I wanted to offer my sketches, my thoughts, my perhaps ramblings and rumblings as I try and bring forth such a fabled concept into my practice.  I mean, I am doing that right now, have been doing that since my last few posts.

Creating the Philosopher's Stone means many things, and has historically, and for me its creation represents being able to share in more Western language the precious understandings and knowledge I have of reality through Eastern paths almost exclusively.

When looking at the historical data on how to create a stone or some material, such as a powder or a wax-like substance, which can turn metals into gold, which also incorporates ideas of the perfection of oneself, with more esoteric understandings being part of the process as well, each alchemist, or person who practices this art, has a variation on the basic steps of this process, the process of alchemy.

I am relating all of this and find this important because, for one, my understanding of reality, as I am sure is the case for everyone, this shapes so much of who I am, and I know this to be quite different than a lot of people's.  It seems important to share this about myself as it inevitably influences the work I do.

Secondly, if in my knowledge, and belief to an extent, I feel we are all inevitably going towards this understanding of reality, this truth of it, and most of us are not aware of this truth, and it is shaping us and our path regardless of our knowledge of it, this seems important to share in a helping profession.  If I am not mentioning or referencing or working with the underlying framework and pull that drives or conditions each of us in unique ways, then I feel I am neglecting knowledge I have that could be shared to be helpful and open up reality more for a path to wholeness for each person.

The historical quest for the Philosopher's Stone, whether for turning lead into gold or perfecting the nature of oneself, in it I have found language which echoes that of traditional Tantra and Vedanta.

Both of those Eastern understandings speak of reality in a way which I know, however much I do know it  They basically state we are already at our destination, having already reached a true oneness with the universe, and instead of "universe" you can use your own word for the ultimate understanding of things, whether this be for a force, a being, a presence, or what have you, whatever you conceptualize as an ultimate understanding, one which can be experienced, interacted with, even related to in the sense of a relationship.

Alchemy has tried to speed up the natural perfection it says all metals are going towards, or that all of us are reaching for.  Gold for alchemists has been the perfection of all metals, symbolic of our own perfect nature which we strive for.

When turning lead into gold or helping others reach this state of perfection, the Philosopher's Stone has already reached this place, helping others or other material to arrive there.

I feel it important to conclude my talk of alchemy here, and begin to share it as the process already in place in my practice, of reaching for wholeness, and although I will use and have used the word perfection for what alchemy strives for, there is nothing more perfect than the Eastern conceptualization of us knowing our true nature, as the universe itself, as the state of perfection already inherent within us.

Alchemy seeks to help us unlock this door of understanding, and when it does so, when it helps us uncover who we really are, it creates in the process a golden key of awareness with which we find our freedom and joy in life.

I feel like I have finally come to a place where I can share openly, if not completely so, the knowledge I have that has meant so much to me throughout my life.

This knowledge I can share will be on a path unique to each person, but it translates into freedom for everyone, a loving sense of being, a peaceful sense of existence; it is dynamic and powerful, loving and human.

It accepts no authority, but your own.

In the ultimate sense, it is authority for everyone.

When looking at the basic processes of alchemy, in which a material becomes purified to a point of perfection, reaching its own innate essence or self, the final destination becomes colored red.

This may symbolize the material's own innate perfection achieved.  It may also signify its ability to change other materials into their own perfected states.

This, I am so happy to have discovered, perhaps urged on silently by the work of Carl Jung, who himself found in alchemy so much rich meaning for his own discovered understandings of how we reach for wholeness.

I will say I have come across this perfected material before, sometimes called a stone, throughout my life.

A most recent encounter with it shaped myself and the beginnings of my practice, introducing the sacred feminine to me in a way I had not known.  The importance of self-love was pointed out, not in a distorted way, but in a way which had me feeling more whole.

Reading books on the subject, I found in the sacred feminine a suppressed understanding, lineages or potential lineages of women who incorporated everyday living into their daily practice.

If a path of truth were to be walked, discarding everyday life and love did not seem healthy based on the recent experiences I had had at the time.

I encountered the red thread designation of Meggan Watterson, which harkened back to the women of the past I was discovering.

Completely separate from her, I found out there was a Red Thread Zen practice, incorporating everyday living into its unique form of Buddhism.

There are other encounters with this color, and I will come to another of them in a moment, but when I discovered in alchemy just recently the path of making this treasured material, perfected in itself and which could transform others as well, I was shown how I could incorporate all of my path in a way which could be communicated to others, the symbolism of alchemy and its processes having paved the way with their precedents.

