Saturday 30 June 2007

Post No. 011 - Cross-training , persistence, priorities


There is a thing in sport called cross training: if you’ll pardon my non-expert explanation, the idea is you use a training method that is different to the activity you are training for. This helps with things like staying fresh, and preventing muscles settling into a comfortable routine and thus slowing their development.

I consider it possible to take this idea, and apply it to psychic and spiritual work.

An important aspect of psychic development is developing psychic strength. Most people find a routine which suits them, and then – in my experience – stick at it for too long. It is worth varying your routine occasionally – for instance, if you mostly use colour visualisation, try using chanting, runic yoga or some other method from time to time.

There’s another aspect to this which is worth learning: mental resilience, or mental toughness, or – if you prefer – simple old fashioned persistence. The media has reports now and again about teams or individuals which don’t give up and come back from near impossible positions to achieve victory. Quite a few people who are trying to develop their psychic abilities or spirituality, and find it all quite frustrating. It is worth thinking about ways to develop self confidence, self belief, self esteem and whatever else is needed to develop persistence. I’ll have a few suggestions on this in the near future: I have to, as I have been under quite a bit of prolonged pressure (due to workload after taking on a small promotion and the workload of someone who left, relatives being ill, and – more recently – myself being ill), and am struggling with exactly this issue.

I will admit I know that I need a holiday, but there’s a few other issues I have to sort out as well – in particular, the priorities I wish to live by.

If I had my dream, I would be living on a block of land and earning my living from writing and various alternative things like massage (my partner also shares the dream of living in a block of land, but not the other dreams). I’m not in a position to do so – I have debts that need to be cleared, including debts that my partner and I were caught with when she had to give up work owing to illness. So ... I have to resolve some lifestyle issues, including ways of living my dreams now (see my earlier post on that topic; I suspect that the Grove of Gyhldeptis will be a key part of this).

When I have done so, I will have developed my persistence and strength.
The photo I took while crusing on the Gippsland Lakes in eastern Victoria: it is a sunset in the Bunga Arm.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
 

Post No. 010 - Six degrees of psychic separation


There have been a few tests of this concept (which I think you can find explained at Wikipedia [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation]). In my words, the idea is that you know someone, who knows someone else, who knows someone else, etc until you can get to almost anyone in the world. The way this has been tested (that I have heard of) is by asking a person in one country to get a parcel to someone else in another country. I think when it has been tried, a reasonably significant percentage of the parcels have turned up

I consider that a similar principle applies to psychic interconnectedness: we are all connected, by things like past life links (see my workshop notes) and the fact that someone we are connected to is connected to someone else who is connected to someone else, etc; so whatever energy we radiate out will have an indirect influence on others – even world leaders.

To turn that round, if you don’t like something a world or national leader is doing, you have the possibility of having an influence – small though it may be – on that person. In particular, I consider that if you aren’t prepared to change your ways of living and behaviour (remember the saying [I think by Gandhi] “be the change you want to see”?) to eradicate from yourself and your life whatever it is you don’t want to see, you are behaving with a serious degree of hypocrisy and do not deserve to see any improvement. To use an example, if you cheat on your taxes, you have no right to expect your leaders to be beyond corruption – and, in fact, your energy will contribute to that happening.

This sort of effect is most often discussed in terms of lightening people’s lives having a positive effect on the world - i.e., radiate peace, love and joy and eventually that will come back to you as others are lifted by your peace, love and joy and affect others who then also start to radiate peace, love and joy. I consider the same applies to taking a compassionate, responsible and humanitarian attitude to world events. So ... if you want world leaders to be more honest when discussing motives for wars, be more honest yourself and gently encourage others to do likewise.

I consider it is possible to use ritual work to enhance this effect, and plan one day to start a group with that aim (to be called the “Grove of Gyhldeptis” – watch for more news).
This post's photo was taken just south of Frankston, Victoria, and is actually of the western sky after a storm has passed through, near sunset.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr 

Post No. 009 - Changing paths


The family I raised by were what I call “nominal Anglicans”. When asked, they said they were Anglicans, but they weren’t church goers. I had been baptised, and was taken to Sunday School – and that was where things started to go off course. Before I get into how things went of course, I would like to say I consider children should be raised by their parents to be capable of making independent, informed decisions as adults – including about politics, and also religion. (They also should be properly informed about sexuality, so they can be fulfilled in that area of life whatever their sexual preference – or gender identity – is, but sexuality is more case of realising what one inherently is, rather than making a decision to be straight or otherwise. Similarly for gender identity – see _ if you don’t understand these terms.) Being able to attend Sunday School actually meant I was informed about this belief system, and thus was better placed to make a decision about it. I would like to see comparative religious studies in schools for exactly that reason: so these young people are at least partly informed and thus better able to make a decision about a key part of their life, whether that decision is to follow a particular faith (not necessarily Christian), be agnostic or be atheist. (I also have to say I consider advocates for atheism to be as religious in their zeal for their belief system as some historical religious zealots.)

To return to Sunday Schools. I began to lose my faith in Christianity (not just the Anglican sect of Christianity) when my teachers told me animals don’t have souls. I could relate to my family’s pet (usually a cat, although we also had budgies) as having as much personality as any human round the place – and could see that in the wild animals (mostly birds) about us as well (and not always a likeable personality, just as the humans didn’t necessarily have a likeable personality). I spent my preschool and primary school years in an eastern Melbourne suburb, then called Syndal and a few decades ago subsumed into Glen Waverley (although the railway station is still called Syndal). At the bottom of the hill we lived on was a State forest, long since gone for more houses. In that forest were all sorts of fascinating interactions with nature – even things like finding a shed snake skin. The world of nature was a fascinating place; to say it had no soul anywhere in it was a catastrophic blow to my faith. I should probably thank the Sunday School teacher who took such a hard line: that led to me doing some of my first major, independent thinking. The conclusions from this independent thinking were that Christianity was not such a wonderful thing after all.

I still maintained some contact with the church, largely at the urging of my parents, but I also had a natural drive towards rituals. To maintain the Christian theme, my final loss of faith with Christianity was over “Sunday Christians”: people who would attend Church on Sundays for mass, preach love and forgiveness then, and later stab you in the back or behave in a most unchristianlike fashion during the week (especially at work).

To have such hypocrites trying to play the self-appointed role of uncle or aunt to me was utterly offensive and unacceptable to me. It was like being religiously mauled by a slimeball (and I wish to make clear I have NOT suffered any physical abuse from any religious official). It was the final straw.

A few years before I reached that decision, as a young teenager, I had come into contact with Buddhism (through the VERY controversial author Lobsang Rampa, who has a few obvious flaws such as sexism, but was definitely responsible for changing the sort of person I am [I wrote to tell Rampa that, but unfortunately my letter reached his widow as he had died). The personal responsibility emphasised by that faith appealed to me very strongly after the double standards exhibited by the “Sunday Christians”, although the particular author I read actually encouraged people to live in the faith they were born into. Strengthened by my earlier thinking about the souls of animals (i.e., don’t take anything or anyone as – if you’ll pardon the pun – gospel: do your own thinking), I thought about living the faith I believed or the faith I was given by others, and quickly realised I was being far more honest if I was true to my own beliefs rather than living a devotional lie.

In the end, although I had been confirmed as an Anglican, it was an easy decision to make. I didn’t sing about it from the roof tops (apart from anything else, the abysmal quality of my singing would led to an earlier implementation of noise pollution legislation [not in force at that time] so I could be removed from the rooftops), but it was something those close to me knew about. I had made a fair dinkum go at being Christian – even going to confession (yes, that’s not only a Roman Catholic thing; I did find the presumption that I would be obsessed with or having problems with sex quite laughable), and it wasn’t me.

