T Thorn Coyle Evolutionary Witchcraft (pdf) Read online

  out, perhaps you are missing one of the following components.

  Using the categories from your cube reading, make a list of the ways you manifest your

  work life, your food habits, your emotional awareness, and all the other things that are subheads of the Llrger categories of the cube. Look at this list. Are all of the things listed satisfying to you? Do they seem healthy and in baLlnce to you? Are some lists much longer than

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  Sit with this iriformation for one month's time. Then ask, "What do I want to do with

  this iriformation? Do changes need to be made?"

  THE PowER oF SILENCE

  One of the powers of the North is the power to be silent, the power of

  stillness, the resonance of no words. 1 This is the power of midnight, of secrets and a time for work when others are sleeping. There is potency in midnight, the Witching Hour, because it is the depth of the fertile dark,

  when the owl hunts and the moon shines high. In urban neighborhoods

  like mine, it can hearken the beginning of the hours of business for activities that need to be done under cover, in hidden places. We can use these times to be still, to drop like a stone in a dark pool, to crawl into a cave of

  our being and scry into our souls.

  I have talked already about the powers of speech as powers of air-this

  is its obverse. As Witches, it is good to learn when not to speak, when to

  hold the mystery. The power of silence, used properly, will lend resonance

  to our powers of speech. One must know the spaces between the notes to

  value the music itsel£

  Another power of silence is that of digestion. Let your experiences and

  thoughts digest in the dark cave of your belly before you attempt to bring

  them out into the world as lights for teaching. Undigested words are simply the work of a parrot, not a priest. We need to learn the lessons of slowmoving time and integration instead of the quick spouting of ideas.

  Digestion is holding true power with integrity, leading yourself and others

  through example into liberty. Our culture often teaches us the opposite-

  1The four powers of the Sphinx are "To Know, To Will, To Dare, To Keep Silence" and correspond

  to air, fire, water and earth. See Eliphas Levi, Tht History if Magic, translated by A. E. Waite (Weiser,

  2000).

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  time moves quickly for us, things turn around at breakneck speed. This

  power of slowness and stillness is something hard for me to cultivate, but

  I continue to try. It is only now, after more than twenty years of being a

  Witch, that I am beginning to catch glimpses of this power.

  TAKING A WoRD FAsT

  Before my Reclaiming initiation, I was asked to keep twenty-four hours

  of silence. Being a highly verbal person, this was a powerful lesson for me,

  the beginning of deepening, and an integration of my then-thirteen years

  of work in the Craft. As I have grown in my studies and practices, the

  power of silence has increased within me, lending strength to my magic.

  I still talk a lot, but I leave a lot more space, too. Things grow in these

  spaces.

  Set aside a twenty1our-hour period where you will not speak. You may wish to go off

  on retreat to accomplish this, but it is not necessary. You can stay at home. Just warn your

  family or friends that you will not be speaking. Try to spend at least part of this time in

  seclusion. This is a good time to take a sacred bath, do some mirror gazing or journaling, or

  expand your time for sitting meditation, which will help stretch and deepen your silence.

  Don't read the news or answer e-mails. Take this time to be with yourself and the world

  that exists right around you.

  When it is time to break your word fast, think of what the first words you want to say

  will be. Break your silence with magical intent. May your silence be blessed.

  SITTING LIKE A M ouNTAIN

  The powers of earth include stillness. It is time to look again at your sitting practice from Chapter 2. Our God Soul can not only listen to our sto-

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  ries, it can also open us up to a deeper, more connected stillness. If you

  have not begun a sitting practice, I recommend that you try now. My students report that sitting adds stability and integration to their spiritual practice. The following meditation can help bring a sense of stillness and

  presence that can influence the rest of your day.

  Sit with an erect, relaxed posture. Send your attention throughout your body,Jeeling the

  bones inside you and the muscles that support them. Feel the skin that encases them, and the

  breath that moves throughout. As you sit, notice the shape you make,jrom the spread if your

  knees to the apex if your head resting on your spine. You are a mountain. Feel yourself old,

  solid, and still. Feel your energy spread out behind you,Jorming an anchor for your body,

  echoing the shape if your thighs and knees in front. You are a cone if earth with a solid base,

  rising up to meet the sky.

  As you breathe within your mountain shape, imagine a cave if stillness opening up deep

  inside if you. Within your mountain, there is the cave if your belly. Feel the stillness open

  up and deepen into a dark cavern. There is a pool in that cavern that spreads out. A pool if

  even deeper stillness. You are centered around that pool; you anchor it and you rise from it.

