technology and magic

My apprentice recently told me that wanted to learn technomagic and I asked her to tell me what that is. Now before any of you leap in with an answer, I'll tell you that I asked her because I wanted to find out what she thought technomagic was, and also what she thought technology itself was. I've noticed that when most people think of technology, they usually think of computers or some other form of I. T., or perhaps mobile phones with mobile applications. In fact, it seems for something to qualify as technology it has to has operate on batteries or electrical power and do some kind of computational activity. Now I know that actually technology doesn't have to be a computer or mobile phone or even need to have electrical power to qualify as technology, but it seems to me that when people about technology the focus is on the electronic as opposed to anything else.

My definition of technology is that technology is any tool that makes a task easier to do than would occur if a person was only utilizing his/her hands, or feet. For example, a shovel is technology according to my definition. I could dig at the Earth with my hands, but they would get sore quickly, and I probably wouldn't be able to dig very far. A shovel, on the other hand, is technology that enables me to dig the Earth much more easily than just using my hands. The shovel is a tool, but its also technology.

Any tool that can be used to make a task easier is technology. And technology is important, if only because it makes our lives easier. And if we look at the process of magic, we will find that there is generally some kind of tool that is used to aid in the realization of that process. The tool could be a sigil, a staff, an athame, or it could be a form of contemporary technology, such as a computer or a mobile phone. But a tool is only effective when you actually know what you using it for. Just having technology doesn't mean anything, unless you can actually meaningfully integrate it into your process.

Technology is an aide, but its not the magic itself. Technomagic, which could be argued to integrate the latest forms of technology into magic is only useful if you actually understand what you will use that technology for and how that technology will interact with the process you use to work your magic. In and of itself technology isn't inherently magical. What makes it work as a magical tool is two things: 1. The meaning invested in utilizing it as a magical tool. 2. The understanding of how the tool will actually be used in your process to make the process work. These two factors need to be considered with any kind of technology, in order to make the technology an effective part of your magical process.

Endings and beginnings

Today I helped a couple of my friends pack up a truck. They are moving to Seattle. For the last year and a half they lived next door to me so I got to know them pretty well. In thinking about them leaving, I also got to thinking about the changes in my life for the last half year. I got a divorce, started writing again, got involved with someone new, helped my friends move, and a variety of other things. You know, life... And there's not something overtly magic or mystical about all these changes, but when I think about the element of time, I also think about endings and beginnings. Time isn't just the awareness of the rhythms of the universe, though that certainly is a big part of it. Time, or at least human awareness of time is the marking of events, the recognition of endings and beginnings, the significance of connections and their changes. Life is change and time is how we mark it.

So I watch s other people's lives are changing and also see my life changing and I mark it with time, I mark it with dates...I find a way to make the when significant so I can remember the what. And that makes time significant as tool and as an event.

So life changes, there are endings and beginnings, transitions...

The psychologizing and scientizing of magic aka "Prove it"

I've been reading some different posts in the blogosphere about magic, psychology, and atheism, and I've been mulling over my response to what I see as a trend toward trying to psychologize and scientize magic in order to make it legitimate, at the expense of writing off other perspectives that aren't rational and thus don't fit in a neat little scientific box that can be conveniently labeled and explained. I mention Atheism, because I've noticed that most of the posts have been written by atheists. And just to be clear, I don't have anything against atheism per se, but I do have my own perspectives and observations to offer, which run counter to their perspective. There's this prevailing attitude that believing in gods or spirits as real entities in their own rights is out of fashion and not really tied into the experience of the numinous and that it's to perceive them as psychological constructs or archetypes that can be interacted with as metaphors, but not treated as real entities. And that may work for some people, but I think that when you exclude the possibility that such entities could be real, you also exclude some possible avenues of manifestations. I wonder how much the denial that an entity could be real is based in trying to find comfort that such beings are just psychological constructs as opposed to real entities that could effect a person's life.

It seems to me that by psychologizing magic, it makes the entire experience into a mental masturbatory routine, with little substance to add beyond mental confirmation of one's dysfunctions or lack thereof. By trying to explain a magical experience or result as a psychological or even psycho-physiological result what avenues of possibility are being written off because they can't be explained or if they are it's written off as irrational beliefs?

