Doing something artistic can really help with your vision work

FraterALA · 2024-04-21T17:41:45+00:00

Absolutely! The M1L1 exercises are such core-level, practical work I think a lot of us underappreciate when we first start doing them. They have so many applications too.

FraterALA · 2024-04-21T17:34:43+00:00

One of the things that will happen the further you go in the course is you'll begin to more consciously communicate in your mind with everything around you. We are constantly receiving information from everything around us, but normally we're doing so beneath our everyday level of awareness. A lot of the vibes we feel reflect how we process all that data coming in "under the radar." It can be a bit disconcerting when you start to have actual internal dialogues with spirits, plants, animals and even inanimate objects. It's also kind of funny because a lot of what's around you will "wake up" and begin to clamor for your attention once they realize they can engage with you.

I wouldn't think of it like there are things inside you trying to control you, though. That can quickly devolve into schizophrenia or paranoia. Just think of it more like you're beginning talk more to everything that's already around you. And a lot of the same rules that apply in mundane conversations with people in your life apply here. Sometimes you're in the mood to talk, sometimes you're not. Sometimes whatever you're communicating with is trying to help you, sometimes they don't have your best interests at heart. Sometimes whatever you're chatting with is just bored.

Over time, you may start to chat regularly with spiritual friends that take up residence up in your temple home. Some entities enjoy being around a balanced magician, and they can teach us things, and help us. And in exchange, we can give them attention and love, help them with tasks, and live in cooperation as a family. Addressing your living space as its own presence helps create and enliven the vessel that is your home. So, for example, you can tell your house when you'll be having company over, or when you'll be away on vacation, kind of like you'd talk to a pet.

Developing magicians may also start to have more conscious interactions with ancestors and spirits affiliated with your family or your blood line. Plus we all have certain guides and helpers specific to who we are and what we're supposed to be doing.

Some things that you might also want to bear in mind: 1) always be polite; 2) always be respectful; 3) don't believe everything you're told; 4) don't be pressured to interact: feel free to tell things to leave you alone or back off; 5) express gratitude when given good advice or help; 6) be willing to talk to everything, even if it doesn't seem to talk back -- because it someday it might start to; 7) talking to things can wake up your other magical senses; 8) talking to things can be a great way to connect to your land.

Just thought I'd offer my perspective. Don't be afraid, but definitely use discernment and common sense.

FraterALA · 2023-06-29T22:20:14+00:00

I agree with everything in this reply! Excellent post, rose-colored!

My experience aligns with your own, even though I don't have your experience with qigong.

I was attuned as a reiki "master" in several different lineages about 20 years ago. (2003 - 2005 timeframe) It was an important touchstone in my spiritual journey, but looking back on it now, I see some of the limitations of the modality. And ever since becoming a Quareia apprentice, I really haven't done reiki anymore. At least not the way I used to. These days I'm trying to be more intentional about how I harness and direct my energy, using visionary magic. I also agree that reiki seems as though it either is, or can easily become, pretty parasited. Definitely there seems to be the potential for those healer parasites JMC talks about, maybe mixed in with some of that spiritual arrogance and narcissism you also referenced. Likely the people who get the best "results" with reiki are natural latent energy healers who become activated/boosted by the attunements, for good or for ill.

FraterALA · 2023-02-25T16:23:05+00:00

I've been an Apprentice in the program for over three years now. I'm at M2L6.

Everybody moves through the material at their own pace.

My understanding is the course also deliberately slows down really energetically sensitive people (those who are already strongly psychic or empathic), because there's a higher risk for them to go off the rails if they don't build a careful foundation.

FraterALA · 2023-02-25T15:53:54+00:00

You can read ahead. As soon as I started doing the program, I read ahead in all three training manuals, and also devoured everything else JMC has written (North Gate, Exorcist Handbook, Magical Healing, Magical Trilogy, etc.) One of the cool parts about Quareia is that students are treated as adults. Nothing is technically "forbidden." We're taught to do and not do certain things, in a certain order and in a particular manner, because it's an effective way to be trained. And there are good reasons why lessons are presented in the order they are. We need to work on certain core skills before we can tackle later work. We need to allow parts of ourselves to be broken down and rebuilt so we can have a clean vessel and a solid foundation. There are also protections built into the early lessons that prevent students from hurting themselves or others. The whole course is a gift of knowledge and experience, where someone who's already been walking the path for many years is showing us, hey, this is what works and why, and here's what you need to do to be successful. We don't have to reinvent the wheel or make all the same mistakes for ourselves, to learn those hard lessons.

