​Good morning folks, hope you've each had a blessed Solstice and a pleasant week thus far!

Recently, I spent some time talking to a friend about the nature of life experiences and how they seem to redefine us over time. Its as though experience gradually takes hold and inspires us to see the world differently, and so it is that as we grow, we "level up". This process of leveling up gives us the opportunity to contend with new responsibilities and make ourselves into better men and women.

In this, there is a kind of XP mechanic not unlike what one sees in video games, so this got me thinking. While we cannot see the experience bar anywhere on our HUD, acts of experience-gain are pretty much the same in life as they are in a video game. The more challenging the quest, the more experience you gain and, typically, the better the reward. 

For me, that concept is definitely a bit of a motivator, as I am very much in love with the idea of progress and growth. I find that both directly contribute to our quality of life, where slowing down and choosing not to do much directly hampers our life experiences. The less we do, the less we are motivated to do, and the more insulated from the world we become, the more out-of-touch with it we learn to be.

I find this awareness to be rather inspiring, as when we begin to see different challenges as being a means of gaining XP and growing, they become exciting. If instead of going to another boring Monday meeting to get funding for a project, we're going on a quest to convince the Powers That Be to partake of an important venture for the good of the Kingdom, the humdrum becomes kind of epic in its proportions....or at least in how we view them.

That shift in perception is an act of magic, just as growing to confront these obstacles before you is! These little bits of magic become a matter of gaining XP, leveling up, and learning to be a better whatever-you-choose-to-be. Its a bit silly on the surface, but what's the harm in choosing to  see these engagements as epic adventures? It might just give you more reason to strive, to try, and to prevail.

Something about this makes me smile, and I hope the same for you. Be safe and be blessed folks.
-Chris

2020 has been a bear of a year for all of us, and recent events are just heaping insult upon injury at this point. We're all hurting, many of us have lost someone dear to us, and we're wrangling with what is presented to us each and every day. The recent murder of a pillar of the community has put this into stark perspective at a time where other realities have too been placed in stark perspective. 

Take action, but do so safely and mindfully. When all of this is over, each of you will still need a home to return to. A bed to lay your head. A family to be with & take comfort from. A friend of mine shared this link with me, and I will share it here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

Additionally, work to protect and safeguard your friends and family with magic. When this kind of hatred & danger is put into play, ugly cycles begin. Lives are torn asunder and there are ripples throughout every community as a result. Working to protect your job, your home, your life, and your livelihood is ever so important now.

If you need inspiration on doing this, I recommend the following prayer.:

​Hey there folks, I hope you're each keeping well. We certainly are here in Oregon, though the quarantine is not without its challenges. 

I've been inspired to write a bit more on spiritual self-development today, this time in relation to a specific mental exercise. I thought I'd share a tool that I use to further develop my own senses and sharpen my awareness!

I think we're all in agreement that the way you view a situation is incredibly important, yes? (If you disagree, I'd be curious to read your assessment of why that's not important in the comments below!) How we contend with a situation is reflective of our perception of the situation at play, so when we come to a tangled knot in our own lives, a fresh new perspective can be a godsend. It can be the difference between doing the same thing over and over again or finding a more appropriate set of actions & reactions that can lead to better results.

The technique is simple enough to understand and apply, but its not terribly easy. Its something of a developed skill, as it requires a substantial amount of awareness. Additionally, it is necessary that we be willing to look at what are sometimes incredibly emotionally charged scenarios without bias as a means of getting through to the heart of a matter. There's a kind of internal sincerity that one needs to develop for this to work, but the act of developing that dedication to this process that makes it so incredibly powerful.

To do this, first you must be willing to face your own perspective of a given situation. Sit down with yourself and observe the circumstances before you. Take five minutes to do this, and then note your thoughts and observations. Next, I want you to do the same thing for the next most important person in a given scenario, and try to look at the situation from their point of view before noting what you expect their thoughts and feelings to be about the matter in front of you. You'll then repeat this process until you've looked at this from the perspectives of all of those who are central to the circumstantial stage in front of you. As you do this, you'll notice that you become more aware of what others think and feel about x, y, and z, and its that newfound awareness that can lead to you being better able to anticipate the needs of others.

