Mysticism and magick
I have been inspiried to talk about something that is a bit... sensitive to most people.
I plan to discuss wicca and Reiki and Buddhism and a few other things of a general pagan nature.
I am going to put it
To start off, I am nto downing and religious or spiritual path. I have my set of understanding and internal proofs on the matter, but I would never try to tell someone else their opinion is wrong. So if you go to comment please don't rip me a new one... at least not without hard evidence :P
I have probably made mention a few times of my utter distate for wicca in general. In truth it isn't a distate for wiccans, it's the nature of the study itself. And it isn't limited to wicca, there's dozens of faiths that, in my estimation, mislead followers.
I call out wicca because it frustrates me the most. Actually, let me backtrack a minute to druidry.
I have said before I am a druid priest, but I don't believe I ever covered how such a thing happens to such a young person. Modern druidry is assigned 3 "ranks": Bard, Ovate, and Druid. This is actually based on a much older tenet that when schooled in druidry a druid was said to advance their station when they could attain some specific levels of understanding.
Bards are the creative aspect. Poets, singers, actors, writers, historians, etc. Learning the bardic craft is about appreciating the beauty in the world around us and developing the creative center of the brain, because it is the ONLY thing that allows us to process the information gleaned by the logical centers.
Ovates are the diviners, the seers, the psychics, the physicists and mathematicians. Learning the ovatic craft is about developing the understanding of energy and basic nature. In a nutshell it is about controlling things you don't understand. This is because to truly study, to truly advance knowledge, you have to have the ability to control your subject. Thomas Edison tried 2000 times to make a light bulb. He had no clue how to go about it, but he knew electricity and kept trying till he got it. Same principle.
Druids are the priests, the politicians, the lawyers, the philosophers. In truth they were called elders and spent their time trying to understand how the bardic and ovatic crafts fit in with the world. They sought to further their understanding of the nature of life and the universe. Very much scientists, though there is far more to it.
The bardic craft was very easy to me... I was a creative child from a VERY early age. I was disassembling TVs and VCRs before kindergarten. I could put them back together in a working condition by age 6. I learned the basics of poetry, of art, writing. I am technically proficient at it, but it wasn't my passion. I was able to demonstrate a deep understanding of beauty, however, and advanced to the ovatic level within 6 months. My training was a bit accelerated given the familial nature of it, but I will cover that in a bit. Training as an ovate taught me quite a bit. I learned that I can see things. I developed the lucid dreaming ability, as well as a bit of remote viewing and clairvoyance.
Without boring you further, If I concentrate hard enough and have enough focus and clarity I can indeed see the past, present, and future. Future is a sticky business, though, and something I have yet to harness any decent control over. But I can see the past in amazing clarity. My testament to this was describing to my grandfather the exact history of a certain doll he has in his possession. Will discuss that in a later post... anyway, I was able to develop an understanding of time and how it works. If you ever watched Quantum Leap you saw Sam explain how his time machine took the straight line of time and balled it up so that each point touched each other point. In actual truth it is balled up at all times. Every point in time cohabitates with every other moment.
Anyway, with that I advanced to the rank of druid priest (at age 13, though I don't genreally credit myself with the rank until 15 because there was so much I was able to understand more about on the previous 2 scales having more advanced knowledge), where I have spent the last 15 years trying to further my understanding of things.
One of the things I can tell you for sure is the nature of the practice of druidry. Not the ritual and mysticism of the times, but the thought patterns, the ideals held to by those ancient practitioners as far back as 3000 BC. Further back and things are... sticky to discern because all religions were shamanistic and brutal.
Anyway, the nature of druidry is indeed the furthering of knowledge. To Seek, To Know, To Do. The basics of the modern druid teachings are dead on, if a bit fancified. During the great revolts when druidry was in essence slaughtered, those who wished to keep the druid tradition going did so on the sly. Generations upon generations later you see witches appear. Practitioners who seemed to have quite a few similarities to druids, but with much more pomp and circumstance assigned to things. Flash forward to the 1950s and you get withcraft renamed to Wicca. Wicca is about magick and spirituality, communing with the goddess and the elements and asking for boons and gifts through magick.
