What’s in a sign

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Matt Williams

I am a firm believer that there are sources for inspiration everywhere. All you need to do is look around you at any given point and you have the potential to see hundreds of things that will get your mind moving. From the beauty of a flower opening to the complexity that is the human body, the wonders of this world are amazing and thought provoking. However, one of my favorite thought generators is not necessarily part of the “natural” world, but it something created by man. In every town across America, and similarly in many other countries, there are these wonderful creations that have the potential to generate deep thoughts and hopefully open discourse about their meanings.

What is it that I am talking about? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Church marquees.

Yep, that’s right, those signs that are out in front of nearly every church with short little snippets designed to clue you in to the plan that God has for you. Sometimes these messages are just quotes from the Bible, at other times, they are witty messages designed by a clever mind within the church to grab your attention. If you are on Facebook, Tumblr or any other social networking site that allows pictures, you have probably seen some of the marquee messages that have gone wrong. These are always amusing as those of us with more perverted minds twist good intentioned messages into slogans you would expect to see on a porno movie. Don’t believe me? Do a quick search on the internet for “Church Sign Fails” and you will get gems like “Behold! I come quickly.”, “The most powerful position on Earth is on your knees” and “Bored? Try a missionary position.”

Signs like these have a way of bringing out a giggle in me as my inner child is really just a twisted little 12 year old boy who likes boobs and sex jokes. But these aren’t the ones that get my attention and start my brain working. No, the ones that really get my mind churning are the more inspirational ones. The ones that are intended to bring us a little ray of light and realization about what that particular church feels our relationship with the creator should be. Over the past few months, I have seen some very poignant ones that I thought I would share with you and give you my take on them as well.

The first one that has been brewing around in my head was spotted last year in the late fall at a church on my way home from work. The message was a bit more cryptic than most, but the overall gist still came through. “One king to rule them all, one king to find them” Now, I know that they are talking about Jesus here and the idea of him being the almighty King of Kings. I can only assume that they were hoping to draw in a younger crowd by making a very clear Tolkien reference as well, but I think they might have missed the mark on their intention and inadvertently hit on a big reason why many people actually flee the church. My first observation with this sign was that while it was clever, I am not sure you want to base your sermon or church’s message on the poem describing Sauron’s One Ring which was crafted to bind, rule and destroy all inhabitants of Middle Earth. Doesn’t really speak much of love, forgiveness or charity to me. My second thought though was that this is particularly the mindset that many people have of past and even some modern Christianity. It’s hard to argue that the church has not had a pretty notorious background when it comes to spreading its message throughout the ages. Like the other 19 rings that were given out in Tolkien’s stories, the initial message of Christianity was often spread as a blessing and gift to those who received it. However, through the desire for power by the men in charge, the gift that was given freely soon became a curse and a binding for those under its power. The faith that was supposed to save them now has them doomed to a fiery eternity should they betray any of the orders given. The peace loving, generous King of Kings was transformed into the warrior King of a jealous God. Not exactly the kind of guy you want to open up to when you have hit rock bottom in your life. I truly hope that they put a good spin on this one during the sermons as anyone who caught the Sauron reference was likely a little concerned about the direction of that church.

The next one that has been swimming around my head is certainly not a new slogan, but has always been one that just had me puzzled. I was never really sure why it had me in such a quandary until I started exploring my own spirituality more and could see it from a different perspective.

“God is my co-pilot”

This one has been on marquees and bumper stickers for as long as I can remember. Based off of the book title by General Robert Scott, Jr of the same name, this slogan has been a staple in the Christian community for decades now. The general idea behind it is that while you are the pilot of your life, God is there to help support you and give you back up when you need it. In general, I like this idea and I think with the planes of the 1940′s it was a good metaphor. However, this never really resonated with me in today’s time and culture. As I understand it, most planes that have two pilots, need them both to operate. There are too many functions to properly maintain flight for just one person to do so. For me, this implies that our lives are too complicated for us to handle on our own. We are in need of some outside deity to pick up the parts of our lives that are beyond our reach or scope of control. For some of us, this may be true. If you imagine your life like a 747, carrying everything and everyone that has ever held meaning for you, then yes, you probably do need a co-pilot as you are carrying way more than you can handle. But what if you look at things a little differently. What if you take God away from the co-pilot seat and put him in the position of charterer. Picture your life now as a private plane that seats just what you need. Before initial take off, God has set a destination with you. All the resources you need will be provided throughout the journey but it is up to you to use them wisely. The course for the flight is up to you and can be altered throughout the duration depending on how you see fit. Along the way, there are specific stops that are requested on this charter flight and while only the final destination is guaranteed, you can be certain that if you refuse to stop at the requested mid points, you will likely be bugged about them over and over again until you stop. Along the way, you will pick up additional passengers and drop them off again when their journey with you is over. Some may fly with you for years and others for only a quick shuttle flight on their way to something different. As each passenger comes and goes, it is up to you to allow them the space in your plane to feel welcome while they are there and cherished when they must go. As you arrive at your final destination, it is up you to clean out your plane and recap the flight. Did you lose anything along the way? Did you find yourself doubling back over and over because you were too arrogant to accept the suggestions you were given? Did you land that last time with a sense of pride and purpose or a feeling of lack and regret? Either way, your charter was completed. Either way, you will have the option to do it all again if you choose.

The last one that has been piquing my neurons is one that I have just seen recently and was one of the more clever ones for word play.

“Forbidden fruit creates many jams”

This one quite obviously ties into the whole original sin bit and the idea that if Adam and Eve hadn’t tasted from the one tree they were told not to, then we might still be living in paradise as we speak. The idea of “forbidden fruits” being tempting is likely as old as man’s organized gathering into tribes and creating primitive leadership. One person says the something is off limits, someone else feels an insatiable need to do it. Very few people really enjoy being told that they cannot do something. Even when it is fairly obvious that the outcome will be bad, there is still a lust for doing it simply because we were told we cannot. This sign sparked in me a thought of how would society act if there were no steadfast statements that said certain things are absolutely off limits. What if instead, there was an education that all things can be done, but that there are very specific reactions that will come form them. You might call them consequences, but I prefer the idea of simple action and reaction. This takes something like “You shall not steal” to “If you steal, you will be prosecuted and punished”. This is a very simplistic way of looking at things, but the thought is there. Would we act any different if there was no forbidden fruit? Would we adjust our overall societal view if we looked at each choice we face simply from an action/reaction perspective? I can’t say one way or the other, but it keeps me wondering if it is the tasting of the forbidden fruit that makes the jam or the fact that the fruit is forbidden in the first place.

A friend in need…

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Matt Williams

Sorry to have bailed out on you all last week. Every once in a while, we all go through situations that just seem to throw us for a loop and send us completely off track. Last week was one of those times for me. I sat for most of the day on Sunday in a state of confusion and frustration as I felt my ego puffing up and my confidence shrinking.

I’m getting ahead of myself, let me give you a little background.

A few weeks ago, I got a message from a friend out of the blue that he was having issues with what he felt was a spiritual attachment or entity. We talked about the concerns he had and the issues he was experiencing and it really seemed to be something outside of his own energy that was causing this. I offered to help him out in any way I could and we started off with dowsing his home to see if the energies and vibrations were out of whack. Throughout the session, I found a number of things that were off in the energy fields of his home and himself. As is my standard, I asked Spirit to correct these imbalances and reset everything back to its ideal level. Feeling confident that some progress had been made, I let him know that I was completed with the dowsing and asked him to fill me in on any changes he felt in the energy around the house and if the entity had left.

