Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 44

You Don’t Owe the World Your Glamour

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Castellano, author of the new Glamour Magic.

When you perform glamour stylistically and magically, you are thrusting yourself forward. You are requiring the attention of others—strangers, your goddesses, your spirits, your ancestors, your loved ones, your colleagues, and even the goddess-damned Universe Herself.

At first, you’ll be begging to perform. At first, you give yourself away in pieces for the privilege of working your ass off to get to where you are trying to go. At first, everyone will be indulgent and graciously allow you the opportunity to whore yourself out for them.

At first.

And then it will be expected.

And it’s never what you expect.

Glamour becomes one more way you’re supposed to sell yourself to anyone who wants it. Your perfect cat’s eye, your signature red lip that you mix together yourself, your recipes, your words, your voice, your body, your style, your clothes, your product formulas . . .all of that should be available for anyone’s grabby hands on demand.

And I say, F**k. Them.

Let’s talk practically about how to do that.

Know your boundaries. You don’t want to do commissioned art? Don’t do it. You don’t want to show your junk on stage? Don’t. That’s your recipe and you don’t want BeckyFromCoven claiming it’s hers? Don’t give it to her. You don’t want JackAtWork taking all credit for your presentation? Don’t let him be involved. Tell him you’ve got this. Practice what you’ll say when demands are made of you that you don’t wish to fill.
Show up in sweats and/or heels. The fastest way to rid yourself of the expectation of others is to refuse to adhere to it consistently. Periodically show up places (work, social events, etc) in whatever is contrary to what you usually do. If you are generally very casual and au natural, occasionally put product in your hair and/or put it in a high bun, put on a suit or a dress, wear fancy shoes, put on a fragrance and/or cosmetics. If you are generally v. styled, go bare faced, hair in a ponytail, ballet flats or sneakers. In both situations, have your “what you gonna do?” face prepared.
Remember to do glamour for you. Yes, part of why we do glamour is for others but the critical other half is for you. What acts of glamour are for you? For me it’s creating for the sake of creating and not for profit (my terrariums, my altars), writing a letter to someone not for the general public, drinking St. Germain, and my personal glamour bathing rites.

Your body is yours. Your words are yours. Your work is yours. Your voice is yours. Your thoughts are yours. Your creations are yours. You belong to yourself.

Never forget that.

Our thanks to Deborah for her guest post! For more from Deborah Castellano, read her article, “Manifest Your Glamour, Manifest Your Personal Truth.”

Goodreads Giveaway: Glamour Magic by Deborah Castellano

It’s time for a giveaway! Between now (August 1) and next Tuesday (August 8), head over to Goodreads and enter to win one of three copies of Glamour Magic by Deborah Castellano!

About Glamour Magic:

Revolutionize Your Witchcraft to Achieve Your Greatest Desires

Glamour is the art of taking what makes you exciting and interesting to others and using it as leverage in accomplishing your Great Work. This fun romp of a book helps you use glamour to accomplish total world domination . . . or to revolutionize your magical practice if ruling the world isn’t your thing.

Glamour Magic encourages you to be crafty, cunning, and unafraid to want something fiercely. Learn how historical figures used glamour in their campaigns for greatness. Discover experiments, exercises, and rites for your Craft. Glamour is your secret weapon—your guide to finding what you want and getting it, too.

Praise:

“Castellano’s Glamour Magic makes sure that you have the magical tools you need in order to tip the scales in your favor.”

—Devin Hunter, author of The Witch’s Book of Power and The Witch’s Book of Spirits

“Glamour Magic is an alchemical work of art. For the beginning and seasoned Witch alike, this book will tune you in to your Great Work and give you tools with which to achieve it.”

—Lasara Firefox Allen, author of Jailbreaking the Goddess and Sexy Witch

Linestrider High Priestess

Linestrider Tarot

Siolo Thompson

See more, click HERE.