This is something of a superpower, as if you don't lose sight of the perspective other people have in your life, you won't lose sight of what's important to them. If you can keep that awareness in mind, you'll find that your actions more naturally account for what they need and want, which correlates to others being more willing to provide you with what you seek. So much of the stubbornness we see in others stems from resentment related to not being understood, so this act of being able to read the waters through this kind of projected introspection makes it so much easier to avoid unnecessary troubles along the way.

The other aspect of this process is that it leads to a greater capacity to anticipate the needs of others on a psychic level. This awareness is directly connected to empathic cognizance, so by working on the development of these perceptive faculties, you'll eventually find that you can do the same with spirits. As such, doing this is very much in line with developing the skillset necessary for interacting with and learning from spirits. Its something of a win/win. ;)

Blessings to you guys & gals. Stay safe.
-Chris

Hey there folks, how are each of you doing this fine day? Its been an interesting month thus far, but we're getting on here in the Pacific Northwest. Quarantine's in effect, but there's still a great deal to do despite that & I feel very blessed and equally thankful.

Its this that inspires me to write this day, in fact, as I'd like to see each of you do better than just barely scraping by. If you've got room in your schedule and you feel that you've got room to grow, these sigils can act as encapsulated blessings that then lead towards further goodness & increase there.:

Carve this sigil into a candle and see, in your mind's eye, this sigil and background overlaid onto your ritual. This invokes the pattern etched out by the sigil and ritual work to which this is tied, in effect recreating that pattern in your life. ;)

This sigil can be carved into your Work, but it functions more effectively if its allowed to "breath". Visualize this as you engage in the fourfold breath, and you'll find that the sigil swells and contracts as your rib cage does. This is a part of what makes this magic "work", as its an extension of Ruach, or the animating breath which gives us life & vitality.

This sigil was a gift from Och, the spirit of the Sun from the Ars Arbatel. It reflects the Light of the Divine reflecting itself in our worlds. While a bit simple at first blush, this one you really need to lose yourself within. Gaze into it and let it inspire you...this might feel a bit strange at first, but its meant to be.

Think of this as a kind of chiropractic adjustment for the soul!

This sigil focuses on helping you to lose yourself in the things that make you who you are. This understanding of Self is what breeds further enjoyment, so let this inspire you and become a part of who you are.

Its a different way of working with the Flow, but its a powerful thing.

Blessings to you guys and gals! Have a great week!
-Chris

Hey there guys & gals! I'm back in the office and it has been a very productive day here. I'm so pleased, and I'm very grateful that the move went as well as it did. My spirits have been taking good care of me, and I hope the same can be said for you and yours.

The time spent moving, cleaning, and lifting really gave me some time to think and more importantly, it gave my spirits time to talk to me while I was more or less undistracted. That's a rare treat, and something I took full advantage of. While I did so, some of what came down the vine was this thought: the importance of moving forward one step at a time. That is essentially exactly what I was doing throughout the entirety of this process, no matter how cold, tired, hungry (or hangry) I was at the moment, and in a way that's a reflection of the greater state at play here. That inspired me to write this post!

When we're up against something truly HUGE like a world-scale epidemic, it puts everything into a deeper perspective. We've got no choice but to look at things from a Big Picture vantage point, and that can very often be a bit bewildering. Its also incredibly useful as a teaching tool, as we then come to understand just how small we are in the grand scheme of things. (Note that I use the word "small" not "unimportant" in this context!)

When we are small, our behaviors are small. Our works are small. Our efforts are small....and small things matter. Every single action we take right now has the capacity to be deeply felt by others across the board, and that means that these small little steps start to matter more and more by comparison.

When these small things matter so much, its a very good thing to keep your eyes on the prize, so to speak, and make baby steps towards whatever it is that we seek. My advice to you, knowing this, is to look at your immediate sphere before you and figure out where you can make small, steady progress each day. Find a thing, whatever it is, and work on it daily - the more important it is to you, the better, as each of these little steps will lead towards these massive transformations that you seek. It might not seem all that worthwhile or important now, but hey, its not like you don't have the time.

Even the tiniest of ripples and create waves. ;)
Blessings,
Chris

Hey guys and gals, how are each of you doing? I’ve been hard at work during my move, and it’s been chaos. Productive chaos, but chaos nonetheless, as logistics have been a bit more complicated of late. 

