Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 78

Did you miss the Raven Keyes interview on the Dr. Carol Francis show? Fear not—it is now available online!

Raven Keyes, author of The Healing Power of Reiki, was interviewed last week by Dr. Carol Francis on her radio show.

Visit the Dr. Carol Francis Show website to listen to the full interview.

Dr. Carol Francis is a psychologist, counselor, NLP practitioner, and clinical hypnotherapist. Visit her online at www.DrCarolFrancisTalkShow.com or www.DrCarolFrancis.com.

One of the reason I love working for Lo Scarabeo is the interesting assignments they give me. Their instruction of “make a deck called the Book of Shadows that is comprised of 2 different decks” was the most challenging. Their instruction to make a 32 card inspirational deck featuring cats wasn’t quite as overwhelming, but still, there were challenges. What would be the structural feature? How would I decide what cards? What kind of art would I suggest? Unlike tarot decks with their built in structure, oracle decks are wide open.

My first decision was that I wanted the cards to have some internal logic. Cat breeds have certain characteristics that set them apart from other breeds. So I researched cat breeds to learn what kind of personalities or behaviors in, say, a Chartreux or a Birman. I also researched cat behaviors and their meanings. Matching breeds with behaviors, I came up with 32 messages that we might get from cats. Because all this was based on real cat behavior and breeds, it followed then that the cats would be realistic cats doing very real cat things. The result, thanks to Marco Turini’s incredible art, is very beautiful and charming.

Here are 4 of my favorites from the Cats Inspirational Oracle:

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Sara Wiseman, author of Becoming Your Best Self, Writing the Divine, Your Psychic Child, and the new Living a Life of Gratitude.

In fourth grade, I got my first pair of glasses, after six months of declining grades due to the fact that I could no longer make out the increasingly vague chalk marks on the classroom blackboard.

I was provided with what might possibly have been the ugliest pair of glasses available to a pre-teen girl in that era: chunky, black ovals that made my eyes look like I was wearing a bug costume, and I marched into my classroom accompanied by taunts of “four eyes” and “glasses face.”

But I didn’t care.

Because from the moment I donned those glasses, atrocious as they were, I could see. Suddenly, everything that had been dark and drab and fuzzy around the edges burst into clarity, light and color. And with that gift of vision, everything changed. No more poor grades due to not being able to see the blackboard. No more being pounded in sports because I couldn’t see the ball…. In my young life, and perhaps in the trajectory of my entire life, those thick, Coke-bottle lenses were a miracle.

Learning to see with the lens of gratitude is sort of like those glasses. One minute we’re flailing around in the dark, perceiving our life as sort of a shadowy, chaotic confusion. The next minute, we’re blasted into a state of higher consciousness, and we can see—we understand, we perceive, we finally get that our lives are so wonderful, so incredible, so big and huge and overwhelmingly awesome, that we almost can’t take it in.

Gratitude is the lens that shifts everything.

Now, it’s sometimes said that gratitude is an attitude, or a choice—that we can get there with positive thoughts and positive affirmations.

I’m not so sure about that.

To me, it seems that gratitude is something we grow into, either slowly or quickly, as part of our process of soul growth. It’s a waking up, of sorts, from the long deep slumber of being unconscious. Often, gratitude arrives to us out of sudden terrible experiences: illness, crisis, loss, or even a near death experience may serve to crack open our hearts and bring the clarity of gratitude in. Or, gratitude may come to us more slowly, after decades or even a lifetime of things not quite working out: poor relationships, boring jobs, difficult emotions, until one day we simply wake up to the fact that we do not have to live this way.

Regardless of how it happens for you, one thing is clear: the moment that you wake up, and discover yourself as Divine being in earth body, spiritual person in earth container, everything changes. When we view life from the consciousness of gratitude, all of our experience—the good, the bad the all of it—becomes phenomenally, beautifully clear.

And the best thing? Once we really wake up and shift to this new level of consciousness, this miraculous view will never go away.

Our thanks to Sara for her guest post! For more from Sara Wiseman, read her article “Re-Imagining the Holidays: 6 Ways to Resist Overabundance and Create Gratitude.”

When I was just a wee little thing (if I was ever such) I was fascinated by Saturday morning cartoons. This was in an era before cartoons were nothing more than advertisements for dolls…I mean “action figures,” and commercials for sugary, overly-processed breakfast cereals were actually addressed to parents rather than easily-influenced ijits like myself.

One of the shows I remember through re-runs was the King Leonardo show. This was typical of the era with amazingly bad animation and worse stories. If cartoons were so bad why did I watch them? It kept me busy and let my mother sleep in.

Well, the King Leonardo show was a short-lived series that actually divided its half hour into three segments each with its own cartoon heroes. The one that fascinated me and which was the only part of the show I actually wanted to see featured the adventures of Tooter Turtle. Every episode had the same basic plot. Tooter is wondering what to do in life, hears or sees something that looks great, and wants to try it out. So he visits his friend, Mr. Wizard the Lizard.

Not to be confused with Don Herbert, the science teacher who created the truly wonderful “Watch Mr. Wizard” TV show where he introduced eager kids like me to the science behind everyday things (I really wanted to figure out how to be on that show!), Mr. Wizard the Lizard was, according to Wikipedia, “an anthropomorphic lizard wearing wizard cone hat, robe, and pince-nez eyeglasses. Mr. Wizard lived in a tiny cardboard box at the base of a tall tree.” He also had a bizarre and ambiguous Germanic/Eastern European accent.

