I just received the email sent out to pilgrims of the CAW Eleusinian Mysteries. It was good to get it and be sure that things were happening at that end. However, I am concerned about the physical aspects of it: 1.5 mile hike up hill to get to the site of the Mysteries, a walk down a narrow, wet stairs into a cave. It sounds exciting unless, of course, you have knee problems that could be aggravated by the hike and difficulty with stairs. Often it hurts quite a bit to go up or down stairs, which makes my footing a little less than stable. This is something I want to do and I Will to do it. And I will probably continue to have niggling worries about whether my physical problems will override the transformative aspects of the experience.
And then there are all the mundane worries about packing and what to take and being too cold, or losing luggage and getting there without sleeping bag and tent, what to take for food, etc. If I were driving I wouldn't worry so much as I could mostly take whatever I wanted but I haven't flown out to a festival before.
This is actually an example of a certain type of psychological orientation where one expects that things will not work out well and therefore all the possible things that could go wrong have to be thought of and then countered. For some it is a strong motivator to get the situation organized. And in studies this kind of "negative" thinking does NOT lead to a worse outcome than positive thinking. But it can be a bit wearing. I think I am somewhat like that but usually once I have worked everything out to the best of my ability and actually launched on the project (i.e., in the car on the way, at the airport, etc.) and there isn't anything else I can do at that point then I usually can let go and put it in the hand of the fates, Goddess, or the magick. It just takes all the preparation to get to that point.
Actually thinking about it just now it seems to me to be a good example of how to do magick anyway. One does all the necessary things on the physical plane, which helps provide the channels for the magick to work. One does the magick. Without the physical plane grounding, without taking some action in manifesting the magick, it would be quite rare for much result. Not to say it couldn't happen and certainly I have known of times when there was an effect with no physical action but more often the magick works with the action. When someone is looking for a job they can do magick and sit home and wait for their phone to ring or they can put their resume out in some manner, call places from the newspaper or jobsites, list with the head hunters, etc. This gives many avenues for the magick to manifest.
I know people too who put out what they want to happen, say they are going to do, planning on, would like to see happen, and they do this as a magickal act. Yet they don't take action on it, do the work, etc. Instead they try and get others to get involved in making it happen and are disappointed when others have their own plans, their own projects, their own magick that they are working on. Then they are disappointed, or feel personally rejected that others didn't stop what they were doing, or change their own plans to accommodate the other's needs. What do you do when you have someone like that, who can not see their own part in the problem, who projects it all out on to everyone else? Ah well.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind