Self = All

As well as cultivating a healthy relation with yourself and your power, you must cultivate a healthy relation with others and their powers. You would be surprised as to how much we all influence each other even in the most seemingly arbitrary ways. Which brings me to an important Occult law:

Self = All

 

 

(image borrowed from: http://brandonsutton.com/)

 

You are beautiful just for being you, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Be good to yourself and compassion for others will grow. Take care of Self and see Self everywhere.

We should be collective individuals instead of being individually collected. Stand for others, yes, but stand for you first. You are what is in your life, whatever takes place in your daily trials takes place within you and becomes a part of you. Once you start cultivating a love of Self, you begin to understand pain, strife and what it takes to become happy. You then understand struggle and will see that same struggle in others who share this life all around you…and you will love them and help them, because in doing so you are loving and helping yourself.

Beatus Esse,

T.LH

Prayer Techniques

I first like to "Star" myself before each prayer, this is to get my thoughts and energy into a magickal mindset or spiritual state of being. It also serves to purify my clattered thoughts at the time of prayer, this practice is similar to the Catholic "crossing" of oneself. Once my magickal mindset is ready, I begin each prayer by calling out to the God or Goddess I am praying to, mostly I pray to the Lord and Lady, the symbolic archetypes for the Universal Divinity or what I call "Great Spirit". People pray for a variety of reasons, it is a great tool to keep a strong bond with Divinity. However, people unknowingly abuse this tool by only using it to ask (or sometimes even demand) favors and requests from the Gods. This is a bad habit and all though it is alright to ask things of the Gods, one shouldn't be using prayer strictly for those purposes, instead use prayer to build a relationship with Divinity. Above all, one should use prayer to thank the Gods for what blessings are in your life now, show Divinity that you appreciate their blessings and give them love for all they have done for you. In fact it is probably best to start out every prayer by first thanking the Gods for blessings bestowed upon you, it doesn't have to be so abstract, simply thank the gods for the beautiful day, or the quiet night. After thanking the gods then proceed to ask a favor or help, be sure to thank and send love for any prayers answered by Divinity, you could also do this with what is known as an "offering". You can make simple offerings by lighting an incense that is particular to whatever deity you prayed to, or by leaving some food or other offerings symbolically connected to your deity. Another good way to honor deity is to give to their ruling areas of life or animals, (example: Adopt a cat and care for it to honor Bast, or donate to a women's center to honor Diana, or donate books to your local library to honor Thoth, these are also great places to leave offerings in honor of each deity).
 
Another healthy practice of prayer is to use what Scott Cunningham calls, "Effective Prayer" (from "Living Wicca), in which one must utilize both visualization and build/release energy during prayer. Visualization is focusing with your "minds-eye" on the outcome or purpose of your prayer, (example: while praying for protection one could visualize a sphere of impenetrable light surrounding oneself or one's family and friends), essentially this process is identical to using one's imagination. To build/release energy, will all power and charge one's prayer to be sent forth to the Gods. To build energy: as one prays and visualizes the purpose (or intent), one then focuses "Personal Power" building up in one's body. This is done by slowly tensing the muscle's, starting from the core (abdomen) and then tensing all the muscles of the body, you must do this until you begin to tremble from the build up of energy. Once you have built up enough energy, or you can no longer hold the energy you have built up, you are ready to release this energy into the universe. To release energy: you simply release the built up tension within your muscles and focus this power towards the universe, I usually see this energy as purple flames or mist leaving my body and spiraling up into the sky.
 
These are of course only suggestions, you must follow what feels right to you, but I would like to say that enriching one's prayer with one or all of these techniques will create a wondrous and powerful bond with deity. These techniques are what creates a "prayerful attitude" as explained by Cunningham, "A prayerful attitude consists of peace and hope resting on an unshakable spiritual foundation." (Living Wicca, pg.55)
Experiment and see what works for you, but above all, have fun and enjoy your connection to Divinity.

Beatus Esse,
Tytus Lionheart

The Wiccan "Beliefs" of Tytus Lionheart: Part 1

The Goddess and the God, Our Lord and Lady

·         Pray, meditate and connect with these aspects of the Great Spirit, or Universe (nature). It is natural to prefer one over the other but be sure to seek unity and understanding of both to be truly balanced and to attain true power.

·         Pray to the Lord and Lady with elaborate ritual or a simple prayer with energy and visualization; both have great values in your connection with the Goddess and the God. Do one or the other, but it is important to DO IT!

·         All of life and creation and all those beings apart of creation are children to the Lord and Lady, having the same worth and divine spark within each unique nature. The Goddess is our Soul, The God is the vessel (body), this is true of all Creation’s beings. Therefore we should be conscious of treating ourselves and all other beings in this realm with compassion and respect.

--- It is necessary to note that though compassion and respect should be the behavior of all Creation’s beings, it is not. Therefore respect and show compassion to yourself and those that deserve it first (those that treat you with the same compassion and respect). But to love Nature and all its positive and negative aspects is to show acceptance; which leads to power.

·         The Goddess and the God love you, unconditionally.

Summerland and Reincarnation

·         When a being of Creation dies, the soul rests in Summerland to process it’s experience and grow closer to it’s evolution back into the Goddess, or what is known as Divine Union. A soul is a part of  the Goddess and the Goddess is a part of the soul.

·         The soul will reincarnate into another realm of existence and may incarnate with people or beings we’ve known in other lives. We may incarnate into this realm again for many years or we may incarnate into a completely different realm of experience. It is all a part of each souls individual experience and growth.

·         Communication with the dead souls as we know them is possible, but must be done only to seek guidance or information to continue our growth and not to satisfy ego or as a way to withdraw from your responsibilities in this life.

·         Death is a part of this realm and can teach us if we are accepting to its lessons and do not fear or hide from it.

Magick

·         Magick is a practice and art form to cause change in accordance to Will. The “Will”  is willpower or desire. Magick is a gift from the Lord and Lady to find power in all realms.

·         Prayer is a form of magick called “Petition Magick” or “Divine Energy”.

·         “Magick shall not be used to bring harm, injure or control others. But if the need arises, Magick shall be used to protect your life or the lives of others.”—Scott Cunningham, “Living Wicca” This is a basic guideline for magickal ethics. It is the code of the Wiccan but its values hold different levels of constraint or merit within other magickal practitioners.

·         “Magick is used as need dictates.”--- Scott Cunningham, “Living Wicca” Good way to get positive results is not to abuse magick or use it impulsively.

·         “Use not magick for prideful gain, for doing so cheapens the mysteries of Wicca and magick.”--- Scott Cunningham, “Living Wicca”

·         Magick can be used for personal gain as long as attention is put into harming none from the outcome (this includes yourself).

·         Magick is a tool to help enrich our lives so we may grow and live a happy life. It can also teach and guide us towards strength and knowledge. Magick is a power that harmonizes our self with the Universe and creation. Through it we find ourselves, and who we truly are. Magick is transformation.