The primary reason I was able to make it through my latest cycle of darkness is because of my unyielding commitment to freedom. The glimmer of that was present to some degree even in my darkest most painful moments and provided a small gateway for an expanded consciousness to shine through. That expanded consciousness is what we truly are and it is completely free of any pain or difficulty. You only have to taste it once to know its reality and then you cannot help but walk the path of freedom. What I found in going through my pain was that I have continued to exist in a backwards way. Focusing on and reacting to things in my environment such as people, money and situations. What I know from my occult training however is that we must focus internally in order to live an empowered, creative fulfilled life. We must attend to our state of mind instead of reacting to what is happening externally. When we focus externally we have no control over what happens and we get torn every which way in the chaos of a life out of control. If we focus our attention internally and become clear on what we want and use our imagination to build a mental vision of what we want we make it a reality right now. Then the external world can reflect it back to us if we realize that we attract what we hold in our mind and attention. We then become creators instead of reactionaries and it feels much better to be a creator let me tell you. When you are clear on what you want you can also discriminate so you don’t waste your energy on things that don’t truly serve you.

What blocks most people is either lack of understanding of how we create our experience or inability to do what it takes to create due to emotional and psychological wounds and pain that eat up their energy. The good news though is that no matter how painful your unhealed wounds are or how inescapable your habitual patterns may seem they contain the key to your freedom. This is a truth of Ageless Wisdom, our pain is the path to freedom. So if we truly want to be free and fulfilled we must stop avoiding what is asking for our attention within. The courage of a warrior is required to turn within and confront our darkness so we can see how we create it and also see the gift of freedom just beneath the pain. A great deal of mental discipline is required to transform our old patterns and conditioning because we have to see how we continually recreate those patterns by our thoughts and actions and take full responsibility for it. When we see that however we begin to have a choice to think and act differently, more in alignment with what we truly want to create. If we’re committed to this process there are a great many tools to help us transform our lives so that we can live as unique creative expressions of the life power as we are meant to be. Letting go of our old patterns requires that we trust a deeper source of guidance for the course of life and that we learn to live in the unknown because ultimately life is unknown and limitless. The unknown can be the most fearful thing we can face but it is abundance itself, in the unknown the possibilities are limitless and through focused intention we can crystalize what we want into form without knowing how its going to happen. Being relieved of the burden of figuring our how to make our dreams come true is an incredible thing to be free of!

So I want to say that whatever you are going through you can use it to achieve greater freedom if your focus is freedom. Go easy on yourselves and don’t be afraid to reach out for support when you need it. We’re not in this alone even though it may seem that way at times. Ask spirit or whatever label you use for guidance and support and be open to receiving it and you most certainly will if you let go of how it needs to look. I think community and real heart based relationships are more important than ever right now so lets reach out and be there for each other and in the process create a new more loving more nurturing world……..

We are living in exciting times, change is happening all around us in major ways. One of the biggest changes I see happening is the demise of the patriarchy and the rise of the power of women and the feminine. The world age that is coming to an end now has had as a major component the subjugation of women and the denial and repression of the feminine, something which has brought our world to the brink of destruction. Fortunately all things happen in cycles and the universe has a self correcting intelligence which over time sets imbalances aright. We’ve only to look around us to see that women are taking their power back and rising up and demanding freedom. Not only that but they are entering more positions of power and leadership, well actually taking the lead over men in many ways including new college degrees, management positions and starting new businesses. The power of the Feminine is rising, it can no longer be suppressed. (see Women in the new Paradigm)

Speaking of that self correcting aspect of the universe which is sometimes called the Law of Rhythm in occult circles, it tends to correct imbalances as far back in the other direction as needed. So if we’ve seen men dominate women and leadership of the world for the last few thousand years it stands to reason to me that we are headed for a world with Women in the lead for quite some time to come (as was the case prior to the patriarchy). You cannot have things be so extremely out of balance in one direction and simply come back to the middle and find balance, the pendulum must swing past the middle in the other direction. So what I’m getting at here is that I see women not just rising up but eventually taking the lead in most aspects of life and society while men take on more of a supporting role.

