Tag Archives: Imagination

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I Found Solomon’s Key

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Compassion The Bridge

In considering divinity compassion is the bridge. It binds, as one, the person we are. This one person then forms the central pillar in a temple that presents divinity. It is a space that is created where previously it was naught, in an instant, it appears from naught and it is.

For me the Key of Solomon is the temple. The template for the key is David’s Star. The two triangles represent divinity. The points of the star are particular attributes but the star itself is actually the two bases of interlocking pyramids. The pyramid whose base forms the ceiling, of the temple, is inverted, aligned and fixed in place along the spine or central nervous system. Our soul stands on the ceiling as it is the floor known to our soul and our temporal self, or animal, stands on the floor as it appears in our animal reality. Theses inverted pyramids create something of a prism and we are allowed a singular focus and orientation.

Orientation. The forward most point of the star belongs to the pyramid that seems inverted as we stand in human form, its base is the ceiling of our temple. That forward most point is ascension. The other two points, of the triangular base that is our ceiling, moving clockwise, are presence and being. Directly opposite ascension and behind us in our human presence is humility. As our soul stands, on its floor, the ceiling of our temple, its orientation is such that humility is its forward most point. As we stand on the floor of our temple, as animal, humility is directly behind us. Moving clockwise, from humility, the other two points of the triangular floor of our temple are, intellect and emotion.

This understanding of David’s Star and Solomon’s Key is the product of what I call a mysticism. I did not read about it. It occurred to me that the star was the template for the key. I then considered it at length until I understood it as I do. It also involves the Kundalini. I came to understand the seven primary chakras, how they work and just what the Kundalini is, in the same way, I did a mysticism. In all of this compassion is the key, the singular ingredient that makes all of it work. It has a magical quality, it is an absolute. All absolutes are magical. Absolutes can not be possessed. Any person can find them but ownership is not possible. We have to let go and when we do the magic is released.

The space, created from naught, by the magical appearance of this temple, is an actual place. When I first discovered it I was trying to piece together what I was puzzling with about it, to see how it worked. I was futzing around with different alignments, the Kundalini, the points and structure of the star, rotations and movements, and it suddenly appeared creating a place. A temple. At the time it was a private thing to do. The experience was profound. Today I can no longer be content with privacy and I am having to learn a new lesson about compassion. The magic elixir that makes this work. I have to let compassion extend to the person I have found myself to be. The person I have never liked or wanted to be. The person standing in the open and telling this story. You see, it is easy for me to have this as a private experience, except that I am no longer allowed that pleasure. I have always thought it unreasonable, the notion that I have to be publicly spiritual and so I have a long history of beating myself up over it. It is that public person I am charged to have compassion for. In letting go, of my self-defeating inclinations, compassion creates a new me and a new magic.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2013

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Of Imagination and Spirit

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Become known to all I meet, let each person consider me as they choose. I am not made more or less by false claims. Every claim about me is mine to validate. It is my handling of it that matters, not what is said about me but the way I actually am. Any claim that is false, be it flattering or demeaning, ends its distraction when I am confident in the person I know myself to be.

What is true? What claims that rattle around my head are true? How much of what I consider to be external, originating from others, actually is? The spiritual content of experience is its own matrix. Much of the content is imagined and images are real. We respond to our own imagination, obviously, and I think we respond to the imaginings of others as well. How do we differentiate between imagination and spirit? In my experience they are very similar. As recently as two years ago I had not considered the spiritual world we create and share as spiritual. I considered it as image. A place where image is real. Most people consider that reality to be spiritual and I have come to accept that. It makes for an easier use of language when writing about the realm of image I am familiar with. We are as we imagine ourselves to be and when we imagine others to be a particular way that consideration then becomes a structure that we share. Much of this realm of image is not true but it is real.