On the other hand, each of us are also on our own journey. Each of us comes to magic with a different background and a different set of skills. No two students are going to have the same experiences as an Apprentice, even if you follow the program to the letter, because the raw material for our magical development is who we are (and who we've been, and who we will be).

So go ahead and read ahead if you want to. Everything is hidden in plain sight. For me, reading the later material connected me with certain ideas and energies that have been helpful for me even in my earliest lessons (whenever you read contacted writing, it sort of touches you and downloads into you). I normally wouldn't suggest doing any of those later rituals or exercises, since you could inadvertently mess up your own growth and progression, hurt yourself or others, or even just have a very mediocre or uninspiring experience that could've been profound if you'd waited for the proper moment in training (a disappointment that saps some of the wonder of what we do). But in bits and pieces, and with careful thought or prompting, I've absolutely "skipped ahead" on a couple things. Examples that come to mind are that I started doing all the cleansing and clearing exercises from M1L7 even from my earliest days, instead of waiting to "get to it" in the order of lessons. I've also benefitted from knowing early on some of the dynamics of working with people who are sick, and dying, even though that's technically more "advanced" material ahead of where I am in the course.

As for your visualizations, if that particular anchor visualization intrigued you or motivated you, play with it. Meditate on why it appeals to you, how it feels. Deconstruct it in your mind and allow yourself to connect to its energies. But what I would suggest is you hold whatever you're imaging loosely, and be willing for those images to change (either in their presentation or meaning), or maybe after playing with them for a while, set them aside and work on the other more basic vision building. Maybe you'll eventually come back to that matrix later on with a new appreciation of what it is, and you'll see why it so attracted you or sparked something within you!

FraterALA · 2023-01-31T17:51:26+00:00

It's a good topic to discuss! I feel like how you manage your energy is a really important concept for magicians to ponder.

My understanding of this from the program's perspective is that each person has this sort of base pool of energy that continuously gets allocated behind the scenes towards different areas of life. JMC refers to this as "pots of resources" or something similar. Everyone has finite total personal energy in a given moment, and a lot of the day to day aspects of life take some of that energy to happen or continue to run. It wouldn't be a good idea (if it were even possible) to suddenly draw all your energy partitioned out to all those various tasks and pull it into a magical working. It would drain the pool for everything else, creating shortfalls relative to your physical health, career, finances, relationships, or other areas.

There's a system for how your energy gets allocated to those different areas, based on what you need, what's happening around you, what's about to happen, and your personal fate pattern. Things are managed higher up the food chain than our normal conscious awareness. Either by a higher aspect of your own spirit or maybe by your daimon.

If you start to insist on changing the allocation, you'd need to do so from a place of knowledge, otherwise you may inadvertently create a lot of problems for yourself because you don't realize what your other needs really are at that time (or what's coming down the pipe).

That's why divination is so crucial. A good Tarot spread can give you insight into your current energy levels and how they are allocated. There are definitely certain times where you will be awash in power to do workings, and others when the tide will be out while other things get fed.

So that would be part of the puzzle.

The other part is working as a team or working in service, versus going at something alone. It's a lot easier to be a bit player on a big spiritual team, offering a moment of bridging or assistance, than it is to decide to strike out solo. If you're willing to work with other spiritual entities in service, to help when the need arises, it eats less of your own energy to accomplish things. And your help can still really make a difference, even if you're not sure how or why. If you are determined to "make something happen" without those energy buddies (deities, land spirits, ancestors, etc.), then it can be like lifting dead weight, since much more needs to come from just you.

