Your Word Is Your Wand summary

The spoken word is a wand of magic and power. Waved over any unhappy condition, it brings joy where there was sorrow, health where there was sickness and plenty where there was lack. Shinn shows this first with a woman who owns only two dollars. Shinn blesses the money and declares that her purse is the magic purse of the Spirit, crammed and jammed with abundance. In her faith the woman gives away one of her two dollars, and soon a great gift follows. Shinn explains that the imaging faculty is the creative faculty. Words should be chosen because they flash a picture of fulfillment into the mind, never because they force a visualization. Knowing the Truth of a situation means seeing that there is no Truth in lack or limitation. Fear, anger and resentment break down body and circumstance, so mastery comes from holding the emotions steady and staying calm while appearances are against you. The chapter closes at sea, where a woman speaks to a dense fog and gives thanks for the sun. From that scene comes the lesson that every person can lift the fog of lack in money, love, happiness or health.

Success comes through the right word, one that sinks into the subconscious and moves it to act. Shinn shows this in two cases from her practice. A man seeking his right work hears that the open door of destiny is set before him, and he is unmoved until she adds that no man can shut it because it is nailed back. That picture takes hold of him, and within weeks a wonderful position comes to him in another city. A woman on a small salary follows a sudden hunch to open a Tearoom and Candy Shop. She speaks the word for the supply she does not have, and the shop fills from its first day. On a holiday her assistants expect to be idle, but she declares that God is her supply and every day is a good day, and an old friend pays a hundred dollars for one box of candy. A long series of affirmations follows for daily use. They declare that there is no competition on the Spiritual plane, that there are no lost opportunities in Divine Mind, that obstacles become stepping-stones, and that God's plan for each life cannot be budged.

Every person comes into the world financed by God, with all that is desired or required already lying on the path ahead. This supply is released through faith and the Spoken Word, for to the one who believes, all things are possible. Shinn shows the law at work in a woman with no experience who wanted a good position on the stage. She took one affirmation, calling herself an irresistible magnet for all that belonged to her by Divine Right, and repeated it hundreds of times until she was given a very important part in a successful opera. Shinn then gives a sequence of prosperity affirmations for daily use. They speak of free channels and open doors, of the gold-mine within, of ships coming in over a calm sea, and of spending money wisely and without fear, knowing that God is the immediate and endless supply.

Happiness is earned through perfect control of the emotional nature. Fear, apprehension and dread shut it out, while perfect faith in God brings security: the one who knows an invincible power protects him and all he loves, and brings every righteous desire of the heart, lets go of nervous tension and stays undisturbed by adverse appearances. Shinn names anger, resentment, ill-will, jealousy and revenge as the thieves of happiness that bring sickness, failure and poverty after them. She tells of a woman whose resentment over her husband's will formed gall-stones in her body, and who regained her splendid health once she became forgiving. The chapter ends with affirmations of permanent, God-given joy for daily use.

In reality there is only oneness. The fear that so often comes with love, the dread of a rival who will take the beloved away, grows out of a belief in duality, and whatever interference is visualized will come. Shinn names this figure "the other woman," a myth carried in the back of the mind, and sees that it is hard for a woman to picture herself loved by the man she loves. The remedy is to impress the truth of oneness on the subconscious mind. Shinn gives affirmations for this: union with the Undivided One, and so with undivided love and happiness; the Light of the Christ wiping out fear, doubt, anger and resentment; Divine Love dissolving every seeming obstacle; the apparent enemy becoming a friend; and the flood gates of good opening.

A marriage stands only on oneness of thought. Thought is a vibratory force, and each person is drawn toward their own thought creations. When husband and wife live in different thought worlds they drift apart, however happy they look. Shinn tells of a man whose tastes rose with his success while his wife stayed in a limited consciousness. He bought from the best shops and she haunted the Five and Ten Cent Stores. He lived in thought on Fifth Avenue and she on Third, and the break came. Shinn then teaches that every person has an "other half," a divine selection, and that the two are one in thought because the same Divine Plan is held in the superconscious mind of each. These are the ones God has joined together, and no one can part them. The chapter closes with an affirmation giving thanks that the marriage made in heaven now shows itself on earth.

