Class 1: Path Working

Class #1: Path Working / Cleansing the Mind
by Reverend Dawn's Heart
aka Reverend S. Marie deFerbrache
of The Live Oak Experiential Church
03/12/99
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Programs that work on self improvement, of any kind, are only as good as the commitment you give them. There are no risks involved with Path Working, only benefits, but you must put forth the effort. This is an on going process, not something you do once and then forget. The benefit, however, is that every time you do it, you'll see more and more improvements.

Class 1: Cleansing the mind. People don't realize how powerful thought can be. The first step is to cleanse the mind of negative programing that's been building up your entire life.

Part I: Identification. This is a very simple process that allows you to open up and hear the negative thoughts that are seated deep in your mind. Thoughts you may not even realize you're having.
Part II: Analysis. This is a self learning process of where those negatives are coming form. Once you know the enemy you can attack.
Part III: Banishing. Adding in the magick touch to speed the healing process.
Part IV: Re-Programming. After you've cleared out the bad you can begin to program in the good. This process alone can cause miraculous changes.

Why Cleanse the Mind?
     Imagine, every time you look in the mirror you think, "I'm getting old." Your brain stores this in impressions of yourself and stores it in 'age data'. When your body looks into the file marked 'age data' it sees, "I'm getting old." and reacts on this data. It will access the characteristics of your impressions of age and move your body in that direction. You will then be caught in the loop of what your society views as 'getting old' because it will draw upon all available information of 'getting old'. Without even knowing what you've done to yourself, you've condemned yourself to societies views of 'old'.
     Now, if instead of letting this happen you follow the first steps, listed below, and take out your note book and write, "I just thought I was getting old," you've given your brain/body more information. It might still tag it as 'age data' but it will also have the tag, "SEE NEW FILE - NEGATIVE THOUGHTS - BODY CONFIRMS FILE." (because you used your body, you wrote it down). Now, when the body goes in and looks up the file marked 'age data' it also sees the tag and reads the new information. Although your brain/body may not know what to do, it halts the process because it is, "Waiting for further data on getting old."
     Next think of every negative thought as a black bubble on the astral. Some are tiny little pin sized bubbles, some are monstrously huge (they've been building for years). When you send your magick out it has to navigate through this quagmire of negative muck before it's free to move in the astral. It's a very slim chance that it will make it. Why? Because there is probably a negative bubble about your belief in magick. This bubble has the ability to eat your magick (an ability you most likely gave it), so it can confirm itself.
     Now, if instead of letting this happen you take out your note book and write, you are in effect clustering the bubbles into one area. This might be a slow process but it will begin to create holes in that negative gunk you've created. Suddenly, you send out some magick and it whizzes by all the junk and gets out. POOF! Your spell works wonderful (and diminishes the magick eating bubble I mentioned earlier).
     Many people don't seem to realize how powerful thought is. I have seen beautiful people become ugly, I've seen what it can do to myself, I've seen negatives in action in my own family. If you view the brain as a computer, you must view negative thoughts as a computer virus - taking up space - and slowly destroying everything. However, once you start doing some 'brain' house cleaning, you will find little treasures you forgot you had and wondrous amounts of clean space to fill with beautiful things.

Part I: Identification.

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Identification; this isn't always as easy as it sounds. People generally associate negative thoughts with anger, sorrow or other negative emotions. Those, however, are just the ones you're aware of. We've had negative programming since we were born. This is not the fault of our parents, in my opinion, it has gone on since the beginning of time. It's a human condition, but a human condition that can be controlled with constant work. I am still guilty of negative thoughts (see there's one right there). But, with each step I take, each time I work a little harder, each time I move forward, I get better. Better, stronger, more able to take the next step on the adventure of a life time. This negative programming is what holds us back in life, keeps us from attaining our goals and mucks up our magick.

So What Are Negative Thoughts?
Here are some of the most common.

