Managing One’s Energy

Breaking the Spell (Chapter Five)

Five

Managing One’s Energy

We should remind ourselves again about what is the underlying principle of all life: Everything Is Mind. All life manifests within a mind-before- matter universe – that is, a conscious universe. As the Hermetic dictum states: The Universe is Mental.[1] Our cosmos resonates with energy that is conscious, dynamic and creative. Both the material and the non-material energetic forces operating within the universe are constantly in states of becoming. They represent the unfinished creative energies of change and transformation. In this sense, nothing really ‘is’ as all and everything fluctuates. The early Greek philosopher Heraclitus emphasized the nature of universal flux and flow:

‘There is nothing permanent except change’; ‘All is flux, nothing stays still.’ The ‘reality’ of creation suggests that there is nothing which is not in permanent flux. Change is how life endures. All forces are in continual action and reaction; inflow and outflow; attraction and repulsion. Behind these continual flows is the presence of Mind.

Human beings are organisms that both filter and create energy; and through this relation with energy we hold the capacity to alter our sense and perception(s) of our immediate environment. In other words, we exist in a ‘sense’ environment where our energy fields operate as tactile tentacles. We have the capacity to ‘feel’ our reality, which then gets filtered through our physical sense apparatus. Since all is energy we need to manage the interactions between interior and exterior energy fields/flows. By learning how to ‘free-up’ energy a person is then able to save some energy from daily usage and wastage. This stored energy can then be used for a person’s own focused intentions and awareness. Without this discipline a person is more vulnerable to the backward and forward swing of pendulum-like forces:

The masses of people are carried along, obedient to environment; the wills and desires of others stronger than themselves; heredity; suggestion; and other outward causes moving them about like pawns on the Chessboard of Life.[2]

Energy is a material quantity. As such it needs to be considered in terms of its quantitative value. A person has the capacity (and/or access) to only so much energy in their lifetime. Energy should be thus viewed not as a limitless resource but as an endowment. Too many people too much of the time spend energy needlessly on unnecessary and unpleasant emotions. Energy gets used up on expectations, mood swings, nervousness, irritability, wrong imagination, negative thoughts/ intentions, and self-pity.

Desires and misplaced attention are a primary way of wasting this quantitative energy. The fanciful desires that enter us from the world around – our exterior ‘social carnival’ - can distract and sap our energies. If we could but form small specific goals within our everyday life, and achieve them, this would create more permanent energy within us. To aim and to achieve is an energy-fixing exercise. Begin with small aims that are realizable before moving onto larger goals. Allow these aims to be formed not from want but from need. To know what one needs is a higher form of thinking than by being influenced by wants. To need enough, and want little enough is a dictum worth following.

The ancient Hermetic art of mental transmutation involved the practice of changing and transforming mental states and conditions. It is both a high art and an everyday practical possibility. A helpful formulation is Energy Retention, Energy Intention. A person should aim to store and retain as much personal energy as possible. This personal energy can then be made available for physical aims and achievements through focused intention. A lack of a conscious aim within life goes hand in hand with unfocused and undisciplined interior energy. It is a basic fact of our lives that we give away our energy too easily. It is thus necessary to save, store, and manage one’s personal energy: even if for the primary reason that a person needs enough personal energy for self-evolution.

It can be said that most ‘unconscious’ actions waste energy and that it is conscious action which stores and retains energy. To manage one’s energy then requires that we become more conscious over the reciprocation of energies – mentally, physically, and emotionally. Energy is thus lost through unnecessary physical/muscular exertion; unfocused mental exertions and daydreaming; and emotional nervousness or stress.

The picture may be clearer if we consider one of the functions of the human being is to assist in the movement of energies. Humans are agents of transmission – for themselves, for people around them, and for their environment. It can be said that humans both individually and collectively operate as a ‘movement of energies’. The human body is like a biological battery – it accumulates, develops, and distributes energies. As such it is necessary for a person to be in harmonious relations with their interactions: with people, situations, emotions, and physical posturing. These concepts are not new; in fact they form a basis of our everyday world.

People often talk of sensing ‘bad vibes’ between people or even in a place. When something just doesn’t ‘feel right’ we need to trust these instinctual signs. It is our responsibility (to our ‘selves’ and to our energy) to find and nurture right alignments. For example, when in the presence of some people we may recognize that we always have a feeling of being drained of energy. It is as if these people were sucking the energy away from us. In these circumstances we can refer to such people as ‘psychic vampires’. Not because they are necessarily evil, dangerous, or denizens of the night. It is because their energy alignments are such that they ‘pull in’ the energy around them. The reasons for this are various, yet the outcome invariably the same. If it is not your function to ‘feed them’, then move away – just don’t entertain their energy. In a mind-before-matter universe everything is a construction of energy:

The human form is a conglomerate of energy fields which exists in the universe, and which is related exclusively to human beings. Shamans call it the human form because those energy fields have been bent and contorted by a lifetime of habits and misuse.[3]

The interior health of the human can be related to the ‘shape and form’ of one’s energy body. Since the universe is mental the human body is thus responsive also to our thoughts and their emanations. This creates the need for disciplining one’s mental, emotional, and physical states.

