S1, Ep. 15 | Cause + Effect

These last few days my dear listeners I have found myself upset, frantic even, emotional, and venting - I’ve remained grounded but barely and as a result I’m tired, my cup is going dry and as I waited in the airport to fly to Denver to meet my partner’s mother for the first time I found the words and thoughts of others around me to vibrate painfully, grating off my eardrums.  

This is a sign that I’m not in a good place. That I allowed myself to become the effect versus the cause in my environment, and my environment now becomes an irritant. While I was Meditating with them, my Runes kept repeating to me this statement “I’m over directed towards outer things.” Outer things meaning things that are outside my sphere of control, outside of myself. And recently I’ve felt justified in reacting because things have been outside of my control. I don’t control airlines, I don’t control my partner’s friends' bad decisions, I don’t control the internet, sales tax, rental car prices - and I’ve been upset because my expectations of others were not met, people I care about were injured and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do about it was react, get frazzled and now I find myself exhausted. 

It took a good hard long look at myself today in meditation sitting here in a hotel room in Colorado, my runes on full repeat - screaming Naudhiz! Naudhiz! Naudhiz! for me to finally listen, and realize that the story I’m playing that I allowed to run my world for the past week is bullshit. It's not the outside world making me this way, it's me - and I can be something other than upset. If I choose to rise above my monkey mind and reactionary behaviors. 

So the Rune Naudhiz (or Needfire) has the following Rune poems associated with it:

#1

Need is constricting on the chest,

Although to the children of men it often becomes

A help and salvation nevertheless

#2

Need makes for a difficult situation

The naked freeze in the frost

#3

Need is the grief of the bondmaid

And a hard condition to be in and toilsome work

So Naudhiz, which is translated to need or needfire, roughly means - from the darkness & cold the need for fire is realized, however, the fire must be generated within yourself to banish distress. So in other words, the only cause for the fire that banishes distress is your own will that comes from within. Your own thought process & realization to rise above the stressful circumstances, or the ability to start making choices and plans (remember idea, thought, plan, action - the 4 worlds principle from ep.1 ) that put you in places where distress does not occur. 

Now per Rune poem #2, line two “the naked freeze in the frost” i.e. those who do not help themselves out of distress remain in distress or die (the naked freeze). Those who are in victim stay in victim unless they change their thought process. So here my runes were telling me “Angel! Get your shit together and stop reacting to circumstance - take your thoughts back, get it together, and start being the cause!” All thought is acted upon - and as the thinker you always have control over your own thought process (both reactionary and causal), and in my case I needed to build a fire of gratitude to start to replenish my resources and get back on track as the creator of my reality replenishing my reserves. 

Now I keep saying effect vs. cause, or be the cause not the effect in my life. My runes were being really blunt with me and reminding me of the hermetic & buddhist principle of cause & effect.  Hermetic rule #6 of the laws of the universe and this week’s law of abundance. The law of causality.  Which is “be the cause in your life or else you will just experience effects.”  Here is the hermetic principle as quoted from the Kybalion. 

“Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to the law; chance is but a name for law not recognized; there are many places of causation, but nothing escapes the law.”

So my listeners, thinking about the principle of cause and effect in your life - ask yourself where am I a cause or where am I an effect in my life? To do this you must acknowledge your thoughts & behaviors - are they just reactive to your environment all the time? Are you telling yourself a story that is bringing about a certain reality? or are you actively curating your thoughts, words & acts to bring about effects you truly desire into your environment? 

When things do not go as we planned in life we become unhappy.  I recently experienced this - but when this happens instead of wallowing and blaming others for our unhappiness (this is focusing on outside circumstances so you end up naked and frozen like the Naudhiz rune poem). You must instead identify the cause, even if the cause appears outside yourself (like my recent situation) so it can at least break you out of being a slave to reactionary thought & action which compounds on itself leaving us trapped in a drama blender where we keep getting whirled around by circumstance. 

If we can focus on the cause we break the cycle, we recognize we can forge our own path, that we can take action to change circumstance, or at least change our mind about the situation so our thoughts & REACTION is a choice we make and our own. This moves us from the victim of our circumstance to the author of our world. 

