Alone With The Gods

Lately I’ve been listening to the Podcasts from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston. These are recordings of public lectures and they are incredible. Many are given by Swami Tyagananda, a powerful and engaging speaker.

Find them at iTunes or via the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society site. They are worth the time for their insight in Vedic thinking, philosophy and practice as well as the range of topics covered.

For those who aren’t familiar with Vedic thinking, I’d say check these out. Then, pick up the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads and give them a read too. What you’ll find is a powerful meditation as narrative on the nature of the true Divine, Holy Self and our inherent inner light.

As the Slow Movement almost oxymoronically picks up steam, I wanted to throw Paganism into the mix as being a relatively unacknowledged, but important tributary in the growing river of this vitally important cultural movement.

For those who don’t know, the Slow Movement got it’s start in Italy when Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food to protest the opening of a McDonald’s near the famed Piazza di Spagna in Rome.

This simple step planted the seeds of what has become a cultural revolution against the cult of speed and the acceleration of just about everything. Recently, journalist Carl Honoré wrote In Praise of Slowness, an acclaimed book about the Slow culture movement and it’s many offshoots.

But where does Paganism fit into this you ask? Right smack dab in the middle I say. The Slow culture movement is about living with meaning. It’s not simply a refutation of speed but a mindfulness of enjoying each moment. This notion may manifest in cooking a meal using local ingredients, or reading a book, exercising with greater care or simply turning off the television.

Regardless of the activity, the idea is to live more fully or, as I have alluded to before, to become more human by taking each moment for what it is instead of simply rushing through life desperate to fit more stuff into less time.

I’d argue that this is part of why Paganism, and more specifically Wicca, has seen the explosion in popularity that it has. As people grow more and more aware that something is missing from their lives, Wicca and other esoteric spiritual paths fill a giant void as we try and unplug from the matrix of technoculture.

As more and more people refute speed and embrace slow (mindfulness), paths like Wicca, other forms of Witchcraft, Buddhism and even New Age approaches are offering a bit of a spiritual oasis in the desert of Big-Screen-Mega-Church Christianity which offers little more than a fast-food approach to spirituality: fill up quick and get a stomach ache later.

By taking the road less traveled, Paganism and Witchcraft offer something far more holistic: a religious framework that requires participation, time, effort, intention and a healthy dose of time spent engaged in their spiritual practice.

Spending the time purifying a space, casting a circle or sphere, reciting words of power or spells and then performing each subsequent ritual with care and attention is as slow as it gets. There’s no hurrying in Witchcraft. And if there is then you’re not doing it right.

So why is this important? It’s important because the tide is changing for many people. And as strange as it may sound at first listen, being a Pagan or Witch or Hermeticist or even an esoteric Christian is at the foundation of a new way of thinking and living. They all succeed where Christianity continues to fail by giving people a means to an end and a way to engage directly in their spirituality instead of simply being a passive spectator in a crowd of people looking at their watches.

And while no one is clamoring for mass conversions to Paganism, what I am arguing here is that perhaps maybe, just maybe, esoteric spirituality can influence how we all practice our faith and in turn how we can live with more meaning and purpose.

I think this is something we can all get behind.

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.