TWS: Chapter One - Leaving the Castle

[Tana]

I'm also very interested in this, would you mind naming the other book?

Orion Foxwood's The Faery Techings. And I have The Tree of Enchantment here too, latter waiting for me to finally finish the former.

[Waldhexe]

Orion Foxwood's The Faery Techings. And I have The Tree of Enchantment here too, latter waiting for me to finally finish the former.

Thanks, I might consider reading them at some time, faeries or not.

[FierFlye]

This thread is the place to post discussion and experiences relevant to the first chapter of The Twelve Wild Swans.

This is the work I am going to do for the first chapter:
1. Build an air altar/shrine
2. Attempt to meditate on or observe the air 3 times.
3. Practice the grounding exercise daily.

This is for one week, possibly to be extended.

[SatSekhem]

1. Why did you feel called to participate in this project?

For the last few weeks, I've felt this irritating buzzing about magic and magical traditions in the back of my head. I started off on this crazy little path with a heavy magic focus, but I pulled back as uncertainty, irritation, and emotional issues got in the way. It's time to get back to what I had started, only this time, I'd like to learn it more properly as opposed to hodge-podge.

2. What path will you be working on, and why?

I'm working on the Elements path. This is due to what I mentioned above: I learned improperly (I feel) and want to start off in a better fashion. I prefer book-learning to hand's on because I understand books a lot better than I understand other peoples' perspectives.

3. What kind of preparation are you doing prior to beginning this work?

I read the introduction. XD In reality, nothing. I decided to jump into the deep end in the hopes that I remembered how to swim. So far, I'm not drowning.

4. The main focus of the first chapter is that we all inherit problems that we did not cause yet must live with. Which of these inherited problems do you feel most affected by?

I feel most affected by the loss of folk lore and natural knowledge.

5. The book states, "to gain insight we must step outside our usual realm of experience". What does that mean to you? Where or how might you gain new insight?

It means that I have to stop being so focused on the here and now and on me, me, me. In all honesty, I'm not sure where or how. I think just being more observant would be a good place to start.

6. What challenges/inherited problems do you feel belong to you? Which ones are you called to fix?

When I try to ponder this question, I get images of the forest behind my Hubby's parents' house. (It's a great little piece of land.) I don't know specifically what I'm supposed to do with nature but... that's the start, I guess.

[SatSekhem]

This is the work I am going to do for the first chapter:
1. Build an air altar/shrine
2. Attempt to meditate on or observe the air 3 times.
3. Practice the grounding exercise daily.

This is for one week, possibly to be extended.

Those are great ideas.

To build on...

1. I am going to try centering and grounding on a daily basis.
2. I am going to try breathing exercises on a daily basis. Specifically, I'm going to try the one that is mentioned in the section, thanking the element of air.
3. I want to get up and greet the sunrise, the noontime, the sunset, and the midnight as is mentioned prior to casting first circle.

I think the grounding and breathing exercises will continue longer than a week, but I'd preferred to greet the various sun phases and moon phases before Thanksgiving of next week.

[Waldhexe]

I needed some time to answer the last three questions. It seems hard for me to summarize my answers and post them in a public forum.

4. The main focus of the first chapter is that we all inherit problems that we did not cause yet must live with. Which of these inherited problems do you feel most affected by?

My main issue at the moment are childhood traumata from violence and neglect which often put me into the role of the victim. So I have trouble trusting people, to draw lines and protect myself against bullying.

5. The book states, "to gain insight we must step outside our usual realm of experience". What does that mean to you? Where or how might you gain new insight?

By concentrating on my own ressources and real blessings available to me now (like nature, friends, spirituality, hobbies). I feel all the negative experiences are like a dark spiral in me trying to catch me, but there's also a light spiral which can heal me if I make it strong enough by supporting the strengh I already have and protecting myself from influences (like bullies) which increase the power of the dark spiral.

6. What challenges/inherited problems do you feel belong to you? Which ones are you called to fix?

I feel the violence and neglect which happened to me as a child isn't just a single experience of a single person, but part of a larger problem of society. The most disturbing part for me is that I've searched for help a couple of times and only got advise like "don't behave like a victim then you won't be treated like one" or disbelief - and that even from people who should have acted professional like the police. I'm sure there's something deeply wrong with a society who allows children and teens to be hurt continously while standing by and giving cynical advise to a child who clearly isn't strong enough to fight several attackers at once without a gun. (I'm really not surprised some children and teens use guns.) But I don't understand what's wrong exactly and at the moment it's not my job to heal whatever it is. I have my hands full with healing myself.

I also don't understand why there's this inhuman streak which compells people to hurt other people to the point of breaking their will and destroying them psychically just for the sake of finding joy in the power to destroy another human being. That's also something I can neither understand at the moment nor heal. What I can heal is at least building some trust by socializing with people who still have their hearts in the right place and healing the destructive patterns within myself which mirror these outer processes.

I often feel that I can't really make other people understand what I experienced and that it would be too much for them to have empathy for because I can't bear my own experiences myself. But I can trust that there's a certain amount of empathy in the world and that every little understanding going from one human heart to the other can heal a little bit. And I can imagine that a 'higher power' like gods can bear an amount of desperation and hurt I often feel I can't bear - so I know that even if I often feel that I can't heal it, there's a way to heal it step by step because there's a drive in all living beings and the 'spirit fabric' of the universe which never stops the healing process. So even what seems to be an endlessly bleeding wound, there's an endless repleneshing which will heal it eventually.

What I'm called to fix at the moment are my own wounds (with various forms of support by friends, my spirituality and professionals), this including putting a stop to this ongoing victim-perpetrator-dynamic within myself (I have a really abusive inner critic) by concentrating on my own healing powers, finding understanding with myself within myself, nourishing myself. I see it like I'm the engineer keeping an eye on the wheel of healing, give it new grease when it stagnates and get a little fuel here and there from various allies.


Thanks for reading this long and difficult post. I hope what I wrote didn't put anyone off...