The part of our shared realm of image that is false is the product of our temporal nature, our animal self. It can be pretend, or make-believe, but nonetheless it has profound influence in our experience. In working to marry spirit with animal, as a shared interpersonal experience, I think it is necessary to distinguish between spirit and imagination. Imagination is as powerful a tool any human being will ever know. It is not to be considered lightly. We create, with our imagination, the world the way we want it to be. It is not done in isolation. We all have the power of imagination and we each craft agreement by which we exist in the shared environment of image. My observation tells me that most are not very concerned, or even interested, in this corner of experience. It plots along under the influence of ignorance. It is a realm that spirit understands. Spirit speaks the language that is image. To know of spirit personally, privately, is not comparable to a public or shared experience of our spiritual presence.

As I try to do this it is easy for the animal to be distracted by our shared realm of imagination and react to it. To meet my spirit in the human community, the animal world, and share that space as the same place, I’m sure is easier than it seems. I expect it is a matter of correcting imagination. Instead of reacting to all that is imagined, by the human community, I can imagine what is true and the passage is revealed. My spirit knows the true path. If my animal self imagines it, we are the same. See, it is very simple.

My animal self is so conditioned to pick up what we all have agreed, imagined, as acceptable and that is the challenge. Not picking all of that stuff up I feel naked but that is the secret. It is that nakedness that reveals the truth and all take notice of what is naked. It’s our nature.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2013

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Freedom From Faith

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Inviting my divine existence to explain life is the reason I write. I imagine that by making my private space public I will have no place to hide and some underlying truth will be revealed. I look to understand the condition that is experience. In writing I share my interpretation and explanation of life. Instead of looking to others to explain my experience, to comfort me, I believe that my experience is intended to be that explanation. I look no other place and seek no other authority. I can not imagine that being aware that I exist does not also come with understanding that existence. I feel that is what I have to do, replace the question of existence with its understanding. I see no other activity worth my effort.

I believe exploring my experience publicly will bring that understanding forward. That eventually I will no longer be in a position to avoid the issue and the truth about my experience will be obvious. Inescapable. I think that my experience is the same as everyone else’s. We are all the same and that is the value in understanding our experience. Are we spiritual beings? Do we have a spirit that animates us, something independent of  animal life? More durable. If we do surely it is something that can be understood and experienced. It must be something that does not require faith. There is no faith needed to understand things as they are. Faith helps us find confidence when we are unwilling or unable to build it from our own experience. I decided to abandon faith long ago settling on the strength of confidence without faith.

I think it is possible that we have the freedom to choose our spirit. Obviously we are animated and spirited. Emotion is the spirit that moves us and it has many forms. Certainly we can control our emotions, the spirits that animate us. I think some spirits are so familiar that they have form and just like you or I, a person. It is a spiritual form and some people see these spirits. I do. The question then is what do I see and what causes it. Imagination? Perhaps. While I can not rule that out it seems unlikely. I see these kind of spirits as born of our own creativity. We created them some time ago or perhaps we continue to do so. That is my interpretation and I offer no proof. It is an empirical observation. I see other spirits as well and they seem to be of a different nature. I consider them to be Angels and Ascendant Beings.

Let’s consider ascendant beings. Some people, it seems to me, escape the cycle of incarnation and ascend while others repeat it. Generally these are people who have a spirit, in this life, that makes ascension seem reasonable. Although I have seen exception. It leaves me thinking we are a creation that can know our creator, if we choose. I refer to that creator as a soul. It is not ours and we are independent of it unless we surrender our identity to it. Surrender the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, ownership, and become who we are instead of the how we created. We can choose to be the creator instead of the creation. We just have to give up possession, the notion that we own anything. It is not necessarily a vow of poverty. It can be but abundance is the law and that is what gives a vow of poverty its value. There is no poverty. That is also what makes the pervasiveness of poverty such a crime. If my view of this is true then poverty is something we have created for our amusement.

I do believe that a person can live in both worlds at the same time. To invite the creator to be the creation. An immersion in both realities, divine living. Actually I think it is expected of us. It is easy to have such an experience privately, at least for me it is. Divine living is not a private thing and I have yet to see a way to do that. I remain convinced that it is something I can do, and therefore, what I am expected to do. I am uncomfortable in that role. I think the difficulty I have boils down to my spiritual state.  The emotion that is generated by my discomfort, my spirit-state, prevents success. Any measure of success requires an honest appraisal of  what is possible and acceptance that my consideration of all of this may well be in error is a must. This is not to be confused with doubt but rather it is the foundation for confidence.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2013

Insanity, Imagination or Spirituality?

