What Do You Want?

"What do you want?"

This is such a simple question and yet you might be surprised at how difficult it is to answer. You can answer the question at this very moment, of course. If you're walking around outside and the weather is cold, you could say, "I want a warm winter coat." You can also answer the question from a longer-term view. You could say, "I want to be in a happy relationship with my soul mate." At the same time, you might say, "I want to advance in my career."

Do you see how all three of these answers come from three different parts of yourself? The part that wants a warm coat is the physical side of you. The part that wants a happy relationship with a soul mate is the emotional side of you. The part that wants to advance in career position is the intellectual side of you.

If you take all three sides of you, you get three answers to a single question. Sometimes that's just fine. But at other times, the three goals contradict each other. For instance, career ambitions and ecstatic relationships often conflict with each other in terms of time and attention. You might be able to manifest a rapidly advancing career, but your soul mate might depart for greener pastures in the meantime.

But isn't this all so silly when we're talking about magic. Magic is, after all, magical, right? Magic is supposed to be able to accomplish more than what we can ourselves achieve. So by rights, magically we should be able to wear warm clothing, have a great career, and go home at night to a cuddly soul mate. Right?

Right, but (there's always a but, isn't there?) in most spiritual practices it is said that all goals must ultimately be sublimated to a single goal, else nothing will be achieved. Even in magic attention and intention must be focused in a laser-like fashion to create miraculous effects.

So how could you specify one goal that would help you achieve all the other goals? Well, there are lots of ways to go about it, magically and shamanically, but if you want a laughably simple method try this:

Stop your dislike.
Whatever it is in your life that you dislike, stop disliking it. You don't have to love it, you don't even have to like it. You just have to stop disliking it. Dislike has a way to stopping magic in your tracks because it drags your level of being down to such a low level that you can't see the miracles even as they occur.

There's really no substitute for experience and observation (the definition, by the way, of knowing in magic). So if you're game and you really want your life to change, do this for 40 days:

Stop disliking things.

Every time you find yourself disliking something, stop it. Put your attention on something else. Stop thinking about it. Don't touch that topic with your mind. Jog around the block. Do whatever you have to do to stop the dislike. You will amaze yourself and you will see the magic happen. But it's a 40 day commitment and that's a biggie because we soooooo enjoy our dislikes.

Are you up for it?


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Magic 2012 – Seeing Differently

In 2012, the population can basically be divided into three separate groups. All are going to need Magic 2012 ... rather than Magic 101.

For people in the first group, 2012 started with a bang ... and being also the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac, it's been a prosperous year.

For those in the second group, 2012 has been less peaceful and less prosperous. Instead, 2012 has presented some challenges--car breakdowns, health issues, relationship problems, and more.

And for those in the last group, 2012 has been a mixed year so far. There have been some amazing miracles occurring at the same time as some "brick wall" type resistance to achieving goals.

Most people fall into this last group ... and it has them scratching their heads, wondering how such happy miracles could happen in some areas of life at the same time that heavy resistance is cropping up in other areas of life.

Welcome to 2012! And welcome to the need for Magic 2012!

What is Going on in 2012?
So what the heck is really going on in 2012? Most of us knew that this was going to be an eventful, significant, and perhaps weird year, but even so this year has been surprising for most people.

This isn't really surprising since 2012 is a pivotal year for the human race. For those who want to evolve spiritually, 2012 is the most powerful year ever. For those who just want to be comfortable, 2012 is going to be difficult--sort of like sitting on a cactus armchair.

But regardless! This year can be a better year, no matter what your goals and aims, if you practice Magic 2012. Magic 2012 is a whole new way of interacting with your life, including how you see, feel, hear, taste, interpret, and otherwise process all the events that show up in your life.

Magic 2012 – The Art of Seeing
The first step in practicing Magic 2012 is to see your life differently. This pivotal year offers amazing opportunities to improve and change your life, but you have to be able to see the signposts.

To practice the art of seeing in Magic 2012, try any or all of these three exercises. The results may not happen directly. Instead you may see a magical signpost when you least expect it. Be ready for anything!

Magic 2012 – Art of Seeing Exercise #1
This first exercise is a really fun one from Carlos Castaneda. It involves looking around your environment and seeing only the shadows, not the areas splashed with light. Obviously this works better on a sunny day, but can also be done on a cloudy day. You may be surprised at how difficult it is to see only shadows, but the challenge is definitely fun!

Magic 2012 – Art of Seeing Exercise #2
This second exercise works on the principle of "as above, so below." As you exercise your physical eyes, your spiritual sight will also improve. To do this exercise, simply look at something in the distance, then look at something close to you, and then stare into the middle distance (not at an object, but just at the air in the middle distance). This last, looking into the middle distance, is what will really improve your spiritual sight.

Magic 2012 – Art of Seeing Exercise #3
The last Magic 2012 exercise for seeing involves asking the Universe directly for help. First thing in the morning, go out and greet the four cardinal directions, as well as the sky and the earth. As you greet each direction, ask to be shown something you need to see in 2012. As you ask, be sure and include the caveat that you be shown the magical signpost in a way that you can easily understand!

Magic 2012 – Have Fun
As you can "see," none of the exercises are difficult or take much time. It's just a matter of applying enough attention and intention to doing these exercises, and then staying open to the visual clues from the Universe.

