THE POWER OF THOUGHTS, WORDS, THE SUBCONSCIOUS AND IMAGINATION #2

WORDS

Words can limit. Symbols, images, poetry, ritual, song, music and art can be more powerful than words alone. They allow us to go where the mind cannot take us. 

If you perceive uncertainty or a need, let the words simply acknowledge and nourish. 
If they do not inform, inspire, give comfort or bring laughter, do not use them.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”  Psalms

Everything begins with the thought and the word. “In the beginning was the word…” John 

“The thought manifests as the word.
The word manifests as the deed.
The deed develops into habit and habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care and let it spring from love, born out of concern for all beings.”  The Buddha

The way we think and speak will affect how we form and realize our intentions and how we color our subconscious' imaginative potential. A thought is one thing but once expressed in words, body language or anything else it becomes more powerful - harmful or beneficial to ourselves or others. When expressed positively or negatively in song (for instance offensive Heavy Metal music or  Rap) they can be more powerful. 

 

“What we speak becomes the house we live in.” Hafiz

 

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. 
Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” 

M. Gandhi

 

The words we use in prayer are also key. Frequently prayer is supplication rather than expressing one’s gratitude. If we are going to make requests of the Field, our guides or the great Spirit we should ensure it is either directly or indirectly for the greater good of others rather than for only our-selves (as in little self.) The request should also benefit others. If the request is granted we then need to express gratitude in some way.

 

Words have great power.
They acknowledge, affirm and inspire.
They strengthen, heal and comfort.
They express intention, love and gratitude.
They are messengers of laughter.

 

When using words, choose them well. Never use them as a weapon to harm or as an alienating defense but rather for explanation and instruction.

Kind words can be at the heart of the placebo response, harsh, unkind ones, the nocebo response which can dispel hope.

 

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 

 

“Today I bent the truth to be kind and I have no regret, for I am more sure of what is kind than I am of what is true.” 

Robert Brault

Sometimes others are ill prepared to have to hear the truth so we should consider Socrates' question ...

"Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" Socrates

 

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant 

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind”

E. Dickenson

 

Especially when it comes to our loved ones … Of love be a little more careful.

 

“It is not that we are reticent to speak…it is rather that we choose not to unless we can improve on silence.”

 Old Proverb of Maine woodsmen

 

 “The things you say make you rich. Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing the things you do not need to hear, dulls your hearing. And the things you know before you hear them, those are you and why you are in the world.” 

William Stafford

 

“Wise people do not speak in the presence of those who are wiser than they are. They do not interrupt their friend’s words. They do not reply in haste. They ask what is relevant, they answer to the point. They reply to questions in orderly sequence. Of what they have not heard or understood, they say they have not heard. They admit to the truth.” Arichat Sefatayim

I am always struck by TV anchors and others who have the gift of filling a time slot with words that are disguised to repeat something over and over again but somehow sound different. 

 

 “You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; and when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips; and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of the talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.
K. Gibran

God’s breath is heard in quietness and  felt in stillness. Beware the noises and clamor of ego which drown out the Divine whisper.

“Guard your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” Psalms

"Do not judge a person until you have walked a mile in his moccasins." Native American Proverb

 

Our words can also create harm when we gossip or more especially slander others. Buddhist teaching tell us not to say anything unless we know it to be completely true. Often we do not know the whole story behind unskillful behavior. This teaching goes one step further.

 

Do not spread a bad image of anyone or any group, even if true, or to the person himself. Do not share information that can cause harm. Do not embarrass even in jest. Do not pretend that innuendo or body language is not speech. Do not gossip or listen to gossip.”

Chofetz Chain

The Talmud teaches that when we slander we "kill" three people; the one who says it, the one who listens and the subject of the slander. 

Hence its best not to listen or walk away from those who engage in harmful gossip.

 

 

 

THE POWER OF THOUGHTS, WORDS, THE SUBCONSCIOUS AND IMAGINATION #1

 

THOUGHTS

The mind controls the heart. 

The mind must mind what the mind minds best. 

Use the mind, do not let the mind use you.

It is always best that we think from Spacious (Big) mind or our higher consciousness rather than from Narrow (Monkey) Mind, unless we are in survival mode.