It is this basic nature that aggravates me to no end. Magick is not real. Period. When you tie 9 knots in a rope and untie them while chanting some poem, that rope has no power, the words are meaningless. What DOES matter is your mental state at the time. What magick is in TRUTH is manipulation of energy. You want to curse someone? You focus your hatred to a razor's edge and in doing so you tap into a darker energy in yourself, and if you are focused enough and clear enough of mind you can lash out enough negative energy to override a person's own aura and BAM insta-curse.
But it is no mystic happening. the goddess didn't come down and smite your enemy. Likewise with love. The goddess doesn't force a person to love you. She doesn't find a person for you and escort them to you. Your energy, your love, your focus, your clarity... searches for that mating energy. It is possible to plug into the wrong jack and attract a person you want rather than a person you are meant for. But it's a misuse of power.
But it isn't because you burned a red candle at midnight on the 5th day of the 3rd phase of the moon while Saturn was in capricorn, ya know? It is because that act of ceremony allowed you to focus to that point. In the beginning if I wanted to talk to a tree I had to sit in front of it and recite the charm of making 9 times, and make a blood offering from my finger.
Now? I sit down in front of the tree and close my eyes. Because I learned that the tree could care less for the blood, though most are flattered by it. And the charm of making is nothing but empty words written by a madman who wanted glory (Iolo Morganwg if you want to read up on him).
All a tree needs to talk to you is to see that you are clear. That you are not going to clutter it with the negativity of your life, because it makes them sick. So it is with all things.
Buddha knew this, it's why his followers sit in silence, though again they have steeped themselves in meaningless tradition and tend to lose sight of the true nature. You even see it in native american tradition. Pow wows and peyote circles and whatnot. Hanging from the damn cieling by your shoulder blades to try and commune with the spirits (though that is brute, but effective in most cases).
You want to speak to the dead, or better yet to walk among them IN their own time? It takes an inordinate amount of focus and clarity, like sensory deprivation chamber class clarity and focus, but it's not about some ritual or rite.
The reason this is important? Because belief in circumstance limits your ability to truly understand the universe. In the end it is all about energy and the experiment.
Here is what I understand to be the nature of the universe: as with everything there are cycles. forever in both directions things exist. But even multiverses have a beginning and an end. When the collapse of it all happens, there is also a big bang, and a period just before it. In that moment there is a consciousness manifest, I call it the goddess, some call it god. Sheerly by self realization the universes were created, the big bang. Each universe is comprised entirely of the goddess, and in the end it all exists inside her until the next collapse and rebirth.
As time passed the unvierse evolved, her energy changed and molded things. When 2 particles of that essence first combined, life resulted. Flash forward billions of years of evolution and here we are. We have our own birth / death / rebirth cycle. In between, in our pre big bang period, we reside in awen, in the goddess, in her kingdom. In that state we are her again, and the sum of all knowledge. Then once again splintered off and shoved through life. Our experience, our collective existence, is of twofold purpose: 1) to evolve our own spirits, our own understanding, to tap into and evolve the knowledge uinside us. 2) to enhance the goddes. In the most pure definition of love there is, we complete her. Literally, we are a part of her and serve as worshippers, detractors, and entertainment. Such is seen on every level from the microscopic to the galactic.
So then, the purpose of our life is to advance understanding and knowledge of the universe. Some are meant to wield it, some meant to yield to it. But it is what we are all about.
So when I see someone artificially limit themselves by assigning "credit" to magick or ritual, it saddens me, and makes me angry at the founders of the religion for either not understanding, or not properly sharing, the reality of the situation. It is human corruption put in the way of advancement, for the sake of filling a roster.
Me? I limit myself with nothing but fear, and I will likely spend the rest of my days trying to release that fear and further my understanding of the world. It's simply what we do...