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Imaginary worlds and spiritual worlds, is there a difference? Is the spiritual possibility merely overactive or unrestrained imagination? Wishful thinking? It is essential to ask this question if there is to be any hope of a meaningful spiritual experience. Faith is not enough, at least not for me. For many faith is enough. A belief in something beyond biology that gives meaning, hope and strength. For me faith is a limitation, a surrender to complacency. A lazy or cowardly avoidance of accountability. If there is a spiritual world and I have a spiritual nature then that is something that can be demonstrated, I ought to do it. If it can not be demonstrated, of what possible value could it be? There can be no harm in expecting what actually is to be observable as well. To have practical purpose and use in my day-to-day life. Without that it is pretty useless and borders on make-believe.

That is of course where faith is useful. If I lack confidence, but have faith, faith pretends to be confidence and that is powerful. Others may simply be confident of their spiritual existence. With confidence then faith allows for a sense of resolve and more pressing concerns are free to be considered. How then, if I expect empirical proof of spiritual life, to do both? To be both spiritual and animal. Equal parts. To live the divine life instead of expecting another to do it for me. It is not a saintly act, I am sure of that. At least not in the sense that one can merit or earn a divine state. It is more the opposite of that, just straight up grace. A simple matter of letting go so that our true nature is self-evident. Realized.

It has been my experience that profound spiritual experience, is comparatively easy, when it is mostly a private concern. To bring the experience into the shared community of humanity at large, for me at least, has been more of a challenge. Not very easy. Probably because I do not really know how to do it. I have to learn it and being my own teacher, it is a walk in the dark. I can not imagine that there is really any other way to do it. Not for me, that is not who I am. Another concern for those of us who choose my path is fraud. There is no more obvious example of fraud than when it presents itself under the guise of spirituality. People are easily fooled, we often fool ourselves and this an area where people are easily taken advantage of. The objective, I think, must be example. I am not inclined to teach, rather to make an example and others then are encouraged to find their own way. To learn to teach themselves.

Many people are sensitive to spiritual experience but without the skills to cope. People hear and see things that they have no idea how to process. I believe it contributes to mental illness. People become psychotic or develop a psychosis. I believe that those conditions are influenced by the spiritual world. Some people are able to recognize it but have no point of reference, or mechanism to help them cope. The spiritual beings that are most commonly experienced are temporal and they can be dangerous. At least that has been my experience. Unless you have a natural aptitude, and can not avoid recognition of the world of spirits, you need to develop the sensitivity. We all have to ability because we are all spiritual by nature. That is what I believe.

If you have no reason to believe in spirituality, in being a spiritual being, then you do not believe me and I approve of that. You should not believe me if you can not see your way to doing it and I take no offence. If you are a religious person, a person of faith and you do not believe me, I have to ask you why? Is not your faith based on the kind of experience I write about here? The sort of experience you believe people have had. I am writing about my personal experience and am quite sane. Whose experience should I trust if not the experience creation gave me? I exist. Should I expect someone else to have experience for me to base my life on, or trust that if such an experience is possible, I too might have such an experience?

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2013

All is Good All is Well

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Am I troubled by agreement? In my recent post, Chalkboards and Other Dark Places, I wrote of self-hate. It had been a problem that built into a climax until I was reduced to dealing only with that. I wrote of spending seventeen days working to sort it out and rid my life of it. That worked and now as I return to blogging… it is coming back. It seems I may have an issue with agreement. I am troubled to be seen as someone who has occult knowledge. That tension makes it difficult for me to share my experience because I tend to start beating myself up and that is distracting. I did learn a couple of tricks to quiet the self-hate mantra that had become so irritating. A subtle affirmative correction that proved to be very powerful and that may help guide me to a place of comfort and ease.

I really like my spiritual experience. It has been and is fulfilling but for some reason sharing it triggers a hostility within myself, toward myself. Writing calms that hostility but after posting a blog entry the pull to beat myself up over it is very powerful. This has been a tough nut. Short of cracking it open, and solving the mystery, it festers and pollutes my life all over again. If I can not understand the trigger I am confident that it will find places, in my past, to take hold and self-hate will repopulate my life. Everyone’s life is fertile ground capable of growing damn near anything. What is this determination to do this to myself?