I would spend the next three decades, more or less, with Buddhism as my primary faith. I combined this with many other paths – Qabbalah, shamanism, spiritualism, New Age, etc. Then in 2003 I attended the National Queer Spirituality Conference in Adelaide, South Australia. While there, I came across the Goddess and Wicca in a way that I hadn’t previously. After around ten years of doing full moon circles, it felt like “home”.

I spent the next few years learning a great deal about Wicca (I was more interested in honouring the cycles of the seasons than spells, so I usually described myself as Wiccan rather than a witch). During the course of that learning, I came across Druidry (or Druidism, if you prefer). It wasn’t an instant sense of recognition, but I gradually came to realise it had a better “fit” for me than Wicca. I now identify as a “Druid in training” (a phrase suggested by Jeff Lilly at his excellent “Druid Journal” blog at http://druidjournal.net/).

My motivations for these changes have still been positive, but the negative behaviour of others has also had an influence, unfortunately. After attending the NQSC, I had the good fortune to be a part of a talented and dedicated group of people who organised a Victorian Queer Spirituality Conference; in the course of that, I came across people who made concrete my concerns about Buddhism in the West. Those concerns are people who apply Buddhism as a form of “head knowledge”, rather than applying it to change themself or their life. I wish to make it very clear that this does NOT apply to those who actually participated in the Conference, who included some brilliant, dedicated, genuine adherents of Buddhism. During this time, I also experienced an example of poor management of problems within a tradition by overseas leadership of a tradition, which was very discouraging to myself and to others.

As a final point in this blog, I would like to say that the Buddhist saying “being yourself the example, do only good” is relevant to a lot of things we do in life. Others will learn from what you do in your paths: be mindful of that.
This post's photo is on Westernport Bay, Victoria, taken during the seven years I lived on a small yacht.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
Tags: Buddhism, Druid, energy work, New Age, past lives, Qabbalah, regression, rituals, shamanism, spiritualism
First published: 30th June, 2007 

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Post No. 008 - Corrected Druid Invocation/Devocation



Oops - I got it wrong. I had a go at writing a Druid Invocation and Devocation, and then tried to translate it into Cyraeg (Welsh). I asked, in that blog, for a better translation if anyone had one, and have now come across one as a result of a post on the excellent Druid Journal blog (at http://druidjournal.net/). That article referred to the Druid elements of calas, gwyar and nwyfre. Through an Internet search I found an article at http://www.aoda.org/articles/elements.htm which explains those as being Welsh words for elements that - more or less - correspond to what I was seeking to portray as earth, sea and sky. So ..... I have rewritten the Welsh version of my Druid Invocation and Deevocation: here they are (the English versions remain the same - see A First Attempt at a Druid Invocation and Devocati...).

This post's photo was taken near Lancefield one wintry morning a few years ago.
Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Tags: Druid, rituals
First published: 26th June, 2007

INVOCATION


Calas, calas, cryfder o calas
carreg a gweryd, planhigyn a ysbrigyn, coblyn a twrch daear,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.

Gwyar, gwyar, ynni o gwyar,
ffrwd a bae, pysgod a riff, môr-forwyn a morfil,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.

Nwyfre, nwyfre, nerth o nwyfre,
cwmwl a seren, glaw a haul, eryr a draig,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.



DEVOCATION


Calas, calas, cryfder o calas
carreg a gweryd, planhigyn a ysbrigyn, coblyn a twrch daear,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a benditio ein cryfder ni a byd.

Gwyar, gwyar, ynni o gwyar,
ffrwd a bae, pysgod a riff, môr-forwyn a morfil,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a benditio ein cryfder ni a byd.

Nwyfre, nwyfre, nerth o nwyfre,
cwmwl a seren, glaw a haul, eryr a draig,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a benditio ein cryfder ni a byd. 


Sunday 17 June 2007

Post No. 007 - Psychic attack [Content warning], energy, protection and physical and non-physical responsibility



I am quite aware that much of my blog will tend to come over as a bit “fluffy bunny”: so be it. The area that I probably will come across least of all as “fluffy bunny” is psychic attack.

I believe – no, I KNOW psychic attack is real, and is something one should – in the interests of being a responsible adult - be prepared to consider, just as responsible adults are aware of the risks of physical assaults and act appropriately to prevent such from happening.

In the case of physical attacks, such measures may include avoiding places where one is at risk of such assaults (e.g., war zones, areas where riots are taking place, or groups showing aggressive behaviour), taking self defence lessons (don’t get overconfident!), commonplace security measures such as locking doors and windows at night and car doors (when driving in cities or towns), and reducing relevant karma that one may have in that area (oops – that last one just slipped in: have a look at my posts on “Workshop on Past Lives”).

In the case of psychic attack, such measures may include avoiding places where one may be at risk of such assault (e.g., wherever one’s enemies are, or areas with negative [read: disharmonious to YOU] energies, learning about psychic self defence, commonplace security measures such as closing one’s aura and flaming and “asking” (including prayer, if that is what you feel most comfortable with) for protection, and reducing relevant karma that one may have in that area (oops – that last one just slipped in: have a look at my posts on “Workshop on Past Lives”).

Hmm. A few overlaps there.

Now, let’s take a step back and look at a few basic concepts

In essence, everything can be considered to be energy. The old example of Einstein’s E = MC2 equation often gets trotted out to illustrate this, but that’s only looking at physical energy; a number of mythologies describe the spiritual foundation and sustenance of the physical world. Getting back to the point of this post, the world has a host of living aspects that our physical senses do not necessarily show us. If unguarded, we’re open to the influences of this energy.

You could consider it similar to the influences of food: when we look at it, our senses may tell us the food is appetising, but we can’t see the vitamins and minerals (or the bacteria, if it hasn’t been cooked and handled safely). Some energies will sustain and nourish us, others may not agree with us – and, just as that varies with food (some people have problems after eating “hot” [spicy] food, whereas others find it wonderful), so too does it with energy. To illustrate that with an analogy which is closer to the world of energy, some people like the colour green, others don’t – and that may depend on the shade of green being discussed.

Also, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. If I recall correctly, at least some of the British explorer Scott’s companions (and possibly Scott) suffered from the effects of hypervitaminosis A, which is too much vitamin A (from eating the livers of their sled dogs). We need vitamin A: the word vitamin itself has references to life (from the Latin vita, meaning life), but it is possible to have too much.

As a further example of this idea, a friend of mine from some time ago told me of a period in her life when she was under a great deal of stress. Her daughter suggested she try chamomile tea: she did, found she was more relaxed - and found that she liked the taste so much she drank quite a bit of this nice tasting tea. She also found she was having trouble staying awake, and couldn’t understand why until her daughter explained that chamomile tea helped people sleep. In an energetic sense, as an example one may choose to meditate on, say, green because you find it relaxing: but if you overdo it, you may find this exercise leads to trouble being motivated to take action (while still being pleasant and rewarding/satisfying all the while).

This leads into the idea that “one person’s poison is another’s food”. I like green (dark green – I have a light green T shirt which does nothing much for me when I wear it), blue and purple as colours: my partner dislikes purple, but likes red. If I wear too much red, I can find myself becoming aggressive (or, if it is more maroon, I can build a sense of frustration). If I spend too long in the city without getting out into the bush or onto the water, I find myself getting on edge: I need contact with the wild places for the sake of my psychic health (I could do with some of that now, actually – I’d like to get to the nearby Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve). But other friends of mine get nothing out of going bush, and need the people contact and active social energy of the city.