Bickering: Children are most guilty of this one (I know I have 8 children) and it's also a very destructive condition. Bickering wears people down and eventually the negative bubble around you gets so big that it pops and turns into an argument. Bickering infects everyone around you. Have you ever noticed a child bickering turns into an adult yelling, "shut-up," the infection spread.
Voice Tone: I thought, while I was on Bickering, I'd also mention voice tone. People generally aren't aware of the 'tone' of their voice, but a small inflection in tone can change a whole meaning. Think of the question, "What's wrong?" A snapping, "nothing!" tells the person that their really is something wrong. A dull far away, "nothing." can do the same thing, only saying I'm sad and lonely and don't know how to say it. A quizzical, "nothing?" with a sneaky smile might imply a secret. I have seen 'tone of voice' start more arguments then the actual words said.
Disgust: And I'm not talking about being disgusted (as in seeing spoiled meet). Every time you see something that hasn't been done exactly the way you want it. Or, when you wrinkle your nose at something because you don't like it. And, when you feel the urge to speak your mind at a wrong. These are the kinds of disgust I'm talking about. Now, don't get me wrong here, you should have emotions about things, but not disgust.
Stress: I think almost everyone understands stress. It's been tagged as one of the top killers in our society today.
Dissatisfaction: Not as big as disgust, but still an important one. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Are you happy with your job? Are you happy with your lot in life? What about your family and friends? Every time you see something that you are not completely happy with, it's dissatisfaction.
Anger, Hatred, Bigotry, Sorrow: Some of the biggies.

Spend a day and just listen to the way you talk to yourself. Many people are surprised (and sometimes horrified) at what they hear themselves telling themselves. "I'm too fat, I'm to thin, I hate my hair, I hate my teeth, I'll never get this done, I don't have enough time, I'm getting old, this house is ugly, I can't keep up, I can't learn this, I can't get a good night sleep, I'll never get a better job, So-and-so will never love me, I'm not worthy of this, I'll never be as good as . . ." These are just a few of the road blocks we set in front of ourselves. What's really strange is that we set the road block up, then complain when it's there. We start cycles that seem to have no end.

What do I do?
Now that you know them, what can you do? The first step is acknowledgment on several levels. Your brain and your body don't know the difference between a negative thought and a positive one. They just take it all in, calculate an appropriate response from past reactions, and store it for future use. YOU - the spirit / soul, have to identify what you want and what you don't. Buy yourself a note book, pocket size works best. Every time you have a negative thought write it down in your notebook. Give yourself a date, a time, who it was directed at and what the thought was about - as much detail as you care to give it.
What does this do?

First; it's the beginning process of defusion. If, instead of reacting you stop and write, you are defusing the brain / bodies response. THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT so don't slack. Imagine what happens if someone snaps at you and you don't snap back. Remember, it takes two to argue and if you just flat refuse, you've stopped the argument.
Second; it's identification, "Oh, that's a negative thought!" You are giving your brain / body a category to place it in instead of allowing it to find a place of it's own. You are in control!

This Step Alone Will Yield Amazing Results!

Spend the next week logging your thoughts. You'll need that much data before we can move to analysis.

Part II: Analysis. YOU NEED, AT LEAST, 7 DAYS IN A ROW, OF DATA BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO ANALYZE! Why? Because you need to find patterns.

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    Put on your best Sherlock Holmes hat, lay your negative thoughts out and chart them. You are looking for patterns. Patterns could be time of day, a specific person, a subject that keeps cropping up, an illness (flaring) - you are looking for anything that happens over and over again. DON'T WALLOW IN THE THOUGHTS, remember, you're Sherlock, looking for patterns.
     When you list your negatives in your book you should also be listing, day - date - time - whom. You can add things like, where - moon sign - moon phase. All of these little things will help you during this segment.
     Next pick your easiest pattern, only one. This is where you will start. Every time you do this pick your easiest pattern. This is subjective to you, so I can't help you determine what's your easiest one. That's something you need to do on your own. But always determining the easiest one has an impact on your mind as well. "This is the easiest one to solve. It will be no problem to get it out of the way and then move on." Choosing only one will keep your focus strong. You have spent your entire life programming negatives into your brain. Don't try to overload yourself now, when you are working on removing them.

