Commuting & Sorcery: A Guide
by Gordon • • Magic • 15 Comments
Day two of the new gig.
My commute has gone from ‘take my laptop into the next room’ to ‘being pulled along in 130 year old tunnels under one of the great cities of the world with 28 million of my closest friends for almost an hour.’
Consequently this has changed my morning wizardly routine somewhat. And no, that’s not a bathroom metaphor.
This is by no means the first time I have done some proper commuting but it’s certainly the first one that requires so much strategy.
It requires strategy because I have multiple goals. The first one is to get to work. And that is going to take a bit under an hour whichever way I go.
Seeing as this is the case, I have committed to a second goal: Making magical use of the time.
Here are my tips so far:
1. Don’t operate anything
If you commute in a car:
- Then you are either driving in which case you shouldn’t alter your consciousness. (“Third eye on the road!!”)
- Or you are a passenger and so silently meditating is probably a bit rude.
Owning/using cars in London is madness so it’s not a problem for me. The options are tubes and buses or some combination thereof. I could be hurling sigils out onto the platform at every station with gay abandon.
If you’re in a car, small boat or possibly a helicopter then it’s podcast or magical book on tape time.
Not too sure how it would work on a horse. Where would you plug the ipod in? (I shudder to think.)
2. Energy work is better than meditation
Sure, technically you can meditate on the tube.
But I can’t because I’m not an Ascended Master or Batman. (Batman could do it.)
However, I’ve got a good hour to get some energy body work done. Aren’t you supposed to catch up on work when you’re commuting?
So I dedicate most of that time to work on Jason’s Pillar & Spheres exercise. (Yes, I have a complicated relationship with the Elements. Does this surprise you?)
With one major exception:
3. Silence is key
If I sit on a London Underground train with a large gym bag at my feet, eyes closed and muttering to myself… Well… People are going to make certain assumptions. Certain ‘panicky’ assumptions.
So mentally vibrate those words if you’re a fellow commuting magician.
4. Be sure you can sit
Standing on buses and trains is hard enough without deliberately turning your attention inwards. The odds of you falling in the lap of someone attractive are really slim. It’s not worth the risk.
Plus there’s the shame.
If you are standing then it’s podcast/book/kindle time.
Sidebar: The woman nestled under my left armpit yesterday had a kindle. On which she was reading some truly painful chic lit. For the first time in my life I contemplated bag snatching. Because if you’re ‘liberating’ something then you are absolved of all wrong doings. At least that’s how it works with war crimes.
Anyway, I get my reading done on the way home because I am usually standing.
5. Be sure you’re not just filling your time
I don’t think that’s in keeping with the spirit of the Path. If you’re looking for something to fill your time with, I have this Kindle I found that I’m looking to offload.
For me, it was about not losing the daily energy work which -like regular gym attendance- is just so easy for me to lazily fall out of the habit with.
It’s also important that I’m as fully charged as my wonderful new cellphone because this is a brand new gig in an industry I’m only loosely familiar with. (Still media, but mobile stuff rather than TV or magazines.)
6. Don’t live in London if these images freak you out
One of my house guests just came in, took one look at them, and shuddered. Or at least don’t live in London until after the Olympics. We’re bound to put on one or two more trains for that. (Not on weekends, though.)
Anything else? How do you squeeze a little of that ol’ colourless magic into your every day pursuits?
Commuting on a horse? I-pod aside (waaay aside), a horse is a member of a prey species whose best defense is speed. Therefore, the rider had best be paying attention to what the horse-brain might see as a predator, and avoid it.
Bottom line: it’s just like driving, except that the car might take control at any moment. Not a good time to zone out.
I love the humor in this post. The work is cool too.
Fr POS´s last [type] ..Holy Union
About meditation: mediation while commuting is not always a problem. Everything depends on what are you trying to do.
I practice a Buddhist system where ability be present in every situation is required. Of course, this is mostly just silent sitting, but I have found an useful technique to do one form of meditative practice, while I am commuting (or doing practically anything for that matter). It is that I try to find the presence of awareness in whatever sensations that arise. Then it does not matter what posture you have and how many load noises there are.
