with ourselves. It's a it's a form of communicating with our unconscious to our psyche. It's it's actually a path of personal OK, so it is true that.
just to kind of steel man the other side here. It is true that, you know, there's a reason why I talk about the planets. This whole podcast is the premise is we're talking about planetary magic in the planets. And that's because these planets they have archetypes and they have patterns and known qualities and energies and
they're these archetypes that carry with them certain flavors. And we can tap into those flavors and ride the wave of them, right? And we can use that, and we can let that wave carry us where we're trying to get. So we can use those archetypes that are powerful because they're ancient, because they're well known, because a lot of people over a long time
have connected with them. And so it creates these grooves that we can use. We can sled down the groove and get where we're trying to go, to use a different but similar metaphor. similarly, there are certain practices, spiritual practices, sorry, magical practices. They're kind of like, this is more considered like ceremonial magic, it can be called. ⁓
This is like the LBRP, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. There's a lot of practices like this. There's the Middle Pillar. There's the Greater Hexagram. There's the Lesser Hexagram. There's the Supreme Pentagram. There are a lot of these practices and there's great books and they'll teach you these practices. ⁓ But the idea, and ⁓ so continuing on my little steel man here of the other side, because these practices have been done,
and for a long time by a lot of people. They also have deep grooves and they also can be very powerful and they were created with lot of intention. And there's a lot of symbolism baked into them that you don't even need to understand because by going through the motions, you are signaling to your unconscious, which does understand these symbols. ⁓ And you're gonna get the benefits of those practices. And that's why I've done those practices a lot and occasionally I recommend them.
However, the usefulness of that is not to say that that is the only way to do magic. I mean, that would just be ludicrous because that's entirely untrue. That is just one tool that we can use. It's kind of like when, I don't know if you notice this at all, like in the nutrition, supplement world, every supplement is presented as sort of like do or die. You know, it's like, this is the one thing that's gonna...
do it for you and this is the one thing that's like necessary to be healthy. that's kind of how they want you to think about whatever their supplement is that they're trying to sell you. Well, it's kind of the same thing with these practices. But taking it even further, I feel like a lot of times these people, like I see people criticizing other people because they're not interpreting it properly.
I mean, some of the stuff that these people are interpreting, by the way, was written many decades ago by people who were most likely on drugs. And we're spending a lot of effort and time trying to interpret what they were saying. And we have this notion that we know better than other people when we get into this kind of mindset. And I strongly disagree with that. And I think that, you know,
First of all, I disagree with that in the sense ⁓ that whoever wrote that actually knows more about what I should do today than me, because magic is an intuitive art. is so much of magic is learning. Like what we're learning in magic and what I'm talking about in teaching is like getting in touch with your own intuition, learning to trust yourself.
And of course, like I'll teach about the archetypes because those are so helpful and I, you know, we want to ride those waves and we want to connect with those, those energies and forces and, and archetypes so that we can, benefit from what they bring into our lives. But the idea that there's a, an incorrect way to do magic or
that if you don't know this sort of gated knowledge, because something that I also wanna convey here is we're arguing about ⁓ rituals and things that happened.
I don't know, many tens of years ago, and it varies, ⁓ that were secret. At the time, they were secret. And we're like a hundred years later with even way more limited access and knowledge, thinking that we know what they meant and thinking that we know better and that we know what they were doing. I just, a lot of it is really boring.
in my opinion, if you, hey, good important caveat here, if you're interested in this kind of thing and you're interested in history and you like scholarship, then by all means, read about, read books that people wrote hundreds of years ago that to me, they make no sense. I'm just like a normal generic person. I'm like a ⁓ normal person and I don't have the...
just the attention span, quite frankly, to read things that require a lot of interpretation. I just, don't have, I don't have the bandwidth for that. And I've tried reading those things and they provide zero value to my life. But if I was interested in that, then that would make sense for me. ⁓ What I disagree with here is then coming out online or somewhere,
and acting as though, because I've read those boring books, that I know more than you, I'm more magical than you, I have some secret information that you can't have. It's a weird superiority thing, and it really rhymes with academia. It's this kind of gatekeeping, trying to put ourselves on a pedestal, competitive kind of thing.
