Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 49

Empathy for the Mystically Inclined

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Raven Digitalis, author of Goth Craft, Shadow Magick Compendium, Planetary Spells & Rituals, and the new Esoteric Empathy.

It’s crazy to think that after 6 years of research, writing, and spiritual introspection, my book for empaths has finally come to fruition! I’m pleased to say that this book, which also happens to be my most important and socially relevant piece, is now available wherever books are sold! Its title is Esoteric Empathy: A Magickal & Metaphysical Guide to Emotional Sensitivity. My book is a culmination of living 33 years as an empath, and it’s a blessing to share the material with fellow empaths and emotionally sensitive spiritual practitioners. It is my hope that this book can help fellow empaths in their lives—and with praise from the likes of Raymond Buckland, Lon Milo Duquette, Janet Farrar, and many others, I feel a sense of humble accomplishment.

What can I say? It can be ridiculously challenging to be an empath, as fellow empaths can certainly empathize… but it’s worth it. The world is in desperate need of empathy. We need to heal our wounds as a species and as a planet, and empathy is where it begins. The experience of empathy is one of “stepping into” the emotions of another person (or animal, or emotional environment).

Empaths, then, are people who experience empathy more frequently than the average bear. Empaths are often drawn to spirituality, magick, and mysticism because these paths affirm our emotional openness and give us an opportunity to channel our emotional energy in productive and cathartic manners. By recognizing our mental and physical cycles, and by purposefully connecting with the cycles of nature through ritual and meditation, we can more accurately understand our amazing emotional capacities.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with emotional energy throughout the day because, well, emotions are everywhere. Because empaths have a deep well of emotions ourselves, it can at times be challenging to understand whether the emotions we feel are ours or if they’re someone else’s. Personally, I don’t feel that the “source” of any given emotion is the most important component of the equation to solve. Sure, it’s essential to get to the root of emotions that continually reappear, especially if they cause ongoing distress, but it’s vital that we regain emotional equilibrium from moment-to-moment—especially if we are doing deeper work like ongoing therapy, counseling, or metaphysical training!

There are a few things that I personally like doing when I find myself empathically overloaded. First, I choose to remember that not everything can be solved right away; it’s okay to give things time and to re-examine situations later, from a more balanced state of mind. If I have time, I’ll take a bath or shower. I’ll journal. I’ll smudge. I’ll meditate and perform Hatha (physical) Yoga. I’ll pray to guides, gods, and guardians. I’ll light a candle, weave a spell, or play some calming music. I’ll touch the earth or a tree. I’ll cry if I need to, but will invoke light and strength afterward. Deep breathing is beneficial. Creating art of any kind can do wonders. It’s also essential to keep perspective about other people’s life struggles.

Everyone has different activities (even brief ones) that can instantly help one’s emotional state—it’s just a matter of discovering what they are, and of course remembering to put them into practice when life throws its inevitable curveballs.

Our thanks to Raven for his guest post! For more from Raven Digitalis, visit his author page for his books and other articles.

Once There Was a Dream

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Atherton Drenth, author of the new Intuitive Dance.

Many years ago, I had a dream where I was aware that I was sleeping yet dreaming at the same time. It felt surreal, vivid, and intriguing all at the time. I had never experienced a dream like this before. I remember walking through a forest and coming across a large stone fountain. In the center of the fountain was a statue of a large old tree with water streaming out from its roots. I was surprised to realize that the tree was alive and birds were feasting on the berries they found growing on its branches. As I followed the path around the fountain watching and listening to the chirping of birds, I caught the smell of incense that was deeply familiar. It reminded me of my mother, who had recently passed away. My heart swelled with longing to be with her again, sitting on the chair in her studio watching her paint, drinking green tea ,and smelling the sandalwood incense she always burned. I would listen to the swishing sounds her brush made as she applied paint to the canvas. I remember watching her, fascinated as still life images in front of her appeared on the blank canvas. I felt comfortable and safe there.