  You are mountain and deep cave, you are the pool if stillness. You are contained, yet fully

  part if the ecosystem. The mountain is supported by earth, sky, and wind and in turn the

  mountain supports plants, animals, and fungi. You are alone and still. You breathe with the

  earth, expanding and contracting

  As you close your meditation, try to rise from your seat with an awareness if your

  bones and muscles, with an awareness if the deep cave and still pool.

  The guo.fdio.n of Nofth­

  Blo.ck Mothef

  The Guardian of the North helps us with all of our work of earth. This

  Guardian lends us stability, fecund darkness, and the ability to sense on a

  deep level.

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  Take a deep breath, connecting to your grounding cord. Cast the blue sphere around you.

  Light a candle on your altar, dark green or black. Turn toward the North, open yourself to

  the power of the Guardian there, as you breathe deeply within yourself. Begin to softly whisper, "Black Mother, Black Mother." Feel a breath upon your forehead. Open up to the Guardian of the North. Chant the name, over and over. "Black Mother. Black Mother." Begin to feel the presence coming closer to you. What does this Guardian feel like? "Black Mother, Black Mother, Black Mother. Walk the earth and join this rite." Speak the name, over and over,

  whisper it, sing it, or shout it out if you are able. Black Mother, the Guardian of Earth. The

  bolder of the cube, carved with the five-pointed star, stability and change joined together, the

  paradox of human strength and beauty, and the road to liberation. Black Mother stands in

  the silent midnight blackness. Stry the name, over and over. Feel the presence. Introduce yourself.

  Black Mother, Black Mother, Black Mother,

  Dancer at dark midnight� cusp.

  Walk the earth and join our rites.

  Fill us with the strength of silent darkness.

  Let us deepen, together.

  Let us deepen.
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  Touch our bones, our muscles, our skin.

  May we move in balance.

  May we stand tall within the world.

  May we walk toward change.

  Black Mother, Black Mother, Black Mother,

  J#lcome.

  Take a deep breath. Feel the presence guarding the northern quadrant, huge and beautiful.

  Stay in this presence for a while-feeling, sensing, gazing. Write or draw what you sense.

  When you are done for this meeting, you may say:

  Black Mother,

  Thank you for your presence

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  Thank you for the gifts of earth.

  May I touch the mystery, and learn silence.

  Go if you must, stay if you will.

  Hail and farewell.

  THE PHYSICAL WoRLD

  North represents the physical world-the human body, the animal realms,

  the trees and plants, food, and cycles of growth and rest. What is your

  neighborhood, town, or land like physically? Do you live among mountains or plains? Are you bounded by water or high desert? Are buildings made of wood, brick, or steel? How do your surroundings affect you emotionally or psychically? Do some wandering in your vicinity and try to sense this. Look at the bushes or trees and listen for the animals, insects,

  or birds. Send a breath out to cleanse your senses once again: breathing

  through your eyes, ears, and nose, across your tongue and your fingertips.

  Feel yourself alive, walking, standing, looking, and listening. You are part

  of this land, this town, and this neighborhood. You are part of the earth.

  WHAT ARE You GRoWING?

  What do you wish to nurture in your life? Let us revisit the exercise we did

  around matching will and belief under the law point of the Iron Pentacle.

  Do your actions reflect what your heart finds important? Do you live in

  ways that are sustainable or are you consuming too many of your personal

  resources, or the resources of your community or the earth? Are you cultivating love and right livelihood? Try to sense what you can be doing to nurture your own growth and to nurture the earth you live on, and tht"

  communities you live within.

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  V&lunteer at a soup kitchen, hospice, animal shelter, or community garden. Walk or ride

  your bicycle whenever possible. Organize a trash pickup at your local beach or park. Teach a

  child to ride a bicycle. Plant some trees. Learn how to compost organic material. Give back

  to the earth that sustains you.

  You R SACRED BoDY

  Your body is part of the sacred earth. Revisit the work you began in Chapter I, when you started to notice your posture, but this time check in with your whole body. How does your body feel and how do you feel about it?

  What is your posture like these days? Are you aware of it at all? How are

  you eating-are you getting enough of the good things that feed you well,

  are you taking time to cook? Are you eating on the run, or eating too many

  things that do not give you what your body needs? Are you not eating

  enough? Do you deny your body good food? Food is mass and energy, and

  mass and energy are life. If you haven't already, take a look at your eating

  habits and notice whether or not they serve your work.

  Our dominant culture can skew our relationship to our bodies. We are

  often told that we are either couch potatoes or exercise addicts, obese or

  anorexic. In reality, we come in all shapes and sizes that can be healthy and

  beautiful. Some of us are thin and some are large. What matters to me is

  this: How healthy do I feel? How much walking or dancing am I doing?

  Am I getting enough protein, vegetables, and water? Am I able to enjoy my

  body, food, and exercise?

