Magicians Guild Musings

My Dedicant's Path coursework passed early this month, and so I've been working on quite a few new courses. I also joined a couple of guilds; the Seers Guild, and the Magicians Guild.

As my background isn't in ceremonial magic, it's been a challenge so far, but that's one of the reasons why I opted to join the guild and work on the guild training courses. This exposure to ceremonial magic in the History of Magic section of the training is really giving me ideas for hybrid rites, or at least rites that take the effective ritual mechanics and techniques of ceremonial magic but that are inherently Pagan and conform to the Core Order of Ritual.

Blasphemy, right?

I have to confess, I do rather like this kind of experimentation. I've always been something of a pragmatist when it has come to the magical arts in the past - if it works I do it, and if I can hone what I already know works, then I'll take out that honing tool and put it to work.

The first ritual that niggled me for playing with is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. I learned how to do it years ago as another sort of weapon in my arsenal for exorcism (I used to get called in to exorcise places every now and again). However, I wondered if it would be truly possible to create a 'paganized' version that still maintained the same ritual mechanics as the original.

And thus began a crazy process trying to make that work. I have something that does work for me, but I'm still working on it. The main changes I've made though have been:

*Changing the initial visualisation to visualising myself growing so as to dwarf the earth and that I stand upon the earth - as a part of the solar system still - and draw energy from the sun. This helps to tie this non-qabalistic cross with the work of the Two Powers meditation.

*At what would be 'Malkuth', there is an added section in which earth energy is also drawn up in the visualisation - once more tying into the Two Powers.

*The language used is a prayer I wrote in Old English that I vibrate.

* After reading that the use of four elements in the Western Esoteric Tradition derives from the Tetragrammaton, I changed it to three - land/earth, sea/waters, and sky/fire.

* The pentagram is replaced by a swastika. The use of the swastika does present the problem of it being four-legged and more tied in with four elements (at least in Golden Dawn magic). However, the history of the swastika is far older than the Golden Dawn - or the Nazis -and I take it to be a holy and auspicious symbol. I also personally have good associations with the symbol after living in Asia (where it is commonly displayed) and protecting my home using that symbolism.

*The circle creation section of the ritual is also tied in with a recreation of the cosmos.

Like I said though, I'm not 100% happy with what I've come up with.

However, I *am* happy with my newest idea, very happy in fact, and I'd love to try it out.

It's a recreation of the cosmos type idea that's based on the Planetary Morning Star (a symbol that is now being used by modern practitioners of the Fairy faith). At the center is an axis mundi or tree, and the star is marked out using ribbon and stakes around the tree/post. The working area is in the center of the star, around the tree, and the representations of land, sea, and sky are placed in accordance with the diagram. It's intended to recreate the cosmos in a slightly more concrete sense, placing it fully within our solar system. Again, there are holes here, namely that we know there are more than 7 planets and that the earth isn't at the center of the solar system. However, it is not a scientific truth that we seek to express here, but a truth based in myth and ritual; that, as Mircea Eliade once wrote, '"Our world" is always situated at the center.'

If nothing else, I think it would make for a very beautiful and grand ritual setting and recreation of the cosmos (the ribbons then being used to decorate and honor the tree that served as the axis mundi after the rite is ended).

Notes:

* The center dot denotes tree/axis mundi.

* The triple division of the circle is not for replication, it's merely to show the positioning of the representations of the land, sea, and sky. So, for example, a representation of earth would go in the North, the fire (as representation of the sky and realm of Shining Ones) would go in the South East. The well would go in the South West.

* Start at Sunday and follow the line to Monday, then Tuesday, then...you get the idea. Neat, huh?

Book Review: 'In Search of the Indo-Europeans', by J.P. Mallory

Book Review
'In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth', by J.P. Mallory


When I first picked up this book, it's because I'd been trying to read Jaan Puhvel's 'Comparative Mythology', but found myself frustrated by my lack of grounding in the more 'physical' aspects of what we know of the Indo-Europeans. As the title of Puhvel's book suggests, it represents a particular method of researching IE cultures as opposed to giving a good overall introduction to the subject, and so while it's an entertaining read, I think I would recommend that any newcomer to the subject start with Mallory's book.

