Dryness...
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I have been going through a very difficult Dry Spell after having some recent success with my Angel. Aside from groaning through the motions of daily work (which has been an awful experience), is there anything that anyone can suggest to help motivate me through my inertia?
I have picked back up in my long neglected Hatha Yoga practices and it seems to help a bit, and I'm currently making every attempt to fulfill the charge given to me by my Angel on a practical level (ie. discovered an intricate part of True Will and working like crazy to manifest it). It still seems like there is some part that I am omitting aside from my Resh, Banishing, MP practice.
I could really use some support, ideas, and encouragement.
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remember de Molinos' wise words, whatever you do don't abandon Liber Resh and diary, and - keep going...
for me, it helps to just notice the 'dark night' stage (I interpret the dryness you describe in this way, correct me if I'm wrong) and go through it - not to judge, not to worry too much about it, just acknowledge it and despite of it keep working.
it's hard, but it passes - that is the most important fact. in this light, it can be seen as a test of perseverance. -
I find that dryness tends to occur shortly after some kind of big success happens.
The cycle appears, to me at least, to work something like this:
-Initial dryness (working towards making something happen, with no results yet)
-Slowly building efficiency, effects begin to manifest
-Big, possibly unexpected success (the "afterglow" of which may continue for some time)
-Dramatic drop in perceived momentum - things get hard again for no discernible reason as the spiritual adrenaline fades
-The slowly-building, steady glow of momentum and attained skill.I don't know if you find it to work the same way.
I think the biggest thing that can help you is sheer persistence. If it really gets torturous persisting in the face of absolute dryness, maybe try spending some of your time in some other area to motivate or excite you, and see if you can get the excitement to leak over into the dry areas of your life. (i.e. I would make dramatic progress in working on a metal song I'm writing, only for my inspiration to completely leave me later. I would switch to writing some psytrance or ambient music, which works totally different musical muscles, or maybe I would try to work on some fiction. Maybe I'd even throw some more serious effort into playing Starcraft for awhile, etc. Anything to keep me moving and give me a short break at the same time.)
In terms of spiritual dryness, I don't have a whole ton of direct experience of the nature of what you're probably experiencing, but I do have some. I just recently started to get a strong grasp on Liber Resh and why I'm doing it, but that took a good while of forcing myself to do it without getting anything out of it. After your body and mind adjust to being forced to do something, they tend to hate it less, and can even [gasp!] enjoy it!
[I even started waking up at 7-ish in the morning even when I didn't have to otherwise, doing the first installment of Resh, and then going back to sleep. For someone who values sleep as much as I do, that's not insignificant.]
In short: persistence, and maybe giving yourself a break to help recuperate the enthusiasm. Do anything you can to explore your situation from new angles and try fresh approaches, while still persisting in hated activities to some degree to keep the momentum.
Edit: Oh, God, Danica, how many times have I been so close to abandoning Resh! I somehow managed to persevere, though.
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Thank you both: Danica and Ash.
Resh has been the biggest part of the struggle I have had to set alarms throughout the day to "wake me up" so that I'd get the ball rolling, and the diary has been a struggle as well. I just despise the damn thing.
Ash, you hit the nail on the head with music! Funny enough, I used to play metal and rock and practically abandoned music altogether for several years! I realized recently that I pretty much left a part of my soul behind and have been making every effort to get the ball rolling again! Interestingly enough, I met a drummer with very similar musical philosophies as my self when I decided to pick it up again. It amazes me how even after so long the music can still flow, in fact, the flow has never been this easy or satisfying before! I think that the abandonment of music was an unconscious way of breaking my attachments of self-worth and other hangups as well.
Oh Adonai! I have stumbled blindly in the dark only to have come full circle with myself!
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Wow, very interesting choice of words, alrah:
"good servant of the house (or temple)"
After I received the name of my angel, I ran the gematria and re-occurring theme was the word and idea of "storehouse." No matter how I crunched the numbers (greek/hebrew/hebrew finals) the three different sums I found bore a relationship with the word "storehouse," I consulted with a friend well versed in kabbalah and jewish mysticism and he said that the idea of a storehouse was not necessarily about a place of keeping food but also place to educate and feed the poor. Think of the story of Joseph and his brothers.
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I think we are on the same page...
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The trials of Psyche are supposed to be about the period of spiritual dryness and the transformation of desire. These might be worth reading, or rereading as the case may be.
hang in there
love and will
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Persist. That's the only way to get through the dryness.
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@TheSilent1 said
"Wow, very interesting choice of words, alrah:
"good servant of the house (or temple)"After I received the name of my angel, I ran the gematria and re-occurring theme was the word and idea of "storehouse." No matter how I crunched the numbers (greek/hebrew/hebrew finals) the three different sums I found bore a relationship with the word "storehouse," I consulted with a friend well versed in kabbalah and jewish mysticism and he said that the idea of a storehouse was not necessarily about a place of keeping food but also place to educate and feed the poor. Think of the story of Joseph and his brothers."
TheSilent1, I was reading about **Pleiades **on the net (wikipedia) and this post of yours came to mind, because it seems that in many cultures the meaning of the name this star-cluster was something along the lines of "storehouse" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_in_folklore_and_literature).
and this may also be of interest to you (quoted from the above-mentioned source):"In Indian astrology the Pleiades were known as the asterism (nakshatra) Kṛttikā (which in Sanskrit is translated as "the cutters").[10] The Pleiades are called the star of fire, and their ruling deity is the Vedic god Agni, the god of the sacred fire. It is one of the most prominent of the nakshatras, and is associated with anger and stubbornness."
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@danica said
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@TheSilent1 said
"Wow, very interesting choice of words, alrah:
"good servant of the house (or temple)"After I received the name of my angel, I ran the gematria and re-occurring theme was the word and idea of "storehouse." No matter how I crunched the numbers (greek/hebrew/hebrew finals) the three different sums I found bore a relationship with the word "storehouse," I consulted with a friend well versed in kabbalah and jewish mysticism and he said that the idea of a storehouse was not necessarily about a place of keeping food but also place to educate and feed the poor. Think of the story of Joseph and his brothers."
TheSilent1, I was reading about **Pleiades **on the net (wikipedia) and this post of yours came to mind, because it seems that in many cultures the meaning of the name this star-cluster was something along the lines of "storehouse" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_in_folklore_and_literature).
and this may also be of interest to you (quoted from the above-mentioned source):"In Indian astrology the Pleiades were known as the asterism (nakshatra) Kṛttikā (which in Sanskrit is translated as "the cutters").[10] The Pleiades are called the star of fire, and their ruling deity is the Vedic god Agni, the god of the sacred fire. It is one of the most prominent of the nakshatras, and is associated with anger and stubbornness."
"All I can say is: WOW!!! This is amazing Danica THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