Nevertheless, these challenges are being conquered and I am still on track to return to work on April 6th. This move has given me a ton of time to think and converse with my spirits, and they’ve suggested that I talk about mindsets a bit. 

I think we can agree that we’ve got a lot going on right now. The crisis has us collectively off our game, and we’re each adjusting to this day by day. This capacity for adaptation is what we humans are known for doing, and so we are playing to our strengths. While we do so and stay indoors and await the virus’ retreat, we have to plan for everything to get better.

Yes, things are pretty difficult and, in some cases, dire, but this too will pass. Our experiences will not always be this way, but that will only be true if we make a point of ensuring that productive change occurs. We do this by planning and acting as though everything will get better in the future. This is a requirement, as we grow through adaptation and overcoming obstacles.

I would recommend honing your skills, rewriting your resumes, and really investing into yourself while your workload is lessened. Make a point of using this time as your own kind of Vision Quest or Spirit Journey so that you can take your life by the reigns when this all blows over!

In short, while you're practicing social distancing and working to get through your days, also work on yourself. Grow from this and apply that growth in such a way that no one can keep you down afterwards! If we're lucky, we'll have survived a pandemic - how's that for a notch on your belt?
​
Blessings to you all! I’ve got to get back to work unpacking!
-Chris 

​Hey there! How are each of you doing?
Some time ago, Pallas Athena had one mandate for me: to learn to tell stories. When I asked her about it & questioned her reasoning, I was told that stories are a means of connecting with wisdom from ages path, and the stories themselves become a gateway towards deeper understandings. Doing as she's suggested has proven to be wonderfully transformative for me, as diving into the stories of old can rather drastically change the way you look at the world....especially while interacting with the spirits those stories are about!

If you find yourself bored and searching for things to do, I'd recommend following this particular path. Read the stories of empires past and come to understand both the historical context of the stories themselves & their wider meanings. As you begin to understand the essence of what's being conveyed within, you'll find yourself connecting more deeply with the Gods and Goddesses of your choosing, all the while having a better contextual understanding of the current you're wading in. 

A story need not be serious for it to have worth, and so you can jump right in. Be it about Anansi, the Greek Gods, the Kami of Japan, or the Temple Guardians in China, there's plenty to learn, and if you've got kids, you can share the more benign stories with them and use them as a teaching and bonding tool.

Its a lot more fun than you might think, and there are quite a few spiritual perks to it too. ;)
Blessings,
Chris

Hey there everyone, hope you're keeping well & staying safe!
Right now, our routines are all a bit screwy and we're each having to adjust our patterns to adhere to a new flow. We're not getting our usual social fix, and the extroverts among us are going a bit stir crazy. The fidgetiness and stir-craziness are real, and its at times like these where the state of our mental continuum is magnified to an extreme. This then heightens our overall anxiety and adds to the background stress, causing us to each be a bit more on edge with each passing day.

If you find yourself in this mode, this post is written for you. I'd like to give some tips and tricks for managing your anxiety while we're quarantined and prevented from interacting with the world as we would normally.:

1. Be kind. Recognize that we're each feeling this and very much in this together. I'm not suggesting that you hug your neighbors, but try to maintain an awareness that everyone else you encounter is just trying to go through their day and get by. In times like this, compassion is a currency, and its a means of changing both your life and the lives of others for the better.
2. De-escalate. In recognizing that others are experienced a heightened state of anxiety just as you are, take notice when you're getting a bit hot under the collar and work to de-escalate the tension. Crack jokes, take a breather, and then return to handling the problem so that cooler heads prevail.
3. Breathe. When you find yourself worked-up, take slow, deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Use this to center yourself.
4. Meditate. Take some time to find your happy place within and then return to the world with that awareness in mind.
5. Do nice things for yourself. Its all too easy to become overly concerned for others right now too, so be sure to take care of yourself too. Your nerves are going to be a bit frayed around the edges, so its important to take care of your own star player: you.
6. Pace yourself. If you're handling a lighter work load as a result of your place of business having less customers to attend to, slow down and try to take some joy in your job. Decrease your expediency by 5 to 10% and slowly chew through your workload if your circumstances allow for it. Burnout is a very real concern when dealing with stress like this.
   