Hopeful that I was going to meet her in my dream, I rushed along the path and came across a bamboo hut. I opened the door in anticipation of finding her there. Instead, as I entered, I was surprised to find only an empty chess board laid out on a table in the middle of the room. Two stools sat on either side of the table, empty, waiting as if someone was about to start a game. There were pots of sandalwood incense burning in the four corners of the room.

At the far end of the room I saw a large wooden chest. Curious, I walked over and opened it. Inside I found four small carved stone statues: a gorilla, an ox, a hawk, and a statue of an old man who looked Asian. I took the statues out and placed them on the table. As I examined each piece it would come to life and start to move around. Startled and mesmerized, I watched them move around on the table top. The old man, however, grew larger and larger until he was standing beside the table. He looked to be about 5 feet tall and he had a long, pencil-thin mustache that drooped down on either side of his chin that almost touched his robe. His robe was made of yellow silk and was embroidered with red dragons flying through magical forests of green and purple. He held a long clay pipe in his hand. He stood there, looking at me with such love and peace in his eyes. I felt I knew him. He smiled and said, “I will guide you.”

A year later I was encouraged to attend a channeling class. I had no idea what to expect but it was there, in that class, that meaning of my waking dream came true.

Our thanks to Atherton for her guest post! For more from Atherton Drenth, read her article, “Stress, Anxiety, and the Ego.”

If You’re So Powerful, Why Aren’t You Rich?

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.

Greetings fellow Mages!

Telling a magician they are “fake” because they don’t have money is like telling a doctor they are “fake” because they caught a cold. In other words, you absolutely don’t get how either magick OR money works. [—me]

Nothing gets occultists and skeptics alike talking more than the subject of money and magick. Without question, this is the primary point of attack for skeptics who want to believe magick is a fantasy, and anyone purporting to possess magical power is merely a deluded fool (at best) or an outright fraud scamming innocent dupes for cash. They point to mages throughout history, and even right here in the modern world, reminding us that occultists always tend to be poor or in need of cash. “If you are so powerful,” they ask, “then why aren’t you rich?”

I find these questions humorous, mainly because they are so pointedly disingenuous. The skeptics look at history and see the fact that occultists are not typically rich, and even that magick (especially sorcery) tends to proliferate in impoverished areas—but instead of making the obvious conclusion that magick probably doesn’t have anything to do with getting rich, they make up their own conclusion: “Magick isn’t real.” This would be like investigating Olympic sprinters, discovering that not a one of them can run a mile in two minutes, and thereby concluding professional sprinters are all fakes. After all, there is a cartoon mouse that can do a mile in far less time…

It’s not simply the fact these types are jumping to a ridiculous conclusion that makes this funny to me. It also speaks to something I’ve noticed across the board with atheists and skeptics (especially the outspoken ones): they always adopt the most outlandish and fantastical views of anything spiritual or mystical—taken entirely from Hollywood and fantasy fiction—and apply those views to the real thing. Hence, if Mickey Mouse can use a grimoire to conjure hoards of animate brooms to clean his master’s lab, then why can’t you conjure gold bars when you need them? Wizards in the Harry Potter stories can conjure food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities at will, so why can’t you? Doctor Strange doesn’t call on help from an “occult community” when he is in need or in danger, so why are you setting up a crowd-funding campaign? Shouldn’t the Dark Forces be taking care of you?

And don’t go trying to tell this kind or person that magick doesn’t work that way! To them, that’s just you back-pedaling. If Steven Spielberg says you should be able to levitate, conjure money or other objects from nothing, cast thunderbolts and more, then you need to measure up or you’re not “real.” After all, Spielberg is one of the most advanced magi the world has ever known, whose word on magick is entirely unimpeachable. How dare you pretend to such mighty powers?? Even if you’re not pretending any such thing, because even that proves you are a fraud!

