Three Magic Rituals to Start Your Day

If you are a true magical practitioner then magic is part of life, not something you do separate from your everyday life. Therefore magical rituals should be a part of life, which means that, for the most part, they need to be fairly simple, not requiring lots of tools, smoke, and mirrors.

If you want to have magic in your life, you have to practice magic all the time. Think that's too hard or that you don't have enough time to do that? Think again.

My Three Magic Rituals To Start the Day
I do at least three separate magic rituals every single day first thing, and it's no sweat, really. Want to know what they are? Simple.

1. Sit
Sitting, or meditating, is one of the best ways to invite magic into your life. I sit every single morning and surround myself with quiet. I tend to sit in lotus position, because it's a stable position and I like it, but you don't have to. Just sit (or lie down if sitting is too uncomfortable). It doesn't matter whether you sit for 5 minutes for 50 ... just as long as you are quiet for long enough that the magic can slip into your life, between your thoughts as it were. The magic happens in the space between thoughts.

2. Greet the Day
I go out and greet the day using the Navajo Beauty Way Day Greetings every single morning before doing anything else. It's my way of making contact with powers and beings, acknowledging their presence, making any special requests for help, and generally getting in touch with my magical allies.

3. Do a Reading
I'm usually reading some esoteric text or other, and I'll spend a few minutes in the morning immersing myself in some good spiritual material. I like readings from Gurdjieff, Abraham-Hicks, Carlos Castaneda, Edgar Cayce, and some more esoteric authors as well. A lot of people like to pull a card from the Medicine Cards or Sacred Path Cards, or flip open an angel book to get an "angel thought" for the day. Whatever floats your boat, pull some spiritual material from somewhere to get your day started on a magical footing. Abraham has an email Quote of the Day that you can subscribe to  and that can count too.

All three of these little rituals take about 30 minutes total. That's not a whole lot of time to dedicate to living a truly magical life, and that's about all the Universe requires to bring the magic into your life. Get started with bringing magic into your life by incorporating magic rituals into your life. Need help picking daily rituals? Check out our Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life ebook for ideas.

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Meditation Guide: Simple Steps for Beginners

No doubt you have heard by now of all the health benefits as well as spiritual benefits that can result from meditation. Students from a wide variety of spiritual traditions have been practicing meditation for centuries, mostly to create peace, joy, harmony, commune with Nature, receive messages from higher powers, clear the mind and create manifestations in their lives. Meditation is important in a magical practice in that it can also help in creating sacred space and invite in psychic abilities. In addition to all these spiritual benefits, researchers are finding that mediation can have health benefits by relieving stress which can wreak havoc on the mind and body as well as lower blood pressure and help strengthen the immune system. It gives us a way to find relief from the noise and hustle and bustle of our busy modern lives too. A regular meditation practice has been shown to increase serotonin levels in the body, which can help with depression, headaches, and insomnia associated with low serotonin levels. There are many different types of mediation and these physical benefits seem to be helped even more when the meditation is done while walking.

Awareness of the benefits of meditation has increased over the last few years as popular talk shows and magazines are full of references to the benefits of meditation. I hear from many people however that they have tried meditating and just can't "get it". The main complaint seems to be that they can't quiet their minds. Thoughts of to do lists, family responsibilities, what they "need" to get done next and so on creep in and take over. That leaves many feeling as if they have failed and "can't meditate". We say that anyone can meditate; it just takes more practice for some than others and meditation should not be judged by the results as much as by the effort. In other words, don't be so hard on yourself and give it time to develop. Below we offer this meditation guide to those who find themselves struggling with learning how to meditate.

One of the meditation exercises offered in our ebook, Daily Rituals for Attracting What You Want in Life, goes like this:
1. Find at least 15 minutes of time that you will not be disturbed and a place you can have quiet. This may mean turning off the phone or having your spouse take the kids out for a walk or getting up early before everyone else for some of you.

2. Find a comfortable position to sit in your quiet space. You do not have to do a lotus position or any other position that you find uncomfortable. You can sit on the ground or in a chair, whichever you will be more comfortable in.

3. Close your eyes and feel your breath moving in and out of your body. Don't force your breath or change it, just tune in to the natural rhythm of your breathing.

4. When thoughts come into your mind (and they will – especially when first learning how to meditate), don't fight them. Just let them come up, recognize they are there and let them pass through your mind. Don't chastise yourself or give up with a "see, told you I can't meditate" point of view as many do at this point. Try instead to use this metaphor:

Imagine you are on a river shore watching boats sail by. The boats are your thoughts that creep into your mind. At times you will become very fascinated with a particular boat and want to board it to look around and explore it more. This is what happens with your thoughts when they "carry you away" from clearing your mind. When you find yourself on one of these "boats", just leave and return to the shore and concentrate on your breathing again.