Repeated from a previous post, here are the sequences of changes when transforming a material into its perfected state, signified by color change and including my own interpretation of what each stage means.  Transforming oneself, as well as other materials, has been a goal of alchemy historically.

Black - a distillation of ourselves past the everyday world and mind talk.
White - insights and information gained from the experience as we return.
Red - living our lives changed from the knowledge of our experience.

While I had very deeply and clearly encountered my own personal experiences of the first two stages of alchemy, not until I encountered the need of the sacred feminine in such a fundamental way could I have found meaning in the third stage, even though I had experienced it in my own way, if not highlighted or talked about in the traditions I had followed.

Without elaborating on this, I will simply say that any tradition that advises practice and discipline away from others or from even basic human sexual understanding, without honoring either of them, or without honoring the connecting human link we have to all, this potentially complicates the path, sometimes to an alarming degree.

You may reach a state of understanding without consciously honoring our humanity or sexuality, but depending on the degree of neglect, this will return at some point to challenge you.

A religion, for instance, may honor a removal of oneself from the world to gain insights and understanding, as in the first two stages of alchemy, but it may not have much to say on how to be a human and work with these.  This represents a feminine addition to the knowledge, to my mind, and to my heart, for a more complete understanding, for how to humanly work with this knowledge and any insight gained.

Traditional Tantra represents such a complete path as I have outlined, as alchemy has put forth.  I have been excited and heartened to discover we have had a Western approach, in alchemy, to a complete path to realizing the truth of who we are, which we are all going towards, whether we know it or not.

Traditional Tantra has been the most complete path I have ever encountered, predating religion as we know it, captured and intimated somehow in the stages of process outlined in alchemy for reaching perfection.

Traditional Tantra has come from India, followed closely by, perhaps around the same time and around the same region, the teachings of Vedanta.  Whereas Vedanta follows more closely the first two stages of alchemy, traditional Tantra, which I will refer to as simply Tantra now--Tantra emphatically emphasizes the third stage of alchemy, incorporating red most vividly in some of its esoteric practices.

The practice of helping others in my life has come to this point of my journey, to be able to follow a Western set of guidelines for Eastern practices, which incorporate the entirety of a path to wholeness, to realizing the truth of who we are.

I will have more to say about the degrees of subtlety found in the three stages of process, the three ways or pathways of alchemy, which capture the full journey of anyone who honors being human as part of it.

I have been trying to bring more openly into my practice the ideas and understandings that are the most precious to me.  If I know what truly can be life changing, and I feel there is some way to communicate this to others, and I am in the profession of helping others, how can I not want to do this?

Actually, when I felt such freedom from my discoveries the first time, in a real and experiential way, I could not help but want to just beam this out to all I knew or thought might appreciate this information when I first was experiencing the reality of it.

From that day until now, I have always tried to work with this information, really radical from the everyday perspective, and I think I may have finally been able to find a vehicle or approach to communicating this that may just be what I was looking for.

Carl Jung has said many positive things about his understandings and research into alchemy, an ancient way of approaching several tasks which encapsulated for him his understandings of how we naturally try and achieve wholeness and well-being as humans.  Seen as symbolic and truly metaphor for him, the processes of alchemy captured his own understandings, discovered separately, for how we go about achieving wholeness.

I have not read of Jung's own takes on alchemy overly much or that much at all, to my recollection, for I wanted to see if it might speak to me in a way that holds value for myself, with my own interpretations, separate from anyone else's ideas about it.  As I have continued to breach and work with and perhaps wrestle with at times the subject of magic, or magick as I have referred to it on here, I came across alchemy, having first read of it many years ago.

Now, after having begun to read about it in more depth, from several authors' perspectives of what it has been historically, even up to more present times, I feel I have found the vehicle to communicate the truth as I know it, the understanding of reality that seems so much a break with the everyday, yet, this is my normal way of operating and going about in the world.

It has been difficult to have this knowledge and not be able to share it or be with others who might relate to it.

In the patterns and goals described in the alchemical processes of history, there is one pattern and goal, for the purposes of this post, that I would like to relate.

