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The expectation of perfect control over self or circumstances ruins spiritual health and blocks one’s most precious goals. Finding power and peace in the uncontrollable nature of life is my shamanic ideal and the magical road toward achieving my heartfelt dreams.

A common response to someone considered a spiritual master is placing them on a pedestal from which they can only fall. This attitude enforces unhealthy hierarchy and is based on the idea that some people are better than others.

Another typical response to the concept of spiritual masters is embodied in the phrase "If you see Buddha on the road, kill him." This seems to refute hierarchy and false superiority by creating egalitarianism. But the metaphor of killing Buddha misses the boat as a remedy because I can't imagine a spiritual master buying into hierarchy and superiority in the first place. I believe an advanced being would teach that all humans, themselves included, are spiritually frail and limited. A spiritual master would not put her or himself above others.

 I'm having my own private Stevie Wonder festival. 

When I'm giving clients shamanic treatments (click here for info about them), I might listen to his music. It is so happy that it makes my spirit soar, which feeds my magic. 

Or, when I'm doing physical therapy exercises, the sheer joy in Stevie Wonder's music loosens my muscles and joints, so the physical therapy is all the more effective. 

Trust Yourself

Experiencing a Myth Gives You Power

When we actually experience a myth, we find power to radically change our lives for the better. Trusting yourself—your instincts, observations, hunches, and musings—is a doorway into mythic realms, making myths not just ideas or stories in the intellect but also visceral experiences.

I had a wonderful incident about self-trust and living in myth. It made me so happy that I just have to tell you about it. It also is an example of what I mean by "experiencing myth."

I really enjoyed watching a movie called Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons ... until its end. It's a fun, comedic takeoff on finding enlightenment and has a good message ... until its end. There it was: the gender oppression. 

The plot: two demon hunters are in love with each other, but the male refuses the woman's love because he's trying to find enlightenment and believes that there is great love and small love. When she dies, his remorse brings him to enlightenment, and he realize that there is no "great and small love."

I am sick of plots in which a woman dies in order for a man to become enlightened. Or plots in which her death gives him the apparently requisite rage to finally conquer his enemy—who, of course, killed her.

Women's lives are not props for a man's story or his victory. A woman's death should mean more than its relationship to a man. Think for a moment about the results of a woman's death constantly portrayed in films as having no importance beyond its impact on a man.

Summary: in my depths, I find wild, regal self-possession: Queen and Goddess. She knows the answer is always love.

I've vaguely sensed something subconscious blocking forward movement toward a few vital goals, despite my wholehearted efforts to attain said goals. Yet I also intuited this undefinable part of me is a prime, healthy motivator in my life. The intention of the trance is to gain conscious access to this subterranean aspect of myself. In other words, I want to consciously know, explore, heal, and empower this part of me.

Trance:

Diving into the softest waters of my subconscious—most fluid depths—where no censors halt primal womanhood, I'm only momentarily surprised to find the lady. 

Whatever difficulties occur in my life, tragic or minor, I can get too caught up in them, so I need a haven.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting anyone bury their head in the sand about awful facts, forsake people whom those terrible facts impact, refrain from action to keep one's situation from worsening, or ignore difficult feelings. I am saying I can dwell on awful situations to the degree it hurts my mental, physical, psychic, and spiritual health really seriously. I need an inner haven to maintain well-being. 

So I try to focus on the moment, which is where I find the Goddess, Her power, and Her care for me. The present moment is where I can find peace, beauty, magic, and laughter—laughter even amidst tragedy.

Tell Pagan God Santa your wishes at http://www.outlawbunny.com/2015/12/02/wishes-to-pagan-santa/