What this will look like is anyones guess and it can be imagined into from many points of view but what I’m concerned with here is relationship. Alternative relationship styles are coming more into the mainstream including same sex models, models of open relationship, BDSM and alternative power dynamics. Both women and men are questioning stereotypical gender roles and societal position. This is a good thing because the traditional relationship styles don’t fit many people and create all sorts of difficulties (which I see a lot of as a couples counselor) if we try and make them work when they don’t, more options are needed. One alternative relationship style that I practice is what I call Goddess Based Relationship (GBR). We’ve had male or masculine lead relationship as part of the patriarchy for centuries so a part of the new cycle could likely include relationship styles in which the feminine is in the lead and women guide the relationship. This has become my preferred or rather natural relationship style.

Goddess based relationship is an approach to relationship where the feminine is the leading or guiding force and the masculine is in a supporting or serving role. In my way of looking at it, GBR has several key components including worship, surrender and mutual devotion to the Goddess or Divine Feminine. This has both an inner component of each person being grounded in and guided by the feminine within, and an outer component of the woman being in the leading role. One criticism of this as well as BDSM based relationship styles is that it is not an equal power dynamic. Equality is an ideal which in my opinion does not actually exist in practice in relationship, rather relationship functions based on polarity and uneven dynamics and exchanges of power. Equality tends to be satisfied on a higher level when two people in a relationship are living authentically and making a mutual choice to engage a particular dynamic together. Its very natural for one partner to be more dominant and one more submissive and when that works well it can create a very harmonious connection. This type of relationship offers one way to create a polarity between feminine and masculine for those so inclined but it does require both parties to be empowered and living authentically for it to be healthy. In no way is any of this meant to imply disempowerment or emasculation for men because its from the grounding in the feminine that the true masculine power emerges. As a man who has walked a warrior path all his life, I find that I am able to embody the masculine much more stably, powerfully and constructively under the guidance of the feminine.

One of the key aspects of GBR from my point of view and something I practice in all my relationships with women is worship. I worship women. The word worship is very much misunderstood and misused which is unfortunate because its a very powerful word. My use of it here means to hold sacred and to adore and also to relate to someone in their highest form. To worship women for me means to see them as sacred beings who are manifestations of the Goddess or Divine Feminine. It means to be in awe of their awesome beauty, deep wisdom and incredible power. It means never taking them for granted but instead seeing it as a privilege to be in relationship with them. Relating through worship helps keep a relationship fresh, alive and meaningful.

Relating to a woman through worship can only be done by someone who is in their own power and truth, it cannot be done by a person who is needy, dependent or disempowered. You can only see someone in their highest form if you are in touch with your own. Unfortunately worship often degenerates into idolizing or putting someone on a pedestal. If you see the person being worshiped as better than you then the relationship will likely be out of balance because you are degrading your self worth. From your disempowered place you will project an ideal onto the object of worship, an ideal they will not be able to live up to because its your projection. You will also not truly see the person because you will see them through your idealized projection. This is not worship, its called attachment and it leads ultimately to the demise of the relationship.

Another aspect of GBR for me is surrender. That is fully honoring women for their unique wisdom and intuition and allowing myself to be guided by it and supporting it. I find women to be natural leaders who see life and the world from a bit more of a holistic perspective than men tend to. Women’s life giving power directly connects them with the vital force of the universe and if they are in touch with this relationship they can use it to create magnificent works. GBR is really an external reflection of the shift I see happening individually as we enter a new world age. That shift involves recognizing the feminine within each of us as the ground of our being and wisdom and surrendering to it as the guiding force of our life.

If a man relates to a woman through worship and surrenders to her wisdom and guidance a very intimate powerful type of connection becomes possible. The gift in this for men is a true initiation into the mysteries of the feminine. As men we need to first connect with the feminine or Goddess within and then from there we can connect with women as the external manifestation of the Goddess. Through surrender, emotional intimacy and physical sexuality we can reach a place of direct union with the Goddess. Through mutual respect and clear communication we can work as a team based in feminine wisdom empowering properly directed and constructive masculine action.

As the energies of transformation continue to intensify many old patterns are being illuminated both personally and collectively. One very powerful pattern is our relationship with and expression of our sexuality. Alternative lifestyles are becoming more accepted, LGBTQ people are demanding equal rights and achieving them and people are questioning and rethinking things like gender and sexual expression. However I personally feel that the realm of sexuality is still something that needs to be greatly upleveled and healed if we are to realize any real degree of personal and collective transformation and freedom.

