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THE OMKAR (OM)

Om is the first mantra. It is the seed syllable of reality Itself.

Om begins and concludes every ritual, meditation, and mantra. Om begins and concludes that Thing we perceive as the Universe.

Om encodes the destination, the map, and the practice of the spiritual path.

The dot embodies the non-dual divine reality inherent in/as all Beings. The loops of the symbol demonstrate the shapes of human consciousness: waking life, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. Dividing the space between Reality and the shapes of human consciousness is a single swoosh, the Illusion.

This symbol is the reason for why some make a distinction between awareness and consciousness. Consciousness can change into many shapes, textures, and flavors. While dreaming, waking, and dreamless sleep are a few, consider also the shapes consciousness takes when exposed to psychedelics.

Yet even while consciousness can shift and change, there is an unknown knower of all these changes that is itself changeless. By unknown, what is meant is that consciousness cannot know this awareness any more than a cartoon character can know its cartoonist. However, that awareness can know itself.

The awareness in all living Beings is that divine reality. Some call it awareness because it is aware of consciousness due to the knowing capacity inherent in awareness but awareness is much more than just that. So why not call it Divine? That is just as good a description for its staggering majesty as any other.

Through an inexplicable and illusory occurrence, this awareness (or Divinity) has mistaken itself to be a single fragment of existence confined within the three shapes of human consciousness. From this arises the experience of separation, individuation, and suffering. All the while, the divine awareness is still the divine awareness. That's why this is called an illusion. It doesn't actually and never actually happened.

And that's also why Enlightenment isn't really a transformation but more like finally remembering or realizing how things actually are, hence realization. A person doesn't become enlightened just as a cartoon character doesn't realize they are the cartoonist. It is the cartoonist who remembers themself.

A non-dual teaching summarizes this succinctly: "There are not two selves, one that realizes the other."

In the end, the only real Self that we have and are is that divine awareness.

All of this and more is encoded in this lucid symbol and simple mantra...

OM

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💰

another @thepulpgirls post!

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Maslow’s Hierarchy: A Guide to getting your life together

After we get our basic needs, we are often stuck on the getting our psychological needs (love, friendship, and accomplishment).

How to satisfy your psychological needs:

Be part of a community through school, work, or organization. Volunteer at a charity or organization of your choice. By doing so, you can connect with other people, build a sense of camaraderie, and learn more about yourself.

Participate in classes, clubs, or an environment that requires you to be active with the same people, and by proximity you can build friendships.

Set challenges that are within your control and win. Honestly, the easiest way to win is to challenge yourself and overcome that challenge. This will boost your self-esteem. Run a marathon, the barrier of entry is low, and the price you have to pay is discipline. The goal is to have a sense of accomplishment internally before the external ones (promotion, dream school, dream job).

Design a lifestyle that is attractive to others: To have an attractive lifestyle is to be comfortable and confident in your skin. You’ve figured out yourself by then. You have hobbies, you know your strengths, you’re building yourself, you have a passion, and you are curious and optimistic. Once you’ve designed your life, it is easy to know who fits into your new life and only the people who value your growth will come to you.

How to satisfy your self fulfillment needs:

Write down your dream life (I am a business woman, who is a philanthropist passionate about neuroscience and social psychology. I often travel the world to give lectures and I sit on the board of some Fortune 500 companies) only you can decide your dream life.

Break down your dream life into bits and pieces and turn them into actionable steps ( I will apply to be a volunteer at the Alzheimer's foundation. I read books on public speaking, I’d learn about the top fortune 50 companies).

Explore your creative ingenuity: paint, dance, write, practice your guitar. Most times it is during these creative moments that we get an idea of our purpose in life.

Introspect: Journal and find out what your calling is. We all have a calling that is bigger than our own desires. Sometimes, it takes personal experience, exposure, or introspection to figure out something we were called to do and once you’ve figured it, start working on it slowly. It’s a journey.

With Love,

Black Pearl.