The effort that goes toward scientizing magic, ends up treating science as the holy grail that can be used to explain and categorize magic. Science is treated as an objective truth or knowledge that can be used to disprove the irrational aspects of magic, while focusing in on the privileged rational explanations, which usually tend to be focused on an anthropological or psychological explanation.

What's forgotten is that even science is a subjective experience. A theory in science is never considered 100% percent fact or true because scientists recognize that there can always be some information that's missing that would change our understanding and consequently disprove a theory. More importantly, however, and what is less acknowledged is that science is ultimately derived from human observation and experience, neither of which is objective. This means that any information we have is ultimately derived from a subjective experience that could be disproven at any time.

The on-going trend to scientize magic, to get rid of the irrational comes at a cost that is rather steep, in my opinion. It comes at the cost of utilizing non-rational perspectives, which while not rational, are nonetheless valuable because the suspension of disbelief can open doors that a more rational perspective would write off because it doesn't fit within a scientific or psychological explanation. The other issue that occurs is that magic is relegated to a mental feel good phenomenon, with no tangible results. It's something people do to find comfort, as opposed to being a methodology that produces real, tangible changes.

While I won't deny that a lot of where can magic occur is in the mental or conceptual phase, I will also say that I've manifested very real, tangible physical results for myself and other people that weren't just based on psychological or scientific perspective, but utilized non-rational perspectives as a means of accessing possibilities I'd have otherwise written off if I just relied on a psychological or scientific model of magic. I do find value in deriving some of my methodology from science or psychological perspectives, but I don't think they even begin to accurately describe, define, or otherwise provide a full and coherent explanation of magic, nor should they.

Also just because I rely on irrational perspectives and approaches doesn't make me any less skeptical. However I've found that such perspectives have proven themselves time and time again. Writing them off in favor of a rational explanation purely because that rational explanation says it isn't possible seems at best foolish and at worst dogmatic.

What it really boils down to is that while I my derive some of my techniques and methods from a scientific or psychological perspective, I wouldn't use either to try and label or define magic, because in doing so I unnecessarily limit what I can do. Likewise I wouldn't use magic to define or explain psychology or science because the magical perspective wouldn't adequately describe, define, or demonstrate a coherent understanding of such disciplines.

I recognize that for the atheist magicians these perspectives are useful for explaining magic, but I find their definitions to be rather dull and useless. There is something lacking in such approaches. I suppose they could say I was a superstitious fool, but magic will never just be in my head, nor will the entities I work with just be archetypes, and I'm perfectly happy with that perspective.

Time as a necessary illusion

Tonight I did another visitation with the spider goddess of time. Before I did so, Elephant briefly reminded me to stay present, even and especially in moments of feeling boredom. When I visited the spider goddess, she showed me a new technique where I could create a silver thread of time to an event or person, if one hadn't existed before. This approach complements the editing technique I learned from her the last time I visited. The main difference is that you are essentially creating a new connection as opposed to editing an existing one. You can even create context specific strands of time. In other words, if there's a specific context that you want to create for a situation or person then you put that into the strand that connects you to the event or person.

Afterward the spider goddess and I discussed time itself. She pointed out something that she has said before. The sense of time a person has is dictated much more by awareness of natural rhythms and cycles than an actual force of time. The conceptualization of time as a force is a useful illusion that has its own rule, which can be used to manipulate the awareness of time a person has. It's something I can understand. I know that my "age" is more or less an arbitrary number used to explain the physiological process of aging and that day and night are terms used to understand the changes brought about by the rotation of the Earth around the sun. The concept of the flow of time seems to be more of a comfort illusion than an actual reality. The word when allows us to situate a place and space as much as a time. Even the spider web is another concept tool for the illusion of time. It works, and certainly something happens, but her point is that time isn't so much of a mysterious external force, so much as its a perception and explanation and a method for sorting out and indexing changes. We create time to explain and understand the changes that occur in and around us, but you have to wonder if time would even exist as a concept if there was no one thinking about it.