Mr. Wizard the Lizard rescuing his student, Tooter, from another flawed adventure.

Tooter would come up to the box and tell Mr. Wizard that he has another favor to ask. Mr. Wizard would use his magic powers to shrink Tooter small enough to get into the door of the box, whereupon Tooter would beg the wizard to help him become something such as a cowboy or astronaut.

The wizard would work a spell, sending Tooter to experience life with one of these professions. Inevitably, the experience would turn into a disaster and Tooter would cry out, “Help Mr. Wizard!”

It was then that the magical lizard would do his best spell to bring Tooter back to the “real world.” He would chant,

Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome;

time for this one to come home!

Tooter would apologize for causing such trouble and Mr. Wizard always gives Tooter the same advice:

Be just what you is

not what you is not.

Those that do this

are the happiest lot.

I, of course, was fascinated not by the stupid story, but by the magick! As I look back at those shows I think there was something very negative about them. Superficially, they’re telling young kids to never aspire to anything. If you want to be happy just don’t make waves, don’t try anything new, don’t exert yourself.

In my opinion that’s a horrible thing to tell kids! In defense of the show, however, it was made by adults at the end of the 1950s, a period where “fitting in” and “not rocking the boat” were major goals of society. These goals were about to be disrupted by the experimental attitudes of the 1960s, but that’s another story.

Looking Beneath the Surface

Looking at a silly children’s cartoon for sociological commentary may be of ethnological value, but we tend to analyze such past events with our modern-day vision. This process—which ignores or downplays the original context—is sometimes called “deconstruction,” and I would contend it is a process of interesting but debatable value. However if we’re going to deconstruct Tooter and Mr. Wizard the Lizard, we can see two very important messages. The first comes with the wizard’s advice. If you want to be happy, enjoy your nature. Deconstructing more, we can see that it goes a bit deeper. The awkward grammar focuses on the present tense, twice using the word “is” inappropriately. Thus, the advice is if you want to be happy, be in the present. Focus on what you have, not what you want or what you had.

This concept of living in the present moment sounds easy, but to achieve it can be challenging. Is there something you want, from answering the phone that started ringing to watching a TV show tomorrow, from dating that person who is “incredibly hot” to wanting a raise at work? As soon as you have those desires, you are not living in the present. You are in a state of want and desire. And as long as you are wanting or desiring something you don’t have, you’re going to be unhappy.

There is, however, a bit of “sleight of mouth” going on here. We all have desires of what we want for the future. Does that mean we can never be happy? Of course not. There is nothing wrong with having desires for the future or memories of the past as long as they don’t control us. The goal it to “live” in the present moment, not be stuck there! One of my teachers, Dr. Turk, used to say:

Learn from the past.

Live in the present.

Create your future.

Living in the past creates a case of what I call the “if onlies”: If only I had done X, I would still have Y or would now have Z. There are a couple of things that are false with that belief. For example, if you keep dwelling on a broken relationship in the past, wondering what you “did wrong,” I can assure you it was not because of one thing you did or did not do. That was only one part of it. If you had only done that one thing different it would not have dramatically changed anything. It might have slowed things down a bit, but not much else. Living in the past and thinking over and over that “If only I had done this,” keeps you from moving ahead to a better future and keeps you unhappy.

Living for the future prevents you from enjoying life now. Of course it’s good to take care of your health, get a good education, and watch your finances. But here’s a not-so-secret truth: tomorrow never arrives. Tomorrow is always in the future. People who plan on starting something “tomorrow” are less likely to actually start it than those who pick a day, date, and time to begin. It’s good to prepare for the future, but living there prevents you from living today. The future is something you can create—just don’t live there until it arrives. Otherwise, you’ll always be unhappy that you’re not there.

From Mid-20th to Early 21st Century

So it sounds like I’m giving advice here that is perfect for the mid-20th Century mindset: Just do your job, shut up, and enjoy it. Actually, just the opposite is true. And this brings us back to Tooter and Mr. Wizard. As we look back at that show, it seems that in every instance it was not Tooter who was at fault for the disasters. Rather, the fault was Mr. Wizard’s and his alone.

Sure, Tooter wanted to become a fireman or policeman or something he felt would take him out of his humdrum life. Mr. Wizard, in good 1950s’ style, encourages him to accept his fate. The lizard’s error was simple: he didn’t prepare Tooter to be any of those things. He didn’t have Tooter go through the athletic training, interning, or schooling necessary for any of his goals. There was absolutely no outcome possible other than disaster. Playing with Legos or Lincoln Logs may result in an interest in becoming an architect, but I wouldn’t want to live in a home designed and built by someone who had no training other than building with those toys.

The same is absolutely true with magick. You can’t just pick up a book, mumble a spell, and expect the magick to work. You need to train, practice, and study the concepts and techniques. For some people that may take a short time. For others it may take a long time.

If your purpose for doing magick is based on living in the past, you’ll still be unhappy. If you successfully use magick to cause problems for that person who broke up with you or cheated you, the result may temporarily be satisfaction, but very soon you’ll remember those real or perceived slights against you. Living in the past leaves you unhappy. Learning from the past so you don’t allow those things to happen to you again leads to happiness.

