To judge or not to judge . . . hmmmmm

 Season's Greetings,

'Tis the season, to judge others?  Oooh, perhaps a touchy subject, but let's go there anyways!

This time of year we hear so much about the spirit of Christmas, i.e love unto others, peace on earth, goodwill towards ones fellow man.  In theory lovely sentiments. But do we really? Can we?  Love our fellow man without condition? Most of it comes down to the concept of not passing judgment on others. Accepting others for who they are.  I think many people feel they should not pass judgment on others, but that actually goes against our primitive nature. We have to.pass judgment on others. This comes from the primitive part of our mind's need to survive.

We pass judgment on others and about others constantly and we do so from a primitive basis. When we meet strangers we give them an assessment of sorts. Do they appear safe, friendly, nice?  Are they fun, interesting exciting? Are they scary, potentially dangerous, suspicious? As they 'familiar' to us i.e. same race, economic status, do they speak the same language, look like us? These are all almost instant judgments made by us everyday of our lives.

From a witches point of view, at least my point of view, we use our energy, our aura to sense these things about others. Everyone does this to some degree, use their personal energy to 'sense' things about people they have just met, but many are not even aware of it.  They may just leave the encounter feeling 'not right about that person', or not liking them, feeling creeped out or the opposite may be true. Have you ever met someone and almost from the very start you knew that person was special and would remain so in your life? 

As my training and practice as a witch has taught me, I understand that everything has a vibrational energy,  the most easy for us to sense is living energy from animals and other people.  Some can sense energy in living things such as plants and trees and some still  non living objects and  materials. A quantum physicist will tell you even a rock has a vibrational energy to it. A slow, imperceptible one perhaps, but its vibrating nonetheless.

We all exist on a vibrational energy level and all humans for instance fall within a fixed portion of the spectrum, whereas animals and trees exist on other vibrational levels.  The reason we have 'best' friends, lovers, soul mates, enemies, people you can't stand to be around, and people who drive you crazy, is because we sync up with those on the same level as us.  Have you heard that phrasing before? We're on the 'same page', 'same level', 'in sync' etc. 

And we also are repelled by those whose vibrational rate is not in accord with ours.  I bet you've heard phrases like 'He rubs me the wrong way', indicating the people are not on the 'same level'.  Well we come about this information by allowing ourselves to first assess the person in question and then secondly to pass judgment on whether or not we will have that person in our lives. 

Yet it seems that many people chastise themselves on not being more trusting, berate themselves for passing judgment on others, when in fact that is exactly what we're hardwired from a primitive level to do.Seriously, if we not learned to pass judgment on others, and had been more trusting from the very beginning of our existence, we wouldn't have made it out of the caves.  

I see around me, and hear from those I speak with a lot of frustration around the holidays and much of the troubles seem to be caused by others. Just recently on the news was a story about a street in a local town that decorated with lights the entire neighborhood. They put out boxes for charitable contributions of canned food items for the needy.  They have done this for a several years, even though it was the first time I had heard the story, and were upset because they were getting so few donations. One man even threatened to turn the lights off! He was upset, frustrated and disappointed.  On one hand I understand his frustration, on another I wonder how many people, who typically drive around to look at lights for the holiday season, even knew about the canned food drive?

That man passed judgment on others, and he's entitled to. I wonder if he realizes that it was his earlier prior judgment and because that one proved to be false, that people would know and then be motivated to bring canned foods for this drive, that he was disappointed and frustrated because he set himself up to be.

I've done charitable work for many different groups and organizations over the years and I learned that most importantly it is the judgments that I have that make the contribution worthwhile for me.  I make the choice that when I contribute something it is the contribution itself that fulfills me. For instance, like the cookies I bake and deliver to the first responders in my town on Christmas Eve.  Are they eaten? I don't know. Further more, I can't care about that. Even though I try to make them as delicious as possible, I also know they may be thrown away or set aside and forgotten about.  That doesn't matter, its my way of saying thank you from me to that part of the universal energy that looks out for us, and takes shape in the bodies of the men and women who are manning the 911 lines and the stations on Christmas Eve, Day, at midnight, everyday.  

We pass judgment all the time, on how we perceive people, how we wish to be perceived and the circumstances we find ourselves in. I find the sadness and frustration we experience comes from prior judgment we pass on others. We expect them to, want them to, don't want them to etc.  The most we can do is state clearly what you want, what you expect before hand.

We normally create our closest friend base by those who live up to our expectations and our prior judgments. For those who are not in your close circle of friends, expect less.  Not to be flip, not at all. Expect less.   Realize that even if that person is a member of your family, that you may not be on the same vibrational level. That's O.K. It has to be.

This is a fun experiment I have my students work with at Enchantments. This one requires another person. The two people stand facing one another a few feet apart. One person is the 'sender' the other the 'receiver'. The sender starts by clapping hands together a few sharp times, to get their energy up and awake. The receiver stands with hands relaxed, by the sides and closes their eyes.  The sender after clapping hands a few times, then takes a moment and raises hands, palms away from sender, and slowly moves hands towards the receiver. Start by mentally thinking the energy from the palms towards the face. Our entire bodies are sensitive to energy we receive, but most especially our faces.

The receiver stands and when they 'feel' something different, they open eyes or raise a hand. I use the word feel loosely as it's more of a sense. Some feel a tingling, a heat, a coolness. Many have said working with me they feel a push of the air, along with tingles and heat. When they feel a difference in the air around them they let the sender know. Then they can switch roles to experience both parts. 

Those that practice this can become adept at not only sensing the 'attack' but also know what side its coming from.  This is a drill I learned from my years of training in the martial arts. It has validity in the world of the magickal arts for me today.  Its also fun, give it a try. But a word of caution, go slowly.  Coming too fast at the other person does not give them time to sense the energy change. 

So if you are feeling frustration this holiday season, go easy on yourself. We will always pass judgment on others, that is understood. Now to understand how this affects us, and how to work it in our favor, is the work of those seeking magickal understanding.  It all comes from within, no matter how those on the outside drive us crazy!! 

I wish you a peaceful, blessed holiday season 





© 2010 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. 

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