Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Own Your True Intent
Before acting, strip away the polite, socially acceptable version of a desire and name what you actually want — including the angry, selfish, or ‘baneful’ part — then consciously decide and own full responsibility for whatever you choose to do.
Own your true intent: Before you act, write the polite version of what you want — then push past it to what you really want, including the ugly part. Feel and name it without flinching and without acting. See the meaning you’ve assigned as yours, not fact. Then decide, consciously, what you’ll do — and own it fully, no excuses. Read honestly: this is self-honesty and responsibility-taking, and its biggest payoff is that owning a destructive impulse is usually the reason you choose not to act on it. Awareness is not licence.
What it is
Dorothy Morrison’s most bracing contribution is not a spell but a demand for self-honesty. In Utterly Wicked, by treating the full spectrum of intention — including hexes and curses — frankly, she forces the practitioner past the comfortable, sanitised version of a desire to the real one underneath, and then insists they own it.
Reviewers note the book “forces readers to a new level of self-responsibility and spiritual introspection” and is “for those ready to own that action and take responsibility for it.” The practice, then, is a piece of shadow and values work: before you do anything — a working, a confrontation, a major choice — you ask what you actually want (not what you’re supposed to want), you look squarely at the angry, selfish, or vengeful part instead of dressing it up, and then you consciously decide what you will do and accept full responsibility for it.
Read honestly, this is self-deception-reduction and responsibility-taking — and, crucially, the place where owning a destructive impulse most often leads to choosing not to act on it.
The Method
A representative Morrison-style intent inquiry:
- State the surface wish. Write down what you’d say out loud — the polite, defensible version of what you want.
- Ask what you really want. Push past it: what’s the raw motive — to win, to be vindicated, to make someone hurt the way you hurt, to be safe, to be chosen? Name it plainly, without euphemism. This is the shadow material most people skip.
- Feel it without flinching or acting. Let the real feeling and wish be fully acknowledged — including if it’s ugly. Acknowledging is not the same as approving or doing.
- Name the meaning you’re assigning. Notice the story you’ve put on the situation — “they wronged me,” “I deserve this” — and recognise it as your interpretation, not fixed fact (Only Love Is Real). This is where much of the heat usually drains out.
- Choose deliberately, and own it. Decide what you will actually do. If you proceed, you do so with eyes open and full responsibility — no “the magic made me,” no disclaiming the choice. If you don’t, that too is a conscious, owned decision.
- Carry the ownership into action. Whatever you choose — a working, a hard conversation, walking away — you act from a clear, owned intent rather than a muddled or denied one (The Inner Creates the Outer). (Sourcing note: a faithful summary of Morrison’s emphasis in Utterly Wicked on self-honesty about true intent and full personal responsibility for one’s magical and ethical choices. The reflective steps above are a representative inquiry, not a quoted ritual.)
Source & Lineage
Dorothy Morrison (b. 1955), an elder of the Georgian tradition of Wicca, wrote Utterly Wicked (2007) as an unusually frank treatment of baneful magic.
Its real subject is responsibility: by refusing to pretend that witches never feel anger or never wish harm, Morrison confronts the reader with the necessity of knowing their own true intent and owning the consequences of any choice.
This honesty about the full range of human motive — and the insistence that the practitioner, not the spell, carries responsibility — marks her distinctive voice in popular witchcraft. → originator node.
The Traditions' versions
The move — bring the real, often disowned motive into the light and take conscious responsibility for it — is core shadow work; Morrison’s version is distinctive for its blunt, results-magic framing and its honesty about anger and vengeance:
- Owning your shadow (Robert A. Johnson) — reclaiming the disowned, projected parts of the self.
- Confronting the shadow (Jung) — making the dark, repressed material conscious so it stops running you.,
- The Witches’ Pyramid (RavenWolf) — the inner powers (to know, will, dare, keep silent) a witch cultivates; Morrison instead drills the single hardest one: honest self-knowledge of intent.
- Daily self-examination (William Law) — the devotional habit of honestly reviewing one’s true motives.
- Reclaiming the authentic “no” (Gabor Maté) — honouring the suppressed true impulse instead of the people-pleasing surface one.
Common refinements
Stopping at the polite version. If the named intent is still flattering and defensible, you probably haven’t reached the real one.
- Confusing acknowledging with approving. Feeling and naming an ugly wish is awareness; it is not permission to act on it.
- Owning as a licence to harm. Morrison’s “take responsibility” means bear the weight of the choice — which usually argues for restraint, not for going ahead.
- Skipping the meaning step. Without seeing the interpretation as yours (Only Love Is Real), the inquiry just rehearses grievance.
- Doing it while flooded. Run this from enough calm to think; if you’re in a rage, regulate firstsafety).