Sorry for the late response, I’ve been busy with some other things I’ve been doing. I have some ideas, but I don’t know for sure.

My first guess would be that you might believe there’s something inherently wrong about helping yourself, that it might be selfish to do so. This is a common tenet held by a lot of magical belief systems and it works it’s way into the general culture. Generally speaking, this is phrased as something like “Don’t cast spells for personal gain.” I think this grew out of the idea that casting spells to harm others is bad. I agree that hurting others is bad. However, this changed to not doing things for personal gain because, commonly, it’s perceived that one person’s gain is another person’s loss. If you feel this way, you may subconsciously sabotage your spell because on some level you feel it’s wrong. I don’t know if this is how you feel or not, it’s just one possible guess that I see is pretty common. If this is the case, you just have to realize and convince yourself that it’s ok to help yourself too, so long as you aren’t hurting anyone else.

Another possibility, assuming magic happens through intention manifestation, is that you believe it’s easier to make good things happen to others than it is to make them happen for yourself. This belief would then make it easier for you to allow things to happen for other people than it is to allow them to happen for yourself. Then, when you see things work out that way, it would reinforce your belief that this is true. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any logical way to break through this, as it would have to happen on an emotional level since that’s where belief seems to reside.

Also, I want to note the phrase “I can do nothing for myself.” Whether magic works through IM or energy manipulation, this thought won’t help when casting spells. If using IM, this will be read as one of your intentions, so you’d end up manifesting doing nothing… which is not productive when you want something to happen. If using energy manipulation, this will imprint on the energy, with a similar effect. I know you may just be using this to communicate a point, in which case you may not need to hear this. However, if you’re thinking this while performing magic, it is a detriment and something that I would advise finding a way to change. That isn’t to say that changing this will make a spell work. But it will prevent you from sabotaging one that would have worked if not pulled apart by that thought.

I hope this helps you in some way. Good luck.

However, before you seek out someone else’s help in magical areas, I would strongly advise that you make sure there aren’t psychological or other mundane reasons for your current feelings about there being negative entities around. There are lots of people who think they have negative entity problem when it’s all mental, either due to blowing bad feelings out of proportion or sometimes actual mental illness.

Speaking of illness though, if you feel physically ill, see a doctor before you do anything else. Doctors know best when it comes to physical illnesses. And if that turns out to be the problem, then you know there was a physical cause, not an entity.

However, if you find, after ruling out all other causes, you’re still having a problem, there are people who may be able to help you, though they’ll likely run through a list of things you can try yourself first.

One of the things that may be suggested is smudging your home with incense to purify it. I personally never liked the idea of using smoke to purify, and I’ve never done it and I’m not sure of the specifics, but it might be something to look into if the entities are hanging around your home specifically.

If they seem to be hanging more around you, you might consider a ritual cleansing bath of some kind. Again, I don’t know the specifics on that, but it would be an option to look into in order to deal with it yourself if there is a real issue with negative entities.

If you seek help from others, look out for people who are a little too willing to remove curses for lots of money. While everyone wants to earn some money for services provided, this is an easy market for people to run scams as well, and you want to make sure anyone you do business with is trustworthy. Don’t just hand your money over to anyone, do some research and be as certain as you can be that you’re dealing with someone legitimate.

Regardless of what your issue turns out to be, good luck.

Particularly of note is if you’re having some kind of medical issue, seek help from a trained medical professional.

That said, I would still encourage you to learn about magic. You’ve obviously read what I’ve written here, but you might like to check out some of the links I provided in the post as well. I think you’ll find the Astral Society forums particularly useful in that regard. But be sure to deal with your current problem first, then worry about magic after that.