Choosing Not To Mix Paganism and Christianity....Why?

Ancient of Days, by William Blake

"Thou shall have no other gods before me"
-Exodus 20:3 (King James Bible)



Anyone who knows me knows I'm a professed Pagan in terms of my identity as a magician. For me, what this means, is that the spirits I have both a reciprocal and devotional relationship with are gods that are considered Pagan deities (the Egyptian gods specifically). I worship in a Pagan style of prayer and offerings that sometimes involves petitioning the gods for some boon while at other times are merely done out of sense of joy and gratitude.

My gods aren't wholly of another kind than myself, they are more like older siblings or even parents who I honor because they are who they are. But, more than that, not only are they persons, in the sense of having individual identity, but they are also principles that allow me to exist not only in terms of having breath, but in terms of all the experiences of being alive.

For example, a very simplistic snapshot...

Ra is sovereignty and the life giving power of the Sun while also being a distinct divine person. Hathor is sexuality, joy, and aesthetic beauty, while also being a distinct divine person. Osiris is the power of resurrection and renewal while still being a distinct divine person. Sekhmet is the power of war, aggression, disease, and healing while also being a distinct divine person. Each of the gods is a principle, or set of principles, as well as a person.

Goddess Isis

There is a complex panentheistic, polytheistic, and animistic metaphysics underlying my system of sacro-magickal belief and practice that is the result of education and practice over many years.

For me, religion and magick are fundamentally inseparable insofar as I work with my spirits in nearly all acts of magickal practice. For example, the act of consulting the tarot for guidance is proceeded by an invocation to Thoth who, while being a divine person in his own right is, quite literally, the personified qualities of the insight as wisdom I seek when doing divination.

Such a way of interacting with the gods and spirits one has a relationship with has a very particular way of reorientating one to the world. This is an immediate and tangible means by which to accomplish the re-enchantment of the world.

I've always suspected that the ahistorical separation that exists in the modern mind between religion and magick is largely artificial, an artifact of an age wherein magick was seen as inherently transgressive and outside the will of God. The only acceptable supernatural aid (in the Western world) came from petitioning saints for intercession or praying for a miracle directly from Jesus or God Himself. The magician/sorcerer was one who interacted with spirits that granted power and boons outside of the direct auspices of God (and the church), and whose work was not religious in the way those of this time understood religion.

 Edward Kelly and John Dee
summoning the dead for divination.

It does seem true that nearly all cultures have a demarcation regarding acceptable and unacceptable, permitted and transgressive, magick but only in the modern world is the magician seen as fundamentally and archetypally other than priest or priestess. The archetypal magicians of the Western world, whether real or fictional, such as Merlin (seen as a druid, but very much the mage), Agrippa, Dee, Gandalf, even very modern incarnations like Raistlin Majere, are all outside the purview of priestcraft.

Even those mainstream religionists who allow for the existence of miracles (fewer and fewer with the growing influence of materialism and scienceism) will still claim that the intercession of a saint isn't magick because magick is power granted by forces other than their God. According to the party line, priests don't do magick, priests pray and hope for the best. According to this paradigm, the magician/sorcerer is transgressive, the very opposite of the priest, by nature.

Though obviously I don't share the ahistorical outlook that there is, by nature, a necessary separation between priest(ess) and magician, I have an admission to make. I too share a certain ahistorical outlook influenced by the very same paradigm that created the polarized line between priestcraft and sorcery.

My ahistorical hangup has to do with mixing Pagan and Abrahamic concepts. I don't.

I've always kept my Paganism and Abrahamism separate. Even when I sojourned into Golden Dawn based ceremonial magick for a period of about three years, I set aside my devotional Paganism completely, said farewell to the gods I had been worshiping (there was no jealousy, no anger on their part, only a peaceful allowing) and embraced my new paradigm as fully as I could. I wanted to see what it was all about, the qabalah, the angels, the Hebrew Letters, YHWH, and I both devoured knowledge and practiced with gusto.

However, despite myself, I was always fighting a sort of inner resistance and after about three years, and even after a profoundly moving experience of Christ while meditating on Tiphareth, (a story for another time perhaps) I put away my ceremonial magick books and came back to Paganism. Despite the deep intellectual satisfaction that ceremonial magick gave me, as well as the obvious spiritual power of the rites, it simply wasn't my spiritual home.

Like a Prodigal Son, I had to leave so that I could return more appreciative of my home, my relationships with the spirits, and grateful for the relationships that had somehow deepened even with my leaving. I, more than ever, felt closer to my gods in a truly Pagan animistic sense. No longer was Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Ra, Thoth, Nephthys, and the other gods  fundamentally transcendent, if approachable, they were here now, immanent and present in the world. Their reality had become tangible in a way it had never been before. Certainly they had transcendent aspects, but they were here now, with me, ever-present.

Leaving and returning had been so important to my relationship with my gods that I sense it is entirely possible that they pushed me out of the nest so that I could experience what I needed to experience so as to enter into deeper relationship with them upon my return.

The gods, they work in mysterious ways.