Review of In Search of Time by Dan Falk

This book presents a "history" of time, with a heavy focus on physics and how physicists throughout history have approached and tried to conceptualize and explain time. The author does an excellent job of presenting a wide variety of both contemporary and historical perceptions of time. I enjoyed reading this book because it provided some food for thought on how I understand and conceptualize time. I recommend it to anyone who finds the concept of time fascinating and wants to learn what others have to say about it.

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5 out of 5

Magical Experiments - Sex Magic Radio Show

Here's the link to the radio show on sex magic, with special guest Tannin Schwartzein, the pink sphinx of Babalon. It's quite a good show, with both of us weighing in on the questions people asked in a previous post, but also discussing sacred sexuality in general.

Meditation and the relationship to the body

I've been doing a lot of research and practical applications of meditation from various spiritual systems, and the one thing I find consistent is that for meditation to really work, there must be some interaction with the body. The body is the gateway to experiencing meditation, which makes sense as a meditation is really an altered state of physiological consciousness. I put it that way, because it seems to me that there is a tendency to discuss and conceptualize meditation as a state of mind or consciousness that is separate from the experience of the body. But you really can't separate the body from meditation, because you are rooting yourself in the experience of changing your physiology to accomplish an altered state of consciousness. This is why breath plays such a role in meditation. Breath is the key to accessing the body and bringing it into a state of physiological receptivity for an altered state of consciousness. By focusing awareness on the breath a person becomes aware of the body and can slow it down enough to enter into an altered state. Or alternately a person can do some kind of excitatory activity to achieve the same level of awareness. In either case, the body is the foundational core by which meditation is achieved. It's worth remembering that if you want to make meditation a part of your tool set.

My e-newsletter list

If you like reading my posts on this blog, you might also be interested in my e-newsletter list. Each week, I write an article about magic. However, it's not just limited to articles,  I also post occasional exclusive offerings for classes, books, and tarot readings.  So if you're interested in knowing about those, please join my e-newsletter list. I'm also doing a little contest. Whoever joins will be entered into a drawing for a half hour tarot reading.

Radio show and book review

On Sunday at 4:30pm PST - 7:30 EST, I'll be doing the sex magic radio show with a guest co-host. We'll be discussing the practical aspects of sex magic, but also examining the balance between pleasure and practicality. Review of Spiritual Cleansing by Draja Mickaharic

This book isn't explicitly for the magical practitioner, so much as its for a lay person, but nonetheless I was impressed by the thorough attention to detail and focus that the author provided. The author covered a variety of techniques and its fair to say that even experienced magicians could get a lot out of this book. What I liked the most was that it was very easy to follow the instructions provided. I'd recommend this book to any practitioner as a resource guide for magical and psychic cleansing techniques.

5 out of 5

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Questions for the radio show on sex magic

I'm doing the next radio show on magic experiments about Sex Magic. If you have any questions you'd like me to answer and discuss, please leave a comment below and I will answer your question on my radio show.

Process is not control

In a discussion I had with one of my students, I brought up the point that the process is not control. It might seem to be contradictory to say that and yet also say that when you know the process of how you do a given magical activity, you can then make changes to the process, but actually it makes complete sense. I'll explain why. The first issue to note is that for the most part control is really based on insecurities, on tension and stress that we don't want to feel and try to repress. Control, in most circumstances, arises from this stress, and we will act out that stress and tension re-actively as a way of trying to assert control of not only our internal awareness, but also our external surroundings.

However, control can be healthy, in a very specific way. Control is healthy when it is applied to a person's reactions and responses to a situation. While we don't have even complete control of our reactions, we do have some control and with conscious work we can acknowledge the triggers of those reactions and then make an informed choice as to whether or not we want to re-act or consciously choose. We can also modify the unconscious triggers, provided we do the necessary internal work. In that context, control is healthy. It becomes unhealthy when we try to control everything else, and creates blockages and tensions, because such control is usually indicative of unresolved issues.