Peace and light,
-Shawn
I plan to discuss wicca and Reiki and Buddhism and a few other things of a general pagan nature.
I am going to put it
To start off, I am nto downing and religious or spiritual path. I have my set of understanding and internal proofs on the matter, but I would never try to tell someone else their opinion is wrong. So if you go to comment please don't rip me a new one... at least not without hard evidence :P
I have probably made mention a few times of my utter distate for wicca in general. In truth it isn't a distate for wiccans, it's the nature of the study itself. And it isn't limited to wicca, there's dozens of faiths that, in my estimation, mislead followers.
I call out wicca because it frustrates me the most. Actually, let me backtrack a minute to druidry.
I have said before I am a druid priest, but I don't believe I ever covered how such a thing happens to such a young person. Modern druidry is assigned 3 "ranks": Bard, Ovate, and Druid. This is actually based on a much older tenet that when schooled in druidry a druid was said to advance their station when they could attain some specific levels of understanding.
Bards are the creative aspect. Poets, singers, actors, writers, historians, etc. Learning the bardic craft is about appreciating the beauty in the world around us and developing the creative center of the brain, because it is the ONLY thing that allows us to process the information gleaned by the logical centers.
Ovates are the diviners, the seers, the psychics, the physicists and mathematicians. Learning the ovatic craft is about developing the understanding of energy and basic nature. In a nutshell it is about controlling things you don't understand. This is because to truly study, to truly advance knowledge, you have to have the ability to control your subject. Thomas Edison tried 2000 times to make a light bulb. He had no clue how to go about it, but he knew electricity and kept trying till he got it. Same principle.
Druids are the priests, the politicians, the lawyers, the philosophers. In truth they were called elders and spent their time trying to understand how the bardic and ovatic crafts fit in with the world. They sought to further their understanding of the nature of life and the universe. Very much scientists, though there is far more to it.
The bardic craft was very easy to me... I was a creative child from a VERY early age. I was disassembling TVs and VCRs before kindergarten. I could put them back together in a working condition by age 6. I learned the basics of poetry, of art, writing. I am technically proficient at it, but it wasn't my passion. I was able to demonstrate a deep understanding of beauty, however, and advanced to the ovatic level within 6 months. My training was a bit accelerated given the familial nature of it, but I will cover that in a bit. Training as an ovate taught me quite a bit. I learned that I can see things. I developed the lucid dreaming ability, as well as a bit of remote viewing and clairvoyance.
Without boring you further, If I concentrate hard enough and have enough focus and clarity I can indeed see the past, present, and future. Future is a sticky business, though, and something I have yet to harness any decent control over. But I can see the past in amazing clarity. My testament to this was describing to my grandfather the exact history of a certain doll he has in his possession. Will discuss that in a later post... anyway, I was able to develop an understanding of time and how it works. If you ever watched Quantum Leap you saw Sam explain how his time machine took the straight line of time and balled it up so that each point touched each other point. In actual truth it is balled up at all times. Every point in time cohabitates with every other moment.
Anyway, with that I advanced to the rank of druid priest (at age 13, though I don't genreally credit myself with the rank until 15 because there was so much I was able to understand more about on the previous 2 scales having more advanced knowledge), where I have spent the last 15 years trying to further my understanding of things.
One of the things I can tell you for sure is the nature of the practice of druidry. Not the ritual and mysticism of the times, but the thought patterns, the ideals held to by those ancient practitioners as far back as 3000 BC. Further back and things are... sticky to discern because all religions were shamanistic and brutal.
Anyway, the nature of druidry is indeed the furthering of knowledge. To Seek, To Know, To Do. The basics of the modern druid teachings are dead on, if a bit fancified. During the great revolts when druidry was in essence slaughtered, those who wished to keep the druid tradition going did so on the sly. Generations upon generations later you see witches appear. Practitioners who seemed to have quite a few similarities to druids, but with much more pomp and circumstance assigned to things. Flash forward to the 1950s and you get withcraft renamed to Wicca. Wicca is about magick and spirituality, communing with the goddess and the elements and asking for boons and gifts through magick.