7. Engage in prayer. No matter your faith, there's some good to be had in engaging in spiritual acts. Prayer is one such variation of this practice, and the act of communing with one manner of spirit or another can do fantastic things for the mind and soul.
8. Read a book. Enrich yourself and your mind while you're less able to go out and be social. Readership isn't a very well valued life skill, as its not often considered to be a "cool" thing to do. It is also an extremely effective means of self-improvement if you're reading worthwhile texts.
   

I hope these suggestions give you some ideas and make your stays at home more pleasurable overall. We'll get through this, and managing anxiety effectively will make this whole experience a great deal less unpleasant!

Blessings,
Chris

Good morning Folks & Happy Monday! I hope you each are doing well and getting by despite the closures, quarantines, and general anxiety that we are each feeling right now. The COVID-19 situation has each of us feeling a bit stressed and concerned, both for our futures & the well-being of our loved ones. Its been a rather intense couple of weeks, and we're each watching on as further developments arise.

This situation has rather drastically impacted our individual circumstances to no small degree, and with it comes a substantial disruption to our day-to-day flows. While the state of affairs is far from ideal, I believe that this interruption can be of use to each of us, and it is in the spirit of this understanding that I write this post.

We're going to be sequestered away from the rest of the world for a while, so this is prime time for growth and spiritual development. If you're unable to work, to go out, to be social, and to interact with others, and you've got nowhere else to go, you've essentially been forced into a Tower of your own. This, to me, smacks of the Abramelin Operation, in which one voluntarily isolates themselves in order to achieve parity with the Divine through connecting with their Holy Guardian Angel. While a great many of you are in no circumstances to perform the Abramelin Rite at this time, we can take inspiration from this and use the down time in a meaningful way.

At the very least, you should be meditating a couple of times a day if you've got nowhere else to be. Those who are a bit more driven and interested in genuine development beyond the basics, I would recommend you do more. 

Conjure spirits, spend time in congress with those entities who can teach you about the world and what's going on in it, and make a point of performing magick that will set you up for success when the quarantine lifts. Work towards prosperity, success, and being largely unimpacted by this trouble. Work to improve the health of your friends and loved ones. Work towards the greater good, as a rising tide raises all ships.

Make a point of wielding compassion as a tool, and you'll find yourself transformed when you step outside the hallowed halls of your home. 

To add to this transformation of self, I would strongly urge you to learn all that you can. Enrich the mind and keep yourself busy rather than simply stewing in the fear itself. There are a number of free resources that you can utilize, including free virtual tours of museums, listening to webcasted operatic performances, and watching TEDTalks on YouTube. Watch documentaries online, connect with study groups virtually, and access Khan Academy's website to self-improve in the mundane sphere. This can all be connected to conjurations of spirits like Stolas, Vassago, and Decarabia, as they are each known for their capacity to educate. Working with them as you engage in this self-improvement during a period of forced isolation can and very likely will drastically improve your understanding of a number of different disciplines, and this will in turn prep you for further success when the quarantines are lifted.

Additionally, when you find that your nerves are getting to you, I would recommend printing coloring books, creating art, and engaging in those kinds of therapy. If you're not the artistic sort, challenge yourself to be, as there's no "wrong answer" there. Instead, the very act of investing time and effort into yourself and your enjoyment of life is the right answer, and this act of enrichment will beneficially impact your view of the world outside yourself.

Above all, maintain these social relationships that are going to be impacted by COVID-19. Check in with those you care for and make sure they are OK. We'll get through this, and if you engage in even a few of the tasks suggested above, you'll exit your home stronger and wiser than you were before....maybe even with a few spiritual friends who can help you to do more than you were prior. 

This is an overwhelming time for us, but it doesn't need to be. I hope that my words and suggestions are of use to each of you. Stay safe and take care of yourselves.
Blessings,
Chris

​Greetings folks! I hope the day finds you well! In the interest of keeping everyone apprised of my schedule, I thought I'd share some details here. 

My wife and I are moving in the midst of all the craziness, so I will be out of the office during the week of March 30th. I'll be back in the office as of Monday April 6th, and at that time I'll be returning to my usual schedule inasmuch as the COVID situation allows.

While I am away, stay tuned to my IG account. I won't be much for conversation during this time, but I plan to keep it updated with the takedown & setup process associated with my altars and magical practices to give everyone some ideas. :)

Blessings to each of you, and do stay safe during this turmoiled time!
-Chris