Although drier than Puhvel's writing, Mallory is methodical and conservative in his interpretations of physical, and linguistic evidence, which I appreciate. I found the first chapter, 'The Discovery of the Indo-Europeans', and its overview of the various scholastic currents that eventually led to the discovery of the Indo-Europeans very entertaining; indeed I had a good chucked about Goropianism (P11).

Chapters two and three were concentrated on tracing the various Indo-European groups in Asia Minor and Europe respectively, and this is where Mallory really filled in what was missing for me when I first tried to read Puhvel. His approach in each chapter is to start with the cultures that we can most confidently describe as being IE language speakers with the earliest literary records, before widening his focus to other similar groups in the same geograhpic area. For example, in chapter three, he begins with the Hittites, turns his focus to the other IE cultures in the Anatolian group (Luwian and Palaic), and then gradually traces his way around the other various IE groups in Asia Minor and beyond (such as the Tocharians). Along the way, Mallory integrates evidence from the archaeological record (such as burials and pottery), and the contemporary accounts of neighbouring cultures with whom the IE cultures interacted, to present the fullest picture possible without wandering into the realm of supposition. The interdisciplinary approach is one that I truly appreciate.

As someone with a language-based degree and a burgeoning interest in linguistic paleontology, chapter four, 'Proto-Indo-European Culture', was a delight to me. In this chapter, Mallory takes a look at what words we have been able to reconstruct of the Proto-Indo-European language, and what we can ultimately ascertain about everything from the kind of environment they lived in, to their economy, social structure, and technology. I especially found the section on familial relationships, especially regarding fosterage and the roots of nepotism (P. 124) interesting.

When it came to the chapter on Indo-European Religion, I think I was hoping for a little more, for it to be a little longer and more in depth, however I think that would have been going outside Mallory's typical purview and more into the realm of supposition. As expected, there was a heavy focus on tripartation, horse sacrifice, the divine twins, and a discussion on the usefulness of what Mallory refers to as 'new comparative mythology'. This is, without a doubt, Puhvel's territory, and were I to give advice to a newcomer on what to read and when, I would tell them to read Mallory, but then begin Puhvel's book after reading chapter five.

Chapter six took a look at the problems of trying to locate the Indo-European Homeland. Again, Mallory took a methodical and careful approach, and began by ascertaining just how big, on average, a linguistic area tends to be. Then, moving onto an analysis of the potential neighbouring cultural areas of that homeland, he sets out to prove contact through loan words, the geographical concentration of IE languages, linguistic paleontology, and a cursory look at archaeology.

The next two chapters, 'The Archaeology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans', and 'Indo-European Expansions' were some of my favourites in the book. I found myself fascinated by the commonalities of burial practices among the early cultures that might be called PIE cultures (such as Sredny Stog, Corded Ware, TRB, Globular Amphora, Yamnaya, and other steppe cultures), and the use of ochre in ritual. In some ways, to me, the ochre seems to be representative of blood, its use on Kurgan burials, anthropomorphic stone stelae (as found at Kalanchak, P. 204), and Afansievo censers (P.223), suggests that it may have been seen as a purifying/sanctifying substance. When discussing the Corded Ware culture, Mallory does not mention the use of ochre, and so I wonder if for some reason the use of ochre in ritual didn't continue as the Indo-Europeans expanded north and west, and why that would have been the case. These chapters were dense, satisfying, and I feel like I could write an entire review on just them.

