As we navigate our paths, each of us picks up bits of wisdom and insight along the way. With these tools in hand, we address not only the challenges we face, but their existence allows us to begin to form our personal mythologies. Those of us who pray believe that the gods will hear us. Those of us who strike out on our own believe we have the tools necessary within ourselves to overcome our challenges. Through our lessons and the understanding of our own answers we each develop a unique system of beliefs. Some of us hold onto those beliefs for a lifetime; others out grow them from time to time and shed them like a snake shed's its skin.
My own path has led me through various religions and approaches to spirituality. It may seem like a contradiction that a witch would admire the example of the Christian Jesus or that a shaman would rely on the teachings of Buddha in navigating his path. To me, the contradiction only appears when we look too closely at the details and miss the bigger picture.
Think about it this way. Imagine that a brilliant artist had painted a masterpiece so large that it covered the entire wall of an art museum and that we aren't just students of life, spirituality, and magick, but in this example, we're art students. Each of us scrutinizes the massive painting, trying to understand the artist's intent and how it parallels our own lives. As we approach the canvas, because of its immense dimensions, we begin to lose perspective. And as we move as close as we can without touching the painting, all we can see are individual brush strokes and a small portion of the colors used in the overall painting.
Now imagine that the painting represents spirituality. Because of our limited perspective, standing as close as we are to our own path, each of us sees only a tiny portion of the entire picture. What's more is that we tend to play it safe and stick to our portion of the painting, to the comfort of our own spiritual practice, allowing us to see only the brush strokes and colors that are right in front of us.
Part of my own practice involves stepping back and trying to see more of the painting than I could see the day before. Not only does it assist me as a spiritual teacher, but it adds a holistic understanding to my personal path. Instead of seeing individual portions of the painting, I look for how one portion blends into the other and how the colors deepen and fade to make light and shadow, to add richness to the painting. While I certainly haven't mastered the concept, one of the things that I work with in my path is learning to see how the various portions of spirituality flow together. In our example of the painting, I'm slowly learning to step farther and farther back and embrace more of the composition rather than focusing on individual brush strokes.
In doing so, my tools have changed. As I've let go of more and more of the specifics and looked instead to the flow of life, my path, and the world around me, things have become simplified. The guidelines that I rely on to navigate my path have been reduced to four simple rules that we'll look at in more depth over the course of the coming weeks. At first glance, this may seem like nothing more than the philosophy that I use in my own personal growth. But what I've learned is that it is all part of a single canvas. By embracing the following concepts, I've also learned to step deeper into the mystical aspects of my path and have added an incredible depth to my energy work, rituals, and magick.
Rule #1: We're in School
The first thing we need to remember is that we're not perfect. I embrace the concept of reincarnation and believe that we're here to learn and grow, a process that I once heard coined as spiritual alchemy. Where an alchemist of yore would seek to transmute one material into another, we seek to evolve our own souls, growing over lifetimes from a spiritual infant to a wise, spiritual elder.
What that means to us is that we're going to face challenges. Our boundaries are going to be pushed. We're going to find ourselves stretched beyond our comfort zones. In the end, if we learn to understand the fabric of our own lives as seen through the lens of our spiritual paths, we come to realize that there is a lesson to be learned in each moment. We discover that our challenges make us stronger, that they allow us to let go of concepts and vibrations that hold us back. And with the combination of both strength and freedom, we find ourselves stepping deeper and deeper into the heart of our paths.
Rule #2: We're in Charge
It's obvious that this is your life. You make the choices. You live each moment. In every conceivable way, this life is yours to live. What we often fail to realize is that the concept goes far beyond the moment we live in and the tangible things we can write down on a sheet of paper. Because this is school and because we literally manifest our own reality, life specifically weaves itself for our benefit. Literally. That isn't "for our pleasure" or "for our enjoyment," but for our benefit. However, if you approach life as school and begin to understand the lessons that unfold before you, you also begin to realize that it all happens for a reason.
The next step in the evolution of that concept is to understand that you create it all. And when you reach the point that you know, to the core of your being, that you are manifesting your reality, suddenly your magick and the options before you are without limit.
Rule #3: It's Bigger Than You Realize
The biggest hindrance in this entire process is that we are constantly limiting what reality can be. Speaking even to experienced practitioners of the Craft, you'll hear phrases like "magick doesn't work that way". Simply remember that to every rule, there's an exception. To every guideline, there's a loophole. Not because we can ethically violate certain concepts but because reality is infinitely bigger than we imagine it to be. That's not "reality is infinitely big." For even the most open-minded of us, reality is bigger than we imagine it, infinitely bigger.
There are no limitations to this concept, just principles in place that structure our learning environment and what we experience. For instance, if you stood outside and looked up at the sky, your natural inclination is to believe that you can't fly. In fact, it was a commonly held belief for centuries that man would never take to the air. While we can achieve flight here on Earth, it requires us to overcome the force of gravity to do so.
All of the challenges before us can be overcome. The key is finding what we need to do in order to succeed in that endeavor. For instance, there are different ways to achieve flight. We can raise energy (such as in winged flight with lift exceeds weight), shift our energy to another vibration (by adopting wings such as with a hang glider), or by becoming lighter than air (such as with a hot air balloon.) We do the same thing on our spiritual paths. We raise energy when we work magick. We shift our energy to another vibration, such as in shamanic journeying. And we achieve the parallel of lighter than air flight by letting go of the things that hold us to our spiritual ground.
Just remember, it was once believed that man would never take to the air. Our limitations are only what we allow them to be.
Rule #4: The Secret is Letting Go
The secret key behind mysticism, magick, and spiritual growth isn't to amass knowledge, memorize incantations, or adhere blindly to ancient philosophies. If it is only our own preconceived ideas that limit what we can achieve and who we can be. Magick as I teach it is free form, free flowing, and, simply put, works. I've watched the sea physically respond to my words, surging high above my head or parting around where I stood in the surf. Candles have reignited before my eyes. Spirits have physically manifested in my rites. And, during shamanic work along a wild stretch of coastline last week, my footsteps literally disappeared from the sand.
Does this make me special? Is it a level that only a few people can reach? Not at all. Through an application of four simple guidelines introduced above, each of us can reach a level on our paths that will exceed our wildest dreams, that will bring us inner peace, and will fill our lives with love.