Life Boot Camp ... from a Magical Point of View

What kind of attitude did you wake up with this morning?

Did you have the Monday morning blues or did you charge out of bed anticipating everything that life has to offer you today?

In the usual course of life many of us feel as if we are fighting a defensive battle, constantly defending our sanity, peace and freedom from life interruptions. We are constantly retreating and hunkering down until the storm has passed. The problem is that retreat and backward progress aren't exactly great measures of life growth and joy.

So how can you reverse your retreat from life? What if you were to enroll in the equivalent of boot camp? Not Army boot camp but life boot camp. At this boot camp they don't teach you to handle weapons or neutralize incoming physical attacks. Instead they teach you to neutralize and transform life events.

What if you woke up at boot camp this morning instead of in your own bed? Suppose your drill sergeant told you that you would be practicing life drills today, and that he would be throwing all kinds of challenges and distractions at you. Suppose he also told you that your mission was to stick to your goals today regardless of what appeared in your life. Would that change the way you handle the situations that crop up in your life?

Does knowing that the distractions and challenges are just practice drills lessen their impact on your life? Try living just one day in life boot camp and see if it changes your attitude about life events.

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Why Does My Life Suck So Bad?

This is a question that is on the minds of many people, and while I could give you a lot of different magical or shamanic answers, the truth of the matter is that life has always sucked. Most of us just never noticed it.

Most of us have, in the past, been able to repress or ignore our frustrations about life with all kinds of other "stuff." We poured our energies into extreme sports, frantic activities, or obsessions about things that shouldn't matter on a life or death level (Little League parents going nuts comes to mind), so we have always been able to avoid the "suckiness" of our lives.

No more. Welcome to the preamble of 2012, the Dawn of the Age of Aquarius or whatever you want to call it.

2012 is Happening in Us, Really
As we head toward 2012, we've seen some major weather shifts, some man-made catastrophes, and a lot of assorted mumbo-jumbo about what might or might not happen worldwide. But in our conversations with Grandmother (also known as Mother Earth), we've come to realize that 2012 isn't going to be creating as much havoc "out there" as it is "in here," within us.

No actual pole shifts are going to happen on the planet, but a bunch of tiny pole shifts will happen in us as individuals. So what does a pole shift mean to the average human being? It means that we will no longer be able to distract ourselves from the general "suckiness" of life with extreme sports, self-medication, or other worldly goodies.

Instead, we're going to have to face the "stuff" in our lives that really bother us, and resolve those issues. There are lots of ways to do that, magically and shamanically, but at the core of the issue is a simple question:

"What the heck is bugging you?"

If you can't answer this question then 2012 is going to hit you like a ton of bricks. If you can answer this question, then 2012 is going to be a breeze.

What is Heck is Bothering You?
The answer to this question isn't about making a list of all the complaints in your life. It's about drilling down to the fundamental core, the fundamental issue, around which your life has constantly revolved, whether you know it or not.

Can you answer that question? Do you even have a clue?

If not you might try a question circle, a simple magic ritual in which you ask the Winds of the Four Directions for guidance and inspiration.

Get the directions for a question circle here.
Learn more about Daily Magic Rituals here.

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Increasing Your Psychic Abilities

We are all psychic. It's a fact.

Psychic abilities are the birthright of every citizen on this planet--we just forget to use those abilities on a regular basis so they grow weak. If you want to increase your psychic abilities, all you have to do is practice (and it's simpler than you think).

If you've tried various methods to increase your psychic abilities but they haven't worked, don't despair. One of the keys to success in developing these abilities is learning to ignore the outcome. Just practice your abilities and don't worry about whether you're "right" or not.

A simple way to get started with your practice is to begin accessing information that you can't possibly know through your five senses. Begin asking yourself these kinds of questions everyday, and listen for the answer. For instance, before you walk into a movie theater, ask yourself, "How many people will already be in the theater when I walk in?" Go with the first answer you get and don't question it. Thank yourself for the answer. Now here's the key: when you walk into the theater, don't bother counting the number of people. Act as if you never asked yourself that question.

If you walk into a mall, you might mentally pick out a store and ask yourself, "What's the highest discount they are offering today?" You can also ask questions like, "What's the most interesting thing I will see today in the mall?" or "Will I meet anyone I know today in the mall?" Again, the key is not to put your attention on verifying your answer. Just keep asking the question, receiving the first answer you get, thanking yourself for the answer, and ignoring the rest.

Over time, you will unavoidably begin noticing the "correctness" of your answers. You can't help but notice that you've picked out the highest discount a store is offering or that you actually did meet someone you know in the mall. If you really avoid verifying your answers, you'll be more open to what your psychic abilities tell you (rather than hearing all your own doubtful mind chatter). You will begin to notice how "right on" your abilities are--if you can actually avoid verification of your answers early on in the process.

The "art of ignoring" or selective perception is one of the key principles in magic and in developing your psychic abilities. Remember, you're accessing information in another realm, so you have to learn to focus your attention in that realm. Putting your attention solely on asking and receiving is the key. Good luck and, most of all, have fun with this!