What I find in the courses that I teach that is part of what I love about this and the community that I've built is everybody's cheering each other on because every time somebody's magic works, we're all excited because we're reminded yet again that magic is real and that's exciting and it's juicy and it inspires us and it makes us feel good. It makes us feel connected and it makes us feel like, yeah, this does work and this can work and it can happen to me too.
⁓ So this is not common. There's like a few people and you see it on Reddit and you see it on people who are just like putting themselves up as these like sort of gurus that are in the magic knowing. And I think, know, one of the... Like I had this friend who she was a participant in our mystery school and
in the Mystery School, do rituals and the idea of Mystery School, which I think we kind of like maybe lost sight of a little bit as we went on, but the idea is like, you're not teaching it intellectually. You're not talking about magic. Like magic is not an intellectual art. It's an intuitive art and it's something that you do. So to like over intellectualize it is to completely miss the forest for the trees. And I think that's kind of the central point that I've been
trying to point to here is like, it's not an intellectual endeavor. Magic, ⁓ so studying magic can be an intellectual endeavor. Studying history can be an intellectual endeavor. know, getting into like occult esoteric history and all of that stuff is completely different from doing magic. And what I'm talking about here with you guys is doing magic because you can do magic. You have the power to do magic. You don't need some special knowledge.
So anyways, this person, good friend of mine, who went through this program, was telling me, like, she was basically like, I don't know anything about magic. Like, I'm just so, I'm not in the know and blah And she was clearly very self-conscious about that. And I was just like, this is wrong. This is wrong. Like, you went through the Mystery School and the whole point of a Mystery School is to experience the rituals and the symbols of the rituals.
to go through that and to receive the wisdom that cannot be conveyed through words. It cannot be transmitted through language. That's the whole point. So you go through a ritual, which is just a whole hypnotic sort of experience of filled with layers of symbols, and you receive the wisdom and you don't
have to tell it because you can't tell it because it cannot be told. So if somebody thinks, if somebody's telling you some of these things, like there's certain, there's certain things, like not all of it, you know, there's a lot that we can talk about, but like the mystery that mystery schools are pointing to is a mystery, because it cannot be explained.
And thus it stays the mystery. We call it the great mystery. ⁓ So I just think that this is really important. have another friend who was talking to me about her magic and she was like, I don't really do rituals. It's just sort of this intuitive process. And I don't know if I'm doing it right. And again, it's like, you are doing it right. You are doing it right. The rituals and the stuff that I teach is a starting point. It's a framework.
that you can take what works and leave the rest. And yeah, I talk about the deities because I want to encourage you to dive into them and I give you a means through which to connect with them. And I think that that is really important and I see how much it helps people. ⁓ But something that I just find myself saying on repeat over and over and over is like, you can't do it wrong. You can't do it wrong. You're not doing it wrong. Just go with your intuition. Go with your gut. What feels right to you.
This is my answer to like, I don't know half the questions that come up in my courses Because that's what it's all about. So the idea I just want to completely kill the idea that some guy who wrote Something about magic a hundred years ago because he was part of some cool group back then the idea that he knows more about what you should be doing with your magic right now is
false. And we should all just move on from that because the magic that because magic is something that all of us are doing all the time. Magic is something that is innate to us. And when we're learning about magic, and we're practicing magic, we're just getting better at communicating with ourselves with our own selves.