The High Priestess

The High Priestess is a link to the subconscious mind through dreams and symbols. Representing wisdom, knowledge, serenity, and understanding, she is the guardian of the unconscious realm. This card appears at times when you should look to your dreams and intuition for guidance. You need to listen to and trust your inner voice. There may be areas in your life that are out of balance and require the wisdom of the unconscious realm. Answers to recent dilemmas will come through your intuition and inner voice. If a male querent pulls this card the message may be especially clear: your anima, or female side, must be heeded if you seek success and progress. For both sexes, the feminine voice of the universe holds the answers you seek.

If you see a High Priestess surrounded by cups cards in a reading, you are fully in the realm of the subconscious and intuitive. If your query is about a problem in your life a cups/High Priestess combo is strongly suggesting that the issues are in the realm of feelings and people’s connections to one another and their emotional, rather than intellectual states. Paired with the Magician, the cards may be indicating that there is profound power to found in the unseen realm and that you can marshal these forces to reach your goals. The Magician always makes me a little nervous and never more so than when he appears with the High Priestess; dark powers could be at work in your or those around you. In a reading she may also indicate coming change. If you allow her to guide you, your intuitive and creative powers will increase. This is a card that often comes up for artists, poets, and writers.

Don’t Feel Guilty if You Need Alone Time

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Diane Brandon, author of Dream Interpretation for Beginners, Intuition for Beginners, and the new Born Aware.

Have you ever craved some alone time after a full day with other people? And have you felt guilty about wanting to spend some time alone?

Please don’t feel guilty!

The need for alone time is natural. It’s also healthy. And some people need it more than others.

If you’re one of those who enjoys spending time by yourself and yet feel guilty about it, ask yourself how you’ve felt after having some of that alone time. Did you feel different? Did you feel better? Were there any other differences you experienced?

Alone time is really good for us, especially if we’re the type of person who needs it. People who are sensitive, who are spiritual, who are creative, who are introspective, who are observers all need some quality alone time.

Let’s parse this out some more. Have you ever felt drained after being around people? If so, have you ever thought about which people you’ve been around who have led you to feel this way? Have you ever thought about your own attributes, especially compared to the list above?

If you’re sensitive and empathetic, it may be easier for you to feel others’ energy—and often involuntarily, not because you decided to. If you’re an empath, you can’t help but feel and sometimes absorb others’ energy. This can feel good when you’ve been around positive people or people with whom you resonate. However, if you’ve been around “negative” people (those who complain a lot or criticize you) or people who are often referred to as “energy vampires” (those who are sucking or feeding on your energy, often without intending to) or people who are quite needy, you may end up feeling drained.

In these instances, having alone time can feel like a respite. You can get back to yourself and plug into your center (especially if you meditate). You end up finding your “batteries” re-charged. You find yourself feeling replenished and ready to take on the world again.

This is true, as well, if you’re an observer or someone with depth. If you’re observing things, people, situations, etc., you need that alone time to digest and process what you observed. After you’ve had that needed alone time, you end up feeling that you’ve gained more awareness or insight about what you were observing. And new insights, in and of themselves, can feed us.

Alone time serves a healthy purpose. In addition to re-charging and replenishing our energy, it also allows us to gain those useful insights.

Our culture may lead us to feel guilty if we’re not giving, giving, giving or being available 24/7 to help others. And helping others is indeed a wonderful thing to do. However, consider this: there always needs to be a circle of energy. If we’re just giving of our energy all the time and not feeling any energy coming back in, we will likely end up feeling depleted. And, if we’re feeling depleted and drained and without energy, we won’t be any good for anyone else. There’s no need to feel guilty about self-care. It can lead us to have more to give.

So what can you do?

If you find yourself resisting the need for alone time, ask yourself what is at the root of your resistance. Guilt? Pressure from others? Old cultural or familial conditioning? Once you’ve identified the cause, allow yourself to work on healing it. Remind yourself that you deserve to feel sanctity and be healthy. Re-program that old thinking. After all, you want to be good for both others and yourself. Remind yourself of this, too. Alone time is good for you (and others).