Alchemy has famously been depicted as trying to turn lead into gold by its practitioners.  A basic pattern to this process involves beginning with a basic material, which at times has been hidden and elusive, but an essential ingredient to the process nonetheless.  I will use the word distillation, although not in the technical sense, to describe one of the first processes involved in transforming the material.  When it becomes blackened through heat, perhaps during the distillation process, this color change is key for all versions of the process, and they can vary greatly among alchemists.

One of the next steps in transforming the material involves a process of combining with it again a portion of itself which may have been separated from it in a previous process.  If you think of the previously mentioned stage, where the material was blackened, as death, this process of reconstituting it is a return to life, and in this second stage the material becomes white.

There does become related a stage of yellowing of the material in some versions of the process, but I am not using it here in this example.

One of the final stages then, in which other material becomes introduced into this white, resurrected material, describes the white material as being fed by food or drink, symbolic of this other material being introduced, the original material now growing or having given birth to the final stage in the transformation process.

The material is described as being red at this point, the stone which can transform lead into gold.

Not until I just began practicing counseling at the end of my school years or at the beginning of my own private practice did I come across anything where I would find meaning in the complete color sequence as outlined above for alchemy.

As I communicate it again here, I will share with you the goal that the more spiritual side of alchemy reached for, adding to each stage my own interpretation relating to the goal.

Black - a distillation of ourselves past the everyday world and mind talk.
White - insights and information gained from the experience as we return.
Red - living our lives changed from the knowledge of our experience.

The spiritual or higher aspirations for alchemy were to help us transform ourselves into the best versions of us, to perfect our human nature, if you will.

Distilling whatever substance it is, including ourselves, into a pure form, returning reconstituted again within this pure form, and then living out our lives, as our new selves, this becomes the symbolic map of the alchemical process, and I have much more to say on this, including how the stage of the red stone, the final result, ties in with the sacred feminine and traditional Tantra.

I wanted to commemorate ten years of counseling as of tomorrow (December 1, 2021), this comprised of leading groups for adults with severe and persistent illnesses for three years, one year combined of helping others in internship and practicum at universities, as well as six years now of private practice work, helping adults of all identities with their concerns.

What do I do, are my specialties, where am I at in terms of my evolution as a counselor?

I sometimes in fun say I follow the theory of the two Carls: Carl Rogers and Carl Jung.

I am first and foremost an empathetic counselor, putting my energy into understanding whomever I am helping in a way that simply desires the best for that person, however that may look, whatever that may be, knowing this may change over time and take different pathways to arrive there.

For Carl Jung, the above being the cornerstone of Carl Rogers' approach, called Rogerian counseling--Carl Jung believed in the healing ability of the psyche, as do I, as it helps us to know what we need to for being more whole as a person, bringing to our attention those areas we have neglected, allowing them to come to the surface of our awareness when we least expect them, so we can work on this material, however unpleasant the process or these areas may be at times.

For helping others with trauma I make use of the very Rogerian Narrative Exposure Therapy.  Making a more complete memory of what happened through this approach helps us to make sense of what transpired, providing more understanding and peace as well, in the context of our entire life.  This approach becomes an intense but powerful experience of reliving memories in a more understanding way, with more peace resulting as well.

It just works.

I enjoy leading others in meditation also, giving them access to that place underneath any moment, which becomes an experience of peace and well-being, available more and more as we continue to go there and do this on a regular basis.

That sums up my main and what could be considered more traditional approaches to helping others.  Adding to this now I would say are the evolutionary extensions of these approaches.

When I speak about the sacred feminine in person or on this site, I am in some ways talking about the cultural material and area and related areas I feel we all are needing to or do finally look at, what the collective sense of ourselves needs to be aware of to be more whole, the balance to the learned and ingrained ways of production and success and goals, the driving treadmill of life that never seems to stop or allow ourselves our humanity.

When I first expressed the sacred feminine on the site, the emphasis was and still is in some ways on the just being with this love, this love within, the love of the universe, which I truly feel awaits us all, past our conditioning and our concerns.

To actively be with this love, this sense of a universe that loves, as a fundamental way of being, this became the next area to evolve into--how does one live and still abide in this love?

Downtime away from it all, these are moments to find inspiration and guidance in, an opportunity to be with the sacred feminine, the energy represented there.

To do past this, however, once the inspiration is found, this I never want to fall back into the treadmill of life, into any imprisoning ways of being.  As a result, magick, magick becomes an active way of knowing, of gaining the answers, and perhaps, as implied in my approach and messages on here, this becomes a way of actively changing and shaping reality, for our better selves, or in whichever ways one feels led.

