How to control yourself.

"Ascend into the unity that is darkness, descend into the madness that is light." People have been telling me this since I was five, I've noticed a few things that clog the mind when trying to practice magic, the following.

-Emotions
-Sickness
-Religion
-Fear
-Family or Friends Judging you.

First, I was raised to have no emotions, and I see that emotions are not real, the reason we think they are real is that we a raised to think they are. When doing magic most people are distracted by the thoughts, "I'm so mad." "My life is so sad," and, "My boyfriend doesn't love me anymore," I also say that love isn't real, animals don't have love, they have no emotions, and we think of humans as superior, why? It seems to me that animals have something that we need, to be cold and stoic.

Second, sickness is never as bad as we think it is, we have a natural need for power, we make ourselves feel sick in order for us to make people do things for us, such as, "Can you make me soup?" "Can you pick up my shift?" Or "Can you drive me somewhere?" if we did not care about these trivial needs we would rid our bodies of the sickness very much faster then we do, but since we want people to do things they would not do when we are healthy, we lengthen our sickness.

Third, religion, most major religions look down on magic, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and others seem to think that magic, "Interferes with God's will," we need to understand that they want us to stop doing magic so they have power over us, if we listened to everything our religions tell us, we would be fully vunerably to any lies they try to force upon us, personally, I don't belive in God, and understanding that God doesn't exist just makes you think that it doesn't matter who's God is the real God, we're all going to Hell (or it's equivilent,) Any and all Gods don't care about us, they care about the planet, and the biggest sin is destroying the planet, so anyone that's ever been in a car, wrote on paper, ate meat, or turned on a light is a going to hell.

Finally, fear of family and friends judging you is a big hairball in the drain of good magic casting, if your mind is constantly thinking, "is the door locked?" "Is someone home?" Or "I hope nobody sees me doing magic," you will be too distracted to do magic correctly anyway, so you may as well not do magic at all, only perform magic if those around you know and don't mind.

Also, the quote at the top of the post is from the man that taught me that light is deadly, and darkness brings us together, as Gods are commonly depicted as having bright light around them, and darkness is always peaceful, constant, quite, and beautiful. Many people die because of God daily, most wars start with a religious argument. Think about it, what's more evil? Something that kills hundreds of thoudands of people, or something that wants us to be together, peacefully?

-Nikita V. Shlarzliya.
-Quote by Viktor T. Tilley.
-Proof read by Nick G. McCardy.

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Hey Bleu! I mostly agree with your comments. Emotions can do ham in Our practices. I am not shying to admit that recently I ruined my ritual which I did for 15 years but this time I ignored my emotions and my health condition and the result was a disaster. In trance unintentionally burned my hand badly and was rejected to receive help from spirits. Love,break ups,issues at home,health- can hurt and clog our mind as you said in your post. Thanks for mentioning that in the forum,it's very helpful for everyone. Regards

There's nothing wrong with having emotions.

Emotions are meant to be felt and experienced and expressed. How to properly express them can be the tricky question.

When you pretend you don't have emotions, if you aren't honest to yourself about having them, when you don't own up to your own emotions, that's when they overwhelm you and take control. Then you find yourself acting out of character.

Emotions are motivational energies. Direct them in a positive way or find an outlet for them. Take responsibility for your emotions and they will serve you well.

I agree with gypsy. And animals do have emotions! Are you blind? Every heard of the weeping elephants? Dogs have separation anxiety, how can they without emotions?

Not having emotion is unhealthy. Happiness and laughter is the key to good health! People work to control their emotions so that they do not run their life or ruin it and embrace emotions that enhance their life. As I tell my daughter, feed the good wolf!

As for pain, I don't know what your talking about. You can train your mind to use the pain to induce trance and raise power. The only symptom I can't work through is nausea.

My husband has used pain and illness in ritual many times. I've watched my own husband pour hot wax on his hand and use the pain to raise power in a ritual. He also had an infection in a large cut he received from a slicer. He dug out the infection with a sterile needle in ritual, channeling the pain. As he channeled the pain, he was also drawing the infection and pain into a rock. The cut healed perfectly and never hurt again. And the funny thing is, he's normally a big whiner when it comes to pain and illness, but put him in a ritual setting and his whole attitude toward it changes.

Pain and illness only interrupts magick when your own mind isn't strong enough to hold concentration through it and let go of your attachment/focus on your physical body.

If religion and family and friends judging impedes your magick, then apparently you have emotions and can't control them.

As for the darkness and light. This sounds a lot like the basque religion. Mari is the goddess of night and darkness, dreams and truth. While her consort Sugaar is the day and sight blinds us from truth. Therefore seeing leads to ignorance, while the darkness of night leads us to looking inward for answers.

Well, seeing that I have been raised to have none, I don't know the feelings of them, dogs have seperation anxiety because they are dependant on the owners or the pack it is with, I have never heard of weeping elephants, and there are families around the world that refrain from teaching their kids that "Being punched should make you mad" or that "Getting a gift makes you happy," and the kids usually end up with a better life the sensitive children. Most people think having no emotions makes you a serial killer when you grow up, having emotions and knowing the laws or society are different things, and I understand that it's hard to grasp the concept of having no emotions since society has conditioned us to believe they are real and that everyone has them.
-Nikita V. Shlarzliya.

http://www.jeffreymasson.com/books/when-elephants-weep.html

You should read that then.

Now although it is good not to let emotion overcome us, it is still essential to feel them. Calm is what some may see as a lack of emotion but in truth, it allows us to embrace positive emotion and let go of negative emotion quickly without holding onto them long enough for them to cause our body and mind to be harmed. To say you have no emotion would mean you could not feel joy, love, compassion, or awe and that would be a very sad thing indeed.

Animals live in the moment, but many will mourn the death of a child for many hours or days. We as humans, have the abilitiy to look beyond emotion and take control, so that emotion does not control us but instead is a tool for enhancing life experience. If not for emotion, we would not have intuition. If not for emotion we would not have the ability to avoid danger. A mother without the emotion of love for her child would not give the child the intimate care it needs and would be a robot of sorts, only giving the child what it needs to survive. There have been studies done that prove that holding, cooing and touching a child in a loving way does in fact impact its health and development. Likewise, a woman hugging a man sets off "feel good" chemicals that promote calm and happiness.

In short, emotions are healthy. Negative emotions should be dismissed quickly but still recognized, because they do help us to understand ourselves. Positive emotions should be taken as they come and enjoyed for what they are because they facilitate good health mentally and physically.

Being raised so as to not allow your emotions rule you is not necessarily the same as being raised to have none. -Everyone- has emotions. Anger, sadness, sorry, happiness. Even the slightest sense of regret, satisfaction, etc. is an emotion. Many cultures around the world teach you to rule, suppress, and otherwise control how you react to your emotions... but no culture teaches that emotions do not exist.

Not that I am aware of, anyway. In metaphor, perhaps, to teach self control... but not an actual void of feeling.

In terms of animals having emotions, that attachment and whatnot to a pack could certainly be argued to be emotion. As one the poem goes though, I've never seen a people feel sorry for itself.

That being said, learning to control one's self and shed emotion when it gets in the way of achieving one's objects is certainly a wonderful way to seek control of one's self.

"There is no emotion, there is peace."

No, I mean I was raised to have none.

All beings have emotions, even animals. They only hinder your work if they are out of your control. When you can control and direct them you can better your magic. As for being sick to get others to do things for us, remember some of us dont have anyone ;)