Fractal Based Life Form´s last [type] ..The Book Game: Creating an Animist Magician
I sympathize with your commute. I have an hour each way through the great state of New Jersey’s highway system. And as it is construction season here in NJ, that means detours a-go-go.
Meditating while driving is easy. You just have to keep it to the simple side. I have a rule: No discursive thought while driving. Just drive. Even most decisions that I have to make while driving do not need to be mentally verbalized. I also drive in silence, as I do not have a functioning radio in my car.
Can I do this for the full hour? Ha! Not yet. But I take note of where I slip off and guide myself back to being silent. It’s really helped me disengage from the contents of my mind, and I get to do it every day! It’s the meditation that I have the most time for.
I do a quick practice with Lord Ganesh before setting out on ye olde commute to clear the way and just trust that whatever is being thrown out there is going to be of benefit.
Any time I see an officer pulling someone over, or someones car on the side of the road I do energy work to help give them a bit of luck in their situation. Specifically I focus on the energy of Hessed and direct it to a just and merciful end for all involved. (That idea came to me after I realized that someone could in fact be butchering a child in the back seat, and I don’t want to give them luck in that.)
I work with what Jason calls Azoth for roadkill, blessing each corpse I see mentally/energetically and hoping it rests well and its spirit is well received.
When I remember, I also make the gesture of Offering out of Sorcerer’s Secrets and focus on pouring offerings out all along my commuting rout. To all the animals, the other drivers, the Native populations who lived in this area, everyone who’s ever died on the roadways, their spirits, the guardians of the roadways, the forests, etc. etc. etc.
The Morning habits have been the hardest so far. Most mornings it is a job just to make coffee and find clothes, so meditation and structured ritual practice have not been very effective.
Though movement based things like yoga (going to set my mind to Qigong soon as well) have worked well.
Sometimes I even remember to eat breakfast before leaving the house!
Jow´s last [type] ..Father Francis Tiso on The Rainbow Body and The Ressurection
I once fell into the lap of someone fairly attractive on the bus. It was not the last time I would think to myself, “Too bad I’m not a lesbian.”
V.V.F.´s last [type] ..Yet another work in progress.
Having been to London and on the tube during rush hour, I love picturing this all!
Deb´s last [type] ..Moar on Kitchen Witchery
Having been to London and on the tube during rush hour, I love picturing this all!
My commute here in Budapest is mercifully short (45 minutes), divided between a tram ride and the Metro. On the tram I do a visualization that opens up my heart and then I send that energy to whomever is on my current healing/metaphysical aid list(a Joseph Weed technique). I’ve been doing this daily for years.
On the metro I do a visualization that helps me guide my dreams and enhances dream memory.
I often don’t get a seat, so I’ve become very good at concentrating with my eyes closed in a standing position. But I’ve also cultivated the ability to keep about ten percent of my attention on protecting my briefcase from sticky fingers.
I’ve never missed my Metro stop, although I have, on occasion, stepped off the train in a seriously altered state.
Sometimes I get some really strange stares, despite the fact that I’m camouflaged as “Joe Office Worker” with a blazer, dress shoes, a briefcase and salt-and-pepper hair in a short hair cut. Some people can feel the vibes you are generating.
I’m too burnt out on the way home. I often zone out with the MP3 player then.
The Scribbler´s last [type] ..Is screwing up such a bad thing Mr Opus?
Yeah, it’s totally just books or podcasts for me on the way home.
Pingback: How To Publish Better Than Crowley |
Pingback: How Sigils Are Like Firearms |
Pingback: What Fictional Wizards Taught Me |
Pingback: Why You Should Regularly Challenge Your Assumptions
I used to listen to guided meditations on the train. I built up quite a collection, so if you need a recommendation, I’m your woman. The trick to not going deaf is to use noise insulating headphones. Etymotic works a treat.
Sorry sort of missed that. So what sort of body work would you do exactly for say half an hour?