The next day, my friend let me know that the dowsing had been effective in that things had calmed down for a bit. However, the entity soon returned and things were back to the way they had been for him. Back to square one.

We talked more about some of the specifics that had been happening to him and through some additional research, we came to a conclusion about what this thing was that he was dealing with. We decided to meet up later that week and work on removing the attachment once and for all. Throughout the week, we continued to talk and my friend mentioned that he was also working with some other spiritual professionals to try and get rid of the attachment. I didn’t think too much of this as we typically work in groups and I knew the people he was working with and they are also friends. They day we were to meet up, my friend told me that the other practitioner had advised him that he was venturing into free will territory in his plans and that she wouldn’t be able to help him anymore. We were both a little confused by this, but I felt that it was likely just her telling him that her part in the fix was completed.

We went about our plans and things seemed to be going well for us. I showed my friend some additional cleansing and clearing techniques and we discussed much of what the other practitioners had said as well. Upon the completion of our plans, we got a bite to eat and called it a night. The rest of the week was pretty quiet in our communications so I took that as a sign that all was well. Come to find out that next Sunday, I was wrong.

We had both signed up to go to an event hosted by the practitioner that I mentioned earlier. Midday, I received a message from my friend that he was asked to leave an earlier event due to the negative energy that the still remaining entity was producing.

Needless to say, we were both a little thrown by this turn of events and my mind started churning in ways that I soon found were not beneficial to me. The messages I was getting about his seemed to implicate that the practitioner was excluding him from the group because the work he had done with me had failed and that she was upset that he worked with me and not her. This was not a reaction that I had expected from this practitioner as I have known her for nearly two years and she had always come across as a very open person and not one to fall prey to jealousy or ego related issues. As this all sank in, I began to have a very odd feeling come over me. First, it was an element of my ego being bruised. To think that the work I had helped my friend with had failed, was a bit hard for me to take right away. Especially since I had not heard anything back all week regarding the attachment. No news is supposed to be good news, right? My ego began to run rampant with this and I began fabricating ideas that maybe this other person was telling him the entity was still there to make him feel guilty for not working with her. Maybe it was to specifically take a shot at me. Maybe she doesn’t really think all those nice things she says about me. Maybe she’s glad that I haven’t been making it to her events lately. Maybe I really do suck at this. Further and further down this ego driven spiral was I headed. All the while, my ego being puffed up into anger and my confidence being driven into the dirt.

I reached out to the practitioner and to my friend more throughout the day trying to get a better handle on what was going on. My head was in a fog of frustration and depression and I was certainly not feeling very mindful at all. Being in the middle of this situation between two friends was messing with my head and my heart more than I could understand. Later in the day, I began to get some clarity on the situation though. My friend messaged me back with a deeper explanation of why the other practitioner had backed away from working with him. The message contained information that allowed me to see that it was not anything in particular that we had done or not done that upset the balance. It was more that my friend had not listened to Spirit’s guidance when it was given to him in the first place. He had taken his free will option to explore other alternatives and while what we did had some effectiveness, it was not what he needed to so to resolve the situation on his own. When he finally listened to that guidance, the entity released and things began to calm down.

This cleared up a lot for me and my mind began to settle down considerably. After checking in with Spirit myself, and realizing that this whole time I had not really done that, there were some key things that became clear for me in this. First off, there was a lesson or two for me to gain out of my part in this. One, I need to ask better questions of those that I am working with. Had I probed deeper into the reasons why the other practitioner backed out, I might have been able to avoid the whole situation. Two, and probably the most important, it wasn’t about me. It never was. My ego bruising and my confidence flailing was just the fabrication of my own mind putting myself first.

This was a good wake up call for me to make sure that I am stepping back from any and every situation before reacting and taking things personally.

There is still much that I need to learn about connecting to and deeply listening to Spirit when it counts. However, I think that this experience has helped me to understand that there are lessons everywhere for us and that sometimes we need to get bruised before we can really experience the healing. I truly appreciate both friends for the roles they played in this as I know that things played out exactly as they needed to and I am fairly certain there are no hard feelings left at all.

Be the emissary you are seeking

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Matt Williams

Have you ever found yourself in a group of new people and getting along with them all marvelously only to over hear them minutes later bashing someone else who they don’t jive with? We have all been there at one point in our lives or another and I would wager that we have all been on every side of this as well. Sometimes you are the new person, wondering if you should speak up. Other times, you may be the target of the animosity and feeling the sting of their words. Unfortunately, there are likely even times that you have been the aggressor and the one leading the verbal onslaught.

Humans are fickle creatures and many of us have deep challenges with honestly accepting other people who differ from them in their looks, speech, beliefs or just about any other aspect that can be compared. As we discover that we are different, there is an almost instant reaction in our brains to determine if this difference will cause us harm or help us out in some way. The choice that we make then colors every interaction we have with that person and makes it very hard for us to truly change the original view that we had of them.

As I have interacted with various groups of people in my life, I keep searching for that elusive group of individuals that truly embraces and supports diversity in every way. I have found some groups that get really close and I have also found some groups that ended up being so exclusive that it was a wonder that any of the actual members were ever accepted. It was not surprising to me that the most inclusive groups were those that surrounded or represented people that were either misunderstood, feared or downright abused. The groups that were exclusive? Well, they were usually the ones doing the misunderstanding, fearing and abusing. What has bothered me the most though is that even though I have migrated to an area where I can surround myself with more and more accepting souls, there is still so much elitism and separation. This has become more and more apparent for me in my spiritual life as well and that is the one place that you would really hope to be able to avoid that.

I have never been much of one to blend in well with organized religion. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I think it is a bad thing to gather together with others and share your faith. It just hasn’t been right for me. The big thing that seems to keep coming up in every religious group that I have encountered is that they are all so convinced that their way is the one and only way to enlightenment. From my Christian upbringing, to my current pagan path, I just keep finding these groups that are so amazingly certain they are on the one true path and all others are just fooling themselves. This has never st very well with me. Throughout my upbringing, I was taught that there was one path to eternal salvation and happiness. This path allowed for forgiveness of my faults and transgressions, but told me that from the beginning I was flawed and imperfect. I needed to seek my salvation outside of myself as I was not worthy on my own to stand before the creator. This didn’t really do much for my personal self image and after many years of this path, I began to deeply question it. Why was I flawed in the eyes of my creator? Why was I not able to rectify my own actions and achieve salvation through my own intent? Furthermore, what about all the billions of other people on this planet that did not follow this path at all? Were they doomed to the fires of damnation just because they were not walking the same path as me? I sincerely hoped not.

The exclusivity of this path became unfortunately apparent to me one day as I was talking with my pastor about my concerns. I gave him a scenario in which a devoted Jewish woman had lived her entire life following her chosen religious path and had been a committed member of her religious community. She was pious, charitable, loving and respectful of all. Her true love in life was her relationship with the creator and no trauma in her life could shake that. No one could be found that did not have something nice to say about her in life and after her death. Her one fault in accordance with our faith is that she did not accept Jesus to be the Messiah and her Lord and savior. Did this mean that she was going to Hell?

My pastor was one of the most liberal and open Christians that I had met so I held high hopes that he would comfort me with some openness in the Kingdom of Heaven for this fictional woman. I was wrong. After a contemplative pause, he responded by telling me that even if you teach a cat to bark, it still doesn’t make it a dog. Just because all the right actions are done and even with the right intentions, this does not grant you a place in heaven. With out the one key aspect of our faith, all were doomed to an eternity of fire and brimstone. Millions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and more were all going to be packing the halls in the fire down below.

