When I was a wee lass, my grandmother used to laugh at me. She would pull me aside and sit me down, making me stay there, still for a while....
We had a huge tree in the forest behind our house and eventually I got into the habit of running off there when things got bad and grounding myself...just as she had instructed....see things..really SEE them..and ye can't do that when yer running like a horse with a chili pepper up it's ass..now can ya...? She would laugh again.
As I grew older I got more interested in Religions. I watched people going to church and wondered what it was all about. I was told to go learn. Read as much as I can..but never loose peace and focus...
Years went by and I studied process engineering, learning the concept of Value added and Non value added processes...it all became clear...
I am LIVING my life...I am surrounded by millions of beings all living their lives. All with their own opinions, likes, dislikes, and my grandmother came back to me from the grave with her deep green eyes and old soul. So much magick, so little time.
We are so good at being bored and distracting ourselves. We have been for thousands of years...we grow ever farther from the truth of the universe immersed in our babble and need to dominate.
Granny used to watch people fighting over religion and say.. Sure enough they are no smarter that the cocks in the dust fighting over seeds.....all the hens are walking by...
Every day passes us or is absorbed by us. I didn't understand how to actually DO Magick until I learned how to NOT do magick. I had to understand my control and my focus. I had to let go. I had to look in the mirror and realize the only thing I CONTROL is my own actions and feelings...intake and output. I can only influence the space around me when I have control over the space within me.
I can choose to LEARN with an objective mind or I can get lost in the media of constant white noise and man made devises of greed...
I can make choices and explore..but I can never loose focus of the actual time I am spending allowing my mind to be distracted like a two year old in a candy store...or arguing my point, for the sake of arguing..
My granny would say...Hmm...seems ye spent all o yer time fighting over the plans when the building could have been done now...yer' sleeping in the rain fer the sake of your pride..ye need to learn to use your time better...because you can't get it back.....
When we study magick or seek to understand our world we must be aware that it is overwhelming. We will be told things by individuals that are pure of heart, and those that think they are helping, but in the end are only seeking some type of self esteem they lost as a child...It is all subject to what we choose to believe and how we choose to spend every moment of our lives...and WHAT WE DO WITH IT...
Laugh with the Maiden, Love with the Mother, Learn from the Crone...
Mastering within is so very difficult... even for a earth sign. Its so hard to fend off the negative... my own mind i feel casts negative hexes on people i become angry or annoyed with. Once it built up the point where i had a negative entity following me everywhere i went... it was unreal. I visited my good freinds meta-physical shop. It became trapped in there till she expelled it.
Sometimes, people, and yes I am included in this, let this life consume us. We focus on everything around us and trust me the media wants it that way. When we sit down and look at the majority of the things we focus on..if we wrote a list and was honest with ourselves and what we profess to believe...we would have to just laugh. You are right Nate...it can get trapped inside and often does, earth sign or no. After years of beating against our consciouses it will effect us. I suggest regular maintainability. Training yourself to at least once a week sit down and take stock of where you want your life and your mind to be...and keep it on track. It is a learned behavior. At times it will feel like you are socially sacrificing something..but in the end you will be much happier.