What are everyone's views on intention when it comes to the craft?

[Accipeveldare]

I've always had quite a strict way of setting intention when making a spell or sigil. For example, if I'm making a sigil for financial prosperity I don't write "I want money" or "I will gain financially soon" because in my opinion the universe might take it too literally and just give me extra paid hours at work as a means to gain more money. So instead, I write it in present tense. For example, "I am financially stable" or "I have an abundance of money" and the universe is more likely to respond to that in the way I intend. Any insight?

 

[Xenophon]

Old Nordic spells were commonly written in the past tense. This was to give them an air of "it's as good as done." I incorporate this in a private rendition of the Voluspa Prophecy. "...far in the forest there grows an herb/ Slender and fair mistletoe/ From that slender fair-seeming sprig/ Will come the deadly dart Hodr did hurl..." Likewise, in Hellenistic Greek, by the time the Gospels were written, the aorist tense (often mis-styled the simple past tense) had become the expected tense. That is, one had to have a reason for using another tense. Something like how, in English, the expected tense is the present. By using the aorist, the writer signals he views the deed as complete. The closest we can come in English is some variety of past tense.

Still, that use might seem presumptuous. One could worry that the cosmos might opine, "If it's done already, why ask me?" If this is your concern, go with the present tense. I reckon that it's a question here of what best focuses your intent.

 

[HoldAll]

Jason Miller explores this question in his "Elements of Spellcrafting" (Ch. 6, "Future or Present Tense?" section) and he uses prosperity as an example as well (spoiler alert: Miller argues against using the present tense). Miller is moderately famous for recommending dividing up big goals into subgoals or seperate stages leading up to the one Big Result. Saying "I am financially stable" when you patently aren't would be too abrupt a step for my liking and I'd be afraid my subconsciousness wouldn't buy such a bold statement because it's simply too outrageous given my present situation. It's what I don't like about affirmations as advocated by NewAge writers, all that forced chirpy optimism - I'm much too cynical for that.

However, I would be able to stretch my capacity for suspending disbelief for statements like "I am becoming more and more financially stable", additionally incorporating the way this financial stability should come about (which is tricky with a chaos sigil where short and simple sentences are best IMO). Of course this runs counter to the philosophy of that school of thought which warns against limiting the universe or whatever in the way your magic is supposed to specifically happen but then you would run the risk of being saddled with extra work hours, for example, like you mentioned.

In short, I would focus on the process of reaching a given goal, and this is why I have become a bit disillusioned with chaos sigils - they are fine for specific short-term results but rubbish when it comes to more general and open-ended positive developments (but that may be just me). Furthermore, I'd subdivide your end result of financial stability into seperate subgoals, for example spending behaviour, sources of income, awareness of day-to-day bank account balance and credit card statements, etc., where you can be a bit more specific instead of trustingly leaving everything in the hands of fate and a supposedly caring universe.

I remember one cartoon (in Jason Miller's book?) where the magician loudly declares "I have a million dollars!" as his statement of intent, and the spirit goes "Yeah whatever, dude" and does exactly nothing. That one gave me pause...

 

[Djnenas]

Well, intention is EVERYTHING. I learned early in my life to keep my mouth shut cause i dont have to even walk to my altar to make a petition or do a spell... if i say it with the right intent...my eyes see it. My elements get off balance very easily. And that causes lots of backlash when i get wronged. I am Taurus with ascending Cancer and descending Gemini... I guess its part of where the madness comes??? Keeping your elements on check is crucial for any practice and your mental wellbeing as well. But intention....yes, INTENTION IS EVERYTHING.