 |
|
Before I get into this topic, I will need to coin a couple of terms. It's very difficult to talk about energies and entities and their effects without conjuring up the dualistic mindset that is such a strong part of the Western mind. "White magick" and "black magick," of course, create such a host of problems that they are known by most people to be useless. Anyway, we're going to be talking mostly about energies rather than magick per se. Most people would use "positive" and "negative," which on the surface would only suggest polarity, but in my opinion we use these two words in too many contexts to use them safely. By "positive," would we mean positive in polarity--active, "yang" energy? Or would we mean "good?" Most likely we would end up confusing the two meanings, leaving us dumbfounded if our "good" energy ended up being so strong that its imbalance was actually harmful. This confusion is so innate in our thought patterns that they have infected Western use of the concepts of yin and yang as well. We could give up any thought of describing innate qualities of energy and describe it simply as "good" or "bad," but good and bad by whose standards? Is an energy you don't work well with inherently bad, or does it have a proper place in the cosmos?
Confused yet?
The terms I am going to use come from my training in music. In Western music, we describe intervals--the space between one tone and another--as being either consonant or dissonant. A consonant interval is one that sounds pleasant and stable. Unison (both tones are exactly the same) is consonant: so are thirds and fifths, the intervals you hear most often in most Western music. A dissonant interval sounds harsh: it creates tension. Not that tension is inherently bad (although medieval musicians called the most dissonant interval "the devil tritone"); you can use it for dramatic effect, because it creates a desire to move back into a consonant interval. Notice also that these terms only describe the relationship between two or more tones: an F-sharp is not an inherently evil note--its effect depends on whether you play it along with a C (very dissonant) or a D (consonant). Music is very relativist that way.
So, I'm going to describe energy as either consonant, meaning that it is in a pleasing balance with the energies around it, including yours; or dissonant, meaning that it is clashing with something or someone. No other value judgements are added. And yes, it is a very subjective way of defining energy--but then, so are all the other options; and at least this way the fact that we're being subjective is clear.
Before you can work with the natural energies around you, you have to become aware of them. The best way to practice doing this is to enter a lightly meditative state, and gently turn your attention outward WITHOUT losing your meditation. (If you're a beginner this will take some practice.) People with well-developed "astral" senses may actually see, hear, smell, feel, specific details of the energies around them and of the worlds that overlay ours. Even without that, though, you may receive intuitive impressions. For example, a long time before I could "see" energy (second sight, like first sight, was my weakest sense) I would have colors and shapes pop into my head, and these would be accurate enough, though less entertaining.
You may also develop physical responses to energy if you are in a quiet state and are paying attention. The most common places to get these feelings are around the stomach area (the term "gut reaction" had to come from somewhere!) and the forehead (third eye). A strong energy may create a feeling like a tug--or if it is dissonant with you, a jab. A more diffuse energy, or less developed senses, may result in a stomachache or headache if it is dissonant. The feeling may be accompanied by an emotional response that is not connected to any other source. A consonant energy or area will create feelings of happiness or peace, of the kind you may have felt when you have been in a very beautiful place. A dissonant energy or area will create feelings of anger, anxiety, or illness. (It bears repeating that these would be emotional responses that were NOT easily explained by other means. However, it is possible that the two would be connected--for example, a very dissonant area might create stress in people, causing them to fight, causing a plausible explanation for more stress. So also be aware of energies around you if a whole group dynamic suddenly starts to change.)
The tugging feeling might suggest to you the direction in which energy is moving in an area; or you might even feel a suggestion of currents. If you are not able to feel the direction of energy in this way or get an intuitive suggestion of it, you can use a pendulum (an object suspended by a string or chain) to help you. This is a variation of a traditional Western practice called dowsing, which was also used to help find underground streams of water.
When working with a site for the first time, unless it is an emergency, take it slowly. Sit quietly for a while, getting to know the way the local energies feel to you. When it feels right, ask, aloud or silently, if there are any local entities who would like to reveal themselves to you. Then sit quietly again and wait for a response. If you get none, don't push, but you can return and try again another day; some entities/places respond well to persistence, if you are always polite. If someone does respond, interact with them respectfully. Respectfully doesn't mean you have to treat them like gods, but neither should you assume that they are yours to command. On the whole, most entities of any sort respond well to the basics of human courtesy: be polite, listen to what they have to say, show interest in their needs, don't be pushy, and so on. Sometimes there are certain cultural differences, just as there are among humans--for example, it is more appropriate sometimes to offer a gift in exchange for a gift rather than saying "thank you"--but on the whole, if your overall approach is respectful and you are obviously a person of goodwill, such minor infringements will tend to be forgiven and corrected.