So allow yourself to take that alone time—guilt free. Think of it as a prescription for your health and wellbeing. You deserve it—and you need it.

Our thanks to Diane for her guest post! For more from Diane Brandon, read her article, “Why Some People are Born Aware.”

Tarot for Tough Times

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Devin Hunter, author of The Witch’s Book of Power and the new Witch’s Book of Spirits.

Tarot is a useful tool to help us gain insight into every single aspect of our lives. When times get tough and hope is fleeting, the cards can sometimes be the best way of anchoring ourselves into reality and stabilizing our goals for manifestation.

Things to keep in mind when reading tarot during tough times:

Keep your questions and your spreads simple unless you are prepared for ALL of the information. Remember, situations are always multi-layered and complex, and sometimes too many details get in the way.
Don’t be afraid to make your own spreads up so that each reading can be tailored to your individual situation. The Celtic Cross doesn’t always have all the answers!
Sometimes only using the Major Arcana in a reading can be more useful than the entire deck! Major Arcana cards depict the archetypical human experience and can bring exact focus to a situation, especially when you aren’t familiar with the nuances of the Minor Arcana.
Do a spread for the long road, but check back in when you hit the stop lights and don’t obsess! Trust in the answers and act accordingly.
Find your “significator” card and a “significator” card for the trouble. That way, when it comes up in related readings you will always know what to look for.
CHECK THE BOOK! When reading for ourselves, we can often imprint our own values onto the cards. Checking the book will help keep you honest.
KEEP A JOURNAL! This is imperative and will help to keep you aware of the changes in the situation as well as the way it develops. Being able to reference your readings at a glance can give you long-term insight into the matters at hand.
Focus on the movement of the energy within the situation instead of the outcome. Outcomes change, often, so paying attention to the way in which the surrounding energies manifest in the moment will help keep you aware of what is needed to either change the outcome or ensure its fulfillment.

Whatever it is that you face, never be afraid to look at it straight in the eyes and take your power back. The tarot can help you not only do this but also can help you as you develop the necessary plan of action that will be required as you move forward.

Our thanks to Devin for his guest post! For more from Devin Hunter, read his article, “Seven Stones for Summoning Spirits.”

Steampunk Strength

Steampunk Tarot

Barbara Moore, art by Aly Fell

Learn more, click HERE.

Strength

Respectful Victorians exhibited their own unique form of strength by keeping a stiff upper lip and repressing—er, controlling—their base, or animal instincts and desires. In this card, we a healthy dose of the “punk” from our theme of “Steampunk.” In our version of Strength, a gentle woman performs a revolutionary (or so it would seem to a Victorian) act of strength.

Cards from older tarot decks show a human wrestling a wild lion. This expressed the idea that people had a wild, or evil, side of themselves that must be constantly fought, repressed, or controlled or it would take them over and utterly destroy them.

This woman suggests a different tack. She believes the lion that stalks her is simply a symbol of her shadow self. In Jungian terms, the shadow self is comprised of all the parts of ourselves that we dislike, don’t value, and are ashamed of. These parts, she says, are not bad in and of themselves; rather they are aspects of ourselves that have been wounded. If ignored or repressed, they become infected. After a while, they grow so large that they burst…showing up in our lives in inappropriate and even destructive ways. This approach, she insists, never works in the long run.

Instead, she counsels that we approach our inner monsters with compassion, because that makes it easier to determine what caused the damage in the first place. Once we identify the root couse, we can remove it, just as she has extracted that gear from her lion’s paw. Yes, it hurts, and yes, it is scary. The lion will probably roar—you may even get scratched or bitten. But it must be done, for only then can healing begin. From this healing comes strength.

Just as in the fable of the mouse who pulled the thorn from the lion’s paw, after the hard part is over, the lion will be a devoted servant. In the same way, our shadow selves, grateful and healed, can be integrated into our whole personality. What we hid from—our anger, our fear, our emotional needs—we now welcome and learn how to express in our lives in a healthy and useful manner.