Needless to say, this did not comfort me. In fact it cemented my departure from the Christian faith and set me on a search towards my own personal salvation which did not include mass damnation if others disagreed with me. Through out many encounters, I eventually found the world of Paganism and the many open paths that it provides. This seemed to be the perfect match for me. As an umbrella term for all nature based spiritual paths, I found that there was acceptance for those that followed deities from cultures long gone and those still present and active in the spirit of nature itself. I found that within this umbrella was the acceptance that I had felt inside me all along. That I did not need to seek salvation from without because I was not inherently flawed from within to begin with. It was in this understanding and acceptance that I began to feel comfortable and free to express myself.

Yet, even within these boundaries of freedom and openness, there was still a lurking elitism and exclusivity. The more organized groups that I met, the more I saw the same kind of close-minded bullshit that I had left behind me before. Most were very open to the different paths that their fellow Pagans were following, but when it came to being accepting of the paths that members of the Judeo-Christian community were following, the tolerance was much lower. Jabs were often thrown around about the blind leading the blind or the followers being little more than sheep.

This blatant prejudice was no better and no more deserved than the hell fires that were waiting for them in the minds of their Christian targets. If we are going to be accepting of other Pagan paths as being as valid as our own chosen one, then we need to be just as open to the idea that ALL other paths are as valid as ours. As with any cherry picked example, these stories are not indicative of all followers of Pagan or Christian paths. Or any religious path for that matter. Along the way, I have met some amazing people of all faiths that have shown me that an open heart and mind can be the bridge to personal truth in every possible situation. There are emissaries out there from all faiths, beliefs and paths that are seeking to create the mutual bonds needed to truly build the interfaith cooperation and acceptance that is needed to raise the vibration of the planet to where we all seek it to be. Throughout my muggle career, I have been fortunate to work at a number of religious educational institutions and I have seen a growing movement towards interfaith coordination and cooperation. This movement has helped to spawn a greater understanding of the common ground that we all share and helps us move towards the common goals that we all have. I encourage you, regardless of your personal belief structure, to seek out this type of open discussion and understanding. Not sure how to find a local emissary? Step up and become one. Reach out people you already know that do not share your faith and see what you can learn from them. Not everyone will be open to it, but for every one that is, your awareness will be expanded greatly because of it. So, I will leave you with this one bit of homework for the week. Find someone in your life that you know does not share your faith. Ask them if they would be open to helping you understand their faith better. Be open to what they have to say and use this opportunity as a chance to exchange ideas and not debate who is right or wrong. I think you may be surprised how much their faith resembles your own.

A Meditative Journey to the Center of the Earth

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Matt Williams

If you are anything like me, this year has already started out busy and hectic. Crazy days at work, family drama, bad news and violence all over the media. If you thought that just by shifting to a new calendar, things would smooth out for you, you are probably finding yourself even deeper in your frustration and anger. In the spirit of this chaotic energy, I thought it would be a good time to take a few minutes and ground ourselves. It is amazing the clarity that can come in during even a few brief moments of quiet contemplation and relaxation.

Before we begin, you may be asking; “What is grounding and why do I need to do it?”

In the most basic terms, grounding is the practice of focusing and stabilizing the energy within us. In our world of high speed information and constant energy exchange, we often get left feeling as though we are being pulled in a thousand directions and little bits of us get scattered everywhere. Through every interaction we have, we create energetic cords that tie us to the people, places and things that we come in contact with. Unconsciously, we often leave these cords in place well after they have served their purpose and begin to act as energy drains instead of information carriers. The practice of grounding helps us to call in these cords and draw our energies back to our core. This not only focuses our own personal energy, but also helps us to create clearer, brighter connections with the power sources that reside in both earth and sky.

As we ground, we focus our thoughts and intentions on connecting to the Earth. Of all the energy sources around us, the ground beneath us is the most stable and permanent. It is in this permanence that we find our core power and an element of peace within us. This peaceful power can be very effective in helping us to navigate our days with greater clarity and purpose.

Tonight, we will be taking a meditative journey to ground ourselves. This will be a group trip to a place within your own consciousness that you can then return to whenever you feel the need.

Begin by finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Adjust your lighting, settle yourself in and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths with me and relax your body. Feel the relaxation in your toes. With each breath in, feel the comforting energy flow into your body. With each breath out, feel your tension and stress release. Feel the deep relaxation flowing into your feet. Feel the comforting energies of your breath release the stress in your legs. Feel the relaxation in your hips as you settle your breath into a relaxed pace. Feel the relaxation flow into your spine and extend out to your arms, hands and fingers. As your breathing relaxes, feel the comforting energies rise through your neck and throughout your head. You are completely relaxed and enjoying the bliss of your own comforting energies. The sounds of the room dissipate, the sensations of your body go soft and the only thing you hear is the sound of my voice as we journey away.

Picture in your mind a crowded space. It may be a busy street, a bustling office space or an overly filled room. Allow yourself to feel the energy of the space and interact with the people and things around you. With each interaction, visualize a thin cord extending out from your body to connect with the person or object you connect with. Move throughout the space and continue to connect to the energies around you. Allow yourself to feel the energies of the space again and allow the cords you have connected to remain attached. Feel the energies that come from those cords and acknowledge that this is the same energy you feel in your waking day. Acknowledge and understand that any draining or negative energy you feel is the result of these cords separating you from your core power. One by one, call back these cords from your connections. Say to each connection: “Thank you, I honor your energy as yours, but it is not my own.” “Thank you, I honor your energy as yours, but it is not my own.” Thank you, I honor your energy as yours, but it is not my own.”

As you speak these words to each connection, see your cords retract within you and allow the connected person or object to fade away. As they fade away, see in their place a glimpse of an open field. Continue to release and retract your cords, honoring each connection as they fade away into the open field. As your connections fade, you begin to see the blooming flowers, majestic mountains and bright hues of the morning sky touching the green grasses around you. As you call in the last of your cords, you see that the bustling scene you once pictured is now a quiet place of calm and serenity. As you look around you, you can feel the Earth beneath you calling for the touch of your feet. As you remove your shoes and allow the cool grasses to caress your toes, you can feel the vibration of the ground beneath you. Soft and rhythmic like the beating of a heart, you can feel the pulse of Mother Earth beneath you. With each beat, you feel roots burrowing into the soil from the soles of your feet. Deeper and deeper they go into the cool moist earth. With each breath and with each beat, you feel the energies of the Earth flowing through you. Every breath in draws power and nourishment from beneath you. Every breath out, releases the tension, fear and anxiety from your body. Deeper and deeper your roots continue to grow. Nourishing and detoxifying your body, mind and soul with each breath and beat. As your roots reach for the core of the earth, you feel them wrap around it and embrace the pure energy of Mother Earth. A surge of power flows up through your roots and fills your body with a radiant light. This is the light of the Earth and the light of your soul. As you bask in this light, you can hear a voice calling to you from within. It is the voice of the Earth within you. “Your connection to my core is a divine bond that can never be broken. I honor you as you honor me. I pledge to your soul that I will hold you strong in my love for you. This light within you holds you tight to me. Remember this light when you feel yourself losing your footing and your connection. This place you have created here is ours and is here for you whenever you choose to return. This is our place of communion, our home and our sanctuary. I release you now knowing that our bond is in place, forever holding you to the power within you.”

