The most common form of communicating with the Gods is through prayer. I already talked about that quite a bit, so I will not repeat myself here.
A way to intensify your prayers is to include small offerings. A typical example is incense. For this week, speak a prayer each morning (or each evening, whichever you prefer) in which you ask the Gods to bless your day (or something similar). Each time, light a bit of incense while you pray, offering it to the Gods. You can combine that with either a formal or an informal prayer. For me, incense combines well with informal prayer: the lighting of the incense provides a mini ritual framework, while the informal prayer keeps open my mind and heart towards what I am doing.
Of course, you can find another way of making an offering that is meaningful to you, for example donating to a non-profit organisation.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Interacting with the Gods
"The Gods are divine", and therefore the Gods are one aspect we want to get into closer contact with during this course. In contrast to the Self and the Universe, the Gods provide a divine counterpart, one that makes real communication possible. Therefore, the exercises for this part will be threefold: Listening, talking and communicating or dialogue with the Gods.
However, before we start with those exercises, we should give some thoughts to the Gods: what are they? What is their nature, their intentions? I told you some weeks back that there are a lot of different ideas about that, and that you will most likely have to learn through experience. However, as probably most authors, I have my personal pet theory I will tell you. Feel free to skip this part and move on to the exercises if you are not interested.
So here is my theory: The universe is a huge interconnected "structure". Everything is linked to everything else, more or less directly. There is a very tiny part of that structure that is me. It consists of my body, my heart, my spirit. However, there are much larger parts that are the Gods. They include all those things that are aspects of them. One tiny part of that structure called a God is that anthropomorphic face, the form, the looks they use to interact with human beings. However, their real nature is much bigger, and much more complex than that. Who knows, there might be other "interfaces" for other species, too. Interacting with their anthropomorphic faces, with the Gods, allows us to get into contact with that part of the universe that is that God. Those parts are not exclusive, just as I can have a body and you can, one Goddess can be love and promiscuity and another one love and faithfulness.
So what are the Gods? Beings? Archetypes? Aspects of one God? A bit of all: they are individual beings, they are a symbol for that which is part of their nature and they are a part of the divine universe, which might be called the One God.
Ok, let me get back to the topic: how can we communicate with the Gods? There are two possibilities: Either there is a real dialogue, or the communication goes into one directions: you are either talking to the Gods or listening to them.
However, before we start with those exercises, we should give some thoughts to the Gods: what are they? What is their nature, their intentions? I told you some weeks back that there are a lot of different ideas about that, and that you will most likely have to learn through experience. However, as probably most authors, I have my personal pet theory I will tell you. Feel free to skip this part and move on to the exercises if you are not interested.
So here is my theory: The universe is a huge interconnected "structure". Everything is linked to everything else, more or less directly. There is a very tiny part of that structure that is me. It consists of my body, my heart, my spirit. However, there are much larger parts that are the Gods. They include all those things that are aspects of them. One tiny part of that structure called a God is that anthropomorphic face, the form, the looks they use to interact with human beings. However, their real nature is much bigger, and much more complex than that. Who knows, there might be other "interfaces" for other species, too. Interacting with their anthropomorphic faces, with the Gods, allows us to get into contact with that part of the universe that is that God. Those parts are not exclusive, just as I can have a body and you can, one Goddess can be love and promiscuity and another one love and faithfulness.
So what are the Gods? Beings? Archetypes? Aspects of one God? A bit of all: they are individual beings, they are a symbol for that which is part of their nature and they are a part of the divine universe, which might be called the One God.
Ok, let me get back to the topic: how can we communicate with the Gods? There are two possibilities: Either there is a real dialogue, or the communication goes into one directions: you are either talking to the Gods or listening to them.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Meeting your heart
Our hearts are our feelings, emotions, our dreams, desires and fears. They are what motivates us, what moves us. You have already taken a big step towards meeting your heart if you started writing Daily Pages at the beginning of this course. If you have not, go back now and start now!
This week, re-examine these daily pages. What have you written about? What did you feel strongly about, whether you realised it at the time or not? How did these things you wrote about manifest in your daily life? Did you focus upon your experiences, your dreams and plans, or your fears? Which of them did manifest?
Right now you probably have only a limited amount of material to work with. Keep up writing those daily pages. Re-examine them from time to time, and you will find interesting things about yourself and your life.
