The healing flow

Keeping, once we have found them, successful ways of being within the inner/outer connection (the magical gateway) such as with meditation and mindfulness techniques etc. can bring a helpful rhythm and order in life and a gradually encompassing sense of peace. Focused breathing is a useful addition, bringing a calming and much welcomed stillness, letting the ripples in the busy pool of life still upon our gaze and breath. A sense of wholeness and well-being can then expand, that is beneficial to ourselves in challenging and difficult times and to others around us, when the way is tough and uncertain.

Feel this healing then extend and wrap around the whole planet as a rays of golden heart-centred healing and as each person working for the good of the whole is likewise touched and uplifted in spirit, adding their unique contribution of goodness. Their environment helped in positive ways too. The qualities of courage, strength and determination come into play within our meditation and Service to the Light in whatever way that expresses. Nothing worthwhile being easy and in the path of the Mysteries, the way is often uphill and needs a steadfast application of personal effort – but the Light is always there – and the wonder of a new golden day dawning, beckons us onwards as the clouds of doubt and negativity so loved by the media part!

A comfort is felt, a learning and growing of our strengths through compassion and help to others and in Service to the Light as the cosmic and earth Mother and Father remind us, All is One.

John O’Donohue offers uplifting words of guidance..

“If your soul is awakened, then you realize that this is the house of your real belonging. Your longing is safe there. Belonging is related to longing. If you hyphenate belonging it yields the lovely axiom for spiritual growth: Be-your-longing. Longing is a precious instinct for your soul. Where you belong should always be worthy of your dignity. You should first belong in your own interiority. If you belong there, and if you are in rhythm with yourself and connected to that deep, unique source within, then you will never by vulnerable when your outside is qualified, relativised or taken away. You will still be able to stand on your ground, the ground of your soul where you are not a tenant, where you are at home. Your interiority is the ground from which nobody can distance, exclude or exile you. This is your treasure. Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”

Advertisement

At the Gate of the Year

An attunement to help focus and draw positive creative energies and approaches

As the gate opens into the New Year, keep hearts and minds uplifted and receiving the Light of the One, that guidance, love and protection help us forward and showing the way. Keep these images of beauty and peace close in our minds eye, let the radiance of the pillar of light strengthen and encourage with determination, however difficult and challenging the time and way may seem. Be open to being guided to ways of positive balance and expression as each new day dawns and the year opens outward. With energies also of the new moon, that the Light within the earth shine understanding and healing within and around this sacred planet linking each of us to tread lighter and with respect.

Through meditation, creative projects and being out and about in the magic of nature, let healing flow through each of our individual and unique lives. Asking for the calmness of the Divine Spirit to comfort, enliven and create within, a gentleness of life, love and compassion in ourselves, and to be of help to all we meet in the days ahead.

Dunstan X, Worcestershire, England January 2022

Towards Samhain within the autumnal energies

The falling rain here in Worcestershire keeps me indoors & I’m using the time to prepare for the approaching festival of Samhain, ancient Celtic fire festival and with its other guise as Halloween. It is the closing of the year and the first rite of winter.

With the extra focus on being in the outside during this most challenging of years, it has seen the nurturing and development of new projects within the hillside garden. Moving through the Autumnal equinox and now with the nearness of Samhain, the reflective energies of Autumn moving into winter, encourage a looking back as well as a looking forward to the new light that awaits to be reborn in projects and life changes set in motion.

Within this reflective air, the rich firey red and russet colours of the leaves falling from the maple trees, provide a magic carpet within the upper garden areas. The transformation of some of these spaces has enabled an opportunity to be wrapped and uplifted in the quiet peace that has come from the physical work applied steadily from spring onwards, the sounds and presence of nature all around. Hedgehogs and muntjac deer even calling by, as well as an ever inquisitive robin keen for sharing the biscuits at coffee time..!

Working within the Western Mystery Tradition, we acknowledge the tides flowing and changing direction from “outer” to “inner” at this time of year, enables a learning and growing in understanding from what we have been doing, approaches taken and how the growth has been. This needs a quiet time to be set aside, often not easy to find in busy and challenging lives, especially under the current year, but reaping rewards on the magical path, always a twisting and turning one, when we do. Wisdom and understanding flows when the courage to truly look and allow this to rise to the surface of our minds and go deeper within our being.