Most of the time, occultists attempt to answer this accusation from a philosophical standpoint. They point out that magicians simply aren’t the type of people who pursue money, as they have more important jobs and issues to which to attend. However, this argument falls on deaf ears in our modern culture, where cash is king. “Don’t tell me you don’t need money!” they say. “If you can’t even cover your own doctor bills, then your magick is a failure.” Truly, telling a modern Westerner that you don’t seek money is, for them, pure gibberish. It doesn’t compute.

But occultism and its relationship to money doesn’t require that kind of philosophy to explain. Hence my above quote. Occultists aren’t broke because of any altruism, or any kind of feeling they are “above the need for money.” Nope—we need money to survive just like everyone else, and the fact that we don’t typically have a lot of it does sometimes bite us in the ass, thank you very much. But if you think learning the arts of magick has jack-all to do with making money, then you clearly have no clue how either magick or money works. That last part is the real key, though. People who accuse occultists of fraud based on a lack of money are never rich people themselves. Rich people—and by that term I mean people who work damn hard for their money, not folks born into mega-wealth—would never say such a thing to an occultist because they do know how money works.

You see, the “99 percent” often fall for the fantasy that money is something you can just “obtain” and then “be rich.” It is why game shows, lotteries, and gambling are so popular. “If only I could win that jackpot! I’d be rich and everything would be awesome!” But, have you ever looked into what typically happens to lottery winners? Within a year or two, they are broke, depressed, and quite often suicidal. Why? Because they fell for the fantasy about money. They thought it was just something they could get their hands on and it would make everything alright. It never occurs to them that, in order to get rich and stay rich, you have to work for your money. And I don’t mean working hard to obtain it—I mean working hard to keep it.

If you come into a large sum of money and simply let it sit in your bank account, you can be assured it will be gone in a shockingly short period of time. Like the lotto winner, you’ll be broke and wondering what the hell happened. No, if you’re going to be rich—even just comfortably well-off—you are going to have to maintain that money, invest it, and make it grow. You have to become a businessperson, learn how economics work, and how to make worthwhile investments. This becomes a full-time job in itself. You don’t just work for your money, you work for your money. It becomes your boss, and you must dedicate a significant portion of your life to it. If not, then it’s back to the poor house with you!

But, guess what? Occultists aren’t high finance businesspeople. This may come as a shock, but most of us spend our time studying magick rather than the intricacies of how financial markets work. Astoundingly, we do not know which stocks are best for investments. We don’t all keep up with the strength of the dollar against foreign currencies. Being a wizard doesn’t make you a financial wizard. If I were to successfully conjure a million bucks—and I mean it fell right out of the sky with no legal repercussions for me—that million would be gone before I knew what happened.

“But Aaron,” I hear you typing in the comments section—which you shouldn’t be doing until you’ve read this whole piece!—”there are tons of grimoires and spell books out there that say you can use magick to obtain wealth and prosperity! Are we to assume all of these are blinds or red herrings?”

Of course not! I’m not suggesting magick can’t be used to obtain money. In fact, it very much can be used for that purpose, and it absolutely should be used for such when you have need of it. My patrons and spirits have brought me money when necessary on countless occasions. (I’m practically a Jupiter wizard, as that is the force I tend to invoke in times of need over any other.) But, what my patrons and spirits cannot do is maintain the money for me once it arrives. That would be my job—and it’s simply not my area of expertise.

For the most part, my spirits bring me what I need in a given situation, and then the cash is gone and I end up pretty much where I started. (Even the Book of Abramelin, which famously includes a spell for a purse that will produce gold every single day, assures us the money is faery gold and any left unspent will vanish at dusk. In other words—you only get what you need to spend and the rest goes away.) Every time, and I mean absolutely every time I have become better-off financially than I was previously, it is because I was doing some kind of work (magical or otherwise) to change my station in life, not to simply get a hold of cash. I have to invoke better income opportunities, and I have to have some ability to take advantage of those opportunities.

