Slow Week

Well, as the title says, it has been a slow week for Work.  I've been busy at work, teaching some first responder classes all week.  I haven't done anything of note in the magical sense.  I am still working on integrating fire.  I am slowly coming back to a more calm energy level.  It is still a good deal higher than it used to be, but it is much more consistent than it has been for the past couple of weeks.  I am considering working with air next, however I haven't actually made up my mind.  At this point, any suggestions would be welcomed.

Aside from the above, I have been reading over and thinking about this post by Frater RO.*  It's entitled Post Apocalyptic Living.  Effectively it is a call to action.  RO literally says, "Wake the fuck up, brothers and sisters".  If you think these are harsh words, I have to tell you, I happen to think he is right.  We, as Mages/sorcerers/shapers of reality, do not have to live in society the way everyone else does.  We have access to the power and ability to shape the very world around us.  Too many people I know just sit and drift through life.  They have normal jobs, they do normal extra curricular activities, and they complain about the whims of the economy and society.  WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT!!  We have the knowledge, will, and responsibility to take charge of our realities.  If you consider yourself any sort of mage** then you have no excuse to sit there and complain about your situation while doing nothing about it.  There are myriad ways to work magic with a minimum of tools.  RO shows us in his Modern Angelic Grimoire that a bit of paper and a pen or pencil is sufficient, Donald Tyson in his Portable Magic gives us a method of working ceremonial magic with nothing more than a deck of tarot cards.  Yes, the grimoires and the lodge magic of the Golden Dawn have all sorts of nifty tools and such, and those are awesome to have.  I truly do enjoy working a full on ritual with the tools.  But!!!  They aren't necessary.  We have no excuse for not taking action when we don't like the situation we are in.

More will probably follow from this, but that's about all I have the presence of mind for tonight.  In other news, I went to Fort Worth today and got to be within inches of actual fragments of The Dead Sea Scrolls.  It was a truly moving experience for me.  I am sincerely hoping to be able to go again and spend a little more time.  If you are anywhere near central Texas, or are willing to make a trip for it, check out www.seethescrolls.com

* - If you do nothing else, at least read the post by RO that I linked.  If you have the time and inclination, follow the links he provides to his débrouillard posts, and at least this post from Rune Soup.

** - I like the term Mage.  It feels more right to me, I feel funny calling myself a sorcerer...  For the time being, this will be my default term.

It's Friday the 13th!

Today is one of my favorite days, purely because of all the superstition that surrounds it.  I, honestly, haven't ever felt Friday the 13th to be any less lucky than any other day of my life.  Overall, today was a good day, despite working late (yet again).

So, on to my Red Work update.  Overall things are going well.  Previously I had mentioned that RO's style of meditation was kicking my ass.  It still is, but not as badly and I have been reaping benefit from it.  I've noticed that the feelings of doubt in reference to the efficacy of my prayers have lessened.  I think this is primarily because I turned that meditation and contemplation toward those feelings and realized that they aren't really coming from an internal source.  If I had to guess(though this isn't a guess, this is something I am sure of), I would say that these feelings are brought on by my Evil Daimon in order to try and stop me from progressing to where I will bind him and lower the amount of power he has in my life.  In other news, I've been integrating Fire for almost two weeks, and am getting ready to work with Air.  It's been an interesting two weeks.  I've been really energized and have had trouble falling asleep.  I have found that when I am home I have been running around taking care of a lot of the little things I've put off before.  At work it has been a similar story.  I've had a couple people comment on the amount of work I have been getting done and how proactive I appear lately.  I ended up being in charge of the PT program for my company for about a week now due to all of the aforementioned stuff.  In that realm, I have been even more keyed up...  Normally I find myself at least a little worn out after PT in the morning but for the last week and a half or so, I have actually felt more energized.  I must say, I love it.  Other than that, I've been gathering supplies for further Work.

I'm planning something similar to what Fr RO shows in lesson 5 for a daimon trap.  I am changing it a little though.  I am planning similar initial traps, but I am searching for a bronze urn that I could place all five of the traps into and then further seal it.  Short of that, I have also been looking at bronzed jewelry boxes.  I think I could make use of one for this purpose.  In the course of it all, I am sure that I will change and further adapt until I decide on a final way to store the traps.  Also, I finally got my bookshelves moved to the one empty bedroom and have been setting it up as my Working room.  I've placed my main altar/table of manifestation, as well as two other, smaller, altars.  One of those is dedicated to St Cyprian of Antioch, St Michael the Archangel and St Mary Queen of the Angels and Saints.  The other is dedicated to Santa Muerte, The Honored Dead, and my Ancestors.  Having set these up, I have noticed things are going smoother overall, and there has been a rise in the amount of spiritual activity around me.  This is quite a heartening thing for me, it makes me feel much more confident in my choices to set these altars up.

