It's been really fun sharing my exploration with the community. There are a few more areas I'd have liked to cover, but I think I'll wrap this up now by describing how my newly developed beliefs translate into my day to day spiritual practice. There's a lot of information though, so I'm going to have to split it up into 3 separate posts.


Fire and Water

Although it's been hinted at in my discussions about the Pow Burn and the 'inner flame', something I never got around to blogging about but that is worth explaining before I start describing my practice, is the importance of fire and water in my path. I'm a devotee of the Goddess Brigantia, although I wish to point out that I do not distinguish her from Brighid, Bride (etc), but see Brigantia as a regional variation of her name, with a more direct connection to this locality. To me, one of the most important aspects of Brigantia is the significance of both fire and water. On the surface this might seem a bit surprising as we tend to think of fire and water as being mutually exclusive. In particular Brigantia's 'sacred flame' exists within water, and the holy waters are made sacred by the presence of the flame (although I'm not much of a cook myself, there is an obvious connection to kitchen witchery here). I also use the imagery of the flame within water as a metaphor for what I have been calling 'Unity'. As I said in my explanation of Unity, I believe it can be the product of a whole manner of different things depending upon the system one is working with. So in my case, I find Unity when the energies of the water and the flame combine.

Perhaps most important of all to me has been the realisation that the very existance of life on Earth is dependant on this idea of fire within water. That is, the very chemistry within our cells, the combustion that turns the food we eat into energy, driving the proton waterfalls that generate the electricity that fuels us, first appeared in the sea. In a way, I guess we're still aquatic lifeforms. We still can't survive long without access to water. It is fire in water, that gives us life!


A Final note on The Three Realms

The easiest way to organise my core practices is probably to arrange them according to the 3 realms I've previously spoken about. Once more however, I want to express that these are not 'otherworlds' in the sense that they are on some other plane of existence. They are 3 worlds that make up the world that we currently occupy. We span all 3, and they too intertwine and interact with one another. They do however, also have equivalents within the spirit world where they can appear much more disparate (at least to my own limited perception). 'Sphere' might be a better word for these realms.

I feel I must also remind you that this is still a developing path. Things I have written about may well change with time as I explore these facets deeper and deeper, and add more to my understanding of them. As such, feedback is always welcome. This path has been shaped as much by the discussions we've had here on PF as it has the meditations and conversations I've had with my spiritual guides.


Energetic Realm

This realm concerns itself with the fundamental physical laws of the universe. The particles and forces that make up our world exist within this realm. The chemical reactions that are going on right now in my cells, are taking place in this realm. It follows then, that if I believe that Unity is a natural force, it too belongs here.

In terms of spiritual entities, this realm is inhabited by what I call 'singers'. You might call them angels. The singers are archetypes of emotions; emotions at their most basic; just energy. Not all emotions are positive however, so there are darker beings here too. Most are neutral though. Egregores also exist within this realm, especially in the form of what you might term 'consensual reality', the world as it is, being as it is, because we all agree it is so.

This is the realm I will work with when my BDD is particularly bad. I'll come here to shake off the beliefs I have been conditioned to hold about beauty in order to make me feel I need to buy certain products, as well as to detach from the emotions that bind me to the obsession with my appearance.


The Inner Flame Meditation

Unity forms the basis of my magical working, and while it originates in the energetic realm it flows through the others too. My daily meditation involves what I call the inner flame meditation. After my routine chakra and aura cleansing, I focus on the area of my heart and imagine a white flame. This flame is my own spirit, that spark of Unity that exists in me, giving me consciousness. I then draw energy up from the earth below me, down from the heavens above me and inwards from the world around me, charging my own spirit so that the flame grows larger and brighter. It continues to grow until I am nothing but a shining silhouette. I am just energy. I become aware that on an atomic level, I am almost entirely empty space. In this state I empty my mind and just allow myself to meld with the rest of Unity, until there is no boundary between me and the rest of this energy. If this is a routine meditation, after a while I will draw back this light until it is a flame in my heart again. If I am journeying I will remain in this energetic state allowing my consciousness to explore the spirit world through my connection with Unity (as opposed to my spirit leaving my body and travelling there).

This same basic meditation is also the basis of my spell casting method, but I'll come back to that in a little while.


The Well

Another practice that relates to this realm is the work I do with the well by the priory. If I feel that I am unable to see clearly because of social conditioning, or a powerful emotion, I can use the well to help.

If visiting the well in person, I will sit by it and imagine that whatever is blocking me is being sent down the well. I allow the block to be cleansed in the sacred waters of Brigantia. I don't just leave it there though. When I am ready, I draw it back up from the well, and it returns changed. Whatever was blocking me is then in a form that can aid me. I won't always know right away what that is, but I trust the process. This is actually based on a ritual by Francesca de Grandis that she calls 'kissed by a distant star', only using the imagery of the well instead of a star.

I can also use the well in my inner work. On rare occasions I will use the well as a gateway to enter this realm on the spiritual plane. The corresponding spiritual world is what I term the middle-world. This is potentially the most hostile of the worlds however, so I rarely visit without a very good reason.