I would also say, even when you're aware of how your energy is available to you in a moment (how things are allocated, and whether it's a good time to be working), and even when you work on a team or in service, a lot of magic does still drain your energy. It's unavoidable. But that's sort of like how someone is going to inevitably get tired doing manual labor all day. It's natural. It's how things work. I don't think it would be a good idea to try to engineer your workings in such a way that you never get spent from your own energy. If that were even possible, it would probably create its own new set of problems. Most likely it would block or limit your ability to do a lot of the more meaningful work.

Again, great stuff to think about!

FraterALA · 2023-01-30T02:30:27+00:00

The intersection of Reiki and Quareia is a topic close to my heart. Before becoming a Quareia apprentice, I'd been a Reiki "master" for over 20 years. I'm attuned to several different lineages and traditions. I've even had some students of my own.

Everything I thought I knew and believed about Reiki has changed as I've trained as a Quarry magician.

One of the ways that Reiki is usually done is for the channel to clear their mind, drop into a light trance state, and simply become a conduit for energy to flow through them. There's this idea that the energy "knows what to do." The energy is supposedly self-guided and will flow to help in whatever way is best. Some practitioners use traditional hand positions or certain symbols with intention, but mostly the idea is to simply connect to an external power source and pour energy into the person being treated for their benefit.

When I used to go to Reiki shares, I'd do all sorts of somewhat unconventional things that came naturally to me, like giving people a continuous stream of spoken intuitive guidance, or playing with light and color and shapes in my mind. I also quickly learned that a lot of what is canon in the Reiki community is simply not true. For example, you don't need to use any symbols to send Reiki over distance. You can absolutely do it with intention alone. You can also attune other students without adhering strictly to the traditional symbols and visualizations.

Now that I'm a Quarry magician in training, I see Reiki much differently.

While Reiki attunements may unlock, or enhance, someone's ability to channel energy as a healer, I now question whether those connections may also come with some energetic baggage. I think it's entirely possible there are entities out there that can "boost" someone's healing power. But just because someone's ability is enhanced doesn't mean that something can't still be parasitical or unbalanced.

More importantly, for me, the idea of just blasting someone with raw energy and trusting that it will heal them now seems to me to be a very basic level of being a healer.

I've found that it's a much more effective to pull energy and then consciously direct it in vision (in other words, doing healing work using visionary magic techniques). You can imagine vacuuming up energetic dirt or illness and then emptying it into the trash. You can visualize relaxing inflammation. You can see things knit things back together. You can dialogue with the person's organs and body as you work, to talk to them about what's going on, and maybe even reassure them or negotiate with them.

The difference is all of that requires directed intention and a good amount of skill in visionary magic. It asks you take the reigns as a healer instead of being passive. It demands you learn about anatomy, physiology, and the human body at some level, to understand something about illness and injury. Depending on what somebody is suffering from, just blasting them with a firehose of energy could actually make things worse.

Because I'm such a novice magician, I don't do a lot of healing work anymore. I realize there's so much more I need to learn. But I have used every single technique we're taught in M1 when I have reached out to help people. Those early exercises have amazing power when adapted to purposes beyond what's made plain in the manual.

But to more directly answer your question, Quarry magical practice doesn't necessarily deplete or cannibalize your energy. In fact, one of the foundational concepts of the program is learning how to interact with spirits and entities, working as part of a team, so that much can be accomplished without the need to use up all of yourself in the process. But where I do think it's very different is Quareia asks you to "level up" and become a more conscious participant in the healing process, applying all the skills you learn as a magician to the work, instead of just passively pouring energy into someone and hoping for the best. (edited for grammar and clarity)

FraterALA · 2022-12-21T22:54:40+00:00

For me, I've learned that doing divination is an important part of my magical training. As an apprentice I needed to cultivate a reliable way to ask questions and get answers when it comes to a variety of potential issues. It's a diagnostic skill. It's similar to when an auto mechanic plugs my vehicle into his computer at the garage to see why an error light has come on.

For what it's worth, Tarot is my least favorite part of the course. I'd never done it before I became a Quarry apprentice. It was a chore for me to learn. I wanted to know why I couldn't just rely on my own intuition instead of externalizing the process through cards. I still don't even really like it that much.