  Examining our relationship to our bodies may seem obvious to some

  and painful to others. Regardless of our feelings about it, this practice is

  helpful to us as both humans and magical practitioners. We need to be as

  healthy as possible to do our work. We are embodied for a reason and must

  not seek to deny the body. What we sometimes forget, however, is that de-

  , nial can come in many forms. Denial is not just starvation and asceticism,

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  denial can also be eating doughnuts all day or longing to run off into more

  "spiritual" realms instead of living in the here and now.

  As with changing our posture habits, those of us who have had years of

  poor eating or exercise habits may need to cleanse ourselves of toxins for a

  while before we can clearly hear what it is our bodies need. I will do this

  sometimes by simply cutting out a few things, such as chips or ice cream,

  for one month's time. Sometimes we need more help than that and family,

  friends, or support groups can aid us in this work.

  Clearing out unhealthy foods we crave helps us get rid of some of the

  toxins that keep us from listening to what our bodies really want.2 For example, a craving for sugar and fat often masks a real need for protein. This is especially important to remember if you are doing a lot of magic and

  running energy fully. You may need to eat a little more than usual to

  recharge, but make certain you are really giving your body fuel, not foods

  that will further deplete it. Dessert is okay, but not at the expense of vegetables and protein. If sugar or fat are the first things you reach for, especially after expending energy, try to listen a little more deeply. Listen to what foods sustain and grow energy. Pastry is not one of those foods!

  Similarly, if all you want to do is lie around and read all day, go for a

  short walk and see how that feels. I find that this recharges my batteries

  and gives me the energy I thought I lacked when I was lying about. I am

  more productive, healthier, and mentally and emotionally happier if I get

  a decent amount of exercise.

  On the flip side of all of this, some people are addicted to exercise or

  to not eating. These tendencies can also be signs of serious imbalance. No

  one but a professional athlete or dancer needs three hours of intensive exercise every day, and a body starved means a brain starved and emotions that are most likely crumpled in a ball within you. Look at your patterns,

  2Thanks to Flame and Psy ti>r insight on this subject of cravings and addictions.

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  just as you might gaze upon the patterns leaves make at your feet or waves

  upon sand. Learn to read your physical body as you read the stars in the

  sky. You are part of the natural world, not separate from it.

  Live in your body. Live in your world. Grow and thrive. Know yourself

  in all your parts. This is your charge.

  For one month, look at your eating habits. Are you eating things that nourish your body

  or only things that feed some of the emotions that you may be coddling to your detriment?

  Notice how you carry your body, and notice whether you choose to walk short distances or

  always use the bus or a car. if you are afraid of movement, put some music on when you

  are alone and just move a little bit, letting yourself warm into your body. Revisit the Sacred Orgasm exercise. if you ache, trade a massage with a friend or seek out a body worker.

  Take a luxurious bath. Cook yourself a beautiful dinner.

  LISTENING TO You R BooY

  In Feri Tradition, we make commitments to the sacred earth, to our communities,
to our practice, to work, the Gods, and to service. Our first commitment is to ourselves. None of the things on the list above will be truly served unless I am taking care of mysel£ This is something that I grapple

  with, and something you have probably heard a million times. If you are

  like me, it is something you may not quite believe.

  One morning, I was lying in bed, not feeling well, thinking of all the

  things I had to do before my shift at the soup kitchen began. For the past

  week, I had had a niggling in my brain and belly that I was doing too much

  and perhaps needed to take a break from a few things. Well, here I was,

  having not made any moves toward giving myself a break. I finally had to

  say, 'Thorn, you feel sick! You are a Witch! Listen to your body!"

  Years before, I was chronically ill and fatigued. I made the changes nee-

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  essary to become healthy. However, this does not mean I can sustain juggling too many things that fracture my energy and attention. My body tells me that quite clearly. That one morning, I needed a break, I had begun getting sick a bit more often; nothing dramatic, but enough to let me know that it was time for a winnowing of projects. I made the phone call to the

  soup kitchen. I needed a hiatus. They understood.

  This brings me to a favorite piece of magical advice. It is repeated to

  me with great regularity by flight attendants. They always say: "Make sure

  your oxygen mask is securely fastened before helping the person next to

  you:' This advice has an elegant balance and practicality to it-help yourself and then help someone else.

  As you listen to your body, pay attention to the cycles of the seasons.

  Flowers are not always blooming. The moon waxes and wanes. You do not

  always have to be running full speed, nor always in hibernation. Get to

  know what your tendencies are. If you take care of yourself you will be in

  a much better position to take care of others, the earth, and your magic.

  You can be open to the abundance of the universe, but remember, one of

  the Witch's tools is that of choice.

  Over the next month or two, listen to your responses to the world. How can you best