Time work from Claudia Manifest

[chelidon]

My partner Claudia Manifest, a Priestess dedicated to Time, sent this out earlier today, and gave me permission to repost it here, for anyone who does Time-related work and might be interested. If anyone has any questions about this work, let me know and I can put you in touch with her.

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Hello all, I was recently asked by Sage Goode from Vancouver to write out some of my thoughts on Time for her, and after doing so, it occurred to me that others might also be interested. I first encountered the Time Allies and dedicated to Them as a priestess 5 years ago in the middle of a Spiralheart Ritual. They literally came to me at an important point in the trance / energy working and said they would help me do the priestessing work for the ritual if I would dedicate to them and spread the word about them. I took a deep breath and agreed, and have been working with / for them ever since. From that night on we began calling Time into our circles as an ally in Spiralheart, and the teaching team brought that magic back to each of their home communities and other communities they were teaching at the following years. Time magic has been resonating through Reclaiming ever since. I am considering doing a one day workshop on this in the Fall if there is sufficient interest. **BB** Claudia
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Hi Sage, sure I am happy to have you use my name and to talk with anyone who wants to about Time Magic. It has become some of the most important personal and group work that I do now and I've been really gratified to find more and more people calling Time into their circles. It feels vital to me for strong manifestation and spell workings to have Them on board.

Time as Ally rather than adversary or commodity allows us and requires us to do the most incredible practical magic work. When we no longer engage in the practice of blaming Time ( Lack of Time, Running out of Time, Time running short, wasting Time), for our being unable to complete projects or fit everything in, we are able to look to ourselves as the cause and solution to our hectic lives. That in turn allows us to reclaim both responsibility and power in our lives. I have become so weary of sitting in "check in" with groups of people who engage in the competitive sport of "who's the most busy and over-committed". Wouldn't it be more healthy and powerful to be able to say, "I have created the lifestyle and have prioritized my goals so I can complete them and be healthy and play too. All my needs are easily met." Instead of saying "I don't have time to do X" I try very hard to say, "I didn't make X a priority this week." Or "Something came up and I made the conscious choice that Y was more important for me to do." or even "I find when I honestly look at X it no longer calls to me, so I have let it go. and now have space in my life for what is most important to me".

I have also been working deeply with Synchronicity and Her sister Chance in the past several years. They allow me to be in the right place and the right time, to say or do the right thing at the right time, and have greatly improved my ability to Manifest Change (whose magical equation I see as: Work / Time). I've also been working with the Infinite Mysterious Ones, the ones outside of human concepts of Time (although some of the theoretical physicists can talk to /about them pretty well, I haven't yet made the commitment to learn to do the math involved but I'm thinking hard about it). These Infinite Mysterious One are who I work with to reach other realms and worlds, to travel back and forth through Time to visit ancestors and send messages to descendents, and to touch Mystery. Finally, I've been working with the Fates, the Norns and Chronos; on being Present, on trusting that the Past is held safely in their arms and being able to let go of it, and on walking into the Future with trust and connection. This work has helped me greatly in my work at the hospital with the acutely ill and dying. I've been getting more involved with Hospice over the last few years, and learning to accept what is past, be in the present , and face the future with courage and dignity is a huge part of that work and a great comfort for those going through it.

I've been asked what I mean when I say Allies, and have even been asked on 3 occasions to referee the argument as to whether they are Elements or Deities (smile, we humans are so concrete!). From a purely personal point of view, when I call on the Time Allies, I envision a rather large (endless really) room filled with many figures, some I can see fairly clearly and humanoid and some are merely shadow and shapeless. Whatever they are, I have found this group of beings /elements / deities (they seem to me to be all of these and none of these) to be almost uniquely willing, able, and eager to work as allies with us humans. How people call them, when and where in a ritual people call them, truly doesn't seem to matter one bit, just as long as it is from a place of honor and respect.

The image that I use to work with Time magically starts with a magical circle which is also a clock face, with the following points: 12/ North / Winter / Midnight - Dark of Night/ Death; 3 / East / Spring / Dawn-Morning / Childhood; 6 / South / Summer / Noon-Afternoon / Adulthood; 9 / West / Fall/ Evening -Twilight / Old Age. When I cast circles now, I include this imagery (at least internally) and it really helps me and others in the circle to "Be Here Now" The circle is "clock time" Human Time, Earth Time, cycle time, the time measured in hours / solar; days and months /lunar, years and generations / astral -zodiac. In the center is Infinite Time, traveling up to the Above and down to the Below, always Mysterious. There is an Infinity symbol that bisects through the center of the circle, always pulsing and moving. It is from the Center, traveling up and down this Infinity point that I move to other Times and other Realms most easily, it is there that I speed up or slow down enough to communicate with other Entities and can step out of human concepts of Time and Place. It is Here that I can sometimes touch GodHead and the Sacred.

