What's In a Color?

A lot more than you might think! Each of the 4 elements, Air, Water, Fire and Earth, has different colors associated with them and these various colors represent different characteristics of these elements. For example, sky blue is an air color, but so is white. Sky blue is the color for spiritual air whereas white is the color for mental air. So if you are studying for a big test and need to be mentally focused and alert, white would be the color to surround yourself with. You can dress in white, study in a room with white walls or have a vase of white daisies on your white desk.

Here are some other examples of how you can use colors:
• Surround yourself with sky blue for spiritual awareness.
• Dress in the fire element color red to increase your metabolism and burn off weight.
• Use orange to attract attention or be the "life of the party".
• Use the Earth colors of brown or green to stay grounded or increase stability in your life.
• Sun yellow can give you an energy boost or lift up your mood.
• A medium blue color can increase your emotional awareness (stay away from too much really dark blue though as it can sometimes lead to depressive emotions).

Magical practitioners learn to use the energies from these 4 element colors for healing, sending psychic messages, self defense, balancing energies and a variety of other techniques. If you'd like to learn more about the 4 elements and how to use the colors associated with them, check out the 4 element courses offered by the Esoteric School of Shamanism and Magic. Or email info@shamanschool.com and ask about doing the 4 Element courses with our free offer!
You might just find the "pot of gold" for your life by following the magical rainbow!

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For Big Magical Changes, Start Small

Are you familiar with the spellwork principle that says 'A Small Change in the Present will Create a Larger Change in the Future'? It is part of the Universal Law of Divination.

That principle recently came to mind with an experience shared by my friend Anna. Anna had been over a year without a job. She had become very depressed at her lack of funds, lack of productivity and lack of direction. She was constantly complaining of all that she did not have in her life at present.

I suggested to her one day that by concentrating on her lack, she was attracting more of the same to herself and that maybe it was time to try making a change. She didn't need to make a huge, revolutionary change, just something small to realign her energies, raise her energetic tone, and attract a more positive flow into her life.

Anna decided to give it a try. She couldn't do much about her due bills or increase her bank balance, but she decided she could get out from in front of the TV and find something useful she could do. Anna ended up volunteering at a local homeless shelter. She started out serving meals and reading to children and soon advance to teaching adult skill classes. As she became more invested in her volunteer work, she became less invested in her own depression and on all that she lacked in her life.

The director of the center noticed Anna had a gift for the work and after several months offered her a paid staff position. She later was given the opportunity to receive grant monies to pursue a degree in Social Work while continuing to work at the center.

Anna graduated last Spring with her degree and this year was offered a position as the director of a new homeless shelter being built. When I received a letter from Anna sharing her story, I reflected on how that small change she made that day did indeed create larger changes for her in the future.

She increased her energy tone up just a notch which opened up all new fields of energy bands to her. Also by making a small change rather than a large one, she didn't run into the resistance that often accompanies larger changes.

You too can use this principle to create changes that can transform your life. Pick a goal and then pick one very small change you can make towards it. When you accomplish the first step, take another, then another, until you reach your goal. Taking those small steps, making small changes, allows for the magic to work in your life.

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The Power of Pause

Recently I encountered a situation with a friend that I could tell almost immediately involved an archetype of his I know well. I have run against this personality before and have learned that it is single minded in its focus, determined to have its way and unreasonable. We had planned a weekend of yard work, but when I saw snow falling from the sky with temperatures in the 20s, I felt sure those plans would be altered. My friend in his archetypal state saw it differently. This is what he planned to do, was set to do and was going to do regardless of the weather. My usual response when faced with this particular archetype is to try to reason with my friend, present objections and get him to see that he is wrong. I in turn then become angry and defensive as I find I cannot sway him. This is how most of us humans usually react in our mechanical ways. This time however I truly understood the value of the Cortothalamic Pause.

I felt myself go very calm and immediately shut my mouth. I just sat there and watched as my friend argued his case that yard work is what we planned and yard work is what he must now do. When he finally wound down and ran out of words, I sat quietly for a few seconds and then was able to calmly state that I would not be doing yard work in a snow storm in 20 degree weather and that I hoped he would reconsider his plan, but if not then I understood that we each have to choose for ourselves what we thinks is best. I was then able to walk away with no anger, no guilt and no judgment.

Cortothalamic. The second part of this word comes from thalamus which is part of the forebrain. The thalamus deals with sensory and motor functions. Responses coming from a feeling level are usually immediate or mechanical reactions. Neurons take the sensory information and send it to the cortex. Cortex is where the first part of the word comes from. The cerebrum or cortex is the largest part of the brain and deals with higher functions such as reasoning and conscious thinking. The Cortothalamic Pause creates a bridge between these two levels allowing us to move from reaction to reason. At the thalamic level you can check your reaction to see how you feel about a situation or interaction, but then take that information to the cortex level to reason out the best response.

This of course is not something I just instinctively knew to do. It has taken a lot of training and practice for it to become natural. The Cortothalamic Pause is a way of stretching time, which is very useful in shamanic practice for healing, research and time travel. Once you become proficient at using "The Pause", you actually feel separated from physical time. So how do you go about learning this useful tool?

1. Practice several times a day starting with small things that are not something you have a passion for. Don't start with something you know is a pet peeve or "touchy" subject for you.

2. When someone asks you a question or asks you to do something – STOP. Do not immediately respond. Clamp your mouth shut and calm everything inside you as much as you can. This part takes practice too.

3. Wait 2-3 seconds and don't let your mind race ahead thinking of all the things you could say in response. Just absorb the question and stay quiet.

4. Take a deep breath and now respond to the question.

You will be surprised at how different your response is after giving yourself the time for both the cortex and thalamus to absorb the information. The Power is in the Pause.

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What Else Can You Teach Me?

This is what we are often asked after people read our "Is Magic Real?" article and send for the cloud exercise. After experiencing for themselves the joy of magic through working with clouds they are eager for more. The answer to the question is – LOTS!!

First, for those of you just having a little fun with magic or those who are new to magic and not quite ready to take the full plunge, we have a rich library of articles in our Resources section. This is where you will find the article "Is Magic Real?" that includes how to send for the cloud exercise mentioned above. There are also articles covering a variety of magical topics including Spells, Divination, Healing and Health, Guidance and Help and several others. Check out the entire library.

There are many other offerings in our Resources section we hope you will explore. And they are all FREE! Over the years, we have conducted many free teleconferences and short email courses. These are archived as audio files or text in the Resource section. You can listen to audios of guest speakers on topics such as Dowsing, Animal Communication, and Feng Shui, to mention a few. And don't miss the archive of "Magic in Your Mailbox" that offers some good beginning magical exercises.

Are you ready to get more serious about magical studies? For you, we have 2 free audio files on our website that will let you get a taste of the classes and types of material in them. There is an audio file for Introduction to Basic Magic and one for the sample "Athame" class . We also have complete homestudy courses on multi-media cd for Basic Magic, Basic Shamanism, Magical Self Defense and Tarot.

If you are looking at taking your magical studies in smaller bites, we have Short Courses on each of the 4 Elements and on Four Element Balancing and a variety of ebooks.

Whatever level you are at, we hope you will join us at our blog and share your magical experiences with us as we share ours with you. Blessings to you on your magical journey.

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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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