Even since my reunion with my gods, I'll be the first to admit a deeper than ever aversion to mixing my Paganism and its spirits with Christianity and its spirits. Even the idea of continuing my devotion to my gods while keeping Abrahamic based practices (such as traditional grimoiric evocations) entirely separate feels off. I know that there are some Pagans, Christians, and even Buddhists who are dual practitioners but, for me, that seems awkward, clumsy, and internally contradictory.

Because my Pagan magickal practice is a manifestation not of a Will to Power, but instead a manifestation of a religious impulse directing me to an ever deepening relationship with the Numinous as manifest in my relationship with the gods, dual practice seems, for lack of a better word, wrong. It seems like a bastardization of both my Pagan spiritual path and the Abrahamic path embedded in much of the Western Esoteric tradition.

And because I am self-aware, I recognize that my aversion to all things Abrahamic is ahistorical, especially in terms of late Pagan magick as clearly demonstrated in The Greek Magickal Papyri, but the aversion is there and it's visceral. My aversion to all things Abrahamic isn't animus toward Christianity, Judaism, or Islam per se (especially in their mystical manifestations) or practitioners of these faiths. It's a paradigmatic aversion that rejects the cosmology and metaphysical assumptions of these faiths.

Christian Mystic Thomas Merton

I share a lot of common values with, and have a great deal of respect for, Christians who are good and compassionate people, Christian mystics, and Christian magicians. Christian devotional mystics like Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and Richard Rohr have made me a better Pagan by clarifying the nature of kenotic meditation practices I still use (it's good tech). Understanding the means by which a piece of magickal/spiritual tech works then stripping it down to its core components (ie. the parts that do the work) is smart, historically sound, sorcery. 

Unlike many who profess modern Paganism, I was never Christianized. My mother is a non-Wiccan Witch and my father was nominally Christian, but no longer. I was raised with complete freedom to seek for myself without any pressure to accept the spiritual beliefs of either my father or my mother. My mother did manage to keep me away from her Witchcraft books until I was twelve years old, for safety reasons. And, to be fair to her, though I didn't appreciate it at the time, I believe her decision, in retrospect, was the right one. No telling what sort of trouble a magickally inclined nine year old could have gotten into.

However, despite never formally being part of Christianity and never having been baptized, I did go to Catholic school for eight years (which started me on the path to being a Christian theology geek) and, like anyone born into Western culture Christianity is part of the background noise of life. The culture-wide holidays such as Christmas and Easter, the turns of phrase we use to express ourselves (often from the KJV), those who usually surround us as family and friends, even the way we swear when we're angry or stub our toes reflect Christianity as deep, unavoidable cultural substrate, to a greater or lesser extent.

It isn't lost on me that my aversion, may be, quite ironically, an artifact of being part of a Christian culture wherein the idea of mixing pantheons is not merely verboten, it is unthinkable. The other team is the enemy and one just doesn't pick and choose aspects of each team based on one's preference. You are on Yahweh's team or you aren't.

Oil and Water

"And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth."
-Exodus 20:3 (King James Bible)

Christianity is, at least historically, a path of orthodoxy even more than it is a path of orthopraxy. In other words, Christianity is about belief (a profession of faith) primarily and secondarily about practice (works). Though there is extreme, even historically murderous, divisions between Catholicism and Protestantism regarding the exact means by which divine grace and and one's works converge so as to produce the state of being saved, there is no division regarding the fact that faith is of preeminent importance in a way not seen in orthopraxic faiths like nearly all of modern Paganism or other practice heavy faiths like Theraveda Buddhism.

Personally, I grapple with the idea of using Christian spirits, or indeed any spirit, in a purely utilitarian fashion utterly divorced from the theology  and context (ie. underpinning beliefs and metaphysical assumptions) that makes them in any way coherent. That kind of "use them because they work" approach reminds me too closely of the lists of gods one would find in old Wicca 101 books (for your love spell, just choose "Ishtar, Isis, Hathor, or Aphrodite"). No cosmology, no metaphysics, no relationship, just tools in a toolbox to use and set aside when finished. This is fine if the gods and spirits are merely personifications of one's personal unconscious, but strikes me as wildly disrespectful if they are, as I believe, extant beings with agency and personality. 

Curiously enough, this manner of practice was the very kind of wild magickal/spiritual eclecticism that was decried and mocked by countless Pagans and magicians throughout the 80s and 90s for it's mix and match, gods and spirits as tools, with no concern for incompatible theologies or metaphysical assumptions. I'm not surprised to see that what was old is new again, because everything in occulture is cyclic, but I'd suggest that a lot of baby Pagans who were mocked for their eclectic practices during the 1990s by those "in the know" are owed an apology.

The wild west of the occult scene of the 80s and 90s, and its anything goes eclecticism, does bear a greater similarity to the manner in which magick was practiced in late antiquity than it does to more recent efforts at striving towards internal consistency and coherence within broader modern cultic or personal practice. Despite that, I do prefer coherence, as well as internal and aesthetic consistency tending as I do to prefer systematic syncretism to wild eclecticism.

So, like all of us, I've been impacted by Christianity but not in the manner in which I've suspected for a long time. I suspected, for a long time that my aversion was rooted in the adverse effects Christianity has had on culture (for example):

• The religious imperialism that annihilated Paganism from Europe including the various mystery schools...absorbing and co-opting ideas isn't merely preservation when it extinguishes the original source.