When confronted with the Strength card [in a reading], you are well advised to tap into your deepest inner strength and express it with calm compassion. The infinity symbol in the Magician represents your connection with the energy of the universe; in this card it represents your connection with all aspects of yourself. In the Magician, this connection generates extraordinary power. In this card, it creates amazing strength. Find that connection; feel that strength. Do not forget to apply it with a light touch. A little goes a long way.

Ghostly Mind Over Matter

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Loyd Auerbach, author of Psychic Dreaming and the new Mind Over Matter.

Parapsychologists and psychical researchers have been studying psychokinesis (PK), or mind over matter, in the laboratory since at least the 1930s. However, PK has played a part in the field since scientists first began studying physical mediumship in the latter half of the 19th century. Physical mediums claimed to allow spirits to work through them to levitate objects, create apports and ectoplasm, and cause unusual sounds and other effects, all quite physical.

For a variety of reasons, most researchers lean towards those effects being caused by the unconscious PK abilities of the medium rather than ostensible spirits. Certainly, in most poltergeist cases, with larger scale repeating activity, it’s been clear that a living agent is responsible.

However, this is not to say that an apparition cannot use PK to affect the physical world. Parapsychologists tend to use the term apparition rather than ghost (which has a lot of folkloric and pop culture baggage). In most instances, we’re referring to the consciousness of a person after he or she has died, which has survived the death of the body, and capable of interacting with the living.

While the vast majority of apparitional encounters do not include any physical activity, there are some excellent cases on record that indicate that sometimes apparitions do indeed cause physical effects. Most likely as a result of the paranormal/ghost hunting TV shows having little or no knowledge of or interest in the history and findings of parapsychology and psychical research, most ghost hunters do not equate PK of the living (which so many claim not to even believe in) with that of the dead, or even accept the idea that the ghost is doing psychokinesis.

Most parapsychologists consider ESP and PK a function of consciousness, of the mind, rather than just the brain. An apparition, by definition, is nothing but consciousness. No physical senses with which to perceive the world, and no physical form to interact with the physical world or the living (including communicating or even being seen by the eyes or heard by the ears).

Apparitions perceive the world through their psychic “senses,” through ESP. Mediums understand that they communicate mentally (telepathy).

The only way they can move or otherwise affect objects—or affect a recorder for electronic voice phenomena (EVP)—using their minds to affect matter and energy. That’s the very definition of psychokinesis. What’s interesting is that apparitional PK is rare, and even in those cases where it is reported, it doesn’t seem to happen for weeks and even months or years after the apparition is first seen. It’s as if the apparitions have to figure out how to move things (remember Patrick Swayze’s character in the move Ghost?).

What we’ve learned in the laboratory research about ESP and PK can be applied to the understanding of our everyday, and even extraordinary, psychic experiences. It can also be applied to an understanding of our ghostly friends.

Our thanks to Loyd for his guest post! For more from Loyd Auerbach, read his article, “Mind Your Own Matter, and Learn a Little PK.”

Being Nice to Yourself is Mandatory for a Happy Life

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Amy Leigh Mercree, author of Joyful Living and the new Compassion Revolution.

Cultivating a loving voice in ourselves that is compassionate, aware, kind, and patient yields a better quality of life. As we start being nicer to ourselves, more accepting of our shortcomings and exercising patience, this feeling of openness and understanding ripples out to the world around us. After all, compassion is not only heroic deeds, but small unseen and often thankless kindnesses done by any one of us. And those apparently small effects do resonate out into the world.

