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 The salient feature of magical training is learning to use the world around us for validation, rather than the devices of people; to come to appreciate more the gurgling of water in a stream, the whisper of the wind in our ears, and the healing warmth of a tree, rather than the approval of people.  All of our unhappiness in life stems from our trying to live up to the expectations of people, and our having forgotten what ancient humans knew:  that we are first and foremost children of the earth, and that she loves us from the bottom of her heart.

 The earth isn’t insensible, as we’ve been led to believe.  She is vibrantly alive.  She can heal us, soothe us, and provide us with a sense of complete and unconditional acceptance.  She can nurture and protect us even more than our human mothers could possibly do.  We don’t have to feel at odds with the world, like alien interlopers in a hostile environment.  The earth is just busting to cuddle us with her love, if we would only make an effort to reach out to her.

 We do this simply by 1) acknowledging that she is alive, sentient, and capable of communicating with us; and 2) acknowledging daily our debt to her and thanking her for all her gifts.  Try doing the following earth ritual every day: dawn or sunset are the best times, but do it whenever you conveniently can.  Go out to a place in nature (if possible), take off all your clothes (if possible), and prostrate yourself face down with arms outstretched above your head pointing in the direction of the sun.  Begin to breathe out (exhale hard) all your angry, frustrated, depressed, negative feelings into the earth to be buried, and inhale the healing, soothing energy of the earth.  Feel it fill your body with warmth on the inbreaths as the negative energy dissipates on the outbreaths.  Then, when you are calm, kiss the earth and thank her, knowing that from the earth you have come, and to the earth you shall return.

 Even if you don’t feel anything out of the ordinary while doing this exercise, keep plugging away at it, and at some point you will realize that the earth is “talking” to you.  Some naturally talented people pick up the thread the first time out; however, most people have to do it on faith for a while until the establish a clear telepathic / intuitive communications link with the earth.  At that point the earth herself will give you instructions and tell you what to do; you’ll just “know” it.  For example, one thing she might have you do is to gaze at her. This is accomplished by slightly crossing your eyes but keeping them relaxed; calming down your thoughts; and staring without focusing at whatever feature in your field of vision most attracts your attention.  The earth can give you all sorts of information in this way.  If you do the earth ritual at dawn, try gazing at the vapors which rise from the earth in the early morning, since these are full of messages.

 Everybody’s experiences with the earth ritual are different, so about all that can definitively be said on the subject is, be prepared for some surprises!  If you carry this ritual out in good faith and with the expectation of ultimate success, then in a few weeks or months you’ll get it working as described.  The only trick to making magic work is patience – long continuance of the same ritual act (repetition of the same desire).

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