• The religious imperialism that destroyed indigenous cultures, often enslaved adults, and forced indigenous children to live away from their families and forget their spirits, traditions, and cultures.

• Forcing my ancestors on my father's side to be Christian via the lash.

• The misogyny as demonstrated by the pro-life movement and "traditional values" cults like the Quiverfull movement.

• Christian Dominionism wherein Protestant lawmakers want to religiously dominate the 7 Mountains of culture (Dominionism - The Seven Mountains ).

• Attempting to force anti-science creationism into school science classes.

• Legislating demonstrably useless abstinence only sex education in schools.

• The Christian religious litmus test that does exist in terms of anyone seeking the office of president. No non-Christian has any hope of being elected president in the United States.

• The soulless and useless Christianity defanged of its fierce compassion that allows millions and millions of professing Christians to unashamedly support legislators that would vote to remove vital health services from millions of their countrymen and women.

• The soulless and useless Christianity that attacks homosexuals while ignoring the grievous sins of those whose asses warm the pews...the liars, cheats, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, etc. 

• The twisted transcendentalism of millions of American Protestants who feel that protecting the environment is unnecessary because Christ is coming back to fix it...all while we are in the midst of a man-made great extinction. 

• The Christianity that wraps itself up in the American Flag while ignoring the plight of refugees from war-torn nations, edifies the rich and demonizes the poor. 

• And so on and so on...

Though many of my European friends will not be able to relate to the kind of Christianity I'm describing, it assuredly does exist and it is, in the United States, no mere outlier. In fact, it is the twisted heart and soul of the Conservative Evangelical Christian movement that in played a large part in getting Trump and his cronies elected.

I know there are many who will be thinking, "but that's not real Christianity!"

G.K. Chesterson's,"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting it has been found difficult and not tried," notwithstanding, the "No True Scotsman Fallacy" is piss poor apologetics. This sort of apologetics is nearly utopian in its clinging to an ahistorical version of Christianity that has only, if ever, existed in the heart of Christian mystical adepts.

Christianity, like all faiths, is, for good and ill, as it is practiced, not as it is on paper or in the hearts of those that are sometimes better than the tradition they profess. There is good and there is bad in Christianity and BOTH of those things are Christianity as magickal egregore, spiritual tradition, and mystical path. Any argument to the contrary ignores both history and current reality. 

Getting back to my point, the inner aversion that causes me to reject the idea that Christianity and Paganism are like chocolate and peanut butter (ie. great together) is rooted in the fact I take theology, metaphysics and cosmology rather seriously (I want my personal theology/cosmology to be coherent) and believe these things represent the heart and soul of a given spiritual path much more so that do the smells, bells, outer regalia, spells, icons, and accouterments that many occultists find appealing. Those things are the icing on the cake perhaps, but the beating heart goes deeper than that. The beating heart is the narrative metaphors that introduce us to, and define the roles of, the spirits and gods of a given path whether ancient or modern.

Myth is spiritual metaphor, and some metaphors can, in my opinion, make poor bedfellows even if they share a common ancient roots due in no small part to thousands of years of cultural accretions that influence how we understand a given spiritual tradition, in this case Christianity. Thousands of years of history and impact do not magically disappear because, according to speculative history, 50,000 years ago all extant religions came from the same Lurasian root source myths. Using the Lurasian theory as argument to justify simply choosing mythic motifs in a utilitarian fashion is an interesting perspective but one that points in a direction I suspect that very few people would appreciate if taken to its logical conclusion.

That's a conversation for another time.

So, is my choice to avoid mixing Paganism or my reluctance to engage in dual Pagan and Christian practice ahistorical?

For the Paganism of late antiquity, at least in some cases, yes.

However, I've never made claim that my practice was meant to be a mirror match for either early Paganism or the Pagan magickal or spiritual practices of Late Antiquity. My practice is that of a 21st Century Pagan Magician, based as much as possible on lore, but rooted primarily in my relationships with the gods as both devotee and sorcerer. My path is a results orientated magickal and spiritual path/practice (theory must support results, not the other way around), and is inspired by many, yet beholden to no other, spiritual or magickal traditions.

There are sound reasons for the choices experienced magicians make even if those choices run counter to the zeitgeist of the moment. 

Balancing Personal Will and Permissive Will in Magickal Practice

That word is 'willing.' It's an attitude and spirit of cooperation that should permeate our conversations. It's like a palm tree by the ocean that endures the greatest winds because it knows how to gracefully bend. ” 
- Stephen Kendrick, The Love Dare


There's something inherently curious about the "Will." Anyone deeply involved in magick is well aware that one's will is of great importance...the will directs the intention, the energy, the spirits, etc. toward one's desired end.

Curiously though, I have found over the years that, even as a magician, one should not overvalue the personal will. What I mean to say is that there are times when our will can lead us seriously astray, times when getting what we thought we wanted would have been far worse than not. Sometimes the will can be countervened in a way that makes our magick seem as if it failed when in fact our "failure" to manifest a desired outcome leads us to something better that what we wished for.

Then there are times when magick happens without the involvement of our personal will. These times, linked to one's alliances with one's gods, spirits, HGA, Higher Self, etc., and the natural harmony with reality brought about by spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, yoga, qigong, etc. allow what is best for us to flow to us not by will, but by "willingness" or Permissive Will....which is receptive state of non-doing, non-craving, natural flow.