Magick, if in no other way, represents the sacred feminine as a more balanced and empowered way of actively living, of actively being and doing in the world, one which does not forsake the wisdom of intuition, that does not forgo our humanity, or lessen ourselves for anyone.

These are the recent additions to my practice, as I continue to enjoy evolving and helping others.

We are the dream, dreaming the dream, and I simply want to help you enjoy yours.

This post completes the third of three on the topic of an untraceable memory of truth I find to be inside of all of us, as described by Vedanta and as supported by modern science as being possible to be passed down from generation to generation, since time immemorial, and one expression of this ultimate truth we are trying to remember can be called an archetype, those symbolic bits of wisdom, of stories and their characters, as expressed from the beginning of our existence as a human species, universally resonating with all of us, in varying degrees, beacons of knowledge along the way as we remember the ultimate truth, that we are both an expression of the universe and the very universe itself.

Both Vedanta and Carl Jung say we are going towards this larger sense of ourselves as the universe, described by both as the Self but conceived by Jung as more of a guiding ideal of wholeness.

Part one and part two of these posts are linked here:

A memory of truth (part one).

A memory of truth (part two).

If we are trying to remember, whether knowingly or not, that we are the universe itself, and some of our purest expressions as begun and passed down from our beginnings as a species are known as archetypes, and they contain wisdom for us to know and act upon to be whole and more truly ourselves, reclaiming our understanding of ourselves as the universe along the way, then how do we pull all of this together, make this work for us in the modern world, living our lives on this earth?

Briefly, archetypes in a loose sense are to be found in any of the literature, movies, or dramas we can see today, whether made just yesterday or from times of long ago.  When we become inspired by movies, literature, or any play we may be watching, experiencing any of the dramatic arts, or arts in general for that matter, we are potentially being touched by these universal themes, which have had meaning for us since the beginning of our species.  Without being pedantic or teacherly in their ways, they can give us instruction, inspire us, each one of us on our own individual path.  Certainly, there are specific ones which speak to us more than others.  Whether they be about love, dramatic tragedies, or simple but meaningful subjects of escapism playing out before us, archetypes as contained in these expressions do not ever lose their meaning.  Instead I believe, depending on who we are, and what times we are living in, some of these messages may be more relevant for different ones of us individually than others, even carrying more of a message for us as a culture, a continent, or as a global community as a whole, depending on who we are and what we may have been longing to hear collectively, what message we may have forgotten from long ago.

Archetypes, a vast subject, I like to think of them as just symbols that touch each one of us deeply.  Depending on who we are and our particular need at the time, they can provide just that bit of wisdom we are looking for, for guidance, for inspiration, for remembering who we are.

(Not incidentally, dreams are a fervent ground for archetypes to emerge in, and perhaps using the term loosely again, with a related understanding, archetypes as the symbolism of dreams hold true to their sometimes obscure meanings, providing us with the current status of our psyche, an understanding of our deepest thoughts and our truest feelings.)

When we talk about archetypes as guiding us to remember ourselves as whole, and nothing less than an expression of the universe, as the universe itself, we are talking about a pure expression of ourselves from when we first emerged on this earth, back to a time when we were less removed from the source of it all, when our expressions and understandings were closer to this nature, certainly closer than we have been.

Nature, this is what I want to emphasize now, realizing this third and final post in the series may not capture all I want to say, but I want to finish with what is important to share and with what will perhaps do nicely as introductory words to further posts.

When I relate that archetypes are a pure expression of our original nature as human beings, closer to that source we came from, that we are trying to recall as ourselves, as an act of healing, specific archetypes come to mind, as does the very nature of ourselves before and after a glimpse of that ultimate understanding, of ourselves as the very universe.

Magick as a symbol, I have gravitated towards all my life, with its mystery, and of course its magic, the full potential it may hold, and the reality it may unveil--all of this, even more, carries a potent charge in the word "magick," and I have been glad to allow myself to use it here on this site, making it more available in my work.

(For more on this, please feel free to click on the category Magic found on the side of this page or at the bottom of it if you are viewing the mobile device version of this blog.)

Closely related to the idea of magick as an archetype or symbol follows a term which I may lose a few with here, but I had this chiefly in mind when I said archetypes are a pure expression of our original nature:

Pagan.

The history of this word comes from its Latin origins, described as meaning a division of land in the country and those who dwell there also, inferred as being "of the countryside" as well.

