Newbie questions

[jimmyjames]

I have actually been reading a lot about lower self or shadow self that you were talking about Stukov. I have found that I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to getting to know my lower self. I think I have a lot of work to do across the board. It seems like the more I learn about magic I realize how little I really know. I found your posts very interesting and would love to know more of your style of magic. I saw that you had a ventrillo site setup and would love to chat with you about it sometime or we can discuss it here on the forum.
srvdrv93 I was pretty much on the same page as you on some of the readings of those cards. I think I just wanted to hear it from someone else as I am not sure of myself on some of the tarot meanings yet. I ordered a few books yesrterday. I have liber777, crowleys book 4, the goetia, and the golden dawn on the way. Hopefully I get them next week.

[srvdv93]

Those are some really good books you got comming your way, good selection, massive reading is in your future prediction sir. If that was your first instinct upon your tarot reading, and your gut feeling, then you are probably correct. Tarot does take a long time to learn, I'm still learning it, wouldn't say I mastered it yet.

Stukov, sorry man didn't mean to be rude, I was just adding m 2 pennies..., you sound like an interesting enough fellow...would like to know more of your practices.

[Stukov]

Those are some really good books you got comming your way, good selection, massive reading is in your future prediction sir. If that was your first instinct upon your tarot reading, and your gut feeling, then you are probably correct. Tarot does take a long time to learn, I'm still learning it, wouldn't say I mastered it yet.

Stukov, sorry man didn't mean to be rude, I was just adding m 2 pennies..., you sound like an interesting enough fellow...would like to know more of your practices.

You was not being rude, he asked for something and you chimed in with the answer.

And Jimmy, since you are getting some of the questions answered from srvdv93 that you wanted, what of my knowledge do you wish to know?

[jimmyjames]

You were talking about how you build your magic from the ground up. I wondered what you meant by that. Is it Ceremonial? Chaos? Is it a creation entirely your own? I haven't had any training and the first people I have ever really talked to about magic is here on this forum. I have always been an avid reader or probably a more accurate word would be researcher. I love to study things that I am interested in and practice them and perfect them.

[Stukov]

You were talking about how you build your magic from the ground up. I wondered what you meant by that. Is it Ceremonial? Chaos? Is it a creation entirely your own? I haven't had any training and the first people I have ever really talked to about magic is here on this forum. I have always been an avid reader or probably a more accurate word would be researcher. I love to study things that I am interested in and practice them and perfect them.

Well, the idea was that you could create your own abilities or "magic" once you strengthened yourself, far as "perfecting" that is sort of different than if you are a "researcher". I say this because, from my experience building things, you get or have to have an understand the purpose and functionality of what it is you are looking at, working on, or building. For a rough example, take chants that Native Americans use for their spiritual ceremonies. Is there a "perfect" way of doing them? Sure I'm sure you could get the chant down perfectly and it may have an effect, but then you are overlooking the purpose of the singing in the ceremony.

Functionally, music evokes emotion - emotion has power - when you are "powered up" by the music, you can do things you wouldn't normally do. You could have greater awareness, perform various abilities, or be in contact with things you are now more on the same "level" as. Then there is the aspect of classical conditioning where by doing repetitive things you evoke a state of mind or power that you had with similar stimuli. For example if you had a big giant ritual that you do, full of music, and tons of things that go in rituals (as I dont do them I can't think of anything clever to include), you could at the very end...suck on a lemon. If you did this enough times you could eventually skip the whole ritual and just suck the lemon and bam, you are in the same mindset, and begin to work.

[jimmyjames]

That is interesting. It sounds kinda like the idea of NLP. It definetly would take a building up of strong will and understanding of self to begin to develop ones own system of magic. I am working on a lot of self development to help with my magic. I am working on a better understanding of my lower self. Are there any specific techniques you use to help find ones lower self or reconize it any easier?

[Stukov]

Well, the way I use the terminology is your lower self is your nature, the animal (or demon) in you. It is the formless energy from which a raging chaotic storm surges. Then the middle self would be you in the middle, the conscious human being you are now as you reside in the middle between the lower and higher self. The higher self is which can be used two different ways, it can be used to reference to the rest of your soul/spirit or as some call, an "over-soul". The second reference, which is more in line with the higher/middle/lower visualization is you that resides "above" you, beyond the top of your head, and this part of you is very logical, cognitive, and for the most part heartless. Whereas the lower self swims in emotion.

Both references to higher self are recognized as parts of your whole spirit that is existing in a realm of greater awareness. If you imagine yourself driving around in a city with sky scrapers everywhere, you can only see the cars in front of you, and at most the stoplights, you can see great detail down on the ground, but if there is a traffic jam you can't see around buildings to know how to navigate it. In this your higher self awareness is the part of you on the tops of the sky scrapers looking down, you can see for miles around and all the streets below. You can see the best routes, because from above it is easy to see the flow of traffic, but it can't see the fine details.

Your higher self will often communicate with you either through signs in your surroundings (these are often used as external-verifiers if you use direct communication in your mind) or which most people are used to, gut feelings. There is part of "gut feelings" that is purely psychological (sub-conscious piecing together information you aren't consciously aware of and then communicating through your emotions), but the higher self can also use it.

I'm not sure what you mean by recognize it, but I wanted to put this down before I said more to make sure we are on the same page. But if we are what I will mention will be various steps including diving into your subconscious to wrestle control of the things that are "hidden" in most people, including direct access to your emotions. Just so you are aware, you don't go in there to access emotions to wipe them out - only an idiot would do that (not calling you one) - but some brain damaged individuals thought it would be cool to be like "spock", and trust me, this isn't wise. The purpose to access emotions is that you control them (meaning you choose when to feel them), but you STILL will feel them. Imagine your emotions are a fire hydrant with water always building up pressure like a geyser. You stop and plug it up all its going to do is continue to build up pressure until one day it explodes like a small nuke. Not a good idea. The idea is to direct the water, like a fire hose. Redirecting the hose at your will, but still letting the water/emotion out. If you do not control your emotions, they will control you. But more on that later.

[jimmyjames]

We are on the same page with lower, middle, and higher self. I let emotion control a lot of my actions for a lot of my life. I got into boxing and brazillian jui jitsu for a while and it gave me a great outlet for all that emotional energy in a safe enviornment. I have to many injuries now to compete anymore and have a good job so I can't afford to take the chance of getting hurt training hard. This is one of the reasons I have come to study magic. I wanted to find a better way to control my emotions yet not bottle them up. I have found meditation has been helpful and so has the relaxation ritual. The LBRP is a very big stress reliever for me as well. I want to get a better understanding of my lower self so I can start finding my higher self. I hope this makes sense as I am not the best at expressing myself through writing sometimes.