KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

February 26 through March 3, 2024

We'll get an extra day of February this week, thanks to it being leap year! Balance is the theme the first half of the week as the Moon drifts through loving Libra and makes relationships with ourselves and others the focus. The second half of the week belongs to a Scorpio Moon, and in combination with the Pisces Sun, this is a great time to practice your metaphysical skills, try some channeling to connect with others from the Spirit world, or simply increase your meditation time to strengthen your inner wellness and intuitive powers. We can designate Sunday as a play day under the Sagittarius Moon, opting for social or relaxing activities to lighten our spirits and bring joy to our worlds.

The Art of Focus: Tips to Improve Your Scrying and Dowsing, by Jenny Tyson

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Focus may be defined as an event, object, or person that occupies the center of one's attention. It is a primary concept and an essential skill in both divination and magick. It is also needed to effectively perform scrying and dowsing. The ability to focus is a requirement for any basic individual scrying session, but it is also a tool that must be mastered for long-term scrying accuracy and personal improvement in the divinatory arts.

Over the course of developing the original techniques of scrying and dowsing presented in my latest book, The Art of Scrying and Dowsing, I was able to greatly improve my ability to focus. In this short article, I would like to introduce some ideas that you can use to enhance your ability to focus, and to give you information that will enable you to understand its role in all forms of divination, particularly in scrying and dowsing, as well as in the general practice of magick.

First, I will give a more specific definition of focus that pertains to the practice of scrying and dowsing: Focus is the unwavering attention and persistent contact with the incoming intuitive information obtained during scrying and dowsing sessions. Distraction is the opposite of focus. Distraction is when you lose contact with the incoming intuitive information. The result of distraction is a decrease in accuracy of your perceptions.

One of the best ways to help you see how well you are focusing is to scry physical targets related to known locations, activities, and living beings. Physical targets can be researched, and information discovered about them compared with scryed information for the purpose of discerning which perceptions were accurate and which were not. This examination takes place after the scrying session and is called feedback, or the feedback session. It is best done intentionally and with nonjudgmental honesty. The feedback session will help you determine the quality of your focus.

So what are the characteristics of focus? How do you make the changes needed to improve your scrying ability and accuracy? The characteristics of focus are trust, persistent contact, and steadiness. Each of these characteristics plays an important role in learning to scry accurately, as well as in other types of divination. Let's look at each characteristic in turn.

Trust
The first characteristic of focus is trust. Scrying and dowsing require that you trust that the goals of the session are doable. You need to trust in the process of scrying and dowsing strongly enough to be motivated to put effort and attention into the work.

I want to distinguish the difference between trust and belief. Belief is where a concept or idea is determined to be a rule by which the universe operates. For example, if you believe there is an angel of love, a belief in the angel of love would entail a series of ideas about the characteristics and role of the angel. Belief persists through time and changes slowly.

Trust can be temporary. You may temporarily trust that there is an angel of love, and complete a scrying session involving the idea. This can be done without having to buy into concepts regarding the angel of love as part of a set of ideas as to how the universe operates. This trust allows you to have the motivation to complete the scrying session concerning the angel of love. After you complete the session, you can examine the information you obtained and the experiences you had, and then decide if you want to change your beliefs.

Scrying and dowsing can successfully be done based in either trust or belief. All you have to trust is that the scrying and dowsing techniques will work and provide you with information. This trust allows you to complete the scrying session. Once the operation is complete, you may or may not wish to add concepts to your belief system.

So how do you improve trust, especially if you have doubts about the effectiveness of scrying and dowsing as means of obtaining information? The easiest way to do this is to set a time limit on the period during which you will deliberately place your trust in the concepts related to scrying that you need to utilize in order to perform the scrying and dowsing session. This means that for the duration of the session, you will trust that the scrying and dowsing will provide the information that you are looking for.

The time period will vary according to what is being done. Trust in the process you are working with needs to be for the duration of the session. The scrying session may be as short as 15 minutes, or you may do multiple sessions on a single target for a period of several months. Trust is a sort of pact that you make with yourself that you will set aside doubt for the duration of the scrying session.

The time limit can be determined before you start and reassessed as you work. It is not necessary to have long-term belief in scrying and dowsing for it to work, you only need to adopt temporary trust in the process for the duration of the session.

Once you reach the end of the operation, you make an intelligent and deliberate decision on which concepts you want to add to your beliefs and what ideas you want to discard. This way, you do not feel bound to adopt a belief that you may not feel completely comfortable with, but you still have the freedom to perform a scrying or dowsing session. This practice of distinguishing trust from belief allows for healthy skepticism and internal honesty.