I imagine it has to do with expectation, my expectation of what others expect from me. Having made that observation it seems obvious that any issue I might have about expectation would have to be about what I expect from myself. What can I possibly do about someone else’s expectation except to do something about my own?  That is probably very easy to fix. A simple affirmation ought to do the trick. What I learned when addressing this issue of self-hate, my recent correction of it, is that the affirmation needs to be spot-on. You see I had been working with an affirmation to deal with the hate for some time. When the notion of hating my life would pester my mind, I would tell myself, ‘I love my life’. Completely ineffective and that was surprising. After rooting out all the places that hate had taken hold in my life I found that the affirmation that dissolved this tendency was ‘All is good, all is well’.

Affirmations are powerful metaphysical tools and I have had great success with them. At this juncture the application of this tool is somewhat different. For years I used affirmations everyday. I would divine some affirmation and then over a few days fine tune it. When I started doing this I would create ten affirmations and throughout the day repeat them. Over time I would move on to a new list. Eventually I think I reduced the active number of affirmations I practiced to three. The difference now is that the affirmation I need is a little more precise. In the past these tools were more like a diet that promoted health, now it seems like I need affirmations that extract a condition rather than create a condition. The true nature of the injury in need of extraction needs to be identified if there is to be any hope of success.

I will try this affirmation; All is good. All is well. Doing what I like best, sharing the secrets of spirituality, of life’s mysteries, brings success. All is good. All is well.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2013

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Mission Statement

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My spiritual quest is about divine living. I am no holy roller. I am driven by the spiritual concerns of life. It seems to me that if anything is durable it is spirit, certainly its temple of flesh, blood and bone is temporary. People have long been aware of spiritual realms and opinion about matters spiritual span the whole of imagination. For me personally I know that whatever spirit is it is observable, that if a person is inclined to experience the world of spirit it is likely they will.

I have no faith. The only text I consider sacred is the self and providence is the only guide to spiritual growth. If this is not enough then there is no worthy spiritual task. Instead of faith, I have confidence. Things are as they are and that can be observed. I have long believed that I am here to make an example of this. To live the divine life. I believe in magic. I believe that everything you see and experience is produced by it. I believe you are its master, just as am I. I believe in creation, that it happens all the time. It is what is constant. Now. All that might be, all that has been, every possibility is contained in the only moment that anything ever happens, Now. Now is creation. Now is magic. You are its master.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist, ©2012

The Temple of Now

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Life shifts and twists as I work for openness. All preparations are being fulfilled as I challenge myself to be completely honest, to walk in the open. There is much complaining within me, protesting, fretting… The raising of concern! It is a big distraction and without merit. I am as I am. I see what I see. I do wonder if I know something that gives rise to my protest, a fate so true to destiny that it will not be avoided. Our history is filled with stories of people who suffered unjust fates. No incentive there. So incentive lies elsewhere. I am confidant that my spiritual health is tied directly to openness. Naked honesty and I am still a little uncomfortable with that. While I have known this day would rise it did not used to be this way. When last my life went under repair, the time before this, it was a spiritual project as well and the rewards were extraordinary. For the most part I could keep it private. It was easy to remain discreet and find people to share my experience with. They were few and I felt safe. That path no longer exists as I am given a new task. It is increasingly clear that this is the way as it is the only way I have found growth. The growth is refreshing and I am finding my spiritual legs once more. With a new task there are new lessons and with the lesson, a new application.

In that past repair I learned a lot about the Key of Solomon. Maybe it is something else but I know it as that and so I will continue to refer to it as such. What I have learned about it in the past is not enough to turn it today and so I am learning to understand a new mystery and secret. Openness is the grease for this wheel, this new lesson, steadily and surely freeing the movements. I can not reclaim the comfort past and so I must look to this new lesson. I can actually see this thing. It is a place, like a temple and a portal. A spiritual place. People think of it as magical but magic does not exist unless all is magic, as I believe it is. Nothing happens except by it. Call it creation if you like, it is the same thing.