Feel your roots beginning to release from the core and rise towards you. With each breath they rise towards you compressing and focusing the energies that they carry. As your roots reach your feet, you feel the surge of power again and see the light radiating around you drawn into your root chakra. As this grounding energy resonates within your root chakra, feel it spread throughout your body as a calming yet empowering wave. Allow yourself to remain in this state of calm for as long as you like.

When you are ready to leave, you turn to see a path behind you. As you begin to walk this path, you begin to hear the sounds of your room once more. The feelings and sensations of your space become apparent more as you walk further and further along this path. Your become aware of your breathing once more and as you are ready, your eyes open to the room around you. We acknowledge this journey with one last deep breath and thank our Mother Earth for pledging to always hold us strong in her love.

Namaste

My rescue rescued me

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Matt Williams

Three to four million each year. More than the population of Chicago itself. More than the population of about half the states in this country. More than the population of some entire countries. And the problem is, it is only an estimate. The real number is likely much higher.

What is this statistic you ask? It is the approximate number of euthanized shelter animals in the United States. Out of the nearly 8 million cats and dogs that enter the shelter systems, about half of them end up euthanized. “So what?”, you say. “They are just animals.” Well, you are partly right. They are just animals, and they are also so much more. They are potential caring companions, family members and loving friends.

I was raised with pets nearly my whole life. We had the usual dogs and cats, some fish here and there and I even a had a pet rat for a little while. I guess it just seemed like the normal average thing to have some furry little thing running around the house. As I grew up though and our last pets were no longer with us, I went through a long period with no animal companion. I didn’t have anther pet until I in my twenties and getting married. We got a little puppy and that loving nature of animals began to flow around me again. He was a yappy little dog that was a tightly wound ball of muscle and barks, but he was my little buddy. He would play when asked and would cuddle when needed too. However, as my kids grew older, we found that he was not as tolerant of small children as we needed him to be and we knew he needed a home where he could be free to be himself. Thankfully, we had family that was willing to take him in and provide him a home with less child infused insanity and still allowed us to visit regularly.

Fast forward a few years and a whole lot of drama later, and I find myself now living in a new state both physically and mentally. Divorced and transferred multiple times within my company, I started down a path that truly allowed me to see not only the beauty of having an animal companion, but also the magick that they have inside them. In the midst of my spiritual and emotional awakenings, there was a little ball of fur that allowed me into her life and in the process changed mine.

I had been learning more and more about ghosts and paranormal experiences and was connecting some of the things I had seen and felt around my apartment with some possible previous tenants. On a particularly active morning, I had been getting ready to go to work and had multiple signs of activity around the house. Things falling, weird sounds, the usual kinds of things. Before I left for work, I decided I would reach out to the spirit and ask for some sort of definitive communication. I told the spirit that I was going to work and wanted to see a sign when I got back that there was something there. We had just gotten a fresh blanket of about 6 inches of snow that night and not even the birds had left tracks yet. Looking out my porch sliding door, I said out loud to whatever else was in the apartment with me. Show me some footprints in the snow if you are really here. I knew it was possible, yet I really doubted that I would see anything.

I buttoned up my coat and hopped in the car fully expecting to have a mundane day and come home to find nothing but my mundane apartment. As I said, we had just gotten a fresh snow and as it turned out, it was too much for my car to handle getting up the steeply inclined driveway to get out of my complex. After about an hour of trying, I parked my car out of the way of the plows and called the office to say I wouldn’t be in. At this point I was so frustrated that I had completely forgot about my ghostly challenge only an hour before. As I walked back in the door and took off my coat, I happened to glance out the porch door and something caught my eye. I walked closer and saw that there was a set of tracks in the snow. A single line of cat tracks appeared from somewhere off to the side of my porch, walked up to my door, turned around and walked back. I had lived in that apartment for nearly a year and there had been no previous sign of any domesticated animal activity anywhere. I could not help but think that this was a direct answer to my paranormal challenge. Show you a footprint? I’ll show you a whole set of ‘em.

I paid very close attention to my porch over the next 4 months and never again saw any evidence of any cats in the area. In this time, I had developed a greater connection with my spirit guides and had set some good boundaries with the spiritual residents in my home as well. I had chalked the cat prints up to a good lesson and a heck of a ghost story to tell. Until the day I came home from a trip up to Chicago to see a beautiful silver and white cat sitting on the railing of my porch. Holy hell, who are you? Was this the cat that had left the tracks? Where did it come from and why haven’t I seen it before? As I approached the porch door, the cat jumped down and took off running. Something had changed though. Each night when I would come home from work, I would see her. Sometimes just running across the porch, sometimes sitting and relaxing.

Over the next few months, I began building trust with her by leaving food out and trying to get her used to me. Thinking she must have been a stray that found her way out here, I asked my neighbor about her and was shocked to find out that she had actually been living on the property for at least two years and had two kittens with her too. My neighbor had been feeding her and though she wandered the whole area, somehow she never came by me until now. This intrigued me even more and I began what I would later find was a path of re-domestication for her. Throughout the summer, I would sit on the porch every night and often with a hand dangling down so she could smell me. It was not long before she felt at least comfortable enough to rub against me now and again before running off. We continued to build this bond up to the point that she even began to come inside my apartment when I left the door open. There was something about her that just seemed so beautiful and magical that I wanted to do all that I could for her. I made sure she stayed fed, gave her love all that I could, but she had been scarred by human contact in the past and was very leery of getting too close.

After another of my weekend trips to Chicago, I came home and was yet again surprised by what I saw. Well, I guess this time is was more of what I heard. Howling and moaning seemed to be coming from my porch and as I got close to the back door, I saw what looked like blood. Mind racing, I opened the door to see that this beautiful, shy cat had just given birth to six little kittens on my porch. Despite all the safer, more secluded places that she could have had them, she chose my back door as her place of delivery. If it wasn’t already in the back of my mind about bringing her in from outside, these precious little bundles cemented it. I knew I wasn’t quite ready to bring them all in for good just yet as I had no idea how to train an outdoor cat to be an indoor cat and I couldn’t leave them all in the apartment while I was at work. After a week of getting things together and learning all I could about litter training a cat, I was ready to bring them in after I made my next weekend trip up north. Excited about my new adventure, I came home that Monday and was shocked to see them all gone. No mom, no kittens…nothing. Figuring that she had taken them somewhere safer, I decided I would leave the back door open when I was home so that she could bring them back now that she knew I was there. Two days passed with no sign of her. She finally arrived late one evening carrying a baby in her mouth. She came in and laid down seeming scared and exhausted. I expected her to go out and get the others, but it quickly became apparent that this was the only one left. I shut the door and made a promise to this tired and scared little cat that she wouldn’t need to feel that way again. I set her up in my bathroom with all that she would need for food, water and litter and tried to make sure that she and her baby were well cared for. Unfortunately, the kitten did not make it. The vet told me that he was likely undernourished and that the whole litter’s survival chances were pretty slim. Through that loss, I felt an even deeper bond with the precious little furball that we now call “Mama”. In a way like no other pet before, I had saved this one and in turn, I think she saved me as well. After that, she never showed any desire to go too far from my apartment and even began sleeping on my lap and snuggling next to me in bed.