The second issue to note is that in order to truly understand a process, you first have to submit to the process. You need to do the process step by step, and learn how it works. You can't change it until you understand it...actually you can try to change it, but the results are usually disastrous. So to understand a process you need to submit to it and do it. Only after you've worked in a process, and come to understand its mechanisms, can you begin to change it. Even then you don't control it, so much as you understand how it works, and so can see where you can make modifications to improve the process. We call this personalization, but the magician must still submit to the process to test its efficacy.

You might wonder then what the point is for doing magic, if you're not more in control as a result, but I'd argue that control is a fixation and obsession that tends to stay further out of reach when you try to grab it, as opposed to when you let go, trust your process, and work your system, as best as possible. The reality of magic is this:

Magic is one process, among many, with a variety of sub-processes that can help you balance your internal life, and provide you more awareness of possibilities in your life. It's up to you to make the deliberate and informed choice. A deliberate and informed choice can only occur when you actually understand yourself well enough to know if your choice is an automatic one based off unconscious triggers, or a conscious one based off awareness and understanding.

Let go of control. Process doesn't need to be about it. Process, instead, can help you make a deliberate and informed choice, because you understand how your process works and also your place in it. And making a deliberate and informed choice is more effective and powerful than trying to control everyone else and every situation.

In fact, if you find yourself using magic to solve situations that come up in your life, it's time to stop and critically examine what is calling those situations into your life. You will likely find that it is actually you calling those situations into your life, and usually because you need to learn something. So stop, examine the situation, own your feelings and responses, and then make a deliberate and informed choice on how to handle it. If that includes magic, then that's fine, but recognize how your internal issues feed into the situation, before using magic. Otherwise whatever results you get will only temporarily work, until you actually deal with your level of responsibility for the situation.

Trust your process and work your system...and make informed and deliberate choices. That can be the most powerful magical working you ever do, and it doesn't even need to involved anything overtly occult.

Update on experimental work

I've been continuing to integrate Laban into my morning daily moving meditation. The body movements take up the focus of the thoughts, and a rhythm is created, out of time, out of the tightly monitored world, into a place where all that matters is the rhythm of movement and the stretching of the body. My spatial and kinesthetic awareness of my body and how it moves has changed in what I would consider to be subtle ways. There's more awareness of my core and how each movement comes from the core than there was before. The benefit, beyond feeling healthier, is a sense of being more in touch with my body, and more able to connect with it for that deeper meditative work. I've also been continuing to work with the time strand editing technique, using it edit different connections to places, people, and situations and I'm seeing some changes in that direction, with the connections I have. I haven't applied it as much as I could to business interactions, but I will give it a try and see what happens.

Review of Magical Techniques by Draja Mickaharic

I just discovered this author's works recently and already I'm impressed by the depth and breadth of his writing as well as his attention to detail. Magical Techniques provides information on lesser known magical practices and tools that can be used by the magician to aid and enhance his/her workings. From his chapter on how to make chalk, to how to use feathers, to magic with orgone accumulators, there's something for everyone. He also provides some good anecdotes, both his own and of other people and how they used the different tools he discussed. This book is a definite must for the practical magician.

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5 out of 5

Does foundational work need to be done before experimentation?

I was asked this question by a reader by of my e-newsletter (Link to sign-up). When I first started practicing magic at 16, I didn't have a teacher. In fact, I self taught myself. Right from the beginning, I'd replicate the instructions on how to do different packages, from different books, but once I "got" the concept, I would start to experiment with the practices and concepts, to see what else I could do and also to personalize the practices to enhance their effectiveness in my life. I did and do a lot of learning of how other people approach magic. I think it's essential really, because you can't begin to personalize your own approach without understanding what other people have. This is why I emphasize having a broad foundation to draw on, so that way you get a variety of experiences and practices to temper your own perspective. But I also think that just sticking to what other people have said or done leads to stagnancy, so you need to be willing to test and experiment and personalize what you learn, and after a certain point, also depart from what you learned and actually develop your own practices, based off your own ideas.

Experimentation occurs alongside the foundation building practices. As you learn and practice a particular technique, think about how you can change it and adapt it. What would you do differently and why? Then try out your variation and see what happens. Respect the foundation, but test it as well.