In Taoism, this state of being is called "Wu Wei." Wu Wei is a state of non-doing, non-craving, effortless flow that, within the context of magickal practice, implies a deep trust in the gods, ancestors, spirits, etc. to provide for you that which is in alignment with your deepest needs.

It has been my experience that these times of effortless alignment to our own Highest Good (often a good unknown to the personal will) are times when we are granted boons far greater than those we would have received if had impressed the desires of our will upon the universe...thereby pushing for a specific, limited outcome.

It seems to me that one must balance one's active "will" with one's receptive "willingness." It seems that one's True Will is to be found more so in the latter than the former, at least until such time as one's personal will is in greater natural harmony with the will of the One Thing (who we may see manifest as God, Goddess, the Self, the gods, etc.) which is, in my understanding, naturally aligned to that which is best for all beings.

What is "best" is may or may not be what is, from our limited perspective, what is best for the individual ego-personality, but instead what is necessary for that being holistically (in regards to the entirety of the individual)....even if, from the view of the ego-personality, what is needed appears terrible, tragic, or needless. This is a different perspective, and one, at odds unfortunately with the prevailing paradigm of magickal practice which tends to confuse the True Will with the desires and predilections of the magician's ego-personality.

The axiom "As above, so below" comes to mind here. The "above" is that Will that knows more, knows better, and knows deeper than the the personal will (which is the "below") because it has a far vaster perspective. In aligning the "below" with the "above" we naturally come into alignment with experiences, awareness, knowledge, and wisdom that is more in keeping with our needs than than that which we could have manifested without that alignment by relying on the lower will alone.

Thoughts on Magick, Mysticsm and Their Meeting in the Place of Devotion

Altar of Devotion By Rassouli

"O Love, O pure deep Love, be here, be now,
Be all – worlds dissolve into your
stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with your brighter
than cold stares –
Make me your servant, your breath, your core."
-Rumi


Though it is often packaged as such in books geared to both a New Age and Pagan audience, spirituality is not merely an assortment of self-help concepts, processes and techniques presented in a flowery, mysterious, or inspiring manner (depending on the audience in question) and dressed up in mythic drag (being granted gravitas via a sense antiquity), true spirituality is instead about service to something higher than one's ego-self. In its healthiest manifestations, spiritual practice can, and often does, bring about profound and healing changes in both body and mind via the power of changed perception, healthier patterns of thought, diminished stress, the release of psychic baggage and an overall health promoting attitudinal adjustment.

The known beneficial effects of spiritual practice are most notable for those who, against the prevailing point of view of pop-spirituality, choose to ignore, consciously set aside, and temporarily forget these benefits when stepping in front of the altar. Seeing the healing, comforting, uplifting, and beneficial qualities of one's spiritual practice as primary, as opposed to as the side-effects of proper practice, is to place the cart firmly before the horse. To approach one's spiritual practice from a place of "lust for results" as opposed to a place of mystical relationship is to cause one's self long-term suffering in the form of wordless emptiness, an endless grasping and hunger for the shiny and the novel, and an endless seeking but never finding. The real secret is to approach one's spiritual practice from a place of self-less-ness or true self abnegation (ie. surrender). In doing so, the benefits of spiritual practice more easily manifest.

Paradoxically, by removing one's self from the equation via an attitude of self-forgetting when performing one's spiritual practices, one is immediately placed in a state of greater alignment, and therefore communion, with one's greater Self (Higher Self, HGA, Atman, Osiris, Christ, Isis, Horus, The Beloved, etc.) which is the very same Self partaken of by all things. As it has been said, "you must lose yourself in order to find your Self."

Not surprisingly, a magician may find himself initially recoiling from the idea of surrender. Early on, we learn that to be a magician is to be powerful and empowered. We learn to exert our intention and manifest our desires via the techniques of magick. Surrender is for the weak (ie. the religious). In some contexts this attitude would be correct. However, in this case, such an attitude toward the concept of surrender is wrong-headed and limiting. In the context of magickally sound devotional spirituality, self-abnegation can be seen as an act great power and will. It is no small thing, via an act of magickal will, to push aside the grasping selfishness of the ego so as to make room for the manifestation, within the magician, of his or her higher nature. To approach the concept surrender from the place of realizing that the "Will of the Gods" is none other than one's "True Will", the Will that transcends the ephemeral, is wisdom not weakness.

The realigning of attitude achieved through proper spiritual practice is something that is most vividly seen in the act of making non-reciprocal devotional offerings to one's God(s). The act of giving via taking one's time choosing and obtaining the appropriate offering(s), the implied power dynamic of the "lesser" offering service or gifts to the "greater" out of love, with no thought of personal gain, the act of unbesmirched self-offering, pushes the ego directly off the game board thereby leaving room for the reflection of that which is being served to expand within the magician. This happens naturally and effortlessly. If it is forced, devotion fails, becoming an act of ego-service as opposed to an edifying spiritual act.