If you consume all of your time preparing and performing magick to have something occur in the future, you’ll never have time to enjoy things in the present.

Live in the present. Learn from what happened to you in the past. Prepare for an incredible future, but don’t let the future be your only concern. The path of the 21st-century mage is not one of loneliness and unhappiness. It’s a path of having friends and working hard to achieve goals while enjoying things as they are today. Work on making things better, but enjoy life now. That, I believe, is that path of a true magician.

 * * *
Sunday, September 29, 2013

Worldwide Webinar

12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern——9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific

Topic: How to Make and Use Talismans and Amulets

Summer is rapidly drawing to an end. Just as many people have started or are beginning to go to school, it’s time for you to add to what you know. That’s why I’m so happy to have a relationship with Thelesis Aura and their Online Academy. They’ve already held some live webinars for me (and for others teachers) and the attendance has been wonderful, including people from North and South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

My next webinar will cover talismans and amulets. Throughout history, humans have used objects to bring health, safety, good luck, and to fulfill desires. Today, these objects are known as talismans and amulets. In this live, worldwide webinar, you’ll learn how to create them, how to turn them into powerful magickal tools, and how to use them effectively and safely. Topics include the three necessities of magick, differences between talismans and amulets, timing, designing effective magickal goals, types of talismans, how to prepare a talisman, what to do after you create a talisman, and more. When completed, you will have the information you need to create powerful talismans that will help you achieve your goals.

This webinar is not some recording. It is a live, online training event. You will hear me live, just as I am talking. You’ll see my presentation slides, live, right on your computer. You’ll be able to download handouts. You’ll be able to ask questions during the webinar. You’ll see everything and hear me giving the webinar live. It’s as if you were in a room with me, only you can participate from your location anywhere in the world.

In this online workshop-webinar, I’ll be sharing practical techniques you will be able to use to make positive changes in your life. You’ll be able to create and use talismans for any purpose, including healing and improving your luck. This is invaluable information with techniques that can be used by individuals and groups.

Please note that this is not a recording. It is a live event you can attend. You will be able to interact with me, live, from anywhere in the world. Therefore, please make sure to check the time. It’s 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern U.S.; 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific U.S. time.

Registration is now open. Here is the LINK. Due to software limitations, attendance is limited to only 200 people, so I would urge you to register as soon as possible.

Earlier this month I mentioned that I asked my tarot friends if they had any beliefs or practices that they thought others would think was controversial. One commonly shared statement was that not letting the querent shuffle was outside the normal practice. And I recently shared my fledging idea that maybe the tarot doesn’t always tell us the truth but rather what we need to know, even if it isn’t the truth.

Another allegedly controversial belief was that astrological and Kabbalistic correspondences are not necessary and may, in fact, be overrated in learning and reading the cards. 

As usual, I am interested in your thoughts and experiences with these systems. I know that I did study both and then let them go. My reason was that neither felt like a smooth fit but rather forced, so I didn’t see the point in learning two new languages (astrology and Kabbala) in order to learn and effectively read tarot. So they do not play an active role in my readings or my ever-evolving understanding of the cards. I do know that those for whom these systems resonate, they add a lot to their understanding. Why is it true for some and not others? Does it matter? Tell me what you think.

Libra, The Balance

September 23 to October 23

Modality: Cardinal

Element: Air

Ruler: Venus

Keywords: Balanced, just, charming, diplomatic, artistic, sociable, passive, indecisive, sophisticated, accommodating, kind, likable, respectful

As a Libra you are a charming people-pleaser. You make a natural mediator, not only putting people at ease in any situation but also making sure that peace and harmony are kept. You view things objectively and with a sharp mind, but you can be tripped up by your own indecisiveness in your quest for fairness. You have an eye for sophistication and beauty, being ruled by Venus, and will never be seen in less than your best.

Libras enjoy a wide circle of friends and contacts, but your partner is your true anchor; your relationship with your partner is far stronger than any other you have, and you dislike doing anything without them. You feel lonely without a companion. This strong need for a soul mate may make you confuse lust for love. Your opposite sign, Aries, could be the ultimate match, but a Leo or Sagittarius are compatible as well.

A career working with public would suit you well, and a job with a friendly, social workplace is a must. You can expect many career-related changes throughout your life, but you easily stay on top of jobs and trends with your intuition. You do have excellent wealth potential through wise financial management; this shouldn’t be a problem for you, as you are thrifty and judge each purchase before it is made.

You have a strong intuition, and this “gut feeling” shouldn’t always be ignored in favor of weighing yourself down by a list of pros and cons.

For the year ahead:

Affirmation: Relationships are important, but I value my independence.

Jupiter began its year-long transit of Cancer (your tenth house) in June. This transit highlights your career and your relationships with elders, including family members. In July of 2014, Jupiter moves into Leo and your eleventh house; here, expect your social circle and popularity take center stage.
Saturn continues its multi-year journey through Scorpio, your second house of personal resources. You may find your finances getting tighter, but you may simultaneously becoming more thrifty and budget-conscious, and being satisfied with less rather than more.
Uranus is in Aries, where it will remain until 2018. Here in your seventh house, you can expect changes (the trademark of Uranus) in your close relationships (seventh house themes). Some long-term relationships will end, while new people will enter your life. Uranus in the seventh house is also known for “love at first sight” relationships, which may be in your future.
Pluto in Capricorn, your fourth house, brings about significant changes in home and family. This could mean relocation, remodeling, or even just reflecting on your childhood and family life. This transit is a long one (until 2024), so this transformation will not be a rapid one.