The epilogue, as a discussion of the history, use, and abuse of the term 'Aryan', left me both irritated and glad. I was irritated because there are certain movements that would try and use Indo-European studies to support racist agendas, but I was glad that Mallory not only went there, but thoroughly demonstrated the error of ideologies that would see us place people and languages in hierarchies of 'greater' and 'lesser'. After addressing that less savoury subject, Mallory moved on to looking at the actual legacy of the Indo-Europeans, the domestication of the horse, our linguistic heritage, and as the final picture in the book (Peter Breugal's 'Land of Cockayne') demonstrates, a potential adherence to the idea of tripartation.

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Hearth Culture Essay

I was fourteen when I first started to pray to the gods I pray to now. Well, mostly the same gods, anyway. Back then, I would just stand, unsure whether it was 'Pagan' to put my hands together or close my eyes. My sources, such as they were, were the entire Pagan section from my public library – about five or six books in total, and all with a distinctly Wiccan flavour. But still, as it was the mid 90s, it would be roughly three more years before I would see the internet in my backwoods corner of England (in the next town), and it was 1999 when the internet came to our home.

This was both a curse and a blessing; a blessing because there was no 'noise' from outside sources to tell me what I 'should' be doing, and a curse because I remained in a state of ignorance when it came to anything outside of the half a dozen Pagan books from the library. Some things I got right, making offerings to trees and water, for one. But I think I got a whole lot more wrong – a least for me.

Over the years, what might be termed as my 'hearth culture' has gone through countless changes as my environment ( and by extension, I) have adapted. When I joined ADF, I was at a crossroads of sorts, because to put it simply, I didn't feel like what I was doing was 'watering my whole tree', and I'm sorry to say that most of modern Heathenism came to feel empty to me. To borrow terminology from Isaac Bonewits in 'Neopagan Rites', the magical technology wasn't just incompetant, but it seemed anathema to many.

However, I have a drive, and a need to be engaged with the magical and otherworldly. Interactions with the 'other' have been a part of my life ever since I was a child growing up with the Spiritualist heritage of my father's side of the family. At this point, I've seen too much of the otherworldly, especially the dead, to ignore that side of me in order to not make some people uncomfortable.

I also have a drive to worship Celtic gods as well as Germanic, but this proved to be a large mental block for quite a while, and it was only when I started to research the cultural borrowings between the Gauls and Germans during the La Tène period that I began to feel more comfortable with the Irish and Brythonic sides of my heritage. As I looked at the Gauls, I began to look at the Indo-Europeans as a whole, and found myself understanding far more of the Germanic worldview for it. Some of the depth missing from mainstream Heathenry started to fill in for me, and in worshipping the Celtic gods that I worship, I found a kind of healing.

My hearth culture as I experience it now is both Germanic and Irish/Brythonic. The deities I worship are Woden, Frija, Thunor, Hama, Ing, Macha, Brighid (who I see as being the same as Brigantia, and the sovereignty goddess of the land where I grew up), Lugh, the Divine Twins, Blodeuedd/Blodeuwedd, and the Taliesin. I also worship the Aelfe (elves), Matronae, Feorrin ('fairies', in my native dialect), Cofgodas (house spirits), and make offerings to Garanus as a liminal guide. The Ancestors are a main part of our hearth culture, from the whole family offering rituals to the touching their shrine and saying a quick prayer or 'I love you' on my way past. When my daughter was born, it was at their shrine that we first presented her when my husband sprinkled water on her head and named her on her ninth day.

With a few friends who also straddle the worlds of Heathenry and ADF, the process of building a Proto-Grove began, and it's been really excellent because we not only do we have great 'ritual chemistry', but we're mostly on the same page about our hearth culture focii. We're a dual Norse/Irish grove, and alternate High Days between the cultures in a way that really works for us. Imbolc is about Brighid, Ostara honours the dawn goddess that brings the spring, Beltane is all about the Sidhe. At summer solstice we honour Sunna, and Lughnasadh is for Lugh. We're pretty set on the Divine Twins for the Autumn Equinox (based on the idea that in various IE cultures, the temple pillars representing them were typically aligned with the Fall equinox), and Samhain is all about the Ancestors (and maybe the Morrigan). Yule is yet to be discussed, but will in all likelihood be Germanic - probably in honour of Odin. I would also like to include Frija, but we'll have to see how the others in the PG feel. Regardless, my own Yule celebrations will honour Frija,and the Matronae, simply because that's the High Day focus in our home at that time of year. We also typically celebrate for 13 nights, and have various rituals during that time. As for patron deities for the PG, we have a consensus to just take it easy and see if any come up in an organic way.