Devotional practice is not about slavish obeisance to a power or powers beyond one's self, but is instead about alignment, the alignment of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The power of alignment, of aligning the self with the Divine, the self with the Self, naturally brings about a state of harmony and balance. As dissonance becomes resonance one experiences greater psychological wholeness, spiritual elevation and the healing of psychic complexes buried deep within the subconscious mind. Harmony and balance, the alchemy that takes place as the microcosm is consciously aligned to the Macrocosm creates emotional, psychological and spiritual health.

Acts of spiritual devotion are, via the attitude of consciously choosing to give of one's self, one's energy and one's intention, magickal in nature. Acts of spiritual devotion are also, via the kenotic nature of true devotional practice, acts of mysticism. The magick, through intent, action and conscious choice, makes room in the practitioner's consciousness for the work of the mystic, via kenosis, which invites (not commands) the effects of the unforced, natural Grace (the freely offered gift of the gods). In time, the Grace bestowed by proper alignment allows the self to realize the Self, the mortal to immanentize the Divine.

Thus are magick and mysticism made one in love.

Affirmations, Speaking to Your Subconscious Mind

(What follows is a subchapter of a book I was writing when I was around 23 years old. This was initially written for a New Age as opposed to Pagan audience and the presentation reflects that reality. Though my current style of writing is arguably more sophisticated and my point of view no longer New Age, the information herein is still valid even now, 19 years later)

"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words...the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt."
‑Mark Twain



Affirmation has often been considered one of the centerpieces of spiritual/emotional change, especially during the heyday of the New Age movement. Though the practice of affirmation can be invaluable in regards to any growth process, it can only be considered an adjunct to inner work, not a replacement for it.

Affirmation, at its best, is literally the construction of thought. I call affirmation the construction of thought because in essence that's what it is. When creating affirmation, you are setting the tone for your thought patterns. In so doing, you are acting in a fully responsible manner in regards to your mental self.

By using affirmation, you are able to consciously silence the voice of your own inner critic, the part of you who is constantly negative and judgmental. This critic, actually your ego, has in its interest your failure because in that way it will be vindicated, "I told you so, see that's how the world really is".  
Using affirmation allows you to rewrite the subconscious scripts of your reactions. Instead of being at the mercy of past influences, you decide what you wish to think, and when you wish to think it. This ultimate level of responsibility will, with time and intention, afford you the ability to form entirely new positive belief structures. By creating new belief structures you will be able to experience life on more loving, more spiritual and more abundant terms. 

At its worst, affirmation is denial and self‑deception. I say this because the use of affirmation is questionable without first changing the subconscious patterns which so greatly impact our lives. Using affirmation without changing the beliefs, releasing the constricting emotions and ending the twisted desires that form the faulty perceptions through which you see the world, is equivalent to using chewing gum to patch a crack in the Hoover Dam.

Two influences, our beliefs and our emotions, are the final arbiter of our thought processes and this is a truth that cannot be circumvented by any amount of positive thinking. 

Early on, when I first started to study alternative forms of spirituality and holistic practices, I quickly started to work with affirmation. Up to that point I had read many accounts of those who had transformed their entire lives via positive thinking. Wow, I thought, if someone could seemingly cure themselves of life a life threatening illness, imagine what I could do, with my comparatively small problems. I was very enthusiastic, because I saw these practices as exactly what I was looking for. 

My greatest concerns ranged from getting girls to notice me to stopping the incessant taunting of my peers. These, besides my interests in metaphysical pursuits, were my greatest considerations at the time, as befitting a fourteen year old. 

In earnest, I began composing affirmations. I committed myself to allowing only positive thoughts and feelings. I continued with some fortitude for nearly a year, at which time I, thinking back now, must have seemed either extremely self‑righteous or saintly pious. 

I avoided everything I considered, in my very inexperienced perceptions, to by non‑spiritual. Anything from profanity to disobeying the teacher was to be stringently avoided for fear that one misstep would doom the process. In other words, I became an extremely repressed adolescent who felt nothing near the cosmic love I was promised. 

All through this period, I continued to compose affirmations and keep a "positive" outlook, at least on the exterior. To the outside world, I must have seemed like the most well adjusted adolescent in all the Wyoming Valley. I seemed kind, always turned the other cheek and respected authority. When I sought to make friends, I always searched among the underdogs and outcasts who weren't "cool" enough to enjoy the company of most others. I guess that I felt that it was my duty to befriend the unbefriendable.

Internally, I was being ripped to shreds. In order to only think positive thoughts, I swallowed all of my anger, hurt, fear and disappointment. In public, and also in private, I was completely inauthentic. Not only was I wearing a false face towards those around me, I was denying the truths of how I felt even to myself. I felt that if I faltered and allowed a "negative" thought to enter my mind, or felt a "negative" feeling, all would be lost. Eventually, any gesture of kindness that I would make would be an act of duty, not an act of love. Because of my repression and denial, my spirituality became a mask as well, a mask I would wear so that I could at least seem like a spiritual person. 

In all fairness, I can't say that such denial and self‑deception was recommended in the books that touted the value of affirmation. But sadly these books usually failed to include information on the necessity of releasing limiting beliefs and emotions.

Now seeing my life honestly for what it was at the time. I see that I allowed myself to be mistreated by my peers and turned all the darkness that rose up within me onto myself. Finally, erroneously believing that affirmation didn't work, I turned my back on the whole concept of positively impacting my reality through thought. 