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Grounding yourself is an important part of your spiritual practice that is often overlooked, when it comes to our spiritual hygiene. It’s so easy to do a reading, a couple of rituals, venerate ancestors or spirits and then casually disregard your own energy in the process. Grounding helps you recharge and prevents spiritual burnout along the way, because it regulates the nervous system. When working with a variety of different energies, it’s fairly easy to overwhelm and overload your senses, so we using grounding techniques, to disperse this energy that we have collected within peacefully.

a few helpful grounding techniques:

1.) Meditation - Using breath work, we can channel and release energy, through a variety of different methods. You can use a crystal, dispel energy simply using your breath or other methods if you are familiar with it.

2.) Earth Techniques - Using the earth to disperse and stabilize your energy is also a very common practice. You can do this using the ground beneath your bare feet or even plant allies that you are familiar with like trees, etc. Just be aware if you have a significant amount of energy that you need to expel, it can cause the plant to mature early. This is why it’s good to have a working relationship with your plant allies.

3.) Crystals - Certain crystals like clear quartz and black tourmaline are great for resetting your energy and dispersing it. This can be done through a variety of methods, like placing it under your pillow, holding it your hands etc. Please make sure you source your crystals from reputable shops.

4.) Spiritual Baths - In the Hoodoo, Ifa, Vodou and many other Afro-Indigenous Religions it’s fairly common to take a spiritual bath. Spiritual baths can have a variety of uses, including grounding. If you are familiar with your plant allies you can create a spiritual bath for yourself or purchase one from a trusted source. I myself make spiritual baths for my patrons but only those who are local to me at this time.

5.) Words of Power - Now this one is more for a more experienced practitioner but there are certain words in various traditions, that are used to ground and dispel energies. Usually these words are sacred to their select practices.

I hope this short guide was helpful to you in some way. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to share, like and spread these helpful tips within our community. I also offer tutoring packages to those in need, which can you can find by clicking on the title of my site: Lionheart Apothercary & Botanica

You can find me on Ig @lyonessahartx

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Thai Buddhist monk: I …..will…..keep….. praying…. 

(Source)

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Great for your digital book of shadows!

Part 2

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Elemental magic information on understanding and how to use it.

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x x

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Poppets!!!

This could be an interesting way of creating a poppet.

Alterations:

Maybe instead of rubber hair bands use string or twine.

If it want it to look more doll-like roll the ears around to the back and then you'd have a little pouch for herbs or crystals and whatnots (remember to sew it closed so nothing falls out).

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~Here’s to the girls being their own best friend

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Why Your Spells Don’t Work

You set your intention. You had all the correct correspondences. You even timed your spell with the appropriate moon phase. And yet – no results. What gives? 

Failed spells happen to the best of us, and for a variety of reasons. But a spell gone wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that magic isn’t real or that you’re bad at witchcraft. Magic is complicated, and there are a lot of reasons it might not behave the way you want it to. Here are some of the most common causes of ineffective spells: 

1. Lack of real-world follow through

Magic is meant to be used as a tool to supplement your mundane efforts – not as a substitute for them. How can you expect your job hunting spell to bring in results if you aren’t applying for jobs? 

Magic does not exist in a vacuum, and it can’t make something out of nothing. If a spell doesn’t bring you the desired result, make sure that your non-magical actions are aligned with what you are trying to manifest. 

2. What you’re trying to manifest isn’t a realistic possibility

Wait, what? Isn’t magic supposed to be, well… magic? Shouldn’t you be able to ask for whatever you want and get it? Yes and no.

Magic is simply a way of directing energy. Magic can’t defy the natural laws of the universe. It can’t make something happen unless it was already a potential possibility.

If your intention is unrealistic for where you are right now, try splitting it up into a multi-step process. No spell is going to make you a billionaire overnight, but magic could help you get hired at a better paying job… and then get promoted… and then get offered a profitable side gig… etc. Starting small and working your way up is always going to produce stronger results, because you laid the foundation first.

3. Your intention was either too vague or too specific 

Whether you use written petitions or spoken incantations, clearly stating your intention is an important part (maybe THE most important part) of any spell or ritual. A good intention is specific enough to get you the results you want, but open enough to let those results manifest naturally.