**Hope this helps some Sage, I had fun writing it out. I'm being asked to tell you that when I dedicated to Time as one of Their Priestesses, I was given the charge to pass on this knowledge and practice as widely as possible. If there is ever a Time or opportunity that you think this would be of value to be included in your teaching, or with me at a workshop etc... please let me know, I'd be happy to speak with you, or anyone further about this topic. Please feel free to pass this text on to anyone you think might be interested. **BB** Claudia

Comments

[morrigandaughtr.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU for this. And many thanks to Claudia and to the Time Allies.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Sure thing, I'll pass it along!

[coraljune.livejournal.com]

Hey - how cool is that?! I would love to hear more about this.
Many thanks to Claudia for this.

-Coral *who now goes off to *make* Time for some important things in her life...*

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

The thing I find helpful to remember is a triad -- 1. There's plenty of time. 2. It's easy. and 3. That's normal.

And it's true, there is plenty of time. It's not that time is some uncontrollable scarce thing imposed on us from outside -- there's plenty of time, all the time in the world...so long as we use it well, and gently, and stop trying to carve it up into ever-smaller and smaller bits, or approach it primarily as an enemy or a commodity.

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

This IS way cool.

I tend to work with the ceremonial/chaos magick time servitor Fotamecus, but I think the principle is the same. I'm thrilled to read about working with Time in the context of witchcraft, and have much to play with now!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Yes, the work is definitely connected, and I'm thrilled to see how it all inter-relates. Fotamecus was originally created in the mid to late 90s as a sigil by a fellow Chaote friend of mine, Fenwick Rysen, and I was involved with him at the time in some of the early work with Fotamecus with other colleagues involved in the somewhat infamous (Z)cluster TAZ. Over time (no pun intended ;>), we watched Fotamecus evolve from simple sigil to servitor under our control to egregore and possibly to godform, as it moved out into the world and became more and more self-aware and self-directed. If you'd be willing to share, I'd be interested to hear from you sometime about your work with Fotamecus, among other reasons to see how he/she/it has been evolving out in the world.

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

I definitely think Fotamecus has evolved beyond a servitor. We've negotiated, for example. Also, If I have a week where I work with zhir often, then later I'll notice expansions or contractions occuring without me asking. If I let the practice/attention/offerings drop, so does the spontaneous time magick.

My current challenge is to determine what offerings zhe wants in exchange for alliance. When I first started working with zhir, I offered a breath of life-force and that seemed sufficient. But lately it feels like zhe wants more. I've burned inscense, offered the top 10% off of a sexual encounter if zhe would run an expansion for it, food offerings, energy generated from a rock show, etc. The inscense and the sex energy seem to be the most popular so far, but are not the easiest to manifest in every moment. Do you have any thoughts on this?

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Have you tried feeding s/he/it/zhir with...Time? One thing that worked well for me (and Fenwick) was to work with Fotomecus as a kind or reservoir or battery -- when you are in a situation where you would like to contract time, say, waiting in line for movie tickets or an endless day at work, let Fotomecus have access to the "extra" time, speeding it up from your frame of reference. Then when you would like to expand time, say, when running late for work or an appointment, there's some of that "extra" time in the reservoir, and Fotomecus seems to be more willing and able to help you "expand" it, from your frame of reference. That comes a bit close to approaching Time as a commodity, but with Fotomecus, that proces seemed to work pretty well.

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

How do you pronounce his name? I say foh toh MEH koos, but I've heard fo TA meh koos. . .

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

I've heard both, and the way you pronounce it is closer to what I've always used (foh ta MEH koos or foh tuh MEH kus). I'm trying to remember how Fenwick pronounced it, and I think it was closer to the former.

[dbananza.livejournal.com]

this is terrific.
funny enough, i've been tracking how i 'waste' and 'squander' Time as if it were money...
(or perhaps to rephrase: 'put my priorities elsewhere instead of worrying about what i THINK i should care about, like a terrier worrying an old sock' :P)
...and trying to work WITH it rather than against it.

also working to create my future self to my satisfaction with a bit more urgency these days: since i've been in SF, i've been hanging out with a lot more people my age (40's +) and we see the passage of time in our bodies and lives more directly. there's a different feel to the company of those who know our bodies won't last forever, and it's interesting to see the different reactions to Time's work.

this issue of the Future Self was also very specifically commented on in a reading from a babalawo, that the Future Self was calling back to me urgently to help it be birthed, as it were...

and i've been completely phreaked this last week when things put into place ten+ years ago have NOW been coming up for me! much like that Donald Michael Kraig spell that works retroactively...
i aint even gonna bring Fotamecus into this discussion but it DID help me get to work on time a few times when i totally should have been canned! its Name is spreading still.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

...and trying to work WITH it rather than against it.