The magical art of scrying is helpful as a way to reveal to our inner eyes and ears, leading a way for awareness of the understanding that can help participation in projects and new approaches as the wheel of the year turns through autumn and into the harrowing of winter. A normal meditation or for a change, a “walking” meditation are other ways to explore this. Why not choose a different footpath or track which inspires or intrigues, or stay with a well-favoured route around the block that you know well and lets your physical being run on auto-pilot. Let your feet take you along! On the return, simply review what has arisen in your thoughts and the conclusions that are confirmed, note in your magical diary and later, cast the seeds deep into the warmth within to begin their rooting and germination, allowing a new way of interpretation and being to be created in the cycle of the year ahead. Ritually, the celebration of Samhain brings deep connection, celebrated within the circle and quarters, alone or within a group, many traditional themes marking the moment and with the spirit and wisdom of the ancestors, personal or of your tradition invited in to honour, share, help and inspire.

In conclusion, give thanks to the One of Light, acknowledge and focus on the bright flame of love and life that burns brightly in each of our heart-caves and what you have learnt and has been revealed. Let the seeds and bright rays of hope shine out from deep within, illuminate and allow them to bring about new positive growth and life in harmony in the coming year, seeing each ray joining and amplifying this healing with the pin-pricks of light of likeminded folk across and around the whole world. So Mote it Be!

How are you planning to mark Samhain? It’s good to share and learn together..!

Dunstan : Worcestershire, England October 2020

Contemplating the Inner Place & sending healing light

Finding a place of contentment and spiritual solace “within” is an art that meditational practice teaches us. At the best of times, this can be tricky with perhaps the invasion of external sounds (hedge trimmers, dogs, nearby trampolines..!) and with the present external world conditions, something to experiment and work on, providing an “inner” dimension and much needed space of limitless proportions.. something to add to the daily physical exercise perhaps?

A good inner visualisation training is to explore a place that you can recall having enjoyed, and to again take a walk through it, but this time inside yourself and within your imagination. Look around you, notice the colours and the details, textures and the sounds. You are basically taking yourself on your own pathworking, and of course distancing from friends isn’t a requirement here!

As explained in earlier posts on the subject of preparing for meditation and pathworking, this kind of inner exercise is a key component of meditation and magic, as practiced within the Western Mystery Tradition (WMT) It should commence by finding a suitable chair and to begin by using the Opening gesture and Qabalistic Cross, lighting a candle if you wish, then sitting in a relaxed state, hands and legs uncrossed, eyes closed. Using the four-fold breath technique then to gently let tensions disappear. Breathing  and drawing down from above your crown / head / Kether chakra the healing light energy inwards and down to your feet to a count of 8; gently holding for a count of 4, then breathing out through your nose, letting the golden light energy rise to your crown/head chakra / centre, cleansing and invigorating you  to a count of 8; holding/pausing for a count of 4 then on the outbreath to a slow count of 8, the golden light rains outwards and down as fountain droplets around the whole aura;  repeating the same for 10 cycles. After this, commence your inner scene and exploration, or just enjoy the quiet healing space that you are now in, feel the healing and the calmness and quiet inspiration of being at One!

When you feel it is time to return, quietly give thanks to the Inner Place that you have been and to any inner being of light that may have been with you and perhaps shared some ideas or words of comfort.. Also, ask that with the help and direction of the Inner Guides of Light, these positive rays of healing and strength be sent outwards to all who are in need and to those who are helping to bring healing and through knowledge and skill in medicine and science, a safe and positive way forward across the whole world that can be quickly and fairly shared to all.  Within your mind, then say “I have retraced my steps and now step back into my own time and space..”.. Open your eyes, take a stretch and stand to again make the Qabalistic Cross and finally the Closing Gesture and put out the candle. Repeat each day if you can. If you use a diary note book for your Inner Work, record what you have seen and learnt from right away, whilst it is still fresh and in your mind. If any followers have questions about the techniques, just contact me, and I will try to help, it will be good to hear how you have got on too!

Your Brother in Light, Dunstan X    18.4.2020

Imbolc-tide

Whilst February 1st is the calendar date associated with the feast day of Brigid, the first ripples of strengthening and returning light move onwards from the beginning of February, something most meet with enthusiasm, despite the cold winds and storms which lash the land, and has been the case within Worcestershire over the last days!

The links at this time of year include Our Lady’s Feast of Candlemas, celebrated on 2nd February in the Abbey of the Perpetual Light. Historically, Brigid was the Abbess of Kildare in Ireland, her fire was tended by the nuns, and said to have been kept perpetually alight for around a thousand years after her passing.