Some further thoughts about process

In a discussion I had recently with one of my magical students I elaborated further on the difference between chaos magic and experimental magic. Chaos magic, aside from being associated with servitors and sigils, is also about paradigmal piracy. You determine what paradigm works for you, you adopt it for as long as it's useful, and then once you've gotten your result, you move on. Experimental magic, on the other hand, is focused on a more processed oriented approach and so recognizes that in order to really under a paradigm, system, methodology, or whatever word you want to use, you've got to spend time learning the system, learning how the methodology works, before you can really begin to use it successfully. Consequently process is built into experimental magic much further than in chaos magic. And, if anything, the issue with chaos magic is that while you might be able to get a result one time from using a system to address an immediate need, without fully understanding it, you can't really know the process or know if you'll get a result that meets your needs each time.  That kind of understanding doesn't occur over night, or in a single working. It occurs over time, with study, practice, and yes experimentation. To really understand a paradigm of magic, it needs to be something more than just a convenience to be used because it fits an immediate need.

This is why I've never used Voodoun in my workings. Sure, I could pick up any of the books I have on it, sketch out a ritual and do something, but I don't understand the system enough to really feel comfortable doing that, nor do I really want to offend one of the Lwas just to get a result. If I really wanted to integrate voodoun into my magical practice, I would need to study it for a while, do rituals strictly in that system without integrating other practices in, and experiment within the process of that belief system. Eventually, if I knew about it, I could begin to incorporate external elements.

So experimental magic is less about rolling a dice and picking a spiritual system for a day and more about really getting hands-on experience with a given system, and process plays an integral role in that, because it's process you need to learn to really put it all together.

The hand-parting

On Sunday, my ex-wife Lupa and I did our hand-parting. We've ended the marriage in a very amicable way and are still friends. In fact, we both recognize that we make great friends, but lousy spouses. Since the hand-parting happened, I've noticed a definite shift in my sense of identity, as well as on an energetic level. In my chest, when we did the hand-parting, I felt a loosening up of energy, a final uncoiling of everything that had previously held us together.

Since then I've felt a wide range of emotions. There's some lingering sadness, and also a lot of relief. There's a lot I learned in this marriage, in the life we shared together, and a lot I take away in recognition of that. The biggest lesson I've learned is to be honest with myself as completely as possible, especially if I hope to have a good relationship with someone else. That applies to friendships as much as any other kind of relationship, but it was in my marriage to Lupa that I really learned this lesson...and she expressed similar sentiments at the hand-parting, which tells me I was in good company through this.

Seriously though...For what this relationship with her was, it was what I needed, when I needed it. I wish Lupa the best in her life and I'm glad we're still friends.

How to use breath work to undo physical stress

I've been feeling some physical tension in my shoulders and neck lately, and decided to do some breathing meditation to help me undo the tension and stress. I've found that using meditation to do this has been very helpful in allowing me to undo a lot of physical stress. The way to utilize meditation to undo stress is to focus on feeling the physical sensations of stress, while also focusing on your breath. The normal inclination is to avoid pain, or ignore it. But ignoring pain or avoiding it isn't really a solution and ultimately can lead to further problems. Learning to sit with pain seems to go counter to every instinct we have, and yet by sitting with your pain, and feeling it, you can actually begin to undo the cause of the pain. I breathe in and as I do so, I bring my attention to a focal point. When I breathe out, I guide my attention to the stress point, and begin to massage it, visualizing whatever I needed to visualize to help me understand the tension I feel. I breathe in again, drawing more attention and energy to a focal point, and then breathe out, releasing it to that place of tension, where it continues to work to untie the tension I feel.

Within a few breaths I can feel the pain begin to loosen it's hold as muscles relax and unclench. I feel the pain, but instead of letting it define me, I define its healing with my breath. It continues to loosen up because the breath work provides a rhythm to approach the feeling and releasing of it. Memories and emotions may arise with the release of physical tension and stress, and I will sit with them as well, acknowledging and feeling them, so that I can learn and let go.