5. Sit for at least 15 minutes. You can sit longer if you wish and can have a quiet environment for longer.

More Meditation Tips
Another tip for those struggling with how to meditate is to use a lit candle, incense or a fountain to distract the mind from drifting away into thoughts. Leaving your eyes open and concentrating on an object such as a candle flame gives you a visual focus that can help quiet the mind. A running water fountain creates a sound that is irregular and hard for the mind to follow which also keeps it distracted.

Other Considerations
15 minutes is suggested as a length of time to strive for initially so as to give the mind time to quiet and open the way for inner quiet. The length of a meditation period is not as important however as how consistent you are with your practice. It is better to do a short meditation everyday than to do long meditations every once in a while. Try not to judge your meditation by criteria such as how peaceful it was or how many times your mind drifted off. It is the effort to reach a quiet place that matters more than the achievement of total quiet in the beginning.

As you continue meditating, you will see positive results in your day to day life. A new way of dealing with people and life events will emerge and you will find yourself being able to deal with situations from an inner quiet and peaceful place. Be sure to enjoy your meditation time as it is time you are investing in your inner development. The more your inner life flourishes and grows the more you will see the same reflected in your outer life. Meditation can help you achieve that and bring other magic to your life.

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Have Trouble Meditating? Help With Meditation

Need help with meditation? Are you one of the many people who just can't seem to get the hang of sitting quietly and turning off your mind chatter? You are definitely not alone. Yet, a meditation practice is so important in a spiritual practice, as well as having health benefits, that we have a simple exercise to give you help with mediation and get you on your way.

Why Have A Meditation Practice? Benefits of Meditation
There are many benefits of having a mediation practice. On a spiritual level, meditation is used to create peace, joy, harmony and manifestation in your life. It is a way of creating sacred space giving you a place to "get away" from everyday noise and rush. This allows you to be able to commune with nature, listen to messages from higher powers, clear your mind and open yourself to many other magical things. Creating a meditation practice for yourself is a way of inviting in your psychic skills.

On the physical level benefits of meditation include lowering of the blood pressure, strengthening of the immune system and reducing stress. A regular meditation practice has been shown to increase serotonin levels in the body which can help with depression, headaches and insomnia that are associated with low levels.

Help With Meditation: How to Do Meditation
So, now you are sold on the benefits of meditation, but still don't know how to get started or find it frustrating. We hear that a lot. Here are some simple steps to give you help with meditation and show you a simple way of how to do meditation.

1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, hands in front resting on your lap, right hand cradled in the left. Be aware of your thoughts, yet remain unattached to them. Be aware of your sensations. Make sure you have at least 15 minutes of quiet, undisturbed time to sit. Early in the morning is best. You can sit on the ground, in a chair or where ever you are comfortable.

2. Sitting with a lit candle, burning incense or near a running fountain or moving water can sometimes improve meditation. Burning a botanical such as lavender can help you relax.

3. With your eyes closed, feel your breath moving in and out of your body, but don't try to force the breath or breathe on purpose. Just feel your body breathing by itself.

4. If thoughts come into your mind (and they will), let them simply pass through. It may help to imagine that you are sitting on the shore of a river watching boats go by. The boats are the thoughts that come into your mind. Sometimes you will get so fascinated with a particular boat that you will want to jump on board and investigate. This is what happens when your thoughts carry you away from your quiet place on the shore. When you notice that you have been carried away by one of your thoughts, just return to your quiet place on the shore and notice your breath again. Don't be discouraged or berate yourself when this happens. It is part of the process and over time you will be distracted less and less.

5. If you have great difficulty being interrupted by your thoughts, you can also meditate with your eyes open, focusing on a candle flame or on the smoke from your incense burner. Sometimes having a visual focus will reduce the internal chatter from your mind. The sound of a fountain, which is irregular and difficult for your mind to follow, can also help with mediation.

6. Sit for at least 15 minutes in this quiet meditation. The length of your mediation is not as important as the consistency. It is better to do a shorter mediation daily than to do longer ones sporadically.

7. Do not judge the results of your meditation by how peaceful or disruptive it was. It is the effort to reach a place of inner quiet that matters, not whether or not you achieved total quiet. Enjoy your time of meditation as it is time you are devoting to your own inner development. The more you develop your inner life, the more your outer life will flourish and grow.

Ready to learn more magic like this? See our Psychic Development Ebook in the school store. 

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