To some extent, it doesn’t matter whether one is experiencing a problem because of psychic attack, or because of contact with an energy which is disharmonious with oneself (and may be perfectly harmonious for others [there can be adjustments to chakras which can help one to find more energies harmonious, but that’s a topic for some other, future, looong distant post). You still need to exercise a certain amount of responsibility, protect yourself, and build up your psychic strength.

The other VERY important point is that psychic attack is not necessarily malicious or “evil”. One of the strongest examples of psychic attack that I experienced in my early days was due to a friend’s jealousy – I still feel the impacts of jealousy and Tall Poppy Syndrome energies (and, for what it is worth, always based on inaccurate perceptions), and am of the opinion that such energies cause much harm in the world. Another major problem energy is gossip: it does cause actual harm to the victims of that energy. In my experience, a major problem with psychic attack is people who are termed "office psychiopaths" (and I am currently experiencing MAJOR problems with a client with exactly such a person, and has been unprofessional enough for me to be currently considering taking further action); this sort of person is the "deny all personal responsibility" character described in "People of the Lie", an excellent book by M. Scott Peck about evil. In terms of psychic attack, groups who preach intolerance or hatred or are aggressive (I am thinking of groups of drunken yobbos, here) are actively radiating harmful energies.

You may have worked out that you, if you are having some problems, could also be radiating such energies, perhaps? If you have, good – congratulations, well done; if you haven’t, no problems – your skills may lie in other areas. In either case, conducting oneself to avoid doing harm is important. Just as you wouldn’t wander down a street firing a gun, there is a psychic equivalent to that. The Buddhist Eightfold Path is – in my opinion – a pretty reasonable guide to good conduct. For those who haven’t come across this before, the Eightfold Path comes out of Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths:
1. life inevitably involves suffering;
2. desire (including those desires which lead to rebirth) is the cause of suffering;
3. the cessation of desire (in the sense of non-attachment) leads to the end of suffering;
4. the Eightfold Path is the way to the cessation of desire, and that Path involves:
- right views,
- right intention,
- right speech,
- right action,
- right living,
- right effort,
- right mindfulness,
- right concentration.
After that, the interpretations of what is “right views” etc gets a bit muddy ... (in my view).

There are other guides to “rightful conduct” – for instances, I’ve found the following in internet searches around Asatru (and the Odinic Rite):
The Nine Virtues: courage, truth, honour, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, self reliance, industriousness, perseverance
The Nine Charges:
1. To maintain candour and fidelity in love and devotion to the tried friend: though he strike me I will do him no scathe.
2. Never to make wrongsome oath: for great and grim is the reward for the breaking of plighted troth.
3. To deal not hardly with the humble and the lowly.
4. To remember the respect that is due to great age.
5. To suffer no evil to go unremedied and to fight against the enemies of Faith, Folk and Family: my foes I will fight in the field, nor will I stay to be burnt in my house.
6. To succour the friendless but to put no faith in the pledged word of a stranger people.
7. If I hear the fool's word of a drunken man I will strive not: for many a grief and the very death groweth from out such things.
8. To give kind heed to dead men: straw dead, sea dead or sword dead.
9. To abide by the enactments of lawful authority and to bear with courage the decrees of the Norns.
(I disagree with the second part of charge 6, with would seem to me to contribute to insularity and xenophobia; I’ve got some reservations about part of Charge 5 also.)

From the point of view of this post (i.e., psychic attack), the most important thing is to know oneself – don’t have unknown frustration, anger, pain, resentment, etc rattling around in one’s unconscious. Be aware of what one is truly feeling, and then do something constructive about it. That may simply be short term things like physical activity to express anger, or – if it works better for you – meditating, or Tai Chi, or – in the longer term - NLP or other counselling, or personal growth work, or changing one’s life circumstances (e.g., changing a job if it is a source of stress – or, if you need that job (e.g., it may be what is paying the bills and buying the food, and you may not be able to find another job), work out how to cope with that job and it’s demands. You should still take action to prevent yourself projecting energy, but if you are dealing with yourself in a healthy fashion, you are less likely to suffer from any of the problems that go with suppression (e.g., I find if I suppress anger or frustration, I can become quite depressed).

I also keep in mind the Cherokee (I think) story of the two wolves we had inside us, one good, one bad: the one which is strongest is the one we feed most.

Now, before we move onto some techniques, I want to briefly cover:
- the notion of “astral baddies”;
- how to know when one is under psychic attack.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, what are considered to be “astral baddies” are simply entities who are earthbound and experiencing great pain and distress, and the energy being felt is their pain – it is not some malevolently directed attack by a “super evil dude”. One case I heard of was a small boy who had died, found he was invisible, and wound up using psychokinesis to do things like move chairs when people were about to do (as some small boys would like to do). There are, on the other hand (ever hear of the joke about the benefits of the one-handed politician?), people who die who are just as addicted to power, control, sadism and the like when they were dead as when they were alive. Those people are people to be wary of – just as I would recommend being wary of such people in the physical world. Learn how to be assertive, maintain a balanced scepticism, maintain your self respect in any such contact – and practice the techniques I’ll outline.

There are lists of symptoms around for psychic attack, which cover things like feeling out of sorts or unwell, apprehension, not sleeping, los of appetite, acting out of character, etc. It is absolutely VITAL that anything due to actual problems (such as mental problems, chemical imbalances in the blood or spinal fluid, etc) be dealt with by the appropriate professionals. It may well be that a problem is partly psychic, and partly physical. It is also possible that you could be deluding yourself, or being influenced psychically, to assume that something is psychic when it is physical. (Let’s say you died as the result of someone’s actions, wound up earthbound and then found the person you blamed for your death: if you could influence that person to avoid treating a problem by having them think it was psychic when it was physical, would you – or, rather, would someone who was bent on revenge?)

Checking:
1. ask for protection (see the section below on prayer)
2. visualise clear (BPM) light (or positive energy) around you
3. ask for the component of whatever you wish to check is psychic attack be removed from you for a short time.
This effectively relies on you having enough accumulated good karma (or access to “karmic credit”) for your guides (or Higher Self – again, see the section below on prayer) to remove or mask the symptoms for you for a short time. Be wary of kidding yourself (i.e., a placebo effect) or being misled: think about what you’ve done, develop your self awareness, be objective (you’re not trying to prove the existence or otherwise of psychic phenomena: you are checking to honestly find out the best way of dealing with a situation).

So let’s move on to some actual techniques. What I want to cover are:
1. prayer
2. shielding
3. grounding
4. releasing
5. flaming
7. building psychic strength (other sources)
6. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
7. throwing awareness ahead
8. project
clear (BPM) light
9. balance knowing when to fight, and when to withdraw
10. learn assertiveness
11. know thyself
12. be careful about possible links

1. Prayer
Now, in my opinion, there is some form of higher intelligence or force involved in the Universe. I do NOT believe in the concept of a vengeful, male God espoused by some of the Abhrahamic religions; I do think there is something in the Wiccan concepts of Goddess and God (expressing duality), and I think polytheistic religions may well be using multiple deities as personifications of specific energies or principles (anthropomorphism of the energy world, perhaps?). If I was pushed to adopt a definition, however, I’d probably start with that one I found in Stuart Holroyd’s excellent book “Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth” (which is a wonderful example of how to have a healthy scepticism – e.g., consideration of the possibility of telepathic influence of a sitter upon a medium; my copy pub. Corgi 1979 [ISBN 0 552 10997 5], originally pub. W. H. Allen, 1977), which is something like:
“a universal intelligence which grows on love”.

