Category Archives: spirituality

F is for Fascination

Fascination. Glamor. Enchantment. The art of making friends and influencing people or rather The Art of making friends and influencing people. One of the most common bases of magic practices, and well attested to in pop culture, but also in the accumulated knowledge of esoteric traditions around the world. While in a certain sense all magic is about influencing something or someone, it is the magic of Fascination that deals with that influence specifically and directly.

I specifically like the world Fascination. There is a certain ring to it that just tickles the forces within and around me. To fascinate another and make yourself into the sparkling, glittering being or object that cannot be resisted. To magically improve your charisma, wit, or subtle appearance that people are drawn to you, either with love, with trust, or loyalty, or any other emotion that draws people together into various bonds and commitments. That is the means of fascination.

How do you fascinate people? There are many ways. Some of the most mundane ways begin with simple things. Dress nicely. Smell nice. Stand up straight with good posture. Speak clearly. Make a point of remembering people’s names, even if you have to come up with some kind of sleight of mind trick to do it. Present yourself with grace, wit and ease, even when it would seem impossible in a certain situations. Fake it till you make it.
Some more complicated mundane tricks can also be used. Things like NLP aka Neuro Linguistic Programming. Social Proof. Books like The Game as well as the endless titles of books for women on how to catch men, that introduce various tactics and methods and even specialize with certain types of men. A lot of the sociology, psychology and just plain subtle manipulation that is taught in these books walks a very fine line of being nearly magical in the results that they produce.

The archives of magic are also filled with endless ways to enchant, glamor and fascinate people. The most simplest of ways relies upon personal effects. Bathing in dew collected on Midsummer morning collected from plants. Washing yourself in an herbal tea that is said to make you eloquent, or draw romantic partners to you, or even reunite you with a straying lover. Many a love oil can be used to fascinate people or persons, to find the desired partner, whether it’s for a lasting relationship or short fling.

Some more complex methods involve the manipulation of energy. Learning to project your personal energy by your eyes is probably the most obvious form of fascination, where literally your gaze charms and enchants the target(s) as you draw them to you. This would then be followed by surrounding them with your breath (hopefully pleasantly smelling) and then perhaps sealing it with a kiss or touch that is also a means to deliver further enchanting forces. Although, once you’re close, you could turn to more heavy handed techniques where you gain the personal effects of the target, from hair to bodily fluids, which are then used in spells to bring influence, love, or control and domination, depending upon what you are desires or needs are. If you cannot gain their personal effects, then you instead leave enchanted items for them to walk over, on, or through or under or consume, that will cast the spell upon them. From powders laid secretly down for the target(s) to walk through, to feeding them foods magic with magical herbs, perhaps with a bit of your own personal effects mixed in for extra measure. This breaks the separation between you, uniting you and your target together, and filling their being your essence.

More spiritual methods are also available. You could literally call on a wide range of spirits, from pagan Gods to spirit allies that you encounter, to help you influence people. You could also influence them spiritually by visiting the target(s) in dreams, and through the sleeping or subconscious mind plant what you desire into their being, to bring about the influences and results you desire.

One way that I find interesting I learned from the Crystal Silence League. It is known as developing the sexual force, another name for animal magnetism. By developing this force, which is inherent in all people, to a healthy and vital level, not only will it support your health and vitality, but it also attract desired or healthy partners for sex and romance to you, but also friendships, even working relationships. Because that animal magnetism goes beyond just sex and love, but into all aspects of life. To work with this sexual force, you need to find it’s source, a power that slumbers in the subtle body, located in the general area of your sex IE your genitals. Find that source and feed it with pleasure, with breathing exercises, with understanding your sexual nature and it’s healthy and natural expression that is personal to you. Use these things like throwing fuel onto a fire. Start small, with kindling, and when it begins to grow stronger, you can feed it more and more, until it becomes a might blaze that will then surge through your channels and centers of your body. Work with that energy. Listen to it intuitively. What does it tell you about yourself? How does it want to influence and attract people? What makes you feel like a precious jewel, that is desired by all? Who does it attract you to and who does it push you away from? Follow this intuitive push and see where it leads you.