Cause and effect is a law of the universe that is impossible to escape.  It is the root of karma, it is part of synchronicity, part of fate, part of the web of wyrd.  No one ever escapes cause & effect even if it may appear so on the surface or right now- it just comes in different ways to different people.  But those who follow this rule of Cause & Effect and apply this law of abundance, this hermetic principle to their lives, are always in the process of attempting to be master of their lives thru right cause, right action, the will of acting in alignment with purpose, gratitude and positivity in order to elevate themselves from a place of victim of circumstance.  

Things like meditation, ritual, prayer, gratitude practices allow us to master the mind, gain mastery over emotions & desires, mastery over our thoughts so we can master our universe and be the change (the cause) we wish to see in the world as Gandhi taught, as Buddha taught, as hermetics teaches. Our thoughts = our reality. Thought & word = first cause.  We must have vigilance in our thoughts to keep our thoughts in the light & love & higher self, to remain the cause and stay a master of our lives and circumstances. 

This is a practice to engage in every single day.  And it's not a simple one as my story in this podcast today illustrates. It requires constant vigilance. I can still let my circumstances set me in a thought cycle, but I have a daily practice that can pull me out of it. I learned and practiced this discipline every day. I chant, I do rituals, I meditate, I work with the runes & tarot to help my higher self send me messages to wake me up if I am getting cloudy. Sometimes I slip, but then I get back up and try again.

And I did not get here alone. My path to living this law of abundance has come with 25 years of Buddhist practice and 10 plus years as an adept and higher-level initiate with the modern mystery school. Honestly, my deep hard look at cause and effect didn’t really fully mature until I chose the ritual master path and started studying hermetics thanks to the kind and loving nurturing of my ritual master teacher Ipsissmus Dave Lanyon. And with this training, I decided that the best way to be the cause in my life was to choose to be of service to others, to be a spiritual guide in the lineage of King Salomon so I can teach others how to step on the path that leads to know thyself and gives people not the answer, but the tools to find the answer. 

In other words, I teach people how to fish versus giving them the fish. I empower versus enable. How do I do that? Specifically now with things like this podcast, and the tools & teachings I am privileged to pass down through the Empower Thyself class and initiation.  If you want to step on the path to purpose and start being the cause in your life, the tools, practices, and energetic life lift Empower Thyself gives you are a game-changer.  I am able to hand you down simple daily practices and connect you to the power cell of a 3000+ year old tradition - that if used will help you know yourself better, start to live alive and awake and empowered so you start to be the cause in your life versus the effect. Empower Thyself is not a self-help book or some new age think yourself into a rich kind of process. It is a set of practical tools to allow you to break free from your negative ego and everywhere it keeps you trapped. 

It is the beginning of a means to learning how to tell yourself the truth in a kind & loving way, the beginning of a daily practice that if done consistently (or even at an average level of application) will start your engine toward making causes for a life you want to live in. It is a choice to become the author of your life and opens so many doors. Every single dollar and minute I’ve invested into my own mystery school training for my personal development has come back to me tenfold in joy and abundance and life satisfaction.  

I am not wanting for anything in my life and yes I may still have a bad day here and there, but I no longer have a bad month or year.  I’m resilient. I have reserves and my daily practices make me strong so I am the author of my destiny. I love myself and I love humanity to such an extent that I am now committed 100% of my existence as a guide to helping others find the path to their true self.  

Nothing about my path has been easy or fast. This is a discipline that I choose every day along with my Buddhist practice. But every day I choose love.  And I hope that my words can encourage you - if nothing else to choose to be the cause every day of your life.  Free yourself from the slavery of a reactionary life ruled by thoughts and stories generated from your negative ego and lower self.  

And maybe my words have made you curious about empowering thyself and learning daily practices and thought structures to help you on this path.  If this is the case then I can help with that! Reach out, we can connect and chat, get you in for a life activation, and register for Empower Thyself with me or a guide in your geographic area.  I hope to hear from you and shine the light for you to step on the path to being the cause, to finding your own inner fire.  

Until then I love you all and remember you are the cause if you choose to be.