Tag: Intro

Over the Trees

My hope us to be able to eventually devote many posts to laying out “the basics” for beginner practitioners or casual readers who are just interested to know more. But, for the benefit of anyone reading this blog from the beginning forward it seems wise to establish a few basic assumptions, with much information to follow on further detail and how we got here.

The practices and belief systems that will be discussed here have many distinct differences, but speaking in the broadest terms most share a few basic tenets:

  • Belief that humankind has the ability to develop a direct relationship with Divinity(s) and other spiritual beings and that we can improve our lives on multiple levels through development of those relationships
  • They share having a less traditional understanding of Divinity(s), sometimes with a focus more on individual godforms borrowing mostly from the deities popular in antiquity (i.e. Neo-Paganism), or with a more generalized idea of a God and a Goddess (Wicca), sometimes with a focus on a higher, often gender neutral, Deity who can be thought of in which can be viewed through the lens of individual godforms which can be easier to “get our heads around”. A common notion is that a Feminine Divine is needed to help ‘rebalance’ modern practices and the incorporation of this feminine element takes many different faces depending on the practice. 
  • Belief that humankind can attain various ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ attainments through the practice of direction of intention, initiatory practices, raising energy and building relationships with spiritual entities via practices like ritual, dancing, chanting, and other practices to help focus energy and reach liminal states

To approach this in terms of both study and practice we should strive to:

  1. Take care of your physical life. Eat right. Get sleep. Pay your bills. Clean your house. These practices have a funny way of quickly prying open whatever’s amiss in your life to force you to fix it, so just start now. Also, you’ll find any practice is enhanced by a basic clean working space and taking better care of yourself. 
  2. Study the history and ideas around your system, including as much primary source material as you can get your hands on—since most of these systems are linked this is a wild ride that might take you a couple of lifetimes so god(s) speed. We are so fortunate to live in a time now where we all have the whole world’s knowledge at our fingertips at all times—use it!
  3. Practice meditation and energy work, honor Deity(s) in your own way, acknowledge and celebrate the movement of the stars and planets and the change of the seasons
  4. Incorporate ritual and symbolism into your daily life
  5. Keep your heart and mind open and your ego and imagination under control
  6. Don’t be a jerk

Word!

About 12 years back I found myself managing a massive Witchcraft shop in a historic building in a bustling downtown tourist town, as you do. It was an amazing experience, and even though it eventually ended like many occult experiments in an explosion of metaphoric flames rivaling the Hindenburg, I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. At that twenty-something era of my life I had already been a lover of ESP, UFO’s, magic, ghosts, paganism and more since I was 10. In the shop I was in paradise– we had an active initiatory Witch coven running out of the place, moon and sabbath rituals, we did readings and healings, made spells, disposed of Ouija boards, brought in authors, traveled to festivals, you named it.

But as I devoured all the standard Witch/Pagan material it soon became apparent to me that, although there were many things of value there, those paths were not fully equipped to help me with the really challenging questions. I needed a deeper understanding of what all of this meant in the far wider scheme of things and where it really came from. That ultimately led me to an interest in areas like Hermetics, Isis, Western occultism, Eastern energy practices/Reiki, modern magical practices and more. I began teaching on what topics I was able to with an emphasis on citation, a sense of humor and my sometimes off-the-wall learning aids. As my understanding grew the success of my practices and ensuing results closely followed.

Life has taken some twists and turns since then and after stepping away for a while it seems it’s time now to continue. I humbly offer my thoughts here with the hopes it may help others on a similar path, and to help me continue my own understanding.

And that being said….