If there's one thing though, that being a long-time Heathen has taught me, it's that hearth culture is a changing thing, it's mostly never set in stone. It's a thing that's alive, built up of layers of action, of piety, of prayer, of ritual, of oaths, and service. It's also something that adapts to environment and to each new arrival in the family, only to be passed on to those that come after us. I don't know how this hearth culture is going to look in another twenty years, but I do think that there is plenty of room for growth, for strengthening our reciprocal relationships with the kindreds, and being the best we can be for those around us.

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Book Review - 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism' by Carl McColman

When I first picked up this book on Kindle I liked the overall structure of the book, the five themed sections with chapters focusing on an aspect of each theme made for easy navigation, and there is a logical progression to the sections and chapters.

 The first section, 'Pagan Basics', was an overview of Pagan beliefs, the relationship of Pagans to the earth, three different types of Paganism, and a look at the other cultural odds and ends that have come to play a role in modern Pagan belief.

 While I appreciate the difficulty of talking about a path as wide and varied as Paganism in terms that would please everyone, the first chapter reads like a set up for the 'No True Scotsman' fallacy, presenting things that the author finds distasteful (like animal sacrifice) as 'not Pagan', regardless of actual Pagan practice. The whole first section seems to be a vehicle for the author's biases in general, especially with regards to worshipping 'the Goddess', and the sacredness of nature (not all Pagans worship the Goddess or have find the earth sacred). For a 101 guide to Paganism, it seems to be more 'Wicca-lite' than a real look at some of the diverse set of beliefs and traditions that huddle under the Pagan umbrella. Even the treatment of the three paths the author chose to focus on (Shamanism, Wicca, and Druids/Revivalist traditions) further reflects his biases with the chapter on Wicca being notably longer than the others. Not only that, but he squeezes Druids, Asatru, Romuva, Hellenismos, and Kemeticism into one chapter, and repeatedly brings discussion of Druidry back to Shamanism. The very complex traditions of Asatru and Romuva are only alloted one paragraph each, and poor Hellenismos and Kemeticism get a small paragraph between them!


In the final chapter of this section, the author looks at other factors that he felt contribute to the 'Pagan Puzzle', and while he does look at the influence of the Western mystery tradition, I don't think he devoted enough time to it, given its influence in Wicca (and therefore neo-Paganism on the whole).

The second section, 'How to Think like a Pagan', begins with an examination of Pagan cosmology, in which three different schemas are presented, then moves onto ideas of the Goddess and God, the spirit world, the elements, and the cyclic nature of Pagan beliefs.

I do like that the author takes the time to essentially explain discernment when dealing with the otherworld and spirits (chapter 7), and that the dead are not necessarily the same as they were in life. I think that's really helpful to have in a beginner's book, and not enough books tackle that. I also like that he points out in chapter 11 that not all Pagans have the same ideas on what constitutes 'the elements'.

Unfortunately, this is also the section in which he further cements the duotheistic mindset of Wicca, devoting a chapter to exploring 'the goddess', and another to exploring 'the god'. I think it's a major neglect of the author to not devote any significant time exploring the different Pagan approaches to deity, and that he could have filled an entire chapter looking at henotheism, duotheism, and the different types of polytheism. His treatment of fairies is similarily frustrating, on the one hand he seems to pidgeonhole them in elemental associations, but then on the other hand, rightly makes the point that they're all individuals, not all nice, and that some are best left alone.

