Category Archives: Using Tools

What is the Role of Tools in a Spiritual Life?

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Good question.  Most people would assume, based on some internalized, globalized sense that spiritual means anti-material, or vows of poverty based on a Judeo-Christian model, that things have no place in a spiritual life. (The place of the material is not universal for all spiritual beliefs, so it could vary.)  So what is, then the purpose of spiritual tools?  And just what makes a tool a tool for spiritual purposes?

When and if you embrace a belief that there is a world beyond the seen, physical world, that there are forces and things that seemingly defy gravity and other scientific explanations, you become enthralled with the seduction of possibility.   This is sort of how  many  embraced  the idea of the Law of Attraction, the big premise of the movie “The Secret”, that many of the things we wanted and desired were truly possible, if you could activate your mind to do that.  Was it as big of a secret? No, but the movie did bring out how so few of us can think like that.  Of course, for many of us who have been studying things like this for years, we all said to ourselves “but there is more to manifestation then that.” (Mostly, it is the ways we contradict and undermine what we want to manifest, but that is for another day.) Possibility is a great place to generate visions, but it is not the substance of sustaining them or the getting them to manifest.  And, that is where tools come in, as aids in spiritual practice.

Spiritual tools either reflect a sacred relationship by illustrating a dynamic of the relationship in symbolic form, or help us imagine something we want or desire in aiding in the formation of goal intent, or in the directing of the energy for that intent.  They can also be aids in those purposes, in helping us to get to the state of mind required for this, or to help us contact to our spiritual selves. From these definitions, a lot of things can fall into the categories of spiritual tools.

Depending on the tradition, some of us have unique items in our spiritual tool box.  We may have figurines of animals or fur or feathers, to help us connect to the animal and its spirit.  Some of us may have collections of art on cards, to form a visual oracle, such as tarot, or some of the modern oracle decks featuring crystals, mythological creatures, such as dragons, or fractal art. We may have plant materials we burn or hold or use in some talisman fashion, or glass marbles, or crystals and gemstones themselves.  We may make or buy wands, or use double edged knives called athames.  We may use candles, incense sticks, or play instruments such as drums or singing bowls.  We may even use our own voices and chant, or follow or listen to a CD with music to help enhance the mood.

At any rate the tools do not take the place of the spiritual work, or make the relationships or the magic. We do.  While the tools do not define our magic, it can certainly help us in the process of making changes occur in alignment with our wills and divine will.  So, what is a tool in your Spiritual Life, and why?

 

 

JK4EF23UGH7M

What Makes You Tick?

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One of the things I find myself talking to people about is identifying what makes them tick.  Getting to where we want to go or be in life means clarity, and that clarity can take a lot of work, time and emotional energy.  We can use the tarot to identify in more detail the depths of what motivates us and what makes us tick.  Once we know what kinds of issues we are looking at, we can then take a step back and ask in our divination what the solutions may be.

Now, tarot can be a fairly complex system to learn, but it is not impossible with the right attitude and approach.  My Introduction to Tarot course breaks down the task of learning the cards by learning the patterns and trends of the deck, with keywords and symbols.  We also do some fun practical stuff as well.  It is a way to learn to know the tarot, not an exercise in memorization of keywords for the cards,  or some other method like that.  I have found that reading the cards with a book right next to you can be helpful, for a little while.  Eventually, it will hold you back.  To truly work with Tarot, you need to wonder what the symbols are trying to tell you, what they represent for YOU.  Because in this set of symbols are choices that have been made.  Why this card and not another?  What does that card tell me?  What impression does that picture give me?  Is there some reason I am picking that symbol?  Does the meaning of the card shift relative to other cards chosen? (And so forth if you are reading for someone else.)

Because once you get at what the card means, and its meaning for you, or your client,  the wonder of symbolic clarity and meaning play out, challenging your preconceived ideas.  Symbols have the ability to convey meaning at many levels simultaneously.  Ask anyone who has engaged in the process of vision boarding for goal setting or achievement.  What and how the pictures come to mean is just as much a process of clarity as any other exercise.

So, how do you sort it out?  With a card deck? Tarot?  You may want to consider learning tarot.  I have a course I have developed online that can help you learn.  It is more than learning about the cards. It is about engaging with symbols. You can check it out here.