10 healthy reasons to practice compassion:

It makes us feel good (e.g., helping someone in need) and activates the pleasure circuits in our brain.
It makes us less prone to heart disease.
It lowers stress hormones.
Brain scans done during loving-kindness meditation show that the mind wanders less, and as a result we feel happier.
It makes us more caring parents.
It makes us better partners.
It makes us better friends.
Employees who are treated with kindness and consideration at work see their workplace, fellow employees, and even the organization itself in a better light.
Being kind to one person makes us less angry with another, and that feeling expands.
Holding back on feelings of compassion hurts our self-esteem and undermines our morality.

Kuan Yin is known as the Goddess of Infinite Compassion and Mercy; she is like the Mother Mary of the East. Her name in Chinese means, “the one who hears the cries of the world.” She is often depicted holding a vase that is pouring the nectar of wisdom and compassion onto the world.

What if you got into that deeply present place and then explored the sensual, whether solo or with a loving partner in the same state of awareness? Would everything be richer and more intense? Would you experience sensations and pleasure in a new way? Would your soul feel fed to know you are seeing your sacredness and if a partner is involved he or she is too? Give it a try and find out!

I’ll leave you with a simple, sweet meditation on compassion:

Set a timer for 20 minutes.
Sit in a comfortable position that you can hold for that long (it can even be lying down or on a sofa).
Close your eyes gently and take five slow, deep breaths to quiet your mind. Focus on your breathing, giving your mind something with which to work. Relax and enjoy this feeling of peace.
With your eyes closed, visualize Kuan Yin, her kindness and compassion flowing down onto the world, or visualize any person that represents love and compassion in your eyes.
Repeat over and over and over: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering.” Visualize the words.
When your mind wanders, because it will, notice it, and gently draw your attention back to your repetition.
To end your meditation: Bring your hands together to your forehead, for clarity of thought. Bring your palms together to your mouth, for clarity of speech. Bring your palms together to your heart, for clarity of action.
Finish with: “Let my light shine through all the things that I am thinking, saying and doing.”
And now, connected with this wonderful feeling, take it out into the world with you!

As the Dalai Lama once said, “Love and compassion are necessities. They are not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

Our thanks to Amy for her guest post! For more from Amy Leigh Mercree, read her article, “The Compassion Cure.”

American Gods and Where Gods Come From

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Aaron Leitch, author of several books, including Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, The Angelical Language Volume I and Volume II, and Essential Enochian Grimoire.

I’m willing to bet, if you are reading this blog, you have already watched every episode of the new hit TV series American Gods. Or, if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard a ton about it from your Pagan friends. And, seriously, *WHY* haven’t you watched it yet?? The first season is complete, and only eight episodes, so you can easily binge-watch the whole thing.

In case you are literally living in a broom closet, American Gods is a new television show based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name. The premise of the story is at once both simple and astounding: the modern world, especially America, has become a largely atheist civilization with no interest in remembering the Old Gods. Instead, we have come to unwittingly worship new gods in the form of technology and celebrity. These new young gods are the embodiment of things like the Internet (named Technical Boy), and mass media (named Media), and even the world-spanning control of global corporatism and their propaganda (embodied as Mr. World).

Meanwhile, the Old Gods are still out there. For the most part, they have gone underground, blending entirely into the greater population of mortals. Some of them hold jobs, some of them are just laying low, and a few of them have even taken steps to regain a small fraction of their former glory. (Often by making deals with Mr. World and Media—as was the case with Saint Nick.)

But one of the Old Gods—who lives as an old con-man named Wednesday—isn’t going to take this state of affairs laying down. He refuses to allow his people to vanish into history, forgotten and therefore dead. He has a plan. He’s gearing up for a war against the American Gods.

So that’s the premise. The book (and now the show) has a very dark philosophical undercurrent, viewing the Gods as flawed people with their own problems and agendas, and who are perfectly willing to exploit humans to achieve their ends. “That’s what Gods do… they f**k with us,” says Mad Sweeny, the down-on-his-luck leprechaun. (See, you really need to watch this!) I read the novel in the early 00s, which happened to be a dark period in my own spiritual progress—one that led me to understand that Gods and Angels are not all sweetness and light and friendliness. They are massive intelligences with far more to concern them than petty human needs or desires. I had personally hit a point where I needed to decide whether I wanted to even associate with these beings, let alone continue to work with them. And this book, American Gods, was a big part of my exploration of the “negative column” of that decision. (Fortunately, the positive column won out—so here I am!)