The most annoying bit of this section though for me, was chapter 11. McColman gives the symbols for the four elements of Wicca, then equates them with yin and yang, and then genitalia. This feels like something from his own tradition, but rather than explaining that that's where he's getting it from, it feels like he's pointing it out as a universal truth. I also found it kind of worrying that he gave the king of the fire spirits as 'Djinn', especially when you think about what Djinn actually are in traditional lore. Not something I'd want beginners to mess around with.


The section on Ritual is a good primer on Wiccan-esque ritual, which isn't really my cup of tea, although the section in which he links Wiccan tools with the tarot suits is quite well done. The section on festivals needs to be better cited too, but citation of sources isn't a particularly strong point of this book. I understand that this is a 'Complete Idiot's Guide', but even complete idiots should be furnished with well-cited guides.

All in all, I think the section on Magic is one of the best sections in the book. The chapter on meditation is very well done for beginners, and aside from the generalisations about 'Pagans not cursing', on the whole, it's not too bad. I especially appreciated the inclusion of the origins and wider meaning of the words 'heal'/'healing' in Chapter 20 and their association with 'wholeness'. So kudos to Mr McColman there!

The final section is by turns good and bad. I really liked the section on the different types of groups, their pros, cons, and how to evaluate if a group is truly good for you to be involved in. This is a self-protection issue that I don't think is brought up enough in beginner books, and I especially appreciated the advice to keep an eye on how much time you're spending online vs actually doing (chapter 24). It was also good to have a section on how to build your own practice as a Pagan, but that would have been better without the encouragement to find one's 'matron' and 'patron' deities.

On the whole though, while there were some good parts, I wouldn't recommend this book.
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Dedicant - Home Shrine

This is my home shrine, and since I've created it, it's become a cornerstone of my practice. I have a shrine each to the gods, ancestors, and spirits, however, those are purely votive and not really suited to personal work, or more 'bigger picture' devotions.

By way of a short explanation of the shrine; the tree has a bowl at its base that serves as the 'well', the votive candle is the 'fire', and the green leaf bowl is for purifying myself before ritual. The two novena candles serve for illumination and are lit when I'm just praying. The black bowl at the back is for offerings, and the black bowl at the front is for the waters. Behind the offering bowls is my tin that I carry various items that are sacred to me when I'm away from home. It's a 'port-a-grove' of sorts in that there is a tree representation, a candle, and a receptacle for water. I also have a Garanus 'ada spirit', and a felted Frige. I pray at my shrine almost every day – there is an adapted Lorica prayer I say, and a house-blessing adapted from the Carmina Gadelica.

In terms of future plans, I want to eventually get a post like those from the Magical Druid, and I'd like to also pick up one of the ancestor 'ada spirits'. In terms of space and placement, I don't like that it's not really the kind of shrine that I can sit at, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that given our current living situation.

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Dedicant - The Two Powers Meditation

The first time I did the Two Powers meditation, I found it very similar to what I was already doing to ground and centre, but with some key differences:

* I would visualise myself standing with my back against Yggdrasil as opposed to essentially 'being the tree' myself.
* My 'roots' would follow the roots of Yggdrasil down and the 'water' they pulled up was experienced only as energy as opposed to having a temperature (cool) associated with it.
* My branches would reach up to the heavens and pull down energy from a non-specific source; this energy also had no further characteristics associated with it.

In comparison with my previous method, I now find the Two Powers meditation to be more refined and efficient.

The dark, primeval waters of life and creation that lie in the Earth are experienced as cool, and the energy of the stars is experienced as a warm, electric energy ( I always experience it more as a hot firey energy). We bring those energies into our bodies and let them combine, thus making ourselves a bridge.

In a sense, I feel we recreate the cosmos within ourselves, making ourselves the sacred centre. To my mind, this is what makes other excercises carried out in the 'Other', such as the 'Passing the Mist' exercise, not only possible but effective. I find a parallel there with the recreation of the cosmos and establishment of the sacred centre that allows us to stand in that place between that allows us communication with the Kindreds in ritual.

