I incorporate and teach about a wide variety of skills sets into my daily/weekly practice. In my world view, a daily practice is the bedrock of a consciously directed life. It is where we are able to work with the inevitable forces of change in a very intentional way in order to “steer the ship” of our lives.
Change is going to happen whether we like it or not and for many, it is often in the not category. A personal practice is a time honored pathway towards directing our lives and our contribution to the world.
It is a passed down formula and protocol for getting results.
Practice < > Direction < > Directed Change
If you look at a lot of the wisdom traditions of the world, those that put an emphasis on a “practice”, a very common phenomena appears, and that is that practices were “well rounded”, and addressed multiple aspects of self….instead of building the practice around a singular focus. While it has been my experience that these different practices are really addressing the same “whole” they do so from different sides causing a rippling that influences the whole organism, much how a well rounded “movement practice” addresses the whole structure and a variety of movement skills. Except the structure here is our being.
I incorporate into my practice primal movement, ancestral nutrition, martial skills, mental exercises, study, sorcery, devotional work with deities, qi-gong, internal alchemy, meditation, somatic orientating exercises, self care, sexuality and prayer. Among that are smaller trajectories and the way I deal with in the “moment” day to day life. Doing my best to live a life of integrity, authenticity, empathy, and self awareness.
So, in the spirit of showing how some of these diverse skills may come together, I am sharing my practice as it currently stands in December of 2019.
Morning:
1. I awaken early- before the sun rises in most cases.
2. 15 minutes – Reflection on dreams and psychic material that has manifested through the night. It is during sleep that things become a “part of us”…not just physical training as in recovery, but mental, emotional and spiritual processes consolidate during sleep as well.
What am I feeling? What is at the surface? What images come to mind? What were my dreams about? Any discernible symbolism? Spirit communication?
3. Once I am done with that, before I leave my bed, I make prayers to my “Ori”….Ori means “head” in Yoruba, and it pretty much gets translated through a few steps to mean “consciousness”. It comes from the Ifa and Orisa tradition of west Africa. A shamanic tradition. Praying to you Ori is a way to work with your consciousness in a shamanic manner.
4. I then proceed to give myself a short whole body self massage to increase nerve signals, move the circulation and get my nervous system awake.
5. I then proceed to “ground my awareness in my body and breath” and attune myself to the environment as well. I look around and notice shadows, sounds, lights, configurations etc.. basically where am I and what is happening?
Okay, I am out of bed now!
6. I strain and drink Triphala, the Ayurvedic herb that aids elimination and it has been steeping for 10 hours from the night before.
7. Half an hour later I have buttered coffee, salt and sometimes collagen.
8. At this point I do one of two things.
Study or prepare a “shoal of sigils”.
Study is pretty straight forward. I learn, take notes, listen to something and or read.
Or.
A shoal of sigils is a way of working practical sorcery, that involves turning a statement of intent such as “I sold my airstream for $3500.00” into a pictograph. This is a complex process and takes multiple steps. It involves creating a “pleasing image”…thus it is in some ways like creating “art” and the way I do mine involves coloring…like this:
The word “shoal” comes from studying schools of fish congregating, and thus, you create 5-10 of these bad boys with different statements of intent to create a shoal.
Either of these takes about an hour.
9. I then clean the house from the day before and then I prepare for “morning training”. This also involves my “oral health routine”.
Oral health routine:
Salt water rinse, brushing with calcium hydroxyapatite (refined bone meal) and baking soda, tongue scraping, and oil pulling. I oil pull as I clean the house.
10. Morning training can be many things and is generally a variation of:
Movement and Sorcery/Communion with deities.
And it last anywhere from 60-90 minutes. Often it is 75 minutes.
On the movement front:
Primal movement: Head nods, push ups, rocks, crawls, rolls, squats, lower gate and fundamental resting positions work, catharsis, emotional expression, vibration, positional bioenergtic release, leg awakening, spinal waves, plyometrics etc…
Kundalini Awakening Process: A nonsecular form of internal alchemy that draws from Daoist alchemy, Tibetan Buddhist alchemy, and esoteric yoga. This is “real” kundalini work and I should know. Mobility, breath work, self massage, energetic circulations, central channel work, 5 element dynamics etc…. very involved and all movement based.