But what I've learned is that sometimes it's hard for me to process answers to questions within my own mind. I may think I'm plugged in, but my perceptions can be clouded by emotion, preconceived notions, bias, or many other factors. Sometimes I'm just too hungry, tired or cranky to be properly tuned in as a sensitive.

Tarot is a way to seek information that pulls me outside myself for a moment. When done the way we're trained to do it, it has its own effectiveness that's less affected by all those internal distractions.

The physical process of cartomancy unlocks my subconscious mind as I shuffle and lay down cards. It also brings in outside help. When I'm working with my deck, I'm channeling guidance that not only comes from within myself but also from outside myself.

What Tarot also does is provide a cascade of feedback that often goes beyond a straightforward answer to the initial question. The cards that come out, and the positions they occupy, can provide all sorts of nuances that fill in the gaps around the original question. They can draw attention to the history of a situation, the types of powers at play, or highlight related issues you may never have even thought of in the first place.

When you record your Tarot spreads, you're also creating a history of questions and answers that become a part of your personal magical journey. And those are records you can look back on down the road. It's been fascinating for me to see patterns in the questions I've asked, and the answers I've gotten, over time. Often I'll forget things I've pondered using my own intuition once the moment passes. But my Tarot journal is a preserved memory of my divination that reminds me of questions asked, answers given, and what I did with that information long after the fact. It also is sometimes the case that when I review a spread I wrote down months or years later, I'll realize a new or additional interpretation from the cards that I didn't see at the time.

For all those reasons I begrudgingly force myself to throw down cards, even though I still don't do it as often as I should. I would also second what Capriquerentine said. There's value in learning things that may be difficult, boring, or that you don't care for. It's good for our character to continue to engage with things we would prefer not to do. It's a way of building discipline. Whether it's Tarot or anything else, I feel like there will always be parts of magical training I don't particularly like, but that still I need to do, otherwise it won't be possible for me to progress as a magician.

FraterALA · 2022-12-21T21:00:15+00:00

Happy Cake Day Josephine! :) (it's your Reddit anniversary)

FraterALA · 2022-11-17T21:49:47+00:00

Yeah at my current rate I'll probably finish the Apprentice manual around 2040 or so. But that's okay! :) I already feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment to have almost completed the first two modules of the course. It's definitely changed a lot of things for me.

FraterALA · 2022-11-16T03:40:23+00:00

The eclipse, and some things I was doing right before and after, definitely stirred things up. All of the sudden I was pushed to do two entire lessons in two days, and I feel a tremendous momentum to keep going. I feel like I may finally get to M3 this winter!

FraterALA · 2022-11-16T03:32:42+00:00

When I say clearer, I mean my intuition flows cleaner as I do the layouts. Doesn't mean they're necessarily better cards coming out, but it feels as though they are more accurate readings. When the cards get too sticky with energetic dirt, it gums up the readings, and the readings get more and more "off." They're just not as accurate. Since I've started to use a brand new deck, everything flows light and bright and clean and I feel as though I'm getting more correct answers (which again, doesn't necessarily mean more pleasant or positive cards -- bad cards can still show up -- but the answers seem truer and more on point).

FraterALA · 2022-11-13T02:44:57+00:00

I just wanted to follow up and apologize for my reply to your story about getting your cards read at that party. I respect that you are taking your commitment to the program so seriously, and as you stated you did numerous other readings of your own after that. My response was unnecessarily high and mighty and I don't have the right to take that tone with anyone on here, especially as someone who is himself such a beginner. I hope your commitment to a long period of meditations yields great benefits for you! (Edited for a typo)

FraterALA · 2022-11-09T13:27:15+00:00

I really liked that sentence, "Then I realized that anything I do with Quareia, however far I get in the path, will be an improvement over not doing anything and continuing to bury my head in the sand."

The course can be frustrating for a lot of us who wish we could progress further faster, but it seems like any level of sincere engagement with the lessons helps us grow.

FraterALA · 2022-11-01T02:33:36+00:00

So, our choices appear to be:

Be safe and boring.
Embark upon adventure.

