Alone With The Gods

I recently moved and was therefore thrust headfirst into my book collection where I had to catalogue, arrange, box, transport and reshelve my little collection. Therefore, I thought I’d share a list, in no particular order, of my favorite esoteric reading.

Here goes:

1. Evolutionary Witchcraft, T. Thorn Coyle
2. The Three Selves and Astral Travel, Victor Anderson
3. Initiation Into Hermetics, Franz Bardon
4. Gnosis, Stephen Hoeller
5. The Middle Pillar, Israel Regardie
6. The Training and Work of an Initiate, Dion Fortune
7. Angels, Demons and Gods of the New Millennium, Lon Milo Duquette
8. Modern Magick, Donald Michael Kraig
9. Raja Yoga, Swami Vevekananda
10. Fundamentals of Hawaiian Mysticism, Charlotte Berney
11. The Chicken Qabalah, Lon Milo Duquette
12. Inner Temple of Witchcraft, Christopher Penczak
13. The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels
14. Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, Scott Cunningham

And the list could go on and on and on. However, these are some of the specific books that have inspired, informed and enlightened over the years.

What about you?

Victor Anderson, patriarch of the Feri tradition, once said,

Anything worthwhile is dangerous.

This quote, and the meaning behind it is central to the Feri tradition. Because when it comes to mining the depths of mind and soul, what we find isn’t always pleasant. But that’s precisely the point, isn’t it? Every path has obstacles. How we manage them says a lot about who we are.

And yes, this can be dangerous. But it is also necessary. And ultimately, rewarding.

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.

I don’t care how passionate you are or how committed you are to your craft, doing the work is hard. At least for me it is and I struggle sometimes to fully engage in my daily practice.

Even though I love the inner journey, the feeling that comes when we reach other states of consciousness, the feeling of energy pulsing and moving through my body, I still will rationalize a million reasons why I’m either too tired from a long day at work, too into whatever movie is on TV or too distracted by the invitations of friends.

Does that make me a bad Witch? Not a chance. And here lies to deepest secret of the Craft. (Are you ready?) I’m not the one doing the revealing, others have written these very words too: All Witches struggle to do the work.

After all, we are human. More human than most. That’s the blessing and the curse of deepening your connectedness with your inner being. As we sit quietly, aligning out triple soul, communing the our Gods, we learn to encounter ourselves in very primal ways.

Jung wrote wrote once that: “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.”

But we face our soul. We interact with it and work on those edges where others won’t go as they passionately work to live outside themselves, never having to face who they are. It is easier this way, right?

Sure, but that would be a betrayal of our path and our responsibilities to ourselves. Our goal, as Victor Anderson so beautifully put it, is to become more ourselves. “To become more human.”

When looked at this way, doing the work shouldn’t be hard at all. But still, it is.

Post script: It has come to my attention that the time spent sitting here writing for this may also be seen as a form of distraction. Perhaps.