The weave thus is one of tending, nurturing and of the Goddess Mother. As Mary she embodied the living Spirit incarnating through her, as a channel to the earth plane. As the Crone and Cailleach, tripartite mother of all, she drinks from the well of youth and emerges as the earth spins onwards from Winter,  becoming the young virgin tending her flock.  Imbolc meaning “ewes-milk” and her nourishment we give thanks for, and from all that the earth provides for our sustenance, enabling our physical growth from young children and spiritually onwards too, through our maturing life.

At this time, the task is to focus on the new growth, perhaps also in new ways in which  the Inner and Outer light on your path is interpreted and expressed differently.  Things that have been identified in holding back, rather than encouraging new growth can be left aside, pruning is something that cosmic as well as physical gardeners need to do to keep the growth healthy and rejuvenated! Sometimes this takes courage, for keeping to the acquired, status quo can seem to be the easier alternative, moving on requires faith and a steadfastness. There is a time for everything under the sun..  In the steadily growing year, you want to move forward from situations that have held you back previously, from those who would squander your precious time and energy to more likely favour their own outcomes, consciously or unconsciously. So use this time to identify that which you wish to accomplish and that which is uniquely special in yourself, life and spiritual expression. Be true to yourself and your path, the Way-Shower and Opener of the Ways will be your friend and guide in the coming year and always. The seasonal celebrations are important way markers within the Western Mystery Tradition and work of the Order of the Perpetual Light.

In your Imbolc rite, light a candle and let a blessing of light be sent ahead to welcome and prepare the way ahead.

Dunstan February 2020

Approaching the Winter Solstice

As the rain continuous to fall heavily in Worcestershire, the Christmas cards from friends have been arriving in the post and there is joy and pleasure in linking in thought and deed – an old custom for some it now seems at times, with the mix of e-cards and social media ways adding their own “charms”! Future plans and ideas suggested for the coming New Year 2020 add their potential as we peer out into the darkness of winter, and that verse by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957) written in 1908 comes to mind..

‘And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

The exciting thought ahead of discovering the first shoots of spring – life returning to the outer world, whilst winter here in the northern hemisphere has withdrawn back into the earth.

Evergreens dec my altar, and this year I’ve restrained from fetching out the tinsel to decorate indoors. Instead, harvesting strands of holly and ivy from the garden hedge, that otherwise I would have pruned back in the autumn. These links with nature and the Green Man and Lady of the Forest drawn inside our human world, remind of the ever-green heart of nature, ourselves and that of the Winter Solstice, celebrated in simple “country” ways across the centuries within the different strands of the Western Mystery Tradition.

Ritually, the placing of the Fir tree with its airy-ways in the Eastern Quarter, Holly with the its fiery red berries in the South; Ivy with its associated feminine qualities in the West, and Druid-especial Mistletoe in the Northern Quarter, weaves the magic of the Green Ray of Nature within the sacred flame at the heart centre of the altar, radiating out to each of us as Companions and friends of the Order of the Perpetual Light.

So, amidst the flurry and outer-world celebrations of this shortest day / longest night as Winter Solstice /Yule and approaching birth of the Son of Light at Christmas time within that tradition; find a way to quietly withdraw into the sacred heart centre of yourself, having lit a candle, linking with the Inner Light, still your breathing and “Be Here Now” in this way of Devotion. Acknowledge and give thanks for the gifts and life that shines bright within yourself, no matter what. Draw the love from the Sacred Flame of life and the One into every part of your being, feeling the comfort and healing it brings. Then as you breathe out, ask that a blessing of love, light and inspiration be sent outwards across the whole world to lighten and spread peace, harmony, wisdom, understanding and wholeness at this time and into the coming year. As the ancient stars flicker, let our feet be guided by the light burning brightly within the lantern as we approach the turning of the cycle and Gate of the New Year.

Love, Light and Peace to all OPL Companions and friends and thanks for your support and for following magicalgateways too!

Dunstan; Outer Warden, OPL December 2019

Finding the strength and fortitude..

Within meditation whilst following our path within the Western Mystery Tradition, the time for quiet contemplation allows positive reflection on our approach to ourselves. Are you determined yet gentle and coaxing to both your inner and outer self in how you approach your magical studies and life, how you see and feel your efforts are working and being progressed? The noise and clamour of the world can seem difficult to work within at times, and there is a strange relationship to how inner and outer states of being reflect each other and play out in the circumstances of life. Big things to get your head around and to manage to step back to get enough distance to observe, and yet close enough to dare to experience the detail!