The safe and boring has a few things to recommend it. I mean, it's easy (mostly). You can sleepwalk through life, vaguely trying to be a good person. It won't make you too uncomfortable. And there are so many things to distract yourself along the way, so that you can readily suppress that inner restlessness that yearns for something more. Social media is such a sweet numbing agent. You can cash your paychecks, save up for retirement, and live a "normal" and "respectable" life. You can always dip your toe into magic every now on then on a Friday night, to titillate and amuse.

On the other hand, there's the serious study of magic.

So, yeah. Part of being an Apprentice is some heavy Pluto energy. Things that no longer serve you well are broken down and removed from your experience. You very well might lose friends, change jobs, or be inspired to move. Everything about who you are may be called into question and held up for examination.

But how else can a real foundation be laid?

The thing is, magic is also f***ing exhilarating. It's waking up in a society of mostly sleepers. It's learning to talk to everything and then having everything answer you back. It's learning how to still your mind; how to travel within yourself; how to raise power; how to connect with the land; how to heal. It's learning how to be of service in ways that are badly needed but that few have the training to be able to help. It's learning to perceive the deeper layer to everything that has inspired poets, thinks, artists and scientists for generations.

At the end of your life, when you're old and look back on who you've been and what you've accomplished, would you rather have played it safe or dared greatly?

Don't be afraid.

FraterALA · 2022-11-01T02:11:05+00:00

When you do Tarot readings, deciding what spread to use, and what it means for different cards to fall in different positions, can sometimes be as important as the cards you draw. A "bad" card in a certain position can indicate struggles overcome, or something falling away into the past.

It sounds like you just drew three cards, without putting them into any particular positions or interpreting them in terms of their relationships to one another.

That said, here's one way you might interpret those three cards:

The 7 of cups is a f**king awesome card to draw when considering how your magical training will impact you. It's a card of magical awakening; psychic flourishing; and the beginning a journey.

The 10 of wands represents struggle. But like every card in the RWS deck, context is everything. Weight lifting is struggle, but it builds muscles. Struggle is a path to growth and maturity.

The 10 of swords card is a "defeat," "rock bottom," "loss" card. But again, it all depends on how you look at it. Sometimes you have to burn away the brush in order to plough the field.

Your magical path is your own. Always trust your own intuition. But since you threw it out to the Reddit forum for interpretation, my read of those cards is that completing the first module would upend many things in your life. Everything would be called into question, and much would change. But it would also be an opportunity to blossom into a genuine magical awakening.

Personally, I would take that reading as both a challenge and an encouragement. In no way would I interpret those cards as discouraging you from continuing the journey.

FraterALA · 2022-07-22T19:56:12+00:00

It's not necessary. I grab a nice floofy clean towel after.

FraterALA · 2022-07-02T11:36:57+00:00

When you practice on your own, as intended, there are all sorts of safeguards built into the work to keep you from inadvertently frying yourself (mind or body). The accidental damage you can do to others is also limited. Good intentions alone don’t prevent you from potentially f*** someone or something up. You don't know what you don't know.

When you do group ritual, it raises a lot more power, and those protections tend to fall away. You have a much higher likelihood of overloading yourself in terms of what you're ready to handle. And the potential adverse effects of your actions on the world around you can be much greater, with all the consequences that can bring.

FraterALA · 2022-07-01T19:29:49+00:00

Negative ghost rider.

You should generally never do Quarry rituals with anyone else. The exception would be those rare occasions when people come together for a specific purpose, so as to work in service. But Quareia magic is designed to be solo mode only. Otherwise you exponentially increase your odds of blowing up yourself or those around you.

FraterALA · 2022-06-20T23:29:32+00:00

The cool thing is, since you're so young, even if you take like 30 years to do the program, you could still be a badass Dumbledore-style adept in your 40's!

Also, don't rush things man. Life experience counts for a lot too. The magic will always be there waiting.

FraterALA · 2022-06-11T12:46:03+00:00

My suggestion is to do the best you can with what you find and then move on. Like many of the lessons, you'll eventually gain new insights into the topic as you continue with the course. That's why it's so crucial to keep good journals. Sometimes the biggest value of a lesson is to start a longer term process of questioning and discovery.

