Archived Hidden Wisdom

Every once in awhile I go through the archives of some of the Blogs that I read and a post title will catch my eye. I seem to find the most wisdom in these older posts than in the current ones. Yes, the current posts are good, timely and well written, but they don't necessarily trigger something for me, at that time.

To me, opening an archive post is like some people opening up a book of knowledge or wisdom and reading the first page that the book reveals. It's a bit of a magickal process that works. That page, or post in my case, seems to be a message from the universe.

One post just caught my eye from Ed Mills at Evolving Times entitled The Size of Your Segment Does Matter. BTW, yes it is a clean article. :)

In brief, because Ed does such a good job explaining this, is that we break our day down into smaller chucks of intention segments. For example, upon wakening spend a moment seeing the overall vision and feeling for your entire day, then focus an intention for the morning preparation before leaving. See the kids getting ready quickly and easily, breakfast on the table, lunches packed and everyone out the door with everything they need.

Once in the car, intend the next smaller segment the travel to work. See and feel the smooth traffic flow, the music you are listening too, being to work on time.

Before going in, take a moment to plan your next segment, getting into work, booting up the PC, making pleasant good mornings to everyone. Before your meetings visualize the customer's your will talk with being pleasant, the sales presentations going very well and the buyers signing the contracts.

As you are about to leave for the drive home, once again intend this smaller segment of how well the traffic will flow, the kindness of the drivers around you, the short line at the supermarket picking up those last minute items(s) before going home. And once home, before leaving the car, intend a wonderful and refreshing home and family time for dinner and the rest of the night.

Thank you Ed for posting this back in February and Thank you Universe for leading me to this gem of wisdom.

My next segment is my morning hygiene ritual...showering. I do a lot of intentional creating in the shower. It's a bit of a cleansing process for the mind. Although a bath is more appropriate. I now consider showers the shorter segment of a bath.

(Hmmm, I think I have a new article in the works now.)

Ritual as an Agent of Transformation and Change

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary one definition of ritual is: an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner.

Rituals are not just the religious and ceremonial acts on the Sabbath day, but also a significant part of our daily life for many of us. We engage in rituals every day from brushing our teeth, kissing our spouse as we leave for work, to the route we use to get to and from work and tucking in our children at bedtime.

Rituals can be used to change our state of mind.

Metaphysicians, witches, wizards, druids, etc. all use ritual tools, clothing, chants, meditations to get into a state of mind in preparation for their magickal working. Rituals are also practiced everyday by everyone. We engage in ritual practice by dressing for work. The uniform, the suit, the dress are ritual clothing that puts us in a state of mind preparing for work. We change out of work-clothes into jeans or sweats and that changes our state of mind from work to pleasure.

Cooking and food preparation are rituals we engage in wooing a potential mate, expressing love for our family and the ritual of nourishing our body.

Sadly many of our daily rituals are more habitual, lacking the emotional charge they once carried. We perform the ritual in a routine and almost unconscious manner. Most days the energy we put in to preparing dinner for our mate, our family is gone. Many of our daily rituals are performed at a low energy level and carry little impact. We disconnected ourselves from the emotion by doing the same acts over and over without conscious effort. The ritual has become routine. We rely on our memories of the act, the motions to perform the ritual without any thought put into them. Have you driven to work or home from work and don’t remember the actual drive?

Some rituals when performed unconsciously or at low energy levels have little impact in our lives such as brushing our teeth. Other rituals when performed routinely or at a low energy level can have a disasterous effect such as preparing for a skydive or scuba diving.

So, we want to practice rituals that are high energy, not necessarily kenetic (physical) energy or help us to attain higher energy, a spiritual high energy. We want to be consciously involved in these high energy activities to bring our spiritual vibrations to higher levels.

Living life to its fullest, living in abundance, attracting your desires, has rituals involved. Living a life of abundance, a purposeful life is just that, purposeful. Although living a purposeful life in a low energy state may not cause a physical death such as a poorly packed parachute, living life in a low energy state is like a death of the spirit.