Apart from that, there are the concepts of:
- spiritual guides
- ancestors
- one’s own Higher Self.

Somewhere amongst all that lot there is probably something you would feel comfortable asking for assistance from.

One such prayer I was taught is:
“There is but one power in the Universe, and I am a perfect manifestation of that Power. As such, I will that the boundaries of my aura be strong and healthy, repelling all unwanted energy while remaining open to healing and positive energy.”

Another prayer I sometimes use is:
“ I ask the Forces of Light for maximum constructive protection for myself and all people and things that will influence or be influenced by me thought the coming day [night].”

2. Shielding
This is a fairly simple technique for most people:
- visualise yourself inside an egg of positive colour (typically
clear (BPM)).

The idea is that the visualisation directs healing and strengthening energy to the boundary of your aura, to help the auric “skin”.

There are people who have problems visualising (or make mistakes like visualising the egg away from them, rather than visualising it from the position of being inside the egg). If you are one of these, you may have to physically act out something like painting or polishing the edge of your aura with your hand while you project energy through your hands (probably hand chakras).

It is a very good idea to also ask for help (from one’s guides/Higher Self/concept of Deity) in closing one’s aura.

3. Grounding
The following is from the blog I contribute to at http://www.qabalist.org/ (the blog is at http://qabalist.org/q-blog/).

It is important to be in control of one’s non-physical bodies when doing any form of psychic work (including meditation). One technique to help with this is grounding. Not being grounded can lead to distraction, ineffective work, accumulating negative or excess energy in your aura, being easily influenced or “flighty”, and problems such as headaches or tiredness.

One way ground is to imagine a cord (or several), or something like a tree root, going from the centre of your body (or perhaps the soles of your feet) into the Earth.

4. Releasing
It is possible to have simply too much energy, which can result in problems such as restlessness, trouble sleeping, difficulty coming out of trance, etc.

This a technique where one relaxes, and wills – or allows – energy to drain out of oneself into Mother Earth (for recycling).

5. Flaming
This is an exercise whereby one visualises light and/or heat flushing out one’s aura, or burning out any impurities. You could visualise a small fire or light in the centre of your body radiating out light and/or heat, or a (positive energy) fire starting and growing till it spreads through your aura.

7. Building psychic strength
There are a wide range of psychic exercises for this: I won’t go into that here.

6. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
The following is from the blog I contribute to at http://www.qabalist.org/ (the blog is at http://qabalist.org/q-blog/).

- Face east

- Perform the Qabbalistic cross: stand with arms outstretched, visualise a beam of bright golden-white light coming down from above, passing through your being, and then another beam coming from the right, passing through your arms (forming a large cross [keep in mind that the Cross is a symbol of significance to more than just the Christians!). Then vibrate out “powerfully across the Universe”: “Arteh Malkuth, Ve Geburah Ve Gedulah, Le Olahim, Amen” – which I recall meaning “to the Thee God be the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory”. Some translations I’ve read add “Unto the Ages of Ages”. This is described differently in the links I provide further on in the blog, so I suspect I’ve adapted this to a “non-standard” version: I frequently do, but if it works better for me, I’m not so worried about having done so.

- Using forefinger and middle finger extended together, draw a pentagram in the air, visualising it being created out of golden light as you do so. For this first set of pentagrams, which is for “banishing” (cleansing), begin at the lower left corner, go to the top, then down to the lower right, then up to the left “shoulder” of the pentagram, across horizontally to the right “shoulder”, and then back down to the left corner.

I tried to draw some diagrams of this, but wasn’t able to add them to this post. I’ll work on that!

I tend to think of this in as (and this is probably somewhat old fashioned) of flinging something from the physical or material world to the spiritual.

- After you have drawn the pentagram, touch the centre of it, and sound (you are meant to vibrate this across the [immaterial] universe) Adonai.

The descriptions I will link to further on in this post give a range of God-names to use, and I will try those at some stage, but for the purpose I am writing about, I use the God name of the Sephira Malkuth, which I understand to be Adonai (or Adonai Ha Aretz in full).

- Face the next quarter, and repeat this process, and continue until you have come back to the East. The description I read originally said to use the quarters thus: east, south, west and then north. That is standard Northern Hemisphere practice in a wide range of traditions. In the Southern Hemisphere, where I live, if you are attuned to the seasons and the elements, you may well find this more effective performed in the Southern Hemisphere way: east, north, west, south. In the Southern Hemisphere, north is often fire and south earth, which makes sense if you are south of the latitude of the Tropic of Capricorn, and therefore the sun is to your north. However, this form of attunement is not the be-all-and-end-all. I personally like using the clockwise direction because of my Tibetan Buddhist experience, and because of the association with the Crown and higher chakras and the “Earth Star” chakra below the feet, which helps connects people to the Earthly realm* (which may frequently be found to spin in a clockwise direction [or to need to]). I dislike using the clockwise direction automatically because it has overtones to me of (and I’m putting my tongue in my cheek here!) “Northern Hemisphere imperialism” … Returning to a more sensible position, I think one of my teachers had one of the best comments I ever came across on this topic: does it matter where a transmitter is placed? In other words, the energies we are dealing with a non-physical, so does it matter where one is physically when one calls those energies in? It probably does for some people, who use direction as a key to prompt psychic connection, but not necessarily for everyone. I suggest you try both directions, and find what works best for you - and that may change depending on the season, your mood, the working etc. As someone who used to live in the tropics (in Queensland, Australia), I used to be in the Southern Hemisphere, and yet occasionally have the sun to the south of me.

* I think I first came across these extra chakras in Katrina Raphael’s book “The Crystalline Transmission”, which – as with “How to Understand the Qabbalah” – I no longer have, so cannot check that recollection. I did a quick internet search, and one site which looks as thought it may be useful to get an understanding of these extra chakras (although this is not the system I use) is http://www.anoint.com.au/chakra2.html. No doubt there are others.

- Repeat the Qabbalistic cross.

This is essentially the “Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram”. There are some very good descriptions and commentaries on this ritual. A quick web search before I started writing this article yielded the following links:

On the Lesser Banishing Ritual, by Tim Maroney (part of “The Internet BookØ of Shadows at sacred-texts.com” ) at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos026.htm, which has a section commenting on the “politics” of the ritual (which is basically noting that people will tend to adapt the ritual to suit themselves and their belief/working systems), how to vibrate “God names” and postures;

The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, composed from various sourcesØ related to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, by Mazohir at http://www.kheper.net/topics/Hermeticism/LBR.htm;

Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) atØ http://www.asiya.org/lbrp.html, from the Asiya’s Shadows website (at http://www.asiya.org/intro.html), which links to a good section on using pentagrams for invocation and banishing (at http://www.asiya.org/drawpentagrams.html).

No doubt there are others.

7. Throwing awareness ahead
I’m not sure how I do this, but I project my awareness along routes I wish to travel, and sense the energies that are there. I then chose the route which feels most right.

It’s a bit like looking at a map, and choosing the easiest way to travel.

8. Project
clear (BPM) light
If someone is behaving aggressively towards you (and this is very commonplace in workplace meetings – I’ve had some dreadful experiences at the hands of “office psychopaths” and bullies), ask for protection, and visualise
clear (BPM) light projecting from yourself to your antagonist’s centre (their solar plexus or stomach area).

Commonly, the projection is from your own centre, or a similar point where you feel comfortable and strong (e.g., I sometimes use the heart chakra).