This is how I undo physical and sometimes emotional/mental stress. I use my breath and consciousness as a tool. I choose to feel the pain, to embrace it, and thus release it, because I no longer feel compelled to be held down by it. Instead of avoiding it, which actually increases its hold on me, I surrender to it, and in surrender come to understand it, and thus come to peace with it. And all it involves is breathing and focusing your awareness on the tension you feel, so that you can gradually loosen it and let it go

Building up sexual energy in Sex magic

When you read most books on Western sex magic, one of the discoveries you make is that there's a lot of focus on polarities, with a belief that men embody the active principle and women embody the passive principle. In other words, the women are supposed to lay there passively, while the man generates and directs the sex magical activity. Personally, I don't really buy into polarity model or the belief that a man has to be the active principle and the woman has to be the passive principle. But something I've experimented with has involved being the passive partner...not even so much in terms of physical activity but rather in terms of supplying the sexual energy that is then directed by my partner. But the word passive is actually misleading, because I'm still playing an active part...it's just that I'm not directing the energy toward the goal we've decided to focus on. So what is my role then in sex magic?

I use Taoist breathing techniques, while I'm having sex. I use the breathing techniques as a method for circulating my internal awareness, chi, energy, etc. So when I'm doing sex magic, I'm basically circulating the energy between myself and my partner, building it up again and again as I continue the breathing and other activities. She takes the built up energy and focuses it on the goal. She's in the director's role, if you will, but my own role is far from passive...I'm not directing the energy, but I build it up, so it can then be directed by my partner.

In my approach I suppose both people (or more) are engaged in some activity. There's no real polarity at work. If anything, it moves past such labels as male or female into a place where what matters is what each person is doing with the sexual energy. There's collaboration involved, really, because each person needs to know what the other(s) are doing, in order to play his/her part effectively. And this approach, this attitude, this perspective works well for me. We do the sex magic, we get the ball rolling and life changes.

Magic Experiments Radio show re-started

I've re-started the magical experiments radio show. In this show I discuss process and magic with my occasional co-host and magical partner Kat. I'll be doing these radio shows about once every 2 weeks, so keep an ear out for them.

Book Review: The Secret Pulse of Time by Stefan Klein

The Secret Pulse of Time is a very interesting book that looks at time from a number of angles, most notably cultural and neuroscience angles. I found it to be a refreshing read because it didn't focus on the conventional approach, which is usually physics, but actually delved into other disciplines and there take on time. The author also provided some excellent examples to back up what he was discussing. I found some of his thoughts on information overload particularly relevant, especially with the advent of social media. I highly recommend this book.

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Some thoughts on Giving in magic

Recently I posted the following message to my Facebook and Twitter accounts

What are you willing to give in order to get what you want? There's always some giving involved in magic.

I received some interesting responses to it, ranging from the argument that sacrifice isn't a necessary part of every magical act to the idea of sacrificing unwanted ego complexes to the idea of swapping energy for energy. All of these were good responses and what I appreciated the most was the thoughtfulness that went into the responses.

My own take on what I wrote, with more of an explanation than 140 characters, is that within every act of magic the magician needs to give something in order to make the magic work. And what does that really mean? Magic doesn't happen by itself. The magician at the very least needs to provide a goal and/or vision with an accompanying action. There is always a purpose for doing magic, and the magician supplies that purpose via the goal or vision, as well as with some kind of action taken.

The action also can't be nebulous so the magician needs to provide some kind of structure in which that action takes place. The environment of ritual space for example may need to be constructed, or there may be a need to pick certain ritual tools that will be used, but even more important than all of that is actually determining what you will do, both magically and mundanely. And all of that is also an act of giving, because magic doesn't take place if you don't provide some form or process by which it can actually be worked.

And then there's the final point on giving, which will probably show something of of a less than contemporary attitude on my part to giving. If you choose to work with some external agency, what are you willing to give to it, in return for its aid? I know it's popular to believe any entity is just some kind of psychological construct, but personally I tend to think there's more to an entity than that. So when I work with an entity, I ask myself what I'm willing to provide. I don't see it as a sacrifice either, so much as an exchange of some kind. I want something, and I recognize I could use some help, so I go get that help and I offer something in return.

