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I have been preparing to set up a schedule for MY Great Work. A work on myself, physically, mentally, spiritually. I am working on my discipline and dedication. I am thinking through a study of the tree of life and working through the spheres and pathways.
Last night I took a crack at what my latest adventure in working on myself will look like. It will be a long torturous journey with much pain along the way. There will be music, dance and hopefully no casualties. Yes, that’s right, I am about to begin Belly Dancing for Fitness.
Along with my two guides, Veena and Neena, I shall shimmy and shake the 
paint off the walls (and hopefully not break any furniture). I mostly only viewed the video last night, attempting a few of the moves along the way to see how it was going to work. Here is a little secret about Naufragio…….this white girl can’t dance. I not only have two left feet, I have two left hips, shoulders arms and a head that I think is left, although it may be right. I, however, am not going to let this stop me. I know that this form of dance is incredible exercise and maybe in time I will learn how to move my hip this way and my arm that and back without tripping over the other leg.
I have been doing some light Yoga for a while and know I have the flexibility and a base for some of the movements. Last nights little test proved there are muscles I didn’t realize how little I used but really should. Muscles like obliques and the lower back and abdomen. I have shied away from abdominal exercise since college. It was a few years after having kids and I was in a PE class. There was too much scarring from the c-section to comfortably do a lot of the ab work. It tore at the scar tissue and I was advised not to push. I think this might be a good alternative for working sorely neglected areas.
OK, I don’t care if I look funny doing it. I will soon have a larger room where nobody can see. It will be fun and a lot of hard work. I hope to see fast improvement in my body. I know I’ll be feeling it right away as the burning and aches remind me of what they need. Maybe I’ll learn a few things to impress the boys. 
Although my biggest reason for taking this on is fitness, I wouldn’t mind if in a year’s time I looked closer to the silhouette at the beginning of this post instead of how I feel at this start…
Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attention from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding.
http://www.buddhanet.net/ans73.htm
I would like to thank The Tao of Stone for bringing this heartwarming story to my attention. I was so touched that I am re-posting the video. Here is a link to her original post.
Well, an alchemist I am not. Not in the sense of change that I’ve posted about, but in the extraction and burning and recombining of herb and ash and tincture.
Maybe it’s because I’m lazy. So much work burning and if it’s not exactly the right stage, it ruins the tincture when you mix them, no matter how much you strain and settle the “crap” afterwards.
I have found that I DO like making the tinctures. I’ve actually made a medicinal one from olive leaves and have begun taking it daily. Why Olive? Well, it is very safe and very good for you. So, I think I will back off from trying to solidify a spagyric concoction for the sake of alchemy and stick to step one.
I am not going to pursue outside alchemy, but internal is another matter. Less Scientist and Ceremonial Magician in that manner and more Witch. I’m ok with that.
What are you looking for? Why do you practice Magick in the way that you do? What are your beliefs?
We all hear these questions, either from others or from ourselves. This is an attempt to clarify myself, who I am, what I’m about, and all the whys I can think of. It’s for others to understand me a little better, maybe see parts of their own journey within mine, and also for myself, as a record in the future of how I might have changed or not.
My latest explorations are in alchemy, more specifically creation of my tinctures. The original purpose was simply to have a tool to increase my magickal workings. In process and research, I am finding so much more to it.
The main goal of the alchemist is either the transmutation of one material into another, as in the search to turn lead into gold, or the evolution of the “raw and unfinished” nature by a process of separation and recombination, sometimes resulting in an “elixir of life” that will cure all disease and extend life indefinitely. Well, this is what I hope to attain! I guess I’m an alchemist!
The raw material to be transformed is myself as I stand this day, in all states of humanity and unfinished roughness. Working through LHP practices to learn and know myself, I hope to bring new understanding of who I am in this world and how I relate to everything around me. It involves a deep look within as well as without, pushing boundaries and experiences so I understand my body, my heart, my soul. Some of this need not be as extreme as others may lead to believe but the work on ones self I feel is an integral part of reaching a relationship with divinity. I don’t necessarily think that aligning with the 4 elements is the way or even enough. Maybe it just isn’t in my case. I am lead and it’s going to take a lot of work to become gold.
Apart from the practice of LHP processes, I do seek a union with the divine but I see having to go left in order to proceed right. Does that make sense to anyone? By separating, establishing and understanding myself as an individual in the universal sense, in the end through recombining with divinity I will be part of the elixir creation. It will be an enlightenment that will connect me to the divine and bestow the knowledge, healing and everlasting life as I come to know all that I am a part of. We are all energy and energy never dies and so of course there is life after death, just not in a more classical Christian kind of way, more of an Einstein conceptual way.
So I am on this journey of discovery and transmutation. With Jung and Yoga, Gurdjieff and the Qabbalah I shall be turned from lead into gold and drinking the Elixir of life from the holy grail!
Alchemy at it’s simplest.
I have started draining my tinctures and burning the herbs. Boy, those suckers are harder to burn down than I figured. I’ve had to introduce high grade alcohol to get them to continue burning. The 500 degree oven doesn’t seem to do much either, 3 hours later the ashes still aren’t quite white like I think they are supposed to get.
I did find that after burning down most of the way, if I ground the “chunks” of carbon down it did go faster. I’m still not at the white phase though. Grrrrr. Anyone have any advice?
I also wonder if I’ve made a faux pas in the burning. I strained the herbs using a coffee filter, not a metal strainer as advised but then (not thinking) I put them in my cauldron to burn them safely. The cauldron is metal. I’ve read burn them in a glass baking dish but I’m pretty leary about that. I’ve had glass pans shatter on me before and am much more comfortable with the blaze in a metal container.
