Magic and other things . . .

Magic has been on my mind a lot lately, and yes because of Harry Potter. I saw the last movie for the second time today with a friend who had been wanting to see it and asked me to go. After I saw it the first time I was finally influenced to read the books which I had been avoiding and swore I would never read, not sure why, but that was where I stood. But after they killed Dumblodore I had to read this stuff that seemed deeper than what I would have expected. Not to mention it was a brilliantly made film, the cinematography and everything. But I digress.

So I've now read the first 3 books and picked up another one called The Magicians by Lev Grossman which is a grown up more gritty Harry Potteresque type story, but not at the same time. I'm only half way through it but love it very much.

As a child I was obsessed with magic, not the magicians and David Copperfield brand, but sorcery. Making things happen by shear will power and intention, it amazed me, along with Sci Fi. Then when 30 and I found hatha yoga, it seemed like alchemy was a real thing at least. Changing my body chemistry and my brain to function more clearly, my eyes to see better, my hearing improved, sense of smell, everything. Became alkaline from a super acidic physicality and improved every area of my life.

At that time I was doing Gurmukh's kundalini tape once a week, but it seemed like super hard repetitive movements, not something esoteric that worked on my energy like kundalini can be, then I discovered a class and deeper teachings, books upon books of meditations and kriyas given to us by Yoga Bhajan and began to feel the magic. These weird little breathing patterns, coupled with a movement and sometimes also a mantra started to move energy into and through my body in ways I hadn't imagined would be a possibility.

Then the real alchemy began, especially this year that I've been studying and practicing kundalini yoga so intensely. My heart began to open up and I voluntarily put it out there and with that energy around me people are more open to coming up and talking to me and asking me questions. My yoga teaching became better and my classes bigger, especially that crazy park class with 90 some odd people showing up weekly! I met someone that I am in love with but who doesn't necessarily feel the same way and I'm okay with that and am just staying out there and seeing what will happen with it or with someone else (no I'm not hopelessly going to wait around for him! LOL). Before I would've been heart broken and sad for months. I can sense energy in my students and others around me and when they are blocking it off, being fearful or reticent, not letting it flow. I can feel the energy of a thing I'm doing, in my body and around my body and can tell whether its the right thing or not necessarily the best for me at that moment based on that.

All kinds of things like that, things that a Baptist upbringing will tell you are crap and things of the devil, not to be messed with. Even though they feel good and intuitively right and like God leading me in the direction I'm supposed to head in, or telling me when I've veered off course from that direction.

Is that not magic? Magic as described by wikipedia is the consciousness manipulation and/or autosuggestion to achieve a desired result, usually by empirical techniques. Sounds like hatha and kundalini yoga to me? The results are layed out more specifically in the kundalini tradition so maybe moreso it that hatha but none the less, sounds like magic right? It makes me happy to believe there are these things in the world, in life. It makes me happy to know that the only way to be is not the way I was raised to understand things to be, but that somewhere deep down even as a child I knew there was more underlying all that stuff.

Some traditions mention Christ consciousness, that is how Jesus got his abilities because he was so connected to the source that he could do them and said even greater than these things that I do shall you do, and I believe we can. I am working toward what some call Christ consciousness and want to be leading my students, friends and whomever else in that same direction. This is what will create the paradigm shift, or rather move the paradigm shift that is already beginning to happen into the critical mass stage where all of us will be there and get it and move into the light that life really has to offer us, I can't wait!

The process started for me years after I'd started hatha yoga with the study of Kabbalah. The first teaching I read that resonated was act, don't react. I was like WTF? Thats what you do, react to things, but no it is a choice to react. You can chose to act once you've given it time to gel and see how you really feel, not let your ego get hold of you with a knee jerk reaction that will affect many and not be coming from your true place. That choice is magic. Really, once you realize you can make a choice or not and learn how to recognize it before you've had the reaction and stop and change it into an action is magic. You've changed yourself on a chemical level the very first time you've done that=alchemy=magic. Love it!