The art of fascination can take many forms, some of which will work better for some people then others. Find which parts tick for you and work well. Enchantment is a subtle and demanding art, because if used to roughly and bluntly, people often will realize that they have been or are attempted to being manipulated, which often creates the opposite of the desired reaction. Remember that one of the major keys to Fascination is empathy. Know how to relate to people, if you really want to enchant them. It is also what turns you into a controlling robot, who is jerk, and into a sensitive human being, who knows how to relate to other human beings.

E is for Empowerment

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First some ideas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment_(Vajrayana)

I like the concept of Empowerment. While it has a more social and political and cultural implications in the west, I also like it’s understanding in the terms that come from Vajrayana. I also found empowerment plays it’s role in modern American neo paganism, both in a social context and in an esoteric way. What I find is that one seems to fuel other, in it’s searching and it’s steps of slowly gaining it.

Of course, esoteric Empowerment has a different name, that is probably much better known, and much shorter. Initiation. Initiation is something that seems to be absent from a lot of contemporary spiritual practice, although it is making a come back. Some people gain it from traditions. P re-exisiting orders, Lineage, passed down from the founder. People seek in it various ways. Other methods of initiation are personal and unique. From the spirits themselves, you can be initiated, by Gods, by Angels, by the Fae, many beings. Some initiations are specific to the spirit giving it. Others might be deep, and require time and many challenges. The major initiation in modern western esoteric orders is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Nothing could be more personal, even though the practice of it well documented and worked on by many. I think this practice also shows how Initiation is also an empowerment. It is just access to special club, or the specific rituals, but it is the power, the current of that tradition, those spirits. From the power gained from the initiation, they may be able to move mountains, metaphorically speaking. They have been empowered and so they acted with that power to change things to make them better.

In the USA, Empowerment’s twin streams very much run side by side. In the beginning of alternative spirituality movement it attracted a people of a variety of different groups. This dates back to the late 19th century. While there was plenty of men who were involved in alternative spirituality and occultism, there are also quite a few very famous women. Madame Blavatsky is a key figure that comes to mind. At a time when women had few rights and were very much limited, she worked to create a movement, a movement that continues on to this day, and has influenced much of Western occultism and alternative spirituality. Her books are still published and sold today. She very much demonstrates a power, being empowered through her spiritual aspirations she did more then many other women of her day.

With the second occult flowering in the USA in the 60’s, which brought with it the spread of Wicca, it then also picked up more of the cultural empowerment. Many minorities found the idea of Wicca, witchcraft and alternative spirituality as means to find their own empowerment, to pursue their goals of empowering themselves socially, culturally, and politically. Some minorities have always had their spiritual means of getting one up on the Man. The role of conjure doctors and spiritual workers in African American communities was often not only spiritual, but also physical, as they cared for clients physical needs with their knowledge, helping them when they were sick, not only from being hoodooed but also from colds, illnesses and injuries. The same for Appalachian folk magic, and Pennsylvania pow-wow practitioners. The Mexican curandera or curandero would be consulted for herbal knowledge for sickness just as much spiritual ailments. While not all of them are minorities, in a sense, they are often limited to specific communities, and often derided by outsiders for their “backwards superstitions” by others.

Among the gay civil rights movement, there were quite a few people and groups that embraced alternative spirituality to gain empowerment both spiritually and also to help them in their fight to gain temporal empowerment. One figure was Eddy Buczynski, the founder of quite a few American witchcraft traditions including the Minoan Brotherhood. At a time when gay men were standing up and going out, he created one of the first spiritual traditions for gay men. A magical practitioner and gay man who was also a major activist was Leo Martello, who founded a Witchcraft Anti Defamation League and Alternative Religions Education Network, who was also very active with Gay liberation during the time of Stonewall. Another significant figure was Arthur Scott Evans, writer of “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture” in which he asserted that the Witch mania of Europe also targeted people who may have been accused of engaging in homosexual acts. All of these people in some way found the empowerment of alternative spirituality and practices, which gave them the force and power to pursue empowerment in the physical world.

