Middle Pillar and all points beyond!

So how has magic(k) changed your lives?

i don't really have much experience here but have been researching it to some degree. how do you guys feel about this, is there any weight to it? i really don't *like* what mine is, as i'm not to thrilled with the alleged focus of this incarnation being so materialistic and physical...but unfortunately i can relate to a certain degree. :/

also frighteningly enough, i called up the individual with whom i've been, er.. associating... the similarities we have in everything else are downright SCARY...and of course. an 8. ;) sigh.

apologies if this is not the proper forum for discussion, but i'm curious.

_{With the Life Path of the number 8 you are focused on learning the satisfactions to be found in the material world. The Life Path 8 produces many powerful, confident and materially successful people. You are apt to be very independent, forceful and competitive. Your routine is involved in practical, down-to-earth affairs, and there is relatively little time for dreams and visions. You will want to use your ambitions, your organizational ability, and your efficient approach to carve a satisfying niche for yourself. Most of your concerns involve money and learning of the power that comes with its proper manipulation. This Life Path is perhaps the one that is the most concerned with and desirous of status, as an accompaniment to material success. If you are a positive 8 you are endowed with tremendous potential for conceiving far-reaching schemes and ideas, and also possessing the tenacity and independence to follow them through to completion...}

“Everything Zen, I don’t think so.”

Words sung by Gavin Rossdale of the band Bush. Now while the problems of poodle-haired rockers are often hard to connect with, I feel that for once Gav may have had a point especially as I feel about as Zen as a 9 year-old on cattle steroids.
Does anyone else find that their mind is such a bundle of crap that even the most basic exercises are next to impossible? Meditation, magical trances and such come about as easy to me as swimming up a waterfall. This is particularly irritating as everyone from Mathers to Morrison highlights the importance of meditation.
To me an hour meditating is an hour I could have spent reading, writing or annoying my dog.

So…advice? Derision? Empathy?

A couple of days ago, I was in the coffee shop. I was grumpy, it was so humid that I felt sticky, and I was sweating. I hate sweating. I was trying to read, and I could barely stand the tiny ear-bud headphones in my ears.

The street lamp outside kept flicking on and off. The florescents in the t-shirt case were flicking on and off in time with the street lamp outside.

This is not a rare event for me.

Input?

Edit: I figured that discussing the mystical was the nature of the community, but whatever. I'm interested in comments on the odd light behavior, not on my sweating.

Phil Hine talks about people who seem to have read countless books on magic but never seem to have actually done any. That really struck a chord with me, particularly as, despite the fact that I've been reading about magic for around a year I've never done anything more adventurous than a banishing ritual.

The other night I popped my cherry. It went well (I think), felt very oridinary in fact. It did have a massive impact on the other person involved but then it was for that person's benefit. Nobody got possessed and no doorways to hell were opened which was a relief.

All I can think about now is doing more...

I see that there are many new folks who have either joined this community or have marked it as "watched." I'd like to welcome you to the community and encourage you to either make your own posts or comment in previous posts. I'm all about new ideas and information sharing.

If you only have yourself on "watching" this community, there's stuff that has been locked to members only. Please take a moment and check to see if you're a member or only watching. If you want to see the rest of the posts, please Click Here and you'll be added to the group.

I have some things I've been working on documenting and I'll be posting them soon. Hopefully, all of you quiet folks are getting something from this community. I'd love to hear from you.

Did any British types out there catch Channel 4's live exorcism earlier tonight? As tacky and as awful as that sounds it was actually very thoughtful (boringly so in fact) though the general consensus was that the "exorcism" was more akin to faith healing.

Of particular note were the comments from a Rabbi who seemed quite bemused by the whole idea of casting demons out of people. She said that every instance of possession that she was aware of was as a result of departed souls meddling in the material world.

Then there was a twenty minute discussion about brainwave readings which remarkably caused my own brain to shut down, a possible suicide attempt on behalf of my temporal lobes in a bid to save me from terminal boredom.

In any event, will more mainstream TV follow suit with "World's Wildest Exorcisms?"

The Middle Pillar and the Yoga Chakra system obviously have a lot in common, but I was never familiar with the Chakras so I decided to read up a little. Beside the difference in number and position of the energy centers, the Yoga system starts at the lowest Chakra and works upward, whereas in Middle Pillar, you bring the energy down from above. Maybe this is a philisophical difference, one escaping Earth toward the Heavens, the other bringing the energies of the Heavens downward....?

"Any path is only a path, an there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you ... Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question ... Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use."

Carlos Casteneda, The Teachings of Don Juan

Today I had my first proper attempt at the LBRP. After writing down a version of it that I felt both comfortable and satisifed with I prepared my ritual chamber.
This involved making my bed first of all because nothing is more distracting than an un-made bed. I also lit a candle, not for ambience but because I couldn't see a thing and lit an incense stick again not for ambience but because my room smelt like a beggar's wellington boot.

And...and I did it and it made me feel like my head was going to explode. The sensation kind of reminded me of the occasional Green Tea binges that I have. About a week into one of these binges I always begin to feel incredibly ill as the mountain of crap in my system is flushed out. If I persevere though I soon begin to feel much better, better than I ever did before.

As far as the ritual itself went I was quite happy with it, easily able to visualize the angels as columns of light bending forward to form a dome over my head. Afterwards I could almost see an after-image of a pentagram in front of me, so intense had my concentration been.

If anyone's interested, the LBRP that I did was very similar to the one that takarosa suggested, though I did add Aiwass to the Qabalistic Cross.