“I think therefore I am.” Descartes

 

The only way to control Monkey Mind is with some form of meditation. One cannot "think" one's way out of it. Narrow Mind resides in our primitive brains, Spacious Mind in out Prefrontal lobes. Advanced practitioners default to the Prefrontal lobe on F.M.R.I. studies - most of us, however, to our primitive brains - especially under stress.

The thoughts we think are what dominate our life.
We must conjure with care, both the care as in carefully and care as in caringly…

 

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” 

Marcus Antonius

 “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”

Marcus Aurelius 

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford

 

Monkey mind usually dominates unless we do spiritual practice. It can also generate our unskillful, primitive emotions and thoughts (anger, hate, malice, our desires, compulsions, habits and addictions.) We need to wish others well and good things will return to us. (The Law of Attraction.)

Our thoughts create our words and our intentions as well as program our subconscious for positive or negative outcomes. We usually act out what resides in our subconscious minds, rather than what we intend with our conscious minds.

 

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.” Michelangelo

Beware of the subversiveness of doubt and the reticence of rhetoric.

 

Optimists have different words they use, that reflect what they think and feel, as do pessimists. The pessimists are more likely to be correct because of their cynicism but the optimists get more done. The pessimist may also be creating his/her reality by negating the Law of Attraction. 

Seligman the father of Positive Psychology found that optimistic people were happier, healthier, more productive and enjoyed life more than those that were pessimistic. Pessimistic folks were also more likely to be depressed and anxious. He also showed that optimism could be taught with various exercises.

“The optimist, by his superior wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven and in the degree he makes his own heaven, is he helping to make one for all the world beside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own hell and in the degree that he makes his own hell, is he helping to make one for all mankind.” Ralph Waldo Trine 

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill

  

However, the shadow side of the optimist is having totally unrealistic expectations about one’s abilities. 

Praise that is designed to help create a positive, optimistic attitude when not associated with worth can lead to a tricky downhill path.

The self-esteem movement started in California in the 60's was a failure. Rather than improving performance in children it enabled them and encouraged narcissism. Many performed worse, rather than better and there was a subsequent increased rate of negative emotions, depression and even suicide. 

Self-compassion should not mean self-enabling or being enabled by parents or others. Self-worth is not the same as self-esteem which relates to the ego, persona and “self-cherishing” and tends towards self-enabling and even narcissism. An unconditional positive regard for our true Self reduces anxiety and depression and increases happiness, optimism, positive emotions, and self-worth. We are all worthy being made in the image of the Creator. 

“Tis nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare

Invincible means one cannot be beaten, and invulnerable, that one cannot be harmed. The optimist may know that s/he is not invincible but they do not submit to defeat when the going gets tough. They pick themselves up and try again. The pessimists believe they are anything but invincible and sometimes use their vulnerability as an excuse to bow out so they do not have to fail. 

Outward Bound used outdoor challenges and categorized their student into two groups i.e. those that were performance oriented versus those who were learning oriented. The performance-oriented participants liked to engage in the activities where they could do well and look good and avoided those where they were less adept and more likely to fail. The learning-oriented students did not care if they failed – they tried and tried again until they succeeded. At the end of the Outward Bound adventure the learning oriented had accomplished more.

“… I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan

 

 

 

What  Southern African and other Indigenous Wisdoms 

have to Offer the West # 7

Ritual is more powerful than prayer alone and can become a "container" or a "vessel" for amplifying our requests - both for receiving, as well as for giving gratitude for what has been received. Ritual also has an effect on our subconscious and will be more indelibly imprinted in our limbic system than prayer. 

Rituals in any form can be containers for a healing outcome.

Sound and incense repel tricksters and dark forces (both within and without.) They cannot withstand the high vibration of sacred sound and or incense. Smudging can be considered a spiritual shower.

Chanting when using incense will release the spirit of the plant and strengthen the effect. 

Immersion in water infused with sacred plants is a message, a password or informed consent to the spirit world asking for help. We need to ask to receive because of the cosmic law of free will and be very specific in our requests. 

Community creates Coherence providing everyone involved has a  positive intent. Even a few participants can be a bigger container for propagating the intention of the ritual to the Field. Sometimes "it take a village."

Knowledge of Plants

The Growing Beings are of the Water Element

If we want to learn from the plants we have to "listen" to them - listen with all the senses including smell, touch, and if safe, also taste. We need to ask them how they can be of assistance. 