The trick is to do this while not being distracted from the physical interactions as well, and to maintain a neutral state of being so you genuinely project only positive energy.

A friend of mine once taught this to her son, and he used it very effectively to repel bullies on a school bus.

9. Balance knowing when to fight, and when to withdraw
This is a fairly obvious point: there are times when you can fight back against psychic attack, and there are times when it is most appropriate to protect oneself and get out of a situation. Consider aspects such as:
- Are you stronger than your antagonist?
- Is there any possibility of self delusion - on either side?

10. Learn assertiveness
I can’t emphasise strongly enough the importance of dealing with your own emotional issues: learning assertiveness is one of the most effective tools for fair communication in the physical world. It also has the same benefit in the non-physical worlds, and counters a fairly common way of being subjected to psychic attack, which is being manipulated (“controlled”).

11. Know thyself
As I said, I can’t emphasise strongly enough the importance of dealing with your own emotional issues.

12. Be careful about possible links
I used to be somewhat sceptical about this issue, which is basically being aware of hair, fingernail clippings, etc – until I stayed at a small town hotel where the publican quite obviously found me an unpleasant, radical experience. She was such an unpleasant person that, when I found my toothbrush had been moved after I returned from work, I threw it out.

Bad mistake.

I consider this woman to be completely unlikely to indulge in any deliberate act of psychic attack – but the toothbrush was enough of a link for her anger and discomfort to find me, and magnify some health problems I was experiencing. (The cure was a combination of both seeking physical help for the physical component, and undertaking psychic self protection exercises - mostly the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Anyway, I hope this is of some benefit to someone. There are some useful books around - for instance, "The Llewellyn Practical Guide to Psychic Self Defence and Well-Being: by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, although some of it grates (e.g., the reference to women needing to know about psychic attack because "in theior roles as housewives"!)

The photo was taken (by me) on a beach near Lang Lang, on the eastern side of Western Port (usually called Westernport Bay).
Love, light, hiugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Tags: energy work, personal characteristics, Psychic attack, Qabbalah, rituals
First published: 17th June, 2007 


Wednesday 13 June 2007

Post No. 006 - About me


I'm still working out how to drive this blogging thing, so I'll make this post about my background. This based largely on the info I've provided over at http://qabalist.org/q-blog

To begin with, Gnwmythr is (an approximation of) my spirit name, and came to me in a dream. The G is silent, so it is pronounced "new-myth-ear".

A nearly 50year old female, my spiritual history includes:
- Tibetan Buddhism (the major influence on me until recently - I like the ethics, the breathing exercises and the chants),
- past life regressions,- mirrorology (which, in my words, is turning negatives around by seeing positives such as the potential to learn/grow from unpleasant experiences),
- spiritualism (where I learned a great deal about healing; I also learned about mediumship [although I don’t do readings, as I’ve seen too many people become - in my opinion - too dependent on those rather than taking personal responsibility and developing and/or using their own abilities, including the ability to think]),
- rescue of earthbound/lost souls (which I started in my spiritulist days)
- shamanism,
- Qabbalah
- Ancient Egypt,
- Wicca (my girlfriend and I had a pagan handfasting for our committment ceremony, and
- I have celebrated regular full moon circles and the solstices for quite a few years).

I’ve been re-evaluating that mix, including my growing interest in the Goddess and Celtic traditions, following my attendance at the first (Australian) National Queer Spirituality Conference in November, 2003. I am currently exploring Druidry (including trying to learn Welsh - my maternal grandmother in my birth family is of Welsh heritage), and finding this extremely rewarding.

In my everyday life I’m a civil engineer designing wastewater treatment plants - and am pleased at the growing interest in recycling. Other influences include sailing, and interests in human rights and my various families. I currently live in the State of Victoria, Australia, near the (State capital) city of Melbourne.
As a final note, the photo is from the trip I referred to in my post "Living Future Dreams Now", and was taken near Ararat (on the "return" journey, which was actually to northern Victoria).

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
Tags: about me, Buddhism, Druid, energy work, gnwmythr, mirrorology, New Age, past lives, Qabbalah, regression, rituals, shamanism, spiritualism
First published: 13th June, 2007
 

Post No. 005 - Living Future Dreams Now


I quite like rainbows: They feel like a special, much blessed omen when I see them, and I’ve been fortunate enough to see some quite spectacular ones. I’ve seen a complete circle rainbow, and even two circle rainbows - one inside the other (although they weren’t quite complete). I’m writing this quite some distance away from home, being away on a work trip. However, as I drove here, thinking on many things – including this blog, I saw several rainbows. I even glimpsed rainbows while at one of the work sites I had travelled to – and the countryside was something to behold. I’m in the western district of Victoria, after some good soaking rain, and have been marvelling at green rolling hills and deep valleys.

It looks like good country: the sort of country I’d like to have a home in, someplace high on a hill, where I could watch the weather coming across a plain or up a valley. I’ve come across other places like this – in fact, my partner and I try to spend one weekend a month going some place new, partly to see more of the world, partly for relaxation, and in part to keep an eye out for some place to live if we ever buy some land - neither of us wants to live the rest of our days in suburbia. (I had thought this little town might be one place on the list, but I’ve encountered some small mindedness from the publican of the place I’m staying at today which has led to me changing my mind - for now, at any rate: others in this town I've worked with or had other contact with have been OK, so I may put it back on the list down the track [albeit not where I stayed: that was so unpleasant that when I saw my toothbrush had been moved, I threw it out in case it had been used for something it shouldn't have been!].)

It’s quite an elaborate dream we have: so many acres, a dome house built into the earth, with rooms with no corners (all conceived well before Lord of the Rings – knowing we shared similar dreams for a house was one of the attractions in the early days of our relationship). I’ve even planned the solar heating and ground cooling, and roughed out the engineering.

I’ve also planned a labyrinth and tree/grove project (this is my project: my partner doesn’t share this dream ☺ ). I’d like to have a series of trees planted in a large circle, grafted together, and shaped to grow into a house. I can see tree branches providing seats, doors, windows and interlacing into a roof - albeit with a large “skylight” in the centre to create an open area for rituals. Maybe I’ll have some arches, or pillars, or a tall, stately tree (perhaps the Australian energy equivalent of a yew) in it.

Around the outside of this, I want to create a labyrinth – marked out at first by stone arches and low stone walls, and later, as they grow, by the living vitality of plants. I’ve even planned out little “energy units” of copper and crystals to go under each archway, and enhance the shape set out in the arch by crystals.

Another elaborate dream. A dream which has helped get me through some very stressful times of late – things like taking on another senior engineer’s work after he left, facing a new and unpleasant work contract (do I stay, or – after more than 20 years – do I go?), serious family illnesses – and even my football team has plunged to new depths, with a near record string of losses before “the Rev” and returns from injuries got them back on track. ☺

Nevertheless, my labyrinth project IS a dream, and likely to remain so for some time to come. It has been sustaining, but of late it has shown signs of becoming a poison – a source of despair, as it never seems to get closer. Things in life can be like that: good in one set of circumstances, but not in another. A keg of clean water in a desert could be wonderful: in a flood, less certain to be a benefit. Hmm. My engineering left brain has just pointed out that drinking water supplies could be contaminated in floods, so a keg of clean water could actually be quite good. Excuse me while I give my engineering left brain a crossword and think of another example. OK: a keg of water in a load of supplies to be carried over a mountain range blessed with lots of pristine streams is not so clearly a benefit.

In my case, work pressures and family stress, and the time that these were continuing for, made that lovely, sweet dream and it’s continued mirage like status, toxic. So I have decided to learn from the 60s:

be here, now.