This process is somewhat like a scavenger hunt--fun and challenging at the same time. The process can also be incredibly insightful!

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Magically Erase the Monday Morning Blues

I'm not sure why it's called the Monday Morning Blues, as really the blues can set in for any morning. The weekend is over or the relaxing evening before, we find ourselves not able to get going or rushing around, trying to get wherever we have to be that day, thinking ahead to all the things on our "To Do" list. We let the habitual morning routine take over and go through our tasks in a rote manner. But morning is the time to set the tone for your day. Part of that is moving out of rote behavior so that we move to a level of conscious choice. Magical practitioners have learned that there are techniques to avoid these "blues" that keep us stuck in lower levels. They avoid setting themselves up for a chaotic and stress filled day and raise their emotional level to a place where the day flows smoothly and they can operate from a position of power rather than things just happening to them. Here are some tips for quick and simple ways to start your Monday morning or any morning off magically.

1. Burn a Sun Yellow Candle – Sun Yellow is the color of the fire element that represents the spiritual level. Sun Yellow is the color of life force and nourishes spirit. Make sure it is pure sun yellow with no oranges mixed in. Certain fire energies, such as Sun Yellow, are useful for overcoming sluggish emotional states because some of the characteristics of fire energy are that it is non-mutable, a motivator and radiative. Sun Yellow is a very safe fire element color to use.

2. Morning Reading – pick a positive type reading everyday from whatever discipline you subscribe to or a variety of them. These readings can be as complex as pages from Gurdjieff Commentaries to the more simple such as a chapter from The Four Agreements or Deepak Chopra's 7 Spiritual Laws for Success. The reading you pick may just be a single line from the many inspirational or devotional books that are available. Whatever it is, take the message you have read and keep it with you throughout the day looking for ways you can apply it in your life or observing ways others are using it. Use the message to create an aim for yourself for that day. When things start to get routine, sluggish or stressful throughout the day, remember the message from your reading to remind yourself what your aim for the day is and anchor yourself again.

3. Morning Sit - Take at least 5 minutes (more if you have the time) – to sit quietly and just be with yourself. Reflect upon your morning reading or your day greeting or just be quiet and breathe deeply and slowly. Meditate on the daily aim you have set for yourself and invite higher beings and powers to guide you through your day.

4. Day Greeting – Starting off the day with a Day Greeting puts you in contact with Sky Father and Earth Mother (and winds of the 4 directions if you include them). It gives you access to the guidance of higher powers and beings. You can include asking these higher powers to be with you through out the day for help on a specific situation you know you will be facing or just to be with you in general for guidance and to share their wisdom. To do the Day Greeting you can do the simple version of facing to the east, raising your arms and hands to towards the sky and saying "Sky Father, I bid you good morning" then lowering your arms and hands towards the ground and saying "And Earth Mother, I bid you good morning". Or you can use the longer version and address all four of the directions too by holding your arms out towards the direction you are facing:
East – "Winds of Knowledge (or Winds of the East), I bid you good morning"
South – "Winds of Power (or Winds of the South), I bid you good morning"
West – "Winds of Feeling" (or Winds of the West), I bid you good morning"
North – "Winds of Strength" (or Winds of the North), I bid you good morning"
Then do as above with Sky Father and Earth Mother.


5. Pick a higher thought – Sometimes when we are stuck in negative patterns or really low we can break the negative cycle or feelings by picking the next higher thought. For example, you don't have enough money to go out to lunch with your colleagues at work today and have to brown bag it and it's got you down in the dumps with nothing to look forward to in the day. Your mind is cycling messages like, "There's never enough money", "I hate my job and will never make enough money at it", "Everyone else always seems to have more money than I do", "My life really stinks", etc.... Whoa! Are these the messages you want to be sending out to the Universe?? Only if these are the things you want to attract to yourself. It's hard to break this type of cycle once it has started and come up with something totally positive. But you can stop it by coming up with a statement that is just a little step higher towards positive. "Well at least I'll be having lunch and not going without even if it is just a ham sandwich", can lead to "And there is that leftover piece of cheesecake my friend made, I suppose I could take that too" which can lead to "I sure do have some good friends in my life", and then "Maybe I'll surprise my friend by baking her some brownies tonight, that will be fun", "I really am blessed with good friends and good things in my life". You get the idea.

6. Wear bright red – Bright red is the fire element color corresponding to the physical or mundane level. It represents metabolism and body temperature. Wearing something bright red can give your physical body a lift much like a brisk physical workout would do. If you find yourself really on edge, nervous about something coming up in your day or jittery, you might want to try wearing pink instead. The color pink is fire with a lot of air, which is a sedative and relaxing.

7. Do the Shower Litany – At the end of taking your morning shower, see all the tension and stress of hurrying to get ready to leave for work flowing down your body like the water is and down the drain as the water drains out. You can also flow out any aches and pains leftover from yard work or sports activities over the weekend. As you are doing this say out loud:
"All the tension, all the strain,
All the pain with excess flame,
Flow with water down the drain."

At this point you might be saying, I don't have time in the mornings to do these things. It's all I can do to get dressed, grab breakfast to go, get the kids ready and off to school and lots of other time related excuses. Give it a try though, even if just for one morning using just one of the above tips. I find that when I take the time to allow magic into my life, physical time is not an issue. Not only does the entire day go better, there is plenty of time to get everything done in the morning. It works just like, well.... Magic!

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