We are all Spirit Communicators—all the time unconsciously broadcasting all kinds of “messages” to the Universe, and all the time unconsciously receiving messages from the Universe that is everything and everybody, including you and me. It’s not just the visible “out there” Sun and Moon and distant Stars, nor the invisible spirits in higher dimensions; we too are spirit. Inner and Outer, we all are made of the same stuff, at the foundation of which is Spirit, the universal “subtle element” that is the source of all the other elements manifesting in both visible and invisible dimensions and both inner and outer levels.  We, and everything physical and non-physical, all possess “spiritual” qualities and are, in fact, mostly composites of physical/etheric; astral; mental; causal; and spiritual substance, spiritual energy, and spiritual consciousness.

You Are—Potentially—A Power House

Each living person incarnates Body, Mind, and Spirit, and Feeling, Will, and Purpose within a single multi-level vehicle. Each person is a “power house” of near infinite potential, but, most people are barely “awake” at the physical level of conscious awareness, and have little control over the non-physical levels of feeling, thought, and will. Our bodies are alive at the deepest and most minute quanta levels, where we are constantly broadcasting messages from and between body cells and organs, and radiating it all from inner selves to all selves everywhere.

In addition to receiving these messages from all other people, and the natural and spiritual worlds around us, we also receive and automatically respond to a constant flood of physical stimuli and radiation, inducing emotional and unconscious mental “meandering,” generating nerve impulses, producing stress hormones, and compounding chemical agents that lead to reactions in the tri-level brain (one part of which is divided into two halves). The brain is all lit up, but for what purpose? Without intention those messages serve no purpose—they are a waste of your energies and injurious to your long term health (and “wealth”).

Reacting without Thought

Mostly, if not entirely, we react without thought or full awareness to physical events. Our attention is drawn to news stories of crime and disaster, to political and “religious” grand-standing, celebrity-studded entertainment, crowd-thrilling spectator sports, and the bizarre antics of young people in search of their personal identity—all tending to produce unintentional emotional reactions with unforeseen consequences to our own health and well-being and in our immediate family and social environment, and the world around us.

We react unconsciously rather than acting consciously with understanding and intention, and don’t even know the difference. We react because most of us are “asleep at the switch” and don’t know it—and don’t even know where the switch is. We’re like a hot race car: all gassed up, engine roaring, and no driver, no map, no guidance, no flag to drop. Our physical self is up, the potential for greatness is there, but the only direction to go is nowhere. You have to wake up, understand who and what you are, discover and activate that switch, and take charge of your own life. Don’t let others—not their institutions nor their automated systems—rob you of purpose and your precious assets and life energies for their self-serving benefit.

Know, and Take Charge!

It’s all very complex, yet you are the one who can understand and must take charge, and the fact of reaction vs. action results from what little you really know about yourself and the Universe in which we all live and have our being. But you must decide that you want to know about both, accept the facts that you are more than a physical body, that your real self is the actor, that you live in an interrelationship between your whole self and the whole universe and all there is.

Your acceptance of this defines your Attitude towards Life and your relation with the Universe, and your attitude reflects and incorporates your knowledge and becomes your own inner Belief System. No belief system imposed from without by Church or State, or Parent or School gives you the knowledge and strength to be an active partner with the Universe around you and thus enabling you to become more than you and all you can be. You, each of us, is the Microcosm to the Macrocosm; we are all that the Cosmos is, but on a different scale and still lacking the whole knowledge and awareness to become full partners in this universe.

It’s the Small Things that count

The modern world is a New World of Mind & Spirit in a New Age of Higher Human Consciousness. It is a New World of what we increasingly know of our own Body, Mind, and Spirit, of the world about us and within which we live, and of our role with the Universe. The “World” is bigger than we are, but it is the small things that control bigger things. Modern Quantum Physics reveals a fundamental dimension of smallness that switches back and forth between manifesting as Particles or Waves, Matter or Energy in response to human attention and intention. In other words, each person does have the power to introduce change at the most fundamental levels of Reality as she or he lives it.

Every cell in your body has consciousness and awareness of its purpose within the structure of your physical body. That consciousness is a manifestation of Spirit, and through the disciplines of Mind and Emotion you can willfully communicate through Spirit to heal the body and extend its lifespan. But, the more you know the deeper you can go and the better you can do these things, and more. That’s the value of the full range of the Yogic Sciences—not just the Hatha Yoga of gym studios. It’s not just physical control, but emotional control, mental control, spiritual control, and life control that must become your goal. That’s the value of gaining the full range of psychic empowering skills, and the value of gaining the full range of self-empowering knowledge and understanding.

All Big things are built from small things. Big things may be beyond your control and direct influence, but small things are not. Small things are points of leverage from which you can influence and change Bigger things. No, you can’t change the entire world all by yourself, but you can plant seeds that can grow and perhaps reach other people and “start the ball rolling” to bring about corrective changes in those big institutions that are out of harmony with the natural world in which we live and the fundamental cosmic purpose of individual growth and evolutionary development.