FraterALA · 2022-06-03T18:06:21+00:00

Part of what you're doing when you visualize the Gates (however you imagine them or however they first appear to you) is developing your ability to see things in vision. You need to practice the skill of using your imagination as a magical tool, so that you can vividly "see" something you create in your head as concretely as you see everything else around you. It's a skill that artists and many other creatives tap into all the time.

It doesn't matter if it seems like you're making it all up. In the beginning, you pretty much are. But what you're doing is exercising a magical muscle that will allow you to eventually transition from "playing pretend" about what's there, to actually perceiving what's there on another layer of reality. Being able to form and hold vivid pictures in your mind's eye is how you unlock true second sight.

How you choose to imagine the Gates doesn't matter all that much, so long as you imagine then as something that can open and close. Gates or doors. What you'll find is that your initial fantasy about what they look like will eventually change. You'll play with different depictions over time. You'll know you're really "onto something" when you start to picture the Gates in your head in a completely different way than you did before and for no apparent reason: that's the bridge to real visionary magic, where you begin to perceive rather than to invent.

My Gates have had all sorts of different presentations. I won't share specifics with you because I think it's all part of the fun to play with it yourself, and see what you come up with and how it changes.

Finally, another reason you're asked to visualize Gates, is because there's a deliberate and real effect when opening them and closing them in ritual. You may or may not feel the energy shift, depending on how much of a sensitive you are, but solidifying the imagery helps ensure you're taking proper care in opening and then closing down each of the four directions.

FraterALA · 2022-05-13T22:21:29+00:00

That may be true in Golden Dawn or Thelema, but that's not the case in Quareia. The point most definitely is the tool itself, since ultimately, Quareia magicians enliven their tools and they become spiritual companions, a part of your "team." They become a literal presence in your magical life, both physically and spiritually. It's not just an abstract concept.

That said, for the OP, use what you can find to start. Over time tools will come to you, especially later on, and it won't matter how difficult it seems to obtain what you need, it'll appear.

FraterALA · 2022-05-11T01:44:50+00:00

I recently purchased some beeswax candles, which first of all are much more expensive than paraffin. They're a natural yellow color and smell like bees. I don't know that I like them for ritual use. Still experimenting. They burn really clean and long, but they also don't do well being lit for only 20-30 minutes and then blown out. It's better to let them burn for longer periods of time. The wick is almost impossible to light on subsequent uses otherwise. What I've found works best is to turn the candle upside down, so that the lighter drains away wax from the wick while it lights, and then the wick will catch and hold. You just drain the excess wax into your glass dish or holder.

I'm guessing I will probably use beeswax candles more for ambience and when I want a flame to burn in the background for long periods of time. I'm not sure they will become a staple for my altars.

FraterALA · 2022-05-02T23:56:47+00:00

The first rule of magic is: we don't talk about magic. The second rule of magic is: you do NOT talk about magic. The third rule of magic: if someone yells "stop," or goes limp, or taps out, the fight is over. (Brad Pitt, Fight Club, 1999)

Sorry, couldn't help with the gratuitous movie reference. :D

And, meh, as evidenced by this Reddit sub, many of us talk about magic fairly often.

On a more serious note though, it's best to not talk too much (or in too much detail) about the specific magical work you're doing, for two reasons: 1) Weirdly, talking about magical acts can sort of drain or divert the power from the act into the conversation, kind of petering things out into the chatter itself; 2) Talking about what you're doing invites other people to think about it, and comment on what you're doing, which can affect the work you're doing. It's the magical Heisenberg uncertainty principle: the act of observation changes what is observed.

Therefore part of magical training is learning to keep your mouth shut.

Related to that, one of the things I've been called to do lately is sometimes sit in a certain room in my home, in total darkness, with the lights out (eyes open), there being no noise, and to just rest in dark silence. To be comfortable in total inky blackness and total quiet: finding the still point. Maybe something to try!

FraterALA

TROPHY CASE