Are there rich occultists out there? Are there people who have used magick to become well-off? Yes there are—but they all share one thing in common: they are proficient in both magick and finance. Unlike the skeptics, they know how money actually works, so they are smart enough to use the magick to obtain money and/or new business opportunities and they have the know-how to maintain that money and make it grow. But when you call out an occultist who doesn’t work that way as a “fake” or “failure” because they don’t have money, you are merely proving your own ignorance on both subjects.

So, in summary, you can indeed use magick to obtain money and increase your general prosperity. However, even if you know the secret to turning lead into gold, you’re never going to be “rich” unless you know what to do with that gold once you have it. And since most occultists are not financiers, then you’re simply not going to find a lot of rich occultists. It doesn’t mean their magick doesn’t work, nor that their patrons and spirits aren’t taking care of them. It simply means they are focused on other subjects, and have accepted some amount of personal poverty for themselves in order to study what they love. And, yes, they do have to charge for their services, and sometimes the community has to come together to help them in times of need. This has been the case for shamans for thousands of years, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

Before I go, I’d like to point out that this post isn’t the first time money, prosperity, and magick have been discussed on this blog. Back when this was still Donald Michael Kraig’s soapbox, he tackled the issue twice: First in this 2010 post called “Pie and Poverty,” and then again in this 2012 post called, “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” (which I swear I didn’t know when I created the title for this post!). Each of these approaches the subject from a slightly different perspective, and are well worth the read!

To your prosperity, brothers and sisters! May your spirits always provide what you need.

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

Manifest Love, Health, and Money using the Crystal Intentions Oracle

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Margaret Ann Lembo, author of Chakra Awakening; The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals, and Stones; Essential Guide to Aromatherapy and Vibrational Healing, and the new Crystal Intentions Oracle.

The use of color is a powerful tool for bringing balance into our lives. Every one of us has the full spectrum of light—the seven colors of the rainbow—that are part of the auric field of the body. The auric field stores the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies. The connection with color and the chakras are one of the reasons we are attracted to using crystals for mindfulness and manifestation.

In the Crystal Intentions Oracle, you will find 42 two-sided cards with an intention, a photo of a crystal, and positive thoughts. This deck is a perfect one for those working with the principles of the Law of Attraction. Working with the color-coded cards is beneficial when you are determined to live a life of purpose and passion. It is a tool to become aware of the belief systems stored within your consciousness. Let them help you gain clarity on what needs to be done to create the life of your dreams.

Let’s say you want to know how you can improve your friendships or relationships. Start by formulating a question. Try this question: “What do I need to do to manifest better friends and healthier relationships?” Shuffle the deck with focus with the question in your heart and mind. Pick a card, any card. Look at the photo of the crystal and notice the intention on the top of the card. Take a moment to contemplate how the information provided relates to your life. Say the crystal affirmation on the other side. Repeat it with the intention to replace negative thought-forms with positive thought-forms.

Every time you look at or touch the card, it puts your attention on why you are working with that card, and reaffirms what you are creating in your life.

Repeat this process for health and money. Doing so you will gain a better awareness and have clarity. To establish a focus on health you can ask a question like this: “How can I improve my health?” For the intention of creating more income and financial well-being, you might ask the question, “What should I focus on or what can I do to make more money and have abundance in my life?”

Contemplate how the card you chose applies to your life or your specific question. Take the time to do some journaling or meditation with the card. Use the chosen card as a focal point for finding answers in your dreams.

Try this: place the chosen card on your nightstand with the intention that you want to have more understanding either in the dreamtime or when you awaken. Grab your journal and write about anything you remember. Eventually the pieces of the puzzle with fall together and you will realize the positive thoughts to use and the action needed to achieve your goals. Remember to utilize on the affirmation side of the cards to integrate the information.

Our thanks to Margaret Ann for her guest post! For more from Margaret Ann Lembo, read her article, “16 Aroma-Energetic Wellness Tips.”

Developing Psychic Skills

Tarot Interactions by Deborah Lipp

Many people want to improve their psychic skills when reading the cards. Deborah Lipp provides an exercise that helps clear the way for your psychic voice to emerge.