Being of the breath of God, all creation is responsive to love, gratitude and petition.

Each as it is acknowledged becomes receptive to giving and receiving. That is how we experience the other.

Sacred plants are there to help us but they also have to be honored and respected. Only what is needed should be taken for the task at hand and one should show gratitude in some way when harvesting - for instance - a little water to enliven them, since they enliven us. 

Certain plants hold more power than others especially if they have aroma and when dried create incense. There are certain universals that we can learn from indigenous peoples concerning those plants of power.

“God says, “I will sprinkle clean (or empowered) water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities.” Ezekiel

In using plants for immersion, incense and sound can be added for the making our requests. We also enhance the placebo effect with ceremony while invoking help from the Field, our guides and the Great Spirit. Any ritual is a powerful message or password to the Field requesting help and giving them permission to help because of our own free will.

Its crucial to understand that we cannot help someone unless they are completely sure they want to be helped. We must have permission or we cannot interfere and even if we do, without their consent, the light forces in the Field will not comply. Doing a ritual for the "greater good” is fine if we do not have permission. This differs from casting a spell to achieve a result even if we think it would be beneficial for the person concerned. 

Remember the wisdom of wild things, the holiness of elements, and the healing power of water.

All healing comes through the Field, through our guides and the Infinite One to help, heal, inspire, transform and protect. This energy is essentially universal love that emanates from the Creator. Some living beings are chosen more powerfully to channel this energy be it a person or even a pet but we all have some ability to do so. 

There are several essential, basic intentions that we can send out to the Field for help when calling our guides for ...

Healing 

Protection

Cleansing 

Asking for a dream

And anything else ...

One does not have to have an extensive knowledge of plants to be effective. One can use any plant for our intentions but preferably a high vibration one such as white sage, cedar or juniper which we can burn or place in a ritual bath. Plants are of the water element and water can be used to empower the water for bathing with imaginative intention. Water has resonance, memory and consciousness and when a sacred plant is placed in water the vibration changes favorably (Masaru Emoto, confirmed by German scientists.) 80% of our cells contain water and we can fuse our own "water" with that of the sacred bath.

Water tricking from the top of the hill is but a drop of the deep spring within.

The Still Beings of Nature are of the Earth Element.

We can use rocks, crystals, semi-precious stones and precious metals with their positive vibrations as lockets or as talismans for protection and for grounding. We empower them by placing a sacred plant/s inside a locket or immersing them in a sacred plant infusion. Gold and silver have high vibrations and have always been used in the past as such, apart from their material allure.

The Wild Beings are of the Air Element

When we light incense or vocalize sound in drumming, rattling, blowing a wind instrument, chanting, a mantra or singing we are protecting and cleansing ourselves through the Air element. We can also use the Wild Beings to help us by using a feather for smudging. The Wild Beings are of the more refined element of Air than we Fire Beings because they are doing exactly what the Creator wants from them. We can ask for their help, for instance by employing a bone for a specific intention as sangomas do in their divination kits.

The Talking Beings are of the Fire Element.

Unfortunately we usually use the fire in the bellies of our lower chakras of ego to destroy rather than to transform and inspire. 

Fire, however, can also create a comforting hot spiritual bath or a cleansing steaming as well as being essential for lighting incense. 

Using fire or even a candle as a tool for meditation can be up-lifting.

We can use sacred objects made by the Talking Beings in any form to help us as well. Designing an altar for your guides is a container for making requests and giving gratitude.

To connect with the Talking Beings we have to "feel" with them.

In other words raise the fire energy of our third "power" chakra below the diagram into the heart chakra above. San Bushmen healers say that if one wants to be a powerful healer one must love them, no matter what we think of them.

Treatment and Rituals

Red is a protective, cleansing, clearing color in sangoma medicine as well as universally. Wearing red clothing or a wrist band fortified by a sacred plant infusion can protect. One can use plants that are red in color for ritual purification from intrusive spirits (bad blood) or red wine in a bath for the same reason.  It is important to meditate in the bath. Breathe in the white light of positive intention and breathe out the thick black smoke of whatever it is you need to get rid of. When the bath is complete be sure to rinse the thick black smoke down the plug hole, walk out of the bathroom and do not look back. Looking back may indicate to the Field that you are unsure. 

