Further Open Source Experiments

Hello again dear readers, I hope you have all been well. This the second installment of my Open Source Magick series. I will discuss ways to expand on last months experiments and add a few new topics for consideration and play. I will suggest ways to expand your daily practice, increase awareness, introduce a self blessing ritual and discuss briefly some Magickal theory. So grab a coffee, or a Margarita depending on your personal situation and let's get started.

Daily Practice

Last month we talked about the importance of daily practice and I suggested a few different techniques that myself and other Psychonauts have found helpful, hopefully you have explored some of these. Now I would like to add to the importance of these techniques. First let me stress why I feel so strongly about this topic; daily practice is where your routine maintenance comes into play.By taking time each day to check your overall progress it becomes easier to know where you have grown and where you need to grow. Don't wait for the check engine light to come on, go ahead and check your fluids on a regular basis.

Hopefully you have found a practice that allows some time to be still and quiet, so that you can have a

conversation with yourself. If you are still having difficulty with this try the following exercise. Get a piece of paper and a pen. Write the following question, "Seeker what do you desire?" Contemplate this for a while before answering. Asking yourself questions like this will open up access to your Higher Self and begin to direct you to your True Will. Once you become adept at this sort of practice you will begin to live in alignment with your Divine Presence.

Awareness

I believe last month I referred to this as Body Awareness, but really it is much deeper than that, it is about total awareness . Let's revisit Body Awareness for a moment and then I will expand upon it. I recommended before that one try to lay still for at least 10 minutes a day and become aware of one's body gradually increasing the amount of time to 30 minutes twice a day. So now let's add to this, starting with your head, use your imagination to see your brain. This simple act will increase blood flow to your brain and relax it completely. After your brain do the same for your eyes, ears, nose and mouth, continue to do this until you reach your feet. You should feel warmth in the part you are concentrating on as the blood flow increases, this will be how you know you are doing it right.

Now it is time to try a new exercise, find a comfortable place outside and sit down. Glance down or close your eyes. Begin by becoming aware of your breath, now listen to the world around you. As you become aware of more and more, you are actually expanding your consciousness. Going with that try to tune in directly with the earth below you, the clouds above you, all the water on the planet even Cosmos herself. Do this as often as possible.

Self Blessing Ritual

Step One: Banish, you have been practicing, right?
Step Two: Draw bath, add salt and herbs like lavender or chamomile.
Step Three: Light candles and incense to set the mood.
Step Four: Enter the bath.
Step Five: As you soak try to let go of everything that causes you stress. Once you are relaxed, use a washcloth or loofa to wash yourself from head to toe, imagining all the while that you are removing impurities from your psyche.
Step Six: Pour water on your head and see it as blessings raining down on you. I usually say something like, "I trust myself in this moment, I live in and value the moment, I love and accept myself. So mote it be." I usually do several recitations of this until I feel it into the core of my being.
Step seven: Drain the bath, stay in the bath until fully drained. As the water drains feel all of your obstacles falling away.
Step Eight: Lie down somewhere until you are air dried.

Magickal Theory Part One

In this section I will begin introducing you Axioms of the Magickal World View, if you would like to read more about this I recommend the following:
The Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker
Synchronicity by Carl Jung
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstader

I will begin with Three Axioms that help to make up the Magickal World View. The Axiom of Reality Tunnels, the Axiom of Evidence, and the Axiom of Synchronicity.

The Axiom of Reality Tunnels
Everything we perceive as reality is an interface being the objective (Noumenon, Tao, Godhead, Universe,

etc.) and the subjective (our personal interpretation of the objective.) As we shift our awareness of the world around us we literally perceive a different world. Since there are infinite ways to interpret this data through our senses and the model we choose to make it fit, there are literally an infinity of Universes contained in a moment. Our awareness is the key to opening different realities.

Most world views support an idea of separateness of self and the objective. You are already one with the objective , but as Godel's Incompleteness Theorem states we never fully know the objective because we cannot step outside of it. There are no independent observers, your perceptions help to co-create Universe in every moment.

The Axiom of Evidence
Simply stated this Axiom goes like this the more evidence one looks for to support a Reality Tunnel, the more you will find. Our brains do this automatically everyday, by means of subconscious internal dialogue.
To illustrate this I will introduce you William Burroughs' 23 Virus. It goes like this; 23 is the most common number in the universe, the more you look for it the more you see it. This is an example of a recursive loop, our brains are full of them. In fact, the majority of therapy is learning to reprogram theses loops through a variety of mind tricks, so too magick.

The Axiom of Sychronicity
Dr Carl Jung came up with the term Synchronicity as a label for meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by normal cause and effect. This would be events that seem to have the same meaning or are connected by symbolic patterns rather than time. Such as noticing a particular animal right before something significant happens, over and over again. Some postulate that this is the result of an ongoing conversation between your soul and the divine, and it is only when we shift our attention to it that we realize the extent to which it happens.I recommend reading Jung's book above about it, as I do not do this Axiom justice with my explanation.

So there you have it, this months installment of Open Source Magick. Please give me feedback on your own progress, either in the comments below or email me at sasquatchjones@ymail.com. Keep up the Great Work and keep being your wonderful self.