The Deeper You Go, the More You Know.

The more you know, and the deeper you go, the more control over your world you have. The Big World is composed of many small worlds. Big Worlds are the Organizations and Institutions of the modern world, but all organizations and institutions are composed of individuals. Individuals can control the big organizations and institutions, but they have to understand their nature and structure, and know their purpose.

Big Institutions and Organizations thrive on individuals’ ignorance of their nature and purpose, and dominate YOU by your faith in in the “Big Picture” they’ve drawn for you and for which they ask for your money and your “vote.” They need you, but claim that you need them. Often they reflect antique ideologies based on out-of-date beliefs about reality, serving only to benefit their self-serving leadership who use their immense power to support wealthy and powerful special interests.

It’s up to you to gain the knowledge, to train your mind, and to raise your “frequency” (a measure of vibrations; more about this in reference to your states of consciousness later) to see things for what they really are. Don’t be guided by their fear-inducing slogans that are really selling you a “bill of goods” contrary to your best interests, contrary to the natural order, and contrary to the cosmic directive calling for your personal development.

It’s All in YOUR Attitude

Your attitude towards the world is either passive and reactive or active and cooperative. The truth is that “WE are the World.” We and the World; Humanity and Nature; Body and Emotion, Mind and Spirit; Individuals and their Institutions—all are partners and must work together in cooperative understanding of our interdependent relationship. But it is now essential that we do this consciously and become more and more fully aware. We must BELIEVE in our own power to do so. It is “We, the People” who must assert our Freedom and take responsible control over our institutions that serve as communities of public interest.

In the past, “Belief” was largely imposed by Church and State, and both demanded and enforced obedience regardless of science, law, or personal belief. That Belief—imposed in the West by the dominant religious institutions—precluded people from all individual communication with Spirit and Spiritual Entities, basically defined as anything non-physical, hence not of this world! The Other World was literally owned by the Church, and only their authorized personnel could legally (since the Church dominated the State) communicate with other world entities.

Conscious vs. Unconscious Communication

What the Church knows is that we are all communicators, as already discussed earlier. Body, Emotion, Mind, and Spirit are always radiating and broadcasting subtle messages to the subtle fields of the Universe about us. But all that is at the automatic, unconscious, levels. It is unintentional communication without conscious messages.

Real Communication must be done consciously with a deliberate message intentionally targeting the desired communicant. Even if it is a message to an out-of-balance physical organ or energy center within our own body, it is Intention that focuses the power to knowingly bring change to heal disharmony and disease.

Everything and every entity vibrates, and the numbers assigned to that rate of vibration is a measure of speed and size of the energy keynote constantly radiating outward from the whole being—physical and non-physical. That keynote frequency is not absolutely fixed but does operate in a narrow enough range to serve as a kind of cosmic address for each person. Other people and other entities of both the physical world and the spiritual worlds likewise have such cosmic addresses (just like we use for email).

Getting in Sync!

But, to be fully effective, Communicator and Communicant need to be “in sync” with one another, be “on the same wavelength,” the same frequency or at least in “parallel harmony” with each other. This will be explained shortly.

The human being can intentionally alter the wavelength of the messages he or she consciously wishes to send to a communicant whether in this world or others in order to reach the designated target. But, it’s not as easily done as said. Within this physical world, email (or postal mail or a telephone call) is more reliable because there is a vast and dedicated support system to transfer the message in its purity and reach the target communicant free of interference.

Most of us are still unable to readily free our consciousness of the interfering incessant “noise” and “garbage” from within our own mind and emotion, and then to reliably raise the level of our frequency to specifically focus our awareness on the target so as to communicate accurately across the divide between the physical and spiritual (astral/mental/causal) worlds and reach a desired entity. Without a dedicated support service we need:

To bring out own mind under un-ambivalent control, and
To understand how to address any particular entity.

Absent a trained mind and such self-empowering techniques as meditation and self-hypnosis, and psychic-empowering skills as astral projection and clairvoyance, just as we do to reach across the divide of physical distance by the use of an intermediary (today mostly by means of electronic devices that have replaced the older roles of the pony express and before that of the town crier and long-distance runners) we need some form of intermediary to communicate with any non-physical entity.

Intermediaries Between the Worlds

While various gadgetry and “black boxes” have been pitched over the years to allow spirit voices to be heard, deliberate two-way communication is largely dependent on human intermediaries who have the ability to raise their level of consciousness and focus their awareness on the desired communicant. Aside from shamans, we know these intermediaries as Mediums and Channels.

Both the Medium and the Channel function between the Worlds of Physical and Spiritual Life, yet Spirit and Consciousness are everywhere and in everything. “Spirits” are non-physical entities, each embodying a unique and particularized consciousness, or “personality,” and some of these also represent a larger Cosmic power and function. Each Spirit entity is as individual as is a living physically incarnate person like you, also embodying a particularized consciousness. In each of these worlds we have individuals seeking to communicate with one another.

Even though this post is about the use of intermediaries, I want to remind readers that every physically incarnate person is more than a body with a physical brain. We all are physical (and non-physical) beings currently expressing ourselves primarily through our multi-layered physical vehicle. Even as you may use an intermediary to communicate with non-physical entities, this experience will help build your own ability to eventually communicate directly with non-physical entities through your own non-physical self. The use of the trance state, whether self-induced or aided by another person or entity, is a means to focus the mind and exclude external distractions in order to have a clear focus on the desired communicant and the messages being communicated.