The energy behind our sexuality and what we tap into during sex is the single most powerful force we will ever encounter or have at our disposal as human beings. In occult contexts its called the Mars force or the Scorpio force or the Serpent Power (Kundalini). This force is the specialized manifestation of the Life Power of the universe in the human organism. It is the ultimate creative power having the power to create life itself. It is also something we have the power to control if we are capable of doing so. The problem in our society is this power is incredibly misunderstood and horribly misused. As a counselor I see over and over again the pain and trauma people have around their sexuality. Even though it is a life giving force, sexual energy when misused can be an active means of self destruction, distraction and addiction.

There are two things that have really caught my attention in terms of the abuse of sexual energy. One is lack of discrimination in choosing sexual partners and an excessive frequency of orgasm. The majority of people don’t realize what actually takes place during sexual union on an energetic level. We can easily be deceived by appearances that sex is casual and is just a physical thing, no big deal. But when we have sex with another person the energy channels of our body and theirs become interconnected and there is an exchange of energy on multiple levels. There is no such thing as casual sex on an energetic level. This connection does not end after sex is finished, it can linger on some levels for days and weeks afterwards. Even if we’re just having a casual encounter with someone, if we have sex with them, we take on their energy, literally. Not just their sexual energy but their emotional energy, thought forms and other energies that the person may be carrying which they picked up from external sources. Its not uncommon for people to experience illness, fatigue, depression, anxiety and other issues after having sex. We can pick up things from people in this way that can impact us significantly and take a great deal of time to be free of. The point I’m making here is understanding how significant it is to choose who we have sex with intentionally and wisely. We need to ask ourselves if we really want to take on a particular persons energy, if we really want to unite ourselves with that person.

The other potentially destructive use of sexuality I see is in an excessive frequency of orgasm. Sexual energy is the very force that sustains our body, it is our very vitality. In the west, sex has become obsessively connected to the orgasm and for many people sex is not complete or fulfilling unless there has been one or more orgasms. Orgasms are magical incredible experiences but if we need to have them too frequently we are dissipating an enormous amount of energy which can lead to consequences in terms of health and emotional well being. Its possible to have an incredible degree of sexual pleasure without having an orgasm and in this way sexual energy is enjoyed but our vital energy is not wasted. Dissipating too much of this energy actually shortens our lifespan significantly and its understood in occult circles that human beings can live much much longer lifespans than is currently the case.

I’m not intending to suggest that orgasm itself is a waste of energy. If its engaged in with moderation, intention and with an appropriate partner it can bring us to an ecstatic state and even spiritual union. The point with all this is that our sexual energy is powerful and being powerful it has great potential for creation as well as destruction. In Western Occultism, it is said that if one wants to awaken and develop the ability to fully create a fulfilled life sexual energy must be mastered and directed intentionally. It must be redirected and used to help break us free of our limitations. In Tarot this is represented by Key 8, Strength. Here the woman represents our subconscious mind and the lion sexual energy or kundalini. Subconsciousness here has the energy under directed control and so can use it in its full force for any creative endeavor. However to do this we must purify our desires so we no longer waste and abuse this sacred power. It is something for us to enjoy and the truth is that in purifying our desires the degree of sexual pleasure that awaits us is very far beyond what the ordinary human being has ever experienced. Sex in our repressed culture is but a pale shadow of what is possible for us. This is the awakened serpent power freely flowing in the directions of our creative pursuits and remaking our world with love and interconnectedness. With the full force of our serpent power behind us our creative acts become nothing short of miraculous!

The cure or resolution of the materialistic delusion is an expansion of consciousness and a deepening of perception. The great irony is that the figure of the Devil is really the Divine or Spirit as it appears to the deluded mind. When we have a view of life that only perceives the surface we are cut off from our true nature, we are cut off from meaning, and from our innate power. This creates a profound illness, powerlessness and fear and since we cannot actually deny Spirit it is projected externally and seen as evil. We then wage a never ending battle against the archetypal “Adversary”, never ending because we are fighting the power of the universe itself. Spirit is reacted to with fear and terror when it is our very own power which used aright allows us to co-create our reality as Gods and Goddesses walking the Earth.

