Greetings once again, dear readers.  I hope my blog post finds you well in these troubled, rather sleepless times.

Once again, a discussion on EvocationMagic has led me to think on, and subsequently draft a post.  This time, the topic is the much-misunderstood subject of Karma, and the thread that led to this blog post can be found here. Before I begin, however, its worth noting that these words are written with my current understanding of Karma, and I may well be wrong.  If that is indeed the case, I may post on this again, at a later date.  As with all things in this sorcerer's head, my views are subject to change, as they are always evolving.

Firstly, I will quote my posts in the aforementioned thread, for the sake of giving a point of reference:

Post 1:
"Keep in mind that once the work is done, its not as though the relationship is over. The fact is that you've worked with that spirit, hand-in-hand, in order to achieve a goal that may or may not be life-altering. If the change is particularly potent or life-altering, a debt has been created in the same sense that a void is created when you take a flower out of a vase. As far as the Universe is concerned, there should be a flower in the vase, so it rushes to put one there. We, as humans, often get sucked, on some level, into that void. That is what we call Karma."

Post 2:
"Simply put, we live in a world wherein cause and effect is a rule of nature (and we're witchy folks, so I believe that on some level we exploit rules of nature to get what we want), so, with that being the case, it behooves us to understand how cause and effect actually works. Before we can get down to discussing that, we have to have a set of terms that all of us can understand. That being said, my current understanding of the word Karma is that it refers to cause and effect, which is, in turn, the reason for my posts."
So, what is cause and effect?

Let's say I do a bit of work to help a client get a job as the VP of a well-known IT company, and unbeknownst to me another man is also attempting to get the same job. Well, if my client, who we'll call Bob, gets the job, then Dave, the other dude trying to get the same job, is now unable to get the same position. Instead, Bob is now Dave's boss at this company, and Dave, having anger issues, is now absolutely enraged with Bob. Instead of trying to work things out in a calm, collected, and relatively sane fashion, Dave, in his emotional state, quits his job and storms out. A month later, when Dave hasn't found work, the man's had 30 days, give or take, to stew and focus on his hatred of Bob. Let's then say that, being the hothead that he is, Dave finds out where Bob lives, and he drives out to have a word with him. When Dave arrives and begins to harass Bob, who just tries to find a peaceful end to the solution. Dave, being he angry sort he is, feels as though he's been shortchanged and has nothing to live for, so he then pulls out a pistol, shoots Bob several times, piercing several vital organs which, in short order, lead to Bob's death. Now that Bob's dead, Dave comes to his senses and realizes that he's just murdered a man in cold blood, so he turns his gun on himself and puts an end to it all. Two men are now dead because of the work that I did to get my client a job, as it caused one man to leave his job, not find gainful employment, and he later exploded.

Regardless of the terms you use to describe the above situation, its plain to see that on some level, the above is cause and effect. One action always begets the next, just like a ripple in a pool of water travels outwards. Its an echo, a ripple, or a chain reaction, and we can't always see where it goes, but we have to realize, on some level, that its there. That's Karma in a nutshell."

That having been said, I believe that it is important that we recognize that all of our actions do have consequences.  Even if that doesn't mean that we believe in a direct one-to-one gain/loss diagram, the fact is that cause and effect still exist.  Now, there's Gods out there that handle this cause and effect stuff, on some level, but that doesn't mean that its this mystical force in and of itself. Its a law of Nature, and the Powers That Be are custodians of those laws, by and large.  Being human, that means you're in the blast radius whenever you do something magical or otherwise, as it has the potential to work for or against your benefit.

You might choose to say "it's cause and effect" or "Oh my Lord, that's Karma for you", but really, that's all semantics.  Understanding what someone means when they say such a thing is useful, however, as it behooves us to comprehend that are actions, however insignificant they may seem, always cause changes that we may or may not have predicted.

As always, I hope this post has been helpful.

Regards,

SE

Greetings once again, dear readers.  I do hope this blog post finds you well.  I've come back from a rather rough weekend, so I thought I would start the week off with a bang.

To start, I'm sure you lot have, by now, figured out that my primary focus in my praxis is the Spirits.  As such, I don't tend to have much in the way of respect for written word, as I find it to be second to gnosis, or wisdom received as a gift from the Divine.  This, I feel, tends to stand at odds with the common spiritual practice of today, where many flock to bookstores to snatch up and devour the words of another, and subsequently use that as the basis for personal praxis.