In my rescue of her, I was able to save her from a potential fate of living and dying in fear and survival mode. In her rescue of me, she gave me the companionship and love that I was needing at the time and showed me how amazing an animal’s love can be. This cat was given to me by the Universe exactly when I needed it and I was there for her when she needed it too. I say with all conviction that she has forever changed my perspective on pets and specifically on rescue pets. While not every rescue story is this dramatic, every pet in a shelter has a story. There are literally millions of pets each year that are hoping for their forever person to walk through those shelter doors and take them home. The strides made by no-kill shelters, foster families and non-profit organizations have dropped the kill rate dramatically, but there is still so much work to be done. Lack of funding, resources and space are all primary reasons why so many animals are euthanized each year across the country. If everyone was able to adopt, shelter kills would disappear quickly. That however, is just not realistic as many people are not in a position to care for an animal. However, nearly everyone is in a position to help out. Small donations of money, food, supplies and your time are all great ways to help keep these animals alive until they can find their forever homes. If you have it in your heart and room in your home, becoming a foster family can also help to save the lives of these wonderful animals and keep them from just becoming another statistic. I encourage you to contact your local shelter to see how you can help. Your gift of time, money or resources may make the difference in more than just a pet’s life.

Bilocation and absolute beauty

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Matt Williams

Let me preface this segment tonight by saying that I am thrilled to be living in these exciting times of discovery and that science is REALLY FUCKING COOL.

In the past, I have discussed some of the revelations that I have had in regards to the connections that are developing between the spirituality that I have been exploring and the science I know to be around me. One of my big shifts in this came after watching the documentary “The Quantum Activist” by Dr. Amit Goswami. This is a wonderfully put together movie describing Dr. Goswami’s theories on how we are all connected on a sub-atomic level and how quantum mechanics is beginning to explain how our consciousness and existence actually works. One of the theories that he puts forth, describes his thoughts on how manifestation works and why we don’t always get the things we seek. In this theory, he suggests that at a rate beyond our current measurement, the Universe is actually collapsing upon itself and re-expanding to create the reality we see. It is in these contractions and re-creations that our desires become realities and we are essentially creating the world we seek with every thought. There are of course conflicts that result from this as we do not live in a vacuum and it is not only our choices that define the physical world around us. It is also the desires of the trillions of other sentient beings on this planet that make up the realities that manifest in the world. It does set an interesting goal though. Imagine the potentials that could arise as we all shift towards collectively wanting improvement in our societies and our environments. The more we are all on the same page, the more broad the creative stokes can be in making those desires into the reality we see around us.

I have also been fascinated by the idea of particle bilocation and the potential behind it. For many years now, scientists have been struggling with the strange behavior of sub-atomic particles. In the early 1800′s Thomas Young set up an experiment that initially showed that light consisted of both particles and waves. This famous “double-slit experiment” opened the door to the idea that some particles could and did behave differently when under direct observation and when left to their own path. When this experiment was done at a particle level another interesting thing was observed. Single photons, fired one at a time, showed the same potential of reacting in different ways. The photon had the ability and potential to go through not only one slit and act like a particle hitting the screen with an uninterrupted pattern but it also had the potential to go through both slits and act like a wave providing an interference pattern. That is right, the particle demonstrated the ability to bilocate and go through both slits at the same time with no loss of energy.

Needless to say, this has had scientists very intrigued for quite some time. Imagine the idea that a single particle could somehow split itself with no loss of energy and be in two places at the same time. This led to years of experiments on larger and larger scales up to the point of molecular conglomerations of up to 70 carbon atoms. One of the thoughts behind all this was the idea that if a particle could do it, and we are all made of particles, then why can’t we do it? The possibilities behind being able to physically be in two places at once seem almost limitless. However, in the experiments there always seemed to be something limiting the ability for bilocation in larger specimens. Until recently…

I watched a TEDtalks video the other day from Aaron O’Connell, an experimental particle physicist, who was discussing an experiment that he created. What he set out to do was to further explore the idea of larger specimens behaving in a quantum manner. After creating an observable object, in this case a thin silicon chip, he set about to isolate the chip from all influential forces by removing light, air and temperature. In the blackened, vacuum that was just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, he and his team watched to see what the chip would do. One would assume that with no stimulus, the chip would just sit there, but it didn’t. It was actually vibrating in a manner that looked as though it was breathing. Consistently contracting and expanding ever so slightly. With a small stimulus, they were then able to observe something even more strange. The chip was measurably observed both vibrating and not vibrating at the same time. In his measurements, it was shown that at an atomic level, each atom in the chip was simultaneously vibrating and staying still. Therefore, the entire chip itself was both moving and not moving which means that this observable object was now behaving in a quantum manner and was quite literally in two places at the same time. Near the end of his talk, Dr. O’Connell added an important note about scale and the continued possibilities of this research. The approximate scale of one atom to the size of the chip was the same as the approximate scale of that chip to an adult human body. Think about that for a minute. Observable bilocation has been achieved and size is meaning less and less to the equation.

In my further research on this topic, I found that there are still many theories out there on how this is even possible. The theories range from the idea of multiple worlds to the idea that human observation collapses the gap between the bilocated parts to a more recent theory involving something called Quantum Gravity. This is a theory that actually connects ancient Platonic philosophy to modern scientific observation. Plato was known for conjecturing that there is an underlying order of absolute truth and aesthetic beauty in everything. While this idea was considered more of an abstract theory, there are scientists that are getting closer and closer to showing that it is a structural reality and is in essence the fabric of all that is. This underlying order is considered to be embedded in everything non-locally or holographically so that it is everywhere at all times. This is similar to the ideas of the collective consciousness or the universal mind. It is in this fabric that realities are created and abandoned based on the idea of these absolute truths. It is in this idea of a universal field that the idea of bi-location becomes even more interesting. It has been conjectured that this field is consciousness or awareness at it’s purest. In events such as near death or out of body experiences, it is into this field that our awareness returns. This is where the connection to spirituality starts to come back in. There are those that are suggesting that we have the ability to bilocate already. Though not necessarily as we might think. The idea is that it is not our physical body that separates to allow us to be in two places, but rather our consciousness which can then utilize this fabric to go wherever we choose. As one who has experimented with astral travel and had some amazing results, the idea that science is getting really close to proving its reality is pretty amazing to me.

In addition to being able to hitch an etheric ride, there is much more that this Platonic theory suggests. It also validates the spiritual idea of living and acting in the present. By allowing the natural order to play a larger role in our choices we have an automatic inclination towards absolute truth and beauty. By that, I mean that when we stop trying to force our will and we limit our rash reactions to situations, we are more inclined to achieve a greater level of truth and beauty around us. It is in tapping into this field of truth and beauty that we can walk our individual paths with greater ease and intention. Through living a mindful and conscious life we find ourselves communing with the deepest and most powerful forces within the universe.

Conspiracies, wars and overflowing love

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Matt Williams

I have a lot of things to cover tonight and while they are all related, some of them might seem a little disjointed. Bear with me if I go off on a few tangents and jump around a bit. I promise that I will try to pull it all together eventually.

There was a post yesterday in one of the facebook groups that I belong to that was very effective at stirring up emotions. The way it was written, as well as the group it was posted in, made it almost certain that there would be some controversy. The post was made in a group dedicated to networking spiritual people and as one of the moderators for the group, I try my best to make sure that people stay civil and the trolls stay out. It is a very simple job as most of us are on a very similar wavelength and thought process. Well, most of the time. Early yesterday morning, a wave rocked that boat and got me and many others a little shook up. A member of the group made a post in regards to the recent school shooting in Connecticut. Overall, this post was written as a call to action and attention to those of us who consider ourselves light workers and are trying to do some good in the world. However, there were a few brief sentences in the middle of a lengthy post that colored many people’s viewpoints towards this call to action. It was asserted that this tragedy was not just an unstable person committing a horrible act of violence. Rather this was an orchestrated event set up by the covert agents within government agencies that had been responsible for many other tragedies within the last 60 years. This event was part of a sacrificial ritual designed to fuel the darker forces within the world. Yep, that’s right. The Government Conspiracy card got played.