Persistent Contact
The second characteristic of focus is persistent contact. Persistent contact means that you must pay attention to the incoming data of the scrying and dowsing session to the exclusion of all else in your mind and in the immediate environment. During the time of the session, you disregard everything else. One of the mistakes I see quite often is the tendency of beginners to focus on how their bodies feel, or on what is happening around them.

Once you focus on anything other than your scrying and dowsing perceptions, you have lost contact with the target. Preparation for scrying and dowsing involves changing your attention to focus on the session and nothing else. Distractions can include electronics, music, random thoughts, body sensations, environmental issues such as odors, sounds, lights, and other people. External distractions are problematic if they draw your attention away from the incoming perceptions you are scrying. You can learn to maintain focus while in a distracting environment. Learning to ignore environmental distractions is called resilience. Building resilience is a useful skill in any esoteric practice, whether it involves divination or magick.

Internal distractions are things such as distracting thoughts, fatigue, or nervousness. Training to disregard internal distractions is often accomplished by seated meditation. When you practice seated meditation, you are learning to handle internal distractions and focus on the objective of the meditation technique—a spoken mantra or your breathing, for example. Scrying itself can be used to help you learn to disregard internal distractions.

If you wish to do ritual work for the scrying session, that is perfectly fine. You need to completely finish the ritual before you start scrying, and close the ritual after you finish scrying. Once you start to scry and dowse, you must completely focus on those perceptions, documenting what is coming to you and nothing else. You cannot focus on ritual and scry at the same time. Scrying should be carried out with an all-consuming attention and interest.

Setting is how you arrange your external environment for the scrying session. An example of a setting is a ritual circle, robes, sword or staff, lighting, and ritual timing. The setting is done according to the individual and the type of scrying being done. Scrying does not require special setting or rituals to work. It is a matter of personal preference.

I do not personally find that scrying accuracy improves with elaborate ritual settings. However, I think this is a matter of individual liking and comfort, and I do not discourage using elements of special settings or ritual. I simply allow it to be done according to the individual's preference. The elements of ritual and setting need to be in place when you start to scry. During the scrying session you do not get up or attend to any setting element. Doing that will cause the contact to break. It has to be re-established again before accurate scrying data will be perceived. Frequent breaks will cause accuracy problems.

As with trust, the best way to improve persistent attention is to have an arbitrary time limit to the scrying session. I generally recommend the session be under 20 minutes for a beginner, and never to exceed and hour regardless of experience. After an hour, persistent contact is going to be difficult to maintain. It is better to do multiple sessions on a single target and maintain strong steady focus in each of them, than to do a single long session where focus is wavering.

Steadiness
Steadiness is the last characteristic of good focus. Steadiness is being in the moment both mentally and physically while you are scrying. It is a state that is not tense, but one of sitting still while you are scrying the target. The state of relaxation does not have to be intentionally induced. If you have persistent contact, you will not be paying attention to your body. Your body will find its natural state of relaxation without you doing a thing to induce it. In fact, the more you pay attention to your physical state, the less persistent contact you have with the scrying target coming in. Loss of attention causes a decrease in your scrying and dowsing accuracy. So, how do you achieve steadiness without focusing on your body?

This is done through preparation prior to the session. You need to be seated in a place where you feel comfortable and safe. Scrying is best conducted in a chair that is reasonably padded. Your lower back should be supported and there should not be any areas of uncomfortable pressure or pain. Your feet need to be in contact with the floor. This will prevent muscle tension and leg cramps. When you are sketching your perceptions, the paper, your hand, and your forearm need to be supported by a firm surface. This is best achieved by sitting at a desk or table.

If you are working outdoors when recording your scrying perceptions, you should use a clipboard. However, you need to ensure that you do not become tense or feel the need to shift around. While outside, you must keep warm, and be protected from biting insects. During summer when working in the daytime, avoid the hot sun. These preparations are done before the scrying session begins. Once you start the session, your attention will be entirely on the scrying process.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

My grandmother (father's mother) cursed my parents when they married, saying that their marriage would bring them great unhappiness, that they would not prosper together, and that their issue would wither and die. Most of what she said has happened. I am still alive at 49, but I have had to overcome many illnesses (including cancer) and am unable to have children. Since my grandmother died, I have seen her continue to act through my father. I have no relationship directly with my grandmother, as I never met her while she was alive. I understand the need to raise my vibration by forgiving her and have worked on this throughout my life. I now feel only pity for this women who has caused the death of her own line (none of her other children had children either.) I want to resolve this and be released from the effects of her curse, as my parents' misery affects me because I love them. It is very sad, as they loved each other so very much. Here's my question: Is there any way as a "third party" to the curse that I can lift it? If so, how should I go about it? I would really appreciate any advice you may have.

