2.0 – A is for Automatic Writing

I have had vivid contact with Deity as long as I can remember. I didn’t have many playmates as a child, and so I quickly adopted an invisible friend and did things like host communion for Jesus and the apostles with white bread and red kool-aid.

I have had the ability to slip into an altered state of consciousness for long enough that I don’t exactly remember the first time that it happened. Growing up, I would often hear something like, “Oh, Faye’s just off in her own little world, again.” I would become so immersed in whatever book I was reading that background conversation would fade and I would enter the world of the book. As a child, angels and faeries were as real to me as flesh-and-blood people. When I grew up and started looking at it for what it was, I realized I had been walking in between worlds for years, and felt very blessed to be so closely protected and guarded by Spirit Guides and Animal totems through the times that I had been in danger of losing touch with myself.

As a result of being able to access Other Realms so easily, I’m afraid I don’t have much practical advice for beginners who are totally new to this. My guess is, though, that more people do this than who realize they can. When I want to contact Deity, the easiest way for me to do it is by sitting and meditating: I close my eyes and visualize being in the realm of whatever Deity I am contacting. I do my best to imagine tastes, smells, and textures as well as sights and sounds. It is important for me to tie in all my senses to the experience, to feel materially connected to that place. Ambience plays an important part in my ability to “depart” from this realm into another. I don’t really leave my body, in the sense of astral projection – what I do is closer to creating a ‘tesseract’ as it’s called in Wrinkle in Time (one of my favorite books as a child), where I draw the alternate dimension where the Deity dwells to me.

In the case of automatic writing, I have attempted long hand exercises with no success. I either begin to think, or receive thoughts, and those make their way to the page through me knowing exactly what I am writing, or my mind stays blank and my pen strokes remain indiscernible loops and scribbles for pages and pages. I work around this state of being by entering into a meditative state and contacting the Deity directly, so I receive my information in a way that is closer to Aspecting, which I covered in my first PBP article. Even when I am transcribing my experience with Deity, it is almost reflexive for me to go back and correct any little typos I make. It can be maddening at times, and hard not to let it pull my entire consciousness back into my body. Slowly I have learned to let my fingers and eyes do what they do to get the words on the screen, and let my soul remained engaged in contact with Deity. If I feel pulled back to my physical body, I don’t fight it (fighting with Self is something I recommend avoiding altogether) – instead, I listen to whatever needs my body or personality has in the moment, and then either address them or release them depending on their urgency. To get back into the contact with Deity, I open myself to be completely receptive to their presence. In the case of Bel, I was bathed in warm, golden sunlight. With Brighid,  I was drawn to listening to birdsong in the distance, and to the song of the wind as it played over the gentle slope where I stood on with her. With Sekhmet, it took me longer to establish contact, but once I was there, the experience happened so fast that I was never really drawn out of it. I suspect that contacting different Deities would yield different results for anyone, depending on the depth and length of their relationship with that Being.

Can the process I just described count as automatic writing? Or is a part of the inherent definition involve the writer being unaware of what they are writing at the time? I would appreciate feedback, here.

I have learned from personal accounts, myths, and my own experiences (luckily more from the former two than latter one – the Gods and Goddesses have been kind to me in my lessons, maybe because I’m willing to listen to others’ cautionary tales?) that it is a dire mistake to assume that a deity does not have their own personal agenda in working with you. For a good (if exaggerated) example, read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and see for yourself. Deities have their own free will that cannot be dictated by human consciousness (at least, not without serious ramifications, just as with controlling another human/animal consciousness against their will).

Always ask your Innermost Self (through a divination tool, if need be) whether you really want to work with the deity you have in mind. Then ask yourself whether it is for your mutual highest and best to work with the deity you have in mind at that time. You could have an affinity for a deity but not be compatible with them at the moment that you would like to work with them. Spend time in a sensory experience with the deity’s energy, either by looking up images of that deity, reading their stories, or working with the elemental energy they are connected to, along with the sound of their name.

I hope this information helps in your experiences, no matter what those may be. Blessed be.

Automatic Writing As Aspecting: 1.2 – A Session with Brighid

Tonight, I set the intention to work with Brighid in a sacred space of ten minutes. I light a blue 7-day candle in offering as I sit to write this, to thank Brighid for this vision and to ask for continued Guidance in walking my Path.

Instead of sharing the conversation itself, as I did with Bel, Brighid has lead me to share with you what I saw, felt, and tasted in my all-too-brief visit to Her Well.

I wait at Her well. I stand, fully connected to the ground, at the side of a bent and crooked sacred tree bedecked with ribbons and baubles and various offerings to the Goddess. Nearby sits the well, a source of healing for all who seek health.

Brighid appears in blue and green robes, walking from a nearby building that is low and round and looks half covered with earth. Her red hair has a tint of something nameless that dulls its sheen, maybe it’s just the light from the clouded sky, which is heavy with rain, but she also wears something like mica flakes, the kind of rock that reflects at the bottom of a river… She reminds me that the Well water is all water, and any water is all water: it is all connected. In the moment, this fills me with peace, because She is directing the Healing of the Waters. I feel at peace (in my waking life I am usually filled with horror and dread when I think about the awful things with which people poison the waters- and how stupid we are with its use), in this moment, at her Well, I can surrender my sadness for the condition of the waters – the frogs, the fish in the stream, the dragonflies, are all in Her care.

That does not mean I don’t have a part to play in the Healing work. It is my part to grow in mindfulness of the water that I personally use, and to be thankful for the clean water that my community has. I ask her what a suitable offering is to Her Presence: she says, “Treat yourself well, nourish your body, dedicate your acts of healing your own body to me.” She anoints me with oil, and the only other words she says to me are a personal message meant for me alone (though I feel prompted to remind you that if you feel so led to work with Brighid, or any other Deity, you, too can receive your own personal message! It just takes finding your method, trusting yourself, and setting boundaries as in my first Aspecting article. Boundaries are still important even when  you feel really “at home” with a Deity. Always be careful what you offer to them, because most of Them will call any bluff).

I look at her face. She is ruddy from the wind, youthful and wise at once. Grey begins to appear in her hair and then fades again, as she cycles continuously through aging and ageless in Being. I sit back in my body and allow Her presence to wash over me. I feel compassion in this moment, the echo of pain that comes from releasing something that has hurt you for a long time.  My heart chakra opens up as I am drawn back by my friend who is acting as keeper.

Thank you, Mother Brighid, for Watching over the Well, for Guarding Healing Wisdom, for Sharing Compassion with Us, your Children. Blessed be.

)O(

Next, tomorrow, I will work with Sekhmet. I am excited to see what this new voyage brings about…

Meanwhile, this image invokes Brighid’s fiery energy as opposed to the watery aspects I called forth, but I wanted to share possibly my favorite icon ever: St. Brigid, with her purported lover, Darlughdach.