Silver Chalice Wicca 'Zine #30

Energy Sensing
and
Do Love Spells Really Work?

June/July 2012

Editor's Note

Merry Meet! Welcome to the Silver Chalice Wicca 'Zine!

Is it just me, or is the Wheel turning faster than ever these days? JUNE??? I'm barely caught up with January!

But the height of the grass tells me 'tis indeed the summery season.

Usually this time of year finds me in the thick of outdoor projects as we develop our small homestead. This year, however, I'm slipping blissfully through the etheric realm, contemplating and exploring and writing about my favourite things: Wicca, magick, and how to reach the Divine.

Well, the writing part is not really so blissful, as I put in long grueling hours getting the next week's lesson out to the trial students. But all in all, this is what I'm meant to do and there's a joy, a deep satisfaction, in that, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to do it.

The course's program of study is set up to coincide with the seasons and Sabbats, beginning with the most basic Wiccan skills and growing from there. By Spring we're into the really exciting part (from my perspective, anyway): energy work and magick — the two being almost synonymous.

For many, this is the best part of Wicca, so I'd like to share with you part of the lesson on Energy Sensing in this issue. Teaching how to sense energy is too long a topic for a 'zine, though we do touch on the subject, so mostly we'll look at who can sense energy and why so many people can't.

(Of course, the rest of the lesson is made to guide people to developing this skill.)

In this issue, we'll also look at the hidden hazards of love spells, in Ask The Priestess.

Plus... a special discount only for readers of the Silver Chalice, to make your summer extra special. Check it out, below!

Have a blessed June & July! See you at the next turn of the wheel.

With Brightest Blessings,

Contact Us

If you have any comments, opinions, or content ideas we'd love to hear from you. Please write! (Please note that while I love to hear from you, I'm not able to respond to all emails anymore, due to the high volume I receive. I very much regret this, but hope you understand. Thanks!)