Purification in the Old Testament was also done with water, fortified with the ashes from a red heifer, the red dye of a particular worm and cedar. Amulets, bracelets and crystals that are red are protective but need to be cleansed and reenergized for this purpose. 

Kiaat the Blood Tree, used in Southern Africa for getting rid of intrusive spirits (Bad Blood) and for Protection.

There are many ways to correct spiritual maladies using prayer, ritual, sacred plants, incense, exorcism (Femba in Zulu tradition,) and with love, laughter, sound and song.

With song you can open the gates of heaven.” The Talmud

 

“We pray by singing and dancing.”  San Bushmen and Bantu peoples of Southern Africa

Just as sangomas and Bushmen healers believe in the power of ancestors and guides to help them so too does Kabbalah although the manner in which they do so differs. Kabbalists describe a Veil of Illusion that must be bridged in order to receive messages from their teachers on the other side. This is usually done in dreams. 

Sangomas and Bushman shamans are experts in crossing the veil in and outside of the dream time. 

We are not just influences but also recipients of influences from distant places and distant times

 

There is an “Old Testament-like,” universal nature in much of what the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa believe and this existed long before the missionaries arrived who focused mainly on the New Testament. 

Incense repels and clears dark forces within and without. 

Animal sacrifice was used in biblical times for forgiveness as it is used by sangomas for releasing intrusive spirits and appeasing the dead. Sacred plants were used for an array of issues.  

Smudging and blowing medicinal smoke through a ram horn (shofar) could purify. 

Red string, stones and amulets were also used for protection. 

Witches and Sorcerers and their Dark Forces do not obey the Cosmic Law of Free Will. They operate maliciously with or without permission. They also use containers especially through the Law of Contagion (when things are in contact with one another they can affect the other.) Witches and sorcerers invoke their dark help using hair, a nail clipping, clothing or an effigy of the victim to enhance the power of their curses. 

 

What  Southern African and other Indigenous Wisdoms 

have to Offer the West # 6

Diseases or “Dis”-eases unknown to Allopathic Medicine and Psychotherapy

“This is the original truth the original medicine; it will never change – just like the law of gravity.” P.H. Mntshali (my sangoma mentor)

Diseases unknown to Western medicine or psychiatry are and were well known to many indigenous peoples. Those in Southern Africa could be described as follows. 

Disease just happens. We really do not often know why some people get sick and others do not.

""Anyone who isn't confused here really does not understand what is going on." Unknown

Our Guides or Ancestors can create "dis"-ease usually through omission rather than commission. They turn away if we ignore them. They can be our parachute in troubled times when we need to jump out of sticky situations. 

"The problem in the West is that you have forgotten your ancestors. If you pay them no attention they turn away and then you are unsupported in life from the other side - like papers blowing in the wind." P.H. Mntshali

“Thwasa” or the “Calling” Sickness is a malady that can be physical or psychological that occurs in a potential initiate. It happens because of an energetic field around them created by their guides that demands attention. This "dis"-ease can be disruptive and will defy an allopathic diagnosis. It has a spiritual origin and requires a spiritual solution. The person will need to initiate or at least dialogue as to why this is not possible at that time. The initiate is being called to his/her destiny and delay can have karmic implications.

Spiritual intrusions due to hauntings arise from various conditions especially from earth-bound spirits or ancestors seeking forgiveness.  Earth bound spirits usually occur because of a sudden, traumatic or confused death. The soul does not see the light or hear the ancestors calling them home. There is nothing good about being haunted even if the spirit means no harm it can interfere with our energy field. Other non-blood related intrusions can haunt the living because they had wronged the them and are hoping to find forgiveness for their misbehaviors. Forgiveness can release them from the karmic implications of what they had done.  

Energetic or ritual pollution is a negative energetic imprint due to certain situations, places, articles and unskillful exposures to blood or to a dead person. To the Zulus, pollution is something that is spiritually “dirty.”

 

Be careful of what you taste and where you immerse – what you touch and what touches you.

 

One can also find references to many of these same ritual impurities in the Old Testament. In biblical times, anyone who had been in contact with a dead body, or who had eaten an animal that had not been killed in a kosher manner, was not allowed back into the community until he or she had been purified. Religious Jewish women are not allowed to be in contact with their husbands during menstruation. Kosher killing and preparation of meat required exsanguination and then extracting the remaining blood with the help of salt on the raw meat after the exsanguination.