I strongly recommend both the book and the show. If you can read the novel first, and then watch the series, do so! However, this blog entry isn’t a review of either one. Instead, I want to delve into one specific aspect of the story’s underlying philosophy: where the Gods came from.

It is quite ironic that Gaiman presents the Old Gods as the protagonists (sort of) of his story, yet has chosen to present their origins in the way the American Gods themselves would have us believe: that Gods were simply “made up” by humans who desperately wanted something to believe in. Man created the Gods in his own image. People constructed Gods to explain things they couldn’t understand, or to have something to pray to when things go wrong. In this view, the Old Gods are little more than a symptom of mankind’s fear of an unknown and often deadly world. I’m sure you’ve run into this theory before. I would even bet many of you actually hold this theory as “obviously true”—because it is without a doubt the most common view of the origin of the Gods in our civilization. And, it is entirely wrong.

No one simply “made up” any of the Old Gods. And, no, early mankind was not subjected to terror and stupidity about everything around them. For that matter, they weren’t afraid of death, either—which means the Gods were not created because humans feared death might mean oblivion. These are comfortable notions held by modern people who want to believe they are better and smarter than their ancestors. Gods were not “invented;” they evolved quite naturally, over very long periods of time. And, guess what? Most of them were originally human! Not mythologically—but historically.

You see, one of the oldest forms of religion on planet Earth is ancestor worship. (Animism and plant worship are also contenders for the title of “oldest.”) In the most primordial eras, after humans began to show signs of spiritual observance—such as burial of the dead—people didn’t see much difference between a living relative and a passed one. Sure, they existed in two different states (physical and spiritual), but both were seen to exist just the same. The spirit of a loved one could be captured and bound to the body (as in Egypt and other cultures) or to some other artifact. Then, the spirit could be fed and cared for just as if the person were still alive—offering it food, water, warmth, tools, gifts, etc. In return, the ancestral spirit was expected to continue working for the family—offering those things a spirit can offer: protection, good hunts and harvests, prosperity, good fortune, divination, etc. It was from these familial spirits, working hard for the success of their living families, that we get our word for a witch’s spirit-helper: “familiar.”

Ancestor worship was common and widespread right up to the agricultural revolution. Of course, it didn’t actually go away thereafter, but things changed once we settled into cities. One of the biggest problems with farming the land is the constant threat of nomadic raiders. Such tribal people didn’t have the concept of land ownership, and when they found crops, they naturally ate them. In response to this, the farmers hired some protection.

That protection came in the form of the larger and stronger families—the ones with weapons and trained warriors. The farmers purchased their protection by swearing fealty to those families, providing them with a share of the crops and livestock they raised. These are the families who became royalty, believing they had a birthright to conquer and own all the land—and people—they desired. The ancestral spirits of those royal families became the National Gods. Their simple altars were elaborated into Temples. Crops and other goods brought to the king were described specifically as offerings to those Gods. The farmer was feeding the National God to ensure continued harvests.

If you were a royal in the ancient world, you firmly understood the Gods were your direct ancestors. A wonderful example is found in Egypt: Not only did the Pharaoh believe himself to be the reincarnation of Horus, and that he would ascend to be one with Osiris at death, he also remembered that Osiris was the first Pharaoh of Egypt and the founder of his own family line.

Even cosmic Gods whose mythologies do not mention them ever being human (as in Re, or Nut, or Geb) can very often be traced back to older/lesser tribal Gods. For example, the most highly exalted cosmic Hidden God of Egypt, Amon, was once a simple local tribal deity, and therefore was very likely a human ancestral spirit at the start of his career. Other Gods (such as Isis, Osiris, Inanna, Hathor, Baal, etc.) are often described in their mythologies as perfectly physical beings—even if superhuman. For example, note the Sumerian story of Shukaletuda, a human who one day discovered Inanna fast asleep beneath a tree and took the opportunity to rape her. She wasn’t aware of what had happened until she awoke, and then demanded justice against her attacker. That’s not a description of a Goddess who only exists in the spiritual.

