Musings

Musings

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Candidates

Greetings all,

Well since I have written last much has happened.  I have performed my first marriage ceremony for a friend.  I had my old bike repaired and once more have hit the streets as I did years before when I was without a car.  I have finished typing up all my handwritten notes for my upcoming book.  I filmed a new video for the month.  Last but not least I interviewed my first prospect for a new spirit guide.

Okay yes I know that last line made a few of you do a double take.  What do you mean interviewed a spirit guide.  Well a few months back I put up an ad on a bulletin board in one of the spirit worlds.  I was looking for a guide who specialized in turning individual talents into income.  Wizarding may be its own reward but cash is what spends in this world.  Now I don't mean to be materialistic but those that know me also know that I have several little jobs that allow me to continue to delve more deeply into the mysteries and serve clients while keeping my prices reasonable.  The goal is to eventually drop all the little jobs and wear my wizard hat when I'm not wearing my artist hat.  (Also hats are expensive).

Guides can come and go in our life.  Sometimes we move on from one phase in our life and we need different help.  I've heard also of an instance where a guide was fired by some one's primary guide.  Apparently even in the spirit world employment is not completely secure.  On the upside the cost of living is nil so people pretty much work at what they're best at.  Now I've got a crack shot team of healers, artists, seers, alchemists, mystics, and general wuwu stuff working as my guides.  They're awesome I love them all dearly, but I realized to truly do what I want to do in this life and bring about the best outcomes for the most people I needed a guide to help me handle things on the material side. So I've met the first candidate.  One of my guides is doing a thorough interview and background check and we'll have a meeting about them soon.

Some of you may be thinking I am being very blasé about all this.  I can even hear some of you thinking, "You can't just do that."  Too late I already did.  There's no law against advertising for a new spirit guide, and even if there was one my alignment is chaotic good.  (Alignment is a roleplaying term it's my geek shout out for the week).  I used to know a will worker who was always hell bent on telling me what I could and couldn't do.  We're no longer associates but I've gone on to do just about everything they told me I couldn't do.  Again chaotic good, I LOVE THIS ALIGNMENT!  I do so enjoy it when other magical people try to put limits on what I can do (pssst that's sarcasm).

It is good to realize that we make our own rules.  Sometimes we even break them.  We create what we need to get things done.  I've simply extended this concept a bit further than most.  Perhaps I am oversimplifying or being a bit cutesy about the whole thing, but hey if it works I don't care how crazy it sounds.  That could almost be my motto or one of them at least, "Crazy enough guarantee." In my opinion you need a bit of flippancy mixed with reverence to effectively maneuver in spirit.

So how does this apply to you?  Well is there some need that isn't being met because you're convinced that it would be taboo to approach spirit with a business proposal?  Are you afraid of setting the terms because of some preordered idea of how spirit and material are supposed to be separate but equal?  Well break the wall down and host some interviews.  There are billions of unemployed guides waiting for you to post job openings.  Get off your butt and help the local spiritual economy, be a job creator.  Ask for who you need without fear and be prepared to turn those away who don't meet your qualification standards.  It's not a rat race it's an Iditarod we all need our teams to get to where we're heading.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Later

Greetings all,

May is flying by with so much activity it seems as soon as I get a blog post done it is time to write another.  Topics continue to come sometimes at the last minute sometimes they just occur to me in mid conversation, and this week's focus is certainly one of those.

I've been on the move the past few months between speaking engagements, teaching, writing and this weekend I am performing my first marriage ceremony.  I have been repeatedly saying,  "I'll be much more relaxed after _____ is done."  This is generally true however today when I was talking to a friend about all my upcoming projects it struck me in a slightly different way.  I was effectively telling myself I would be anxious or unable to relax until my next task was done.  Do you see the potential problem here?  There is always another task, in my case another dozen or so.  I like to have my hands in a lot of pots at once.  (That works as a metaphor or literally when I am doing ceramic work).

If you make the condition of relaxation dependent on the completion of all your tasks you will never relax.  There is a saying I've heard bandied about quite a bit by hard core type A personalities.  "I'll sleep when I'm dead."  It's this kind of toxic bullshit that makes life miserable.  Productivity is all fine and good, but if you can't take a moment and breathe or relax while you are getting things done you will be "sleeping" quite a bit sooner than you'd like.  There is a time for bustle and giving it all you got and more, but those times should be infrequent.  Whatever happened to whistling while you worked?  Where is the flow?

I often wonder if I get all hyped up in order to stave off procrastination.  It seems like the opposite of the bustle on the surface as if it would be relaxing.  It isn't.  My mind always knows what I should be doing.  For me personally it's not as if I procrastinate I simply have several tasks running parallel to each other.  Something has to go on the back burner (or several somethings).  Thus my predicament.  I have to learn to mellow out while projects are ongoing because there are always other ones taking a back seat and waiting their turn for my focus.  It's like I'm putting my relaxed state of mind through a game of musical chairs, and it never gets the seat.

So I'm not going to ask if this applies to you.  I know it does.  We all bustle nowadays.  We're all always rushing from one thing to another.  Social media is always grabbing our attention.  What if amidst all that you are doing and are about to do you took a breath and relaxed into your work?  What if you knew that everything would get done in its own time?  What if you just showed up?  Could you let yourself chill?  Could you take your motor mind off idle and just cruise with the windows down?  What if you could mentally relax before you finished everything?  I highly recommend you look into learning that skill, before everything finishes you.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

Friday, May 15, 2015

Naming it to Claiming it

Greetings all,

The weeks seem to be going faster lately.  I think it has to do with the fact that I am getting out more and am involved with various projects.  Currently I'm making decent headway on my first book.  I'm already past 16,000 words.  I'm doing my best to cover all the topics in a professional manner while keeping my distinctive narrative voice.  So there is some swearing but only where appropriate. Hot DAMN!

