Spirituality for Living

Madness as it relates to spirituality. It is strange. They say the more you learn the less you know. The deeper the knowing goes the less you can say anything for certain and then when you are questioned people just dismiss your responses as being obtuse. You become an expert at learning.

Buddhism is often accused of nihilism because it confronts the nature of some aspects of knowing. They refer to the realization of “sunya” or the void nature of reality. Many people just jump to the conclusion that they believe nothing of human experience has meaning and they dismiss all of the insights. I find that strange myself. I have delved deeply into many world religions for no other reason than to understand my personal life experience better. Is a perhaps neurotic compulsion of mine. But I came to understand what I think it was Shakespeare said, “vanity, vanity, [...] Continue to Seek…

Psychic function is not any more mysterious or complicated than learning style. One of the biggest stumbling blocks about learning to perform psychically is the idea that it’s necessarily a special state of mind. The brain itself is a sense organ. It exists to sense the input from the senses and assemble it into “coherent” perception, at least ideally. But the idea that the brain is the seat of all consciousness makes much of the minds function seem confusing. Naturally because it takes it out of context. There are many more energetic reactions in this world than science tracks, and they admit they don’t, but they assume that the brain is sort of a closed system even though research suggests this is very far from the case. If anything the mind seems very communal. More like an inner world than a private computer system and even these days computer [...] Continue to Seek…

Using the energies is sort of like being in a gently flowing river. Most people are blown about by the winds or washed away with the waters, but you can see that the winds and the waters, the elements and the spirits, are not separate from you. Often when the energies seem to rebel, when your “luck” seems to be going abnormally bad, it isn’t the forces of the world acting on you. It’s them obeying you and your own energies are arrayed in a self destructive way. You put your will out and because you believe you are powerless, the repercussions seem like a mystery. The world, the universe itself, is remarkably cooperative but in its own way, following its own nature. The te or “inherent virtue” of the forces as they are.

The law of attraction is extrapolated from earlier magickal practices. It is explored more exhaustively perhaps [...] Continue to Seek…

If people barely are able to control their feelings , their thoughts and their actions, how can we hope to achieve a magickal act? Your emotions are linked to external energies. When you recognize the connection then you see that you are acted upon and can act in kind. Astrology is based on observations of how natural cycles affect human spirit, using the stars as mnemonic devices and a clock of the cycle.

Truth be told many people actually act very little. They actually tend to live rather reactively. How can one learn to be more attuned to the energies around? Our lives are often so busy and full of ‘noise’? Even that noise is an energy often called “psychic” in that it seems to originate with the human mind. But attunement can often be achieved through elemental meditation. Just letting the rhythms of the wind, or a flowing stream [...] Continue to Seek…

Magick is a broad subject, but has a simple essence that gets lost terribly in many sources on the subject. Most people think of the human body and mind as somehow closed systems, but in fact this is very far from the case. We absorb the material and reflexively the essence of all the elements, even without thinking about it.

There is a phrase in hermetic philosophy, which is a literal truth though it is also somewhat confusing for people. As above so below, as within so without. In magick you develop an understanding of interconnections and how you influence and are influenced by these connections. We are intimately connected to the energy systems in the world around us. Through many of the old intuitive insights we learn to create change in conformity with will, both the personal and universal. We discover that there is sort of a dialogue going [...] Continue to Seek…

Divination is not foolishness. It’s just encoded intuitions about life. You get from divination the wisdom you bring to it. It is not a pointless exercise because the gnosis is there. When the student is ready the master appears.

When you have the ears to hear and the eyes to see then divination works. When you can receive you will receive. When your cup is full then no wisdom can be added. To say only this idea is true, to declare at this moment I know the only truth about this moment, that is why new insight is not reached. Often is why we repeat mistakes. We say this is fixed. It isn’t the event, events never are fixed. When we say “this is the way it is”, what we are declaring is the way we are and nothing truly about the event. Is why Job in the Bible declared [...] Continue to Seek…

Gnosis has many sources. It is one of those phenomenon like the preponderance of certain symbols that co-arose cross culturally. Like the presence of dragons in every world mythology.

The intuition that “god” is somehow indwelling the human soul has been expressed in many ways across all world cultures. The “gods” can be real even if they don’t exist as independent sentience. As principles that manifest in all life they have a very real existence.

In theology there are three principles necessary for something to be a “supreme” being. Omniscience, or being all knowing. Perhaps omniscience can be expressed in the existence of sentience at all, and omniscience exists as the source of the more limited individual awareness? Omnipresence, being in all places. Being unexcluded from anywhere and unexcludeable. This is perhaps manifested in the existence of creation at all? And then omnipotence, all powerful. Which would imply that all things are [...] Continue to Seek…

Gnosis is the concept “as within so without”. Also connected with the concept “as above so below“. That knowledge of self, is knowledge of the principle that originated you.

It is connected to astrology. Astrology could be considered a Gnostic tool. Hermetic philosophy is primarily Gnostic in its premises and the principle even emerges in quantum cosmology. Essentially that humanity, the presence of intelligent life in the universe, is a manifestation of a deeper principle that precedes our existence and also establishes the path or dynamic of manifestation of human potential.

This principle does not obviate human choice. It provides an explanation for why human free will exists or even matters in any way. The capacity to know and to choose are deeper forces in existence than just the ego centered level of awareness. The process of creativity in consciousness transcends “individual consciousness”. Communication of principles happens as an inherent aspect [...] Continue to Seek…

Here is a way to trigger/test your intuition. Consider your body. Just feel it, don’t think. Just be in your body. What is the first thing you know? No thinking. Just feel it and what do you know about your body?

Barbie is inert plastic made to a silly image. Scary fiction. There is no life. Just ideas of life. And virtual world avatars can be like that. There is a difference in the virtual worlds like Second Life. Things can change at will. When you get a product like a Barbie doll, its a fixed idea. Nothing in Second Life needs to be fixed and you aren’t dependant on producers. If you want something, you can create it.

My awareness of my physical form is weaker. My neural issues make physical feedback weaker. Sort of an abstract sensation rather than anything immediate. My muscles are shot through with inert cellulite [...] Continue to Seek…

Can people have a healthy relationship with religion? Yes, they can. The word religion comes from the latin word “religio” meaning a body of practices. Religion is like meditation. It’s the social aspect of factionalism. It is false identification, to use a Buddhist concept, that is toxic. The interfaith movements are a powerful force for peace. Perhaps our best hope. We can say a path is ours without reviling the path of our neighbour and if you reflect deeply on most religious doctrine, the hate of other faiths isn’t actually endorsed. It arises when we say “I am Christian” or “I am not Christian”.

They endorse loving your neighbour, the other, the one not you or of your family, or of your nation. Hinduism has a valuable insight with its yogas. The ages, the cycle of Hindu aeons, says we are entering a golden age but we don’t just enter [...] Continue to Seek…