The Seven Principles of Magick as taught by the Elodrym.

The Principle of Attraction
The Principle of Polarity
The Principle of Return
The Principle of Unity
The Principle of Manifestation
The Principle of Harmony
The Principle of Power


The Principle of Return
"All things return to where they initially began. Now while this can mean a physical place, it generally means a situation or state of being. For example, a living being is made up of the materials found within nature around them, i.e. the atoms and molecules that were in the food you eat and the air you breathe eventually come to make up the physical body you inhabit as your body uses the material to grow and repair. Eventually however, in physical death, all of that material is returned to the natural system from which it came to be used again by other life.
However, in a spiritual sense, the return is not a circle, but more of a spiral, in that the journey we take along our path in life changes us, and so when we return to our origin (which could be a situation or state of being) we are changed by our journey, and so that which was once familiar is, by our change in perspective, once again new to us, and we are given to react differently than we once did, because though the situation may be the same, we are no longer who we once were. We have returned to our origins, but we are not the same as the person who originally left." Myrddins Arkayne Magii and Masery

February 2007 was my first year at Pantheacon and my first time at a West African inspired ritual. I attended an ancestors reverence ritual with Uzuri Amini and Vance Williams priest and priestess of the Ifa tradition and faculty members of the School of Ancient Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center in Oakland, California. Louisa Teish, author and priestess, was there to teach the songs and dances.
At this ritual, Uzuri lead us through a visualization to meet our ancestors. In the otherworld, I was greeted by grandfathers I knew and many other ancestors I had never met. They offered overwhelming support and healing. They asked me to end the lineage of suffering that had coursed through my family. It was important for my healing and for the healing of others to come was their reasoning for doing so but they didn't explain how I was to do this. When Uzuri brought the participants back to the physical world, I shook and sobbed. I knew what my ancestors where talking about. My sisters, mother, and I had survived years of physical and mental abuse and to keep up appearances, my family didn't talk about it.
Uzuri consoled me when the ritual was over. My ancestors had opened all of my chakras to start the healing process. I was lit up and hyperventilating. Uzuri helped me control my energy flow and refocus. I told her about what had happened in my family. She advised me to start wearing light colors and to take a long hot shower then sleep with white wrapped around my head that night. I went back to my room and took a long hot shower. I cried and begged my ancestors to help me know what to do! I felt their hands supporting me, moving black energy out of my body as light poured in up through my feet and down through my crown chakra. I didn't have anything white, so I slept with a towel around my head.
I went on as usual, doing some daily mantras, thinking I would be fine and the cord of pain would dissolve on its own. Finally in late February, I became severely depressed and felt empty and lost. I went to urgent care sobbing saying I couldn't cope anymore with what had happened to me. I was put on anxiety medication and told to take some time from work. I went out on disability and joined a survivors healing group. Slowly, I began to loose my fear and gain confidence.
I reached out to my uncles and told them everything that had happened. What I got in return was support and understanding. My mother and grandmother spent a week with me in the summer and we cried and hugged and made amends. My mother had been silent because she didn't think I wanted to speak of the horrible events and I hadn't spoken with her about them for the same reason! I eventually confronted my father, and though he is in denial, I healed from speaking my truth.
At Pantheacon this year, I attended "Olokun - Finding Your Treasure Within the Deep". Again I was lead through the ritual by Uzuri, Vance, and Luisa. This time on a journey to the bottom of the sea, Olokun the divine deep, presented me with a mirror so that I could see all of my parts and reconcile who I thought I was with who I truly am. She knew I had done the healing work. I was no longer hiding in shadow afraid of the world. I was stepping out and the next step was to adore who I was. She also gave me and old book of knowledge and strands and strands and strands of gold and pearls. I grabbed all of them and tried swimming to the surface but I was weighed down until I agreed to share. The treasure became light as a feather and I broke the ocean's surface. The pearls and gold transformed into the sunset. Golden light blazed across the sky and reflected off the ocean. "All is radiance." I thought and I knew it was my life's path to share this radiance through teaching, which is what the book represented.
I recently went to urgent care because of a sore throat. The same doctor greeted me with a smile. "How are you?" He asked. It had been almost a year to the day that I had seen him last. "I am doing so much better!" I exclaimed.
I was back at the beginning. The place where I first admitted I needed healing and I couldn't do it alone. This time I wasn't drowning in emotions of despair and endless silence. I was confident and had found happiness. The secrets are now stories of strength and power. I am thirty one and I feel that my life is just beginning. I can be who I want to be. I can love all of me.