All mental processes – all thoughts, intentions, desires and Will – manifest as vibrations. The quality of a person’s vibrations will be relative to their mental state and condition. Negative mental states will be accompanied by discordant vibrations. Some of these vibrations will remain within the energy of the person’s body, affecting them physically; while the remainder will resonate through the exterior environment. Just as in the vibration of musical sounds, a person’s vibration affects the people around them by a form of ‘induction’. In simpler terms, everything is in resonance with every other thing. Every thought we have, every act we perform has its direct and indirect results through the resonance and transference of energies. It is a universal law taught by all the perennial wisdom traditions that Like attracts Like. A person is liable to attract the positive just as they can attract the negative. One’s interior mental state is thus a valve to exterior energies and conditions. Being mindful of one’s thoughts and state of mind is primary to a disciplined management of personal energy.

The ‘attention distracter’ (AD) that is life increasingly draws a person’s attention onto physical events. These events are often of a superficial, vacuous, and inane nature. In this way, ordinary life operates to distract the focused energy of individuals. It is thus necessary for each person to carefully manage their daily mental and emotional energies. For example, we should be wary over putting too much mental attention onto material things. Material objects/events can drain us of our conscious energy, demanding more and more of our awareness. Often, we leak our energy like a bucket with holes.

Technology too can ‘gadget-ize’ us with our mental energies, making multi-tasking an energy-draining enterprise rather than energy-accumulating. As with everything, we each need to be aware of how much we are being drawn into an event or encounter. It is surprising how quickly our mental energies can be drawn away from us like kids to toys. When we engage ourselves externally we should be aware of the quantity and quality of the energy transaction involved.

If an external influence impacts upon our mental state, as in feeling stressed or confused, then we should create a mental ‘stop’. Assess the situation and restart by calling forth and generating intent. By putting deliberate mental intention into a situation or event, a person is creating an energetic force that both fuels and protects a person. Rather than being lost at sea, we should direct our paddling towards dry land. Similarly, to alter a disagreeable state of mind a person should seek out those activities that can create a harmonious vibration. For example, when the mind is confused or frustrated, listen to some relaxing music. Or go for a favorite walk in the woods or a place near to Nature. By engaging in activities that create a favorable resonance, a person’s energies are revitalized and the ‘leak’ is plugged. This is a necessary practice when dealing with energy management. After all, if you had a pot of gold you wouldn’t go about throwing out handfuls of gold coins. Why do the same with the quantity of personal energy? Therefore, we should always be aware of our mental states since within each moment everything is Mind.

A well-known dictum that expresses the situation is Energy flows where attention goes. By being aware of where we place our attention, and to what degree, we are better placed to manage our store of energy. The human mind is itself in a state of potential evolution. Hermetic teachings state that:

Mind (as well as metals and elements) may be transmuted from state to state; degree to degree; condition to condition; pole to pole; vibration to vibration.[4]

A person thus requires enough personal energy if they are to continue with their ongoing evolution. By wasting energy a person is forfeiting the inheritance of their resources for their development.

It is likely that increased energies will be made available during this present epoch. As described earlier, there are cultural interventions which facilitate accelerated social and personal change. It can be said that we are passing through one of these cultural shifts at present. Thus, with more energy ‘in the system’ it presents an opportunity (and need) for the efficient and creative utilization of these energies. As this short book attempts to explain, some of our energy resources need to be directed towards shifting our cognitive systems and developing our internal- external bridge of communication. This can help each of us to attain our aims toward a future we wish to see for ourselves and for others to come. It is all about being vigilant with oneself (a subject to which I shall address in the next essay).

A TALE TO FINISH: Be Useless and Enjoy

Lao Tse was traveling with his disciples when they came to a forest where hundreds of loggers were cutting down the trees. The whole forest had been cleared except for a single large tree with hundreds of branches. This one tree was so great that thousands of people could sit within its shade. Lao Tse asked his disciples to go and enquire why it was that this tree had not been cut down. Soon the disciples returned with the answer to their question and told the teacher:

‘They say that this tree is completely useless and that nothing can be done with it its branches are so full of knots and nothing is straight; it is no good for furniture. Also, it cannot even be used for firewood because it produces a smoke that is harmful to the eyes.’

Lao Tse nodded his head and, with a smile, said: ‘Be like this tree, completely useless, and then you will grow great and thou- sands of people will find shade under you. Be the last yet move in the world as if you were not. Do not compete, do not try to prove yourself worthy - it is not necessary. Be useless and enjoy.’

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Taken from the book ‘Breaking the Spell’ (published 2013/2020)

[1] Three Initiates (2008) The Kybalion. London: Tarcher

[2] Three Initiates (2008) The Kybalion. London: Tarcher

[3] Castaneda, C. (1999) The Wheel of Time. London: Allen Lane

[4] Three Initiates (2008) The Kybalion. London: Tarcher