On the more mundane side of life, my History of Western Civilization class has ended.  I did manage to get everything turned in before the final deadline and I pulled a decent grade.  The next class is probably going to end up being Theology 101, but that is only if I don't deploy.  I don't want to sign up for a class and then deploy and be unable to complete it.  Andrew B. Watt I would be quite pleased to have a chance for us to chat a bit on the content of this blog, on being a chaplain, and on just about anything else.  In reference to keeping on the school work, it is far from boring.  Even the things I have little interest in are not really boring to me.  Despite the lack of time due to training, I thoroughly loved being in a class again and actively learning.  And, I will be writing more often, as I get time and have something to write on.  I will be looking forward to reading your comments, though due to sudden spam I will be making all commentary require my review before posting to the entry.

Red Work and Life Update

In an effort to keep myself more on track with my current pursuits, I felt that blogging about it on a more regular basis would be beneficial.  It seems to work for plenty of other people, so I may as well try it.  I know it worked fairly well for the first few weeks with Tyson's book, and this time I'm not deployed (yet).

So, I've been working through Frater Rufus Opus' Red Work Courses, albeit very very slowly.  I've never had an issue with things like visualization or general focus so I didn't expect to have problems with basic meditation as he describes it. It seems that what I am more used to doing as a meditation is more like contemplation.  As Fr RO describes it, you start with calming your mind and then just observe the thoughts that arise.  He says to simply watch them, where they come from and where they go without actually directing them.  What I am more used to doing is similar except that I would actively follow my thoughts as they lead from one thing to another in order to better understand that thing, which is contemplation.  Having read over it, I seem to have overestimated myself.  I have no problems with contemplation in his course, but meditation is kicking my ass. 

Also, I find that though I pray nearly daily I now feel doubts relating to if I am doing it correctly, and when I start to get down on myself I start to think about if Anyone is listening.  I've prayed, in some way, almost every day of my life, so I don't know why these doubts are coming up now.  On a conscious level, I know that They do listen.  I've never been let down, even if the result of my prayer (or other magical working) wasn't what I had expected because it was always what I needed from it.  I know and take heart from the fact that the Logos/Workman, The Spirit of Nature, and Nous are my spiritual family.  I know that when I thank and praise them and enter into communion with them, that they do answer.  I still end up doubting, and I don't understand why.

Returning to contemplation, Fr RO has an assignment at the end of lesson two of the Black Work which involves contemplating where you're from based on the information in the lesson.  When I first started the contemplation, I felt pulled in so many directions...  Eventually it calmed and I continued with a visualization of the act of creation from The Corpus Hermeticum.  To say it was powerful was an understatement.  When I started, I was not very relaxed and hadn't even really entered even a liminal state of trance but within a few moments the visualization became my full experience.  It felt like hours watching things come into being and experiencing it all but it turned out to be only about 45 minutes in this world.  I plan on returning to this one and repeating it after I have worked a bit further on and have re-read The Corpus.  I expect that it will only be enhanced by that.

There is also an assignment to write about my life, where I've been, and the experiences that stand out in my memory.  I did complete this, but I am not comfortable sharing it in public at this time.  I will share that the act of writing it, and really thinking about some of it was enlightening.  I found that some of the memories still evoked very strong emotional reactions, and some led to the discovery of other items that I didn't even realize I could remember so clearly.