Through our studies on the Royal Path, the Alchemy of the Soul as taught within the Western Mystery Tradition, we learn through focussed personal effort a way of finding the right kind of Strength or Fortitude (as the Tarot card is sometimes also known) to enable the hand to remain steady on the plough, not to feel dissuaded at the perceived task and progressing with the attitude of steadfast purpose. You will reap the rewards, slowly and steadily, and with each turn of the wheel. Aiming to live in tune with the earths tides and cycle and in your own way participating in the ancient magical festivals, we are helped to find the best appropriate “seasonal” approach for ourselves too. The task is then to apply and progress it with the help of our Inner Guides and course of study.

Recording in our diary logs or “Book of Shadows” the results of meditations – what we have “seen” and then “learnt / realised” immediately afterwards, enables these sylph-like ideas floating within our minds and inner vision, to be anchored and for later recall and further study. During winter-tide, the dark evenings are perfect for this, taking guidance from the young woman of “Strength”, learning not to be hi-jacked and subjected to the whims of changing moods or the distractions of others, but finding quiet, determined inner focus that is reflected positively into our daily outer lives. How does that work for you?

Dunstan October 20th 2019

Days in Paradise

A very beautiful & deeply expressed poem from The Dreaming Path..

The Dreaming Path

I see a brightness shifting,
shining,
it falls across a wide white plane –
a wall.
It shimmers,
it dances,
it glows.
The light is suffused with connections
I fail to comprehend.

I am here
It is there.
It cannot be held.
It has no name.
It’s silence.
It fills my small, lately born, heart
with unconsidered, infinite love
and unconditional trust.

Yet grow I must.

How little I know of life.
Some things stay.
Some move away.
That is all I know.

I need but I do not want.
There is pleasure but I have no driven desire.
The words I have learned are few.

Is this hand I hold up mine?

******

The door to the garden is open.
The cat sleeps there in the sun.
I am not the cat.
The cat has a separate name,
yet I vaguely believe the cat’s mine.
Somebody said it was…

View original post 783 more words

Studying and sharing opportunity..

The Order of the Perpetual Light (OPL) runs an Introductory Course in the Western Mystery Tradition, covering Meditation, the Tree of Life (Qabalah) and Magic, following in the lineage of the great teachers and way-showers of the past, such as Dion Fortune, Margaret Lumley Brown, Ernest Butler and many others who have helped to illuminate the way ahead for us travellers who have come along later.. Practical training and an opportunity to share and discuss within a friendly and supportive environment is arranged within Worcestershire, England. If you’re interested in joining us, please use the “contact us” link within the magicalgateways  pages here!  Dunstan X

Learning to listen within..

“As our Inner work and studies within the Western Mystery Tradition progress, the expectation is that in daily meditation, after Opening , routine breathing and relaxation exercises, Middle Pillar exercise etc. we will just “press the button”, and all will fall into place.  The same is true when we go to use our mobile phone – it should just work, and work anywhere at anytime, shouldn’t it?

But the Inner currents and tides along with our own body, mind and emotional cycles vary in their states and levels of energies and so it is vital to learn to listen into them and be prepared to adjust our approach and expectations accordingly, if we are not to become downhearted and if things don’t just “click” into place each time as they may normally have done!

Within the ups and downs of daily life and the seasonal variations we have on-going around us all the time, it’s important to allow time for “nurturing”, resting and relaxing when that is the message we are picking up through our Inner attunement & meditation practice. Learning to become more attuned to the Inner guidance, being centered and at peace through focussed meditation is like a state of extra sensory perception which has its own idea of time and place and how it’s going to work, or not. Through daily meditation practice, refining the techniques, as with Ritual Magic training too, we become more attuned to the ebb and flow of the seasonal and cosmic tides and this helps greatly to create an approach that will most likely help and give productive results and greater understanding of ourselves and the world around. The celebration of the Equinoxes and Festival days help likewise to take stock of where we are on our journeys and within the physical world, whilst marking and giving thanks for the specialness of life and the companionship of fellow travellers met along the way.

This is all part of the quiet but steadfast approach required if we seek to progress our personal and individual evolution and exploration along the paths of the Western Mystery Tradition and in Service to the Light. Here, our ongoing quest and exploration through the twists and turns of daily life whilst in incarnation within the wonderment of planet Earth, sees  gradual refinement of ourselves, revealing the gold of our very own alchemical transformation.