Joy

Intuition

Sometimes defined as a gut instinct. For magical practitioners, it is the ability to hear or feel the higher mind, higher self, or inner spirit, or that small quiet voice inside and its guidance.

Journaling

Keeping notes on one’s experiences, thoughts, feelings, study, and practices.

It never fails that when I ask students to keep a journal, they ask if they can keep a digital journal. The answer is no! Here is why. Handwriting is connected directly to your thought process. This thought process then flows through your body creating an embedded memory for both the mind and body. Handwriting stimulates the part of the creative brain in the cerebral cortex that a computer or other electronic device does not.

The part of the cortex that handwriting accesses is the very part of the mind we are trying to enhance in psychic skill building, and writing by hand puts the mind in a semi-altered state similar to spellwork and meditation. Typing on a device does not access the same part of your brain. Journaling also assists in making our thoughts more tangible and present in our lives and mind.

Journaling is how this book came into being and how my thoughts and experiences became tangible. I have been handwriting lessons and journaling for ten years. I have thirteen notebooks broken down into subjects and labeled. You may be thinking this system is a pain because it all had to go on the computer later. This, too, has its use.

When you enter your handwritten notes on the computer, you also are reading them, which then taps the deeper memories and thoughts that were previously provided in the original writing. This stimulates a more informative and consistent flow

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of thought, memory, and emotion. As you read your notes several times, you also will increase your memory retention.

As you journal, remember that only you need to be able to read the words. Your writing does not have to be excellent with proper punctuation and spelling. In fact, I advise against that. I encourage freewriting as you journal: just let it flow as it will. And of special note, journaling is also how a Book of Shadows begins.

Knowing yourself

Knowing yourself means you know what you are feeling, you know what your personality traits are like, and you have the ability to acknowledge them when they appear. To know yourself means you know yourself as a person so well you can tell what feelings and emotions belong to you and what does not in any given moment. This is a vital skill in psychism.

Meditation

A state of mind in which an individual achieves a theta state. In meditation, you clear and focus the mind to achieve calm, clarity, and information. Meditation is a method used to receive and experience visions and spiritual insights, and it requires the shifting of the consciousness into an altered state.

Pause

To calm all functions and thoughts. This is done by clearing the mind and putting the emotions on hold.

Pivoting

To turn your current thoughts to something else. Usually something more constructive or positive to distract yourself.

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