As I watch and read the events of the day, and the responses of people, and the responses of the wide neo pagan community in the USA, I feel I notice how spiritual empowerment helps to give fuel to the physical empowerment that people pursue. There is great inequality still existing in the world. Women, people of color, GLBT people and others. Yet I am aware of many of these minorities finding power for themselves, what some might call “power within” to work to make changes, to empower others like them, and work to create a planet where we can all live together, with justice, with liberty, with equality and maybe as a global family.

E is for Runes

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I felt like double posting this week, cause, well I can.

Anyway, I would have to say the letter E is probably one the more under represent vowels in the various Futhorcs. So, it makes this easy

Eihwaz – The yew tree. Another one of those darn trees just popped up again. You’d they lived in the woods or something, these rune-casters. This particular rune has some interesting overlapping meanings. The first meaning I learned for it was defense. Different then the protection rune that follows shortly after, Eihwaz is more like the pit of spikes defense. Sure it protects you, but it can hurt you too, as well as anyone else who tries to violate it. After working with it some more, I came to understand it’s defense a little better, that it was also the severe warning. It makes it look dangerous to those who think about violating it. Or it just freaks people out. I do use this rune to protect things, and more then a few times when someone who was bad news came around, they often just couldn’t stand to be here and fled, in some cases quite literally.
The other, more focused on attribution that I have learned and seems more common, is that it is the rune associated with death, dying and ultimately, the Underworld. I understand it more as the gateway to the Underworld. Through this rune, you can reach those dark and sometimes frightening places below, where the dead, ancestors and various spirits of underworld and cthonic power reside. Actually, you can reach lots of places with Eihwaz though. The underworld is actually really well connected to all sorts of places, so if you’re spiritually traveling from point a to point b, you can use Eihwaz as the medium to get there. Of course, if really want to avoid getting lost, use Raidho, and if you want to get there fast, use the next rune, Ehwaz, but, Eihwaz opens the door. It’s the gate of the Underworld, but also the shortcut to every else.

Of course, within the tree cosmology I have seen, Eihwaz corresponds to The underworld, much like Aesc is the upper world, and Berkana is the creative power, and Thurisaz is the Destructive power, and Ac is the Middle World.

Eohlx – The name I prefer to know this rune by, as it talks about sharp swamp grass that can lacerate skin if you handle it unwisely, or just step through it. It is also universally known as the rune of protection. It there is any rune that everybody can agree on, it is this one. I don’t think I have ever come across any author or writer about runes who has indicated otherwise. The exact source of this protection is up to debate, but it seems that the protection is inherent. Without walls, without armor without shield, without anything, you can be protected. A giant “who goes there?” and “back off” all in one. It’s kind of amazing. Use it in all protection work, seriously. You can’t go wrong. One of my favorite aegishlamur variants is known as “Solomon s innsigli” meaning Solomon sign. It’s basically a 8 spoked sign made up of variants of Eohlx. I have used it quite often for protection work and made some other version of it, and they all work amazingly great and give a very solid protection against any harm.

Ehwaz – Ehwaz, the horse, the rune of quickness and speed and fleetness. It makes travels short and bearable to those riding on the horse, but remember the steed does have a mind of it’s own. To make the journey, you need to work along side your mount, not just force to do what you want. Steed and rider, working together as a team, not as combatants.

Ehwaz is find to be anything gained with speed, or quickness. Wealth that is quickly gained and equally quickly lost. Fast cars, Fast men, fast music, fast women. You can have lots of fun, but don’t expect it to be anything permanent. If that is what you’re hoping for, you’ve come to the wrong rune. Be thankful for what you got when you got it, but don’t try to hang to it too tight. Just remember the memory of it fondly once it is gone.

Ear – The rune of Death. The tomb. Different from Eihwaz. Ear is more like the Death Card of the Futhorc. Everything dies, everything rots, everything fades away. Your wealth won’t last forever. Eventually the fortune will disappear. Even the best of friends goes away eventually, cause you might outlive them, or they outlive you. There is nothing too big to fail. All things fail. It is the natural order of things. Sometimes it’s best just to go with it.
Not all endings are “THE END” though. Some endings are just little. The closing of a chapter. The time to turn over the tape or record. Maybe it’s time to move some place else, look to someone else, become something else. It’s an ending, but the story goes.