Table of Contents Events & Announcement -- Wicca Spirituality in your Inbox -- Jesus Through Pagan Eyes Special Offers -- Half-Price Sale Wicca Course In Progress -- Energy Sensing Ask The Priestess -- Do Love Spells Really Work? Fave Quotes -- On Love Word on the Street -- "A Breath Of Fresh Air" Silver Chalice Details   Events & Announcements Not one but TWO exciting events to announce... Wicca Spirituality in your Inbox! Want to get insights, inspirations, and tips from Erin Dragonsong delivered handily to your inbox? New, coming in June, is an email service that brings you neat things like... The lowdown on current Energy Fields (astrological influences and emotional forces that may be affecting you) Updates on the 2012 Transition Tips on magick, meditation, Wicca, spirituality, and personal development Discounts and special offers Updates on the 2012 Transition Excerpts from the latest books in progress First dibs on all new products Reviews of helpful resources The Inside Scoop on what's going on in Erin's head (hint: it's often chocolate-flavoured) The last thing anyone wants is to load up your inbox with daily long articles that you won't have time to read. These will be brief, coming only when there's something that you might want to know . . . . . . and every one will have something useful, uplifting, or entertaining for you. Click here to join. Thanks! I look forward to seeing you at your inbox! Jesus Through Pagan Eyes Jesus Through Pagan Eyes: Bridging Neopagan Perspectives with a Progressive Vision of Christ, the long-awaited collection of Pagan views on Jesus Christ (including a contribution from yours truly), is now available. Here's a few reviews of this neat book... Mark Townsend is a priest whose understanding of God made it impossible for him to live inside traditional religious boundaries. In this book he tells us why in a compelling and provocative way and in the process draws his readers into fascinating new images. This volume will make a major contribution to freeing Jesus for the interreligious and the non-religious world that is emerging. -- John Shelby Spong, Author, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World “Christian” means “Christ-like,” so the question for all Christians becomes “What was Christ like?” Perhaps he was a lot more like modern Pagans than he was like many modern “Christians!” - Oberon Zell, Founder, Church of All Worlds Hailed as ‘life changing’ by some reviewers, a highly original book that had literally ‘never been done before,’ Jesus Through Pagan Eyes is written by ex C of E Vicar and Progressive Christian Priest, Mark Townsend, as an offering to the many who are dis-satisfied with the mainstream picture of Jesus Christ. Spending three years among the people of the modern day Pagan (Earth-based) traditions, Townsend sought to push the boundaries and gain insights from those often seen as the antithesis of Christianity. The resulting picture is one that will give a glimpse of a Jesus who is human, dynamic, compassionate and relevant. Editor Mark Townsend hopes that this book provides "one small step in the direction of the detoxification of the man and myth who stands at the centre of a world faith." I believe he's right. Special Offers Know what could make for an amazing summer vacation? Connecting with the wildlife you see and the natural surroundings. Even if you're going to be at home, nature comes alive in the summer, and you can make the most of it by learning how to communicate with animals and nature. So for June only, I'd like to offer you, my delightful reader, a special discount on this wonderful book! Save 50 % before June 15 when you order A Natural Connection: Discover Your Animal Spirit Guides and How They Can Help You. Type in the discount code -- SweetSummer -- and you'll get the full 3-volume set for just $ 9.95. And then get ready to meet your Animal Spirit Guides. Click on the image above to get more information, or on this link to get yours at a discount now. Wicca Course In Progress (Please Note: This material is protected by legal copyright) Sensing Energy What does Energy feel like? Different Energies, just like different emotions, have different "feels" to them. An Energy of happiness feels different from an Energy of depression; and Energy of health feels different from an Energy of illness. While you can probably sense emotional Energy already, at least within yourself, you may not be aware of sensing emotions in others, or sensing health and illness and other subtle Energies... although I can promise you that you do sense them. Why Can't We All Sense Energies Already? Everyone senses Energy. It's a natural human skill -- just one that's been muzzled. You are sensing Energy when you… Meet someone and have an instant feeling about them of like and trust Walk into a building and feel immediately at home... or immediately uncomfortable and wanting to leave Guess what someone else is feeling, without them saying or showing it Walk into a room and know that people have just been fighting there Feel that someone is watching you (when someone is) Feel that someone is "in your space" Feel an aversion to a person for no explainable reason So if it's all that natural, why can't we use this ability at will? Simple. We've had no one to teach us how, and we've been trained as children not to. This training happens in eight ways: We're taught to ignore what we intuit or perceive outside of the accepted 5 senses. This is a sort of blindness that gets passed on through the generations: adults tell us that what we perceive isn't real, and we believe them, and grow up to tell our children that what they perceive isn't real, and so on through the ages. (Until now, of course, when we're going to change all that. ) We’ve been trained to ignore what we feel physically. We are expected to ignore our bodies' requests for food, drink, rest, elimination, movement, and anything else that doesn't fit into a schedule. And if we no longer notice the loud demands of our physical needs, how could we tune into the subtle information of the Energies around us? We're expected, in Western culture, to stay busy. Taking time to sit and do nothing is very taboo. But it's in these "down-times" that we can process what we're going through: we sort out our emotions, sift our thoughts into coherency, hear our bodies express their feelings, and so on. When we do this, we gain clarity about ourselves... and then when we sense something from outside ourselves, we can be aware that we notice something and that it's not ours, and that we have just "received" some outside information on a subtle level. Western culture also insists we ignore or repress our feelings. The idea is that, if we aren't looking at them, they'll go away. HA! If only! Ignoring feelings merely shunts them to the powerhouse of the subconscious, where they can wreak far more havoc for a whole lifetime. And since every bit of information we take in gets filtered through the subconscious, we aren't able to sensitively receive subtle information without it being distorted by unresolved emotions. Even if we do sense something, we're supposed to disbelieve it... unless it coincides with rational analysis. This is why so many people have trouble with hearing their intuition -- it often goes against our logical thoughts. When you have a strong intuition that your job is slowly killing you, say, but your mind keeps screaming at you that you need to pay your rent so how could you even consider anything so irresponsible... intuition generally loses out. The mind/ego is so much louder, pushier, and more insistent than the quiet voice of subtle sensing, it automatically takes precedence unless we choose otherwise. Ironically, according to studies, the most highly successful business people routinely let their intuition be the final guide in business decisions -- they do all their research, of course, but then let their intuition cast the decisive vote. You'd think they'd teach it in school, then, wouldn't you? "If you want to be successful, you really