Exercise: Speed Reading

Do this exercise with a companion as your querent. If you must work alone, speak out loud, as if to a querent. You can record your voice for noting in your journal later.
 Take a series of deep, calming breaths. Make sure you feel centered before you begin.
Shuffle or mix your cards, and allow the process of shuffling to continue centering you.
Lay down the first card and immediately begin speaking. Don’t let yourself pause for a breath. Say whatever comes to mind, whatever you remember about the card. Spend no more than ten to fifteen seconds on the card.
Lay down he next card on top of, or next to, the first card. Remember, don’t stop to think, just keep talking.
After you have laid down five to seven cards, put the deck down.
Ask your querent what worked and what didn’t. Make notes in your journal.
Repeat this exercise several times. Use it anytime you psychically clogged up to reconnect to a sense of spontaneity.

Court Card Tip

The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot by Johannes Fieberg & Evelin Burger

Fieberg and Burger present lots of interesting tips in their book, many of which can apply to decks other than the Rider-Waite-Smith. For example, they share this:

A good way of achieving independence in interpreting the cards within a short space of time is to concentrate on the four suits. And when we regard the court cards as personalities that helps us to understand these four elements more fully.

Each court card represents an ideal type, a person who has complete and sovereign command over the element in questions.

The individual court figures within a suit display specific character traits.

The Queen: impulsive, an initiator, an investigator (water type)

The King: thorough, intensive, consolidating (fire type)

The Knight: magnifying, expanding, a drawer of consequences (air type)

The Page: makes something tangible out of or with the element in question (earth type)

Nessie: A Supernatural Monster

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Nick Redfern, author of Chupacabra Road Trip and the new Nessie.

The Loch Ness Monster: almost everyone has heard of it. More than a few say they have seen it. And many claim to have photographed or filmed it. But, what is it? Or, perhaps, more correctly, what are they? The answers are as controversial as the mystery itself. Loch Ness is a huge body of water situated along Scotland’s Great Glen Fault, and is 22.5 miles long and 744-feet deep. Reports of strange creatures within the dark waters of the ancient loch date back to the year 565. And, although sightings of the monsters are rare, the enigmatic beasts show no signs of going away anytime soon.

The most popular theory for the Nessies is that they are plesiosaurs, marine reptiles that became extinct tens of millions of years ago. Or didn’t. Giant eels have been offered up as candidates, too. As have catfish, sturgeon, and even oversized salamanders. There is, however, one particularly intriguing theory that doesn’t often get the publicity it deserves. Namely, that the monsters of Loch Ness are not flesh-and-blood animals, but supernatural creatures.

In support of the theory that the Nessies may have paranormal origins is the fact that reports of the appearances of the monsters vary widely and wildly. While many witnesses report seeing a plesiosaur-like long neck and humped back, others claim the beasts they saw had no neck at all. Tales of huge, frog-like animals are on record. As are things described as tusked monsters, as alligator-like, and even as huge worms. Some state that the Nessies have flippers. Others swear they saw feet. This odd state of affairs has given rise to the theory that the Nessies are nothing less than supernatural shapeshifters—monstrous things that have the ability to change their physical appearance at will.

It’s important to note that Loch Ness has been the site of numerous other mysterious activity and phenomena, including UFO sightings, ghostly encounters, confrontations with the menacing Men in Black, and dark rites and rituals undertaken by the world’s most infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley. In other words, what we have is an ancient, huge body of water that is an absolute magnet for infernal, supernatural activity—with the Nessies leading the paranormal pack.

Yes, there are monsters in Loch Ness. But, they’re not the animals that many believe them to be, or even want them to be. They are far, far worse…

Our thanks to Nick for his guest post! For more from Nick Redfern, read his article, “3 Theories to Explain the Loch Ness Monster.”

This Samhain, Visit the Cemetery and Make a Gravestone Rubbing to Honor Your Ancestors

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Natalie Zaman, author of Magical Destinations of the Northeast.

