#upper world

Calorie/Nutrient Loss

Performing spells, working with releasing blocks, or simply emotionally fraught situations use up a lot of the nutrients that our brains use. We tend to think of ‘work’ only as something we do for money, or maybe the tasks we have to do that really suck, but all action, including mental action, is work. And whilst some work lifts up our souls, all work uses up calories and nutrients. You’ve got to replace that, or you will quite literally run out and have to start using up stored resources. This is normally okay in terms of pure calories – a lot of us have pretty okay fat reserves – but when it comes to certain types of nutrients, we just can’t store them the same way.

Running low on physical energy/mental energy (which is truly the same thing) often means we’re forced to use up soul energy – that sudden burst of energy that can come through when we think we’re down and defeated. But the thing is, that energy is best saved for situations where it’s really called for – life or death situations, grieving, running marathons, writing books – amazing, cool stuff, the stuff that doesn’t happen often. When you’re dipping into that soul reserve on a regular basis, dis-ease is right behind you.

A lot of what we call mental illness is really just different ways of being burnt-out. And magick, like any other work, can contribute to burn-out. Watch out for signs like tiredness, exhaustion, fatigue, irritability, low mood, increased negative thoughts, making mistakes or poor decisions.

After you do a spell or some deep internal work, always make sure you up your amounts of salt, good sugars like those in fruit and vegetables, protein, Vitamin D and magnesium. Especially magnesium! Most of us are running low constantly anyway, as soil depletion means our food doesn’t have the levels it should.

More sensitive

As you do more magic, particularly if you’re also deliberately working on heightening your intuition, you’ll naturally become more sensitive to feeling the various energies of the world.

This includes the negative ones. And remember – negative energy is often simply ‘inappropriate’ energy. Everything in the universe has its place, but that place is often not your house.

As you become more attuned, you’ll find yourself reacting quicker or perhaps even more intensely to negative energies, especially in other people. If you work at your meditation and use good shielding methods, after awhile you stop becoming quite so reactive about it. You also know who and what to remove out of your life, too 😉

Also, just as you got used after years to living in an energetic waste site, so to will you get used to living it a place that’s cleaning and flowing. If your rooms looks like a bomb hit it, you won’t notice the sock on the floor. But if you’re tidy and orderly, you will.

You just can’t let yourself get worked up about the energetic equivalent of a sock on the floor. It’s counter-productive in so many ways. If it really bothers you, daily energetic cleansings can take anywhere from two – five minutes when the groundwork’s been done.

Lack of Detachment

The Universe doesn’t understand ‘dread’, which is, in essence, negative desire. The Universe only understands desire. So, what you put your focus on, does indeed grow.

When you worry about poor outcomes, or simply approach the time after a spell with worry or desperation, weird stuff happens. You’re confusing two desires, and the Universe isn’t sure which to pick, at best, and picks your dread, at worst.

Try to distract yourself from the outcome, should it arise in your mind, try and remain positive and hopeful. But don’t try and do that whole ‘be positive all the time’ shit either – leaning into negative emotions in the proper space and time is great. Just try not to poke at open wounds – a watched pot never boils!

Guides prompting you to do stuff, normally internal blocks

There are essentially two philosophies in life. Be a good person and eventually get everything you want. And: get everything you want and through that become changed into a better person.

The first is what’s known as the right hand path in some magick circles, and the second is the left-hand path. The left hand path scares a lot of people with its focus on self-gain, hedonism, and the optional wild orgies on a moonlight night. Devotees on the left-hand path are also harder to control, with their focus on self-gratification, and self-illumination. When you look after yourself, that makes those who want you to do as your told, nervous.

I bring this up, not to preach at you (either pathway is fine, do what works for you), but to point out that any and all practical magick when entered into mindfully is the left-hand path. This is why some people don’t think that you should do magic for personal gain. I think that all practical magic is for personal gain, and given that a desire to be of service is a fundamental human desire that brings pleasure when it is gratified, that even service is selfish.

When you ask for and receive a gift from the Universe, the gift comes with a lesson. And the lesson is sometimes not fun, but when you lean into it, it can become ‘fun’. It also helps you internalise the lesson and move on quicker, rather than remaining stuck.

Especially with larger things like money or love, there is a plethora of lessons to learn about having, containing, giving, receiving and a thousand other things. So, if you do a spell for money and you’re suddenly presented with debts, be mindful about the potential lesson here. Say ‘thank you’ for the additional lessons, and trust that when you lean into the lesson, it will work itself out. Maybe not in the way, you thought, but in a way that is better for you.

This goes for other magics, too – life will not be perfect, it’s okay if you got weird results, it just means that maybe you try something slightly different. Be more specific. Be less specific. Realise that perhaps you got what you wanted and it’s not like how you thought it would be, and that’s okay too. You’re alive. You’ve learned.

Through the self-gratification of asking for and receiving your desire, you’ve grown and matured as a person.

THE UPPER WORLD

The Upper World #1

by Femi Fadugba

(HarperTeen, 12/7/21)

9780063078598

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When you embrace your sacred contract, you are shown the possibilities of your destiny—its challenges, its wonders, its mysteries, and its inner power. If you fulfill this destiny, as challenging as it may be, after death you’ll arrive in the Upper World in a healed state, and avoid the suffering of the lower domains, where the greatest sin is having been false to your original soul contract.

Ginger Rogers (°Independence, July 16th, 1911 - +Rancho Mirage, April 25th, 1995)