Gathering Power: Magick & Empowerment

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Gathering Power is vital to successful Wiccan practice. After all, Wicca is a craft of personal empowerment.

What we're talking about is magickal Power, the power to be and do everything you dream of ...

Magic Spells: Manifesting the life you want
Psychic Ability: Hearing the guidance of a Higher/Deeper Self or Divinity
Spiritual Healing: Creating wellness for self, others, and the Earth
Personal Empowerment: Being all you dream you can be
Wisdom: Knowing yourself, knowing all there is to be known.

But what does it mean to gather Power? How do you go about gaining Power?

What Is Power?

You may have noticed that I keep writing Power with a capital "P." This distinguishes this spiritual or magickal Power from power in the world... the power to move a house, or make laws, and so on.

This spiritual Power is identical to Divine Energy. And this is the crucial point.

It is not your Power.

It is the energy of the Source that creates you and all the universe. And when you understand this, you understand how to increase your magickal energy...

You strengthen your connection to that Source.

You came with a natural connection to that energy. So in essence you are not finding Power, but reclaiming it.

How Do You Increase Spiritual Power?

Gathering Power is not a black-and-white affair. Everything in existence holds Power. The only difference is one of degree.

Since all Power is Divine Energy, it's not something you can create or find.

In other words, the question is not "How can you increase your spiritual Power?" The question is "How can you hold more spiritual Power?"

I liken it to being a container. The kind of container you are determines the kind or amount of Power you can hold...

A screen that will catch pebbles will have pebble-type Power... a large wavelength, a gross vibration -- but still Power.
A sieve that holds sand has greater Power because more refined wavelengths can be "caught" and put to use.
A solid container that holds water is even better.
Something that can contain air molecules is a very refined container, capable of channeling great Power.

This empowerment evolution from a crude container to a fine one is a process I call forging the Sacred Chalice. It refers to the development of yourself at every level. Refining yourself makes you both more accessible to spiritual Power, and able to channel greater amounts of Power.

Just to make things perfectly clear:

Forging your Sacred Chalice prepares your body and brain
to handle increased Power flows.

And as you prepare for increased flow, Power automatically increases.

Because Power comes with refinement. As you refine your perceptions, your awareness, your thoughts, your feelings, your speech... you gain Power at each step.

The Process of Gathering Power

There is a process that is inherent in any Gathering of Power. It is essentially the Hero/ine's Journey...

Cleansing and Clearing
Breaking out of comfort zones and old belief systems
Facing and overcoming challenges that you didn't know you could
Accepting new patterns, taking in new possibilities
Learning to use your new knowledge
Using your skills in service to others.

An Analogy: Remaking a Vessel of Clay

Let me offer an analogy... Let's say that you have some clay that has been formed and hardened into a plate, and you wish instead to have a bowl.

First you wash it, clearing away anything that contaminates it.
Second, you have to break it up, crumble the old structure.
Third, you add water to change the texture and make it more pliable.
Fourth, you mold it to its new improved shape.
Fifth, you harden it again, solidifying the new pattern into its structure.
And sixth, you use it wisely, and only for purposes it was created for.

Gathering Power, Step By Step

Let's break down the process in more detail, step by step.

The First Step: Clearing

In life this relates to doing some psychological or emotional work. You process your stories, sifting them to find the treasure that hides within them.

There is a gift hidden within any problem. Life's challenges hold strength and power for us.

As you uncover and claim the gift of things that have happened to you, you let go of the husk of pain: the resistance, regret, and resentment you have carried.

And doing so, you reclaim your Power. You begin to rediscover the truth about who you are, underneath all the veils of concealment you have created. These veils are like solid walls, sealing you away from the Source of Power.

Breaking free of your personal stories becomes the transition to step 2.

The Second Step: Breaking Free

This often involves an excursion into a new culture. It may be crossing countries or religions or cultural mindsets or economic classes.

Nothing frees us of our invisible shackles better than seeing them clearly... which we must do from a psychological distance. Just as we can't perceive the air while we're immersed in it, but only from the vantage point of space, we can only see the prisons of our mental constructs from outside them.

So by leaving what is known and familiar, we loosen up our perceptions and become more aware of other realities.

This part of gathering Power also involves removing the blocks of limiting beliefs. These delusions need to go, if you want to access your Power potential. Poor self-worth, ideas about what constitutes reality, or belief in a wrathful God, for instance, keep you barricaded from your Power.

It is necessary to break free of tribal belief systems which define and box in reality and yourself. Neither is what anyone says it is.

This second step often involves feeling confused, lost, or hopeless. When you feel these, take heart! You are well into the second step of gathering Power.

Which brings you to . . .

The Third Step: Overcoming Challenges

Here you meet challenges and discover hidden strengths within yourself. You are forced to call on reserves of courage, creativity, or compassion that you never knew you had.

Thus you gain more understanding of your real capabilities, finding them much greater than anticipated. Your self-respect increases. Your awareness of who you are and of what you are capable begins to expand.

By which process you begin . . .

The Fourth Step: New Possibilities

Now you are able to accept new patterns and new possibilities into your mind. This enables them to manifest in your reality.

You realise that the world's limitations are something you've imposed, rather than being the foundation of reality.

You now know that you are therefore more free and more powerful than you'd thought.

You begin learning new skills, working with Power in a way that is outside the mundane "reality."

This may not even be consciously done, but as your awareness shifts, your thoughts also transform. And since thoughts are reality in larval form, you begin to create your reality more directly than ever before.

This practice leads to . . .

The Fifth Step: Developing Mastery

With practice, you develop mastery of these skills, and a greater command of yourself.

As you learn to use your new knowledge, Power becomes integrated into all levels of your being. It will never be theoretical again - it is your new reality. It is truth.

And your thoughts and feelings become more manageable. You notice that you are in fact in charge of how you think and what you feel at any moment. This is the beginning of true liberation.

You now realise the truth that your entire experience is self-directed. No one can ever make you feel anything or do anything that you don't choose.

This Power and truth then express themselves as . . .

The Sixth Step: Offering Service

Along with Power comes compassion for those still bound by the old beliefs, and a desire to help them find freedom. Or at least to relieve their suffering, when they are not ready or able to free themselves.

This doesn't have to be grand objectives. It can be as simple as random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

This is selfless service: you give because you can, not because you expect anything in return.

Yet it is also self-full service. You are not giving as a martyr, and you never feel that you are losing anything. Your service is a gift, born of the wholeness you experience within yourself.

This selfless service becomes . . .

The First Step: Clearing

With every act of service, you are cleansing and purifying yourself by your actions . . .

The process spirals on, as each step leads to even further clarification of self, which enables greater wisdom and more Power to flow through you, in a never-complete cycle of increasing truth, increasing Power, increasing enlightenment, increasing joy.

With Brightest Blessings,

erin Dragonsong