Years passed before I learned the truth that affirmation does work, but it doesn't work alone. Affirmation, in order to produce permanent change, must be used in conjunction with the appropriate inner work. This cannot be overemphasized.

The most important concept to consider when using affirmation in the process of Reimagining, is that you are the source of all changes in your life and that your life experience is a mirror image of your inner reality. 

Any affirmations you may use to institute changes outside yourself, from your relations with friends or family, to increased financial abundance, or even to bring you a new job, are actually serving to align your inner world to the harmonious flow of the universe. 

I think it was the author Emmet Fox who said that no one has ever gained what wasn't already theirs by way of their consciousness, it is because of this that their is no way to manipulate others or your life through any process of growth and change.


Creating Affirmations

 

For something so powerful, affirmations are extremely easy and fun to create. By giving yourself the time and effort required to learn this valuable technique, you are acting as a conscious and responsible person who is functioning out of self‑love .


The Ground Rules:

 

1.  Write it down.

2.  Be as positive as possible.

3.  Keep it short.

4.  Keep it very specific.

5.  Let it speak to you.

6.  State it in the present tense.

7.  Use "I" instead of "you".

8.  Make sure that you, not others, are the focus.

9.  When creating a new belief, use an affirmation similar to the belief to be replaced.

10.  Begin to think in affirmation.

These Ground Rules are the fundamentals for successfully working with affirmations. Slight deviation won't necessary doom your efforts to failure, but may make your affirmations less effective.


1. It is very important to write down all affirmations you wish to use with any consistency. The act of writing seems to make the affirmation more real and less ethereal. Writing also helps you to remember your affirmations. Because your subconscious accepts the repetitive, it is important to always read or repeat the affirmations as you first created them, unless they no longer speak to you.

This is most important when you have created an affirmation to counteract a specific belief. When working with a positive belief that you've used to replace a limiting belief, such as during the Halls of Belief meditation, you must read or repeat the new belief exactly as you wrote it during the meditation.

When you write your affirmations, don't do it by wrote, instead really feel the letters of the words as you do. Feel and mentally repeat the affirmation as you pen it. In this way you are convincing your subconscious that you are serious and intent upon the work you are doing.

2. Being as positive as possible means that you use only supportive words when creating affirmations, words that accentuate the not only the possible, but the probable. The following words should be permanently removed from your mental repertoire.


Can't               Never             Should             Try

Perhaps           Maybe            Hurt                Angry

 
The subconscious mind has a propensity to focus on any negative words you may use, so it is important that these and other limiting words be excluded from any affirmation that you create.

Being as positive as possible also requires that you have some indication of the vocabulary of success. The vocabulary of success includes those words that are positive, uplifting, inspiring and even dramatic. A short list of these words follow:


Gorgeous        Energized       Unstoppable   Awesome

Captivating    Joyous            Loving            Extraordinary

Superb            Driven            Monumental   Brilliant

Vibrant           Phenomenal    Courageous    Blessed

Excellent        Spectacular     Fantastic         Wonder

 
These words and others like them will, should they be included in your affirmations, serve to motivate and revitalize both your conscious and subconscious minds.

Keeping your affirmations as positive as possible means that you focus on what you do want instead of what you don't. For example, instead of saying "I am no longer judgmental of myself or others", say instead "I am a loving and spiritual person who looks with acceptance upon myself and others ". 

 
3. It is important to keep your affirmations as short as possible while still conveying the fullness of the idea you wish to express. A good rule of thumb is this, if you find that your affirmation has become quite a long run on sentence, it's too long.

The shorter and more concise the affirmation, the more psychological and emotional impact it's going to have. The longer the affirmation, the more difficult it will be for you to remember it without varying its content.

 
4. When creating an affirmation, in order to work, it must be specific. It should only express one idea at a time. Save multiple affirmations for multiple affirmations. The subconscious enjoys simplicity. Straightforward, direct statements containing the essence of one idea are far more likely to be accepted than long, grandiose pronouncements expressing several ideas at once

 
5. For an affirmation to have the desired impact, it must capture you. You must feel the power of the words being conveyed. It must be able to draw up in you an emotional response such as love, joy, acceptance, confidence, hope, etc...

Concepts are driven into the subconscious via currents of emotion, repetition, or both. Because you want the affirmation to override your preexisting programming, you are advised to "feel" the impact of the words you use in your affirmations. Otherwise, it may take your subconscious mind a very long time to accept what you are trying to make it believe.


6. The subconscious mind works to achieve whatever is currently in its programming to the letter. This means that if you place your affirmations in the future tense with words or phrases like "one day" and "soon", your dreams will always be in the future tense. Your dreams will not manifest in the now if your subconscious always sees them as being manifest someday.

For example, instead of "Soon the job of my dreams is going to come to me." try "The job of my dreams is mine in accordance with the truth of my being."

Some people can become timid at the idea of phrasing their affirmations in the present tense, perhaps because they think it’s hubris or for fear that affirmation doesn't work and they'll prove it to themselves. By phrasing their affirmations in the future, the latter type of person never really put their affirmations or themselves to the test, the test involves risk and without risk their can be no success. 

7. When communicating with the subconscious whether via affirmation or the direct changing of belief, use "I" instead of "you". This is important because your subconscious mind accepts all concepts introduced to it verbatim. The use of "I" makes certain that your subconscious understands that the affirmation is concerning you and not another. This establishes you as the focus of all your positive efforts.


8. The outer reality you experience is a manifestation of your inner reality. This, one of the most basic metaphysical truths, also applies when you are working with affirmation. Concentrate on creating changes in your own beliefs and perceptions, not in the actions or behavior of others, this is what will bring about the changes you desire into your life. 

Writing affirmations, along with all inner work, is rightfully practiced in order to bring you closer to the truth of your own spiritual nature. The outward effects which occur because of that work, the success, love, abundance and joy are simply manifestations of your true spiritual birthright.

For example, Sarah has a terrible marriage, one marked by constant bickering and emotional abuse. Instead of looking at what this relationship reflects within herself, she decides to use her belief, intention, choice, and affirmation to change his spouse. In this case not only will his attempts very likely fail, she will be acting out of his own sense of powerlessness. 

She will essentially be telling his own subconscious mind that her spouse is responsible for her experience of the relationship. By reinforcing her victimhood, she is strengthening any beliefs she may possess regarding her personal weakness and causing the further entrenchment of her own negative patterns.

Should you attempt to use affirmation, or other processes, to bring change in others, you are acting out of accord with natural law. By doing this you are betraying your own lack of faith in the truth that you create your own reality by your own beliefs, choices, intentions and desires. You will be only more deeply entrenching your own weakness.


9. It is important, when replacing an old belief with a new, to construct the new belief with the same syntax as the old belief. As I have stated before, the subconscious thrives on similarity, and this practice allows it to accept the new belief more rapidly because it phonetically appears similar to the old. This process is enabling you to, in effect, superimpose a new believe over an old.

For example, if you find that you carry the belief, "My life is so difficult.", change it into, "My life is full of pleasure". You'll notice, the new belief has the same number of syllables as the old, and because of this the subconscious will be more likely to accept the new belief as true.This concept is most important when changing old limiting beliefs; it can be useful to remember it when crafting affirmations to support a new belief. Though it isn't entirely necessary, it can prove helpful for you to give all related affirmations the same syntax structure as the new empowering belief you wish to instill.

 

 

10.  Allow yourself to calmly focus on your affirmations throughout the day, and allow yourself to feel the positive emotions that will spontaneously bubble up from within you. 

 

Make your affirmations the mainstay of your thoughts, let them come to you while you work, play, or just daydream. The more reinforcement you give the positive changes you wish to make, the more likely they are to become permanent.

 

 

Sample Affirmations:  Here is a collection of affirmations I have created regarding a  number of life issues.  These can serve as inspiration for you when you create your own.

 

Love

 

I love myself  more and more every day.

Love comes easily and effortlessly to me.

I allow the power of love into my life.

The abundant power of love transforms me.

I embrace myself and my life with love.

My love for myself allows my life to be filled with miracles.

Every day in every way I allow more and more love into my life.

I surrender myself to the power of love.

I allow the love of my Higher Self to transform my life.

I express the love within me to all the world.

I am an example of the power and beauty of love.

I give and receive love easily.

I am an expression of divine love.

I live in the transcendent power of love.

 

 

Relationships

 

I am vulnerable with those I trust.

I allow myself to be moved by the care and love of others.

I attract the right love relationship into my life now.

My relationships are filled with the wonder and magic of love.

I allow others to reflect to me the beauty of who I am.

All my relationships are built upon the courage of intimacy and trust.

The truth of my spirituality is reflected in my relationships.

I allow the power of love to be evident between (Insert name) and I.

 

 

Health

 

I am filled with energy, enthusiasm and vibrant good health.

I release any constricting emotions and fill my heart with love.

Love is the power of miracles and I allow my health to be miraculous.

My body, mind, emotions and spirit are aligned in the power of love.

I trust myself to create my own optimum health.

Health and vibrant energy are mine.

Every day in every way I become more and more healthy.

I willingly learn the lessons of my body, mind, emotions and spirit

I accept and release the lessons of my health and watch it improve every day.

 

 

Spirituality

 

I accept the will of God into my life.

Every day in every way I come closer to the love of my Higher Self.

I allow myself to reflect the light and love that is God.

I learn from my mistakes and surrender the lessons to God.

I allow divine love and forgiveness to enter my life.

I allow myself to reflect the love of God to all those in my life.

My life reflects the beauty and transformative power of God.

My spirituality is reflected in all I do.

 

 

Abundance

 

The universe is a place of limitless opportunity and abundance.

I allow myself to claim the abundance that is my birthright.

I allow my successes to reflect the truth of my inner nature.

I can have it all.

I trust in my higher self to grant me my desires of abundance.
The world is a place of love and abundance.
My success is determined by my heart, not by what I am told.
I can be successful and spiritual at the same time.
I give thanks to the divine for the incredible abundance in my life.
I step out of the word I know and claim the abundance that is mine.
As a spiritual person I am willing to meet the obligation of my success.
I not only create success, but the results of my success.