How am I going to do this? By building a labyrinth now.

OK, it will be a lot smaller, and less elaborate than the dream labyrinth, but I’ll have the energy here, now. I’ve carved runes and oghams - and drawn astrological symbols – onto small wooden pieces. I‘m going to bury these labyrinths beneath the lawn of our (rented) backyard, to create a labyrinth about 1.5m across. To walk the labyrinth, I’ll stand there and visualise myself doing so (meeting the runes and oghams along the way). To help any earth healing I do (and that is a powerful urge in me), I’ll tune in to this special area. In fact, I hope to go beyond healing Mother Earth (or Gaia, if you prefer) to – through this exercise - creating a little power spot to lift up the too often drab, dreary and depressed, sometimes violent and hoon afflicted energies of this working class suburb I and my partner live in.

When I can’t get out into the bush to recharge, I plan to stand there, and let it help me feel the bush and the energy of all the wild places. (It probably won’t help me, though, when I have the urge to be back on the water.)

I often stand out in our backyard on clear nights. We’ve had a few this autumn and winter - although I think the Brambuk calendar on the Bureau of Meteorology, which says we’ve already moved into “pre-spring”, indicates that the clear nights in autumn are to be expected. In any case, when I’m standing in the backyard, gazing at the stars and letting them draw me out to the universe, consider how more powerful that will be while standing on a labyrinth in a circle of special symbols?

I’ve had some suggestions to grow my grafted tree house in a bonsai version. I have mixed feelings about this. From a technical point of view, I know I need to do so, to develop my tree-grafting skills (non-existent at the moment!), and to check whatever combination of Australian trees I come up with for this idea. But emotionally, that hasn’t appealed to me. Maybe, when my bonsai labyrinth is in place, the bonsai tree house-grove will be more magically alive. I’d benefit from the discipline that bonsai requires, so ..... in the future, maybe.

In the meantime, time to plan the activation, consecration and charging of my labyrinth.


Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr

Tags: dreams, Labyrinth, personal characteristics, rituals
First published: 13th June, 2007 

Post No. 004 - A First Attempt at a Druid Invocation and Devocation


I recently realised I am more properly aligned with Druidry than Wicca. I’ll write more about changing paths in future posts (I was raised Anglican, became Buddhist as a teenager, Wiccan in my mid-40s and now Druid in my late 40s), but for now, I can write that I’m finding Druidry very fulfilling and rewarding.

If you’d like to find out more about Druidry, try Jeff Lily’s excellent Druid Journal blog (at http://druidjournal.net/) or the Order of Bard, Ovates and Druids web site (at http://www.druidry.org/).

My understanding is that Druid’s typically call in the four quarters, but one book I read (Druid Magic, by Sutton and McGhee) had a fair bit in it about earth, sea and sky (e.g., “swearing by earth, sea and sky to dedicate oneself, body, mind and soul, to ....”). After reading that, I had a go at writing an invocation based on earth, sea and sky. In a fit of wild enthusiasm, I then tried to translate that into Welsh: I apologise to all Welsh people and those fluent in Cymraeg (Welsh) for my translation efforts. (If someone can translate this more accurately, I would appreciate the results of your efforts.) Having done that, I then had a go at writing a devocation in Cymraeg, and then translated that back into English. I prefer the Welsh version.

Anyway, for all their flaws and limitations, here are my efforts.
Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

PS - I took the photo near Ravenswood, in northern Victoria.

Druid Invocation
ENGLISH
Earth, earth, power of earth,
stone and soil, plant and twig, gnome and mole,
be with us tonight,
let your magic help the magic of our rite.

Sea, sea, power of sea,
stream and bay, fish and reef, mermaid and whale,
be with us tonight,
may your magic help the magic of our rite.

Sky, sky, power of sky,
cloud and star, rain and sun, eagle and dragon,
be with us tonight,
let your magic help the magic of our rite.

CYMRAEG
(I found, after I published this post, that I didn't have the correct Welsh words for what I wanted to convey by "earth, sea and sky": see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/corrected-druid-invocationdevocation.html for a better version [altholugh the grammar is probably still atrocious])

Pridd, pridd, cryfder o pridd
carreg a gweryd, planhigyn a ysbrigyn, coblyn a twrch daear,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.

Môr, môr, ynni o môr,
ffrwd a bae, pysgod a riff, môr-forwyn a morfil,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.

Wybr, wybr, nerth o wybr,
cwmwl a seren, glaw a haul, eryr a draig,
bod ag ni heno,
canniatáu eich swyngyfaredd cymorth y dewiniaeth o ein defod.

Druid Devocation
ENGLISH
Earth, earth, power of earth,
stone and soil, plant and twig, gnome and mole,
may you be blessed as we have been blessed,
and may our blessings and power flow to the world.

Sea, sea, power of sea,
stream and bay, fish and reef, mermaid and whale,
may you be blessed as we have been blessed,
and may our blessings and power flow to the world.

Sky, sky, power of sky,
cloud and star, rain and sun, eagle and dragon,
may you be blessed as we have been blessed,
and may our blessings and power flow to the world.

CYMRAEG
Pridd, pridd, cryfder o pridd
carreg a gweryd, planhigyn a ysbrigyn, coblyn a twrch daear,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a bendithio ein cryfder ni a byd.

Môr, môr, ynni o môr,
ffrwd a bae, pysgod a riff, môr-forwyn a morfil,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a bendithio ein cryfder ni a byd.

Wybr, wybr, nerth o wybr,
cwmwl a seren, glaw a haul, eryr a draig,
canniatáu bendigedig gyda chi fel bendigedig ein bod ni,
a canniatáu llifeirio a bendithio ein cryfder ni a byd. 

Monday 11 June 2007

Post No. 002 - Workshop on Past Lives - Part 1: working with karma as an energy [Content Warning - harm & wrongdoing, karmic punishment]


Welcome. As with my first post, I'll probably have problems with the figures in these notes: my apologies, and hope you can enjoy them anyway.
Later edit: there are some interesting articles related to some of what I cover in these and the next workshop notes. They are:

"Life and Karma" by Kelli Klymenko at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=words&id=11821 (on the Witches Voice website, at http://www.witchvox.com/)
"On Past Lives, Soulmates, and Living in the Now" by Lupa at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=11836 (also on the Witches Voice website, at http://www.witchvox.com/)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(The photo is one of a few I took at Mallacoota, in east Victoria, during a low tourist period. Once I get the figures in the right format, I'll be able to add them.)
Tags: energy work, karma, past lives, workshop notes
First published: 11th June, 2007

Working with Karma as an Energy


Gnwmythr


July, 2005



Working with karma as an energy
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.. 2
2. Some Underlying Principles. 3
2.1 Karma. 3
2.2 Highest Spiritual Good. 4
2.3 Ethics. 4
2.4 Current karmic “good” credit. 5
2.5 Looking after yourself. 5
2.6 Psychic safety. 6
3. Techniques. 6
3.1 Basics. 6
3.1.1 Negative units. 6
3.1.2 Positive units. 6
3.2 Group practise. 6
Exercise 1. 6
Exercise 2. 7
Exercise 3. 7
Exercise 4. 7
Variations on a theme. 8
Final note from practise. 8
4. Applications. 8
5. Figures. 9
Figure 1. 9
Figure 2. 10
6. Flow charts. 11
Clearing. 11
Problem solving. 15
Asking yes/no questions (individual) 18
Asking yes/no questions (group) 19