The Ambassador Between This World and the “Other Side”

Just to give us a way to better understand the challenge of communication between the Physical and Spiritual Worlds, let’s think of them like two countries on opposite sides of the planet—speaking different languages and having different histories and cultures, but sharing a common goal of world peace. Nations exchange ambassadors, and it is the job of each ambassador to not only accurately translate the languages but fully understand the difference in cultures so that every communication is founded on common ground.

Our ambassador, (we’ll call her “Eartha Brown”) is the intermediary, or “medium” between our Physical World on This Side and the Spirit World on the Other Side. The common ground is the universality of spirituality and consciousness. The difference is in the “vibratory” rates, or states of consciousness. Ambassador Brown has to move between these two levels, and this is usually facilitated by her entry into a self-induced trance state. It is by means of this trance state that our Ambassador Brown has focused and raised her consciousness to the level for communicating with the desired Spirit Entity on the Other Side (in this example we will call the surviving personality “Tom Smith.”) Ambassador Brown translates and communicates our messages to the Other Side, and then does the same for messages from the Other Side to This Side. In our theoretical example, it is Tom’s daughter, Sarah, who wants to ask her deceased father what do about the library of old and valuable botanical books he so dearly loved. Both her sister, who now lives in Portland, and a distant nephew, now living in Atlanta, are asking about the collection. Should Sarah sell the books or give them to one or the other person? Eartha Brown is able to bring Tom Smith through and he says to sell the books and split the money between Sarah and her sister.

Such exchanges between the Physical and Spiritual Worlds has gone on for many millennia, but was largely denigrated and forgotten in the Western World until a few hundred years ago, culminating in the Spiritualist movement today.

One of the most difficult aspects of magick is understanding that it is a science and an art. Since there is a scientific aspect to it there must be some presuppositions about magick that have acquired the quality of being rules or laws. In my Modern Sex Magick I describe what I contend are nine basic theorems of magick. These general rules are not sexually related. In my book I gave a list of other theorems specifically related to sex magick. What do you think of these?

THEOREM ONE:  All actions have magickal reactions.

This means that everything you do, whether you are conscious of it or not, has a magickal reaction. Many people fail with magick because they do a brief ritual to achieve a desired result then spend hours bemoaning their lack in that area. That negative attitude, energy, and accompanying actions creating magickal results that are the opposite of what was intended.

This theorem implies that everything you do is magick and that everyone is a magician. Observation shows this is not true. So there is a bit more to this.

Corollary: Only a willed action is a magickal action.

Because every action has a magickal result, it is hard for a non-magician to deal with the seemingly unknowable reality of the universe. They blame their problems on fate, bad luck, kismet, or something similar. By not being able to tell what will happen as a result of their actions, they are spun around helplessly by the results of those actions. Life is a mess.

By doing as little as possible—leading an austere and isolated life such as that of a renunciate monk—it is possible to live a somewhat peaceful life: no actions, no magickal reactions. But for such a person there is also little freedom and no adventure.

A magician understands this theorem and its corollary and acts accordingly. He or she accepts and deals with any problems that are created. This is the essence of personal responsibility. You’re free to do what you want and create your future, but you’re responsible for everything you do.

Magicians go beyond merely accepting responsibility for their actions. By realizing that actions have magickal results, they can perform acts—rituals—that will successfully achieve desired outcomes and overcome the presence of unwanted or unexpected responses to actions.

Here’s an analogy: A non-magician is like a man falling from a great height. The effects of winds and gravity control his fall and he believes there is no way to avoid his inevitable fate. A magician can also fall from a great height, and knows that wind and gravity will buffet and pull him or her down. But the magician’s magick is like flying in a plane, controlling the fall, moving up and down, and landing safely. Magicians don’t fight gravity and wind, they work in harmony with natural forces to achieve desired goals.

THEOREM TWO:  Magick is not something you do. Magick is something you are.

The idea that you can pick up a book, mumble some Latin (poorly), wave a stick in the air and have real magick happen only occurs in novels, comic books, TV and movies. Real magick is more than just something you do.

With study and practice (as with the study and practice of any learned skill), magick becomes a part of you. It is something you are. With the skills of a magician you can correctly use a book of magick and obtain desired results. Further, by understanding that everything you do has magickal results, you can literally design your own rituals.

THEOREM THREE: Magick requires—

……1) The ability to generate or raise magickal energy

……2) The ability to manipulate that energy to an appropriate frequency for a goal

……3) The ability to direct that energy to achieve a desired goal

A magician, as the result of months or years of practice, can do these three things almost automatically. It is usual for most magicians to begin the process of learning these abilities with the help of tools such as wands and talismans, but with practice, although such devices may be used, no props are required.

[Note: There are fairly recent schools of magick that follow a different magickal paradigm: they deny the concept of magickal energy. Here, however, I’m sharing the classical approach.]

Corollary: The nature of magickal energy is threefold.

I refer to it as the psycho/sexual/spiritual nature of magickal energy. The “psycho” (as in “psychological”) aspect of this energy indicates that magickal energy is controlled by the mind. It can be strengthened with the help of the emotions. For example, being happy or sad, angry or loving, affects how well you can manipulate the energy.