Forgiveness is a law, and anyone who calls on it is set free from mistakes and from what those mistakes would otherwise bring. Shinn puts the teaching into four short affirmations. The first works both ways: whoever forgives everyone is forgiven by everyone, and then the gates swing open for their good. The second calls on the law of forgiveness directly and places the speaker under grace instead of karmic law. The third takes up the scriptural promise that scarlet mistakes are washed whiter than snow. The last rests everything on the Kingdom: whatever did not happen there never happened anywhere, so an error has no lasting reality and no power to hold back one's good.

Faith must have nerve. It acts on the hunch, does the fearless thing and refuses to let the reasoning mind argue it out of its leap. Shinn gathers her teaching into short sayings meant to be carried through the day. Supply comes before demand, God works through unexpected people and times, and the dawn never fails, however dark the hour. She joins this boldness to a law of conduct. Loving your neighbor means never limiting him in word, thought or deed. What you do for others you do for yourself, and anger, deceit and selfishness bring their own unhappy return. Evil has no power and comes to nothing, while poise draws the good that fear and impatience drive away. Shinn closes on freedom: all bondage is an illusion, there is always a way out under grace, and Infinite Spirit is never too late.

Hope looks forward, but faith knows it has already received and acts accordingly. Shinn opens by setting the two side by side and holds that active faith shows itself in preparation, in digging ditches for the thing asked for, and that this preparation is what brings the demonstration to pass. A student's challenge about Hope Chests that never lead to marriage gives her the answer at the heart of the chapter: it is a Hope Chest and not a Faith Chest. She adds a second law. A demonstration is not to be spoken of until it has jelled on the outer plane, for the doubts and wishes of others work against it, and so the Faith Chest is kept from the public eye while the word is spoken for Divine Selection. The chapter then closes in a long run of affirmations for daily use: obstacles become spring boards, appearances move before the one who is unmoved by them, what is rightfully one's own is drawn as by a magnetic cord, and the fields are already white with the harvest.

There is no loss in Divine Mind. Any loss in a person's affairs shows a belief of loss held in the subconscious mind, and once that false belief is erased, the article or its equivalent appears on the external. Shinn illustrates this with a woman who lost a silver pencil in a theatre and could not recover it. She denied loss with a spoken affirmation, and weeks later a friend offered her a gold pencil from Tiffany's worth fifty dollars. Her surprised cry, that the silver pencil was not good enough for her, leads to the chapter's law: man can lose only what is not his by Divine Right, or what is not good enough for him. Shinn closes with two affirmations for daily use, declaring that nothing rightfully one's own can be lost and that whatever is missing will be restored or replaced by its equivalent.

Debt in either direction, owing money or being owed it, shows a belief of debt held in the subconscious mind, and conditions change once that belief is neutralized. Shinn tells of a woman who for years could not compel a man to repay a thousand dollars. She was told to work on herself, not the man, and to deny debt, declaring that there is no debt in Divine Mind and sending the debtor love and forgiveness. Within weeks he wrote that he meant to pay, and in about a month the money came. Shinn then gives the matching statement for the one who owes, so that every obligation is wiped out under grace, and ends with affirmations for daily use.

Faith does not watch appearances. It gets ready for what it has asked for. Shinn tells of a woman in a country town who wants to sell her house and furniture in the dead of winter, with snow so deep that no car or wagon can reach her door. She has asked God to sell her goods to the right person for the right price, so she pays no attention to the weather. She polishes the furniture, moves it into the middle of the room and makes ready for buyers. She never looks out at the blizzard. Buyers arrive in miraculous ways and everything is sold, the house too, with no agent's commission. Shinn closes with an affirmation of thanks for any sale, made to the right person or persons, at the right price and to the satisfaction of everyone.