Again, unless there is an emergency situation, don't attempt any workings on a site during the first visit. You are there to get acquainted. You can further demonstrate your good will as you leave by offering a gift--cornmeal has a history of this use on American soil and is received well--or picking up trash. Making this kind of work-free visit periodically to a site establishes a good relationship. If you are working with an urban or indoor site, obviously, adapt to the situation. For cornmeal and trash pickup, you can substitute cleanup and "housewarming gifts."
On later visits, you can raise the subject of workings. To perform ritual at a site, ask your contact entities whether this would be appropriate, or think strongly about the intended ritual and then feel for any change in the "mood" of the place. If the site accepts the proposal, be sure to invite its consonant entities to attend. If limits are placed on what you can do, either respect them or go somewhere else.
To do a working ON a site, changing its energy, requires more care, particularly in an outdoor site. In urban settings and buildings, the dissonant energies you are dealing with are often human-created, or originate from spirits with a particular grudge against local humans either past or present. Occasionally urban dissonance wells up from the abused earth itself: this is often alleviated through beautification projects and decreased pollution. The situation is different in sites still in their natural state, which belong more to nonhuman entities and often have overarching "spirits" of their own which must be consulted. In these cases, it is the height of human arrogance to assume that you, however well-meaning, know what is best for a natural site better than the spirit of the site itself or the entities who live there.
Therefore, ASK before you do anything. Perform divinations; talk to the site and to neighboring sites; know whether the dissonance you feel is really an imbalance that needs to be corrected *for the good of the site itself,* or if it's just that the energy there isn't compatible with YOU personally. If it's just you, the answer is, stop going there. If there does seem to be a problem that you would like to correct, ask the site or your contact entity if your help is wanted. If the answer is no, back off. If the answer is yes, listen to any suggestions you receive. In the case of an extremely dissonant site, you may be speaking to a nearby site that is more friendly, in order to gain some sense of the history behind the problem and get suggestions that are still in harmony with the larger setting. The God/s of your choice are also a potential source of advice.
There are several general courses of action for site working, depending on the source of the dissonance. Sometimes the dissonance comes from leftover energy from dissonant human activities of the past ("hauntings"), or from the presence of beings of ill will toward other living things. These will probably call for cleansing and banishing type rituals. Sometimes the dissonance is the land's own feelings of stress, coming from environmental stresses including human activity. Here the best course is probably a protection, followed by mundane action that addresses the key issues--cleaning up pollution, planting trees, limiting human use of the land, for example. There are and have always been a handful of places that are simply not intended for humans and cannot be made friendly toward strong human presence. Leave them be, and encourage others to do the same. One example of this is a sacred stretch of land in Hawaii called "Pele's Walk," because it is the path Pele is said to take from her mountain to the sea. Pele's mountain is, of course, a volcano, and her path is the path that the lava tends to flow during eruptions. Some brilliant haule developers decided to build houses there, against the urgings of the natives. Then they wondered what to do about the small problem of houses being destroyed by lava flows.
A traditional, and apparently much loved, method of "healing" local energies involves changing their direction. The traditional method involved driving iron spikes or wooden stakes into the ground at the place where one wanted the energy to turn--I have seen it compared to acupuncture for the Earth. The modern, New Agey approach leans toward burying crystals and setting up astral dams. In my opinion this approach should be a last resort, and should only be done with the agreement and cooperation of local entities. Consider the effects of irrigation, the same principle applied to water. Sure, you get the water where you want it to go, but on the other hand, you affect a lot more area than that, and not all of it in a good way. The place you're diverting from goes dry; entire ecosystems are forced to change just so you can have a good farm on bad farmland. The same goes for diverting major flows of energy, so take the larger view into account before you do something so drastic.
A related warning goes for the currently popular sport of Veilwork, in which the Veil, envisioned as a living and semi-conscious being by many (and as soon as I say that, you should know what's coming), is thinned in order to change the dynamic between the physical and nonphysical worlds. All well and good, IF both the Veil and the site where you are thinning it are agreeable and willing to deal with the effects of your work. Ask them! And then, if all are agreed, do the bare minimum. It is much easier to go back and correct yourself by doing a little more, than by having to undo something that was too much. I have heard aspirations of "RENDING the Veil" and essentially eliminating *any* boundary between worlds that make my hair stand on end. Such talk seems to disregard the rights of the Veil, the physical world, and any beings who find perceptual limits helpful (which is most of them, in one way or another) as beings in their own right. Such attempts tend to do much more harm than good, and someone has to clean up after them if the site is not to be left much more dissonant than it started. As someone who has had to do this, and who has spoken to others who have had to do it, please believe me when I tell you that it is not easy, it is not fun, and we are not pleased to have to do it.
Basically, most of this advice comes down to the simple concept that we are not the center of the universe, and so we have to take the feelings of others into account. Hopefully your parents already impressed this basic idea on you, and we are just expanding it from humans and maybe animals to include other forms of Being.