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Apart from the above (though is it really?), I noticed that lately in the blogosphere there has been a lot of discussion on The Solar Initiation, Abramelin Rite, Knowledge & Conversation of The Holy Guardian Angel as obtained through other rites.  There are some who assert that not everyone will go through a very difficult period from this and there are some who provide evidence of those who have lost a great deal.  This, of course, is tempered by a statement in Fr RO's most recent blog post, "It might hurt, transitioning between one lifestyle and another, it might be scary for a while, but the result is a refined, tempered, strengthened, repaired foundation for you to build upon." (The HGA and the Celestials )  As I have yet to obtain K&CHGA in any conscious way at this point in time, I really cannot comment much on the experience itself.  However I can say that though I do feel some trepidation as I approach the binding of the elemental demons and my evil daimon in preparation for the request to Michael for a Solar Initiation, I recognize it as the same trepidation I faced when I first left for basic training.  The very human parts of me are clinging to what they know and are somewhat resistant to change, especially BIG changes.  I don't plan on ceasing upon this course, I know of the risks and I know the rewards are even better than what I risk.  I know that the only things that will be burnt away during the solar initiation will be those things which are temporal.  This solar initiation will be a spiritual sandstorm for me.  It will be trying, it will be difficult at times, and it will hurt, but when it is over the only things left will be that which is as eternal as the stones themselves and they will have been changed by the experience.  Am I really ready for this?  Honestly?  Probably not, but I only say that because I don't think anyone can really understand it all until they've been through it.

Aside from that, I find myself a bit behind on my school work.  This is due to my unit's training schedule.  I haven't been around to have access to the internet in order to read some of the required reading or do the essays assigned.  My instructor has been amazingly understanding of the situation and prior to beginning to write this post I did what I could to get caught up on the discussion board items and turned in a timeline assignment.  I still have two essays I need to finish and turn in...  Wish me luck?  In reference to that, it seems that the people I work with have rather interesting views of me.  Recently, the topic of college came up and someone asked what I was studying.  They seemed very surprised when I told them I was working on a BS in Religion with a minor in Biblical Studies.  They asked me what I was studying that for, and when I told them that I planned on using my degree to become a chaplain they were literally speechless.  So, I started asking a few of the people I actually trust in the unit about it and received about the same reaction.  When I asked specifics I got an interesting range of answers.  It seems that quite a few of them assumed I was a Satanist because they had seen me with things like The Dead Sea Scrolls, and Michael Cecchetelli's amazing Crossed Keys.  The rest thought I was an Atheist because they saw me with Torahs, Bibles, Qu'rans and associated texts; apparently expanding my own personal spiritual view by reading multiple Holy Books is akin to not believing in God.  I really don't understand where that comes from...

A long long absence

My dear readers, if there are any out there anymore, I offer you my sincerest apologies.  Life got too hectic for quite a while and I wasn't able to post anything.  At this point, it has been over a year since my last post.  I will give you a run down on what's been going on with me up to this point, then wrap up the posts on Tyson's Magician's Workbook.

So, going back to April last year, I was in Iraq.  Our mission changed a bit and I ended up unable to get online at all for quite some time.  Upon returning to the US, life continued to keep me under it's thumb with various over riding priorities.  At this point, I am slated for yet another deployment later this year.  On the magical side of things, I did finish out the daily exercises with Tyson's book; I read a good deal of other books, articles, blogs, etc; and I somewhat recently decided it would be best to return to the basics and better embrace the roots of my beliefs and practices in order to get rid of some of the nonfunctional and unsavory habits that I picked up along the way.  Think of it as a bit of spiritual spring cleaning that is long, long over due.

To wrap up the bit on Tyson's book, I did finish out the exercises.  My opinion at the end of the whole thing is that while it is a good system of daily practice for those who don't already have one, I don't know how applicable it is to people who are not already familiar with the general Qabalistic inspired ceremonial magical practices.  Also, I feel that it presents a great way to break into a bit of daily, or near daily, practice but I think that any practitioner worth their salt will end up changing things over time in order to better suit their personal needs.  I do realize that the primary people who pick up the book will have these ideals in mind, but it is still something I would warn about when introducing the book to someone who is a newfound seeker.

In the last couple months, I have read through quite a few grimoires.  The ones I gave the most focus to were Michael Cecchetelli's Crossed Keys published by Scarlet Imprint, The Goetia of Dr. Rudd and The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia both published by Golden Hoard.  Other than those, I have read through the rest of GH's Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic series with the exception of their latest which is Dr. John Dee's Spiritual Diaries.  I am quite impressed with MC's work, and I thoroughly enjoyed the way Goetia of Dr. Rudd was presented.  When it comes to Hygromanteia, it spurred an interest in the pre-solomonic ritual magic practices which has found me looking into the GPM and reading some wonderful stuff by Jake Stratton-Kent (Geosophia), as well as Aaron Leitch's Secrets Of The Magical Grimoires.  I also, very recently, started on Frater Rufus Opus' Red Work Courses.