The Devil also represents our own habitual patterns and stuckness. Life is an active never ending creative process. We imagine what we want and create it but then we must let go and allow those creations to eventually dissolve so that we can begin the process anew. If instead of letting go we grasp at what we’ve created and try to hold onto it, our beautiful creations take on the look of this Tarot key and hell is created. When creative energy stagnates it becomes poison because it is naturally fluid. The Devil in Tarot is associated with the planet Saturn which symbolizes limitation, limitation is a necessary component of creation because to create we need to limit the primal substance into the forms we wish using our imagination (and subsequent action). But when limitation is taken to its extreme, that is when we become attached to our creations, it becomes bondage and takes on a terrifying appearance.

The good news is that the Devil is also our key to liberation because ultimately our bondage or suffering contains the way and the motivation to freedom. When we become aware of our habitual patterns and what we project externally we can use the suffering and pain of that to spur us into action to free ourselves. The more fearful, the more stuck and the more limited we feel the more energy is available to use to liberate us. The initial key to liberation is a shift in perspective, having a degree of detachment or awareness so we can begin to see deeper into our suffering. That process of seeing if turned into a consistent practice will ALWAYS transform our suffering and liberate the creative energy stored within it, if we have the courage to persist. One very helpful tool in this process is laughter or mirth. Deep suffering, depression and addiction tends to have the characteristic of extreme seriousness, taking things way too seriously which is the result of mistaking appearances for reality. When we can laugh at the world situation, laugh at our suffering, laugh at ourselves we create some space to see things differently and we open a channel to our deeper joyous nature. Laughter is truly a medicine. It is said that when you laugh at the Devil, he and all his angels flee and his works are destroyed. He really needs to be taken seriously to exist!

The cycle or age we are entering could be represented in terms of Tarot by The Lovers. If you look at The Lovers as compared to the Devil you will notice some similarities between these two images. When we perceive correctly, the Lovers depicts the true relationship between the various aspects of our being and the Divine. The Devil and the Lovers represent two different perspectives of the same thing. We have the power to choose which perspective to take and the resulting experience of life will be vastly different depending on that choice, but we must first realize that we have a choice. The challenge for us all is, first and foremost, to do whatever we personally need to do to cultivate a relationship with our true selves and ultimately to identify with that higher self as who and what we are. If we do that then the world, both inner and outer, shows its true power, beauty and limitlessness and we become what we are meant to be…..Creators!

The cross is a powerful occult symbol often used to represent a coming together of opposites and Jesus on the cross is a symbol of the final process of awakening. Carl Jung called it holding the tension of the opposites. This process results in an end to the dualistic mind by holding its seemingly opposite poles together and merging them resulting in what Jung called the transcendent function. A new level of consciousness results from this process. This is the death of the ego or rational mind as primary and from that death the rising of the expanded awareness of the awakened mind. The mind of God or Goddess. When Jesus dies on the cross his personality drops away and he is resurrected or reborn as the Christ, the Christos representing Spirit. From here he becomes the representation of the Divine which is the true nature of us all.

We can put this teaching to good use in our lives right now. So many people today are experiencing confusion and seemingly opposing parts of themselves which pull them one way and then another. Its easy to get lost in this internal battle but the Divine has set up this dualistic conflict within us to allow us to fully experience the material plane and to give us the key to freedom. As long as we identify with the conflict or identify with one extreme or the other we are trapped in a never ending tension as we swing from one pole then back to the other (the occult law of polarity). When we are able to hold the tension of the opposites by embodying both extremes simultaneously the resulting tension eventually creates a breakthrough to a higher level where the conflict ends. This is the Buddha’s middle path. This process cannot be understood by the rational mind because its a breaking free from the constraints of mind to a state of expanded consciousness.

I’ve had to put this into practice lately in many ways especially with relationship. I’ve long since struggled with an intense desire for independence and freedom while also having an equally intense desire for committed intimate relationship. These two poles seemed quite distinct and opposing and I would jump into intense relationships and then leave them craving the freedom of the single life. After a time my craving for relationship would pull me back to repeat the process all over again and this became very painful and chaotic. By holding these two extremes I was able to break through this process and merge the two poles resulting in what was for me a new relationship style of free independent yet committed relationship. Anywhere in our lives where we are struggling with opposing parts of ourselves we can apply this practice and use it to uplevel our experience. The ultimate use is breaking free of the mind itself as Jesus did.

