Hodge Podge

This is just a short post on a variety of little items.

Influence

This weekend I read Lon Milo DuQuette's Low Magick. I have always admitted to being influenced by Lon's work. I found two specific examples. In the course of my magickal practice, I've learned that simpler a thing is the better it works. For me, I had to know the first few items pretty deeply before learning to get simple. I have come to the belief that magick can best be practiced after on has an intimate knowledge of the practice, image etc one is using. Lon's work is like that. He has done so much that by the time he writes it comes out so simplified that many turn their backs on it. Secondly, Lon not only fully admits his mistakes but he doesn't fully take credit for the effects of his work. The later is something I've noticed in myself only recently.

Lon has two books that I believe will strongly appeal to readers of this blog. In them, he talks about his actual magickal practice like I do here.

Healing  

In other news, the woman from which I removed the astral bug, texted me thrilled at her change in behavior. Apparently, some human was saved from a tongue lashing. She pronounced herself fully cured. That is likely the last update on her.

I've been doing some Reiki on myself. I feel that I am recovering from a cold much faster than I would have otherwise. At least, I am feeling much better today than expected.


Hyper Focus

I haven't done as much as this as I would have liked. I keep reminding myself to proceed. Hopefully, I won't lose the thread.

Dropping Through a Pin Hole

As part of a larger magickal project of deeply personal work, I will be working with the Golden Dawn god associated with the Death card. Expect a post about that working soon.

What I Learned in 2010

This post is still coming. It has been a bit of a slog getting through it all.

Hyper Focus Results in Being Present

Today being Christmas day, I spent eight hours with my family. My family and I don't get on too well. We have such different perspectives on the world that there is very little common ground to bond over. Love is mixed with pains and animosity. Some members I love, others I prefer to love from a distance. There is one that I'd simply prefer stayed at a distance. This makes my family events exercises in forbearance.

Today, I woke up practicing the hyper focus as I mentioned in yesterday's post cleverly entitled Hyper Focus. Given that I was tired, I wasn't as good at it the second time around. I wasn't paying attention to each movement and the like. I did succeed in being very present.

Being present at the family function morphed it from controlled anger to a pleasant time. There was good conversation. People that don't normally hug me hugged me. The person I would prefer would simply stay at a distance was actually warm and loving.

There was a brief moment of annoyance. A continually present non-family member was there. She has always annoyed me. It didn't matter if she was perfectly civil or not. It was just a personality issue. I simply don't like her. There is no animosity or bad blood. Tonight at dinner, I was present -- the observer. I found that being present made me more aware of my subtle bodies. I could feel her aura pushing on mine. This was the source of annoyance I've always had with her. I pushed her aura back a bit and strengthened mine, problem solved.
I will never be friends with her. However, I doubt I will be so annoyed the next time she is around.

It occurred to me this being present in the moment may help with my frustration issues at work. If I take each phone call, email and request as something totally new and attach only enough history to put the request in terms of customer service, I may succeed in being less frustrated. We shall see.

Hyper Focus

For a good portion of the day, I've been reading this year's posts. I am writing an entry that will be titled What I Learned This Year. I've gleaned a great deal by reading those posts. That isn't the point.

Something else happened. For reasons unexplained I hit upon the idea of hyper focus. This is doing everything by being very aware of what you are doing, paying attention to each keystroke as I type, refusing to digress in word or thought as I do so. I watched a scene from a nameless movie this way. I think in watching that scene, I was more alive in that moment than I have been in a month. I know, I haven't experienced a movie or television show like that since I was a kid.

I have endeavored since this hyper focus idea struck me to remain utterly in the moment as I cooked, ate, cleaned, watched the movie. Feelings of loneliness do not occur nor do feelings on longing. I feel strong like a young man. Oddly, it hasn't been much mental work. I haven't had to bring my mind back. It seems very willing to stay there. My neck and skull muscles do tend to tighten. I am taking moments of focus to relax them.

I believe I have heard the term mindfulness to describe such things. The label doesn't matter. I believe this is a worthy experiment to continue and I shall.