Let me be clear in saying this comes to the forefront of my mind when I use the term "pagan," but I also embrace the truth of those practices which people today call Paganism, some expression of which people certainly followed in their original forms back when we first emerged on the earth.

You have an honoring of mystery, of the unknown, you have a way of instructing through story and myth, if you will, in their practices; you have an honoring of the cycles of nature, of life and death, of the cycles of human life on this earth.

What more can we claim both uniquely and fundamentally as a species than our own way of living which honors these cycles of life, of the earth itself and our own precious seasons, practices best described perhaps as those of the country, or pagan?

I know there may be a lot to wade through to get to what I call the truth of Paganism, but I would simply point to overarching myths and stories that come up around it, which are found within it, for the archetypal contents they contain, which may speak to each one of us, including yourself, quite sincerely.

Do stories as a child or dreams from then, for idyllic pastures or sun-drenched meadows, for woodland creatures or faery folk who are friendly, do these bring to mind any feelings or emotional bonds remembered, from when you were younger, perhaps touching deeply similar feelings in you now?

I am speaking of wizards, and of witches, of magic, and of knights of round tables--these could easily be traded for genies and for desert plains, for sun-beaten sands and magic lanterns.

Choose a memory of stories you treasured from when you were younger, of lands you wished you had seen or maybe have since, and these are the powerful contents of archetypes, with their stories and their characters.  I feel strongly that ours of the West (being not opposed to those of distant lands either) hold the keys to unlocking how it feels to live and implement a life of how we perhaps first did, as a pure expression of ourselves more complete and whole, as we climb the stairs and peek in the tower, as we ascend aloft in our dreams of nightly flying, as we reach the end of our winding maze or staircase, and we find the center of a secret garden, a paradise awaiting us, with everything we could possibly imagine--and yet, it is unlike anything we have experienced before.

It is our very Self.

Ineffable, a Mystery.

At least right now it is.

When we touch on these moments, when we get a glimpse of our very Self, we are changed--time stops and does not exist for us; our sense of self becomes thinned and distant.

​But there is bliss.

​(For more on this, please see the post: Mysticism, sacrifice, and power.)

I do think modern Paganism becomes rich in its guiding archetypal contents, as we try and remember and know the way, back to ourselves at the beginning of our universe: a pure expression of us from a land we had once forgotten.

After this post I plan to share one more to complete this set of three, on the topic of the memory of truth I feel, and understand from Vedanta, as being within all of us.  Please see the first post in this series for more on this, or please click here to see this post: A memory of truth (part one).

I ended last time with sharing how I felt as a human species there is an untraceable memory of truth within us, as shared by Vedanta and as implied as being possible from modern science's understanding of how memory can be passed from one generation to the next through one's genes or DNA, this truth being that we are nothing less than the universe itself, as an expression of it.

Vedanta does prescribe methods for reaching this understanding, for bringing back to mind this recollection of our ultimate sense of Self, which ties in with Carl Jung's idea of what we are trying to do psychologically and wholly as humans, which I will reference again shortly.  We are trying, whether consciously or not, to bring back our ultimate understanding, that we are not each of us a smaller sense of self but Self, another designation for that ultimate understanding, which could be given a name or label of any kind, whatever feels appropriate and designates the meaning for you.

Vedanta prescribes four methods for reaching this understanding, really a combination, depending on your temperament and your sense of self.  Without going into them here, I will relate how many major religions have these approaches within them.  (Please feel free to see the local Vedanta Society's website for more information: Vedanta Society of Kansas City.)

Carl Jung, the psychologist who pioneered many ideas of the psyche or mind which we still use today, put forth his theory of archetypes, variably defined or explained in his works as being templates for action or knowledge, wisdom we can make use of, or ignore at our own expense.  He said they were universal symbols, of stories and their characters essentially, and they were instructive and resonated for us as a human species, being passed down from time immemorial.

Because they are found within us, in our psyches, it does not become hard to link Jung's theories of archetypes, these universal symbols of stories and their characters, to the modern theory of passing down memories genetically from generation to generation.  Conceivably, if you take time as a linear concept, and here is where I think Jung may not speak too much of this, the first creations, the first fruits of them, if you will, back whenever one may conceive of humans as first existing, closer to the dawn of creation, period, whenever or however close to that time period these first humans lived, these stories of theirs, their theories and principles, their artistic creations and expressions--I do believe Jung argued that this is when these universal symbols first developed and emerged, back at the dawn of humankind's creation, or whenever we first emerged from evolution--my theory is that due to the time period in which these stories and their characters emerged, with a universal sense of them stemming from then, this allows archetypes to be conceived of as being closer to a pure representation of and from that dawn of creation and its source, certainly a time period when the universe itself began.

