This a good place to begin talking about spirit power which I will describe as that good, happy, on-top-of-the world feeling we all experience as children when we built sand castles or played in the year’s first snow. It is a feeling of feeling fully the experience of good moments such as passing that tough exam or getting that job or promotion. It is feeling like life is okay after all. It is the way we should feel all the time, but we don’t. If you think of a day or event that went perfectly and that was totally enjoyable and fulfilling this is what spirit power feels like to some degree or another. Curling up on a beach or on your porch under the relaxing warmth of the sun is what spirit power can feel like. Imagine taking these moments wonderful feelings and linking them into a long chain that adds up to a lifetime and you will begin to realize what your true nature is supposed to be and how you might aim to feel. Spirit power is also feeling invigorated and regenerated with the knowledge that you did a job well done.
This is how I feel when I have cast a spell, done a spiritual job to help someone or helped someone in need. It is a feeling of being rewarded and you did nothing to obtain it. Spirit power is feeling this way even when everything in your life gives you no reason to feel any of this at all. By today’s standards and values to feel this way ALL THE TIME is called being euphoric. There are abnormal ideations in grandiosity and other diagnosis that warrant medication or therapy to balance out unrealistic happiness as well to assist clinically depressed people but, organic mental and physical disorders aside, is there any reason for us not to strive to feel as good we can whenever we can? When life gets in the way or we experience a situation of our creation (we will be looking at this concept), claiming our spirit power can enable us to take charge, be creative problem solvers and maintain trust in the face of whatever our problems may be.
The therapeutic setting can also be an effective tool in helping us understand our motivations, our needs and goals. The cognitive school of psychotherapy focuses on applied changes that can be made to help people break unproductive or negative patterns. This can be of great help while expanding spirituality. As for us, we will see how our own thought process contributes to our problems and realities, how rethinking and actively taking action to bring about our desired changes (through a ‘work’, meditation or prayer) is akin to the cognitive approach mentioned above, only much older.
Wicca’s origins come from the early people of Europe. It too is an earth religion in that it observes the cycles of the seasons, respects nature and actively connects animals with the deities of Wicca, usually in celebration of the fertilizing and birthing cycles of the earth. For this reason, Wicca is one of many earth religions that honor a God and Goddess as co-creator. Wiccan commemorations serve as reminders that as the earth and nature renew themselves through every change of season, so do people. Here too, planting and harvesting play a pivotal role in survival and renewal. There are disciplines and rituals to Wicca that do not have to involve a Goddess creator at all. These practices help the practitioner clearly focus in order to complete a work (or spell) toward a desired goal.
First and foremost it must be made clear that Wicca can include Witchcraft or natural healing.
Not Satanism.
Witchcraft.
Witchcraft or Wicca is not a Judeo-Christian belief system. The aspects of Wicca that I personally enjoy is the control one can begin to exert over one’s life by casting a spell (putting strong, exact energy into a wish or hope). The tools can be the element of earth, water, fire, and or/and air. The tools can also be herbs to treat a condition, a liniment for pain or to purge one of negative forces. The energy sent out through thoughts and chants (words) creates a new chain of energies that will eventually “catch up” and surpass the energies that have previously created the problem challenging us. Although there are no “sins,” there is a strict moral code of conduct. I follow one Wiccan path that is against hurting anyone nor can any work result in harm. This insures making the success of their spells contingent on “being correct for all” and “harming none.” Wiccans know all too well how quickly the burden of responsibility falls upon them if anyone or their path is interfered with as a result of crafting a spell without consideration for possible repercussions. No one should be forced to think or act contrary to their nature. When we discuss Spiritualism, you will see how important choice is to spiritual growth on our path to enlightenment.
There are powerful times for working wishes—a woman’s menses, the full moon, solstices and equinoxes. There are tools to alleviate negative energies that we all have in our home such as water, salt and spices. These are the gifts with we can work with that the earth provides in plenty. Wiccans, like Native medicine men, have a tradition in botanical knowledge of plants and herbs for which they were sought for creating liniments and tonics. They also knew how to use toxic plants for medicinal purposes, such as belladonna.