Workshop notes
1. Introduction
I have been guiding people through past life regressions since the mid-80s. This workshop, whilst being done as a standalone workshop, is one half of the technique I typically use for those regressions. The reason I have split the past life regression workshop into two halves is to adapt my technique from a situation where I am working one on one, to a situation where I am working in a workshop setting.
As a warning for the 2nd workshop, please note that I will not be dealing with any issues of proof of reincarnation. The approach is based on resolving issues or problems, and - in that context - whether or not past lives exist is irrelevant: what matters is whether it works for you or not. And if it doesn’t work for you after a reasonable attempt, then I would suggest you consider moving on and finding the next technique that is of relevance to you.
If you would like some proof about past lives, I suggest you:
Ø read “20 cases Suggestive of Reincarnation” by Professor Ian Stevenson (I don’t have the full reference - sorry), Dick Sutphen’s books “Past Lives, Future Loves” (pub. Pocket Books, 1978, ISBN 0-671-83485-1) and “You Were Born Again to be Together” (pub. Pocket Books, 1976, ISBN 0 671 43383 0), or
Ø see a hypnotherapist who is prepared to help you work on this, which is the essence of books such as “The Reincarnations of Robert Macready” (pub. Zebra Books, 1980, ISBN 0-89083-703-1) (I don’t have any referrals or recommendations).
On the subject of books, another one worth thinking about is “The Case for Reincarnation” by Joe Fischer (pub. Grafton Books, ISBN 0 586 06540 7).
This technique is based on what I learned at a New Age/spiritualist group called ASPECTS, run by John Fitzsimons (see http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm). I don’t know what changes ASPECTS has made since I left in the late 80s, but I have adapted this technique slightly over the years.
You should also note that there are other teaching sources and/or techniques for doing this sort of work - one such example is set out in the book “Cutting the Ties That Bind” by Phyllis Krystal (pub. Aura Books, 1982, ISBN 0 85500 162 3).

2. Some Underlying Principles
2.1 Karma
Since the title of this workshop refers to karma, perhaps we should start with that.
The best way that I can explain my understanding of “karma”, which is a basis of this workshop, is that karma is the idea that what you give out, both good and bad, comes back.
There are other terms which are similar, but I’m familiar and comfortable with the term “karma”, and have found it creates a good understanding for most people of what this is about.
In the context of this workshop, the idea is that interactions we have with people can lead to an energy that connects us to the person and/or the interaction (As a digression, I was interested to read on the BBC website’s “religions” page that apparently followers of Jainism believe in particles of karma.)
Ø example (1): if you help someone by, say, saving them from drowning, that constructive interaction could: - create a “good”/positive/constructive link along which energy can travel (and, perhaps, give you a “warm, inner glow”), or - create a thought form of the event which could influence someone else into saving you from drowning (possibly metaphorically) or perhaps a thought form of any tools used (eg, you may like boats without wanting to be a boatie);
Ø example (2): if you harm someone by, say, hitting with an axe or shooting them, that unfortunate/destructive/counter-productive interaction could: - create a “negative”/destructive/ link along which energy can flow (and, perhaps, possibly result in you having pain as the pain energy created in the victim flows back to you), or - create a thought form of the event which could influence someone else into committing that act against you or perhaps a thought form of any tools used leading to, perhaps, a fear of whatever was used, or that - results in an earthbound entity being stuck in your aura (based on my experience, there seems to be some mechanism for this to occur in lives beyond that in which the negative action was undertaken, but I have been unable to explain that);
Ø the strength of these links, thought forms, etc (I was taught to use the generic term “units”) depends on the strength of interaction: - brush against somebody a bit roughly, and you may not form a link, or the “sorry” may adequately take care of the incident - cause great emotional, mental, spiritual or physical pain, and it is likely that there will be a stronger result.
See Figure 1 (Note: this is a scanned copy of an old diagram - I would probably draw this differently now).
There is the potential for vast discussion on this topic and the many related issues, countering viewpoints and fine points (most fundamentally, what is “constructive” or “destructive”), but the purpose of this brief commentary is to provide a way of thinking about the techniques: it is a lead up to the practical exercises.
The next important point is: as we live our lives, we do further “good” and “bad” deeds, and the energy we create through those deeds (whether physical, mental or on some other level) tends to have an influence on what we have created. (This suggests that it helps to respond constructively to bad stuff coming back to you, which is one thing from Buddhism I try to hold to - and constructive does NOT mean “do nothing about”).
Largely, this “further influence” is automatic. However, it is possible to use an increased spiritual awareness to deliberately accelerate this process. Apart from potentially helping us by accelerating the removal of negative links and other negative units (which may, for instance, remove a source of headaches that we have suffered from), I am of the opinion that this contribute towards reality as a whole being a better, more constructive/spiritual place.
There are a few qualifications to this process.
To begin with, I have spoken to a person who survived a near death experience who came back with the strong message that people had to understand that after death we all experience that which we have given out, good and bad, (which is a concept I have come across as reviewing the life just lived, perhaps in the “Hall of the Akashic Record”) and considers this technique won’t change what we experience after death. Personally, I’m not so sure she was in a position to really comment on that, for a number of reasons, but I think having a healthy scepticism is good for you, so I’ll throw that bit of doubt in for the good of your souls :)
You should also keep in mind that this is a technique for accelerating and bringing to the level of conscious intervention what would otherwise still happen - and there are people on this planet who are doing so much through other means that they don’t need this technique to accelerate their growth or help to contribute to the world being a better place. To put a Buddhist slant on this, this technique is not a prerequisite for attaining enlightenment.
There are a few other points I wish to briefly outline.
2.2 Highest Spiritual Good
Something I differ from Buddhism in (and, to some extent, as ASPECTS used to teach this technique) is that I do not consider everything is due to karma. There are learning experiences, tests etc along the way - and I am of the opinion that there is some intelligent force (Goddess, Allah, JHVH, Great Spirit, God or whatever term you wish to use) having an influence on how karma and the universe work.
A term I was taught is Highest Spiritual Good, which is term acknowledging that you may have to go through turmoil and challenges and trouble - not only for karmic reasons, but also because you may need the strengthening experience, or you may have agreed to take something on to see whether others would help you (ie, as a test of a friend, perhaps), or this may be needed to motivate you into learning thoroughly.
Hence, no matter how good your application of the techniques we will be learning about in this workshop, they may not work for you in all situations.
There is a flip side to this as well: it may be for your Highest Spiritual Good to have some “troubles” removed from your life despite you not having the ability to do so by your own efforts.
2.3 Ethics
I have mentioned ethics as a separate issue to make sure you think about respect for others and their free will. In the context of this work, you cannot heal other people against their will, but you do have the right to clear what is affecting you (if that is for the Highest Spiritual Good), or at least your share of that. That may crop up if you want, for instance, to clear a link which one of your victims is using (probably entirely unconsciously) to cause or contribute to a headache and they want you to go through a bit more of what they did. (In that circumstance, “two wrongs do not make a right”.)
If someone helped you to create, say, a negative thought form, and they are not yet ready to dissolve their share of that thought form, despite it possibly affecting them, that is their choice, and they have the right to do so.
2.4 Current karmic “good” credit
To be able to start this work, a certain amount of “good” karma is required. Most people who are interested in coming to a workshop like this will have acquired a certain amount of that just in the course of living. If not (and I have yet to come across anyone who didn’t have some “good” karmic credit), the intention to fix a problem will in itself earn some “good” karmic credit
2.5 Looking after yourself
I’m going to step ahead for a moment, to past life regressions.
Unlike many other regression techniques, the technique I use focuses quite deliberately on past mistakes.
To illustrate that, where some regression techniques may attribute, say, the trusty old headache example to having been hit by someone, this technique requires you to take stronger ownership of the situation and go back to a life where you were the hitter rather than the “hittee”.
This has a lot of potential to help you learn, but it also comes with a danger, in that it can adversely affect your self confidence or self esteem. It is therefore absolutely vital that you monitor yourself and how are feeling, and take constructive action if you have a problem.
There are two aspects to this: short term (ie, during the session itself), and long term.
In the short term (ie, the session you are working in and immediately after, your mood will be obvious enough. It is important to:
Ø remember the saying “show me someone who hasn’t made a mistake, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t done anything”;
Ø stay focused on the fact you are doing something which is of benefit to yourself and others;
Ø NEVER compare yourself to others (you don’t know what they’ve perhaps already done to clear up messes);
Ø avoid any victim or “Poor Little Me” thinking (when I was learning, owing to the intensity with which we studied, this was a significant issue).
In terms of monitoring oneself on a longer term basis, some questions I used to suggest for use to check how they were on a long term basis (eg, could perhaps ask these questions of oneself every new moon, or every festival of either a lunar/solar quarter, perhaps) are:
Ø Have there been any changes to my temperament? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my stress levels, or signs of being stressed? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my involvement with family, friends, hobbies, physical recreation or cultural activities? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my psychic health?
Ø Have there been any changes in my goals or direction in life? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
This is being mentioned now, as I would like you to think about ways to reasonably stay positively focused while doing this sort of work if you come back for the next workshop (you may have to convince me you’ve got a good technique for this at or before the next workshop) and for any time you use these techniques. You probably won’t ever need them, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
(Incidentally, it is possible to use constructive links to get a bit of a lift - more on that later.)
2.6 Psychic safety
You should always regularly use responsible psychic practise such as shielding (protection), grounding and releasing, and sessions where you wish to clear negative units are no different to any other psychic work session.

