As I enter the fifth decade of magickal practice I look around me and wonder how so many that profess to have what it takes to be proficient in this practice actually totally lack the foundations that constitute the very basics of magickal learning.
I have had five mentors in different areas of this science, myself having been gifted from a very young age, yet today magicians seem to sprout out of nowhere and self-proclaim themselves to be the next best thing since sliced bread. No wonder most of them end up searching for their being in mental asylums.
Carl Jung defines psychosis as a violent unleashing of the subconscious mind upon the conscious self. I find the keyword here to be violent. When you work with magick, you are working closely with the subconscious mind and if your mind is in a fragile state, you may not be able to weather the trials you face and that can take tolls on the mind. With that said, magick is the single most important thing in my life and helps me mostly by bringing meaning to all I do.
EVERYTHING you do in life has consequences. If you need to be careful when using a knife, operating heavy machinery or driving a car (trivial enough but potentially dangerous tasks involving stuff you have a solid comprehension of), it stands to reason that you need to be even wiser and more careful in your approach to something of which you, as a human, cannot have a total comprehension - let alone total control.
Manifestation doesn't happen via a direct channel with your conscious mind. There's the sub/unconscious to reckon with, and it works in far more obscure ways than the conscious mind. If a practitioner doesn't gain a firm and balanced grasp of their inner self through serious shadow work and only see magick as an easy back-alley fix to get what they want, they're in for some trouble.
As for destabilizing yourself, there are several ways in which it could happen, including but not limited to attracting unwanted energies and entities or gaining a distorted vision of yourself and the outer world that will hinder your path rather than facilitate your progression.
Some think that you need to study magick in depth before dabbling, but I think that the first, more fundamental step into studying magick is studying yourself. It requires a lot of soul searching and responsibility. Also remember that even the most harmless, positive spell done with the best intentions and the recipient's consent can sometimes backfire.
Correctly done witchcraft no matter what the type is about putting your energy into an outcome. To get the result you want you need to be focused and have no doubts about what you want and what will be achieved. Words and ingredients are secondary to the energy you have towards the situation you are trying to affect. This CAN be hard on the mental health.
Being unseated can happen upon gaining knowledge that shakes your worldview or internal understanding of yourself, for example, much like anything else that can have that effect. The self is fragile, and so is the world around us; that's the nature of the beast.
All magick has risk. Whatever you will to happen in your spell will happen. The problem is that the universe tends to take the path of least resistance. So, if you wish to get a million dollars, you might end up getting hit by a car and winning a lawsuit instead of the lottery.
Careful what you wish for!
Ain Soph Aur - Patrick Gaffiero
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