I'm not here to comment on such a practice, save for saying that I don't think it is the ideal way to continue after you've gotten your feet wet.  That being the case, I'd like to turn our attention to further discussion on my own experiences, and hopefully, through the comments section, your own experience with the Spirits.

If you've read my previous posts, you'll likely be aware of the fact that while I serve the Horned God primarily, I am also incredibly close with the Goddess Tara-Ma, in all of Her forms.  I act as a steward and day planner, so to speak, when it comes to utilizing Her skills when working for clients.  That being the case, I've found that there are times where Her manifestations seem to be most unusual, and oft incredibly touching.  Sometimes that touching is "inappropriate", and other times it is simply by experiencing Her in full, but regardless of the method, it is always awe-inspiring.  One such occurance happened recently, when Ayra Tara decided that She wished to show me Herself in that form.  After enjoying Her company in baser ways that I'll not discourse of herein, She and I got to talking and I learned something that I found, for the lack of a better word, incredibly adorable and human-like.  She explained that that particular emanation of Her is from Tibet, where She does actually have a bedtime - the monks tuck Her statue in and "Wake" Her statue up every day, providing meals and offerings.  Now, this might not seem so shocking to those of you who don't work like I do, but in my years, I've never once heard of such a thing.  The Gods might rest, in some form or another, but I've never heard of Them sleeping.

Hearing this had a surprising effect on me.  It was both incredibly endearing and awe-inspiring, and caused me to have an even greater respect for this particular Goddess, on top of the love I already had.  It was an instance wherein I was surprised, yet again, and I must admit that its had a profound effect on me. I've spent the past couple of months praying to Her every day, as I've had my own share of emotional issues that I am working past.  In a way, its made me feel as though the Gods are that much more accessible, even more so than I previously believed.

That, of course, has intensified my own feelings and practices immensely, and that example brings me to a point: While spirit work, in the context of spiritism and the process of seeking gnosis, one comes to a point where he or she may be unsure how to take some information. When one reaches such a crossroads, it is helpful to take into account your feelings on the matter.  Does such a revelation leave you sincerely awestruck?  Does it move you at your core, and redefine your practice in some way, despite your every effort to the contrary?  If it does, then you can be sure that you have indeed received some tidbit of gnosis as a gift from the Gods.  If not, then you must re-evaluate your praxis, and see attempt to discover what is holding you back.

Regards,

SE

....Jai Tara-Ma! Jai Ayra Tara!

Greetings once again, dear readers. I do hope my post finds you well in these rather tumultuous times.

Greetings, dear readers.  I do hope that my post finds you well on this Monday afternoon.

A few moments ago, I was perusing a forum that I've not frequented in quite some time whilst trying to think of a topic to write about, and I stumbled upon a thread centered on concealing one's practices.  That is a topic that I've a fair deal of experience with, given my childhood, so I thought I'd post a bit up in the hopes that it helps others.

Well, to offer some information to serve as a backdrop, when I was a child I was raised by a Buddhist mother and a Lutheran father, and since the get-go I was involved in a Buddhist "Church".  As such, it was most assuredly not an occult-study-friendly environment, which made being an empathic child with an "invisible friend" who taught magic incredibly awkward.  The few times such practices were hinted at or openly mentioned, I received a rather harsh and sound punishment, which, in time, made me realize that my parents put more stock in such things than they would admit, and they were undoubtedly afraid of those practices.  I then went to great lengths to conceal the work I did regularly, and it taught me more about their respective faiths whilst also deepening my own.

I learned to blend Buddhist teachings with my "occult practices", which proved to be fairly easy, as I worked with several Buddhist figures at the time.  My work with and worship of figures like Kannon-Sama, Raijin-Sama, Fujin-Sama, Amitabha, Shiva, and Kali-Ma went altogether unnoticed, as each could be easily explained away, as being related to my mother's faith.

I did similar things using Psalms, Genesis, and other books of the Bible with great success, and after some time, neither of my parents discovered my true practice.

Furthermore, I also found that keeping ritual tools to a minimum is very, very helpful.  If you live in a home wherein your parents or significant other searches your room regularly, keep all of your books in a PDF form on your PC or on your phone/Kindle/Nook disguised as regular fiction/nonfiction.  Such tricks are easy to accomplish, and they keep prying eyes from invading your privacy.

If you believe that vocalization will cause trouble, then I'd suggest that you learn to subvocalize and learn how to use energy work, as the two practices will further shield your work from suspicious people.  Much can be accomplished with your hands, feet, body, and mind, even