So this easter weekend can actually be a teaching even if we’re not christians and won’t be going on an easter egg hunt.

I’ve always wondered why the hell life didn’t come with an owners manual or a least a damn FAQ! I mean it would be so much easier wouldn’t it? We wouldn’t have to spend years searching for fulfillment, love, enlightenment and all the other crap we can’t seem to quite get a hold of. We could just follow the directions and live happily ever after yes? Well no, and it would suck if that were the case anyway because I guess the process or the journey is important but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a nightmare at times. But who wants a predictable monotonous life anyway, right?

The nightmare that is prominent in this phase of my life has been the oh so innocuous question: What do you want? Sounds like an innocent and even fun question doesn’t it? Well its not, its a mantra from hell! Ok I’m being dramatic but they did decide to make that question the very first topic of the first lesson of the first course on western occultism I ever studied. Then they said don’t waste your time going any further until you can answer it because its critically important to have a direction. Well I sat there stumped and frustrated for weeks with that one and then jotted down some ridiculous intention of making more money for lack of a better direction. Over the years I’ve wrestled with that question distilling the answers further and gradually getting it closer to a real desire which apparently I had no clue about initially, what a real desire is that is. Desire is the FORCE that drives us but many surface desires are destructive because they are based in a disconnect from life force or spirit. A purified desire is when desire is aligned or in tune with the growth oriented aspect of life and its supposed to be the key energy of awakening.

Anyway, so I was stuck trying to create material things through spiritual means not understanding that the question was meant to get one to address what they want to BE and DO in this life. The larger direction of ones life path or what do we really want to create with this life we so magically found ourselves in? Even though I’ve struggled so much with this (and I’m not going to tell you my current answer to that question because the instruction is to keep that private, between you and your higher self until its fully created), I fully resonate with the perspective that we are here in this life to be UNIQUE creative expressions of the divine or life power in form. This perspective essentially says the meaning of life is to fully be yourself, what a relief huh? BUT, to do that we can’t live a life of following the paths of others!

So how do we get in touch with what we are truly here to do? I’ve struggled with that too, I know I know I’m a struggler, it runs in the family! The instruction is almost idiotically simple and we’ve all heard it before, FOLLOW YOUR BLISS, but how many of us really accepted or even understood that? Thats what it comes down to we follow our bliss, do what brings us joy or go with our passion. Actually its not really following our bliss because that would imply that our bliss is something separate that we must follow behind, its more embodying our bliss or joy because its truly what we are so we are effectively flowing with our true power when we live that way, doing what the rest of nature does with no problem only we’re doing it consciously. Almost everyone is familiar with this to some degree. I did it from the beginning. I’ve had three careers in my life all of which I entered into because I was following a desire. The military was first, then I went back to school to study psychology and got a job in behavioral research and counseling and after that studied various forms of technology and had several jobs in that arena. But the problem was that the initial desire or passion that initiated me on these career paths ended up being smothered because in our society we are not rewarded for being unique, not most of the time anyway. We follow our passion and then we go to school and choose a course of study which limits our expression to whats acceptable in that field, what other people think. We go to get a job and our expression is limited by the selection of jobs and the rules we must follow in the course of our work. Even if we decide to be entrepreneurs and work for ourselves our expression is still limited by the need for money and to do things in such a way to ensure material success and acceptance. If we’re spiritually inclined we tend to choose a religion or system of practice and walk our path in the way that religion prescribes. Our society goes out of its way to limit unique creative expression except in a few select areas but for the average person its not encouraged, in fact its often demonized or punished.

However in my view we exist in this world to be unique creative expressions of the divine in form and we’re living in a time is history when its becoming very important that we step into that. The key word there is UNIQUE. To be ourselves and walk a path that no one else has ever walked before. This means stepping into the unknown which is terrifying at first and very challenging because we’re going where no one has gone before. How do we determine what direction that entails for us, we follow our inclinations or the things we naturally take joy in without regard for whether they are socially acceptable or whether they will bring us financial wealth. The perceived NEED for acceptance from others and a discernible flow of money are two key limiting factors to walking our own paths as is fear of the unknown. The great irony in that is that when you truly walk your own path of joyful fulfillment you are in tune with all the power of the universe so you attract everything you need along the way including the people that truly resonate with you and the resources you need to accomplish your goals, without trying. Its actually a path of least resistance and a path of unknown destinations. You know a river makes its way by flowing not struggling and the water at the top of the mountain has no idea how to get down to the valley, it doesn’t have directions. It simply flows down the path of least resistance and arrives where it needs to be, the sea or the sky. Water is a great analogy here because “water” is symbolic in occult philosophy of the root matter of the universe of which we are all made. Unfortunately, human beings more often take the path of most resistance because they don’t know how to let go and flow and they don’t trust life. We’re conditioned otherwise and this conditioning is against the natural order and because of it we suffer and live unfulfilling lives. We work, drink, smoke, fuck, eat, search, strive and compete with each other to get something which we can’t even really describe, not really.