One of my favorite sections of Magical Destinations of the Northeast is Magical Monuments. I’ve always loved cemeteries. They’re museums and gardens, historical records and ancestor altars on a grand scale. If you know where your ancestors are buried and can visit their last resting places you can make a special memento to honor them at Samhain (and all year round).

Gravestone rubbings are easy to make and require only a few materials. You’ll need:

Heavy paper on a roll, like butcher or mailing paper
Crayons (The fat ones are best or, fun this, make your own unique wax cakes by melting unwrapped crayon stubs in cupcake baking cups.)
Masking tape
Soft, wide paintbrush
Water only-dampened sponge
Soft cloth
Rubber bands or poster tube

Know Before You Go

Some cemeteries don’t allow gravestone rubbing. If you have any doubts, check with the cemetery office about any restrictions and rules. If the cemetery is on private property, you’ll need to get permission before going in. Never work with a gravestone that’s crumbling, damaged, or has lichens on it. Applying pressure to these stones may break them. Remember, rubbing gravestones is an outdoor activity, so dress for the weather. Don’t forget a hat, sunscreen, bug repellent, and a bottle of water—and bring a buddy. It’s always safer to travel in groups, and besides, it’s more fun.

Make A Good Impression

Dust off the stone with your paintbrush to remove any dirt and small rocks. Use the damp sponge to remove bird droppings, then dry the stone off with soft cloth. Never scrape a stone!
Unroll enough paper to cover the stone, plus enough to wrap around the edges to the back.
Center the paper over the stone, then use the masking tape to secure it.
Hold your crayon horizontally, and then firmly but gently rub it across the paper in the same direction, being careful not to press too hard. Take your time to go over the area as many times as you need to until all of the words and images are clearly visible.
When you’re finished, make sure to remove all the tape from the stone.
Remember to record names, dates, location, and the date the rubbing was made on the back of your paper before rolling it up.

Your gravestone rubbings are direct descendants of your ancestors’ last resting places, and so are direct connections to them. Bless them according to your tradition and place them on your ancestor altar or in a place of honor in your home. Ancestors are family, but they can also be friends and those we consider heroes—and cemeteries where they rest can be found in every state. Visit www.findagrave.com before you travel to discover the famous and familial who have passed beyond the veil.

Natalie Zaman making a grave rubbing of Harry Houdini’s grave

 

Our thanks to Natalie for her guest post! For more from Natalie Zaman, read her article, “13 Sites to Celebrate Samhain in the Northeast USA.”

The Biggest Challenge

Psychic Tarot by Nancy Antenucci and Melanie Howard

In Psychic Tarot, Antenucci and Howard tell us that integrating the wisdom from a reading is the biggest challenge of divination. They say it is the most challenging because it requires change (breaking patterns and forming new habits)…we humans aren’t great at that. Here is their advice for facilitating integration:

In truth, you may begin to lose some of the insights you were given almost as soon as the reading is over. Shortly after a reading, capture the essence of what initially rang true for you. First impressions are always important. What surprised you? Might you feel, think, or act differently with these new perspectives?

Let the reading linger for the next forty-eight hours. Do not make any life decisions based on the reading during this time. There may be unconscious shifts, so pay attention to dreams, new ideas, surplus energy, or new ways of perceiving life.

After the forty-eight hour incubation period, see if there is still one truth that “sparkles” on its own. Is there one action you could commit to based on this wisdom? What one truth is ready to surface on a more conscious level? How might you incorporate this sacred information to nourish your life?

Author Michael Newton Has Passed

Today we sadly mark the passing of author Dr. Michael Newton, who authored several bestselling books, including Destiny of Souls, Journey of Souls, Destiny of Souls, Life Between Lives, and Destiny of Souls, Memories of the Afterlife. His knowledge will live on in his books, through his foundation (the Newton Institute for Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy), and for the countless people he enlightened through his work.

Additional information can be found here.