Although I am still writing away on the module that teaches working with the planetary spirits, the recent events around the world have made me focus on the direction I take the last module in the apprentice section. That last module in the apprentice section is about understanding and working with destruction. Although I was planning to essentially give students an overview of the powers of destruction, I think in light of the times we live in it is time to plunge the apprentices into work.

By the time apprentices reach this module, they will have inner contacts of varying types, from spirits, to deities, angelic beings, inner contacts and so forth. They will know how to set up ritual patterns that work, how to access parts of the inner world and also how to stay safe. I was not planning originally to have apprentices working on anything but themselves and their immediate surroundings. But over this last year, powers that are out in the world have gathered to polarise heavily and this is playing out through the barbarity we see in the near east, the corruption of our own officials, and the general blights of poverty and cruelty that are marching across our planet with such power and speed.

So maybe it is time while writing the last module, to put the apprentices to work magically. Through the module on destruction, the apprentice will learn first how to spot real destructive power (it is not as simple as it sounds) and then they will learn to take action. No one magician can stop what is happening, but collectively, small but powerful magical actions done in a focused and knowledgeable way can start to halt and then turn the tide. The more apprentices work at it, the more powerful it will become.

The work at my end will be about shaping the module in a way that is effective magically, but also relevant for apprentices in the future. We are a time of corruption and vicious fundamentalism, but in the next generations, their struggles may be different. So I need to ensure that what is written is not specific for our time, but will stand the test of time and be affective for future but different struggles.

One of my faults it to be a bit of a mother hen and want to protect students from the nasty world around them, and to slid them in gently to magic and power. But it has become very obvious recently, that we do not have time for such gentleness, and as soon as an apprentice is able and trained to an adequate level, then the work should begin. None of the destruction work will be aimed at any particular group, nation, or person, rather it will be aimed at wanton destructive powers that are out of control: when the scales tip too far, then it is the magicians who step in to restore those scales.

It also got me thinking about the work for the Initiate section. It is this stage where students should be introduced into areas of specialisation, which was already planned, but I have realised it needs to be brought far more into focus. This is the stage where the initiate starts to look at and work with specialised areas of magic, so that by the end of the initiate section, they are ready to step into the deep and powerful focused adept level work. To that end, the initiates will not only look at these areas (exorcism, magical construction, healing, death work, or pure magic) but they will actively work within them too. Through looking at the issue with the apprentice last module, it really brought it to me that we do not have the luxury of gentle times in order to study at leisure, rather it is a time to learn by rolling ones sleeves up and actually ‘doing’.

One a different note, for those who are still plodding away at module one, and are worrying about whether their stillness meditations are good enough for them to move on to the next stage, try this little test. When you are busy at work or at home doing something, stop for a moment, and be still in your mind and body. If you can do that, be silent in your mind for a short time/ a minute or two in the midst of the working day, then you are ready to step on to the next lesson. Just always keep working at the stillness meditation, as it will save your ass one day!