If you want to believe in archetypes and believe in them as another method or way to reach that memory of truth, of who we are as put forth by Vedanta, nothing less than an expression of and the very universe itself, then I think archetypes, if conceived of as being a purer expression of that source, with the accompanying strength of resonance for us that they have, by their very proximity to when humans first emerged, being closer to when the universe itself began, certainly closer than we are today, these archetypes, or universal symbols of stories and their characters, hold the key to unlocking the memory of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.

How could they not resonate within us at a deeper level, calling to mind a time when we first knew and walked and learned?  How could they not hold deeper truths within them that may be buried beneath the thoughts of today, removed so far from when we were perhaps more ourselves and more natural, more closer to the source, in time and in our own pureness of creation?

Jung designated our understanding of wholeness as "Self," perhaps knowingly borrowing from Vedanta in this case, his perceived goal towards which we are all going.

If archetypes are a way to resonate with a deeper level of knowledge, of knowing, which can guide us with wisdom, provide us with instruction that we have always needed and known, then adding to this would be the needed understanding of how archetypes may arise within us or speak to us from outside of ourselves.  Depending on who we are and where we are on our path in life, different symbols or depictions of archetypes may be needed for us to know.

They all lead to that ultimate knowledge of understanding--by their very nature, they are closer to when we more purely knew what was known, back when we first emerged, closer to when time itself began, and the universe began to unfold.

If I were to bring together all of my knowledge and understanding as a person and as someone who helps others in their healing, what may emerge may just be beginning to be glimpsed in this post.

No more than science can prove the existence or non-existence of any universal beginning to all things, neither can anyone ever hope to achieve this.

I will trust when I share understandings I learned, dated from thousands of years ago, trust that what I have felt and resonated with as true from this knowledge, that this knowledge does speak the truth of what it shares, and trust it may resonate with you as it has for me.

I know there has been talk of generationally passing down knowledge through one's genes and DNA.  I think there is validity to this.

Likewise, this knowledge of truth from thousands of years ago, from India, I believe as well.  It helps lead to a conclusion I find to be a culmination of what I know.

Vedanta as put forth by the Ramakrishna Order or the Vedanta Societies as they are known here in the West, this knowledge, dated to be thousands of years old, I believe with everything I know to be at the heart of any ultimate understanding, or understanding of beginnings or endings, even what meaning we are searching for as we walk this earth.

Vedanta shares how we are really trying to remember who we are, and in the ultimate sense Vedanta says we are that which we are seeking, this meaning, this ultimate understanding--call it God or Goddess, the universe, any name or label or designation that could be thought of as appropriate--as Vedanta says: "Tat Tvam Asi."  That thou art.

When you add to this the understanding from Vedanta that we are all moving towards this recollection or understanding, and all that it implies, you may give a nod to modern science in the idea that we have as a species passed on a knowledge of this, this ultimate understanding, and it takes the right environment, grace, or circumstance (or happenstance), what have you, to help bring about this recollection.

We have an untraceable memory of truth within us, and all healing, all things, derive from this truth, as we are trying to remember, as we are living our lives on this earth.

As Halloween or Samhain approaches, I want to share my take on whether magick in the traditional sense has any kind of reality to speak of.  I have my own definition of it, which may lean more towards a psychological understanding (click here to see this definition: Esoterica), but does magick, assumed throughout the remainder of this post to be of the traditional kind, does it have any reality in or bearing on the work I do?  As one in a helping profession of healing, do I think magick ever really becomes involved when helping others?

I will share with you what I learned from two trusted sources as I answer.

After reading one contemporary historian's account of his experiences witnessing groups of others performing magick over the course of three years, his conclusion being that the practice of magick does have an efficacy and a reality of success, assuming that there are certain conditions or circumstances when performing a magickal working which do lend themselves to it, I would say that, yes, I do believe magick can and does become involved when helping others.

At least, I trust in the evidence above concluding that magick can work effectively, given the right circumstances.