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How To Choose Even When You Have No Choice

When we look at our lives many of us often feel like we have very little choice. We have to work, meet family obligations, and attend to the daily chores of "making a living." This lack of choice often makes us feel helpless and disempowered. We feel that we are not in control of our own lives.

The good news is that there's a simple way to regain our personal power. It's called "choosing even when you have no choice." Consider going to work, for instance. Most of us have to work to earn an income for basic needs, and while we might have the freedom to change jobs, we don't really have the choice to not work. So how can we choose in this situation where we have no choice?

Pick a segment of your day at work (could be as little as 15 minutes and no more than one hour) during which you will experiment with choices and personal power. Now make a choice about something for that segment. If you have some freedom in your work, choose what you will do during that segment. Decide precisely when you will start, exactly what you will achieve, and when you will stop. When the time comes, start your chosen work and end whenever you've chosen. It's important to end at the chosen time--the ending is just as important as the starting point.

If you don't have the freedom to choose what you'll do, then choose something internal to focus on. For instance, you might choose to focus only on thoughts that put a smile on your face or work with a smile on your face. You might choose to be aware of the sensations in your right hand while you work. You might choose to see how much work you can complete in 15 minutes. You might choose to take off one earring or one sock during that segment. It doesn't matter what you choose or how trivial it might seem. The key is that YOU'VE chosen it.

Why does choosing in a situation where you have no choice make a difference? Because any intentional choice is an act of personal power, and will increase your personal power. The more acts of power you do, the more personal power you will gain. The more personal power you have, the less you'll feel trapped by daily life. Just remember that you can do acts of power in any situation, no matter how little freedom you appear to have.

Enjoy!

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Ten Magical Problems You Fix Fast with Basic Magic Rituals

I wish our magic school had a staff of thousands of magicians on board to help people with their magical problems. Whether it be self-defense, removing hexes, reconnecting with lost ones, changing job prospects, or something else.

Most of these magical problems are not difficult to fix. You just have to have a certain level of magical knowledge, the basics, to be able to select and use the right magical tools and approaches to get the job done. Anyone on the planet can do magic.

There are no muggles.

The reason we don't have a huge staff available to do magic for people is that most of us are engaged in teaching, creating new materials, training other teachers, or tending to issues at different levels, ranging from community to galactic.

But that's as it should be. Why? Because at this school we adhere to the principle of:

"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime."

We certainly could use magic to "fix it" for a lot of people right now (and the good news is that we now have an on-staff practitioner who does help people directly--learn more here). But as a group, we teach people like you to be your own magical "fix it" guy.

Ten Problems You Could Solve with Basic Magic
OK, so now I'm going to climb down off my soapbox and talk to you about Basic Magic. Basic Magic is a 32-week teleconference course that gives you all the basic magical tools you'll need to solve most of life's problems ... be they major or minor.

That's why we are starting yet another Basic Magic class in June (even though we have 2 already in progress). People need to know this magic ... now, more than ever!

Want to know what kinds of problems you can solve? Here are 10 problems that current or past students have recently solved using the magical tools and rituals they learned in Basic Magic. Some are touching, some are deep, and some are just downright funny!

Ready? Here goes:

1. Hubby got wife to stop throwing temper tantrums and slamming doors by pulling "anger energy" (which is the color red-orange) out of her every time she started to get angry.
   
   
2. Unsuspecting woman won a random drawing for a trip to Belize. She had never won any contest or drawing in her life. She put a postcard of Belize on a keyed magical plate and drew the trip to her by putting a giant chunky magnet on top! It's called a "come along."
   
   
3. Son used dowsing methods to discover the right combination of supplements, medications, and therapies to help his mother recover after a series of strokes. She was completely recovered in 6 months.
   
   
4. Sugar-a-holic who had always been borderline diabetic lowered his fasting blood sugar to normal ranges and eats much less sugar. He wore fire colors to increase his metabolism, as well as used simulacra magic (voodoo magic) to separate him from his sugar cravings.
   
   
5. Mother helped her young son find their lost dog using map divination.
   
   
6. Avid horse woman used weather working skills to move an incoming storm further to south, keeping the day warm and clear for the horse show she wanted to attend.
   
   
7. Nephew helped his uncle pull through a dangerous surgery by creating a sun-crystal, which is a source of Spirit force that can be drawn upon when one's life is in danger. It works even if the person is unconscious, under anesthesia.
   
   
8. Woman got a different, better-paying job closer to home within 4 weeks of asking for help from angels, guides, and the Winds.
   
   
9. 9. Real estate agent helped a friend desperate to get out of town to be with her parents, who were in failing health. The house sold for asking price, even in a depressed market.
   
   
10. Last but not least, one wife got her husband to consistently put the toilet seat down after using the toilet. How? Not by asking him directly! She used the water bowl technique, which can be used for Spirit-to-Spirit communication, scrying, and much more!

I don't know about you, but I particularly enjoyed that last one. It's magic with a sense of humor, and heavens knows we should always enjoy using our magic!

So if any of the above situations amused, enchanted, or otherwise interested you, check out our new Basic Magic Course or drop us a line and ask some questions:

Basic Magic Course

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