Ripples in a pool
I took a small stone and turned to one of the children and said ‘I’m going to show you something of how the universe works, in fact it is most definitely how nature works’. I threw the stone into the water and we watched the ripples radiate out. ‘You see the ripples are caused by something that is not the same as the ripples, the action itself is not the same as the effect of that action, that is something important to notice and if you look carefully you can see it everywhere. The bee when it is feeding doesn’t know that it’s pollinating a plant, in fact the benefit that it brings to all life is not his actual intention and this is true of most things. The skill is to be able to work out what effect you can have in the world by doing something completely different. That my dear is Magic’.
I have been fascinated for some time in the unexpected consequence and situations where something is happening but it is difficult to work out the causative effect of it.
Why is it for instance that some people with the same amount of practice could learn much quicker than others, and then slow down?
How is it that other people learn slowly and then for no apparent reason suddenly become very good almost overnight? I have seen this over and over again,
I have had a number of experiences where somebody who could not sing, who is struggling to pitch a note and who was make slow progress, could one day turn up to a lesson; sit down and this amazing voice came out.
In a previous post I said that progress is not linear, I had spoken more of the framework of revelation and some sort of tipping point event but this time I want to look at what we could do to create change in an indirect lateral fashion.
I was always interested in the work of Edward De Bono who coined the phrase lateral thinking, in his numerous books on the subject there are lots of examples of stimulating thought by coming in laterally. He uses various examples one of them was an American museum looking for extra funding and using a dictionary as the reference source. At random they chose words from the dictionary and then brainstormed what it made them think. One word was mattress and that led to the idea of sleepovers in the museum, children’s parties then business conferences etc. This apparently led to an increase in the funds for the museum leading to their financial survival and course a couple of Hollywood films such as Night in the Museum, I’m joking as I don’t know whether that’s true or not!
Sometimes we see this in our own life where a situation which may have been unpleasant leads to an improvement in one’s life, a fulcrum point in the way that gave you leverage for change.
Instead of waiting for events we create the opportunity for them to happen, him I’m thinking of the idea explored in the book the ‘The Dice Man’ where his decisions based on the throw a dice. I have already mentioned Bowie and Brian Eno use of cards in their case the oblique strategy cards that Eno had created. Brian Eno was also a collector of Tarot packs and therefore I would assume that the the oblique strategy cards that he created we’re just an extension to that idea. If it worked for Brian Eno and David Bowie it might be worth considering it yourself.
So what about ritualistic behaviour? Of course we do this all the time, cleaning our teeth, who goes to the bathroom first in the morning, how we order our lives; these patterns are the same, day in, day out often, so let us create some that have an intention for change.
Remember that I have a creative experiment going on which is available through my Patreon site which is the Magical Song Writing, where we are creating lyrics and music that has some intention to change ourselves and our surroundings. Check that out by visiting www.Patreon.com/vichyland