Try first by time of day. Are there any patterns there? Is there one time of day that seems to hit you the most.
Next try by the thought themselves. Is there something that keeps coming up over and over?
Also try by person. Is there someone who's triggering negatives?
Look at where. Is there a place that you seem to have more negative thoughts then others?
Moon sign and Moon phase can be fun as well. During the moon sign Leo, my girls turn into Drama Queens.

Once you've picked a thought to attack, you'll automatically start thinking of ways to correct it, but lets look at some of the fun patterns that you might see. Look at the thought pattern you've picked. Sometimes the solution jumps out at you, like I'm hungry, I'm tired, I hurt or a combination. Sometimes you need to go deeper. At 3:00pm every day I started dreading my daughters coming home, my thoughts got real negative towards them. After analyzing the thoughts I discovered that I wasn't upset with them at all, but upset with myself. I wasn't getting the things done that I needed to and therefore was 'blaming' them for the end of my day. Stopping the feelings of not getting things done wasn't easy, it also wasn't what I was working on. So I side stepped it. At 2:30pm I started asking myself, "I wonder what they're going to bring home from school?" I started visualizing their smiling faces as they walked in the door. I started thinking about how much they could help me finish things around the house. In about three days, I had STOPPED that negative pattern. Dealing with not getting things done could be another time, however, I now looked forward to having my children come home again. VIOLA! But this is more of reprogramming - what we'll get into next.

After you've picked a pattern, look at.

If it's time of day, what else is effecting you? Are you hungry? Are you tired? What is it about this time of day that's creating this negative pattern?
If it's a reoccurring thought is it an easy one, like "I'm getting old." Or, is it a hard one, like moving into depression. The easy ones can be reprogrammed, the hard ones you'll need to do some more work on later. One thing I'll point out here is that what you perceive as a hard thought now will become an easy one as you work on things. As you defuse links your hard situations are defused and some of them will just disappear on their own. We'll discuss this more during class.
If it's a person you are going to need to find out why. Like me with my daughters, I learned that I was the real problem, not them. If it truly is a person that's causing it, ask what you can change about yourself - first. Not to the point of loosing your identity - NO - buy what about the tone of your voice when you talk with them. Are you causing this? Be honest. If there's truly nothing you can change about yourself (and be honest) you may have to avoid the person for awhile. My Father is an alcoholic (he's been dry for many, many years and I'm very proud him) but there was a time that he generated many of my negative thoughts. I wasn't old enough to move out so my only choice was to give it time and avoid him.
What about a place? I've found many 'places' that seemed to generate negative thoughts more then others. If you can't avoid the place (like where you work) try cleansing the negatives out (discussed later). Even if it's your own little space, it will help dramatically.

Part III: Banishing.

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After you've determined an area you are going to work on, then it helps to do a banishing ritual to help AFFIRM your actions. I find this step, although not totally necessary, very important. The few times I've skipped it have been the times I slipped back into my old patterns. Does a banishing ritual really help? In my mind yes it does. To physically go through the motions of purging something helps the mind understand your true intentions.
The banishing ritual I'm going to share here is just one that you could use. Any banishing, purging, purifying, cleansing ritual will work, providing you have as the focus, the negatives you intend to rid yourself of.

