After Africa...
Spring Spreads One Green Lap of Flowers
by John William Waterhouse
I had started this post several times with the intent of settling into what needed to be expressed at this point on my path. I have been reflecting a lot both during my stay in Nigeria, and upon my return to Los Angeles. A lot of the core focus on my path has been striving towards balance. Not through artifice or moral high ground. There is plenty of that everywhere. More so with respect to the basic divine fabric weave of community, society, nature etc.
As someone who has had quite a bit of interest in the paranormal and increasingly the occult as it relates to the paranormal to help widen the scope quite a bit with service to other....my reflection and recent focus has been on those that walk for personal gain and those that strive to walk closer to the middle of necessity for self and others with respect to the world of the occult. In a recent uploaded podcast, "Ep. 12: Gritty Haunted Nigeria..", I interviewed one of my Nigerian friends Samuel Bassey, that helped to oversee the security detail and day to day necessities management during my visit to Lagos state. During the interview, we dove into the range of personal gain with the occult that still dominates the present culture there. He confirmed based upon his own observances of the ongoing and increasing extreme imbalance of both individuals, families, friends and the larger communities, of only doing conditional occult workings. To him, over decades of life in Nigeria, he saw no difference between benign occult workings to carve out an easier path of day-to-day living, or to attack, take out, or bind another person or groups of people. The results always seemed to be the same...short term gain, yet the magic and/or involved beings, deities etc always eventually took something in return outside of the individual's control in the long run, and it usually had a devastating impact.
Between occult workings for the self, or cursing others as I am learning little by little...there seems to be very little general knowledge, or even access to the knowledge of the mechanics or tinkering with fate and its subsequent impact behind the front shingle of following the prescribed spell or ritual - that is if it actually works. In reference to tinkering with fate, I myself experienced this phenomenon directly some many years ago when I applied for a job that I really wanted. I was so focused on shifting my fate pattern in the direction to get hired by a specific company...and I did (one could say it was chance, who knew what their actual hiring criteria was?). I had a sense though it mostly likely was the former.
I was so excited about getting hired, and couldn't wait to dive into the work. However once I settled into the job, I started to realize that it was the very opposite of what I anticipated my experience to be. It actually was the worst employment I had ever experienced, and not too long after I quit, the company went belly up with the owner high-tailing it to a completely different continent as I would find out some years later. So it was a deeply personal lesson, that when one is trying to shortcut fate for personal gain, quite often we don't stop to think whether we should, or whether it will ultimately be the best way to move forward with our circumstances and personal evolution. Not that I am against trying to make things go my way, who wouldn't? It is human instinct in the most primitive part of the brain to hedge survival and making tending to necessities easier. However, it also presumes I KNOW all the intricate ways it will alter my fate path, which I do not (also see primitive part of the brain). There are ways to widen the scope a bit...natural developed ability, forms of divination and more. Yet still, having the essence of a soul shoved in a human body kind of limits the perspective quite a bit.
From a standpoint of cursing others..there is such a vast range of methods. From folk magic to really intricate ritual workings and natural ability...still here too, is often a complete lack of consideration with the implications of how messing with the fate lines of others might have blowback on the person doing the cursing, and impact beyond the cursed person or people themselves in general. So for these reasons...I try to avoid conditional occult workings as much as I can until I can learn how to approach from an unconditional balanced place in service.
There is another area of the occult I am much more deeply drawn to though. It is the mystical-infused occult which doesn't get enough light of day as our societies continue to decline. This is a path that I have been seeking subconsciously for many years, which is centered in endeavoring to assist unconditionally to the earth, nature and the divine creatures, human communities, greater global civilization, and the vast range of beings both 3D and non, as part of the paranormal spectrum that IS our multi-dimensional reality. Over the years as I was seeking this path, quite honestly I didn't know what it was called or where to look for it. I just kept feeling for it and seeking any clue I could find.
As I keep putting one foot in front of the other here with my time on Earth, I know that as one person I cannot rebalance it all, yet I can endeavor to do my part for the time I am here. I am relearning how to do this (I ascribe to the belief of reincarnation)...and it extends way beyond treating the environment better. We often see flashes of these ways everywhere we look, listen and feel if we are paying attention. One of the better ones that comes to mind that has been rattling around the modern zeitgeist for a while still very much holds true (I believe)..and that is literally, "Be the change you wish to see." It seems like a cliché benign platitude. But if you really try to walk the walk for a week...you will immediately notice it is not so easy. It requires constant focus and presence. Can't go on auto pilot with this one...it all has to be front and center all the time.
A more focused general approach I am learning about and endeavoring to do is intentioning to walk forward each day in balance to myself, everyone, and everything around me. Not the new age, all is light and love stuff - but literal balance of necessity. My ego is taking a constant beating with this one. Time for another cup of coffee...
~Amy Beauchamp