Part of this is that for magick to be controlled you need to have a positive attitude about your success. This does not mean magick is all mental, just that a positive mental attitude will have an impact on your magick. Consider what might happen if you spent hours directing all of your energy in a negative, unhappy, failure-focused way toward your magick. You’re literally controlling the magickal energy with negativity toward achieving your goal. The practice of meditation and breathwork can help you develop an attitude of balance and equipoise.

The second part of this is the energy raised with the help of the body. It is sexual in the very broadest of senses, that of male/female, yin/yang, magnetic/electric, or the anode and cathode of a battery. This is not about physical gender; it’s about the movement of the energy in cycles.

Finally, this energy transcends your physical body and your mind. It’s also spiritual. It is linked to the Divine, the Godhead. Thus, the energy is spiritual, mental, and physical.

THEOREM FOUR:  Creation on the spiritual planes results in creation on the physical plane.

Since natural forces created the universe, the concept of magick being supernatural doesn’t make sense. Everything is natural. We may think of something as not being natural simply because we are uncomfortable with it.

We do not have astral bodies because our physical body was born. Rather, the physical body is the inevitable end result of our spiritual bodies being created on their associated planes.

Therefore, if we create something on the spiritual planes, eventually, it must manifest, via natural means, on the physical plane. Of course, this only remains true as long as we do not, knowingly or unknowingly, create magick that counters our spiritual creation.

THEOREM FIVE:  A ritual’s success is inversely proportional to time.

I credit this theorem to Chaos magician Peter Carroll. As a comparison, if you’re doing some sort of divination, the farther in the future you’re looking at, the less likely is the divination’s accuracy. This is because unknown and unplanned actions (the result of free will activities by you and others) between now and the distant outcome you’re considering may send unplanned and/or conscious magickal energy to what was the focus of the divination. Things change. If the event being divined is to take place soon, it is much more likely to occur as predicted when compared to something in a distant future.

Similarly, when magick is performed, results desired to have a rapid manifestation are more likely to be obtained than those planned for years from now. For something in the distant future, events not anticipated by the magician, may creep into his or her life and thoughts (these events are called noise) and pull the magician from focusing on the magick. Other interests may simply pull the magician away from his or her conscious desires. Other people may work, knowingly or unknowingly, to counter your own work. In fact, your interests may change so much that you end up consciously working against your original magick.

Therefore, rather than focusing on grand magickal experiments with goals intended to take place years from now, I suggest that you have a series of intermediate goals that you do magick for and that occur between now and the ultimate goal. For example, if your ultimate goal is to become a schoolteacher, your intermediate goals might be something like:

A)   Get good grades at school

B)    Graduate with a great GPA

C)   Get accepted into a good college

D)   Get good grades at college with a degree leading toward teaching

E)    Get accepted into a teaching program

F)    Do a great job as a student teacher

G)   Get a degree in teaching

H)  Get accepted to teach the subjects you want at the school you want

Using magick to help you achieve all eight goals, one at a time and in the appropriate order, will tend to be more effective than just doing magick to become a schoolteacher.

THEOREM SIX:  Let go and let the magick work.

As I have repeatedly told magicians of all kinds: just do the work. Do the best you can. Don’t focus on whether you did something perfectly, whether you mispronounced something, or whether it will really work. All of that sort of mental focus will send magickal energy away from achieving your goal and toward your doubts. This does not mean you shouldn’t strive to do everything as accurately and passionately as possible. Rather, it means once you’ve completed the magick, don’t obsess about it.

Keep a record of your magickal work, including all of the variables such as location, time, your feelings and attitudes, etc. Look back at your record later.  You’ll see any patterns that encouraged success or failure.

If your goal takes place in many months, you might want to occasionally repeat your ritual, not with the intent of “fixing” what you did wrong, but rather, to amplify and add to the original rite.

THEOREM SEVEN:  Magick is magick.

Nobody talks about good or bad electricity; there is just electricity. It may be used to light up the night or kill someone. Similarly, the notion of black, white, gray, pink, puce, green, or octarine magick may be good for theoretical or philosophical classification of the results, but the methodologies are still the same.

Magick is magick. I suggest performing a divination before doing an actual ritual. When doing the divination, don’t ask “Should I do this ritual?” That places the responsibility on your divinatory tool rather than on you. Instead, ask, “What will be the result if I do this magick?” When you learn the result you can adjust the magick if necessary to avoid any problem or enhance potential success. This empowers the magician and helps prevent doing anything stupid that might harm the magician or someone else.

Corollary: An effective magician may choose to be “stupid.”

Real magicians don’t need to do magick to harm others. In fact, they won’t do magick to harm others because the karmic response to such an action would be to harm oneself, and that would be stupid.

In some circumstances, however, a magician may consciously choose to do something “stupid,” something that will harm him or her, because the situation warrants it. For example a magician I know used magick to stop a rapist who was attacking women in his neighborhood. Within a week the alleged rapist was in a serious auto accident and the police were able to catch him. A month later, the magician was laid off at work. He believes it was a karmic response to his actions (working the magick) that resulted in another person being harmed.

To this day he doesn’t care about losing his job. To him it was a conscious effort to stop a person who was harming people around him. He performed more magick to obtain a better job and a short time later he obtained a position that paid him much more than his previous job.