must sign up for Intuition 101!" May it be so, some day! Even when we want to heed our intuition, we often can't hear it above the mind's incessant chatter. You can't hear someone else when you are speaking, and the mind is never not speaking... until it's trained to be quiet for a while. It's tricky to distinguish the feelings in our bodies from those we pick up around us, and even trickier to discern the true voice of intuition (or the Divine) from the sneaky manipulations of the ego. This takes a lot of practice, and a boatload of self-awareness. Most people give up too easily to ever access this most powerful personal tool. Another challenge is that Energy is perceived in different ways by different people. So when one may see a light and another one hear a bell and a third smell roses and a fourth feel tingles, it's hard to get confirmation about what we experience. "Bells? What bells? You must be crazy! Hey, is it just me or can you smell roses?" How You Sense Energy Even though we've learnt not to sense Energy, we can undo that training and increase our Energy sensitivity. Learning how to sense Energies is primarily a process of tuning in to your body and thoughts. What you sense intuitively or psychically, you sense through your ordinary senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, physical sensation... or the mental equivalent of them (like in visualisation). Let's take a moment to look more closely at one sense: physical sensation. Most people call that sense "touch," but in fact I've found that there are actually four body-senses: Touch (tactile) Inner sensation (somatic) Movement (kinesthetic) Emotion (the most magickally potent sense of all!) Your body, including your etheric (aura or Energy body), is like your antenna. It translates subtle perceptions through your ordinary senses -- that's why we "see" or "hear" or "feel" things, rather than experiencing some completely new sensory style. Of course, the background noise of the body's communication and the mind's chatter interferes with accurate reading. This is, in my opinion, the biggest reason why few people are aware of their extrasensory abilities. Imagine being in a room full of ringing telephones. When one more starts ringing in a far corner, would you even notice it? The more you can quiet your body and mind, the more you'll be able to “hear” other sources of information. You also need to know what normal noise is for you. It's like radio astronomy, where they first measure the background noise, and then they can screen it out so they can “hear” new objects. So what this is all leading up to is a 4-step process that you can use to increase your ability to sense — and hence work with — Energies, as well as develop your intuition and psychic skills (which are all part of the same package.) So the process of learning to sense Energies is four-fold: Become aware of your body and how it feels Get your mind out of the way Refine your senses (as discussed earlier) Practice Energy-sensing exercises This is what the rest of the lesson will teach you. Click on the button above to find out more What Do You Think So Far? I'd love to hear from you… Please write and let me know! Ask The Priestess Do Love Spells Really Work? Dear Priestess, Does love spells really work ? I thank you for having this site up. I have dabbled in magic all my life. I am a Christian who has seen many things in life and even questioned the bible in some areas of the stories I read. That will be a subject for another day. But why I am writing to you today is I have need of help in a love spell. It is a long story and I will spare you the details, but I have a guy that says he loves me; I been there for him through thick and thin. It is hard to walk away from him. I want him to feel the pain I feel and I want him back no matter what. I want him to think of me and desire me everyday. I am at the point I am willing to face the Karma. Can you help me or direct to someone who can? L.D., USA Dear L.D., I have to warn you that a love spell is a handful of disasters. First of all, will you enjoy it when people are manipulating you, in the karmic return -- having no regard for your desires, no respect for your life, wanting only that you fulfill their needs and desires like some puppet? Second, if you do a love spell, it's like slipping someone an aphrodisiac or drug. Is a lie enough for you? Are you willing to accept such a poor substitute for someone's affection and true regard? You can't make someone feel real love, honey, and it points to seriously low self-esteem if this kind of false-love would be acceptable to you. Third, it's not really love on your part if you would do such a thing to him. It may be addiction or fear or need or something, but it's not love. If you love someone, you would never wish to force them to do what you want, when they want something else. Love doesn't seek to manipulate and control for your own benefit. Fourth, no spell can really override a person's will. That's the stuff of fantasy movies and wishful thinking. However, by trying, you still invoke the 3-Fold Law of karmic return. Finally, even if it were possible, I would never get involved in that kind of harmful magick. If you could find someone who would do that sort of thing, I'd be more worried about their integrity and what they might do to you. If you want love, be love. Love yourself. Love others. Find out what it means to love without expectations of return. Then real love will be all around you... and a much better love than any spell could even hope to provide. I wish you all the best. With Blessings, Erin Do you have a question you'd like answered? Email the Priestess and your question could be answered in a future issue. (Note: questions may be edited for brevity or clarity. No real names will be disclosed. For reasons of legality, all questions become the property of Wicca-Spirituality.com.) Fave Quotes Where there is great love, there are always miracles. ~ Willa Cather When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast and limitless. ~ Pema Chodron Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~ Rumi You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you. ~ J. Krishnamurti Be the one seeking a way to give, rather than the one looking for something to get. ~ Wayne Dyer Word on the Street What People Are Saying About Wicca-Spirituality.com: I love your websight! Thank you so much for this site. You are always the first place I check when I have a question, or want to learn something new! -- C. in USA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I Thank you! I would like to thank you for a wonderful web. I was drawn to the site and have been reading it has come at it time in my life when I needed it most. I found I had no direction. You have assisted me in choosing a path which I feel at home in. I have been on the web looking for contact closer to home and must be honest I am not comfortable with the web sites I have looked into. Your site is like a breath of fresh air compared to the local sites which seem closed and gloomy. Bright Blessings -- L.B. in South Africa Thanks for writing!! I appreciate hearing from you! : ) Know somebody who'd like to read this? We really hope that you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. If you think your friends might be interested in taking a look, please feel free to forward it to them. Haven't subscribed yet? If you're reading this on the recommendation of a friend and would like to receive all the future editions, you can subscribe for free through this link: The Silver Chalice E-Zine to subscribe. Contact Us If you have any comments, opinions, or content ideas we'd love to hear from you. Please write! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ © erin dragonsong 2012. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinting any of this is forbidden unless you obtain my written permission: karma and the law agree on this one. And Copyscape is keeping an eye on these things.

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