There are physical practices that help adjust your state of mind to these higher levels. Yoga disciplines are rituals of aligning our body, mind and spirit in a series of positions or asanas and breathing techniques. Acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapies, etc. are just a few of the rituals used to release energy blockages and harmonize the body mind spirit, thereby allowing a higher energy level.

How can we use rituals to make changes in our lives? More specifically, how can we use rituals to make positive changes in our lives? That depends on what you want to change and what ritual you want to practice, what you are comfortable with using. There are many disciplines and schools of energy work that have their rituals designed to release energy blockages, raise our energy levels and / or harmonize our body, mind spirit.

Recently I’ve started practicing and using Emotional Freedom Technique in my life as a way of releasing emotional blockages within my system. This practice involves tapping on a series of meridian energy points on the body to trigger the release of blocked energy, much like an acupuncture needle releases the same blockages. As much as I have benefited from acupuncture, I have not studied the science nor am I able to administer the needles to myself. Fortunately, EFT is easily transportable with us, since the tapping is done with our fingers on the locations identified by the practitioners.

EFT is a ritual I practice several times a day, in the morning when I wake, during the day at work, at night, when I go to bed. EFT is quick, easy, transportable and it works. I also use other transformational rituals to guide me through the changes I am making in my life such as meditation and affirmations.

What rituals do you use to transform your life?

Law of Attraction is Magick

To many, the results of consciously using the Law of Attraction seems like magick. I've heard many teleseminars, the presenters in the movie The Secret and reading books on intention and Law of Attraction equate the results of manifestation to being like magick.

I've read, studied and practiced magick (or as friends and I refer to it “applied metaphysical phenomenon”) for several years.

I spell magic with a 'k' to differentiate the use of sleight-of-hand from the occult sciences. It’s a common spelling in occult writings. For years I also taught, sold and performed magic shows. So for clarification in my writings I’ll be using both spellings. The spelling with a ‘k’ will refer to the occult sciences.

Now, don't panic about the word occult, dictionaries define it to mean secret, obscure or hidden. Hence the title of the movie The Secret is so appropriate.

Now, what's interesting about my studies of magick, is that it was packed full of ritual and ceremony. That was appealing to me. Some might say it’s because I’m a recovering Catholic. I was also attracted to the occult because of the mystery. Who doesn’t want to know a good secret? I also had a desire for personal power, I wanted to make things happen. This was in part due to my feeling insecure and with little self confidence. I thought that the magickal powers would make everything better. I was looking for the answer outside of myself, in the ritual and ceremony without looking inward for my own power.

Good teachers of the occult sciences and all teachers of Law of Attraction I’ve come across put the responsibility squarely on each individual’s shoulders.

I can tell you that the same basic principles of the Law of Attraction are the basic principles of magick. Occult magick is a formalized application of tuning in the mind, body and spirit, also known as a spell, to cause a manifestation. Not so different from any teacher’s LoA program than anothers. It’s just their spin, their experience, their way of sharing the same information. Much like what you read here.

When preparing for a magickal ritual, the practitioner will determine that which they desire to happen or manifest, some might call this a goal. Many systems of magick will start with a meditation or some relaxation technique, a key component of Law of Attraction teachers espouse is the practice of meditation or some relaxation technique. While performing the magickal ritual, the practitioner is to work themselves up into a frenzy, a higher state of excitement about their desire and to visualize there desire manifested. Similarly, Law of Attraction is based on energy frequencies and higher levels of energy focused through the visualization of the desire.

Once the ritual is completed, the practitioner is to release the energy built-up in the ritual and “let it go” out into the Universe to let the Powers That Be bring into being the practitioner’s desire.

The Law of Attraction works like magic because it is magick. (Yes, I did use both spellings on purpose.)

The New Age movement; Neopaganism, Druidism, Shamanism, Wicca, etc. the numerous references of the occult sciences in today’s society are all evidence that the secret is out in the public awareness. And has been out for years. The explosion of media coverage of books and movies, the number of websites and blogs, the coaches and teachers are just lifting the veil of mystery that has shrouded the Law of Attraction behind the occult sciences.

And Quantum Physics is providing the scientific, imperical evidence that sorcerers, wizards and witches have worked with for centuries.

Blessed Be