I have never considered myself to be a big conspiracy theorist, but I do think that there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that I don’t know about. Yet, I was surprised by my own reaction to this allegation. Why, when the rest of the post was a call for spreading love, light and positive vibes to the world, did this one aspect make me consider throwing the baby out with the bathwater? I began to question the statements and I did the respectful thing and contacted the poster via private message to get some more information about his conclusions. After a bit of discussion and sharing of information, I began to realize that this situation falls into the the same category as many other things that I have questioned in the past. If you have been paying attention to these segments, you may remember a few times now that I have asked you not to necessarily believe in something I have said or commit it as reality. Rather, I have asked you to suspend your disbelief and open yourself up to the possibility that it might be true.

I began to understand that while I can sit here and tell you that angels, faeries, ghosts, demons, and other supernatural beings exist, I can’t then turn around and say that those entities are not interacting with world leaders in the same way they interact with us. If the possibility is there for me to believe that angels have interacted directly with me to work good in this realm and others and that I have encountered demons working to further the efforts of the darkness, then the possibility has to be there for those same forces to be working with world leaders and government officials as well. As with anything of this nature, I cannot tell you with certainty or ardor that these things do exist beyond doubt. Despite my interactions, I still question the existence of the beings I mention. After all, I might just be crazy. Yet the more I connect with them and experience their energies, the more open I am to the possibility of their power and existence. I have to hold these thoughts of conspiracies to the same standard. I still question them, but with the growing evidence, I have to be open to the possibility that it is happening.

There was also a statement made in this post of we, as light workers, being at war. This statement seemed to stir the pot quite a bit as well as most of us have only one image of what “war” is. Throughout our lives, any example of war, be it international land struggles, attempts at power grabs, or even the United States’ infamous Reagan-era war on drugs, has been a bloody, violent exercise in futility and ego. Thousands, if not millions of lives are lost just so someone can claim victory and tell us that we live in a safer, better world because the loser is no longer in power. When those who are working to lift themselves above the ego and raise their spiritual vibration hear the word “war” it conjures nothing but negative emotion and the thought of violence as the answer.

But what if that is not the only picture of war? What if we can turn the perspective on what war is and even what our weapons are? I do see that we are at war every day. To put it at its most cliched level, the forces of good are fighting the forces of evil every single second of every single day. Those who choose to fight for good need every weapon at their disposal if they are going to win today’s battles. You see, this war is not a new one. It is not as though the darker forces have suddenly awoken from a long slumber and started killing innocents. This is a fight that has been going on since the dawn of sentient thought and being. Ever since we realized that we had a choice to either act out of love or ego, this battle has been raging. We have tried to fight it for centuries in so many ways, yet most of them end up grossly misunderstood. In an effort to eradicate the world of evil, we consistently mistake the forces we are fighting as something external. We see that which we dislike in ourselves reflected on others and accuse them of personifying our own hatred and anger. We feed the darkness within in our attempts to physically destroy the darkness we perceive around us. This is the shift that we need to see in our perspectives. The negativity that we are striving to fight against is not “out there.” It is inside every one of us. It is in the choices that we make on a daily basis that determine our victories. It is in the perception that we have of ourselves and the clarity in which we can recognize our own faults that we are able to free ourselves from this trap of violent projection. Conscious choices towards the love of your own soul and that of your fellow humans will begin to turn the tide within you. As I mentioned before, this will take the use of every weapon that you have at your disposal.

These weapons though, are not designed to destroy. This is not a battle that is fought with guns, bombs, jets or tanks. This is a battle fought with pure and deliberate action to build up yourself and that which is around you. Again, it sounds cliché, but your greatest weapon is love. Love for yourself and love for those around you. Before you go dropping me in the hippy, peace-freak category, this does not mean that you need to go dancing around throwing flowers in the air and singing “Love is All You Need.” What I mean by this is that you need to begin building yourself up to the point that you understand your own power and love yourself enough to not let anyone or anything take that away from you. The beautiful thing about raising up our power through love is that it automatically fulfills the requirement of “with great power, comes great responsibility.” As we truly love ourselves, that love automatically overflows to others and we seek to share that power with them. The love we build up within us, will guide our actions towards deliberately helping others.

So it all comes down to perception and awareness. For some, the idea of a group of elite covert agents working to actively spread darkness is a great motivator towards spreading their own light. For others, they need something more personal and introspective to fire them up. Regardless of the motivator, this is a time that we all need to take up our arms and fight the battle within. By focusing on our own internal struggle, we will find the power we need to spread the love and peace that is needed around us. By standing strong in who we are and what our soul’s purpose is, we can make the choices that are needed to further our own growth and the growth of that which is around us. Stay strong in the love of yourself and not even the government agents can take that away from you.

Mercury gets all the attention

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Matt Williams

Over the last 3 weeks, we have been in the influence of the most recent phase of Mercury’s retrograde motion for this year. Because of the shape and dynamics of our solar system, each of the planets will at some point in their path around the Sun will go retrograde and appear to move backwards across the sky. This period of perceived altered motion brings with it a shift in the energy that the planet brings to us and can at times really shake things up.

When you hear the word retrograde and that the planet is moving backwards, it is important to recognize that the planet itself is not actually reversing it’s orbit around the sun. If this was the case, it would likely cause significantly more impact to our little world than what astrology says it does. No, we are not talking about altering laws of motion or physics. We are talking about perceived motion and the optical illusions our mind picks up on. When a planet goes retrograde, it is in a place in its orbit that lines up in a particular way with our planet. As the planets glide through space, the one that is moving faster will pass the other. This causes a visual effect similar to passing another car on the highway. The other car doesn’t actually move in reverse. Yet, as you pass it, it appears to being going backwards. Depending on the speed and size of each planet’s orbit, the period of passing and retrograde motion differs from a few weeks with Mercury, to about 6 months with Pluto.

With all the planets having a period of backward motion, I have often wondered why Mercury’s shift always seems to make the most news in the metaphysical community. From what I gather in my research and perception of human nature, it seems to be more of a attention span thing that keeps us aware of it. Mercury has the shortest retrograde period at about 20 days and it goes into this phase three to four times per year. The rest of the planets shift retro only about once a year and some only every 18-26 months. It is kind of sad to think this, but I see Mercury getting all the buzz simply because it is the only retro planet that we seem to be able to pay attention to long enough to notice when it goes in and out of its backward slide.

Just about every metaphysical, astrological or new age kind of blog will give you all sorts of information on what to expect during a Mercury retrograde. In my usual fashion, I will attempt here to condense a lot of that down and give you my overview of what it all means.

First off, Mercury is the planet that rules our communications. Named for the winged messenger god, this planet brings forth effective transmissions of information and data. This covers a very wide assortment of things in our modern age as communication covers not only our person to person talking, but also all of the interactions that our various machines and devices carry on with every day. Mercury helps to guide and influence our speech, our text, our electronics, our data infrastructure and all those billions of things that help us get information from one place to another.

When Mercury is direct, the energies are flowing forward in a positive growth oriented manner. Things work like they should, communications are typically clear and messages are received in proper timely fashion. However, once the retrograde period begins, things start to shift a bit.