I have been working with the Kundalini, puzzling my chakras to see if something is amiss there. The Kundalini is as a pillar and it seems intact, in proper order. It acts as a channel and as I look through it I see myself at a much younger age. The Kundalini is also the center pillar of the Key of Solomon, Providence. Providence passes through the axis that is Now where it is joined by Abundance and Fate. The intersection of these three lines, at the moment of Now, is foundation, and around that is the Temple of Now or the Key of Solomon. It is an actual place. As I look in on myself as a child I begin to see that the child arrived from elsewhere, a new passage I now see. I believe the comfort my child and I seek is through this new-found passage. As I consider it, it generates powerful images and I imagine the passage is active.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2012

The Question Of Ego

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End avoidance beginning with my Ego.

As life progresses, bringing with it conflict, we react. We create a tendency that is predictable, our Ego. Ego is our carnate identity, it belongs to the physical expression of being; flesh, blood and bone. It is as a possession, of being incarnate, that imagines it possesses what is carnate. It is like a defence mechanism and tends to be defensive as well as possessive. What Ego wants is direction, to be told how to behave. Much of what becomes of our Ego ends up as what rules our behavior. That is a role reversal of its purpose. Just as Ego is not intended to control us we are not intended to control it. Ego represents the completion of our child and is pretty much completed at age seven. It is also the third chakra. The direction it seeks can be found only when all decisions, made and maintained by the Ego, are seen as important. When it is a decision that troubles us, that is its purpose. It seeks direction so as not to be troubled. This direction comes from opening all passages to divinity. We are not comprised of earthly substance alone, existence is timeless and we exist. It is the nature of existence that all the secrets of existence are represented in everything, in anything, that exists. The Ego needs to let go of its possession and its ruling tendency, this creates the opening that allows divine guidance.

In my last post, Behind The Veil, I wrote of ‘Ghost-like apparitions’ generated by the Ego. In this post I am learning what I thought I already knew; Approval, acceptance, a sense of importance, compassion, heals the Ego. These are attributes of the fourth chakra which is Compassion. Compassion is the gate or bridge between the higher and lower chakras. Bridging the chakras is one of the fundamental steps of divine living. Now when I am pressed by ghostly egoic apparitions I let them let go by acknowledging their request for guidance. I do believe that is all they represent, a request for guidance. I visualize the apparition  rising into my fifth, sixth and seventh chakras. This represents the question that is Ego being raised and the bond forming between the higher and lower chakras. The qualities I noted in this post; giving importance to the Ego’s decisions, Compassion and its qualities need to be given to the Ego if it is to rise up through the higher chakras with its question.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2012

Metaphysics And The Distillation Of How

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In my last post, The Key of Solomon,  I wrote of Character, Disposition and Reputation. In my mystic progression, and for the sake of better understanding, I have a lesson to learn about these pieces of my puzzle. I will learn this lesson as I write this post. I have always worked this way, writing and learning. Prior to blogging I carried a folded paper with me and when a word occurred to me, to continue a sentence, or a line of thought, I would write it down. After stringing enough words together a completed thought or idea would manifest. Except for the conversational context, that is a blog, this is the same process. Let us see what there is to know about this collision of person at the point of true gravity; Being and Now.

In The Key of Solomon I wrote of a sphere and within the sphere three intersecting lines, those lines are as a foundation. They intersect at the point that is the center of the sphere creating twelve right angles. The center point is the point of Being as well as the moment Now. Emanating from the lines are planes that divide the sphere into eight equal segments. Visually, the most obvious of these three planes is Character as it is as a front or a face and is vertical. The plane that is Disposition is also a vertical plane and appears as a thin line dividing Character front to back at a right angle. The horizontal plane, Reputation, also appears as a thin line when looking from the front to back, front being the plane of Character. Reputation divides the sphere in half and creates a top and a bottom. It seems that Reputation is as a filter. It seems that there is a tendency for stuff to get stuck in these segments and I have something stuck in one of mine. It also seems that what I have stuck moves from that segment, if it will, almost like it has a free will. That being said I think it must be a choice I made or at least associated with a choice I have made as choice is freedom and power. It is in determining what this choice is that the true value of its existence is revealed.

