​This week is shaping up to be a bit of a doozy, and it's become clear to me that folks are struggling with extraordinarily strong emotions. Anxiety, fear, hatefulness, depression, despair....The list goes on and on, while our external support structures are failing one by one. This is a hell of a lot to take in, and we are really not built for this.

Having said this, I urge and advise you to recognize that you are not built for this! Be gentle with yourself as you're dealing with these major concerns that are so far beyond the norm. Be patient with yourself and when you find yourself struggling, recognize and address it. You are your very own Morgan Freeman, and your inner narrative directly influences how you see yourself AND how you connect to the world. 

If you find that you're being overly harsh with yourself, ask yourself if this is how you are with others. Are you this caustic towards your friends and family, or do you give them a little bit more patience and leeway? Recognize just how far outside of the scope of normal this situation is and be as kind to yourself as you would want others to be to you. Then, try to do the same thing with others each and every day. 

Someone told me recently that positivity is like a breath of fresh air, and so I have been trying to keep this in mind each and every day as we trudge through quarantine and all that 2020 has to offer. I would urge you to do the same; you have made it this far & that is something to be proud of!

Much love from the PNW,
-Chris

Good morning folks, Chris here with another post. Following up on yesterday's post, as we come to comprehend that the lessons are going to keep coming, it falls to us to keep up with them. I find that journaling does so, as it allows me to keep better track of what's going on and how this fits into the long game. 

It's for this reason that I send the results of comprehensive divinations done for clients via email. Being able to keep track of what was said a week, a month or a year earlier can help us to get a sense of continuity and track our growth. 

Just last night this came in handy, as a friend and I were talking about her cursing someone. She'd gotten a counter command from a reading I'd given her just last week, yet she's glossed over it when we'd originally done the reading. Being able to refer back to this just kept her from giving away her own strength by taking action in a situation where no action was actually necessary or advised. 

Do this with dreams, visions, divinatory results, important omens...record it all. This might not seem super important, but it makes a substantial difference as the days and years tick by. 

Writing is a means of processing data too, so as the days click by without end, it gives us a means of processing the passage of time and the lessons this time spent in our respective Towers have caused to crystallize within us each. To meditate and reflect through the act of recording data in this way allows us to double-dip a bit, using our natural growth as it becomes available to us while also providing us with inspiration for the future. If we're lucky, 2020 won't occur again, but the intensity of the lessons received will still act as a kind of "nostalgic touchstone" for catalyzing incredible development through magic. Second advantage is that anything we don't learn now, we can reflect on and come to understand later. As this occurs, we make the way open for the improvements tied to that growth!

Blessings,
-Chris 

Good morning folks, how are you all keeping? I've had a pleasant weekend here in the PNW. Last week was one of working with the landvaettir & conjuring to improve lives. While doing so, I've been in deep reflection; analyzing and taking stock of all that has been going on this year. 

2020 is very much unlike any other, as it's generally rather unlikely for all or most of our compatriots to be in crisis at the same time. Now that this has occurred and is occurring, we're each finding a greater and greater need to become self-reliant. As these experiences and the lessons tied to them flood our lives, it's only natural that we find ourselves a bit overwhelmed.

I'd like to provide a few tips to help you each survive and, if possible, thrive this year. My great hope is to make all this a bit easier for the lives I touch!

With that in mind, one of first things that comes to mind is the topic of mental resiliency. When it's all too easy to have a bad day, having good ones can be something of a substantial chore. Learning to influence and eventually the mental software within can be extraordinarily empowering, and it's a literal survival mechanism right now. 

If you're having a bad day, take a break from the screen and set your eyes on some manner of a horizon. I'd recommend going outside and looking out into the horizon if possible, but any act of unfocusing the eyes from the device you're working on is a necessary touchstone or making this work. As you do this, start with some manner of simple mantra...I'd recommend "this too shall pass", either chanted aloud or within. Take five minutes to do this, then return to your day. 

If you do this a few times a day and really get into this practice, it'll help your mindset and function.

This practice is a kind of five minute meditation; a refocusing exercise that alters the way the mind works in the moment. It is a kind of mental self-care, and that's good for us. 

Likewise, engage in self-care routines. Once or twice a week at the very least. Shower, comb/brush your hair and take some time to look after your needs. For those of you who are feeling depressed & apathetic, I know this will feel like work - that's a part of what makes this so important. Taking this time to check in with self will help you to develop a better understanding of what you need each day and as you get better at managing your own needs, you'll find that you stand in your own way less down the road, leading to a greater personal efficiency. 

Finally, I'd very much recommend doing nice things for others inasmuch as you can. Even something as simple as making tea for your spouse or roommate will do. If you can't do that, communicate kindnesses and try to connect with those who are still capable of doing the same. This leads to a chemical change within the mind and body that helps us to feel more comfortable and at ease, giving us a bit of "insulation" from the intensity around us. 

The year isn't yet over and we've got further to go & more to do. I hope these tips help each of you!
Be safe and be blessed. 
-Chris 

​Yesterday was a pretty rough one here. A friend of a friend reached out to ask if this friend of mine "would be ok if she committed suicide". This young lady had checked her dog into an animal shelter and she was ready to take that plunge....when I heard this, I was thankfully able to swing into action and intervene. This young woman is with us today and offerings have been placed to the spirits that helped her to stay. 

