Modern Magick: The Dreamer and the Dream

While all along I thought I was dreaming… I suddenly asked myself, “Am I being dreamed?”

- James Ray at Dreamer and the Dream

I have been contemplating how to share all that I have experienced over the past week with you. How is it that one can learn this much in such a short amount of time? Many people say that our high school and college years are when we learn the most about ourselves. I beg to differ. I have learned more about myself in the past 6 months than I have in the past 27 years. I am exaggerating here, yes, but only a little. So where do I start…

Harmonic Wealth

Back in November, Ryan and I attended James Ray’s Harmonic Wealth Weekend, which was the first of 5 of his Journey of Power events that we have committed to attend. I was pretty excited in the weeks leading up to this event, knowing that I was going to delve into some personal-growth that was going to rock my world. And I was right. Harmonic Wealth was fantastic yes, but Dreamer and the Dream took it to another level.

Dreamer and the Dream, is part of the Modern Magick series, and is called such, with a “k” at the end because its not smoke and mirrors magic. It has a different meaning. Magick, meaning “willful change”.

If I had to sum this experience up in one paragraph it would be this. Life is essentially a dream. And we have a choice to either become the dreamer, or be the one that is being dreamed. What does that mean, you ask? Well, we all have choices. We all have responsibilities yes, but ultimately we have choices, and we can choose to control our life, or we can allow others to control it for us.

LiveWell360.com touches on many aspects of what comes together to create one’s best life. We talk about fitness, food, nutrition, and spirituality. Many times though, society tends to focus our attention on the first few areas, while somewhat or even generally ignoring the last.

Why? Because the spirituality part is the hard part. It’s way less emotionally painful to focus our attention on creating a workout or nutrition plan, than it is to delve into the depth of our unconscious, pressing on our hot buttons and our deeply rooted issues, in order to bring them to the surface and face them. THAT’S the challenge. But by objectifying the situation, and stepping back for a moment, we see that those hot buttons and those deep seeded issues that we hide away and pretend are not there, are the reasons why we struggle with nutrition, health, or even life, in general, in the first place.

I am here to tell you, in the grand scheme of things, doing this inner healing, facing these demons, is hard work. But as James says, “to stay the same, is harder.”

This is why I talk about this “hard” stuff, because I know first hand the benefits of pushing yourself through those painful, vulnerable, scary feelings. It’s important to tune into your actions, or should I say re-actions in the world around you. For you to say, “Hey look at what I am doing here. I think I am hiding from something. I think I am ignoring something really important that really could be holding me back.” or, ”I think I am giving away my power by focusing on blame or resentment rather than focusing on what I can learn from this. How can I grow?” Just by a little tweak of your thoughts, you can shift your whole perspective.

Paying Attention

“To know more, we must notice more.”

This means that if we want to grow, we must learn to tap in and pay attention to our feelings and our surroundings.

One of the things I related to most (in a giant list of things) that James talked about, was how we tend to go through a period termed “The Call,” a full differentiation around the age of 28-30, where our ego identity is forming. It’s typically a period of huge transition for people, which can either be very magical or it can be miserable, if you fight it.

The difference between successfully navigating this period on toward the life you wish to live or falling back in disparity is one important factor – spirituality. Spirituality in the sense of figuring out who you REALLY ARE. By listening. Paying attention. Seeing what we like in our surroundings and what we don’t like, and then moving in the direction of what makes us feel strong, and away from what makes us feel weak.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. James says, “Life is a spiritual practice. Its not something you do, its something you are.” And this really resonates with me. I realize that I change every day, but in every change, I become more and more of my true self. Each change is a step in the right direction. There is no quickest, fastest, easiest way to success, because the process in getting there is a huge part of the success itself. You have to grow to become the person strong enough to handle whatever your intention (or vision) is. You’ve got to stretch yourself. Push. Be scared. And, do things that you don’t feel like you are prepared to do. But that means that you are doing the right thing. That means you are growing, and that is what life is really all about.

Security

If you think about it, what is the point in living just to get by. Really? So you can get to the end of your life and say, “Whew, thank God I eked by.” And then you look back with regret. You look back and say, “Wait a minute, I really wanted to do this, or that, or go here.” But you didn’t because you played it “safe.” You wanted security. When security is just a figment of our imagination anyway. The threat of security is just part of the social mold, built up to keep us in line so that we just continue on doing the day-to-day.

What is the point of living just to cover your nut, or keep the things that we have, when we could be soooo much more? But, we don’t push those boundaries because we are scared. We are scared to look at the painful stuff. We are scared to move outside of what is comfortable. You and I, we both have the same amount of choice. So I don’t want you to read this and think, “Oh I don’t have time,” or “She doesn’t know what reality is.” or “When you are young, you can do whatever you want.” Because you know what, you are right. If that is what you tell yourself, that is exactly what you are going to get. But I will tell you in my world, you are wrong. And I can give you a ton of references for each of those excuses as to why it doesn’t hold an ounce of water. If you want your life to change, you’ve got to be willing to put forth the commitment to the vision, and it is hard work. But you are capable of achieving it.

Our True Self

We are all capable of so much, yet so many times we sell ourselves short. We don’t see it. We look right past our strengths to focus on our weaknesses. We can give ourselves a list a mile long of why we can’t when there is a list twice as long as to why we can.

The only person who can control this is you. You’ve got stand up and take the reins. It’s your life, and ultimately, it will be whatever you WANT it to be. So I ask then, “Are you the dreamer, or are you being dreamed?”