Let’s say you do a money spell, and your intention for the spell is simply, “I have more money.” If you find a penny on the ground the next day and pick it up, technically that is more money than you had before. A better alternative would be to use an intention like, “I have enough money to buy ___,” or “I have enough money for everything I need and want.”

Using an intention that is too specific creates the opposite problem. Let’s say you want to manifest a scholarship to a specific school. You do a candle spell with the intention, “I have been chosen for the John Smith Scholarship at Jane Doe University.” But maybe the John Smith scholarship had already been awarded by the time you did your spell. Maybe there’s another scholarship at the same school that would be a better fit for you, or maybe you’re eligible for a grant that would make tuition more affordable. A better intention for your spell would be “I have enough financial aid to easily and affordably attend Jane Doe University.”

Magic always follows the path of least resistance, so you want to make sure that your intention is specific enough to give your magic a clear direction, but open enough to allow it some flexibility. 

4. Lack of focus/concentration

We all know the struggle. You’ve been planning this ritual forever, and it’s finally the full moon, but you’ve got a really full schedule today. If you hurry, you can probably squeeze it into the thirty minute window between school and work, right? 

If you say a few quick words and burn some incense before you head out the door in the morning, that totally counts as a spell, right? 

Not so much. Rushed, lazy, and/or half-assed spells rarely, if ever, work. Spells revolve around the raising and direction of energy, and that requires two things: a clear intention (see above) and intense focus on that intention. If you don’t have the time/energy/mental capacity to focus, it’s best to take a break, have a self care day, and come back to your spell some other time. 

5. You’re subconsciously blocking your own results OR you did a spell for someone else who isn’t open to it

I decided to lump these two together, because they’re different variations of the same issue. 

Whenever you are doing magic on yourself, it’s important that your mindset is aligned with your intentions. You can do love spells all day long, but if deep down you don’t believe that you’re worthy of love, that belief is going to block your spells from working. This is why mindfulness, psychology, and self care are all such important parts of a successful witchcraft practice. It’s also why I recommend doing the mental work before you sit down to ritual. 

If you did a spell on yourself, or are trying to manifest something for yourself, and it just isn’t working, I highly recommend setting some time aside for journaling and meditation and asking yourself 1.) if this is really what you want, and 2.) if you truly believe that you can have it.

The whole mindset thing gets even more tricky when you’re doing magic on behalf of another person, because their energy is also at work in the situation and could be at odds with yours. For example, if you do a spell to help a friend land a job, but that friend believes that they’re totally underqualified and could never get it, they probably won’t get the job even if you did everything “right” in your spell. 

This should go without saying, but it is extremely unethical to use magic to mess around in someone else’s head. Even if you think you know what’s best for them, they need to be open to it. If someone is blocking the spells you do on their behalf, all you can do is try to be supportive and find other ways to help them out.

Other (Rare) Reasons for Failed Spells

If a spell goes wrong, it will almost always be for one of the above reasons. But maybe you did everything “right” – you did the mental work first, had a strong, realistic intention, put lots of focus into your spell, and followed through in real life – and you still aren’t seeing results. There are a couple of other things that could be blocking your spells, but they’re very uncommon so I’m not going to talk about them in as much detail. These may be things you want to look into if you really, genuinely can’t think of any other cause. 

It’s possible that another witch has done magic that cancels out or blocks yours. This is not common, and it does NOT mean that someone has cursed you. It could be as simple as two witches unknowingly casting spells with opposite intentions, which end up cancelling each other out. (For example, maybe two different people both cast a spell to get the same job. Obviously, they can’t both get that job.) This is why it’s never a bad idea to incorporate a protective element into your spells to block outside interference.

There is a very, very remote possibility that someone has placed a curse on you specifically to block your magic. However – and I cannot stress this enough – this is VERY uncommon. If you were cursed you would know it, or at least know that something was very wrong in your life. If you feel like you have been cursed or hexed, I recommend looking into uncrossing spells, which are specifically designed to undo negative magic.

It’s also possible that a higher power is intervening. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a deity, although it certainly could be. Most witches believe in some form of fate or destiny, and it’s possible that your spell didn’t work because what you asked for is not in alignment with your destiny. In these situations, really the only thing you can do is surrender to the bigger picture.