THEOREM EIGHT:  Magick is a science and an art.

This means that some people may have a natural ability to do magick. But don’t let that bother you! If you study and practice you can become as good or better than even the most naturally skilled person who doesn’t continue to study or practice.

THEOREM NINE:  Magick is synergistic.

Synergy is the concept that the total is greater than the sum of its parts. Saying magick is synergistic means that the amount of energy raised during a group (two people or more) ritual is greater than the amount of energy that can be raised by each person working individually.

However, remember the old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. One experienced, well-trained magician may be far more successful than a group of untrained people or people who simply do not work well together, or are not synchronized on the magickal goal of the work. Help the weakest person of a pair, or the weakest people of a group become better at magick in order to enhance the magickal energy.

 I hope these nine theorems have given you some ideas to consider.

Can you think of some others?

Please send comments with your ideas.

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I’m Being Interviewed Sunday on

Pagan Science Radio!

This coming Sunday, September 22, 2013,  at 10:00 p.m. Central Time (8:00 Pacific) I’m going to be interviewed on Pagan Science Radio. You can go to this LINK (it will take you to the blogtalkradio site) and listen in live. We’re going to be talking about a wide range of subjects ranging from Tarot & Magic to hypnosis and NLP. I may even share an introduction to smoking cessation that beings with…explosive cow flatulence! This should be a lot of fun and I hope you can listen in and say hello! Pagan Science Radio

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern——9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific

Topic: How to Make and Use Talismans and Amulets

Summer is rapidly drawing to an end. Just as many people have started or are beginning to go to school, it’s time for you to add to what you know. That’s why I’m so happy to have a relationship with Thelesis Aura and their Online Academy. They’ve already held some live webinars for me (and for others teachers) and the attendance has been wonderful, including people from North and South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

My next webinar will cover talismans and amulets. Throughout history, humans have used objects to bring health, safety, good luck, and to fulfill desires. Today, these objects are known as talismans and amulets. In this live, worldwide webinar, you’ll learn how to create them, how to turn them into powerful magickal tools, and how to use them effectively and safely. Topics include the three necessities of magick, differences between talismans and amulets, timing, designing effective magickal goals, types of talismans, how to prepare a talisman, what to do after you create a talisman, and more. When completed, you will have the information you need to create powerful talismans that will help you achieve your goals.

This webinar is not some recording. It is a live, online training event. You will hear me live, just as I am talking. You’ll see my presentation slides, live, right on your computer. You’ll be able to download handouts. You’ll be able to ask questions during the webinar. You’ll see everything and hear me giving the webinar live. It’s as if you were in a room with me, only you can participate from your location anywhere in the world.

In this online workshop-webinar, I’ll be sharing practical techniques you will be able to use to make positive changes in your life. You’ll be able to create and use talismans for any purpose, including healing and improving your luck. This is invaluable information with techniques that can be used by individuals and groups.

Please note that this is not a recording. It is a live event you can attend. You will be able to interact with me, live, from anywhere in the world. Therefore, please make sure to check the time. It’s 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern U.S.; 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific U.S. time.

Registration is now open. Here is the LINK. Due to software limitations, attendance is limited to only 200 people, so I would urge you to register as soon as possible.

The Full Moon in Pisces occurred this morning, Thursday, September 19 at 7:13 am Eastern (11:15 am GMT) at 27 degrees. Full Moons represent the culmination of those things that were begun with the New Moon (in this case the September 5 New Moon in Virgo), which found us focusing on cleanliness, planning, home, health, and well-being.

The Pisces Full Moon opposes the Sun in Virgo; we are reminded to check ourselves in the progress we made towards our goals set during the Virgo New Moon. Have we begun to initiate necessary change in our lives? Have we dug into the dusty nooks and crannies of our homes and our inner selves?

This Full Moon is also the Harvest Moon (the Full Moon that occurs closest to the Autumn Equinox). Here’s to some fantastic viewing!

Earlier this month I wrote about multiple decks on single themes, specifically cat decks. Today it is fairy or faery or faerie themed decks.

I have heard some of my fellow tarot lovers remark on the number of any sort of themed decks. “How many fairy-themed decks do we need?” Or “How many cat decks are possible?” What do you think?

As a deck creator and as a tarot lover, I don’t think that any one deck can be the end-all-be-all exploration of any theme. Every artist and creator will present different ideas, both in images and in deck structure. In addition, people are drawn to tarot not just by themes but by art. If there are several decks exploring a theme, all with different artistic styles, then a person can use whichever appeals most to them.

Many themes appeal to deck creators: dragons, cats, fairies, magic, witchcraft, paganism, legends and myths and pantheons of all sorts, vampires, steampunk. These themes appeal to people for lots of reasons, but the common reason is that they resonate with us for some reason, be it religion, preference, or aesthetics. Creators are drawn to different themes because they are popular…and they are popular for a reason. They are striking a chord in the collective psyche. If they are striking a chord, then using the structure of tarot to explore them is a wonderful way to explore why a certain theme resonates.

Today I offer you the 10 of Pentacles from several faerie themed decks. I love the variety of artistic styles and the way the energy of this card is represented.

 

Tarot of the Celtic Faries

 

The Mystic Faerie Tarot

 

The Victorian Fairy Tarot