Banishing The Negatives      Step #1: is to access all the little links that are associated with the thought / pattern you're working on. To do this I use a creative writing exercise. I first make sure I'm going to be alone for about 20 minutes to a half hour. I have my favorite beverage, a piece of clean paper and a writing implement (I now have a special pen I use for this). I title my page with the thought / pattern I'm working on, I repeat it three times out loud, and then tell myself, "go." I let myself write any thing that comes to my mind. Don't try to analyze what you are writing about, just write. Spend about 10 minutes writing, time yourself. Don't try to spell, do proper punctuation or anything else that might slow you down. JUST WRITE! * * *      I remember as a young girl I did one about taking out the garbage. It was a job I hated and I grumbled every time I had to do it. As I was writing, the term bumblebees kept coming up. At first I had no idea why this was happening, but after thinking about, I discovered that I was afraid of being stung because I am allergic to bees. Bees collected around our garbage. The writing exercise alone had given me the solution I wanted. I took this to my Mother and explained to her what was bothering me. She and I decided it would be okay if I took out the garbage after dark. A real funny thing happened, I no longer grumbled about it. It was just a little job that I did, while my parents did so much for me. And, my Mother never again had to ask me to do it. (And this answers another question. If you're old enough to write, you're old enough to do Path Working) * * *      Some of you will want to keep a copy of this. Some of you will want to destroy it. What ever suits you is the correct thing to do. I personally make a photocopy to keep and destroy the original in my banishing ritual.
     Step #2: Next fold it up as big or as little as you want and attach a string to it (big enough to fit over your head) and wear it for a full day. Yes, I said wear it. Every time you feel it (and it will be often) say, "I'm getting rid of you." Then picture your life as being better without that crippling negative (this is the beginning of the reprogramming process).
     Step #3: is totally subjective and dependent completely on how you feel. You can set up an entire banishing ritual calling spirits, God/dess and anything you work with. Or, you can just take a few moments out of a busy day to focus on the banishing. There are only a few things that are important to remember:

1: As you remove the paper from around your neck say something like this, "I remove you from my neck, I remove you from my mind and from my life. You are no longer a weight I carry. You are gone and solved."
2: In some fashion destroy it. Now, I've burnt mine, I've ripped them up into tiny pieces, I've stabbed mine with a knife, I've urinated on them and I've chewed it up and spit it out. Be creative and do what feels right to you.
3: When it's destroyed spend some time seeing your life, now, without the negative holding you back. Visualize it as clearly as you can. You are successful and you have destroyed the negative. What are the good things that are now going to come your way?
4: As you are seeing these wonderful good things, write them down. Write feelings, things, what you see. All of the good.

Part IV: Re-Programming.

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What is so mysteriously wonderful is the fact that we can control our entire life just with the correct programming. The last exercise, writing the good, is actually an affirmation you need to work with. Every morning read it aloud 10 times. Every evening before you go to sleep read it aloud 10 times. The more worth you give these sessions the better results you'll get. For example: Instead of rushing through them while your stuffing breakfast in your mouth, try lighting a candle and closing your eyes - seeing the change you desire, then repeat it out loud 10 times. I personally make myself up a little tracking sheet where I can take notes on how good things are going (I never write anything bad). This way I can also 'see' my progress.
How long do you continue? Until it no longer feels necessary. You'll know when to stop. A good example here would be an affirmation to pay off a car. If the car is paid off, you would stop the affirmation. Some of them come and go very quickly. Some of them hang on for a long time.

As you can see, this entire process is actually a cycle. Every day you'll be writing in your book, every week you'll be working on a new subject. From time to time you'll be removing old affirmations and about once a week you'll be adding a new one. Suddenly, one day, you'll realize that you haven't taken out that little black book of yours all day. Suddenly, you'll realize that you went a whole day without a negative thought. The best part is reflecting on that day and how absolutely wonderful it is.

Here are some of the strange benefits that I and others have noticed.

My Mother once had three couches delivered to her, when she only need one.
I got a whole bag of new shoes with a simple thought.
A friend started knowing who was on the phone, every time it rang.
My son's grades went from C's to A's.
Magick suddenly becomes potent and powerful.
Information you've been wanting to find is suddenly available to you.
My Father tells a story of a man growing back a finger he lost in a construction accident.
Going into the Astral can be as easy as taking a step.

Don't underestimate the power you'll be opening up. It's truly a gift. A gift we've all been given at birth and only need to learn how to use.

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