"Do not lay your personal power at the feet of another".
Merry Meet and Happy Morning Family and Friends!
So, occasionally I will cross reference my rune castings with an online divination tool called Graven Image Oracle. It's an interesting site in which you meditate on a card before receiving the answer to your query. And while I take all online forms of divination with a grain of salt, I like this one because inputting your question is not required, which means the outcome isn't being generated by a specific question, word or phase.
Very often, I am warned of laying my personal power at the feet of another. What does that mean exactly?
I think there are many ways that this might be interpreted. Something as simple as agreeing with someone to a avoid conflict, not standing up for yourself or allowing someone to pressure you into doing something out of sense of obligation are some things that come to mind. In my humble opinion, any time you knowingly allow yourself to be taken advantage of, for whatever reason and to varying degrees, you are laying your personal power at the feet of another. That doesn't necessarily mean that there is always malice afoot. At times, we lay our personal power aside simply for the sake of friendship.
There are however, some people who will knowingly try to tap into your personal power. They believe they know you well enough to have insight or control over the outcome of a particular situation, especially if they tend to benefit from that outcome. Not so much.
"With a fool no season spend or be counted as his friend".
There is a simple way to avoid this...it's called, common sense. People who are intentionally looking to take advantage of your good nature or personal power will almost always slip up. Why? Because no matter how adept they consider themselves to be, dependent upon the degree of their personal interest in the outcome, without realizing it, their own impatience will often give them away. Alternatively, at times, they are so convinced of their abilities that they simply fail to keep in mind one of the basic tenets of Witchery...to "Keep Silent".
"Light of eye and soft of touch, speak ye little, listen much"
These are not just nice pieces of poetic literature, folks. They are from the Rede of the Wiccae and probably one of the first things that we learn as Wiccans. Certainly, there are some that would argue that as a result of how much Wicca has evolved over the past 60 years, the Rede has outgrown it's usefulness. Not so much. One of the first things we learn as children is not to play with matches. We may have since learned the way to safely handle the flame, but if we become careless or arrogant, convincing ourselves that we can predict it's reaction, getting burned becomes a reality. Seriously.
I must confess that, at times, I have failed miserably at adhering to the lessons of the Rede of the Wiccae. As the Oracle suggests, I have, indeed, knowingly lain my personal power at the feet of others. That said, I'm a work in progress and like a child playing with matches, I've learned never to under estimate the "personal power" of the flame.
Played with any matches lately?
In Darkness, Light!
Tracy
10 comments:
Yeah, I find myself having to work on the same. We're only human, right?
I think we all do, sometimes without even realizing it. I believe learning to recognize it when we see it that's key.
This is both good and bad advice depending on how it is applied.....of course. It is something which many take to heart when they do not have the ability to correctly "read" intentions from another which makes dialogue seem what it is....even when doubletalk is afoot. I posted a short story concerning myself and Sue , of late, which has a lot of this as background. Many times the closer we are to someone...the less we wish to listen to their opinion when its attempts at objectivity seem to vibrate along our habitual "anti-control perimeters". It can give us a false excuse with which to avoid personal attitudes which serve neither partner well. Personality variations are always over-lapped between facets of useful and useless.
Good advice can be ignored by mistake of intention as easily as bad advice. This is why any interaction I am in.....is useful only when I can see/sense the mirror image.
I agree Dennis, there are many times were our sense of being controled can cause us to ignore useful advice. I find however, that depending on whom we're interacting with and what their intentions are, their motives can be tainted or biased in terms of the outcome they hope to achieve.
My husband and I have, after 23 years, have each ignored important information simply because of our built in "anti-control" feature. On the other hand, I believe something as basic as trust plays a vital role in how much of our personal power we feel comfortable laying at the feet of another.
I always try not to let myself be taken advantage of, spiritually or emotionally or any other way possible...but I guess sometimes it happens. Like my mother guilt tripping me all the way to hell and back...
alas...what is done is done..and I try my best to not be stepped on.
Thank you by the way for telling me about the no kill traps! I will look into them as soon as I can because killing the poor thing made me so depressed...and the mouse had to die too which is never good.
Blessings
emmie
Emmie,
You're light always shines through and if there is any way you could have saved that little mouse, you would have.
Don't be too depressed, where there's one mouse, there are always others to take their place...hence the reason for mouse traps!
Thoughtful comments. It is easy to take things for granted when we are close to someone - when it may be especially important to be attentive.
The sharing of personal power is to be considered carefully. Without our explicit and implicit free-will, much of who we are, and what we do, can be called into question.
(for instance 'love' can be freely given only if we are truly free - and cannot be merely assumed or appropriated, if it is to have full meaning...but it does not necessarily preclude an agreed-upon marriage - or other contract - just deserving of heightened awareness and attention)
Re; mouse.
I wrote a short story about a retarded man who worked part-time as a consierge in a church...who befriended a mouse, and eventually took him home to a shabby rented room, and fashioned it a home out of a shoe box.
The story was so moving and real, that when the part came where the landlord stomped the small timid trusting beastie, I had tears streaming down my face (and I wrote the damn thing).
AS the cosmos would have it (and ironically very shortly after) I actually found I had to get rid of a real live mouse of my own. Failing to live-trap it, I lost patience and killed it in a spring trap. Not the least part of my sadness (and in remembrance of Robert Burns' poem) was that I had to moth-ball the most moving tale I have ever read.
I will add that your comments are precise and it is good to see another struggling to earn the deeper levels of self-trust. Our best 'muse' is always the one closest.....but sometimes they aren't our best example of what needs to be done to attain our primary spiritual goal because they are also our best enabling asset. I lived on 'logical argument' as a base...for many years...to gain better understanding and trust of my intuitions. It is a long......road.
Self-Trust is, in a word, a bitch! I often struggle with allowing myself to fully trust my intuition, despite the many...many times, it has been accurate.
It is, as you say, a long road, but one of at times, wonderful self discovery as well!
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