In addition to re-examining your daily pages, there is another awareness exercise for you. Just as you learned more about your body by focusing your awareness on different parts, you can learn more about your heart by focussing your awareness on your emotions. Pick one day this week and try to be consciously aware of your emotions constantly during this day. If possible, note them down whenever they change, if not, just realize them. Try to identify what elicits your emotional responses. What makes you happy? Angry? Smiling? Sad? Tired? Be honest – you will not show your notes, your insights, to anybody, so you can be honest with yourself. Be accepting. You probably are not happy with some of your reactions – it does not matter. Do not try to change yourself during this day – try to learn about yourself. If you cannot make notes during the day, write down what you remember about the day in the evening. Remember: you do this to learn about yourself. There is no competition, no goal, so just be honest with yourself.
This week, re-examine these daily pages. What have you written about? What did you feel strongly about, whether you realised it at the time or not? How did these things you wrote about manifest in your daily life? Did you focus upon your experiences, your dreams and plans, or your fears? Which of them did manifest?
Right now you probably have only a limited amount of material to work with. Keep up writing those daily pages. Re-examine them from time to time, and you will find interesting things about yourself and your life.
In addition to re-examining your daily pages, there is another awareness exercise for you. Just as you learned more about your body by focusing your awareness on different parts, you can learn more about your heart by focussing your awareness on your emotions. Pick one day this week and try to be consciously aware of your emotions constantly during this day. If possible, note them down whenever they change, if not, just realize them. Try to identify what elicits your emotional responses. What makes you happy? Angry? Smiling? Sad? Tired? Be honest – you will not show your notes, your insights, to anybody, so you can be honest with yourself. Be accepting. You probably are not happy with some of your reactions – it does not matter. Do not try to change yourself during this day – try to learn about yourself. If you cannot make notes during the day, write down what you remember about the day in the evening. Remember: you do this to learn about yourself. There is no competition, no goal, so just be honest with yourself.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Meeting your body
Your body is your temple. We are all stuck with our bodies for this life. Yet it is astonishing how little we know about it, how little we are aware of it, and how little we care about it. There are a lot of things we can do to honor this temple. One important part is to take care of it: eat healthy, and keep fit. You do not have to fulfil any ideal of beauty. You have to feel comfortable in your body, and your owe it and yourself the respect to take care of it.
A great way to increase your awareness of your body are relaxation techniques. It takes a lot more than a page of instructions to learn most of them. I will describe only a simple one. If you are interested in more, I suggest you either read additional literature or tke a course. Two well known relaxation techniques I know are autogenic training, where you use autosuggestion and awareness to relax your body, and progressive muscle relaxation, where you use alternating muscle tension and relaxation to induce relaxation. Another great option is Tai Chi, which is meditation in movement.
However, I want to present you with a simple exercise to increase body awareness and relaxation, one I call simply "awareness".
Lie on your back in a comfortable position. Make sure you are warm and comfortable. Take some deep breaths. Whenever you breath out, release all stress, all tension, all anxiety. Let go of the day, the anger, the emotions, with every exhale, and relax.
Then, move your attention to your toes. Feel your toes, be aware of them. How do they feel? How are they? Are they strained? If yes, allow them to relax. Feel the difference that makes.
Move on to your feet. How do they feel? Allow them to relax. Allow your feet to relax. Then move on to your ankles. Feel them, be aware of them, relax them if necessary. Move on to your calves, your knees, your tigh, your torso, step by step into your upper arms, your lower arms, your hands, your fingers, and then back up to you neck, your shoulders, you head and your face. Move your attention slowly through the whole of your body, and relax it.
Practise this – or another – relaxation technique until you can go through it and reach relaxation quickly. Tht will help you to know your body better, to relax it and to start into other exercises easier.
A great way to increase your awareness of your body are relaxation techniques. It takes a lot more than a page of instructions to learn most of them. I will describe only a simple one. If you are interested in more, I suggest you either read additional literature or tke a course. Two well known relaxation techniques I know are autogenic training, where you use autosuggestion and awareness to relax your body, and progressive muscle relaxation, where you use alternating muscle tension and relaxation to induce relaxation. Another great option is Tai Chi, which is meditation in movement.
However, I want to present you with a simple exercise to increase body awareness and relaxation, one I call simply "awareness".
Lie on your back in a comfortable position. Make sure you are warm and comfortable. Take some deep breaths. Whenever you breath out, release all stress, all tension, all anxiety. Let go of the day, the anger, the emotions, with every exhale, and relax.
Then, move your attention to your toes. Feel your toes, be aware of them. How do they feel? How are they? Are they strained? If yes, allow them to relax. Feel the difference that makes.