Carl Jung, when writing about his belief in synchronicities or meaningful coincidences, acausal events which happen simultaneously between a person and a phenomenon or a person and another person without seeming explanation, highlighted the need for a strong experience of emotion to exist for a synchronicity to occur.  He cited one medieval scholar's belief in magick, in its similar requirement for an emotional component being present which lends itself to the magickal working.

I believe in Jung's conclusions in his work on synchronicities, how they parallel the need for an emotional component to be present and felt for magickal workings to be effective.

In other words, I believe magick can work and it does become involved when helping others.

When a strong emotion is present and being felt, either by me or the person I am helping, the information provided and felt during that time can have a healing and lasting effect, make an impression, this being the intention of release or the pureness of it being felt, for whatever it is one may want to tell and never think about again, the experience of a heartfelt sense of being with someone during their emotional recollection of difficult or traumatic times, the inspired sharing of insight and information, shared with emotional strength, to convey the belief and meaning of what is being said to guide another on their path--any or all of these could be viewed from the above examples as being ripe for magick to occur, for magickal happenings to happen, where one, or both of us, feels a strength and clarity of emotion and intent, wanting and willing almost for what is said to be released or embraced, and it is believed in that moment, for what is said, to be how it is, to be how it is said, and that belief and togetherness, through emotion, help wield the workings of what could be called magick, whether the work ever formally arises or is talked about that way.

Yes, I believe magick exists in helping others, and it is the emotional connection and experiences in and of those encounters which lay the groundwork for it to occur.

Please ponder and enjoy as final thoughts the following from historian Ronald Hutton on his experiences observing magickal workings which actually work, in reference to his earlier account above:

"The other consists of those workings in which the operators have a deep personal interest and invest powerful emotions. They are rarely undertaken if they appear to run against the natural course of events or to be based upon unreasonable expectations. They are employed most commonly, and avidly, if a natural process ought to have occurred but seems to be mysteriously blocked, or if the odds for a desirable and an undesirable outcome to a process seem to be evenly balanced. This pattern has been very clear in the five covens which I have observed steadily over lengthy periods, and the apparent success rate of that class of operation is very high indeed."

From The Triumph of the Moon (p.396). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.

I hope you enjoy a happy and safe Halloween coming up.

I had hopes of a different kind than the reality that presents itself.  I am still furnishing the final details of my newer office space, yet it does not quite capture the place from which I had to move, which makes me feel a bit wistful, with some sadness.

I think individuals have commented positively on the space I am in now, and although it does not capture what I had, it is a positive something new, with more creative input from me than the place I had just found almost five and a half years ago now, content with how it was.

I think it is important to share this bit of personal information here at the beginning of this post, because when it comes to helping others on their paths, certainly for someone who might be reading this right now, it really comes down to just you and me, regardless of the space in which we find ourselves.

So the question comes to mind:

Who are we?

If I am perfectly candid, then I will say we are full of the potential for healing, defined as a connection which allows one to realize essential wholeness.

I can never do anything to improve upon your natural state of being. I can only help you allow this to come forth, where healing in this context means knowing and experiencing in this state, where whatever conditions you find yourself in, physically, mentally, in whatever way, you still feel yourself, and know yourself, to be all right.

I am someone who cares deeply for this connection of healing, for my own life path as well, a path of being with and in the moments, however they may be showing up, yourself being someone searching for this place of being and being all right also, which can be accessed in any moment, in any state.

Perhaps this sounds a bit philosophical, but it represents the truth as I know it, which has been uncovered in different ways in Western psychology.

I am someone whose best guess to contribute in the world has been psychologically, informed by what I could say are my spiritual roots, or the essence of my being, really no different than anyone else's essence.

I am to allow this being-ness to come forth, and I know you are here to receive some of this, realizing it for yourself.

Who are we?

We are two beings being together, and I think the essence of this is healing.

I wanted to share a song that has meaning for me, since I heard it on television as a younger person, being carried away to other lands, remembering those journeys as I hear it now.

It captures the seasons, and captures my own journey recently, to settle into another place for my practice, my former place of five years having had to be reclaimed as a home, a peaceful older building in which I enjoyed helping others.

Please enjoy hearing the unique sound of this artist and the lyrics, which come straight from J.R.R. Tolkien's book, The Hobbit.

I welcome you to my new practice home, which brings up a few feelings, not unlike those I experience when I hear this song.

--

From the original soundtrack of The Hobbit (1977) animated movie by Rankin/Bass.
Music by Maury Laws. Vocals by Glenn Yarbrough.