E is for Energy

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By energy I mean “subtle energy” which in various cultures and languages and traditions has a multitude of names like chi, ki, prana, mana, orgone, quintessence, azoth etc… But for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to just say energy.

The concepts of subtle energy seem primarily rooted in eastern systems of metaphysics and cosmology. In most western metaphysics and esoterica from before the occult revival, there wasn’t much focus on it. In fact I would say the only recognition of subtle energy is when Agrippa mentions quintessence, the fifth element. Moving into the 20th century, energy becomes the thing, with it’s heyday really taking off in the 60’s and 70’s with the Aquarian arrival and the widespread blossoming of new age philosophy, theosophy and other organizations that are more influenced by Eastern metaphysical systems being blended into Western metaphysics.

Some people really embrace energy metaphysics. Other people see everything as energy, which can be a useful frame of reference for some things. Other groups reject it completely and see everything through a different lens, like spirits, or information, or psychological context. I personally see them all as useful frames of reference to work through them all at different times depending upon context and necessity. To me it just makes sense and has a certain usefulness when dealing with different situations. I also find it interesting how they can all overlap and interact. But this is post is about energy.

Energy is something that is really quite useful to work with in the modern culture that we live in. For one thing, thinking about energy is something that most countries and regions need to think about. How to move it, how to supply it, to whom it is supplied, and what the energy is sourced from. As technology advances energy slowly becomes more available to more people, we can see the effect of how energy production from various sources effects the environment, people and culture. What is interesting to me is that all of these physical productions of physical energy that is used to power technologically advanced areas and nations can also be sourced into for the kind of energy I’m talking about here. If you don’t believe me, tap into the spiritual power of electricity around you. Take some of it into you, carefully, and see how it’s power is available. Other people have tapped into the energy production from nuclear power and fossil fuels, but as time moves forward we also have solar, hydro electric, and wind power (hopefully) becoming more available and widespread. Of course, most spiritual practitioners will already be tapping into energy of the Sun, Water and Wind, albeit in different ways.

Of course, once you have that energy, it’s all a question of what do you want to do with it. While flinging lightning bolts around sounds fun (cause that would be awesome) there is so much more to do with energy then just that. The obvious first one that many people turn to is healing. So much so that “energy healing” is the phrase for various types of metaphysical healing. Although I find the exact combination of words kind of humorous (cause you’re healing energy?) even though I know it means that you’re healing with metaphysical energy, it is still very amusing to me. The next common thing is using that energy to produce results. The energy of the elements, or the undifferentiated energy of creation, or other energies can all be focused on achieving results of a more material focus. Gaining wealth, drawing love, influencing people, encouraging crops, creating protection etc… are the second most common use of energy. This is usually done by visualizing the energy, putting the intention into it and then sending it on it’s way to do it’s thing. While some energies are easily recognized and accepted within various metaphysical communities, there are some that are more modern. Like the energy of money. How do you visualize that? What about the energy of Love? The energy of beauty? Maybe you could draw from Earth, or Venus, or Water, but what about just those energies themselves, on their own. What about the energy of a curse? Or the energy of harmful spirit? If you can visualize that and make it work, you can easily just manipulate the energy of those things in ways that other people might see differently coming from a more tradition perspective. If you are being followed by a spirit of the dead, being able to manipulate the energy of the dead, or death could be a useful trick to have to limit it’s effectiveness, or change it around and send it away (or back).

Of course, the other side of working with energy is that it is very personal. It’s much more about the ability and skill of the practitioner then anything else. At least in working in other frames of reference, like spirits, where it’s more about the relationship of the spirits and the practitioner and keeping the favor of the spirits then anything, energy is much more individual focus. I think that is why energy is more popular and acceptable means of working in this 20th century western culture because we are so individualistic. We want to be distinct and different and do things on our own. Having to rely on spirits is much harder thing to deal with then just being able to “plug in” and complete the circuit. It’s much more mechanical then other methods. Information and psychology can also do that, but there is still something about energy that is more accessible. Energy is much more fluid, free form, spontaneous, more natural gift and talent that people are more desirable to have. It can also be a great way to explain various extra sensory phenomena, from divination to psychic intuitive and mediumship, whereas looking at them from other models doesn’t always work well with everything. Explaining everything as energy is just a useful frame for many things, and one of those frames is that of the personal practitioner, and their personal energy, and being able to connect with external energy.

