Mundane Arts for Magickal Perfection

The first step of entering the magickal world is looking at old things in a new way.  So, before we jump up on that run away horse and gallop off into the sunset of the magickal realm we need to revisit our mundane world and re-evaluate and improve how we use everyday skills that we already have before we worry about developing a bunch of magickal skills. (Yep, that sentence is way too long and needs rewritten but I decided to leave it....)

In this particular post I'm going to revisit the art of hearing. And actually what I'm really talking about is the art of attentive listening. Unfortunately, a great many of us are guilty of using our ears for hearing in a very passive manner for music or movies. However, when it comes to communication, being good at hearing is not the same as being good at listening. Can you honestly say that when you are conversing with someone that you are actually listening to what the other person is saying and being fully attentive in the moment, word by word, full attention to this person? Or are you guilty of thinking about what you are going to say next? Or worse yet, are you trying to interrupt them with *yes, but - yes, but....*

As long as your mind is engaged in formulating thoughts of what you're going to say, you're not actively listening. You might be thinking what does listening have to do with being a Witch? It has EVERYTHING to do with being a Witch. Because when you get into magickal workings you will hear phrases like *focus your intent*  or *visualize*. All of this has to do with training your attention span. If you can't even follow a conversation and stay focused on that conversation and actually listen attentively to what that person is saying, you are going to have a really hard time with focusing your intent, visualization and meditation skills. Your mind is going to behave when you try to do magick the same way it does in the mundane world. An undisciplined mind is going to be leaping all over the board with all of these thoughts like some unruly toddler racing around the room screaming and touching on everything stuck in the terrible twos because you have never trained yourself to practice the art of attentive listening. If you really want to increase your meditation skills a challenge for you is to start practicing the art of attentive listening in the mundane world. This will improve areas of your magick tenfold, guaranteed.

Bright Blessings and Blessed Be
Rayven Michaels