I find a decision to create hardship knowing it would hide me from responsibility. A decision made in my preschool years, maybe four years old. This choice originates from the effort made to discourage me from talking about people who are visible, independent beings whom I can see, yet no one else is interested. The only interest is in getting me to stop pretending. Only, I am not pretending. I have wanted to get back to this time and understand it better. My memory of this is almost entirely based on stories told to me about it. I was determined to introduce people to people they could not see. The early childhood imaginary friend. I am confident these beings were not imaginary but rather spiritual and it seems in my youthful frustration, and hurt, I turned my back on them. The choice fixed in my person components of disposition that can now be mended. Pain and frustration are poor motivators for choice. They get stuck in our person when we make a choice due to their influence. Today I am being directed to do something about this choice made so long ago.

The Key of Solomon has a great deal of movement associated with it and I am using my understanding of this movement to let go of the negative components of disposition associated with this time in my life by allowing them to go through the natural movement of the key. In doing this I am learning something new about how the key works and its practical use. Well that is my lesson. It took me four days to figure it out and write it all down. It will be interesting to see what this additional understanding of  this metaphysical key will reveal. From my past experiences with the key I think it will begin to work by the fact of familiarity, acquaintance. A realization as opposed to accomplishment. Things like this do not work if you think you can own them. There is no sophistication of intellect that makes one person deserving and another not. It is just a matter of choice, availability, determination that gives opportunity for realization. You are asking; How do I know this is Solomons Key? Well that is a good question. Time will answer that best. In my experience it has proven to be very powerful and I am confident as to what it is. Perhaps someday I will see it differently.

To me this is all very technical and I ask myself; Could anyone really be interested these metaphysical details of my personal growth? Please chime in and leave a comment so I will know you are there and find this interesting.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2012

The Key of Solomon

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There is a place I know of as foundation. It is a single point through which three lines intersect forming twelve right angles. The first line is Providence and it is as a pillar. The second line is Fate and it runs front to back. The third line is abundance and it runs left to right. I have long known that the intersecting point is Being. My mystic considerations, of late, have had me considering Now and how to find it. That ponder has led me to realize that this point of Being, of intersection, is Now. Emanating from these lines, and fixed by this point, are three planes. I can see this place, it has a substance I will call image, for lack of any other term. Just now I can see the planes and I have no idea what to name them and so I will write about it and divine their definitions. Come along with me if you like, I enjoy the company.

First I will consider the plane that cuts along the lines of Providence and Abundance, it is as a face or front. I will call it character. Next is the plane that is fixed by the lines of Fate and Providence and is as a profile. It is disposition. Lastly resting along the lines of Fate and Abundance is reputation.

We are usually as a satellite circling this point as it is the point of true gravity, this point that is Being, that is Now. Being somewhere other than this point is ‘normal’ or usual. This is the place of power, it can not be owned as it is what owns us. In truth we own nothing but we go about glomming on to all manner of things creating false gravity’s that pull us from our center, from Being and Now. This is how we actually create reality and it is only ‘true’ that it is real. Being and Now are also appointed a place in our physical body. It is at our body center or Hara. (You can Google Hara if you do not know what it is. Here is an example). Should a person find this place and learn the trick to fix it to their Hara, so that Now-Being and Hara are at the same place and fixed, they become a Divine Being. A completed person with the full complement of intended attribute. It is a state that can not be achieved, only realized.

There are many other components that define and secure this place, give it a ceiling and a floor. It creates a window, a door, a narrow gate to an actual place, a world, a reality. A place to walk and be. I have walked there. In this post I will cover just one more component of Solomon’s Key, that is what I know this to be. A sphere surrounds the central point As you walk on the floor of the key the sphere moves freely in any direction and is,I think, as a force-field.

It is nice to be able to see this place again and recognize its components. Hopefully I will learn a more durable lesson this time. I am still trying to get back on the seat so I can drive this thing. You have to let go of everything to be able to do it. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Michael, The Mystic Tourist ©2012