Native Americans have similar beliefs around menstruation and a woman is not allowed to participate in a sweat lodge during this time.

Sangomas also recognize a state of ritual impurity resulting from sex during menses, contact with a corpse, and eating a dead animal found in the bush or road kill. Many will also purify themselves after officiating at funerals before doing any healing work.

Blood carries the life force and is seen to have power  - also in Satanic cults where it is used for demonic purposes.

Pollution can also occur after a toxic journey or an illness. 

In sangoma belief and in the Bible, land or places can be polluted or cursed. Sometimes fire is the only thing that can purify demonic evil and malevolence. 

“You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.” Deuteronomy

Demonic worship is often practiced with such zealotry, determination and passion that its power has a lasting force for captivating and destroying. 

It is best that one not try to remove the rotten and decaying apples from the pile, but rather move the good apples far away. In some instances, if the stench and rot still present danger, then it may be appropriate for a cleansing, sterilizing and purifying to take place, but only by knowledgeable specialists in such matters.

Places where demonic rituals have been performed especially where there is water (river, lake or even underground) are difficult to purify. Water has consciousness, memory and resonance and can hold on to both profane and sacred vibrations. Objects may also be ritually impure such as war objects that have killed others, totems or masks etc. that have been used for dark purposes.

Witchcraft or sorcery. The commandment,

“Thou shalt not covet your neighbor or anything that belongs to your neighbor…”

 

is an edict against those with an evil eye, an evil tongue and an evil inclination. Witchcraft and sorcery were recognized as arising from someone with a heart of envy. Envy leads to covetousness which can have malignant consequences on others and severe karmic effects on the perpetrators.

The commandment not to covet one’s neighbor or anything that belongs to him or her is a preventative against jealous and malicious intention. Witches have a compulsion to prevent someone from getting things they deserve or to take away the things that they already have. For some it is a lucrative profession when done on behalf of others. A heart of envy arises out of an inherent dark shadow side or evil inclination. Witches and sorcerers with power are aligned with dark spirits who work with them as opposed to medicine men and women and indigenous healers who work with light spirits to do good. 

Witchcraft is more powerful if the victim believes in it and knows they have been bewitched (nocebo effect.) Fear from nocebo is a great ally. A hex is empowered if there is an underlying guilt arising from wrong doing which created the spell. At some, even a subconscious level, the victim knows they deserve to be hexed. Hexing also works non-locally through the Field with the help of tricksters and occult dark forces whether one believes it or not or knows about it or not. Witches and sorcerers have real power and are also able to manipulate the "Field" which is non-denominational, or spiritually neutral. Evil intentions go through the "Field" just as effectively as do healing ones. There is no curse that cannot be neutralized. Illness and misfortune can also occur because of hexes imposed by other malevolent people, not necessarily recognized as being sorcerers. The witch is often the traitor in the gates and assumes a benign appearance so that they can work unopposed.

Indigenous cultures, Kabbalists, the Celts (and Druids) and others are well aware of the power of tricksters and dark forces that can sabotage one’s life.

 

There is nothing you can think or intend that is not accessible to dark forces and that they will not attempt to corrupt.

 

The greatest ally of the dark is in making you believe they do not exist, so that they can operate unopposed. The dark side, sorcery and witchcraft were recognized by Kabbalah as part of the Omnipresent primordial light and darkness.

“I create the light and the dark – choose light!”

Lucifer, the Nephilim (the fallen angels) are real and not mythological. However, they assume different titles in varying cultures. 

 

“If you would dispel the darkness, seek the sacred.”

 

Soul loss or soul sickness. The soul and the body are supposed to be as one. The soul is pure, made in the image of the Divine and is always unified - it does not "split". When the body becomes subject to control by ego, monkey mind and shadow and the allure of sentient pleasures the soul may separate to a greater (soul loss) or lesser extent (soul sickness) from the body. There are many other factors besides physical, emotional and spiritual abuse by oneself (sex, drugs, rock and roll) or by others that can cause soul sickness or more rarely loss. These include trauma from war or violence, isolation and loneliness, severe burn out or illness or some of the spiritual diseases discussed here.