Change takes Action…applying Magick and Spiritual Tools to Your Processes

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Last Wednesday, having a bite to eat with Shauna Harper and Susan Kelly Easton, both former chapter directors with Enterprising Moms (now a part of Entrepreneurial Moms International), one of the things we discussed was how some of the card decks that I carry in my store are becoming a part of the mainstream corporate world. The card decks and affirmation work I am talking about is the work of Louise Hay. She was a pioneer in using affirmations for not only the improvement of self esteem, but also for healing the body, and in more recently, with her fight with cancer. I pointed out to them that her work has been around since at least the eighties, and really peaked in the nineties.  While, I know that her work has been around that long, but the use of these tools would have seemed “not corporate” not too long ago, and may I say, a little “woo woo.”   Using oracle decks, for more than just divination has now long been established as a reasonable use of a deck.  The decks feature great art, the write ups in the booklets or books included are quite informative, and the use of these in team building is very light and great way to break the ice in a non-threatening way, by highlighting the power of words as affirmations.  It started with Louise Hay’s work, and goes on with others now.

Why?

Because with some of the refinements of more recent times, affirmations work. In fact, Shauna developed affirmation magnets with her company Colour The Universe Inc., and learned a whole lot about attraction, channeling her creativity into the ability to  make a product and make good money doing it. Susan Kelly Easton still runs her business Competitive Edge Career Services, and now has been scooped up by Fortis BC locally as a regional human resources manager. Still, what we are talking about are ordinary people who are and have used affirmations in both connecting to people who can build their businesses, and themselves.

In my work, affirmations, or your self talk in a positive way, has been helping me transition my knowledge and experience of healing and magick into building this business. There are a lot of things I can do, but the truth is, if I have a low confidence day in my business, I not only have fewer customers, I also have a harder time undoing it. I know full well when I do a reiki session with someone, there is a healing result. (I feel it and they usually tell me.) I know how to use the money manifestation box in the store to get work done, but I can do money magick till the cows come home and undo all of it with a lack of confidence, which can create inertia, which is a physics term for inaction.

I once talked to a card reader years ago who set up an office with no business plan. She followed what her intuition told her. (For what it is worth, she had a plan, but it was in her mind. She also introduced me to feng shui and what its general teachings are, and I actually use it still.) And that works if you have experience and skills. Truth is that most of us are good at doing the services, but there is a whole new level involved in running it as a business. There was a tried and true method of ‘going pro’. But, as time has gone for me, and other aspects of the business are challenging me in ways that I need to grow.  So, while I do my manifestation work with my spell candles, I get cracking on learning more about business, and what I can do to make this work. I can serve you better if I can learn to bridge the so called divide. What I am finding though is that the divide is not that big, and manifesting a dream takes planning, skill, experience and knowledge. (Thanks ladies for inspiring me with your work on Enterprising Moms Network.)

People perform better when they are valued and validated. Human Resources people like Susan know that. And both of them know that clarity makes visability and change happen. So, are you of the belief that there is no connection between mundane and spiritual ideas, or is it just psychology in action? Because at the time Louise Hay was doing her practial work with affirmations, there was not yet a lot of experience to back up the idea that belief affects performance, except maybe in something like sports. And if real change is what you want, you may need to start with what you tell yourself. Today Louise Hay’s cards are being used in “team building” and other corporate offices to set a stage for developing a positive work environment, but in the terms I use, team building is creating an positive group egrore or group energy field and that raises their collective vibrations, which attracts business and customers. So, are we finally seeing the wisdom in acknowledging that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, even in our worklives? Finally? Great. So shifting in 2012 should be that much easier.

Nameste.

 

Psychic Self Defense

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This weekend, I will be teaching the first psychic self defense class that I have been able to offer in my hometown since I started my business.  I originally wrote the curriculum to cover most of what I learned, and from teaching the course, I have found that in doing so, people start to repair the energetic breaches in their energy field.  However, not having the space locally to teach, and trying a number of options to do that, when this opportunity came up, I seized it.  I have my own classroom space for small group teaching, and I will be adding to the comfort as time goes on.

I also find myself trying to explain what it is, and had one interested party ask for a flyer or brochure.  Well, in the next round of courses I offer, I will include that.

Getting the storefront space at 533 Dominion St, Prince George, BC,  has meant opportunity for me to expand and follow my calling to teach and share what I have learned, and to develop a space for others to do the same.  It is hard to find affordable space to do this kind of thing in Prince George, and I know that while I keep working on stocking items for spiritual practice, most of the time, it is getting people together to talk and share about what they know or not know that is the real gem.  I am finding myself so busy, I need to discipline myself to stop; and rest.  I am so pumped about the workshops.

Self-care is a basic thing that is involved in the basics of psychic self defense.  If you are not in tune with yourself, getting beyond your own energy can create opportunities for attack, or just plain drains.  That, and while I mentioned being excited earlier to the point where I am doing so much, I also find myself learning and adding material to the course I have written.  I will likely revised the student reading material, as it seems like a lot.  But there is so much out there about the need to improve the energy around you, from so many culture and metaphysical understandings, that I really felt that a course like this was needed.  And, so I offered it, and may offer it again this calendar year.  I am not sure when I will offer it again, but if you did have to pass on it this time, contact me.

We live in society where people have learned to exploit others energetically, believing it to be appropriate. This course will help you stop becoming a victim of energetic exploitation. We will also connect these techniques to modern psychology, sociology, and health and wellbeing, so that psychic hygiene is understood as a necessity of the modern age. This is not the same as restoring “personal power”, or “gaining empowerment through awareness.”

So what does all that mean? I understand that both an ethic of the use of energy, as well as the techniques, are necessary.  We live within and in a social ecosystem.  Depending upon a person’s personal understanding, that may include the universe as well.  It is not enough to just look at tactics that involve attacking back, or advocating just empowerment.  It is possible to gain the use of power, but a person’s motives may not necessarily mean that they are less exploitive, or they may be still justifying their boundaries.  An example of this is the idea that one needs to maintain a boundary, and in their relationships, they maintain it with abruptness and rigidness, and communicate the said boundary in such a way that is mean spirited. In the beginning, people do this with zeal, and usually, their connections to others suffer.  Rebalancing of those connections is necessary.  Anything that is maintained with a “my way or the highway” approach is by definition exploitive somewhere.

I had a conflict with a woman in the community who basically was an aggressive bully to me, telling me how things we’re going to be, based on her boundaries.  I knew that her ego was fragile, so those boundaries were equally fragile, and she would call anyone who intimidated her attempting to put her down. She was unable to look at her own stuff, and acknowledge how her behaviour affected others, and blamed others for her feelings, and this built on the “one up”, af approach to how she dealt with other women…vicious and sarcastic, and soft voiced.  Still mean, no matter how nice she presents.  I told her very nicely, and precicely, how I felt when she said what she said the way she said it, after a few years of hearing it repeated.  We tried socializing, but it just irritated me how she did not seem to get how her opinion did not require everyone to agree with her Her sense of things is that friends co-sign each other  from loyalty.   Apparently, blunt is not allowed, and confronting her on how her behaviour towards me is not allowed in her world.  I was rude, according to her.

I stood my boundary, and did it as nicely as I could.   No, I was not presenting her with a reflection of her behaviour is sunshine.  She was hostile, jealous, and did tell me how to have a house party, in my own home. And, I was never going to agree with her about most things, as I have my own opinion, and own it.

We are not friends anymore.  At the time I connected up with her, I assessed her as someone unable to handle that kind of honesty that I live my personal life by.  So, when the conflict happened, and I spoke up with as much tact and diplomacy I could muster, cause I was avoiding her and her family, mostly because I felt so irritated by the constant judging, putdowns, and self-rightetousness about all kinds of health and environmental issues, that I got to the point that honesty was required.  Am I better off? Yes.  In the long run, tolerating that subtle kind of teardown over and over again in my life is not worth it, even when I know the other person is not psychologically strong enough for the truth.

So, take a look at the vampires in your life, or the people that when you in contact, you feel used around, and decide for yourself.  Sure, not every relationship will work out, but maybe they should not.

Peace and Blessings,

Char