This is typically seen as a time for re-booting and resetting things. Much like when our computers get overloaded with too much conflicting data and start to freeze up on us, sometimes our whole communication process needs to be shut down and restarted. It is during this time that many people find themselves having difficulty with interpersonal communications and experiencing a lot of mixed messages and confusion. This can be especially challenging in the world of electronic communication where we do not have the benefit of actually hearing the tone and inflection in people’s words. A very casual and innocuous statement can come off rude or even mean when the tone is misinterpreted. I can tell you from personal experience that this aspect has been a big part of this particular period as many of the emails I have shared back and forth with my muggle job boss have been very difficult to interpret. During this time, it is very important to be extremely clear in what you are trying to say. Leave no room for interpretation or guessing if you are trying to get your point across. There are times that subtlety and finesse are effective in getting your point across. Mercury retro periods are not that time. Hints and suggestions towards what you are after will likely leave you longing and confused when what you get is totally different from what you through you were asking for.

Another difficult aspect of this period is the potential for breakdowns in our technology and systems and at times, complete shutdown of communication. I found myself in the midst of this over the past two weeks as various events conspired together to shut down my weekly radio show. A big part of this was a personal illness that had me unable to speak for any decent period of time without hacking my lungs out and sounding like an 80 year old chain smoker. Not terribly conducive to broadcasting. I had to cancel my Moments for two weeks as well as run an encore episode of my show Personal Tarot Radio while I healed. I wouldn’t normally attribute my illnesses to astrology, but I got sick right after Mercury went retro and I am just now feeling better as it is ready to go direct. I also haven’t been ill like this for over 3 years. This was way more than just a cold. As I started to come out of this fog of illness, I got hit with another big Mercury moment. I got word from the Executive Producer at the radio station that he was stepping down from his involvement with the station. I didn’t think too much of this as the owners were still the ones keeping things paid for and running. However, things turned sour pretty quickly as I found out that he had been working to set up his own station on the side and had taken our streaming account with him. This effectively had shut down the station completely. The website had been left in shambles, equipment and software was no longer accessible and the station was essentially dead. Overnight, the home for Personal Tarot Radio had been demolished. Thankfully, the owners are very diligent and amazing people and we have all been working hard to rectify and repair the damages. In a few more days, the station should be back on its feet and doing better than it had before.

This is one of the benefits of breakdowns and perceived down times. While we often get ourselves worked up and focused on the negative aspects of how badly things have gotten, we tend to forget that this is also a time to reboot, rebuild and get things going better than they were to begin with. In our communications, we are given the opportunity to clarify exactly what it is that we want. Confusions and misinterpretations are brought to the surface to be exposed and dealt with. Sure, we can choose to keep sweeping them under the rug and making things worse. Or, we can use the blow ups and times of frustration to set things right and move forward on a stronger footing. The same is true with our total breakdowns. In the case of the radio station, there is no telling how high we will be able to go now that we are free of someone who did not see the grander purpose of what can be done with this outlet. Each time that we stumble and find ourselves falling to the ground, we are given two choices. Lie there and cry about it why we fell, or get back up and get rid of what caused us to fall in the first place.

There are quite often a lot of slips, trips and falls as we navigate Mercury in retrograde. However, with each one, we are offered a look into how we can better express ourselves and better establish connections with all that is around us. Look at your stumbles and frustrations in a light of potential growth and it will be much easier to deal with them.

A Default State of Love

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Matt Williams

When we think of important emotions in our lives, there are a bunch that come to mind. Love, joy, courage, peacefulness, happiness and tranquility are just a few that rolled off the top of my head. When we think about lists like this though, do we only focus on the good emotions? As a habit, I tend to find myself focusing only on those positive sounding emotions thinking that they are really the only ones that are important. After all, why would I want to place a priority on things like sadness, fear or anger?

There are a host of self help gurus and teachers out there that will tell you that the key to happiness in your life is maintaining a constant focus on those positive emotions and thoughts. In many ways, this is true and can serve to bring you a much greater level of peace and joy throughout your days. However, there often seems to be a missed element of this outlook. One that accepts the reality of the negative emotions and their place in our lives.

In the tarot classes that I teach, this topic usually comes up as we are discussing the suit of cups. This suit represents the emotions that we have inside of us and how we express them. As we walk through the stages from the ace to the ten, I explain to my students the perspective I have on personal emotional growth. In this explanation, I try to show how every emotion that we experience is an important one. Everything from the most sublime feeling of peace to the most nerve wracking sense of panic has it’s place and should be embraced.

In my experience, it becomes easier to grasp this concept when you boil all your emotions down to two main components. Love and fear. These two emotions seem to comprise the basis of all other emotional responses both positive and negative. They are the balancing forces that hold our worlds in place and in check. It is through them that we experience all other aspects of human existence. It is in the power of love that we find our joy, peace and tranquility. It is in the power of fear that we experience sadness, anger and pain. Before I expand on this further, let’s take a look at what each of these words means.

Fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

At the most base level, fear is our survival instinct. It is the emotional response our bodies have to something that threatens our safety and security. In a sense, it is not only what keeps us alive, but also it is what lets us know we are alive. There is no such thing as complacency in the realm of fear. One of the big reasons behind the booming horror industry, is the fact the so many people feel the need to shake off the complacency and apathy they feel in their daily routine. Fear can be a useful tool to help us stay alert and focused when we are navigating challenging situations. It is that survival instinct that kicks in to give us an edge over the potential dangers and pitfalls that lay ahead of us. At times you may hear that courage is the opposite of fear. I don’t agree with this though as courage does not necessarily dispel fear, it only gives us the ability to push through it. Fear is necessary for courage to even exist. After all, if we have nothing to be afraid of, what is there to be courageous about?

The challenging part of fear though is that it is really easy to get stuck there. As a society and some may even say as a species, we seem to gravitate towards the negative. We find it much easier to express our sadness, pain and anguish than we do our joy and peace. Many times we find ourselves stuck in a state of perpetual fear because we have forgotten how to balance it with love. We end up bound in our sadness, anxiety and worry largely due to a fear that we are not worthy of feeling anything else. For some reason, fear tends to be a much slipperier slope than it’s counterpart, love. So what is love then?

Love: An intense feeling of deep affection.

Note that the definition does not quantify that this feeling needs to be toward any particular thing. Love, in it’s truest sense is a deep affection for all things. Internal and external of ourselves. It is a feeling that is strongest when it starts from within and works it’s way outward. Just as fear is the seed of all those negative emotions that we feel, love is the seed of all the positive ones. It is through love that we are able to know things like peace, comfort, happiness and joy. It is in our feeling and expression of love that we connect with ourselves, others and Spirit at the highest vibration. It has been said that love is the absence of all fear. In a pure and transparent world, this would be the ideal place for us all to exist. Living in a constant state of positive energy with no hints of fear. However, this is not the world we live in and a presumption that it can be overnight is just not realistic. I can say from personal experience, when I have been the most hurt is when I traded off too much fear in place of love. Sound funny? Well it shouldn’t. Think about the hurtful relationships that you have had. Think back to how many red flags you waved off because you were so deeply in love. How quickly did those flags come back to bite you in the ass? Our brains and our bodies are wired to balance our fear and love to keep us from diving headfirst into a pool of sharks just because the water looks so cool and refreshing. The problem is, we are typically really bad at listening to ourselves.

One of the things I have found in my personal discovery is that it is much harder for me to love myself than it is to fear myself. Even though love feels SO much better, I find myself traveling down the path of fear more often and at a much greater speed. As I mentioned before, fear is a much slipperier slope. But why is that? What is it about fear that draws us in and creates within us the desire to dwell there? For a part, it is perception of what role fear and love play in our lives. We are taught very early in our lives that the world is a scary place. Dripping with frightening places, people and events, we are told to be on our guard and that likely our lives will turn out to be crap. It is the very select few who will ever be happy in life, so you might as well suck it up and just deal with the cards you are given. From this perspective, loving yourself or your life seems like a lot of work. Even from the motivational speakers we hear that success begins with working to love yourself and seeing yourself as successful and worthy. It is presented to us from all angles that love takes work and fear is the easy normal path. Regardless of how much we strive to love ourselves, our default reaction is fear.