- Robyn

Dreamchaser:

I imagine the answer to your question will vary depending on who answers it. I personally don't feel that anyone can be cursed, so I also don't feel that a third party can lift an apparent curse. I think that the power of a "curse" lies in whether or not someone believes that they can be cursed.

Quantum physics explains that what we think is what we create. As Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become."

If a family thinks it is cursed, then when bad things happen, the family will see them as proof that the curse is real and believe in it even more. The problem with your family stems from some DNA issues. For example, you have hereditary problems with procreation. Your family also carries over FEAR and ANGER issues from generation to generation. Your family has always blamed these problems on this curse idea; it's an excuse that makes sense to everyone.

Your parents are, by your own admission, miserable people. They had a miserable marriage, and your father is a mean, cranky, angry old man. He acts much like your grandmother did, but that is NOT a curse Robyn ñ it's a choice. He could choose to be nice to people if he wanted to. His bad behavior is being excused by everyone who blames your grandmother and "the curse" for it.

No outside person can remove an apparent curse. Period. I do not care what this psychic, that gypsy woman, or that holy man says. No one can remove a curse.

Please do not pay any more money to anyone in an attempt to remove this curse, for there was no curse to begin with. Your grandmother just hated the thought of your father and mother marrying, and she knew that they would be miserable. Instead of "making" this happen, maybe she just predicted it.

She wanted your father to stay and take care of her. She did not want to give up your father to your mother, for she did not like your mother. Their unhappiness was not a result of her curse, however - it was a result of them making a bad choice in marrying each other.

Your grandmother said she cursed the marriage because she was a real Drama Queen. She would be THRILLED to know that her words have held so much power. She did not have the ability to put a curse on anyone, anyway. Cursing someone is what people do when they feel powerless to control or manipulate others.

If you want to be "free of this curse," I think you should say the following words out loud three times every morning before your feet even hit the floor:

"Today I create a happy, prosperous, abundant day."

I wish you FREEDOM at last.

*****

Astrea:

Kiddo, your grandmother didn't curse your family. It seems that she didn't need to, because those of you who have believed in that curse have done a bang-up job of cursing YOURSELVES.

Since you're alive, apparently you have overcome most of what she SUGGESTED would happen to your family. Since your parents are still alive, they've broken the supposed curse too. I'm sorry that you've had a series of illnesses in your life, but you survived them - even CANCER. If Grandmother's curse was so powerful, you wouldn't be here! How can you believe she cursed all of you when you're still a loving and giving person?

What she was doing when she "cursed" your parents at their wedding was trying to CONTROL them. She couldn't even do that when she was alive, much less from Spirit, because they got married in spite of her. Her curse had no power then, and it has no power now, except for the POWER YOU GIVE IT.

Illness is not something that is planned or destined, and it's not something that one person can inflict on another. That would go against nature. Bad luck stems from making foolish choices. Instead of taking responsibility for anything that goes wrong in your lives, you lay it all on grandmother's curse!

You have all drawn comfort from this idea, because the alternative is to accept that you might be the own cause of your "bad luck." "I didn't get the job because of grandmother's curse" or "If Granny hadn't cursed me, the Coke machine wouldn't have taken my dollar."

Another extreme idea with the same result is when someone says, "It's God's will that this happened," or "God didn't mean for me to be happy." If you continue to believe something like this, it can ruin your whole life.

When someone has done a wrong to you or your family, forgiveness is essential to truly moving on. Since she only SAID she cursed your family, and nothing ever happened as a direct result of what she said, raising your vibration by forgiving her should be fairly easy, and it certainly would be wise.

I don't know why the rest of her children never had children of their own, but from what you've told me, it would seem that she was the kind of overbearing, controlling individual who could manipulate people into doing almost EVERYTHING she wanted.

Spiritually, she has come a long way since she died, and she feels just awful about what she said to your folks when they got married. She is telling me that she is embarrassed and ashamed of herself for saying anything of the kind, and she wants you all to stop buying into this superstitious garbage so that you can get on with your lives and be HAPPY!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.