There are some cases where even a God’s mythos will declare they were once human, but had been enraptured or ascended in some fashion. This is the case with several Orishas in the ATRs—them having ascended to godhood in a flash of devotional ecstasy, rather than dying after the manner of normal humans. Having left the physical behind, they “become one” with the force of nature they will represent as Gods: such as the Sun, or the River, or the Sea, etc. We can find this in Western mythologies as well: consider the spiritual translations of Elijah and Enoch in Biblical literature. Both of them were not only taken bodily into heaven without experiencing death, both of them were also transformed into archangels (Sandalphon and Metatron, respectively). There is even a scene in the apocryphal 3Enoch where we witness the replacement of every part of Enoch’s physical body with divine fire.

No, human beings did not “make up” the Gods—not out of fear, ignorance, or boredom. Gods are people. Were people. They passed away, but kept evolving—growing larger and more powerful as their families did so, until they had become known as Gods. It took generations for this process to happen, and it was the natural result of our own interfacing with the spirit world. Gods can certainly be empowered or weakened based upon the number of worshipers they have (and the offerings they get, etc.)—but we didn’t just create them out of nothing.

If you have enjoyed this exploration, I will likely post further thoughts on the philosophies presented in American Gods between now and the series’ end. For now, go and make an offering to that Patron of yours. He or She deserves it.

Our thanks to Aaron for his guest post! Visit Aaron Leitch’s author page for more information, including articles and his books.

3 Ways to Help Create a Group Mind

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Deborah Lipp, author of several books, including Tarot Interactions, Merry Meet Again, and the new Magical Power for Beginners.

When working in a coven, grove, or other ritual group, creating a “group mind” (sometimes called an “egregore“) empowers all the work you do. Your magic will naturally sync up, and your rituals will be more harmonious.

Be Choosy

Should Paganism be exclusive or inclusive? That’s a thing Pagans have been debating for decades. There is plenty of room in our community for groups with open-door policies and groups that screen carefully. I love and celebrate the open-door groups that make Paganism accessible to all. But, if your goal is to create a group mind, you have to make strong, slow, deep connections, and that will require a certain exclusivity. If you can’t get along with someone, you can’t do this kind of magical work together, and if anyone and everyone can walk in, you can’t create the safe space necessary for true intimacy.Build your group carefully, and let membership depend, in part, on a sense of compatibility and commonality. If it feels right, your next steps will work better.
Start All Work Acknowledging the Group

Many people “ground and center” at the start of every ritual. As a group, try “ground, center, and merge.” If your meditation is, “become a tree,” finish by becoming a grove of trees. If your meditation is, “become a star,” finish by becoming a constellation. Let unity of purpose be the ground from which ritual begins.I like to open ritual with a declaration: “We are here to…” or “Welcome all who…” or the like. Include the group identity in such a statement (“We, Pixie Coven, are here to…”). Let all present hear and share that identity.
Make Eye Contact

Many people close their eyes when raising energy, when chanting, when doing magic, when holding hands and “om”ing. But if you want to bind your group work into a single mind and spirit, it can be counterproductive. Yes, sometimes, you’ll need your eyes closed—especially when creating and maintaining mental imagery—but open eyes let you touch one another in an intimate way. You’ll also learn each other’s little cues and signals, small exchanged smiles and nods that let you coordinate your work more closely.

These three steps are the beginning of a deep and long-lasting magical work, that can bring rich rewards for years to come. Blessed be!

Our thanks to Deborah for her guest post! For more from Deborah Lipp, read her article, “3 Ways to Make Magic Work Better.”