In occult practice fully living a life of complete fulfillment is sometimes called the Great Work and its what we’re here to do. They say that the human personality or that which we usually take ourselves to be is not capable of completing or accomplishing the Great Work because it is inherently limited and its meant to be. We can only achieve it be shifting our perspective so that we no longer identify with our personality as being who and what we are and instead connect with our higher Self or that part of us which is called the I AM, the Christos, the Goddess or simply Divinity. Its often represented in the western tradition as an Angel but its the differentiated part of the divine that manifests in us and it is only by allowing ourselves to be guided by higher Self that we can reach fulfillment or complete the Great Work. Our personality then becomes the vehicle for carrying out divine Will which means we no longer have to figure out our life but we do have to give up control and its the fearful need for control that makes us so terrified of the unknown when its really our salvation. We all have access to the reservoir of wisdom, power and clarity if we are able to quiet our noisy minds long enough to Hear the still small Voice over the incessant droning of the voices in our heads. Its subtle but always there and always leads us in the direction of growth, it knows what we want and how we can achieve it but it only gives its guidance in the right NOW and only shows us the next step. If we can trust and embrace our deeper selves a whole new world dawns and we truly become Gods and Goddesses walking the earth!

The focus of these articles will be the current transformational time we find ourselves in whether you call it the end of a cycle, the beginning of a new paradigm or a shift of ages. The year 2012 is symbolic of this however I will not be focusing on the end of the Mayan calendar or the usual things associated with 2012, that has and is being well covered by other writers.

My focus will be taking a look at the world age that is ending and delving into the process of transformation on a variety of levels including the psychological, spiritual, cultural and ecological. Then presenting a vision of one possible outcome that could be the culmination of this transformative process. A part of this series will also attempt to invite and inspire readers to creatively dream into the powerful opportunity we have right now for creating a new world and reminding you of the incredible power that you each have to help shape it. Each article will focus on a particular level of transformation so that together they will paint a holistic picture of whats transpiring from my point of view.

If you enjoy any of what I’ve shared on this site and feel drawn to help me take it to the next level I welcome and appreciate your support, whether its financial or energetic. If you feel called to make a financial donation it will be used to improve this website as well as make space for the creation of these articles and eventual book, which I’d like to have out by the fall. There is a donate button on the right hand side of the website.

Thank you and may your dream be a beautiful and unique expression……

When we begin to see the insanity of this way of living it can be incredibly depressing because the conditioning is so powerful and difficult to get free from. However it can be done, the image at the beginning of this post is Key 12 from the Tarot, the Hanged Man. The inner meaning of the Tarot key symbolizes a reversal of the materialistic perspective to one that sees the truth and reality as it is. Another way of describing this Tarot key is the suspended mind. The english word ‘man’ comes from the sanskrit word ‘manas’ meaning mind. It symbolizes the quieting of the surface mind or personality and all its stories and beliefs so the true self can emerge. When this happens we can see deeper than the surface of things and into their true nature, we can connect with the heart and follow our true lifes purpose – our bliss, we can live freely in the moment connected with our power and we can become actual co-creators of our world. Once we learn to quiet the mind we can begin to hear all that this constant mental noise drowns out. What we hear is the inner voice of our heart, our innate wisdom – the voice of the universe itself. This is our true guidance and if we live by it life transforms into a magical ride into the unknown.