I am quite taken with Fr RO's approach and the way he presents his work.  I am only on his second lesson of the Black Work section, but it is really refreshing to get to the basics of it all.  Reading and working through, from the beginning like this, has allowed me to really strip away a lot of the things I have been doing and really evaluate what does and doesn't work for me.  Having read through his Neoplatonic Basics, I find that a lot of it meshes well with what I already believe (though I haven't ever taken the time to really hash it all out).  I am looking forward to really putting into practice everything in The Red Work Courses, and cleaning up my overall practices. 

Prior to beginning The Work, I had already started to strip away things in my usual practices that either had no mileage or just plain didn't make sense to me.  I began a regimen of near daily prayer and contemplative meditation, and had been working with a couple familiar spirits for primarily theurgic reasons.  For those of you who may be curious, when called upon to define what it is I believe, I have come to say that I am an Esoteric Abrahamic Panentheist.  To explain, I hope I don't have to define the term Esoteric for most of the people who come to this blog but just in case, according to Webster esoteric means - a : designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone <a body of esoteric legal doctrine — B. N. Cardozo> b : requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group <esoteric terminology>; broadly : difficult to understand <esoteric subjects>.  Abrahamic is having to do with the faiths that stem from Abraham so Judaic, Christian, and Islamic.  I find value in the overall current of Abrahamic faith.  And, for panentheism, I prefer the Encyclopedia Britannica explanation - "...the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. The cognate doctrine of panentheism asserts that God includes the universe as a part though not the whole of his being."  So, there ya go, if you ever wondered what I believe its an amalgamation of Hermetic, Abrahamic, and panentheist thought.

A Long Term Plan (Week 7-22/40)

  Between a website that decided to show only in Arabic and a hectic work schedule I have not been able to access this blog properly to add to my logs.  Thanks to my new working environment I now have access via an IP that reads as Western Europe.  Due to this, Blogger finally comes up in English again.

  Originally, I had been keeping this log weekly via OpenOffice.  I have chosen to compress the previous weeks into one shorter entry and only focus on some of the more interesting bits, instead of a flurry of postings detailing each week as I had been.  If anyone does have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I will gladly elaborate.

Review Of The Previous Weeks:
-Week 6: Nothing of note this week.  Difficulty focusing during the stepped relaxation for the first couple days.

--Exercise: 3 - Self-Awareness III: Criticism of Self (pg 8)
--Exercise: 4 - Inward Perception I: Stepped Relaxation (pg 13)
--Exercise: 7 - Inward Perception IV: Tattwa Awareness (pg 23)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 19 - Visualization III: Astral Temple (pg 64)

-Week 7: Nothing to note.

--Exercise: 7 - Inward Perception IV: Tattwa Awareness (pg 23)
--Exercise: 11 - Breathing I: Color Breathing (pg39)
--Exercise: 14 - Outward Concentration I: Time Watching (pg 50)
--Exercise: 15 - Outward Concentration II: Candle Burning (pg 53)
--Exercise: 16 - Outward Concentration III:Water Boiling (pg 55)
--Exercise: 17 - Visualization I: Geometric Shapes (pg 57)

-Week 8: Had a little fun with the Projection of Will exercise, until the novelty wore off.  This week seemed to drag on, really didn't look forward to any of the exercises.

--Exercise: 8  - Inward Concentration I: Mantra (pg 28)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 20 - Projection of the Will I: Affecting an Object (pg 68)

-Week 9: This was about the same as last week.  During the first day or two, the novelty of the Affecting an Element exercise was stronger.  I think some of the stuff going on in my life is nagging at my concentration too much.  I have an overall sense of unease and am starting to show signs of Acute Stress Disorder.  I really can't wait until I get my leave(R&R), I need the break.

--Exercise: 9 - Inward Concentration II: Thought Stream (pg 31)
--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 21 - Projection of the Will II: Affecting an Element (pg 71)

-Week 10: I didn't get any noticeable results from Exercise 22.  Nothing else of note.

--Exercise: 10 - Inward Concentration III: Daily Recall (pg 34)
--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 22 - Projection of the Will III: Affecting a Living Being (pg 74)

-Week 11: Not much to note this week either.  I will say that I prefer the four-fold breath compared to Tyson's 9-7 Breath.