3. Techniques
3.1 Basics
3.1.1 Negative units
In essence, by accepting responsibility for having created a negative unit, we take a big step towards being able to clear or dissolve that unit. Some units cannot be cleared until you gain an understanding of what your mistake was, which is where the past life regression techniques come in. For the purposes of this workshop, we’re going to deal with units that you don’t need to do any learning to be able to clear.
The actual technique is:
Ø establish your shields/protection, and establish (and check) a clear link with whatever source of psychic information you intend to use (whether that is Higher Self, ancestors or guides)
Ø use your psychism to sense negative units around you (ask your psychic source to help you to sense what you are allowed to “for your Highest Spiritual Good”)
Ø generate positive energy (typically by visualising light, but you could also use heat, [astral] images of tools, etc) to clear (dissolve) the unit(s): - send light out along links to dissolve them (whether this has a noticeable, beneficial effect at the other end depends on how forgiving other person is prepared to be) - send healing to objects - have earthbound people rescued (as a minimum, you can send healing - with permission from recipient’s Higher Self)
See Figure 2 (note: this is a scanned copy of an old diagram - I would probably draw this differently now).
Objectivity is important while you do this. Don’t get into self punishment/guilt trips - working with others helps to maintain objectivity, and can be useful to gain a check on your psychic impressions.
I find it easiest to simply directly apply positive energy to counter and dissolve any negative units, but others may not find that as easy. Books such as “Cutting the Ties That Bind” by Phyllis Krystal (pub. Aura Books, 1982, ISBN 0 85500 162 3) can be helpful there, but so can sharing ideas and being willing to let your creativity have free reign. As an example, I was once able to “rescue” a fairly large group of earthbound entities from a train by asking for an astral trains to be brought alongside the physical one, and then sending out an astral notice for everyone to change trains - the earthbound entities changed trains, and then were guided to the astral worlds.
3.1.2 Positive units
It is also important to remember the positive units we have been responsible for creating. (Interestingly, over a series of lives, people may end up with a complex combination of positive and negative links.) By sending positive energy to or through these units:
Ø the units will be strengthened
Ø people on the receiving end may get a warm inner glow, and are likely to reciprocate (it can be useful to send out this positive energy until you get that warm inner glow yourself)
3.2 Group practise
Exercise 1
Get into pairs and:
Ø person A asks how many negative links she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many links A can clear - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the links are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the links have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out along the links until BOTH A and B agree that the links is dissolved (as an example of a way of checking this, one could, for instance, ask one’s guides to show a milk bottle gradually filling, on the basis that when the bottle is full you have done everything you need to)
Exercise 2
Change pairs and:
Ø person A asks how many negative thought forms/astral objects she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many thought forms/astral objects A can clear - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the thought forms/astral objects are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the thought forms/astral objects have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy to the thought forms/astral objects until BOTH A and B agree that the thought forms/astral objects is dissolved
Exercise 3
Get into groups of three and:
Ø person A asks how many negative links she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many links A can clear; person C also checks this question and also keeps a (psychic) eye on how the interaction between A and B is going - C is meant to be a sort of umpire making sure that both A and B are doing their jobs objectively and properly - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the links are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the links have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out along the links until ALL A, B and C agree that the links is dissolved
Ø repeat the process but with persons A and B swapping their roles
Exercise 4
get into new groups of three and:
Ø person A asks how many negative thought forms/astral objects she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many thought forms/astral objects A can clear; person C also checks this question and also keeps a (psychic) eye on how the interaction between A and B is going - C is meant to be a sort of umpire making sure that both A and B are doing their jobs objectively and properly - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the thought forms/astral objects are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the thought forms/astral objects have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out to the thought forms/astral objects until ALL A, B and C agree that the links is dissolved
repeat the process but with persons A and B swapping their roles
Variations on a theme
There are other ways of undertaking this clearing of negative units (I gave one when regarding the train). For example, one could visualise a tornado or a vacuum cleaner being used to collect units, or visualise crystals being used like fridge magnets to radiate positive, healing energy into a thought form or object.
I have found that using breathing exercises - particularly alternate nostril techniques - can make use of this technique much easier.
I will also remind you that normal living and growth will often lead to units being dissolved anyway, so don’t forget the value of working through your issues and other techniques you have learned or tools you have. For instance, an athame could possibly be quite good for cutting links.
Final note from practise
As a final note, remember the need for balance and objectivity. If you want a quick test of this: if you were watching someone else feeling what you are now after a session like, what would you do?
You may also find this technique tiring at first, particularly if you are not used to working directly with energy.

4. Applications
Because this technique is potentially dealing so directly with negative energy, I recommend that you consider using this separately to other techniques initially. Initially clearing of negative units should be done when you are in a good mood or mental/emotional/psychic space, but with practise can be used to lift your mood (particularly sending positive energy out through links).
Don’t overdo this technique.
In the actual techniques you use, try being creative and having fun - invent new techniques, try them, and then assess them :)
By doing things like pre-clearing negative links to people you are going to meet, you can use this technique to prepare for events. It may also be possible for you to clear negative units that are contributing to problems - for instance, you might be experiencing a “mental block” because there is a negative unit in your aura; if you clear the unit, you may be able to clear your “mental block”.
You can also ask to be assisted to do whatever clearing you can for forthcoming events, people you are going to meet or “for whatever the coming day may bring” when you go to sleep.
Remember that may not be allowed to clear all units, but if you ask for assistance to do so “for the Highest Spiritual Good” you may be able to do more than have the personal skill for.

5. Figures
Figure 1

Figure 2

6. Flow charts
Clearing



Problem solving





Asking yes/no questions (individual)
Asking yes/no questions (group)