It is this basic nature that aggravates me to no end. Magick is not real. Period. When you tie 9 knots in a rope and untie them while chanting some poem, that rope has no power, the words are meaningless. What DOES matter is your mental state at the time. What magick is in TRUTH is manipulation of energy. You want to curse someone? You focus your hatred to a razor's edge and in doing so you tap into a darker energy in yourself, and if you are focused enough and clear enough of mind you can lash out enough negative energy to override a person's own aura and BAM insta-curse.
But it is no mystic happening. the goddess didn't come down and smite your enemy. Likewise with love. The goddess doesn't force a person to love you. She doesn't find a person for you and escort them to you. Your energy, your love, your focus, your clarity... searches for that mating energy. It is possible to plug into the wrong jack and attract a person you want rather than a person you are meant for. But it's a misuse of power.
But it isn't because you burned a red candle at midnight on the 5th day of the 3rd phase of the moon while Saturn was in capricorn, ya know? It is because that act of ceremony allowed you to focus to that point. In the beginning if I wanted to talk to a tree I had to sit in front of it and recite the charm of making 9 times, and make a blood offering from my finger.
Now? I sit down in front of the tree and close my eyes. Because I learned that the tree could care less for the blood, though most are flattered by it. And the charm of making is nothing but empty words written by a madman who wanted glory (Iolo Morganwg if you want to read up on him).
All a tree needs to talk to you is to see that you are clear. That you are not going to clutter it with the negativity of your life, because it makes them sick. So it is with all things.
Buddha knew this, it's why his followers sit in silence, though again they have steeped themselves in meaningless tradition and tend to lose sight of the true nature. You even see it in native american tradition. Pow wows and peyote circles and whatnot. Hanging from the damn cieling by your shoulder blades to try and commune with the spirits (though that is brute, but effective in most cases).
You want to speak to the dead, or better yet to walk among them IN their own time? It takes an inordinate amount of focus and clarity, like sensory deprivation chamber class clarity and focus, but it's not about some ritual or rite.
The reason this is important? Because belief in circumstance limits your ability to truly understand the universe. In the end it is all about energy and the experiment.
Here is what I understand to be the nature of the universe: as with everything there are cycles. forever in both directions things exist. But even multiverses have a beginning and an end. When the collapse of it all happens, there is also a big bang, and a period just before it. In that moment there is a consciousness manifest, I call it the goddess, some call it god. Sheerly by self realization the universes were created, the big bang. Each universe is comprised entirely of the goddess, and in the end it all exists inside her until the next collapse and rebirth.
As time passed the unvierse evolved, her energy changed and molded things. When 2 particles of that essence first combined, life resulted. Flash forward billions of years of evolution and here we are. We have our own birth / death / rebirth cycle. In between, in our pre big bang period, we reside in awen, in the goddess, in her kingdom. In that state we are her again, and the sum of all knowledge. Then once again splintered off and shoved through life. Our experience, our collective existence, is of twofold purpose: 1) to evolve our own spirits, our own understanding, to tap into and evolve the knowledge uinside us. 2) to enhance the goddes. In the most pure definition of love there is, we complete her. Literally, we are a part of her and serve as worshippers, detractors, and entertainment. Such is seen on every level from the microscopic to the galactic.
So then, the purpose of our life is to advance understanding and knowledge of the universe. Some are meant to wield it, some meant to yield to it. But it is what we are all about.
So when I see someone artificially limit themselves by assigning "credit" to magick or ritual, it saddens me, and makes me angry at the founders of the religion for either not understanding, or not properly sharing, the reality of the situation. It is human corruption put in the way of advancement, for the sake of filling a roster.
Me? I limit myself with nothing but fear, and I will likely spend the rest of my days trying to release that fear and further my understanding of the world. It's simply what we do...
Peace and light,
-Shawn