This has naturally inspired me to write today, as mental health is something of a crisis right now. Go figure, right? World's on fire, tangling with storms, droughts, plague, and a Charlie Foxtrot of Biblical proportions - it's not like we don't have reasons to be upset or a bit off-kilter!.....

......and that gives us plenty of reason to concern ourselves with our mental health and our connection to others. We are a social species, and we rely on that connection to those of our tribe (whether we are born into that structure or not), and so if you feel your mental health slipping, interact with others. Anxious? Buddy check. Afraid? Buddy check. Losing your shit? Buddy check. 

This is how we keep each other alive during all of this. This is how we come out of this intact. So please, take care of you. Take care of those next to you and let them do the same for you. I don't know you, but I care. If you're struggling, reach out and we'll see what we can do together. 

If you find that others are struggling when suicidal ideation, get them in touch with the Suicide Hotline or like equivalent. Take this seriously so that you and I don't need to bury any more friends and loved ones this year, eh?

Additionally, I've developed a mantra practice specifically for such intervention that I'd like to share with you. I've used it twice and both ladies still live: OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA. Chant that 108x for those who struggle and see them receiving the help they need, whatever it may be. Using this and following those we love into the dark with a torch can make one hell of a difference. 

I hope this helps you to help your friends and families. Much love. 
-Chris 

Hello folks, I hope you're each doing well today and getting on. My weekend involved a touch of psychonautery & spiritual development with help from a pair of plant spirits. This act of delving into the self, drilling down into my comprehension and challenging my views led to this shift in awareness that I'm attempting to process & working to understand more fully to follow.

While in this state of trance and deep meditation, I began to glimpse emotion-as-entanglement and the nature of that which unfolds around us each day. More specifically, these plant spirits and my own helped me to comprehend that the way that we feel about a series of circumstances and events can quite literally reorient us and change our perspective & how it relates to our core experience in unexpected ways. 

Your core experience is your core experience. That might be shared by or paralleled by others in some way, but it's your experience before it becomes anyone else's. My spirits have likened this to being like a fire at the center of a space. That fire might be tended by us, or it might be tended by others, but where we sit and how we approach it changes our disposition and what we see beyond the flames before us. 

If we look North, we might see the craggy, dangerous mountain paths atop which lies a wonderful reward. To the East, we might see a gorgeous beach populated by beautiful men and women, a vacation destination full of delights. To the South, we might spy an angry warband, full of piss & vinegar. To the West, new opportunities and unexplored mysteries. Each of these directions contain aspects of our lives and, perhaps more importantly, they each represent parts of our overall experience. 

What we choose to explore directly influences our experience, and so if we head into the difficult North, we find reward and challenges aplenty, changing our spot on the map. Changing where we next make our camp. So too is this the case if we rise to meet those warbands in open conflict or head to the aforementioned gorgeous Easterly beaches. Each of these travel destinations within our lives are a manifestation of our interests and our voyages of the mind, and so it is up to us what we explore and experience. 

Our day to day experience, mental health, spiritual growth, and the manifestations attaches to each are each interconnected extrapolations of this act of wandering. We are defined by our focus and how we carry it out day by day, and so the meat of this lesson lies in the understanding that it is important to choose carefully. What you choose to do each day will define you in six months, and that will then define you in twelve months, eighteen months, twenty four months and so on and so forth. Choose carefully how you interact with your life each day, as your view around the campfire directly influences everything to follow.

The more we come to realize that each direction around this campfire is available to us, the more capable of intelligent decisions we become.  Think deeply and reflect upon your life, and if one avenue is closed to you, instead of fretting, take a look at the others around you. Explore something else & enrich yourself experience rather than being like the goat constantly ramming its head against an obstacle.  Choosing instead to graze in the lovely pastures nearby or play by the river might instead be more rewarding.

Many blessings & thanks for reading.
​-Chris

The Universe is constructed of beads on a string, and so it is that each of these beads represent a basic function of that which makes up and defines the framework which has sprung up around us. Each of these building blocks are stepping stones, but more than that, they are moving pieces. When we come to understand them as such, we as witchy folk, sorcerers and magicians alike seek to direct and reorient them some. 

When we take this understanding of a Universe made of many moving parts, we can begin to understand that every situation we discover is constructed in a similar way: as above, so below. The Universe LOVES patterns. 

Just as water is made up of two hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom, a situation may have different "chemical parts". If we wish to influence the final shape, we must consider the individual moving parts and how best to ease, change, or redirect each of them according to our wishes. As we do this, we then can come to understand that certain materials reflect that basic nature.

Chaparral represents water and more importantly, its flow. Mugwort manifests as that which causes movement, inciting it to action. Frankincense clears obstacles by way of purification, binding you a thing and changing its shape. Hyssop sanctifies and makes productive. Dragon's blood glues together and makes a thing stronger by increasing its resilience. As you explore herbs and their innate qualities, you will too come to understand what they "bring to the party", so to speak. Contemplate every situation you greet using this awareness, breaking it down into its fundamental qualities. Consider fully the moving parts, including the ones that are necessary for your goals to be made manifest and the things that work against your goals and extrapolate what can be done to improve the flow according to your wishes. 

All magic functions in this way, so comprehending this lesson and putting it to good use will directly contribute to your success. 

It's good to be back!
Blessings,
Chris