As an exercise, pick something in front you, right now, and draw it’s energy into you. Do it gently. Give some of your energy to it, again, gentle. If you feel like you’re going to get a headache, you’re pushing too hard. Feel how that energy of the object is different from yours. Feel how the object changes when you put your energy into it.

Another exercise is to examine your own energy. Stop, and feel your energy. How does it feel right now? Do you like how it feels? If not, why? Now change it. Change the energy to match up with a perception of how you want it to feel. When you have changed your energy, how you do feel now? Is it different from before? Now, reach out to the source of pure cosmic energy within you. Some people see it as just from the top of their heads. I tend to see it as coming from the center of my being, a pinpoint of shining light deep within. Let that pure cosmic energy fill you. How do you feel now? Do you like that feeling? How is it different from before when you first felt your energy? How is it different from when you shaped your personal energy into something more desirable? Now collect that pure cosmic energy and form it into a sphere or ball. You can use your hands if you want, but you have to. Let the ball fill up and become dense. Then turn that energy into any other kind of energy that you may want. Then take the ball and either send it to someone, or fill yourself with it’s energy to charge you with it. Notice how being filled with that energy feels differently, but also how you interact differently with the world while filled with that energy. Try this exercise with different energy at different times or different days. Maybe even stack energies together, to see how they mingle and what effects they have.

Rune of the Day – February 21, 2014

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D is for Devotions

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Devotions. In my experiences it seems that most neo pagans of various sorts are not especially into, or do, devotions. Oh, they might be dedicated to this god, or that goddess, and they might collect all sorts of images and read all sorts of books, but when it comes down to it, the most you might call “devotional” is that when they do a ritual and offer up some stuff and ask for something in return. It’s certainly not a regular practice, let one weekly or daily. This of course might be my own slanted viewpoint, as I find I am often interacting with people who are new to the craft, and so the idea of devotions is not something they are aware, usually because of their background. They might even be actively rejecting it, as it has something that triggers old memories of childhood religious training, or unpleasant interactions in a previous religious settings. So, they seem to fall by the wayside. I do believe there are people who do devotions, and I like to think I follow many of their blogs, but over all it seems to be something that is done more by longer established living traditions, like ATR’s, culturally situated Buddhist practices, Hinduism, etc…

Of course, what’s interesting is that if you look into some of the first books about Wicca and witchcraft, devotions are there, but not always obvious. I think because it’s kind of small in the context of a wiccan circle because it comes down to the cakes and wine. That is all it is. That is the devotional part of the ritual, but at the times I have done it, if you do it with reverence and it can be really intensely devotional. Although it seems that many groups treat it more celebratory then as an act of devotion and offering, and also a communion with the gods.

Of course there are many other ways that it can be done. My personal methods are mostly done through incense, a candle (or two) and clean water. All of the items are blessed by me, and in doing so I clearly state that it is for this goddess or that spirit, and set it out for them to partake from. It’s all pretty straight forward and also very historical, as many cultures have offered incense, flame and light, and water, perhaps followed with prayers of praise and adoration. Sometimes I have included food stuffs, usually sweets. Some other ways is that I find items or plants that have a relation to the god or spirit, and I leave them their, as part of their personal collection. For my main goddess I have given un-shelled walnuts, as she is identified with walnut trees. These were votive offerings that I have blessed, and remain in a bowl on her space by her. Another offering that is good to make is prayers. Making prayers to powers that you have a good relationship with, even just to thank them, and praise them, is a great way to build a relationship with them, especially if you don’t ask for anything specific, or just indicate general blessings and good fortune, which if they are spiritual close to you, they will already be supplying to you as best as you can. Not that asking hurts, but if you only go to someone to ask them for something all the time, I know people get tired of that behavior, and so I can only imagine that gods and spirits do as well. Sometimes it’s good just to be grateful, and express that gratitude.