Another way in which the Two Powers is more efficient in comparison to what I did before, is that by making oneself the tree as opposed to standing back to the tree, rooted to the watery earth current and connected to the stars, you cannot help but be grounded and centred.

The first time I did the Two Powers meditation, not only did I feel grounded and centred, but I felt a 'generative' energy there as the cool water energy mingled with the hot fire energy, much in the same way that heat and water produces steam and steam can then be used to power engines. Since then, I have used the Two Powers meditation before ritual in order to not only ground and centre myself, but to call up/down energy to direct towards ritual.

Dedicant - Mental Discipline Essay

When I think about the dedicant path and what I'm finding the hardest, this requirement is easily the hardest for me to fulfill in terms of extraneous issues interfering with my ability to do so. It would seem that for a new mom, the simple task of finding some quiet time in which one can meditate can be one of the hardest things to do. Between the near constant tiredness and the seemingly never ending list of tasks, finding that time and staying awake enough to actually meditate in some form without falling asleep can be a challenge. However, this requirement has also been the most insightful and rewarding for me, and from it, I have developed a system that I believe works for me.

The first time I attempted this requirement, I wasn't particularly prepared for how difficult it would be to find the time, or how certain adjustments in approach would have to be made depending on how family life was going that week, and so when a bout of serious illness hit my little family, I found myself completely unprepared and so 'fell off the meditation wagon' (so to speak).

The second time, I decided to diversify my methodology to not only take into account the times I'm so exhausted I can barely see, but to integrate meditation into my life as a part of it as opposed to being apart from it. To this end, I downloaded several meditation mp3s that would hopefully keep my brain active enough to stay awake to meditate on the days that I'm tired, and I also incorporated more active forms of meditation as well as trance journeying. This was on top of the basic mindfulness meditation.

On average, I meditated about twice a week, but sometimes that could be as much as four times a week, and as little as once, and I began my second attempt on the week ending the 1st of November (finishing on the 1st of April).

Methods

As someone that has attended meditation classes before, I had a few techniques already at my disposal, however they were all from within a very Buddhist worldview. For example, 'Lovingkindness meditation', while a valuable exercise in reminding oneself of the connectedness of all beings on the planet and the necessity of compassion for all those things, is not something which I feel really speaks to my worldview too well, and so one of the personal goals I had for this requirement was to develop or find a kind of meditation that gave me the same sense of connectedness and care as Lovingkindness meditation, but from the standpoint of a more Druidic or Pagan worldview.

Another goal of mine with this in terms of concrete development was to do more work on the core meditation skills utilised in the practice of Seidr. Seidr is something which I have practiced for years but let slide during my pregnancy because of a personal geas regarding magical practice and pregnancy.
As I mentioned above, I utilised mp3s (specifically Ian Corrigan's 'Two Powers Meditation', Phillip Carr-Gomm's 'Journey to the Healing World of the Ovates', some binaural music, and trance drumming), I used active forms of meditation (mostly meditating while walking or doing tasks mindfully), I used mindfulness meditation, and I used more 'pathworking' types of meditation (specifically the Two Powers and the 'Five Souls' meditations). Some of those types morphed into another type over the course of the five months, for example, as I became more used to the format of the Two Powers meditation, I dropped the mp3 and it moved more into my 'pathworking' category. Other types eventually came to cross over in practice, eg walking meditation while listening to trance drumming.



Looking back, I realise that some of that was a fear of failure and wanting to be prepared, but the vast majority of that was my monkey brain finding sneakier ways of gaining distraction.

