Magickal Systems as Adaptive Tools
In reading Pema Chodron's book "No Exit", Pema, a Buddist, spoke of one of her teachers who proposed a simple outlook:
1)View yourself always in a sacred space
2)Everything that enters that space is going to teach you something. Even if it's awful.
2a) You might as well take the attitude in #2 because whatever shows up probably isn't going away anyway.
It struck me that this mindset actually reminded me of a lot of the mentality created by the assertive use of a magical symbol/organizational system, such as the eight trigrams or the Tree of Life. A constent sense of context, of things-in-their-place, provides the ability to classify and learn from events and occurances, even horrible ones.
In Chodron's case, she noted the stress-releiving qualities of her "teacher" mindset. This made me wonder if any of the magical mindsets appeared to reduce stress.
I myself am experimenting with using the Chinese concepts of yin/yang and the eight trigrams, "stepping inside" them for about six months. I have found that this mindset, a sense of organization, really does help me understand things and reduce stress. It gives context and interpretation.
Any thoughts?
1)View yourself always in a sacred space
2)Everything that enters that space is going to teach you something. Even if it's awful.
2a) You might as well take the attitude in #2 because whatever shows up probably isn't going away anyway.
It struck me that this mindset actually reminded me of a lot of the mentality created by the assertive use of a magical symbol/organizational system, such as the eight trigrams or the Tree of Life. A constent sense of context, of things-in-their-place, provides the ability to classify and learn from events and occurances, even horrible ones.
In Chodron's case, she noted the stress-releiving qualities of her "teacher" mindset. This made me wonder if any of the magical mindsets appeared to reduce stress.
I myself am experimenting with using the Chinese concepts of yin/yang and the eight trigrams, "stepping inside" them for about six months. I have found that this mindset, a sense of organization, really does help me understand things and reduce stress. It gives context and interpretation.
Any thoughts?
