Monthly Archives: December 2016

Pagan Philosophy

Piercing the veil

To truly grasp the message and actualize the teaching of any religion or spiritual path, one must go beyond the doctrines to the reality behind them. The esoteric position is that it is as if there is a veil between us and the ultimate reality. Upon that veil are the symbols of our religion or spiritual tradition. When we look towards the ultimate reality, we see the veil, and the symbols placed upon it by ourselves, or by our traditions or cultures. Many people are happy enough with the symbols on the veil. A large number however come to believe that those human created symbols are the reality, rather than the decoration.

Any path worth it’s salt will encourage you take up the sword of truth, and pierce the veil, and thus come face to face with the reality behind all appearances. From which time, you will be one of the few who have pierced the veil, and will see all human activities from a very different perspective, and you won’t really be too concerned about a persons religion or worldview, which are but illustrations upon the veil and of little ultimate consequence.

Rob

practice

Building up your circle

One of the practices that is taught in the Fellowship is to build up a circle of allies from different planes of existence. As pagans, we work with the four elemental qualities, Air, Fire, Water and Earth, and we understand phenomena through their relationship to the elements, and the various cycles of manifestation, which I have discussed on another occasion. One component of the magical enterprise is building up a strong and impregnable aura, which has built into its nature symbolic keys through which various energies and aspects of consciousness can be accessed and amplified. These symbolic keys are receptacles for imaginative energy which creates a living nexus that links the practitioner to the energy and consciousness behind the symbol. These symbols can be purely human created, by ourselves or others, or they can be natural symbols, objects or entities which pre-exist in the natural world or on one of the non material planes.

As an example, I work with four different varieties of trees on a regular basis. They are all tree that grow naturally in my surroundings, and or places I frequently visit. They are naturally Australian Native trees, as that is where I live. For each tree I have made a wooden stave, from a branch that has been dropped. I use these staves in ritual settings, to mark the four quarters. My tree friends are the Ironbark, who I regularly place in the Air Quarter, as I wish to emphasize practicality and solid reasoning in my mental sphere. In the Fire quarter I place the Brushbox, which has a transformative energy. I the water quarter I place the Paperbark, which for me calls to mind the dark still, reflective tannin stained waters of the Paperbark swamps of my region. In the earth quarter, I place the Bunya pine, which bears an abundant harvest of nutritious edible nuts every few years.

I have described the process of making a stave elsewhere…this process is a mechanism by which a relationship with the tree spirit can be established and strengthened. And this relationship can be honored and the connection strengthened within ritual, by honoring those tree allies at the four quarters when establishing sacred space, and by further meditative work within the circle as appropriate.

In addition to the trees just mentioned, I also have four gem stone allies that I work with in the same way, selected for their relevance to my energies, and placed in the four quarters. Being interested in herbs and their uses in healing, I work in the same way with a number of herbs.

In addition to these regular helpers from the worlds of stones, herbs and trees, I sometimes draw in special helpers for a particular working or occasion, in order to work with a particular energy.

You can build up your circle this way over time, adding additional circles of trees, stones, herbs, animals, birds, mythic creatures etc, depending on your interests and proclivities.

Blessed Be
Rob

Politics

Coping with Calamity

We are coming to the point in human evolution when humankind must either learn to do things in a different way, or continue it’s headlong rush towards calamity. Humans will survive the coming calamities, but it is highly likely that what we know as the Western Way of life will come to an end.

It is an important question then, how do we prepare ourselves to face the coming upheavals in our agricultural, transport, economic and political systems? Certainly the position of the adept is to resist the temptation to give way to fear, hopelessness and despair, and to to remain steadfast in the higher consciousness through the focussed practice of love, compassion, gratitude and generosity, combined with whatever practices of prayer, visualization or meditation provided by their tradition to remain centered in the higher self.

Life will move much more towards a survival level, and people will begin to be motivated by a sense of desperation, fear, and anger. While some governments are attempting to deal with the transition to a less materially “wealthy” future, with alternative energy and social transition policies, many are not.

We are already seeing the signs of this around the world with the rise of Fascist ideologies in the European countries and their colonies of North America, Australia, Canada and such places.

These angry xenophobic movements which by and large blame foreigners for all the perceived ills of the modern world, and see climate change as a communist conspiracy, are unknowing tools of the ruling class in their last ditch attempt to extract as much as possible from a terminally ill system.

Make no mistake, the champions of climate change denialism, and the fomentors of right wing extremism, are engaged in a cynical exercise of manipulating a class of aggrieved people in order to line their own pockets, whilst knowing full well that calamity approaches. This callous, selfish attitude, which would hasten destruction for the masses, in order to safeguard one’s own self and family, is the height of short-sightedness.

But there is very little that anyone can do to directly confront these titanic forces at play in our world. The board has been set, and the pieces placed in motion, and now we must observe, hope and pray, and each make our small contributions. But shall we think only of ourselves, or of everyone? One way forward for the person of Spirit is to grasp the opportunity to create community, and to explore the possibilities of cooperation.

It is by cooperation that the ordinary person, will be able to survive the times that are coming. The industrialized society has made us too distant from nature, from gardens, from the source of wealth all around us. It has kept us busy with projects of desecration and despoilation. It has made us so busy, we don’t even properly know the people in our own families, let alone neighbors and community members. In fact, we don’t want to know them, because they might have different views, or be dangerous somehow.

So join a community garden, start learning how to supplement food from the industrial supply chain with your own efforts in the garden. Find out what survival skills you have around you. Develop practices of love, and generosity, which build interdependence and strengthen community, as opposed to fear and selfishness which ultimately isolate people from one another.

There is a growing movement involved in taking back community control of our food supply – be a part of it! To do so, you may have to free up some time by working less, and having less income. Don’t be afraid of earning less money, because you will replace that lost money with the real wealth of nourishing relationships with other people and the natural environment. Nourishment is not just physical nourishment, but nourishment of the heart and soul as well. We need all these nourishments to be healthy and enjoy life. If and when calamity strikes, we will be in a position to survive together. We won’t be in any great position on our own, no matter how much money we have in the bank, as that money will ultimately prove worthless.

The Spiritual person of any description would do well to prepare for hard times ahead. Not just materially, but they should prepare spiritually as well, by practices which nourish generosity and community. There will be a great pull towards selfishness in the coming years, in fact we have seen it on the gradual rise for decades, as a political viewpoint, and a personal orientation. One task of the awakened person in the coming years is to show the power of generosity and community, and to resist the pull of fear and despair which are even now isolating so many in their false cocoons of selfishness.

Blessed Be
Rob

practice

Daily intentions

Declaring a daily intention before Spirit, your Deities and Spirit Contacts can be a very powerful practice that supercharges your progress on the Path. To do this practice, one simply declares sacred space, calls one’s Deities, Spirit Contacts, and or Spirit. And then, in a clear and forthright voice of power, declare your intentions. If necessary, the declation can be made inwardly in an imagined voice of power, if, for example, there are concerns with privacy or disturbing others. Here are the intentions I articulate in my morning practice at the moment.

1) Higher Self. “I declare my intention to allow the Higher Self a clear channel to manifest itself this day, in everything I do, and with everyone I meet.”

2) Spiritual contacts. “I declare my intention to be open to receive all positive and helpful communications from my Deities, Guides and inner plane contacts, for the highest good of all”

3) Great Work. “I declare my intention to fulfill my part of the Great Work, and my True Work this day, to the degree that Circumstances permit, for the highest good of all. I offer all my activities this day as a vehicle for the Great Work.

You can do the same, or come up with your own intentions that suit your current state of being. One piece of advice though, try to be open and expansive in your intentions, so that Spirit has room to bring you what you need, work with your Higher Self, and touch the Higher Self of those you meet. If your intentions revolve around the wants or needs of the lower self, then it is missing the point somewhat!

Blessed Be
Rob