That's one of the big keys in my experience.

there's a different feel to the company of those who know our bodies won't last forever, and it's interesting to see the different reactions to Time's work.

Fascinating observation, and very true in my experience. My relationship to time has definitelt changed as I've aged, have experienced more of it, have noted its effects on my body. Having a child to take care of, particularly when he was a baby, also shattered the illusion of timelessness we can fall into when we're younger. When there is a living, breathing person who changes almost daily in substantial ways, the old lie of "tomorrow is just the same as today" is impossible to maintain. There is only now, and each now is utterly unique and precious.

Ah-yup, much magick involves synchronicity, and effects definitely ripple forward and back along linear time. One of the very first entries I remember putting in my magickal journal was, "Coincidence can be summoned." ;>

[mystfemme.livejournal.com]

This is rich. Thank you for posting it and thank Claudia for writing it!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Verra welcome, and I'll pass along your thanks!

[soulspirals.livejournal.com]

It was delightful to read it in Claudia's words. I always talk about time when I teach Elements, and frequently invoke it as an ally. I sometimes work with the Norns in this capacity as well.

Thanks.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, and I'll pass on your thanks to Claudia. I'm looking forward to seeing you in, hmm 7 weeks! I figuring we may have occasion to do some time work together... ;>

ah yep, The Norns, there's some powerful work... They (actually, the Moirae) are the framework or container for the Dionysos work at Tejas camp this year, so I'm sure there'll be a good bit of Time work there as well.

[rainysummerday.livejournal.com]

Love this topic. Thanks Claudia! And thank you for your time work at camp last year, I've drawn from it many ways.

Some of my daily affirmations are that "I have great timing" and "I'm right on time again, as usual" and of course, "I have all the time in the world", which I do, now I am working on savoring each moment and creating the kind of time containers I need to be happiest and most creative, good fun!

----THIS IS HUGE --- I am/was (much less now) known for "always" running late ect. This is changing, my timing *is* frequently good, and I'm mostly on time most of the time these days, particularly when my being on time impacts other people. What really helps is that I have crafted a life where I have a lot more flexibility in my daily schedule so there is less daily stress around me being somewhere at a particular time so that give my own inner timing some breathing room.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

My pleasure -- this work has been very important to me as well. Like you, my relationship with time has been a...contentious one, to say the least. I was likewise known for always running late. It seems like my sense of what could be done in a given amount of time was always way off, and my estimates of how long it would take to do something were always best-case. not worst-case. People really do sometimes take it as a lack of respect when you make them wait, even though you know it's not intentional. And perpetually running behind and being rushed is such a stressful way to live!

I always find that the work I find personally most difficult is sometimes the most rewarding to do and teach, and it's some of the most successful work as well. Things that come "naturally" can be hard to teach very well, because, you know, you just *do* it ;> The stuff I've had to slog through with the hardest clue-by-fours along the way seems to be that which often resonates best in the end with other people. I mean, if a poster child for dysfunctional time relationships can work it... ;> On the other hand, my partner is one of those people who doesn't need a watch, because her internal body clock is accurate to within about 5 minutes. Unless she's exhausted, she can wake herself up precisely at any particular hour without an alarm. That's totally bizarre and just a bit creepy to me ;>, but you know, the more time work I do, the better I find my own time estimates get.

And of course it's not really all about measuring linear time, that's perhaps a side-effect, being better aware of how that works. For me, it's, as you say, about making space, allowing for flexibility, and genuinely treating time as an ally and a partner, rather than as an opponent or a scarce commodity. It's about getting to know and learn about and work with linear time in a more friendly, positive context than many of us are surrounded with.

And yes, this is totally huge. My life is so much less stressful than it was. It's not that I don't still fall behind, or try to cram too much in to a given period of time, etc, but I'm aware of it, and, I find that having a better, more relaxed, less adversarial relationship to time in general means that Time seems to give me more gentle nudges and reminders, which helps me note when I'm sliding back into old patterns.

One of the mantras I've been working with lately is, "If you want to have more time, take more time." It has to do with slowing down, being more deliberate and intentional, and letting go of my death-grip on each second and minute. I grind my coffee by hand, because that's how I intentionally chose to use that 5 minutes. And because of it, my whole morning is less rushed, not more. Miraculous.