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I'm waxing philosophical tonight, musing about the place this journal has in my life, and the place I intend for it to inhabit. For a while I really wasn't sure about what it was good for, why I needed it, or what the purpose of my writing was. Now, I think I have a clearer understanding.
There is a book that I've read, by Serge Kahili King, titled "Urban Shaman"... in it are a series of seven principles that I firmly agree with from a spiritual and magickal perspective. One of these is that "Now is the Moment of Power". This means that to the degree you change yourself in the present moment, you change the world. Have you ever tried to do something in the future, or change the past? It cannot be done... but by changing things in the present moment, results from the past can change, as can repercussions which extend into the future. This principle is paired with a simple corralary: Everything is relative... including what is meant by "now". When you consider the present year, or the present day, you are considering two vastly different quantities of time... but they are both the present. They are both "now".
I also watched the movie Amistad... just last nigh,t in fact. In it there is a line, said by a captured african native placed on trial for helping to mutiny against the slave traders who had captured his people. ""I will call into the past, far back to the beginning of time, and beg them (my ancestors) to come help me at the judgement. I will reach back and draw them into me. And they must come, for at this moment, I am the whole reason they have existed at all." This is an excellent example of the relative nature of "now"... he sees time as if it were an arrow in flight towards some far target, himself the tip of the arrow and all of his ancestors back to the beginning existing merely to produce him... because he is the sum total of their efforts, he is the sum total of them, and they exist within him to be called up at will, despite time or death itself.
What does this have to do with my journaling? A lot. Because I intend for this journal to become a vessel in which I record the lessons that I learn along the way, the bits of wisdom, the experiences, the things that make me who I am... so that I might carry the past forward, with me, into the present moment. So that I might empower myself with it, enrich my "now", and build a lifetime of present moments for the future.
After all... now is the whole reason my past has existed at all.
There is a book that I've read, by Serge Kahili King, titled "Urban Shaman"... in it are a series of seven principles that I firmly agree with from a spiritual and magickal perspective. One of these is that "Now is the Moment of Power". This means that to the degree you change yourself in the present moment, you change the world. Have you ever tried to do something in the future, or change the past? It cannot be done... but by changing things in the present moment, results from the past can change, as can repercussions which extend into the future. This principle is paired with a simple corralary: Everything is relative... including what is meant by "now". When you consider the present year, or the present day, you are considering two vastly different quantities of time... but they are both the present. They are both "now".
I also watched the movie Amistad... just last nigh,t in fact. In it there is a line, said by a captured african native placed on trial for helping to mutiny against the slave traders who had captured his people. ""I will call into the past, far back to the beginning of time, and beg them (my ancestors) to come help me at the judgement. I will reach back and draw them into me. And they must come, for at this moment, I am the whole reason they have existed at all." This is an excellent example of the relative nature of "now"... he sees time as if it were an arrow in flight towards some far target, himself the tip of the arrow and all of his ancestors back to the beginning existing merely to produce him... because he is the sum total of their efforts, he is the sum total of them, and they exist within him to be called up at will, despite time or death itself.
What does this have to do with my journaling? A lot. Because I intend for this journal to become a vessel in which I record the lessons that I learn along the way, the bits of wisdom, the experiences, the things that make me who I am... so that I might carry the past forward, with me, into the present moment. So that I might empower myself with it, enrich my "now", and build a lifetime of present moments for the future.
After all... now is the whole reason my past has existed at all.
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