New Age – Adam Sartwell

The thirty-third bead on the blessing cord is the blessing of Patience. It is the blessing of earth in Binah. There are three elements that must be invested into any manifestation: space, energy, and time. When we work on creating something we make space for it to exist, we devote our energy and focus to its creation, and we give it time to form. This last one has the blessing of patience ingrained within it. It can also be the most difficult of the three.

We can start to have unrealistic expectations of manifestation. Not every process is as quick as our Amazon order with overnight shipping. This desire for instant gratification of our desires has lead us as a people to become more demanding and entitled.

We not only put this expectation onto our manifestation but also to ourselves. My partner Steve likes to use the example from the movie Young Sherlock Holmes, where Watson comes in to an angry Sherlock cussing out himself for not being able to master the violin. Watson asks “How long have you been playing it?” Sherlock answers something like “Two days! Can you believe I haven’t mastered it yet?”

This is a fictional account, of course, but a great example of how unrealistic expectations lead us away from the patient creation of a truly magical manifestation. Some things take longer to manifest. We have to sometimes devote ourselves and our patience to the goal and keep working on each step along the way. The road can be winding and we sometimes can loose focus and hope. We will never see the outcome if we don’t continue down the path. This takes patience.

I spent years helping kids in group homes, training them to become better people. To adopt strategies that would help them through life. I knew their success could be a reality and would patiently correct behaviors until they reached a modicum of success. I found over the years that it was okay to loose patience every once and a while. To lose our faith in the manifestation, as long as we could return to that patience and hope and begin again. Much like the practices of mindful meditation. Sometimes we get distracted or thrown off, and that is okay as long as we return to our focus. That’s not a failure to meditate, it’s part of the process and the practice of meditation.

Jason Augustus Newcomb, in his book The New Hermetics, gives a mudra trigger exercise to program during your meditation so you can access more patience and tranquility in any situation. The mudra of tranquility and patience is to connect your thumb and middle finger at the tips while the rest of your fingers are relaxed and open. The middle finger is the finger of Saturn and the element of earth, both are very patient energies. In this meditation we make this mudra even stronger by making it a trigger for patience and tranquility. You can use this mudra to gain patience in any situation and invoke your tranquility.

Meditation of Patience

Hold the thirty-third bead of the blessing cord, the bead of the earth of Binah, the bead of Patience.

Count yourself down into a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand to create a sphere around you. Feel a rising sensation as the sphere begins to lose all illumination, until you are surrounded by a black endless void. Resonate the god name of Binah: Yod Heh Vauv Heh El-oh-heem.

In this black endless void conjure up a time where you were not patient. Observe this memory like a watcher from the outside. What was your posture? What were your hopes in that moment? Did you think that they could become true? Had you lost faith in your ability to manifest? Were you bored with what was going on? Were you frustrated? Reacting to a stimulus? Why do you think you lost patience and tranquility in this moment?

Rewind time to the beginning of the scene. Imagine what would have happened if you had been patient. Imagine yourself filled with patience and tranquility. Doing what needed to be done in that moment and feeling peace that all will happen as it needs to happen. All your needs manifest.

When you are finished with this scene, release it. Go to a time where you felt like you had a great amount of patience. Observe how you felt. What was different then the first scene? How is it better and more tranquil?

Really feel the energy of patience and begin to hold your hands in the patience and tranquility mudra. Imagine your patience and tranquility multiplying a thousand times its usual strength.

Charge this mudra with the following statement.

“I program this hand position as my patience and tranquility trigger. When I hold my hands like this, I will instantly feel patient and tranquil. I will do my work of the moment with faith that all my needs are met for the highest good, harming none.”

Feel the patience and tranquility. Release your mudra. Know that this feeling is always there when you need it. Your screen returns to its normal shape and size.

Count yourself back up to waking consciousness.

Give yourself clearance and balance. Ground if necessary. Write down your experience.

Contemplation

What throws you out of patience and tranquility? Why do you choose to let it get to you? Are you continuing with all the steps you need to do to get to your goal while being patient?

I have been thinking about discipline a great deal lately. One of the insights that I gleamed from one of my meditations on the effects of a spagyric tincture I am making to work with saturn, told me that disciplined practice without purpose was futile. This all was in reference to the part of my self that craves disciplined practice and usually spurs me with guilt when I am not doing anything. The practices that I was doing diligently were bringing results but not bringing me closer to the goal of this year which was to embrace more of the shamanic craft and obtain a better grasp on spirit work. I had done two different Mantra practices in the last six months both lasting forty days. Though the results from this practice was amazing I didn’t feel it brought me closer to the goal stated above. Something else I realized was all my spiritual practice was happening in my car. Mantra is a simple practice for me to do while driving to work, and when I finished that I would send light or reiki to people who I knew needed it.

So looking at my goal of embracing shamanic witchcraft and obtaining a better grasp on spirit work I thought that my next rite of discipline would be forty days of meditation. You might ask “why forty days?” my answer is that it is an alchemical month. It is also the prescribed amount of time to use a mantra to manifest something. I find it interesting that it also is the same as the forty days of lent in the christian faith where they give something they love up for the forty days to honor christ. I will be adding something to my life for forty just in honor of my self and my spiritual evolution. I think that is a more appropriate practice for a witch. I started on Ostara and will continue until I have done a consecutive forty days. That means if I skip a day I will just start over until it is done. These are the “rules” of the mantra magick I was doing only applied to meditation. The mantra magick had you choose an intention to work for a mantra aligned with that purpose and then do a mala of 108 repetitions every day until you reached forty. Usually on the 38th day something to screw you up will appear but if you work through it and do the practice It works. I think the same applies to the rite of discipline.

To any one who reads this who feels like they need to kick there practice up a couple of notches I suggest revisiting the Rite of discipline for themselves finding something that will bring you to your goal or intention and do it for a cycle of time. You may pick a more witchy number like 28 days of a moon cycle or the time between two Sabbats . It doesn’t have to be long to get you going it could just be a week of practice. Just make sure your not doing the practice without a purpose in mind.