Move on to your feet. How do they feel? Allow them to relax. Allow your feet to relax. Then move on to your ankles. Feel them, be aware of them, relax them if necessary. Move on to your calves, your knees, your tigh, your torso, step by step into your upper arms, your lower arms, your hands, your fingers, and then back up to you neck, your shoulders, you head and your face. Move your attention slowly through the whole of your body, and relax it.
Practise this – or another – relaxation technique until you can go through it and reach relaxation quickly. Tht will help you to know your body better, to relax it and to start into other exercises easier.
How to meet yourself: body, heart and spirit
"The self is divine". I discussed this idea before. You are divine, I am divine. The Church of All Worlds expresses this as "Thou art God". Therefore, we strife to come to know ourselves better, to come into contact with ourselves in order to know the divine.
But what is our self, what parts does it consist of? There are a lot of concepts, but I will tell you my personal belief. Basically, there are three parts. The first, the most tangible one, is our body. Throughout this life we are bound to this body. We move it, we dance with it, we sing with it, we control it. It does change a bit during our life – it grows, we get thinner or fatter, we get wrinkles, we have long hair or short hair, etc. Your body is your temple. The temple where your heart and spirit reside most of the time. It should be treated accordingly. The next exercise will therefore be about how you can meet your body.
The second part is your heart. Under "heart", I summarize feelings, emotions, motives and subconsciousness. The heart constitutes a large part of our personality. In next weeks exercise we will try to learn more about our heart.
The third part is your spirit. I use the word spirit to summarize consciousness, mind, spirit, soul, higher consciousness. Sometimes, these different components can be approached separately, but more often than not, that is not possible.
There is a tendency that whenever we come to learn something about ourselves that is a starting point for changing ourselves. Of course you cannot change if you do not knwo who you are. But it is more important to know yourself and accept yourself first. Then you can decide if and what you want to change. But acceptance is the first step
But what is our self, what parts does it consist of? There are a lot of concepts, but I will tell you my personal belief. Basically, there are three parts. The first, the most tangible one, is our body. Throughout this life we are bound to this body. We move it, we dance with it, we sing with it, we control it. It does change a bit during our life – it grows, we get thinner or fatter, we get wrinkles, we have long hair or short hair, etc. Your body is your temple. The temple where your heart and spirit reside most of the time. It should be treated accordingly. The next exercise will therefore be about how you can meet your body.
The second part is your heart. Under "heart", I summarize feelings, emotions, motives and subconsciousness. The heart constitutes a large part of our personality. In next weeks exercise we will try to learn more about our heart.
The third part is your spirit. I use the word spirit to summarize consciousness, mind, spirit, soul, higher consciousness. Sometimes, these different components can be approached separately, but more often than not, that is not possible.
There is a tendency that whenever we come to learn something about ourselves that is a starting point for changing ourselves. Of course you cannot change if you do not knwo who you are. But it is more important to know yourself and accept yourself first. Then you can decide if and what you want to change. But acceptance is the first step
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Meeting the Gods
Preparation: Follow the preparations already given in the pathworking for your safe place. Be comfortable, relax, make sure you have enough time and will not be disturbed. Either memorize the pathworking or record the text.
Take a few breaths and relax. Go to your safe place. By now you should have repeated the pathworking for your safe place often enough that you can reach it easily and fast. If you cannot, go back to that exercise until you can.
You reach your safe place. You feel comfortable and secure here. You have left any stresses, troubles, angers behind when you came here and you are relaxed.
By now you know your safe place well enough, but today you notice a door you have not seen before. Either you never recognized it, or it was not there before, but it is here now. It might be a real door, or a passage through the trees in your wood, an opening between two boulders on the beach, or something else – it fits into the environment of your safe place. On the door or somewhere next to it, you see two symbols: a golden disc of the sun, and a silver moon crescent. Both symbols are glowing slightly, illuming the door. As you think about it, you remember: those are the symbols of the Gods, the sun disc as one symbol for the God of the seasons, Him, who is born each yule with the sun, growth with her increasing strength, courts the Goddess and is united with her on Beltaine. His strength is at its peak in summer, and as the days grow shorter, he grows weaker, until he dies at the last harvest festival, at Samhain, only to be reborn again at Yule. Her symbol is the moon, a symbol of her different faces, the maiden who teaches the joy of life, the mother who brings fertility and the crone who brings wisdom to our lives.
