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diff --git a/src/blog/casting-the-circle.md b/src/blog/casting-the-circle.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..206a2e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/blog/casting-the-circle.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title = "Casting the Circle" +date = 2024-05-22T10:45:00-05:00 +--- +We tried to read <cite>The Psychonaut's Field Manual</cite> today, and while I'm not sure that we actually +got what the author intended out of it, I believe we ended up with a more lasting lesson. I don't know +exactly how we ended up coming across this little PDF that purports to be an atheistic starter's guide to +chaos magick, but already on page 5 we felt compelled to stress the importance of finding techniques that +actually work for you. +--- + +The direction to simply "try not thinking" is probably the least useful way you could instruct a beginner on +how to meditate, especially when it's couched in language that's subtly denigrating to those who can't do it. +Abandoning a session doesn't make you a "pussy", it simply means you aren't in the state of mind for it - +either you need more practice or you have more pressing concerns to address first. Getting negative just +makes you less likely to try again later. + +<cite>Dune</cite> contains more complete instructions for how to handle undesired thoughts and reach a +meditative state. Specifically, the latter half of the Litany Against Fear: + +<blockquote>I will permit it to pass over me and through me. +And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. +Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.</blockquote> + +The candle trick and focusing on your breath <em>are</em> helpful (and we have certainly accidentally used +a campfire to good effect before), but we find a couple of techniques that we picked up to deal with +dissociation and hypomania are more concretely useful. The immediate goal is to let your thoughts pass you +by, and directing your attention to your senses is a good way to do that. + +First, the 5-4-3-2-1 method of using your senses to observe the world around you without reacting to them: +- 5 things you can hear +- 4 you can see +- 3 you can touch +- 2 you can smell +- 1 you can taste + +And second, simple box breathing: +- in for a count of 4 (not necessarily 4 entire seconds, depending on your ability) +- hold for 4 +- out for 4 +- hold for 4 +- repeat until calm + +--- + +I don't know that the rest of this book is particularly useful to us - it seems quite interested in creating +a cosmology for something that purports not to be a theology, and to be franky we already have most of these +tools available to us through the lens of plurality. Making tulpas out of your sleep paralysis demons is +<em>interesting</em>, but not the kind of practice we're looking for. + +It certainly is fascinating to see that we spent our 20s developing a practice that others consider to be +basically magical already, something that we'd been unconsciously doing for maybe a decade prior to that. +Maybe the real lesson we were meant to learn is just to see the magic in what we're already doing. + +On that note, let us end this by affirming a very commonly known charm: flipping a coin to make a decision +very often crystallizes your desires and intent to act on them. In every way that counts, that's magic. |