--Exercise: 5 - Inward Perception II: Elemental Orientation (pg 17)
--Exercise: 6 - Inward Perception III: Astral Projection (pg 20)
--Exercise: 7 - Inward Perception IV: Tattwa Awareness (pg 23)
--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 17 - Visualization I: Geometric Shapes (pg 57)
--Exercise: 18 - Visualization II: Leaving The Body (pg 61)
--Exercise: 19 - Visualization III: Astral Temple (pg 64)
--Exercise: 20 - Projection of the Will I: Affecting an Object (pg 68)

-Week 12: I find that Tyson's Aura Awareness feels like it was probably based off of the Middle Pillar exercise, though heavily modified.

--Exercise: 4 - Inward Perception I: Stepped Relaxation (pg 13)
--Exercise: 11 - Breathing I: Color Breathing (pg39)
--Exercise: 23 - Aura Awareness (pg 81)

-Week 13: Nothing to note.

--Exercise: 5 - Inward Perception II: Elemental Orientation (pg 17)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 24 - Grounding and Centering (pg 86)

-Week 14: I like Tyson's explanation of Vibrating the Names Of Power.  Probably the best I've read, and I had some really good results.

--Exercise: 6 - Inward Perception III: Astral Projection (pg 20)
--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 25 - Vibrating Names of Power (pg 90)

-Week 15: Nothing to note as far as practice goes.  I am still feeling stressed, but dealing well.  The general focus on my practice has helped with it.

--Exercise: 8  - Inward Concentration I: Mantra (pg 28)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 23 - Aura Awareness (pg 81)
--Exercise: 24 - Grounding and Centering (pg 86)
--Exercise: 25 - Vibrating Names of Power (pg 90)
--Exercise: 26 - Charging an Object (pg 97)

-Week 16: Nothing to note.

--Exercise: 9 - Inward Concentration II: Thought Stream (pg 31)
--Exercise: 11 - Breathing I: Color Breathing (pg39)
--Exercise: 27 - Qabalistic Cross (pg 105)

-Week 17: I don't like the feel of Tyson's version of the Middle Pillar.  I gave it a shot for this week but I won't be using it again, I intend on substituting with a more traditional form of the MP when this exercise comes back up.

--Exercise: 10 - Inward Concentration III: Daily Recall (pg 34)
--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 28 - Middle Pillar (pg 111)

-Week 18: Nothing to Note.

--Exercise: 4 - Inward Perception I: Stepped Relaxation (pg 13)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 23 - Aura Awareness (pg 81)
--Exercise: 24 - Grounding and Centering (pg 86)
--Exercise: 25 - Vibrating Names of Power (pg 90)
--Exercise: 26 - Charging an Object (pg 97)
--Exercise: 27 - Qabalistic Cross (pg 105)
--Exercise: 28 - Middle Pillar (pg 111)

-Week 19: Starting to have real difficulty focusing in general.  I couldn't find any astrological reasons for it, so I am guessing it is just the stress.

--Exercise: 6 - Inward Perception III: Astral Projection (pg 20)
--Exercise: 7 - Inward Perception IV: Tattwa Awareness (pg 23)
--Exercise: 11 - Breathing I: Color Breathing (pg39)
--Exercise: 14 - Outward Concentration I: Time Watching (pg 50)
--Exercise: 15 - Outward Concentration II: Candle Burning (pg 53)
--Exercise: 16 - Outward Concentration III:Water Boiling (pg 55)
--Exercise: 17 - Visualization I: Geometric Shapes (pg 57)
--Exercise: 18 - Visualization II: Leaving The Body (pg 61)
--Exercise: 19 - Visualization III: Astral Temple (pg 64)
--Exercise: 20 - Projection of the Will I: Affecting an Object (pg 68)

-Week 20: Still no results from Exercise 22.

--Exercise: 8  - Inward Concentration I: Mantra (pg 28)
--Exercise: 12 - Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
--Exercise: 20 - Projection of the Will I: Affecting an Object (pg 68)
--Exercise: 21 - Projection of the Will II: Affecting an Element (pg 71)
--Exercise: 22 - Projection of the Will III: Affecting a Living Being (pg 74)

-Week 21: I recognize the utility of practicing exercises 29 and 30, but I get similar practice from my daily LBRP and BRH.

--Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
--Exercise: 27 - Qabalistic Cross (pg 105)
--Exercise: 29 - Projecting The Lesser Circle (pg 121)
--Exercise: 30 - Projecting The Greater Circle (pg 125)

Schedule of exercises for Week 22:
-Exercise: 13 - Breathing III:The Nine-Seven Breath (pg 47)
-Exercise: 28 - Middle Pillar (pg 111)
-Exercise: 31 - Invoking The Guardians Of The Quarters (pg 130)

Thoughts and expectations for the week:
  I don't have any real problems with exercise 13, however I still prefer the four-fold breath that I was already familiar with.

  Still not going to use Tyson's version of the Middle Pillar.  It just doesn't feel right to me.  I am planning to switch out his technique with the one that can be found in John Michael Greer's book, Circles of Power(ISBN 1-56718-313-1).

  Exercise 31 is just one part of the LBRP, this combined with exercises 30 and 32 pretty much make a version of the LBRP.  Seeing as I do this as part of my daily rituals, I will probably leave this out on it's own and rely on my daily ritual to fill in this part of the practice.

Misc:
  I think I have finalized my ideas for the TOL rosary I mentioned in a previous post.  Also, I have been focusing even more on my study of the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon.  I am frustrated at being deployed right now, but I do not have any real privacy, and the space I can use for my daily rituals is very small.  Recently, my room mate walked in while I was in the middle of an evocation of Sandalphon using Solomonic techniques.  Luckily for me, he just turned around and hung out in someone else's room for a couple of hours.  All he really heard or saw was me speaking/chanting in Latin.  I should be getting my leave(vacation/ R&R) close to the end of this month, and I am really itching to get a break.  The stress has been building up a lot, and it is starting to really make it difficult for me to focus.

Apologies, Dear Reader...

Ok, I've fallen behind a couple of weeks on my updates here.  At the same time, I have fallen behind in my exercises from The Magician's Workbook.  Deployment life has caught up with me.  I have managed to keep up with my previous daily practices, for the most part, though even those have not been actually daily.  Some "days" have lasted 36+ hours, which throws me off.  Especially so when I lose track of time.  Either way, my previously practiced "daily" exercises, have been whenever I wake up for the day (and when that is rather abrupt and timing doesn't work out then they have been just before I go to sleep).

I figured that I should write this, since I owe some explanation to whatever readers I may have.  As it stands, I picked back up where I left off, as of this previous Sunday, January 23rd.

A Long Term Plan (Week 6/40)

Review Of The Previous Week:
All of the exercises went about as expected. The only thing to note was that the continuation of the Astral Projection and Pore Breathing exercises did indeed have a positive effect on my other daily practices.

Schedule of exercises for Week 6:
-Exercise 3: Self-Awareness III: Criticism of Self (pg 8)
-Exercise 4: Inward Perception I: Stepped Relaxation (pg 13)
-Exercise 7: Inward Perception IV: Tattwa Awareness (pg 23)
-Exercise 12: Breathing II: Pore Breathing (pg 44)
-Exercise 19: Visualization III: Astral Temple (pg 64)
Exercise 7 is the first five days, and then 4 replaces it for the final two days.

Thoughts and expectations for the week:
My expectations for Exercise 3 are the same as last time, I don't think there will be much change.

Stepped Relaxation may end up being replaced by a relaxation technique that I know to work for me. I have given a few weeks to trying it the way Tyson says, and I admit readily that his technique is one that works for many people. However, it does not have the desired effect on me. As far as I can tell, the whole point of a relaxation exercise is to get used to(and proficient in) relaxing the whole body. Following this line of reason, I can safely resume using my previously successful techniques.

I am unsure of the Tattwa Awareness, simply because of the lack of resources here. Unless I order it over the internet or ask someone to send it, I won't be getting any color of construction paper. I may experiment a bit to see if I can substitute something to fill in for the Tattwa symbols. We shall see.

Pore Breathing is a continuation from the past two weeks. I think I will start to see its benefits plateau in relation to my daily practice, but the exercise will still help to maintain them at the level they are now at.

Astral Temple should be interesting, since its an exercise I have used before though for other reasons and in a slightly different way. I don't expect any real difficulty with it.


Misc:
So, I am human... I missed a few exercises through the week due to the fact that one day rolled into the next during some operations out here. Suffice it to say that by the time I realized I needed to do some of the exercises for one day, that day was well past. Shit happens, and I don't think that I am going to lose all hope or benefit simply from missing a day or two.