You want to meet them, therefore you open the door and step trough the passage. (If you decide you do not want to meet Them now, back out now, leave the door closed and return to your body). You step into a huge passageway built of white marble. Columns are placed at regular intervals along the sides, and between some of them colourful gobelins, illustrating some stories are placed. You do not linger, but stride down the hall towards the doorway at its end. The wooden leaves of the gate are wide open, and a warm and inviting light pours forth from the chamber beyond. On the doors, the same symbols are present: a golden sun and a silver moon.
After a moment of hesitation you enter. It is a large room, built of white marble, decorated with columns, statues and flowers all over. Across the room, two thrones are placed, one golden, decorated with a golden sun, the other one silver, with a moon barge in front of it. The thrones are empty and unused. A young man with blond hair, wearing simple golden robes and a woman with dark hair and silver robes are standing at a window and talking.
As you enter, they turn towards you. A smile appears on Her face, and she greets you: "Welcome. We are glad you found your way here."
You approach them cautiously and notice the agelessness and wisdom of the woman, the strength and confidence of the man. Greet them, talk to them and listen to what they have to say to you.
(Take your time here. If you record the meditation, leave a long pause here).
... Finally, all is said for the moment. Thank the Gods for the meeting, and bid them farewell. Then take the same way back that lead you there: Through the doorway, along the hall and back to your safe place. Close the door behind you if there is one. Make sure you enter your safe place. Remain there for a few moments and ponder what you experienced. ...
Take the route that leads you back to your physical body and return to it. Experimentally, move your fingers, your feet. Open your eyes. Welcome back.
The exercise should leave you feeling blessed. Take that feeling with you into your life. You have met the Gods: you are truly blessed.
Take a few breaths and relax. Go to your safe place. By now you should have repeated the pathworking for your safe place often enough that you can reach it easily and fast. If you cannot, go back to that exercise until you can.
You reach your safe place. You feel comfortable and secure here. You have left any stresses, troubles, angers behind when you came here and you are relaxed.
By now you know your safe place well enough, but today you notice a door you have not seen before. Either you never recognized it, or it was not there before, but it is here now. It might be a real door, or a passage through the trees in your wood, an opening between two boulders on the beach, or something else – it fits into the environment of your safe place. On the door or somewhere next to it, you see two symbols: a golden disc of the sun, and a silver moon crescent. Both symbols are glowing slightly, illuming the door. As you think about it, you remember: those are the symbols of the Gods, the sun disc as one symbol for the God of the seasons, Him, who is born each yule with the sun, growth with her increasing strength, courts the Goddess and is united with her on Beltaine. His strength is at its peak in summer, and as the days grow shorter, he grows weaker, until he dies at the last harvest festival, at Samhain, only to be reborn again at Yule. Her symbol is the moon, a symbol of her different faces, the maiden who teaches the joy of life, the mother who brings fertility and the crone who brings wisdom to our lives.
You want to meet them, therefore you open the door and step trough the passage. (If you decide you do not want to meet Them now, back out now, leave the door closed and return to your body). You step into a huge passageway built of white marble. Columns are placed at regular intervals along the sides, and between some of them colourful gobelins, illustrating some stories are placed. You do not linger, but stride down the hall towards the doorway at its end. The wooden leaves of the gate are wide open, and a warm and inviting light pours forth from the chamber beyond. On the doors, the same symbols are present: a golden sun and a silver moon.
After a moment of hesitation you enter. It is a large room, built of white marble, decorated with columns, statues and flowers all over. Across the room, two thrones are placed, one golden, decorated with a golden sun, the other one silver, with a moon barge in front of it. The thrones are empty and unused. A young man with blond hair, wearing simple golden robes and a woman with dark hair and silver robes are standing at a window and talking.
As you enter, they turn towards you. A smile appears on Her face, and she greets you: "Welcome. We are glad you found your way here."
You approach them cautiously and notice the agelessness and wisdom of the woman, the strength and confidence of the man. Greet them, talk to them and listen to what they have to say to you.
(Take your time here. If you record the meditation, leave a long pause here).
... Finally, all is said for the moment. Thank the Gods for the meeting, and bid them farewell. Then take the same way back that lead you there: Through the doorway, along the hall and back to your safe place. Close the door behind you if there is one. Make sure you enter your safe place. Remain there for a few moments and ponder what you experienced. ...
Take the route that leads you back to your physical body and return to it. Experimentally, move your fingers, your feet. Open your eyes. Welcome back.
The exercise should leave you feeling blessed. Take that feeling with you into your life. You have met the Gods: you are truly blessed.
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