I had two blog posts half written about various things, then a walk at lunchtime totally changed all that – and changed the day from a rotten one into a good one. I pottered down to the canal for fresh air and the scent of elderflower blossom and on the way listened to an audio book called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people by Dr. Stephen Covey. I had thought this book might be useful for work as I am doing a management and leadership section at the moment. I wondered if the book might have other applications and a mere 40 minutes into chapter one and this blog post was birthed.
The author tells a story about a period in his life when he and his wife had a hard time with one of their sons. The boy was not very athletic, not very academic and people often seemed to laugh at him. The author and his wife wanted to help the boy achieve more and not get teased all the time and so they really tried to help him practice, gave him lots of positive encouragement and coaching and defended him when people laughed at him. Sadly nothing seemed to help. The author says he had a revelation when he realised that actually he and his wife were both giving their son this special treatment because on some level they believed him to be inadequate. This message of inadequacy was probably being communicated through the special treatment and as such the son was getting underlying negative messages. When they changed their view of their son as being great, just the way he was, then he completely blossomed and all his potential came to fruition. The point of the story is that it isn’t enough to look at the world around you, you have to scrutinise the lens through which you view the world. Because even if you are going through all the right motions, if there is something wrong in your heart then nothing will change for the better. We need to question... What are my hidden values, beliefs, assumptions and perspectives? How do they impact what I do without me even realising it?
Hidden beliefs, values and perspectives are essential to successful magick (or perhaps that should be they result in unsuccessful magick). You may be working for one thing in your magickal rituals but the outcome is completely different because it was not what you truly wanted, you just didn’t realise that. I have an excellent mundane example of this. I spent a year learning how to drive but I was really worried about taking a test – so worried it was affecting my ability to drive and although I could in fact drive adequately I was getting worse and worse. I went for some really good hypnotherapy and then in the middle of one session I had a realisation…
"I actually don’t want to pass my test, passing my test means driving around, on my own, in a non-dual control car. I would be totally responsible for the lives of others and that terrifies me."
Once I had uncovered that understanding, I started working on my perception and within a very short period of time I passed my test. But had I done a spot of magick to help me pass my test instead of uncovering that nasty little perception then I doubt that it would have worked.
Incidentally all credit to my hypnotherapist and friend who has been saying something similar about magic for years.
Fast forward to Project Antara…I am taking some tentative steps to put myself out into the world in the hope that one day I will make my living through my creativity. What is the lens through which I am viewing achievement of that goal? Well there are a few dirty, little opinions I am finding within myself. Here they are for the world to see:
So the importance of understanding the lens through which you view the world is key to successful magick. I am off now to work on some of the above…I may be some time.
You know it is interesting to me how more and more of the things I am studying in relation to management seem so important for magick. Almost as if effective organisation is a universal principle or something ;)
Stay tuned tomorrow for what I plan to do to tackle number 1.
The author tells a story about a period in his life when he and his wife had a hard time with one of their sons. The boy was not very athletic, not very academic and people often seemed to laugh at him. The author and his wife wanted to help the boy achieve more and not get teased all the time and so they really tried to help him practice, gave him lots of positive encouragement and coaching and defended him when people laughed at him. Sadly nothing seemed to help. The author says he had a revelation when he realised that actually he and his wife were both giving their son this special treatment because on some level they believed him to be inadequate. This message of inadequacy was probably being communicated through the special treatment and as such the son was getting underlying negative messages. When they changed their view of their son as being great, just the way he was, then he completely blossomed and all his potential came to fruition. The point of the story is that it isn’t enough to look at the world around you, you have to scrutinise the lens through which you view the world. Because even if you are going through all the right motions, if there is something wrong in your heart then nothing will change for the better. We need to question... What are my hidden values, beliefs, assumptions and perspectives? How do they impact what I do without me even realising it?
Hidden beliefs, values and perspectives are essential to successful magick (or perhaps that should be they result in unsuccessful magick). You may be working for one thing in your magickal rituals but the outcome is completely different because it was not what you truly wanted, you just didn’t realise that. I have an excellent mundane example of this. I spent a year learning how to drive but I was really worried about taking a test – so worried it was affecting my ability to drive and although I could in fact drive adequately I was getting worse and worse. I went for some really good hypnotherapy and then in the middle of one session I had a realisation…
"I actually don’t want to pass my test, passing my test means driving around, on my own, in a non-dual control car. I would be totally responsible for the lives of others and that terrifies me."
Once I had uncovered that understanding, I started working on my perception and within a very short period of time I passed my test. But had I done a spot of magick to help me pass my test instead of uncovering that nasty little perception then I doubt that it would have worked.
Incidentally all credit to my hypnotherapist and friend who has been saying something similar about magic for years.
Fast forward to Project Antara…I am taking some tentative steps to put myself out into the world in the hope that one day I will make my living through my creativity. What is the lens through which I am viewing achievement of that goal? Well there are a few dirty, little opinions I am finding within myself. Here they are for the world to see:
- I am worried people (including current work colleagues) will judge me harshly if they find out what my beliefs are. As a result I am not being very honest about who I really am, if I am not honest about who I really am then this will impact my ability to authentically fulfil my dreams because I cannot be fully committed to pursuing this path openly and yet at the same time be trying to hide.
- I believe I don’t have the right to earn a decent amount of money from something I enjoy.
- I believe I don’t have the right to earn a decent amount of money from something based in spirituality.
- I believe that if I did earn money from creative and spiritual pursuits that it should be a small/negligable amount, because a really big amount would be obscene and people would accuse me of being a snake-oil salesmen (and I would worry that they might be right about that).
So the importance of understanding the lens through which you view the world is key to successful magick. I am off now to work on some of the above…I may be some time.
You know it is interesting to me how more and more of the things I am studying in relation to management seem so important for magick. Almost as if effective organisation is a universal principle or something ;)
Stay tuned tomorrow for what I plan to do to tackle number 1.
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