For some people, taking the psychological approach with entities seems to work, and perhaps in the end it,s all in my head, but I've found that erring toward my own conventions on giving and magic has worked really well. So it's part of my process.

What are your thoughts? Anything I'm missing or that you would add?

Process instead of results

For many magicians, my work still falls into the category of chaos magic, and so to them I am a chaote. I, on the other hand, disagree, because while there are certainly elements of chaos magic I draw on, I also utilize a wide variety of other systems. To which one might say, "Wait a minute Taylor isn't chaos magic all about taking different systems of magic and mashing them together and using what works to get achievable and demonstrative results?" Yes it is, and there's a very distinct difference from my own approach, because while I acknowledge that results are important, my focus is on process, specifically understanding how what I'm doing works and how to refine and improve it. Process is key to truly understanding magic. Results are just road signs showing you the way, but process is how you get there. Without understanding process all you have is push-button magic. You may get results, but just achieving results isn't enough. Process is how you refine and define those results. Process is how you experiment, instead of just doing magic. When you know your process you can change it, test it, develop it further. So while my work may seem similar to chaos magic, it's really not, because it's mainly about process, and less about results.

An audience with the Spider Goddess of Time

Today I decided to do a working with the Spider Goddess of Time. I've been working with the other entities for the element of Time, but hadn't contacted her since the first night I switched over to the element of time. I opened my memory box and used it to surf the silver web of time, to the center, which is where the Spider Goddess resides. Once there, she showed me a technique I could use to examine the weaving of the strands of time that connect me to different people, situations, etc., and how I could then edit the strands accordingly. I decided to then work with this technique, by looking at two different people I'm connected to and editing the strands of time. In one case it's editing the strands to factor in a change of relationship, so that the person will be more accepting of those changes, because the strands that previously supported a specific type of relationship aren't in place anymore to continue supporting it, due to changing circumstances in both our lives.

The other case was doing a working the strands of time for a friend dealing with some medical issues. In this case, the editing focused on editing out the cause of the medical issues, removing them from that person's timeline, as it were, so that they would no longer be an issue. I figure if there's no longer a temporal anchor for the cause of the medical issue, then the medical issue will no longer exist.

Since I did this just today, I don't know for sure if it's worked, but I'm fairly sure I'll know soon enough and I will be doing some more work with this technique, to experiment with and refine it.

Time as a commodity

I've been reading the Secret Pulse of Time by Stefan Klein lately and in it he talks about how the Western concept of time used to be event based until the first clock was put on a Church belltower back in the 14th century. Later on time became even more regulated in the 19th century. And all of this, according to him, has led to an approach toward treating time as a commodity. I would agree, especially when phrases such as "Time is money" are offered as a way of justifying how people approach time. The other point Stefan makes is that people try to pack in as much as possible in as little time as possible, because of this commodity based approach. In fact, the focus tends to be on what someone has gotten done in a given day as opposed to actually slowing down and enjoying the day. This isn't surprising, when we think about how much information is available and how much demand that puts on a given person to process the information, as well as do something with it.

Stefan doesn't really present any clear solutions to this issue, but in my own experience I've found that being selective about the information I focus on helps. This is why I don't have Cable television or satellite, or get newspapers or have social media on my mobile phone. The flow of information is regulated by specific boundaries I have in place to make that information manageable. I've found that regulating the information hasn't significantly hurt my ability to keep up with what's going on, but has lead to lower stress, because I'm not constantly trying to process energy.

The other thing I do is meditate each day, and part of that is to simply re-balance my mental landscape, but also to give myself down time from the information so that I can process and consider it's importance. I find that doing such work not only helps me greatly, but also enhances the level of interaction, because I have more focus than I would if I'm constantly bombarded by information or worried about how much time I don't have. In fact, meditation has taught me to slow down and not be in such a hurry with my life. I realize I'll never get everything in a given day and instead of stressing about it, I do what I can and also spend time enjoying my life. Time then becomes less of a commodity and more of a cycle, going back to an event based approach to it, instead of counting the seconds and trying to do everything at once.

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