Many of you don't know this but I have always been at odds with my body.  I am quite short for a man.  I've also not very strongly built.  While I am not out of shape I am not what I consider to be fit. This has troubled me over the years and made me feel unattractive which then of course puts out that vibration so people have tended to mirror that back to me.  I was talking with a friend of mine who has the exact opposite build of me he's a powerlifter built like a bull.  He shared with me that for years he had wanted to grow bigger but was worried what people would think if he got too big.  He finally let go of the concerns of what others would think of him and now he's happier.  He's also enormous and wearing it well.

During our conversation it finally dawned on me I had never truly verbalized what I think my ideal build would be.  I had thought of it in terms of numbers, body fat percentages, waist to chest ratios but never in a really descriptive way.  It came to me in a flash!  I wanted to have a yogi-martial artist-cat burglar build.  I had pieces of the idea before but never all together.  It was the cat burglar that really tied it all together.  I want to be lean, strong, and nimble.  I also want to move quietly and cleanly with a  feline grace.  I had named it finally and suddenly it didn't seem so impossible.  I got so excited I rushed to call people and tell them, I even updated my Facebook status.  This lit an inspirational fire in me.  I started asking other people to describe their ideal build. I told one friend she pretty much had attained a gymnast fairy princess kind of build.

In magical traditions it is often taught that names have power.  To name something is to summon it, to call upon its power, or even control it.  When we name a goal we start to create a pathway to it.  While I know it is just my outward appearance it felt like more to me.  It felt like finding a good pair of shoes that fit right and made me want to dance.  After naming my physicality I went further and started naming other attributes.  I wanted to be a trickster with a heart of gold.  I am sure I will come up with others and I will have fun with those too.  The trick is to name in a way that fires the imagination and emotions.

So what about you?  Have you ever sat down and really named your goals for yourself  in a way that  puts your desires in blazing lights across the sky of your mind?  Are all your dreams of the paint by numbers variety?  Well break out the crayons, markers, finger paint, and glitter glue in your imagination and get messy.  Take it from me a Traveling Trickster with a heart of gold who juggles fates in his hands, you'll be glad you did.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

P.S.  Feel free to color outside the lines.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Weaving Light and Dark

Greetings all,

So I'm back from my travels for a bit.  Overall my venture went well.  I spoke for the first time among people who didn't know me.  This was a bit more stressful than usual because I found out that people actually read this blog.  ULE was great my room at the hotel was less so.

I don't want to turn this post into a complaining rant (I did that already when I filled out the Paypal dispute form)  but I do want to examine how I handled things.  My nonsmoking room had been smoked in, first order of business was to open the windows and turn on a fan.  The room was dirty so I took out my essential oil blend I take to ward of bugs and such and hit the furniture and bedding.  I put nothing on the floor.  Above the physical condition in the room there was the energy of the whole place.  Every time I passed through the lobby there was an irate traveler complaining heatedly to the front desk staff.  I just didn't feel too secure here.  So I opened sacred space and called in the 4 directions.  Now I did something I never ever do.  I left sacred space up for my entire stay.  In fact I even reinforced it the second night.  I put runes of warding on the door (which might explain why I kept having to get my keycard redone every evening).  I drew down the moon into the room and called on the sacred wind to cleanse and purify the space.  I sang to waken the land spirits.  I transformed the space into a sacred den, a sacred den still in need of deep clean on the physical side of things but at least I could get some rest.

All this taught me just how much ceremony could transform a less than ideal space.  Had it not been for the lingering bit of smoke and the decaying physical condition of the room itself it would have been quite a space.  Still I was proud with how much I actually was able to shift it.  When I was leaving I forgot something in the room and one of the cleaning staff actually went out into the parking lot to give it to me.  This was a dramatic change to how the staff had behaved when I arrived.  This also left me with a quandary.  I had planned to complain about the hotel conditions, and now someone had been kind.  Well being the sometimes petty person I am I ended up complaining to their corporate office and the booking company.  This led nowhere so I filed with Paypal, but I didn't feel good about it.

I was fine weaving light and sacredness into a space, and using my power to improve a situation.  I was all torn up about causing trouble by reporting the hotel.  However had I not gone the route of seeking recompense I wouldn't have been able to live with it either.  I would have felt that I hadn't stood up for myself, and that I was contributing to an ongoing problem for future travelers.  Many people in my field call themselves light workers.  I don't call myself that.  Perhaps it is my years practicing tai chi or my affiliation with both the summer and winter courts of faery, but I see both light and darkness as necessary.  We all know that one nice person who continually gets dumped upon.  In the past I've been the person who just puts up with something because I don't want to seem mean.  This has not been very effective for me.  I've alsohad times where I went overboard and steamrolled right over people.  This has also not been a good long term strategy.

I think what we need to be able to do to flow through life with grace is to weave both light and dark.  Dark doesn't have to be all sharp and hard edges, but sometimes it is.  Not everyone has our best interests at heart and we must sometimes enforce our will and consequences when people do not honor their agreements.  This is not a space from which to dwell but one we need to be able to visit and pass through if we wish to conduct business while we are breathing.  This should help us support our weaving of more light into life rather than distract from it.

So I must become more comfortable with weaving in a dark strand here and there or at least become comfortable with the discomfort of it.  What about you?  Do you bring in the dark when it is needed or  do you put on  your blinders and try to walk stoically on through the blinding brightness?  Can you dance between light and dark in an artful and heart centered way?  If you could weave light and dark equally well how would your life change?  What would it look like?  Let me know in the comments.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle