Speak Little, Listen Much

I had a conversation with a friend not long ago. I'm not sure how it came to this topic, though many of them like myself are non-linear thinkers and as such topics tend to move from one to the next with seemingly no relation at all. But somehow in someway I ended up sitting in my kitchen drinking tea and found myself defending the importance of living in your thoughts.

I know the first argument against this, I do. You get too disconnected, they say. You get too lost and your thoughts can go to very dark places, they argue.

 First off- don't kid yourself into thinking you are more connected to the world than you are in your own mind. What is meditation other than going deep inside yourself, into your mind and the confines of yourself to feel out your connection to the world around you. I don't know about you, but nothing bad has ever come out of my meditative exercises. Through meditation I met Kaijana, who has taught me to stand up for myself and what I believe, and that to me is one of the most powerful lessons any of us can learn in life.

Second- You can control your thoughts. You are not their slave, they are your own and you are their master. One of my favorite books on witchcraft has one of the most powerful quotes about life I have ever absorbed "You are the magician, you are the master of your world and everything in it, including your own emotions."

Growing up pagan, I'd get a lot of crap about going through a phase, what with the amounts of paganism in popular culture in the 90's, but honestly what I love about this religious path is not just the magick or the feeling of endless possibility, its the lessons you learn from it that you carry in life. The first goal to being a witch is Know Thyself, but that shouldn't apply just to a religion, that should be a life necessity, because it is. And by thinking deeply, by truly letting yourself delve deep into your mind can you allow yourself to do exactly that.

Through witchcraft I grew up not begging for forgiveness from my gods and goddesses for my mistakes. To me, they don't forgive, because there is no need to. There is no Hell, because there is no need for one. The threefold law will show you the error of your ways, and with it you learn, and you grow stronger, fuller, and more powerful in your own way.

What happens when you don't, you ask? I can tell you the answer, because I did exactly that for the past three years of my life. You become stagnant. Often I hear from loved ones that they are in a rut, and my first question will be, "Well, what you have been thinking about lately?" And the answer is always the same, they haven't.

Don't be afraid of the dark places or the scary thoughts. Follow them to where they lead, master them, and they will no longer rule. They are parts of yourself, and just as important to your individual existence as the lights and joys you carry. I won't lie, there are plenty of things of which to fear in this world, but your own mind should never be one of them.

"Bide within the Law you must, in perfect Love and perfect Trust.
Live you must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give.
For tread the Circle thrice about to keep unwelcome spirits out.
To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme.
Light of eye and soft of touch, speak you little, listen much."

-the Wiccan Rede, stanza 1