Many people laugh at the concept that negative energy causes tension, disharmony and ill fortune. Yet it seems negative forces and spirits (imps and demons) are far more believable when it comes to “luck” because in the deepest recesses of the mind, people fear the supernatural. What seems to be more difficult is accepting the possibility that someone’s thoughts against another or themselves (self-criticism) could produce certain outcomes. So let’s just look at the very scientific fact of energy itself. Namely, it is accepted that energy is never destroyed merely CONVERTED. This very rule illustrates how any energy, even that created within the Electrochemical magnetism of the brain exists. Integral to any spell or healing by a shaman, witch or spiritualist is the power of the practitioner’s thoughts to envision, see and even taste that which is being called into being. Likewise any fear, doubt of cursing of our luck is also the creation of energies that will CONVERT circumstances into that reality. We don’t just do this to ourselves, we do this to each other every time we hate, envy or wish misfortune on someone. The difficult thing about Wicca or any mystical practice is that we must accept that every ‘bad spell’ we have thoughtlessly wished (Wrong Contemplation) must play itself out before we can harvest the benefits of the newer realities we work toward creating.
We can, however, find our circumstances more balanced as we begin to feel the results of an improving situation while we wait for whatever is negative to play itself out. Although I have seen works yield immediate results, many works take time to become effective and the average person grows impatient. It takes a special person, someone who is willing to work hard to develop difficult changes in perception and values, to see beyond immediate gratification and realize that lifelong ‘hexes’ are not undone overnight. Working any of these disciplines requires a firm trust that regardless of losing our job, or getting seriously ill or losing a loved one that there is a grander purpose at play. It takes a special person, despite sorrow and despair, to be able to accept that the spiritual path we are each on is often unrevealed to us. It takes an especially special person to know all the aptitude and skill and trust in the world does not always spare us the hardship and tragedy that might befall us. After all, there is the mindset, doubts and fears of those around us, including those we love, that impact on their existence and ultimately on ours.
To get through our painful experiences with our trust in tact requires spirit power. We looked at what it feels like; and in this book we will look at how to get it. But, first let’s see how we lose it. Let’s say you have a new supervisor at work who is anxious to increase productivity to impress the bosses. Increasing productivity is a good thing. We all need to work, produce and be efficient and effective (Right Livelihood). This should be done because it is fulfilling to do a job well. The supervisor, however, wants praise, attention, more promotions and more money (attachment to the material). To spur you into action, the supervisor stands over you while you do your work, constantly asks when your report will be ready and does not rate you well on some aspects of your job evaluation.
We will feel two things. Firstly, we will resent the supervisor for being such a demeaning presence, especially if we know our job and have never failed in our responsibility (anger). We will begin to not want to be at work and we may begin to worry about losing our job. We might lose sleep. Before we know it, we’ve changed into something we were not before. We have changed because we have begun to believe the opinions someone else has of us. Stop right there. Despite all the reasons there are to understandably go through these changes, it does not matter. You have lost your spirit. Without your spirit power, you will continue to feel this way. How can you feel like a kid on the beach building sandcastles when you are letting yourself be terrified of losing your job? How can you do your job well when you are exhausted due to lack of sleep? These inconsistencies cannot coexist harmoniously. It is against nature.
The issue should be where is your trust for it is this that allows you to know that as you move through this experience new tools are created for another time, another coupe. If you cannot hold onto this trust, your belief system is not working or rather, you are not working it. Even if you participate in a religion, you are not working it if your trust in an Almighty cannot overcome your fear. For reasons we will discuss in Spiritualism, our path may not lend itself to great comfort, success or wealth. In which case, does it pay to fret and worry? Perhaps we need to focus, day by day, on what we had that dayfood, shelter, family and friends. The truth is it is not the liking all of our experiences that gives us spirit power. It’s what we DO as a result of these experiences that gives us spirit power. Will we organize that food drive whether or not we keep our job? In all of the ‘schools’ it is pivotal for us to determine whether or not we trust that as we have our needs (as opposed to wants) met today, there is no reason for them not to be met tomorrow.
As you read through this book, hopefully you will begin to see how you have allowed yourself to lose your spirit power and begin to realize how you can reclaim it. By familiarizing yourself with Spirituality as it is and not how others PERCEIVE IT, you might be able to begin to walk on your own true path. You may even learn how to make your own cup! (Chapter 10)