Asperger Syndrome and Magic

[MagicMatt]

I was wondering if magic doesn’t work for me because I have Asperger Syndrome.

[Lux]

I was wondering if magic doesn’t work for me because I have Asperger Syndrome.

What is that makes you thinking like that?

I personally see no relation between being neurodiverse and magick that does not work. The magick does not work for a neurodiverse person for the same reasons it would not work for a neurotypical.

[MagicMatt]

I was wondering if magic doesn’t work for me because I have Asperger Syndrome.

What is that makes you thinking like that?

I personally see no relation between being neurodiverse and magick that does not work. The magick does not work for a neurodiverse person for the same reasons it would not work for a neurotypical.

Thank you. Now all I have to do is figure out why it’s not working

[Thyr]

I'm on the autistic spectrum (not diagnosed yet) and magic definitely works for me. Hyperfixation can be awesome in this field to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
What exactly do you practice? What is your goal? Your focus? What systems do you know?

[Alys-RaccoonReadings]

I'm on the autistic spectrum (not diagnosed yet) and magic definitely works for me. Hyperfixation can be awesome in this field to soak up as much knowledge as possible.
What exactly do you practice? What is your goal? Your focus? What systems do you know?

Same. I’m autistic, and it works for me. Deep interest like hyper fixation can be leveraged.

You may want to spend some time studying and defining for yourself what you think magic is and what your goals are. Most times, magic (in this reality and world, as live humans, at least) just tweaks the odds, so to speak, on what is already possible. You should not expect what I call “poof! Magic!” (Telekinesis would be a great example of what not to expect at this point.)

I often find that if I’m presented with too many options or too much information, I can’t get started on something because I can’t narrow down where to start. It’s common to get overwhelmed in this way if you are autistic or even ADHD. And overwhelm can lead to shutdown too, which will of course impact your workings and their results. To that end, if you want something systematic and virtually guaranteed to teach you the skills needed, Franz Barron’s Initiation into Hermetics can be a good option. It’s tedious, exhaustive, and…not super engagingly translated. And I think there are those who can become too dogmatic with Hermetics. But. It does tend to get the job done and it’s a clearly defined path.

[Lux]

I was wondering if magic doesn’t work for me because I have Asperger Syndrome.

What is that makes you thinking like that?

I personally see no relation between being neurodiverse and magick that does not work. The magick does not work for a neurodiverse person for the same reasons it would not work for a neurotypical.

Thank you. Now all I have to do is figure out why it’s not working

You are very welcome!
Sometimes magick just does not work (for various reasons) or sometimes it can take a while till it manifests.

[LittleBat]

Asperger's plus ADHD here, have always had issues with magick, to the point of just giving up completely, which I vastly regret now - too many years of not learning things I really should've known bit me in the butt hardcore. I think my problems are an inability to visualise well (though my spirits do now help with this as best they can!), an inability to focus hard (particularly with repetition - rituals that have to be done day after day, oh heck, that's hard to really keep putting the necessary focus into!), but I think my biggest problem is autistic stubbornness, and the fact we won't just follow doctrine because someone else says it's true - it has to make sense to us personally, or stuff it. So I can't get on with incantations that sound silly/inaccurate to me, I've never really clicked with the idea of most deities, because my brain just spins out into the bigger picture, and it's like, 'this world is a MESS, why would I bow and scrape to something that made this awful place?' - so for years I just messed around putting together my own bits of belief, eclectic in the extreme, LHP-leaning, & yeah. Bit me in the butt when I needed actual help from something bigger than me...but even now, I find I have to just focus on the very small elements of any ritual or belief system, not allow my mind to link up the whole pattern and go 'Ok so this makes no sense to me at all', which honestly is the 'truth' of all religious belief, to me, in the end - there's so much we don't/can't know, on Earth, meaning it (faith/religion) can never make solid autistic sense, in my eyes. And that is such a nightmare to try to practice magick within!

(But yeah, as others said, if your hyperfixation ends up leaning in the right direction, & you grab a LOAD of books and get stuck it, give it a month & yer'll be a wizard, Harry! ;-) ...just unfortunate that my hyperfixations haven't gone that way since I was very very young -/ )