Alone With The Gods

A big part of my solitary practice deals with energy. From a Feri standpoint, we believe that energy can and must be raised for healing, the manifestation of prayers, spiritual growth and as a conduit for our connection to both our inner divinity and the gods.

But how do we do this?

Well, as little fleshy batteries, we naturally store energy. It’s part of our life force, we breath it in, drink it in, consume it and through conscious action, can raise it, direct it and even charge things with it.

Feri in particular is deeply influenced by Hawaiian mysticism. Known as Huna, Hawaiian mysticism is centered around the concept of mana, or life force. Mana is everywhere and infused in everything. We interact with in constantly in our daily lives.

Through conscious breathing, and other conscious actions, we can increase our mana for use in our spiritual practice. In fact, it is the stuff of magick.

THE ART OF PLUGGING IN

Raising energy is a simple process. There are no elaborate setups needed or special tools. All you need is time, technique and intent. Personally, I use rhythmic breathing to raise my energy levels.

Some call this technique the Four-Fold Breath, others simply conscious breathing, I call it one of the foundations of Witchcraft and Magick. Buddhists do it, so do Centering Prayer practitioners, and it’s a pillar in the writings of Occult luminary Israel Regardie (among many others).

But there’s a trick. We must also plug our mind into the equation. This is where intent comes in. While breathing it’s important to focus our thoughts on building, storing or retaining the energy we are raising. This is very important.

ALL CHARGED UP AND NOWHERE TO GO

So now what, right? Well, that’s up to you. Let it flow out of you, or direct it inward for healing purposes. Use it to cast a spell or manifest a wish. Ultimately, it’s up to you. But use it well, because you’ll find you get out of it what you put into it.

And if you sit and breathe and focus and nothing happens, keep trying. Remember, I said that the process is simple. That doesn’t mean that the work is necessarily easy. But rest assured, the time you do put in will pay off in big ways.

Poof. Presto. Abracadabra.

You are now wise beyond your years. You are an old sage overflowing with wisdom. And all it took were a few spells (downloaded and printed out), a wand (any will do) and a few candles (unscented please).

Okay, so that’s not how it is. But some would have you believe it to be so. Of course, those would be the same people probably selling you on their own supreme Witchyness. And, hey, that’s great.

We are all seeking something.

It’s in the finding that we seem to have discrepancies.

Then again, maybe for some this whole magick thing just comes easy. Maybe for some it is a simple as pressing a button. For me, it’s been a far more profound journey full of setbacks and paradigm shifting successes, failures and fresh new insights.

And you know what, I wouldn’t change this for the world. Because hard work has it’s rewards. And when my investments of time, attention, will and intent are rewarded, the dividends are beyond words.

But I won’t dwell on this too long because even these small steps forward are really only nudges when compared to what might be possible. Mind is infinite. To experience this beyond the theoretical requires something no book, teacher or website can ever provide.

Know what that is and you’ll be on your way.

Something to think about from the forward to Yearning for the Wind:

Once upon a time a spell was cast upon people across the land. The spell made people believe we are all separate beings with no connection to each other and no connection with nature or the rest of life. The spell continued with the belief that anything we could not see, hear, feel, smell, or taste with our ordinary senses did not exist. And the spell caused people to believe that only humans had a soul which a punishing God judged the nature of. Happiness only came from financial gain, collecting material objects, and having power over people, the animal world, and all of nature. The spell also set the belief that individuals were not creative and their role was to behave and conform to society.

The effect of this spell put people to sleep. They forgot about the beauty of life and their own soul’s purpose. The light went out of people’s eyes as the old knowledge of how to talk to nature was forgotten. Empty gazes and looks of fear and desperation replaced the light. The veils between the worlds closed down. Magical thinking was replaced by reductionist thinking. The magic was gone along with people’s souls. These were dark times indeed.

Dark times lie ahead too. As a people, we live more outside of ourselves than ever. We don’t know who we are and we tend to know our favorite celebrity better than we know ourselves, our families and our community.

Maybe it’s easier to simply put our minds and our consciousness on auto pilot, coasting through a series of events and moments until we ultimately take our last earthly breath. Maybe.

Or maybe we need a counter spell, something powerful and timeless that can shake the foundations of nothingness and reconnect us to our essential nature, something that can expose the Archonic forces that rule our vicarious existences. Then, we can shed light on the fact that there is light within us and even in these dark times we can find the switch that turns it on.

In Scott Cunningham’s book on Wicca, he lists “Thirteen Goals of a Witch.” Take them out of context of the book and they apply wonderfully to any inward journey of the self.

For sake of discussion, here they are:

1. Know yourself
2. Know your Craft (Wicca)
3. Learn
4. Apply knowledge with wisdom
5. Achieve balance
6. Keep your words in good order
7. Keep your thoughts in good order
8. Celebrate life
9. Attune to the cycles of the earth
10. Breathe and eat correctly
11. Exercise the body
12. Meditate
13. Honor the Goddess and God

Any and all of these could apply to a Gnostic, a Hindu, a Buddhist for the most part, a Christian could even find a needed spiritual compass in these 13 goals of a witch.

Can someone tell me again why witches are so vilified? Is there anything in here that we all shouldn’t aspire to as humans?

I’m not Wiccan, but the words here speak to me; they make sense.

As a side note: Cunningham has grown on me as a writer. I find his books readable, likable and very valuable as resources.