{"id":5787,"date":"2013-11-28T01:06:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T06:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=5787"},"modified":"2013-11-28T01:06:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T06:06:40","slug":"the-passions-of-the-soul-work-magic-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/11\/the-passions-of-the-soul-work-magic-3.html","title":{"rendered":"The passions of the soul work magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"-<\/a>The stronger the emotion, the stronger its effect on our psychic and physical environment. And the effects of our emotions may reach much further than we can initially understand. They can generate a convergence of incidents and energies, for good or bad, in ways that change everything <\/i>in our lives and can affect the lives of many others.<\/p>\n

When we think or feel strongly about another person, we touch that person and affect their mind and body \u2014 even across great distances \u2014 unless that person has found a way to block that transmission. The great French novelist Honor\u00e9 de Balzac wrote that \u201cideas are projected as a direct result of the force by which they are conceived and they strike wherever the brain sends them by a mathematical law comparable to that which directs the firing of shells from their mortars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientific experiments have shown the ability of the human mind and emotions to change physical matter. Conversely, rage or grief can produce disturbing and sometimes terrifying effects in the physical environment. Many of us know people who stop watches or blow up computers when their emotions are running high and uncontrolled. That\u2019s just the start of it. An angry person can be a firestarter. I\u2019ve seen major fires generated by the force of someone\u2019s violent rage. I\u2019ve seen punishing windstorms and freak, localized snowstorms generated in a similar way. These things don\u2019t just happen in Stephen King novels.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s talk about passion.<\/p>\n

Our passions can lead us into madness. They can also give us the creative edge to do our best and most original work and the magnetism that generates extraordinary opportunities and serendipity.<\/p>\n

The passions of the soul work magic. <\/i>This observation, attributed to the great Dominican scholar and magus Albertus Magnus (and loved by Jung) is practical <\/i>guidance of the highest order. <\/i>There are two conditions for working positive magic this way.<\/p>\n

The first is that we must choose <\/i>to take the primal, pulsing energy of our strongest passions and direct it toward a creative goal. The passion that is throbbing and surging inside us may be love or lust (or both), the fierce desire to give birth or the desperate wish to end it all. The passion may be wild rage or terrible grief. Whatever its origin, the strongest passions of the soul produce the energy to remake our world \u2014 if we choose to direct that energy. Imagine a vast body of pent-up water, engorged by a pounding thunderstorm, that is going to burst through a dam with irresistible power. We can choose to harness that force, turning it into hydroelectric power that can light our city and warm our homes. Or we can let it swamp everyone and everything in its path, bringing misery and devastation.<\/p>\n

The second requirement for letting the passions of the soul work magic is that we must seize the moment when they are running strongest and give ourselves completely to acting in the power of that moment. The time is always Now, but when the passions of the soul are at work the time is also GO. I know this as a writer. Often my best work is done when I am in a state of great turmoil, when my passions are running strong but my heart and mind are also conflicted. Such moments give us an edge. I know, from experience, that my best and most original work can come through now <\/i>\u2014 if I use that edge and make myself available to the work any <\/i>time it is coming through..<\/p>\n

In his early novel Louis Lambert<\/i>, Balzac’s version of what becomes possible through exercising the passions of the soul is thrilling and edgy. Acts of mind, fueled by passion,\u00a0abolish time and space. \u201cTo desire is immediately to be where one desires to be, instantaneously to be what one desires to be.” Time is devoured by the moment; space is absorbed by the point. \u201cFor the man in such a state, distances and material objects do not exist, or are traversed by a life within us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What kind of desire makes these things possible? \u201cA desire is a fact entirely accomplished in our will before being accomplished externally.\u201d The passion that works magic is “the will gathered to one point” so that “man can bring to bear his whole vitality.”<\/p>\n

A person who carries a great desire is surrounded by a certain \u201catmosphere,\u201d a \u201cmagnetic fluid\u201d that moves in waves, like sound and light, and touches others. That person produces \u201ca contagion of feelings.\u201d Passion of this kind magnifies sensory abilities; we can see and hear and sense things vividly across distance.<\/p>\n

Coincidences multiply around such a person, because things now happen through \u201csympathies which do not recognize the laws of space.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adapted from The Three \u201cOnly\u201d Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination <\/i>by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n

Photo: with Balzac at the Museum of Modern Art, New York NY.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stronger the emotion, the stronger its effect on our psychic and physical environment. And the effects of our emotions may reach much further than we can initially understand. They can generate a convergence of incidents and energies, for good or bad, in ways that change everything in our lives and can affect the lives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,25,34,3,26,21,27,8],"tags":[1025,1055,1676,1677,1678],"class_list":["post-5787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coincidence","category-conscious-living","category-creativity","category-imagination","category-life-direction","category-psychic-health","category-self-help","category-synchronicity","tag-albertus-magnus","tag-emotions","tag-honore-de-balzac","tag-louis-lambert","tag-passions"],"yoast_head":"\nThe passions of the soul work magic - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/11\/the-passions-of-the-soul-work-magic-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The passions of the soul work magic - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The stronger the emotion, the stronger its effect on our psychic and physical environment. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5789,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions\/5789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}