Other devotions can be even more involved. Leaving things in specific places. What little knowledge I have of ATR’s is that various spirits have places associated with them, where offerings to them are expected to be left. It’s very easy to look into European and Mediterranean, and other regions of antiquity and soon figure out places that were that gods or spirits special zone of influence. It can be correct to leave offerings there. It also seems that some areas were also open to any spirit. Crossroads seem to be a popular place where all spirits go at some time, and so leaving offerings there, and placing them there in a ritualized manner with respect and devotional practice can be quite the experience. Doing it in a public place that is often traveled through, can also be an intense experience, as demonstration of your dedication to overcome potentially socially awkward situations (like being in a graveyard with a crossroads in the middle of the graveyard, leaving offerings for the spirits of the dead, and other beings, at midnight) that in and of itself is an offering of time, and facing your fears. Or going to the beach at dawn, and leaving offerings to be picked up by the surf. All these places can have a devotional element, that when done with a focused intent, can help you connect more with the gods and spirits. Another part of devotions can be timing. As indicated in previous paragraph, times can also be an important part. If you really start doing devotional practice, you end up with your own liturgical calendar of feast days, offering days and what not. Depending upon their role, some gods might want their offerings down during daylight hours. Other spirits might prefer them given at night, when it’s dark. Some might prefer it to be during a new moon, whereas others prefer a full moon. Some prefer having their water refreshed once a week, whereas others might need it refreshed every day, along with incense and prayers when it is given. It depends upon you and the spirits and gods being worked with. It also seems that spirits and gods know what they can ask for from someone, and not from someone else. While one person might be called to make baked goods which go uneaten for 3 days, until they are shared, others might only need to give a quick prayer. The one who must bake, can bake, and the one who can pray, is pretty much only able to pray. While some might think the physical offerings and time that went into them might be more meaningful, a heartfelt and sincere prayer done with focus and intention can be quite powerful, even more meaningful because of that focus and attention. But it has more to do with the time, that which can be given as well as the time that it is given.

By giving focus to offerings, place and time, a devotional practice will soon develop. From my own experience, a devotional practice will really transform and change how you interact with gods and spirits, as well as your own spiritual practice. When you start making offerings, it seems as though something switches on. It makes the spirituality more day to day, and more real in a practical physical sense. If you are willing to dedicate 5 minutes every day to relate to some spiritual intelligence, then maybe there is something more to this. Even if you are just operating from a psychological model, drives the point of a certain level of realness which change ones practice in a many ways.

D is for Dagaz

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In the Elder Futhark Dagaz is the typically either the last rune, or the second to last rune (some orderings switch it with Aethel). In the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, it is only the last rune in the 3rd aettir, as a 4th aettir soon takes it’s place. The name means “day” as in the time period when the sun is passing across the sky, and it’s bright light covers that side of the Earth.
I personally find that this is a rune of light, and of Light. While other runes that indicate light are perhaps more personal (Cenaz) or the object which sheds light (Sowilo, Qweorth) Dagaz refers to that special quality of light, seemingly in abudance, surrounding, filling, maybe even penetrating. This is light is also benevolent generally. As in many folklores, when the sun rises is when all the unpleasant things that humans fear retreat back for a while. Life resumes it’s normal pace, and the whispers of harmful beings and unwanted influences fade away, at least for another time span of light.
While it’s nature is benevolent, the results of it’s actions working people, both yourselves and others, is not always. Humans are to a certain degree, hardwired to be blind. Things that don’t meet our sense of self are rejected, either casually and wantonly, or sometimes with anger and potential violence. It takes a lot of work to make yourself into someone who can accept everything, and even if you have done a lot of it, there is probably still something, hiding, secret, laying the darkness, that when it has the light of day shined upon it, the revelation will be challenging, if not outright unpleasant and undesirable. That is part of the human condition, but it doesn’t mean you have to be bound by it.

The revelation, the awakening, letting in the light, seeing things in the light, can be very difficult, and it only gets harder when we fight it. Better to let the light shine, and sit with our discomfort, or sensitivity, our pain, and let it shine through us. It is only trying to help us to shine brighter ourselves, or to be clearer so that our light can shine through, unobstructed.

Let the light shine.