On the Spiritual plane there is no competition. What belongs to a person comes to them under grace, and no rival can take it. Shinn gives two affirmations for any interview or meeting. The first removes the fear of competing with others. The second joins the speaker in love with the Spirit of the other person or persons, places every interest under God's protection, and calls the Divine Idea out of the situation. The meeting stops being a contest. It becomes the place where the right outcome shows itself.

Guidance is always present on the path. Every person's message or lead is already there, and it often comes through the most ordinary channel. Shinn tells of a woman troubled over an unhappy situation who silently asks whether it will ever clear up. Her maid, chatting idly, repeats a gardener's reply to the same question about three days of rain: "doesn't it always clear up?" The woman takes the words as her answer, affirms that with her God it always clears up, and soon after her problem clears up in an unexpected way. The affirmations that follow ask for wisdom to seize every opportunity, for instant obedience to intuitive leads, and for the surrender of personal will, so that the divine plan comes to pass in a Magic way.

Protection is not something you build against the world. It is a Light you stand in. In this brief chapter of affirmations Shinn gives two words for daily use. The first surrounds the speaker with the White Light of the Christ, which no negative thing can enter. The second sends the speaker walking in that Light, where fears that looked enormous shrink to nothing and nothing remains to stand against one's good. The chapter teaches by formula alone: say the word, and the protection is already in place.

Nothing is lost in Divine Mind, so memory rests on a perfect and unfailing source. In this chapter Shinn gives a single affirmation that claims both sides of that gift. The one who speaks it recalls everything that should be remembered and lets go of everything that is not for their good. Remembering and forgetting are both placed under divine order. The word is short enough to carry anywhere and to speak whenever memory seems to fail or old matters weigh on the mind.

Every person carries a Divine Design, a perfect pattern of life held in the superconscious mind just as the oak is held in the acorn. That design has no limitation in it, only health, wealth, love and perfect self-expression, and each day brings a Divine Selection: to live by the Divine Plan or to meet unhappy reactions. Shinn shows the law at work in a woman who sees a Chinese cabinet in her mind for an empty side of her room, finds one in an antique shop, offers the two hundred dollars that comes to her, and then lets the matter go with the words "If it's mine I can't lose it, and if it isn't mine, I don't want it." The cabinet becomes hers. There is a supply for every demand, but only what is divinely selected brings happiness. The chapter closes with affirmations for releasing what is not designed for you and stepping into the place no one else can fill.

Health is the natural state of a harmonious and happy mind, and all sickness comes from sin, which is the violation of Spiritual Law. Shinn sets the healing words of Jesus Christ, "Be thou healed, your sins are forgiven," beside the plain fact that resentment, ill-will, hate and fear tear down the cells of the body and poison the blood. Accidents, old age and death itself grow from holding wrong mental pictures. When man sees himself as God sees him, made in His likeness and image, he becomes a radiant being, timeless, birthless and deathless. Shinn then gives a sequence of affirmations for daily use that deny fatigue, cancel time and space, declare oneness with The One, and give thanks for the Light of the Christ streaming through every cell.

Imperfect vision corresponds to fear, to suspicion and to the habit of seeing obstacles. It belongs to the one who watches for unhappy events to come to pass and lives in the past or the future instead of in the Now. Shinn names this correspondence in a single line, then gives the remedy as affirmations. The eye that looks for trouble is to be replaced by the crystal clear vision of the Spirit. That eye sees through apparent obstacles, sees the open road and the fulfillment of the heart's desire, sees God in every face and good in every situation, and finds no lions on the way, only angels and endless blessings.

Anaemia corresponds to unfed desires and a lack of happiness. The body thins when the heart goes hungry. Shinn answers this hunger with nourishment from within. Her affirmation declares that the Spirit within feeds the whole being, that every cell is filled with light, and it gives thanks in advance for radiant health and endless happiness. She adds that the same statement may be used in the healing of any disease.