Shakti Gawain, author of the bestselling book "Creative Visualization" recommends that you use references to some spiritual source when creating your affirmations because it imbues them with spiritual power.  I am in agreement, as long as your personal concept of divinity supports your empowerment.  Affirmations are not prayer, nor are they meant to be.  In creating affirmations you are taking responsibility for yourself, in this case taking responsibility may require that you uncover what deeply held beliefs you may carry regarding your personal perception of the Divine Source. 

Deep down, if you believe that the Creator is angry, vengeful, jealous, etc..., it is extremely unlikely that you will get the same results with your God centered affirmations as the person who believes that S/He is Love, Light, Happiness and Joy.

In this case I recommend that you change your beliefs about God, then, and only then, should you include any references to divinity in your affirmation work.  This will not only give you a more real perception of the divine, it will allow your affirmations to work even more magically and more powerfully than they otherwise would. 

In some of the above examples, there are affirmations, outside the category of Spirituality, with references to the Divine.  Use these as springboards from which to create your own spiritually centered affirmations.

Empowered Offerings Technique

Many of us do daily or maybe weekly offerings to our god(s), ancestors or spirits of place. I recommend daily offerings if possible because the act of making offerings deepens one's relationship with the god or spirit in question via the energy of reciprocity. You can only get if you are willing to give. This is the principle of sacrifice.

When one gives offerings, it is common to have objects on our altar that have been there for a while. They aren't perishable, so we leave them on the altar as we should, perhaps only removing them when we replace them with another offering. They may feel old, worn, dusty tired or otherwise meaningless at this point. Don't worry, they needn't be.

Your offerings are touchstones or anchor points of communion with your spirits or gods and as such (if they are valuable and/or meaningful) they can be, in a sense, spiritually/magickally resuscitated.

This technique is one I "received" in meditation. I call it the  "Empowered Offerings Technique." This technique is very effective at keeping the channels of communication open and is very powerful as it uses your own life-energy (often called prana, qi, chi or various other names depending upon the tradition of the speaker) as an offering to deepen communion between yourself and your spirits or god(s).

Empowered Offerings Technique

1.) Enter trance in whatever way is familiar to you. Maybe you breathe in a certain manner, maybe you know a process of self-hypnosis. Just do what works for you. 

2.) Rub your hands together vigorously until your palms warm. As you do this, will your life-force energy into your palms. Intend that *YOUR life force fill your hands. You are not, as during a healing process, channeling the energy of the universe, you are filling your hands with your energy.

3.) Place your hands over the offering(s) on your altar and intend and feel, to the best of your ability, the energy flowing from your hands into the offering(s). In your mind's eye or just with your "felt sense," whatever is easiest for you "see" or "sense" the offerings growing more and more brilliant as you slowly "pump" your hands (slight up and down movements) over offerings on your altar. On the downward "pump" really force the energy into the offering(s). 
Do this for a minute, maybe two at most. Don't overdo it because you are using your life-force energy and you don't want to weaken yourself. 

4.) Know that the offering(s) are empowered.

5.) Keep your hands over your offering, but now, turn your hands over so that your palms are facing upward. Cup your palms over your offering. Now, in your mind's eye "see" or "feel" the energy of the offering radiating upward toward the back of your cupped hands and flowing into them and through them...flowing out of your palms.

6.) Now, as the energy is rising, you imagine it billowing, as a great cloud, out of your upturned palms as smoke (the color can be white or gold or the color that is, for you, representative of life...such as green or red). Allow this smoke, glowing with both the energy of your offering as well as your life force, through the power of your magickal will, to fill all time and and space.

7.) At this point, as the smoke is filling all time and space, say a prayer of offering such as:
"May the smoke of this offering rise to the thrones of the gods, may it descend into their shadowed kingdoms beneath the earth. May the smoke of this offering travel the winding current of time and the vastness of cosmic space becoming that which is most pleasing to the gods. May this offering please the gods and draw their favor, bringing me in stronger alignment with their highest purposes for me."
(Something like this. Of course you can substitute "spirits" for gods and the name of your tutelary deity(ies) for the term "gods.")

8.) Sit with the energy all around you for as long as you wish. If you like you may pray or meditate in this, what is now, sacred space due to your efforts. At this point you may feel a certain power to any devotional work you may do.

9.) End the rite with whatever word or phrase is comfortable to you such as, "So Mote It Be", "Amma Iset", "Io Evohe Hekate", "Amen", "So it is done", etc.

You may do this rite every few days if you wish. If you are fit, healthy, strong and/or practice energy arts like qigong, you may do the rite every day. However, as a couple of my friends who have used this rite have discovered, using your own energy daily can be draining.

Feel what's right for you and go with your intuition.

I have found that when I have a close relationship with a god, this rite is powerfully energizing. 

My awareness and experience tells me that when this type of offering is made to a deity with whom have a close relationship, there is an automatic energetic exchange. It just seems to happen that way. You may find, as I have, that if you are willing to offer up a great deal of your energy that this rite may be a substitute for a blood offering. Try it and see for yourself.

Only do this rite, in any capacity, with gods or spirits you trust. You do not want to create a deep connection to just any being that you are not entirely familiar with.


(*Note that the Empowered Offering Technique rite can be altered via intent to use universal life energy or environmental chi as opposed to your own life energy in the manner of healers who act as a "hollow bone" for healing energy. In this case, simply draw life energy of the universe into you and empower your offering using this energy as opposed to your own.)