This is possible because we no longer have a backwards perspective. We see, as ageless wisdom has taught in all cultures since the beginning, that we create our experience and our version of the world which is mixed with everyone else’s. We create it first and foremost by the mental images we pay the most attention to in our minds, by the thoughts and feelings we spend the most time with and then secondarily by our actions which are guided by whats in our mind. We realize that to truly effect a change to our outer circumstances we cannot focus on fighting or opposing whats wrong ‘out there’. We first have to change or correct our minds. Typically if things don’t go our way we look externally and react to whats wrong, we take whats wrong externally as a statement about who and what we are. The empowered perspective shows us that we need to look at external conditions as a reflection of whats going on internally and so not react to them but use them to find the cause within and change that first. The occult principle, “as above so below” can also be stated “as within so without”.

Reversing the outward focused perspective means taking full complete responsibility for EVERYTHING in our experience. Gone is the victim mentality in any form because we acknowledge that we create our reality. Taking responsibility means we become empowered to change anything we don’t like about our experience. Responsibility = Power. If we know how to work with our minds, use mental imagery intentionally and have the courage to challenge and let go of all beliefs and thought patterns that obstruct our power we can become fulfilled human beings. True co-creators with the universe, unique expressions of the Life Power as we are meant to be. Life is then about joy and creative expression rather than surviving and trying to stay safe and secure which no one really ever achieves. The possibilities are then limitless and we are free to embrace all sorts of experiences limited only by our imagination which we see as the powerful magical tool it truly is!

The shift in cycles we’re currently experiencing has to do with a fundamental change in perspective. A dramatic shift in who we take ourselves to be and how we see life and our place in it. In the old age that is currently ending the focus was very limited to the material or external environment with very little if any awareness of how we create our own experience of it by what we do with our thoughts and attention. In my view the new cycle is about realizing our creative power and seeing how we create the collective environment we experience by where we place our attention and the perspective we choose to take. Its about being inwardly focused first and foremost and making whatever it is we want a reality within first and only then taking action. Its about clearing out the mental and emotional garbage we’ve held onto for so long so we can be free to openly experience and participate in life and not some poor excuse for it. Its about expanding and redefining our sense of self so its not so much about what I need to satisfy some desire that doesn’t even really exist.

So if we really want to take advantage of this powerful transformational energy we need to look within and see what needs to be changed there. Do you spend more time thinking about what you don’t want to happen, do you waste your creative imagination on images of a future that is dismal and depressing, is your time spent worrying and living in fear, are you repeating the same old patterns in relationships, work and personal life? These are the areas where our attention needs to go, this is where the real change needs to happen and this is the greatest challenge anyone could choose to accept, to look within and face and conquer your demons. If one accepts that challenge and has the courage and persistence to see it through your world will change no matter what happens externally. You will be free and what you have to offer to society will become a gift, a unique creative gift you and only you can offer. You will be following your bliss and doing everything you possibly can to make this world a beautiful amazing place and thats what will change the world. But if you don’t begin within, if you don’t accept that challenge everything you try to do externally will be tainted by your internal garbage and limited by your lack of real power.

The time is NOW to look within and step into truly being yourself and what you are here to be. The only other choice is to choose suffering and repeating the same old patterns and thats really no choice at all!

Now an even more practical aspect of this is that if we can see the power of awareness we can use it. In fact many occult traditions would say that is exactly what we exist as human beings to do, to direct awareness through intention to create unique forms. This is very empowering because it says that you are here in this world to be fully yourself and follow what brings you joy and create your hearts desire from that, whatever that may be. Practical occultism shows us exactly how to go about doing that by using the power of concentrated awareness or attention to create mental images of what we wish to create and give them enough attention to infuse them with the energy necessary for them to become manifest, that is take physical form. This is no miracle, we do it every day all the time, in fact your entire world has been created this way. The problem is we don’t realize it. We mistakenly believe the world to exist outside us, separately and see things as occurring by chance. This mistaken belief causes us to die before we die, to be miserable walking corpses with no idea what it means to be truly alive. But this is just conditioning and it can be overcome, we once knew reality as it is. As children we were naturally in the moment, curious about life with our creativity flowing openly. Unfortunately this was conditioned out of most of us as we learned to conform and limit ourselves. But thats ok because we can come full circle if we can start with a leap of faith and use that to propel us into the experience of awareness (our true nature) and dare to use it to become fully human. What does it mean to be human? To me it means to be an artist whose canvas is life. We live in a time when its more necessary than ever before that we wake up to our potential, in fact its an evolutionary requirement if you ask me…….