more clearly. We're getting better at aligning the symbols with what we want to create in our lives. We're getting better at ⁓ holding capacity. We're getting better at following our intuition. We're getting better at unraveling the beliefs and the identities that we're carrying that we want to let go of. ⁓ We're getting better at
Calling in the different energies that we want to call in at the right moment in time. We're getting better at trusting the timing We're getting better at receiving we're getting better at like showing up for ourselves and loving ourselves and caring for ourselves and not ⁓ listening to our inner critic and we're getting better at imagining the realities that we want to bring in and we're getting better at knowing what we desire and there's so much that we're doing when we when we do this work of practicing
magic and working with the planets. ⁓ But none of it is ever like putting what somebody else is telling us over our own intuition, over our own understanding of ourselves, because it's all about your relationship with yourself at the end of the day. That's what magic is pointing to. That's what you're doing. That's what you're honing. That's the craft. ⁓ yeah, this big like comparing of
The idea that you could even compare that one person could have more magic or be more magical. doesn't work like that. We all have the same amount of magic. We can build capacity. That's kind of like building power. We can build our willingness to be uncomfortable and we can grow through that. ⁓ But it's very fundamental.
It's kind of like you can't measure consciousness. You can't measure how much consciousness a person has. We don't even know what consciousness is. And magic is kind of one of the ways that we interface with our consciousness. We all have that ability. And I just want to say it again and again and again. And I know that some of you need to hear it a lot of times. So that's part of why I'm doing that. ⁓ But yeah, I think I'm just kind of over the intellectualization of magic. For me, I'm kind of over it.
⁓ If you want to go down that path, have a great time, but don't think that it will make you more powerful or give you, you know, it's a distraction and it's an ego trap because it's not going to make you better than anyone else. It's not going to make you more powerful. you might have more insight into what the rituals mean, but I actually, I think there's a good argument for our case to be made that
it's possible that if you over understand it, you kind of can block yourself from receiving it. Sort of like in hypnosis, when you're trying to hypnotize somebody, if they know what you're doing, they can filter it. They can sort of block the message from getting through. it's... Magic is a form of hypnosis, especially when we're doing rituals that were created a long time ago and we're just following that groove. So...
by getting too in our heads about it, we actually block the message from getting through, I believe. ⁓ yeah, that's actually taking it even a step further. But ⁓ yeah, don't let people trick you into thinking that you are not the master of your own magic and that you're the master of your own mind. And ⁓ remember that you hold the power and...
Yeah. And thank you for watching this podcast. This is the end of what I had to share today. And I'll probably keep coming back to this again and again and again, because I'm just really bored of that whole like magic guru vibe and this whole idea of like the weird ego, pedestalization, which kind of, again, totally misses the point. ⁓ And, you know,
I hope that you'll come to, so I hope that you'll click on the link in the description and come to join my free membership and come to our calls. ⁓ If you're already in Inner Circle, then I hope that you'll come to the ritual this month. We have a ritual every month. It's free and it's really great. It's not like low quality free. It's like high quality free. So yeah, I host a ritual every month.
And I also have ⁓ calls that we do that are connection calls. So we play Hot Seats and we do a couple other connection games. And it's really cool because these games, ⁓ it's kind of like you're doing shadow work, but you're having fun while you're doing it. And you're connecting with other people and these games build capacity. And I'll talk a lot about capacity because it's a big theme here for me and what I teach.
And so if you're on my podcast, you'll hear a lots of that. And I hope that you'll stick around for the next episode and I hope that you'll keep listening. And I hope that you will give me five stars and let me know what you think in the reviews of this or in the comments if you're on YouTube. Thank you so much and have a fantastic, awesome, wonderful day.
New to this work?
Start with Lucy Baldwin’s complete Planetary Magic overview here:
This episode is part of the broader planetary practice explored in The Seven.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need formal training to practice planetary magic?
No. Planetary magic begins with relationship, attention, and simple ritual practice. Skill grows over time, but you do not need permission to start.
Can I do ritual incorrectly?
Ritual is symbolic communication. The deeper question is sincerity and relationship, not perfection or technical performance.
Are traditional ceremonial rituals required?
No. Formal systems can be helpful tools, but they are not mandatory. The doorway is practice, not elitism.
What is the main message of this episode?
Magic is not reserved for specialists. Gatekeeping distorts the heart of the work. You are allowed to begin.
Next Steps
If this episode resonated, continue with the foundational teachings in The Seven, and begin experimenting with simple planetary relationship:
a candle
an intention
a planetary focus
consistency over time
New episodes are released weekly.