Deafness corresponds to a strong personal will, stubbornness and a desire not to hear certain things. Shinn names this correspondence in one line and then gives the remedy as an affirmation. The ears are claimed as the ears of Spirit, and the Light of the Christ streams through them, dissolving all hardness or malformation. The one who speaks the word hears the voice of intuition clearly and obeys it at once, and hears glad tidings of great joy.

Rheumatism corresponds to fault finding and criticism, the acid thoughts a mind holds against others. Shinn names this correspondence in a single line and then gives the remedy as a three-part affirmation. First, the Light of the Christ floods the consciousness and dissolves every acid thought. Next, criticism gives way to love that goes out to everyone and comes back from everyone. Last, the speaker gives thanks for radiant health and happiness as something already present.

False growths have a mental root. Shinn traces them to jealousy, hatred, resentment and fear, the false ideas a person carries in consciousness. Whatever the Father has not planted has no right to remain. It gives way when the word is spoken against it. Shinn gives a single affirmation for the work. It opens with the scriptural promise that every such plant shall be rooted up. Next it declares that all false ideas are obliterated now. Last, it calls the Light of the Christ into every cell and gives thanks ahead of time for radiant health and happiness.

The heart corresponds to fear and anger, and it is restored when the word is spoken over it. Shinn names the mental cause in a single line and then gives the working formula: the heart is a perfect idea in Divine Mind, now in its right place and doing its right work. Shinn fills this declaration with the qualities that drive out the cause, a heart that is happy, fearless and loving. The affirmation closes with the Light of the Christ streaming through every cell and with thanks given for radiant health, so the healing is received as already done.

Every creature is a perfect idea in Divine Mind, and the spoken word calls that idea into expression. Shinn gives two short affirmations for animals. The first denies any appearance of disorder in a dog and declares it the expression of God's perfect Idea of a perfect dog. The second places the animal under the illumination and direction of Infinite Intelligence, always in its right place. Like the rest of the book's formulas, they are meant to be spoken over the situation rather than argued about.

Man is made in God's likeness and image, which is Imagination, and is given dominion over all created things, the elements included. He has power to rebuke the winds and the waves, to check floods, and to bring rain when it is needed. Shinn shows this power at work in a desert tribe that waters its crops by prayer alone. Their rain dance is a form of prayer, and no chief who carries any fear may take part, so each must prove his courage before the ceremony. An eye-witness saw a deluge pour from a blue sky while the sun went on shining. The chapter then gives affirmations for fire, drought and storms. Fire is man's friend in its right place. Divine Mind knows no drought. The Christ within brings a great calm on land and sea.

Every journey is already planned in Divine Mind, with its conditions and its supply included. The traveler does not need to arrange the road anxiously. The traveler's work is to accept the plan and give thanks for it before setting out. Shinn condenses the whole teaching into one affirmation. It names three things, the journey, the conditions and the supply, and calls each one Divinely planned, so that all three rest under the same perfect design.

What a person hates or dwells on is pictured vividly in the subconscious mind and comes back into experience, and it is erased only by non-resistance and by right use of the word. Shinn shows this in a woman whose suitors kept speaking of their women cousins until she blessed every cousin in the Universe, and in another who bragged of her troubles and so multiplied them. Man reaps outwardly what he sows in thought: a two dollar bill passed over by others opens like a leaf before a woman affirming God as her supply. Prayer asks for active faith. A room stays unrented until its owner buys the four dollar lamp her hunch called for. Every person carries a Promised Land, a Divine Design waiting to be spoken into release, as the shoemaker who met the four-fifteen train dimly felt. Money comes from God through faith and the spoken word, and giving comes before receiving, as a reluctant guest learns when her hostess hands her the very five hundred dollars she had asked for. The chapter ends with a long run of affirmations for daily use.

The spoken word is God in action, and so it works as a magic wand in the hand of whoever speaks it. Shinn closes the book with a single instruction: from all the affirmations given, choose the one that appeals to you most and wave it over whatever situation confronts you. She seals the instruction with two scriptural assurances. Isaiah promises that the word shall not return void but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent, and Romans affirms that true words go out into all the earth and unto the end of the world.