8 Extraordinary Vessel Qigong- Basically, this is a very movement heavy form of Qigong that works with the 8 extraordinary vessels. Very deep, thorough and involved.
Marital art- Movement drills, striking drills, flow drills etc, with tools or empty handed. As well as flow based sessions revolving around weaponry, that is really more about flow state than martial tactics.
*Sometimes I combine a variety of these skills together and sometimes I practice them on their own and go deep. I cycle this throughout a ten day period more or less. It is all organic and intuitive for me.
On the sorcery front:
Everyday includes some form of “offerings”. I usually give offerings to a variety of classes of spirits such as divine beings/big gods/Orisa, ancestors, allies, spirits of the land, animal “totems” and spirits who aid in prosperity.
Then I move into a variety of skills which could include any combination of:
–Spell work – Sigils, candle magic, petitions, spell bags etc..
-Invocations
-Trance/flow states
-Communion with gods: singing, playing basic instruments (rattle,bell), becoming and prayers
-Uncrossing work
-Road Opening
-Personal cleansing
-Divination
-Meditating with the Tarot
-A variety of other skills
11. Once when this is done. I have an “electrolyte” mix of potassium, magnesium and salt to hydrate.
12. Gratitude. Quick tensions release. Breakfast and I take vitamin K2 and Vitamin D3 with this meal.
Afternoon:
1. Focused work. Whatever that might be. A few hours. Maybe take a short 5 minute brake if I need it. Drink some herbal tea etc…I usually have music on as I work, as it helps facilitate flow state. A hallmark of my goals with work.
2. Gratitude. Quick tensions release. Lunch. Largest meal of the day according to ayurvda, which holds that digestion is strongest at this point of the day. I also take non fortified nutritional yeast, organ supplements (brain and intestines currently) and I also take Ayurvedic or Chinese herbs at this point too. Right now I am playing with shilajit and pine pollen.
3. More focused work taking short brakes as needed to maintain “freshness”. I might do a short Qigong session to get my energy balanced. I might step outside, and maybe do some pandiculation.
4. I often absorb into variety of somatic, self massage, meditative and/or energetic exercises when I shower. Almost daily. This adds another 10-15 minutes of daily practice.
Evening:
1. In the evenings I will usually do a combination routine once again that last anywhere from 30-60 minutes:
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20-30 minutes of meditation by watching the breath
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5 Minutes of Ayurveda head massage
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Resting squat holds
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Vibration drills
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Gag reflexes (to stimulate parasympathetic nerve activity)
*Possibly I may add a variety of tension releasing and restorative exercises.
2. Depending on the day me and my wife will cuddle naked, massage each other and ‘release’ into each others presence.
3. Gratitude. Quick tensions release. Dinner. I also take bone meal and Ashwagandha root with dinner. I may also stimulate my digestion with herbal bitters of powdered ginger. It just depends on what I need.
4. Blue blocker sun glasses come on at night in order to block out “blue light” screens etc.. and I start to cool the house down in some form or another. Cool temperatures are needed for good sleep. Maybe some TV watching. Often comedy. Laughter.
5. Trans-dermal magnesium therapy before bed. Great for hormonal health and restful sleep.
6. Mind fortress: I start to remove any thoughts of “problems” I need to deal with or solve. The mind starts to become relaxed, calm, reflective.
7. More offerings to the spirits of the house, as well as removing the offerings from the morning. Good magical hygiene here.
8. Reading fiction before bed in really low light conditions.
9. Night time prayers to my Ori and sometimes I work with my dreams to “workout out situations” I need clarity on and would like some creative focus around. I do some inception level shit to get that process going throughout sleep.
10. I drink a combo of magnesium, the amino acid glycine, salt and vitamin c before bed to facilitate repair, recovery, stress reduction and amino acid balance.
Special mentions:
1. Once I week I do skin brushing, a full body Ayurveda abhyanga oil self massage, Nasya oil in the nostrils, ear oil drops and adorning myself with essential oils.
2. Sex. When me and my wife have sex, this also takes on the form of practice. Deep sensual connection, erotic massage, a multitude of orgasms, and variety of sexual forms etc… I generally will take sometime to process whatever (if anything) is kicked up by the orgasmic spasms generated by this.
3. There are more practices I do, but this would just make this post prohibitory long if I went into more.