This is not an easy thing to reprogram. Thousands of years of evolution and societal influence have gotten us to this point and it will take a considerable amount of work to rewire our brains towards love being our default emotion. But what is the potential benefit if we do? What would happen if our societal default was that of love? I wish I had a clear answer for that. Unfortunately, I am still working to rewire my brain enough to comprehend a life where the expected reactions from all beings was that of love and acceptance. A world where we had to actually seek reasons to fear ourselves and others. The concept of a global population being raised and nurtured in a sense of pure self love seems unfortunately foreign and unrealistic to me at this point. But we all need a starting point, I guess. So this is mine. I will envision this concept of global self love beginning with myself. As I move towards a default state of love, I will seek to pass this on to my children and those around me. With each step towards this goal, the reality of this shift will be closer and closer in sight.

The Power of Binding

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Matt Williams

Over the last few years, I have been progressing along a self studied path of spiritual and magickal exploration. In this time, I have been focusing my energies on understanding the reach of my influence as well as the potential pros and cons of setting things in motion via ritual and intention. I have spoken a number of times here about the scope of influence that we all have the most power over. Despite our desire at times to bend others to our will, our most influential power is really only exerted over ourselves.

The vast majority of my ritual practice and magickal work has been focused on just this; creating within myself the kind of person that I want to be and establishing the proper and most beneficial responses to the environment around me. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that this is not always the solution or the most effective way to solve a problem. Sometimes it seems as though focusing so much on creating a stronger protective barrier around myself only leads to more attacks. It is as though my efforts to build a better me through passive internal methods are only inviting more vigorous and poisonous attacks on who I am and who I seek to be. Maybe there is a time and place for properly executed defense measures aimed at inhibiting the attacks from happening in the first place instead of just trying to block them.

This type of act is often referred to as a binding spell. Seen by some as magickal self defense and by others as an action that inhibits the free will of others, these spells should be utilized with caution and intentions that are pure. Binding spells are some of the oldest known rituals and have been recorded throughout the centuries in ancient Egypt, Greece, Cetic Europe and more. This type of spell has been used for more than just defense against those who seek to do harm. Variations of the spells can be used to bind two or more things together in love, harmony and peace. The progressive, growth oriented, use of binding spells can be to bring a team together at work for a common goal, to unite lovers in a bond that goes deeper than any physical or mental connection can provide, or to draw in and bind to something that you hold dear or are longing for.

Used in a collaborative and heart centered manner, these bonds can be unbreakable through lifetimes. Used in a deceitful and ego centered manner, they can be damaging to both parties as the free will of the second party is often infringed upon and the attraction may not be in their highest good. The fabled “Love Potion No. 9″ is a great example of this as the purchaser of the potion is typically seen as acting out of desperation and ego driven desire to win or find love. Acting from this place of self centered thought, the consequences are very different than expected and the user finds themselves bound to nearly everyone except his original intended target. It is important to recognize that when we infringe on the free will of another and the intention is rejected by that person, the Universe will often still work to fulfill our request. The problem is that the fulfillment will typically be wrought with unintended and potentially undesirable outcomes.

When it comes to the idea of using binding spells for self defense, the ego and heart play an even more important role. In this case our possible infringement on free will must be considered very carefully. Let’s consider a scenario. Bill has been working at his company for a number of years now. John has just started a few months ago and has been enjoying his job so far. However, throughout the last few weeks, John has noticed that Bill is increasingly critical of his work. Bill has repeatedly reported John to management and now John is feeling as though Bill has something against him and is trying to get John fired. John decides that he is going to perform a binding spell on Bill that night to prevent any further attacks.

On the surface, it is very hard to say whose best interest is at stake here with John’s spell. Is John acting out of revenge for getting called out on being a bad employee? Is Bill jealous of how hard John is working and is creating drama gossip to try and take him down? It is very hard to say from just the basic outline we have so far. Here in lies the challenge that must be faced with all magick and especially with binding. The magician must be willing to look objectively at the situation and gauge what is actually happening. Let’s look at the situation from perspective of John being in the right first.

What we didn’t know about Bill at first was that he is a marginal employee. Always doing the bare minimum to get by and never one to go above and beyond. With a tendency towards gossip, Bill seems to always find himself embroiled in the latest drama and is often seen as a “snitch” to the bosses. John, though a new employee, has shown to be dependable and competent. John is aware of Bill’s gossip about him but he has tried to simply shrug it off as lies. Despite Bill’s attempts to report him to management for various perceived issues, the bosses have corrected Bill and asked him to mind his own job and keep his nose out of where is doesn’t belong. After the latest incident where John finds out about more gossip that Bill is spreading, he decides to take action and magickally bind him to prevent any further attacks.

In this case, there is a very high probability that John’s spell will be effective and Bill will back off. John has tried to simply shield himself from the negativity, but the attacks just kept coming. In an effort to give him a chance to breathe and refocus himself, John has sought to energetically wrap up Bill so that he cannot lash out anymore. John’s actions were heart centered and seeking to ward off a constant barrage of negativity. In this light, the Universe often works the hardest with us to achieve the desired outcome. But let’s look at it from the perspective of Bill being in the right.

In this perspective, let’s say that Bill is actually the good employee. Hard working and observant, he has been promoted to supervisory status by management. John, however, has just not been able to get his act together since he started. Bill has counselled him regularly and has reported back to the bosses when discipline is needed. John has not seen it like this though and is convinced that everyone is just out to get him. Despite being counselled for his behavior, John is certain that he is in the right and that he just needs to get Bill off his back. John goes home that night and performs a binding ritual on Bill.

While there will certainly be an effect on the situation from this spell, I highly doubt that it will be what John intended. Digging into the ego and deriving his power from there, will likely find John in a situation that he was not prepared for or intending. Bill may end up bound, but at a time when John needs his help. More likely, John may find himself bound in his own negativity with no one believing him when he tries to defend himself.

The idea and practice of binding is not to be taken lightly. One must consider all the reasons behind the intent as well as the possible outcomes that may result from it. It is true that each individual has the right to their own free will. Those that are attacking do have the right to make that choice. We also have a right to our own self protection. If your free will attack inhibits my growth and light, I will take steps to abate that. I shall seek to do you no harm, but I will not allow you to continue to harm me.

To help you all with your own protection, I will share a visual that I use when I find myself being attacked energetically, emotionally or verbally. Envision the attacker with all of their energetic cords swinging about and trying to connect to you. If there are any cords connected already, tear them from you and toss them back to the attacker. See in your mind the cords beginning to wrap around the person who is offending you. Visualize these cords wrapping tighter and tighter around them until they are unable to move. Free to breathe and free of pain, but unable to move, speak or attack. Remember, this is not retaliation, this is protection. Tell this person in your mind that you are binding them in their own energy. The binding is to stop and prevent all attacks against you. Tell them that when they agree to stop the attacks, you will release them completely. At this point, you must own your power and go about your business with no fear or trepidation of their further actions. As they stop the negativity, it is important that you hold your end of the bargain and release the cords as well.

Your power and strength lies in being able to control the situation, not the actual people.

Matt's Moments

Thoughts and expressions on living a mindful life.

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