Even though I started out with so many different methods, as time went on, I found that they eventually became narrowed down to about four main methods of meditation:

*Mindfulness

*Fire and Water Balancing (From 'Our Own Druidry')

*Walking meditation

*The 'Three Doors' Meditation (own, see additional notes)

Furthermore, I came to categorise them into my own system which focuses on developing three areas:

*Connection with the Kindreds

*Connection with the natural world

*Mental discipline

To explain my categories a little; 'Three Doors Meditation' is how I practice and develop connectedness with the Kindreds; walking meditation is how I develop a sense of connectedness with the world around me; and mindfulness and Fire and Water balancing is how I develop my mental discipline. The mental discipline category makes possible the other two. In future, I would like to expand the section about connecting with the Kindreds by developing pathworking meditations that allow a person to engage with the creation of the cosmos and different parts of common IE cosmology. I would also like to include some 'lectio divina' (a form of meditative contemplation taken from Catholic tradition) in my work connecting with the natural world, but instead of focusing on the Bible like the Catholics do, on something natural instead (such as a tree, for example).

Insights and Reflexion

As I said at the beginning of this essay, this requirement has been the hardest but also the most insightful for me, and I have had several key realisations about this work.

The first is that simpler seems to be better, and that the sheer variety of meditative practices out there can sometimes only serve as yet another distraction for a particularly monkey-like brain. It took a few months to happen, but eventually my brain 'buckled down' to the work at hand.

Secondly, I've realised just how monkey-like my brain is and how integral meditation has become as a form of self maintainance. Before meditating regularly, I found it extremely hard to concentrate enough to read books, and that lack of concentration is something that definitely rears its head if I don't meditate enough. In all honesty, I'm considering seeking assessment for ADD, because this has really underscored how poor my concentration level is when I'm not proactively working on it.

Thirdly, I've realised that I have to be careful when using my breath to enter trance as I find the 'fourfold breath' somewhat panic-inducing, I know that this is down to past experience, and I know that I need to work on it.

In spite of these challenges though, this has been the most rewarding aspect of the DP, and I hope to continue this practice in the future. I spoke of rewards earlier, I feel like this practice has positively affected my whole life. A large reward for me has been the ability to read again without being too distracted to get past the first few pages. It's also made entering a ritual mindset far easier. But the biggest reward by far is that I've also found myself changing in that I've realised where I'm lacking, where my spirituality is lacking, and that I absolutely want to grow as an individual to be of service to the Kindreds, family, and community.


Words: 1195


The Three Doors Meditation

Begin by breathing deeply....Become aware of your breath as it enters your lungs filling them, and again as it leaves....Let this breath fill the whole of your awareness....Feel your eyes getting heavier...And heavier...Until they close....Breathe in, and out...If you're having any stray thoughts, see them as clouds, and allow them to float by...Simply observing without engaging....As your mind becomes clearer, you notice something in the darkness....The clearer your mind becomes, the closer this thing becomes.....The clearer your mind becomes, you notice that there are three things.....Coming closer....With clear mind, you see these three doors before you....Notice how they look to you, and remember....

Then, move towards the door on the left, feel the handle in your hand, and turn... See the purple light begin to spill out as you open the door fully. ..The light fills the darkness around you, dazzling you.. This is the door to the Shining Ones....Take a moment to feel the energy of the Shining Ones...Moving to the next door, open the door, once more taking the time to feel the handle in your hand and notice every detail you can. This time when you open it, there is blackness inside, but an illuminated blackness that is different from the darkness around you. This blackness is more that of a passageway or a cave rather than that of a void. This is the door to the Mighty Dead....Take a moment to feel the energy of the Mighty Dead......Move to the third and final door....and open as you did the other two. This time, green light spills out. Beautiful, verdant, and inviting....This is the door to the Noble spirits, the spirits of nature, or indeed any spirits that inhabit the world around us. ….Take a moment to feel the energy of the Noble Spirits.....Stand back and regard these doors.....which do you feel the most drawn to?..... Do you hear anything?....Do you feel called to speak prayers into any doors?.... Do any of these doors make you feel uncomfortable in any way?...... Why?.....Remember these reflexions....

When you feel you are done....simply speak thanks into each door...close them, and bring yourself back to consciousness as you would after any other meditation. Write your impressions in your journal. I find this useful to do during ritual too after creating the sacred centre and installing these doors in the sacred centre as part of the 'inner work' of the ritual.

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